Print the Legend (Green Arrow Year One)

Commissioned by Michael. Happy Birthday!

Oliver Queen is a shit in the way that many argue Batman is. On the one hand, he recognizes the injustices of his privilege and how giving a little to charity isn’t the same as actually giving a shit about the less fortunate. On the other hand, he believes in the systems of power that he claims to want to rebel against. He sees the authority of the police as valid enough to send off to do the paper work while he gallivants around the city as a mysterious hero. He’s an addict to various things from death defying feats to opium. Also, Oliver’s kind of a racist in that there’s a running gag about him calling the main baddie, Chein Na-Wei, “China White.”

That isn’t to say that Green Arrow Year One is a bad comic or even unaware of these aspects. It’s good and it does. But it’s perhaps best to open with an acknowledgement that Oliver Queen is not a good person. Nor is his arc in this story that of becoming a good person thanks to the help of some dead foreigners ala Iron Man. As Oliver himself notes, he didn’t do much to stop the slavers running the opium fields. It was the slaves that revolted and did the hard work of overthrowing their masters. But his presence on the island gave them hope that they can succeed in defeating their masters.

The stories that inspire us to be better aren’t always that great. If one were to actually do a close analysis of any number of Star Trek series, one could easily find racism, sexism, homophobia, and imperialist leanings. And yet, many left leaning people have found inspiration in those series, be it to go to the moon or shape their own utopia. The story of a man who is able to rebel against the oppressors, even if his story isn’t enough, is always a useful one to tell.

But equally, it is important to remember that these are stories being told, ones with flaws and problems. If one were to buy into the legend of a mythical white man coming to a foreign land and inspiring the people to rise up, one could miss the flaws in the story. Though Diggle does a lot of work to avoid the obvious white savior pitfalls, there is still a twinge of it lurking under the surface. The Asian baddies are shown to be plotting to use the opium they enslave the villagers to grow to create new generations of addicts in America. And there are times when it’s hard to actually root for Oliver Queen because he’s such a shit.

One could read those statements and see this as destroying other people’s fun and inspiration. And while there is at times a bit of that when it comes to criticism (usually when said fun involves being evil) that is not the purpose of critiquing inspirational texts. Rather, it is to help shape better texts to come in the future, ones not defined by rich white guys who are implausibly good at taking down people who benefit from a system of cruelty without actually dealing with said system. One doesn’t want to be trapped in the utopia of the 1960’s. There weren’t that many gay people in those.

The Legend of the Auu Lanu Lau’ava will be important to the culture of those who survived the wrath of the slavers and who succeeded in overthrowing them. It will, as all legends do, change over time to reflect the time it is being told. Some elements of it may be lost while others will find new relevance. The story of revolution is always necessary in times of cruelty and distress. But the critique of the story is likewise necessary.

Green Arrow Year One is a close look at the defining moment where Oliver Queen decided to change his addiction from Alcohol to Superheroics. The art by Jock is well drawn, in particular the angular way he draws his characters to evoke the crooked nature of the world being presented. Andy Diggle does wonders with the six issues he’s provided and makes the most out of a genuinely unlikable protagonist. The colors are at once muted and poppy. And it’s a quick, well-written read.

But it’s also playing a bit too closely to the white savior tropes and themes that it almost becomes awful. It’s not really about those themes and implications in the way that Gene Luen Yang’s The Shadow Hero is about Fu Manchu. It’s not interested in examining the base assumptions of the genre beyond avoiding the obvious holes. It’s a well-written book that you’ll have a good time reading. It’s just not one with a lot of stimulating implications.

A Myth is Inconsumable (Superman The Dark Side)

Commissioned by Michael

Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerrads

Superman does not belong in the realm of the New Gods. This is not a condemnation of the character, but a simple statement of facts that many a writer has missed for very sympathetic reasons. Those being the New Gods saga written by Jack Kirby began in the pages of a Superman title. Indeed, Darkseid himself first appeared in an issue of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (specifically, issue #134). But the thing about Superman’s interactions with Darkseid is that there’s never a face to face confrontation between the two. Superman’s always in the margins of the narrative of the war between the New Gods, dealing with minor concerns of the war such as the planet of the Universal Horror Monsters or Don Rickles’ evil twin brother (it should be noted that though Darkseid appears in an issue of a Superman comic, he only appears on a television screen, never once actually being present in the flesh). Contrast that with the Forever People literally going to war with Darkseid’s version of Disneyland or Orion acting as a subversive agent against Darkseid’s ploys to make everyone afraid of everyone, and you can see a marked difference in importance.

The closest Superman ever gets to a one on one fight with Darkseid is an issue of The Forever People, easily the weakest of Jack Kirby’s New Gods stories. There, Darkseid has kidnapped one of the Forever People, Beautiful Dreamer, in order to discover the Anti-Life Equation: the ultimate Red Pill, which will make people realize that the only way is through Darkseid. And yet, Superman never has fisticuffs with Darkseid throughout this encounter. Indeed, he’s a largely passive presence in the scene, to the point where the sole panel where both Superman and Darkseid appear, the Man of Steel is shaded to such a degree that, without the rest of the page, you could imagine any other superhero taking his place.

But perhaps the most telling bit is in the penultimate issue of Superman’s involvement in the New Gods saga, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #147: Superman in Supertown. There, the Man of Tomorrow gets a chance to visit New Genesis, where, as shown at the end of the first Forever People issue, he longed to be. There, a flying strong man is considered normal to the point where him entering New Genesis isn’t even remarked upon with a “Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s Superman!” And yet, every time Superman tries to help, he ultimately misunderstands the situations and ends up doing more harm than good. Ultimately, as Superman confides to Highfather (without ever identifying himself as such), there’s little need for someone like Superman on New Genesis. He doesn’t adjust well to a world where being a superhuman is just another mundanity like being able to sing or be a pal. And so, Superman returns to Earth instead of remaining on this strange alien world that, by all rights, should be his home, but isn’t. Earth certainly wasn’t where he was born, but it is where he feels the most at ease. It’s a place where he believes he belongs. The same could be said of Scott Free, I suppose (though, to a different degree. Ultimately, putting Superman into the mythology of the New Gods would be akin to putting him into the mythology of William Blake’s pantheon).

A key aspect of Jonathan and Martha Kent
is that they're both flagrantly socialists.
This is what they'd be like if they were capitalists.

Which brings us to Superman The Dark Side, an Elseworlds comic that hypothesizes what would happen if Superman’s rocket landed on Apokolips. What would happen if Superman were an actual main figure within the New Gods saga and how would that warp the DC Universe around him? The answer, as it turns out, is actually a lot better than it could have been. For starters, the narrative is aware of the anticapitalist aspect of the original New Gods comics (again, literally going to war with Disneyland) as well as the ultimate message that it’s our connections to one another that help us through the darkest times. Most tales of Superman dealing with the New Gods would simplify the narrative such that Darkseid would be a mere Super Duper Bad Guy Who Punches Really Really Hard.

But The Dark Side knows that Darkseid isn’t merely the baddiest baddie there is. He is the ultimate shape of evil; that which desires simply to be the boot that stomps on the face of existence forever. Complex in his multitudes, but simple in his ambitions. To even try to play the game on his terms would only end in a sound and thorough defeat. The logic of a (modern) Superman story where all can be defeated with a few punches is rejected as useless in favor of collective action.

That isn’t to say that the comic is perfect. I don’t fully agree with the decision to have Scott Free be displaced into the Metron role as part of the consequences of Superman being on Apokolips, not the least of which because the comic doesn’t really sell the Kal-El/Big Barda romance. Some of the plot details are a bit off as well. One moment I remember finding a bit odd even on my first read was that Lois was perfectly fine with Kal-El being a planet murdering bastard until Orion told her he destroyed New Genesis (a thing Kal-El brought up three times). And the comic doesn’t really explore the imperialist implications of Krypton that it brings up near the end of Act II/beginning of Act III.

But there’s a lot to love with the comic. The designs are delightful in both their adherence to the original Jack Kirby designs as well as the new spins Kieron Dwyer brings to them. I love the riff on Jon and Martha Kent being less a lonely family in need of a child and more capitalists who would sell each other out if it meant they could get rich. Making Bibbo the heart of the book is an inspired choice that highlights the themes of community and shines a light on a path forward for a war torn society such that the New Gods find themselves within. And Granny Goodness doming Lex Luthor is always going to be delightful.

It’s not as good as, say, Grant Morrison’s or Jack Kirby’s or even Tom King’s efforts with the New Gods. But, if you want to read a fun little comic, you could do worse.

"Now, Superman cannot "consume" himself since a myth is "inconsumable." The hero of the classical myth became "inconsumable" precisely because he was already "consumed" in some exemplary action. Or else he had the possibility of  continuing rebirth or of symbolizing some vegetative cycle--or at least a certain circularity of events or even of life itself. But Superman is myth on condition of being a creature immersed in everyday life, in the present, apparently tied to our own conditions of life and death even if endowed with superior faculties. An immortal Superman would no longer be a man, but a god, and the public's identification with his double identity would fall by the wayside."
-Umberto Eco, The Myth of Superman

I'm Not Mad, I'm Just Disappointed: On Red Daughter of Krypton

Commissioned by Michael

Fun Fact: I actually co-wrote some fan fiction in
the comments section of the comic this panel comes
from. Used to do that all the time in High School.

Supergirl is perhaps the quintessential example of an interesting character with a limited number of interesting stories. Consider for a moment her origin: a family discovers that their home planet is going to be destroyed and there is no way for them all to escape it. One side of the family sends their infant son to some other world while the other sends their teenage daughter to protect the child. When she eventually lands, she discovers that due to sci-fi weirdness, the infant has grown up to maturity without her. There is so much potential you could do with that from the nature of Supergirl being inherently a failed protector fantasy to highlighting the differences between the two and how they approach things to Kara having to acclimate to the culture of this brave new world with such people in it.

Instead, most writers tend to opt for the same five issues of Supergirl being a fish out of water who has to assimilate to Earth culture and be more like her big cousin. Sometimes, they’ll decide that this makes her angry and have her smash various things or have her almost become a disciple of Darkseid or that one weird period where she was programed by her father to be a school shooter and wanted her to kill Superman or something, I don’t know. Other people can explain it better than I can. But regardless, the story ends with Supergirl aligning herself with the Earth and blah, blah, blah.

That isn’t to say that those five issues can’t be good or even interesting. Cosmic Adventures in the 8^th Grade, for example, is one of the most delightful series featuring the character, exploring the ways in which assimilating to life on Earth is actually difficult with bullies, friends turned enemies turned friends, and cosmic entities from the fifth dimension who want to take over the universe for the lols. It works because it does new things with the character that still fit within the core of the character as, to some degree, a failure in one area and how such a character can succeed in others. We see Kara’s growth throughout the series and how she tries not to emulate her cousin, but be a good friend.

Sadly, most runs tend to see her as simply a second run version of Superman and thus must contrast him through being dark and edgy and angry. Which I suppose brings us to the subject of this post: the Supergirl arc Red Daughter of Kypton, wherein she becomes a Red Lantern. You see, when those five issues are done, writers have a tendency of spinning their wheels having no idea what to do with the character other than have her act as “Superman, but a girl.” Some writers will come up with good solutions like putting her into a Coffee Shop AU where the focus is on interpersonal relationships or have her go on weird adventures with friends and family.

Other writers, as is the case here, opt to toss her into someone else’s story. That’s not to say that this is inherently a bad solution to the problem of “I CAN ONLY COME UP WITH ONE STORYLINE FOR THIS CHARACTER,” but it is an obvious one. One that, at best, gives us decent works like the current run on the character where she’s running around space with a giant battle axe of doom with her pet dog and for some reason the Omega Men are still alive despite mostly dying at the end of Tom King’s run. (Have comics writers finally embraced hypertime as the only sane way of having a continuity? Of course not, but it’s nice to dream.) But then there are times where she’s being thrust into stupid fucking plotlines where she’s in love with some blatantly evil asshole named H’El and also being written by Scott Lobdell!

Red Daughter is more in the middle of these two, opting for a rather mediocre story about space empires or something. I finished it about an hour ago, and I can’t remember a single thing that happened other than something involving a suit that takes over people and skinny Lobo was there for some reason probably explained in his book. It doesn’t have much to be said about it, such that I spent more time in this article talking about Supergirl as a character within the DCU than it. One can see what it’s trying to do with Supergirl finding a healthy outlet for all the rage that’s simmering inside her, but she just does typical space superhero stuff before flying into the sun, cleansed of her anger. Which just seems a bit pat.

Flipping through the book, it occurs to me that there is a way to make the book a bit better and that’s through the character of Siobhan Smythe, AKA Silver Banshee. Her deal is apparently some sort of Hulk like transformation wherein she becomes a superpowered creature of the night due to a family curse. While typically a supervilalin, this incarnation is apparently friends with Supergirl and is working on dealing with the superpowered dark side. She’s given a lot of prominence in the first issue, such that she’s literally given the narration that’s typically reserved for Kara while she’s too busy going “RAR! ANGER! RAR! BLOOD! DEATHKILL! RAR!!!” You would think that such a character, one who has anger issues but can control them, would be more prominent to the story as a whole.

Nope. Dropped as early as possible and never heard from again (beyond one panel where she just walks out without doing anything). What should have happened is that the two work together to deal with the uncontrollable rage Kara’s going through instead of just dunking her into a pool of evil. Maybe have one bit where Siobhan gets overtaken by the Silver Banshee persona and Kara has to talk her down or have [flips through book and sighs] Atrocitus tempt Kara with a sense of belonging or to show her the true power of the red lantern ring and have her reject it. Better yet, have Dex-Starr be the one to do it so we can have him fight off his twin brother Streaky, who got superpowers due the events of Grant Morrison’s Acton Comics, and have it end with Streaky being part of Supergirl’s family on earth. One made up of weirdos who don’t belong anywhere else and work together to better themselves.

Alas, not all things are meant to be. History of Supergirl, I suppose.