Blackest Night

Finally caught up reading this, which meant reading the last BN issues of GL Corps, GL, and BN 8 in one sitting. I loved the foldout spread in BN 8. I loved the not unexpected resurrections, though some surprised me. And I'm curious about why Boston Brand was brought back to life. It would seem to negate his whole super power thing. Most satisfying was that Shiera was back, not Kendra. I liked Kendra, but she wasn't the right Hawkgirl/Hawkwoman. Hawkwoman is Shay-ara to Carter's Katar, and Kendra, as interesting a character as she was, didn't fit well with Carter.

I liked seeing Ronnie Raymond back and I wonder how Firestorm will function now. I never really knew Max Lord, so don't much care about him being back. I was never a big Martian Manhunter fan, but it's nice to have him back. It's good seeing Arthur back and reunited with Mera. I don't care one way or the other about the rest, though Alan Scott will be happy to have his daughter back.

I wish Ralph and Sue were back and the fact they weren't resurrected has me wondering if they'll serve a function in Brightest Day. Ditto Boston Brand.

I do wonder if Hal's right when he says, "I think dead is dead from here on out--" (Not counting Bruce Wayne, of course.)

And I still hate that Lian Harper is dead.

Now, on to Brightest Day!

For the Record, Anger Does Not Equal Interest

This, a link found over on Insolvent Republic of Blogistan (great title, btw), is irritating to the extreme.

Here are the quotes that gall me:

James Robinson: "That decision [was] a controversial and one that I know has been greeted with some displeasure by some people... I'm sorry if it upset people. In all honesty, they wanted to kill Speedy too, and I said no, so give me some credit for that."

Ian Sattler: "I'm happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion."

Uh, no. Upset means upset. It means the CHARACTERS have weight for us. Whether or not the story does and can evoke emotion depends on the story, how well it's written, for example. And the emotion you want when a child is killed is grief and yes, anger that she was killed, but directed at the bad guy in the comic, not the bad guy in the editorial office. Or the bad guy typing up the words.

Lian has weight and her death matters because 1) she's Roy's daughter, and 2) she's a little girl. That she died is the sad thing, not the way she was killed. That just sucked, story-wise, art-wise, every-wise.

As for Speedy, I'd sooner have had them kill Mia, much as I like her, because she's relatively new next to Lian whose been around 23 years, for fuck's sake. Sheesh. It's a little girl, killed only to give Ollie grief and angst. Roy's angst seems almost an afterthought here. Hmmm.... lost an arm, lost a daughter... toss-up which will drive him mad and maybe to drugs first. But Ollie? He's out there avenging an entire city. Why did a little girl have to die to further that plot point?

Shit. This just makes me angry. The story sucked. I did not buy it. I skimmed it in the store (don't tell FPNY, okay?), because I knew it was gonna suck. If, maybe, it looked like it wouldn't suck, or Lian wasn't dead, I would've bought it, but it sucked. SUCKED! If the idea is to get people to never want to read anything James Robinson writes ever again, congrats! Because I sure won't. I just don't trust him. (Yes, I bought the Starman books. Yes, I still plan to read those, as I have no emotion invested in that character.)

No, Mr. Robinson. I will not give you any credit.

No, Mr. Sattler, the story did not anger me because it was evocative. It angered me because it was crap.

Yeah, I'm pissed.

Lian Harper, 1986-2010: A Tribute, Part 2

Continuing a look at the short, sweet life of Lian Harper. Not that Lian's life was perfect. From the start, she was used as a by her mother against her father. And in the next appearance I read, she was kidnapped as part of a plot to control Cheshire.

The team-up of Batman and Arsenal in the Batman plus Arsenal (1997) one-shot was wonderfully played and with Batman (and Dick)'s help, Lian is rescued, Cheshire is captured, and "Uncle Batman" becomes an important part of Lian's life. The art was especially nice, even if there's no hint of Asian features in Cheshire, or Lian.

From here on, it was hard for me to choose comics to scan, or even pages/panels. I've tried to show an array of art styles, while keeping the total number of images presented in this two-part essay to ten.

The Arsenal 4-part mini-series (1998) is a classic. Rick Mays has a cartoonish style that worked nicely for Roy and Lian, and Dinah who appeared in key scenes.

There are so many wonderful scenes in these 4 issues, but this nicely showed how seriously Roy took his role as father. He's taken Lian to the hospital after she's fallen on her arm after crawling out of her playpen. Which makes her a bit younger than her previous appearances. No matter. Her age seemed to fluctuate from story to story and sometimes, panel to panel. Drawing children seems to be a problem for many artists. Some draw them too young, some get the proportions wrong, and some just draw them as short adults. But there were enough who got Lian just right.

Lian got to join Roy and his fellow former Teen Titans for lunch in Titans 1 (1999). She was cute as could be without being annoying. I loved when she called Aqualad "Gill-head," something she no doubt picked up from Roy.

This panel from Titans 24 (2001) is part of a alternate time/reality mashup that brought a grown Lian Harper into our reality where she and our version of her younger self meet. We'll never see our Lian grow up to be this beautiful young woman.

In the years since her birth, Lian was kidnapped a few times and had to cope with injuries to her father, the worst of which had him shot 5 times. She had to cope with having a mother in prison for blowing up a country, among other crimes. Through it all, she remained a sweet little girl who made Roy proud to be her father. He learned as much from her as she learned from him. She made him a better man.

Roy will have to cope with losing her and we might be treated to an excellent story, but however this turns out for Roy, wherever he ends up, Lian will still be gone and the unique view she brought to the DCU will also be gone. I can't imagine the PTB can come up with a plausible way to bring her back someday. Even if they would try, which I doubt. People who can kill off a child for no reason other than shock and effect, when other plot devices would have worked as well without being so cruel. J.T. Krul will have his work cut out for him, to make me not hate what happens with Roy.

I'll end with this lovely page from Justice League of America. Roy is introducing Lian to Hawkgirl, before things soured between him and Kendra.

Lian Harper. She'll be missed.

Lian Harper, 1986-2010: A Tribute, Part 1

Here's a post I never wanted to write, and it got long enough that I'm splitting it into two posts. Mainly, I present a photo essay on Lian, who in her brief life lit up the DCU. She will be missed.

I thought I'd start with her first appearances (the ones I have/know of, at any rate). Note her red hair, no doubt colored as such to make it clear that Roy was the father.

Cheshire dropped the bombshell about Lian in New Teen Titans 21 (1986). Roy had romanced Cheshire when he was a government agent and had no clue he'd fathered a child with her. At the end of the story, he goes to see Cheshire so he can meet his daughter. After a moment's hesitation, Cheshire relents, and Roy's life as a father begins.

A year later, Roy tricked Dick Grayson into helping him get to Lian, wanting to see her for her birthday. The story took place in Action Comics Weekly. In issue 618 (1988), in the concluding chapter, Dick brings Lian to see Roy in the hospital where Roy is recovering from a dose of Cheshire's poison.

Dick was a true friend in this, forgiving Roy for his deception and helping him get Lian. At the end of the story, Cheshire has been arrested, and Roy is going to try for custody of Lian.

We'll forgive the silly, girlish bonnet; Roy was new at this and he probably figured a little girl should wear something cutesy and girlie. Or maybe one of the nurses picked it up for him. No matter. Lian was in jeans before long.

This is an important panel in Roy's development. He says he believes Lian is going to change him, and he was right. She made him a better person, a responsible person. He sure took his role of father seriously, more than Ollie did when Roy showed up or when he found out about Connor all those years ago.

The next appearance of Lian that I know of was in Green Arrow 75 (1993). I had stopped reading Green Arrow around issue 45, tired of waiting for the creative team to even acknowledge that Roy existed in Ollie's life. A few things are worth noting. Lian's hair is still red (the scan's a bit off) and Lian demonstrates a never seen again power of changing her height from panel to panel. She's barely at Roy's waist in the first panel above, but in the last panel, she comes to Roy's mid-chest. Holy growth spurts, uh, Batman.

And Batman played a role in the next story I saw that featured Lian, which I'll show in part 2.

52, the Multiverse, Retconning, and Death in the DCU

52 42: A Review

Do not read if you do not want this issue spoiled. This is the only WARNING I'll give. :)

"Because, Faust... ...I'm a detective."

With that one line, Ralph Dibny became, once again, the character I loved when I was a kid. Ralph and Sue were the perfect couple and Ralph had a good heart, the best ethics, a joy in life and what he did with it. I hated seeing Ralph sink so low after Sue's death, giving up being Elongated Man, moaning and groaning and being rather pathetic though single-mindedly determined, all with good reason, but still.... And here he was, being the Ralph of old, tempered by grief into a hardness he didn't have before, but still, Ralph, the detective, the man who could outthink nearly every human in the DCU, having figured it out. He'd figured out Supernova and he figured out Faust and he got the last laugh, only he's dead now (for good?) which means he's with Sue where he belongs. And I want to hate DC and the writers for this, but I can't because this was so damn good.

And now my confusion over the Dr. Fate miniseries, re: where the helmet's been if it's been with Ralph for most of the missing year, but no mention of that is in the miniseries, well, now I know why.

The intro with Renee and the "Question" was nice, but could've been moved to an issue featuring her, because it was so unnecessary here, taking away from Ralph. This was Ralph's issue. I guess we'll be seeing that in issues coming up, issues focusing on the major players of 52 to resolve their storylines. Is this the "big death" or will there be others, too? I don't know, but I can't wait to find out.

Maybe Ralph is really dead, never to come back. Maybe someone else will be Elongated Man someday. It won't really matter. Because I realized a few things while reading and enjoying 52.

I've said before that after Crisis on Infinite Earths, I gave up comics because Supergirl was killed. From 1985 (I didn't even finish reading Crisis) to 1991, I read only New Titans because I loved those characters. In my mind, the collapse of universes and the end of the multiverse never happened. In 1991, I gave up New Titans, too, because all the fun had been sucked out of it. I started reading comics again, bit by bit, in the mid-'90s, because I'd read that they'd changed a bit and got curious and went into a comic shop and saw lovely books that insisted I read them. So, I read the Nightwing mini and the Arsenal + Batman one-shot and the Arsenal mini (because of my lust for all things Roy Harper). And over the years, I learned I'd missed a lot.

I didn't know from Parallax or Zero Hour. I'd missed half the retconning and forgotten most of the rest. Slowly, I came to see that DC had had second thoughts about a few things. Characters came back from the dead. Green Arrow, for one. Hal became Spectre and finally Green Lantern again. I found I didn't mind some of the retconning. Dinah Lance being the daughter of the original Black Canary on this one Earth, carrying on her mother's "job," made sense. I could live with it. I got back into the rhythms. I figured enough out to keep track. And finally, Kara Supergirl was returned, even though she's pretty much unrecognizable. Such is life.

And that brings me to the whole point of this, this thing 52 has taught me, along with Identity Crisis and Infinite Crisis. Nothing is etched in stone. Things change. Just like life. But this is a fictional realm, one with superpowers and magic. These characters don't live "normal" lives and we shouldn't expect them to. They are not of our Earth. Characters come back to life and that's okay. I know there are people who think death should be permanent or it loses meaning and I agree with that, in principle. But in the DCU, things work a bit differently.

Death is still felt keenly. Characters still mourn. Not everyone comes back or comes back the same. Characters have to deal with their, with their own resurrection or that of others. Some, like Power Girl, have had to cope with being on the wrong Earth. Dinah had to face Ollie's death and then his return and how that affected her since she'd finally moved on. His cheating on her was a scab his coming back tore off. Nightwing is facing the realization that he was supposed to die. In the DCU, anything can happen, and they all know it. They feel the pains as well as they joy and when the writing is good, we feel those emotions, too. Even retconning, when done as part of a story, is a part of the way the DCU operates. And sometimes, it just a way to fix a problem or an unpopular choice -- ignore it!

Maybe the multiverse is returning. I hope so. I'm a big parallel time fan, from comics and science fiction novels. But I know it might not be what it was or what I'd prefer. All I can ask is that it be interesting, true to the characters, well written, and beautifully drawn. Sometimes, DC has dropped the ball in one or more of those areas, but they seem to have figured out how to do it right. They've demonstrated that with 52. I'll be with them for Countdown. Because I want to know what happens next. Because I enjoy seeing how things thread together. Now, in other books OYL, things that had to wait until the big reveals in 52 can now be told in those books. Some were not part of 52, but others did include events from 52. Now we see which events affect which books. It's been one big, fun jigsaw puzzle to piece together.

Yeah, DC still has areas that need improvement, but telling a good, complicated tale is something they've shown they can handle.

But they'd better not kill of Roy Harper, in Countdown or otherwise. ;)