Number 600

What better way to show a 600 off than
with art by John Byrne AND George Perez!

Man, it's crazy when I realize I come up on these huge even numbers for the posts I've produced on this page. Imagine how high it would be if I managed to keep my updates five days a week over the last year or two! But no matter how long it took us to get here, let's look back at some of the highlights from the site over the last few years! These are some of my personal favorites and a few of the ones that you, dear readers, have visited more than others, all complete with a bit of commentary from yours truly!

• Halloween Review: Stories From the Grave: I reviewed Cynthia Celeste Miller's super-innovative RPG designed to emulate a EC Comics horror story two Halloweens ago. It's a great little game designed to make innovative shocks a real possibility. Designed around a usual two person structure, it seems like the ideal way to scare a few friends on a chilly autumn night! If this sounds intriguing, you can buy the book at DriveThruRPG.
• The war with the fraud police never ends: When I read Amanda Palmer's The Art of Asking, I realized I really needed to be more honest both with myself and with my readers. As I have started to reignite the engine of Super Powered Fiction, I wanted to look at the struggles of an indie author trying to eke his way towards a safe living wage with his writing. And a major component of that is the feeling that it's never good enough. She talks about the Fraud Police, as did the late Mark Gruenwald in a Marvel Age column I shared in the post. Be sure to check this one out if you've ever doubted your creative self. 
• Great Art: Cloak & Dagger by Adam Hughes: By a fair margin my highest ranked Friday image on the site goes to this gorgeous piece by Adam Hughes. I mean, it is Adam Hughes, folks. Dude can draw. Why haven't you clicked already? 
• A few thoughts on a good Fantastic Four cast: When Disney started their discussions with Fox, everyone couldn't wait until the FF returned to the House of Ideas. With a new comic launched and the deal slowed by months of red tape, we still aren't there yet. But I do hope someone out there sees some of my suggestions for actors that could make a great FF cast. I even kept the budget in mind by selecting mostly stars without a huge price tag, so you're welcome, penny pinchers at Disney. 
• Unsung greats - Superman: Panic in the Sky: I will argue a hundred times over that Panic in the Sky is one of the best crossover events ever. Sure it didn't bring in any books but the four main Superman titles, but it did bring in numerous DC heroes to write a really amazing story where a bunch of disparate figures have to work together before Warworld destroys Earth. It's even got Superman going to Deathstroke of all people for help! Where else can you see that? 

I feel vaguely bad for not featuring anything about my work outside one tangentially related to the production of said stories. But I do think these five posts that you and I have selected are some of the best examples of what makes this site so great. Go have a look at them all, let me know what you think in the comments section and stick around as we start the road towards a thousand posts on Super Powered Fiction! 

Influential 9: Future Imperfect

It's hard to believe it's been two years since I posted the last new Influential column. But today it's time to take a look back at a great work and how it helped shape my mindset of my writing.

Today, I'm talking about Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect.

Maestro by George Perez. All images owned by Marvel. 

Originally published as two prestige format issues outside the regular continuity of the current Hulk title, it was still written by then current Hulk scribe Peter David with art by George Perez. The two previously worked together on Sachs & Violens at Epic and this was a chance for the two to pair up for a second time.

The book featured the Pantheon era Hulk, one with the mind of Bruce Banner, the edge of Joe Fixit and the body of the classic jade giant. Because this Hulk was so similar to the current comic Hulk, after Future Imperfect's success it proved little trouble for David to integrate it into the mainstream character's history. But really that's all a lot of background material. The focus here is on those two great over-sized issues.

The entire saga takes place in the distance future, where the Earth has been ravaged by nuclear war  and only a few city-states still remain on the planet. The most powerful is ruled by the Maestro and the rebels know only one hero of the past has a chance to stop him. The book starts with the arrival of that hero, none other than Hulk. He quickly learns about the destruction that caused this future and agrees to help the heroes fight the villain, because only he can understand the villain.

For the Maestro is the Hulk himself.

The radiation released into the atmosphere fed the Hulk's strength but also drove him mad. The Maestro rejected his humanity, instead subjugating the people beneath him and declaring himself absolute ruler of all he could see.

What comes next plays with the typical tropes of time travel in comics as the hero confronts his own future and the nature of fate. Ultimately, Hulk realizes the Maestro is a threat he cannot let live. In the end, he uses the time travel to deliver Maestro to the one point in time and space that can end his threat.

Perez is always at his best when he gets to design, such as he does for Rick Jones' collection of heroic relics.

Future Imperfect is a concise tale that gives a peak at a potential future while also working to define the character as we know him. Perez's luscious art brings the future to evocative life while David loads the tale with twists and turns.

Ultimately, the book serves for me as an example of how to do a time lost hero story to its maximum effect. As I continue to craft new tales of the Quadrant Universe, the importance of time will come into more and more clarity in the weeks and months ahead. Time travel will play an essential part in that expansion, though it might be saying too much to tell exactly where and when.

Future Imperfect stands as one of the best Hulk stories ever told. It's been almost perpetually in print since its original collection in the mid-1990s. If you haven't checked this one out, I cannot recommend it highly enough.

5 comics I really wish they would finish already!

As I write this, Matt Wagner is in the middle of his Mage: The Hero Denied, the three decades in the making final installment of the Mage franchise. Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett funded the rebirth of Section Zero on Kickstarter and are hard at work bringing it to life. Comics that were once a pipe dream to see finished now seem very, very possible. So here are five titles I would love to see still get published.

5. All Star Batman and Robin: The Boy Wonder

Frank Miller and Jim Lee teamed to work on this book that presents a gloriously awful version of Batman's first days as Robin's mentor. All Star Batman & Robin really pissed off a lot of fans with its portrayal of Batman and most of his Justice League allies as assholes. I personally enjoyed it, but with Lee on art it was doomed to delays and short runs. After a couple years without publication, it was announced by DC it would return as Dark Knight: Boy Wonder, but that book still hasn't seen the light of day either.


4. SHIELD

Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver's great series took the idea of the international spy organization and stretched it back several thousand years. It was supposed to run as two six issue limited series, but they stopped with two issues still left to work on Infinity. After the Marvel event series, both creators claimed they returned to SHIELD with Dustin finishing all the pages of art. No one quite knows why Marvel has never returned to the series, but its sat in comic book limbo for half a decade with no sign of a return.

3. Crimson Plague 

One of two books on this list to have two launches but never finish, George Perez's big independent creator owned debut started with one issue at Event and two issues at Image as part of the quick-to-die Gorilla Comics line. The intriguing tale of a woman with a deadly touch in a galaxy spanning future definitely had tons of potential. It likely will never see the light of day though as Crimson Plague herself returned as a nemesis in the pages of the recently completed George Perez's Sirens, which seemed to be his last word on her.

2. Miracleman: The Silver Age

Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham joined the Miracleman comic during the waning days of Eclipse. Following on the heels of The Original Writer (better known as Alan Moore) and a bevy of talented artists, they started to craft a tale of a utopian super-future with Miracleman: The Golden Age. But their follow up never saw the light of day when the company went belly up. Marvel bought all the rights behind the character in order to reprint the old issues and allow Gaiman to continue his saga, but despite word that both Gaiman and Buckingham have done work on the project, the solicited issues were canceled and it hasn't been spoken about since.

1. Jackie Chan's Spartan X

Michael Golden writing and drawing a high octane Jackie Chan comic sounds like pretty much the coolest thing ever. Golden draws action like pretty much no one else and he pumped out a stellar three issues of the book only for Topps to decide it was done publishing comics. The remaining three issues disappeared, only for the title to resurface at Image during the black and white boom period for the company in the late 90s and early 2000s. The loss of color surprisingly didn't hurt the reprinted issues or the new number four that was released. But issue five and six again disappeared into the ether never to be seen. I talked to Golden at a Wizard World a few years back and he still plans for the series to see the light someday, but until then it will remain a forgotten treasure along with the rest of these titles.

What unfinished comic would you like to finally see the light of day?

What's Up for October 20, 2017

What's Up is a simple post where I give you links to the books, comics, movies, games and/or music I have been enjoying as of late. Feel free to check them out if you would like to enjoy them as well or give your opinions of these works in the comments below (though do try to keep it spoiler free.)




Second Nature | Wonder Woman by George Perez | Star Wars: Kanan vol. 2 |
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 | Twenty One Pilots: Blurryface

Sex and Violence in Super Powered Fiction

Today I wanted to write something on the two big subjects of modern genre literature. I am of course talking about sex and violence, two factors that play a weird twisted pattern in modern English writing.

Most people pretty much consider it impossible to write super powered fiction without the second half of that equation, although not impossible. Big powers often imply slugfests between two super powered beings. But characters with powers could just use those powers for the common good. Or even their own self interest. Even with two or more characters with powers, no one says they should have to get into great big fights. Walter Mosley’s Blue Light fits the bill perfectly for this. While the book does not shy away from uncomfortable situations (including murder) it is not built around the kind of battle one expects when they know a story has super-powers.

Sex on the other hand often seems taboo in modern super powered fiction. Obviously most modern Marvel & DC superhero comics run on a strange system where they aim for a PG-13 style rating scheme for their titles. Rarely do they feature more than the hint of sex. Prose super powered fiction often follows this lead. I certainly do with my Lightweight series of serialized stories. Numerous other tales both large and small press seem to aim for that same level. But the history of the super powered prose space makes that a strange choice.

So much of super powered prose stems from George R. R. Martin’s Wild Cards series. From the first book, authors like Lewis Shiner and Stephen Leigh introduced sexually explicit content into their tales. In many ways Wild Cards is the godfather of all super powered prose, yet still so many titles shy away from its lead. Meanwhile the ever-growing urban fantasy field often dives head-long into explicit storytelling.

I am by no means saying that anyone writing super powered prose should immediately add an explicit sex scene to their stories. But I do think that if we are acceptable to extremes of violence, we should also not be afraid of writing sex as well.

My web serial Walking Shadows has shown several of its leads in sexual situations and will continue to do so. The series was built around the concept of following the lives of young men and women with powers that do not want to be heroes. And when you right about young adults, sex will come into play.

Let’s not be afraid of it.

Today’s image is from issue two of Peter David & George Perez’s Sachs & Violens, simply because I enjoy name puns.

Reblogged from the classic site.