This October I redrew Marvel comics covers

Inktober comes just once a year, unless you're doing Inktober 52 (which I am). This year I chose not to follow the prompts but instead I would redraw Comic book covers from Marvel and the Silver-age (So I didn't have endless choices to make). I also miscounted so there are 32 not 31.

Antman and the Wasp

Where better to start with as, Hank Pym is actually the first Silver Age character. But not Antman, he debuted in one of Marvel's Sci-Fi Horror stories about a scientist who invented a shrinking potion and had to be friend the Ants to survive. Original cover Tales to Astonish 44. (Also the only one I signed because after this one it felt wrong signing work that was a copy of another artists).

Black Panther

I think the real reason for the Fox/Disney merger was so that the MCU could continue without constant legal battles. With Fox owning the Fantastic Four and all of Marvel spinning out from there (Fantastic Four had the first appearances of The Kree, The Skrulls, Galactus, the Microverse, The Inhumans and The Black Panther). Fox's Lawyers could make legitimate claims to most of Marvel's characters.

Also this bugs me about the Jack Kirby era, every scientist has the same style of technology, Wakanda is isolated from the rest of the world yet, their advanced technology is identical to Mr Fantastic's and Dr Doom's. Thankfully later artists gave Wakanda a more Afro-Futurist style and Doom a more Gothic style.

Original Fantastic Four 52

The Black Widow

The Black Widow was originally Iron Man's Archenemy. Well during the Don Heck run, Ditko's era which introduced the Red and Gold armour had the Mandarin and Jack Kirby's was short-lived because he had new series to start. 

Don Heck tended to get the table scraps left over after Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, which might surprise MCU fans that Iron Man was not popular enough to keep Tales of Suspense instead the series went to Captain America.

Original Tales of Suspense 53.

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

Silver-Age X-men is Jack Kirby's Other book, While Fantastic Four was the flagship series (until Jack left Marvel). I'm sure Jack forgot to draw Quicksilver and then had to add him in later.  The line up is of course Magneto in the centre, Toad in Beige, Quicksilver just back from answering the door bell, Scarlet Witch in Green and Mastermind as the other guy also in green.

Original X-men 4

Captain America 

I thought about excluding Captain America as he debuted in the Golden Age, but after a backdoor pilot in Strange Tales (Human Torch's solo book). Marvel decided to retcon out the 1950's Anti-Commie Cap and reveal he had been frozen since World War 2. 

PS the Issue of Strange Tales didn't actually have Captain America in it, just the minor villain the Acrobat wearing his costume.

Original Avengers 4 

Captain Marvel

Carol Danvers was originally a human sidekick to this guy Mar-Vell. A Kree Warrior hiding on Earth. 

People who only know the movies will think Mar-Vell is a woman, but nope originally a man. Probably for the best they made that change.

Still I love this original costume, his later Red and Blue makes it more obvious that he's a Superman knock off. Also Stan Lee's Just Imagine Superman was just a rehashed Captain Mar-Vell

Original Marvel Superheroes 12

Daredevil

What else can be said other than oh Wally Wood. I saw this cover and had to redraw it. I wanted to do the original yellow costume and well this is perfect. My favourite feature of it is the 2 on-lookers who are not impressed with these Superhero shenanigans.

Original Daredevil 5

Doctor Doom

Kneel before the most feared man in the world. The greatest of all Supervillains. I could have chosen from a few different covers. But Doom holding his most hated enemies in his hand toying with them just fits him.

Original Fantastic Four 16

Dormammu

The Dread Dormammu of the Dark Dimension. For Doctor Strange see "S" for "Stephen Strange".  (Shame I couldn't find any Steve Ditko full covers for Dormammu, Strange Tales either had The Human Torch getting the cover or had a split cover. Later the series alternated between Dr Strange and Nick Fury being the cover story).

Original Dr Strange 173

The Enchantress

I wanted to do a female Villain and she was the first one that came to mind. That said I also did the Hela who stole her Executioner for the movie Thor Ragnarok. Also I think in the originals background we see some proto-Kirby Crackle

Original Journey into Mystery 103

The Fantastic Four

Marvel's First Family that nobody knows how to adapt. This cover with them in the "Flying Bathtub", is just so iconic. So iconic nobody can remember the name of the villain in the story. He's a magician, also Fun Fact this was the first American comic book Alan Moore ever read.

Galactus

He eats planets!!! 

Original Fantastic Four 49

The Green Goblin

One of the first John Romita Sr covers, shame his son isn't as good at drawing.

Original Amazing Spider-man 39

Hela

Yeah I only coloured of the back ground that's Loki's face, but I thought this was about inking not colours.

Also I chose Hela and Enchantress over the Thor Villain Ego the Living Planet. (What can I say with 31 spots not everyone makes the cut).

Original Thor 150

Hulk

I love the Hulk, so much I thought about doing 2 Hulk covers. Unfortunately I don't think any of Hulk's supporting cast I could justify doing a cover for except The Abomination, but he only appeared on a comic cover after 1972 my cut off point.

Original Hulk 1 (the shortest lived Silver Age Marvel series at 6 issues and then cancellation)

The Inhumans

It would be controversial to include them and not include them. So enjoy Crystal, Lockjaw and Blackbolt.

Original Fantastic Four 46

Iron Man

Scroll past this one quick!!

Original Tales of Suspense 39

J Jonah Jameson

Because I know you opened this looking for pictures of Spider-man

Original Amazing Spider-man 52

Kang The Conqueror

Yeah he made the cut because of the rumours of him being the MCU Phase 4's main villain. Sorry Hawkeye but you and the rest of Cap's Kooky Quartet appear on this cover.

Original Avengers 23

Loki

Yeah I know there isn't much Loki, but the cover for Avengers 1 is famous. Also look and Iron man in his crappy clunker armour trying to touch his toes. Yeah that'll scare off a supervillain calisthenics. If you want more Loki comment on this blog with "More Loki" at least four times, less than that and I won't think you want it enough.

Original Avengers 1

Mary Jane

Gwen Stacy only appeared on one cover before her death (which ended the Silver-Age). So Spider-man's love interest won out. Also this might be my laziest not only have I not coloured the background theres a second goon who I just haven't drawn. Space gets cramped and I only have an A4 Scanner (the originals were done on much bigger drawing boards around A2)

Original Amazing Spider-man 59

Mysterio

I knew I had to do at least one Steve Ditko Spidey cover. For Spider-man's Rogue's I had found a Green Goblin and a Dr Octopus from Romita Sr's tenure. The Kingpin and the Rhino debuted during Romita's run so I was a bit stuck. So Mysterio made the list. Sandman was also considered.

Original Amazing Spider-man 13

Namor

Like Captain America a Golden Age character who got reintroduced in the Silver Age. This story also massively retcon's his past, after the Human Torch shaves a homeless man who turns out to be the Anti-Hero. Namor returns to Atlantis for revenge against the surface dwellers. Did you spot the Retcon? Bill Everrett (The Writer and Artist for Golden Age Namor) specifically said Namor was not from Atlantis because he thought Atlantis was a real place.

Original Fantastic Four 4

Nick Fury

I had to do a Steranko cover. Also while drawing this I noticed a lot of similarities between Steranko and Rob Liefeld. Like weird poses, pouches everywhere and Guns that make no sense at all.

Original Strange Tales 167

Dr Octopus

This has shades of GCSE Art, and it looks like a piece that would only get a C at best. Oh well I tried, I admit Romita Sr is a better artist than me. But Imagine his son drawing this, it'd be squarer and more awkward.

Original Amazing Spider-man 55

Peter Parker

I had a few iconic choices for Spider-man, like Amazing Fantasy 15 or Amazing Spider-man 1 or 33.

In the end I like this one because it has Spider-man and Peter Parker together.

Original Amazing Spider-man 50

The Red Skull

That is not the Tesseract or the Space Stone, it's the Cosmic Cube.

Sorry the Infinity Saga making other artifacts from the comics into Infinity stones annoys me, especially when the artifacts do completely different things like The Cosmic Cube can rewrite reality, the Eye of Agamotto increases the Sorcerer Supremes power (nothing to do with time travel).

Original Captain America 115

The Silver Surfer

John Buscema would replace Jack Kirby as the architect of the Marvel Universe. PS If you like drawing comics totally read How to Draw Comics the Marvel way.

Original Silver Surfer 1

Dr Strange

I wish I could've done another Dr Strange by Steve Ditko, but him having a chat with Eternity will have to be the only one.

That said I was tempted to draw the issue of Strange Tales where the Human Torch and the Thing meet The Beatles (I love the Beatles ok!).

Original Strange Tales 146 

Thor

I drew the pose and couldn't figure out what of the background to keep so here he is thwaking Korg. (Yes that is Korg).

Original Journey into Mystery 83

Vision

God that is a lot of Red!!! No Ultron because the MCU wasted James Spader. (Also I didn't want to get into the whole Ultron being evil because Tony Stark bullied Hank Pym because the movie had Stark make Ultron).

The X-men

Do I need to say anything? Other than what is Jean Grey doing? Did Jack Kirby forget to draw her? Seems about right as this era of X-men she seemed to only exist for the boys to fight over.

Original (Uncanny) X-men 1

 

Conservative Comic book characters (who aren't white men)

You hear the term conservative and you think an old white guy. We all think it, it’s the default but the political spectrum is more diverse than that and so are people. So Comic book characters should be no exception  .  Let’s have a look at different Right Wing characters who aren’t white men.

Icon

Created by Dwayne McDuffie explicitly to be a conservative black hero. This character shines a spotlight on black political philosophies with his admiration Booker T. Washington and his philosophies of self reliance. This ideology also put him at odds with his sidekick, Rocket.  Icon is a card carrying republican, kind of imagine him as a kind of Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince of Bel Air mixed with Superman.

War Machine

Iron Man was created by Stan Lee to be the hero that left-leaning Marvel fans would hate. Well Jim Rhodes in ideology is even more Republican. Any soldier hero must either be critical of the military or conservative and Jim Rhodes is nothing if not a good soldier. He’s not the only Black military hero, because Green Lantern Jon Stewart is a good soldier but also questions the military. 

Other than his military connection there is something far worse and often overlooked about Jim Rhodes and that is that he’s racist. Now he’s not racist against any real world groups but Mutants, but Mutant hating is Right wing if you ask me.

George Washington-Bridge

Ok there are about 1000 characters created by Rob Liefeld who could fit this article. But I chose Washington-Bridge because he’s the only one I could remember the name of. Rob Liefeld specialised in creating teams of para-military task forces that added new members mostly men and not all white. Almost any character created by Liefeld on his own is interchangeable.

Black Manta and Erik Killmonger

I put these two villains together because they both have the same goal of creating an ethno-state. Whilst they’re both wanting reparations for slavery and wanting a land for their people, this doesn’t justify their wants. But of course these ideologies make them the bad guys while fighting for peace and diversity make Aquaman and Black Panther the heroes.

Martha Washington

You’d think Dave Gibbons would hate Ayn Rand having worked with Alan Moore on Watchmen. But I’m not sure Gibbons’ political beliefs are in any way similar to the anarchist writer who penned the book. Dave Gibbons’ follow-up to Watchmen was a collaboration with Frank Miller, and the book constantly quotes Ayn Rand. Martha becomes a strong independent character by rejecting everything about her identity. While it may seem progressive that Frank Miller wrote a black woman as the lead to a book , she only became strong in his eyes by thinking of herself as a white man. 

(More on Frank Miller and Ayn Rand in an upcoming blog keep an eye out).

Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers)

Possibly the most surprising to many but the only thing progressive about Carol is that she is a woman. It’s so progressive to have a female Air force colonel and she’s often used as a straw feminist. But you take that away she’s really a Karen. Now I’m not hating on the character, or her stories or the movie. Well maybe Civil War 2 where she becomes a totalitarian dictator probably helps my case.  

The Umbrella Academy and their mainstream counterparts (Teen Titans and the X-men)

 So it’s pretty obvious that the Umbrella Academy is a deconstruction of the teenage superhero team. One of the core ideas is that the kids from the team would grow up to be total misfits. The series itself does pay homage to storylines like Titans Hunt and the Dark Phoenix saga. “But who is each Umbrella academy’s Teen Titans or X-men counterpart?” asked nobody. Well, I’m here to answer that. Also, these are only guesses at best. I have no way to contact Gerard Way, Gabriel Ba or Steve Blackman.

Reginald Hargreeves is Professor X

Lets start off with the most obvious. He’s the leader of the group who doesn’t go into the field. He’s there to teach them how to use their powers. He does share some ideas with the Chief of the Doom Patrol and, with him being the abusive father figure, he has a touch of Deathstroke. But Deathstroke (or Slade to some of you) is The Teen Titan’s archenemy, not their team leader.

Luther is Cyclops

Sure, he may share some visual similarities to Beast or Colossus, but he is Cyclops. The handpicked leader of the team because he can’t think for himself. This was an issue Cyclops faced in the comics after the Phoenix saga and it’s Luther’s main struggle through the series. 

Klaus is Beast Boy

Not taken seriously by the rest of the team, fully of witty remarks and an obsession with fame. Sure, Klaus shares a lot with Gerard Way’s mentor Grant Morrison, who always seems to be 3 fanboys away from forming a cult. But Morrison is a real person, not a superhero. 

Alison is Psylocke

This one is probably my biggest stretch because the girl of the group is often involved in a love triangle. But Psylocke was a model, has some mind control and that’s enough for me. Ok, her powers are more similar to the Scarlet Witch or Raven but neither of them are as glamorous as the fashion model turned ninja assassin. 

Diego is Speedy

Diego sucks. I can’t avoid it, but he takes himself too seriously and has a massive hero complex. Speedy has similar problems, like how he can’t stand Beast Boy. Diego thinks he’s Wolverine, with his constant questioning of commands, but Speedy did this as well. Speedy, of course, tried to rebrand as Arsenal and we all laughed at his stupid hat and attempts to be cool.

Grace is Moira McTaggert

Obviously, really. Professor X’s non-powered love interest is the team’s surrogate robot-mother. Gen 13 had a robot maid called Anna but that’s a more obscure series than Teen Titans or the X-men so it’s not a common calling point.

Ben is Jericho

Ok, having an abusive father isn’t something special in this team. But, like Jericho, Ben can only communicate by possessing others bodies. 

Vanya is Jean Grey

The weakest member, patronised and abused by the team, that turns into the strongest. That is unless you forgot that Jean Grey turned evil and ate a sun in their most famous storyline after being abused by the Hellfire club. 

Five is Wolverine

The team’s grumpy man of mystery, for fuck’s sake neither of them have a first name. They’re both “the best at what they do and what they do isn’t very nice”. Both are the most competent members of the team and have a history of being used as a secret weapon by a shady hidden cabal. 

Also, how funny is it that the coolest character has been devolved into a 12 year old kid. 

Why do we only have one Silver Surfer series?

Recently I got access to Disney+, and when opening the streaming service found a pleasant surprise. The Silver Surfer animated series, the short-lived gem that did everything right and I wish more than any other series got its second season. Many clamour for a 2nd season of Firefly still in hopes that it will happen and Disney announced that the X-men animated series that ran from 1992-1998 will get a continuation on Disney+ despite it getting an actual finale which the Silver Surfer did not. But who is the Silver Surfer and why has he only ever got the one show?

The Silver Surfer’s history isn’t as long as The Fantastic Four or Spider-man or The Hulk. In fact it’s relatively short with few publications for a character who has been around since the 1960’s. But the Silver Surfer is a well known character, you hear him referenced in things like the Big Bang Theory. He is popular, so his reason for a lack of publications is not a lack of popularity like Jack of Hearts. The reason for his lack of publications was Stan Lee. The Silver Surfer first appeared in Fantastic Four 48 and he’s even introduced as “a character that Jack calls the Silver Surfer” (Jack Kirby being the artist and principal writer of the F4. At this phase Stan only did the final script). Despite this somewhat dismissive introduction by Stan, he grew to love the character, so much so that nobody else was allowed to write him. The other theory is that he felt guilty because this was around the end of his working relationship with Kirby that he wanted to do right by his former friend. While Galactus and the Silver Surfer where among the last characters Lee and Kirby co-created he’s not the last. Black Panther was introduced 2 issues after the conclusion of the Galactus trilogy. 

The Silver Surfer made very few appearances after a stint as a supporting character in the Fantastic Four. The most notable part he played was having his powers stolen by Doctor Doom. Without Jack Kirby Stan Lee wrote a one shot with European comics legend Moebius, a one off Graphic novel and an ongoing series with John Buscema. Despite handpicking Buscema to be Kirby’s replacement, Stan hated the end results of the ongoing series. Stan later mellowed on the series with Buscema telling the artist that he really liked the Thor and Loki crossover issue. Buscema then pointed out “that’s not what you said when the book was first released”.

The Surfer also joined the Defenders (briefly) but was removed on the insistence of Stan Lee. Even though the series was written by Stan’s protege Roy Thomas. Silver Surfer got an ongoing series after Stan Lee retired from Marvel comics in the 90’s (Stan would still work as a producer on non-comics projects).

The Silver Surfer is an unusual character in the genre of Superhero comics. Similar to Superman he is extremely powerful but doesn’t use his powers for gain. But Superman is a more active character, Superman will actively seek to stop evil, while the Surfer is a true pacifist. Also while Superman is a Man (when written well) the Silver Surfer is a demigod. Superman is super-strong, fast, able to fly and shoots lasers from his eyes. The Silver Surfer has the power cosmic “a power too vast, too universal, if misused it could destroy a galaxy” or “the power of creation itself”. 

The ideas and philosophies of the character are too difficult for your conventional boys adventure story. The Silver Surfer is more like a space Ghandi than a warrior. The Silver Surfer avoids conflict at all costs and even lets himself being enslaved. A notable example would be Planet Hulk where Silver Surfer takes a beating from The Hulk rather than fight back, because he could take the abuse. But is it truly enslavement if you can escape at any time like the Surfer does and transmutes the other slaves’ chains to dust allowing them all to revolt against their captors.

The Silver Surfer is more like Stan Lee’s self-published character. It’s normal in mainstream comics for a character to be created and then completely destroyed by subsequent writers. But Stan tried to keep the character consistent and was very protective of this intellectual property. Which makes the decision to let the character leap to TV worse. While the Silver Surfer cartoon is amazing and 100% looks like a Jack Kirby comic now animated. The next featuring role of the Silver Surfer pains me. 

The decision to add the character to The Marvel Superhero Squad, a pre-school show featuring the Marvel heroes, is baffling. Well until you realise the Mayor of the town is played by Stan Lee. Did the Surfer retain his personality? nope. In fact the only one who did was Captain America. The Hulk became the Cookie Monster, Wolverine became an easy-going happy go-lucky character and the Silver Surfer became Michelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. 

So what does the future hold for Norrin Radd? well Terry Crewes is campaigning to play the character. I’ll be very impressed if he can play the role, as it seems so out of his comfort zone. But what I really want is either a continuation of the series from the 90’s or the next film to be animated. So they can fully explore the parts of cosmic Marvel that were too out there for the movie where a tree and a raccoon with a machine gun save the universe. Terry could even do the voice as long as it’s a more subdued performance than his Old Spice commercials.

Yes Joel Schumacher made Batman gay! (Why is that a bad thing?)

I don’t mean Gay as in how a 12 year old would use it. I mean actually homosexual, Joel Schumacher’s Batman is a Gay man. This has often been used as a criticism but, those takes lack nuance and call the recently departed director a bad director. He’s won a few Razzies but some of that comes off as political. Joel Schumacher was one of the first openly gay directors to be given a major franchise. The struggles he may have faced during his life informed his films and that subtext should be looked at with open minds. 

Joel Schumacher started making movies before he came out as gay, and some of them are now fascinating with hindsight. His first theatrically released is DC Cab (also known as Street Fleet) starring Mr T. A film about male cabbies and their friendship as co-workers. Now it’s mostly an unremarkable Police Academy copy but with the knowledge the Schumacher wrote and directed it one scene leaps out. The boys (except Mr T) are hanging out in a red light district and complain at women for going into a bar with the Chippendales. Then to convince the women to stay outside they “put on the show for free”. Joel Schumacher had 4 men (one of whom is a young Stephen Baldwin or Jayne from Firefly) dancing shirtless with lots of gyration on top of their Taxi cabs. 

Schumacher’s second and third films I shall refer to as the Sexy Sax films (as they both feature men playing Saxophones). Rob Lowe’s characters story in St Elmo’s fire goes nowhere but he does play the sax; and Lost Boys has a cameo from Timmy Cappello (Tina Turner’s Saxophone player who is also known for not wearing a shirt). Schumacher’s influence on Lost Boys was to have a new writer in Jeffrey Boam added to project for rewrites to make it “sexier”. But St Elmo’s Fire (the earlier of the two films) was said by Schumacher himself to be “Semi-Autobiographical” and the main plot is a love triangle. A love Triangle where one of the boys in it is mistaken for gay by the girl. 

But you didn’t click on this blog for his earlier movies, it’s time to talk about the “Bat-nipples”. Tim Burton in 1989 made the first modern Batman movie, deliberately steering away from the Adam West series and making something more gothic. He made a sequel called Batman Returns and was dropped as director for the third because McDonalds refused to do a tie-in promotion. Schumacher was brought on to replace Burton as director and the whole movie was reworked and mostly recast. Burton was to have Michael Keaton return as Batman/Bruce Wayne, Billy Dee Williams as Harvey Dent/Two Face and introduce Will Wheaton as Robin/Dick Grayson and Robin Williams as The Riddler. William’s version of the Riddler was to take on characteristics of the Superman villain the Toyman and Green Arrow’s Foe the Clock King. As a kindly old man diagnosed with a terminal disease with a love of games and puzzles who just wants to share his love with the rest of Gotham but Harvey Dent keeps tampering with them. This story was scrapped and Burton went on to try and make a Superman movie for Warner Bros that only resulted in a life long enemy of Kevin Smith.

Joel Schumacher took over with his cast Val Kilmer as Batman, Chris O’Donnell as Robin, Tommy Lee Jones as Two Face and Jim Carey as The Riddler. Now Batman Forever is awful, the only thing that got me through a re-watch of it was thinking about the subtext. Think about it, what is the Riddlers great evil scheme, to expose Batman (well something to do with putting blenders on TV’s). But he wants to reveal to the world that Bruce Wayne is Batman a secret that would destroy his life. Like how coming out might’ve affected Joel’s career as Hollywood is not as progressive as conservative media will claim. How does Batman overcome this conflict? by sharing his secret with his close male friend. Surprisingly Two-Face a conflicted man who is half pink doesn’t fit into this narrative very well.

Batman Forever was a massive success and even had a scene in the film that effortlessly advertised fast food. So Warner Bros commissioned another Batman, this time Batman & Robin. 

Batman & Robin despite its reputation is so much better than Batman Forever. I think why it’s hated so much is that it’s not the Batman people wanted. Batman is thought of as the pinnacle of manliness like Clint Eastwood or James Bond or John Wayne. But as anyone who has seen Midnight Cowboy will tell you “John Wayne was a fag” (their words not mine). The corruption of Batman’s hetero-normality challenges men and makes them second guess their own sexuality. They want to be Batman but they don’t want to bum Robin. Midnight Cowboy did something similar by having John Voight wander around in a cowboy outfit thinking he was so butch and cool. But New Yorkers didn’t have the same view of cowboys as he did, (which is where the John Wayne line comes into the film). 

The idea of a non-heterosexual Batman was not invented by Joel Schumacher. Frederick Wertham in his book the corruption of the innocent actually called Batman and Robin a “Homosexual fantasy”. In response to this accusation most Batman media has run away from this idea. Batman 66 despite how its misremembered is definitely not a gay Batman. It’s campy fun, but camp is not gay. The Adam West Batman is a swinger, he may not drink or smoke but he womanises. He flirts with all the women but due to broadcast rules they never put him in a situation where he’d need to use the Bat-condoms. 

Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin is not inspired by 66 (despite claims made by the Nostalgia Critic) but they share an influence. They’re both influenced by the Dick Sprang era of the comics. Batman 66 is knowingly a parody of Superhero comics but Batman and Robin thinks its cool. Dick Sprang’s lasting impact on Batman is the rogue’s gallery. Before him all Batman villains were mostly one and done, but he made them even more cartoony and obsessed with gimmicks. His most notable creation was The Riddler but he reintroduced ones from earlier. The Architecture of Sprang’s Gotham is elaborate, and Schumacher took note. In Sprang’s Batman comics every factory has a giant version of what it makes on the roof (and usually fully functioning) encounters with villains happen in museums with Batman and Robin using the exhibits in the fight (so the opening of the film). Whilst Batman 66 is a normal city with lots of abandoned warehouses that are slowly sinking on one side. 

I wish it were clever of me to point out the Poison Ivy is a Honeypot trap but she actually says that. But thats what she is, Bane is the idea of what a man should be, strong and unfeeling and Mr Freeze is the cruel unfeeling world. Poison Ivy wants to break them up and prove they’re not as united as they thought even claiming that it’s unnatural. The Villains of the Schumacher films are homophobes. 

And as a closing remark, why are more fans willing to accept Frank Miller’s Batman that espouses fascist ideology than a gay Batman? Think about it and if you use gay as an insult grow the fuck up.

The Author fan relationship needs to change!

Comic book writers have this power over fans. Fans often want to write the adventures of their favourite heroes, I myself have planned out runs with various storylines for The Fantastic Four, Dr Strange, Superman, Wonder Woman, The X-men, The Justice League and more. Just sat there imagining new obstacles and great moments of triumph for Superheroes. But the only ways into the industry as a writer is knowing another writers and Editors or having writing success elsewhere. The second wave of Marvel writers were the fanboys who hung out in the lobby.

Because of this writers have the ability to exploit fans, this was also prevalent with rock stars in the 60’s and 70’s. But the Rock groupies only wanted a song or a story to tell their friends about Ringo Starr’s penis. The groomed aspiring comic’s writer wants more and has this assumed level of friendship. The writer is making the girl think it’s her ideas and writing skill he’s interested in not her ass. This is a form of deception, even if it does happen to older women who should know better.

Kelly Sue Decconick has offered a solution which is to make Comic book writers more anonymous, like we’re reading Superman not Grant Morrison’s Superman. Now to comic book fans writers are a big deal, they have the power to lift a series to new heights or have it plummet to it’s lowest ever. To the younger or more casual fan Spider-man is Spider-man even if it’s not being written by Stan Lee. But why do we even know who they are, a screen-writer for TV isn’t necessarily known, with some exceptions the head writer of Doctor Who is generally known by the more engaged parts of the fanbase, but not the rest which caused fans to blame Stephen Moffett for the Kill The Moon episode that he didn’t write (Peter Harness wrote it). But there is one big difference between Comics and television, and thats the audience buys it every time. A bad episode of a TV show comes on and your wallet isn’t lighter, you’ve just wasted an hour of your life on Netflix which could’ve been better spent. But a Trade Paperback you buy a new volume of Batman and read it, but how do you know this is the Batman for you? Batman varies wildly, superheroes aren’t that consistent, Captain America’s politics vary from run to run. Do I want Leftist Captain America who punches Nazi’s or do I want one who says “that protesting the Nazi’s is as bad as Nazi’s” (yes that is a real moment).

Comics like Novels are sold by Authors, these Authors become brands, and some Authors don’t actually write their own books like James Patterson (well there is a lot of contradictory evidence of this). But Superhero comic’s weren’t original sold by the writers, the first writer to be a selling point is probably the most famous Stan Lee. Marvel was sold as all being the brain-child of Stan and the universe was all connected so The Fantastic Four could meet the Hulk. This was actually a lie, Marvel’s style of editing was that the artist would come up with an idea and draw it then the writer would put what they thought were the appropriate words in the panels. Stan did some of this, but so did his brother Larry who had the pen name Stan Lee. Larry has since been given retroactive credit for his work on The Mighty Thor but it’s still to us outsider’s if Stan wrote everything and in his own words “[Stan] would steal any credit that wasn’t nailed down”. Because marvel had a standard writer, artists didn’t have to copy each other, at DC Bob Kane made every artist emulate his art style until his departure. Bob would also trace other artists panels when he did do artwork on Batman and with them being in his style nobody could tell (unless they went back into the back issues and checked if that panel was the same). But after artist got the green light to be themselves, writers started getting credit.

And this is the problem, writers deserve credit for what they write. But nobody should laud their power over others or try and use their position to create a quid-pro-quo arrangement with fans with ambitions. So how do you solve it?