Superheroes

Dear DC Comics,

Please refund me the amount of US$1.10, which is the inflationary adjustment value of the US$0.50 I spent in 1988 when I voted for Robin II -- aka Jason Todd -- to die. Your resurrecting of this character represents a breach of the financial contract established at that time, conducted over telephone lines overseen by the Federal Communications Commission. Thank you.

Was it really 32 years ago since the unprecedented act of fan-voting on a character's fate sent Jason Todd to that great four-color press in the sky? I'd swear it was only yesterday. In the four-part BATMAN saga, the Joker had laid into Jason with a crowbar (which has been re-visited ad infinitum ever since) , and the resulting poll of fans who called in via a 1-900 number directed DC to steer the story toward Jason's death.

It's Saturday morning all over again with this collection of the classic SPACE GHOST animated series. Featuring all twenty of the 1966-1968 SPACE GHOST episodes, these cartoon shorts have lost none of their appeal, due in large part to the timeless designs of Alex Toth.

The best thing to happen to CW superhero shows was obtaining the license to rebroadcast episodes of STARGIRL the day after premiering on the DC Universe streaming services. The show, shepherded by character creator Geoff Johns, became immediately recognized as one of the best translations of comic-to-tube in decades.

While the CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS crossover event was a mid-season interruption for most of the CW superhero shows, it was the season opening episode for LEGENDS OF TOMORROW, the action sitcom of the Arrowverse. LEGENDS began as a team of superheroes assembled to go on a time-travel mission to stop Vandal Savage, and selected because they would not be missed by history if they were killed. Since then, it has evolved into a sort of "anything goes" time-travel fix-it series, with very little super-heroing happening -- with John Constantine (Matt Ryan) thrown into the mix.

The ten-dollar-comic is rapidly becoming a regular thing at the local comics shop. True, it's been reserved for these 80th aniversary specials, but as we continue marking that particuar milestone, we'll soon have overlap with 80th anniversaries of later characters and 85th anniversaries of the ones we just celebrated. So the bottom line is to get used to them.

Fortunately, with books like DETECTIVE #1027 -- this one celebrating the 1000th issue of the title since the introduction of Batman -- you get a collection of really good short stories featuring the world's greatest detective. Unfortunately, it doesn't lead off with them -- all the more surprising given the Bat-experience of the writers.

In the fifth season of the Maid of Might's adventures, Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and her super friends find themselves going up against Leviathin, an organization bent on putting Earth through its next extinction event, ushered in at the hands of seemingly immortal gods like Rama Khan (Mitch Pileggi) and Gamemnae (Cara Buono).

But it's not as simple as that, as Supergirl's civilian life as Kara Danvers is complicated by new relationships. A new fellow reporter at CATCO, William Dey (Staz Nair), gets nosy about Kara's personal life, and has some pretty shady interactions that arouse Kara's suspicions. But his true motives become revealed later on, when Kara learns he's been undercover investigating a very bad person.

I've been ambivalent about this whole "Joker War" going on in the BATMAN books. Tynion's run has been a welcome change of pace from the eternal misery of the previous eighty issues, and the premise of the arc has been a solid one. Basically, Joker has always known the identities of the Batman family, and has taken advantage of a long-planned heist that puts him in charge of the Wayne fortune -- as well as the company and real estate, giving him access to not just the money but the research and development areas -- that is, the weaponry of the Batcave.

With JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK: APOKOLIPS WAR, the interconnected DC Animated Universe was brought to a close -- or a new beginning, depending on your perspective.

SUPERMAN: MAN OF TOMORROW may be that new beginning, as it gives viewers a Superman who as not yet even put on the cape. 

Clark Kent (Darren Criss) is an intern for the Daily Planet, yet to have his own byline. Lois Lane (Alexandra Daddario) has only just broken into the ranks of the press, having been responsible for the downfall of corrupt magnate Lex Luthor (Zachary Quinto). The world is only just getting introduced to the idea of superheroes, what with the rare glimpses of Superman's exploits as the "flying man" wearing the aviator helmet and goggles, and the even rarer shots of the Bat Man of Gotham City.

The Associated Press has been informed that Chadwick Boseman, who portrayed the groundbreaking and inspirational superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR, BLACK PANTHER, and AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR, has passed away today at the age of 43 from colon cancer.

Boseman was diagnosed with the illness four years ago, about the same time CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR introduced the Black Panther to live action audiences. He never spoke publicly about his condition, choosing instead to continue filming.

The Boseman family statement to the press said that Boseman was 'a true fighter,' “Chadwick persevered through it all and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much; from MARSHALL to DA 5 BLOODS, AUGUST WILSON'S MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, and several more — all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy."

"It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in BLACK PANTHER.”

2020 was meant to be the biggest year ever for CW's THE FLASH. From the very first episode when viewers got teased with that headline from the future, we knew the series was building toward the legendary "Crisis on Infinite Earths" story -- a story which, in comics, rebuilt the entire DC Universe from scratch at the cost of the lives of The Flash and Supergirl. And while it seemed unlikely that the showrunners were going to sacrifice two of their titular characters for the sake of telling the story, expectations among fans were nonetheless high.

From its very preconception, BATWOMAN seemed to be a project destined for failure on the CW. From the inflammatory pre-show trailers to the shoe-horned identity-driven approach to storytelling, the series was determined to trip over itself to be something rather than letting an organically told story do the work for them, ultimately resulting in the lead actress, Ruby Rose, opting to leave the role of Kate Kane -- the titular hero -- after the freshman year.

DC's STARGIRL has been nothing short of stellar throughout its 13-episode freshman season. The latest entry into the Arrowverse (the show was teased at the end of the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" crossover, so we're counting it), the show has been one of the most consistently fun, fresh, optimistic, adventuresome, straight-up superhero shows to have graced the CW network. There's a respect and an adherence to the source material -- not just to the STARGIRL comic book heroine herself but to much of the DC Universe in general. The costumes, the props (there's a green lantern seen more than once that I'm still waiting to see get fired up!) and the name-drops have all been enough to make a comic book fan giddy to his core.

If you haven't watched any STARGIRL by now, you are lucky. Because you're only one week away from getting to binge the entire first season.

It's been a shortened first season -- only thirteen episodes in total -- but it's been a fun and enjoyable ride. DC and CW have given viewers the family-friendly super-hero show that its lineup had been sorely missing, and fans have responded positively to it. Brec Bassinger's portrayal of Courtney Whitmore, the teenager who becomes Stargirl, is fresh and optimistic, always appealing to the good in people. It's with this determined outlook that Stargirl recruits a new Justice Society from the unlikely group of social outcasts at Blue Valley High: Doctor Mid-nite (Anjelika Washington), Hourman (Cameron Gellman), and Wildcat (Yvette Monreal).

In the first season of THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY, the quirky sibling superhero group failed to prevent the world-shattering apocalypse that they themselves caused, leaping through time at the last moment through the powers of their brother, Five (Aidan Gallagher), to wind up scattered across the early 1960s in Dallas, Texas, with the last of them arriving in 1963, days before the Kennedy assassination. Diego (David Castañeda) sees this as an opportunity to prevent the assassination, but somehow -- a mystery for the season -- this leads to yet another world-ending apocalypse of global nuclear war. Diego ends up committed to an insane asylum. Luther (Tom Hopper) is forced to become a bare-knuckle brawler for Jack Ruby. Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman) settles into a marriage to a local civil rights activist, Ray Chestnut (Yusuf Gatewood), Klaus (Robert Sheehan) starts a cult, and Vanya ends up without her memories living on a farm with a family raising a disabled child.

There's a lot happening in this episode of STARGIRL, and the title -- "Brainwave Jr." -- is a promising one. I've been hoping that Henry King Jr. (Jake Austin Walker) was going to come out a hero instead of following in the villainous footsteps of his father, the Injustice Society's resident telepath, Brainwave (Christopher James Baker), and I was right. Sort of.

But before we can deal with that, we are thrown into the family chaos that has erupted in the Whitmore-Dugan household. Barbara Whitmore (Amy Smart) has seen the cosmic staff in action, and now it's up to Pat (Luke Wilson) and Courtney (Brec Basinger) to tell her the truth about what Stargirl, and Barb does not take the news well at all. In fact, she's so angry she makes Pat leave for the night. Mike (Trae Romano) overhears, and decides to go with his dad to spend the night at the repair shop.

The Green Hornet is possibly one of the earliest legacy heroes in comics, his grandfather having been the Lone Ranger. (Yes, I know The Phantom is older, but The Phantom is more of a mantle than a legacy.)

Britt Reid is a man of action, whether in his civilian identity as a crusading newspaper publisher, or at night when he's the wanted criminal, The Green Hornet. Yes, criminal -- he's wanted by the police. But that's a double-cover, because he establishes himself in that identity to infiltrate actual criminal gangs and take them down from the inside.

We're throwin right into the middle of the story with the opening shot, that includes a gorgeous 2-page splash across pages two and three. The plot pits the Green Hornet against the U.S. Army, for reasons that will be established as the story unfolds. And the story is a strange one indeed, because the Green Hornet is pretty much used to fighting thugs and mob bosses -- street level and corporate level evil.

We've mentioned before just how much fun it is for comic book geeks to watch STARGIRL. The references to the original Justice Society, the hints and easter eggs, are all things that make our inner comic nerds grin from ear to ear.

And tonight was no exception. In fact, they ratched it up to eleven early in the episode.

Courtney (Brec Bassinger) barely survived her battle with Shiv (Meg DeLacy) -- her high school classmate, Cindy Burman, and daughter of the villainous Dr. Ito, the Dragon King (Nelson Lee). Dr. Ito is thought to have died a long time ago, but Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson) believes differently. He fought the Dragon King several years ago -- alongside a completely different team of heroes: The 7 Soldiers of Victory!

Yes, if you are a long-time comics fan, you may now take a moment to squeal.

When we reached the end of the previous episode, Courtney, as Stargirl (Brec Bassinger), had been locked in a fight with Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy), whom viewers know to be the daughter of Injustice Society member and mad scientist, Dragon King (Nelson Lee). The fight was interrupted, but not without Courtney sustaining injuries.

Her stepfather, Pat Dugan (Luke Wilson), rushed Courtney to the hospital and told them she'd been in a car accident. To cover his story, he then went out and purposely wrecked his vintage Buick, blaming the accident on his giving Courtney driving lessons.

Good news for fans of DC Comics on the small screen: CW has released a statement verifying that STARGIRL -- the show you should be watching -- has been renewed for a second season!

The statement from CW reads:

July 6, 2020 (Burbank, CA) – The CW Network today announced it has renewed the hit new series DC’S STARGIRL for a second season.  The CW will become the exclusive in-season home to the breakout superhero hit next season, airing on The CW Television Network and streaming the next day on The CW’s free, ad-supported streaming platforms.  The first season of DC’S STARGIRL is currently airing Tuesdays (8:00-9:00pm ET/PT).

Every comic book is someone's first comic book.

That's been a truism handed down from the founding fathers of the industry. You can tell the writers who adhere to it. You can pick up one of their books, no matter the issue number, and within moments you are pulled into the story with a comfort level where you don't feel like a stranger, and where you can enjoy learning the things you still don't know. Those are the writers who leave behind lasting books, and thankful fan bases.

Elaine Lee is not one of those writers.