COMICS ON THE SCREEN # 3 - JUSTICE LEAGUE DOOM

  JUSTICE LEAGUE DOOM

by Frankie Rodriguez (Seraph)

Starring:

   Kevin Conroy as Bruce Wayne/Batman
   Tim Daly as Clark Kent/Superman
   Susan Eisenberg as Diana/Wonder Woman
   Michael Rosenbaum as Barry Allen/The Flash
   Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordon/Green Lantern
   Carl Lumby as J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter & Ma’alafa’ak
   Bumper Robinson as Victor Stone/Cyborg
   Phil Morris as Vandal Savage
   Claudia Black as Barbara Ann Minerva/Cheetah

Written by Dwayne McDuffie


Directed by Lauren Montgomery

            Ah. Welcome once again to Comics On the Screen. Tis I, Frankie Rodriguez (also known to many as Seraph) here to give you another review of a comic book related feature. So, I guess you are wondering what feature we are going to examine this time. Well … I can say it in 3 words:

            JUSTICE.        LEAGUE.        DOOM.

            Yes. The final work of the late, great Dwayne McDuffie as well as a loose adaptation of Mark Waid’s JLA storyline “Tower of Babel”, Justice League Doom deals with some very interesting tactics used against them. And while the tactics seem effective, the source of those tactics are even worse. Warning, SPOILERS ARE ABOUND. Confused a little? Then allow me to explain as we dive into Justice League: Doom.

THE RUNDOWN

            Our film starts the way all good films from DC Comics films start of late . . . with a robbery. And while there seems to be some very interesting things going on . .. like Batman seemingly walking through a solid wall .. . WHAT THE . . . as we see who the robbers are. And oddly enough, instead of one playing card type villain behind this heist, it is several. Yes. We see the Royal Flush Gang going after diamonds. After a brief scolding from Queen, Jack takes a look around.

            OH HAI BAT MAUN!

            And Batman makes his way down … after dodging a blast from Jack. After rough landing, Jack states that he’s gonna kill the Bat and that’s when we see the rest of the team. Well . .. most of team except for one other member.  Green Lantern Hal Jordon, The Flash Barry Allen, Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman & Superman himself.

            There are a few quick quips traded amongst the League; Hal telling Batman many how many times he’s saved his life; Martian Manhunter teasing Superman about being sucker punched by Ace the last time they fought the Royal Flush Gang. The two groups go into combat and we see some great scenes. Like Wonder Woman using her lasso like whip against Queen or Hal Jordon vs 10 and my personal favorite . ..

            Superman channels his super testosterone to give Ace his best “I AM A MAUN!!!” punch . .. right through Ace!  Geez!

            As the rest of the Royal Flush Gang goes down, King seemingly gets away. I say seemingly cause when the League regroups to go after him, they are met outside by their final Leaguer, Cyborg. And Cyborg had knocked out King. Yay!

            The League looks over a machine that allowed the Royal Flush Gang to make the wall of the bank intangible in the first place. Batman states that they should look for clues when Diana reminds him his hurt. But does Batman listen … no. Then he says he should check out the machine when Cyborg tells them that there are  .. .. 38 … whatever is above a Tetrabyte, worth of data to go over and that he’ll call him as soon as he’s done. And with that, Batman takes his leave, as does the rest of the League.

            Wait a second. Batman seen something in the mirror for a second. It was there and then it wasn’t. Who could that be?! Batman makes it home where Alfred forces Bruce to bed. Out of the Mirror we hear . .. Mirror Master. Oh wow! That’s awesome cause he talks to someone quietly as he seeming takes information from the Bat Computer .. . completely undetected.

            After that, we find ourselves in a swamp. And suddenly we see Bat-villain Bane fighting off a tiger. He is soon joined by Star Sapphire, Metallo, Ma’alafa’ak (another  Martian like Maritan Manhunter … but EVIL) & Cheetah. They all said they were told to meet there and before they leave, a giant dome structure comes up from the ground. A  . . . some what familiar structure.

            The villains enter within where Mirror Master is standing by Vandal Savage. Savage offers the villains a chance to help him on a later project but the job for now is to take out the Justice League. And he offers each villain $100,000,000 . .. a piece for each leaguer they take out.

WAIT . . .

            Take out a Leaguer for $100,000,000?!  I . . . I . ..  I . . .

            *The Emperor from Star Wars comes out* “ Yes. Let the hate flow through you.”

     I . .. I . ..

            $100,000,000 DOLLARS!!!  I . .. I . ..

            NO! I am not evil. I am not evil.  But for the love of Primus . ..  $100,000,000 DOLLARS!!!!!!????!!!!

            Anyway, the villains are not retarded as they take up Vandal Savage on the offer. And what commences is by far one of the sickest, more twisted and beyond glorious schemes in history.

            Well, you see first ****** runs outside to find that *** ****** ****** has been *** ****. And then we see Superman trying to talk down a guy from the ledge and  ***** ****** **** ******** ********. Wonder Woman ends up fighting Cheetah who then ***** **** **** *** ***** ****. Martian Manhunter is disguised in his human form when he sees a woman and  ****** ***** ********* *** *****. Hal Jordon is called in to ****** and then he ***** ***** ***. The Flash races to a ***** where he saves  *******. We find then that **** ****** *******.

  The Villains, aka The LEGION OF DOOM, reconvene after *** ***** ******** and Vandal Savage reveals his true motives: Cheetah then slashes her nails against his neck when *****  ****  ******.

            OH GOD!!! I am stopping this here. I can’t spoil this movie!!!

THE BREAK DOWN

            This is a first for me. This movie is, as of right now, the best DC Animated film they have EVER made. No ifs. No ands. No butts. I normally do not have a problem giving spoilers but by the Matrix, I cannot reveal this movie.

            The pacing in this movie was exception. From start to finish, it was a roller coaster ride that just felt so good that you wanted to ride it over and over again. The animation was crisp, colorful and set each tone and each hero and villain perfectly. Motion in this movie was like water when it needed to be or like truck when it had to be. Every frame filled with pure unadulterated awesome.

            The plot came from Towel of Babel but the late Dwayne McDuffie and the rest of the writing team of Justice League Doom transformed this into something that can stand on its own as a different story from Towel of Babel, just using similar plot devices and points. Spoiler: The fact that Mirror Master successfully infiltrated Batman’s lair, took the information he needed and returned to Savage undetected was genius. One of the biggest selling points was the actual information being that Batman had made plans on ways to take down every member of the Justice League (save for Cyborg, who had just joined). Vandal Savage used that information and twisted it for his own purposes. And  that is what made Doom such an incredible viewing experience.

            The tone shifts in Doom keep you at the edge of your seat. From the light hearted banner at the beginning between Hal and Batman to the (spoiler) Brian DePalma like scene where Superman is falling after being shot with a Kyptonite bullet; and believe me, that is NOT the most amazing thing about the movie but the music, animation and cuts scenes during that one sequence helped elevated this movie into DC’s top animated film.

            The voice cast was BEYOND Superb. Many Justice League alumni were here as Carl Lumby returned as Martian Manhunter alongside Susan Eienberg as Wonder Woman. Michael Rosenbaum returned to Flash but was a different Flash; most notably known as Wally West, Rosenbaum excels as Barry Allen in Doom. For what might be the first time in a Justice League movie, Tim Daly is Superman; playing the character to the tee as always alongside the voice of animated Batman for the last 2 decades, Kevin Conroy. Conroy gave a great intensity to his role, with the personal implications during his  particular problems during Doom. Nathan Fillon, once again, plays Hal Jordon and once again Fillon’s Jordon is perfect. No other actor has been able to cover Hal’s multifaceted character as well as Fillon and it really shines during Doom. Bumper Robinson’s Cyborg was more than worthy of the character; letting him be smart, strong and really finding his way with this team. And these are just the heroes.

The villains are equally as exquisite. Carl Lumby also played Ma’alafa’ak, giving a slightly darker tone to the voice that was seductive in its own way. Carlos Alazraqui gives an outstanding performance of the Man who broke the Bat back in the comics; even giving us some great voice range. Alexis Densof (aka Mr. Alyson Hannigan) performs a wicked Mirror Master who seems deadpan with his delivery but the voice hints at the twisted man that Mirror Master is. His scenes with Rosenbaum’s Flash were amazing. Oliva d’Abo’s Star Sapphire was the epitome of a woman scorned; sexy, angry but sly. Paul Blackthorne’s Metallo was so welcome cause it fit him; a psychotic human inside the body of a robot who hates Superman. Phil Morris gave one of his best performances as the ruthless, upper crust Vandal Savage. He tapped into something because his Savage felt real. Yet, the MVP of the movie in terms of voice cast goes out to Claudia Black. Her Cheetah was DEAD ON. Never has a voice fit so well with a villain. Black’s Cheetah was sexy, vicious, cunning and intelligent and the movie allowed her to show that. The chemistry between Black’s Cheetah & Eisenberg’s Diana alone is worth watching the film. They embodied the long time foes so well that you want more of them. I want another movie with Black’s Cheetah alone.

The movie is a triumph in all respects. Timm, Romano & McDuffie gives us a movie that WILL be a classic and a new standard bearer for DC movies to come. You will NEVER guess at how things happen at the movie. Things you think are predictable are not. Not Savage’s true plan. Not the ways the League are taken out. Not even what is going on. You will be surprised over and over again. A strong plot, excellent pacing, exquisite animation & a voice cast that will make fans wet their pants in delight; I cannot recommend this movie enough.

So It is my honor and great privilege to give Justice League Doom a 7 out of 5 Rating. YOU MUST OWN THIS MOVIE AND SHOW IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW! And with that … I am gonna go watch it again. Lata!

NEWS EDITION #22 - JL DOOM TAKES MANHATTAN, AVENGER VERSUS X-MAN, IMAGE'S GENERATION LAST

Here we are again with news for the week.


JUSTICE LEAGUE DOOM TO PREMIERE IN NYC

by Frankie Rodriguez 

    The long awaited Justice League Doom animated movie is coming and will be seen in grand fashion. MTV Geek and Warner Home Video will be holding a grand premiere for the new animated movie on February 13th at the New York City's Paley Center for Media.

    The new animated film is an adaption of the JLA's Towel of Babel storyline that was originally written by current Daredevil scribe, Mark Waid. Rewritten for animated movie format by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie, the story revolves around the Justice League being picked off one-by-one by villains. Yet, these villains are able to take down the League because these plans were made and stolen from Batman. These plans were made by the Dark Knight himself in case any of the Justice League ever went rogue.  The cast of the League in the movie are  Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern Hal Jordon, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Cyborg (who has become a founding member of the League with the new 52 continuity) & of course, Batman.

      The voice cast is solid with Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordon, Carl Lumbly reprising his role as Martian Manhunter (from the Justice League/Unlimited cartoons), Susan Eienberg as Wonder Woman (from the JL/U cartoons), Michael Rosenbaum as The Flash (yet as Barry Allen this time), Bumper Robinson as Cyborg, Tim Daly as Superman (voice of Superman in Superman the Animated Series) and of course, Kevin Conroy as Batman. Villain voices include Phil Morris as Vandal Savage, Alexis Densiof (Wesley from Angel) as Mirror Master, Claudia Black (from Farscape/Stargate SG1 fame) as Cheetah and more.

   The production crew and members of the voice cast will also be at the red-carpet premiere in a special panel to answer questions as well as enjoy the movie on February 13th. Justice League Doom will hit stores on DVD and Blue-Ray on February 28th, 2012. And expect a special review on JL: Doom on the February 29 edition of Comic Book Clash.


AVENGERS & X-MEN TIE IN BATTLES WITH VERSUS

by Frankie Rodriguez 

    Remember when we ended the year with news of Marvel's huge Avengers vs X-Men maxiseries event? Well, we have follow up cause Marvel seems to be going to give face a real hard look at their battles with a tie-in miniseries called AvX: Versus!

    The miniseries was announced that it will be focusing on actually one on one battles between members of the X-Men and members of the Avengers, with 2 stories each issues and a rotating creative team, much like it's daddy book Avengers Vs X-Men. Marvel Senior Vice President Tom Brevoort commented about the new miniseries:

We’re only doing tie-ins in the core Avengers and X-Men titles. Avx: Versus is the least essential lead of AvX, yet it will probably be the best-selling. It is wall to wall combat, taking moments of conflicts in the main series and giving them the room to breathe they need and require. There’s not a lot of subtext. There’s not a lot of conversation. Literally, from the first page, someone is punching someone else. This is all about those quintessential questions of who would win in a fight.

    So we got confirmation that the tie ins will be in the main Avengers and X-Men books, expect for Versus. The first issue's creative teams and battles were revealed by Senior Editor Nick Lowe to be Jason Aaron and Adam Kubert in an Iron Man versus Magneto bout followed by Kathryn and Stuart Immonen working on Namor vs The Thing, two characters that have a long history with each other.

Editor-in-Chief of Marvel, Axel Alonso added about why Versus exists:

There’s a lot of story across the twelve issues of AvX… Game changers no one will be able to anticipate. There’s a lot of fights, but you always wonder, what if there was more room for this fight, or this fight?

 And Lowe did promise that fan favorite fights were definitely not going to be ignored, such as a long demanded and awaited battle between Rogue and Ms. Marvel; as well the oddly demanded fight of Pixie vs Squirrel Girl. And most bouts will be given different locales for each battle; much like different levels to fight in a fighting game. And since the casts of book books are so massive, this is merely another great arena for battles to happen and tell the stories.

Brevoort stated:

 In the course of 'AvX' #2, there are about forty characters fighting in the very first skirmish and we aren't going to be able to spend more than a page or two on it. They're going to be pretty exciting pages, but there's a lot more you can do with any of these conflicts. All of these things will work in lockstep. You won't see bouts in 'Versus' that aren't in some way reflected in the main book, but you will see them in much greater depth.
 

And unlike every event since Civil War, there will NOT be a Frontline tie-in book. Brevoort explains why:

This is the uncut heroine of this event. Doing a ground level, normal people view didn't seem as appealing of our characters grinding each other into the dirt.

 AvX: Versus # 1 written by Jason Aaron & Kathryn Immonen with art by Adam Kubert and Stuart Immonen will hit selves in April.


THE LAST NEW GENERATIONS OF HEROES SAY "HELL YEAH"

by Frankie Rodriguez

     Image Comics has become the premiere house for independent comics, including very different looks at superheroes. And come March, what may be the final generation of heroes have come. From Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer Joe Keatinge and cult favorite Elephantmen artist Andre Szymanowicz bring able this new and final generation of heroes in time for Image's 20th Anniversary.

   20 years after the emergence of super heroes collapsed Sports and Entertainment industries and changed the world economically, a new generation has come out, trying to survive this very different landscape. This new superhero epic, according to the creators, will give you a very different look at superheroes and their effects on the world. And writer Keatinge says the creation of Hell Yeah is attributed cause of Image Comics.

Keatinge stated:

HELL YEAH exists because Image Comics exists. I read superhero comics my whole life, but when Image Comics debuted, it made me realize all the rules and restrictions I saw in other superhero comics didn't have to exist. Anything could happen. You could kill lead characters in first issues. Obliterate long-standing villains in a page turn. They could be in different tone than what's normally presented by the diversity shown in anything from YOUNGBLOOD to CASUAL HEROES. They didn't have to be noble, they didn't have to maintain the same status quo. It was turned into a genre where the term 'impossible' didn't exist. Due to all this my imagination went into over drive and after twenty years of percolating in my brain, HELL YEAH was born.

Our story starts with Ben Day, a college student who finds out that his other selves throughout the Multiverse are being murdered and why these murders are interesting to even the world's most popular and powerful super-celebrities. Szymanowicz stated how much he is enjoying drawing this new world and story:

I've been having a ball drawing HELL YEAH and watching how these characters develop, and at the same time its just a great blend of mainstream and indie comics coming together. On one hand they are just like how I was at this age: aimless, going to rock shows and trying to find someone to date. Then there's the side of it where they are in this superhero world and can sorta kick somebody's ass (or get their own handed to them) from time to time.

And Image Publisher Eric Stephenson added:

Nothing excites me more than raw, undiluted creativity, and HELL YEAH delivers that in spades. Joe and Andre are dragging superheroes kicking, screaming and spitting blood into a brave new world where the impossible is possible, nothing is sacred and no one is safe. HELL YEAH, indeed.

HELL YEAH #1 written by Joe Keatinge with art by Andre Szymanowicz will hit selves and digital on March 7th, 2012.


 
VIDEO OF THE WEEK:

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 2 TRAILER .. .  CAUSE WE KNOW IT'S YOUR ADDICTION!!


A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
  Welcome Ladies and Gents, to the end of one Era and the Beginning of a new  Era. Comic Book Clash is evolving. We are going through changes. Added some new staff, Added more content. And there will be more. Comic Book Clash is making a name for itself  and we are building our own niche in comic book dom. You are gonna see more new names, such like Jake Estrada (Under the Net) and Darryll (Batwoman).
    You will be seeing those names for a while. We have a whole lot planned this year and certainly more than just news and reviews. You will be seeing all sorts of different content, such as the surveys and countdowns. We are even doing something special for Spider-man's 50th Birthday. But, we want to hear from you, our fans, our readers as to what you would like to see.
   We are gonna be hitting the independent scene hard this year alongside looking at the big 2. This is a very big year and you will see A LOT of names and faces get reviewed, interviewed and more. But we need you to spread the word. Say what you like. Say what you don't like. Comic Book Clash is always looking for more staff; send us a sample of your writing and what you would like to do to francisco.k.rodriguez@gmail.com with the title CBC Staff Writing Sample. We will get back to you with an answer about a position with us within 48 hours. 
     There is a lot more that is to come, including our 1st Year Anniversary extravaganza but more on those later. Remember, support CBC. Support J1Studios. We are doing our best to give you all sorts of content in comics, music, anime, tv and more and we always love your support. Tweet it. Tell your friends. We'd love it.
  Well, till we are ready to unravel our plans for our 1 year Anniversary, that is all for now. Feel free to check out all the reviews this week and all the special content. We got an independent book and one book from each of the Big 2. Plus we got another countdown and survey. I hope you enjoy them all. And do forget to read the J1Studios comics (we can't review for obvious reasons) and listen to the music, including Shinigami's & Forafire's latest, SPIN DASH AUDIO. Till next time Clashers. 


SERAPH (aka Frankie Rodriguez)


PLACES TO GO, THINGS TO SEE

One of the few Tokusatsu Reviews I know. Great guy with a good set of reviews, a few countdowns and some specials. Tokusatsu is special effects in japanese but it is what the genre of live action stuff like Power Rangers and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight are based off of. Toku Time or Reviewtopia: Toku Time is where you can find him.

Johnny Saturn that was recently the subject of the first UNDER THE NET: Johnny Saturn


AND OF COURSE, THE NEWLY RELEASED SPIN DASH AUDIO:

The new Sonic Remix album by Shinigami and Forafire. Plus, hit the rest of J1 Studios for other comics, tv and more.  Downloads for Spin Dash Audio for FREE

#25 - STATIC SHOCK: STATIC TAKES MANHATTAN OR WAS IT QUEENS?

Hey Clashers! Hector here coming at you with my thoughts on the first three issues of Static Shock. Ok! So Virgil and his family have just moved from Dakota to New York and Virgil has an internship with STAR labs. First day on the job, an experimental flight suit is stolen and the pilot/thief loses control. Enter Static, who manages to bring the situation under control only to see the pilot sniped right in front of him. Afraid of what the pilot might have told Static, the Slate Gang is sent after him.  Going along with them is a being named Virule; an energy based creature of some sort. After multiple confrontations, Static manages to turn Virule into sludge.

 This was a good intro to the new series. It introduced both Static and Virgil into the mix of things as well as the Slate Gang. It definitely had some setups for future storylines; like what’s going on with the theft of all this technology? Who’s this Pale face guy and what’s his connection to the Joke,r if any? Being a fan of the Static Shock cartoon on Kids WB, I’m liking the direction this series is going in and having Hardware as his mentor was pretty cool; didn’t see that coming at all. One complaint though. What up with Virgil’s sister dealing with a Ben Reilly complex I mean really DC. It’s one thing putting Clark Kent on Peter Parker’s level with the crappy apartment and all but ripping off the Clone saga for a side story come on. Well that’s all for now folks. Until next time friends, keep clashing!

EXCLUSIVE!: BLOOD SYNDICATE RERUN by Ivan Velez Jr

Okay folks. There will not be any news this week. I have been away this past week due to my birthday. As such, I wanted to do something special for the blog; which has become a significant part of my life. Many people in my life know that I was a HUGE fan of Milestone comics when they were out. And my favorite was Blood Syndicate. Now instead of me ranting on and on about how much I love the book; I am gonna give you all an exclusive look at that book and Milestone at that time. Yet, it won't be me telling this tale. This . . . this will be under the pen of Blood Syndicate writer Ivan Velez Jr himself. And yes . ..  I did have several geek out moments when he email this to me.  So ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Ivan Velez Jr's Blood Syndicate Rerun.
_____

BLOOD SYNDICATE: RERUN

When Dwayne gave me a shot to write for the Milestone Bible, I was asked to focus on Paris Islandand the Blood Syndicate’s playing ground. Being raised in the South Bronx at the height of the gang system and a crumbling infra-structure (the 60s to the 70s was not funny on Vyse Avenue) gave me a little heads up on writing realistic disenfranchised teen gang members. I felt like I knew what I was writing about. The thing about the gangs of NY back then is that each neighborhood had their own flavors and colors. The Irish, the German, the South American, the Puerto Ricans, the Blacks, the Chinese, the South Asian, the Caribbean blacks… they all had their ‘brand’, and that’s what they fought about; turf and identity. When I saw the sketches and names of the Blood Syndicate (all Black and without personality), I knew I had some work to do. If Milestone was going to be about diversity, then I better get to work on diversifying the Blood Syndicate.

By the way, I didn’t know that I couldn’t and shouldn’t change things around. I just did, and the bosses didn’t seem to mind. Everything went by them, and I was enjoying a really big swell of inspiration and artistic freedom. When I see how things are done these days, I realize how unusual and frowned upon that is for a newcomer like me. I was very lucky.

So, I changed some of the characters around. The giant male Brick became the giant female Brickhouse, complete with steel rods out of her hair. Denys Cowan, the designer of the Milestone team, created the final look for her, but I contrived the future storyline to make her revert closer to my original sketches. Brick was a big force of nature that was too angry and confused to be really effective on her own. Fade and Flashback became dark Dominicans who each had an overwhelming secret which caused them to act out. Tech-9 became a cocky and charismatic Puerto Rican who was beloved and hated by the others (the mandate to kill him off was decided even before the bible was finished, since his power of undying pistol fire was reprehensible).  Third Rail’s first name was Livewire, but I think another character had been created in one of the Batman or Supes cartoons, so we changed it. Third Rail turned out to be Korean, and had father issues, and was secretly a small kid who used his power to be a big powerful kid. The whole team was going to become about secrets. I changed his look to be less 90s rocker and more like a kid who uses a lot of black electrical tape to see how far he can stretch it. Wise Son did not change much (at least his look). I had seen this guy around the block most of my life. It was going to be a pleasure to write him. There was a drippy, zombie type in the background who was going to be joining the group later on. I liked the monster idea, but his look was not fun, I thought. I was hoping we’d never really use him, so I avoided him until the end. Masquerade looked like a Bob Marley type complete with overgrown dreads, colorful hat and shades. I kept him Caribbean (Haitian rather than Jamaican) and made him transgender. What better way to deal with TG issues than with a shape-shifter born woman who wants to be a man. And what a great secret! Not even the audience had to know until mid-run. Holocaust was just perfect as he was. His anger was his selling point, and all we needed was to dig in and root out some of the cause.

Then I started adding. 

I liked the idea of a talking dog. In the Dakota-verse, anything was possible, and the bratty mutt from A BOY AND HIS DOG was one of my favorite characters. Dwayne seemed into him as well.  Dogg’s original name was going to be Mutt, and he was going to be a black German Sheppard type, but I wanted him to be more puppy-like so the words out of his mouth would be more jarring. The final look came for Dogg after Chris Cross (the guy who drew more BS than anyone) just decided on the generic brown dog look. It worked really well. 

Kwai came from a team that I was toying with before I met Dwayne and the others came after my first experience tabling at one of the NYC comic conventions. My friend, Howard Cruse, asked me to sit with him and show off my TALES books. I noticed that, while there were many people of color in the audience, the professionals were almost 100 percent white. Then I made the connections about the amount of characters in comics who were of color, and realized that there was a deep connection. People write about what they know. People must also hire the same way. Of course I was working for Hetrick-Martin, the gay youth agency, at the time, and I was so deep in that social worker souped-up-enlightenment frame of mind. For fun, I sketched my own team up and started playing with a 20s look, and a superhero history that included characters of color, and how they dealt with the same repression and racism their non-powered counterparts would feel.  The Color Purple was fresh on my mind. Man… I was so influenced by pop culture back then. Still am. The kung fu flicks of my childhood were being replaced by the Wuxia magic power of the Hong Kong studio. Tragically beautiful women would fly in a swirl of magical cloth and hair. Kwai was born of that. Denys created a rocker look to her that was all wrong for the final bible. I kept her closer to my original sketches, and added the pagoda shoulder wings. I was very proud of her design, and Chris was very faithful in reproducing her in the 8^th issue of BS, a book that presented an iconic image that I’ve seen many times on home-made tees and jackets; Kwai flying out into the world. I also had a Louisiana super woman named Diva, whom Dwayne wanted to use for Icon. I lent her out, figuring I would have a chance to use her again, and even connect Fade to this team from the past.  I also had a soft spoken flower-powered Cuban woman, and a southern Black dynamo with exploding hands… and I am grateful I did not use them in the book or they would be lost to me like my beloved Kwai and Diva.

Uh, ok, moving on. 

I thought we needed a Spanish speaker… someone with no English to reflect the immigrant experience, especially since I established that Paris Island was a haven for new immigrants from all over the world (which reflected what I knew about the Bronx). She would represent one of the Spanish gangs, and be very dangerous… and very Latina. Her powers would be water based. At first AquaMaria was going to look small and squat… much like an Ecuadorean or Peruvian immigrant. She even had a blow hole (my connection to water-based creatures). Denys took one look at my sketch for her and put a stop to that. He preferred making her more ethereal. The Abyss had just come out, and he loved that water plume that mimicked people’s faces. He thought she should look like that. So he designed her watery body, and was spot on. Chris, of course, made her bubblier… but she was beautiful enough to be worshipped… a living personification of Yemaya, which is what I considered her from then on. 

I created a villain for the book, someone to really work them. The team was so enamored of their ‘rep’ and secrets, so what better foil than a creature who can ‘read them to shreds’.Demon Fox came out of those great HK flicks which presented demons as beautiful temptress foxes… but her real form would be as hideous and puny as her/his soul. And why make her/him a woman…why not a dual-gendered creature? Thus, he/she was spoken about in dual terms.  I was very proud of my design for him/her… and Chris did a great job of making her/him majestic and scary.

Other characters I was proud of were Wise Son’s family, especially Cornelia, his little sister, and his not much younger son, Edmund. They were a great team, and had powers as well (sort of a combo of the purple crayon and the wardrobe). I would have loved to spin them off or do a storyline that featured them a bit more. I was planning a whole OZ storyline too. Sigh.  ORO came out of the Shadow Cabinet crossover we did around #10. It was a great chance to create another Latino character (Cuban to fit his pride), and someone I could imagine would be hot enough to cause confusion between Fade and Flashback. He had my second best costume design ever. Bad Betty was a sort of Astro Boy as a lesbian construct.She was designed after Sharon Cho, the coolest comic book agent ever. Iotacame from the same storyline, and she was my version of an adventuring Atom slash Catwoman ala Penelope Pitstop. I was very proud of her, because every little aspect of her just seemed to work. Chris did a great design for her. Kuka was one of my finest creations. She was a transgendered Latinain a wheelchair, and she was fabulous. She, of course, had her own ‘house’, a group of affiliated gays, lesbians and tgs who formed a strong family. And she created fabulous costumes for the local heroes. The one thing I really have to thank Milestone is for the chance to introduce not only Latins and Latinas of different colors and hues, but issues and concepts pertaining to difference of sexuality and orientation as well. They were groundbreaking that way, and got no press for it.  

So let’s see… who’s left?

Ah… besides some characters for S.Y.S.T.E.M. and creating the matriarchal structure for their org, and designing some of the other later members who never got to shine(TEMPLO and MISTRESS MERCY), I guess we should talk about Boogieman. He was that sewer crawling creepy guy that was kept in the background. Well… it was time to add him since he was going to debut in the 3^rd issue. There was a mandate from DC that we needed a white character. Of course that was going to happen, but it was surprising to hear it said out loud. So, we started thinking. I came up with some sketches and a werewolf type guy…make him a rat man. He was going to be the ‘stereotype’ of a hip hop character. He would carry a boom box with him as he travelled the sewers, and that how we knew he was coming, because we’d hear his music. I wanted to make him Marky Mark… and Jewish… all the more to deal with his issues and the whole ‘vermin’ thing from the Holocaust. His issues would be as messed up as everyone else. He’d be a self hating white Jewish boy who would hide his identity to be down with everyone. No one would know but his little buddies, the sewer rats who were enhanced by the Big Bang event (thank you, Secret of Nimh). I was dreading writing this character… but after I sketched him out, I realized that it would be a lot of fun.  I gave him the backwards cap, gold chains and biker shorts (thank you, Vanilla Ice). Denys looked at the sketch and made him beefier and scarier and Boogieman was born. 

Thus, the BS was born.We had a hard time finding the right artist. Trevor Von Eden was the first guy, and he did a great job, but he pulled out after it. I don’t know quite why. I hoped that it wasn’t because there was an openly gay writer on the book, or that there would be gay characters on it as well. It probably had to do with the working schedule and the relationship between him and the partners. James Fry was nice, and interesting. Flashback had real booty… but he wasn’t picked as the leader. Chris Cross came on at the 3^rd book, and did a pretty good job. I voted hard for him, since his characters looked closer to my vision, and they emoted so well... and they were so beautiful. His Fade was more Chris Williams than Ice Tea, and that was fine with me. He was on the book by the time I got full writing credit.Ah, writing credit. Me and the boss were figuring out the storyline and timeline. Marvel style was more about plot and adding dialogue after the art. I liked DC style, which was full script and embellishment after the art. Dwayne was teaching me well, and had me do the dialogue on the second book. By the third I was doing more of everything, and was solo by number 5. 

It was some of the best times in my life.  Even now, with all the sour relationships behind me, I understand how lucky I was to be in the industry at that time, and how very miraculous it was for a nobody like me to work in the company of Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan on such important work. 

More stories about my life at Milestone later on… like the infamous Archie Syndicate story, and the in-house newspaper that blew up race relations in DC Comics all over the place.

___


And that was Ivan Velez Jr. I can't thank him, ChrisCross and other members of Milestone for all their work for them making me believe I can write comics and that diversity isn't just some mandate. More on what Ivan is doing now, check his Facebook page out. Thank you again.

HALL OF FAME SPECIAL # 1 - ICON (#1-3): Dwayne McDuffie

Welcome to Comic Book Clash where comic books take each other on to find story & character supremacy. The industry has been through many changes, chief among them is the deaths of fictional character Johnny Storm and actual former creator Dwayne McDuffie. So this Clash will just be a little different. There will still be a class but I am going to examine characters in different ways. Partially as a tribute, partially as a review.

So with that said, I am going to dive into the former Milestone Imprint. Ladies and Gentlemen, we will take a look at the first 3 issues of the now classic Icon.

TALE OF THE TAPE:

            To be personal for a second, I have a lot of influences for writing. Particularly when it comes to writing for the comic book industry, Dwayne McDuffie made it among my top 5 influences. Mr. McDuffie’s (I am not going to call him by just his last name) special distinction with me is that he made me believe that you can be a man of color and making it in this business; have a career and love every minute of it.  So, today is going to be a special Clash to me. Everyone has said how much Mr. McDuffie has influenced them and all the work he has done. What I am going to do is give a brief history and review the comic.

            Dwayne McDuffie had done a lot of work for DC, Marvel and other companies over the years. When he started Milestone back in the 90s, I was immediately enthralled. I had only started my comic book collecting 2 years earlier (Next week marks my 20^th anniversary of me collecting comics).  I looked at the books that were coming out first from the Milestone line and I felt I “NEEDED” to grab them all. And I did get the first issues of the original 4 books that started the line: Blood Syndicate, Static, Hardware and Icon.

    And I was hooked. I started buying those issues here and there cause I didn’t have a subscription yet. I was amazed by the Milestone universe and greatly appreciated the diversity. Not just in color but in religion and sexual orientation. This was NOT a typical Marvel or DCU that had people of different colors but barely touched anything else. This was new territory and I loved every last panel of it. Still do actually.

            Unfortunately, Milestone was not able to last too long, as they close their doors 5 years later. Yet, I still followed Mr. McDuffie’s career. Fast forward to sometime in 2003 or 2004, where I watched tv one day and out of no where, I see Static in animated form. And while the fact that the cartoon was called Static Shock made me cringe, I loved seeing Static’s adventures being animated. And then I saw the episodes where he teamed up with the Justice League and I nearly exploded and died of  joy. Seeing Mr. McDuffie’s name attached made me jump up and down . . . literally.

            I watched Justice League and Justice League Unlimited with delight. When I found out that Storm and Black Panther were joining the now defunct Fantastic Four, I was elated. When I found out Mr. McDuffie was writing it . . . I nearly peed my pants in excitement. To this day, I still say one of the best moments in FF history is when Ben is holding Ororo (Storm) by her hair and she pouts as she proves that her hair is Not a weave; with Ben regretting ever mentioning that was what Michael Collins (aka Deathlok, who was written by Mr. McDuffie) had told him. He took over the Justice League of America after Brad Meltzer left the book.  It was wonderful. It was glorious. When the Milestone characters were integrated into the DCU, I nearly went into the hospital in a blissful coma of awesome. There was the Shadow Cabinet, with Hardware & Icon, fighting the Justice League of America. I loved every since second of reading that story. I loved every second of Mr. McDuffie’s run on the Justice League of America.

            Time passed and heard he did the animated movie adaptation of All Star Superman. I was psyched. I had not had watched it when Mr. McDuffie past away. Since then, I have been looking for every single last milestone book in existence that I do not own among other things that I do not have that he worked on. And thus, I read what I could of his history, the reports of what was said in his honor and decided that I wanted to honor him. And this will be part of it. Yet, before I get to the review, please note that while I respect Mr. McDuffie deeply, I will still be judging his work just like any other still keeping in mind the time that it came out. Nonetheless, this is still a review, as well as a tribute. And now, Icon.

CLASH FACTS:

           

            Our story opens with a space ship having problems out in space. It is falling apart as we see someone who looks like the blue cousin to Kermit the Frog run about till he gets into an escape pod. By the way, the date at the beginning of the book is 1839. The pod goes with the Blue Kermie inside and crashes into a plantation here on Earth. As an African American woman approaches it, Blue Kermie inside transforms into a baby. The woman scoops up the baby and then we fast forward to 1993.

            In 1993 in the city of Dakota (not one of the states), we see a man holding shakles who talks to his partner. His partner states that if he is trying to pick up a woman with those, he might want to wait til the second date. The man holding the shackles, Augustus Freeman III, tells his partner that he found the joke in bad taste. One thing that makes August stands out is that he has excellent verbiage; he sounds very educated and is very educated as we find out that he is a lawyer. Augustus tells his partner that he is going over meeting a young girl who sees the world very differently than he does. He says that the young girl reminded him of Estelle, which we found out to be his deceased wife. Augustus says that they are lawyers and that they should do more while his partner points out as lawyers they already help people.

            We go to Paris Island aka the projects where we meet out other main character of this lovely book, Raquel. Raquel is writing her diary as narration as we go with her as she gets picked up by three guys. One of them, Noble, suggests that since the police are busy with a riot known as the Big Bang; they would go to the rich part of town and help themselves to a few things. Raquel protests but Noble reminds her that they are rich and that they can find her a typewriter for her to use. WOW! Dated Reference! Ah . . . gotta love 90’s comics.  Raquel relents because she wants to be like her idol, Toni Morrison and bets that she has a typewriter. And Noble is her boyfriend. Our heroine ladies and gentlemen.

            So Raquel, Noble and the other two guys go into a large mansion in the rich part of town known as Prospect Hills. They enter and Raquel is amazed by the library she stumbles upon. She goes on about all the knowledge in the room when she sees a computer.  Between the library and the computer, she goes on how she wanted them more than anything but she is stopped by the voice of Augustus. Augustus runs into Noble and his boys stealing a big screen tv. Noble pulls out a gun and tells Augustus not to worry about this; they just want to take some stuff from his boss and that no white man’s stuff is worth dying over. Geez Noble! You are such a brain trust. *facepalms*

            Augustus corrects him stating that the house and the stuff were all his and that he intends to not allow it. Noble calls him a “Bougie-ass-em-eff!” As Augustus states that he will not tolerate that language and . . .BANG!

            Noble shoots him. Raquel narrates her horror of someone being shot . . . then someone getting up.

            Augustus standing up after getting shot point blank range from a guy FREAKS out everyone, causing Raquel and the other guys to run. August takes and breaks Noble’s gun and tells him not to move an inch and he’ll be back.  Augustus runs out then flies as Raquel is the only one to stop and look back to see. Augustus collects them all together. Then tells them that they will return what they stole and if they want something . ..  to work for it; that they’re behavior reflects badly on themselves and their people. One of the other guys say he was gonna shoot Augustus in his face when Augustus states: “I sincerely hope that whatever you’re about to pull out of your coat is made of chocolate because I promise you, I’m gonna make you eat it.” Which stops the guy from doing anything. Augustus adds that he wants them to tell nothing of what happened tonight and never do anything like this again . . . or they would see him again.

            We find out that later Raquel visits Augustus formally and come sup with the concept of Icon and Rocket. As Augustus and her talk, she goes on about him setting an example. Augustus again states that if someone wants something they should pull themselves up from their own bootstraps and work for it. Raquel reminds him that it is easy to pull himself up by his bootstraps when he can fly loudly in front of Augustus’s maid. She leaves and narrates that 2 days later, he shows up with costumes made the same way she had drawn them.

They met three weeks later as they take their first sojourn as Icon and Rocket. There is a hostage situation at city hall and Icon(Augustus) wants to go in and ask the police if they need help. Rocket (Raquel) says that they will turn their guns at him for being a flying black man; that she is supposed to be the naïve one. Icon says do not assume everything is racial. They land and ask if the police need help when all the police, including a special police unit called S.H.R.E.D. turn their guns towards the duo. Raquel states, “… I be this never happens to Superman.”

The second issue opens with a man walking into city hall 4 hours earlier with ease as he is welcomed by the receptionist; who is actually surprised to see Kevin (the man); she is so surprised cause she states that they though he was dead. Kevin says that it is not that simple, enters the mayor’s office and holds her hostage; radioing in help under the name Payback. Back with our heroes, Icon is trying to talk to police as they tell them to put up their hands while Rocket says she did do anything so she’s not complying. A member of S.H.R.E.D. goes over and tries to smack her . . . hitting her inertial field; it collects energy , shields her and helps her fly. And she uses it to reflect any force towards her . . .to hit the cop that tried to attack her. And then the cops fight Icon and Rocket, although, Icon is very much resistant to the idea of fighting them. As bullets ricochet off Icon, he goes to help the civilians. After a few minutes, S.H.R.E.D. surrounds them when Icon tells Rocket to leave. She does and Icon gives himself up. He is arrested only to view the hostages attacking and killing cops. Icon frees himself from the shackles and flies, saving members of S.H.R.E.D. Icon calls for Rocket to save the other members of the police and she appears, doing so. She later asks how Icon knew she was there and he answers cause he ordered her to leave. NICE. Payback tries to get Mayor Thomasina Jefferson to admit she gave the order to use the experimental gas at the Big Bang; a gas according to him that killed the majority of the people at the Big Bang that night. The mayor denies it and says that there is no proof of what happened that night. Payback exclaims that he is proof when Icon and Rocket walk in. Icon tells Payback that he does not need the gun anymore and that he’s in pain. Payback throws the gun away then transforms into a muscle bound green monster with talons.

Suddenly, Payback decides to attack our heroes after feeling antagonized by the mayor. As he slams the mayor’s decks on Icon, the new hero stands up, stating enough is enough; till Payback slices into Icon’s chest with his talons. Icon falls to his knees in pain and disbelief. Pissing her off, Rocket goes up against Payback. As the two trade blows, Icon gets to his feet. Payback decides to leave after Rocket his him hard. Payback promises to return for the mayor but retreats. Icon tells Rocket to follow Payback but not to fight him. And what does she do . . .follows him and goes to fight him again of course!

Icon readies himself to go after them when the mayor thanks him for saving her life. The rest of the terrorists that Payback hired run into the room with guns held. Icon handles the terrorists with ease. After which, Icon flies the mayor down and lands her safely with the police. He flies off as the on lookers and police applaud Icon. Rocket follows Payback into the sewer and fight. Payback gives up and tells her what happened the night of the Big Bang. He changes back and tells on how the mayor ordered the use of the experimental gas that ended up mutating him and killing so many people. Rocket suggests that she will pretend that she never found him when Icon hovers in. Icon states he heard the story and asks that Payback turn himself in but vows to find out what happened during the Big Bang.  Payback complies and the next day, Icon is given the key to the city. Icon makes the following speech:

As many of you have already witnessed, I am gifted with certain special abilities. I had possessed these gifts for many years but for the most part refrained from using them. No more. Today I set a challenge for myself. A challenge to be of Service to Humanity. I will do this by being a living example of what’s possible. I intend to hold myself to a very high standard. I ask no less of you. I challenge you to challenge yourselves. You are all gifted with special abilities. Strive to live up to your potential as I will strive to live up to mine. I can fly . . . so can you.

            After that speech, Icon flies to meet Rocket at the broken bridge where they had first dressed as Icon and Rocket. Rocket states that Icon should run for mayor while Icon states they have a lot of work to do and have taken the first step. He adds that she will have to get used to being in the the sidelines due to her condition. Rocket asks what condition. The final panel has Icon revealing that his sidekick is pregnant. I bet that never happens to Batman and Robin.

CLASH TACTICS:

            M.D Bright has one of the most recognizable art styles in comics. You can look at any comic in the last 20 years and you can pick out his style with ease. And it is a great style displayed here. People are as distinct as they should be without extra detail while not being too simple. From the hair to the clothes, you know who is who in this book. And no one is hyper muscular . . . except for Payback who is supposed to be hyper muscular. Bright’s backgrounds are also as distinct as his people which help build this new world that was introduced back in 1993. Honestly, Bright is the Icon penciler. Seeing someone else do Icon is fine  but Bright definitely left his stamp on Icon.

            Mike Gustovitch’s inks and the colorists ( Rachelle Menashe, James Sherman, Noelle Giddings & John Cebollero) bring out Bright’s art with a spectacular feast for the eyes and draw you into the Milestone Universe. Dakota felt like a real city and looked the part. A great job by this team.

            Which brings me to the man of the hour, Mr. Dwayne McDuffie. As much of his work and other work I have had the pleasure of reading in the last 2 decades, this first story is by far one of my favorites. This not only services as one of the introductions of Milestone’s “Superman” but also introduces an interesting part of the Milestone Universe. Where the upper class work with the lower class in order to build something new and interesting. Where people can see the world in all its myriad colors and work together to make something better. And ideally, that is what Icon is about. Not just the brother from another planet. Not the young idealistic yet street smart Rocket. Icon stood for smooth, ideals, abilities to move past where you are and believe in who you are; and from the beginning, Mr. McDuffie made that loud in clear through not only the words within the first story but within art itself. We got told of a story of a man who crashed on earth and was raised by a slave woman without ever been told directly. The pictures and 2 hints were put with in the story to explain that. Our intelligence is not insulted but indeed encouraged as Mr. McDuffie lets Bright give an explanation with art, not words.

            Mr. McDuffie fleshed out our main characters quickly and easily. Rocket was the street wise girl who was underprivileged and looking for more in her life. Icon was a man who had worked up to get to where he was and forgot what the other side felt like. Rocket looked upon what Icon had as gifts and riches; for many readers, they would agree with her. Icon saw what he had as just parts of who he was and what he had earned. It was great to see these two begin this journey and look at what would become of it. For someone who was well over 150 years old, Icon still learned something. He did not allow his status nor his ego be too big for him to learn something from Raquel. And that alone made Icon a lot different from Superman. Also, Raquel learned a lot from Icon. A new way of seeing things besides just how they are. It was Augustus who first inspired Raquel in the first place that allowed  her to come up with the concept and ideals behind Icon and Rocket; to be inspiration that anyone can do anything.

            Honestly, I could go all day on the aspects and inspiration that Icon provides just in the first 3 issues but I won’t. That is what you going out there getting the issues or the trades are for. Add in the mystery of the Big Bang, a possible political conspiracy, a look at police brutality and the start of one of the landmark characters in all of comics. And as for looking for flaws for the first story arc, I really don’t seem to find any. Anything that could be nitpicked honestly was addressed in its own way throughout the arc.

            Dwayne McDuffie gives an interesting statement on both the minority community and the Superman archetype. As one of the 4 books that constructed the Milestone, this one seemed to have a great balance of gritty realism while still being light and hopeful. Like its name, Icon shined as a beacon and is still some of Mr. McDuffie’s best writing.

With that, I gives this a rating of a World Heavyweight Contender. Mr. Dwayne McDuffie . . . thank you for all your work and inspiring all of us of any color or nationality or orientation to go for our dreams and believe in ourselves. For this, you are the FIRST inductee EVER into the COMIC BOOK CLASH HALL OF FAME and will always be remembered.

Thank You All Joining Me.

Next Week: TRIPLE THREAT MATCH BEGINS!!!