Laura Hudson says it better than I can

I haven't felt much like reading comics lately.  Part of the reason is my confusion over the DC reboot.  The other reason is expressed so well by Laura Hudson over at Comics Alliance.

*sigh*

And what about some wisdom from the mouth of babes?  There's a reason cartoons based on comics are so popular, and part of that reason is because TV producers have to appeal to a wider audience than comics.

Honestly, DC, I don't know what's going on over there.  You're making reading comics a chore, and I don't want to work to be entertained.  Escapism is why I read comics in the first place.  I've dropped all my books except Stormwatch, which I am hanging onto out of sheer loyalty to my favorite hero, Martian Manhunter.

Give me some good stories, some heroes to look up to, a couple of cool fight scenes, a little bit of humor, and that's all I want out of my comics.

Come here, old JLI trades...I need you...

J'onn J'onzz is wearing purple now...

When Frank, alias "FLD," ("Fun-Loving Doofus," "Furiously Livid Dog," or "Frank Lee Delano," he's left the door open and there's no turning back now) over at the Idol-Head of Diabolu, mentioned in a post that J'onn was wearing purple, I kind of thought it was just a lighting issue.  Turns out I was wrong.

He IS wearing purple.  As both a purple lover and a comics purist, my emotions are torn.  Do I go with the color I love so dearly, my favorite color, the color that comprises 80% of my wardrobe?!  Or do I go with a pulishing history that reaches back from sixty years, and a costume that, even though it's seen its share of re-designs, still comes back to its basic form published fify-five, nay, fifty-six years ago?

Oh the drama!

And how fares J'onn J'onzz?

When I heard they were first revising the JLA to include basically the "Magnificent Seven" I thought, "Ahhh.  Finally.  Some JLA stories that involve my favorite Martian."

Wait, what?  He's not on the team?  They put all Silver Age heroes on the team, but decided that the seventh slot should go to....Cyborg?  He wasn't even around in the Silver Age.  He has no history whatsoever with this team.  He's a Titan.

Ahhh, okay.  I guess they're saving J'onn for the new Justice League International title.

What?  He's not on that, either?!

Then where is he?

He's on some Wildstorm title, with characters I never knew existed.  My only (heavily-biased, bitter) guess is that the conversation went something like this:

Comic Editor #1: Okay, so we've got to integrate Wildstorm into the DCU somehow.  We need some C-list DC hero to bridge the gap.  Hey, Dan?  Who's a pathetic, loser character that no one cares about with copius amounts of untapped story potential that we keep throwing under the bus?

Dan: Martian Manhunter.

Comic Editor #1:  Thanks, buddy!  You're the greatest!

Then they all go out for coffee and burn down an orphanage on Christmas Eve.

Batman or Shakespeare?

Quick, who said the following:

Smoldering, I burn you—burning you, I flare, hot and bright and fierce and beautiful.

Or this?

Welcome destruction, blood, and massacre. I see, as in a map, the end of all.

Were those two lines from a Shakespeare play, or from a Batman comic?

You can put yourself to the test at Sporcle's "Shakespeare or Batman" quiz.  You might be surprised at the answers.  (I scored a measly 67%.)

After that, you can go on to quiz yourself in how many U.S. Presidents you can name in ten minutes.  I somewhat redeemed my self-esteem for the paltry showing in the Shakespeare/Batman quiz by naming 36 out of 44 presidents.  I'm not sure if knowing who James K. Polk is is a better thing than being able to name a Batman quote, but I take my comics quizzes seriously.

There are quite a few other comics-related quizzes at Sporcle, even quizzes relating only to DC Comics, if you want to take a look.

(Also sad: I didn't know what Captain America's real name was.  Have I mentioned I want to go in to every Marvel movie completely fresh?  Doesn't get fresher than that.)

Have fun!

Oh, and Frank, this one's for you:

Color me surprised!

Happy Belated Mother's Day?

Totally stealing this from mathematicsore ("m.c.") who posted this in a comment on The Idol-Head of Diabolu: (sorry!)

Oh, the good folks at Let's Be Friends Again.  You make my day.  Because J'onn has a juice box.

At first I thought it was Barry and I was like, "Did they just kill off his mother?" and then I realized it was Wally.

The Crocheted Manhunter

Okay, beat this for cuteness:

Oh yeah, and Batman.

A crocheted plush Martian Manhunter, made by an acquaintance of Mikeyb79 on DeviantArt.  So adorable!!!  I love his face.  You can find pictures of other crocheted Justice Leaguers on Mikeyb79's profle on DeviantArt.

Martian Manhunter redesign by Joel Ojeda

I found this somewhat randomly online.  Some think the Martian Manhunter's costume is begging to be redesigned.  And yet I never seem to find a redesign I fully like.  This is an interesting take, especially noteworthy becuase it jettisons the red chest straps in a pretty unique way.  I could actually get used to parts of this design.  It's hard to tell because it's rather dark, but it looks like his cape is blue on the outside, and lined with red, which I find rather interesting as well.  I could do without J'onn's tribal tattoos and claw-like fingernails, but on the whole, it's one of the few redesigns that I almost like.

What do you all think?

So Brightest Day is almost over...

...that went kinda fast, didn't it?

Here's the description of the final issue:

A long shadow is cast across the world in a a finale that will have everyone talking! Twelve heroes and villains were resurrected, but that doesn't mean it will remain that way as the new champion of Earth is chosen!

Hmm.  So who is this New Champion of Earth going to be?  The obvious choice seems Deadman.  It would make sense to kill him off and make him be...well, Deadman again.  But then I thought: that's just way too obvious.

I don't think it's going to be any of the villains, so I'm ruling them out.  Fans seem to have taken to Aquaman too much for him to be in any role other than King of the Seas, plus he's got that new Aqualad to contend with.  There's a lot of story material there to cover a solo series.

Jade kind of went missing--I lost track of her, so I don't think she's high-profile enough in the writers' eyes.  The Hawks are a couple, so I don't think they'll be split up.  That leaves ones of the Firestorms and Martian Manhunter.  Hmm.  It's quite possible that either Ronnie or Jason might be sacrificed to become Earth's protector.  Then I started thinking about that one issue where J'onn sees an alternate future and he's a Green Lantern.  Add to that the fact that Martian Manhunter is low-profile enough that changing his role in the DCU won't ruffle too many fan feathers and he hasn't had anything significant done with his character since the Morrison JLA days in the 90's.  He could easily be transitioned into a new role.

Sooooo....J'onn J'onzz, White Lantern?

What do you all think?

Young Justice: First Impressions

I finally got around to watching the episodes of Young Justice I had saved on my DVR.  Has anyone had a chance to watch this show?

While it's a shame Batman: The Brave and the Bold had to go away to make room for Young Justice, I find myself enjoying it nonetheless.  And that's even in spite of tweaks to character and continuity, too.  So, here's some random impressions:

Overall: It's a quality show, and the voice acting is quite good.  I'm liking the realistic style of the charcters, too.  Seeing some normally-proportioned bodies makes me realize how tiring the giant shoulder/tiny legs Bruce Timm JLU character designs were getting.

Care was taken to make sure each of the characters is unique, which is always refreshing.  Superboy is the brooding, tempermental outsider.  Robin is a plucky technie nerd.  Aqualad is very different from his Brightest Day incarnation: he's regal, exotic, and calm under pressure.  I guess he's like a future version of the Brightest Day Aqualad?  Kid Flash (Wally West) steals the show and is pretty much like non-kid Flash Wally West from the JLU days: impulsive, funny, and a tad arrogant.  Why Wally is Kid Flash and Bart isn't I don't know...becuase Barry is Wally's uncle?

I've got mixed feelings about Miss Martian.  She's cute and sweet but kind of clueless and talks to herself in the third person.  Judging by the number of Miss Martian-hating anti-tribute videos on YouTube ranting that J'onn should disown her, a lot of people don't like her, which makes me want to root for her a little more even though I'm not a big fan of the character in the comics.  I like how she's a more innocent female superheroine, albeit a bit ditzy, which I guess rubs some people the wrong way.  God forbid a female character isn't bad ass, I guess.  Apparently her dress is a point of contention, but I don't think these anti-fans realize it's pretty similar to a Japanese school uniform you would see on an anime series.

It's too bad that the writers had to take liberties with Miss Martian's continuity.  She's J'onn's niece and apparently she has ten brothers and sisters.  So that means she's a.) a Green Martian and b.) Mars isn't dead.  Which is going to be confusing to fans of the show who decide to pick up a few comics about her.  The other huge change?  She has telekinesis and she can move things with her mind.  So between reading minds and moving objects she's ridiculously powerful.  Oh, they kept the "fire" weakness but they changed it to "extreme heat."  And she can't ghost through solid objects like J'onn can.

What I do really like about Miss Martian is (I can't believe I'm saying this) is her clothing.  Like her ship, it's intuitive, so it changes shape with her.  Meaning that she doesn't have to manifest part of her body into a cape, which makes a lot of sense to me.  Wouldn't rendering part of your anatomy into cloth take a lot of concentration?  It was always something that bothered me a little.  Why I hate to admit it: the idea came from the Ostrander Martian Manhunter series, which I dislike greatly.  Except that Miss Martian's clothing isn't alive, nor is it called "Zo'ok" (or was it "Z'ook?") so I'm allowing myself to like that idea.

Oh, and Martian bonus points: I like the way they pronounce "J'onn" on the show.  It's not "Jean" like he's from Paris, nor is it "Juh-onn."  I can't really describe it.

Lastly: Artemis.  I can't stand this girl.  From her poofy early 90's pony tail to her impractical belly-exposing outfit with ugly mask with hair window* that makes her forehead look huge and a chest symbol that she stole from Jade, to her snotty I'm-better-than-you attitude.  Is this character in the comics?  Is she always this mean?  I'm a little rusty when it comes to the Arrow family.

A lot of the show is "teenagery" with who's got a crush on whom and all that, a lot of which is played for laughs.  Kid Flash is head-over-heels for Miss Martian, who's completely oblivious to Wally and who only has eyes for Superboy.  And Artemis likes Superboy, too.  Everybody likes Superboy, except Superman.  Yes, really.  He's quite mean to him.

So far the funniest bits have been Kid Flash freaking out over seeing Miss Martian grow extra arms to swat away robotic monkeys, and when Miss Martian telepathically links everyone up and Kid Flash forgets that everyone can hear him think.  Which is probably something I would do.  Thank God other drivers at least can't hear me when someone cuts me off, is all I have to say about that.

All in all, a good show.  I'm sad Brave and the Bold had to go away, but I'm enjoying Young Justice for now.

*Only Booster Gold is cool enough for a hair window.  Oh, and Animal Man.

Oh, Mr. J'onzz....

John Carter called.

He wants his red cabochon Mars-symbol-thingy back.

Seriously, though, isn't that cover art up there for Warlord of Mars #7 by Joe Jusko pretty awesome?

Look at the prety pictures

I'm too tired and fighting off a cold to come up with the blog post I was intending to write.

So in the meantime, enjoy the view of Amy Reeder Hadley's art from Madame Xanadu #21 and some dialogue by Matt Wagner.  Madame Xanadu is having some apartment problems, it would seem, and J'onn still has that trademark dry sense of humor.  Good stuff!

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 4

Becuase in my universe, a week is ten days, and we're somehow on Day 4.  And it's countdown item #3.  Anywho...

3.  Silver Age J'onn J'onzz had a purpose.

This is something that seems to have fallen by the wayside in recent years.  (Or perhaps just in the wake of the Crisis.)  In some 90's stories you'll hear J'onn refer to himself as a "manhunter," which is some sort of Martian peacekeeper kind of role.  But back in the day, "manhunter" was just slang for a cop, and J'onn J'onzz chose to become Slueth from Outer Space.

The gimmick of J'onn's character was that he was a detective who used his powers to solve the crimes that regular humans couldn't.  He's now gotten away from his detective work altogether and many a DC writer doesn't know what to do with him besides make him confront the ghosts of Martian past when flying solo, or acting as the fall guy for Superman in ensemble stories.

Capture the criminal...or go back home?

If you bring J'onn J'onzz back to his detective roots, he'll have some purpose again.  (Another way to give his character some meaning: shepherding a group of immature heroes.  Hey, it worked once before.)  Either way, J'onn needs to DO something to participate in society.  Right now, J'onn isn't serving man or any higher purpose other than the vaguest of superhero motivations.  The more he goes off and is forced to confront rebuilding Mars, the less relevant his is to Earth and the less identifiable he becomes.

Give him a personal mission that forces him to make a few tough decisions, a mission that we can relate to, and it will only improve the quality of his character.

Making the difficult choice: what a hero is supposed to do.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 3

2.  The John Jones noir dynamic.

I recently had the pleasure of reading all three of the available trades of Matt Wagner and Amy Reeder Hadley's Madame Xanadu.  What a treat.  More on that series later, but for now, let's just say I was overwhelmingly surprised to see a Silver Age John Johns running around solving mysteries.

Now, I'll take a John Jones cameo.  He showed up for a panel or two in DC Universe Legacies and that made me happy.  Well, to see the character actually understood and used as he should be by Matt Wager was downright mind-blowing.  "Mr. Jones" shows up during the 1950's to help Madame Xanadu to solve a case they are both working on.  He came off so mysterious and full of intrigue that Madame Xanadu at first mistook him for the Phantom Stranger.  Though never revealed his true identity, several hints were laid down in just the right spots.  The end effect was that of an implacable character closely guarding his own secrets and though rent down to his core by his vulnerabilities, still saw to the needs of others over his own safety.

And if it were Popeye helping her?  "I yam as I yam!"  Geez, that was bad.  Even for me.

What I just described up there could easily be a noir protagonist.  While the mystery is generated here becuase Jones is seen from an outside perspective, in the right hands, the same dynamic could be translated to a story seen from J'onn's point-of-view.  It's the setting, really, that makes this all work.

All that needs to be done to achieve this dynamic is bring J'onn back to the 50's and surround him with humans.  Having a secret = instant tension.  Tension = suspense = a good story.  While death is treated as a joke in the comics world, having one's secret identity revealed is a real game changer.  And when a character has to act despite the risk of losing something, well, that makes the story even better.  It's just one more vulnerability for a character defined by his weaknesses.  If everyone around you could potentially blow your cover and cause you to lose your job or your good standing in society, everyday life would be like venturing out into a mine field.  It makes J'onn's current "plight" in Brightest Day about as exciting as reading about someone walking through the park.

See?  That tension showed actually up in the Silver Age, too.

Me, I'll take a mine field over the park any day when it comes to fiction.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 2

1.  Why John Jones is here.

We all know how J'onn J'onzz came to be: he was accidentally brought to Earth by a teleportation machine created by Dr. Erdel, and after Erdel's subsequent death, was unable to return home.  A few details were tweaked a bit post-Crisis, but the main idea is the same.

So, stranded on Earth, what options did J'onn J'onzz have?  What was he to do with himself?  Well, he took in a few of the local Earth sights and noticed that our planet is a little bit behind his:

It was then that J'onn J'onzz decided to dedicate himself to his main task.  This is his "bat through the window"* moment:

And he decided to wear a hat.  There was much rejoicing.

So now we know J'onn's reason for being: J'onn chose to fight crime on Earth in the hopes that one day it will be obsolete.  Pretty much like Batman, he used an active decision to turn a setback into a raison d'être, and for both characters the choice easily could've been to indulge in more self-serving activities.

To look at his origin from behind the curtain, the character of John Jones, the Manhunter from Mars was created as a detective who used his Martian powers to solve crime.  He was a detective who happens to be an alien, not the other way around.

*Just in case anyone doesn't know to what I'm referring: a bat flew through Bruce Wayne's window, thus inspiring him to use a bat for his symbol.

Silver Age John Jones Week, Day 1

I'm on a John Jones kick again.  So I figured, why don't I make an event out of it?  Hopefully the week will culminate with something special, when it arrives in the mail.  (Squee!)

So, what do most of us know about Silver Age Martian Manhunter?  Well, it's not all ocean gold-mining and ice cream conjuring.  Yes, there definitely is a hefty dose of goofiness, but like to think of J'onn's original source material in the same way as I think of Richard Donner's original cut of Superman II before Richard Lester came along and added in the cheese: somewhere in there is a serious story waiting to come out.

I think it's only fair to take things at face value (with maybe a few side trips into out-of-context jokes), and I feel that J'onn's early days haven't seen their serious side represented enough on the internet.  (I'm guessing this is probably the case for most Silver Age characters.)  Hopefully I can straighten out some misconceptions, find a clearer focus of who the Silver Age J'onn J'onzz was and why he was created, and dig out some stories that a "modern" audience might appreciate.  If taken seriously, Silver Age John Jones has the potential to be a rich and meaningful character.  It's just that very few writers see him this way.

Maybe I'll need to expand this to two weeks.

For the sake of brevity, here's one panel to get things started.  If you thought my post from the other day about John Jones being a jerk was an anomaly, it's not.  Silver Age J'onn really liked to scare the crap out of people:

Tough love for criminals or just getting his kicks scaring the living daylights out of people?  You be the judge.

When John Jones was younger...

Back in his Silver Age heyday, the stoic, gentle Martian of integrity we know and love today was a bit more snarky.  What's our Martian hero to do when he's wrongly imprisoned in jail?  Meditate and wait out the situation?  Reason with the guards?  Pfft.  Why do that when you can cause all sorts of trouble and make outrageous demands of your jailors?

I'm going to go steal a toilet made out of gold while I'm at it, too.  Be back in a jiffy!

And what about his servitude to the public?  His stoic, noble goal of protecting his adopted homeworld, of making sure its citizens can live a life free of worry?

When you got it, flaunt it, Jonesey.

Well, there goes that.  Don't worry, that lady will be fine when she gets wiped from history in the next Crisis.

A statue of "Ajax"

I found this via yesterday's Cubee art.  A portrait of an "Ajax" statue by JokerZombie:

I don't care how expensive this is, I don't care if it's only available in Brazil, I'm finding this.

At first glance I thought it was digitally painted, but no, that is actually a photograph of a statue, albeit with some really sweet lighting.  Which raises several questions: which statue is this and where can I buy it?  (I don't recognize it) and why the heck is he called Ajax?  Before I fired up the comic nerd smarty-pants powers and commented on the guy's picture with something like, "That's the Martian Manhunter, duh!" the artist mentioned he was from Brazil and "first met" J'onn J'onzz as "Ajax."  Then I remembered the list on the Idol-Head of Diabolu of the Martian Manhunter's (suprisingly many) international names.  Austin Powers has no right to claim ownership as the original International Man of Mystery, let me tell you.

I knew that Ajax was a Greek god, but I'm wondering how exactly the Manhunter from Mars became known by that name?  If you're going to pick a Greek god, why not something more apropros like Atlas? I'm intrigued.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Today (the 23rd,) was actually Festivus, so I hope you all aired your grievances and competed in Feats of Strength.

Now that you've pinned your relatives and won glory by climbing the Festivus Pole, it's time to usher in Christmastime.  Justice League Style.

Here's a nice little bit of Christmas cheer courtesy of the Justice League and featuring CMMH! favorite, the Martian Manhunter.  Sit back and grab a cup of hot chocolate and relax.

Anyone else slightly amused that no one cares that Batman spends Christmas alone?

Can Mars just go away now?

Okay, my comics finally came and I got a chance to read Brightest Day #12.  Of all the stories, I'm liking the one revolving around the Martian Manhunter one the least.

Since the Martian Manhunter is one of my favorite characters, I had really high hopes for his story arc.  I thought Brightest Day would be an opportunity to take the character back to his roots, or maybe back to his roots with a little twist of noir.

Instead, the J'onn's antagonist is basically a female version of Malefic.  *sigh*  (For the record, I really don't like Malefic, J'onn's evil twin brother, for those of you who don't know who he is.)  Coupled with that is an origin retcon, which always bug me to no end.

But all of that out of the way, here's what I think really needs to happen to bring the charcater of the Martian Manhunter to new heights:

Get rid of Mars.

Get rid of it!  I don't mean obliterate the planet Death Star-style, but just let it stay in the background, not the forefront.  Here's why:

1.  Mars is so poorly defined.  Is it a war-like culture reminiscent of Edgar Rice Burroughs?  Is it a planet/nation of philosophers and poets?  Honestly, I can't keep track of what Martian culture was like.

2.  And while we're at it, can we cut out the whole "the entire planet has the same culture/government/language bit?  As much as I love Star Wars, the fact that Tatooine is entirely desert makes no sense.  (Okay, "Galaxy far, far away," so I guess it has different rules.)  Yes, I know there were White Martians, which to me, are a mess to begin with anyway.  There were Pole Dwellers, but they got retconned out, I tink.  But take a look at these speech bubbles from Brightest Day #12:

The Martian Symbols of Love and Hate?  Slip "Earth" into that sentence and it makes no sense.  Can you think of the Earth symbol for danger?  The Earth symbol for love?  If someone dropped you off a country with a completely different language and culture, would you even know what a stop sign looked like?!  ARGH!  A whole planet can't have the same culture!

I think somewhere in the DC universe it was explained that Earth has a variety cultures.  To me, that's just an excuse to have a lack of imagination.  That's why whenever I see a female alien creature with hardly any similarity to humans yet is still drawn with bosoms to identify her as female, I start wanting to throw things across the room.  It makes no sense and it's just lazy.  Heck, even abs shouldn't be the same.  Which brings me to point 3.

3.  The Green Lantern universe handles aliens and alien cultures much better than any incarnation of Mars ever could.  So you know what?  Let's just forget everything about Martian culture, leave it as some sort of vague understanding that it was slightly different than Earth culture, and let J'onn J'onzz move on to superheroing and detectiving, and leave the aliens to the mythos that does it well.  Stop trying to define Mars, becuase the whole Mars history has gotten so convoluted, that there's just no way you can define it with any modicum of logic short of another history-changing Crisis.

4.  Every story centered around Mars, by default, makes the story about J'onn J'onzz being an alien, not about what he does as a superhero.  There is no forward motion in a story that basically boils down into a character trying to figure out his destiny when he already chose it decades ago.  In any recent story that I can think of, J'onn J'onzz doesn't DO anything other than try figure out who J'onn J'onzz is.  He's become the Odo of the DC Universe, for those who have seen Deep Space Nine: he is only defined by his race and how different/similar he is to them.  Sure, Odo was the security guy who bantered with Quark, but he was the "good Dominion guy," too.  There's more to J'onn than just being the de facto "good" alien of the JLA.

5.  Quick: name three things Superman stands for.  Okay, try that with J'onn J'onzz.  It's nowhere near as easy, is it.  Why?  Because any major Post-Crisis story involving J'onn J'onzz--except American Secrets and DC: The New Frontier--boils down to "Should I like Mars more or Earth more?"  The more Mars is in the foreground, the less J'onn J'onzz's core values are.  And I don't mean core values as in "Earth is more important to me than Mars," which is a passive value.  I mean it in the sense of what a hero considers is worth fighting for and acting upon, like "Truth, Justice, and the American Way."

6.  Get rid of Mars, get rid of the Superman parallels.  The less J'onn is torn between two worlds, the less he is like Superman, and the more he can do other things to make him different.  You know, like be a detective.  Kind of how he started out.

Okay, rant is finished.  Anyone got any counter-arguments?  Or some Maalox?

75 Favorite Moments in DC History: Number 50

50.  J'onn J'onzz goes back to John Jones (JLA #104, 2004, collected in JLA: Pain of the Gods.)

I'm a big fan of small moments in comics.  Some belittle those, and the reviews on Amazon for the trade reflects that.  (I think someone called this trade the "Pain of the Reader.")  Okay, some of the stories seem a little forced, and even the Martian Manhunter one isn't stellar all around, but I see it as a nice break from fighting interstellar armies and sorceresses and Darkseid all that.  It's all about variety for me.

Anyway, for whatever reason, the JLA are in the mood for getting some heavy duty feelings off their chests.  While John Stewart is talking about that whole Xanshi debacle, J'onn decides he needs to be "elsewhere."

And that elsewhere is as a temp worker at a detective agency in his guise of "John Jones" (complete with hat.  Who-hoo!), where he manages to creep out his bosses despite being a stellar employee.  So one of his superiors decides to send "Loony Linda" to follow him around to make sure "there are no bodies in his refrigerator--and if there are..."

Linda and J'onn find themselves having dinner and during their conversation, J'onn just picks up and leaves.  The next night, J'onn is getting all Batman on an abusive husband, and Linda accidentally sees that John Jones isn't human.

Linda shows up on John Jones's door shortly thereafter and tells him she saw him.

John Stewart then shows up and congratulates Linda on figuring out what's really driving J'onn to act the way he is, and that Mr. Stewart had had it backwards the whole time.  J'onn wasn't feeling uncomfortable fitting in.

I know some long-time readers thought J'onn had regressed socially, but I read this early on in my comics reading career, so I came in with a fresh mind.  It was nice to see J'onn in his secret identity doing some detective work and helping regular folks down on the street.  I really miss that.  Who says only Batman has a monopoly on the "little" crimes?

Besides, artist Ron Garney and colorist David Baron did a fine job of evoking the John Johns aesthetic from the 1950's, with a few touches of Darwyn Cooke's work in DC: The New Frontier, and that's a combination I'd definitely like to see more of.  I mean, look at J'onn's little New Frontier-inspired apartment, complete with Oreos and chair right in front of the TV:

Apparently they don't have mothers on Mars that tell you not to sit too close to the set.