Author: Vinnie Bartilucci

Gerry Anderson’s Gemini Force 1 Heads To Kickstarter

GF1-logo-trans

Based on concepts and story written by Gerry Anderson, a new adventure series from the creator of Thunderbirds and Space: 1999 will be funded by his fans via a Kickstarter campaign starting September 5th.

Gemini Force One (or GF1) is, as the Anderson Estate describes it, “the story of a secret organization involved in rescues and averting disasters and terrorist events”. Gerry began work on it back in 2008, but was unable to complete development due to his advancing Alzheimer’s Disease, which led to his passing at the end of last year.

The project has been planned as a series of adventure novels, the first of which will be completed by best-selling author MG Harris, writer of The Joshua Files, under the guidance of Gerry’s son Jamie, who is spearheading the project.  Harris has experience with popular science fiction series; she’s just recently completed a new Blake’s 7 adventure for Big Finish Productions.  Television, film and other media development will follow, based on the success of the book series.  The GF1 vehicles, a cornerstone of any Anderson series, will be designed by Andrew Probert
(Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica) and Dominic Lavery (New Captain Scarlet, James Bond, Event Horizon);

GF1 will be fan-funded with a Kickstarter campaign, with the first book scheduled to be completed and released to backers in April of next year, leading up to a full launch in August, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of his most famous series, Thunderbirds..  The campaign will provide the project with the funds for an initial print run, an audio-book edition, and a major media campaign.

The Anderson estate sees the project as a way to reach not only Gerry’s current fans, but a new generation of fans. Gerry lost the rights to many of his series in the 60s and 70s, and as such, never benefited properly as they grew into global cult favorites. With the renewed popularity of young-adult fiction, a new adventure series from such a franchise name seems like a good bet for success all around.

Details of the campaign, including backer awards, are available at www.gerryanderson.co.uk/GF1

REVIEW: Uncle Grandpa – “Good Morning!”

Cartoon Network’s Uncle Grandpa, seen here with Pizza Steve, Gus, and Giant Realistic Flying Tiger.

Artist Willy Elder called it “chicken fat” – the extra background gags he’d cram into his art for Mad, Little Annie Fanny, and elsewhere.  He described it as “The part of the soup that is bad for you, but where all the flavor is.” Cartoon Network’s new Uncle Grandpa is slopping over with “chicken fat”, but manages not to drown in it. It successfully answers the question, “What if Mary Poppins were not only male, but an idiot”?

A spin-off from Peter Browngardt’s previous effort, Secret Mountain Fort Awesome, the title character is described as “Everybody in the world’s Uncle and Grandpa”, a magic character that drives around in an enchanted RV with his compatriots Gus the world’s strongest monster, Pizza Steve (a sentient slice of pizza) and Giant Realistic Flying Tiger (who does what it says on the tin).  He drops into children’s lives and takes them on mad adventures, usually depositing them back home with lessons learned, that lesson usually being “Do not go on mad adventures with Uncle Grandpa”.  The show has the same “anything can happen” feel as many of Cartoon Network’s recent outings like Adventure Time and Chowder (on which Peter served as a storyboard artist), with a more unabashedly silly bent.

The character design is much cleaner than the camp-grotesque style of both Fort Awesome and the pilot episode he did as part of the Cartoonstitute. Like Chowder, the show features various animation techniques – Giant Realistic Flying Tiger is animated with paper cutouts of photos of real tigers. It skewers many kids’ show contrivances while still zealously clinging to them. Uncle Grandpa’s talking belly bag is a clear shot at Dora the Explorer’s backpack.

The show follows CN’s new 15-minute format, with each episode featuring two cartoons, a 9-minute main adventure and a two-minute backup.  The show is packed from stem to stern with crazy, with so much going on you’ll need to rewind and check on it all.

Uncle Grandpa runs Mondays at 8PM on Cartoon Network.

REVIEW: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (the new one)

tumblr_mr4jn8FZCA1rojbapo3_500T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1
written by Phil Hester
Art by Andrea DiVito
IDW Publishing

After the well-done but under-appreciated take DC Comics did on the classic heroes from Tower Comics, I was pleased, but rather surprised that a new company had secured the rights to them so quickly.  Even more pleased that it was IDW, who’s been tearing up the landscape with both exemplary and licensed titles.

The new title does the one thing I suspected they’d have to do – they started over.  It takes place in a new history, where NoMan and Lightning are in action, but no other members.  There’s experimentation going on in the background of issue 1 for the technology for the Undersea Agent, and dozens of candidates have tried and failed to wear the Thunderbelt.  Kate “Kitten” Kane is in charge of T.H.U.N.D.E.R., and while Guy Gilbert’s name is mentioned, it’s not explicitly said that he’s using the Lightning metabolism accelerator suit. And yes, T.H.U.N.D.E.R-fen, Weed is back, although apparently in a desktop capacity.

While I mourn the loss of all those classic stories, Phil Hester has a strong grasp of the characters and sets things up well for new readers, without resorting to excessive narrative to fill in the history. Andrea DiVito’s art is clean, with sparse backgrounds, and perhaps a bit too heavy a line in the inking.

The advantage of not being tied to years of past continuity is it makes it easier for new readers to jump on board, and the first issue hits the ground running, in the middle of an adventure.  You get the impression that there’s a history to the organization, but not one you need to know all about to enjoy. The majority of the issue deals with the scouting and recruitment of Len Brown, now a nearly-was goon for the NHL, now semi-drifter who picks up odd jobs, including the occasional leg-breaking deal for loan sharks.  His capacity for tolerating pain is off the charts, which makes him a perfect candidate for Professor Jennings’ Thunderbelt – in this incarnation, the belt causes intense pain to wearer during its use, hence the long line of guinea pigs with massive nerve damage.  He’s hastily sent in to combat the Iron Maiden, who has taken over a secret T.H.U.N.D.E.R base in the middle east.  The Iron Maiden appears to be working for the Subterraneans, and the next issue looks like it will parallel Rusty and Dynamo’s first battle.

Comic book movie super-producer Michael Uslan (and comic book writer) once again makes the credit box, with the mysterious byline “T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents Project initiated By”, the exact credit he received in the DC run.  In a past interview, he made it clear that he’s as big a fan of the Agents as…well, me, and as part of the undisclosed deal he’s made concerning the characters, he has the movie rights.  So far he’s gotten two very good teams to bring the heroes to a new audience – I’m hoping this one all the success I wished the last one, and more.

Doctor Who’s Steven Moffat And His Major Headlines!

Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat

It’s a bit like the tale of the blind men and the elephant. An interview with Steven Moffat at the AdLib Comedy event in Edinburgh covered a plethora of topics on Doctor Who, and even one or two about Sherlock. And each response got its own headline in different corners on the Internet.

Some trumpeted that after an extended period of campaigning, Moffat has acknowledged the desire of Hobbit director Peter Jackson to helm an episode of the series. Jackson has famously claimed that he’d do the work for free, accepting only a Dalek as payment. “So we’ll give him a Dalek and he’ll direct an episode,” the showrunner said, going so far as to say that doing the episode in Jackson’s native New Zealand was “entirely possible.” Not exactly an official announcement, but quite a tantalizing maybe.

Some seized on his non-confirmational response when he was asked about whether or not JK Rowling was writing a story for the Doctor’s 50th anniversary event. His reply was a wry ” I can’t confirm that…right now.” Neil Gaiman was also rumored to be taking part in the anniversary story series, but as there’s only a couple more Doctors left, time seems to be running out for both to take part.

Steven also touched on a number of points concerning the continuity of the show as well. He absolutely closed the door on a return of the Time Lords, declaring them “dead in my mind. They died.” He also verified that the 12-regeneration limit is still in action, suggesting we’ll see it play a role very soon on the show. Depending on how John Hurt’s mysterious “other Doctor” is explained (or explained away), Peter Capaldi may well be playing a Doctor after his 12th, and normally last, regeneration.

While No More Time lords also means no return for Time Lady Romana, it does not shut the door on “The Doctor’s Daughter” Jenny, from the episode of the same name. He said that door was still open.

After so many Scots on the show, including two Doctors (McCoy and Tennant) some cheered the news that Peter Capaldi may well be keeping his Scottish accent when playing the Time Lord. “I’d be very surprised if he didn’t”, said Moffat, which isn’t quite a yes, but pretty damn close.

When asked about Sherlock’s survival, he made it clear that like Douglas Adams’ explanation of how to fly, it all comes down to how Sherlock avoided the ground. “He’s got to interrupt his fall before he hits the pavement”

More than anything else, two points must be kept in mind concerning all of these news tidbits.

One, the event was dedicated to comedy and wit, and it’s entirely possible that Steven was being flippant and glib in the spirit of the evening, and his comments must be taken as at least potentially tongue-in-cheek.

Two, and far more important…The Moffat Lies! He’s already said he’s been “Lying through his teeth” over the details of the anniversary special, likely in a vain and desperate desire to keep some surprises for the viewing public.  He’s not above simply making something up to get a response.

REVIEW: “Duck Tales Remastered” – Ah-HOO-oo!

Duck Tales Remastered is out, and it is glorious perfection.

The original gameplay of the original Capcom NES classic (largely considered the finest platformer on the system) is reproduced perfectly.  Nothing has been “improved”, nor need it be.Yes, there are difficulty settings now, but if you want to reproduce the original in its infuriating awesomeness, it is there for you.

Note that I only said the gameplay had not been improved.  The rest has been catapulted into the 21st century by spectacular game developers WayForward, makers of the Mighty Switch Force series, and also just reinvigorated Shantae.  The graphics are still 2-D, but they are as sharp as the animation from the series, and thanks to the advances in technology, includes voiced narration and dialogue…by the original cast, wherever possible. Almost everyone is back; June Foray as Magica deSpell, Chuck McCann as Duckworth and half the Beagle Clan, and Frank Welker as the other half of the Beagle Boys,  Hal Smith, original voice of Flintheart Glomgold, passed some years back – voice and character actor Brian George has stepped in expertly, and Eric Bauza steps in for the late Hamilton Camp as Fenton Crackshell, AKA Gizmoduck.

And as for the hero of the game…I will not lie to you, once again hearing Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck brought tears to my eyes.  There have been others to voice the world’s richest duck, but none so often, and as long as the illustrious Mr. Young.  It’s a voice he’s used often, most famously in The Time Machine as various members of the Filby family.

I look forward to hours of maddeningly reliving the frustration of my…well, not quite my youth, more like my early married days.  I beat this thing one, I can do it again.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N0PzqF9gWY[/youtube]

Still Not Ginger – Peter Capaldi is the New Doctor

Announced at the climax of a globally-broadcast special, The BBC introduced the twelfth actor to play The Doctor, Peter Capaldi.

He’s a BAFTA-winning actor, winning for the role of Malcolm Tucker in The Thick of It.  He’s appeared twice on Who-related series, he played Caecilius in The Fires of Pompeii, and John Frobisher in Torchwood: Children of Earth.  In Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, he played the angel Islington.  He is currently filming the BBC adaptation of the Three Musketeers, in which he plays Cardinal Richelieu.

Showrunner Steven Moffat says he’d considered Capaldi when he was casting the eleventh Doctor, though he decided it wasn’t quite the time.

This wasn’t  his first time traveling in time, either – He played Doug Hatton in the recurring sketch “Drunk in Time” on The All new Alexei Sayle Show.

Peter most recently appeared in World War Z, playing a physician working with the World Health Organization.  Or, as he’s listed on the IMDB, “WHO Doctor“.

No details have been yet shared as to how much a part he will played in the final two episodes of the year. Though it’s traditional for the new Doctor to only appear in the last moments of the last episode, the Christmas episode has not been filmed, and David Tennant made his first full appearance in the first Christmas episode, “The Christmas Invasion”.

Mr. Capaldi’s movements will likely be closely followed, and any appearance he makes in the Christmas episode will likely be widely reported.  The Management awaits his work with extreme interest.

The Question Will Be Answered – New Doctor to be announced Sunday on live show

Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor

After much discussion a more than a sizable amount of betting, the BBC have announced that the actor to play the 12th (that we know of) title character on Doctor Who will be introduced to the public this Sunday at 7PM in the UK.  Titled Doctor Who Live: The Next Doctor, and hosted by TV and radio show presenter Zoe Ball.  The show will feature current Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith and showrunner Steven Moffatt, and the new actor will make their first appearance.

Revelation of the new Doctor has always been a media circus in England – bookies regularly take bets on who the actor will be, and stories rife with rumors and predictions will always draw eyes.  Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith was introduced in a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential – this is seemingly the next logical step for dealing with the instantaneous dissemination world of just a few years later.

While this will answer the question that has been on fans’ lips for some weeks now, it’s only one of several that have cropped up since.  The most immediate is how much of the new Doctor will we see in the last of this year’s episodes?

Matt Smith seemingly slipped a couple of times in panels at San Diego, saying that he had already filmed “his last episode”, namely the anniversary special.  He followed up quickly that he’d be back for Christmas, and he promised it’d be “a real belter”, but considering there’s no guarantee when the regeneration will take place.  They’ve made sure to select the new Doctor before the filming of the Christmas episode begins.

While it’s traditional to show the regeneration at the end of a season, that’s not how it started.  William Hartnell regenerated into Patrick Troughton in the middle of the season, and Troughton got right to it the next week in Evil of the Daleks.  David Tennant got his first full episode as The Doctor in the first Christmas episode The Christmas Invasion, after Christopher Eccleston left and regenerated at the end of his first and only series.  Smith appeared for only seconds at the end of The End of Time, returning for his first episode the next Spring.

We’re already seeing a two-Doctor episode for the anniversary, namely Tennant and Smith. That’s with the potential of more – Moffatt claims to have been “lying through his teeth” about what’s in the special, and rumors of a brief cameo scene by Paul McGann have started popping up again.  What, dare I suggest, if the Doctor regenerates at the end of the Anniversary special, and Smith only appears as an unseen Tyler Durden like advisor in the new Doctor’s mind?

For all the frenzy Sunday’s announcement will make, it will only be met with equal madness over the next few months until both remaining Smith episodes will bring.

Come Along.

Doctor Who 50th anniversary special to be simulcast globally

BOSJ6

Initially reported by UK tabloid The Sun and quickly verified by the BBC, the 50th anniversary special episode of Doctor Who will be broadcast simultaneously across the world, touted as the largest simulcast of a drama ever.

The special has been sold to approximately 200 countries, so the amount of timing and cooperation required will be quite high.  Sources say the move was done to eliminate any chance of spoilers for people in countries who traditionally receive the episodes after the initial broadcast in the UK.

This would put the broadcast spread across four hours of the early afternoon (depending on time zone) in the United States, and in the early hours of the 24th of November on the far side of the world like Australia and New Zealand.

The special will be broadcast in both 2D and 3D.  Complete details have not been released on which version will be broadcast in which markets.  The special features the return of David Tennant and Billie Piper as The Doctor and Rose Tyler, as well as classic villains The Daleks and Zygons.  At San Diego Comic-Con, showrunner Steven Moffat claims he’s been “lying through his teeth” about what and who is in the episode, resulting in the resurgence of rumors of other unreported cameos, including Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, making only one on-screen appearance, in the Fox-produced TV movie.

When the 20th anniversary episode The Five Doctors was produced in 1983, it did not receive a similarly-coordinated release.  Indeed, American fans got to see the special BEFORE the UK.  The network of public television stations who were broadcasting the series got permission to show the special on November 23 exactly, which was a Wednesday.  The BBC didn’t show it in the UK till that Saturday, the traditional day of broadcast for the series in England.  By  a wonderful coincidence, November 23rd falls on Saturday this year, allowing the anniversary to take place on the day it originally aired with no schedule-juggling.

This plan is not only a huge PR coup for the BBC, it’s also a wonderful example of life imitating art.  In Last of the Time Lords, Martha Jones walked the Earth for nearly a year, spreading the tale of The Doctor, in preparation for everyone on the planet to think about him and chant his name at a precise day and moment, the resulting wave of psychic energy intended to give the Time Lord the power to undo the actions of The Master and save the day.  With the BBC setting up to do the very same thing, one can only wonder what the real-world wave of power might do.

Personally, I’m hoping it’ll provide the power to jump-start the working TARDIS that the BBC Radiophonics Workshop has secretly been working on for years.

The argument against used video games…and why developers will always lose that argument.

space-invaders1In an  interview at IGN that’s already raised many hackles and comments, the developer behind The Order: 1886 claims GameStop’s used games business model is hurting developers.

“Weerasuriya’s solution is simple: “I don’t think we should stop used games, but we should do something about getting part of the revenue back from GameStop and places like that. That’s not penalizing consumers; they’ll still get what they want.””

Small problem.

GameStop isn’t just going to “give” money to the companies.  And I’ll go so far as to say that if they’re asked to, they’ll simply go out of business.  If companies try and come up with some method to get said to get said money, Gamestop will not simply settle for less – they’ll raise the prices of their used games, which may well just get people to buy the new ones after all, which gets the developers what they want.

I think it’s safe to say their used games market is more profitable than their new one.  They’ll sell thousands, millions of copies on day of release, but they make a lot more on the used ones they start selling two weeks later. Mainly because they pay outrageously low prices for them  Oh, they might give you twenty or thirty dollars for a hot new game, but that’s credit – look at how much less you get if you ask for cash; more like ten ot fifteen. And that drops fast as time passes, far faster then the price they charge does. They they turn around and sell that copy for five bucks less then a new copy, less another ten percent if you’re a power member.  So the used games make them a lot more money – no surprise they push you to buy the used end when you can.  You save five bucks; they make an extra ten, easy.I’ve heard endless arguments about how developers are getting “shafted” by the used market.  They argue that if everyone “had to” buy a used copy, they companies would do much better, and could even afford to lower their prices.  Save argument – when’s the last time you ever saw a company voluntarily lower their prices cause they were “making enough money”?  The only reason companies lower prices is when they aren’t making enough money.  They lower prices to increase purchases, and “make it up on volume” as the cliche goes.

Books, records, CDs, DVDs, none of these have any limits on what you do with them once you’re done with them.  And any attempt to TRY to do so is met with ridiculous (and justified) pushback. Anyone old enough to remember when DIVX was an actual machine, and not just a codec?  Buyers are already very angry about the DRM, online codes, and all the other things companies added to their products right out of the gate.  The famous users’ agreements you gleefully click all the time basically make you admit that you don’t own the program you just paid for – you bought a license to use the program, technically forever, but still rescindable by the publisher at any time.  Luckily, that agreement is rarely enforced, but there’s nothing stopping them from doing so, save for the potential response of the public.

To a degree, the argument for buying used crosses the argument for pirating – “They’re trying to screw us out of too much money”.  Used gamers just wait for the price to drop, or the used copies to appear, pirates go further and don’t pay at all.  The end result is the same – the developer makes less money.  Prices for new things (electronics, medicines, video games) are more expensive at first because the company is trying to make back the money it spent on its development, off what are called the “first adopters”.  That money needs to be made back quickly, mainly so the company doesn’t go out of business, but more importantly, so they have money to invent the next cool thing.  As the prices go down, the company makes less on each item, but by that time (presumably) it’s pure profit, save for the megligible cost of manufacture.

The rule is simple – when the list price of a new game drops, the company is making money.  With a used copy, Gamestop makes the money.  If you want to make sure the company benefits, buy a new copy on sale – GameStop paid the same amount for the game wholesale, they’re taking a hit on their side to get you in the store.

REVIEW: Justice League #22 – When The Tale Wags the Dog

JL22Justice League #22 came out today, touching the fuse for DC’s summer event, Trinity War, which we already know leads into the fall event, Forever Evil.

(Obviously, there’s your mandatory SPOILER ALERT!)

In all fairness, it’s a heck of a setup issue – the battle lines are drawn, it is made abundantly clear the stakes are high, and there are wheels within wheels of which few of the players are aware. It’s a book that absolutely brings you back next week to see what will happen. Geoff Johns is a master of this – he weaves a long-form plot into his books that all ties up into bows whenever he chooses to pull the plot threads. I don’t think he’s ever written a book that didn’t delight me in all his years at DC.

Add to that his wonderful ability to pull obscure characters and plot threads out of the distant past and make them relevant and exciting today. We saw the Shaggy Man make his debut in the New 52 recently, and in this issue we see the on-screen premiere of The Outsider, an old Batman villain (and a long story in and of himself), and a variant version appearing in the Flashpoint minis, written by James Robinson, the mini which I went on record as being my favorite of the bunch, and the one “new” character I said I’d most like to see find his way to the New 52. I’ll be curious of the details of this new iteration of the character.

Having said that, the book had several things going on in the book that I found infuriating, more as a reflection of what’s going in comics in general today.

Death, Death and Death

We saw two characters (seemingly) die in the book – one brand new and one very old. Old Firestorm villain Plastique took out Madame Xanadu, and thanks to The Outsider’s manipulations, Superman seems to have killed the brand spanking new Doctor Light. The former is annoying because of the legacy of the character, the latter, not only because the character was seemingly created solely to be killed, it’s another minority character to have been used in the same fashion. Geoff caught some hell for a similar scenario in Aquaman – a new character of middle eastern descent was killed off in her first adventure – a flashback, no less.

I say “seemingly” because a sub-issue is while DC has sworn blind that the new status quo is “dead is dead,” they don’t seem to mind swerving the readers with the heavy suggestion that a character has died only to reveal the next issue that they’re fine, it was just a flesh wound, they switched at the last minute, etc. Now that’s a tried and true device, used endlessly in the Republic serials, but as Annie Wilkes explained, it’s not good storytelling, it’s cheating. Catwoman never got into the cockadoodie chair.

So it’s entirely possible that Madame Xanadu teleported, or was teleported away, and that Doctor Light will return with even more amazing powers and a serious mad on for the heroes. But the point is, the moment was designed to shock us, provide a hotshot to get us back for the next issue, as opposed to creating a solid dramatic moment. In a documentary, Hitchcock talks about the difference between shock and suspense: one provides a moment of excitement that passes quickly, and one provides a long scene of emotional duress that people will talk about for a long time. Both of these deaths were mere moments. And if they turn out to be false alarms, they’ll be empty moments.

Stories Without End

Literally and figuratively. Event crossovers, mini-series, any story, really, but finite, limited stories should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. There’s lots of opportunity to lay plot threads that can be returned to should the need arise, but time was you’d close the last issue and think “That was a good story.” Or at least, “That wasn’t that good, but at least it’s over”.

The Empire Strikes Back may be the first example in modern narrative where that didn’t happen. They already knew they were making a third film, so there was less of an impetus to make the film end definitively. It didn’t really end – it just paused for three years.  Everyone was safe and all, but there were so many questions left unanswered it felt more like a season finale than a film.

So too in comics, the event / maximegacrossovers don’t quite end as much as they seem to just lead straight into the next one. The defeat of the Big Bad only serves to set up the next one, and not even in a few months – sometimes right at the end of the last issue. Marvel’s been doing this for some years now – each big event would set up the next, and the event wouldn’t quite…end, it’d just say “Join us for next event in a few weeks!”

Geoff Johns had been writing one big long story in Green Lantern, one that included several huge crossover events. But they were all discrete, they ended, they had winners and losers, and there was a sense that something had been achieved.  Even if the next big plot point was teased at the end, it was given months, even years to grow and bloom.

DC has done a couple of these in the past. The Oracle: The Cure mini-series had an overcrowded mess of a climax (what pro wrestling fans refer to as a “Schmoz” finish) that literally ended with “The story continues in Batgirl #1!”  James Robinson’s much maligned mini Justice League: Cry for Justice(!) Seemed to have gone through quite an overhaul – originally pitched as a more “pro-active” League, it quickly turned into nothing but a springboard for Green Arrow’s new plot twist. AND it was chock full of death that only happened to make the main characters angry and “Justice!”-yelly.  James was good enough to un-do one of the more egregious demises, and did it well.

This is DC’s first attempt at Marvel’s “direct flow” format in a big way, but at least they’re being fair about it. We’ve already been told, clearly and distinctly, that the events of Trinity War will cause the villains to win, which will be portrayed in September’s Forever Evil event, and the “villains month” of books. We don’t know “The ending” per se, but we do know that it won’t be an ending, per se.  It’ll be a direct segue to the next event, and a very expensive event it’ll be, if you’re the type that likes to get every part of the story.

It effectively changes Trinity War from the main event to a mere prologue to the next event. I do not expect many plot points to resolve here, save for the various teams realizing they need to team up to fight the real threat. I expect the actions of Superman to be explained to the public very quickly and quickly forgotten, far different from the way they dealt with Wonder Woman’s killing of max lord in the last universe, and the stellar way Gail Simone is dealing with the death of her own brother, and Commissioner Gordon’s (a.k.a. her father) witness of the act.

The Roots Are Too Deep

There’s nothing wrong with foreshadowing. It’s the sign of quality literature. Before Crisis on Infinite Earths, they teased The Monitor in DC titles a full year ahead of time.  In this event, at least one title, Justice League America, seems to have been set up for the express purpose of setting up this event.  It exists not because there was enough demand for a third JL series (tho sales suggests the audience was happy to accept it), but only to serve as a place to put all the plot that would be needed to have Trinity War make sense.

This has been happening for some years now. Dwayne McDuffie’s run on Justice League was severely hindered by Editorial asking him to shoehorn in plot points that only served to set up an upcoming event, and in some cases, being asked to step aside entirely for a couple months.

There’ve been more than a few examples of Editorial getting in the way of the creators since the New 52 came to be as well, many of them ending in creators leaving said books, willingly or no. There’s nothing wrong with an Editor wanting to work with the writer on the stories. When the editor starts taking more of a role than the writer, conflict is almost certainly to follow. There hasn’t been an editor good enough to do that in several decades, and I don’t see one coming along anytime soon.

We’re seeing too many stories that exist only to set up an upcoming event, stories that don’t quite fit in the continuing narrative of the titles, ones that don’t quite end, and ones that just plain get in the way. They cause a small jump in sales as collectors grab the “first chapter” of the next big event, but they rarely bring new readers long-term.

There’s every ability for a writer to turn out a great story, even if any or all of these issues appear.  I fully expect to enjoy the rollercoaster ride that Geoff and his cronies have set up. But it’ll be in spite of what I describe above, not because of them.