TEN FUN SUNDAY: CLIFF CHIANG'S PRETTY IN PINK ...HEROES MOST UNSUNG...And More!

One last round of great graphics for you before the weekend's officially over, with comics artist Cliff Chiang's latest mash-up at the head of the (brat) pack. Chiang's been turning out 12-inch Remixes, as he calls them, for the past couple years, merging famous comics characters with classic 80's album covers. His latest with the X-Men was auctioned at Heroes Con earlier this month, and its his second Remixed nod to the late director of Pretty In Pink, John Hughes. Chiang's first tribute casts the classic Teen Titans as The Breakfast Club -- and you can check it out [here]!

Iron R2 by Mike Verta

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Spock, Esquire by Norma Bar

Heroes' Mister Muggles Wallpaper [via]

Hulk Hyde by 'Book Eats The Art'[via]

 

THE POWER OF ONE: THE DAYS, ISSUES, & DOLLARS OF AN AMAZING SPIDER-MAN

The major players, the  triple-A Big Two characters that top each publisher's  'A-Lists' of characters, are impossible to control completely, even by the companies that own them.  Fan-films like Batman: City of Scars clearly illustrate this point: some superheroes -- Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Green Lantern, Captain America, and Spider-Man, for example -- have 'lives' of their own, their destinies often beyond the reach of the editors, writers, and artists whose job it is to forge them.  From both a  creative and a business standpoint, then, it's interesting to observe the machinations of Marvel's and DC's respective A-List business units and watch them exert the control they do have.

Marvel Comics' Spider-Man group under the direction of Executive Editor Tom Brevoort and Editor Stephen Wacker may be one's best bet to observe the editorial in action process. Wacker, who made an abrupt departure from DC Comics as editor of the experimental weekly comics title 52,  in September 2006 to join Marvel and fell in with the Spider-office soon after, is the guy in charge of Spidey's day to day and as such, he deserves much of the credit for reigning in - even salvaging - Marvel's flagship wall-crawler.  But How Wacker pulled that feat off must wait until we explore the one big Why. 

 THE TERRIBLE TREE

As a creative property, Spider-Man is unique among his fellow A-Listers as the only character not to have the privilege of being killed and inevitably resurrected.  A-list superhero deaths, from Superman to Green Lantern, and Wolverine to Captain America, may have served to make  a statement now and again, but in nearly every case, their main function has been to reign in a property that's spun completely out of editorial control.  In dramatic storytelling, readers' interests are raised  (as are sales) anytime a writer pushes the protagonist higher up the metaphorical tree and sometimes, there's no way to get them back down other than putting them six-feet under. 

Marvel and writer Mark Millar sent Spider-Man up into that tree in 2006-2007, when the hero publicly revealed his Peter Parker secret identity during the company's Civil War mega-event.  Spider-Man's unmasking achieved its goal of gaining major exposure and drove Civil War's sales -and those of the three Spider-Man titles being published at the time - even higher. But it also sent Spider-Man higher into the terrible tree, the same tree that would claim the fictional life of Marvel's Captain America just mere months later.  

NOT DEAD...YET

To necessarily undo the genre-disabling damage that Millar's Spider-Man unmasking caused, Marvel's 'brain trust' took, upon editorial mandate, a more novel if not completely dissimilar approach to recreating their character: they - or Spider-Man - made a deal (literally and figuratively, it seems) with the Devil, the longtime Marvel character and demon, Mephisto.  In the 2007 storyline One More Day, Mephisto agrees to undo all the harm Spider-Man's unmasking caused (including Aunt May being mortally wounded as a result) by making everyone forget whose face was under the Spider mask. The caveat was he'd  only do so in exchange not for Peter's soul, but for his marriage to Mary Jane Watson.  Peter Parker made his secret ID known to Mary Jane and married her in 'The Wedding' - a seminal comics event (and one of the most important in Peter Parker's life) that occurred in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 in 1987.

Spider-Man's - and perhaps Marvel's - deal with the Devil set Peter Parker's life - and the stability of his fictional world - back to normal, though in true tragic Spider-Man form,  Peter alone would remember what he sacrificed. Beyond the comic book pages, however, the story was different. Then head Spider-Man scribe and screenwriter Michael J. Straczynski, who wrote the events of One More Day, dismissed the editorial directive as "infuriating and downright disrespectful to anyone who has come to love Spider-Man comics over the years " and resigned as a result. His sentiments were shared by, we'd daresay, the majority of Spider-Man's fan followers, perhaps one of the most loyal - if not the most loyal - fan base in all of comics.

For a great many Spider-Man loyalists, the character they'd grown up with had died; for Marvel, the publisher had found the one way to rejuvenate Spider-Man and Peter Parker, which according to Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada, was necessary for the longevity of the Spider-Man franchise.   While one single, all-important, life-changing decision by a character is the basis of all great drama, Spider-Man's pact with Mephisto was more than many readers could handle, and the unenviable duty of damage control has belonged to Stephen Wacker's group ever since. 

 BACK TO WACKER

It would be incorrect to assume Marvel's plans to ret-con Spider-Man were reactionary in the least; indeed, Stephen Wacker's move to Marvel from DC Comics weekly 52 project is just one indication that Marvel editorial had been planning to un-marry Peter Parker for quite some time. Immediately following the conclusion of One More Day, both Sensational Spider-Man and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man were canceled, and Wacker became the editor of the one remaining title and the franchise's flagship, Amazing Spider-Man.  The move was a consolidation of control and a concentration of creativity. It was also a gamble; along with its price point increasing by one dollar - from $2.99 to $3.99 an issue --  Amazing Spider-Man would now be published three times a month instead of just one.  

To find the tomorrow after One More Day, Spider-Man would make yet another ambitious move into his future.

Figures In Action! Uncanny Mating X-MEN MINI-MATES!

We probably should've marked this one NSFW, too.  The Cyclops-Phoenix-Wolverine love triangle is well-known to fans of The Uncanny X-Men, and apparently to at least one collector of Art Asylum's Marvel Minimates.  At just two-inches in height, Marvel Minimates feature 14 points of articulation; if they had  any more, we probably wouldn't have been able to blog this steamy pic. Oh, whatever! Yeah we would've, -- are you kidding? You should see the other forty-six photos in the set -- talk about Figures in Action...                                      [via]

AQUAMAN's BRIGHTEST DAY: Truth In Advertising Is The Reason

Aquaman (Vol 2)

In-House Advertisement
DC Comics, 1986

Achieving less than desirable results as team leader of the Detroit-era Justice League of America,  DC Comics tossed Aquaman over the side of the JLA's sinking ship and canceled the series two months later.  He resurfaced a year later, his return to the surface world  of monthly comics heralded by in-house advertisements such as the one above.  Not only was the King of Atlantis coming back (for four brave issues), but he'd had a change of clothes while he was away. The often-maligned orange-gold-green garb was gone, temporarily replaced by a try-out camouflaged costume that never caught on. 

 

In the second issue of the series, writer Neal Pozner's Aquaman asks, perhaps theoretically, "Where am I, that you don't know of my strength?" It almost sounds as if the character was addressing DC's editorial itself.  Like Batman, whose comic book image suffered as a result of the 1966 television series' camp factor, Aquaman swam with a stigma of uselessness since his animated adventures alongside the Super Friends. But where the Dark Knight overcame, Aquaman sank.

You'd expect that Aquaman aka Orin/Arthur Curry would be a strong swimmer, and the character did survive through four more volumes as well as a successful JLA revival (thanks to Grant Morrison) in 1997.  But the underwater hero perished before the 40th issue of his most recent series, so that a new 'Aquaman' could be introduced.  Fans remain divided on whether it was he or the mid-80's camo that enjoyed the longer shelf-life.  

It's 2010, and the waters have been calm at DC for four years. Across town, Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner, Aquaman's comic book predecessor as well as his Marvel Comics'  counterpart, has been front-and-center at the DC rival  for several years in a row. Where Namor's always had his niche (especially as a nemesis of the Fantastic Four), the character's been elevated to be one Marvel's leading men and top-tier mutants.  While his own series haven't fared much better than Aquaman's, Namor's found super-strength as a reoccurring character across multiple Marvel titles. 

 

Sub-Mariner Vs Aquaman [via]

It's 2010, and after a very cold four years, DC Comics has resurrected Aquaman through the events and rationale of Geoff Johns' Blackest Night. DC's Dweller of the Depths' light shines again (for our comicsblog's Easter promo as well as) at the forefront of Brightest Day.

 

Non-zombie Aquaman cops a feel on former widow and Red Lantern, Mera 

Blackest Night #8 (April 2010)

Beyond Brightest Day, DC hasn't made any announcements for their new Aquaman, but we're expecting to see Volume 7  before the year's out. Among the undead, the 'Black Lantern Aquaman' kicked more ass that he ever did while alive. But it's his wife Mera that emerged from Blackest Night as the better Champion of Atlantis.  She's been at his side for six volumes; come the seventh, we think it's he who should stand beside her instead.

We've got a few more thoughts to share on that matter, too. For now, we'll just say that Geoff Johns may be receiving all the credit for the Aquaman revival, but it's the company's marketing department that really deserves the accolades. DC Comics has proven that they are indeed the place Where Legends Live.  Sure, Where Legends Never Stay Dead... For Long may ring truer, but isn't it really a longer way of saying what's already been said? The grave has never been considered permanent for superheroes, and with smart advertising like that, it clearly never should have been for Aquaman.

Such truth in advertising, however, comes with commitment.  Blackest Night was a lot of work for too many people, just to make good on promises made way back in 1986. At least, that's our opinion.  So we're pleased to see that DC's taken a more ambiguous road plugging Brightest Day. The heroes appeared to be back at the end of Blackest Night #8, and DC's new promo assures us they really are alive; it wasn't a mirage or a nefarious trick. Even better, the heroes are back for a reason.  Also good to know, though Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi, Brightest Day's co-writers, have never been accused of flights of fancy.

The elephant on the comic book coffee table is, of course, whether or not that 'Reason' is one will end up mattering, to us or even to DC's characters.  Sink or swim, whatever happens to Aquaman and his super friends, it will be exactly what DC said we'd get. Nothing less, and nothing more.