STUFF WHAT’S ON MY MIND

As we barrel towards my birthday, Christmas and the year’s end, I’m
trying to write about as many items on my “write about that” list
as possible.  There will probably be spoilers ahead.

All-New X-Men continues to be an intriguing title.  In one of those
stupid moves super-smart Marvel characters make so often, the Beast
brought the original teen X-Men from the past to remind their older
selves what they used to be and what they used to stand for.  The
kids are shocked by what they’ve become as adults, especially Scott
“I grow up to murder Charles Xavier?” Summers.

After the ten-issue Battle of the Atom crossover, it seems the teen
X-Men have been changed so much by their experiences in the present
that they can’t be sent back to their own time.  They are trapped
in the present.  In case you wondered, that was the big finish of
the crossover event and, yeah, it actually did take ten issues and
two different teams of future mutants to get there.

Regardless of whether or not too many storylines take way too many
issues to tell - they do - All-New X-Men is, as I said, intriguing.
Good writing by Brian Michael Bendis.  Good art and storytelling by
mostly Stuart Immonen and Wade Von Grawbadger.  I’m enjoying this
title, especially when it stands on its own.

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This past Wednesday was International Darkstar Day.  This holiday
was created by Steve Morris of The Beat.  He writes:

Darkstar Day is here again! Once a year we gather to celebrate this
character, first created long back in the 1970s by Tony Isabella
and George Tuska and which has weaved in and out of Marvel’s
 comics irregularly for the last thirty-odd years.

While I created Darkstar, I once wrote her in my final issue of The
Champions.  I can’t recall if Tuska designed her costume or if one
of the Bullpen elves designed it.  I came up with her powers, which
I intended to be roughly equivalent to Green Lantern’s but natural,
and established she was a Russian super-agent.  But all the heavy
lifting on her character development was done by Bill Mantlo when
he followed me on the title. 

Until I read the Wikipedia entry on Darkstar, I didn’t realize she
had been killed and that there were two other Darkstars before she
(the original) came back from the dead.  If I ever write for Marvel
again, I’m gonna need a tutor to help me learn all the “history” I
have missed over the year.

Anyway, Morris and other Darkstar fans celebrate this special day
by posting drawings of the character online.  I think that’s neat.
I’m delighted to see one of my creations honored by fans who really
love her.  I should try to come up with something special for next
year’s International Darkstar Day.

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If this blog isn’t enough Isabella edification and entertainment
for you, you should check out my Facebook page.  In any given day,
you’re likely to find birthday greetings or remembrances for comics
professionals, messages from the First Church of Godzilla (I’m the
pastor) and other fun stuff. Sometimes I make a comment on my page
and then expand upon it for the bloggy thing.  I also post links to
online items I found interesting. 

However...I’m coming awfully close to the 5000 friends limit that
Facebook imposes on personal pages.  Please be patient if I can’t
accept your friend request immediately.  It’s going to take a while
for me to open up some spots on the friends list.

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My First Church of Godzilla commemorates the releases of Godzilla
and other movies, and also the births and deaths of the actors and
filmmakers involved in these productions. Steve Atwell, a Facebook
friend, recently asked me:

Will the First Church give consideration to the various writers and
artists who’ve worked on the various Godzilla comics and cartoons
over the years?

Clearly, Atwell has received a divine inspiration from our Lord and
Master, the Great Scaly One who protects us from evil and our own
folly with his fiery atomic love.  The initial information for my
daily notices came from the 2013 calendar published by the terrific
G-Fan magazine, which did not include the mentions Atwell requests.
However, his question makes me realize this is a remembrance gap I
need to close. 

It will certainly take me a while to add this sort of information
to the First Church of Godzilla’s sacred files, but I’ll be working
on doing just that in the new year. 

Thanks for the idea, Steve.  The blessings of Godzilla and Mothra,
his trusted wing-maiden, be upon you.

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I posted this on Facebook a week ago:

In between the dozens of odds and ends I accomplished today, I have
been reading Batman comics from 2012. I'm almost through the “Death
[of] the Family” shitfest. What a vile exercise in torture porn. Is
this really what readers want or is it just what the numbnuts at DC
think they want?

The above was not an exaggeration.  These comics mostly consist of
the Joker torturing and murdering innocent people with many of them
related through blood or friendship to Batman, Nightwing, Batgirl,
etc. “Repugnant” is the adjective that best describes them.

I did come across a few recent Batman comics that I enjoyed.  John
Layman’s run on Detective Comics was fine until it crossed into the
“Death of the Family” event. Steve Niles wrote a terrific done-in-
one story for Legends of the Dark Knight #3.  But those were pretty
much the only good Batman comics in the bunch.

Batgirl. Batwoman. Birds of Prey. Catwoman.  All the other “New
52" Batman titles.  Not just bad, but largely unreadable.  Management
and editorial malfeasance? Writers who have simply given up trying
to write good comics for a company that seems to have no clue what
good writing is?  I don’t know.

Worse, I no longer care.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more stuff.

© 2013 Tony Isabella