We're Baaaaaaaack: Comic Book Issues Rise From The Dead.

[Julian Gift]

It is one thing to bring fictional characters back from the dead. But an entire comic book title?! What are your opinions on DC comics looking to bring one-shots of previously cancelled series? Here is past information on the topic:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=23295

[Figserello]

My problem is that each of these 'final issues' bring the much-cherished (by someone, presumably, if not by me) characters and set-ups back just for a Grand Guignol XXX-rated Zombie Brain-Feast.

Of the list:

Starman #81
“The Atom and Hawkman” #46 by Geoff Johns
“Catwoman” #83 by Fabian Nicieza
“Phantom Stranger” #42 by Peter Tomasi
“The Power of Shazam!” #48 by Eric Wallace
“The Question” #37 by Greg Rucka
“Suicide Squad” #67 by John Ostrander
“Weird Western Tales” #71 by Dan DiDio

Only Wierd Western Tales might fit the genre. Otherwise, whilst its a very interesting squelching together of incompatible genres, its hard to see them as 'continuations' of the previous runs, in any real sense.

The fanboy in me will probably have to get Starman #81, for comepleteness. Didn't think I'd actually be buying one of these BN books. Will I get a snazzy chunk of plastic with it?

By not having Jack Knight in there, Robinson is acknowledging that the filthy stench of rotting corpses isn't quite the capstone he had in mind for his most respected creation.

[Julian Gift]

I am more intrigued by the surreal idea of comic books coming back to life than the fictional characters themselves. I will look to get Starman, The Question, Phantom Stranger and Suicide Squad. Iam curious though Figserello why you call it a "Grand Guignol XXX-rated Zombie Brain-Feast". What titles would you have liked to have seen returned from the dead? Here are my choices:
My Greatest Adventure, Strange Adventures, Dirty Jobs(There was a DC comic with that title?), Flex Mentallo, Inferior Five and Dial H For HERO. To name a few.

[Figserello]

I am more intrigued by the surreal idea of comic books coming back to life than the fictional characters themselves.

A stroke of genius, this, I'll admit. Great marketing, and creates a buzz in the boring middle bits of a big crossover.

I'm presuming that each of these comics will show the characters/concepts returning to be caught up in the current Blackest Night storyline, which is a turn-off for me. In the case of the 60s comics it's like a fusion of EC's Vault of Horror and something edited by Julie Schwartz. That's a weird combination.

I am curious though Figserello why you call it a "Grand Guignol XXX-rated Zombie Brain-Feast".

Isn't that what Blackest Night is? I confess that I've only read #0 of the series (the freebie), but it did end with rotted corpses rising out of the graves. I'm only presuming that they do what zombies normally do, and eat brains.

Even if they don't, the legions of Undead shambling around are a far remove from superhero comics as we've known them. I wouldn't have thought that a company-wide battle with rotting corpses was the direction Geoff Johns was going to take the 'new' 'improved' Hal Jordan. It is the introduction of full-on video-nasty horror to the mainstream DCU. An intriguing development.

Full on video-nasty horror was exactly what Alan Moore's Swamp Thing dealt in, so I'd love to see another issue of the adventures of the Alec Holland Swamp Thing, but only if it was written by Alan Moore. Similarly, I'd love to see Hitman or Aztek come back, but only if written by Ennis or Morrison. I also loved the Jim Corrigan Spectre, the original Question and the 40s gas-mask Sandman, but I'd really hate to see them brought back from their well-deserved rest, especially as rotting cadavers.

I've just realised that all the heroes I love DIE eventually! This is probably not a coincidence, as a good story has to have a beginning a middle and an END, as far as I am concerned.



Flex Mentallo

Wow, there's a thought.

[Luke Blanchard]

I doubt this will work well as a marketing method. How many readers are going to scour the racks for such a disparate group of titles, and how difficult is it going to be to identify the different issues when ordering? However, the Starman issue might do well.

[Figserello]

I doubt this will work well as a marketing method. How many readers are going to scour the racks for such a disparate group of titles, and how difficult is it going to be to identify the different issues when ordering? However, the Starman issue might do well.

I dunno, it could be a ploy to mop up the few remaining comics fans who haven't been sucked into the whole Blackest Night Grand Guignol etc. Those of us who think we have too much taste and discernment to be reading Blackest Night - you know who I'm talking about - will buy Starman, and those fans who want comics to be just the way they were when they were twelve, and hence hate Blackest Night, will read the rest.

Who knows? Maybe its the best comics crossover ever and we will come to our senses and use this as a jumping on point.

[Julian Gift]

Readers may go for some titles more than others I could see Starman and Suicide Squad being popular. Weird Western Tales works with Jonah Hex and its hardcore violence in the west without delving into scvience fiction and fantasy. Do you think that DC comics in its own way is taking advantage of the zombie craze?

[Dagwan]

The creatures with black rings aren't zombies, and they aren't interested in brains.

Blackest Night has (so far) been the single best written and drawn "Big Event" series I have ever read. The crossovers and tie-ins have also been very high quality.

If you haven't read it, give it a try.

The revived title I am looking forward to the most is The Question #37, co-written by Greg Rucka and Denny O'Neil (the series original writer) and art by Denys Cowan (the series original artist).

---

"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." -Groucho Marx

Check out the Secret Headquarters (my store) website! It's a pretty lame website, but I did it myself, so tough noogies

Listen to WOXY.com, it's the future of rock-n-roll!

---

[Julian Gift]

Dagwan. Thank you for clearing that up for me. I see that Vibe and Doctor Light wiill be coming back to bedevil the JLA. The Question is a good choice for a return one-shot.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I'm not following "Blackest Night" but I may try a few of these "resurrected" series: Starman, for sure; probably The Power of Shazam (although I would have preferred Jerry Ordway to do it); The Atom and Hawkman likely; possibly more if I like those.

[Julian Gift]

I will most likely try Starman as I have always enjoyed this series. I am curious to see who the issue is about. Wow. The Jack Knight character was not kidding around when he retired from the superhero business.

[Figserello]

The creatures with black rings aren't zombies, and they aren't interested in brains.

Well, if it looks like an animated rotting corpse, smells like a rotting corpse and has bits falling off it like the same, then...

Those are the actual dead bodies of the friends and lovers of the heroes that we knew in our innocent youth lumbering around on the covers of this crossover right? Maybe not zombies 'mmmm per se', but still, eeeuw!

Actually they are worse than your run-of-the-mill "lets all go hang out at the mall" type zombies in that they seem to attack specifically those that loved the person when they were alive.

My point is that this is full-on EC XXX-rated horror as the spine of a super-hero crossover. This is a new and notable development. And from the pen of a writer who people accuse of wanting everything to be like when he was 12! We're all up close to these things but sometimes you have to stand back and look at something from a distance. (Nothing is stranger than superhero comicbooks if you look at them objectively!)

How has the comics field changed in the last 5 years that this set-up is so popular now?

What does it tell us about where the field is going?

I'm genuinely fascinated by it as a development. Julian mentions that DC have seen how popular other zombie series have been up to now, but why did those titles make such an impression in the first place?

Blackest Night has (so far) been the single best written and drawn "Big Event" series I have ever read. The crossovers and tie-ins have also been very high quality.

I am glad that its such a success. When the current market dictates that you have most of your eggs in one basket, they'd need to be fine eggs!

Also glad that so many people are enjoying it, and the tie-ins. I guess they've been doing this long enough that they are starting to work out what works and what doesn't. Although each crossover is its own thing. Giving the individual writers a lot of freedom within the overall plan seems to be the way.

If you haven't read it, give it a try.

It mightn't be quite for me. I've been reading Johns' Green Lantern from the library, up to the middle of the Sinestro War, so I'm not just judging books I haven't read on just my prejudices. I have problems with a lot of his approach. For one thing, there's a huge disconnect between what Johns says about these heroes and what he shows. That keeps getting in the way.

I will be reading these from the library. For one thing, I'm intensely interested in superhero comics and its fun to figure out what buttons the popular series are pressing, and where the whole genre/artform is going. I have a limited budget for comics and these being so popular means that they are more likely to show up at the library than the next Secret Six TPB.

(And also - I like me some overblown spandex space-opera as much as the next fanboy.)

I've definitely done my bit down through the years to support the industry (And how!), so I hope I'm allowed to waffle on now and again about a series that my impoverished circumstances prohibits me from actually buying!

[Julian Gift]

How would power girl react to her cousin, history's 1st superhero being brought back in such a way? She was always wriiten as being abrasive but she has always had the highest respect for her cousin.