Slugfest: Marvel vs DC

Looking back on 50 years of comic book history, Reed Tucker unleashes his story of the ultimate cosmic combat where punches and fights and battles were not limited to the four-color world of super-heroes and god-like deities, but instead happened between the editors and creators of the two biggest and best of comic book champions: Marvel and DC.

Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle between Marvel and DC meticulously compiles hundreds of interviews and creates a narrative for the fanboy ages that is as entertaining as it is sometimes embarrassing. Similar in scope to Marvel Comics: The Untold History by Sean Howe, Slugfest parallels the rise and fall and rise and fall again of these titans of industry. Tucker gets into the moving parts of both offices, the reigns and fiefdoms established by editor-in-chiefs, and their constant bickering and one-upmanship. However, Tucker’s seemingly Marvel-slanted bias is underlying in the narrative.

Throughout Slugfest, Tucker constantly places the stoic and established DC up against Marvel, who is eternally portrayed as the scrappy underdog. Even when Marvel finally becomes Number One in the industry, these two motifs never change in the book, even though, as a fan of comics in the eighties and nineties, such a paradigm shift did indeed happen. DC Comics, properly recognizing the success of The Dark Knight Returns, and Watchmen, and Swamp Thing and Sandman, jumped full-force into adult-oriented comics and completely owned that particular market, a fact that Marvel was never able to accomplish, as industry-recognized awards can verify. Slugfest glances over such details, presenting instead overall company sales percentages.

Naturally, as a comic book fan, there are many points where the book could have gone deeper, from Jim Shooter’s firing at Marvel to DC’s acquisition of the Charleton Comics line, how the creation of Image changed the status-quo for creator-owned series, and the wrangling of established writers from outside the industry. The largest slight missed in Slugfest is that of the fan’s perspective. As a fan and one-time avid reader of both companies, I never bothered with what was the top-selling comic and who reigned the charts. I cared about the actual product. And for a long time in the late eighties and into the nineties, there was a constant every fan knew: Marvel had the artists, but DC had the writers. DC was the place if you cared about a story and a character’s arc, while Marvel zombies were delighted with eye-candy spectacles. After all, DC never released a swimsuit special. Right?

Slugfest is a fun, recommended read, and completely relevant for today’s market where, the comic titles themselves be damned, Marvel dominates the cinema, yet DC TV is, well, scrappy and entertaining. Tucker’s account of it all is a treat, well establishing the fact that the true victor of any such conflict is the fan, who can watch the combat unfold, the sparks fly, the punches thrown, and read stories that remain yet untold.


As Always,
theJOE

Hellblazer-lite

As a long, longtime fan of John Constantine, the Hellblazer, whose last contact I had with the character, outside of Arrow, was Hellblazer #300, I was both anxious and guarded when the advance preview of his Vertigo-less Rebirth series from DC Comics and NetGalley arrived. Overall, this first collection of Rebirth issues is fairly entertaining, albeit straightforward, gluten-free with no additives, essentially, Hellblazer-lite.

For this first volume of The Hellblazer, entitled “The Poison Truth”, writer Simon Oliver, who once visited John in the surface-level-enjoyable Chas: The Knowledge, brings John back to London (Living NYC, presumably, due to the New 52? Ah, DC) where he immediately gets mixed up in conning his way out of a demon’s curse that, similar to the story in Chas, ends abruptly and simply. Again, Hellblazer-lite.

Oliver’s script then splits off into two paths. John and a telepathic girl named Mercury go looking for an ancient Djinn that has been lurking in the shadows of history laid out in a tale that seems to have been gleaned from Helene Wecker’s fun novel, The Golem and the Jinni, while the always-welcome guest-star Swamp Thing, who is actually presented more like a co-star bringing about a fun if accidental update to The Brave And The Bold, goes on a quest for his wife, Abbey, who is now also an elemental (see again: New 52? Then again, perhaps not). Unfortunately, this first collection comes to it culmination just as both streams head deeper into their trajectories. Let’s hear it for the modern-day cliffhanger. Although, having John and Mercury arrive in Paris doesn’t quite have the same punch as, say, Rey presenting Luke with his lightsaber, but admittedly, I am curious to see what happens next.

The artwork is also split in twain between Moritat, who provides a cartoony, almost European design, and Pia Guerra, formerly of Y The Last Man, whose crisp, clean work is always a delight to see.  John Cassady provides covers that, although not as strong as Hellblazer classic artists Glenn Fabry and Tim Bradstreet, are right in line for this Hellblazer-lite.

Six issues and Oliver’s work is fun but a better pacing needs to be developed for upcoming issues as too much time is spent within on characters not named John Constantine. A lot world building, or revisiting, going on that, hopefully, will lead to a big payoff that might even have the potential of Paul Jenkins’ finale run.

Hey, at least John hasn’t been neutered from his Silk Cut habit.

As Always,

theJOE