Showing posts with label Tony Bedard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tony Bedard. Show all posts

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Missing Some Trees For The Forest

Just so we're clear on the concept...

Great Ten #8 gave us:


A two-millennia old robot with an I Ching based operating system fighting fake Chinese gods.

This series hasn't gotten a lot of attention, and most of that has been dismissive, of the "Oh, smooth one, DC--why release this series years after the team was introduced in 52, and without creator Grant Morrison writing it? What a stupid idea!"

Well, I give you it wasn't the brightest bit of marketing, and the iron wasn't exactly hot when this series was struck. But so what--that really has nothing to do with the quality of these particular issues, does it? And I'm pretty sure that if Grant Morrison had wanted to write a Great Ten comic, DC would have wet themselves to give him the opportunity to do so.

Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel have been doing a great job with this series. Maybe not a home run, but certainly a solid sliding triple.

And in a time when we're all whining about DC being hung up on the past and whiter than white, shouldn't we all be at least checking out, if not actively supporting, a series that gives us 10 Asian heroes, and a whole new heroic spot previously unexplored on the the DC Universe map? That doesn't mean we stop complaining about Ryan Choi's unnecessary death...but shouldn't we also be spending money on a good super-hero series that's not by the usual DC death cult, or by the "hung up in the 1970s" cult--a series that's doing exactly what we say we want them to do? Or, despite what we say, are we just going to ignore it because there's no Superman or Batman or Teen Titan involved? Or reject it out of some self-fulfilling "it will never succeed" cynicism?!?

Your local comics shoppe doubtless has back issues of this just lying around. Or, since it's almost done, pick it up in the inevitable trade. Pick them/it up, or you're missing some good comics, is all I'm saying. I mean, an I Ching based robot, people--and he's just one of ten!!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

The Punic Wars, Part II

Remember how Rome not only destroyed Carthage, but also salted the earth so nothing would grow*, and then later founded their own Roman colony there?

That's sort of like what's happened to Tony Bedard's DC books, especially Batman and the Outsiders.

So, how is that 2 year exclusive contract working out for you, Tony?

*Yes, I know that "salting the earth" story is almost certainly untrue. Don't stop me when I'm on a roll!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hoist By His Own Bedard

So, Tony Bedard, how's that 2-year exclusive deal with DC working out for you?
  • You take over Supergirl, but your run last a whole 3 issues, all marred by having to be "event" crossovers; you're reduced to being a place-holder between the 2 Kelly's, Joe Kelly and Kelley Puckett.
  • You take over the Legion of Super-heroes after Mark Waid, but your run is ended after a mere 6 issues. You're moved aside for Jim Shooter, who used to write the Legion 150 years ago, and admits that he hasn't even read the Legion in years.
  • You grab one of the golden rings, a Batman book, of sorts. You're launching the New Batman & The Outsiders!! Uh-oh, not so fast: you're canned from that book BEFORE IT'S EVEN PUBLISHED...you won't even get to do #1!!!! That's gotta be some kinda record, huh?

So, what did you do, Tony--run over Dan DiDio's grandmother? Date and dump Paul Levitz's daughter?

Really, a 2-year exclusive contract for this???