Frothing Rant: Wonder Woman in the early '70's

Maybe I am an old grognard in comics, too.

Maybe I devoted too much of my life to reading comics and learning about them.

Review: Hooky

  Marvel Comics Graphic Novel #22 is Hooky.

As I recall, I picked this up at the Hobbit, a hobby shop in Fayetteville that got about 40% of my monthly pay when I was an unmarried soldier. I grabbed it in about 1987.

  Hard to believe that is almost 30 years ago.

Spoilers Follow

Synopsis:
  There is an opening with Spidey in New York.It is cold, miserable, and he has a mild cold. Soon he runs into an old friend, Mandy. When he was a little kids (long before he had super powers) she was the 12 year old foster child living next door to Uncle ben, Aunt May, and Peter. She hasn't changed at all.
  As in, shes still 12 years old.
  She explains to Spidey that she is the daughter of a powerful wizard who lost a magical war centuries ago. To prevent his foes from killing her he cast a spell on her that would force her to stop growing up - she would remain 12 forever. Since she would never mature she would never have the chance to become a powerful mage and, harmless, she could live.
  But she needs his help. A thing, called the Tordenkakerlakk ('thunder cockroach') is coming for her and if you defeat it it just comes back stronger.
  Spidey, always a sucker for a kid in trouble, is soon whisked away to the pocket dimension of Cloudseal where, on a floating ship, he fights with the eldritch might of the Tordenkakerlakk....

Review:
  A wonderful little book, Hooky is a treasure trove of hooks and ideas for gamemasters.
Writing: The story is simple, the exposition is good, the dialog is classic Spidey, and the plot is a ton of fun.
Art: The monster is in one style, the heroes in another, from the same artist.  It is as if Romita did Spidey, New York, and such while Serpieri did the monster and the mystical stuff. It sounds jarring but it was very effective in making the mystical very other within the book. I have seen others criticize the difference, but I think it was a bold move that I like a great deal.
Overall: Worth the money to own and the time to read and something I can come back to.

Gaming Related:
  It has tons of RPG-flavored hooks - the old neighbor (NPC) that turns out to be a cursed princess (backstory coming back); a mystical foe that gets strong when it is defeated; Sailing ships that fly; A pocket dimension that was formerly home to the castle of an archmage.
  The hits just keep coming.
  Heck, just the obvious magic items in the book are worth stealing.
  Hell, this book is a great 3rd-5th level Spelljammer adventure as is.

Let's Talk About Captain Marvel

  Anyone who reads enough of my stuff about comics will learn that I am a huge fan of Captain Marvel, that iconic superhero that was part of what made comics such a Big Deal. Captain Marvel appeals to me for all of the usual reasons guys like superheroes, but he also appeals to me as a writer and as an ethicist.
  And I think the difficulty many writers have in portraying Captain Marvel is a symptom of weakness in the comics industry.

Concept
  Captain Marvel appeared in February 1939, just 8 months after Superman's first publication. Now, Captain Marvel took a while to get approved by Fawcett comics because of how much the character changed before being printed. The original idea was he would be Captain Thunder and would have lieutenants, each of whom had specific powers (the captain would have them all). But after a lot of wrangling they settled on having a 10 year old boy who uses a special word to become Captain Marvel.
  Captain Marvel's powers (and his magic word, 'shazam', were based upon what would now be considered archetypes:

S = the wisdom of Solomon. This has been revealed to give him three major 'abilities': access to, essentially, all of human knowledge; a brilliant intellect with near total recall; objective, nearly perfect, wisdom, especially on matters of morals and ethics.

H = the strength of Hercules. While originally in Fawcett comics this meant he was always at least slightly stronger than anything else (and stated once in 1942 that he was mystically' strong enough to do whatever he needed to do to beat evil), in the revivals it means he is effectively equal to Superman in strength.

A = the stamina of Atlas. Captain Marvel doesn't need to eat, drink, or even breathe. He also never gets tired. He is immune to poison and disease. If he is injured he heals very rapidly.

Z = the power of Zeus. In addition to boosting all of his other abilities, this makes him as invulnerable as Superman. It is also the source of his lightning. Captain Marvel can use the lightning as a weapon, as a method of instantly healing injuries that the stamina of Atlas can't, boost the magical spells of good mages, and even do things like make simple machines.

A = the courage of Achilles. This one is interesting. While the most 'RPG-like' element is that it makes him very resistant to things like mind control it is stated specifically that it also means he never gives in to despair, hopelessness, or self-doubt; he remains positive, cheerful, of good will and able to clearly discern good from evil. It also gives him the combat skills (melee and strategy/tactics) of one of the greatest warriors in history.

M = the speed of Mercury. This allows Captain Marvel to fly and move at incredible speeds, including easily travelling faster than light.

  It is notable that some of his powers are specifically about knowledge, wisdom, and emotions.

  While the exact relationship between Captain Marvel and Billy was never that clear, it was very interesting. Each referred tot he other as 'the same person' yet they had different personalities and could keep secrets from each other. They got each other presents at Christmas, for example, and the presents were a surprise. Captain Marvel was immortal and impervious to aging, Billy was not. The most consistent explanation for what happened was that when Billy said 'shazam!' he was transformed into a different, independent, person.

Impact
  The first comic to show Captain Marvel, Whiz Comics #2, sold 500,000 copies. For perspective, that is more than the March 2016 sales of Batman, Superman, Amazing Spiderman, Extraordinary X-Men, and Mighty Thor put together. When comics are popular. And the national population is three times larger. At his height of popularity Captain Marvel was selling 1.8 million comics every 2 weeks.
  One comics historian thinks for at least one month Captain Marvel was outselling every other comic put together.
  Captain Marvel had a huge impact on Superman, too. As many know, at first Superman could only leap great distances. He flew a little in 1941 (which was a one-off) and didn't regularly fly until 1943 and then only because he flew in the famous Cartoons! In contrast Captain Marvel was flying, and routinely, by issue #5 in 1940. With the Wisdom of Solomon Captain Marvel could solve math equations instantly, build complex machines, etc., all decades before Silver Age Superman did similar things. Captain Marvel, jr., a teen version of Cap, beat Superboy by 4 years and Mary Marvel, the girl version, beat Supergirl by 13 years.
  But one of the most important influences Captain Marvel had on Superman was tone and morality.

  Early Superman tales were fairly dark - domestic violence, corrupt politicians, war profiteers, etc. were all common. And while Captain Marvel fought things like the ruler of a pre-human civilization or a villain empowered by evil the stories were whimsical and designed to appeal to children, as well. The shift in tone of Superman was a direct reaction to how the lighter tone of Captain Marvel sold so much better.

  But the most profound shift may have been in tone. Early superman was truly a vigilante: he beat men unconscious, he tricked villains into turning death rays upon their allies or themselves; in at least one instance he flat-out did his best to murder the Ultra-Humanite.

  Not the Big Blue Boy Scout we are all used to, is it?
  The reality is that Captain Marvel was a model of morality with his opposition to immorality and his championing of morality part and parcel of his origin and his characterization.

  This morality, and the Wisdom of Solomon, meant that Captain Marvel's morality was always positive and clear. This was so much more popular with readers that Superman became the 'Boy Scout' in imitation of Captain Marvel.

Today
  While Jeff Smith's Shazam!:The Monster Society of Evil nails the tone and outlook of original Captain Marvel (remember, kids - the world is saved because Billy Batson is a good, kind little boy!) far too often contemporary writers seem to flat-out not grasp the concept of Captain Marvel. Geoff Johns made Billy Batson selfish and mean; in Justice League: War they made Billy a thief and Captain Marvel a juvenile buffoon; etc.

  This is a shame: as Smith proved in S!tMSoE, an accurate version of the Marvel family is simply good comics and can attract a lot of readers. It seems that this is filtering into many more peoples' awareness and, hopefully, we can get more great Captain Marvel goodness in the future!

Talking About the Punisher

[Warning! I haven't edited this puppy yet]

  I have never been one to shy away from controversy. And I have been gone a long time. COmbined, let's shake things up at talk about the Punisher.
  He's a popular topic right now; he is in the current season of Daredevil (which the family and I are watching weekly) and Joss Whedon said a few hilarious things about him, too.

Quick Aside: Garth Ennis is a hack and I don't read anything he writes anymore unless I must. Just FYI.

 To me the most interesting thing said about the Punisher was by one of the men who created the character, Gerry Conway, who said [paraphrased],

  'The Punisher is such a thin character on his own that he is a Rorschach test.'

  This feels true enough to stand.

  Since I love to redirect and to talk about myself, let's detour a little.
  I graduated high school early and enlisted in the army at 17. I was active duty for 8 years as a linguist, cryptographer, intelligence analyst, and electronic warfare specialist. I was tactical and out of Ft. Bragg. I was in Desert Shield/Desert Storm/Desert Sabre.

You did know the ground offensive was called Desert Sabre, didn't you?

  During combat operations my team was attached to the French 6th Light Armored, meaning we went to war with the French Foreign Legion. I came back with a handful of medals and seriously considered joining the FFL, but I had met this girl....

  Anyway, once upon a time after the war I encountered a man about my age that was shocked and horrified that I had been a soldier. When he found out I was in combat he was obviously Deeply Troubled. But the worst, for him, was to learn that I was proud of my actions. He declared that I was just a cold-blooded murderer because...

  Violence Is Never The Answer.

 So we had this conversation, a talk familiar with many of the vets out there, where I asked him what he would do if he saw a woman dragged into an alley. 'Call the cops', 'Yell at the guy, tell him the cops were coming', 'Call for help'. It always boiled down to either the police came and used violence or other bystanders came and used violence. But the speaker never used violence.

  Now, the idea of wanting other people to do hard things is OK. My kids change the litter box and mow the lawn for reasons beyond 'it builds character'. The problem is when you pretend those things don't need doing or, worse, convince yourself those things are Bad, or, worst of all, firmly believe that doing them is Beneath You.

  Back to comic books.

  Marvel introduced the Punisher in 1974. Now, for you kids out there that need to GET OFFA' MY LAWN! you might not know that 1974 was a really, really bad time to live in an American metropolis. New York City was so beset by violent crime the police officers union was warning tourists to stay away and the nickname 'Fear City' was being used. Detroit's Devil's Night mass arson/riots tradition was well underway. The Zodiac Killer had just sent another letter after being uncaught (and he never was); in the Northwest and Utah young women were vanishing at the rate of 1 per month as the as-yet-unknown Ted Bundy was on his killing spree; the BTK Killer had just begun; The Zebra Murders are ongoing; the domestic terrorist group the Weathermen were still very fresh in NYC's memories, as are several other active domestic terror groups; the previous decade had seen massive riots in cities across America, including multiple days of riots in NYC just the year before.
  The Vietnam War was ongoing.
  The Knapp Commission had revealed massive levels of corruption in the NYC police department ranging from taking bribes from tow-truck operators to issue tickets up to working for the mob as enforcers. The same story was being found true in Chicago, Los Angeles, etc., etc.

  In short, there was a very unpopular war going on; infrastructure was falling apart; wages were flat while unemployment and inflation were rising; violent crime, riots, and, serial killers, and terrorists made the streets and homes unsafe; and the police were either corrupt or scattered and unfunded.

  The collapse of American cities into violence and fear was widespread enough to be a key element of a Bond villain in 1973, much like how Russian mobsters were big decades later.

  Media had already been responding before this; While the wide acceptance of war movies, often based on WWII but going beyond, meant that audiences were more used to a high body count than you might think, films from Enter the Dragon to Shaft opened up audiences to the idea of a contemporary, sophisticated, non-soldier hero who kills to pursue justice. Films like Billy Jack, Coffy, and even Magnum Force were portraying vigilantes who killed their targets, usually in a positive role (although Magnum Force opposed this view). The seminal movie Death Wish came out shortly after the Punisher appeared, again showing lethal vigilantes in a positive, if nuanced, light.
 
  And here comes Frank Castle.

  And he wasn't alone, not really. If I could travel back in time to my parent's garage in 1981 in the back left, next to my dad's Swing and Jazz records were cases of - war comics. Hundreds of issues of titles like Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, Fightin' Army, Our Army At War, Our Fighting Forces, and more. I also had Weird Western Tales, Billy the Kid, Creepy, Eerie, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Ghostly Tales, Tomb of Dracula, Scream, and more.

  So when the Punisher showed up the movie theaters and comic books racks were awash with violence, death, automatic weapons, and vigilantes who killed their targets. you could barely throw a rock without hitting somebody shooting somebody else for vengeance.

  So why does the Punisher stick out so much?
  I have a theory.
  [Yeah, you're shocked, I can tell. "Rick? With a theory?!"]

  Let's start with the most obvious - the Punisher hangs out with Spiderman. Not to get into a long rant about the Comics Code Authority, but what we would now call 'mainstream comics' had pretty much been stuck with the CCA for a long time by that point and the idea of a character in a superhero comic who killed people and WASN'T a villain surprised some people (which I will talk about more, later).
  Another thing was the same sort of concern that led to the CCA in the first place - the fear that looking at X makes people X. We've all heard it before -
  "Penny dreadfuls will make kids violent"
  "Pulps will make kids violent"
  "Crime radio programs will make kids violent"
  "Movies about mobsters will make kids violent"
  "Violent TV shows will make kids violent"
  "Violent video games will make kids violent"
  Well, back in the 1940's the whole "violent comic books will make kids violent" card had been played very, very hard and a lot of people believed it. Some people seem to still believe it.

  But one interesting thing I have noticed about people who complain about the Punisher is their resemblance to certain science fiction and fantasy fans; just like a surprising amount of SF/Fantasy fans don't know anything about the major works pre 1970 or so, a huge number of people I encounter that claim to be 'comic book nerds' don't know much, if anything, about War, Romance, Horror, or Weird comics from the 1950's - 1970's.
  Now, this is fine - I know people that only like Star Wars (the original) and don't read or watch anything else and, yes, they are 'legit nerds'. But I have a hard time with such people telling me

"The Punisher is bad because there is no place for heroes that kill in comic books."

  Tell that to Sgt. Rock, the crew of the Haunted Tank, or the Unknown Soldier! If you think all comics, ever, were always and always will be Silver Age Batman to Richie Rich then I really have no idea what to tell you except - Nick Fury.
 
  There are plenty of examples from other companies, but Nick Fury is also a Marvel property. Nick, formerly Sgt. Fury of the Howling Commandos, famously heads SHIELD.
  And he kills more people than James Bond. Indeed, so many members of Hydra were killed in the comic pages that there was a spoof years later (by Marvel!) that showed the after life had a separate entrance for a miles-long queue of Hydra agents.
  So Marvel had a hero in the same universe as Spidey dropping bodies every issue eleven years before the premiere of the Punisher.
  Yet I don't hear people calling Nick Fury a 'psychopath' or saying his fans are 'fascists'. Do you?

  So what do I think is going on? Why does the Punisher harsh the mellow of certain sorts so much?
  Simple - he breaks their daydreams.

  Let's be honest - probably more than most other media, four-color superhero comics are about wish fulfillment. Sure, sure, so is radio, and pulps, and so on, but the four-colors really snuggle up to wish fulfillment and give it a big ol' hug. No matter how grim 'n gritty the Dark Age got Superman still sold well. People look tot he superhero genre for a bit f wish fulfillment more than they tend to do in other media, in my opinion.
  There has always been violence in comics, even if it was just a thrown brick. Superhero comics are full of violence.
  Fatalities are obviously acceptable in comics. War and Horror comics were full of death, often gruesome death. And Nick Fury sure as heck killed a lot of people before returning to his helicarrier to talk to Iron man and Captain America.  So why is the Punisher disliked so?

  Well, what is the wish fulfillment of being, oh, the Flash? You can do things other people can't do and you use those abilities to make things better, right? Superman has been making money since 1938 because people don't just wish they could fly, they wish they could fly and make the world better. That is pretty cool.

  The Punisher actually does fit in there. He is better than other people at what he does. He is smart, tough, skilled. He likes children, puppies, and apple pie. He is loyal to his friends. He risks his life every day because he wants to make the world a better place.
  But he does it by killing criminals.
  Just like Nick Fury.
  But where Nick, the Unknown Solider, even the Agents of SHIELD are all soldiers, or spies, or cops, Frank Castle is an ex-soldier. He is a vigilante. Is he dealing with threats the police aren't equipped to handle, just like Spiderman? Sure. Is he taking up the slack left by corrupt cops, corrupt judges, and corrupt politicians, just like Batman? Yes, he is. Is his solution the sort that prevents too many recurring villains, like Nick Fury. Yup.

  I believe the problem of the Punisher is - some people think that violence is beneath them; that the ultimate responsibility of getting things done belongs to someone else. They always want to be Batman and never think about the guards at Arkham.

  Don't mistake me - I like Batman never killing; I think Superman vs the Elite made great points. I mean, my favorite superhero is Fawcett's Captain Marvel!
  But that doesn't mean there is no room for the Punisher. And it doesn't mean the Punisher can't say important things. And it very frankly doesn't mean other superheroes would automatically hate him.
  Oh - and liking the Punisher doesn't make you a Fascist.

  One of these days I will review the movies.

The Age We Live In

WARNING: Spoilers for the Flash

  1978 was a great year. I turned 11 in the Summer. I started playing Dungeons and Dragons the year before and had finally started my own group. A friend of mine was running a great Traveller campaign. Wonder Woman was on TV and Channel Four had Science Fiction Theater and Sammy Terry. I was mowing lawns and earning enough money with that and my allowance to have 12 comic book subscriptions and enough left over to buy more on my own. The older brother of a friend had given me a reprint of Batman #232 (if you don't know why that is a big deal, shame on you). Black Lightning and  Green Lantern were my favorites. And in the Spring I added Firestorm to that list.
  Firestorm caught my eye the day it hit the stands. I read the first issue and immediately wrote to get a subscription. I made sure Tom at the comics shop knew I wanted them and he would stash a copy behind the counter for me. I liked the character a great deal and was disappointed by the DC Implosion taking it out not too much alter.
 

  Last night I was watching Flash with the wife and kids. My kids love watching superhero related stuff with me because my heavy reading of comics in youth means I usually spot most, if not all, the details. But in the most recent episode they covered the origin of Firestorm and were fairly close to the comics. At the end of the episode, then Firestorm flies away on a jet of flame, I was the most excited in the room.
  Today I was talking with my wife and we were talking about our plans to watch certain movies this year. I pointed out to her:

  -We watch the Flash on TV and it has Weather Wizard, Firestorm, Multiplex, etc.
  -We watch Arrow on TV with Captain Boomerang, Deathstroke, Professor Ivo, etc.
  -We watch Agents of SHIELD on TV with Hydra, the Inhumans, etc.
  -We are eagerly awaiting seeing the Avengers fight Ultron in cinemas this year.
  -The soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy, one of my favorite obscure comics, is a hit because the movie was popular (what's next, the Starjammers?)
  -There are new Godzilla movies!

  That's when I realized: the modern world's entertainment is starting to look like what 12 year old me wished for!

Off Topic: Comic Books

 I used to read a lot of comics.
  A. Lot.
  As I recall between 1974 and 1988 I had somewhere between 12 and 22 subscriptions at a time and would purchase more, as well. I really dropped off in sheer volume in 1988 and virtually stopped by 1992. I do still read them, but selectively and often collections of classics.
  Why the change? Two main reasons.
  There was a tone of moralizing in comics from the time I started, a sense that the writers were interested in telling you what you should think rather than telling you a fun story. Green Lantern/Green Arrow was a (very, very) obvious example of this. For me the last straw was the death of the character Doug Ramsey - killing a character that drove good stories to send the message 'guns're bad" was terribly annoying.
  Bu the bigger reason was how slavish adherence to continuity was (IMO) draining the fun out of comics. The letter pages at Marvel seems to all consist of variations of  'in issue 223 of The Stupendous Spiderman [written by a staff writer under the supervision of the editor in charge of Spiderman] Spidey said he had never done X. But in issue 45 of Obscure Cross-over Anthology [written by a contractor on a tight deadline to cover for a writer hit by a bus and supervised by an assistant editor already running 9 other properties] Spidey did x. Why did Spidey lie, fix it NOW, and I want a noprize." And DC had rwbooted their entire line of products to clean up their continuity,

  Don't get me wrong, I understand that DC had some issues with their lines. I personally can recall owning various comics that told completely conflicting stories of what happened to Superman's parents after they launched his rocketship, for example. Add in that the list of 'last survivors of Krypton' was up to a few million and, well, sure.
  But a strict continuity means that you are forced to jettison fun stories because they don't fit. Here is an example of a story arc that I owned and loved.

  A powerful foe appears from space. Superman uses all of his strength but, in the end, Superman dies. After the death of Superman the earth is in chaos but a 'replacement' Superman uses his powers to take over through threat of force. But the real Superman was only mostly dead; an aient revives him with yellow sun radiation and, reinvigorated, the real Superman deals with the replacement and reveals him to be a fake.

  It is the iconic 'Death of Superman' arc, right?
  Nope. This was all done in two issues of World's Finest in 1977, a full 15 years prior to that famous arc.
  Let me repeat and expand; in two issues of a comic Superman dies, a fake Superman creates a world-wide dictatorship, Superman returns to life and overthrows the ruler of the entire world, and not a single other comic from DC mentioned it, then or ever.
  And why not? After all, it was just a comic book, right?
  But with strict continuity this would be impossible, even in a 'side franchise' comic like World's Finest whose bread and butter was super cavemen and weekly alien invasions.

  The original goal of continuity was to create opportunities for more and even better stories. Now the goal of continuity is continuity and it now drives out more and better stories.

  That is why I like Squirrel Girl. Don't know who she is? Look her up. Better, look up the list of villains she has beaten. And she's beaten them in canon so that it is part of continuity. I love the character because it takes the starch out of the strict continuity types.

  So [to throw out a bone to the TRPG nature of the blog] Just like you can't let the status quo prevent your campaign from advancing, don't be a slave to continuity, either, as long as the changes aren't to harm or railroad (too much) the party. Focus on fun - after all, we are playing games.