Very thoughtful, very interesting essay on the evolution of DC (and, to a certain extent, Marvel) throughout the lifetime of the company. I have one factual disagreement and one opinionated disagreement... A) As I understand it, DC did not force Jack Kirby to take the Jimmy Olsen title. On the contrary, DC was prepared to give Jack any title he wanted--Superman, Batman, Justice League, any of their flagship titles. According to legend Jack said but what about the people currently working on those books? The suits at DC told him theyd have to be demoted, fired, whatever. Kirby was a standup guy and said nah, Im not doing that to another working writer or artist. Give me your dog, your worst seller, the title nobody wants to work on. Which, of course, was Supermans Pal, Jimmy Olsen. Which turned out to be one of the key components of his Fourth World stories, and where he introduced Darkseid. B) I cannot disagree enough with the author when he says Identity Crisis is hellaciously ruinous. It was a dark story, I understand why some people dont like it, but really...criticizing it because there was a rape? We have a comic book universe in which there are super-murderers, super-thieves, super-would be world conquerors, super-would be world destroyers....is it really that unrealistic to imagine there might be at least one super-rapist? Im not saying it was a pretty scene, but the ramifications, the way it played out, the way it made Ralph and Sues relationship even stronger--that was good drama. Anyway, Im going to tag a bunch of people in the comments so they can chime in and tell me how right I am...
Posted on: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 23:17:08 +0000