Monday, February 7, 2011

Superman: Distant Fires

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As in you want to set fire to this thing from a distance.


102 comments:

Unknown said...

Douse anybody know how to ask Linkora if he is going to review a certain comic. There are a few I would like to see his take on and was wondering if he was planning on doing them.

Some are

Nightwing 86-93 (at the time this was the only DC comic series I was reading and I hated that all of his supporting cast was killed and then the writer had a Mary Sue pop in kill the big bad and rape the hero)

Spiderman Disassembled (not to be confused with the much better and not at all related Avengers Disassembled, this comic featured Spidey facing a villainess who wanted to mate with him which turned him into a spider and ends with him giving birth to himself. It also featured some of the worst characterization of my favorite hero Captain America and also Nick Fury).

There are a few others but I want to know if these are worthy of atop the fourth wall

Thank you

Alex Stritar said...

Weirdest thing, during the review, I actually had my copy of Kingdom Come right next to me. Weird huh.

Anyway, nice review. If the whole comic was what it was for the first half, then it probably be at least halfway decent. Hell, I'd probably read it, being a fan of the Fallout series and all. But considering how much radical plot twists and consintrated stupid that was in the second half, it more then deserves being torn apart by a Deathclaw.

Also, loved the use oof the Pokemon route 1 music.

deuxhero said...

Actually, Solomon wasn't really that wise apart from the baby thing (Going to Pagan worship in The Bible, also, he's David's son, Uriah ect. ect.) and Cpt. Cookoo's actions would easily be in character for Solomon. Though I guess that stems all the way back to giving Marvel the wisdom of a guy who is obviously not to wise if you read his source material.

It's still stupid writing though

Anonymous said...

I just realized that "V-Minus X" is counting down to... Valentine's Day. Who wants to bet that next week's review is going to be a love story?

Trevor said...

Prepare for War, Fourthers!

In the mean time, props for recommending Kingdom Come as opposed to this horrible story. Wouldn't it have made more sense for Guy Gardner to have the GL power battery than some nameless extra?

Lundarigirl said...

Nice intro. Lots of great build up for next weel. I can't wait!

That whole "Superman surviving the apocolypse" thing reminds me of a Justice League episode where he was sent into a future destroyed by that immortal villian. I think his name was Savage.

Anonymous said...

great review but what happend to kryptonite the cat

Thomas Venema said...

MAJOR PLOTHOLE

How come captain Marvels kids are adults ...yet Supermans son wich was born earlier is still a kid??

Anonymous said...

I was about to give this comic a pass as merely "mundane" bad too, until Billy Batson started going off the deep end. If they just stuck to depowered Supes exploring a post-apocalyptic future on the back of a giant cat, I would be a lot more lenient with it, but dear lord it went downhill fast after that.

Overall, not your funniest episode, although I always enjoy any excuse for more Pokemon music in your videos. :D

Drunken Lemur said...

I Superman riding battlecat on the cover?

Anonymous said...

Wow. I think that was even worse than Superman: At Earth's End, simply because of how horribly out of character everyone was and how utterly pointless the whole thing was.

I mean, at least Superman: AEE had some original ideas, even if the execution was horrible. Everything here seems to have been taken from earlier, better stories AND the execution is horrible.

Does it seem to anyone else that this comic may have been planned as a mini-series and they condensed into one issue? There's four montages... most mini-series are four issues, minimum. Coincidence? Probably... but it would explain a lot if the writer was trying to pen an epic and was then told to put it all into one prestige-size GN.

Lord Harlock said...

Honestly, I could buy the idea that Billy Batson had nearly grown kids due to his powers. If he was able to pass on the "Powers of Shazam" to at best toddlers, they would probably grow a bit after a bit of that magic lightening. That I'd buy. However, that's the easiest thing to explain away.

Hell there was a better excuse for the world exploding. If the Joker's insanity is a power as DC at one point claimed and Distant Fire bought, he could have blown up the world just for a lark since apparently he could build a futuristic city with only twigs and basic materials. That would have been more logical line of thought.

Though the thing that bugged me the most was Superman just placing his kid in the construct and telling him to go. Honestly, the kid needs a father, and as much as it is a neat way to end Superman's life by having him bear witness to another world exploding, it makes no sense if he can make a construct that will travel through space with two people. The smarter thing if the writer wanted to pull that stunt off would be to say the ring only had enough power for a one passenger construct.

Really there are some interesting concepts here if you get rid of the timing issues, giant rats, and odd bouts of insanity that Superman had. Hell, he could have thrown Matrix(Supergirl aka Linda Davies).

That actually bring up another point. Supergirl was by that point in the Peter David Supergirl era. As such, she would have reverted back to Linda's form and not protoform Matrix. This was due to Matrix being absorbed into Linda in the initial story to safe the girl's life. And she could not shapeshift at that point. In fact, Act of God actually got that right because she was changed permanently into Linda.

Lastly as much as I'd like to dig deeper into this story's flaws, I just realized that Mr. Miracle and Big Barda could have probably just transported the inhabitants to New Genesis via Boom Tube. New God technology would probably survive a nuclear war especially if it was on Mr. Miracle or Barda at the time.

Cubey said...

Wow, that was bad. To describe it in one word: stupid. Stupid science, stupid characterisation, stupid comic. At least the early parts were stupid in an amusing way. Gotta love the image of Superman riding a giant kitty, his arms held up high. He looks so happy!

How come the Joker survived the apocalypse? Is Arkham resistant to nuclear strikes? Or are they trying to tell me someone let JOKER into a shelter?

TimeTravelerJessica said...

LOL Liz looked ticked when you told her what you'd be doing while everyone else is getting ready.

What is with the obsessive Clark/Diana shipping? It's like every other Elseworld/alternate timeline story I've seen dispenses with Lois as quickly as possible to get Clark and Diana together. Now, I can't say I dislike the pairing, it could actually be really good if actually done well ... But why do all these writers hate Lois?

As for the rest of it, well, it started out kind of okay but then toppled off a cliff into wonky. Making Captain Marvel a bad guy? Captain Marvel? He's a little kid!

And it's really too bad they didn't stay with sane!Joker for more of the story. Watching sane!Joker come to terms with the massive amounts of pain and suffering he's caused over the years would have been much more interesting than evil!Captain Marvel.

Anonymous said...

The look on Liz's face at the end of her scene was priceless. ;)

I read this Elseworlds ages ago--I don't remember hating it so much as wondering at the weird logic (The Miracles lived, but Bruce died?). And also shaking my head at Marvel's characterization. Well reviewed, sir!

areoborg said...

Lt Monroe? He outranks Harry Kim? That doesn't surprise me. Poor, dumb Harry.

This is why we shouldn't leave self-aware computers in control of our nukes. It never turns out well for us.

If they're getting their old powers back, doesn't that mean that the Joker is starting to go back to being insane?

Carlos Hugo said...

Man, you should stop making bigger the list of comics you want to work with, and began to work some of them.

As I can recall you have some comics with more than a year in hiatus:

Thunderstrike
The dark age of comics
Battle for Bludhaven

And only you know which others have a hiatus as long as those one.

And I miss so much "Miller's Time", i hope you continues with the All Star Batman & Robin No. 3 and 4 (yes, I have read your o so old entry about this, and that is why I want it in video review)

Aaron "The Mad Whitaker" Bourque said...

I wouldn't bring up Kingdom Come in the same sentence as this (except I just did, didn't I?) for the same reasons you mention.

Anonymous said...

This comic strikes me as someone with fanfic-class writing skills managing to get a Superman comic published. It's like every bad doomsday scenario shoved into one ugly package.

Good review. Looking forward to the big showdown next week.

Hawkx1 said...

IDK who had the worse job you reading that crappy comic or Liz. Great to see all the incarnations of Linkara in the same AT4W.

Andrew said...

Good review of a truly atrocious comic. My dad was a nuclear engineer aboard an SSBN during the Cold War and alleviated my fears about nuclear weapons destroying the Earth with basic logic. Hell, even if all the nukes went off it doesn't immediately ensure the extinction of the human race. It wouldn't be pleasant but given nearly all the targets on either side would be military in nature, most of South America, Africa and large portions of Asia and Australia would all be spared. Radioactive fallout would be a problem for years afterwards but nukes detonated in airburst style (that is, high above the ground) don't cause as much fallout as nukes detonated at ground level.

Anonymous said...

Awesome.. that concise enough?

Jyger85 said...

...Wait. Animorphs reference?! AWESOME! I loved that book back in the day!

Jeez, if not for the first half, this comic would've been worse than At Earth's End... ...Although then again, At Earth's End featured Superman vs Twin Hitler Clones in the future, so maybe this IS worse. lol

So the last ditch effort to stop Vyce will take place next month, huh? Can't frigging wait. Also looking forward to what your 'little secret' is. Any hints?

Author-Man said...

Oh god Liz's face at the end of the opener is priceless.

Gus said...

absolutely love the beginning of this video. Wow that comic was shotty at least compared to your review of other comics make them seem.

TekJansen said...

Classic! I have really enjoyed this story arc and how it works with the reviews, neither seem to overshadow the other I think and it's really interesting.

As for the comic, it seemed to be full of good ideas but also sadly full of really bad ones as well as poor writing.

The end was a good idea in theory, Super Man Sending his son off as the earth exploded. But everything leading to that was stupid. Well, ^^ Looking forward to the next review!

corey said...

great review and as for the earth blowing itself up part with everyones powers restored dont you think any of the superpowered survivors wouldve noticed somthing like that happening and stopped being morons for a short amount of time to see if they can somehow get it taken care of,considering there are people in the dc universe who have powers attuned to nature.

Psionvisionary said...

Hah! That look on Liz's face was priceless.
The world may be in danger but someone still needs to review crappy comics

Robert Willing said...

HEY man THANK YOU so much for finally getting to this review! I knew you'd rip it a new one very well and you did not disappoint :D

The Mad Scientist said...

To quote you from the Superman at Earth's End review, SWEET MERCIFUL CRAP! This story is downright abominable! How the hell did they get away with screwing up Captain Marvel like that? It's just atrocious!

And V-MINUS 7! WHERE IS MY TIME MACHINE???????

Brand said...

I think this comic blew my mind with it's stupidity. Out of all the stuff you have reviewed this is the one that hurts my brain the most.

I mean I can understand a writer believing their own schlock is totally awesome but didn't some editor have to read this first?! If someone sat that piece of crap in my lap I'd think I'd roll it up and hit them with it.

xpetsy said...

Wow Linkara. Have you ever considered starring in a one man play? Considering the variety of characters you can play, I say it'd be a hit!

Anonymous said...

I know that in your top 15 screw-ups that you have three (or so) reasons for not going with certain jokes for various reasons, but c'mon! You should have made a reference (or imitate Burgess Meredith) to "Time Enough at Last" when Supes starts using the vocabulary expanding words.
I also found it surprising that you didn't make a He-Man joke about the cover and how it resembles He-Man riding his giant tiger. I personally would have played the song "Tiger Rider vs The Time Sprinkler!" by The Aquabats for that cover, but that's just me. Of course there are a great deal of post-apocalyptic things that you could have referenced and so I'm not holding it against you.
What I found to be very effective in this review was your references to your review of Superman: At Worlds End and I don't mean the "of course don't you know anything about science?" gag.

Octo7 said...

@ robert: suggest them here or send him an e-mail.

Laughing Hyena said...

As someone who's into Geology, for that awesome rant: Thank you and amen!

It seems that a lot of people don't get that. Humanity completely dieing off (Especially from nukes) does not equal the earth being destroyed in any shape or form...

The other headdesking moment for me is all the people who state California is going to fall into the ocean because of earthquakes. Whut?

Random Internet Critic said...

I’m such a jealous nerd, how many Starfleet uniform variations do you have? Will we soon see you in the Original Series uniforms or the famous scarlet-red, double vested uniforms first used in Wrath of Khan and last used in Generations?
Anyway, very good review. Entertaining and informative as always. But I’m just wondering, wouldn’t the Green Lantern Power Ring stop working? I mean, there is probably lots of fear going around since the world is ending and isn’t fear the Green Lantern Corps’ weakness, since it is what powers the Sinestro Corp? I may be thinking about it wrong since I’m not a massive comic book nerd....yet.

Anyway, this post-apocalyptic story sucked and was so unrealistic. I mean, where are the radroaches or the wandering blind man with a Braille Bible?
I hope the final battle with Vyce has POWERHOUSE EXCITEMENT!!!

Jesse said...

90s Kid was funny here.

This was bad, but not as bad as Superman: At Earth's End or JLA: Act of God. Funny how Billy was the most mature in AOG but basically Superboy-Prime here. I wonder if I'm the only one who LIKES Superboy-Prime?

You'd think Joker going sane would be a plot element, like the others not knowing if they could trust him or not, or Cheetah for that matter.

I know the Superman/Wonder Woman pairing is somewhat popular in Else World stories, and with the except of Kingdom Come, they all pretty much suck. I attribute that to bad writing more than the pairing sucking. Better than Wonder Woman and Batman anyways.

After this I think I will go read my copy of Kingdom Come now.

Consolecleric said...

I'll be honest:

How do these artists get the nerve to draw a picture of somebody killing Wonder Woman?

Honestly, I couldn't do that. It almost feels immoral.

Bloopette said...

Hi, first-time poster, long-time lurker. And...uh...wow, this actually made me long for At Earth's End and Act of God. That's pretty sad. The Joker going sane? Marvel being completely railroaded? Improbable physics and deus ex machina? AND we had Superman using guns?!

It's like someone had an ok idea at the beginning for this, and then suddenly just started going "Oh no, I ran out of decent plot ideas!" and just started making stuff up as they went along once the futuristic city sprung up. Yeah, it's Elseworlds, but that doesn't mean it can't be believable, yeesh. Even the art went downhill, rather noticeably, at that point, as if the artist took one good look at what he was supposed to draw and realized there was no hope, only getting through it by repeatedly telling himself "it's a paycheck!"

With that in mind I have to also recommend Kingdom Come since it does the prospect of nuclear destruction AND Biblical subtext better than At Earth's End, Act of God, and this story by leaps and bounds (over tall buildings, of course). And with better, much more consistent art, too.

Also, perhaps the final battle with Vyce on Valentine's Day - i.e. V-over-Vyce Day with that surprise double-feature? Hmmm.

CZ said...

A one legged Flash? ... that's just mean, lol

Tannhaeuser said...

At the beginning, why is there a tiger in Africa (or, alternatively, a zebra in Asia)? Wait, a comic with this many problems, and I’m focusing on that?

said...

Good review man :) I always love when Elseworld comics are reviewed. This one really struck a cord with me because I love Captain Marvel and this is about as out of character as you could get with him. It really sucks that almost no one can write a good Captain Marvel comic. The only ones I have read are the current one for kids going on right now and SHAZAM The Monster Society of Evil. Hopefully he'll get his own series again with someone who actually understands him I mean look at Jonah Hex or Booster Gold, great comics now thanks to the creative team.

One thing I picked up that you never hit was why the hell does Guy Gardner not have his powers. Is this when he was Warrior? Or what? and if he was Green Lantern why didn't he go looking for the power battery and go see if he could get help from Oa?

With this review I actually noticed something. You seem to do a lot of DC Elseworlds books but you never have done a Marvel "What if" book before. Is that on purpose of just a slip of the mind or can you not find any worth reviewing?

And Lastly YES go read Kingdom Come because it is far better then this crap. And if you want a better comic that ends with the world blowing up and it still stars Superman go read "Red Son" because again it's far better then this crap :)

Unknown said...

I geeked out so hard when I heard you play the Route 1 music from Pokémon! :D

Unknown said...

I looked up the creative team for this thing: Howard Chaykin and Gil Kane.

Wow. Shows how even two legends can slip up sometimes.

Unknown said...

KINGDOM COME

Twice in the episode you said that if people wanted to see a good elsewords tale where Supes and Marvel fight each other, they should seek out Kingdom Come. But Kingdom Come is NOT a good elseworlds tale. It's one of the worst. It's not the basic premise of a new generation of superheroes without role models, it's not the brainwashing of Captain Marvel. It's Superman.

Kingdom Come is revered as a great comic, but like At Worlds End, it completely bastardizes the character of Superman. Joker kills Lois Lane, Magog kills Joker. Magog is acquitted and because of that, Superman decides if the world would prefer a more violent hero, they can have it. That is not Superman! Superman wouldn't abandon the world to a superhero with a distinct lack of ethics.

OK, maybe Superman's grief over Lois Lane's death is the real reason he quit and Magog's acquittal was just the excuse he used but it still doesn't feel right. In fact Superman does the opposite of what you'd expect his character to do. Rather than severing ties to his life as Clark Kent, detaching himself from humanity and becoming only Superman without any real contact with friends or family given that his parents and wife are dead, he instead retreats into Clark Kent, devoting himself to a simpler, human life.

I can see that happening but not for 20 years (or however long the bulk of the story takes place after Lois' death). Clark's natural desire to help people, the urge that drove him to become Superman in the first place would have dragged him out of his self-imposed retirement as the world fell under the "protection" of more dangerous and less morally just heroes.

But let's put that aside. Let's assume that Superman would do all the things he did in that situation. He eventually comes out of retirement. Great...and then proceeds make himself the ruler of all superheroes. It's his way or no way. Not only are his actions once returning completely contrary to his character, but they amount to the same basic ideas of "what is necessary" that Magog aspired to when he killed Joker.

Superman essentially becomes a dictator, trying to force heroes to follow the strict moral code he himself abandoned when he abandoned the world. And if they don't adhere to his will, they get thrown in jail. This flies in the face of everything Superman is supposed to represent. Before the death of Lois, heroes looked to Superman as a role model, as did everyone else. He didn't force his beliefs on anyone, he merely acted in the best way he knew how and that inspired others to follow his lead.

Unknown said...

Yeah...I have a part 2 :P

The Superman of Kingdom Come isn't really Superman. Aside from completely destroying his character for the sole purpose of having Captain Marvel become the worlds greatest hero, Kingdom Come also makes Superman an idiot. His grand plan is to force heroes into doing things his way and if they don't, he will lock them up...together...without inhibiting their powers...yeah. The climax of the comic is centered around what a stupid idea this is.

Everything that happens to the world after Lois' death becomes Superman's fault. It turns him into a sulky, idiotic dictator and has Superman make choices that he would never make, even after the death of the person he loved most in the world because Superman, of all people, would be the one guy who would carry on doing his best for humanity. He doesn't intervene in wars, he doesn't get political, he doesn't judge humanity on what it is, instead hoping for what it could be. The big conclusion that Superman comes to at the end is pretty much "oh crap, I was wrong...sorry guys." It's complete BS. Superman can be mistaken, he can take the wrong action at times, but it's always within his moral and ethical code. The Superman we see here abandons that code, abandons everything that made him Superman just so Captain Marvel can save the day. Marvel sacrificing himself for the sake of others is great. I have no issue with that. My issue is in how the Man of Steel is treated for that to happen.

So yeah...Kingdom Come...not so great if you're a Superman fan. But that's my opinion. I'm sure you may disagree...just don't get me started on the other overrated comic that's often cited as being awesome - The Dark Knight Returns, which pisses on pretty much every superhero just because Frank Miller is in love with his own ego.

Sorry this was so long.

Shada said...

And here I was expecting you to work on preparations while having Harvey do your review. . .

That's okay, I don't think Harvey would've had the words to describe this creepy thing.

At first I didn't think that this was worse than Superman: AEE, but thinking about it - and having it's stupidity sink into my brain (ewwww...), I'd have to say that this is worse.

Superman at Earth's End lied (it wasn't the end of Earth), but more than that, it at least had a consistent timeline and didn't destroy so many superheroes at once.

No one noticed the ground breaking apart at their feet? I'd notice, and STOP fighting!

The whole destruction of Cap just for this stupid story is very irritating (I'd probably be pissed if I followed Captain Marvel more than Superman). He never had ANY girlfriends, he was twelve!

Great review of a crappy comic Linkara.

FugueforFrog said...

The only excuse I can think of why the comic was called "Distant Fire" is that the writer was inspired by the Sandford Townson Band...yeah that's all I got.

Sort of fear where Ninja Style Dancer is and what the heck 90s Kid is going to pull in this final battle...but the comic...well, it started off OK with some of the weirdness with the giant mutants but just became hilarious the moment it just de-evolved into "lets just show Captain Marvel fighting Superman for some stupid reason" and the return of "Superboy-Prime...only from Fawcett comics and the transformation of a decent character into some writer's rendition of crap...at least the Earth blows up this time before any chicken-headed androids and twin clones of Hitler appear but at least they make more sense.

As for why Captain Marvel revived the superpowers with his lighting powers...I know I'm going to get killed for this but:

Can't you believe
He is magic
and nothing can stand in his way.
(My apologies since I like that song...well that and how Oli-chan sings it)

Yogurt said...

Never understood why so many writers are obsessed with putting Supes in Doomsday scenarios where he's completely bonkers.

Then again I never got Captain Marvel's powers either. The whole "Wisdom of Solomon" thing is kind of silly from a scriptural standpoint. See, Solomon's Wisdom was limited to Politics and statescraft (hence, why he prayed to be a "wise leader"). He was capable of being a just and capable diplomat and leader, but ultimately he lacked (or rather, failed to develop) other skills and competencies, namely enough self-knowledge (what we might call "street smarts") to notice that his arrogance and greed was leading the Isrealites down to a path which would leave them vulnernable and broken. See the problam? It's like having the "Brains of Einstein": you'd be a brilliant physicist, but those skills wouldn't extend to say...cooking.

Patrick said...

As the mean, hurtful individual that donated this comic to Linkara to review and have been on his case for reviewing it, I have to say it was worth the wait. ^_^

This story is just terrible, made moreso by the fact that I'm a Captain Marvel fan, and had bought this comic because Captain Marvel was involved. Its only once I got it home and read it did I see the horror I had bought way back when.

In short, the analogy Linkara made about it being the Superman at Earth's End of Captain Marvel is spot on. Captain Marvel is made into an evil asshole when he's even more of a noble boyscout than Superman, and worse, it's implied that he's directly responsible for the planets destruction.

Something Linkara touched on but didn't go into was that the planet was being destroyed because every time Captain Marvel called down his power, it not only gave everyone else back their powers, but also damaged the environment of the planet, to the point that once everyone had their powers back, the Earth's days were numbered.

So basically, nuclear war will somehow cause the planet to . . . what, absorb the powers of all superhumans on the planet regardless of origin and use said powers to survive, but by Captain Marvel taking them back will cause the Earth to die?

Poor storytelling and the worst example of character derailment I've ever seen for Captain Marvel. It was like this thing was written by Dan Didio.

Thanks for getting around to reviewing this Linkara, and sorry I gave you such a hard time about not reviewing it before. ^_^

Anonymous said...

The review I've been waiting for a while. I wasn't dissapointed)

I think Cap Marvel here got it worse than Superman in EARTH END. At least Superman there was good-intentioned.

The only possible explanation (not that this crap deserves any) for Scott & Barda's kids and Marvel being adult I can come up with is that the armageddon happened about ten years in the future. Other timescale problems - no idea.

"I wonder if I'm the only one who LIKES Superboy-Prime?"

There are two of us. I liked him most in Infinite Crisis, but it went down from there. In IC his 'My Earth was destroyed!' fitted in with the overall theme of event and helped to establish the character. Later it was redundant (with the exception of LOTW, mostly due to its ending) and just plain bad writing. Even in SCW that scene where he breaks down and cries about his dead earth was narm and Big-Lipped Alligator Moment.

Nex Vesica said...

Even if Billy was stuck in Marvel form and just stayed that way when he lost his powers, its still pretty squicky that he and Wonder Woman would get together due to the fact that Marvel form or not he is still a child. Granted, the randomness of the timeline would give him some time to have grown up before they got involved but it would have to be a significant amount of years before he'd be anything more then a tween.

Bloopette said...

In response to Vadakin, I think you misinterpreted Kingdom Come a bit. SPOILERS for those who haven't read it.

It's not a Captain Marvel story. Yes, Marvel is the one who ends up making the choice, but it's because he's the only one of the superheroes who's seen and truly been on both sides (being both truly human and truly metahuman at once) of the argument that was presented in Kingdom Come regarding who was meant to die in the (false) big finale moment.

It's very clear from the get go (and if you read Alex Ross and Mark Waid's notes) it's a Superman story. Superman is the character who ultimately is the one who is facing the consequences of his own actions in an ever-changing world. Superman is the hero most prevalent in the comic, Superman is the hero that Norman McCay ultimately get through to because he is the one who was a part of the events that began the story proper and the events that ended it. He is the superhero main character alongside the human main character, Norman McCay, who ends up anchoring Supes as he did the Spectre. And it was Superman who had to convince Captain Marvel to make the decision to try and stop the bomb because Superman realized he had been wrong and that it was not his right to decide who lived and who died after all.

Also, saying Superman suddenly just decided to up and go one day is to ignore the full extent of the backstory given to us by the comic. It's 20 years into the future of the then-current comics, yes, but we are told it was 10 years ago that Superman left and that in the intervening 10 years superheroes were already more aggressive, more morally ambiguous, and the supervillains were responding in kind by being more violent as well. The fact that Superman refused to change his ways and also the changing of Batman's tactics (that he is wearing an exoskeleton implies he started the police state tactics post-Knightfall in this Elseworld) is what prompted Joker to come to Metropolis to start a reign of terror. First Joker killed Lois, then Magog killed Joker - and then Magog was publicly lauded for it and acquitted. It's implied to be more of a straw breaking the camel's back moment - after years of this kind of behavior and Superman's inability to curb the new generation, it is after this very deeply personal loss and the victory of the moral ambiguity he had tried to fight, that he just washed his hands and left in anger and bitterness. Which is quite a human gesture, even as Clark tries to suppress his humanity because he believed it didn't work in the new world and he's Kryptonian and he's above Earth concerns and so on.

Does it work? Not entirely since if it had he would not be protesting Diana's embittered willingness to kill and he wouldn't have spared Magog. Does he feel guilty about what he did? He sure does, from the moment he learns what his inaction led to. Which is why he ended up being so overcompensating and heavy-handed in rounding up metahumans to teach them - because he (and by extension those heroes he led and who looked up to him as their leader) had, as Norman McCay put it, allowed the "super" to come before the "man" and had allowed his usual unfailing judgment to be clouded by the idea he had to be this perfect leader to the point of being Jesus-like(indeed I believe his return is mentioned as a "second coming" and his invitation to join the JLA is likened to being asked to be the "thirteenth disciple") people were expecting him to be upon his return to the public eye. And which is why he also realizes it is Marvel who has to decide who is to be saved when the bomb starts to drop, because he realizes his judgment was what brought them here, and that he had forgotten almost entirely that he was a "man" before he was "superman".

Bloopette said...

Part two of my response. Me oh my, we are both quite wordy today. ;D


Anyhow, I hope that makes sense and I do hope that explains things in context of KC (and that it kind of made sense). Of course you are allowed to your opinion, and if you don't like it, you don't like it, and being all "BUT YOU MUUUUUUST LOVE IT WITHOUT ANY CRITICISM ~WHATSOEVER~" is kind of stupid (especially since there are flaws in the story, as there are in any story). I just wanted to clarify why Superman is the main character and definitely not Captain Marvel. And also the point you said about Superman being a (I'm probably going to get rotten tomatoes thrown at me for making the pun) diktator (because poor literacy is keeeeewwwwl~) and OOC, which I also felt you misinterpreted. Again, this is my opinion. :)

KHoyt said...

If I remember correctly, Kingdom Come also put Superman and Wonderman together, with Diana pregnant at the end.

Frankie Addiego said...

Superman makes wisecracks fairly often, actually. It's just that because Spider-Man is considered "better" for doing it more often, the Marvelly-biased Wizard and others make Superman out to be a boring dud.

From "it tickles," to, "bad vibrations?" Superman makes jokes.

LM888 said...

In response to one person's comment, there are plenty of What If's I'd personally like Linkara to do. But i think he stays away from them because a lot of them aren't "Alternate Universes" but instead "Alternate Outcomes of big events" and that would probably require him to recall continuity a bit.

I'd still like to see him do the "What if Black Cat and Spidey got together?" issue of the series. But maybe that brings too many OMD connotations.

Anyway, this was a fun review and while it would've been nice to see more post-apocalypse related jokes myself I think it was nice you strayed away from convention. Besides, no sense making a joke about something you aren't familiar with. I'm positive I would've made several Fallout jokes myself, but not everyone plays that game so it would probably sound forced from your end.

Anyway, can I weigh in on the Wondy and Supes thing? Kay, I prefer Wondy and Bats personally. There I said it. I liked how what they did in DCAU, it was different, interesting and fun. I ain't ashamed at all. Elseworlds folks should do more of that, I'd tune in.

Austin said...

Is that 7 episodes left or 7 days?

Anonymous said...

The Comic: Oh boy, this one was really dumb. Mutations in days, a full fledged city in a year? I don't think so. I was thinking 'Bearded Idiot' even before you said it, too bad he decided to shave. Derailing a character, I'm admittedly not familiar with, just for conflict? I don't care if this is an 'else worlds' story or not. That was a boneheaded move.

The Vyce Arc: I don't blame Liz for the look on her face at the end of the teaser. Looking forward to next week.

JosephRipken said...

Admittedly this isn't the biggest plot problem, and I'm not the hugest comics fan, but from what I know of the power rings, I'm dubious on if Superman could use a Green Lantern ring at all.

Admittedly my entire knoledge of Green Lantern lore comes from the DCAU and "Darkest Night" but doesn't one need special training to use a power ring effectively? My understanding was that any idiot could do beams and bubbles, but advanced constructs like spaceships not so much.

CallingAllStars said...

Animorphs reference for the win! That alone made my night!

Liz's expression as you went off to read the comic was priceless. I had to restart the video several times just so I could see her face.

Where's the Ninja-Style Dancer hiding?!

And, yeah, such false advertisment on the cover. I was expecting to see him riding the cat in space but it seemed to disappear once he found the others. I wish the comic had just stuck with Superman and the cat.

Can't wait for next week! What secret do you have against Vyce!? I am dying to know!

Dave Reynolds said...

A bit of perspective here for your comment about how much it would take to destroy the Earth, warhead wise. (Only because this was part of a term paper from my graduating year at college.)

About 65 million years ago (give or take an eon) an asteroid crashed into the Yucatan Peninsula (in the Chicxulub Crater) with the destructive force of roughly 100 million to a billion megatons of TNT. (That varies per source, but it's around that number.) Even at the lowest end, that's more than every single nuclear warhead that has ever existed in the history of human warfare.

Not only is the Earth still here, some species still survived. (Even more if you want to go with the Voth from Star Trek: Voyager.)

Yeah... Book's full of bunk.

Taranaich said...

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

So Superman talks about his rule about not killing human beings, and how important this was to him.

Then he sees these mutant *people* about to hunt a cat for food. Not for sport, not for fun, but for food. And he decides to open fire on them?

... That's atrocious. Truly, truly atrocious.

(And that's not even getting to the fact that there's apparently tigers in Africa now...)

Unknown said...

I like Liz's expression after Linkara's statement about reviewing a bad comic.

I do wonder how a comic likes this makes it's way to publication. The editorial process is supposed to kill things like this before they see the light of day, or at least that is the theory.

Gyre said...

I honestly have no idea how many nuclear weapons it would take to actually rip the planet itself apart but I can at least confirm that it's a good number more than what we currently (or even at the height of production) have. Besides that, if the warheads did somehow manage to actually rip the planet apart it should have fried all life beforehand.

PWBOT said...

Captain Marvel! Nooooooo! Man, this derails Captain Marvel's character even more than Superman: At Earth's End did to Bearded Idiot. At least he was still being a good guy, this? It stomps on Captain Marvel and then spits on his face.

I was wondering Linkara, you currently have 6 comic book reviews (not counting the All-Star Batman and Robin series but still counting Bat-baby) still in text format, are they still an afterthought for later on, or have you planned out some kind of Conversion Month to convert all your remaining text reviews into video format. Just wondering.

sheetcakeghost said...

I'm curious. I've noticed you make mention of old radio shows before and was wondering if V - Minus 7 is a nod to X minus 1.

Frankie Addiego said...

While I love Silver Age Superman more than anything, there's a panel in Showcase Presents Superman #1 on page 427 that I think everyone might get a kick out of.

Mark said...

Hm. I have a question. If that was Hal or John's ring that Superman found, why is Guy now apparently powerless? And if it was Guy's ring, how did he lose it? And for that matter, why would the Green Lantern Corps not have come looking for their missing members? Or at the very least, why would they not have come to Earth looking for survivors?

And how did the Joker survive when crazy-prepared Batman didn't. The Cave is probably protected against Nuclear apocalypse.

And anyways, why are Ma and Pa Kent dead? Did they nuke Smallville? This is what I hate about nuclear apocalypse stories. Nukes are purely an absolute last resort measure. Nobody wants to use them (except maybe the odd megalomaniac dictator), but nobody wants to be the one who doesn't have them either. And in the rare, borderline unthinkable scenario in which firing nuclear weapons might become an option, no government would be bone-stupid enough to just indiscriminately fire all of their nukes at once. Despite the widespread destruction they cause, they would be used tactically to destroy key economic and government centers to cripple a nation into submission. And if firing nukes became an option, it certainly wouldn't be a surprise to ANYONE since it would most certainly happen in the midst of a long, bloody, drawn-out war which had already resulted in the deaths of thousands.

In short, THIS COMIC SUCKS!!!

Night said...

So they've got the whole missiles falling from the sky. Which makes no sense, since only the warhead falls from the sky, the rest of the missile gets left elsewhere. It makes them harder to intercept.

I disagree on Superman with guns, this time, because without his powers he's gotta survive somehow and those rats look mean. I would like to know where he got guns, however.

The anxiety attack thing, that actually makes a degree of sense. 52 didn't go there, with Superman losing his powers affecting his pysche, but I think it's something that's worth exploring as a theme; would Clark grow cautious, perhaps, without his powers? He is after all mortal now. Clark Kent is under no real threat from anything in day to day life; if a car hits him or somebody runs his own car off the road, he has nothing to fear, awkward as it might be to explain. Or would he actually do the opposite and exploit his newfound vulnerability to distance himself from the Superman persona further, perhaps going out and getting a leg broken or get beat up so that there's less chance someone will identify him as Superman? "No, it can't be Clark, he got his butt kicked by a bunch of punk kids last year."

There are degrees of sanity. The Joker has, apparently, turned over a new leaf. A new man, in every sense of the word. Sanity might well mean that he sees himself as someone entirely different from the old Joker. (On another note, perhaps the end of the world has broken Billy. I wouldn't be terribly surprised to see his idealism destroyed by the end of the world. OF COURSE, however, is a little much.)

The whole Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne BFF thing I see in most Elseworlds (and indeed in most stories in general) makes DK2 and related stories even MORE nonsensical. Fridge Horror hits me hard, man.

Saul Tarvitz said...

Heh, i'm amazed you didn't bring up the forced love triangle from Countdown when you reached Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman being a couple.

Bruce Lang said...

You know what's truly odd, The end to this comic is the opening to a much better else world comic, Superman: Last Son of Earth, in which Clark Kent was born on a dying Earth, and rocketed off to an unknown planet,known as Krypton. He finds a Green Lantern Ring, and Battery and It's story wasn't half bad, Sad that THIS reminds me of that though.
...Oh and did anyone notice that when Bearded Superman came out of the water, He looked alot like Jesus

The_Random_Ninja said...

Wow... just wow. It's amazing how bad comics can be. Interesting premise with the whole apocalypse thing, but poor execution. My thinking is that the radiation which mutated the animals into giant-sized and the humans into whatever those were mutated the heroes' DNA so that they no longer had powers. I don't buy that but at least I just attempted an explanation - more than the comic did. I have a problem with time in comics, tv, movies, and practically every form of fiction. If the time frame is not believable then I'm going to lose interest fast. Unless it's supposed to be loose and seen in a humorous way a la Family Guy and shows in the like. And I can understand that characters can change over time due to traumatic experiences or dramatic changes in their environment or society; but wow that came out of left field.
Now I'm not usually one to point out errors; and I'll admit that I haven't read all of the comments, so I don't know if it has been mentioned all ready. Plus I could be wrong, so bear with me. In the comic there was a montage page where Linkara stated that there was an image of J'on standing with Billy; however, I'm sure that was actually Superman standing with J'on. Again, I could be wrong, but it looked like Supes.
Great video. I really like the battle preparation stuff. I can't wait to see the climactic fight. I enjoy the storyline battles and everything. Nice conversation with Munro on the screen. I applaud you for that. I like doing shots like that. I've done a few in my own videos. I think I've rambled on long enough. Again, great vid, Linkara. I'm a big fan. You sir are an inspiration to all opinionated persons who want to voice their views on the internet. Keep up the good work.

Gyre said...

In re. to Mark the implication seems to be that computer error caused the nuclear arsenals to be fired without warning. This is ridiculous and ignores that there are many physical steps that would have to be taken as well (not to mention that the orders for launch aren't so simple that a computer can give them on its own) but since when have writers actually studied something before they wrote about it?

SignNinja said...

Honestly I liked this comic, I mean yes it paints Captain Marvel as a jealous bastard....actually come to think of it a lot of Justice League and other comics he guests appears in paint him as such, but really it's one of those "Alternate Universe" excuses. Other than that I liked the entire idea of what the DC universe does when Earth goes to shit, and this is one, while not as good as the classic that is Kingdom Come, is still good in its own merits.

Lewis Lovhaug said...

"Now I'm not usually one to point out errors; and I'll admit that I haven't read all of the comments, so I don't know if it has been mentioned all ready. Plus I could be wrong, so bear with me. In the comic there was a montage page where Linkara stated that there was an image of J'on standing with Billy; however, I'm sure that was actually Superman standing with J'on. Again, I could be wrong, but it looked like Supes."

While the image showed Clark, the caption next to it said it was Billy who helped him negotiate with the mutants, so I go with that.

Lizzie said...

Aw, that face Liz makes is fantabulous! Woo! Next week should be exciting :D

Who was that figure standing where Superman found the Green Lantern ring? I was confuzzled. I will say that Captain Marvel being older made sense to me. Wouldn't this comic take place in the "future"? So, he was about that age when the whole nuke thing HAPPENED. That's what I assumed, anyway.

You'd think the whole appeal of writing these characters would be... their actual characteristics. Evidently some disagree. Sigh.

Anyhoo. Grazie, boss man!
-Oracle

Benjamin J said...

That whole "Superman surviving the apocolypse" thing reminds me of a Justice League episode where he was sent into a future destroyed by that immortal villian. I think his name was Savage.
___________

Maybe...except those episodes were AWESOME. As a matter of fact, if you had to name a premise at least close to the (potential) awesomeness of "Superman fights twin clones of Hitler in the future," It'd be "Superman fights mutant wolves with a hand-forged broadsword in a Vandal Savage-created alternate reality...while driving a Cadillac."

Damn it. Now I have to go watch it again.

Sijo said...

Wow. Just... wow. I think this may be THE worst comic Linkara has reviewed, ever. I mean, others may have had worse ideas or been written with ill will, but at least they tried to make sense, in their own ways. This was more a collection of (poorly thought out) ideas that they threw together and called a story. I suspect it was one of those "inventory stories" that DC keeps for years and eventually gets published after many, many people tamper with them. But hey, at least we can laugh at its sheer stupidity, we can't even do that with DC's "official" comics these days.

Oh and let me second the vote for that Nightwing run where he was... raped? I haven't read it myself, but I have heard of it and it sounds colossally stupid (and I heard it was written by a woman, to boot? I guess male writers aren't the only ones who can misuse sexual assault.)

Anonymous said...

Well that comic made no sense at all.
Can't wait to see what's next.

art.the.nerd said...

Yeah, but you have to admit ... Tube-Top Wonder Woman is hot!

Michelle Barnett said...

Ditto on Robert's coment. Nightwing was FREAKIN AWESOME!!! ...and the we had those episodes, and the rape in particular was just forced, unnecessary and distasteful in the way it was pulled off for the shock value rather than any real point. Nightwing was so cool, I loved watching the conflict of Dick trying to be his own man while still living under the shadow of the bat ... I can understand everything else they did to destroy him, but then they did *that* to him.

So yeah. Not happy about that.

Website Admin said...

It is said that linkara reads each and every comment (poor guy) - so i need to say this. Iron Liz was such a great find man, she cracks me up with her facial expressions every time. I adore her - shes the best supporting character youve got. Awesome.

kriss1989 said...

Did you see the JLU episode 'Clash of the Titans' by any chance? It is also a good example of how to have Superman and Captin Marvel fight. In it, Luthor manipulated Supes to try and make him look bad, but CM comes in and tries to calm things down and tries to talk reasom to Superman. Superman's response is "There isn't time!", throws CM asside, and it escalates from there. Then, after a LONG fight (not enough time huh?) Superman beats CM by getting him to change back, melts the device, and then in the post exam....it was in fact a harmless energy generator like Luthor said. The episode ends with Captain Marvel PATRONIZING Superman for having fallen from the ideals of heroism. Captain Marvel then quits the JLU because they 'aren't heroes any more'. So yeah, Captain Marvel > Superman on the Good-o-meter. We then cut to Luthor toasting that the plan went better than expected because Superman FOUGHT Captain Marvel, another hero, and destroyed a charity built city in the process. Captain Marvel is played up as a hero trying to stop a powermad Superman.

The Faustian Man said...

Shouldn't 90s kid be Spoony? ZZZZZZZZZZZZZING!

Mask said...

J'onn staying in that form may make sense depending on the mechanics of his shapeshifting. His flesh was likely in that form when everyone got their powers magic'd away. Same point I would make about splicing is that regardless of genes, the flesh is in the shape that it is. Reshaping and recomposing genetically are different things that don't directly act upon each other. Ask a transexual.

Anonymous said...

Hey linkara heres a fun fact:did you know that vyce in german means white

Little Zack said...

I know it's been a few days since this came out, but the more I think of it...gah.

The Joker thing makes no sense, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. If Billy grew into his current age naturally, and he looks to be about in his early twenties as of this comic, and he and Diana were a couple at some point, that would mean that Diana hooked up with an underage boy. Ew.

And the ending brings up something I never understood about Superman - in part because I don't read him much, mind you, but I've never heard it explained...why did Jor-El only send his son to Earth? Why didn't he create a ship big enough for him and his wife? That always seemed odd to me. Cutbacks, maybe, I don't know. I'm sure there's some explanation for it. Just seemed weird.

And what happened to all the super-smart superheroes, like the Atom or...or, heck, where's Green Lantern? It should affect his ring. And just...gah. I'm thinking about things too much. Geez.

Unknown said...

@anonymous

Well, it's spelled differently, weiß.

Truce Weston said...

great review as always, but when you commented on the cover, I laughed so hard, I hurt! I'm a little ill, and should have known better, but I couldn't wait to see your next review!

Also, that bit about the nukes, I found quite fascinating, and what I have come to expect and really like from your show. Intelligence and wit! So keep racking up the awesome points! Good luck with the Vice thing!

So until Harvey's album comes out where he is riding a shark, MAKE MINE LINKARA!

Will Staples said...

Bit o' trivia: The art on this book was by the late Gil Kane, co-creator of Green Lantern Hal Jordan and one of the greatest artists of the Silver Age. This was one of his last comics before his death in 2000, and his talent was tragically wasted.

In fact, if there's anything that makes this comic readable, in my opinion, it's Gil Kane's art.

Katherine said...

What does this writer have against Captain Marvel? This trainwreck reminds me of bad Harry Potter fanfiction, the stories where Harry and Hermione are a couple and Ron inexplicably turns evil. He betrays his friends, he joins Voldemort, he completely goes against his character, etc. All because the author hates him for some reason.

And what is up with Wonder Woman's facial expressions in the panels where she stomps away from Captain Marvel and then hangs onto Superman's arm? She looks so catty and snide. Did she really have to cling to Clark just to shove it in Billy's face that they were over? Yes, there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the Spirit of Truth is really just an immature, snotty teenager. Good grief.

Anonymous said...

The constant Wonder Woman / Superman pairings are one of several reasons why I think Lucy Lawless should play her in a movie. I mean, what are her initials?

@Yogurt -
Ever tried Einstein's cooking?
... me either, I was just asking.

"great review but what happend to kryptonite the cat?"

He rode it into the Village and tied it to a post the first time he went there.
That's all.
It's never seen on panel again, as Linkara clearly pointed out at... at...

Mutts. I confess: I have the comic.

That said, is there ever a reason given for the base humans to attack the mutants? (I don't want to re-read it that closely.)

@Tannhauser - it's a tiger in Africa. I can't believe I didn't pick up on that myself (though I probably would've when I actually read the comic).
Maybe there's a zoo in the Veldt?
Oh, how I miss the rains down in Africa.

Tannhaeuser said...

@Le-Messor - Don't worry about missing the tiger. It's something that a hundred men or more could never do.

Zoos veldt? Ingenious! My compliments to the boys in the code department.

Anonymous said...

@Tannhauser - It's just, knowledge of animals is my particular issue, and I've actually been to Africa.
I've seen swallows there, but none of them were carrying cocoanuts (and they were flying in circles, so they didn't have a consistent velocity).
I've never seen C-beams glittering in the night, though.

I'd expect myself to notice something like that - just as sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengetti.

I'm being very generous by figuring that's a baby elephant, not an Indian elephant, which has no more business on the Veldt than that tiger!

The code boys said to tell you: "brillig moon eagle".

- Mik

Tannhaeuser said...

Forget telling an African from an Indian heffalump, especially without a clear shot of its ear — I can barely tell them from woozles (they’re very confoozles) (and sly — sly —sly).

Toto, too? Or just the slithy selenite arnes?

Yogurt said...

le-messor:

Funny you should ask!

My example of "einstein and cooking" comes from a story told about the physicist's culinary misadventures.

Allegedly, a young Albert Einstein was so inept in the culinary arts that a meal he once cooked for some associates in Vienna gave the entire party a debilitating case of food poisoning.

Supposedly, the event so scarred the men psychologically (and gastronomically, I would imagine) that the mere mention of his name would actually cause them to lose their appetite!

Anonymous said...

@ Tannhaueser... Well the snark turned out to be a bojum.
Okay, I got nothing.

@ Yogurt: LOL!
I lol! because your original point is so true; one kind of smart isn't every kind of smart, but so many people seem to assume it is.
(hee hee... my code for today is 'chessfor'. What's chessfor? I dunno, it builds smarts?)

Anonymous said...

You know, that bit with the nukes is really funny when you realize that the estimated mass of the black hole cluster at the center of the galaxy is only 4^41 kg, meaning that those nukes would, all together, be several hundred billion times the mass of said black hole cluster.

Anonymous said...

What's really, really sad is that this COULD have been...if not awesome, then at least enjoyable. How? Simple: Focus on the Joker.

If everyone is getting their powers back, wouldn't that mean that his dementia is returning? If so, how would he react in a world with no Batman? A world as crazy as he is?


But no. They just wanted to ship superman and Wonder Woman and vilify Captain Marvel.

Awesome review as always, Lewis.

Unknown said...

Funny how the review brings up that Captain Marvel is supposed to be more a boyscout than Superman, since in the New 52 he's an arrogant jerk who decides to only help people for profit. I'm not one of those people who hate everything about the New 52, but it's made a lot of stupid changes to characters and the new Captain Marvel - sorry, "Shazam" - is the worse.

Unknown said...

With respect to Captain Marvel, the comic might not be all that far off. In the Power of Shazam series reboot after the first Crisis, Billy kept his own mind after morphing, so he could act quite childish. He may of had the Wisdom of Soloman, but he still had to use it, or at least listen to it. After he and Supes met, they had a varirty of friendly contests. During the final arm wrestling contest, Freddy changed into Cap Jr. In that series, all three Marvels shared the same power source, so if two were active, each was only half as strong, etc. This caused Billy to weaken, and Supes to win easily. Later, Billy tracked Freddy down and tore him a new one for causing him to lose to Superman, despite the fact that Freddy was actually using the power correctly (i.e. to stop a crime).

Also, in the pre-crisis, Earth-S stories, there have been examples where Cap was de-powered in some way, and when his powers came back, the lightning to restore him did not change him back to Billy. In Distant Fires, Billy is shown in his Cap uniform, leading me to believe that he was morphed when he lost his powers, but that he had not been changed back. Why he didn't change back to a boy later...I have no idea. Maybe...MAGIC?

As for why Metallo led the mutants against them? JUSTICE! (Sorry, couldn't resist).

I'm still catching up on your story lines Linkara. Great job with them (as I'm a Trekker and a Whovian myself with PR as a bit of a guilty pleasure.) It was HotPR that introduced me to you and you are hilarious. I eagerly await what you have instore for us next. Keep up the good work.

Patrick