The Fractal Hall Journal

You know, I was staring at the front page of the Journal this morning and I couldn’t figure out what was missing. Turns out it was the post below. So apologies for the slight Slight Technical Problem that caused the delay, by which I mean inability to post-date.

A couple of things prompted this post. Firstly, J. Michael Straczynski coming to DC has prompted speculation as to what he’ll be working on. The Flash has been a big topic round here recently, and JMS has mentioned his preference for the Barry Allen version, so that’s got be a possibility. There’s Aquaman: a big name is about the only thing that will save the character at the moment, and if you think the New Avengers turnaround was big, imagine the craziness of an Aqua-title selling over 100,000. How about JLA? Is Dwayne McDuffie a permanent addition, or there for just 12 months? Is James Robinson going to be on Superman for the forseeable future, or just as long as he was on the Bat titles?

Secondly, I mentioned in comments not long ago that I’d like to see an Ed Brubaker Green Arrow title. Which has led to this question: given the chance, who should switch companies and work on a different title?

Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Yu on Blue Beetle: Nope, not Batman. I’m not sure why Bendis seems to be a lot of fans’ choice to take on Gotham based stories. I can kind of see Miller’s 80s Daredevil being a good fit for 80s Batman, but not Bendis’ take. Good grief, can you imagine what the dialogue would be like? But he wrote the book on 00s era teen superheroes with Ultimate Spider-Man, and this kind of star power on the title would save what is probably my favourite current DCU ongoing. Even if it meant the main character inexplicably swearing in Hebrew. Second choice: Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan. Would be choice #1, but it would never ever come out.

John Rogers and Rafael Albuquerque on Runaways: Whedon’s run has been brilliant, of course, but oh so very delayed. His run was always meant to be short, so why not replace him with the team behind the other awesome teen-hero title? Just a damn shame Rogers is likely to be tied up with TV work for the foreseeable future (and also a damn shame he won’t be getting a crack at the Flash. He may very well be the perfect match for the title with his science background).

Brian K. Vaughan and Mark Bagley on Batman: I really like the current writing team on both Batman titles. It’s just a shame about all the bloody fill-ins. So the only guy I’d like to see take over would be Vaughan, who’s probably my choice for best current comic writer behind Morrison. And I know that Bagley’s already at DC for the new weekly; I’d just rather not have awesome and consistant on a Bat-title (something that they currently have a little trouble with) than burned out on Trinity.

Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch on Superman: Oh, come on, they’ve been begging to have a crack at it for years. Let’s see what they’ve got. Millar’s not going to screw up the chance by Ultimatising Superman. Sure, his last Superman run was uninspiring (way back during Loeb’s tenure on Superman, Millar either plotted or dialogued one of the other titles- Adventures?) but he was hardly left off the leash to do his thing. Besides: (a) his Swamp Thing run was brilliant, (b) Aztek and the Flash with Morrison were also brilliant, and (c) he’s already proven he knows what makes Superman tick by deconstructing then reconstructing the character’s conceits so brilliantly in Red Son.

This is fun. I’ve got something queued up already for tomorrow, but I think I’ll carry on with this on Friday.

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The first Authority paperback is still the only comic collection I’ve ever picked up on the strength of the artist alone. Although it eventually won me over to Warren Ellis’ writing, I’d bought it specifically due to an interview Bryan Hitch had done for Mark Salisbury’s book Artists on Comic Art.

Hitch’s style is incredible. He defined “widescreen” comic art, and to paraphrase from the above book: while the typical 90s style artwork would have a huge guy flying up away from the Earth filling a full page splash with the planet a small circle in the background, Hitch’s style would be to draw a the curve of the Earth filling up a double page spread, with a tiny figure flying out of it. A far more majestic way of suggesting something huge and epic.

While his Ultimates work is probably his best to date, I think I prefer the Authority stuff with Ellis, in particular the sense of scale he brought to the Shiftship invasion in the second story arc. I don’t think anyone’s ever pulled off the size of an alien armada quite so well. It’s this that makes me think his upcoming work on Fantastic Four has mind-blowing potential.

The only real weakness, I think, could be in the writing. Hitch’s time on JLA was unmemorable, but I’ve read that’s likely because he and writer Mark Waid didn’t quite mesh. I think he needs a huge idea or image to play off, something Mark Millar was able to provide in Ultimates. I don’t think a vague direction to draw something cosmic works with any artist who isn’t Jack Kirby. I hope Millar’s able to give his artist something to get his teeth into. Something we’ve never seen before. And maybe a little less of Reed Richards as an autistic supervillain.

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