MAY 22 Reviews + A Conversation with Tim Sheridan

This week’s comic book reviews. While I try to read everything, I can’t review everything. So, if you’re a publisher who wants me to check out their upcoming releases, email me at [email protected]!

DC Comics:

Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #6 - Tim Sheridan, Cian Tormey, Jordi Tarragona, Matt Herms, and Lucas Gattoni - What a stunning finale to an excellent miniseries that will be remembered as the defining Alan Scott story going forward. Sheridan and Tormey’s story gives the classic hero a poignant backstory that adds tremendous depth and touch to a character who has been around for 80+ years. Hopefully, it’s not the last time this creative team works on Scott or the JSA. ★★★★½

Wonder Woman #9 - Tom King, Daniel Sampere, Tomeu Morey, Clayton Cowles - Can DC please keep Diana and Steve Trevor together forever? Sampere and Morey give some gorgeous visuals in an issue that may frustrate those looking for answers on the current arc — but if you don’t mind a bit of a sidetrack, this issue is solid. The World’s Finest backup story is also a ton of fun - Belen Ortega and Alejandro Sanchez bring a fun energy to the future adventures. ★★★½

Nightwing #114 - Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas, Wes Abbott - Another fine issue from a book that has been consistently excellent. Loved how dark a particular villainous scene was in this one. ★★★½

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #27 - Mark Waid, Dan Mora, Travis Mercer, Tamra Bonvillain, Steve Wands - Waid, Mora, and Bonvillain are too good at this. A non-stop ride of fun, featuring plenty of cameos from the extended comic book world (all of the mites, Metal Men). Action-packed, hilarious, and completely bonkers, World’s Finest continues to amaze. Sometimes you just need to turn your brain off and see something ridiculous unfold. ★★★★

Superman 14 - Joshua Williamson, Rafa Sandoval, Miguel Mendonca, Alejandro Sanchez, and Ariana Maher - The Czarian stuff in this book hasn’t done much for me, but the final few pages of this book are absolutely insane in the best ways imaginable. Also, Sandoval continues to be the most underrated artist in comics — everything he touches is masterful. ★★★

Marvel Comics:

Amazing Spider-Man #50 - Zeb Wells, Ed McGuinness, Mark Farmer, Marcio Menyz, Erick Arciniega, and VC’s Joe Caramagna - This run has gotten much-deserved criticism, but the oversized issue is excellent. The story’s action is tense and the twists feel earned. ★★★★

Fall of the House of X #5 - Gerry Duggan, Lucas Werneck, Stefano Caselli, Bryan Valenza, VC’s Travis Lanham - There are some cool moments in this book, but I’m ready for this era to be over. ★★½

Immortal Thor #11 - Al Ewing, Valentina Pinti, Espen Grundetjern, VC’s Joe Sabino - Immortal Thor continues to be one of Marvel’s best books, even if this family reunion issue drags a bit towards the middle. Also, did not expect to see a G.O.D.S. crossover, but it works here. ★★★

Blood Hunt #2 - Jed MacKay, Pepe Larraz, Marte Gracia, and VC’s Cory Petit - A bloody good time with some fun interactions between heroes in unexpected team ups, Blood Hunt’s second issue keeps up its killer pace while a larger mystery unfolds. ★★★½

Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #1 - Stephanie Phillips, Federica Mancin, Matt Milla, and VC’s Ariana Maher - Bringing Gwen to Earth-616 always seemed inevitable and the new story does a great job showcasing the hero trying to fit into a world she doesn’t necessarily belong in. Excited to see where this one goes next. ★★★½

Dark Horse Comics

The Butcher’s Boy #1 - Landry Q. Walker, Justin Greenwood, Brad Simpson, Pat Brosseau - Not for the squeamish, The Butcher’s Boy #1 sets up an intriguing, blood-soaked story and a mystery that’s dying to be unraveled. Big fan of Greenwood and Simpson’s art in this one. ★★★½

DSTLRY

White Boat #1 - Scott Snyder, Francesco Francavilla, AndWorld Design - The superstar creative team does not disappoint in this gorgeous book. Issue one sets up a chilling mystery, with a twist ending that will leave readers wanting more. It feels like an episode of LOST with a Lovecraftian twist, which is one of the highest compliments I can offer. ★★★★

ARCHIE COMICS

Archie Comics: Judgment Day #1 - Aubrey Sitterson, Megan Hutchison, Matt Herms, and Jack Morelli - Archie Andrews takes on a devilish power to kill demons - what more do you need to know? A chaotic and violent book that shows, once again, that the horror line from Archie Comics produces some of the best comics in the biz. Hutchison and Herms’ work on this one is worth the price of admission.★★★★

CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #6 - Tim Sheridan, Cian Tormey, Jordi Tarragona, Matt Herms, and Lucas Gattoni

Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #6 marks the conclusion of the excellent miniseries from DC Comics. I spoke with Tim Sheridan about making the comic, reinventing Alan Scott, and the overall reaction to the series as it came out. Check out our conversation below.

Why was Alan Scott the perfect character to reinvent? The story beautifully weaves through his history while not ignoring his past.

Thank you; and I’m so glad you asked it that way, because, while I don’t think I’ve reinvented anything about Alan Scott, it gives me a chance to heap praise on all the people who came before me that did. So many amazing creators have added their voices to the chorus singing Alan’s song! All I’ve done is try and put some of the pieces together and tell a good story about life, love and light that can serve as a jumping-on point for (hopefully) all the great Alan Scott stories to come. I would say that Alan Scott: The Green Lantern isn’t a retcon or a reboot as much as a refocus — and it’s been the honor of my life to be entrusted with it.

The book explores the theme of forbidden love in more ways than one. What was it like exploring that dynamic with a complicated dynamic between the main hero and villain.

When we first discussed the idea of me writing this story, Geoff Johns and I got to talking about the Red Lantern and what might make his relationship with Alan a little different and maybe a little bit surprising. One thing we talk about as writers is how to make a big story point “surprising, yet inevitable” and it immediately hit me that one of the things we know about Alan is that, for better or worse (literally), he marries his villains. He did it twice before so it’s almost inevitable that he’d have what his son calls a “complicated situationship” with an arch-nemesis like Vladimir Sokov. Everything kind of dovetailed from that and the idea that the Red Lantern would be the Soviet Union’s answer to the Green Lantern. With those pieces in place, a lot of the story just began to click. Alan’s and Vlad’s is a pretty bizarre love story, but it’s still a love story - and I think it always will be.

Why was it important to show the flaws of Alan, in his powers and blindness for love?

Well that was really just a function of the fact that he’s new at all this. This is a young man coming into his power, in all kinds of ways. I remember when I began to figure out the man I was going to be - I was a complete mess. We fumble and stumble through what I guess is the final phase of growing up and if we’re lucky, we settle into our new skin and go out and conquer. This is the fumbling and stumbling phase for Alan. I don’t know, I kind of find it endearing to meet (as he is now, I believe, canonically) the world’s first costumed hero at a time when he’s still cooking and making mistakes and figuring out what kind of hero, and man, he’s going to be — when we, the fans, know just how high he’s going to climb.

The conversation between Alan and his son is particularly touching, why was it important for Alan to do that and tell him about his mother and their relationship and what it actually meant?

One of the reasons I love that DC revealed Alan as a gay man is the promise of conversations like the one he has with Obsidian. In fact, this entire book is revealed to have been Alan sharing these details of his life with his son. I am on record saying that everyone deserves to see themselves represented in comics and on screen. There are people who come out of the closet (to themselves and/or to the world) late in life every day. Their stories are real and valid and there are, like in all stories, things to be learned from them. So, on one level, you have Alan explaining his survival story of being a closeted gay man in a time when that’s not something you could really be as a way to explain why it took him so long to come out. But then, at the same time, he’s explaining to Todd his very complicated love for dual-identitied Johnny/Vlad as a way to help his son understand the complicated love he feels for the mother of his children, the dual-identitied Rose/Thorn. Which is REALLY just a way for him to express to Todd and Jennie-Lyn how important they are to him! I think that’s a feeling everyone, gay or straight, sons or fathers, can understand and relate to.

How did you deal with the bigots who opposed the core concept of the book? I know it's a loud, but vocal minority.

We sold the hell out of a comic book they tried to tank, that’s how! It’s hilarious to me that some of those people still want the book to have failed, but since the data doesn’t support them, they now just lie about it. It proves that there are people in the world who have an ugly agenda and nothing will steer them away from it. All we can do is keep telling our stories and try as much as we can to ignore the disingenuous clickbaiters who prey on people’s prejudice. Social media is a dumpster fire where a lot of people make a lot of noise about stuff they hate (or pretend to hate.) I find the best antidote to that is going to fan conventions (which I get to do every other week or so, all over the world) and meet the amazing, seriously WONDERFUL, fans there who want to talk about what they LIKE and not what they hate. I’ve met people who have come to me in tears and brought me to my own telling me what something I wrote meant to them. And not even just Alan Scott, but in Titans Academy or the Long Halloween movie! I never dreamed of having anything close to that kind of impact on anyone, so it’s very special to me and it easily drowns out the haters and baiters on Twitter.

On a personal level, how do you relate to Alan Scott's journey as a queer man?

Oh, well, his journey is remarkably like mine. At least emotionally speaking. It had to be. I had to write something honest and personal, otherwise, it wouldn’t ring true and that wouldn’t have been good enough for Alan. 75 years without a title, he deserved that kind of respect. I grew up in a time and place where it was not okay to be queer. It certainly wasn’t as bad as the time and place Alan came up in. And definitely not as bad as it sadly still is in some places of our world today. But it impacted me, and the privilege and the burden of a writer is, I believe, to share that impact with the reader. And if it’s honest, and if it’s true, others who have felt the same kind of impact will recognize it and identify with it; and if you’re really lucky, people who’ve never felt that kind of thing before will feel it on the page. I’m grateful to everyone who hears this story because it’s not only Alan’s, but mine, and yours, Liam, and countless others. We have to tell each other who we are, and we have to listen when we’re told; I firmly believe that’s how our world gets better.

How much fun has seeing the reaction to the series been? Would you be open to continuing this story at some point, or have you told the story you wanted to? What about exploring more secret histories of the JSA?

The reaction has been overwhelming and totally unexpected, so the feeling is beyond awesome! Comics have been a tough road for me. I think I got high on my own supply over in TV and movies where my work is pretty well received. But comics are such a smaller, more concentrated audience and there’s nowhere to hide when something doesn’t seem to work the way you hoped. As for Alan’s story, I would never say never. I certainly have a lot of ideas for what I would do going forward. But right now I feel like I did my job and I’m excited to see if DC lets some new creators come in and play in this sandbox. With the JSA, I basically tried to backdoor-pitch a Spectre miniseries in issue 3 of Alan Scott, but so far the phone ain’t ringin’. In the meantime, I’m busy in TV and I’ve got some creator-owned stuff I’d like to do.

BY THE WAY, can I just add that I keep hearing that people on socials are saying I “quit DC” because I’m mad about something? Can I just state for the record that this is weird and I don’t know where it came from; I have not quit anything and I’m nothing but grateful for all the opportunities DC Comics has afforded me. I’ve always been a freelance writer who moves around and tells stories wherever I can. With this Alan Scott story done, it’s time for me to move around again (like to Dark Horse for my Masters of the Universe: Revolution prequel book, in stores now!) and who knows when the winds will bring me back to DC - could be years, could be next week, could be tomorrow. That’s just how freelance goes. Until then, I hope folks preorder the trade paperback of the collected Alan Scott: The Green Lantern before its September release, which, by the way, will include the prologue story that appeared in Pride Through the Years (I know some folks might’ve missed that.) Love and light!