Definite 80s vibe, with violent vigilantes and right-wing cable shows celebrating this kind of junk, mirroring things like the Punisher and shows like Geraldo and Inside Edition (original platform for the fecal matter that spews from Bill O'Reilly's lips).

Love the design for Mirage; it reminds me of characters like the Rainbow Raider; yet, it works so much better, with the neon lighting color effects.

Just a note for Astro City fans, it was announced today that Fremantle Media (the company doing American Gods) has optioned Astro City to be a television series and started development. Kurt Busiek is to co-write the pilot episode. Story on Bleeding Cool but the news was broken by Deadline Hollywood.

I think Astro City works well for an episodic series, and look forward to seeing how they do this.

-M

The Dark Age Vol 4 (Vengeance is Mine) #3: Hoofbeats (May 2010)

Theme: Justice is over-rated.

Focus Brothers: Aubrey Jason’s uncontrolled power has levelled a good section of the Las Vegas casino strip, with many deaths. He teleports away, and the brothers drop a flash grenade to evade Silver Agent, whom they remember as an uncaring figure from their childhood apartment fire. They opt to pursue Aubrey rather than help pull survivors from the wreckage; this indifference makes E.A.G.L.E. suspicious that the brothers had something to do with the disaster. Back on the streets of Astro City, Charles recognizes the now-retired Black Badge (K.O. Carson) who inspired them so many years ago back in Bakerville. Carson pleads with Charles to put aside his vengeance, but just then, Royal calls, having discovered that Aubrey has stolen part of Pyramid’s Sekhmet Stone to stabilize his massive energy levels.

Focus Apocalypse: The Pale Horseman gallops through the skies of Astro City on a fiery, skeletal steed, blowing away villain after villain, from big crimes to tiny ones. The citizens are alarmed. Can anyone say he is completely pure of evildoing? Street Angel and Quarrel II try to encourage a crowd at Binderbeck Plaza, but Pale Horseman shows up to execute them.

Real Heroes: Mirage (Aaron Barzun) warns Silver Agent that an unjust execution will be the final outcome of his reverse journey through time. Agent knows and accepts this as the price he will pay for doing a lot of good in the process. Respect! “Man, that is hard core,” murmurs an awe-stricken Hellhound. Honor Guard find Iron Colonel in the Andes Mountains but are unavailable at home. The First Family are brokering peace in Monstro City, or fighting a giant mummy on the moon, so they're no help with the Horseman either. Beauty and Black Rapier are out doing their hero thing.

Other Villains: Hollowpoint was a Bullseye-type assassin. Now he’s a corpse.

Places: Sid’s Foodland is a grocery store.

My Two Cents: “Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

In popular conceptions, the Four Horsemen of the Book of Revelation are often portrayed as agents of evil. To his credit, Busiek actually gets it right here, showing them (or rather, the only one of them who appears) as bringers of divine justice. But in keeping with The Dark Age’s theme of progressively more and more severe vigilantism, the Pale Horseman incinerates juvenile shoplifters and litterers as readily as safecrackers or supervillains. There’s an interesting theme at work here where we cheer justice being wreaked on other individuals, but when it comes to be our turn, suddenly mercy starts to seem attractive. But the Pale Horseman is nothing but justice, and thus nothing but death. I recall the conversation in Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring between Frodo and Gandalf about whether Gollum deserved to die, and Gandalf chastened Frodo: “Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment.”

I wasn't overly keen on the mystical element that entered this stage of things. I prefer my heroes and villains to be more science-based (wonky or otherwise) and the mystical part of Pyramid just kind of lost me. If you have all of that, why do you need grunts and weaponry? It's one thing to come up with a doomsday weapon, it's another to have a mystic stone. To me, supernatural stylings tended to have few or no rules attached and tended to pull out a miracle when needed, while more scientific based plots usually set up the weakness in the story, which pays off in the climax. It's a pet peeve, certainly, and one that not everyone is likely to share. It's part of why I was never a big reader of supernatural heroes or magical characters.

Well, part of that is Busiek just highlighting the kinds of stories going on in the Bronze Age.  Guys like Steve Englehart an Jim Starlin were hip deep in New Agey weirdness and their stories reflected it.  But, as you bring up with other ultimate weapons, the whole deus ex machina ending tends to undercut the drama.  At least with the FF, there was a perilous journey to obtain the Ultimate Nullifier.  Other things, like Starlin's Thanos stories, kind of pull weaknesses out of their a-ugh, cosmic realm.  Captain Marvel is somehow able to destroy the Cosmic Cube, despite being vulnerable to its power, Adam Warlock  emerges from the soul gem and turns Thanos to stone, etc......It just kind of leaves you sitting there going, "wha.....?  Where did that come from?"

There are worse examples, certainly.  The original Gladiator novel, by Phillip Wylie, which inspired Superman (along with John Carter and Doc Savage), has a literal deus ex machina, as Hugo Danner rails at the heavens over his isolation from humanity and 
It's a pretty good story, right to that point; but, the ending feels like Wylie wrote himself in a corner and wasn't creative enough to get out of it.

I prefer magic when it has a definite set of rules, like the Earthsea Trilogy, or in the Black Company stories, by Glen Cook.  True names are at the heart of magical power and the uncovering of then lead to victory.  Within the Black Company, the sorceress, The Lady, seems to powerful; but, Cook introduces a balance, The White Rose, which can nullify her power, like poles of a magnet.  Meanwhile, the Company searches historical records to find clues to her true name.

The whole drawing power from another dimension thing has annoyed me since I first really saw it turn up in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHOTMU), when that was the fall-back explanation for superpowers.  Cyclops energy beams?  Extra-dimensional energy directed through his eyes.  Hulk draws mass from another dimension.  It is pretty much the equivalent of this...



Call me nitpicky; but, I prefer a bit of logic to things, even cockeyed logic, as long as it is consistent.  Magic in comics is rarely handled consistently.

The Dark Ages Epilogue: A Place in the Sun (June 2010?)

Theme: Morning again in America

Focus Brothers: In 2010, Charles and Royal are chilling on their grampa’s old boat Willa in Baja California. They look less like each other now; Royal is skinnier again. Charles is happily married; Royal is playing the field. They recall the day that Samaritan made his first appearance, saving the crew of the space shuttle Challenger from that terrible forked contrail that many of us remember well. An author named Eliot is interviewing them for a book project, but they don’t want their names divulged. No problem; we’ll just use pseudonyms, like “Charles and Royal Williams.”

My Two Cents: A nice transition back to the more heroic era that Samaritan’s advent symbolized. I have no idea when this story came out. It’s only six pages long, but it seems to have its own cover?