Comics 101

Since there's nothing really going on in my life that's worth mentioning I just thought I'd amuse myself and anyone with the patience to read this to answer some comics related questions before you ask them. Or after. Whatever.

Joker

Here's one I got recently from Darcy.

One thing I don't quite get about Batman Begins is, unless the original Batman was way different than the comics or something, how and why are they working The Joker into the next movie if Jack didn't turn into The Joker until seemingly several years after Batman Begins takes place? And if the answer is "the next movie will take place several years later" then wouldn't that just be the first Batman movie all over again? I'm confused.

Well, Batman Begins itself isn't entirely faithful to Batman's origin story but it makes up for it by being faithful to what the character and origin are about. Batman did not actually meet Ra's Al Ghul until he was Batman and actually spent his entire teen years traveling the world learning every skill imaginable (chemistry, investigation, martial arts, acrobatics and escape artistry, for example) and became a master of all trade.

The Joker's origin was never actually revealed (Joker himself thinks of is memory as "multiple choice"), most fans agree that the origin presented in Alan Moore and Brian Bolland's awesome comic The Killing Joke is the official one. Basically the Joker(who is never named) was originally former lab assistance who quit to become a comedian who just couldn't get work. This wouldn't be so bad for him if he wasn't trying to support a wife pregnant with child. He's in such need of money that he agrees to help some crooks rob the chemical plant he used to work with. But as soon as he agrees the police come into the bar and tell him his wife died when a baby-bottle heater she was testing had an electrical short.

Unfortunately for the poor guy, the crooks are forcing him to stick to the job (despite the fact that he lost the very reason to continue) and act as the patsy by dressing up as a guy called the Red Hood and pretending to be the ringleader. Unfortunately, Batman shows up and catches the crooks. Batman is about to get the nameless comedian when the comedian (having a hard time seeing with his red hood on) falls a chemical vat and emerges as the Joker. He's now completely nuts. Before he thought his life was a joke, but now he realizes the world is a big joke, and he wants to show the world.

But his origin isn't all that important. What I like about the Joker is that when he's written well, he's funny and scary at the same time. He's also an egotistical joke artiste. The point of the crimes isn't money or power or even the body count, but each crime is a sort of joke. It means something to the Joker and the only way to predict his actions are to figure out where his "joke" is headed. And that's pretty hard since the best jokes are the one's with the punchlines you don't see coming. And Batman doesn't have much of a sense of humour.

Marvel and DC

I'm just going to clear things up here:

DC Characters:
Superman
Batman
Wonder Woman
Green Lantern
Flash
Aquaman
Green Arrow
The Teen Titans
Dr. Fate
Captain Marvel

Marvel Characters:
Thor
Spider-Man
Captain America
X-Men
Fantastic Four
Iron Man
Hulk
Daredevil
Dr. Strange
Captain Marvel

That clears things up... Waitaminute.

OK, I'll explain the Captain Marvels real quick. Way back when (the 40's) there was a Captain Marvel published by neither company (Marvel didn't even exist yet). Captain Marvel was a young boy who could become a manly super-hero when he said SHAZAM! DC sued him after a while after he became really popular. DC claimed that Cap was too close to Superman in powers and appearance. They won but since then they have had trouble with so many superman imitators, they decided they couldn't sue every time some there was some super-powered hero in a cape.

Years later, Marvel Comics realized the name Captain Marvel was going untouched so they made their own Captain Marvel: an alien invader turned super-hero. Meanwhile DC bought the rights to Captain Marvel, causing a problem between the two companies. They eventually reached an agreement: they can both have their own Cap Marvels but DC couldn't use the name on their title. Instead DC called their series SHAZAM!, after the famous magic word.

Anyway, Aiden has asked me if there are any differences between DC and Marvel (in terms of aesthetics, I assume) and I thought about it for a while. There is a definite difference in feel but that difference is a bit more intangible. Still, here are some of the most obvious differences:

In the DC Universe, heroes (with a few exceptions like Batman and the Doom Patrol) are trusted by the public, for the most part. People love Superman, the Flash and the rest and see them as bigger than celebrities. They are somewhere between celebrities and gods and while the more stalwart heroes don't bask in their own fame, they accept it, with some heroes even attending public events (Hey, Superman ain't a glory hog, but he still wants the people to trust him).

In the Marvel Universe, the people are polarized on the issue of heroes. Some think of them as just vigilante's and superthugs that can be as bad as any villain and take issue with anonymous character's taking the law into their own hands. Though the Avengers and Fantastic Four are loved by the public (for the most part), mutants, super-human vigilantes and other types aren't quite so popular. The biggest example of this is Spider-Man, whom half of society seems to love (especially kids and teenagers) and the other half seem to hate and/or distrust. Sure, everyone loves Captain America and Iron Man, but they are very public figures and are really just normal humans. Fellows like Thor and the X-Men, on the other hand, are odd and mysterious to regular folk. If there is a reason that superhumans are more popular in DC is that the public's first exposure to superhumans in the thrities where benevolent, but in Marvel the first major super-powers where the Human Torch (a well meaning but scary-looking flaming robot) and the Sub-Mariner, who flooded cities, attacked civilization and generally acted as an amphibious terrorist.

Another main difference is locale. In DC, most of the cities are fake (though often loosely based on real places). In Marvel, there's really only one city: New York City. Pretty much every hero hangs there.

And finally, DC continuity is a lot trickier than Marvel. First of all there are two eras: Pre-Crisis and Post-Crisis. In Pre-Crisis, Superman could push planets around, punch them to dust and could do pretty much do anything the script required him to do. He was more powerful than God (except for his weaknesses to magic and kryptonite).

There were many also many alternate realities with different histories: In one Superman first appeared in the late thirties (like he did in real life) while in another he appeared later (this was to explain why Superman and his cast weren't really old). There were also a different Flash and Green Lantern for the two major universes (Earths I and II), but they were only related by named and power rather than origin or identity (in fact, Flash from Earth I got his name from comic books that depicted the adventures of Flash from Earth II).

As you can guess this tended to get confusing so to clear things up, writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez initiate Crisis on Infinite Earths, in which an amazingly powerful entity was destroying universe after universe to make way for his anti-matter universe. He was defeated but in the end, the surviving three universes where merged into one and history was rewritten. The characters where more or less the same, but with slight differences (Superman is still the most powerful character, but he isn't as ridiculously powerful as he was before). The problem was that since then, there seems to be a few continuity problems left. And sometimes things are retconned for no good reason.

There's also Vertigo comics, DC's mature readers comic line, which mostly consists of creator owned series (in fact their newest coup was getting American Splendor), but began as a line that contained mature reader books within the DC universe (Sandman, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Shade the Changing Man, Hellblazer). The only book left is Hellblazer (and the occasional Sandman spin-off), and though they supposedly take place in the DC universe, they aren't really treated like they are part of the DCU anymore. So, basically they aren't part of the DC Universe in any of the current stories.

Marvel is a lot simpler. Character's age, but they do it very, very slowly. This is referred too as Marvel Time. When Spider-Man began fighting crime he was 16 and in the current comics he's about 24. So about 9 years have past in the Marvel universe and for the most part, that has been pretty consistant.

Will Eisner

He's the man considered to be the most important creator ever to work in the medium. There were comics before him but everything that happened after was because of him.

His comics were revolutionary. The use and interplay of panels did things that were never done before (like guys getting punched so hard, they were hit from one panel to the other). He created splash pages adn would play with images and shadows.

Don't be fooled by the fact that this entry is so short. All that must be said is that he created comics as they are now.

Alan Moore

He's the man generally regarded as the best writer in comics. He's creepy looking, isn't he? Well, he's a creepy guy. But God can he write.

He wrote Watchmen, which is widely regarded the greatest comic of all time, as well as many other lauded work. Unlike other books at the time, Watchmen was sparse, cinematic and contained no thought bubbles, captions and sound effects. It was a very grim 12-issue series about a murder mystery involving retired superheroes. Ironically, this series and The Dark Knight Returns (widely regarded as the runner up best comic ever) triggered the much maligned grim and gritty period of the later eighties and nineties.

His first major American work was a 42-issue run on Swamp Thing, which he established his style and a lot of the ideas as well as a poetic style that was very different than Watchmen. Though it was, in part, a horror series, it focused on elemental mysticism, life on Earth and alien ways of thinking (such as plant philosophy).

He's also a practicing magician and he worships the snake-diety glycon. Sure he's crazy, but it's a fun crazy.

Jack Kirby

Considered to the greatest artist in comics. His style is quite dynamic (he likes drawing characters with on outstretched arm) and angular. And no one can draw crackling energy quite like him. He also pretty much designed half of the Marvel universe. After he stopped working with Stan Lee he worked with both DC and Marvel on his own projects. These series were imiginative and strange but were also quite goofy, so they didn't catch on like his previous work.

That's all I feel like typing for now. I hope you now understand a little more about the most underrated medium of all time.