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Charity The Montreal Children’s Hospital Autism Clinic Donation Link Bennett Wark Tribute Fund Type “Bennett Wark Tribute Fund” in the Additional Comments box of the Your Gift section. Sponsors 40 Pledges at least $1515 Links The Blogathon Rules Day of Blogs LiveJournal Community Contact Sponsor Me Facebook event page |
Overall, this series is of secondary importance to the new version of the Supreme Universe. It’s an extended origin story that doesn’t add much to our understanding of Doctor Spectrum because we knew he was a tough guy as soon as he made his appearance in the main series. I wonder if this series was a market test for other origin stories.
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Doctor Spectrum #4 The story is dragging. I already knew that Joe had done bad things the first time the little gun-toting boy showed up in his memories. Sometimes, suggesting is better than showing. The world around the unconscious soldier is interesting – somebody is blackmailing the duty nurse for access. |
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Doctor Spectrum #5 Ah…a surprise! There’s a little more to Joe’s background than atrocities committed during covert ops…there’s a family secret, which makes enough sense on the face of it. But as interesting as this development is, I’m more curious about the fate of the Joe’s kidnappers. The gem will never leave Joe alone, so goes the refrain. |
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Doctor Spectrum #6 One of the recurring mysteries of the Supremeverse is the planet of origin of Hyperion and Zarda. Yes, an origin has been presented in the past, but it sounds loopy…especially when Zarda describes it. Since Doctor Spectrum is an instrument of that alien civilization, I had hoped for some clarification but, beyond a cultural preference for violence, there’s nothing. A bit of a fizzle, really. |
Doctor Spectrum is a Green Lantern-analogue. He has a power gem embedded in the back of the right fist that gives him tremendous energy powers but, because the gem is originally from the space ship that brought Hyperion to Earth, it occasionally takes over Spectrum’s mind and forces him into action.
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Doctor Spectrum #1 The series starts with Joe Ledger’s initial involvement with the Hyperion gem project. He’s a career special ops soldier with a “surgical state of mind” that earned him the nickname “Doctor.” Yeah, it seems just as forced to me, too. When he works with the gem, it bonds to his hand, makes him comatose, and forces him to relive his past. Meanwhile, the gem defends its new hosts against the doctors who would remove it…explosively. |
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Doctor Spectrum #2 It’s a contest of wills between Joe and the Gem, with the gem taking the role of every bully in Joe’s life. This only pushed the good Doctor further than the gem might be prepared to follow. |
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Doctor Spectrum #3 There’s an odd Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind vibe with this story – Joe hides in his memories, and the gem follows to wreck things, all in the name of determining if Joe is strong enough to be it’s bearer. The gem is also not going to let the Army’s timetable terminate this interminable internal interview (alliteration – egads, I’m getting punchy). |
Two things I’ve (re)discovered: One, the less the villain talks, the creepier he is. Whiteface is a far better bad quiet when he’s the quiet clown, not the gabby, giggly one. Two, I enjoy Nighthawk written by anyone other than JMS. Funny, that.
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Nighthawk #4 The Mayor cannot cope with the death of his family at the hands of Whiteface, so he publicly calls for Nighthawk to kill the murderer. This kind of thing never happens to Batman (unless Frank Miller is writing, maybe). |
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Nighthawk #5 The story takes a terrible turn into Killing Joke territory. Whiteface has Nighthawk captured and starts going on and on about how Nighthawk completes his psychosis. That works between Joker and the Batman because there’s established history between the characters, but Whiteface has been in a catatonic state for years before Nighthawk went public. How could there be any imaginable connection. There are explosions, murder and kidnapping, and Whiteface starts to smile. It’s an ordinary criminal leer. |
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Nighthawk #6 The ending is short and sweet, once again from the Killing Joke. Whiteface is at the city water treatment plant and throws the foundling orphan into the water. Nighthawk could have just save the child and let Whiteface escape but, in a gruesomely efficient move, he fires a grapnel through Whiteface and uses him as a support while he dives to rescue the baby. Needless to say, Whiteface is a little worse for wear. |
It’s a little unfair to this series to be reading it right after seeing The Dark Knight. Nighthawk is a pseudo-Batman by design, but how can Whiteface possibly compete with the Joker. Sure, the smile is carved upside down, but still…is that enough?
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Nighthawk #1 Whiteface was a racist pharmacist imprisoned for poisoning poor families in his neighborhood. A prison assault left him mutilated and catatonic, and then transferred to a minimum security prison…from which he escapes. He’s the perfect villain for a one-track vigilante like Nighthawk. |
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Nighthawk #2 Nighthawk takes down a crack den, and then the addicts start dying. He finds a baby and saves it (thank goodness – but I hope that poor child doesn’t turn into a Robin-equivalent). Addicts are all over the city, thanks to poisoned drugs. No one makes the connection to Whiteface. |
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Nighthawk #3 This is more of a political issue, where the Mayor and Governor try to figure out how to address the issue of nearly three thousand dead. Nighthawk takes a more direct approach to the problem…a golf club to the knees of a drug smuggling federal judge, to be precise. Meanwhile, Whiteface attends a children’s party. That’s not going to end well at all. |
First, I read Rorschach. Then I saw ads for The Question in DC Comics, but I skipped him. A faceless investigator didn’t look interesting. Then I saw The Question on the Justice League Unlimited cartoon and was intrigued. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the Denny O’Neill / Denys Cowan series.
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The Question TPB #2: Poisoned Ground I love reading DC stories where they mock the Wolverine/Logan tough guy figure– just add bushy sideburns and a growl, and you have a comment on Marvel’s most popular hero. These are crime stories, of course, but they’re all crimes and murders related to identity in one way or another: from Volk/Wolverine’s dual soul to a vengeful masked murderer to a torturer who wishes to achieve a higher plane of consciousness through atom-smashing and alchemy. The stories are interesting, but they’re not terribly compelling. Perhaps that’s intentional – Vic Sage is more a cipher than a question. |
I’ve gone through the emails and Facebook messages and arrived at a new preliminary fundraising total: $1515 from 40 people! I know that’s on the low end, because I’ve been told about some pledges without the amounts.
We’ve beaten last year’s total! Thank you, everyone!
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38. Supreme Power: Nighthawk...Pt 2:
35. Fundraising Update:
Interlude: The Rain: