It's all about respect for the source material

The Bionic Man Volume 1: Some Assembly Required tpb
Dynamite Entertainment
Creators: Kevin Smith, Phil Hester, Jonathan Lau, Ivan Nunes, Simon Bowland, Alex Ross and Jason Ullmeyer
Release date: 2012

Bottom line: I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and I owe it all to Scott Gardner.

I've talked before about what a mixed bag I often find licensed properties in comics to be. Some are really good; but others really, really stink. On top of that, while I like a lot of Kevin Smith's movies, his comics work has also been a mixed bag for me. I really liked his relaunches of Daredevil for Marvel Comics in 1998 and Green Arrow for DC in 2001. Can't stand his work on Batman, though. Batman: Cacophony from 2008 was horrid.

So when I heard the news that Dynamite Comics had secured the license and planned to resurrect the idea of The Bionic Man, I was skeptical. Hearing that Kevin Smith would be the writer didn't change my mind. And the tragically botched attempt at a "Bionic Woman" reboot on television from several years prior was the final piece of evidence in my mind. Modern creators weren't handling Steve Austin or Jamie Summers right. No need to waste money on this comic. Nothing good could come of it.

And I never had reason to second-guess that opinion. Not until I listened to Scott Gardner rave about the then-new title on an old episode of one of his podcasts, Comics Monthly Monday.

A brief aside: For those of you who didn't read my post on podcasts, in a nutshell, I'm anal. I like to listen to podcasts when I exercise. But when I find a podcast I like, I want to listen to it from the beginning. I have more than a dozen I like to listen to, but my time to do so is quite limited, and many of the creators involved have been podcasting for quite a while. Long story short, I'm listening to podcasts from several years ago, not current ones. Right now, I'm listening to early 2012 podcasts because I just finished the 2011 episodes of my favorite shows. And it was during the December 2011 episode of Comics Monthly Monday, I'm pretty sure, that Scott, one of the three co-hosts of the show, was raving about the issues of The Bionic Man that he'd picked up.

He spoke so highly of the book and its faithfulness to the heart of "The Six Million Dollar Man" television program that introduced most of us to the concept of cyborgs and Col. Steve Austin (Yes, I know the show was based on the novel "Cyborg" by Martin Caidin from 1972, but the vast majority of the show's fans only learned about the book after first watching the show it inspired.), that I decided to give the series a try in trade.

The opening arc takes no less than 10 issues, all of which are collected in this larger than usual trade paperback collection. And Scott Gardner was quite correct. This series is very, very good.

It isn't the 1970s television program re-presented in comic book form. It has been updated for a modern audience. But in updating the concepts, the creators involved did not lose sight of what made fans of the television program love the show. The name was simplified to The Bionic Man because $6 million doesn't carry the financial heft it used to, but Smith finds a way to work in a special significance for the figure in this modern story as well. Also here are the red track suit; familiar phrases like "Colonel Steve Austin. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology." and "We'll make him better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster."; Max the bionic dog; that cool sound effect from the show when Steve's bionics are being used. It's all here, maybe in slightly different contexts, but in ways that make sense in this new story while also showing a love for what has come before.

That's part of what makes this such a great comic. It's also why I liked the 1998 movie "Lost in Space" so much when it was not well received by most. That film had a lot of nods to the old TV show, while still forging its own path and finding a new story to tell. So many reboots or relaunches of old concepts today seem to say, "Let's take this old property and fix what's wrong with it." Well, if it was popular enough in its day that you are considering bringing it back, maybe you should have a little more respect for the old property. Maybe some of the ideas and concepts then will seem hokey today, but rather than poke fun of the property for that, find a new reason to make those elements relevant. Because quite often, those are the same elements that made the concept popular the first time around.

The Bionic Man is not an old episode retold in a new format. There are a number of changes and different concepts in this story that make it fresh. But it doesn't forget that there's a reason for the show's popularity. This book is well worth checking out whether or not you ever watched "The Six Million Dollar Man." I definitely think so. Thanks, Scott!

Will My Green Arrow Please Stand Up

Rather than a specific issue or story line, today I decided to talk about the wandering failure that the New 52 has wrought upon one of my favorite characters, Green Arrow, aka Oliver Queen.

I first became aware of Green Arrow in the late 1970s and early 1980s when he participated in Justice League of America stories or his own solo adventures in World's Finest Comics. I missed out on the new "relevant" Green Lantern/Green Arrow series created by Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams in the mid-1970s, but the new costume and personality these two creators gave to the Emerald Archer influenced his characterization for the next decade, at least, and the hero I was reading owed much to their work.

Going back and reading reprints of the O'Neil and Adams stories in 1983 is when I grew to really appreciate the character and come to see him as one of my favorites. That affection grew and was nurtured by the Green Arrow miniseries that same year by Mike W. Barr, Trevor von Eeden and Dick Giordano and was cemented by Mike Grell's fantastic Longbow Hunters series in 1987.

Having said that, I don't know why I didn't immediately pick up the Mike Grell ongoing Green Arrow series that followed Longbow Hunters. I swear, I really did love that series right from the start. At this point, I did have a local comic shop I frequented regularly for my comics, but I was not online much and hadn't even heard of Previews at the time, so maybe I simply wasn't aware of the existence of the ongoing for a while. Whatever the reason, I started in on that series about two years into the run reading forward each month as well as backward when I could find copies of the back issues I'd missed.

I was very sad to see Ollie killed off in No. 100 of that series, then being written by Chuck Dixon, and while he was a very different character, I enjoyed the adventures of Ollie's son, Connor Hawke, as the new Green Arrow. I'm not nearly as big a martial arts fan as Dixon seems to be, so some of the Connor GA stories were less to my liking than others, but I stayed with the series until it ended with issue No. 137.

After a few dark nearly-Green Arrow-less years, it was announced that Kevin Smith was going to bring Oliver Queen back from the dead in a relaunched Green Arrow title in 2001. Smith was joined by artist Phil Hester, and while I was less impressed with Hester's more cartoony art at the time, I was glad to have the character back. Smith left the title after 15 solid issues, and we were treated to one of novelist Brad Meltzer's first comics-writing turns with his excellent "The Archer's Quest"  and then after a few issues, Judd Winick took over the writing chores. Winick is one of those hit-or-miss writers to my tastes. I really like some of his books while others just leave me feeling meh. But he did a good job at the helm of Star City's resident bowman and stayed with the title for the remainder of this run and into the 2007 Green Arrow and Black Canary relaunch. That title had the added plus of fantastic art by first Cliff Chiang and then Mike Norton. The Green Arrow and Black Canary series finished its second half with excellent writer Andrew Kreisberg and then J.T. Krul on the final three Blackest Night and Cry For Justice tie-in issues.

All of that background is to show I have a history with the character, reading Green Arrow's adventures, and for the most part, enjoying most of the tales he is featured in. I don't agree with everything that happened in Justice League: Cry For Justice or the subsequent Fall of Green Arrow, but I liked both titles and could see Oliver acting and reacting the way he was portrayed in those stories. Less to my liking was the 15-issue Green Arrow: Brightest Day series where Oliver is all about his forest, but I think most of that series stemmed from editorial dictates and might not be where series writer Krul would have taken Oliver without the whole Brightest Day framework, which I liked with regards to other characters. I base this, in part, on the fact that another writer finished the final three issues of that series. I also haven't read Green Arrow: Brightest Day again since it was new; maybe my opinion of it would improve with a fresh look.

Then along comes the New 52, and everybody and everything is rebooted back to square one. Except Batman and Green Lantern, which were seeing a great deal of popular story lines already, so the rebooting wasn't quite so evenly distributed. But I was all set to accept a new, younger Oliver Queen as Green Arrow. A fresh start didn't have to mean disaster. And the first three issues of the New 52 Green Arrow were good with story by Krul and art by the incredible Dan Jurgens. Oliver has a bit of a team working behind the scenes to assist him, but subtracting a few years and changing up his costume were pretty cosmetic; I could still see this as the hero I liked, just a slightly different guy from a slightly different dimension or something.

The problem was, those three issues didn't last. Issue No. 4 saw a creative change to writer Keith Giffen, who was replaced by Jurgens by issue No. 6. Then we got Ann Nocenti, who's run on the title lasted until issue No. 16. But her run on the book was all about horn-dog Ollie who thought more with his groin than his brains. This guy wasn't really a hero so much as a screw-up. With each creative change, I liked the character less and less. And there seemed to be a lot of creative changes.

Jeff Lemire's run (issue Nos. 17-34) was very dark for my tastes and centered way too much on the mysticism of the various clans he introduced into Oliver's back story. Then elements from the CW television series "Arrow" started to creep into the book. Now, I've watched "Arrow" since the beginning, and I very much enjoy the show and Stephen Amell's portrayal of Oliver Queen. I'm very happy the show has lasted into a third season, and I'll be happy to see it continue for several more years. But it is the television version of Green Arrow. That guy exists in an equally valid, but alternate dimension from the guy I like to read about in the comics. Television and comics are two different media; they have different strengths and weaknesses, and I believe they are best served by different approaches. I love watching the TV show, but I don't want to read the TV show in my monthly Green Arrow comic.

So, why do I keep buying the monthly comic if I don't like what they're doing with the character and haven't for basically the last 30 issues? I guess that means I have more money than sense, but my wife would be quick to remind that we don't have that much money. So maybe I just don't have any sense. But the creative teams change on this title so often, every time I convince myself to just drop what I'm not enjoying, I think, "But wait, a new team and direction are coming next month; maybe it really will get better." Except so far, it hasn't.

I hope the comic will find its niche now that Andrew Kreisberg is back writing the character as I enjoyed his work on the title pre-New 52. But Kreisberg is also one of the producers of the CW televison series. I'm hopeful, but concerned as well. But I'm still buying the title each month hoping for the best. At least, for now ...

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Keeping It All In The Family

I've always liked the idea of the Green Hornet without really knowing much about the character as he's been depicted through the years. For instance, I can recall having watched the Van Williams/Bruce Lee show in reruns on television when I was young, but beyond the kinetic theme music, I don't remember any specific episodes or actions. In fact, a few years ago when talk of a possible Green Hornet feature film began circulating, I was surprised to learn that the Hornet operated by pretending to be a villain to get close to other villains and learn about their operations. That seems a pretty basic part of the character not to have known.

That isn't to say I was ignorant of the Hornet's beginnings, both his fictional origin and his real-world genesis. For instance, I knew the character's alter ego was Britt Reid, a wealthy heir, much like the Batman's Bruce Wayne, and I'm pretty sure I knew that the Reid family fortune was made in the newspaper industry. I also knew the fictional Britt Reid character had familial ties to the fictional John Reid, true identity of the Lone Ranger, and that, in fact, the character of the Green Hornet had been created as an updated, then-modern version of the Lone Ranger to tackle gangsters in a similar radio show.

Despite that amount of knowledge regarding the character of the Green Hornet, I haven't seen a live-action representation of the character on screen since I was a small child, nor have I ever heard any of the radio programs or read any of his comic-book appearances. But I've always been curious about the character, especially his ties to the Lone Ranger, a character I very much enjoy.

Last summer, word began circulating that Dynamite Entertainment planned to launch a new ongoing Green Hornet comic written by Kevin Smith. I was looking forward to trying that book, not yet sure if I would pick up the monthly issues or trade-wait the series, when I came across some eBay auctions for a number of small runs of several titles of interest. Included in these auctions were the first 14 issues of Now Comics' Green Hornet title from the late 1980s. I decided to give them a try, just recently read them, and man, I'm glad I did!

Now let me say up front that my hat's off to any fans who bought and enjoyed this series when it was first released. These books make a great introduction to a character with a strong sense of family in a story line than can't be described without using the words "epic in scope." They are a very entertaining read when a person can sit down and read several through in one sitting. But the way the story begins and is paced, as great as it works in one epic narrative, must have driven readers crazy reading the issues one month at a time.

The double-sized first issue came out in November 1989 with a striking cover by comic legend Jim Steranko. The story is written by Ron Fortier, penciled by Jeff Butler, inked by David Mowry, lettered by Dan Nakrosis and painted colors were added by Suzanne Dechnik.

The story opens on an aging Britt Reid writing his memoirs in his study, sitting in front of a painted full-figure portrait of the Lone Ranger and Silver. Reid begins with his grandfather, Dan Reid, a Texas Ranger, continues through the birth of his father, Dan Reid Jr., who founded The Sentinel, on up to his own birth in 1906, the deaths of his parents, the rise and fall of Prohibition, the growth of local mobs, and finally, the debut of the costumed figure, the Green Hornet, in 1936. This Green Hornet looks very much like pictures I've seen of the character from the old movie serials.

From there, the issue jumps, surprisingly, to a chapter Reid has titled "My Last Case," which centers around the Green Hornet's final take-down of a mobster named Tobias, one of the last criminal elements left in the city. But the story also introduces other Reid family members like Britt's brother, Jack Reid, and Jack's two young sons, Britt II and Tom.

The second issue opens in 1989 with a young man wearing an updated Green Hornet outfit as he explores the ruins of the old Reid country estate. Through newspaper clippings and family photos, the reader learns that the Green Hornet mysteriously resurfaced in 1968, and that Tom Reid, just a boy when last seen in the previous issue, grew up to become a world-famous archeologist, along with his wife, Mary. The couple died some time after 1972 in a plane crash, leaving behind two sons, Alan and Paul. From there, the story moves to 1979 and finds the now teenaged Alan and Paul living with their uncle, Britt II. It becomes obvious that Britt Reid II is the new Green Hornet, and that his adventures with the current Kato, son of the original, are modeled after the TV exploits of the Van Williams/Bruce Lee incarnation.

The third issue continues the tale of this second Green Hornet, but along the way, Britt Reid II's nephews, Alan and Paul, learn about the Hornet's true identity accidentally. Alan is the more serious of the two brothers, and by issue No. 4, it is clear that Alan is being groomed to be the next Green Hornet, while Paul wants little to do with the family legacy. Under the tutelage of both his Green Hornet predecessors — his grandfather and his uncle — Alan is set to undertake his first mission in 1986 with the help of the second Kato, a mission which does NOT go well.

By the debut of issue No. 5, it finally becomes clear that the Green Hornet in the 1989 sequences is none other than Paul Reid, grandson of the original Green Hornet, and that his adventures will be the ones chronicled through the remainder of this series' run. These books clearly have fun with the concept of several Green Hornets down through the years to explain the differences in appearance and times for all the stories which have gone before. It makes for a nice heroic dynasty tale, and even includes a female Kato nearly two decades before the current Dynamite comics' version.

This run of the character by Now Comics ran for 28 issues, was followed by a 40-issue Volume 2, and also by a series of Tales of the Green Hornet issues. These first 14 issues are good enough, I wouldn't mind at all hunting down more issues from this era and just bypassing the modern Kevin Smith incarnation all together.

Kevin Smith Bashing By Proxy

As the header implies, I'm going to send you somewhere else first, then please come on back here and read the rest of my thoughts on Kevin Smith's Widening Gyre.

You're back? Good. Thought I'd lost you there for a minute.

By and large, I have to agree with this guy's critique of Kevin Smith's work of late. I think he might be a tad harsh when slamming Walter Flanagan's art. As I haven't seen these books first-hand, I'm just basing my assessment on the panels Chris Sims reproduced to make his points, but they look pretty good to me. But writing like that has to make you smack your forehead and wonder what the writer is thinking.

I like some of Kevin Smith's films, and I've liked some of his comics. His run on the relaunched Daredevil back in the late 90s wasn't bad. His Green Arrow was pretty good. And I really like the character of Onomotopia as first presented.

Cacophony was not a steller follow-up with the character, however, hitting a VERY low point with the Joker anal sex thing. Now this? How can he think Batman fans would like this? How could Batman fans like this?

I opted to trade-wait when Widening Gyre was first announced. Sims' comments lead me to think I'd be much happier skipping the trade on this one, too.

And that makes me sad.