Cleaning Off My Desk

Bullet-point Sunday.

• Hey, Edgar Rice Burroughs estate--how come we don't have any Tarzan or John Carter of Mars comics going right now? Fix this now!! Hell, I'll settle for Carson of Venus!!
  
  

• Why is it that in movies and TV, "hidden" video surveillance cameras ALWAYS have a flashing red light on to show that they're working (and conveniently alert the hero to their presence)? Hollywood hacks, do you know how annoying that is? Do you really believe that super spy agencies are so stupid as to put a flashing light to attract attention to that which is supposed to be hidden?!? Stop this now.

• Re: DC's "Wednesday Comics," the weekly broadsheet presenting 16 weekly strips presented "newspaper format." First, be suspicious that DC has yet to announce a price for this beast. Secondly, I liked it better when it was called Action Comics Weekly. But the odds are that it will be much less affordable than ACW was...P.S. Could you come up with a lamer, more boring name for it? At least call it Wednesday Funnies...sheesh.
  

• Re: DC's new back-up series. I'm not sure I understand the reasoning here. Yes, I'm glad that DC is giving us something extra to go along with the price increase, and not just a bunch of lame "director's cut" crap and rejected sketches and such. And since I like most of the characters involved, great, But I'm not sure I understand it from a business sense. Blue Beetle can't support itself as a regular book, but we expect continued exposure in the not-exactly-setting-the-world-on-fire Booster Gold to make him more popular? We're going to rehabilitate evil-destroyer-of-universes Captain Atom in the pages of a mag that doesn't even star Superman anymore? Manhunter can't draw, so we're going to give her less space in a more expensive mag and see how that does? I'm glad to see some of the back-ups, I'm happy DC at least cares enough to give us actual extra content for the money...I'm just not sure I understand the thinking involved...

• Speaking of mags that don't even star Superman anymore, what's up with that? Is there some reason the Superman World of New Krypton story couldn't have taken place within the confines of the regular Superman title? That the forthcoming Secret Origin of Superman couldn't have been told in Action Comics, instead of a separate spin-off series? Did we really need a flipping year of the latest incarnation of Nightwing and Flamebird? Doesn't Mon-El belong in the thirty-first century? Other than a lame attempt to strip money from my aching wallet, what's the point of moving Superman stories into other mags and running less interesting stories about less interesting characters in his mags? Anyone?

• Lest it appear that I'm going too easy on Marvel today, I've got to ask a similar question: The Search For The New Sorcerer Supreme is taking place in...New Avengers? Really? Because for most of the past year the New Avengers haven't even starred in their own mag (it became Bendis Flashback Theater). And now they're reduced to guest stars again? Has Bendis run out of ideas/justifications for this mag? Then again, when I think solutions to magical crises, I do think Wolverine and Cage...

• Dear all Marvel writers: Can we please stop seeing Dr. Doom kicked around just as a way for you to impress us how tough your new monster is? Morgan Le Fay kicks Doom around, just so we can be impressed how tough she is when the Dark Avengers take her on. Millar suddenly has him subservient to the "Master of Doom," just so we can quiver over how tough this forthcoming baddie is. Stop this now. This is Doctor Freaking Doom, and he will eviscerate you if you keep this up. Thank you.