Tomahawk009

August 17, 2011 6:48 pm Shape shifting and size changing have always intrigued/baffled me. I mean, if you shrink, where does all that mass go? If you shift/morph and increase in size, where does all that extra mass come from? It's fun inventing an explanation to explain it all, but it does feel ridiculous after a while. Or to paraphrase the MST3K theme song: "Just repeat to yourself it's just a [comic], I should really just relax". :-)

July 18, 2009 7:01 pm Inverting the superhero/comic/cartoon discussion:   Anyone have cartoons that they loved that they wish they could see live again in comic books?  I'll start by wishing I could read "Avatar: The Last Airbender" and "Samurai Jack" in comics.

July 18, 2009 6:55 pm

@conor - I agree cartoons are very close to as good as comics, but a cartoon series almost always has one team behind it, and sooner or later, it's cancelled.

Compare that to comics:  It's cool to see different writers/artists take on a comic title, esp. as you grow older. Related to this, the constant re-imaginings and exploration of the original story by these new teams. The closest parallel I can think of is either theater or cover songs.

July 8, 2009 9:47 pm

Are you intentionally targeting those of us old enough to have bought these issues?  Is that why Jim did his take on ROM?  Wow.  Another blast from my past.  After watching the show, I ran down and pulled out issues 1-19 from my long box.  I think I'll gingerly re-read the run again.  

Great show guys.  Let me just say that issues #14 and #15 still stick with me, after all of these years.  I agree that these aren't perfect, but you did you have put in context of what was out there in the 80's.  Someone should do a thesis on dystopian PoMo comics from MM to Irredeemable.

Oh, and when one of you guys have your first kid, the birthing issue isn't such a big deal.  : ) 

July 4, 2009 12:01 pm

Great show folks! I don't have the Omnibus (yet) but I do own all the trades. This series came at the right moment in time for me in the 90's. In the post-Watchman and post-Dark Knight era, it seemed to me that every superhero at Marvel and DC were getting more "realistic", which superficially translated to more angry and more violent. Don't get me wrong, I love and respect Watchman and The Dark Knight, but as those two books could be said to have deconstructed the superhero concept, Starman reconstructed the superhero again.  Through Jack Knight, we look backward to the Golden Age, asking ourselves what makes a superhero today? And is that different than being a superhero in the past? Robinson also plays with the generational issues those questions entail, for both the heroes and the villains. In this way, Starman is a precursor to themes explored later in Kingdom Come.  Starman is by no means a perfect series, but like Robinson and Jack's love of antique ephemera, I now find the flaws and quirkiness endearing and a shining light during the dark-days of 90's.