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Yeah, spoiler alert. And sorry to anyone who had the ruined and also cared. I can't imagine there are all that many of you.
Yes, in last week's Generation Lost Maxwell Lord killed Magog. I figured it would be safe to talk about it after a week. I'm assuming that is the case. If you're angry at me and don't want me to spoil further then go away.
The death of Magog wasn't something I was expecting. But in hindsight it's not so surprising. After the failure of his solo series DC didn't seem to know what to do with him. The only person who seemed to have liked Magog was Geoff Johns anyway.
Magog was originally a symbol in Kingdom Come of all that was bad about the superhero fare of the 90's. Shoulderpads. Pouches. Angry glares from someone other than Batman. And as a symbol of that era and why it was wrong Magog served his purpose. His presence and mistakes allowed Superman to step in and show us what a real hero was.
But I'm not here to talk about that Magog (I didn't even like Kingdom Come all that much). I'm here to talk about the in continuity Earth Zero Magog. And on "New Earth" Magog never fit. As a symbol of a very non-DCU type of heroism he was always out of place. So I suppose he was always fated to die.
After all, if Magog had lived he would -- as the White Lantern warned -- have led the DCU down the dark path that led to Kingdom Come on that other Earth. In killing him Max Lord has indeed saved his universe from that fate.
That is not to say I agree with what Max Lord did. There are always ways, and perhaps this iteration of Magog could have been led down a brighter path. Nothing is predestined or predetermined.
Still, we'll never really know what might have happened. Max Lord took away any hope for redemption Magog might have had. And in the process he pulled himself further into the dark hole of villainy. Maxwell Lord may well be beyond redemption.
St. Dumas knows we've all be waiting for it. But I think for me it's just the fact that Magog has been canceled but my successor's Azrael series is still going on.
Now, like I said last time I have a hard time understanding how they're keeping it going. I'm not really sure who the audience for the book is. But I'm just happy to know that when readers want a brutal, violent vigilante with no respect for authority they're going to be forced to go the book with my name on the cover rather than one sporting a demon from the Revelation to St. John.
No offense to Magog, but he's not really my kind of hero. Sure, I like the beating and the blood and everything. But where's the fire? Where's the righteous recriminations? I mean, he doesn't really talk about how he's doing the work of the Lord. What's really driving that guy anyway?
I just don't think we'd get along. He'll probably be sticking around, but I'm just glad he won't have the chance to do it from the cover of his own comic. If you want an anti-hero who lops of people's limbs you're going to have to go to Azrael.
Doing my Friday post early today so that I don't forget to actually do it. I have a bad tendency to get busy on Friday nights and not post at all. I'm going to try to avoid that in this exciting new universe.
Anyway, the covers for the JSA family (wow, there's a JSA family now) have been posted over on the DCU Blog Let's see what's coming up, shall we?
Justice Society of America: Looks like we're getting a whole lotta Nazi in the main book. This isn't unprecedented, of course. The JSA has a long history of beating the crap out of Nazis. They make for easy villains as the only people who defend Nazis are Nazis themselves.
That said, if you take a look at the cover you'll see that it's missing something. Namely all the swastikas. I assume, of course, that they'll be added on for release in countries that don't have a ban on the symbol. I mean, it's not particularly effective with just circles. And if you take a close look you can see that they missed the on on Kid Karnevil's knife.
JSA All-Stars: I'm really excited to see Sand getting some face time again. Especially if it means he's going up against one of the best Golden Age villains not actually created in the Golden Age. Johnny Sorrow may be a modern invention, but he feels like he was created in the 1940's.
He's also really f%&#ing creepy. Now that we know he's been the villain behind things Icicle's remarks about meeting his boss being "the worst thing that ever happened to him" make perfect sense. Nobody wants to meet Johnny Sorrow. Ever.
Power Girl: I really like this cover. I especially like the fact that one of the guys is holding a copy of Jonah Hex. I wonder if (like in the Watchmen universe) non-superhero comics are the most popular in the DCU. If that's the case, I bet Jonah Hex is the number one seller.
Magog: Go away! Go away Magog! Go away and never come back!
Art sure is pretty, though.
So I'm sure you all heard about the onging Magog series that DC has announced. Like me your reactions was probably thus: "Magog? Really? Magog?"
I understand to a degree what DC is trying to do here. It's the old "throw it at the wall and see if it sticks" method. They're basically going to toss as much stuff out there as they can and see if any of it catches fire (to mix metaphors). You can see the same thing with the Red Circle ongoings and the new Azrael.
Now, I'm not saying these are bad characters per se. Heck, they might not even be bad books. Even Magog sounds kind of interesting based on what Keith Giffen has to say.
But it's a simple problem. Books that don't star big names rarely last long. Now, that's not always true. A good example might be Birds of Prey. But consider if you will how Birds of Prey came to be launched. There were several mini-series and one-shots before the ongoing was green lighted. They were able to prove that the concept had legs before they ran with it.
Will Magog have legs? I don't see any reason to expect that it will. The problem with launching a new series is that few people are willing to invest in a theoretically indefinite set of stories on an unproven character. But they might sample a one-shot or a mini. Try that first, DC...
