Interesting Salon article on the recent ends of Bone and Cerebus. (Requires the day pass ad thing.)

I'm going to buy the 1984/85 Kitty/Wolvie mini on ebay sometime.

The only thing I know about it is this, which leads me to hope that you didn't spend too much on it.

Feh. I liked the story.

Yeah, I'm with ita. I didn't like the art, but the story was good.

Still reading Ultimate Spidey Vol. 1. Mary Jane wears an Old Army shirt. Ha!

Ult Spidey has a lot of little jokes sprinkled in I've noticed. Lots of random stuff on shirts, in the background and on computer screens.

Unrelated. I finally downloaded and saw "Starcrossed" last night. Very good stuff.

Entire run of Nightwing up for auction on Ebay.

Thoughts on "Identity Crisis" #1:

I've had the first issue awhile now, and it haunts me in ways few comics do anymore. Oh, don't get me wrong. I'm still a big fan of the men in tights--not like that. Usually--but frankly, most of them are fun but discardable. Take, for example, JLA, which has gotten attrocious and is about to get bumped off my pull list.

But "Identity Crisis" is getting to me. For those not following who don't mind being spoiled, the first issue centers on the murder of Sue Dibny, the wife of a long-lived but fairly obscure character, the Elongated Man. I've had a couple conversations with younger comic readers lately--both online and in real life--who are pissed off that the big murder was such a minor character.

Fuck them. Fuck their johnny come lately selves back to the the Todd McFarlane crap. (: I'm exaggerating, of course, but this dismisal seems to miss the point of the story--that people like this put their loved ones in danger. Sue Dibny was a great (if, for me, really painful) choice because not only had the character been around long enough to know everyone in the "super hero community," her and her husband were, as funny book characters go, downright down to earth and relatable. Her death is heartbreaking, and you can feel the thought that their loved ones could be next reverberate through Superman, Green Arrow, even Batman (who, in a lovely touch) we feel the presence of throughout the book, but never actually see.

And then there's the Elongated Man--Silver Age detective with dumb stretching powers--being put through an emotional ringer that just sings from the page. The heartbreak at Sue's funeral, as he can barely speak, ais agonizing. But then there he is when he's working, investigating the murder, piecing together who it is, and he's sharp. Confidant. Meltzer's dug deep and found the core of this character--the only detective who can give Batman a run for his money--and used the pain as a lens to see it with. I've read mountains of poetry that have failed to do that.

And then there's the mysterious "secret" held by Ralph, Green Arrow, the Atom, Black Canary, Zatanna and Hawkamn. Of that, I know nothing yet, but I'm on the edge of my seat.

See, I catch up on the entire thread 'coz I hear where they're having classic X-Men discussion and then I find out it's, like, two hundred posts back. Crushed, I tell you. Also, P-Cow, I have the first thirteen or so issues of US-M, and I have no idea why I stopped buying them, 'coz it was all gold. I've loved Mark Bagley since he was doing Amazing Vol. 1 when I started collecting comics in the early nineties, and he's only gotten better.

Also, I just messaged you back on IM just now, so I'm not sure why I'm posting this.

Victor, thinking about the issue gives me uncomfortable skin prickles.

More below in whitefont.

It also makes my eyes curiously damp. I love the way Meltzer set it up, so that from the beginning, when they're talking in Opal City, the moment we're at "Seventeen minutes till now." you know, just *know* that it's going to be Sue dying. You know, and you want to be wrong. I cannot overstate how much I wanted to be wrong. I found myself thinking, as Ralph talked, "Well, maybe it could be one of the Kents! We saw the Kents a page or two back!" as if that were a comforting thought to have. Because with just a shadow of detail, just the line about butter pecan, you get it. Get why Ralph loves her. And as a reader, even if you don't know her well, you love her, too. Meltzer said who died wasn't the point or the mystery. It's the why. I went from sorrow to a deep sense of dread, wondering what had happened, what they'd done, what secret they have that's that deep, that terrible.