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All-Star Superman

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Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:00 / 10.07.07

Krakaboom: it's "Mr. Superman Goes To Hell". to the point of super near filibustering on the floor of the cube world begging for someone to listen and help.

Ha!

zibarro being a sorta-psuedo-satan. a lucifer morningstar to the bizarro's all-night. not overtly evil in any way... but that is zibarro's curse because he CAN'T be anything other than zibarro. he's the fallen angel amongst the lost souls of the trash heap

That's an interesting reading but not one I tend to favour. We're tricked into thinking that Zibarro's going to be a bad guy - we expect it, he (maybe) blows out that match, we think it's about him tempting Superman or pleading with him to help him escape, but Zibarro's Adam. Any reversed fall is a rising up, and Zibarro would crawl his way up from the underverse if he could. He's Adam. He's Superboy about to grow into Superman.

21:02 / 10.07.07

Considering the amount of gab we've gotten out of this issue everyone who moaned about it being two parts can SHAHT IT!

Yeah, I'm kinda glad now we got a whole issue - tiny, mithering quibbles aside - of FQ drawing Bizarro World. I have especial love for these liminal hinterland Morribooks: silent New X-Men, the crooked town thing in Flex Mentallo, 'The Empire of [motherfucking] Chairs', all these weeeird, touching un-scapes.

I'm reassessing the whole thing, resultantly; the more I read this ish, the more I like it.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

21:14 / 10.07.07

I swear I could stare at the Unjustice League page for hours, especially if some hallucinigens happened to make themselves available. And "The Spar-Strangled Shroud" am ugly piece of unpoetry if there ever was. Zibarro's first line in Eight, "Not these. They'll wonder around Bizarrotropolis indulging in the usual aimless, meaningless non-activity that they love...at least until the All-Night" - totally sparked me up, reminding me of Theodore Roethke's poem Dolor, particularly:

Desolation in immaculate public places,
Lonely reception room, lavatory, switchboard,
The unalterable pathos of basin and pitcher,
Ritual of multigraph, paper-clip, comma,
Endless duplication of lives and objects.

...other than the word "immaculate," unless that's purely in the Bizarro sense of the word, of course. GM & FQ's micro-terrain of Bizarro-Home, I have to agree with you, Falke. They all have that unsettling dreamworld drip-drop ambience to them, the weird balance (all the fine detail of the landscape mashing up against the empty-but-doom-red sky by Jamie) and a peculiar incompleteness. They'd never be able to function after the story ends, they have to end, they're always very transitory un-spaces...

22:00 / 10.07.07

It's just occured to me, Superman's reached his lowest ebb this issue. He's been steadily going down, further and further, through the Hollow Earth/Superprison/Black K infection/Pa Kent's death until here, in #9, he finally reaches the Underworld proper. As Papes said earlier the only way is up. But, I wonder if all these symbolic brushes with Death are teaching Superman a way to overcome his impending death. Here in #9 instead of resorting to punching and aggression Superman uses diplomacy and negotiation. Peace. He makes peace with Bizarromanity. Maybe that's how he'll end up saving himself. After one last push to save the world (and suceeding) we see Superman, dead in space. But the last few weeks have let him finally come to terms with his impending death and with one last, final acceptance he's able to find peace and jettison that deadly energy.

Can't help but wonder if Quintum's nanonauts (mentioned twice now in the series, I think) will play some part at fixing Superman on the cellular level.

Random link: This has been mentioned before but I think Lex "I have friends in high places" Luthor made a deal with Solaris, who's been hiding in the sun, to deliberately fire bad (levels of) radiation at Superman when he tried to save the Ray Bradbury.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:36 / 10.07.07

Random link: This has been mentioned before but I think Lex "I have friends in high places" Luthor made a deal with Solaris, who's been hiding in the sun, to deliberately fire bad (levels of) radiation at Superman when he tried to save the Ray Bradbury.

That's been heavily implied, although I think the rad levels were simply due to being in the sun, rather than something Solaris did, specifically; I like the idea of overexposure being something that Lex planned on as a factor rather than something he went out of his way to produce...does that make sense? I'm hoping there's some hidden dimension to his arrangement with Solaris rather than a simple "shoot Superman up with bad rads" thing. Having the environment hurt Superman without its own malice seems more elegant, somehow.

And there is indeed nowhere to go but up. And up. And away. In fact, I bet "Up, Up, and Away" will be a chapter title before this thing is through. We're about the begin the third and final act, so it's all about up.

23:26 / 10.07.07

That's an interesting reading but not one I tend to favour. We're tricked into thinking that Zibarro's going to be a bad guy - we expect it, he (maybe) blows out that match, we think it's about him tempting Superman or pleading with him to help him escape, but Zibarro's Adam. Any reversed fall is a rising up, and Zibarro would crawl his way up from the underverse if he could. He's Adam. He's Superboy about to grow into Superman.

-----------------

i was just stretching the devil analogy to a point.
i dont believe that zibarro was truly evil. the road to hell being paved with good intentions n' all. its the zibarro makeup as i see it. he tries. oh! how he tries. but he always falls short. just as superman always triumphs. the "there's always a way" yin to the melancholy yang.

01:17 / 11.07.07

>> "Not these. They'll wonder around Bizarrotropolis indulging in the usual aimless, meaningless non-activity that they love...at least until the All-Night"

This made me think of the old Star Trek episode where they go to some planet where everyone goes crazy/freaky/party/bacchanalian when evening falls. I forget what they call it on that episode, but they call it something weird.

01:20 / 11.07.07

>> I wonder if Zibarro will be reabsorbed into Bizarro-Home.

Well, it seems that Superman's vow to contact Zibarro if he's able, someday (i.e. by the end of Grant's 12-issue story arc), is a seed being planted for the future, since Superman is a Man of His Word.

01:40 / 11.07.07

But when you put your hand into a pile of goo that used to be your best-friend's face, you'll know what to do.

01:43 / 11.07.07

I forget what they call it on that episode, but they call it something weird.

The Naked Time!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

03:25 / 11.07.07

But when you put your hand into a pile of goo that used to be your best-friend's face, you'll know what to do.

And be prepared for when people start to talk.

00:43 / 12.07.07

Reread AGAIN. It just struck me that this issue both Superman and his mirror Zibarro are forced to confront their mortality (And they're both facing death in the form of the very thing that gives them life!). Superman lost and dying on a unnourishing planet and Zibarro facing being cannibalised by his mother world in the All-Night. But while all Zibarro can do is listen to Dashboard Confessional, Superman 'always finds a way'.

Am no state the obvious.

Am Triplets.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

14:53 / 12.07.07

That's a parallel I hadn't picked up on - both being consumed by their own sources of life - and I think that Zibarro, ironically, holds up the possibility of escape for Superman: change who you are. He didn't develop into a standard Bizarro, then began to pick up friendship and hope from Superman, changing himself in the process, and we're left with at least the hint (again, based on sketchy and viewed-for-both-angles evidence, but I'm tending to favour this reading) that he won't be absorbed by Bizarro-Home, or his personality will live on an influence change.

Point being that this mirroring suggests an out for Superman from his solar death sentence - change. We already know from the hype (that's so unfair in a way, having hype to speculate from) that Clark is going to adopt a new super-hero identity, and he's already manifested new powers as a result of the super-charge. I'm left thinking that his out is going to be gaining new insight into his powers work and changing how he uses them - gaining greater control - emulating Zibarro's shifting interaction with his environment.

"SUPERMAN DEAD" is the headline, after all, but Clark Kent writes it. Clark Kent isn't dead, but maybe he's going to try something new?

01:00 / 22.07.07

I wonder if

or maybe

will be automatically turned on in Supes absense and take his place until he returns in full over-loaded suncells glory?

damn you, gays. I have nothing left to say on #8... other than it was such a great end to the two-parter. this comic makes me feel like a kid again. Sperman tied to a rocket and orgasmically screaming while being shot into space and out of the Underverse... yeah, the great work here was changing himself into being able to talk to Bizarros and making Zibarro change himself, getting over himself, really. making he thinks a bit more like Supes - there's always a way out.

other than that I was really let down by FQ's art. Jamie was again at the top of his game, but when the art was good it hit me as him chanelling Eisner getting in tune with the crooked Bizarro world.

when it was bad it hit me as just sketchy in a rushed way. hope it's not the latter and that next issue he get's his act together as Supes is recharged when reaching our sun again.

18:45 / 22.07.07

not that the the talk in here isnt good. it be that. but lately, everytime i see there are new posts, i come in here hoping someone is propping up the cover fuh numbah nine.

*waits s'more for the proppng*

14:47 / 26.07.07

Damnit I'd written an entire post looong ago to discover now that it was still there on the firefox's recovered tab.

I own the bloody trilogy DVD but that image didn't make me think of Sauron at all until you said something.

And the irony is that I don't even like LotR =D (I read the books and think the films are brilliantly well-made but they never really punched me right), but came to mind. I think mostly because a friend made the connection once between Sauron, Horus' all-seeing-eye-of-God and some myths of the sun as being God's eye (and for another reach, since it wouldn't be a post from me without one, if you'd take God as it is to some -- gnostics for instance -- a demiurge, is a figure somewhat very vaguely like Solaris, Le Bad Dad).

Lois should be able to tell him that this [his death] isn't true, even without knowing; she and Jimmy know he's always going to fly up for beyond and save them all.

She always write the stories of his accomplishments before they happen, no? It’s a hypersigil trumpet, the god-king’s and the community’s bugle, in the form of a crusading journalist. I'd just like to see in the series her voice louder, more active or with a further depth or at least more "screen time" (instead of just seeing her effects on him) since she's one of the biggest (if not teh biggest really) hand in the mythos shaping the clay in many aspects.

But if it's true that next issue is some sort of funeral, I can sort of see her like Isis being the one that saves him next issue, or at least preparing the ground for (or fueling) his comeback (and to go further with the solar Osirian babble, Quintum - if by any chance actually being a despairing figure - as a Set/Typhon figure, "bringing the cospirators to bury him still alive"? Although I hope not).

I sort of wonder what will be served in the holy grail as the Usquebaugh to rise and pull our SuperFinn back in his too-early wake from the deeps of the underworld. Again, I'm hoping Lois – maybe teamed up with Jimmy on action stars’ roles bringing him back – with some fantastically crazy-ass WTF-filled and adorable crusade.

WTF L. L. FTW! ^_^

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

15:13 / 26.07.07

Huh. Superman wants to kiss a woman with a moustache, and Lois is embarassed because everyone is staring at her boyfriend, the human rainbow - but wouldn't they still be staring, because he's Superman?

15:38 / 26.07.07

"Silver-Age Comics: glue-sniffing in paper-form short-circuiting your brain into nirvana since nineteen t--ddaaaaaahhhhhh..."

(although I'm actually trying to find the one where she's a urban pirate -- that's just plain bad-ass right there)

19:18 / 28.07.07

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN won the eisner award for best continuing series in san diego friday night!

congrats to grant, frank, jamie and all involved.

13:54 / 29.07.07

congrats indeed - well deserved!

00:44 / 30.07.07

Grant should have won best writer though!

21:55 / 14.08.07

ALL-STAR SUPERMAN #9

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:00 / 14.08.07

Sweeeeeet. Replacement Superman? And, uh, Superwoman?

22:31 / 14.08.07

Frank Quitely has to be the only artist who can excite me with circles in circles. He just does them so well!

Not so bad at drawing other stuff, either, mind. But, the circles!

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:39 / 14.08.07

I dunno, those triangles are pretty sweet. Especially the inverted ones.

22:40 / 14.08.07

Is that Lois in an apron?

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

22:44 / 14.08.07

I was wondering about that. Lois is in an apron, Superman's bleeding--what sort of topsy-turvy world are they trapped in?

No, wait, they've already done the Bizarro World.

23:11 / 14.08.07

It's a camo apron. Could it be... combat cooking? Has Superman's sudden bleeding driven Lois to become a gotta kill it to grill it type, with stuffy superhumans with points on their heads all over the menu?

And if Supes was cool enough to have knives for hands already, he'd be in perfect position for committing one of those famous crotch impalements that make modern comics so magickal.

01:12 / 15.08.07

All Star Zod? Don't know why, 'cause they don't look anything like them, but they reminded me of the warcops in #4 (I think their name is Adam and Eve). It's a nice visual rhyme with his triangle up (fire? triagle down is a cup?) while Sups' normal diamond pointing down. Their suit colors look odd, but appropriate.

(circles? What circles?)

Lois (mommy dealing with the kids?) in a camuflage apron (I saw it as an apron, but now I'm not sure, may be just a dress), wtf... It'd be sooo much more adorable if Sups'd be with his head up holding his nose bridge (but the surprise face makes tons more sense).

Odd choice of blue background from FQ. Anti-septic-ish, "sounds" different from the previous covers and colors so far.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

01:21 / 15.08.07

Possibly, the image will be superimposed onto a background that hasn't been revealed yet, Sparrow.

Or, possibly, they're at P.R.O.J.E.C.T., where half the scenes seem to take place in a colourless void.

Zod & Faora are a cute idea, but something about them doesn't quite click with the image.

Lois in an apron does rather resonate with those old Lois Lane imaginary stories where she's married to the big lug and they have super-babies. Ah, the Fifties... she does look rather motherly, nursing dear old Clark back to health while his replacements (?) sneer at the guy's hopeless timidity. This Superman seems more Clark than Kal.

I kind of want the bully up there to be Powerman, even if he isn't wearing the helmet. But I suspect the answer will be stranger...

05:58 / 15.08.07

May be that the void background is just so that the blood is more easily noticeable (although the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. idea is quite probable; but Quitely seems to like to make a proper use of his negative spaces regardless of the place at times).

I was sort of lost at first to what the cover was aiming at. Now I can't get this goddamn baby blue kindergarten (of Eden) overtone off my mind when I see it (bullied geeky little kid: origins of a power fantasy's hero for kids to project themselves into). Clark looking so Clarkishly vulnerable and kiddy-like, so astonished by the blood that came off him, his stature in the composition (almost resting his head in "teacher" Lois' chest, or about to cry against her belly). I can't get it off my head when probably it's not even near to what's driving at.
(and, of course, from that I already went to high drifts of pointless interpretations and speculations).

And I'm immensily curious about the camouflage.

10:59 / 15.08.07

I think it might actually be Zod. Thinking there's the everlasting "kneel/bend before Sod!" and the Z patterns in the lady's, ahm, thingy. The triangles reminds me as well of the geometrical phantom zone prison in the movies.

But still a hunch. DC site said they are "the strangest of adversaries", so...

12:59 / 15.08.07

I really like Lois' hair in that picture.

Negawoman (or whoever) does look incredibly like Lois, doesn't she? Though why Negaman (or whoever!) has the albino clone look while she doesn't is anyone's guess.

Blank background rings true with what we've seen of P.R.O.J.E.C.T. so far.

Has Superman's sudden bleeding driven Lois to become a gotta kill it to grill it type

Made me lol, as the kids say. Does everyone want to see Lois doing a Casey Ryback on the Moon?

Yes you do.

B-side to #9, please.

Fritz K Driftwood

23:58 / 15.08.07

Well it could be All-Star Zod & Ursa. Those would be the Zod family symbol/colors, as opposed to the El family crest.

When I first saw the image I immediately thought Jor-El & Lara, but then realized that the El family diamond was nowhere in site.

Zod is one of the few folks who might give Supes a bloody nose....

And we haven't seen the Phantom Zone villians around on Grant's run so far, have we?

13:37 / 16.08.07

I wouldn't say it's an "apron," perhaps more like a coverall camo dress sort of thing. I'm not well-versed in fashion but there's a name for that somewhere...

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