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Mama Deb
mamadeb
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Mama Deb [userpic]
mamadeb
10/12/04 11:50 am
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I was late to work today

This is because I picked up the latest trade collection of Starman yesterday.



Starman ended its run - 5 years, 60 issues - just as I was getting back into comics. So I'm reading the collections as they come out.

The overall comic is brilliant - a man reluctantly following in his father's footsteps, and learning that he is a hero.

There are so many themes - what makes a hero, what makes a family, even what makes a villain and when is that villain not a villain? The city as a character in its architecture and history, much like Gotham is and Metropolis tried to be, but failed - even when it *was* a character.

And this book is building towards the climax of the series, and I couldn't put it down. As the name implies, there's blood and danger and fire and drama, but that drama builds on themes and issues from early on. We know these characters - the heroes, the villains, the friends and the lovers. The only one we don't know feels like an outsider.

And Ralph and Sue Dibney are there and being the friends and lovers and partners they are. And so, I'm crying, too.

And so, I was late to work this morning.

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sdelmonte
2004-10-12 10:24 am (UTC)
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1. Grand Guignol is not the end of the series. Starman actually ran 82 issues, and there is still at least one more TPB coming to wrap it up.

2. Starman would have to be on my very short list of greatest comic books ever. By the time this story came along, however, a lot of readers - well, me at any rate - thought its best days were behind it, that James Robinson had lost his way. And I have to say that the first couple of issues in GG didn't impress me. But by the time it had wrapped up, the whole thing came together so well that clearly Robinson knew what he was doing from the beginning. And when I read the whole thing in one stretch, what I objected to no longer seeming at all objectionable in the least.

3. Robinson took a lot of abuse for mis-naming Raplh Dibny as "Ralph Digby" a couple of times when mentioning him in passing (as he did with calling the Golden Age Flash "Jay Garrett"). A few readers felt Robinson really didn't know about or care for the Silver Age, let alone the Golden Age. I think that his portrayal and use of the Dibnys, as well as his work with Adam Strange and all the other famous and less-than-famous names, showed just how much he cared and understood.

4. I really, really wish he hasn't left DC for a Hollywood career.

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mamadeb
2004-10-12 07:42 pm (UTC)
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I know it's not the last because I peaked at the last page and I know what happens in the last comic, and that wasn't it, but it's clear that it is winding to a climax.

It is truly great. I reread the older ones just to reread them, you know?

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mabfan
2004-10-12 10:55 am (UTC)
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How much of the series is in collected form? And I take it from what you say that it's worth picking up?

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mamadeb
2004-10-12 07:41 pm (UTC)
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I think there are one or two collections to go. sdelmonte would know better.

And, yes, very much worth picking up.

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