Identity Crisis # 2 & JMS

Have to edit a blog that I was going to post yesterday - it's a little *too* up-close-and-personal, and was the result of too much stress, too much caffeine, not enough solid food. It's a kind of "romantic travails" essay...but more on that later.

First, after all of yesterday's hassles and triumphs, I got to pick up my weekly comics stash - JSA (man, I admire Geoff Johns - he can take all sorts of DC minutiae and whip 'em into a good story), The Escapist (and why haven't you read Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay yet?)...and Identity Crisis # 2. As I was discussing with the clerk at the Fantasy Shop in Maplewood (free plug!), this is the first time in a long time that I have wondered what would happen next in a comic. The JLA's "secret" is revealed, which explains a lot about certain aspects of DC Continuity...and a twist is revealed. Brad Meltzer really shows his mettle, and this simply is a pure joy, and another reason to keep living. I kid you not.

Speaking on the other end...J. Michael Straczynski (or JMS) has always, in my opinion, been a rather spotty writer. I appreciated what he tried to do on Babylon 5, and I have found his comic writing to be rather hit-or-miss.

It's hard for me to believe that the same guy who is writing a razor-sharp Supreme Power, a riff on an obscure Marvel group (itself a riff on the Justice League) also writes the Showtime original series Jeremiah, aka "Apocalypse 90210" (available through Netflix).

One is an intelligent real-world, Watchmen-esque study of super powered beings among us. The other is a slightly above average survey of life after "The Big Death", where all the adults died and the kids grew up to inherit...a mess. Luke Perry and Malcolm Jamal Warner play two men who meet in these circumstances, and deal with the outside world. This series has its moments, but pretty much foreshadows with a broad brush and...it's entertaining, but encourages me to seek out the Hermann Hueppen graphic novels which it is based on.

Enough of my yakkin' for now...