Babillygunn
New Age Outlaw
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2014
- Messages
- 5,240
- Reaction score
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- 118
Tom King has a lot of cache in my opinion following Up in the Sky, Omega Men, and Mister Miracle. Those three are among the best comics I’ve read in a long time. But he is hit or miss. Strange Adventures was definitely a miss for me. Rorschach was good, but not to the level of Omega Men or Up in the Sky. I am loving his Supergirl book thus far.
The thing about Tom King is that sometimes he writes to celebrate a character. (Like in the case of his Superman and Supergirl books.) Other times he has a story that he wants to tell and he forces the story upon the character. Every now and again, that works well, like it did for Kyle Rainer in Omega Men. That was probably the most interesting that Kyle has ever been for me, and it wasn’t really that in keeping with the character. But then stories like Heroes in Crisis and Strange Adventures result in misfires because they can come across as character assassinations. Interestingly, I heard an interview with him where he basically said as much, stating that Heroes in Crisis was a deeply personal story that he wanted to tell, but that he recognizes that he made a mistake because it should have been about someone other than Wally West. He noted that having Wally experience such a failure was a huge mistake and not in keeping with the character and it’s mythos. Eventually Jeremy Adams had to come in and retcon much of that story.
This is a long way to say that, yes, I can totally understand the criticisms of Tom King. But his highs are so high that I think his books will always be a must read for me.
The thing about Tom King is that sometimes he writes to celebrate a character. (Like in the case of his Superman and Supergirl books.) Other times he has a story that he wants to tell and he forces the story upon the character. Every now and again, that works well, like it did for Kyle Rainer in Omega Men. That was probably the most interesting that Kyle has ever been for me, and it wasn’t really that in keeping with the character. But then stories like Heroes in Crisis and Strange Adventures result in misfires because they can come across as character assassinations. Interestingly, I heard an interview with him where he basically said as much, stating that Heroes in Crisis was a deeply personal story that he wanted to tell, but that he recognizes that he made a mistake because it should have been about someone other than Wally West. He noted that having Wally experience such a failure was a huge mistake and not in keeping with the character and it’s mythos. Eventually Jeremy Adams had to come in and retcon much of that story.
This is a long way to say that, yes, I can totally understand the criticisms of Tom King. But his highs are so high that I think his books will always be a must read for me.