“It’s everything, Evey. The perfect entrance, the grand illusion. It’s everything. And I’m going to bring the house down.” ~ V

Just over twenty years ago, one of Alan Moore’s seminal works finally concluded, starting off in relative obscurity and — aided by the runaway success of Watchmen, completed three years earlier in 1986 — made Moore into a legend. It was subversive. It was brutal. It was a love letter to truth, justice, and the Anarchist way — it was violent and vicarious, volatile and visionary.

It was V. V for Vendetta.

And as his masked terrorist hero proclaimed — “Remember, remember, the 5th of November” — we’re going to Dial V for History and look back on this groundbreaking work, and its effects on Moore and the comic book industry as a whole.

Rewind to 1981. Alan Moore has yet to strike paydirt with Watchmen, which would go on to be one of the most celebrated and well-known graphic novels of all time. Instead, take a look back to the creation of a black-and-white British anthology that would go on to make history: Warrior. With editor Dez Skinn, Warrior housed many of Moore’s great works, including the subversive superhero epic Marvelman.

But the very first issue of Warrior — headlined by Axel Pressbutton, the Psychotic Cyborg — had a cloaked man with a Guy Fawkes mask along its spine. “V for Vendetta.” It was a short first chapter, but it was effective: Evey, a munitions worker so desperate she’s decided to sell her body on the streets. Unfortunately, her first solicitation happens to be a Fingerman, one of the corrupt policemen in a totalitarian England. She is only rescued from rape and worse by the intervention of V, a masked terrorist whose dispatch of the men is as brutal as it is inventive.

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For the second time this month, the comics landscape has been rocked, with today’s announcement that DC president and publisher Paul Levitz would be stepping down after seven years in the driver’s seat of the company. But Levitz’s story started far before 2002 — this is a guy who’s been a heavy-hitter in comics for much of his adult life. And what better way to commemorate his career than to Dial H — for History!

Paul Levitz was one of the first in the industry to get his start through the winding roads of fandom. Levitz, along with writer Paul Kupperberg, assumed editorship of the fan-zine The Comic Reader. While 3,500 readers wasn’t huge back in the early 1970s, it was enough to gain some necessary connections to the business — which soon paid off in a big way, as he became a freelancer for DC at the end of 1972. Of course, it wasn’t the most glamorous job in the world — he was working the letters page for Joe Orlando — but he worked his way up the ladder, even creating DC’s own in-house fan-zine, Amazing World of DC Comics. By his 20th birthday, Levitz had become the editor of Adventure Comics, the home of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Yet Levitz didn’t only toil as a young behind-the-scenes enthusiast — he soon became a writer in his own right. He “graduated” to super-hero stories after giving a check to Bill Finger for two scripts, when the Batman co-creator only wrote one. The only problem? Finger died before he could write the script he owed, leaving Levitz holding the bag. He would parlay that cred to eventually create the Earth-2 Huntress, take over the Justice Society in All-Star Comics, as well as the Legion of Super-Heroes. It was Levitz’s run on the Legion that was probably his most famous work, including the Great Darkness Saga, when the Legion was pitted against Darkseid, who had the powers of Mordru, the Time Trapper, and the enslaved population of Daxam at his command.

Of course, Levitz’s position within the company allowed him to bring some enormous names into the industry through the mid-1980s, in conjunction with Jenette Kahn and Dick Giordano. People such as Alan Moore, John Byrne, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, all made their big DC splashes in part because of Levitz, creating revitalizations of the medium such as Watchmen and the post-Crisis Superman. Indeed, Levitz also decided upon Dan DiDio as the creative ringmaster behind DC’s main lineup, resulting in linewide crossovers ranging from Infinite Crisis to this year’s Blackest Night.

But what about Levitz’s legacy on the industry, past that? I remember briefly meeting Levitz in the summer of 2008, and asking him what his proudest moment in the industry was: he told me that it was helping work out with then-publisher Jenette Kahn what would become the standards of compensation for creators — this includes royalties for freelancers, reprint payments, art returns (which artists generally sell for additional funding), as well as having creator credits on the covers of books. It was an act of good faith that has kept names like Len Wein happy, as seen in this interview:

As I said, the difference between the two companies; DC and Marvel, is I see money off of all of my characters at DC in any incarnation. If they do paperback books, if they do movies… I also created Lucius Fox, the character Morgan Freeman plays in the current run of Batman films, and I do absurdly well off of him being in those films, financially. Because Paul Levitz made sure I signed creator equity contracts whenever I create a character. Even on something potentially so unimportant…as I said to Paul when I argued with him about signing a Lucius contract, “It’s a middle-aged guy in a suit.” He said, “Sign a contract. You never know.” He was right.

Levitz’s touch has extended past the mainstream DCU, as well — Levitz also acted as a mentor for then-assistant editor Karen Berger, who would go on to help start the British Invasion of comics, with writers from the U.K. such as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, and Peter Milligan being recruited for mature titles such as Sandman, Doom Patrol, and Hellblazer. Berger’s biggest hit, however, was the creation of Vertigo, sort of the art-house division of DC Comics. It’s a gamble that Levitz has been particularly positive about, in terms of what it adds to comics as a whole: “I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built in Vertigo,” Levitz told Newsarama in 2007. “It’s a larger comics publisher than probably anybody but DC and Marvel, if it were measured on its own…maybe Dark Horse, dependent on the year.”

Now the interesting news of today is the fact that Levitz will be working as a contributing editor as well as a writer. He last stepped into the writer’s seat was concluding the JSA series, before Geoff Johns relaunched the book post-Infinite Crisis. What will he do next? According to a statement today by Dan DiDio, he’s returning home to Adventure Comics, following Geoff Johns’ departure after Issue #6. What say you, Rama readers? Sound off!

Two years ago today, the comic book industry became a little less fantastic.

The reason? The unexpected passing of Mike Wieringo, a true bastion of the comics industry.

And in honor of ‘Ringo’s talent and impact on the industry, you better believe we’re gonna Dial H — for History!

Mike Wieringo was born in Italy in 1963, and raised in Lynchburg, Virginia. After graduating from Virginia Commonwealth University, Wieringo networked through conventions until he met Brian Stelfreeze and Karl Story, where he finally broke in as a penciler with Millennium Publications, working on Pat Savage and Doc Savage: Doom Dynasty in 1991.

Yet those gigs failed to get ‘Ringo steady work, and he continued to hone his craft and pound the pavement for another two years until catching the eye of DC Comics assistant editor Ruben Diaz. After successfully pulling a two-issue stint on Justice League Quarterly, the higher-ups at DC decided to give the fledgling artist the gig that would cement his artistic legacy forever:

“My name is Wally West. I’m the Flash… the Fastest Man Alive.”

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As you probably saw Russ write last night, Dark Horse announced that it had acquired the rights to the Gold Key and Valiant heroes. Yet with other comics history news — DC’s acquisition of the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Marvel’s coup with the Marvelman franchise — you’ll find that comics archaeology is far from a new phenomenon. It’s a time-honored practice, digging into the past, because you never know which hero can get its second wind, even decades after they first hit the stands.

Probaby the first case of comics archaeology — defined as acquiring and refurbishing characters from defunct lines, not as legacy heroes — was DC’s final strike against one of their earliest competitors. Let’s rewind: with the creation of Superman, DC had a good thing going. In fact, it was such a good thing that it was only a matter of time before this Coca-Cola got itself a Pepsi — in this case, Fawcett Comics’ Captain Marvel, who began beating the pants off of the Man of Steel (magic is his weakness, at any rate) in sales in the mid-1940s. Yet this conflict didn’t end with heat vision or magical lightning, but with DC’s lawyers — and when the dust settled in 1954, Fawcett agreed not to publish Captain Marvel again.

But it is “Captain Marvel: no more”? As any reader of the medium would know, death is never set in comics. The Silver Age was setting the industry on fire, but Fawcett had its hands tied. DC, however, saw some prime potential in the Big Red Cheese, and licensed the character from the ailing company in 1973. Introduced on his first cover by Superman himself, Captain Marvel — or as the comic was called, Shazam!, in order to avoid any battles with Marvel, who themselves had a Captain Marvel comic — was revealed to have been in suspended animation, along with his family and that of villain Dr. Sivana. Eventually gaining a number of reboots within the DCU, Captain Marvel has since become a strong supporting character for the Keith Giffen Justice League, as well as Geoff Johns’ Justice Society of America.

Surprisingly, Captain Marvel wasn’t the only hero DC snagged in the last few decades. Quality Comics was one such company, who was run out of the race by increasing access to television as well as the anti-comics sentiments espoused by Dr. Frederick Wertham in 1954. Yet their characters lived on, as DC obtained the licenses in 1956 for characters ranging from Plastic Man to the Blackhawks to the Freedom Fighters. While many of these heroes have languished somewhat in the sidelines of the DCU, Plastic Man was resurrected in the 1990s by Grant Morrison as a member of his fabled JLA run. Meanwhile, Zinda of the Blackhawks became a supporting cast member of the Birds of Prey, while Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray took a crack at the Freedom Fighters, after many of them perished in the Infinite Crisis.

Yet that wouldn’t be the last time that DC picked up a franchise from a competitor.  With the industry slumping in the early 1980s, Charlton Comics was one of the companies that had once seen better days. Those better days including work by Steve Ditko, who created Captain Atom and the Question. If you recognize the names, you see where this is going — with the comics company only three years away from dissolution, Charlton licensed a number of its characters — namely the Blue Beetle, Captain Atom, the Question, the Peacemaker, Thunderbolt, Judomaster, and Son of Vulcan — to DC.

The first five of those characters almost ended up in a surprising place — as the protagonists of Alan Moore’s Watchmen. But DC proved to have surprising foresight, instead urging Moore to tweak the character archetypes to make the graphic novel we all know and love. Instead, DC began turning these characters around to create one of the biggest and larger lasting expansions of the DC Universe since the creation of the Silver Age legacy heroes: while Denny O’Neill created a noirish, philosophical thriller with the Question, the Blue Beetle and Captain Atom made their way to the Justice League. Despite later retcons and reimaginings of these heroes, they now make up a sizeable chunk of DC’s second features, whether it be in the pages of Detective Comics, Action Comics, or Booster Gold.

DC isn’t the only company that’s tried its hand at comics archaeology. In 2007, Marvel — which largely generated its heroes in-house, using new status quos, new teams, or What If issues to increase their ranks — tapped J. Michael Straczynski to write The Twelve, a series using 1940s heroes of Marvel’s distant past. Just as Stan Lee had pulled Captain America and the Human Torch from World War II to solidify the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, Straczynski used the conceit of suspended animation to bring forgotten heroes from Marvel’s earliest incarnation — Timely Comics — and put them in the 21st century. The project was largely a success, but has since tripped up due to increasingly hectic schedules of Straczynski and artist Chris Weston. Yet these comics are becoming more and more fodder for Marvel — Robert Kirkman recently brought back Mystic Comics star the Destroyer, in a bloody Marvel MAX Comic that showed the aging hero’s last stand.

Dynamite Entertainment is another company that has looked to the past for its future revenues. Not unlike the Twelve, Dynamite’s Project Superpowers brought together heroes from the public domain, including heroes from Fox Comics, Crestwood Publications, and Nedor Comics. While there were a few potential problems — including characters such as the Death-Defying Daredevil and the Blue Beetle — some slight name changes brought Dynamite into the clear. Project Superpowers quickly became one of the company’s best-known works, as Alex Ross and Jim Krueger told a story of heroes being shunted into suspended animation via Pandora’s Box, and their escape into a dark new world.

Over the past year or so, the comics archaeology battle has continued fast and furious. Last year, DC Comics announced the acquisition of several of the Archie Comics superheroes, including the Shield, the Web, the Hangman, and Inferno — a cast of characters who are now known as Red Circle. These heroes initially came out in the 1950s, and eventually faded into obscurity during the subsequent comics crash. In 1991, DC attempted to resurrect these characters with the !mpact line of comics, which was designed to be entry-level comics that hit as far as newspaper stands. Unfortunately, DC’s marketing department allegedly refused to promote the books, and they soon died on the vine. However, with J. Michael Stracyznski helming the project as his big debut to DC Comics, it’s looking like the Archie heroes will finally have their day in the sun.

What say you, Rama readers? Is there a particular bit of comics archaeology you’ve found fascinating? Sound off!

It’s the announcement that rocked the con — Marvelman has returned.

And he belongs to Marvel.

But despite the myth that’s swirled around this British superhero, what’s the reality? Indeed, most comics fans under the age of 30 probably haven’t ever read a Marvelman comic. Well fasten your seatbelts, readers, because we’re gonna Dial H — for History!

Despite the name, Marvelman was never created as a Marvel Comics character. Created in 1958, Marvelman was initially devised as, well, a legal loophole — a humble beginning that is only made more ironic for the years of legal limbo in which the character would fall. For you see, Marvelman’s first alter ego was none other than… Captain Marvel.

Let’s rewind. You might know something about Captain Marvel. Created by Fawcett Comics in 1939, Billy Batson, young boy, meets the wizard Shazam, and is given strength, invulnerability, speed, and flight. He also looked exceedingly similar to Superman — and you better believe the fledgling DC Comics didn’t like it. Lawsuits were filed, and Fawcett eventually capitulated to the leaner, tougher company.

Enter Len Miller. Owner of L. Miller & Sons, Limited, Miller reprinted all of Fawcett’s comics in the U.K. And needless to say, he saw an opportunity here. The deal was that Captain Marvel, believe it or not, was definitely raking in the money, even horning in on Superman at the top spot in the 1940s. So when Fawcett couldn’t print Captain Marvel, Miller instead sidestepped the issue by hiring creator Mick Anglo, who created the character of Marvelman under their own individual imprint in the U.K. — a character stylistically similar to Captain Marvel (a young reporter named Micky Moran gets atomic-based powers from an astrophysicist, requiring him to say “Kimota” rather than “Shazam”), but far enough (and blond enough) away geographically that the lawyers wouldn’t touch him.

And like all atomic weapons, Marvelman blew up. The Captain Marvel stand-in not only sold hundreds of issues, but launched spin-offs Young Marvelman and Marvelman Family — with Marvelman and Young Marvelman nearly hitting 350 issues each. But all good things must end: Anglo left the company in frustration in 1960, and Miller’s company eventually folded in 1963, as Marvel Comics and DC began dueling it out in the glory days of the Silver Age.

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Comic book fans, to paraphrase the old Bob Kane comic, are a superstitous lot.

Change — at least of the big, sweeping characterization variety — doesn’t come without vitriol, unless it is carefully built up and covered with in-universe logic. Legacy characters like Kyle Rayner and Connor Hawke — who burnt up the charts in the ’90s upon their release — have since been retconned, with the sterling sentinels of the Silver Age reassuming their heroic mantles.

So what happens if a death sticks, and readers are satisfied that a new hero has taken on the reins?

Because that may be what has happened with Ed Brubaker and Captain America.

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Hiya, Rama Readers! Ready for a SECOND dose of Dial H for History?

But this segment is so secret — so SPOILER HEAVY — I can’t even show this to you without a cut! If you haven’t read Legion of Three Worlds #4 yet, and can’t handle any spoilers… DO NOT READ AHEAD!!!

Seriously, you’ve been warned.

Still reading? Well, then I’m excited to say…

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Why, happy Walspurgisnacht, Rama readers!

Don’t know what that means? I hadn’t heard of it either, but our resident Calendar Man, Troy Brownfield, alerted us to this holiday. The long and short of this holiday is that witches in Germany hold a celebration in preparation for the Spring.

So in keeping for the Spring (which I hope lasts after that nasty Winter), here’s some of our favorite witches in comics! (And possible spoilers ahead, duh.)

TO REITERATE ONCE MORE — THERE ARE SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!

Zatanna: Perhaps we’re splitting hairs this early on in the list, but Zatanna has been a magic user after many people’s hearts. The daughter of master magician Zatara, Zatanna initially joined the Justice League trying to find her father. She eventually stepped out of her father’s shadow and became a fully-fledged member of the Justice League — yet she made a major lapse in judgment by mind-wiping and lobotomizing the villainous Doctor Light (as well as Barry Allen rogue the Top), as well as wiping Batman’s memory of the event. Since then, she and Bats have reconciled, even almost entering a relationship. She has since been a member of Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers, regaining her confidence while battling agents of the Sheeda horde. While Batman might be MIA with the rest of the Big Three after Final Crisis, Zatanna is still a member of the Justice League.

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As you may have read on the Mothership today, there’s an awful lot of discussion regarding digital comics and alternative distribution.  And what you might have already read in the past few weeks is that struggling series — like Spider-Girl or Blue Beetle — are bravely trailblazing new means of reaching out to new readers and retaining the die-hards.

The question is — is it viable?

Let’s look at Exhibit A: Going digital. You probably saw the article which says that, according to an open poll by the Mothership, there’s a great many people out there who are willing — nay, anticipating — making the shift to digital comics. And it’s clear that Marvel is making some progress towards getting that growing demographic. The online debut of Spider-Girl is a great example of all this: this is a title that has been saved several times from cancellation. But of course, resources are limited, and if a book doesn’t work and isn’t tied within the framework of your larger universe, you gotta try something new (even if that something new doesn’t necessarily work). Innovation is the name of the game!

But that said — why lose the obvious zeal of the readership of a Spider-Girl or a Blue Beetle? So you take that character, keep aboard the best of the creative talent associated with the character — and you put a series up with a far cheaper platform. Printing ain’t cheap, and putting books online cuts out the middleman of publishing and distribution, so to speak. If they love the title enough — and, more importantly, you can’t get it anywhere else (so Wolverine, arguably not as great an investment unless done by a top-tier creator) — wouldn’t people flock to the product, no matter what the format?

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After reading this article at Ain’t It Cool News, I realized I should do a follow-up on the Avengers reshuffling you may have read about (and I commented on) last week.

For those of you who don’t remember, the Marvel film slate got a bit of a change last week, with the Avengers film being pushed back to 2012, and Spider-Man 4 taking the time slot of the upcoming Thor film.

Part of the reason, I speculated in my last Dial H column, was due to the fact that (A) Sony has a lot of leverage to put the gigantic Spider-Man franchise wherever they feel like it, and Marvel and Paramount need to play musical chairs with the other films to accommodate, and (B) the entire slate needed to readjust their stance considering the final Harry Potter film is set to come out the summer of 2011.

But after reading this article, I think there are two other considerations which are just as — if not more — important.

Money and talent.

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So as you might have seen yesterday, Marvel announced a shuffling of its Avengers film lineup, which has been scheduled to put geeks on life support from 2010 to 2011.

For those needing a score card, the original Marvel schedule:

IRON MAN 2 – May 7, 2010
THOR – July 16, 2010
THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA – May 6, 2011
THE AVENGERS – July 15, 2011

And now, the revised schedule as it currently stands…

IRON MAN 2 – May 7, 2010
SPIDER-MAN 4 – May 6, 2011
THOR – June 17, 2011
THE FIRST AVENGER: CAPTAIN AMERICA – July 22, 2011
THE AVENGERS – May 4, 2012

Now you might be asking — what does that all mean? Well, I’m glad you asked, Gentle Reader! I think a major part of all this is the fact that one of Marvel Studios’ flagship franchises is not like the others: Spider-Man. While the Avengers flicks are all nestled in with Marvel Studios and Paramount, lonely Spider-Man (as always) is an outsider, as Sony will let the rights for the seminal superheroic cash cow revert only after hell freezes over.

For those of you who don’t remember, superhero movies have also seemed to dominate the summer schedules (see Lionsgate’s Christmas time Hail Mary with the Spirit if you don’t believe me). The original Spider-Man came out May 3, 2002, and Spider-Man 3 hit theaters almost five years to the day after the first film came out, on May 4, 2007. Iron Man staked out that same weekend turf a year later on May 2, 2008, utterly destroying its only competitor, Made of Honor. (Sorry about that, McDreamy.)

Well, here’s the problem. With Marvel and Paramount calling the shots for all the movies, the initial schedule seemed fine. But Sony has a little bit of leverage to mess with things: (A) Spider-Man is the biggest superhero film franchise of all time, with the trilogy totaling nearly $2.5 billion in sales worldwide, (B) the three pillars of the franchise — Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, and Kirsten Dunst — have been notoriously finicky about doing a fourth film (especially after the disappointingly-reviewed third film), and both Sony and Marvel doesn’t want to screw around with a winning formula.

So with Spider-Man now shoehorned into the schedule, Captain America has been — wait for it — put on ice until July 22, 2011. Curiouser and curiouser — isn’t Captain America a shoe-in for a July 4th opening?

There’s a reason for that, as well. His name is Harry Potter.

Now, would you rather get completely flat-tired by a movie that comes right after you, or would you like a chance to do the flat-tiring? The original schedule placed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two and Avengers on the same weekend, and this reshuffling certainly had something to do with this. I think Marvel knows that out of all its films, Captain America is the biggest gamble: by operating as a World War II-era prequel, this has few of the familiar hallmarks of a superhero film, and currently doesn’t have big names like Kenneth Branaugh attached.

Indeed, the fact that this movie is meant to be a prequel to a bigger film already shows that out of all the Avengers slate, this is the most expendable. Of course, the further you push back these summer blockbuster films, the less and less likely you’re going to strike gold — so in this case, I think Marvel is making an effort to take the bull by the horns by putting Captain America one week after Harry Potter, but still saving its nest egg for a clearer, franchise-free season. (That said, it could also get murdered the same way that Speed Racer did, coming one week after Iron Man.)

There’s another misconception here, as well — the 4th of July weekend. As I mentioned earlier, most superhero movies have actually taken the early May slot as opposed to the 4th. That said, genre films have had the largest draws when they do come out: Spider-Man 2 still holds the highest 4th of July grosses in history, and Will Smith vehicles like Independence Day and Hancock did quite well for themselves. (Terminator 2 even came out on a 4th of July weekend.) While it’s unclear what will come out that weekend, it’s obvious the studios are circling around something. Whether it’s a Transformers or Pirates of the Caribbean-style franchise remains to be seen. (UPDATE: 3/17/09: Yep, I called it. Paramount just announced that the third Transformers movie is coming out on July 4th weekend 2011.)

Something else to consider, though, is the Iron Man-Dark Knight Effect. What does that mean? Iron Man was a comparatively lighter, more simplistic kind of blockbuster. It came into theaters about two months before the Dark Knight, which gave it a good eight or so weeks to clean up before getting siphoned by the Dark Knight hype. There is a strong chance that Thor — which, based on Marvel’s comments, seems to be the Next Big Thing for the Marvel movie machine — will do the same, being an underdog to Harry Potter’s obvious commercial appeal. (That said, look at split films like the Matrix or Pirates of the Caribbean — the third films were panned after audience momentum plummeted with a crummy first act.) I think in this case, Marvel is trying to use Spider-Man to alley-oop with Thor before Harry Potter comes out, and then to have Captain America make a token effort to stop the beast before it gets too strong.

(Wow, fantasy novel analogies mixed with sports. I confess, I am a geek!)

So the real questions still remain: is Marvel trying to shoehorn in too much into one summer? Will the time they allot to each of these films give them a chance to shine, or will each film get run over by the one following it? Will Harry Potter pull a rabbit out of his hat and destroy his numerous genre foes? We’ll have to wait and see.

The times, they are a-changin’. Comics this week, at least in my mind, have highlighted an interesting shift in comics line-ups, which I would describe as world-tending versus world-building. Or, in other words, the Great Contraction. What do I mean? Well, put your SPOILER BEAMS on, and read on after the cut!

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Welcome to our latest installment of Dial H for History! For those who haven’t seen the recent news, Warner Bros. and Terminator: Salvation director McG may be taking a shot at the Human Target.

But who is the Human Target? As readers of the DC character might attest, even he doesn’t know.

Confused yet? Well, you would be too if you were a counterassassin who assumed the identities of potential victims in order to draw their would-be killers out of hiding.

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During this week’s Comic Book Club in New York City, X-Factor writer Peter David made an interesting point as the comedic trio each took potshots at Jeph Loeb’s Ultimate Hulk Annual #1 (which, at this point, really has taken a bit of a beating by reviewers).

While people have said that the story was cartoonish and trite, David argued (starting at 02:43) that was because they were not viewing it in the proper context — that this was meant to be a light-hearted, lightweight story, but that people couldn’t see that because of the A-list art by Ed McGuinness and Marko Djurdjevic.

In other words, what if that story — in which a naked, pancake-craving Ultimate Hulk battles a ticked-off Power Princess (from J. Michael Strazcynski’s Supreme Power), culminating in them randomly sleeping together — was drawn by Sergio Aragones? Or Kevin Maguire? Or Darrick Robertson?

Which brings us to an interesting question, one that really burrows down to the foundation of any individual issue: the relationship between art, expectation, and tone.

For example, Mark Millar’s Ultimates series was meant to be high-octane action with a healthy dollop of today’s post-9/11 cynicism. Shown through the “camera” of Bryan Hitch, the series was larger than life yet extremely down to earth — characters’ abs were not seen bursting through their spandex, and costume designs such as Iron Man’s armor were not the streamlined outfits of old, but more clunky, realistic images. The level of detail meant that readers took the story seriously, and because Millar worked strenuously to create a world not too different from ours, the series was a critically-acclaimed success.

Now imagine, if you will, if Rafael Albuquerque drew Ultimates. I can pretty much assure you that the series would not have ranked nearly as well, because Albuquerque’s style is more cartoony and emotional. In other words, good chops, but not for this story.

Continuing on this thread, let’s look at the series that has worked wonders for Albuquerque — Blue Beetle. While the series does have action to it, the tone of the series is characterization and comedy. No Michael Bay explosions here. Of course, with the additional comedy, it’s a series that readers, subconsciously or not, are willing to take greater patience with. For example, one issue of Blue Beetle had Eclipso unleash Jaime Reyes’ power fantasy in a one-on-one battle with rough-around-the-edges pal Paco. The problem with Eclipso’s plan: Jaime’s power fantasy is being a 30-year-old dentist. Would Bryan Hitch have been able to really nail this joke? Well, again, this is the relationship between art and tone.

Perhaps my favorite team when it comes to expectations and tone is a fairly old-school pick: Devin Grayson and Roger Robinson’s Batman: Gotham Knight. A series of more-or-less self-contained stories, Grayson’s writing waxed introspective, with lots of internal monologues and increasing psychological drama roiling beneath Batman’s surface. As the main thrust of Grayson’s series exploded during Bruce Wayne: Murderer, the main question became whether or not Batman’s inner demons, long responsible for his mystique and power, were now tearing him apart from the inside. Robinson’s use of shadows and light helped play up the psychological impact — Batman was both human and demon, a fiercesome presence both in action and in stillness, a figure whose internal struggles were as apparent as his brooding nature. The art set the stage for moodiness and action, and Devin Grayson’s script delivered.

How about some more? Let’s look at the dark side, now — the mismatches.

It’s difficult to find true representations of a poor match, simply because more often you will find that artists come and go, and if they don’t click, it’s more forgettable than actually detrimental to a particular series. (And particularly ugly artists don’t hurt a series due to tone — they hurt a series due to really, really horrible art.) Another reason is that one (of many) jobs for an editor is to help mix and match suitable talents for suitable series. But if you look closely enough at it, mismatches do exist.

Take, for example, All Star Batman and Robin, which suffers in much the same way (not quite as intensely, but close, and over a longer period of time) of the Hulk annual. (Although one could certainly argue that Jim Lee’s art is good enough to read on its own, without the words.)

Another mismatch might have been the second and third arcs for Mark Waid’s Fantastic Four series. Mike Wieringo’s cartoony style was spectacular for the proto-Incredibles, “day in the life” first arc — these were not just rock ‘em-sock ‘em heroes, but a family with its own quirks and comic moments. But the second arc — in which Doctor Doom brutally murders his ex-girlfriend to turn her skin into magical armor (eww), traumatizes little Franklin Richards by sending him to fend for himself against demons in Hell, and possesses little Valeria Richards and speaks through her as a puppet using creepy sorcery — well, Wieringo’s style came off as a bit too wholesome and positive for such a dark story.

Meanwhile, Howard Porter, well-known for action and energy in JLA, had a weird arc in Fantastic Four with “Authoritative Action” — this is not an artist known for his introspective or cerebral work, so the fact that he was drawing what was mainly a political thriller with an fight sequence coda left Waid’s story a bit flat, editorial behind-the-scenes drama notwithstanding. Obviously, there are times when pinch-hitting is unavoidable — and sometimes, even the best writers can’t write stories to utilize their artists’ strengths — but when a mismatch occurs like this, even the best-laid stories (like the proactive War on Terror metaphor behind this particular story) can really lose their creative spark.

Sometimes, the very premise of a series will preclude certain creators. John Byrne’s short-lived Doom Patrol is certainly one of those series. Since the team became known as a sort of “avengers of the avant garde” through the work of Grant Morrison, Byrne’s straightforward pencils and storytelling just didn’t fit. Byrne can still draw the heck out of Superman, but when working with the subconscious terrors that haunt the Doom Patrol, his style just doesn’t set up the alienness of their world. (But imagine if you put Frank Quitely, Doug Mahnke, or J.G. Jones on board.)

Now what do you think? Are there any partnerships that transcend the sum of their parts? Any matches made in Hell? What if… Rob Liefeld drew the Power Pack?

In 2009, the big crossovers are coming strong for comics fans. But what if you’re new to the storyline? Have no fear — Newsarama has prepared a crib sheet for the biggest stories of 2009!

UPDATE: In case it isn’t clear, by “crib sheet” we mean SPOILERS AHEAD…

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As the year comes to a close, it’s become clear that in the Marvel Universe, there has been major upheaval from within the company’s heroic pantheon. With a new Captain America leading a band of Secret Avengers, what’s old is new again, with the concept of the legacy hero getting a set of legs at the House of Ideas.

But what is a legacy hero, you might ask? For those needing a refresher in comic book geekspeak, a legacy hero is typically an associate, lover, or sidekick of a fallen hero who assumes their friend’s mantle if he has retired or fallen in battle. DC Comics has made this concept into one of the company’s key pillars, beginning all the way with Barry Allen as the Flash in 1961. The idea of the legacy hero is that it gives a franchise an epic, generational feel, while allowing each generation of readers to adopt their “own” hero to match their own values and storytelling standards. But as 2008 and 2009 — as well as several earlier attempts — show us, Marvel isn’t above adopting a good idea when it sees one.

As if I needed to warn you, there be spoilers up ahead…

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As you might have seen today, the New York Comic Con has announced that Final Crisis writer Grant Morrison will be attending the Feb. 6-8th convention as a Guest of Honor. But for those of you who haven’t been keeping score, this will be one convention that will be packing a lot of star power.

As your friendly neighborhood “Dial H for History” writer, here are some quick bios for the heavy hitters (in no particular order, conspiracy theorists) involved:

Grant Morrison: DC’s home run hitter. Morrison made some big waves with his Vertigo run of Animal Man, but really hit the mainstream market during his landmark run of JLA (which brought the team to a back-to-basics approach by centering it around the Magnificent Seven of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter). After making a brief jump to Marvel to write New X-Men, he returned to DC to write books such as We3, the 30-part maxiseries Seven Soldiers as well as DC’s current mega-event, Final Crisis.

Geoff Johns: The DC master of Silver Age epics. Johns started out in his own heroic legacy, having worked with Superman director Richard Donner. Jumping to DC with Stars & STRIPE, Johns soon came on board to JSA, during which he pulled off masterful retcons of characters such as Hawkman and Black Adam. With JSA as well as acclaimed runs of Teen Titans and The Flash, Johns eventually masterminded Infinite Crisis, which opened up the door for multiple tweaks of the DC universe. While it was recently announced that Johns would leave JSA after nearly a decade, he continues to write Green Lantern as well as the upcoming Flash: Rebirth, two characters he had a hand in resurrecting.

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When it comes to superhero hype, you can’t get much better than Watchmen.

It’s been hailed as the “greatest graphic novel” of all time. It’s been on Time’s Top 100 List. It’s being made into an enormously cross-promoted titanic that Warner Bros. hopes will stack up to the soon-to-be billion-dollar baby that is the Dark Knight.

But I’m worried it won’t live up to its promise.

It’s something I’ve been thinking ever since I read an early draft of the script. But I told myself that perhaps it would see revisions. But after watching the numerous trailers for the movie, I’m more concerned than ever. Indeed, after seeing the minute or two of footage, I had one thought run through my head:

He’s trying to play Watchmen straight?

Let me explain what I mean, while warning you that there will be some spoilers up ahead. Zack Snyder is a great director, don’t get me wrong. I raved about 300 when it arrived in theatres, and it was for one simple reason: Snyder didn’t treat that movie as tongue in cheek. He made 300 into a hard-core battle film, heavily stylized but always secure in that this was a heroic film made up of earth-shaking fights, cut with hyperreal scenery, slow-mo action, and artistically placed blood spatters. And based on the trailer of Watchmen, at any rate, Snyder seems to be taking the same approach here, amping up the tension of the heroes’ actions against the conspiracy in their midst.

And that’s where I think the movie has gone irreversibly wrong.

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For those of you joining us, welcome to the first installment of my new column, Dial H for History! In other words, I will take a look at current comic events, and give a retrospective look, while occasionally giving My Two Cents (now adjusted for inflation) on what this means.

And perhaps there isn’t a better thing to discuss than the announcement that Geoff Johns will be leaving JSA.

Indeed, on the message boards of Johns’ site Comicbloc, the mastermind behind Green Lantern and Infinite Crisis left the following words:

Why am I leaving?

I have more stories to tell, and the characters are endless, but that’s also true for the DC Universe. I’m ready to move on to some other challenges like returning to THE FLASH and SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN. And I am also obsessed with making sure that GREEN LANTERN, BLACKEST NIGHT and everything around it is the absolute best it can possibly be. …and that’s only part of 2009. There are some new projects on the horizon.

Of course, Johns wasn’t always the wunderkind of the DCU. But it was the Justice Society that helped bring him there.

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