Friday, December 3, 2010

Whatever Happened To...The Twelve?

 The Twelve was a fun comic, yup.  Ol' J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston had a fine product. I remember how it was about these super-folk who had fought in WWII but then were essentially frozen until they were found in present day. This was shortly after the Marvel Civil-War Event where all those super-heroes fought about having to register their identities until Captain America cried or something and then was shot for being a wimp...I think (I kid about Captain America, I actually really like him). More after the cut.

Anyways, these old-timey crime-fighters are found and the government is only too happy to put these 11 people and one lifeless robot up in a swanky house as long as they do super-hero stuff and otherwise look like government-abiding do-gooders. The thing is, if you get frozen in the 40s and wake up in the oughts (the cool way of saying 2000s) you are going to have some culture shock, and all those people you knew and loved are gonna be either:
A. Hella old.
OR
B. Hella dead.
So this story was full of fun/hearbreaking moments about a self-hating jew who can't grasp that it's okay for him to live openly now, a homophobic hero who it is strongly hinted may have his own skeletons in the closet, a creepy demon lady who actually adjusts pretty well to the Goth scene, and a bunch of other interesting stuff.
Plus, what an ending, why I remember how......um....oh wait, that's right it still has yet to be completed. More than 2 years since the last issue I think (number 8) with a hardcover of the first six issues released and nothing else to show for it except a brief one-shot done by Weston. He did it alone to help sate the rabid fans who hound him so much at comic conventions he took to wearing a t-shirt declaring that, yes, the Twelve will be finished.
I mean, the last issue ended with a literal cliff-hanger where a man we see killed at the end of the first issue stands on a cliff talking to another hero from the Twelve who is floating in the air--whom we are learning has a dark secret to go with his already evident anger-issues.
I still have no clue how he died.

I shouldn't be surprised, this is the same Straczynski who left another comic I enjoyed, Squadron Supreme in the middle of a story, even though he seemed to have lost interest when the comic changed from the Marvel Max Supreme Power to the aforementioned more all-audiences friendly version. The same Straczynski  who apparently is ditching Superman and Wonder Woman to work on more graphic novels after DC made a big deal out of his writing them. The same Straczynski  who stole my woman (I made that last one up). Still, I want to have this darn series end. I was enjoying it despite the overbearing gloom and I demand more! Please?

2 comments:

  1. The book is being finished. Chris Weston has been turning in a bunch of art, some of which he's shown on his page, some on the Straczynski fan page, and it'll probably be out in the Spring in full graphic novel form.

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  2. That is great news! Thank you for telling me.

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