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Please take some time to check out the random webcomic of the current page load! PLEASE BE AWARE OF HEAVY CONSTRUCTION!
My love for superhero comics goes back a ways. In fact, “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, the twelve part masterpiece by Marv Wolfman and George Perez was my introduction to the concept of multiple universes; something heavily explored here on Mysteries of the Arcana.
In the last several years, though, the big publishers have done a lot to tick me off. I won't go into my laundry list because I could rant for hours. Instead, I'm just going to be thankful that Scott and Benita Story came along and took up the challenge of creating new heroes as the centerpiece of their webcomic, Johnny Saturn.
The series starts off with the death of the title character. Johnny Saturn has been fighting the good fight for over a decade, using only his fists, his wits, and the sort of body armor you can order from the back of Soldier of Fortune. From there, things get really exciting. The archive is worth spending time with. Better yet, order the print version so you can lovingly thumb through it.
I won't give away the plot. Instead, I'll explain some of the things I love about Johnny Saturn.
Thing #1
My favorite scene involves Johnny Saturn battling a group of powered villains. We get to see what he's thinking as he fights. The mental narration is terse, almost like a checklist. Speedster? Telegraph your moves so you know where they'll hit, then hit them. Problem neutralized. I love it, because in my opinion characters like Johnny Saturn (and Batman and other mystery men) aren't amazing because of their fighting skills or detective abilities but because of their sheer tactical genius.
Thing #2
There's a phenomenon in comics known as “Women in Refridgerators”. Female characters are often raped, beaten, murdered, depowered, and stereotyped as bitches or sluts. In some cases it seems like the writer has some sort of axe to grind with women, in others ancillary female characters are used as plot devices to promote the “growth” of male characters. The phenomenon was named after a heroes girlfriend was murdered and stuffed in his fridge. The hero then tracked down her killer and, at the last minute, decided to deliver the villain to justice rather than go the old eye for an eye route. Thus, the hero grew, proving he was just and noble and all it took was the brutal murder of a woman.
Johnny Saturn isn't like that. The female characters are interesting. The costumes can be a bit revealing, yes, but the women have character. They aren't two dimensional. They aren't there to make the men look good, and they aren't there to satisfy the writer's craving for revenge on all the girls who rejected him in high school. In fact, the most powerful and (in my opinion) most intelligent superhero in the Johnny Saturn universe is a woman named Staff of Life. I can't wait to see more of her in action.
Thing #3
There's a whole lot to explore. The comic's well written and focuses primarily on Johnny Saturn but the other heroes are just as interesting. The world, too, holds a lot of promise and begs to be explored. Truth be told, the setting deserves more than just one comic. If I could get an artist and permission from Scott and Benita I think I'd jump at a chance to crack open a secondary story there.
Let me be clear. This isn't a golden age or silver age comic. There's plenty of blood and violence and Johnny Saturn's body bears the realistic consequences of a decade of fighting crime. However, it also isn't a Frank Miller-esque, over the top splattercomic either. Instead, Scott and Benita have found a way to balance the need for realism that marked comics in the 80s/90s and combined it with the need for escapism that marked comics in the 50s/60s.
Go read Johnny Saturn. You won't be sorry.
User: EEN
Johnny Saturn is a hard comic for me to review because I have mixed feelings. There are a lot of good things to be said about JS. Sometimes it feels like Frank Miller and Grant Morrison are writing this comic instead of Scott Story....other times it reminds of why I stopped reading image comics.
In the end it is comic written by a fan of the genre for fans of the genre. This isn't a universe where heroes have traded in the capes of leather jackets, but it is one where heroes strap their logo onto Kevlar rather than spandex. A series that isn't afraid to give you want to expect in a super hero or deconstruct the genre depending on where the story goes. And it has an infectious energy that draw you into the world even when something makes you roll your eyes.
On Writing:
Scott's Story lines originally where very hit or miss with me but they've gotten much better over time. If you're willing to enjoy a bit of comic book logic the recent storylines have been very solid and enjoyable, more over the comic has gone from a simple noir action romp to actually having surprising emotional depth. Early on a lot of the paranormal elements really felt out of place ruining the feel of the gritty universe and snapping your suspension of disbelief like a twig but Scott backed off them for a bit and as they've started to creep back into the comic they now feel right at home.
Scott is a good writer of morally grey characters and the further the comics goes the more depth it starts to bring to those characters. Some obvious straw-men stand-ins for other staple superheroes have really grown from total tools in the early chapters to well rounded relatable characters with depth, motivations, virtues and flaws. The major flaw with the comic now is that the villains have not grown with the series. The grey moral haze and complexities of the heroes only makes the black hearted villains and their often nihilistic or Orwellian plans progressively more the comics critical weak point. The comic's villains are all Red Skulls and Mephistopheles when what the comic needs is a good Doctor Doom or Magneto.
On Art:
Scott's are style is fairly unique and a good fit for the universe. It strikes me as a cross between the Batman: Animated series style and the 90's image style popularized by McFarlane and his like.
The colors used in the character designs would be my only complaint, but the style itself is very enjoyable and most of the characters are very visually interesting if sometimes a bit over the top, but in a super hero universe sometimes that is just what you need.
Overall:
In summery if you enjoyed things like Allen Moore's run on Supreme in all its love letter to the genre flavor then you'll enjoy Johnny Saturn. Johnny Saturn in listed a B class hero in the universe and maybe Johnny Saturn is B super hero comic sometimes, but it gets it right more often than not and even when it lack polish and refinement it always tries its hardest and gives a lot more than most of the main stream titles.
Read and Enjoy.
Johnny Saturn - http://www.johnnysaturn.com
Reviews
User: JGrayMy love for superhero comics goes back a ways. In fact, “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, the twelve part masterpiece by Marv Wolfman and George Perez was my introduction to the concept of multiple universes; something heavily explored here on Mysteries of the Arcana.
In the last several years, though, the big publishers have done a lot to tick me off. I won't go into my laundry list because I could rant for hours. Instead, I'm just going to be thankful that Scott and Benita Story came along and took up the challenge of creating new heroes as the centerpiece of their webcomic, Johnny Saturn.
The series starts off with the death of the title character. Johnny Saturn has been fighting the good fight for over a decade, using only his fists, his wits, and the sort of body armor you can order from the back of Soldier of Fortune. From there, things get really exciting. The archive is worth spending time with. Better yet, order the print version so you can lovingly thumb through it.
I won't give away the plot. Instead, I'll explain some of the things I love about Johnny Saturn.
Thing #1
My favorite scene involves Johnny Saturn battling a group of powered villains. We get to see what he's thinking as he fights. The mental narration is terse, almost like a checklist. Speedster? Telegraph your moves so you know where they'll hit, then hit them. Problem neutralized. I love it, because in my opinion characters like Johnny Saturn (and Batman and other mystery men) aren't amazing because of their fighting skills or detective abilities but because of their sheer tactical genius.
Thing #2
There's a phenomenon in comics known as “Women in Refridgerators”. Female characters are often raped, beaten, murdered, depowered, and stereotyped as bitches or sluts. In some cases it seems like the writer has some sort of axe to grind with women, in others ancillary female characters are used as plot devices to promote the “growth” of male characters. The phenomenon was named after a heroes girlfriend was murdered and stuffed in his fridge. The hero then tracked down her killer and, at the last minute, decided to deliver the villain to justice rather than go the old eye for an eye route. Thus, the hero grew, proving he was just and noble and all it took was the brutal murder of a woman.
Johnny Saturn isn't like that. The female characters are interesting. The costumes can be a bit revealing, yes, but the women have character. They aren't two dimensional. They aren't there to make the men look good, and they aren't there to satisfy the writer's craving for revenge on all the girls who rejected him in high school. In fact, the most powerful and (in my opinion) most intelligent superhero in the Johnny Saturn universe is a woman named Staff of Life. I can't wait to see more of her in action.
Thing #3
There's a whole lot to explore. The comic's well written and focuses primarily on Johnny Saturn but the other heroes are just as interesting. The world, too, holds a lot of promise and begs to be explored. Truth be told, the setting deserves more than just one comic. If I could get an artist and permission from Scott and Benita I think I'd jump at a chance to crack open a secondary story there.
Let me be clear. This isn't a golden age or silver age comic. There's plenty of blood and violence and Johnny Saturn's body bears the realistic consequences of a decade of fighting crime. However, it also isn't a Frank Miller-esque, over the top splattercomic either. Instead, Scott and Benita have found a way to balance the need for realism that marked comics in the 80s/90s and combined it with the need for escapism that marked comics in the 50s/60s.
Go read Johnny Saturn. You won't be sorry.
User: EEN
Johnny Saturn is a hard comic for me to review because I have mixed feelings. There are a lot of good things to be said about JS. Sometimes it feels like Frank Miller and Grant Morrison are writing this comic instead of Scott Story....other times it reminds of why I stopped reading image comics.
In the end it is comic written by a fan of the genre for fans of the genre. This isn't a universe where heroes have traded in the capes of leather jackets, but it is one where heroes strap their logo onto Kevlar rather than spandex. A series that isn't afraid to give you want to expect in a super hero or deconstruct the genre depending on where the story goes. And it has an infectious energy that draw you into the world even when something makes you roll your eyes.
On Writing:
Scott's Story lines originally where very hit or miss with me but they've gotten much better over time. If you're willing to enjoy a bit of comic book logic the recent storylines have been very solid and enjoyable, more over the comic has gone from a simple noir action romp to actually having surprising emotional depth. Early on a lot of the paranormal elements really felt out of place ruining the feel of the gritty universe and snapping your suspension of disbelief like a twig but Scott backed off them for a bit and as they've started to creep back into the comic they now feel right at home.
Scott is a good writer of morally grey characters and the further the comics goes the more depth it starts to bring to those characters. Some obvious straw-men stand-ins for other staple superheroes have really grown from total tools in the early chapters to well rounded relatable characters with depth, motivations, virtues and flaws. The major flaw with the comic now is that the villains have not grown with the series. The grey moral haze and complexities of the heroes only makes the black hearted villains and their often nihilistic or Orwellian plans progressively more the comics critical weak point. The comic's villains are all Red Skulls and Mephistopheles when what the comic needs is a good Doctor Doom or Magneto.
On Art:
Scott's are style is fairly unique and a good fit for the universe. It strikes me as a cross between the Batman: Animated series style and the 90's image style popularized by McFarlane and his like.
The colors used in the character designs would be my only complaint, but the style itself is very enjoyable and most of the characters are very visually interesting if sometimes a bit over the top, but in a super hero universe sometimes that is just what you need.
Overall:
In summery if you enjoyed things like Allen Moore's run on Supreme in all its love letter to the genre flavor then you'll enjoy Johnny Saturn. Johnny Saturn in listed a B class hero in the universe and maybe Johnny Saturn is B super hero comic sometimes, but it gets it right more often than not and even when it lack polish and refinement it always tries its hardest and gives a lot more than most of the main stream titles.
Read and Enjoy.