(Comic Books) Regarding Final Crisis

You've got to be kidding me.

Grant Morrison has officially gone around the bend. Animal Man was 20 years ago and it's carried his reputation ever since, but this new maxi-series is a special kind of crap.

We've essentially built up to a rip-off of Marvel Zombies. That's the best DC could do for their annual summer event? Really?

And I'm really, really tired of the New Gods. The powers-that-be should trot Darkseid out once a year to have a big fight with Superman and then GO AWAY.

Let's also acknowledge that while Kirby's creations might have worked in the '60s, there hasn't been a good New Gods story since Cosmic Odyssey, and that was a long, long time ago.

There are no good Granny Goodness stories. There are no good Big Barda stories. Hunger Dogs worked in Legends of the DC Universe, but every trip to Apokolips since (and I include Countdown in this) has been a faint echo of better times past.

The bloom is very off the DC flower right now.

/comicnerdwhinging

Read more here, if any.

Screw you, Ravitch!

The New York Times has an article today about how teachers are using comics in the classroom to get kids to engage with books. This is something that I do with my first graders, because reading at this age is 90% about getting them interested. They may not like Little Bear, or Margaret Hillert, or even Junie B., so if it's Batman, Spiderman, and The Haunted Tank that get them going--why not?

Unless, of course, you're a famous professor:

“If you’re going to use comics in the classroom at all, which I have serious doubts about, it should be only as a motivational tool,” said Diane Ravitch, an education professor at New York University. “What teachers have to recognize is that this is only a first step.”

Feh, I say. This is a case of the theorist disagreeing with the practitioner, and in that battle you should always, always go with the voice that's actually working with the kids.

Let me also throw in a good word for Comics in the Classroom, a labor of love that it's administrator (Scott Tingley) has been improving steadily over the past few years. If you're interested in what books might be good for the kids you teach, his site is a great resource.

Read more here, if any.