Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The all Darwyn Cooke (deceased) thread

From Mike Holmes' strip "True Story":

That's great!

Cooke fans who missed the Shade #4 have really got to find a way to get this issue. It was nothing short of spectacular with Darwyn taking a solid James Robinson story and enhancing it into a typical Cooke masterpiece.

The story focuses on the Shade during the Golden Age right after his criminal career began. He enters WWII by engaging in some Nazi spies at home, and in the process has a story with some pretty central development for the Shade.

But the real enjoyability comes from Cooke depicting two Golden Age heroes: the original Vigilante (one of my favorites actually, especially his look) and Madame Fatal, who at long last gets a modern story since his/her series ended in the 40's. 

Madame Fatal is, of course, the only transvestite superhero in comics history up until like 20 years ago. Robinson has teased him before but we get him in all his (her) full glory. Cooke's art allows it to really work, showing the Madame to be actually not all that bad to look at for an older woman...who is actually a man in disguise.

Vigilante by Cooke is just awesome. Seeing it actually made something click for me for the first time. Vigilante is really the Shadow in a cowboy motif in terms of his look. It never dawned on me before because it works so well.

Really terrific stuff. And if anyone is curious, the series has been great in general.

Just got and read through Selina's Big Score.

Cooke is from another time. Seriously. he has such great sensibilities when it comes to this kind of story. A big crime caper. Tough guys, smart guys and a dame...who happens to be Catwoman, which does not really play into the story all that much. Just around the edges to set a few things up.

Highly recommended.

Minutemen is currently my FAVORITE comic. Cooke is KILLING it. It's on fire.

He's doing a great job of dealing with the adult subject matter in an adult way without exploitation or shock value. The panels have a great energy and flow.

He's an excellent story teller. The funny thing is this book seems so on the cutting edge of modern as well as classic.

BAM! MINUTEMEN!

I haven't been reading Minutemen, but that seems like an excellent description of what makes Cooke's stuff awesome in general!

Minutemen has been very good, as expected, because everything Cooke touches is pure gold.

I'm one of those people that wishes Before Watchman did not exist, as I feel its pretty criminal for them to be doing it against Moore's wishes considering the history of the franchise and how it was originally promoted as creator-owned with DC subsequently screwing Moore. (And whether he signed a contract or not, it's still wrong).

So with that in mind, I realize that Cooke doing this Minutemen series...really could have been done without the Minutemen. Honestly, they really don't bring *all that much* to the table here, other than outright stating things that were only once implied (which is annoying). Cooke could have easily done this series with the Seven Soldiers of Victory or the All-Winners Squad or whoever. And all of those would have been totally awesome because Cooke really is just that good.

So yeah, the series is great. But it still didn't need to be the Minutemen in my mind.

Meanwhile, I'm criminally behind on my reading of the Parker OGNs and I need to rectify that ASAP.

PS - anyone who missed Cooke's issue of the Shade that featured the Vigilante and Madame Fatale, you owe it to yourself to find it! Fantastic!

Parker: The Score is probably my favourite of the 3 Parker GNs so far. It's a multi-player heist story with a big target: a mining town and its payroll. All the different team members have distinct personalities and looks, which lends a richness and authenticity to the story. With that many people, things will go wrong (someone had to get involved with a woman!), but Parker manages to stay a step ahead of the game.

It's a beautiful book about a cold and violent man and, as the other volumes did, it really captures the spirit of the early 60s. I kept hearing Herb Alpert when I was reading it...

Minutemen #6 of 6

(I thought this ended with 5 The story seemed to be capped off as well.)

Cooke is incredible. However, this issue takes some lumps with the story twists at the end. I would rather have it end at issue number 5 than find out all this mess happened. I am curious to know what others might think of these plot twists.

Overall, I think the Minutemen excelled when Darwyn added something new like fleshing out the Silhouette and writing from the Nite Owl's perspective. Overall I think it suffered from the moments it revisited elements of the previous Watchmen story. Mothman's alcoholism for example, I thought was over the top.

This series coulda been a four parter IMO.

I give this one a four because much like Allred ... ok Darwyn Cooke is still great fun.







I am glad it's over though, which is not how you're supposed to feel about a comic book. I think I am just burned out on the Before Watchmen marketing craze. I saw an ad for a new "Dollar Bill" comic and I said ... Absolutely not. Even if it wasn't Dollar Bill, I'm just not interested.

Before Watchmen is certainly a retelling, not new stories with these characters and their likely hundreds of stories they could tell that weren't highlighted in the original Watchmen.

Silk Spectre was cute. Ozymandius was gorgeous if light. and Minutemen was the best of the bunch. But these characters seem caged in IMO.

I finally read The Score myself today, at long last. I've had the book since it was released, but I guess I was saving it for whenever felt like the right time. I guess today worked because I was getting a little TOO caught up on my monthlies (it's a bit of a mental thing with me ). Plus, the last dozen or so comics I read were a string of "meh" reads, so a surefire bet like Cooke's Parker was a guaranteed palate cleanser.

Gotta agree with Cramey: this is probably the best of the three Parker books to date! Even though this one was less about Parker than the other two and more about 'the score' (appropriately enough!), it was a heist story unlike any I'd ever seen or read, as far as the scale and sheer audacity of the target. I mean, with a twelve-man crew basically taking on a whole town for their score, the stakes were higher and the potential for complete disaster greater than pretty much any tale told in that genre that I've ever experience!

I should qualify this, however, by admitting that I'm not exactly a big fan of the heist genre and haven't even seen--or even desired to see--a single "Ocean's" movie. So I'm no expert on how the audacity and awesomeness of The Score compares to the best of the heist genre.

This would really make for an outstanding movie that I would pay to see, especially if the filmmakers were to adapt the story almost exactly like Cooke did. I haven't seen Jason Statham's recent Parker film, but the previews don't feel anything like Cooke's adaptations, which are said to be faithful to the Stark books. So my expectations of it are very low.

Lots of cool characters in this one! Grofield really stands out, of course, but many of the others have their moments.

I LOVE Cooke's Parker adaptations!!! While I'm glad we'll get another one this year, it's sad knowing it'll be the last one Cooke plans to do. One of these days, I'll just have to track down Stark's Parker books, so I can get more Parker fixes!

The only comic book news out of SDCC that interested me was announcement of a new Parker book: Slayground (due in December).

Official Press Release:

San Diego, CA (July 20, 2013) – Darwyn Cooke’s acclaimed Parker series from IDW continues to expand with the classic Slayground. In this newest graphic novel, Parker is put to the test against crooked cops and sleazy gangsters after a heist goes south and he finds himself trapped in an amusement park closed for the winter, and embroiled in a deadly game of cat and mouse… a game that slowly starts to favor the mouse.

“A boarded up amusement park was an inspired setting for Parker,” said writer/artist Darwyn Cooke, “and Westlake made the most of it. A great story that I’m enjoying the hell out of adapting.”

Since Darwyn Cooke is my favourite Black Canary artist, and Black Canary my favourite of whom he draws ...

I really wish he would do a Silver Age Birds of Prey 4-10 parter!






His Zatanna is super crackin' too!





(Sadly this is the only Shayera by him I could find. And it is JLU Shayera. )

Special guest stars










even ..




Maybe a trip to Earth 2

I really loved New Frontier, and Cooke's style was the PERFECT fit for the story!

As anybody preordering their books knows, October will have several Darwyn Cooke variants! The list:

Action Comics #37
Aquaman
Batgirl
Batman
Batman & Robin
Batman/Superman #17
Catwoman
Detective Comics
Flash
Grayson #5
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
Harley Quinn #6
He-Man: The Eternity War #1
Justice League
Justice League Dark
Justice League United #7
Sinestro #8
Supergirl (w/ Comet, Krypto and Whizzy! )
Superman
Superman/Wonder Woman #14
Teen Titans #5
Wonder Woman

I would love to see him do a story with the Postboot or Adventure Legions. I think he would fit them very well.

When I saw those covers, my first thought sadly was "these aren't even remotely close to modern DC. But they should be." :Shake:

Just read the first installment of Cooke & Sale's "Superman: Kryptonite", and I loved it! This is maybe the most awesome Lois Lane I've ever read, even more than the Phil Jimenez/Joe Kelly Lois from that Wonder Woman issue in the early 2000s.

Once I finish this story, a re-read of "New Frontier" is in order.

Is that the one from Superman Confiential? What a great story that was.

Hmm... if it's the one I'm thinking of, I remember thinking it was only so-so. Maybe I should reread it though.

Do it, EDE, do it, I think it would be so much fun if we both commented on it at the same time.

And thanks for the endorsement, Cobie. Now I'm even more excited about finishing it.

Sad news reported today that Cooke's in Palliative (i.e. end of life) care after a bout with "Aggressive" cancer.

Completely stunned.

I read that palliative does not necessarily mean end of life..

"Palliative care is provided by a specially-trained team of doctors, nurses, social workers and other specialists who work together with a patient’s doctors to provide an extra layer of support. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness and can be provided along with curative treatment."

Palliative Care

Granted it does not sound good. My thoughts go out to him and his family, hoping for the best.

"Not Curative" is the key part. In other words they aren't treating the cancer, just the symptoms (i.e. pain management). Granted it may be different in the States, but up here Palliative Care is where you go to be made comfortable before the end (assuming he's home in Canada right now).