Supertransitory: Secret Origins & Non-Outrage Comics

Welcome to the very first Supertransitory: John Garrett Stuff newsletter!

I’ve tried various newsletter services before, but this time I’m going with Substack, and I feel a lot better about it.

But, first things first: what the heck is Supertransitory??

Answer: This is the evolution of my old blogging site Hypertransitory, which has been essentially defunct since 2015.

I thought I could do everything with that site,and basically accomplished nothing. That’s why, years later, I decided to really distill my efforts down to what matters most.

To me, that’s creating things, be it art, stories or comics.

So now I’ve corralled all my disparate comics to exist in one spot, which is the brand new Supertransitory.com.

I’m almost done adding all my old stuff, and it’s time to concentrate on the new work to come.

So people can come here for my blathering, but if you just want to check out the work, then hit up Supertransitory.

JOHN GARRETT STUFF

I might have various sections to an email, which could be reviews, stories, art, comics or even game related material.

Mostly I’ll be writing about my creative process and whatever new stuff I’m working on.

I’ve been working on a particular comic for as long as I can remember, and I’m hoping this will be the year it finally comes out.

It’s called The Bill Collectors: Someone Must Pay. These guys are some anarchist/mercenary types who have no pity and no remorse. Well, mostly anyway…

I do this one mostly in 3D, but I’m actually dipping my toes into working with another artist on it.

Wait, aren’t you the artist?? you say. Yes, but I’ve been doing things alone for so long, and getting nowhere… maybe it’s time for something different.

NON-OUTRAGE COMICS

Speaking of something different… in this segment I’ll talk about a comic (by somebody else) that I really enjoyed.

If you’re into comics at all, you know the industry has essentially fractured. There’s a lot of name-calling and vicious takedowns of comics on YouTube and elsewhere.

I’ve found that outrage tends to generate a lot of views, but I’d just like to talk about the things I enjoyed.

Constantly harping on all the stuff you hate just puts you in a negative headspace, and I really want to avoid that.

Disclaimer: I was an "outrage" review guy for the longest time. Then one of my friends (who is not a comic reader) said "wow, so you spend money on comics that you don't enjoy?"

It was like a glass of cold water being thrown in my face. Why would I pay for things I don't enjoy?

After that, I dropped a bunch of comics that I didn't like, and I only reward the ones that I do enjoy with my dollar.

Then I thought I would take it further and actually call out the comics that I do like online.

Hence “Non-Outrage Comics”.

I feel like I can still be critical without ripping the writers and artists to shreds. No, it won't generate as many views as hate & anger & outrage but that's what I'm going with.

Anyway, this week’s comic is Avengers: War Across Time #1.

Whenever the Avengers and time are mentioned, you’d be safe to go right to Kang the Conqueror as the antagonist, especially with Kang shaping up to be the new big bad guy of the MCU.

Now Kang is kind of a nut because he has plagued the Avengers throughout time in many different guises.

First, he showed up as Rama-Tut back in Egypt (vs. the Fantastic Four). Then Rama-Tut went on to become Kang, but even further in the future Kang went on to become the time-master Immortus, who ruled Limbo, a realm beyond time. Oh yeah, he also was actually IN the Avengers (Young Avengers, specifically) as Iron-Lad. Those were some crazy classic stories.

So this issue is written by Paul Levitz and drawn by Alan Davis.

Previously, the only other stuff I’ve read from Levitz was his classic Legion of Super-Heroes work over at DC. Man, I loved that series!

Alan Davis is a Marvel stalwart, with some awesome runs on X-Men and X-Men spin-off Excalibur. I always look forward to his art, and he didn’t disappoint here. Great action!

This comic really entertained me. It features the original Avengers roster of Ant-Man/Giant-Man (Hank Pym), The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Iron-Man, Thor and Captain America (real comic nerds like me know that in the comics Captain America was not a founding member of the team, but was granted honorary founding member status later).

The events of this issue are set in-between Avengers #11 and #12, published in Dec. 1964 & Jan. 1965, respectively.

In this one, Kang is messing with our heroes from the far future, as usual. I can’t remember exactly when but I think Kang was usually based in the 42nd century or somewhen around then.

In the course of his attack we get some old chestnuts of that original Avengers era, such as:

• Wasp’s incessant flirting

• Thor unable to be separated from Mjolnir for 60 seconds or he would turn back into his secret identity of Dr. Donald Blake

• Giant-Man beaten up by the Hulk (I mean everyone gets beaten up by the Hulk, but Giant-Man always took a lot of lumps from old Greenie)

The only thing we didn’t get was Iron-Man going on and on about his “transistor technology”.

So even though Kang is never a threat to be taken lightly, this comic nevertheless had a lighthearted feel to it that I really miss in comics these days.

Would definitely recommend.

THE BEGINNING…!

So that will bring this first Supertransitory email to a close, and I hope you enjoyed it, because there’s much more coming.

Thanks for being here and please hit me up with any responses, questions, corrections, etc. I’d love to hear from you.

All the best!

-John G