Griffin: Chapter 7 Beating The Drums Of War
Writer: Dan Vado
Penciller: Norman Felchle
Inker: Mark McKenna
Letterer: Ken Holewczynski

Another Griffin series that I’m going to do as a two-part series because my comic allotment is dwindling and I need to stretch things out. Also I would have to say that each chapter is sufficiently the same size as a normal comic load.  As predicted, the more I read into this, the more it makes sense. Getting background tends to do that, and sticking your hand into a box and pulling out somethign at random almost sets things up to make zero sense at first.

Although the disconnect between chapter 7 and chapter 9 made my mind wonder a bit about what happens in 8 to link the two together. Since the beginning of 9 starts out with The Griffin getting out of bed with this foxy lady, I assumed that would be set up somehow. However in chapter 7 he has to calm down a super-powered girl from destroying the city. Figures, girls tend to try and attract attention in all the wrong ways.  This girl can’t possibly be the same quiet-as-a-door mouse one that he was sleeping with. But who knows, crazy things could happen, on Thursday I will discover the link!

That little tidbit reminded me of soap operas I used to watch as a kid. And by “a kid” I mean I have occasionally been seen checking up on All My Children to see how the crew is doing.  As I have started to read comics and get into the little dynamic issues in each issue, and the characters in each storyline, they closely relate to the over-dramatic stories of the rich, upper class people who cheat on each others spouses too much. Obviously there are some fundamental differences, super powers and super wealth are not the same thing (although some could make the case for Batman), but the story development is pretty consistent.  They take the same characters, the ones you have grown up with and loved, and inventively come up with ridiculous situations, one after another to keep your attention and provide an escape from everyday life. Each episode/issue always ends with a cliffhanger, and 9 times out of 10 someone ends up pregnant or dead.  There’s no shame in admitting it, everyone loves these kids of gaudy story lines because you can’t help wanting more.

From what I hear about the Civil War series there is a complete reset of the whole DC universe.  That happens in soap operas all the time, its called a plane crash. Sure one or two survive to make sure you know it’s still the same show, but a fresh batch of youngins come in to clear up plot problems and make sure the writers don’t need a supercomputer to keep track of all the incestuous family trees.

Plus all the characters from both mediums are always super hot. At least in comics everyone’s brain isn’t wired for amnesia every few months.