Reg Everbest Goes to The Magic Store

“Miss Tracie, Prepare the standard ‘rich and famous’contract for Steve Gerber.”

It starts when we’re kids… a show-off at school. Makin’ faces at friends. You’re a clown and a fool.

After the biggest freakin’ massive blow up year of astounding superhero success on the silver screen, all true believers are now faced front to the future in wonder at what might come next for their beloved leotarded idols. Sorry, folks, you’re just getting a whole bunch of slop from the same chum-bucket that gave birth to Howard the Duck. What you say?! Yup! It’s true. The one common creative force behind all three of the biggest superhero blockbusters* in the next few months that you just have to hope you live long enough to see seems to be ole’ Steve ‘Baby’ Gerber. What you say!!!??? Nooooo! Yup. And here are the upcoming tie-in books to prove it.

Other people created The Guardians of the Galaxy, The Phantom Zone and Thanos and his various wacky pals (and that matinee marquee model Man-Thing, for that matter); but Steve Gerber clearly wrote the words that stuck. Those words (and presumably some comic book ‘art’ by whatever work-for-hire slobs were available) are being trolled out for your delight in new deluxe movie tie-in editions.

First up we’ve got Guardians of the Galaxy: Tomorrow’s Avengers – Volume 1, due for release on January 22. That’s right Tomorrow’s AVENGERS! The Guardians movie is expected in August 2014.

On March fifth we get Avengers vs. Thanos. What you say! But Thanos is all the Jim Starlin joint I know this as fact! Sure. Sure. I hear you. But! There’s a buncha scripting in there by Gerber. Believe it! Avengers II is expected in 2015.

Then, on July 23rd we get the biggest surprise entry, Superman: Phantom Zone. Yup, despite a couple thousand issues (for reals) of Superman comics in the last 80 or so years, five comics by that bad boy Gerber about General Zod in “Italian Fascist” drag from 30 years ago get the spotlight. WTF! Man of Steel has been announced for June 13, 2013. (Update! Gerber’s Phantom Zone story with Rick Veitch from the last issue of DC Comics Presents is also included in Superman vs. Zod, due April 2nd.)

It’s a shame that Gerber didn’t live to see it, just so that you would have to endure him bitch and bitch and litigate and bitch about it true believer. Steve Gerber was clearly the smartest man in the room at Marvel Comics in the mid-1970s and they treated him like shit for it. Now we get to see his work squeegeed onto so much Disney and Warner Brothers product after he’s already been power washed down the drain.

In the meanwhile, just very recently published this past October are Gerber’s finest bits of Man-Thing in Man-Thing Omnibus and Infernal Man-Thing.

Deeper Gerber knowledge: Wikipedia | IMDB | ComicBookdb | SteveGerber.com | tumblr | The Comics Journal 1978 Interview | The Comics Reporter Obituary | Remembered by Mark Evanier | The Guardian Obituary

And then there is “Truth, Justice, & The Corporate Conscience” by Steve Gerber, recently published online, to much acclaim.

*OK, sure, there are supposed to be additional Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and possibly even Ant Man movies in the meanwhile, but whatthefuckever.

“Steve Gerber’s role as one of the best and emblematic writers of his generation can’t be overstated. He was a crucial figure in comics history. Like some of the all-time great cartoonists of years past, Gerber carved a place for self-expression and meaning out of a type of comic that had no right to hold within itself so many things and moments that were that quirky and offbeat and delicately realized — except that Gerber made it so.” — Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter

“I wouldn’t describe myself as fearless, but I think you have to accept the possibility of failure if you want to achieve anything, in any field.” — Steve Gerber, 1985

Life’s like a movie, write your own ending.
Keep believing, keep pretending.