Ben Raab talks DC's "The Human Race"

[Jonah Weiland]

New series coming from DC in March, 2005:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=4566

[cactusmaac]

Not picking that up.

Sounds completely and utterly generic.

"'The Human Race' is an unabashed, contemporary mix of the 'team books' I loved growing up," said Raab. "Comics like Wolfman & Perez's 'New Teen Titans,' Claremont & Byrne's 'X-Men,' the Roy Thomas, Dave Micheline and Roger Stern runs on 'Avengers' and Byrne's 'Alpha Flight.' The storylines in those series were always so out there and over the top, but there was always a very human heart beating in each of them. Characters whose lives are radically affected by the larger than life situations they suddenly find themselves in. It was important to me that 'The Human Race' be infused with that 'ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances' philosophy.

Hoo boy, like we haven't seen that before.

[Lorendiac]

Not picking that up.

Sounds completely and utterly generic.

Hoo boy, like we haven't seen that before.

I think you're being just a trifle unfair. Any one-paragraph summary of what a comic series or old-fashioned text novel is supposed to be all about is going to end up sounding pretty generic, and will undoubtedly remind a well-read viewer of dozens of other comics, novels, movies, television shows, etc. I mean, just imagine what would have happened if it had gone like this in an interview on comicbookresources.com about 42 years ago . . .

STAN LEE: Our new idea is "Spider-Man." This high school kid gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gets its proportional strength and other weird super-powers -

FANS, REACTING EN MASSE WHEN THEY HEAR ABOUT IT: Boring! Stan already did the whole "radioactive accident" thing LAST year when he created the Fantastic Four! And one of the four was a hot-headed kid who was still high-school-age! Why is he repeating himself? Who cares about spiders, anyway? They're icky! This idea is the dumbest thing I've ever heard! It'll never sell!

Suppose that all the young Marvel fans of the early 60s had then boycotted Amazing Fantasy #15 on the basis of a few hackneyed phrases from Stan about what the new character was all about, instead of buying it and writing in letters demanding Spider-Man be brought back in his own regular title because they loved his first story so much? Wouldn't they have been guilty of leaping to shaky conclusions on very thin evidence? :D

I think I've only read a bare handful of other stories by Raab and right now I'm having trouble remembering if I even liked them. But it seems to me that his storytelling style ought to be what makes or breaks this new team book; not just the fact that many writers have produced mediocre or downright awful runs on other superhero team books that sound superficially similar.

[Captain Blitz]

I´ll give it a chance, as always. Anything that´s new will be picked up.

It could happen that I miss a huge hit and that´s something I don´t want to!

[cactusmaac]

I think you're being just a trifle unfair. Any one-paragraph summary of what a comic series or old-fashioned text novel is supposed to be all about is going to end up sounding pretty generic, and will undoubtedly remind a well-read viewer of dozens of other comics, novels, movies, television shows, etc. I mean, just imagine what would have happened if it had gone like this in an interview on comicbookresources.com about 42 years ago . . .

STAN LEE: Our new idea is "Spider-Man." This high school kid gets bitten by a radioactive spider and gets its proportional strength and other weird super-powers -

FANS, REACTING EN MASSE WHEN THEY HEAR ABOUT IT: Boring! Stan already did the whole "radioactive accident" thing LAST year when he created the Fantastic Four! And one of the four was a hot-headed kid who was still high-school-age! Why is he repeating himself? Who cares about spiders, anyway? They're icky! This idea is the dumbest thing I've ever heard! It'll never sell!

Suppose that all the young Marvel fans of the early 60s had then boycotted Amazing Fantasy #15 on the basis of a few hackneyed phrases from Stan about what the new character was all about, instead of buying it and writing in letters demanding Spider-Man be brought back in his own regular title because they loved his first story so much? Wouldn't they have been guilty of leaping to shaky conclusions on very thin evidence? :D

I think I've only read a bare handful of other stories by Raab and right now I'm having trouble remembering if I even liked them. But it seems to me that his storytelling style ought to be what makes or breaks this new team book; not just the fact that many writers have produced mediocre or downright awful runs on other superhero team books that sound superficially similar.


Well, back then the fans would have gone "WTF! A teenager gets super-powers! And he has problems at school, at work, with paying bills and his sick aunt?"

Raab failed to blow anyone away on GL and I'd be very surprised if he came up with something distinctive here.

[Matt_K]

I've honestly just had it up to hear with teen super-hero books. Please no more.

[Adam Crocker]

Let's see what else this involves...

The story centers around a teenager named Ulysses Adams who wakes up on the morning of his high school graduation to find himself in the Kafka-esque predicament of having been transformed by an alien virus into something not quite human," Raab told CBR News. "Turns out Ulysses is the central figure in a centuries-old prophecy about the extinction of all humanity and a pawn that the forces of good and evil are fighting to control."

Centuries-old prophecy regarding the extinction of humanity, struggle between the forces of good and evil?

And oh look, the unwitting hero in all this is being protected by a secret society!

*Yawn*

Next thing you know they'll have a character on the team who is cynical and jaded but deep down really has a heart of gold...and learns the true meaning of Christmas!

[UniqueFrequency]

so did anyone get this in the end? i picked it up 'cause i loved raab/justiano's collaboration on Beast Boy awhile back.. the art still looks gorgous but i haven't read it yet

[stealthwise]

I'm gonna have to jump on the "sounds boring" bandwagon here. The concept sounds too weak to get me to put part of my comic budget towards it.

[Captain Jim]

Y'know what? My retailer was still putting books out when I got there this week and I didn't want to be a pest, so I just took my "pulls". I completely forgot that I wanted to check this one out. I'll try to remember to take a look next week. I did think the sample pages on the DC site looked interesting. Anybody else pick it up?

[UniqueFrequency]

Y'know what? My retailer was still putting books out when I got there this week and I didn't want to be a pest, so I just took my "pulls". I completely forgot that I wanted to check this one out. I'll try to remember to take a look next week. I did think the sample pages on the DC site looked interesting. Anybody else pick it up?

i picked it up. while it's been so far very typical 'dude has powers, 2 warring factions want him to change the course of yaddayaddayadda' i think justiniano's art made the whole thing look really dynamic and gorgeous. i definitely liked it enough to get #2 for now

[Calamas]

I also picked it up. I have to admit that I wasn’t expecting much. My only exposure to Raab was that Green Lantern/Green Arrow crossover a while back. It was a boring and predictable story. I wasn’t impressed. I know I shouldn’t hold that against the writer; in “events,” the writer is usually just a typist for the editor. But nothing of interest really stood out in Raab’s half of the tale.

Human Race is at least better. As outlined by the posters above, there is nothing original here either. But that’s okay. Break down the greatest stories ever told to their bare bones and I doubt they would sound too original either. As someone once pointed out, Moby Dick and Jaws are essential the same story--but there’s no mistaking which one is the classic novel. “Unoriginal” only matters when you’re boring. It’s all in the telling.

His chosen protagonist, Ulysses, is okay. Having just gotten his life together, he wakes up one morning to find himself physically mutated. He literally pulls himself together, runs away, and opens up to the first to the first person he meets. Of course she a part of it. Future teammate and probable love interest. It opens up from there, introducing both sides amid battle and loss of life. There are a couple pages near the end that are extremely text heavy, as Raab decides to explain everything in the first issue.

In the end, it was okay. So, as Ulysses agrees to help his new friends, I decide to try one more issue. Raab has given himself some things to work with. I'll stick around a little and see how he uses them.

It’s all in the telling.