Just when I thought I had concluded my work on regular wages, I received the following email from a co-worker:

What do you think about the concept of the 40 hour work week?  I watched this show yesterday about how the 40 hour work week is an outdated piece of crap and how it negatively affects both businesses and their employees.  I have noticed some of your blog posts in regards to wages and was wondering what you thought about this.

I was immediately interested — I expect that I might pump out a few posts on the topic of the 40 hour work week before too long — and honored that my name is now synonymous with labor justice in at least one person’s mind. Not only did this topic address issues of underemployment that I’d addressed in my first post on regular wages, but it has added another implement to our toolbox of effecting positive change in personal finance. As Henry Ford himself said, “We have stopped thinking in terms of a minimum wage. That belongs to yesterday, before we quite knew what paying high wages meant.” In addition to increasing the minimum wage and expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), we can now talk about decreasing hours without subsequent decreases in weekly pay. I wonder what that would look like!

Back when I was doing research for my minimum wage post I ran across a speech by Franklin Delano Roosevelt that I thought was worth quoting as a whole. Something similar happened while researching the 40 hour work week when I stumbled across an interview that Samuel Crowther conducted with Henry Ford for World’s Work in 1926 titled “Why I Favor Five Days’ Work With Six Days’ Pay.” As with the FDR speech, I have decided to embolden sentences with information I found enlightening for the discussion to come.

JUST twelve years ago, Henry Ford made an announcement which, for the moment, turned industry upside down and brought workmen by the tens of thousands storming for jobs. His announcement was that thereafter the minimum wage in his industries would be five dollars for a day of eight hours. At that time a good wage was two dollars and a half for a day of ten hours. Now he makes another announcement far more important than the one which then went round the world.

“We have,” he said, “decided upon and at once put into effect through all the branches of our industries the five day week. Hereafter there will be no more work with us on Saturdays and Sundays. These will be free days, but the men, according to merit, will receive the same pay equivalent as for a full six day week. A day will continue to be eight hours, with no overtime.

“For the present this will not apply to the railroad, and of course it cannot apply to watchmen or the men on certain jobs where the processes must be continuous. Some of these men will have to work Saturdays and Sundays, but they constitute less than one per cent. of our working force, and each of them will have two consecutive days off some time during the week. In short, we have changed our calendar and now count a week as five days or forty hours.

“The actual work week of the factories as distinguished from the work week of the men will also be cut to five days. For of course an eight hour man day is not the same as an eight hour factory day. In order to make the full use of our plants we shall as before work the men in shifts. We found long ago, however, that it does not pay to put men at work, excepting in continuous operations, frommidnight until morning. As a part of low cost production — and only low cost production can pay high wages — one must have a big investment in machinery and power plants. Expensive tools cannot remain idle. They ought to work twenty-four hours a day, but here the human element comes in, for although many men like to work all night and have part of their day free, they do not work so well and hence it is not economical, or at least that is our experience, to go through the full twenty-four hours. But a modern factory has to work more than eight hours a day. It cannot be idle two thirds of the time, else it will be costly.

“This decision to put into effect the short work week is not sudden. We have been going toward it for three or four years. We have been feeling our way. We have during much of this time operated on a five day basis. But we have paid only for five days and not for six. And whenever a department was especially rushed it went back to six days — to forty-eight hours. Now we know from our experience in changing from six to five days and back again that we can get at least as great production in five days as we can in six, and we shall probably get a greater, for the pressure will bring better methods. A full week’s wage for a short week’s work will pay.”

“Does this mean,” I asked, “that your present minimum wage of six dollars a day will become a fraction over seven dollars a day that is, the minimum for five days’ work will still be thirty-six dollars, just as it was for six days?”

“We are now working out the wage schedules,” answered Mr. Ford. ” We have stopped thinking in terms of a minimum wage. That belongs to yesterday, before we quite knew what paying high wages meant. Now so few people get the minimum wage that we do not bother about it at all. We try to pay a man what he is worth and we are not inclined to keep a man who is not worth more than the minimum wage.

“The country is ready for the five day week. It is bound to come through all industry. In adopting it ourselves, we are putting it into effect in about fifty industries, for we are coal miners, iron miners, lumbermen, and so on. The short week is bound to come, because without it the country will not be able to absorb its production and stay prosperous.

“The harder we crowd business for time, the more efficient it becomes. The more well-paid leisure workmen get, the greater become their wants. These wants soon become needs. Well-managed business pays high wages and sells at low prices. Its workmen have the leisure to enjoy life and the wherewithal with which to finance that enjoyment.

“The industry of this country could not long exist if factories generally went back to the ten hour day, because the people would not have the time to consume the goods produced. For instance, a workman would have little use for an automobile if he had to be in the shops from dawn until dusk. And that would react in countless directions, for the automobile, by enabling people to get about quickly and easily, gives them a chance to find out what is going on in the world-which leads them to a larger life that requires more food, more and better goods, more books, more music — more of everything. The benefits of travel are not confined to those who can take an expensive foreign trip. There is more to learn in this country than there is abroad.

“Just as the eight hour day opened our way to prosperity, so the five day week will open our way to a still greater prosperity.

“Of course, there is a humanitarian side to the shorter day and the shorter week, but dwelling on that side is likely to get one into trouble, for then leisure may be put before work instead of after work — where it belongs. Twenty years ago, introducing the eight hour day generally would have made for poverty and not for wealth. Five years ago, introducing the five day week would have had the same result. The hours of labor are regulated by the organization of work and by nothing else. It is the rise of the great corporation with its ability to use power, to use accurately designed machinery, and generally to lessen the wastes in time, material, and human energy that made it possible to bring in the eight hour day. Then, also, there is the saving through accurate workmanship. Unless parts are a made accurately, the benefits of quantity production will be lost-for the parts will not fit together and the economy of making will be lost in the assembling. Further progress along the same lines has made it possible to bring in the five day week. The progression has been a natural one.

“The eight hour day law to-day only confirms what industry had already discovered, If it were otherwise, then the law would make for poverty instead of for wealth. A man cannot be paid a wage in excess of his production. In the old days, before we had management and power, a man had to work through a long day in order to get a bare living. Now the long day would retard both production and consumption. At the present time the fixing by law of a an five day week would be unwise, because industry is not ready for it, but a great part of industry is ready, and within a comparatively short time I believe the practice will be so general in industry that it be made universal,

“It is high time to rid ourselves of the notion that leisure for workmen is either ‘lost time’ or a class privilege.

“Nature fixed the first limits of labor, need the next, man’s inhumanity to man had something to do with it for a long time, but now we may say that economic law will finish the job.

“Old-fashioned employers used to object to the number of holidays in this country. They said that people only abused leisure and would be better off without so much of it.

“Only lately a French professor accounted for the increased consumption of alcohol by pointing to the eight hour day, which he denounced as a device which gives workingmen more time to drink.

“It will be generally granted that if men are to drink their families into poverty and themselves into degeneracy, the less spare time they have to devote to it the better. But this does not hold for the United States. We are ready for leisure. The prohibition law, through the greater part of the country, has made it possible for men and their families really to enjoy leisure. A day off is no longer a day drunk. And also a day off is not something so rare that it has to be celebrated.

“This is not to say that leisure may not be dangerous. Everything that is good is also dangerous — when mishandled. When we put our five dollar minimum wage for an eight hour day into effect some years ago, we had to watch many of our men to see what use they made of their spare time and money. We found a few men taking on extra jobs — some worked the day shift with us and the night shift in another factory. Some of the men drank their extra pay. Others banked the surplus money and went on-living just as they had lived before. But in a few years all adjusted themselves and we withdrew most of our supervision as unnecessary.

“It is not necessary to bring in sentiment at all in this whole question of leisure for workers. Sentiment has no place in industry. In the olden days those who thought that leisure was harmful usually had an interest in the products of industry. The mill-owner seldom saw the benefit of leisure time for his employees, unless he could work up his emotions. Now we can look at leisure as a cold business fact.

“It is not easy so to look at leisure, for age-old custom viewed leisure as ‘lost time’ -time taken out of production. It was a suspension of the proper business of the world. The thought about leisure usually went no further than that here were hard-driven working people who should have a little surcease from their labors. The motive was purely humane. There was nothing practical about it. The leisure was a loss — which a good employer might take from his profits.

“That the Devil finds work for idle hands to do is probably true. But there is a profound difference between leisure and idleness. We must not confound leisure with shiftlessness. Our people are perfectly capable of using to good advantage the time that they have off — after work. That has already been demonstrated to us by our experiments during the last several years. We find that the men come back after a two day holiday so fresh and keen that they are able to put their minds as well as their hands into their work.

“Perhaps they do not use their spare time to the best advantage. That is not for us to say, provided their work is better than it was when they did not have spare time. We are not of those who claim to be able to tell people how to use their time out of the shops. We have faith that the average man will find his own best way — even though that way may not exactly fit with the programs of the social reformers. We do know that many of the men have been building houses for themselves, and to meet their demand for good and cheap lumber we have established a lumber yard where they can buy wood from our own forests. The men help each other out in this building and thus are meeting for themselves one of the problems in the high cost of living.

“We think that, given the chance, people will become more and more expert in the effective use of leisure. And we are giving the chance.

“But it is the influence of leisure on consumption which makes the short day and, the short week so necessary. The people who consume the bulk of goods are the people who make them. That is a fact we must never forget — that is the secret of our prosperity.

“The economic value of leisure has not found its way into the thought of industrial leaders to any great extent. While the old idea of ‘lost time’ has departed, and it is no longer believed that the reduction of the labor day from twelve hours to eight hours has decreased production, still the positive industrial value — the dollars and cents value — of leisure, is not understood.

“The hours of the labor day were increased in Germany under the delusion that thus the production might be increased. It is quite possibly being decreased. With the decrease of the length of the working day in the United States an increase of production has come, because better methods of disposing of men’s time have been accompanied by better methods of disposing of their energy. And thus one good thing has brought on another.

“These angles are quite familiar. There is another angle, however, which we must largely reckon with — the positive industrial value of leisure, because it increases consumption.

“Where people work longest and with least leisure, they buy the fewest goods. No towns were so poor as those of England where the people, from children up, worked fifteen and sixteen hours a day. They were poor because these overworked people soon wore out — they became less and less valuable as workers. Therefore, they earned less and less and could buy less and less.

“Business is the exchange of goods. Goods are bought only as they meet needs. Needs are filled only as they are felt. They make themselves felt largely in leisure hours. The man who worked fifteen and sixteen hours a day desired only a comer to be in and a hunk of food. He had no time to cultivate new needs. No industry could ever be built up by filling his needs, because he had none but the most primitive.

“Think how restricted business is in those lands where both men and women still work all day long! They have no time to let the needs of their lives be felt. They have no leisure to buy. They do not expand.

“When, in American industry, women were released from the necessity of factory work and became the buyers for the family, business began to expand. The American wife, as household purchasing agent, has both leisure and money, and the first has been just as important as the second in the development of American business.

“The five day week simply carries this thought farther.

“The people with a five day week will consume more goods than the people with a six day week. People who have more leisure must have more clothes. They must have a greater variety of food. They must have more transportation facilities. They naturally must have more service of various kinds.

“This increased consumption will require greater production than we now have. Instead of business being slowed up because the people are ‘off work,’ it will be speeded up, because the people consume more in their leisure than in their working time. This will lead to more work. And this to more profits. And this to more wages. The result of more leisure will be the exact opposite of what most people might suppose it to be.

“Management must keep pace with this new demand — and it will. It is the intersection of power and machinery in the hands of management which has made the shorter day and the shorter week possible. That is a fact which it is well not to forget.

“Naturally, services cannot go on the five day basis. Some must be continuous and others are not yet so organized that they can arrange for five days a week. But if the task is set of getting more done in five days than we now do in six, then management will find the way.

“The five day week is not the ultimate, and neither is the eight hour day. It is enough to manage what we are equipped to manage and to let the future take care of itself. It will anyway. That is its habit. But probably the next move will be in the direction of shortening the day rather than the week.”>>

I have not completed my research just yet, but if there is not at least one movement of Neo-Fordians based on the prescription of this final paragraph I would be happy to eat my shoe. Also, there are a lot of gems in this interview that are worthy of meditating on in their own right. Ford’s distinction of viewing leisure as a “cold business fact” resonates with my own personal feeling that we need to view social and environmental issues according to their economic impact. Since this is the first post in the series on the 40 hour work week (a series that may only have two posts, but a series no less) I guess this also kicks off the discussion. What do you think about Ford’s understanding of labor justice? Do you think we’ve reached the time when the days and hours of the working week need to be decreased? Does Ford’s situation have any parallels in our world? I know there are some Henry Ford lovers out there, especially here in my home state of Michigan, and probably some Henry Ford haters as well — word is he was an antisemite — so I think this could make for a good talk.

I think my favorite thing about writing these posts is getting to put up a picture of kittens on an underwear chair lift. If you can get past the cuteness, maybe you’ll find something to pique your interest below.

Dreaming of a Star Wars Christmas

At work I recently had the opportunity to use my down time designing Christmas-related scenes from each of the seven Star Wars movies. They feature snow people as the main characters and are even accompanied by cheesy catch phrases. As it turns out, our scenes won a contest and there are cookies and milk in my future as a prize. A co-worker offered to buy these drawings, but I told him to just take them for free. If you’re reading this, thank you for the ego boost.

 

Sea of Green

The Forest, starring Natalie Dormer of Game of Thrones fame, is only the most recent of series of films devoted to the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, a dense wilderness the locals refer to as “suicide forest” due to the astounding amount of suicide corpses that are found there each year. There was Forest of the Living Dead (or The Forest outside of the US) in 2010, Grave Halloween in 2013, and The Sea of Trees in 2015, but the film that really drew my attention is a short documentary filmed in 2010 titled Suicide Forest in Japan and published on YouTube by Vice.

The film follows a local man named Azusa Hayono who sweeps the forest to find the corpses of the deceased and perhaps to convince the still living to hang in there. It is not very long, but I expect it packs a bigger punch than any of the feature length fictional films about the forest. It is a little bit on the disturbing side, but definitely worth a watch.

Goodbye, Wells Fargo Student Loan. May We Never Meet Again

Recovering alcoholics put time aside to celebrate each month and year without drink. In a debt-driven culture, I think maybe we ought to celebrate each outstanding debt that has been paid off or forgiven. While in college I accumulated more in debt than I would like to say. If you throw in the automobile loan we took out a couple years ago, you can get an idea of just how low I had sunk. Well, I hit a milestone the other day. It wasn’t easy, but I was able to pay off my second of four college loans, this one serviced by Wells Fargo. The first loan I paid off was a small loan with the University of Toledo which was serviced by ECSI. I was almost sad when I paid off this, my first student loan, not because I was going to miss being in debt — who could ever miss being in debt? — but because the people at ECSI were so amazingly intelligent and caring. It really felt like they were on my side rather than that of the institution I owed. Wells Fargo wasn’t unhelpful, but it is hard to look at an interest rate of nearly 8% without some of your happy thoughts running away. The remaining loans are my largest, a private consolidation loan that Discover bought from Citibank and a federal consolidation loan serviced by Great Lakes. Luckily the latter is in IBR.

If you have federal loans that are not in some form of income-contingent payment you should stop what you’re doing right now and call your loan servicer, especially if you work for the the government or a nonprofit like a hospital or social services. Depending on how much you owe, this decision could literally give you your life back. No lie.

The remaining portion of my journey is up hill, but right now I’m not thinking about that. Right now, I’m thinking of the fact that I am one step closer to being debt-free. I think I’m going to celebrate by not spending money and simply enjoying my time with my beautiful wife and my loving dog.

This doesn’t have to be all about me though. If you’ve recently paid off a debt, chime in. Let me know how it felt for you. This is the kind of joy that transfers from person to person, or at least it should be. What if we lived in a world without debt? Wouldn’t every sunrise feel different? Wouldn’t your pillow feel softer when you go to bed at the end of the day? We just got a step closer to that future. How can anyone contain themselves?!?!

Because DC now has weekly comics I think their portion of my introduction has been filled by Batman & Robin Eternal on each and every one of my posts, but let’s not forget that they also put out a new Justice League this week too; and Marvel’s release lists were screwy and confusing, but they totally concluded the Chewbacca mini-series and the final scene was pretty awesome, especially considering that the Marvel Star Wars books that launched in January of 2015 are all canon now! The last week of 2015 gave us a wimpy-sized load of comics, but they certainly weren’t lacking in quality.

UNSPOILED

1. Justice League #47 (DC Comics), Unspoiled Edition

In the second volume of “Darkseid War,” Justice League is really starting to funnel toward something spectacular. I expect that Justice League #47 is just the beginning of a series of truly fantastic issues by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok. As if the cast of characters for this mega-event four or so years in the making wasn’t big enough, the Crime Syndicate has now entered the fold and it is completely unclear what is going to come from their inclusion.

SPOILED

1. Justice League #47 (DC Comics), Spoiled Edition

I usually like to stay away from anything that might give me any foresight into story revelations for future issues, but I couldn’t help but read DC’s description for future issue Justice League #49:

In this, the penultimate chapter of the critically-acclaimed epic “Darkseid War,” the fate of the Justice League and the entire universe is on the line! But can even the combined might of the Justice Gods contend with the secret machinations of Grail, the deadly daughter of Darkseid? Death, rebirth and the life of one of the members of the League changed forever!

Maybe in the near future we can talk about all of the DC comics that are going to have an issue #50 in the next couple of months, but for now I want to talk about which member of the Justice League is going to experience some sort of mega change. I figured I would give some sort of ranking of who I feel is most likely to experience a serious change. I am only going to deal with the primary seven Justice League members, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg.

7. AQUAMAN

Aquaman would probably get the award for the most ignored character during the entire “Darkseid War” story arc. Similarly, he’s my vote for least likely to experience a serious change in issue #50. I’m pretty sure Geoff Johns has at least one more Aquaman/Atlantis arc in store for the title though, so change may be coming but it is probably not coming in the next couple of months. The moment we start seeing Mera in the pages of Justice League — that’s when I would start fearing for Aquaman’s fate.

What would a change look like for Aquaman at the end of “Darkseid War”? This is a tough one. The only thing that comes immediately to my mind is the idea that the god powers of the Justice League members may get focused into one individual, like Superwoman’s baby, and the League will have to keep this threat from the public without killing it. To do so they would have to build a secret containment facility in the Mariana Trench with advanced security and permanently guarded by Aquaman.

6. BATMAN

I’m not taking a risk with Batman, despite the fact that Geoff Johns seems to be having a lot of fun with Bruce Wayne’s character during this arc. We have already seen him learn the identity of his parents’ killer (Joe Chill), the identity of Joker (never revealed to readers), and we have seen that he is in serious trouble now that Mobius has returned. Because of all these details, I think he might be the main focus for a lot of speculation. I’m cool on a transformation for Batman because there are already two other series (Batman, and Batman & Robin Eternal) that are actively involved with mixing things up for Bruce Wayne and company, and Batman doesn’t need as much help as nearly all of the other Justice League members. He’s as complex as Hamlet, meaning that even a static Batman gives Johns more to work with than a dynamic anyone else.

What would a change look like for Batman at the end of “Darkseid War”? I think the most impactful thing that has happened to Batman during this arc is the fact that his curious detective intellect was bonded with a  source of infinite information. Once he is inevitably removed from this source, things may get shaky. The most interesting transformation I can imagine for Batman would be that he is reduced to a state similar to Alzheimer’s in which he is constantly grasping for information that isn’t there, making him simultaneously much slower at deducing solutions and much more prone to bouts of anger when the information he seeks simply isn’t there. We have a diversity of characters now who deal with problems facing people of color, women, people of different social classes, sexuality, and even disability, but it is not often that we see superheroes who face issues that frighten us all as we get older. This could be a fantastic opportunity for personal growth for Batman but also for expanding the inclusivity of comic book readership.

5. GREEN LANTERN

There is another list in my head where Hal Jordan, the Green Lantern is at the bottom, and this is because Geoff Johns re-opened and closed the book on this character. It would be far more likely that he would devote time to changing life for Power Ring than Hal Jordan. The conclusion of Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern was perfect, and then he passed the character on to another creative team. He’ll pop into the pages of Justice League here and there, but I honestly think Johns keeps him around as a foil for other characters. In the light that he casts, we can see sides of these other characters that we wouldn’t have otherwise. That is Hal Jordan’s purpose in Justice League and I like it.

What would a change look like for Green Lantern at the end of “Darkseid War”? It would be the best thing ever, because nobody knows Hal Jordan better than Geoff Johns. We know that the Justice League has proxies in other universes. Look at the Earth 2 comics, Multiversity, and Johns’ recent work with the Crime Syndicate. We also know that the red (animal), green (plant), and black (death) of Jeff Lemire’s Animal Man and Scott Snyder’s Swamp Thing also has proxies in Earth 2. What I think Johns would play with is the proxy to the seven color spectrum in the main universe that exists in the Crime Syndicate’s home reality on Earth 3. We know about Volthoom, the power behind Power Ring’s green ring, but what of Red, Orange, Yellow, Blue, Indigo, Violet, White, and Black. Personally, I would love to see a yellow ring from Earth 3 on Hal Jordan’s finger. If we assume that the entities associated with the rings possess the ring-holder and that they are a kind of opposite entity to the Earth 1 proxy then Hal Jordan would occasionally get possessed by a braggadocios heroic beasty and we would get to have fun with the ego conflicts between this over-the-top avatar and cocky pilot Hal Jordan.

4. SUPERMAN

I don’t know if any of you read Geoff Johns’ arc on Superman but it was insane-good and Johns already gave Superman quite a character development. Superman can now release the energy from all of his cells at once in a gigantic body blast which permanently depletes him and turns him into a basic human being in terms of power and skill set for about 24 hours. That said, I think there is still plenty of room to further develop Superman and Geoff Johns must have some ideas up his sleeve.

What would a change look like for Superman at the end of “Darkseid War”? One of the big cliffhangers of Justice League #47 was that the energy Superman absorbed on Apokolips may be destroying Superman’s cells and killing him. However, when it comes to Geoff Johns “death” actually means “change.” I wouldn’t be surprised if Superman’s cells are actually transformed so that he needs Apokoliptic energy instead of solar energy in order to gain super powers. This would effectively make him human or banish him to Apokolips, and I think neither possibility is more entertaining than the dilemma itself. Does a helpless Superman stay on Earth or migrate to Apokolips where he might be able to do some good? That’s a story I’d love to read.

3. CYBORG

Now we’re starting to get into the characters that I legitimately think Geoff Johns wants to make some changes with. Much of “Darkseid War” forces us to remember the first arc of Geoff Johns’ Justice League in which the team was assembled in response to Darkseid’s first attack on Earth 1, and lets not forget that Cyborg occupied the b-story to the assembly of the League. A Volthoom-possessed Power Ring uploaded Grid into Cyborg at the end of Justice League#47, so we already have a pretty good in for changing it up for Cyborg. In the same issue, Cyborg is outclassed at his niche by Mister Miracle and Barda, which might even suggest Cyborg dropping from the active roster for a time.

What would a change look like for Cyborg at the end of “Darkseid War”? Cyborg has been “infected” with Grid before, and he was able to wipe Grid from his system. Johns is smart enough not to do the same thing twice. This means that the interfacing of Cyborg and Grid is going to be transformative more likely than not. I think the most likely option would be that Cyborg and Grid become partitioned within Cyborg’s body. This could be forced against Grid or a mutual decision. While this might seem a little too much like the dual nature of Firestorm, I think we could get some awesome Evil Dead-style comedy where Grid suddenly gets control of Cyborg’s hand or something else.

2. FLASH

Much like with Green Lantern, Geoff Johns has become the master of The Flash over the years, but unlike with Green Lantern, I don’t think Johns is done with Flash just yet. When Flash was transformed into the Black Racer, it felt like there was a new venue for character development. Also, now that CW’s The Flash is entering its second season it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a strong The Flash comic so that the two support one another. In other words, it might be time for Geoff Johns to come back to The Flash again.

What would a change look like for Cyborg at the end of “Darkseid War”? I think the knee-jerk suggestion is that Flash will semi-permanently become the Black Racer. Maybe he will be a good guy with a Black Racer power set. Maybe he will be a bad guy and one of the other Flashlings will have to step to the forefront in order to battle him a la the Hal Jordan/Parallax and new Green Lantern Kyle Rayner story line from long ago. For some reason, and feel free to laugh in my face if/when I’m wrong, I don’t think this is where Johns wants to go with The Flash. Since “Darkseid War” appears to be a book-end to the first Justice League arc, we might see a similar bookend for The Flash. By this I mean that The Flash either travels to or remembers the previous universe and is forced to deal with the consequences of Flashpoint in some shape or form. If this were to happen, Johns could potentially even redeem Convergence and all of its awkward enormousness (enormous awkwardness? you decide). I’m not sure how, but this is the guy who made good on Hal Jordan’s incredibly confusing and difficult past. If Johns can’t do it, no one can.

1. WONDER WOMAN

I don’t think Wonder Woman is necessarily the character who needs a change the most, but I do think that there is a reason that she has narrated the “Darkseid War” for the last few issues. In the background of this story arc there has been a “Wonder Woman, This is Your Life” theme. There is another Amazonian in the mix, and it is unclear what is going to happen between her and Wonder Woman, she has been attempting to make peace with her romantic relationships with both Steve Trevor and Superman, and we got a fleeting glimpse of Themyscira that felt kind of scary. If I’m a betting man, I’m putting my money on Wonder Woman as the character whose life is going to be changed forever.

What would a change look like for Wonder Woman at the end of “Darkseid War”? Honestly, with the events that have unfolded in Justice League #46-47 I wouldn’t be surprised if Geoff Johns killed Wonder Woman off. I wouldn’t be surprised, but I do think I might be a little disappointed. In story telling, it is always more rewarding to wound than to kill, and there are many things that could hurt Wonder Woman at this point. If something were to happen where Superman or Steve Trevor were killed, transformed, alienated, or in some other way removed as a friend or lover from Wonder Woman’s life, that would hurt, but something inside me says that the island of Themyscira and potentially the entire Amazonian race might be wiped from the planet.

We’re talking Alderaan! Wonder Woman never felt that she belonged anywhere other than on that island. Themiscyra was her crutch. If Themyscira were gone she’d be forced to assimilate, and that process is probably one of the most gut-wrenching things I can imagine for a strong woman from a foreign culture. In terms of art, this means that it is an incredibly fruitful story generator as well.

Who do you think is most likely to experience the big change and what do you think Geoff Johns has in store for that character? Also, what did you think of Justice League #47?

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One of the most surprising books in the All-New, All-Different Marvel line, both in terms of title and content, is The Totally Awesome Hulk. Greg Pak and Frank Cho’s story follows Amadeus Cho, a young genius who has inherited the purple shorts of the Hulk. This title first and foremost shows Marvel’s commitment to stirring things up with their foundational characters in a way that we haven’t seen since DC replaced Superman with Superboy, Cyborg, Steel, and the Eradicator, Batman with Jean-Paul Valley/Azrael, and Green Lantern Hal Jordan with Kyle Raynor. It is an interesting time to be alive now that Captain America is Sam Wilson (the first prominent black superhero without the word “Black” in his name!), Thor is Jane Foster (a female superhero fighting a losing battle against cancer!), Ms. Marvel is Kamela Khan (the first Muslim character to headline her own comic and a young woman of Kitty Pryde quality to boot!), Spider-man is Miles Morales (a multi-racial black/latino teenager from another dimension!), and now Hulk is Amadeus Cho (a Korean American super genius!). I think that the only reason Tony Stark is still Iron Man is not actually for the sake of continuity, but because Marvel still needs to prove that Tony Stark can be approachable outside of the big screen unlike Steve Rogers, Thor Odinson, Carol Danvers, Peter Parker, and Bruce Banner.

The first thing you notice about The Totally Awesome Hulk is that it is fast-paced and entertaining. Pak’s writing is simultaneously fresh and reminiscent of Stan Lee’s early Marvel work. I felt intrigued by the things that were not told in issue #1. While we were given a flashback to somewhat explain why Bruce Banner is now off the Hulk roster, it is still not certain exactly what happened as a result of his heroics on that fateful day in the recent past.

Was Bruce Banner’s gamma mutation reversed? Was he killed? Did he mutate into something uncontrollable? Is his fate to be Amadeus Cho’s villain? Perhaps a new Abomination? Perhaps more interesting is the question of how and why Amadeus Cho has become the Hulk and taken to hunting monsters. While I think Pak is building something that could be really interesting, I think Frank Cho’s art might be what keeps readers coming back in the short-term. What makes Frank Cho particularly qualified for this title, other than making both male and female characters look fantastic, is the fact that he does not draw Hulk with some static Hulk-face. He uses Amadeus Cho’s natural facial features and simply Hulks them out. If Frank Cho were required to draw a lineup of all of Marvel’s superheroes as Hulks you would know which one was Amadeus Cho, which was Bruce Banner, which was Steve Rogers, which was Tony Stork, etc. etc. etc. Does this mean that we’re going to see our fair share of green Hulks in this series? Not necessarily, but it never hurts to have an artist who is equipped for the task.

I would say that it is definitely worth taking a risk on Greg Pak and Fank Cho’s The Totally Awesome Hulk. It is incredibly uncommon for a minority creative team with a minority main character to get any kind of traction in the current comic book climate. These books don’t always get the support of the marketing department of their respective publishers, and it is getting harder year after year to compete with the white boys club of foundational superheroes created in the Golden and Silver Age of comics. In comics, you vote with your paycheck and your pull list, so if representation matters and you really like what you’ve seen make sure you pick up The Totally Awesome Hulk once a month.

Next week we get to enjoy the first new comics of 2016 and with it some minor tweaks in the methodology and presentation of these comic book posts. Thanks for talking with me about comics for the last quarter of 2015. I’m feeling optimistic this year. I think comics are only going to get better and better. Also, if any of you are going to read through Civil War in preparation of the third Captain America movie that’s coming out later this year, hit me up. I never read the crossover when it first came out, and I would love to have a community, even just a small community, of people I can talk to while I’m pushing through it.

I wanted to start a tradition of looking back at the best comics of the year, but I wanted to make sure that successive yearly posts don’t get repetitive. To keep things fresh, I thought I would only talk about comic series and mini-series debuting in 2015. That way we don’t end up talking about The Walking Dead and Saga every year and acting surprised. The biggest weakness of the following list is that I did not take enough time in 2015 to delve into some of the smaller independent-publisher gems that I know are out there. This is why I suggest that you use this list as an excuse to head out to your local independently-owned comic book retailer with a primary mission of picking up some trades and back issues. Your secondary mission is to talk to the employees, check out other indie-oriented lists online, and take a risk on something you’re unfamiliar with.

Here are my favorite new comics of 2015.

NOTE: Most of the release dates for collected editions are listed online for Tuesday release dates. I have adjusted these releases for the following day mainly because that’s when new comics come out and we should all get in the habit of stopping by our local comic shop every Wednesday.

10. Batman & Robin Eternal #1-13 (DC Comics), writers: Scott Snyder, James T Tynion IV, Tim Seeley, Steve Orlando, Genevieve Valentine, Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Ed Brisson; artists: Tony S. Daniel, Paul Pelletier, Scot Eaton, Francis Manapul, Sandy Florea, Raul Fernandez, Alvaro Martinez, Roge Antonio, Fernando Blanco, and Fernando Pasarin.

Whereas last year’s weekly Batman Eternal title made the case for there always being a Batman, this year’s weeklyBatman & Robin Eternal claims that for every Batman there ought to be a Robin. Decades of evidence exists to suggest that a sidekick humanizes and softens our mission-oriented caped crusader, but once the Bruce Wayne / Batman piece has been removed from the board it seems that Robins flock together. Of course, they’re not all Robins anymore.Batman & Robin Eternal follows Grayson (formerly Nightwing), Red Hood, Red Robin, Spoiler, and Bluebird as they seek to uncover the truth behind a mystery that reaches backward in time to the good old days of Bruce and Dick. These Eternal titles that Scott Snyder and James T Tynion IV have been executively producing are probably intended to act as a buttress for struggling Bat Family titles, introduce new and pre-New 52 characters into the mix, and to use up Snyder’s deep well of Bat-book notes before he eventually changes gears and makes another title his number one priority. Batman & Robin Eternal is not always brilliant, but it is consistently fun. In fact, the flashback in issue six, by Snyder, Tynion, Florea, and Daniel, borders on sublime.

The first volume of Batman & Robin Eternal collects issues #1-12 and is scheduled for release on March 9, 2016. The second volume will presumably collect issues #13-24. At this time, there is no release date for volume two. As for last year’s Batman Eternal, there are three available volumes collecting issues 1-21 (Vol. 1), 22-34 (Vol. 2), and 35-52 plusBatman #28 (Vol. 3). Batman, volume 7: “Endgame” collects Batman #35-40 and is also currently available.

9. We Stand on Guard #1-6 (Image Comics), writer: Brian K. Vaughan; artists: Steve Skroce and Matt Hollingsworth.

If you needed proof that 2015 was a great year for comic books, look no further than the fact that, at one point, there were three Brian K. Vaughan titles (Saga, We Stand on Guard, and Paper Girls) being published by Image Comics. We Stand on Guard is a six-issue mini-series following a woman named Amber as she joins up with a rag-tag band of Canadian fighters as they plan their final show-down against invading American forces. This is not present day war, but future war with its giant space ships and mech warrior suits. Like much of his previous work, We Stand on Guardtouches upon issues concerning children growing up during times of war and how they are, in some way or another, affected for their entire lives. The more interesting novelty that Vaughan adds to the extensive literature on this subject that he has already written is an interesting comparison between superheroes who have lost their parents and dedicated their lives to fighting for justice and children who lose parents due to terrorism, politics, and war and what kind of people they turn out to be.

I haven’t been able to track down a specific date for a We Stand on Guard collected edition, but the sixth issue just came out on December 9th so we shouldn’t have to wait too long for a release date. I would image we’re going to have a March release date like Batman & Robin Eternal.

8. E is for Extinction #1-4 (Marvel Comics), writer: Chris Burnham; artist: Ramon Villalobos.

E is for Extinction was probably Marvel’s best Secret Wars mini-series, at least when it comes to nostalgia factor. Burnham and Villalobos perfectly encapsulate the feeling of Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s work on New X-Menduring the early 2000s and deliver a brand new story featuring some Morrison-era favorites like Cassandra Nova, the Stepford Cuckoos, Xorn, and Quentin Quire. On the story-end it feels like Secret Wars is meant to be the crossover to end all crossovers — don’t hold your breath on this idea, though — while on the business end it feels like many of these stories were meant to sell trades of some of Marvel’s better past story arcs. Whatever Marvel is trying, sometimes it is just really great to have fun in a familiar sandbox, and this is what you get when you read E is for Extinction.

The one-volume E is for Extinction: “Warzones” collects the full 4-issue miniseries with the addition of the now classicNew X-Men #114 by Morrison and Quitely and will be released March 2, 2016. As for Morrison and Quitely’s New X-Men, the entire run is available in either one omnibus, three hardcover volumes or fourteen trade paperbacks covering New X-Men #114-154 and Annual #1.

7. Star Wars #1-13 (Marvel Comics), writer: Jason Aaron; artists: John Cassaday, Simone Bianchi, Stuart Immonen, and Mike Deodato.

When Aaron and Cassaday’s Star Wars #1 was released in early 2015 I don’t think that it had even set in that by the end of the year I would have seen Star Wars, Episode VIII: The Force Awakens in theaters, but at that time Star Wars#1 was enough. I remember grinning from cover to cover, feeling like I was watching a new movie featuring young Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, and friends with every page I turned. Die hard fans will be happy to learn that Marvel’s 2015 Star Wars is considered canon now that Disney has purchased the rights to George Lucas’s franchise. In other words, the events of these comics matter and could be referenced at any time as the canonical universe expands with new comics, books, TV series, and films. A while back I joked that the only way Marvel would ever be able to separate Jason Aaron from writing Wolverine comic books would be if they killed off Wolverine and got the rights to Star Wars, but all jokes aside I think Aaron is great at writing Star Wars and I think he has found his next Wolverine. In other words, he is likely here to stay.

The first volume of Star Wars titled “Skywalker Strikes” (issues #1-6) was released on October 6, 2015. Volume two (“Showdown on the Smuggler’s Moon,” issues #7-12) is scheduled for a January 27, 2016 release and the crossover Star Wars: Vader Down (Vader Down #1, Star Wars #13-14, Darth Vader #13-15) is scheduled for an April 20, 2016 release.

6. Doctor Strange #1-3 (Marvel Comics), writer: Jason Aaron; artist: Chris Bachalo.

Remember what I just said about how hard it must have been to separate Jason Aaron from Wolverine? Well, the last time Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo worked together was actually on Marvel’s Schism-era series titled Wolverine and the X-Men. The team-up was a little more short-lived than I would have wished, but Doctor Strange is certainly an acceptable continuation. In fact, the second issue’s exploration of the Sanctum Sanctorum was probably one of my favorite issues to come out this year. It seems pretty clear that Marvel has rolled out a couple of its heavy hitters to flesh out the character of Doctor Strange prior to the release of the Doctor Strange film on November 4, 2016, and I think this particular decision was a success. Aaron has already gotten me more interested in Marvel’s arcane side than I ever have been before, and Bachalo’s art looks so good that I’d probably leaf through each issue even if Aaron weren’t any good at spinning a tale.

We won’t be seeing the first volume of Doctor Strange until May 11, 2016, but it is titled “The Way of the Weird” and it includes issues #1-5.

5. Amazing Spider-man: Renew Your Vows #1-5 & Amazing Spider-man #1-5 (Marvel Comics), writer: Dan Slott; artists: Adam Kubert and Giuseppe Camuncoli.

Dan Slott’s Secret Wars-era “Renew Your Vows” was a momentary glimpse into what the world might look like if Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson’s marriage hadn’t been erased from continuity by Mephisto, and that glimpse was pretty cool. It was especially neat to see Pete’s rebellious daughter Annie trying to protect people in need against the backdrop of Peter Parker applying his responsibility only to his wife and his daughter. The contrast, as we return to regular continuity in Amazing Spider-man, is stark. In this post-Superior Spider-man world, Peter Parker has more power and therefore more responsibility than ever before now that he is the CEO of a multinational corporation. Of all of the neat innovations Slott has already brought to this volume just in the first five issues, I would have to say that his efforts in making the Zodiac interesting is probably worthy of a medal. In the same year, we get to see Pete back with MJ and Pete getting a chance to move forward with his post-MJ life. In a lot of ways, since both of these volumes are a continuation of Dan Slott’s multi-year Amazing Spider-man tenure they probably don’t belong on this list, but it is not my fault Marvel keeps playing the stop and start game. I did think it would be appropriate to collapse both volumes into one so we could talk about some other comics as well.

The Amazing Spider-man: Renew Your Vows TPB just came out on December 30, 2015, so you can grab one fresh off the presses once you hit your local comic shop. The first TPB for the new volume of Amazing Spider-man titled “Worldwide” collects issues #1-5 and is showing a street date of April 20, 2016.

4. Invincible Iron Man #1-4 (Marvel Comics), writer: Brian Michael Bendis; artist: David Marquez.

I can’t be the only one out here who has had extreme difficulties relating to or caring about Iron Man for most of his life. In fact, I don’t think I cared for him as anything more than Avengers air support until Robert Downey Junior appeared on the big screen as a version of Tony Stark that felt like George W. Bush with a pickled heart of gold. In light of this I think Bendis’s new volume should actually be titled Surprising Iron Man, which is not very farfetched in a comic book environment which includes Totally Awesome Hulk and an Avengers book with such a long title that it requires two hyphens and a comma (All-New, All-Different Avengers). Though only the fourth best new comic this year, I think Bendis and Marquez have created a comic that would be a perfect benchmark for other comics. If you’re looking to work on a serialized comic depicting an established character who you want to take in an interesting direction, your sourcebook should probably be the current volume of Invincible Iron Man.

The first volume of Bendis’s Invincible Iron Man, titled “Reboot,” collects issues #1-5 and will be released April 20, 2016.

3. Constantine – The Hellblazer #1-7 (DC Comics), writers: Ming Doyle and James T Tynion IV; artists: Riley Rossmo, Vanesa Del Rey, and Ming Doyle.

I am normally about as keen on John Constantine as I am on Tony Stark, but I’m also happy to admit when I’m wrong.Constantine – The Hellblazer has been one of the most refreshing comics that I have read in years. If Peter Milligan’s 1988 comic Hellblazer was the first chapter of the John Constantine story, I am honestly beginning to believe that Tynion and Doyle’s Constantine – The Hellblazer is the beginning of the second chapter. John Constantine has always been this complicated brooding anti-hero with an edge, but now, impossibly, he is depicted in vivid colors and potentially emotionally available. Against all odds, I am rooting for John Constantine’s love life to take center stage and for everything to work out for him. I find this reimagination of Constantine particularly exciting because most of the art is done by a guy named Riley Rossmo, who I’m proud to say I discovered before he was doing work for the big publishers. He was always one of the little guys, someone like you and me, only he works harder than anyone you know and his passion for his craft is really paying off. DC can go ahead and cancel whatever they like next year, so long as they keep their hands off of Constantine – The Hellblazer.

The first six issues of Constantine – The Hellblazer will be available on February 17, 2016 in a volume titled “Going Down,” followed by a second volume consisting issues #7-12 to be released on August 17, 2016.

2. Extraordinary X-Men #1-4 (Marvel Comics), writer: Jeff Lemire; artist: Humberto Ramos.

With a couple of possible exceptions, I have probably read more X-Men comics than anyone I know. As a result, I have a strong idea for when a creative team is sticking true to the core of what it means to be mutants in a world that fears and hates you. I loved Jason Aaron’s Schism and Brian Michael Bendis’s recent work on All-New X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, but if I’m being honest I think Extraordinary X-Men has already blown them away in its first four issues. Jeff Lemire has gone from this unknown quantity to a surprise hit with DC’s The New 52 and Animal Man to perhaps one of the most consequential X-Men writers since Grant Morrison, and it has been a great ride. Until 2015, I knew Humberto Ramos as that guy who does a lot of art for Dan Slott’s Spider-man comics, but now his vibrant characters remind me of the Jim Lee and Joe Madureira days of the X-Men and I hope he’ll never leave. What else is great about Extraordinary X-Men? Everyone’s favorite mutants are fighting a battle both on the home front — on the streets of every city where a mutant’s life is in danger — but also away, in fantastical places like Limbo. Storm is finally back in charge after seemingly everyone in the comic book industry forgot that she’s always been one of the most successful leaders the team has ever seen, outshining Cyclops at every turn and talking down Wolverine whenever he starts thinking with his animal side. We get comic relief in the form of Cerebra the Sentinel while in the meantime the fate of mutant life on earth may rely on whether or not the X-Men can summon their allies to their side. There’s some cheese here and there, but every good X-Men title has had a little bit of that. Not every X-Men title feels like it fits perfectly into the continuous story since 1963 though.

The first volume of Extraordinary X-Men titled “X-Haven” collects issues #1-5 and is scheduled for release on May 11, 2016.

1. Huck #1-2 (Image Comics), writer: Mark Millar; artist: Rafael Albuquerque.

There are quite a few comics that were released during the last quarter of 2015 that I had to bump to the Honorable Mention category, but when the first issue of Huck was released on November 18 I was pretty sure that, barring some sort of Christmas miracle, this was going to be the best new comic book of the year. Huck himself is Mark Millar’s secret weapon. It doesn’t really matter what happens in the span of this 24-issue comic, because so long as our small town autism spectrum man of steel is the main character it is going to be fantastic. I like Batman, but I’m not so sure I’d like to know Batman. I like Cyclops, but he isn’t exactly the type of person I like to spend time with. I like Huck, and I think I could move in with him and maybe help him with some of the smaller good deeds on his to do list. This is the comic book that you don’t want to miss out on. It is something you want on your shelf. The series had barely hit the shelves and already there is rumor of a movie in development. If you didn’t read Huck in 2015, you’re going to want to make it the first thing on your to do list for 2016. This is not a comic to pass up.

I’m not sure that Image Comics has set a release date for the Huck Volume 1 TPB, but luckily Huck is still new enough that you might be able to pick up first editions of the first two issues.

Honorable Mentions

I really loved reading All-New, All-Different Avengers (Marvel), I Hate Fairyland (Image), Karnak (Marvel), and Paper Girls (Image) this year, but unfortunately all four are just now starting to find their footing so I didn’t really know where to put them in the rankings. Marvel’s Darth Vader had a fantastic first arc with a one of the best annual issues I’ve read in some time, but unfortunately it fell just short of the top ten. Secret Wars and Ultimate End both had so much promise but were ultimately a little too all over the place for my own tastes. That said, Secret Wars is up there with Avengers vs. X-Men as one of the best crossovers in the last five to ten years and the final issue of Ultimate End was a great conclusion to Bendis’ work in the Ultimate Marvel imprint.

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I hope you had as much fun reading these posts as I did writing them for the last quarter of 2015. I expect to continue with the weekly comic book posts until some huge life change or lack of motivation hits me. As we move into 2016, I am going to devote the introduction specifically to highlighting the new comic books that the various publishers are releasing that week. To make things a little more interesting, I am going to vow to read every first issue of every comic released by Dark Horse, DC, IDW, Image, Marvel, and Vertigo. There are a couple of reasons for this. This will make next year’s round-up post a lot easier to pull together, but more importantly it means that I won’t miss as many comics in my evaluation. If it weren’t for the help of my friends / readers, I would have overlooked Extraordinary X-Men, Constantine – The Hellblazer, and Invincible Iron Man, my second, third, and fourth place new comics! This is more than likely due to the fact that I only promise to read the first three pages of every new comic that I am trying out. I’m still looking for a good methodology so I don’t miss out on the better comics from the independent publishers. Hit me up if you have any ideas outside of just asking the employees at my local comic shop, and until next time lets talk comic shop.