I recently reread some of John Ostrander's seminal DC work: Firestorm, Suicide Squad,Hawkworld, and the Spectre.

Man what a BRILLIANT writer! What impresses me is how he weaves in so many social issues without being preachy. In fact Ostrander manages to humanize his characters by bringing in topics and events that are timely without ever being preachy. He asks hard questions and offers no easy answers, stories that make you think. And on top of that, his stories are not just talking heads - intellectual comics with tons of action.

His run on the Spectre tackled subjects like Heaven, Hell, the nature of God and belief, the true spirit of America, violence and tolerance of a gay lifestyle, women's equality, racism, police brutality, justice vs vengeance and more...and the series never offered a pat solution and amde you think while giving you some amazing horror/supernatural superhero stories.

His characters are just so human and distinct..Father Craemer and Jim Corrigan felt so damn real...the melancholy, their fears, anguish, etc..you felt sad and happy for them..amazing writing at play here.

He would also always look at the political context of a superhuman...what would private corporations do to take advantage of superpowers? What about governments? Hawkworld was a great lense to view the USA and its policies. In the Suicide Squad Ostrander tackled topics like fanatic Jihadists, Iranian politics, the fall of communism, brainwashing, etc...the Squad remains one of my favorite series ever...great action, characterization and just tight plotting (I marvel at how he wrapped up major storylines in one issue).

More to follow..anyone else a fan of his work?

I think all I've read by him was a two-part X-Men miniseries called "Day of Wrath." But I thought it was good. (Art was by Bryan Hitch.) Even in those two issues I actually did note the same thing you note above, that the way he wove the thematic elements in with the action/adventure was very skillful and not at all obtrusive. The story in "Day of Wrath" takes a very positive and sympathetic view of Christianity, which is fairly rare these days and felt rather refreshing.

So, yeah, based on those two comics, I like 'im.

Doot - knowing your tastes - trust me and check out his DC work where he had the time and opportunity to build some long runs on titles (66 issues on Suicide Squad, 62 issues of the Spectre, etc)...I know the first trade reprinting the Suicide Squad was just released (man I just gave away a bunch of my Squad issues...if i had known I would have sent them to you)...you won't be disapointed.

One (of many) great examples of his writing was an issues of the Spectre that dealt with a gay couple getting attacked and beaten...the Spectre kills the attackers but his human host (Corrigan) expresses disgust at the gay lifestyle...he then finds out that the attack was spurred on by a local preacher...should the Spectre kill the preacher as well since he indirectly led to the murder? At the same time he confronts his friend Rev. Richard Craemer (an amazing 3 dimensional positive Christian character if there ever was one in comics) who asks Corrigan what would he think of him if he was gay (we never find out if the reverend is indeed gay) and makes him rethink some of his prejudices...all of this in 22 pages...multiple viewpoints, conflicts, no easy answers and a riveting read...brilliant work.

In a day where 'depth' in DC comics is Green Lantern taking on different ring bearers who represent different emotions (purple is love kids!) I long for writers like Ostrander to come back and do some more work at DC on their titles...he is sorely missed. I mean Green Lantern is a perfect example of a comic with all flash and zero substance..who cares about some stupid interstellar war involving aliens with zero reflection on anything in the real world (love is better than fear...wow thanks for the insight Geoff)...

Ostrander's recent Squad mini shows he still has the chops and DC should wake up and give him some more work.

Sounds like some very good stuff. Now that I've got some spending loot again, I'll have to give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation!

You'll get no argument from me. Suicide Squad, The Spectre, The Kents... he was great with a wide variety of characters.

Doot - unfortunately most of his stuff is not in trades but can be found for cheap in back issue bins. Let me know what you think.

Doot - here is the Amazwan link to his original 4 part deadshot mini - some of his best work - i guarantee you will be hooked after this:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001902E22/?tag=imwan-20

Cool.

Have you read "Day of Wrath," by the way. It actually uses some threads from a Claremont X-Men story from 1988. (Specifically the Brood story that ends with a Broodqueen being implanted in a Reverend's wife.)

Ostrander is truly one of the great ones. The Spectre is my favorite series from the 1990s. Truly brilliant work. I heard he was suffering from glaucoma a couple of years ago and they had a benefit fundraiser of some sort for him at Comic Con. I hope he's doing well.

Doot - nope - but ill have to check it out (I have heard about it).

Kevin - yes there was a big fundraiser for him and he got the operation he needed. He is doing better but may need more care later.

I'm a big fan, his run on the Suicide Squad is one of my favorites.

I have been a fan of his since I met him at a Chicago Comic-con in the 80's.
He writes readable comics.

Yeah Spec and Suicide Squad were fantastic.

Some classic storylines by Ostrander:

Suicide Squad 1-2: we meet them team as they head to Qurac to take down a superhuman terrorist group, issues 16-17 features the terrorists attacking New York in retaliation.

The Deadshot mini series 1-4: some old enemies kidnap Deadshot's kid and try and force him into completing a hit...things do not go as they planned as we learn the secrets behind Deadshots origin and his family..brutal brutal noir comics.

Suicide Squad 45-47: Kobra tries to ignite a holy war in the middle east...the squad tries to track him down as they go against his forces and an Israeli super team known as the Hayoth.

Suicide Squad 53-57: the Squad tries to track down a hidden weapon's cache before the yakuza can get their hands on it...rogue russian soldiers, Khmer Rouge, Russian Superhuman agents, Yakuza, traitorous Squad members, and more all converge into one amazing action packed plotline.

Spectre 37-50: the spectre travels across America looking for a mystical talisman that embodies the spirit of America...in his travels he encounters supernatural occurences caused by the talisman that reflect the past and present problems of america. Brilliant horror and social commentary hand in hand.

Hawkworld 21-25: Hawkman leads a revolution on Thanagar as the rulling classes try to take down his friends and allies. Shayera in on Earth learning about the history of Hawkman during the Invasion and does not know that a replacement Hawkman/Thanagarian agent is out to kill her.

Way too many great tales to list here - in fact the entire runs on Suicide Squad, Spectre and Hawkworld are highly recommended.

I consider John Ostrander the single most underrated writer ever. He should be one of the greats, period. I maintain that if his Spectre series have had a Vertigo seal on the cover it would be much highly regarded than it is.

DC and Marvel keep giving work to writers who are far past their primes, while Ostrander recently demonstrated that he is one of the few writers who can return to a title he made great and continue being awesome. His Suicide Squad mini from a few years ago was as great as the title used to be.

Left out by John is his amazing work in Star Wars: Republic. His character, Jedi Quinlan Vos, may be the most complex and three dimensional in the whole of Star Wars; a character not defined by the dichotomy between Light and Dark side.

Doot, I swear by Claremont that you will like his work. And I don't take Claremont's name in vain.

Send me a pm if you can't find many trades of him. I'll point you in the right direction.

+1

I would love to see him write a character like Dr Strange

Ostrander has long been one of my favorite writers.

No one's mentioned GRIMJACK yet. That was published by First Comics in the 1980s and gets my highest recommendation. The earliest issues with Tim Truman are the best, but the later ones with Flint Henry are pretty damn awesome, too.

According to Wikipedia, he's also writing a Star Wars series. "Star Wars: Legacy is set over 125 years after the film Return of the Jedi. The comics feature Cade Skywalker, a descendant of Luke Skywalker, who was trained as a Jedi but has abandoned the order. He apprenticed himself to the pirate Rav and lives among bounty hunters, smugglers and pirates." Sounds good to me. I looked on Amazon, and there's ten trades so far.

Big fan of his GRIMJACK.

I asked Mr. Ostrander what he's had collected and mentioned the thread here. He says:

"A Suicide Squad Omnibus came out not too long ago that captured a lot of the early issues. A lot of my STAR WARS stuff is out in tpbs. Not sure what else is."

With IMWAN, there'll always be fun comics for me to look up.

Yeah i gotta check out Grimjack and his star wars work too..!

Martian Manhunter was good too.