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Posts Tagged ‘ 52 ’

Shedding the Human

May 18, 2010 by

I mentioned last week that Shed, the current arc in Amazing Spider-Man, felt like pretty much every other Lizard story ever (except for that weird period in the 90s where another more bestial Lizard grew from the Lizard’s tail and fought Prime).

Now I like the Lizard. Of all Spider-Man’s villains, and I honestly believe that Spider-Man’s got pretty much the best set of villains in comics including Batman, the Lizard’s always been one of my favorites. Not only does he have a great visual (lab coat on a lizard, hello?!?) but he’s more bestial than most and burdened with a none-too-subtle Jekyll and Hyde thing, it’s a wonder that he and the Hulk haven’t had a buddy book before now.

I mean, the green skin – purple pants thing alone would keep them going for hours.

That said, most Lizard stories boil down to Curt Conners losing control, then regaining control thanks to the love he has for his family and a beat down from Spider-Man, and usually some kind of serum.

This time out, Curt Conners is losing it after suppressing the Lizard for so long. The stress of his boss hitting on his lab assistant (man, Curt got over Martha’s death quickly didn’t he?) and not being able to spend time with his son Billy start bringing out the Lizard within and it all felt very, very familiar.

The difference here is that this is part of ‘The Gauntlet’ – even if we have inexplicably lost the cool little villain-centric corner boxes – and as such, the family Kravinoff are poking and prodding behind the scenes. This time, as the captured Madame Web has foreseen Conners controlling himself thanks to Billy, they decide to up the ante a little bit so they set it up for the Lizard to eat Billy.

And he does. Or at least, that’s what it looks like – the Lizard eats Billy, and Curt Conners dies inside him. I guess eating your own son will do that to you…

…wait, what? If that’s what happened – and it looks a lot like it is – then that’s pretty screwed up. It’s also not something to easily bring a character back from. A while ago, Paul Jenkins wrote a Lizard story that revealed that Conners was in conscious control of him all along, which pretty much destroyed every sympathetic thing about the villain – and the story was simply never referred to again. But killing off the character’s son by having him eaten?

Tough to ignore.

Shed is shaping up to be an excellent arc. Looking forward to the wrap up in a few weeks time.

As an aside, I hope that Billy doesn’t come back in a bright white light and join a team of villains who kill Eric O’Grady.


Just saying.

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Irked by the Gods

June 10, 2008 by

So let me get this straight…Orion pulled out Darkseid’s heart in final battle:

Darkseid had a hissy fit…

…and then exploded:

And then Orion, last survivor of the New Gods, trudged away in the rain:


And, parallel to these events, the rest of the New Gods died and made Superman cry:

(Being honest after sitting through eight issues of that, I cried a little bit too).

And then at the start of Final Crisis, Orion turns up dead and Darkseid is back in his Seven Soldiers guise of the owner of the Dark Side club, an underground superhero fightclub unlike any we’ve seen before…except that its like every club like that we’ve seen before.

Oh, and Dark Side has been around for a while because some of the Seven Soldiers showed up in the DCU in 52 and a few other places, right?

Well, I guess Grant Morrison has at least now let us know what’s going on:


As we’ll learn, when we see Darkseid’s ‘Fall’ from the world of the New Gods – as depicted in DCU #0 – he’s falling backwards through time. In DCU #0 we’re watching him fall back through the present, into the past of Seven Soldiers where he finally comes to rest in the body of ‘Boss Dark Side’, the gangster from that story. The implication is that Darkseid has been consolidating his power base on Earth, in a human body, since at least the time of Infinite Crisis. Only Shilo Norman AKA Mister Miracle has any real idea what’s going on but he’s seen as a crazy-ass showbiz loon who’s had a bizarre quasi-religious experience, so no-one takes him entirely seriously.

Ah okay. So Darkseid fell back in time to end up running a nightclub-come-arena-thing, right? Because that’s what a god would do. Maybe he tried to get techno music to make a comeback while he was at it.

And as for Orion?


What mattered to me was what had already been written, drawn or plotted in Final Crisis. The Guardians didn’t call 1011 when Lightray and the other gods died in Countdown because, again, Final Crisis was already underway before Countdown came out.

Why didn’t Superman recount his experiences from DOTNG ? Because those experiences hadn’t been thought up or written when I completed Final Crisis #1. If there was only me involved, Orion would have been the first dead New God we saw in a DC comic, starting off the chain of events that we see in Final Crisis.
As it is, the best I can do is suggest that the somewhat contradictory depictions of Orion and Darkseid’s last-last-last battle that we witnessed in Countdown and DOTNG recently were apocryphal attempts to describe an indescribable cosmic event.

To reiterate, hopefully for the last time, when we started work on Final Crisis, J.G. and I had no idea what was going to happen in Countdown or Death Of The New Gods because neither of those books existed at that point. The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis.

The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sigh of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books. I’m sure both of these paths to enlightenment will find adherents of different temperaments.

So…Morrison plotted Final Crisis before Countdown and Death of the New Gods started, and then ignored anything that contradicted what he was doing?

I can live with that – but what it means is that editorial really screwed up with Countdown and Death of the New Gods even more than I thought they had.

I won’t let it bother my enjoyment of Final Crisis (which is a whole other post) but I do find it a bit annoying.

Oh, and you know what? New Gods as street level characters? Not new…

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DC Comics August Solicits – The Picks

May 22, 2007 by

The August solicits are out from DC Comics – and here’s what looks interesting…

COUNTDOWN #39-35 – Two issues in and I’m interested enough to stick around another couple of weeks – so I suspect I’ll be picking this up. Shocking, I know.


COUNTDOWN TO ADVENTURE #1 – I’ve avoided the likes of Mystery in Space and Tales of the Unexpected but I may pick this up if only for Animal Man. Animal Man! Sorry – I’m just so pleased that he’s become a player in the DCU again. Which means he’ll probably die…

ACTION COMICS #853-854 – Countdown fill-ins tie-ins but I’ll pick them up anyway. Hey, it’s Big Blue.

THE ALL-NEW ATOM #14 – You title any book ‘The Search for Ray Palmer’ and I’ll pick it up.

CATWOMAN #70 – I’ll take a look at this. I like Selina but think the decision to make her a mom was short-sighted – and Pfeiffer’s attempted elevation of Film Freak to an A-list villain didn’t work for me either. But I’ll check this out if only because it ties in with the lameness of…

AMAZONS ATTACK #5-6 – I’ve been pretty vocal about how bad I thought the first issue was, but I’m hoping Pfeiffer can redeem it. If not, I still have Pete Woods’ art to look at…

SUPERGIRL #20 – Again, I may revisit the book despite my inherent disappointment in it thanks to the tie-in with aformentioned lameness. Hey, I’m a marketing persons dream, aren’t I?

WONDER WOMAN #12 – Universally disappointing since the relaunch yet I’m still here. I’ll probably stay at least through Gail Simone’s first issue.

ALL-NEW BOOSTER GOLD #1 – Finally, something I’m really looking forward to!

BLACK ADAM: THE DARK AGE #1 – Black Adam’s arc in 52 was my favorite of the series but I’m actually not too sure about this. I think it may be a wait for the trade…

52 AFTERMATH: THE FOUR HORSEMEN – I have zero interest in this but thought I’d mention it anyway. The only thing that does kinda make me want to take a look is the fact that its written by Keith Giffen.

OUTSIDERS: FIVE OF A KIND — WEEK 1-5 – Okay, so Batman taking over the team should boost sales (although they’re pretty good, I think). Still this kind of thing always smacks of desperation. I remember when they did it for Dan Jurgens’ Teen Titans (cancelled) and Scare Tactics (cancelled). See a pattern?

BATMAN ANNUAL #26: HEAD OF THE DEMON - I’m curious about this but wonder if its unnecessary – Ra’s al Ghul has been pretty thoroughly explored in a lot of books over the years. I guess this means a return is on the cards…

ROBIN #165 – It’s fun.

ACTION COMICS #855 – So DC are betting that Last Son will finally be finished so we can move on to Bizarro World. I don’t like Bizarro but Eric Powell’s art makes up for that.

SUPERMAN #666 – Walt Simonson taking Supes to hell? Sold!

BIRDS OF PREY #109 – Sounds like a girl talk issue as Barbara plays devil’s advocate with Dinah over Ollie.

BLUE BEETLE #18 – A blatant tie in to TT #50 will make me take a look.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #6 – Fun, but probably my last issue.

THE FLASH: THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #15 – On a real upswing right now – I’m still not sure who will be wearing the suit at the end of all this.

GREEN ARROW: YEAR ONE #3-4 – Probably not getting but Jock’s art looks pretty good.

BLACK CANARY #3-4 – Things don’t look good for Sin – Gail Simone must be thrilled.

GREEN LANTERN #22 – The Sinestro Corps story will be in full swing – hope that they can keep up the shipping schedule for once.

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #15 – Only picking up because of the Sinestro Corps.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #12 – I can’t say I’ll be sorry to see Brad Meltzer’s over-captioned take on the League gone. Wonder who’s taking over?

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #8 – Should be better now that the JLA crossover is finished.

SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #33 – I’ll probably be following in trade by now, but interesting to see Supergirl is staying with the Legion.

TEEN TITANS #50 – Already posted my reaction to the Sean McKeever- New Team news!

And some trades that sparked my interest:

52: THE COVERS HC – JG Jones’ covers were great on 52 – and all the extras might make this a must-buy.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS VOL. 1 TP – This will be my first Showcase as it saves me from searching these issues out.

SWORD OF THE ATOM TP – Yes, I have a soft spot for the Atom. These issues might all be cheaper to find in quarter bins though…

DR. THIRTEEN: ARCHITECTURE & MORTALITY TP - Interesting for one reason and one reason alone: Nazi Gorilla!

CHECKMATE VOL. 2: PAWN BREAKS TP – Conveniently picking up after my issues stop, I may take a look at these.

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My nose is twitching

May 16, 2007 by

While I was away, Palladin posted about 52 and wondered if I’d read the whole run.

And the answer is yes.

Oh yes – every week. The series certainly had its ups and downs, and there are a few things I’d pick fault with, but the end certainly isn’t one of them.

There were so many things about that last issue that were just right that I can’t even begin to list them.

But what I am going to do is re-read the series over the next few weeks and post about it here – goos and bad – probably in four or five-weekly chunks.

Just as soon as I get over this damned jet lag and cold…

Is my nose twitching?

You bet your ass it is!

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52 Weeks, DC did it.

May 10, 2007 by

I am not sure if Rich read all this series, I do know that Chris did not. I can say that I did. From Week One right to the final issue of Week Fifty-Two I read each story and followed the great accomplishment that DC had. When it was announced everyone said it could not happen. We fans look at DC and Marvel and watch as books are delayed weeks, months, and even years. Our new reality are superstar artist and from outside of comics writers that have no drive to produce comics on time or schedule. So we all wondered when, rather than whether DC could accomplish the weekly book in this day and age. I had my doubts for about fifteen weeks, then something in me said DC was going to do it. I started to hold to the belief that 52 would be there every week without fail. DC haters became frustrated as each week the failure of DC to fail never materialized.

DC took what were low level characters that each had some kind of small loyal following. People were upset as some seemed targeted for death. We got a Ralph Dibney in a constant depression that lead us on a trip through magic and became the possible best story to be brought out in the pages of 52. Black Adam was promised to be a character we would cry for as we read his story. It was true. We were taken on a ride to care and then saw this wonderful new person be brought low by pure evil. Skeets, a robot sidekick who few probably knew about became our obsession as we had a “H.E.R.B.I.E” for the DCU. Booster was slingshot from jerk to hero in a matter of temporal tap dancing worthy of a Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode. Questions were raised and ended a we saw Renee Montoya travel down a path to become the new Question. Many disliked this part, but like all of 52 it did what it promised and helped to add Batwoman to the mix in the DCU. Lady Styx was introduce as our lost in space heroes wandered the stars. Lobo was returned, a coin flip as to whether it was good or bad.

Steel took on Luthor as we were reminded why he is Superman’s ultimate foe. The sky rained people when the new year came. That was one of the single most evil moments in 52. Evil scientists on a island beget the Metal Men as action figures. Chinese Superheroes and just so much more. 52 was a surprise in many ways to those that left the cynical nature at the door and just read like they did when they first fell in love with comicbooks. It is what 52 was, a return to telling a serialized tale that connects to other tales. Sure it leads to Countdown, but without the “HA HA! We tricked you.” feeling other recent events had. There is an ending. The multiverse is back and the possibility for stories expanded.

52 will stand as a testament to what a company can do when they commit to producing. Thank you to the many artist and writers that divided their talents to produce this book. Bravo to the editors that kept the train on time. You did well. They did it for $2.50 an issue as well. DC did it and at the very least we owe them some respect for doing what they said they would do.

Good Luck & Good Reading……

Palladin

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To all things an ending…

April 27, 2007 by

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Weak reactions

April 26, 2007 by

I managed to get through about half the books I picked up last night – and here’s some thoughts…

SPOILERS AHOY!

52 #51 – leader’s gusto for war suggests Circe’s influences run deep – this is a character who spent quite some time in ‘Man’s World’, remember and was actually a member of a historic supergroup. I don’t buy it. It feels like a case of ‘hammer the characters to meet the plot’. Even Pete Wood’s normally stellar work felt flat here. Disappointing.

Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America: Avengers – And speaking of disappointing. As anticipated, this issue was an overwrought ‘examination’ of the impact of Cap’s death on all teams of Avengers – including Young, who are apparently hanging out at the Sanctum Sanctorum (could have sworn they were in the Avengers: The Initiative team). The writing here is manipulative and crass and quite frankly some of the worst stuff I’ve ever seen Jeph Loeb produce. Tremendously disappointing. There are a couple of good points: Namor and Thing being voices of reason, and the fact that Ed McGuinness appears to be maturing his style so that he now seems to be Paul Pelletier.

Let’s hope Fantastic Four, Heroes for Hire, Wolverine, Daredevil and the last ish of Moon Knight pick up the slack a little. I didn’t see Silent War – did it come out?
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You call that a War?

April 19, 2007 by

Well that was a bit of a damp squib, wasn’t it?

Spoilers ahoy!

Gardner standing by and letting someone tell him what he can and can’t do when there’s butt he could be kicking? He doesn’t let the Guardians do it but he does let the Chinese government do it?

Then there’s that final page – was that really necessary? We know the Monitors are out there. We know they’re, uh, monitoring. To have them close the story with a ‘their greatest challenge is yet to come’ type line is a bit of a heavy-handed way to say ‘don’t worry, we’ll top it next year’, isn’t it?

Ah well.

Sorry for the rant – like I said these aren’t bad books. They’re just not great and feel a little paint-by-numbers.

Let’s hope 52 itself wraps up with a bit more flair…
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Weekly round up

March 30, 2007 by

It’s Friday, best day of the week (because it’s the last) – and it’s one of those posts about a couple of things that I picked up this week.

52
I can’t be the only one shaking my head at the Crime Bible thing can I?
I can’t be the only one who wants to grab them and shake them and shout “Look how ‘Cain’ is spelt! There’s another Bat-lady, twice-named, out there with her last name spelt exactly like that and her name isn’t Kathy!”

It’s not just me, is it?

Green Lantern
Wow. How great was Daniel Acuna’s art on this week’s GL? I know he’s been doing some great covers for a while but this is (I think) the first time I’ve picked a book up where he’s done the interiors. Breathtaking – and not a little reminiscent of Adam Hughes!

Action Comics – We knew it was going to be a fill-in but this was just a weak issue. Not a bad framing device (still can’t get used to the new young-ified Jonathan Kent) but the central story was dull. Nice art though.

Sensational Spider-Man – This title, for me, is the most forgettable Spider-book. It’s not bad, exactly, but it just feels kind of pedestrian. I did like the scene with Mr Fantastic, though.

Black Panther/Fantastic Four - Okay, this could work. I’m surprised by how well these two issues read together; they’re not perfect but they’re pretty good. Nice to see Paul Pelletier on a big book, too – I remember his Outsiders days with fondness…although I might be the only one who liked that version of that team!

Heroes for Hire – A pretty much seamless transition to the new creative team, and a nice wrap-up issue for the current storyline. Sorry to see Orka go so soon as I liked his inclusion, but it was very good to see Shang Chi cut loose. Like I said before, every time I feel like dropping this book, it surprises me again.

Daredevil – I like the character, I like the creative team. But…something isn’t clicking with me these past few issues. I’ll stick for this arc but if I don’t see some serious uptick, it’s going on the trades list at this point.

Wonder Woman, Hunter Killer, Silent War, Wolverine, Exiles trade – All stuff I picked up but haven’t got to yet. I have to say, I’m quite excited to be reading Exiles again. It’s a book I always liked but felt might read better in collected. Guess I’ll find out!
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This week’s books & thoughts

March 22, 2007 by

As per usual last night I made my way to the store and picked up a fresh batch of books -

52 #46 – Damn -when Black Adam goes all out, Black Adam goes all out. I’m glad that he’s rumored to be getting a new series post-52 (Frank Tieri, please?) but I wonder, post-Oolong Island, post-JSA what state he’ll be in…Also, is it just me or did the reveal in the solicits that the upcoming Outsiders/Checkmate crossover takes place on Oolong and deals with Egg-Fu take some of the woomph out of this issue? Lots of New Gods/Apokolips references from Veronica Cale, and a bit of traction on the Luthor story were all welcome too.

The Brave and the Bold #2 – I liked it, but this felt very, very old-fashioned again. I can’t see the book surviving too long post-Perez if something isn’t done to make it a little more contempary. Also, I really really didn’t need to see Supergirl hitting on Green Lantern – even if Hal’s reaction (“17. 17. 17.”) was priceless.

The Flash #10 – I’m not sure that the pace is helping here; Guggenheim throws in Inertia, Zoom, Captain Cold, Heatwave and another surprise ‘villain’ in the mix in this issue; Zoom and Cold especially deserve more focus than this issue gave. And I’m still not sure that Bart’s a good Flash – and saddling him with Wally’s rogues seems forced. But maybe people said the same thing when Wally took over…

Justice Society of America #4 – There are no words for how awesome this book is. Whereas the JLA relaunch has bored the crap out of me, this has hit every note right in two less issues than that one. This issue, Wildcat (or Wildcats), Damage and Red Tornado all got a chance to shine – plus there’s some Obsidian action as he and Sand spark off some new plotpoints (Huntress? Not on this Earth…). Even the threat promise of a crossover with the aforementioned League doesn’t put me off next issue.

Birds of Prey #104 – I was going to leave it on the shelf, but I made the mistake of flicking through it…and that last page. It can’t be…can it? I want a certain ring-slinger to show up, stat! And I’m not the only one.

After the Cape #1 – Impulse purchase based on an amzing cover and very nice-looking interior art, plus I remembered reading something about it a while back somewhere. I hadn’t remembered Jim Valentino being involved, so that was another plus. Didn’t get to reading it last night but will do tonight.

Amazing Spider-Man #539 – Pretty much what I expected; no surprises at all, which was disappointing. It’s a perfectly well-crafted story with great work from Ron Garney, but all in all it fell a little flat.

Ms Marvel #13 – This was good. Nice interplay between Carol and Tony Stark (and man, he had that coming!) and a nice new direction for the book. Glad to see Arana on her feet again so soon, too – guess she’s not a WiR after all…. Also good to see some new supporting cast members – although some of them have vaguely familiar names. And as I’m still rooting for a Carol/Wonder Man hook-up I’m hoping that this new love interest is as sleazy as I think he is.

X-Men #197 – It’s good to see Carey concentrating on some of the lesser names in his team – like Lady Mastermind this issue – especially as I think there’s another roster shake-up coming soon. It’s also good to see a book outside of Cable & Deadpool acknowledging the existence of Providence – speaking of which, wasn’t C&D supposed to be out this week?

X-Factor #17 – I’ve said that I’m getting bored with it – and I am – but I still think it’s a very well put-together book. Undecided if this is my last issue or not at this point.

Civil War: Battle Damage Report – Wow – those last few pages renewed a bunch of copyrights, eh?

Red Sonja #20 – Yes, I know it came out a few weeks back. And I know I had righteously dropped it. But writing this yesterday reminded me just how much I like the character…dammit…
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WizardWorld LA Roundup

March 19, 2007 by

My pick of the news coming out of Wizard World -

  • Avengers Classic - a new series reprinting Avengers from #1, with additional back-ups (initially by Dwayne McDuffie and Mike Oeming) – kind of like the old X-Men Classic book. Not a bad idea but as much as I love them, a lot of today’s readers will probably find the original Avengers books kind of tough going. Still, at least they’r enot inserting additional scenes into the books the way the X-Men reprints used to!

  • Daredevil: Battlin’ Jack Murdock - a series virtually nobody asked for, yet it could be good. Artist and co-writer Carmine Di Giandomenico is a talented guy, and Zeb Wells has a light touch for origin books, as shown by his Doc Ock Year One a while ago. Could be good. Now can we get Jack Murdock to fight Wildcat please?

  • Spider-Man/Red Sonja – okay…I guess Kulan Gath has made trouble in the MU before, and Sonja has shown up there too but this seems odd. Although seeing Peter drool over another red-head could be fun…

  • X-Men First Class is becoming an ongoing; so kind of like Professer Xavier and the X-Men, then? Or maybe X-Men: Hidden Years? As much fun as it may be, this seems a little redundant to me.

  • Looks like David Finch isn’t the only one doing a cover for X-Men #200 – Humberto Ramos and Chris Bachalo (below) will also be providing wraparounds!

  • Legion of Super-Heroes - I thought it was pretty much already stated that Mark Waid would be leaving LSH with #30, but apparently this is news – although Tony Bedard is a good fit for the book.

  • Booster Gold - A new ongoing for the man out of time! And with Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz, Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund on the book, it sounds like I’ll at least be getting the first trade, if not the singles…

  • Infinity Inc – Peter Milligan and Max Fiurma take on the classic team with Steel taking the lead role. I’m unsure on this – Milligan’s non-superhero stuff has always been great while his superhero work has left me cold. We’ll see.

  • Black Adam may be getting an ongoing – now that’s a book I’d pick up!

  • The Darkness is back as an ongoing later in the year with Phil Hester on writing duty

All in all it seemed a pretty slow news-weekend, convention-wise. Let’s hope more gets announced as convention season rolls on…

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Cap #25 fallout

March 8, 2007 by

I’m not going to bother reviewing Captain America #25 – if only because I am certain that every comics blog or site on the internet will be carrying a review or some kind of comment on it today.

Suffice to say that it was a damn good issue; the entire creative team was on top form and I think the structure of the book worked well. The big reveal at the end – well, I had forgotten that particular element was in play, so that was a nice surprise.

I am somewhat curious as to whether this will stick. After all, Cap has died twice in my memory – once at the end of Mark Gruenwald’s run, where he was revived almost immediately by Mark Waid, and once at the end of the third volume in #50 which was supposed to launch the next Cap book. That was ignored completely in favor of the ‘war on terror’ relaunch.

And let’s face it, heroes die all the time – and they come back. Personally I think Cap will be back at some point (hell, over in Civil War: The Initiative, Ms Marvel told Spider-Woman that Cap was being worked on at the Raft – or was that merely misinformation fed by Iron Man?) and I expect him to be.

But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to enjoy the ride.

Other buys- FF was solid but unspectacular; I’m actually glad McKone is leaving; Marvel Zombies vs Army of Darkness was a ridiculous amount of fun; Civil War: The Initiative was a nice re-intro of the post-CW MU and damn, Sasquatch looked cool; Mighty Avengers #1 was fantastic, a note-perfect intro the team and set up a number of nice relationships in the book (Sentry and Wasp, Iron Man and Ms Marvel, Ares and Widow, Ares and Wasp, Ms Marvel and Wasp, Wonder Man and Ms Marvel, Wonder Man and his ego) – although I think they’re getting Ares on the cheap.

And then there was 52…you have to feel for Black Adam. That’s a story that will not end well, I fear.

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Top 10: 52 Questions still to Answer

March 2, 2007 by

As 52 rolls into its final weeks, I thought it would help to look at questions left to answer before that final gap closes with the OYL jump, whether it be things that have arisen from 52 or from th :

10 - Why did Skeets turn on Booster Gold?

9 - How did Deathstroke get ahold of Batgirl?

8 – Where is Mr Mind? (See Q 10!)

7 – Where are the missing 52 seconds (well, the other two) and what happened in them?

6 – What really happened to Daniel Carter (Skeet’s replacement Booster) – or was he the body that subbed for Booster at the point of his ‘death’?

5 – You went to all the trouble to introduce a new Apache (Super) Chief for that?

4 – How did Faust (and presumably Neron) break free of Ralph’s binding spell to show up in the post-OYL Justice League?

3 – We’ve got a mini-Mercury, but where are the rest of the Metal Men?

2 – Will a new Question be looking for answers?

1 – What will happen to Black Adam (for my money one of the best multi-layered characters in comics today)?

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Note to self #2

March 2, 2007 by

Note to self: Never trust a smiling crocodile.

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New York Comic Con: DC Nation

February 23, 2007 by

There are 5 key ads for the new Countdown and the tag lines are:

  • Jimmy Olsen Must Die!
  • Seduction of the Innocent – with an image of an Eclipso’d Mary Marvel
  • The Search for Ray Palmer – and the world’s smallest man will be the biggest piece of the puzzle
  • Villains Defiant! – with two villains chained togethere
  • Unto Man Shall Come A Great Disaster - Darkseid lives!

Other reveals:

  • Manhunter is NOT cancelled – AGAIN!
  • Kyle Rayner is not dying
  • 3 or 4 spin offs from 52
  • Kingdom Come is required reading
  • There’s a story to be told with how Faust gets out of his pact
  • Countdown will not be a direct sequel to 52 but one character will feature in its early stages
  • Flash is not as directionless as you may think (although that seemed like a cover)
  • The next Wonder Woman writer after Jodi Picoult can’t be named yet but is set. Didio teased: “Who would you like it to be?” Oddly, nobody said Joss Whedon which I thought was the obvious answer…
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Top 10: Things that happened yesterday

February 22, 2007 by

You may have seen the page-by-page panel-by-panel commentary I did on Civil War #7 yesterday – or not – but its easy to think that was the only book around yesterday (well, that and Amazing Spider-Man) so here’s what might end up being a weekly thing, even if I haven’t read everything yet (Wonder Woman, Superman and a few others are still on the ‘to read’ pile).

Top 10: Things that happened yesterday (including Civil War)

(And yes, there will be spoilers for this week’s books here)

10. Best Wake Ever – Punisher War Journal #4 had the best wake ever. Seeing this bunch of B-, C- and D-listers mourn the passing of Stiltman was hilarious and poignant, a sad swansong to a better time. And having Spider-Man confirm it was a nice touch too. And what are the odds they’re all really dead? Zip. If Fraction keeps this up I may have to stick around in spite of myself.

9. Tony Stark becoming Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a move that absolutely everyone saw coming. He’s still the smuggest character in comics though, but now potentially one of the most interesting.

8. Barbara Gordon going all last-season of A-Team on us unexpectedly. And you just know that Spy-Smasher’s going to get hers at some point down the line. I pity the fool!

7. Cap hanging up his flag for the cause. Okay, I was kind of rooting for him buying the farm symbolically but I can live with this. I suspect hell be out of prison pretty soon, though. And I do still wonder who’s going to die that leads to Fallen Son…

6. Renee Montoya finally working out what we all did about 42 weeks ago – she’s the new Question.

5. The End is coming. Or near. Or perhaps beginning, I can’t remember which. Lots of DC books this week carried the double paged spread of the image that was revealed a while ago.The build up to Countdown starts here…

4. The Monsters of the MU returned in the hit-and-miss Legion of Monsters: Werewolf by Night, and while Mike Carey and Greg Land’s title feature felt a little been-there, done-that (even if it looked great), Skottie Young’s take on Monster of Frankenstein was – quite honestly – fantastic. I know he has his detractors, but he knocked this out of the park with a slightly different style than usual.

3. Ralph Dibny beats the Devil. Damn…just…damn. I have to go re-read his storyline from the start. Although…hasn’t Faust already shown up in the new JLA. Guess either that binding spell didn’t stick or this isn’t as final as it looks.

2. Hal Jordan shows Bruce Wayne how to win big at blackjack – play without fear! And Bruce’s reaction is priceless too; “I wish Barry had lived to see you with money.” An otherwise very old-school, slightly dull The Brave and the Bold #1 was completely redeemed by that one scene.
1. Hercules – against all odds – comes off as one of the best characters on the planet, so I guess Civil War did change something (and I liked the guy to begin with!)

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Marking Time

February 21, 2007 by

I’m busy avoiding spoilers this week so just a few thoughts this morning;

Note: There are some spoilers towards the end of this entry about the 2/20 episode of Veronica Mars – sorry, Nick!

The COUNTDOWN Begins (Again)

Newsarama has a great interview with Dan Didio and editor Mike Marts about DC’s next big weekly, Countdown which picks up with #51 the week after 52 #52 and starts counting down to the next big DC event.

Sounds like this weekly’s going to be a bit different from 52 in that each issue won’t be a week – but all the issues in a month will take place in a month. Er. Okay…so at the end of the countdown, two whole years will have passed since Infinite Crisis? Which itself seems to have taken place 12 years into Batman and Superman’s careers? Is it time for another timeline a la Zero Hour?

Speaking of which, doesn’t the whole counting-down remind anyone of that series?

Anyway, sounds like this is going to be heavily Kirby-influenced, with lots of 4th World stuff. And we all know how much I like that… Still, two of the key characters this time out are Jimmy Olsen, Mary Marvel, a villain or two and, possibly, Ray Palmer.

You had me at Jimmy.

Seriously.

Also, does the promo art rock or what?

Wedded Bliss

Over at Lying in the Gutters, Rich Johnston reports that Green Arrow might be being cancelled and replaced with a Green Arrow/Black Canary title following their wedding later this year.

I see.

Not that I have anything against this in principle, having jumped off GA after OYL, but it doesn’t ring true to me for either character. I just don’t see how Dinah could possibly bring herself to trust him again after the number of times he’s cheated on her. Ah well…here’s hoping at least that they don’t forget Sin as they have in Justice League of America.

If we’re going to have a married couple comic, can’t we just have a Lois Lane solo mini? Please?

Where be Onslaught Reborn #3?

And more importantly, do you really need to know when you can see Rob Liefeld showing it all here with Liefeld-tastic sound effects??

Genius.

I know Rob takes a lot of heat on account of…a lot of things, but I still kinda like the energy he brings to stuff – and these original pages look a lot better than the printed ones.

And hey, now I don’t need to buy it!

There’s a Word for that…

I forgot to mention that I had an email last week from the New York ComicCon (this weekend!) that read:

Hayden Panettiere, who currently stars as Claire Bennet in the hit NBC series
“Heroes” as a high school cheerleader with a healing factor, will be appearing
at New York Comic Con.

A limited number of tickets are available for Hayden’s Meet & Greet reception are now available to advance ticket holders. Meet Hayden, get her autograph, spend an hour with Hayden at her New York Comic Con Meet & Greet reception on Saturday and receive the limited edition New York Comic Con exclusive World War Hulk T-Shirt and Variant Sketch Cover Sensational Spider-Man #35 Comic Book. This package is only available to New York Comic Con ticket holders for $250 and is limited to only 30 fans.

Er…so you can pay $250 to spend an hour with a pretty blonde 16 year old? I’m fairly sure that there’s a word for that but I can’t quite put my finger on it…

It’s almost worth doing just to see (a) the people who would do that, and (b) the poor girl’s reaction to them.

Ah, Veronica (Spoilers from Last Night)

TOLD YOU THEY WERE COMING!

HERE THEY ARE!

I can’t believe they killed off Sherrif Lamb.

And I really can’t believe that Booker did it.

Also – Caged Heat starring Kristen Bell? Yeah, I’d watch that. (Oh, I’d kill for a whistling smiley about now.)

Will the real Thor please stand up?

Someone at CBR has come up with a great theory on the ‘real’ identity of Civil War’s Clor. If only Marvel thought of that.

And hey, doesn’t President’s Day delay comics til tomorrow? Gah!

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Well as we’re moving to Kingdom Come anyway…

February 15, 2007 by

The echoes of Kingdom Come are pretty damn thunderous these days so I was wondering if I could ask a favor.

Running down the future-echoes, you have:

  • Maxine Thunder looking a lot like KC’s Red Tornado
  • Wildcat’s son looking a lot like the were-cat Wildcat of the future
  • Arsenal switching outfits – and monikers – to step into the role of Red Arrow (to be fair he did that towards the end of Jurgens’ Teen Titans run too)
  • Batman and Talia’s son is now in the picture (their son in KC, Ibn al Xu’ffasch was the heir to Ra’s al Ghul’s empire)
  • Mr Mind looks to being pivotal to 52 and was used to control Captain Marvel in KC
  • Red Robin (KC‘s Nightwing) showed up in the teaser for the next DC event
  • KC‘s Hawkman bore a remarkable resemblance to the revamped Northwind who showed up in the DCU a few years back
  • Captain Atom showed up in his KC costume while romping around the Wildstorm Universe in Captain Atom: Armageddon
  • The helmet of Fate sure is floating around on its own a lot at the moment…
  • JSA‘s JJ Thunder looks a lot like KC‘s Thunder
  • Echoes of KC‘s showed up on the villain side with the introduction of Swastika in JSA
  • JSA‘s new Starman seems to be the same Starman from KC – Thom Kallor of the original Legion of Superheroes
  • Plastic Man’s son Offspring showed up in Teen Titans and 52 recently
  • Black Lightning’s daughter in KC is Lightning; in the Outsiders she goes by Thunder – but name changes aren’t unheard of…
  • Gog showed up in a pre-Infinite Crisis run of Action Comics

But there’s one thing I haven’t mentioned – and that’s Iris West, Kid Flash.

She showed up in Flash’s Chain Lightning and the Kingdom mini that followed the original KC but hasn’t shown up since then. The thing is, with Wally West and his wife Linda having twins and (apparently) living on an alternate Earth ::coughcoughEarth2coughcough:: it seems likely that Iris could indeed show up.

I was also thinking that there is no Kid Flash right now – for the first time in about 12 years (oh, alright, he was called Impulse for a while but there’s no denying who he was), and since Jesse Quick went and renamed herself Liberty Belle, there are no female speedsters – and the Titans are without a speedster.

The solution’s staring us right in the face!

So please, DC and Geoff Johns, can we have Iris West – Kid Flash – back?

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52: The Last Stretch

February 13, 2007 by

52 enters its last stretch, the final three months before…uh, before it becomes Countdown and starts numbering #52-#1 again which is going to play havoc with my filing system. Allegedly.

Allegedly re the Countdown, not the filing system.

Anyway, 52 for me so far has been a qualified success, meaning that while I think overall it’s worked some aspects have me snoozing.

The Good

  • Renee’s storyline has been great; her journey isn’t over yet but to be frank I’d pay money to see her in a Question ongoing. Unfortunately this has been tinged by the fact that I’d have paid more money to see Vic Sage in one.
  • Black Adam’s rise and forthcoming fall have me really excited. I liked Adam way back leading the Suicide Squad in a War of the Gods crossover, and have been more than happy with the way he’s been portrayed over the last five years or so in JSA so his prominence here has really worked for me. That said, I don’t think his story will end well…
  • Booster Gold/Supernova – if there’s been one thing that’s made me smile, it’s Booster’s return to stardom. Here’s a character that has been treated as a joke for years, and he’s really shone in this book. I am wondering what happened to his ancestor, though…I can’t see him being focused on for an issue just to vanish forever at the end of it.
  • Guest stars – nice to see that the Teen Titans, Richard Dragon and all and sundry are still keeping busy!
  • The mysteries: what’s going on with Skeets? What’s going on with Animal Man? What’s going on with Mr Mind? And why do I think that the last has more to do with the first than most have theorised?

The Bad

  • Considering I love sci-fi as a genre, the Strange-Animal Man-Starfire subplot has left me cold, despite the fact that Animal Man is an old favorite from the early days of his last book – remember when his arm regrew him? Anyway, this is doing nothing for me, and I have an extreme distaste for Lobo outside of L.E.G.I.O.N. so that hasn’t helped. Although Lady Styx is kinda cool…
  • Steel and Natasha bore the crap out of me. I have never liked John Henry and while I kind of liked Natasha as Steel, stripping her of that straight away never rang true. That said, the fall of the house of Luthor in #40 kicked all kinds of ass.
  • Dr Fate. I dislike Dr Fate immensely. He’s more of a deux ex machina than Dr Strange, and that’s saying something, so seeing the helmet play a role has not made me happy – and seeing it play a role in the story of a character that I normally like a great deal (Ralph Dibny) has made me even less happy.
  • Batwoman. Not that I have anything against her as such – I just think that given the big deal made about introducing her it would have been nice if she’d had a bigger part to play. Either that or introduce her in the main Batbooks. It would also have been nice if she had been a pre-existing character. Ah well.
  • Monster Robot Island and a bunch of characters anyone would be hard pressed to care for? Give me a break.
  • Inconsistencies – and I’m going to break out of bullet points for this.

I know that there are a few things that happened editorially that will have had some impact on this, but there’s a couple of things between the DCU and 52 that have bugged me a bit.

In the Batbooks, it seemed that the missing year had the three guys (Batman, Robin, Nightwing) together for the full year, building trust – except in Nightwing where it turns out Dick left early – and 52 where it turns out that Bruce ran off to the desert and then Dick left.

Harvey Dent is apparently running around Gotham in the missing year – but no sign of him at all in 52 despite quite a bit of action being set there.

The rain of the Supermen? No mention.

World War III? Can’t have been that big as nobody mentioned it, no clean-up necessary.

Clark was using his signal watch to call in Kara for Supersupport when needed in OYL – yet Kara has yet to return from the future in 52 (and assuming she does, how does she turn up in the upcoming Action #850 when she’s been running around post OYL in her own book? Time travel make head hurt…

I understand that some things haven’t been mentioned outside of 52 as story elements haven’t wanted to be shown but I think when read as a whole, if you move straght in to OYL then there will be big disconnects. I could be wrong. We’ll see.

Of course, my friend Palladin did have a theory that 52 was happening on an alternate Earth – and given that the return of the Multiverse has been pretty much guaranteed it’s not a bad theory except for the fact that that would feel like a bigger cheat than Bobby coming back in the shower.

No matter what, 52 has been a grand experiment and I’m glad I didn’t wait for the trade on it – although apparently that would have been a lot cheaper…

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All and sundry…

January 19, 2007 by

A few thoughts for the end of the week…

And that’s it for the week – have a good weekend all!

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