Posts Tagged ‘ JLA ’

Everyone else posted it yesterday, so why not?

The image below was released by Toon Tumblers to promote their SDCC exclusive, and appears to feature the newly rebooted Justice League membership in it’s entirety.

For those keeping a checklist, in addition to the big seven of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and MartiaCyborg, it looks like Deadman, Atom, Element Woman (a new Flashpoint character who looks a lot like Metamorpho, so I assume she found the Orb of Ra before Rex Mason), Green Arrow, Hawkman, Mera, and, er…Power Girl?

Well, no, that’s not Power Girl. And according to Geoff Johns, she isn’t blonde – her hair is definitely light though, so maybe…white?

Zealot would certainly make sense – the Wildstorm characters are integrating fully with the DCU, and Lee has an affinity with her since he created her originally. So yes, let’s say Zealot until we hear further.

It’s a largely traditional line-up with a few curve balls thrown in – and all those curves belong to women.

Wait that came out wrong.

Anyway, there you are – and I have to say, now that I’ve got a good look at the full segmented redesigns of Superman, Green Lantern, Batman and Flash costumes, man they look dumb.

Yesterday DC Comics released their solicits for June 2010 – and for the first time since jumping back onto the DC bandwagon around 1994, I’m down to less than a dozen ongoing comics.

In fact I’m down to just FIVE titles – Action Comics, Superman, Supergirl, Batgirl and Red Robin – with another one a possibility (the one being Teen Titans which, despite not being very good, I just can’t seem to quit).

Beyond that, there’s only one mini on there – and that’s the final issue of the Rise of Arsenal, the first issue of which comes out this week.

Everything else is either off my pull list completely, or I intend to pick it up in trades at some point. Of course, because of DC’s terrible trades policies I may not even do that, having forgotten them by the time they came out.

This isn’t exactly unexpected for me, as I’ve been making an effort to purge my pull list over the past several months with varying degrees of success, but this is a huge step down.

The end of Blackest Night is really the final nail in the Green Lantern books for me – I intend to pick them up in trades, but the Blackest Night/Brightest Day demarcation line is a pretty clear one for me. It’s a jumping off point for their monthly adventures. Yes, even Guy’s when his book launches.

As far as Batman goes, I weaned my self off the core books (Batman, Batman and Robin and Detective) a few months into the Reborn arc, along with ancillary titles like Streets of Gotham and Gotham City Sirens which I simply wasn’t enjoying that much. The intention is to pick up the main books in trades but, well, again I guess it depends on when those trades come out.

I’ll continue following Wonder Woman and Secret Six in trades, and I intend to for the Justice Society books, the new Green Arrow and the Justice League too – but again it’s the same old song: depends when they come out.

I quit The Outsiders not because I don’t like the team (or the creative team either, although I’m not a fan of Tan and I’ve heard Dan Didio may have his detractors) but because no matter what direction the team has taken in the past few years, it hasn’t felt right to me. I like the characters, I like the name. I just don’t feel that either have been done justice.

The Flash and Legion relaunches (in both their own book and Adventure Comics) I have no interest in. Barry Allen isn’t my Flash; these aren’t my Legion. My Legion is the post-Zero Hour Legion. I gave the Waid/Kitson relaunch a chance but it never quite felt like a good fit and I’ll be damned if I’m doing that again here. Maybe in trades, but probably not.

Of the more recent launches, R.E.B.E.L.S was the only one I really started picking up but something just wasn’t clicking for me with it, so I dropped that a few months back too.

The two biweekly books, Brightest Day and Generation Lost, both have a lot of appeal to me but honestly the older I get the more I’d rather have trades on the bookshelf to reread than comics stored in a longbox somewhere. Same with Booster Gold, as that book looks to be tying in with Generation Lost somewhat.

And I think that’s what it comes down to – the five books I’m definitely getting contain my favorite DC characters – Superman, Lois, Supergirl, Tim and Stephanie – and I want to support them.

The rest I can take or leave on a weekly basis (and honestly, depending on how I find JMS and Guggenheim, the same may happen with the Superman books) and if and when I do catch up with the trade paperbacks, I’ll be paying less for them and storing them easier.

I wonder what Marvel’s June solicits will hold for me?

I’m going out on a limb here by saying that I think I’m in the minority here, but I won’t miss Lian Harper and she may just be a better character dead than she was alive.

Over the past ten or fifteen years, very little has been done with Lian and Roy’s relationship aside from some scenes where Lian says something cute, meets Roy’s latest squeeze, is responsible for Roy feeling guilty about spending time super-heroing, or is the object of a tug of war between Roy and Cheshire.

The most interesting thing that was done with her was towards the end of the last Titans book where it seemed she was inheriting some of her mother’s proclivities, pushing a bookcase onto some of the kids who were hanging out with the Titans at the time.

Or I may be inventing that.

The point is that no writer has really used the character, or her relationship with her father to any great effect.

It’s difficult, writing a superhero as a parent. Balancing the fact that they have responsibilities to their children as well as to the world at large takes some finesse and, more crucially, isn’t always that interesting. I think it’s the reason that the last take on Wally West didn’t really take off sales-wise.

I’m not saying it can’t be done, I just can’t think of a time when it’s been done consistently and interestingly.

Off the top of my head I can’t think of any other superheroes who lost their children aside from Donna Troy (I’m probably just being a little dense and there’s dozens of them ). Whereas before, Roy’s philandering and running around in tights could be construed as immature and potentially irresponsible when he should be home looking after Lian, now there’s the opportunity to have him come through the other side of this as a much more interesting, mature character.

I’m not sure it’ll work, of course – a lot depends on how well written the Rise of Arsenal miniseries is, and how much those who hate the idea of killing off a child character are willing to give it a chance.

I am – and for the first time in years, I’m interested to see what Roy Harper’s future holds. Although I do think the losing of the arm on top of Lian was overkill…

DC’s had a lot of bright and shiny announcements coming out the past few days. They kicked off with the Brightest Day bi-weekly series, but have followed that up with what amounts to the return of the JLI in the also bi-weekly Generation Lost, and now they’ve announced the return of Birds of Prey under Gail Simone and Ed Benes, the team who gave the original run of the book a kick in the ass a few years back.

They’ve also said that the new Flash book (sadly without the originally promised Johns/Kolins Wally West back-up) and the Justice League of America will carry ‘Brightest Day’ banners, presumably so everybody realizes that the books are relevant and central to the DCU and have to be bought, dammit!

It’s not all shiny though – DC has also confirmed that Deathstroke will be running a team of villains taking over the Titans book (although didn’t Final Crisis establish the new Tattooed Man as a reluctant hero? I’m confused!). As the tag line for the special that kicks off this run is ‘Villains for Hire’, I do wonder how this impinges on the Secret Six book – and whether Gail Simone is returning to Birds of Prey partly because she’ll have a hole in her schedule pretty soon…

Not only that but don’t forget that amongst all the bright and shiny, and even with Black Canary seemingly relocating to Gotham, you get her erstwhile husband apparently descending into villainy – and poor old Roy Harper running around with one arm (well, at least till he remembers that Cyborg can hook him up).

Man, you’d think Roy would get that bandaged up before he goes running around, wouldn’t you?

So it’s not all bright and shiny in the DCU next year – but it does seem like there’s going to be enough to go around…

Posted via web from Comic By Comic’s Wonderous Posterous!

Over at Newsarama there’s a preview of the awesomely terrible (not the same thing as terribly awesome) Justice League: Cry for Justice #4, where Miss Martian is confronted by Green Arrow villain Brick, in spite of him being pretty solidly killed a few months ago in Green Arrow and Black Canary. This is what happens when series get delayed and retooled to fit into continuity.

Anyway.

In said preview, there’s this page…

…which, of course contains panties:

So, instantly:

Nice panty shot on Miss Martian. Sigh.

And over on Scans Daily

SHE IS AN UNDERAGED GIRL AND THERE IS NO REASON FOR US TO BE LOOKING AT HER ASS SO WHY ARE WE LOOKING AT HER ASS?

and

It doesn’t even look like a panty shot, it looks like a bare ass shot with a line drawn across her left cheek.

It’s just so gross.

and so forth.

What commenters seem to forget is that Miss Martian is, well, a Martian.

A shape-shifter. And her clothes change with her.

Which means her clothes are part of her. It was even talked about in a recent Teen Titans. I’m embarrassed I know that.

And you know what that means?

That means she’s always naked.

The same goes for Martian Manhunter. That guy better stay dead because if I’m forced to look at his Martian penis one more time, even if it is cunningly disguised as a pair of shorts, I may well vomit my chocos up everywhere.

I for one will never read a book with either of them in it again until DC stops forcing its depravity on us!

This week on Newsarama, Dan Didio asked:

The second features have to be characters that can’t support a mini-series or an ongoing, and talent that doesn’t have an opportunity to work on the main books, giving them a chance to be part of the DC Universe. What would you like to see in the second features, and who would you like to see working on them?

Glad you asked, Dan – because I have 20 answers for you!

Atom and Hawkman by Fabian Nicieza and Rags Morales

This should be a no-brainer in terms of characters; assuming that Hawkman comes out the other side of Blackest Night, pairing these two best friends again under Nicieza’s pen could be solid gold – and Morales could easily handle the 8-10 pages a month. Stick it in Brave and the Bold and I might just buy that book.

Formerly Known as The Justice League by Keith Giffen, JM DeMatteis and Kevin Maguire.
An ‘untold tales’ kind of thing. Put it as a back-up in the current Justice League of America book. Or, preferably, vice versa.

Suicide Squad by John Ostrander and Javier Pina

Another no-brainer; the Squad don’t seem able to support their own book right now but I’d love to see them in action under Ostrander’s guiding hand again, and he and Pina did wonders with the last mini. Stick it in the back of Action Comics when Captain Atom’s done.

Secret Origins by Roger Stern and rotating artists.

This would be a great revolving back-up in any book, and much more interesting than the current two-page origins we get. Use them to foreshadow future storylines, retweak origins, whatever – and don’t limit them to established characters.

Challengers of the Unknown by Karl Kesel and Tom Grummet.

I think Grummet may be Marvel exclusive at the moment, but getting the old Superboy team back together for these guys is worth it. I think the last time we saw the classic Challengers they were off tripping through Hypertime – so why not have them exploring the multiverse in the back of the Legion-led Adventure Comics?

Superboy – by Anyone
The Kid of Steel is too good a character to leave in limbo now that he’s back, and I don’t really mind who works on him as long as they’re good. Kid Flash/ Superboy split book, anyone?

The Rogues by Geoff Johns and just about anyone.

Well, duh. Add it to the Flash book already.

Aztek The Ultimate Man by Keith Champagne

Don’t laugh; Aztek was a great book for the ten issues it lasted, and even if he did die in Morrisson’s JLA, there’s no reason not to bring in a new Aztek in the city of Vanity.

Power of Shazam! by Jerry Ordway

Bring Ordway in to fix the mess that has been visited on the Shazam family and give the big red cheese a Superman back up, stat!

The Shade – by James Robinson and Peter Snejberg

Humor me here. Robinson’s never been better than on Starman and The Shade mini, and this is a character ripe for a revisit – although I’m not sure which book to stick him in the back of.

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. by Geoff Johns and Lee Moder

Please Dan, please, in the back of one of the JSA books – and in the other…

Infinity Inc by Roy Thomas and Al Milgrom

…just do it, okay? I don’t care if they don’t exist anymore. Just do it.

Black Adam by Peter Tomasi and Doug Mahnke

I know Mahnke is busy on GL these days, but show Teth Adam some love in the back of Superman too, alternating with the Power of Shazam! back-up above.

Huntress by Gail Simone and anyone else

Helena deserves a shot at the back of Detective Comics more than the Question does. Just saying.

Hitman by Garth Ennis and John McCrea

You didn’t think I’d let this one go did you? Another untold tales series in the back of…er, are there any books from DC that this would fit in? No? Okay, I’ll settle for another mini then.

Firestorm by Stuart Moore and Chris Cross

I still think that Jason deserves a book, even though I always liked Ron Raymond too. I’d say put it in the back of JLA but clearly you’ll be running FKATJL in there so…Titans maybe?

Bloodhound by Dan Jolley and Leonard Kirk

Oh crap, yes. I loved this book, and it’s co-owned creator status means that only Jolley and Kirk can do it – but only they should. Move Clem to Gotham and it’s a Batman back-up waiting to happen.

Chase by Marc Andreyko and Georges Jeanty

I think that Chase is a lot more interesting than Manhunter (no offense, Kate), so I’d love to see her take over the back-up in Streets of Gotham. I’m okay with the creative team staying on though, if DC Johnson isn’t available to pen it.

Resurrection Man by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Butch Guice

I don’t care where it goes, I’ll buy the book. Just bring Mitch Shelley back please.

Inferno by Todd Nauck

I love this idea; Inferno’s name may have been co-opted, she may be from a future that no longer exists but last I recall this hotheaded former Legionnaire was still stuck in the 21st Century. She’s almost a blank slate, but I’d love to see Todd Nauck write and draw her in the back of Supergirl.

Last week’s DC books ran an ad revealing the JLA line up for the upcoming James Robinson/ Mark Bagley run on the book which, apparently, spins out of Robinson’s unintentionally amusing Justice League: Cry for Justice mini.

For those that can’t make out the tiny pic the full line-up is made up of four basic groups:

Stand-in Trinity: Batman (Dick Grayson), Mon-El, Donna Troy – I actually quite like this set of heroes but I wonder if they’ll be sticking around once Bruce and Clark make their inevitable return. I’m a bit behind on Wonder Woman so I’m not really sure why Donna’s here, but again, I like her so I can’t complain.

Cry for Justice refugees: Congorilla, Hal Jordan , Green Arrow, the Atom – Oh good, more angst. While I like most of these characters – with the exception of Congorilla, who I don’t really know – I don’t like how Robinson’s writing them in his mini. Hal’s really out of character, Ollie lacks the humor and snark that he normally has, and having Ray resort to torturing someone in pretty much the same way that his ex-wife killed Sue Dibny is outright wrong. I think I’d rather see Ryan Choi in the book, actually.

Titans refugees: Cyborg and Starfire (not to mention Donna and Dick) – It’s funny, but the non-marquee names on the Titans bore the shit out of me. Cyborg, Starfire and Beast Boy are just plain dull. I should probably thank my lucky star’s Gar’s not in the book.

Superman refugees: Guardian and Dr Light – both are appearing in Robinson’s Superman book, even if Light’s only shown up to swoon at Guardian a bit. Guardian’s past makes for an interesting angle, and his relationship with Mon-El should carry over here – although I’m not sure how he’ll play with the others.

It’s an odd line up, and not one that I think can work for very long; it kind of reminds me of the Avengers #300 line-up for some reason; old standbys, members of another team and some random character thrown in.

Which, I guess, makes Congorilla Gilgamesh.

I’m also wondering how Titans will operate as a book. It looks like Gar might be shifting over to Teen Titans which will really only leave Raven (also boring) and Wally (who I assume will be in Flash in some role) not on the JLA; so is Titans going to be canceled again? It might be a blessing…

I haven’t had a chance to read everything I picked up yesterday, although I was pleasantly surprised by Justice League: Cry for Justice #3 – even if Hal, Ray, Ollie and Supergirl all came off as completely out of character, and I still think that the book’s title is ridiculous.

Where Robinson excels – where he always excels now that I think of it – is with the morally grey or downright morally black characters. The Shade, for example, was always more interesting than Jack Knight for my money.

And this issue, he finally started to deliver on Prometheus. I liked the revamp of that came out in the recent Faces of Evil one-shot, as I always thought his potential was squandered once Morrison let him go into the DCU in general – I mean, Hush’s whipping boy?

But this issue reaffirmed him as a really not-very nice man – killing most of the Global Guardians off-screen, decimating Professor IQ’s intellect and, oh yes, having a horrific taste in home furnishings.
Poor old Taz…

-er, Taz…

…I do believe that the only out member of the Justice League just got skinned. Ew.

It turned out to be an unexpectedly adult week in comics this week, what between Spidey’s drunken one night stand and Green Lantern’s threesome, as revealed by Green Arrow, soul of discretion, morality and faithfulness…

It’s not that Gail Simone is disappointed in this development that gets me.

I could see Lady Blackhawk, actually. Two pilots having some sexy fun, okay, I get that.

But I hate to see Huntress get branded as a slut again. The whole point of the Josh story was for her to realize she deserved better.

And I can’t see them doing a threesome, that affects their friendship, and the Birds were ALREADY one of the very few books about female friendship which is so fucking rare in comics it might as well be moonbeans captured in mason jars. Not that friends can’t have sex, but once again, this is all about the man, and “Well played, sir” is just, ugh.

I love James Robinson. But I really feel like most writers of mainstream comics get the sex thing all wrong over and over. It’s all wink wink nudge nudge and women as trophies and thumbs up and it seems so weird and off-character to me.

But I haven’t read it in context and I’m just the dumb girl anyway.

But James Robinson is a great writer, he’s never written anything I didn’t enjoy in comics and I still think Age is an underrated classic. Maybe I’m reading it wrong. But it does feel weird that people can read bop and still come away with the impression that THAT Huntress and THAT Lady Blackhawk would get drunk and be someone’s sad Penthouse fantasy.

It just shows again that Bop was an important book for a lot of reasons and its absence is keenly felt in the portrayal of female characters in the DCU. Not my bop specifically, just the book overall.

It’s not that readers are a bit outraged that surprises me.

No, what surprises me is that two attractive characters…

…have such terrible taste in men.

I mean, this is Hal Jordan we’re talking about here…
Yeesh.

Tuesday seems to be developing into the day I post my reviews so…

Batman and Robin #2 – Another good issue, and I know this is being overwhelmingly positively reviewed but…(and you knew there’d be a but)…I really don’t like Damien and that’s souring the whole book for me. I understand that I’m not supposed to, but when there’s very little likable about a character, why bother reading about them?

Batman: Streets of Gotham #1 – Better late than never! A good set up issue, but I need more Hush like I need an axe in the head. I know that he’s become Dini’s pet bad guy over the past year or so, but let it go already. The Manhunter back-up was a good start to Kate’s Gotham adventures, but had very little weight to it.

Gotham City Sirens #1 Nice art, but once again there’s very little of note going on. Catwoman’s weak as a kitten (ho ho) so decides to set up house with Ivy and Harley, because obviously nothing could possibly go wrong with that – and that’s about it. Sure there’s a random bad guy thrown in but…that’s it.

Green Lantern Corps #38 – Good, but underwhelming intro to Blackest Night. The Guardians continue to be bastards, and nobody really seems to mind aside from Kyle and Guy. Suspect that’ll come back to bite them in their little blue asses.

Justice League: Cry for Justice#1 – Nice art, shame about the cliched writing. Every character wants “…Justice!”, which appears to be another way of saying “…Revenge!”. Overwrought, over played, and distressingly unsubtle. Although it does have a talking gorilla, so there’s that.

Agents Of Atlas #7 – I’m teetering on dropping this, as much as I like it. I’m just not sure where it’s going exactly. Right now, it feels oddly directionless – it seems desperate to define itself by reference to its guest stars. Next issue may make it or break it, Gorilla Man or not.

Amazing Spider-Man Family #8 – As good as ever, and per Bleeding Cool, not exactly cancelled, which is good news.

Captain America Reborn #1 – I don’t even have an opinion on this. It reads well, it looks good, it makes some sense…but I need to let it play out a little more before I make a decision one way or the other on the book. Something just feels iffy to me, using time travel as a plot point – even if it was heavily telegraphed in the early days of this volume of Captain America. And if that was Steve pulled out of time, who was buried in his coffin?

Fantastic Four #568 – Splash pages galore as the Marquis of Doom and his hooded disciple knock the team around a bit and then Reed shows him what a real man is. And then Reed gets the crap kicked out of him by a whole bunch of alternate versions of the Torch, the Thing and Sue. What? Ridiculous, borderline incoherent, but a very good looking book.

Invincible Iron Man #15 – Good issue, if a little light on action – but the plot moved forward nicely anyway. It’s the first time that the loss of Tony’s memory and intelligence hit on an emotional level, too, with a simple “Who’s Happy?” showing just how bad things are getting.

Uncanny X-Men #513 – Pointless posturing as Norman Osborn consolidates his power and clumsily muddles through some exposition as he introduces his own team of X-Men, and Cyclops ponders his next move. Honestly, I don’t know how this is the same guy writing this and Iron Man right now.

War Of Kings #5 – Continues to be an example of how to do a crossover right. And, of course, it all seems to boil down to the two leaders duking it out. I’m intrigued for what’s next for these characters, and hope that we get an Inhumans regular series out of it, or at least something starring Ronan and Crystal, who are really the break out stars of the story.

I also picked up Buffy but haven’t a chance to read it, so next week for that. I know, you can’t wait!

Last week was a huge week, so let’s get to it (some spoilers below) -

Detective Comics #854 – Beautiful artwork, solid story – and that’s on both Batwoman and The Question co-feature. I have to say that I like this version of Kate Kane more than the version we met in 52. Like the look, like the base, like her dad helping…good stuff all around.

Gotham City Sirens #1 – Store I went to was out. Maybe next week.

Green Lantern #42 – A bit of a let down, partly because I find Blue Lanterns of Hope stupid, partly because I find Larfleeze a daft villain, and partly because I’m sick of all the Lanterns just assuming that the Guardians are right, or at least being unwilling to question anything. This is on the endangered list post-Blackest Night.

Justice League of America #34 – Adequate wrap-up to the Starbreaker arc – although I still don’t really get why Cowboy Batman was there and the revelation about Sun Eaters being larvae Starbreakers is pretty much nonsensical. Let’s move on, already.

Superman #689 – A so-so ‘day in the life’ issue, with Valor touring the world and having splash page adventures in every country he visits, along with a one-panel inset where he sees something beautiful. Aw. Yes, it’s as cloying as it sounds.

Amazing Spider-Man #598 – Darker than usual, with Spidey getting a fistful of torture from Bullseye while Harry flounders and Norman proves he has a prediliction for blondes around his son’s age. Also, nodbody’s surprised that this guy seems to have been forgotten by everyone. Can it be? Did OMD delete Sins Past? Because if it did, I’m all for it!

Astonishing X-Men #30 – I asked last week if anyone still cared about this title. The answer is probably not. I’m kind of pissed off that Ellis killed Forge after turning him a little more crazy, though. I always liked him. Beautiful art, though.

Avengers The Initiative #25 – Good solid wrap-up issue as we get the new status quo of the Initiative. Lots to like here – dropping Gravity into the GLA is a genius idea (mini series, please!); I like the idea of the Avengers Resistance – especially with a newly-revitalized Tigra leading it; and Gauntlet sucker punching Ares out of the window of Avengers Tower. Good stuff.

Dark Avengers #6 – So. Norman’s still insane. Sentry’s still useless as a character. Mike Deodato still draws exceptionally well. And the cover doesn’t represent a single thing that happens in the issue. Still good fun.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1 – Okay set-up issue for the crossover, but I’m becoming less and less a fan of Fraction’s work on the X-Men, and that carries over here a little. Also, I’ve never been a fan of ‘torn from the headline’ stories, and Proposition X and Proposition 8 are a little too close for me to fully embrace the story yet. Oh, and the apparent treatment of Xavier seems a little pointless given the amount of time we just spent traipsing around the world with him getting him back. And, even though I’m told otherwise, I still think the Loki thing was a screw up.

Dark Reign Lethal Legion #1 – I picked this up because Tieri promised Crusher Creel. Well, he’s in it, barely, but I’ll forgive the false advertising. The majority of the issue focuses on Tiger Shark, in prison, telling how the current Lethal Legion – him, the Grim Reaper, Creel, Mr Hyde, Nekra (who also popped up in Utopia, oddly enough), the Grey Gargoyle and a final mystery member – got together and got set up. I’m not sold on the flashback-heavy structure of the story, but it’s got potential. Oh, and the art by Mateus Santoloco is very reminiscent of Darick Robertson.

Guardians Of The Galaxy #15 – The Guardians wrap up their War of Kings involvement in typical strong fashion; Moondragon’s not the woman she used to be; Warlock might be the man he will become and used to be (look, it makes sense); Crystal’s no helpless hostage; Lockjaw might be god (at least if you’re Cosmo) and Groot is Groot. Simply awesome. What comics should be.

Incredible Hercules #130 – Slight misstep this time out as Zeus gets put on trial, simply because he’s such a pompous ass that you really don’t want him to be saved. That said, there’s some good stuff with Cho and his parents (and Aegis, of all people), and Hercules’ speech in defence of his father is great. So even when this comic’s isn’t firing on all cylinders, it’s still better than 90% of the comics out there.

Nova #26 – A great book, but I’m not a fan of the reintroduced Corps. I don’t want a second rate Green Lantern Corps, I want Rich Rider. Let’s get this back on track and I won’t even mention that Robbie Rider’s supposed to be missing a finger, okay?

Secret Warriors #5 – Best issue so far, and the first one not to feature the team. What does that tell you? That nobody cares about the team because their characters haven’t been developed at all? Probably.

Skaar Son Of Hulk #12 – Some smashing and more than a few surprises. A light, fun read – and there’s more to Skaar than meets the eye. I’ll be picking up Incredible Hulk #600 to see where Skaar and his dad land next.

Thunderbolts #133 – Okay, well…if Black Widow isn’t who we think she is, who is she? Tasha? Mystique? This just got a lot more interesting between that, her real boss, Ghost’s connivingness and Eric O’Grady potentially stepping up in a big way. On top of that there were more examples of HAMMER’s gestapo-like tactics and the welcome return of Songbird. One of Marvel’s most unpredictable titles right now.

Uncanny X-Men #512 – So. Looks like it’s not just Greg Land’s static posing that makes Uncanny a bit of a mess right now, is it? Fraction is not on good form here. The whole X-Men science team thing seems like a good idea but plays like a second rate Planetary, to be honest.

X-Force #16 – The Messiah War concludes with not so much a bang as a whimper. A pity, because it had been pretty good fun up to hear – but at this point its difficult to see what, if any, changes to the status quo of either books this story has really made.

X-Men Forever #2- It feels a little wrong that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. From a page-long soliloquy from Nick Fury to hearing a sound in a corridor, to Wolverine apparently having adamantium hair, there’s so much wrong here that it’s difficult defend. And yet…and yet…it’s still strangely great.

Proof #21 – As much as I like the concept of this book, I think I’m about done. It’s well done, but over the last few arcs it feels like its lost its way – and that’s a damn shame because for a while there it was one of my most anticipated books. I’m out after the conclusion of this arc.

So stop throwing spotlights and mini series starring him at us. Use the issues on some other character. Preferably one that doesn’t stink of a Vision knock-off.**

That is all.

*Except possibly Peter David and Brad Meltzer.

**Yes, I know Tornado preceded the Vision by like 3 months, but it seems (to me at least) that the Vision has had way more face time than Tornado so it feels like he’s been around longer. And he’s not that interesting either.

I know that someone else wants to blog about the whole ‘Dwayne McDuffie off JLA‘ thing, but I’m going to do it too – because, frankly, if the guy says he’s not enjoying writing the book and the book’s not much good then I don’t see the point in him staying on.

I know his run was preceded by Meltzer’s close-to-trainwreck, I know that he was forced to have certain characters on the team and wasn’t allowed others, and I know that he was forced to include crossover after crossover, story point after story point…but McDuffie’s been in the game a while.

I obviously haven’t been in the game at all.

But even I would think that the way that DC is right now, if you’re on the flagship book, you’re going to be less of a creative influence than if you’re on, say, Blue Beetle. The flagship book is supposed to set the tone for the whole line of books and that’s largely driven by editorial.

And there’s no denying it’s a mess. I’d like to think McDuffie made the best of a bad situation, but with the last year’s worth of stories I don’t see how he could have done. He’s a talented writer – but a lot of the past year has felt like he’s just churned it out for the paycheck (not that there’s anything wrong with that).


McDuffie cites Rich Johnston’s LITG gathering of his comments as the reason for his firing – and it’s nice to see Rich pop up on the thread to apologize. I can’t see that it’s really his fault though, as those comments were on DC’s own message boards:

Yes, Anansi is supposed to be me, and the story arc is about my not having control of the stories in my book.

…continuity changed in other books (i was informed that Kendra would die in Final Crisis), so I had to toss it all. Actually twice, because my back up plan was derailed by Kendra’s recent undeath.

I’ve had virtually no input into the composition of JLA. It’s DC Comics’ flagship book. They tell me who to put on the team, based on their needs elsewhere in the universe, and I do it.

He’s never less than professional, but his frustration shows through in a lot of his comments – and that’s never a good idea. It’s like biting the hand that feeds you. On their own message boards.

I guess at the end of the day, McDuffie’s firing doesn’t come as a surprise and it may actually keep me as a reader. I was going to stick for Len Wein’s stuff then drop it because I couldn’t face any more of the book as it’s been this past year – but I guess now it depends on who’s taking over.

And what kind of purse they make out of the pig’s ear they inherit.

Hey, if, as not-so-subtly-hinted-at, Sue and Ralph Dibny are going to be among the Black Lanterns…

…what happened to them running around, possessing bodies and playing ghost detective, as seen in the early forgettable (at best) issues of Batman and the Outsiders?

Is this now being ignored? Because I kind of liked the idea of them as ghost detectives, if not the execution.

Then again, just because the bodies rise, I guess it doesn’t mean the spirit does, right?

Oh you know it’s going to happen…

…and I’ll blog if I want to.

Which, actually, I can’t do in detail as I’m a bit busy at work, dammit.

According to AICN, the role of Martian Manhunter has been cast in the upcoming JLA movie. Sounds like the movie is back on track and it may be called Justice League: Mortal. Given that it will apparently open with the funeral of a Flash that does kind of make sense, I guess.

Actually, I can see it. After all, J’onn is the oldest of the heroes having arrived from Mars years ago after a full life, so I can see him being older and grizzled. I like it.

After a particularly stupid move (going to the Cloverfield party on the wrong night; its on tonight, conflicting with a concert – decisions, decisions) I’m absolutely knackered so despite my vow to blog more, its a linkage post today…

The Justice League of America movie is on hold indefinitely thanks to the writers’ strike and tax breaks.

That same writers’ strike may just push the Battlestar Galactica prequel, Caprica, back into development.

The Rat Pack as the original Avengers. Close to genius…

A well-constructed Spider-Man rant – as opposed to the usual.

Boba Fett is rumored to be at the center of the Star Wars series.

Tom Cruise is still crazy – and despite the Church of Scientology demanding its removal, that bastion of journalism Gawker is actually not bowing to those demands, and the whole odd video is here. Warning: Tom Cruise has ethics, and he’s not afraid to force them on you.

Terminator offered one memorable scene on Monday – two gang members expaining 9/11 to Sarah Connor. And now, you can have it as a gif.