By Tony Bedard (writer), Andy Clark (artist), Jose Villarrubia (colorist)

Okay, let me see a show of hands: How many of you have been taking advantage of DC’s “Blackest Night” ring promotion?  Me, I’ve been loving the hell out of it.  Reminds me of the days when I used to get excited over the toys that came in the bottoms of cereal boxes.  It’s an awesome bit of marketing and I’m only too happy to give DC my money for the chance to geek out and possess all of the rings (huh, what a greedy thing to say.  Shit, that would make me an Orange Lantern, wouldn’t it?)  Now let me ask you this: how many of you have been reading and enjoying the obligatory comics you have to buy in order to get those rings?  That experience for me has been less than successful, ever since I was tempted to use Doom Patrol #4 as toilet paper after reading it.  Frankly, I didn’t even bother reading Booster Gold and was tempted to throw out R.E.B.E.L.S., but I didn’t, and I am glad I didn’t because this turned out to be one hell of a good story!

Now you have to understand that I’ve never touched this comic before now.  I’m not familiar with the cast or the title’s continuity, and only came into this issue knowing that it had something to do with “Blackest Night”. That said, within three pages Bedard skillfully managed to get me up to speed on the story and its characters so that I never felt like I didn’t know what was happening.  Bedard seamlessly combines his ongoing plot about Starro the Conqueror with “Blackest Night” and gives them equal weight.  You read this issue and feel like Vril Dox and his team are in the middle of an especially nasty shitstorm that just took a turn for the worse.  Dox is a fascinating character and a delight to read; fans of the TV show “House” I think will find much to like in Dox, an equally genius bastard who’s not afraid to pursue some highly unorthodox methods in order to get what he wants.  Nowhere was this more apparent than in the final pages of the story, which genuinely shocked and impressed me even though I was a new reader.

As for Andy Clark, wow, where the hell did this guy come from, and why didn’t anyone tell me he’s such an excellent artist?  Clark’s style is clean and finely detailed and is an utter delight to look at on the page.  When it comes to comics, I appreciate anybody who can offer me something different, something I’ve never seen before, and Clark’s art falls into that category.  Although his backgrounds and environments are a bit sparse, he populates them with fully believable characters that do a solid job of carrying the story.

I’ve got to hand it to DC, this ring promotion of theirs is a complete success.  Want to know how I know this?  Because I’ve resolved to go back and buy the last nine issues of R.E.B.E.L.S., and after I’ve done that, I’m going to begin collecting this comic on a regular basis.

Grade:  B

-Tony Rakittke

Lest we forget that there are superpowered beings in the DC Universe that don’t live on Earth or Oa, Tony Bedard and Andy Clark bring us R.E.B.E.L.S. #10. While most of the Blackest Night tie-ins have begun with a dead friend, love, or enemy of the titular hero rising from the grave, this issue actually starts with someone who is alive, who we watch get murdered, and who rises to become a Black Lantern to plague Vril Dox.

Dox and his new robotic R.E.B.E.L.S. are taken off-guard by the assault of their assigned Black Lantern, and get into even more trouble when they encounter a back of Sinestro Corps members fleeing another Black Lantern. The collision of the two makes for a lot of trouble for the team, but gives Dox something he’s been curious about for some time.

Not being a regular reader of this series, I feel like a lot of the nuances were lost on me. Dox isn’t really a very compelling protagonist, and the subplot about his son takes an interesting turn this issue, but doesn’t do enough to hold my attention. I’m also kind of perplexed about the identity of one of the Black Lanterns. The character pursuing the Sinestros has no logical tie to them. If the idea of the Black Lanterns is to send them after someone with whom they shared an emotional link, this person doesn’t really make any sense.

The final page promises an interesting part two, at least, especially if what happens in the end of this issue should turn out to be a permanent change to the character in question, but I kind of doubt that will happen. And it was nice to see some of the other DC Space Heroes (such as Adam Strange and Captain Comet) brought into the fray. But those elements aren’t quite enough. I’ve really enjoyed a lot of Tony Bedard’s work, but this issue sort of left me flat.

Rating: 6/10

R.E.B.E.L.S. #10
Written by Tony Bedard
Art by Andy Clarke

Okay I didn’t expect Vril Dox to get a Sinestro Corps ring at all! Bedard wove Blackest Night in with his own mega-story about Starro perfectly. Both people coming in for the Blackest Night stuff and previous readers will enjoy this issue. Clarke’s art is great to see again, let’s hope he stays around this time. I like that Vril’s son is now Brainiac 3. This was a good issue.

by James Robinson and Greg Rucka (writers), Pete Woods and Ron Randall (artists), Nei Ruffino (colorist)

The Story: In New Krypton’s council chambers, General Kal-El and Dae, the Thanagarian admiral, face off against Jemm, Son of Saturn and his powerful followers who make punching bags out of the first few Kryptonian red shirts who try to stop them. In the meantime, a mysterious epidemic is striking the members of the dissatisfied workers guild. We get treated to a view of the Spartan militarism of New Kryptonian culture and how most of them seem quite comfortable with a growing thicket of enemies springing up on all sides. And in the middle of this comes Adam Strange, bringing a lethal touch from Rann into this simmering political mix.

What’s Good: I’m really enjoying the artwork of Woods, Randall and Ruffino. The lines and figures are becoming increasingly fluid. In part, this seems to be done with a lot less inking than normal and giving texture through gentle shading of colors. This fluid, organic character work doesn’t take away from the cityscapes or the images of the starkness of the treeless New Krypton. The sequence of the changing phases of Callisto was a cool effect, too.

On the story side, I’m enjoying it on the first pass. Robinson and Rucka keep us guessing, and lots of things are happening. The book feels full and includes a lot of good character moments, including an exploration of Kal-El’s relationship with Ursa, Gor and Non, his former enemies. I enjoyed the interesting look at Kal-El through the eyes of the Red Shard, his personal strike force.

What’s Not So Good: Don’t get me wrong – Superman: World of New Krypton is a fun ride and I think that this is the strongest issue since #3. However, I think that some plotting issues are becoming apparent. It may have to do with the scope of what Robinson and Rucka are trying to do. There are so many balls in the air in this series (for example: the suspicion and hostility from the Green Lantern Corps, Thanagar, Saturn, and Rann, the simmering class conflict, the unresolved political, ethical and possibly even physical conflict between Kal-El and Zod, the potential for romance, the unresolved betrayal of Kal-El’s worker sidekick, Kal-El’s adaptation and acceptance into Kryptonian society, the direction of the terraforming efforts, and finally this mysterious new illness) that while I’m ready to hold off on my judgment, I don’t see how Robinson and Rucka can give each plotline a satisfying conclusion in the last four issues. The very number of simultaneous plot questions and the way the problems burst in and out doesn’t let the reader know what the central thrust of the story is. As I said in a previous review, the writers might be trying to build a saga that won’t fit in 12 issues. I hope that the editors have this all figured out, otherwise issue 12 is going to be a bit inconclusive.

Conclusion: Despite the increasingly episodic nature of the story, this remains a fun, if mildly disorienting ride, well worth including in your pull list.

Grade: B

-DS Arsenault

“Noi ci troviamo oggi sulla soglia di una Nuova Frontiera, la frontiera degli anni ‘60, una frontiera di sconosciute opportunità e ignoti pericoli, una frontiera di grandi speranze e gravi minacce” – J.F.Kennedy, 1960

Quando vinci 4 premi Eisner e 4 premi Harvey qualcosa vorrà dire…
Non capita spesso, anzi a mia memoria -che l’ho invero piuttosto buona- non è mai capitato.
Ecco se un fumetto avessi voluto fosse auspicabile per tale onore è proprio un fumetto come La Nuova Frontiera.
Non solo come fumetto ma come idea, come progetto.

Viene raccolta in due volumi dalla Planeta DeAgostini  quest’opera che , iniziamo dal senso della cosa, si propone di colmare in maniera molto narrativa il gap storico tra l’età dell’oro e l’età dell’argento della DC Comics, che è come dire poi del fumetto americano, ovvero quell’epoca che si colloca tra la fine degli eroi della Società della Giustizia e la prima chiamata della Lega della Giustizia… Il confine tra Il fumetto post-bellico e il fumetto moderno, il Superman dei fratelli Fleischer dal Superman con Krypto e la Fortezza della Solitudine… La barriera che il Flash di Carmine Infantino infranse incontrando il suo predecessore. Il confine che una volta superato portò gli Eroi e l’America tutta verso la Nuova Frontiera ipotizzata da Kennedy nel suo discorso di insediamento alla Casa Bianca.
E ci riesce, pagina per pagina, con una accuratezza storica impressionante, riesce a far filare il tutto Darwyn Cooke in un atto d’amore al comicdom classico che si vede di rado e solo in opere corali quali Marvels, Justice e Kingdom Come. E ci riesce tutto da solo: storia & disegni, senza contare le sue stupende copertine per cui varrebbe già l’acquisto.

Sembra di assistere ad un film sulla nascita della Silver Age, degli Eroi che amiamo. Tutto inizia da zero e assistiamo alla creazione dei vari personaggi come se fosse la prima volta. Il ritratto è adulto, rispettoso dell’originale ma conscio che per ri-raccontare certe storie oggi è meglio intercalarle nelle trame dell’epoca e senza ingenuità di sorta.

Il disegno è neoclassico, cinetico, elegante: debitore dei Caniff, dei Waly Wood, dei Dick Sprang e dei Kirby quanto dei Bruce Timm, degli Steve Rude e degli Allred. Oltre al disegno superbo, la cura e la documentazione sia stilistica che fumettistica è impressionante.

Un fumetto che può incantare nello stesso modo chi non ha mai letto una storia della DC prima così come il fan più accanito, che pagina dopo pagina ripercorrerà quasi un album di famiglia in cui ogni cammeo, ogni citazione è un tuffo al cuore

Questo è un fatto importante, la trasversalità dell’opera permette a JLA:La Nuova Frontiera di poter essere magari il primo passo per molti lettori che possono così approcciare gli Eroi classici senza incappare in orribili rinumerazioni da zero e restyling che lasciano il tempo che trovano. Qua ci sta tutto quello che c’è di bello nei Supereroi classici della DC, rivisto, distillato e consegnato a una nuova generazione.

Comperatevela, sono una ventina di euro per tutti e due i volumi e avrete un nuovo classico nella libreria. Non fate i pulciari.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #9
Written by Tony Bedard
Art by Claude St. Aubin

Adam Strange and Captain Comet join the cast just as the team officially forms – nine issues in. Oh well it was a fun ride getting there. (Unlike say Meltzer’s six issues to build the Justice League in 2006). Aubin’s art is not as good as Clarke’s and it shows. I wish that Clarke could stay on this book for any substantial amount of time. The team is interesting if not a little big. I hope people continue to read this cause I want to see more of their adventure.

Lasso of Truth is your weekly guide to what’s hot and what’s not in the DC Universe.  Each week, the Red Baron goes through his comics haul to tell you what’s worth buying and what’s best left alone.

Here’s the key:

Must have – there’s no question, you should buy this great book.
Buy it – a high-quality read that won’t disappoint.
Check it out – pick it up if you have some extra cash.  May be an acquired taste.
Avoid – a disappointing read.  Save your money and steer clear.

Adventure Comics #3/506
Written by Geoff Johns ǀ Art by Francis Manapul
Gimmicky re-numbering aside, yet another fantastic issue of Adventure Comics.  I never thought I’d care about Superboy, but I do now thanks to Geoff Johns.  I never thought I’d care about Red Robin either, but Johns made me do that as well.  An emotionally poignant character study of Conner Kent and Tim Drake.
Verdict: Must have.

Blackest Night: Batman #3
Written by Peter J. Tomasi ǀ Art by Adrian Syaf
An entertaining survival horror story with plenty of fan service for Robin fans.  Dick Grayson and Tim Drake face their parents once again for the last time.
Verdict: Check it out.

Green Lantern Corps #41
Written by Peter J. Tomasi ǀ Art by Patrick Gleason
Tomasi keeps up the horror in his epic space battle.  Gleason’s artwork is once again let down by the rotation of inkers throughout this issue.
Verdict: Check it out.

Secret Six #14
Written by Gail Simone ǀ Art by Nicola Scott w/ Carlos Rodriguez
Month in, month out, Secret Six is my favourite DC book.  The “Depths” arc concludes with an issue that truly lives up to its name.  Bane and Scandal Savage’s oddball relationship is pushed to the very edge, and it seems there’s even more upheaval on the horizon for the Six.
Verdict: Must have.

Wednesday Comics #11 & 12
Written by Various ǀ Art by Various
I know I’m a bit late with this, but for some reason my local comics store forget to hold a copy of issue 11 for me last month.  Wednesday Comics was without a doubt a great experiment with the weekly comics format – an experiment I hope DC repeats sooner rather than later.  Highlights for me included Azzarello’s Batman, Dave Gibbons’ Kamandi, Palmiotti’s Supergirl, Gaiman’s Metamorpho, Pope’s Strange Adventures, and Kerschl’s The Flash.  Simonson’s The Demon and Catwoman finished excellently as well.
Verdict: Must have.

JLA RED
Over at Drawingboard.org the theme for this month’s superhero JAM is Red. A while back I did JLA team BLACK with Batman, Black Lighting, Black Canary, Phantom Stranger, and the Resurrection Man. The plan was to do a team Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red. Well I’ve done the red team now and I have no plans to do the others at this point but it was quick fun to pull this team together. I wanted to do it quickly so i went the cartoony route with them. For those that don’t know, they are Adam Strange, the Flash, Red Tornado, Deadman, Plastic Man and Shazam the Justice League of America team RED!

JLA RED
Over at Drawingboard.org the theme for this month’s superhero JAM is Red. A while back I did JLA team BLACK with Batman, Black Lighting, Black Canary, Phantom Stranger, and the Resurrection Man. The plan was to do a team Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange and Red. Well I’ve done the red team now and I have no plans to do the others at this point but it was quick fun to pull this team together. I wanted to do it quickly so i went the cartoony route with them. For those that don’t know, they are Adam Strange, the Flash, Red Tornado, Deadman, Plastic Man and Shazam the Justice League of America team RED!

Two post in two days, I am on fire!!

After getting off the train last night, I really had no desire to go pick up paint so I decided to put it off another day and just head home.  Feeling a little guilty about that decision, I decided to make a few more greeting cards since I still had 22 blanks that  needed filling.   Here are the three I made last night.

Adam Strange, Teen Titans, and Iron Man cards

The art from the Teen Titans and Adam Strange come from Wednesday Comics #1 (I might have to pick up more of these, you think).  The Iron Man art comes from Iron Man #215.   The Iron Man card looks really good, but I think he Adam Strange one might be my favorite of the batch.  I like the way the shape of the art matches with the shape of the colored paper on the card.  I think it adds to the effect that Adam Strange is taking off.

Let me know what you think.

So, although this blog isn’t filled with homoerotic Wolverine and Cyclops fan fiction, I do actually love reading comics.

Anyone reading this thinking my style/styles/stylings/musings/mutterings/rantings/ravings utterly high brow may be surprised to hear this [sic.]

HOWEVER! I worked, and still occasionally work, in a comic book shop.
“I loves dem THWACCCCKKKK! PHUMP! KRRACKKKOW! Sound effects over my funnies.”

*ahem*

This entry is in appreciation of DC’s [or Detective Comics' if you're from 1928] recent, and ongoing, interesting experiment: ‘Wednesday Comics’.

They ship into the UK on Thursdays but hot damn are they worth the wait of not torrenting a scan.

Not only are they one of the more interesting experiments in form – each strip of the 15 we get each week is on a practically broadsheet A3 page – but they’re also innovative in that they give artists and writers, who may not normally do a full series of a title, the opportunity to show their take on it while we get a new installment of 15 comics every week – that’s EVERY WEEK.

And it works.

So let’s unpack the form a little: each strip takes up an A3 page giving the artists and writers more freedom than your normal comic page but imposing certain obvious restrictions – one massive page, 12 installments and obviously no double page spreads; this leads to artistic choices which reinforce the narrative style they’ve decided to apply to the tale.

For example, the Deadman installments by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck. Bullock and Heuck approach their story, ‘The Dearly Departed Detective’, as a piece of pseudo-pulp, detective noir and so use many of the massive pages to give us incredible flagpost images that take up the entirety of the height of the page while narrative and the occasional, typical, noir detective quip continues around them. This flagposting can lead to a horrific sense of dread and foreboding akin to the denouement of good detctive fiction…it probably also helps that there have always been femme fatales in Deadmans life or lack there of. However, it is also the use of stark lines, a peculiar 1920s aesthetic to figures and hair styles alongside heavy shadows – yes, even in the fiery pits of a demon’s personal corner of hell there are shadows – that really make each installment gel. After all, it’s detective fiction. This stuff used to be read out weekly on the radio by Orson Welles wishing he was The Shadow.

I’ll also quickly note the other major uses of form: Azzarello & Risso’s Batman fits a huge amount in to each installment; Arcudi & Bermejo’s Superman gives us a sense of gravitas to each and every image of Superman with its practically-full-oil-painting of Supes everytime we see more than his face; Busiek & Quinones’ Green Lantern takes Hal Jordan back to the 50s – in both chronological time and artistic aesthetic – when weekly comic strips, nowhere near as grand as this but weekly nonetheless, would have been produced; even Neil Gaiman, bless his gothy socks,  is trying to play with form by having interjections from young readers who “…love Metamorpho!” Thus enabling us, the reader outside of the reader, to know that it is a knowing comic book drawn especially by the knowing comix artist Allred who is famous for his brilliant work on X-Statix. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop the comic being…erm…stilted but it is still a fair attempt at playing on the new weekly form and making the Metamorpho installments non-serious and self-referential. The old war comic, definitive 9-panel, selective-colour palette of Kubert & Kubert’s Sgt. Rock is also beautifully executed. There are more but these, for me, are those that stand-out from the good-to-excellent crowd.

Two more stand out for me, personally: Kyle Baker’s Hawkman and Paul Pope’s Adam Strange.

If I’m entirely honest, I think Kyle Baker’s previous work is just Godawful. No, wait. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Kyle Baker. I didn’t like his work on Critical Mass – yes, I read them, I worked in a comic book shop so had to know my Shadowline Saga in order to know that it’s mostly terrible – as it seemed plain and a little underwhelming; and I thought his own semi-autobiographical, cutesy stuff was just not on par. I’m a fan of fun, light hearted illustration and, for some reason, I just cant get on with the man’s usual work. And yet! His Hawkman is…is epic. Every shadow seems almost turned in on itself like the light in Hawkman’s headgear. His use of colour ranges from minimal to stark – unless there’s a worthy explosion, of course, but even then he’s restrained.

I understand that one of the points of Wednesday Comics is to bring back the FUN into funnies but DC are balancing a fine tightrope act of some fun, some dark and some simply mad-genius. Paul Pope seems to have encompassed all three.

Paul Pope has done a major comic book character before – one of the biggest, in fact – Batman. Batman: Year 100 was intersting and held some fine art alongside some good new ideas alongside the classic struggle of Bruce Wayne to maintain his sanity alongside his city however I did feel that reading it was somewhat like reading what an art director or a cinematographer to a film might create – all the colour range was shot down, the shadows [yeah, I know, who would have thought I'd complain about shadow in Batman] felt too comfortable [hah - got you, you thought I was gonna say the something else entirely] so comfortable that I didn’t appreciate them enough and I, honestly, felt like it was an interesting attempt but one that came unstuck. This lead me to reread Heavy Liquid in a similar light and become a little dismayed with Mr. Pope.

I am a fool for ever doubting Paul Pope’s talent.

He has proved that his talent is incredible with Adam Strange.

The use of bold but definitely sci-fi orientated colours; exotic animals pulled straight from Dune or Flash Gordon or even Star Trek convey to us, not just his excellence in sci-fi aesthetic but, the research he has put into developing Rann as a new world; updating some Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and any other late 70s puppet show wavy special effects for the zeta beam is an amazing touch; and finally, did I mention the colours? I cannot express enough how important his use of colour is. Had this been a black & white strip, I think I would not have been as impressed.

If you buy only one comic each week, make it the Wednesday comic for this alone. It is this step, mentioned earlier, of letting writers and artists who may not normally have the opportunity to approach certain characters that makes the Wednesday Comics so interesting.

Twelve issues is a fine starting point and I hope that my, admittedly somewhat zealous review, sums up the quality of interest in the 7 issues already released.

But imagine an annual testing ground for new writers and artists – sure, DC would never go for someone entirely unknown – with 12 issues where the most left-field but promising artists square up with some well-established and not-at-all-established writers to see what they’ve got to say. Innovative for the reader because we see fresh, weird and wonderful takes on our well established character interpretations and innovative for DC because they get to see who works and who doesn’t.

That may sound a little like a gladiatorial, darwinite stance to you, reader, but I’m trying to put myself in the place of a DC editor, “What’s worked in this run of Wednesday Comics thus far?” “What have been its biggest selling points?” “How do we get the readers to stay interested?”

They keep changing and aiding left-field writers and artists by introducing their work into, what Pierre Bourdieu would call, the dominant-dominated Field of Cultural Production and you’ll see a major difference – not just in their careers, but – in their work.

In short, DC’s Wednesday Comics can only be a good thing for the industry as well as for those creating the work.

———————————————-

Here you’ll find links to the IGN reviews, the Mania round-up review, and the Crave Online early review. It’s interesting to see what oushes whose buttons – I think that Kamandi is fun but not one of the best of the bunch and yet a lot of good folks think that Kamandi is one of the best, if not the best. The same goes for Supergirl. Perhaps more proof that the Wednesday Comics format works.

This week I picked up Wednesday Comics and Blackest Night: Superman.
This week’s Wednesday Comics is officially moving faster than previous books and with five books left, things look like they’re going to get even better. In Batman the situation is becoming more dire as the Dark Knight works his way into a lethal fight over inheritance. Kamandi, Superman, and Deadman are building up towards what seems like certain doom. Green Lantern finally gets into some action something that hasn’t been seen from the strip since the first strip. This week’s Metamorpho was hilarious. Teen Titans is getting better but that’s not saying much. It’d be better if they took the time to explain who the characters on the team are. Strange Adventures takes a turn for the amazing as Dr. Fate makes a cameo appearance to help out Adam Strange, Paul Pope’s Dr. Fate is another stellar work of character design. The Flash is getting confusing but I’m truly intrigued as to what is going on, on one hand it looks like the Flashes are going to save the day, on the other hand most of the comic seems to lean towards Grodd winning. The mixing of Flash and Iris West without the break for titles was interesting as if it was trying to drive home that Barry Allen and The Flash’s world mixes together no matter how hard he tries to prevent it from happening.

Blackest Night: Superman is an awesome book. It’s full of chilling. Kal-L is truly frightening as he dwindles down Smallville’s population. On page four there is a great scene where the people of Smallville look up to the sky and see Kal-L flying in the clouds eerily, they say the usual “Look up in the sky” shtick however it’s perfectly paced so that something feels terribly wrong. All of the Blackest Night books are about dead characters coming back to emotionally assault the living before ripping out their hearts, this book pulls this off in spades, there are scenes where mixes of emotions flow through the same character.

This week I managed to get my hands on Adventure Comics, Blackest Night, Booster Gold, and Wednesday Comics.
Adventure Comics was pretty awesome. Geoff Johns has an uncanny ability at taking characters and events that are meaningless and then giving them meaning. Superboy is a great example of this. Superboy is Conner Kent the clone of Superman made by Lex Luthor. In his previous incarnation Conner was an ironic character of the nineties, rebelling against the Superman mythos. Johns’ Superboy however is trying to understand where he comes from. He begins by establishing the similarities in his life with that of Superman and indeed Johns is able to create a modern parallel with the classic Superboy. However Conner was also created by Lex Luthor and in a shocking reveal we learn that not only is Superboy trying to figure out what makes him like Superman, but what makes him like Luthor. Clearly Superboy’s adventure of self-discovery is a little more complicated then in previous incarnations. This book even has a well meaning child super scientist, Simon Valentine who has a run in with The Swamp Thing of Alan Moore fame. Behind the Superboy story is that of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the Twenty First Century. Starman is hilarious in this story and the preview of what is to come looked very promising if not still too continuity heavy. The art in this book is very simple, yet it does a great job at setting the tone. The panels and bubbles are extremely easy to follow as the book sticks with the nine panel format with a minor variation that is created by a blend of the same sized panels.
I give up on Booster Gold. The book has gone too far from comedy and too far towards continuity. I did like when Booster Gold told Raven that in the future he’s the most famous super hero in history, however that was only in one page. There’s just too much Rip Hunter lately and not enough Booster Gold. I’m sick of having Booster relive other character’s previous story arcs and the antagonist the Black Beetle is lame and seems to cheapen the feel of the book. The Blue Beetle follow up story is extremely uninteresting as well, it seems to only add to the continuity of lame.
Blackest Night Two of Eight paints a grim picture for the heroes of Earth. The first book saw the death of the Hawk family and this issue seems to be the end of the Atlantians. The Black Lanterns have proven themselves to be a great horrifying force. Their banter during fights is specifically aimed at causing the most about of emotional turmoil while ripping out people’s hearts. Even when they are not fighting the Black Lanterns manipulate the emotions of the heroes by acting like their friends, which I predict will make it difficult for the heroes to trust one another in the coming Blackest Night. In a truly doom filled scene, Aqualad is seen being hopeful for the salvation of the Dead Lanterns only to have his heart ripped out, displaying how uncomprimising the Black Lanterns are in their fight against everyone who is alive. The scene where Flash and Green Lantern fight a living dead Martian Manhunter was great. The two were a great pairing that used their abilities together masterfully against their living dead enemy using his living weakness against him. However Geoff Johns is able to deliver another crushing blow to the cause of the living as the undead Martian Manhunter is unaffected by fire, leaving the reader to truly question how the Black Lanterns could ever be stopped.
In issue six of Wednesday Comics, shit gets real!
Batman swings into action and gets the drop on some thug who confidently shoots back. The art in this story was pretty good in its use of shadows to show just how fearsome Batman can be, however the backgrounds are non-existent.
Kamandi gets a lot darker and shows that the Last Girl on earth just as capable as the Last Boy, although Tuftan isn’t in such a great position.
Superman stops the history of Superman lesson, to go back to the alien invasion story from the beginning.
Deadman continues his visually rewarding trek into the after life.
Green Lantern might just be the story that gives Hal Jordon character as in this week it shows how being the man without fear is also being the man who gets people hurt.
Metamorpho is going no where but has some funny meta stuff.
Teen Titans was surprisingly racist this week as the Blue Beetle is not only trapped in unremarkable continuity but a lame fight that just keeps going forever.
Paul Pope’s Strange Adventures takes a name sake twist when Adam is Zeta-Beamed back to Earth and his original body, which is a much older Archeologist.
Supergirl has a hilarious meeting with Aquaman, who is portrayed as a very strange person because of his busy schedule protecting the Earth’s oceans and his lack of involvement with the human world. I like where the Supergirl series is headed, it’s a more human examination of the DC Universe.
In the shortest issue of Metal Men to date the team is set up for an encounter with their first super villain, Chemo.
Wonder Woman is still unbearably cluttered. Sgt. Rock is still nine panels of nothing. Flash comic takes a turn for the nerdy awesomeness that is Flash Facts, however Iris West is replaced by a Gorilla Grodd story about how he actually creates a utopia in his pocket universe. I’m hoping that next week’s Iris West is going to return.
The Demon and The Cat just started going places. Hawkman is still lame.

Risky and rewarding.

Four weeks of Wednesday Comics and it’s panning out as expected: the strong stories are still performing strongly and the others, well – not so strongly.

John Arcudi’s Superman – while beautifully painted by Lee Bermejo – is still, quite frankly, a whiny bitch; Neil Gaiman’s Metamorpho an absolute head-scratcher; Eddie Berganza’s Teen Titans just screams ordinary; while Ben Caldwell’s Wonder Woman remains a cramped, unfocused mess (I didn’t even know something could be those three things at once until I read it).

It’s interesting to see who really thrives in this weekly one-page format and who doesn’t – I’m honestly surprised at how unimpressed I’ve been with Neil Gaiman’s Metamorpho, and yet at the same time I wonder just how much brilliance I’d expect from one page of Sandman.  But this isn’t a 22-page comic, nor is it a graphic novel, and I think the writers and artists that understand that are the ones that deliver.  The Kuberts’ Sgt. Rock is dragging its heels like nothing else (so far he’s managed to get himself tortured), and Kurt Busiek’s Green Lantern isn’t much better (so far, Hal Jordan flew into a bar, flew out of a bar, and had a flashback – ZOMG!).  Just get to the good bits already! You can’t pace this like a 22-page comic, exploding it out page by page in a weekly format – you’ve only got twelve weeks to tell your story, and one page to impress me.  Given his experience with the weekly format, you’d think Busiek of all people would have it down.

The ones that do have it down are Gibbons (Kamandi), Pope (Strange Adventures), and Kerschl (The Flash/Iris West).  Come to think of it, all three of them feature villainous, super-intelligent, talking apes.  Kamandi is an open, sprawling adventure in a dystopian future.  Gibbons, an adept artist himself, lets Ryan Sook tell the story visually while he narrates.  Both Kamandi and Strange Adventures are throwbacks to the EC “Weird Science-Fantasy” comics of the fifties, and both are positively dripping with atmosphere.  I suspect the hand-written captions may have also helped in this regard.  Kerschl took the most interesting route of all the writers, telling parallel stories of The Flash and his lover Iris West, and you know what?  I think he’s stumbled across the magic formula for one-page-per-week storytelling.  I love the contrast of romance and superheroics from week to week, and the way these stories interweave and feed off of each other.  Barry Allen must race against time and himself(!) to save Central City and his love-life!  I love it!

Honestly, it’s worth reading Wednesday Comics just to follow those three, but there are plenty of other strong efforts to justify your purchase.  Dave Bullock has managed to pick up the pace and find his voice in a much more focused Deadman, while the Most Improved award must go to Walter Simonson with The Demon and Catwoman, which makes a whole lot more sense now in its own weird little way.  Catwoman has become a cat-woman, and the Demon is waxing poetic as he should be, as they duke it out in the highlands.  Brian Azzarello’s Batman is shaping up to be an intriguing murder mystery, while Dan DiDio’s Metal Men is again surprisingly funny.  Jimmy Palmiotti’s Supergirl is okay, if only a little trivial on the back of Pope’s Strange Adventures (Supergirl’s basically trying to round up two super-powered pets who have run away from home).  While it’s disappointing that Hawkman’s story is no longer narrated by birds as it was in the first issue, it has taken a science fiction twist for the better, I believe.

And that about wraps it for the fourth week of Wednesday Comics.  I have issue 5 in front of me now, but I suspect I’ll have nothing new to say about it.  This is the most interesting experiment in the comic book format that you’re ever likely to be part of, so get into it.

Wednesday Comics #5:

-Batman: This week we see a typical Batcave scene which does a marvelous job at setting up Batman’s current case.

-Kamandi: Week after week, Kamandi never fails to amaze and this week is no different as he and his friends get captured by the Apes.

-Superman: Lee Bermejo displays his great artistic design in this week’s Superman.  If you liked his Batman from issue two, you’ll love his Krypton in this week’s issue.

-Deadman: Kind of neat to see Deadman having to use his non-supernatural abilities in a fight with demons.  I’m just worried that the book will never return to the murder mystery.

-Green Lantern: Even though this story is slow moving, I like how it’s exploring who Hal Jordon is as a person.

-Metamorpho: Neil Gaiman  seems to be following a formula which parodies the typical comic strip.  Gaiman uses his entire page to not only tell a goofy adventure story, but to add in a lot of secondary narratives that give a random glance into the lives of minor characters.  His formula works really well.

-Teen Titans: This strip really has the potential to be about the meaning of heroism mixed with awesome super hero fights.  However it’s Teen Titans.

-Strange Adventures: Paul Pope takes time away from Adam Strange to tell the story of Rann and show off his artistic abilities via the Watertree Grove and a super hairy coconut with red insides, yay!

-Supergirl:  Wraps things up with the super pets which are nothing but trouble for the cousin of steel.

-Metal Men: Gets personal!

-Wonder Woman:  She’s still losing in her dreams, yet still winds up on top of things.

-Sgt. Rock and Easy Company: Still nothing happening.

-The Flash and Iris West: Gorilla Grodd beats the Flash so bad that he uses the Flash to make himself a tiny universe.  Barry quits being the Flash for Iris, little do they both know that he’ll have to break that vow if he wants to stop Grodd’s nefarious plot.

Greek Street #2: Last issue is retold, we learn that there is no low the inhabitants of Greek street won’t sink to, and confusingly enough the Sirens drive a van.  If you didn’t pick up the first issue of Greek Street this isn’t a bad point to jump in on since they repeat what happened last issue.

Superman: World of New Krypton #6, This series continues to get better with every issue bringing more and more layers of complication to the life of Superman.  The art continues to astound me although the panel set up can be a bit confusing as more two page spreads are used in this issue.  It seems as if the last issue of World of New Krypton is going to silent with all two page splash panels.

Secret Six #12: In this issue Jeanette’s Banshee-ism is explained in gruesome detail which makes the character much more enduring, Bane however sunk to another level of lame. Amazons still have really badly written dialogue with Wonder Woman being no exception.  The team is split with Deadshot, Catman, and Ragdoll at the center of the worst place imaginable with Wonder Woman as a prisoner and the rest of the team running for their lives.

Mogog Preview:  ”I’m a tragic character from Kingdom Come…I kill stuff!”

Irredeemable #5: The Plutonian is hiding among the people of Earth, he could be disguised as anyone, and he lets everyone know, in order to stop the people of Earth from trusting each other.  Revelations from the Paradigm also show that the team can’t even trust each other, let alone their own spouses.  Issue five is a damn good introduction to the irredeemable actions of Earth’s mightiest hero and if this issue is any indication the Paradigm weren’t great people either.

The Anchor Preview:  This looks like it’s going to be an awesome series.  A kid who dies in the destruction of the city he lived in travels around with a super strong morally righteous character who kills demons.  The advertisement after the preview seems promising as well, “God’s own Leg-Breaker”.

This week I picked up Wednesday and Detective comics as well as Dracula but Dracula will be for another post.

This week’s Wednesday Comics was spectacular.  Batman and Superman moved their stories along quite nicely with Bruce getting himself into some out of suit plots and Superman returning to Smallville so that the reader can understand this modern take on the character.  Kamandi the last boy on Earth, this week was damn good, ending on an extremely negative cliff hanger.  Deadman come out of no where with a page full of action unlike anything seen from the strip before, the ghostly acrobat fights for his soul as various demons try to kill him and send him to hell.  Green Lantern managed to take a step backwards to explain how much of a dick Hal Jordon is.  Metamorpho plot just thickened with the introduction of Federal Agent…female…Metamorpho…and a shadowy figure, although this issue really should have been last week’s issue instead of the repeat of the week before that.  Teen Titans is getting a bit over formulaic without actually changing a lot of the scenery or explaining who’s on the team.  Strange Adventures continues to be pure awesome with Strange’s love interest showing herself to be one of the most hardcore damsels to ever cause distress.  Supergirl remains to be pretty solid although I’m hoping she’ll start getting into more serious adventures in the future.  Metal Men continues to be absolutely perfect.  I don’t think Wonder Woman is actually going to be doing superhero stuff.  Sgt. Rock still manages to be boring.  Flash comics is getting better with each issue.  Both the Iris West and Flash stories get more intense as Barry Allen and the Flash from the future try to go back in time to make things right with Iris and beat Gorilla Grodd.  I just hope that Barry has more luck with Iris then the Flash did with Gorilla Grodd.  The Demon and Cat Woman shows of Etriggan’s demonic powers.  Hawkman is finally getting good with the introduction of the JLA to his world and Hawkman’s cheesy personality gets to shine with the strip’s final line, “Looks like I’ve got a plane to catch.”

Detective comics just keeps getting more and more stunning with each turn of the page.  It’s like the classic Batman animated series turned up to eleven on the messed-up-stuff-o-meter.  Alice the main villain of the story can dish out a lot of turmoil, she even caught me (and Batwoman) completely by surprise when she pulls off one of the most vicious tactics in street fighting.  Batwoman is a damn good replacement for Bruce Wayne, hopefully she gets her own full fledged series, maybe even her own Robin, since her version of Alfred (her father) completely proves himself in this issue.  I’m truly interested in finding out who Batwoman is  as a person, her hallucination/flashback really sparked my interest.

I only have two complaints about Detective comics.  The Lewis Carroll referencing is lame and will always be lame, there is no getting around it, Lewis Carroll referencing is one of the most pretentious, air-headed things in pop culture these days and I’m fucking sick of it.  Second, the Question story that comes after Batwoman is still a piece of crap that needs to be removed.  What’s even more disappointing about the Question story is that in Batwoman there is an image of how Kate Kane sees the Question in her mind, which almost had me excited about the character, then I got done with the Batwoman story and read the Question story, only to be disappointed again.

Last week’s Wednesday Comics was the first to really disappoint.  The premise of the project should suggest that the creators compress their stories as much as possible, at least in general – when all’s said and done, they only really have 15 pages to finish the story.  While some creators have risen to the challenge, like Caldwell on Wonder Woman or Pope on Strange Adventures, some strips that started out strong have begun to peter off already.

There is still the seeds of genius that were strongly evident in the first two issues, but there are too many non-starters here.  The flaws remain relatively unfixed, with the weakest pages among the first two issues showing little improvement.  Not all is bleak, of course – a project with this many gifted creators is bound to have some astonishing moments – but I am not sure that a book facing all the challenges that Wednesday Comics faces can afford to have many more issues like this one: Not bad, but not quite worth the trouble.

Grade: B-

- Cal Cleary

Wednesday Comics #2

Wednesday Comics #1

MARVEL

THOR

Natalie Portman wurde als Jane Foster gecastet

Zur Erinnerung: Natalie Portman verfügt nach ihrem Mitwirken in V for Vendetta bereits über “Comic-Erfahrung” und kann für ihre Darstellung in CLOSER sogar den Gewinn eines Golden Globes und eine Oscar Nominierung vorweisen.

NaJa, und bei der neuen Star Wars Trilogie war sie auch dabei…

GAMBIT

Es gehen Gerüchte um dass es bald eine Origin-Verfilmung von Gambit geben könnte. Ich kann mir nur schwer vorstellen dass da was drann ist. Meiner Meinung nach war sein Auftritt im Wolverine: Origins zu kurz und wenig originell um Leute in einen eigenen Gambit Spin-Off zu locken.

GHOST RIDER 2

Nicolas Cage sorgt abermals dafür dass Gerüchte um eine Fortsetzung nicht verstummen wollen. In einem Interview mit MTV hat der Comic Fan verlautbart, dass er sehr an einem zweiten Teil interessiert wäre, diesen allerdings anders anlegen würde. “Internationaler” wie er meint und am Besten mit Bezug zur katholischen Kirche.

Nachdem Nikki bei seinen letzten Leinwand-Erfolgen hauptsächlich verlorenen Dingen nachjagte, scheint er sich wieder vermehrt um Comics kümmern zu wollen. Nachdem er schon bei Kick-Ass mit von der Partie ist, wird er auch in Green Hornet die Rolle des “Bösen” übernehmen.

IRON MAN 2

Nach 71 Drehtagen ist der nächste Marvel Hit imKasten und geht in die Post-Production. Die Dreharbeiten wurden angeblich von einigen Eifersüchtelein zwischen Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Pots) und Scarlett Johannson (Black Widow) gestört. Wenn man Robert Downey Jr., der Unlängst von der den Dreiecksaffären des Films schwärmte Glauben schenken mag, könnte dieser Streit noch mal richtig Pfeffer in die Darstellung der Frauen bringen.

Wen die Meinung eines Autors zu dem Film interessiert, kann auf IGN ein Interview mit Matt Fraction nachlesen.

Cover von E-Weekly & Scarlett als Black Widow

Wusstet ihr dass Scarlett die Frau von Deadpool Darsteller Ryan Reynolds ist? Der steht ja mittlweile für 2 Groß-Produktionen vor der Kamera und gibt auch demenstprechend fleißig Interviews. Leider hab ich die Links irgendwo verloren, aber wenn ihr dementsprechende Suchbefehle eingebt, werdet ihr sicher schnell fündig.

DC

DC befindet sich nach Dark Knight (der aber unlängst von Harry Potter übertroffen wurde) im Höhenflug und haut ein Projekt nach dem anderen raus. Folgende werden auf World of Superheros aufgelistet:

• Green Lantern, with the film’s Hal Jordan portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, who also performs double comic duty with Marvel’s upcoming spin-off Deadpool

• Jonah Hex, a late 19th Century disfigured ex-Confederate Solider. The antihero of the same name will be played by Josh Brolin, and also features John Malkovich and Megan Fox

Film Poster zu Jonah Hex

• The Losers, a team from DC Comics’ imprint Vertigo Comics, which stars Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana, and Jeffery Dean Morgan Rumoured upcoming film projects include:

• And Aquaman project with Leonardo DiCaprio as producer
• An Adam Strange project
• A movie centered on Green Arrow, a character familiar to fans of the CW’s Smallville
• A sequel to the Keanu Reeves film Constantine
• The long-awaited Shazam! film, most likely featuring the magical hero Captain Marvel
• A Bizarro Superman film woth ties to a leaked script by David Howard and Robert Gordon
• Various creative projects by Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman

Des weiteren soll Geoff Johns als Produzent für einen Flash Film gewonnen worden sein. Dieser Flash Movie soll eines der Projekte von Grant Morrison und Marv Wolfman sein

Nebenbei wurde unlängst (wieder) verkündet dass ein Wonder Woman Film in Planung wäre

Auch der 8 Stunden, Lord of the Rings artige, Superman Epos der Mark Millar vorschwebt soll noch lange nicht vom Tisch sein.

…UND DIE ANDEREN

GREEN HORNET

Ich hab keine Ahnung wer da jetzt gerade die Rechte hat, aber ich glaube dass es Dynamite Entertainment ist. Egal, Seth Rogan soll dabei die Hauptrolle übernehmen während Nicolas Cage seinen Widersacher mimen wird. In Verhandlungen stehen die Produzenten noch mit Cameron Diaz die die weibliche Hauptrolle verkörpern soll. Regie wird Michael Gondry führen der unter anderm für einen meiner Lieblingsfilme (Eternal Sunshine on a spotless mind) verantwortlich ist.

300

Frank Miller soll zusammen mit Zach Snyder an einem Sequel zu 300 arbeiten

KICK-ASS

Wird wohl erst Anfang 2010 in die Kinos kommen. Auf ImdB könnt ihr bereits mehrere Bilder finden.

SHRAPNEL

Der Radical Publishing Titel “Shrapnel” soll demnächst unter der Regie von Len Wiseman (u.a. Underworld) verfilmt werden.

WITCHBLADE

Regisseur Michael Rymer (Queen of the Damned) soll angeblich einen Witchblade Film drehen. Das Drehbuch stammt vom Everette de Roche. Vom Cast ist noch nichts durchgedrungen, doch immer wieder taucht der Name Megan Fox (Transformers, Jonah Hex) inVerbindung mit dem Film auf.

AUSSER KONKURRENZ

Nebenbei möchte ich noch auf andere Filme hinweisen die Geeks und Fanboys interessieren könnten:

• Die Entwicklungen rund um die Verfilmung des Game Klassikers Castlevania scheinen wieder etwas ins Laufen zu kommen.
• Mit World of Warcraft soll 2011 auch ein weiteres Kult Game ins Kino kommen. Die Regie wird von Sam Raimi übernommen
• Ein dritter Transformers Teil wurde bereits von den Studios bestätig. Es wird eigentlich nur noch diskutiert ob er schon 2011 oder erst 2012 ins Kino kommen soll.
• Auch von den Dreharbeiten zur Neuvefilmung von Kampf der Titanen (absoluter Kult!!!) gibt es neue Fotos zu bestaunen.

By Borys Kit – Hollywood Reporter

In the comics universe, where characters are endlessly reborn and reoutfitted, a motto from the 1980s — “DC Comics is on the move” — could just as well apply to the current, hyperactive state of the publisher as it relates to Hollywood.A year after “The Dark Knight” became a worldwide phenomenon, there are more DC Comics adaptations in the works than at any other point since the company was acquired by Warner Bros. in 1969.

24"x36" Poster NEW!

Among the projects on front burners:

– “The Losers,” an action-adventure drama starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana and Chris Evans, begins principal photography this week in Puerto Rico.

Buy this poster here!

– “Jonah Hex,” a supernatural Western starring Josh Brolin, Megan Fox and John Malkovich, recently wrapped production in Louisiana.

– “The Green Lantern,” Warners’ next big superhero tentpole, is set to star Ryan Reynolds after a long search.

– Fox has picked up the TV series “Human Target,” starring Mark Valley, for the fall.

– And, in a rare example of a film project that has ventured off the Warners reservation, DC has set up “Red,” a spy thriller to star Bruce Willis, at indie producer Summit.

“One of the things that has differentiated us for most of the last 20 years is the depth of our library and the depth of the creative material that we’ve put out and the opportunities that creates for other media,” DC Comics president Paul Levitz said.

Still, when “Dark Knight” invaded theaters last summer, critics of DC and Warners complained there didn’t appear to be a grand strategy in place to exploit DC properties.

In contrast, DC arch-rival Marvel moved quickly in the wake of its successful “Iron Man” to stake out a series of release dates for a slew of movies, branding them as part of one big Marvel universe leading to “The Avengers,” which arrives in 2012.

But DC and Warners have taken a different approach, arguing that DC has a wider breadth of books than other comics companies. They insist their situation isn’t comparable to Marvel, which already has licensed out to other studios a number of its biggest titles: Spider-Man is housed at Sony, while X-Men and Fantastic Four are at Fox.

With fewer marquee superheroes, Marvel works like an animation studio: It only develops select projects and makes most of what it develops, while DC is managing a much larger portfolio.

Still, in the wake of “Dark Knight,” DC and Warners have made strategic moves in the superhero realm, including centralizing the way DC’s titles and characters are developed. In the past, Warners optioned a property, paying DC a fee comparable to what a property could command on the open market. But while the projects ostensibly were being developed under one roof, many were spread out over a host of producers, each with different visions for how to approach each adaptation.

Watchmen (Director's Cut)

To bring competing approaches into sync, Levitz and DC’s Los Angeles-based film exec Gregory Noveck have overseen a reorganization of the development slate. While Warners execs still drive the creative side, DC now has more input, making it an actual participant in the shaping of material.

“The creative process is by and large a true partnership,” Noveck said. “They’ll ask us a ton of questions, and we’ll give a ton of answers. We will talk back and forth. We’ll discuss writers and talent, but ultimately it’s their decision.”

Ryan Reynolds in X-Men Origins Wolverine

This past fall, Warners quietly hired three of DC’s biggest writers — Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison and Marv Wolfman — to act as consultants and writers for its superhero line of movies. The move involved taking back the reins on projects being handled by such producers as Charles Roven (“The Flash”) and Akiva Goldsman (“Teen Titans”).

Some agents and scribes grumbled about being forced to work with the consultants, never mind that Johns started his career as an assistant to “Superman” director Richard Donner or that Wolfman has worked in animation since the 1980s.

The moves have begun to pay off. Johns worked up a new treatment for a “Flash” script, being written by Dan Mazeau; Johns will act in a producer capacity on the project, which has not attached a director.

The projects Morrison and Wolfman are working on are in the early stages at Warners, whose execs declined to comment.

The process involves one writer taking point, though the trio do collaborate on projects, reading one another’s materials while hashing out a story that will be at once accessible to nonfans yet still adhere to each character’s long history. The writers also work in tandem with producers, writers and the Warners execs overseeing the projects, showing them treatments and providing notes on scripts.

Meanwhile, other superhero projects are moving forward at Warners.

The studio is taking pitches on sci-fi hero Adam Strange and the underwater-breathing hero “Aquaman,” to be produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and his Appian Way shingle.

Also in the pipeline: “Bizarro Superman” being written by “Galaxy Quest” scribes David Howard and Robert Gordon; a sequel to “Constantine,” with Goldsman and Erwin Stoff producing; two concurrent Green Arrow projects, an origin story and a prison-set one titled “Super Max”; and “Shazam,” which was set up at New Line but has moved to Warners, with Pete Segal attached to direct.

Unsung in the lineup is Warners’ line of straight-to-DVD animated movies released via Warner Premiere. “Green Lantern: First Flight,” the latest entry, will premiere at this week’s Comic-Con gathering in San Diego and has a July 28 street date.

These movies, produced on budgets in the $3.5 million range, apparently overperformed their targets. “First Flight” is the fifth straight-to-DVD title, with “Superman/Batman: Public Enemies” in production for a September 29 release.

In the home entertainment arena, DC has overshadowed Marvel, with 2007’s “Superman-Doomsday” generating $9.4 million in revenue and last year’s “Batman: Gotham Knight,” taking advantage of the tidal wave of support for the Christopher Nolan movie, generating $8 million, according to tracking site The-Numbers.com. “Wonder Woman,” released in March, already has chalked up $4.4 million. Marvel’s top seller, “Ultimate Avengers 2,” has pulled in $7.7 million.

Not that all the stars in the DC firmament are aligned yet.

Warners and DC still haven’t figured out how to translate “Wonder Woman” to the big screen. In part, that failure reflects the difficulties DC has had turning out a popular Wonder Women comic. Morrison, during a recent Q&A with Clive Barker at Los Angeles’ Meltdown Comics, admitted he didn’t have a complete handle on the character when he was writing the comic “Final Crisis.”

Also, ever since Bryan Singer’s 2006’s “Superman Returns,” a new Superman has been in limbo.

“Our hope is to develop a Superman property and to try again,” Warner Bros. Entertainment president Alan Horn said in April. “What hurt us is that the reviews and so on for the Superman movie did not get the kind of critical acclaim that Batman got, and we have other issues with Superman that concern us.”

 On the Batman front, a sequel to “Dark Knight” also is quite a way off. Nolan is open to doing a third installment, but his next movie is “Inception,” an original script he penned and is shooting for Warners.

All that has put a damper on any movie about the Justice League, whose roster includes the above-mentioned heroes as well as myriad others including Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter. DC would like to present some of the main heroes in their own movies before they are brought together for one big outing, so “League” currently is inactive.

On top of that, there could be another change in how Warners approaches the DC characters, with studio chiefs debating whether to put the operation under one super-exec.

To bring the next generation of superheroes to the screen, DC and Warners might yet have to unleash their own super powers.

Amazon Specials!

Aquaman

From TheHDRoom.com

The Hollywood Reporter has published an extensive article that touches upon the record number of DC Comics projects in various stages of development.

One of the big revelations from the article is news that Warner Bros. Pictures is currently accepting pitches (i.e. looking for writers) for separate movies based on Aquaman and Adam Strange. Both films will be produced by Appian Way which is helmed by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Aquaman has been swimming around Hollywood for several years but has yet to make a big splash. He was part of an HBO “joke” advertisement in Variety congratulating James Cameron on his record-breaking Aquaman film that, of course, did not exist. He was also the focus of an entire episode of Smallville at the WB, and then was to appear in his own standalone WB show whose completed pilot was never picked up.

Aquaman’s last failed attempt to rise from the depths was as a founding member of the Justice League in a Justice League of America movie. That film was on its way towards production under director George Miller until it was canned.

Adam Strange is known to draw comparisons to John Carter of Mars. In that comic, the protagonist is whisked off to Mars where grand adventures await. Strange is instantly teleported to the planet Rann where he must fend off alien invaders. Ironically John Carter of Mars is set to become a film under Andrew Stanton of Pixar fame.

If pitches are accepted and scripts turned in by year’s end, Aquaman and/or Adam Strange could find their way into theaters by 2011 at the earliest, or more likely 2012.

Though Wednesday Comics #2 didn’t do much to improve over the flaws of the first one, and certainly won’t change any minds about the project as a whole, it also kept all the charm, wit and creative energy of the first issue, and even improved upon some of the slower stories.  The keyword with Wednesday Comics is variety, and you get a lot of it.

Busiek’s Green Lantern is a wonderfully retro The New Frontier-style sci-fi adventure, while Pope’s Strange Adventures is classic pulp action.  Flash reads like a bizarre blend of romance and super-hero stories, while Baker’s Hawkman offers a dark, fascinating look at a frequently muddled character.  As with the first issue, not every story is a hit, and the two biggest offenders from #1 (Teen Titans and Sgt. Rock and Easy Co.) remain relatively weak, though both show at least some signs of improvement over the previous issue.

Meanwhile, the creators are making full use of the space, sometimes in interesting ways.  The Gaiman/Allred Metamorpho is essentially one enormous panel while Caldwell’s surreal Wonder Woman features roughly fifty panels on its only page.  

The format is definitely bringing out the best in many of these artists, most of whom have admirably risen to the challenge.  The less-glossy pages and creases that come from the folding were a worry to some people when it came to the quality of the art, but rest-assured, this is rarely the case.  Only Caldwell’s Wonder Woman and the Arcudi/Bermejo Superman seem to have been hampered by the fact, each of them a little too dark for their own good.  Despite that, however, both pages remain well-crafted and interesting.

Wednesday Comics is too scattershot to appeal to everyone, but those who try it out will find a selection of interesting stories by star creators that hearken back to the early days of comics and the traditional stories without being lazy or condescending.  Everyone involved seems to be having far too much fun to either.

Grade: A-

- Cal Cleary

Read/RANT

Wednesday Comics #1

Remember last week how I talked about the Bat-titles being like an explanation of what a ‘good comic’ and a ‘bad comic’ are? This one’s a Good Comic, and much like the Bat-titles the quality rests almost entirely on the art

DC Comics have, for the last few years, been publishing weekly comics stories pretty much consistently. They started with the fifty-two issue 52, where they decided to put all their best/most popular writers on one title, along with Keith Giffen to provide layouts (and Giffen’s one of the best straight clean storytellers in comics), and the wonderful J.G. Jones on covers, and got something that veered wildly in quality, but overall became one of the best superhero stories of the last decade or so – the flaws were made up for by the good bits and the sheer ambition of the thing.

They followed that with Countdown To Final Crisis, where they took a load of B-list ‘creators’ and made them write and draw offensively bad continuity-wank for fifty-two weeks. And after that they did Trinity for a year – a fifty-two part Kurt Busiek Justice League story that would have made a great twelve-issue series but felt stretched way beyond breaking point.

Wednesday Comics is different from all these. They’ve gone back to the 52 idea of getting the best people they could to work on it, which is always a good start, but this time they’re trying to do something like an American newspaper comics supplement – for twelve weeks they’ll be putting out a comic with fifteen one-page strips in it, on broadsheet size newsprint, featuring DC character both famous (Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all appear, of course) and less so (Metal Men, Metamorpho, Deadman).

Now this kind of thing is something I’d hoped DC would do for a long time. A lot of DC’s best characters are incapable of sustaining a comic that would sell on its own, but put them in an anthology title with the big guns and people will buy them. I could even see non-comics-fans buying and enjoying this, were they ever to become aware of it – it has characters they’ve heard of and none of it is burdened by continuity.

And the art is almost uniformly great – the main problem is actually the writing. Which is not to say it’s badly-written, but the writers here all seem used to the pacing of the monthly decompressed comic – most of these pages (which are slightly under four times the size of a standard US comic page) have at most a single incident, and the pacing is sloppy, I’m sure all or most of the stories will work when read as a whole, but they’re not especially effective as serials.

The art’s a different matter – while the artists vary in style, there seems to be a consensus among them that being like Darwyn Cooke would probably be a good thing for this series, and that is, of course, no bad thing.

(Incidentally, I would be very interested to find out what the plans for collecting these stories are – the very nature of the format means these comics are going to be literally read to bits, and I’d like a permanent collection of them).

Batman by Brian Azarello and Eduardo Risso is one of the more conventional pages – in look and feel it’s very much of a piece with Batman: Year One and the like – shadowy art colourd in tones of yellow and brown.

Kamandi by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook is our first real experiment, putting Jack Kirby’s character into a Prince Valiant style art-plus-captions story. Unfortunately, most of what we have here is just a recap of who the character is, but Sook’s art is very pretty.

Superman by John Arcudi and Lee Bernejo isn’t very good – Bernejo’s art is far too static for my tastes.

Deadman by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck (with colours by Dave Stewart) is far more like it. This manages to recap Deadman’s origin and move a story forward. Bullock obviously desperately wants to be Darwyn Cooke, but that’s really no bad thing – this looks like a page of Cooke’s Spirit run.

Kurt Busiek and Joe Quiñones’ Green Lantern is more Cooke-lite – this time explicitly mentioning New Frontier. This one seems less promising than Deadman, but has possibilities.

Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred is a real departure for Gaiman – working far outside his comfort zone here, he’s doing a note-perfect Bob Haney, and fills the story with silver age action – in the one page here, Metamorpho rescues Sapphire Stagg from a giant clam, gets attacked by a shark, and gets carried off in a Zeppelin. Gaiman’s having fun here, and Allred’s the perfect artist for this.

Teen Titans by Eddie Berganza and Stan Galloway is rubbish.

Paul Pope’s Strange Adventures can be summed up in one panel – “Why, they resemble nothing less than the Mandrillus Sphynx monkey of the family Cercopithecidae… only huge, blue-furred and operating strange flying machines. The sight would be patently absurd if it wasn’t so horrible!” – pulpy silber age fun done in Pope’s unique style.

Supergirl by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner is how every Supergirl comic should be – Krypto and Streaky going wild in a pet shop and Supergirl wanting to stop them. Conner’s art is just perfect for this.

Metal Men by Dan DIdio , Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan, will be interesting to compare to the Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire take coming out next month. Bearing little resemblance to the recent mini-series, this is the kind of thing DC used to publish in the mid-80s, but the good kind.

Wonder Woman by Ben Caldwell makes the most inventive use of the page, having by my count over forty panels of varying sizes and shapes, and a decent idea let down by literally the worst possible ending (he actually does end up with her waking up and discovering it was all a dream… or was it?)

Sgt Rock And Easy Co by Joe and Adam Kubert is Joe Kubert drawing Sgt. Rock, so we all know it’s good. Weirdly, this seems to have been composed for a smaller page size, and blown up to this size, with the consequent thicker lines and more sketchy look, it made me realise for the first time what a huge influence Kubert has been on British artists – not only Steve Dillon, but also Steve Yeowell, both of whom I can see in the last panel especially.

Flash by Karl KeselKerschl, Brenden Fletcher, Rob Leigh and Dave McCaig is wonderful. The page is split in two halves – the top has the Flash and Gorilla Grodd in a bit of an adventure in typical style (again supercompressed like the Wonder Woman one was), while the bottom half is the next part of the story told as an Iris West story, done in typical 50s romance comic style right down to the Bengay dots.

The Demon and Catwoman by Walt Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze seems very like the few issues of Catwoman’s own title I read, and the setup (Catwoman robbing Jason Blood’s home) could be promising.

And Kyle Baker’s Hawkman is, again, mostly setup (though like the better stories here there’s a cliffhanger of sorts) but it’s gorgeous looking stuff – easily the best art in the thing to my mind.

If DC keep showing the signs of improvement they’ve shown recently in their superhero line, with this, Batman & Robin and Detective, we might have to start thinking of the DC logo as a sign of quality…

Wednesday Comics is here!  While DC often struggles to stay relevant in the fact of a vastly more trendy Marvel Comics, it’s had a few successes in recent years.  One such success was their year-long event, 52, a weekly with an absolute powerhouse of a writing team that managed to gain both critical and fan acclaim – no small feat for an event comic largely lacking Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman.  After that, of course, DC felt the urge to repeat their success story with the watered down Countdown and then again with Busiek’s Trinity.  Still, three years in and the weekly format, once a fresh revival, had begun to seem stale.

That all changed with the announcement of their next weekly, Wednesday Comics, a 12 week long project, packaged as a newspaper, in which superstar creative teams would be given continuity-free reins on a vasty supply of DC characters to tell their stories… one page each week.  There were a lot of risks, obviously, but the announcement of the creative teams was where they had it: Gaiman, Busiek, Allred, Azzarello, Risso, Gibbons, Pope, Baker and many more, all getting involved in the project.

So, with all that expectations, how does the issue stack up?

Very well.  Very well, indeed.

It’s tough to review due to the grab bag nature of the book – Caldwell’s Wonder Woman, for example, is gorgeous and surreal, while Kubert’s Sgt. Rock and Easy Co. on the very next page is about as bland as can be.   I toyed briefly with the idea of reviewing each story, but the simple fact is this: these stories stand together or fall together, but the strength of an Azzarello/Risso Batman doesn’t necessarily offset the slow start of the Berganza/Galloway Teen Titans.  You buy one, you get ‘em all.

And, as a collection, it works.  This, this is traditional super-hero comics done right.  For those yearning for a set of simple, gorgeous stories, Wednesday Comics delivers.  Not every story will be a hit, but #1 offers a number of strong starts and relatively few missteps.  I eagerly await seeing where it will go.

As a note, however, the stand-outs of the issue for me were Batman, Kamandi, Supergirl, Metal Men, and The Demon/Catwoman, with Superman and Wonder Woman having okay starts but gorgeous art.  The only pages I didn’t really appreciate at all were Teen Titans and Sgt. Rock and Easy Co., so the bulk of the issue was, for me, a hit.

Grade: B+

- Cal Cleary

Read/RANT

Same drill as always.  Just like the title says, this is the DC Solicits for the month of September + my commentary (for what it’s worth).

BLACKEST NIGHT #3

Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert

As the dead attack in full force, Green Lantern is faced with an impossible decision and the scattered remains of the Justice League suffer a terrible loss. Who can stop the Black Lanterns? Why are they rising? And how can the Spectre help?

Not a whole lot of info there.  I think DC may be trying to thwart my snarky commentary.  Frankly, what is here doesn’t sound all that appealing.  The JLA is already scattered.  How much more scattered can they be?  Another terrible loss?  Meh.  Another death in a mini-series in which the dead have come back to life seems pretty meaningless to me.

BLACKEST NIGHT: SUPERMAN #2

Written by James Robinson
Art and cover by Eddy Barrows & Ruy José

    It’s a crisis in Smallville as Psycho Pirate attacks! Plus, Superman’s dead bride returns as a Black Lantern! And she joins in on the haunting of Smallville in the second part of this terrifying 3-issue epic from writer James Robinson (SUPERMAN, STARMAN) and artist Eddy Barrows (TEEN TITANS, ACTION COMICS)!

Superman’s dead bride?  I assume we are talking about Earth-2 Superman and Earth-2 Lois.  Surely DC wouldn’t put such a huge spoiler in the solicits, right?  Hopefully, this will be better than it sounds.

BLACKEST NIGHT: BATMAN #2

Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Adrian Syaf & John Dell

    The Dark Knight continues his journey into BLACKEST NIGHT! Will the new Batman join his predecessor in the grave? Will Red Robin’s reunion with his father be bitter and bloody? Can anyone escape the horror of the Black Lanterns? Find out in this new installment of the 3-issue miniseries from writer Peter J. Tomasi (GREEN LANTERN CORPS, THE MIGHTY) and up-and-comer Adrian Syaf!

I like Tomasi.  So much like the Superman mini-series, I am going to assume this is better than it sounds.  But I think this solicit kind of hits on part of the reason Blackest Night just doesn’t appeal to me.  Of course Tim’s encounter with his father will be bitter and bloody.  DC seems to think that all comics should be bitter and bloody these days.  Thank goodness for fun comics like Power Girl and Booster Gold!

BLACKEST NIGHT: TITANS #2
Written by J.T. Krul
Art and cover by Ed Benes & Rob Hunter

    Titan-on-Titan violence! Black Lantern Hawk has his talons set for the female Hawk and Dove! Meanwhile, Red Star faces a frightful family reunion with Black Lanterns Pantha and Wildebeest, and Donna Troy faces her worst possible nightmare! Plus, Black Lantern Terra terrorizes Beast Boy! Continuing the 3-issue miniseries from writer J.T. Krul (JSA CLASSIFIED, Fathom) and superstar artist Ed Benes (JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA)!

Holy crap!  That cover is disturbing.  It beats the zombie butt-shot from issue 1.

Buncha dead Titans fighting living Titans.  Zzzzzz.

GREEN LANTERN #46

Written by Geoff Johns
Art and cover by Doug Mahnke & Christian AlamyOh, man!  I have to wait until September for the Mongul vs. Sinestro throwdown?  I was thinking that was coming right up.  No wonder the last issue of GLC seemed a little padded out!

    BLACKEST NIGHT continues! For months, Mongul has wrested control of the Sinestro Corps. Now Sinestro wants a word with him. And Hal wants a word with Sinestro. But in the midst of BLACKEST NIGHT, they’ll all become the hunted as the fallen Sinestro Corps members rise. What will happen? Here’s a hint: Sinestro gets some serious payback.

What else?  Well, looks like Hal has two arms.  Big flipping surprise!

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #40

Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art and cover by Patrick Gleason & Rebecca Buchman

    The battle continues on Oa as the honored dead of the Green Lantern Corps and the recently deceased Sciencell convicts who lost their lives in the riots have all become Black Lanterns and will not rest until the bloody hearts and minds of the Green Lanterns are literally in their hands. Kyle Rayner, Guy Gardener and John Stewart resort to their most brutal fighting yet as the Blackest Night threatens to envelop Sector Zero and send the universe reeling into chaos!

Buncha more zombie stuff.  All these Blackest Nights solicits read the same.  I sure hope the books are more interesting than the solicits.

WEDNESDAY COMICS #9-12

Yay!  Wednesday Comics!  Best idea in years.

FINAL CRISIS AFTERMATH: <Fill in the Blank> #5

I haven’t been reading any of these aftermath minis and I’ve made my feelings about them known for the last few months.  Seventh Soldier has been reading them and posting reviews so far.  Since I’ve run out of things to say, I’ll just lump them all under one entry and post links to 7th’s reviews:

Run!

Escape

Dance

Ink

(Ink gets the picture since 7th liked it best.)

BATMAN: WIDENING GYRE #2

Written by Kevin Smith
Art by Walter Flanagan & Art Thibert

    Kevin Smith’s newest Batman adventure has only just begun and already the surprises are pouring in! This issue has more guest-stars, more twists, more turns and more Batman than you can handle. Don’t miss the sensational second issue from Smith — the fan-favorite creator behind GREEN ARROW and Daredevil — and artist Walter Flanagan (BATMAN: CACOPHONY)!

Personally, I think Smith is way overrated.  But if you’re into him, more power to you.  I don’t know of anyone who’s into Walter Flanagan.  I found his art distracting in Cacophony…

BATMAN AND ROBIN #4

Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Philip Tan & Jonathan Glapion
All of us at read/RANT really liked Morrison and Quitely’s first issue.  I’ve got high hopes for this new dynamic duo.  Obviously Tan is no Quitely.  But it’s a trade-off I’m willing to make for a monthly comic as opposed to whatever schedule Quitely would keep.  Plus, Morrison is notoriously good at tailoring his scripts to the artist he’s working with.  So, I expect Tan to really shine here.

    Meet the Red Hood and his sidekick Scarlet, Gotham City’s vicious new “protectors,” in the start of a new arc! This dangerous duo is out to destroy the very reputation and legacy of the Batman by replacing it altogether. Writer Grant Morrison (FINAL CRISIS) teams with hot new artist Philip Tan (GREEN LANTERN) to bring you what’s sure to be the new Batman and Robin’s biggest challenge yet!

DETECTIVE COMICS #857

Written by Greg Rucka
Art by JH Williams III; co-feature art by Cully Hamner

    “Elegy” part 4 of 4! Batwoman faces off against Alice in an attempt to stop the villainess from unleashing a toxic death cloud over all of Gotham! But Alice has more up her sleeve than just poison, and Batwoman’s life will never ever be the same again.

This is bound to be a popular book here at read/RANT.  Usually, Seventh Soldier is all over the Rucka stuff.  But he’s going to have stuff competition from Bruce Castle who just can’t stop geeking out about this one.  I swear, you’d think he never saw a lesbian in a rubber suit before!

BATGIRL #2

Written by Bryan Q. Miller
Art by Lee Garbett & Trevor Scott
Cover by Phil Noto
    As the new Batgirl continues her nightly mission, the mystery of her secret identity intensifies. Now she has become the target of both Gotham City’s heroes (who don’t take kindly to a new person wearing the cape and the cowl) and its villains (who want to see the entire Bat-family six feet under)!

Please don’t let this be Barbara Gordon!  Please don’t let this be Barbara Gordon!

(The solicit says a new person wears the cape and cowl – so maybe there’s hope!)

Seriously, with Hal Jordan, Ollie Queen, Kara Zor-el and Barry Allen all back, I don’t think I can handle another Silve Age revival.  Please don’t let this be anyone but Barbara Gordon!

Also, if I don’t find out who the new Batgirl is in Batgirl #1, you can bet I will be ranting. 

BATMAN #690

Written by Judd Winick
Art by Mark Bagley & Rob Hunter

    Penguin ups the ante in his bid to become Gotham’s top crook and enlists a few of Arkham’s finest to keep Batman busy. Meanwhile a mysterious presence enters the scene to aid the Penguin – or is there another motive at play? And Two-Face takes a massive leap forward in uncovering one of Batman’s greatest secrets.

I know it’s a backhanded compliment to praise Winick’s first issuefor being surprisingly good.  Coming from most any other writer, I would have considered it pretty average.  But these days I am surprised any time I don’t hate a book by Winick.  And I didn’t hate the first issue.  Good job, Judd!

BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM #4

Written by Paul Dini; co-feature written by Marc Andreyko
Art by Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs; co-feature art by Jeremy Haun

    With Batman’s recent “Bruce Wayne” problems barely contained, Gotham City’s new Dark Knight must now deal with the most lethal arm of Black Mask’s growing empire – Victor Zsasz!
    And in the Manhunter co-feature, now that Kate has Jane Doe under arrest, what does Jane have to say about why she killed the former DA? Will she flip on her actual leader, the Black Mask – or will she continue to point the finger at Two-Face?

It’s funny.  For the last few months, I’ve been reading the solicits for the new Batbooks with little to no enthusiasm.  As good as RIP was, it kind of ruined the Batbooks for a while.  The main books were good.  But everyone else just passed the time until their books got relaunched.

Now that I have been pleasantly surprised by all of the Batbooks so far this month, all of these solicits sound a lot better.

GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #4

Written by Paul Dini
Art and cover by Guillem March
    Bruce Wayne has always been considered the quintessential ladies’ man. But he’s never faced ladies quite like this before! Has Gotham City’s playboy prince finally met his match?

Paul Dini is just writing soft core Batporn now, is that it?  We have text that doesn’t make any sense (seeing as how Bruce is currently dead) and a cover that seems to portray Harly on Catwoman action (with a whip, of course).  And, oh yeah, there’s Poison Ivy’s ass!  This isn’t even Ed Benes slipping in an ass.  No, this is just Poison Ivy mooning the reader for no apparent reason (other than readers seem to like shapely asses – even green ones.)

Will I be buying this book?  You bet your (shapely green) ass I will.  But I think I may have to hide it from my wife…

OUTSIDERS #22

Written by Peter J. Tomasi
Art by Fernando Pasarin

    “The Hunting” continues as Metamorpho, Black Lightning and Geoforce scour the globe to track down Clayface. But when tensions rise, Lighting and Geoforce will find themselves at odds over the control of the team. Plus, the Creeper and Man-Bat head down to the bayou to catch themselves a Killer Croc!

These days, the JLA is scarping the bottom of the barrel.  Teams like the Outsiders are basically stuck with C-listers.  So it makes sense that they would pack the book with as many C-list Batman villains as possible.  Next month, the team will battle Poison Ivy’s ass.

RED ROBIN #4

Written by Christopher Yost
Art by Ramon Bachs

    “The Grail” part 4 of 4! In this explosive conclusion to the debut arc, Red Robin’s search leads him to the deserts of the Middle East with the League of Assassins by his side. How many lines will he cross to prove that Bruce Wayne is alive? One journey ends, but a far deadlier one begins as Red Robin learns the truth – although he may not survive to tell anyone, because back in Gotham City, Red Robin faces off with the one man who could stop his quest: Batman!

I can admit when I am wrong.  For months now, I’ve been expecting the worst of Red Robin.  And while I still think it makes no sense whatsoever for Tim Drake to start calling himself Red Robin, the first issue was actually pretty damn good.  So, keep it up!

SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #1

Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Gary Frank & Jon Sibal

    Hot on the heels of their acclaimed run on ACTION COMICS, superstars Geoff Johns and Gary Frank reunite to present a 6-issue event that spells out the definitive origin of Superman for the 21st century – and it all starts with a gigantic 48-page issue! Chronicling Clark Kent’s journey from the cornfields of Smallville to the skyscrapers of Metropolis, you’ll witness a whole new look at the beginnings of Lex Luthor, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Lois Lane, Metallo, Jimmy Olsen, the Parasite and more! It’s a look at the mythic past of the Man of Steel with an eye toward the future!

Forget Blackest Night!  Forget Flash: Rebirth!  (Please let me forget Flash: Rebirth!)  This is the Geoff Johns book I am looking forward to!  I loved Johns and Frank on Action.  It was my favorite monthly comic at the time.  So even though they appear to be crapping all over Mark Waid’s “definitive” Superman origin from just a few years prior, sign me up.

ACTION COMICS #881

Written by Greg Rucka; co-feature written by James Robinson & Rucka
Art by Julian Lopez; co-feature art by CAFU

    “The Hunt for Reactron” starts here! Spilling out of the stunning finale of “Codename: Patriot,” Supergirl and Flamebird find themselves at each other’s throats! What’s happened to these two childhood friends to put them at such odds, and can Nightwing calm them down before the situation escalates? And just what are they going to do about all of the guys who are surrounding them? You know, the guys in the tanks? Continued in SUPERGIRL #45!
    Plus! James Robinson and Greg Rucka’s Captain Atom co-feature continues! What is happening to Captain Atom, and more important, what’s happening to his mind? Team Breach is on hand to lend some answers, but Atom probably isn’t going to like them.

I expected to like Rucka’s Action Comics more than I liked Robinson’s Superman-free Superman.  But frankly, the book has been something of a disappointment.  Hopefully, things will improve when the book crosses iver with the always excellent (since rge new team took over) Supergirl.

And, I’m still hoping the Captain Atom back-up rocks!  If there’s one character in the DCU who needs some love, it’s Captain (What the hell has been going on with all the Monarcg shit) Atom.

ADVENTURE COMICS #2

Written by Geoff Johns; co-feature written by Geoff Johns and Michael Shoemaker
Art by Francis Manapul, co-feature art by Clayton Henry

    Superboy is back and living out his teenage years in Smallville. But all is not as it seems in Superman’s hometown. And while Conner reunites with his former girlfriend, Wonder Girl, to see if they have a future together, Lex Luthor and Brainiac form a partnership that will cause havoc throughout the DC Universe. But what do their plans have to do with Conner and the other students at Smallville High?
    Plus, in the Legion of Super-Heroes co-feature, which takes place all the way in the 31st century, Lightning Lad travels to the prison planet of Takron-Galtos to confront his brother, Lighting Lord. There, Lightning Lord informs Lighting Lad of a shocking family secret that sets the pieces in motion for a war that will decide the future of the universe. Yeah, the universe. No big.

Awwww.  What a sweet cover!  I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.  It takes me back to the days of Young (So much better than Johns’ angst-filled Titans) Justice.  Of course, this being a Johns book, I expect that after a bloody trauma, the couple will realize they have no future together.  And there will be angst.  Angsty angst.  Like in Twilight but without the vampires.

SUPERMAN #692

Written by James Robinson
Art by Renato Guedes & José Wilson Magalhães

    Tragedy strikes in the aftermath of “Codename: Patriot” as Metropolis buries one of its own! And with a man down, the Science Police are on their own to stop a cadre of Super-Villains from stealing a formerly common commodity that has suddenly become rarer than gold!

I have to admit to being wrong again this month!  I wasn’t really all that interested in Robinson’s take on the Guardian and Mon-el.  In fact, I let the book slip off my radar for a little while.  But once I got caught back up, Robinson hooked me!

Hopefully, I’ll have to apologize to him again when Cry for Justice comes out.  Because that 5-page preview was bad.  Real bad.

SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #7

Written by James Robinson & Greg Rucka
Art by Pete WoodsThere ain’t a whole lot I like better than World of New Krypton.  Maybe a mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich where the mutton is cut real thin…

    It’s never a dull moment on New Krypton – just when Superman was getting used to his place on his reborn homeworld, he’s thrust into a new position that makes his previous duties look like a cakewalk. And thanks to the fallout from the “Codename: Patriot” storyline, New Krypton’s ruler – and Superman’s aunt – Alura has her hands full keeping the people of Kandor from panicking. So of course it’s the perfect time for an alien threat to arrive and declare war…

SUPERGIRL #45

Written by Sterling Gates
Art by Jamal Igle & Jon Sibal

    Continuing from ACTION COMICS #881 – “The Hunt for Reactron” part 2! Can Supergirl rely on her seemingly unstable childhood friend to help her track down her father’s assassin? Or will she ultimately get burned by Flamebird?

If Bruce Castle does another list of the best covers of the month, he better remember this one!  I love the expressions on both characters’ faces.

Gates and Igle have been consistently excellent since they took over the book.  (Last issue made my list of the top 5 books of May.)  If you’re still hung up on all those years Supergirl sucked, it’s time to get over it!  Read Supergirl!

SUPERGIRL ANNUAL #1

Written by Sterling Gates
Art by Fernando Dagnino & Raúl Fernandez

    In SUPERGIRL #34, Supergirl took the new secret identity of Linda Lang. But how long until someone finds out her secret? Now, for the first time ever, witness Supergirl’s initial attempt to live her double life in “Linda Lang: Day One”!
    Plus! The secret origin of Superwoman revealed! What drove Lucy Lane to become the superpowered threat known as Superwoman? How did she transform from Lois Lane’s little sister into Project 7734’s secret weapon? Find out here!

And as a bonus for being so awesome, Supergirl gets… an annual full of filler material.  Read Supergirl, but this looks utterly skippable.

THE SHIELD #1

Written by Eric Trautmann; co-feature written by Brandon Jerwa
Art by Marco Rudy & Mick Gray; co-feature art by Greg Scott

    Spinning out of August’s “Red Circle” event from superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski comes the new ongoing adventures of the patriotic Shield and the mysterious man on the run, Inferno! Eric Trautmann (CHECKMATE) and Marco Rudy (FINAL CRISIS) take Lt. Joe Higgins, a.k.a. The Shield, into the hotspots civilians dare not go. His first mission takes The Shield to the razed country of Bialya, destroyed by the rage of Black Adam in 52. Something lurks in the mountains beyond militia activity, and The Shield must investigate!
    Plus, Inferno stars in a fast-paced co-feature from writer Brandon Jerwa (G.I. Joe) and artist Greg Scott (GOTHAM CENTRAL)! Who is Inferno, and why is he being pursued by the Dark Men? He’d better find out fast because Green Arrow and Black Canary have questions of their own for the new hero!

Hey look, DC bought their own Captain America knock-off!  Too bad they don’t have Ed Brubaker to write it.  (I tease!  I tease the Red Circle!)

I’m not sure what to make of these Red Circle on-goings.  I guess DC has to get their money’s worth since they bought the characters.  I hope they’re good.

THE WEB #1

Written by Angela Robinson; co-feature written by John Rozum
Art by Roger Robinson & Hilary Barta;co-feature art by Tom Derenick & Bill Sienkiewicz

    Spinning out of August’s “Red Circle” event from superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski comes the new ongoing adventures of the selfish rich-boy hero the Web, and the mysterious-undying Hangman. Writer/director Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S.) and artist Roger Robinson (BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS) spin the tales of The Web, a man who has only recently come to understand the burden of true heroism. He’s fighting crime on his own terms, and for his first mission he’s hunting down the men responsible for killing his brother!
    Plus, the Hangman stars in his own co-feature with a touch of urban noir from writer John Rozum (DETECTIVE COMICS) and artists Tom Derenick and Bill Sienkiewicz, the team behind REIGN IN HELL! The Hangman haunts the streets of San Francisco and touches lives as he works to discover whether his powers are a blessing or a curse.

See The Shield.  Nice cover though.

Also, I wouldn’t brag about having the art team from Reign in Hell on the back-up.  the weakest thing about that mini-series was the art.

THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #27

Written by J. Michael Straczynski
Art & cover by Jesus Saiz
    The wait is over as J. Michael Straczynski arrives on THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD! First up, the best-selling scribe pairs Batman and…Dial H For Hero? Robby Reed and his grandfather thought their brief visit to Gotham City would go smoothly until one of Gotham’s petty thieves made the score of the century in the form of Robby’s H-Dial! Batman’s on the case, but The Joker’s crime wave has the city in a panic, and the power of the H-Dial has had a very unexpected effect on the hood who stole it. The choices he makes could change his life – and Robby’s – forever! Features the stunning art of Jesus Saiz (OMAC PROJECT)!

After waiting for what seems like years, JMS kicks off his B&tB with Dial H for Hero?  Oookay.  Well, at least the book promises to look good!

BOOSTER GOLD #24

Written by Dan Jurgens; co-feature written by Matthew Sturges
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund; co-feature art by Mike Norton
    Booster Gold faces off against Black Beetle for the fate of the entire Justice League. But Black Beetle isn’t all he seems, and his one, true identity is revealed at last! Plus, Matt Sturges and Mike Norton take Blue Beetle out of El Paso and drop him directly into harm’s way in a battle against…Black Beetle!

I finally got around to catching up with Booster Gold last issue and I am so glad I did.  This book is perfect for anyone who likes fun comic books.  (And if you don’t like fun comics, well, phooey on you!)  The new Blue and Gold make a great double feature.  I’ll stick around as long as they stay this much fun.

DOOM PATROL #2

Written by Keith Giffen; co-feature written by Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Matthew Clark & John Livesay; co-feature art by Kevin Maguire

    It’s a black hole, but it’s not a black hole. If you’re a Doom Patrol fan, that made perfect sense. And even if not, then you’re in for one hell of a ride as the Doom Patrol face off against the most annoying alien this side of G’nort. Who’s G’nort? What, do we have to spoon-feed this stuff to you?
    Oh, and we send the Metal Men into space. Just because.

I’ve never been a fan of Doom Patrol or the Metal Men, but I am really hoping this book can change both of those things.

THE FLASH: REBIRTH #6

Written by Geoff Johns
Art and covers by Ethan Van Sciver
    In a battle along the outskirts of time, the secrets of the Speed Force have been revealed! The new archnemesis of those who ride the lightning is coming for Iris Allen. And the Barry Allen you knew is gone forever…or is he? What change does Wally West face? What destiny will Kid Flash choose? Prepare to meet a Flash Family that’s both familiar and different…and get to the starting line for the next epic adventures of the Speed Force!

It’s not like we didn’t all know Barry was returning to the role of the Flash.  But that cover pretty much ruins what little drama this tepid mini-series had left.  I’m looking forward to wrapping up this Rebirth nonsense and moving on to the actual series.  Honestly, Green Lantern Rebirth was terribly over-rated too.  Johns didn’t hit his stride on Green Lantern until he was about a year into the on-going.

GREEN ARROW & BLACK CANARY #24

Written by Andrew Kreisberg
Art by Mike Norton, Josef Rubinstein and Bill Sienkiewicz

    The main feature this month focuses on the DC Universe’s bizarre answer to Thelma & Louise as Black Canary and her rival Cupid end up on the lam from both Big Game and the Star City Police! Meanwhile, this issue’s co-feature sees Green Arrow doing his best to bring down Big Game himself before the baddie can find either woman in GA’s life!

I seriously hate this book.  Please do something, DC.  Both Green Arrow and Black Canary deserve better.

And while I sometimes rant against senseless killing in comics, please kill Cupid dead.  Let Sean McKeever write it if you have to.  Just kill her as soon as possible before she can further stain the pages of this comic.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #37

Written by Len Wein
Pencil art by Tom Derenick

    It’s the epic finale of the 3-part Royal Flush arc as Roulette and Amos Fortune raise the stakes, and the JLA go all in! But with the odds against them, the team had better pray for a last-minute miracle before their chips are cashed in for good.

As much as I am excited to see Plastic Man back on the team, this is clearly just filler until DC is ready to move forward with a new direction for the book.  DC, you screwed this book up!

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 80-PAGE GIANT #1

Written by Chuck Kim, Josh Williamson, Rich Fogel and others
Art by Mahmud Asrar, Adrian Syaf and others

    With a tale this massive, we could only fit it in an 80-page giant! When a battle between Epoch and the Time Commander spills over into our era, the Justice League finds itself scattered throughout time. That leaves Superman and Dr. Light fighting alongside a tornado-powered Samurai, Green Lantern and Red Arrow locked in a showdown with Cinnamon in the Old West, Green Arrow and Firestorm facing the Bride of Frankenstein in WWII, John Stewart and Vixen drawing swords alongside the Shining Knight, and Black Canary and Zatanna evading gangsters with the original Crimson Avenger!

Looks like someone had a little extra filler in their JLA drawer.

The Samurai?  Was Apache Chief too busy?

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #31

Written by Bill Willingham & Matthew Sturges
Art and cover by Jesus Merino
    Magog and Wildcat square off as the team traitor involved in the attack on a fellow JSAer is revealed! It all leads to greater tension and permanent rifts within the most storied Super Hero team of all time! Clearly, this was an inside job, and though they may not realize it now, the damage to the group is deeper than any of them suspects.

Now this sounds good.  Why are JSA and GLC the only decent team books DC is putting out these days?

JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE #3

Written by James Robinson
Art and cover by Mauro Cascioli
    The team welcomes two new members as Supergirl and Shazam join the roster! And it’s just in time, too, because when Prometheus is finally caught and his evil machinations are revealed, the League finds out they may be unable to stop him.

Oh boy!  That 5-page preview for this book was awful.

I wanted to punch Hal Jordan in the face.  This was Hal at his worst!  Where the hell does Hal Jordan get off getting on a soap box.  Hal, you are one massive retcon away from being a supervillain and now you’re going to lecture Superman about how to get the job done?

For 5 pages?!?

Oh boy!

I couldn’t stand that the rest of the Justice League sat there and listened to him go on and on.  I lost respect for them.  Superman or Wonder Woman should have put the little crybaby in his place.  And Ollie should have shut his buddy up instead of standing on the sidelines saying “Oh boy!”

The upside is that this book can only get better.  Because those 5 pages were some of the worst I’ve read this year.

And please, someone show Mauro Cascioli how to draw Wonder Woman so that her crotch is covered.

JSA VS. KOBRA #4

Written by Eric Trautmann
Art by Don Kramer & Michael Babinski

    The trail of Kobra leads the Justice Society of America to Fawcett City! Jason Burr may think that it’s safe to venture into former Shazam territory, but he’s about to learn that the JSA protects each other’s turf no matter what. And now that Burr has gotten them mad, there’s no holding the Justice Society back!

I wasn’t going to buy this book.  It just looked like another unnecessary mini-series from DC.  But I skimmed through the first issue and it looked pretty darn good.  I brought it home, but I haven’t read it yet.  I spent the weekend catching up on a pile of Dark Reign books.  But, this looks like good stuff.

Check back later.  I think we may have a review of the first issue coming from Seventh Soldier.

MAGOG #1

Written by Keith Giffen
Art and variant cover by Howard Porter & John Dell

    Introducing the latest member of the Justice Society of America to break out into his own monthly series! Tired of chafing at the restraints that being a member of the JSA put upon him, Magog decides to take justice into his own hands and track down who’s behind the dealing of high-tech arms to lowlife scum around the DC Universe! Be here as the hunt starts Magog on the path to discovering his own unavoidable destiny thanks to writer Keith Giffen (JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, DOOM PATROL) and artists Howard Porter and John Dell, the acclaimed team behind JLA!

When I heard DC was putting out a Magog on-going, I was confused.  Of all the JSA characters out there who could be getting their own on-going series, Magog seems like an unlikely candidate.  If nothing else, he has the least track record.

(For the record, I’d buy a Mr. Terrific series, DC.)

I’m not a huge Giffen fan.  And I usually dislike Howard Porter.  So, I’m far from sold on this on-going.  But I will say that I read Dan Jurgens’ issue of Brave and the Bold in which Magog took on Booster Gold.  And it was good.  So, maybe this character has some life in him beyond JSA.

By the way, read Booster Gold.

RED TORNADO #1

Written by Kevin VanHook
Art by Jose Luisí & J.P. Mayer

    Think you know everything there is to know about the mighty Red Tornado?
Well think again!
    This miniseries shines a new light on the true origin of Red Tornado, the Justice League of America’s resident android Super Hero! You’ll not only discover a crew of characters new to the DC Universe, if Red Tornado has his way, you’ll also uncover the hero’s true android family! But will it cost him the love of his adopted human one?
    Get caught in the whirlwind of this exciting new series from writer Kevin VanHook and artist Jose Luisí!

I may not know everything there is to know about Red Tornado, but I’m pretty sure I know everything I want to know about him.  Frankly, I got my Red Tornado fix when Brad Metzler shoved him down my throat, ruined the Justice League, wrote a multi-part JLA story centering on this third-tier character.

Although, in a world where Magog gets an on-going, I guess a Red Tornado mini series makes sense.

POWER GIRL #5

Written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
Art and cover by Amanda Conner
Variant cover by Guillem March
    “Space Girls Gone Wild!” part 2 of 3! As the trio of sexy alien marauders continue their rampage across Earth, Power Girl tries to figure out how to stop ’em! But with aliens this gorgeous, readers won’t ever want them to leave!

PG is a fun comic book.  On that basis alone, issue one made my top books of May list.  Yes, you should be reading it…

SECRET SIX #13

Written by Gail Simone
Art by Nicola Scott & Doug Hazlewood

    War breaks out on the new Devil’s Island and the Six are split in half. Now they’re on opposite sides and ready to die (or kill) for their cause! But what in the world are they fighting over that’s strong enough – and brutal enough – to take down Wonder Woman?

I love this book.  Last issue kicked off this storyline on a high note.  You know this is going to be a classic.  I can’t wait.

And lest you think I am alone in my praise of the Secret Six, issue 9 (which was a bit of an off issue) also made Seventh Soldier’s top 5 list for May.

TITANS #17

Written by Pat McCallum
Art by Angel Unzueta & Wayne Faucher

    Spotlight on Beast Boy! Gar Logan grows tired of not being taken seriously by his Titans teammates. And what he plans on doing about it will shock you!

Confession: I sort of half-read the last issue of Titans that spotlighted Cyborg.  It wasn’t half bad.  Which is a giant leap above Winick’s run on this title.  Is it possible that the Titans franchise is righting itself?  Am I wrong to get my hopes up?

Probably.

TEEN TITANS #75

Written by Felicia D. Henderson; co-feature written by Sean McKeever
Art by Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson; co-feature art by Yildiray Cinar & Júlio Ferreira

    Come celebrate our gala 75th issue with an all-star cast of Titans past and present! Joining this issue for the extravaganza is new ongoing writer Felicia D. Henderson, a co-executive producer on TV’s hit show Fringe! Don’t miss this start to a fresh new take on DC’s premier teen team!
    And in the Ravager co-feature, Rose lies nearly dead in the Arctic when a horrific discovery chills her even more!

Well, the book needs a fresh start.  Hiring TV writers is often times a deal with the devil.  They tend to put their comics work on the back-burner.  And rightly so.  The money’s in TV.  But it sucks when your favorite comic is a low priority for its creative team.  After the train wreck that was McKeever’s run, I’ll take any change and hope for the best.

Unfortunately, McKeever’s still here writing his own Mary Sue, Ravager.  That main story is going to have to be pretty darn good to make up for the annoying back-up feature.

WONDER WOMAN #36

Written by Gail Simone
Art by Aaron Lopresti & Matt Ryan

    “The Rise of the Olympian” has changed Wonder Woman’s life completely, and it’s not over yet as repercussions are still being felt all over the world! In this issue, Diana finds herself fighting for her life against the man destined by the gods to take her place – Achilles, the Warkiller!

A few people have asked me why I haven’t written up anything on Rise of the Olympian.  Honestly, I’ve been stock piling issues.  I’ve found that Gail’s big WW stories read better when you have the whole thing in front of you.  So, I plan to read the whole story at once and do a write-up then. 

Thankfully, Seventh Soldier has been following this story monthly.  And his write-ups are far better than my ranting anyway.

That’s it for this month!

read/RANT