Sunday, June 22, 2008

What the &^@# is going on with "The Dark Side Club"?

Okay, I read Birds of Prey, and let me just tell you, I was delighted when I saw the writer from Mary Jane was on it. He's not responsible for this month's issue though....a story which features a bunch of gangsters in an undergroud fight club who all have names of various Fourth Worlders. Didn't we just finished Death of the New Gods? DC...what are you doing?

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Father's Day


Father's Day in my home goes like this;

Step One : I say don't do anything, we can't afford it, it's not that big a deal.

Step Two : My family ignores my advice and does something anyhow.

My wife was with our two daughters at Wal-Mart gettign diapers. She qswung by the Men's section to get a Shirt form me, something with a clever phrase on it. She found one she liked, and was showing my two year old Maddie. Maddie had other ideas. She marched over to the shelf and pointed.

"Spidey shirt!"

"No honey," My wife said, remembering I have a moratorium on getting superhero shirts. (I have enough to go a month wearing a different one each day and you'd never see the same one twice) "I don't think Daddy wants another Spider-Man shirt. How about this one?"

"No. Spidey shirt!"

"Really honey, how about we look over here?"

"No Mommy! SPIDEY SHIRT!"

So I got a Spider-Man shirt for Father''s day, and Maddie dressed in a little Spidey shirt of her own when we went to Church on Sunday (So we would match).

Now let's see what happens on my birthday.....

Tuesday, May 27, 2008


Okay, let me just say, I wasn't a big fan of the Salvation Run concept. I fugured this was just DC's event de jour and I have attempted to avoide as many of these as I can. I actually only took a look after JLA refrenced it...yes I know that was the trap and I willingly walked in.

I loved it.

It reminded me of the old Suicide Squad stories, the dynamics were thre and teh characterizations were wonderful. I was especialy pleased with the way Luthor was portrayed. This was a really well done series and surprisingly tehre are very few tie ins.

So why can't they coordinate it correctly??? Catwoman is WAY out of synch with SR, and the JLA sub-plot was completely useless, especially being seperate as it was(add another issue to SR or something. It could have been a good sub-plot if it had been contained within the series). The Suicide Squad mini had nothing to do with SR, but it ran concurrrently to the series (even though it takes place some time before SR - confusing anyone?). Now, the last issue dosen't even come out this month! No SR For May! June is the release date! In the mean time, Grodd shows back up in Flash, Catwoman shows Selenia back on Earth...so does JLA....

DC, you guys are the big boys. This isn't Rob Liefield's Image or Post-Shooter Valient. You need to do better. The Superman titles have shown (at least in the past) incredibly tight continuity. The Bat titles (with as vast a selection as there are) have given it a good shot. This series shouldn't have been too hard. It was small, and it had genuinely good ideas behind it. I know you will probably collect it in a trade paperback, but if you keep buchering the serial titles you'll soon find that you have no more stories to collect in trades.

Better luck next time.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Spidy 560 and JLA 21

I'm ashamed to be a DC fan.

Can I just admit it? I've been a DC fan all my life. If you want flashy art, you go to Marvel. If you want great storytelling and innovation, you go to DC.

No so anymore.

JLA is just getting DUMB. The secret room floating in space that you teleport to from the front of the Hall of Justice...okay, I felt my IQ drop six points just writing that sentence.

At least we got to see some of Superman Wonder Woman and Batman...since the seriese OBVIOUSLY isn't about them...no this is really about the second stringers...of course that's not why most folks buy it. They buy it because Superman is usually on the cover. And what's with Lex Luthor being back in the green armor? I know it's been going that way for a while, but honestly; are the writers so lazy that they can't find a compelling way to tell a story with him unless he can hit someone? John Byrne managed to do it. Heck, Salvation Run managed to do some pretty amazing things with him (even though it still devolved into hitting)

Perhaps they need to take a hint from the guys over at SpiderMan.

Now I'll be the first to say the whole getting rid of the marriage thing was a mistake, but

A. Come on. We know it's not forever

B. They did it right.

Seriously. The devil wants to dissolve their marriage because it is "pure, and made holy in the eyes of he who I hate most". Dude, I almost fainted. In a society that constantly attacks marriage on a philisophical level for the sake of cheap laughs, this is GOLD.

Shake ups at the Bugle, Pete snapping paparazzi pics and....let's just call her the "Mystery Lady" ( How did i not see that coming?) and everything fits together perfectly in a compelling story. I've been hooked on Spidey's "Brand New Day" since the first issue. I haven't missed one.

Oh well. It's time to head over to the comics sho wit my list of mostly Marvel titles. I better get my dark glasses so no one will recognize me.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

New layout and IRON MAN!

I used to be able to do the daily thing with updating, I'm not so sure I can nowadays.

So! New Layout. I will post when I really have something to say!


And today, I have something to post about.







Has any one been playing with the Iron Man from Free Comic book Day?
Seriously, how good is this figure? I played him against an old Iron Man from one of the earlier series and it was a surprisingly even match...except the older one costs 160 points to play, and the FCBD one cost 100. They both pack a real punch dealing 3 clicks of damage a pop, but with the lower cost, FCBD Iron Man is a WAY better piece.

The other thing worth mentioning is the paint job. The sculpts on both my Iron Men are nice, but the FCBD fig has a nice and dark paint job, muting the bright primary colors. it's a more realistic looking piece and I just love it. it's strong resemblance (though not identical) to teh movie version dosen't hurt either.

Definately worth the hassle it took to get him (We went to Kieth's Comics in Elyria and they wouldn't give me one! The clerk said he was saving it for the kids. Thanks to Recess Games in Great norther for my Iron Man!)

Tuesday, January 29, 2008









Okay, we'll start off with a Bat block. Since I rarely ever get Bat titles anymore this was a weird month with the impulse buying.
Superman Batman has been a regular pull for me, but that's because of the Superman part of the title and not the Batman part. It manages to be excellent as always, with more than a little JLA creeping in. Funny how they show up more in here this month that they do in their own title.

Batman : The Man who laughs is yet another Dark Knight spin off, specifically a spin off of Year One (which was a spin off of Dark Knight). It's better than most. Certainly better than Year Three. Still it lacks the essential grittiness that Miller's series had. Interesting enough to pick up though.

I almost passed on Detective this month because of the goofy cover. I'm not sure why I picked it up but I'm glad I did. The story with Ras Al Gul is so well handled I may go back and look at the rest of it. Ras is a character that when handled well, can be a huge global level threat. When handled badly...he's just silly...and for the most part he's been handled badly in recent years. Nice to see this is the exception. Robin and Nightwing both appear, something I'm always glad to see. We need more Robin in Batman comics. There has been such a drive to develop the character in his own right that we are now beginning to forget that he still IS the latter part of "Batman and...." His own title is still going strong, though just a little too similar to stories past. The current arc reminds me too much of when he first met the Spoiler; coincidental (but I'm pretty certain not intentional) since I suspect she's about to make a return to the series. Oh and the scene with Robin balancing on top of the huge ball is GREAT. "Believe it or not, I've trained for this; and I made fun of Bruce for this part of my training...."

I'm still pleased with Spidey, and I saw something interesting in the eyes of Harry Osborne this month. I'm really wondering where they are going to go here. It's a relatively slow start, but not so slow that I'm bored. Oh well. Two weeks till the next issue.

I'm an idiot. I didn't figure out who the Baby's mother was until this issue...
The Punisher is a hard series to follow. I don't know if it's the violence or the quality of violence. It's not as comic booky here. Still , I can't put this series down.. it has a terrible beauty to it. Frank's description of fatherhood gives me something to think about as I cope with my own three month old.

I did go back and search out all of the issues of Salvation Run after it began to intrude on JLA. I'm glad I did. This series is GOOD. Still brighter than the old Suicide Squad, it has a very similar feel, not surprising when you throw a bunch of Supervillians together. Get this for the characterization of Lex Luthor if nothing else. The writer has it dead on. His Lex is quite derivative of Smallville, and that’s no bad thing. Charming, intelligent and a brilliant tactician, he's going to build his own army out here in the wilds, I just know it. More on this later.

Freddy Vs Jason vs Ash, and Finally Freddy has a chance to shine! It's still WAY to focused on Jason but with the Necronomicon giving Freddy the ability to hit the dream world and the real world, watch out. I can see now this wouldn’t have really worked as a movie. It’s way to silly.

Finally, What If : the Civil War version. I don’t like the whole Civil War series, anymore than I like the various sundry Crisis going on in the DCU. This is a nice encapsulation of what could have happened though. I think I could have enjoyed the whole thing if It had been done like this. What if Cap was the one Superhumans registered too, he’d be the only one knowing the identities and training them. A brilliant divergence. On the other hand what if it had been completely a government op, with Shield at the helm. A terrifying divergence... This may be the best title I read this week.

One last note, Doctor Who Classics. Pass. This is a reprint of…well, how do I explain this? The stories originally were printed in the Doctor Who magazine, t hen reprinted by Marvel for the Doctor Who comic in the US. Reprinted again in England as Doctor Who color classics, then recently (last year or two) collected and reprinted again in trade from.
How many times can you reprint these stories?? Especially when they are so bad? They’ve been recolored to bring them up to modern standards but these are still terrible stories, and they don’t get better for a while. At least not until the end of the 4th Doctor’s run. I’m not even posting a pic here.

Monday, January 28, 2008

The Wife stopped at the store to get a few things for dinner. We had Sloppy Joes with macaroni and cheese.

Spider-Man mac and cheese that is.....

Friday, January 25, 2008

Sci-Friday






So IDW is doing Star Trek. Does anyone realize that this is the first time the same company has held the licenses to both Star Trek AND Doctor Who at the same time? I find this really exciting as these were the two most influential SF shows in my youth. (Never was a big Star Wars fan, sorry. I like it…just not in that way….)













Whenever reading Star Trek in the comics, it is inevitable that I will compare it to DC’s run during the 80’s and 90’s. To me that is the pinnacle of Trek lore (but we’ll explore that another time)

This is not a bad job. I skipped on some early IDW offerings because they were too predictable. In fact I was probably deliberately avoiding them because it's irritating when we get a new publisher every five minuets. I’m not into kilingon stories. I think the year four series is unnecessary (it’s been covered to extremes in the books). Aren’t there enough alien spotlight kind of stories? Assignment Earth is an okay idea but it wasn’t good enough for a spin off back then and it still isn’t. New frontier is a good idea, I’m just not into that series.
























Does that about cover it? On to the “Intelligence Gathering” story. I love that it focuses on the Romulins (on of the more underrated villains in the Trek universe. Why is everyone so obsessed by Klingons?) and the memory core Riker and Data travel into is beautiful (24th century equivalent of a RAID array). It reminds me a bit of the showroom in the HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy film. I also love the revelation (and a practical one at that) that not every vehicle in the federation has weapons attached. It also is a good stopping point. If you want to get off the ride here and now you can, and still feel like you read a complete story. I do like that, so much in fact, that I plan to pick up the next issue!

A note about the art on Commander Riker. I have no doubt that some folks will complain that he dosen’t really look like that. I think this is the best example of drawing a character that looks like the character rather than the actor playing them. Riker looks a lot better than Jonathan Frakes. This is one of the advantages of the medium. I’m pleased to see them taking advantage of it. I do wish the bridge was made to look a little bigger though. I would even go as far as to say it’d be nice to see the bridge and uniform scheme from Generations. Again, it’s the ability of the medium to make things better.



One last note, the way the title of the story was displayed in one frame at the top of the first page. Perfect. Perfect idea, now if you can just learn how to draw the ship, it would be flawless.





I’m off now to get a copy of Doctor Who.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Blue and Gold?

I saw it in the Christmas wish list back in the December issue of either Green Lantern or JLA. Booster Gold’s wish was for the return of the Blue and Gold team. Specifically, the return of Ted Korrd; Blue Beetle.

Here’s the thing about Booster Gold. He’s impossible to like. He’s designed that way, to be the worst elements of the Yuppies, Liberals, Conservatives, jocks and gigolo. He didn’t work back when his own title first came out in the 80’s, and I don’t see how he could possibly work now.

Keith Giffen figured out how though, He saw the character was about to be banished into limbo and came up with the solution . Pair him up with another character that is floundering. In this case it was Blue Beetle.

Blue Beetle was a Charlston charactered aquired by DC when they bought the catalogue. Originally slated to be in Alan Moore’s Watchmen, they decided not to go that route in favor of trying him out in his own series. The problem is that while Beetle works in the context of Charlton Comics (really well actually) you put hi min a world with Superman and Batman and he seems just a little bit…silly. Mabey it’s the goggles…or the flying bug….I don’t know.

Pairing Blue Beetle and Booster Gold was a stroke of comedy genius. They embodied the whole “Buddy Cop” stereotype, and played off each other perfectly. Quite often, they were the only reason to read Giffen’s Justice League.

There’s a new Blue Beetle in the DCU. I tried him out a couple of times, but he just doesn’t interest me. This storyline in Booster Gold though…
I remember when similar stuff was happening in Green Lantern. The writers would find a way to sneak Hal Jordan into the series along side of Kyle. The Hal fans would hope beyond hope that this was it, they were bringing Jordan back. Sales would go up. Finally I would laugh in their faces and point out I knew all along Hal wasn’t coming back. You fell for it!

Suddenly I know how they felt.

Booster Gold Just dosen’t work without his little buddy. I see on the DC site that this arc will be going on for a couple of months, but I cn’t see how they could make this come back permanent, yet I hope they do.

So sorry to all of those Hal Jordan fans I unfairly teased, but you got your boy back…isn’t it my turn now?

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Wednesday Alternative.









Deadshot

I first encountered Deadshot in the pages of DC’s Who’s Who, which I used to read cover to cover (probably not that healthy for a child to do….). When John Ostrander rolled out Suicide Squad for DC in the late 80’s I was delighted to find that I recognized quite a number of the rotating cast as well as a few regulars. Deadshot was one of them.

I know Deadshot looks like a superhero, but if you read through the series you’ll come away with a wholly different perspective.

Back when John Ostrander was writing the Suicide Squad he found he had WAY too much material he wanted to explore with Deadshot so he convinced the powers that be at DC to do a mini series. This series is a little dated. You can feel the 80’s in it here and there, but the story stays riveting. The fascinating this is that Deadshot is not entirely the main character here. The story is told more from the perspective of his thearipist, who is tracking him down, than it is from his own. It’s a story about relationships with Deadshot’s estranged family, and the rescue of his son.

****************SPOILER ALERT********************

The rescue fails. The child dies at the hand of a pedophile. Deadshot goes beserk and kills everyone involved. Everyone except the person who ordered it all; his mother. No, he dosen’t kill her, he cripples her.

Still think this is your usuall Superhero fare?

***************SPOILER ENDS**********************

One of my friends has mentioned that standards in the 80’s were slipping. The comics code was letting a LOT slip by. I’d like to mention this was a general release comic. It had the comic code seal on it, I was buying it in the drugstore down the street from my house.



































It’s been a few years but a second mini-series was run in 2004. I think you really have to know the first series to understand the second. It’s not bad, a fun return to the character, but it dosen’t have nearly the depth the first one does. It dosen’t disturb the way that one does.

I finally got my Deadshot figure a couple of years ago. I’ve wanted this figure since I was 12, mostly because of that first mini-series. He’s a fascinating character, and despite the super hero trappings, a wonderful comic alternative.



The original series may be purchased here

The followup series from 2004 may be purchased here


Tuesday, January 22, 2008

This Week's Pulls









The Amazing Spider Man #547

Grimm Fairy Tales : Return to Wonderland #5

Friday the Thirteenth : Bad Land #1 0f 2

JLA #17

The Messiah Complex parts 9-12

Superman #672

Suicide Squad #5 of 8

Star Trek TNG : Intelligence Gathering #1

If you aren’t reading Spidey right now you need to start. He’s been one of those titles that I’ve been skipping over for years now, mabey grabbing this months copy at the supermarket if it looks good but not following very consistently. The “One More Day” arc changed all of that. Now that we are into the follow up “Brand New Day”, I can’t get enough. It’s actually a GOOD thing they are publishing this weekly right now because I’d go nuts if they weren’t. Marvel hasn’t put everything right from Civil War yet, but they have taken Spidey in an interesting direction and I have no complaints so far. Waiting to see what’s going to happen with Harry Osborne alone is killing me. Here’s hoping they don’t go shark jumping.




Grimm Fairy Tales is a pass. I keep hoping this series will pull itself together and become more than a T and A title. Reminds me a lot of Image when it began. Once in a while they have a good take on a classic fairy story, but it’s all just buried amongst these poor women who are going to end up with back problems in the near future.







Now can someone explain to me why Wild Storm keeps putting out Friday the 13th stories but not Nightmare on Elm Street ones?? I mean, I’m enjoying adding to my horror collection, but I’d really rather seem more Freddy than Jason. At least there’s Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash this month (I need to track down last months too). Pass on this. It’s a quick 2 parter, and if you are a fan of Jason you might like it, but the writer is trying to parallel another story here, Jason’s actions mirroring a jealous indian husband of a hundred years ago. It’s perhaps a little to high concept for the subject matter, and it’s not treated well.



This Month’s JLA is actually a nice read. The title has never been all that good since the relaunch. There seems to be little action and even less story about the JLA itself. This issue though, this is the best issue of Suicide Squad I have read in a long time…oh wait; this is JLA…

Seriously, why is the Squad better written in JLA than it is in it’s own title? Especially when John Ostrander (the creator and original writer of SS) is back on it? That aside, this is really more of a set up issue (I hope. I thought that about the last issue and it turned out to be just a wasted filler space). I think this can springboard us into a really good story arc. It’s already made me want to go hunt down Salvation Run. One suggestion guys, can we PLEASE see more of the big three? I lost interest in JLA before the reboot because it was not longer about Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but rather it was the Green Arrow show guest starring Hawkman and Black Canary. The whole point of Grant Morrisons’s JLA was to change it back from being a group of second stringers to being the powerhouses of the DCU. Since the reboot I’ve still mostly been seeing second stringers featured.

Still that IS a great picture of Black Lightning on the cover.






























I’m not going to list off all the X-Men titles involved in the Messiah complex, since they all seem to mesh together anyhow. I’m using the covers that are on sale at the Grocery Store (where I buy most of my comics) and I think these move the chapters along nicely.

I came into this story late, but it’s not hard to figure out what’s going on. Cable is done well in this along with surprising and strong characterization on Gambit. We’re near the end of this arc so if you haven’t been already following, you may want to wait and pick up the trade paperback (you KNOW this storyline is going to get collected).





Superman is another one of those titles I occasionally pick up at the market. It’s been so uneven across all the titles that I can’t bear to read it often. This looks like a decent story. The action is good and the art is spectacular. I’m not going to announce a turning point yet, but I’ll stick around for the next issue.







Suicide Squad finally seems to have found a direction. The excitement I felt when this title was first announced has all but vanished after four issues that were practically nothing but set-up. Finally we are seeing a story develop. Admitted I don’t really like Rick Flag and the fact that much of this series has focused on him bores me. The intrigue is beginning to pick up though and it’s almost feeling like the old days. It’s a pity though that Ostrander didn’t at least keep a few elements from Keith Giffen’s run. There were some good points there. The banter between Deadshot and Killer Frost weas fun and I really liked the idea of Sgt. Rock being one of the field commanders. Still it’s a nice line up with some familiar faces and a few new ones that make sense. The Squad seems very active in other parts of the DCU so we’ll see if there’s more to be had after the mini series ends.

There’s a TNG book on the list but I think we’ll save that for Sci-Friday

Monday, January 21, 2008

Batman and Smallville

I was a big fan of Smallville when it first aired. I was a fan through the second season. The third season I began to drop off a bit. I stopped watching during the middle of it.

I should have stayed with it. Borrowing DVDs from the Library I began to catch up recently. Smallville didn’t jump the shark until the fourth season, but jump it did. When a series is waning and about to jump, you do one of a few things, kill off a main character, bring in a new cast member, throw in a cliffhanger, briefly and radically alter the main character amongst others. Smallville season four opener did ALL of these things. Killed Chloe, made Clark Kryptonian, cliffhanger, and introduces Lois Lane.

I dislike the fourth season for this and other reasons. I was dreading the “very special episode of Smallville” which I was certain would come eventually. It came in season four. If you stretch things you might be able to convince yourself that Clark didn’t lose his virginity but it’s a real stretch.

As we go on the appearance of other superheroes and even the creation of costumes (for a JLA???) just grates. Those of us with any continuity mind were driven crazy. I gave up about halfway into the DVD set and caught the rest of the way up with Wikipedia.

The saddest thing is that it didn’t have to jump. If this series had a predetermined lifespan of say, four or five years, we could have had a beautiful arch and a well done storyline. Moreover, the cast would have been ready for movies, just about the time Superman Returns went into production (perhaps a year later). Don’t get me wrong, I like Brandon Routh, but Tom Welling is just SO much more perfect for the role (not to mention Michael Rosembaum’s Luthor; the BEST Lex Luthor to EVER grace any screen – sorry Mr. Hackman), and it would have been the payoff for the series.

There is a perfect replacement waiting in the wings if someone would just revive it.

The original pitch was not for a young Superman series, but a young BATMAN series. It was nixed because Warner Brothers didn’t want any competition for their new batman Begins movie, also an origin story. I’m not sure that it would have been competition but nevertheless, that factor doesn’t exist any more. Imagine a series about Bruce Wayne at boarding school. The excitement of batman with some of the charm of Harry Potter. Take half of the season or even a third of it and show summer break, go to exotic locations in the Orient and India and others. We get an almost young Indiana Jones feel here.

How many villains have they tried to shoehorn into Smallville? It would be so much easier to fit pre-origin Batman villains in a series like this. Not all of his foes are contemporaries. We could have teachers like Victor Freiss and Jonathan Crane. Rubbing shoulders with businessman Oswald Cobblepot. Going to school with Pamela Isley and Floyd Lawton. Perhaps working with Detective (or lawyer) Harvey Dent?

Again, a set lifespan of five years or so would be good, and could make this series superior to Smallville and this is coming form a Superman fan, not a Batman fan.