Meanwhile...

Shouldn't Mr. Swampy's dialogue bubbles be orange...?

I reviewed the first issue of the new Tiny Titans series, Tiny Titans: Return To The Treehouse for Good Comics For Kids today. If you liked the previous 50 issues of Tiny Titans, when it was an ongoing monthly, you'll like it. Plus, Swamp Thing cameo, which means Mike Sterling has to buy it! I was pleased with Art Baltazar and Franco's return to the DC characters, but I have to admit, after Superman Family Adventures, I'd kinda like to see them subject more DCU grown-ups to their style, ala Swampy and a few of the other cameos seen in this issue (Metamorpho, for example, whose right leg I never realized was made out of wood). I sure wouldn't mind a Justice League Advetures or DC Universe Adventures or something by the pair in the future. Baltazar' draws everyone in the DC Universe really awesomely, as his illustrations in the DC Super-Pets Character Encyclopedia demonstrated (the sole exception being his Green Lantern John Stewart, who he draws with hair and a goatee, and who thus looks weird and wrong and evil for some reason).

And, over at Robot 6, I reviewed a quartet of books: Julie Delporte's Everywhere Antennas (excellent, but not for everyone), Pascal Girard's Petty Theft (excellent, for everyone), the new edition of Nicolas De Crecy's Glacial Period (must-read) and Enki Bilal's not-comics-but-similar-ballpark Phantoms of the Louvre (interesting enough).

While getting ready to write that, I went back and read Girard's Bigfoot, which, for reasons I can't comprehend in retrospect, I hadn't read before (And I love comics, Bigoot and Pascal Girard). It's pretty great stuff too; not as funny as Reunion or Petty Theft maybe, but still pretty funny. And in color. And featuring Bigfoot (in a way). Great end pages, too.

New 52 vs. DC Super-Pets: Batgirl

Carmine Infantino's cover for 1967's Detective Comics #359

While Sheldon Moldoff and Bill Finger introduced a Bat-Girl, with a hyphen, in 1961, the character Batgirl (without a hyphen) was created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino at the direction of editor Julius Schwartz in 1967.

When she first appeared, she was waring the costume above, and it changed little over the 20 years between her debut and her 1988 retirement.

Mike Mignola and Karl Kesel's cover for 1988's Batgirl Special #1. I bought this comic from a back-issue bin specifically for the cover, and all I remember about it was that its insides were not as good as the cover. 

A few more Batgirls eventually followed in the comics. In 1999's Batman: Shadow of the Bat #83, part of the "No Man's Land" storyline, a mysterious new Batgirl in a new, all-black costume that hides her entire face appears. She's eventually revealed to be The Huntress, having adopted a bat-costume in an attempt to fill the void left by Batman, who was MIA from Gotham at the start of the story.

Damion Scott

She's soon forced to relinquish the name and costume, which both go to Cassandra Cain, who would be Batgirl for the next 11 years, wearing that costume throughout her tenure, with little to no alteration.

Phil Noto

In 2009, Stephanie Brown, formerly The Spoiler (and formerly the fourth Robin, albeit only for about the length of a single storyline), became Batgirl, and she had her own Batgirl costume, a black, yellow, and purple get-up with a utility belt and matching utility garter. The less said of this costume, the better. She proved to have the shortest tenure of any Batgirl, save for The Huntress, as the September 2011 New 52 reboot of the DC Universe excised Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown from continuity, now making it so that the de-aged Barbara Gordon never retired from being Batgirl.

Here's what her new, New 52 costume looks like.

Adam Hughes

From afar, it looks like it's basically her original costume, but the closer one looks, the more new and changed details one finds. Like most of the New 52 costumes, it isn't a simple body-stocking or spandex suit, but looks like something a Hollywood costuming department might put together for a superhero movie. It's a suit of armor more than a costume, complete with plates and seams and segments. There are more breathable, flexible areas where she needs to bend. And check out the palms of her gauntlets—I don't know why, but the grips on those give me the willies.

The inside of her cape is also purple now, and, on that first cover at least, she seems to have her cape affixed with some sort of bat-brooch...that, or she's just wearing a bat-pin on her cape.

It seems that the design has ben finessed a little big already, as the underside of her cape eventually became yellow, rather than purple.

Ed Benes

Either way, I don't like it much, and would prefer something closer to her original costume, or the one that appeared in the 2004-2008 animated series The Batman.

Here's how artist Art Baltazar dresses Batgirl, in the pages of the DC Super-Pets Character Encyclopedia:

Batgirl was a recurring character in Baltazar's Tiny Titans comic, and the version of her that appears in this encyclopedia is basically a grown-up version of the Tiny Titan, wearing a pretty similar costume. She's got a fairly traditional Batgirl color scheme of blue (and blue-black), yellow and purple, which looks like a blending of her coloring from the live-action TV show and the comic books of the 1960s (where her bodysuit was most often colored gray).

Baltazar's main innovation here is that he changes her tunic into a dress—that, or she's wearing a skirt and a tunic. Baltazar's artwork is so simple and flat that it doesn't really suggest textures, so it's difficult to say exactly what material she might be wearing or how thick it might be, and therefore I can't tell if she's wearing tights or leggings under the skirt (good), or wearing pants under her skirt (bad...and weird).

As un-Batgirly as the skirt or dress might be, I actually kind of like it in the way it evokes the original Bat-Girl costume, and the way it differentiates this look from the original Batgirl costume (The costume from The Batman that I like is actually a dress over tights).

I don't think this is the best possible Batgirl costume, and I don't think the design is quite the home run that Baltazar's Animal Man costume is, but I don't like it any less than I like The New 52 design and, with some tweaks, I think Baltazar's basic design could make for a far superior costume than The New 52 costume.

***********************

Baltazar is apparently quite enamored of the skirt/dress design when it comes to superheroines and supervillainesses. In addition to Batgirl, Wonder Woman, Aquagirl, Green Lantern Katma Tui, Black Canary, Zatanna, Hawkwoman, Raven, Harley Quinn, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Star Sapphire and Circe all wear dresses or skirts in the DC Super-Pets Character Encyclopedia...as does Batwoman, a relatively short-lived character who has only been around long enough to have one costume design so far (Unless you count the Golden Age Batwoman, which I'm not counting).

New 52 Vs. DC Super-Pets: Animal Man

Carmine Infantino's Animal Man from the pages of Strange Adventures

Created by writer Dave Wood and artist Carmine Infantino for a one-off feature in 1965's Strange Adventure's #180, Buddy Baker was a man temporarily gifted with the power to borrow the abilities of animals in his vicinity (See Brian Cronin's post on Comics Should Be Good here for a scan-filled history of the character in the Silver Age).

He proved popular enough to return a handful of times, eventually earning a proper superhero name and costume, although he remained an extremely minor, even obscure character until writer Grant Morrison and company's late-eighties revival of the character.

The original costume featured an orange, blue and black color combination, which wasn't exactly popular among superheroes, but that was probably what helped generate it: By the late 1960s, they were running out of color combinations for new superheroes.

In the Superman tradition, Animal Man had the first letter of his name emblazoned on his chest, but it's pretty fully integrated into the design, rather than being a logo that looks hung there. He wore goggles and an unusual, head-hugging half-cowl that allowed his hair to breathe (The goggles were no doubt functional as well as identity-concealing, and it looks like he's got some ear-protection built in).  Note the scale-like texture of the costume, and the shape of his gloves and boots.

Brian Bolland's cover for 1990's Animal Man #19

In 1988, DC awarded Animal Man his own title, by writer Grant Morrison and pencil artist Chas Truog. His costume was little changed, the major innovation being the addition of a leather jacket over his costume. Well, given Animal Man's vegetarianism and support of animal rights, it was more likely a pleather jacket. The material of the costume gradually gave way to your more standard superhero spandex as well.

And that was pretty much what Animal Man looked like from then on, save for a few story-specific costume changes, as when he became a "dark" version of himself near the end of Morrison's run, or when he assumed a chimerical form during Jamie Delano's run and finally quit wearing his costume and grew his hair long and white near the end of the first volume of his series in the mid-1990s. In all of his subsequent appearances, he'd look like the version from the Morrison run, sometimes wearing the jacket and sometimes not.

Steve Pugh's cover for 2012's Animal Man #0

Animal Man earned a second, ongoing series when DC relaunched their line under "The New 52" banner in September 2011. The character saw one of the more drastic character redesigns, keeping only the large A design element and the partial cowl. His colors were now blue and white, he no longer wore goggles and rather than having a glove-like element to his costume, the white arms were more sleeve-like, extending up to his torso.

I personally don't like it much, mostly because of how far divorced it is from the original costume that it makes him look like an entirely different character. He looks rather like an X-Man to me ("A" aside), and while orange, blue and black might not have been the best color combination in the world, Animal Man did sort of own blue and orange, whereas blue and white is a color combination that a lot of super-characters use (particularly villains and characters with cold powers).

I don't think the change makes very good business/character evangelization sense, either (The same goes for most of the New 52 redesigns). I understand the idea of signaling the drastic change by so thoroughly redesigning everything—costume tweaks and changes have long been a way to call attention to an old character or a new storyline—but in this case, Animal Man no longer looks like the character that appears in the critically-acclaimed Grant Morrison-written graphic novels (or any of the other Animal Man trades, or in the collections of 52, which featured him among its cast). Nor does he look like the Animal Man in the DC Nation shorts, Animal Man's only real appearance outside the comics medium.

Personally, I prefer the following design.

Art Baltazar's Animal Man from the DC Super-Pets Character Encyclopedia

Animal Man makes an appearance in the DC Super-Pets Character Encyclopedia, as the "Superhero Owner" of Super-Pet King (a lion).

Baltazar keeps the basic color combo—orange suit, blue A, black accessories—as well as the half-cowl and goggles. He streamlines it quite a bit though, so those amoeba-like tendrils at the borders of the boots and gloves that Infantino gave his costume are gone, replaced by straight edges or triangular shapes.

I especially like the little animal touches he adds, like the big, rounded goggles (suggesting an insect's eyes), the leopard or cheetah-like spots near the gloves and boots, and even the little lines suggesting a paw-like boot. There all just little flourishes, but each signal "new" and "different" without actually radically changing the costume (They're more like adding a yellow circle behind Batman's bat-symbol, or taking that yellow circle away, rather than, say, giving Wonder Woman a pair of black pants or Hawkman a suit of golden armor).

I also really like the torn vest, which replaces the problematic leather/pleather jacket (even if it's fake leather, it looks like leather), and might have different connotations to different viewers. With the vest, Animal Man's got a cool accessory to wear over his costume to signal he's a little more hip than the characters who just wear their spandex costumes.

Maybe the next Animal Man series will see Animal Man wearing a costume more like this than his blue and white, New 52 togs. Not much point in re-dressing the current Animal Man in the cooler, Baltazar-designed costume. From what I've read, the new, New 52 Animal Man isn't a very good comic, and seems to be repeating plot lines from the original series (and Swamp Thing), and doing the sorts of things Morrison parodied and criticized in superhero comics during his Animal Man run, without a trace of irony or understanding.

This is, by the way, Example #1 for why Art Baltazar should be the next person DC calls to redesign all their characters, rather than Jim Lee and company.

Well that's interesting.

The title page of the latest (and, sadly, last) issue of DC's Superman Family Adventures not only contains the credits of the folks who made this issue and the traditional "Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster" credits but, if you read between the panels, you'll also see these new credits:

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel.

Supergirl based on characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

That's a lot of creation credits. I guess I'll wait for someone like Jeff Trexler to explain what this means and why it's happening now at The Beat.

That last bit about Supergirl being based on Superman (and, I suppose, 'boy) is particularly interesting though, because that character is singled out by name, whereas this particularly issue is filled to bursting with Superman characters (Both sets of his parents, Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane) and characters based on Superman in the same way Supergirl is (that is, wearing red capes and Superman logos, and, in some cases, coming from Krypton and having his powers, like Steel, Krypto, Streaky, Squeaky and, um, is that Super Turtle...?)

The issue also contains plenty of other characters who generally earn "created by" credits, like Batman and Wonder Woman and, to much more occasionally, Aquaman (Darkseid, the Justice League and a handful of Super Pets also appear).

I've always been curious about the whys and hows of creation credits, as, from a reader's perspective, they seem quite arbitrary. The last DC trade I read, for example, was Secret Six: The Darkest House, and I noticed it had a "Doom Patrol created by Arnold Drake and Bruno Premiani" credit on the title page, as the Doom Patrol appear in two of the seven issues collected in the trade. Other guest stars, like, Jack Kirby's Etrigan the Demon or Keith Giffen's Ambush Bug didn't have "created by" credits, nor did the Secret Six (which may be understandable, as it's basically just a repurposed name from a completely unrelated comic book concept), nor did any of their more prominent individual members, like Bane, Catman or Deadshot.

Should be interesting to keep an eye on the credits pages of DC comics, particularly the ones starring characters who wears capes and S-shields, in the near future...

Meanwhile, at Robot 6...

Hey, the chief and I both take our coffee the same way! (Black with two sugars, that is, not with robot debris and rubble). Anyway, as promised, I have some thoughts to share with you about Superman Family Adventures #1, the most anticipated (by me) superhero comic of the year, at Robot 6. You can go read it.

Let's check in with Art Baltazar and the DC Super-Pets

Devoted link-followers may recall a post I did for Robot 6 a few weeks ago about Picture Window Books' DC Super-Pets series of easy-reader prose books by illustrator Art Baltazar and different writers.

At the time, I'd only managed to track down three of the first wave of six books (yet more are forthcoming). Well, this past week I managed to find two more of those initial six books through my library's inter-library loan program: John Sazaklis' Royal Rodent Rescue, in which Streaky the Super-Cat tries to foil Catwoman's cat Rozz's Metropolis crime spree, and J.E. Bright's Heroes of the High Seas, in which Aquaman's pals Topo, Storm and Ark stop Black Manta's pet mantas from destroying Atlantis.

As a regular reader of Baltazar's Tiny Titans, in which a kitten version of Streaky regularly appears, it was neat to see a grown-up Streaky in Royal Rodent Rescue—along with a grown-up Supergirl, who is mentioned teaming up with Batgirl at one point, but is only drawn by Baltazar at the beginning.

Here's what Baltazar's non-Tiny Supergirl looks like: Sazaklis writes Streaky the Super-Cat a lot like a regular cat, with Streaky regularly stopping to curl up and take naps between super-acts.

For example, while napping at the Fortress of Solitude, he hears an alarm signaling a break-in at an appliance store in Metropolis. He flies there to see police already on the scene, so goes into the store and takes a nap atop a TV.

The villain of this piece is Rozz, a female cat who is apparently original to the book (I don't remember Catwoman having a cat by that name, anyway). Oddly/adorably, she dresses up just like her master Catwoman, making her a cat wearing a cat-suit: The book suggests that Batgirl is Catwoman's archenemy, not Batman, and when she sees Batgirl and Supergirl teaming-up in Metropolis on TV, Catwoman decides that means the coast is clear for a Gotham crime spree.

Rozz, on the other hand, decides to journey to Metropolis and try her paw at crime there. Her main crime, the one referred to in the title, is kidnapping the pet hamster of visiting royalty and holding it for ransom. The highlight of the book, for me anyway, was the scene where Rozz breaks into a TV station and communicates her demands to the viewing audience at home. But, because she's a cat, it's just a bunch of meowing (to everyone who isn't also a cat, like Streaky).

Heroes of The High Seas was the one I was most looking forward too, as it featured my favorite of the pet-having superheroes, Aquaman. There's Topo, a Silver Age Aquaman character (who apparently functioned as a one-cephalopod band in the comics, just as he does here!), Storm, the name of Aquaman's giant sea horse from those crappy old Aquaman cartoons, and the new character Ark, a little seal, whose presence here instead of Tusky (Aquaman's walrus sidekick in the same cartoons Storm used to appear in), sort of confused me.

Here's a nice image in which you can see all three super-pets, as well as Aquaman's whole court, as drawn by Baltazar: Baltazar makes some very, very strange choices in his character design for some of these animals. Ark, for example, seems to have legs in almost every drawing of him, with knees and everything, giving him the appearance of a humanoid seal instead of a normal seal. And I had no idea what species the two villains, Misty and Sneezers, were supposed to be until the text revealed that they were rays.

Take a look: Personally, I would have guessed "ghost cats." I worry that some day some kid is going to grow up thinking manta rays look like gray ghost cats because of this book.

I'm still on the look out for the final of the first six books, Midway Monkey Madness, which features Beppo The Super-Monkey, Gleek and the Wonder Twins from Super Friends and Gorilla Grodd. And the next round looks even more awesome, with books featuring Hoppy The Marvel Bunny, The Green Lantern Bug Corps and even Krypto's pals in the Space Canine Patrol facing off against villainous cats from The Phantom Zone!

Apropos of nothing, here's an Art Baltazar drawing of Wonder Woman riding her kanga Jumpa:

It's from the DC Super-Pets kids book, The Fastest Pet On Earth. Perhaps understandably, the Amazons' use of a giant species of kangaroos native to Paradise Island as mounts has been alternately downplayed and abandoned within most of the publisher's comics, with horses replacing the kangas. I say understandably because 21st century comics have a much lower tolerance of silliness than those of the 1940s, when Wonder Woman and the Amazons' kangas first emerged, and also because little girls really, really like horses, so maybe the best superheroine in the world should hang out with horses (and/or unicorns and/or pegasuses...pegasi?...instead of giant, rideable kangaroos).

Anyway, Jumpa stars in The Fastest Pet On Earth, and she differs from the Golden Age Jumpa in that she dresses a bit like Wondy herself, and is more of a character than a means of transportation.

Here's how J.E. Bright, who wrote the Baltazar-illustrated book, described kangas:

Like the smaller kangaroos from the mainland, kangas were built for jumping. But unlike Jumpa's kangaroo cousins, she didn't hop to get around. Instead, she ran on her powerful legs like a speedy dinosaur.

So I guess maybe they're kind of like the Tauntauns from The Empire Strikes Back...?

At the beginning of each volume of the Super-Pets series, there's a two-page "super-pet hero file" highlighting their powers, abilities, owner and their height compared to heroes and villains.

Jumpa's "bio" states:

Kangas are found only on Paradise Island. Like kangaroos, kangas can leap long distances, but they're also super-speedy. These heroic hoppers are the royal rides of Wonder Woman and other Amazons.

This concludes today's post about the indigenous wildlife of Paradise Island.

Meanwhile, at Robot 6...

I have a post about Art Baltazar and company's DC Super Pets line of children's books for publisher Capstone. Above, you can see how Baltazar can make even a Geoff Johns-created, Shane Davis-drawn burning blood puking cat into something cute and charming.

Aaaa! Nooo!

Damn Identity Crisis ruined Dr. Light for me forever. I apparently can't see him in any context—even a cute, funny, totally innocent one like a panel of Tiny Titans—without thinking about...you know.

Monday Morning Man vs. Cephalopod Moment

(Beast Boy meets Aqualad's easily startled pet octopus Inky in DC's Tiny Titans #38, by Art Baltazar and Franco)

Why do the Tiny Titans hate the Cleveland Browns...?

Reminder: Tiny Titans is still the best thing ever.

Starfire, no!

This is the cover of the latest issue of Tiny Titans and, as you can see—Wait, what's this?!?!?!I thought you hearted Robin...why are you hearting Superboy and Zatara?!

If you only buy one superhero comic this week, make sure it's Tiny Titans #33

After all, it's the only one that's got Tiny Cassandra in it:

That's right, Cassandra: AKA, Batgirl II:
I know that Dan DiDio and other DC types have mentioned plans for the Cassandra Cain Batgirl in the near future, and always stress that they want to make sure they get the character right this time.

Well I hope those plans are letting Art Baltazar and Franco do pretty much whatever they want with Batgirl, because it doesn't get much righter than this.

And she calls herself a superhero...

You'll note that at no time during this scene does Supergirl produce a plastic bag to clean up the result of Krypto needing to go walkies, the thing that Krypto is most certainly doing off-panel at the bottom of the first page, while Supergirl is whistling.

What kind of superhero doesn't clean up after her dog?! A terrible superhero, that's what kind of superhero.

Actually, there are a few possible scenarios which might help justify Supergirl's inconsiderate, un-heroic behavior here.

First, she and Krypto have gone for a walk just outside the Fortress of Solitude, near the North Pole. As the name of the Fortress of Solitude implies, it doesn't get a lot of visitors, and the people we know hang out there from this comic—Supergirl, Superboy, Superman, Superboy's Bizarro clone Match, even a visiting Lex Luthor—all fly rather than walk, making it impossible for them to step in the likely result of Krypto needing to go walkies.

Yeah, Psimon, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash are shown walking through the Arctic Circle there, on a field trip with the Brainiac Club, but there visit is an unexpected and highly unusual one, as you can see from Supergirl's reaction.

Second, it's possible that Krypto disposes of his own waste, by disintegrating it with a blast of his heat vision. No, we're not actually shown that happening, but we're not shown what Krypto's doing off-panel at all, so it's certainly possible.

Third, I don't really know how Krypto's digestive system works, and am just assuming it works just like an Earth dog's. If Kryptonian dog biology is similar to Kryptonian humanoid biology in Earth's yellow sun, perhaps Krypto doesn't eat dog food and produce waste similar to that of terrestrial dogs. Maybe he's actually just a living solar battery, and just occasionally vents steam or something as a waste product. Maybe Supergirl is just floating there whistling while Krypto is sniffing a pile of ice, which is what he does when he goes on walkies.

This concludes my seven-paragraph post about a dog going to the bathroom off-panel in a gag comic for kids.



(The above pages are taken from DC Comics' Tiny Titans #31, by Art Baltazar and Franco)

You even have to ask?

Bald head is obviously cooler than cape, Superboy. Obviously.




(Panels from Tiny Titans #31, by Art Baltazar and Franco)

F Yeah Tiny Titans/Little Archie!

That's the cover of the second issue of the previously discussed Tiny Titans/Little Archie crossover, featuring Tiny/Little versions of EDILW favorites Josie and The Pussycats. I was pretty excited about this project when it was first announced, but I think I just got ten times as excited as I was then.

Also, I just noticed that the Pussycats—like Betty and Veronica on the cover of the first issue have Art Baltazarized versions of the little Dan DeCarlo upturned noses, while the Tiny characters are generally nose-less. Apparently Baltazar didn't just redraw the Archie characters in his Tiny Titans style, but filtered there designs through his Tiny Titans style?

That's pretty fantastic.





(Image spotted at and swiped from Johanna Draper Carlson's post on Archie Comics news)

An important update on the state of squirrels in the Green Lantern Corps:

Last week I noticed a strange change to the cover of Tiny Titans #28, which I discussed at some length on Blog@Newsarama. The solicited cover featured the Green Lantern Corps' longtime alien squirrel character Ch'p on it.

But the one that shipped had a different alien squirrel character on it, B'dg (Which the Internet told me is pronounced "Badge." Apparently the rules of apostrophe pronunciation in the DC Universe are remarkably consistent from planet to planet).

At the time, I wondered aloud about the change.

Well I just recently received clarification from the person in the best position to know about any last-minute changes to the alien squirrel superheroes appearing in Tiny Titans—Tiny Titans writer/artist Art Baltazar.

Here's what Baltazar had to say about the change:

Ch'p was changed to B'dg kinda last minute during the action of making the Tiny Titans! I was told by my awesome editors and...GEOFF JOHNS!...that Ch'p got killed! OH NO! What are we gonna do now?! I really liked Ch'p too. B'dg became the new Squirrel GL in Ch'p's place. So, B'DG it is! I never heard of B'dg so I had to get reference and read about him and stuff. Now, I like him alot. He even thinks of humans as pets. AW YEAH SUPER PETS! PLUS! B'dg is tied into the DC Super Friends kids comic and has a better chance of getting a toy from Mattel. It's true.

So there you have it. R.I.P. Ch'p. And, um, "Aw yeah, Bd'g."

Reviews of some recent super-comics, more than half of which were written by Geoff Johns

Batman and Robin #9 (DC Comics) Hmm, what could possibly be cooler than an undead zombie copy of Batman mass-produced by the god of evil to use to use as a foot soldier in his subjugation of reality fighting Batman, Batwoman, Alfred and Damian al Ghul (wearing a neck brace), while The Knight and Squire take on King Coal? Maybe if the undead zombie copy of Batman mass-produced by the god of evil talked like one of the animals from We3?
Yeah, I think that might make it even cooler.


Blackest Night #7 (DC) Credit where credit is due—Geoff Johns and everyone at DC in charge of promoting comics without spoiling them have done a bang-up job with Blackest Night so far, as this issue contains yet another example of an extremely obvious thing most readers expected to happen at some point happening, but in such a radically different way (although perhaps predictable through 20/20 hindsight) that it still comes off as a huge surprise. As I said at Blog@ earlier today, it’s really exciting to be surprised by a comic like this these days, and the double-page splash that ends the book is just such a surprise, but I think the bigger revelation is what came before—the real reason Nekron attacked Earth.

It’s a big change in the DC Universe’s creation story, and for any of who are interested in mythology, theology and DC super-comics, it’s going to be a hell of a thing to think about and mull over in the months to come.

Wait, is this too positive a review? Then let me find something to complain about…

Oh yeah, this issue costs $4, a full dollar more than DC’s regular 22-page comics, despite the fact that it’s only 25 pages long. And factoring in all the splashes (two full-page splashes, two double-page splashes), that’s not very much in the way of extra comics for the price hike.

Also, why doesn’t John Stewart form a force field around the earth with his ring to keep all the Black Lanterns out? Why is he such a wuss? Kyle Rayner used his ring and will to hold an exploding sun in a giant cartoon safe before, but Stewart can’t form a planet-sized force field for a few minutes? Man up, Stewart!


Blackest Night: The Flash #3 (DC) Ha ha, the concluding issue of this Geoff Johns-written Flash miniseries was released on February 18, a full week before the concluding issue of Flash: Rebirth (see below), a story that is set before Blackest Night: The Flash. Oh modern super-comic scheduling, why are you so terrible?

It is, appropriately enough, very fast-paced, splitting its attention between Blue Lantern Barry Allen and Flash Wally West as they battle the Black Lanterns in Coast City and try to save Black Lanternized Kid Flash, and Captain Cold and his team of Rogues as they try to kill the Black Lanternized Rogues.

I confess to being completely bewildered as to what actually happens during a pivotal moment of the issue—the bit with the original Reverse Flash doing…something to the Black Lantern Rogues—but other than that it’s a pretty fun issue, moving along at a fast enough clip that I hardly had time to dwell on how many movies I’ve seen the grief-stricken-living-character-mistakenly-tries-to-keep-a-zombie-loved-one-alive plot in before, or whether or not the Barry Allen and his archenemy are two sides of the same coin ending could possibly have been any less subtle.

Once again Scott Kolins does a terrific job on art, my favorite panel of this issue being the second one on page 21, with the three heroic speedsters riding bolts of lightning and speed lines toward a giant Black Lantern Spectre in the background.


Flash: Rebirth #6 (DC) It’s so strange that the conclusion of what should be a fictional universe-shaking event—the return of second Flash Barry Allen after over 20 years of being dead—comes across as a whimper instead of a bang, but then, I suppose that’s only natural when the release schedule of the six-part monthly is so leisurely that it concludes during the climax of the same publisher’s even bigger event series (which, coincidentally, is written by the very same author).

So this is the last issue of Flash: Rebirth, and it’s surprisingly light on revelations. The big stuff—which speedsters come back to life, who’s going by what name now, who’s wearing what costume now—all happened in the last issue, so the only real cliffhanger leading into this was whether or not the villain was going to kill the hero’s love interest or not (Guess!).

Writer Geoff Johns does take some time foreshadowing conflicts that will likely be resolved in the upcoming Flash monthly, with a variety of villains speaking cryptically from off-panel, addressing themselves or one another, and a boy who is probably Wally West’s son is wearing a green shirt with a turtle pattern on it, and given a special attention during a series of panels showing all seven members of the “Speed Force” or Flash family. (Maybe he’s going to be The Turtle’s sidekick or The Turtle II or something…? I didn’t really like what Johns did with The Turtle during his first Flash run, but I find that character super-fascinating, if only because super-slowness is such a weird, weird super-power.)

If you’re reading this series just to see how Barry Allen returns or to keep abreast of the big events in the DCU, this issue is surprisingly, entirely skip-able. But if you’re reading it because you love The Flash half as much as Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver seem to, then chances are you’ll find this a pretty satisfying experience.


Green Lantern #51 (DC) Given what a big deal was made out of Jordan allowing the Parallax entity to possess him again earlier in the storyline, the actual battle between Parallax-ed Jordan and Black Lantern Spectre is sort of anti-climatic, with Parallax being defeated by the other characters quite quickly for a thing that once erased all of existence.

If you’ve been digging this series and/or Blackest Night though, there’s certainly a lot to like here, with over-the-top, grand guignol ultra-violent superheroics, Doug Mahnke’s fantastic artwork, The Spectre briefly joining another Corps and getting a brief redesign and thorough explanations of how the black rings were able to possess God’s wrath and why Nekron is an actual threat to The Spectre.

Best of all, Mahnke draws the Spectre without his stupid goatee—hooray!


Incredible Hercules #141 (Marvel Comics) Is there anything less suspenseful than the “death” of an immortal god?


Justice League of America #42 (DC) Jesus, Brad Meltzer’s stupid run on this series ended, let’s see, 30 issues, two-and-a-half years and two writers ago, and they’re still dealing with his loose ends? Yeesh.

This particular loose end is Dr. Impossible, the mysterious evil version of Mister Miracle who showed up for some reason in the early parts of Meltzer’s run before disappearing, and picking him up at this point is rather problematic, given the state of the New Gods in the DCU (Which is…what, exactly? I have no idea what the post-Final Crisis status quo of the New Gods is supposed to be, and this is the first time I’ve heard anyone mention them at all. These are the evil versions, probably from Earth-2 or Earth-3 or whatever the current number of the Crime Syndicate’s world is post-FC, but the Justice League at least remains familiar with the concept of New Genesis).

That little head-scratcher—as well as Plastic Man being alive and active during WWII as he was pre-Crisis (on Infinite Earths), way too-much first-person narration and some awfully weird word choices, aside—James Robinson’s still just-starting run is a lot more readable than the book has been since Meltzer launched this volume. (Hmm, that’s an awful lot to put aside, isn’t it?)

What I like best about the book is that Robinson is apparently endeavoring to use the whole of the DC Universe and it’s deep, deep character catalogue to give his storyline plenty of scope.

The official League roster in this issue is already about a dozen characters deep, but on top of that we get Shade, the blue Starperson, Congorilla, The Silver Age Challengers of the Unknown, Doc Magnus and The Metal Men, Blackhawk, Uncle Sam, Atlas, The Power Company, the aforementioned Plastic Man and the head of Red Tornado.

The plot is basically the same as every G.I. Joe cartoon miniseries, with the good guys and bad guys racing to get components to a device of some kind, but it’s occurring in multiple time periods and has a gigantic and varied cast (Something’s going on with Green Arrow too, but since this is set after Justice League: Cry For Justice, which I’m not reading and hasn’t ended yet anyway, I have no idea what it’s about yet).

Mark Bagley’s still handling the pencils, although this issue it takes three different inkers to finish his work. Perhaps that’s what’s to blame for the fact that Bagley’s art sometimes looks awfully rough around the edges—or right in the middle of the panel, with a couple of rather asymmetrical faces spread throughout the issue—but even still, compared to some of the artists who have drawn issues of this volume of JLoA, Bagley’s Michel-freaking-angelo.


Tiny Titans #25 (DC) Man, there’s just no getting away from Geoff Johns! To celebrate the 25th issue of Tiny Titans, DC’s most popular writer joins the regular creative team of Art Baltazar and Franco, both behind the scenes and on-panel. Favorite Johns characters Conner “Superboy” Kent, Stargirl, the Green Lantern Corps and Hal Jordan are all prominently featured (Well, Jordan, like most of the superheroic adults, is only shown from the neck down), and Johns himself appears, as the proprietor of “Mr. Johns’s Sidekick City Pawn Shop and Bubblegum Emporium.”
Not a bad likeness, either.

It’s through Mr. Johns’ shop that the Tiny Titans get their hands on green, indigo, sapphire, yellow, red, blue and orange rings, briefly forming their own version of the New Guardians until the GLC send Hal Jordan to recover the rings.

Now, I haven’t read every single Green Lantern story ever, so I can’t say this with 100% certitude or anything, but I’m pretty sure that Baltazar’s Corps, which includes “Tiny” versions of G’Nort, Kilowog, Tomar Re, the tree guy, the big head with arms and legs and the cycloptic cucumber shaped guy is the cutest version of the GLC ever published.

Here’s a terrible photo, in lieu of a scan:

Hey, wait a minute...

How does Principal Slade drink coffee while wearing his mask if his mask doesn't have a mouth hole?



(Sequence from Tiny Titans #24, by Art Baltazar and Franco. As to why that odd little creamer makes Slade shrink, you're probably better off just reading the issue instead of having me explain it to you)