Weekly Haul: May 23rd

Birds of Prey #106 (DC Comics) Woah, complaining about the same thing over and over on a comics blog really does effect change sometimes! Case in point: BOP penciller Nicola Scott finally, finally, finally started drawing Big Barda’s armour correctly, with her breastplate actually covering her breasts, instead of being removed to show off her cleavage. Awesome. I can’t tell you how much that one little thing bugged me. I mean, you have to proceed very, very carefully when it comes to revamping a Jack freaking Kirby design, and of all the changes that could be made to Barda’s costume, removing some armor to allow for more cheesecake was at the absolute bottom of the list. Her street clothes, after all, consist of a bikini top and mini-shorts (Cover artist Stephane Roux didn’t get the memo yet, however, and draws Barda with her breasts popping out of metal corset, allowing enemies easy access to stab her in the heart).

As for the parts of this comic book that aren’t between Barda’s neck and stomach, it’s basically the big fight issue, with the Birds and the Secret Six smacking each other around. There are some things I hated (Huntress vamping Catman, Misfit landing a blow on Harley, Deadshot being such a terrible shot) and some things I loved (Barda’s facial expressions, the two-page spread, vitually every word out of Ragdoll’s mouth), which all adds up to a perfectly fine outing. As for the story arc’s biggest point—what exactly is up with Ice—I’ll have to withhold judgment until we find out if it’s a legit resurrection or…something else. Seeing as her hair and costume are completely different than they were when she died, and that she doesn’t sound much like Tara, and that bringing her back to life makes absolutely no sense at all and this is one of the worst places to do it, I’m kinda hoping it’s an elaborate fake out that will make sense when Gail Simone wraps this all up.




Countdown #49 (DC)
This time it’s Tony Bedard’s turn to script Paul Dini’s plot, and Carlos Magno’s chance to pencil the proceedings. It’s much better than the last two issue, but still not very good. Bedard does handle the reveal of something odd about Jimmy Olsen on pages two and three quite well, but while that is presented as something that is supposed to seem off, the casual name-dropping of “Jason Todd” to Lois over the phone still seems like a big, dunderheaded mistake, one that would have easily been fixed by changing those two words to read “Jason Todd.”

Mary Marvel goes to Gotham for some reason and runs into another Marvel (maybe?), and for some reason she first-person narrates her scenes, even though the rest of the issue is told in narrator-less, objective point-of-view. Grr…of all the things to keep from 52!

There’s some stuff with the Rogues that seems fine if you don’t think about the Trickster’s past at all, there’s a strange scene set on the JLA satellite which is a tad hard to follow do to the weird expression Magno gives Karate Kid in his last panel, and, finally, a scene explaining what’s up with the Monitors a little more clearly.

Okay I get the fact that they’re playing multiverse cops/meta-continuity cops, but their targets don’t seem to be chosen very well. Supergirl and some Legionnaires are shown on a Monitor’s monitor as examples of “loose ends left by the last crisis…cosmic mistakes just waiting to be corrected.” But also shown are Nightwing, Red Hood, Kyle Rayner and Donna Troy. Which is where Countdown loses me.

All four of those characters are native to, and have always been on in the central DCU setting. Three of them existed on “Earth-1” (Kyle wasn’t created until post-Crisis On Infinite Earths). When the multiverse was collapsed during COIE into just one earth, they were all part of the shared universe that existed between the two Crises. That’s where Kyle was created, retroactively having been born on “Earth-1.” After Alex Luthor accidentally re-created Earth as “New Earth,” they were all still there, and when “New Earth” split into a multiverse of 52 parallel earths, they all remained on “Earth-52.” So I don’t get why the hell they’re targets for the Monitors instead of, say, anyone from Earths-2, -X, -S or –4 (Or, in less nerdy terms, just about every DCU character who’s either from the Golden Age or acquired from a different comic book company).

This issue also starts the back-up features, once again written by Dan Jurgens. Considering how pointless his “History of the DCUniverse” was in 52, this kinda scares me. The first installment simply covers some of the same ground as the scene in the front of the book with the Monitors, and the meeting between Barry Allen and Jay Garrick, which I coulda sworn was included in “History of the DCUniverse.”




Fantasitic Four #546 (Marvel Comics) Cover artist Michael Turner manages a background for this scene, a fact which so shocks and delights me that I’m not even going to waste time complaining about the fact that the fight depicted on the cover occurs in deep, background-less space instead of the urban setting Turner drew because, well, at least he’s trying. Also, there’s a foot. Well, the arch of a foot. But again, the guy’s trying. A little. And that’s a step in the right direction, right?

Between reading #545 and reading #546, I finally got around to reading Beyond! (I had intended to wait for the trade paperback, but I was weak), which this two-issue story arc was sort of a sequel to. Writer Dwayne McDuffie ended last ish on a cliffhanger teasing a new status for Gravity, but, like all good universe comics writers should, McDuffie puts that particular toy right back where he found it—or at least in a state that’s no worse for wear, so that if Sean McKeever and Mike Perkins ever make their way back to Marvel, they can pretty much pick up where they left off.

The bulk of the issue revolves the fight between Galactus’ heralds in one corner and Gravity and the FF, and it’s pretty great stuff, with nice, fun dialogue and nice, fun superhero art. The sight of Kirby creation Black Panther wearing what looks like some Kirby-designed armor to fight Silver Surfer was a winner, and that big, crazy frog that appeared in the last issue of Black Panther is explained.




The Iredeemable Ant-Man (Marvel) Writer Robert Kirkman’s old partner Cory Walker finishes up his stint as a fill-in artist in this story-packed issue. The titular character tries to bluff and lie his way into a lucrative job with Damage Control by claiming to be a bug-themed hero who’s name isn’t Ant-Man (Dude, you totally look like an ant!), clashes again with the Silver Fox, teams up with She-Hulk and maybe, just maybe meets his soul mate. Nice, fun and funny writing with great dialogue, a protagonist like no other, and clean, flat, fun art.




Madman Atomic Comics #2 (Image Comics)
Wow. The greatest recap page ever is followed by page after page of perfectly (and innovatively) composed lay-outs and a head-spinning story that reveals that the last issue, in which we found out that EVERYTHING WE KNOW IS WRONG! was actually itself WRONG! As an only occasionally Madman reader, with plenty of holes in my knowledge of what’s come before, I’m good and lost now, but damn, is that ever some nice scenery. Oh, and pin-ups by Paul Pope and Charles Burns.




Shadowpact #13 (DC) I am so Zauriel’s bitch. His appearance is the sole reason I picked up this book, which I’ve been avoiding for a year now. Despite my affection for Ragman and Detective Chimp, I so thoroughly disliked Bill Willingham’s Day of Vengeance mini and one-shot, and the state of magic in the DCU in general (which basically threw out everything that was built up over a few decades by guys like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison in favor of whatever Judd Winick an Willingham think up) that I was sure I couldn’t possibly like this title.

But then they just had to go and put Zauriel on the cover, and I couldn’t help myself. This despite the fact that I don’t think anyone’s ever written a half-way decent Zauriel story other than Morrison (Actually, his Justice League Unlimited appearance was okay, and Steve Gerber did a decent page or two in Helmet of Fate: Zauriel; and his appearance in 52 was solid, but that was at least partially a Morrison story). I guess I just so liked his appearance in Morrison’s JLA and the potential in the character that I keep hoping against hope that future stories starring him will be good. Is that faith? I suppose that’s appropriate then.

This is actually a good jumping on point, I guess, since the ‘pact only appear in one page, and the rest of the issue checks in with various villains, providing nice introductions to who they are and what they’re all about. Also, Scott Hampton illustrated the thing, so you know every page is beautiful—wonderfully designed and rendered. The Zauriel bit gave me a little hope; based on page 21 alone, Willingham seemed to have at least understood what he read in JLA, although prior to that he does seem to resort to the Zauriel-as-Charlie’s Angels-type angel to God’s Charlie, in which God’s messengers acting as his Boswell call on him to go on special missions for God or whatever (as Gerber did in the Helmet of Fate special, which was basically just a Green Lantern Corps story, only with God instead of the Guardians). Word on the street is that Z.’s joining the team, so maybe I’ll be back for #14; while #13 didn’t knock my socks off, it wasn’t so bad as to repel me from getting the next one.




She-Hulk #18 (Marvel) It’s patently unfair to blame writer Dan Slott for dumb things that writer Mark Millar and Marvel editorial did in other books, but that’s the burden of big company cross-over events that change the whole shared universe forever. Every book dealing with those changes is colored by them. As the horrible, horrible Greg Horn cover attests (I often quite like his work, but this strikes me as his worst cover ever), this is the issue in which She-Hulk finally wakes up and realizes that Tony Stark is an asshole. After their big fight scene, she tells him off regarding his whole shooting-her-cousin-into-space thing and Project: Achilles, which he turns on her. “Do you have any idea of the laws you’ve broken here? Of the rights you’ve trampled on?!” And she can’t help but seem like an idiot. I mean, is it any worse than the laws he had broken and the rights he’d trampled on during Civil War? Um, Clor! The death of Goliath! Superhuman draft! Mandatory registration! Indefinite detention…in the Negative Zone…without trial!

Now, Slott didn’t write Civil War, but he did write this, and to have Shulkie turn on Stark now over this, but go along with all that other stuff? It just rings false. And that, my friends, is one of the major problems with the now thankfully ended Civil War. In order for their to be a war, not only did Iron Man have to start acting like an out-of-character douchebag, but Millar and company had to draw a line down the middle of the Marvel Universe and pick heroes pretty much at random to line up on the two sides. Why on earth would a lawyer superhero like Jen Walters line up with the guy who was clearly making a mockery of the entire U.S. legal system and history to enforce a single, controversial, untested and unproven law passed through congress in a hurry? Because Iron Man needed someone besides Hank Pym on his side, that’s why.

Anyway, as far as this issue is concerned, SHIELD’s Hulk-buster unit gets decimated by The Leader (aw, and I was really starting to like that team), Jen learns the big secret and knock’s Tony around quite a bit and Rick Burchett and Cliff Rathburn knock the art clear out of the park. Again. I’m really going to miss Slott when he leaves this title, and I’m having a hard time imagining who could possibly replace him. I’d be down for Jeff Parker maybe, but other than that I can’t imagine who could follow Slott here. Peter David seems a natural choice, but I don’t think I could take David on two Marvel titles at once, personally.




The Spirit #6 (DC) If you’re only reading one comic book, it had damn well better be The Spirit, or there is something deeply, deeply wrong with you. I keep expecting one of these things to be a dud, because it seems statistically possible for Darwyn Cooke, J. Bone and Dave Stewart to keep this up forever, but man, not only is each issue as good as the one before it, each seems to be getting better. In this particular issue, the title character plays a smaller role than usual, while still remaining present throughout the whole thing, as it’s told to him by one of the other participants. It’s also another great example of how Cooke is able to seemingly effortlessly bring the Golden Age mystery man into the present without making anything seemed forced at all. Personally, I have a hard time imagining Denny Colt and punk rock existing within the same comic book, but I’ll be damned if Cooke doesn’t pull it off, and make it seem perfectly natural in the process.

Wonder Woman Wednesdays: A Few Amazonian Inventions

Amazon Princess and young scientist Diana once invented a purple healing ray to save the life of grievously wounded U.S. pilot Steve Trevor. She named her fantastic invention The Purple Healing Ray, on account of the fact that it was a purplish ray that could heal people.

It is probably Amazonian science’s most well known contribution to World War II-era super-science, rivaled only by the mental radio, a form of artificial telepathy used by Amazons to communicate with one another (and with their allies).

Yet these famous devices are hardly the only examples of awkwardly named Amazon inventions, and the just-as-awkwardly named inventions of their allies and enemies.

Let’s take a look at some of the other fantastic examples of technology that Princess Diana had encountered in her earliest adventures:


The AS-R beam — Even more potent than the purple healing ray, the “atomic structure reassembly beam” can be used to reassemble the atoms of anything organic or inorganic which has been damaged or destroyed. The original beam generator, and the knowledge of how to build it, was apparently lost during the Crisis On Infinite Earths. Otherwise, Diana could have just reassembled her mother when she died during the conflict with Imperiex.


Amozonium – The hardest substance known to man. Well, women. This is what Wonder Woman’s bracelets were made out of. Clearly, it’s bulletproof.


Elastic Amozonium, a.k.a. Amazsilikon — A type of Amozonium that is more stretchable and verstaitle, and can be made invisible. This is what Wonder Woman’s robot plane/invisible jet were made out of.


Electro-chemical space transformer – An invention of Wonder Woman and her foe-turned-friend Paula von Gunther’s that changes the atomic structure of a human body and “rearranges its spatial relativity in the universe, as explained by Professor Einstein.” It’s also the easiest way to get Venus. See diagram above.


Amazon trans-materialization machine — A teleportation machine, based on principals similar to that of the electro-chemical space transformer.


Futuro-scope — A device that allows Amazons to see the future. Kind of self-explanatory, really. Built (and patented!) long before T.O. Morrow built his own looking-into-the-future machine.


Amazon omni-wave transmitter — A robot plane-mounted device that picks up any and all distress signals, no matter what wavelength they might be sent on.


Uni-televisior — A sort of television phone that allows for teleconferencing, invented during or before World War II…decades before Man’s World would invent their own version.


S-time bomb — A bomb capable of ending the world, once employed in a threat by which alien crystal creature Andro. While it remains unproven, some in Man’s World have hypothesized that the “S” stands for “Shit-hitting-the-fan.”


De-activating electronic generator – A device that generates “an interfering electronic wave that will stop any electric current in the world.” Developed and employed by a Mr. Keen, a former railroad magnate who adopted the colorful costumed criminal identity of “Anti Electric” in an attempt to hold the world hostage. Sorta like an electro-magnetic pulse, but Keen was generating them back before EMPs were cool.


The war-prevento machine — A machine that prevents war. Invented by the curiously named Dr. Cerebrum, the fantastic device used “somnatic rays to render warmakers unconscious long enough for us to capture them and their armies.” So I guess it’s not really a war-prevento machine as a “casualty-reduco machine” or a “sleep-inducing weapon.” Dr. Cerebrum learns this the hard way, when Dr. Psycho stole the device to, in his words, “enslave and kill the innocent people of the world!” Oh, Dr. Psycho!


Moron hormone — The hormone that makes people stupid. Swear to God. Don’t look at me. Talk to William Moultan Marston. What, he’s dead? Well, put him under the AS-R beam and then ask him.

Womania germ — An insidious form of germ warfare pioneered by Japanese scientists during WWII. The Womania germ is delivered by the bite of, um, “Jap gnats” and, when it enters a woman’s blood stream, it drives her into a murderous rage to kill all men. Oddly, though a Japanese invention, it has an English-sounding name. Huh.

Marvel's Auguest previews reviewed

And now it's Marvel's turn. Point a second window to Newsarama.com and follow along.





I do hope there’s a fight scene somewhere in all of these World War Hulk tie-ins where Luke Cage tries to win his tiara back from Hulk.







AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #5 Written by DAN SLOTT. Penciled by STEFANO CASELLI. Cover by JIM CHEUNG. GREEN ZONE Pt.2 of 2. "Secret Weapons.” The Initiative program denies all knowledge of a special Black Ops Team. There is no pardon on file for the super-villain known as the Constrictor. No record of any dealings with the Vietnamese national codenamed Bengal. Tony Stark cannot recall what became of his designs for the Iron Spider armor. And, most importantly, the Superhuman Armed Forces wishes to dispell all rumors of a 199th mutant. We repeat, there is no Mutant Zero. Mutant Zero does NOT exist. That is all.

You’ve gotta admit, that’s some damned fine solicitation copy right there.








Dorian Wright already pointed out the obvious with this cover, beating me to it. In a way, it’s cool that it made it past everyone who could squash it in Marvel, because it may mean they didn’t even consider the fact that The Falcon is a black superhero; he’s just a superhero in their eyes, and occasionally, superheroes get set on fire (Right? Actually, now I’m having a hard time thinking of one). That's how I'm going to imagine this cover coming about anyway, because any other scenario is just too depressing to contemplate.









DAREDEVIL #100 Written by ED BRUBAKER. Penciled by MICHAEL LARK. John Romita Sr., Gene Colan, Lee Bermejo, Alex Maleev & Marko Djurdjevic. Wraparound Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC. Variant 50/50 Cover by MICHAEL TURNER. Variant 50/50 Cover by LEE BERMEJO. Daredevil fights for his life, facing his own worst nightmares come true! In a star-studded, triple-sized 100th issue, a red-hot roster of guest artists joins penciler Michael Lark to bring Matt Murdock's history as the Man Without Fear to life, while DD struggles against that which he fears most! Don’t miss the first chapter of the groundbreaking third arc by the award-winning team of Brubaker and Lark–"Without Fear" begins with a bang! Featuring guest artists John Romita Sr., Gene Colan, Lee Bermejo, Alex Maleev, Marko Djurdjevic and more!!


This looks great. Well, actually, it sounds great. I don’t much care for the look of it. I do like all of Marko Djurdjevic’s previous cover work, but that costume looks an awful lot like the maroon leather costume Ben Affleck wore in Daredevil, and if there’s one thing I like to avoid, it’s being made to think of the movie Daredevil. Note who’s providing one of those variants. Why, it’s Michael Turner. Thank God that guy’s getting more work these days.







I love breasts. And I love tentacles. But for some reason, I don’t much care for them together. Perhaps it’s the whole helpless women about to be groped by slimy tentacle-having alien thing of some kind.

This had damn well better generate at least as much controversy as the MJ comicquette (at least within the comics blogosphere; I doubt anyone outside of comics will care, since it has nothing to do with a character who's now a household name like Spidey's girlfriend Mary Jane) because, if not, then Dirk Deppey wins.

Oh, and before I forget, nice touch with the sticky liquid splashed all over Black Cat's breasts. Classy.








Okay, come on now guys. Enough’s enough. Just what do I have to do to avoid seeing a fucking Michael Turner cover every week? Just tell me what I have to do to make Turner’s cover art go away and I’ll do it! Do I just have to drop the title? Because I’d really hate to. I’m totally digging everything beneath the covers but, Jesus, a guy can only take so many images of poorly rendered characters with bad anatomy posed in backgroundless space hiding their feet, you know?

Soooo, what do you suppose Storm’s resting upon in this image?









Hey, why can’t we get this guy to do Fantastic Four covers from now on? Look, he can draw feet! And when he sets his characters in a bacgroundless setting, he applies a sense of design to the thing so that you don’t really notice, instead of just a random wash of color effects to fill in the white space.









Puck…?










Holy shit, feet! Looks like I spoke too soon.








SPIDER-MAN FAIRY TALES #4 (of 4) Written by C.B. CEBULSKI. Art and Cover by NICK DRAGOTTA & MIKE ALLRED. You've never seen a Cinderella story like this one! In search of a husband for Princess Gwendolyn, a costume ball is thrown for the suitable young men of the Kingdom, but when the mysterious Spider Prince arrives, that's when the trouble begins. Who is this noble knight no one has ever heard of? What grudge do the soldiers in the Goblin Brigade hold against him? And just why does this dashing Spider Prince need to depart before midnight? Will he fall victim to a pumpkin bomb?


Hm, on the one hand this sounds completely retarded. But on the other hand, is there anything better than the Nick Dragotta and Mike Allred team? I think I’m going to have to think about this for a while. Good thing I won’t have to actually decide for three months yet.








SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #4 Written by JEFF PARKER & CHRIS GIARRUSSO. Penciled by LEONARD KIRK & CHRIS GIARRUSSO. Cover by LEONARD KIRK. Peter Parker has a wonderful evening lined up for Mary Jane that starts with a horse carriage ride to a popular Broadway show. But then the stage magic becomes terrifyingly real and it's Spider-Man who has a date– with the secret super team known as The Agents of Atlas! Also, an all-new Mini Marvel tale, and classic Spider-Man tales!. All that plus Spider-Man J!


Look Marvel, you might as well just go ahead and green light an Agents of Atlas series. Because Jeff Parker’s just going to go ahead and keep on writing them everywhere he can anyway. (And I’m okay with that).








SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP/M.O.D.O.K.'S 11 #2 (of 5)
Written by FRED VAN LENTE
Penciled by FRANCIS PORTELA
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
M.O.D.O.K. reveals the target of his heist to his handpicked team of Marvel's Most Wanted: the most powerful weapon in the universe, one that threatens the existence of all life on Earth. Meanwhile, Mentallo has figured out that one of M.O.D.O.K. 's team is actually a hero in disguise. (You'll never guess who it is!) Will Mentallo sell the rest of his teammates out to the authorities for some quick cash? Do you even have to ask? Let the backstabbing begin!


I don’t get it—why isn’t this just called M.O.D.O.K.'S 11? Because that’s a funny title.

Also, who’s that pilgrim-looking guy? Because he looks awesome.






WISDOM: RUDIMENTS OF WISDOM TPBWritten by PAUL CORNELL. Penciled by TREVOR HAIRSINE & MANUEL GARCIA. Cover by TREVOR HAIRSINE. Pete Wisdom has a lot of fairies to kill. Yes, fairies are supposed to be nice and magical and charming, but they are currently attacking England. Hugo Award nominee Paul Cornell (BBC’s Dr. Who and Robin Hood) brings you a sci-fi mini-series unlike anything you’ve seen before! Collecting WISDOM #1-6.


Has anyone read this? What’s the verdict? The premise sounds neat, but I was kinda trade-waiting it on account of not knowing anything about the character or creators. The fact that it changed art teams midway through, and I’ve yet to 99hear anything about it, positive or negative, kinda worries me.






ESSENTIAL DAZZLER VOL. 1 TPB Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOHN BYRNE, MARV WOLFMAN, TOM DEFALCO & DANNY FINGEROTH. Penciled by JOHN BYRNE, KEITH POLLARD, MIKE ESPOSITO, JOHN ROMITA, JR., WALT SIMONSON, ALAN KUPPERBERG, FRANK SPRINGER & VINCE COLLETTA. Cover by BOB LARKIN/ Disco may be dead, but Marvel's dynamic diva never says "die!" Beginning as a co-star with the X-Men and Spider-Man, Alison Blaire moved into a world of villains new and old, facing gangsters, gods and Galactus without skipping a beat! Plus: the Inhumans, the Hellfire Club and Project: PEGASUS! World saving, space travel, intrigue and romance in the ultimate disco mix! Guest-starring most of Marvel's heroes, including Spider-Woman and She-Hulk! Collecting DAZZLER #1-21, UNCANNY X-MEN #130-131 and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #203.552 PGS./Rated A …$16.


Are there any two words in the English language that sound like they belong together less than “essential” and Dazzler.

I may not get to this for a while, since I’m way behind on my cheap black and white phone-book-sized reprint collection reading, but this is definitely going in the queue. Not a bad list of contributes either.








Hey look, it's a Greg Land cover! And look, his Wasp doesn't look much more Asian here than she did during Ultimate Fanstisc Four, when he gave her soulder-length brown hair and made her a white woman because either a) he had no idea who he was drawing or b) couldn't find the appropriate photo-reference. At least this time he gave her black hair. That's a bit closer.

Oh, and yesterday's post about DC's solicits? Take a closer look at that Robin/Argent cover, and who's responsible for it. That's right, an honest-to-goodness Greg Land drawing!

?!?!?!?!!!!

So, I guess this is the cover for August's issue of Heroes For Hire, according to Marvel's solicits preview, posted on Newsarama.com last night.

Please note that it is drawn in an anime style by a Japanese person to really bold, underline and highlight the tentacle porn connotations.

Please note also that not only are the four women on the cover exploding out of their costumes, but one of them—the woman in white whose superhero identity I wasn't able to figure out after reading the one issue of the series I've read so far—is actually in a state of undress, and all of them seem to be either unconscious or simply closing their eyes and flinching. Just so you know that it's not simply tentacle porn, but tentacle rape you're seeing here.

And, amusingly, note Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu's bicep just behind Black Cat there. I like the fact that the artist included one of the male characters in this scene, just so you know it's not designed solely to titilate the base (and, let's be honest, fucked up) instincts of the male comic book customers. See, we put a half-naked man in the exact same circumstance...just, you know, on the other side of the column.

There's probably a joke to be made about the "For Hire" part of the title, but my mind is too thoroughly boggled by this image to think of it at the moment.

I can't imagine anyone at Marvel actually sat around thinking of what to put on the cover of this issue and were like, "You know, Captain America and Devil Dinosaur didn't do anything to help sales...what we really need is some tentacle rape!" So I've got to assume that Marvel innocently okayed this cover. Which is almost just as scary. Think about it. There are professionals in the comic book industry who are so out of touch with comics, animation and their own fans that they didn't realize the associations this particular style of image brings up and, even more alarmingly, they didn't think that a bunch of helpless women being groped against their will might not be something to put on the cover of a comic book.

For anyone keeping score on their Totally Fucked Up Index at home, Wolverine can't smoke (even though his superpowers prevent him from suffering any personal damage from it) anywhere within a comic book because it sends the wrong message to the kids reading at home (his drinking and killing, however, are cool), but Black Cat and her fellow Heroes For Hire can be raped by slimy tentacles on the cover.

I look forward to the comiquette celebrating this moment in Heroes For Hire history.

DC's August previews reviewed

DC has released their solicitation info for comics being released in August, which means it's time for the monthly EDILW activity of passing summary judgement on comics that we won't even be able to read for months yet based solely on the covers, the creators and a paragraph or two of solicitation copy. So click on over to Newsarama.com's listings and follow along!



Yikes! Not only are Countdown’s covers not up to 52’s standards, but the covers in a few months won’t be up to the current Countdown standards. It may be a little early to write the whole thing off yet, but based on what I’ve seen (the first two issues) and what they’ve teased (everything through August), it sure seems like DC coulda waited to better plan this thing out. At this point, I can’t see a third weekly comic from the company. 52 built the machine and groomed the audience; Countdown may not wreck the machine, but it sure is wrecking continuity, and is definitely driving the audience away.






ACTION COMICS #853-854 Written by Kurt Busiek. Art and cover by Brad Walker & John Livesay. The Countdown tie-in trilogy continues with the Kryptonite Man on the loose, Mr. Action on the prowl and Superman on the ropes! Plus, a certain long-lost superdog returns…but what does fate hold for Jimmy Olsen? And in ACTION COMICS #854, it’s a desperate battle for Superman, a turning point for Jimmy Olsen, and a deadly radioactive threat for Metropolis! Will Mr. Action live or die? And what will the future hold for Krypto? Plus: giant monkey!


Actually, that’s a giant ape, not a giant monkey.

That aside, this is one hell of an exciting preview paragraph, and that image…! This is exactly why I don’t much care if the Donner/Johns/Kubert team ever actually gets their shit together long enough to a deliver one whole story arc. Busiek is on fire on the Super-books.






ACTION COMICS #855 Written by Geoff Johns & Richard Donner. Art and cover by Eric Powell. The dynamic writing team of Geoff Johns & Richard Donner joins artist extraordinaire Eric Powell (The Goon) for “Escape from Bizarro World,” a 3-part story that will thrill and horrify! Last seen in ACTION COMICS #845, Bizarro returns to kidnap one of the most important people in Superman's life. But what does the twisted, ersatz Man of Steel want? The only way to find out is to travel to the enemy's home: Bizarro World!

Oh, here’s Johns and Donner, forging ahead as if there wasn’t an unfinished story arc just sort of hanging there. Huh. Well, whatever; this sounds like a lot of fun…I do hope Bizarro’s more funny-Bizarro than scary-Bizarro. It sure is awesome to see the artist of a comic book called Satan’s Sodomy Baby working on Superman, isn’t it?



THE ALL-NEW ATOM #14 Written by Gail Simone. Art by Mike Norton & Trevor Scott. Cover by Ladrönn. Part 3 of "The Hunt for Ray Palmer,” tying into COUNTDOWN! Ryan Choi, Donna Troy, Jason Todd and Bob the Monitor continue to search the Nanoverse for Ray Palmer — and the travelers find themselves in what some might call…Heaven.

Uh-oh. I’d dropped this title because despite liking Ryan Choi and Simone’s plots and dialogue okay, the way she write it drives me nuts, and no art team seems to be able to stick around for more than three consecutive issues. I was planning on returning for this storyline, but maybe not—nothing says “Please don’t buy this” quite like the words “Jason Todd” in the solicitation.



ALL-NEW BOOSTER GOLD #1 Written by Geoff Johns & Jeff Katz. Art and cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund. Exploding from the pages of52 and exploring the timeline of the DC Universe comes a new monthly book featuring the greatest super-hero history will never know: Booster Gold! Following the universe altering conclusion of 52, Booster Gold wants what’s due to him — a spot on the Justice League of America! But the time stream’s in trouble, and Booster Gold is in the center of it! Now he must make a choice: reclaim his former glory or do the right thing, forgoing the credit. ALL-NEW Booster Gold will take you through time and space, to the greatest moments of the DCU that have happened and will happen. “52 Pick-Up” begins in this extra-sized issue #1! Someone is exploiting the ravaged time stream, hoping to eliminate the world’s greatest heroes — and only Booster Gold can stop them. But, really — Booster Gold? Why him? What does Rip Hunter truly want? And what shocking figure is behind it all? And coming up in the months ahead in DC’s time spanning monthly: the world’s greatest Green Lantern — Sinestro, Jonah Hex, Barbara “Batgirl” Gordon, Flash and Kid Flash, and plenty more of DC’s super stars from throughout its past and future!


This looks like a ton of fun, and I’m totally on board for it, but what’s with the addition of All-New to the title there? Are they worried someone might mistake it for the previous Booster Gold series? You know, the one that was cancelled nineteen years ago? Or are they hoping to brand it like the dismal-selling All-New Atom?





More Kevin Maguire, please.






Hey, check it out! Doug Mahnke’s drawings of corpses have more life and personality in them than Michael Turner’s drawings of live women do!

Not sure if I’ll be able to follow the adventures of a protagonist who is now Hitler times six, but I like the creators, so I’ll try my hardest.




BATMAN/LOBO: DEADLY SERIOUS #1Written by Sam Kieth. Art and cover by Kieth. Get ready for an action-packed 2-part tale teaming up the Dark Knight with the interstellar madman, as only Sam Kieth can deliver! Batman, transported to an alien vessel by a mysterious figure, is asked to help cure a plague that has infected its inhabitants. Lobo, who has also been shanghaied, finds himself in the same boat. Now, Batman and Lobo, two incredibly unlikely companions, must somehow find a way to work together — and find out the real reason for their abductions — before they kill each other!


I sure hope this is better than this Batman/Lobo book was





Or this recent Sam Kieth book co-starring Batman





Or this recent Sam Kieth book co-starring Batman



In general, anything by Kieth is at least worth a looksee, so count me down for the first issue at least.







DR. THIRTEEN: ARCHITECTURE & MORTALITY TP
Written by Brian Azzarello
Art and cover by Cliff Chiang
Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang join forces to tell the adventures of Dr. Terrence Thirteen, a parapsychologist who disproves reports of supernatural activity. In this story collected from TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED #1-8, Dr. Thirteen rounds up a group of the world’s magical beings to prevent strange forces from tearing asunder the very fabric of the past, present, and future!


I’ve really been looking forward to this, and am glad DC’s decided to put it into a trade all by itself, without any Eric Battle art or goateed Spectre getting in the way of a Genius Jones story.




GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY: FOR BETTER OR WORSE TP Written by Dennis O’Neil, Alan Moore, Brad Meltzer and others. Art by Dick Giordano, Klaus Janson, Mike Grell and others. Cover by Alex Ross. Collecting stories from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #75, ACTION COMICS #428, #434, THE JOKER #4, GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW #94-95, DETECTIVE COMICS #549-550, GREEN ARROW: LONGBOW HUNTERS# 1, GREEN ARROW (VOL.1) #75, #101, GREEN ARROW(VOL.2)# 4-5, #12, #21 and BIRDS OF PREY #88!


Huh. That’s a very interesting collection right there, pulling stories from all over, even chapters of stories out of other stories which are already available in trade. I’ll likely pass, as I’ve already read and have all of these—except the one from the Joker’s short-lived series—but this seems like a pretty nice sampler for Green Arrow stories.





JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #12 Written by Brad Meltzer. Art by Ed Benes, Sandra Hope and Eric Wight. Standard covers by Alex Ross. Variant cover by Michael Turner. Brad's Meltzer's fantastic run on the JLA concludes with a shocking cliffhanger! “Monitor Duty" is an amazing day in the lives of the world's greatest heroes, as only the League’s artist Ed Benes could envision! Retailers: This issue will feature three covers. Standard Edition Cover A and B are by Alex Ross and will ship in approximately 50/50 ratio. One copy of the Variant Edition, with a cover by Michael Turner, may be ordered for every 10 copies of the Standard Editions ordered.


Wow, that was fast. We knew going in that Meltzer’s run on this title was going to be a comically short one, but it sure seems to have flown by, doesn’t it? Once it’s finally wrapped, I predict “Tornado’s Path” is going to seem even more turgid. Check it out: Not only did the professional novelist only contribute four stories (one co-written by Geoff Johns) during his entire run, but the one about the re-founding of the team comprised two-thirds of his run.

Wow.

And I know I seem to spend an awful lot of energy on EDILW being negative about Meltzer’s JLoA but, it’s so hard to resist when even the solicitations include lines like this: “Brad's Meltzer's fantastic run on the JLA concludes with a shocking cliffhanger!”

His run concludes with a cliffhanger? What?!

I am pretty excited about next month’s previews of September now, as they’ll have to name Metlzer’s successor by then. I don’t suppose there’s much hope that it’s anyone other than Geoff Johns at this point, is there? I’ve just about given up on the title ever being as great as it was during Grant Morrison or Giffen and DeMatteis’ runs in the near future, so I guess I can settle for a good run from Johns, likely keeping the title warm until Meltzer deigns to return.

On the other hand, I wouldn't mind Kurt Busiek getting another chance, after his run was aborted after a single story arc to make way for the Infinite Crisis business. Busiek's story "Syndicate Rules" wasn't great, but it at least had a tone of Justice Leaguers, including the then-current team (Big Seven plus Plas plus the "Justice League Elite"), old teammembers (Green Arrow, Hawkman, Black Canary, Power Girl,etc) and people who just plain belong there (Captain Marvel).




DETECTIVE COMICS #835Written by John Rozum. Art by Tom Mandrake. Cover by Simone Bianchi. Part 1 of a 2-part story written by John Rozum (MIDNIGHT, MASS)! Dr. Jonathan Crane has discovered that being confined in Arkham simply means a captive audience for his experiments in fear. Now, more powerful than ever, he easily escapes from the Asylum and spreads his reign of terror throughout Gotham as the Scarecrow. With the entire city spooked and the Scarecrow committing seemingly random crimes, can Batman stop him before the game turns even more deadly?

I love the Scarecrow. I love Tom Mandrake. (Well, his art). I’ve been trying my best to avoid the Dini-less TECs, but I don’t think I’ll be able to resist this one. I do hope that Superboy-Prime punch Judd Winick’s dumb-ass were-scarecrow business right into Mr. Mind’s mouth.



OUTSIDERS: FIVE OF A KIND — WEEK 1: NIGHTWING/BOOMERANG Written by Nunzio DeFilippis & Christina Weir. Art and cover by Freddie Williams II. Get ready for FIVE OF A KIND — five issues, five top creative teams, one team-up per week, as Batman takes control of the Outsiders by using these adventures to pick his new lineup! In WEEK 1: nightwing/boomerang, Batman’s first vote is cast! The two Outsiders with just one thing in common — a troubled relationship to the Dark Knight — must reconcile their differences to go up against Chemo!

OUTSIDERS: FIVE OF A KIND — WEEK 2: KATANA/SHAZAM Written by Mike W. Barr. Art by Kevin Sharpe & Robin Riggs. Cover by Cliff Chiang. Batman’s Week 2 vote! The souls of long-dead criminals roam the earth, forcing Tatsu Yamashiro to risk her own life by entering the realm to which she condemned them with her Soulsword! She’ll need the help of the DCU’s most powerful magical guardian — but can the power of Shazam prevail while confined to the Rock of Eternity?

OUTSIDERS: FIVE OF A KIND —WEEK 3: THUNDER/MARTIAN MANHUNTER Written by Tony Bedard . Art and cover by Koi Turnbull & Art Thibert. Batman’s Week 3 vote, tying into COUNTDOWN! Black Lightning’s daughter and the Last Martian investigate a mystery at the center of the earth — but the mystery only deepens when they find a New God on the run!

OUTSIDERS: FIVE OF A KIND — WEEK 4: METAMORPHO/AQUAMANWritten by G. Willow Wilson. Art and cover by Joshua Middleton. Batman’s Week 4 vote! International war is brewing over an ocean under the Sahara, and when Metamorpho and Aquaman intervene, they find it’s also the home turf of another elemental who’s got the Orb of Ra. If the deadliest foe is your heart’s desire, they may have no chance!

OUTSIDERS: FIVE OF A KIND — WEEK 5: GRACE/WONDER WOMAN Written by Marc Andreyko. Art by Cliff Richards & Art Thibert . Cover by Christian Alamy. Batman’s Week 5 vote, tying into AMAZONS ATTACK! The shocking aftermath of the Amazons’ assault on Washington, D.C. forces an unlikely alliance between two-fisted Grace Choi and the Amazonian princess as they team up to find a time bomb like no other hidden in America’s heartland!


So, is it safe to assume that Outsiders is in serious danger of cancellation? Because this event really reminds me of this







And this






And, as I recall, neither Scare Tactics nor that volume of Teen Titans survived long after the seemingly surefire sales-booster of teaming the regular protagonists with (more) popular guest-stars in a series of one shots.

The premise of this event sound a little wonky from the outside. Why wouldn’t Batman pick Nightwing, Captain Marvel, Martian Manhunter, Metamorpho and Wonder Woman over the newbies and troubled folks with morality the Bat doesn’t agree with at all? And why would any of them join the Outsiders? Is Wonder Woman going to quit the League to hang out with Grace and Thunder? Is Martian Manhunter going to just join any team that will have him since he Brad Meltzer doesn’t like him enough to have him on the League, despite the fact that it makes no sense for him to not to be there?

While I like all of the guest-stars for the most part, I’m trying to avoid the “New Look” Martian Manhunter and the conceptually retarded Captain Marvel recreation. I’m down for the Metamorpho/Aquaman story though…that cover looks great, and Middleton is a force to be reckoned with. I wonder if whoever's editing Outsiders realizes that this incarnation of Aquaman can only survive out of water for about an hour at a time, and thus would be pretty lousy on a team book?







METAL MEN #1Written by Duncan Rouleau. Art and cover by Rouleau. Bursting from the pages of 52 andSUPERMAN/BATMAN into their own new 8-issue miniseries by Duncan Rouleau — it’s Gold! Platina! Mercury! Iron! Lead! Tin! And now Copper! Doc Magnus’s creations are ready to take on all-new threats and some old, reimagined ones: Chemo, Doctor Yes, B.O.L.T.S., The Balloonatic and his Orphan Army, as well as the Robot Renegades led by an old Manhunter Robot! But the greatest threat lies in Le Cabinet Noir and its bid to control the natural order using dangerous lieutenants like the Nameless, an armored being that feeds off the blood of the innocent and controls the Gogoloth, giant stone Golems made of Granite, Bizmuth, Onyx and Lime.

Woo-hoo! This looks and sounds promising. I sorta hated the last thing I read that Rouleau wrote (The Nightmarist), and the words “from the pages of Superman/Batman” kinda scare me (Please don’t be a pointless reboot, please don’t be a pointless reboot, please don’t be a pointless reboot…!). But Rouleau’s Metal Men designs are top notch, and just reading that list of villains was fun. If the outline for the series is that good a read, I have high hopes for the actual comics.




SUPERMAN #666 Written by Kurt Busiek. Art and cover by Walter Simonson. An extra-sized spectacular featuring art by Walter Simonson, as Superman goes to Hell — literally — during the most nightmarish adventure of his heroic career, and a dread portent of that which may be coming! Who, or what, is “The Beast from Krypton”? This issue — featuring the Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, the Demon and a host of other DC superstars from Wonder Woman to Animal Man — is guaranteed to send chills down your spine!

Awesome. Two DC books hitting their 666th issue this year, two DC books taking note of the fact with diabolical stories.




TEEN TITANS: TITANS EAST TP
Written by Geoff Johns & Adam Beechen
Art by Peter Snejbjerg, Tony Daniel, Chris Batista and others
Cover by Daniel
In this latest volume of the hit series, collecting issues #42-47, master assassin Deathstroke has formed his own team of Teen Titans in order to take on the original Teen Titans, destroy them and take their place. What new team of Titans will rise out of the ashes in this epic battle?

If you were lucky enough to miss this in singles, DO NOT BUY THIS. Seriously, just don’t do it. You’ll hate it. It’s awful. In fact, it may just be the worst thing ever. The worst! Don’t buy it. I’m not kidding. It sucks.

Irrefutable evidence that the complete "Satellite Era" adventures of the Justice League need to be collected into a trade right now:

C'mon DC; I've just gotta know how this turns out.

Wertham was right

Sometimes a giant underwater monster's claw crushing a submarine that's futiley trying to hit it with torpedoes is just a giant underwater monster's claw crushing a submarine that's futiley trying to hit it with torpedoes.

And sometimes, it looks more like this:








This blog post has been brought to you by:

Jerry Falwell Memorial Post

The late Jerry Falwell has said a lot of ignorant, irresponsible, reprehensible things during his life. Probably the most reprehensible thing I've heard him say was regarding the September 11 attacks, where he immediately sided with the hijackers who carried them out, saying that the death and destruction was God's punishment for America's perceived cultural immorality.

And whenever I think of Falwell, I think of his brief appearance in J. Michael Straczynski, John Romiat Jr. and Scot Hanna's Amazing Spider-Man #36, the issue that dealing with Spider-Man's reaction to 9/11.

The narration refers to "self-serving proclamations of holy warriors...who announce that somehow we had this coming," leading to this very panel, featuring JRjr's version of Falwell, spouting a version of his infamous quote:



What really underscored the, well, evil of this statement is that elsewhere in the book, Straczynski checks in with some of Marvel's most nefarious villains—The Kingpin, Magneto, Doctor Octopus, Juggernaut and Dr. Doom, all of whom the narration tells us are sickened by the cruel barbarity of the attacks: "Because the story of humanity is written...in the voice that speaks within even the worst of us, and says This is not right.. Because even the worst of us, however scarred, are still human. Still feel. Still mourn the random death of innocents."



So what does that make Falwell—worse than the worst of us? I mean, just how evil do you have to be to come out of a comic book looking less decent, human and noble than a supervillain whose name is Dr. Doom?

May 17th's Meanwhile, in Las Vegas...

This week’s Las Vegas Weekly column is comprised of reviews of Nick Bertozzi’s excellent original graphic novel The Salon (thus far, 2007’s best book), one-named cartoonist Jason’s take on the increasingly tired zombie genre The Living and the Dead, and German manga-ka Anike Hage’s wonderfully named Gothic Sports.

In other, less self-promotional news…

—This post on Scans_Daily reminded me just how much I loved the relationship between Superman and Batman in Trinity, and how adding Wonder Woman to the mix really changes the dynamic between the two. They really oughta just cancel Superman/Batman (a mercy killing at this point) and let Matt Wagner do a Trinity ongoing.

The link has scans of two of my favorite scenes, Batman yelling at Dick Grayson in front of Superman, and Superman talking about how he sees all of Batman’s silly tricks before he pulls ‘em out, but lets it slide because it makes Batman happy to think he’s surprising and impressing him.



—So that Mary Jane “comiquette” thing? Forget my existential agonizing prompted by Dirk Deppey’s piece at Journalista. Turns out he was wrong and all the online complaining is accomplishing something. Not changing the direction of mainstream super-comics or anything like that, but the mainstream media is now apparently covering the kerfuffle. Outside of Spidey movie stuff (which is probably driving mainstream interest in the comiquette controversy to a large degree), this is the most mainstream media coverage Marvel’s garnered since Cap got capped, right?



—Any Eric Powell fans who slogged through this week's long-ass installment of “Weekly Haul” might have noticed that there was no review of Satan’s Sodomy Baby, or Satan’s $@#%* Baby, as the shipping lists and outer cover refer to it.

Why no review? Well, it’s a long, uninteresting story. Which I will now proceed to tell you.

I actually forgot to pick it up Wednesday. I blame my local comic shop. They used to shelve all the new books of the week on the back wall, the entire cover of each and every book clearly visible, in alphabetical order. Even with this very consumer-friendly layout, I would occasionally still forget books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man, Runaways and New Avengers, since the covers remained pretty much unchanged form issue to issue (And I’m dumb).

The store was fairly recently redesigined with a new new book layout, and now I tend to forget books on a weekly basis. The whole left wall of the store is lined with tiered shelves, in which new books are shelved along with books from the last several weeks so, for example, the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man is just above last month’s issue and the issue before that too. The way the shelves are set-up, you can generally only see the top parts of each book. There are little orange placards behind each book notifying you that it’s a new book, but it’s a lot of visual information to scan, and little to go on, making it less than browser-friendly.

That’s also why last week’s “Weekly Haul” didn’t mention that Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo’s Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2 was pretty awesome (I loved the “Daredevil’s all bumpin’ into things” line), and Wednesday's didn’t contain a review of Satan’s Sodomy Baby.

And speaking of which...

The book came pre-bagged, with a generic black cover featuring a big, long South Park-style “Warning” that functions as both an actual warning and a joke, and the title changed to Satan’s $@#%* Baby.

Flip that bad boy over, and there’s the actual title—Satan’s Sodomy Baby—on the actual cover, which features a really nice Powell cover with absolutely nothing objectionable on it (Well, the stuff that the titular character is covered in might be objectionable, but, without reading it, one won’t know for sure what the material actually is; it could just as easily be blood or mud as…anything grosser). The title page and the small print also use the Sodomy title. So that’s apparently the title.

Soooo, why the “$@#%*” did Dark Horse retitle the thing? “Sodomy” is not a swear word; it’s an extremely old term that is incredibly loosely defined to the point that it refers to pretty much any sexual act that isn’t penal/vaginal. “Sodomy” doesn’t mean “ass-rape” or “butt-fucking;” a blowjob administered to a man from a woman, is also defined as sodomy by some parts. I could see being cute about the name of the book if it were Satan’s Ass-Rape Baby or Satan’s Butt-Fuck Baby or just plain old Satan’s Fuck Baby (which is what I actually assumed the title was when I first saw those swear-word symbols), but “sodomy?”

It just seems like an overly squeamish response, trying to preempt a modern day Wertham from freaking out should the book somehow find it’s way into a child’s hands (Like kids go to direct market comic book shops and buy comics! The industry wishes.)

Oh, and pet peeve—There are six letters in “sodomy” and only five symbols in “$@#%*”; I suppose there’s no rule regarding this, but I like when the letters and symbols correspond, so that you can figure out what the swear word is. But maybe that’s just me. See, to compare it to a bleeped-out swear word in an audio or audiovisual media, not having them match up is like bleeping out the “-uck” ane leaving the “fuh-“ (or, starting the bleep too early), you know?

I probably wouldn’t have bought this book at all due to my irritation with Dark Hors'es embarrassment about publishing it at all (I certainly wouldn’t have made a special trip back to the shop today to pick it up) if I didn’t review comic books for a living (Well, 1/3 of my living, anyway…if you could call this living. [Sorry, that was a bad joke even by EDILW bad joke standards]).

Full review next week, but it is full of Powell’s usual nice art and lots of funny sentences. And if you buy one book just for the boobs this week, make yours Dark Horse, True Believers! At least Powell draws nipples on his topless women.



—Damn it. I just realized I didn’t get X-Men First Class Special this week either. I forgot to get it on Wednesday, just like Satan’s Sodomy Baby. I went back to the shop today to pick up SSB and I forgot to get the First Class special again. Arrgh.



—DC announced two 52 related trades Thursday at Newsarama.com (and I don’t know, maybe elsewhere too.) The new J.G. Jones cover for the trade is decent, but not as good as some of the 52 covers he’d done. And what the hell is up with that Entertainment Weekly blurb. “As addictive as any good TV series” is the best they could come up with? I know I’ve said much kinder things about it both in LVW and here (What do you mean EDILW isn’t as well-known and well-respected as EW?).

Two companion volumes were also announced, a $20 hardcover collection of Jones’ covers, which is a little more than I was expecting, but I feel obligated to buy it, having asked for just that for about 52 weeks straight. The other is a very, very weird one:


52: THE COMPANION TP
Writers: Steve Ditko, Greg Rucka, Gardner Fox, Grant Morrison, Steve Gerber, Mark Schultz, Jack Miller, Dan Jurgens, David Goyer and Geoff Johns

Artists: Steve Ditko, Kano & Stefano Gaudiano, Chaz Truog & Doug Hazlewood, Carmine Infantino, Walter Simonson, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen, Murphy Anderson, Alex Toth, Dan Jurgens & Tom Dzon and Leonard Kirk & Keith Champagne

Collects: MYSTERIOUS SUSPENSE #1, GOTHAM CENTRAL #40, ANIMAL MAN #16, METAL MEN #45, SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #97, RIP HUNTER: TIME MASTER #6, JSA #43-44, and stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #350, STRANGE ADVENTURES #226, SECRET ORIGINS #35.

$19.99 U.S., 224 pages

I’m just about curious enough about these issues to look them all up on comics.org, but as far as I can tell they appear to be a collection of key issues from the various players in 52’s fictional careers. It sure looks like the most random collection of comics stories ever assembled, and the title is a little goofy. I think I already have most of these stories, but it may be worth checking out .

I’m a little surprised there hasn’t been a Secret Origins trade announced yet, collecting the back-ups.


—Finally, speaking of Newsarama.com, Countdown editor Mike Marts tells Matt Brady that the fact that Jimmy Olsen knows the secret identities of the Robins is a plot point, not a mistake. Uh-huh. Then why doesn't Jason Todd act surprised when Olsen calls him "Mr. Todd?" The 'rama interview sound a litle like someone who trips and then says "I meant to do that," but not in a deadly serious way, and then follows it up with, "And if you get to know me better, perhaps you'll come to understand why I tripped on purpose."