Meet the super-apes of Grant Morrison's Gorilla Galaxy

Marvel Zombies may just have been the best idea Mark Millar’s ever had, even if it wasn’t him but an editor or marketer who came decided to apply the derogatory term form Marvel fans to the zombified versions of superheroes that Millar used in his brief Ultimate Fantastic Four run.

In the early years of the twenty-first century, what was popular in our pop culture? Well, there were superheroes, of course, and zombies. Why not put the two together? It’s a pop culture Reese’s Cup.

I imagine Millar, sitting atop his easy chair stuffed with un-cashed royalty checks from Civil War and Ultimates trades, brooding that he didn’t write that Marvel Zombies miniseries himself, or maybe pitch the zombified superheroes idea to Hollywood, where the real money is. Perhaps he strokes his chin, and tries to think of another idea as good (and profitable). To, in other words, come up with the next Marvel Zombies.

His bosses have certainly been trying to come up with the next Marvel Zombies themselves, and at a convention a few years ago, someone in the audience suggested “Marvel Apes.” Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada’s been talking about it on panels and interviews now and then ever since, and at last weekend’s New York Comic Con he finally announced Marvel Apes, complete with a creative team and an image:



Fan reaction has been a bit mixed. (My own is that Karl Kesel is a quite capable writer who handles fun comics well, although Marvel’s attempts at silly humor in the recent past have tended to be painfully unfunny).

Many have pointed out that it sounds an awful lot like “JLApe,” the 1999 DC storyline that ran through the Justice League-related annuals, and dealt with the Leaguers being turned into gorillas.

Others have noted that ape-based super-comics seems to be more the forte of Marvel’s rival, DC. After all, if you want to read a super-comic that deals heavily with apes, you’re going to want it to come from the company that gave us Gorilla Grodd, Gorilla City, Angel and the Ape, Congorilla, Titano, Detective Chimp, Monsieur Mallah, The Ultra-Humaite and Beppo the Super-Monkey.

The DCU is the kind of place where the heroes often find themselves transformed into gorillas, forced to fight gorillas wearing their costumes and using their powers, battling against winged gorillas or playing baseball with gorillas. It’s a place where gorillas can dress up like Indians and shoot bows and arrows,explore space, practice witchcraft or even marry Jimmy Olsen.

While the “JLApe” story is the one that springs most immediately to mind when thinking of a comic book company publishing a story in which their premier super-team gets turned into apes, it’s not the only time DC told a tale with an all-ape super-team within the past ten years.

No, there’s also “Crisis One Million” a short story included in 1999’s DC One Million 80-Page Giant #1,000,000 which should prove extra-pertinent with Final Crisis right around the corner. After all, it has the word “Crisis” in the title and it was written by FC scribe Grant Morrison.

That 80-page giant, like all of those in 1999, was an anthology made up of shorter stories. These all revolved around the 853rd Century as depicted in Morrison’s previous DC crossover story, DC One Million.

The highlights are the two Morrison tales–one featuring the introduction of that era’s Atom (drawn by Cully Hamner), the other featuring the super-apes (drawn by Dusty Abell). Also included in the book are a “System’s Finest” team-up tale by Mark Millar and the late Mike Wieringo and “Tales of the Legion of Executive Familiars” by Marck Shcultz, Georges Jeanty and Dexter Vines, a story that introduces Krypto-9 and his all-animal super-team. (The rest of the book’s not-so-hot, but there’s some nice art from Flint Henry, Norm Breyfogle and Phil Jimenez in it).

But getting back to the apes, “Crisis One Million” opens with Superman and Owlwoman finishing up a trade discussion with Supwerwoman of the Qwardian Reversoverse’s Super-Syndicate (I did mention this was by Grant Morrison, right?)

But Superman’s descendant and his fellow heroes in Justice Legion A receive a distress signal from Titano, the leader of the Gorilla Galaxy’s Primate Legion!


As you can see, this Titano is a giant talking gorilla in a Superman-like costume. And he has all of Superman’s powers.

Apparently, the two teams’ home galaxies are hurtling close to one another at incredible speeds, and will shortly strike one another, obliterating both. Here’s some more of the Primate Legion:


Detective Chimp! Sea Ape! And an unnamed Atom-like darling little super whatsit! (Please note that Morrison avoided the easy joke of naming the sea-going simian “Sea Monkey,” but instead opted for “Sea Ape,” which happens to be the name of a cryptid reported by 18th-century German explorer and naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller, wose name grace Steller's Sea Cow).

Superman speeds off to try and hold the two galaxies apart, while Batman and The Flash concoct a plan to use the Celestial Treadmill to create a reverse-time field to smooth out the wrinkle’s in time created by the Gorilla Galaxy’s massive gravity. But, unfortunately, all of hypertime has begun to fold together, bringing legions of alternate Justice Legions together, leading to two or three pages of Elseworld characters fighting (Characters from Superfriends, the Tangent universe, Kingdome Come and so on slug it out for a few panels; kind of like Arena, only as a brief lark rather than a serious multi-part storyline).

Superman uses his force-vision to try and slow the oncoming Gorilla Galaxy, and Titano arrives to back him up with his own force-vision.



Back in JLA headquarters, Owlwoman realizes it was Superwoman’s activation of an ancient JLA artifact that set-off the sequence of events, and she’s able to save the day (with an assist from Flash and the Atom).

The Primates make one last appearance, as Titano and Superman discuss the styles of humor prevalent in their two galaxies.

And check it out—Sea-Ape is one of those monkeys that sound like Jimmy Durante in old cartoons.



The end.

By the way, that entire “Crisis” story? It’s just ten-pages long.

The Killer Skies claim their cutest victim

German air ace Baron Hans von Hammer, nicknamed “The Hammer of Hell,” was one of the most accomplished pilots of World War I. In his custom crimson tri-winged Fokker Dr.I, von Hammer was virtually unstoppable in the air, a human killing machine responsible for over 100 confirmed kills in a four-year period.

On the ground and outside of his cockpit, however, Von Hammer’s reputation haunted him. The pilots that served under him in his Jagdstaffel kept their distance, whispering about their emotion-less leader from afar. The pride of his personal valet and his people had in his exploits irritated him. The women who would dare to get close to him would become overcome with fear, chilled by the very touch of his lips.

His only friend in the world was a large black wolf that prowled the Black Forest at night, another lonely born killer.

By all accounts, he was an extremely dark, cold, brooding man.

What made him like this? Was it the fact that he led so many young men to their deaths, yet he himself always seemed to survive? Was it the number of noble, skilled pilots he himself gunned down, simply because they happened to fly under another flag? Was it simply the deleterious effect of war on the noble soul of a noble man?

Perhaps. Or perhaps it’s because in the middle of this brutal war he had to bury his puppy.


It happened in Star Spangled War Stories #148, in a story entitled “Luck is a Puppy Named Schatzi!” by the original Enemy Ace creative team of Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert (Conveniently collected in Showcase Presents Enemy Ace Vol. 1, one of the best collections in the series so far).

As you can see by the cover image, this is a seriously dramatic story. Not only is our dark, tragic, Byronic protagonist getting all shot to hell high above the earth in a fragile, upside down airplane, but he’s dropped his puppy! His injured puppy! Jesus!

The tale begins on the Jagdstaffel of Rittmeister von Hammer, where a curious, hungry stray puppy is curiously inspecting the parked airplanes. Suddenly, out of the sky swoops Von Hammer and his pilots, coming in for a landing.


The puppy runs for cover, but, alas, not fast enough. Yes, this is a story which begins with a puppy being run over. And things are only going to get worse from there.

Von Hammer doesn’t spot the puppy until its too late, and dives out of his plane to find the little animal beneath one of his wheels. He’s overjoyed to find that, though wounded, it lives.


This is only the third page of this story, but it’s the 317th page of the Showcase Presents collection. And I’m pretty sure it’s the first time Von Hammer has cracked a smile in the whole thing.

The other pilots are just as surprised to see Von Hammer happy:


"Schatzi," by the way, is German for sweetie, sweetheart or honey which, obviously, doesn't sound like the sort of name one would expect the Hammer of Hell to come up with for a pet.


He takes Schatzi to his quarters, bandages his leg, and even takes him to bed with him.


The following morning, he addresses his men on the runway, informing them that Schatzi will be accompanying them on their mission to take on a battleship off the coast of Cuxhaven. They take on a trio of British Sopwith sea-planes, a battle which costs him his young pilot Kurt, who was only on his second patrol, then buzzes a battleship, luring the British planes into smashing into their own ship and blowing it to blighty.

Schatzi tries his best to be as brave and determined-looking as his new master. I love these panels, which are exactly like the scores of other panels of the grim Enemy Ace that Kubert has filled these stories with, except, of course, the presence of a puppy in each of them.







After touching down, the soldiers rush to congratulate him on his victory, but Von Hammer cuts them short as usual, reminding them of the cost of such a victory…

…before grinningly widely and leading his new little friend off to meet his only other friend.


Despite what Von Hammer says here about them being three of a kind, I’m not so sure I buy it.


It’s not just solitude that unites the wolf and the Enemy Ace, after all. It’s also the fact that they’re born killers. Still, I love this panel of the trio striding side-by-side through the forest (For some reason, I hear this song in my head when I look at that panel).

Schatzi, all tuckered out from his long day of air-battles and wolf-meeting, falls asleep in Von Hammer’s arms, and the two killing-machines part ways.



But back at the Jagdstaffel field, an urgent message has arrived, ordering Von Hammer and his pilots to provide air support for the German infantry driving into France.

The baron tucks his little friend into the collar of his coat and flies off into the rain, telling him there’s no crying in World War I.


At this point, you can kind of see that Schatzi is beginning to realize what he’s gotten himself into. I mean, look at that “oh shit” look on his face in that last panel there.

As soon as the storm clouds part, a storm of lead replaces it, driven on by British fighters.

Schatzi finally proves himself a good co-pilot, warning Von Hammer of an enemy plane just in time to save his life.



And then it happens:


Nnnneeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!

Can even the Enemy Ace pull off the aerial acrobatics necessary to somersault below the plunging pup and catch him?

No, no he can’t. The cute little puppy totally falls to his death.

All Von Hammer can do is freak out for a few panels


and then, then, then... if you thought fighting against Enemy Ace on a normal day was scary, you should see him after he loses a puppy. He-- well, let's let Kanigher take it from here...

“Like a madman, the Hammer of Hell tears into battle—wreaking a terrible havoc…

“He is everywhere at once… Sending his spandaus’ bullets crashing into any object caught in his target-sights…

“Four…five…SIX planes wrapped in flames fall victim to his murderous, withering fire…

“Like a blazing-red fireball his Fokker streaks across the sky…leaving a trail of billowing smoke and ravaging flame…”

The carnage ends only when the baron runs out of ammunition, and the few surviving combatants limp back to their bases. But not Von Hammer.

Back at his Jagdstaffel, his men wonder wehre he has gone. One says that “he flew like an Avenging Angel of DEATH!” and then landed “amidst the dead below! It—it was horrible! Like something out of Dante’s Inferno! Perhaps… he landed to confirm kills!”

But no, he has landed in the graveyard of No Man’s Land, picking through the dead until he can find the body of Schatzi, and gives his fallen friend a true pilot’s burial.


The skies are truly the killers of us all, and, in war, no one is safe! Not even puppies!

"Excuse me, where's your oceanic revenge section?"

If you scour the publication information on the title pages, back covers and inside book flaps of graphic novels, you'll often find either a numbered list of suggested subjects (the Library of Congress subject headings), or a series of subject suggestions for where to shelve the book in question in your book store.

For example,in Aya, you'll find subject suggestions of "teenage girls," "Cote d' Ivoire," and, the most common one among graphic novels, "Comic books, strips, etc." In The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, the subjects are "China," "biography," "comic books, strips, etc." and "Long Tack Sam."

For this book

a wonderful debut graphic novel by Tim Sievert with a quite powerful emotional story (plus a giant octopus coming into conflict with a man, one of my favorite story elements in any type of comic book) and great black and white art, the subject suggestions, are, I imagine, at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek.

They're not on the title page or numbered like Library of Congress subject headings, but appear on the back cover.


Here, take a closer look:


I would love to visit a book store that actually has an "oceanic revenge" or "seaside heartbreak" section.

The Justice League is a suprisingly touchy-feely organization

In Tom Peyer and Freddie Williams II's The Flash #239, the Justice League discuss whether or not they should talk to the Flash about the problems he's currently having with the media:


To drive his last point home, Green Lantern John Stewart lays his hand on Roy "Red Arrow" Harper's chest.

I may just be extremely non-physical, but I don't think I've ever laid my hand on another man's chest during a conversation before. Nor has a man ever laid his hand on my chest during a conversation before. And I'm 100% positive that's never occurred in my life with a co-worker, which is essentially what Stewart and Harper are.

And unlike Superman and Batman (or Iron Man and Captain America), who have been working together for decades (and fighting to keep their deep love for one another to themselves), Stewart and Harper have only been working together for, like, 20 minutes (Harper just joined the JLA for the first time during "The Tornado's Path," and Stewart wasn't on the League then; he just rejoined it during the JLoA Wedding Special).

Fatherly hand on the shoulder? Okay, that's one thing. But open palm on the chest? Hmm, I don't know.

Even cooler than the bizarre demonstration of physical intimacy between these guys who are having, like, their fifth conversation ever is the the expression Williams gives Stewart. Behold the bedroom eyes of John Stewart:

Now here's a sound effect you don't see used very often...

(Panel from Steven Weissman's Mean, a 2007 anthology of the Kid Firechief and Champs creator's earlier work, published by the good people at Fantagraphics)

Random thoughts from throughout the last week (only a few of which pertain to Martian Manhunter)

—David Hajdu’s last name is deceptively hard to spell for only being five letters long. I keep reversing the j and d and having to correct posts in which I mention him. It’s probably still spelled wrong every third instance in Friday night’s post.

I also spelled “Jeet Heer” wrong; and that name’s even shorter.


—I’ve just finished devouring Showcase Presents: Enemy Ace Vol. 1, and it is a fantastic read. Sure, it gets a bit repetitive, as is to be expected when you collect 17 years’ worth of intended-to-be-disposable escapism into a single, 500-page volume, but after the first dozen stories, the repetition became welcome, with Robert Kanigher’s “killer skies,” “human killing machine,” “in the kill position,” “twin spandaus” and so on become word notes in some kind of seemingly endless improvisational comics-as-jazz performance.

And man, the art is just spectacular. About half of it seems to be all Joe Kubert, followed by Russ Heath, John Severin, Neal Adams, Howard Chaykin, Ed Davis and Frank Thorne (I think I got ‘em all, give or take an inker).

I really like the black and white presentation of these books, as it keeps the cost down and highlights the line work, but I noticed when I looked at these preview pages from the second issue of War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle that a nicely-colored sky might really bring something to a story of WWI aerial combat that black and white (or the coloring of the 1960s, ‘70s or ‘80s) couldn’t.

Based on Chaykin’s Enemy Ace work, and writer Garth Ennis’ own Enemy Ace and war genre work, I’m really looking forward to checking out their War Is Hell trade.


—Yet another World War I aerial combat series, which sounds rather promising: Aces: Curse of the Red Baron.


—Stupid question: Did the Red Baron exist in the DC Universe?


—I’ve been complaining about J’onn J’onnz’s post-Infinite Crisis Skrull/Conehead hybrid look every chance I’ve had since it was introduced.

But now that Secret Invasion has begun in earnest, doesn’t the fact that J’onn was redesigned to look more like a Skrull than a Martian

seem more obvious now? And stupid? (Above: A preview page from Salvation Run, which I thought was a Countdown tie-in, but may actually be a Secret Invasion tie-in).


—I could have sworn I read hundreds of comics last year, but apparently only five comic books were released in 2007. That’s the only conceivable reason I can think of that an issue of Brad Meltzer’s run on Justice League of America was nominated for an Eisner in the “Best Single Issue” category.

They’re not called The Mozzoccos though, so I don’t really want to parse the whole list here or anything.

Real quick though, I’m especially happy to see Fred Chao’s Johnny Hiro get multiple nominations though, as I’m afraid he and it haven’t gotten quite as much recognition as they deserve. (I had started a big long essay on how the release of the second issue demonstrated the power of comics as a serial reading experience over a complete trade, but never finished it and then the third issue came out, making what I had written irrelevant. In a nut shell, reading the second made the first better, and reading the first made the second better than it would have been. Obvious maybe, but in this case Chao executed this pretty basic truism particularly elegantly).

Ditto Anne-Marie Fleming’s The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam in the “Best Painter or Multimedia Artist” category. Thhat book was a really remarkable read, but I didn’t really read much about it. Too bad she’s almost guaranteed to be destroyed by Bryan Talbot, who will likely (and justifiably) own that category with his Alice in Sunderland.

And man, I sure hope Best American Comics 2007 doesn’t win “Best Anthology;” if only because I fear anoter round of that whole “autobio comix sux” Internet donnybrook…


—The unveiling of DC’s July solicits sure seemed to point toward J’onn J’onnz not making it out of Final Crisis alive. Comicbookrsesources.com interviewed Grant Morrison on the miniseries, and it didn’t make things sound good for J’onn either:

With The Human Flame, I wanted a Martian Manhunter villain, and I couldn't find a really good one. Then, looking through the old 'Showcase Presents' books, I discovered this stupid guy called Mike, who declared himself to be the Human Flame. And he wore a homemade costume with six nipples that shot flames. So I just thought this is a great way to start this book because the idea is that Libra gives all the villains a very simple choice, he says, 'Follow me and I'll give you your heart's desire.' And that's it. And some of the villains naturally say, 'Prove it.' So the Human Flame is one of the first to fall in with Libra and he says, 'If you can get revenge on my old enemy, who has had me stuck in jail for the last five years, I'll follow you anywhere…I needed a small-scale dumb guy, who could make very big waves and open the book with a shock moment and the Human Flame fit the bill.


—I neglected to mention in my post about Aimee Major Steinberger’s Japan Ai the other day that the book has one of the greatest covers ever. You can’t really tell in a photo of it, but there are rising sun-like streaks emanating somewhere behind the “a” and “n” in “Japan” in the logo and streaking across the pink sky in the background of the cover. These rays are all silver and somewhat reflective, like the old holographic foil on certain comic book covers in the boom days, and if you tilt the book slightly, they shine and give off hints of rainbows. I spent an embarrassingly long time just standing still staring at the cover and grinning as I rocked it back and forth in my hands.

Basically what I’m saying is that I have the mind of a small child. Or a parrot. But it’s still a nice cover, regardless.


—What could possibly go wrong with this project?


—At Blog@, Graeme McMillan rounds up some Internet discourse on what the next DC super-comic to be cancelled might be.

My take?

Checkmate is almost certainly a book DC’s bean counters are considering. It was selling extremely poorly when Greg Rucka was writing it, and now it’s being handed to a new creative team. That’s the same pattern that happened with All-New Atom; the writer who launched the title left, was briefly replaced, and the book got cancelled.

Rucka’s replacement is going to be Bruce Jones, a writer who suffers a bit from a Winick/Austen effect (a lot of readers just plain hate the guy’s work), and doesn’t have anywhere near the sales power as Rucka. In fact, his run on Nightwing was incredibly short, and his reinvention of Deadman as a Vertigo property was something of a sales disaster (although, I suppose one could blame this on the market forces that generally afflict Vertigo titles these days as opposed to the direct market reacting to Jones’ work).

Jonah Hex and Blue Beetle are also poor sellers. DC’s said the former does well in trades, so is still worth publishing (in that respect, I guess it’s more like a Vertigo book than a DC book). After reading the interview with Blue Beetle’s new writer Matt Sturges, I was struck by the part where he essentially says he wants the book to be all-ages.

And that’s “all-ages” as in appropriate for kids without talking down to them (and thus alienating adults), not as in “strictly for kids.” That made me think that perhaps DC doesn’t look at Blue Beetle the same way they do the rest of their DCU line. Because it is appropriate for kids, you see it on lists like this, and I’ve been surprised to find it at libraries, where I (wrongly) assumed more famous heroes like Spider-Man, Batman, Superman and the X-Men would completely crowd out books like those starring Blue Beetle III.

I wonder if DC therefore looks at it through the lens of one of their all-ages books rather than one of their superhero books. Johnny DC and Marvel Adventures titles all sell poorly in the Direct Market, but do gangbusters elsewhere, and maybe Blue Beetle is more or less a de facto Johnny DC title.

The other troubled DC book at the moment is Birds of Prey, which, after Gail Simone’s poor but consistent-selling run came to a close, was tossed back and forth like a hot potato between Tony Bedard and Sean McKeever. I don’t know how it sells in trade, but I can’t imagine it’s finding an audience outside the direct market. I wonder if it isn’t high time to shut the book down, or at least reimagine it.

With half of its original cast now gone (Dinah “Black Canary” Lance), it really doesn’t seem to be able to regain a focus. Canary’s currently in Green Arrow/Black Canary and JLoA and Barbara “Oracle” Gordon could fairly easily be absorbed back into the Bat-books, so there’s not a whole lot of incentive for publishing the book if it sheds a few thousand more units.


—I was really surprised there weren’t more negative reviews of Titans #1, given how bad it was. (Seriously, it was the worst comic I’ve ever read).

There were plenty of bad reviews, of course (I particularly liked this one, including the line: “If my pre-teen nephew or especially my pre-teen niece were reading something like this, I'd fling it away from them as if it were a poisonous snake”), but I was really expecting something akin to the near-universal rejection of Ultimates 3. Hell, I even saw some positive reviews of Titans #1.

I didn’t read Ultimates 3 #1, so I can’t compare to see which is worse, but I assumed fans would be much more likely to freak out over the Titans book than the Ultimates one. The Titans characters have all been around for somewhere between 69 and twenty-some years, have all starred in hundreds and hundreds of stories, and are now also cartoon characters and the stars of an all-ages book. (And how fucked up is it that this is a character who can also be seen as a teenage girl on the Teen Titans cartoon, or as a toddler in Tiny Titans?)

The Ultimate characters (as an alternate continuitiverse version of their Avengers namesakes), however, have only been in what, maybe a half-dozen stories all together? Their comic only ran 25 issues, comprising two or three story arcs, depending on how you want to slice it.

I guess it really speaks to how popular and pervasive a series Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s 25 Ultimates comics were, compared to the Titans franchise, which reached it’s zenith of popularity twenty-some years ago. Or that Jeph Loeb and Jeff Madueira were expected to deliver better than they did, while Judd Winick and Ian Churchill were expected to deliver a shitty book. Whichever was the case, disappointment seemed to factor heavily in the reaction to Ultimates 3.


—Steven Grant has a pretty interesting column up about comic book icons. Or, more specifically, despite how often we throw the word around, there aren’t any comics icons, and the likely candidates tend to only be truly iconic in a commercial sense.

Grant has a pretty compelling case. I think I’d disagree with it, at least in the case of Superman, or a generic superhero represented by Superman.

I know when I use the word “iconic” to describe certain superheroes, I’m using it to mean “like an icon.” So sure, the case can certainly be made that Superman and Batman aren’t themselves icon, but they are like icons in many ways.

I don’t know the particulars of the discussion that Grant said launched essay though, so I don’t know if the person who used the word meant iconic as icon-like instead of a straight-up icon, but I suspect that’s what a lot of folks in message board-land mean when they throw it around.

Or maybe not. The fight Grant said he was having was on the Internet. So I guess there’s a damn good chance the person did think the character in question deserved a series. Hell, I’m all broken up about the possibility of Martian Manhunter dying in Final Crisis because I think the completely fictional character deserves better than that, so I’m not really one to talk.


—Oh, one last thing about Grant’s piece. He kicks it off by asking,“Can we take ‘icon’ out of the comics lexicon?” No. No we can’t. Because you can’t spell “comics lexicon” without “icon.”

Ha ha! Get it?


Oh come on Red Tornado, it wasn’t that bad a joke…

Comics have been known to drive people to drink...

Tom Spurgeon’s last Five For Friday feature put out the call for “Five Characters From Comics That Should Have a Mixed Drink Named After Them,” stipulating that contributors must also come up with a recipe for one of them.

Check out the inspired, hilarious and occasionally tasty sounding results here.

I’m giving this particular link its own post just because it’s a topic of some interest to me—I tried to round-up all the pre-existing mixed drinks named for superheroes before—and this will make Spurgeon’s FFF results easier to find.

You might want to grab a cocktail napkin and scribble out the recipes for a Night Thrasher, Fool Killer, Crimson Dynamo and Mindless One for your next minor Marvel character-themed party.

Weekly Haul: April 16th

Avengers: The Initiative #11 (Marvel Comics) Given the reveal at the climax of Secret Invasion #1, telegraphed by the cover of an upcoming issue of this title, I was kind of surprised to crack this comic open and find that writers Dan Slott and Christos N. Gage were still dealing with the “Killed In Action” story and not something more…Skrully.

This issue is 22 pages of superheroes fighting, as the so-far unstoppable character K.I.A., a killer clone merged with an intelligent alien weapon, seeks to cross off a bunch of names on his “to kill” list. The Initiative kids, the old New Warriors, War Machine and Iron Man and a few of his Mighty Avengers all dog-pile on.

There’s not much to it, but what is there is very well done, and this book should easily meet or exceed anyone’s demands for Marvel super-combat and teen melodrama.



Batman Confidential #16 (DC Comics) Missed it! I completely forgot about this book, which actually shipped last week, while I was at the shop last Wednesday. That says something about the inessentiality of this low-stakes, low-drama tale of Batman and “Year One” Nightwing battling the protégé of one-off ‘80s Bat-villain The Wrath.

Rags Morales’ superior artwork is what’s held my interest throughout the arc, and it’s great here again—after that weird first page, in which the Batmobile seems oddly misshapen, anyway—and while Tony Bedard’s script won’t knock any socks off, it’s very competently executed. I particularly liked seeing Nightwing act like a hero, essentially defeating the villain with something other than violence, and the always welcome interaction of the original Batman and Robin (whatever codename the latter is going by).

Considering the relative rarity of good Nightwing stories, this story is a stand-out. And for God’s sake, someone please give Morales Batman, huh?



The Brave and the Bold #12 (DC) There’s been a lot of talk in the comics blogosphere about this series since the last issue, prompted by the fact that it’s plummeted down the sales charts from 90K. The concern strikes me as a little silly; right now, the book outsells about half of DC’s line instead of three-fourths of it. That’s hardly cause for hand-wringing.

The only thing that worries me about all this is that Brave and the Bold is one of DC’s best-illustrated, best-told comics, and the fact that Ed Benes’ JLoA is outselling it is a damn shame. I don’t expect sales to increase any in the foreseeable future, as half of the creative team has left to relaunch the Legion again.

Finishing up George Perez’s second story arc on the book is veteran artist Jerry Ordway, and his work looks a lot more Perez-like than usual here. I imagine sharing inker Bob Wiacek has a lot to do with it.

Plot-wise, the book reads more like a cross between Justice League and Who’s Who than a true team-up book, particularly in this final chapter of the six-part Megistus story, as chracters from throughout the last five issues all converge for a battle royale against a new villain.

So we’ve got Superman, Ultraman, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Metamorpho, Firestorm II, Supergirl, Power Girl, Wonder Woman, The Flash, the Teen Titans and the Challengers of the Unknown vs. a super-alchemist with a base in the sun itself, which he has turned green as part of his plan to attack Earth with a red kryptonite cloud.

That’s about as many DC superheroes as you can get per panel in a comic without the word “Crisis” in the title, and they’re all well-written and nicely illustrated. I don’t think you can ask for much more than that from a DC superhero team-up title.



The Flash #239 (DC) I can’t stand the art in this book. I like artist Freddie E. Williams II’s linework just fine, but for some reason there are no blacks in the character outlines; the lines are the color of whatever color they’re outlining. For example, the lines that form the title character are red, guest-star Jay Garrick is outlined in red, blue and brown. It gives the characters a soft, slightly blurry and unfinished look that I fine personally really unappealing. It’s pretty distracting and made it hard for me to enjoy the good parts of the book. (The script, by Tom Peyer, is fine). This might just be me. I’m not saying the art is bad because of the idiosyncratic way it looks, but it’s definitely something I find unappealing. I like my comic books to look like they were drawn by hand using pen and ink, and these panels look more like cels from a shoddily animated cartoon.

Confidential to Roy Rammond Jr: Shame on you; your father would be so disappointed.



The Incredible Hercules #116 (Marvel) Remember exactly what happened during Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr.’s long, slowly paced miniseries The Eternals? Yeah, me neithere. Hell, even the characters themselves seem a little shaky on it, and seem to have been left a bit brain-damaged by the whole experience.

Since we last left Hercules, Amadeus Cho and the goddess Athena, they driven across the country, an epic journey recounted on this recap page.

They’re going there for a meeting with some other divine types regarding a big Marvel crossover (Next issue kicks off a story arc entitled “Sacred Invasion”) in the shadow of that giant Celestial that’s been standing there since Gaiman’s series. But first, Thena and Ikaris attack Hercules, trying to beat him into remembering that he’s really Gilgamesh. Or course he’s not, but his own memory’s a little hazy: “Look, when you get knocked in the head every day for two or three thousand years…” he explains.

More Marvel mythology mash-up, just the way you like it, True Believers!

Er, sorry, I got a little enthusiastic there.



Robin #173 (DC) Tim changed his name from Drake to Wayne when Bruce adopted him? That doesn’t sound like something Tim would do.

Oh, and I guess Spoiler’s back from the dead. Or never really died. Or something. We’ll find out for sure next month.



Superman #675 (DC) And so Kurt Busiek’s run on Superman comes to an end…sorta. Busiek’s leaving the title to make room on his plate for the weekly Trinity series, which also stars Superman, so, in a way, I guess he’s quitting this title to write four times as many Superman titles.

That being the case, I’m not as bummed about his run being as I normally would. I don’t necessarily like everything that’s happened to the franchise of late—particularly the addition of Chris Kent—but Busiek’s made it all work pretty well, and even the worst issues since the “One Year Later” new direction have been pretty solid.

I really like the way Busiek handle’s the Man of Steel, playing his power’s up to their max, but still finding significant challenges for Superman and often creating conflicts for our hero by having him seek thoughtful and peaceful solutions instead of taking the easy way out.

In this over-sized issue, for example, Superman is confronted with a trio of Daxamites (all of whom have his powers on Earth), the villain Paragon (who siphon and increases the powers of those nearby) and the Galactic Golem. There’s a whole lot of punching, and Supes keeps trying to talk his way out of it. He and Paragon have a pretty good chemistry and, now that he has a less terrible costume, I’d kinda like to see more of him. Super-smart and super-strong, he’s a good foil for Superman, and his personality makes him an interesting character to share conversations with the title’s hero (I loved the manipulation scene).

After a one-issue fill-in, new writer James Robinson takes over the reins of the title. I’m a bit apprehensive about how he’ll do. Robinson’s obviously done some great superhero work in the past—actually, some of the best superhero work—but always with minor characters that give him a lot of latitude. Superman is a flagship franchise, one that presumably has a lot less flexibility than, say, Starman or the JSA. And Busiek has made sure Robinson will have a tough act to follow.

Marvel's July preveiews reviewed

Hmmm...I think Namor punching Namor may be even cooler than Namor punching the Hulk...

Based on how bad Project: Superpowers has been, I’m kind of afraid this might not be any good, but I’m definitely going to read the first three issues for the Namor on Namor action.

And by “action” I mean “fisticuffs” not, you know, the other kind of action. Although I could see the Namors doing that too. I mean, if you met yourself from a different point in your time line, I’m sure you’d, you know…right? Let's just move on.


CAPTAIN AMERICA #40
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Pencils & Cover by STEVE EPTING
It's Cap versus Cap for the future of the American Dream as the Red Skull looks on in laughter! And Bucky learns the true identity of the man behind the other mask! The epic Death of Captain America continues in Part Four of "The Man Who Bought America" by the acclaimed team of Brubaker and Epting.

A Skrull from the simultaneously occurring Secret Invasion? The Cap from the simultaneously occurring Avengers/Invaders? Poor Brubaker; so many other goings on in the shared universe to suck the suspense out of his tale of an alternate Cap...


FANTASTIC FOUR: TRUE STORY #1 (of 4)
Written by PAUL CORNELL
Penciled by HORACIO DOMINGUEZ
Cover by NIKO HENRICHON
A threat to the minds of the whole human race sends the FF somewhere they've never been before: into the realm of fiction itself! Where Ben finds himself clobbering a demonic army to save the cast of Sense and Sensibility. No, really. And it gets weirder from there. Dante (not the one from Clerks)! Willie Lumpkin! Behold, the Fictocraft! And it's actually kind of smart and serious too. You're at least going to flip open the first page in your comic store, right?

This sounds like a ton of fun. Too bad Henrichon isn't doing more than the cover, though. I'd love to see some more interior work from that guy.


IMMORTAL IRON FIST #17
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Pencils and Cover by TRAVEL FOREMAN
"The Mortal Iron Fist" part 1 of 4
Marvels' kickingest, punchingest, kung-fu-iest book just got bigger! Following the character-redefining, critically-acclaimed, fan-favorite events of "The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven," the all-new IMMORTAL IRON FIST creative team of Duane Swierczynski (CABLE) and Travel Foreman (ARES) takes it to the next explosive level! Think you know everything there is to know about the traditions of the Immortal Iron Fist? If you do, then why's Danny sweating bullets over an inescapable legacy that's haunted the Iron Fists for centuries, huh? Tell us that, if you're so smart. What was the deeper meaning of Xao's ominous threat? And what incredible new adventure are Danny's fellow Immortal Weapons embarking upon?

And so begins the books probably short, fast march to cancellation…


I was going to make a joke about the juicing in major league baseball and a gamma-powered Hulk at the bat, but really, all that needs to be said here is that it's good to have Jeff Parker back on Marvel Adventures Avengers.


MARVEL ADVENTURES HULK #13
Written by PETER DAVID
Penciled by JUAN ROMAN
CANO SANTACRUZ
Cover by SEAN GORDON MURPHY
Hulk and his traveling buddies (fun-loving teen, Rick Jones and rollicking monkey, Monkey) have returned to New York City to find something amiss… all the super heroes have been transformed into ravenous, stumbling monsters! But can even the strength of the Hulk stand up to the unstoppable… MARVEL MUMMIES?!? Fan-fave Hulk creator Peter David comes to Marvel Adventures Hulk with unlucky issue 13, bringing our most mummified issue ever!

Will mummies be the new zombies? If you read but one Marvel book in July, this should probably be the one.


MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPER HEROES #1
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Penciled by ALVIN LEE
Cover by ROGER CRUZ
It's probably a bad sign when Hercules comes asking for a favor. It's juuuuuust a little job that needs doing, but this is Hercules; isn't he supposed to be REALLY good at doing labors himself? Before they know it, Iron Man, Spider-Man and the Hulk are stuck looking after Orthus and Cerberus, the two legendary hounds of the underworld! Luckily, the dogs learn to behave after chewing up only a few cars, a statue, and Iron Man, and finally they're obedient enough for the Metro Dog Show! Only problem, Hercules wants the dogs back. Oh no, Herc, not before the Hulk gets his ribbon! It's two dogs with five heads between them, and all the action you can handle.

You know, the words "Orthus," "Cerberus," and "dog show" are all you really need to make a comic book sound worth buying. But throw in some Marvel superheroes and Hercules? It's solicitations like this that make me think they could really just go ahead and cancel all the 616 books.


Greg Horn does cheesecake. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's godawful. But this month? It's freaking great. I think his cover work works best when there’s a sense of humor about it.


PATSY WALKER: HELLCAT, AGENT OF THE INITIATIVE #1 (of 5)
Written by KATHRYN IMMONEN
Penciled by DAVID LAFUENTE
Cover by STUART IMMONEN
Patsy Walker, S.H.I.E.L.D. wants YOU to join the Initiative…and protect the frozen north. You heard me right, sister. The Klondike. Seward's Folly. Alaska. So pack some long johns and prepare for trouble. GUEST-STARRING: IRON MAN!

This is an awfully awkward title, which seems like half a title too many (Either Patsy Walker: Hellcat or Hellcat, Agent of the Initiative would be a more natural sounding construction). Of course, I'm assuming they had to get "Patsy Walker" in there to renew the trademark or something because, honestly, why else would they bother publishing a Hellcat story?

I do look forward to Annihilation: Millie the Model next summer.


SQUADRON SUPREME 2 #1
Written by HOWARD CHAYKIN
Penciled by MARCO TURINI
Cover by GREG LAND
"POWER TO THE PEOPLE" PART 1 (OF 6)
They were gods walking the Earth… powerful but flawed, they dreamed of remaking the world in their image. After their apocalyptic battle with Redstone, and after their terrifying fight with the Ultimate Universe, that dream has become a nightmare. While mankind struggles to rebuild, new heroes appear—and Nick Fury, left behind after the hit ULTIMATE POWER limited series, learns the shocking secrets of four astronauts who returned to Earth…changed. Join comics legend HOWARD CHAYKIN and newcomer MARCO TURINI to ask the question—whatever happened to the Squadron Supreme?

Ohhh, so that's where Ultimate Nick Fury's been...? I was wondering why he's been MIA in Ultimate Spider-Man and Bendis was using Ultimate Carol Danvers instead. I assumed it was just because he liked the character and wanted to use her.


TRUE BELIEVERS #1 (of 5)
Written by CARY BATES
Pencils & Cover by PAUL GULACY
"PAYBACK IS A BITCH"
Super heroes running a female fight club? Unbelievable perhaps, but it's a tale of depravity that will send shockwaves across the globe once the sordid details appear on a podcast uploaded by the TRUE BELIEVERS! Who are these counter-culture subversives with strange powers and abilities who have proclaimed themselves 'warriors of the information age'? The True Believers not only speak truth to power, they wield it like a weapon using it to root out lies and deception, cover-ups and conspiracies wherever they find them. Whether it's S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Illuminati, HYDRA or Weapon X, the CIA or the CSA, no target is too big and no one is off-limits—including a wary superhuman community with plenty of its own secrets to hide!

I'm kind surprised it's taken so long for Marvel to title a series this.

DC's July previews reviewed

Back in March, I wrote a post about DC’s Invasion! series, and how they really ought to collect it in trade. And just last week I wrote about how DC really should have collected Millennium, if only to rub Marvel’s face in the similarities between Secret Invasion and the 20-year-old DC version of an alien infiltrator story.

So imagine my surprise when I clicked on Newsarama’s monthly listings of DC’s solicitations and found the following:


MILLENNIUM TP
Written by Steve Englehart
Art by Joe Staton, Ian Gibson and others
Cover by Joe Staton & Mark Farmer
The 1988 8-issue miniseries MILLENNIUM is collected for the first time! The Guardians of the Universe have left our dimension behind — and in their absence, the deadly robotic army of Manhunters threatens the survival of the DC Universe!

INVASION TP
Written by Keith Giffen & Bill Mantlo
Art by Todd McFarlane, Bart Sears, P. Craig Russell, Joe Rubinstein and others
Cover by McFarlane & Rubinstein
The massive 3-issue miniseries from 1988 is collected for the first time! In this universe-spanning saga, the deadly but emotionless Dominators have come to Earth to wipe out the threat posed by metahumans. But what is the real reason for their attack?

Wow, ask and I shall receive! Thanks, DC!

Now I sure hope those two trades sell like gangbusters, so that it seems like I knew what I was talking about….


THE ALL-NEW ATOM #25 Written by Rick Remender. Art by Pat Olliffe & John Stanisci. Cover by Ladrönn. Out of place, out of time and out of hope, Ray Palmer and Ryan Choi face the Worm-Man from the sub-atomic prison world of Lady Chronos! Will Ryan make the ultimate sacrifice so Ray and the rest of Ivy Town can live to see another day? On sale July 2 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • FINAL ISSUE

I’m pretty surprised it lasted this long, to be honest. Even under original writer Gail Simone it wasn’t doing so hot, so cancellation seemed inevitable once she left.

Things aren’t looking good for Catwoman or Blue Beetle…


BATGIRL #1 Written by Adam Beechen. Art by Jim Calafiore & Jonathan Glapion. Cover by Andy Clarke. Fresh from appearances in BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS, the enigmatic Cassandra Cain stars in this six-issue miniseries written by Adam Beechen (COUNTDOWN, ROBIN) with pencils by Jim Calafiore (GOTHAM UNDERGROUND)! Now that Batgirl has finally gained Batman’s trust, it’s time to conquer her inner demons and prove herself to the rest of the world. This six-issue epic will take Cassandra on an intense, personal journey involving friends, family and foes!

From the writer who totally fucked her up in the pages of Robin and Teen Titans and the artist of that awful Gotham Underground series comes Attempt #4 To Correct the Mistakes We Made With Cassandra “Batgirl” Cain During Our “One Year Later” Initiative! Why, this has “hit” written all over it!

Honsetly, I love Batgirl, but every time they try to fix her, including that first time when there was nothing to fix, they just make things worse. There’s no way I’m going to be able to bring myself to read this. DC really needs to find a way to shuffle Cassandra Cain off to limbo for five to ten years and then try again.

That, or reveal the Batgirl we’ve been reading about since Infinite Crisis was just an alternate one from a different Earth and Cassandra’s been stranded elsewhere all this time.

Interesting that original Batgirl artist Damion Scott and writer Kelley Puckett are both working for DC at the moment, but neither of them are at all involved in this.


I might not have mentioned this for a few weeks, but Kelley Jones totally rules.


BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #19 Written by Fabian Nicieza. Art and cover by Kevin Maguire. Batgirl and Catwoman keep crossing paths and wrestling over a notebook stolen from Commissioner Gordon. But who's the mysterious third party involved? And where's he pointing that big gun?

So, to recap: “Batgirl…Catwoman…wrestling.”


BOOSTER GOLD #1,000,000
Written by Geoff Johns & Jeff Katz
Art and cover by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund
Meet the greatest time-traveling hero of the year
1,000,000 A.D. – PETER PLATINUM! Lost in time, Booster Gold is confronted by a hero a million times more self-involved than himself. But if Booster does find his way back to the present, Batman will be waiting for him.

Yes. Yes. Yes!!! I love the heroes of this time period—or at least the Justice League ones—and hope some appear here. And if they could get the Legion of Executive Familiars in there, I cold go ahead and scratch off the first entry on my Ideal List of Booster Gold Guest-Stars...


CATWOMAN #81Written by Will Pfeifer_Art by David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez_Cover by Adam Hughes_Catwoman’s on the run in Gotham City once more. Can she stay one step ahead of Batman while trying to turn the tables on the man who’s destroyed her life?. On sale July 30 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • FINAL ISSUE

Oh.

Watch your back, Blue Beetle!


DETECTIVE COMICS #846Written by Paul Dini. Art by Dustin Nguyen & Derek Fridolfs. Cover by Nguyen. A “Batman: R.I.P.” issue — and part 1 of the 5-part story “The Return of Hush!”_Readers who were surprised by Catwoman’s return last month haven’t see anything yet as Hush makes a dramatic return to the life of Batman. What will this mean for Bruce Wayne? This epic story kicks off the countdown to DETECTIVE #850!

Hush? Really? I thought he was one of those things everyone was just pretending never happened, like “New Look" Riddler and Jonathan Crane’s Were-Scarecrow turn.


How classy a comics blog is this? So classy that despite the fact that I have a half dozen easy jokes I could make about this cover, I’m keeping ‘em all to myself.


FINAL CRISIS: REQUIEM #1 Written by Peter J. Tomasi_Art by Doug Mahnke & Christian Alamy_Covers by J.G. Jones and Doug Mahnke. A very special FINAL CRISIS one-shot honoring the passing of a great hero who’s been a staple in the DC Universe for years. All that remains is one final memory that the League experiences together as they must fulfill his last wishes or die trying!_Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers (one by J.G. Jones and one by Doug Mahnke) that will ship in approximately 50/50 ratio. Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.

Oh Goddammit. They are killing off J’onn J’onnz then.

There’s fire on the cover. “Staple of the DC Universe for years.”Dough Mahnke draws a very good J’onn J’onnz. Tomasi used to edit Martian Manhunter. And, of course, “one final memory that the League experiences together,” which would indicate they’re sharing a mental experience, the way they did through J’onn’s telepathy throughout Morrison’s run on JLA.

Well, that sucks. At least I can take comfort in the fact that they’ll bring him back to life in a little bit. And when he comes back to life, maybe he won’t look like a Skrull any more.


FINAL CRISIS: ROGUES’ REVENGE #1 Written by Geoff Johns. Art and covers by Scott Kolins. The critically-acclaimed FLASH team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Scott Kolins reunites for a tale of villainy and twisted justice tying in to FINAL CRISIS! Captain Cold and the Rogues were accessories to the murder of Bart Allen. They’ve become what they never set out to be – wanted! Wanted by the good guys, by former Rogue Pied Piper, and by the Secret Society of Super-Villains. But just as they try to disappear underground, good, old-fashioned revenge yanks them back. And where is the Flash during all of this? It’s a Crisis — take a guess

I’m not sure why they’re selling this as a standalone miniseries instead of just doing it as a story arc in Flash. The monthly’s been suffering a lot lately, and could probably use the shot in the arm that a Final Crisis tie in and the return of the Geoff Johns/Scot Kolins team would inevitably give it. Besides, the monthly’s likely just going to be killing time until FC gives the book a new new new status quo, which will likely be something really stupid, like Barry Allen returning (At which point Vibe will be the only dead hero still dead in the DCU).

Speaking of which, my heart sinks at the line”And where is the Flash during all of this? It’s a Crisis—take a guess.”

Because a big change for the Flash worked out so well during you’re the last Crisis…



THE JOKER’S ASYLUM: THE JOKER #1Written by Arvid Nelson. Art by Alex Sanchez. Cover by Andy Kubert.

THE JOKER’S ASYLUM: PENGUIN #1 Written by Jason Aaron. Art and cover by Jason Pearson.

THE JOKER’S ASYLUM: POISON IVY #1 Written by J.T. Krul.Art and cover by Guillem March.

THE JOKER’S ASYLUM: SCARECROW #1 Written by Joe Harris. Art and cover by Juan Doe.

THE JOKER’S ASYLUM: TWO-FACE #1 Written by David Hine. Art and cover by Andy Clarke

A cast of top creators lends their talents to THE JOKER’S ASYLUM — a special month-long, weekly series of one-shots starring the greatest villains in Batman’s rogues gallery. Each issue tells a special stand-alone story that gives readers an inside look into the insane lives of the Dark Knight’s greatest adversaries. And all the stories are narrated by the Asylum’s leading homicidal maniac — The Joker! THE JOKER on sale July 2 • PENGUIN on sale July 9 • POISON IVY on sale July 16 • SCARECROW on sale July 23 • TWO-FACE on sale July 30 • Each 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

Operation: Movie Cash-In is go! “top creators” is probably pushing it—Andy Kubert and Jason Pearson are probably the only two that are unequivocally so. I’ll probably check out a few of these, particularly the Scarecrow one, since I love the Scarecrow and I loved Juan Doe’s art on that Fantastic Four special he did with Tom Beland a few months back.

Not sure why there’s a Penguin special though. He’s usually only in an asylum when he’s mistakenly drawn into crowd scenes.


JONAH HEX #33
Written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
Art and cover by Darwyn Cooke
A special issue drawn by Eisner Award-winning artist Darwyn Cooke (DC: THE NEW FRONTIER, THE SPIRIT)! Jonah Hex travels to Canada on the trail of his latest bounty. But with the Mounties hot on his heels, this isn't going to be an easy job.

Darwyn Cooke = Awesome

Jonah Hex = Awesome

So, Darwyn Cooke + Jonah Hex + the Mounties = well, you do the math.


Sigh…


Nice cover concept, Freddie E. Williams! Has no one ever thought to do that with a Robin cover yet?


the legion of super-heroes #44
Written by Jim Shooter
Art and cover by Francis Manapul & Livesay
Variant cover by Neal Adams
On planet Velmar V, the invincible Ikilles has already trashed Timber Wolf and Shadow Lass. Now, the Legion’s last hope is — Invisible Kid?! Meanwhile, while the rest of the weary, wounded Rimbor Team fights an army of heavily armed Science Police, Atom Girl squares off against the vicious Commodore. And on Earth the mysterious M’Rissey awes everyone with his unexpected power!

“M’Rissey?” Is that Steven Patrick Morrissey’s 31st century descendent? I may have to start reading the Legion monthly if so…


Squirrels are just a couple inches tall, and don't have any super-powers like incredible strength or laser eyes, and yet if I had one trapped in a bird cage and had to do away with it, I'd still be afraid to proceed. Good luck bald supervillains; I imagine eve a tiny little powerless Superman can bite like the dickens.


SUPERMAN/BATMAN #50 Written by Michael Green & Mike Johnson. Art by Ed Benes. Cover by Ethan Van Sciver. Variant cover by Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines. Celebrate fifty blockbuster issues with this extra-sized extravaganza as we reveal the untold tale of Thomas Wayne’s meeting with Jor-El and how it shaped Gotham City’s future! You don’t dare miss this one!_The past was just prologue for this latest adventure of the World’s Finest duo as an ancient Kryptonian artifact is uncovered, unleashing past and present dangers that may alter the duo’s future. Not even the guest-starring Titans will be able to save them! This issue also features a variant cover by the original SUPERMAN/BATMAN art team of Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines!

The solicitation for this story sounds so incredibly stupid that it might actually be awesome. Of course, I thought the same thing about Superman and Batman vs. Aliens and Predator, and when I finally did get around to reading a trade of that from the library, it turned out to just be stupid.

Plus, you know, "art by Ed Benes."


TINY TITANS #6
Written by Art Baltazar & Franco
Art and cover by Art Baltazar
New pals Blue Beetle and Supergirl stop by the Titans Treehouse, only to find most of the Tiny Titans away on a field trip. Good thing a few lesser-known heroes are still at school! Plus: follow Raven and Trigon through a typically crazy morning.

Dammit, I’m trying to drop this title! What’s with the super-cute Blue Beetle III appearance?


TRINITY #5-9 Written by Kurt Busiek & Fabian Nicieza. Art by Mark Bagley & Art Thibert, Mike Norton & Jerry Ordway, Tom Derenick & Wayne Faucher, and Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens_Covers on issues #5-6 by Carlos Pacheco; covers on issues #7-9 by Andy Kubert
In month two of TRINITY, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman — alongside their Justice League teammates — cross paths with the mysterious Konvikt and learn more about their fated connection within the DC Universe!_This month’s co-features focus on Hawkman, Gangbuster, John Stewart and the intriguing new psychic known as Tarot!

Well, here’s one lesson DC hasn’t learned after publishing the successful 52 and the unsuccessful Countdown: Having a single, excellent cover artist on your weekly, one able of telling a story through a succession of images, is better than having a rotating cast of cover artists.

That’s one of the first signs that this might be more Countdownian than 52-esque, but I still have faith in this creative team. Please don’t let me down guys; I rreeeaaallllly want another good weekly to read.


THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT #3
Written by Bruce Jones
Cover by Mark Schultz
Art by Al Barrionuevo & Jimmy Palmiotti
Akisha, the soldier from the future, reveals some details of her background — but she's still searching for answers to her present! Stranded with Enemy Ace and the others on a hostile island, will any of them live long enough to learn the truth about the war that time forgot?

Cover by Mark Schultz? That’s it? Just a cover? Why isn’t Schultz penciling this? And writing it?