Meanwhile...

I am now contributing to Comics Alliance, a very good comics news site that I imagine many of you already read but if, for some reason, you don't, now you've got an extra reason to be doing so. I think I'll mostly be helping out with news and project announcement type things for the time being. I've written three posts so far, including this one on the passing of Joe Simon and this feature on Marvel's upcoming Doctor Strange: Season One, for which I interviewed Greg Pak and Emma Rios. I probably won't link back to every single thing I write over there, so consider this a heads-up regarding another place you can find additional writing about comics by me on the internet.

I'll continue to contribute weekly to the Robot 6 blog at Comic Book Resources as well. This week's column, which I linked to yesterday as well, was a bout Ragman, miracles, holidays and religion, but mostly about how cool Batman: The Brave and The Bold #14 was.

Comic shop comics: December 14

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #14 (DC Comics) I love Ragman, who boasts one of my all-time favorite character designs, and is thus one of those superheroes whom I enjoy reading about on one level simply to see the way different artists draw him. And I love the "All-New" volume of Batman: The Brave and the Bold by Sholly Fisch, Rick Burchett and Dan Davis. So you can probably guess how excited I was about issue of the B:TBnB featuring a Ragman team-up and, I'm happy to report, I wasn't the least bit disappointed. (I've already enthused about it over at Robot 6, if you'd like to read a couple hundred words on it and some of the issues it raised).

I was a bit surprised by Burchett's Ragman, as it seems fairly far removed from Joe Kubert's original Ragman depiction, and the artist generally hews pretty closely to the designs of the character's creators in his designs. Instead, his Ragman looks to be more inspired by the look of the TV show itself.

He has a clean, smooth black face beneath his hood, which is a flowing green zig-zag, rather than the more conical hood Kubert used to draw, with pupil-less white triangle eyes (despite the cover, which shows him with glowing yellow eyes with visible black pupils. Burchett uses Kirby dots in depicting the mystic energies of the suit of rags, as when Rory Regan first transforms into Ragman and, later, when he uses the cape to absorb bullets. One aspect of his Ragman I really liked was how skinny who drew Rory. He's not at all a superheroic-looking figure, but once the rags are on he gets the broad-shoulders and barrel-chest of a Brave and The Bold superman.

There was quite a lot to like about the book, but this was probably my favorite part:Yeah, take that Batman!


Green Lantern #4 (DC) I've been reading Geoff Johns' Green Lantern comics as long as he' s been writing them, but given the "Everything Is New!" premise of The New 52, I've been trying to read the few DCU books I still read with two pairs of eyes: Mine, and those of a theoretical newcomer. Johns is now into his fourth issue of the new volume of Green Lantern, and he's still telling the Sinestro-and-Hal-Jordan-team-up-to-save-Korugar-from-the-Sinestro-Corps (The yellow Lanterns) story arc.

Now, I know Sinestro is a wicked villain, not only because his name has the word 8/9ths "Sinister" and I've seen Super Friends, but because I've been reading about him for years now and know that, morally, he's somewhere between Space Machiavelli and Space Hitler. However, based on these four issues alone, he seems like the better and more noble of the two characters (In this issue, he admits past mistakes and, while struggling to be humble, apologizes for once oppressing Korugar by abusing his power).

Sure, Jordan egged him on a bit in this, and encouraged him to sacrifice some of his own power and trust in others to try and save the world, but Sinestro seems like a pretty decent guy in this story so far, while Jordan still seems like a dumb, cocky/arrogant a-hole whom I'd hate to share an elevator ride with, let alone look up to as a hero.

I wonder to what extent this is intentional, and if and when Johns plans to knock Sinestro off of the road to redemption the character has been on?

Nice art, as always.


SpongeBob SquarePants Comics #6 (Plankton Pictures) In the cover story, billed as "Crisis of Infinite Jerks," SpongeBob inadvertently gets a multiverse full of different versions of himself and his cast onto the same splash page, and it's truly a joy to behold, and a greater joy to scan the George Perez-level crowd scene to spot the radically reimagined versions of the characters. As with the last five issues, this one is full of rock-solid gag comics from a bunch of talented cartoonists, many of whom it is surprising to find working on a comic based on a cartoon show.

Review: X-Force Vol. 1

In discussing Uncanny X-Force, I referred to the previous volume of the series—plain, old adjective-less X-Force—as a team consisting of all the stabbiest X-Men.

I assumed I was making a joke, and exaggerating a bit, as at least one member of the team didn’t always have blades in her hands or growing out of her hands.

That character was Rahne “Wolfsbane” Sinclair, who was introduced in the ‘80s as a member of The New Mutants and has the neat mutant power of being a werewolf, which seems admirably like creators cheating (Like, someone thought, “I want to write about/draw a werewolf, but I’m stuck on this stupid X-Men spin-off, so I can only write/draw mutants…Oh wait!” I don’t know. Having a mutant whose mutation is being a werewolf seems somewhat akin to having a mutant hero whose mutant power is to turn into The Hulk or be basically Deathstroke, The Terminator from the New Teen Titans or something).

I assumed she was on the team, since she appeared on a majority of the covers I saw. But then I read the massive hardcover collection of X-Force Marvel published in June of last year and, it turns out, Rahne was simply one of the many X-Men characters who turned up in the book, who seemed to be in the extended cast, but wasn’t really an official part of the team, in that she worked with the other characters and went on X-Force missions.

Instead, she spends some time captured by some of the bad guys, gets brainwashed into taking something form another X-Men character and, while present for much of the first volume, isn’t really on the team. Other such characters who drift in and out of the various narrative threads without seemingly having X-Force membership cards include Cyclops, Angel, Domino, a golden-skinned kid with healing powers I’ve never seen before named Elixir, a bad guy with terrible tattoos and teleportation powers I’ve also never seen before named The Vanisher and, most randomly, Ghost Rider, who shows up for an issue or two to help fight a demon.

So who is on the team?Well there’s Wolverine, whom we all know and love.

There’s X-23, who is apparently a teenage girl clone of Wolverine, differentiated from her genetic source material by the fact that she only has two claws on each hand (but a third one on each foot!), has no identifiable personality beyond “killing machine,” has huge breasts and wears a mask-less, belly shirt version of Wolverine’s costume.

And, finally, there’s the Native American mutant whose name is actually—no shit—“Warpath,” the only member of the team who has to carry his own knives, since he doesn’t have any growing out of any of his extremities. He is also different from the other two in that he has apparently never killed before, or hasn’t in any great numbers, which is why Wolverine is opposed to him joining the team at first.

Actually, Wolverine is opposed to X-23 being on the team as well. And Wolfsbane, whom wants to join the team, but doesn’t get to. Either Wolverine knows the toll totally killing all your enemies takes on a person’s soul and wants to spare others from the pain he feels, or he loves killing so much he’ greedy for it, and doesn’t want to split up slaughtering bad guys duties with other characters—he wants to keep all the fatal stabbings for himself.

I would call these the X-Men stabbers, but the bad guys refer to this team as “all of the mutant’s best trackers and killers.”

And who are these bad guys?

Well, there are five individual stories contained in the giant, 300-page hardcover that collects X-Force #1- #11 and X-Force Special: Ain’t No Dog, three of them written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost. Of these stories, the biggest is the imaginatively titled “Angels & Demons” (the series was relaunched as Uncanny X-Force before they could get to “Digital Fortress” or “The DaVinci Code”) and it’s pretty complicated.

There’s one of those crypto-Christian religious sects/militias that the X-Men sometimes encounter, the kind with suspiciously vague and simplistic tenets of belief (usually, something along the lines of “mutants bad, God good”). They are called The Purifiers, and they apparently had something to do with the X-Men crossover event that X-Force used as a springboard to publication (The one that introduced Hope, I guess—“Messiah Complex,” I think…?).

This group attaches the head of a preexisting X-Men villain I’ve never heard of onto the body of another preexisting X-Men villain I’ve never heard of, and it’s apparently pretty powerful. It finds some other preexisting threat—like, semi-sentient alien technology, or something—on the ocean floor, and uses that to resurrect all of the X-Men’s old human asshole enemies, all of whom this villain can control as puppets. The human leader of the Purifiers and his immortal-monster-disguised-as-human friend grate against the leadership of this new composite villain. The grand plan, though, is to steal Angel’s wings, robotocize them, and graft them onto the militia guys, so they will basically just be a Christian, anti-mutant militia that can fly.

Also, they’ll look like angels!

Cyclops thinks this will be very bad for his people, so he wants Wolverine and the gang to stab everyone involved to death for him.

That six-issue story arc is followed by a four-issue arc entitled “Old Ghosts,” in which Wolverine, X-23 and Angel (now Archangel) bump into Domino while trying to capture The Vanisher, who stole The Legacy Virus, which is also something from old X-Men comics I never read (I think that’s what killed Colossus forever during the short-lived “dead means dead” period of Marvel Comics, before Joss Whedon brought Colossus back to life in Astonishing X-Men). Meanwhile, Warpath fights a giant bear with a mohawk, and Ghost Rider helps him. These are both pretty shitty stories, featuring poor artwork that is somewhere betweeen terrible and less-terrible, depending on who is drawing which.

The rest of the book consists of the one-issue “Who The Hell Is Eli Bard?”, which explains who the lead Purifiers not-really-human human pal is, and features the first appearance of good art in X-Force, when Alina Urusov shows up to draw flashback scenes.

The last two stories are both from the special, I think. These include “Ain’t No Dog,” by Charlie Huston and Jefte Palo, the best story with the best art in the book (which we’ll discuss later), and “Hunters & Killers,” by Jason Aaron, Werther Dell’Edera and Antonio Fuso, in which Wolverine finds Warpath feeling guilty about butchering so many enemies, and Wolverine reminds him that yeah, butchering your enemies can take a lot out of you, emotionally. The art on this isn’t as good as in “Ain’t No Dog” or those Urusov-drawn flashbacks, but it’s not as terrible as in “Angels & Demons,” and is head-and-shoulders above that of “Old Ghosts”, too.

As you can probably tell from my description of the plot of the first few stories in this collection, it is probably best enjoyed by people who already know all of the players. It’s not completely new-reader unfriendly, but I knew I didn’t know a lot of the characters and events being referenced, and I knew that the stories were being written as if I did.

Certain parts of the book made me wish I knew even less than I did, though. For example, that I had no idea that Rahne’s mutant ability was to turn into a werewolf, or who Warpath and Wolverine and X-23 were, exactly, or who they were to one another.

Because there were plenty of panels or entire scenes that just seemed loony—enjoyably so—and I found myself wondering what it would be like to be reading this book and just…happen upon something like some of these scenes.

For example?

Well, here are two panels featuring Rahne, as drawn by Clayton Crain, the primary artist in the book (He draws issues #1-#6, and the parts of #11 that Urosov didn’t). These are the fourth and fifth panels to feature Rahne. Before these panels, her only line has been “Logan…”Pretty great, right? Just all of a sudden this lady has a rat head and is saying “GRRRR…” Surreal. Absurdist. Unless you know she was werewolf power, in which it just looks like she has a badly-drawn wolf-head all of a sudden, than that Crain just dropped a new figure in on top of the same background panel so he could use it twice, and save on drawing/artistry.

Here is the first panel in which the official X-Force team all appears together. I laughed out loud when I first saw this panel, and can only imagine it would be even funnier if I had no idea who the hell these people were supposed to be:I would assume Warpath was cruising the park at night and tried to pick up Wolverine, unaware that Wolverine was waiting for a date, if it weren’t for the girl on the ground, whose butt Wolverine seems pretty pissed off about.

And check out Warpath’s arms! One of the things I hate about this level of representational coloring is how ridiculous it makes exaggerated anatomy look. If Crain drew Warpath like that in pencil and ink and it were colored the old-fashioned way, it would look like a cartoony superhero design. But with realistic-looking flesh over that bicep that’s almost as big as Warpath’s torso? He just looks like a grossly deformed man-thing. The photo-realistic night-sky and trees don’t help any.

Crain’s art is pretty poor in general, with every panel looking like a still from a not very good video game from 2002 or so—Mortal Kombat fumetti. I’ve read comics he’s illustrated before and not minded the art in them at all—his 2005 Ghost Rider series with Garth Ennis, for example—but I hated it here. It was hard to read, in addition to just being hard to look at, and there are panels where certain actions are meant to be taking place that don’t make any visual sense, but must be figured out using context clues, like when you’re a little kid reading a book and you see a word you don’t know, but can guess its meaning from the way its used. Only with comics, and the unknown vocabulary word is just a crappy panel with stranger blurs meant to evoke motion of some kind.

If I had to guess, I think a big difference between that Ghost Rider comic and this X-Force one is that motorcycles, chains, fire, skulls and demons look more natural in this video game-paint style, whereas flesh and blood humans—even spandex-clad ones—look gross and off-putting and, obviously, hard to “read” emotion or even motion from. And nighttime highways and Hell are easier settings to fudge than the real-world settings of this X-Men comic.

Here’s something I didn’t know about X-23: Apparently, she is a “cutter.” That is, the slangier way of referring to someone who suffers from the behavioral and/or mental disorder of self-harming, usually with non-suicidal tendencies.

Unlike most cutters, Laura has several blades conveniently stored inside her own forearm. And she has a healing factor which immediately repairs the self-harm she does, which makes the whole thing kind of…odd. And, I think, sort of crass and insensitive.

These panels are the only reference to this among the 300 pages of X-Force Vol. 1; perhaps the ramifications are discussed in greater detail and with greater sensitivity elsewhere.

This is probably my favorite, “God, this comic must seem weird” moment in X-Force. The epilogue for issue #10, the conclusion of the “Old Ghosts” storyline, features a wolf running through the snow, panting, when it gets knocked down. And, on the next page:Holy shit! This X-Men comic is suddenly about furries?!

That male furry only appears in that panel, and that’s his only line, so, um, not sure what’s up with that. Is he a recurring character, that X-Force/-Men/New Mutants fans will immediately recognize, or does that page seem just as out-of-left field to them as it does to me?

Okay, let’s take a look at “Ain’t No Dog,” or, as I like to think of it, “The Good Part.”

This is a clever, perfectly constructed 21-page story which opens with Wolverine in front of a bound and gagged man, holding his own spilled guts in while he waits for his healing factor to fix him, sitting around in a pool of blood spilled from himself and the various dead bodies scattered around.

He’s there to get something from someone, but first he has to fight a bunch of mindless berserker cannon fodder that chants "KILL KILL KILL." He does all the talking in the book, to the gagged man, save for one scene with Cyclops told in flashback.

Huston does a fine job of doling out information efficiently and dramatically, in such a way that the reader gets it when the reader needs it, and can put the story together for him or herself as the story is read. He has a lot of fun with Marvel’s Quesada-era no smoking policy (more on that later) in the process. And the story both fits in with what was going on in the main X-Force book the one-shot containing it spun out of and stands alone (at least one of the bad guys Wolvie kills is wearing a Purifier uniform).

With the possible exception of Urusov’s flashbacks, this the best X-Force looks. Jefte Palo’s Wolverine is rather Frank Miller like, as is his entire comic. Not necessarily in terms of design, which is detailed and round where it needs to be, but in the starkness of the juxtaposition between shape and space. And some little details, like Wolverine in profile, the way he pulls on his mask, or the way the bodies of ninjas pile up around him.Palo and colorist Lee Loughridge do neat work with the copious amounts of blood as well. The borders around the spilling or spilled blood aren’t inked, so it has an almost unreal, luminescent effect to it accomplished by a lack of black (rather than a computer-added lens flare effect), and it looks like red paint. It’s beautiful, which allows the reader to see it as the protagonist sees it, and the result is a story in which there is literally vats of blood spilled, but while its bloody, it’s not gory or gross. A little artifice goes a long way…especially in art.

For example, here’s how Crain draws a scene in which a couple of guys have parts of their heads cut off:And here’s how Palo draws a scene in which a guy gets his head cut into pieces by Wolverine: Discussion of art can get tricky when you stop to wonder if you’re factoring in personal taste or preference when evaluating quality, but I don’t know—the one image seems so much better than the other, even in terms as simple as legibility, that I don’t see much room for uncertainty regarding quality here.

And that’s X-Force Vol. 1, which isn’t at all as good as Uncanny X-Force Vol. 1, but is at least big (I borrowed it from the library; you should too if you’re interested, because it sure ain’t worth $35) and has some funny bits, even if they’re not meant to be funny, and at least one really good story in it.

Oh wait, before we go, here’s the last page of “Ain’t No Dog,” which you shouldn’t read if you don’t want Huston’s best joke spoiled:There are two references earlier in the story to the fact that Wolverine used to smoke but no longner does. See, smoking is really bad, but killing enough dudes to form a twelve-foot pile or corpses to perch upon? That’s not as bad as smoking.

I think that’s pretty cool that Marvel let Huston essentially get away with saying “Quesada’s policy regarding smoking in Marvel Comics is fucking insane.”

Wait, one more image. Since I wasn’t terribly kind to Crain, I should also point out this variant cover to the first issue by Bryan Hitch, whom we all generally consider a pretty good artist. That image sucks. (Is it something about the word “X-Force” that brings out bad work in artists? Is it a magical word that executes a “draw worse” spell? Is Rob Liefeld a warlock, and did he place a curse on the property when he left in the early ‘90s…?) Is Warpath’s mutant power that he’s fucking gigantic, or are X-23 and Wolfsbane only about three-feet tall? How unusual is it for a man's butt to be that much smaller than his head?

DC's March previews reviewed

Only twelve more shopping days until Christmas! And only 84 more shopping days until the first of DC Comics' March releases are available for purchase! Let's start making our wish lists now. Please see Comic Book Resources for further reference.

ANIMAL MAN #7
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by TRAVEL FOREMAN and STEVE PUGH
Cover by TRAVEL FOREMAN
On sale MARCH 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
“Animal vs. Man” part 1! As the forces of the Rot continue to pursue The Bakers across the backwoods of America, Cliff and Buddy decide to get in some quality father-and-son time. Plus, Buddy has a terrifying vision of things to come!

Hey, look who DC got to help draw Animal Man #7! It's Steve Pugh, who used to draw parts of the original volume of Animal Man. Neat!


BIRDS OF PREY #7
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Art by JESUS SAIZ and JAVIER PINA
Cover by JESUS SAIZ
On sale MARCH 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Go ahead. Skip this issue. You’ll only be missing 20 pages of insane, wall-to-wall action as the Birds of Prey finally catch and unmask the elusive mind-controlling villain known as “Choke” – only to discover that he’s turned one of their own against them! You’ll also be missing Black Canary vs. Ivy! Batgirl vs. Starling! Katana versus…well, that would be spoiling things, wouldn’t it? BIRDS OF PREY #7: The comic for people who think there’s not enough fighting in comics.

You know what I think? I think plants, bats and swords are not birds. With this line-up, the book should be retitled Things Of Prey. Ha ha ha ha!


DOMINIQUE LAVEAU: VOODOO CHILD #1
Written by SELWYN SEFU HINDS
Art by DENYS COWAN and JOHN FLOYD
Cover by RAFAEL GRAMPA
...
On sale MARCH 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS
...
DOMINIQUE LAVEAU: VOODOO CHILD is the story of a half-breed, outcast and heir to the Voodoo Queenship of New Orleans, if she can live long enough to claim her birthright. New Orleans is the most haunted city in America: a town of centuries-old ghosts and newly drowned spirits; where vampires, voodoo spirits and loups-garous make their home. Ruling over this all are the powerful Voodoo Queens, whose influence stretches into politics, business and crime as they maintain a delicate balance between the mortal and supernatural worlds.

But in the aftermath of Katrina, all that has changed, for someone or something has murdered the Voodoo Queen and most of her court. The number one suspect is Dominique Laveau, a grad student at Tulane who is about to discover that her entire life has been a lie. Now Dominique must forge alliances with those out to kill her while seeking to uncover the truth behind the royal murders, as she is ultimately forced to deal with a destiny she could never have imagined. Voodoo Child is a new monthly series written by Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, former editor-in-chief of The Source magazine, award-winning author, journalist and TV producer, with art by Milestone Media co-founder Denys Cowan (THE QUESTION) and covers by Rafael Grampá.

I have no idea who Hinds is, even after reading the vague, credit-less mini-bio the solicit mentions, but that's a hell of an art team, from cover to interiors. I feel a little uncomfortable about turning the real, or legendarily "real" Laveau, into the source of a fictive serial narrative, but I suppose we'll see. If nothing else, it will be well worth seeing pages and pages of Cowan art...


FAIREST #1
Written by BILL WILLINGHAM
Art by PHIL JIMENEZ and ANDY LANNING
Wraparound cover by ADAM HUGHES...
On sale MARCH 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • MATURE READERS
...
New York Times best-selling, award-winning creator Bill Willingham presents a new series starring the female FABLES. Balancing horror, humor and adventure, FAIREST explores the secret histories of Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Cinderella, The Snow Queen, Thumbelina, Snow White, Rose Red and others._The first 6 issue arc follows the misadventures of Briar Rose after she is stolen away by the goblin army in FABLES #107. Fan-favorite artist Phil Jimenez (WONDER WOMAN, THE INVISIBLES) returns to Vertigo to pencil the opening storyline. Award-winning cover artist Adam Hughes (WONDER WOMAN, BATGIRL) provides covers, starting with a wraparound cover on issue #1._Future arcs will be written by 2011 Arthur C. Clarke winner Lauren Beukes with art by Inaki Miranda, and iZOMBIE scribe Chris Roberson with art by Shawn McManus! And remember: They may be beautiful, but there will be blood.

I lost interest in Fables a while back, shortly after the true identity of The Adversary was introduced, although I'm not sure exactly why. And once I stopped, my interest in in it continued to dwindle. I think the rapid expansion of the franchise had a lot to do with it; those few months or so I took off saw a second Fables series, one that has itself since been canceled, plus minis and at least one prose novel.

I really like Phil Jimenez art though, and I'm intrigued by the Dinsey Princess-like focus on a particular set of Fables characters. I wonder if this will go over well with the emerging mass audience for grown-up, darker versions of fairy tales and their stars...? Beyond those already reading Fables, of course.



THE FLASH #7
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
...
On sale MARCH 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Captain Cold is back – and he’s more dangerous than ever! Seeking revenge on The Flash, he must convince the rest of the Rogues to reunite one last time. But what tore them apart before? And what did The Flash do to earn their deadly scorn? Find out here!

Oh my God! What did they do to Captain Cold?!



GREEN LANTERN CORPS #7
Written by PETER J. TOMASI
Art by CLAUDE ST. AUBIN and SCOTT HANN
_Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
On sale MARCH 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
In the aftermath of the bloody first arc of the series, John Stewart must bring the body of a fallen Lantern back to his family. But how can John tell them the truth: that he caused this Lantern’s death!

Ah, light escapism, just like I like it!


GRIFTER #7
Written by NATHAN EDMONDSON
Art and cover by SCOTT CLARK and DAVE BEATY
On sale MARCH 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Guest-starring MIDNIGHTER! A voice is calling from the Himalayas; a dark secret awaits Grifter. He tracks it down, only to discover that the secret has a protector: Midnighter, who must not allow Grifter to leave the mountains alive. A massive battle on treacherous ice slopes shows Grifter that he’s in a world of heroes he cannot defeat and opens him up to new world-changing secrets as deadly as they are powerful.

Say, I don’t think Grifter is dressed appropriately for a visit to the Himalayas...


HAWK AND DOVE #7
Written by ROB LIEFELD_Art and cover by ROB LIEFELD
On sale MARCH 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
While dealing with their complicated relationship, Hank and Dawn face an attack from a mysterious hunter who reveals a larger conspiracy involving the heroic duo! Legendary creator Rob Liefeld continues his solo run on HAWK AND DOVE as writer and artist with this explosive issue!

Continues? I didn’t even know he had started a solo run.

I guess his first order of business is to introduce an off-brand version of Kraven The Hunter…?


HITMAN VOL. 6: FOR TOMORROW TP
Written by GARTH ENNIS
Art by JOHN McCREA and others
Cover by JOHN McCREA
On sale APRIL 11 • 336 pg, FC, $29.99 US
This latest collection of HITMAN tales, all collected for the first time from issues #37-50, begins when Tommy Monaghan heads to Ireland to learn the dark truth about his past – and why his parents abandoned him. Plus: A plague of the undead, a showdown with Ringo Chen and more!

Hmm, the numbers are off on this one, as Tommy traveled back to Ireland to discover the truth of his family in #35 and #36. Based on the numbers listed above, this would include the two-issue "No Man's Land" kinda sorta tie-in, during which Tommy and Nat defend their neighborhood from an invasion of vampires (this one contains one of my favorite lines regarding the horror genre of entertainment. That would be followed by the four-issue "For Tomorrow" arc, in which Tommy and friend/rival Ringo, a character Ennis and McCrea based on Chow Yun Fat's earlier Hong Kong characters, definitively answer a question neither one of them really wanted to know the answer to. And then a pack of time-tossed Tyrannosaurs attack No Man's Land Gotham, and then Tommy and Noonan make a last stand against the mafia. ( I have a billion word post about Hitman here, if you've never read it but want to learn more about one of my favorite series ever)


JUSTICE LEAGUE #7
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by GENE HA and GARY FRANK
Cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
...
On sale MARCH 21 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T_Combo pack edition: $4.99 US_Now that the team’s origin story is complete, starting with this issue we shift to the present-day Justice League! What has changed? Who has joined the team since? Featuring artwork by Gene Ha, the story also reintroduces the team’s greatest champion: Steve Trevor!_Also starting in this issue: “The Curse of Shazam!” featuring a story by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank! Discover Billy Batson’s place in DC Comics – The New 52 as we reveal his all-new origin story! This issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.

The black and white versions of Gene Ha’s pages for this issue that have been released so far look pretty nice, but, having seen his work recently in Flashpoint: Project Superman, I have a feeling it’s gonna get a whole lot uglier once it gets colored.

I’m really, really, intensely curious about Captain Marvel in the new DCU. They didn’t do the smart thing—make him part of the Justice League and the foundational generation of superheroes, nor did they give him his own title—but Geoff Johns seems to genuinely like the character and has used his villains to pretty good effect in the past (Mostly in JSA and 52). I’m kind of scared of the words “new origin” though; the last time DC tried to reinvent the character, under Judd Winick, it was a complete fucking mess that rendered all of the Marvels essentially unusuable and unrecognizable.

Hopefully this goes better, although I see no reason to mess with the origin, on the ground of not fixing things that ain’t broken (of course, much of the New 52 revamp-a-thon involved fixing things that weren’t broken, huh?). Hell, if Harry Potter quoted Billy Batson’s origin, it obviously strikes a chord with a lot of people.

This Jim Lee cover, by the way? It’s no damn good.

I'm kinda conflicted about whether to start reading Justice League again when this issue comes out. The main reason I dropped it was the $3.95-for-20-pages price point, but with this issue, it should actually be 40-pages long, rather than 20-pages of story + 20-pages of ads and "bonus" material. Unless the new plan is 12-pages of Justice League followed by eight-pages of Captain Marvel.


Yeesh. Not that this stupid cover for one of the other Justice League books is any better than Lee's...

….

Why is there a W on Booster Gold’s new costume?


NIGHT FORCE #1
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art by TOM MANDRAKE
Cover by LEONARDO MANCO
On sale MARCH 7 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED T
Marv Wolfman reimagines his classic adventure series for the new millennium!_There’s a conspiracy under way that’s been going on for hundreds of years. One determined cop has unknowingly scratched the surface and suddenly finds himself summoned to Wintersgate Manor. But this chilling menace may prove to be too big even for Baron Winters.

I like Tom Mandrake’s art a whole lot.


Walter Simonson cover alert!

Okay, so now that Swamp Thing is in the DCU again, when are they gonna get around to having him and Garbage Man fight already…?


O.M.A.C. #7
Written by DAN DIDIO and KEITH GIFFEN
Art and cover by KEITH GIFFEN and SCOTT KOBLISH
On sale MARCH 7 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Kevin Kho wakes to find himself trapped inside the Toledo Zoo and unable to “Omactivate”! But things turn really weird when he discovers the animals can talk – and they all live in fear of the horrific taskmaster known as Warden Gaym. Now Kevin’s only hope to escape is to go through the place the terrified animals call “The Evil Factory.”

I might still be afraid of the words “Written by Dan DiDio,” but I do really like the sound of the word “Omactivate”…


I think the new Ray—Ray IV? Or V?—character design is a pretty lousy one, even by Ray character designs standards, but I kinda like the look of that villain on artist Jama Igle’s cover.


I really like this cover because it looks like Swamp Thing is balancing the title on his nose, like a well-trained dog balancing a treat on his nose, and if you just say, "Okay," Swampy will toss the logo up into the air and catch it in his mouth.


Quick, get out of Savage Hawkman Static! You’re gonna get savagery all over you!


SHOWCASE PRESENTS: ALL-STAR SQUADRON VOL. 1 TP
Written by ROY THOMAS and GERRY CONWAY
Art by RICH BUCKLER, DICK GIORDANO, JERRY ORDWAY, ADRIAN GONZALES and DON HECK
Cover by JOE KUBERT
On sale APRIL 18 • 528 pg, B&W, $19.99 US
In these stories from JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #193 and ALL-STAR SQUADRON #1-18, the All-Star Squadron has been founded on Earth II by the lost heroes from the JSA to stop Per Degaton from delivering mystic weapons to the Axis powers!

Oh fuck yes. I have been waiting—dreaming, praying—for this very book ever since the Showcase Presents program began. I hope they do the entire run, allthe way through Young All-Stars. This is a dream—albeit one of my more modest dreams—come true.


I imagine that the empty space in the center of the image near the top will be where the logo goes but, empty as it is, at first glance I thought this image depicted Swamp Thing looking very sadly at the size of a giant mpair of novelty plastic vampire fangs and wondering how he was ever gonna fit them in his mouth.


TEEN TITANS: PRIME OF LIFE TP
Written by J.T. KRUL
Art by NICOLA SCOTT, EDUARDO PANSICA and others
Cover by NICOLA SCOTT and DOUG HAZLEWOOD
On sale APRIL 11 • 200 pg, FC, $19.99 US
Collecting TEEN TITANS #93-100! Strange disappearances on an archeological dig prompt Wonder Girl’s mother to ask the team for help – but they’ll have to defeat an ancient menace first! With new teammate Solstice at their side, the teenaged heroes must drive demonic forces from our world or be conquered!

Hmm. I was curious about checking this out some time, given how great Scott's art looks, but I was scared away by Krul's presnece and thought I'd wait for a trade. Like this! Now I'm even less sure, given that DC didn't have any faith in the direction, characters or creative team, and decided to completely reboot Teen Titans with Scott Lobdell and Brett Booth. Hmmm...


TINY TITANS #50
Written by ART BALTAZAR and FRANCO
Art and cover by ART BALTAZAR
On sale MARCH 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E • FINAL ISSUE
In this awesome 50th issue, questions are answered! Mysteries are solved! The Tiny Titans may be one step closer to becoming Super Heroes! This issue may change your life! Plus, it’s highly recommended by Franco’s mom!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn it.

Sigh.

Well, I hope that Baltazar at least continues to do sketches and commissions of these characters for, let’s see, ever, so that if he and I are ever in the same gathering of comic book people, and I have a large enough amount of money in my pocket, I’m gonna want a Lil’ Barda and and a Cassandra sketch.

This really sucks though. This has, no lie, been my favorite DC Comic for a long time now.


VOODOO #7
Written by JOSH WILLIAMSON
Art by SAMI BASRI
Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
On sale MARCH 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US_RATED T+
After returning to the Daemonite space station hunting for answers, Voodoo learns that you should careful what you wish for. Will the truth of the Daemonite hybrids force Voodoo to turn on her masters or will she finally succumb to her dark side?

Ew gross.

(Links)

Sorry I haven't updated since Thursday, but I was so deeply upset to learn that The Backyardigans were trying to coax children into suicide by telling them that it's great to be a ghost that I've been unable to do anything at all but sit in a chair, shake my head slowly side to side and cluck "What is the world coming to...?" again and again.

Okay, fine, not really. I was just preoccupied doing things that didn't involve thinking about X-Force or Batman for an hour straight. And I'm sure The Backyardigans' agenda isn't as sinister as that DVD cover makes me think it is. I'm sure they are all very nice...bugs...? Why is that bug as big as the hippo and moose? And why is its overalls the same color as its skin? Why do these Backyard-i-things confuse and frighten me so?

Anyway, it's Sunday night, so I'm going to keep holy the Sabbath by reviewing the week in comics news and/or links I saw on comics news sites that I thought worth sharing with you, my surprisingly few readers.

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Yeah, what is up with behemoth international entertainment and licensing-driven corporate entity Disney and its radical anti-corporate propoganda...?

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Marvel released details of their next big event/story: a twelve-issue Avengers Vs. X-Men series. Twelve issues! That's a lot of issues.

I like the plan, with Marvel's biggest writers (their so-called "Architects") taking turns on scripting duty (which seems like a more honest and equitable way of apportioning credit/blame for these sorts of things, which are apparently co-plotted to a certain extent at creative retreats anyway), a few of their more popular artists taking turns drawing "acts" of the story and, most especially, the biweekly format, which I think is an almost ideal schedule for a big event/story like this.

The only thing better would be a weekly schedule. I seem to recall in a vague, unable-to-link-to-way, Keith Giffen talking about the weekly format of 52 on Newsarama or Comic Book Resources and saying how exciting it would be if events started coming out on such a schedule, using the example of Marvel's Civil War coming out over the course of seven consecutive weeks, instead of seven (or was it eight, with the delay?) months. I also recall agreeing.

Seriously, imagine that (If you read it). Boom! Stamford blows up, Captain America goes rogue! Boom! Everyone fights and Goliath is murdered by a clone Thor that his pals Reed Richards and Tony Stark built. Boom! Spider-Man unmasks on live television. Boom! The Punisher joins force with Captain America! And on and on. Fans' heads would be reeling, and they wouldn't have time to nitpick the many, many, many leaps in logic that occurred during the story, as just as they were about through digesting the events of an issue, the next one would be released, with bigger events and higher stakes.

Two things immediately worth noting about the premise, which involves the two teams-turned-multi-book-franchises apparently coming to blows over something to do with The Phoenix Force that turned Jean Grey evil for a while in the 1970s. First, it's another iteration of Marvel heroes fighting one another, which has been the premise for every crossover/event they've published since House of M on some level. And, second, the X-Men and Avengers locked in conflict over what to do with an all-powerful mutant was at least part of the premise of House of M.

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I already got my needlessly cynical reaction to Brian Michael Bendis' announcement that he was stepping down from The Avengers family of books out of the way earlier in the week, but I have more to say.

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I don't suppose we'll ever know-know, but I do wonder if Bendis no-longer writing at least two Avengers titles l is part of the recent Disney/Marvel cost-cutting that lead to a seemingly healthy books being canceled and previously announced miniseries being canceled right before they began publication and some editors and others losing their jobs. Did someone at Disney finally realize that people read Avengers comics for the Avengers, not Bendis (at least at this point; in 2004, when Bendis began his better-part-of-a-decade-run, it might have been a different story), and that they could move the same number of units if they hired a hobo and paid him in canned goods (Provided of course that the hobo they hired was also a writer, and these days, chances are, he is.)

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So where does Bendis go now? In addition to writing one or two Avengers titles every month since 2004 and the majority of the Marvel Universe line's big crossover event/stories (House of M, Secret Invasion and Siege), Bendis has essentially been show-running the direction of the Marvel Universe for years. Right now, he's sitting on top of the top franchise. When he leaves Avengers, there's not really anywhere for him to go at Marvel except down, in terms of prestige books.

My only thoughts at this point are that maybe he'd take over the X-Men franchise, trying to build it back up into the sales juggernaut it was at the turn of the century (During Bendis' tenure, The Avengers franchise sort of overtook the X-Men franchise's place in Marvel's publishing strategy), or perhaps the Spider-Man franchise. (Bendis obviously loves Spidey, having put him on both of his Avengers teams, and Bendis has written Utlimate Spider-Man since the early 1950s, although since Ultimate Peter Parker was killed off and replaced by Miles Morales, Bendis isn't currently writing a Peter Parker Spider-Man in USM and he could, perhaps, be going through a type of withdrawal that can only be cured by writing Amazing Spider-Man.

Those are the only two Marvel books/brands I could see Bendis taking over that wouldn't be huge steps back for him, professionally. In fact, both of those are still steps back from the chart-topping Avengers books, which are just now starting to lose heat from Bendis-fatigue and the insurgent, re-booted DCU, but the X-Men and Spider-Man have room to grow again.

And, you know, with a movie entitled Amazing Spider-Man about to see release, if I had to bet what was next for Bendis at Marvel, I would be it would be a bi-weekly Amazing Spider-Man series.

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Of course, in the bi-polar world of Big Two super-comics, if news came that Bendis was leaving Marvel's top franchise after years there, one almost-immediate thought would be that perhaps he's about to sign and exclusive with DC Comics. Given the company's push for doing more audacious things and at least talking about seeking out new talent, it's not inconceivable that someone at DC has been spending part of the last year attempting to headhunt Bendis, right?

I don't think Bendis fits in with the "New 52" DCU—he's too '00s, and not enough '90s—and, honestly, when I consider the DC properties and titles and characters, the only one that really jumps out as a good fit for Brian Michae Bendis would be something like n DC would be something like DC's long-since canecled Gotham Central book, which would allow him to write about crime and engage in the sort of Aaron Sorkin/cable drama type of writing he's so fond of.

I know Bendis also pitched a Daredevil/Batman event at some point in the recent-ish past too, so I bet a lot of folks would think he'd do well on that franchise as well. I don't know though. Bendis wrote Daredevil in the Frank Miller, grim-and-gritty vein for like 50 years, and he's also been writing Moon Knight, who was, at one point, little more than a Batman knock-off. How much could Bendis really have to say about Batman?

And if DC resurrected Gotham Central for him? Well, Bendis would be writing cops in the world of superheroes, as he did on his Sam and Twitch stories from waaaaay back before Marvel, or his still-going Powers series. Does Bendis have all that much left to say in that particular capes-and-cops flavor of superhero comics?

Bendis was at his worst at Marvel when he was writing bigger, cosmic stories with fantastical superpowers, aliens and time-travel. The DC Universe is, in general, bigger and more cosmic than the more grounded, realistic Marvel Universe, with more god-like supeheroes and a more complicated cosmology and multiverse of settings (Although DC seems to be trying their damnedest to Marvelize their setting and characters as much as possible this year).

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Forgot to mention in last week's post: I hope part of DC's probably-no-even-actually-happening-exploit-Watchman plans is a Watchmen Vs. V For Vendetta crossover. I have no idea what that would entail, but it would be awesome.

Bonus: Free viral advertising at every Occupy gathering/every large protest of pretty much anything.

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Wow, Paul Cornell is off Stormwatch already? Well, there's one less trade from my Buy In Trade list that I'll be buying. I like Martian Manhunter, and I like Cornell but wasn't sure about artist or new continuity, so this was one of the several New 52 books I was planning on reading in trade (Along with Demon Knights, Batman, Animal Man and Swamp Thing...Oh, and Action and Batwoman, but I already knew I'd like those ones. The others were more of a Buy In Trade If They Don't Suck Horribly sort of group).

But if Paul Cornell's Stormwatch only a six-issue miniseries, written without the narrative structure of a mini-series, then, eh, why bother?

The rate of musical chairs on the New 52 titles is pretty astounding, and its becoming clearer and clearer that this was a list of 52 titles that a group of DC editors came up with, and then creating the New 52 DCU was more a matter of matching creative teams to the titles than writers and artists giving a whole lot of thought to reinventing the DCU.

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Wow, Jim Steranko's Indiana Jones looks like he could beat the living hell out of Harrison Ford's, doesn't he? One of the things I liked about Indiana Jones though, particularly in Temple, is he gets the living hell beat out of him pretty regularly, but keeps on fighting till he gets a win. Perseverence is as admirable a heroic quality as fighting prowess or strength in my book. (Via Comics Reporter)

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I like these dwarves. (Also via Comics Reporter)

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Iconic schmiconic, I think Batgirl should have hair like this, instead of long and red. (Via Sean T. Collins)

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Wowee zowee. Go read this (Via TCJ.com)

Nothing to see here.

But I do have something you can see, and read, at Robot 6 today. It's a kinda sorta review of Raphael #1, the one-issue "micro-series" from IDW, current holders of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license. The above image is one of the (many) covers.

Look familiar? It should! Here's the cover of Mirage's original Raphael #1:Neat, huh? Mouse Guard's David Petersen drew the standard cover, which is also pretty neat.

I know what I want from my superhero comics

is that they closely resemble cable television dramas.

Comics shop comics: Nov. 30th

Yeesh, maybe I should start doing these columns once a month instead of once a week. The average number of comics I get during weekly visits to my local comic shop seems to be just two (2) now.

Daredevil #6 (Marvel Entertainment) This is the final issue of Marcos Martin’s, which would probably make this a perfect jumping-off point, were it not for the continued presence of pencil artist Paolo Rivera, who was alternating arcs with Martin.

The story is concerned with Daredevil resolving the conflict that threatened the life of his latest client, which involves fighting on a very strong super-powered villain with an interesting hidden power and the refreshingly juvenile name of Bruiser.

As always, Martin is incredibly inventive in not only telling the story, but in finding ways to convey Dardevil’s super-senses and radar power through the language of comics.Let’s take a moment to praise the work of Muntsa Vicente, color artist, however.

This book pops, and a large part of its visual power comes formt he color choices. There is, for example, a nice splash-panel midway through where Dardevil comes to the rescue of the kidnapped Austin Cao. Look: The glossy paper and the fact the image stretches across the fold leads to a pretty bad scan, but still you can see the red hero Dardevil kicking the green villain Bruiser, freeing the yellow-clad victim, in a blue hallway.

Martin’s designs are simple enough that the color is allowed to reinforce the lines rather than bury or otherwise obscure them. Later, for example, representatives of five different Marvel villain organizations assemble to witness an execution, and each has a different color or set of colors, sharply defining who they are and, more importantly, that they are different from and in opposition to one another.

Look at this colorwheel of a Mexican stand-off:That is just plain comics art done right, from script to pencil line to color.


Tiny Titans #46 (DC Comics) In this issue, Art Baltazar and Franco reach back almost 30 years to find a super-obscure character to use in order to tell a joke only the parents or maybe even grandparents of the target audience of the book would get: The Protector, last-minute stand-in for Robin in a drug awareness comic published by the Keebler elves.

That’s awesome. Not only in the sense of “Wow, this comic is awesome,” but in the sense that it genuinely inspires awe how far Baltazar and Franco will go for a gag, particularly if its one that they can play both to brand-new readers and trivia obsessed comics lifers.

Some of the similarly double-targeted gags are of more recent vintage though. For example, apparently the mysterious purple-hooded lady from the last issue of Flashpoint, which transformed the DCU into the rebooted New 52 U, appeared in all 52 #1 issues. (I read five of those #1’s, and I didn’t notice her in any). A mysterious, purple-hooded lady appears throughout this issue as well, and I love the way Baltazar stops the narrative every time the figure appears:What most interested me this issue, however, was the fact that Talon, evil Batman duplicate Owlman’s sidekick, apparently has an evil Ace the Bathound duplicate:And it’s not just Ace in a red cape, as Ace appears in the same scene a few panels later with Batgirl. So who is that dog? Zero the Owlhound…? I MUST KNOW!!!!

This week's link post...half-full of old links, 'cause I didn't do one last Sunday

If you only read comics blogs during the week, while you're at work, I'm jealous of your ability to walk away from the computer and do something more positive, healthy and no doubt more constructive on the weekends. But, if you so, you may have missed my Friday night post regarding Art Spiegelman, Maus and MetaMaus or my way too long post reviewing everything I had read, had read to me or watched over the past month or so.

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Writer Ivan Brandon's complaints about sales chart analysis garnered quite a bit of attention, and sparked quite a bit of attention, around the blogosphere the last week or so. I first encountered the discussion here, at The Beat (If you click through to give it a read, read the comments thread too; as both creators and some of the complained-about analysts show up to discuss).

I think I can almost understand Brandon's frustration, if not the specific arguments made regarding the negative effects of analysis, but ultimately the fault seems to like with the direct market publishers and their leaders, Marvel and DC, who could publicize actual numbers (The argument that the estimates in the sales charts don't reflect actual units sold to sellers seems to be something that bugs Brian Wood; at this point, I've read more of his writing in comments on sales analysis than in comics, I think).

A less murky picture would also emerge if direct market functioned like other forms of publishing where retailers could return the portion of the units they ordered the they couldn't sell to customers, but, again, that would be a big change the the direct market distributors (Just Diamond, now?) and leaders would have to initiate. Analysts are only working with what they're given, so anyone complaining about any aspect of that is naturally going to seem like misplaced whining.

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Mark Millar recently opined that comics should not be digitally distributed on the same day they are available in hard copy at brick-and-mortar comics shops. Based on my past experience that everything that Mark Millar says about anything is wrong, I guess that means digital comics should be released digitally on the same day they are available in shops.

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Here's Kiel Phegley's November 22 piece about what seems to be up at Marvel regarding their serially published comics line. You should read it, if you haven't already. Here's Todd Allen responding, and here's Tom Spurgeon doing the same. I'm pretty sure several dozen others also had stuff to say about Phegley's piece and what it means regarding Marvel's uncertain present and future, but those are the only two URLs I copy-and-pasted after reading them.

Given Marvel's transition from a company that makes money by publishing copies to one that makes money by licensing IPs based on their comics, trimming the low-selling books like the one's about Wolverine's handsome, tattooed, sexually ambiguous son or the Canadian superhero team seems sort of illogical to me, as Spider-Man, Iron Man and the "main" Marvel characters are already so established that Marvels houldn't have much problem licensing them for videogames or tooth paste or whatever, whereas they have a huge character catalog with lots of under-explored corners that could use the sort of emphasis the company devoted to The Avengers characters a few years back to essentially make them the X-Men of the 'aughts.

On the other hand, I don't know jack shit about business, and it could very well be that sticking Squirrel Girl in a half-dozen issues of New Avengers is more than enough to get her in the public eye enough to help sell a Squirrel Girl cartoon pilot, and they needn't bother publishing a Squirrel Girl monthly to do that.

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This was probably my favorite headline to a review of The Muppets.

I thought the movie was okay, but I sorta wished I hadn't watched the previews a million times or read any reviews first, as I had seen and/or heard about all the funny bits going in to the movie.

Also, I woulda preferred more Pepe and less Piggy. I hate Miss Piggy so much. I always have. I thought maybe it was simply that she was a girl and had cooties and that's why I hated her as a child growing up with the Muppets. But now I'm an adult, and I hate her even more.

Also also, it's kind of crazy to think that there was a Muppet movie where, say, Kermit's nephew Robin had zero lines, and Jason Segal had, like, 3,000, isn't it?

I do hope it does well enough that they make more, though. It was a strange feeling watching a movie with my niece in a theater full of kids and not be wearing 3D glasses and not looking at slick computer animation with a US Weekly's worth of celebrities slumming as voice actors, but instead be looking at a felt puppet that's only like four points of articulation away form a sock puppet on that giant screen....

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Wow, some of these links have been laying around for a quite a while now. For example, here's one to a November 24 piece in The Guardian by Rick Moody headlined "Frank Miller and the rise of cryptofascist Hollywood". (The sub-head? "Fans were shocked when Batman writer Frank Miller furiously attacked the Occupy movement. THey shouldn't have been, says Rick Moody—he was just voicing Hollywood's unspoken values").

Moody brings up the popular reading of 300 as a three-cheer endorsement of the Bush Administration's many wars, a reading I've always felt the film itself rejects, perhaps inadvertently.

The popular reading is to think of Sparta as a stand-in for the U.S. (although I think it would be awfully hard to find 300 Americans with abs like that) since they are, um, white and a Democracy and, uh, slightly to the West of Persian and, um...I guess that's it...? And, in that reading, Persia is Whoever America Is Fighting, probably "The Terrorists," or "Arabs" or "The Middle East" or "Foreigners," depending on how xenophobic the particular viewer might be (or how xenophobic they want to believe the folks who made the movie are).

But the Spartans are the underdogs in that movie, defending their tiny nation-state against a vastly superior military force intent on invading and conquering it. It's hard to fit the U.S. in that Sparta-shaped space.

Whereas the Persian army seems a lot more equivalent to the United States, as they are a massive military power—the most powerful in the entire world—and are comprised of people and technology from all over the world. They are an empire, and they are invading a much smaller, weaker country's homeland.

The weirdest thing about reading Moody's piece for me, however, was seeing him use the word "cryptofascist" over and over again while talking about a post on Frank Miller's blog, where Miller had previously posted this drawing.

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In other old news, I guess writer James Robinson is worried that his new limited series The Shade isn't being ordered by shops in very large numbers, and that the orders are so low that DC might even cancel it before all 12 issues are published. (That, or he's come up with a neat form of marketing his book).

I find this kind of fascinating.

The Shade seems made for trade-waiting. It's a limited series, but it's long enough—12 issues—that it's not in either the I Would Like To Read This Indefinitely category or the I'll Give This A Shot Since It's Only A Couple Of Issues category of comics. It's setting and relevance are also in question, given that it appears to be set in the pre-New 52 DCU, not the post-Flashpoint New 52 U, in which The Shade and his history as fans have come to know and love it can even exist. I was curious about the book because it was announced with such a stellar art line-up—each issue by different artists which, further down the line, were to include the likes of Jill Thompson—but given Robinson's recent track record and my uncertainty about the state of The Shade, I wanted to wait until the reviews were in.

I'm sure part of the problem is that DC ruined James Robinson's "brand" over the course of the last few years (And/or James Robinson ruined his own brand by writing all those shitty comics for DC that erased a lot of the goodwill he had built up as the writer of Starman).

Beat writer Allen mentions Robinson's fallen profile among many fans in his piece, and he also mentions that The Shade has been out of the public eye for so long that it might make the mini a hard sell. I disagree on that point. Robinson has kept The Shade front and center for much of his writing since returning to DC after the "One Year Later" jump; The Shade was featured prominently in Cry For Justice and Robinson's JLoA run, and he was the star of the Starman issue of that neat Blackest Night stunt, in which DC published temporarily-uncancelled "zombie" books for one issue each.

I think because of DC's focus on promoting the everything is new aspect of their New 52 initiative, anything from the old, apparently nonexistent continuitiverse is going to be regarded with a lot of suspicion by a lot of DC fans. A Batman or Superman or Green Lantern book set in the old continuity, or in its own continuity could probably survive easily, but a supporting character from a popular '90s series? Probably not so much.

The discussion about The Shade's sales and possible fates really makes me wonder about DC's panned JSA book...or anything DC might hope to set outside of their New 52 in teh future. The reboot certainly helped sales, but did it limit the types of comics and comics characters that DC can publish now? That is, are the Golden Age characters going to be unusable while the five-year, Superman-was-the-first-superhero-and-he-debuted in 2006 timeline is in effect?

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By the way, I wonder why DC chose to introduce Mister Terrific into the New 52, but not any of the other Golden Age heroes? Certainly Hawkman, The Flash, Green Lantern and The Atom couldn't appear without queering things with their Silver Age iterations, but what about the Justice Society guys who Julius Schwartz didn't use as source material for the Sivler Age? Like, why can't there be twenty-something versions of the original Hourman, Dr. Mid-Nite, Starman, Johnny Thunder and Wildcat running around The New 52 alongside Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman?

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Remember: Ross Campbell is awesome.

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That's your Lizard, Amazing Spider-Man movie? Labcoat or GTFO

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Rich Johnston is saying his anonymous, maybe not even completely made-up sources are telling him that DC has green-lighted the more Watchmen comics that Rich Johnston often reports DC is planning on publishing, perhaps because, as Abhay Khosla notes, "Bloggers need to buy Christmas presents."

I really can't imagine DC ever doing more Watchmen comics of any kind, given the PR damage it would do vs. the sales benefit (Even if they do, say, a half-dozen four-issue minseries, probably by the same folks who have been doing all their shitty Flashpoint minis and New 52 series, because not only is DC not that great at getting great talent to make their comics anymore, anything perceived as pissing in Alan Moore's direction is going to turn off a lot of the potential talent pool, and even if all of those series sell, say, 150K units for their number ones, is that really worth it? Especially when you consider the prequels will lack the long shelf life of the original?).

The more I think about it though, I hope that if the ever really do pull the trigger, they just go as crazy with it as possible, and with such a "Fuck it, let's do this crazy thing no one ever thought we would have the balls to do and do it as obnoxiously as possible" attitude that you can't help but admire them.

I want it to be totally crass and totally Hollywood. I want it to eclipse the number of Blackest Night and Flashpoint tie-ins. I want a youthboot. I want gender-swapped version of the characters. I want all of the character to be black for some reason this time. I want Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. I want Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld. I want Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness. I want Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld. I want Jim Balent. I want a Christmas special. Hell, call it Watchmen 2: We're Just Doing It For the Money, Obviously. I want a plastic cover incentive with puddles of ink in it that makes the cover of one issue look like Rorshachs's mask, only clumsily and cheaply. It' stoo bad that Marvel own Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis, because those dudes would be perfect for this project. Stan Lee! Imagine Stan Lee Creating...Watchmen. Oh, get Jason Aaron. That dude was all like, "Fuck Alan Moore for not liking my comics." Let him fuck with an Alan Moore comic. Watchmen Zombies. Watchmen Apes. Poines, bears, sea elephants, whatever. If they're gonna do it, they should do it. I don't want to see a Phantom Menace to Moore and Gibbons' original Star Wars trilogy, I want to see Dancer in the Dark, Human Centipede and Un Chien Andalou to it.

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Actually, you know what? DC's current co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee are a comics writer and a comics artist, respectively. If they really feel strongly that there's more to Watchmen than what DC originally published, then they should do it them damn selves.

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God, I love it when Abhay reviews comics. Here he completely destroys The Homeland Directive (or does he?).

I can't agree or disagree with his assessment of the book. I borrowed the trade form the library and started reading it, expecting to need to fill a hole with a comic review, and when the hole closed up, I quit reading. I didn't get very far. Not wanting to finish it is probably a reveiw of sorts in itself, but now I don't remember the exact circumstances. Maybe I was really busy at work that week or something. I don't recall. I did manage to read the 300-page hardcover of X-Force Vol. 1, by four different writers and four different artists, the other night in one sitting, and that was pretty terrible in every way. But it did have Wolverine in it. Maybe that makes all the difference? Maybe if Wolverine was the star of Homeland Directive, or if they just gave the star Wolverine hair and fist-knives, I would have finished that in one sitting too...?

I like Kholsa's idea of writers pitching high-concept movies via postcard instead of comic book miniseries, too. Like the postcard of that fake movie poster that he ran with his review? All I know about it is the information on that poster, and I want to see that movie that I'd kill a person to see it. Not someone I know, but, like, a stranger maybe. Or a particularly annoying neighbor.

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Please note that I would never actually ever kill a person. Especially if you are a member of law enforcement, or a spy reading comics blogs to report nefarious activities to a government agent, or one of my particularly annoying neighbors. I was totally just kidding, and exaggerating to hyperbolically make the point that I would like to see a movie in which the Taliban trains dinosaurs (Actually, I'd like to see any movie with dinosaurs). I am a pacificst. I am a vegetarian. I will not even eat a piece of a dead animal's body that was killed by someone else and disguised as something other than a piece of a dead animal's body.

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Hey, John Carter of Mars and I have the same initials!Now what am I gonna put on my movie poster?

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Finally, something really sad happened this week. The character Teddy Montgomery moved away in 90210 this week, signaling the end of the character's presence on the show, and actor Trevor Donovan's place in the ensemble cast.Good luck in your future endeavors Mr. Donovan, and we'll miss you Teddy!