DC's December previews reviewed

Can I ask a stupid question? Of course I can! This is my blog. I can ask all the stupid questions and offer all of the unsolicited, stupid opinions I want!

Okay, so remember the last issue of Flashpoint, wherein the mysterious woman we now know to be Pandora, unified the DC Universe, The Vertigo "Universe" (which was actually just the DC Universe, but let's not quibble) and The WildStorm Universe into a new universe that became The New 52, saying something about how all three universes must combine in order to meet the coming threat?

I wonder what she was talking about. It wasn't Darkseid, obviously, as a half-dozen DCU characters beat him all by themselves. During "Trinity War," I don't think there was a single representative of the WildStorm Universe involved, and her own series seems devoted to defeating The Seven Deadly Sins, which she seems to be doing more-or-less solo, without help from anyone from Earth-Vertigo or Earth-WS.

Now Forever Evil has launched, and the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 has invaded, seemingly killed off all the Leaguers and are in the process of conquering Earth by organizing all of its villains into a huge army of sorts. Is that the threat she was talking about?

Because it's still mostly a DCU effort to battle them back, with Vertigo's John Constantine, Swamp Thing and maybe Black Orchid pitching in a little bit. I didn't see anyone from the WildStorm Universe at all. In fact, looking through the solicits, the only book that seems to have anything at all to do with WildStorm characters anymore is StormWatch, a team that is a mixture of old WildStorm characters from The Authority and StormWatch and from the old DCU (and, at least at the beginning, a few original characters). That book's not selling so great and, according to its solicits, doesn't seem to have anything to do Forever Evil (wasn't secretly guarding the DC Universe from things like invasions from alternate universes their whole deal?).

Now it's not that surprising that the WildStorm influence has been waning. None of those characters or books has been at all popular for a very long time now. But it is surprising that  DC hasn't at least kept a couple token characters around at least long enough to justify the formation of the New 52, particularly if this is it, the thing Pandora created the New 52 in order to combat (Although, given her ignorance of the invasion in the pages of her book and the "Trinity War" crossover, there's no real indication that she knew about the Crime Syndicate coming).

Just something that struck me while reading this. If the in-story raison d' etre for the New 52, creating a new universe of heroes capable of repelling a threat no single universe could survive on its own, then it seems counterproductive that one of those three universes seems to be sitting this potentially existential threat out...and to be retiring from defending the new universe altogether.

Anyway, DC's December solicits! You can read all of 'em at  Comic Book Resources, or just read my observations and snide remarks below.

AQUAMAN #26
Written by JEFF PARKER
Art and cover by PAUL PELLETIER and SEAN PARSONS
1:25 Variant cover by PAUL PELLETIER and SEAN PARSONS
On sale DECEMBER 31 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
“Sea of Storms” begins with the debut of new AQUAMAN writer Jeff Parker! The Earth’s crust is grinding to life, releasing deadly volcanoes and bizarre creatures…so humanity’s first instinct is to blame Atlantis! And as the plates pull apart, the pressures of ruling a kingdom under siege are weighing on Aquaman and Mera as well

Uh-oh! Looks like one happily-married couple just learned that DC retroactively and randomly annulled their marriage this week, despite the fact that the publisher's Chief Creative Officer has been writing them as a married couple since 2010, well over a year on both sides of the New 52-boot!

I'm really disappointed to see Jeff Parker taking over the books, because I had just finally decided to drop it after months of conflict, figured I would switch to trades on it (Johns' run was infuriatingly slow-paced, written for the trade and filled with aggravating, space-wasting splash pages).  And now one of my favorite super-comics writers comes aboard, and I have to decide whether to start reading it monthly again or to continue to trade-wait! Damn you, DC! 
  
Well, I guess I have a few months to decide if I want to return to the book or not. Writer I Really Like + Artist I Rather Like + One of My Favorite Superheroes is a hard equation to resist.  If I do, I hope I find that Parker is writing for the individual issue, rather than the six-issue collection, unlike a certain other Aquaman writer who has a first name that sounds exactly like Parker's first name, only spelled differently.

 Another nice Batwing cover by Darwyn Cooke. The character has drifted from his original design and that design's inspiration, but, when Cooke draws the costume at least, he looks fairly awesome. 


BATWOMAN #26
Written by MARC ANDREYKO
Art by JEREMY HAUN
Cover by J.H. WILLIAMS III
...
On sale DECEMBER 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
Kate Kane's life has always been one of intrigue and adventure, but since she took on the mantle of Batwoman, things have been in overdrive with no sign of slowing down! Join us as Batwoman starts her next chapter and faces a threat that might just have her rethinking her career as a hero!

The whole stupid saga of DC not giving J.H. Williams III any and everything on this title to keep him around is just insane, even by the fairly insane standards of DC's apparent treatment of its creators. Interest in Batwoman Kathy Kane pretty much starts and stops with Williams, and while I'm sure there are a few dozen people who read the book mainly to support a female character carrying a book and another few dozen who do so to support a gay character carrying a book, the rest of those people reading Batwoman were doing so to look at pictures of Williams' art.

I read the TEC arc, and the first and third volumes of the New 52 book, and it was a weird book. I won't say the writing was particularly good, but the book boasted a hard to replicate virtue of being a book unlike any other out there. It was an incredibly unique book, and a perfectly singular experience. 

I don't see the point of it without Williams' art though, and was wondering who they would get to replace him. Jeremy Haun is doing this issue...but I don't know if he's doing all of 'em going forward. I think Phil Jimenez is probably the ideal artist, being an accomplished writer as well (Remember, Williams was drawing as well as co-writing), and while his style isn't much like Williams (no one's is, which is one of the draws), he does have a similarly baroque style, one that can look quite realistic and given to the sorts of heavily detailed, heavily imaginative spreads that would drive a lot of artists mad. Plus, you know, he's gay, giving DC a double argument that they're not anti-gay because they wouldn't let Kate Kane marry her girlfriend, they just hate marriage that much (Except for Animal Man and Aquaman's marriages...although I guess they say Aquaman isn't married, which kinda makes me want to look through my New 52 issues of Aquaman for all the instances of Mera calling him her husband or Aquaman calling Mera his wife, but I don't think that's the best use of my time; hell this isn't even the best use of my time).

I suppose it's hard to have too too much sympathy for Williams and co-writer Blackman, given the fact that this is hardly the first time creators have had an extremely difficult time dealing with the current editorial structure at DC (Abhay Kholasa said it best here: "'How could that shit come as surprise to anybody?' asked a small blind Amish child who hadn’t really been paying close attention this entire time... How? How is that possible? Had one or both of them buried alive face down?").

On the other hand,  DC did seem to leave them mostly alone-ish on the title for the most part, allowing them to kinda sorta ignore most the New 52-boot the way only Grant Morrison, Scott Snyder and the guys who made all the Green Lantern were able to (From what I've read of Batwoman, it picked up characters with long, complicated DC continuities like Maggie Sawyer and Mr. Bones and Cameron Chase pretty much where they left off before the reboot; I even read Chase refer to her father being Acro-Bat when she was a child, which would have been looooong before the "Five Years Ago" of the New 52 timeline, assuming Chase is not a 15-year-old girl who Doogie Howsered her way into the government agency that monistors DC superheroes and isn't ARGUS).

Also, Batwoman didn't have to have a "Night of the Owls" or "Death of the Family" tie-in issue. 

Andreyko's a fine writer, and did a fine job on a similar superhero before (Manhunter). Haun, if he's the same Jeremy Haun I'm thinking of, is a fine artist...but he's also an unenviably poor bastard with the unhappy task of following Williams on a book Williams more-or-less invented, visually. I suppose the way forward now is to simply make it one more Batman spin-off book, and not skipping the next "Death of the Family" Bat-crossover that Scott Snyder engineers. As long as it does numbers that high once a year or so, it hardly matters what happens between tie-ins (see, for example, Batgirl, Birds of Prey and Nightwing).

DAMIAN: SON OF BATMAN #3
Written by ANDY KUBERT
Art and cover by ANDY KUBERT
...
On sale DECEMBER 31 • 32 pg, FC, 3 of 4, $3.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with three covers. Please see the order form for more information.
Damian Wayne has been bruised and beaten to a pulp…but nothing before will compare to his latest confrontation with the horde of villains in this issue. When pitted against Professor Pyg, DC villain’s month darling Jakanapes and other baddies, how will Damian survive—especially when he finds a certain clown waiting for him at the finish line?

Well, that shark-looking guy with the huge head and machine gun looks interesting...

I'm not sure how Jackanapes qualifies as "DC villain's month darling," exactly. The book he appeared in, Batman #23.1, was billed as a Joker comic, and no one knew Jackanapes was even in it until last Wednesday (he wasn't mentioned in the solicitation and didn't appear on the cover). So even if that issue proves to be the best-selling or best-reviewed book of the month (which still has, let's see, three more weeks and 39 more comics to go before it's over), one has to imagine that the sales part at least would have everything to do with The Joker and nothing to do with Jackanapes. 
  

THE DEMON: FROM THE DARKNESS TP
Written by MATT WAGNER
Art by MATT WAGNER and ART NICHOLS
Cover by MATT WAGNER
On sale JANUARY 15• 128 pg, FC, $14.99 US
Jason Blood travels to Cornwall to find the spirit of Merlin and lift the curse that binds him to Etrigan, The Demon. But unraveling a centuries old curse is anything but easy, and Blood learns more about his mystical alter ego than he could have imagined. Collects the 4-issue miniseries from 1987 and issue #22 of The Demon’s monthly series.

I've only ever been able to find two of these issues in back-issue bins, but I really liked 'em and wanted to read the other ones. I'll almost certainly pick this up to be able to do so (Plus, I imagine the colors and pages will look brighter and cleaner than the 20+-year-old issues I have, and this has  just gotta smell better).  

It's Matt Wagner writing and drawing Jack Kirby's Demon. I can't imagine what more one would need to know about this book to desire it.


 

EARTH 2 #18
Written by TOM TAYLOR
Art by NICOLA SCOTT and TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by ETHAN VAN SCIVER
...
On sale DECEMBER 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
The new Batman of Earth 2 tries to turn the tide in the war against the forces of Darkseid and Apokolips, but even as new allies reveal themselves the planet trembles before its new rulers.

Who is the new Batman of Earth 2? he asked, not really caring. Is it Terry Sloane? Is it Charles McNider? (Look, he's got black-out gas!) Or could it be the Dick Grayson of Earth-New 52? That would be kinda weird, but the color scheme matches, the solicitation for this month's Nightwing is really kinda weird sounding, and there was a grown-up Dick Grayson wearing a form of Batman costume on the original Earth 2, so there's precedent.

FOREVER EVIL #4
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by DAVID FINCH and RICHARD FRIEND
...
On sale DECEMBER 24 • 32 pg, FC, 4 of 7, $3.99 US
RATED T
...
It’s all-out chaos as the DC Universe continues its march through darkness! War erupts across the Earth between the villains! Allegiances are formed! Rivals are murdered! And at center stage it’s Lex Luthor versus Batman—and their fight couldn’t come at a worse time as Deathstroke’s Hunting Party closes in on the world’s only hope against the Crime Syndicate!

While I was reading Forever Evil #1 last week, I was reminded of Grant Morrison's story of the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 invading and attempting to conquer the "our" Earth, in his JLA: Earth-2 with Frank Quitely (there wasn't a multiverse at the time, so the number labels didn't really mean anything; if I recall correctly, "Earth-2" is how the folks from the alternate, evil universe referred derisively to the DCU's Earth).

The more economical, story and idea focused Morrison of that era got his whole story done in the space of a single original graphic novel, rather than filling out all the space a seven-month long line-wide crossover event would have allowed, and his solution to the conflict was elegant and clever. Regarding the "story" laws that governed  the world of the JLA, and the opposite laws that would govern an opposite earth where good = evil and evil = good, as laws as immutable as those of physics, Morrison posited that it was impossible for the evil JLA to ever "win" in the DC Universe, where the good guys in the JLA always win, just as it would be impossible for the Leaguers to ever win on the Crime Syndicate's world, where evil is always triumphant.

Given how much the premise of Forever Evil seems to owe that Morrison story (which itself owed a lot to the original Gardner Fox Justice League comics), I wondered how or if Johns might address that concept.

The more traditional (traditional to the point of tired cliche, really) way for villain team-ups to go sour, of course, is to have the villains come to some disagreement and ultimately come to blows, splintering and defeating themselves because, to a bad guy, the virtue of teamwork is too foreign, too alien, too unnatural to maintain forever.

Looking at this month's solicits, it looks like the shape of Forever Evil might be some variation of that, with the less bad villains of Earth-New 52 like Lex Luthor and The Rogue's trying to take down the Crime Syndicate and The Society for their own selfish reasons (Poison Ivy and Two-Face also seem unlikely to side with the Syndicate indefinitely, and Catwoman, if she's even really with them and not just drawn on some of the covers, is of course a member of one of the Justice League's now).

I'm also assuming The Joker will side with Luthor and The Rogues against the Syndicate. Looking at that cover image and trying to puzzle out who that is in the Batman suit (assuming it's not our Batman, since previous covers have shown Batman standing shoulder to shoulder with the villains and here he's fighting against Luthor). I wonder if it could be The Joker? After all, in Forever Evil #1, The Penguin tells Bane he's certain The Joker is hiding among the assembled members of The Society, wearing someone else's face.

Now, normally I'd say The Joker could never pull off a convincing Batman, given how different their body types are. But remember these covers (and the pages inside) are being drawn by David Finch, who drew those first few arcs of Brian Michael Bendis' New Avengers comic, where it was revealed that the big, burly man Ronin was actually the svelte female Echo, wearing a "padded suit" (Nevermind the fact that Finch, who is not very good, drew Echo like a foot or two shorter than Ronin and a good 150 pounds lighter).

Of course, on closer inspection, the Owlman costume on that cover seems empty, so perhaps Owlman, realizing how dumb his new costume is (The previous one, introduced in the previously mentioned Earth-2, or the one from the Justice League: Crisis on Two Worlds direct-to-DVD cartoon are both infinitely cooler than this one) simply decided that if Batman weren't around to wear Batman's costume, maybe he'd just start wearing that himself.

Anyway, Forever Evil: It will be just past the halfway point come December.

FOREVER EVIL: ROGUES REBELLION #3
Written by BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art by SCOTT HEPBURN
Cover by DECLAN SHALVEY
...
On sale DECEMBER 18 • 32 pg, FC, 3 of 6, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
The Rogues continue their flight from the ruthless Crime Syndicate, who have put a bounty on their heads. But en route back to Central City, Mirror Master’s powers malfunction, and they land in the middle of the events of ARKHAM WAR with pretty much every Bat-villain around going after the bounty!

See? The Rogues are fighting against the Syndicate. (Which is too bad; I was hoping they were rebelling against Gorilla Grodd, to avenge the death of "Chroma," The New 52 Rainbow Raider).

That's an awesome cover by Shalvey.

I can't remember the last time I read a good Man-Bat story, but I really like seeing the way different artists draw him, and that frozen pose, with th shards of glass seemingly moving all around him? That's awesome.

HARLEY QUINN #1
Written by AMANDA CONNER and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by CHAD HARDIN
Cover by AMANDA CONNER
1:25 Variant cover by ADAM HUGHES
On sale DECEMBER 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
Harley is set to begin her new life, but she needs a job first! Enter the Coney Island Roller Derby! It’s game time as Harley sets out to destroy her competition—literally!

Well, both the regular cover and the variant should be great-looking. I'm not so sure about the interior art though, as Hardin's name doesn't ring a bell.  I probably woulda tapped Rick Burchett, if it were up to me, but it was not up to me.

See, this is why you should never half-ass the cover of the first issue of a new Justice League series, Jim Lee. It's only a matter of time before someone decides to do an homage to it (or at least allusion or echo of it), and it's only going to draw attention to how not-all-that-great your original was.  Compare this to the 564 different versions of Kevin Maguire's "Wanna Make Something Of It?" cover to 1987's Justice League #1.

...

No, I can't say it. Sorry.

Although, were I the editor of that book, I'd probably ask artist Eddy Barrows to redraw part of that cover before it shipped.


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA’S VIBE #10
Written by STERLING GATES
Art by ANDRES GUINALDO and MARK IRWIN
Cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
On sale DECEMBER 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Can Vibe save his brother, stop an alien invasion and stay alive? That last one may be a tall order!

KATANA #10
Written by ANN NOCENTI
Art by ALEX SANCHEZ and WAYNE FAUCHER
Cover by ALEX SANCHEZ
On sale DECEMBER 11 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Katana must choose: Side with her new Sword Clan allies or her old friend Shun as the Mad Samurai plots his revenge! 

Oh hey, these books both survived past the eight-issue mark, which is where it seems that DC's most immediate and obvious misfires get canceled. I'm actually kinda surprised they're not both tying into Forever Evil; one weird aspect of the crossover seems to be that while the initial issue was trying to sell us on the fact that the Justice League/s were all killed, the solicitations for these issues make it clear that none of them really died (assuming these issues all take place after Forever Evil, and not before). Maybe if the main series was  bi-monthly, they could have tried to keep that suspense going a bit, but I guess putting the whole line in a sort of narrative holding pattern for seven months would have been a tall order, and lead to way more tie-ins than anyone on earth would have been interested in reading. 

But back to the point: Look! Vibe and Katana haven't been canceled yet! At this point, they could totally last a whole year! 

JUSTICE LEAGUE 3000 #1
Written by KEITH GIFFEN and J.M. DeMATTEIS
Art and cover by HOWARD PORTER
1:50 B&W Variant cover by HOWARD PORTER
RESOLICIT • On sale DECEMBER 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
...
This title is resolicited. All previous orders are canceled.
The new series starring the heroes of today—tomorrow is resolicited, now with legendary artist Howard Porter (JLA) on board! But what are these heroes doing in the year 3000? And who (or what) brought them there? Get ready for a dose of wonder from the writing team of Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis!

Now guaranteed 100% Kevin Maguire-free!

NIGHTWING #26
Written by KYLE HIGGINS
Art and cover by WILL CONRAD
On sale DECEMBER 11 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
With the events of FOREVER EVIL looming, Nightwing enters the final stages of life as he knows it!

Ominous, ain't it? Doubly so when you realize that, despite what the credits say, that cover is by Scott McDaniel, the artist probably most strongly associated with Nightwing, having drawn more issues of Nightwing comics than any other artist. If they were going to do something big and special with the character, that's the guy they'd want drawing the cover.

It's also kind of amusing though, because it seems like Nightwing just started a new "life as he knows it," moving to Chicago to strike out on his own, far afield from Batman (again). But then, there's probably no DC super-character who has been jerked around more than Dick Grayson. That guy seems to get a new status quo every 3-12 months, pretty much ever since Chuck Dixon stopped writing him and McDaniel stopped drawing him, really.

A few questions about Steve Skroce's cover for Suicide Squad #26 (don't get excited; Skroce just draws the cover): Is that Steel? Steel, where are your cape and mask? (You look funny without 'em!) Is Steel eight feet tall, or is Captain Boomerang a hobbit?  I'm not sure which side Power Girl is on, exactly, but looking at the other five people fighting on that cover, how is there even a fight? Power Girl should be able to take out everyone else on the cover with asingle clap of her hands or hearty exhale.

With the exception of Steel. Him she'd have to punch once (Or maybe just flick him, depending on whether she goes for a body blow or a head shot).


TRINITY OF SIN: PANDORA #6
Written by RAY FAWKES
Art by FRANCIS PORTELA
Cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO
On sale DECEMBER 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
A FOREVER EVIL TIE-IN! Pandora seeks answers from the one man who seems to have them…Earth-3's The Outsider! But first she must make it past a rabid Vandal Savage, who wants revenge for what Pandora has done to him! All this, and an unexpected visit from the Hellblazer himself, John Constantine!
  
In addition to appearing in his own book and Justice League Dark, you can also find Constantine guest-starring in Pandora #6,  Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #14, DC Universe Vs. Masters of The Universe #6 and All-Star Western #26. He's like the Wolverine of the New 52!

Uh-oh. I think it's been over 24 hours sine I've mentioned how awesome Guillem March is. Look! Look at his cover for Phantom Stranger! Isn't he awesome? His Swamp Thing sure is horrifying, with his gaping mouth...area...place.  The angel on the right, if you haven't read any Phantom Stranger yet (and I don't blame you; the two issues I read weren't very god), is New 52 Zauriel. He doesn't look so bad here, but J.M DeMatteis has re-created him as a fairly generic humanoid angel character, and he looks like a big, bald black man, rather than the fairly alien gray-skinned, avian-esque character Grant Morrison and Howard Porter created him as (When we first met him, he was just wearing a generic angel toga; there he is all armored-up and looking more super-heroic though).


And finally...

BATMAN: ARKHAM ORIGINS SERIES 2: ACTION FIGURES
Inspired by the designs from the upcoming Batman: Arkham Origins video game, which introduces an original prequel storyline set several years before Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, comes four of Gotham City's most dangerous criminals!
...
ANARKY
6.75”
...
*Action Figure* $24.95 US • Sold Separately • On Sale March 2014

Given what I've heard of the premise, I'm not sure I understand what Anarky might be doing in the latest of the Batman: Akrham video games, but that's what he will apparently look like. In keeping with the game's general aesthetic, he will look pretty dumb.

DC Universe Vs. Masters of the Universe #1 is not a very good comic book.

At various points in my life, Mattel's Masters of the Universe line of toys, DC Comics' Justice League and comic books in general were among the things I was most interested in, passionate about and/or obsessed with.

DC Universe Vs. Masters of the Universe is a comic book series in which the characters from the MOTU toy line meet and, one imagines, fight the DC Universe characters (who, based on the covers, seem to come mainly from the ranks of the Justice League). It is, in other words, a thing seemingly created especially for me—Well, not me-me, but readers like me.

Despite my many, many reservations about the potentially quite low quality of the book, based on the creative team of writer Keith Giffen and artist Dexter Soy (the former of whom wrote a terrible miniseries with a similar premise, DC/WildStorm: Dream War, in 2008), my brief previous exposure to DC's new-ish He-Man comics and the new designs of the MOTU characters, I bought myself a copy of the first issue and read it. The equation of MOTU + DC + Comics was just too powerful for me to resist.

Sadly, the comic did not meet my extremely low expectations. Look—

COVER: 

The issue of the book I picked up featured cover art by Ed Benes, one of my least favorite comics artist, showing the DC characters rushing and or shooting towards unseen foes, one of whom is carrying a gun he's shooting at Batman's feet. I know the other half of the image contains the Masters of the Universe characters, because I saw the solicitation for the book online a few months ago.

(For what it's worth, this issue actually shipped a week late. I only noticed because when I went to look for that image, I expected to find it in DC's September solicitations, as it came out last Wednesday, the first Wednesday of September, but found it instead in the August solicitations, scheduled for an August 28th release. I have to stop looking at this picture now, because the more I study it, the more angry and irritated I get).

I guess DC cut in the image in half, hoping some reader somewhere might buy two copies, just so they can have a complete image? Does that really work...?

I should note that none of the five characters on the half of the cover I got actually show up at all in this first issue, save for Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern appearing in a black and white photo on a the screen of a laptop in a single panel, when a character from the DC Universe tries to explain the Justice League to Skeletor.

The guys on the He-Man half fare a little better; 4/5ths of them appear in the issue.

PAGES 1-2:

According to the captions, the story opens in the following setting "EARTH: Greenwich Village, New York City." A young woman is running down the street, pursued by large rats with no skin or flesh on their heads, exposing their skulls, which are glowing. When they pass through an elaborate glowing sigil in the street, they all explode with a CH-TOOM!

The blond lady sits down on a porch, and a black-haired lady opens the door, says something about John and his magic traps and invites her in.

Neither character is introduced and, in the case of the black-haired lady, no name is given throughout the entirety of the book. I'm assuming she's Madame Xanadu, because she says "I've been expecting  you" to the blond and Xanadu is a fortune-teller, but some indication of the character's name might have been helpful. All we know for sure from the text is that she's a woman, she has black hair and she knows John Constantine. She's not wearing fishnets, so she's probably Xanadu and not Zatanna, right?

PAGES 3-6:

Are you reading Giffen's other Masters of the Universe comics, which consist of the ongoing He-Man and the Masters of The Universe and myriad origin one-shots? Hopefully, because whatever is happening in those comics seems to be reflected here.

This scene is set on "ETERNIA: The Kelting Pass." The personae daramatis are: He-Man, in his new red costume with a big, stylized H on the chest; Teela, in her new armor, which resembles a more revealing and form-fitting version of her father's; Man-At-Arms, who looks just like he did on the stupid cartoon, right down to the stupid mustache; and Stratos, who is now slimmer, less hairy and wears a red mask and goggles that covers his whole face, and makes him look a bit like G.I. Joe guy Snake Eyes. Like Snake Eyes, he is apparently mute.

He-Man and Teela bicker in whispers like this is a bad version of a screwball comedy as the quartet vaguely attack (jumping in the direction of) some vague robotic enemies (only seen in long-shot or mostly off-panel). Man-At-Arms tells Teela to leave one functional this time, as she apparently completely destroyed the last robot she fought because, as she explains, "He was checking out my butt! The perv!"

The robots have a big metal cube in which Evil-Lynn sits huddled, bound with licorice rope.

PAGE 7: 

The Masters sit around a campfire with the rescued Evil-Lynn. She doesn't have yellow skin, like her toy did, but white skin.  We don't get a good look at her costume or design, but it looks like she might be wearing leaves on her helmet. Soy is pretty awful at introducing characters; in the first two pages in which Evil-Lynn appears, the reader only sees her from the shoulders up and as a silhouette in extreme long-shot.

It will be ten more pages before we get a good look at this Evil-Lynn character, who the creators seem to be assuming everyone knows so well already that knowing what she looks like isn't important.

Stratos finally gets a line of dialogue: "Uh-huh." So I guess he's not mute. He's just taciturn. Or it's hard to talk through his new mask. One.

PAGES 8-9:

The blond lady, who we learn is named Marlena, continues to talk to the black-haired lady, and then asks to speak to John Constantine about Skeletor.

John Constantine appears as if on cue, given a nice, full-length introductory panel of the sort other characters like Evil-Lynn coulda used.

Constantine is one of the only DC Universe characters to appear in this comic, by the way, with the exception of the black-haired woman who is probably Madame Xanadu and a minor anti-hero we'll get to shortly.  That's sort of weird, isn't it? That John Constantine is now the primary representative of the DC Universe instead of, say, Superman or Batman or one of those other superheroes on the cover?

Also interesting? Constantine just played a central role in the six-part, three-book "Trinity War" storyline that lead in to DC's first big line-wide crossover in a few years. And now he's apparently the lynchpin of the the DC crossover with the MOTU characters. Who knew DC's superhero writers were apparently dying to write the character this badly for so long? 

PAGES 10-11: 

The scene shifts to a mysterious group of four towers with no openings or maybe just some kind of stone henge-like group of obelisks on "EARTH: Salem, Massachusetts." That's where Dr. Fate lived, in a mysterious tower with no openings, but that was the old DC Universe, not the New 52-iverse. Now there was never a Dr. Fate on Earth-New 52; Fate lives on Earth-2, the next parallel dimension over.

Two people are talking; one of whom has his own special dialogue balloons: They're yellow with purple letters inside and purple borders. Those word bubbles belong to Skeletor.

You may have heard that Skeletor has also been redesigned for the purposes of this story, which is apparently big enough news that USA Today covered it. Here are the first four panels Soy drew featuring the new design, which was apparently cooked up by Benes:

Introductions obviously aren't Soy's strong suit, so maybe he wasn't the best choice for a book like this, which is at least partially intentioned to introduce new, freshened-up versions of the characters.

(The New 52 Skeletor, by the way, is pretty dumb-looking. He has a more stylized looking, emotive skull, with prominent fangs and no lower jaw of any kind. It just floats in a black space between his purple football pads and his new hood/hat. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Remember how he used to carry that cool staff topped with a ram's head? Well, now he wears a tiny little purple animal skull atop his head like an ill-fitting toupee, and it has really, really long, drooping, curved horns, but not curved like a ram's horns; rather, they sort of look a bit like tusks, but not tusks that would fit either the purple animal head or Skeletor; they sort of radiate out of his shoulder.  Here isn't really a good look at him in the whole book, but he wears purple armor, has blue arms, is really big, and has a lot of chain-mail dripping here and there. His cape, which glows a neon yellow at the tips, looks like its design was inspired by tire treads, and he carries no weapons).

Skeletor is hanging out with Black Alice, a minor character originally created as a villain by Gail Simone, Joe Prado and Ed Benes during a 2005 Birds of Prey issue. Simone apparently quite liked the character, a teenage goth girl with the power to siphon the magical abilities of other DC magic-users, giving herself a new, goth girl version of whichever character's powers she's siphoning, returning to her several times in several different titles.  Giffen must like her too, having previously written her in his Reign In Hell miniseries and using her here, which marks her New 52 debut (For what it's worth, she doesn't appear to be siphoning any particular characters' powers, and is being used as a sort of local handler or tour guide by Skeletor, who is on Earth for a special mission at the behest of...a floating set of eyes with make-up suggesting they might belong to a powerful female of some sort...?)

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The blond lady explains the plot of the series to the black-haired lady and Constantine: Skeletor is traveling to different worlds in an attempt to harvest the magical energy that serves as the soul of each planet; when he does it, the planet dies.

She introduces herself a little more thoroughly, in a scene in which she throws Constatine into...I'm going to guess an invisible book case...? I can see boards and books behind him, but they're appearing out of the green fog that makes up the interior of the black-haired lady's house. Whatever the reason this book was a week late, it wasn't because Soy needed more time to draw backgrounds.

Anyway, the blond lady is "Marlena of two worlds, wife of Randor the Fourth...WARRIOR QUEEN OF ETERNIA!" (Also? He-Man's mom).

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In "The House of Secrets or Mystery or Whatever," Black Alice tells Skeletor about the three Justice Leagues, offering the most detail on the original: "Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and some guys whose names I forget."

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Back on Eternia, He-Man, Teela and Evil-Lynn talk for a while about what Skeletor's up to, exactly, and whether they should follow him. Evil-Lynn teleports them to the black-haired lady's house before they can make their decision final and official. 

On this final splash page, we see Marlena and Constantine being attacked by the glowing skull-headed rats, while He-Man says "Mom?!" and Constantine says "You have got to be kidding me," which would have been a lot funnier if He-Man appeared wearing his classic, barely-there barbarian garb.

A tag along the bottom of the page reads: "Next issue: Crisis On Whichever Earth This Turns Out To Be!"

So, to recap: We join a somewhat convoluted story in-progress, have a bunch of barely introduced (verbally or visually) characters thrown at us, get some incredibly lazy, slipshod, amateurish artwork and reach the end of the first issue of a comic book entitled DC Universe Vs. Masters of the Universe with the parameters of that conflict being roughly defined thusly: He-Man, Teela, Evil-Lynn and He-Man's mom are going to team up with John Constantine and some lady to stop Skeletor and Black Alice.

I'm assuming it gets better. It's just got to, right?

Comic shop comics: September 4

Batman and Robin #23.1 (DC Comics) As regular readers know, when it comes to spending money on comic books, my fist is almost as tight as Uncle Scrooge's (although my fist has one extra finger, and is much less pale than his). So naturally, I bought the $2.99, non-silly cover version of this book, and of the only other "Villain's Month" special issue/one-shot I bought off the rack this week (see below). As I said before, I do wish DC would have made it known these regular-priced, regular-covered versions would be available from the start, as I likely would have pre-ordered a bunch from my shop, and made the life of my shop-owner slightly easier, but when I heard they were going $3.99 for a whole month, I just sort of assumed that meant I would be taking the month of September off because, again, I'm cheap.

With the extra buck knocked off though, this purchase was an easy buy for me: While I'm sorta neutral on Two-Face and Batman (I like 'em both fine, but there are so many stories of each, I don't do a cartwheel every time I see a new one featuring either of them), this one is written by Peter Tomasi (who has written more good Batman comics than bad Batman comics, and more good comics in general than bad comics in general), and drawn by Guillem March, one of my favorite artists working at DC at the moment who, for reasons unfathomable to me, doesn't seem to have landed an ultimate, awesome gig yet (I'd rather read his Batman than Capullo's, for example...and Capullo's a pretty good artist. Meanwhile David Finch, a pretty bad artist, is drawing the company's biggest book of the next few months).

This story is, at least in its first half, fairly directly tied in to the events of Forever Evil, although the staging and setting varies. The Scarecrow approaches Two-Face and offers him a new coin, one of those communicator/membership coins that Earth-3's Evil Alfred has been handing out to villains in his Secret Society. Two-Face, however, was in the middle of making his own decision with his own coin: Should he save Gotham, "or make it bleed."

If you read Forever Evil first, you already know whether Two-Face is in or out, but after an intense conversation with The Scarecrow atop the Bat-signal (a setting with dramatic lighting possibilities that March apparently really likes), Two-Face decides to save the apparently Batman-less Gotham (not sure where all the police officers and all the sidekicks who aren't Nightwing went, either), his way. Shooting and beating criminals, he eventually rounds them all up into a courthouse, and flips the coin to decide whether they get the death penalty (regardless of crime) or life in prison.

The villains include the goofy ones Tomasi invented for the "Terminus" arc of Batman and Robin (collected in Vol. 2: Pearl), the ones who were badly deformed by encounters with Batman, like Bootface and Scallop and so on.

Tomasi doesn't really waste time with Two-Face's origin story, which is good, because after all the comics, cartoons and two movie, it's doubtful anyone reading this comic wouldn't already know it. Instead, he simply suggests some of the basics, like the fact that he was previously a crusading district attorney, which he does in a series of panel which jump from the present to the past as Two-Face moves through the same courthouse he used to work in.

March's work (which I've already discussed once this week) is, as always, top notch, and nowhere is that more clear than in his Two-Face, which is based on the Batman: The Animated Series version, only with a red scarred face. The right, "good" half of Harvey Dent "acts" with a range that moves from subtle to operatic, while the other half is always frozen in the same staring, grimacing expression.

As a fan of Scarecrow and March, I was particularly excited to see his version of The Scarecrow, which, as I know I've discussed before, is something I always look forward to seeing given how greatly each artist tends to vary that design (Particularly compared to those of the other Bat-villains, who generally dress the same no matter who is drawing them).

Unfortunately, March's Scarecrow isn't really March's Scarecrow. Since the New 52 relaunch, the Scarecrow has been remarkably consistent in look and design from artist to artist, never wearing  a hat or coat or having stray hair, for example. Rather, he has the Batman Begins bag over his head, and little variation (unless you count Gregg Hurwitz and David Finch's decision to have him sew his own lips together, so that blood is always pouring from the lower half of his face).

Here's how March draws the design though:

Pretty simple in terms of clothing, which, under Finch's pencils, was saturated with little lines. He also seems to have added the Animated Series' noose. Most of the scariness comes in the eyes though, which he draws as soul-less little pin-points of light.

Legends of the Dark Knight #12 (DC) Two stories this week, both of interest for the fact that they're set somewhere in the future, the way they're unmoored from any continuity and for having clever twists to them, the latter more so than the former (the former is basically all twist, after some lovely scary art).

First up, Rafael Albuquerque writes and illustrates "Adaptation," which begins like an adaptation of The Killing Joke, before revealing itself to be a terrible dream being suffered by the aged, bald and bearded Bruce Wayne, whose success at Batmanning over the years has left Gotham city a crime-free paradise. And, of course, Batman bored. Riffing on Frank Miller's Dark Knight (if only he coulda worked in Year One, he woulda hit a trifecta of 1980s foundational Batman classics!), there's a voice in Wayne's head begging to get out and address the world around him...but it's not the expected voice.

It's a nice enough little character sketch/twist story, of the sort that woulda fit in perfectly in an issue of Batman: Black and White (Oh shit, I forgot to buy the first issue of the new volume of Batman: Black and White!) were it not for Dave McCaig's moody colors. Also, Albuquerque seems to have arranged it so he got to draw not only Batman, but many of his bigger villains...at least for a panel or two.

The second story is actually the first part of a continuing one (which is kinda weird, really), written by the almost always interesting Peter Milligan and drawn by Ricardo Burchielli. It's called "Return of Batman" and focuses on the economics of the character and, to a certain extent, how the gadget-y movie Batman has supplanted the original (Which you can see by picking up almost any Batman comic today; the Batman you'll find has more in common in look, design and fighting tactics with the one from the Arkham games and the Christopher Nolan films than the guy who used to star in all the comics).

As the economy tanks, Bruce Wayne is losing money like almost everyone else, which makes his crime-fighting endeavors a little harder. In an opening action sequence, he uses a personal Bat-wing device with a form of stealth and force-field protecting it to chase down a few would-be terrorists serving Ra's al Ghul ("You're current mission alone has probably cost over $150,000," Alfred scolds Batman, "And you're not even up against The Joker. He's really expensive").

After things reach a crisis point, Bruce decides he needs to put away all those toys and go back to basics, after a training montage. The title of the story hints at whether or not he can do it, but as this is to be continued next issue, we don't get our answer right away.

The artwork is pretty strong all around, especially when it comes to accentuating the high-tech version of Batman we meet at the beginning, but I don't really care for the way Burchielli draw's Bruce's hair. He gives him a widow-peak that echoes Ra's'; that might be intentional, and a signal that this is a possible near future Batman, but it's a lame-ass hairstyle never-the-less.  Once you start to recede, you've just gotta shave your head, Batman!

Superior Foes of Spider-Man #2-3 (Marvel Entertainment) The bad news is that I missed issue #2 on whatever Wednesday it was released, and didn't get to read it until today. The good news? I got to read two issues in a row of Nick Spencer and Steve Lieber's series about lame-ass Spider-Man villain The Boomerang and his compatriots in The Sinister Six, of which there are now only five: The Shocker, Overdrive, The (female) Beetle and Speed Demon (The Chameleon's not on the team, but he's involved; maybe that makes him the sixth member in a way, or maybe Spencer just likes the joke of a team with the word six in their name that doesn't have six members).

Marvel's producing so many good comics (that aren't $3.99, so I'm actually reading) at the moment—Daredevil, Hawkeye, FF, Young Avengers—that I hesitate to call any of them the best or even my favorite, but I'll be damned if this book doesn't seem like the best and isn't my favorite while I'm actually reading it.

Like all of those other comics I mentioned in the previous paragraph, it has an extremely idiosyncratic look, with art that you know at a flip-through couldn't be mistaken for that of any of the other Marvel books (and certainly none of the DC books, which have relative few—and getting fewer!—books with their own look and aesthetic feel).

This one is their sad-sack villain book, the one that reads a lot like a crime book featuring real criminals (albeit ones with suits and powers...or "powers"), rather than would-be world-beaters and master villains. Spencer usually plays it for laughs, of the sort born of the characters and their conflicts (and their exasperated acknowledgment of their place in the world of Doctor Doom and The Avengers), rather than forced situations. (It's a comedy, not a sitcom).

Lieber's designs, art style and storytelling chops are perfectly suited to a crime comic, which makes him even more perfect for this book, as the comedy seems all the more natural. The book doesn't look funny; it is funny.

In #2, the five members of the Six take on a neat, "only in New York" crime, which is violently interrupted by The Punisher (their reactions to the his appearance are awesome).

In #3, the one with the particularly cool cover by Michael Del Mundo (has no one used that gag before? It seems like a gag someone would have used by now; either way, the look on Franklin's face sure sells this one), Boomerang gets a superhero parole officer (The original Beetle, now gone straight and calling himself Mach VII), attends a sort of villains anonymous therapy group and tells two versions of the tale of Silvio Silvermane. This issue was so full of story, it read more like a trade collection than most trade collections do. Highest recommendation possible!

Seriously guys, while this isn't the best comic of the year or anything (Oh my God, you have to read Boxers & Saints! Jesus), it may just be the best super-comic of the year. Like Daredevil, Hawkeye, those comics? By this point, everyone knew those were good and were gonna continue to be good. A Sinister Six comic book spinning out of—at least in terms of marketing—the Doctor Octopus-in-Peter Parker's body story in Amazing Spider-Man? Who could have predicted that would end up being so good? In addition to its overall quality, Superior Foes has the element of pleasant surprise in its favor.

Superman #23.1 (DC) I know that the cover sure makes this look like Bizarro #1, and at least one of the checklist-style house ads DC put together for their "Villain's Month" suggests that the books bear the titles of the villains pictured on the cover, but according tot he fine print, this is actually just Superman #23.1, so I'm going with that, even though it's hard to imagine anyone actually discussing the book in these terms. I guess a comic shop owner would know better, but I can't imagine many of them taking calls like "Hey, do you guys have any 3D covers of Batman #23.1 left?" And, if they did, I'm pretty sure they would answer with, "Oh, The Joker issue?"

But the main problem with the titling of this particular comic book is that whether they call it Superman #23.1  or Bizarro #1, it would still be mislabeled: This is a Lex Luthor story, with Superman only appearing in a few imaginary and flashback-inary panels, and the "Bizarro" in the book never taking anything approaching the form of the character on the cover, or going by the name "Bizarro."

Writer Sholly Fisch is a smart guy though, and he at least tries to incorporate that into this one-shot story, noting on the first page that a Superman/Bizarro story without Bizarro or Superman even really in it is appropriate to the nature of the backwards character:

This is a tale of imperfection. It begins with an ending and ends with a beginning. A villain is the hero, and a hero is the villain. Its main character remains behind the scenes.

That beginning is during the New 52's "Year One" era of "five years ago,"  when the Superman of Grant Morrison's Action Comics is busting out of the military facility Lex Luthor was torturing him in. Lex acquires a blood sample during the tussle, and then, two years later (the chain of events is a little wonky, as their are tags saying "Five Years Ago" and "Today" but none saying "Three Years Ago," when this story takes place), Lex begins trying to build an army of his own Supermen using the genuine article's DNA.

In this story, he tries to give the Captain America treatment to a skinny volunteer (who wears a Superman t-shirt to the proceedings, to Lex's annoyance), and it goes horribly wrong, turning him into a white-skinned hulk that smashes through all of Lex's anti-Superman measures with its brute strength,"cryonic vision" and "incendiary breath."

In what seems to be a surprisingly common thread in these decimal point-ed one-shots, the book has seemingly nothing at all to do with <i>Forever Evil</i>. At least, not so far. The book ends with the intimation that Luthor's continued work on this project since, and given the fact that someone went to the trouble to design a New 52 Bizarro (and David Finch has stuck him on the covers of <i>Forever Evil</i>), a version of the character should eventually appear. (Oh hey, this might not be the best time or place to point it out, but here's a great example of why it was so important for Jim Lee to absolutely nail the Superman costume redesign, something I think its pretty universally agreed upon outside of DC HQ that he failed to do: So many secondary characters are based on Superman, that if his costume doesn't look quite right, neither do they. We've already seen Supergirl and Superboy and Ultraman, and now we're getting the Cyborg Superman and, of course, here's Bizarro, who is not really wearing a version of either New 52 Superman costume. He's mixed-and-matched the two, which seems appropriate, but the result doesn't suggest a backwards or out-of-synch Superman the way the costume of the original Bizarro did).

Oh, and in the grand tradition of comics bloggers and critics either ignoring the contributions of the artist or simply throwing in a sentence at the end barely acknowledging their contributions, let me say this: Jeff Johnson penciled the book and Andy Smith inked it. Their art is very polished and very professional looking in a way that, frankly, too little New 52 art is. Great job, Jeff Johnson and Andy Smith! (And give this team a steady gig on one of your many shitty-looking books, DC!)

Meanwhile, at Robot 6...

Today at Robot 6, I have reviews of a quartet of August releases: An awesome new collection of Brian Ralph's awesome Reggie-12 comics (from which the above image is taken), the surprisingly good Talon Vol. 1: Scourge of The Owls (Why can't DC just let Guillem March draw all their Batman books all the time?!) and the first volumes of two new (to the U.S.) manga series, Happy Marriage?! and Magi.

If Talon isn't enough DC superheroics for you, then might I suggest Tom Bondurant's assessment of the first issue of Forever Evil, also at Robot 6...? Or say, did you read Tom Spurgeon's review of the last chapter of "Trinity War," and the story arc in general? That was a great read, because Spurgeon's not really a regular, super-engaged reader of DC Comics and can look at the company's products and assess them as comics, without ever getting bogged down in the sorts of stuff that guys like, say, me, or Bondurant might.

Here's a 700-word post about how I don't have time to post anything.

I've heard people say that there aren't enough hours in the day. I don't know if I always agree with that, but I usually come around on Wednesday nights; I am quite certain there aren't enough hours in a Wednesday night. This Wednesday night, for example. After working my day-job, running some errands (including visiting the comic shop), reading (almost all of) my new comics and writing a few pieces that need written by tomorrow, I find myself at 1 a.m., the "Comic Shop Comics" feature, the one where I give quick, off-the-cuff reviews of whatever comics I happened to buy at the shop that afternoon, un-written and unlikely to be written, barring an unexpected and unwelcome bout of insomnia or something.

So look for that...maybe Friday-ish...?

In the mean time, you may be wondering what the "scene" was like at my local comic shop today, this being the first Wednesday that those controversial-ish, allocated 3D motion covers of the various decimal point-ed DC comics went on sale, as part of the publisher's "Villains Month" and in conjunction with their first big line-wide crossover story in two years, Forever Evil by writer Geoff Johns (who has written all of their crossovers since 2006 save one) and artist David Finch (who is terrible at drawing comics).

Well, my local comics shop order-er seems to have either ordered judiciously or been smiled upon by the allocators (I seriously have no idea how that was supposed to work, despite the half-dozen articles on the subject I've read), as when I arrived at 5:30 p.m., the new comics rack still contained multiple copies of both the fancy and more costly 3D covers and the regular covers of the issues featuring The Joker, Cyborg Superman, The Creeper, Darkseid and Deadshot (I don't remember the actual titles and don't feel like looking 'em up, because decimal points are stupid; it was a Batman book, a Superman book and three Justice League books though). I bought the regular cover versions of the Two-Face book and the Bizarro book, but I can't remember if there were 3D versions available or not (As far as "reporting" goes, this is not very good reporting, is it?)

I was pretty curious to see these 3D covers in real-life, as they were reportedly pretty awesome, and I liked the way they looked as GIFs online. I imagined them being like those pictures of Jesus where his eyes follow you around the room as you walk.

They weren't that cool though. At least, the Cyborg Superman and Darkseid ones weren't. In both cases, I picked 'em up, tilted them from side to side and up and down, closed and opened the front covers, and then set them atop the graphics novel rack, where no part of them were obscured by shelving or other books, and walked by in both directions, but the movement seemed barely noticeable, and not as neat as the online GIFs.

So, as a gimmick unto themselves, I don't really get them. They're not all that cool. They're not like, say, glow-in-the dark comics covers. Those are the only gimmick covers I ever really liked at all, although I do see how someone could like the ones with the little raised images or logos, as those feel neat on your finger tips, or the occasional die-cut cover, like that one Wolverine comic I got in the '90s wear it looked like a manila folder file on Wolvie with his claw marks on it. Ooh! And that Eclipso comic with the plastic gem hot-glued on! I thought that was kinda neat at the time.

Of the fancy covers, they were all on the regular rack for their regular cover price; I didn't see anything set aside or marked-up to meet some crazy, invented, inflated market demand. There were no crowds of speculators in the shop. And no conversation about them (I think the guys were talking about Venom, of all things, the whole time I was in there).

There were also plenty of copies of Forever Evil on the rack, so my shop's orderer seems to have ordered wisely on those as well. Or maybe he over ordered them and some of the villain books...? I don't know.

I do know that they were completely sold out of DC Universe Vs. Masters of The Universe, which was tragic, as that was the comic book I was most looking forward to this week.

What were things like in your shop this week? Were they well-stocked with the fancy covers? Were they being sold for cover price? Were there enthusiastic crowds lining up for their Joker comics? Was the He-Man/DC crossover and The Star Wars selling as briskly as Forever Evil?

Some notes on Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 2—Cycle of Violence

•This is the second volume (as in collection) of the second volume (as in times they've published a comic book with this exact same title) of Batman: The Dark Knight, collecting issues #10-#15 and #0, rearranged so that the zero issue follows the story arc formed by the other issues (as originally published, the "Cycle of Violence" story arc was interrupted by a month for the zero issue, which had to be published during DC's "Zero Month," which happened to fall exactly between the first and second halves of "Cycle of Violence")

•You may recall that The Dark Knight was the new Batman title launched specifically to be a David Finch showcase book. It was to be written and drawn by Finch, and its manifesto was basically "Whatever Finch wanted." That first volume lasted only long enough to fill a single collection (Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1—Golden Dawn).

Then the book was relaunched along with the rest of the DCU line during the "New 52" reboot, and the book's raison d'etre shifted slightly, so that now Finch would be co-writing the book with the experienced, veteran writer Paul Jenkins. Their short collaboration filled the previously discussed Batman: The Dark Knight Vol. 1—Knight Terrors, during which you could actually witness it dissolving by reading the credits for each issue. That storyline was essentially David Finch's "Hush," a guest-star, guest-villain filled story arc in which Batman bounced off of various presumably fun-to-draw characters for the length of an extremely convoluted plot.

With this arc, new writer Gregg Hurwitz teams with David Finch, who is just drawing rather than co-writing or co-plotting, and the focus of the book seems to have shifted again. This arc is a six-issue story arc about The Scarecrow, re-telling his origin amidst a present-day battle with The Batman. It would be followed with a yet-uncollected arc featuring The Mad Hatter. The issues currently on the racks feature Clayface (and new artist Alex Maleev). So apparently at about the one-year point, Dark Knight became a sort of villain showcase book under Hurrwitz's instigation.

•It's actually rather impressive how disconnected this collection is from the one it follows, as Hurwitz dropped all of the Finch/Jenkins sub-plots like they were burning coals. The White Rabbit, whose secret identity was dating Bruce Wayne, has disappeared and is never mentioned again. A sub-plot involving an Internal Affairs investigation of Commissioner Gordon by an over-zealous IA officer? Evaporated. Batman's concerns about pushing the aging Alfred too hard? Gone. There isn't even mention of what Batman just went through, the over-complicated plot by Bane to conquer Gotham City using a super-drug developed and distributed with he help of The Scarecrow, Poison Ivy and The White Rabbit.

•Most impressive of all though is the fact that this story arc is about The Scarecrow, who Batman just fought, defeated and one imagines sent to Arkham Asylum about four issues ago. Is that a record for a recurring Bat-villain to recur? It's gotta be awful close.

•This is the first page of the first issue contained herein (it was the one with this gross cover). Check it out:

That's kind of weird and gross, right?

The guy who sewed his lips shut while singing to himself then approaches a crying little girl who sobs to him to leave her alone and then asks why he's doing this and who he is. He answers, "I'm the Bogeyman," and I thought, for a second, that perhaps this was a new villain with a fear schtick called "The Bogeyman," and that The Scarecrow would show up to come into conflict with him for stepping on his turf, right? That's something that happens in comics more often than you might imagine; villains, like heroes, care a lot about turf and branding and their spheres of influence.

But then he goes ahead and says he's going to teach her about "FEAR" and shoots gas at her, and I got a sinking feeling.

So this is The Scarecrow, now sewing his own lips shut and kidnapping little kids. Awesome.

•We turn the page and see Bruce Wayne hanging out with a lady post-coitus. David Finch draws her to resemble Jaina Hudson, the woman Bruce Wayne was dating in the previous story arc (and who was secretly The White Rabbit), that I assumed it was her. But it's actually a new character (I think; or at least new to this comic), a Ukranian concert pianist named Natalya.

I think it speaks to Finch's lack of fundamental comics making skills (like, you know, character design) that he's tasked with drawing two different girlfriends for Bruce Wayne within the space of a few issues, and the half-English, half-Indian Jaina and the Ukranian Natalya look so similar.

It's probably asking a little much that he give them, say, mildly different body types or figures, but I don't know, different color hair? Glasses? Something?

•Bruce breaks off his date when the Gotham City Police Department recovers "another" little girl. Apparently the bad guy (whom they don't yet know is The Scarecrow) has been kidnapping little kids off playgrounds and the like, which is certainly different than his usual M.O.

•Here's another example of Finch not being very good:

How does that giant Batman fit into that tiny window? And he manages to get uncontorted fast enough to stomp on that break and bring that car to a complete stop, before it hits the maternity ward of a local hospital, which is in a street-level, glass encased storefront right off of the street, for some reason.

•When we next see Scarecrow, he's wearing a beard of blood from the self-inflicted wounds to his lips. At first I was curious as to why having his lips sewn together didn't seem to effect his speech at all, but then I started wondering why he hadn't bled to death yet.

•Oh hey, is that why Scarecrow's so skinny? Because he shows his mouth shut?

•This story arc offers an all-new, all-different origin for The Scarecrow.

I thought that was kind of funny because not long ago DC released a miniseries entitled Year One: Batman Scarecrow that was a new, retconned version of The Scarecrow's origin story, and, at the time, I thought that was pretty completely unnecessary (though it turned out to be a pretty good comic, thanks largely to the contributions of artist Sean Murphy).

Now here's an even unnecessarier one—er, more unnecessary—origin.

At least in this case, Hurwitz has the excuse of having had a universe-wide continuity reboot between his origin and the previous one (written by Bruce Gordon). While Hurwitz doesn't deal with the first encounter between Batman and Scarecrow, he does deal extensively with Jonathan "The Scarecrow" Crane's childhood.

In this version, his father was a mad scientist studying fear, and using his own son as a guinea pig, which resulted in some pretty serious and extensive child abuse, mostly involving throwing him down a dark trapdoor for long periods of time.

•Hurwitz contrasts these experiences of the child Crane's with those of the child Bruce Wayne, and adds some wrinkles to familiar elements of the "Batman: Year One" origin that don't exactly sit all that well, including a part where young Bruce has his parents leave the showing of The Mark of Zorro early because he was scared of it, and, therefore, his own fear contributed to them being in the wrong place at the wrong time and getting murdered.

•And that is why Scarecrow is apparently capturing kids for subjects now. As his father discovered, the sweat of horrified children has something special in it, and can be used as a potent secret ingredient in fear toxins, I guess.

•My favorite part is when one of the little girls he's collected fear sweat from diagnoses the villain with a severe case of loneliness, and draws him a picture:

Seriously; that's my favorite part of this comic.

•So eventually The Scarecrow captures Batman, strips him down to his cowl (which he can't remove, because Batman's so damn clever he rigged it so his cowl couldn't be removed), subjects Batman to a new fear gas, and there's about an issue's worth of Batman processing his worst fears, which are dramatized much differently than usual here, and in a way that is rather dramatically conveyed, although in a way that is perhaps not the best match for Finch's skill set.

Eventually, Batman manages to escape, just as The Scarecrow goes to get a rather wicked looking scythe, which has a spinal column on the handle.

An incredibly brutal battle ensues, in which Batman gets stabbed rather deeply in his right shoulder blade with the scythe, which then breaks, leaving the blade coming out the other side of his arm.

So Batman shoots him in the face with his grappling hook gun.

Remarkably, no one dies. Batman crawls away with a scythe blade in his shoulder, stumbling through the city until Robin picks him up.

The Scarecrow hangs from his jaw for a while, then rips himself off the ceiling, his jaw almost completely torn off. He rescues his super toxin and his captive, and manages to escape his hideout before it explodes.

•The Scarecrow, his almost severed jaw still bleeding profusely, goes to The Iceberg Lounge, where he interrupts The Penguin in the middle of his destroy-your-whole-world-around-you schtick that Jason Aaron inserted in a one-shot to show how wicked The Penguin could be, and which Hurwitz later made as integral to The Penguin's crime career as umbrellas and birds.

•The Penguin has built an admittedly cool-looking airship with which The Scarecrow can distribute his new super fear gas during the Gotham City Christmas Parade (During his first appearance in the Batman: The Animated Series, the episode "Nothing To Fear," The Scarecrow also seeks to distribute his gas en masse via blimp; I'm not sure if Hurwitz's using that scheme here is a nod to the show, or if the fact it's now turned up in two such different places means it has its origins in a much older comic book that predates both of these uses). The whole city's going nuts, rioting and suchlike, and there doesn't seem to be any antidote, since the only person who has ever metabolized this particular super-toxin is Batman.

•This is a nice place to pause and remind ourselves not to think about Batman comics as being things that necessarily take place in, say, the Batman line of comics, or in the DC Universe.

Like, right now I'm reading another Batman collection called Batman: Night of the Owls, in which the Court of Owls unleash an army of assassins on Gotham City, and Alfred sends out a "Calling all Bats, Calling all Bats!" signal that has Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood and The Outlaws, The Birds of Prey and I don't know, maybe even Red Robin and the Teen Titans (I haven't finished it yet).

This seems like a good time to maybe call in some former sidekicks doesn't it? Or your pals in The Justice League? Superman and/or Green Lantern could suck up all that gas and down that ship lickety-split.

It was a little harder to try to read this particular comic while making that mental act of recontextualizing the setting, however, because in the story arc immediately preceding this one Batman called on The Justice League to help him deal with a break out of Arkham Asylum, but here he goes solo.

•His plan doesn't really make a lot of sense to me, but then, I'm not a doctor. It involves hooking tubes into his arms and then flying the Batplane over Gotham City, dusting it in a cloud of his own blood (presumably incredibly diluted and mixed with, you know, stuff) to serve as a makeshift cure for the toxin.

Once a cloud of Batman blood lands on the fear-crazed populace, they go back to normal.

•When Batman gets better and the GCPD are able to find The Scarecrow, Batman kicks in the door to apprehend his foe, who collapses at the site of him. Perhaps he's scared, perhaps he feels defeated because the little girl who drew him the picture and understood his loneliness helped lead the cops to him, or perhaps it's simply because of blood loss: He's still pouring blood from that grappling-hook wound to his face and, before having his jaw nearly torn off, he spent most of the arc bleeding from his own self-inflicted needle wounds.

In addition to their use of fear as a weapon and their conquering their childhood fears by wearing costumes, that's another thing Batman and The Scarecrow have in common: The ability to survive incredible amounts of blood loss.

•The zero issue is written by Hurwitz, and drawn by a trio of different artists. Mico Suayan and Juan Jose Ryp penciled it, and Vicente Cifuentes inked at least half of it (with one of the pencil artists presumably inking their own work).

•It opens with a pretty neat image, of pearls falling all over Gotham City like rain in a rain storm, in young Bruce Wayne's imagination.

•This is the story of young Bruce's childhood investigation of his parents' murder, and his confrontation as an angry 18-year-old with their killer, who is once again Joe Chill.

Whether or not Bruce Wayne/Batman would ever discover the identity of his parents' killer and/or confront the killer has changed a few times over the years, and been a surprisingly heated point of debate, with some arguing that not knowing is a prime motivator for Batman to continue fighting crime, as any criminal he apprehends may be the one who started him on this path.

I think he confronted Joe Chill back in the Silver Age, that was written out of continuity during Denny O'Neil's tenure as Batman editor, and Grant Morrison restored it during his run. Obviously, in New 52 continuity, teenage Wayne did find Joe Chill, and even considers shooting him to death(as in Batman Begins), but opts not to.

•It was weird spending so long—although it was just 20 pages—with Bruce Wayne as a child in Gotham City. I guess I never really considered what happened between the few weeks after his parents' murder and his going to walk the world; I assumed he left Gotham almost immediately to start studying and training, but, according to this, he was in Gotham City at least through high school graduation.

Comics shop comics: August 28

It wasn't my intention to leave my allegedly daily blog fallow for most of Labor Day weekend, but I had such a hard time getting though one of the books below, and I had a bunch of particularly great books sitting there in my review pile needing reading in a more timely fashion, that it's taken me forever to finish that one comic. I'm still not there, but I'm going to go ahead and post this post now, as the next new comic book day is rapidly approaching.

Adventures of Superman #4 (DC Comics) Soon DC Comics will be publishing about a half-dozen Super-comics within their main, DCU, "New 52" line of comics—Superman, Action Comics, Supergirl, Superboy, Batman/Superman and Superman/Wonder Woman—and yet the best Superman comic is probably this one, the digital-first anthology series that takes a variation of the old Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight approach to the character: Short, continuity-lite stories from rotating creative teams, most often featuring high-skilled "name" creators.

This issue features three short stories behind a Bruce Timm-drawn cover, featuring his version of Superman (best known from Superman: The Animated Series striking the classic Superman pose (one the new, new 52 costume makes if not impossible, than at least redundant).

The first is a day in the life story starring Lex Luthor, appropriately if lazily entitled "A Day in the Life." It's written by the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning writing team, and features superb artwork by penciller Wes Craig and inker Craig Yeung. There isn't any bad art in this issue, but I found this to be by far the best, and perhaps among the best art in the series so far. The characters and figures are all highly expressive, from Lex's fully-stocked arsenal of sneers and self-satisfied smirks to Superman's various action poses. The panel lay-outs are masterfully economical, and there are no black borders, the colored images set directly onto the white of the page, so arranged so that the bright white gutters form the panels. (The coloring, by Lee Loughridge, is similarly perfect; there are shades and tones to it, but not an overwhelming amount, so the flat, essential "comic book-ishness" of the art remains unmolested).

All in all, it's a very, very strong character sketch of Lex Luthor, one that defines him, his archenemy and their relationship quite well in a very short space.

That's followed by "The Deniers," written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Pete Woods in a more exaggerated, comedy style by Pete Woods (With Alex Antone rather aggressively over-coloring it). The story is that of two plumbers having lunch in a diner; the first of whom not only doesn't believe in climate change because this past winter was cold (dude needs to read the chapter on climate change in Daryl Cunningham's How To Fake Moon Landing) before moving on to explain how there's no such thing as Superman, and it's all "one big conspiracy" involving the media and the government.

He believes there is a guy running around in a superhero suit, but the fact that he's never actually seen him, or any of his super-feats, during his years in Metropolis leads him to believe that all the superpowered businesses is just hype. DeFalco throws in a couple of very near misses into the story, with Superman almost being tossed into the diner they're eating in and, at the conclusion, Clark Kent literally bumping into the denier as he and his Planet pals walk in for lunch.

These stories almost always feature the "real" Superman costume—I'd have to flip through the back issues to be sure, but I don't think there's been a single instance of "New 52" Superman in any of them—but Woods gives Superman an even older, more classic costume, with lace-up boots, a red S over a black shield with a yellow border.

The final story is "Savior" by writer Rob Williams and artist Chris Weston, and this is yet another day in the life story, this one featuring Superman. It's narrated by Ma Kent, expressing her worries and concerns about the safety of her now grown son and the fact that she misses him, and wishes she didn't have to share him with the world so he would have time to visit and stay for supper sometime.

In rapid succession, we get several panels recounting his origin story, see him battle a Brainiac (the one with the tentacled skull ship) in an clever, amusing fashion, stop by the Kent farm to perform a chore, go to work at the Planet, save Lois Lane, defeat a giant robot created by Lex, visit Krypto at The Fortress of Solitude and, in a neat little three-panel sequence, see a series of crazy adventures suggested:

I know I've mentioned this before, but one of the things that I liked about the previous status quo of Superman, when both Ma and Pa Kent were alive, was that it made him rather unique among superheroes, who are usually orphans or, in the case of the few who still have living parents, tend to have troubled relationships with them. Grown-up Superman/Clark Kent had a nice, healthy, normal relationship with his aging parents, and that was one of several things that distinguished him from his many peers.

It has, of course, been changed in The New 52: As in his original, Golden Age incarnation, the kindly family who raised him has passed away before his career as Superman really even begins.

FF #11 (Marvel Entertainment) The cover gives away this issue's guest-star, who interrupts the substitute Fantastic Four's attempts to seek out the real Fantastic Four in a time-craft of their own, only to end up in an eerie version of New York City where everything is purple and green ("It looks like your closet threw up on a planet," Darla tells She-Hulk). The cover does not spoil why Impossible Man wanted to see these guys though, and the change in the cast that results.

Meanwhile, back at the Foundation, Julius Caesar teaches his three-step program to Conquering 101: 1.) Coming, 2.) Seeing, 3.) Conquering. And some of the kids who were scheming in the last issue continue to scheme.

So, you know, business as usual, featuring the incomparable art of Mike Allred, as brilliantly colored by Laura Allred.

Rocket Raccoon: Tales From Half-World #1 (Marvel) This is the book that gave me so much difficulty.

I grew quite curious about the character when I first met him in the 2007 Keith Giffen-written, Timothy Green-drawn Annihilation: Conquest—Starlord miniseries, which featured a team that served as the basis of the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning-written Guardians of the Galaxy ongoing, which in turn served as the basis of the more recently relaunched Guardians series written by Brian Michael Bendis (Cynical reading? Bendis got to take over the franchise once it was announced Marvel's next big super-team movie would use those characters and go by that title, while Giffen, Abnett and Lanning essentially got the shaft).

Marvel has previously published at least one graphic novel collection including a bunch—maybe all—of their previous Rocket Raccoon solo comics, but it was expensive and pretty far down my "Buy In Trade, Someday" list. Then I saw this on the shelf, a comic book-format (i.e. something you could read on the beach or in the bath) collection of the Rocket Raccoon comics I was most interested in anyway: The ones drawn by a young Mike Mignola, who had yet to develop his signature style, and, in fact, had only taken the first tentative steps in that direction.

Compare, for example, two covers featuring Rocket Raccoon and drawn by Mignola, one from the mid-80s, the other from the 21st century:

This book collects the four-issue, 1985 Rocket Raccoon miniseries written by Bill Mantlo, penciled by Mike Mignola and inked by Al Gordon and Al Milgrom, plus more modern covers, like the one seen on the collection cover, and five dense pages of Handbook page giving Rocket's history in exhausting detail.

I'm not entirely sure how greatly this will appeal to fans of the current iteration of the character, whose hook is that he's a funny animal (or, really, an anthropomorphic animal) in a straight, superhero/space opera narrative. That juxtaposition/clash isn't to be seen in this comic, where Rocket is a sort of Buck Rogers character in a funny animal world, with some pointed, goofy, Steve Gerber-style commentary weaved in.

I'm still only half-way through, but the story thus far revolves around Rocket and his pals who live on a planet dedicated to protecting and entertaining "The Loonies," humans who have an elaborate religion based on earth's mental health practices. Not all of the animals are good, and Rocket finds himself embroiled in a war between two evil, rival toymakers: A snake and a mole. Both want to kidnap, marry and murder Rocket's girlfriend, a Mink (or was she an otter?), whose uncle is a Walrus.

It's a bit of a slog, to be perfectly honest.


Young Avengers #9 (Marvel) The art remains perfect, the dialogue is crisp and smart and funny, the teen angst is potent and well-telegraphed, with out being bludgeoningly obvious. This is a good comic. That said, this particular story, which "feels" like it should be the conclusion of a story arc, leaves our heroes exactly where they left off, without accomplishing any of their goals, and with minor changes to the heroes (Hulkling makes a move he's been considering, Lady Hawkguy is maybe growing up too fast to be part of this team, Marvel Boy has a beard). This was the sort of issue that makes me think maybe I should be reading this comic in trade rather than in singles, but I read so few singles as it is, and I really, really like this comic.

Meanwhile...

This week DC's six-part, Justice Leagues crossover story concluded, and—well, "concluded" is maybe too strong a word, bringing with it certain expectations. I guess it would be more accurate to say that DC published the final part of the story labeled "Trinity War" this week, and it will continue in next week's Forever Evil #1, by the same writer and a not-terribly-reliable artist who hasn't had anything at all to do with "Trinity War".

I wrote about it for ComicsAlliance, and you can read the final installment of "Trinity War Correspondence" here. It's a tough comic to talk about without spoiling things, since this final chapter is pretty much nothing but "things" that are meant to be surprises, and would spoil with foreknowledge.

I may return to it at some point here at EDILW to give the story a more formal review, but, in general, it was Geoff Johns at his Geoff Johnsiest (which oughta tell you if it's something you'll love or hate, really), and while Johns' affection for remixing old stories and DC's turning the next phase into a theme month (and the attendant PR) sorta spoiled some of the big surprises (or at least made them awfully easy to see coming), I should note that while the major villain was exactly who he seemed to be and the story ended as it seemed like it most obviously would, I was still pleasantly surprised by the climax's connection to the title (as in, "Huh, I didn't see that coming").

And I was somewhat surprised (and disappointed) by the fact that it ended without actually setting up a new status quo; while "Villains Month" and Forever Evil promise a world without the Justice Leagues, they didn't end up inside/on the other side of the Box as I assumed they would when the folks inside/on the other side of the Box arrived.

If you've got the patience and money to drop on well-made big, dumb super-comics (these comics were a wretched.value at $4 a pop for a series of splash pages stitched together with exposition scenes containing verbiage to rival that of Bendis, particularly this last chapter), this was overall awfully adequate. All three art teams were solid, the writing was consistent between the various, Johns-lead writers, and as much as I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next, I reeeaaaalllly wish it was one of these art teams rather than David Finch who will be drawing what comes next (Especially after I spent some time this week reading some of his recent work in Batman: The Dark Knight Vols. 1-2).

For another, non-Caleb take, you can't beat Robot 6's Tom Bondurant.

Speaking of Geoff Johns and Robot 6, my contribution to the blog this week was a reading of the Grant Morrison-free Batman Incorporated Special #1 and how it compares to DC's send-off of Geoff Johns' Green Lantern.

I doubt it was entirely intentional, but the contents of that comic served a pretty perfect acknowledgment of what made Morrison's run on the character so special. I know Batman Inc is ending, but I sure as hell wouldn't mind occasional check-ins with these guys in a Club of Heroes annual or quarterly, preferably one drawn by and maybe written by Chris Burnham, whose Batman of Japan story is the over-all strongest (And preferably one that lets Cassandra Cain be The Black Bat again!).

And speaking of Batman, I wrote one other piece published elsewhere this week: A review of Batman Beyond Universe #1 at Good Comics For Kids. I never watched more than a handful of episodes of Batman Beyond (I liked the new costume, and Ace's inclusion), and hardly read any of the comics (maybe one from the original run featuring The Justice League of that era...?), but this struck me as really rather alright.

I especially enjoyed the back-up/back half featuring a Superman and Justice League story. This League now features the pre-New 52 version of Superman (only older; I hate his costume, but no more than I hate New 52perman's costume), Captain Marvel (who is still called Captain Marvel and still dresses like Captain Marvel), Barda and her husband Mister Miracle (I guess they don't age due to being gods of a sort...?). A lot of the other characters—Aquagirl, The Flash, Micron—also have pretty strong, sleek costume designs that made this maybe my favorite Justice League, and, thanks to "Trinity War," I spent the last few months reading all of DC's Justice League comics.

So exactly how long has DC been working on (and tinkering with) "Trinity War"...?

Here's a badly-scanned image of one of the four double-page splashes in today's Justice League #23, the climactic chapter of the "Trinity War" storyline:

Does the Ivan Reis-penciled image of Superman ramming a column into Green Lantern Simon Baz while Batman scampers about with Pandora's skull-shaped box and various Justice Leaguers all fight one another look familiar to you?

If so, then you've probably read DC's 2012 Free Comic Book Day offering DC Comics—The New 52 FCBD Edition, which included this four-page, gatefold image drawn by Jim Lee as part of Geoff Johns-written story:

(Or maybe you didn't, but remember seeing the image online at places like, oh, Robot 6 or ComicsAlliance, to randomly pick to comic book blogs I contribute to).

I think there's a couple of significant differences worth pointing out, aside from the fact that the Reis image from the mid-2013 JLA #23 is only two pages and includes about ten more heroes than the four-page, early 2012 image from Lee, some of which may hint at things that have changed about the story and the comic books it played out in during the year and a half or so since the two artists drew the two images.

1.) Lee didn't draw the one that appeared in JLA #23; I wonder if, in 2012, DC expected Lee to still be drawing Justice League by the time "Trinity War" reached its climax? Because he only lasted about two story arcs (the initial six-issue origin story and "Teh Villain's Journe"), with some fill-in issues between them.

2.) The sheer number of heroes involved has grown considerably; it looks like the original image reflected a fight between two rather than three Leagues (Deadman is the only member of Justice League Dark in the Lee image), and the Justice League of America line-up might have consisted of different characters at one point (Of the JLoA, Katana, Catwoman, Steve Trevor, Stargirl and Martian Manhunter are all missing).

3.) Mera is in the Lee image, but doesn't appear at all during "Trinity War"...save for about a two-panel cameo, including her appearance in the Reis image. That's not Mera in the Reis image, though; it's Martian Manhunter who apparently decided to take Mera's form to sneak up on and clobber Aquaman rather than just, you know, turning invisible. I assume the scene was written to explain Mera's presence in the Lee image.

When Justice League first launched, it seemed like Mera was one of the characters who were supposed to join the team shortly after the first arc: She appears on the cover of the first issue of the series, along with Deadman, a male version of The Atom that has yet to be introduced into The New 52, Element Woman, Hawkman and a female character identified in interviews as Will Eisner's Lady Luck, whom I don't think has ever appeared yet either.

Of those, only Element Woman actually joined this team. (Mera's the floating female head in the lower right corner; the one that's wearing a vaguely crustacean-looking tiara).

Of course that cover image, which was used on two of the eleven variant covers for Justice League #1, also featured an earlier version of Wonder Woman's redesigned costume that didn't actually make it into any of the comics either.

4.) The Jim Lee image features an obviously male version of The Atom, while The Atom who would join the Justice League and appear in the Reis version was female and had a fairly different costume, which allowed her long hair to flow out the back of the cowl.

5.) Captain Marvel/Shazam's costume in the Lee image—that is Cap and not Black Adam, despite the colors—is wearing a not final version of his redesigned costume. The one in the Lee image has the more traditional collar instead of the hood that he would ultimately end up with.

6.) Superman's looking awfully healthy in that Lee version, rather than as gray as he does in the Reis version. In fact, looked-at completely out of context, the Reis version looks like it could be depicting Bizarro in a backwards Bizarro costume.

7.) Released in May of 2012, the Lee image was the first appearance of both Green Lantern Simon Baz (who debuted in September 2012's Green Lantern #0) and the New 52 version of Vibe (Justice League of America's Vibe #1 launched in February of 2013).

Clearly Johns has been working on this storyline for quite a while, and had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen at the end, at least in so far as a few key elements of the action were written in one form or another quite a long time ago (Batman having the box, everyone fighting regardless of team affiliation, Deadman attempting to possess Shazam, Superman smashing the new Lantern with a column).

And just as clearly a lot has changed since Lee put pencil to paper to draw that gatefold image teasing "Trinity War."

"Take that, foot!"

So, any idea what Natasha's doing here, exactly? Other than apparently trying to shoot herself in the foot? Check out the background. Is she falling off a building? Or did he jump off a an off-page ledge or open window in order to kick that "/1" while shooting herself in the foot or...?

At least Captain America had the good sense to just stand there and pose in his Dr. Pepper ad, rather than trying to kill himself for some soda ad money.