Two pence on the DC Reboot

I know, I am terrible posting anything to a schedule. This is my first, in what, a year? Anywho, DC Reboot time. Woo, I am so not excited at all for this. And here is why:

Action Comics - Grant Morrison on Superman? I love All-Star Superman, and I love Grant's work, so yeah, I will give this a shot.

All-Star Western - I never cared for the Jonah Hex book, so, yeah, this does not hold any appeal for me.

Animal Man - Having seen the cover for the first issue, I have been put off completely from this. Shame, as I do not dislike the character, but with a cover like that, I wonder who it is amained for.

Aquaman - Regardless of anything else, it is Aquaman, I have to buy this.

Batgirl - So, I really like the current series, with Steph in it, and I like Cassandra too. But Barbara as Batgirl? No, she was always better as Oracle, and become a far more interesting character because of this. Now, with none of the others in sight, and being written by Gail Simone, who people say is a good writer though I have never experienced one good story written by her, and this is the most disappointing change here. My favourite series, and a constantly highly rated one at that, gone? Yeah, way to go DC.

Batman - I picked up Batman when Judd Winick was writing, and tried to get into Tony Daniel, but could not, and promptly dropped it. And I have no ideas of picking it up again any time soon.

Batman & Robin - Bruce and Damian instead of Dick and Damian? Just does not seem right, I really liked the Dick/Damian aspect of this series.

Batman: The Dark Knight - I never cared about this series before, and I am not going to start now.

Batwing - Maybe, I do not know. They seem to be marketing this as "Look, this Batman is black", which is not a good strategy. Maybe Judd Winick will make this work, I will give it a flickthrough.

Batwoman - Whenever this finally comes out, as I have been waiting over a year for this, hell yes. This is one of the few titles I am guaranteed to buy straight away, no hesitation, because I actually want to read it.

Blackhawks - Pffft, yeah right. No.

Blue Beetle - I like the character, but it is odd to have Jaime and not Ted. Personally, I would have had both, doing a mentor style book, as they do not have one of these now, now that they got rid of titles such as Batgirl (yes, I am still going to go on about that).

Birds of Prey - Whatever, by this point I just do not care anymore...

Captain Atom - JT Krul and a character I am not a fan of, I think not.

Catwoman - Not a real fan of the character, but it is written by Judd Winick. Maybe.

Deathstroke - Costume looks, how do we say, interesting? But the Titans run with him in does bode well for this, so no.

Demon Knights - No idea about this, so no.

Detective Comics - I only bought this when Batwoman or the Question was in it, and without either of those, and with Tony Daniel writing, this is a big no.

DC Universe Presents - Nothing about this screams interesting, so no.

Flash - I have never been a Flash fan, so nope.

Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE - Only time I have seen him was in Final Crisis, and from that, I muster up a meh.

Fury of Firestorm - I do not really care about Firestorm, and it is written by Gail Simone, so, this is a no for me.

Green Arrow - I really do not like JT Krul, but it is Green Arrow, and so, like Aquaman, I have to get this...

Green Lantern - I got fed up of the Green Lantern storyline, it just seemed as though Geoff Johns was burnt out, and I cannot bothered to give it another go.

Green Lantern Corps - Same story here.

Green Lantern: The New Guardians - And here.

Grifter - Something else that I know nothing about...

Hawk & Dove - Birds of Prey and Brightest Day made me dislike these characters. I did mind the inclusion of them in BoP, but as I said above, I do not enjoy Gail Simone's work. So this one is a no.

I, Vampire - Who, what, huh? No.

Justice League - I never buy these individually, only as collected editions, so I shall see if it is worthwhile then. Suffice to say, I do not expect much, as I was enjoying James Robinson's League, and this just, well, most of the original League again. But, Aquaman is in it…

Justice League Dark - stupid name, few characters I care for, meh.

Justice League International - Now, this, on the other hand, looks interesting. A diverse set of lesser-known characters, including Vixen, I think I will give it a go.

Legion Lost - See below.

Legion of Superheroes - I got a bit fed up in the last series, and gave it up. Going to keep with that for this one.

Men of War - No idea what this about, so probably not.

Mister Terrific - The costume is horrible, I am not hugely interested in the character, and I have no idea who Eric Wallace is, so, no.

Nightwing - That costume is just bad. Plain bad. And where the hell does this DC reboot make any sense on established characters? Yes, I know it is a reboot, but what that really means is that it is just another screw in continuity.

OMAC - I think I share my opinions with most people: avoid any comic written by Dan Didio.

Red Hood and the Outlaws - Pffft, after what DC did to Roy Harper and his family, and how I dislike Starfire, I will be avoiding this. Also, a baseball cap? Really?!?

Red Lanterns - Yeah, just no.

Resurrection Man - Well, this was a surprise. I liked this in DC One Million, so I might give this a go.

Savage Hawkman - Written by Tony Daniel? No thanks...

Static Shock - I sortof like the character, but never bought his book, and the TV show was alright. Doubtful I will pick it up.

Stormwatch - Gay Superman/Batman and Martian Manhunter? Odd choice of team-up there, but hey, it seems slightly interesting. Flickthrough.

Suicide Squad - What the hell happened to Harley? Just looks so so stupid, and nothing about this looks good, so no.

Superboy - Never cared for the character, know nothing about the writer, so no.

Superman - As for the main Superman book, never really been a fan of the character, except mostly in Elseworld titles (All-Star, Red Son, etc), so no.

Supergirl - Silly costume, though the writers have done some good stuff. Doubtful I would actually buy this though, maybe it will get a flickthrough.

Swamp Thing - I really could not care less about it.

Teen Titans - Those costumes are, well, stupid. And I do not care for the writers really. And there is no Miss Martian or Ravager in sight.

Voodoo - I do not know anything about this, so doubtful.

Wonder Woman - I do not tend to read WW, only flicking through it on occasion. And I cannot say I have read anything by Brian Azzarello either...

4 series I will be getting, and 6 flickthroughs. That is not good, as it is highly doubtful I will actually buy any of the ones I flickthrough. Plus, DC have almost entirely lost all my goodwill, what with Batgirl going and Bryan Q. Miller (also of Smallville fame), not getting a replacement book. In fact, the only thing I am actually looking forward to, what with Geoff's treatment of Aquaman etc, is Batwoman, and as I said before, I have been waiting over a year for that. Not good at all...

And this is not getting started on what I feel about reboots (bad idea), the removal of things like the JSA (another bad idea), or putting characters how they were when they first created (again, a bad idea). Spot a trend there?

Gordon's Alive!

aka, don't read this if you haven't read Blackest Night 8. And no, this isn't a April Fools thread. Trust me on that

Just a short one really, because I just want to say, BOOYAH! THE Arthur Curry is back among the living, as is our favourite Manhunter from Mars. OK, yeah, it was quite good, a good end to a series that dragged on for far too long. But now for the niggles, wiggles and tidbits that I come across when I read a comic.
Man, I think about these things a bit too much sometimes...

* Why is Black Hand considered a bigger threat than the Anti-Monitor?

* Why did they let Sinestro/Larfleeze/Atrocitus go? And where'd Scarecrow go?

* Nekron is such a pussy really. He's actually quite damn pathetic...

* White Lantern Corps costumes were pretty damn cool. As are MM and Aquaman's new costumes (similar to their old ones, but different enough all the same)

* The White Light resurrected those who died in anger, or who weren't at peace during their time in death. Hence no Sue/Ralph Dibney etc. Though that's just my theory.

* What happened with Maxwell Lord? He just kindof faded away...Erm?

* Wait wait wait. Deadman's 'face' was a mask? I thought it was his corroded body given ghostly aspect...

* According to the checklist, they're restarting Green Arrows comic? I'm pretty sure that times in with the end of Rise and Fall. I'm assuming Roy becomes the new Green Arrow. So what's gonna happen to Ollie? Or are we just gonna have three Green Arrows at once, like the Flashs?

* and finally, could the Star Saphires stop dressing like Pink Hookers from Space that I wouldn't touch with a two mile long barge pole?

Holy new post Batman

My goodness. A month has passed without me posting. Wow. Oops... Not that anyone reads these anyway :D Anywho, I might as well talk about couple of comics while I'm here, and show the quite dodgy line art of the Red Hood as I imagine him in Arkham Asylum.

Batman & Robin
First things first, that most variable and well, quite quite mad writer Grant Morrison's latest writings of the Batverse. What oh what to make of these. Grant always has some great ideas, but is let down by his craziness, stupidity and just mad and mostly nonsensical writing. The Batclone from Blackest Knight. Professor Pyg and his pink iPod dance. Damian Wayne. Flamingo. Whatever happened to Bruce's profile/where is he now/what's Hush doing/what do the public think of Bruce etc. Damian Wayne.
Now, I know I said that last one twice, but I'm sure we all agree the only person who should be allowed to write Damian is Bryan Q Millar.

Kick-Ass
I haven't spoken about this at all yet, because it's hard for me to say anything but I want to see this now. Trailers look awesome, comic was awesome, it's funny, graphic and it's written by Mark Millar. Nothing else to add really :D

The Veritable Army of Green Hornet comics
These are coming out from Dynamite, who I'd never heard of before, about a character I knew nothing about. But then I saw the covers and who was writing them: Alex Ross on some of the covers, Kevin Smith on the main line, Matt Wagner on Year One. That's some good names right there. They're actually quite interesting, though it seems Green Hornet doesn't have any major villains, which is always a problem. Sometimes this is nice though, but it does seem he mostly fights faceless mob goons and mob families, which is something that has been done ALOT before...

Blackest Night and Brightest Day
I'm sure we'll all exhausted by Blackest Night now, it's dragged on a little too long, the main issues haven't really moved anywhere and there's been too many formulaic plots in the extra tie ins. If it had just been Blackest Night, GLC and Green Lantern, with one or two extra comics it would be much better. But I'm a bit fed of up it, though the story is good, art's mostly good, there's just been too much of it. I mean, it's been going on since September.
And it leads straight in to Brightest Day, no respite whatsoever. Here's hoping it focuses less on the Flashes, and more on, say, I don't know, Aquaman. The original and best. And none of this stupid stuff they're doing to Green Arrow and Roy. Let's have Aquaman booting the old one up his arse, bringing the glory of Atlantis back, being pissed off because Tempest is dead, rejoining the Justice League, and making himself a more landbased character, with lots of intercontinental politics, environmental protests and that kindof thing. Seriously, there's so many stories that can be told, let's start cranking em out and having ourselves a ball with our favourite Atlantean.

The Losers
I just got the combined volumes 1 and 2 the other week, and it is sweet. Andy Diggle and Jock, one of the best writer/artist teams there is, telling a pretty cool A-Team esque story. I enjoyed, it's funny, good story and the art is good (save for the bit by the other guy who I can't remember atm for issues 7&8 - I think, might've been 8&9. Can't remember and too lazy to go and grab it to check :D). Movie looks good too, with alot of things from the comic included. Looks to be another good un'

Runaways
I've had a brief flickthrough of both Rock Zombies and Homeschooling in the shop, and I know I'm going to buy them at some point, along with the Civil War and Secret Invasion Young Avenger tie-ins, because I really like the Runaways themselves, but urgh. The issues do not look that good, sound pretty rubbish, and well, I don't like Kathryn Immonen. She's butchered Pixie in her own series, so I don't whether I'm going to like it, and the summary of the issues doesn't sound too good. And when I've got those four collected editions, it seems as if that'll be the last of me buying Runaways for quite a while, as we wait for Marvel to finish 'retooling' them...

Red Hood
The basic lineart of my design for Jason Todd as the Red Hood in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Obviously I'll be redoing this on the computer when I get a chance, but as of right now I don't have the proper tools to do this at home, only at work...

Who I Am, What I Review, etc

Righteo, this is just (hopefully) a short post to say what kindof of thing's you'll expect to read about about on this blog. I'm much more of a DC reader than a Marvel. Most Marvel stuff I wouldn't bother even picking up, like Spider-Man, anything about Wolverine, the Fantastic Four (who I loathe)... But things I have liked about them include the crossovers Civil War and I am liking what I've read of Dark Reign. I intend to get all the Ultimate X-Men books, and want to start reading any comic with Pixie in it. You know who I mean ;)

The one with pixie wings of course! So if anyone could point me in the right direction, that would be great.

I've read almost all of Age of Apocalypse (got the four big collected editions, and Exiles: AoA), enjoyed some of it, though the artwork was a bit lacking. And the story was quite disjointed...

Otherwise, I am definitly a DC guy - I don't buy Marvel singles, only collected editions. And with DC I buy some singles, but not a huuuuge amount. Where it not for Blackest Night, my comic buying would go down quite a bit (probably). I save things like JLA and JSA for collected editions, and buy things like Batgirl, GA/BC, Detective Comics with Batwoman, limited series like Superman: Secret Origins, Cry For Justice, Great Ten and Ink (which sadly finished :( I really enjoyed that, the artwork was good, though sometimes hard to tell who was who...). I'm quite likely to give up on the actual Batman books come next issue unles they get really good, as I haven't been particularly enjoying them, and I'm just sticking with GA/BC as GA's my fave character.

Lastly, but not leastly:
Bring. Back. Aquaman. Not the silly new one, no. The original, the best. With whatever; harpoon, waterhand, sentient Black Lantern zombie. I don't care. Just bring him damn well back :D

First post, first review, so yeah...

Righteo, so, here we are then. Me, writing a blog. Oh dear oh dear, what has the world come to? Still, this won't be a blog of anything pointless, like what happens in my life. Oh no, not at all. Unless of course you count my drawings, which, well, could make an appearance here and there. Who knows, cause I certainly don't.

Now then, enough with the blathering. Today I'm going to review something which is pretty recent, something I really liked the first time I read it, and can't put it down whenever I re-read it. Obviously something like this has gotta be pretty damn good, and I can't see I've seen anyone ever comment on this tale, so I'll let myself be the first person I've seen to have a crack at writing a review on this comic.

And what is it, you may pray tell? Well, it is Superman | Batman : The Search For Kryptonite aka issues 44-49 of Superman/Batman, written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson, pencilled by Shane Davis, inked by Mike "Batt" Banning, coloured by Alex Sinclair and Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Rob Leigh. (Yes, I am going to do that for every review I do, even small ones, but it wouldn't be right to not give full credit to the ever changing staff who make these wonderous little things. Thank you one and all, including everyone I can't name, like editors, printers, publishers, adminers, coffee stirrers and everyone else involved in this wonderous industry. You make my life a brighter and gaudier place to live in).




















This tale begins brilliantly - a humerous take on the film industry making a comic book film (how appropriate considering my line of work), an incredibly stupid origin of Batman and the worst actor I've seen since, well, ever... After that, the main premise behind the story takes hold, and, addresses a key point of comics that's become especially blatant with Smallville: "Kryptonite is everywhere. It's ubiquitous. It's embarrassing."

I won't bother to summarise the rest of the comic, as I don't see the point when you can just read it. Instead, I'll point out some of the bits that I particularly liked:

- The dynamic between the new Aquaman and Supes/Bats. I've never particularly liked what happened to Aquaman, they really messed him around, then shunted him off and put a new kid in his shoes. Bleh. But at least here he's been arrogant, but not an arsehole like Damian, not getting on my nerves or anything. He's doing what he thinks is right, what he feels is best for his home, and, yeah, wanting to beat the crap out of Superman.

- It really gets under both the title characters skins, showing their inner workings brilliantly. Especially the bit during Dinosaur Island; Batman is stubborn, an arse, and completely dedicated to his 'friends'. And this is not the normal Superman, this is a Superman obsessed for the greater good of the world, who will sacrifice his own life as he recognises his own higher calling. I've never been the biggest fan of Superman (shock, horror), but he's someone who is needed, the just of the just, as it were.

- It's epic yet heartfelt at the same time; we've got Superman and Batman patrolling the entire world, going into space beyond the Watchtower, exploring magic islands and fighting Kryptonite super soldiers, while still being human and keeping the story personal. It's something that Superman/Batman can do really well, as it has the two constant internal monologues, while other stories generally spread them around a bit too much. And that bit with Lana, well, I don't get why that happened, but, well, wow. Someone's learned a lot from Kristin Kreuk...

- The artwork, the designs, all of it's just really good. Superman's lead suit is damn cool, as is AquaBats, the (non-regularly seen) supporting cast all look good. It's just highly polished in that respect. I do have to tip my heart to all the artists involved in this. It takes a damn good tale and just keeps on adding. The only flaw I can say about it, save the classic 'Batman's cowl should have those dags in it by the side' is the Phantom Stranger's eye shadow looked dodgy. And yes, that's my only complaint about the artwork here.

And the great thing about this comic in the end is that I can't slag off the ending for it being too convenient, as it's all established (which some writers still can't grasp, I'm looking at you Russell T. Davis), the writings top notch, the art is damn pretty to look at.

By now I'm sure you're fed up of me prattling on about this comic, so I'll just say: go and read it, enjoy it, love it. And now, with my first review all done, I'll just leave you with those immortal words of Saint Walker:
“All will be well”