kierantc-blog

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Captain Marvel (2019)

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Supergirl returns with new costume and creative team

So ahead of the DC Comics August solicitations, SyFy have revealed an exclusive look at the revamped Supergirl series.

Continuing on from the Rebirth series, issue 21 sees a new creative team take the reigns with Marc Andreyko writing and Kevin Maguire providing pencils.

The new direction of the series takes place after the repercussions of Brian Bendis’ new Man Of Steel series where Clark and Kara fight new villain Rogol Zaar, who claims to be responsible for the destruction of Krypton. 

The new story will see Kara explore the universe, searching for answers about Zaar and his motivations, and will see her visit numerous planets, which is where the new costumes fit in. According to Andreyko, the costumes actually fit a purpose as the new planets she visits will have different environments she’s not use to and will also allow her to adapt to places where she won’t have access to a yellow sun.

Andreyko is perhaps most famous for writing the 2004 series of Manhunter for DC Comics, and created the character of Kate Spencer for the lead role, and most recently he has written the Death Of Hawkman mini-series. He was also the project lead on the IDW/DC Comics Love Is Love, which was made in dedication to the victims and survivors of the horrific terrorist attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016.

Maguire meanwhile has a storied history in comics, doing both covers and interiors for DC and Marvel since 1985 but most recently he has drawn for DC’s New 52 series Worlds’ Finest (which featured Earth-2��s Supergirl AKA Power Girl).

The new Supergirl launches in August.

My Opinion

I love this new creative team and the new direction the series will take. While i enjoyed Supergirl’s Rebirth jaunt because of the synergy it had with the TV show, it felt like grounding Kara to Earth was a waste of her talents and hopefully this will be reminiscent of the New 52 series where she was part of the superhero school The Crucible.

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DC announce subscription platform DC Universe and new Swamp Thing TV series

Big news out of DC today, the announcement of their digital platform has been unveiled as DC Universe.

Not much has been revealed about the service itself but this is the first bit of official news in a long long time. From the website, DC have said:

“DC Universe is a first-of-its kind, immersive digital experience designed just for DC fans. One of the many incredible things your membership will include is unlimited access to the following exclusive original series.”

And for the first time we have logos for the new series the service will show, Titans, Young Justice season 3 and Harley Quinn the adult animated series, but most surprising is the news of a brand new Swamp Thing TV show.

Swamp Thing And James Wan

News about the Swamp Thing TV show broke today thanks to The Hollywood Reporter, who reveal a script-to-series for Swamp Thing has been ordered by DC and will be produced by Aquaman director James Wan and his production team at Atomic Monster Productions.

Writing the first script will be Mark Verheiden and Gary Dauberman. Verheiden has been a writer on the Netflix Daredevil show and was also a writer and producer on the Constantine TV show, and Dauberman wrote the 2017 IT reboot for Warner Bros. and is currently working on the screenplay for chapter 2, and he also worked with James Wan on the Annabelle movies as a writer.

Both of them bring experience in comic book TV production as well as horror writing and i think that works perfectly well for a Swamp Thing production, which would work incredibly well as a horror show.

Swamp Thing is the creation of late greats Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, and it’s a shame they will never see him on the silver screen, but they can rest easy knowing he is in good hands.

My Opinion

This is all exciting news from DC, moving forward with their digital service is something people have been asking about for a while and at least we’re getting a small peek at it.

Still, questions persist, how much will it cost? What other content will be included?

The statement on the website claims that the original series will be one of many things to expect from a membership, but there is plenty they can still offer. A digital comic subscription akin to Marvel Unlimited has long been desired by fans and would be a huge hit i feel, but also they could offer access to the DC shows on Network TV such as Arrow, The Flash and Gotham. Then you have the extensive library of DC TV shows and movies too, a service that allows you to watch any episode of Smallville on demand or Tim Burton’s Batman would be a must-buy for any comic book fan.

Hopefully we get more information at San Diego Comic-Con, which runs from July 19th to the 22nd.

Anyway, thanks for reading!

[kierantc-blog]

I REALLY don’t want to post it, but i have something to say about it for Action Comics #1000 and 80th Anniversary of Superman

I love Superman

I don’t just love him because:

- he has some many ridiculously superpowers. - he has amazing stories and events. - he just some random popular dude. - he’s being “overpowered” character bull$h!t like that rubbish the Sentry. - he got comic books, video games, films, TV shows, etc. - he’s better than Batman. Which is not true. - he’s like an alien god, Jesus or freaking Flying Spaghetti Monster. - he has some cool his alternate versions like Mark Millar’s Red Son Superman. - sometimes i laugh-out-louded that he’s being super douchebag in one of my favorite parody TV series Robot Chicken - just some pretty man smiling on the cameras.

no

no

no that’s not it

I love Superman because he’s the Superman.

He represents the champion who doing something kind to all others that he  genuinely wants to help them and make them lives better wherever they lived from Earth to Pluto or from in his universe to outside of universe.

While he’s a strange alien being from another planet with having his incredibly superpowers and being powerful, it doesn’t mean he had no emotional, he is more human, he’s not too perfect, he can be tired and he can be angry and he can be afraid, he wishes he could be there for them as long as he can take breathe.

He cares about bad people and supervillains who are being angrier and vengeance on other awful people took their happiness and lives from them, and some of his villains are misunderstanding of thinking that Superman is the one who causes of all of this, and he’s willing to uses his power to help/stop them.

A beloved human parents raised him as both Clark Kent and Superman to show him an act of humanity, strong ideology and moral focus that he transferred into something inspiring. (obviously i’m not talking about that Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel film)

He has an iconic bright suit, cape, symbol, boots, belt and red trunks made it from his adoptive mother. That’s goofy and that’s super amazing!

Both as Kal-El and Clark Kent has love interest who then later became his beloved wife and they had their son named after Clark’s adoptive father (and their owned Superdog). What else do i have to say?

And that what makes Superman…..

the Superman.

~ Maxmarvel123

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The Fantastic Four are returning

Announced just now by Marvel, a new Fantastic Four series is coming out in August this year from the team of Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli.

The Fantastic Four haven’t been around for some time for various reasons, mainly that due to some animosity between Marvel and Fox over the last Fantastic Four movie (which completely bombed), Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter decided to shut down all Fantastic Four products. This not only meant no comics would be produced, but other appearances would be canned too. The characters from the F4 were removed from video games like LEGO Marvel Superheroes 2 and Marvel Future Fight, and toys had pretty much been stopped too.

The Marvel position on the group has changed though since the announcement of the Disney takeover of Fox property, which would mean that Fantastic Four and X-Men movie IP would return to Marvel Studios outright.

This new series comes from Dan Slott, who is just finishing a legendary Spider-Man run, and Sara Pichelli, who is probably more famous for drawing Ultimate Spider-Man and being the artist behind Miles Morales.

As for in the comics themselves, the Fantastic Four were at the center of the Secret Wars story by Jonathan Hickman, where the Marvel Multiverse had been eradicated but parts of it were saved by Doctor Doom, who reconstructed it into Battleworld. At the end of the story, Reed Richards and Sue Storm decided to stay in a pocket universe with their kids and the Future Foundation and Molecule Man and rebuild the Multiverse. 

Meanwhile, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm returned to Earth but had no idea what had happened to the other half of the F4. Johnny would join up with the Uncanny Avengers Unity Squad and also have a relationship with Inhuman Queen Medusa. Ben on the other hand had joined up with the Guardians Of The Galaxy and was one of the leaders of the resistance movement during Secret Empire.

Currently, Johnny and Ben are starring in the series Marvel’s Two In One, which is chronicling their journey into the Multiverse to try and find Reed, Sue and the kids. Looks like we know how that goes now!

My Opinion

It’s about fucking time.

This has a lot of implications for the Marvel comics universe but also the MCU too, as it shows how much confidence Disney and Marvel have in the upcoming Fox deal being completed in the next year.

Soon the MCU will be complete, and won’t that be something?

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some stuff for a book i’m doing art on. 

dc’s justice league, odyssey. coming out later this year

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DC announce New Justice League titles

DC Comics today announced a new series of on-goings for the DC Universe and changes to other titles.

New Justice

The first big announcement was from Scott Snyder at WonderCon, who detailed his own Justice League book but also revealed two more, Justice League Dark and Justice League Odyssey as part of a new line called New Justice that will spin out of the No Justice event to come out in May.

Justice League Dark will be written by James Tynion IV, who is currently finishing his lauded run on Detective Comics, and will feature a huge cast including Wonder Woman as team leader, Zatanna, Detective Chimp, Swamp Thing and Man-Bat. Tynion will be joined by artists Alvaro Lopez, Raul Fernandez and Brad Anderson.

Justice League Odyssey will be written by Joshua Williamson, the current writer on The Flash, and will showcase Cyborg leading a team across the galaxy consisting of Green Lantern Jessica Cruz, Starfire, Azrael and Darkseid. Yes, that Darkseid. Described by Scott Snyder as a Hannibal Lecter type, Darkseid will be on board a Brainiac ship commandeered by the team. Williamson will be joined by artist Stjepan Sejic, who recently had a phenomenal run on Aquaman.

Both of these books will launch in June alongside the new Justice League series.

The Hall Of Justice Returns

The Hall Of Justice will be returning to the DC Universe. It originally appeared in the New 52 as a base for Justice League International before being destroyed, but will now be used as the main headquarters for the League instead of the Watchtower. Explaining it to the WonderCon panel, Snyder describes it as an all encompassing base that will be used by the Justice League, Justice League Dark, Justice League Odyssey, Titans and Teen Titans, who can access it through their own headquarters via a portal.

The Hall Of Justice has a rich history in DC history, but it was originally introduced in the animated series Super Friends back in 1973. From there it has been in the comics as well as various TV shows and video games, and in the Justice League movie was alluded to by Bruce Wayne as a new use for the once abandoned Wayne Manor. Perhaps the best and most popular use of the Hall comes from the animated series Young Justice though, where the Hall was used as a public front but contained teleporters to the Watchtower satellite in space.

I think this is a fantastic idea though from Scott Snyder, it makes the DCU feel more interconnected in a manner that the Avengers did when you saw other Avenger teams in the background of the Avengers Mansion or Tower.

Return Of The Titans

Well i say return, but basically the Teen Titans and Titans are being reworked in the aftermath of the No Justice event.

A new Teen Titans series will be written by Adam Glass, who has written for the TV show Supernatural but was also at the helm of the New 52 Suicide Squad series. The new Teen Titans will see Damian Wayne break away from the other teams as he is sick of the status quo and try things in a new way, with Kid Flash, Emiko Queen the Red Arrow, and new characters Djinn, Roundhouse and Crush, who happens to be Lobo’s daughter. Glass will be joined by artist Robson Rocha, and will start their run in Teen Titans Special #1 to be released in June with Teen Titans #20 to follow in July.

A new lineup for the Titans is also coming, with Dan Abnett staying at the helm. Working out of the Hall Of Justice, Dick Grayson’s Nightwing leads a team consisting of Raven, Beast Boy, Steel and Miss Martian. The group will be used as a training group of sorts for the other League teams, similar to how Young Justice operated in the animated series.

My Opinion

This is all amazing and a step in the right direction for Justice League, more synergy between all of the teams and making the universe more connected is only a good thing.

Still i am worried that we’re missing a few characters. Where is Shazam? Where is Wally West and the other Titans?

I trust these writers though to guide the DC Universe. Even with Darkseid!

[kierantc-blog]

A closer look at the Avengers: Infinity War trailer

So the new trailer for Avengers: Infinity War is here! And it’s an epic one. I’m going to look at it a little more closely though, because i think there are things involved in the trailer that some people might not have seen....

Thanos

The big guy, the Mad Titan. Thanos is the villain of this movie and he is here to fuck shit up. The intro to this trailer though is voiced by Gamora, his adopted daughter, who reveals his motivations to the Avengers.

“The entire time i knew him, he only ever had one goal. To wipe out half the universe. If he gets all the Infinity Stones, he can do it with the snap of his fingers. Just like that.”

This line from Gamora is a reference to the comic book Infinity Gauntlet, a story that depicts Thanos actually getting his hand on the complete set of Infinity Stones and snaps his fingers to kill half the universe in order to attract the attention of the woman he loves, Death.

Eventually, Thanos loses the Gauntlet and the power, and it would later fall to his other adopted daughter Nebula to undo his damage. While Nebula is in this movie, could she really go up against Thanos in the same way? I doubt it will come to that but who knows.

We also see a glimpse of a young Gamora taking Thanos’ hand.

The interesting part for me though is what happens when they walk away, because you can see to the sides of them that there are soldiers holding people at bay as the walk off.

If you look closely, the people share Gamora’s green skin and the soldiers resemble the Badoon. 

In the comic books, Gamora’s people are killed by the Badoon and she is the last known survivor, where Thanos would later find her and adopt her in order to train her as an assassin. In the MCU version of the story though, it appears that Thanos controlled the Badoon at one time and used them to take over her homeworld. 

The moment they walk away seems to symbolise the last moment of her species existence.

The Infinity Stones

In the new trailer, we see confirmation that Loki pretty much hands over the Tesseract, the thing that houses the Space Stone, to Thanos. His motivations for it are unclear though, could it be to spare Thor’s life? Or does he know of Thanos’ power from their time together before and does it out of fear? Who knows.

There’s one thing we can say for sure though, and that is that Thanos cracks open the Tesseract like an egg and takes the Stone.

When Thanos arrives on Earth we know that he is has the Power Stone and the Space Stone in the Gauntlet.

All of the Stones are powerful in their own right but the Power Stone grants him unlimited strength and the Space Stone allows him to travel the cosmos in the blink of an eye. He is truly a danger to The Avengers.

Captain America

The trailer shows us more of Cap’s activities during the movie, the biggest though is that he physically stands toe to toe with Thanos.

Look at Thanos there, he didn’t expect someone this powerful to be on Earth. With the Power Stone though, he should be easy to punch out, so why isn’t he?

Well one theory i have seen online is that part of Erskine’s Super Soldier Serum that made Steve into Captain America is based on the Heart Shaped Herb from Wakanda, which in turn could be mutated from the Soul Stone. This information relies on the idea though that the Vibranium meteor that lands in Wakanda had the Soul Stone in the heart of it.

That means if Cap, and by extension T’Challa, are products of the Soul Stone, then they would have some degree of power of the other Stones. We saw this in Age Of Ultron with Vision’s ability to decimate Ultron (a fellow product of the Mind Stone).

The Avengers

It’s a little difficult to see from the trailer, but The Avengers are together in some shape or form in spite of the events of Civil War. At one point of the trailer we see T’Challa welcome Steve Rogers and others to Wakanda.

If you look closely you’ll see people from all sides from Civil War, Vision and War Machine were on Iron Man’s side but are here with Captain America and Falcon. Also Bruce Banner is present, who i’m sure will be getting a slap in the face from Natasha for running away at the end of Age Of Ultron.

In New York though we have a basic team of Iron Man, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and Wong. 

Oh and don’t worry about Peter here, it’s likely that his classmates are looking out of the window on the other side of the bus (you can’t see them at all in that GIF) so he can sneak out and swing into action.

Also we have the Guardians and Thor.

Judging by other moments from the first trailer, it seems like Banner falls from space somehow and lands in Strange’s Sanctum, which later leads to the others joining them on Earth or some of the New York team going up to space. Based on Peter Parker’s meeting with Doctor Strange, it looks like some of them are in space.

And that leads to a meeting of the greatest minds in the universe, Tony Stark meeting Peter Quill.

All in all, i don’t think it’s going to take too long for all of the Avengers to Assemble in the movie.

The Black Order

Present in this trailer are Thanos’ generals, the group known as The Black Order. In the comics they are made up of Ebony Maw, Supergiant, Black Dwarf, Proximus Midnight and Corvus Glaive, but in the MCU they are taking a few creative choices by removing Supergiant and changing Black Dwarf’s name to Cull Obsidian (an alternative name for the group), and the group is going to be called The Children Of Thanos.

Here we get a proper look at the group. Cull Obsidian is the giant guy at the back, and in front of him is his brother Corvus Glaive and his weapon the glaive that gives him his powers. Corvus is Thanos’ favoured general in the comics. To Corvus’ left is Ebony Maw, the master manipulator, who we see torturing Doctor Strange in the trailer.

Ebony Maw has next to no abilities as a fighter, but he has a supreme intelligence and powers of persuasion and uses them to get his own way. This isn’t their first battle however, as Ebony Maw and Doctor Strange battled in the classic Hickman Avengers story Infinity.

In this story, Ebony Maw is looking for Thanos’ Inhuman son known as Thane and uses Doctor Strange to cause havoc on Earth. Inside Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, he whispers in the ear of Stephen Strange and tricks him into summoning a monster on the streets of New York.

The last member is Proxima Midnight, the wife of Corvus Glaive. She shares similar abilities to him and like her husband wields a weapon, a spear that was made in the heart of a dying sun by Thanos himself.

My Thoughts

All in all, there is a lot to digest from this trailer, more stuff i likely missed, but i think the movie looks absolutely incredible. I’m not sure if i should see it in plain IMAX or in IMAX 3D though.

I do think there’s going to be a couple of big deaths in this movie. I think Loki is going to be one of them, once he hands over the Space Stone to Thanos he is pretty much worthless to him. Also i think they’re going to go with a big emotional one like killing Captain America.

Anyway i hope you have a good weekend and hope you enjoyed my post.

[kierantc-blog]

DC Comics announce Black Label imprint

Today DC Comics announced the new DC Black Label imprint, a publishing line designed to take the best talent in comics and have them make out of continuity stories.

Citing Dark Knight Returns as an example, DC co-publisher Jim Lee said “Creating DC Black Label doubles down on our commitment to working with all-star talent and trusting them to tell epic, moving stories that only they can tell with the highest levels of creative freedom“.

The series will be curated by executive editor Mark Doyle, who is also the group editor for the Young Animal comics as well as Vertigo, who has announced the first 6 titles that will come out from the new imprint.

Superman: Year One

A 3-part series written by Frank Miller (Sin City, Dark Knight Returns) with artwork by John Romita Jr. (Daredevil, All-Star Batman) that will retell the events of Clark Kent’s origin, from his escape from Krypton and his childhood in Kansas, all the way to him becoming Superman.

Batman: Last Knight On Earth

Written by Scott Snyder and artwork from Greg Capullo, the men behind the legendary Batman New 52 series and Dark Knights: Metal, reunite to tell a new Batman story. Set in an unknown time period, Batman wakes up in the desert next to the Joker’s head in a jar (that also happens to be alive) and the world is in ruins, with villains running things and society unshackled from an ethics code, Bruce learns more about this world and begins the last Batman story ever told.

Batman: Damned

Written by Brian Azzarello and artwork Lee Bermejo, the team behind the graphic novel Joker reunite. The Joker is found dead on a Gotham City bridge in the middle of the night, and Batman teams with John Constantine to find the murderer.

Wonder Woman Historia: The Amazons

Written by Kelly Sue DeConnick (Bitch Planet) and artwork by Phil Jimenez (Infinite Crisis) comes a 3-part series chronicling the rise of Queen Hippolyta as the leader of the Amazons, told to Steve Trevor during his abrupt arrival to Paradise Island. 

Wonder Woman: Diana’s Daughter (working title)

To be written by legendary Wonder Woman scribe Greg Rucka. It has been 20 years since people looked to the skies for inspiration, and a young woman seeks to claim what has been forgotten and on the way learn the truth about her heritage.

The Other History Of The DC Universe

Previously announced by DC, acclaimed screenwriter John Ridley (12 Years A Slave) tells the history of the DC Universe told from the perspective of heroes who comes from traditionally disenfranchised groups such as Green Lantern John Stewart, Extraño, Vixen, Supergirl, Katana and Rene Montoya, and how this history has endeavoured to give these people the strength to be who they are.

My Opinion

This is a wonderful idea from DC, for a long time there has been a hunger from comic book readers to get a regular dose of off-brand, out of continuity books and it looks like this could be the answer.

There’s no doubt these men and women are highly talented and the synopsis’ alone should be enough to titillate any avid comic book fan.

The two big “gets” for DC in this endeavour are a) Kelly Sue DeConnick writing her first DC title and b) Frank Miller writing a Superman story. DeConnick is more of a creator-owned writer and Bitch Planet is probably her best work, so it will be very interesting to see her tackle Wonder Woman. And Frank Miller finally has the chance to prove to people that he doesn’t hate Superman!

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Superman (1978)

dir. Richard Donner

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Amazing Spider-Man to relaunch with awesome new creative team

Announced today, The Amazing Spider-Man will relaunch with a new #1 issue on July 11th, written by Nick Spencer and artwork by Ryan Ottley

Nick Spencer is probably most famous for his recent Secret Empire story, which started out in the pages of Captain America: Steve Rogers #1 by revealing that Cap had turned to the dark side and was a member of Hydra.

Artist Ryan Ottley is perhaps most well known for being the artist on Image’s Invincible series, having drawn 127 issues of it for writer Robert Kirkman.

The new ASM series comes after the conclusion of Dan Slott’s 10 year tenure on Spider-Man, which also included Superior Spider-Man.

Opinion

I think this is a great move by Marvel, Nick Spencer created a bit of controversy online with his Secret Empire story but the story itself was very good, and this move means that Marvel have long term plans in mind for the series to entrust it to someone like Spencer.

Also getting Ryan Ottley on this is amazing. The guy has been at Image for years working on Invincible but the series ended in February after an historic run. DC of late have been known for bringing in the big artists lately, Sean Murphy and Liam Sharp amongst them getting their own series and New Age Of Heroes titles giving credit to artists first, but this shows that Marvel still have the pull to entice artists that don’t work for the big 2.

As much as i like Dan Slott’s run, it’s time for something new, and i can’t wait to see what this team have planned.

[kierantc-blog]

HUGE Justice League shakeup announced

Big news coming out of DC today, with an announcement that the Justice League comics as we know it are going to get a HUGE shakeup!

The first big news is that superstar Batman writer Scott Snyder (who is currently doing the Dark Nights: Metal event) is taking over the Justice League as the new on-going writer. This does mean the end of the current JL titles, Justice League (currently written by Christopher Priest) and Justice League Of America (currently written by Steve Orlando), as Snyder is going to be joined by Detective Comics writer James Tynion IV and The Flash writer Joshua Williamson, who will each be getting their own Justice League books.

To start off with, they will be co-writing a 4-part weekly mini-story called Justice League: No Justice, which will feature the art of Francis Manapul (writer and artist of Rebirth’s Trinity) and will showcase the world of the DCU after the events of Metal have concluded. The synopsis of the story is:

In this four-issue miniseries, the super-villain Brainiac arrives on Earth with a dire warning for the Justice League: there’s a threat coming to destroy Earth, one that the heroes are ill-equipped to handle.  Brainiac thinks he holds the key to victory, but it means combining members of the League with some of the most dangerous villains in the DC Universe and sending them into battle against this extinction-level menace. The stakes are at their absolute highest; if one of these teams fail. It’s game over.

Brainiac’s plan for the Heroes and Villains is to split into 4 teams, and those teams are:

Team Mystery - The team is led by Superman and he is joined by Martian Manhunter, Sinestro, Starfire and Starro.

Team Entropy - Batman leads this team consisting of Lobo, Lex Luthor, Beast Boy and Deathstroke. 

Team Wonder - Wonder Woman is in charge of a team of magically-based characters including Raven, Zatanna, Doctor Fate and Etrigan The Demon.

Team Wisdom - The Flash meanwhile gets the pleasure of leading Cyborg, Harley Quinn, The Atom and Robin.

The purpose of the teams have not been revealed yet beyond the fact that each team will be going to stop a threat on another planet, and it’s not yet been revealed which of these four teams will end up on the three Justice League books.

There’s no word on what Greg Capullo is working on after Metal, but DC have said they will have news on that soon.

My Opinion

I think this is a wonderful move by DC Comics, for the longest time the Justice League books have been in flux and not very well connected to the rest of the DC Universe, so hopefully this will go some way to make the world feel more connected.

The story that always pops in my head is one by new DC signing Brian Michael Bendis, and that is Avengers Disassembled. In it, Bendis tears down the old Avengers set up and uses it as an excuse to build a new version. This would be one of the best successes in Avengers history as it would lead to widely loved stories such as Civil War, Secret Invasion and Siege, and it also served as a platform to finally make Spider-Man an Avenger.

Time will tell if this new set up will do the same thing, but it’s an encouraging sign that the Teen Titans are involved, as are some anti-heroes and the return of fan favourite Martian Manhunter. It’s time to break out the Oreos.

Dark Nights: Metal ends March 14th, and No Justice will debut May 9th, with the new Justice League books to come out in June.

[kierantc-blog]

Alan Ritchson and Minka Kelly suit up as Hawk & Dove for Titans

Courtesy of Bleeding Cool, Warner Bros. have released the first picture of Hawk & Dove of their new Titans show coming next year to their DC streaming service.

Playing Hawk AKA Hank Hall is Alan Ritchson, famous for his roles in Smallville as Aquaman and The Hunger Games, as well as voicing Leonardo in the recent Turtles movies, and playing his partner Dove AKA Dawn Granger is Minka Kelly, known for her roles in TV shows Almost Human and Jane The Virgin.

The costumes are made by the same woman who made Brenton Thwaites’ Robin costume, Laura Jean Shannon, who also designed the first Iron Man costume for the MCU.

Hawk & Dove are an interesting choice for a Titans line up but their costumes look amazing. Give us more please! Starfire next?!

[kierantc-blog]

Brenton Thwaites in his Robin costume for Titans

Courtesy of TVLine, Warner Bros. released the first official picture today of Brenton Thwaites’ Dick Grayson in his Robin costume for the new Titans show, coming next year to DC’s still-in-progress digital streaming service.

This is the work of costume designer Laura Jean Shannon, who previously worked on the first Iron Man movie as well as Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World and the new Black Lightning CW show.

I have to say kudos to her and to Brenton, he looks fucking awesome.

Hopefully this is the first image of many we get in the coming weeks as Titans production ramps up.

[kierantc-blog]

*Update* Brian Michael Bendis to DC

Hi guys and girls, just a follow up to my post from earlier about the news that Bendis has signed a multi-year exclusive deal with DC Comics.

It wasn’t a fake out. Promise.

You can take this with a pinch of salt but Bleeding Cool released an article that may highlight the driving force behind BMB leaving Marvel for DC.

So i’ll break the article down into the two key points....

Bendis clashed with executives about Marvel’s diversity push

This is quite an interesting point but is backed up a bit with already known information and it makes it quite plausible. Bleeding Cool allege that Bendis argued with David Gabriel (Marvel’s Vice President of Sales) over his comments that readers didn’t want more diversity or female characters. 

This will supposedly impact some of Bendis’ work as he is seen to be a driving force of the change, bringing in the likes of Miles Morales to main continuity and introducing the new Ironheart character Riri Williams to the Iron Man series. One notable change is that the Spider-Man series starring Miles Morales will change in 2018 to Miles Morales: Spider-Man, with the series Spider-Man turning into a third Peter Parker series.

I find this believable. Bendis likes diversity in his comics and to see Marvel roll back and publicly say they made a mistake with it would be a deal breaker for him. If you look over at DC though, they continue to push diverse characters. They have openly gay characters in Justice League of America and Detective Comics and people of colour like Duke Thomas, Kong Kenan and Cyborg are ever present in the grand scheme of the DC Universe.

With diversity like that, maybe Bendis feels that DC is a nice fit?

Geoff Johns has offered him the chance to work on movies and TV shows after being pushed out by Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios

According to Bleeding Cool, Geoff Johns has offered Bendis the chance to work on multimedia projects in the same way he does. Previously Bendis was a part of the Marvel Creative Committee, a group that included himself as well as Dan Buckley (President of Marvel Entertainment) and Joe Quesada, but Kevin Feige seemingly sought to consolidate his own power at Marvel Studios in the wake of problems on Avengers: Age Of Ultron, and began to phase them out of the creative process. This would eventually lead to Feige being given full control of the movie division by Disney, answering only to them and not the Creative Committee or Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter.

Having consulted on the fantastic Jessica Jones Netflix series (a character he had created), it would be fair to assume that he would be given more to do with the MCU, perhaps something with Agents Of SHIELD character Daisy Johnson, who he also created? Alas no, other than “created by” credit, he has not been involved with any other Marvel Cinematic Universe projects. 

Who knows what Geoff Johns could offer him, but he is president of DC Films and he has also produced and written for Arrowverse shows too, so maybe it could be something he shares with Bendis. Who knows, maybe we could get Bendis writing the script for the Joss Whedon Batgirl project? There’s a lot of potential there for both parties.

Whatever the future holds for Brian Bendis at DC Comics, i’ll be sure to post about it on my Tumblr. There are some exciting times ahead.

Thanks for reading!

[kierantc-blog]

Brian Michael Bendis signs exclusive deal with DC Comics.....wait what

DC announced on Twitter today that they had signed Brian Michael Bendis to a multi-year exclusive contract.

This is big news, like SERIOUSLY big news. 

Brian Michael Bendis, or BMB, has been working at Marvel for the better part of 17 years. He started off on Ultimate Spider-Man, writing 160 issues for the series and would go on to introduce a new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, that became so popular that Marvel found a way to fold him into the main Marvel continuity at the end of Secret Wars. He would also go on to create characters like Jessica Jones, Maria Hill and Daisy Johnson, who have all featured prominently in various forms in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The guy basically screams Marvel so his move to DC is really quite amazing.

He has his detractors though, he is often cited as someone who fills his pages with poor and repetitive dialogue in order to stretch out a story, and he seemingly does it with a lot of characters when it doesn’t suit them either.

There’s no official word on how this will affect his current on-going work with Marvel, except that it will come to an end sooner rather than later. He’s currently working on the Miles Morales Spider-Man on-going as well as Invincible Iron Man, The Defenders and Jessica Jones, plus the Spider-Men II mini-series and a long in the works Punisher book too. The likelihood is that he’ll be allowed to finish up his remaining arcs before going to DC full-time but no-one knows for sure.

There is also no word on what he might be working on for DC, a lot of rumours and guesswork right now, with some people believing he’s going to launch a DC equivalent of the Marvel Ultimate Universe, take over the Justice League series or write a series for a character who doesn’t have an on-going right now like Black Canary or Zatanna. Either way, what he works on will be highly anticipated for sure, it’s going to be a big seller for DC and hopefully he can work his magic on their wider universe.

If i wake up tomorrow and Geoff Johns has joined Marvel, i’m going to be convinced i’ve been poisoned or something.

[kierantc-blog]

My comic book collection

So here is my own comic book collection. I’ve been reading comics on and off for most of my life but it’s only been in the last 4 years that i’ve become a regular reader again. I exclusively bought single issues digitally for a while but 2 years ago i decided i should buy some physical stuff, and here’s what i have to date.

So that’s the top shelf, complete with my first Funko Pop that i bought actually only the other day, and it’s Superman (my favourite character) from the upcoming Justice League movie. I’m gonna buy more.

As you can see i have the main Crisis events as well as Flashpoint and DC Universe Rebirth, and my personal favourite stories of All-Star Superman, Kingdom Come and Multiversity. I have some of the Earth One graphic novels but honestly i’ve been a bit lazy in buying the others. The Superman books next to the Funko Pop are the Death Of Superman series, i saw them on a post on Reddit some time ago and thought they looked great on the shelf so i bought them for myself.

Next up is my Batman shelf, it’s not as big as i’d like but i love what i do have, in particular Tomasi & Gleason’s Batman & Robin series. I also have a few of the DC You books but if you notice one of them is upside down, and that’s the Bizarro book, so of course it’s the wrong way around!

I’m sure some of you are wondering about the Batman plush, and it’s from a collection by Hallmark called “Itty Bitty”. When they started they only had a handful of them but now they have Marvel characters, Star Wars characters and more.

So there’s a lot of choices on this shelf, i have some DC You greats in Gotham By Midnight and Grayson, but the best part for me is the Green Lantern stuff. I love Geoff Johns’ work on the series, starting with Green Lantern Rebirth back in 2004 but it was easier for me to get back into the series with the New 52, which is why i haven’t bought the old ones yet like Sinestro Corps War and Black Night. They’re on the list though!

You can also see my Justice League books, and as you’ll see on the next shelf i do have the complete New 52 collection, including the fantastic Power Of The Gods book from Darkseid War.

Here you can see more of my DC You favourites in Martian Manhunter and the amazing Omega Men book by Tom King, and i also have the Shazam book by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank....honestly how this character doesn’t have his own on-going series is INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

I’m also buying Titans related stuff now with Rebirth, i’ve loved both Teen Titans and Titans but i’m not too familiar with older stuff and i did not like the New 52 Teen Titans series by Lobdell. You can also see my Wonder Woman collection but i stopped collecting the New 52 series after Brian Azzarello left, mainly because i loathed the run by Meredith and David Finch. It’s the one New 52 collection that i don’t intend on completing, but i have gone back to buying it again thanks to the wonderful Greg Rucka Rebirth series.

And yes, that’s another Itty Bitty! That was a gift from my 5 year old niece lol.

This is where i expose myself as a DC fanboy. My Marvel collection is dismal, bu in my defence i don’t find much value in the way that Marvel do their trades nowadays. They’re more expensive than the DC ones but they contain less content on average. The DC books in my experience average 6 issues per trade but the Marvel ones contain between 4-5, 6 at most. That is why i have stopped collecting the rest of All New X-Men and Guardians Of The Galaxy books.

Also i have one solitary Saga book. I love Saga and it’s on my Amazon wishlist, but i always end up buying other books first.

So i guess i should address the Meerkat dressed as Batman. In the UK there’s a comparison company called Compare The Market and they have Meerkats (who run CompareTheMeerkat.com lol) as their mascots. When Batman Vs Superman came out they had a promotion where if you signed up for car insurance you would get a plush dressed up as either Batman or Superman. I don’t drive but luckily my brother’s ex-girlfriend does and she got it for me.

So this is my final shelf, and it’s more of a decorative thing than anything else.

I don’t have a local comic book store where i live in the UK but my sister does in London, so when Rebirth happened she managed to snag me first prints of both DC Universe Rebirth #1 and Superman #1, bagged and boarded. They’re the only floppies i own (currently) but they’re two of my favourite parts of my collection.

The Superman book in the middle is a leather bound diary i bought from CostCo. I thought it looked awesome, just like my Batman Pez dispenser lol.

And finally....

My limited edition Superman Returns statue. This was given to me by a friend for my 21st birthday 10 years ago and is my favourite thing. As you can see the arm is busted, i’m still not sure how it happened but i do know that it’s almost impossible to reattach with any glue. I’ve tried dozens of super glues, even super strong Gorilla Glue but it doesn’t work. I’m reduced to using this white tack stuff but i’m not happy about it. I might try some clay or something but in the mean time this will have to do.

So there you have it, my collection. I have plans for more stuff and more bookshelves (thankfully i live near an Ikea) so who knows, maybe i’ll post more pictures as my collection expands.

Thanks for reading!