#god the way DC just keeps making green lantern’s appearance and character look like they came out of a jammed Xerox machine makes me so sad

[aralezinspace]

I just watched the Superman trailer and DC, imma need you to stop doing my baby dirty like that like what did Green Lantern ever do to you

I’m just saying they should give me a bajillion dollars to make a green lantern movie I’d treat him right

So many people hate Guy Gardner for shit ass reasons and I don’t want this movie to give them a justified one 😭

[thevindicativevordan]

Big 2 Comics Terminology for Beginners

As a kid trying to get into comics there were a lot of terms being used in regards to Marvel and DC that I didn’t really understand. When I would ask other more knowledgeable people who had been around longer to explain, I typically got condescending looks of pity. “Oh God a newbie” was the thought clearly flowing through their head. Those in the know didn’t have any interest in explaining to those outside how things worked, all the better to keep the fandom “pure”. 

In the interest of providing an explanation for terms crucial to understanding how the Big 2 operate, and as a way to kick off this blog, I thought I’d try my hand at explaining what the many words used when talking about DC and Marvel actually mean. That way when I use the words you know what I mean and you’re not confused by how I’m using these words.

Bear in mind that some people will use multiple words interchangeably, all the better to confuse you with. I believe the following definitions will provide the most clarity however.

Continuity - This word is crucial to understanding the words that follow so we’ll start with it. At it’s most basic, continuity means the stories that are acknowledged and built upon by the stories that come after as having “happened”. For example, over at Marvel, Stan Lee and Steve Dikto’s origin issue of Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy #15 is still in continuity. When writers and artists do flashbacks to Peter Parker’s origin, that issue is what they are referencing. In contrast, the Siegel and Shuster Action Comics #1 issue that contained Superman’s origin is no longer in continuity. Superman was not found by a passing motorist, raised in an orphanage, and had his powers as a baby. That’s no longer in continuity, stories in the mainline won’t reference it as having “happened”. 

Continuity is a tricky beast at the Big 2, warped by reboots, retcons, reveals, and just plain old passage of time. The Big 2 are obsessed with trying to keep continuity accessible and understandable to new readers, hardcore fans are obsessed with making sure their favorite stories are referenced and maintained as “important” and having “happened”. This tug of war, as you might imagine, causes problems.

Canon - This word designates the stories that are in continuity. A “canon” story happened, “matters”, is referenced to, and is built upon.

 Reboot - Here’s a big one. If you’re a fan of DC you know this word. You’ve probably heard it used several times to describe everything from the New 52, to DC You, to Rebirth, to Infinite Frontier. However the only one to me that actually qualifies as a reboot is the New 52.

Reboots take a well known franchise and starts it over from the beginning. Basically it’s as if a franchise is debuting for the first time with none of the previous stories mattering at all. Or at least that’s  supposed to be the intention, in practice it’s not that simple. There are actually two sub-types of reboots: hard and soft.

Hard Reboot - This is what a reboot is “supposed” to be. A clean slate upon which writers can start over from scratch. None of the previous stories are taken to have happened, none of the previous character development is in play, the old relationship statuses aren’t where the characters are now, characters can have any of their traits (race, sexuality, gender, personality, etc) changed, etc. In short anything goes. This is what DC did for Justice League for the New 52. The team had a totally new origin, a new roster where a mainstay like Martian Manhunter was swapped out for Cyborg, Cyborg was never a Titan and was a founding League member, etc. Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg all got hard reboots.

Soft Reboot - This is where things get confusing. Basically it’s a reboot... but not really. The intent is the same, start over, but some stories carry over, some character development holds true still, etc. Basically trying to have your cake and eat it too. With the New 52, both Batman and Green Lantern got soft rebooted. Bruce was no longer and older 30-40 year old guy, now he was in his late twenties like the rest of the League, and all his old pre-Flashpoint continuity got carried over, except somehow compressed to have taken place in 5 years. Also he never wore the old costumes (such as the old blue cape and cowl with the yellow oval Bat-symbol). Green Lantern carried over likewise, Hal was younger and everything from Johns run or referenced by Johns run still “happened”. Somehow. Even though stuff like Blackest Night didn’t make any damn sense anymore, that happened, just not the way it actually happened in the Blackest Night issues you read.

You may notice that the two franchises that didn’t get rebooted were the two that were doing just fine Pre-Flashpoint sales-wise and critics-wise. Shocker I know. Reboots are intended to revive struggling franchises that are suffering from creative decay, and are in need of dramatic shake-ups.

Relaunch - Often confused with reboot, this word actually means something different. Relaunches typically aren’t about wholesale erasure of continuity. Instead what they mean is DC and Marvel take a bunch of their ongoing series and restart the numbering while also swapping around the creative teams. So if you’re reading Hulk #210 written by Al Ewing and drawn by Aaron Kuder (this is just a made up example), when the relaunch hits, next month you may be reading Hulk #1 by Ewing and Kuder, or you might be reading Unstoppable Hulk #1 by Ewing and Kuder, or Ewing and a new artist, or maybe even a new writer and artist creative team all together! 

Very clear and non-confusing I know. However the previous run you were reading before the relaunch still happened, and is still in continuity. Relaunches are typically used to advertise big new changes in direction. Stuff like Otto Octavious becoming Spider-Man or Jane Foster becoming Thor, that’s stuff that typically leads to a new #1, at least at Marvel. 

Marvel NOW! is an example of a relaunch. Bunch of old ongoings got relaunched with new #1′s, creative teams got shuffled around, and also new series got announced which is typical for relaunches. Note that reboots also typically coincide with relaunches, as happened at DC with the New 52, but not always. The Post Crisis reboot did not result in Action Comics or Detective Comics getting relaunched for example.

Retcon - These are when stories go back and change the events of previous stories. Stuff that was previously thought to be true no longer is, relationships are changed, characters are modified, etc. However the stories still happened, just not the way we thought they did when we read them. Perfect example of this is one of the most hated retcons ever, One More Day. This story ended with Peter and MJ never having been married. All the previous stories still happened, but they were just boyfriend/girlfriend living together and not husband and wife. It’s the perfect example of how retcons can piss readers off.

But retcons don’t always have to piss people off. One of the best received retcons was Alan Moore retconning that Swamp Thing was a living plant who absorbed Alec’s memories and merely thought he was Alec. In reality he was something else entirely. All of the previous Swamp Thing stories still happened, they were still canon and in continuity, but our understanding of them changed. 

Reveal - This is when the readers are made aware of something that changes the context of the story they’ve been reading. All retcons are reveals but not all reveals are retcons. How to explain the difference? Here’s how I define the difference between the two:

A retcon is when a writer changes something that the writer previously thought to be true. This could be one writer retconning another, or a writer retconning themselves. For example George Lucas retconned that Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father Anakin. That was not the intention when he made A New Hope, the two were separate characters. Another retcon is when Geoff Johns revealed that Superboy/Kon-El was the hybrid clone of Superman and Lex Luthor. That was not the original intention when Kon was created by the writers who created him.

A reveal is when the writer changes something that the readers thought to be true. A previously heroic appearing character is actually a villain in disguise, and they were always intended as such. See Terra in Wolfman and Perez’s Teen Titans for an example.

I think that’s enough for one post, I may make another intro post to explain other terminology, but this feels like a pretty good place to stop for now.

[davidmann95]

How'd you like the new Death Metal special (and, more broadly, this week's comics)?

pretenderoftheeast said: Comics this week (12/9/2020)?

Batman: Black and White #1: The first of a platter of anthologies today:

* The Tynion/Moore story is predictably fire.

* JHIII is JHIII. Also he does a really nice surprising story about how Batman’s relating to this moment of the time, but let’s be real, you’re here because JHIII, and be assured he is JHIII as helllll here and it’s great.

* Dini/Kubert plays as the former building a story around accommodating requests by the latter, but that’s not a bad thing, and glad to see Kubert’s kept up the pace since his DK3/Up In The Sky creative rejuvenation.

* Ok I’m a philistine who has no idea what that Emma Rios thing was about but it was certainly pretty.

* Wilson doing Batman is surprisingly disappointing, but Smallwood doing Batman definitely isn’t.

DC’s Very Merry Multiverse: Not a very merry time! I hate to say it given this should be so geared to my interests, but this is the weakest overall effort we’ve gotten from one of DC’s quarterly anthologies in a good long while, at least among those I’ve picked up. Not to say it’s a dud, there are several nifty little stories in here including the much-hyped first appearance of Kid Quick (destined to become the Flash of Future State) and really almost everything here reaches ‘pretty okay’. But for $10, and a creative space that should reach so much more than ‘pretty okay’, I don’t know that this is a justifiable recommendation unless you’re understandably desperate for all the President Superman content you can get your hands on.

Tales of the Dark Multiverse: Flashpoint: I’m surprised I got it too, but the preview grabbed me and in practice it was a fun, mean little high-concept adventure of Reverse Flash being a total cock.

Wonder Woman #768: Credit where it is due, this has been getting a bit better in its closing stretch.

Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Last Stories of the DC Universe: This ruled. Obviously there was the one story folks are most interested in, but almost all of the tales in here lived up to being a ‘final’ story of sorts for their leads.

* The Titans bookenders were pretty nice even if it’s hilarious that their big rallying cry basically amounts to “by god, our book may be shit, but we’re valuable IP so we’ll never be cancelled!”

* Green Lantern is basically an epilogue to Johns’ run sans the baggage of bringing back Johns (that we get in two weeks with Secret Origin and god forgive me I’m so looking forward to that), and definitely one of my favorite efforts from Lemire.

* Wonder Woman’s the stinker in what’s nominally her own event. I can parse the roots of most bad Superman stories one way or another, but I just can’t understand what’s behind most bad Wonder Woman stories beyond that the people handling it simply don’t give a shit.

* Astonishingly, the Green Arrow and Black Canary chapter in here might be my favorite of the bunch? Simone at her best, a really sweet slice of playful, sincere romance about two characters I’m not by default invested in but ended up quite caring for here.

* This Aquaman story is everything I generally hate in Aquaman stuff, a big long maudlin speech about the weight of the world as he swims through a black featureless ocean, except here between the real heart Sebela brings to the script and the mood artist Christopher Mooneyham manages to evoke, it all clicks together.

* The Batman Family story feels like it can’t quite make its pacing work, but it’s still a heartfelt little ode to the theoretical power of the concept.

* Hey, that Mark Waid guy? Turns out he can write him some Superman. It’s not perhaps the total barnburner you might have expected - I imagine he’s saving his biggest hits for later - but it’s a very solid execution of a gangbusters concept, and Manapul steals the show with absolutely sensational, gorgeous scenic Superman imagery. I’mma say 60/40 in favor of them doing a Superman project together on either a main book or Black Label (I know Manapul was supposed to be locked into a creator-owned thing with Scott Snyder but that was ages ago), because this is a paring that’s yielded some immediate results and I imagine everyone knows it. And given my upbringing, nice to see a big, iconic, beautiful Superman story with him rocking the mullet.

Anonymous said: Haha holy shit Crossover is literally Cates taking that page where Spawn meets all the corporate heroes locked up and spinning it out into a series

Anonymous said: Does Crossover #2 hold the crown for the funniest, dumbest, most baffling opening page ever?

Crossover #2: Readers I’m not too big to admit I laughed my ass off at the first page, and at least a little bit for the actual reasons intended. The sense of homaging that Spawn scene in the context of a book about “Gosh, isn’t IP the best folks?”, or Cates’ dialogue...(shall we say) proving why he likes the concept of ellipses enough to name a character after them aside though? That it’s already crossed the line with its central metaphor from “indefensibly insensitive in its ridiculous self-centeredness” to “out-and-out cartoonishly offensive” somehow actually makes it more rather than less palatable; there’s no longer the secondhand embarrassment of waiting to see how bad Cates is going to handle this, it simply is the worst it could possibly be and readers have to accept and perhaps revel in the sight of him stepping on rake after rake. I cannot wait for him to finally give an interview on this book where he explains what the hell he thinks this looks like, and I hope my dad keeps somehow enjoying it forever because I totally wanna see what pit this descends to next.

Penultiman #3: This is absolutely agonizing and probably the most relatable take on a ‘superman’ ever.

Home Sick Pilots #1: A new creator-owned book from Dan Watters (whose big two credits include the stupendous “Afraid of America” with John Paul Leon in the last Batman Secret Files, and the upcoming Future State: Superman/Wonder Woman) and Peter Cannon’s Caspar Wijngaard, this new book set against the backdrop of a Californian high school’s punk scene in 1994 describes itself as “Power Rangers meets The Shining (yes, really)”. The former influence isn’t much in play yet, but thus far this is a book that merges building tension and freewheeling dopey teen bullshit to an extent that’s subtly impressive as hell, and seems likely to proudly take a place among the current horror comic renaissance.

Warhammer 40,000: Marneus Calgar #3: Ok again I don’t have any experience with this franchise but you’d better believe that cultural osmosis was enough that I popped for BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

King in Black: Namor #1: Kurt Busiek’s return to Marvel...sucks? Such is the power of Knull I guess even if he doesn’t manifest within the actual story here, this is a complete nothing of a comic and I’m not tuning in for issue #2.

Avengers #39: Eh, I’m not liking Aaron Avengers when it gets remotely serious nearly as much as when he’s doing stuff like having them finally help Blade with all those vampires or Captain America assisting with the delivery of an exploding space-baby in the back of a muscle car.

Anonymous said: That new Guardians of the Galaxy was something else. What do you think the odds are that Comic Books, with a decade or two of hindsight, recognizes Ewing as one of the best to ever do it?

Guardians of the Galaxy #9: I lack much context here beyond recalling from an interview that this is Ewing’s way of grappling with the ideas from Steve Englehart’s original unrealized vision of Star-Lord’s character arc, but wherever it stems from this is a hell of a comic.

S.W.O.R.D. #1: This is everything I’ve wanted from the non-Hickman X-books since the moment HoXPoX ended, and so much more, and also it is basically hilarious that Ewing is all but explicitly using his clout to force Marvel to let him to Ultimates3 under a currently cancellation-proof banner. Most importantly of all, Ewing has already mastered the subtle art of writing not merely Magneto, but the infinitely superior Jonathan Hickman Magneto. And good lord Schiti and Gracia, I already knew they were top-tier but these pages’d make a grown man cry.

[ufonaut]

Idk if its been completely comfirmed but i read an article about the gl series for hbomax and theres nothing about hal being in the series + the suspicious and recent pattern of comics sidelining hal gives me the very "oh no."

On top of that everything with teen lantern and even simon and jessica (for the hbo series) kinda make me believe theyre trying to push for a new gl "look" so to speak but to me it feels like the same thing with "whos gonna become the next batman?" Or with a new member of the superfamily but instead of having a established story or strong support for "passing down the cape" or whatever its a new person entirely and that honestly it just doesn't work with green lantern and if it did theres plenty of creative room with alien races like i dont see any of this really working out in the long run if thats what they're trying to pull with gl

Even with batman and superman it always goes back to bruce and clark and there's plenty of dynamic with hal to keep him as a present figure in gl, theres literally no substance outside of earth with the new lanterns nor do they have really any traction with lantern relations within their own corp or enemies like hal has with sinestro or the commentary about ethics/morality of law enforcing IN SPACE or literally how the guardians are inherently war criminals etc etc like i know im rambling but i feel like you would understand hence why im typing this because ive been sitting on this all day and tbh four human lanterns was more than enough like to the other human lanterns please leave the room its full

everytime i hear anything about the recent human lanterns im just like :/// where's the weight, the quality, like they keep looking forward but theres so much room for things they looked over on the past like give me more about kilowog or abin sur like please god who thought itd be cool to have a teen lantern like did they even think past "lets try to get as much representation with no substance into this all the while ignoring the opprotunities that this long loved dc hero has within its world of thousands of alien races, lantern corps, social/political intricacies, and hal jordan <3

1) i thought asks had a word limit

2) BUD WHERE HAVE U BEEN!!!!!!!!!!! the good folks at ufonaut hq (me) have been following hbo gl since its initial announcement in either sept or oct last year and hal has literally never been part of the plan, he & john are both being saved for the upcoming glc movie. that’s a fact that’s been said repeatedly in various statements from both hbo and dc, if you’d cared to listen

hbo gl seems focused on untold stories and literally every element of it is a dream come true to me. i can’t complain about the human - alien ratio of the cast because it’s nearly equal (alan, guy, jess & simon -- unnamed alien female lead, sinestro, abin & kilowog), the non-linear storytelling and every episode being set in a different time period is genuinely innovative AND. NOT TO MENTION. WE’RE GETTING THE FIRST LIVE ACTION ALAN SCOTT? WHO’S ALSO GONNA BE CANONICALLY GAY? DO YOU REALISE HOW HUGELY IMPORTANT THAT IS. DO YOU REALISE.

i’m sorry i get what you’re saying about feeling like hal is being sidelined and i’m assuming you know how i feel about the new gls & the guardians situation but as a fan of alan scott. i have to laugh. the original green lantern has literally been repeatedly erased or forgotten or cast aside so i don’t think you can really claim a character coming off a very successful solo run (that had two seasons and an interlude!) is being sidelined

i agree with you about certain aspects, definitely, but i would rather have hal in fewer stories that are actually meaningful & complex rather than have him as the no personality space cop he’s been written as for the vast majority of the modern era (with the sole exception of...last stories of the dc universe). my problem isnt necessarily the introduction of new lanterns but rather, like you said, the lack of substance & weight. i’m ecstatic to see a sinestro story without hal in hbo gl specifically because he IS a sufficiently developed character capable of carrying it by himself.

a lot of representation in current comics does feel empty and it is disappointing but, from a purely canon pov, hal is a straight white man and the most popular green lantern in the universe. he’s never gonna be lacking in appearances. i love him dearly, i do, but complaining about content like hbo gl when it’s giving us something as absolutely immense as gay alan scott in the 1940s simply isnt the way to go

when it comes to wildly mainstream characters like hal & the rest of the jl -- characters who’ve become synonymous with their superhero identities and who have starred in every story in existence -- my stance is mostly what mr keith giffen used to say in his columns at wizard mag dot com

[fuckyeahaldishodge]

Press: Aldis Hodge Is A Real-Life Superhero, So Give This Man What He Wants

After years of dramatic roles, the “What Men Want” star wants to make you laugh and fulfill his dreams of being a super-powered badass

    BET – Legend has it that Aldis Hodge worked cheap early in his career. Really cheap. Like, McDonald’s Happy Meal cheap. The pre-schooler was tagging along on a photo shoot for Ebony Magazine, where his older brother, Edwin, was working. The producers had a last-minute need for another cute kid and Aldis’ mother convinced him to take the gig in exchange for a coveted Batman toy. Thanks to mom’s quick thinking, Hollywood has been gifted one of its most intense and versatile acting talents.

Hodge has amassed a colorful acting resume that includes stints on shows like A.T.O.M.: Alpha Teens on Machines, Friday Night Lights, Supernatural and Leverage. But it was his moving portrayal of a restless slave named Noah on WGN’s Underground that made viewers sit up at attention and cheer with their fingers across social media. In the same year his appearance in Black Mirror as a somewhat single father named Jack living with his girlfriend’s voice literally in his head, allowed him to blend his piercing stares with subdued comedic timing. But now Hodge gets to go for the full belly laughs in the R-rated comedy What Men Want as the bartending, romantic, very single father named Will, who gets caught up in Taraji P. Henson’s mind-reading male-strom.

During a stop at BET, Hodge is adorned in gold, beads and denim fabrics that accent flawless skin that has benefited from the sun’s full attention. He walks with squared shoulders inherited from his retired Marine parents. His cape is invisible. If not for the disarming laughs cracking his intense looks, you might think he’s one cartoonish horn blare away from taking off through the ceiling to catch a meteor hurtling toward earth. Between bites of his lunch we talk about the comedy of sex, his fascination with controlling time, engineering the perfect date and being a champion for the people.

I didn’t cross reference it until just today. I just recently did an interview where I was like, “Dang, she was inside my head, too! What’s going on?” But it was pretty cool. The synergy was awesome. But with each role, I come at it with a clean slate and figure out where the tones are. I had been out of comedy for a long time, not my choice, but for the past five to seven years my career has been swinging up into the drama area. But most people don’t realize comedy is a big part of my life. I started stand-up when I was 11. When I was 13 I used to host a room at the L.A. Improv and I did that ‘til I was 17 or 18 years old. Then on Leverage we did five seasons of that. It was an action caper show but I still got to flex my comedic muscles. We killed that in 2012, so it’s been a minute. I was happy to reintroduce people to my idea of humor. Will is not inherently the braggadocios funny one. He’s not the big personality in the room. He’s reactionary. He’s gonna have a sense of realism, so his comedic timing is subtle. The tones and notes are a little more subdued, and that’s a different tone to play. But our director, Adam [Shankman], took so many different types of comedians with very different timing and put as all together and kept us on the same note. We were always on the same page. You had Josh Brenner, who most people know from Silicon Valley, Pete Davidson from SNL, Wendi McLendon-Covey from Bridesmaids, Tracy Morgan, obviously. Everybody has a different style that they’ve been hitting for a minute, and he just figured out how to weave together. And there are some people you’re not gonna expect to be funny but are hilarious, i.e. Erykah Badu. She’s hysterical. And then I’m there in the mix. As an actor, I’m always hungry for fresh challenges. I don’t like to feel like I’m sitting in a box, and when this opportunity came up, naturally I was nervous at whether or not I could still be funny, and I was hoping. But I just let Adam take care of me on that one.

Speaking of your comedic side, you pranked Taraji with honey buns on the set of Hidden Figures. Did anything else like that go down on set for What Men Want?

Nah. The prank for us was getting through the sex scenes. We wanted to get through those as fast as possible. It’s tough. It’s always a nervous environment when you’re doing scenes like that. But the biggest thing is, because it’s physical comedy, how do you do that without looking stupid? You want people to laugh with you and not at you. But thank God for Adam and Taraji. It’s easy to keep a straight face when you have nerves. We had fun with it. You let yourself fall into it. And Taraji’s a pro. If you see the movie, I took a couple of those hits for real. Some of them reactions are real!

Is it worse to know she knows your thoughts, or is ignorance bliss?

Better not to know, of course. I would not want to know who knows my thoughts. I wouldn’t want anyone to be in my head like that, but if you did know, imagine how anxious you’d be all day. You’d be like Brandon, Josh Brenner’s character, all day. Just rambling to keep people out of your head.

If you had to disguise your thoughts, what would you think about?

Man, most of my thoughts on a regular basis go to design. As soon as I step into a room I’m taking in the square footage, I’m measuring in distances, everything is art to me. Or I’m putting my engineering cap on to see how it’s built. So I don’t think anyone would want to be in my head, because it’s pretty boring. I’m a nerd, bruh.

Speaking of engineering, horology sounds like something men do after a breakup. How did you get into watch making?

I’ve been doing that since I was 19. I just love building things. I’ve always had a natural inclination to create and build, and it satisfies a necessary art. It got to a point in my career, I think I was 13 or 14, where I didn’t have enough life experience to add gravitas to some of these characters I’m trying to play. I started drafting blueprints for my dream house when I was 12. I always loved designing and building, because that’s where my imagination lives. Art is my language, and acting is just an emotional exposition of my art. So, it’s the same thing to me, just a different conduit. But the other side of me is like building, I love crafting things. Horology satisfies a lot of different things. I wanted to be an architect in school but that would mean I’d have to quit acting, and I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna die in a director’s chair when I’m 110 years old. But what I found about the intricacy of horology and watch design is that it was architecture and painting and mechanical engineering. It satisfied so many points for me, and I could do it at my own pace.

You rarely hear of men discussing their dream house. What did yours look like?

I like space, I like nature. I like to bring the outside inside. There’s a couple of architects that I really love. I grew up on the work of John Lautner, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry. But one of the firms I love now is Olson Kundig, particularly Thomas Kundig’s work. His houses are machines. He’ll cantilever a side or a roof and all you gotta do is crank it and you’re lifting the side of your house off. I can’t afford that in New York, but one of these days I’ll have to partner with him for a house.

Your son, Ben, in the film is adorable. What was it like working with him?

Auston Jon Moore. He’s a fun kid. I’m excited to see what happens with his career. He was five years old when we were doing it. Really spunky, good instincts. We had a good time. I was actor-parent-child wrangler. When we were shooting the rooftop scene, we had all this food out, and he kept eating the food. “We need continuity, baby. You gotta put the food back.” He’d say OK, and then we’d come back and he’d have a mouth full of chips. He was awesome.

He had one of my favorite scenes with the panties. Was your “don’t breathe” line ad-libbed?

Yes, that was ad-libbed. I was like, “The baby! What do you do?’ What would I say?” We had fun with that scene because Adam just let us be free and add as much color to the characters as possible. That was a fun day, trying to get him to put on the underwear. When he realized what it was he was like, “Hold up, fam.” So, I had to put the underwear on my head to show him it was cool.

You pulled a Mars Blackmon?

Yeah, yeah. I sacrificed [laughs].

There are two scenes in What Men Want that you’re not in, the card scene and the wedding. Which would you be in if you could?

I definitely would have loved to have worked with Erykah and have a little Taro reading. She was just pouring herself into that character. That’s her imagination splayed out on camera. But I would have loved to see Will have a session with Sistah.

What about the poker game with the athletes?

I think Will might be a card shark, but I don’t know if he got the chips to sit at that table. That was a very high-stakes game, and he’s too smart to bet his rent money. But if he had the chips, I think because of his bartending skills he could read people really well and take home a nice healthy pot.

You’ve been the subject of a lot of wish-casting, particularly to be Green Lantern. Have you ever thought of playing a superhero?

I’d love to be a superhero. I’ve been trying to be a superhero for 12 years. If that opportunity came that way, I’d eat it up immediately. I got into this business as a kid because I loved Batman. I was trying to get my Batman toys. I grew up on Marvel and DC.

Noah from Underground definitely was a superhero. How do you feel about that role years later and the impact he had?

I took it as a grand opportunity just because of the fact, when the initial idea of the show came to me, I was like, “If this is a series about enslavement, how does it work for five or six seasons? Do we want to see our people in persecution for that long? Where is the gratitude that comes out of this for the audience?” But when I read the pilot I was like, “Oh, it shows us in the situation, but not made of the situation.” It showed people in bondage, not slaves. It gave us dignity. It gave the people who went through that an actual identity. They didn’t bring slaves to America, they brought engineers and doctors, brilliant people. So, for me to be able to expose that they had hopes and dreams and still had the strength to find love in those times was immensely powerful, because we’d never see it in our history books. Our schools failed us in that. So the opportunity to add to the dignity of our people was a high honor. I look at all of those characters as superheroes. They actually added the show to curriculum in schools. This is the effect that you can have as an artist. That’s what I love.

With Valentine’s Day is coming up, how would you engineer the perfect date?

That’s tough, man, because you gotta work off the person. It depends on who she is and what she wants. Some ladies want dinner and flowers and some ladies just want to kick back and watch a movie. My ideal date would start with a little dinner, some champagne, maybe some chocolates. Then we’re gonna go to the movie theater, we’re gonna see What Men Want, I’m not even lying. Get her laughing, feeling good, then probably go dancing. Then if I really feel like I’m on my mack-ness, I’mma be like, “Hey, boo. Real quick though, I just wanted you to know that I got your mom a ticket to the movie, too. I wanna let her know it’s her Valentine’s Day, too.” And that’s my ideal date: Dinner, What Men Want and a little dancing.

What Men Want starring Taraji P. Henson and Aldis Hodge is in theaters now!

Press: Aldis Hodge Is A Real-Life Superhero, So Give This Man What He Wants was originally published on Aldis Hodge Online | Est 2010

[musesofconstantchange]

We Have To Talk About Batman

So, I just read The Batman Who Laughs #3 and Detective Comics #998, and I can’t hold it in anymore. We need to talk about how Batman is the worst character in comics right now. 

For those unaware, the previous holder of this title was Deadpool, but previous luminaries include Cyclops, Wolverine, Hal Jordan, and many others. Rather than talk about all of them, let’s focus on Deadpool and why he held it, and you’ll likely grasp why the others did as well. 

First, Deadpool at his best is a humorous, witty character who swaps between moments of humor with striking, honest takes on serious topics. He is both comic relief and the character that points out the moral incongruities in the protagonist’s actions. As a protagonist, he is well suited to commentary on many things, because of his nature as an outsider sort of character. At his worst, he’s the signal to the reader that nothing that follows his appearance matters, because his existence is akin to throwing the stakes out the window. At his worst, he’s the character that derails anything resembling tonal consistency, and at his worst, he’s the character to whom all others are sacrificed in order to keep him from coming off as a psychotic madman that ruins everything. At his worst, he’s the character that all others must prostrate themselves before, no matter what he’s done, because to accept that this character is flawed is to call into question the writer’s ability to actually write a nuanced character, and we can’t have that. 

You can probably tell already how all of the other mentioned characters have fallen into this trap whenever they become extremely popular, as writers with more interest in being attached to a hot property than writing good stories use them. So it was when Wolverine was the hottest character in comics, so it was when Hal Jordan was the next hot shit, so it now is with Batman. 

Of course, the problem with Batman is that Batman is a character whose main flaws have been around so long that they are now parody; everyone jokes about the ‘i’m the goddamn batman’ line, and laughs at the ‘who wins in a fight, x or batman with prep time’ joke, but these hide the fact that the character of Batman himself has become the biggest mary sue in comics today. His entire character has been so flanderized, so utterly lost inside the infinite layers of parody and lack of self awareness, that all joy has been lost from the character. 

Let us be honest here: the core idea of Batman is not the problem. There is a reason that there are so many Batman cartoons, and it is in no small part because Batman as a character is an almost universal one. A child suffers a great tragedy and uses that as the moment where he begins his heroic journey towards making things better. This is neither dumb nor uninteresting. 

The problem is that writers of batman have, for a very long time, been very uncomfortable with the idea of who Batman is. Batman at his best is a detective, a man of science and reason and restraint, a man who resists his darker urges in comparison to the obsessives that make up his rogue’s gallery. He is a mortal man, a flawed man, but he is always a man, in that he is human and not a god. It is why he is a member of the “trinity” and the Justice League, because he is the mortal element. He is the perspective of the common man compared to the near godlike beings ( Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter ) and cosmic focused heroes ( Green Lantern, Hawkgirl ) that he is surrounded by. He is the one that can say ‘look, you all mean well, but remember how you look to the normal guy.’ 

But this Batman is not popular with writers. Indeed, ever since The Dark Knight Returns, the version of Batman that has become the most common is the paranoid, near psychopathic, almost godlike messiah figure who is always right, who is never wrong for taking immoral actions, whose character all others are sacrificed to in order to ensure we all know how great he is. This Batman isn’t a mere man who uses his inherited wealth and sense of right and wrong to try and make the world a better place. This Batman is someone who is the best at everything, who constantly treats friends, allies, and family members as disposable or hindrances, who sees nothing wrong with spending his time planning on how best to kill all his friends and family, and who must constantly be shown to be smarter and better than all around him. 

This Batman is a super rich mega genius who has been trained by all the world’s best people, who can never be physically defeated by anyone or mentally outwitted by them. This is Batman, invincible ninja playboy billionaire genius. 

It has always been rather egregious on some level, but as time has gone by, successive writers have only deepened the problem, incrementally moving further and further towards the complete mary sue he is today. The fact that Batman needs a giant robot suit, the fact that Batman could put together such a thing somehow despite it requiring genius level knowledge in robotics and electrical and mechanical engineering, speaks to the levels of broken the character is. When movies are made where the concept of Batman vs. Superman is created to justify the existence and need for a giant robot suit so that Batman, a mortal man, can fight godlike beings, you are fundamentally failing to grasp the character and what that character is supposed to be. 

Example, from the recent and aforementioned Detective Comics #998: 

Ah yes, because you know what Batman needed? A giant robot suit that was put together by the Justice League with all their powers because he wasn’t awesome enough. Also, that ‘weakness’ that’s described? That’s not a weakness, which we the reader find out about it when he literally pushes it to the extreme and he’s completely fine from doing so. 

But I can understand how this might come off as just me being mad that Batman has his own Iron Man suit. It’s not. The suit itself is not the issue. It’s what the suit represents that is. Because the whole reason that this exists in this is because Batman can’t stop going to people who trained him, which is basically half the known DC universe. It’s not just that he studied under Wildcat, best fighter alive, and Zatara, best escape artist alive, and Jason Blood, best fear creator alive, and Dr. Stone, one of the greatest inventors in the DC universe. The list goes on. Batman has a staggering amount of former tutors, who apparently imparted upon him near infinite knowledge of all things. 

And it’s not just this near omniscient knowledge of everything either. He’s also physically better than everyone. He’s a master martial artist of a dozen styles who also knows every weapon style known to man. Oh, and apparently he’s also one of the best marksman on earth. From this week’s The Batman Who Laughs #3: 

Because that’s what Batman needed, more skills! 

And make no mistake, all of this makes Batman extremely boring, which is not something Batman should be. A lot of this can be chalked up to writers literally having no idea how to write a challenge for him anymore. At first, the plan was simply to make all of Batman’s villains overwhelmingly overpowered as well. This is why the Joker is somehow also a super ninja genius of everything who can conjure impossible chemicals and defeat the entire legion of doom on his own because he’s just so powerful and smart and crazy! It’s why most of Batman’s villains don’t even really fight Batman any more, it’s usually Batman fighting himself. As we saw in Kings of Fear, the entire series is nothing but Batman in his own head, the Scarecrow didn’t actually do anything. 

Speaking of Batman fighting himself, let’s talk about Batman: Metal. 

Look, I love me some multi-verse. I love Elseworlds. I think one of the greatest tragedies in comics was the decline of the multiverse concept in comics. But Batman: Metal goes from being about the return of the multiverse to being the latest in a long line of resignations that the only person who can compete with Batman is... Batman himself. 

All the villains are various versions of Batman who, you guessed it, killed all the other members of the Justice League. Now, if you were a crafty, or moderately smart writer, you might realize that having a universe where all your nightmares are real means that this is a great way to show how wrong your character is! After all, it’s made of their beliefs in what things are, not what they actually are, which is why Batman’s idea of him becoming Green Lantern involves him using a hard light ring to make darkness and the like. 

What this should do, is provide the writer with some ability to show how Batman isn’t a one-man show. That when Batman’s idea of what makes those other heroes strong runs up against the real thing, his ideas lose. But no, Batman wins, because Batman always wins, because heaven forbid Batman be wrong about other people. Apparently, Hal Jordan being the greatest Green Lantern means nothing compared to Batmans complete and utter bastardization of the concept of the ring, just as Wonder Woman being a near immortal godlike warrior who’s trained for centuries means nothing compared to Batman in what he thinks is the helmet of Ares. And it’s the same as Batman also clearly being better than the greatest Flash that ever lived because apparently Batman also has complete knowledge of the speed force now. 

But almost all of what I’ve talked about could be reasoned away or excused if the moral center of Batman’s character wasn’t utterly corrupt. Consider this mentality for why Batman has contingencies and plans for every possible outcome, and why he plans for the possibility wherein he’ll need to kill all his supposed friends. The world is a dangerous place, and those people have powers, and you never know what might happen that might cause them to go over the edge. We don’t know what might cause Superman to go rogue and kill everyone. Or what might cause Wonder Woman to destroy the world of man. Or what might cause Aquaman to flood the world in the name of Atlantis! All it could take is one bad day! 

Is that possibly true? Sure. But that’s not the mentality of Batman, that’s the mentality of the Joker. Joker is the one who believes that everyone is just one bad day from turning into a psychotic monster, who believes civility and decency are facades that people use to hide the fact that deep inside we’re all animals and monsters who will eat each other given half a chance. He’s the one who believes that people are all naturally bad, that people aren’t really decent, that anyone can be made into a monster and will give up their morality at the first opportunity. That’s the entire concept of his character and why he opposes Batman. It’s also why Batman opposes him. 

Because Batman at his core is not meant to be an agent of vengeance. He’s not the Spectre. He’s not the Punisher. Batman is supposed to be someone who believes that people are ultimately good, that people are not all one step away from committing atrocities and war crimes, that people are, by virtue of their humanity, good people at heart. Not everyone is good, but people aren’t all monsters inside, and the reason Batman needs to exist is because someone has to stand up for the fact that there are still good people in the world. 

If Batman doesn’t believe that people are good, if Batman believes that everyone is one step away from committing mass murder, then Batman is no different then the Joker. When Batman does things like make spy satellites to gather information on other hero’s weaknesses and bugs the rooms of his supposed family members, he’s not just not being Batman, he’s behaving exactly counter to the very values that Batman should be representing. 

If Batman cannot trust his allies on the Justice League to be good people, then how is he any different from Amanda Waller? If Batman cannot trust his ‘family’ to the point where he feels the need to bug their homes and spy on them, why exactly did he train them? If Batman cannot believe that there is any real good in the world, then why exactly is he Batman? 

Hopefully I’ve demonstrated that the problem with Batman as a character is more than skin deep. The issue of him being an overpowered superhuman being are problematic. The issue of him being a near psychopathic figure whose mental state reads like an episode of Making a Murderer is problematic. The issue of him being completely unmoored from any sort of heroic morality is problematic. 

Taken together, the character represents the worst of mary sue writing. He is a character who routinely commits morally and ethically objectionable actions and suffers no fallout for them; he is a character that all others are constantly made to seem inferior towards; he is a character whose very nature and concept must constantly be revised and changed because the writers cannot bear to let the character whose defining trait is his humanity actually be human. 

He is a character whose jokes have become the reality; where the exaggerations are now the baseline. Batman now is little more than a patchwork of skills and gadgets, of psychosis and grimdark man pain. It would be comedic, perhaps, if Frank Millers All Star Batman and Robin, from which the iconic ‘i’m the goddamn batman’ arises, was some kind of outlier. Yet for all the jokes and derision that comic gets, and rightly so, very little distinguishes it from the mainstream depiction of Batman in comics more generally. The flanderization of Batman is complete, and this is why Batman is now the worst character in comics. 

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of April 10th, 2019

Best of DC: Week of April 10th, 2019

Best of this Week: The Batman Who Laughs #4 - Scott Snyder, Jock, David Baron, Sal Cipriano

You will know terror.

Batman’s been infected by Joker’s heart toxin, Jim Gordon has been kidnapped and the Batman Who Laughs has been trouncing him at every turn. With no real options left and running out of time and sanity, Bruce dons the visor of The Batman Who Laughs to see things through his eyes. The only thing keeping him grounded s also the thought of seeing the world through the eyes of his kids, his Robins, especially Dick Grayson who had “circus eyes. Weightless, leaping, never falling.”

But Alfred, after seeing Bruce with the visor, takes it away and proceeds to fight him. Jock breaks my heart as Alfred fights with all that he can to keep his son from making a grave mistake and the tears falling down his cheek, with Batman’s hands around his throat, sells the desperation in both of them. The Batman Who Laughs is winning and the only way to defeat him is to think like him.

Meanwhile, The Batman Who Laughs tells the story of what made him snap and kill the Joker on his world, the Death of Jim Gordon. Heavily shadowed with an even heavier focus on his vibrant red lips, crooked/jagged teeth, with the words in their scratchy red font dripping with venom, The Batman Who Laughs weaves his tale with an almost terrifying glee. I feel the weight of his threats and I fear what he and The Grim Knight have planned for Gotham and Jim himself.

Batman, now searching the city for Dark Multiverse Metal energies, calls James Gordon Jr. hoping he’s found the waterway that TBMWL is planning to poison. James, also hoping to stop Batman from going down the path of darkness that he himself travels, asks if he has a contingency plan in case The Joker Toxin fully takes hold. We get a flashback to Batman checking Gotham’s water before being approached by the Joker and the two have a surprisingly heartfelt (ha) conversation. Joker wishes Batman good luck in taking on The Batman Who Laughs and reveals the reasons why his plans always fail.

Joker believes their eternal fight to be a game and believes that one day he’ll win, but doesn’t want to, he doesn’t want Batman to win either. He wants the game to go on and on and on. Each inset panel is absolutely creepy as Joker has one green eye and the position of it changes from panel to panel, growing or shrinking and getting brighter. Batman, asks Joker if he can pull the trigger if Batman does go over the edge, the two share a joke and fear runs down my spine.

The first time I finished reading The Killing Joke, seeing Batman laugh with the Joker during the villain’s one moment of lucidity was weird and uncomfortable. An infinite number of interpretations of what would happen afterwards or the grim implications weighed heavy on my mind and hindered my ability to sleep. This - seeing Batman shrouded in shadow, sharing a moment of madness with the Joker is even worse. There is no way this mini-series ends well with Batman coming out they same way he came in and Joker’s madness is contagious, it will leave a mark on Batman’s soul.

Batman makes his way to the Blackgate Penitentiary and meets with a guard whose history he seems to know well enough before the officer betrays him, telling the other guards that Bruce is the Batman Who Laughs. The guard then takes off his mask, revealing himself as The Batman Who Laughs and chilling my soul as we finally see his face.

This book is powerful. Jock’s art is haunting, Snyder’s writing is careful, measured, making Batman so sure of his abilities, but distressed when things go awry. Watching him slowly slip into madness is horrifying and the image of The Batman Who Laughs face is burned into my mind.

The is possibly one of the highest recommendations I can give. It is amazing, a perfect book!

---------------------------------------------------

Hawkman continues to soar high as one of DCs best and most fleshed out heroes as his fight against the Deathbringers continues.

Runner Up: Hawkman #11 - Robert Venditti, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Jeremiah Skipper, Starkings and Comicraft

With his back against the wall in the last issue, Carter Hall reached deep inside himself and called all of his past selves forward so that he could have the strength to defeat the Deathbringer Armada, creating an Army of Hawkmen. In an absolutely amazing double-page spread, Hawkmen from different periods of time and erase all shot forth, hungry for battle and justice, ready to protect the world and end this invasion.

Bryan Hitch has drawn scenes like this throughout the series, but this time they're real and carry with them all of the regret, rage and strength that Carter has been carrying through his journey. Each Hawkman is distinct and this issues does a good job of showcasing Hawkman through his almost 80 years of publication. Silent Knight of Britain was epic, Catar-Ol of Krypton was as powerful and as regal as the old Kryptonians and Nighthawk of the Old West was a badass gunslinger as he took out many Deathbringers. Katar Hol, in a costume mixing the original helmet design with the uniform of a Thanagarian police officer, appeared. Freaking Prince Khufu Maat Kha-tar of Egypt, one of the first origins for Hawkman, realized his true purpose in the battle.

Not only did heroic versions show up to help in the effort, but even monsters like The Dragon of Barbatos appeared to turn the tide, mowing down waves of enemies. Seeing even this version return as a force for good shocked me because of the damage the monster almost helped to cause to the Multiverse and he just looked so threatening, imposing an cool as hell!

While all of that is going on, Carter is in the middle of battle with his former friend, Idamm, in on of the best action scenes Hitch has drawn thus far. Carter lets loose all of his regret, his shame and epically defeats Idamm, impaling him with the Deathbringer Spear. Carter’s muscles ripple, the pain in his face is prevalent and he stands tall, heroic and mournful that he had to kill his former friend. Or did he?

Idamm, having been stuck in the Abyss with their death god for god knows how long has changed, become unkillable. As the Hawkmen fall one by one and Carter himself is bested by Idamm, he remarks that this moment between them is how all of this started and is also where it should end. Idamm, instead of killing him outright, readies the Deathbringers to destroy the Earth, bringing Hawkman to the endgame.

This issue was phenomenal. The same way that Robert Venditti helped in the later era of Green Lantern, post Geoff Johns, by revitalizing the character, he’s given new life and purpose to Hawkman. I will admit, I used to hate Hawkman for being an almost useless character overshadowed by Hawkgirl, but this series has turned all of that around. He has depth, a new and wonderful history with a better villain that those in his past. Bryan Hitch brings the pain with every panel with expressive body language, great scenery and composition along with the wonderful way that he draws each Hawkman to make them look especially unique and cool in their own right, but also being distinctly Carter Hall.

Admittedly some of the colors feel a bit flat here and there, but with the amount of detail he puts into every scene, not all of them can be perfect, but when they are, they certainly go past the mark. I can’t wait for the next issue and I really hope that it’s not the final and that Hawkman’s story continues being told and if it is the last, well what a ride it has been!

[dccomicsnews]

This weekend marks the official launch of the highly anticipated DC Universe digital steaming service, and earlier this week they decided to run their beta version for those who have already pre-ordered the service.  The beta is limited, so those of us who have it haven’t gotten the chance to see everything, but it did give us a great look at what to expect from the full version.

There are so many great reasons to sign up for this service, and below I list the TOP 10 Reasons to Subscribe to DC Universe.  So sit back and enjoy the ride into the wonderful world of all things DC.

  10. EXCLUSIVE MERCHANDISE

Not only will you get all sorts of great content to watch and read (as you’ll see below), there’s also a new DC Universe Shop within the app where fans can purchase some awesome merchandise, like t-shirts, statues, mugs, phone cases, and more, with some items being exclusively sold through the app.  One of these exclusives is a new line of animated-style Justice League action figures, to complement the popular 6-inch Batman: The Animated Series figures the company has been making lately.

The first wave includes the full initial team line-up – Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern John Stewart, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter – plus Aquaman, who was not a member of the team before they became Justice League Unlimited, but who did appear in several memorable episodes during the first two Justice League seasons.

  9. DC COMMUNITY

In the all new DC Community section, fans can join other fans on a plethora of message boards covering all kinds of topics like comics, movies, TV, news, and more.  There’s even a section called “Creators Corner” where fans can connect with DC talent.

DC Community shows trending discussions, popular tags, and even gives you the chance to create your own thread covering any topic that’s rattling around in your brain.  Do you want to talk about the best Robin?  You can make a thread about it.  Do you want to discuss your love of the short-lived Birds of Prey TV series?  Go ahead!  The sky’s the limit!

And DC has vowed to work hard on moderating these boards in order to make it the best possible experience for fans everywhere!

  8. ENCYCLOPEDIA

This comprehensive encyclopedia breaks down your favorite characters (like Batman and Superman), as well as some you may have never heard of (like Chaselon and Ferro Lad), with great detail, giving an introduction and history to the character, their origin, powers, essential storylines, team affiliations, and appearances in other media.  Some characters are more thorough than others, but this encyclopedia will be always growing and expanding, so if there’s some info you think is missing, you’ll be able to submit it to be added.

There’s also a tab labeled “Related Content” that brings up movies and TV shows, comics, and even trending discussions about that character within the app.  This is a great part of DC Universe as it will help to educate DC fans, new and returning, on the characters that live within it.

  7. LIVE-ACTION FILMS

As someone who loves films (I even run my own film review site), the fact that the DC Universe app will include live-action films is something I was very happy to hear.  Now, from what we’ve been told, there doesn’t seem to be very many live-action films available, at least not yet.  We’ll have access to Superman 1-4, Batman (1989), Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin, Batman Begins, and The Dark Knight.

Now, this is a great, albeit small, selection of films, but I’m really hoping they will put more than just Batman and Superman movies up here.  Let’s get films like V for Vendetta, Watchmen, A History of Violence, The Losers, Road to Perdition, RED, RED 2, Swamp Thing, Constantine, etc.  This would truly add some great value to the film library.  And who knows, maybe they already have plans to add some of these.  That would definitely push this farther up on my list.

  6. ANIMATED FILMS

The catalogue of animated films based on DC properties is huge, with dozens of quality entries, from the 30+ DCUA (DC Universe Animated Original) films, to films like Subzero and Mystery of the Batwoman, and even the LEGO DC Super Hero films.

The DC Universe app will offer a large array of them, including some of my favorites like Justice League: War, Batman: Under The Red Hood, and even Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.  But what shocked me the most was that their newest animated film, The Death of Superman, is actually available to watch on the app, even though it’s only been out for less than two months.  And with a 3-4 films release schedule every year just for the DCUA films, this library will continue to grow.

  5. DC DAILY

  Within the “News” tab is a section for the upcoming daily news show, DC Daily.  They recently did a live-stream (of which the video is available to watch on the app) breaking down what you can expect from DC Universe, while also introducing DC Daily and the hosts who will be bringing all the news to the fans.  The live stream was hosted by Kevin Smith.

There will be several great and knowledgeable hosts including Tiffany Smith (DC All Access), John Barrowman (Arrow, Doctor Who), Samm Levine (Freaks & Geeks, Inglourious Basterds), Harley Quinn Smith (Yoga Hosers), Sam Humphries (DC Comics Writer – Green Lanterns), Hector Navarro (DC All Access), Clarke Wolfe (Collider Movie Talk, Film HQ), Brian Tong, Markeia McCarty (DC Movie News), and John Kourounis.

DC Daily cast (L to R): Samm Levine, Sam Humphries, Tiffany Smith, John Barrowman (in front), Harley Quinn Smith, Clarke Wolfe, Brian Tong, John Kourounis, Hector Navarro

DC Daily will be replacing DC All Access and will offer news related to the original series on DC Universe and other content that “ties back” to DC Comics and the DC Universe community. The program is scheduled to have the following segments: “Headlines”, for daily news briefs; “Reports”, for an in-depth interview or look at an upcoming book, film, or television series; and “Talk”, for panel discussions.

  4. LIVE-ACTION TV SERIES

DC has some of the best live-action comic book TV shows out there, and a lot of them will be available to watch right through the app.  We’ll get to see such shows as Wonder Woman, The Flash (1990), Birds of Prey, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and even more obscure titles like Human Target.

This would be a spot or two higher on the list if the current DC shows were included, like Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Gotham, and all of the others.  Hopefully, they’ll eventually make their way to the app once their contracts with the other streaming services expire.

  3. ANIMATED TV SERIES

I’ve got four words for you: BATMAN. THE. ANIMATED. SERIES!!!!

When it was announced that the greatest comic book TV series of all time was heading to DC Universe, I was ecstatic.  And to make it even better, it’ll be released in fully remastered HD, and I have to say, it looks fantastic!

And if that’s not enough for you, we’ll also be getting a plethora of other great animated shows from the world of DC including Batman Beyond, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Batman: Brave and the Bold, Superman: The Animated Series, Static Shock, Teen Titans, Young Justice, and even the old Max Fleischer cartoons from the 1940’s.  This is an amazing line up that will keep people busy binging for quite a while.

  2. LARGE SELECTION OF COMICS

Unlike other streaming services, DC Universe will also offer a reading component through a large curated selection of some of DC’s best comics.  You’ll get to read classic stories like Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27, and The Dark Knight Returns, as well as getting the chance to check out some more obscure stuff like Doom Patrol and New Gods.

And the built-in comic book reader is fantastic, particularly the panel-by-panel option, which allows you to become fully immersed in what you’re reading, bringing these comics to life.

  1. BRAND NEW EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

For me, the biggest reason I chose to commit to this service wasn’t the past DC content, but instead all the future content that’s on the way.  There’s only so much previous content, so the fact that they’re developing several new projects exclusive to DC Universe will keep me coming back for more.

Right now, there are four live-action shows and two animated shows in production, with many more to come.  I’m also hoping they will dive into original films for the app as well.  The shows announced so far are Titans (which will premiere at NYCC, and then hits the streaming service on October 12th, with new episodes each Friday), Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Stargirl, the Harley Quinn animated series, and the one many have been waiting for… Young Justice season 3 (titled Young Justice: Outsiders).

Titans follows young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find belonging. This gritty take on the classic Titans franchise finds Dick Grayson and a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness named Rachel Roth as they get embroiled in a conspiracy. They’re joined by Starfire and Beast Boy to become a surrogate family and team.

Doom Patrol is a reimagining of one of DC’s strangest group of outcasts: Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman and Crazy Jane. Led by the mysterious Dr. Niles Caulder they’re called into action by none other than the ultimate hero for the digital age, Cyborg. These rejects band together on a mission that will take them to the weirdest and most unexpected corners of the DC universe.

Swamp Thing is a scary love story following Abby Arcane as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but soon discovers that the swamp holds mystical and terrifying secrets.

Stargirl follows High School sophomore Courtney Whitmore who inspires an unlikely group of young heroes to stop the villains of the past. This new DC Universe series reimagines Stargirl and the very first superhero team, the Justice Society of America, in a fun, exciting and unpredictable series.

Harley Quinn tracks the lovable, raucous villain with a fractured psyche after she breaks up with The Joker and tries to make it on her own to become Gotham’s main queen-pin.

Young Justice: Outsiders features the return of the fan favorite animated series with a huge cast of DC’s most iconic young superheroes – plus brand-new characters, many of whom are just discovering their unique meta-powers and special abilities. Set against the backdrop of a rich, deep world that touches all corners of the DC universe, the season focuses on meta–trafficking, and an intergalactic arms race for control of these super–powered youths.

  And there you have it folks, the Top 10 Reasons To Subscribe To DC Universe.  If you haven’t already done so, be sure sign up and enjoy all of this wonderful content at your fingertips.  Head on over to the DC Universe site and sign up right now.  You can do the monthly subscription for $7.99/month or you can save some money and do the annual plan for only $74.99/year.

And be sure to share your experiences with the service in our comments section below or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.

Top 10 Reasons To Subscribe To DC Universe #DCUniverse @TheDCUniverse @DCComics #BatmanDay #DCComics #DCComicsNews This weekend marks the official launch of the highly anticipated DC Universe digital steaming service, and earlier this week they decided to run their beta version for those who have already pre-ordered the service. 

[youramazonsister]

5 Hits and Misses of the praise-worthy Justice League Movie (No Spoilers)

Half a decade ago, I thought to myself that it would be extremely difficult to place all these huge characters in one movie. 

Having read a vast amount of comic books makes you feel like with the characters comes an entirely different universe inherently akin to their own storylines. That being said, the work of the directors, producers and actors in this movie deserves a pat on the back just for hurdling past this feat. 

This does not mean, however, that the DCEU is exempted from making mistakes along the way. Here, I present to you the 5 hits and misses of the Justice League movie:

Hit #1: A Well-balanced League 

In the comic books it was always about the “Big three”, particularly, Batman, Wonder woman and Superman, but in this league, equal importance is put on all league members. The “they need each other” mantra was heavily instilled with one’s weakness always compensated by another league member.

Miss #1: Lack-luster character dialogues 

The heart and soul of the league is always in the character interaction. In almost all the comic books published by DC Comics, the prevailing reason why people sunk deeper and deeper into the world of these rich characters was because of the kind of depth they had with each other when it came to communication and friendship.

Of course, in the movie, the league has just “begun” and like all new groups of friends, the exchange will be rather rigid and cold. One I particularly did not like was how lack-luster Gadot’s speaking lines seemed with all these strong and animated male leads. 

It has come to my attention that she has given birth to an entirely different incarnation of Wonder woman, and probably, it has yet to be seen on how she will progress with this kind of direction. But unlike her other male co-stars, sans Aquaman, of course, her version of Wonder woman is starkly different in demeanor; this late in, it is completely evident that she isn’t the Wonder woman we have read about in the comics and watched in the animated series.

Hit #2: Well coordinated fight scenes 

I am not going into detail with this. But for the record, they all individually killed their respective fight scenes. I had a headache trying to keep up with the pace of the fight scenes, because IT. WAS. THAT. GOOD. 

Die-hard Marvel movie fans will love it. (Shots fired) 

Miss #2: Anti-climactic scenes

Classic to DCEU, their movies have been getting awfully bad at editing, and by that I mean that there were many scenes that were obviously prematurely cut in the middle and sometimes in the beginning. So much so that only very sharp comic book fans will be able to pick up some Easter eggs.

“For Darksied”

Hit #3: Still on canon with a little changes

No, it wasn’t anything like JLU the Animated Series, however, it did take on a life of its own spinning a totally different arc that befitted the movie. The thing about knowing almost every arc published since the 1970′s on a comic book team is that you go into the cinema almost thinking that you know how the plot will start, end and finish. But I was surprised to watch that the writers anticipated this and made only minor changes to both impress moviegoers and pleasantly surprise comic book readers. 

Miss #3: Missing  important points to bolster the story

Some scenes were fantastic, some just didn’t make any sense, while some scenes were too short and others were quite dragging. The movie only made sense 45 minutes in. It would have been more enjoyable if the character interaction was more rich, but of course, that was another miss right there. 

Hit #4: Well developed and continuous story arc

In the movie, you can see a fluid connection to the previous Wonder woman movie and BvS, which makes things less confusing and more unified further solidifying the League as one unit fighting on the same world, for the same cause. 

Miss #4: A Weak Super Villain 

Who is Steppenwolf? Yeah, exactly. 

It would have been better if Granny Goodness (also one of Darkseid’s Generals) was the Supervillain if this was the direction they wanted to go. There were many, many, many, MANY more interesting villains they could have chosen aside from Steppenwolf. 

We’ve all seen what happened to Suicide Squad and Green Lantern. It’s not that the heroes or the movie sucked, it’s just that the supervillain was really bad. As we all know, and the perfect example is Ledger’s Joker, a formidable supervillain can make or break a superhero movie. 

Hit #5: Wonder woman and Batman Dynamic 

Don’t they look good together? 

That was a rhetoric. Of course they do. 

Miss #5: A “Superman is God” theme (BECAUSE HE’S NOT)

A lot of emphasis was put on the loss of Superman. It was like they were saying that the league was helpless without him. But honestly, they are fine even without him. In the comic books, there are plenty superheroes that are stronger (Martian Manhunter, Shazam etc.), faster (The Flash) and more adept in fighting tactics (Wonder woman) than Superman. 

This overall thwarted the “Teamwork” theme of the entire movie. Making everyone surmise that Superman is the only hero who can save everyone again.

OVERALL

It was a fantastic movie packed with many flaws worthy of a lot of criticism. But would I watch it again? Of course I would! This is, after all, the first time the Justice League appears on the big screen.

The hits outweigh the misses by a short bit. 

Tell me what you think about it in the comment box below!

[aion-rsa]

How DC Universe Infinite Brings Welcome Changes to the Digital Comics Reading Experience

https://ift.tt/2LCOmNz

Way back in September, DC’s second FanDome event dropped a huge announcement: DC Universe, the all-encompassing DC entertainment streaming app that featured comics, movies, and TV shows from the DC catalog, would narrow its focus to comics, becoming an app called DC Universe Infinite.

The new app launches on Jan. 21 and brings with is a slew of changes, many of them for the better — at least if comics are what you’re looking for. Den of Geek got an early peek under the hood of the app and we have plenty of good news to share.

How It Works

First thing’s first: if you already have a DC Universe subscription and you’ve signed off on switching your account to the new app, all you have to do is download the DC Universe Infinite app when it goes live on Thursday morning. The new app will overwrite your old one and port all of your old data over, an especially helpful feature if, for example, you are 145 issues into a Five-Years-Later-through-Abnett-and-Lanning Legion of Super-Heroes read and you don’t want to lose your place. The new app will keep all of your old library and lists together, and will even let you pick up on the page where you left off. 

Beyond that, the only cosmetic change you will likely notice is the ability to change the app icon. On your settings page, you’ll have the option of picking one of several DC characters to serve as your home screen icon, with a selection that we’re told will keep growing with time. 

Otherwise, the app is pretty familiar – collections, story highlights, how the books are laid out, and how the reader flows all work just about the same as the old app. 

Under the hood is a bit of a different story…

Changes to Readability

DC Universe was already better laid out than most competitors. The binge read experience was far superior due to the built in metadata organization of series and runs. Take the all-time classic Starman. James Robinson et al’s seminal work ran through 75 issues of a main title. But it also had annuals, one-shots, and a crossover with Power of Shazam! that were essential to the whole story. DC Universe did a great job of slotting those extraneous issues into their appropriate places in the reading order. And DC Universe Infinite is expanding on that, with more tagging and sorting happening behind the scenes to make that reading experience even better. 

The biggest and best change to functionality when DC Universe Infinite launches is a shift in how the books load. DC Universe really was a streaming comics service – it would only download a couple of pages ahead of where you were reading, and because of funky internet connections or different reading speeds, you would sometimes drop a page in the middle of the book. No more of that in Infinite, though: the app preloads the entire issue when you click it. This is a huge upgrade for readability. 

Infinite also comes with a widget for mobile devices that will let you jump back to your reading spot with a swipe to the control panel, an easy way to help you stay current on your doomscrolling while reading your comics. And boy will there be a ton of comics. Hopefully less doomscrolling, too. But most importantly, lots of comics.

Read more

Movies

How Batman: Soul of the Dragon Pays Homage to 70s Kung Fu and Bruce Lee

By Gene Ching

Comics

Why Wonder Woman’s Real Origin Story Lies in First Wave Feminism

By David Crow

The Best Change: Milestone, Vertigo, Black Label, and Faster Updates

DC Universe’s comics library was already close to the gold standard for streaming services. The switch to Infinite brings some changes that will push it far and above all its competitors. 

New offerings on DC Universe Infinite include a stack of classic original graphic novels:

BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM  written by Grant Morrison and art by Dave McKean

GREEN LANTERN: EARTH ONE  written by Corinna Bechko and Gabriel Hardman

JOKER  written by Brian Azzarello with art by Lee Bermejo

JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERHEROES  written Paul Dini with art by Alex Ross

LUTHOR  written by Brian Azzarello with art by Lee Bermejo

MISTER MIRACLE written by Tom King with art by Mitch Gerads

SUPERGIRL: BEING SUPER witten by Mariko Tamaki with art by Joëlle Jones

A pile of classic Vertigo runs that were pulled from DC Universe shortly after it launched, like:

EX MACHINA written by Brian K. Vaughan with art by Tony Harris

HELLBLAZER Written by Jamie Delano, Garth Ennis, Paul Jenkins, Mike Carey and more

iZOMBIE written by Chris Roberson with art by Michael Allred

LUCIFER written by Mike Carey with art by Peter Gross

PREACHER written by Garth Ennis with art by Steve Dillion

V FOR VENDETTA written by Alan Moore with art by David Lloyd

Recent smash hits from DC’s Black Label imprint:

BATMAN: DAMNED written by Brian Azzarello with art by Lee Bermejo

HARLEEN written and illustrated by Stjepan Šejić

SUPERMAN: YEAR ONE written by Frank Miller with art by John Romita Jr.

THE LAST GOD written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson with art by Riccardo Federici

THE QUESTION: DEATHS OF VIC SAGE written by Jeff Lemire with art by Denys Cowan

The very popular Hill House line of horror books, which was curated by Joe Hill:

BASKETFUL OF HEADS written by Joe Hill with art by Leomacs

PLUNGE written by Joe Hill with art by Stuart Immonen

THE LOW, LOW WOODS written by Carmen Maria Machado with art by Dani

DAPHNE BYRNE written by Laura Marks with art by Kelley Jones

THE DOLLHOUSE FAMILY written by Mike Carey with art by Peter Gross

And another delightful surprise – Milestone Comics!

STATIC written by Dwayne McDuffie with art by John Paul Leon

HARDWARE written by Dwayne McDuffie with art by Denys Cowan

STATIC SHOCK! REBIRTH OF THE COOL written by Dwayne McDuffie with art by John Paul Leon

ICON: A HERO’S WELCOME written by Dwayne McDuffie with art by M.D. Bright

ICON: VOL. 2: THE MOTHERSHIP CONNECTION written by Dwayne McDuffie and M.D. Bright with art by Chris Cross, M.D. Bright, John Paul Leon, and Jeff Moore

Many of these books were made available for limited reading on DC’s web site during FanDome, and the small taste they gave was nowhere near enough. It’s really exciting to see Vertigo included, and just as good to see Milestone getting the push it deserves. This is all in addition to the digital first exclusive comics going onto the app daily, and a community function that looks like a better moderated old-school message board experience. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The big loss in the switch to Infinite are the original television series, which are all moving to HBO Max. However, the library additions more than make up for the narrowed focus. If you’re looking for a comics binge service to get you through…all THIS…DC Universe Infinite looks like a terrific investment. 

The post How DC Universe Infinite Brings Welcome Changes to the Digital Comics Reading Experience appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3sELIrb

[comic-movieheroesranked]

Cinematic Comic Characters Ranked! (Year 2011) Part III

This year I think has the most characters ranked so far, and all from movies introducing brand new characters. X-Men franchise gets a reboot with X-Men: First Class; The MCU welcomes the additions of Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger; DC Comics introduces Green Lantern, and we also get The Adventures of Tintin, Cowboys & Aliens, The Green Hornet, and Priest. Here’s #40-21!

*SPOILER ALERT FOR THE HIGHLIGHTED MOVIES ABOVE*

40. Erik Selvig (Thor)

"Anyone who's ever going to find his way in this world, has to start by admitting he doesn't know."

Erik is a wise man of science who helps Jane work on her projects. Despite not believing Thor's story one bit when the god arrives to Earth, he still helps Jane rescue him and even leaves some words of advice to Thor that helps him understand what it means to be a king. He's a good guy so it sucks to see that by the post-credits scene, when he's talking to Nick Fury, he's been possessed by Loki himself.

39. Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine (The Adventures of Tintin)

"Nothing I do is an accident!"

A villain on a quest for revenge in his great ancestor's name. Sakharine had every move and action planned out to find the lost treasure of the unicorn but didn't quite predict Tintin's involvement. Despite all his efforts, he's unable to complete his mission and loses to Haddock just like his ancestor did.

38. Benjamin Chudnofsky (The Green Hornet)

"My gun has two barrels. That's not boring."

The big bad villain of the film, Chudnofsky is just a crime boss who is going through a mid-life crisis. Turns out that being scary means a lot more than just killing everyone who crosses you. He learned the younger generations want something a little more flashy. He tries but it's kinda like when a father tries to hang out with his teenage son at a party. It just doesn't work. However, he's still a violent being who takes out a lot of people but in all honesty, he can't be that impressive when he couldn't even kill Britt on his own. Sure, Britt had Kato, who managed to deliver the killing blow to the crime lord, but if he was as bad as wanted to be, he would've had no issues.

37. Lenore Case (The Green Hornet)

"If you even look at my ass again I'll sue you for sexual harassment."

Geez how did this girl even want to work as Britt's assistant after finding out what a complete douche he was? His attempts at flirty were so pervy you just couldn't help but feel bad for Case. Kato didn't really help either and if I were in her shoes I'd let the cops take them both down. But for some reason she helps them and decides to continue to help them keep the city safe by the end of the film.

36. Azazel (X-Men: First Class)

"Damn it."

In my opinion, Azazel is Shaw's most dangerous assassin in the Hellfire Club. Not only can he teleport but he's also a master at wielding a long blade. The combination of the two really shows when he kills most of the government agents protecting the X-Men by himself. His combat skills are so impressive that he's able to take on Beast and Havok at the same time. He apparently can't take a punch though, as it only takes one from Beast to knock him out. When everything's said and done, Azazel joins Magneto's Brotherhood.

35. Thaal Sinestro (Green Lantern)

"Are you afraid?"

With his mentor dead, Sinestro seems to be the strongest member of the Corps alive, but he's faced with a lot. Even with his skill he can't seem to defeat Parralax, who keeps destroying planets with his powers of fear. Worse, he strongly feels like Hal isn't fit to be a Lantern so in an act of desperation turns to the Guardians to find another source of power to defeat his foe. The source is fear, the opposite force of willpower, the very essence of what it means to be a Green Lantern. Despite Hal proving willpower can overcome fear, at the end of the film, Sinestro still puts on the yellow ring, becoming the first member of the Yellow Lanter Corps.

34. Black Hat (Priest)

"After all, if you're not committing sin then you're not having fun."

Black Hat used to be a priest who was taken down during an attack on a vampire hive that went wrong. Instead of killing him, the vampire queen feeds him her blood instead and turns him into the first vampire-human hybrid, containing the skills of a priest and power of a vampire. This makes him dangerous as he leads an overwhelming army of vampire to kidnap Lucy, Priest's daughter, and destroy towns full of humans. He also proved his power by killing three priests on his own as well as nearly taking out Priest towards the films climax. However, Priest had help in the form of Hicks and Priestess and was able to see Black Hat burn up in flames at the last second.

33. Laufey (Thor)

"Go now, while I still allow it."

Man was this guy a huge let down. I truly thought Laufey was going to be the big bad villain of the movie, but turns out he was just another pawn in Loki's ultimate plan to rule Asgard. King of the Frost Giants, he's definitely not to be messed with, but he puts his faith in his son and when he goes to kill Odin in his sleep, Loki betrays him and blasts him to dust.

32. Hector Hammond (Green Lantern)

"How wonderful that all it took for you to grow up was the end of the world."

I almost did want to feel bad for all the crap Hector seemed to be getting from his dad his entire life, but all of that went out the window when the first thing he does when he sees Carol is sniff her hair. The dude is weird, jealous, and entitled so of course he ends up getting possessed by Parralax and granted these psychic powers that comes with a disturbing physical appearance. He gets his revenge on his students, his dad, even Hal for a bit before the other male manages to trick him into wearing the ring. The ring doesn't recognize him and backfires on him and when Parralax shows up and sees him wearing the weapon of his sworn enemy? Yeah Hector died real quick after that.

31. Thomson and Thompson (The Adventures of Tintin)

"To be precise, you are under arrest!"

These two are pure comedy. Not only for how they exchanged words with each other, but because they were absolutely horrible at doing their jobs yet, oddly enough, seemed to be at the right place at the right time to help Tintin save the day. I mean the two were literally at the house of the kleptomaniac they were after and were arguing AGAIST him on how he wasn't their suspect. If that isn't what you call a pure comedic mess I don't know what is.

30. Britt Reid/The Green Hornet (The Green Hornet)

"Everyone knows, you corner a hornet, you get stung."

I hated Britt. He's almost exactly like Bruce Wayne when it comes to being rich, having dead parents, and then deciding to become a superhero, but his arrogance, rudeness, and in-capabilities with mental and physical prowess proved this dude could never be on Batman's level. There was just so many times that he would screw everything up that you just wanted him to fail because it was frustrating to see someone as annoying as him save the day.

29. Parralax (Green Lantern)

"Once I have devoured your world I will have all the strength I need to defeat the Corps and destroy the Guardians."

A former Guardian, Parralax wanted to use the power of fear instead of willpower, making him an easy enemy of the Green Lantern Corps. After his first defeat, he returns stronger than ever, devouring planets through their inhabitant's fear. He nearly destroys Earth as well until Hal manages to fight him off, tricking him into being pulled in into the sun and burns away. His legacy in fear lives on though, once Sinestro slips on the yellow ring that is fused with his powers.

28. Woodrow Dolarhyde (Cowboys & Aliens)

"Get off my plains!"

At first Dolarhyde seemed like a huge asshole that let his son terrorize a town just because he was rich and that he was actually going to be an obstacle Jake would have to face during his war with the aliens, but the latter never happened. Dolarhyde was quick to band together with the others, only really showing disobedience when it came to working with the Native Americans which, granted, was only because they had just taken him prisoner. He proves to be a good shot during the final fight and even saves Jake's life at the last moment inside the ship. I would have preferred Percy dying instead of Colorado and then Dolarhyde officially adopting Colorado to be his son but instead he gives Percy exactly what he wants again but at least Percy kinda stopped being a dick.

27. Alex Summers/Havok (X-Men: First Class)

"Whatever."

Havok seemed to be the member shrouded in the most mystery when he first joined the group. He was very hesitant about being around everyone and they quickly knew why, his energy blasts are out of control. After the death of his good friend Darwin, he decides to focus on his destructive blasts but still can't manage to do it. Even though he mocks Hank to no end, the brilliant scientist helps create a device that helps him control the blasts. He holds his own when the X-Men go up against the Hellfire Club and he officially stays with Xavier after Magneto kills Shaw.

26. Carol Ferris (Green Lantern)

"You don't think I would recognize you because I can't see your cheekbones?"

Carol Ferris is a strong fighter pilot, a smart businesswoman, and Hal Jordan's ex-girlfriend. While it's clear she still cares about him, she just can't take him seriously. She's even smart enough to realize the Green Lanter is Hal, but I mean she makes a good point on him not really having a big disguise. Her bravery matches her brain power too, when she saves Hal from death by blasting some missiles at Parralax and giving him the opportunity he needs to save the day.

25. Johann Schmidt/Red Skull (Captain America: The First Avenger)

"Hail, HYDRA."

This guy takes having a God complex to a whole other level. He wants the world at his feet and in order to do so he needs power. So he creates HYDRA and joins Hitler and the German Nazis to find it. He becomes the infamours Red Skull when he tries to take the super soldier serum and his body rejects it. Even though he's really intimidating at times, he never really accomplishes anything. When his plan fails and Captain America defeats him, he grabs the tesseract and it seems to kill him with it's sheer power alone.

24. Ella Swenson (Cowboys & Aliens)

"I won't be around for very long."

Yeah Ella's true identity as another alien being was definitely a plot twist I didn't see coming but after learning who she really is you really got to admire her selflessness. She literally lost her entire race of aliens like her yet still went out of her way to warn and later help the humans before they were wiped out as well. She manages to help rescue all the kidnapped humans from the alien's captivity but her real shining moment comes when she sacrifices herself to detonate a huge bomb that destroys the entire alien ship, killing every single one of them. We did see her come back to life earlier so who knows if she actually stays dead this time.

23. Moira MacTaggert (X-Men: First Class)

"You're your own team now. You're X-Men."

Moira is a great CSI agent. As soon as she discovers that the Hellfire Club is full of mutants, she goes and finds herself an expert on one. She holds no prejudice like most humans in her era which is probably why Charles starts developing feelings for her. Despite being the only human on the team, she does her best to fight Shaw and even Magneto when he proves to be a huge threat, firing several bullets at him, one of which ends up paralyzing Charles from the waist down. Afterwards, for the safety of him and his students, her memory is wiped clean for when she's interrogated by the CSI.

22. Sif, Vostagg, Hogun, Fandral (Thor)

"We must find Thor."

Sif and the Warriors Three are some of Asgard's greatest warriors and Thor's best friends. They're loyalty is shown all throughout the film when they travel with Thor to confront the Frost Giants and when they disobey Loki and travel to Earth to bring Thor back to Asgard after his banishment. They each have their own unique qualities and abilities that brings something good to the table, but it's only when they all work together that they really become a strong force of Asgardian warriors.

21. James 'Bucky' Barnes (Captain America: The First Avenger)

"This isn't a back alley, Steve. It's war!"

Steve's best friend who's looked out for him his entire life before he joins the army. He reunites with Steve after he becomes Captain America and rescues him from a HYDRA facility. Bucky really becomes that sense of home for Steve, but I couldn't help but feel a little hint of jealousy in him? I mean I think he was so used to being the better man and then all of a sudden Steve is the face of the US army. Don't get me wrong, I think he cared about Steve one hundred percent but I think it was a hurt ego that made him try to rush that giant machine with Steve's shield before he gets blasted away and falls to his apparent death.

[cloakedsparrow]

I’d been reading superhero comics for less than a year when I stumbled into Crisis on Infinite Earths. I didn’t know most of the characters, had no familiarity with the intricate continuity that went into shaping DC Comics’ definitive event series. And yet the sheer scope of Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s epic was awe-inspiring; I wanted to know everything about these heroes. I spent my allowance on back issues at the flea market, scooping up classic tales of Green Lantern, New Gods, Justice League, Blue Beetle, and more.

This isn’t the typical reader reaction to coming up against a story that assumes expert-level knowledge of decades of comic book stories, I know. Continuity is seen as a barrier to attracting new readers, and very often it is. But you can’t have a story like Crisis without something to build on; you can’t develop a rich character like Wally West unless he has a meaningful legacy to inherit and surpass.

You also can’t, if you’re planning serialized storytelling that may extend 20, 50 years into the future, do things like give Superman a son, or have Batman marry Catwoman.

So much of the conversation around the continuity of superhero universes and reboots has focused on attracting new readers and the merits of honoring characters’ histories. These are important conversations to have. But DC’s post-Rebirth universe has unveiled a hidden benefit of having full-scale relaunches on the table: it allows risks that would have previously been unthinkable.

There’s a sense that, in comics, no matter how earth-shattering the latest event, things will eventually return to the status quo. That’s certainly been the line folks have used in defending the HydraCap storyline running through Marvel’s Captain America and Secret Empire — we all know that Steve Rogers will eventually be returned to his heroic stature. There are holes in this argument for this particular scenario, but for the purposes of the current discussion, it will serve. Captain America will be a hero again. Good will win out over evil. But for situations where you’re not dealing with good guys versus bad guys, when stories get into the more human aspects of superhuman life, changing course can be extraordinary difficult.

Look at the knots Marvel twisted itself into to nullify Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane Watson. In the much-derided “One More Day” arc, Spider-Man and MJ sells their marriage to Mephisto — the devil — to save Aunt May’s life. It was implausible. It was not heroic. In interviews and at convention panels around that time, Marvel Chief Creative Officer (then Editor-in-Chief) Joe Quesada said that he felt Peter Parker as a married man was too settled, that it cut off too many potential storylines and conflicts. The supernatural angle was preferable to divorce, he maintained, because, “I think Peter getting divorced to me says that they gave up on their love, that their life in love together was so awful, so stressful, so unfulfilling that they had to raise a red flag and walk away from it. They quit on their marriage and even more tragic, the quit on each other… Plain and simple, that’s just a Spider-Man story I don’t want to tell and it’s not something that I would like to have associated with Peter Parker and MJ. ” That’s a defensible position, though there’s plenty of room to argue the details. In short, faced with no good options to make Peter single again, Marvel chose a particular course that would give the publisher the status quo it desired, and took its lumps for the story at hand.

DC, meanwhile, negated Superman’s marriage to Lois Lane by scrapping the entire universe.

The New 52 was not without its problems and controversies, among them the tension between DC Comics’ rich history and its bold new future. But as the New 52 gave way to still another universal reconfiguration in Rebirth, something curious happened: DC got daring. Not with the sort of shocking deaths and heart-stopping revelations that have been the staple of action-packed superhero comics, but on the human side — the part that makes us root for these heroes, that allows us to invest in them, to care whether they win out in the end.

Not only are Lois and Clark married again, they now have a son, Jon. Eternal loner Batman has proposed to his adversary and lover Catwoman, and they may even wed. In this event, Catwoman would become Robin’s stepmother, creating another intriguing dynamic.

DC’s embrace of the family is a much greater change than it might appear at first, because it’s so much harder to reverse in-story. Batman can recover from a broken back, but as we saw with Spider-Man, erasing a marriage is another matter. And it’s important because it allows new stories to be told with these characters. Outside of “imaginary” stories, Elseworlds, and alternate Earths, until recently we had never had a sustained, prime-continuity look at Superman as a father; if Selina says yes, we will for the first time get a view of Bruce Wayne as a married man. This is a seismic change, because these stories, with these characters, have never been done. This is inherently more interesting and more exciting than the perpetual teen-angst sexual tension that publishers have previously assumed is what keeps readers invested.

And it’s all made possible by narrowing the scope. By putting reboots on the table.

Because if you’re shepherding a superhero universe for five years, ten years, even twenty years worth of stories, you can take this sort of risk much more easily than if your eye is on “forever.” If creators really do exhaust the story possibilities of the Batman-Catwoman family, if fans are clamoring for a return of playboy Bruce Wayne, then, when that time comes, push reset.

Does having kids overly “age” the Man of Steel and the Dark Knight? Push reset.

This approach is not without its dangers. A phrase that’s often used in discussing continuity is whether a story “matters.” Going back to the well too often risks not only diluting stories by making them not “matter,” but also stopping readers from investing in the characters moving forward. Because what fans are really talking about when they talk about which stories “matter” is, is the character I’m reading the one I care about? Is this a story about my Batman, or some other Batman? The willing suspension of disbelief will allow us to believe a man can fly, that a dark knight can overcome his own personal tragedy to protect the innocent; but in order to believe in these heroes, we must believe that, superpowers aside, their lives progress much like ours do. That they have a relatively knowable past, that their future, while unwritten, is at least mostly linear. Reboots fundamentally shatter this narrative.

The Batman-Catwoman pairing represents, perhaps more than any other recent development, that DC is entering a new era, and that reboots, once derided by fans, may have provided the foundation for the publisher’s greatest strength. The DC Universe is now a petri dish where truly character-changing experiments can and will occur — with the tradeoff being that it can all be undone in a universe-wide fire sale.

[tessatechaitea]

Justice League of America Rebirth #1

Batman's mom made him a coat of many characters.

Of course they always swing first! It's how comic books used to work! The bad guys were always bad. But then modern thought had to intrude and writers had to start asking questions like "But are they really?" and "What caused them to go bad?" and "If the bad guys aren't always bad, are the good guys always good?" and "What if we tear everything down and look at the whole superhero concept in ways that completely break the entire reason for the medium?!"

After watching the women fight for awhile, Batman makes his presence known. You'd think he would have tried to avoid unnecessary violence. You'd think that but his bat-boner would betray him. Black Canary is already referring to Seattle as "her city." Don't you fucking hate recent transplants who go whole hog embracing their new homes? They're as bad as the local news who do ads that are basically handjobs for the egos of local residents. Here in Portland, one station has a promo that's all "Portlanders. We're thinkers and players. We're beer drinkers and wine tasters. We're super awesome at sex and we don't use umbrellas. We are so fucking righteously awesome guys! Watch our news!" Batman explains that his team is a team of mortals and not a team of gods (except for Lobo, of course! Total god, that one). He also points out that Black Canary will be the team's conscience. I don't know how he figures that. I think he just wants to separate Black Canary from Green Arrow because he can. Batman probably hates Oliver Queen for stealing his rich white guy fighting street crime shtick. Next up is Lobo who is hanging out in New Jersey for some reason. Maybe because his secret identity is Jon Bon Jovi!

That's a pretty good description of Lobo.

One of these days, I'm going to write a Shakespearean play about Lobo. It'll totally be easy because he's got that whole "stick to my word" honor thing which can easily turn his life upside-down. Too bad he doesn't have a daughter named after a sexually transmitted disease though. So Killer Frost recruits Black Canary. Black Canary recruits Lobo. That means Lobo gets to recruit The Atom! I bet it involves human gauging!

Darn it. I wanted to see Ryan Choi inside Lobo's penis.

Now Ryan gets to recruit The Ray! I bet those two have a lot of fun together. Ray can turn into a beam of light and Ryan can ride him around! Probably. That sounds theoretically possible based on my high school knowledge of physics (which is mostly the knowledge of how many Gs the Tidal Wave roller coaster at Great America exerts on its passengers). Next on the list is Vixen. You probably already know the list since you've seen the cover and possibly read all of the JLA Rebirth one shots. Vixen is currently hanging out in downtown Manhattan channeling koi. I guess she wants to suffocate? Oh, maybe it's some kind of catfish that produces electricity. I've never had one of those at Popeyes. Batman tells Vixen that there is no team without her. That's a lie or else he'd have recruited her first! If she said no, was he going to fly back to Happy Harbor and call the whole thing off? Now that the recruiting is done, it's time to call the first meeting of the Justice League of America to order!

I love you, Lobo!

Remember when Lobo first appeared in The Omega Men? Batman should have forced Lobo back into his purple and orange costume. I love Lobo in a way that other people don't love Lobo. It's a special kind of love that most people don't understand. I don't care that he was meant to be an indictment of the grim and gritty mass killer characters popular among the moronic and stupid. Lobo, like Rorschach, transcended the authorial criticism inherent in his creation! Also he looks super cool and sexy, wears radical knee pads that don't make any fucking sense, rides a motorbike, looks like he's wearing clown make-up, has a butt-rocker sense of style, and is way into space dolphins. He's the fucking best ever. Batman has a big speech that's basically "Representation matters!" If that's true of this team then Lobo represents me! He's bad-ass and great at math! I know I said I was not able to do math in a Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps commentary but that was a lie. In reality, when I walked into my calculus class as a senior and one of the nerdy kids looked at my cool-ass Lobo look (minus the clown make-up and knee pads), he was all, "What are you doing in this class?" I just lit my cigar and said, "Sit down, ya bastich." After I came back from the principal's office for smoking in class, I totally rocked that math! There's an epilogue page that's not really an epilogue but one of those pages that was basically the entire story in Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #13 where it's just random images of future events to get fangenders and their crotches all worked up. This one shows Lobo and Ray about to kiss, Destiny talking to Killer Frost, Batman holding Liberty Belle's shield, and Ryan discovering Ray Palmer. Sounds super exciting! The Ranking! Best comic book ever! I mean, not really, but it features Lobo! Twenty stars! All the thumbs up! Fifteen tub girls! Super fantastic!

[banjokazooie64]

Injustice 2 Review

Injustice: Gods Among Us was the first fighting game to feature DC characters battling it out in a Mortal Kombat style.

But what about Mortal Kombat VS DC?

We don’t talk about that game around here.

Injustice 2 is the follow up to Injustice: Gods Among Us and takes place after the events that shook this version of the DC Universe.  In summary, Earth 1 heroes are transported to the Injustice Earth where Superman kills Lois because of the Joker.  He then proceeds to kill the Joker and form a new ‘regime’ to rule all of Earth along with other heroes.  So the Earth 1 heroes work with the Insurgents, run by Batman and Lex Luthor, to take down Superman.  Injustice 2 is based completely on the Injustice Earth so if things seem odd to you it may be because a lot of the heroes from the Comics are now villains and vice versa.  Injustice 2 starts with some back story on how Damian Wayne became Superman’s #1 fan showing how he took Superman’s side during the Arkham Asylum executions.  Fast forward to the present and Superman is in a red sun prison, which negates his abilities.  Gorilla Grodd along with a slew of villains take the opportunity of a shattered government to rise up and join forces to take down the remaining regime members (even if they are turned good); oh yeah and brainiac attacks. I won’t give too much else away but it is an excellent campaign that gives you some interesting dialogue along with some nice Easter eggs.   Throughout the campaign you can choose between two fighters for a battle, this gives you some control over new dialogue I would have rather had it be like Mortal Kombat 9 where your second fighter would be on deck and you would simply fight two enemies as well.  Although, they could make it like that Raiden fight in Hell where you have to fight at least 10 opponents.  Never-the-less, I do believe they should have done something like that whether it be a tournament mode like Soul Caliber or just an extra fighter like in Mortal Kombat 9.  

The graphics are quite nice in this game, the environments are the best of course.  They put a lot of detail into the back ground along with plenty of new transitions, intractable objects, and the like.  There is one intractable that is a dude sitting at a bar that you can grab and throw at your opponent, I did feel like this was a bit off the wall as most of the characters would not grab this guy and throw him like Blanche from Mortal Kombat X.  Other than that, the new areas you fight in are both unique and well detailed.  The characters designs are also pretty well done with only two that I think should have been re-done; catwoman and Gorilla Grodd both needed more work but for different reasons.  Gorilla Grodd’s face seems out of place with the rest of his hairy body, making him look like a Planet of the Apes actor.  Catwoman just has a strange face that doesn’t look right, I don’t know if it’s the big eyes or the cleft chin.  Everyone else I do like the new designs, especially Scarecrow, Dr. Fate, and Harley Quinn.  What about The Joker?  I think they did a good job with the Joker in this game, even though I think he should have been DLC the new design he has is both better and more realistic than the last installment.  The voice actor also does fine work with the Joker from the puns to the laughter, it’s all there.  They did bring back Premier skins which will change a character completely.  A good example is Reverse Flash, he is a skin you can purchase (with in-game crystals) and use.  The premier skins offer new dialogue and a new look for your character while keeping your gear stats on them.  I rather would have had Reverse Flash in the game as a separate character but I am fine with this too.  Other characters you can get include Power Girl, John Stewart, Mr. Freeze, and Vixen.  

If you are familiar with the first game’s characters then all the returning characters will feel very familiar to you. Besides from the odd move taken out (or placed in a Motherbox to unlock) they all play and feel relatively the same.  So, if you were really good with Batman you can still be really good with Batman.  I think this was a good idea, especially since I had gotten most of the moves\combos down for my favorite characters like Bane, Catwoman, and Green Lantern.  The new characters all have a nice feel to them as well, some are better than others of course but I personally am quite enjoying using Captain Cold, Robin, and Scarecrow.  Some characters I personally don’t like?  Supergirl, Swamp Thing, and Gorilla Grodd all for different reasons.  I feel like Grodd doesn’t have enough hitting power while Swamp Thing has too many moves that can’t be chained with a combo.  I just don’t like Supergirl’s move set but what are you gonna do?  Each character has their own unique gear that you can get by winning matches or opening box’s, it’s all random so you could get gear for Dr. Fate while playing as Firestorm.  You can turn off your gear modifiers for online matches if you want (which is a huge plus from me) and you can sell gear for coins to purchase more box’s.  

I mentioned Motherbox’s before so I will go over them.  Motherbox’s are the random generated gear you can get along with Shaders (new colors), new moves, and you can get new Calling Card backgrounds\emblems.  There are five different version of the Motherbox, each one holding better items as you go up.  There is Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.  You can get anything you get from a gold in a bronze but it will take some time.  Along with regular motherbox’s there are also Guild box’s which are unlocked by completing guild events.  The Guilds work pretty well and there are more than enough active guilds to chose from.  You can even chose to create your own if you want.  Once you join a guild you can trade gear, battle guild bosses, and chat with other guild members.  Completing guild challenges will net you guild box’s which are better than normal box’s.  You can also get Regen coins from box’s and selling gear.  Regen coins will take any piece of gear your choose and re-roll it’s numbers for the four main categories Strength, ability, Defense, and health to match your current rank.  This is nice for when you have a level 9 pair of pants but you are level 20 and can’t seem to get anything better or it is part of a set which gives you a boost and you need it leveled up to match your level.  All in all, mother box’s are a nice way of getting new gear but putting your new abilities into these box’s is not a good call.  I’d rather just buy new abilities with coins or earn them while leveling up my characters, randomly getting any characters abilities in box’s is nothing short of annoying.   

Online works pretty well in this game and shares the same game modes as other Kombat and Injustice games, Ranked matches, Player Matches, and king of the hill.  What IS new in the Online is the new Multiverse mode which is the replacement for the S.T.A.R. labs challenges.  The Multiverse randomly generates six planets that will stick around from 15 minutes to 7 days and contain different challenges for you to complete which will give you coins, regen coins, box’s, and gear.  I felt like this was an excellent idea since I didn’t really enjoy the Challenges from the last game, this one gives you a much more varied and fair system of challenges.  They range from easy to hard with rewards mirroring the difficulty.  

In conclusion, Injustice 2 is a great fighting game with some new enhancements but some new flaws as well.  The roster is great except for a few that I don’t like and the new places to fight in are very detailed and fun.  Character designs are mostly on point along with the new multiverse and gear system.  Motherbox’s provide new headaches if you are looking for certain gear\new moves but are nice for when you are looking for better gear to equip.  Online works well and matches can be set to ignore boosts in stats due to gear equipped.  The DLC line up is looking good but having Darksied be day 1 DLC was a pretty low blow, no one liked Goro being Day 1 DLC and you bet your ass I didn’t appreciate  Darksied doing the same thing.  I feel like they only want to put characters into these games that will appear in the campaign which is kinda dumb but what ever.  I would have rather had Reverse Flash in the game but premier skins are welcome anyway.  All in all, Injustice 2 is a near perfect sequel to a successful game and comic series.  If you like DC comics or fighting games in general this is the game for you!  

I gave Injustice 2 an 8\10

[the-kool-kyle]

Deadpool 2 Review

Ever since his first appearance in the 90's we've all been in love with Deadpool AKA the merc with a mouth due to his badass appearance, epic stories, his powerful healing factor and of course is potent/silly personality which has made him one of marvel's most beloved characters. Deadpool 2 is the sequel to “Deadpool” from 2016 a smash hit that is considered one of the best R rated movies of all time simply because it out grossed every other comic book movie that came before it(Even DC) and now Deadpool 2 does exactly what any action movie sequel should do take everything from the original and add more of it as well as build on the world it's set in.....and that's exactly what they did in the movie. Deadpool 2 is more action packed, more gory, filthier, and completely 100 times more funnier than it's predecessor because as soon as the movie starts it immediately gives the fans everything they've wanted this film to have ever since the first teaser dropped.

This film picks up two years after the last movie and does an excellent job on keeping the audience entertained with action, comedy, comic book references and Deadpool himself. How ever I have to be honest this films plot had some pacing issues and moments that felt messy and had no aim what so ever which kinda made parts of the plot forgettable but then again everyone pretty much expected this since after all a Deadpool movie is trying to provide humour, action and moments right off the page of a comic book. it's not trying to win an oscar.

But the one thing that made this film so fun was Deadpool him self. There's no denying the fact that Ryan Reynolds was born to play Deadpool. Because he dominates every scene of the film by doing what he does best. By which I mean spectacularly bringing this indestructible psychopath to life with his humorous and silly personality, comic and pop culture references that perfectly fit the moment his in and of course his signature fourth wall breaking making him a one of a kind character. I can honestly say that Ryan Reynolds has succeed in accomplishing every goal he hoped to achieve when he signed on for this role like.....Providing a better version of Deadpool that makes us completely forget the terrible version of the character from X-Men Origins and make up for his biggest mistake which was appearing as Hal Jordan in that god awful Green Lantern movie and believe me he hated that role since he made fun of it the last movie.

One thing I was really looking forward to seeing this movie when first one ended was the appearance of one of my favourite X-Men characters.......Cable. There's was some controversy when it was announced that Josh Brolin would be playing the character but in the end he did and awesome job in making Cable look and act badass as hell! Cable is well known in the comics as a time traveling cyborg mutant, being from the year 4952, the son of Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor and being Deadpool best Fr-enemy since he always hates dealing with Deadpool's crazy and silly personality as any sane person would. In the film however we don't get to see a lot of Cable origins and their world he's from probably due to budget issues which left much of this character undeveloped and left many movie goers confused since many of them haven’t read the comics. But for those who have read the comics didn't really mind this since they know about Cable's history and understand him better. However this didn't really bother a lot of us since this portrayal of Cable was badass and was a brilliant casting choice.

Now if there's two things this film truly delivers on it's action and comedy. Every single one of the action scenes is just beyond awesome which will leave you completely stunned with amazement which is really something since this is the first time I've said this. The humour in the film is just gold Ryan Reynolds and the other cast members say the corniest and cheesiest things that really drill down on your funny bone and give you the best belly laughs. It was also packed with filthy moments that are really disturbing that will be permanently stuck in your brain traumatising you for life. So yeah Deadpool 2 is packed with moments that will both Haunt and Delight you for a life time.

Another thing I particularly loved about this film was it's epic soundtrack. The songs they used fit the moments perfectly making them more awesome and badass. They used dub-step, Rock, 80's and 70's which are perfect categorises for this movie plus they've also even created a remix for this movie “The X-Force Rap” based off the Deadpool rap. I gotta say this can really rival the Awesome Mix.

But we all know the main reason this film will be a complete success is because of Deadpool himself. Because the thing about Deadpool is (And I'm quoting Stan Lee) he's not like a fictional comic book character he's like a real person. He acts and talks like any regular person would he thinks the same way, he's as disrespectful as most people are, you'll never know what he'll say or do next and most importantly he's like someone you wished live next door to you and would be your best friend. That's why we all love Deadpool and why this movie will be a success.

Final Verdict: Deadpool 2 may have a bit of a messy plot but it still provides all the things fans love like fast action, Badass characters, cheesy dialogue, tons of gore, extremely funny moments and moments that will haunt and disturb you for life. This could be another great R rated movie that’s gonna de-throne Infinity War. 8.5/10

[gokinjeespot]

Monday, September 18, 2017

 I have recurring back pain that's a pain in the back and it hit so hard yesterday I could barely walk. It's better today but I sure am glad that I don't have to work so that I can recover some more. I want to make sure that I'm well enough to attend the book launch of "The Wind In His Heart" by Charles de Lint tomorrow. Here's a link: https://www.facebook.com/events/1663452530396893/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%2222%22%2C%22feed_story_type%22%3A%2222%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22null%22%7D&pnref=story

 Fishing season is winding down even though the weather has been sunny and warm recently here in Ottawa. David and I only caught 3 fish yesterday in the 3 hours we were out. My fishing buddies are like me and just appreciate being out on the water for some time away from the city. We don't need to catch fish to enjoy our time out there.

 Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #28 - Robert Venditti (writer) Rafa Sandoval (pencils) Jordi Tarragona (inks) Tomeu Morey (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). A great art team can elevate an average book to an outstanding one. The artists they get make a huge difference to my enjoyment of this book.

 Ms. Marvel #22 - G. Willow Wilson (writer) Marco Failla (art) Ian Herring (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I love this story about tolerance and equality. It affected Kamala deeply. It made her think about her city and her neighbours and that will colour her actions from now on.

 All-New Wolverine #24 - Tom Taylor (writer) Leonard Kirk (art) Michael Garland & Erick Arciniega (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Another infestation of Brood is wiped out and the galaxy is saved yet again. I liked the guest appearance of the Guardians of the Galaxy, especially Rocket Racoon. Looking forward to a new story starting next issue.

 Weapon X #8 - Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers) Marc Borstel & Ibraim Roberson (art) Frank D'Armata (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The team continues to pursue Weapon H, AKA Hulkverine (I like that) and more is revealed about the big gray galoot's alter ego. I cheered when I saw the reinforcement that the good guys call in.

 Runaways #1 - Rainbow Rowell (writer) Kris Anka (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). The gang isn't all here as this team makes it back to the racks but that's okay because this first issue did a very good job of introducing Nico Minoru, the spell caster, and Chase Stein, the screw up gadget guy to readers old and new. Kris's art has gotten better since I first noticed his name in the credits of an X-Men book. This debut was good enough to make me stick around until my favourite Runaway shows up.

 Wonder Woman #30 - Shea Fontana (writer) David Messina (art) Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours) Saida Temofonte (letters). Both the writing and art for this issue was very stiff. I feel like I've been beaten over the head with the not too subtle "women are strong" message. I'm hanging around until artist Emanuela Lupacchino starts to draw this book and I hope the writing improves then too.

 American Gods #7 - Neil Gaiman (writer) P. Craig Russell (script & layouts) Scott Hampton (art) Rick Parker (letters). I would still enjoy this, being a fan of Neil Gaiman and Scott Hampton, even without the benefit of having already read the novel but I wonder if other comic book fans would think this is way too weird. Shadow's story about his adventures with gods old and new isn't for everybody but if you stick with it I think you'll find the payoff to be worth your time.

 Generations: Captain Marvel & Captain Mar-Vell #1 - Margaret Stohl (writer) Brent Schoonover (art) Jordan Boyd (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). I felt like this was written by a tweener for tweeners. If this is an indication of what to expect in Carol's solo book (Mighty Captain Marvel) then it's much too unsophisticated for this old coot.

 Detective Comics #964 - James Tynion IV & Christopher Sebela (writers) Carmen Carnero (art) Ulises Arreola (colours) Sal Cipriano (letters). This is it. You all saw it coming. The cover even gives it away. Clayface has reformed, or so it seemed. This issue was so well done I wasn't even disappointed in the outcome. If that's not enough, the Anarky and Spoiler story continues with a solid mystery to keep me engrossed.

 Mech Cadet Yu #2 - Greg Pak (writer) Takeshi Miyazawa (art) Triona Farrell (colours) Simon Bowland (letters). The new cadets start basic training with their Mechs. I like how the robos and cadets are paired up like in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series of fantasy novels. I also like the conflict between the lower class janitor's son Yu and the upper class general's daughter Park. I am drawn to good stories about underdogs.

 Star Wars #36 - Jason Aaron (writer) Salvador Larroca (art) Edgar Delgado (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Hooray, it's R2-D2 to the rescue. Poetic ain't I?

 Dark Nights Metal #2 - Scott Snyder (writer) Greg Capullo (pencils) Jonathan Glapion (inks) FCO Plascencia (colours). Whoever did the lettering did a great job. The gateway opens and evil arrives. Meet the Jaundiced League. Darkseid is a baby now? I have so many questions. This is one of those instances where I have enough of an interest in the big picture that I will accept stuff I don't know about the DC multiverse and keep on reading.

 Kill or be Killed #12 - Ed Brubaker (writer) Sean Phillips (art) Elizabeth Breitweiser (colours). I like how the character of Dylan has grown over the course of this series. He started out full of fear and uncertainty and now can control his fear and plan ahead to what he needs to do to stay alive. It makes him more relatable.

 Hulk #10 - Mariko Tamaki (writer) Julian Lopez & Francesco Gaston (art) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). It's a fricking big monster fight issue. Jen subdues Oliver but she comes close to losing control of herself as the Hulk. I wonder if she shops at Target to save money on clothes. You'll notice a change in art styles about halfway through. I would be a very happy fan if Julian Lopez was the regular artist for this book even though I like Francesco Gaston's art just fine.

 Action Comics #987 - Dan Jurgens (writer) Viktor Bogdanovic (pencils) Jonathan Glapion, Jay Leisten & Viktor Bogdanovic (inks) Mike Spicer (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). "The Oz Effect" starts here. I'm glad that the villain's identity isn't being teased for a bunch of issues just to keep us reading. Who Oz is will shock fans and it will make it harder for Superman to fight him. I still think it's all a ruse so I'm going to keep reading to see if I'm right in the end.

 The Defenders #5 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) David Marquez (art) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). They're going to get hate mail for this issue. When you get to the end you'll know why.

 Amazing Spider-Man #32 - Dan Slott (writer) Greg Smallwood (art) Jordie Bellaire (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Greg fixed Norman's face for this new Green Goblin origin story. I forgot that Norman can't change into the Green Goblin now. Something is going to trigger the transformation and I am waiting to see what that is.