Monday, February 27, 2017

Comic Shop Comics: February 22nd

Batman '66 Meets Wonder Woman '77 #2 (DC Comics) Most of this issue is set during World War II, the setting of the first season of Wonder Woman '77, when the Bruce Wayne of Batman '66 was just a little boy. It works, though, because Wonder Woman is an immortal, as is her opponent in this issue, Ra's al Ghul (and also Nazis). The ending is set in the present of Batman '66, the year 1966, when Bruce Wayne finishes telling Dick Grayson his tale, pulls his cowl on and tells his chum that they are headed to Paradise Island, to find Wonder Woman before Ra's does.

The fun writers Marc Andreyko and Jeff Parker are having playing with the timelines, finding places where they would potentially intersect and how, exactly, is apparent, and slightly contagious.

Additionally, pencil artist David Hahn and inker Karl Kesel continue to do an amazing job of simplifying the characters down to the point where they look like the characters that Adam West, Linda Carter and Burt Ward were playing, rather than looking like West, Carter and Ward the actors (Artist Mike Allred, who provides the covers, doesn't really pull that trick off, but given that it's just a cover it's not a big deal; I do find his wax dummy Linda Carter kind of unsettling, though, and I say that as a huge fan of Allred's work who has been wanting him to do Batman '66 interiors since DC first started publishing this sereis)

There's one weird scene that struck me as weird in an unintentional way, rather than weird in a purposeful way, as when Wonder Woman talks to some bats, and she doesn't do it telepathically, but by actually speaking bat language out loud, with the words, "Sweekeek Eek!". There's a moment where Wonder Woman rescues little boy Bruce from a Nazi in the caverns beneath Wayne Manor, and the Nazi backs away from her, expositing...until he plunges backwards over the cliff, falling to his death. And Wondy just watches him fall. I know this is war, and war is hell, but man, I'm not used to this sort of Wonder Woman. Did she and Steve kill Nazis on the show...? (I was born in '77, and have only rewatched a few episodes since, so, um, I'm not exactly up on the inner workings of that particular superhero TV show).

Two Wonder Woman comics were released today. This was the all-around better of the two, in addition to being the more fun one to read.

Belfry (Image Comics) This was an impulse buy, based on the fact that I like Gabriel Hardman's artwork and the suggestive title and cover image showing a bat lady (which reminded me instantly of a sighting of a bat-winged woman in Vietnam that John Keel reported in The Mothman Prophecies).

It's a one-shot, horror comic written, drawn and everything-else-ed by Hardman, an artist whose work you may be familiar from his work for Image, Dark Horse, DC or Marvel (he first came to my attention for his work with Jeff Parker on Marvel's Agents of Atlas comics; I honestly can't tell what is keeping that movie adaptation from happening).

It's extremely straightforward in terms of plot, with the most complex bit being the sort of loop-de-loop stinger of an ending, which is almost expected in short horror comics. The 22-page comic opens in the middle of a terrible plane crash, in a series of off-kilter black panels filled with nothing by hand-drawn sound-effects.

From there, our co-pilot protagonist and the other survivors find themselves in a jungle, and almost immediately set upon by bat-winged humanoids that turn out to be some kind of vampires, albeit ones that don't try to pass for human and live in the wild, like particularly highly-evolved animals (they appear to be able to use tools, so their culture is of a level that would designate them as higher than animal, but not much higher, at least not from what little clues we're given here).

Then we see another thing they have in common with vampires, aside from the blood-sucking and their similarities to bats.

Like I said, the plot is pretty straightforward, but Hardman's art--the best of his I've ever seen, honestly--and the atmosphere it conjures makes it a compelling, moody, slightly scary affair. Horror fans, and those interested in different takes on the vampire story, should find this particularly enjoyable.

While I liked the title, after reading the book and seven pages of back matter, in which Hardman shares sketches and explains his thought process and even recommends some of his own favorite horror narratives, I think he would have been better off going with Bat People, which better describes the content (there are no belfries in the book, which is set entirely in a jungle, and even thinking of belfry as a metaphor for the human mind doesn't work all that well given the story) and has the added benefit of suggesting one of the films he suggests, the 1942Cat People. (Seconded! Cat People is fantastic; the 1982 remake not so much, although it does feature 1,000% more Natassja Kinski nudity than the original.)

Deathstroke #13 (DC) Wow, if you thought Slade Wilson was a shitty father before, just wait until you make it to the surprise last page of this issue.

Detective Comics #951 (DC) Between reading this issue and writing these words, I read a good chunk of Batgirl Vol. 1: Silent Knight, which collects the entire first year of the first Batgirl title, the one starring Cassandra Cain. While the Kelley Puckett, Scott Peterson, Damion Scott and Robert Campanella comic series has always colored the way I've seen the re-booted Cassandra (in the same way my reading of comics featuring New 52 Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown are colored by their Chuck Dixon-written adventures from the '90s), they are now so fresh in my head that I find writer James Tynion and artist Christian Duce's take on the character and Lady Shiva all the more disappointing.

While Tynion has devoted 'Tec (and, before it, Batman and Robin Eternal) to reestablishing supporting members of the Batman comics of the '90s and '00s in the new rebooted continuity, I find myself torn over whether that is a good thing or a bad thing to devote one's time to. I love these characters (Tim and Cass especially), and enjoyed and continue to enjoy the comics that originally featured them (the millennial Batgirl still holds up perfectly well in 2017), but maybe not so much that it's worth having messy, mangled-up versions of them appearing in mediocre comics.

And, unfortunately, that's what this is.

This version of Shiva is designed and drawn more like the one from later in her pre-Flasphoint career (which could be worse; do you remember what she wore in her New 52 debut?), and is the apparent leader of some weird-ass assassin group The League of Shadows, a secret society that Batman, The World's Greatest Detective, didn't believe really existed. Until they struck! (As I'm pretty sure I've noted before, coupled with his disbelief in The Court of Owls, that makes Batman 0-2 when it comes to detecting secret societies.) This is the threat that Batwoman's dad's splinter group of the U.S. military was formed specifically to fight.

Here we learn they are coming to Gotham and, after first framing Batman for the murder of the mayor, they stage what appears to be an attack by The Joker (Hey, remember how there are three Jokers? When do you think Batman will get on that? It seems like something that would be pretty high on his list of priorities). But when Batman and his current Detective Comics crew--Batwoman, Batgirl Orphan, Batwoman, Batwing, Azrael and Clayface--show up to subdue the crowd of apparent Joker venom victims, the rioters all whip out swords, spears and various ninja weapons from, um, somewhere. Batman is really being bad at detecting lately!

Duce's art is of the New 52 DC house style; it tells the story well enough, but is completely uninteresting and lacks anything in the way of style, and Alex Sinclair's coloring only buries the relative strengths of Duce's linework under the pall of moody darkness and lighting effects too common in current Bat-comics.

Eddy Barrows' cover art is nothing to get excited about, either, featuring as it does the figure of Shiva sandwiched between a pile of text and a pile of posed unconscious superheroes. I do like the little shuriken embedded harmlessly in Clayface's head, though. Clayface would be the on member of this team that would have a serious advantage over Shiva, as I'm not sure how you fight sentient, shape-changing clay with your bare hands; she's almost certainly gonna have to cheat and break out some kind of high-tech weaponry, right?

Jughead #13 (Archie Comics) Guys, this comic is so good that I am convinced it is actually too good, because it means I'm just going to be all depressed when current writer Ryan North leaves after this story arc, as I heard he will be doing. This arc, by the way, is the one in which Reggie Mantle wins a bet and is named "King For A Month" over all of his friends, and, lucky for them, he has decided to use his new powers to compel them to form a band with him, called--what else?--The Reggies. If you missed all that in the previous issue, don't worry--Dilton recaps everything for you (with an assist from Chuck).

There are an awful lot of jokes, and many of them are very, very funny. There's the names of other Josie and The Pussycats-adjacent bands, there's Jughead's song "The Things I Like To Eat, Including Burgers, Fried Chicken, Bone Marrow, Vegetables If There's Enough Butter On Them, And Sugar, Sugar Is Pretty Good Too" (I can't read music, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears as if North actually wrote this as an actual song, with, like, notes and everything; it doesn't seem to be to the tune of The Archies' "Sugar, Sugar"), the best possible way to present the absolute tedium of the studio recording process, more (and more specialized) hunks and a fantastic three-panel sequence in which Reggie and Veronica react to the news that they've gone viral, but not for anything that is good.

Artist Derek Charm continues to provide the best art I can remember reading in an Archie comic since Dan DeCarlo, and I can't tell you how much I love his constantly-squinting, Captain Marvel-eyed Reggie (And by Captain Marvel, I of course mean the male one in the red suit, currently owned by DC Comics, not the lady one in the red and blue suit, currently owned by Marvel Entertainment). (Oh hey, I half-watched part of this week's episode of Riverdale while visiting my sister's family, and while my 13-year-old niece heartily endorses it*, I was way too freaked out by everything I saw to form an opinion...But! The reason I mention this is that I see Reggie is apparently of Asian descent on the show, so I wonder if this particular character design would look offensive, if you picked up this comic with the expectation that Reggie is Asian-American, rather than a generic 1940s-created white comic book character?).

Anyway, North and Charm's Jughead is the best thing ever. If you haven't been reading it, go pick up Jughead Vol. 2 right now; it's a trade paperback collecting the two-issue Chip Zdarsky/Charm story where Jughead and Archie go camping and stumble upon the Mantle family reunion and the entire three-issue North/Charm Sabrina story, and, completely randomly, the first issue of the new Josie and The Pussycats, which is also fantastic.

Justice League of America #1 (DC) After four character-specific one-shots and a "Rebirth"-branded one-shot, the Steve Orlando-written Justice League comic finally kicks off for real, still featuring the pencil art of Ivan Reis (with a trio of inkers).

I still can't make heads-or-tails of the repeatedly stated premise of this series, that what will differentiate this Justice League from the other Justice League Batman is in is that it will be a Justice League of the people.

"People need to see heroes are human," Batman tells the supermodel with the magical amulet allowing her to access the ability of any animal, "Like them. That they can be heroes."

From there we check in with the various other team members: The former rockstar with a sonic scream and the kid kid who can turn his body into light, the alien super-biker and the blue-skinned, ice-powered heat vampire and the guy who can shrink to sub-atomic size. When a signal goes out from the Troubalert (one of the many call-backs to previous DC narratives Orlando fills his comics writing with), they all convene to pose in a double-page spread and face off against...The Extremists? Oh man...

So The Extremists are a group of thinly-veiled Marvel Comics villain analogues created by Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis and Bart Sears during the Giffen/DeMatteis era of the Justice League comics. They are exactly the sort of characters that would naturally attract Orlando, who puts The Ray in the city of Vanity (from the pages of Aztek) and pits Lobo against the fire trolls that Aquaman fought in the earliest issues of Erik Larsen's terrible run on Aquaman**). Thing is, the characters aren't terribly exciting by themselves, and whatever Orlando ends up doing with them, so far he seems to be presenting them with the same old goal they've had in past stories. Having failed to save their own Fake Marvel Universe, they've come to the DC Universe to conquer it, in order to save it from itself (This is also what Geoff Johns had his version of the Crime Syndicate up to in Forever Evil, now that I think of it).

So Orlando may have something new and interesting to do with these characters, but, if so, there's no indication of it apparent in this issue, the cliffhanger ending of which is Batman offering himself up to them as someone they can kill and make an example of. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that Batman is not actually going to die, not even temporarily, next issue.

Under normal circumstances, I would probably drop this book at this point. And by "normal circumstances" I mean a DC Comics line where the Justice League franchise's A book is really good. But as I actively loathe the Bryan Hitch-written Justice League book, this book has the advantage of being better-written and better-drawn, so I'm not going anywhere.

That doesn't mean I won't still wish it was better, though...!

Scooby-Doo Team-Up #23 (DC) In this issue, Scooby and the gang meet Quick Draw McGraw (and El Kabong) and Baba Looey...as well as slightly more obscure Hanna-Barbera Western funny animals Ricochet Rabbit and Droop-a-Long. As with a handful of other characters Scooby-Doo has teamed up with in the pages of Scooby-Doo Team-Up, this is a pretty awkward fit, both in terms of visual style and the degree of realism in each side of the team-up's home narratives.

I mean, yes, Scooby-Doo is an animal, and he does talk--sort of--but he's not a talking, funny animal character. He doesn't walk around on his hind-legs, speak clear English to everyone around him and hold down a job. At least, not usually, and not in the source of the Scooby-Doo characters that show up in Scooby-Doo Team-Up. Quick Draw, on the other hand, is a horse who is also a sheriff. (I do like seeing him threaten Fred and the others with a six-gun though; that's something you don't see every day.) So when Scooby and the gang do encounter characters like this, it feels...off, like Scooby and Shaggy's appearances in Laff-A-Lypmics (Say, if they did one of those weird Hanna-Barbereboot comics based on Laff-A-Lympics, what do you think that would be like? Gladitorial combat? The Hunger Games-ificication of Hanna-Barbera's cartoon all-stars?).

That doesn't mean such team-ups aren't worth doing and aren't worth reading, of course, it just means they feel really, really weird, even wrong to me. There weren't too many good gags in this issue, I thought, but it was a vast improvement over last issue-s strange, background-less adventure in a vacuum, and I did enjoy seeing Snuffles show up and join Scooby in the rapturous enjoyment of a Scooby Snack (I didn't realize it at the time, but in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Scooby's reaction to eating a Scooby Snack was at least in part borrowed from Snuffles, albeit more violent, as Scooby tended to turn into a rocketship and explode between his self-hugging and his floating back down to earth).

Suicide Squad #12 (DC) "Who Kiled Amanda Waller?" the text on the cover asks, and I'm willing to go on record right now and say "No one." No one killed Amanda Waller, because she's not really dead--she did, however, fake her own death for some reason, because Amanda Waller is a control freak who would fake her own death in a way that casts suspicion on her rivals and/or the criminally insane murderers she employs. But for now, she seems to die in this issue, shortly after having ceded control of the Squad to that Harcourt lady.

This issue is again split into two different stories, that are really the same story, drawn by different artists. John Romita Jr. and Richard Friend draws the first 12 pages (labeled "Burning Down The House Part 2: Those Left Behind"), while Eddy Barrows and Eber Ferreira draw the next ten pages (labeled, um, "Those Left Behind," for some reason).

In the JRJR section, the recently re-introduced Rustam takes on the Squad after rescuing his allies, The Jihad The Burning World. One of the most interesting/entertaining/weird parts of re-reading the original Suicide Squad comics from the 1980s and early 1990s, which DC has belatedly been collecting and publishing in trade paperback format, is seeing just how 1980s it all was, and trying to wrap one's head around how these comics might have appeared had they been published, say, this year, instead of a couple of decades ago. Certainly terrorism and Middle East geo-politics in American pop culture look very, very different pre- and post-9/11, and I pretty vividly recall reading the introduction of Rustam's super-team The Jihad and wondering how on Earth that would translate into today's comics, if anyone bothered attempting it.

Well, Suicide Squad writer Robbie Williams and one of his many artistic partners attempt it here! The Jihad is now The Burning World, and their line-up includes redesigned versions of Ravan, Manticore, Djinn and Jaculi. For the most part, they all look better, or at least less dated and less cultural insensitive than their 1980s designs. I was probably most struck by the Manticore design, as this version has a robot humanoid body and a lion's head, which makes him a bit of a reverse Manticore.

Basically, the Squad and World fight, the World wins and leaves, and JRJR gets another shot to draw the hell out of a bunch of characters, including a neat sequence in which the digital Djinn fights Hack as she tries to transport the team as digital information into Blackgate Prison, where Rustam's teammates were being kept for some reason (Is there no Slab in The New 52-iverse?).

In the back-up, Harcourt interrogates the various members of the Squad to see if they were the ones who might have shot Waller, and Hack and Harley both suspect Deadshot.

Sun Bakery #1 (Image) Despite being a fan of Corey S. Lewis' work, I neglected to pre-order a copy of his self-published one-man anthology series, Sun Bakery. I guess I wasn't the only one who missed out on it the first time around, as it's being republished by Image Comics. Having not read or seen the self-published version, I don't know what might have be different about this one, but I'm assuming the Image Comics 25th Anniversary logo on the front and the barcode with Imagecomics.com above it are new.

Otherwise, this looks like a top-to-bottom, cover-to-cover Corey S. Lewis joint. As he explains in an afterword of sorts, the idea was to bring "a Shonen Jump type flavor to Western comics." I don't know if he succeeded to find the exact flavor he was looking for--this didn't feel the same as the issues of Shonen Jump I read, anyway--but I sure like the idea of a Lewis-conceived attempt at a Shonen Jump for North American comics shops.

There are three stories of some length in here--13, 17 and nine pages, respectively--plus a back-up, bonus comic of three pages, which seems present mostly because there was some space left to fill. The inside front cover, the inside back cover and every other available space has words and doodles and little comics content by Lewis on them. It's an almost intimate reading experience, not unlike reading a homemade comic book drawn by a friend just for you.

As for those stories, they are all the first chapters. The first is "Arem," and stars Arem Lightstorm, a "space documentarian" who wears a big, familiar-looking battle-suit with a hand-cannon that shoots...pictures. She's basically part space-explorer, part photographer, seeking to fill her Instagram account with awesome pictures. In his afterword, Lewis refers to it as "a tribute/parody comic of a video game that is probably pretty obvious!" I didn't make the connection (it's Metroid) until I read that, but, yeah, imagine a Metroid where the goal is to take the best pictures to get a lot of likes on social media.

The pace is very casual, as we basically wake up with Arem and follow her as she starts her day. There's some action and a cliffhanger, but one of the great things about Lewis' art is that everything seems action-packed, even if it's just a person walking out of the shower and grabbing a slice of pizza. (You know what's weird, though? Arem showers, eats and then works out. I would have worked out, showered and then eaten. I mean, I guess the eating could take place either before or after the shower, but both showering and eating seem like definite after work out activities, not pre workout activities.

"Dream Skills" seems a little more ambitious. In this setting, guns are replaced by swords, and not by law or anything, but because all of a sudden human beings developed some kind of "aura circle" of energy that repels bullets. Now, guns are useless, but, it turns out, swords can penetrate the aura circle, and a dueling culture has arisen. Puff is our point-of-view character, and she's being introduced to this new sword-wielding world by Xasha, the lady on the cover. The story ends with a fantastic diagram of Xasha's swords man hidden blade features. When the narration refers to a sword as the ultimate life accessory, it wasn't kidding; the hidden compartments of her sword hilt and the features embedded in the blade make it something of a purse or utility belt and something of a cell phone in addition to being a cool-looking weapon.

The final story, Bat Rider, is about a mysterious skateboarder named Bat, his sentient, talking skateboard, and the ghost of his ex-girlfriend, who skates alongside him. The relationship between Bat and his board reminded me a little of that between D and his hand in Vampire Hunter D, but maybe that's just me. It's awesome.

While none of these are full-color stories, the first two are all pinks and purples and whites, while "Bat Rider" is a stark black and white that really pops compared to everything around it. The panels are the shape of a cell phone screen. Apparently that's because it started as a smart phone digital comic, but the upright, rectangular panels with rounded corners also suggest the shape of a skateboard, and thus look perfectly apporpirate.

There's a very brief little crime and sex story called "Dead Naked," too.

It's an all-around great comic. You should totally read it.

Teen Titans #5 (DC) This issue finishes up the first arc, and it's where I'll be jumping off. Not because I'm disappointed with the book, but just because it's about to get a dramatic price increase, and I can trade-wait it. It's a pretty good comic though, and as I think I mentioned last time, this is the most consecutive issues of a Teen Titans comic I've read since Geoff Johns was writing it. And that was a really, really long time ago now.

The arc ends almost exactly as one would expect it to end, with maybe one element being a bit of a surprise, but it works well enough, and establishes a new status quo for Damian and a reason for this iteration of Titans to exist. I like the new tower too, which honors the original while still looking fresh and new.

I'm not sure why Damian has Wolverine claws throughout the whole thing, though. That seems pretty random.

The last panel includes a next issue box reading "The Sixth Titan," which, according to future covers, will be a new Aqualad who looks like the one on the Young Justice cartoon. It occurred to me while reading this that Nobody should probably be the seventh Titan. I know she doesn't belong on a Titans team the way the rest of these people do, but given her relationship with Damian, and how she evolved to become his first real friend, it seems like he would want to include her here (Of course, the same could be said of the new Superboy...unless his parents won't let him join?).

Wonder Woman #17 (DC) Gross, huh? That's Barbara resuming the curse of The Cheetah in order to save her friends from Veronica Cale. I don't like looking at it.

As with writer Greg Rucka's previous run on Wonder Woman, this is rather slowly, gradually paced, and can even be a little boring read one chapter a month, and likely reads better in trade. That, or maybe this was a rather slow chapter, as the title character has sit this and the previous few chapters of this story out, only appearing in goofy vision sequences set at a sanitarium, while the supporting cast has come to the fore.


*I particularly enjoyed hearing my niece express exasperation that Archie can't make up his mind in terms of which girl to date after watching, like, three episodes of this show. He's had 75 years and ten million pages of comic books to make up his mind in terms of which girl to date, and he still hasn't; will he choose faster on the TV show?

**A run that did give us Lagoon Boy, so it wasn't all bad.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Marvel's May previews reviewed

And now it's Marvel's turn...

No, Daredevil! Don't change clothes! I really like the black costume!

Hopefully that's just a flashback, to the point where he was considering ditching the red unitard for the black one. That's how superheroes decide on what to wear; they clutch various garments in their fists, and stare intently at them, brooding about the choice. It takes Matt forever to get ready for work in the morning.


DOCTOR STRANGE #21
DENNIS HOPELESS (W) • NIKO HENRICHON (A)
Cover by CHRIS BACHALO
...
SECRET EMPIRE TIE-IN!
• New York City is under attack by dark forces, and only Doctor Strange has a shot at saving it. But it’s quite a longshot!
• And welcome new ongoing writer DENNIS HOPELESS (ALL-NEW X-MEN, SPIDER-WOMAN, JEAN GREY) and artist NIKO HENRICHON (Pride of Baghdad, NEW MUTANTS).
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99


Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo are gone already? That seems like a particularly short run on the title, especially for Aaron, who stuck with Wolverine and Thor for many years through many different titles. That said, Niko Henrichon! That seems like a real get; Pride of Baghdad was pretty fantastic (particularly on the visual side of things), and I'd be interested to see what he can do with the weirdo visuals that Doctor Strange comics can lend themselves to.


GENERATION X #1
CHRISTINA STRAIN (W) • AMILCAR PINNA (A)
Cover by TERRY DODSON
...
The Xavier Institute for Mutant Education and Outreach has opened its doors and is ready to foster the next generation of heroes and diplomats! But this time around, the X-Men recognize an unfortunate truth: not all mutants are created equal. Some mutants are not made to fight Sentinels or serve as ambassadors on behalf of their kind. Some mutants will just be lucky to survive another day in a world that hates and fears them. And who better to mentor mutantkind’s lovable losers than perpetual sidekick Jubilee? But will Jubilee and GENERATION X survive the experience??
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99


While I like Jubilee's current status as a co-worker and all-around bro of Patsy Walker in Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, and will miss artist Brittney Williams' super-cute portrayal of one of Wolverine's top teenage sidekicks, this strikes me as an interesting use of the character. And hey, the Institute has a new name again! I wonder why they stripped it of the Jean Grey designation? Is it because there's a teenage version of her from the past living in the present, and now it just seems a little weird?

Also weird? "Generation X" no longer sounds quite right for a title about young X-Men types, now that actual members of Generation X are in their 40s, but then, I guess as long as a phrase has an "X" in it, it will work for a short-lived X-Men spin-off comic (and these days, all Marvel comics are short-lived, but design). And besides, X-Post-Millennials doesn't quite roll off the tongue...


I'm afraid I'm just not feeling Luke Cage's latest costume redesign...



SECRET EMPIRE #1 (of 9)
NICK SPENCER (W) • STEVE MCNIVEN (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
...
PARTY VARIANT COVER BY TODD NAUCK
...
It’s been building for months, across a bevy of titles! But now, the moment has arrived for Steve Rogers to step into the light and declare his allegiance to Hydra! How can the heroes of the Marvel Universe cope with this shattering betrayal by the most trusted figure among them? And what will this mean for the world? The map of the Marvel Universe changes in ways nobody will expect — TRUST THE SECRET EMPIRE!
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99


This is Marvel's next big event thing, so I suppose it's worth noting for that reason alone. As far as I understand it, the premise is that Captain America is, and has always been, a secret off-brand Nazi. Given that he was recently de-aged by a reality-warping entity (in Standoff, I'm not sure I understand why this has bothered a lot of fans. Maybe I just don't understand how the Cosmic Cube works, but couldn't it have just remade the past so that Cap was always a sleeper agent for the Fake Nazis? And if that is the case, is it anything to even be slightly annoyed by, as it's so easily fixable...at the climax of a big crossover series, of course.

There will be a million covers for this, of course, but I pulled out the two I found most interesting. The first one, the regular cover by Mark Brooks, I find interesting if only because if you saw those characters on the cover of the first issue of a Marvel line-wide crossover, even as recently as, I don't know, maybe five or six or seven years ago, your brain might explode. Spider-Man and Cap look pretty similar to themselves, and there's the Human Torch, (an) Iron Man (or Person, as I suppose that's actually Ironheart, right?) and Storm is in a dumb costume, but she's pretty clearly still Storm.

But what's Doctor Strange wearing, if that's even him? Why is Wolverine so old-looking, and not wearing anything even approaching a superhero costume? Why is there a female Thor? What the hell are Medusa and Rocket Raccoon doing on the cover of a major Marvel crossover series like this? And who are those other two ladies?

It just provides a sharper-than-usual snapshot of the current state of the Marvel Universe, and how different it is than it was in even the fairly recent past.

The other one, which I assume is the Todd Nauck cover, although I can't be sure without seeing the figures closer (they look kinda Nauck-y from this distance though, don't they?), I just wanted to pull out because it looks so awesome. I love character-crowded images like that, where a reader can spend minutes and minutes taking in the characters and making up little fight scenes for them in their heads.


SECRET EMPIRE #2 (of 9)
NICK SPENCER (W) • ANDREA SORRENTINO (A)
Cover by MARK BROOKS
...
Enshrouded in darkness, plagued by the minions of Baron Mordo and cut off from all assistance, The Defenders and Doctor Strange struggle to save the lives of the innocent people consigned to this hell on Earth. Will Dagger prove to be the key to stopping this nightmare? Meanwhile, will the appearance of a new hero provide Iron Man with the key to Captain America’s startling change? THE SECRET EMPIRE WILL DEFEND YOU!
48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99


Oh cool, The Defenders! I...Oh. Wait. It's those Defenders. Hmph.

I guess it's cool Team Netflix is teaming up with original Defender Doctor Strange. Personally, I'd kind of love a Defenders comic that teamed the original Big Four of Strange, The Hulk, Namor and The Silver Surfer with the new, Netflix-inspired team, who could take the place of the lamer of the original Defenders (like, wouldn't you rather read about Daredevil than Nighthawk?).


SECRET WARRIORS #1
MATTHEW ROSENBERG (W) • Javier Garrón (A)
COVER BY TRADD MOORE
VARIANT COVER BY DAVID NAKAYAMA
VARIANT COVER BY ROBBI RODRIGUEZ
Hip-Hop Variant Cover by MARCO D’ALFONSO
A SECRET EMPIRE TIE-IN!
Captain America has been revealed to be an agent of Hydra – and he’s coming after Inhumans!
S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Daisy Johnson, a.k.a. QUAKE, wants no part of Hydra, so she goes underground, teaming up with MS. MARVEL, MOON GIRL & DEVIL DINOSAUR, KARNAK and INFERNO to set things right – for the Inhumans, but also for the entire country!
Penned by rising star Matthew Rosenberg (Kingpin, Rocket Raccoon, 4 Kids Walk Into A Bank) and drawn by the immensely talented Javier Garrón (Death of X, Inhumans vs X-Men), SECRET WARRIORS is one part coming-of-age story, one part spy-thriller, all action and all heart. Don’t miss the next (and final?) generation of Inhumans as they take the Marvel Universe by storm!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99


The (All-New, All-Different) Avengers, The Champions and now The Secret Warriors? Jeez, Kamala just can't seem to stop joining new superhero teams!


THE UNBEATABLE SQUIRREL GIRL #20
RYAN NORTH (W) • ERICA HENDERSON (A/C)
• This is it! The epic showdown between Melissa and Squirrel Girl, as the fate of New York City — and everyone in it — hangs in the balance!
• Will Melissa’s secret intentions be uncovered? Will Doreen and her friends be able to stop her? Can squirrels TRULY hope to match an army made up of EVERY OTHER ANIMAL EVER?
• Great news: We have studied each of these questions extremely carefully, and we are pleased to reveal our answers in this upcoming issue of The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl!
32 PGS./Rated T …$3.99


Having outlasted not only Howard The Duck, but also Patsy Walker, AKA Hellcat, Unbeatable Squirrel Girl is now unquestionably Marvel's all-around best title. This is, of course, bad news, as it means that Marvel is now publishing two fewer greater titles (three, if you count Mockingbird, which, while excellent, I don't think was as excellent as those other three, but that may just be because I like squirrels, cats and ducks more than secret agents).

You know what else sucks about Patsy ending? I don't see Brittney Williams' name anywhere in this months Marvel solicitations, so it doesn't look like they've moved one of their best artists on to another title yet!

I like Gambit's cards on this cover to X-Men: Gold.

That is all.


ZOMBIES ASSEMBLE #1 and #2
YUSAKU KOMIYAMA (W) * Adapted by JIM ZUB
YUSAKU KOMIYAMA (A/C)
...
The original manga is adapted into English for the first time!
Time and again, the Avengers have assembled to save the Earth from destruction. But they’ve never had to face a threat as gruesome and UNDEAD as this one! Now, Earth’s Mightiest Heroes must fight to contain an outbreak of horrifying zombies, and stop them from spreading across the Earth! But not all of the Avengers will escape uninfected…
Issue #1: 48 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99
Issue #2: 40 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99


Everyone's pretty sick of the Marvel Zombies at this point, right? I mean, they must be, as Marvel finally quit publishing Marvel Zombies-related comics. But this looks a little different. After all, it's created outside of Marvel's U.S. offices, and, for another, this appears to be the Marvel heroes fighting zombies, rather than being zombies, and while that is a very, very obvious story, it's actually kind of a fresh new twist on Marvel's past zombie comics.

I'll read it.

Thursday, February 23, 2017

DC's May previews reviewed

Is it time to do another one of these already? It seems like I just did one last month...

ACTION COMICS #980
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by PATCH ZIRCHER
Cover by RODOLFO MIGLIARI
...
“REVENGE” part two! Both Superman and the Revenge Squad must traverse the deadly Black Vault in a race against time to reach General Zod! Amanda Waller’s secret Kryptonian weapon reveals himself to the world, but Cyborg Superman and Eradicator move in to recruit him. Tying directly into the events of this month’s Suicide Squad issues—and no matter who wins in this epic showdown, it spells certain doom for the Last Son of Krypton!
On sale MAY 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


Wait a minute, why is General Zod so small now? The last time we saw him in the pages of Suicide Squad, he was like 9-12-feet tall! Now he's back down to regular human size...?

It's nice to see Cyborg Superman appearing here instead of Supergirl, as it seems like that title has been devoted to Supergirl fighting him for, like, ever now. I dropped it after the first issue, but he or other Kryptonian cyborogs have been on every cover published since, and I think that means it's been at least a six-issue story arc...so far.


AMERICAN WAY: THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION TP
Written by JOHN RIDLEY
Art by GEORGES JEANTY, KARL STORY and RAY SNYDER
Cover by GEORGES JEANTY and KARL STORY
Academy Award-winning author John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Three Kings) presents an alternate U.S. history with the Civil Defense Corps, a team of superheroes, and their handlers, the FDAA (Federal Disaster Assistance Administration). The FDAA stages showdowns between “superheroes” and “super-villains,” but in reality they are little more than superpowered actors that front for the public. What will these manufactured superheroes do when real danger arrives at the door? Collects THE AMERICAN WAY #1-8 in a new anniversary edition that includes bonus material!
On sale JUNE 7 • 208 pg, FC, $19.99 US • MATURE READERS


I haven't re-read this since the first time it was published serially, but I remember liking it quite a bit at the time and, more than that, being regularly surprised by it, as it went in directions I would not have expected from it. I do recall it struck me as somewhat Watchmen-esque, at least in terms of ambition, if it wasn't in the same ballpark in terms of craft or construction, and it seemed more interested in telling its story and wrestling with its particular themes rather than genre commentary.

...Which, now that I think of it, I wonder why the Civil Defense Corps haven't fought the Justice League or appeared in one of the many Multiversal crossovers yet? Perhaps because it wasn't as popular as Watchmen.

Anyway, if you missed it the first few times around, I'd recommend it, particularly if you like these sorts of analogue-hero morality tales. I'm sad to say that it is probably even more relevant in 2017 than it was in 2007, or any of the years between than and now (Maybe 2015 and 2016; those years were pretty rough too, come to think of it, and for some of the same reasons).


BANE: CONQUEST #1
Written by CHUCK DIXON
Art and cover by GRAHAM NOLAN
Variant cover by KELLEY JONES
...
The co-creators of Bane make a triumphant return to the character, with a twelve-issue series that will push him to the limit! Bane is seeking to create a global criminal empire with the help of his original gang, Bird, Trogg, and Zombie. The Man Who Broke The Bat moves beyond Gotham to find new cities to conquer and new enemies to crush. He won’t stop until he stands at the top of the world of crime! For Bane, it’s all about CONQUEST.
On sale MAY 3 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 12, $3.99 US • RATED T+


This is honestly the comic I am most excited about of any DC's solicited this month. I know Dixon's personal politics can seem pretty repugnant, and I know he's said some pretty repugnant things, and he's even lent his comics-writing talent to some pretty repugnant comics in recent years--although, in his defense, I suppose some of that could have been due to professional desperation.

All that said, he was one of the most prolific and talented and enduring of DC comics' writers in their street-level superhero/vigilante books for most of the '90s, and created some great characters who were adopted, embraced and championed by many fans on the Internet, like Spoiler Stephanie Brown (who other writers would turn into first Robin IV and then Batgirl III) and Green Arrow Connor Hawke, the latter a sexually ambiguous, Buddhist vegetarian Native American/Asian/caucasian twentysomething that you have to imagine Dixon himself wouldn't have had a whole lot in common with. And while he didn't create Robin Tim Drake, Nightwing or The Birds of Prey, he defined all of those characters and made them into the iterations that remain best-loved today.

Oh, and he created something like 10,000 new villains, I think, including Bane, with Graham Nolan.

So while I might hate to talk politics with the guy, I'm happy to see hims getting to work on some DC characters of late. I've been reading a lot of his work lately, thanks to DC's republishing of his Robin and Birds of Prey and sundry Bat-related collections (Batman: Elseworlds, DC/Dark Horse), and it appears that Detective Comics writer James Tynion is a huge fan, having resurrected many Dixon creations big and small, just as Tim Seeley has gradually been turning Nightwing into something of an extended Dixon homage, returning the character to Bludhaven and stocking it with Dixon co-created characters. (Meanwhile, in the pages of Batman, Tom King just re-introduced Zombie, Bird and Trogg, characters who haven't been used in forever, and who were also Dixon/Nolan creations; if Osoito/Osito shows up in this series, I will explode with excitement).

Nolan is an excellent artist who is similarly underappreciated today--if you ever find any of his Detective Comics books in a back-issue bin, snap them up. They are fantastic.

So I'm really looking forward to seeing this team working on familiar characters for DC again, and to see how they may have matured, and how they fit into the weird new post-Flashpoint DCU, which erased all their work, even while the current, more popular characters continually raid it for inspiration.

I am also, it should go without saying, super-excited about the Kelley Jones variants. Hopefully they are of the kind where I can just, like, pick one up on the shelf, rather than having to pay a marked-up price or something (In which case, forget it). Some of Jones' first Batman-related work was drawing the covers of "Knightfall" and other comics that tied into or followed it, so he drew a lot of Bane back at the same time Dixon and Nolan were introducing him. Jones' Bane sure is...something, as his ridiculously over-the-top, ludicrous-level exaggeration invents so many new muscle groups for the character.


BATMAN ’66 MEETS WONDER WOMAN ’77 #5
Written by MARC ANDREYKO and JEFF PARKER • Art by DAVID HAHN and KARL KESEL • Cover by MICHAEL ALLRED
The action heats up in 1970s Gotham City as the Amazon Princess arrives in Man’s World in search of her old ally, Batman! Instead, she finds a new hero: a motorcycle-riding daredevil with a familiar face and a new crime-fighting costume!
On sale MAY 24 • 32 pg, FC, 5 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED E • DIGITAL FIRST


I...was not expecting that. But then, this issue will be set in the 1970s, likely somewhere between four and 11 years after the time we saw Dick Grayson as Robin in the Batman TV show, which means this is set in the future of that show. And Dick's 1980s comic book costume looks remarkably appropriate for that era.

There have only been two issues out so far, but it's been remarkably great, with chunks of each of those issues set in the 1940s and the 1960s.


BATMAN/THE SHADOW #2
Written by SCOTT SNYDER and STEVE ORLANDO
Art and cover by RILEY ROSSMO
Variant cover by TIM SALE
...
The second chapter in the historic team-up of history’s greatest vigilantes is here! The Shadow must convince Batman of his innocence so the two can seek out their true common foe, the Stag, before he takes out Batman’s greatest allies. Co-published with Dynamite Entertainment.
On sale MAY 24 • 32 pg, FC, 2 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T


I'm pretty surprised to see The Stag appearing as a villain here, as he was introduced with some small amount of fanfare in the most recent Batman Annual #1, in a short story by Orlando and Rossmo that ended with a little tag saying that the character would be returning in 2017. I guess this is where he is returning in particular, rather than in a regular book within the Batman line.


BUG!: THE ADVENTURES OF FORAGER #1
Written by LEE ALLRED
Art and cover by MICHAEL ALLRED
...
An all-new Young Animal miniseries begins! Forager is just one of the Hive before he breaks out of his cocoon and finds himself in a mysterious house in an unknown realm. There he meets all kinds of strange creatures: a ghostly girl, a talking teddy bear and otherworldly weirdos that have literally jumped out of his worst nightmares. But these interdimensional oddballs are nothing compared to the evil General Electric, who is on the hunt for a reality-bending metal that could alter the fabric of life itself. To stay one step ahead of him and preserve the multiverse, Forager must travel through alternate dimensions to seek the metal and, hopefully, catch up with that cagey stuffed bear. If he does it, will he finally be able to distinguish himself as a New God?

DC’s Young Animal celebrates Jack Kirby’s centenary with this new six-issue miniseries—and who better to tackle this task than the Eisner Award-winning Allred clan! Featuring scripts by Lee Allred (BATMAN ’66), art by Michael Allred (Silver Surfer) and colors by Laura Allred (Lady Killer), BUG! is truly a family affair.
On sale MAY 10 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS


I've been luke warm to DC's Young Animal imprint, which seems like a 21st Century cover version of the original Vertigo imprint...at a point where just about every comic being published is for Mature Readers, and all-ages ones are now the outliers (at least among the Big Two). I like Doom Patrol and Cave Carson (but I'm not crazy about either), and I don't like Mother Panic and Shade, The Changing Girl, but none of it has approached the glory of Tom Scioli's Cave Carson back-up feature, Super Powers.

This looks awfully promising though, and if Team Allred is allowed to completely ignore everything that's happened with the New Gods since at least Countdown To Infinite Crisis, all the better!


CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE VOL. 1: GOING UNDERGROUND TP
Written by GERARD WAY, JON RIVERA and TOM SCIOLI
Art by MICHAEL AVON OEMING and TOM SCIOLI
Cover by MATT WAGNER
Cave Carson has done it all: survived countless adventures below the Earth’s surface, met the love of his life, and gotten a cybernetic eye…somehow. Now, newly widowed, Cave tries to piece his life back together when a knock on the door of his secret underground lab pulls him back into a past that he and Eileen thought they had left buried deep within the Earth.
In these tales from issues #1-6, Cave must determine if his recent hallucinations are the work of his mind or his mysterious cybernetic eye. (Spoiler: It’s the eye.)
On sale JUNE 28 • 176 pg, FC, $16.99 US • MATURE READERS


Well speak of the devil! I've grown curious how they were planning on collecting Scioli's back-ups to this series, given that they have absolutely nothing to do with the title stories, and had just sort of assumed that at some point there would be a Super Powers collection. But no, it seems like they will be sticking 18-pages worth of Scioli's berserk DC superhero comic in the back of a Cave Carson trade for some reason.


DARK NIGHT: A TRUE BATMAN STORY TP
Written by PAUL DINI
Art and cover by EDUARDO RISSO
The Caped Crusader has been an icon of justice and authority for generations. But in this surprising original graphic novel, now in trade paperback for the first time, we see Batman in a new light—as the savior who helps a discouraged man recover from a brutal attack that left him unable to face the world.


In the 1990s, Eisner Award-winning writer Paul Dini had a flourishing career writing the hugely popular Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toon Adventures. Walking home one evening, he was jumped and viciously beaten to within an inch of his life. His recovery process was arduous, hampered by the imagined antics of the villains he was writing for television, including The Joker, Harley Quinn and the Penguin. But Dini also always imagined the Batman at his side during his darkest moments.

DARK NIGHT: A TRUE BATMAN STORY is the harrowing and eloquent autobiographical tale of Dini’s courageous struggle to overcome a desperate situation. It is a Batman story like none other and one that will truly resonate with fans, with art by Eduardo Risso (100 BULLETS).
On sale JUNE 14 • 128 pg, FC, $16.99 • MATURE READERS



I ended up liking this one an awful lot
, so if you missed the hardcover, here's another chance to get it, in a cheaper, trade-paperback format. It was one of those weird comics where I actually appreciated it more as I started to write about it, and thus thinking about it more deeply as reviewing a comic so often entails, than I did when reading through it the first time.


DC COMICS/DARK HORSE COMICS: BATMAN VS. PREDATOR TP
Written by DAVE GIBBONS, DOUG MOENCH and CHUCK DIXON
Art by ANDY KUBERT, ADAM KUBERT, PAUL GULACY, RODOLFO DAMAGGIO and others
Cover by MIKE MIGNOLA
After investigating a series of gruesome murders, Batman realizes that these crimes aren’t perpetrated by anyone from Gotham City…or even this planet. Soon, the Dark Knight finds his real enemy—the intergalactic hunter called the Predator! This collection features BATMAN VS. PREDATOR #1-3, BATMAN VS. PREDATOR II: BLOODMATCH #1-4 and BATMAN VS. PREDATOR III: BLOOD TIES #1-4 and is co-published with Dark Horse Comics.
On sale JUNE 7 • 408 pg, FC, $34.99 US


Oh hey, there's Chuck Dixon again! He writes Blood Ties, which, if I recall correctly, also involved Robin Tim Drake and some other Batman allies. I've read and liked all of these, to varying degrees. I only actually own the original in singles, so there's a pretty good chance I'm going to drop a wad of cash on this thing. Great cover by Mignola; I'm wondering now if that was a cover or variant cover for the original, or if it is art from one of the tie-in trading cards? Because the original came out in the early 90s, there were of course trading cards involved. Hell, maybe there were even some pogs.


DETECTIVE COMICS #957
Written by GENEVIEVE VALENTINE and JAMES TYION IV
Art by CARMEN CARNERO
Cover by ALVARO MARTINEZ
...
“The Wrath Of Spoiler”! Stephanie Brown wants nothing more than to save Gotham City from the epidemic of costumed vigilantes and madmen that regularly tear the city apart. But before she can try to stop them, she must face the challenge of one in particular: the insane idealogue the Wrath is back, and Stephanie knows what he has planned—but she refuses to let Batman risk more lives to stop him. That means it’s all on her…and a very unlikely ally!
On sale MAY 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


This synopsis sounds like another one that might have been referring to a rather interesting story had it been occurring in a Flashpoint-less, un-rebooted DC Universe, the newer, New 52 Wrath is hella dumb, with a hella dumb costume that made the purple suit and the W-shaped cowl look cooler by comparison. No easy feat, that.


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #7
Written by STEVE ORLANDO
Art by FELIPE WATANABE and SCOTT HANNA
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
...
“FATAL ATTRACTION”! Batman and Xenos work on the Secret Sanctuary while the Ray and Vixen perform community outreach. But it’s not all fun and games for DC’s newest superhero team, as the Atom and Killer Frost face off against the Terrorsmith (and their own budding romance) while Lobo and Black Canary come to blows in a casino caper. And it’s all capped off with a moment fans have been waiting for since DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH!
On sale MAY 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


Terrorsmith? I both kind of appreciate and kind of hate the fact that Steve Orlando apparently read and liked all the same DC Comics I did growing up, and seems intent on bringing as many of the characters he enjoyed in his youth back into circulation (James Tynion and a few other writers seem to be doing the same in their books). The fact that we're on the other side of a cosmic reboot kind of sucks the charm out of such callbacks, as they essentially ask a reader, "Remember that obscure character you might have liked from some comic you read 20 years ago? They're back. Except they have a different back-story. And a different costume. And the story, you liked? That never really happened, or maybe it did happen, but in a different way we won't get into. Anyway, you liked the name and the powers, right? Well here!"

It's like asking for a pony and getting a goat with rabies, except not like that at all, really.

Anyway, Terrorsmith! You remember Terrorsmith, right? He was one of the "New Bloods" introduced in DC's 1993 annuals, a kinda sorta villain who was created by William Messner-Loebs and Greg LaRoque for their Justice League America Annual #7. He had the weird, but visually compelling power to transform other people into monsters, and, like too many of his New Blood brethren, he never took off (I believe his only other appearance was a Messner-Loebs-written short story in an issue of Showcase '94). He looks weirdly old on this cover, but I guess it will be interesting to see what Orlando can do with him. Like a lot of the New Bloods, he was a character with potential that was never quite realized (The idea between the recent, terrible Bloodlines miniseries, reintroducing some of these "lost" characters into the new continuity, was a solid one, but the execution was all but unreadable, and Loose Cannon seemed to be the only semi-recognizable character. In retrospect, I wonder why DC didn't have Orlando take a crack at that?).

Also: Xenos...?


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA: ROAD TO REBIRTH TP
Written by STEVE ORLANDO and JODY HOUSER
Art by IVAN REIS, JOE PRADO, MIRKA ANDOLFO, STEPHEN BYRNE, JAMAL CAMPBELL and ANDY MACDONALD • Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Spinning out of JUSTICE LEAGUE VS. SUICIDE SQUAD, as a part of DC Universe Rebirth, the most diverse Justice League of America ever returns! Explore the roots of four very different metahumans in stories from Justice League Of America: Rebirth #1, Justice League Of America: Killer Frost #1, Justice League Of America: The Ray #1, Justice League Of America: The Atom #1 and Justice League Of America: Vixen #1
On sale JUNE 7 • 128 pg, FC, $14.99 US


I read all of these comics. With the exception of JLoA: Rebirth #1, none of them are very good, and this will likely be a pretty dull trade, as it's just four unconnected origin stories, followed by what is essential the #0 issue of the latest volume of JLoA;


NIGHTWING #21
Written by TIM SEELEY
Art and cover by MARCUS TO
...
“BLOCKBUSTER” part one! After years of living in the shadows of others and traveling the globe, Nightwing has found a purpose and a city to call his own in Blüdhaven. Now, Blüdhaven’s prodigal son, Blockbuster, returns to reclaim his city and dispose of Nightwing by any means necessary.
On sale MAY 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


See what I mean about Chuck Dixon nostalgia? Not only is Dick in a black-and-blue costume closely resembling that he wore during that era, not only is he back in Bludhaven, but now Blockbuster is coming back! And apparently in his post-Underworld Unleashed, Wilson Fisk-with-a-weird-head iteration.


SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE BOOK THREE TP
Written by MATT WAGNER, STEVEN T. SEAGLE and NEIL GAIMAN
Art by GUY DAVIS, WARREN PLEECE and TEDDY KRISTIANSEN
Cover by GAVIN WILSON and RICHARD BRUNING
In these tales from SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATRE #25-36, Wesley Dodds meets the Hourman, battles the Python and faces the Night of the Butcher. Plus, the mortal Sandman meets the godlike Morpheus in the SANDMAN MIDNIGHT THEATRE #1.
On sale JUNE 21 • 368 pg, FC, $29.99 US • MATURE READERS


I read this sporadically when it was being released in singles, but every issue I read was awesome. I really need to invest in these collections at some point.


SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #26
Written by SHOLLY FISCH
Art and cover by SCOTT JERALDS
Scooby and the gang can handle phony ghosts and goblins, but a gang of high-kicking martial arts dragons? Only one superhero can help them: that Number One Super-Guy, Hong Kong Phooey! By the time the dust clears, will Scooby solve the mystery and earn a black belt around his waist, or just a yellow streak down his back?
On sale MAY 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED E


This is one of those months where I wonder if DC is publishing this comic just for me specifically.

Oh snap, the newest member of the Suicide Squad is...Moses?!


TITANS #11
Written by DAN ABNETT, BENJAMIN PERCY and CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
Art by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND
Cover by MIKE McKONE
...
“THE LAZARUS CONTRACT” part one! When Deathstroke discovers that Wally West’s return holds the key to bringing his son back from the dead, he’ll stop at nothing to do just that! Don’t miss the debut chapter of the epic crossover event that you’ve been waiting for!
On sale MAY 10 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

TEEN TITANS #8
Written by DAN ABNETT, BENJAMIN PERCY and CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
Art by KHOI PHAM and WADE VON GRAWBADGER
Cover by MIKE McKONE
...
“THE LAZARUS CONTRACT” part two! The Teen Titans collide with the Titans after both groups are targeted by the World’s Deadliest Assassin—Deathstroke! But when Robin interrogates Nightwing about his history with Deathstroke, dark secrets are revealed and alliances are broken!
On sale MAY 17 • 32 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

DEATHSTROKE #19
Written by DAN ABNETT, BENJAMIN PERCY and CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
Art by CARLO PAGULAYAN and JASON PAZ
Cover by MIKE McKONE
...
“THE LAZARUS CONTRACT” part three! Will Slade succeed in reuniting with his son even at the risk of cataclysmic disaster? Or will the Titans and the Teen Titans be fast enough to stop him from changing the world as we know it? Find out what happens when the World’s Deadliest Assassin becomes the Fastest Man Alive!
On sale MAY 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+

TEEN TITANS ANNUAL: THE LAZARUS CONTRACT #1
Written by DAN ABNETT, BENJAMIN PERCY and CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
Art by PAUL PELLETIER
Cover by MIKE McKONE
Includes a code for a free digital download of this issue.
“THE LAZARUS CONTRACT” finale! The conclusion to our epic crossover is here, the consequences of which will be felt for years to come! What does the future hold for the Titans teams after this game-changing run-in with their greatest enemy? Find out here as we set the stage for the next era of Titans, Teen Titans and Deathstroke!
On sale MAY 31 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T


Well, this sucks. I've tried all three of these books. I can't stand I like and am currently reading Deathstroke and Teen Titans, but am planning to drop the latter when its price increases. I tried two issues of Titans, but just can't stand it. So hopefully this makes sense if you only read random parts of it!

With the characters' histories all scrambled up, and still being scrambled, as the other shoe doesn't seem to have dropped yet regarding the older, paler Wally West and the grown-up Titans, I'm not sure how much oomph a Titans vs. Deathstroke story will have at this juncture, but I guess we'll find out. Here's hoping it reads more like Deathstroke than Titans...


TRINITY ANNUAL #1
Written by ROB WILLIAMS
Art and cover by GUILLEM MARCH
Includes a code for a free digital download of this issue.
You don’t betray Ra’s al Ghul and legendary sorceress Circe and just walk away. That’s what Lex Luthor is about to learn the hard way. Now, he has to unite with his former Justice League teammates if he wants to stay alive. Meanwhile, the Trinity fear this ordeal will push Lex back to the dark side.
On sale MAY 31 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T


Hey, it's Guillem March! I haven't seen much him lately, but he's a hell of an artist, and I've long been hoping he would get a regular gig on a Batman book. While the first Trinity story arc, yet another dip into the "For The Man Who Has Everything Well," was pretty derivative and uninspired, but this at least sounds interesting, and that is an interesting creative team. Like like the idea of this Villainous Trinity, too.


WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1
Written by GREG RUCKA and others
Art by NICOLA SCOTT, LIAM SHARP and others
Cover by NICOLA SCOTT
Includes a code for a free digital download of this issue.
The world of the Amazing Amazon expands in a collection of short stories that take Wonder Woman around the globe! In the days after “Year One,” Diana comes face-to-face with Superman and Batman for the first time, as illustrated by “Year One” artist Nicola Scott…and years later, Liam Sharp brings you the story of how their friendship has evolved!
On sale MAY 31 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T


There was a Superman annual once that did something similar, detailing Superman's first meetings with the various members of the then-"Year One" version of the Justice League, and I really rather liked that. This will be interesting because we've already seen Wonder Woman's first meeting with Batman and Superman; it was 2006's Justice League #1. Greg Rucka has some long-form, continuity-fixing game plan going on in Wonder Woman though, and perhaps it will have borne fruit by the time this gets released in May.

Monday, February 20, 2017

(I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since I finished reading Justice League/Power Rangers #1)

Please imagine the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers theme song while reading.

That's Ghuldar, Talia, Strangester, Splatt and Nocturna Eclipsa

Seriously, it doesn't work if you don't imagine the theme song.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Gotham Grove...

"And with favorite colors they dress almost exclusively in, if you can find them!"

His full name is Alfred 5, of course.

He wields a Power Staff.

I basically just added a cape; he's pretty much already costumed like a Power Ranger in Batman comics.

Those are Power Batarangs, even though Cass doesn't really need any weapons.

I'd also accept her as The Purple Ranger.

That's supposed to be a Power Blaster, which shoots lightning bolts.

Who else could it be? He pilots the mighty Goliath Megazord.

Pronounced "GORE-DAWN."

The Red Robin, Bluebird, Golden Bat, Black Bat and Pink Crane Batzords...

...all combine to form The Batman Megazord!