Wednesday, July 20, 2016

DC's October previews reviewed

Yes, it's that time of the month again.

ACTION COMICS #965
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by STEPHEN SEGOVIA and ART THIBERT
Covers by CLAY MANN
...
“BACK IN THE PLANET” part one! Superman returns to the public eye—but what of Lois Lane? When a mysterious package arrives for Lois and Clark back on the farm, Lois can stay on the sidelines no more. But where does that leave Superman’s human doppelgänger, Clark Kent?
On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

ACTION COMICS #966
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by STEPHEN SEGOVIA and ART THIBERT
Covers by CLAY MANN
Variant covers by GARY FRANK
Retailers: These issues will ship with two covers each. Please see the order form for details.
“BACK IN THE PLANET” part two! As the Daily Planet’s star returns to work, so does Lex Luthor. Meanwhile, Superman continues to investigate the devastation in the aftermath of the Doomsday attack.
On sale OCTOBER 26 • Each 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


"Back In"...? Not "Back At"...?

So the solicits for this story arc that is still three months and some six issues away get to the core of my problem with the entire "Rebirth" initiative, the "What the hell are you guys doing, exactly?" problem, which centers on Superman.

Without re-hashing it all again, there are essentially two Supermen and two Lois Lanes, one set of which is a good six or seven or eight years older than the other one, and from a different dimension/universe/continuity.

DC "solved" the Superman problem by killing off the New 52 Superman and having his progenitor replace him as his own legacy or whatever. But they still have the Two Lois problem. I'm not sure which Lois this is, but given that they are making a big deal out of her return to the Planet, I assume that it is Old Lois (She's the one who has been appearing in Action and Superman since the relaunch; the New 52 Lois will apparently be starring in the upcoming Superwoman book).

From little hints dropped here and there, it is apparent that DC has some plan for how they're going to resolve the problems in the Superman franchise, and Jurgens at least seems to be making something of a mystery out of it (note the appearance of a Clark Kent with no powers alongside Superman in Action recently), but I kind of wish they would just tear the bandage off and move on.

Oh! And did you guys see this week's issue of Superman...? Krypto is in it! But he looks like a normal earth dog in a cape, not the big white saber-tooth dire wolf that New 52 Krypto is. Is this Krypto II, or did he emigrate from the pre-Flashpoint DCU too or...what...? I'm really confused about Krypto the Superdog continuity you guys, and I don't think that's a thing people should be confused about...!


ALL STAR BATMAN #3
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by JOHN ROMITA, JR., DANNY MIKI and DECLAN SHALVEY
Cover by JOHN ROMITA, JR. and DANNY MIKI
...
“MY OWN WORST ENEMY” part three! Now on the run from both bounty hunters and cops, Batman and Duke must find a safe place to hide out with Two-Face before they can continue their journey to the cure. Batman might soon realize his worst nightmare: that Two-Face is right…and nowhere is safe.
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 40 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T


I just read Batman and Robin Vol. 5: The Big Burn this week, collecting an arc from that weird period where Robin was temporarily dead, and so Batman and Robin changed its title to Batman and... to accommodate guest-stars; that arc was from its time as Batman and Two-Face.

The character, who loomed so large in Batman comics in years past, has been almost entirely absent since the launch of the New 52, and "The Big Burn" was his only real showcase story. It offered a brand-new origin for the character, as well as explaining why we haven't seen much of him. Spoiler: He's dead now.

Or, he was. The ending of that story is evidently a lot less permanent than it looked, if he's now co-starring in the first arc of writer Scott Snyder's next Batman book.

That's an all-around aces creative team, and I'm kinda looking forward to this book, especially in seeing what JRJR does with a classic Batman villain like Two-Face and the much less classic KGBeast.

...

Say, I don't think KGBeast has appeared in The New 52 yet, has he...? He's a pretty awesome character in how incredibly dated he is (although I know Chris Sims likes something else about him, which is, admittedly, also awesome), and I imagine he will only appear more and more so as time passes and the Soviet Union and the KGB recede further and further into the past.


AQUAMAN #9
Written by DAN ABNETT
Art by SCOT EATON and WAYNE FAUCHER
Covers by BRAD WALKER and ANDREW HENNESSY
...
“UNSTOPPABLE” part two! In the shocking conclusion to this story, the unstoppable juggernaut carves a new path toward Aquaman’s hometown of Amnesty Bay. So far, Arthur’s attempts to halt the creature have been fruitless, but to save his friends and neighbors, the sea king must do the unthinkable.
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


Say, can DC use the phrase "unstoppable juggernaut"...?


BATMAN #9
Written by TOM KING
Art and cover by MIKEL JANIN
...
“I Am Suicide” part one! Batman has always been crazy…but this? This is suicide! In order to retrieve Psycho-Pirate and save Gotham Girl, Batman must recruit a team from Amanda Waller to break into the most impenetrable prison in the world and steal from one of the Dark Knight’s greatest foes…Bane. The next great Batman story begins here!
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


Well, the cover shows Arkham Asylum, which makes me wonder if that is where Batman is recruiting his team from (Wait, why are you recruiting a team, Batman? You're Batman! Also, your ex is the world's greatest thief; just call her, man!), or if that's the "impenetrable prison" he's breaking in to. I would assume the Suicide Squad will be assembled from Arkham inmates, since obviously that place isn't all that difficult to break into or out of, in which case this sounds a bit like 2001's Justice Leagues: Justice League of Arkham #1, doesn't it?
I don't remember that particular issue of that event series all that well, which means it was neither awesome nor terrible. How about that George Perez cover though, huh?

On the subject of Batman, I just remembered the "Three Jokers" plot-point from Justice League/DC Universe: Rebirth this afternoon. It doesn't look like that's being picked up in Justice League or any of the Batman comics that have been released so far, which is a little on the weird side. I mean, you would think Batman would make that a priority, right...?


CAVE CARSON HAS A CYBERNETIC EYE #1
Written by GERARD WAY and JON RIVERA
Art and cover by MICHAEL AVON OEMING
...
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. After he and his wife, Eileen, sent their only daughter Chloe off to college, Cave was ready to become just another mundane member of the surface world. That is, until Eileen got sick. 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.

Adding to his troubles, Cave must determine if his recent hallucinations and visions are the work of his mind or his mysterious cybernetic eye. (Spoiler: It’s the eye.)
Written by Gerard Way (DOOM PATROL, Umbrella Academy) and Jon Rivera (Heartbreak), and illustrated by Michael Avon Oeming (Powers), this is an absurdist action-adventure story unlike any other!
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS


Well it's about goddam time someone did a Cave Carson comic, and that's all I gotta say.


CYBORG #2
Written by JOHN SEMPER, JR.
Art by PAUL PELLETIER and SANDRA HOPE
...
“THE IMITATION OF LIFE” part three! Vic Stone’s quest to save his soul is threatened by an attack from Kilg%re, an artificial alien life form that wishes to purge Cyborg of any remnants of his humanity.
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


Here is example #5,000,000 of DC's weird-ass, both-of-worst-world's relationship to their continuity. The second issue of the the re-booted Cyborg comic, set in a new, rebooted, five-year-old continuity/universe will feature as its antagonist a minor 30-year-old character from The Flash, JLI and the latter book's spin-offs.

So here's a minor character used in a way that's supposed to stoke familiarity and therefore be appealing, but stripped of everything familiar but its name and reintroduced.


DC/DARK HORSE: JUSTICE LEAGUE VOL. 1 TP
Written by DAVID MICHELINIE, ALAN GRANT, JAMES ROBINSON and MIKE KENNEDY
Art by ALEX MALEEV, STEVE PUGH, MIKE MIGNOLA, RYAN BENJAMIN and others
Cover by MIKE MIGNOLA
The greatest crossovers featuring Justice League members Superman, Batman, Starman and Batgirl against Predator, Terminators and other characters in DC COMICS/DARK HORSE COMICS: JUSTICE LEAGUE VOL. 1. This new collection includes SUPERMAN VS. PREDATOR #1-3, SUPERMAN VS. THE TERMINATOR: DEATH TO THE FUTURE #1-3, BATMAN/HELLBOY/STARMAN #1-2 and GHOST/BATGIRL #1-4.
On sale NOVEMBER 9 • 408 pg, FC, $24.99 US


Or, alternately, DC/Dark Horse: We Weren't Sure What To Call This One. This is a grab-bag of DC/Dark Horse crossovers, with nothing at all in common other than that. I mean, you can call bullshit on the very first sentence: Starman (Here, Starman I and Starman VIII) and Batgirl were never members of the Justice League.

I have only read Batman/Hellboy/Starman, which is okay, and definitely deserves props for being so weird and unusual for a comic of its kind, and Ghost/Batgirl, of which I remember nothing at all. I'm a little surprised to see Superman Vs. Predator collected here, as there are enough comics featuring DC characters fighting Predators that DC could have quite easily done a DC/Dark Horse: Predator collection (Three Batman miniseries, a Superman miniseries and a JLA one-shot...plus the Superman and Batman Vs. Aliens and Predator series that was previously collected in DC/Dark Horse: Aliens Vol. 1.

An all around weird bit of marketing here...

I'm a little bummed that the publisher's Superman/Tarzan crossover isn't included, as I recently came upon the first and third issues while trying to clean up and reorganize my comics midden, and I realized I never read the middle section of that series. Also, I've been thinking about Tarzan more than usual lately having recently seen the new film.


Artist Rafa Sandoval draws a rare instance of male broke-back on his cover for Hal Jordan and The Green Lantern Corps #6. That is, admittedly, not what I first noticed on this cover. No, it was that Sinestro recruited King Kong into the Sinestro Corps. That's one thing I love about the various Lantern teams and the fact that they pull members from anywhere in the entire universe; writers and artists can pick anyone or anything–a house cat, a humanoid bat wearing a gimp mask, Ganesh–and give them a magic wishing ring and team uniform. Here, Sandoval and/or the writer and/or the interior artist decided to go with "a giant gorilla," and why not...?


HARLEY’S LITTLE BLACK BOOK #6
Written by AMANDA CONNER and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by SIMON BISLEY
Cover by AMANDA CONNER
...
Lobo’s back! The Main Man and Harley Quinn have a lot in common—motorcycles and mayhem, for starters—so it’s long past time they found each other! This could be the start of a fraggin’ beautiful friendship…or they could destroy the planet. Or both! It can be two things!
On sale OCTOBER 26 • 32 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T+ • FINAL ISSUE


Six issues? That's it? I'm a little surprised, and even a little disappointed, that this is being cancelled so quickly since it's A) A Harley Quinn book, B) It looks like a very easy Harley Quinn book for Conner and Palmiotti to write and C) It's usage of/reliance on rotating artists makes it the most interesting of DC's (probably too) many Harley Quinn books and helps spread the Harley wealth around while the character is still "hot."

The first few issues weren't terrible, but this is the second solicitation in a row that seemed like a nice pairing of artist with subject matter, as early '90s Lobo artist Simon Bisley arrives to draw Harley's team-up with what by all appearances seems to be the early '90s version of Lobo (rather than one of the two or three rebooted versions that have been around since The New 52 launched five years ago).

I am glad DC finally found a full-length, interior project for Bisley to do, after giving him some cover assignments and at least one short story over the course of the last few years. If Simon Bisley wants to draw your superhero comics for you, I say you move heaven and Earth to let him do so.

Say, did you guys read the Injustice annual where Harley Quinn fought Lobo? That was one of the better stories in Injustice so far, I thought.


HAWKMAN AND ADAM STRANGE: OUT OF TIME #1
Written by MARC ANDREYKO
Art and cover by AARON LOPRESTI
...
Residing on Earth and out of the hero game, Adam Strange finds himself trying to live a “normal” life, until he’s literally pulled back into adventure again when a seemingly normal Zeta beam transmission returns him to the planet Rann, where he hopes to be reunited with his beloved Alanna. But instead he finds the once-great city of Ranagar in ruins, with millions dead, and the once peaceful Alanna is now calling for the blood of Rann’s oldest enemy, Thanagar, home of the Hawkmen. Sensing something is amiss, Strange finds an ally in Hawkman, who also is trying anything possible to avert war. Don’t miss the start of this sensational new six-issue miniseries!
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T


Two unpopular characters, one unpopular title! So what are New 52 Hawkman and New 52 Adam Strange going to be getting up to here...? Let's see, Rann and Thanagar on the brink of war, huh? Great! DC hasn't done a Rann-Thanagar war comic in years...! Like, ten.


HE-MAN/THUNDERCATS #1
Written by ROB DAVID and LLOYD GOLDFINE
Art and covers by FREDDIE E. WILLIAMS II
...
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe team up with the ThunderCats—the epic crossover event you’ve waited thirty years to see! In his ever-living desire to destroy the mighty ThunderCats, Mumm-Ra quests for a weapon that can rival the legendary Sword of Omens: He-Man’s Sword of Power! But his dimension-spanning scheme kick starts a cataclysmic crisis that will embroil heroes and villains—Masters, Mutants and ThunderCats—in a mind-blowing six-part saga!
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T


I was a huge He-Man fan growing up, but never took to The ThunderCats much, as that cartoon was garbage...at least after the opening theme sequence, which was really well animated. Also, I Snarf filled me with rage. That said, He-Man and The Masters of The Universe was also garbage, and worse garbage at that, but I was younger and didn't notice as much when it was originally airing (and anyway, I got into it through the action figures and they were dope, regardless of how shitty the cartoon was)

That, paired with the fact that DC's He-Man comics have been mind-boggling terrible (especially the DC Universe crossover) leads me to believe this will probably be very not very good. The fact that I have no idea who either writer is doesn't fill me with a lot of confidence.

That said, I am curious to see what Williams, who just got done drawing the Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover, will come up with for these two sets of characters. I just hope that they're starting fresh with the characters, rather than trying to set them in the rather weird continuity of the DC version of He-Man and company, which kinda limits the appeal of their books dealing with those characters.

There are two covers, one featuring the bad guys and one featuring the good guys. I used the bad guy one, because they are generally much more interesting to look at than the good guys.


THE LEGEND OF WONDER WOMAN HC
Written by RENAE DE LIZ
Art and cover by RENAE DE LIZ and RAY DILLON
The new WONDER WOMAN 9-issue miniseries written and pencilled by Renae De Liz is collected here! In the beginning there was only chaos. But Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, saw a better future—and eventually her daughter would be destined to bring that new world to life! Before her ultimate fate unfolds though, Diana of Themyscira must learn the important lessons of an Amazonian childhood!
On sale DECEMBER 7 • 288 pg, FC, $29.99 US


If you read my weekly "Comic Shop Comics" reactions to what I buy and read on any given Wednesday, than you know that I'm pretty fond of this book. If you don't but are at all interested in Wonder Woman, I'd highly recommend this book. It basically re-tells the character's original Golden Age origin story, updating aspects to make it more palatable to a modern audience–both in matters of political correctness as well as sophistication of story-telling–without gutting what makes the various characters so interesting in the first place. Writer/artist Renae De Liz makes some choices I likely wouldn't have, particularly regarding the origins of the Amazons, but everything she does she does well. I've lamented before that this is set in Wonder Woman's original World War II milieu, if only because this is good enough to be the preeminent Wonder Woman origin story, her equivalent to Batman: Year One or any of the better Superman origin stories, but that setting will unfortunately consign it to outside current DC Comics continuity. Which is where, unfortunately, all the best Wonder Woman comics are set...


MIDNIGHTER AND APOLLO #1
Written by STEVE ORLANDO
Art by FERNANDO BLANCO
Cover by ACO
Variant cover by HOWARD PORTER
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
You wanted it? You got it—six more issues of Midnighter madness! Together again after too long apart, Midnighter and Apollo take on subway pirates in Los Angeles and demons in Opal City…but their reunion is about to take a shocking turn and send them both on an epic journey beyond all belief!
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 1 of 6, $3.99 US • RATED T+


Hey, look! It's the very last vestiges of the WildStorm "Universe" being folded into the DC Universe during Flashpoint/The New 52! And it's...a Batman analogue and Superman analogue. Huh.

Seriously, writer Steve Orlando's Midnighter monthly was, for the most part, pretty good, and one of the better of the ongoings to come out of the "DCYou" initiative (My favorite series of that period were the mini-series like Bizarro and, obviously, All Star Section Eight; I discussed the first collection of Midnighter in this post, though). I was a little bummed to see the series was being canceled, but then its numbers were crazy-low. So I am glad to see it's getting a bit of a reprieve, or at least that Orlando's getting another shot at a story, which, one has to assume, would have been an arc in his ongoing if his ongoing was still going on.

As I mentioned recently, I really like the character as a foil to Nightwing, at least as Tim Seeley has used the pair together, so I do hope Midnighter doesn't simply completely disappear the way that all the other WildStorm imports have.


NEW SUPER-MAN #4
Written by GENE LUEN YANG
Art and cover by VIKTOR BOGDANOVIC and RICHARD FRIEND
...
“MADE IN CHINA” part four! It’s the Justice League of China vs. the Chinese Freedom Fighters! As the New Super-Man tests his power against the Flying Dragon General’s team, a shocking new revelation will stop our young hero dead in his tracks. And trust us, you won’t believe what Kenan Kong discovers! All this, plus the Chinese Freedom Fighters’ ultimate weapon arrives, and it’ll be the STAR of the show…
On sale OCTOBER 12 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


I really like DC's Freedom Fighters characters, and while I know these will be the Chinese versions (post-Flashpoint, I don't think we've seen the American versions, just The Ray and Human Bomb in forgotten miniseries written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray) that still gets me a little excited. It also explains why in the first issue of the series Kenan Kong faced a villain named Blue Condor, who looked vaguely like one of the more recent, 21st century legacy versions of Black Condor.


SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL #1
Written by CECIL CASTELLUCCI
Art by MARLEY ZARCONE
Cover by BECKY CLOONAN
...
There’s no such thing as a little bit of madness.
Far away on the planet Meta, Loma’s going nowhere fast. She’s dropped out of school, dumped her boyfriend, and is bored out of her mind. She longs to feel things. That’s where her idol, the lunatic poet Rac Shade, and his infamous madness coat come it. Loma steals the garment and makes a break across galaxies to take up residence in a new body: Earth girl Megan Boyer. Surely everything will be better on this passionate primitive planet with a dash of madness on her side and this human girl’s easy life. Only now that she’s here, Loma discovers being a teenaged Earth girl comes with its own challenges and Earth may not be everything she thought it’d be. Megan Boyer was a bully whom everyone was glad was almost dead, and now Loma has to survive High School and navigate the consequences of the life she didn’t live with the ever-growing and uncontrollable madness at her side. Not to mention that there are people back on her homeworld who might just want Shade’s coat back.
Written by Cecil Castellucci (THE PLAIN JANES, Moving Target: A Princess Leia Adventure), drawn by Marley Zarcone (EFFIGY) and overseen by Gerard Way, SHADE, THE CHANGING GIRL starts a whole new chapter in the story of one of comics’ most unique series.
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • MATURE READERS


Well, best of luck to prose writer and comics dabbler Cecil Castellucci with this, but based on how the last comic DC tried that took an obscure superhero character that found wider success in the '90s as a mature readers Vertigo character and then gender-flipped them into a young female character turned out, well, I don't expect this to perform all that well.

If you've forgotten, that would be Prez, and that was maybe tied with Omega Men for the biggest and quickest flop of the "DCYou" launches.

Personally, I think if you're going to try and do something with the Shade, The Changing Man character at this point, it would be more interesting and fresher to go back to the original, weirdo superhero conception rather than to continue to pursue the Peter Milligan Vertigo conception, as this seems to do, but what do I know? I just read the damn things.

If this sells only 35 copies, then it will have sold far more issues than any of the comics I've written...


SPACE GHOST TP NEW EDITION
Written by JOE KELLY
Art by ARIEL OLIVETTI
Cover by ALEX ROSS
The six-issue miniseries from 2005 is back in a new edition! For the first time, learn how Space Ghost got his power bands and why he protects the galaxy from evil! Witness the tragic circumstances that led to his donning a cowl and his first battle with arch-nemesis Zorak!
On sale NOVEMBER 9 • 144 pg, FC, $16.99 US


It was very interesting to see this show up in here, as I'm pretty sure it has been on a lot of readers' minds as DC's weird Hanna-Barbera-for-grown-ups comics have been rolling out. This prefigured that move by over a decade. I've read at least the first issue of all of the Hanna-Barbereboot comics except Future Quest (as the one comic I was positive I would like, I decided to trade-wait that one), but as far as I can tell, Future Quest hews closest to Joe Kelly and Ariel Olivetti's take on Space Ghost than the other reboots, which seem to doing randomly weird for random weirdness' sake.

It's been a while since I read this, but I liked it an awful lot, and it seriousness never stopped surprising me, although it was never so serious that it got tedious. I remember thinking that this Space Ghost would have fit into the DC Universe of the time quite easily–like, I could honestly have pictured this Space Ghost joining the JLA–and wondering/hoping that DC would try something similar with the other Hanna-Barbera superhero characters that Alex Ross didn't seem to mind painting.

I guess that's what Future Quest is...they just took a long time to get around to doing it.

Oh, and speaking of the Hanna-Barbereboot,I have reviews of the first issues of Scooby-Apocalypse, Wacky Raceland and The Flintstones in the works, and hope to run them here on EDILW in the next week or two.


SUGAR & SPIKE: METAHUMAN INVESTIGATIONS TP
Written by KEITH GIFFEN
Art and cover by BILQUIS EVELY
The last time we saw Sugar & Spike, they were still in diapers! Now they’re grown up, and they’ve become private investigators who specialize in cleaning up embarrassing problems for the DCU’s greatest heroes. In these tales from LEGENDS OF TOMORROW #1-6, Sugar and Spike take on assignments on behalf of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and more!
On sale NOVEMBER 9 • 144 pg, FC, $14.99 US


Okay, I was wondering how or if DC would collect the individual storylines from the the Legends of Tomorrow anthology, and was assuming it would be by breaking them into collections of their own, like this.

Sugar & Spike has been the most head-scratching of the four features–the others being Firestorm, Metamorpho and The Metal Men–as there is literally no reason for it to feature grown-up versions of baby characters Sugar & Spike. It's also been the best of the four though, and maybe the only one that doesn't require one have at leas some small amount of affection for the star of the particular feature. So I'm glad to see that they're collecting this one, as it's the storyline I'd recommend.

It's a little wonky in that it uses The New 52 designs of Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and Batman and related characters (even when, as in the case with Killer Moth, the original designs would be funnier and more fitting), but it's otherwise pretty clearly set in the old continuity, one that includes their Silver Age adventures. There might be some weird meta-commentary to made there, since the whole concept is that they are PIs who clean up the embarrassing messes of the World's Greatest Heroes, but it mostly just reads as disconcerting, given the inherent weirdness of doing a comic book series about Sugar & Spike so far removed from those characters that only their names are used.

Giffen's plots are funny, even if he's dialogue usually isn't (Sugar comes off as a savage shrew of a woman, and Spike as emotionally abused), and Bilquis Evely's artwork makes the feature a stand-out in Legends...and compared to much of what DC publishes at the moment.

I'd recommend it.


SUPERMAN #8
Written by PETER J. TOMASI and PATRICK GLEASON
Art and cover by DOUG MAHNKE and JAIME MENDOZA
...
“RETURN TO DINOSAUR ISLAND” part one! Father and Superson work on a science assignment with bizarre consequences that transports the pair along with Krypto to Dinosaur Island! Now, amid relics of World War II, Superman tries to keep Jon from the jaws of prehistoric predators! Worse, Kal-El can’t find a way to fly off the Island.
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


SUPERMAN #9
Written by PETER J. TOMASI and PATRICK GLEASON
Art by DOUG MAHNKE and JAIME MENDOZA
Cover by PATRICK GLEASON and MICK GRAY
Variant covers by KENNETH ROCAFORT
Retailers: These issues will ship with two covers each. Please see the order form for details.
“RETURN TO DINOSAUR ISLAND” part two! Trapped on a strange island removed from time, Superman and Son encounter a lone survivor from the past. He may hold the key to their escape, but first they must survive the other denizens of the Island.
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T


Any comic set on The War That Time Forgot's Dinosaur Island is A-OK with me. That this one will also be very well drawn and likely fairly well written? All the better.


This is the very talented Liam Sharp's cover to one of October's issues of Wonder Woman. I hate it. Her face looks weirdly Lynda Carter-ish, kinda like when Gary Frank drew a Christopher Reeve-faced Superman in his comics, and if that's Steve, he looks hella weird too. He needs a shave and haircut ASAP. And maybe a long-sleeve shirt to cover up that tattoo.

That is all.

4 comments:

David said...

Wasn't KGBeast the assassinated premier of Russia in the excellent Grayson Futures End special?

David said...

Pretty sure Prez was already being written for the trade. Last I heard the final six issues are still going to be published. Shame if it gets cancelled as the story was one of the best DC's printed in years. Anyway, Shade the Changing Girl looks like it's part of Way's new imprint, which is essentially the new Vertigo replacement.

I just hope nobody involved with the recent Thundercats reboot cartoon works on the comic. I don't think I could take six issues of "Tigra is amazing Lion-O is dumb"

David said...

This is first David responding to the second David's post (totally different people): Agreed on PRez. Actually, I thought both Prez and Omega Men were really, really good - classic, depressing case of good material that couldn't find an audience. Perhaps not coincidentally, both were very extremely political, commenting on the American election cycle and the Middle East morass respectively.

Bram said...

Harley and Deadpool. In their own titles, probably the second and third most popular characters in the comic shop. Their spinoffs … never seem to get any traction.