Heroic Age

by KC Carlson

This month, the big news from Marvel and DC is, respectively, The Heroic Age and Brightest Day. Most details on The Heroic Age are still CLASSIFIED, other than the fact that it will launch in May with the publication of a new Avengers #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr. (No word yet on when the numbering will revert to the long-standing Avengers numbering, as most Marvel titles eventually do, but at this point, with several more-or-less interconnecting Avengers titles over the past few years, it might be just too difficult – or controversial – to calculate.) Assuming the image that Marvel released for The Heroic Age is, indeed, the new Avengers line-up, then I’m pretty happy about the following:

* The return of “the Big Three” – Thor, Iron Man, and Captain America, although that looks like Bucky-Cap to me, instead of Steve-Cap, and as good a character as the former is, it’s just not the Avengers without Steve Rogers. I hope that will be addressed.

* Hawkeye back AS Hawkeye (makes up for it a little). But where’s Bobbi?

* Black Widow. Very cool! Always a good Avenger. And, hey, she’s in a movie this summer and getting her own title! But the ONLY female?… not so cool.

* Ben Grimm. Finally. Served with the West Coast Avengers for a short time, but never interacted much with the East Coast team. And I hope that since we see his usual FF belt buckle, he’s not leaving them in the lurch. My secret hope is that with Ben an Avenger, we also see the return of the floating Marvel poker game, after way too long a time.

* Returning Spider-Man. Excellent! Non-returning Wolverine. Also okay. Guessing he’s going to be busy elsewhere.

* The Beast. My favorite Ex-Avenger. But isn’t he usually just as busy as Wolverine is?

* Gorilla-Man? Hmmm. Wait-and-see.

‘Course there’s the question of where are all the other characters? Well, I’m guessing that there are probably going to be a couple of new Avengers-related concepts that will need members. And we might have to deal with the fact that not everyone’s gonna survive Siege. More on this as it develops.

Brightest Day

Brightest Day starts up this ordering month, with the publication of Brightest Day #0. This will be the linking book between the finale of Blackest Night and the new Brightest Day bi-weekly series, written by Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi, with art by Fernando Pasarin and featuring the DC debut of David Finch as regular cover artist. Again, details are skimpy pending the ending of Blackest Night, but speculation is rampant regarding the possible resurrection of several formerly deceased characters. We’ll find out for sure in April.

What we do know is that the Brightest Day series will alternate weeks with another bi-weekly series: Justice League: Generation Lost, which will be written by Keith Giffen and Judd Winick (artists to be announced) and will feature stories of Justice League International. Membership will include Captain Atom, Booster Gold, Fire, Ice, and Rocket Red as well as some TBA members. Blue Beetle has also been mentioned as a member, but which one? (And isn’t one of them pretty famously dead?) JL: GL (weird initials, eh?) has not been officially scheduled yet.

Flash #1

Brightest Day is also the title of a blanket concept that will involve several of DC’s major titles, including Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Justice League of America, the newly re-launched Flash title (#1 listed this month) by Geoff Johns and art by Francis Manapul, the two bi-weekly titles mentioned above, a soon-to-be-revamped Titans title, and the recently announced revival of Birds of Prey by Gail Simone and Ed Benes. These last two titles have yet to be officially scheduled. Geoff Johns is said to have a coordinating role in all the Brightest Day titles, in much the same way he coordinated the Blackest Night event.

I am cautiously optimistic about all of these announcements. I get the feeling that just “pockets” of the MU and DCU are going to be affected by this sudden (and scarily simultaneous) upswelling of good times and promises of the return to traditional heroic traditions. But that may be enough for me. I fear a little for the Giffen JLI book, which traditionally has been a “fun” book, being published by a man who had admitted to not liking the previous Giffen run and who seems to not have a professional sense of humor. Can writers like James Robinson and Geoff Johns really curb their tendencies to beat and maim their characters? The omnipresent Norman Osborn and his uptight Dark Avengers not withstanding, the underlying tone and playfulness of the Avengers books has actually been pretty good of late (thanks to Spider-Man and his complete ineptness around women), so I’m actually hoping that the current writers stick around for The Heroic Age. Bendis-lite works great on Ultimate Spidey – I’d love to see it on the “real” Avengers.

I know I’ve been on everybody’s case of late about this, and now that it looks like I’m getting what I wanted from the big two for their core super-heroic characters, I’m a little greedy and want a little more. I’d feel a lot more confident about the whole thing if some of the classic writers of fun and heroic characters, like Mark Waid, Roger Stern (both on Team Spidey, thank Wacker!), Todd Dezago, Kurt Busiek, Walt and/or Weezie Simonson (yay, X-Factor Forever!), Chuck Dixon, Tom Peyer, and probably others I’m forgetting, were asked back to participate. Trust me, Giffen on JLI and Simone on Birds is a big deal, but let’s see more!

Further, I’d like to see up-and-comers Jeff Parker and Paul Tobin, who have been working on Marvel’s kid versions of the classic characters for several years, finally get the call to the “bigs”. Parker’s Fall of the Hulks: Alpha was SO good. We need more writers who can successfully reclaim the classic (and occasionally goofy) old characters and make them work for a new audience. And while I (sadly) don’t see her being asked to draw the next Civil War – give Colleen Coover all the work that she can handle!

End of soapbox. For now.

Beasts of Burden

Speaking of fun, check out Beasts of Burden from Dark Horse this month! Written by Evan Dorkin and wonderfully illustrated by Jill Thompson, Beasts is an action-adventure story staring a heroic pack of dogs – and one cat – who band together to ward off supernatural menaces that threaten their community. This 168-page hardcover also includes the original stories from the Dark Horse Book of … series. I’ve seen a lot of weird trends in comics over the years, but it looks like we might have a full-fledged pet invasion brewing! (See also Marvel’s Pet Avengers, David Peterson’s Mouse Guard, and The Mice Templar.) Hey, Paul Levitz! If there was ever a time for a Legion of Super-Pets mini…

Red Tide

Although light on animals, Dark Horse is also (finally?) publishing Steranko’s one and only Chandler visual novel, Red Tide. (I say “finally” because Dark Horse had originally planned to reprint the book in 1999, but the book did not materialize then.) Red Tide was first published in 1976 as part of Bryon Preiss’ Fiction Illustrated Vol. 3 in a digest format. According to Steranko, the book was originally designed as a fill-in of sorts for another very late story, and the original Chandler work was produced in just 2 1/2 months. (Hyper-speed for a Steranko project!) Dark Horse’s version will be published as a 7” x 10”, 128-page hardcover graphic novel. Substantially re-worked and “remastered” with all-new state-of-the-art coloring by Dave Stewart, Red Tide tells a tale of the hard-boiled detective, Chandler, in a specially designed fusion of text and graphics. But the main reason you should buy it is because it’s by Steranko – and there’s just not that much Steranko work available for you to miss it.

Kids Komics

I am all over The Golden Collection of Klassic Krazy Kool Kids Komics being offered by the Yoe Books imprint published by IDW. Just check out this line-up of creators: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Frank Frazetta, Walt Kelly, Dr. Suess, Syd Hoff, Jules Feiffer, George Carlson, John Stanley, Dan DeCarlo, Sheldon Mayer, Carl Barks, and others! I don’t know exactly why, but as I get older I find myself drifting away from more traditional current comics and rediscovering the comics that I read as a kid (before I discovered superheroes) and even those kids’ comics published before I was born. They have even more meaning to me now as I continue to learn about the men and women who created them. This information is finally becoming more widespread, and these talented, and mostly unsung, folks are finally getting their due. I’m always thankful to see collections like this (and other recent books like The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and & Francoise Mouly), because the original comics are often so hard to find. This is good, funny stuff. Try it! It’s better than spinach!

Oddly Compelling

I seldom have anything in common with R. Crumb (except maybe a love for really odd music), but I certainly agree with what he says about the new Oddly Compelling Art of Denis Kitchen volume coming from Dark Horse: “I think ‘oddly compelling’ is a very good title for a book of Denis Kitchen’s work, and describes it very well.” I concur completely, as that was exactly my thoughts upon discovering Denis’ work in underground comix back in the early 1970s – which is, not surprisingly, the focus of this 220-page collection of rubber-limbed appendages on otherwise stiff figures, eerie black backgrounds, crazy eyes, and lord knows what else lurking in the corners of his panels that you don’t see because his drawings have lured your eyes in the other direction. As the proud owner of Denis’ childhood copy of Archie’s Mad House #2 (he wrote his name on the cover with turquoise ink), I highly recommend this book from this truly unique artist, and hope you find it oddly compelling as well.

SHIELD

“Leonardo Da Vinci was an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. So was Isaac Newton.” Okay, I’m sold. S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been my favorite Marvel concept, so I don’t need much of a push to check out this month’s S.H.I.E.L.D. #1. Written by Jonathan Hickman (who is doing wonders on Nick Fury’s new book, Secret Warriors, as well as making the Fantastic Four a fun read!) and pencilled by Dustin Weaver, doing a spectacular job, this issue also has a special Black & White variant. Did you know that Da Vinci and Newton teamed with Imhotep, Zhang Heng, Galileo, and other geniuses to be the first heroes to defeat Galactus? Holy Monty Python! This sounds freaking awesome!

Black Widow

I’m also excited that Marvel is showing some love to theBlack Widow, with a new ongoing series, written by Marjorie Liu and illustrated by one of my current favorite cover artists, Daniel Acuna (love his super-design-y covers!). Unfortunately, she starts the series severely injured, after an attempted murder. Plus, a special back-up feature gives up the backstory of the mysterious Natasha – just in time for her appearance in Iron Man 2!

Cover Run

CREATOR WATCH – AH! It’s so sweet that our pal Adam Hughes is the focus of Cover Run: The DC Comics Art of Adam Hughes, a new hardcover art collection. Besides the actual finished covers, there will also be sketches and commentary from Adam. I wonder if there will be any babes in it? … Want to see some of Adam’s work in 3-D? Check out his design for the new Cover Girls of the DC Universe: Poison Ivy statue, also listed this month! … Author Neil Gaiman and artist Charles Vess have re-teamed for Instructions, a 40-page picture book that looks incredible. Vess provides fantastic full-color illustrations for Gaiman’s lyrical poem about the rules to follow and how to get around if you accidentally find yourself in a fairytale world. (Where was this book 20 years ago, when I first started working at DC Comics in NYC?) It’s beautiful. Get it! … Alan Davis is rapidly stealing George Pérez’s thunder with his massive wall-to-wall hero covers. Last month was his amazing piece on the Marvel Women, and this month he’s drawing the wraparound variant for the final issue of the brilliant The Marvels Project (#8), featuring most of Marvel’s Golden Age greats! … Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber’s creepy cave-bound Underground miniseries is being collected this month by Image. … Sam Kieth writes and draws the first new Batman graphic novel in awhile – Batman: Arkham Asylum – Madness, a 112-page hardcover out in June (but order now!). Kieth also finishes up his Ghosts storyline this month in Batman Confidential #43 … Bryan Hitch pencils the New Avengers Finale this month, written by Bendis and wrapping up the various Avengers plotlines. The 64-page Finale also features a bunch of super-star artists paying tribute to their work on the Avengers … The Power Pack dream-team of Weezie Simonson and June Brigman return to their creations in a special story in Girl Comics #2. Look for the “Snow White”

Neil Young's Greendale

cover by Jill Thompson! … Cliff Chaing illustrates a retro-looking Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and a red-headed Batgirl in Brave and the Bold #33, written by JMS. Chaing is also the artist for Vertigo’s impressive Neil Young’s Greendale project, written by Joshua Dysart. It’s a 160-page graphic novel based on Young’s very personal album of a politically active young woman defending her hometown when a mysterious stranger comes to town – and everything goes to hell … Walter Simonson provides interlocking covers for The Authority #21 and Wildcats #22 … Craig Rousseau is the artist on Marvel’s new kid-friendly Marvel Her-Oes, featuring Marvels greatest females as if they were in high school. As if! Yeah, it sounds like a weird concept with an awful name, but if anyone can make it charming, it’s “Crafty” Craig!

Daffy Duck

SHORT TAKES – Wondering why there wasn’t a Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set in your Christmas stocking last year? It might have been because there wasn’t a new collection! But Warner’s DVD animation department remains committed to eventually getting every classic Warner Bros. cartoon on DVD – they’re just going to do it in smaller packages – and themed towards more specific characters or concepts. First up is Bugs Bunny: Hare Extraordinaire and Daffy Duck: Frustrated Fowl, two new single-disc sets featuring 15 new-to-DVD cartoons each, all remastered and shiny. They’re available in April, but you can order them right now! … Starfire joins the R.E.B.E.L.S. in issue #15 of their book. But wait, didn’t she just join the JLA? And she’s still in the Titans? I’m so confused … The team-up you never thought could happen! The evil Egghead meets the eerie Egg-Fu! Is Batman and Wonder Woman’s day going to be scrambled – or over easy? Find out in Batman: The Brave and the Bold #16.

Doc Savage: Man of Bronze

THIS AND THAT – How weird is it that there’s a 1970s Marvel Comics cover (by John Buscema) attached to the solicitation for DC’s Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze collection this month? Even weirder, the collection reprints Marvel’s Doc Savage miniseries from 1972, featuring work by Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Ross Andru, Tom Palmer, and others. And I thought it was weird that Dark Horse was reprinting Marvel’s Conan material. But DC publishing old Marvel series?!? Holy Moonshadow! … By the way, don’t miss DC’s new Doc Savage series this month, written by Paul Malmont with art by Howard Porter and Art Thibert, part of the DC’s new pulp-oriented First Wave line … As is The Spirit #1, with a lead feature by Mark Schultz and Moritat and the beginning of a new The Spirit: Black & White back-up series, kicked off with a story by Denny O’Neil and Bill Sienkiewicz … No, you’re not imagining it. Deadpool IS in EVERY Marvel comic book this month, even if you don’t actually see him. Deadpool’s actual blood has been mixed into the red ink that every Marvel comic is printed with this month (even the Black & White comics!). Special issues will also include bits of his fingernails and toenails and… what’s that Roger? It’s too early for April Fools? Nah… besides all these books ship in April!!!

Seven Soldiers of Victory

BOOKSHELF – There’s a second volume of DC’s Greatest Imaginary Stories available for ordering this month, and this time it’s all Batman and Robin stories! Most of these weren’t labeled as Imaginary Stories back in the day, but how else to explain Batman battling space aliens or giant robots or the existence of Bat-Mite, Bat-Girl, or Bruce Wayne, Jr.? (Funny cigarettes?) Can’t wait to see Brian Bolland’s new cover for this collection! … Grant Morrison’s Seven Soldiers of Victory is getting the hardcover treatment this month with Volume 1 featuring SSoV #0, plus The Guardian, Klarion, Zatanna, and Shining Knight miniseries. Personally, I’d love some annotation or creator comments for this, or perhaps Cliff Notes for both this and Final Crisis. I’d buy that! Surely I’m not the only confused one out there … DC’s got another great Silver Age hardcover collection of some tragically near-forgotten material – Joe Kubert’s Viking Prince series from the earliest issues of The Brave and the Bold, plus the great Viking Prince/Sgt. Rock team-up (???) from Our Army At War. Bob Greenberger will have much more on these classic stories – and this long-awaited collection – in his column any day now, right here at th’ Blog! … Bob is also spotlighting the excellent Panther’s Rage storyline from Black Panther #6-24, by Don McGregor, Rich Buckler, Billy Graham, and Gil Kane, which is the latest (and super-big at 352 pages!) Marvel Masterworks, the 141st volume in this wonderful long-running archive of the classic material from Marvel’s formative years … Another must-have classic Marvel collection this month is the hardcover of The Infinity Gauntlet, the first major stand-alone story of Jim Starlin’s Thanos cycle of event stories. Illustrated by George Pérez (amazingly, while also writing and drawing War of the Gods for DC at the same time) and Ron Lim, who took over for Pérez when he left the series, after realizing that he had seriously overcommitted himself. For my money, this 1991 event story, featuring most of the then-Marvel Universe, blew Secret War (I and II) out of the water. The lynchpin story for the cosmic side of the MU.

Rip Kirby

STRIP TEASE – Bloom County: The Complete Library Volume 2 from IDW reprints strips from 1982 through 1984, which kicks the strips into more “classic” Berkeley Breathed Bloom County mode. There will be substantially fewer un-reprinted strips than Volume 1, but still some surprises to be found, I’m sure. Intro by Ted Koppel! … Bloom County Volume 1 is now available in a limited (to 1,000) signed edition … Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby is back for a second IDW volume, collecting strips from 1948 to 1951. And if you don’t know why this strip is important, Howard Chaykin explains it to you in his introduction … More classic comics are on tap from the aptly named Classic Comics Press folks, including new volumes of Leonard Starr’s Mary Perkins On Stage (Volume 7 collects strips from Dec. 1964 through May 1966) and Stan Drake’s gorgeous The Heart of Juliet Jones Vol. 3, collecting strips from Dec. 1957 through Jan. 1960, and featuring an introduction by Bill Sienkiewicz … Hermes Press is back with the fourth volume of the popular Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: The Complete Newspaper Dailies, with strips from 1934 to 1936, featuring five complete stories … and Jerry Robinson’s lost SF strip Jet Scott is back for Volume 2 from Dark Horse, collecting daily and Sunday strips from Sept. 1954 to Sept. 1955, when the strip concluded. These are the first time these strips, by the popular Golden Age Batman artist, have ever been reprinted

KC CARLSON: Buying and reading comics since 1960. Oh, my head!

Super Real

by Josh Crawley

I’m not one for segregating stuff like this by company, just like I don’t like to rack comics in the store by company. That makes it too easy for good products to be overlooked just because someone has an archaic bias that has no foundation in reality.

Next time I may go in reverse-alphabetical order, but it’s just straight-up alphabetical this time, barring one item. And thankfully, you don’t have to read my writing about how great Dustin Nguyen is this time around (and there’s only one mention of Jim Cheung).

Before I get on with the show, I want to direct you to my friend Tim’s comic book review blog (as long as you don’t visit until you’re done here): Comic-Per-Day Reviews. He writes reviews the way I wish I could; basically, they read well.

Super Real Graphic Novel
My friend Jason Martin created, wrote, drew*, colored*, lettered*, and self-published this enjoyable take on genetically-engineered super powers meets reality television (lack of) sensibility. *The specials actually have some great big-name and up-&-coming artistic talents. Also, the Movie Industry Special was primarily lettered by Yours Truly. While I don’t see any cash money from this project, it was a lot of fun to work on, and I’d like other people to have fun reading it, too!

Adventure Comics #6

Adventure Comics #6
…Not to be confused with Adventure Comics #509! Krypto and a dinosaur!

Blacksad

Blacksad
Nothing I can tell you, nor no matter how awesome the cover, can make you want this comic. Mostly because I’ve never had a chance to read it, since iBooks folded before I got around to it. I hear great things, though!

Catwoman #83

Catwoman #83
I have no issues with Fabian Nicieza, but did anyone ask Will Pfeifer if he’d write this issue? Also, the image I’m looking at right now is the Adam Hughes cover to #82 in greyscale and inverted.

Darkness: Shadows & Flame

Darkness: Shadows and Flame
Cthulhu-esque looking Darkness? Sign me up!

Green Lantern #50

Green Lantern #50
Look out, Hal Jordan, there’s Parallax! Oh, wait, you are Parallax. Either way, I’ll be keeping an eye out for the 1-in-25 Jim Lee variant cover!

Green Lantern Corps #44

Green Lantern Corps #44
Kyle, look out; Guy has Red Lanterns for eyes! All kidding aside, this is one of the titles I look forward to every month, without fail.

Green Lantern: Honor Guard Ring Prop Replica

Green Lantern: Honor Guard Ring Prop Replica
Because an actual ring designed to be worn would be too cool and would probably make DC too much money; heaven forbid.

Invincible Ultimate Collection Vol. 5

Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 5 Hardcover
I love reading Invincible in these affordable, oversized hardcovers. They tend to cost about the same as the issues do, but they’re on nicer paper (in addition to the whole oversized hardcover part of the deal).

Local HC

Local Deluxe Hardcover
I was thinking about writing about this next week, but just in case I don’t, I wanted to be sure it was mentioned. I’d read the first few issues when they first came out, but this material (and in this inexpensive and great looking format) should not be passed up! It’s the kind of comic that reminds me of how happy I am comics exist.

Marvel Adventures Super-Heroes #19

Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #19
I have no clue who that is on the cover, maybe Sue Storm, but I really like this Niko Henrichon cover. (You might recognize his work from a not-too-well known graphic novel called Pride of Baghdad). Sadly, the solicitation information doesn’t help inform us who that is on the cover.

Mesmo Delivery

Mesmo Delivery
This looks (and sounds) like crazy fun!

Ms. Marvel #49

Ms. Marvel #49
Sana Takeda has done some gorgeous covers for this series recently, but I’m waiting for the hardcover. That doesn’t mean you should, though.

New Avengers Vol. 4

New Avengers Volume 4 Hardcover
Not only is this book oversized and hardcover, it’s got the entire Illuminati mini-series drawn by Cheung, in addition to him doing cover art!

Okimono Kimono

Okimono Kimono
A book full of pretty kimono illustrations and whatnot? Sign me up!

Planetary Vol. 4

Planetary Volume 4 Hardcover
I can finally give volumes one through three the sibling they’re been missing for ages.

ShadowHawk Chronicles

ShadowHawk Chronicles Volume 1
Wow; eighteen issues of ShadowHawk in black & white for less than $20!

Tiny Titans #24

Tiny Titans #24
Hey look: Tinier Titans! I really need to start reading this book. Thankfully, a third(?!) trade paperback is solicited this month, too!

Wildcats #19

Wildcats #19
This cover is half of an image with the Authority #18 image. This issue is also the first by someone I first met in college (Also known as “back in the day”). Be sure to check out Tim Seeley drawing damn near all the heroes in the WildStorm universe! Also, if you’re a fan of cool 80s toys, check out the free web-comic Colt Noble by Tim; it’s a blast! And now that you’re back, be sure to check out Hack/Slash Volume 7 (featuring upcoming DV8 artist Rebekah Isaacs), or any of the other Hack/Slash products available, like the awesome original art size “Art of” books!

Witchblade #131 (Smith Albany Comicon variant)

Witchblade #131 Albany Comic Con Variant
Matthew Dow Smith has drawn some pretty awesome things: Supernatural: Origins, Doctor Who, and now Witchblade-bearer Sara Pezzini!

Witchblade #134

Witchblade #134
I have no clue what Michal Ivan has drawn in the variant cover, but it’s AMAZING! Ron Marz, who’s been awesome on this run, bringing Aphrodite IV (not quite Aphrodite IX) back to Witchblade is pretty awesome, too!

X-Men Legacy #232

X-Men Legacy #232
Another month, another sexy cover from Marvel. I wouldn’t mind a poster of this.

Wizard's Tale

Wizard’s Tale
This hardcover written by Kurt Busiek looks promising!

Zorro Vol. 2: Clashing Blades

Zorro Volume 2 Hardcover
I just read Volume 1 of this, and knowing Matt Wagner, this book will be just as great, if not better, than the first!

Feel free to contact me with creators you’d like to see covered, comics for review, comments, concerns, corrections, questions, or even just your favorite beer. Be sure it says ATTN: JOSH if it’s sent post, otherwise there may be issues involving me living up to that “Master of Disaster” tag I’ve gotten. If you just want more of me running my mouth, check Twitter.com/joshcrawley .

josh@westfieldcomics.com

Westfield Comics
ATTN: JOSH
7475 Mineral Point Rd STE 22
Madison WI 53717
______________________
Josh Crawley is the tenured Master of Disaster at Westfield Comics, so you should check yourself.

Purchase

Super Real Graphic Novel

Adventure Comics #6

Blacksad

Catwoman #83

Darkness: Shadows and Flame

Green Lantern #50

Green Lantern Corps #44

Green Lantern: Honor Guard Ring Prop Replica

Invincible Ultimate Collection Volume 5 Hardcover

Local Deluxe Hardcover

Marvel Adventures Super Heroes #19

Mesmo Delivery

Ms. Marvel #49

New Avengers Volume 4 Hardcover

Okimono Kimono

Planetary Volume 4 Hardcover

ShadowHawk Chronicles Volume 1

Tiny Titans #24

Wildcats #19

Witchblade #131 Albany Comic Con Variant

Witchblade #134

X-Men Legacy #232

Wizard’s Tale

Zorro Volume 2 Hardcover

Avengers: The Initiative #31

I totally stole this idea from Brian Cronin over at Comic Book Resources. I was being a little extra lazy and using Google to refresh my memory as to which Superman/Batman cover I really, really like that DC changed before it went to press (issue 40, if you were wondering).

I ended up stumbling upon an article where books were being judged solely by their covers. Or rather, their covers were being discussed without too much context to their contents. Unlike Cronin, though, I’m not going through all of the DC and Marvel covers for the month; just some of them. In no particular order, some of my comments on covers in the December 2009 Previews catalogue!

Avengers: The Initiative #31
As someone who grew up reading Mark Gruenwald-pened Captain America, Taskmaster flanked by Asp and Black Mamba is pretty rad.

Black Widow: Deadly Origin

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #2
It’s Adi Granov illustrating a gorgeous redhead holding a rifle in the middle of a snow storm.

Fall of the Hulks Alpha

Fall of the Hulks Gamma

Fall of the Hulks Alpha & Gamma
My friend Tim is a fan of MODOK, and by fan, I mean he’s got a convention sketch of himself as MODOK. I also have liked how McGuinness has been drawing the hair on the She-Hulks Green and Red. My one question: where’s issue Beta?

Hulk: Winter Guard

Hulk: Winter Guard
Is Red Guardian sporting a redesigned costume?

Nomad: Girl Without a World

Nomad: Girl Without a World #4 (of 4)
Nomad and my favorite of the Young Avengers! I really need to read #1 of this soon.

Marvel 70th Anniversary Frame Art
There’s no image, but all it is is covers! I hope they include both versions of the panel border. In case you hadn’t noticed, the frame variants for Dark Avengers and Thunderbolts had some characters or uniforms replaced: Ares for Thor, Weapon Omega for Cyclops, Dark Emma for regular, black costume Spidey, and silver centurion-colored Iron Man instead of gold!

Secret Warriors

Secret Warriors #11
Honestly, I’ve maybe read one issue of this title; doesn’t matter, though. Jim Cheung is awesome, and these covers have all been great. Fury breaking into the white space is a nice change of pace, too.

Dark X-Men

Dark X-Men #2 (of 5)
Mutant tribe shaman Nate Grey!

Dark Wolverine

Dark Wolverine #81
Not as sexy as the cover to X-Force #9, but New York Times best-selling author and Dark Wolverine co-author Marjorie M. Liu used to shop at the Westfield Comics retail store, so that makes up for it.

Ed Hannigan: Covered
In a column talking about covers, it only make sense to include this. Limited to one printing, proceeds directly benefit Cloak & Dagger co-creator Ed Hannigan!

Blackest Night

Blackest Night #6
Great use of the spectrum colors, but still not in “order.”

Green Lantern Corps

Green Lantern Corps #43
Red Lantern Guy Gardner is tearing out of his Green Lantern uniform with RAGE!

Batman: Streets of Gotham

Batman: Streets of Gotham #7
I like Jim Cheung a lot, but I might like Dustin Nguyen’s covers even more. This Manhunter is awesome! Sadly, after actually reading the solicitation, it doesn’t seem Manhunter will be in the lead feature. It’s really great to see a second feature like this with such a great spotlight, though.

Superman: World of New Krypton #10 has a Dustin Nguyen variant?! There’s no image! ARG!

DC Holiday Special 2009

DC Holiday Special 2009 #1
Thankfully, there’s another Dustin Nguyen cover this month! Poor little snow-Batman. Also, #1? Are they really planning on surprise soliciting another DC Holiday Special 2009 to ship in the two weeks after #1? Because after that, it’s 2010.

Tiny Titans

Tiny Titans #23
There’s bunnies in the Batcave. No more need be said.

Ex Machina

Ex Machina #47
I don’t know what’s been going on in the book, so I’m not quite sure why there’s a green Emperor Palpatine, but this cover’s hot, so I’ll let it slide.

Daytripper

Daytripper #1
This cover by Gabriel Bá uses colors and white really well. Joined by his brother, Fábio Moon, I’m sure this book will be great!

Fables Portfolio Set

Fables Portfolio Set
It’s a portfolio set of some of James Jean’s astounding Fables covers. That pretty much says it all.

Blackest Night #3 cover

[SPOILER WARNINGS apply for those who haven’t read Blackest Night #1 or its Prologues. If you don’t want to know what happens there, don’t read this.]

It’s time for another big DC Event?! Holy crap! I still haven’t finished reading the last one yet! (Although, truth to tell, DC hasn’t actually finished publishing the last DC Event yet, either! The final issue of Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds still hasn’t appeared, although I think it is finally shipping this week. [It is. – Roger] Actually, this is not a complaint – I’m glad they took their time on it, as it shows in the final product and it would have been a big giant mess if they had brought in other artists to finish it. That many characters?!?)

Anyway, one of the reasons that I’m still struggling through Final Crisis is that, well, I just lost interest in it. Twice. Apparently, I wasn’t alone. The particular annotation site that I was using to help my tired old brain interpret exactly what Grant Morrison was going on about also kinda petered out towards the end there. Of course, there are other annotation sites out there, but life moves on, and so did I. Did anything important happen at the end of Final Crisis?, he asked, facetiously.

Perhaps it wasn’t Morrison’s writing at all. More likely, I just succumbed to what is being debated around the comics community as Event Fatigue. Are there just too many Events? Is such a thing even possible? Or is it something else altogether?

First of all, I don’t think that writers, or any creators, ever set out to make bad stories. What would be the purpose in that? I will allow for the possibility of this happening with parody or satire. But there, awfulness is part of the fun. On occasion, I see writers trying to reach higher than their actual capabilities, often with disastrous results. But if you don’t shoot high, how will you ever get better? Or sometimes, something or somebody actually gets in the way of making good stories and inadvertently turns them into bad stories. (This could be a whole other column.) No, I think that bad stories – or the perception of bad stories (an important distinction) – most often result from outside the normal creative process, especially in the current comic book world – and in most other current media, for that matter.

And that would be what is known by dozens of other names and concepts, but basically boils down to something much better known as “a Pig in a Poke.”

A Short History Lesson

Originating hundreds of years ago, “a pig in a poke” is an idiom pertaining to the execution of a particular confidence trick (aka: a scam, a con, a scheme, a grift, a swindle, a ponzie, etc.) where someone thinks he’s buying a choice cut of meat (like a pig) in a closed bag or sack (a poke), but instead receives a dead cat (or occasionally, a rat). In today’s modern society, this is often referred to by another name – Marketing. Modern marketing (or advertising) is – when you get right down to it – trying to convince the customer that their product is the best, which, in an obviously competitive market, is not always the truth.

And this is not meant to lay blame at the feet of any particular comic book Marketing Department or person, many of whom I personally know. I acknowledge that they work incredibly hard at their jobs. It’s actually more of a comment that the selling of a comic or series has become so all-encompassing these days that it now inevitably includes publishers, licensers and licensees, consultants, representatives from bookstore chains, executive editors, plain ol’ editors, the occasional janitor and – more often than not – the actual creators themselves (often as a self-defense tactic). All of these people have been more-or-less “trained” to consider how to sell their comic story as a necessary part of the creative process, even down to the point of including certain characters in team books based on their popularity rather than how they creatively fit into the balance of a team lineup. There’s a reason why characters like Wolverine and Batman are shoved into every team possible, whether they creatively fit or not.

Because competition for your comics dollar has become so competitive and so fierce in recent years, it seems like every 6-issue story arc or mini-series or trade paperback is being marketed as some kind of event. C’mon, guys! They can’t all be events. Some of them just have to be stories! (Please?!)

It’s getting much harder to tell the actual events (the choice cut of meat) from the not-really events (the dead cat). “Event Fatigue” may just be the amount of dead cats piling up on your bookshelf or in your longboxes. That’s why you might feel like you’re “left holding the bag” when you got burned a few times too often.

When something is labeled up-front as an Event, there are certain elements that you expect – epic events, complex plotting, fantastic artwork, a complete story – and when you don’t get it, or some Event elements are missing, it’s a major disappointment. Wouldn’t it be much better to read a great story that wasn’t hyped to death beforehand? I think this is why so many (but ultimately not enough) fans get so attached to great (but perceived as lesser) books like Spider-Girl or Blue Beetle, simply to avoid getting overwhelmed by the hype of better-selling books or characters.

But enough of my ranting. Let’s take a look at a book that might just beat the odds and be equal to its hype. I’m extremely skeptical – DC’s recent events have not impressed me, as regular readers know – but the stars may actually align for DC’s next legitimate Event book, Blackest Night.

Prelude and Prologue

Things kick off in a big way in Green Lantern #43, the “official” prologue to Blackest Night and one of the best (and increasingly rare in this era) stand-alone issues I’ve read in a while. It’s essentially a brand-new origin for the “new” Black Hand (who absolutely needed one as this guy was one of the real non-entities of the Silver Age). Writer Geoff Johns should be commended for pumping up this once lame-o villain into a real, credible threat. It’s quite grim and twisted as well, which normally I don’t warm up to, but the approach suits this new version perfectly, as well as answering some questions from his previous appearances as written by Johns, most notably in the excellent GL Secret Origins arc. The issue is also notable for a two-page spread of the major DC characters – heroes and villains – who have died (most of them in the last couple of years) and are obviously going to be part of the major focus of Blackest Night. This is followed by a recap of the major characters who have died and have returned to life (Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Green Arrow, just to name a few). Whoever the mysterious voice that is talking to Black Hand obviously wants them dead (again) as well.

[Aside: It just now dawns on me that all of the original 7 - and many of the second wave - Justice League members are either currently dead or have been dead for an extended period before returning to life. Suddenly, I feel really old.]

GL #43 is also the first issue for new regular penciller Doug Mahnke, and he pulls out all the stops to make this one of the best artist debuts on a new series in a long time. (Former GL regular artist Ivan Reis is moving over to Blackest Night.) Trust me, people will be talking about this issue for a long time to come.

Blackest Night #0 cover

Next up, in story chronology, is Blackest Night #0 – also known as DC’s entry for last spring’s Free Comic Book Day. Here we have another prelude to BN, one that is largely recapped in BN #1. (It looks like Johns is honestly trying to make good on his attempt to make the Blackest Night mini-series a good solid stand-alone read, so if you want to read just that, you’ll get most of the story. However, the inverse is not true – if you’re already reading the GL books, you’re gonna have to get Blackest Night as well to follow all the GL action.) #0 features a pretty interesting conversation between Hal Jordan and Barry Allen, recapping the high points of DC history for the last several years, while standing over the unmarked grave of Bruce (Batman) Wayne. This is where we first hear Hal’s stunning admission to Barry: “I died a sinner. You died a saint.”

And it’s here that we first start seeing some interesting rewriting of recent DC history, including the explaining away of the brief Aquaman appearance in Final Crisis. (There is more of this kind of thing in BN #1 and in the BN tie-in Titans #15.) Guaranteed to drive continuity fans crazy – and one does wish that DC would be a little more careful in keeping these things straight, or better, planning ahead a bit more so that they don’t have to keep fixing things later – I’m actually in favor of most of these changes so far, as long as they’re more about explaining or “tweaking” confusing situations rather than crazily throwing out big chunks of previously told stories. But that’s a whole ‘nother rant, better saved for another time.

The story in BN #0 leads directly into BN #1 where we see more of what Black Hand is up to and more of Barry and Hal. Also in BN #0 are some fairly informative pin-ups on each one of the “rainbow” of various GL and GL-related groups that Johns has been setting up over the past couple of years in the Green Lantern book. This is valuable for keeping nearby while reading Blackest Night, especially since the GL franchise of books is now much more rewarding and complex than even my beloved Legion of Super-Heroes series (although I suspect that George Perez is already mentally laying-out the pages of the inevitable team-up/battle between the two groups. As if Legion of 3 Worlds wasn’t crazy enough…). These “Guides to the Corps” pages are also being presented in the current Tales of the Corps three-part mini-series, so be sure to keep them handy for reference. You can’t tell your Veon from your Dela Pharon without ‘em!

Death! Death! Death! (like Marsha! Marsha! Marsha! Only Death-ier!)

Blackest Night #1

Blackest Night #1 picks up directly where #0 left off, with Black Hand digging up the corpse of Bruce Wayne (or whoever is buried there, he said, covering his bases) and snogging Bruce’s skull. Eww, didn’t need to see that!

Later, we discover that Earth now has an annual day of remembrance for the super-beings who gave their lives to protect Earth, as well as the innocent citizens (such as the population of Coast City) that the heroes failed to save. Notably, it’s on the day that everybody thought Superman died while battling Doomsday. At the Coast City Memorial, Hal also stops to remember all of the friends and family that the Earth-based GLs have lost over the years. It’s a pretty long list – Hal’s dad, Abin Sur, John Stewart’s wife GL Katma Tui (who I think will be a major part of BN), Kyle’s girlfriend Alex (poster girl for Women in Refrigerators), Jade (Alan Scott’s daughter and another of Kyle’s girlfriends), and the entire populations of the planet Xanshi (destroyed by John Stewart in Cosmic Odyssey) and Coast City (innocent bystanders in Hal’s rampage after being taken over by Parallax). The only bright spot in this parade of death is Guy Gardner’s girlfriend Ice, once though dead but recently returned.

But the roll call of the dead is not over. For the next several pages, we bounce around the DCU to see many more remembrances of fallen heroes and villains by their loved ones. I think these scenes are meant as respect for the fallen, but for a lot of readers like me, it will be a grim reminder of just how depressing and heinous the DC Universe has been to read for the last several years. “Look how many people we lost,” says GL Alan Scott. He speaks for us all.

Next up is one of the grimmest, yet silliest, revelations of them all: the JLA has a morgue in a sub-basement of the JLA HQ in Washington, DC, where they are holding the remains of over two dozen of their more notorious foes, including Max Lord, Dr. Light, the Psycho-Pirate, and Alex Luthor (of Earth-2). The Flash Rogues are not included, because they apparently have their own graveyard in Central City. (The Rogues must have incredible health – and death – benefits!) As Hal explains to Barry, “The plan was to bring over the remains of our friends, too, but we didn’t want to rob the families of paying their respects.” Apparently this small kindness was not extended to the (probably) innocent families of the villains. Yikes! This is all a little too controlling and Big Brother-y for me, not to mention the trampling of basic civil – and human – rights. Hal justifies it by referring to a body snatching and harvesting operation uncovered by Dick Grayson that was putting super-powered body parts on the black market for re-use. The story also rams the point home by the theft of Bruce Wayne’s corpse by Black Hand. Still, not something I want to think about too deeply.

Finally, to wrap up the grim recapping of recent DC history, the just-back-from-the-dead-himself Barry Allen demands to know how many have died since he died in the original Crisis, and Hal grimly but obligingly “rings-up” a display of dead DC heroes. It takes up two pages. And still is not complete. After all this recap, the book finally gets to some new stuff, and we find Hawkman (Carter Hall) at odds with his best friend the Atom (Ray Palmer) over attending a memorial for Jean Loring, Ray’s ex-wife and the murderer of Sue Dibny, the wife of Elongated Man Ralph Dibny, now deceased himself.

Elsewhere, the Guardians of the Universe announce that The War of Light (building in the GL books over the past couple of years) has finally erupted, and Scar, the renegade Guardian of Death, betrays and apparently kills several of the other Guardians. Simultaneously, thousands of Black Rings fly through the universe and smash into the GL Corps crypt, empowering thousands of dead GL Black Lanterns who “rise” like zombies in an awesome two-page spread by Reis. Elsewhere, other Black Rings are flying to the previously recapped DC dead heroes and villains who also rise.

And then something very bad happens.

Despite some of my above misgivings, I thought that Blackest Night #1 was one of the best beginnings to any recent DC Event. I’m not taking the “zombie” storyline too seriously, as “heroes vs. their dead loved ones” is a hoary old storytelling convention and usually enjoyable in its execution. Heck, I even edited one in the pages of Legion of Super-Heroes way back in 1993. Remember this cover?

Legion of Super-Heroes #47 cover

We had great fun coming up with a list of dead DC characters we wanted to use as background characters, and we were very surprised when Denny let us use Jason Todd Robin! We even played by the rules, only using characters that were actually shown as being dead at that time (in 20th century continuity) even though we probably could have just used practically anybody, extrapolating that they’d probably be dead a thousand years in their future. I know that artists Stuart Immonen and Ron Boyd had a ball drawing zombie versions of all those dead Legion and DCU characters.

I also really like the two-pronged structure of Blackest Night: the ongoing War of Light around the various Corps of characters in the Green Lantern neck of the DCU, which promises lots of epic sci-fi and cosmic storytelling, and the specific story of the Black Lanterns and their devastating personal conflicts among both the GL Corps and the larger DC Universe. I think this latter story arc will be getting most of the attention and scrutiny from fans, so it is excellent planning in having the ongoing War of Light act as the spine of the story. This is also the major argument against those who are dismissing BN as “just another zombie story.”

Wishing and Hoping

The other interesting thing in Blackest Night #0 is the personal message from Geoff Johns where he discusses all his plans and goals for Blackest Night, indicating that these are concepts and storylines he has been working towards since he first re-launched Hal Jordan as Green Lantern four years ago. He’s also quite frank about the inherent problems with Event books, including how they frequently “disappoint” on many different levels, and he specifically mentions “the frustration of delays and accessibility” and how the GL team is working to overcome these problems.

Green Lantern Corps #40 cover

I sincerely believe that, barring catastrophic artist meltdown (which you really can’t plan for) or the Powers That Be at DC changing their mind about something at the last minute (this is the one that scares me), that Johns is going to pull this off. I have been hearing more and more that Johns will have unprecedented access (for a creator) to all BN materials as they move through the DC offices and production. He’s already currently creative-controlling big giant chunks of the puzzle (writing both THE book and the main tie-in book Green Lantern), and Johns is a close friend and collaborator with the other key writer of the event, former GL editor and currently one of DC’s best, and most underrated writers, Pete Tomasi (Green Lantern Corps, Blackest Night: Batman). Johns is working closely with the other creators of Blackest Night tie-ins – the best evidence of which is the recent Titans #15. (The best issue of this series to date, which is kinda scary when you consider it doesn’t have all that much to do with the Titans – except one inactive one – at all.)

Further, I suspect that Johns – if not DC itself – is aware that a lot is riding on Blackest Night. Several of DC’s biggest, and most marketed, events have been met with wildly varying critical or fan comment (but still big sales). Final Crisis had many delays and behind-the-scenes problems as well as a polarizing response from fans – Morrison fans loved it, others went “huh?” (not unlike the initial response to Kirby’s Fourth World all those years ago, now that I think about it) – and a big bummer of an ending with Batman dying and all (sad!). Countdown was so ineptly executed (but on time!), it was a miracle that it didn’t completely kill off the concept of weekly comics forever. Instead of highlighting the lesser-knowns of the DCU, it kinda actually ruined some of them instead (*cough* Mary Marvel, Karate Kid, and Duo Damsel). And even the Johns-written Infinite Crisis was riddled with artist problems and delays (yet beautiful on arrival) and was at first perceived as yet another DC death-fest, with lots of seemingly pointless mini-deaths and two Super-deaths, with some of Johns’ bigger themes lost in the mix. While disappointing while it was being published, and weighed down with so many tie-ins, in retrospect IC is one of the better modern Events and the core book itself is much better read as a whole, rather than in is serialized beginnings, something that can also be said of many other modern Events.

The best event that DC has published in the last few years has been, hands-down, the little Event that no one expected – the Sinestro Corps War, written by none other than Geoff Johns, lending even more weight to my feelings about Blackest Night. Also, his contributions to Final Crisis (Rogues’ Revenge, Rage of the Red Lanterns, and Legion of Three Worlds) were arguably some of the strongest elements of that Event.

Granted, wanton death and destruction has been part and parcel of DC Mega-Events since the very first one, Crisis On Infinite Earths. But a lot of DC fans besides me are getting a little tired of constantly being punched in the gut with all the death and destruction and are really holding out hope that there might actually be a couple of happy endings in store for us in Blackest Night. Or any ending at all. A lot of the recent events don’t seem to actually end – they’re just the set-up the next mega-storyline. This, I think, is the real Event Fatigue. Not so much that there are so many of them , but that there never seems to be any sort of real conclusion or wrap-up or time to reflect on what has happened or even time for potty breaks or showers or laundry. (Eww. Don’t really want to go there.) Unless we’re witnessing a new and different type of storytelling: Relentless storytelling.

Although I can see how this might be really appealing to many comic fans. Many comic books over the past couple of decades have been too touchy-feely and talky. I remember very clearly many years ago then-Executive Editor Mike Carlin exploding all over us at the weekly DC Editorial Meeting: “C’mon guys! They can’t all be ‘A Day in the Life’ stories! Somebody’s gotta punch somebody sometime!” He was right, of course. Conflict is the key ingredient of any good superhero story. At some point, Batman must punch out the Joker’s lights (or the Joker must seemingly fall to his death). The Thing must go at least a couple of rounds with the Hulk, and Wolverine doesn’t defeat Sabretooth because he’s a better poker player. But conflict isn’t just punching and hitting and shooting. That’s a video game. Conflict needs to be mental as well as physical. Psychological vs. Shaolinquan. Jailhouse Rock vs. don’t rock the boat. Drama vs. shoot ‘em up!

In Blackest Night #0, Geoff Johns says “Blackest Night will recharge the DC Universe as Green Lantern: Rebirth recharged the Green Lantern Corps.” I’d go for that – just as long as the charge lasts more than 24 hours.

Here’s hoping!

NEXT TIME ON KC’s COLUMN: KC rants and raves about Events over at the good ol’ Marvel U. Including the event that isn’t an event, but a way of life (Dark Reign) as well as Utopia and Captain America: Rebirth. Look for it next Monday!

P.S. Please be careful with those promotional Blackest Night rings that DC has made available! After slipping my ring on (yay for DC for remembering to make the rings adult-sized, something they’ve occasionally forgotten for previous ring promotions), I idly started thinking about my long-gone childhood dog Duffy and now I’ve got this zombie-schnauzer shambling around the house, trying to kill me! Down, Dark Duffy! Down! Good boy!

[One last aside: My proofreader drones (Hi Honey! Hi Roger!) have informed me that I had a devil of a time keeping the exact title of the Event straight, as I repeatedly kept calling it Darkest Night. (I think we caught them all.) Curious as to why I kept doing that (beyond the obvious reason - plain and simple stupidity), I did a little research and discovered (or remembered) that I wasn’t completely crazy and that - for a time and as perhaps an overly PC decision - DC did indeed change the Green Lantern Oath from “... in blackest night” to “... in darkest night” to avoid possible racist connotations. Apparently, I memorized the oath during the “darkest” period, and continue to think of it that way. Obviously, it’s now been changed back to the original “blackest night.” Any mega-researchers or super-brains out there who recall exactly when these changes took place? Just curious...]

______________________________
KC CARLSON has been poked by pigs all his life. Now it’s time for… revenge. Dark revenge…

Purchase:

Blackest Night #2

Blackest Night #3

Green Lantern #45

Green Lantern #46

Green Lantern Corps #39

Green Lantern Corps #40

The cover for Legion of Super-Heroes #47 came from the Grand Comic Book Database.