The comic blogosphere seems to grow larger every day and just like comics, sometimes it’s pretty easy to get a little lost. “Meanwhile …” will act as your map, pointing out what interesting discussions are happening out there while you’re reading Blog@Newsarama.

Critique is the name of the game. From Legends of the Dark Knight, to Wonder Woman, to the Clone Saga, from retcons to aging to rat poison bombs. Here’s a sampling of what the blogosphere’s buzzing about this week.

Fixing Legends

At Alert Nerd, Matt addresses the problematic Legends of the Dark Knight and how to fix it:

If there was ever a bastard son of the Bat-family, this title is it. Once the primary destination for mid- to high-level talent looking to tell “their Batman story,” it’s now more of a limping lame duck, featuring serviceable and solid Bat-tales that lack any real creative impact. In my opinion, at least–I hopped on board at issue 201 and dropped it by issue 204. And I’m a Bat-freak who expects to simply collect everything Bat on the stands, but I couldn’t justify the expense.

The Woman Wonder

Etta Candy reviews Wonder Woman 2, with a particular eye toward Diana’s humanity:

In Rucka’s run, he characterized Wonder Woman as having very black and white morals: either right or wrong, there was no middle ground. That felt very natural to me, because Diana, as an immortal princess from an island of warriors, would see things strictly in terms of right or wrong, of good or bad. Now, Heinberg’s taking that and turning it on its head. We see her struggle, her determination not only to find herself, but also to find her place in humanity.

Comics and Collecting

Brainfreeze and Chromium both talk about the downsides of collecting.

Geriatric Heroism

At Comics And…, Jim addresses the need for heroes to age:

This means that a character like Cyclops has gone from being a lonely orphan to having two super powered brothers, a father who is an outer space pirate, has had two future children come back, has been married to Jean Grey, a clone of Jean Grey and was sleeping with the Phoenix force and is now hanging with the White Queen, has died and been resurrected and is portrayed as around 30. The weight of his continuity makes it harder and harder to find his character believable. Plus with Marvel’s sliding scale of continuity (only 10 years of back history) we have no idea what is in his actual history and what is not in his history.

An Idiot’s Guide to Soliciting Submissions?

At Comics Worth Reading, Johanna shows us all a good example of a submission call:

They lay out clearly exactly what they’re looking for, who would be a good match, and what they’re offering in return, demonstrating both clarity and flexibility. They even pay in advance, not just back end.

It Doesn’t Quite Work That Way

Polite Dissent’s Scott reviews the science behind the Rat Poison Bomb in 52 #16.

Nightwing Sucks! (and it’s my column so I can say that!)

At Seven Hells, Devon addresses the redundancy of Dick Grayson.

Recently, DC Comics’ Dan Didio made an announcement that Dick Grayson (Nightwing) was to die within Infinite Crisis’ pages. The internet clutched its’ collective heart and like a pod of Fred Sandfords tried its best to die of proverbial shock. Did DC really want to kill Nightwing for shock value alone or was it something more?

Quick Hits:

Chris at About Heroes reviews Ultimate Spiderman’s new Clone Saga.

Bully takes on the black sheep of the batclan.

Dave Campbell loves Mandroids.

The Designated Sidekick has a research proposal.

D. Edward Sauve takes on Superhero Body Types.

The Hutch points out a bit of a continuity problem with JLA 1.

Melchior appreciates Complex Cheesecake

Calvin Pitt points out a stupid thing Iron Man says in Civil War.

Diamondrock wants to know who the heck is masquerading as Supergirl.

And, our own Ragnell creates a hierarchy for superheroes. While her sister Sinspired elaborates on what exactly makes an icon.

Last but not least:

Our Illustrator Site of the Week:

Today’s spotlight site is Lea Hernandez’s DeviantART gallery. She has drawings, paintings and even fanart displayed and it’s all lovely.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 at 1:45 am and is filed under Internet, Meanwhile.... You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.