On the sassiness of Ebony White: Tom Crippen notes the bit of DC’s First Wave promotional material referring to a new version of The Spirit and a new version of Ebony, and has some objections.
Go for the drawing of Batman eating cake Batmanly…: Stay for Kurt Busiek’s essay on why Batman isn’t the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, and extended references to comic book characters and concepts as cakes and frosting which have made me very, very hungry for cake.
“Five Worst Batman Villains”: I imagine fans will find a lot to bicker with Tim O’Neil about in his list of the very worst Batman villains—and pretty thorough explanations for why is each is included. After all, The Joker’s on that list. O’Neil makes some pretty convincing arguments though, and I wholeheartedly agree with a couple of these (Particularly Ra’s al Ghul. That guy’s been in more Batman comics than Alfred these the last few years). In defense of Mr. Zsasz though (well, in defense of his creators Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle), I think he was created just to be a one-off villain used in “The Last Arkham” and then forgotten about, and it’s all the other creators who keep insisting on using him that have made him so terrible (Also, in his first appearance, he dressed up in tuxedos and wore a top hat…how come he’s always running around nearly nude now?)
Maybe Watchmen spin-offs won’t be so bad after all: Tom Spurgeon has a pitch for a four-issue limited series featuring a character you probably didn’t see coming.
“Smallville’s two-hour ‘event,’ the introduction of the Justice Society of America… was alternately endearingly clunky and just plain old clunky”:
Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker on the Smallville JSA special. Isn’t it sorta weird that the Smallville-iverse is on its second Star-Spangled Kid before there was even a Superman?
True horror: So, you thought Michael Leavitt’s three-foot-tall, fully-articulated wooden R. Crumb sculpture was horrifying when you first saw it? Well, wait till you see it move! (Via Flog!)
February 8th, 2010 at 9:34 am
I thought Darwyn Cooke did a perfectly good job of updating Mr. White for modern decency’s purposes.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Caleb, the Smallville review links back to the Watchmen spin-off.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:12 am
It sounds like Crippen is disappointed that White isn’t a racist caricature. “DC is making a character that was symptomatic of what was wrong with race relations decades ago into a girl, and now, NOW we should all complain because corporate comics ruined everything for all of us in TCJ land! Waaaaaah!”
February 8th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Yeah, I messed up that link. Sorry about that. It should be fixed now.
February 8th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
As to the Smallville JSA/Checkmate episode(and don’t think it wasn’t an unveil for the latter as much as for the Society)…not bad.
February 8th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
I’ve said this before but I think Ra’s al Guhl would have been a better villain for Captain America.
February 8th, 2010 at 11:42 pm
The fact that people take an insult artist like Tucker Stone more seriously than someone who actually has something to say, like Tim O’Neil, is a war crime.
February 9th, 2010 at 10:09 am
I think Tucker is one of the best writers about comics currently working on the internet.