Some superheroes just seem to be a little more fun when they have a partner. Batman and Robin. Green Arrow and Black Canary. Darkwing Duck and Launchpad McQuack. And recently, we’ve had another such pairing reunited: Barbara “Bobbi” Morse and Clint Barton, AKA Mockingbird and Hawkeye.

Mockingbird was a biologist, then a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, then a superhero, holding her own with nothing but martial arts training and some cool batons that could merge into a staff. After several adventures, she joined with Marvel’s premier superhero team, the Avengers.

Hawkeye was an incredibly talented archer who was mistaken for a villain and then tricked into making enemies with Iron Man. He later proved his true worth and joined the Avengers, aiding the fight against evil with his arsenal of high-tech arrows, acrobatic training and his uncanny ability to argue with Captain America about everything from strategy to what TV show to watch.

They’ve definitely been through the ringer, these two. They had a whirlwind romance leading to a fast marriage that later led to divorce. Then Mockingbird was seemingly killed, though her ghost showed up on occasion. Then she showed up alive and well, as it turned out it was an alien impostor who had died in her place (and who, I guess, still masquerades as her in the afterlife). Meanwhile, Hawkeye died for real and was then resurrected by weird mutant magic, eventually reuniting with Bobbi. And through all of this, they have made a habit of tweaking their looks, more often than you might have realized.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

(more…)

Will Neal McDonough be Dum Dum Dugan in the Captain America movie?: I don’t know. Variety says he’s in negotiations. I wonder how auditions work the role of Dum Dum. Do they hand the actor a fake handlebar mustache and bowler and ask him to read a few lines?

“Is it legal that so many mainstream comic books have shed cartooning in favor of such stiff stage acting?”: At Comics Comics, Frank Santoro picks up DC’s $1 reprint of Jonah Hex #1, scans some images, and makes fun of how stiff and lifeless the overly photo-referenced art is. I can’t comment on that particular issue myself, by from the panels Santoro shows, it sure is hard to argue the point with him. Next to random 33% price increases, artwork that looks more referenced than drawn is my #1 pet peeve about modern super-comics, so if there was a way to make that stuff illegal, I’d be all for it.

“Although I found this release to be entertaining and somewhat endearing …I couldn’t help but perceive it as a cheap shot”: Writing for the St. Louis-based Riverfront Times, Chrissy Wilmes checks out the Henry & Glenn Forever romance comic, about Henry Rollins and Glenn Danzig as a couple, laughs and then feels a little bad about it, since Danzig already gets “more than his fair shair of ridicule.”  Also at the Riverfront Times, check out this slideshow of another comic book-inspired burlesque show. Sailor Moon, Harley Quinn, Red Sonja (wearing a lot more clothes than comic book Sonja ever does), off-model Wonder Woman and dudes painted as Ghost Rider and the Hulk are involved.

Will Matt Kind’s Giant Man make it to the silver screen before Marvel’s?: Looks like. Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black is apparently working on an adaptation of Kindt’s graphic novel 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man. That was a fine book and would certainly potentially make a fine movie, but it will be an interesting adaptation to watch, given that the story was structured to reflect printed matter more than film. Here’s some PR from 3 Story publisher Dark Horse reacting to the news, which includes a link to a preview of the book. Here’s my review of the book, if for some reason hearing that this gn is being developed into a movie made you think, But what did Caleb have to say about the book in 2009?!

Born Again Again: Here’s Craig Fischer on the varied career of David Mazzucchelli.

I guess it’s all up to Namor now…: Has BP succeeded where Black Manta couldn’t? (Via Comics Reporter)

EC Archives: Frontline Combat v.1
Written & Illustrated by Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, Will Elder, Wally Wood, Russ Heath and Jack Davis
Published by Gemstone

They don’t make ’em like this anymore.  In 1951 when editor, writer and artist Harvey Kurtzman (for whom the Harvey Awards were named) convinced his publisher Bill Gaines to add another war comic to the EC Comics publishing schedule, Kurtzman was already filling the pages of Two-Fisted Tales with parables about the foibles of war.  Apparently, Kurtzman had much to say on the subject, because Frontline Combat suffered no letdown from the stunning standard set by Two-Fisted.

The final EC Archive edition published by Gemstone before their financial collapse (can somebody get with Russ Cochran and work out a deal to finish publishing these Archives – comics this good should never be out of print!) compiles the six initial issues of Frontline, featuring stories by Kurtzman and artistry by some of the EC stable’s best horses: Wally Wood, John Severin, Jack Davis and Kurtzman himself.  And there’s a story by war comics legend Russ Heath, just in case you thought the standard slipped when the regulars weren’t available.

Kurtzman’s war comics generally operated in two major territories.  The first was factual accounts of historical battles, including Gettysburg, the Light Brigade, parts of the war of 1812, and even the then-current Korean conflict.  Short biographies of Stonewall Jackson and Erwin Rommel also featured, and despite many more forgiving portrayals, Kurtzman makes no excuses for Rommel’s involvement with Nazi Germany.

Kurtzman’s other major theme continued to be the futility of war.  “Big ‘If’!” chronicles the haphazard, meaningless causes of death in a war zone.  “Combat Medic!”, “Zero Hour!” and “How They Die!” all address similar ideals – presenting the fighting men as heroic and able, but subjected to needless and pointless tragedies by the whims of unseen powers.

Ably abetted by some of the finest illustrators in comics history, Kurtzman’s stories are presented in detailed, evocative fashion.  Jack Davis’s complex illustrations are rivaled only by Wally Wood’s eye-straining details, and John Severin’s eye for historical detail is simply unmatched anywhere else in comics.  Using a less realistic, more impressionist style, Kurtzman’s tales operate best as parables, and he often gave himself scripts tailored to this strength.

The EC Comics line changed everything for the medium.  Before EC, dramatic comics existed, but not serious comics.  Even today, few comics have truly taken their lead, however, by addressing complicated moral and social issues, by writing about true humanity.  The comics found in EC Archives: Frontline Combat v.1 offer valuable and meaningful insight into humanity and our predilection toward violent means to pursue dubious ends.  It remains, fifty-nine years after its initial publication, important and truly timeless art.

If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

Cowboy Batman will be having a different inkslinger drawing his adventures, as Cameron Stewart has bowed out of the Return of Bruce Wayne series.

While Georges Jeanty will be taking over the issue Stewart was slated to draw, the Seaguy artist remained cryptic on his blog over his departure, but he did say the split was amicable, and that he had a few “secret irons” in the fire, including an apparently well-known property.

“It was a decision that I struggled with, but sadly conditions were such that I felt that my work would be drastically compromised and subpar should I stay on board, and so I felt that it was best that I walked away,” he wrote on his blog. “I’d like to extend big thanks to my editors for trying to do whatever they could to make it possible for me to stay, but in the end it just wasn’t happening.”

For those of you who are curious about Jeanty’s take on Cowboy Batman, take a look at the Source, which has some beauts like this:

Thundercats! Thundercats! Thundercats HOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Just practicing. Because io9 has some details about a new Thundercats animated series, due out in 2011 on Cartoon Network. Warner Bros. Animation is teaming up with the Antimatrix’s Studio4ºC to put together the series.

“In addition to being Warner Bros. Animation’s first anime series, ThunderCats marks our most ambitious foray yet into fantasy,” said WB Animation’s EVP of Creative Affairs, Sam Register. “The realism and dynamic visual style we’ve achieved are sure to thrill viewers, and the cool weapons, vehicles and technology should help the show appeal to a diverse audience.”

Considering that the Thundercats film — which was also slated to come out in 2010 or 2011, depending on your source — is stuck in development, this is looking likely that this will be the first return of Lion-O and company we’ll see in a while. Whaddya think?

[Image via Think McFly Think]

So, ‘Rama readers. You saw the Cap costume. You’ve seen the alleged Thor concept art. …Now lets put some images together. Click to embiggen!

Could these be your Avengers, assembled? I’ve used my (alleged) Photoshop skills to bring together all the Marvel Studios images I’ve been able to find (and extrapolating them with some of the interviews that Kevin Feige has done, plus some of the contractual obligations I know many of the actors involved have), and I dunno about you, but I’m kind of excited to see this lineup hit cinemas. What do you think? Let’s discuss!

So remember the last time we saw a glimpse of Thor’s costume? It was so thunderous, it even dropped Mjolnir on the Blog’s server! Well, ‘Rama readers, it’s time for what may be a full glimpse of the concept art — so let’s make some noise!

Collider has posted what they are saying is some exclusive concept art for the upcoming Thor film. While the jury’s still out as to whether or not this is confirmed by the brass at Marvel, what particularly interests me about the alleged costume is that it isn’t just Olivier Coipel’s design, like we all thought — it feels like a mesh between that and Bryan Hitch’s Ultimate’s style uniform, with the armor-looking chestpiece as opposed to Coipel’s leather tunic. Combine that with Iron Man and the recently-released Captain America concept costume, and I think we have ourselves some Avengers. What say you, Rama readers? Dig the hybrid costume? Think it’s more drizzle than thunder? Sound off!

So. Roger Langridge. I know you’re already working on one Thor book (Thor: The Mighty Avenger, with Chris Samnee, ‘natch.) But after seeing this, is there any way we could get a Thor/Muppet crossover?

There is absolutely not one thing I would change about this. Ever. Gonzo as Loki just absolutely takes the cake. Sorry folks, I think I’ve peaked for the day. Best news day ever.

[Hat-tip to Comics Alliance for the image]

Don’t believe me? Check out the trailer for the Brave and the Bold video game, coming out for the Wii:

The gameplay reminds me a little bit of Shank, the comics-influenced beat-em-up I got to play over at PAX East. The real question, of course, is whether or not the show’s sense of humor will make it into the game. (Or, as Topless Robot rightly asked, whether or not Aquaman will be a playable character.) So ‘Rama readers, I wanna hear from you — who do you want to see in the Brave and the Bold? The entire DCU is at your fingertips!

In order to fully realize writer Paul Dini’s particular interests in the character Zatanna, the new Zatanna ongoing monthly by Dini and artists Stephane Roux and Karl Story should have been published on the mature readers Vertigo imprint rather than the all-ages DCU imprint.

Y/N

(The above image of Zatanna being interrogated by Poison Ivy is from the Dini-written Gotham City Sirens, illustrated by Guillem March)

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

Want to see what Robert Kirkman’s zombies will look like? i09 has some great pics of the upcoming AMC television series:

The Walking Dead focuses on an officer named Rick who, after being left for dead in the midst of a shootout, wakes up to find that zombies have taken over. On the search for his wife and son, he bands together with a group of survivors — many of whom see a gristly end against both the undead and the living. The show, which will be directed by Frank Darabont, will be due out in October.

Madness? This is a PREQUEL!

Frank Miller has a great interview up with the L.A. Times, talking about the long-gestating, long thought never to happen prequel to his hit graphic novel 300.

Here’s a highlight from the interview:

“The story will be the same heft as ’300′ but it cover a much, much greater span of time — it’s 10 years, not three days,” Miller said. “This is a more complex story. The story is so much larger. The Spartans in ’300′ were being enclosed by the page as the world got smaller. This story has truly vast subjects. The Athenian naval fleet, for instance, is a massive artistic undertaking and it dwarfed by the Persian fleet, which is also shown in this story. The story has elements of espionage, too, and it’s a sweeping tale with gods and warriors.”

The article also talks about the international reaction to the series — which didn’t paint Persian culture in a particularly realistic or sympathetic light — and kicks off what I’m sure will have a lot of fans buzzing: that while Xerxes may be the title of the series, the lead character will be a Greek warrior once more. The six-part prequel will be coming out via Dark Horse, which is selling the above limited edition Xerxes lithograph on their web site. Anything to say, Rama readers? We want to hear it!

Can’t wait to see who Spidey and his amazing extradimensional friends will be taking on in the upcoming game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions? Well, Marvel has some more footage up to whet your appetite:

The game will take our favorite webslinger and take him through the various alternate universes the character has had through the years, including Spider-Man Noir. The other iterations of Spidey are still unclear — although in late March Destructoid did report that Gamestop was issuing a pre-order exclusive Cosmic Spider-Man costume, with a special attack for each universe. So right now we’ve got Kraven, Norman Osborn and Hammerhead — who else do you want to see, Rama readers? Sound off!

Raiders, Vol. 1
By JinJun Park
Published by Yen Press
Review by Julie Opipari

Let’s get the summer reviews off with a flying start. Raiders by JinJun Park is like a high velocity action flick; it’s big on flash and style, but there’s not much substance. The illustrations power along, propelling the hero from one harrowing scene to the next. Who cares that it doesn’t make much sense? It sure looks good as you are flipping through the pages.

The non-stop action gets underway from the very beginning, as Irel Clark tries to make off with the Holy Grail. Like Indiana Jones, he doesn’t care very much about planning, and he’d rather muscle his way out of a tight spot than spend any time trying to use his brain. He’s got a specially outfitted Winchester rifle, and he’s not afraid to use it. In fact, he enjoys shooting his way out of dangerous situations, and he’s not reluctant to blast to bits anything that gets in his way.

He’s in the employ of Dr Wilter Langhem, an archeologist who is an expert on the Holy Grail. What the two don’t bargain for is the appearance of a monster out of their worst nightmares. They are quickly confronted by Lamia, a woman who is cursed to never die. She is pretty creepy, too! In order to repair her ever decomposing body, she has to eat the flesh of humans. Yuck! It doesn’t matter whether they are dead or alive, either! She wants one of the five vials containing the blood of Christ to remove her curse. With the disgusting diet she’s forced to consume, I don’t blame her for craving a swallow of centuries old blood. Plus, constantly worrying about your rotting complexion would play havoc on your self-esteem.

It turns out that Irel has a vial of the blood, and after he is mortally wounded, he drinks the contents of the innocuous little bottle. Now he is immortal, but what’s worse, he’s Lamia’s new smorgasbord. She’s pissed that he drank the precious liquid, and now she’s going to punish him! When she’s feeling a little out of sorts, she starts snacking on him. Ick!

Like any good action yarn, there are other baddies out there racing around to locate the remaining vials so they can keep them for themselves. So far, they are all one dimensional cardboard cutouts, but that doesn’t stand in the way of enjoying the plot. It’s summer! You are supposed to check your brain at the door, and other than all of the glorious fights, explosions, and speed lines, there isn’t much here to make you think. Just go with the flow and enjoy all of crisp, detailed art. So what are you waiting for? Pop that bag of popcorn in the microwave and start hunting for holy relics with Irel!

Verdict: Brainless, fluffy fun!

When Julie Opipari isn’t mucking around the barn, she can be found trying to make a dent in the massive pile of manga that keeps following her home from the bookstore.  Not wiling to admit she has a problem, she blissfully continues to anticipate the latest releases despite the cries of agony from her credit card.  She cheerfully blames her addiction on the stresses of college and post traumatic work disorder, and is grateful that her family grumbles only occasionally about the amount of time she spends buried in her books. In addition to reading Your Manga Minute every Wednesday, you can read more of Julie’s work on her blog, Manga Maniac Cafe.

“Every culture—and every religion —has its mythic heroes”: Here’s a long-ish story about some superhero thing ABC had on last night’s special edition of 20/20. There are a wide variety of folks quoted in the piece, from screenwriter David Koepp to writer-about-religion Elaine Pagels, but they manage to spell Spider-Man wrong in every single instance, which makes me question the seriousness of the piece, because I am a snob.

Before a Stingray movie, but after a Devil Dinosaur movie: “Will We Ever See A Captain Britain Movie?”

“The pants aren’t skin tight but they aren’t baggy either”: As David just posted, Mike Sampson at Joblo.com has apparently seen Captain America’s movie costume, and has described it at great detail, if you’re interested. I think they’re making a mistake by not making the pants skin tight. I think the tighter they make Chris Evans pants, the more tickets they’ll sell.

Is Gilmore Girls going to be Drawn and Quarterly’ s Buffy?: No, no it will not. But if I t were, it might look like this.

Do you find the Marvel Universe’s decades worth of complicated continuity a turn-off?: Don’t worry! Bully explains it all in one simple post.

Has no one ever made some version of this joke before?: Because this is the first time I can remember hearing it, and it made me laugh.

Coming next from the most-talked about comics writer of the day: Aghast reviews of Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal keep rolling in! Says Savage Critic Abhay Khosla, who touches on it in the midst of reviewing a bunch of comics and, um, whatever else Khosla felt like writing a few funny paragraphs about:

I “enjoyed” it quite a bit, even if only in quotation marks.  Obviously, if I bought it, it “succeeded” — it created an accident on the side of the road so horrific that I craned my neck to look at it.  And you know: well done.  I will now remember JT Krul’s name, and if you believe that obscurity is an author’s true enemy, well done to him, too.

Comics Alliance’s Chris Sims, whom it should be noted, collects Tarot: The Witch of the Black Rose and Archie comics and annotates Marvel’s Anita Blake comics, had this to say in his lengthy takedown:

It’s tempting to just leave it at that, because really, there’s not much you can add to “Green Arrow’s sidekick does heroin because he can’t get a boner” that would make it sound worse than it already is. But there are problems in this story that run far deeper than what’s on the surface.

And at his 4thletter.net blog, David Brothers started working on a post to point out that heroin is not, in actually, the potent hallucinogenic that Rise of Arsenal #3 would have readers believe it is, but ultimately decided the comic was so pointless he couldn’t muster the interest in pointing out how wrong it got everything.

In other news, Rise of Arsenal writer J.T. Krul has just been named as the new regular writer for DC’s troubled Teen Titans title. Terrible move by DC…or brilliant move? After all, the blogosphere has been buzzing with Krul’s name for about a week now and there’s no such thing as bad publicity…is there?

Could this be close to what Chris Evans as Captain America might look like? JoBlo seems to think so.

The movie site claims to have seen what the new Captain America suit might look like for the 2011 film, and have given some pretty detailed descriptions of the piece. The above fan art was one of the three pieces that JoBlo thought looked closest to the actual design.

For those who don’t know, the Captain America film will be set in World War II, with the original costume allegedly being used as part of a USO function. This design, of course, looks a bit influenced by the Bryan Hitch Ultimates redesign, which injected Captain America with a bit more of the traditional soldier’s look, albeit with the red-white-and-blue coloring and the “A” on his head. Which as this occasionally awesome, occasionally cringe-worthy fan trailer posted by Mark Millar will remind you, does not stand for France.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1
Written by Grant Morrison
Penciled by Chris Sprouse
Inked by Karl Story
Colored by Guy Major
Lettered by Jared K. Fletcher
Cover art by Andy Kubert or Chris Sprouse

It looks mighty pretty.  Chris Sprouse can basically do no wrong, you know.  Dude’s line is so clean I’d eat off it.

Grant Morrison’s usually pretty compelling, but this one fell flat.  Bruce Wayne, killed or whatever, is in the wayback past, hanging with cavemen, fighting that nearly immortal, but basically flaccid, DC baddie Vandal Savage.  When’s he ever been a threat to anybody?  Then some time-travelling heroes show up to say some ominous stuff about Batman ruining the world if he gets back to the present on his own.  Batman works best in his milieu, in Gotham, in the dark, in shadows and crime and noir.  Maybe a dash of horror.  Certainly some mystery.  This issue feels awkward and forced.  Batman’s a thinker, a planner, a leader.  Here, he’s just there, reacting, a confused bauble intersecting the lives of largely irrelevant side-characters.  I guess my main problem is that Morrison could’ve inserted Kamandi, Captain Benjamin Sisko or John Wayne and not had to change anything.  There’s nothing Batman about it.

Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #2
Written by Grant Morrison
Illustrated by Frazer Irving
Lettered by Jared K. Fletcher
Cover art by Irving or Andy Kubert

Well, at least Bruce Wayne’s active in this issue, using his detective skills, solving crimes, protecting the innocent.  That’s a step forward, recognizing Bruce Wayne’s personality and drive.  It’s still not quite there.  This installment, Bruce is in a past version of Gotham living through a fairly pedestrian Nathaniel Hawthorne reenactment.  The girl he’s trying to save winds up putting a curse on the Wayne family, as it’s apparently one of Bruce’s ancestors persecuting her.  The living “time bomb” aspect isn’t any clearer.  Irving’s art is effective if a little murky at times.  It’s better than the first issue, story-wise, but still fails to rise above being a middling superhero comic book.

Did you all catch with badly-drawn Thor said in his badly-lettered balloons? Due to Monday being Memorial Day, comics are going to be a day later than usual, so even though tomorrow is Wednesday, there won’t be new books at your local comic shop. They’ll be there on Thursday. But I’m going to go ahead and write about some of the books on this week’s shipping list tonight anyway, since the feature is called “‘Twas the Night Before Wednesday…” and it would be silly to have a feature entitled that get posted on any night other than Tuesday night, right? So, what are some comics that are coming out this week?

Avengers: Prime #1: Because there just aren’t enough Avengers comics being written by Brian Michael Bendis, the prolific writer’s launching a five-issue Avengers miniseries to be published alongside his Avengers and New Avengers ongoings. This one focuses on the Big Three Avengers of Thor, Iron Man and The Hero Formerly Known As Captain America, who are presumably the “prime” Avengers. Alan Davis and Mark Farmer illustrate, and while it’s a $4 comic, it should also be an over-sized one. Preview here.

Bulletproof Coffin #1: David Hine and Shaky Kane present a six-issue, $4-per-issue series about…um…I don’t know. You know who does know though? Hine and Kane. They spoke with our own Chris Arrant about the project back in April, and you can give the interview and preview art another looksee here if you like.

Dust Wars #1: Zip up your top, lady! You’re going to get dust in your décolletage! We’ve got an extended preview of this sci fi comic at the home page, which you can check out by clicking here.

The Flash: Rebirth #1: Given that the Flash: Rebirth miniseries kicked off just about a year ago, it seems to be of awfully recent vintage for DC’s “What’s Next?” one-dollar reprint program, complete with its “Great Graphic Novels You Should Be Reading” banner across the top, but I’m just a guy who complains about comics online for a “living,” not a comics marketing expert, so what do I know? The price is definitely right. Marvel’s got a recent-ish $1 reprint  available this week as well, Amazing Spider-Man #546, the first issue of the controversial “Brand New Day” new direction. Both were huge comics that most fans probably got the first time around, but if you missed ‘em and are curious, you can’t beat the value.

(more…)