Now that we know all but one of the 52 new launches for DC Comics in September – and there are probably more on the way in following months, let’s face it; there are exclusive creators with no books so far, which suggests that more titles are forthcoming – there are quite a few familiar books missing from the new line-up. One, though, hints at a change in the status quo that could reset the DCU to an unexpected pre-Crisis idea: There’s no Justice Society of America book. What if that means that, in the new DC Universe, there was never a Justice Society, or any Golden Age superheroes?

From a branding point of view, it makes a lot of sense: Now there’s only one Flash, Green Lantern (Well, Green Lantern Corps, but you know what I mean), Hawkman, Atom, etc. to worry about. There’s also, if Power Girl has disappeared from continuity – Her book has definitely disappeared from the solicits – only one Kara Zor-El for readers to get to know, as well. It also potentially restores the standing of Superman who, if there was no Golden Age of superheroes, can once again be the first superhero in the new universe, which gives the character back the historical standing that he’s been accidentally robbed of for the last 25 years.

It seems to be all win – Well, unless you’re a Justice Society fan, of course. But even then, there’s hope; unless the new universe undoes the Multiverse, there’s always an Earth-2 out there where they exist, just waiting for the first in a new series of Crisis…

Since DC announced earlier in the week that Barbara Gordon will return as Batgirl, there has been an outpouring of support from fans and creators, both talking about their fondness for the character. Newsarama’s own, Jill Pantozzi even started an Oracle Draw-a-thon. Oracle gave a voice to many readers, and artist Phil Noto created this digital piece portraying Oracle saying farewell.

From Phil Noto’s Tumblr:

“Oracle 1989-2011 – My first job in comics was creating covers for DC’s Birds of Prey and and over the the course of 24 issues I drew this lovely lady a lot. And then I did some brief interior work on the Cassandra Cain Batgirl and finally did the first run of covers for the Stephanie Brown incarnation. They’ve all been great Batgirls much like Steed’s partners in the Avengers. I’ve done numerous pieces of Babs as Batgirl more so for the retro iconography and the aesthetic look of the black, yellow and red then her actual persona as Batgirl. Honestly in terms of fictional characters, I always just considered her to be Oracle. I, like many others, am very sad her to see her go, but if there’s anyone to keep her spirit alive as Batgirl once again, Gail Simone is the one to do it.”

Thanks for the memories, Mr. Noto and Babs.

Just how crazy has DC Comics gone?: Crazy enough that Steve Rude would ask if he could maybe make them some awesome comic books and they said no, apparently. That’s just nutty. I can sort of see why DC would put him off for a few months, if they really want to instill a sort of uniformity to their line starting in September (there definitely doesn’t seem to be much in the way of stylistic variety in the designs and artists involved with their new 50-book slate, for example), but I can’t imagine it being a good idea to turn Rude down altogether. No original graphic novels or miniseries or Steve Rude Draws Whatever He Wants #1 one-shot? Ironically, yesterday DC  announced that Rude’s fourth choice on a list of DC characters he’d like to work on, OMAC, would be getting his own ongoing title—with DC publisher Dan DiDio co-writing it.

Now read this: Check out the Level Up creative team of Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham’s cute strip about where the arcade heroes of yesteryear are now.

“Here is a period piece for our postracial times — in the era of Ella Baker and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the most powerful adversaries of spectacular apartheid are a team of enlightened white dudes”: In The New York Times, writer and X-Men fan Ta-Nehisi Coates talks about taking in X-Men: First Class with his son, and what he noticed that his son didn’t. Meanwhile, in the New Zealand Listener, David Larsen notes some of the quite disturbing implications of the film that the creators seem to have either not noticed or glossed over. And at his blog, David Brothers talks about his viewing (I agree with a lot of what he said, particularly regarding the awesomeness of Fassbender and McAvoy) and he also notes some of the disturbing (and hopefully accidental!) X-Men = Nazis implications. Peter David really liked it, though.

Nobody will ever like the  new Teen Titans: Andrew Weiss is so confident in the rottenness of the new version of the Teen Titans DC announced this week, that he’s already inducting them into his “Nobody’s Favorites” hall of shame. I can’t disagree. I personally experienced aesthetic pain while looking at the cover image of Teen Titans #1. Of course, someone somewhere must like it, or DC never would have greenlighted it, would they? Do you like? Speak up in the comments, please. I’m genuinely curious, as I have a hard time comprehending anyone liking it.

Wow, Bryan Lee O’Malley used to suck: Check out his 1988 Transformers comic for evide—oh, he was only eight years old when he drew that? Damn, that’s actually pretty good then. (And he drew better Transformers at eight then I can at 34, the talented little punk…!)

“Batgirl’s Last Dance”: Will Brooker covers the hell out of The Brave and The Bold #33, the Cliff Chiang-drawn issue where Barbara Gordon, Zatanna and Wonder Woman do karaoke to a Beyonce song.

“The salient reason that more people aren’t reading about mainstream superheroes, of course, is not because they are…confused by backstory — it’s that they don’t happen to be particularly interested in mainstream superheroes”: Here’s NPR’s Glen Weldon on DC’s post-Flashpoint plans.

Hidden away in that USA Today story about Daredevil joining the New Avengers is this line:

It’s quite an interesting cast of characters that Norman [Osborn]‘s going to build up,” says Bendis, who’s currently working on next summer’s “big giant hoo-hah” event.

Ignoring the return of Osborn as the Avengers big bad again – He’s only been gone from that role for less than two years! Give the man a break, already – it’s surprising to see mention of Marvel’s next summer event already. Does “working on” mean that Bendis is writing the core book, or just that he’s so far ahead in his deadlines that he’s writing his tie-ins already? Somehow, I think it’s probably the former… in which case, does this mean that we now know whether that Age of Ultron thing he’s doing with Bryan Hitch will be an Avengers-only storyline, or something on a much larger scale?

Update: Well, DC has announced Suicide Squad and Blue Beetle, bringing the total to 48. Will things play out as simple as they seem — Action Comics, Superman, Superboy and Supergirl— or is there a Friday surprise headed our way?

Original story: OK, so on Tuesday we posted a bit of a running tally of the post-Flashpoint DC titles announced thus far — 34 books at that point, and 12 more have been announced since, leaving us with only six slots to fill before reaching the announced total of 52.

Some are obvious — Action Comics, Superman, Superboy and Supergirl. Superboy was effectively confirmed by Scott Lobdell in Vaneta’s interview with him over on the homepage, Supergirl art has surfaced on DC’s servers, and as far as Superman and Action Comics — well, duh.

So we’ve got two left. What will they be? Some type of Marvel family title? Maybe another Superman character, like Steel? Where’s Zatanna in all of this? Feel free to speculate away, and a list of the 46 titles announced thus far is after the jump.

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Brian Michael Bendis is clearly excited about September’s New Avengers #16.1 — penciled by Neal Adams — and now the book’s been officially announced by Marvel, with a cover, to boot. The issue has been heralded as the return of Norman Osborn, and, yup, he’s right there, with the specter of the Green Goblin looming.

Full cover and press release after the jump.

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Hey, did you know that George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise is popular in other countries that aren’t even America, even some countries that are in Europe, a cradle of actual culture, and not just pop culture?

I suppose I sort of knew that, in the back of my head, but I was still surprised to see actual evidence of it, in the form of Space Warped #1, the first half of a Boom Studio’s published translation of Herve Bourhis and Rudy Spiessert’s Rustic Wars.

The new title alludes to the source material being parodied, but the original title better reflects the premise. It’s well known that Lucas sought inspiration from a variety of sources, including Jack Kirby’s Fourth World comics, Japanese cinema, Westerns and Joseph Cambell-digested world myth, and Bourhis and Spiessert essentially take the original Star Wars movie as Lucas created it, and then walked it back toward some of that inspiration.

In other words, it’s still an adventure story with elements of fantasy set long ago and far, far away, but the long ago is pre-Industrial Revolution, and the far, far away is Europe.
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A random thought about the DC revamp: Who is the core character?

The core DC character for the DCU for the Silver Age all the way through Crisis on Infinite Earths, I’d argue, was the Flash. Not only was he the one that got the whole “Earth 1″ thing going in the first place – and the one whose death signified the end of an era, right there before everything changed – but his books typified everything DC was about: Colorful characters, somewhat uptight stories that were more self-conscious than Marvel’s, and a kind of lovable corniness. If you wanted to know what the DCU was about, you could pick up an issue of The Flash and get a pretty good idea – It might not have been as weird as, say, Doom Patrol or as hep for the kids as Teen Titans, but it also was more fun and more loose than, say, Detective Comics or Superman.

From Crisis through Flashpoint, I’d argue that the core character was Green Lantern. He was the character who found himself suffering through the various problems plaguing the line for all that time, whether it’s having the core concept continually reworked (His solo title becomes a team book with Green Lantern Corps! His series gets canceled and folded into Action Comics Weekly! His history gets retconned with Emerald Dawn! He goes bad and gets replaced by a younger kid with Emerald Twilight! He leads the retro charge with Green Lantern: Rebirth! and so on) or being at the center of a surprising number of events during that period (Millennium spun out of Green Lantern Corps, Zero Hour spun out of Emerald Twilight, Final Night‘s resolution hung on Hal’s redemption, Day of Judgment definitely hung on Hal’s redemption, and Blackest Night spun out of Green Lantern). It might not have been intentional, but somehow Green Lantern turned into the Zelig of the last twenty five years of the DCU.

And now, we’re restarting again. So… who will end up being the avatar of what’s become known as DCnU? It’s tempting to argue, from what we’ve had hints of so far that it might end up being Superman, of all characters – He’ll be one of the few characters to get a significant revamp, and will, it seems, personify the “de-aged, reworked” DCU in a way that neither Batman nor Green Lantern – both of whom seem to be coming through the relaunch relatively unscathed – will be able to. It’s a fitting place for the character – He’s Superman, after all – but also a surprising one, considering the oddly sacrosanct, iconic nature of the character.

Of course, it’s early days yet. Maybe we should check in again next year, and be able to look back and say “Cyborg? Who knew?”

Bleeding Cool’s Rich Johnston talks to Bob Burden, creator of Mysterymen about Marvel Comics’ new series Mystery Men and their trademarking the name – despite his having used the one word version since 1987:

Nothing good will come of it. I don’t think this kind, clipping indie titles for trademarks, will open the world like an oyster for them. There are probably lots of titles and characters out there that have lapsed, and I’m sure there are a lot that were never officially trademarked at all… What Mike [Richardson, president of Dark Horse, Burden's publisher] explained to me – and this is important for everyone – is that while copyrights last many years, Trademarks last only ten. Well, I think Universal [The studio that made the Mystery Men movie adapting Burden's comic back in 1999] filed for the trademark August 5^th 1999, the day before the movie came out. The Marvel trademark was filed August 5^th 2009. That could even mean that someone was sitting there ready to snipe it. So who knows what else they have their eye on, or what they’re going for next.

At the end of the story, Marvel appears to dispute this:

Marvel representatives tell me that there was no intention to “snipe” a trademark and that the timing was purely coincidental. That the writer, David Liss, asked if the name was available, and it was. And that the whole series was completed before the name was publically announced.

Nonetheless, a simple search of the US Patent and Trademark Office’s site shows that, yes, Marvel trademarked “Mystery Men” on August 5th, 2009. So was Liss working on the book two years ago? And did Marvel really manage to check that the title was available legally, approve the title editorially and apply for the trademark on the same day, never mind it being the same day that the trademark actually became available? Because, while that’s not impossible, it’s certainly an astounding coincidence. In a schaudenfreude-filled way, I look forward to the inevitable lawsuit…

TALES OF MR. RHEE
is brought to you by…
Dirk Manning (Writer)
Josh Ross (Artist)
Austin McKinley (Colors)
Jim Reddington (Letters)
Image Comics/Shadowline (Publisher/Overlord)
And the letter Y.

Read Pages 1-3 here!

Say it ain’t so!

Via Uncanny X-Men writer Kieron Gillen himself, the Associated Press has reported that the long-running X-Men series will end in October with issue #544, as Schism rolls through Marvel’s band of merry mutants.

“The X-Men are getting torn apart from within. The events of ‘Schism’ do more damage to the X-Men than any villain has ever done,” editor Nick Lowe told the Associated Press.

Schism, which pits longtime leader Cyclops against fan-favorite Wolverine for the future of the mutant race, has been likened as “the X-Men’s Civil War,” according to Marvel EiC Axel Alonso.

“The X-Men has always been a book with ideology and ideas at its heart, and to be fair to them — to best present them — you have to be entirely true,” Gillen added to the AP. “And if the story we’re telling demands that you end the Uncanny X-Men, you end the Uncanny X-Men. No, it’s not taken lightly — but it’s taken if it’s necessary to do it.”

For me personally, this is pretty sad news — Gillen only took over the book entirely back in April with #534.1, and so to hear that his run will end in October with issue #544 is just a shame. He himself has joked that after his ill-fated space series S.W.O.R.D., there are no limits to his power about getting a book cancelled, and has said he will not elaborate further on his future plans. Here’s hoping that Gillen has a place with the Children of the Atom once the dust clears for Schism.

Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. Last week I showcased some items from the X-Men. This week, in honor of the big announcements Nintendo is making at E3 I decided to look for some fashionable Nintendo related items. And yes, I’m sticking to our roots this time around. Nintendo, especially classic, does seem to encourage a lot of crafting…

So, I pretty much need this NES Zapper Desktop Lamp immediately. Partly because it reminds me of the Leg Lamp from A Christmas Story but mostly because it’s nostalgic-awesomeness AND useful! User Recycled Retro Gear can send you one for just $28 bucks in grey or orange.

This may look like just a regular, old Nintendo console but you’d be wrong. It’s a NESputer. That’s right. A computer housed in an old console. Made by user slothfish, for $850 it includes: 1.6ghz Dual-core Atom CPU, 2 GB DDR3 RAM, 750 GB Hard Drive, Nvidia ION graphics (9400gt), WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth wireless connectivity, HDMI out so you can plug right into your HDTV and 8 USB ports (6 in back, 2 connected to the front controller ports). If I hadn’t just bought a new computer…If you just need a hardrive though, check out this 500gb one from user 8bitmemory for $99.99 housed in an old Legend of Zelda cartridge.

When they say geek chic, this is what they mean. Try on this Gameboy Tube Dress from user HereandThereVintage for $60. Or, if you prefer to be a little more covered up, this other Gameboy dress from user LifeIsRandom for $40

Need a much COOLER place to charge your i-whatever? Check out this Rock Dock – Nintendo Joystick – iPhone/iPod/iTouch Dock from user GeekUnique for $44.99. Or, if you need more room on your desk, go for the Nintendo Controller version for $33.99.

Oh man, oh man. Something else I need to furnish my house, a NES Controller Rug. Dimensions are 28.5 x 13 inches and user WTCrafts will send you one to step all over for $63.

As always, bear in mind, since Etsy is a craft website and not a commercial, mass-market dealer, items are almost always one-of-a-kind or in very limited availability. When you see something you like, buy it. It may not be there the next time you surf round. (Yes, it’s a very dangerous site for your wallet.) Also, since most items are created individually, many sellers are willing to customize something specifically to suit your needs. Just ask!

It’s like peanut butter and jelly coming together. Or back together. Or something like that. Well, whatever metaphor you choose to go with (sandwich-related or not), Daredevil is joining the New Avengers as of September’s issue #16, according to an article on USA Today.

And yep, that means a reunion between Daredevil and Brian Michael Bendis, who wrote the character’s solo title in a landmark five-year run from 2001 to 2006. In the USA Today interview, Bendis says in the article that Daredevil’s role in New Avengers starts during the ongoing Fear Itself conflict, and will help Matt Murdock to “rediscover” relationships with his fellow heroes — especially long-time associates like Spider-Man, Iron Fist and Luke Cage — that were badly damaged during Shadowland. It’s also a way, Bendis says, to get an out-of-his-element Daredevil involved in Marvel’s major events, and to explore the romantic potential of DD’s um, horndog, status.

Also coming from Marvel, Bendis and Daredevil this fall: the long-awaited Daredevil: End of Days miniseries, co-written by David Mack and with art from Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz and Alex Maleev. The full USA Today piece is here.

UPDATE: The full cover from New Avengers #16 is after the jump.

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Is Mark Millar working on the Superman titles for DC’s revamped universe? That’s a rumor that’s been going around over the last couple of days, especially in light of comments about his finishing his “last ever Marvel script” – but it’s a rumor that turns to be entirely false, according to the man himself:

The DC reboot is a bold move and I like it when companies shake things up a little. But I am not, absolutely not, going back to doing work-for-hire at ANY company anytime soon. I love the fact that these characters I grew up with exist and that guys have fun relaunching things I worshipped as a kid, but creatively I’m not really into the old characters at the moment and commercially my heart and soul belongs to Millarworld and Kick-Ass, Nemesis, Supercrooks, Superior, my Dave Gibbons project, the Hit-Girl series and the big Frank Quitely series next year.

I wish DC the very best of luck with Superman and all their other reboots, but just to kill this rumour before it gathers any more momentum: I am absolutely not involved in ANY of their 50 relaunches this September. God bless them for a fun idea, though, and I hope it brings attention to their line. The more people coming into comic stores the better.

Time to go back to the “Grant Morrison is heading up the Superman reboot” rumor, then…

Gail Simone has been tweeting up a storm since the DC reboot was announced, and last night, offered a few fascinating comments from behind the scenes. For example (edited slightly to remove “cont”s and stitch multiple tweets together):

All I can say is that I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the support you have given DC and me, and that I promise to do my best to not let you down. I do know that some of the upcoming stuff is jaw-dropping. To the doubters, no one wants to let you down or break your heart. I have read a lot of moving and sincere concerns and it will have an effect. Not everything will be perfect on launch day. But some stuff will be absolutely lovely, and the DCU will remain a work in progress, as it’s always been. Thank you so much everyone.

There’s more under the jump, including whether or not female characters are pants-required in the new DCU. (more…)

There are teasers that make you excited for the comic that’s being talked about, then there are teasers that make you wonder just how below expectations initial orders were. Today’s X-Men: Schism teaser is definitely one of the latter, a surreal letter from Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso to… who, exactly? Fans? Retailers? Anyone who’s listening? As if the letter’s very existence wasn’t enough, the content was very telling. (more…)

Monday’s Page 1

Tuesday’s Page 2

Wednesday’s Page 3

Tune in for Page 4 of TALES OF MR. RHEE tomorrow!

Awesome artist Simon Gane, drawing awesomely: Check out his Batman, Batgirl and, um, these other characters. (Ganked from Comics Reporter)

If First Class comes first, what comes second?: Johanna Draper Carlson raises an interesting dilemma regarding the latest based-on-a-Marvel-comic film, X-Men: First Class. If you want to read the comics it’s based on, um, what do you read? The heart of the movie is the Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr relationionship, but where is that in the comics? I think spread out all over, along with Hellfire Club and Emma Frost stuff, none of which is all that much like it was the movie anyway. Everything branded “First Class” in the comics, the Jeff Parker-written stuff, is fantastic, but doesn’t have anything at all to do with the movie, beyond the fact that Beast is in both. I’d recommend Marvel’s X-Men: First Class comics, but only for people looking for fun, accessible X-Men comics, not people specifically looking for something like the movie. (Besides, none of the comic book versions of Magneto and Professor X were ever as dreamy as Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy).

DC’s direct market sales for April: Marc-Oliver Frisch’s analysis on DC’s sales from April at The Beat should be of special interest this time, given how radically DC is changing their publishing game in September. Frisch calls the planned 52 new launches “a workable enough load for the market,” given DC’s April output.  I’m sure that’s reassuring to some who see the move as a potential direct market apocalypse, but I still have some doubts. (It’s workable, but only if enough individual readers want to try to read a ton of new books; it looks like a very tempting jumping-off point, and, if anyone was ever considering moving from signles to trades, DC created the ideal time to do so—take four to six months off, then start collecting trades in spring of 2012). Speaking of, DC’s latest announcement of new titles, it seems like each and every one of those books would have a much better chance of flourishing if released over the course of a season or year, instead of in a single month.

Drawn and Quarterly to have an awesome fall: Actually, perhaps it’s more accurate to say comics fans are going to have an awesome fall.

Does DC have an Alan Moore created/recreated character hit list?: Gavok examines the evidence.

Congressman Anthony Weiner gives political cartoonist license to make dick jokes: Michael Cavna rounds up some of the most eye-catching, and Daryl Cagle has a Weinergate gallery.

The Hollywood Reporter has just announced that Fox’s reboot of the Daredevil movie franchise will be written by Brad Caleb Kane, writer  and co-producer on Fringe.

Not just that, but THR also reports Kane will have the task of adapting Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s “Born Again” run from the Daredevil comics. “Kane is a Daredevil fan, and his energy and passion for the material helped him nab the job, according to insiders,” says THR.

You may remember the Ben Affleck starring Daredevil film that was released to a few unhappy fans back in 2003. “David Slade is developing and attached to direct the new Daredevil movie. Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark of Chernin Entertainment are producing,” says THR.

Interesting side note, while he hasn’t produced many feature films, Kane has spent part of his career acting. One of his roles was Tucker Wells, older brother of Andrew on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

So, yes to a new Daredevil movie or no?

So — 52 new #1s launching from DC in September, right? Since the initial announcement of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee on Justice League, the announcement have been coming daily, up to the point where now we’re at, by our count, 34 new series announced. (Batman Incorporated is coming back in 2012, so presumably that doesn’t count as one of the 52.) The simple art of subtraction tells us that means 18 are left to be announced.

What will these titles be? A couple are obvious — Superman and Action Comics, duh. Teen Titans seems like another safer-than-safe bet.

Beyond that, let’s look at the August solicitations. Here are the previously ongoing series of a currently unknown status: Booster Gold, Batman Beyond, Red Robin, Gotham City Sirens, Superboy, Supergirl, Superman/Batman, Adventure Comics, Legion of Super Heroes, The Spirit, Doc Savage, Jonah Hex, Justice Society of America, Secret Six, Power Girl, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Titans, Xombi, Zatanna.

Booster Gold is front-and-center in the Justice League International promotional art, so it’s quite possible (though not certain) he won’t be in his own solo title come September. One would think Red Robin and Gotham City Sirens would have been announced with the barrage of Bat-titles yesterday (and the new Catwoman book may make GCS effectively redundant), so those seem like likely goners — unless Red Robin’s fate is tied to Teen Titans. Batman Beyond is an alternate future, so who knows? Superboy and Supergirl both seem like good bets, and probably part of a forthcoming announcement along with the rest of the Superman books. Superman/Batman is much more of a question mark, but might be the place where DC establishes the relationship between the two icons in the post-Flashpoint DCU.

The Legion having two books seems like a stretch as it is, so this might be a chance to shed one. The First Wave line has been rumored to be canceled for months, so this seems like an opportunity to jettison The Spirit and Doc Savage for the time being (also, though technically taking place in one of the Multiverses, not really part of the DCU proper). Jonah Hex has gotten a good amount of critical attention and could be deemed worth keeping, especially since it represents a different genre than just superheroes. Newsarama proper has expressed reasonable doubt on the future of Justice Society of America, which if it was continuing would seem to be part of the initial Justice League announcements. Secret Six and Power Girl are fan-favorite books that both seem to have fighting chances, if not guarantees. With Nick Spencer exclusive to Marvel and sales not spectacular (and it’s status in the DC Universe unclear), T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is probably headed out the door. You’d think that Zatanna would be part of today’s supernatural-heavy announcements, but it was not. Exactly what a continuity-heavy book like Titans would mean in the post-Flashpoint DCU is murky, and Xombi just started but may not have the numbers to keep it going beyond August’s #6.

Let’s take a bullish approach say that we’ve got some rough combination of Superman, Action Comics, Teen Titans, Superboy, Supergirl, a Legion title, Secret Six and Power Girl all sticking around. That still leaves 10 mystery titles, and as today’s announcements suggest, there’s probably going to be some stuff no one will see coming, and quite possibly some more slots from former Wildstorm characters, a la Voodoo. And since DC has talked a lot about diversity — Steel? Blue Beetle? Static? What about some new takes on old DC concepts, like Suicide Squad? Maybe something with the (Captain) Marvel family?

Feel free to give us your guesses as to what might be next, and the full list of titles announced thus far after the jump.

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