DC’s recent announcement of the cancellation of Robin, Nightwing and Birds of Prey has been making the rounds, causing a lot of reaction.

Rich from Comic By Comic reflects on the decline of Birds of Prey:

But sadly over the past few years it’s floundered. Gail Simone’s run started off strong but started to suffer as soon as the Birds moved from Gotham to Metropolis. And the thing is, at it’s heart, BoP had always been about the friendship between Barbara and Dinah. Sure, having Helena and Zinda in the mix was fun, but once Dinah left it wasn’t the same.

Since Gail Simone left, the creative juggling of Sean McKeever and Tony Bedard hasn’t helped, and neither have a few other things. Manhunter never really gelled with the team, Barda was killed by crossoveritis before she got settled, Gypsy vanished into the night, Misfit you wished would vanish, Black Alice came, went, came, maybe went…

Mon-El of the Fortress of Solitude is disappointed but resigned:

(more…)

Ms. Marvel #32’s revisitation of Carol Danvers’s past has provoked a lot of discussion across the blogosphere.

Nathan Madison of Comic Book Bin reviewed the issue positively:

The art in Ms. Marvel has always been top-notch, and Paulo Siqueira’s pencils continue this tradition in every scene he illustrates, from casual conversations to action sequences, to even the gruesome torture scenes in this particular issue (of which there are several). Speaking of the gore, some may be turned off by the violence, as it is slightly more bloody or gruesome than your standard super-hero slug-fest; however, this is not a super-hero slug-fest, but rather a violent story, taking place at a violent place and time, and, as such, there is really no other way to tell such a narrative.

The strength of this issue, as well as the creative team as a whole that produced it, is the fact that a story can be told about a super-heroine, before she actually gained any superhuman powers or abilities, and it still looks, feels and reads like the same character; that is how one knows that the crew behind the issue knows what they are doing. Even stripping away everything “super” about the character, the character herself is still there and completely recognizable.

Phil Mateer of All About Comics Blog did NOT like the issue:

(more…)

The preview for December’s Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the Eighth Grade has been getting a lot of overwhelmingly positive reaction around various blogs.

Anj of Supergirl Comic Box Commentary is very excited:

I have been excited about this comic since first hearing about it. Written by Landry Walker and drawn by Eric Jones, it should be a great comic for tweeners. And, of course, it will introduce the character of Supergirl to a new generation of devotees.

We have already learned that in this comic her secret identity will be Linda Lee. We already have heard that Streaky will show up. I think I read that Comet the Super-horse may also appear. And now that dialogue has been added to the preview, a reporter asks her if she is Superman’s emergency secret weapon. All of that harkens back to a simpler time, a more innocent time for Kara.

Randy of Comic Pants is also looking forward to it because it is looking forward to it (if with some pessimism):

The book that DC has to offer this month that I’m most excited about is: A) Totally not aimed at me and B) All but guaranteed to tank in the direct market. But Landry Walker and Eric Jones have done some great stuff in the indie comics world (I was a fan of their X-Ray Comics, other’s probably know them better from Little Gloomy) and the concept here, an eighth grade, fun, non-cheesecake take on Supergirl, is such a no-brainer that it’s the complete opposite of everything the comics industry has ever done with the character. My 5-year-old daughter is looking forward to this one. And that makes me happy. A Supergirl comic for young girls? It’s just crazy enough to work!

While livejournalist gdwessel’s reaction is short and sweet:

You mean, DC is actually going to put out a Supergirl book I can, like, show my daughter without feeling embarrassed?

So what do you think?

Action Comics #870 has been one of the big controversy issues this week, concluding with the death of someone close to Superman.

Even though it’s already been spoiled by certain news sources, it’s probably best to warn for spoilers anyway. So you are duly warned.

(more…)

The announcementof CW’s new show themed around a pre-Trapeze accident Dick Grayson (aptly titled “the Graysons”) has gotten quite a lot of response around the blogosphere.

WingedLion is naturally pessimistic:

Seriously, think about it for a second, how much you can strecth the story until Dick has to meet Batman and lose his parents? For that matter, how they expect to make the show when WB has been so adamant to don’t allow any Batman presence in SV or other shows (like ‘Birds of Pray’, where he was seminal) due the movies? It won’t work.

Don’t get me wrong, Dick Grayson is one of my favorite characters, but his story become interesting once he started training under Batman’s tutelage. Not before. You can get away with a show about Superman before he became Superman because a) Clark had superpowers since childhood, so that is your source of teenage angst, b) there is plenty of stories about Superboy where you can draw upon. Heck, the whole Legion of Superheroes is inspired in those stories. But Robin? Aside his amazing acrobatic skills, he is just a kid before being the Boy Wonder.

Nightwing of the Titans Tower Monitor Room has some ideas about how it could work:

(more…)

The creation of this this fan-made Wonder Woman poster has provoked a lot of people to talk about the possibility of non-animated Wonder Woman movie again.

Colin Boyd thinks DC Comics is missing the boat:

So when I say Marvel can’t really compete with Wonder Woman, that’s not a slam on Marvel; they just haven’t had a female character that is as top-of-mind to John Q. Public. Sorry: Before the X-Men movies, most people had never heard of Jean Grey. And if Hulk isn’t making waves, She-Hulk is a terrible idea.

With Marvel pushing some of their less mainstream characters into theaters over the next couple of years, I wonder why DC wanted to go with the Justice League, which actually dilutes their pool of heroes, instead of the biggest name in their stable who hasn’t had a movie. The thing about Wonder Woman is it requires very little invention because we’re familiar with the character already. We know, more or less, what she’s about. We saw the TV show or picked it up through cultural osmosis. So why is Wonder Woman still on the shelf and why is her maiden voyage likely to be arm-in-arm with a bunch of other heroes in JLA? You got me.

EDP on the other hand is not as enthused about the idea:

(more…)

A comic book issue that provoked a lot of recent controversy has been Detective Comics #848.

Please be warned, there are spoilers in these links.

(more…)

Final Crisis tie-in Legion of 3 Worlds #1 came out this week. Most of the reviews that I found were overwhelmingly positive, but there were still some nay-sayers.

Scott Cederland enjoyed the issue with only a bit of disappointment:

While the title is Legion of 3 Worlds, it’s obvious after this issue that there’s only going to be one Legion really focused on–the current Johns written Legion. The other Legions are relegated to single images on the last pages of this book. Personally, I’m kind of surprised at the joy I have at seeing the Zero Hour Legion pictured again. Both Johns’s Legion and the current Shooter-written Legion are so morose, heavy and self important that it’s great to see a Legion that used to actually look and act like kids. What can I say, I like seeing Andromeda in costume again.

If there’s any great disappointment in Legion of 3 Worlds it’s that the creators didn’t really pull out any surprises during the book, other than a promising last panel that hopefully defines the nature of the miniseries. Everything leading up to those last panels are fairly standard and what you would expect out of this book. In Johns’s Legion story in Action Comics, there was a fun sense of discovery or maybe even rediscovery as he introduced the Legion, familiar yet long missing characters. In this new book, there are few surprises or discoveries amid a collection of now familiar characters and familiar art.

(more…)

Between trailers, convention footage and new promotional images, the Watchmen movie has become a big topic for conversation.

Thom Wade is cautiously excited:

Snyder seems to be approaching the film from a much smarter place that some in the comic community are willing to give him. It is interesting to note that the movie went the opposite direction of 300, which was primarily green screen. Here, he had sets built, and it appears much of the computer work is surrounding the one character that requires it(Dr. Manhattan). It suggests to me that Snyder works to remain true to a creator’s vision when bringing something to the screen. 300 is a pretty shallow story and more memorable for Miller and Varley’s artwork than how deep the story is. And he focused on bringing the art to life.

Here, he seems dedicated to bringing the themes of Watchmen to life.

Michael K. Willis gives the trailer credit:

I have not changed my feeling that a Watchmen movie might not be the best idea but after seeing the trailer I have to give them credit for, at first blush anyway, making it look pretty amazing and seemingly very true to the source material (visually at least.)

One might nitpick some little things…Nite Owl is too buff for a character who was presented in the comic as going to seed somewhat and Silk Spectre looks more like “Leather and Rubber Spectre”…but there’s no point in going all fanboy on the thing…well, at least until it actually comes out.

Trevor Dodge believes it’s unfilmable:

The comments thread on this post reminds me of the several times I’ve taught Watchmen in my literature courses over the years, as I’ve made a lot of those same points myself during class discussions about translating Alan Moore’s writing to film. I’ll teach the graphic novel at least one more time before the film comes out next spring, and I’m coming to think of it as probably the last time my students will have a mostly textual relationship with the source material. Once Snyder’s film rolls out, future readers of Watchmen will inevitably suffer from what I’ve come to call The Ed Norton Complex (named, natch, after Mr. Norton’s portrayal of “Jack” in David Fincher’s adapation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Fight Club, in which the narrator is essentially erased and unnamed), where the film version of a book skews a reader’s first encounter with the source text. For the large part I have absolutely no problem with this skewing, and I even think this skewing is helpful in appreciating how much we really do read in a consumer culture that–strangely enough–is always telling us that we aren’t reading; Fincher smears the line between his film and Palahniuk’s novel to great effect, and Norton’s voice-overs in the film are lovingly appropriated from the source text.

But Zach Snyder is no David Fincher, and as I’ve noted before here on this humble blog, Snyder seems to revere Watchmen as much as he does filming a Miller Lite commercial. Furthermore, I’ve said it plenty of times before in both class and casual conversation: if Terry freakin’ Gilliam says Moore’s Watchmen is freakin’ unfilmable, well sir, the freakin’ story is freakin’ unfilmable.

So what do you think?

Now that The Dark Knight’s been out for a bit over a week, reviews and commentary are appearing all over the place. One particular topic of note among feminist fans is the movie’s treatment of the Rachel Dawes character.

I don’t think I have to warn you that these links and quotes contain massive spoilers.

(more…)

Okay, so the big controversy this week seems to have to do with a certain Barbie doll dressed as Black Canary. The reactions so far have been interesting.

Brett Singer is bemused by the choice:

For what it’s worth (excuse me while I geek out again) Black Canary is, despite her appearance, a fairly positive female role model. She’s considered one of the best hand-to-hand fighters, male or female, in the DCU (that’s “DC comics Universe”) and is currently the leader of the Justice League. She takes no crap, kicks major ass, and asks questions later. Barbie once said, “Math class is tough!” (source) So you could make an argument that Black Canary is a better role model than Barbie, and therefore the doll is empowering.

I don’t really see the point of doing this, especially since Barbie’s target audience is young girls. So while I think the Vast Christian Right Wing Conspiracy is a bit over the top, I do think it’s kind of an odd choice for a Barbie doll. What’s next, Big Gay Ken? Oh wait, they did that already.

Glenn Walker thinks the Christian Voice needs to do their research:

(more…)

Astonishing X-Men’s new creative team of Warren Ellis and Simone Bianchi debuted this week to a variety of reaction.

Ryan of Coke and Comics loved the issue:

This title has been receiving over-the-top reviews since issue 1 and I’ve been tempted to hop aboard for a while now. So when I heard that a new creative team is taking over in #25, I just had to pick this issue up. The new creative team has Simone Bianchi as the artist and no less than Warren Ellis as writer. I personally love Ellis’ work and am glad to see him here after reading his run in Thunderbolts. The man is truly the master of science-fiction. No other guy can write SCIENCE and fit it into a superhero story the way he does.

We first find each member of the Astonishing X-men spending some downtime in San Francisco, their new home city. I am pleased to see the roster we have here: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Beast, Wolverine, Armor, and Storm. Sad to see no Colossus but Ororo is a welcome addition, making this the truly “alpha” X-team at the moment. Bringing Emma and Storm together is a brilliant move given their history from before. Both are the strong female type so they’re sure to have a lot in common and Ellis writes their interaction extremely well. I can’t believe how much fun Emma Frost is and I’m definitely looking forward to more of her and Storm together.

The reviewers at duncan_dip’s livejournal didn’t care for the issue:

What will Ellis’ contribution to “Astonishing” be? Too soon to tell. But he’s off to a bad start. To parrot Dave’s review, Warren Ellis writes characters who are so driven by purpose and carry such uncompromising visions of themselves that they sometimes seem incapable of talking about much else. Emma Frost and Cyclops’ morning discussion wasn’t about their relationship, or the changes in the team–they simply talked about themselves at length, as though their sleep cycles were infinitely more fascinating than, say, being superheroes. Armor harbors self-doubt, sure, but it manifests itself as a tedious discussion of her own codename–should she change it or stick with “Armor”?

The self-doubt that Cyclops carried as he led the team, the bitter tension between Emma Frost and everyone else, and the loss that the reader felt when Kitty Pride drifted out into nothingness–these things have all melted away and been replaced with a group of people who just like to hear themselves talk. Talking was never Ellis’ strong suit, and if he doesn’t stick to his talents and draw these characters into a conflict, rather than their morning coffee, “Astonishing X-Men” is going to lose the well-deserved luster it had during the previous 24 issues.

The Star Clipper’s reaction is somewhat mixed:

It’s always hard to develop a full opinion on a creative team after only one issue, but what I can tell from the debut is that Ellis likes himself some chatty X-Men. Ellis’ X-Men even reads more like a sitcom than Whedon’s X-Men, and Whedon is an actual sitcom writer. Perhaps this is just Ellis overcompensating from the get-go to win over long-time astonishing fans, but I know I don’t want to read The Real World: X-Men. Again, this is only the first issue and Ellis has set up a strong plot to send the X-Men to Chapapanga, a beach junkyard, to look for a possible unknown mutant killer. Ellis is setting up a good contained plot and what worked so well for Whedon is how Astonishing X-Men worked as a stand alone story not implicitly tied to X-continuity. Hopefully, Ellis will have the same success.

The other major factor is art, and new artist Bianchi has defiantly not won me over yet. I’m really not crazy for any of the new costumes, but the new X-men street clothes are just atrocious. Emma Frost in camo pants and not even a bit of cleavage revealed. Come on it’s Emma Freakin’ Frost! Plus, did Storm’s street clothes look like a bad homage to 90’s TLC to anyone else? On the other hand, Cassaday stuck with relatively classic x-customs, but still made me completely love Kitty Pride. Meeoww!

So what do you think?

Final Crisis #1 came out to a fairly lackluster response from many reviewers. Now that Final Crisis #2 is out, it’s interesting to see what people are saying now.

Jog enjoyed the issue:

Anyway, I thought issue #2 was a lot more fun than issue #1, particularly with the (excellent) Japanese superhero scene; poor Shilo Norman has to find even more obscure heroes now, a lost Fourth World dude and a hodgepodge of foreign outlooks (comics from Japan, tee hee). All the while, the evil influence brings about a souring of the superhero world… great compression in this thing. Nice, harsh location cuts.

And then there’s that odd taste of self-awareness, even a little tiredness - Superman hoping the Martian Manhunter will be revived sometime in the future, Lex Luthor acting utterly bored at the death of some expendable superhero (in an Event comic! *yawn*). Like Didio implied, these characters have seen it all. Is it good for the health of DC comics, rather than the DC Universe? Hell, I don’t know. And while I’m aware that if things get so bad they board up the windows it’ll mean less chances for people like Grant Morrison to write comics, I still find it awfully tough to shift my focus onto what’s Good For the Industry when I’m trying to interface with a particular work - my problem, folks.

But, you know, maybe I’m the second-most ideal reader for this particular thing. With a comic like this I guess the DCU hardcore superfan will forever be #1, but I have read every Grant Morrison DCU comic, and there may be nearly as much playing to that audience in here as well. Odd to be catered too.

DamienHospital had mixed feelings:

(more…)

One of the biggest conversation topics this week has been the news of Chuck Dixon leaving DC Comics.

The blogger at Collected Editions has his own take on the subject:

First, when you play major league baseball, and your coach tells you to hit a home run, you hit a home run. Alternatively, if the coach tells you to make a sacrifice play to bring another runner home, you take one for the team. When you’re writing for DC-freaking-Comics, you don’t balk at being asked to take part in crossovers, you make the best of it; this is what makes Geoff Johns, Geoff Johns.

Second, when you write for DC or Marvel, or really any company where the characters appear on Underoos, you’re playing in their sandbox, with their toys. If they say Superman needs to grow a third arm today, man, you ask, “How many fingers?”; they say Spider-Man’s going to wear polka-dots, you ask, “Pink or purple?” And you can be assured, any big changes you make to a character, they’re going to be undone one of these days. Anyone who thinks differently is kidding themselves.

(more…)

Unfortunately given some personal events that I wouldn’t bore you all with, I actually ended up missing the debut of DC’s new Final Crisis! Fortunately, the rest of the internet didn’t! So I’m devoting this column to a comic a few weeks after the fact.

There are some spoilers here, as I’m sure you can imagine.

The League of Melbotis gives the comic a generally positive review and defends it from some internet complaints:

From what I read, I would never recommend that the issue be taken as an entry-level comic to the DCU. The story is mired in DCU characters and continuity, and asks that readers have been paying attention to recent output from DC, but also picking up key collections as they’ve been released of late.

None of that is intended as a criticism. At some point, you’re either allowed to tell stories for people who have been following along (see: Lost, BSG), or you’re stuck in the perpetual cycle of episodic storytelling, where the reader can pop in and it doesn’t matter if they’re familiar with the concepts and characters before tuning in (see: Law & Order, most police procedurals).

The story actually seems to make events such as the abysmal “Countdown” make some sense, as well as the uncompleted, unnecessary “Salvation Run”. It embraces characters from Kirby’s 70’s run on New Gods, Anthro and Kamandi, while seamlessly embracing recent events in the DCU, such as Johns’ introduction of the Alpha Lanterns in Green Lantern. Morrison also plays with some of the toys he created during his mega-series “Seven Soldiers of Victory”, and its probably worth returning to your issues or collections of that series to get an idea where he might be headed.

But what I’ve always enjoyed about Morrison’s stories is that, despite the need for our heroes to win, his set-ups don’t tell me how the story will unfold in a neat pattern I can consume with the predictability of a McDonald’s meal.

KC Carlson, on the otherhand, was not as complimentary:

(more…)

An important character reveal was made in the pages of this week’s Robin. Naturally, this is quite the spoiler, so consider yourself warned.

(more…)

Iron Man has been out for a few weeks now to generally positive reviews. Though when it comes to the character of Pepper Potts, we have seen some difference of opinion.

I should warn that these links all contain spoilers for the movie.

(more…)

Dave Sim’s new work Glamourpuss has begun to see print and so far the reactions are interesting.

Ben Avery gives a generally positive review:

Essentially, the comic is Dave Sim musing about what this comic will be. Graphically, he starts out drawing photo-realistic black and white drawings of fashion models and ruminating on how he could do a comic about those images, since in a fashion magazine he really only gets a small amount of reference images for the same person. He shifts gears into talking about Alex Raymond and Al Williamson and their art styles, and he begins copying panels from their non-science fiction work (mostly, panels that seem to look like fashion models) and uses the speech balloons to continue his ruminating. It shifts gears once more, this time to present a story about glamourpuss, using a half dozen fashion magazine photo references to draw teh character, and then shifts back into musing and ruminating and ruminating and musing about art, the glamourpuss series, and life.

Think of it like this: if David Lynch and the editors of seventeen magazine got in a room to create a comic book, this is what it would be.

And it works. The traces and wisps of the story of glamourpuss and her twin sister, SKANKO (yes, i thought twice before typing it), are wound together with Dave Sim’s own ideas about art and copying the masters, which is bookended by satire about fashion magazines.

Steve Duin of the Oregonian gives it a quite negative review:

As you can see from this page, the photorealism of the Raymond school was glorious. Small wonder Sim is drawn to the art or, more accurately, “photorealism pictures of pretty girls.” If Sim had been content to trace and re-ink those panels, most of them from “Rip Kirby,” to give comic fans a fresh look at, and a grander appreciation of, the artwork, I’d be applauding in the wings.

But if that were the case, he wouldn’t be Dave Sim. Dave Sim has to talk our ear off. Dave Sim has to throw in Bret Easton Ellis riffs and Scott McCloud jags and fashion-magazine parodies. Dave Sim has to clutter the page with dumb jokes and other clunky blocks of words. He’s the tour guide at the Louvre who thinks he’s a better show than the Venus de Milo.

The deeper I got into Glamorpuss, working my way back to “Skanko’s Dating Guide,” Sim’s Tom Leykis rip-off, the more impressed I was with the photo-realism and the more bored I was by this fatuous tribute to it.

And Valerie D’Orazio’s reaction appears to be mixed:

I was going to just draw my review by tracing panels from old issues of Cerebus and then putting my review in the word balloons, but I decided against it.

Glamourpuss #1 has two components: 1) A meditation on photo realism in comics and Alex Raymond, and 2) Some fashion model s**t. The former is interesting, the latter is flat. Models are shallow, models have eating disorders, models wear too-expensive clothes that are impractical — there is nothing new here, at least in terms of how this material has been traditionally presented before. This is coupled with the preconceptions going in based on Glamourpuss creator Dave Sim’s reputation.

Yes, I know I shouldn’t go into an artist’s work with preconceptions based on their reputation. But I see these lifeless pictures of the models, I see how they’re presented as empty-eyed self-absorbed materialistic cyphers, I read about “Skanko,” and in all honesty I have to wonder what Sim is trying to say about women in all this.

So what do you think?

This week, DC released the all Spanish issue of Blue Beetle which led to some interesting reactions and discussion.

J. Caleb Mozzocco really liked the issue:

It’s the work of guest-creators Jai Nitz and Mike Norton, and it was the sort of rare book I read a few times in a row. The first time through, I read it in Spanish, which is essentially the way Traci, who doesn’t speak Spanish*, would have experienced the story. It proved a good test of Mike Norton’s abilities, as he was called on to draw a story that could be told solely by his work, if the reader didn’t speak Spanish either. He passed the test with flying colors, as I made it through on my few years of high school Spanish just fine, with the exception of the part where the scarab somehow defeats Superman villain The Parasite. (Norton also provides two beautiful images of Blue Beetle in flight with a friend; a two-page splash at the beginning, and a one-page splash at the end).

Nitz’ story emphasizes one of the elements of Rogers’ run on the book that made it so unlike all other super-comics, and therefore so refreshing to read—the positive role the lead’s family plays in both his life and his superhero career.

Greg Burgas didn’t think the Spanish was a complete success:

(more…)

The new solicits are out this week and the cover of Ms. Marvel seems to have made quite a splash.

Rich from Comic By Comic doesn’t like the cover and explains why in a comment of this post:

It’s just…there’s good cheesecake and there’ s bad cheesecake. Ms Marvel with a rifle, a camo helmet and a combat vest barely keeping her covered?

Bad cheesecake.

This should be a book that can appeal to female readers and I can’t help thinking Greg Horn doesn’t exactly help that.

(more…)