Power of — Smallville! Shape of — awesome hair!

Operation Save Clark Kent has more images of the Wonder Twins’ debut on Smallville, for the upcoming episode “Idol.”

Be warned — there’s also a picture of Clark and Lois in a church that, for some strange reason, made me feel they were reenacting a performance of the Laramie Project rather than a Superman-related show.

[via io9]

“It’s everything, Evey. The perfect entrance, the grand illusion. It’s everything. And I’m going to bring the house down.” ~ V

Just over twenty years ago, one of Alan Moore’s seminal works finally concluded, starting off in relative obscurity and — aided by the runaway success of Watchmen, completed three years earlier in 1986 — made Moore into a legend. It was subversive. It was brutal. It was a love letter to truth, justice, and the Anarchist way — it was violent and vicarious, volatile and visionary.

It was V. V for Vendetta.

And as his masked terrorist hero proclaimed — “Remember, remember, the 5th of November” — we’re going to Dial V for History and look back on this groundbreaking work, and its effects on Moore and the comic book industry as a whole.

Rewind to 1981. Alan Moore has yet to strike paydirt with Watchmen, which would go on to be one of the most celebrated and well-known graphic novels of all time. Instead, take a look back to the creation of a black-and-white British anthology that would go on to make history: Warrior. With editor Dez Skinn, Warrior housed many of Moore’s great works, including the subversive superhero epic Marvelman.

But the very first issue of Warrior — headlined by Axel Pressbutton, the Psychotic Cyborg — had a cloaked man with a Guy Fawkes mask along its spine. “V for Vendetta.” It was a short first chapter, but it was effective: Evey, a munitions worker so desperate she’s decided to sell her body on the streets. Unfortunately, her first solicitation happens to be a Fingerman, one of the corrupt policemen in a totalitarian England. She is only rescued from rape and worse by the intervention of V, a masked terrorist whose dispatch of the men is as brutal as it is inventive.

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DC Comics, via the Source, has announced that Milestone Comics will get their day in the sun next year with MILESTONE FOREVER, which will be written by company founder Dwayne McDuffie.

This series, which will bring together Static, Hardware, Icon, Shadow Cabinet, and Blood Syndicate together with original Milestone artists John Paul Leon, Mark Bright, Chris Cross and Denys Cowan, will be a bittersweet tale that “chronicles the literal end of a universe, and the birth of something new, with major consequences for the future of the DC Universe.”

“16 years ago this month, industry giant DC Comics and upstart Milestone Media entered into an unprecedented creative partnership, producing 14 interlocking, creator-owned titles including Hardware, Icon, and the multimedia hit that would best be known as Static Shock,” wrote McDuffie. ” The story Milestone chose to tell was an audacious one, larger than life on its surface, character and story-driven at its base, Humanist and multicultural at its heart. For over 250 issues, fans explored a superhero universe like no other.”

DC announced that they would be bringing Milestone into the DCU proper in 2008, where Icon, Hardware, and the Shadow Cabinet guest-starred with the Justice League. Since then, Static has — perhaps not surprisingly — gotten the most time in the mainstream DCU, having joined the Teen Titans.

Interested in process pieces? If you have the one of the most celebrated graphic novels of all time, what happens when you have to remaster it?

Corey Breen, senior pre-press artist at DC Comics and all-round nice guy, has written a blog post over at Master Digital Coloring detailing the whole experience of working on Absolute Watchmen. With 1980s artwork having to be reworked for an oversized format, it proved to be a tough process — here’s a highlight:

Since we no longer have the original art to older comics such as this, what we have are the pages in the film library.  Back in the day, all our books were shot using film on acetate.  Our film library has extensive books all on film, and when we need to reprint them, it is shot from that film, and made digital for us to use.  But this poses a lot of problems.  Since the film is well, film, and it is old, when you make a digital file from film, it can be dirty, have scratches, and have sections missing, depending on how well the film was originally made.  This was the case with the Watchmen ‘film’ we wound up having to use.

Breen goes on to discuss the main theme of remastering Watchmen — not noir, but moire, an unsightly and jagged form of lines that unfortunately crops up with high-res images of old half-toned art. It’s a cool process piece, especially for anyone interested in the production side of comics. Give it a read!

There’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, that yesterday’s issue of Blackest Night reminded me of, and intensified my curiosity about.

If you’ve been reading DC’s superhero line for long, you know that the company has been actively promoting their Blackest Night miniseries and the surrounding story event for well over a year now.

If you’ve been reading Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern work, you know that he’s been writing his way toward this story for a very long time, perhaps as long as he’s been writing Hal Jordan stories.

As the event grew closer, it became apparent that some of the high profile characters the company was killing off were being killed off precisely so that they could return as undead Black Lantern.

Certainly Martian Manhunter and Aquaman were killed for this purpose, but how far back has DC been killing their characters with the expectation that they’d come back as zombie Lanterns in Blackest Night and then, perhaps, stay back once Hal Jordan is able to harness “white light of creation”…?

But what about The Question and Ralph Dibny, killed during the course of 52? Or the Freedom Fighters, Pantha and all the Infinite Crisis casualties? Or Max Lord, Sue Dibny and Blue Beetle II?

There are two relatively minor characters, both villains, that I was kinda shocked DC actually killed off, and I’ve been wondering and worrying about ever since Blackest Night started returning the dead.

That would be Monsieur Mallah, the intelligent gorilla who wears a beret and bandoliers and speaks with a French accent, and The Brain, who is just an evil brain that lives in an evil-looking gumball machine-esque support system.

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Comics Alliance has a particularly fascinating post up, going back to the days of yore — 1990, that is.

In those glory days of million-selling comics, House of Ideas architect Stan Lee also did some video interviews with “Comic Book Greats” — and in this case, the interview is with Rob Liefeld.

What’s so fascinating for me is to see Liefeld really at the beginning of his career. For frame of reference, in this video, Rob Liefeld is 23 — which is both cool and a bit intimidating, as that’s exactly how old I am right now. Listening to him discuss how he broke into the industry — at age 19, no less — is a good story, even as breaking into the industry is tougher than ever.

If you click the Youtube link up above, there are additional parts to this interview — watching Rob draw “Cross” — one of the early names for Cable, if I recall correctly — is additionally cool. Do you think Rob knew how popular that character would become? And listening to him talk about style, about working with editors, well, it’s definitely something you should see. Check it out, let us know what you think!

So early next year, when Smallville gets their second half of Season 9 under way, there’s the little matter of an episode written by Geoff Johns and featuring key members of the Justice Society (with the one-word title of “Society”). Well, the show’s producers, in their ultimate wisdom, decided that it was too good to confine to one episode, and it’s getting a second part entitled “Legends.”

And with this two-parter, the ever-reliable Michael Ausiello of Entertainment Weekly reports that a veteran Justice LEAGUER will be in on the action: J’onn J’onzz, the Martian Manhunter! Self-professed comic book geek Phil Morris will be reprising his role as the Metropolis police detective for the first time this season.

So between Superman (Clark Kent), Green Arrow (Oliver Queen) and Det. John Jones, and Hawkman (Carter Hall), Dr. Fate (Kent Nelson) and Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore), we’re looking at the first live-action crossover between the JLA and JSA!

Hot off the heels of this weekend’s Wonder Woman Day, we at Blog@ found an interesting article from Sci Fi TV Zone, with Deborah Joy Levine. Levine, who created the Lois and Clark television show, apparently was also contacted to create a similar Wonder Woman series.

Here is a highlight from an unearthed interview from way back when:

I guess my new take is that she is a Greek history professor, a young and very bright woman having a hard time juggling her personal life with her work. In this case, of course, her real work is being an Amazon warrior. It’s, like, “I’ll save the world, come home, pop a Lean Cuisine in the oven and watch the soap I taped this afternoon.”

Obviously, the show didn’t take off — and while I dug Lois and Clark (I was seven, give me a break), part of me doesn’t feel bad about this dropped Wondy show at all. As I’ve said to my colleagues before, Wonder Woman is — repeat, is — a good enough property to tell straight, without Sex and the City trappings. And if she was going to riff on another show, wouldn’t Diana merit the West Wing meets superheroics, instead? What do you think, Rama Readers?

Despite being a proud Massachusettsian, I was busy working for the weekend and wasn’t able to hit the Boston Comic-Con this weekend, which featured comics creators ranging from Scott Wegener, Cliff Chiang, Walt Simonson, and many, many more.

But to make things a little bit better for those who weren’t able to go, Chiang has posted up some images of sketches he drew during this weekend’s Boston Con, ranging from Daredevil to Black Cat to Doctor Strange. But this one is my favorite:

Lois Lane, everybody. Talk about a beautiful image. Surprisingly, a look at the Comic Book Database shows that Chiang has never tackled the Man of Steel in an official capacity before — it’s too bad, because if this image is any indication, he’d hit that series more powerful than a locomotive.

[Hat tip to Kevin Church]

For all you cats in the Portland, OR and Flemington, NJ areas, this is a great event for you to be checking out — Wonder Woman Day!

The event — which takes place on Sunday — will go to benefiting domestic violence centers (as this month is indeed National Domestic Abuse Month). Over the past three years, the event has raised over $69,000.

In Portland, Excalibur Comics will be hosting an event from noon to 6pm, with a silent art auction — with art from Adam Hughes, Alex Ross, Gary Frank, Nicola Scott, and Jamal Igle — as well as creators including Gail Simone, the Hernandez Brothers, Paul Gulacy, and Aaron Lopresti signing books. Proceeds for this event will benefit Raphael House of Portland, Bradley Angle and Portland Women’s Crisis Line.

“For over sixty years, Wonder Woman has been an iconic female symbol of peace, strength, equality, and honesty,” said Andy Mangels, curator of the online Wonder Woman Museum. “Her story has been told in the pages of comic books and books, and on television shows, and her visuals and ideals are known worldwide. For the Wonder Woman Day events, fans and the general public have an opportunity to celebrate the character and the people who create her adventures, and they have the opportunity to be heroic themselves!”

Meanwhile, in Flemington, Comic Fusion will be hosting an event from noon to 5pm. They too will have a silent auction, with sketches from Adam Hughes, Khoi Pham, Billy Tan, and Whilce Portacio, and guests in attendence include Joe Sinnott, Chris Muller, Ken Haeser, Rob Kramer, and Buz Husson. This event will go towards Safe in Hunterdon.

I can’t imagine the term “Blackest Night” can possibly be used to describe the mood around the DC offices these days.

Earlier this week, industry website ICv2.com released their initial data and analysis for comics sales in the direct market during the month of September, and it was apparently a very good month for the market’s perennial second banana, DC Comics.

According to their numbers, the best-selling book of the month was Blackest Night #3, with four other tie-ins to the “Blackest Night” event/story placing in the top-ten—Green Lantern, Blackest Night: Batman, Green Lantern Corps and Blackest Night: Superman. (It’s also noted that there doesn’t seem to be very dramatic drop-offs between issues of the “Blackest Night” books, which is also good news for the publisher.)

Of the top ten, there’s one more DC book—Grant Morrison and Philip Tan’s Batman and Robin—with Marvel claiming the other four spots, with event title Captain America: Reborn, two “Dark Reign” branded tie-ins, and Wolverine Giant-Size Old Man Logan.

That’s a pretty extraordinary showing for DC, and obviously they’re going to want to do whatever they can to try and replicate that success in the future. I’m sure they’re asking themselves, and have been doing so for a while, just what it is about Blackest Night that seems to be hitting with their audience, and what they can do to generate more Blackest Nights in the future.

I’ve got a couple of ideas.

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DC Comics have long been full of dark and evil gods, constantly making trouble for our heroes and heroines. But as bad as Darkseid, Ares and their ilk might be, you know the comic book gods that really scare me?

The ones some of DC writers seem to worship.

Now, the existence of a secret cult that meets in the basement of 1700 Broadway on the nights of full moons, their identities hidden even from one another by ritual cloaks and hoods, to chant in a secret, blasphemous language and bow before a profane, obscene stone idol of a hideous monster-god is just a theory of mine.

I have no actual proof of it, other than the suggestion that surely there must be some reason so many writers have begun their new series or new story arcs with a blood sacrifice, as if it were part of a ritual beseeching some entity for success.

It’s 2003, and Judd Winick and Geoff Johns are about to launch new volumes of The Outsiders and Teen Titans respectively. Their storyline kicks off in a special miniseries in which several characters are killed.

It’s 2005, and the pair—joined by Greg Rucka—are about to set the DC Universe on a course towards Infinite Crisis, and they kick it all off in a special one-shot in which they kill Blue Beetle II.

In 2008, Winick gets ready to relaunch a new Titans title, and he does so by slaughtering a half-dozen minor characters.

That same year, the Grant Morrison-written Final Crisis opens with the deaths of Orion and Martian Manhunter.

Surely there must be some reason for all this blood, and since it is the blood of fictional comic book characters, I can only imagine it’s a very peculiar, quasi-religious reason.

It can’t possibly be a creative or dramatic reason, because it’s been done so often in such a short span of time, and despite their occasional shortcomings, all of these men—even Judd Winick, whose work I like the very least—are talented, and have certainly read enough comic books to know that seeing a character get killed barely moves the needle of fan interest, let alone excitement.

These same writers have also been simultaneously restoring dead characters to life during that same time, even undoing some of the most “sacred” comic book deaths, like that of Jason Todd and Barry Allen, further making the act of death meaningless within the context of their fictional universe.

So they must worship an evil god that feeds on the imaginary blood of fictional characters—It’s the only thing that makes any sense.

I haven’t mentioned James Robinson yet.

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Warner Home Video keeps putting all of DC Comics’ animated properties on DVD, and my shelving may need a expansive upgrade. Courtesy of TV Shows on DVD (THE BEST website devoted to, well, TV shows on DVD), WB made available a press release on their latest offering from Super Friends: Season 1, Volume 1.

You can read the press release for all the details of this January 5, 2010 release, but the main gist of this is that we finally got the “Wendy & Marvin Years,” the ones that first put Super Friends on the map. I believe they are also the only SF episodes narrated by the late great Ted Knight, a voice acting staple of DC Comics’ animated output in the 1960s. My only complaint at the moment is the DVD cover art. I never have a problem with the classic stock art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, but considering that every previous release did something a little more original, refurbishing art from the actual series, this seemed like an uncharacteristically lazy way to go. Plus I can get real nitpicky and point out that the Wonder Woman on this cover is sporting a costume that did not grace the pages of her own comic until almost 10 years later. Considering that this volume has the distinction of featuring Wendy Marvin & Wonder Dog (not to mention guest appearances by the Flash, Green Arrow and Plastic Man), it’s a shame they didn’t work with that into a more unique cover design.

Back in May, I brought up the story on how popular media outlets that cover the toys & collectibles trade were no longer getting advance notice from DC Direct on store releases like action figures, statues and other such items. Gone were the days for action figure fans like myself to get an appropriate heads up on product delays (still waiting for Series 1 of Blackest Night figures, by the way) and when items would possibly move up in the schedule. This has been an invaluable tool for me when keeping a monthly budget on the collectibles that are on my radar. And you know, it’s especially useful when the holidays are approaching.

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If there was a book that isn’t Sandman more deserving of oversized, supersaturated Absolute edition, Promethea is it. It’s a sometimes-skipping, sometimes-running, sometimes-strolling journey through a dream world as wild and beautiful as Neil Gaiman’s but ruled by a warrior-queen who’s everything Wonder Woman ought to be.

Promethea is a living story, and she’s just taken over a new human host. The previous incarnations, like something out of Joseph Campbell, have all left their mark on her, and they each have something to teach young Sophie Bangs, a college student whose research has led her to Promethea’s tale.

I love Alan Moore (which should almost go without saying) and yet I’d never read these stories, which are probably the most like me of any of his works. Promethea is in one sense the wealth of woman-knowledge and magic passed down from generation to generation, and that’s an idea I can certainly get behind. But the story is less about ideas than about feelings; less a story than an experience.

Imagination-scapes unfurl across double-page spreads full of symbols that evoke a visceral reaction and yet are things you’ve never seen or heard of. It makes me want to write, or dream, or write about dreams. Hell, it makes me want to draw, and I’m no good at that.

Layered into the story are thoughtful critiques of power, hierarchy, patriarchy, as well as pokes and gibes at mainstream comic storytelling. The tale gets stranger as it goes on, spinning off into splashy explanations of Moore’s thoughts on magic and myth within the myth he’s created.

It’s less a narrative than a trip, fables layered on top of stories and characters’ identities shifting into dreams. If Watchmen is Moore’s Ulysses, then Promethea is Finnegans Wake and it demands the same experience—stop trying to make it make sense and just let it wash over you and enjoy the ride.

Last week, Paul O’Brien and Marc-Oliver Frisch posted their monthly analysis of Marvel Comics and DC Comics sales figures, assembled from ICv2.com’s numbers, at Publisher Weekly’s The Beat.

I always read these with great interest, in large part because they give me the best idea of how single issues of comics seem to be selling—at least in relation to one another—in a format someone as numbers-averse as me can I understand.

God only knows how accurate the numbers themselves actually are, as Marvel and DC don’t share their exact figures (and, of course, why would any business open up their ledgers to consumers? I wouldn’t mind knowing how much it costs to print an issue of New Avengers, or what Brian Michael Bendis’ page rate is, and how much Marvel might profit off of each, but hell, it’s not like it’s any of my business).

Anyway, this particular round of analysis, addressing August sales, was particular interesting to me, as it revealed how certain books I was rather curious about were did or were doing in the Direct Market.

After the jump, some random thoughts I had while reading through the data, for your edification/entertainment/time-wasting/ignoring.

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I love snark, I love comics, and I love online social networking programs. So basically this is the Fluffernutter sandwich of the Internet for me.

The Invincible Super-Blog’s very own Chris Simms has posted even more of these superhero Facebook statuses over on Comics Alliance. It’s almost impossible for me to pick a favorite — they’re all equally brilliant. (But Daredevil and Spider-Man might be a little more brilliant.)

Super Max…. meet Supermax.

Reuters has reported that Columbia Pictures has picked up the script for a film called Supermax.

This is not to get confused with the long-in-development feature “Super Max” by Warner Bros. and David Goyer, which forces Green Arrow to team up with inmates to survive a metahuman prison riot. Instead, Columbia’s film forces a prison guard to team up with inmates to survive… a supernatural prison riot?

Hoo boy. That’s a lot of coincidinks here. Good thing this sort of thing isn’t anything like David Goyer’s earlier film, Death Warrant. That movie is about Jean-Claude Van Damme as a cop teaming up with inmates in a prison riot. Er… never mind.

The Source has revealed some preview images of Francis Manapul’s take on the Flash!

Manapul said that he would be doing his own inks and watercolors on the new project, which teams him up again with his Adventure Comics collaborator Geoff Johns. The book is due out early next year.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold
The Mayhem of the Music Meister

“As I regale you with my story
you know you’ll have no choice
but to do my evil bidding
when you hear this booming voice!”

– Music Meister (Neil Patrick Harris)

This is the musical episode that you’ve heard about that was shown at San Diego Comic Con this year, and it was worth the wait. Well, to me anyways. I have a theater background, as well as a degree in it, so this was right up my alley. It hasn’t debuted yet on American TV, but aired a few days ago over in the UK.
Today, I see it found its way to YouTube and below my review is the episode yourself (split into 3 parts) in case you want to view it yourself.

Now, I am a bit biased towards something like this. I mean, we’ve seen Adam West’s Batman dance, but this is something entirely different all together. Neil Patrick Harris supplies the voice for the Music Meister (a villain that resembles the Fiddler) though instead he uses song to induce a trance instead of an instrument. There are some great musical numbers here and NPH does an excellent job showcasing his talent. For those of you worried, Diedrich Bader’s Batman doesn’t have a song, though Grey DeLisle as Black Canary nails it. Then again, are you really surprised by Ms. DeLisle’s extraordinary voice? You shouldn’t be by now.
There’s action, drama and a tad of romance thrown in this episode. Just when I thought this show couldn’t get any better, they throw something like this at me. Michael Jelenic (who has worked on the Wonder Woman and Legion of Super-Heroes animated programs) wrote four out of the six songs and they are sure to drive you batty, but, in a good way.

Author’s Note:
However, while they were linked to the official Batman: The Brave and the Bold Facebook Fan page, the episode has been since taken down. We apologize for those who didn’t get a chance to view it.