I’m sure Hawkman and Hawkgirl would beg to differ!

Courtesy of Player vs. Player, August 10, 2009.

PW’s Beat blog posted its monthly analysis of the sales charts this week, and while I read those posts with great interest all the time, I did so with greater interest this month simply because I was curious to see how The Big Two’s embrace of $3.99 comic books might be effecting their sales.

I was surprised at the answer: Apparently not at all.

At least, not in any obvious ways. Here’s Paul O’Brien’s look at Marvel’s direct market sales in June. Marvel has been testing the $3.99 waters for so long, I can’t remember when they first started, but this year they’ve been much more aggressive, making some of their most popular titles $3.99-for-22-pages, as well as a majority of their miniseries. (I noticed last week, for example, that of the 28 new comic books Marvel shipped, 24 were at the $3.99 price point.)

But Marvel’s top books remain New Avengers and Dark Avengers, plus a Dark Avengers spin-off (Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia). Ultimatum, another $4 book, is right behind that little Avengers-related pack.

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No, my linkblogging posts don’t come on any particular day, they just tend to appear when I’ve gathered enough links that I like but don’t really have enough to say about to warrant their own posts. In case you were wondering. Now, onward!

At The Nation (full disclosure: I’m currently a Nation intern), Melissa Harris-Lacewell talks about the conservative campaign to paint President Obama as the Joker, and does an excellent job teasing out some interesting political parallels with The Dark Knight film.

Via When Fangirls Attack, a post on close female friendships in comics. How many female “buddy” or “bromance” pairings can you think of?

A comparison of Marvel Divas and Gotham City Sirens, also via When Fangirls Attack.

Johanna Draper Carlson looks at Huntress: Year One.

From Splash Page, Charlyne Yi of Paper Heart and Knocked Up is doing a comic with Oni Press. Insert random blather about how Yi is actually a geek here, right? Well, because she’s not Megan Fox (read, sexy girl everyone slobbers over) this hasn’t gotten that much attention, but it makes me happy: Charlyne Yi is funny, and from what I’ve seen of Paper Heart, is actually creative as well.

Jezebel looks at my favorite superheroine from childhood: She-Ra.

Finally, Defamer wants to know how gay Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes is going to be. Apparently word leaked out that there was going to be some sexual tension between the leads (Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr.), which was enough to send Michael Medved into a panic. Apparently there’s nothing to offend Medved in the screenplay, at least, and so he can go back to doing what he does best–which certainly isn’t knowing what women would like to see in a film. Or at least, this woman.

From the UPI…

Really, if you want to push a right-wing agenda, you may want the help of a dictionary. I’ll let the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Richard Roeper explain:

Just a few ways in which Obama’s policies differ from a socialist agenda: socialism would mean no health insurance companies; decriminalization of drugs and prostitution; immediate withdrawal of all troops on foreign soil; a certain cap on all salaries in any situation and public funding for the media. I don’t see the White House calling for such measures, do you?

What say ye? Inventive comic tie-in? Guerrilla propaganda at its finest?

I really like Wednesday Comics. Actually, check that. “Like” might not be strong enough a word. I love Wednesday Comics. No, I lust—wait, wait, that’s too strong a word. Let’s stick with love. I love Wednesday Comics.

Part of it is the simple fact that it’s there every week, which is the same thing I liked about 52 and Trinity—the comforting knowledge that no matter what the vagaries of comic book scheduling, I could count on at least one comic featuring my favorite DC heroes every Wednesday.

The other, greater part of that is that Wednesday Comics is chockfull of some of my all-time favorite comics artists, many of them doing great work.

That it’s also a project that offers a unique reading experience, that it prioritizes art and tone over plot and script (but not to the detriment of the story), that it prioritizes comics as a reading experience over comics as collectibles, that it emphasizes serial comics over trade collections to the extent that it’s difficult to even imagine a latter version of the former and that it’s a damn good value doesn’t hurt any either.

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You’ve probably already seen the image to the right already, which DC released at San Diego, revealing a couple of characters who will be appearing in James Robinson and Mark Bagley’s upcoming run on Justice League of America. Between Donna Troy on the right and Dick “Batman” Grayson is Mon-El, who’s been keeping the Superman monthly comic warm for Superman while the Man of Steel’s off starring in World of New Krypton.

As you can see, Mon’s got a new, more Superman-like costume, complete with an S-shield and belt to hold up the underpants he is now wearing over his tights. (Will he be changing his name to SuperMon? I hope he’s changing his name to SuperMon…!)

Here’s another look at his new costume, which Alex Segura posted on DC’s The Source blog last weekend:

I like it. You know who  it reminds me of?

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For those of you who didn’t watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, you missed out on some comicky goodness!

In last night’s episode, the comedian went to the San Diego Comic Con met up with industry figures like Stan Lee, Dan Didio, Geoff Johns, and Jon Favreau to discuss his comic book character, which I will refer to as “Rechargo Boy.” He’s solar-powered, and looks suspiciously like a late-night host.

While Johns kind of made me chuckle with his response, it’s Stan Lee that (as always) steals the show. You can see the full episode, which this is in the first segment of, by clicking here.

Hollyscoop.com has picked up on an amusing rumor, regarding the possible third Batman film (which Gary Oldman let slip to AICN might start filming as early as next year)…

That Miley Cyrus wants in. And she’s not afraid to cosplay to do it.

Hollyscoop said that the young Hannah Montana star allegedly surprised Warner Bros. execs by arriving fully dressed in her own Batgirl costume, spouting off lines (of dialogue, not anything else, despite what you might think about this situation) that she had made up herself.

She apparently really wants to become Barbara Gordon, even as uber-realist Christopher Nolan has said that in his Batman films, Dick Grayson is “still in a crib somewhere.”

Now, I’ll be honest in saying that I’m pretty sure this rumor is bunk, but that is the rumor going around Hollywood these days. What say you, ‘Rama Readers?

Well I sure hope not, because here’s another post on the subject (albeit one small aspect of it).

While I found little to be surprised or overly excited about in the first issue, given the fact that writer Geoff Johns was dealing with various story elements from throughout most of his time writing for DC Comics, and while it was pretty much exactly what I was expecting, it did seem like Johns would eventually get around to discussing the role of death in the DC Universe in general. The series may therefore have a lot more to say beyond “Wouldn’t it be cool if all the dead DC characters came to life to brutally murder the living ones?” by the time it really gets rolling.

It occurred to me while reading this issue that the scheduling difficulties involved with many of DC’s various events may end up hurting the way that whatever Johns might be trying to say ultimately gets received. Or, at the very least, that the big, event comics of the DCU line—particularly those written by Johns himself—really seem to be sucking the suspense away from one another.

If you’re not reading Blackest Night, the basic plot is that some characters from Green Lantern’s cast have started a Black Lantern Corps in which the dead are given magic rings and matching costumes and then sicced on the living—characters who have escaped death seem to be special targets. The first issue is set during a national day of mourning in the DCU, a sort of Memorial Day for superheroes (and the normal folks that tend to die around them), allowing Johns to check in with a huge cast of characters.

Among these are a couple who are still in the process of being brought back to life in other books. Other books that should have wrapped up by now but haven’t, making aspects of the conclusions of those series somewhat foregone conclusions. I wouldn’t say that Blackest Night #1 ruins those stories, but they certainly change the way we’ll read them, essentially making us all read a bit more like editors and a lot less like excited fans (as well as encouraging a great deal of cynicism among the readership).

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The question: Can you really enjoy Blackest Night if you’re outside the fanbase?

I think so.

While I don’t see myself as part of the base, I feel that I’ve thrown myself into a different orbit than I’m used to and I’m not sure where I’ll end up. I’ll explain and I will offer up some other questions to which you, my friends, are welcome to offer back whatever insight you like.

The first thing that strikes me about Blackest Night #1 is how smooth it is. The story does not feel like it is trying too hard to explain itself which is a blessing if you’re coming to this, shall we say, cold and in the dark.

I felt welcome right from the start. Even more than I did by Green Lantern: Rebirth or The Sinestro Corps War. Maybe that has to do with the sense of urgency coming from all the talent involved, especially Geoff Johns, to finally deliver the goods. And yet it didn’t feel so much like a comics event as it felt like something that was working the way it should.

It didn’t matter to me anymore if I didn’t know every last detail and reference. It can be fun to go into this without any prior knowledge at all. But, I admit, the more you know, the more you’ll enjoy it. Just being able to refer back to the last issue of GL and reread the rise of Black Hand added something. And the same is true for going back to the now famous Free Comic Book Day Blackest Night #0. That special issue offered some interesting clues, I think, about how Bruce Wayne could hold the key to returning back to the light. This isn’t a spoiler, just my guess. Does that sound right?

I have to say that a little of the space opera aspect of GL goes a long way for my taste. I prefer character development, conversation and understanding motives. Growing up, I found the action scenes in Superman and Spider-Man to be cool but understanding what made them tick to be even cooler. Blackest Night is sensitive to this. For instance, I think the scenes with Hawkman are intriguing like when he goes into a rage over the phone with The Atom as he is attempting to shield him from harm. He tries to explain to Kendra why he must refuse The Atom’s wishes as we cut to a panel of a tiny speck of a superhero sitting on the edge of a gigantic desk, relative to his size, waiting by the giant phone. Hawkman saying, “She made The Atom feel small,” is corny and perfect in the spirit of Alan Moore.

Little moments like that add up nicely. But what about little continuity issues and the like? I just wonder what you all think about the many layers to the GL universe. On the one hand, I think it is fun to be challenged to follow the many paths in this narrative. On the other, this goes back to an older way of reading comics when you needed a program to follow the action not to mention a number of tie-in comics. Maybe it’s the best of all possible worlds since the flagship title is so strong you could do just fine to focus on it but, if you’re so inclined, you could also buy all the other related comics too.

So, why isn’t GL more popular? I mean, believe it or not, there are plenty of people inside the comics community who are not even dimly aware of what’s going on in the GL universe. When you have something as special as Blackest Night, people should pay more attention. I wonder if the problem with GL’s overall low profile goes back to its rather creaky origins. It’s only been after decades of development, that we find ourselves with something cool. GL simply does not resonate with people in the same way that Batman and Superman do. That may change. A major motion picture is no guarantee but we’ll have to wait and see.

Ironically, reading the retro version of GL in Wednesday Comics, all New Frontier style, was very refreshing to me. And I wouldn’t be surprised if something like that is what gets presented to the general public when the movie comes out.

Getting back to Blackest Night, the bottom line is that this series moves the ball forward considerably. In fact, if you really want to stir things up, forget about going back to Abin Sur, just make this into a movie and, if it’s done right, this would be your summer blockbuster.

Justice League fans know exactly who you mean when you refer to “The Big Seven”: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter.

They’re the greatest of DC’s greatest superheroes, right?

Well, actually, they’re just the seven characters who were in the original Justice League comics,  and are thus always thought of as the Big Seven within the fictional DC Universe, no matter how popular or unpopular they actually are in our universe.

And let’s face it, some of those guys aren’t exactly selling comic books hand over fist. Or, you know, at all. Martian Manhunter has only had one, short-lived solo ongoing title. Aquaman is constantly starring in comics that are retooled, canceled, relaunched, retooled, canceled, relaunched and so on. The others usually have books on the stands, although their popularity waxes and wanes with their creative teams, different directions and the whims of the direct market readers.

Every once in a while, I like to take a look at the sales charts to see which heroes are actually the most popular as judged by sales, and wonder what it would do to the Justice League if the roster was determined by who The Big Seven were in terms of those sales (Yes, I like to think about Justice League line-ups in my free time; is that a problem?).

Last week Marc-Oliver Frisch offered his monthly analysis of DC Comics sales at The Beat, which occasioned another round of such thinking on this subject.

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Well, as you probably know, the big news this weekend was the report that Ryan Reynolds broke from a three-way race to assume the mantle and power ring of Hal Jordan. And while the rest of the film is still being shrouded in secrecy, we at Newsarama have decided to put our casting eye to the test, and give our list of who should play the numerous characters in the franchise’s inaugural film.

Considering it’s clear that an origin story will be in the offing here, we’ve based this list on Geoff Johns’ Secret Origins book, which gives a great character-based introduction to the entire Green Lantern mythos. (So sorry, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Rayner fans, no love in this list just yet — perhaps in a follow-up.) While this list is subjective and clearly just for fun, we encourage you to give your thoughts in the comments box below! Good, bad, ugly? Let us hear it, as we cast off for Green Lantern!

Hal Jordan - Ryan Reynolds: Well, this one is easy enough to start with — he’s already been picked! Ryan Reynolds has the sort of All-American look that Bradley Cooper did not, as well as the sort of rugged machismo that Justin Timberlake just hasn’t grown into yet. The only question — whether or not he can keep his sense of humor in check. But with Martin Campbell behind the wheel, I’m confident Reynolds will morph into the hero he’s always known he could be, as the ring-slinging Hal Jordan.

Carol Ferris - Maggie Siff: Say it with me now: “Mr. Jordan, you know I don’t date employees.” Balancing on the fine line between beautiful snob and struggling business owner, Maggie Siff has the class (Mad Men) and the conflict (Sons of Anarchy) to be the one true love of Hal Jordan. Don’t believe me? Check her out here and here.

Sinestro - Hugh Laurie: With his biting wit, his unmatched tactical prowess, and above all his unwavering sense of self-confidence, there are few that could make Sinestro a three-dimensional character better than Hugh Laurie. As the man portraying the titular character House would fully understand, it takes a special kind of man to see his ambitions to the end, regardless of the rules. If Hugh was picked for this role, expect a Heath Ledger-style of rock solid performance.

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With books like Batman and Robin and Captain America spearheading the charge, comic book sales jumped in June, after seeing a worrisome slump in May, where only one book broke the 90,000 copy mark.

According to ICv2, Batman and Robin #1 sold more than 168,000 copies, which is the highest any single issue has managed to achieve since the Obama appearance in January’s Amazing Spider-Man. Trailing behind the all-new Dynamic Duo was Captain America #600, with more than 112,000 copies.

Still, there are some numbers that are a bit more worrying, such as the fact that Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men Utopia #1, despite being the #3 book of last month, still didn’t clear the 100,000 copy mark. Perhaps most surprising for me was Detective Comics only hitting #13, with 72,084 copies sold. Yet it’s clear that Utopia, Batman Reborn, and Blackest Night have been holding the Top 25 steadily, with some cameo appearances by Wolverine and two out of three issues of Amazing Spider-Man.

DC and Warners may have won the latest bout in the ongoing Superman trials, but that doesn’t mean they plan to jump into action on a new Superman movie just yet. In a Variety report on Warners’ upcoming “tentpole” flicks for the next two years, the Man of Steel is notably missing. Alan Horn, head of the studio, even publicly stated that there won’t be another Superman until 2012 at the earliest.

The recently cast Green Lantern, starring Ryan Reynolds, is the only confirmed big budget DC title, due to hit theaters in sector 2814 on June 17, 2011. Warners “hopes” the willful hero will be joined in theaters that year by Director Chris Nolan’s third Batman film, the follow up to last year’s record setting Dark Knight, but Nolan has yet to even publicly decide the general direction, story, or villains for the surefire hit, whenever it does come.

As for what will be hopefully filling seats until the Kryptonian hero flies onto the big screen again, there are no shortage of potential box office smashers from the venerable hit maker, though they are at a slightly slower pace than previous years, due to the recent Writer’s Guild strike and the slowing economy. Three Harry Potter films, starting with this Wednesday’s Half-Blood Prince, are on their way, joined by two Hobbit movies, Sherlock Holmes, and Clash of the Titans.

So as print media and especially print newspapers are dying, DC comics decides to put out a print comic that mimics newspaper funny pages. Is this brilliant, or ridiculous?

In this case, it’s brilliant. The comics are high kitsch, pure throwbacks to the heyday of newspaper comics. Highlights for me include the hilarious double entendre-a-line Metamorpho scripted by Neil Gaiman, Superman with Lee Bermejo’s utterly stunning art, and Ben Caldwell’s hallucinatory Wonder Woman. Really, though, there’s not a miss in here–and this is coming from a girl who is lukewarm at best on superheroes and has little to no healthy nostalgia for the days of yore.

But the media theorist in me wants to take this a step further. Wednesday Comics seems like an epitaph for newspapers in general and newspaper comics in particular, a tribute especially pulled together for a dying medium. The very fact that DC puts out something like this, on newsprint, is as loud a signal as any I’ve seen that we probably won’t be seeing comics in newspapers much longer. If we still had a vibrant newspaper culture, no one would find it deliciously different to buy comics printed this way.

I regret the death of the broadsheet print newspaper as a cultural artifact more than I do as a personal choice–I’ve never liked getting ink on my fingers and have never really been able to read a paper cover to cover. By the time I started jonesing for news, we already had the 24-hour news cycle and the Internet. But like most people, I remember reading the funny pages as a kid (Garfield was always my favorite).

Superhero comics carry that same kind of reassuring nostalgia for most of their audience. People grow up with Superman–life might change, fall apart, but there will always be Superman. The characters chosen for Wednesday Comics are those same classic characters, and the writers and artists are some of the biggest names in the business. The message of the whole project seems to be: Newspapers might be dead, kids, but Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman? They aren’t going to leave you.

It’s a well-done project, though, and the pure joy and love for the medium shines through and tosses some residual afterglow onto the newsprinted page. It won’t slow the shift to digital media, but it will certainly be an artifact worth keeping.

Variety just sent out the breaking news that actor Ryan Reynolds last seen in Wolverine: Origins as Deadpool will play the title roll in the upcoming Green Lantern feature film.   Reynolds beat out “The Hangover” star Bradley Cooper, singer Justin Timberlake and Jared Leto.

You can read the full story here.

I’m particularly happy that it’s Friday this week–I’ve got an exciting weekend planned. To kick things off right, though, here are some stories from around the web.

Splash Page is speculating about Twitter rumors that Nathan Fillion and Rainn Wilson had a meeting with DC Comics.

Daryl Cagle’s been posting videos from the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists Convention. This one’s an interview with Mikhaela Reid and Jen Sorenson, two female editorial cartoonists.

More dirt on the terrible idea know as The Crow remake, which maybe isn’t so much a remake? Um, what?

To celebrate the release of The Nobody, Jeff Lemire has some lovely art and linkage over at Standard Attrition.

Since Neil Gaiman is off to accept his Newbery Medal for The Graveyard Book today, check out video of him reading from the book on his tour.

Finally, if you have a spare $20,000 or so, you can get a second-tier Twilight star at your party. No Robert Pattinson or Kristen Stewart, sadly.

…And Sinestro-hater don’t know how to act.

Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News has found some fresh pulp from the rumor mill: JT — why yes that would be Justin Timberlake — has performed a screen test for the role of Green Lantern.

While of course that casting isn’t set in stone, it’s certainly a new name, after people like Bradley Cooper, Chris Pine, Nathan Fillion, and Brian Austin Green have been tossed around the Marc Guggenheim-penned space opera.

What say you, readers? Does this Rock Your Body? Or is time to Cry Me a River?

Today is Wednesday, which means one thing to me—It’s my own personal weekly holiday, known around the Caleb household as Comic Book Day.

Today is a special Comic Book Day though, as not only is it Wednesday, not only is it Comic Book Day, but it’s Wednesday Comics Comic Book Day, the Wednesday on which the first issue of DC’s Wednesday Comics is published.

Like a lot of folks who like great comics, I’ve been kind of looking forward to this book. It’s got several artists contributing who are on my own personal Will Buy Anything From list, including Joe Kubert, Paul Pope, Mike Allred and Kyle Baker. And those are just four of the, let’s see, 28 creators contributing 16 ongoing features starring DC’s biggest, most popular heroes (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash), weirdest, oddball characters (Metamorpho, The Metal Men) and pretty much everything in between.

But beyond that, I’ve been looking forward to this issue because I was so intensely curious about it.

I knew the facts regarding the book (if “book” is even the right word for it), that it would be the size and shape of a regular-sized comic book, but unfold into 14-inch-by-20-inch pages that look and feel like newspaper, thus evoking the sort of comics section that hasn’t even existed since before my life time. But I honestly had no idea how that was going to look, read and feel. Not until I had it in my hands, anyway.

And hey, now it’s in my hands!

I wasn’t quite sure the best way to go about reviewing it, so I figured I would just pseudo-liveblog my reading of it. That is, I’ll review it as I read it. Or rather, I’ll read it, and then review it as I re-read it, so it’s as if I’m reviewing it as I’m reading it. So join me after the jump to read me writing while reading over my own shoulder. Or something like that.

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Do you have a fever, and the only prescription is more Green Lantern?

Well, DC Direct is offering not one, but five chances to get your Hal Jordan fix at the San Diego Comic Con!

In keeping with the lead-up to Blackest Night, there will be a Green Lantern, Orange Lantern, Blue Lantern, Red Lantern, and Sinestro Corps version of Jordan, available to con attendees only.

According to IGN, there will be only 1,500 of the variants, and 3,000 of the Green Lantern version. Yet it’s a bit more complicated than this: attendees will only be able to buy two figures at a time, meaning that you’ll have to check out DC’s booth every day, from Wednesday through Sunday, to get the entire one-man Corps. Here’s a break-down of the schedule:

Wednesday (Preview Night) - July 22 - 6:00 pm Hal Jordan: Green Lantern - 3,000 pieces available

Thursday, July 23 - 10:00 am
Hal Jordan: Yellow Lantern - 1,500 pieces available

Friday, July 24 - 10:00 am
Hal Jordan: Blue Lantern - 1,500 pieces available

Saturday, July 25 - 10:00 am
Hal Jordan: Orange Lantern - 1,500 pieces available

Sunday, July 26 - 10:00 am
Hal Jordan: Red Lantern - 1,500 pieces available

What say you, Lantern fans? If the numbers (and fan tendencies) are any indication, getting a full set will certainly be some fierce competition.