It was, of course, a bad week for those who liked to get their comics from Z-CultFM, with the site removing all Marvel trackers, and later, DC and Top Cow trackers, after threats of legal action that softened as diplomacy proved as effective as promises of legal destruction. This was the Civil War of comic stories this year, splitting Newsarama readers into those who thought it may have been one of the biggest stories of 2007 and those who just didn’t get what the fuss was about. “Which Side Are You On?” indeed, but wait until the other shoe drops and every Newsarama poster discovers that their friends and family have been replaced by Marvel and DC employees in disguise, dropping subtle hints that maybe Countdown isn’t that bad after all. That’s the kind of Secret Invasion that’ll get complaints going in seconds…

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There’s no getting around it. The big news of this week was Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited program launching, beginning a move of their back catalog online for subscribers to rent and read. Everyone was talking about it, everyone had an opinion about it, and the mothership went after creators for theirs. Keith Giffen, for example:

I guess, deep down where I live, I don’t care. Sound a bit harsh? Yeah, I guess it does. Something like this has been, pretty much, inevitable so it really comes as no surprise to me. Marvel wants to see if it can utilize the web? Good luck to them.

(To be fair to Marvel, Keith’s disinterest was a line item in his new, DC-exclusive, contract.)

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In a week of carefully orchestrated “surprises” in the comic world, it wasn’t Annihilation: Conquest #1′s return of a classic Marvel villain or even Mark Bagley shock move over to DC (Feel free to guess what book you think Mark’s going to work on, by the way) that gave us the biggest shock of the past seven days. No, that accolade happens to belong to the stunning fact that the Gordon Lee trial in Georgia was declared a mistrial during the opening statements.

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Today’s Rama Rampage is brought to you by the Concerned Mothers of America – soon to be seen suing retailer Gordon Lee – as well as Geoff Johns’ incredible power of self-belief:

You’ve got to overcome your fears. I was just talking to another writer about this the other night. We were talking about assignments and stuff. And I’m not afraid to take a risk to tell a story I believe in. If I’m really excited about telling a story about Kingdom Come Superman coming to the JSA, and if I think it will be a cool story and worth telling and it’s important to the characters, I’m going to tell that story. If I think Hal Jordan and the Corps coming back to the DC Universe is important to the DC Universe and Green Lantern mythology, I’m going to tell that story. Same thing with Teen Titans. And even Infinite Crisis. As much as I wish the art was uniform, there’s still a lot I love about that series. Hell, Prime is one of my favorite characters ever now.

I’ve heard it all my career that I’ve made the wrong choice. “You’re going to follow Mark Waid on The Flash? That’s stupid. That’s career suicide.” “You’re going to do 52? That’s going to bomb.” “You’re going to relaunch JSA? You already did it!” And “Why are you wasting your time on Booster Gold? Why would you ever do that?” But I believe in going for it and I’d rather fall on my face than not try.

It’s kind of inspiring, isn’t it? Geoff is so unafraid, he even took on the life-threatening task of interviewing Greg Rucka this week when lesser men and women were screaming in terror at the prospect.

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It’s been a weird week for comics. You’ve got Mark Millar’s fantasies being reported as possibilities, and when reality intrudes, fans start complaining that DC – who weren’t even involved – are creating injustices across Hollywood (Personally, if Mark’s got enough spare time to write a movie, maybe he can pick up a pencil and help One More Day reach some kind of conclusion before the end of this year. Remember when this was announced as a weekly series? Those were the days of optimism and happy readers…), and DC announcing the first 10 contestants for a year-long Zudacomics.com contract while also announcing one of the original Batman writers, Jerry Robinson, as their latest creative consultant. Are they looking to the future or the past…?

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“I didn’t think we were going to get hammered for it for a few reasons – there was not one sexual element to it. I was careful with that – there was nothing sexist.”

That’s Brian Michael Bendis, showing that apparently he hasn’t seen the cleavage shots of Tigra as she gets beaten up while being videotaped in New Avengers #35, which he happened to write. Because, you know, there’s definitely nothing about a scene of violence that includes the victim’s shirt opening to reveal her cleavage… Nooooo…

(Bendis’s apparent ignorance about the finished product aside, it’s worthwhile reading the interview, if only for the chance to read the original script for the scene, which does lack a lot of sensationalism of the final version.)

But why should Marvel care about this kind of thing, anyway? I mean, they’re number one in the sales charts again, this time dominating September even without The Dark Tower. This lengthy victory has obviously panicked DC, who are retaliating in the most obvious ways – releasing the long-delayed Bob Haney/Jay Stephens/Mike Allred Teen Titans book, and replacing Tony Bedard and Koi Turnbull on the soon-to-launch Batman And The Outsiders book with Chuck Dixon and Julian Lopez. Dixon explained what little he knew:

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It’s the news that shook the world! No, not retailer Todd McDevitt ending up with a previously-unknown, good condition copy of Detective Comics #27 that was discovered in someone’s attic; I’m talking about the return of Captain America, as designed by Alex Ross.

For those afraid of male chickens, worry not; it’s all part of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting’s grand plan, as the Broob explained to the mothership:

[T]his is no tease. This is a new Captain America, in the Cap comic itself, so you know I wouldn’t just do it for a gimmick. This has been part of the plan all along, and if I ever implied there wouldn’t be a new Cap ever, then I was avoiding the question or dodging it. I tried to dance between the lines but I have said all along there wouldn’t be anyone in a Cap outfit for a while. Nine issues in comics is a while, right?

Of course, the kids still think it’s a temporary fake-out, if the ‘Rama poll is anything to go by.

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See, you make jokes about Marvel being quiet and DC being on the charm offensive for a few weeks, and then bam! Marvel rules the August chart and take over the mothership with stories this week. I mean, Brian Bendis talked to Matt twice this week about Secret Invasion (A catch-up/primer and a main story), giving us bon mots like “I’m of the mindset that [the Secret Invasion series] has to hit all of its dates. The pieces are so delicate. It has to ship – the reveals are huge, and it does affect other books, and I think we all deserve a crossover book that ships on time.”

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It’s apparently still time for DC to dominate the headlines, if this past week is anything to go by. Just today, as I write this, Scott Kolins has announced that he’s newly DC-exclusive (guess we now know what happened to his Wolverine run over at Marvel) and Chuck Dixon has been announced as returning to Robin, a title he wrote for its first 100 issues, although even that news pales in comparison to the confirmation that Jim Shooter is returning to the Legion of Super-Heroes, thirty-plus years after he last wrote them. Shooter was interviewed on the mothership about the decision:

I have always loved the concept of the Legion–young heroes in a fantastic future. The characters have changed a little, but not enough to spoil the party for me. These are the first comics characters I ever wrote. They’re still very special to me… ‘d like to think I sort of know what I’m doing these days, as opposed to when I was age thirteen and winging it. Other than that, my approach is the same–same excitement, same spirit, same boundless enthusiasm, same thrill of creation. I think if you lose that energy, if you’re out of touch with the kid inside you that feels the joy, give it up, turn the job down, forget it. If you’re just grinding it out, no matter how skillful you are, the work will be flat.

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For those who complain that Newsarama is just a publicity machine that reprints press releases for the major publishers – You know who you are – then this week hopefully helped change a couple of tunes. Where else could you get a free chapter of Douglas Wolk’s Reading Comics serialized over the week for your entertainment (Parts one, two, three, four and five), for one thing?

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This week was, apparently, all about the interviews on the mothership. And, for that matter, very much about the interviews for upcoming DC projects. For example, Keith Champagne talking about the latest Countdown spin-off, the audience participation slugfest book Arena:

Let’s say you’re not reading Countdown (and if you’re into DC, you should be!) and you’re just in the shop looking for a good time with your comics. Pound for pound, Arena is absolutely the most fun you’ll have with a comic for four consecutive Wednesdays in December. Everything you need to understand the bigger picture is contained in the first issue. Each issue is double-sized, it’s weekly, and it’s a freight train of a story.

Alternatively, Keith Giffen answering questions about 52 Aftermath: The Four Horsemen:

I think it will surprise people. A lot of people are saying, “Oh no! They’re just capitalizing on 52 with another spin-off!” But it’s more than that. It’s a bit more than that. It’s something you can read for six issues, and if you didn’t read 52, it still works… I’m trying to keep it in its own little corner of the DC Universe. If outside events intrude, it is only to acknowledge that outside events are happening. As an example, when Cale first encounters Wonder Woman again? She goes, “Oh! Did you bring your little Amazon war with you?”

Or how about Keith… sorry, I mean Eric Powell discussing his upcoming stint as Action Comics artist for the Bizarro World arc?:

The opposite thing doesn’t sum up Bizarro to me. He would be a woman if he were really an opposite, wouldn’t he? He’d also have to be a black woman, too. And a lesbian. A communist. Be really weak under a yellow sun. So yeah, a gay black lady communist without eye beams. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a gay black lady communist without eye beams. No, I see it as more of a distortion. A mockery. Bizarro would be a mockery of Superman in my eyes.

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Mind if I make myself unpopular with Dan DiDio for a second? Thanks.

You see, the Danster appeared on the mothership on Friday to talk about Countdown and how successful it was despite online chatter to the contrary:

The channels that are carrying a lot of the reaction that I’m seeing are coming from the stores themselves and from fans that I’m at conventions with. I attend multiple conventions throughout the course of the year, and I’ve gotten a very positive reaction to what’s going on.

Given that there seems to be a very vocal – and I don’t know its size – group of fans online that is counter to that hasn’t really affected sales at all. I find it humorous that information that comes to me from online is erroneous in regards to the actual sales figures… The reality is that the sales are there, the strength is there, and I have a lot of faith in regards to how the series works and how it’s moving forward.

The sales are there, Dan? Really? Because, judging by the July sales figures released this week, Countdown’s sales are slipping (Don’t compare them to June’s sales index like I did at first, because the baseline book from there was different, so the indexes are way off), and it’s still selling less than 52…

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There are good reasons why people become comic book creators. Their skill, their love for the medium or, in the case of Mark Millar, the fact that he’d be really, really bad in the world of international relations, something he proved again in his report on a recent trip to London:

Adi [Granov] still looks uncomfortably like Le Chiffre from Casino Royale. Also, he’s from Eastern Europe and has those killer’s eyes everyone had in Hostel. He’s a great artist, but I feel human life means nothing to him. He would slip a screw-driver into your eye and munch a sandwich at the same time, just for kicks. It’s not his fault, though. It’s the way they’re raised over there, as Eli Roth taught us.

Oh, Mark…

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It’s the week after San Diego, which generally means a big headache and comedown for the comic industry in general – or, if you work for Wizard, time to start prepping for Wizard World Chicago in two weeks’ time. Me, I thought that this year’s SDCC was fun if relatively missing the kind of news that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stick up in shock and/or excitement. You may disagree – go and check the headlines from the con to make up your own mind, or check out the floor buzz courtesy of Vaneta Rogers (Alternatively, listen to John Siuntres’ Word Balloon podcast from the show).

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So I’ll be in San Diego this weekend – I’m on the Meet The Press: Writing About Comics panel on Saturday, for those who want to see how much a short Scot can sweat in nervousness – but I couldn’t let this go without comment:

World-famous entrepreneur, adult entertainment icon and New York Times best-selling author Jenna Jameson is creating and staring in her own series of comic books, it was announced today by Virgin Comics CEO, Sharad Devarajan, at Comic-Con, the industry’s annual super-festival in San Diego. The series, titled Shadow Hunter, debuts in comic shops and online comic retailers in December… Shadow Hunter is the story of a provocative superheroine who survives a brush with death only to find herself fighting the legions of hell for her very soul. Cover art for the first issue has been created by Greg Horn, a top illustrator of comic books and video games. The story, while provocative and sexy, contains no nudity and is intended for a mainstream audience.

We’re doomed, aren’t we? Although at least this time, Greg Horn can defend any “pornface” accusations by pointing out that, this time, it’s appropriate.

Sensing that we’re near San Diego Comic-Con, Joe Quesada obviously decided that it’s time to try and get people upset at him again, commenting on DC’s Zudacomics online initiative:

To be quite honest, Newsarama has a bigger presence than DC on the ‘net. If you told me that you were going to do Newsarama comics, well at least I could see the get; you have a dedicated audience that comes here on daily basis just to yell at you [laughs].

I guess if you’re completely green and have no experience on the ‘net and in comics, perhaps the allure of Zuda is tempting, I could see that. Or maybe as a creator you’d rather be discovered by DC than Marvel, okay, can’t quite see that, but I’ll let it slide. If I’m an established web creator, I need to shown an upside. Again, maybe there is one in the deal that hasn’t been made public.

(Hey, Joe? If you want to be upset about publishers trying to profit from fans online, why not look at Virgin Comics and MySpace teaming up to launch Coalition Comix? “Coalition Comix will open up the role of comic book writer to the world at large, allowing participants to providing artistic direction for the comic by voting on the plot twists and turns at each step of the way. Coalition Comix will commission some of the comic book industry’s leading creators to collaborate with users as virtual ‘Story Masters.’ Leading creators will guide participants to collectively craft new story properties for comics and subsequent development into film, games and animations.” And who will profit from those subsequent developments, I wonder…? NewsCorp, Virgin or the fans who came up with the ideas…?)

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Zuda – It’s not just DC Comics’ new webcomic portal, it’s also The Word That’s Sweeping The Nation! Why, here’s Richard Bruning right now to talk about why it took DC so long to make a move into the webcomic arena:

A lot of times, in all honesty, DC has never been the kind of company to jump on a bandwagon just because we saw one pulling out of the gate. Sometimes we’re frustrated that we didn’t, and other times we realize that we were pretty smart by holding back.

And here’s Paul Levitz also thinking about timing:

Should we have done this a year earlier? Three years earlier? Maybe. I think there is certainly not a well-developed stage or platform for the typical creator to perform on, and I don’t think there should be one platform. I don’t think we’ll supply the only one out there. The fact that there are guys that have succeeded with this is terrific, because it demonstrates that the model can work.

I certainly think that DC’s not always the first to move in the industry. We like to move when there’s a clear opportunity, and when we’re convinced we’re bringing something to the table.

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Nic Cage loves comics. I know that, because he told me so:

[Comics are] imagination and they stimulate imagination at a very early age. It’s not any different than fairy tales and myths, really, except these are fairy tales and myths with pictures. Like [Cage's son and co-creator of new Virgin series Voodoo Child] Weston, I don’t really read or collect them any more, but we’ve both had childhoods that was fertilized with comics, and now, as you see in all aspects of entertainment, the comic book world is having an enormous effect on movie going audiences. So, if you can get a good comic, it’s a logical progression to make a good movie out of it, and keep sharing that story with more and more people.

Oh, alright. So Nic Cage actually loves comics as a route to the wonderful world of movies. But that’s something, right?

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Sometimes, you have to think about the climate out there in the wonderful world of comics. Look at Marvel, for example; after being beaten up for sexism, you’d think that they’d have learned their lesson and be a little smarter about things in their publicity. Instead, this week, the following appeared:

Black Cat, Mary Jane, and Aunt May? Is it one of these ladies that take a dirt nap in the upcoming storyline ‘One More Day’? You heard it here, folks. A re-assuring voice and shoulder-to-lean-on is going to be taken out permanent-style in this four-issue storyline, which kicks off in Amazing Spider-Man #544 and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24. This body check is whipped up by war horses J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada. Pain is promised. No tissues will be issued! Who next gets thrown under the bus like the long-lost Gwen Stacy?

No tissues will be issued, fanboys, so you’d better accept that women being thrown under buses and taking dirtnaps is what you’re going to be getting from now on.

But let’s look at what DC are offering as an alternative. Geoff Johns, why don’t you explain the basis of DC’s latest event?:

The whole idea is that life itself, sentient life, is what gives birth to power. And emotions, which complex lifeforms experience — like humans, who are on the low end of complex lifeforms in the universe compared to other advanced races — when they experience an emotion, when we do, it’s much more powerful than just an evolved and complicated brain. It’s about the soul and the spirit, and that releases a kind of energy into the universe. The more people feel certain emotions that are important to our spirituality, either positive or negative, the greater that power will exist in the universe, and the more someone can tap into it… So this is me kind of delving into the idea and breaking open the Green Lantern mythology a bit more to explore it. Exactly what emotions are and how they relate to spirituality, and how those are so special in the universe.

But wait, that’s not all! This week, DC also announced that Mattel are the toymakers of choice for them. So, on the one hand, it’s the rainbow of emotions and the people who make Barbie, and on the other hand, an sixty-odd-year-old woman is being threatened with being thrown under a metaphorical bus. Which side are you on?

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(For obvious reasons, I’m not really going to touch on the tragic death of Newsarama contributor Daniel Robert Epstein in this column, other than to say that he will be missed. There was a thread of tributes to him here.)

So, all the con news from last weekend? I’m skipping that because, well, you can find that here, and also because there’s so damn much of it and I’m already doing two weeks here. Gimme a break already.

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