The Dark Knight #1

I know I said I was going to do Superman next, but I changed my mind.

Batman: The Dark Knight #1. I really don't have much to say about this comic, and that is a shocker to people who have ever read a blog post of mine. I have no color commentary. No inappropriate language. Ok, that's a lie. I will say some things that probably have something to do with feces, but that's pretty common for me.

SPOILER ALERT

I think this is a standard superhero comic book. This is exactly what I would expect for a Batman title. Batman dropping down from the Batwing and changing into a tux to go mingle and schmooze with dignitaries and exotic women with impossible poses as well as skirts. Then swinging by Arkham to stick a few batarangs in the asses of one of the frequent prison breaks and possibly meet up with Scott Lobdell to 'clock some skulls together'.

Then, inevitably, he runs into a bad guy that is somehow more of a challenge than the hundreds of other inmates. Who else but...Twoface? He's a hulk of a man with tree branches for veins. Either this is Twoface that is juiced up on some of Bane's venom, or this is just what Twoface looks like in this new DC universe. He states that he is now called 'Oneface', despite still having zombie-mutant-stroke face on one side. I don't get it, but I guess I'll bother to buy the next issue to find out.

I know everyone loves David Finch's pencils, but I honestly have never really seen the draw *cough* of his art. He would be awesome if this was the mid-90s. I guess I just expect more from a big name artist than men that look like they are pinching a loaf in every panel(there's the poop reference) and women that throw their backs out with every pose. The art doesn't offend me, but I don't think it's all that and a bag of chips.

I am relatively lukewarm on this book. I might buy the next one, but I'm doing so reluctantly.

I give Batman: The Dark Knight #1 one Twoface up and two Oneface's down. So...we're basically breaking even.

Teen Titans #1 - A bowl of suck sauce

I've been so inundated with good comics, that I've forgotten how beautiful it is to have a handful of crap to bitch about. Finally DC! I knew you'd come through.

"Darn, I was really hoping to clock a few skulls together."

It's dialogue like this that makes me want to kill myself for not pursuing a career writing comics. This book is full of this drivel. I heard that Superboy was good, but I'll never know, because if I have to read another book by Scott Lobdell after this one, I will scratch my eyes out. How about a book about a superhero that cleverly escapes a secret organization that has a witty acronym for a name and seeks out other would-be targets to join him in confronting this organization? This is the really special part - they're all teens!!!

Terrific.

Brett Booth's art looks like Youngblood ate Gen 13 and vomited up Freak Force. That's all I have to say about that.

This whole thing reeks of the 90's and Dan Didio's night emissions.

I hate this comic.
I give Teen Titans #1 one of Kid Flash's smoldering costumes down, and a foot up the ass of Scott Lobdell.

DC Score:
4 good/ 1 terrible

On to Superman.

Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #1

The relaunch of the DC universe has given me, like many other Marvel readers, an ultimatum to finally stop hiding within my comfort zone and try something new. It's the kind of excitement I remember from being an eleven-year-old discovering that there are comics out there for virtually every genre and having a thirst for new books. Since I have very rudimentary knowledge of even the big name DC characters, this is all new for me.

Case in point, Frankenstein:AoS is another book that sounded outside of the mainstream DCU and right up my alley. It's another Jeff Lemire book, so I had high hopes since he blew me away with Animal Man. I've seen Alberto Ponticelli's artwork in Unknown Soldier and looked forward to the high-energy, gestural quality of his work, and he doesn't disappoint.

Basically, the plot is this. Frankenstein is an agent in a clandestine government agency that deals with threats of the super powered kind that seem to be infernal in nature. He is assisted by a vampire, a werewolf, a mummy, and a fish creature. Now, you may be thinking that this sounds slightly like Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. Well, it's exactly like that. I don't think that's a bad thing. I love Hellboy and I love the genre that it falls into, So we make Hellboy green and call him Frankenstein. So what? It's fun!

It's monsters being recruited to fight monsters. I don't need to defend it. Now, if any of you know of some titles that might tie into this one, let me know. Personally, I prefer books that are stand-alone tales, but I have Daredevil and X-Factor in case this doesn't pan out.

I give Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #1 two broken horns of Anung un Rama up for enjoyability, and one rocky red thumb to the side for creativity.

Swamp Thing - Second New 52 book for me

I a few more of the New 52 today. I've learned a lesson here. Next time a publisher reboots it's entire universe, don't wait to ebay the comics you want to read. I've been paying an average of about five bucks apiece for these puppies.

So, Swamp Thing #1. Written by Scott Snyder. We have a thorough introduction to the main character, and why we want to be interested in him. This is a good full-on setup issue, since the only Swamp Thing happens on the last page. I don't mind. I'm sure we'll be seeing much more in the upcoming issues.

The DC Universe seems to be fully established and present. We see Clark Kent on the phone with Batman, and then apparently on a three-way(kinky) call with Aquaman. Then Superman shows up and talks to Alec about the burden of coming back from the dead.

I feel that Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire are going to connect with both Animal Man and Swamp Thing really well. The horror genre is really pleasing me right now. It's giving these writers and artists a chance to really put out some intriguing stuff. Speaking of art(and I usually do), Yanick Paquette shines in this. I just realized that he does his own inks. I hope this isn't too large a workload with how detailed and thorough his art is. I would hate to see him take too many breaks from doing this every month. The art is splendid.

I kind of wish I hadn't picked my New 52 books so wisely, just so I could have something negative to talk about. Maybe I'll check out Legion of Superheroes. I heard that's a pile of crap.

I give Swamp Thing #1 two neck-twisting, mutant death flies up.

Horse Power

Behold! Power Horse! The horse with HORSE POWER! Colored version soon to follow! As a reminder, I created this character and theft will not be tolerated. Please respect my characters.

Storyboards for issue #1 in the works today. Then I am planning a full reboot of all Power Horse titles. I am calling this reboot The New 52 Week Lag Initiative. Stay tuned for more Power Horse and more HORSE POWER!

-Greg

Animal Man - My first New 52 book

Animal Man is the first book I've picked up from the New 52 and it was the one that was the most appealing to me due to the 'everyman' approach to the character. I like superheroes being accessible in that way.

The intro interview page made me think of Alan Moore's articles in the beginning of every Watchmen issue. I feel that Jeff Lemire has become a very mindful writer and really captures the humanity of the character, which is a very good approach considering he's Animal Man. Buddy balances having extraordinary powers with his family life. Not a topic we haven't seen in comics a hundred times, but it is written in a way that presents itself as fresh and new.

Yes, Buddy was a superhero. Yes he fights crime. What he does that is unique is struggle with feelings of sadness for the people committing the crimes that he is stepping in to stop. A gunman is in a children's ward of the hospital and is demanding to see his dead daughter of whom he is sure is still alive and the hospital is hiding her. Buddy doesn't smash through a wall and beat the guy up. Sure, he knocks the guy into a wall, but only after trying to talk him down and relate to him using his own children as an example. Then he tells the man that everything's going to be ok. It's this desperate need to help people without resorting to violence that makes this story intriguing. Maybe it's just written and paced extremely well.

The artwork by Travel Foreman doesn't hurt the story one bit, either. The realism and motion in his lines are something I have not seen very often in comics. It's simple, yet every contour that is on the page is relevant.

So many people reviewing this book have undoubtedly spent time talking about the dream sequence, so I'll only say a few things. Red is the only color used. The rest is in black and white only. This is significant to lead up to the entity that shows itself in the dream.

The visuals are striking and disturbing. This book has a distinct horror note to it. Which is nice. I haven't read a horror book in a long while. Let's not forget that many of the first comics of the Golden Age were horror stories. I honestly can't wait for the second issue and I hope that this book stays in print for a long time. with the same creative team.

I give Animal Man #1 two enthusiastic wags of a skeletal tail up.

Shameless plug

Buy my comics! One of the items being offered is the complete run of the new Wolverine series #1-15 by Jason Aaron. Listed at less than half of the cover price! I'm throwing my money away so one of you lucky readers can read these books! Hooray!

Click here for the listing!

Comic Book Day! - My bad

So I added some New 52's to my pull list late tuesday night and they didn't get pulled. Of course they were out of Batman, Nightwing, and Teen Titans. No biggie, I'll just buy them for $20 apiece on ebay. I hate myself. Let's check out some covers for the stuff that I did manage to pick up.

Between TMNT and Ghostbusters, I feel as though my entire childhood is being reimagined, but that happened at Hot Topic years ago. Now let's talk about the comic. I would buy TMNT comics even if it were written by Brian Bendis and drawn by Greg Land, but luckily, we've got TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman writing this. There's nothing I love more than all-red-bandana TMNT. This is the good stuff.

The story is tweaked in many ways. April O'Neil is a biologist of some shit, and Baxter Stockman is a cool black guy instead of Mort Goldstein. I have to realize that I didn't really give a crap about the continuity when I was a kid, and that's my approach this time around. I don't care, I just want to see the turtles beat up bad guys and eat pizza, while Raphael bitches and acts like a bastard.

I'll keep buying it as long as they make it. I'm loving it.

Journey Into Mystery is on my must-buy list. It has been excellent since the relaunch and is really one of the few Fear Itself tie-ins that matters in my opinion. Kieron Gillen has become one of the writers I most anticipate reading. I was worried when Matt Fraction left Uncanny X-Men and Gillen took over, because I was unfamiliar with his writing, but I really took to it quickly.

I think anyone can read this book.

It's universally appealing.

That is, if you like the fantasy, mythology stuff...and sorcery....and I would recommend liking comics in general. Ok, maybe not everyone would like it, but anyone who likes good comics is missing out if they haven't read this.

The covers awesome, too. Mephisto is such a loveable shmuck.

I skipped a few of these, but I have really liked Generation Hope since it hit it's stride around issue #6. Again, we're reading Gillen, here. I feel that he gives all of the teens a distinct voice of there own. Let's not forget that Gillen is tying into both of the major events happening at either end of the Marvel U. His Uncanny and Journey Into Mystery is tied to Fear Itself, and they both know that they are a part of this event and are relevant. He also write Gen Hope, which is the only book that actually has tied into Schism on the X-Men side of things.

He's one of Marvel's saving graces. that's for damn sure.

Blah, blah, blah...

Filler, filler, filling space until I get to the next spot for an image....blah blah blah

This cover rocks. I love it mightily. I haven't read a single one of these new Daredevil books, and I've read about five DD books ever. I have just been hearing great things about this title and wanted to be included.

I've always been kind of curious about DD. I like the idea of the street-level, simple, ourside-of-the-rest-of-the-Marvel-U book. I'm overwhelmed with events and continuity. I just want to read a comic for the story contained within that comic.

And the cover is awesome.

Luckily for me, Daredevil wouldn't waste his time with those other 'team books' he just does his own thing.

Right?


Wait...what's this? Aw dammit!

Bang for the buck.

Discount Comic Book Service is awesome. Now in this quid pro quo world, I expect my free plug to be reciprocated with free comics.

I love Dirk Anger

Uncanny X-Men #262 - First comic I remember

This week, our friends at Awesomed By Comics reminisced about their earliest experiences with comics. This inspired me to talk about one of the first comics I remember reading.

It was late June, 1990. My family was moving from Long Island to Colorado, and we were driving those two thousand miles their two kids, ages 14 and 8. I was the eight-year-old. On the way out of my hometown, on our way to my new hometown, we stopped for some effects at a convenience store. I didn't have much in the way of an attention span, and this was before my parents knew about Gameboy, so I would always have plenty of things to entertain me. I would have drawing pads, card games, ninja turtle toys, and travel games to play with my sister. Despite all this, I was still bored. So my mom sent me into the store with my dad and told him to buy me something. He took me over to the comic book rack and told me to pick out a few books. There were monsters on the cover of this and it drew me in. I love monsters.

I didn't really know what was going on in this comic because I didn't know any of the characters and I'd never read a comic before. I remember just being really fascinated by it. After that I just started collecting X-Men comics. I started drawing from them and my artwork started looking alot like Jim Lee's. I would doodle all over the letters I would send to my grandmother back in NY and it would be pictures of Cyclops firing optic blasts in the margins.

If only we would have moved 2 months later. I would have picked up #266 instead. You know. The comic that introduced Gambit. That one's worth way more than the other ones. It would have probably gotten destroyed or lost, though.

It's really funny to look back at these books now. It's like looking at an old photo album from when I was a kid. What really sucks about it is that I don't know what happened to any of the comics I owned.

If I could go back in time, I would first go back to the late 90's and tell my wife's grandfather not to sell his Apple stock, then I would go back to 1990 and tell myself to keep my comics safe.

Busted again!

Wolverine anime after 5 minutes

This anime would be cool if I weren't being pissed at how Wolverine looked.

I'm five minutes into the first episode and can't go on because Logan looks like he's dressed to go rumble with The Sharks in West Side Story. He looks ridiculous, so let us ridicule him.

Ha Ha Ha.

The Wolverine in the new X-Men anime is completely different. He's way closer to the real deal. It's Cyclops I can't stand in that one. Wolverine is spot-on. He's a burly little bastard with not a single ounce of finesse.

This Wolverine seems much more appropriate. Storm's a little lame. Cyclops is a whiny wuss. Beast is perfect as the scientist, but fails to capture the sense of humor that Hank has. The only one that is really done well is Wolverine. So really, this is the real Wolverine anime to watch.

I have watched all 12 subbed episodes of the X-Men anime, and the story is kind of ridiculous. There's nothing like 3 straight episodes of gasping and grunting and exclaiming that they have to do something or the bad guy will destroy the world, but nonetheless standing in the same cool pose for an hour of screen time to remind you that you are watching an anime.

I guess I should just be happy that I get to watch different takes on my favorite comics, but I'm an elitist fanboy prick and I am entitled to call something crap if I feel inclined.

Wolverine should be drinking Molson, dammit.

I give the X-Men anime one pair of oversized Storm boobies up and one secondary mutation down.

I give the Wolverine anime one Shark and one Jet both down.

DC reboot bandwagon lag

I'm gonna put it out there. I will be reading a few of the new 52. I've just been falling behind a bit because I have decided to be a douche and stop buying my comics locally and start buying them online once a month to save money.

I'll likely buy Batgirl, Detective, Batwoman, Animal Man, and Swamp Thing. Those are really all I'm interested in. I have never read any of these prior to the reboot, but I feel like I might be headed in a good direction for some excellent reading, just based on creators that have been recommended to me.

I would like to know where Power Girl is, DC. I find it hard to believe that sales for this title weren't good enough to warrant a new #1 for this reboot.

Avengers aliens

I'm going to make my official call here.

Stuff we know:
Set pics of Cap fighting guys with motion-capture gear on and alien guns.
A 'Leviathan' is one of the things they will be fighting.
I guess that's all we really know. I've heard some people talking Skrulls, but that doesn't seem like an idea that will fit in one movie. They would have to include the Super Skrull, and then explain the Fantastic Four, and it wouldn't make much sense. The Leviathan thing has been theorized to be related to The Breakworlders from X-Men canon, but again, X-Men would have to be summarized. Breakworld is still kind of obscure. It could be the race of aliens from the Ultimate Avengers animated movie, but I would really like to believe that the film makers would use something more iconic with the non-Ultimate comics.

I am calling Kree.

I'd wager a six pack of Fat Tire.

Busted!

Here's a one of the set pics from the Avengers movie. Jeremy Renner is totally staring at ScarJo's jugs. Heh! Bullseye!

Wolverine #14 - Sins of a father

As I've stated, Marvel suckered me into subscribing to this title with their perpetual promo that includes X-Factor, X-Force, and Wolverine. I keep renewing it because I'm saving money on the other two titles, both of which I love. I have not found any sort of love for this new iteration of the main Wolverine book. I find it excessively dry and generally unnecessary.

I'm not going to NOT read it, though.

The last five issues have shown Wolverine's quest for revenge against the Red Right Hand. No, not Hellboy. The Red Right Hand is a group of people brought together by their hatred of Wolverine. This group may not be entirely fictional. I'm thinking of joining the Red Right Hand just because I'm as sick of Wolverine as he is of himself. Anyway RRR wants revenge on him because all of them, at some point in time, have lost a loved one due either directly or indirectly to Wolverine. Each issue has shown Wolverine fighting one of the Mongrels; specially trained badguys whose talents include monologues and getting killed quickly. As Wolverine faces each one, we get to see a back story of a member of the RRR and their loved one that was killed by Wolverine.

As Logan guts the last of the Mongrels, he stalks towards the final door and to the people responsible for all of the troubles he's been having to deal with. He's pauses to ask the dying man if he knows him. The man tells him that they've never met. Didn't think much of it, did you Wolvie?

Well, right as he bursts into the next room, the RRR all drink poison and are lying dead on the floor, depriving Logan of his revenge. No big deal, right? They're dead. So he's had his revenge, right?

A monitor is in this room and on it is the leader of the RRR, now dead on the ground, explaining to Logan why they hate him and why they did this. They wanted to hurt him. They wanted him to feel their pain. As Logan is reading a file left for him, and listening to the man explain how they wanted to hurt him, he discovers that all five Mongrels he just killed were actually his own children.

Wolverine, you just got PUNK'D!!!

I give this dynamic plot twist fives bloody, tearful reunions up and 13 boring lead-up issues down.

Young Avengers - Kang is ineffective as a villain

Once in a while, I'll pick up some trades from the library that I had no interest in reading for a couple of reasons. The first being that, albeit a sideline story, it may come up in reference during future story arcs. The second reason is that it's free to read library books, so if its crap, I won't hate myself for spending money on it.

Young Avengers seemed to fulfill the latter.

I have nothing against new teams of teenage superheroes, but I think it's kind of lame when each member is just a copy of the adult members. Granted, I bitched about the Young X-Men being a handful of powers and personalities being tossed into a basket and pulled out at random, this bores the hell out of me as well.

Seriously, it's just kids playing Avengers Assemble.

That being said, the premise may have annoyed me, but the plot points and characterizations became slightly intriguing when we find out that Iron Lad turns out to be Kang the Conquerer. He is a younger version of the time-traveling villain who is reluctant to fulfill his evil destiny. I need to point out how frustrating it is to read stories that involve time-traveling villains. Don't these guys have access to information regarding events that have already happened? How is it that a villain that seems to have unlimited ability to travel through time hasn't won yet? A hero defeats you and sends you packing, go back and off that hero's great-grandparents. It's that simple. The biggest paradox of time-travel is this; If it were possible to go back in time, and someone succeeded in doing so with a specific idea about what they wanted to change, upon changing this specific thing, it eliminates the need to be changed and, therefore, would eliminate the desire to change said event because said event never would have happened. Comics ignore this, so why the hell hasn't it worked? It's because Kang is incompetent. That's why.

Anyway, Young Captain America is the drugged-up grandson of Black Captain America. Iron Lad is Kang. Giant Girl is the daughter of the Stephen Lang incarnation of Ant-Man. The Asgardian is really one of the non-existent, yet existent sons of The Scarlet Witch and not really Asgardian. Hulkling is the absurdly named and appropriately hulky green guy who is the spawn of a Skrull Princess and the Kree Captain Marvel. The Hawkeye chick is some ho that I've never heard of before that inexplicably has the same skills as the real Haweye. Speed is the other fake son of The Scarlet Witch that has the power to run really, really fast, make things explode, and be a punk-asshole, because that's what you do when you run real fast. Oh, and Kid Vision is The Vision. Not sure what's up with him.

So all these juvenile delinquents hang out and fight crime and sometimes get yelled at by Captain America. The End.

It isn't terribly written, and the art fades in and out of being good, since there are, like, twenty artists that worked on these books. I don't know. I hate 'new and exciting' teams. I think when a writer is told to come up with a team that analogues a current team, the characters end up being really contrived. I think it's much better when you take existing characters and put them on a team, like, you know, THE AVENGERS.

I give this series one serving of teen angst down and two botched time-travel missions to the side.