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Friday Follies
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, Television, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
We are two episodes into Smallville, so a few comments are in order. Saturn Girl looks a lot better on TV than she did in the Wizard photos. I guess you don’t have to be telepathic to figure out what’s on the mind of every guy that meets her. Plus there were quite a few inside references. No flights, no tights for one. And why is Clark so uptight about even trying to fly? Tess, or as I prefer to call her MISS TESSMACKER, is talking merger with Ollie. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge. With Lana back are they doing the deed? Saw the photo of Serinda Swan who will be playing Zatanna. Have they grabbed every good looking girl in Vancouver? Clark talking about teaming up more with Ollie and John Jones? How about teaming with guys who actually have super powers? You know, Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman who have already been introduced? And Martians lose their powers under a yellow sun? Since when? Jones is played by Phil Morris, who is the son of original Mission Impossible star, Greg Morris. And Chloe calling John ” My favorite Martian”? Where’s the antenna?
If you want the best explanation for Batman that I have seen click on the comment Bubba made about my Deaths of Batman posting. It is far better than anything I or my DC rep could come up with.
Whoa… I just got it, Faces of Evil is Foe’s. F O E. Took me awhile.
When I went to reorder the second printing variant of Amazing Spider-Man, I was told by Diamond that I already missed the third printing variant, but I could get the 4th printing in early February. How did I miss the third?
Over on Battlestar Galactica we now know the 12th cylon is the XO’s slightly dead wife. Of course she would have been resurrected had not the humans and renegade cylons not blown up the resurrection ship. Mind you, he killed her for betraying her people,which, of course, she isn’t and neither is he. And why, if you are making human looking cylons, would you make them susceptible to alcohol? No wonder he drinks so much. And where are they getting all this not home brewed liquor anyway? Assuming that there are only the 12 human looking cylons that they have told us about, that makes Starbuck not a cylon. People who remember the original Galactica remember the Lords of the Light who rescued the almost dead Apollo instead of Starbuck and sent him/her/it back in a brand new white viper. Well,they have borrowed quite a few plot devices from the original so why not one more?
Toon in Tuesday for the famous Tuesday Preview.
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Q&A: Marc Tyler Nobleman on Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and Bill Finger
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews,
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a children’s book about Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman. Marc Tyler Nobleman published his first book in 1996 and is the author of over 70 children’s books, including the recent Boys of Steel, the story of how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster came to create Superman back in the 1930s. It’s the behind-the-scenes story of their struggle to create the Man of Steel and to get it published, all while never letting go of their dream. Best of all, Marc uses Siegel and Shuster’s own words, culled from interviews with both creators in fanzines, magazines and newspapers.
Published by Knopf, “Boys of Steel” just won the prestigious Kirkus Reviews “Best Children’s Book” Award for 2008. In addition to “Boys of Steel,” Marc’s current book is “What’s The Difference?” a whimsical reference for teens and adults that explains the distinctions between things we often confuse, such as geek/nerd, alligator/crocodile, vanilla/French vanilla, democracy/republic, and rap/hip-hop.
TOM: First off, how big a comics fan are you?
Click to continue reading Q&A: Marc Tyler Nobleman on Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster and Bill Finger
The Deaths of Batman
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
Let’s face it. They’ll kill Captain America before they kill Batman. Whoops - they did
Now we all know comics are not for kids anymore. Trix maybe, comics, no. But we are all adults here and we know that Cap will be back in time for the movie and, after the second year without Batman, he will return also. I am sure that if Captain America can sail along with Bucky as the Winter Soldier then we can rest assured that a Search for the Cowl will find some worthy person to fill it. Add the fact that with RIP and Crisis totally screwing continuity all to hell and is so confusing so much so that my reps at DC can’t even keep it straight. Giving an answer such as “Well, it’s Grant Morrison…” is infuriating because adult fiction should be able to keep itself consistent. But, you know what? I can live with it.
What I cannot stand is this. They have killed Batman twice in two separate books. Dead in Batman 681 and dead in Crisis 6. Let us assume, for argument’s sake, that neither Batman was a clone, an android, a robot, a hero of any of the other 52 universes, or a leftover LMD from Marvel. My customers expect me to be the comic guru and I hate to feel foolish trying to explain, but I can’t explain. Maybe all the inconsistencies are really caused by Superboy Prime banging on the Walls of Eternity. I just don’t think so. It is sloppy writing and I can abide stupid better than sloppy. Still, I am sure that Crisis 7, which comes out next next, will explain it all. Don’t you?
What’s next for Batman after Final Crisis?
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
Batman is dead. In this week’s issue of “Final Crisis”, Batman died at the hands of Darkseid. I always felt that if DC were to ever write this story, (I’m not including the death of Earth 2 Batman or any Elseworlds stories) Batman’s death would come at the hands of one of his rogues. It would be an epic tale where the Joker or Ra’s would finally succeed in getting one over on Bruce in a moment of weakness.
So now that he’s dead, where do we go from here? Well we know DC will be putting “Detective Comics” and “Batman” on hiatus and in it’s place will be a three part miniseries entitled “Battle for the Cowl”. We can assume from the title that there will be a fight of some sort to see who will take over as Batman. The players are: Nightwing, Robin, Jason Todd, and Hush.
This is much different that what we saw during the “Knightfall” trilogy where the mantle was simply given to Jean Paul Valley aka Azrael. Bruce’s relationship with Dick Grayson was estranged at the time and Tim Drake was too young, so for some reason it was deemed fitting that the character of Bruce Wayne would rationally relinquish the most important thing in his life to this guy he barely knew - but that’s ancient history now.
Click to continue reading What’s next for Batman after Final Crisis?
DC Comics Review: Batman: Confidential #25
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
This is the final chapter of the “Batman: Confidential” storyarc, “Rites”. I’ve blogged about this story before and how it’s been a breath of fresh air over the past few months in contrast to what Grant Morrison has been doing over in “Batman”. Overall this was a very good story. It’s a story so good that I think it would be accepted by fans if this story was incorporated into the current Batman continuity.
The story continues with the rogue police officer looking to get revenge on the Joker for tricking his wife into committing suicide. The story has no surprise endings really. The cop doesn’t kill the Joker obviously and Batman of course comes in to save the day. However, there are some cool moments like the birth of Arkham Asylum where the Joker tortures his fellow inmate the rogue cop with cruel jokes about his dead wife.
The cover of this issue gives away the ending as the story comes full circle and shows the Batman bringing in a new villain to police headquarters for booking - the Riddler. The writer of this story Andrew Kreisberg is a Hollywood writer and producer. I doubt he would give up his day job to come and work for the comic industry full time. It’s our loss as he has done a fine job here. Scott McDaniel is on the money here as always with the art work.
The next storyarc is the introduction of the 1960s Batman TV show villain King Tut into Batman comics. Whether this story will be in continuity I have no idea. The story will be written by Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis who wrote the very underrated “New Mutants” relaunch a few years back and its next incarnation “New X-Men Academy X”. I’ll be sticking around as there won’t be any Bruce Wayne/Batman stories hitting the stands for a while. Whose idea was it to kill off Batman as we enter his 70th year of publication? Nice move!
Random Thoughts
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Marvel Comics,
Let me start on the Spider-Man variant story. Marvel and DC usually make dealers buy 20, 40, or even 75 copies of a book to get one variant. Sometimes you can buy as many copies of an unimportant variant as you want. Now, dealers can change their orders via an FOC three weeks before they arrive. In this case, Marvel announced that any dealer that ordered more copies of Spider Man 583 than 575 could get as many copies of the Obama cover as they wanted. This slipped by most of the dealers. And who knew that Joe Quesada would be all over TV to plug it ? So I didn’t get any, but I could have sold plenty.
And next week they are printing a second printing with the same Obama variant cover except it has an orange background instead of a blue one. Don’t be fooled as some people on E-Bay who are buying the second printing thinking they are getting the original variant. The original variant is worth up to 100 dollars on E-Bay.
Now the real random thoughts (SPOILERS!!!):
- You’ve been warned about SPOILERS… stop now! Okay…
- So Darkseid kills Batman in Final Crisis 6, but which Batman died in RIP? And if the continuity was screwed up by having a live Batman in the next two issues of Batman, what the heck is going on now? Even DC couldn’t straighten it out to me on our weekly call. Luthor zapping Libra was cool, but Sivana saying “and that’s the classic we haven’t heard the last of him” was priceless. Batman and which Superman were flying around in Crisis 6 heat visioning everybody in sight? For a non-killer he seemed to kill a lot of who? Good guys or bad guys? Can’t tell. Is it the same Supes carrying Bat’s body in the end? Final Crisis 7 comes in two weeks and we are promised that Grant Morrison will clear everything up. I am holding my breath.
- In Faces of Evil - Prometheus, it seems he goes off to a secret monastery in the Himalyas to learn all about evil. Holy Dr Doom, Batman, where have we seen that before?
- Adam, Legend of the Blue Marvel was great. What they plan on doing with a hero who has talks with the Watcher after the series is over is interesting. Calling the Watcher a white guy with attitude is classic.
- Batman Confidential is a fun way to introduce all the old villains but I am sure they are screwing with continuity? But, who cares?
DC Comics Review: Final Crisis #6
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
“Final Crisis” is garbage. There I said it Grant Morrison fans. I can’t believe there are people who defend this man and say his work on “Batman” and “Final Crisis” has been great - they’re not. But that’s not why we’re here. We’re here for a review of the 6th issue of the “Final Crisis” mini-series which features the final fate of Batman.
For those of you who haven’t read it yet, do not read any further. I can’t review this issue without revealing that piece of information.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Final Crisis #6
Ledger gets the Globe!
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, Movies,
Last night Heath Ledger won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role of The Joker in “The Dark Knight”. Like many comic book fans, I am very happy that a comic book film has finally been recognized and has achieved an award of this caliber. It’s of course bitter sweet with the death of Heath Ledger occurring before the film was even released. Would he have been nominated or even won if he were still alive? We’ll never know, but I would like to think so.
I wasn’t happy when he was cast in the role of the Joker. Even when I saw him in the make up, I was thinking that this was going to suck. As I watched the film for the first time, a smile slowly began to form on my face. As the Joker exited the room after his meeting with the mobsters in the beginning of the film, I was sold.
What Heath did with that role was nothing short of amazing. He has set the bar high for any actor who wants to take on the role of a Batman villain in any future Batman film. In my opinion, Heath Ledger became the Joker. When Jack Nicholson played the Joker in “Batman,” he was playing himself. Even when it was released in 1989, I wasn’t that impressed with Jack as the Joker. I think Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer were much better in their roles as The Penguin and Catwoman in “Batman Returns”. Heath was unrecognizable as the Joker role and it wasn’t just because of the make up.
I hope he gets the Oscar. According to Yahoo, the Oscar nominations will be announced January 22 - the one year anniversary of Heath’s death.
Good luck, Heath and rest in peace.
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Random Thoughts For The Day
Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Editorials,
- I have the greatest screw up of 2009 by far. X-Men Manifest Destiny 5 is not X-Men Manifest Destiny 5. It is really X-Men Spiderman 3. They either printed the wrong cover or the wrong book. Stay tuned.
- Does anyone else have the slightest idea what is going in X-men Noir. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? I am so confused.
- Batman 684 is a good continuation of the story line if only I could figure out what story line it is the continuation of? And remember, boys and girls, never end a sentence with a prepostion.
- I have been told I am the biggest perv on the website. If that’s true, what do you have to say about Ultimate Hulk Annual? Hulk and Zarda? Remember that every woman the Hulk has sex with seems to die - Betty, Jarella and what’s her name from Planet Hulk.
- If Katherine Heigl can have sex with dead Denny on Grey’s Anatomy, why can’t Hank Pym have sex with dead Janet in Avenger’s Initiative?
- Sub-Mariner is a beautifully drawn book, but on which planet is the story set? Is it in any continuity? In fact is there any story here?
- After January 20th can we still refer to Black Adam, Black Panther, and Black Lightning? I mean we do have Dark Avengers coming.
- The freebie Marvel is giving away on War of The Kings is a pretty good recap of everything that has led us to where we are. I wonder if we will ever have a War of the Queens? I am collecting jokes now in case it ever happens.
DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #852
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
“Detective Comics” #852 is part one of a two part “Faces of Evil” storyline. Paul Dini returns as the writer for “Detective Comics” with this issue and he will continue with part two in “Batman” #685. Throughout the month of January DC is focusing on the villains of the DC Universe in “Faces of Evil”. The villians will take center stage in the monthly comics of their adversaries as well as some individual special issues. This issue of “Detective Comics” focuses on Hush and takes place right after the “Heart of Hush” storyline. As we know from this storyline, Thomas Elliot aka Hush has surgically altered his face to look like Bruce Wayne. He was attempting to take over Bruce’s life when Batman thwarted his plans.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #852
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