DC Comics: Still Petrified of Package

I don't know why I'm surprised.
But I mean, there was no uproar like the Citizen Steel thing generated.
I guess, at the very least, they didn't alter the actual artwork. Still...

Here's the beautiful art that Rodolfo Migliari created for GREEN LANTERN CORPS #27, and DC's "dressed up" version:

At least Luke Ross threw us a bone. Errr, so to speak...

More DC Comics Previews for June 11, 2008

Newsarama has got more previews for the following DC Comics, all going on sale this Wednesday. In addition to the ones I pointed out yesterday (listed below), they've added:

GREEN LANTERN CORPS #25
GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #9

previously:

WONDER WOMAN #21
BOOSTER GOLD #10
TRINITY #2

Don't forget to "Click to Launch Viewer" to finish reading the preview pages!!

Titans (whatever) #1

TITANS #1

written by Judd Winick
art by Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund

Okay...
When this book was first announced I was kind of excited. I mean, THE NEW TEEN TITANS has always been one of my all-time favorite comics. I love these characters and having them come back together was just too much to ask. Even though the previous TITANS revival kinda fell apart, I still wanted to love that one, too.
Judd Winick wasn't really a stumbling block for me. I know a lot of people on the internet seem to hate him, but he's written some good stuff (GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY, the first couple years of THE OUTSIDERS) along with the bad (TITANS/YOUNG JUSTICE: GRADUATION DAY, TITANS EAST SPECTACULAR). So, I wasn't too worried.
Ian Churchill's art on the other hand had me a little trepidatious. I just don't get it most of the time. He can draw a pretty man on occassion, but on the whole it just does nothing for me. But I read the interviews, and Winick seemed like he was excited and got the group. So I thought it might me all right.
I guess I was kinda wrong. This book just doesn't make any sense. I could go into more detail, but Troy Brownfield over at Newsarama has pretty much taken all the words out of my mouth.
Go read his review and then come on back. I'll wait.

Hmm, hmmm. La la la la...

Oh, hi! Okay: First of all, I don't hate it quite that much. But it's close.
What is the timeline on this thing? Are they all attacked at once? They couldn't get ahold of Dick to let him know what was happening, because his comm was cut while he was fighting. And how long was his fight that they got ahold of Batman and he got to Dick before Dick was done? Or did the other attacks happen before Dick's? And how did they get away.
Especially Donna. She was out in space with Kyle, gets attacked by some tentacle thing, and then has time to get free, come back to earth and change clothes. All the while that Dick is running around with glass sticking out of his neck. !!??? And where did Kyle go? He was a Titan once. He did get attacked same time as Donna. Were they just like "Okay, see ya later!" !!???
About the only thing I didn't hate that most people seem to have a problem with is the return of Trigon. I love him. I hope he turns out to be cool. But really, this should have been a lot more Raven oriented for Trigon's return...
All in all, there were some highlights in the artwork :). However if these weren't my favorite characters, I probably wouldn't be back. But I have to keep reading to see if maybe it gets better. Please.

And now for something completely different: Here's a review of the book from an alternate universe. I really, truly cannot believe we read the same book. I so wish I could love it as much as this guy did.

Best (?) Covers: DC Solicitations, May '08

Okay, this is the time of the month that I usually show the covers which I think stand out from the crowd in the DC and Marvel solicitations. (Okay, it should've been last week, but you'll get over it) The thing is: I don't think there really were any. Not one that was just a "wow" kind of image. Not from either company. There was just one that stood out and was pretty cool:

COUNTDOWN PRESENTS: THE SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER TP by Greg Tocchinni

Of course, the big problem with this one is that I've read all the stories and this is basically a big bag of suck. Stories that suck while they suck away your money and suck away your time. But that cover is beautiful. I just love it.

Well, since I have nothing nice to say about May's covers, I'm gonna do a little complain':

TITANS #2 by Joe Benitez & Victor Llamas

First of all, where is Ian Churchill? Don't get me wrong, I don't want him on this series, but isn't he supposed to be the artist on it? And they already have a fill-in on the second issue!!??
Second: When did Raven get that rack? And how big is it that she's turned away from the reader...and you can still see it!!?
Finally: Who thought this was a good look for Donna Troy?

I couldn't have come up with a worse look, and everyone knows I'm no costume designer!

WONDER WOMAN #20 by Aaron Lopresti

This is actually a pretty nice cover. And I find the background intriguing. But I have a problem with her chestplate. Two actually. Don't get me wrong, Lopresti is the WW artist, and as far as I'm concerned, he gets to dictate the look. But if J G Jones is using the Dodson-styled chestplate for FINAL CRISIS, it's just going back to the old inconsistency crap.

Plus, I absolutely HATE the look of the crooked W. It's not the first time an artist thought he was being clever. And it just doesn't work. You cannot stylize the WW to look like an eagle. Get over it. Either do an eagle, or do the WW. That's why the Dodson design worked. He didn't try and morph the WW into an eagle, he just added accruments. So you got your WW and your eagle and the design worked. This one...not so much.

DC SPECIAL: RAVEN #3 by Damion Scott & Robert Campanella

URGH. Could it get any worse?

Countdown to Final Crisis 13

The last 3 issues of COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS have been pretty damn good. The story is rolling. The sad part is, they've stopped telling a lot of the stories. No Jimmy Olsen. No Karate Kid. It's all been about "The Challengers" (Donna, Kyle & Jason), the Monitors, Monarch and Superman-Prime. But it's been fast-paced and interesting.

Maybe a little too fast-paced? I have no idea what happened between panels one and two of this page...but something must have.

Double Take

A 40-year old cover gets swiped. Not once -- but twice. And just a couple months apart. Kinda crazy.

Our Army at War #195
by Joe Kubert
(July 1968)


Countdown to Final Crisis #17
by Pete Woods
(January 2, 2008)


Action Comics #862 (variant)
by Keith Giffen and Al Milgrom
(April 2008)

Meanwhile...

Thanksgiving is over, and I was kinda over the theme. So I'm putting this up for a week until it's time for the Christmas Holiday theme...

Thanksgiving Comics - Untimely end...

When the Thanksgiving theme started with this...you had to know it wasn't going to end well.

Look at the happy family gathering from JSA #54 (JANUARY 2004). All settled down for a sweet little Thanksgiving dinner.

Yeah right. We already know how these people are!!
For the first time ever, here's the unedited cover that DC didn't want you to see!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

DC Universe - November 21 2007

Here's a list of DC Universe-related titles expected to come out this Wednesday, according to the Diamond Previews website.
Click on the highlighted titles to head over to Newsarama for previews (you'll have to scroll to see some of them). Except for the GASLIGHT preview, it has Donna, so I stole it! :P

52 Vol. 4 TP
ACTION COMICS #859
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #11
BATMAN: DEATH IN THE CITY TP
BIRDS OF PREY #112
BRAVE AND THE BOLD #8
CATWOMAN #73
CHECKMATE #20
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #23
COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #3 (of 8)
DETECTIVE COMICS #838
FLASH #234
JACK KIRBY'S FOURTH WORLD OMNIBUS Vol. 3 HC
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES in the 31st CENTURY #8
METAMORPHO: YEAR ONE #4 (of 6)
SHADOWPACT #19
SUPERGIRL: IDENTITY TP
WORLD WAR III TP

COUNTDOWN PRESENTS: SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER: GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT #1

Written by Brian Augustyn
Art by Greg Tocchini
Cover by Dustin Nguyen

Donna Troy is not your Bitch!

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with this turn of events in COUNTDOWN 27 (OCT 24 2007):
But they did make it all better in COUTNDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 26 (OCT 31 2007):

And it totally rocked.
Proving once again that Donna Troy ain't nobody's bitch...Re-Todd!

And can we have more Scott Kolins, please?

Random Packages

Hal Jordon needs to wear jeans more often.

...

And Garth Ranzz might want to consider a codename upgrade to Lightning Rod.

DC Highlights for November

COUNTDOWN PRESENTS: THE SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER: GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT #1 & RED RAIN #1
What's really cool about these (besides starring Donna Troy) is that they're getting some of the original creators from the Elseworlds stories to work on them! Writer Brian Augustyn on Gotham by Gaslight and artist Kelley Jones on Red Rain. That just kinda rocks. It almost gives them a little more cred. It would almost be cool if they had a different artist drawing the Challengers of the Beyond characters on these books. It would really make them sort of stand out as not belonging on those worlds. But maybe that would make the whole thing kinda stupid. I don't know. It was just a thought.

COUNTDOWN PRESENTS: LORD HAVOK AND THE EXTREMISTS #2
This one kinda irritates me. I really have zero interest in this mini series. But if the Challengers of the Beyond (read: Donna Troy) are guess-starring, I guess I have to buy this issue. DC sucks, LOL!

GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #2
The soliciation for this one reads: "Black Canary and Speedy head to Amazon Island, where a job offer from Athena seems to be the perfect opportunity for Dinah to focus some of her frustrations over what’s happened to Green Arrow." Which begs the question: What happened to Green Arrow? The covers of the first two issues of this series have featured Connor Hawke as GA not Ollie. Things that make you go hmmmm.
Plus, what the heck is Amazon Island? Do they mean Themyscira...or is this some new addition to the DC Universe?

BOOSTER GOLD #4
Based just on the first issue and the solicitaions of the next 3, this is turning into one of my favorite books. I've never been a big Booster Gold fan, but I love the angle they're taking with this series. It's just fun.

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #43
Teen Titans. Mike McKone. What's not to love?

SUPERGIRL #23
"The Teen of Steel embarks on a brand-new direction as writer Kelley Puckett joins forces with acclaimed art team Drew Johnson & Ray Snyder as the new SUPERGIRL creative team!" I thought Tony Bedard and Renato Guedes were the new creative team. They just started with issue #20. 3 issues later there's another one? This book isn't even 2 years old and it's had more creative team changes than Uncanny X-men!! Consistancy would be nice, but as long as the book gets good, I can deal. Plus, I like me some Drew Johnson.

THE ALL-NEW ATOM #17
Wonder Woman. Gail Simone. What's not to love?

WONDER WOMAN #14
Wonder Woman. Gail Simone. What's not to love?

TRIALS OF SHAZAM #10
"Art and cover by Mauro Cascioli" WTF? Did I miss something? What happened to Howard Porter?

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: AN EYE FOR AN EYE TP
I'd be more excited about this if it was collecting the original Levitz/Giffen run from the beginning, instead of the Baxter series. I mean this is good, but I like the older stuff. There's so many trades coming out this month, I'll probably pass on this one. I'm sure I still have the originals around someplace.

BATMAN/SUPERMAN: SAGA OF THE SUPER SONS TP
This is billed as the complete saga of the Super Sons, but I think I read somewhere that one of the stories is left out. I don't know which one, or if it's maybe been fixed, but this is one that I'm going to get.

SHOWCASE PRESENTS: TEEN TITANS VOL. 2 TP
(This isn't the actual cover, I took the solicitaion art and mocked up my own. I'm stupid like that, LOL) I'm holding out hope for a volume 3. The first 2 volumes each included 18 issues of Teen Titans, plus 3 other stories. Well, there are still 17 issues of the original series left (if you count the 70s revival with Titans West) and at least 2 Brave and Bolds from the 70s. Surely they can find something to fill out the rest (like the Joker's Daughter stories from BATMAN FAMILY). Hopefully they won't let me down!!

HEROES HC
If this weren't hardcover, I'd snap it up in a second. But I'll wait for the trade.

GEN13 #14
"GEN13 welcomes acclaimed writer Simon Oliver as he joins artists Carlo Barberi & Drew Geraci!" Is Gail Simone off this book? Then me, too. Don't love Gen13 that much.

NEW GODS ACTION FIGURES
Based on the art of Jack Kirby, on sale April 30, 2008. I've never been the biggest Kirby fan. In fact, as a kid, I didn't like his stuff at all. I thought all his people looked like Frankenstein monsters. As I've matured, I've grown to appreciate his stuff. And I actually think these figures look kinda cool. Although, you have to wonder about the thought process behind releasing a Lightray figure a year after they kill off the character. Why not a Big Barda to go along with the Mr. Miracle?

Okay, that's all.

Countdown 38. August 8 2007

I'm not really sure why the cover announces: "The First Appearance of Mr. Action! Collector's Item!" when Jimmy has been running around the pages of COUNTDOWN as Mr. Action for the past 3 or 4 weeks. But what do I know?

I'm not familiar with Shane Davis' art (although I checked ComicBookDB, and it says he drew an issue of WONDER WOMAN), but I like this cover. The Titans look great!


Thank goodness that Jesus Saiz is back on the art!! It seems like it's been a couple of weeks since the art in COUNTDOWN hasn't been hard on the eyes.

And he draws an awesome looking Batwoman! Love her!


"History of the Multiverse" Two things first: 1) Jerry Ordway should always ink Dan Jurgens. I love both of these guys seperately as artists, but when they come together, it takes them both to another level, in my opinion. 2) How the heck old is Jason Todd supposed to be!!?

This part of the whole COUNTDOWN/DC Universe story is confusing the heck out of me! Why do they have to be exterminated? Why did Duela have to die? I understand that they "aren't supposed to be here," and that they're presence is an anomoly that's causing stress to the multiverse (I don't get it, the "why" is not clear, but I understand it from a storyline POV). But why do they have to die? Why don't the Monitors just put them back on the Earths they belong to? Why is that not an option? The writers really need to clear this part of the story up.

DC Solicitations for October

No, I'm not going through them all, LOL! Eek! Just wanted to talk about a couple o' things:

ReActivated Series 4: Wonder Woman.
Okay, the ReActivated line is supposed to be reissues of figures that aren't available anymore. But for the life of me, I do not recognize this figure at all! The body (except for the deformed hips, WTF) looks kinda like the Silver Age Wonder Woman from ReActivated Series 1, but the head is totally different. I dunno. Weird.

Minimates Wave 7: Nightwing and Starfire.
While I'm always happy to see the Titans represented anywhere (talk about the red-headed step-children of the DC Universe), it seems kind of odd that they've included a modern-day Nightwing with a classic Starfire. You think they would've done a set of either one or the other.

Countdown 30.
This cover is just all kinds of cool. I've wanted to love Countdown like I loved 52, but so far it just hasn't been meant to be. It just seems kinda slow moving. Not sure how big a part this scene plays into it all, but it still rocks! Are these guys from Earth-2? Where and when did Donna get the silver lasso? And dang if Jason is lookin' pretty healthy, LOL!

Brave and the Bold 7.
Well, I usually expect better from George Perez. I mean, he's a detail man. So why he didn't get the details right on Wonder Woman's costume kinda dumbfounds me. Hopefully since things can change between solicitation and publication (as we've seen below), maybe it'll get fixed. Either way, it'll be way cool to see Wonder Woman and Power Girl teaming-up with art by Perez!! Rocking!

DC Infinite Halloween Special 1.
It's about time. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Although people constantly feel the need to remind me that it's not a holiday. Yeah? FU, it is if I say it is. Bite me. Anyway, this could be all kinds of suck, but the effort is being made.
And that makes me happy. :)

Wonder Woman 13.
Okay, there's nothing majorly special about this one. We all know I love Wonder Woman. And we can see that the Dodsons were born to draw her. But this gets a special nod because it is GAIL SIMONE'S FIRST ISSUE! SHE'S FINALLY HERE!! I'm telling you, I haven't hated the first 10 issues of WW, but it hasn't been a lovefest, either. Gail Simone is one of the best writers in comics, and I'm just jazzed that not only is she writing Wonder Woman, but that she actually wanted to write Wonder Woman!!! She is going to make this thing explode...or there may be no hope!!!

Okay, bye. Have a great day!!

It worked so well the first time...

Every now and then, a comic book cover becomes iconic and inspires artists to do their own riff on it. Some people call it swipes, but I think it's more homage. When the source material is so well known and so obvious, the repeating artist is not trying to say "Hey, look at my all-new original idea!" They're paying tribute to the original. A swipe is when an artist copies someone else's work and tries to act like they didn't. That's my opinion.

Anyway: When George Perez drew the cover for the first issue of The New Teen Titans back in 1980...who knew? Probably no one. Because no one paid homage to it for 16 years. And then it was George paying homage to himself. But boy did that open up the flood gates. Take a look:

New Teen Titans (1st series) 1. November 1980	New Titans 130. February 1996
Titans Secret Files and Origins 1. 1999	10th Muse (vol 2) 1. July 2002
Teen Titans (3rd series) 1 2nd print. September 2003	New Teen Titans: Terror of Trigon TPB. 2003
Teen Titans (3rd series) 25. August 2005	Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide: 35th Edition. 2005
Transformers: Beast Wars: The Gathering 1. June 2006	Teen Titans (3rd series) 41. January 2007