I made a promise I couldn’t keep. Covering Comic-Con by oneself is impossible. The convention center took days to explore, and each panel had a line so long, you would have had to be there an hour before hand to ensure attendance. I thought I’d have free time, but at night when I thought I’d post, I was occupied by parties.

As far as the Con went, I have mixed feelings. As a comic fan, everyone and everything you’d want to see would be there, and lines in teh comic book area wouldn’t be too horrible. But, the movie and TV and video game and toy stuff really stole comics’ limelight, and filled the con with tourists and kids who admittedly didn’t read. Harold & Kumar were there, for example, and their booth put Marvel’s to shame. But once I stayed out of the entertainment section and kept to the comics area, I had a good time meeting with publishers and creators.

The parties were by far the best part of the Con because I could meet and talk to people one on one. You’d turn around and Joss Whedon or Bruce Campbell would be chilling. I met Mark Waid, Stephen Baldwin, Bill Willingham, the heads of DC and Marvel, Keith Giffen, and Grant Morrison at these parties, and as a professional and a fan boy I had a great time just talking to people.

News: Read the rest of this entry »

People are lining up, even after Friday, to see the second title in the new franchise of Batman movies. Dark Knight has broken box office records, and while it hasn’t yet made the most money for a super hero movie yet, it’s getting there.

But the first order of business is to point out that this isn’t a super hero movie. Sure, Warner Bros. used the likeness and names of some DC characters, but Dark Knight wasn’t based on the comics - it was it’s own beast. All the previous Batman movies, including Batman Begins, were super hero movies. The hero fights villain over the use of a doomsday weapon and good succeeds. I don’t know what Dark Knight was, but it was not one of those films.

I don’t know how Dark Knight didn’t have an R rating. The amount of pointless, sadistic violence was disturbing. Cellphones sewn under skin? Children held at gun point? I will be the first to admit, I read and watch disturbing stuff. I’ve read the likes of Carlton Mellick and Edward Lee, so my exposure to the absurdly violent is not something new. So when I say this movie was one of the most purposelessly disturbing thing I’ve ever seen, take my word for it.

This is not a movie for children. This is not a movie for people with children.

What this was was an immature grasp at “depth” and “creativity,” using bizarre killing as a juvenile means of tricking the audience into thinking the movie was groundbreaking. Like Dr. Horrible has said,”Killing’s not elegant or creative.” The Joker would do the sort of things he did in the movie, dead-man switching two boats and killing his own men, but the way he did it was not how the Joker should have been portrayed. They took a homicidal genius and turned him into a sadistic monster just because.

You could tell Saw 5 was attempting to break the super hero mold, which it did, by focusing on Harvey Dent almost more than Bruce Wayne, and showing us people suffering. Why was it so serious? This was not a fun summer movie - this was not Iron Man or Incredible Hulk. Save yourself the emotional scarring and see Mama Mia! instead.

It seems the beginning of the new Batman movie is up online, for who knows how long.

This is the Joker in action. This seems to be a good set up, and didn’t fall into the “we need to show an origin” trap the earlier Batman films did.

The Dark Knight goes public for reals in theaters July 18th.

courtesy DC

DC’s big event, aside from Final Crisis, is Batman R.I.P., the controversial storyline that stemmed internet rumors and even resulted in a rabid fan to actually call DC’s Editor-in-Chief on his office phone to complain.

This new storyline doesn’t mean that Bruce Wayne is going to die. As Geoff Johns (Superman, JSA) pointed out, R.I.P. could stand for Running In Place (which most comics tend to do anyway). Writer Grant Morrison (The Invisibles, Animal Man, Doom Patrol) is spearheading this crossover that deals with all the Batman titles.

I usually only read Detective Comics, so I don’t know the order the issues are meant to be read in. The following comics are all part of this event:

Batman #676- 681
Detective Comics # 846-850
Nightwing #147-150
Robin #175-176
Batman and the Outsiders #11-13

Grant Morrison has also stated Batman will not necessarily die, but be forever changed - at least until the next retcon. Unless you already read this series, I’d wait until the trade paperback comes out for this one.

This was a Marvel heavy week for me - mainly due to Deadpool. That’s not to say there wan’t more out from other publishers that deserves to be looked at, of course.

Deadpool Classic Vol. 1 TPB (Marvel) - This is a chronological reprinting of all of Deadpool’s major first appearances, hopefully leading into more volumes.

Deadpool vs. The Marvel Universe TPB (Marvel) - The end of Cable & Deadpool. This is where Deadpool teamed up with Wolverine, the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, the Mighty Avengers and fights Venom-ized dinosaurs! This also addresses story points from the first Deadpool series, which hopefully we’ll see in trade form down the line. Read the rest of this entry »

All For None

I just picked up the Justice League: The New Frontier DVD. This is the second straight-to-DVD animated movie released by Warner Bros and DC in the past year, the first being The Death of Superman. This movie is based on Darwyne Cooke’s comic series of the same name, which is collected in two trade paperback volumes and one over-sized hardcover Absolute edition.

The basic premise of the comic/movie is to look back to the early comics of the DC characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Cooke wanted to portray the characters as they were originally were in the 40s and 50s, but to infuse their origin stories with the absent historical events of the time, like McCarthyism and the Korean War. There is nothing wrong with this. It is a great premise - super heroes interacting with the history they are a part of. Read the rest of this entry »

Image courtesy
DC Comics

Thank you Paul Dini for saving DC Comics. You have single-handedly saved my faith in the medium in it’s totality. Why?

Because your issues of Detective Comics are single issue stories. I don’t have to wait half a year or longer to see one bad guy get thwarted. Your issues read like Batman: The Animate Series episodes. They introduce villains and Batman defeats them quickly in a fun, thrilling escapist detective story. There is not a big continuity mess I’m seeing in most DC titles right now. Your issues create Batman mythology, instead of other books that tell us there is a back story.

This issue was good on it’s own terms. The Mad Hatter is forming a gang of Lewis Carroll themed villains and as a fan of the book, seeing costumed criminal versions of The Walrus and The Carpenter made me smile more than the Joker.

So thank you for your work. Detective Comics just went to the top of my pull list.

I forgot to mention last week that new comic book day is not Wednesday, rather the third business day of that week. While this usually falls on Wednesday, on weeks where Monday has stores closed, or like this or last week where Monday and Tuesday stores are closed, new comic book day is on Thursday and Friday respectively. So this Friday, check out some of the New Year’s newest comics. Read the rest of this entry »

Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman & Batwoman

Credit: DC Comics

These various Search for Ray Palmer one-shots have been less about the Challengers of the Unknown and their search for Ray Palmer, The Atom, and more about highlighting the various realities in the DC Multiverse.

Earth-11 is a world where gender-roles have been reversed, so Superman is Superwoman and Wonder Woman is Wonder Man.

This issue shows the events of Amazons Attack! but as the all-male society, the Amazons, attack the now nearly all female Justice League.

The novelty of this issue was seeing how the gender-role reversals were shown in various heroes. There was little else to this comic, but it was interesting to see the female versions of some heroes, like Columbia instead of Uncle Sam and a female Demon.

Credit: Warner Bros.

No.

Okay, now that I’ve got that out of the way…

I think comic fans need to realize that the movie adaptations have nothing really to do with the comic books. I mean, sure the basic ideas are there, but they are so influenced by the entertainment industry comic book movies are separate from comics.

The trailer for The Dark Knight is on the web and we get a first look at the 2008 film, where Christian Bale reprises his role as Batman and Heath Ledger plays the Joker.

The Joker in this film is reminiscent of Jack Nicholson’s portrayal in the 1989 movie. The legacy of this new Batman franchise that started with Batman Begins is meant to reflect the Batman of the 90s movies.

Batman of the comics is not like the popular conception of the utilitarian avenger, the dark and brooding man that will take justice into his own hands, even if he has to get blood on them.

Yes, comic Batman is dark and brooding, but he’s also a boy scout. In preparation for the movies, I’m sure some tourists picked up Frank Miller’s Dark Knight series and saw the grim portrayal indicative of the 80s comic world. What people forget is this was an Elseworld, a re-imagining of the character not considered canon. Read the rest of this entry »