Thursday, November 21, 2013

Issue Review: Red Sonja 5

Red Sonja and her two "body guards," the teenage girls Ayla and Nias, attack one of the watch posts set by Dark Annisia and defeat them.  Sonja is still weak from the plague, and must continue to take the medicine concocted by King Dimath's son. After she rests, they continue toward Patra, where Tiath (Dimath's son) awaits them.  On the way, they find a lonely unmarked grave where Dimath rests -- unmarked to protect it from Annisia as well as grave robbers. Sonja flashes back to the time when Dimath freed her from the Zamorans who had captured her and Annisia, and remembers pledging loyalty to him for his kindness.  Meanwhile, Annisia continues to be haunted by ghosts of the many whom she and Sonja killed in the arena. Her soldiers report that Sonja has come back, and she orders them to burn Patra to the ground.  Back in the village square, Tinath uses leeches to draw the plague out of Sonja, and once she recovers, gives her armor and weapons.  Sonja then challenges Annisia to meet her in the Zamoran arena, and the two fight. However, Annisia hears noise around them, and suddenly they see King Bazrat of Zamora and his men, ready to watch them fight to the death.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Issue Review: Supergirl 25

The Oracle watches as parts of the time-stream are being destroyed by H'el, while Superboy, Supergirl, and Superman try to prevent it.  In the distant past H'el attempts to stab Kara with the Kryptonite shard she used on him, but she breaks free.  Meanwhile, in the more recent past, Superman watches his mother tell his father that they are about to have a baby (him).  Superboy and Kara from before she became Supergirl fight against the Eradicator, who Superboy sends to Smallville through a space-time portal.  The H'el of two time periods merges, bringing Superboy and present-day Supergirl back together.  Then Supergirl launches a final attack to destroy H'el.


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Issue Review: Batgirl 25

This month, the ongoing Batgirl story arc, "Wanted," is interrupted for a 1-shot "Batman Zero Year" tie-in. This issue is written by a fill-in author, Marguerite Bennett.  It chronicles the story of Barbara and James Gordon trying to make their way through a Gotham City that is seeing a hundred-year storm and starting to flood.  First, Babs is mugged after buying bread and gas, although she gets away and makes it home with her supplies. Then her father goes out to do his job, and leaves her home to protect James. It's not long before the fire department shows up and tells the Gordons to evacuate, as they are in a flood zone.  They relocate to a fire house, but that then floods as well.  Babs helps get everyone onto the roof, but then one of the survivors betrays them, trying to make off with all their supplies. Barbara manages to take him down and then helps get the rest of the refugees to safety as the storm only gets worse.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Movie Review: Thor, the Dark World

It's opening weekend for Marvel's latest superhero movie, Thor, the Dark World (hereafter: TTDW), which is a sequel to both the first Thor, and Avengers.  I saw the movie yesterday, and what follows will be a brief review of it.  Please note that there be spoilers here, so if you haven't seen the movie, go see it first.  Otherwise, certain plot points and surprises may be ruined.

The movie begins with a prologue showing that Malekith and the Dark Elves (who look strangely light-skinned given their name) ruled the universes until the Asgardians came and defeated them, bringing the light. Malekith created a powerful force called Aether which he would use to win, but it was taken from him by Odin's father, and hidden away in the deeps. The Dark Elves were defeated, but Malekith and a small number of them escaped on a giant space-ship.  This part of the film was pretty good, although even at this point, I thought Malekith was rather flat and uninteresting (as portrayed in the movie -- I love him in the comics).

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Issue Review: Supergirl 24

Inside the I'noxian collective, Kara's mind, no longer connected with her body, goes back to the time when she was a little girl.  But she knows that Cyborg Superman betrayed her, and she wants revenge.  As Zor-El, Kara's father and formerly Cyborg Superman, realizes what he has done, and finally remembers who he is, Brainiac attacks. Zor-El decides to go back to being Cyborg Superman, and to give Kara her body back.  However, Kara, enraged against what the I'naxians have done, breaks free on her own and starts tearing apart the planet.  A floating disk in the distance pulls Kara's body into it. Cyborg Superman is reconstituted and fights Brainiac.  Meanwhile, Kara, naked, awakens "nearby" surrounded by more floating disks. Delacore, the lead I'naxian, tells her to get away, and that her family wanted her to find happiness.  The I'naxian collective miniaturizes itself and escapes. Kara gets onto her space-bike and flees the scene, only to be stopped by the giant space oracle from several issues ago.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Issue Review: Thor God of Thunder 14

Alfyse, queen of the Dark Elves, seeks refuge from Malekith by hiding out in the realm of the dwarves.  Meanwhile, her champion, Sir Wormsong, challenges Malekith to battle. They fight, but Malekith uses sorcery and kills Wormsong.  Meanwhile, Thor returns to Asgardia to discover that the Council of Worlds is putting together a strike team to go after Malektih, and they want Thor to lead it. Thor is joined by Sir Ivory the light elf, Screwbeard the dwarf, Oggmunder the giant, and Ud the troll.  Lady Wazira of the Dark Elves, whose arm was cut off last issue, insists she be allowed to join, and uses a twig to magically repair her arm. Together, the team heads to the land of the dwarves, only to find that Malekith has already gotten there, and battle ensues. Malekith's force is driven off, but not before he beheads the queen and all her courtiers.  Thor swears revenge.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Issue Review: Ghosted 4

King, Anderson, and Trick stand around a table in the haunted Trask Mansion discussing King's new plan -- to get one of the team possessed by a ghost, and then take the ghost out of the house, thereby completing their assignment for "catching a ghost."  As the team argues, Jackson shows up with a raw neck.  He'd been hanged last issue, but the ghost woman in the red dress freed him, telling him she wanted him to help her escape and find revenge. Meanwhile, the rest of the team searches for Joe in the video room, but finds him gone.  As they look, Joe contacts his brother Jay via the monitors, claiming he's doing so from beyond the grave, and tries to warn him about the house.  Trick leads Edzia, King, and Jackson to the hidden room where he got a glimpse of hell, and Edzia tries to summon a spirit -- and succeeds.  Trick becomes possessed by an evil demon, and King knocks him out cold.  The team carries him upstairs to get him outside before dark, but Anderson stops them from leaving.  As she and Jackson argue, the sun goes down.  Finally, Jay and his video team run outside against Jackson's orders,  and an army of ghosts appears and attacks them, seemingly killing them all.  Then the ghosts enter the house, and Jackson says that their gig was never just a robbery... it was a prison break.

Sunday, October 13, 2013

Issue Review: Red Sonja 4

Dark Anissia patrols the outside of the quarantined land Patra, and when she discovers one of the citizens trying to escape, she executes him.  Then she bathes in his blood and takes on the name Red Anissia, to represent that she has taken the place of Red Sonja, the land's former protector.  Meanwhile, the two young girls who have appointed themselves Sonja's bodyguards, Ayla and Nias, tend to Sonja and give her an Elixir made by the king's son Timath, that will supposedly cure the plague ravishing Sonja's body.  Sonja is blind, so the girls cover her eyes with a cloth to prevent the sun from damaging them.  Then they carry her back toward Patra.   As the girls seek food, Toda the Tormentor and his minions find them and capture them. Sonja hears the commotion and even though she is blind, she manages to shoot them with her bow and arrow based on sound, and their stink.  Toda tries to strangle her but she cuts off his hands. Then she pulls off her blindfold, apparently able to see again, and shouts that she is going to defeat Annisia.

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Issue Review: Thor God of Thunder 13

A team of dark elves from Svartalfheim sneaks into Niffleheim, the land of the dead, and frees Malekith the Accursed from his eternal imprisonment.  Unaware that this is happening, Thor and his friends, Sif and the Warriors Three, are on Asgardia, where they celebrate the election of Volstagg to the senate.  They drink and toast one another, until a dark elf in attendance screams that Svartalfheim is burning.  Thor and his friends immediately sober up, and head out via the rainbow bridge to the realm of the dark elves.   There, they find a village slaughtered and Malekith holding an elf woman hostage.  Thor demands she be released, and Malekith cuts off her arm and throws her at Thor.  Then he disappears.  Thor uses lightning to cauterize the wound and prevent the elf-woman from dying. Meanwhile, Malekith summons those elves loyal to him and begins the great hunt.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Issue Review: Batgirl 24

Barbara Gordon, wearing a ninja-suit disguise but not her Batgirl suit, holds her boyfriend Ricky, who is starting to bleed out as a result of a gunshot wound from Barbara's father.  The rest of the police tell the gang members to surrender, and most of them do, but Barbara refuses to be captured.  She smacks the cops around long enough to escape.  After she gets away, Detective McKenna finds her, but McKenna seems to know who she is (whether that means McKenna knows the masked girl is Babs or Batgirl is unclear, as is whether McKenna knows that Babs is Batgirl). McKenna tells Barbara that Knightfall is behind everything. After getting some much-needed sleep, Barbara goes to the hospital to see Ricky, and learns that he is in a coma. She finally decides to go see her father, but before she can get there, Knightfall's minions invade his house and capture him, preparing to kill him. When Barbara arrives and recognizes what's going on, she decides to become Batgirl one more time, to save her father.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Issue Review: Rocket Girl 1

A teenage cop named Dayoung from "the future" goes back in time to 1986 to stop a time-stream crime by a company called Quintum Mechanics.  In "the future," she argues with her boss to send her back in time to stop Quintum, and he agrees.  In "the past," 1986, she appears in the lab where Quintum Mechanics, newly formed by a few scientists, is testing their "Q-Engine." This is the machine that will alter the future, according to Dayoung.  Before she can really explain anything, however, her gear picks up a call on the police band, and she flies off in her rocket suit to investigate.  She collars the criminal, but the 1986 cops try to arrest her too, and she has to rough them up.  Then the scientists from Quintum catch up to her and pull her into a cab, to get her away before more "present day" cops show up.


Thursday, October 3, 2013

Issue Review: Lazarus 4

At the Carlyle Family compound, James and Bethany, who are monitoring Forever's vital signs, receive an alarm signal.  They quickly realize that she's been attacked. Jonah and Johanna monitor progress as their Carlyle soldiers land and prepare to finish Forever off.  But Eve's healing capacity is greater than the soldiers expect.  As they line up to execute her, she escapes, and between her and the Morray Lazarus Joacquim, they dispatch all the Carlyle troopers except the chopper pilot.  Eve gives Joacquim her bike, since his car was destroyed, and they part ways.  She takes the chopper back to Jonah and Johanna's place.  Back there, Johanna orders their servant Mason to hit her repeatedly, to make it look like Jonah attacked her.  Then she orders Jonah to flee.  When Eve arrives, Johanna claims that Jonah was acting alone in betraying Eve, and that when Johannah found out about it, he beat her and fled.  Forever sends Johanna to the Puget Sound HQ of the Family, and reports everything to Malcom, their father.  She then heads back to the compound in California for a checkup with Bethany and James.  When she gets to her room, there is an e-mail waiting from an unknown sender, saying that Malcolm is not her father, and the Carlyles are not her family.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Statue 6 - Supergirl - New 52 Covergirls series

Yesterday, my comic-book shop left a message for me.  The brand new Supergirl statue from the DC New 52 Covergirls series had come in, and they wanted to know if I was still interested, and if they should put it aside for me. As anyone who has read this blog could predict, I told them of course!  I hadn't planned to head over to the comic shop today, actually. Even though it is New Comic-book Night, only one book on my pull list was due out this week (Lazarus #4), and I figured it would cost me more in gas to drive there and back (now that I live 40 minutes from the shop) than the cover price of $2.99.  Since I had more issues due out next week, I figured to just wait and pick up Lazarus a week late.

However, knowing that the statue was there, I decided it was worth the trip.  This statue was announced about 5 months ago, and I've been dying to get it ever since.  It's only the second statue ever made of Supergirl in her "New 52" costume. And although that's not exactly my favorite version of her costume, given the display I am planning to make, with one shelf devoted to each of Supergirl's four major incarnations, I figured this would spruce up shelf #4 (the current one).  That's not to say I have all the figures I need yet.  So far, I only have one action figure for original Kara (the "Crisis" uniform, as people call it, with the head band and the red shoulder stripes), and one for Matrix Supergirl (it's not explicitly called that, but it is the proper costume for Peter David's version). I don't have any yet for the second Kara (the one with the bare midriff) -- that is my next assignment.  However, the other thing I like about this statue is that it's a full-sized one, not just a bust or waist-up figure.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Issue Review: Miss Fury 6

Miss Fury desperately calls out for Captain Chandler on the train platform, but he is not there.  As she looks around for him, she spots Schauburger, the time-traveling Nazi from issues 1-5.  She realizes that she has come back to a timeline different from the one she remembers.  The military police on the train platform try to capture her, but she dodges past an oncoming train.  She tries looking for Chandler at his apartment, but there is no evidence that he ever lived there. She heads back to her own place, but then she sees another version of herself, already there wearing an evening gown.  The two Marlas lock eyes and the other timeline's Marla toasts herself.  The Miss Fury whose exploits we've been following decides to get help from a rich young man who has a crush on her. He calls in favors in Washington and discovers that Chandler went AWOL 13 months ago -- which means he does exist.  Miss Fury heads to a rooftop to try and figure out what is going on, and concludes that Schauburger somehow plucked Chandler from the time stream.  She concentrates, and starts seeing visions of other times all in the same place.  She enters a building that seems to be shifting in time, and after fighting midieval knights, she comes face to face with Schauburger. But she can't hurt him, because he's already dead, and he says that he needs her help again.  Hermann has not really been stopped, and Chandler is Schauburger's way of guaranteeing Miss Fury's cooperation.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Issue Review: Captain Midnight 3

Fury Shark seems to have Captain Midnight and Charlotte in her grasp. She wants to make Midnight watch as polar bears rip apart Charlotte. But Midnight breaks out of his bonds, and starts battling Fury's team.  He throws one of them into the path of the polar bears, buying Charlotte time.  Charlotte tries to stop Fury from escaping, and the two fight, but Fury kicks her out of a moving plane. Captain Midnight glides up and rescues her. Meanwhile, back on the ship, Commander Johnson learns that men died carrying out his plan with Midnight, and starts to come clean, but is shot by a sniper called Helios.  After the fights end, Agent Jones and Marshall regroup with Midnight and Charlotte. They explain that as he died Johnson mentioned something about a Mr. Jones and "Black Sky." Although Midnight recognizes the name, and it is connected with his time-traveling disappearance, he pretends to know nothing about it.  Midnight, Charlotte, and Marshall agree to go after Fury Shark, while Agent Jones returns to his job to work his angle "from the inside."  As the story concludes, Helios reports to a wheelchair-bound man who seems to be in control of Midnight's company, Albright Industries.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Issue Review: Jupiter's Legacy #3

As the Utopian discusses the fate of his pregnant daughter Chloe with her boyfriend Hitch, Walter and Brandon plot against him.  They somehow launch a mile-wide asteroid lined with nuclear devices at the earth to trick Utopian into trying to stop it. While this occurs, the entire team attacks Chloe and her mother (Grace), and they slaughter Grace.  Then they try to kill Chloe, but Hitch uses his teleportation powers to help the two of them escape.  Back in the desert, the rest of the team beats Utopian to a pulp, and then Brandon uses powerful eye-beams to literally drill two holes in the Utopian's skull and kill him.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

The pull list and keeping your word

Today, I'd like to discuss a service offered by most comic-book shops that is used by many customers: the "pull list."  I'm going to discuss that service because of an argument I started having on a comic-based blog, and the irresponsible attitude taken by one or two of the folks there.

First, a little history.  Originally, comic-books were printed on pulp paper, very cheaply, and sold for a few cents. When I was growing up, comics could be had for 30-40 cents, depending on the exact year.  They were mass-marketed through news stands, much like regular newspapers, and the rules for selling and distributing were very similar. The distributor would bring the news stand its allotment, and the news stand put them out.  The news stand owner could return all unsold copies, and was not financially responsible for them. Now, to be sure, the owner wanted to sell them -- he made a small profit on each one, so comics did make him some money.  But if he didn't sell some, it was no skin off his nose -- ultimately, the cost of unsold comics was borne by DC, Marvel, and the distributors.

Then in the 1980s, comic-book specialty shops started springing up with more and more frequency (I remember when the first one opened in around 1981 in my local mall).  These shops were not news stands.  They would get comics directly from the companies (these were called "direct sales"), and sell them to the customers.  Because of the differences in distribution, direct-sales shops could not return unsold quantities of comics. Therefore, they had to order the number they wanted, pay for each one they ordered, and then hope to sell each and every one.  Unlike the news stand, comic-shop owners took a loss from every unsold copy.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Story Arc Review: Invincible vol. 1 - Family Matters

Collecting issues 1-4 of the series Invincible, volume 1, "Family Matters," chronicles the story of how teenage high-school student Mark Grayson starts learning to use his super-powers.  Grayson is the son of Omni-Man. One day, as takes the trash out, Mark tosses the garbage bag so far that it practically goes into orbit.  Now, he realizes, he's starting to have super-powers.  Eventually Mark discovers that he has other powers, including flight and invulnerability.  His father takes him to get a costume, and Mark takes the name "Invincible." Shortly after getting his powers and costume, Mark goes out flying at night, and stumbles upon a villain named Mauler who is stealing video game processors.  As Invincible and Mauler fight, a group of teenage superheroes -- the Teen Team -- shows up, including Robot, Atom Eve, Rex Splode, and Dupli-Kate.. They help Mark collar Mauler.  Eve, it turns out, is one of Mark's class-mates, and they recognize each other the next day.  She invites him to join the teens as they go on their next assignment -- they follow Mauler to his hide-out and capture him and his brother.

Back at school, Eve and Mark learn that several kids have gone missing.  Meanwhile, Omni-Man takes Invincible out for a "team-up," and starts teaching him what it means to be a superhero.  Eventually, the two get involved in an alien invasion. They defeat the aliens and close their inter-dimensional portal. Then on the way home, they find one of the missing kids at the mall, strapped to a bomb.  Omni-Man throws the kid out of the mall so that when he explodes, no one else dies, but then another portal opens and the aliens capture him and take him away. As the story arc concludes, Robot uses his detective abilities to track down who has been setting the bombs -- it turns out to be Mr. Hiles, the physics teacher.  Invincible and Atom Eve go to confront him, and he admits his guilt. He explains that his son was bullied into committing suicide by one of the popular kids, so now he is killing off the popular kids in revenge.  He also has a bomb strapped to his own chest, set to go off.  Invincible grabs him and takes him to Antarctica, so no one is hurt when he blows up.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Issue Review: Ghosted 3

Winters and his team need to steal the mask of a voodoo priest from their employer, Markus Schrecken.  Winters pays Schrecken a visit in the middle of the night, surprising him in bed with two young women, to argue with him about the job Schrecken has hired him to do - steal a ghost.  The argument is a distraction, though, and while Winters and Schrecken verbally spar, Anderson, Trick, and King sneak around the mansion and Trick uses sleight of hand to steal the mask.  The team then returns to the Trask mansion, where the medium, Edzia, attempts to commune with the ghosts.  Although she does not seem successful, in other parts of the mansion, other team members are attacked. Joe Burns is attacked by a ghost in the video editing room.  And Winters sees a vision of a young woman who asks him to save her, and then is thrown off a balcony with a noose around his neck by an unknown stranger (possibly a ghost).  King says to steal the ghost they may need to have it possess one of them.... but no one is aware that Joe and Winters may be hurt, dying, or even dead.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Issue Review: Red Sonja 3

Fevered and dying of plague, Red Sonja collapses in the snow and falls into a delirious state where she starts seeing visions of her past.  As a child of twelve, she hunts with her father and brothers, but when she finds the white stag they are after, she lets it go -- she is too gentle to kill it. Her father says she may never be a hunter.  But then they hear noises, and discover that their village is under attack.  Sonja watches from the sidelines as Ryshak the Grand and his followers burn her village and kill everyone she has ever known and loved, including her entire family.  One of Ryshak's men finds her and tries to rape her, but she stabs him in the heart and kills him.  Then she spends the rest of the day burying the dead of her village. At night, she stalks out into the woods with her bow and arrows, and one by one picks off Ryshak and his men and kills them.  After reaching this point in her fever-dream, Sonja awakens. She is barely able to stand. She sees wolves coming for her, and falls back to the snow, waiting for death.  But Ayla and Nias, her self-appointed "body-guards" from Corinthia, drive off the wolves... only to discover that Sonja is dead.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Issue Review: Captain Midnight 2

Captain Midnight argues with Agent Jones, Charlotte, and Marshall about the status of world events, and is horrified to learn that his old enemy Fury Shark is a wealthy and successful tycoon.  Jones tries to take Midnight into custody and they get into a brawl, which ends when they agree to work together to investigate how Midnight was allowed to escape from the USS Ronald Reagan in the first place.  Jones and Marshall head back to the carrier to look into the details there, while Charlotte and Midnight stay at the Secret Squadron base to continue going through files that have appeared without any sign of who left them.  Fury Shark, meanwhile, sets in motion a plan to lead Midnight to his doom.  On the USS Reagan, Marshall and Jones investigate who let Midnight escape, only to find that it was the ship's captain, Commander Johnson.  As soon as he is discovered, Johnson has the MPs take them into custody.  Back at the Squadron base, Midnight detects the fake signal from Fury Shark, and takes Charlotte on an airplane recon mission to find the source of the signal.  They are shot down and end up at the old base of Ivan Shark, captured by Fury and her men.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Issue Review: Miss Fury 5

In 1942, Captain Chandler's plane explodes on a bombing run in the South Pacific.  In Manhattan of the near future, the time traveling Nazi air force is bombing the city.  Miss Fury listens as Schauberger explains what has been going on.  Harmon is really Hermann, a Nazi spy, who was a rival of Schauberger's.  When Hermann killed Schauburger, and then Miss Fury fell through the skylight into the time machine, their paths through time were linked.  He hands her a strange ball and tells her to travel through time and kill Hermann.  Schauberger tells Fury to shoot down the planes coming at them, but she refuses.  She's had enough killing, and enough of people controlling her.  Schauberger rages at her, telling her that Hermann rigged Chandler's plane to blow up, and Miss Fury then takes control of her time traveling and sends herself back to 1943.  There, she confronts Hermann, and says she won't kill again... after this. Then she shoots him, and destroys the crown and the time machine that started it all.  Finally she travels back to 1942, to the train platform, so she can see Chandler again. But he's not there.  And Schauberger, watching from the side, leers at her confusion and travels in time once more.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Issue Review: Miss Fury 4

Miss Fury battles an army of Nazi robots in the year 2013.  As the battle rages, the Nazis Pinkston and Schauburger argue.  Schauburger throws a glowing sphere into the sky and a portal opens, teleporting in a giant Nazi battleship from World War II.  Miss Fury jumps off the battleship onto a roof-top, where she tries to attack Schauburger, but the two of them vanish through time while behind them, the battleship plows through Washington, D.C.  Next a flash-back shows Marla kissing Captain Chandler good-bye as he boards a train to go back to the War.  Later we see her receive a telegram that he is dead, and she faints.  Back in the future, Miss Fury battles Nazi robots, but then flees into the basement of St. Patrick's Cathedral.  There Shauberger explains that he is dead, killed right before Miss Fury fell through the timeline.  Schauburger claims that Agent Harmon is also moving through time, and that Harmon is the real villain  Back in 2013, Harmon confronts Pinkston, whose legs were severed by the passing battleship, and asks him where the time machine is.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

My month without the New 52 continues

Back in late spring/early summer, +DC Comics announced "Villain Month" for September -- that instead of publishing their regular issues, they would publish one-shots showing the origins or back-stories of important villains in the New 52 DC Universe (aka. "the DCnU")..  These one-shots were set to have special "3D covers" (thought to me they look like clear plastic with stickers on them), and were clearly designed specifically as a marketing gimmick.  I began to balk at the idea, and then when I heard how DC was screwing over the retailers by playing games with the ordering system, I became so fed up with the whole thing that I swore off of DC's New 52 line of comics for the month.  I've discussed this at length elsewhere, so I won't go into further detail about my dislike for this "event" here.

But along with swearing off DC's mainstream comics for the month, I wanted to make sure that my own retailer in North Carolina was not harmed by my decision. None of this is the comic-shop's fault, and in fact they did everything they could to make all their customers happy with this Villain Month nonsense.  So to help out my retailer, and also to provide me with something to read as well as explore some non-DC options for buying comics, I decided that for me, instead of being "Villain Month," September would be "Independent Month." This month, I will be spending twice as much as I normally spend on DC's New 52 line, but instead of buying New 52 issues, I will buy product from the other companies out there, like Dark Horse, Image, and Dynamite.

Issue Review: Captain Midnight 1

During World War II, genius inventor Jim Albright was too valuable to the U.S. war effort to allow him to risk his life on the front lines.  Unwilling to sit out the battle against the Nazis, he disguised himself as Captain Midnight, and joined the fray.    As the story opens, Midnight's team attacks the North Pole base of Ivan Shark, a German leader.  Shark sends his daughter Fury away, and faces Midnight himself.  He dies when Midnight knocks him over the wall and he is killed by polar bears.  In the present day, Charlotte Ryan is sent by her grandmother, Captain Midnight's girlfriend Joyce, to find him.  Midnight vanished late in the war, but he resurfaced in the present day, flying out of the Bermuda Triangle.  The FBI captured him, but he escaped.  Joyce wants Charlotte to help him.  So Charlotte climbs to the base of the old Secret Squadron, where she encounters FBI agents and her ex-husband Rick.  As they look for Captain Midnight, Fury Shark, still young looking and rumored to be immortal, hears of Midnight's return and sends assassins to kill him.  When Rick and Charlotte conclude that Midnight is still in the Secret Squadron's base, half their team turns on them, and starts shooting the other half -- they turn out to be green-faced villains working for Fury Shark.  Captain Midnight shows up and takes down the green-skulls, and then offers his services to the surviving Feds.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Issue Review: Miss Fury 3

Miss Fury continues to travel back and forth through time.  In 2013, she flees across the streets of Washington DC, trying to get away from Nazi robots.  She grabs a motorcycle from a passing biker, gets on it, and tries to run over the robots.  Back in 1943, as Marla, she gets drunk after receiving the telegram that Captain Chandler was killed, and jumps from the top of a building, saving herself and her drinking partner by grabbing onto an American flag hanging off the edifice.  Back in 2013, she works with Harmon to discover who the time traveling Nazi is.  They discover that he is Erhard Schauberger, a Nazi scientist who disappeared in 1942.    Harmon sends her to capture billionaire Mel Pinkston, who has been replaced by a Nazi spy.  Miss Fury sets up on a rooftop, firing a sniper rifle at the guards as Pinkston gets out of a limo.  Then she attacks him and grabs him, but he tells her that America is already in Nazi hands, and when she turns around, everyone on the street around them is a Nazi robot.

Saturday, September 7, 2013

Issue Review: Jupiter's Legacy 2

The story begins with Brandon, son of Utopian, trying to use his powers for good. He and his friend move a large freighter through the air with Force Fields and Telekinesis.  However, they're drunk, and end up tipping it over and causing the containers to go sliding off the deck. Utopian and the other heroes have to show up and fix the situation, after which Utopian reprimands Brandon.  Meanwhile, in the hospital, Chloe recovers from her overdose and learns that she's pregnant.  She leaves the hospital and meets up with Hitch, her boyfriend, to tell him he's about to be a father.  Back in DC, Walter tries to use his mental powers to convince people in the White House to change the economic situation in America, and Utopian shows up to stop him.  Angry, Walter approaches Brandon, who is again drinking heavily in a night club, and asks him if he's willing to take down his father and replace him.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Issue Review: Wonder Woman 23

Wonder Woman's team faces down the Firstborn in the middle of a ruined Westminster Abbey.  The Firstborn has an army of bipedal wolf-creatures fighting for him, so Ares summons an army of dead soldiers from ages past to battle on Wonder Woman's side.  As the battle progresses, each team member contributes.  Orion takes on the Firstborn in a knock-down drag-out fight, but loses. Wonder Woman takes off her wrist-bands, unleashing her full power, but is unable to defeat the Firstborn and ends up bruised on the ground.  Ares battles the Firstborn with martial arts skills, but loses as well. As the Firsborn prepares to kill Ares and take his powers as the god of war, Wonder Woman takes a spear and runs both of them through, killing Ares. This keeps the powers from the Firstborn and instead transfers them to Wonder Woman.  As the story concludes, the Firsborn lies on the ground defeated, but not dead, and Hades appears to take Ares to the underworld.

Thursday, September 5, 2013

Issue Review: Miss Fury 2

Miss Fury stands in bombed-out Manhattan facing down a pair of Nazi jet airplanes with a sniper rifle.  She fires, taking out one of the pilots, who crashes into the other one. She leaps into the cockpit of another, previously-downed plane and pulls the ejection seat to get out, landing unconscious on a roof.  Then we switch timelines and she is being interrogated by Harmon, in 2013, now working for the CIA, not the OSS, and claiming never to have met her (or lived during World War II).  She tries to break out of the interrogation room, but is tasered.  Next she's back in 1942, having a romantic interlude with Chandler, a wounded solder, and is clearly falling in love with him.  Back in 2013, she is sent to assassinate a Congressman whom she is told is secretly a Nazi. She kills him,  but the people surrounding him turn out to be Nazi robots and turn to attack her.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Statue 5: Batgirl - New 52 Covergirls series

Several months ago, I heard about DC's "New 52 Covergirls" line of statues, which includes two of my favorite heroines - Supergirl and Batgirl.  Both of these characters already had "DC Covergirls" statues in the past, featuring older "classic" costumes (I have reviewed the Supergirl version here).  Photos of the new Batgirl statue looked particularly good, with a flowing cape and having her in a great pose ready to throw a "batarang."

Today when I walked into the shop, I saw a box for this statue on one of the shelves -- it had just come in this week.  I was a bit surprised by this, as the DC website says the statue doesn't ship until end of September, but I was not going to argue the point.  I had no comics to pick up this week (I am not buying DC's "Villain Month" issues, and the Indy titles I currently pull at the shop aren't due out until later in the month), and was only at the shop to update my pull list (I added Ghosted and Miss Fury to it), so I decided to go ahead and pick up the statue today.

I have to say, when I took it out of the box, I was very impressed.  Whatever problems I may have with DC editorial and the content of their current New 52 line of comics, I have nothing but favorable comments to make in general about their statues, and in particular about this one.  This is a truly outstanding sculpt of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl, with the flowing fiery red hair, the swirling cape, the cocked-and ready batarang, and the deadly serious expression on her face.  She looks every inch the heroine from the comics. The statue is highly detailed and holds up to the closest inspection. The colors are excellent and the proportions look good.


One of the very best features of this statue is the cape.  It flows very nicely and looks realistic.  The way it seems to flutter around her legs is perfect given the position of her body, and provides the illusion of real kineticism.



Overall, this is one really gorgeous statue, and if you like Batgirl at all, or heck if you just like really well-sculpted superhero collectible statues, this one is definitely worth a look.  This is a high quality collectible that will look lovely on the shelf for years to come.  I highly recommend it to anyone who likes items such as this.  Just beware the wallet -- this statue retails for $99.95 + tax.  But it's well worth it, in my opinion.

My score: 10/10

Issue Review: Jupiter's Legacy 1

The first issue of this new series begins with a flash-back to 1932. In the middle of the depression, Sheldon Sampson, his girlfriend Grace, his brother Walter, and several of their friends chartered a ship to take them into the middle of the ocean, where Sheldon dreamed of finding an island.  On the island, Sheldon and his friends gained powers, and became the world's first superheroes.  The story then picks up in the present day, with Chloe, Brandon, and Jules, super-children of these original heroes.  The old-time heroes are battling a villain named Blackstar, and have put out an emergency call to everyone with powers. The kids don't seem to want to step up and walk in their parents' footsteps, however, and their failure to do so triggers an argument between Walter, who thinks that the heroes should use their powers to fix the economy, and Sheldon (the Utopian) who thinks that the government will right itself, and that heroes have no business getting involved in politics.  As the heroes wrap up their fight with Blackstar and get ready to transport him to a maximum security prison, Chloe, Sheldon and Grace's daughter, complains to her friends about having to live up to her parents.  In the middle of her monologue, however, she falls down unconscious.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Issue Review: Ghosted 2

Winters and his ghost-hunting team have split up, and while daylight remains, continue to investigate the supposedly-haunted Trask Mansion.  The Burns brothers are mainly scoping the place out for camera positions so they can film their TV show. King is trying to find ways to prove that there is no such thing as ghosts.  Edzia attempts, unsuccessfully, to commune with the ghosts.  And Trick, while looking for something to steal, finds his way past a secret door, down a long hallway, into what looks like another dimension -- but only for a minute. When he looks again it is an empty room.  As the team gathers and prepares to depart, a local cop comes by to investigate all the cars outside. The Burns brothers pretend to be scouting shooting locations (which they are doing, sort of), and the cop, a fan of the show, lets them be.  After he's gone, the team departs, just barely missing being attacked by the ghosts inside.  Edzia asks Trick to obtain some special items for her, most of which he can, but one of which is owned by Schrecken, their employer -- and they know he will never part with it. So Winters decides to steal it.  Meanwhile, at the cop's house, Anderson sneaks in and garrotes him, then calls Winters and says that the cop took a bribe and agreed to "forget" the whole incident.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Issue Review: Miss Fury 1

The story begins with a battle on a museum rooftop between Miss Fury and some Nazi agents, but one of them tells her that he can travel in time.  An OSS agent, Harmon, saves her from the time-traveling Nazi, but when she looks through the museum skylight at a jeweled crown, the skylight smashes, and she falls down into a glowing machine that then teleports her to 2013 Manhattan.  From this point on Fury keeps switching every few pages from one time to the other, first the 1940s, then 2013, then back to the 1940s.  In the 1940s, she plans to steal the jeweled crown. She flashes back to when she got her powers, during a magic ritual in Africa, and to the word on the ship back home that her father died. Then at the museum party, as she scopes the place out to steal the crown, the time-traveling Nazi touches her, and she ends up back in 2013, with modernized Nazi warplanes bombing New York.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Issue Review: Lazarus 3

Forever Carlyle is in Mexico on family Morray's lands.  One of the Morray troops tries to disarm her, but the Morray Lazarus, Joacquim, orders him to leave her alone, and when he questions the order, Joacquim kills him and escorts Eve to a meeting with his father.  Back at Family Carlyle's HQ, James, the family's chief medical officer, is questioned by Jonah about Eve's location, and refuses to tell him where she is.  James knows, but Malcom has forbidden him to reveal her position to anyone else. Jonah turns to Johanna, and the two discuss what to do about their Lazarus.  They decide to kill her as soon as she returns to Carlyle lands.  Meanwhile, down in Mexico, Eve negotiates with Edgar Morray, head of the Morray clan.  The Morrays agree to provide interdictor craft in return for grain and seed. They must also agree to stop collaborating with the twins.  Edgar agrees, and sends Joacquim back to the border with Eve.  They pause for a quick drink as they prepare to part ways, but are hit from the air by a missile.

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Issue Review: Thor, God of Thunder 12

With the Godbomb story over, in all three times, Thor returns to earth.  We see a glimpse of young Thor with the ancient Norse people, enjoying the simplicity of life on Midgard. And we see old Thor returning to Midgard as well, which has become a desolate wasteland.  Most of the story, however, is taken up with present-day Thor, who visits old friends and makes some new ones as he spends time with mortals.  He visits a man on death row, an old barkeep friend, soldiers and sailors, and a monk in Tibet.   He joins SHIELD agent Roz Solomon for her graduation party (she invited him on the internet, and Tony Stark recommended that he go).  And he spends time with ex-girlfriend Jane Foster, who is now battling cancer.  At the end of the story, Thor finds Roz in the Arctic dealing with environmental damage, and offers to help.

Friday, August 30, 2013

Issue Review: Ghosted 1

Our story begins with convict Jackson T. Winters, a man just trying to survive his time in prison.  One night he hears gunfire and the sounds of a riot.   He is broken out of prison by a heavily armed woman named Anderson Lake.  Lake knocks him out and takes him to the mansion of millionaire Markus Schrecken.  Schrecken knows of Jackson's reputation as a thief, and wants him to steal a ghost from the supposedly haunted Trask Mansion.  Winters doesn't have much choice but to agree, since the alternative is going back to prison.  Winters sets about assembling a team, including pickpocket Oliver King, stage magician Robby Trick, ghost hunters Jay and Joe Burns, and psychic medium Edzia Rusnak.  Together they enter the mansion during the day for an exploration, knowing that "bad things" usually happen there only at night.  However, when they ask Edzia to use her psychic powers to detect ghosts, she sees dozens of them swarming around -- but tells the team she doesn't see a thing.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Issue Review: Justice League 23 (New 52)

As the story begins, the Alfred Pennyworth of Earth-3 narrates a summary not just in the Trinity War but events since the start of the Justice League series.  While the JL was battling Darkseid, Alfred-3 escaped his world through the weakened barriers, accompanied by Atom. And while the JL was occuppied fighting normal threats, Alfred-3 was working to bring his master to this earth from Earth-3.  The three JLs, however, are busy fighting over Pandora's box, thanks to the evil leaking out of it. They battle each other in a superhero verison of the old schoolyard game "kill the guy with the ball", until they finally stop as they realize that the box is affecting everyone else mentally but Superman is being affected physically.  Firestorm concludes that there is Kryptonite inside him, and Atom admits that she put it there, inside his brain -- because she is not with the JL, but secretly with the people of Earth-3.  Cyborg's robot parts betray him at this point, and tear themselves away from him to become "Grid," a walking virus.  In the confusion, Alfred-3 grabs the box, which he reveals is from Earth-3, the "birthplace of evil," and the box acts as a portal. He uses it to gate his allies, the "Crime Syndicate" (an evil anti-Justice League from Earth-3) to our world.  Thus the "Trinity War" (Trinity for "Earth 3") ends and the Forever Evil story begins.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

New Comic-book night - 8/28

Well, I guess I am going to do another one of these after all.  I will be reviewing many individual issues in the next week, but I wanted to make a comment about my entire haul for the week and why it looks like it does.  This week, as the final week of August, not much new came out, but there were a couple of things I wanted to get my hands on from the previous couple of months, so I got myself down to the shop.  Also, I knew that issue 23 of Justice League was coming out, and that is (for the moment at least) on my pull list.  Below is a picture of the week's haul.



Two of the titles on the left are on my regular pull list (Thor and JL), but the others have not been on it.  I have reviewed the first two issues of Lazarus by Greg Rucka, which I just bought last week, and they were outstanding, so I was very pleased to find issue 3 on the stands already.  This comic is so good that it's already on my pull list (and I haven't even read issue 3 yet).


Sunday, August 25, 2013

It's official -- I'm done with JLA

Back in December of last year (2012), I returned to the comic-book reading and collecting hobby after being away from it for 13 years.  As part of the process, I had to decide what to read, and I started with the company that had been my favorite since the 80s -- DC.  In fact, part of the reason I returned was learning about their "New 52" reboot. Although I normally don't like reboots because they erase established continuity, one reason the New 52 attracted me was that I wouldn't have to figure out what had been going on for the last 13 years. I could jump right in with digital copies from just a year ago, easily catch up on my favorite characters like Supergirl, and in a matter of months I'd be "up to speed." Thus, I could shortcut the normal "wading in" process that can, with a long-running continuity, take months, sometimes even years.

Obviously, with 52 titles being put out a month, even limiting myself to DC meant I would have to make some pretty quick decisions about what titles to read.  Historically, even when comics only cost 75 cents, I had always limited myself to 10 ongoing titles per month (with some allowance for additional purchases of one-shots, mini-series, and the like), and I figured to do the same thing this time -- especially with over a year of back-issues to buy even with the reboot.  After a bit of "sampling," as my local comic-shop owner calls it, I settled on a handful of titles, one of which was Justice League.

Early on, Justice League, written by Geoff Johns and drawn first by Jim Lee and then Ivan Reis, was an excellent comic-book that reminded me just why I loved them years ago.  The first story arc, which re-tells the origin of the team and how they all met, was funny, dramatic, tense, and interesting (at least until the last issue, which was a huge disappointment).  By the time I'd read a handful of issues, it was on my "pull list."

Then, just a couple of months into my renewed collecting hobby, and before I'd even gotten completely caught up on Justice League (they were putting out issue 16 or so and I was still catching up on 11 or 12), DC announced the release of a new JL-related book, called Justice League of America.  I'll be honest. I wasn't too thrilled about this to begin with.  Although I was happy to commit to an issue of Justice League every month, I wasn't sure I liked the team, or the premise, enough to commit multiple slots of my pull list to them -- and again, I refuse to allow my pull list to just balloon without limit.

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Issue Review: Worlds' Finest 15 (New 52)

Power Girl hurtles through DeSaad's boom tube in search of her friend Huntress.  She arrives in a bunker-like base, where she battles para-daemons and tries to beat Helena's location out of them. Meanwhile, DeSaad usess a lightning wand to try and extract fear and pain emotions from Helena, which seem to fuel his power.  He realizes Power Girl is in his base, and heads off to confront her, giving Huntress a chance to pick her locks and escape.  Huntress defeats a strong-man slave of DeSaad's and joins Power Girl in the fight against him. But DeSaad says he has extracted what he needs from Power Girl, and uses another boom tube to return them to England.  When they arrive, Power Girl says DeSaad has "screwed up" her powers -- her costume is torn and she is cut and bleeding (both of which should be impossible due to her Kryptonian physique).

Friday, August 23, 2013

Issue Review: Lazarus 2

Forever Carlyle heads to the Family headquarters in Seattle for a Carlyle meeting.    Her sister Bethany examines her and provides some medication to help her recover from last issue's shooting, while her brothers Stephen and Jonah argue about what the Family should do to revenge itself against the Morray clan.  Family patriarch Malcolm convenes the meeting, and Forever reports on her investigation of the Morray attack on the Carlyle farm in San Joaquin.  Jonah insists they should go to war, but Malcolm dismisses everyone for alone time with Forever.  When she tells him Jonah made her kill a man she knew was innocent, Malcolm gives her a new, secret assignment, sending her to Los Angeles with Jonah and their other sister Johanna.  The two "J" twins plot against Eve, but she slips away, heading south to Mexico.  There, she comes face to face with armed men of the Morray family, and their Lazarus.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Issue Review: Lazarus 1

This bold new series by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark is set in a dystopian future where the world is ruled by a few very rich Families.  The Families are powerful, and they employ a few serfs on their lands, whom they care for and treat reasonably well (for the most part). The rest of the world population is considered "Waste," and is treated as being beneath contempt.  Each Family has invested in a single person, a guardian, a protector, an enforcer, given the best training and biotechnology money can buy -- a Lazarus.  The story of this first issue begins with Forever, the Lazarus of Faimly Carlyle, being shot repeatedly by thugs from the Waste, at one of the Family's storage facilities.  Forever should have died, but as a Lazarus, she seems to have very high regeneration properties, and within minutes, recovers from the bullets and returns to action, battling and killing the theives.   She then returns to the Family's base of operations, where James, her doctor, examines her and gives her some platelet therapy.  Forever expresses remorse at having to kill, which is trouble for the Family -- they need their Lazarus in top form.  Her brother Jonah then calls on her to investigate a break-in by rival family Morray at the Carlyle's San Joaquin harvesting facility.  They conclude it was an inside job by one of the serfs.  By Family policy, Forever threatens to kill them all unless the guilty one steps forward.  An elderly man confesses, and even though she knows he is lying, Forever kills him.  Then she returns to James for an "oxytocin treatment," which James implies to Jonah will get rid of her feelings of remorse.

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Issue Review: Supergirl 23 (New 52)

Following the events of last month's issue, Supergirl flees from the population of I'noxia, who are capable of making all her memories come to life. At the behest of "Cyborg Superman," the I'noxians have become all of the superheroes and supervillains Kara has ever met, and proceed to attack her.  Supergirl battles memories of Wonder Woman, Superman, Silver Banshee, the Worldkillers, Superboy, and Simon Tycho, before finally being captured and imprisoned by Cyborg Superman.  He still plans to use her body, but first he has to cleanse it of Kryptonite Poisoning. The I'noxians do so, and then Supergirl appears to disintegrate.  As Cyborg Superman's "creator," the Brainiac, hovers overhead preparing to attack, Cyborg uses Kara's body to regain his own -- and turns out to be (apparently) Zor-El, Kara's father.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Issue Review: Red Sonja 2

As an army invades Corinthia, Sonja stands alone against the charge of her greatest friend and enemy, Dark Annisia.  The two duel each other, while the armies around them clash.  Sonja and Annisia were the only survivors of the arena in which they were slaves, and neither really wants to kill the other.  Each inflicts wounds, but they can't bring themselves to issue the killing stroke.  Annisia claims she can see all those who died before them in the arena -- she says they haunt her.  Sonja thinks Annisia has gone mad with guilt.  But as they speak, King Dimath tries to ride Annisia down, and she throws a dagger into his throat.  Sonja rises up, preparing to kill Annisia, but then Annisia reveals that Sonja has the plague.  Annsia kisses Sonja after telling her this, and then offers to let the city die a slow death, as long as they build a wall around it and no one comes out.  And as long as Sonja goes off to the frozen northland to die.  Sonja agrees, giving up her sword, and heads off into the mountains for her final days with the plague.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

Issue Review: Batgirl 23

In this first part of a 3-part story, Barbara Gordon has given up her life as Batgirl, because she believes she killed her brother, James, Jr.  Comissioner Gordon, who witnessed that killing, has put out an APB for Batgirl, and is trying to hunt her down and punish her for the death of his son.  Gordon begins by approaching Charise Carnes, whom he suspects is the vigilante Knightfall.  After verbally fencing with Carnes and her attorneys, Gordon convinces her to let him review security tapes of the night Batgirl saved Ricky from the bear trap in the parking garage (way back in issue 10).  After he leaves, however, Carnes tells her team to keep their guard up, because this might all be a pretext for Gordon trying to collar her instead.

Meanwhile, Barbara tries to enjoy a normal life with her room mate Aleysia. The two of them go shopping, but end up being harassed by some low-lives, and Barbara threatens them.  She manages to pull back, but Aleysia takes her home to talk about it.  Before they can do so, however, she gets a call from Ricky, who has been threatened by his former gang members.  Ricky's brother has been kidnapped, and Ricky is going to save him. He calls Barbara to say good-bye.  Against her better judgement, Barbara puts on a black outfit (but not the Batgirl suit) and goes out to help him.

Gordon and Detective Mckenna have gotten onto Ricky's whereabouts by now, and just as he leaves, they try to arrest him.  He shoves McKenna, causing her to hit her head and lose consciousness. Gordon then puts out an APB for Ricky as well, for assaulting an officer.  As the book reaches its climax, the police, Barbara, and Ricky all converge on the gang's hide-out.  Barbara takes down most of the gang members, but when the cops get there, they shout for everyone to freeze. Ricky doesn't freeze fast enough, and although Babs tries to save him, Comissioner Gordon shoots him.  As the story ends, Ricky appears to be dead (though we will have to wait for next issue to know for certain).

Friday, August 16, 2013

Issue Review: Thor, God of Thunder 11

In this concluding issue of the epic "God Butcher" storyline that began in issue 1, we finally see the three Thors, past, present, and future, defeat Gorr the god-butcher.  In the previous issue, Gorr's bomb had begun to explode. The bomb will destroy all gods down through all of time, past, present, and future.  As this issue opens, the bomb is exploding, and Gorr gloats to the elder Thor that he and all other gods are dying.  However, modern-age Thor has entered the center of the bomb itself, with both his hammer and the elder Thor's hammer, and he uses them together to create a giant lighting-and-thunder explosion inside the bomb's blast radius.  His display of power works, and he begins absorbing the essence of the bomb into himself.


Thursday, August 15, 2013

Issue Review: Justice League of America 7

This issue represents the fourth part of the 6-part (plus) "Trinity War" Justice League event, and the crossover continues to be lackluster.  The story begins with Lex Luthor salivating over the fact that Superman has somehow been framed for killing Dr. Light, and in the middle of his prison, Pandora shows up with her skull-shaped box.  She encourages Luthor to open it.

As these events unfold, elsewhere, members of the three Leagues (JL, JLA, and JL Dark) burst into Dr. Psycho's base, and battle him.  They think he used his mind powers to trick Superman into killing Dr. Light, but they find out that he was not involved.  He does, however, implicate a "secret society."  Atom finally admits that the JLA was formed to fight the JL, and everyone feels betrayed.  At the same time, Steve Trevor leads another group against a mysterious house.  Inside, they find a mirror that shows the Phantom Stranger, who had traveled with a fourth team to seek out the dead soul of Dr. Light.  Unable to find it, the Stranger returns the team to the house through the broken mirror, and then disappears.

Superman's group returns to Amanda Waller, ready to accuse her of wrongdoing, but the secret society blows up Dr. Light's body, causing the entire building to explode.  Meanwhile, back in Luthor's prison, Wonder Woman stops Pandora from giving Luthor the box and takes it herself. The issue ends with Diana drawing her sword, and the clear implication is that now she has turned evil and everyone will have to fight her ("The box has me!").

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

The end of New Comic-book Night (probably)

I regret to announce I probably won't be able to do "New Comic-Book Night" the way I used to each week, from now on.  In case anyone is going to leap to conclusions in a single bound, this is not because I'm doing something radical like giving up buying comic-books. I did that back in 1999, so there's no guarantee I won't ever do it again, but it's not happening any time soon.  Rather, there are two other reasons why I won't necessarily post NCN snippets each Wednesday.

First, because I now live a rather long way from the comic shop, there's no guarantee I can get to the c-shop every Wednesday.  Today is a case in point. I had a meeting at work that ran until 5:30 PM, and I wasn't about to drive 45 minutes to the shop, and then 45 minutes back home, that late in the day (battling rush hour along the way, too). The distance is now too great for me to reliably post something every Wednesday.

Second, as I said in an earlier post, I have decided to start posting more detailed reviews of individual issues rather than quick summaries in my NCN posts -- this is mostly because indexing the NCN posts is not really possible, and it makes quickly finding a review of a particular issue difficult if not impossible.  With the review content removed from the NCN post, that doesn't leave much to write about, and we'd be down to a very short post and a picture. I'd rather do longer entries.

Therefore, as I say, I will continue to post the same content I always have... I just probably won't make the NCN-specific posts every single Wednesday like I'd been doing.

Friday, August 9, 2013

The Many Faces of Supergirl - Part 3: Kara Zor-El Returns

What has gone before

In the first installment of this article series, we examined the origin, history, and death of the original Supergirl, Kara Zor-El of Krypton.  In the second installment, we explored the origin, history, and disappearance of her post-Crisis replacement, the so-called Matrix Supergirl.  That character, a shape-shifting alien from another dimension who had merged with human Linda Danvers, hung up her superhero identity at the end of her 80-issue series, and vanished from the DC Universe in 2003.  For about a year, there was no Supergirl character active in the DC pantheon.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Why I'm making September a DC-Free month

Some time ago, +DC Comics announced that this September, their annual "event" for their entire line would be something called "Villain Month."  In September, all 52 comics published by DC will be about the villains rather than about heroes.  So, for example, instead of Justice League being about Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, it will be about their arch-nemesis, Darkseid.  Meanwhile, instead of Superman's comic being about him, it  will be about Bizarro.  DC is producing these comics with special "3D" covers.  Additionally, they will be using "decimal" numbering, so that instead of being issue #24 or what have you, we will get issue #23.1, 23.2, and so on.  Thus, issue 23 comes out for most of the original New 52 titles in August, and 24 in October, with the ones in between numbered as fractions.  And finally, not all titles will be published. Lower-tier characters like Batgirl won't be published at all, to make space for multiple versions of the top tier ones like Batman.

All of this adds up to one thing: this is a pure, 100% marketing campaign. It's a giant gimmick.  And as readers of this blog know, I hate gimmicks.  I had already told my comic shop not to put aside any DC titles in September that are normally on my pull list (fortunately, my awesome comic shop was really on the ball about it and has worked with their customers to make sure we are kept happy in the face of this marketing firestorm), figuring that I would "play it by ear."  But the more I hear about this obscene marketing ploy, the uglier it gets.  Now The Outhouse is reporting that DC is basically screwing the retailers over the 3D covers and the retailers are claiming that they're not even sure at this point how many copies of each title they are going to be saddled with.  And so at this point, I've decided that I just can't support DC whatsoever regarding this marketing ruse.

Therefore, in September, I will not be buying any DC comic-books. Period.  Not one.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Issue Review: Red Sonja #1

Gail Simone makes her Dynamite Comics debut with this first issue of a brand new Red Sonja series, with art by Walter Geovani.  The story begins with a king named Dimath invading a city of the Zamoran lands.  Dimath has won victory, and he investigates the deepest dungeon. Two prisoners are left out of eighty, in terrible conditions. One of them is Red Sonja.   The other is called Dark Annisia.  The King orders them cleaned up and freed.

We then flash forward to a few seasons later. Red Sonja is asleep in camp, and three extremely stupid criminals decide to try and rob her. Before she does anything, two young girls with bows and arrows try and save her, only to be captured by the criminals.  Sonja then jumps up and kills two of the criminals, leaving the third, who did not lift his hand against the girls, to die of a strange sickness.

The girls, meanwhile, have been sent from Dimath to beg aid.  Sonja returns to his city-state in Corinthia, where she learns that his town is beset by a plague, along with other city-states.  Each city-state with the plague has been sacked by the Zamorans, and wiped out.  Dimath's city-state is next.  He asks Sonja to train his remaining citizens to defend themselves.  She gets four days to train them, before the massive Zamoran army shows up, and turns out to be led by none other than Sonja's former cell-mate, Dark Annisia.


Saturday, July 27, 2013

New Comic-books... a little late

For those who read this blog, you know by now that I have missed the last two "New Comic-book Night" posts.  The reason for this is simple: I was out of town. My comic shop held my comics, of course, so I picked them up on Thursday, along with some back-issues.



The bottom row of comics are my new issues for the month. From left to right: Justice League of America 6, Supergirl 22, Thor 10, and Red Sonja 1.  The top row are the last four issues in the fourth Supergirl series (aka. Supergirl, vol. 5, since vol. 3 was a mini-series).  I now have, in either individual issue or (mostly) trade paperback form, every single issue of that series, plus every single issue of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-heroes, which completes my collection of this Supergirl version (who I have taken to calling "midriff Supergirl"), since she's the only one who, for her entire existence, wore a costume leaving her midriff unnecessarily bare.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Is waiting for the trade paperback dangerous?

Back when I started collecting comic-books in 1976(ish), comic-books were only produced in monthly or bi-monthly serialized form.  If you missed an issue, your collection was going to have a gap in it.  There were few, if any, direct-market comic-book shops back then, so you could only buy your issues on the news stand.  And news stands did not hold back-issues -- unsold comics were returned to the publisher for credit (so that the news stand was not on the hook for items that didn't sell).  Back then, in other words, reading every issue in a comic-book series required you to buy every issue as it came out.  This was a significant challenge, and I don't think I had a single friend with a complete collection that lasted more than a handful of issues.  For example, I got interested in Rom: Spaceknight on issue #24.  I picked up #26 and #28 (but missed the odd issues for some reason), and then finally with #30 was devoted enough to the series that I picked up every single issue from #30 to #60 or so.  But although I wanted to read the earlier stories, back then, there was no good way of obtaining them.

By the 1980s, direct-market shops had started to appear in more locations, and it became possible to obtain some older back-issues.  I was able to buy a few of the Rom issues between #1 and #23 (though only about a third of them).  Still at this time, if one wanted to read every story in a series, one had to buy the individual issues.  Thus, the back-issues made this possible, as it had not been before the 1980s, but it was still extremely difficult.

Finally, by the 1990s, the comic-book companies started putting out bound, collected editions of older issues, either as paperbacks or (very rarely) hardcovers.   The most common way for them to do this is with the "trade paperback," or "TPB", which is a softcover collection.  The first trade paperback I ever remember buying was the Batman story, "A Death in the Family" (the original one, wherein Jason Todd was murdered by the Joker).  I had not been wise enough to pull the trigger on the individual issues, believing that the whole thing was just hype, but when I heard that the story was excellent, I bought the TPB.   This was typical of the trend in the 1990s, which was for the companies to collect significant or important storylines (such as the "Great Darkness Saga" from the Legion of Super-Heroes), or else storylines that had sold out in their regular print run, but which were still in demand by the readers ("A Death in the Family" being a good example).

Since the turn of the century, however, comic-book companies have started to put out far more TPBs.  They discovered that TPBs are quite popular with many readers, because the TPB provides the reader with a number of advantages.  First, TPBs usually collect a complete, self-contained storyline (aka. an "arc"), and can be read almost as a stand-alone.  There is no need to track down every issue in the story.  Second, TPBs often provide the reader with significant cost savings (a typical 6-issue arc at $3.99 a pop is $24, but most TPBs collecting six issues are priced at around $19.99). Third, TPBs because they have no value beyond the cover price (they are always reprints, and thus rarely worth anything to serious collectors), make it unnecessary to bother with the usual steps one must take to store and protect individual comics (mylar bags, backing boards, and the like).  And finally, with their square, stiff spines, TPBs can be stored on a bookshelf with no risk of them bending or warping, which saves tons of space over the typical "long boxes" in which individual issues are stored.

For all these reasons, the TPB format has become increasingly popular, and I am certainly a fan of it.  When a friend recommended the Sandman series, for example, it was already over, and each first-print back-issue was rare and valuable. Trying to buy the series as 75 individually priced comics would have cost a small fortune.  The TPBs, however, were readily available, and probably cost a tenth of what the individual back-issues would have cost me.  Thus, I quickly got on board the TPB bandwagon. Many readers feel the same way, and the comic companies have responded.  Most writers now seem to "write for the trades" -- meaning that, since TPBs normally collect 4-8 issues, averaging around 6, most story arcs are written to that length (again, averaging around 6 issues), so that as soon as the arc is done, it can be bound as a collection and sold to those who prefer the TPB format.

Reading through comments on the Google+ Comic-Book Community, I have noticed that many people now only buy TPBs.  They have to wait a bit to get the story, but they are willing to do that for the convenience of all the advantages listed above.

Today, I ask whether "waiting for the TPB" is dangerous, from the standpoint of a character or a series that you like to read.  How can it be dangerous? you ask.  My answer is that, in general, the comic-book companies seem to respond primarily to the sales of individual issues on the stands.  Although I'm sure they are gratified when people buy the TPB collection, the TPB is usually published 6 months after the storyline completes, and since most stories are 6 issues long, that means a TPB will be published a year after the first issue in the arc appeared.  That's a long time in the comic publishing world.

To see why waiting for the trade is dangerous, let's use the example of a current disaster series for DC (in terms of sales): Katana.  The series debuted in February, selling 27,000 print copies the first month.  By April, sales had dropped to 16,000, and by June it was limping along at 13,000.  We also know from recent history that +DC Comics tends to cancel comic-book series that sell less than 20,000 issues per month.  Now, maybe nobody likes Katana and that's why her sales are dropping. But let's imagine for a moment that the 13,000+ people who stopped buying it between issues 1 and 5, decided they liked it, but wanted to "wait for the trade."  The TPB of the first arc won't come out until January 2014 or so.  Meantime, Katana is in the "cancellation red zone" for months.  The risk here is that DC will see slumping sales and cancel the series in July or August, long before the TPB ever comes out.  Even if they put out a TPB of the first story arc in January (which they might not bother to do for a comic that doesn't sell well), and even if the TPB sells like gangbusters, by then, the series may already be canceled and it may be too late to do anything about it.

Don't think it can happen? It already has. Threshold is being canceled as of issue 8. Hawk and Dove was as well.  Justice League International lasted just 1 year.  All of these books were canceled before the first story arc could be collected into a TPB, published, and the sales figures for the TPB could be tallied.

This is why I believe that, if you truly like a comic-book enough to buy it regularly and keep reading it, it's very dangerous to "wait for the trades." I do understand the convenience, and when buying back-issues, I definitely prefer TPBs to individual issues in most cases -- for the lower cost, the lower maintenance, and the convenience.   But if you like a comic and you want it to keep being published, the sales that indicate your feelings won't be tallied until months after the issues are published, and you risk your favorite series being canceled.  The only way to be sure the companies know you are on board with their title is to buy it every month, as it comes out -- and better yet, put it on your pull list, so the store knows to order another copy of it.  Yes, it is less convenient than "waiting for the trade," but is the TPB worth risking the series being canceled?  To me, the answer is "no."

I am not, of course, trying to tell anyone what to do.  If you prefer trades, that's fine.  But you should be aware of the risk you're taking with any series you truly enjoy... Because you may just be one person, but if everyone decides to "wait for the trade," not just you, then the sales may slump so badly the title gets canceled, even though thousands of people actually would buy it next year when the TPB comes out.  So... as with all things... caveat emptor.