Teen Titans #38

From this week's Teen Titans #38, a rundown of the Titan's membership during the missing year.

Mark Millar Predicts the end of Comics

From an essay on Newsarama:

Millar basically pronosticates the day in the not too distant future that the American comics scene is decimated; first by the normal cycles of boom and bust, and secondly by a flood of talented comics creators seeking the greener pastures of Hollywood. A relevant quote:

Likewise, every writer I know has a movie deal at the moment. I can’t think of a single working pro at the big two who isn’t involved with Hollywood in at least some capacity. And the more I like their comics work, the more Hollywood seems to like them too. It wouldn’t be inconceivable to imagine that their part-time movie gigs become full-time over the next few years and I’ll give you an example in numbers. Supposing a writer had an idea for a brand new, four part series. Selling this to a comic company might net him anywhere from 10,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars. It’s a lot of money, of course, and especially sweet when it’s doing something you love. But taking that same story and writing a first draft of a screenplay (something that takes about the same length of time as a four issue mini) and you could be looking at ten times the amount. Get a bidding war going and you might be looking at two or three million dollars for your cool little concept (as a couple of comic-book pros managed recently when they flogged a couple of original screenplays). As much as people love this biz, and I don’t think I’ve met a pro who doesn’t LOVE what he or she is doing, that’s a lot of cash to turn down. I think it will be especially hard for artists. They can only have a much more limited amount of work in print and, even if they aren’t creating anything, could make ten or twenty times their comic-book salaries every week if they take a good production jobs on a major motion picture.

He also compares the industry now to the British Sci-Fi weekly 2000AD in it's early 80's heyday.

While I think Millar is a bit too pessimistic in his arguments, he raises a lot of good points about the eventual fate of the industry. Hollywood snaring the best and the brightest comicdom has is bad news for the industry, but it's not the fatal blow Millar makes it out to be. The fact is, as Millar himself states in his essay, every creator he knows loves the comic industry, whereas very few people say the same about being a screenwriter. In fact if you ask a pre-2004 Frank Miller or James Robinson about their experiences writing for the big screen and you'd probably hear horror stories.

Also, one of the reasons 2000AD crashed was the debut of American comics into the British market. I just don't see that happening here. I know manga's popularity has expolded in the past 7-10 years, but it's not at the point that it will relegate mainstream American comics to the back of the store. Will there be a nadir? Of course. In 2015 we'll probably all be lamenting the good old days of aught-six, but I just don't see a total collapse in the cards.

Remakes That Should Not Be: Revenge of the Nerds

Ugghhh. My brain just imploded, crawled out of my nose and is proceeding to douse itself in bleach. Why?

Because they're remaking Revenge of the Nerds.

According to The Movie Blog this was announced almost two years ago, but I obviously repressed that memory. This, like almost all remakes, is a bad idea. The original was a fun movie, for it's time, but the world just isn't the same as it was in 1984. Revenge was funny partly because it was set in a world that was about to be taken over by the nerds, whereas in 2006 the nerds already run things. Sure you can replace the Fortran jokes with World of Warcraft, but I doubt they would resonate with the audience. While this may not be the most egregious remake in the pipeline, it may be the most ill-advised.

RANT: Video Games and Q4

I'm going to fire up the wayback machine and bring you a tale from the distant past of November 2002. Ubisoft was on it's way to becoming the #2 third-party video game developer. At that year's E3 they had shown off two titles that had hit written all over them: Prince of Persia and Beyond Good and Evil.

Both were mostly action based titles with fairly fantastic settings.
Both recieved numerous 'Best in Show' awards and had a fair amount of publicity.
Both ended up being not just good, but excellent games.
Both were inexplicably released within two weeks of one another.

As you could have predicted one game, PoP, sold okay numbers and has since spawned several very successful sequels. The other, BG&E, had it's price cut by 60% before Christmas. All because of the Fourth Quarter Rush.

This year in particular I've dreaded Q4. Not just because even a rich guy probably couldn't buy all of the games I'm looking forward to, but because of the havoc it wreaks on the rest of the year. For huge stretches of '06 I was dying to play something, anything, new but there was nothing decent available. Now? More decent titles come out in a two week span than were released the previous seven months. I know that the fourth quarter is huge for retailers, but it's just plain stupid to release some lower profile titles then.

Take this November's Star Trek: Legacy as an example. While the Star Trek brand is still very well known, it's not what you would call a highly anticipated title. So what does it's publisher, Vivendi Universal, do with a title like that? Why release at the single most jam-packed time of the year, of course! Here are just a few of the titles being released within two weeks of Star Trek Legacy:

• Splinter Cell: Double Agent
• Phantasy Star Universe
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance
• Call of Duty 3
• Rainbow Six: Vegas
• Gears of War
• F.E.A.R.
• Brothers in Arms 3

Eight potential AAA titles slated to drop within two weeks of Legacy, and that's just on the XBox 360. What did I forget? Oh, yeah: the two brand new consoles that will be hitting stores within that timeframe, with their attendant games and accessories. Sitting here in August I can tell you without a doubt that Star Trek: Legacy will be a commercial failure, and for the dumbest of reasons: impatience and shortsightedness.

In contrast lets take a look at the release calendar for February 2007:
...... {cricket}
Okay, how about June 2007:
....... {cricket}
So instead of releasing a promising title 3-6 months later (or 3-6 months earlier) when it actually has a chance to succeed or fail on it's own merits, it gets dumped between a whole herd of 500 pound gorillas, giving it no chance at all at success. Brilliant. I'll probably still buy it, but only after it inevitably drops to $20 in early January.

My advice to all videogame publishers:

Games CAN be released throughout the entire year!

If you have a sure-fire hit, by all means release it in Q4, but if you're not absolutely sure your game will sell huge numbers, be smart and hold it back a few months. If publishers took just a few titles out of Q4 and spread them throughout the year everybody would win. Gamers would have something new to buy during the dog days, retailers would have something to pull customers in outside of Christmas, and developers would have at least a chance at success.

Fall TV Preview Part 1 - New Dramas

Today is one of those rare times of year when my bitter, jaded, cynical heart begins to feel the fain, unfamilar echo of hope. I speak, of course, of the upcoming television season. New shows still have promise and returning shows still have stable timeslots. Today I'm going to rundown my five most anticipated new dramas of the upcoming season. NOTE: For now I'm just touching on fall-debuting shows. Shows that debut after October will be covered in a later post.

Heroes - NBC Mondays @ 9
The Premise - A group of seemingly unrelated individuals begin to develop extra-ordinary powers.
The Promise - This is a lot closer to a prime time superhero show than any network has attempted in a long time, so the concept still seems fresh. It also appears to follow the Lost formula by showing connections between all of the affected individuals. NBC seems to be putting a lot of promotional muscle behind this show, and airing the day after Sunday Night Football can only help. In addition to having a hot lead in (Deal or No Deal) it also doesn't go up against any established shows.
The Problem - If it's percieved as being too much of a comic book show it'll never gain a following. If Deal slips in the ratings it won't have much of a lead in.

Jericho - CBS Wednesdays @ 8
The Premise - A nuclear disaster leaves a small Kansas town cut off from the rest of the world. The residents must deal with their isolation while trying to find out exactly what happened, and if anyone else survived.
The Promise - A very interesting premise for a show. It seems to have all the elements needed for an hourlong: action, drama, conflict and a hook to tie them all together.
The Problem - The thought of nuclear annihilation may be a little too close to the actual news coming out of the Middle East for some. When Skeet Ulrich gets top billing on a show you may have trouble reeling in the viewers.

The Nine - ABC Wednesdays @ 10
The Premise - Nine people are taken hostage in a bank robbery. Each episode sheds a little more light on what actually happened in the bank as the Nine struggle to come to terms with what they experienced.
The Promise - I love a good mystery, and this seems to fit the mold by asking one question "What really happened in the Bank?" You can't ask for a better lead-in.
The Problem - It sounds like it takes the least interesting part of Lost, the flashbacks, and made them the centerpiece of the show. It's got a rough timeslot

Kidnapped - NBC Wednesdays @ 10
The Premise - The efforts to find and save the kidnapped son of a wealthy man unfolds in a one-day-per-episode format.
The Promise - A less restrictive take on 24's real-time format sounds good. A very good cast on this one.
The Problem - A tough timeslot, a poor lead-in (The Biggest Loser) and a very similar show on another network(Fox' Vanished) give this show an up hill battle.

Smith - CBS Tuesdays @ 10
The Premise - A gang of thieves pull of elaborate heists while still trying to live normal lives.
The Promise - I loves me some heist movies. A heist show with a great, big name cast? Sounds like gold to me, especially with The Unit as a lead in.
The Problem - The last two heist shows, Thief & Heist didn't do anything for me. It's got a brutal timeslot

Overall Themes? Lots of shows trying to ape, or combine, attributes of Lost & 24

Hanso Foundation Video on Youtube

For those of you who, like me, couldn't be bothered playing the Lost alternate reality game. It's supposed to be most, if not all, of the little snippets of video you get plaing the ARG edited together into something resembling coherence. Enjoy

The Hot List

DC
52 Week #17
Action Comics #842
All Star Superman #5
American Way #7
JLA Classified #26
Justice #7
Superman Batman #29
Teen Titans #38
Trials Of SHAZAM #1
Uncle Sam And The Freedom Fighters #2

Marvel
Cable Deadpool #31
Civil War Young Avengers & Runaways #2
She-Hulk 2 #11
Ultimate Fantastic Four #33
Ultimate X-Men Annual #2
X-Factor #10
X-Men #190

Battlestar Galactica #1
Fallen Angel Vol 2 #8 IDW

All Star Superman may be Grant Morrison at his best. The metatext and whacked out ideas are still there, but, unlike some of his other work, they take a back seat to the story. It's bright, primary-colored fun; silver-agey without feeling dated.

As far as I'm concerned Justice is All Star Justice League. It meets all of the criteria for an All Star book: A legendary character (or group) in it's most iconic form, done by a big name creator, that comes out sporadically.

Why, oh why can't Teen Titans come out on time? I gave Johns a pass when the book was late during Infinite Crisis, but this book is now a full 6 weeks behind schedule since the OYL jump. Combine this with Green Lantern being almost 10 weeks off since then and I may have to place Johns in the 'unable to keep a schedule' pile.

While not as off-putting as the constant delays other books suffer from, the constantly changing art teams on X-Factor prevents it from being great.

I loves me some Battlestar Galactica!

Transformers Hentai!?!

I saw this on Marionette's blog and just had to say something. I love her blog, but I think in this case she missed the point. While making Transformers have to kiss girls in order to gain powers is strange (okay, really really bizarre) it pales in comparason to .... this.

I think my soul just threw up on my inner child.

I can live with Megatron as a dinosaur. I can live with him as a dragon. Megatron is a helicopter now? Fine with me. But Megatron with a giant penis-tentacle for a tounge! That crosses a line!

Oh God I feel dirty just thinking about it. Please, if you value your immortal soul, don't click on those links!

I'm going to scrub my eyes out with bleach, say the Rosary five times and pray I don't have nightmares.

Who's next for Astonishing X-Men?

Alas, with time all good things must come to an end. With only 8 more issues of Joss Whedon & John Cassaday's sublime run on Astonishing X-Men still to come, I thought this would be a good time to handicap the field of contenders to replace Whedon as writer. (I'll discuss pencillers who can follow Cassaday at a later date) The list is far from exhaustive, but for brevity's sake I have left out any writers that are under exclusive contract with the competition (Geoff Johns), have poor relationships with Marvel (John Byrne), or have never before expressed interest in penning a comic (Chris Nolan).

Chris Claremont
Odds: 500-1
Claremont is one of the all time greats, and X-Men probably wouldn't be the 500 pound gorilla it is today without his seminal work on the title. But, as his last few runs on the core titles have show, he just doesn't have the magic touch anymore. That, combined with health problems that forced him off of New Excalibur & Exiles, pretty much rules him out. I think Marvel will give him an X-Title to shepherd for as long as he wants one, but his days as the main writer are over.

Brian Michael Bendis
Odds: 100-1
Even those fans that hate BMB have to admit that his books sell. That said, I don't see him taking over a core X-Men title. Putting him at the helm of both Avengers books is putting all of Marvel's eggs in one basket. Giving him an X-Men book as well would be insanity, especially since he still isn't as comfortable on team books as he is on noir-ish street level books.

Neil Gaiman
Odds: 85-1
After years of working pretty exclusively with his own creations, Gaiman has been involved in more and more projects set in Marvel's main sandbox. While my mouth is watering at the thought of him taking a turn with my favorite mutants, he doens't seem too eager to leap into such a high profile, continuity heavy book.

Warren Ellis
Odds: 50-1
While some of Ellis' earliest American work was on the satellite X-Titles, he's never gotten a crack at the core books. However, much like Gaiman, Ellis at this point in his career doesn't seem very intersted in writing books where he doesn't have near-total creative control. Unlike Gaiman, I think Ellis can be persuaded to take the job if he is given as much leeway as Morrison and Whedon got on their runs. Still he's something of a longshot.

Peter David, Dan Slott, or Fabian Niczea
Odds: 50-1, each
All three men are good writers with strong followings. All three are also thought of as 'fan favorites' with 'cult followings' which isn't a good thing in the eyes of management. They are also (fairly or unfairly) labeled as 'quirky' writers, which may not be what Marvel is looking for.

Robert Kirkman
Odds: 40-1
I think Kirkman is a tremendous writer. The thousands of fans that buy Invincible & Walking Dead religiously think he's a tremendous writer. Marvel's top brass? I'm not sure what they think of him. His highest profile main universe stuff has been Marvel Team-Up, a book which was quite honestly doomed from the start. He is penning the new Ant-Man book, which is a good sign, but I just don't think Marvel's braintrust is willing to give him such a high profile job yet. Yes, I know he's writing Ultimate X-Men. Two things. 1) He only got the job because Bryan Singer's run was delayed again. Whether this delay has to do with Singer's hectic schedule, or the fact that Ultimates 2 still isn't finished doesn't change the fact that Kirkman was a fill in on UX-M. 2) I don't think Marvel wants someone doing both Ultimate and Astonishing at the same time.

Unnamed Television or Movie Writer
Odds: 30-1
A lot of writers have made the jump from major outlet television to comics in the past few years. Allan Heinberg, Damon Lindelof, Mark Verheiden, even Whedon himself got their jobs in comics based on their work on the small screen. They also have one other thing in common: lateness. Astonishing has published only 16 issues in 28 months. The books of the other writers listed, other than Verheiden, are similarly tardy. While Marvel has worked around Whedon's schedule, it's unlikely they'd be willing to accomidate another 'tourist' the next time.

J. M. Straczinski
Odds: 15-1
JMS has, in just a couple of years, gone from a 'tourist' to one of the architects of the Marvel U. His reimagining of the Squadron Supreme has been great, and his run on Spider-Man...well lets say he has a 'unique' vision for the character and leave it at that. He does have a lot on his plate: FF, Amazing, Suqadron Supreme, Ultimate Power, Bullet Points and whatever DTV Babylon 5 movies get produced, but for the job on Astonishing I assume he'd drop something.

Mark Millar
Odds: 8-1
The preemminent writer at Marvel right now. Civil War, The Ultimates, Wolverine, everything he touches turns to gold. He has experience with the X-Men, having launched the Ultimate version of the book, BUT he almost never ships his books on time, and whoever takes over Astonishing has to get it out on a regular basis. If he can be paired with a penciller that can keep a schedule I think he'd be a good fit, especially since his run on The Ultimates is finally close to an end. However he's still battling Crohn's Disease and would benefit greatly from 6-12 months of light duty after Civil War wraps up. A contender, but not my odds-on favorite for the job.

Jeph Loeb
Odds: 4-1
Loeb returned to Marvel recently after becoming a megastar at the Distinguished Competition. He's already comitted to The Ultimates 3 & 4, Ultimate Power, Wolverine and an unspecified Spiderman project. That's a lot of work for a man that still writes for multiple television shows, including Smallville, Lost and Heroes, even if his rep for lateness wasn't one of the worst in comics. With all of those marks against him, why do I still make him the odds on favorite? Because, to use a baseball metaphor, he's a homerun hitter. He won't always make contact, but when he does it's going out of the park. In fact I think Astonishing was, along with The Ultimates, the book Marvel had in mind when they signed him.

This list also goes to show that while exclusive contracts may be good for the Big Two, they're bad for the fans. Guys like Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek and Mark Waid would be great on Astonishing, but they are, for now, unavailable.

Review Time

Astonishing X-Men #16 - About the only bad thing I can say about this book is the fact that it (for now) comes out bi-monthly. Rather than dragging the mysteries out, Whedon & Cassaday actually give us answers to two of the pressing mysteries of the book when we are told who will destroy the Breakworld and who Perfection is under the hood. Of course the answers bring up more questions, but the story never seems like it's on a treadmill. I won't spoil who Perfection is, but I will say that my two guesses, Magik & Phoenix, were of course dead wrong.

Justice League of America #1 - First, I like the new lineup. It's missing a few elements, but overall I think it's strong. Now, on to the story. Normally I would criticize a #1 issue like this for it's lack of action, but the whole Red Tornado storyline was so touching and well done that I didn't mind. One prediction on the villain of the book: Dr. Impossible. (inviso text on I think he's the Mr. Miracle of the new Earth 2. Father box, hush tube. It all fits. off)

Jack of Fables #2 - I'm surprised that Willingham, Sturges & Akins didn't make the enemy in this piece look like Walt Disney. If there was one person more responsible for the neutering and sanitization of our fables & fairy tales than Walt Disney I've never heard of them. The identity of the black janitor is tickling the back of my neck, but I just can't seem to grab it.

New Avengers #23 - The whole Spider-Woman double agent storyline, which has been a part of this book since it's start, is wrapped up in a single somewhat unsatisfying issue. Maybe I'm wrong; Jessica Drew sounds like a shoo-in for this book (the spy-stuff heavy New Avengers vs the widescreen Mighty Avengers) post Civil War, so this may not be the actual denoument, but it sure felt that way. Not a bad book, just disappointing.

Quick Hits
52 #16 - It just wouldn't be a wedding if someone didn't get shot!
Flash #3 - The art really improved in this issue. So did the story, but not as much.
Daredevil #88 - A breather from the breakneck pace of the past few issues that still manages to be better than 95% of the other titles on the shelf.

Review: Dead Rising

Dead Rising is the classic example of a game getting the macro right and the micro wrong. The overall concept and execution is good, maybe even great, but the overall experience is dragged down by a few frustrating design choices.

Firstly the concept of the game; you play a photojournalist who investigates a reported riot and ends up trapped in a mall full of zombies. Sound familiar? Yeah it's pretty much George Romero's Dawn of the Dead in game form. You spend the rest of the game wandering around the mall killing zombies with pretty much anything at hand while attempting to learn why the dead have risen.

The Good
The core gameplay itself is a lot of fun. The sheer quantity and variety of weapons at yur disposal is just staggering. After only a few hours with the game I've sent the dead back to hell with hockey sticks, soccer balls, lawn mowers, construction drills and potted plants. While you spend the wast majority of your time doing the same things over and over, it's got enough variety and difficulty to keep you occupied for a long time. The boss fights, mostly against psychopaths that are trapped in the mall with you, are okay, but they can be so frustratingly difficult at times that it detracts from the experience.

In a move that is either novel or stupid, Dead Rising has you playing against a time limit. After 72 hours in the game (although it comes out to 12-15 hours in actual time), regardless of whether or not you've solved the mystery, you get an ending. You're then expected to restart the game, this time with all of the skills, levels and experience you amassed the first time through the game. While it seems a bit like Capcom trying to artificially inflate how long it takes to beat the game, the system still works.

The graphics are generally spectacular. The cutscenes, rendered in real-time, look incredible, and there can be literally hundreds of enemies on screen at one time.

The Bad
As I said at the top, the big things are great, but the little things that are inexplicably screwed up really drag down the overall experience. First thing, the text in the game is so small and blurred on standard definition screens that it's almost indecipherable at times, and I sit only about 4 feet from my 25" set. The text is apparently fine on HD or widescreen TVs, but this is an inexcusable screw up on Capcom's part.

Secondly, the save system. Now I wasn't expecting Dead Rising to use Oblivion's save anywhere at anytime system, what they use is just plain stupid. You get only one save slot per profile, and the save points are few and far between. On at least 3 different occasions I accomplished something significant, but since at that point there were several hundred hungry zombies between me and the save point I died.

Third, the mission system. You recieve mission info, or 'scoops' as they are called in the game, from a janitor named Otis over a walkie talkie. What's wrong with that? Well for some reason while you're answering the damn radio you can't do anything! You can't fight, heal, open a door or even jump while listeing to Otis ramble on about getting a new ensemble in the style court. I thought the weapon-or-flashlight choice in Doom 3 was stupid, but the walkie talkie system in Dead Rising is even dumber.

The flaws in the game are small, but since those flaws so permeate every facet of the game they are magnified immesurably. Even worse these flaws could have, and should have, been identified and fixed during playtesting. A great game brought down by laziness is more of a tragedy than a mediocre game.

Overall - 3 out of 5

Looking Forward - Marvel's November Solicitations

Once again we hop in the wayforward machine to see what delectibles the House of Ideas will be dropping on Turkey Month.

ULTIMATE POWER #2 (of 9)
Written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
Pencils and Cover by GREG LAND
The Squadron Supreme has invaded the Ultimate Universe seeking revenge, and Earth strikes back with its biggest guns! It's the smackdown of the year as the Squadron Supreme go toe-to-toe with the Ultimates, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimate X-Men and Ultimate Spidey himself. And neither world will survive unscathed. You cannot miss it!
While I'm really looking forward to this series, I think putting three different writers on one 9 issue mini may have been a mistake.

ONSLAUGHT REBORN #1 (of 5)
Written by JEPH LOEB
Pencils and Cover by ROB LIEFELD
50/50 Variant Cover by MICHAEL TURNER
Every time I see this project mentioned I expect to see Joey Q leap out of the shadows and yell "Fooled Ya", or that this is something Warren Ellis wrote to parody the industry.

ASTONISHING X-MEN #19
Written by JOSS WHEDON
Pencils and Cover by JOHN CASSADAY
50/50 Variant cover by JOHN CASSADAY
"UNSTOPPABLE!" Part 1 (of 6)
Strap yourselves in, folks! It's the beginning of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's final arc on Astonishing X-Men! After the shocking and brain-smashing events of last issue, the X-Men are off to protect the Earth from its destruction at the hands of the Breakworld. And when it's all over, nothing will ever be the same! No really, we mean it! Whedon & Cassaday prove they are more than Astonishing: They are UNSTOPPABLE!
My favorie cover this month. But does it confirm that they're really changing Cyclops' powers?

UNCANNY X-MEN #480
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Penciled by CLAYTON HENRY
Cover by JOHN WATSON
"THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SHI'AR EMPIRE"
The foundations of the mighty Shi'Ar are shaken! Vulcan is here! His first test, the Imperial Guard! It's Vulcan vs. Gladiator. The victor will decide the fate of an entire galaxy! Part 6 (of 12)!
We had an example of a good (maybe great) cover, and now we have an example of a bad cover. Note to publishers: Not all cover painters are good!

As I was picking solicits to highlight/mock I thought the list seemed a little light, then I rememberd the Great Civil War Delay pushed close to a dozen books out of November. No Amazing, no FF, no Frontline, no Civil War. Makes for a short list.

Looking Forward - DC's November Solicitations

It's once again that magical time in which we look into the Crystal Ball at comics slated to come out in November but we still likely won't see until Christmas

BIRDS OF PREY #100
Written by Gail Simone
Art by Nicola Scott & Doug Hazlewood
and Paulo Sequiera & Robin Riggs
Cover by Jerry Ordway
It's time to bring in new blood! Who will be asked to join Oracle in her all-new Birds Of Prey? Who will refuse, and who will fly the coop for good? Plus, a backup story following Black Canary and her new role in the DCU!
Well this solicit makes it pretty clear that Black Canary isn't going to be one of The Birds after this. 100 issues and Black Canary has appeared in (I think) every one. A new era begins.

UNCLE SAM AND THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS #5
Written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray
Art and cover by Daniel Acuña
The covert agency SHADE unleashes a new metahuman threat that leaves the Freedom Fighters powerless! Can Uncle Sam save his team from certain doom?
That is a cool cover!


TEEN TITANS #41
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Tony Daniel & Kevin Conrad
Cover by Daniel
The explosive "Titans Around the World" story concludes with the team finding Raven! Will she bring back a Titans who died?
Another "guess the blacked-out new member" cover? It's a nice concept, but it's approaching overkill at DC.

P.S. - I'm guessing the top silhouette is Miss Martian and the bottom one is Red Star.

WILDCATS #2
Written by Grant Morrison
Art and cover by Jim Lee & Scott Williams
Variant cover A by Erik Larsen
Variant cover B by Jim Lee
A deadly super-villain escapes from a prison space station - by leaping to Earth. The Wildcats must use all their cunning, strength and brains in order to capture him and still maintain their covert status quo. All goes according to plan, except for one little hiccup - he kills them all on live television!
Wow do the heroes actually die in the second issue of a major revamp/reset?

The Hot List

I'm may need to sell a kidney to afford this week's haul. At a minimum I'm probably going to spend more than I ever have in a single week.

DC COMICS
52 WEEK #16
BATMAN #656
BIRDS OF PREY #97
BLUE BEETLE #6
FLASH THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE #3
JACK OF FABLES #2
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1
SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #21
WONDER WOMAN #2

IMAGE COMICS
FEAR AGENT #7

MARVEL COMICS
ASTONISHING X-MEN #16
DAREDEVIL #88
ETERNALS #3 (OF 6)
EXILES #85
HEROES FOR HIRE #1
NEW AVENGERS #23
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #99
ULTIMATES ANNUAL #2
WOLVERINE #45

While the roster of the new Justice League may have been spoiled, I'm still waiting with bated breath for the first (real) issue.

I can's decide which is the best comic not published by the Big Two: Walking Dead or Fear Agent. Either way they're both at the top of my read pile.

Astonishing X-Men. Droooollll.

Daughters of the Dragon was one of my favorite stories of the year, and I think Heroes for Hire will be just as good.

Flops on a Plane

Wow. I didn't see this coming at all. According to Box Office Mojo, Snakes on a Plane made only $13.8M in it's opening weekend. That's a little more than half of what I thought it would make. Snakes had one of the best grassroots hype machines I've ever seen behind it and still it couldn't do as well as your typical J.Lo romantic comedy. I mean this was a fairly low budget film that, despite that handicap, still got promo time on all the major TV networks, and it didn't help one bit. It did no better than an anonymous action movie or thriller.

Review: Shin Chan

For a few minutes last night I thought I had actually lost my freaking mind. I was sure, certain beyond a reasonable doubt, that I'd broken my brain and had slipped into blissful insanity. Why would I think that?

Because I watched Shin Chan on [Adult Swim].

The show is almost indescribable. It was like a firehose of wierd blasting out of my television. Superheroes, schizophrenics, wierd little children and a cat car are just some of the elements of the show. Oh yeah, and it's pretty adult as well, with lots of sexual innuendo and humor. To be honest I'm not quite sure what happened in the episode; everything was just so random and strange and oh so Japanese, but it was still fun to watch.

Apparently the show, known as Crayon Shin-Chan in Japan, has been on the air since 1992 and is considered by some to be Japan's answer to The Simpsons. While I'm not yet ready to make that comparison, Shin Chan looks to be a great addition to the [as] family.

RANT: Civil War Delays

As I'm sure you've all heard, Civil War has been delayed. Now when I first heard this, I was more disappointed than angry. Civil War has, so far, been a great read, and the tie-ins have been mostly (GASP!) both intersting while adding something to the overall story. As I said, a little angry, a lot disappointed.

That is, until I started to read some of Marvel's excuses for the delays. Now, I'm pissed off.

I'll start with Mark Millar:

Steve had virtually no lead-time on Civil War and a title with a million characters has proven much tougher than he expected.

So howsabout instead of giving an unproven penciller such a short lead-time you, oh I don't know, delay the start of the mini a few months to give him the lead he may need? I know there was a proposed summer event that was scrapped when Civil War was pitched, but why couldn't they just make Civil War a fall event? You can't tell me that in 2006 a quality series would sell in the summer but not the fall.

Next we move on to Bryan Hitch (who is the foremost expert on late books)

Two of my favourite re-reads in collections are Dark Knight and Watchmen. Nobody now remembers that each was late at the time of the original periodicals but that was a blip, a couple of years in each's 25 year publication history and these will STILL be published 25 years from now.

Now Hitch isn't the only personen making this point, in fact this comparison was so prevalent in comments from Marvel personnel that I suspect it was distributed by management as a talking point to all involved. While this may be true (Dave Gibbons claims that Watchmen only shipped one issue late and the delay was very short) it's also a terrible comparason. DKR and Watchmen were both stand alone stories set outside of DC's main continuity and had no direct bearing on other titles. Civil War ties into (by my count) about 60% of Marvel's main continuity regular titles, most of which will be delayed significantly by this. You want to compare this situation to Infinite Crisis? Fine, it's a valid comparason and it illustrates why Marvel doesn't want to use fill-in artists. But to draw a parallel between Civil War and Watchmen or Dark Knight Returns is assinine, just as comparing Civil War to 52 would be equally stupid.

My final, and biggest, complaint is with this statement from Marvel editor Tom Brevoort.

The only reason our industry runs on a thirty day cycle is because it’s a holdover from the days when comic books were newsstand-oriented periodicals, and everybody’s used to that. But if you look at the entire field over the last five years, you can see that starting to change. And, like with any change, not everybody is going to be equally comfortable with it.

We put out monthly comics because that’s the way we’ve always largely done it. But the reason for why the comics are produced monthly in this format has kind of fallen away–and because of this fact, you’ve begun to see a metamorphosis in the way the industry operates, in my opinion.

So you don't think comics should be done on a monthly schedule anymore? Then why are you soliciting them as such? If you feel that way then announce that from now on all Marvel books will come out on a when-it's-done basis. You know why this won't happen? Because it would be an unmitigated disaster for the House of Ideas. Comics generally come out on a monthly basis for the same reason television shows come on at the same time each week: Because consumers are creatures of habit. A book that comes out sporatically, unless it's an absolute masterpiece like The Ultimates, won't be successful. Want proof? Look at the early days of Image Comics. They put out some okay books that were absolutely killed by a complete lack of scheduling. Brevoort knows all this, but he's trying to spin the delays as some kind of prescient look at the future of the industry.

All of the above mentioned bothered me, but not nearly as much as what wasn't said: We're Sorry. The first thing out of Quesada & Brevoort's mouths should have been mea maxima culpa, instead we get justifications and excuses.

'Wanted' Casting News

Mark Millar has done a lot of great stuff. The Ultimates, The Authority, Wolverine, but to me his best work was Wanted with J.G. Jones. Because he wasn't playing in someone else's sandbox he was able to let loose and do all the evil perverse shit he always wanted to do. What we got was a book without heroes. Not the traditional comics 'anti-hero' who kills but is fundamentally good, but flat out evil villains made up the entire cast of characters. It was lewd bloody and oh so much fun.

Some time back Wanted was optioned as a movie. I yawned. Come on, there was no way this would actually hit the screen! I may have been wrong. According to The Hollywood Reporter (h/t Newsarama) a guy by the name of James McAvoy has been cast as Wesley Gibson, the star of the series. Now while this doesn't necessarily mean the movie will be any good, it likely means that we'll at least get to see it at some point.

Remakes That Should Not Be: Last House on the Left

I've seen a lot of horror movies over the years and while several have scared me, very, very few have disturbed me. The Last House on the Left was one of those films. Taken individually sex, gore and violence really don't bother me, but Last House..'s confluence of the three actually made me uncomfortable. It's a movie that I know is good, and is rightly considered a very influential film, but I just don't enjoy watching.

So it comes as no surprise that the creatively destitute Hollywood machine has decided to remake Last House on the Left. Honestly, it was probably inevitable. Both Saw & Saw 2 were fairly big hits and they were obviously influenced by Craven's early work. Rouge pictures could have taken the time and effort to find a the next young horror master and let him or her work their magic, but it's a lot easier to just remake Wes Craven's back catalog. Let me make sure Rogue Pictures, and the rest of the Hollywood studios understand what I'm saying.

STOP REMAKING CLASSIC HORROR MOVIES! THEY ARE ALMOST UNIVERSALLY TERRIBLE!

House of Wax, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Psycho, Amityville Horror, The Omen, When a Stranger Calls. All good or great originals. All excretable remakes, the majority of which were financial failures to boot. Dawn of the Dead was good, but it still wasn't as good as the original. Classic horror movies were mostly indie flicks with a minimum of studio interference. Modern remakes are neutered, butchered and focus-grouped to death. Please let the giants lie. Honor them, revere them, but for the love of God, don't try to make them 'better'.

Review Time

Robin #153 - A fun trip through the booby trapped hideouts of Batman's rouges as Robin and Boomerang Jr. try to find the Joker's nuke. Boomerang offers to bury the hatchet, but Tim just isn't ready to be friends with the son of the man that murdered his father. One gripe: how does Owen know Robin's identity? Hawkgirl knowing Batman and Robin's IDs I can buy, she's been a hero for a while now, but who would tell Boomerang something like that? I know that he's been a white hat for at least some time, but he was still a member of The Rouges & The Society as little as year ago DCU time. Batman may be kinder and more trusting than he was pre-IC, but this is a bit of a stretch.

Nextwave #7 - This may have been the best single issue of the year. We get the secret and convoluted origin of The Captain's name. Monica and Else discussing whether or not Captain America is gay, and how much they wish he was. And what may be the best exchange ever.
Tabitha - "They shot their muck all over me!"
Aaron - "Like that's never happened before."
Tabitha - "Shut up and die, Robot face."

Ion #5 - Hal & Kyle try to interrogate Nero, but he's crazy and doesn't know squat about what's been happening, so Kyle goes to confront the Guardians. That's about it. Yeah there was a fight with Nero, and the mute girl from the artist's commune in #1 finds a Thanagarian ship, but nothing really happened here. Combine that with mediocre art, and I'm jumping ship.

Civil War: X-Men #2 - So the Sentinels are freaking Gundams now? After Evangelion-lite appeared in the Sentinel series, and another Sentinel in this issue looks like an old Decepticon? I know American comics are trying to attract manga readers, but this is assinine. Other than that, it was an okay issue that lays the groundwork for mutants re-entering society.

Quick Hits
Shadowpact #4 - It's too early in the series' run for a single character one shot.
Runaways #19 - Two Runaways deal with Gert's death by bumping uglies. While believable, it was still a little shocking to see, even in tame form.

Wii for $170?

Nintendo has said for months that their Wii console would be shipping this year for less than US$250. IGN recently pegged the price point at US$229. Now, according to this article, the Wii may ship for as little as US$170 in Japan.

A few caveats. First, this is an analyst report predicting a game console price point, which means it's likely about as accurate as throwing darts at the multiplication table. Second, even if the cost of producing the CPU are less than estimated, the cost of all of the other electronics are notoriously volatile. Finally, and contrary to my first two points, consoles and other hardware tend to be more expensive in Japan than in America. My guess: $199 with one Wii-mote, a demo disc and no full games when the system launches in early November.

H/T - Evil Avatar

Maybe They Should Change the Name to "Hundred Year War"?

It's official. Marvel's Civil War #4, originally slated to ship Wednesday, August 16, will now ship on September 20th! Think that sucks? Oh, wait, it gets even better: Civil War #5 won't be on shelves until November 15th. Marvel's biggest mega-event in God knows how long, and they're only going to ship one issue between mid-July and mid-November. Worse, this forces a dozen or so tie-in titles to slip as well.

DC took a lot of criticism when Infinite Crisis fell behind schedule, even after a boat load of artists were added to the mix, but the final issue shipped only 2 weeks after it was originally scheduled to. This puts MCW at least two months behind and that's assuming that no further delays pop up in the meantime. I can't even begin to imagine what this means for all the other titles in the main Marvel U. The worst part? A lot of creative teams that DID meet their deadlines are going to have their work ship late through no fault of their own.

Whose fault is this? Millar? He's been the writer of a lot of late books, so he likely has to bear a lot of the blame here. McNiven? He may have to go into the Jim Lee, Frank Quitley, Phil Jimenez, Bryan Hitch class of pencillers that can't be trusted with a monthly book. Quesada? Ultimately he's the boss, so he has to take the blame. Either way there are too many books that don't ship on time now, and sooner or later it's going to kill the industry.

technorati tags: comics,

The Hot List

DC COMICS

52 WEEK #15
CHECKMATE #5
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #3
ION #5 (OF 12)
MANHUNTER #25
ROBIN #153
SHADOWPACT #4
TESTAMENT #9

MARVEL COMICS

CIVIL WAR X-MEN #2 (OF 4)
IRON MAN #11
NEXTWAVE AGENTS OF HATE #7
RUNAWAYS #19
THUNDERBOLTS #105 CW
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #32
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #2

This week's list may be more interesting for what isn't on it. As of Saturday Justice League of America #1, Wonder Woman #2 and Flash #3 were all scheduled to come out this week, yet none are on Diamond's final list. All three issues of Flash have been delayed, albeit slightly. Wonder Woman #1 came out, what 7-8 weeks ago? We may not see #4 before the end of the year at this rate. And Justice League #1? A first issue that's been in the works for almost a full year is late? Ridiculous.

I've loved the first few issues of Rucka's Checkmate. I know a lot of people are turned off by a comic that centers around espionage and realpolitik but it's a great read. A worthy sucessor to Ostrander's Suicide Squad series from the 80's.

Manhunter. Good. Save book.

Thunderbolts seems like a team book from the 80's, but in a good way. The whole team doesn't really get along with one another, and it's not trying so hard to be 'realistic' that it forgets to be fun. And it almost always ships on-time, which fewer and fewer good books do now.

technorati tags: comics, TheHotList,

Genpets. Both Creepy and Brilliant

Genpets. It may be the most disturbingly ingenious thing I've ever seen. Genetically engineered pets, packaged like action figures or consumer electronics. They come in 1-year and 3-year configurations, and their emotions can be controlled via their special nutrient packs.

Now before anyone gets upset, it's not real; the whole thing is an art project by a guy named Adam Brandejs. It is still one of the more fascinating art projects I've ever seen. It's a science fiction satire of modern consumerisism that isn't obnoxiously pretentious. It makes it's point subtly but powerfully and, most importantly, without making the subject feel stupid. Let's be honest, this little troll-looking thing would sell like crazy if it actually existed. It's hairless, allergen free, can't run away and you only have to feed it once a week. It's like a goldfish that you can hold like a baby. A creepy Gollum looking freak baby, but a baby none the less.

technorati tags: technology, art, scifi,

Download Classic DC Comics for Free!

I found this on Digg today and it blew my mind. Hundreds, thousands of old school DC Comics to download, complete with the original ads! I have a feeling that the site may not be long for this world, so get em' while they're hot!

technorati tags: Comics, technology,

Book Review: Sword of Truth 10 - Phantoms

Have you ever seen a link or video that you KNEW would be disturbing, yet you felt some compulsion to check it out anyway? That is basically how I feel about the Sword of Truth series of fantasy novels; I know at some point I'll be bothered by what happens in the book, but I'm still compelled to check it out. At least now I just go to the library instead of plopping down $24.95.

For the uninitiated, Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is fairly standard Tolkien-esque high fantasy: magic swords, wizards, monsters, heroes and beautiful maidens; all set against an unimaginable evil that threatens to consume the entire world. The big difference between SoT & LoTR? Graphic, brutal and lurid scenes of sex, violence and sexual violence are prevalent throughout the entire series. In fact most of the last third of the first book, Wizard's First Rule, is really just one long S&M session. Now I'm not a prude, but this was a little offputting at first. That said, the first 2-3 books in the series were actually pretty good; the main characters were more fleshed out than in most genre novels and their motivations were fairly realistic; brutally so at times. There was still a lot of sex and brutality, and sometimes sex & brutality, but the world Goodkind crafted was engrossing with lots of new and interesting concepts. It wasn't as good as the great fantasy epics, but I looked forward to new iterations of the series.

Things began to go downhill from there. All the charm and innovation of the earlier books had been leeched away, replaced by flat characterizations and gore by the truckload. The two main characters, Richard and Kahlan, were great; the rest of the cast was mostly boring and one-dimensional. To make things even stranger, at some point the books morphed into polemics against Soviet-style communisism. Now I have no love of Stalinism, but the subtext and metaphor became about as subtle as a hammer and sickle over the head. Still I stuck around, mostly because at the end of every book there was a sense that the climax was just around the corner. That changed with book 7, The Pillars of Creation, a book in which the series' two main characters don't appear until the last 40 pages. In their place is a character that, by the middle of the next book, has been all but written out of the series.

It's with all of this in mind I headed out to pick up Goodkind's newest book: Phantoms. However I headed not the bookstore, but the library, because by now I don't even want to spring for the paperback. How was it? Pretty much exactly what I expected. Richard, Kahlan and a couple of other characters are well written and interesting, everyone else is flat, dull and irritating. Like every other book in the series it boils down to Richard knowing what to do, but all of his friends and allies spend most of the book disbelieving. He's proven right in the end, but not before the lack of faith makes matters worse. Having a formula while writing can be good, but this just comes off as repetitive.

According to several sources this was the penultimate book in the series, to which I say: thank God.

2 out of 5

technorati tags: Books, Fantasy, reviews,

Review Time

Fables #52 - In french this issue would be described as la merde est sur le point de frapper le ventilateur. A lot of talking, a few nice revelations (Hansel the badass inquisitor) and an overall sense of menace throughout the issue. As always Fables is a much more enjoyable read when you have Wikipedia open to look up the obsucre characters Willingham throws into the mix. (I had no idea there were other OZ books) The backup feature, starring Rapunzel, was a great addition.

Squadron Supreme #6 - The biggest real difference between Supreme Power and Squadron Supreme isn't content but perspective. Supreme Power was told almost exclusively from Hyperion's perspective; while Squadron's perspective tends to jump between Blur, Inertia and Emil Burbank. Especially Emil Burbank, who may be one of the breakout characters of the year.

Civil War: Frontline - A good main feature, a good backup feature, and 2 wastes of ink and paper. The main feature is still heavily slanted in favor of Cap's anti-registration side, but bias aside, Jenkins is telling an interesting story of how Civil War is playing out on the street level. The feature comparing MCW to real wars continues to piss me off immensely.

Quick Hits

Annihilation #1 - Giffen really makes this seem like a real war, not just another superhero battle. The ending was a bit of a shocker, but one that I just don't think will stand for long.

52 #14 - I like the narrower perspective of the more recent issues. It may be 3-4 weeks between appearances, but each appearance is tighter and more focused.

Green Arrow #65 - The return of Speedy, more on Deathstroke, and even a little news on Connor. What more can I ask for from this book?

technorati tags: comics, ReviewTime

The Hot List

DC
52 Week #14
Fables #52
Firestorm The Nuclear Man #28
Green Arrow #65
JSA Classified #15
Martian Manhunter #1
Secret Six #3
Superman #655

Marvel
Annihilation #1
Civil War Front Line #5
Incredible Hulk #97
Ms Marvel #6
New X-Men #29
She-Hulk 2 #10
Squadron Supreme #6
Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #2
Ultimate X-Men #73

#13 may have been the best issue of 52 to date. The pattern of the book has visibly changed in the last month, and the new focus, both in terms of characters and timeframe, has improved the pacing dramatically. Replacing the 'History of the DCU' backup with new character origins has helped as well.

JSA Classified has been pretty good up till now, but Englehart's Detroit era story in JLA: C stunk from issue 1, and the modern continuance hasn't helped one bit.

Martian Manhunter. I like the character (and Monitor Duty has one of the best profiles on J'Onn ever) but I'm not sure he can carry a solo series, even a limited series. The BNW short did ignite my interest however, so I'm giving it a twirl.

I read the first issue of all 4 Annihilation minis, but the Nova mini was the only that stuck with me. I tend to like Sci-Fi superhero stories, so I'll give this one another try.

When I first heard about Civil War i feared it would be really preachy, like Millar's Authority run. Overall I've been pleasantly surprised by how even-handed it's been, but Frontline has been an exception. It hasn't been bad, just slanted. Sally Floyd, the anti-reg reporter, is taking a moral stand for freedom. Ben Urich, the pro-reg reporter, is actually anti-reg, but his publisher, J. Jonah Jameson, is forcing him to write pro-reg articles. The Speedball feature has been okay, but suffers from the same slant as the main story. The less said about the 'war correspendence' segment the better.

technorati tags: Comics, TheHotList,

Cover to JSoA#2

From Wizard World Chicago: Alex Ross' cover to Justice Society of America #2. Beautiful. Although with 17 characters on the cover (I'm betting the eyes in the top right belong to Obsidian) it may not be the final roster. The bad news? The series now won't launch until December.

technorati tags: Comics

Review Time

Uncanny X-Men #477: It's a bad sign when three issues into Ed Brubaker's run we already have a guest penciller. I guess if you're going to have a guest penciller then it should probably be the issue in which not one member of the team appears. This book should have FILLER written across it in big bold letters.

Moon Knight #4: A good issue that once again gives vivid insight into the minds of both Marc Spector and his shadowy antagonist. But four issues in and we're yet to see Moon Knight in costume outside of flashbacks. I love when a comic character is given layers and dimension, but the time has come for some ass kickery already.

Ex Machina #22: Ah Ex Machina. What other book gives you politics, betrayal, same-sex marital infedelity, and beautifully rendered shotgun wounds to the abdomen all in one package? Although I could have lived without seeing someone use a breathing aparatus for self-gratification. Note to those readers outside of the New York City area: Google Fire Fiend to get some background on what happened in this issue.

Quick Hits
All New Atom #2 - Not as good as the first issue, but still fun.
Detective Comics #822 - Another very good one-and-done story. I loved the Riddler as a rival detective. Don Kramer is the most underrated penciller in the business today.
Outsiders #39 - A lot of people like to slam Judd Winick, sometimes with good reason, but this issue showcases what he's great at: quirky dialouge between villains. His Mallah & The Brain is almost as good as his Sivana & The Fearsome Five.

technorati tags: comics, ReviewTime

Batman Sequel News

It's official. The next Batman movie will be titled "The Dark Knight", and Heath Ledger has been cast as The Joker. Ledger's work, what I've seen of it, is okay; nothing spectacular, but he can act. I am really glad that Nolan and Warner Bros. didn't go 'wacky' for the Joker. The rumors of Robin Williams getting the part made me ill. All of the other principal actors, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman & Katie Holmes are also returning, and the film is slated for a summer 2008 release.

technorati tags: comics, movies