Yearly Archives: 2013
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 9/7/13
Welcome to Villains Month! It’s the two-year anniversary of DC’s New 52 reboot, and like every September so far, they have launched a wacky publicity stunt! Unfortunately for DC, I only bought two of the dozen or so villain books. And I wasn’t all that impressed with either one. Fortunately, I liked the first issue of Forever Evil a bit more, so at least DC has that.
Not to be outdone, Marvel Comics isn’t taking Villains Month lying down. They are neck deep in the big Infinity event (yawn), and this week also saw the launch of Battle of the Atom (yay), the new Brian Michael Bendis-penned X-Men crossover. So this week was clearly a huge week in comics – and not just because it’s my 30th birthday too.
Comic Book of the Week goes to both Battle of the Atom #1 and All-New X-Men #16. Marvel and Bendis kicked off Battle of the Atom in style, and I think it’s easily going to be the best Big Event Crossover of the season!
Comic Reviews: Battle of the Atom #1, All-New X-Men #16, Bizarro #1, Deadshot #1, Forever Evil #1, Infinity #2, and Superior Foes of Spider-Man #3.
Punishing Dick Grayson, and Why It Could Be a Good Thing
Dick Grayson can’t seem to catch a break. And I don’t just mean the murder of his parents when he was still a boy. I mean Dick Grayson as a comic book superhero can’t seem to catch a break in DC Comics’ New 52 universe. In less than two years, Dick found out that his childhood home, Haley’s Circus, was actually a front for the villainous Court of Owls secret society, and that Dick himself was in line to become one of their undead assassins (until the whole Batman and Robin thing happened instead). Then he found out his childhood sweetheart was a psychopath who betrayed him and tried to kill him, only for her to then be murdered by the Joker as a means of punishing Dick.
Then when he inherited Haley’s Circus and sunk all of his life savings into fixing it up, that too was destroyed by the Joker. Then Dick found out that Batman was keeping secrets from him, leading to an angry split between the two heroes. Then he found out the man who murdered his parents was still alive and hiding in Chicago!
And now Nightwing has been chosen as the sacrificial lamb for the new Forever Evil event.
So that’s why they put him in red
Don’t worry, he’s not dead…at least not yet.
But something almost as huge happened to Nightwing in this week’s Forever Evil #1. As a big Robin and Nightwing fan, I’m worried about any major change to one of my favorite characters. But I’m here to tell you that this change might not be all that bad. In fact, this could work out very well in Nightwing’s favor.
As long as DC manages to use it to tell some good stories. That part is questionable.
But this isn’t the end of the world. Join me after the jump for full SPOILERS and why I think this could be good for the character.
Apparently the First Trailer for the Robocop Remake Arrived Just in Time for My Birthday
Is this your present to me, Internet? The first trailer for the new Robocop movie? I’ve never been a big Rococop fan. I never even saw the original Robocop when I was a kid in the 80s. I waited until I was well into adulthood before watching a marathon of Robocop movies. Why do you think I care, Internet?
The trailer looks barely OK. Looks like a basic Robocop movie that randomly stars Michael Keaton, Samuel L. Jackson and Gary Oldman. How is a stellar cast like that appearing in Robocop?
Whatever the level of Robocop nostalgia, I think we can all agree that any movie coming out on Feb. 7 is already pre-ordained to fail. January and February are a crappy movie dumping ground. Everybody knows this, yet Hollywood keeps releasing movies in that season. It’s a never-ending cycle that won’t be broken with Robocop.
Oh jeez, I think I’m becoming a crotchety old man already…
Total War: Rome 2 Review
In every entry into Creative Assembly’s truly epic series, the game thrusts you into command of a historic kingdom, competing for dominance in a legendary time period. Since 2000, Total War has taken players through the Japanese Shogunate wars, the Roman Empire, the Dark Ages, the Colonial period and the Napoleonic wars. Now, the series returns to revisit Rome, from the rise of the Republic to the conquest of the Empire.
It’s no secret that I’m in love with the Total War series. In my mind, 2010’s Shogun 2 and its expansions are among the best, most epic strategy games ever made. With big, epic battles, simplistic gameplay and a plethora of strategic and diplomatic angles to use, you felt like you were in control of your own expanding dynasty. And, of course, its cooperative campaign was amazing.
Now, Creative Assembly is trying to recreate its success with a follow-up to 2004’s Rome: Total War. The campaign, which can be played head-to-head or cooperatively with another player, allows you to play not only as the Roman republic/empire, but any of more than a dozen other countries between 200 BCE until the fall of Rome. Read the rest of this entry
DC Comics Doesn’t Want Batwoman to Get Married
News of further DC Comics editorial interference has hit the Internet today, and it hits hard. J.H. Williams III, possibly the most brilliant artist working in comics today, has announced that he’s leaving the critically acclaimed Batwoman series because DC won’t let him marry Batwoman and her fiancee, Maggie Sawyer, among other reasons. And that is just monstrous. Batwoman is the only comic from the Big Two publishers to star an openly gay character, and has even won two GLAAD awards for its portrayal of gay characters. Yet this is the stance DC is apparently taking.
Williams clarified on Twitter that DC isn’t necessarily opposed to gay marriage. They simply told him Batwoman and Maggie can’t get married. Considering what DC did to Superman and Lois Lane, they might just be opposed to any of their characters being married. But forbidding these two in particular from tying the knot is a horrible move.
This should win the Mtv Best Kiss Award!
Williams made the announcement on his blog last night. He said his final issue will be #26 in a few months. Both he and co-writer W. Haden Blackman will be leaving the title.
Here is an exert from Williams and Blackman’s letter explaining their departure:
Unfortunately, in recent months, DC has asked us to alter or completely discard many long-standing storylines in ways that we feel compromise the character and the series. We were told to ditch plans for Killer Croc’s origins; forced to drastically alter the original ending of our current arc, which would have defined Batwoman’s heroic future in bold new ways; and, most crushingly, prohibited from ever showing Kate and Maggie actually getting married. All of these editorial decisions came at the last minute, and always after a year or more of planning and plotting on our end.
We’ve always understood that, as much as we love the character, Batwoman ultimately belongs to DC. However, the eleventh-hour nature of these changes left us frustrated and angry — because they prevent us from telling the best stories we can. So, after a lot of soul-searching, we’ve decided to leave the book after Issue 26.
You can read the full text here. Or if that link is still broken, you can check it out here.
This is horrible news. Batwoman has been one of the consistently great books coming out of DC since the New 52, and the romance between Batwoman and Maggie Sawyer has been an absolute treat to read. It’s one of my favorite relationships in all of comics these days, and that marriage proposal was one of the most romantic comic book scenes I have ever read! I want to see this couple soar, and marriage seemed exactly where it was leading.
I would have loved a nice, romantic, heartfelt wedding between Kate Kane and Maggie Sawyer. But DC apparently had to be twerps about it.
Williams later clarified on Twitter: “Not wanting to be inflammatory, only factual – We fought to get them engaged, but were told emphatically no marriage can result.”
He also Tweeted: “But must clarify – was never put to us as being anti-gay marriage.”
So I think what we’re looking at here is DC just doesn’t want any of their characters to be married. They broke up Superman and Lois Lane in the reboot, along with Barry Allen and Iris West. Ralph and Sue Dibny are nowhere to be seen. The only character I can think of who is married at all is Aquaman. Why does he get a pass?
Because he’s written by Geoff Johns, obviously.
This news is just depressing. Batwoman is one of DC’s best books, and the relationship between Batwoman and Maggie Sawyer is one of the best and sweetest romances in all of comics.. Williams and Blackman have created something wonderful between those two characters, whereas DC can’t seem to get their heads out of their asses long enough to make Superman and Wonder Woman anything more than a PR stunt.
This is far from the first time DC has been taken to task by its creators for poor editorial management. DC has gone through half a dozen Superman writers in less than two years because of creative interference from the higher-ups. They had a huge marketing push when writer Andy Diggle took over Action Comics, but Diggle walked off the series before his fist issue even hit the stands. Rob Liefeld left the company in a flurry of laughs and accusations. And one of the new writers of the Green Lantern franchise dropped out before the work even started.
But this one might be the worst. Williams’ art is like nothing else in comics, and it made Batwoman a true standout. His creative direction on Batwoman has been nothing short of brilliant (except for that one, non-linear story arc).
This is a true shame.
Henchman-4-Hire 