Category Archives: Comics
Your New Justice Leagues!
Big changes are in store for the various Justice Leagues (there are more than one) coming out of the Forever Evil storyline, and I felt it might be fun to share.
First up, the bad news: Justice League Of Canada has been changed to Justice League United. If that’s not depressing, I don’t know what is. DC was gonna do something fun and weird, and instead they’re making it boring and generic. Though writer Jeff Lemire promises that the first story arc will indeed take place in Canada, in this announcement interview with USA Today.
They would have made Canada proud
Considering how much I’m loving Lemire’s Green Arrow, I might have to start picking this up. I was never happy with Geoff Johns’ Justice League of America, but then I don’t think that was ever actually its own comic. It was only ever the road to Forever Evil.
As you can see from that photo, the team is going to be Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, Supergirl, Stargirl, Animal Man and the new Adam Strange. I don’t particularly care about anyone in that line up, though I am absolutely fascinated with the New 52 Martian Manhunter, and, like I said, Lemire’s Green Arrow is pretty great. Lemire is also going to introduce some new Canadian characters, so more power to him. The stories in JLU are going to focus a lot on outer space, according to the interview. And just a word to my readers, saying ‘outer space’ is just so much more fun that simply saying ‘space’. Unless you’re using ‘space’ as an adjective.
Speaking of team line-ups, the good news is that Lex Luthor is going to join the roster of Justice League, Geoff Johns’ flagship book. That’s actually pretty darn cool, in my opinion.
Too much green and purple
I can’t say that Johns has been writing the best Luthor in the pages of Forever Evil, but just the idea of Luthor on the Justice League is a fun one. He’s a new, Alpha personality, and no doubt he’ll have his own particular brand of heroism. Although why any of the other heroes would let Luthor join the Justice League is anyone’s guess. It’s not like he can force them to accept him, right? Anyway, I’m kind of excited to see what Johns does with this shake-up. And he’s adding Captain Cold too, so that’s kind of neat. You can read a deeper interview with Johns at Newsarama.
I actually kind of like what I’m seeing out of DC Comics…so surely it’s all going to be terrible in the end.
Holy Cow, Teen Titans has Been Cancelled!
The worst (best?) has happened as it seems that Scott Lobdell has driven Teen Titans into the ground. Announced by Lobdell himself on ComicVine today, Teen Titans will be cancelled at issue #30 in April!
Wow. This is fascinating news. It’s sad that I won’t be able to continue my popular Teen Titans reviews (ravagings?), but man oh man, how great would it be if DC Comics found something better to do with the title and the characters?
Lobdell explained that the last regular issue will be #30, followed by an Annual a week later, which will wrap up the series with a final battle against N.O.W.H.E.R.E., because Lobdell insists they’re the Titans’ arch-enemies. Groan.
I’m thrilled the DC is letting me wrap up the story on a high note as the TEEN TITANS square off against the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. in a final battle — bringing to conclusion the conflict that began in the first issue! I’m certainly going to miss writing the adventures of Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Bunker and the rest of the gang. But as a huge, life long fan of the title I’m very excited about the whispered rumors I’m hearing race back and forth between New York and Burbank. (Trust me when I say we haven’t seen the last of everyone’s favorite teen team adventurers.)
Let’s read between the lines for a moment. You’ll see that Teen Titans is being cancelled instead of just being handed off to a new creative team. With a title as marquee as ‘Teen Titans’, why wouldn’t DC just let somebody take over from Lobdell?
I think the answer is because Lobdell so greatly screwed up the team that DC has no choice but to burn it down and start fresh somewhere down the line. That is exactly what I think has happened. Ugh. Teen Titans is so bad. The characters have been all but ruined.
If only DC could completely erase everything Lobdell did to the Titans. But at the very least, now there is hope for something better. Hope with me, my friends. Hope.
Aquaman is Getting a Second Series!
We will soon live in a world where Aquaman has two ongoing series. It’s not a world where either one is written by Geoff Johns, buuuut we’ll just have to let that slide.
DC Comics announced yesterday the new series, Aquaman and the Others, to be written by Dan Jurgens and drawn by Lan Medina.
More Aquaman is a good thing
For those of you who don’t know, the Others are a new group created for DC’s recent relaunch. They are a group of people each entrusted with one of Atlantis’ ancient magical weapons, and Aquaman joined them for several adventures way back before the Justice League even formed. They’re not so much superheroes are just colorful people from around the world, like the Operative, a geriatric super-spy, or Prisoner-of-War, a hooded soldier carrying the souls of all his former comrades in his weapon. There’s also Ya’wara the jungle woman and Sky, who I don’t remember. Sadly, the coolest one, Vostok the cosmonaut, was killed.
Anyway, the series is going to be about some villain coming around to try and take their weapons – which was exactly the plot when the Others were introduced in the pages of Aquaman. I’m sure this time it’ll be better – I hope. I have no idea how Dan Jurgens is going to do, but I have to hope it’s going to be awesome!
Review: Cataclysm: Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #3
If you haven’t already heard the good news, it seems that Miles Morales’ life as Spider-Man gets to continue in the Ultimate Universe. He’s not jumping over to the regular Marvel Universe. He’s not dying. Miles gets to live on and continue having adventures, which is fantastic news. I want to keep reading Miles Morales comics for the rest of my natural born life. I want to read Miles as an adult Spider-Man, like normal universe Peter Parker. That’s all I’m about: want, want, want! Unfortunately, I have been denied the excellence of Brian Michael Bendis’ original plans for Miles revealing his identity to his father, and that’s a shame.
Spider-Man Cataclysm #3
The final issue in this 3-parter is a bit of a let down, if only because not much really happens. The emotional confrontation between father and son is short and bittersweet, and the issue ends with just a continuation into the main Cataclysm series. It doesn’t serve as a finale to Ultimate Spider-Man or as much of a finale to this 3-parter.
Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
I don’t know what Bendis originally planned for the moment when Miles reveals his identity to his father, but I can’t imagine it was this. There’s no way Cataclysm was on the table back when Bendis was putting together his plans for Miles. So to have such an important moment wasted in the middle of this big mess is kind of disappointing. The confrontation happens in a logical and reasonable way, but it leaves a lot to be desired, and a lot on the table. That makes sense, considering the story is going to continue, but for a single issue, it’s just disappointing.
And there’s too much going on with Galactus destroying the world for anything else to matter. Everybody, especially Miles, is in crisis mode. Nothing slows down enough to be cherished. It’s all rush, rush, rush in every direction. So while that means the action is cool, all of the potentially important or interesting story beats are lost in the rush. And then, like I said, the end is just a ‘To Be Continued in the Rest of Cataclysm’ thing. So this issue is fine, and it’s well made, but everything is a little too discombobulated by Cataclysm to be really effective.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/11/14
I’m a little embarrassed. There are only four comics on the review slate today, and none of them are Indie titles like I promised last week. But that’s only because I couldn’t settle on one I liked, and most of them were already mid-story. Fortunately, Image just announced a ton of new books coming this year, so maybe I can get in on the ground floor of some of those. But still, only four books this week! What’s wrong with me? Well, for starters, I’ve been a bit under the weather. Blame it on the Polar Vortex!
At any rate, at least we’ve got some good books this week! All-New Marvel NOW! has launched, and we’ve got the first issues of Avengers World and Black Widow, both solid starts. And DC Comics gives us a healthy dose of green, with both Green Arrow and Green Lantern! They should market that somehow. Too bad they already cancelled Green Team.
Comic Book of the Week goes to Green Arrow #27, which continues its so-far amazing The Others storyline – but don’t let the name fool you, it’s far more interesting than that.
That is some very pretty arrow shooting. How is it that both Green Arrow and Hawkeye are such great comic books these days?
Comic Reviews: Avengers World #1, Black Widow #1, Green Arrow #27 and Green Lantern #27.
Henchman-4-Hire