Category Archives: Comics
The Jean Grey School for Higher Learning
Boy, Wolverine is really going to stick it to Cyclops in the upcoming Regenesis storyline. While Cyclops and his Uncanny X-Men stay behind on Utopia in San Francisco (I think), Wolverine is going to take his team of X-Men back to Westchester to rebuild the old Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters. Only Wolverine isn’t going to name it after Chuck. He’s got a much better name in mind.
The logo is not as nifty as an 'X'
Take that, Cyclops! Wolverine is going to honor your dead wife while you stay in California having sex with Emma Frost. Take that! I like the change. Professor X is still around, as far as I know, but the X-Men series has been great recently about moving forward and coming up with new ideas. There’s absolutely no reason to name the school after Charles Xavier anymore.
The war between Xavier and Magneto is long over. And for that I’m grateful. I wonder if it will now be replaced by the war between Cyclops and Wolverine!
The school looks pretty badass too.
It's probably going to be a bitch to draw, though.
My 6 Favorite Alternate Versions of Superheroes
This is going to be a very geeky list. We’re talking the height of comic book geekery. Maybe some of your non-geeks will learn something. This will hopefully be a silly list too, celebrating the depths of comic book awesomeness. Is everybody familiar with alternate realities? The idea that somewhere out there in existence is an alternate Earth, with alternate versions of us living alternate lives? Well superhero comics love this concept. There are dozens of alternate realities in comics, hundreds even. It’s a favorite of comic writers and fans to create alternate reality versions of famous superheroes.
Like Calvin and Hobbes as Batman and Robin, for example
Click the jump to read six of my favorites!
Tim Drake and the Teen Titans Preview
The new Teen Titans comes out this Wednesday, and the website Bleeding Cool has some preview images. This book is my most hotly anticipated of the new DC revamp because it stars my favorite DC character: Tim Drake. I’m a huge Robin fan, and Tim Drake is my favorite teen to wear the green. Sadly, he’s no longer Robin. Instead, he’s Red Robin! I can live with it. This new series will have Tim gathering together the Teen Titans, and I’m definitely looking forward to what’s in store.
Here’s the preview:
Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Awesome Upcoming X-Factor Cover
Marvel’s December solicitations came out today, and while I’m not going to go through every single issue, I just thought I’d show you all the awesome cover to an upcoming issue of X-Factor. Two issues will ship in December. The first issue will deal with new villain Bloodbath, and the death of one of their team members. The second issue will finally deal with a cliffhanger that’s been around since very early on in the series.
The prophecy that Wolfsbane will murder Madrox and Layla Miller on their wedding night!
How’s it going to happen? Are they really going to die? Are they really going to get married!? To make matters worse (or funnier), Layla was still a little girl when the prophecy was made. Now she’s been aged through time travel to a young woman, perfectly not-creepy for marriage. She and Jamie have even kissed! Plus they share matching face tattoos from their journey together into the future (long story). So I’m excited to see what happens and this is the cover to one of those issues. And it’s an awesome cover.
Not looking too good for Madrox. Note the face tattoo. I told you so!
Comic Reviews: DC Should Have Done a Full Reboot
Another week has come and gone, leaving me with another stack of new DC titles to read and enjoy. So far, my general opinion still hasn’t been changed by what I’m reading. I become more and more convinced each week that DC should have done a hard reboot right from the beginning. They should have set all of their characters back to Square One. None of this crap where some characters have been fully rebooted and some haven’t been touched at all.
I think the fans would accept a full reboot.
Just look at the evidence in sales so far this month. Justice League sold over 200,000 copies and is going back for its fourth reprint. (To you non-comic fans, that’s a big deal). Even books like Hawk and Dove have sold out and are going back for a reprint. People are buying these new DC titles in droves!
"Hey Marvel! Come at us, bro!"
So clearly DC’s strategy of getting people excited for just their revamp/soft reboot has worked. They did a great job over the summer preparing people for the changes. Comic book fans were ready and willing to accept the new continuity. Yes, there have been some grumblers (like me!) who have complained about some of the changes. But we’re still buying the comics. Which leads me to believe that we’d all still be buying the comics if DC had gone for a full reboot. They’re already retelling the origins of Superman and the Justice League in their respective books. But with the second story of each, they’re going to jump ahead five years. It’s a weird storytelling strategy.
They should have done a full Ultimate DC.
Just not this Ultimate DC
Why not retell all the origins of the characters with exciting new twists and focus? Look at the success of Ultimate Spider-Man. Have DC’s best writers plot out the birth of a new DC Universe. Weave characters together from the ground up into the Justice League and into the Teen Titans. Get rid of characters you don’t want anymore. Give new origins to some characters. Do whatever you want, but do it with some consistency.
But this would never work. I don’t know if comic book fans would have the patience to sit through everything again already knowing what’s to come. While I’d be happy with Dick Grayson back as Robin, with DC retelling his origin, I’d constantly be looking ahead for Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne. Plus some comic fans would definitely be bitter about losing all the continuity. I don’t know if they’d be pacified by the idea that all of that was still around and they could reread it whenever they like. Just DC is going forward with some new ideas.
Oh well. What do I know? This is probably why DC hasn’t given me a job yet. Click the jump for my reviews of DC’s Week Three, including Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Batman and Nightwing.
Henchman-4-Hire 