Category Archives: DC
6 Sports-Themed Superheroes Not Quite Ready for the Big Game
Super Bowl Sunday is stampeding towards us on the gridiron, and what better way to celebrate than by uniting jocks and nerds into one glorious list? Easier said than done, it seems. This may or may not surprise you, but apparently sports have very little to do with superheroes, despite the fact that both involve men and women dressing up in brightly-colored, often animal-themed costumes for our amusement.
The Buffalo Sabre – Did you know Stan Lee designed superheroes for every NHL team?
In celebration of the biggest game day of the year, I’ve decided to spread the wealth of geekery to my more athletic brothers and sisters. Click the jump to see 6 of the sportiest superheroes and villains in comics! Though I wouldn’t necessarily let any of them go home with the game ball.
Everything Wrong With the Worst Movie of All Time
Is Batman and Robin the worst movie of all time? I think that’s arguable. Certainly it’s in consideration. The fine folks at Cinema Sins have decided to tackle their biggest project to date. That video is nearly 20 minutes long! I watched it all, and it was damn good. Those folks are kind of my Internet heroes.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 1/25/14
It’s another week of trying to break my wallet, but somehow I managed to hold on, read a bunch of comics and have a generally good week over all. I’m not quite as sick as I was for the past few weeks. That’s a plus, right? But here in Central New York, we’re looking at several straight days of single-digit to sub-zero temperatures. Go winter!
At least there were enough good comics to keep me warm! We’ve got new issues of Black Widow, Harley Quinn and Origin II already, and most of them are pretty darn good! Solid comics like Hawkeye and Wonder Woman are back, and we get the over-sized, over-sad finale of FF! Why do we live in a world where FF comes to an end after only 16 issues!?
Despite all those great comics, Comic Book of the Week has to go to Wolverine and the X-Men #40 because we’re finally getting some forward movement on the Cyclops/Wolverine Schism, and it’s everything I could have asked for.
Bromance renewed? We can only hope.
Comic Reviews: Batman #27, Batwoman #27, Black Widow #2, FF #16, Hawkeye #16, Harley Quinn #2, Origin II #2, Wolverine and the X-Men #40 and Wonder Woman #27.
Why I Don’t Think Nightwing is Going to Die
Things aren’t looking good these days for Dick Grayson, the original Robin. Some fans are even worried that he’s going to be killed off soon. But not me. Despite all of the ominous clues that DC Comics has been dropping, I don’t think they’re going to kill off Nightwing because of one very important detail.
They haven’t announced it in the news media.
That’s just ketchup
In the current Forever Evil storyline, the Crime Syndicate of America has defeated the Justice League and kidnapped Nightwing, exposing his secret identity to the world to show they mean business. They’re keeping him alive for their own twisted reasons, and Batman is already mounting a rescue, but DC has been dropping a few hints lately that the Dark Knight might not succeed, and the original Dynamic Duo will be no more.
The biggest hint came on Tuesday with the release of DC’s solicitations for April. That image I posted above is the cover to Nightwing #30, billed as the “final issue” of the series, because DC is apparently canceling the book. The text for the issue #30 preview reads:
The Bat Family is forced to face the brutal aftermath of FOREVER EVIL, but after everything they’ve been through, can they stand together?
So a cover stained with blood and a broken mask, and a solicitation that mentions “brutal aftermath”. Do you see what I mean? DC is practically screaming at us that Nightwing is toast! That preview couldn’t be more clear!
Except that’s not how DC announces big changes these days.
The big trend for DC and Marvel recently has been to announce all big storylines in the news media before the comics see print. Sometimes this occurs only a day or so before the comic comes out, but recently, they’d been making media announcements ahead of the solicitations. For example, just last week, DC announced via the Associated Press that Lex Luthor was joining the Justice League rather than wait for it to be revealed in the April solicitations. Likewise, Marvel revealed Peter Parker’s return to Amazing Spider-Man before they put out their own previews for April.
And the death of a character with the rich history and public appeal of Dick Grayson is going to make the news. There’s no doubt about it.
The deaths of Spider-Man, Ultimate Spider-Man, Human Torch and Catwoman all made the news, even though Catwoman was actually revealed in the very next issue to be Martian Manhunter, and he wasn’t dead at all.
If DC Comics was really going to kill Dick Grayson at the end of Forever Evil, they would probably have announced it in the media already. They wouldn’t put out a solicitation like the one they did on Tuesday, practically promising a death, without first milking it for national news coverage. That’s just how the comic book industry works these days.
Am I wrong for liking the red more than the blue?
I could be wrong. DC might be waiting until the day or week of the actual death to make headlines. But too many people are talking about Nightwing dying. It’s all over the comic news sites; heck, it’s clearly on my blog, you’re reading my article right now. But knowing what I’ve seen about comic stories announced in the media, I just don’t think DC would leave a story this huge to the minnows in the media pond. Why let minor web sites like mine nibble at the bait when DC could make headlines and get TV time by announcing the death of the original Robin?
Not to mention the fact that Dick Grayson is rumored to appear in the Man of Steel sequel. The character is perched on the edge of a major comeback in mainstream popularity. Killing him now would be silly, but killing him and resurrecting him in less than a year to make it in time for the movie is even sillier.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to Dick Grayson in the next few months. But I’m pretty sure he’s not going to die.
My 6 Favorite Teams in Comics
Any superhero will tell you: you ain’t nothing until you join a super team! The Justice League and the Avengers only take the best of the best (usually). The Fantastic Four are practically royalty. And Empowered didn’t get any respect until she joined the Super-Homies! Sort of. Super teams are the bread and butter of the comic book industry. Why just have one superhero to a comic when you can have a dozen? Why not take a couple of solo superheroes and put them into a single movie together and make a billion dollars?
Makes sense to me.
A billion dollars! It still blows my mind!
Being the fully entrenched comic book geek that I am, most of the teams on this list are going to be kind of obscure. That’s on me. But perhaps some of you readers will learn something new about comics! I can only hope my lists do some good for the world. Join me after the jump to see my favorite comic book super-teams. And please don’t hesitate to share your own favorites in the comments!
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