Category Archives: DC
Review: Teen Titans #18
Maddening! This series is maddening! Sometimes Teen Titans can be pretty damn good, with solid characterization and the hint that something interesting and entertaining will happen. Then Teen Titans will shoot itself in the foot and run around bleeding everywhere because it just loves pointless cutaways and ridiculous character motivations. Evil Tim Drake continues to be a ridiculously stupid idea. Seriously, if Evil Tim Drake wasn’t in this issue, this would have been one of the best issues of Teen Titans to date. But he just ruins everything!
Teen Titans #18
But he’s not alone. If you were hoping Trigon might amount to something cool…nope! Or what about the two stupid new villains that were randomly and awkwardly inserted last issue? They show up again and are even more pointless than before.
And then there’s Lance. Fuck Lance.
Comic Rating: 2/5: Bad.
Sorry for the cursing. But seriously, to hell with that guy. Lance is the worst character in the New 52. Even worse than Rush! He makes absolutely no god damned sense! Scott Lobdell introduces him in Teen Titans as one of Amanda Waller’s agents. Fine. Even though he’s got a ridiculously generic costume and name, that’s still fine. Then Lance shows up and promises he can cure Solstice. Also fine. But then in that same issue, he’s pulled away by unseen forces to go off and appear in Birds of Prey. What!? Why!? I didn’t read about Lance’s adventures in Birds of Prey, but they were apparently important enough to warrant a one-panel cameo in the Teen Titans Joker issue, and then he’s mentioned again in this issue as having disappeared. What the Hell!?
Why bother bringing the character into Teen Titans in the first place if he’s not going to stick around or do anything, and instead is going to have a big story in Birds of Prey?
And Lance is just the tip of the stupid character iceberg. Teen Titans is full of them, and I’ll gladly point them out as we go through the synopsis. Sadly, it pains me to say that the stupidest character of them all is Evil Tim Drake. Even his haircut is stupid. But what makes it even worse is that for the first half of the book, he’s actually pretty awesome.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review.
The 6 Coolest Cat Superheroes
Ever since my blog started getting more popular, I’ve received a lot of e-mails from SEO people who want me to hire them to get more Google hits. Search Engine Optimization, I believe it’s called. Even if I had money, I wouldn’t do it, because I’m comfortable letting my blog grow naturally (Tell your friends! Share on Facebook!). However, I am not opposed to giving the people what they want. And what they want on the Internet is cats.
He is the cat. The night is his.
I love cats as much as the next person. If you want a surefire way to get me to laugh, just show me one of those Youtube videos of the ‘talking’ cats. Oh long Johnson! Hehe. But anyway! What better way to drive up my readership than by combining cats and superheroes? They go together like cats and cardboard boxes. So here are the six snazziest comic book characters who like to get in touch with their feline side.
New DC Superheroes Game On Its Way in Arena Battle Format
I had no idea that Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games were their own genre. I play some DOTA2, but apparently there are more games, and they’re a big enough hit that DC Comics is going to make their own featuring a wide range of characters from across the Multiverse! Behind, Infinite Crisis!
So the game apparently has nothing to do with the comic book Infinite Crisis from 2005, and that’s fine. It’s a good name for a superhero game. The new game is going to be free-to-play and only online, though of course you can buy all sorts of new characters and upgrades through the in-game shop. That’s how these things make their money. And based on the premise, it sounds to me like there would be a lot of fun characters to choose from.
One would think there’d be more than enough characters in the normal DC Universe, but opening the game up to alternate universe characters is a pretty cool idea. They’re even going to make new versions of alternate universe characters, like a Catwoman from the Gotham by Gaslight universe. Sounds neat!
For those who don’t know, and I’m mostly guessing here, Multiplayer Online Battle Arena games involve a single map filled with player characters duking it out. You each have a bunch of special powers, skills and moves, and it all comes down to who can play their character better and level up faster. Imagine Diablo if the game was just about pitting your character against other players’ characters. It’s kind of fun in the game DOTA2, though there is a steep learning curve that I don’t particularly like about that game. It would probably be even worse if other players can simply buy a bigger, stronger, better character.
Infinite Crisis is due out sometime later this year. Here’s a screenshot so you can get an idea of how the game would look.
You can see Flash, Captain Marvel, Doomsday and Zatanna in that image, and that’s probably the usual scale the game will use. So just picture those characters smacking the crap out of each other and occasionally whipping out a special move or two until only one is left standing.
Click here for a ton of more screenshots.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 3/23/13
Another third week is upon us and once again I find myself reviewing more than a dozen comics! I wish I knew how it worked out that all my favorite comics seem to come out on the same week. It’s like some kind of conspiracy against me and my poor wallet. At least they’re all mostly good comics. Seriously, not a stinker in the bunch…but maybe that’s just because I tend to stop buying comics that I don’t like. I’ve whittled away all the bad comics and am left with a great lineup of quality stories. I can live with that.
Comic Book of the Week was hard to choose because none of these issues rose to real greatness. They’re all just generally good and entertaining. It came down to a battle between the viciousness of Doc Ock in Superior Spider-Man vs. the adorable cheerfulness of Captain Marvel, and I’m happy to say Carol pulled through another win! Captain Marvel is just a fantastic series.
Comic Reviews: All-New X-Men #9, Avengers #8, Batwoman #18, Captain Marvel #11, Green Lantern: New Guardians #18, Indestructible Hulk #5, Justice League #18, Justice League of America #2, New Avengers #4, Nightwing #18, Nova #2, Red Hood and the Outlaws #18, Superior Spider-Man #6 and Wonder Woman #18.
I Will Not Give Up The Fight – Injustice for Robin!
Here I am again to share two new videos debuting two new characters for the upcoming video game Injustice: Gods Among Us. Unfortunately, neither character is Robin the Boy Wonder. Why isn’t DC listening to me? Who do I have to reach at Warner Bros. to make this a reality? Why are none of the people at NeatherRealm Studios reading my blog?
First up, we have Doomsday, the villain who killed Superman back in the 90s.
I think Doomsday is a great choice for a fighting game like Injustice. He’s big, he’s burly and he’s got a cool look. If I had to design someone who killed Superman on brute strength alone, Doomsday is a great look. Plus, since I think the plot of the game has Superman as a villain, maybe Doomsday rises to become some kind of secret weapon for the good guys.
Next up is Raven, the black magic magician of the Teen Titans.
Raven is probably also a good choice, if an obscure one. It’s a good idea to diversify and include as many female fighters as possible, plus Raven uses magic, so I’m sure that will help when it comes to special attacks. She also starred in that Teen Titans cartoon a few years ago, so I’m sure she’s got some good street cred.
But she’s not Robin. Neither of them is Robin. How hard is it to put Robin in this game? Why is the concept of Batman vs. Robin so hard to grasp?
There are several more characters to be revealed. So stay tuned as I keep you as up to date as possible. Will my persistence pay off in the end? Or will my dreams be crushed like so many sky blue eggshells?
Thanks to Xavier for the find!
P.S. Did anyone else see that video of one level where Giganta and Atom Smasher are fighting in the background, and will interact with the combatants? I think the developers had more fun coming up with the levels than they are the fighters.
Henchman-4-Hire 