Category Archives: DC
Review: Justice League #1
The future of comic books is here! Or at least that’s what DC Comics would like you to believe. So far, I’m not convinced.
Justice League #1
Today marked the release of Justice League #1, their launching point for a whole line-wide revamp of their most popular characters. This comic has been hyped up the wazoo all Summer long. It’s reportedly had more than 200,000 orders. Justice League was the only comic book that DC put out this week (sort of) in order to ensure that every comic fan worth their collection would get in on the ground floor of their exciting and bombastic new stories!
The comic fails. Not terribly so. But this is a real stumble out of the starting gate.
Justice League #1 feels like one of those extended house ads they staple into the middle of normal comics. Where Superman and/or Green Lantern help some kids wearing Subway brand T-shirts defeat some bad guys with the power of Subway sandwiches. It looks like Green Lantern. It acts like Green Lantern. But it doesn’t feel like Green Lantern.
Instead it feels like a rushed, overly thought-out promotional piece. What’s supposed to be the iconic first meeting of Batman and Green Lantern speeds through its dialogue and its team-up, with the two of them trading not-so-snappy banter as they try and fight some random, monstrous-looking villain. But the writer, Geoff Johns, seems to think that the banter is very snappy. That’s why it feels overly thought-out.
Justice League #1 doesn’t feel new or special. It’s just another comic about Batman and Green Lantern.
At least this first issue of Justice League has some cool action, some strong characterization and some fantastic art. When I say this comic fails, I mostly mean that it fails as the kick-off to the new DC Comics Universe. I was looking forward to reading a clean, complication-free introduction to the Justice League kicking ass and taking names. What I got instead was a comic where Batman and Green Lantern hang out and trade forced dialogue about the ‘newness’ of this world. Barely anyone else appears in the comic, despite the cover featuring seven heroes. No sign of Wonder Woman, Aquaman or Flash. And Batman and Green Lantern are an odd – yet obvious – choice to introduce us to the new DC Universe.
This was not what I was expecting and I am disappointed. Though I’ll keep buying, because it looks like they’re going to try and build up to greatness instead of wowing us from the start – which is what they should have done.
Some call it bickering, some call it bantering; I call it forced
Justice League #1 takes place towards the dawn of the superhero age, which occurred ‘5 Years Ago’ in comic book time. None of the heroes have met one another. They don’t know each other’s secret identities. So this first storyline in Justice League is going to let us tag along as they meet each other and start to work together against a greater threat. There are several scenes in this issue where the ‘newness’ of it all is thrown at us. For example, Green Lantern is shocked when he finds out that Batman is just a man in a costume and doesn’t have any bat-powers. The cops are also openly trying to shoot the heroes, placing them firmly on the opposite side of the law for now.
But for all this freshness, no one seems bothered at all that the villain suddenly transforms into a giant, mechanical, alien-looking spider monster. It’s just business as usual.
And that, I think, is my main complaint about this comic, one that is felt in both the writing and the art: this doesn’t feel new.
The costumes, powers and personalities remain the same for Batman and Green Lantern. So what if the cops are shooting at them? That’s not a big enough change. Why couldn’t this comic work as the first meeting between these heroes in the old DC Univers? There’s nothing that makes it feel like it’s this new world with new histories and background. Heck, for Batman and Green Lantern, they don’t even have new histories or background. More on that later. The heroes look and act the same as they always have. They’re fighting a similar villain to what they’ve always fought.
The art reinforces this idea.
Jim Lee is, without a doubt, one of the most popular artists in comic books. His characters are dynamic and detailed, his action scenes are exciting and he draws some pretty awesome Green Lantern ring-constructs. His Batman is one of the reasons I started reading DC comics back in college. I was reading a few Robin issues, and Batman was right in the middle of a big storyline entitled Hush, about a new villain. Jim Lee was drawing every issue for a whole year. The art was beautiful.
Click to enlarge - It's worth it
But that’s the problem, I’m very familiar with Jim Lee’s artwork! As are most comic book fans. So when we draws these supposedly ‘new’ versions of Batman and Green Lantern, they look just like the old versions. Of course it makes perfect sense to put your most popular artist on this very important issue, but all it does is remind us of the old stories. This issue should be making us look to the future, not have us reminiscing about the past. Minor spoiler, the cliffhanger character appears on the cover. Surprise!
So Justice League #1 fails as an introductory issue to both the team and the new DC Universe. We get a nice, if incomplete, introduction to Green Lantern and Batman, but they could very well just be the same characters from the old DC Universe. Nothing in this issue screams new or exciting.
Hopefully issue #2 can make up for some of these shortcomings. The problem is that it won’t come out until October. Between now and then, there are 51 other brand new series coming out. All those new #1 issues, surely some of them are going to be more exciting and memorable than this issue.
Which shouldn’t be the case. Nothing should be bigger or more bombastic than the Justice League. Oh well.
The eventual full lineup of the new Justice League
That’s my review of the issue, but maybe you’re interested in a little background for any readers who have no idea what I’m talking about. What’s this revamp, you ask? I’m going to assume that you have a passing knowledge of the iconic superheroes: Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, etc. They are all from DC Comics, one of the two main comic book companies. Their competitor, Marvel Comics, has Spider-Man, Captain America, and the X-Men in their stable of heroes. Both companies have been publishing comics about these heroes since at least the 60s, sometimes even longer. Batman and Superman have been around since the 30s!
But all those years of stories and all of that continuity add up! Comic fans want their heroes to learn lessons that carry over into the next issues, to grow and change. But new readers might be afraid to pick up a new comic because they think they have to know 30+ years of comic book history to understand what’s going on. Someone new to comics might not want to pick up Superman #662 because they haven’t read the 661 issues that came before.
Both publishers are aware of this problem and take steps to make comics more accessible. Well this Fall, DC Comics is taking an extreme step to make their comics more new reader friendly. They are doing a line-wide reboot of their titles, starting over with new #1 issues and stripping away all that cluttered up continuity. The characters are staying the same, for the most part. Superman will still be Superman. He just won’t have the same baggage that he’s had for the past few decades.
But DC isn’t going for a full clean slate. They’re not starting over from the ground floor. Some characters will have a few minor tweaks, some characters will be rebooted entirely, and some characters won’t change at all. Which brings us back to Batman and Green Lantern and why they are an odd -yet obvious – choice to be the stars of Justice League #1.
Their new 'first' meeting
In part, this reboot is due to low sales. DC has always trailed behind Marvel. DC’s two most popular comics are from the Batman and Green Lantern franchises. So it makes sense that the first issue of this reboot would star their most popular and profitable characters. However, Batman and Green Lantern have not been revamped at all. The stories and characters from before the revamp will be carrying over into the revamp. Nothing is changing. At least nothing major. So I find it odd that they will introduce us to the new DC Universe considering they will remain exactly as they were in the old DC Universe.
At least this new issue gives writer Geoff Johns a chance to flesh out their characterization.
Though their dialogue sucks and feels very forced, Green Lantern is charmingly cocky and Batman is quietly stoic. We can really get at the heart of their personalities, which should be fun as the series continues. Hal is supremely confident in his Green Lantern powers. Whereas Batman doesn’t give a shit about the fancy glowing hero, Batman just wants to get the job done. They’re both tracking a vaguely monstrous villain in Gotham City, one who works for the big bad guy, but we don’t see that super-villain yet.
To set the stage, DC’s revamp involves cramming all of their important continuity down to a 5 year span. In this new DC Universe, superheroes have only been around for five years. They’re fresh and exciting, but people aren’t sure they can trust them just yet.
That's Cyborg on the right, but he isn't a superhero yet
It’s an interesting take on superheroes and the public. Not new, but it could be a good read with such iconic heroes. Supposedly the new Superman is going to be more alien in nature, and he won’t be the beloved hero. We’ll see how that goes.
In the end, I’m excited for the reboot but disappointed in the first issue. But DC has plenty of chances to win me back!
A Little DC Rejiggering Intro for You
This is a parody trailer for the new DC Comics reboot. It’ll help you non-comics reading fans get up to speed while I write my Justice League #1 review.
Superman Has No Underpants!!
This just in from the world of superhero journalism, beloved hero Superman is not wearing any underpants. At least he won’t be in both the upcoming movie, Man of Steel, and the new DC rejiggering this September. The hearts of Internet fanboys everywhere are all a flutter at the prospect that Superman will no longer be wearing his classic, traditional red trunks over the top of his blue costume. You’ve heard all the jokes in the world about how superheroes wear their underwear outside of their pants, well Superman is saying, “No more!”
And I don’t particularly care.
DC is in the process of rebooting Superman so that he can appeal to a wider audience…I guess. I don’t really know what DC’s plan is for Superman, or at least the reasoning behind it. Superman is freaking Superman! Everybody knows him. How wider of an audience can you get? But in the comics, he’s no longer going to be married to Lois Lane, he’s going to be more of an outsider and he’s going to get a new costume. A costume without the underpants on the outside.
Shazam!
First of all, it should be noted that ‘underpants’ is a hilarious word. I vote that it replace ‘underwear’ as the preferred word.
Second of all, this isn’t a big deal in both directions. Nobody cared that Superman, like a lot of superheroes, had briefs on the outside of his costume. And nobody should care that DC is going with a new look. It doesn’t change anything about Superman except for the color of his pelvis. Yes, Superman is very iconic. VH1 did a list of the 200 greatest pop culture icons, and Superman was #2! Oprah was #1. Not even Superman is greater than Oprah (though I beg to differ). But his iconic status has nothing to do with his pelvis. His costume as a whole, sure, but give it a few months and I’m sure nobody will even notice the difference.
But Internet people are the world are up in arms. I’d link to some articles, but I don’t really want to call anybody out. There have been a few candid set pics of the Man of Steel movie released, and there too he’s not wearing the briefs.
I once did an entry saying I hate these types of photos. Damn me!
But it’s not a big deal, in my opinion. Granted, Superman is far from my favorite character, but I still don’t think even Superfans should be worried. At the very least, let’s wait and see what DC does with the character before anybody gets up in arms about his costume. It’s still the iconic red, blue and yellow Superman costume. They just tweaked it a little. Perhaps DC wanted to get away from that joke about underwear on the outside. Mother Goose and Grimm can be brutal.
Oh the humanity!
Fun Fact: Did you know that superheroes wearing their briefs on the outside was taken from old circus strongmen from the turn of the century? They’re the sort of briefs that professional wrestlers now where. It’s not just a silly, cosmetic thing. They actually wore those briefs for a reason. And now you know.
A Better Green Lantern Than the One in the Movie
This song and music video are further proof that the Internet is the greatest invention in the history of everything. It gives voice to the geeks of the world. Let us revel in this wonderfully specific theme song about the Green Lantern. It makes me wonder if bands who record these types of songs can ever play them in live venues. Who else but geeks would understand them?
Believe me when I say this wins all the Internets.
Hot Girl/Girl Action
That’s right everybody, my blog is now going to bring you some hot girl/girl action straight from the comic book page! We’re talking the sexiest superheroines this side of Supergirl, ready to get into hot and heavy action in the name of saving the day. And by ‘action’, of course, I mean fight bad guys and literally save the day. And by ‘hot and heavy’ I mean it’s probably exhausting being a superheroine, and I’m sure they worked up a sweat.
Why? What did you think I was talking about?
The girls in question are Zatanna and Power Girl, two semi-popular superheroines whose final issues dropped last week. They’ve been cancelled. As I’ve mentioned a few times before on this blog, DC Comics is doing a line-wide revamp next month. That means all of the current comics are getting cancelled, including the solo adventures of Zatanna and Power Girl, two of my favorite DC comics. It’s a shame to see them go, so I figured I’d show them off in style by reviewing their final issues: Zatanna #16 and Power Girl #27.
Zatanna #16 and Power Girl #27
First, a word about these types of comics. I love these types of comics. Zatanna and Power Girl are clearly not A-List heroes, like Batman and Superman. Yet with the right writer and some good ideas, DC Comics took a chance and published these series anyway. Comics are filled with hundreds of obscure and seemingly unpopular characters, and every once and awhile, DC and Marvel will put out a series or mini-series starring these characters. Sometimes they’re bad and sometimes they’re great. But I love that comics will take the chance anyway.
It enforces my writing motto: “There’s no such thing as a bad character, only bad writers.”
And fortunately with the Zatanna and Power Girl series, we got good characters, good writers and great artists! Both of their final issues are standalone stories with fill-in writers, so I won’t need to catch you up on any ongoing storylines. They’re both pretty good stories, and are also pretty good examples of what each series was like. Though the Zatanna comic is leagues better than Power Girl.
So let’s start with Zatanna.
The Mistress of Magic!
If you can’t tell from her ‘costume’, Zatanna is a magician. Literally. Her day job is as a classic stage magician who tours and puts on shows all around the world. The catch is that she’s using real magic, and that’s why she’s a superhero. All she has to do to cast a spell is say it backwards, and she can do almost anything. Want to pull a rabbit out of her hat? All Zatanna has to say is, “Raeppa tibbar!” It’s a pretty neat sort of ability. Not many magicians in superhero comics.
Zatanna’s series was about her juggling her stage show and real life with her duties as a superheroine, often with her having to stop some magic-based super-villain. There were a few standalone issues, and some multi-parters. There was a hunky cop who sometimes flirted with her, and she had a stage hand/assistant who helped out from time to time. The main villain, Brother Midnight, was sufficiently spooky and had a storyline or two. Zatanna defeated him in the end. Several issues also featured her cousin Zachary, who was basically just a young, male copy of Zatanna. I never liked him, so ignore him.
The comic was written by Paul Dini, one of the creators of Batman: The Animated Series. Dini is a huge Zatanna fan, and I like to imagine that the series was DC’s gift to him. Like a pet project. Dini and his fill-ins wrote some awesome stories. There was the time she fought the villain who could rewind time, so in order to cast spells she had to speak in only palindromes. Or the time she was almost married to a studly Vegas casino owner so that he could sell her soul to a gambling demon. And my favorite story was probably the time she had to fight a cursed ventriloquist who had been turned into a psycho puppet.
Only to get turned into a puppet herself!
Basically Zatanna got up to all manner of magical mischief, and the final issue is no different. We start on a cross-Atlantic plane ride, with Zatanna taking a red-eye home after a few shows in Europe. Writer Adam Beechen is telling the story with a third-person narrative (different for the series), and it has a fun, playful style to it. The plane almost crashes, but Zatanna raises her sleeping eye-mask, casts a ‘repair’ spell and fixes the plane. All is well and she can keep trying to sleep, though she can’t seem to drift off. When she lands, she’s stuck in customs for a bit and finally makes it home. She crashes into her bed, still super tired, but it seems Zatanna doesn’t get to sleep this night.
The humor in this story, and the series, is delightful
Let me take a moment to say that the art in this issue, by Victor Ibanez, is amazing! It’s a realistic take on the traditional superhero style, and I love it. Zee looks and moves like a real person, not just a flighty superhero. Her facial expressions are a delight as she’s forced out of bed to deal with the books antagonist: the witch boy Uriah. He’s basically just a troublesome little scamp who knows how to use magic. He’s woken Zatanna up in the middle of the night because he wants to be her apprentice. Zatanna is very tired, so she politely tells him to get lost. Uriah doesn’t listen and decides to run wild in her house.
Precocious as he is, Uriah finds Zatanna’s massive library. It’s filled to the brim with magical tomes and books, and Uriah grabs The Book of Maps. The book is what he came for, and it’s supposed to know all the passages and short cuts between dimensions. Uriah’s plan is to use the book to become the most powerful being ever, then perhaps he’ll take over the world. Zatanna can’t allow that, so she chases Uriah from dimension to dimension.
...to dimension to dimension to dimension...
In order to catch Uriah, Zatanna casts a teleportation spell that takes them both to The Dimension of Gargantuans! This next page was wonderfully breathtaking. There are ads in comics, and pages that need to be turned. So a lot of great writers will use those to create a slight cliffhanger and a nice shock page. You see Zatanna chasing Uriah through the portals on one page, read her casting the teleportation spell at the bottom of the page, and then you turn the page to find this:
Booyah!
That’s just awesome and gloriously magical. This is the sort of fun that the Zatanna book brought to the table time and again. When magic combines with awesome, creative writing, you get some really fun adventures. That’s why I enjoyed Zatanna so much. The book never had a consistent artist, but it always had great art issue after issue. And even when Dini wasn’t writing, the fill-ins did a great job.
So Zatanna catches Uriah and takes him back to his witch town. She puts The Book of Maps back into her library and finally gets a moment to sleep. There’s a running gag about her trying to enjoy a dream with studly men and cocoa butter, and the final page shows Zatanna in a sexy bikini standing on a beach, with studly men waving from the ocean. Looks like it’s going to be a fun dream and she’ll be able to get some rest.
This was a fantastic issue and a great send-off to the Zatanna series. It’s fun, zany and funny, with great facial expressions and comedic panel-work. Uriah is hardly a classic villain, but he serves his purpose of being bratty and annoying – two things Zatanna does not want to deal with while she’s so tired. And that added level of being exhausted greatly humanizes Zatanna. She’s tuckered out and just wants to sleep, but instead she has to deal with this annoying thing. We’ve all been there. Humanizing superheroes is the way to make them really stand out as interesting subjects. This issue does a great job of that. I’m sorry to see Zatanna go.
Up next is Power Girl #27, a less interesting comic but still a nice, solid farewell.
We all know where your eyes are focused
Power Girl has a complicated background, but I’ll try to explain it in simple terms. Everybody knows Superman, right? And everybody knows or can understand the concept of Supergirl? Well Power Girl is an alternate reality version of Supergirl, who is now living in the normal DC reality. But none of that matters to this series. All you really need to know is that she’s a youngish woman with all the powers of Superman, who’s trying to make it on her own in New York City. She’s the head of her own tech company, but faces all manner of business and financial problems throughout the series. The book is high on humor and charm, with more than a few bad guy fights to enjoy. It’s not as whimsical as the Zatanna series, but it was fun.
Waking up is hard to do
Especially in the beginning for the first 12 issues, when it was written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, and was drawn by Amanda Conner. I assume they had the initial pitch for the series, and those first 12 issues are phenomenal. They tell the story of Power Girl as a real person, struggling with her day-to-day life while also trying to be Power Girl. She faces off against some tough bad guys, including 3 diva-like alien women who just want to party on Earth, and an overly macho, Zap Brannigan-esque, hairy-chested space stud who wants to mate with her. The stories were funny and friendly, and the art was amazing. Conner drew those picture I posted above, and she draws absolutely gorgeous facial expressions and body language. Power Girl also has the most adorable cat in all of comics.
I prefer the name 'Mr. Cat'
The stories were largely inconsequential. If you’re a Power Girl fan, the comic was probably a godsend. Straight forward, fun adventures starring your favorite superheroine. But the action was never great. The Power Girl comic succeeded because of the humanity in the main character. The writers, even those that filled in after Palmiotti and Gray left, wrote plenty of scenes of Power Girl at home. She played with her cat, worried about her social life and struggled to keep her company from falling apart. At times the idea that she ran her own massive tech company seemed to stretch credibility, but it never got too out of hand. Other superheroes have been CEOs before.
The final issue is a story about a super-villain giving Power Girl one minute to save 3 different people on 3 different sides of the world. Theoretically she only has time to save one, and the villain wants to find out and take note of which choice she makes. Will she save the old people at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, will she save the random fishing girl in east Asian or will she save her superheroine friend Cyclone? All three are being attacked by super-villains, so who will Power Girl save in the minute time limit?
All of them, of course.
Take that, ancient monument!
First Power Girl drops a giant boulder into the ocean, creating a tidal wave that will come into play later. She has the strength and speed of Superman, so she’s able to fly all the way to Brazil to save Cyclone first. She beats up the super-villains who are holding her prisoner and gives Cyclone a message to meet her in east Asia in 25 seconds. Power Girl then flies to Italy and beats up the villain who is trying to knock over the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Power Girl puts the tower back up (though not all the way straight) and flies off to east Asia to save the fishing girl.
Along the way she stops to save a cat in a tree. Kind of a dumb thing to waste precious seconds on, but it’s sort of a call back to the adorable cat from the Amanda Conner issues!
The tidal wave she created at the start comes and hits the super-villain, stopping him from killing the fishing girl. Then Power Girl shows up to knock out the villain. Then Cyclone shows up, and together they use their powers to stop the tidal wave.
Blow Power Girl, blow!
In the end, Power Girl is able to triangulate the location of the lead villain who put her up to these 3 tasks in the first place. It’s revealed to be the Calculator, an intelligent, computer-based, thinking super villain. She flies to his base but finds out that Calculator isn’t even there, he’s just talking via monitor to his goons. Calculator sort of explains that he was making notes of who Power Girl saved and in which order, to better predict superheroes’ actions. It’s not very clear, at least not to me. And the book ends with Power Girl getting ready to interrogate the goons to figure out more of the Calculator’s plans.
And that’s where it ends.
Kind of odd really. One is led to believe that it’s leading into a new storyline. But again, this was the last issue. It’s written by a guy named Matthew Sturges, who I am not familiar with. And it’s drawn by Hendry Prasetya. Neither one is part of the regular creative team for Power Girl, they’re both fill-ins. They both do an acceptable job. No one’s art will be as good as Amanda Conner, so there’s no point in trying. Sturges tells a good story, even if it doesn’t work very well as a send-off. It’s just a neat little adventure. Sturges even mixes in some of the humor of the series, but that too is a sub-par effort compared to previous issues. So for its final issue, Power Girl takes a step down in quality, but it’s not so bad.
In the end, these two issues were nice endings to each series. Zatanna was fantastic, and Power Girl was OK. I’ll be sorry to see the two titles go because they were some of the few that I and friend-of-the-site Alyssa both read. She even introduced me to Power Girl. Hopefully we’ll find some new ones to read together after the revamp.
