rolling sadface 2008

THE RETURN OF KEITH GIFFEN ART!!!

one 1-in-10 variant cover? oh yay.

Don’t miss this new volume collecting both the 4-issue LOBO and LOBO’S BACK miniseries that helped make the Last Czarnian a legend, co-written by 52’s Keith Giffen!

why no Paramilitary Christmas Special? actually contains Bisley.

you and I MARCH to be the beat of a different drum

scratch one "be"

THE FLASH #238
Written by Tom Peyer
Art and cover by Freddie Williams II
“Fast Money” begins! Don’t miss the kickoff of this provocative new storyline by Tom Peyer (HOURMAN), as the Flash is pulled into an intense moral dilemma about superpowers — and Keystone’s plagued by a menace who’s using familiar mind-bending tactics!
On sale March 19 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The guy who drew MISTER MIRACLE teaming up with the guy who wrote HOURMAN = I am now reading FLASH.

PLUS: OMAC = yay

Eek, Tom Peyer's not the guy who did that horrible Shaman run on Animal Man a few years ago, is he?

may have been the editor?

I recall a DOOM PATROL back issue where Peyer mentions a stint as editor in the letter col.

Animal Man writer = Tom Veitch, Rick Veitch's older bro

trick question: Is Joe Q really a creatively bankrupt, emotionally maimed and myopic evil wizard, or does he just play one in the NY Post?

Better question: "The supernatural split has enraged many spider-fans who'd invested years in following the relationship and were offended by devil ex machina."

Devil ex machina? Someone is too clever by at least half.

Well, the guy's hardly a Deus, right?

How do you *not* view a 40+ year-old character as old, regardless of if he's single or married? If he's single and dating, now he's like a (web-)swinging creepy uncle.

Has Joe Q given a detailed view on what he considers as the essential Spider-Man? Because when Pete was single, seems like he was always striving towards some sort of commitment, be it with Gwen, MJ, or the Black Cat. His essential character is more about responsibility and integrity than his marital status.

Despite having previously revealed his secret identity the world, now no one, including his beloved aunt, remembers Peter Parker is Spider-Man.

Hold on, Spider-Man's revealed his identity to the world? Isn't that a much bigger blow to the classic Spidey dynamic than him not being single? Maybe that's why they retconned that too.

I've read Noosarama articles, when Joe was first dropping hints about the dissolution of the marriage, and his "single Spider-Man was better" reasoning seemed nebulous - basically, 'that's the way I like him' and 'it's haaaaaard to think of stories with a married Spider-Man!' rather than anything of depth.

JMS' descriptions of the OMD storyline, it's apparent that Joe was driving the story. Actually, I appreciated reading JMS' take on his Spider-Man time, particularly that his original plan was to have Gwen's kids be Peter's, instead of Norman's, and he was overridden.

Hold on, Spider-Man's revealed his identity to the world?

The reveal was one of the big beats of the Civil War. A little angst over the decision, followed quickly by "WHAT was I thinking?" and Aunt May getting shot.

After years of "if my enemies knew who I was..." worry, the reveal was very out-of-character. As a lot of Civil War seemed, to me at least.

Iron Man is VERY convincing.

I'm really not sure why Joe thinks that making Peter a widower would age him. Gwen died (though they weren't married) and Peter didn't grow up a huge amount.

Iron Man, I can see, though I still think of him as relatively decent, from old Perez issues. I wasn't reading him during the drunk / War Machine /Armor Wars years, but got the gist of it, and can see how that could translate into a paternalistic "I know what's right for you" attitude.

It's more Mr. Fantastic that gets me, because I remember the trauma that followed Reed zapping his son Franklin back in the day. This Civil War tunnel vision (Clor, the Negative Zone prison, etc.) seems like the same situation amplified. Reed's more heroic in my head.

I'm probably seeing the trees for the forest - in two years, how much of this will really matter to the characters?

I can't imagine that anyone would really want to change Iron Man at this point -- it's not as though the character was more successful before, you know? They've done a lot to make that character essential to the entire universe, why would you want to go back to him being bland?

Wow, I had nothing invested in SM + MJ staying together (unless it's in SM<3MJ) but Amazing 545 sucked SO BAD.

So little to look forward to from DC in April, except for the END OF COUNTDOWN and the NEARNESS of GM's Final Crisis.

okay, maybe Batman RIP.
But srsly, even though I'm no Geo P'rez fan, his stuff on B&B evoked a certain nostalgic ooh-la-la that Jer-Ord buzzkills a bit. Like, everytime I see Jer-Ord art, I expect to turn the page and find out I'm actually reading a comic about Gangbuster instead of Superman.

Batgirl, Catwoman, Black Canary, and even Detective Gordon’s better half give Gotham a headache so big it’ll split the city in two!

YIKES!

Marvel, it seems, will also be releasing comics in April.

Month Four of Brand New Day is upon us

Lapham/Harris Spidey-Wrestler sounds promising!

Civil War:Legends::Secret Invasion:Millennim?

You know a super hero's in trouble when he resorts to drawing a comic book to try to solve his problems!

I am crossing my fingers that the reason FINAL CRISIS #0 isn't solicited for 4/30 is that it'll be the Free Comic Book Day release for 5/3...

Psyched about "Batman R.I.P.," Ordway on BRAVE & BOLD (as much as I love Pérez), HULK VS. HERCULES, SECRET INVASION, Maleev on MIGHTY AVENGERS, Gary Panter on OMEGA, and, uh...

Well, summer's coming soon!

Retro-solicited.

Kevin Maguire draws Batgirl!
Blue Beetle has a second date with Traci 13!
Metal Men finishes!
JLI Vol. 2!
Superman's Belt and Cape including “Guide to the Trophy Room” brochure, written by best-selling author Brad Meltzer!
Minor assembly is required.

BOOSTER GOLD CANCELLED AT ISSUE #1,000,000 (#12, if you include #0)

also, the awesome John D. Rogers is leaving Blue Beetle and will be replaced by serial bridesmaid Will Pfeifer.

L&O: Special Batman Unit
http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/wp-content/2008/03/crimefighters-color-detail.jpg

:-)

also, the awesome John D. Rogers is leaving Blue Beetle and will be replaced by serial bridesmaid Will Pfeifer.

;_;

this just in: Cliff Chiang off Green Arrow/Black Canary

now I can feel better about sitting it out

OH NO, Green Lantern/Green Arrow form "proactive" JLA splinter group, writted by James Robinson!

Guest starring Congorilla (not a joke).

The fifth Challenger was JUNE

Batman...homeless!
Scott Kollins on B&B...hmmm
Deadman and Green Arrow in B&B, YES.
Not even nothing but Wildcat stories could save JSA Classified!
Showcase Presents: House of SECRETS!
Tiny Titans is kinda AWESOME.
Justice League Unlimited folds for the shitty mcshitballs Superfriends???
Matt Wagner does (writes) Olivia Newton-John!
Darwyn Cooke + Harvey Pekar=the sound of the cash register at my LCS
BATSIGNAL HOME OFFICE EDITION

Dude WHO CARES IT'S KEVIN MAGUIRE on BATCON!!!!

and it's a GIRL

The fifth Avenger was June

Captain America gets a possibly metaphoric cover!
Invincible Iron Man is going to be good, isn't it?
Spider-Man Magazine! Now I can keep up with the wall-crawler w/o having to read his comics!
Yeez, everything's all Secret Invasion, isn't it? I hope that works out for them.

it's Kevin Maguire :D

and Fabian Niceiza ;_;

Warren Ellis off of Thunderbolts w/ #121 (which will come out in, um, March 2093?), to be replaced w/ Christos N. Gage for 4 months and who knows who after that.

So I guess this current arc is the last one. :( :( :(
Sadface indeed.

She-Hulk continues to be oddly depressing.

Maybe really awesome! or maybe nu-Superfriends lame.

Superfriends was really awesome when I was six. And my six-year-old nephew deserves a Superfriends of his own, now, don't he?

But uh yeah it'd be nice if they made it awesome / accessible enough for the kids but not retarded enough to not retard me.

The Teen Titans cartoon was 8 kinds of awesome. I know a 4-yr-old who thinks that Robin is better than Batman because of T.T. We have long arguments about it. The usually end with me getting smacked over the head with a Transformer and him shouting "I don't even know what a Aquaman is!"

Get that kid a blog!

Bru and Fraction off Iron Fist this summer, and dude what writes (Lone Wolf and) Cable is on. I should cross-reference this w/ the rope-giving thread.

Losing Bru & Fraction sucks, but Travel Foreman full-time? Or as full-time as full-time gets nowadays for these young kids? DO NOT SUCK PLZ

DC JULY

MAHNKE DEATH LIPS! Alas poor Adam Strange, I knew him well.
Dr. Occult back-up in Reign in Hell...
THE RETURN OF THE RETURN OF HUSH!
Two-Face: Year One? Why don't they just reprint the awesome Sean Phillips mini from a few yrs ago and act like its new?
Simon Dark: Not cancelled!
New Blue Beetle writer: Matthew Sturges (Jack of Fables)! Raf Albuquerque still on board!
Legion goes lowercase???
Gotham Central goes hardcover??? Do they really want Rucka back that badly?
Milliennium and Invasion TPs?
Jonathan Ames!
G'Nort action figure!

I do like that Chip Kidd trade dress for Final Crisis &c. plenty. And I see the Dark Side Club is also showing up in Infinity Inc.

Psyched about Ambush Bug!

And yeah, those Invasion & Millennium TPs: cool!

Kubert Tor: new material?

Yes!

Cool! That give me a thread idea.

FUUUUUUCK YOU for 1-in-10 variant cover on Ambush Bug! Can't wait to read though.

What's with skipped issues in the Batmorrison collection? Crap crossover tie-ins being skipped? Were they by Morrison?

There were five fill-ins between the penultimate and last issues of Cooke's Superman?! Amazing considering how on-time he's been on other monthlies.

Would be cool if they throw in some pages from the tie-ins between issues of Invasion - Millennium is just going to be incomprehensible...

Continuity corrections in Dead Boy Detectives collection?

INSANE high price on Heavy Liquid HC.

G'nort action figure too fat! Ice action figure too creepy :(

The skipped issues are the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul storyline, which will be in their own book.

AMBUSH BUG: YEAR NONE #1
Written by Keith Giffen & Robert Loren Fleming
Art by Giffen & Al Milgrom
Cover by J.H. Williams III
Variant cover by Giffen
The wait is over — everyone's favorite Bug is back, courtesy of the original AMBUSH BUG team of Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming! Cities will be destroyed! Cats and dogs will live in sin! Every unanswered question of the DC Universe will be answered! Live heroes will die and dead heroes will live! Okay, none of that actually happens, but join us anyway for this totally irreverent romp through the DC Universe as only Ambush Bug could give you!
Retailers please note: This issue will ship with two covers. For every 10 copies of the Standard Edition (with a cover by J.H. Williams), retailers may order one copy of the Variant Edition (with a cover by Keith Giffen). Please see the Previews Order Form for more information.
On sale July 23 • 1 of 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

The skipped issues are the Resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul storyline, which will be in their own book.

Soooo, this *is* a crossover/event thingy? Do the plot of Morrison issues relate to his regular issues in any way? Either way, seems I have been better off tradewaiting, hurrah.

(And how on earth is "resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul" an event storyline?! COMING IN 2009 -- RA'S AL GHUL MAKES TOAST FOR BREAKFAST!)

Buried in a semi-tedious DC-centric bullet-pointed Blog@News post: "Of course, I didn’t think (DC) was bloodthirsty enough to kill J’Onn J’Onzz."

WHA?!?!??!

Sadface superheroes are sad. Gimme X-MEN FIRST CLASS any day of the week. Batroc *and* Mysterio in the upcoming issue.

Matt, you should check out WOLFERINE WITH KITTY PRYDE: FIRST CLASS, too. It's not written by yr boy PARKERRRR, but if the first issue's any indication, fun is to be had!

Fred Van Lente is pretty darn good in my book, too. Was waiting on the collection of that one.

Van Lente's comics history is pretty entertaining reading, too. I know. I read to be entertained. I'm a plebe.

Pretty funny interview with Van Lente + Parker:
http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16020

<I>COMING IN 2009 -- RA'S AL GHUL MAKES TOAST FOR BREAKFAST!</I>
I would read this.

Mike Gold (former DC editor) on Ra's: "Ras al Ghul has been resurrected! No shit, Sherlock! Hey, isn’t that what Ras does? That’s how he pays the rent!"

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Final Crisis sounds AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! But then again, so did Armageddon 2001...anyway, I love it when the bad guys win! (in fiction)
Otherwise, it kinda looks like I'll be down to nothing but Final Crisis and Batman by the end of the summer (Captain America is starting to get real redundant, but I'll give it another ish or two). Then I can start buying those slick Justice League HCs and Question tpbs.

Since the September DC solicitations are being mentioned, this is as good a place as any to say HELLBLAZER: FAMILY MAN TPB YES YES YES. The best bit of Delano's run is finally being collected and I am so glad.

And it's totally sadface, fer shure.

Spetmbeer Mrvael

Holy shit, I remember the Family Man! That's never been collected???

No!!! DC has just gotten around to collecting the rest of Delano's run (after issuing Original Sins, what, twenty years ago?). Fear Machine is coming out next month. Delano's Hellblazer is one of my favorite comics runs evah, so I'm pretty psyched.

Q: why are there 15 Titans related books out?

A: DC October, that's why!

ooooh, re: GeoPrez Legion of 3 worlds cover.

SUPERMAN AND BATMAN VS VAMPIRES AND WEREWOLVES, aka, Marketing on Hols.

BATMAN RIP, RIP

november highlights:

NOT WITHOUT MY BUTLER!
The good news: new comics from Amanda Conner
The bad news: Terra miniseries, to go along with all the other solo/non-solo Titans minis/spinoffs lately that no one gives two shits about
Alex Ross has been very busy!
Showcase Prez: Brave & Bold Vol. 3!
Showcase Prez: Strange Adventures!!!

Top Ten season 2?

ie by Cannon and Ha, who pitched to take over it as a regular when Moore left, but were nixed in favour of the sci0fi dude's mini instead. now they're finally getting to do it, but only as a mini.

What Ships in December?
Not Final Crisis
WINTERMEN CONCLUSION!!!!
My baby! (hopefully)

Aw, Darwyn Cooke Ambush Bug

lol Quitely holiday ASS

argh at the idea that Tony Daniel’s awful art is worthy of an oversized Batman RIP Deluxe Hardcover

$40 for what has to be well under a hundred pages of 1960s LSH in hardcover is INSANE

Will they correct the art on the last page of that first issue in the Morrison/Millar Flash TPB? So lame to not just do the whole run in one book at this late stage.

ARGH at forcing Vertigo Pop: Bangkok into the same collection as Tokyo, I JUST WANT SETH FISHER. Also mind boggles at collecting either of these while still not having put London into a single book as My Generation five years on.

Nice that they’ve finally noticed, after 24 years, that Moore wrote an issue of Swamp Thing before The Anatomy Lesson. Nasty that they’re charging the same price as a back issue for a reprint on what will probably be horrible, inappropriately white paper.

If I was 16, I would be all over still be appalled at how ugly and bright that Sandman 20th poster is!

In fairness, I've never heard anyone say anything particularly good about the pre-Anatomy Lesson issue apart from "does it's job and gets out"

ie by Cannon and Ha, who pitched to take over it as a regular when Moore left, but were nixed in favour of the sci0fi dude's mini instead. now they're finally getting to do it, but only as a mini.

Will this continue from the previous "Season 2" mini, or will Cannon & Ha just pretend it never happened? I though it was actually surprisingly decent, obviously not on the same level as Moore, but not the sort of disappointment it could've easily been either.

Yeah let's not, sir:

"I'd like to see Geoff Johns take a crack at the Superman...I think he would be startling,” Donner told Boucher. “Did you read his comics? There it is. It's there on paper."

But, Donner also laments that the studio (Warner Bros.) isn’t already doing this, saying: "The studio hasn't gone to him and said, 'Give us a screenplay.' That would be the smart thing to do, but that's show biz. Right? Show biz, that's our life."