So
every month a new edition of Previews
is sent out to comic book stores. Contained in the pages within are
products that might be currently available or could be released
anytime in the next year; but typically about two months away. Or
sometimes never. I’ve ordered lots
of things that have just never come in. Without getting into the
specific politics of Diamond, let me just say that they aren’t
quite
a monopoly and also aren’t quite
the worst distributor anybody has ever dealt with in the history of
the universe.
But
I’m not here to discuss that. I’m here to discuss a few of the
weird and/or wonderful items offered in this month’s edition.
I
remember reading about this whenever some big comic book thing was
going on.
I’m
sorry. That was a pathetic lack of specificity.
Anyway,
this is a new book from Brian K. Vaughn, who is the guy that writes
the greatest comic book that I have ever read, Saga.
That being the case, I’m giving it a shot. I don’t care if it’s
about something ridiculous like, I dunno - Canadians defending
themselves against an American invasion, I’ll still…
Oh.
That
is
what it’s about. Man, Vaughn’s name can make anything seem
awesome. I’m in. Plus, the art from the sample pages looks
fantastic:
I
want to care about a Cyborg book. I’m inclined to like Cyborg, but
I think it’s mostly because of his depiction in the modern Teen
Titans
cartoons. This isn’t that Cyborg. I don’t even know which Cyborg
this will be, as this comes out after Convergence.
I’m not entirely clear on how that’s all shaking out.
As
far as creative, I’m not familiar with David Walker. Ivan Reis is a
solid selling point, though.
Side
Note: Convergence
was awful. I picked up issues 0,1, and 2 of the main book and a few
of the tie-ins. The tie-ins were all terrible. The main title’s
best quality was that I understood what was going on. It just took me
a couple of issues to understand that just because I grasped the
events more than I usually do during a DC crossover, that didn’t
mean it was good.
Frank
Miller, right?
This
is a beautiful figure. I like the size and level of detail on Square
Enix’s Play Arts Kai line, but I just can’t justify the price.
This one’s face is a lot less anime-looking than some of their
releases, so I’m way more tempted. But no. I’ll stick with the DC
Collectibles figure for a quarter of the price.
I
haven’t been reading this or anything, but I love this cover. The
art is wonderful. Look at her face – so serious. She’s like,
“Look at this thing. Look
at it.” Also the cat stealing her marker is funny. If I had any
tolerance for cats or aliens I’d probably buy this.
I
don’t believe I ever read this, despite the fact that it came out
in 1993 at the height of my Alien/Predator comic collecting. I would
have known Mignola from Gotham
By Gaslight,
but I don’t know that Gibbons and Nowlan were big names to me yet.
It’s still a little odd that I wouldn’t have bought it, though.
This might be a case of a thing that I start reading and remember it.
Anyhow, $10.99 is a steal.
This
is an excellent book. I like Mignola’s take on Frankenstein’s
monster and the art is the sort of art you want on a Mignola book.
There’s some weird, weird shit going on here. If you can grab these
at your Local Comic Book Shop, do it. If not, buy the trade when it
comes out. This is the last issue of the miniseries, so it should be
soon.
Apparently
DC is making this into something of an event.
If
you don’t know, Justice
League: Gods and Monsters
is the next project from DC Animated. There was a preview for it on
the Batman
vs. Robin
Blu-ray and I was intrigued. The whole thing is an original concept
from Bruce Timm that features a dark, very different Justice League
that essentially runs Earth as a three-way dictatorship. While I’m
about a decade past wanting anything to be “dark”, “edgy”, or
“gritty”, this is
Bruce Timm. The character designs are, of course, great and the fact
that Batman is a vampire Kirk Langstrom and Wonder Woman is one of
the New Gods is very interesting.
Right
now I’m all-in. Since these prequel comics (where’s Wonder
Woman?) are one-shots by talented teams, they’re relatively
low-risk. The movie itself and the action figures (more on those
later) might be a different story. But it’s Bruce Timm.
I
think that it’s really cool that they’re releasing this set, but
I can’t justify it. I already have Joker and I’ll be getting the
regular Harley. The repaints look nice, but I’m trying to be much
more selective about what I buy. Which is a thing that I say a lot.
This
is a tough call. These look great and aren’t repaints. And if I
love the movie I’m going to want them. But they’re not part of
the DCAU canon, so I really don’t need to get them. I’m going to
hold off.
Well,
there you go. While I’m not planning to collect these regularly, I
do collect Batmans and Deadmans. And I wanted to get one of these to
review anyway, so it’s great that two of the only characters I’ll
definitely want are in this first wave in the same month as the above
three figures that I totally don’t need to get. I’m a little
annoyed that this is “Brightest Day” Deadman because DC Direct
already did one of those and I’ve got it, but at the same time
Deadman doesn’t really have all that many different looks. Maybe
someday they’ll do an Artist Series Kelley Jones Deadman.
I’m
not ordering any of these, but I do want to point out how nice they
look. If I didn’t collect so many other lines and didn’t already
have these characters from Mattel’s DC line, I would buy all of
these. Actually, if I could somehow trade my Mattel ones for these I
totally would. The accessories and hip joints are far better. I
almost want to get that Flash just for the Cosmic Treadmill. And Hal
Jordan’s armor is just crazy. People – he’s only five
bucks more
than the regular figures.
Well,
crap. Even more figures. I was relatively disappointed by Arkham
Origins.
If it had actually been the first game in the series (it comes first
in the chronology of the narrative) it might have seemed great, but
it was so vastly inferior to Arkham
City
that I just couldn’t enjoy it as much. It wasn’t bad by any
means, it just wasn’t a worthy follow-up. I do love this selection
of figures, though. Lady Shiva is awesome, Electrocutioner deserves a
figure after being one of the silliest villains ever (clearly aping
Earth-610’s Shocker), and the first-ever figure of Harleen Quinzel
looks great. I don’t know that I would have demanded these
characters as figures, but I’m glad they’re making them.
IDW’s
Star Trek crossovers have been fantastic so far. Both Doctor Who and
Planet of the Apes nailed the characters and created situations that
seemed appropriate for all franchises involved. Green Lantern seems
like another logical match for the crew of the Enterprise, but I have
to admit that I was disappointed to see the Abramsverse crew. Don’t
get me wrong – I enjoyed both of the reboot movies to one degree or
another and I love the cast, but I guess in my mind if you’re doing
Kirk’s crew you use Shatner, Nimoy, and the rest.
Regardless,
I’m excited about this. I’m not familiar with any of the creative
team, but I doubt that IDW or DC would leave something this
potentially significant to amateurs.
Maybe
next year we’ll get Star Trek/Guardians of the Galaxy. I could see
Spock getting into some pretty deep philosophical debates with Groot.
And obviously Kirk would have to fight Drax. Or Rocket. Yeah – Kirk
and Rocket could compare conquests.
I
have never read a Godzilla comic. Not even the infamous Godzilla
versus Charles Barkley.
But there’s something about this that I can’t pass up. Part of it
is the awesome way that James Stokoe draws Godzilla, part of it is
the bizarre idea of the King of Monsters in Hell. I just want to
check it out.
I
would like to have the EC Comics tribute cover, but IDW is somewhat
disingenuous with the way they present their variant covers, or “sub
covers” as they call them. From reading their solicitations, a
customer might think that if they simply add this comic to their
subscription at their Local Comic Book Shop they can get the cover.
That is not the case. These are variant covers that retailers get for
making a minimum number of orders for specific titles. And for
smaller stores the minimum order numbers tend to be ridiculous.
Speaking
of variant covers, this one by Ryan Browne - who created and designed
a number of the original TMNT action figures – is phenomenal. I
might actually go out of my way to spend some money on this one.
So
far I’m really enjoying this different take on Frankenstein’s
monster. He’s a filthy rich world traveler and adventurer that has
been watching Frankenstein’s lineage for centuries. And now the
most current ancestor is IN TROUBLE! If you like action, adventure,
and monsters I recommend this collection. The series hasn’t all
been published yet, so it could just go down the crapper, but I doubt
it.
Morbid
curiosity almost had me ordering this.
I’ll
be honest – I liked Rob Liefeld until it was pointed out to me that
he was not, in fact, a very good artist. Well, not a very consistent
artist. I never really noticed issues with his stuff, but there’s
no denying the ridiculousness of the pieces that always accompany
mentions of Liefeld’s name. That Captain America is just
disturbing.
Thinking
about Liefeld back in the X-Force
and Youngblood
days makes me want to take a look at Image and figure out how long I
collected each of those original titles. There were some I genuinely
enjoyed, some that I was glad to drop, and some that I just lost
patience with.
Now
my take on Liefeld is that he was a lucky kid that’s grown up into
an interesting guy. If you don’t follow him on Twitter, you should.
He’s very frank about the comic book industry and more often than
not has what I consider to be the wisest and most insightful
opinions. Certainly not the most popular, though.
I’m
glad he’s got a new book, but in all honesty it just doesn’t look
like anything I’d be crazy about.
Campbell
is one of my all-time favorite artists. In today’s climate I
honestly fear for the careers of the pin-up guys. I’m sure there
will always be a market for drawings of beautiful women, but I can
see things going in a direction where guys like Campbell and
publishers like Zenescope can’t even show up to certain cons.
Liberal fascism is very real, folks, and no less dangerous than the
conservative variety.
It’s
a pre-Empire
Strikes
Back
title about Lando Calrissian. I’m in. Even if it wasn’t
illustrated by the mega-awesome Alex Maleev. I haven’t read much by
Charles Soule, but Disney and Marvel seem to be taking these new Star
Wars comics pretty seriously, so I have faith.
Afterlife With Archie is fantastic. Archie vs. Predator was cute but I don’t think I’m continuing it. This… this is enough. Stop. Sharknado is smirking, self-aware garbage. It’s not clever, it’s lazy.
I
would, however, be all for Archie
vs. Sharktopus.
This gets my highest recommendation. Dan Brereton – the writer and artist – is one of my favorites and this is the first story from his creator-owned Nocturnals series. If you’re into monsters and the supernatural, you have to buy this. It’s an awesome story with amazing artwork.
I had no idea Alyssa Milano was creating comic books. From the presence of “activist” in both the title and the description of Milano (actress/activist) I can tell that it’s nothing I would ever want to read, but good for her.
Is it just me or does it kind of look like the Millennium Falcon is flying out of Princess Leia’s butt?
Side
Note: On some websites this would have been considered enough
material for its own post.
Presented without comment, a selection of blurbs from the publisher’s solicitations:
“BASED
ON THE NBC TV SHOW!”
“THE
PERFECT BLEND OF CSI
AND HARRY
POTTER”
“AKIRA
FOR THE JIM LEE GENERATION!”
“BREAKING
BAD
MEETS ATTACK
THE BLOCK”
“OPTIONED
FOR A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE”
“SUPERMAN
MEETS
BLADE
RUNNER”
“IT’S
LIKE DEXTER:
THE EARFLY YEARS!”
“THE
ORIGINAL GUARDIAN OF THE GALAXY”
“FROM
DREAMWORKS ANIMATION!”
No
comment other than Titan, like Image, has multiple listings for the
same titles for some reason.
The Batman: Arkham games are my favorite video games ever (except maybe for Flashback). I buy just about anything related to them. I’m definitely more excited about the art book, but I think they’ll both be good. I enjoy these kinds of things as long as they pertain to something I’m way into. They don’t make for good “casual interest” purchases, though.
Hey, companies – you know who loves wearing superhero shirts even more than I do? My son! But you guys don’t ever offer these in kid sizes. Not even when it’s Super Pets or Robin or Teen Tians(!).
Having
said that, amongst these shirts are a few worth noting:
I’ve spent the last few years trying to be a kinder, gentler Phantom. I don’t want to upset people or hurt people’s feelings. I try not to make fun of people or what they do or wear. Which is why I am providing the following Public Service Announcement:
If
you wear this style of hat, you are a dork. You look like a dork and
everybody that sees you thinks, “What a dork”.
If
you wear this style of hat with comic book stuff on it, you are a
FUCKING MEGA DORK.
If
that’s your choice, then I support your right to choose. But you
have chosen to be a FUCKING MEGA DORK.
Damn, I’m torn on these. I already have the Mattycollector figures, but these look so much better. Except for Tully’s face. I don’t know about that. DST has twelve releases planned. Even if they do each Ghostbuster twice, that still leaves four other characters. I’d like to know the whole lineup before I commit. Then again, Viggo is the only figure I’d really be heartbroken to give up and Matty’s Vigo is pretty big. It might work okay with these guys. Which brings up my main issue with these and all of the other DST figures – the 7” scale. I assume it has something to do with the sculpts being more detailed, but dammit it makes them not fit with any other lines.
I
just noticed that the splash page for the figures gives more details
– each figure comes with a diorama piece and if you collect all
twelve it builds the rooftop scene from the end of the movie. That’s
awesome, but it does rope you in to buying all twelve, and I don’t
want two of each Ghostbuster if that is, in fact, what they’re
doing. The only other characters that seem likely are Louis Tully
(happening), Janine Melnitz, Walter Peck, Slimer, and Dana Barrett. I
don’t know that DST will delve into the second movie, though Vigo
and Janosz would make for two more.
I
just have too many questions about this line.
You know you want a Worf bank. I want a Worf bank. It looks great. But I want a Worf bank where he’s getting knocked out.
It’s so weird that DST is doing DC figures. If I were collecting the Flash and Arrow figures I’d be frustrated as heck that these aren’t the same scale, because otherwise they’d look really good together. I’m very tempted to buy just the Penguin figure because I like that character so much, but he wouldn’t fit in anywhere in my collection.
Well, sonofabitch. There are too many damned toys coming out this month. I held off on buying the original DST Universal Monsters because they weren’t really much of an upgrade from the Sideshow Toys figures I’ve already got. But these are sculpted by Jean St. Jean and feature a ton more articulation, like their Creature from the Black Lagoon. I didn’t buy the DST Van Helsing because he just didn’t look quite right to me, but I really like this Lucy.
This is Gary’s Madness of the Month! Originally an Entertainment Earth Exclusive.
AKA Playgirl Godzilla, AKA “How You Doin’” Godzilla.
I’m
no fan of these ugly Sofubi things, but if there weren’t so many
other toys coming out this month I’d order one of these.
I am not calling these “footbags”. These are to go with your MEGA FUCKING DORK bucket hats.
Unaffiliated
Thoughts
Here’s a thing that occurred to me – I don’t know how I feel about cover artists. As shitty as that sounds coming from the guy that is worried about J. Scott Campbell’s career, I don’t like not knowing what the art on the interior of the book is going to look like. Why can’t the interior artist do the cover? I understand that the publishers want flashy, beautiful covers to grab your attention, but isn’t this deceitful? If the interior artist isn’t talented enough to be featured on the outside of the book, why are they working for you?
This
thought has been percolating in my head for a long time. I think the
first time this practice bothered me was back in the late 90s when an
X-Men book I won’t specify had a regular cover artist and a
non-stop series of terrible interior artists. Obviously I know why
they did that, but there seems to be a failure of concept if you
can’t keep a good artist on a book. Maybe this would make a good
podcast. Maybe not.
*****
Image
has done a new thing this month where they have put a new section in
the middle of their regular section. The new section features all of
the titles that were solicited in the regular section separated out
by release date. This is handy, but it seems like there could be a
better way. And then the collections are listed a third time on a
page of their own. Finally, on the last page, everything is listed
again
in checklist form. Which isn’t a bad idea, but damn, Image.
*****
Wow,
Marvel. One new book. I guess I should thank you and DC for saving me
so much money with your bloated crossovers.
*****
I’ve
got a lot of thoughts this month. This one is about Gotham.
It’s not a good show. The pacing is erratic, the stories are
muddled and there’s just something about the flow of the narrative
that’s very unsatisfying. Additionally, the act of having to
constantly go, “This totally opposes everything I know about this
franchise” does get exhausting. As many times as I’ve defended
Gotham
as an Elseworlds type of thing, it does get old.
I’m
still watching it because of the characters. Robin Lord Taylor’s
Oswald Cobblepot is one of the most compelling characters on
television right now. Donal Logue is an actor that I’ve always
liked and his portrayal of Bullock is great. Jada Pinkett is pure
animal menace. Sean Pertwee is a guy that I’ve liked since before I
even realized who his dad was. His Alfred is reminiscent of Earth-One
Alfred, which I liked a
lot (if
you haven’t read Batman:
Earth-One
you really should).
And
the rest of the cast are all doing great jobs – Montoya and Allen,
Nygma, Falcone, Moroni, Oswald’s mother. These are all interesting
characters that I enjoy watching every week. But the stories they’re
involved in are not great. I loved Milo Ventimiglia as the Ogre, but
his story was so boring and unoriginal.
I
hope somebody is aware of the show’s significant problems. I want
it to work and I want to see these characters develop and interact
over the next three, five, seven years – whatever. But somebody
creative and original needs to be brought on board to change things
around. They’ve already thrown all existing continuity other than
names out the window, so why not just make Gotham
its own thing at this point and drop any pretense of telling a
backstory for Batman?
You
want to know something weird? I work with a bunch of people who are
completely oblivious to nerd culture. The people who have watched
Gotham
or are aware of it in some way think that it is in continuity with
not only the Nolan movies, but the older Burton/Schumacher movies as
well. They pretty much think that all of these interpretations of
Batman are one story. And this isn’t one dude that only watches
football and NASCAR. This sis several people, some of whom do watch
the comic book movies and shows and stuff.
I
didn’t really have a point here other than I think sometimes those
of us in the nerd community don’t realize just how insular or world
is.
This
past Saturday I realized that Game
of Thrones
is my favorite show ever now. For years it was Buffy,
then once I finally watched Firefly
that was the winner. But it just hit me while I was talking about TV
the other day that no other show has ever gotten me as invested as
Game of
Thrones.
This probably warrants a podcast.
*****
That’s
all I’ve got for this month. Start putting your pennies in your
Diamond Select figural bank and remember to drop your order form off
at your Local Comic Book Shop!
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