Two weeks ago, Brad Meltzer declared himself Lord and Master of DC News and Views. Well, it turns out that Rucka and Brubaker were not happy with all that noise and decided to show him just how wrong he was. Thus, I think they are the subject of, let’s say, 30 of the stories this week. Meltzer still sneaks in a story, but it is most likely too little too late. There are 2 new sheriffs in town. They’ve come to kick ass and chew bubblegum and ladies and gentlemen”¦they are all out of bubblegum. Prepare for the ONSLAUGHT!
Rucka, Brubaker Extend Their DCNV Dominance Through Collaboration
Listen to its fans, and Gotham Central is up there with the best. A police procedural set in Gotham City starring street level detectives for whom Batman and the city’s heroic denizens are more a nuisance than help, the two year old series has garnered comparisons to the best episodes of NYPD Blue, Law & Order, and Homicide: Life on the Streets.
Stop on by the precinct at Newsarama
Great interview about a great book. I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times, do yourself a favor and pick an issue of this book. A truly intelligent police procedural that never feels same old same old like the ones on TV.
He’s a Wonder
Under the influence Greg Rucka’s keyboard (not to mention Drew Johnson’s pencils, and Ray Snyde’s inks), Wonder Woman has carverd out a unique niche for herself in the DC Universe. The acting ambassador for the island of Themyscria – home of the Amazons – to the world, Rucka has expanded upon something that has ben a part of Wonder Woman’s role since she first visited the world of man, and made it work, at the same time, making Diana wholly unique among the other heroes of the DCU.
Hop the first flight to Themyscria at Newsarama
There is part of me that can’t believe Rucka is still getting rode, all these months later, about the “slow” speed of his stories in Wonder Woman. I know that there is a school of thought out there that his stuff is too protracted to “work” in a single issue format. I know it and I still do not get it. He is such a strong storytelling with such a great sense of where and when to reveal things that even though Diana is not smacking people around EVERY issue, I cannot help but get swept up in the story he is telling. And if you aren’t, doesn’t it make sense to get out? This is his style and as long as he’s on the book this is the way it is going to go down. If you don’t like that approach, then why hang around to confirm your dislike issue after issue.
Rucka’s description of Cale also helps me get a better hold on who she is. The idea of her objecting to Diana’s mission on the basis of her not being able to relate to the average person because she is anything but makes perfect sense to me. How is it that Diana gets to offer advice from her nigh-invulnerable perch? We accept it because it is her moniker on the cover, but really, if she want down next to you and told you how to live your life, wouldn’t you be just a touch ticked off?
Brubaker Goes in Deep Undercover
Continuing with our string of talks with Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, today, we talk Sleeper with Brubaker.
Issue #4 of Sleeper Season Two hits this week, technically, the fourth issue of the second Sleeper miniseries. In the first, readers were introduced to the “sleeper,” Holden Carver, a post-human who can feel no pain (but can release what it delivered to him with devastating effects). Carver was installed as a low level member of the criminal organization run by the enigmatic Tao. Quickly ascending through the strata, Carver became one of Tao’s trusted lieutenants – all the while being a double agent, working for John Lynch of I/O.
Problem was, Lynch had been shot (in the Point Blank miniseries), and was in a coma. Basically, a strong undercurrent running through the first Sleeper series was just that – it really, really sucks to be a sleeper agent when the only man who knows who and where you are isn’t able – and may never be able – to tell anyone.
Giggle at the understatement (“it really , really sucks”¦”) and enjoy some nice Brubaker time at Newsarama
Another great interview in this series. Honestly, I have read so much Brubaker/Rucka articles in the past 3 days, plus doing the rest of the column, plus doing my reviews, plus subbing on Marvel News and Views that I am a bit burnt out. Sufficed to say Sleeper is an exceptional crime comic and you should be reading it.
Ahh”¦glad to be done with all that.
Rucka Brings Ruin to Superman
For six issues, Greg Rucka has called Adventures of Superman home, jumping in and tackling a Clark Kent who now works the graveyard shift of the crme beat (taking him out of the Daily Planet office and into a cramped, small office in the basement of the SCU HQ); Lois Lane, who headed out to the Middle East to cover a war; Mr. Mxyzpltk, back with vague warnings of a coming danger; and Ruin, a new puppetmaster who’s already caused the death of an old JLA enemy (Replikon), as well as Replikon’s daughter.
Feeling adventurous? Want me to stop punning? Then head on over to Newsarama
What the $&*%@#$! Another one?! I thought I was…and it is about Superman besides. Bloody hell!
Ahem”¦sorry.
Anyway, here is me being straight with you. I don’t read Superman”¦I just don’t. Once in a blue moon something motivates me to pick up one of his titles, maybe, but is very very very rare. That said, if I was to read a Superman book, this would be the one.
I’m done now, right?
Phoo”¦
Ask Waid!
This December a whole new era of the Legion of Superheroes begins with Mark Waid writing and Barry Kitson creating the art. Legion fans are already speculating just who will be involved, what the stories will be about, and how this might be different from what has gone before. Mark Waid has agreed to allow PULSE readers to interview him.
Enjoy the questions of your internet peers at The Pulse
So”¦there actually is not anything here to respond to. But you can scan the questions and whet your appetite for the eventual answers. That is something, right?
DC and Jesus: An Unstoppable Team
Jesus Saiz, penciller of the new DCU series MANHUNTER, has signed a 2-year exclusive agreement with DC Comics.
Read the press release here at The Pulse
Jesus Saiz has gone from working on 21 Down to the monthly Manhunter series and is now exclusive to DC Comics for two years. Although he hadn’t known a lot about any of the previous Manhunters, after seeing what writer Marc Andreyko came up with and had planned, the artist quickly got interested in learning more and changing how superhero comics are presented. Saiz told us, “My editor, Joan Hilty, asked me to draw the series in the darkest way possible, so we have ended up telling a superhero story almost as if it was a horror one!”
Go to The Pulse because you are not to be satisfied with a mere press release. You are more discerning than that.
I am very much enjoying this book right now, and Saiz’s artwork has a lot to do with that. To see how much, be sure to check out my review of issue #2 on the site. It should already be up.
Robin’s Got Another Chaperone
The streets are filled with violence as a war engulfs Gotham City in the pages of many of the Batman family of comics. Batman, Nightwing, Oracle, Batgirl, and Robin, among others, are struggling to help the victims and prevent even more chaos. It’s a tough road ahead. Even tougher is drawing a fill in issue in the middle of a story like this – especially when so many people have expectations about the characters and how each should look. Artist Jon Proctor is working on this week’s Robin # 130. Although he’s been working on some stuff for the Bat office, this is his first issue of Robin, but he embraced the challenge and went into battle.
Defy your Dad’s wishes and go on over to The Pulse
Robin (the book, not the character) has some of the roughest look artist wise. Every time I feel like they have finally found someone who is doing good work on the book, the artist is gone a few storylines later. And the times when Robin gets an artist that just does not work? Well, it certainly occurs more than it does not.
Sadly, Procto’s work on this most recent issue of Robin is another entry in that growing field of disappointment.
Normally I’d save this for my reviews below, but I’ll just put it here instead. After Robin #129, I was hopeful that the book had finally turned a corner. The promise of Willingham writing the book finally seemed to be being delivered upon. Then #130 shows up and derails all those hopes. The art was ugly and the dialogue was awful. I looked at the cover and the credit’s box at least twice to make sure it was indeed Willingham writing this book. It was and I still can’t believe it. I’m not exactly loving War Games, but this was far and away the most disappointing entry in that sprawling crossover.
Inker, Penciller…Bodybuilder?
The Justice League of America has seen a new spin off in DC Comics’ “Justice League Elite,” showing a team of characters doing the dirty work that the JLA won’t touch and while you may at first think of writer Joe Kelly or artist Doug Mahnke, there’s another vital part of the creative team you can’t forget- inker Tom Nguyen. The muscular Minnesotan spoke with CBR News about a variety of topics, including how Doug & he became involved with “JLE.”
Because you’ve gotta support a man from Minnesota, go to Comic Book Resources
It is really too bad that Nguyen has so many inking job lined up since he clearly prefers penciling to inking. I am not saying he does not deserve the inking jobs, as he does, but rather that I wish they did not dominate his time so completely as to prevent anything but the most minimum of penciling to be done.
Also, did he really pitch the idea of getting into shape to “fanboys” as being a good idea because they can be their own drawing references? Well, it is a unique approach, I’ll give him that.
DC Lawsuit Proves to be Kryptonite’s Kryptonite
It may be able to kill Superman, but as a term, “kryptonite” has legal strength as well. The term is protected by trademark, according to a federal judge. The ruling came last week when Southern District Judge Richard Owen ruled that DC owns the trademark to “kryptonite” and as such, the term can be protected from dilution by Kryptonite Bicycle Locks produced by Kryptonite Corp.
To see what else could possibly go wrong for the Kryptonite Corporation, take your ten speed on over to Newsarama
It seems to me to be a pretty straight case of Kryptonite overextending their boundaries. I applaud their chutzpah in giving it a shot, but it seems to me they have been caught pretty red-handed. I expect that this one is going to be a walk in the park victory for the DC people, but we shall see.
Fastest Withdrawn Lawsuit Alive!
According to papers filed electronically with the New York Southern District Court, the complaint by Carmine Infantino against DC Comics which sought $4,000,000 in damages has been dismissed as of September 20th.
To see how DC extended this legal winning streak this week stop on by the court house at Newsarama
Thank goodness this lawsuit is dead. I was afraid I was going to keep having to feign legal savvy when, really, the whole damn thing just confused me. I am all for Infantino getting his justified credit for all the great years in the industry, but”¦I just did not think that this particular lawsuit was the vehicle for it. Perhaps he came to the same conclusion as well.
And You Thought It Was Too Negative Before
Following the sell-out of IDENTITY CRISIS #1 (APR040316), DC Comics is going back to press on the issue for a second printing. IDENTITY CRISIS is written by Brad Meltzer with art by Rags Morales & Michael Bair and covers by Michael Turner. IDENTITY CRISIS #1 Second Printing (APR045288) features an alternate Turner’s cover from this issue, presenting a “negative” version of the original pencils without inking or coloring.
Lose yourself in the negativity at The Pulse
It is a nice variant cover, it is. I hope it encourages those who haven’t picked up the book yet to do so. For those of you who already have the book, however, I ask you not to buy this one as well, unless you SO love the cover you cannot live without it. Otherwise, leave in on the shelves for someone else. No need to be a speculator about things.
Batman Strikes Burger King
Beginning September 27th, 2004, a custom comic of DC Comics’ new ongoing series BATMAN STRIKES comes free with the purchase of a Burger King Kids Meal at participating Burger King Restaurants. The BATMAN STRIKES comic book is based on the new WB show THE BATMAN, an innovative, all-new animated television series based on the famed DC Comics super hero Batman and produced by Warner Bros. Animation for Kids’ WB! and Cartoon Network.
Is it hoping for too much to have Bats just raze the place? Probably. But hit the drive thru at The Pulse just to make sure.
True story: I once worked for Burger King. It was my first job. I’m not proud of it, but a man has gotta have money to take his lady out. (Sidenote: my then girlfriend Kristin broke up with me a few weeks after visiting me at work and seeing my in the stunning outfit with all its purple glory. You think there might have been a connection?) It, oddly enough, was an okay job. Not one I’d recommend, but for a few summer months, you could do worse than working a fast food register (how”¦well”¦I don’t know, but you could).
In any case, one late summer morning, my boss asked me to take the “bag o’ grease to the trash. Now, I don’t know what you know about the business of food service, but fry-a-lators need to be emptied at the end of every night and the grease tossed. Someone had emptied the fryers but forget to toss the bad stuff so I was the lucky recipient. All went well until I got the bag to the lip of the dumpster where is promptly burst all over me. I was literally hosed off and given a new uniform. The grease seeped through my clothes and onto my skin. I could feel its cold, squishy grossness. And then, my manager began to tell me, the walking grease slick, what else I should do. I walked off the job to go home and take a proper shower and a week later, I was working for B. Dalton Booksellers which is, most likely, my most enjoyable job to date.
The moral of the story: don’t eat at BK because once, 7 years ago, they wanted me to work with grease still on my skin. Plus, you can do better food wise. Like, a whole lot better.
Oh, and this great comic exposure, blah blah blah.
I sure am cantankerous today and boy does this column reflect it. Not your fault, faithful (and not so faithful) readers, I promise. Sometimes the column is just not clicking and this happens to be one of those times. But, hey, there is tons of good news pieces to read through so enjoy them. Next week, I’ll be back with a better attitude and reviews of comics released last Wednesday and this coming one, plus a retro review of the Wonderland arc of Flash (I’m giving it another shot). In the meantime, if you are looking for some more pleasant Tim Stevens action, check out my interview with Allan Jacobsen, or my fill-in collaboration on Marvel News and Views or any of my reviews.
Damn”¦I sure have written a lot lately.
More important than that, however, is the fact that it was fellow Comics Nexus scribe Tim Sheridan’s birthday on the 27th and my good friend Dan Seremet’s birthday on the 25th. Big ups to them both.
Un Gajje is. What else do you need to know?
