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Friday, March 25, 2016

Cover Story - Top 15 Batman/Superman Covers


Edited by Robert Beach

So, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice comes out today, or at least, I assume it did. I’m actually writing this the Tuesday before its release, so it’s completely possible some random calamity befell the intended release date. Somehow I kind of doubt it. By the time this goes up, I’ll most likely have already seen it. For now, I’m eagerly awaiting its release like the rest of us, so let’s talk about comic books instead, specifically some Batman and Superman comics. 

Because Batman and Superman were DC’s biggest success stories for decades and decades, the two eventually ended up in a long-running comic together entitled World’s Finest. World’s Finest was a weird amalgam of elements owing mainly to the fact that it originally began in the late Golden Age and then continuing through to the early Bronze Age of comics. As such, we’ve got some really crazy comic covers to get through. Now it's time to dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on World’s Finest.














Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Panel Vision - Trinity


Edited by Robert Beach

At the time of writing, the first reviews are coming in on WB/DC’s Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. I haven’t read any of these, but judging by the critical consensus that’s slowly forming the word is…not good. We’ll see how that shakes out but if it’s any indication of audience reaction that could spell a major roadblock for the blossoming DC movie universe. Dawn of Justice isn’t just the first time Batman and Superman have met in live action, it’s also set to feature Wonder Woman making it the first appearance of the DC trinity in live action. 

The trinity (Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman) are the cornerstones of the DC universe and comics as a medium. They represent the oldest and most recognizable superheroes ever created, so having their opening debut fall flat would be a massive slap in the face for WB and DC. So as we all wait with bated breath, I thought I’d showcase my favorite vision of the first meeting of DC’s big three: Matt Wagner’s Trinity.

















Trinity was a prestigious graphic novel trilogy produced by DC in 2003, a date that’s kind of important for all the context stuff that goes into these look backs. Previously, Wagner made a name for himself writing the noir-inspired Sandman Mystery Theatre, the objective best vision of Sandman, for Vertigo comics from 1993 to 1999. At the time, DC was farming Vertigo comics for great talent to import to the main line, hence stuff like crazy Doom Patrol and Animal Man scribe Grant Morrison being handed the reigns of power on Justice League. In Wagner’s case, he had always been more of an independent author. So rather than taking up a monthly comic, he took up a project making 3 graphic novels telling the story of how Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman first met. 

I’m not sure what people expected from this particular pitch at the start. Wagner’s most mainstream work at the time was a gritty ‘30s noir comic full of some really grimy crime fiction and barely any superhero elements. Conversely, Wager’s big independent book at the time was Grendel, another noir title only this time inflected with ninjas and copious amounts of violence. Given all that and the tone hovering over a lot of work in the early 2000s, no one would’ve expected Trinity to turn out to be a bright love letter to the core of these characters. They felt more at home in the bright lights and joy of the DC animated universe than the darkness of any of Wagner’s previous work.


The story at hand is superhero simplicity in its purest format. Ras Al Ghul is trying to end humanity to save the Earth from our degradation, pretty standard stuff from him. To accomplish his goal, Ras has recruited Bizarro, the failed Superman clone created by Lex Luthor thus drawing Superman into Batman’s investigation and raising the level of threat that Ras is posing. There are complications when Bizarro acquires a nuclear submarine for Ras and accidentally sets off a massive explosion close enough to Themyscira to impact the Amazons. That causes them to send Wonder Woman to investigate. With all three heroes drawn into the same hunt for Ras Al Ghul and his assembled weapons of destruction, the question becomes if they can get along long enough to stop Ras and save the world. 

Like I said, that’s about as straight forward a superhero story as one can possibly tell. The thing to remember, though, is that simplicity in superhero stories is actually a major boon to their storytelling.  There’s a tendency to view complexity of narrative as being tantamount to complex storytelling, that more plot equals more meaningful plots but that really isn’t the case. With superheroes, the impetus for meaningful and engaging stories has always been in the characterization. It’s not as important what the characters are doing so much as who’s doing it and how they feel and think about what it is their doing. In that case Trinity absolutely shines because it’s all about characterization.


The story is broken into three distinct parts, each one using a hero’s home town as a central setting and one of the heroes as the central lens for the stories events. The opening third is a Superman story, dropping us into this beautiful rendering of Metropolis combining the verve and life of ‘20s New York with the kind of Art Deco futurism that informed the early Superman cartoons. Everything is big deeds, big emotions, and big weirdness all filtered through the impetus of Superman’s actions and his very existence impacting people he’s never even met or been aware of. 

The second act drops us into Gotham City cut straight from the Batman animated series, police zeppelins and all. The entire issue takes place at night in murky shadows and scarred red skies with the super-powered elements feeling like weird outsiders to a foreign land. 

This sequence also features the book’s most brutal action sequence where Wonder Woman goes up against Bizarro, and we see just how terrifyingly powerful he is. Again, there’s the aspect of the universe darkening under Batman’s lens. And the showcase of the issue being essentially evil Superman, a parallel that becomes even clearer when Batman disables Bizarro with the most foreign thing in this universe: bright light.

The final issue drops us into Paradise Island as Ras tries to conquer it for super villain reasons. It’s an amazing contrast between the previous two segments, trading the gothic edifices of Gotham City or the gleaming towers of Metropolis for a vast marble culture cut into the living rock of the island. It’s a world of mythology and fantasy where nature itself serves as an ally of the Amazons, and we finally learn that Wonder Woman is also a princess. 


Aside from each issue being an individually excellent exploration of the character’s mythos and identity and how each of these different people could co-exist within such different worlds, the character interactions are just delightful. Something I really like about the series is Superman is the bridge character between Wonder Woman and Batman (both don’t get along). 

It’s a different take on things, but one that makes a lot of sense to me. Firstly, Wonder Woman and Batman are just inherently stubborn characters. Both of them come from worlds of extreme privilege and having to work their whole lives to maintain a level of insane perfection. 


Superman, on the other hand, has never tried to be better than everyone else. In fact, he has to work to be less than everyone around him as Clark Kent. As Clark, he can still be an impactful and well-regarded writer, but he can’t stand out as “the best in his field” for the very reason that helping others is more important than winning awards or recognition. Superman’s daily life is putting his ego to the side for the greater good.  

What’s more, he has to exist as both Superman (God among men), and Clark Kent (the most human person imaginable and a champion for truth). He essentially moves in both Batman and Wonder Woman’s world confronting the truth of humanity through his identity as Clark while also striding through the world of myth and madness as Superman. He’s the perfect equalizer.



Even putting aside all the great characterization and interpersonal relationships, this is just a really fun action-adventure story. The Ras Al Ghul stuff provides plenty of interesting team-up opportunities. And the fact Ras already guns for Superman means he’s always got an interesting plan to keep the Man of Steel busy if the story needs him gone to progress. What’s more, the action is really fun in a classic Silver Age type manner, including the highlight of Superman throwing Bizarro into a volcano. Speaking of the Silver Age, there are a handful of cool shout outs to early age comic stuff like that including brief cameos by Robin and Aquaman. 

The Silver Age connection actually ends pretty important overall to Trinity’s legacy. Though a sequel was never made, DC did produce a very similar series a few years later entitled DC: New Frontier.  New Frontier, by Darwin Cooke, is a lot like the sequel to Trinity that never happened. It emphasized the first meeting of various heroes filtered through the lens of Silver Age elements and DCAU levels of heroic ideals. Combine that with Cooke’s very similar artwork style to Wagner (big poses, solid lines, bright colors, sparse details giving everything a slightly cartoony affect), the two go hand-in-hand as explorations of the dawn of DC. 


Wagner himself went back to this particular well in two later instances with a pair of outstanding Batman mini-series entitled Batman and the Monster Men and Batman and the Mad Monk. I’ll probably showcase them later on, but they’re stellar explorations of Batman’s early days without needing to resort to Frank Miller/Batman Begins/Long Halloween-style storytelling that tends to infect that particular era of Bat history. Rather, the books read like a look into “how Batman got weird” pitting him against hulking monsters and vampires with a background emphasis on the development of stuff like the Batmobile and the Bat Signal. 


As for Trinity, DC eventually produced a lavish graphic novel release for the trilogy that I highly recommend picking up. We still seem to be obsessed with origin stories even today, and this is one of the best told origin stories for the three most important comic book characters of all time (sorry Wolverine and Spider-Man.) 

It’s just a great showcase of Wager’s superb artwork and Dave Stewart’s beautiful coloring.  If you’re looking for proof it’s easy to have these characters meet, disagree, but still come together without needing to resort to Batman worship or immature fisticuffs like so many modern tellings do, this is it. 

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Monday, March 21, 2016

Panel Vision - 8 Dumbest/Weirdest Punisher Moments


Edited by Robert Beach 

By now you’ve probably joined the rest of the Internet in enjoying the latest season of Marvel and Netflix’s shockingly quality Daredevil show. The fact that Marvel could produce a grim and gritty superhero show out of such a fractured and failed property like Daredevil and have it actually turn out good is pretty impressive. This season Marvel has doubled down on the darkness by integrating the Punisher into its dark and sleazy Netflix corner of the Marvel universe.  

Punisher’s always been a landmark character for Marvel, a violent vigilante who actually kills people in a world of colorful children’s heroes; however, the fact that Frank Castle, man with a gun and PTSD, has to co-exist with the craziness of magic, aliens, and monsters means there’ve been a lot of weird and just plain-old stupid moments in the Punisher canon. Today, we honor them. 















Saturday, March 19, 2016

Cover Story - Top 20 Daredevil Covers


Edited by Robert Beach 

Yesterday marked the launch of Marvel and Netflix’s Daredevil season 2. I’ve already burned through the whole season, and I may do a review of the entire season. For now, I’d still like to get a Daredevil-themed article out there. Luckily, I’ve got this column. 

Yes it’s time to dive into the shallow end once more for a look at the life of the man without fear: Daredevil, showcasing the top 20 Daredevil covers culled from across the character’s massive history.  This is a big list, so let’s get started.



Monday, March 14, 2016

6 Questions About This Fall's Luke Cage


Edited by Robert Beach 

This Friday will mark the premiere of Marvel’s 3rd Netflix series in the 2nd season of Daredevil. However, that won’t be the end of Marvel and Netflix’s partnership this year as they’ll also be launching a new series this fall. Coming September 30th Marvel’s Luke Cage will premiere on Netflix. Luke has already debuted in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing as a supporting character in last year’s hit series Jessica Jones.  

It was established in the series that Luke already has his super powers from the comics of enhanced strength and unbreakable skin. It’s also been confirmed Iron Fist, Marvel’s next proposed Netflix solo hero, will have some part in Luke’s outing. Beyond that, we don’t really know much about the Luke Cage show, so I’ve put together a list of major questions about the upcoming series. 
















Will Powerless include the Global Guardians?


Edited by Robert Beach 

One of the bizarre paradoxes of superhero adaptations seems to be that the fewer major properties a studio owns, the better their work turns out.  For instance, DC/WB has owned the rights to all of their characters from the word go, and they’ve yet to churn out a good non-Batman movie this century. Conversely, Marvel, who lacked access to either of their major franchises, turned a handful of B-list heroes into the biggest multimedia franchise on the planet right now. 

The same seems to be true in the world of television where the fractured rights landscape of DC has rendered excellent hits like Supergirl, Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow while Marvel has the disappointing Agents of SHIELD and Agent Carter. Now DC/WB is back at the act with weird and fractured comics rights with the new NBC comedy series Powerless, the first set photos of which have just premiered.























From all accounts, Powerless is set to be an office comedy set in a world full of superheroes, magic, and aliens. I’m not entirely sure how that will work if the idea is that the office workers have super powers in the vein of Cracked.com’s Anti-Heroes, or they’re just replacing generic Office-style shenanigans with time travel, super villain schemes, and alien invasions. I’m tempted to think it’s the latter of the two, treating the boom and bombast of standard superhero adventure with the banal attitude of classic mundanity has always been an easy path to hilarity.  

Stuff like The Tick, Formerly Known As The Justice League, and the collected works of Brian Michael Bendis have all mined this lucrative vein of nerd comedy to great success in the past. In either event, the world of Powerless will still require superheroes if it wants to sell its general idea of being in a superhero universe and that’s where things get weird.


Unlike Marvel, who own all of their TV rights, DC’s television adaptation rights are incredibly fractured. That’s why Arrow and Flash are on CW while Supergirl is on CBS, Gotham is on Fox, and Constantine was on NBC. This means even if NBC wanted its superhero universe to feature big-name heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman, they couldn’t get the rights.

However, DC still has an incredible backlog of characters that have never even come close to a live-action adaptation and work perfectly to fill the ranks of Powerless background players. This lets the writers of the show avoid having to come up with new heroes week to week, welcomes nerd viewership by NBC slapping a big DC Comics logo, and get free publicity from blogs like this one. Hey, everyone likes sausage, but no one wants to know how it gets made, right? 

In any event, the first two heroes to appear on Powerless have been announced and we’ve caught a glimpse of one of them. The heroes are Crimson Fox and Jack O’ Lantern. Both of whom I was already thoroughly familiar with long before this announcement because, as established, weird comics and I go together perfectly. Crimson Fox makes a decent amount of sense for an addition as her powers and design are pretty well suited to a quick and easy adaptation. What’s more, she’s only about D-list as far as things go. Though she’s never made it to a multimedia adaptation, Crimson Fox was a member of the Justice League for a time.... sort of. 


After DC rebooted their universe for the first time in 1986, one of the caveats going forward was a brand new Justice League that would feature a whole host of new, internationally themed characters. Thus was born the Justice League International along popular spin-off comic Justice League Europe. Crimson Fox joined as a member of the JLE during the mid point of its very respectable and thoroughly enjoyable run.  

She was a French superhero who had super pheromones in addition to some enhanced physicality, and a costume that looked absolutely nothing like a fox. Eventually, the multi-Justice League era imploded under the weight of other spin-offs like Justice League Antarctica and Justice League Task Force. After that, Crimson Fox dropped off the map for years and years before reappearing in the Global Guardians.


That brings us to the second hero: Jack O’ Lantern.  Jack O’ Lantern was a founding member of the Global Guardians, a weird substrata of the DC universe in its own right. The Global Guardians popped up in the early ‘80s as a direct response to the various characters added to the Super Friends TV show to increase diversity. The idea of the time was to be a version of the Justice League on a Global scale, emphasizing diversity and international cooperation. As such, they had members from England, Brazil, Germany, Australia, Israel, Japan, Greece, and even Native Americans. 

The team were more or less forgotten after their brief initial run, save for members Green Fire and Ice Maiden; they went on to join the Justice League International. The team was revived during Crimson Fox’s tenure as a kind of international superhero watchdog force as a way to curb American metahuman activity. The new team featured mostly new members as most of the original heroes became part of yet another international superhero force: The Ultramarine Corp.



So what does all this actually mean? Well, maybe nothing, yet maybe that the world of superheroes we’re about to see on Powerless is meant to be one of broader diversity and international action. The vast miasma of heroes from across the Global Guardians and Ultra Marine Corp are more than enough to fill out the background ranks of a superhero universe while also giving the proceedings a unique style and look.  

Additionally, most of the costumes required for the various characters would be pretty easy to put together, and none of them boost super powers that would be too difficult to replicate. I don’t really know why the makers of Powerless would settle on this particular route, but it’s not a terrible idea to say the least. Provided the framing of their universe isn’t about a background tapestry of interesting and diverse heroes used to back-up a collection of dull white office drones, that’d be a pretty terrible misstep. 

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Saturday, March 12, 2016

Cover Story - Top 20 Hawkman Covers


There’s really no need for a thesis at this point is there?  We’re in that dull part of the year where there’s not a lot of geek media to talk about and Legends of Tomorrow is still on so that’s what we’re talking about today.  I mean, this is the first time we’ve ever seen a big, live action, multi-hero team show come out of one of the big American comic companies so it’s a pretty major deal this show is still happening.  

Given that, I’m probably going to get around to dedicating a Cover Story to every member of the team and this week the character selection wheel has landed on Hawkman.  So, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 20 Hawkman comic covers. 





















Friday, March 11, 2016

Daredevil Season 2 Trailer Round-Up


Edited by Robert Beach

In exactly one week’s time, Netflix and Marvel will join forces for the third time to bring us the highly anticipated second season of Daredevil. So far, Marvel’s Netflix offerings have been pretty solid ranging from the enjoyable, if moderately overrated, Daredevil season 1 to the exceptional knockout that was Jessica Jones. Both serve as a major point of contrast to the often less-than-stellar Marvel network shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Agent Carter. 

However, it’s also pretty clear Marvel was initially planning to put together a second Daredevil season this quickly as most of their Netflix wheels turn pretty hard towards the Defenders crossover.  Daredevil season 2 as a quasi-last minute “give the most popular guy a sequel while we work on the next 2 pre-crossover things” lands it in the same bin of creation that gave us Iron Man 2. Given that, I’ve compiled all the pertinent advertising media and rumors so…let’s talk about Daredevil season 2.




















Thursday, March 10, 2016

Captain America: Civil War Trailer 2





Edited by Robert Beach 

There’s really no need for a preamble here is there? Captain America: Civil War is easily going to be one of the biggest films of the year, the starting pistol on phase 3 of Marvel’s vaunted cinematic universe after the mixed bag of phase 2 and the next installment of the seminal superhero of the 2010s. What’s more, the movie stars almost the entire Marvel roster of characters at the moment making it, in function if not in form, basically Avengers 2.5. 

It’s also serving as the introduction point for both Black Panther and Spider-Man, two long-awaited heroes finally making their way into the Marvel cinematic universe. The fact that everyone and their mother are breaking down this new trailer is as simplistic and acceptable a fact of life as gravity or the sky being blue.














Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Comics Rainbow - Satan


Let’s talk about Satan.  Currently, Satan is enjoying his slow crawl into the hearts and minds of the public thanks to Fox’s fairly successful Lucifer show, the TV series reboot of The Omen entitled Damien, and the upcoming TV reboot of The Exorcist.  That’s a lot of Satan to go around and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more given the fantasy genre’s current fascination with seminal works of fantastical literature that we’ve all been aware from an incredibly early age.  I mean if King David is getting a TV show and Noah got a blockbuster movie I can see Satan getting more screen time.  As such, I’ve decided to dive into the world of Satan in comics because believe me it is one twisted hell of weirdness and nonsense.















Venom Solo Film Announced


At time of writing, Deadpool is the highest grossing film of the year.  This kind of massive success is pretty much assured to have ripple effects, especially given the high number of mitigating factors involved.  Whatever you personally think of the character Deadpool is undoubtedly a novelty act, a C-list hero getting a spin-off dumped in February that no one at the studio level really believed in.  

Remember, this movie had to be WILLED into existence by Ryan Reynolds and Internet pressure and the big reason for that is that everyone assumed Deadpool was too minor a supporting character to sustain a film without some X-Men heavy hitter like Wolverine or Storm backing him up.  What’s more, Deadpool is the first superhero action movie with an R-rating we’ve had since Blade 2 to actually be a smash hit.  Both of these elements have combined for the latest post-Deadpool movie announcement, specifically that Sony is relaunching its Venom movie.















Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Panel Vision - 14 DC Women Who Deserve A Movie


Edited by Robert Beach 

It’s International Women’s Day. The holiday that was started as a celebration of women leaving behind the world of domestic servitude to unite as a work force of laborers with disposable income of their own.  Yeah, I’m not a terribly huge fan of these whole “celebrate diversity for a day” type holidays, but I’m also a topical content producer, so today we celebrate the women of DC comics who deserve a movie of their own. 

Why DC and not Marvel? Because I already talked about the Marvel women who deserve a standalone film, and given that none of those movies have materialized yet, I’ve decided to give DC/WB a shout in hopes of better results. Also, DC has always had the better roster of female character. That’s just an unfortunate truth.  With that said, let’s dive in to the top 14 DC women who deserve a movie. 


















Monday, March 7, 2016

J.K. Simmons Cast As Commissioner Gordon


Edited by Robert Beach 

As March dawns, we must accept the fact that we seem to be barreling head first towards the inevitability that the DC movie universe will 1) be happening and 2) be guided by the unwavering hand of Zack Snyder. Between the pretty terrible kick-off of Man of Steel and the ongoing train wreck that’s been the Dawn of Justice marketing campaign, this hardly seems like a march towards quality than a slow descent into mismanagement and insincerity. 

However, one thing that has consistently buoyed this downward spiral is the presence of top-quality actors in various roles sprinkled across the films. Ben Affleck, Jared Leto, and Jeremy Irons are all Oscar winners for a very good reason. Now, the powers that be at WB have added a fourth Oscar winner to the line up with J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon.














Saturday, March 5, 2016

Cover Story - Top 12 Inhumans Covers


This coming week will see the return of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, the little TV show that nobody believed in, every one thought would fail, and then did exactly that.  Seriously, despite some moderately decent word of mouth over season 2 Agents of SHIELD has done little more than jog in place for 2.5 season while occupying the least interesting space in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Maybe that’ll turn around this coming half season but I seriously doubt. 

Regardless, we’re not here to talk about Agents of SHIELD but rather the major chunk of Marvel IP they’ve elected to squat on top of: the Inhumans.  I’ve already pretty thoroughly explored the Inhumans in previous articles so today isn’t going to cover much of their history of character make-up but simply the history of great art that has informed the group since its inception at the hands of all-time comic great Jack Kirby.  So, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the Inhumans.













Thursday, March 3, 2016

Ghostbusters 1st Trailer


They’re making a new Ghostbusters movie and it’s finally got a trailer.  I’ve been psyched for this movie since they announced the basic plan for a female centric Ghostbusters and then the casting breakdown gave me even more hope.  I’m a massive Kristen Wiig fan and Kate McKinnon has had “super star in the making” looming over her for far too long.  So, if you’re coming here for some harsh angry put down of the very concept of women wielding proton packs then sorry but you’ve visited the wrong shuffle. 

What’s more, I’m not really one to regard the Ghostbusters franchise with the kind of holy writ and reverence a lot of folks I know do.  As far as I’m concerned, Ghostbusters is a fun movie and a great handful of shows and comics, not some unassailable classic that should never be updated, reworked, or experimented with.  Maybe that’s just my background being in comics where re-workings are more common but the way I see it, if you aren’t taking the time to invent new ‘Busters and a new team why bother doing Ghostbusters again?  Either way, let’s talk about the trailer.