Panel Vision - Justice Riders

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ne of the more surprising trends of the 2010s is that the Western is back from extinction.  This is mainly due to Tarantino re-introducing us to the versatility of the genre in 2012 with Django Unchained but it’s spread well beyond that.  There were more Westerns than superheroes movies in 2015 and now we’re gearing up for a double dose of the old west with the twin remakes of Magnificent Seven and West World.  This is hardly the first time Westerns have impacted the cultural landscape but the revival and the genre versatility it’s brought with it have certainly cast a new light on an old style. 

Even though this current crop of films are set in the Old West and feature cowboys and gun fights they all come with additional genre elements like Bone Tomahawk’s position as a horror movie, Hateful Eight is an Agatha Christie mystery, Ridiculous 6 was a comedy (hey I’m just talking about Westerns, not GOOD Westerns.)  All this genre crossover reminded me of my favorite Western comic book courtesy of DC Comics- the late ‘90s oddity that was The Justice Riders. 

Cover Story - Top 15 Lois Lane Covers

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Earlier in the week the geek world lost a true legend when Noel Neill, the first Lois Lane, passed away at the age of 95.  I already wrote a whole other piece surrounding this issue and talking about the history of Lois Lane but this is still very much the story of the moment in the world of nerd media and frankly I’d rather write another Lois Lane article than another Captain America one.  As such, I’m going to be looking today at the comic Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane, one of the hottest selling comics of the 1960s. 

Seriously, this was one of DC’s biggest success stories for an entire decade and lest you get the wrong idea, that success was BECAUSE of the romantic elements rather than in spite of them.  The book plays like a blend of sci-fi weirdness and romcom wackiness, allowing it to skew very moderately older and appeal to young girls as well as boys. Seriously, this is one of the definitive comics of the ‘60s, right there alongside Fantastic Four and Spider-Man.  With that said, let’s dive into the shallow end and get the cover story on the top 15 Lois Lane covers. 

Comics Rainbow - All-Star Western

One of the major trends of 2015 was a revival of the long abandoned genre of the American Western.  To a degree this has been building in the background for a while with major hit like Django Unchained, well regarded entries like True Grit, and even notable failures like Jonah Hex or Lone Ranger.  This year marked a full on explosion of the revival however with Revenant, Hateful 8, Ridiculous 6, Slow West, and Bone Tomahawk.  Given that two of those movies just came out and Jane Got A Gun is releasing soon I figured it’d be a good time to look at the Western and cowboy heroes of DC comics. 

DC has pretty much always been more than just its superheroes, mainly thanks to the decade it spent in the ‘50s cranking out war comics, cowboy comics, weird science stories, and horror comics.  Most of those elements were revived in the ‘70s to mass acclaim and their Western heroes were key among them, leading o a mass stable of gunslingers, bounty hunters, and sheriffs all under the DC banner in all their shames, shades, and successes. 

Panel Vision - Batman: Haunted Gotham

Last week, geek vlogger and critic Bob Chipman ran anepisode of his Screw Attack Show Trust in Bob about whether or not it’s time to revampBatman’s origin in some way.  I’m not sure I totally agree but he did raise a lot of good points about Batman’s wealth being a pretty easy answer to Gotham’s woes as well as the skeevy nature of Batman’s origin being rich enough to beat people senseless and damaged enough to not get called out on it by anyone.  However, I’m not here to debate the merits of Batman vigilante vs. Batman philanthropists, especially because Chris Sim alreadymade all the points I would make in favor Batman.  Instead, the whole conversation got me thinking about a little know Elseworld adaptation of the character. 

An Elseworld is a DC Comics imprint where “heroes are taken from their usual settings and put into strange situations and places- some that have existed, and others that can’t, couldn’t, or shouldn’t exist.”  They’re essentially a way to tell stories with characters without having to worry about continuity with a lot of notable installments like Gotham By Gaslight or JSA: The Liberty Files.  Most of the time Elseworlds comics tend to revolve around Batman and that’s thanks to one man: Doug Moench.