Thor Vs. Wonder Woman

I'm not much of a video game fan, but this is really cool.



What's surprising is that, if you watch through the whole thing, it becomes evident that whoever made those characters (sprites? I don't know the technical term) weren't just casual fans but huge mega-fans. I'm not sure why that should me surprise me so much, but it does.

Trinity Thoughts

Seeing as how I spent an obsessive amount of time mulling over the identity of Kurt Busiek's "Mystery Project", I feel the urge to comment on it now that it's finally been revealed.

I'm a bit wary. I'm not a fan of DC's Trinity concept, largely because its existence is due to reasons outside the stories. They're the Big Three in-story because they're the Big Three out-story, because they're the three characters who've made the most headway into John Q. Public's conscious. If Green Lantern and not Batman was known by every boy and his brother, then he'd be in the Big Three instead. Or, if Green Lantern was equally as well-known as Batman, they'd be not a Big Three but a Big Four. The decision to group Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman -- those three characters specifically -- into the Big Three wasn't made for artistic reasons (at least not entirely) but for meta ones. They weren't chosen for their specific qualities, their personalities and backstories and identities, but for their publishing histories. I can't help but approach an idea with such origins with skepticism.

I'm also not fond of referring to them by the term "trinity". It's too... portentous? Stuffy? As far as the title of the weekly goes, I definitely preferred some of the discarded titles Busiek mentioned in an interview: DC Superstars, DC Nation, etc.

Really, this book's whole concept doesn't appeal to me much, but I'll give it a try because of the creative team involved. On the main story, Busiek's on writing and Bagley's on pencils, and those are both pluses. On the back-up, Nicieza's co-writing with Busiek. Yes, that surely means "screen time" for Nightwing, a character I've always found bland. Still, I enjoyed the fruits of the two writers' collaboration on the Superman books, so this sounds good too. The two back-ups pencilers so far (and there might or might not be more) are Tom Derenick and Scott McDaniel... Okay, that gives me some pause. I'm not a fan of McDaniel's art (except for, oddly enough, his covers), and I googled Derenick, who I'm unfamiliar with, a while back. It was strange because some of what I found online I really liked and some I thought was just awful. Still, overall Trinity looks promising enough that I'll give it a try. At any rate, I can't imagine enjoying it less than the previous weeklies, both of which I dropped early on.

Here's hoping.

I Tell You What to Think about 2/27's Comics

Batman 674
Batman Dies at Dawn
--I'm undecided as to whether or not I should drop this title. On the one hand, it's clear by this point that Morrison's entire run is building to something, and I am interested in seeing what that something is. The clues are intriguing. On the other hand, the individual issues -- the individual stories -- taken on their own, are weak. It's all hints and portents about the final destination, but the actual journey towards it is ho-hum. The plots, once you strip away the clues toward the bigger picture that's still a long way from becoming clear, aren't all that interesting (This issue, Batman escapes from a psycho's torture chair), and there isn't much in the way of characterization. The Batman here's a computer progam: loss and obsession and little else.

The clues are intriguing, like I said, but so far it's all clues, clues, clues. There's headway towards answers but not enough. The air of mystery can only stay interesting for so long before it gets tired.

On another note, who in god's name is crazy enough to trust their well-being to a man named Dr. Hurt?

Fables 70
--My favorite issue in a while. King Ambrose's plot device magic got slightly tedious towards the end there.

This issue is basically a breather between arcs, and it shows one of my favorite things about this series: the lack of a status quo. Things are always moving, always changing. Boy Blue formally presents the farm Fables with Flycatcher's offer to move into Haven. While I don't know who'll accept and who won't, I do know that whatever the outcome, things will not stay the same. Interestingly enough, I find I'm not particularly attached to any of the characters in the title; I read mainly for the further adventures of Fabletown itself, Fabletown as an ever-evolving organism.

Niko Henrichon provides guest art for this issue, and s/he does a good job. Whoever picks the guest artists for this book, they have opinions that can be described as 90 degrees from my own. I always find the guest artists to be pretty good but not great. I'd say Henrichon's one of the stronger ones, and I really liked his/her beauty shots: the double-page animal gathering, the Farm establishing shot, etc. That's in large part due to the coloring, which, according to the credits, I can partially credit to Henrichon, too.

Still Free

I wasn't planning on buying Dark Horse's upcoming Firefly/Serenity comic (the second mini-series about those characters they'll have published). I agree with Joss Whedon's comment that the actors' performances were so integral that any story without them would suffer. Nevertheless, this is one beautiful cover.


I might read it in a library or bookstore if the eventual TPB shows up in one of those places.

I Tell You What to Think about 2/20's Comics

The Brave and the Bold 10
Challengers of the Unknown (Is that the title of this issue? It seems to be the only thing that fits the bill.)
-- Weakest issue yet (though still very good)? Maybe. Dividing the issue into multiple team-up stories instead of mainly focusing on one was a lot of fun last issue, but I think it might have overstayed its welcome with this one. While the characterization in these shorter team-ups is strong, the action plots suffer from the limited page count, often ending up very simple affairs. They lack the creative twists and flairs of the issue-length stories.
I remember reading about how Alex Ross was disappointed when he began reading Spider-Man comics. All he knew about the character was from his Electric Company appearances, where he seemed some really cool guy, only for him to read the comic and discover that, behind the mask, he was perennial loser Peter Parker. Well, I kind of feel the same way about the Silent Knight after this comic. I didn't know Fact One about him beforehand, but he always seemed cool to me? I mean, he's a knight, and he never talks! How nifty is that? Now I find out that behind the mystique is... some stable boy with a bad haircut. Oh well.
Anyway, the Silent Knight/Superman story that makes up the first half of this issue is a lot of fun. It has a time-travelling Superman fighting an ice-breathing dragon as a favor for Merlin because he owes him one. That's the kind of story that makes the DC universe look every bit as wondrous and blessed with adventure as it actually is. It's the issue's second half, the Aquaman/Teen Titans team-up, that weakens it.
Waid and Perez seem to be going for an Aqua-world that's a world of bright-eyed, magical wonder, Atlantis à la Disney, but I don't think it quite works. It comes off mildly hokey, not awakening the inner child so much as provoking the inner too-cool-for-school teenager. Like I said earlier though, the characterization never suffers in this title, and this story was no exception.


Ex Machina 34
World's Finest
-- I was a little disappointed when I saw this issue's cover on the racks. Looking at the picture, it wasn't hard to figure out this would be another supporting character spotlight, the sort Vaughan does from time to time on this book and Y: The Last Man, and I haven't cared for those things much. To my mind, their information/page ratio is too low; the amount of further insight into the characters they're about isn't enough to warrant a full issue.
So I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this issue. For whatever reason, it doesn't suffer from the same problem as the other character spotlights. Maybe that's because, this time, there's a sort of plot running through the whole sequence: the course of Commissioner Angotti's marriage.
And the last page reveal was neat. There's something to be said for that. It jars somewhat with this title's usual sensibility, but for all that it was funny and appropriate.

The Truth About 2/13's Comics

Big Busiek week this time around...

Astro City Character Special: Beautie
Her Dark Plastic Roots
-- I loved this, as I loved every one of the character specials so far. (This one's the third; a lot of people online seem to be forgetting that the Supersonic one-shot was one of them.) For the most part, I prefer the Astro City issues that focus on the heroes because they tend to reveal more information about the history and details of the Astro City world. And that's a very precious commodity considering how slowly such information trickles out.
This issue puts the spotlight on Beautie, a robotic superhero built to look like a human-sized Beautie doll, which is basically the Astro City version of the Barbie doll. It's one half character study, portraying her constant feeling of being out-of-place, and one half quest story, as she tries to find out who built her and why. There are enough clues that the answer to her question wasn't very surprising, but the revelation leads to a very moving scene.
The issue does an amazing job of making us feel for Beautie, considering that her features are as stiff and emotionless as you'd expect a plastic doll's to be. Her mindset is at once both alien and relatable.
And on a nerdier note, it was really cool to see that this giant Barbie doll was such a powerhouse. Her electronic ears can hear people in Hawaii!

Superman 673
Insect Queen, Part 3
-- While Insect Queen might be Busiek's weakest arc on this title, this issue was the strongest of the three chapters, at the same general level as the previous arcs. I think this arc's main problem is the eponymous Queen herself. In terms of behavior and personality, she isn't much different from the dozens of other alien conquerors who've come before, and the alien insects concept isn't new, either. She certainly isn't on the level of the likes of Khyber, Subjekt-17, and Arion, all of whom provided something fresh to the title.
In this issue, Superman and Lana work both together and separately to defeat the Insect Queen, getting a chance to demonstrate their smarts. The object Superman uses to help him win pays off something set up in the beginning of the arc, in a way that, though predictable, was still highly entertaining. The final few pages provide a touching, characterization-focused coda.
It's kind of hard to get into a book you know the writer is leaving prematurely. It's like reading a novel knowing you won't get to see the final few chapters. Wherever Busiek was going with the Lana Lang: CEO subplot, for instance, he isn't going to reach there now. You read knowing some things won't get their proper pay-off.

ClanDestine 1
-- I was trepidatious going into this book; I absolutely loved Alan Davis's original ClanDestine run, one of my favorite superhero titles of all time, and I feared that might make my expectations too high. After reading this, though, I can say that I was definitely not disappointed. This issue is more about re-introducing the title's concept and its characters and their relations than it is with plot movement. That isn't a problem at all, though, because the primary means of re-introduction is the Destine family's interactions, and that's endlessly fascinating. (I've been re-reading the original Davis run, and the pervasiveness of the character work is just amazing. Every time the family interacts, no matter what they're discussing, even when they're providing exposition, we gain new insight into their personalities and/or relationships.)
And then there's the Davis art: always amazing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight 11
A Beautiful Sunset
-- It's strange. Each time I finish an issue, I like it, but I quickly forget everything that happened in it except the very broad strokes. That's a little problematic in a series like this one, subplot heavy and always building on itself. I don't know... The characterization is strong, the stories are good and taking things in new direction... The issues just aren't impressing themselves into my mind for whatever reason. Maybe I'm just burned out on Buffy?
(I won't be forgetting that fake-out on Twilight revealing his face, though. So Whedon, and so funny.)

Man, this set of pseudo-reviews makes me come off as easy to please...

Secret Origins of Superheroines

So like a million other people out there, I'm entering Shadowline's "Who Wants to Create a Superheroine" because, well, why not, right?

I've been checking into the contest's thread at Newsarama every once in a while, and this drew my interest. It's a post by Kristen Simons, the editor running the contest.

"I have seen a lot of synchronicity with the submissions. Lots of teenagers, single moms, and college students with the same kind of problems...how to handle their superpowers while juggling school, raising a kid, having a social life, etc. Lots of similar ways of gaining their powers, such as alien technology, a lab experiment that explodes, being in the general vicinity of another superhero who dies, and of course, inheriting it from super hero/villain parents. Lots of heaven/hell stories, as well as Greek/Roman mythology and alien invasions. TONS of ditzy socialites who have the alter ego of an intelligent super-heroine, or heroines who are famous."

This is interesting because many of these ideas are the same ones I found myself repeatedly going back to when I was trying to come up with something. That leads me to now wonder just why those ideas kept returning? What's behind the synchronicity?

Lots of teenagers, single moms, and college students - The teenagers and the college students are easy enough to explain. "Write what you know" is probably the most common piece of writing advice out there, after all. All of the contestants know what being a teenager is like, having been one themselves, and plenty of them have gone to college. Plus, if the character's older than usual college age, she's going to have a job. Unless it's one the contestant has held before, s/he won't "know" it.
I can't explain the single moms, though; that particular idea never entered my head.

with the same kind of problems...how to handle their superpowers while juggling school, raising a kid, having a social life, etc. - Well, this is kind of standard issue with superheroes these days, isn't it? To at least some extent? Spider-Man left a huge mark on the superhero sub-genre, and Buffy made it huger.

Lots of similar ways of gaining their powers, such as alien technology - Yeah, I did this one, too. Why? Clarke's Law, I guess. You can have alen technology do whatever you want. With human tech, you have to worry about that pesky "plausibility." (Well, not really; this is superheroes comics, but you get what I mean.) Also, perhaps more importantly, you have a ready explanation for why no one else has the technology.

a lab experiment that explodes - I didn't do this one. It seemed such a cliché. I guess others see it as a trope. It's an easy way to give a human superheroine powers, I guess.

being in the general vicinity of another superhero who dies - Okay, this being on the list really surprised me. I kept going back to it, but I assumed that was because I was such a huge ANIMORPHS fan as a kid. (The five original Animorphs were given their power by a dying alien.) Why's everyone else doing it? If I had to guess, it repeats for the same reason the next origin type does.

of course, inheriting it from super hero/villain parents - Yeah, I hit on this one a couple of times, too. I think a lot of the contestants, like me, aren't just interested in writing a superhero but in also writing a superhero world. They want to set their story in something like the DC or Marvel universes, rich in hidden species, alien races, other superheroes, and villains, worlds where there's a long history of these disparate elements meeting and clashing. However, many of these same contestants also want to start their superheroine's career from the beginning, from when she's still learning the ropes. Once you've set your mind to meeting both these desires, this particular origin is a natural. It gives your newbie a connection to the history of weirdness you've no doubt painstakingly worked out down to the tiny details.

Lots of heaven/hell stories, as well as Greek/Roman mythology - It's easy enough to see why these appeal. Part of the work's done for you! Yes, the contestant still provides his or her own spin. Nonetheless. Characters from myth and religion come with pre-existing histories, personalities, abilities, etc. Tying your character to myth and religion provides a whole ready made world of plot fodder. Why Greco-Roman myth in particular? Probably just because it's the most well-known.

alien invasions - Dunno. I did this, but again, I chalked it up to the Animorphs influence. People understandably find E.T.s easier to swallow than human criminals who dress up funny and give themselves code-names, perhaps?

TONS of ditzy socialites who have the alter ego of an intelligent super-heroine - This one surprises me. The premise occurred to me, but I personally didn't find it appealing. Tons, she says? Really, what's the attraction?

or heroines who are famous. - Isn't this standard issue these days, too? How many superheroes aren't famous?