My good buddy Earl commented that he didn't really see the problem. Those of us who read comics readily understand the multiple earth phenomenon, and I admit that's not a real problem. The bare minimum they should do is what Nick Marino cited, when Marvel took the Thor and Iron Man substitutes and made them into Thunderstrike and War Machine. But let me make my case and explain the real issue, and show how this is really just a symptom of a larger crisis that envelops comics, movies, and television.

This insistence on having the old guys return and keeping everybody using the same name is an insidious sort of stagnancy, one that is just one symptom of a larger disease, one that has spread across every entertainment format, to the detriment of us all. Part of it is from our information age, where we are deluged with data, and at the end of the day, in our race to assimilate it all, we have no idea what percentage was junk that will be meaningless in a week, and how much of it can still be useful in a reasonable future time frame. So we sit and watch slight variations on the TV, and go to see a fourth sequel at the movies. We complain about having nothing to see but sequels, even though that's the only thing we've been going to see lately.

Wanted: New Characters. What We're Given: Writing the Same Old Characters

DC's Golden Age characters were rebooted with new people donning new costume variations that kicked off a new age of popularity for comics, but the industry has since condensed to a small niche market. Is this a reflection of their refusal to show true growth? Jack Kirby invented a new character every day, but the two publishers seem content to mostly just sit and milk whatever they can out of their existing stock. Is it a coincidence that Marvel exploded to dominance based on a series of brilliant new concepts, one new idea after another? How many failures were left in the dustbin in those years, ignored because they're not still around? Is this sudden rash of looting Golden Age characters part of the desperation? If DC could settle on making Barry and Hal the focus over Jay and Alan in one generation, why is it reversing the Wally and Kyle combination and sticking us back with Barry and Hal again, for who-knows how long? And while it's great fun to revisit classic characters like Alex Ross' Human Torch series and Brubaker's nostalgic time-trip saga in The Marvels Project, are good minds re-treading too-familiar ground at the expense of true growth?

Between Project: Super Powers, The Twelve, and DC's incorporation of Milestone and Red Circle characters, the comics industry has scraped the bottom barrel of the past as much as you could imagine, all in the space of two years. Not to say that some of these haven't proven capable of supporting good stories, but if they ever want the industry to have another chance at an explosion, is raiding the dustbins really the right strategy? I think resurrecting old guys and keeping them center stage is static. I think in the long term, it means boring, and it means stagnation for the comic book industry. We see examples of this in cost-cutting, adventure-averse Hollywood, where a producer semi-jokes that he could make a movie based on the brand name of Kleenex, just because it's a familiar commodity, and people will go to see it because they know it already.

That's partly why Hasbro is getting movie treatments for their board games, like Monopoly and Risk and the Ouija board. The executives are refusing to green-light anything unless it has a proven success or recognizable brand name already attached to it. It's why you'll see a ton of superhero movies and films based on novels for the next couple decades; it's why the comics industry is translating novels and TV shows into comics again, hoping to capture people with a familiar concept. It's why you might see a movie one day based on a cereal, as opposed to a gripping drama about a boy, that couldn't get sold because the executives didn't want to take a chance on it being a flop.

The comic industry should be different. The costs of a flop are relatively low, if it can't develop an audience, it gets canceled. We're not talking about a $100 million development deal, here. The comics are already being treated as an experimental R&D department, to sort through and slap up on another screen for mass-entertainment treatment, so why don't we see more stuff? Are the bean counters so thoroughly in control that even our Outlandish Experiments Department has to produce only stale, safe fare that absolutely has to turn a profit? In such a relatively low-cost environment, why do the comic publishers not take a hint from Hollywood, or big pharmaceutical companies? Spend some time researching in a dozen different pots, and when you land a big winner, use the profits to offset the losses from some of your less-successful ventures.

Big pharma spends an average of $7 billion in R&D to burn through their hopes, and out of all of that, they end up with one big drug that is useful enough, so they can charge a ton of money for a few years and recoup their development costs. Those profits are applied against the losses from their losers, too, and then they have to start the whole process over again, because they lose their patents and generic pills eat into their profit margin before too long. Comics could do something similar, but without worrying quite as much about a generic copy biting into their sales.

Instead of seeing a ton of new titles, most of the re-launches are covering B- or C-list characters that couldn't sustain their own series in the past for very long. The limbo of the current crop smacks of quiet desperation. The birth of the Silver Age began with Barry Allen (by most people's reckoning, at least). A new age cannot begin if good ol' Barry never leaves! The publishers were quick to try this reboot and switch to a new, different person behind the costume once before, but then what happened? The attempt to move from Barry to Wally West has met with sudden reversal, worse than any doom the Reverse Flash could inflict on the franchise.

I submit that we are overdue for resurgence in comic books. There should already be a new heralded age of circulation in the millions. But that can only happen if there is something new to grab the attention of a bigger audience somehow. Regurgitating Barry Allen back into the role of the Flash, and to a lesser extent, bringing back Steve Rogers and Bruce Wayne and Ray Palmer ad infinitum, will simply keep us trapped in this strange new limbo. Why will DC and Marvel not move on from their initial success? If there is going to be another creationary boom, it can’t be born from rotating creative teams playing with the same old box of toys forever.

Meanwhile, they have spent so much time throwing familiar names for both heroes and villains at us over the past ten years, they didn't have any room to tell us who these people were, or why we should care. "Hey, there's a new Air-Wave! Oh, never mind, somebody just killed him..." The automated processes that are in place will tell writers that they have to find a place to insert a character, or the rights might lapse. Who cares if the Ringer was killed? Just slap some other nobody crook in his suit and have him in the background. There is no story-telling here, it is business practice on the off-chance somebody else could ever make profit off of a “ringer” concept, but as long as Marvel throws the suit on someone every five years or so, they can make a claim to the property.

Stuck on Watchmen

It is all tied together: the same-name problem; the endless parade of replaceable bad guys; the inability of anyone to stay dead. While we can poke fun at these tropes and even craft some good stories out of them, we’re still not moving forward. There’s a reason that Watchmen and the Dark Knight Returns are still held up as the standard by which we measure other comics. They were bits of genius, each in their own fashion, but they were meant to inspire people to try their own thing. Instead, the entire industry chose the least common denominator and created a decade of “grim and gritty” comics. Even Alan Moore has expressed his own distress at the fact that so much time has passed, and we’re still sitting around talking about Watchmen because nobody has been able to do better. Even your most egotistical sportsman will still show pride when a new athlete steps up and breaks his record; he knows it is good for the progression of the sport, it shows growth.

All of these famous creators have expressed a desire for others to strike out on their own and create something new. It doesn’t matter if it was Jack Kirby back in the day or Alan Moore now. They knew that originality and creativity had to be pushed and prodded, never rest on its laurels. Instead, everyone takes their stuff and we rinse and recycle and move the pieces around a little differently. The only saving grace for comic books is that TV and the movies are in the same boat right now.

TV and Movies: The other two broken legs of the pop culture stool

How many spin-offs of CSI are there now? How many of NCIS? How many more lawyer/doctor/crime procedurals are we supposed to take? Why must we endure the same rush of copycats every time a single game show or reality show is successful? It’s not just the iPhones and the Playstations that are taking attention away: television has become a graveyard of copycat formula. Even science fiction, which is supposed to be visionary, is spending almost all of its time recycling re-run concepts like the Prisoner, Battlestar Galactica, and the Terminator. For all the grief Dollhouse has received from the fans, at least it tried to wrestle with an interesting concept.

Hollywood is so scared of disappointing their shareholders with a loser, the directors and producers are lying through their teeth to land a deal. A producer will take the name of an old movie and announce a remake. The trick is, they will then take the one thing they liked about the original movie and then run with it to do what they really wanted to do. It’s only because the executives thought there might be some audience recognition via a remake that the project gets the greenlight. I’ve lost track of the people that have admitted openly in interviews that they couldn’t get the project approved without doing it that way. So fans of the original who thought it really would be a remake are disappointed, and it usually ends up that the people who didn’t care about the original aren’t impressed by the new variant either.

The Last Chance

The only window of opportunity left for comic books is the fact that Hollywood is so desperate for brand recognition, they will be raiding comic books for the next fifteen or twenty years for projects. So far, neither the comic publishers nor Hollywood have been able to significantly increase comic readership in conjunction with the movie treatments. The movies do increase the overall awareness of each character, and introduce a ton of toys and other merchandise to inundate the pop culture playground. This is the time frame that is left for people to change the game.

Writers and artists have a unique format in sequential art. There are a ton of techniques that can be used that shine only in the comic format, and either don’t work as well for TV or movies, or can’t be translated at all. It’s part of the reason a film treatment for Watchmen was never going to work on any more than a simplistic level. For a company like DC, they need to let Wally West graduate to being the only Flash, and let Barry Allen take his place in the foundation of heroic monuments. For other story-tellers, they need to experiment and innovate. There’s no shame in slumming around to play with classic characters. I can certainly understand the appeal of getting to write the “big guys.” Who could resist a shot at Batman or the Avengers? There are some writers who will only want to do that. Fine, let them stay there and make the most of what they can with it. I’ll still pick them up and read them and hope for the best.

However.

There’s a reason why we don’t mention Superman or Iron Man to people who ask us for a good example of a comic book. We immediately jump to things like Maus, Fables, 100 Bullets, Cerebus, and Astro City. Even hardcore fans like me who grew up on a steady diet of almost nothing but superheroes are eager for everyone to realize that there is more out there, that you can be successful with different genres, and use different conventions. It’s why we jump like drowning men at Y the Last Man and Ex Machina, and any entertaining theme that can provide just enough of a deviation from the normal capes and tights, and highlight other possibilities.

There are two ways for things to change. One, Marvel and DC can start letting death mean something, stop putting new people in Z-list costumes and not even bother to tell us their civilian ID, and start having their respective shared universes grow and change. Two, they can wither and die as a new company provides the spark to usher in a new generation. Without one of these things happening, in 30 years, comic books might be nothing more than a bunch of nostalgic collector’s items for 10,000 people in the entire world, and shrinking every day.

Or, of course, we could have a small subset of what we have today, and see a few people reading a digital Superman and Batman and a handful of the same titles forever, while our grandchildren watch 3-D, scratch ‘n’ sniff versions of NCIS: Indonesia and the latest movie reboot of Star Trek. And if a small part of you doesn’t want to scream out loud at that prospect, I don’t know what to do.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

The subject is different people using the same name while everyone else is still active. There isn't a big problem with Dick Grayson becoming Batman in Bruce Wayne's absence, or Bucky becoming Captain America while Steve Rogers is gone. But what happens when they come back? Everyone knows they will. DC has been particularly busy with shuffling names and characters around lately. Jason Todd was Red Robin, until Tim Drake took it up, since Damian became Robin in place of Tim. The Batgirl suit has been tossed around so many times, I'm getting dizzy. But at least for now, there's only one person going around as Batgirl, only one Robin, and only one Red Robin. While you might need a scorecard to keep track of all the switching, at least you can make sense out of it.

The real problem is most prevalent at DC. Is Ryan Choi the Atom, or is Ray Palmer? Wait, they both are. The Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, is deceased, but the visual distinctions and the pre-Crisis alternate dimension Earths made things relatively easy to keep straight in your mind. Who cares if there are two Green Lanterns when one is blond with a purple cape and only teams up with the other one once or twice a year? Crisis on Infinite Earths changed all that. Now all of these heroes are on one planet. The JSA heroes weren't so hard to handle, with their original setting in the WW II days, but the modern new characters have upset the apple cart entirely, because the Silver Age characters refuse to stay dead, or go away for very long.

Ray Palmer was AWOL because of the events in Identity Crisis, and that allowed the introduction of someone else to take up the mantle. For good or ill, Ray Palmer eventually came back. Whatever sense of propriety that let DC keep people like Barry Allen and Hal Jordan center stage (while keeping Jay Garrick and Alan Scott in minor roles) is officially not working with the next generation. The Silver Age guys keep popping back in, but refusing to take back their identity under sole proprietorship. "It's okay, you can use the name and costume too. It'll be greeeeat!" Now we see both Atoms in similar uniforms going along on the same adventure. Are they supposed to use their civilian names in the field now, so teammates can distinguish which Atom they want to do something? There are three main places where this confusion gets concentrated: Green Lantern, Flash, and the JSA.

Green Lantern

Five Terrans hold a power ring these days. Alan Scott is visually distinctive enough, but for the modern age, we have Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, and Kyle Raynor. The rules with their civilian identification have been fairly lose over the years, to the point that John and Guy are full-blown public, and everyone and their dog seems to know who Hal is by now, regardless. Kyle has spent most of his time in space, so that reduces problems. That may be a purposeful choice on his part, because he is definitely not looking forward to hanging around Earth and finding yet another girlfriend in a refrigerator.

Sorry, but that's still too many for my tastes. Kyle's status as Ion was temporary, and his recent death in the Blackest Night saga may also prove reversible. As much fun as I have reading these characters, there is just as much potential for other alien races to get a chance at the ring. The Guardians need to clean house and have one official Earth-present ring-slinger, and at least keep all the others deployed elsewhere.

Flash

The old-timer Jay Garrick remains part of this problem, but the least of them all. We have three other generations that have put on the red suit, and they're all back! Bart will end up as Kid Flash, at least, which dials us back from his premature promotion, and the disastrous run that led to his lame death scene. That still leaves us with Barry Allen and Wally West as the second and third person running around with the Flash name. That's at least one too many. Perhaps DC is scared to change anything else, because of the popularity involved with the name recognition. In a Newsarama interview, DiDio talked about this: "Well, we didn't change Jay Garrick, so I don't see any reason why we need to change Wally's name. They all know who they are. They're not confused with each other, and neither should we be."

If we're to treat these people as if they operated in an actual world, they would not consider only the fact that "they know who each one is." They would also consider government files, media coverage, group rosters, etc. I know if I happened to be a superhero, I wouldn't want to share the same name with somebody. As things stand, they will do a minor tweak on Wally's costume so Barry can have his original, and we will have two very similar costumes running around in the same comic, with Wally reduced to a backup feature. Setting aside the problem that another old-timer has come back to reclaim his mantle, I do not relish the idea of reading two features of two guys calling themselves the same thing in slightly different costumes. Even if the confusion is small, it does not make for the great, visual spectacles that are deserving of epic superhero tales.

JSA

Where to begin? Thankfully the extra Superman thing was temporary, and we've had decades to get used to Jay's Flash and Alan's Lantern still being around, but as soon as they found Wildcat's son, they decided to make him a member of the group and call him... Wildcat?!!? For heaven's sake, why?!? They're even on the same team! Through this team alone, we now have multiples of Flash, Green Lantern, Wildcat, Starman, Hourman, Johnny Thunder, Atom, and more. All of it is ultimately manageable, but how hard is it to come up with a different name for Ted's son? On day one I was sick of the idea of having two Wildcats on the same team. It's like they're not even trying anymore. Have we really reached that point, where all the good names have been taken, so we're just going to recycle and stick the new one next to the old one?

Marvel

While a lesser offender, Marvel does not get a free pass with this issue either. At different times we have had to deal with multiples of Thor, Human Torch, Hawkeye, Goliath, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, etc. Recently they kicked it into overdrive with an explosion of Hulk variants, a confusing duplication story with Ms. Marvel, and the prospect of Rogers Cap and BuckyCap ending up side by side. The Ultimate universe is sufficiently differentiated enough that it serves as Marvel's version of an Earth-2, so there isn't a big concern with that, at least. But when you have Beast in the X-Men, and Dark X-Men also has a Beast, it should be mandatory that they identify him not as "Dr. McCoy" alone, but in some manner that tells the reader this is not the 'real' McCoy. That's at least the job of a good editor, if the writer is already falling down on the job.

There are two black Widows now, and for no reason that I can tell. With Mattie Franklin being brought back into the picture while Jessica Drew is getting her own series, it really makes no sense to me that three different women use the name Spider-Woman. No matter which code name Hank Pym uses, he’s sure to be duplicating somebody on any given day. What with time travelers, we have a second She-Hulk running around too. While someone like Didio may think this isn’t confusing, trust me, the newer readers will be pulled up short if they don’t have enough issue sunder their belt and you throw these things at them at this pace.

Here's an idea: Let the new guys take over!

One of the best things to come out of the Crisis on Infinite Earths was character development. Marv Wolfman and Georg Perez showed a great step forward when Wally West decided he had outgrown the "kid" part of Kid Flash. The moment when Wally picked up Barry's mantle and (pardon the pun) ran with it was one of the most moving moments (Gah! That one unintended too, honest!) in comic history. It felt important because it signified a true change. Over the next few years, that change became the new status quo, proving that you could take a popular character and have a succession, and have it stick. The problems started when it became too successful, and a ton of lazy writers decided to mimic it in their books. Remember the rash of stories that had multiple people vying for the role of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman? Remember the cluster-(censored) of Hal Jordan that had to wait years before Geoff Johns' Parallax retcon could repair the damage? Remember when Ollie Queen was killed, and Connor Hawke became Green Arrow?

Just look at what happened after each of these lame attempts. The original guy came back. Connor, for example, is still somewhere in the DC universe, and he kept the title of Green Arrow, but Ollie has been resurrected, and Connor has pretty much disappeared. For all the luck DC has had with Ollie, they might as well have left him in the ground. But no, he had to come back, and now DC has so many archers, they don't know how to insert all of them into the 30-odd superhero comics they publish every month. Now it's happening to the Flash, too. Barry had a "great" death in comics, but now he's back, and the one, best example DC had of moving on and actually giving the fans something a little new and different is going by way of Connor: into a backup feature, and most likely just seen in a panel or two a year from now in Titans and/or Flash.

What about Dick Grayson? He's Batman now, but can he go back to being Nightwing, since Chris is now Nightwing over in Action Comics? When Bruce Wayne comes back, they should let Grayson, Connor and Wally go choose their own different names and form their own team. Wally could be Not-Flash, at least that would eliminate a little redundancy. It's all about creativity at the end of the day. We used to see new characters and outlandish costumes all the time, but today the publishers seem so scared, they have to keep even the different characters confined in identical suits to keep everything safe and quiet. I got news for you, we don't want safe and quiet, we want good stories with vibrant characters that have sufficient charisma, attraction, and minimally independent egos so that they can at least have enough courage to choose a unique, identifiable name!

The fear to change is starting to paralyze both companies. Spider-Man's epoch-shaking revelation of his secret identity to the world in Civil War lasted all of an eye blink before they reset things to the status quo. People considered dead for 20 years or more, like Jason Todd and Bucky, are being revived left and right. The return of the one character nobody asked for, Barry Allen, marks a reversal of the only lasting, significant change we had seen in decades. This is weird.

Tune in tomorrow, when we move from this one little problem of identical names, to the greater crisis that hampers all aspects of our entertainment society, to include television and movies.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

The Amazing Spider-Man 611

by Mark Joe Kelly and Eric Canete

Joe Kelly can handle Deadpool well, and the cover alone by Skottie Young is amusing (Skottie didn’t get a credit inside the issue itself until a last-minute add-on at the end of the letter’s page in the back, but if you’ve come across his stuff before, you should recognize his style). There’s all sorts of goofy going on, including a Lady Stilt-Man. That’s right, she calls herself a lady, but still has “man” in her villain name.

The cover story for this insanity is that Deadpool has been hired to keep Spidey busy for a while, as it leaves the bad guys free to kidnap Mattie Franklin, the third woman to use the name Spider-Woman. While the art is not my cup of tea, it fits in with the “normal insanity” that Deadpool has been turned into, and makes for a fun read this week.

Daredevil 502

by Andy Diggle and Robert De La Torre

Matt is having a dream, and the recent women in his life appear to warn him. No room for Natasha or Karen Page: just Elektra, Milla, and Dakota North. When he wakes, he reveals to the other two heroes that Master Izo is not truly dead. Thankfully, Andy Diggle took us in this direction, because there was no way I would believe Matt would actually kill the guy. Tarantula, proving that too many people in Marvel have a healing factor these days, revives Izo, who promptly asks for a drink, and gets irritated when the drink offered is water instead of booze.

La Torre’s shadow-heavy art is appropriate for the underworld setting, and I enjoy the different “blacked-out” renditions he does of Daredevil himself. The scene where Kingpin reinforces his claim to be the big cheese is also well done. There is a little confusion, as it is hard to figure out which criminals belong to Osborn and/or Kingpin, but Matt orders the Hand to wipe them all out, so it probably doesn’t matter too much. Still mandatory reading, and for yet another creative team to pull this off, this is pretty good.

Dark X-Men 1

by Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk

Osborn’s team gets their own series, but it is awkward. Dark Beast is not properly introduced, and even long-term readers might think for a minute he is our regular 616 Dr. McCoy. Leonard Kirk gives us an awful lot of bland grey backgrounds in the first few pages, and the dysfunction of Mimic and Omega is just too much for one group. The panel layouts are uninventive, and the “action” is boring. Omega has gone into a new kind of loony that is not well explained. This is all just background noise for the return of Nathan Grey, the alternate Cable from Dark Beast’s Age of Apocalypse universe.

The second feature is pat two of “A Girl Called Hope.” It has the lazy art of Steve Dillon, who uses the same generic faces, and drab backgrounds, making for a very uninteresting visual. His style has not changed at all in the last year since I saw it, meaning zero growth. If I have the feeling that I could practice for a month and do better, that means your art is not good enough for my money. The story is a six-page piece by Duane Swierczynski that shows us Hope realizes Cable is proud of her, but won’t tell her to her face. The first part of this story was in Psylocke #1, which I did not buy. The third part will be in X-Men: Legacy 229.

Both stories were poor. Unless you’re a fan of Nate Grey, I wouldn’t get this. Even as fond of Nate as I was, I can’t stomach all of the re-run nostalgia they’re aiming for with the mutant titles these days. Every new series only recycles old garbage.

Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard 1

by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Kevin Walker

The cover is almost there by Brian Haberlin, but I have mentioned that groups like the Imperial Guard need a really impressive artist for an effective showcase. Kevin Walker does reasonably well, but not the ‘awesome’ needed to knock this one out of the park. The writing team of DnA gives us a slow, lackluster story, at least in comparison to everything else they have written lately.

I might not mind if this was another group. The story is actually okay, with Gladiator adjusting to his new role as Majestor. The Guard puts down an insurrection, and Gladiator can’t help but to join in and help end things quickly. The writers do well to introduce most members of the Guard, and to show divided opinions among the Guard regarding Gladiator’s new position. We also get to see Talon, the evil Darkhawk, at play in trying to manipulate events to his advantage.

We end with the Starjammers being revealed as the Guard’s transportation into the Fault, the rift in space/time, so Gladiator can judge how big a threat it is to the Shi’ar. I smell some interaction with the Guardians of the Galaxy. While the art and story are reasonably well done, I have misgivings. I think in order for the future of the Imperial Guard to improve, they really need something stronger in both story and art to really grab a following that might support something more than a limited series every ten years.

Strange 1

by Mark Waid and Emma Rios

Stephen Strange has trembling hands, and is no longer sorcerer supreme, but that does not stop him from trying to stop a demon’s plan. Strange inserts himself into the conflict, aligning himself with Casey Kinmont, someone who is a natural at following Stephen’s instructions to use some magical motions and words to break free of mystical confinement. In a weird way, Stephen cannot hold a scalpel, but he manages to hit a baseball just when needed to foil the demon (yeah, the story is a little strange too).

The art is a little too close to manga for my taste, but the otherworldly depictions are good, and the colorist does well. Strange teleports out, leaving us with little idea of what he can do these days, and just what his limitations are. Is Casey going to be his new protégé, or was this her only appearance?

I can’t help but feel this is the wrong direction for this character. Strange has myriad possibilities, many different roads that he can travel. The mystical part of the Marvel universe has had few explorations, but the cosmic area has done great, between Nova, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the many mini-series in the past few years. The magical world needs someone who travels to these places, and Strange is now the perfect person to do so. Despite the presence of Hellstrom, Ghost Rider, Doctor Voodoo, etc., there is nothing to really flesh out the magical dimensions for us. While this may be an adequate read, the remaining three issues aren’t enough, in the right direction, to give us what we really need, for which Stephen Strange was the perfect vehicle.

SWORD 1

by Kieron Gillen and Steven Sanders

Every face is elongated, making you think we are visiting a horse dimension. The art is bad to the point of caricature. The way the Best’s head is portrayed is just awful. I have no idea what people were thinking. The backgrounds are mostly corridors and walls, and Abigail Brand could just as easily be Viper for all they bother to distinguish her face.

The dialogue is fun for the most part, and we get to see Lockheed, who steals the show. Gillen introduces a robot who seems to be able to sense the truth behind every situation, and he has me intrigued. They also give us what they call a “bonus” story, but for $3.99 and bad art, I kind of think they owe me more pages at this stage. We learn that Kitty Pryde is still alive and phasing the planet-sized bullet she can’t get away from, dating back to Joss Whedon’s run in Astonishing X-Men. How long has it been? How is Pryde eating? Whatever. It needs to get better fast if we are not to consider this a stupid story. Is this really supposed to be a regular monthly series, and not a min-series? Ugh.

X-Force 21

by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Clayton Crain

After two #1’s that weren’t good enough, and two that were bad, I was in the mood for something to pick me up. Too bad this is the last comic this week. But then, I had a hunch it would be horrible, so I read it first to get it out of the way.

Necrosha is in full swing, with miserable CGI art from Crain, whose backgrounds are too dark and irritating, and it gets hard to distinguish all the characters, since things are too dark. This is not a good use of dark and light, nor appropriate shading. See Daredevil to see how it’s done right. He doesn’t even bother to draw faces on the Hellions for an entire page, he’s so lazy. They don’t even rate eyeballs!

The resurrected zombie stuff got stale with the regular Marvel zombies series a long time ago, but these guys are inconsistent. We are told they can’t be hurt, but why does Stonewall bother grunting when Colossus hits him, then? We are told they are under the control of Selene, but then why does Risque feel free to warn off Warpath? And how does Banshee manage to momentarily struggle against her control, when nobody else can? The rules are never explained to the reader, and there are way too many contradictions in one issue to bother treating this seriously.

The recap page alone that explains how the T-O virus is used by two different villains to reanimate dead mutants is convoluted enough to highlight the poorness of this story, especially when you stop to think about how easy it is to explain Blackest Night. Everything is a repeat: instead of Xanshi being resurrected, it’s Genosha. It’s the exact same thing as has already happened at DC, with resurrected heroes and villains attacking, only it’s restricted to mutants. The resurrected ones look normal at first, too, and only Banshee shows us the T-O infection well after he has been attacked. It is poorly done, and the success that DC is having only highlights how lousy this attempt is being executed. No points for second place, guys.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Dan Jurgens, Mike Norton and Norm Rapmund

Now this is more like it! The writer and art teams combine to give us a 30-page story for $3.99. No second feature, just some cool story all the way through. We start with a recap for Booster’s origin, and for Ted Kord. It’s the memory download of the black ring as it inhabits Kord’s corpse. Then we cut to Rip Hunter in front of his chalkboard, and why, of all things, is he still using a chalkboard to make his notes? What does he do with all the other notations we’ve seen on that chalkboard? Is it so there is no electronic record of his hints? Because Skeets probably has a record of them, so it’s not a very good idea. Don’t get me wrong, I love the chalkboard being there, but I do think they need to explain it somehow.

Booster is taking a pity-trip through time to Ted Kord’s funeral, and witnessing himself, as he cannot even say anything at his best friend’s funeral. He mentions something that is glossed over quite a bit, and could have used a lot more attention back in the day: it was Bruce Wayne’s satellite that was hijacked by Max Lord, and Bruce who ignored Ted when he came for help. This chink in the “perfect” planner’s armor should have been hit on by someone, anyone in the DCU, but he got a free pass at the time. At least Booster thinks about it here.

We have yet another spelling error, with Skeets of all characters, leaving an ‘s’ out of ‘supposedly.’ Thanks for the great spell-check, DC. It’s not like you don’t have grown adults, a process for checking for these errors specifically, and access to any one of a million spell check software programs. Way to show the kids that spelling and grammar should be important in a finished, professional publication.

There is an excellent scene where Booster realizes he should always do his best, to honor his best friend’s memory. It’s a good scene, and how many times have we thought something like that regarding a loved one who has passed on, or for a religious figure? It will be interesting to see how log Booster keeps it in his mind, because humans tend to get lost in the moment and forget those kinds of things after a while. Still, it’s a very human thing to do in the first place, and a good touch. Next issue, we get to see how Booster deals with the Black Lantern version of Blue Beetle.

Green Lantern Corps 42

by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

Can you believe Patrick Gleason has been on this title for so long, and is doing so well with it? There is a lot of activity here, and the panel choices are good. The power levels of the Black Lanterns reach 100%, and they all stop their attacks and head straight to attack the green power battery. The alpha battery that powers one of the Alpha Lanterns is about to go nova, so Kyle grabs it and takes it to the proper place where the explosion from the overload will do the most damage to the bad guys.

We end with a green ring declaring Kyle dead, but with a moratorium on finding a replacement. Is this because there was an overage of Lanterns from the same space sector, and it will eventually be distributed somewhere else? Looks like it will be held by Mogo for now. Will Kyle rise soon as a Black Lantern? Good questions, and this book continues to be an exciting companion for the Blackest Night storyline.

JSA vs. Kobra 6

by Eric Trautmann and Don Kramer

The creative team always makes sure to include a pin-up shot of the entire team. I might complain, but Kramer always make them look so cool. The one thing that I am constantly reminded of, though, is that Sand is always just there, but never seems to contribute much. It’s a waste of a good character to be in the background when he has been much more active in the past.

Trautmann has Mr. Terrific display his loyalty to the JSA team by giving his other organization affiliation, Checkmate, dribbles of information without the whole story, since he knows they have a spy there anyway. There are some odd choices though, as Power Girl is seen walking out of the conference room as Terrific turns to talk to Jessica Midnight, and then three panels later, Power Girl is still in the room, and getting testy with Midnight. Later, Liberty Belle is posing with a flag in her hand while Hourman is knocking terrorist heads. Some of these choices have me scratching my head, but the rest of the issue is good.

We kick into high gear with a ton of “fire-and-forget” terrorist strikes in the DC area, and a good excuse to showcase all the members, but split up into different teams to showcase how far the team can be spread out to handle big (or at least numerous) attacks. We have another spelling mistake, as they use ‘…to belief’ instead of ‘…to believe in their leaders…’ Guess what, the team working on Booster Gold is entirely different, so we have a couple groups at DC, a dozen or so people on each book, and none of them can put out a decent end product in the spelling area. When I started my blogging, I knew I might be messing up in a few places since I’m a one-man show, but to have so many teams of people at Marvel and DC messing up like this every month is just embarrassing. I spot maybe one spelling error in an entire newspaper, and these guys can’t handle 22-30 pages right?

Kobra succeeds in the end, with all of the smaller diversionary attacks being thwarted. Burr kills the Secretary General of the United Nations and others, and escapes. We now have a terrorist on the loose who can teleport anywhere, make unwitting people into suicide bombers, and all the people that got arrested and/or killed were people he wanted to get rid of anyway. Mr. Terrific does manage to cure his love, Sasha, and stop all the other attacks.

I can understand why some people might not like the ending. The good guys feel somewhat okay that they stopped so much, but the bad guy actually achieved every one of his goals. How masterful is Burr as a manipulator, when he succeeds at everything he wants to, but you still feel like you’ve achieved something yourself at the end of the day? It’s a little chilling, and a good case for this new Kobra to be justified as a major new threat to the DC Universe. Remember that Faces of Evil storyline DC did a while back? While Prometheus received a fairly lame treatment, Kobra has come out shining. DC needs worthy villains, and the team here has given us one. Kudos for one of the better mini-series this year.

R.E.B.E.L.S. 10

by Tony Bedard and Andy Clarke

The same ‘download’ treatment from Booster Gold is done here for the ring that takes over the recently-killed Stealth. It makes for a handy excuse to do a graphical flashback for a recap. Adam Strange and Captain Comet arrive to fill in Vril Dox on the Blackest Night problem, while agreeing that the immediate threat is Starro. Meanwhile, the High Vanguard has been sent to kidnap Lyrl Dox, and Lyrl goes with them willingly. Vril goes ape-(censored) when he finds out, claiming the entire galaxy is doomed now. So which is really the bigger threat, folks, Starro, or the Blackest Night? The question should be raised though: if Vril is so brilliant, why did he not take greater security precautions to protect his son? Smooth, move, 12-level genius.

Starro restores Lyrl’s intellect, and Lyrl immediately takes down the force field restricting Starro’s forces. Then Stealth arrives to make mattes worse, and they also stumble across some Sinestro Corps members under attack by the new Black Lantern, Harbinger! You ever have a feeling that your day has just been shot?

We end with a cool sight: a Yellow Lantern has been killed, and the ring approaches Vril Dox, who becomes a member of the Sinestro Corps! It’s a perfect cliffhanger, and I hope the Blackest Night tie-in convinces more people to check out this title. Andy Clarke’s style is great, and his art is improving all the time. His faces are great, and the backgrounds are plentiful. Also, reading a character like Vril Dox, who is heroic and ruthless at the same time, is just wicked fun.

Titans 19

by J. T. Krul and Angel Unzueta

It’s time for Speedy – wait, Arsenal – wait, Red Arrow to have his spotlight. The art is a little strange at first, with a poorly-proportioned house behind Roy and his daughter. The hairstyle choices and the face for Roy make it hard to distinguish him sometimes from Wally these days.

The storytelling is awkward, as the faculty at Lian’s school are negative about everything involving Roy no matter what, to the point of ridiculousness. Krul hits us over the head with a hammer, with no hint of subtlety for something that feels like a teenager’s Hallmark special TV movie. The big villain distraction is Lady Vic, a horrendously-dressed villain whose biggest assets are her breasts. She gets away, and Roy tracks her down without explanation, able to find her hideout with no problem. It would be nice to know how, in an entire city, he knew exactly which building she was in. there is a depressingly lame moment where he is in trouble, and allegedly thinks about Lian, and that gives him the strength to overcome. This special moment brought to you by Krul shows (badly) how Roy manages to be a single parent and a super-hero, and hardly mentions anything or anybody else relating to his Titans group. One of the worst spotlights in Titans history.

the Unwritten 7

by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

We pick up with Tommy in jail, but being visited by storybook characters. The story is side-tracked by how many times they use the F-word, and it feels a little lazy for such a literary character to fall back on this one word all the time. Tommy is many things, but lazy he is not. Savoy saves Tommy’s butt from a hired hit job, and reveals himself to be a reporter. I don’t know any reporter that can fight that well, but who am I to judge?

Hexam plants herself in the prison easily enough, and Tom goes from telling Savoy off for the lies, to explaining everything there is to know about the Song of Roland. That’ll show him! Still, for all its faults, the weird stuff keeps you interested, as an image of Roland appears outside the fence-like jail cell, about to put the horn to his lips. The conspiracy is about to launch a professional hit squad attack on Tom next. While this issue was not as good as any that have come before it, they still tried to add some pieces to the puzzle. It was better than Titans 19, at least.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann, and Pere Perez

Eric Trautmann comes into the writing chores in place of James Robinson, and it works okay. There’s a small slip in the art early on, as Jax-ur uses his heat vision on two guys in rapid succession. The block panel is in the middle of a two-page spread configuration, and we see the heat vision going from Jax-ur to one guy, but on the left, we only see the end effect of the heat vision, no sign of it coming from Jax-ur. That might suggest he was the first one hit, and the second guy to the right is where we are landing on this scene. However, the two-block-split shows us the last guy getting hit with his left hand in the other block simultaneously, which means they really should have shown a second heat blast coming from Jax-ur. If they want to show the speed, they should have drawn an after-image of his face, with some lines hinting movement from one target to the next. As it is, it makes the reader have to stop and figure out what happened, and a scene should flow more smoothly than that. It’s a weird mistake to have so early in a comic.

There are still a lot of pieces to this story, and we finally get to see people pick up on the fact that Jimmy Olsen is missing. Perry White goes “in search of,” and we get to see him sweating a couple times in a row, hitting home how out of place and nervous he feels doing something like this. Whatever his background, Perry is now the head of a big institution, and at home in his place of power. This snooping around stuff should be left to the young ‘uns, and the story shows that well. A little bit of action with Nightwing and Flamebird, and a rapid aging of Chris lines up the two with Jax-ur, Dr. Light close by. Not too shabby.

The second feature is still a simplistic waste of art, with little definition by the art team. There is also no explanation how Major Force is able to tackle Captain Atom and immediately take him out of the magical realm. There is an art to an eight-page comic story, and these guys have not mastered it yet.

Batman 693

by Tony Daniel and Sandu Florea

The setup is weird. Tony Daniel is slowly growing as both artist and writer, but this idea that Black Mask is controlling a section of Gotham City and is penned in by the National Guard just doesn’t work. Are there innocents in that section of Gotham? Are there massive roadblocks making the citizens go around that area? We don’t know, because we never get to see it. Meanwhile, the Black Mask gets to roam around everywhere he wants to from all sights, so it’s not working anyway. It’s a big mess.

Dick Grayson acts uncomfortable dressing up to mingle with socialites?!? Grayson grew up in a millionaire’s mansion playing around the rich and famous. Before that, he was a circus performer, in front of thousands of eyeballs every night. He rubs shoulders with Superman. He is not “uncomfortable” getting into a tux and going to a freaking party!! These are the pitfalls of mischaracterization that a writer might get away with for people who don’t know or care, but a lot of us have been reading Grayson’s adventures for anywhere between 20 to 60 years. You can’t do stuff like that to him. It “feels” wrong automatically.

Too may threads are running in this comic, and it’s the wrong setting for a new creative team to do. We’ve got Black Mask, the Falcones, Huntress and Riddler and Kitrina, the Reaper... They do allude to the new Arkham asylum in a way that meshes well with the other DC books, and linger on Oracle during a Helena-Grayson kiss that might mean something to longtime readers, but means nothing to a newer reader. There is an awkward imbalance between the attempt to let the art show the meaning, but not enough writing to make clear the import.

We end in a clumsy attempt at tragedy. Batman infiltrates the Black Mask’s territory, where there are half a dozen teenagers lolling around outside. The one kid willing to talk to the atman is immediately shot and killed by an unseen assassin. Just how did the sniper know to be there? It’s a little cheap. This title needs something more if it hopes to catch up to the more popular titles out there.

Batman and Robin 6

by Grant Morrison and Philip Tan

For all the failures of the Batman title, I still enjoyed it better than Batman and Robin. There is an attempt to describe this run as a melding of modern awesomeness and the ‘60s campy TV show, but Jason’s physical transformation still is stupid, and his scheme to unmask the dynamic duo on a webcam, while slightly reminiscent of the TV show, just does not fit well with his previous behavior (it’s an attempt to break the fourth wall and remind us that Jason Todd’s original death was by a call-in by the fans in the real world). The new villain is ridiculous looking, and we don’t really learn anything about him the entire time, which is a weakness of the story.

We next turn to Robin getting shot in the back three times, and now he can’t feel his legs. This, despite the protection offered by both his cape and fortified body armor. This is followed by Jason claiming he beat his “arch-enemy.” ? Does he mean Grayson? Or the pink mafia guy he was able to push off a cliff with a conveniently-placed bulldozer? Was the bulldozer left there with keys in it? Does it belong to Jason? Did he hotwire it? We never know, because the writer can’t be bothered to tell us anything, and the art doesn’t help to explain any aspect of it. It’s just one senseless rambling fight.

We end with Morrison having Grayson utter the old ‘zur en arrh’ words, and I’m really sick of that whole theme. I did not like his original run involving that stuff, and failed to hit the mark with it. Now he has Grayson using the words, when it was a Bruce Wayne thing the whole time before that? He needs to let it go.

Red Robin 6

by Chris Yost and Marcus To

This entire issue is a little awkward, as Yost sandwiches the Blackest Night: Batman mini-series in between this issue and the last one. Tim arranges for three bait targets, and fights one of the bad guys that shows up. The other two targets have teams protecting them, but he finds out at the end that they have all been killed. There is a ton of inconsistency, as the first man on Tim’s team dies, and he stops to contemplate that fact, and how the death is “on him." The rest of his team except for Pru also gets killed, but we don’t hear anything more about how all these deaths on all these teams are also a result of his plan.

The other awkward part is the continued flashback sequences trying to describe the assassin’s origin, the one who is killing all of al Ghul’s people. There is nobody in present day who survived to witness any of this, so who tells Tim this entire story at the end? Because it’s a pretty long story already, and still rambling on to no effect. And why, oh why is Tim letting Tam stay where she is, and gallivanting off to get a bunch of people killed? She’s a civilian with no stake in anything, and he can’t get her clear?

There is no sign of intelligence here, and Tim is supposed to be the smart one. This is a big stalling effort, a clumsy story, and the art is sufficient to depict what it needs to, but without being great.

The Shield 3

by Eric Trautmann and Marco Rudy

The military feel to this comic is still present, and I appreciate the sense that somebody involved with the comic has this experience. We see the end of the fight, and also learn more about the capabilities of the Shield’s battlesuit. I’m not sure I buy the idea that Shield can simply yell for a second, and it cause both sides to stop shooting in the middle of a gunfight, but I’ll let it slide. Overall, it’s a good story and some good art.

However, the waste of a second feature has me ready to drop this series with any extra excuse. The art is still sub-par, and even though I stopped to read it for a change, there is no aspect that makes me the slightest interested in yet another fire character. All others have more charisma, whether it’s the Human Torch, Hammond, Pyro, or somewhat close, the Ray. It’s tough enough to try to incorporate a character like the Shield into the DCU, how can they waste pages on Inferno? Make him a bit player somewhere else so he shows up as part of the ensemble, and give up the ghost already.

With Magog only recently being focused on, the team-up has served its purpose. I wonder who benefited the most, Magog or the Shield? Either way, the combination was a good one. Now to tune in next month, and see how the Shield does on his own.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

Man, do Marvel people die a lot! Korvac once killed the Avengers, and many of them fell to Death in the annual crossover between Avengers and West Coast Avengers. And did you see how many times in a row Doctor Doom killed Captain America in the original Secret Wars? Korvac got thousands more shots at Cap during Mark Waid's run on the title, but kept pressing the reset button. Half the galaxy got wiped out when Thanos got his hands on the Infinity Gauntlet, and we're not even covering all of the times that an event has wiped out the galaxy-known timeline, leaving only one group or person alive to "fix" things.

The X-Men have had fun dying in future realities ever since Days of Future Past, and Jean Grey has been the punch line for the fast-recycling at Marvel for decades. For those wondering if Jean is currently alive, the answer is: maybe. Clones don't count, or who knows what body total we'd be at for Professor Xavier, let alone Spider-Man. Honorable mention has to go to Marvel's zombie series, giving us some great undead activity. Do these count towards the "death tracker?" Or does undead deserve its own category? Some mutants like Mimic were pretty good and dead, but the story has been butchered so much that the way they have come back to life is still murkily explained in terms such as: "Years later somehow Calvin absorbed the healing factor and powers of Wolverine and was brought back to life, believing himself to be Wolverine." The nonsense goes on from there. I've lost track of the resurrected characters from Marvel whose official explanation is that they came back to life "somehow" or "in some as-yet unexplained manner."

Does Crisis on Infinite Earths top all of Marvel's shenanigans? I mean, we went from infinite Earths to one! That's a lot of corpses. But then, they never existed. Until Didio wants them to, because now we have 52 Earths, and they allegedly have a multiverse associated with each of them, which sounds like pre-Crisis infinite Earths times 52. The recent Legion of 3 Worlds story didn't help matters any, because when you're in the Time Trapper's neighborhood, you can still reach in, play around with, and pull out anybody from the pre-Crisis multiverse anyway. So at the end of the day, I would not try to add up all of the infinite universes in any particular comic playground, because it will more likely give you an infinite headache. Let's keep things on a more individual level, shall we?

All of DC's big guns have now "died" in some form and come back. Superman's death was the most famous, and Batman's probably the least convincing. But Flash (Barry Allen), J'onn J'onnz, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Aquaman, and Wonder Woman have all met their end in some way and time. Green Arrow, too, come to think of it, and Robin (Jason Todd) really rounds out the major characters. Compare this with Marvel. Has Spider-Man really "died" in any way that left a memorable impact? The Hulk? Iron Man? The fact is, Marvel characters have probably died tens of multiples of times more than DC characters have, with a possible exception for multiverse wipeouts in Crisis events.

With as much mythology as Marvel uses, you might think they would utilize the underworld more often. But it's actually DC that has dramatically used the concept of Heaven and Hell in their storylines to pull back heroes into the world. As fuzzy as Superman's resurrection was, there was a hint of the divine involved. The Speed Force has that semi-mystical, semi-religious feel of the Force from Star Wars to it, so perhaps we could bring the Flash into the discussion. Wonder Woman has been devolved into clay and brought back by the Olympian deities. Hal was in the black abyss until his spirit was merged with the Spectre. And just where did we find Ollie Queen, just before he came back to the mortal coil, hmm?

Marvel has upped their ante with the reviving of Bucky, and their recent Steve Rogers is dead/ we planned for him to be gone for six months/ he's not really dead story. We finally had two major events: one, a long-time dead character that was held to be sacrosanct in the fact of his death, Bucky, was brought back (never actually died in the retcon); two, Marvel finally took one of their major players off the board. They tried to do a sort-of death for Thor, but with his mythology, nobody bought into the idea that his death would "matter" for long. Steve Rogers, at least, was an actual corpse with bullet holes in him. Now we know this is all changing, and he will be back, and will fall into the category of "never really, really dead in the first place" by the time that story is finished. But these two items represented a step up from the normal way Marvel handled death.

One point against Marvel: death for villains really means nothing there. Scourge did some good house cleaning by taking out a ton of third-rate villains, but they have all been brought back in some lame fashion, needlessly, over the past 20 years. On some background panel, in some event comic or something, you will find a new Melter, a new Enforcer, etc. Why, oh why would you ever feel compelled to bring back the Ringer?!? These deaths were shocking at the time, and innovative for Marvel. Most of these bad guys are just new people who have taken the name and costume, but it dilutes the meaning of death when you can just throw any random person in the suit and send them back out. Man, did the suit even make it to the cleaners for some of these crooks before somebody new was stuffed in it? Lousy writers throw the character back into the mix, often without even bothering to tell us it's somebody new, and even then, you're lucky if you learn the new goon's name. This happens much more often at Marvel than at DC. (If someone can offer some evidence as to why this might not be the case, I'm open to new information).

Rather than subtract points from someone, how about we add some points instead? The biggest point to add in DC's favor is their Blackest Night storyline. Every major (and some minor) dead character in DC gets a resurrection as a threat in the Black Lantern Corps. We meet all the criteria for good story-telling: 1) an interesting premise that does not automatically return a dead character to his old status quo self; 2) a reasonable plot device that doesn't make the reader feel cheap; and 3) a tale that involves death, but does not (automatically) have the atmosphere of a revolving door. Unless some hefty magic is used on one of the dead Corps members, almost all of these people should crumble to dust if the heroes can win in the end. But the story itself provides for us to enjoy reading some of our favorite characters like Elongated Man or the Martian Manhunter again, without having to roll our eyes at the way they were brought back. And at the end of the day, it's that type of comic that can make death fun.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

Good Artist: Check

The interview has both the upcoming writer and artist mentioning the original team, and how much they liked it back then. Tan in particular says it’s the first book he picked up. Tan is easily one of the best artists DC has in their stable right now, and if he is as excited as he claims to be, we’re in for some great visuals. He’s doing his homework too, reading their most recent treatment, but keeping in mind the parts he liked about the way he remembers them. If Didio will also kepe this in mind as he is writing, perhaps Katana will actually start to speak like she came from Japan again. Maybe they will remember Brion is royalty from a foreign country, and not an American.

They Like the Old Stuff: Check

Did I mention they liked the original series? The title was at its most successful in the beginning. Granted, it probably won’t have “Batman and” on the front of the title, but if they can bring back some of that early magic, it would be a considerable improvement over anything that any of the previous creative teams have done.

Stop Reinventing the Wheel: Check

This title in particular has had a bigger problem than almost any other with reinvention. The rapidly rotating rosters of writers (say that three times fast!) have garbled the team and what it stands for so many times, and so fast, it’s almost like this one title has multiple personalities. Didio is smart enough to recognize this problem, and says he won’t initiate a drastic change. That would be a refreshing change. There are a handful of dangling plotlines from the last couple years that could serve as grist for the mill, and from the interview it sounds like they have plans for each character (except I notice a lack of coverage on the Creeper, which is probably a good thing).

Latitude from the Writer: Check

Philip Tan has asked to do plot scripts instead of full scripts, allowing for greater flexibility for the artist to decide how to best lay out the story. For those who fault Didio for his choices as editor over the years, it may be hard to fault just him if you don’t like the way this goes. It is well known that some of the greatest stories from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby combination had some great input from Kirby in story ideas and angles, and sometimes all that was left for Stan to do was fill in the speech bubbles. If Didio can accurately capture the voice of each character and Tan can break things down in a way that Didio can complement, the combination may make for a good team.

The odds are against their success, actually. There is a good deal of ill-will in the fan community over Didio’s past decisions, and that may prevent some people from even picking it up to give it a chance. There is also the distinct possibility that they will stumble just as much as the others have. Take Tomasi and Pasarin, for example. Pasarin’s art is good enough, but there have been occasional glitches such as poor coloring choices and awkward panels. Tomasi has had the characters make nonsensical decisions and contradictory moves, where he has shined in Green Lantern Corps, and did well on the Nightwing title.

Whatever this Outsider curse is, I’m rooting for this change to be successful. There’s nothing I’d like better than to bring the Outsiders into the fold of being good again.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, and Rodney Buchemi

Note: if you’re following the meta-story, read X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas 2 before reading this issue.

A quick recap tells us Amatsu-Mikaboshi is responsible for killing Zeus and sending the Olympians to Earth. Athena strikes out with most of the “neutral” Olympians in her attempt to form a force to go against Hera. We get to see Mikaboshi kill the Kree deities, although I think that could have been an entire issue in and of itself if handled correctly. I wonder if they will be brought back as easily as the rest of the Marvel characters later. If so, it kind of diminishes Mikaboshi’s threat.

Hercules goes to meet Hebe, and finds her in a lip-lock with Peter Parker. After the requisite fight, everyone makes up. The traditional Pak/Van Lente humor is present throughout the issue, and the art was nicely handled, such that I flowed through the book without being distracted or disappointed. That tends to mean it wasn’t awesome, because I tend to stop and look twice at art that is particularly impressive, but if it’s good enough to help the story flow so well, I certainly have no complaints.

Hera starts her plan of using mortals in key positions of power as thralls, and Spidey brings in some New Avengers backup. We follow the fun to Incredible Hercules 138 in a couple weeks.

The second feature has Phorcys, the creator of the sirens, calling Venus home to do her job of securing him human food. It’s nice to see Jeff Parker utilizing legends and myths just as well as the Pak/Van Lente team. Gabriel Hardman does a good job on the art here, and boy is he getting around a lot lately. The Agents of Atlas show up and put in a good fight, but can’t seem to make much progress.

The feature ends at a good stopping place, although it is right in the middle. This is where the Agents of Atlas become a back-up feature in the Hercules title. On one hand, it stinks that we can’t get a full Agents story every month, but if the quality can be successfully adapted to the shorter page count, I’ll take some good Agents stuff wherever I can get it.

Captain America: Reborn 4

by Ed Brubaker, Bryan Hitch and Butch Guice

The threads are coming together! Hank Pym and Reed Richards get a message from Cap via Vision, and learn that the nano-particles in Sharon Carter’s blood are basically a way to track Cap down through time. Unfortunately, Osborn handed Sharon over to the Red Skull, and is now in Latveria, where Doctor Doom has been helping Arnim Zola out in repairing or re-creating a variant on Doom’s time machine.

The art is still nicely cinematic, lots of big pictures and splash panels, but the Hitch/Guice combination really has an added dimension, and brings out some more “worldly” details than we normally get from Bryan Hitch’s work. I’d definitely like to see these two collaborate again sometime. Cap is hurting from his ordeal through time, but when he gets to the end of it, he seems to have some sort of sudden battle with the Red Skull. When Cap gets up off the table, it’s the Red Skull inside his body.

We’ve seen this type of stuff before with the Skull, including being in a cloned body from Cap in the past, but it is still a little chilling to see it happen this way. And since the series is over in one more issue, we know it won’t be dragged out like Dark Reign has been.

House of M: Masters of Evil 4

by Christos N. Gage and Manuel Garcia

The end of the road, with a nice manipulation from Magneto involving using Nitro to blow up innocents, a facet of the Civil War that is mimicked somewhat here in the House of M dimension. The Hood allows his group to disperse, knowing that Magneto’s forces are coming for him. Garcia’s art is good, but he does slack off a little, giving us some drab brown backgrounds in too many places.

The showdown is fun as the Red Guard comes in to tackle the super-powered foes, and the end was pretty much assured. Easily half of the group stayed to try to give the humans time to escape the massacre, and the deserters like Wizard and Chemistro are now helping the resistance. Titania was thrown to safety at the last minute, and now serves as the traveling witness, much like WW II survivors, making sure the story stays alive.

While it was easy to see where the story was heading, it was a good take on things, and some good match-ups and ideas sprinkled throughout the entire series. Good job by all involved.

The Torch 3

by Alex Ross, Mike Carey, and Patrick Berkenkotter

The Thinker didn’t do as good a job as he had thought in wiping out Jim Hammond’s personality. It feels like it’s wrong to see the original Human Torch killing innocents; you want to believe that heroes have personalities strong enough that they will not do things that they would never willingly do in the first place. Here, though, he is under someone else’s control, and they order the pointing and the shooting, and Hammond obeys.

The Thinker has a master plan involving the Horton cells. By studying Toro, he has learned that the cells can be absorbed by humans. Now he has whipped up a batch of modified cells that he can use to control everyone else. The first thing he doe sis order the irritating thorn in his side, Toussaint, to shoot himself.

Toro breaks free and helps Hammond to shake off the evil control, and they break up the batch of cell solution. The Thinker takes the setback surprisingly well, and teleports out, planning to set up shop somewhere else and continue with his plan. The spilled solution infects Toussaint, the fish life, and even reaches Namor and some Atlanteans! It’s a cool twist, and I’m eager to see what happens next.

Ultimate Comics Armor Wars 1

by Warren Ellis and Steve Kurth

Unlike the two regular titles, this mini-series still has “Comics” in its title. I have no idea why they do these things. Probably just to irritate the anal retentive people like myself. Skipping over Justine Hammer making out with Tony, we track a Doctor Faustus down, who has hijacked Tony’s technology. Speaking of anal retentive, they left the ‘s’ of off “paintings” just before they meet the good doctor, showing that the legions of editors, sales and marketing people, letters, etc., just cannot proof-read a comic anymore these days. It would be nice if just one week went by where DC and Marvel could spell all their words correctly. If you want to do story nonsense like claiming your ship has no weapons and then shoot missiles out of it (-cough-Ellis-cough), you can, but please at least try to get the words down correctly.

The issue is a little boring, which is why I have to spend so much time on the nit-picky stuff. They show off Tony’s new repulsor weapon once and then get another name, and follow it to a guy named Bram Velsing. Ellis peppers the issue with his traditional sardonic wit, but it can’t save the purple Iron Man that comes out attacking at the end. The original Armor Wars was so much better than this.

Leave it to Marvel to spend all that time cleaning house, only to take an old story, slap “Ultimate” on the front of it, and give us a watered-down re-run. What, exactly, is “ultimate” about any aspect of this? I’m disappointed that this is all Ellis could come up with.

X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas 2

by Jeff parker, Carlo Pagulayan, Gabriel Hardman, Chris Samnee, and Carlos Rodriguez

Wow, but that’s a lot of artists for one issue. The battle is fun and the art is great. It’s still a regular cliché story of the two teams fighting at first, and then making friends. The fun part is that Namor is the one who plays peacemaker for a change. There a re a couple of plot points that they se as places to change the artist, and it works well within that structure.

The second part of the issue has Aphrodite holding Venus captive. The rest of her team arrives to the rescue, and there is an awesome joke in the middle where she asks, “Why does this happen to all my statues?” I think it’s worth the purchase for that joke alone. This is where Aphrodite gets the idea to bring in Phorcys, which picks up in Assault on New Olympus 1.

I would have been happy to keep buying the Agents’ regular series, but if this treatment helps to raise their profile and interest in the group, then I’m all for it. (I’m still storing these two issues behind my regular Atlas series, alpha-order be hanged!)

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Mark Guggenheim, Marco Checchetto, Luke Ross and Rick Magyar

Adi Granov has a great cover for us, and thankfully this is the last issue of clone nonsense we have to put up with for a while (I hope). This is all Guggenheim�s brainchild, this idea that Peter should be involved with a murder mystery. Ben Reilly is supposed to be more believable as a murderer because he�s a clone, according to the writer. Except we all pretty much knew Raptor was responsible for killing his own family. Kaine is inconsistent and a waste of time for the entire issue, and Peter comes to the same conclusion all of us did: Peter is no killer, and Ben couldn�t be either. Gee, that took two seconds to figure out, and how many issues did you spend on it?

The art is okay, but the ending of this story is lame. He is standing right over Raptor and then webs him up. The police arrive, and Kaine has slipped away� and webbed-up Raptor is gone too?!?! Even Screwball, who was supposed to be unconscious, has woken up and left in the space of two seconds. The story was lame enough to begin with, but this takes the cake. Wasting our time with a story where the conclusion was blatantly obvious and therefore not entertaining is one thing. Having no ending to your story so you just have all three villains magically disappear when we turn the page is amazingly lame. And if Kaine is degrading, why doesn�t he just die already?

Big waste of time. I want to take Granov�s cover, slap it on a different story, and get a do-over for this issue.

Astonishing X-Men 32

by Warren Ellis and Phil Jimenez

A nice exciting cover starts us off, and inside the Bio-Sentinel launches missiles out of its fingers that unfold to reveal themselves as Brood! Very neat visuals throughout the entire issue, and whenever Storm gets some screen time, she looks magnificent. The Beast snags the Sentinel with a grappler and actually makes it water-ski out of the harbor. We also get to see Wolvie go a little berserker, and it comes across better here than most other places I�ve seen it recently.

Armor has been changed under different writers, so gone is the polite girl who defers to her elders, and some of her original pattern of talking. She is mostly just another Kitty/Jubilee stand-in, without some of the uniqueness of her first appearances. Still, her power is cool and visually interesting.

There is a slight break in the story, because the rescue ship Beast and Brand are on is not supposed to have any weapons. A few panels later, some missiles are launched at the Sentinel�s head, and it causes a reaction that results in an explosion. I have to assume that the missiles are supposed to be some kind of fire retardant or anti-biological vaccine. I have to assume, because the writer doesn�t bother to tell you what they are. He also doesn�t take any time to explain how a rescue ship with no weapons still can have missiles.

While the dialogue is cool and the art is great, this title has a couple problems. Besides small slip-ups like the missiles-but-no-weapons things, the title is always late. That leads to another problem, in that Brand basically reveals the beginnings of Necrosha here. In the rest of the Marvel universe, Utopia has already happened, Emma can�t use her telepathy and the reanimated mutants have already attacked. So yet again, we�re stuck reading things out of order because creative teams can�t keep to a monthly schedule. Marvel should pace things out better ahead of time, or start firing people. It�s one thing for a self-contained story to be late, but when you�re working on a meta-story, timing is more important than it was in the old days.

And in the old days, many people who were late got fired.

Doctor Voodoo 2

by Rick Remender, Jefte Palo and Gabriel Hardman

Voodoo has been left stranded by Doctor Doom in a dimension with magically-immune man-size frogs. He suffers a mystical attack from Nightmare, but manages to get away. Upon his return, he is met by the Son of Satan, Daimon Hellstrom. I feel a little cheated later, because the cover with blood dripping out of the pentagram on Hellstrom�s chest is awesome, but it�s really just Nightmare in disguise, getting access to an area by duping Voodoo.

The simplistic rendering of Hellstrom also is underwhelming, but I want to give the story a chance to play out, because it�s reading well so far, generally speaking. The art is not a bad choice for this comic, but I must admit, I would be interested to see a rotating artistic team on this book, giving us a chance to see a few different ways of portraying the magical realms. Not my favorite comic this week, but good enough to buy.

Nova 31

by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Andrea DiVito

Darkhawk is now a man on a mission, trying to hunt down the evil Raptors (and why didn�t an editor tell Guggenheim not to use the code-name Raptor when the storyline here was started such a long time ago? Lousy editors! But I digress�). As they spend way too many times telling us, the planet where Nova is chasing him down is about to be destroyed. Nova catches up to Darkhawk and tries to get him to open up, explain why or how there is a video of him killing Lilandra. Then we flash back a few hours.

This is one of my favorite scenes, with an experienced trainer showing the Nova Corps members how to better use their powers. We get to see Rich learn a thing or two just by watching, and it is hilarious. He is the leader, and acts like everything is going according to his plan. However, we see here that no matter how may wars he has fought in, no matter how many times he has vanquished an enemy, he still has a lot to learn about using his powers. Makes you wonder why the Worldmind was such a slacker in training him, but that�s a small issue.

DiVito�s art is great, giving us a nice flow and exciting action, as a Kree archaeologist finds a gemstone and is taken over by a Raptor, who then attacks Darkhawk and Nova. Then the planet breaks up. Whoopsie.

Ah, I�m sure they�ll be fine. Still, it�s good stuff.

Ultimate Spider-Man 4

by Brian Bendis and David Lafuente

I�m not sure what the deal is with naming this title, but as of issue #2, they changed the indicia to drop the �comics� out of �Ultimate Comics Spider-Man.� We are now just �Ultimate Spider-Man� again (same for their Avengers title). The story stinks, as MJ is hit on by her manager, and a gangster rides up flashing a gun, trying to pick up on MJ. It�s totally random, but the Hood shows up and saves her. Isn�t it nice that in the big city, this one guy was around at the exact time needed to save MJ? Hey, maybe he�s stalking her!

The hood is red, but MJ tells Peter it�s a black cloak. I have no idea why. Then we get into teenager angst, the whole why-did-you-break-up-with me, or a variant on it. The art goes completely south at this point, not even trying to show us any backgrounds. The faces are incredibly simplistic.

I want more than this. This is not �ultimate.� This is what you call �basic.� And it cost me $3.99?!?! Ouch.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

The Great Ten 1

by Tony Bedard and Scott McDaniel

Characters created by Grant Morrison during 52 are getting their own series, explored by Tony Bedard. The good news is that Bedard has had a good record for most things he has written, and his run on R.E.B.E.L.S. is great, although it doesn�t have the best sales. While I applaud his willingness to explore areas a little off the beaten path of the main DCU, unless he hits the ball out of the park, this will also fare poorly in sales. Although I like the premise, I think they have made a mistake in choosing the artist.

Marvel made a similar mistake with the Immortal Weapons, and in the old days made a similar mistake with the mini-series for the Imperial Guard. Instead of giving the art duties to someone who could flesh out the characters and give them each a solid definition, the other half of the creative team is Scott McDaniel. While McDaniel�s style has its own merits, there is a definite looseness of a cartoony quality that implies you should treat the subject as a cartoon, and not with due seriousness. That can work well when emphasizing the acrobatic circus whimsy of someone like Dick Grayson, but to introduce a new series like this?

Much of this first issue is character introduction and showing us the history of Accomplished Perfect Physician and his tension with the other members of the team. It reads fairly well, although some of the dialogue still has a distinctly Western flavor, mixed in with other attempts to represent Chinese speech. The cover artist is a better style, and they put out this comic with the understanding that using such a style might prove attractive and have experimenters pick it up, but to have that go away and go to such a different style is counter-productive. I�ll hang out for a few issues, but there are times when the artist has the wrong style for a particular job, and this is one of those occasions.

Secret Six 15

by John Ostrander and J. Calafiore

Oh, wonderful day! Ostrander gets his mitts on Deadshot again. There is always a risk with a guest writer. You want them to write an excellent story, but you�re hoping they don�t show you up too much. The fact that this issue was my favorite of the entire series only serves to highlight how inadequate Simone has done with this title. What does it mean when a focus on one person for the entire issue of a title meant to showcase six people specifically works better? Add to that the fact that the character chosen harkens back to a better, more successful time of a better series, Suicide Squad?

The Suicide Squad had an identifiable theme, it was the comic version of the Dirty Dozen: you take some crooks, send them on an impossible mission, and if you survive, you get out of jail. Compare that theme with the philosophy behind Secret Six. What philosophy, you say? Exactly. Secret Six has no idea behind it. There is no secret to the group, and no reason why there should always be six of them. There is absolutely no reason for the characters to stay together. But let�s leave all of that unpleasantness behind and get back to this excellent issue.

Richard Craemer is back to act as councilor at Deadshot�s request, and we learn that Deadshot doesn�t want to commit suicide as much as he might have wanted to in the old days. Instead, he feels an urge to kill everyone around him, all the time. The one drawback is that he actually hasn�t killed as many people as he had the opportunity to kill, so maybe he�s a little more in control of himself than he admits.

Ostrander takes us on a trip down Deadshot memory lane, and brings back his sordid family, his start at being a villain, and his encounter with Batman. Craemer puts the clues together and explains that Deadshot was always the bad brother, but his good brother died, and Batman is associated with his dead, good brother. Floyd is still tying to find a way to punish himself, because he knows he�s gone bad, and he projects himself onto everyone around him. If he puts himself in their place, then each person is no longer a victim, but someone who deserves to be killed.

It�s a good story delving into the mind of a complicated person, and it�s a refreshing change of pace to see that kind of exploration of the motivations behind somebody�s actions that has been missing from this title the entire time. Calafiore�s art attempts to be as gritty as the mood calls for, but he falls short. It�s almost there, but he does his own inking, and it is much too light for the needed atmosphere. Yet another case of not being exactly the right person for the type of job needed, although he does a good job overall.

This might be the best place to quit the series: now, while you have actually read a good issue!

Superman: World of New Krypton 9

by James Robinson, Greg Rucka, Pete Woods and ron Randall

Jemm comes in with guns blazing, so to speak, and Kal-el calms him down. Superman�s reputation and experience with different people seems to be the only source of order and reason around, as most of the Kryptonians, for all their newfound strength, are still afraid and lashing out. Jemm makes a solid point about how the Earth-people have been a pain in the past, but even they haven�t rearranged the orbits of planets!

The line-work is still a little light in places as we follow the rest of the story. It consists of a bunch of little pieces, all of it filled with good characterization, and a cliff-hanger involving Adam Strange. Man, it really seems like every time they turn around, there�s a new potential threat. No wonder the Kryptonians are paranoid. The view we are getting of relations among races in the DCU is not very pleasant, but it does make for interesting stories.

Warlord 8

by Mike Grell

Mike Grell takes over to conclude his story about the Forgotten. The changes in perspective involving Travis Morgan are awkward, and may pull the reader out of the flow of the story. One second he is fighting primitives, the next he is walking with Shakira. The views end up converging until the Warlord is fighting enemies in both places, and one of the forgotten deities reveals herself, and claims to have been at his side even during his youth.

The issue tends to slow down a little as we are exposed to yet another flashback to his origin and first series, but Grell�s artwork is compelling enough that I can forgive him. I do hope that this is the last time for a while that he spend so much time doing a recap. Morgan wakes up as Shakira takes him away. Was this all just a dream? Or are the efforts of the Warlord guided by a god-like creature that is using him to assert control over Skartaris? It is almost left up to the reader to interpret the end, but it will be interesting to see if this theme is revisited later in the series.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti

I tend to cover a lot of the week's issues in one post, but every once in a while, a comic comes out that is so bad, it deserves study. This is a case study on how NOT to do a comic book.

The cover is yet again reminiscent of the old let's-tie-her-up-by-a-man kind of theme, but isn't actually part of the story, violating one of the basic duties of a cover. The first page shows Diana waking up, and they try to make it seem like there's more by splicing her sleeping form into three panels, but that's just a flimsy attempt to disguise the fact that they don't have much going on here. The next page, they go for titillation, showing just a hint of her areola in the mirrored reflection of Diana, which only raises the question of how Disco-corny is Diana to have a mirror like that in front of her bed? WTF? Are we at Green Arrow's house or something?

Ares is back, and apparently can't be bothered to use his magic powers to fix his face. He's had it sewn up with shoe leather and what-not, purely for an alleged grisly effect upon the reader. It's pure visual theater, and kind of silly. You think Zeus or Apollo would be caught dead (pun unintended) like that? Maybe he's supposed to take pride in his scars, but I wouldn't be so proud if Diana dropped me so easily in one hit like that. It's cheap.

There is still not much happening, for even as Ares talks, he contradicts himself. He wonders aloud if he is dreaming, and perhaps he is the one who killed Diana... just before he stands and admits what really happened. Thanks for wasting our time with those senseless panels that convey nothing. The god of war has turned into the god of bad Freudian interpretations. He then contradicts himself further, as he declares how much she will suffer. Only in the next page he declares that she serves him the best, since she is always in combat with something or other. Well, if she's his best servant, shouldn't he give her a bonus? Why does he want her to suffer?

Ready for more bad writing? Persephone shows up to say, "She has returned!" By "she," Persephone actually means the entire horde of Bana-Mighdall Amazons that Simone awkwardly shoe-horned into a terrible issue of the other title she writes, Secret Six. Persephone corrects Hippolyta with a "They" as if Hippolyta was the one who used the wrong pronoun in the first place instead of Persephone. Who would have thought the day would come when the Amazons have suffered so much, they don't even have a good grasp of basic grammar anymore?

The contradictions continue as what's-her-name (the forgettable bald woman that they never bother to tell me her name so far, so why should I bother to pick up an older issue and look it up?), claims insult to the idea that Diana left three gorillas behind to defend Hippolyta. See, that honor is hers alone. So of course, the next thing she does is order that Hippolyta (the woman she claims to want the honor of defending) is to be bound and marked. Can't wait to see what she does to people she doesn't have the honor of protecting...

Wait, it gets worse. Diana puts on her costume and equipment in an awkward, out-of-order panel depiction that just screams to have the theme music from the Rambo movies playing, and isn't it so nice to know that her gorilla companions sleep the same way humans do, on a couch with a nice bed sheet to cover his body... which is already covered by the natural warm fur of a gorilla! And it's not patronizing at all, the way she pets his head as she goes by, someone intellectually advanced from the hidden gorilla city. I'm sure he would appreciate that if he were awake. Hey, at least she didn't show Diana feeding him a banana!

Diana goes to the island to take her mother away, and Donna Troy flies from out of nowhere to tackle her. Diana instantly knows (without any explanation how) of the effect that Genocide had on Donna, and that is why Donna is attacking her. No explanation as to how Achilles or the still-un-named bald woman managed to reach Donna and have her in position at the precise time that Diana would show up. It's all just the greatest, most wonderful coincidence, isn't it?

In the space of one page, Diana goes from thinking about how proud she is of Donna as a warrior, to chastising Donna for using the same tactic twice in a row. Well, which is it? Is Donna an awesome warrior? Or a mess-up amateur? Is this because Diana trained her poorly, or did she pick up her "bad habits" hanging out with the Titans? I can't remember any other comic that had so many contradictions going from one page to the next. It almost takes intent to craft a story as contradictory as this one has been, and it's not even over yet!

Somehow, again unexplained, Diana realizes that the presence of her magic lasso near Donna is what is causing Donna's aggression. Diana tosses her lasso in the ocean, and Donna immediately, magically, recovers and acts like a normal person. Finally, Hippolyta tells me on the second-to-last panel that the bald lady is Alkyone, and she married Achilles, who is walking around like a whipped puppy already, taking her orders. Way to proceed with that new storyline. You know, the one where Zeus decided the male warriors should be in charge now? That lasted for what, one issue?

Ug. This issue puts the Ug in Ugly.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

That�s just one little way the pop culture phenomenon feeds on and devours itself, sports fans. The real reason for this bonus column is that a main focus of the entire episode involved comics. The murder victim goes by the alias "Crow," and the subsequent investigation reveals that he was a gifted artist, and was developing his own graphic novel. When Castle and Beckett first see his art, Castle makes a comment about Frank Miller, and the female detective Beckett asks whether he's talking about "early Frank or Dark Horse years."

Now, most of us realize that Beckett is probably not really into comics, and that a writer put those words in her mouth, but we all still have to agree with Castle: "That is the sexiest thing I have ever heard you say!" The geek crowd went crazy on Twitter over it.

Crow's friend and associate, Damon, was the letterer, and Castle picks up on the coroner's report that the stake driven into Crow's chest had Indian ink on it, which is used by comic book letterers, which steered them to looking into Damon. What they found was a dead Damon, actually murdered on the same day as Crow. The graphic novel was then used even more to find additional clues to help them piece everything together: a partially-hidden folder in Damon's place had some press clippings about a dead woman, and it was the same image of a woman that Crow had been drawing throughout his entire graphic novel. A photograph of a tree where the dead woman was found matched a depiction of a tree in the graphic novel, so they were able to figure out that Damon recognized the specifics of the tree and/or the woman upon coming across Crow's artwork, and that was when their collaboration started.

CASTLE SPOILERS

These events led to the whodunit part, which was Crow's nanny. She originally killed the woman so she could become closer to the husband, and Crow was there when it happened, a witness to the event at two years of age. Eventually his memories became expressed through his art, and he discovered the truth. The nanny killed Damon when she figured out what it meant that they were working together, but failed to find Damon's evidence. Then, at the cemetery where Crow's mother was buried, the nanny had taken a stake and dipped it in the Indian ink from Damon's place in an attempt to make it look like Damon killed Crow. Phew!

The Castle show itself is fun and funny, and has the right mix of humor and tension for a police procedural. A normal show is entertaining, and I imagine most fans of Firefly have already found the series. But for those that haven't, I highly recommend it.

This episode in particular is a blinding example of the things I have been writing about recently. Sequential art is an American-originated topic, but still followed by a only small niche of the U.S. population, relatively speaking. That has been slowly changing over the past twenty years, but we may be hitting a key point, where the trickle turns into a flood. Not only are comic book characters being used as pop culture references and jokes in a manner that increasingly takes center-stage in television, but the behind-the-scenes aspects are also being given notice.

In this case, the Castle episode quickly introduced the idea of comics, and showcased not something like Superman or Batman, but educated the viewer on aspects of graphic novel production. Potentially more important, they also showed how the creativity from artistic expression can give deep insight into the creator's mind and feelings, if people can be bothered to look close enough.

The execution of this episode was excellent. We know that a majority of the current crop of producing talent in movies and TV were weaned on comics, sometimes from birth. If they can continue to weave all of these different aspects relating to comics into their work, that will be a good thing for everyone. The slightly insidious part of it is this: many of the viewers will still never think to pick up a comic or graphic novel themselves, but they will absorb some knowledge anyway through osmosis, simply by watching it on one of their favorite TV shows.

In other words, all of America will slowly be turned into a little bit of a comic book geek... and they won't even realize it.

Bwah. Ha. Hah.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.

by Mark Guggenheim, Marco Checchetto, Luke Ross and Rick Magyar

This review is going to be short and sweet: the entire issue is used so Spidey can fight Kaine, and Peter can then learn that Raptor has taken his relatives and Harry Osborn hostage. This is Guggenheim�s swan song, and it�s not very good, unfortunately. The art is pretty great, and the artists go all out to make this an exciting comic, but this story is supposed to be a murder-mystery, and Guggenheim thought it would be a good idea to propose that Ben Reilly might be a murderer.

It�s all well and good, except for the fact that Kaine makes a much better prospect to be a murderer. Anyone who has read the Spidey-clone stories of old would know instantly that Ben Reilly doesn�t have it in him to be a murderer. As lousy as those stories were, that much was clear to the reader. So from day one when I picked up this story, I wondered who may have killed Raptor�s family, maybe the guy himself, but I knew it wasn�t Ben. Which lessened the impact and suspense of the entire story before it even got started.

Now Guggenheim wastes a ton of time on a fight, and we aren�t really told why the fight is even necessary. Not to leave any insult unturned, we also have to take in yet another reminder of the Mephisto boondoggle, successfully blending two of the worst Spidey stories into one. All I need now is to see them advertise for a Mephisto/clone mini-series. Since Kaine is also a clone of Peter�s, the memory wipe that erased Peter�s identity from everyone else�s mind didn�t take on Kaine. How many people already know his secret ID in this Brand New Day? When MJ made the deal that Mephisto would wipe EVERYONE�S memory?!?

What, Mephisto is powerful enough to save Aunt May when no other science or magic can, and he can involuntarily wipe the memory of the world, but he can�t do any mental reconstruction ON A CLONE?!?!?!?!

Just when I thought they couldn�t mess up their own ruin of a Mephisto mistake any further. Worst Guggenheim story ever. He writes much better television, I would advise he stay there and do that. Please don�t come back to comics. Ever.

Dark Wolverine 79

by Daniel Way, Marjorie Liu and Stephen Segovia

I�m of mixed emotions about Segovia�s art for this issue. On the one hand, it�s good for depicting the down-and-gritty, bloody fighting that goes on. On the other hand, his proportions are off on the people, he characters don�t look that good even when they�re not bleeding, and there is almost no worthy background art to speak of.

The story feels like a holding pattern. Osborn feels that Daken needs some good PR, so he has arranged for some minor villains to be taken down. Moses Magnum gets the drop on him, and it goes downhill from there. After an attempt at blackmail on Osborn, our unstable villainous mastermind calls Daken in again. Not the rest of the team, mind you, just Daken, who was defeated by them. He has decided that it�s Daken�s mess (even though Osborn was the one who set everything up). Daken takes a ton of verbal punishment form Osborn and agrees.

Next time, there will be cameras again. Is Daken supposed to hold back or not? Will he hold back if he�s supposed to? And how long will he take Osborn�s grief? It�s not a bad story, but it feels a little detached from the rest of Wolverine�s universe, and not entirely part of the Dark Reign meta-story either. After the past few issues where we learn Daken can manipulate others, and seeing how adept he is at doing just that, it feels almost like discontinuity to see him marching around solo at Osborn�s beck and call. It can fit if you squint, but the entire time, you�re waiting for Daken to pop his claws in Norman�s chest.

Wolverine: Origins 41

by Daniel Way and Doug Braithwaite

Logan�s new plan is to destroy Romulus� power base, and he goes to ask for help from the Hulk. Bruce re-introduces him to his son Skaar. The story was okay as far as it went, and then Skaar kicked him out of the ground and onto a tree far away, with the tree sticking through his back and out the front of his stomach. It makes for a great visual, but we all know that Wolverine has adamantium bonded to his skeleton, and there just ain�t no way, even if you�re Daniel Way, that you can make us believe the tree trunk got through his body and avoided all the bones.

So the attempt at spectacle succeeded, but at the cost of the believability of the story. Which, in comic book land, is saying something. We�ve seen Logan�s healing factor on overdrive, we can believe he�ll survive and heal from this. We can�t throw out all our knowledge of basic anatomy. At the end, Bruce agrees to help Wolverine after all. Which renders the whole Skaar-kicking thing moot, and a waste of our time. These �heroes� spend way too much time beating on each other and then shaking hands for my comfort. If anyone kicked me onto a tree, you can bet as soon as I could stand again, I�d be peeling out their insides. I wouldn�t be so quick to accept their help. This round of comics this week just feels like a bunch of loose plots strung together in an attempt to create some sort of visual shock, but there�s no writing skill that helps to tie them together into a coherent story. Well, not a good coherent story, anyway.

X-Men: Legacy 228

by Mike Carey and Daniel Acuna

The art style that is uniquely Daniel Acuna�s looks great when he depicts the nowhere-land that Emplate calls home. I�d like to see a story with his art that calls for a ton of those types of freaky environments. The depictions of the X-Men trying to recover Bling!? Not as awesome. Also lame: a character with an exclamation point as part of her name. I refuse to use it after this, so I�ll just call her Bling and leave it at that. The �!� is just stupid. Rogue takes Hope�s powers and heads after Bling, but Emplate�s little helper has some interesting guard dogs that can affect Rogue�s �trance� form.

The form of this issue feels wrong. After the brilliance of Xavier�s journey and the development of Rogue, we�re wandering off to an area of re-runs, where a repeat villain can mysteriously come out of nowhere after a long absence, penetrate the heroes� security with ease, and basically just beg to be defeated in an issue or two. Granted, not every issue can have significant meaning, and this may turn out to be a fun romp, but with all of the New Mutant and X-Force villains being revisited, I was hoping the Gen-Next ones would be skipped.

Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.