You know, having seen the following solicit for THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES #136, I'm further convinced that it's going to be Pak and Van Lente who bring the Mighty Thor back into the regular Marvel U:

The face-off Herc fans have been clamoring for since his series began is here at last! God of Strength versus God of Thunder! Adamantine mace versus uru hammer! Olympian versus Asgardian! Incredible versus Mighty! That's right -- HERCULES battles THOR! The Odinson discovers the Lion of Olympus has been impersonating him and he's out to prove nothing beats the original!

Vaughan and Harris Ring In the New!

"Ex Machina" #44 from Wildstorm (an imprint of DC Comics)

I just bought and read the latest "Ex Machina" yesterday. (I forgot it on Wednesday!) And it is excellent.

(I only wish that I had read issues #33-43! For you should be aware of this up-front.)

This series has finally broken through the barrier into a full-fledged Sci-Fi and I couldn't be happier! I'm not going to give away the first clues as to the origins of Mayor Mitchell Hundred's powers revealed in this issue. But be forewarned! They are SCI-FI. With a capital S and F. Unless they merely seem to be. Which is possible. This is not a simple cut-and-dried superhero book. It is a political superhero story about an engineer who suddenly gains the ability to communicate with machines under strange circumstances and becomes a superhero for a year before deciding it was dangerous and stupid and parlays the celebrity into a winning bid for the office of the Mayor of New York.

Weird, yes? Good also!


The first thing we see in issue #44 is Mayor Mitchell Hundred's faithful bodyguard Bradbury in flashback on the eve of Hundred's victory as mayor staring at some off-panel glowing thing and saying: "What the hell is it?" and there are a few times over the issue where the reader is in the same position. But, you know, in an enjoyable way: the head of a mechanical-looking man explodes to reveal a sentient, talking purple box. That kind of Sci-Fi-I-can't-yet-tell-what-is-going-on-but-I-like-it.

The really weird thing is that it involves a color spectrum of super-powers in a similar manner to what Geoff Johns has done with Green Lantern over the past few years. Far be it for me to call a professional out on cribbing from another's work. That IS after all part of how we all get better at what we do. I'm certainly guilty of it. Well...

Tony Harris' art is gorgeous once again. His smooth as liquid line-work gives every page great life and movement while the judicious use of that line allows every shape a weight and realism that escapes most comic-artists. Somehow only drawing the rough outline of lips (and sometimes not a completely enclosed outline) creates a more realistic rendering. Most shading is left up to the colorist, which is a smart technique that the comics industry should have picked up on sooner as quote-unquote 'fine' artists have been making portraits in oil paint that way for centuries.

As always the flashbacks (a hallmark of the series) are smart and fit in perfectly with the rest of the story.

The promise in this issue of a new direction and focus for the book (which coincides with the New Year's celebrations occurring in this issue and implied in the arc's title "Ring Out the Old") has me very excited about "Ex Machina" for the first time in several years!

You can be sure I will be picking up and reviewing this book next month!

This Is What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow

Well this....

This is sort of fucked up.

Originally, I was going to write a long and winding thinkpiece on what it means that DC won't own all of Superman's powers and origin, the in-continuity consequences for the Big Blue Boy Scout and the implications of such a decision for property-based comics in general.

When I was researching for that piece (which may or may not still be in the offing), I began to wonder about some of the things mentioned in the above article.

Essentially the decision is that the estates of Siegel and Shuster own

depictions of Superman's origins from the planet Krypton, his parents Jor-El and Lora, Superman as the infant Kal-El, the launching of the infant Superman into space by his parents as Krypton explodes and his landing on Earth in a fiery crash.
While DC owns

Superman's ability to fly, the term kryptonite, the Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olsen characters, Superman's powers and expanded origins.


Variety being primarily entertainment magazine, it focused on the implications of the legal decision for a potential upcoming Superman movie, and closes with the following quote:

...the Siegels and Shusters will own the entire copyright to Action Comics No. 1. That will give them the chance to set up Superman pics, TV shows and other projects at another studio. If they want to get a new "Superman" or even "Justice League" pic featuring the superhero, Warner Bros. and DC will be forced to go into production by 2011.

Does this confuse anyone else?

I mean, first of all, does the character even make any sense split into two like this? What is Superman if the not the last scion of a dying world? Who is he without Lex Luthor? When was the last time he actually had to leap over a building in a single bound? Will anyone actually accept either half of the character as the character?

Furthermore, what do the estates of Siegel and Shuster really expect to gain from this ruling? Do they really expect to be able to package the rights into some sort of media deal?

The Superman from Action Comics #1 is not a superhero that a casual comics fan is going to recognize and I'm not sure that any movie that is made with that version of the hero is going to draw all that many people because, quite honestly, who cares?

Ultimately, I think the Siegel and Shuster estates are going to have to find some way to share the copyright to Action Comics #1 with DC, as I doubt there's any real marketability for what the creator's estates will gain control of in 2013.

Meanwhile, at the Pull List of Clare!

Jeez, I look like such an expensive high roller type next to these guys I run this blog with. But hey instead of the sixteen books I picked up last week, 9 doesn't look so bad. (and yes, I picked up 16, not 15. Superman Secret Files actually had Codename: Patriot story.

But hey, more comics for me equals more happiness in my life, even if it means a little less money in my pocket.

Clare is purchasing...

Amazing Spider-Man #603

I've always gone back and forth with this title but I've started really enjoying it since the American Son story arch and Mary Jane has always been my favorite Spider-Man character. What can I say? I like red-heads just as much as Peter. Plus, #602 was REALLY good so bring it on!


Despite what Josh says, this book is amazing. Unlike Morrison, Dini does not, you know, ignore all of the character history and the other events that have happened lately in the Bat-verse. All of that matters and Dini does a really nice job of tying it all together and putting a nice bow on it. I could go on about this but I won't (instead, I'll go into it on my post tomorrow where I'll rank the bat books.


James Robinson is writing it. James Robinson has been doing an amazing job on the Superman stuff lately (Superman Mon-El and Superman: World of New Krypton), just like Tomasi was doing great stuff on Nightwing. Tomasi's Batman/Blackest Night was awesome so I see no reason that Superman/Blackest Night shouldn't be the same.


I was very sad when Bendis went off this book, and then I started reading the Dan Slott stuff and I was a lot less sad. Slott is making Pym interesting and less of a total jackass. Plus, Jarvis. Plus, Stature. Plus, this current story arch involving the Inhumans seems really cool. I always want to like the Inhumans but they never feel just right.


This is the one Supes title that I do not usually get because Kara has never really held much interest to me. However, it is part 3 of Codename: Patriot and I loved the first two parts. I hate missing parts of stories.




Okay, this is honestly what I'm looking forward to the most out of all my books for the week. I love this book. This book is perfect. This book is everything good about all ages comics. Fun, light-hearted stories that little kids will just eat right up that just happen to be chock full of easter eggs that will have you geekgasming till next month. There has never been an issue that has not left a huge grin on my face.


Because Josh and I are cooler than Jon and we get this book.
I'll be honest though, I haven't read this weeks yet. Though I always look forward to Amanda Conner's Supergirl! Teehee!


Despite not always staying constant I have always really enjoyed Mike Carey's work. Plus, he is lovely man who truly cares about this book (he and I had a nice, long chat about it at NY Comic-Con) and I'm a Rogue/Gambit fangirl. So yeah, this book has been a nice big win.

That's all for me. See you tomorrow. Will I tear Grant Morrison a new one? Come find out!


Second Week- Jon's Pull List for 8/19/09

From my regular pull-list:

"the Amazing Spider-Man" #603
Mary Jane kicking the Chameleon's ass again? Sounds good to me.

NOTE: I think I am going to be doing the reviewing for this title since Josh is not. But to do so I need to catch up! Hopefully, this week it will happen.

"Dark Reign: Mister Negative" #3 of 3
I enjoyed the first two issues of this mini-series. What can I say? Spider-Man getting mentally warped into an evil mother-fucker and getting involved in Chinatown violence. Great idea, right? Let's see if Fred Van Lente can carry this out on a high note!

Feelin' curious about:

"Ex Machina" #44
Although I haven't been following this title closely since the beginning of the arc involving the Pope (which must have been about a year ago) I am very interested to see if there are some answers to be found about the origins of New York City Mayor Mitchell Hundred's super-powers. They are among the most interesting elements of this series.

I'm also going to take a ridiculous chance. I'm going to see what sense I can make of the final issue of "Rex Mundi".

I am going to buy and review "Rex Mundi" #19 after only having read issue #1. I LIVE TO SERVE YOU. Wish me luck.

...and that's it? The rest of the bunch doesn't seem to interest me too much. We'll see if something jumps out at me on the stands or if one of the others convinces me otherwise!

Cheap Week- Pull List 08/19/09

Daredevil #500
-Ed Brubaker ending his run on one of Marvel's best, if least often seen, titles? What happens now? How is Andy Diggle going to ruin Matt's life when Ed is gone? Is the next artist going to be as good as Michael Lark? Why the hell isn't it David Aja? What does Lady Bullseye have to do with all of this? Does Foggy Nelson survive? Does anyone survive?

I'm excited. Can you tell?

X-Men Legacy #227
-Rogue, Gambit, and the sentient Danger Room are in San Fran, and the solicit promises a "dramatic new direction"

One wonders how many "dramatic new directions" this title is going to take before something finally sticks. This book is odd like that; every so often something fantastic happens inside here that gets ignored or undone by the next guy, or even by the same guy. Using this book as a Professor X solo title was one of those things.

Let's hope this is good enough to stick, because it wasn't the last time Cyclops asked Rogue to do something.

Wednesday Comics #7
-Everybody (everybody who isn't Jon, anyway) is buying this title.


It's a cheap week- I'm going to have a wander around my store and see if there's anything I missed, or anything else I want to review.

Whatever Happened to the God of Thunder?

It used to be that I thought Thor wasn't very interesting. I used to believe that the most compelling superheroes were those with whom we could identify, those that we see ourselves as. This is a variation on the oft-stated opinion that Batman is the most compelling super-hero because he doesn't actually have any super-powers (which, incidentally, is untrue: Batman's superpower is being as rich as God. I suppose the argument might work with Nightwing, or maybe a character like Hawkeye or Green Arrow but in the context of what I'm about to say and recent events its mostly a moot point).

Both of those suppositions are wrong*.

The latter is wrong mostly because no-one says it about Iron Man (who is a much better Marvel analogue to Batman than Moon Knight, mostly because the basic character type is the same). The reason that no-one makes this argument on Tony Stark's behalf is that, mostly, Tony isn't as interesting as Bruce Wayne, because his hook isn't nearly as fantastic. Iron Man really is just a dude with a lot of money and training; Batman is a dude with lots of money and training whose parents were killed by criminals, scarring him into becoming a psychopath, albeit an awesome one.

I discovered that the former isn't true because of J. Michael Straczynski's run on Thor. I love JMS's Thor. I love it so much that I'm willing to throw out one of my core beliefs about what makes a good superhero concept simply on the basis of a series that I've been reading backwards, from #602 back to #8 (which is far, far less impressive than it sounds, considering the renumbering). I love it so much, in fact, that I have since bought (and fallen in love with) Matt Fraction's Thor One-Shots**, and some Walter Simonson Thor issues out of a fifty-ceny bin.

So, basically, Thor is by far one of the best superhero comics being released at the moment. The problem is, of course, that I have to use a term like "released" loosely, because the timeline between issues seems to roughly consist of forever, and this is extremely frustrating.

Unfortunately, JMS is leaving Thor, apparently beacuse of the big upcoming "Siege of Asgard" event referenced here. Rich Johnston has a couple theories about what this might be, here and here, and although the former has been discredited, the latter seems to be within the realm of possibillity.

That is, until one considers that the most recently announced Marvel Event is called Assault on New Olympus, which sounds sort of similair to "Siege of Asgard" insofar as it involves attacking a new representation of an old home for ancient gods. Now, Marvel is sort of notorius for appropriating ideas from elsewhere (take that Identity Disc miniseries from a few years back or the upcoming Necrosha event, which is basically Blackest Night featuring mutants) but stealing from yourself is a little absurd, even for the House of Ideas.

So, True Believers, the question is this: Is it Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente who are going to bring the God of Thunder back into the Marvel U. proper? Will it be Bendis and Copiel, as Rich proposes? Or is it something else entirely?

For what it's worth, my allowance is on the first option: given both Herc's status as a former Thor supporting character and Amadeus's previous history with helping out heroes in need, as well as the title similarities pointed out above, and the dots seem to connect in all the right places. Still, the second option isn't inconcievable and (despite my modest bashing of Bendis earlier this week) would probably be quite wonderful.

Whatever happens, I'm excited to see where Thor goes- although JMS's issues were so few and far-between, he concocted a great setup for the next guy, and I can only hope that that guy is someone equally as talented.

------------------------------------------------

*This is a sweeping generalization- the kind I should have learned my lesson about with the sweeping generalization made in the introduction- and, as is usually true of such statements, it is incomplete. There are two sets of comics characters who are compelling because they are identifiable, and a third who sort of fits the bill. The first two, are, of course, the X-Men and (if my limited knowledge is correct) The Doom Patrol, both of which are made of heroes both hated by humanity and sworn to protect them. Spider-Man sort of fits the bill, except I suspect we like Peter Parker mostly because we like him, not because we feel like we are him.

**Now, Fraction's work makes me suspect that my first sweeping generalization wasn't so wrong after all- what he makes clear is that Thor exists as we know him in the Marvel comics because he was flawed. Thor was, essentially, cursed to be bound with a mortal because he was a holier-than-thou ass, which rubbed Odin the wrong way. Perhaps if the sweeping generalization is modified into "The only heroes that aren't compelling are those heroes that aren't flawed" which would, of course, mean that Superman may be the least interesting cape of all time- as near as I can tell (despite attempts by people like Brian Azzarello, who's Superman run is fantastic) Supe's only flaw is that he's got this moral code that no one can live up to but him, which maybe the least realistic flaw of all-time. I have no problem with suspension of disbelief (I am blogging about comics, after all), but that's just absurd.