GottaGetAGrip

Is the black-haired woman is supposed to be Abby?

I guess that most of the money in the budget went into the Swamp Thing suit, and there likely wasn't enough left over for white hair dye.

(or perhaps they'll reveal in-story that she dyes her hair to not stand out, or maybe in one episode she gets so scared it turns white)

Garth Ennis or at least someone using his name just released a new trailer on Reddit of all places:

Way does have a co-writer attached to him this time around for Doom Patrol.

Perhaps a token effort by DC to keep Way on a schedule this time? Maybe it's one of those cases where Way just emails his co-writer a list of his plot points and the co-writer does the work of writing the comic, while Way's name gets used to sell the book.

Just when it seemed Young Animal was buried and forgotten, it bursts out of the grave for the return of Gerard Way's Doom Patrol and two new series: Collapser by his brother Mikey Way and Far Sector by NK Jemisin.

Presumably Shade the Changing Girl, Cave Carson, and Mother Panic were left out of the resurrection ritual and are burning in hell somewhere.

https://www.comicsbeat.com/dcs-young-animal-returns-with-two-new-series-more-doom-patrol-and-mikey-way/

Taking bets on how soon Way's Doom Patrol gets delayed again.

(the premises for the other two books seem rather generic to me. I'm not familiar with NK Jemisin, but seriously, another new Green Lantern? And how many times has the trope of no emotions = no crime been used?)

I just reread the article in greater detail, and I got to Priest's pitch of Vampirella as a Martian who looks like a vampire and is mistaken for and treated as a vampire.

I'm not really familiar with Vampirella outside of her outfit, but I don't think that's the smartest way to go about doing an allegory for serious issues.

For fans of Christopher Priest, aka the writer once known as Jim Owsley, he has a new project coming up from Dynamite and it's... Vampirella. As he puts it, Vampirella as "an allegory for how we treat each other; for racism, xenophobia, homophobia, and religious persecution."

I think Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman Black Label Book's first issue is set for release in May. And I've read that Frank Miller and JRJR's Superman Year One has had its collected edition dated for September, though I've not found news about it's actual issue releases.

John Ridley's book was meant to have come out in January, but its release got postponed indefinitely. I guess someone at DC went "If they reacted that badly to a nude Batman, let's not risk their reactions to racial issues!"

The Black Label seems to have pretty much tripped right at the starting line, with the Batawang overshadowing everything else about Damned and little updates on the other books. It's repackaging of old stories also feels redundant, considering DC's just started a new line of trades titled "DC Essentials" that's also fulfilling the purpose of rereleasing older stuff that's already been traded.

(though DC Essentials seems to be compiling and re-selling the New 52 trades for the most part, along with some older runs while Black Label's just tackling the same old "evergreen" titles like Watchmen - I think the intent of the line was to create more stories like Watchmen that DC could just reprint and sell forever and could be easily recommended to casual readers but I'd like whatever Didio's smoking if he thinks Batman Damned is going to become this generation's Dark Knight Returns or whatever)

Well, I was about half right when I theorized Ellis would turn the new versions of Midnighter and Apollo black and call it a day.

So some scans of the routinely delayed DC Universe vs. Dr. Manhattan's floppy blue ding-dong Doomsday Clock #9 have leaked onto the web and Geoff Johns writes none other than John Constantine in this issue.

Needless to say, Johns with one line might've very well surpassed Azzarello for the cringiest John accent!

(and the rest of these panels aren't very better, to say the least)

In just a little over a month, Hellboy returns to film with Neil Marshall's new take on the Mignolaverse.

Filing this under the "cautiously optimistic" folder for now!

3 hours ago, JasonT said:

 

Fear not! His "superhero Jesus comedy" for DC has been cancelled: https://www.newsarama.com/43906-dc-s-superhero-jesus-comedy-second-coming-canceled.html

Mark has confirmed that he and the artist have gotten the rights back from DC and are looking for a new publisher at the moment:

I wonder if DC cancelled their publication of the issues because of those angry Right Wingers who saw the Fox News report on the comic and decided to launch a petition to cancel it, it wouldn't surprise me if the higher-ups were looking to avoid more controversy after the whole Batawang business from Batman: Damned.

Overall shame since it was the only NuVertigo book I was interested in!

That Liefeld Hawk & Dove was actually one of the New 52 launch titles, during that odd period where DC's editors decided the best course of action was to pretend it was the 90s again and put Rob Liefeld on a whole bunch of books.

(wonder if they'll let him guest-write a few episodes of Titans for its next season? I haven't seen the show due to it being restricted to the DC Universe app here in America and I don't feel like taking the plunge on yet another streaming service just yet)

TBH, no Dixon is probably a good thing since his story probably would've consisted of Batman teaming up with Trump and Bane to put those Libs back in their place!

But just the prospect of reading more Kevin Smith Batman is enough to avoid a purchase of that!

Tomasi's always struck me as a competently unremarkable at best writer, in that he's never written anything blatantly offensive or terrible but never has quite written anything that would rank up there amongst the greats. I wonder if that's a better or worse fate for Detective Comics than Action Comics, which was taken over by Bendis after its 1000th issue.

Johns and Bendis are pretty big name writers, but Batman's not exactly the first character that pops to mind when you think of their all-time must-read comic runs. In the case of Johns, his Batman Earth One books probably skew closer to the must-avoid stories! Likewise, Ellis and Priest are good writers, but they're not exactly writers I'd associate with Batman.

In that list, O'Neill and Dini seem to be the only non-recent major Batman writers doing stories. No Grant, Englehart, Moench, or even Miller. Morrison somehow missed out on both the 1000 celebrations for Batman and Superman, and while Brubaker seems to have sworn off Big Two work at the moment with his Image exclusive contract, where's Rucka for that matter?

Mister Miracle

Did Kill or Be Killed end this year? If so, I'll add that as well.

Some of the mentions here I should hurry up in checking out, like Days of Hate and Lemire's works. (I did read the first arc for Gideon Falls, but I don't know if I enjoyed that one enough to call it one of my 2018 favorites)

I feel it's a bit too early to be placing Green Lantern on the list, though it is shaping up to be a bundle of joyful Morrison lunacy.

I remember when Ennis did the same thing for that character for a cameo in his All-Star Section Eight mini, but unlike Azzarello, he intended for it to be a joke instead of taken seriously.

Tried to recreate a familiar face's attire in Red Dead Redemption 2.

No trenchcoats so a good 'ol duster will have to suffice.

Martian Manhunter #1 (of 12)  - By Steve Orlando and Riley Rossmo

Steve Orlando was a writer who was initially on my radar because I enjoyed his Midnighter run that came out during the end days of the New 52 era, but he since fell off it due to several subpar DC Rebirth books.

I'm not too big a fan of the Martian Manhunter, but I'm guessing Orlando's reinvention of the Martian Manhunter as a Martian dirty cop with a strained family life could be a turn off for some fans.

The book is split between flashbacks of Martian Manhunter's time on Mars to a present storyline of him masquerading as a cop on Earth and solving crimes while haunted by his past. Orlando tries for blend of noir and sci-fi, but the murder investigation of the present segments are decidedly duller than the Mars segments, which let Riley Rossmo unload and draw weird aliens having weird alien sex. Alien sex aside, there wasn't too much in this book that stood out for me and I probably won't be back for #2.

Shazam #1 - By Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham

This is Geoff Johns' first DC ongoing since his New 52 Justice League, and the only thing I believe he's writing for them atm besides his perpetually delayed Watchmen sequel fanfic.

(Coincidentally, this book's future issues have also been hit with delays)

It picks up from the status quo he established New 52 Shazam story, with Billy Batson and his family of foster siblings functioning as a team of superheroes through the power of Shazam. The bulk of the issue is dedicated to reintroducing the character and establishing the state of his world, ending with a cliffhanger for the next issue. Billy Batson's characterization is closer to his pre New 52 self, and the overall tone is much lighter. Eaglesham's art does a great job of continuing the style established by Gary Frank in the New 52 story, while also fitting the lighter tone.

Shazam's a likeable, lighthearted read. While I didn't love it enough to plan on sticking with future floppies, it might scratch that itch if you're nostalgic for a DCU before the era of grim and edgy or Geoff Johns story before his runs became consecutive events.

Haven't been reading much new Marvel books, aside from checking up on what Al Ewing is doing in Immortal Hulk.

The most Marvel I've read lately was the Marvel Epic Collection version of Kraven's Last Hunt. As these Epic Collections collect more than just the title story, fulfilling the role that the Essentials used to, Kraven's Last Hunt is placed at the very end of the book. The story that precede it are:

1. An annual featuring Spider-Man taking on a time-traveling Iron Man 2020 - this is my first time encountering the IM of the "far-future" of 2020 and I'm assuming that the writers intended him to be a "sympathetic but ultimately unlikable" anti-hero at best. The grimness of the Iron Man 2020 bits don't mesh too well with comedic misfortunes of Peter Parker, but I can't say that I completely disliked this romp and it did have a rather hard-hitting ending. Wonder if they'll have to change him to Iron Man 2040 if someone ever wants to use this character again?

2. Spider-Man vs. Wolverine, written by Christopher Priest before the name change to trick the other Priest's fans into buying his comics. It's not Priest's greatest work, but it's an affable contrast between the traditional superheroics of Spidey vs. the edgy and gritty anti-hero types like Wolverine that were all the rage, and also the token appearance of the classic Red and Blue Spidey outfit as he wears the black suit in the rest of these stories. The fallout of this story segues into the Hobgoblin Identity storyline, as Spidey angsts about and ponders giving up superheroics. Peter David handles the big identity reveal issue (well, before the identity revealed here got retconned) while Priest contributes to a few issues that further flesh things out.

3. And aside from Kraven's Last Hunt, Marvel clearly intended this to be the attraction of the collection since it's mentioned on the back: the Spider-Man marriage! And while Peter and MJ together is fine and dandy, David Michelinie takes over the writing for these issues and fails to make much of a case for them. A boring issue of Spider-Man zipping around while contemplating proposing, followed by a boring two-parter of Mary Jane pondering whether to say yes while concurrently dealing with family drama as the Spider-Slayer chases Spidey around. Followed by the marriage annual itself, which consists of Peter and MJ pondering for its entirety if they should go through with the wedding before they do. Now I'm nostalgic for the Spider-Marriage since that was the status quo when I started reading Spider-Man but given the general dullness with which the actual marriage storyline comes across, I can kind of see why Marvel editiorial was bent on splitting them up. Though maybe I'm just missing the historical context/significance reading this years later in a trade.

(funny how J. Jonah tells Peter that there's no turning back from a marriage! I guess J. Jonah didn't factor deals with the Devil into that equation!)

Kraven's Last Hunt definitely overshadowed everything in this trade, writing and art-wise.

Also collected was a bunch of supplementary material from the time talking up the Spider Marriage, most of which I ended up skimming over. Of greatest note is a magazine that collects the entirety of Stan Lee's newspaper strip's version of the marriage.

95 years old, and still there's a part of me that feels it was too soon for Stan to go.

If nothing else, I hope he at least got to live out his last days happy, considering some of the rumors/stories of elder abuse that he got wrapped up in this year.

Perhaps in that situation the Joker stabbed Batman with a scythe that burst through the knee and went all the way up to the neck?

My first thought upon seeing his name popping up in my Twitter feed was "who?"

My idea was that Chas shows up in his cab and runs his opponent over, and proceeds to beat on them afterwards with a tire wrench while John dips out for a smoke, but that sounds even better.

Concept art for an unused John Constantine in Injustice 2. Some other mystic faces of the DCU like Etrigan and Detective Chimp were also unused, and can be found on the same artist's page.  

Probably for the best John wasn't included in the game, since he's not exactly a fighting-game type and the last thing we need is more of "pullin' fireballs and sigils out of me arse" Constantine but still would've been a cool fanboy moment to pit Constantine against Hellboy.

The last issue of The Wild Storm definitely gives the impression that Ellis will be hurtling to the finish line with all the endgame threads he's setting up, and I'm guessing a lot's going to happen in these last six issues.

I have a feeling that Ellis will have Apollo and Midnighter make some grand, bloody entrance at some point in those six. Wonder how closely they'll resemble the original counterparts, given the adjustments the other Authority members got in this series and that the mainline DCU versions ended up pretty close to the original Wildstorm versions last time they were seen?

(maybe Ellis will have turned them black and called it a day)