GottaGetAGrip

The Books of Magic stuff was the least interesting part for me, though things started perking up once Constantine began talking to himself and found himself in our crazy modern world. Of all the Hellblazer relaunches since the original series ended, Spurrier might be our very first writer who's both gotten old Conjob's voice down and created an interesting narrative to insert him into to boot.

And if the plot threads he's weaving manage to take Hellblazer 300 and everything John got up to when reintegrated into the mainstream DCU and redeem them, Spurrier ought to get a medal or something.

While all the Hellblazer attention will be focused on the Sandman Universe special, Spurrier shared a Charlie Adlard variant for the first issue of the ongoing proper:

Nice to see Adlard illustrate some more Con Job after that one issue of the Jenkins era.

Though I have yet to watch the first episode and probably won't do so for a while, with angry fanboys and trolls review-bombing the show for being "too SJW/PC/insert your favorite buzzword here" on all the aggregate sites, I suppose that at the very least we can give this show some credit for pissing off the right suspects.

The Batman's Grave #1 - the first issue of Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch's new Batman comic. Ellis focuses on a weary Alfred grappling with the possibility he might outlive Batman, along with a murder mystery Batman must solve after Ellis has him fill the obligatory quota of swinging around and punching bad guys. Ellis doesn't tread too much new ground here and in fact in one page has Alfred trot out almost word for word the pedestrian Twitter hot take that Batman is a rich psychopath who just likes beating up poor and mentally ill people.

I wouldn't say that it was a horrible Batman comic, and fortunately Ellis doesn't waste the entire issue making Hitch draw dialogue-less fight scenes, but for me it didn't distinguish itself enough from all the other Batman books DC has published/is publishing to make me want to follow along in floppies.

This is probably the best that Hitch's art looked in years, but I still feel that an Ellis Batman comic would've benefited more greatly from a collaborator like Shalvey or even the artist from The Wild Storm (Jon Davis-Hunt).

If you want a Batman comic that emphasizes the detective aspect of his character, this might be worth checking out.

With a bit of hyperbole, Immortal Hulk feels like it's doing for the Hulk what Alan Moore did for Swamp Thing. I'm not sure how the writer who follows what Ewing has done can go back to writing a regular old Hulk Smash comic. (though Marvel and their big red reset button will definitely try their hardest)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/john-constantine-returns-comic-book-roots-sandman-universe-presents-hellblazer-1245392

A preview of the comic with words, from the Hollywood Reporter of all sources.

Hoping the ongoing proper is not as tied into the larger Sandman Universe narrative as this one-shot appears to be. Aside from good impressions of the art, I didn't feel too much about this preview after my first read through.

Sara - by Garth Ennis, with art by Steve Epting and Elizabeth Breitweiser. From TKO Studios, yet another of these new creator-owned comics publishers that have been sprouting up lately. Their distinguishing schtick/gimmick is a Netflix-esque binge model, where all the single issues and the trade are released simultaneously.

Ennis brings us another story about World War II, this time about a unit of female Soviet snipers battling it out with the Nazis in the wintertime and free of his more questionable Ennisisms. Epting and Breitweiser provide gorgeous illustration of Ennis' tense wartime action, even if Epting's depictions of these female soldiers comes off more as supermodels in uniform than hardened troopers - possible side effect of all those superhero comics he's worked on?

If you're a fan of Ennis' prior war comics or his other stories about the costs of war upon the soul, this is a strong recommendation.

Batman Inc Vol 2 (the New 52 relaunch) was the big finale to his Batman run, unless you count the various Batmen that he wrote in Multiversity as enough to count as part of his Batman run. There were reports a couple years ago that he was planning an Arkham Asylum sequel with Chris Burnham, but nothing has materialized since.

Ahead of the incoming relaunch, Spurrier made a blog post about some of his goals for the book:

We’ve worked our grubby socks off to simultaneously acknowledge the many reticulations in Constantine’s tangled life/lives, and to find an honest way to restore what my inner 18-year-old still regards as the character’s fundamental quiddity. He is a liar. He is a cheat, a conman, a betrayer, a trickster, a devil in beige. He’s also a tar-stained romantic, believe it or not, and quite possibly the last and best hope for a soul in peril.

He’s Bryon without money or rhythm.

He’s not the hero we wanted, but he might be the bastard we deserve.

[/quote

Given that Marvel has an Eternals movie lined up for next year, wouldn't the comics division have wanted some fancy new relaunch of the property to coincide with the big screen version?

Though perhaps it is possible they wanted to avoid a potential repeat of the Inhumans push and decided that yet another X-Men relaunch was the way to go.

Marvel planning to party like it's 199X, huh?

On 9/1/2019 at 1:40 AM, JasonT said:

Somehow I forgot to read the final issue when it came out, and only just read it last weekend. That issue felt like kind of a letdown — everything important had already happened, the story was over, the ""twist"" was such a standard comicbook trope I had to use two sets of quotes on it. But you're right about the level of craft. 

The ending makes more sense if you read the series as a Mark-Millar-style treatment for a movie or TV show.

 

At the time I thought the Super Mullet was ridiculous. But looking back, if we didn't have it, we'd have one less part of the 90s. If that makes sense. 

It's probably not a coincidence that a KOBK movie was put into development before the series even wrapped, though getting put into development and actually being made are two entirely different things.

And ridiculous as the super-mullet looks, at least it was slightly better than all the issues Superman spends as a guy made out of blue electricity in Morrison's JLA. Morrison sure had to spend a lot of his run accommodating whatever was going on in the solo books of the JLA's members, didn't he?

I read the first two Black Science trades from my library, and I've always been meaning to get further into that series.

Evidently other patrons agree, because whenever I do get the chance to pop in there, there's always the third trade I'm looking for missing.

Black Science was the favorite creator-owned thing I read from Remender, since Low and Seven to Eternity didn't do too much for me and I never felt the need to delve any further for those after the first trade.

It certainly has earned its place among the greats of the genre, but you can definitely pinpoint the exact moment the developers ran out of time and money...

(it's also blatantly a product of the early 00s, but if you're nostalgic for those days, it's a quaint little gothy time capsule almost)

It's a mystery how EA has the Star Wars video game license, owns BioWare the developers of the first KOTOR, and haven't done anything on that front besides the MMO.

And on the topic of "better late than never?" sequels to classic or cult rpgs:

Game looks like it's still in a rough alpha state, hopefully the developers can polish things up for their planned 2020 release date.

Fans of Ennis' Punisher rejoice, because Ennis has not just one, but two new Punisher mini-series in the works.

https://www.newsarama.com/46604-ennis-returns-to-punisher-nick-fury-two-new-titles.html

Could that first panel be some quality uncle-niece bonding time?

(though it could just as easily be this run's brand-new Hellblazer girlfriend)

(or better yet in grand-standing Hellblazer tradition, another ex-girlfriend of Johnny or figure from his past that he's never reminisced about prior to their first appearance in the comic)

https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2019/08/14/grant-morrison-rewrites-reality-in-green-lantern-blackstars

Grant Morrison's follow-up to his Green Lantern run will be the three issue mini, Green Lantern: Blackstars. Liam Sharp will be replaced by an artist named Xermanico for these issues.

Given that Grant has referred to his twelve issue run as Season One of his Green Lantern, I wonder if this mini will be an interlude that will both lead into whatever his Season Two is and give Sharp some time off before he returns to draw Season Two.

The annual is stand-alone from what Morrison's been doing in the proper monthly.

From what I gathered reading it:

Just as a heads up, the three issues of WildCATS by Ellis that have been solicited have already been pushed back before one issue is out in the wild. Based on Jim Lee's tweet here, it sounds like they want it so that most issues are in the can before they start releasing them to avoid mid-publication delays.

A new trailer.

He won't be drawing the one-shot but the artist on the ongoing proper Aaron Campbell has tweeted out a vid of him finishing up a drawing of Constantine.

If nothing else, at least this will be the most Hellblazer has looked like a Hellblazer book in years.

Tom King and Mitch Gerad's follow-up to their Mister Miracle maxi-series will be Adam Strange.

Adam Strange has never been a character I've felt strongly about one way or the other, but if King has another mature deconstruction of a B-list character in the vein of his Mister Miracle and Vision (and possibly inspired by A Scanner Darkly and other PKD works if his tweeted quote is anything to go on) in store, I am definitely in for the first issue.

Declan Shalvey would've been a great choice since he and Ellis already have their six Moon Knight issues to show how well they go together for street level superhero fight stories, though I suppose that Ellis-Shalvey on Batman would also add like another few years to the current Injection hiatus.

The sequel is known and lauded for featuring a darker, more complex and ambiguous take on the Star Wars universe than the first which was your standard save the galaxy Star Wars tale all things considered. But it is also notorious for a rushed development that left the default version buggy and with lots of planned content cut. The ending in particular is infamous for its anti-climatic nature due to these cuts. (it also suffers from KOTOR1's problem of having you run through a drab final environment doing nothing but killing faceless Sith goons until you reach the final baddy)

There's some new features that weren't there in the first, such as a relationship meter with your party that affects who hates or loves you based on your actions. It's a mostly new cast (with a few returning faces) and you play as a new hero/villain as well, though you get dialogue options at the start to determine how KOTOR1 went down in the backstory.

If you don't own it already, I'd recommend getting the Steam version and installing the Restored Content Mod (which restores plenty of the aforementioned cut content) as well as the PartySwap mod which removes a needless restriction from the original game that determined which of two party members you could get based on your gender.

I think I might like it better than the first, in all honesty.