Because Everybody Deserves ANOTHER Chance!

So who reading this blog doesn't know who Paul Dini is? Nobody raised a hand GOOD! The genius who brought us Batman the animated series is behind the coming weekly DC comic known as Countdown. Superman is in it, and if you remember my last entry in this blog I said I wasn't going to buy any DC main title till I saw the characters done right. I am going to give Countdown a chance. ONE MONTH! That's how long Countdown gets to impress me. It took Civil War two issues, four issues should be plenty. I know optimism when talking about the DC universe these past months has usually ended up being wishful thinking but come on! PAUL DINI!!! Detective Comics is good because he is writing it. The DC universe can be good if he is the man in charge! And come on, with a cover like this it's bound to be good! If not the DC universe is truly cursed somehow! 52 was a disapointment, I hear this from all the fans I've encountered. Countdown is going to bring sexy back to the DCU, at least I hope. Gosh, after *spoiler warning* we found out Mr. Mind is the villian of 52 we deserve a freakin chance at what Paul Dini's got cookin.

On the MARVEL front prepare for World War HULK!!! All the awesome Hulk goodness we Marvel fans where treated to in Planet Hulk continues in WWH!!! Prepare for AWESOME!!! Also Ultimate Spider-man is a book I really won't say much about right now, but if you aren't buying it you SHOULD BE!! RIGHT NOW!!! Go buy it!!! Amazing Spider-man. Aunt May has been shot. Peter hunted by the authorities. Back in Black. 'Nuff said.

I would also like to say a quick word about a little title called the Spirit, you need to be reading this book! It is some of the best (or from what I can see only) adventure comic out there. It seems that when your character doesn't have powers you develop the character! Awesome!

Till next time good citizens!

Kurt Busiek coughs up answers!!! Public Mystified!!!

That's right citizens!! Kurt Busiek author of the dubious of late Superman books (pun intended) is finally forced by the supermanhomepage to answer fan questions. Here was my question that Kurt Busiek was so kind as to kind of answer: http://www.supermanhomepage.com/inter-action/inter-action.php?topic=QfK/QfK go to this link for the whole forum!

Bob: How is it possible all the problems with the Superman book not being on time could fall squarely on the shoulders of the artist? Bagley over at Ultimate Spider-man has pumped out 14 issues a year without a problem, are you guys not giving him [the artist] the script on time? Is it a management issue? What is going on? I find it VERY hard to believe it is the artist's fault.

Kurt: I don't think anyone's made any public statements about why SUPERMAN was running a little late last year, Bob, and I'm not going to start -- I'd rather put the energy into fixing the problems and doing our best to make sure they don't happen again, which is what we've been doing. And while I can't speak for the other books, I can tell you that my work has been far enough ahead of schedule that not only have I written all the SUPERMAN fill-in issues (with the co-plot aid of the lovely and talented Fabian Nicieza and Richard Howell), but I also worked on seven issues of ACTION COMICS last year, one issue of SUPERMAN that was completely done but not published, and I'm currently pitching in on another four ACTIONs.As for management issues, this is "Questions for Kurt," and I'm definitely not management, so I'll point you at the "Ask Matt" column, where Matt can answer or deftly sidestep as he chooses.I will note, though, that Mark Bagley, who's a pal of mine and an old creative partner on THUNDERBOLTS, is a very fast artist. The fact that he can do 14 issues a year doesn't mean that all other artists can. Some guys are faster than others -- and some books go faster than others, too, as witness the fact that on THUNDERBOLTS, we managed to cram so much stuff in there that Mark had to draw that he occasionally needed a guest artist to help out with the schedule. I don't say that to address anything on the Super-books, just to point out that not all artists have the same speed. John Byrne can draw two books a month, and probably more. George Pérez, on a regular book, needs a guest artist now and then. And there are guys faster than John and slower than George, to boot.

Now I understand the whole issue of different artists work at different paces, however, to be a professional comic book artist one of the first rules is make your deadline! If a comic book company hires artists who can't make their deadline then they haven't hired a true pro. I understand some artists are slow, but if an artist can't handle a monthly book then get him some help from the get go! Don't allow the books to be late! Although it is a management issue and Kurt Busiek pretty much said so, refering me to the askmatt forum. I am going to pursue this, I must know why all the Superman books are screwed up. I would in closing like to congratulate this site's moderator JasonMajor32 for getting TWO questions answered by Busiek. I would also like to thank Kurt for answering my question, I don't think it was an easy one to answer. And of course all the folks at supermanhomepage.com, particularly Steve Younis, they're good people I tells ya! Till next time citizens!!!

You've done it again DC, good job...

Well looks like its little triangles from the 90's for my Superman fix and MAKE MINE MARVEL TRUE BELIEVER! This is all in response to DC's response to fans in regard to their at best utterly confusing at worst stupid continuity. The info is from Big Blue Report no.142. Holy crap eh? what a bunch of bull! I have to say I expected alot more from DC than the whole, "accept it and move on, we know this shit makes no sense, but you as a paying customer will just have to deal with us lazy writers!" I especially like this "logical" explanation - "Ultimately, what I seem to be asked for a lot is an explanation of how this new stuff can be stitched into the old continuity. It won't be, is the main answer. As we roll along and explore the new world, you'll see more of the new world, and see how it fits together, not how it stitches into the previous world." - so in other words Busiek is giving us the heads up that "the DCU just won't make any kind of sense so don't try to figure it out because hell we here at DC aren't." I am hereby starting now beginning a protest, I am going to stop buying ALL DC comics that take place within the DCU (I will still pick up the Spirit because it does not take place within the DCU) !!!! That's right, you heard me, they just lost twenty bucks a month! So take that and shove it DC, when your books start making sense and showing up on time I'll start buying them. I fill in the space reserved for your books with World War Hulk!!! That's right, I went there! I think Superman, Batman, Green Latern, The Flash, all these heroes are awesome, so start writing awesome stories for them. I mean look at Superman #660 and 661. YUCK!!! Horrible stories, the Prankster calls us all "ninnies" on the cover, you know you have a bad book when that happens!
I'm not too worried though, Marvel rocks right now, I know alot of people have a bee in their bonnet about how Captain America is dead, and Spider-man revealed his idetity to the world but guess what? Thats character movement in a forward direction, yeah, and I like it. So that's my two cents for now. You can subscribe to Big Blue Report and get the whole story from Busiek by joining the SupermanHomePage at http://www.supermanhomepage.com and signing up for it. I highly suggest doing alot of e-hanging out at SupermanHomePage, they're good people. Till next time citizens!!!!

Civil War, What Makes a Great Mega Event and How I will Remember It!

GREETINGS CITIZENS!!!

Civil War has left a massive impact on the Marvel 616 Universe, I want to compare it to Infinite Crisis and 52 that Distinguished Competition aka DC comics has/is publishing and tell you why in my opinion Civil War will be remembered a little more fondly and with a little more respect as an event.
Civil War, for those of you who live under a rock and don't follow comics (you know who you are!!), is a Marvel event that redefined the relationships, characters, and climate of the Marvel 616 universe. Marvel Comics Mega-Events are no longer some super-villian attacks New York, all the villains rally around him, all the heroes rally, big fight, good guys win. Instead heroes are either pro-registration or anti-registration. Without spoiling it too much, there is a disaster that wipes out a small suburban neighborhood raises the question of should heroes who are completely untrained be allowed to wield their power without consequence from any kind of authority? To make it simple, Captain America thinks heroes should still be allowed to work unimpeded by the government or anyone else, and Tony Stark believes that every hero should register with the government, make their true identity public, and essentially no longer operate as a loner. Needless to say the ending wasn't what most fans who didn't read spoilers, were expecting.
And then there is Infinite Crisis (IC to save me some typing from now on ;)!

Infinite Crisis was suppose to make the convoluted continuity of the DCU make sense or maybe not even ever have happened(they usually pick and choose on the latter to suit their fancy). Heroes of Earth 2 punch their way through a wall and the universes collide, collapse, and for little reason the two Supermen fight, because that is cool, and in the end we have a even more convoluted weekly cash grab, and One Year Later titles that strictly follow status-quo. My biggest problem with Infinite Crisis is actually not the series itself, which was not without it's charm, but was rather with 52.

The whole idea of 52 and One Year Later in my opinion, kind of prevented Infinite Crisis from really ending. Superman titles were awesome until he got his powers back (in a manner befitting Spider-man 2). Now Superman titles are slipping into a very silver age status-quo style, and where the silver age was great for it's time, right now it comes off cheesy and one can almost feel embarrassed reading it. DC needs to start listening to what their readers want, and start writing for the age their audience is. Now I realize some of you readers out there are probably thinking I'm coming down on IC and DC in general a little hard, and yes I am. Because this could have been a new Golden Age for DC and frankly they blew it. They always build up hype about something and then blow it. They've blown One Year Later, just like they blew all the potential Smallville had as a show. Now we hear about COUNTDOWN, another weekly series, that's probably leading to another crisis. So basically we have another cash grab, possibly another crisis on the way, and because the multi-verse still exists what was the point of IC again? Convoluted is the name of the DC game. I've never understood why the company can't just admit they screwed up, have another crisis (why not at this point) and restart the universe. Write stories from a starting point that has no baggage, this time listen to the fans, and free yourselves from the reins of horrible and convoluted continuity.

Civil War has massive impact on the relations the heroes have with each other and the government, whether they are hunted by the authorities, asks the reader to question whether the end justifies the means, and reminds us all the life just isn't fair. Infinite Crisis was...well we don't really know what it was now. Was it the collapse of the multi-verse? Well, no it wasn't, and it wasn't a change in characters really either, it really only took characters out of character. I guess we will have to keep reading 52 and also 52 issues of countdown to figure it all out! So maybe in a year it will seem worth it! I like DC characters, but I hate what they do with them. Hopefully after Countdown, after all the major events are finally done in the end there will just be some great, fresh stories that aren't status-quo. Make Mine Marvel for now, they are the best at what they do, right now Marvel is great, and with the Ultimate Universe going strong Marvel is by far my favorite. DC will eventually get better, I certainly hope so. In the mean time the titles from DC I would recommend are Superman/Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and the Brave and The Bold. Also The Spirit is awesome, even though he isn't really part of the DCU it is one of the best titles being produced by DC.

Well till next time comic fans,
Bobby Paycheque