Earth-2 Batman

Here's Jim Lee's design for the Batman from Earth-2; guess that explains the spikes and so on. And from the brief article:

"“Who will Batman kill to save his own daughter?” asks EARTH 2 editor Pat McCallum. “Right out of the gate that should tell you we’re dealing with a different kind of Dark Knight here. More ruthless, dangerous…the costume is familiar and yeah, there is a Wayne under the mask, but we’re looking at a man desperate to save the only family he has left. EARTH 2 is about to become a very bad place to be a bad guy.”"

So this is a Batman willing to kill? Definitely not the old Earth-2, then. And if his daughter, Huntress, is "the only family he has left" I guess that means we won't be seeing E-2's Catwoman as Mrs Batman any time soon.

And did anyone else look at those straps on his legs and think "Why is Batman wearing shorts?"

Looks like straps are a theme on Earth-2 as Helena Wayne's Robin has them as well:

Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining as I am so looking forward to both Worlds' Finest and Earth-2.

Global Guardians #6 - Red Winter

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis and pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and try to find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

Following the last couple of posts about the Global Guardians, it should be clear by now that they were closely linked with the Justice League in its various forms.

Their next appearance came in the Red Winter storyline that ran throughout Justice League Europe #54 - #50 although the Guardians themselves has a relatively small part to play in it.

Who Was Who Is Who #9

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, and with DC's New 52 well under way (how long are they keeping that title do you think?) I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of this year, who might make it and who hasn't got a Computo's chance.

CHRONOS - poor old Ray Palmer, eh? Never really had what you'd call a good array of villains. Bug-Eyed Bandit and Chronos? Man, no wonder he ended up jacking the whole thing in and going to live in a land where everyone else was six inches tall. Chronos, though? Can't see him turning up any time soon.

CINNAMON - yet another character who could benefit from All Star Western, it seems even more likely that she'll show up since Nighthawk appeared in the sneak peeks a couple of weeks back (actually just a day or so ago from when this was written - lead time, people!) With that appearance, I'm willing to bump her up from a possible to a definite by the end of 2012.

CIRCE - perhaps Wonder Woman's main villain (at least from the point of view of this non-Wondy reading bloke) I really don't know whether we'll get to see Circe any time soon what with the emphasis apparently being on the gods and monsters side of things. I'm going for a maybe at some point, but not before the end of 2012.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #168

Somehow, I can't see Batman ever saying that.

I Had A Bad Feeling About This

When her boyfriend suggested they go see the re-release of THE PHANTOM MENACE
Borrowed from Our Valued Customers

While my wife didn't exactly say that . . . it wasn't far off when I suggested that we go and see Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D, despite me having said before Christmas that I wouldn't go and see it.

Then I saw it trailered and George Lucas reached out to my fragile little mind and warped it just that little bit more.

The 3D aspect was almost negligible from what I could see - I'm no fan of it at the best of times and the sooner the fad runs its course the better. Phantom Menace was both as bad (Midi-fricking-chlorians) and as good (Darth Maul!) as I remember and while it was nice to see it again on the big screen, once every ten years or so sounds about right.

Justice League #6 Cover

So there it is, the cover for Justice League #6 which shows up next week. From Jim Lee's brief article over at the DC Source blog:

"“I wanted to create a cover which resonated with what I consider to be the most classic Darkseid story – namely the Great Darkness Saga – so that entailed the Justice League bowing down naturally to the power of Darkseid,” said Lee. “Except of course Batman who, despite not having powers, fights with all his strength in defiance.”"

Every member of the League bowing to Darkseid except for Batman, eh?

And Superman who's imprisoned off to one side.

And Aquaman who looks like he's about to mount Wonder Woman.

Still, despite that - cool cover.

Global Guardians #5 - Getting The Band Back Together

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis and pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and try to find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

With the fall of the Queen Bee of Bialya and the rise of Sumaan Harjavti, the Global Guardians faced a question: should they remain in Bialya in the employ of its new leader or not?

Before answering that question, as any good team should do, they took stock of themselves, beginning in the pages of Justice League Quarterly #5, published soon after the events of Breakdowns as seen last week.

Who Was Who Is Who #8

Check out the new logo!

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, and with DC's New 52 well under way (how long are they keeping that title do you think?) I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of this year, who might make it and who hasn't got a Chris KL-99's chance.

CATWOMAN - like Batman, there was never any real doubt that some version of Catwoman would appear in the new DCU. That the current Selina went and shagged Batman on a Gotham roof in her first issue cause the internet to melt down, however, making a lot of people wonder what had happened to the Catwoman they knew and loved. Not being a Bat/Cat reader, I wasn't particularly worried. With James Robinson's forthcoming Earth-2 title, however, I'm curious as to whether the Catwoman of E2 will still be married to E2's Batman and whether the Huntress (due to appear in the forthcoming Worlds' Finest) is going to be their daughter. So, E1 (or whatever) Catwoman in place, E2 Catwoman a possible.

THE CAVALIER - ah, the swashbuckling Batman villain. Nah, can't see him turning up.

CAVE CARSON - the DCU's resident spelunker, Cave hasn't appeared anywhere, except for the odd cameo, for a good few years now; for some reason, caving adventures appear to be further down the list of marketable comics than war stories, medieval knights or cowboys. Will we see him by year's end? Afriad I'm going with a no here.

CELSIUS - ex-wife of the Doom Patrol's Chief, she appeared out of nowhere, bummed around with the Patrol for a while before apparently dying during the Invasion a few years later. Aside from a few cameos, I don't think we've seen anything of her since then and with the Doom Patrol currently MIA from the New 52, I can't see Celsius re-appearing either.

Who'd Like A Coctail? #167

Because that's what heroes do, folks - bomb people using people as bombs

Worlds' Finest #1

Like I was going to pick anything else from DC's May solicitations!

"New ongoing series featuring POWER GIRL and HUNTRESS of Earth 2!
PAUL LEVITZ teams with amazing artists GEORGE PEREZ and KEVIN MAGUIRE.
Discover why these two heroes are stranded on our Earth – and what it means for the heroes of the DC Universe."

I cannot wait!

Global Guardians #4 - Breakdowns

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and wonder why they never had a title of their own and find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

Last week saw the establishment of the Justice League Europe and their initial battle against the Global Guardians as controlled by the Queen Bee who was putting them forward to the world as the new heroes of Bialya.

This week we skip forward some months (story time) to the start of the last  storyline of the Giffen/DeMatteis era, Breakdowns. This was a sixteen part crossover between Justice League America and ...Europe where a number of big battles changed the make-up of both versions of the League.

And the Global Guardians were right at the start of it.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Who Was Who Is Who #7

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, and with DC's New 52 well under way (how long are they keeping that title do you think?) I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of this year, who might make it and who hasn't got a Captain Compass's chance.

CADRE - these were the guys who, under the Overmaster, fought the Detroit League. They were, to a man, a complete shambles and no real threat to the League whatsoever as I mentioned last year. Will they appear again? Not a chance. Sure, there's the chance that the name might be repurposed but Fastball? Crowbar? Shrike? Naaaaah.

CAIN - as I mentioned with Abel in the first of these posts, there's the possibility that Cain might turn up in some Vertigo title at some point. In the new DCU, though? I doubt it.

CALCULATOR - given a fresh lease of life by being turned into the villains' version of Oracle, the Calculator was the go to bad guy for nefarious information. With Oracle getting out of the chair and back into the role of Batgirl, I think it unlikely that the Calculator will continue in that role. Who knows, maybe he'll go back to wearing a bloody great number pad on his chest again.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #166

You can't say fairer than that.

Earth-2 And Worlds' Finest Covers

DC have revealed the covers of the forthcoming Earth-2 and Worlds' Finest series, so what do we have:

Earth-2's variant cover gives us Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman fighting against Parademons which makes me wonder (as it's a variant) whether this is meant to echo the recent battle of the Justice League against Darkseid and his minions in their title, or whether it is actually story related. Either way, the cover gives us no clue as to when the story will take place or whether the Earth-Two heroes are connected to either World War II or the Justice Society.

New Smallville And Watchmen Stuff

So, DC have released pictures of their first Before Watchmen collectibles, namely Rorschach and Comedian statues. Thing is, I saw this:

And thought of this:

Perusing Previews - February 2012

I'm getting old. I saw the above and though "Oh, put some clothes on, dear, before you catch a cold."

Age. It gets you in the end.

Before Watchmen

From nerdreamer

With everybody else weighing in on DC's recently announced Before Watchmen books, I figured I'd throw out my own thoughts for your delectation.

We know now that the books are going to form a prequel with stories set before and (possibly) during the main Watchmen story rather than as a sequel continuing from where the original finished. That, at least, is some small comfort.

I've posted before about any prequel / sequel and how I'd react and while I'm definitely of the opinion that a sequel would be bad, I'm still unsure as to the worth of any stories set in that world. If you'll pardon me for quoting myself, I said:

"To make any sort of connection, to make it worth the label of a Watchmen spin-off, prequel or sequel, the story would at the very least have to take place in the same world. And if it takes place in the same world, it's going to be compared with the original, and I think we all know how that's going to turn out."

and I think that still stands.

Global Guardians #3 - Our European Cousins

For the next few weeks, I'm going to be running through the DCU appearances of the Global Guardians post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint (or at least all the appearances I have) and wonder why they never had a title of their own and find out where they are now. Or were, pre-Flashpoint.

After the events shown in last week's instalment, Jack O'Lantern and Owlwoman are seen safely ensconced as part of the Queen Bee's retinue following her usurping of the Bialyan throne. The Justice League, helpless in the face of her overwhelming support from the Bialyan people, leave with their tail between their legs.

Not long after that, Invasion! takes place where various alien races band together with the Dominators to try and take over the Earth. At the end of that, a decision's made to increase the scope of the League's activities and Justice League Europe is created, based in Paris which, you may remember, also houses the Dome, home of the Global Guardians.

Who Was Who Is Who #6

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, and with DC's New 52 well under way (how long are they keeping that title do you think?) I'm going to go through all my copies of Who's Who and see if I can predict who will make it over to the new DCU by the end of this year, who might make it and who hasn't got a Byth's chance.

BRAINIAC - there seems little doubt that some version of Brainiac will be around at some point to trouble Superman. Will he get an appearance in before the end of the year? I'm going with possible.

BRAINIAC 5 - as far as I'm aware, Brainiac 5 is alive and well in the pages of the new Legion of Super-Heroes title unless someone wants to tell me differently.

BRAIN STORM - here's a turn up for the books. While not the same character, a new villain's already shown up in the first arc of Mister Terrific with this name so I guess this old, obscure character gets counted as being in place already.

BRAIN WAVE - an old Justice Society villain, there's the chance he may show up on Earth-2 at some point but I doubt it right now.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #165

With great power comes a really bad haircut.

The Last Remnants Of The Old Republic

From the latest issue of Kirby: Genesis - Captain Victory, comes Galactic Command where Captain Victory stands on trial:

Is anyone willing to take a bet that artist Steve Scott is a fan of Star Wars?

Come on, that's not even trying!

Power Girl 40th Anniversary

Hey, give it four more years and this could actually happen!

Pinched from CBR's The Line it is Drawn by Steve Howard.

Watchmen 0.1

We all know Watchmen was originally conceived as starring the Charlton heroes that DC had acquired around the time Moore and Gibbons started work on it, yeah? And that after DC decided they wanted to keep using the Charlton characters, Moore set about creating his own analogs for them which became the characters we all know and love in what many consider to be one of the best comic books ever.

Well, what do you get if you add months of internet chatter and rumour around a proposed Watchmen sequel / series of prequels to a comic nerd currently teaching himself how best to use layers in Photoshop?

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you . . .

Writers Reshuffling

Over at the DC's Source blog, news is released about Jeff Lemire taking over the reins of Justice League Dark from outgoing writer Peter Milligan.

...Dark was the only League book I didn't pick up following the New 52 relaunch as I've never been a fan of Milligan's writing. Lemire, on the other hand, I do enjoy, and I'm tempted to start picking up ...Dark now that I'm more confident I'll like it.

Lemire says:

"So, what else can you expect from the “New” Justice League Dark? Well, you’ll see an old haunt becoming the team’s new HQ. Constantine, the master manipulator that he is, will emerge as the clear leader of the team, and there will be 2 new members as well! (Hint one’s a man and one’s a woman. One uses magic, one doesn’t.) Not enough….hmmm…how about a classic Justice League villain re-imagined as The Justice League Dark’s new arc-enemy?"

all of which sounds intriguing enough for me so I may well pick up a few issues.

Just to make matters worse (for me) there's news that Lemire is leaving Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. which has grown into one of my favourite books. He'll be replaced by Matt Kindt from #10.

But what's happening to Milligan? He's becoming the new writer on Stormwatch a title that I took a chance on due to Paul Cornell being the writer. I'm willing to give Milligan a go on a title I'm already getting but if it doesn't work for me, Stormwatch might join The Savage Hawkman in being another title ditched in a few months' time.