Who Was Who Is Who #31

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, 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 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Mysto's chance.

MR. TERRIFIC - the Michael Holt version of the character is definitely in place, despite his series getting cancelled so that alone puts him in the in place column. A few months back (at least from the time of writing in mid-March) DC released some teaser designs and there was a different Mr Terrific featured, so it seems likely we'll see an Earth-2 version at some point as well.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #189

Jordan and Sinestro - the DCU's Odd Couple

We've Had Before Watchmen: Comedian...

How about Post(-op) Watchmen: Comedian?

Good work!

Pinched from CBR's Comic-Con Cosplay Round-up.

The Life And Works Of Alan Moore

Pinched from the lovely A Moment of Moore blog, here's a contestant answering questions on the above subject on the UK quiz Mastermind.

Now, no cheating by pausing the video to give you time to think of the answer, but how many do you get right?



I got eight which I'm happy with!

Who Was Who Is Who #30

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, 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 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Mirage's chance.

MINDBOGGLER - can't think of a logo for your superhero costume? Just get an old T-shirt and write your initials on it. Seems to work in the old days. Don't think it'll work in the New 52.

MIRAGE - not the one-time Teen Titan, rather one of Batman's villains. I think the Titan has a better chance of appearing again than this guy.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #188

Jaime, trust me: Booster Gold is not a good measure of recognition.

Guess What I'll Be Watching This Afternoon?

Oh yes - I cannot wait!

A Milestone By Any Measure

That's right, folks, today marks the one thousandth post of Crisis on Earth-Prime.

This blog's changed a fair bit in a little under five years - back when I started I said "you can probably expect updates once a week, usually on a weekend" and here we are, posting about five or six times a week.

Thanks to all the regular commenters (though I can always do with more - come on, don't be shy!) for providing feedback which helps keep me going.

That's enough speachifying - onwards!

Flesh For The Ratings

Kirby: Genesis finally limped to a conclusion last week with the release of #8 wherein a final battle of sorts was fought, powers were divested and super-beings vanished or made themselves public. During the battle, some huge, bearded figure appeared in the sky and was obviously debated on TV talk shows like this one:

You know what struck me about this panel? This:

Who Was Who Is Who #29

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, 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 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Midnight's chance.

MATRIX-PRIME - an old Supergirl villain, I kinda doubt that we'll be seeing this "mobile robot factory" turning up at any point soon.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #187

Nothing dampens Vandal Savage's opinion of himself

Gaiman Writing New Sandman Story

News from DC quotes Neil Gaiman:

"When I finished writing THE SANDMAN, there was one tale still untold. The story of what had happened to Morpheus to allow him to be so easily captured in THE SANDMAN #1, and why he was returned from far away, exhausted beyond imagining, and dressed for war."

If I may be allowed to paraphrase Obi-Wan Kenobi:

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in delight and wouldn't shut up about it for the next ten years."

Not sure how I feel about this - certainly enjoyed The Sandman at the time but it feels a little less impressive whenever I re-read it. Some absolute gems amongst it without a doubt - A Midsummer Night's Dream instantly springs to mind - but it became quite bloated towards the end. How long did The Kindly Ones go on for? Eight, nine years? Certainly felt like it.


Think I'll wait for the trade paperback in a few years.

I Have A Good Feeling About This

So San Diego Comic-Con is in full swing and, amidst all the news about comics and what not was an announcement that made me very happy for personal reasons.

My very good friend Tim Lebbon, author of a whole slew of horror and fantasy novels has been announced as the author of a tie-in novel to the Dark Horse Star Wars: Dawn of The Jedi comic series.

And, being the top bloke that he is, Tim's promised to give me a mention in the story making me part of the Star Wars universe!

How cool is that?

Can't Stop, Busy Saving Gotham

Will probably be a bit quiet round here for a while - my wife, the lovely Mrs Earth-Prime, bought me Lego Batman 2: DC Heroes a week or so ago and I'm afraid all my time's been taken up with beating the snot out of the Riddler, Joker, Lex Luthor and loads of others.

It's as much fun as I hoped it would be and while the main missions were relatively easy to complete, I've still got all the minikits and gold bricks to find.

Back in a while.

DC's October Solicits

JUSTICE LEAGUE #13
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by TONY S. DANIEL and RICHARD FRIEND
Backup story art by GARY FRANK
On sale OCTOBER 17 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
GEOFF JOHNS is joined by TONY DANIEL for a two-part chapter in the Justice League saga marching toward TRINITY WAR.
JUSTICE LEAGUE #12 will have the world debating its shocking conclusion – and where it will lead from here!
The League takes on a villain destined to be one of the greatest threats to the DC Universe in the year ahead – the mysterious Cheetah! But who is she? What is her connection to Wonder Woman? And how will this fundamentally change the relationships within the team?

So Trinity War gets a mention; I really thought it would be longer before anything started happening with that. And the line about "how will this fundamentally change the relationships within the team?"

Who knows? Maybe they'll start acting like a team?

Who Was Who Is Who #28

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, 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 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Fat Marvel's chance.

MANHAWKS - having dropped The Savage Hawkman after learning Rob Liefeld was getting on board, I've no idea how likely it is that the Thanagarian aspect of the character will be developed. However, I can't see these guys ever coming back, so I guess that point's moot.

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #186

Please pardon my French

One For The Escher Girls, I Think

From this week's Stormwatch #11, pencils by either Eduardo Pansica and/or Ignacio Calero:

Click for bigger

It honestly took me a couple of minutes to work out that the figure in white was actually meant to be a woman bent at 90 degrees.

For more bizarre examples of this sort of thing, check out the Escher Girls blog.

Black And Blue

DC released news a couple of days ago about the return of Black Lightning and - something of a surprise - Blue Devil. Seems they'll be turning up in the pages of DC Universe Presents which I'm thinking I may need to start picking up.

The new look Black Lightning

And what's better is the tale's being told by Marc Andreyko, probably best known in the DCU for his work on the excellent Manhunter.

The new Blue Devil

Honestly, I'm not that enamoured of Blue Devil's redesign but I'm more than willing to give this a go.

And hey, Black Lightning was down as a possible return in my Who Was Who Is Who #5, although I appear to have left Blue Devil as somewhat ambiguous in the same post. Still, one out of two ain't bad I suppose.

Rise Of The Third Army

DC have released a little more information about their forthcoming Green Lantern crossover tale, Rise of The Third Army.

It's been teased for some time - basically the Guardians of the Universe, those once benign blue little munchkins who pretended to have a handle on cosmic affairs, have been getting meaner and meaner over the last year or two and have decided to do away with the Green Lanterns and replace them with a Third Army, the First being the Manhunters and the second the Corps. Of course, they're not counting the space cops that preceded the Corps...

One of the main things released in the news item is a marvellous picture by Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Albert Oclair, and Rod Reis which forms the four inter-connecting covers for issues of Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians and Red Lanterns:

Click the above for a slightly bigger version, but the original article has a huuuuuuge version of it.

Notable by their absence from the pic are Hal Jordan and Sinestro; couple that with the similarity between the original promo pic in the top left there with that used for the Death of Superman storyline and it seems possible that one or both of them die. Sinestro's death would prevent Jordan from being in the Corps - he's currently dependent on a ring created by Sinestro - which would explain why they're missing, but the inclusion of the new, masked Green Lantern seems to imply that it's Jordan that dies. Why else would the ring choose "our newest Green Lantern from Earth"?

I also couldn't help but notice that Carol Ferris as Star Sapphire finally gets to cover more than 12% of her body - about time, I say.

Oh, and a happy 4th of July to my American readers!

Perusing Previews - July 2012

Will someone please buy these Dark Shadows action figures and use them to create a more entertaining film that the recent Tim Burton / Johnny Depp piece of rubbish?

Who Was Who Is Who #27

So for want of anything better to write about on a Monday, 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 2012, who might make it and who hasn't got a Malagigi's chance.

LUTHOR - ah, anyone else remember the days of multiple Earths and different variations of both heroes and villains? Well, I guess they never went away for that long, what with Elseworlds, Hypertime, Infinite Crisis, Countdown and all the others (not to mention the forthcoming Earth-2 - this is being written in mid-March, people!) but you know what I mean. It got so that Lex Luthor had various versions featured in Who's Who:

Who'd Like A Cocktail? #185

Thankfully, my wife's never said that to me.