Lack Of Movement

The Movement's due to finish with issue 12 it appears.

I wish I could say I was surprised but, for me, it took far, far too long to find its feet - I haven't enjoyed it that much until the last two issues or so, sticking with it mainly because it's written by Gail Simone whose work I've thoroughly enjoyed in the past. Sadly, it wasn't until issue 7 or 8 that it began to feel like it was written by Simone so I can only assume others didn't stick around that long.

Still, three more to go which should give Simone plenty of time to wrap things up.

It's Not Who's Who...

...but there's a new Secret Origins series on the horizon:

And just when I'd started to move away from DC.

Bugger.

Many New Image Series

Been out of the news loop for a week or so (real life - don't ask) but just been doing some catching up, mostly with the announcements from the recent Image Expo, several of which caught my eye:

Scott Snyder announced a new series with artist Jock entitled Wytches

I enjoyed his run on Swamp Thing and like Jock's art so will probably give that a go.

Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips have signed a five-year deal with Image. That deal will see Fatale end with #24, and lead to their next series, The Fade Out, a story based on Hollywood in the 1940s.

Fatale's ending at #24? Just five more issues to go? That's a shame as it's consistently one of my favourite titles.

Joshua Williamson’s Nailbiter, drawn by Mike Henderson, comes in May, and features a small town in Oregon where sixteen of the worst serial killers were born, with an investigation why.

All I've read by Williamson was the short lived Voodoo series which, despite some negative feedback, I thought showed promise. Again, I might look at this.

Kelly Sue DeConnick has a series based on the girl gangs and women in prison movies of the 1960s and 1970s coming called Bitch Planet. It’s not due to debut until Fall 2014.

Well I'm liking her run on Ghost and Pretty Deadly's shaping up nicely so this will almost certainly be on my list.

Bill Willingham and Barry Kitson announced a Fall 2014 debuting series called Restoration. The book sees a world like ours where magic, gods, and the like are suddenly restored on “one very bad day.” The gods decide to unite as one massive pantheon to take over the world and be worshipped once more.

Willingham, Kitson and gods? What's not to like?

Looks like I'm not going to have a problem sticking to my New Year's resolution, eh?

Storm's End

DC have announced that Stormwatch is to end with issue #30 in April and, I have to admit, I'm not surprised about that. What does surprise me is that they're letting it continue till then.

I've said in just about every Cocktail post that mentions the title, I have no idea how Jim Starlin's getting away with what's happening in his crazy-ass little corner of the DCU. First he completely reboots the team, not just shaking up the membership but changing the versions of the established characters. He literally re-writes the history of the whole team, regardless of how this affects other titles and characters such as those featured in Demon Knights. He also appears to have ignored the new version of Lobo that DC introduced a couple of months back, though that might be dealt with over the next six months.

I was thinking of dropping this title anyway but with just a few issues left, I may as well stick around and see what else he does with it.

Get Your Steampunk Fix Here!

Tired of waiting for the Joe Benitez to write and draw the hugely delayed next issue of Lady Mechanika?

Now worries - he's illustrated the cover of this instead:

That's the cover of Legenderry: A Steampunk Adventure by Bill Willingham, featuring steampunk versions of "The Phantom, Green Hornet, Vampirella, Red Sonja, the Bionic Man and more" in a seven issue miniseries as detailed here.

As Willingham says in the interview:

"This is a story designed for me to have fun and I hope that will translate to the readership. A fun adventure doesn't mean it won't be important in the sense of "Will you care about these characters?" or "Will you care about the outcome of the story?" I hope that that's true, but more in the sense of going on a nice, wild ride. Hopefully you're too busy hanging on and screaming to worry about the structure of the story."

Fun comic books - that's what the industry needs more of. And yes, I'm looking at you, DC.

I will be buying this. Oh yes

Did I Miss Anything?

So, I was away from the internet for most of last week . . . anything happen in the comic world? Any announcements about Oscar winning actors being picked to play iconic superheroes? Anything like that?

I caught some of the firestorm about Ben Affleck being picked to be the new Batman - it really is laughable when the internet just melts in a fireball of anger and indignation because a choice has been made that down't fit with what some people wanted.

What are the chances that the choice for the new Batman would have met with universal agreement? If Actor A (star of many films, proven track record, has won awards) was chosen, Film Fan would be happy but Comic Book Reader would not. If Actor B (appeared in several fan films, understands the character, firm fan favourite) then Comic Book Reader would be happy but General Viewing Public would be scratching their heads while saying "Who's he?"

My take is let's wait and see what Affleck does with the role. If he's great then all's well with the world. If not then lots of people can say "I told you so!" while feeling smug. Either way, we're not going to know for a while yet.

Like I said, getting a universal agreement (on many roles, let alone Batman) was likely to be impossible, but the vitriol and anger poured out by the internet is just pointless.

And it makes Batman sad.

Preacher Movie Still Alive?

Trust me, I'm as surprised as any of you but according to this item, the film's not dead, merely resting. I know I'm not the first to say that a multi-season TV series like Deadwood or The Walking Dead would be a better format for it but if it gets made in whatever way, I'll go and see it.

Mention was made in the article about Chris Pine playing Jesse Custer - I think he's a little too Hollywood leading man myself, though I did chuckle at the line:

Transformers star Shia LaBeouf reportedly interested in playing "Arseface."

Far be it from me to imply poetic justice for both the Transformers rubbish and the last Indiana Jones film.

Justice League 3000 Minus One

Well this bit of news was a bummer: Kevin Maguire is no longer drawing the new series Justice League 3000 by Keith Giffen and JM DeMatteis. Perusing my copy of Previews this weekend, I was all ready to add this to my pull list but I'm not sure I'll bother now.

Apparently the concept of the book is being reworked so what's in Previews may not resemble the book we'll get.

Oh DC, why do you keep doing these things?

Ghost Ongoing Series

Although it was announced a while back, it's now confirmed that Ghost will be returning in November as an ongoing, written by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Christopher Sebela with art by Ryan Sook. This will be one I'll be picking up, though I'm a little disappointed that the linked article contains the line "DeConnick is back to write the initial arc of the new series"

That kind of implies she'll be leaving after four to six issues which is a shame. Still, I'm more than willing to give this a go.

Forever Evil Teasers

Despite yesterday's post claiming I was unwell, I seem to have recovered faster than expected - again, I blame the heat.

Anyway, on to news (of a sort) about DC's upcoming Forever Evil series/event and a series of teaser posters that they've released:

A female Green Lantern . . . of Earth? That would be a nice change and might not be that far-fetched: Hal's currently in charge of the Corps; Kyle's off being a White Lantern; Guy's off being a Red Lantern; leaving John as the only GL of Sector 2814. Does he get a new partner?

The Teen Titans are due to get their behinds kicked in Forever Evil so it's no surprise seeing their shattered logo. However, is that Superman and Catwoman walking over it? Or is that the shadow of a cape at the top of the lady's thighs... is that Ultraman and Superwoman of the Crime Syndicate?! That would be nice.

Nightwing, who barely escaped death in Infinite Crisis, doesn't look to be having much fun here as his logo appears dripping with blood.

Any thoughts?

DC's October Solicitations

Is it me or is artist Juan Doe just doing superb work with these covers for the Steppenwolf War storyline? Limited palette, a poster feel, block lettering . . . I'm really liking them.

A Whole Bunch Of News

Having recovered from the weekend's exertions, I come back to find the internet has been pumping out all sorts of news:

Tom Taylor is the new Earth 2 writer while Nicola Scott remains on art. I know nothing about the Injustice: Gods Among Us series he's been writing so will have to take his stories at face value.

DC's September Solicitations

FOREVER EVIL #1

"The first universe-wide event of The New 52 begins as FOREVER EVIL launches! The Justice League is DEAD! And the villains shall INHERIT the Earth! An epic tale of the world’s greatest super-villains starts here!"

So the first issue of Villains United oops, Forever Evil hits as the bad guys take over the DCU. For a month. Hardly a long term success, is it?

Zauriel's Back In The DCU

According to this article, the angel Zauriel appears in next month's Phantom Stranger... oh, wait, sorry... he appears in next month's Trinity of Sin: Phantom Stranger #10.

Regardless of what the issue's called, the redesign of Zauriel by Mikel Janin looks fantastic:

Everything New (52) Is Old Again. Again.

Confirmation of what a lot of people had known/suspected was released yesterday - DC is having a Villain's Month event in September. Alongside that was news of Forever Evil, a seven issue miniseries that will allow the creators (Geoff Johns and David Finch) to "really exploring what darkness means and the different kinds of darkness that are within these villains."

Villains which apparently include Sinestro whom Johns himself sent away never to be heard from again only a couple of weeks ago. Seems neither death nor exile are permanent these days.

And is that really Dumb Bunny in the background or am I seeing things?!

"As rumored, each of the New 52 series will change titles for that month and shift focus to antagonists like Darkseid, Bizarro, Gorilla Grodd, Two-Face and Poison Ivy."

You can see some of the titles with their funky moving 3D covers here but the one that caught my eye was this:

As you can see, that's Earth 2 but it features Power Girl, Huntress and Desaad, all of whom have been gracing the pages of Worlds' Finest. Does that PG and Huntress get to Earth 2?

In a separate interview, Jim Lee says of the new covers:

""They’re amazing covers. It’s an effect that you haven’t seen before... it’s an entire cover," Lee said. "...The colors and the depth of field allows you to actually see the logo of the new book. Let’s say the Joker is taking over, it’ll be the Batman title in the background, and you’ll see the Joker title splattered on top of the Batman logo itself. It really sells the concept in a very visual way.""

I'll grant you we may not have seen moving covers quite like this before but as for the villains' logos superimposed on the heroes'.... didn't that "sell the concept in a very visual way" back in 2009?

      

      

   

James Robinson Leaving Earth-2

I don't often break from my regular publishing schedule but this piece of news really did make me sit up and take notice. From the article:

"So as of today I am leaving Earth 2 with Issue #16. It's been a blast," Robinson tweeted. In a follow-up, he wrote, "Yes, this also means I'm no longer working at DC Comics. Best wishes and regards to Dan, Geoff and everyone."

This is really odd as Earth 2 is a good seller and Robinson was talking about his plans for the series only a couple of months ago, planning stories well into 2014.

I won't speculate on the reasons behind the somewhat abrupt departure, but I will be sad to see him go.

DC's August Solicitations

All Star Western #23:

"Hex is trapped in modern-day Gotham City…and he’s getting ready to shoot his way out! Find out how he got here—and see what part Batman plays! And in the backup story, the Vigilante seeks revenge!"

As cool as it might be to see Hex in the present day, I'm wondering if the Vigilante is going to be Greg Saunders or a totally new guy.

A Little More Multiversity Art

CBR has a new image from the much talked about, still nowhere to be seen Multiversity series, this time from Thunderworld, the new take on the old Earth-S (which they refer to as Earth Fawcett for some reason) and featuring a glimpse at the Rock of Eternity and Shazam:

The Seven Deadly Enemies of man are listed as Pride, Envy, Greed, Hatred, Selfishness, Laziness and Injustice. I'm pretty sure those are the names used in the Shazam! back-up in Justice League but does anyone know why they changed from the originals:

Pride, Envy and Greed are there; Sloth has become Laziness; Anger's been swapped for Hatred; while Lust and Gluttony have been changed to Selfishness and Injustice.

Just a sign of changing times? Getting away from the idea of sin?

Just seems a little odd to me.

No Freedom Fighters Yet

Despite splendid mini-series featuring the Ray, Phantom Lady, Doll Man and the Human Bomb, this Q & A session about the New 52 offered up the following concerning a possible Freedom Fighters series:

"[Editor-in-Chief Bob] Harras said there are no plans for "Freedom Fighters" at present. "That would have to be a little further down the line," he said."

Which isn't a complete no so maybe there's still hope. And who knows - maybe we'll get one or two more minis before then. A new Firebrand? Red Bee? Heck, maybe even Plastic Man?

Fingers crossed.

Everything New (52) Is Old Again

Okay, maybe not everything, but it's been revealed that Power Girl isn't the only hero returning to her classic look, or at least an approximation of it.

Zatanna's heading over to join the Justice League in a few issues and is changing into an outfit very close to that worn when she was part of the satellite era League:

All she's missing is those big round earrings with the Z on them.

Hooray for the Newly Old 52!