New Time Masters Mini-Series

Cover to Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1

I'm not a massive Batman fan - I tend to pick up trades every now and then but nothing ongoing - so most of what I know about the whole death and return of Batman comes from Final Crisis and reading various articles on the internet. As such, I won't be picking up the forthcoming The Return of Bruce Wayne; I'll probably wait a year or so and grab it once it's collected.

However, I will be getting Time Masters: Vanishing Point, the new six issue mini-series from Dan Jurgens revealed on the DCU blog.

I've long been a fan of Jurgens - more for his art than his writing if I'm honest - and I like both Booster Gold and Rip Hunter in the current Booster Gold series so it makes sense to pick it up. Plus I've recently been going through a few of the Superman trades I have, in particular the death and return of the Superman where Jurgens played a major part, and there's mention of both Waverider and Vanishing Point itself in the books. Again, only reading Superman titles in trades leaves me with only a small amount of knowledge about Vanishing Point and the Linear Men but both are concepts that I find intriguing - people at the end of time keeping an eye on things is a brilliant idea so I'm interested in what Jurgens does with those in this mini-series.

And, of course, there's this line from the article linked above which describes Time Masters: Vanishing Point as:

"a story chock full of clues that point toward the next major DCU event"

Not that it comes as any real surprise but just a couple of weeks after Blackest Night finishes and in the week Brightest Day starts, there's already talk of the next major event.

They're not hanging around in DC are they?

Final Crisis Finally Done

Just a quick one - I've now migrated the Annotated Final Crisis to the new Google Sites platform; existing links should automatically redirect but you can go to the new site here.

I didn't want to publish an incomplete site so have worked my arse off this afternoon, typing up notes for the missing issues of Legion of 3 Worlds, Revelations and Superman Beyond 3D. Note these aren't full annotations, just précis of the issues.

Let me know what you think of the revamped site.

Same Old Stuff, New Address

I've just finished the migration of The Annotated Infinite Crisis site from the old googlepages host to the new googlesites address.  There's an automatic redirect so any links to the old site will take you to the new one.  You can check out the changes here.

Over the next couple of days I plan to do the last few bits and pieces with The Annotated Final Crisis and get that migrated as well - then it's back to normal service.

Working Behind The Scenes

Been kinda busy over the weekend - I know you're all desperately waiting to find out just how many people Hitman killed, aren't you? - but that'll have to wait for a while.

As I've mentioned before, the platform I used to create The Annotated Infinite Crisis and The Annotated Final Crisis called Google Page Creator is being shut down. Google are pushing their newer platform, Google Sites which is what I used for The Annotated Blackest Night.

Sites created with Page Creator are due to be automatically transferred at some point but I figured I'd take the opportunity to make some slight tweaks and push them over myself. I've been copying files over from one to the other and hope to get the new Sites-driven pages up by the weekend so at the moment the sites look just the same. The original addresses should automatically redirect to the new ones once they're up and running.

Soon as they're ready, I'll drop a note here.

Finally Finished?

Does Superboy-Prime say what we've all been thinking?

(Actually I really enjoyed Legion of 3 Worlds and didn't think it was stupid at all!)

No Evil Shall Escape My Site

Oh, I'm probably going to regret this - I haven't half as much time as I need to do half as many things as I want but damn it, I'm annotating the Blackest Night despite having said that I wasn't going to.

You can find the site here but bear in mind it's early days so there's not going to be a lot of stuff over there right now.  Obviously as the series continues, I'll be putting more stuff up and, as happened with the Annotated Infinite Crisis and then the Annotated Final Crisis, I'll be happy to have your input.

See something I've missed?  See something I've got wrong?  Mail me at jigsawmen [AT] googlemail [DOT] com and get your name in the Acknowledgements page.

Wish me luck!

Finally Annotated?

Back last year, I mentioned that the platform I used for both my Annotated sites - Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis - was going to change from Google Page Creator to Google Sites.  Everything seemed to go a bit quiet after that so I carried on using Page Creator to make any updates to either site.

About a month or two back I had an automated mail from Google saying they'd be migrating both sites over to the new platform but nothing's happened yet.

I'm loathe to make any more additions/changes to either of them (which is my way of saying I'm getting out of finishing the few odds and ends on Final Crisis for a while) until they're migrated.  I still feel the urge, though, to throw something together and get back into annotating . . . if only there was another big DC event coming up that I could have a go at . . .

How Many People Did Tommy Monaghan Kill? Part 1

Sometimes, I really do think I have too much time on my hands.

Over the weekend just gone I was working through a batch of comics, cataloging them for the lovely people over at Collectorz.com.  I'm currently working through a long box that stores most of my Garth Ennis written titles and have started going through the fantastic Hitman series.

I know, I know, I should be working on the Annotated Final Crisis, finishing off those last couple of issues that I still have to breakdown but, well . . . honestly, this is just a bit more enjoyable.

In issue #1, Tommy meets Wendy, a girl he's attracted to and starts dating.  Trouble is, he doesn't tell her that he's a hitman and that he kills people - okay, technically he does but she thinks he's joking and he doesn't correct her.  When she eventually finds out, they have a blazing row:

I have to admit, I read that and thought . . . how many has he killed?

Armed with a day off work and a penchant for prevarication, rather than do half a dozen things that I should do (like the Final Crisis stuff) I decided to count through the first 20 issues of Hitman that I've cataloged so far and tot up the numbers of deaths caused by Tommy, Natt the Hatt, Sean Noonan, Ringo Chen and Hacken.

So what's the score so far:


There's a bit of estimation in there - there's plenty of scenes where Tommy and Natt are both blowing the crap out of the bad guys, but it's close enough for government work, I think.

Of course, I'm opening up a Pandora's box here - after Hitman, I really should go through The Demon and include any killings there, not mention anywhere else Tommy turns up.  Thinking about it, though, all that means is I get to read more comics again . . .

Blackest Night

You know, I think I'm more excited about this than I was about Final Crisis.

And while the temptation to annotate it is there, it's not going to happen.

Final Crisis #7 Finally Annotated

Well, it's done - the notes for Final Crisis #7 are up over at the Annotated Final Crisis site. That just leaves a handful of tie-ins to write up which I should be able to finish sooner rather than later.

There were a few characters that I couldn't identify in this issue - if you know any of those that I mention below, either drop me a line at jigsawmen [atsign] googlemail [dot] com or simply leave a comment below. Any you can identify correctly earn you a mention in the ackowledgements page on the site - what more could anyone ask for?

Here's the one's I need help with:

Page 13 - Panel 2 From the top down are Starman; what could be Gorilla Grodd or Titano; Frankenstein; probably the Question; Red Devil; Power Girl; an unknown with a green top in front of the OMAC robots; Supergirl again; Iman; and Wonder Woman.

Page 18 - Panel 4 Between Superman and Darkseid are Mirror Master and behind him the Human Flame; over Darkseid's shoulder is Captain Cold; behind him is an unknown woman - any guesses?

Page 30 - Panel 2 After the fighting, life gets back to normal. In the offices of the Daily Planet, Perry White (on the right) holds a meeting with his staff. Left to right are Ron Troupe; an unknown with his back to us; another unknown facing us; Clark (Superman) Kent; Lois Lane; and Jimmy Olsen.

But Wait - There's More!

Even more Final Crisis related spin-offs, that is. According to Newsarama, there's going to be at least four titles in a Final Crisis Aftermath theme:

• Final Crisis Aftermath: Run! about the Human Flame;
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Escape featuring Nemesis;
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink which follows the adventures of Tattooed Man;
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance dealing with the Super Young Team.

Looks like I'm going to be annotating for some time.

Final Crisis #6 Annotations Complete

Managed to get the annotations for Final Crisis #6 complete at last and are up at the Annotated Final Crisis site; taken a while as I've just been stupidly busy in work lately.

Anyhow, I'll be starting on #7 as soon as I can and then catching up on the handful of tie-ins left to do.

There's one character I've been unable to identify:

Pages 30-31 - Panel 11    Hourman lays on a table being tended to by Dr Light; on the right behind them are the two Wildcats and the speaker is Dr Mid-Nite. Between them appears to be Atom-Smasher and a figure wearing a head dress. Anyone know who he is:

Thanks to Anonymous in the comments he's been quickly identified as Man-of-Bats.

Interview At Geek Force Five

The lovely people over at Geek Force Five got in touch a day or two ago wanting a few words about the Annotated Final Crisis site.

It's a nice little interview and can be found here.

Now if I can only finish annotating the bloody series . . .

Final Crisis For Real

Ah, crap.

No sooner do I joke about getting my arse into gear and finishing the Final Crisis #6 annotations than I find out that #7 is due to be released tomorrow!

Newsarama has a preview available which I am studiously ignoring - I'm not going to be able to get my copy till Saturday and don't want to spoil the surprise.

I'll be trying to catch up with everything as soon as I can.

Final Crisis - 1986 Style - Part 1

You know, when I should be sat here at my PC, frantically catching up on the annotations for Final Crisis #6 (not to mention giving a precis of Final Crisis: Superman Beyond 3D #2 which I haven't even had time to read yet) I instead find myself going through some old magazines that a friend gave me.

There's a lot of stuff about Watchmen - most of the mags are from the mid to late 80's - as well as interviews with people like Ian Gibson (did you know DC's dreadful Millennium cross-over event from 1988 was originally due to be written by Alan Moore? I didn't) and all sorts of other bits and pieces.

There was also an A5 programme from the 1986 Birmingham Comic Art Show which had a collection of comic strips by a guy called Johnny Lowe. I've had a hunt round but can't find anything on the net about him - if by some miracle he's out there, I hope he doesn't mind me showing his work here on my little blog.  I've deliberately kept his name in the scans as well as the copyright info.

So without further ado, here's Crisis Crossover Part 1 featuring Cathy.

Tune in next Tuesday for part 2!

Secret Files Notes Published

Ah, what the heck, eh?

I managed to get the notes for Final Crisis: Secret Files done as they weren't that difficult.

They're up at the Annotated Final Crisis.

Submit Notes Published

Spurred on by the fact that Final Crisis #6 is due this week (I'll probably get my copy on Saturday as normal) I've got to work and written up the notes for Final Crisis: Submit . . . you know, the one that came out months ago.

Anyhow they're done and up at the Annotated Final Crisis site; only Final Crisis: Secret Origins to go and I'll try and get that done tomorrow.

Resist Notes Published

Damn sight later than first intended but the brief synopsis of Final Crisis: Resist is up over at The Annotated Final Crisis site.

At this moment in time I have Final Crisis: Submit and the more recent Final Crisis: Secret Origins to write up.

It would be nice to say I'll have them done before the next issue of Final Crisis itself comes out but I guess we'll need to wait and see what happens.

Final Crisis #5 Annotations Complete

My notes for Final Crisis #5 are up and running at the Annotated Final Crisis site.

Thankfully there's only the one thing I'm having trouble identifying at the moment, though there's still a handul of others from earlier issues over at the Help Needed page.

On the very first page and in the very first panel, there's the trial of Hal Jordan with a jury made up of other Lanterns. On the top row, on the right hand side is a grey/stone faced Lantern that I can't name. I've scanned the image and posted it here - any deas? I've been through the Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps Secret Files & Origins but I've either missed him or he ain't in there.

Final Crisis #4 Annotations Complete

Finished the notes on Final Crisis #4 over at the Annotated Final Crisis.

There's a few things I need a hand with in this issue in so far as identifying a couple of characters. You can find all the ones in the Help Needed page but lets see if we can get something out here as well:

Pages 12-13 - Panel 1    In the skies above Checkmate's castle, Hawkgirl battles Silver Swan though I'm unsure as to who the flaming, flying character on the left is. Anyone?

Pages 12-13 - Panel 3    Green Lantern Alan Scott stands in front of a large screen depicting the status of various heroes. In the very top right hand corner is an unknown gold coloured man.  --  solved; it was Robotman.

Pages 12-13 - Panel 5    Not reading Checkmate, I'm unsure of who the speaker is; beside him are Amanda Waller and The Question, Rene Montoya.  --  solved; it was Taleb Beni Khalid.

Page 24 - Panel 2    Above the Checkmate castle from the top down are Killer Moth; an unknown Justifier; Hawkgirl; possibly Sun Girl; Green Lantern Alan Scott; Bolt; Man-Bat; and, in the whirlpool, Typhoon.