Friday Comic Con Round-up!

Marvel has introduced Generation Hope as its new X-title, a book about new mutants appearing for the first time since Messiah Complex. Kieron Gillen (Phonogram) is writing, but I still can’t bring myself to be that interested.

Axe Cop co-creator Ethan Nicolle mae an appearance at the Dark Horse Comics panel, but it remains unclear whether or not this means a Dark Horse-produced collection of Axe Cop. Doctor Spector and Mighty Samson will both be joining Shooter’s Gold Key revival. Reminders of the upcoming Conan: Road of Kings by Roy Thomas and a return to Dark Horse Presents. Andrew Vachss is also returning to Dark Horse with a new project called Heart Transplant.

One of the most interesting panels was for a movie by writer/director James Gunn called Super about Rainn Wilson as a would-be hero. Ellen Page plays his slighly psychotic sidekick with Kevin Bacon, Nathan Fillion, Liv Tyler, and Michael Rooker rounding out the cast. Check out Newsarama for more on the film.

DC introduced Grant Morrison’s new book Batman Inc. which Morrison claims is inspired by the Batman Brave and the Bold cartoon series. Art is by a favorite of mine, Yanick Paquette.

DC has a preview up of its new Young Justice series. Check it out on Youtube:



Image Comics presented a panel that introduced Mark Guggenheim’s new imprint Collider Entertainment, which will include Utopian, a superhero book set in a (wait for it...) utopia, and The Mission, which has to do with serial killers and the voice of God. Ron Marz is producing a creator-owned samurai-vampire series for Image Central with Shinku drawn by his Dragon Prince co-conspirator Lee Moder. A Top Cow-produced Firebreather Dragon Prince limited was also announced. Otherwise they only previewed already announced books (which isn’t unusual for Image as they rarely have publishing schedules set a year in advance.)

San Diego is Here... and it begins a little early with the THUNDER Agents!

While I will remain right here in Iowa, I am making no secret that I love the big news stories that often come out of the event. And that’s why I’m going to add my own commentary on some of the most important (or at least most interesting to me) news at the event.

The first truly exciting (to me) is the announcement of the November debut of DC’s new THUNDER Agents book (first announced at last year’s Comic-Con.

Behind the Frank Quitely cover, DC has put together an amazing team for their new series. Nick Spencer has written two absolutely great series for Image/Shadowline, Forgetless and Shuddertown as well as two Existence limited series that I have yet to read. (The trade is on my buy list for August.) The two aforementioned series are two well written minis with a strong modern crime bent. He has a creator owned book called Morning Glories coming later this summer as well as starting a Jimmy Olsen back-up on Action Comics. But not since Robert Kirkman have I found a writer I enjoy as much as Mr. Spencer.

The artist on the lead feature is CAFU, late of the Captain Atom back-ups in Action. He has a good solid style that is quite exciting and (mostly) anatomically correct. His work reminds me of Guiseppe Camuncoli with a hint of Daniel Acuna’s computer-paint style. I am unaware if he has been on a monthly book before this, but if he can keep up the pace, he should be a great artist for the new Agents.

If the team looks a little different to long time THUNDER Agents fans, its because we have a new team here. Spencer isn’t trampling the original book’s history. Instead he’s treating the original team as the THUNDER of the late sixties and early seventies. The costumes have been past down with only NoMan remaining as a constant on the team.

I love the way Spencer and DC have decided to create something new without trampling on the great classic comics. If this book can garner the support it rightly deserves, it could be a real winner.

So what I’m basically saying is you better freakin’ buy it! And not in trade either. Go out to your local comic shop and ask the owner directly to order a copy for you! I don’t want to see this book be another 12 issue casualty of the fickle comic fan.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for more San Diego stories in the hours and days to come.

Super-Powered Comics: Astro City volume 1: Life in the Big City

Kurt Busiek kicked off Astro City as a six-issue series from the fine folks of Image Comics. It would soon jump to Homage, a subsidiary of Image/Wildstorm, later DC Wildstorm. But for now, it was truly a boutique book even though two of its creators were some of the hottest names in comics in the aftermath of Marvels.

Issue one opens with an obviously Superman-esque figure named Samaritan. But instead of the regular narrative in to battle concept we get from most titles (especially at the time), the issue instead focuses on a day in the life of the busiest hero on the planet. The narrator is Samaritan himself, and by page two we already can see this story is about the speed he pushes himself in to every day. We learn of the sacrifices he made and the desires he carries with him, while each superhero battle gets little more than a panel to cover it all.

Issue two introduces a regular contrivance of Mr. Busiek, used both in Astro City and his Marvels work: the story from the human perspective. We get a flashback to the late fifties and an early adventure of the Silver Agent and the Honor Guard. We get the first hints of the Silver Agent’s unpleasant fate as an intrepid young reporter takes it all in. But the fight again is not as key as the lesson learned by the young reporter, now a news editor telling a very important lesson.

Wrapped in a cover featuring a foreboding close-up of the hero featured within, issue three focuses on the Spider-Man analog Jack-in-the-Box. But even this story has a unique perspective: that of a criminal who accidentally sees Jack’s face. The criminal learns how the repercussions of his happenstance work on his own over-active imagination.

Issue four focuses on a young woman from Shadow Hill, the supernatural hub of the city. But during the day she works in City Center, and the dual nature of her life quickly shows signs of wear when the Hanged Man and the First Family (a Fantastic Four-style super-family) become involved.

Issue five features a key story to the future run of the book. Here we meet an alien advance scout. Despite being there to scout the earth for an attack force, he has a love for humanity. But his love is sorely tested as the story progresses.

Volume one closes with a story of Samaritan finally taking a day off to spend with Winged Victory, the book’s Wonder Woman analog. Between discussions, arguments, and accusations, the two enjoy an uneasy night to themselves in a way the DC characters never could.

None of these stories are Astro City’s finest (although Astro City 2 is a personal favorite of mine). But they do succeed at both introducing the main cast of the book while also clearly stating the kind of stories Mr. Busiek planned to tell in the long run.

All these stories were collected in the Astro City: Life in the Big City trade paperback. Everyone should check it out. If you like it, you will love the rest of Astro City. If you don’t... well then I am not sure why you are reading a blog about superheroes at all. Highly recommended.

Super-Powered Comics: Invincible

Happy Labor Day, folks! And to celebrate I am giving you a review of one of my favorite titles!

Invincible truly is the modern classic of comic literature. Robert Kirkman has taken what seemed like an average combination of Superman and Spider-Man and turned it in to a truly interesting universe. His cast quickly expanded to include dozens even as the twist in issue seven completely changed the complexion of what seemed like a simple concept.

Now over fifty issues later, the series hit a big bang with issue 60: “The Invincible War”. A crossover featuring just about every super-powered character published by Image in the last decade (or maybe longer), it involved long-time villain Angstrom Levy summoning dozens of evil Invincibles from other dimensions to wage war on Invicible’s earth. In the aftermath, Invincible faces an even bigger threat that costs the lives of many of his allies.

Invincible offers everything a good superhero comic should possess: great characters, an always rolling plot, amazing art, and an ever-changing universe. Not the illusion of change; not change that will be retrofitted in five or ten years. Actual change. Characters die; most will never come back. Invincible learns from his mistakes, even when they almost cost him his life.

The first twenty-five issues are now collected in to (relatively) inexpensive hardcovers. I highly recommend anyone not already on board to check these books out. I think you will be amazed by everything that you’re missing. Highest recommendation.

Super-Powered Comics: Savage Dragon

Savage Dragon has been around for over a hundred and fifty issues, but in the last half dozen issues the book has hit a creative stride it hasn't seen for a few years. Creator/writer/artist/everything-else-fans-will-him-do Erik Larsen is producing some of the best issues of this book ever.

In the mid-140’s, Erik made an interesting decision by putting Dragon back on the Chicago police force, the same role he occupied for the first forty or so issues of the book. Meanwhile, he is dealing with being the parent to two children for the first time, both his adopted daughter Angel (who has massive super-strength inherited from her late mother Smasher) and Malcolm (his son with Rapture with similar powers to Dragon’s own). He has a new ally in the Golden Age Daredevil (a character I have used myself over in Living Legends) and a new enemy in the second generation Dart. Oh, and Overlord is back too.

None of this probably means much to you if you have never read Savage Dragon. To you I say, for shame. Erik Larsen has regularly produced one of the most rip-roaring, exciting series of comics ever (and in the process produced the second longest uninterrupted run by a single creator, behind only Dave Sim and Cerebus). If you are unfamiliar with all the goodness, you should immediately check out Savage Dragon Archives volume 1 for a low cost intro to the series.

Sadly, Savage Dragon is one of several great “indy” superhero books that is woefully under-ordered. Anyone willing to try a great comic book should check Dragon out. Erik Larsen and I will both thank you.

Obscure Heroes: Wildstar

Wildstar: Sky Zero was one of the initial “second wave” of Image Comics. Created by Al Gordon and Jerry Ordway, it stood next to Dale Keown’s Pitt, Sam Keith’s The Maxx, Larry Stroman’s Tribe, Keith Giffen’s Trencher, Mike Grell’s Shaman’s Tears. Like most of those stories, Wildstar lasted for only a four issue run. Unlike the others, that was all that was planned.

Al Gordon’s previous writing credits included fill-ins on Legion of Super-Heroes and Timber Wolf, so a story about time-traveling metahumans seems right up his alley. He comes in alongside legendary Superman artist Jerry Ordway to produce a new book about an aging hero from the future known as Wildstar. It seems he is stuck in a time-loop, but for most of the series, we are not sure why. But once again he travels in to the past in an attempt to stop the post-apocalyptic badlands of his current existence.

In the past, he comes across a government agency responsible for alien tech as well as Mickey, the son of the agency’s head. But Wildstar didn’t time-jump alone and he has a half-dozen other metas to make his way past. Wildstar and Mickey become inexplicably linked as he tries to escape attack from the other time travelers and their duped government allies.

By the end of issue three, our hero is dead, but as in so many comics, it is a death that won’t last.


Wildstar would later return for a ongoing series that would last only three issues and a guest shot in Rob Liefeld’s best Image title, New Men, before returning again fairly recently in the pages of Savage Dragon under the new name of Soulstar. It seems a copyright dispute left the character without a name... and those old issues unsaleable. It’s a damn shame too. Whatever his name, he was a damn fine comic character.

Not Quite Super-Powered Comics: Iron West

Doug TenNapel is one of the most fascinating creative minds of the last few years. He is almost certainly most famous as the creator of the oddball character Earthworm Jim, star of three video games of variable quality. But for the last few years, he has regularly been producing graphic novels at Image. Of these Iron West is by far the best.

Iron West doesn’t do costumed superheroes, but it does do pretty much everything else! A small town grifter named Preston Struck stumbles upon an invasion force made up of ancient alien robots that take on the likenesses of the population around them. Struck becomes a reluctant hero as he does the boy who cried wolf routine back in his hometown. Things heat up as he finds himself forced to look out for someone other than himself as the life of his beloved Miss Sharon falls in to danger.

I don’t want to ruin too much of the story for you, but I will say things get crazier after that. Expect to see robot Indians, Sasquatch, the Loch Ness monster... suffice it to say, the story is heavy on the weird.

So if you want to see something super-powered but still crazy and far different than the usual fare, be sure to go searching for Mr. TenNapel and give Iron West a try. Recommended.

Super-Powered Comics: Jersey Gods #1 through 3

So, yeah, I originally meant to do a review of the first issue after it came out. Then I was going to review issue one and two. But I have been dreadfully behind on all my reading, my comics most of all, so those fell by the wayside. But having finished the third issue (itself now over a week old), I have to weigh in on Image Comics newest ongoing.

Written by Glen Brunswick (Killing Girl, Gray Area), Jersey Gods plays off classic Kirby much like Joe Casey and Tom Scioli’s Godland, but unlike that title, JG focuses on a pantheon of New Gods-esque characters. Barock is our lead, an oddly white (considering his name) deity in the story’s Orion role. Like Orion, he is his people’s premiere warrior. Unlike Orion, he is a good-looking chap with a well-rounded personality. While facing off one of the enemy gods in a New Jersey mall, he meets Zoe, and the beginnings of an intergalactic romance seems to be in the wings.

But three issues in, and we really haven’t got to it. We see scenes where both think about it, but most of the story seems to focus on Barock and his companions Helius and Rushmore as they go on a space adventure. This gives the title a rather odd pacing, but things seem to be picking up with issue three.

Issue three also gives a solid selling point in the beginning of a back-up series written by none other than Mark Waid. Waid’s task seems to be to flesh out the thousand year old war between the two alien races of our title. The first story was very short, but offered some room for future intrigue.

The art by Dan McDaid fits the title perfectly. He channels Kirby without ever aping classic Kirby. His faces weaken when drawn from a distant, but his figures mix normal humans and massive superheroes perfectly. Covers have came from some great indy artists as well: Mike Allred, Darwyn Cooke, and Paul Pope so far. I especially love Allred’s cover to issue one, so much so that I made it my wallpaper! (Click the image to see it full size!)

Jersey Gods oozes with potential, even thought it hasn’t quite realized it yet. Nonetheless, it gets my Recommendation.