One thing I managed to forget was this six minute teaser for the new DC Universe MMO. While nothing really had stood out to me as really epic about this game, things have changed with the debut of this clip. This looks epic.
I’m sure more San Diego news will trickle out in its aftermath. Anything else newsworthy I will throw on here in the next couple days.
Showing posts with label Wonder Woman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wonder Woman. Show all posts
Monday, July 26, 2010
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Super-Powered Comics: The DC heroes battle the Supernatural Big Two!
Thanks to the fine folks at my local library I have been able to read a copy of the preposterously long titled Superman & Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves. The premise is as simple as the name sounds, but the carry-through is far more convoluted.
Written by former Valiant mainstay Kevin VanHook and drawn by veteran penciler Tom Mandrake, the book strangely doesn’t feature Superman for the first couple issues. When he finally does arrive he does pay an essential role, although I could argue that characters like Green Arrow and the Demon are just as important. Oh, did I mention the bland werewolf and vampire heroes added to fight the threat? Or the appearances by Nightwing, Wonder Woman, and Man-Bat? More oten than not, this series really feels like “lets throw this against the wall and see if it sticks”. It’s main problem, is it rarely does.
Mandrake is an able artist, although his style is definitely more fitting to Batman’s world than Superman’s. He evokes Gene Colan quite often, specifically Colan’s work on Tomb of Dracula and Night Force. But the style seems a little off-putting when it is used to draw four-color heroes.
The story seems less an attempt to introduce vampires and werewolves to the DC universe as a whole and more a back door pilot for the vampire hero Dimeter. Unfortunately, he seems like a bland attempt to make a white Blade (the movie version). Never does he feel like a real attempt at even developing a new idea, let alone a character worthy of his own book.
I think the main thing this book seems to be missing though is fun. A title like Superman & Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves doesn’t exactly evoke images of serious supernatural fiction of the past. It more makes me think of silly B-movie schlock. But no, this seems to be an attempt to bring the Marv Wolfman-style horror of the seventies back, but with superheroes. And it just doesn’t work.
I wanted to like this book, but it just needed to have more there. But if you are the kind of reader who just loves vampire fiction and superheroes, maybe you will find something to love. As for me, it’s Not Recommended.
Written by former Valiant mainstay Kevin VanHook and drawn by veteran penciler Tom Mandrake, the book strangely doesn’t feature Superman for the first couple issues. When he finally does arrive he does pay an essential role, although I could argue that characters like Green Arrow and the Demon are just as important. Oh, did I mention the bland werewolf and vampire heroes added to fight the threat? Or the appearances by Nightwing, Wonder Woman, and Man-Bat? More oten than not, this series really feels like “lets throw this against the wall and see if it sticks”. It’s main problem, is it rarely does.
Mandrake is an able artist, although his style is definitely more fitting to Batman’s world than Superman’s. He evokes Gene Colan quite often, specifically Colan’s work on Tomb of Dracula and Night Force. But the style seems a little off-putting when it is used to draw four-color heroes.
The story seems less an attempt to introduce vampires and werewolves to the DC universe as a whole and more a back door pilot for the vampire hero Dimeter. Unfortunately, he seems like a bland attempt to make a white Blade (the movie version). Never does he feel like a real attempt at even developing a new idea, let alone a character worthy of his own book.
I think the main thing this book seems to be missing though is fun. A title like Superman & Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves doesn’t exactly evoke images of serious supernatural fiction of the past. It more makes me think of silly B-movie schlock. But no, this seems to be an attempt to bring the Marv Wolfman-style horror of the seventies back, but with superheroes. And it just doesn’t work.
I wanted to like this book, but it just needed to have more there. But if you are the kind of reader who just loves vampire fiction and superheroes, maybe you will find something to love. As for me, it’s Not Recommended.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Super-Powered Comics: DC The New Frontier
I will be 100% honest here: the first time I read DC: The New Frontier I didn’t think much of it. Sure the art was great, but the story just felt a little flat, not quite fully coalesced.
That was a couple years ago.
Something drew me back to the book a few months after that, and on my second read through, I started to dig Darwyn Cooke’s late eighties vibe. The first half came off as a masterpiece, a real build to a guaranteed epic. The second half still was not so great though.
By read number four, I started to get in to the whole heroes coming together to fight the monster island. Cooke is a very subtle writer at times, which makes it easy to miss a lot of the nuances he makes between his story and his art.
I just finished reading the New Frontier for the sixth time. It is quite possibly the best book DC has released in over a decade. Not since Kingdom Come has the company produced anything this epic in scope.
I am not going to say much more about the greatness of this book. You should go read it. Then read it again. Highly Recommended.
That was a couple years ago.
Something drew me back to the book a few months after that, and on my second read through, I started to dig Darwyn Cooke’s late eighties vibe. The first half came off as a masterpiece, a real build to a guaranteed epic. The second half still was not so great though.
By read number four, I started to get in to the whole heroes coming together to fight the monster island. Cooke is a very subtle writer at times, which makes it easy to miss a lot of the nuances he makes between his story and his art.
I just finished reading the New Frontier for the sixth time. It is quite possibly the best book DC has released in over a decade. Not since Kingdom Come has the company produced anything this epic in scope.
I am not going to say much more about the greatness of this book. You should go read it. Then read it again. Highly Recommended.
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