DC Comics went retro for Valentine’s Day this year releasing the first issue of the classic Young Romance comic book title in literally decades, a title that started its own sub-genre more than sixty years ago.  For the new DC Comics New 52 that means six stories in an anthology of young love for the 21st century, superhero-style.  So this adds Young Romance to other long-lost classic titles recently resurrected for the New 52, including All Star Western, Mystery in Space, G.I. Combat and Worlds Finest.  Maybe it’s time for DC Comics to keep those trademarks in order?  No matter, the February 2013 issue of Young Romance does what it needs to, featuring personal glimpses of key characters Catwoman, Batgirl, Aquaman and Mera, Apollo and Midnighter, Nightwing, and Superman and Wonder Woman.

Young Romance features work by a slate of top DC Comics creators.  The best of these is Ann Nocenti and Emanuela Lupacchino’s look at Catwoman’s first encounter with Batman in “Think it Through,” and Cecil Castellucci and Inaki Miranda’s Victorian ghost story tale of Aquaman and Mera in “The Lighthouse.”  Ray Fawkes and Julius Gopez offer a great looking Batgirl story with “Dreamer.”  “Seoul Brothers” features a story out of the Stormwatch series featuring Apollo and Midnighter written by Peter Milligan with art by Simon Bisley.  The Dick Grayson story “Another Saturday Night” was written by Kyle Higgins with art by Sanford Greene, and the Superman/Wonder Woman story “Truth or Dare” was written by Andy Diggle with art by Robson Rocha.

Collectors and big kids of all kinds will appreciate added holiday fun with the inclusion of two insert pages featuring 18 two-sided, cardboard, punch-out Valentines each featuring DC Comics characters.  These are exactly the kind of Valentines you’d drop in your friends’ paper bag Valentines bags in grade school.  And they have the same kind of good ol’ knee-slapping messages, including the tongue in cheek “The New 52!–You’ve been rebooted as my valentine.”  Pull ‘em out and give them away or keep them intact as a collectible comic book oddity–it’s up to you.

And Happy Valentine’s Day from borg.com!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

As someone who bailed a few issues into Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman: The Court of Owls story arc in the monthly Batman comic book which spanned the bulk of the first year of the New 52, I found that I really enjoyed the crossover follow-on story as compiled in the late February hardcover release, Batman: Night of the Owls.  While you are either left scratching your head or enjoying the ride as the Batman “Death of the Family” story arc wrapped last week with Batman Issue #17, this new trade edition is one way to check out some other New 52 titles you might not otherwise try.  And it’s fun watching how several writers can make a crossover take place in one night over 14 issues.

It’s the first crossover of the New 52.  Batman: Night of the Owls collects 360 pages, including Batman Issues #8-9, plus the tie-ins from Batman Annual #1, Nightwing Issues #8-9, and Issue #9 of All-Star Western, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Batman: The Dark Knight, Batwing, Birds of Prey, Catwoman, Detective Comics and Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Basically all the Bat-characters in the DCU come to the defense of Gotham City one evening, beckoned by Alfred Pennyworth from the Batcave.  A cabal from the early days of Gotham called the Court of Owls has unleashed an army–the Talon–on the city.  The Court itself was thought only to be a line from a nursery rhyme.  In fact it is a group of men and women who do not age but have regenerative properties that make them perfect supersoldiers.  Well, not actually perfect, as one by one they are snuffed out by each Bat-team.

The snuffing out one by one serves to make a real-world battle of the comic book creators.  As if given a single story line, how can they make their Bat-title reign over the rest?  Batman: Night of the Owls begins with All Star Western Issue #9 as the seeds of the story begin in Old West Gotham.  Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Moritat do a great deal to set up a potentially ho-hum group of villains and give them a real foundation in the New 52 DCU.  The story is also heavily-Dick Grayson/Nightwing centric.  So it is no wonder his story–primarily in Nightwing Issues #8 and 9 but also featured among the other titles and hinted out from the story’s beginning chapters–provides some of the best story telling of the volume.

Although the Batman titles–Batman Issues 8 and 9, Batman Annual #1 , and Detective Comics Issue #9–seem to merge together, other than Batman donning a very Iron Man-vibe set of battle armor, other titles manage to stand out.  Red Hood and the Outlaws Issue #9 introduces Mr. Freeze as a relevant villain, and the Red Hood (former Robin Jason Todd) proves to be a very interesting, complex hero, along with Red Arrow Roy Harper.  Batgirl gets some good action scenes against one of the more interesting Talon army villains in the Batgirl Issue #9 chapter and with Katana and Black Canary in the Birds of Prey Issue #9 chapter.  Even more surprisingly kid Robin Damian Wayne proves to be a one-man, crazy-determined, unstoppable little force to be reckoned with in Batman and Robin Issue #9.  At one point you’d think he could take out the Talon army on his own.

If there is anything missing from Batman: Night of the Owls it is a clear distinction between chapters and some titles are not clear what they are, especially which Batman title is which through the volume.  This could be remedied with chapter headings or just a table of contents as can be found in the mega-sized New 52 Issue #1 compilation book.  I am still not certain what title the last chapter is from.  The 14 issues do not seem to have one satisfying resolution, and this may have been because the story carried on in other issues.  I’d also like to have seen all the cover art for each issue–I am not sure if there were alternate covers that could have been added.  Batman: Night of the Owls includes five pages of original art sketches of the Talon but I’d have liked to have seen a few pages of full splash page art of key pages.

Batman: Night of the Owls manages to be a solid work with good chapters of story telling throughout.  It’s an ambitious undertaking and a worthy way to read 14 issues from the New 52.  Batman: Night of the Owls retails at $29.99.  It’s available at comic book stores everywhere and at a discount from Amazon.com.  Completists will also want to check out the events leading up to the story in Batman: The Court of Owls and Batman: The City of Owls.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

On the heels of the wind up of the “Death of the Family” story arc in Issue #17 of the monthly Batman comic book series a few days ago, it’s ironic that Grant Morrison is making news today with his own Batman series creation Batman, Incorporated.  The Batman “Death of the Family” story had some readers thinking one of the key Batman related characters was going to meet his end–probably not Batman, Catwoman, Batgirl, or Dick Grayson/Nightwing, but maybe Alfred or Batman’s son Damian Wayne (the current Robin) or even the original Robin killed off in the comics, Jason Todd, since resurrected into the Red Hood.  Some readers were disappointed in the finale issue of the “Death of the Family” story even after re-reading the story title which never actual implied a death “in” the family.  No one died but the family was left in turmoil.  And that was that.

Today a major shift occurs in the DC Universe with the release of Batman, Incorporated Issue #8.  Below is a five-page preview followed by spoilers, including the telling cover, after the break.  Don’t read on if you haven’t already seen the content in other press but make sure you grab today’s issue.  It’s a sure bet Batman, Incorporated Issue #8 will be sold out everywhere early today as this will be one of those issues that makes the mainstream press, causing the masses to flock to stores to buy up extra collecting copies.

Read on for more, including spoilers.

So the big news is right there on the cover:

You can’t get more blatant than that!  That’s right, in Batman, Incorporated Issue #8, Bruce Wayne’s son with Talia Al Ghul, Damian Wayne, the current feisty Robin and possibly the coolest Robin so far, gets killed off by writer, and Damian Wayne creator, Grant Morrison.

Deja vu–Batman finds Robin–Jason Todd–murdered by the Joker in 1989.

So if you read the Batman “Death of the Family” series you might ask “Why not kill off Robin in that finale?”

Or you might see the deja vu of DC Comics killing off yet another Robin.

Or you might ask: Wasn’t it Grant Morrison who killed off Bruce Wayne/Batman?

Or you might think they finally got a Robin done right, so why kill off this one?–After all, the kid is only a 10-year-old and didn’t get much life in the DCU.

Morrison killed off Batman a few years ago–and he came back.

It doesn’t seem like this death was planned very far in advance since the marketing really didn’t come until the last minute, unlike the death of Batman in 2008, the death of Captain America in 2005 and the death of Superman in 1992, or that a big media push was behind this as with the unmasking of Peter Parker in the Civil War mini-series in 2008.  If you were reading Batman in 1988, you probably remember the publicity stunt where DC Comics let readers call in votes to kill or save the then Robin, Jason Todd.  The public killed him in a four issue story arc, not “Death of the Family” but “A Death in the Family,” still a popular book in print.  Keep in mind there were rushes on stores for the first printing of these issues and only the “A Death in the Family” original issues have somewhat held their value at multiples over cover price.  Once you could get all four issues for $100 or more and you can get the set for less today.  Likewise the death of Captain America in Ed Brubaker’s Issue 25 once in the aftermarket sold for $25-50 and you can get it for under $10 today.  My point?  Get this one to read, not as an investment.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Fresh off their writing and art projects from New 52′s Batgirl and Green Arrow, DC Comics creators Gail Simone and Freddie Williams II are bringing real-world politics “Occupy Wall Street” style this May in their new monthly series The Movement.

The advance industry catalog Previews.com provided the following teaser this week:

We are faceless. We are limitless. We see all. And we do not forgive.
Who defends the powerless against the GREEDY and the CORRUPT? Who protects the homeless and poverty-stricken from those who would PREY upon them in the DARK OF NIGHT?
When those who are sworn to protect us abuse their power, when toxic government calls down super-human lackeys to force order upon the populace... finally, there is a force, a citizen's army, to push order BACK.
Let those who abuse the system know this as well: We have our OWN super humans now. They are not afraid of your badges or Leagues. And they will not be SILENCED.
We are your neighbors. We are your workers. And we are your children.

Win.  Count us in.  Where do we buy the RISE bracelets?

So far not many details have been released.  Its focus will be power and modern sources of information that past generations of superheroes haven’t had to deal with and there are hints that the uprising of this “99 percent” group may not necessarily represent the views of the rest of us.  Does the “RISE” in the artwork conjure up the skewed kind of uprising and beliefs from Bane in Dark Knight Rising?

Along with Simone and Williams’ The Movement, a companion series will add yet another long out of print DC title back from the depths–The Green Team.  Once a Joe Simon 1970s team of “Boy Millionaires” in the 2010s this is updated to “Teen Trillionaires.  The Green Team will feature Eisner winner and first-time New 52 writer Art Baltazar (Tiny Titans) and artist Franco Aureliani (Tiny Titans) and Brazilian artist Ig Guara Barros.  This one sounds a bit Ozymandian–these guys will showcase the “one percent” of the political debate in DC Comics.

Both The Movement and The Green Team will be part of the New 52.  The Movement has a release date of May 1, 2013, and The Green Team has a release date of May 22, 2013.  Both will have multiple covers by Amanda Conner and Cliff Chiang.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

By C.J. Bunce

Sometimes you want to just sit down and view a single TV episode where you walk away at the end of the hour having been energized with a complete end to end story.  I remember countless episodes of the X-Files with the monster of the week and these stand out to me from the episodes that followed the long-term plot of Fox Mulder’s lost sister or uncovering the mysterious smoking man’s real story.  I have the same thoughts about standalone issues of comic books.  Most series today have multi-issue story arcs and they are usually relevant and continue the intrinsic and historic serialized nature of monthly comic series dating back to the origin of comic books.  But when I was a little kid I’d flip through the short supply of comics at my local Kwik Shop and sometimes you’d be lucky and get an issue with a single beginning to end story and sometimes you’d start reading and have no idea what is going on.  I still get excited about a book when I get a great end-to-end story.  Detective Comics #19–the 900th issue of Detective Comics is one of those reads.

When the old DC Universe ended in August 2011, Detective Comics was at issue #881.  Detective Comics was set to become the second DC Comics series to reach Issue #900 after Action Comics.  Then the New 52 renumbered everything.  No matter.  DC Comics knows when it has something to celebrate, so to mark the occasion it is publishing a good ol’ 80-page giant issue.  As part of its across-the-line gatefold cover series, it cleverly manages to include the number 900 as part of its cover, as well as integrate the number into its storyline in a meaningful way.

Strangely enough, after putting down Detective #19, Batman #430 popped into my head.  I recalled it being one of those in-betweener issues, where there was a prior multi-story arc and before a switch in creative teams to move the series on in subsequent months.  A good standalone read. It was the next issue after the death of Robin–the original Robin killed off by DC Comics: Jason Todd.  The famous “A Death in the Family” series was spread across Batman #426-429.  It was 1989 and I was collecting the series off-the-newsstand at my local mall’s Waldenbooks.  Thinking the big story was over I remember being curious about what would happen next.  Batman #430 was a good surprise–Batman was enmeshed in another pursuit but acknowledged the recent trauma–basically it was saying life must go on.  Yet the very human Bruce Wayne behind the mask was anything but unaffected by his loss. Batman #430 was written by Jim Starlin with art by Jim Aparo–the Batman team I remember the most reading Batman as a kid.

Jason Fabok’s incredible, detailed original pencil work for the gatefold cover of Detective Comics’s 900th issue.

Detective Comics #19 finds Batman again at a similar crossroads, in light of last month’s death of Robin–Damian Wayne–in the “Death of the Family” storyline.  How much has Batman changed in 24 years?  Today’s Batman does seem older, more focused.  In Detective Comics #19, Batman never looked better, both from the perspective of how he is written by John Layman, and drawn by Jason Fabok.  Like Batman #430, Detective Comics #19 also has a powerful Batman cover.  In fact Canadian artist Fabok is drawing an incredible Batman these days.  Looking at some of his pencil work reminded me of looking at Michael Turner’s pencil work on Superman/Batman.  It’s almost like Fabok is studying (channeling?) Turner’s Batman, both from details that never survive inking and coloring, and Turner’s choice of profile shots.  No surprise that Fabok has worked on Superman/Batman, too, and for Turner’s Aspen Comics’ Soulfire series.  We may have another Turner in the works.

Detective Comics #19 includes a ton of content–and Batman fans will no doubt find something they will like, from a pin-up by Francesco Francavilla to a complete Batman story featuring Bane drawn by Mikel Janin to a Man-Bat story.  The book features several pin-ups scattered throughout–something I loved as a kid and still appreciate–and five stories:  “The 900,” by John Layman and Jason Fabok, “Birth of a Family,” by Layman and Andy Clarke, “Birdwatching,” by Layman and Henrik Jonsson, “War Council,” by James Tynion IV and Mikel Janin, and “Through a Blue Lens,” by Layman and Jason Masters.

With Detective Comics #19 being a double-sized comic, it carries a comparable price of $7.99.  If that puts you off, my suggestion is picking up this one instead of two other Bat-books in April.  Detective Comics #19 goes on sale this Wednesday, April 3, 2013, and will be available at comic book stores everywhere.

Beginning this week you might have a double take at your local comic book stores as several incentive alternate covers grace DC Comics’ New 52 line issues numbered 19.  They feature the 58-year-old perpetual 12-year-old Alfred E. Neuman getting his own cosplay on as one of 13 superheroes.  This week check out Alfred as Green Arrow and Green Lantern.  As the online harbinger of all things Green Arrow that’s the one we picked up, but we think that Green Lantern cover pretty much exemplifies all things MAD the best.

Other great covers include this nice run-in with Supergirl:

…and if MAD Magazine is synonymous with one master artist it’s Sergio Aragones, who created this image of Superman and Wonder Woman’s love child, complete with Spy vs. Spy pajamas, for the cover of Justice League #19:

We also picked up MAD Magazine Issue #519 just to see what they have been up to, still available at the checkout stand at the local grocery store after all these years.  My junior high self once bought a few of these issues a year, although I have to admit I read more CRACKED Magazine back then, I think because they always had games and pull-out practical joke cards, etc.  Still, it is hard to say no to the trademark MAD Fold-ins, which I believe used to be on the back cover (prompting many a magazine on the racks to have folded covers).  And I once bought an issue with an entire cardboard record–as in a 45 rpm LP– that played on my parents’ turntable.

Issue #519 had me burst out loud laughing after about only 60 seconds.  So it’s nice to know they’ve still got it.  And that MAD still has the same specific components that sold me on the magazine decades ago.  So what are those things that make MAD… MAD?

1.  Sergio Aragones.  Before my youth Midwest self knew what the Spanish language was, I knew who Sergio Aragones was.  In 2012 I found myself at a party listening to this very wise man sharing stories with some of comicdom’s best artists and writers.  Was this really him?  It was pretty hard to believe and goosebump inducing.  Folks like Judd Winick were there soaking up every ounce of Zen you could get from such a true icon of classic comic humor and art.  It’s almost unbelievable that MAD still has its Serge-in General Department with four pages of Aragones writing and art–Issue #519 has him with comedy featuring “A MAD Look at Alternative Medicine.”

2.  Spy vs. Spy.  Peter Kuper offers up a good dose of MAD’s answer to Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Get Smart, and The Three Stooges with the too cool, pointy nosed opponents. 

3.  Irreverence.  Page after page MAD has always been about parody that gets to the heart of the serious in a very funny–and sometimes biting–way.

4.  Spoofing the current big thing.  In Issue #519 it’s a parody of The Dark Knight Rises–here, of course, it’s The Dork Knight Reprises.  This issue also gives a list of the 20 dumbest people, events, and things of 2012.  And they really nailed it in a way you’d find on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart or The Colbert Report–funny but veiled irreverent and meaningful criticism.

5.  The MAD Fold-in.  Noted above.  Check.

6.  Alfred E. Neuman.  Noted above.  Check.  Here he’s on the cover as Lance Armstrong.

7.  Fake ads.  in Issue #519 it includes an appropriately timed ”Disney Presents Star Wars Epi$ode VII” parody movie poster of Anakin Skywalker from The Phantom Menace carrying money bags with a shadow of Mickey Mouse.  We hope all the LucasArts employees laid off today by Disney can find some humor there, but won’t be surprised if they don’t.  Still maybe laughter is the best medicine, even when the Disney Empire begins its destruction of the Old Lucas Republic.

If you really have a yen for catching up on MAD Magazine you might check out Totally MAD: 60 Years of Humor, Satire, Stupidity and Stupidity–advertised in the pages of the magazine, it’s 256 pages of the best of MAD Magazine.  It may help you unlearn what you have learned and return to your junior high self.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If you’re tired of the same superhero teams that have been around for the better part of a century (and even if you’re not) two new comic books offer new teams to get to know.  Remember Marvel Comics’ New Universe in the 1980s?  Star Brand, Nightmask, PSI-Force, Justice, D.P. 7, Kickers, Inc., Mark Hazzard: Merc, Spitfire and the Troubleshooters–I read them all.  Nightmask and Star Brand even returned this year in the NOW! series event.  But if you’re looking for something different from The Avengers of the Justice League, give these two books a look.

First, coming in two weeks is the second issue of The Movement from DC Comics.   Gail Simone has crafted a new world within the DC Universe yet apart from the current New 52 activities.  She’s created a new team of street urchin types defending the poor and the downtrodden from bad guys and the corrupt police force that should be protecting everyone.  Artist Freddie Williams II has created a cool looking super force with Mouse, the “prince of rats” who enlists rodents in his crusade against the forces for bad, Virtue, who seems to be the leader of the team and has psychic abilities, Tremor, who can control her environment, such as causing an Earthquake with her touch, Katharsis, who is a character that resembles Huntress, but sports a set of mechanical wings and in Issue #1 was all badass against corrupt cops, and finally Burden, who has super powers but believes he is possessed.

Issue #1 of The Movement is primarily an origin issue, so it will be fun to see where these characters go in Issue #2.

Next up, we’re discussed many times here at borg.com the Dark Horse Presents anthology series and the many stories that have been spun off into their own one-shots or ongoing books.  Next Wednesday, Dark Horse releases a one-shot compiling Dark Horse Presents’ stories of The Deep Sea.  You’ve got many reasons to pick up this book, not the least of which is another nice work by the writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Grey.

The Deep Sea is told in part in flashback as an old man returns to examine the recovery of a downed ship from 50 years ago, a bit like the bookend story in the film Titanic.  We learn a bit about why the ship was lost and how he came to be the only survivor–or maybe not.  The main story of The Deep Sea focuses on the great looking dive team from back in 1960, drawn by artist Tony Akins in a great retro style.  There is something Fantastic Four about their look, and the main character looks a but like Buddy Holly.  And we get to see a number of sea monsters in a story that may remind you of The Philadelphia Experiment.  The ending of this one-shot leaves the possibility for future stories, which would be more than welcome.

Check out Issue #2 of The Movement June 5, 2013, and The Deep Sea is available this Wednesday, May 22, 2013, at comic book stores everywhere.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight.

For the past nine years Geoff Johns has been writing DC Comics’ Green Lantern monthly series, including tales interweaving the stories of Earth’s five Green Lanterns: Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner, and the New 52 creation Simon Baz.  In the first DC Comics prestige format comic book in a long time, Johns says farewell to writing for Green Lantern this week in Green Lantern, Issue #20.  Although it’s not a good entry point for readers not familiar with the Green Lantern Corps, it is a must read for fans both of Geoff Johns’s writing and his many Green Lantern stories now available in various trade editions.  Johns is probably the single most important contributor to Lantern lore since O’Neil and Adams’ run in the 1970s and it’s his Hal Jordan, like it or not, that ended up in the big screen adaptation back in 2011.

As last stories go, Johns manages to do something unprecedented with his last issue–the book seems like a memorial not only to Green Lantern Hal Jordan but oddly a memorial of sorts for Johns himself.  You might ask yourself:  Is Johns seriously ill?  Did I not get the memo?  The format begs these questions because a full nine pages are offered as mini-notes from friends and admirers of Johns congratulating him for his long run on the series.  It’s strangely self-indulgent, but if you can skip over these tombstone-like epitaph pages, the ads for the continuing Green Lantern (featuring Hal Jordan), Green Lantern Corps (featuring John Stewart), Green Lantern: New Guardians (featuring Kyle Rayner), and Red Lanterns (featuring Guy Gardner) monthly series, Johns’ sign-off note to fans and four pages documenting his past works in trade editions, there is still a complete story here, including panel art, splash pages and a fold out poster contributed by the likes of Ethan Van Sciver, Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Cully Hamner, Aaron Kuder, Jerry Ordway, Christian Alamy, Mark Irwin, and Marc Deering.  I think even diehard fans of Johns would probably rather see the nine pages of commentary replaced with all of the commentary on one page in a smaller font and more story and art.

Look for a key confrontation by Hal Jordan and Sinestro, and appearances by Parallax, Volthoom, Nekron, Atrocitus, Larfleeze, Saint Walker, Iroque, Star Sapphire, and the fate of the Guardians.

The strangest is the reveal of the future ends of Earth’s Green Lanterns, and the set up for a future female Green Lantern as Johns plants a new story thread even in his own finale, with a note about Lantern Simon Baz: “He was ultimately responsible for training the first female ring bearer of Earth—Jessica Cruz—a controversial figure herself who came into possession of her ring in the wake of the Justice League’s death.”  No doubt some readers will see this as boxing future stories in, but like other future telling works such as Kingdom Come, writers may or may not pull from this book in future stories.  And what do they mean by “the Justice League’s death”?

Still, this is clearly a love letter to fans of Johns, and they will be happy with this rare finale issue honoring someone responsible for such a large body of work.  Never fear, all the Lanterns will continue appearing in the ongoing DC Comics New 52 series, including Simon Baz in the pages of Justice League of America.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

“In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight!”

No, wait.  That’s the wrong Lantern oath.  Try this on:

What’s mine is mine and mine and mine,
And mine, and mine, and mine!
Not yours!

Much better!

Let’s face it, if you had to get rid of all the Lanterns, the greens, the reds, say in a New 52: The Next Generation, and you got to save three Lanterns, who would they be?  Hal Jordan?  Sinestro?  The third would have to be Geoff Johns’ and Ethan Van Sciver’s wielder of the orange ring, Larfleeze.

This week Larfleeze gets his much deserved own monthly series, appropriately titled Larfleeze.  The eons old Larfleeze, the dog-like and once only Orange Lantern, is in prime form in Issue #1, pondering his past to the annoyance of his much put-upon conscript, the green elven Stargrave.

Rarely has someone attempted a project that is so zany that gets it all so right.  Writers Keith Giffen and J.M. Dematteis obviously embraced this series wholeheartedly, and artist Scott Kolins managed to draw one of the coolest characters–and coolest supersuits–in the process.

At the farthest end of the universe, Larfleeze is bored.  Stargrave is beside himself as Larfleeze only has 15 minutes left before his power ring runs down.  Yet the self-absorbed Larfleeze must monologue about the golden days of his past.  What he says–the story of his past scribed by Giffen and Dematteis–is not what we see in the art panels of Kolins.  Kolins reveals what really happened in Larfleeze’s past–a sad and troubled past where his race is enslaved by another alien race and he is forced into slave labor.  Yet this is all done humorously, as Larfleeze and Stargrave share barbs and sarcasm.  Stargrave asks: How much of the story is the truth?  Larfleeze guesses maybe half.  By the time Larfleeze winds up his story, a gigantic menace comes along to rescue Stargrave from Larfleeze’s enslavement.  Is this the end for Larfleeze?

If you forgot how much fun comic books can be, run out today to your local comic book store and grab yourself a copy of Larfleeze Issue #1.  It’s a must read and may end up on your pull list next month.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Before Watchmen is a series of titles that was beset with controversy from its inception.  Years before the launch of the series last year, DC Comics had looked at a prequel concept for the much-ballyhooed Watchmen mini-series turned graphic novel, but squelched it before anything came of it.  Watchmen, continually one of the biggest selling graphic novels, has a sort of sacred status to many.  And loyalists believed that if Alan Moore didn’t write it or at least endorse it, then it wasn’t for them.  Still, whether you hate or love the original Watchmen, how do you pass up a series of titles from the likes of J. Michael Straczynski, Brian Azzarello, Len Wein, Darwyn Cooke, Adam Hughes, Joe Kubert, Lee Bermejo, and Jae Lee?  See our early review of the first issues of the series here and here.

In an era where you can either read single issues or wait out the run—especially with a mini-series—and get the graphic novel in hardcover or trade version, as consumer you have decisions to make.  You could read the monthly and then you don’t necessary “need” the trade edition.  If you love the monthly you may just want the trade version on your shelf for future reading.  With ordinary monthly series waiting for the trade editions actually can hurt the ability to ensure series and creators you love continue, since publishers bank on weekly circulation numbers.  If everyone waits for the trades, the publishers may cancel a series based on low sales.  That doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case for mini-series, which publishers only plan for a few issues.

As I think happened with Before Watchmen, you might start reading and drift off from buying later issues, especially if you tried to read all the series.  Most of the mini-series under the Before Watchmen logo have a slower pace than your average series.  So if you skipped the monthlies (as we did), or drifted away after a few issues, then now is your chance to read the stories cover to cover in one sitting with DC Comics’ release of deluxe edition hardcover editions of Before Watchmen—the prequel stories highlighting the star characters of Watchmen.  If you loved Watchmen, you may want all the deluxe editions.  Each of the four bound volumes includes some extras in the back, like in-process artwork.  And the design looks great—these are high-quality compilations meant to stand next to the deluxe edition of Watchmen on your shelf.

Before Watchmen was an ambitious endeavor and as with many such endeavors, not all the parts end up as exceptional.  If you are using the release of the compilations as your chance to read the full stories and don’t plan to collect them all, which volume(s) should you check out?

The most faithful to the original Watchmen can probably be found in Straczynski and Hughes’ Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan.  On the one hand, we don’t learn a lot new about Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre.  But what we do see looks great and Straczynski really knows the character of Dr. Manhattan.  When you wield as much power as this bright, blue guy composed of pure energy, and you know the past, present, and future, what are the stakes of any relationship you have, and what do you care about?  I imagine it’s a tough character to script.  Yet Straczynski is successful here.  Likewise, Hughes’ renderings are in his typical gorgeous style, yet he is pretty reserved, almost holding back to meet the more subtle requirements of the measured pace of the story.

Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan is smartly bundled with Straczynski’s Before Watchmen: Nite Owl mini-series.  Nite Owl’s story is strangely more grim than Dr. Manhattan’s and doesn’t seem to fulfill the potential of what could be the best character of the Watchmen universe.  Kubert’s artwork is, however, very faithful to Dave Gibbons’ original artwork in Watchmen.  So the reason to pick up the Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan hardcover rests with Straczynski and Hughes’ well-done Dr. Manhattan.

Another compilation available is Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach, with both mini-series written by Brian Azzarello.  This volume reprints Before Watchmen: Comedian Issues 1-6 and Before Watchmen: Rorschach Issues 1-4. I think everyone sort of sees Rorschach as the Boba Fett of Watchmen.  Rorschach is rough and tough and cool, hiding behind the ever-changing mask, yet he is probably a bit too gritty for mainstream readers.  He’s a bleak guy with a bleak history.  This fits well with Lee Bermejo’s incredible style, but it’s a tough read and ultimately there is not a lot to care about here.  Most readers want to like their vigilante protagonist and there is so much not to like about Rorschach.

So it is surprising how successful Azzarello’s story for The Comedian comes across. The Comedian is a bad guy.  Yet the story of The Comedian as told by Azzarello follows the story of America from JFK’s assassination to RFK’s assassination in very cool way that allows us to get into the thinking of this anti-hero.  J.G. Jones’s Vietnam era artwork in The Comedian is right up there with Michael Golden’s classic The ‘Nam series.  And his Kennedy family portraiture and related real-life characters really pop off the page.  So as with the Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan hardcover, the Before Watchmen: Comedian/Rorschach hardcover has one mini-series that might prompt you to buy the volume.

Both of these titles are available for pre-order discount from Amazon.com on July 16, 2013, or you can get them from your local comic book store.

Already available are the other two volumes: Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre hardcover and Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair.  It seems like DC Comics’ saved the standout two volumes for last.  The most interesting of the four stories launched last month follows the Before Watchmen: Minutemen mini-series, but it doesn’t match Dr. Manhattan or The Comedian to carry a volume.  Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre could have been a stand-out mini-series, but the Cooke story focuses on a tired mother-daughter battle instead of highlighting what could be an incredible superheroine storyline, and the cartoony artwork by Conner doesn’t jibe with the gravity of the rest of the Before Watchmen series.  Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre reprints Before Watchmen: Minutemen Issues 1-6 and Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre Issues 1-4.

The other deluxe hardcover release is Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair, which reprints Before Watchmen: Ozymandias Issues 1-6 and the “Curse of the Crimson Corsair” backup story.  Writer Len Wein and artist Jae Lee had probably the most daunting task of making the story of Adrian Veidt interesting.  Possibly the least of the original Watchmen characterizations, it’s difficult to have any empathy for the character and as with any protagonist you’ve got to be able to relate at some level with the focus of the story.  Unfortunately, if you’re not collecting the entire Before Watchmen deluxe editions, John Higgins’ excellent artwork on the Crimson Corsair is probably not enough to go after this volume alone.

Before Watchmen: Minutemen/Silk Spectre hardcover and Before Watchmen: Ozymandias/Crimson Corsair are available now from Amazon.com or your favorite comic book store.  A matching deluxe edition of Watchmen is also available.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

If you find typical animated series on Cartoon Network visually boring, this new series is for you.  DC Comics’ DC Nation on Cartoon Network has finally achieved a satisfying blend of eye-grabbing visuals and smart storytelling in its newest animated series, Beware the Batman.   A follow-on to Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Beware the Batman is a fresh take on Batman that opens up possibilities for a long-term animated series with interesting villains of the week similar to those we enjoyed with the 1960s live action Batman series, but skip the camp and humor for some gritty situations and snappy dialogue.

What first will draw viewers to Beware the Batman is the high-resolution, three-dimensional effect of the cutting edge CGI animation itself, similar to the realism we’ve seen in Tron: Uprising, but even more so like the stylish visuals in The Incredibles.  Although the Batman himself may be the least eye-catching of the hundreds of Batman incarnations out there, he has his own style here that may grow on viewers.  But Alfred, the villains, Tatsu Yamashiro, all look incredible.  Wayne Manor is a beautiful mansion on the edge of a cliff, something you’d expect to see from Richard Branson.  Gotham looks like the moody covers to The Dark Knight Returns.  The action sequences are full of explosions and chases offered up in ways you haven’t seen before, too, with realistic and futuristic 3D technology effects like those in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report.

Batman/Bruce Wayne, perfectly voiced by Anthony Ruivivar (Starship Troopers, The Adjustment Bureau, Major Crimes, Burn Notice, Chuck) gets hurt a lot in episode one, needing to rely on others, especially Alfred, who is unlike any Alfred we’ve seen before.  Voiced by Burn Notice guest star and long-time voice actor JB Blanc, think of Alfred as ex-James Bond with the look and accent of Jason Statham.  Alfred is retired MI6 here but he doesn’t look much older than Bruce.  He is instantly likeable as Wayne’s Kato–if Kato were Sean Connery from The Untouchables.  Alfred enlists the aid of exotic goddaughter and ex-League of Shadows and ex-CIA agent Tatsu Yamashiro (voiced by Sumalee Montano), who DC Comics fans will know as Katana from The Outsiders and the subject of her own current monthly series in the New 52.  We don’t see a lot of her in episode one but enough to tell she has her own secrets and background, with a voice like Elizabeth Pena’s sultry character Mirage in The Incredibles.

Like the better Batman stories, Beware the Batman focuses on the detective story, much like a procedural prime time drama.  And the story is quickly paced–not too much sulking Bruce whining to Alfred as is typically found in animated Batman series, and more Bruce as apprentice actually listening to the wiser lessons of Alfred the ex-spy.

Villains Professor Pyg (voiced by Brian George) and Mister Toad (voiced by character actor Udo Kier who was Otto Van Vogel in Chuck) are rendered superbly.  These obscure villains originally found in Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin series are brilliant and here to stay.  Pyg sounds and acts a bit like both Michael Caine and Alfred Hitchcock and Toad is all Peter Lorre from old gangster films.  Their dialogue is high-brow and clever.  Pyg sports a mask like you’d see in The Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder,” and Toad has his own variant on Black Canary’s sonic scream.  These aren’t just good Bat-villains, these are great Bat-villains.  Joker who?

Here’s a sneak peak at the series, which began Saturday, July 13, 2013:

In the tiny half hour time slot you wouldn’t think Warner Bros. Animation could cram so much great content into one episode:  A good Batman, a great Alfred, great villains, a solid story, character development, and a lot of stylish settings and costumes.  You even got a glimpse at Kurtwood Smith’s James Gordon.  You’ll want to add this one to your DVR list.  Beware the Batman airs Saturday mornings on Cartoon Network.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Last month we learned that Summer Glau had joined the Season Two cast of CW Network’s Arrow series, slated to play Oliver Queen’s business rival Isabel Rochev in a recurring role.  Since then Arrow’s creators have revealed even more about Season Two.

Enter The Flash

First, the big news is bringing in fellow Justice Leaguer Dr. Barry Allan aka The Flash in at least three episodes next season, with the possibility of a spinoff series of his own (although we wonder how you can possibly beat the original The Flash TV series, which remains not only at the top of the superhero TV efforts but also qualifies as one of the best appearances of a superhero in any medium).  According to series executive producer Andrew Kreisberg at a press briefing when The Flash reveal was announced, “When you first meet Barry Allen, he’s just a forensic scientist working for the Starling City Police Department so, he’s just an ordinary man when we meet him.”  We won’t see The Flash until the 8th episode of Season Two, and no actor has yet been announced for the role.

A new Black Canary

Wait a second.  Laurel Lance is Black Canary, right?  Or at least Dinah Lance was Black Canary for decades in the comic book history of the character.  Turns out CW revealed actress Caity Lotz (Mad Men) has been tapped to play Black Canary on the series.  So what gives?  Kreisberg has been interviewed and he seems to be sidestepping the question while seeming to reveal that Laurel Lance will be Black Canary, but somehow after Lotz fills the role.  Sounds to us like Laurel may take the mantle from Lotz down the road, much like Laurel took the Black Canary title from her mother in the historic DC Universe.  The Arrow writers can juggle the DCU characters but won’t move too far off the mark.  We think fans will not be happy if they don’t get to see Katie Cassidy as Black Canary.

Comic-Con announcements

At Comic-Con, executive producer Marc Guggenheim revealed some key casting decisions for Season Two.  Sebastian Blood will be a new character taking on Oliver Queen next season, played by Kevin Alejandro (Psych, Bones, Heroes, Eleventh Hour, Burn Notice, Medium), as will Bronze Tiger, played by Michael Jai White (Spawn, The Dark Knight).

Metamorpho?

Finally, with the following photo on Twitter:

… Kreisberg revealed this past week that at least a van tied to Metamorpho will make an appearance next season.  Does this also mean former Justice Leaguer Metamorpho will join up with Oliver and The Flash?

Preview

Check out this video shown at Comic-Con 2013 three weeks ago, featuring a recap of Season One and a preview of Season Two, including a glimpse at Black Canary:

Season One DVD Release Date

The first season of Arrow will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on September 17, 2013.  Pre-order Arrow: The Complete First Season (Blu-ray) or Arrow: The Complete First Season (DVD) now at Amazon.com with a steep early bird discount.

Soundtrack preview

Finally, if you want to preview tracks from the Arrow Season One Soundtrack, check it out here at Amazon.com.  Keep checking back to the link for pre-order availability.

Season Two of Arrow begins October 9, 2013.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

September is Villains Month at DC Comics and the editors looked like they were having fun Wednesday with the release of a bunch of standard monthly superhero titles defaced and taken over by the huge pantheon of classic DC villains.  And along with the vandalized covers DC has released special 3D animated lenticular covers–those great retro plastic lined images you once found in cereal boxes and vending machines.

With the Justice League presumed dead (yeah, right), the Crime Syndicate of villains has arisen out of this summer’s Trinity War story arc.  The backbone of the multi-title storyline will be the Forever Evil mini-series, with Issue #1 in comic book stores this week featuring writer Geoff Johns and artist David Finch.   Following Villains Month, all of the New 52 titles not directly tying into Forever Evil will pick up where they left off in August.  All of the other books will catch up in April 2014 with the Forever Evil timeline after the miniseries’ conclusion in March.

The first issue of Forever Evil itself today had a big batch of alternate covers.  We count nine of them and are including them all here for anyone who needs a checklist.  Click on any image for a larger resolution view and click on the other images to see a larger scale moving image.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

By Art Schmidt

I was having lunch with a friend the other day and we were talking about comic book movies and the slow transition of the formulas for the ones which have succeeded to television format. My friend was grumbling about the lack of costumed heroes on popular shows such as Arrow or the new Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.  I have to admit, I hadn’t really noticed the lack of costumes in those shows, loving the first season of Arrow despite very few folks with traditional comic book costumes, and enjoying the first couple of episodes of A.O.S. (can you acronym an acronym?).

But the more I thought about it, the more puzzled I was.  Why weren’t there more costumes in Arrow?  Certainly Deathstroke’s mask was a pivotal prop in the series, and the Dark Archer had a cool getup, but they weren’t costumes so much as work attire fitting the villain’s nature.  And of course A.O.S. is a show about normal people, super spies and highly-skilled to be sure, but not superheroes.  And certainly without costumes outside of May’s black leather suit, akin to Fury’s normal wardrobe and the attire seen by many personnel aboard the Heli-carrier in The Avengers.

Speaking of which, The Avengers is a perfect case in point.  The evolution of the superhero sans costume.  I’ll get back to that in a minute.

The X-Men movies made light fun of super hero costumes with lines like “What’s with the dorky-looking helmet” in reference to Magneto’s thick helm, to Wolverine’s questioning of the X-Men flight suits.  “Would you prefer yellow spandex?” responds Cyclops in one of the movie’s funniest lines.

Side Note:  To all the hating fanboys who still to this day think Wolverine would have looked “bad-ass” in his yellow and blue costume from the comics, you have to understand that “actors” play these roles, and no “actor” is as bulky and chiseled as the average super hero is, with very few exceptions (Schwarzenegger and Stallone come to mind, but I personally would not want to see either of them in skin-tight clothing, thank you very much).  Stretchy skin-tight costumes look horrible on almost everyone, and that’s just reality.  How many episodes did it take people to get over the semi-tight uniforms on STNG?  Those arguments went on for most of the first season, and then lingered.  The new trend of creating the costumes with ‘built-in’ bulk might look seamless one day, but that’s still a work very much in progress (RE: Man of Steel).

But I think the demise of the super hero costume really got (steam-) rolling in 2004 when Pixar came out with The Incredibles, an unlikely story from an animation powerhouse built on unlikely stories.  A family of superheroes forced underground, sworn to hide their super nature among ordinary folk.  The dad, Mister Incredible himself, yearns for the glory days, and when opportunity presents itself he grabs at it and commissions a new costume.

“No capes!” admonishes the costumer-designer to the stars, Edna Mode.  She gives us a long litany of examples as to why capes are impractical, unrealistic, and down-right deadly (to the good guy!).  “No capes!” she bookends the conversation, and our hero, seeing the light, agrees.  It’s a really funny bit in the movie, making playful fun of super hero costumes while paying homage to all of the super heroes that The Incredibles were modeled after.  In the back of our minds, we nod along, thinking “Yeah, capes wouldn’t really work, would they.”

The following year Christopher Nolan gave us Batman Begins, his intelligent, well thought-out take on the Batman, churning out an origin story that both honored the time-worn tale of a young Bruce Wayne witnessing his parents’ untimely demise and a fresh, updated take on the child Wayne’s growth from scared little boy to recklessly vengeful youth to focused, driven soldier.  And he contributed to the demise of the Costumed Hero by creating intelligent reasoning behind Batman’s arraignment. Kevlar soldier’s body suit.  Blade-snapping gauntlets. High-tech helmet. And a cape that serves as wings for flying (or, really, controlled falling).  And colored black with demonic attributes to create fear, as he had been taught, to use against his enemy.

“Okay,” we thought in the back of our minds.  ”The costume is okay because it makes sense.”  It had a purpose, and not just the old “keep my identity a secret” schtick, either.

Then Heroes took television by storm, at least for a season or so.  A group of unlikely people with wild super powers coming together to battle evil (and occasionally each other) over the fate of the world.  They were fantastic, and had mind-bending adventures… all while wearing clothing suited not to protecting their identities but to allowing them to perform their tasks.  No masks, no bright colors, and no capes.

Then, in 2009, the costumed hero was dealt what might prove to be a mortal blow, at least on-screen.  Zack Snyder’s Watchmen tore the modern mythology of the Superhero apart.

In the movie based on Alan Moore’s classic deconstruction of the Superhero, no comic book trope was spared including the need for costumes.  From the old Minutemen hero Dollar Bill getting gunned down with his cape stuck in a revolving door to Doctor Manhattan’s penchant for not wearing a costume (or any clothing at all, for that matter), Watchmen the graphic novel was all about what’s wrong with superheroes.  Their psyches, their far-from-altruistic motivations, their dysfunctional  relationships with both their loved ones and each other, and yes, their need for silly colored costumes. In more ways than one, Watchmen the movie turned people off to ‘caped’ crusaders in general.

Side Note:  Want to know what’s wrong with the latest batch of Superman movies?  I’ll give you one big, red, flowing hint.  It rhymes with ‘drape’.  Okay, maybe the writing has something to do with it.  Just sayin’.

My seven year-old daughter saw a commercial for Man of Steel last year, and asked me why Superman was standing in an office wearing a business suit and tie.  I told her that was Superman’s secret identity, Clark Kent.  “He is pretending to be a newspaper reporter so no one knows he’s Superman,” I informed her knowingly.  Being an old comic book reader, I took it for granted that she knew what “secret identies” were and understood their importance in the comic book world.

“That’s dumb,” she informed me in plain, seven year-old talk.  “He doesn’t wear a mask. What difference does his clothes make? Anyone can see he’s Superman.”

She’s only seven. But she’s right.

Secret identities are more difficult to justify to a constantly-connected public where posting things anonymously is quickly becoming a thing of the past.  Iron Man “came out” at the end of the first movie, and it only added to the realism of the universe Marvel was creating on-screen.

We’ve all grown up, as a society.  Costumes and capes worked in the fifties and sixties.  It’s 2013 (and counting).  We’ve had such fantastically intelligent television series as Lost and the remade Battlestar Galactica and huge, sprawling games such as Halo, Skyrim and Grand Theft Auto (yes, I said it) and movies like Avatar and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Oh, and 9/11 happened, which literally changed everything, even the way we look at pre-9/11 media and culture, costumed heroes included.

We expect more from our escapism nowadays.  A cool mask or the swoop of a cape just don’t cut it anymore.

Which brings me back to the Present.  One of my favorite lines from the CW’s excellent Arrow series occurred early last season, when the relentless detective hunting vigilante was asked why the police referred to him as “the Hood”, a simple, bland name.

“Well, we could call him ‘the Green Arrow’,” Detective Lance suggests, to which Oliver Queen immediately quips “Lame”.

Funny, and smart.  The writers are being very clever, winking at the comic book fans but making a bold statement: This show will not be about Super Heroes and Costumed Villains in the traditional sense.  But it will be fantastic, and it will be about The Green Arrow, and it will satisfy your hunger for heroes on television.  But it will be smarter and hipper.  And hopefully better.

Better than the comics?  You bet your ass.  There is no doubt that the independent comic book industry is rife with creative, alternative, clever and highly engaging stories, but the mainstream publishers seem to keep falling into ever-deeper ruts of more violence, more sexual themes, and more crude humor to sell what used to be the most popular mags.  I loved comics when I was in middle school.  But now?  I wouldn’t let my ten year-old anywhere near today’s Batman, X-Men or other mainstream titles.  Comics used to be an escape; now they try to maintain their fantastic premises and characters on one hand while inexplicably chocking themselves full of realism on the other.  The two are hard to balance, folks.

Sorry, but I don’t want to read stories about superheroes battling cocaine additions of villains who have some deep-seeded justification for their evil deeds.  That’s so 1990s.

The Avengers pulled it off, despite the odds.  Having the characters be somewhat realistic doesn’t mean they have to be horrible examples of humanity.  They just have to be somewhat normal (outside of their special abilities).  And without costumes.

“Wait just a darned minute!” you say? “The Avengers all had colorful costumes.  Just look at the poster!”

Okay, let’s do that.

First, Iron Man.  He doesn’t have a costume so much as a super suit, which is what makes him a super hero in the first place.  It has a reason for being, from its origin as his initial means of escape from the terrorists who held him hostage to his eventual means of righting the wrongs of his father’s company.  The suit isn’t just a colorful costume hiding his identify, it’s the only reason he’s super in the first place.  Besides being a genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, of course.

Captain America.  His suit is literally a costume; it was his identity in U.S.O. shows and to sell war bonds during WWII.  He was forced to wear it, and had it on when he first went into action to save his buddy from the Nazis.  And the costume is pointed out several times in Joss Whedon’s clever, self-deprecating script.  “Who here is A) of no use and, B) wearing a spangly outfit?”  Tony Stark ridicules Steve Rogers.  And Rogers himself suggests removing it, only to be informed by Agent Coulson that “People could use a little ‘old fashioned’.”  Again, purpose.

Thor?  Seriously, he comes from another planet where everyone dresses the way he does.  That isn’t so much a costume as just his really nice steppin’ out clothes.  Cape included, also ridiculed by Stark in ripe fashion.  ”Doth mother know you wearest her drapes?”

And the Hulk?  That’s not a costume, that’s his skin.  He’s big and green not because he dresses that way but because he is that way.  Same for Black Widow and Hawkeye, they’re wearing the S.H.I.E.L.D. issued uniform, tight black leather.  No capes, and no masks.

And really, what is a costume without a mask and/or cape?  It’s just fancy clothes.  Which brings me back to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

It was developed and marketed as a show about normal people dealing with a world full of super heroes.  Not dealing with the heroes (or villains) themselves.  And officially, it was marketed as a procedural (yes, you read that right) with a fantastic, Marvel twist on it.  Oh, and featuring Agent Coulson, and the occasional character from the Marvel movies (two episodes so far, and two guest appearances, not too shabby in my book).  Whedon, who wrote and directed the at-times preachy, sometimes disjointed but always engaging pilot, made a point of saying that they wouldn’t do anything lame like “Oh, Iron Man?  Yeah, he was just here.”  It’s a television show, with a television budget and television props and effects.  It’s doubtful Chris Hemsworth or Mark Ruffalo will be stopping by regularly to pitch in and help out the team.  And that’s okay.

A few visits by Director Fury, or perhaps fellow agents Hawkeye or Black Widow, and the occasional tie-in to the ongoing movies of Phase 2 will be plenty enough for me.  Make it smart, make it fit in with the movie universe, and make it entertaining.  And Bravo on having Coulson lead the team, he’s the most super non-superhero of the Marvel movies, in my opinion.  That’s all I ask, and so far, it’s been just that.

And no masks or capes.  Please.

“I’m guessing you don’t know how hard it is to break someone’s neck.”

Grant Gustin joins the CW Network’s Arrow team this Wednesday as Barry Allen–the classic DC Comics scientist who becomes the Flash.  A new preview just released gives viewers our first glimpse at Allen’s first encounter with Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen.  Gustin is slated to use Arrow as a springboard onto his own spinoff series featuring the Flash next year.

It’s not the first time the Flash had his own series.  Many fans of classic TV consider the 1990-1991 TV series starring John Wesley Shipp to be not only the definitive superhero series, but one of the all-time best costumed hero portrayals, with an incredible costume for the speedy hero.

The obvious first reaction is how young Gustin appears.  His Barry Allen looks like Andrew Garfield’s gawky youth in The Amazing Spider-man.  Shipp was 35 when he played Allen.  Gustin is 23.

Check out this first look at Gustin as Barry Allen in this scene from Arrow:

Arrow appears on the first hour of the CW Network’s mid-season two-part finale this Wednesday, December 4, 2013, at 7 p.m. Central/8 p.m. Eastern.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

When Cobie Smulders was announced to voice Wonder Woman in The Lego Movie, it seemed like someone, somewhere was finally paying attention.  Who cares if she’s playing a standout character in the Marvel Comics Universe?  Just check out this Fan Art posted by someone named Josh at this website and you’ll get the idea.

Few have the classic Wonder Woman look and could also pull off the role.  We once thought Chuck’s sister (from the Chuck NBC series) played by Sarah Lancaster would be a good pick, too.

But, alas, that’s not going to happen.

But if Zach Snyder is trying to match the look of the DC Comics successful Superman/Batman series for his next movie, Batman vs. Superman, he could hardly have done better casting the new Wonder Woman.  Although Henry Cavill doesn’t match Michael Turner’s Superman renderings and it’s the mask that will make or break Ben Affleck’s Batman, this week’s announcement of less-known actress Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman couldn’t have been a better match.

Even putting aside her past Miss Israel status and general Mediterranean look that matches many artists’ incarnations of the famous Amazon princess pulled into the DCU from Greek mythology, Gadot looks like she was lifted out of Michael Turner’s run on Superman/Batman issues 8-13.  If you’re going to look back to the Big 3 of the DC Universe for inspiration, there’s not many better places to look.

With Stephen Amell’s public interest in taking his Oliver Queen/Green Arrow into Snyder’s film, and since a new Barry Allen/Flash introduced into CW’s Arrow series with Amell, it would be a waste not to have one camera pan to at least show most of the Justice League in at least a cameo.  And “if” Snyder goes there, his choice of Gadot leaves us begging for him to bring in Turner’s Supergirl, too.

Superman vs. Batman doesn’t come to theaters until July 17, 2015.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Review by C.J. Bunce

Sexual assault, child abuse, gay-bashing, drugs, prostitution, armed robbery, biogenic weapons, and street gangs–what dealt with all of these subjects in its opening chapters?  A comic book series?  DC Comics is finally compiling Mike Grell’s definitive Green Arrow comic book series that began in February 1988 and ran for more than a decade to November 1998.  Gritty and real, it’s the Oliver Queen fans cheered for as he cleaned up the streets of not Star City or Starling City, but the dark alleys of Seattle, Washington.

Except for Morton Weisinger and George Papp who created Green Arrow in 1941, and Denny O’Neill and Neal Adams who re-imagined the character nearly thirty years later, Mike Grell did more than anyone to define the urban archer for the ages.  Grell actually took over after O’Neill and Adams created their landmark Green Lantern/Green Arrow series in the early 1970s.  But he made Green Arrow his own with 1987′s Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters, a three-issue mini-series that finally awakened DC Comics to the potential of Green Arrow and his long-time girlfriend Black Canary.  In 1988 Grell made Oliver Queen throw away his trick arrows and use penetrating broadheads that actually killed the bad guys.  And in none of the storylines was Queen ever referred to as Green Arrow, a component maintained in CW’s Arrow series.

One of the best features of Grell’s universe was placing Green Arrow and Black Canary firmly in the real city of Seattle, including real street names and places.  Dinah Lance ran a floral shop called Sherwood Florist and Queen was even recruited by a secret group to track down a biogenic weapon as a freelancer.  In the city Queen donned an updated, hooded costume and revealed a gritty, violent world on the city streets.  A new graphic novel format “for mature readers” with updated paper and bright colors made Issue #1 jump off the shelves for a teenager in the 1980s browsing B. Dalton’s at the mall looking for something to read.

The legacy of Grell’s Green Arrow series carries on to this day in later Green Arrow incarnations and the TV series.  Oliver Queen was an activist, a social reformer decades before Occupy Wall Street.  Dinah was his first priority.  And he always took care of the downtrodden.

The first volume of the new trade editions of the original Green Arrow run reprints Issues #1-6, including the arcs “Hunters Moon,” where Oliver hunts down a child killer and Dinah wrestles her assault by a psychopath following the events in Longbow Hunters, “Champions,” where Oliver is hired to hunt down a weapon that could destroy the world and Dinah finally comes to terms with her assault, and “Gauntlet,” where the duo try to help a kid on the streets escape the clutches of a local gang leader.  The only quirk to the new edition is that there is no supplemental commentary, interviews, or editor’s notes, no prologue or epilogue as you might find in other reprint graphic novel editions from other publishers.

If you only know Green Arrow from the TV series or the recent DC Comics New 52, you owe it to yourself to check out Grell’s series.  Grell served as writer and cover artist, and interior art was provided by Ed Hannigan, Dick Giordano, and Frank McLaughlin.  Julia Lacquement provided some great colors, too.

Get Green Arrow Volume 1: Hunters Moon now in comic book stores or at Amazon.com.

Oliver Queen is dying, out in the desert, left for dead and we don’t know why.  Jeff Lemire takes us back three weeks to Seattle to understand what led to this moment.  From Lemire’s first issue writing for Green Arrow to today, he has given us an entirely new Green Arrow, and although he chose to keep the trick arrows, not a lot of characteristics would make the new angry young man familiar to long-time fans.  Over the last ten issues, 2013 has seen what the New 52 sees as Oliver Queen.

In the five-issue story arc titled “The Kill Machine,” a mysterious hunter, also an archer, called Komodo has destroyed Queen’s life, causing his business and friends to be taken away.  Komodo brings along his psychopath of a daughter, too—think Hit Girl and Big Daddy or Boba and Jango and you’ll get the idea. Komodo even has the image projected to him of an even badder bad guy a la the Emperor called Golgotha.  Queen has been set up—Oliver Queen is a wanted man for the murder of the leader of the old Queen Industries.  Lemire then pulls us back into the history of Queen’s father, his friend, and that island where Queen was stranded for years.  Like the ghost of Obi-Wan, a spirit guide of sorts called Magus is trying to steer Oliver on the path away from destruction, to the truth. And going along with the Star Wars metaphors, Oliver confronts Komodo to learn the truth about his father.

The themes this year have certainly been familiar, some echo Green Arrow of the past, some echo story elements from other familiar tales.  Nothing has been entirely new in this year’s Green Arrow run.  Yet if you push aside that this is a Green Arrow book, Lemire’s angry young man and his attempts to deal with his own anger, and his need to avenge something, create an interesting read.  If you’re able to tolerate the creators of the Arrow TV series as they manipulate and change the Green Arrow mythos, then you similarly might have no issue letting Lemire do the same in his print version.  What’s odd is we have a competing book that follows the TV series, called Arrow, and the series itself which add to this confusing spread of Green Arrow stories all at once.  Not even a dozen Batman titles show a lead character as divergent as the heroes of Arrow vs. Green Arrow.

The next two-part story arc reintroduces Shado, historically tied to Oliver Queen, now connected to Oliver’s father.  This leads to a bridge issue involving a confrontation between Oliver and Count Vertigo in issue #24, which leads into the Zero Hour cross-title story arc in Issue #25.  It’s a bit confusing, as Queen Industries CEO Emerson was killed a few issues back, and he appears in this backstory issue taking place six years ago.  John Diggle, who has only ever appeared in the Arrow TV series, is suddenly part of Oliver’s past, appearing with his mother as Oliver returns from the island he was stranded on for years.  And Roy Harper appears from out of nowhere.  Oliver looks his best so far in the series in Issue #25, the bearded, rundown archer we’ve been waiting for, but it doesn’t last long.  Even an appearance by Batman doesn’t make all the events of this issue gel.

The current issue, Issue #26, brings Oliver back to even more familiar territory for fans of the TV series, that island that we keep returning to in each episode.  The characters are of course different, different from the TV series, different from the origin story from decades past, and different even from the more recent Green Arrow: Year One.  To the extent this first story arc by Lemire was gaining momentum during the first part of 2013, the story has faltered as DC Comics has the book intersect with both the villains series and the Zero Hour storyline.  It’s possible with Issue #26 Lemire can get the story back on track.  With a character like John Diggle that we’ve all grown to appreciate from the TV series, along with Shado, the monthly series still has some potential.

Whatever your view of the direction Lemire is taking with Green Arrow, the artwork for both the interiors and covers by I, Vampire artist Andrea Sorrentino this year has been well done.  He really has pulled from the Green Arrow look achieved by the artist known as Jock in his brief Green Arrow: Year One limited series.  My only quibbles with the art are things like Oliver’s scared friend Naomi, who has a bomb attached to her, and yet she looks like she is smiling in a two panels while the clock is ticking down—Sorrentino’s expressions sometimes don’t quite match the situation in the text.

Good art and writing?  Sure.  But the choices are strange.  Why keep the trick arrows and little else?  If the story isn’t entirely what you’re looking for, fans of the post Grell, post-Hester era may still gravitate to this series.  And long-time fans will stick with it to see if we’ll ever get another glimpse of the prior incarnation of Green Arrow.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

This week Stephen Amell, star of CW’s Arrow, again expressed his interest in being part of the movie version of the DC Universe, and that he could stand up against Henry Cavill (Superman), Ben Affleck (Batman), and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) and fans would be good with it.  We agree, and in fact, we think Season Two has so far exceeded our expectations, and Amell’s performance as Oliver Queen far surpassed what Cavill did with Superman this summer in Man of Steel, that the producers would be wise to consider including Green Arrow in the Batman vs. Superman movie.  Much of Amell’s success in his role comes from his visible belief in his character, his physical skill and acting ability, all which comes through on the small screen. The rest of the series’ success is the good writing, and fans of the TV series who can’t get enough each Wednesday have had another option this year via a weekly comic book digital tie-in series that was reprinted in twelve monthly issues.

Consisting of 37 chapters that read like short stories, Arrow the comic book was created by writers from the TV series including Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg as well as guest writers, and drawn by classic Green Arrow artist Mike Grell and a host of other DC Comics artists including Sergio Sandoval and Eric Nguyen, and photo covers and new art covers by Mike Grell, Phil Hester, and others.  The book expanded the series by giving fans insight into each week’s TV episode.  One week you could find backstory on Helena Bertinelli, the next a flashback of John Diggle’s experience as a soldier, and some weeks featured Oliver’s encounters back on the island.  With so many opportunities to touch on Oliver Queen and the series supporting characters, the title turned into an anthology series with plenty of potential.

The print series also helped fill in details that could have been easily overlooked on TV, insight into Laurel’s sister Sara and her dad before the shipwreck, who Moira believed to be her husband’s killer, and more about series villains like Deadshot and China White.

The highlight is of course Mike Grell’s return to the character. With six 10-page stories and three covers, it reminds fans of the classic Green Arrow series of how well Grell knew Queen’s urban archer—even if this new Arrow is a different styled character than his version, Grell creates the most compelling version of the character around.

DC Comics has published anthologies before focused on its main characters, such as Superman and Batman, but it is refreshing to see new creators’ takes on one of the supporting Justice League superheroes.  Lucky for fans the comic book series will continue in 2014, following the events of Arrow the TV series, Season Two.

A trade paperback edition of Arrow, Volume 1, reprinting the first 208 pages of stories from the weekly digital/monthly compilation comic book, is available from your local comic book store and Amazon.com.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com