CBF Quick Picks #102 : Animal Man #4
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Onward we go as we approach the end of 2011. After a scary light week in the last week of November, DC rebounded back with some solid offerings:
- Animal Man #4 continues to defy my expectations and really make a case for series of the year.
- OMAC #4 is plain old Kirby fun. Remember the days when comics were fun?
- Action Comics #4 is close to veering off in way too many directions, but it still has a lot to offer to the Superman lore.
As always, sign off with your thoughts on the show!
Andy Kubert Takes On Action Comics
The Kubert brothers are two of my top favorites in comic artists. So consider me happy to hear when it was announced yesterday (odd day to be reporting comic news) that Andy Kubert, fresh off a hot stint on Flashpoint, will be drawing issues #5 and #6 on Grant Morrison’s Action Comics. There’s talk of the Legion of Super-Heroes appearing in this short arc and will lay the groundwork for future issues of Morrison’s run.
Listen, DC – you said Kubert. That’s all I needed to know.
CBF 34 : The New DCU Wrap-Up
4 weeks of non-stop rebooted content from the new DCU has come to a close and we have an all-star panel here ready to share their thoughts. CBF’s own Mike Buechele and QAQN’s Daniel M. Clark join me to discuss the good, bad, ugly, and controversial of the 52 new titles that came out of this new universe. Come listen as we ramble on about:
- The sex controversies in the re-boots of Catwoman and Starfire.
- DC’s pick and choose of which characters get a full reboot while others get a soft relaunch.
- The diverse approach of branching out their books into different genres.
- We might also talk about comics on this show too.
All the comics discussed here are in the DC Re-Launch Store if you want to give them a shot. Enjoy the show and let us know your thoughts on the reboot!
Music provided by Unquiet Nights – Shoulda Said Something
CBF Quick Picks #87 : The New 52 – Week 1 Part 1
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After Justice League #1 set up the new status quo for the DCU, we finally get the first salvo of the new 52. And it was a doozy:
- Action Comics #1 gives us Grant Morrison’s new take on the Boy Scout in pants. Nothing spectacular, but good to see it taken back to basics with Superman fighting for the common man while dealing with authorities that want no part of him.
- Batgirl #1 sees Gail Simone take Barbara Gordon out of the chair and back into action. I already knew Simone would bring the great female characterization to Barbara based on her previous runs in Birds of Prey. I expected just as much here as well.
- You wouldn’t have expected much out of Tony Daniel in Detective Comics #1 until those last two pages knocked your socks off.
- Swamp Thing #1 took a newbie like me to the character and made me love it. Scott Snyder does horror right and this character fits his style just well. Yanick Paquette was no slouch either.
- Animal Man #1 also took a newbie like me to the character and made me love it. Jeff Lemire brings his off-the-wall creepiness to this character that sets the stage for great stories. All I have to say is I’m not burying dead pets any time soon.
There’s more of week 1 to come, but I only have so much voice to spare. Tune in soon for part 2 of what’s left of the new 52 in week 1!
Music provided by Jenny Dalton – Tuesday with Zooey
Final Batch of DC #1′s – Superman and Family
Well, here we are, folks. The final batch of new DC #1′s have made their way to the DC Source blog. And we all know that Superman was last on the list to re-launch. Here’s what we got:
Action Comics #1 written by Grant Morrison and art by Rags Morales
Just coming off its 900th issue a couple of months ago, it now falls into the hands of a man we know well as the one who not only evolved the Batman line over the last 5 years, but also is responsible for one of the greatest Superman stories in some time in All-Star Superman. Seems like we have trust issues with our first superhero. All eyes will be on this one.
Superman : Man of Tomorrow #1 written by George Perez and Jesus Merino
DC is being very cryptic about what’s changing in his status quo. Nevertheless, getting Perez on board to write is an interesting choice to start with.
Supergirl #1 written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson with art by Mahmud Asrar
Apparently, Supergirl has issues with us. I guess I should be moving, right?
Superboy #1 written by Scott Lobdell with art by R.B. Silva and Rob Lean
Seems like our same old Connor Kent, but with more Terminator technology inserted. Lobdell seems to be getting a lot more work because of this DC re-launch too, I’ve noticed.
So there you have it, kids. DC’s September plans are in effect. What do you think of everything so far?
CBF Quick Picks #67 – Detective Comics #876
Music provided by Green Balloons – Superman
The last week in April brought us a crap load of quality content. Probably my longest solo podcast ever, so bear with me (or cut it into 2 parts for your 2 sessions at the gym – whichever works)…
Brightest Day #24 ends the year-long, bi-weekly saga that saw 12 resurrected characters complete different tasks for the white light to the full resurrection of Swamp Thing, as he fights off the dark avatar version of himself. Great splash pages and fight scenes throughout. One can make a case that all of this to just bring back a long lost Vertigo character was cheap, but I thought it worked out great when you consider the story as a whole. I’m sure we can give it a better chance if we read it all in trades. We have to wonder though how Vertigo is fitting into the grand scheme of things in DC continuity, especially when you look at the big reveal in the last page…
Justice League Generation Lost #24 ends another year-long, bi-weekly saga that finally sees the Justice League International confront Maxwell Lord and his Omac Prime creation. Just one big action scene like last issue, but you can’t help but love how well this series performed, at points even exceeding what Brightest Day was doing. This cast of characters will definitely not go away into the DC vault, especially knowing what the last page showed us.
Action Comics #900 gives us 96 pages of great content, hopefully enough to justify its $6.99 price tag. We wrap up Luthor’s quest for the Black Rings that sees him achieve a god-like status and confront Superman one more time. It also ties into the Reign of Doomsday storyline that reveals how Luthor used the character to distract the Superman family. Overall, Paul Cornell gave us a great character study on Luthor, where we come to learn that despite his attempts to reflect the best of humanity, he’s not the most human of all. There were also some decent to good short stories in the issue, one of which caused controversy around the media with Superman renouncing his U.S. citizenship to hopefully become a bigger advocate for human rights. No word if this is in continuity or not, but it’s a big game-changer that has everybody talking. What do you think about it?
Despite all the big books though, leave it to Scott Snyder once again to break out his writer’s pen and script another beauty in Detective Comics #876. He wrote an excellent arc between Commissioner Gordon and his estranged son the last 2 issues and now he takes things back to Dick Grayson with a murder tied to the daughter of his parents’ killer, Tony Zucco. It’s amazing how Snyder has taken this back to basics and yet makes it seem so fresh. Having Jock back on art adds to the awesomeness as well with a few jaw-dropping pages of Gotham at its eeriest.
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