Suicide Squad: From the Ashes #1 of 8

Back in the day, I loved John Ostrander's "Suicide Squad". The concept and execution were exellent and Ostrander handled the various "bad guys" well, adding depth to each character. I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction and growth of Amanda Waller as well. Flash forward quite a few years and Ostrander is back with a miniseries explaining how the team leader, Rick Flag survived a nuclear blast in Qurac and made it back to the pages of DC Comics.

Ostrander assembles the classic Suicide Squad in the pages of "From the Ashes" and sets up the series end point of finding Rick Flag. The writing in tense and action packed, with each squad member getting an introduction. The team dynamics are reastablished and Amanda Waller is reintroduced as the badass that we know she is. The squad is gathered together and sent into Russia to find the thought dead Rick Flag. The mission goes awry with Ostrander delivering good dialague, action, and character motiviation. The art by Javi Pina on pencils, Robing Riggs on inks, and Jason Wright on colors is outstanding. All capturing the nuances of each character.

I'm not a follower of "Checkmate". I really had not planned on buying this series, but decided to pick up the first issue on the spot at my local comics store. This issue really drew me in and made me want to read the entire series.

Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Issues

So, I'm a sucker for DC books. I bought all three of these and believe they each had varying degrees of success. I liked the "JLA Wedding Special" the most. Writer Dwayne McDuffie establishes his post-Meltzer JLA right off the bat by bringing in Firestorm, John Stewart, and the Injustice League Unlimited. I love McKone's art and hope that he can get a monthly title to work on for DC. I enjoyed Meltzer's 12-issue run, but I am looking forward to McDuffie bringing an action packed view to the Justice League of America monthly. I would recommend this to anyone looking to jump onto this monthly title.

My girls liked the "Black Canary Wedding Planner". I thought it was a bit girly for my taste and was a bit provacative in a few of the panels. The art was fair and the read was breezy. It wasn't anything to phone home about, though.

Finally the "Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special" starts out great. Amanda Conner's art is spot on. I really like her style. The center spread wedding shot is very good showing all most of the heroes of the DC universe. Of course, the wedding happens, although not as planned, with fighting and mayem. This was a great read right up until the last four pages. The final "shocking" panel just left a sour taste in my mouth.

DC put a lot of effort to create a special event that celebrated joy. The tie-ins, crossovers, and one shots were all fun and funny with the right amount of action and story. However, the last four pages of this "special" were almost unforgivable. I'm not a big Green Arrow fan. However, DC has already killed him off once. With "Green Arrow: Year One" looking quite good and a new Green Arrow/Black Canary monthly coming out. I just have to wonder what the editors are thinking. Death is having a good year in the DC Universe. Whether it serves the story or not.

Justice Society of America #9

The prelude issue to "Thy Kingdome Come" is a good read. Writer Geoff Johns provides a well written jumping on point for new readers. I love the cover art by Alex Ross. He keeps banging out great covers for this title. Dale Eaglesham's interior art is excellent. However, his rendeiton of both Green Latern and the Flash are little old. His center splash page as the heroes go into action is excellent and captures the personalities of the differing characters. The dialogue and flow of the book is excellent all the way until the final reveal of Kingdom Come Superman stepping out of Starman's black hole.

I'm really looking forward to the "Thy Kingdom Come" story. It looks to be very exciting.

JLA Movie

Superherohype.com is reporting that Warner Bros. is aggressively going ahead with the big screen adaptation of the Justice League of America. It is generally accepted that Christian Bale (Batman Begins) and Bradon Routh (Superman Returns) are not going to be attached. The lineup looks to include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, the Flash, and Aquaman. I expect a Green Latern thrown into the mix as well. Sadly Bryan Singer's "Superman: Man of Steel" is taking a backseat to this production. The report says that Warner executives are very keen on the JLA script by Kieran and Michele Mulroney. It has also been rumored that one of the heroes will die.

I'm hoping that this picture takes place after the formation of the JLA and dispenses with the origin stories. If a hero is going to die, I'm hoping they have the Barry Allen Flash sacrificing his life for the team. I'm sure that if a Green Latern makes an appearance it will be John Stewart to give the team some ethnic diversity. However, I wouldn't mind seeing Black Lighting show up. I'm a little leery of the director George (Happy Feet) Miller. I'm hoping that this is not a campy take on the JLA and that they get the right tone.

I am a big fan of both "Batman Begins" and "Superman Returns". I know a lot of fans did not care for Singer's Superman but I thoroughly enjoyed the film. DC & Warner have done a good job of ensuring quality production in their films (Catwoman is a huge exception) and I'm tentatively looking forward to seeing this hit the screen.

Billy Batson & the Magic of SHAZAM

I just read the interview of Mike Kunke over at Newsrama and had to comment on Kunkel's character designs for this Johnny DC series. I think they are fantastic! Kunkel plans on starting up right where Jeff Smith's "Monster Society of Evil" ended and that is a good sign. I'm really looking forward this series getting started.

Superman/Doomsday DVD

The "Superman/Doomsday" DVD is on store shelves today. My son and I got to see this at the World Premiere during the San Diego Comic Con. We both enjoyed the movie and had a good time watching it with all of the fans. If you are expecting a blow-by-blow remake of the "Death of Superman"/"Return of Superman" from the 90s, you won't get it. This movie deals specifically with Superman's fight with Doomsday, his death, and his return. The quartet of Cyborg Superman, Superboy, Steel, and Kryptonian Superman are not dealt with here. Given that, I thought the movie was a very good reinterpreation of this event. I felt that Lex Luthor was captured very well and came across as both intelligent and evil. The voice acting was top notch as well. The only quibble that I have with the movie is the drawing style used. The big jaw, blocky drawings are not my cup of tea. With that one caveat, I'd recommend this movie.

Valiant's Harbinger: The Beginning

I have to step out of my blog's "box" here and mention Valiant Entertainment's "Harbinger: The Beginning" hardcover. I was a huge Valiant fan back in the early 90s and believed in what Jim Shooter was doing. The tightly woven Valiant Universe was a pleasure to read and "Harbinger" was the breakout book. I was an "X-O Manowar" fan myself and didn't catch onto "Harbinger" until about issue #10. I'd like to see this universe back in published comics and hope that the legal disputes between trademarks and copyrights can be sorted out soon.

The hardcover is quite a deal at $16.50 from Amazon.com. This is not a cheaply produced book. The slipcover is very nice, with the book itself looking very expensive. The interior art is newly restored and looks better than it did in the 90s. The story is still very good and you can see parallels in current comics and TV (ahem! "Heroes" I'm lookng at you). The dialogue can be somewhat stilted at times but the overall depth of characters and story pulls you in. Jim Shooter and Bob Hall's 8-page "Origin of Harada" story is a good addition to the overall package. Even at the curren price of $25, this book is worth it.

Now back to the DC Universe....

Teen Titans #50

In picking up my comics habit after a 10 year hiatus, the first series that I decided to catch up on via TPB was "Teen Titans". I've always been a "Teen Titans" fan and thought it would be a good jumping on point for my reintroduction into comics. Also, I thought my son would get a kick out of the adventures of the younger heroes before moving to the big leagues. We set about finding all of the TPBs that would get us current on this title. I must say that I was impressed by Geoff Johns handling of this team. As a side note, this would lead me on to find Johns' back issues of "The Flash" and start buying Justice Society of America. To continue, while I've enjoyed the team interaction and adveutres of the current Titans, I must say that it is not a good time to be on the team. Death has stalked the Titans for quite sometime. With the losses of Connor (Superboy) and Bart (Flash), the team had entered a morose phase with many of the team sulking through the book.

"Teen Titans" #50 is a cathartic issue that will hopefully dispell all of the angst and sorrow built up over the last year plus. It was Sean McKeever's first issue as writer and he did a fantastic job of stitching together a story that included flashbacks to the hey-days of Titans past, along with the writers and artists from those periods. McKeever comes to DC from the excellent Marvel book "Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane". Now some might snicker that I think that book is excellent, but there is a dearth of good comics on the market for young girls. My daughter loved "Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane" and I'm hoping that she will take to the "Teen Titans" as well.

McKeever looks to be bringing the FUN and I'm looking forward to reading his stories.

Outsiders #50

I haven't read any "Outsiders" comics since the 80s when it was called "Batman and the Outsiders". Seeing that DC was going to release a "Batman and the Outsiders" series, I decided to catch up on the last year's worth of "Outsiders". Luckily my LCS had a special on all back issues for $1. I also put the "Five of a Kind" miniseries on my pull list to get me ready for the new "Batman and the Outsiders". I had fun catching up with the Winnick written "Outsiders" and found he did a good job of wrapping up the various storylines prior to handing the reigns over to Bedard. The "Five of a Kind" miniseries was a mix of good and bad, but overall provided a good introduction to many that would eventually be on the team.

"Outsiders" #50 is all setup. However, it was a fun read. I liked Bedard's inclusion of "Matches Malone" and the interactions between the team members. While I wasn't fully impressed with the miniseries, this issue solidified my decision to put "Batman & the Outsiders" on my pull list.

Titans East

TEEN TITANS EAST SPECIAL #1
Written by Judd Winick
Art and cover by Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund
Titans Tower is back up and running on the East Coast as Judd Winnick, Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund assemble an explosive new team of Titans under the leadership of Cyborg! But their first mission may be their last as powerful forces gather to destroy all Titans past and future!
On sale November 14 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 US

Not new news, but something I wanted to chat about. The Teen Titans East Special lineup is shown on the cover. However, Judd Winick stated during a DC Nation panel that "The first team you see is not the last team." The days numbered for the lineup shown here Dove, Powerboy, Anima, Hawk, Cyborg, Vulcan, & Lagoon Boy as the one-shot will lead to a new Titans series which will star Nightwing, Cyborg, Donna Troy, Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy. Does the DC culling of heroes continue in this one-shot? Who is going to die? My bet is on Powerboy.

There are a lot of dots to connect to get this team together - Donna Troy is involved in Countdown, Starfire in Countdown to Adventure, and Beast Boy on Doom Patrol. However, Nightwing is available after leaving the Outsiders. I know fans would like to see Jericho back on the team, but he is currently stuck in Match's body with no relief from that situation on the horizon. With lots of dangling plot lines and use of the team members throughout the DC Universe it will be interesting to see how the team is brought back together again.

Although he hasn't been confirmed for the ongoing montly series, there has been a lot of chatting on the net about Winnick's poor handling of Nightwing during his "Outsiders" run. I have just picked up the last ten issues of "Outsiders" and will form my own opinion of that. For a long time Wolfman/Perez "New Teen Titans" fan, I'm excited to see the classic lineup back together. "New Teen Titans" rivaled the popularity of "X-Men" in the 80s and could acheive that again given a strong creative team. Although I love the Wolfman/Perez teaming, I'd like to see some fresh blood take over the team that they created. Perez is doing excellent work on "The Brave and the Bold" and Wolfman is set to start the ongoing "Vigilante" series next year. I'd like to see Mike McKone or Ian Churchill on the ongoing series with a writer that can handle the team dynamic.

New Supergirl Artist

I only have to endure one more issue of Renato Guedes' thick legged, forty year-old looking Supergirl. As of issue 23, Drew Johnson is coming on to handle the art on Supergirl. Both of my kids that are comic readers didn't even attempt to read the Guedes' issues because of the art. Maybe with Johnson coming onboard DC can pick up a couple of more young fans for Supergirl.

New DC Kids Offerings

I really liked Jeff Bone's take on Captain Marvel and it looks like Mike Kunkel will be using Jeff's work as a jumping off point. The art is quite a departure but I'm onboard for a fun Captain Marvel Series. Here's hoping that "Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!" is good.

Also coming from DC Kids (or Johnny DC) are two new titles "Super Friends" and "Tiny Titans". My eight year old will finally have some DC hereo stuff to read.

Countdown to Adventure #1 of 8

I have not always been a big fan of either Adam Strange or Animal Man, but after their tales from "52" I found them interesting and different. I decided to pick this up to see what happened after "52" concluded. Adam Strange is back on Rann while Buddy "Animal Man" Baker is on Earth with both men getting to know their families after a year's absence. Being former Navy and having returne for long deployments, I believe Beechen captures the family dynamic of a father/husband returning after a long absence. Specifically Buddy' son's reaction to Buddy trying to be the man of the house. Starfire is passed out on Buddy's guest bed most of the book and Buddy's wife reacts accordingly to having a beautiful alien princess staying at the house. Over in Rann, Adam Strange is being replaced by a former Ulitmate Fighter/Action Movie Star. The characterizations of Adam, Buddy, and Koriand'r are spot on. While this book is generally a setup for the rest of the miniseries, it was well written with Barrow's top notch art. From the first page, you get the feel that this will be an adventure.

Jim Shooter on "Legion of Superheroes"

I just heard the news over at Occasional Superheroine that Jim Shooter is coming on as the new writer for "Legion of Superheroes" as of issue #37. As a long time legion fan I'm hoping for a great new era for the Legion. I think Shooter can bring the Legion back to greatness.