Thursday Night Comic Con News Round-Up - Part Three

* Geoff Johns promises a lot of surprises in Justice League #12, including Aquaman calling the team out for their unfriendly behavior toward one another. (DC NOW! Panel)

* Aquaman #0 will give us our first view of Atlantis in the new timeline. Also, the current Aquaman storyline, "The Others", will end in Issue #13. (DC NOW! Panel)

* The new Green Lantern depicted on the cover of Green Lantern #0 reportedly uses a gun because he doesn't trust the ring to not run out of energy. There may also be the matter of The Guardians working on a third army that lacks free will... (DC NOW! Panel)

* Raven is coming up in Teen Titans. Scott Lobdell would also like to bring Supegirl onto the team, but notes that it's unlikely that will happen. (DC NOW! Panel)

* No Wally West in The Flash anytime soon. There may, however, be a storyline where The Flash is forced to team up with The Rogues to fight Gorilla Grodd and an army of sentient gorillas. (DC NOW! Panel)

Teen Titans #1 - A Review

I was dreading this title, to put it mildly. Red Hood And The Outlaws #1 had me ready to put Scott Lobdell on the list of writers whose involvement in a project will stop me from buying it. And Superboy #1 left me flat, for the most part, seeming less like a book about Superboy and more like a proposed #0 Issue for this title - Teen Titans #1. Yet somehow, despite all this baggage going into this book, I found myself appreciating it for what it was in spite of what I wish it was.

Picking up where Superboy #1 left off, this issue introduces us to the agenda of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. - a clandestine organization that is abducting teenagers with superpowers for nefarious purposes. They make a move to capture Tim Drake a.k.a. Red Robin, as he is monitoring news reports of different teenagers with superpowers. He escapes easily and then hits the road, having it in mind to build his own group of like-minded teenage heroes. His first recruit, whom N.O.W.H.E.R.E. just barely beats him to, is a young woman named Cassandra Sandsmark. The issue ends with what is basically the same scene as the end of Superboy #1, where the Kryptonian/Human hybrid clone created by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is released.

This issue suffers from a lot of the same problems that plagued Justice League #1. We get to know something of Kid Flash, Robin and "Don't Call Me Wonder Girl" as characters but over half the team depicted on the cover isn't in this book. The new Kid Flash seems to be splitting the difference between Wally West and Bart Allen, being fairly intelligent but publicity minded and quicker to act than he is to think. Tim Drake is shown to be as intelligent and resourceful as a Robin should be. Cassie Sandsmark seems to have changed the most, having been aged to 17 and having been reinvented as a career criminal who apparently stole the magical Greek artifacts that give her superpowers. There's a lot of good set-up here but this is another title that will probably read better as a trade than as a monthly.

Brett Booth's artwork can almost carry this title by itself. Booth's style is similar to that of Jim Lee (no surprise as the two are frequent collaborators), full of action and motion in every panel. There's little that seems static or posed, which lends itself well to Lobdell's fast-paced script. The sequences involving Kid Flash are particularly noteworthy for this.

I wasn't looking forward to this book at all but was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out. Granting that some sort of Teen Titans revamp is needed - the series being one of the most beloved franchises DC Comics has - I'd think something a little closer in tone to the Young Justice cartoon would win more readers. I'm also curious - as I'm sure are many classic Titans fans - just what the status of the original Wolfman/Perez team is post-Revamp. This book suggests that Red Robin is drawing inspiration from Dick Grayson's team and Roy Harper's dialogue in Red Hood And The Outlaws says that there was some kind of Teen Titans team before this one, even naming some members of it. Perhaps more details will come in future issues? As it is, I'd recommend this book to any Teen Titans fan who can keep an open mind, with the caveat that you should probably be reading Superboy as well.

Red Hood And The Outlaws #1 - A Review

There’s an old saying that if you can’t say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all. With that in mind, I have nothing to say about Red Hood & The Outlaws #1.

…

What?

...

Don’t look at me like that!

…

Oh, okay! Fine! I guess I do owe it to my readers to go into a little more detail than that.

After rescuing Roy “No Codename Given” Harper from a Quraci prison, Jason “Red Hood” Todd journeys to an island paradise with Roy in tow. As Roy enjoys the ample feminine charms of Jason’s other partner – the alien Starfire – Jason meets with a mysterious woman named Essence. Informed that some secret society he was once affiliated with called The All Caste has been destroyed by some other secret society called The Untitled, Jason leaves, alone, to go investigate.

Lobdell’s script is full of action but not much else. Nothing receives much, if any, development. The All Caste and The Untitled aren’t defined as anything other than “good group” and “bad group”. Jason Todd has no apparent motivation for helping Essence other than a vague obligation to her and he lacks any true motivation to help Roy at the start of the comic. We’re told that Roy became a soldier of fortune on Jason’s suggestion but nothing is said to explain why he’s following Jason’s lead to begin with or his current standing with Green Arrow. And Kori has no reason for hanging around with Jason and helping him with whatever he’s doing apart from having nothing better to do. She even says as much in the one page where we get to see things from her perspective!

Speaking of perspective, let’s talk about the artwork of Kenneth Rocafort for a second. Laura Hudson of Comics Alliance (who said everything about how stupid Starfire’s new personality is so I didn’t have to here.) pointed out how Kori seems to be eternally posing for an unseen photographer. She neglected to mention that the rest of the artwork is as equally posed and unnatural looking as Starfire’s bent spine. Starfire’s breast-size and hair-length also change from panel to panel but that’s just the tip of the artistic iceberg.

We are told on the first page that Roy is being held prisoner by the Quracian people he was fighting to help liberate. Explain then why the people we see escorting him out of his cell appear to be typical, crew-cut American soldiers? I could go into deeper detail about the places where the art and story don’t line up but I don’t want to waste any more time on this book, except to note how odd it is that Jason has a big red Bat-symbol on his chest when he’s supposedly trying to get away from his mentor, according to Lobdell.

Despite all this, I think what they’ve done – and failed to do – with Roy Harper is what annoys me the most about this comic. In the aftermath of Cry For Justice and Rise of Arsenal, which left thousands of Roy Harper fans enraged, DC Comics had a chance to redefine the character and start fresh. Sadly, they seem to have missed the point behind our outrage.

The fans weren’t upset because Roy lost his arm. They weren’t upset because he gave in to his drug addiction. They were upset because James Robinson, J.T. Krul and the editors behind them signed off on destroying one of the most unique characters in comics – a single father superhero trying to raise a daughter – for the sake of creating another mercenary anti-hero struggling to find something to live for. And now here we are. Roy Harper has his arm back. Roy Harper is not an addict anymore. But Roy Harper is still a mercenary anti-hero struggling to find something to live for. But hey – at least he’s getting laid now!

Superboy #1 - A Review

The biggest problem with Superboy #1 is that it really isn’t about Superboy – it’s about the organization that created him and the people who want to exploit him.

Meet NOWHERE – a mysterious group of scientists (my, but there seem to be a lot more of those in this New DCU) who have created a clone using a mix of Superman DNA and an anonymous human donor. Most of the issue is told from the perspective of this so-called Superboy, who absorbs knowledge easily and remembers things without knowing how he learned them. He starts out in a tank, unresponsive to outside stimuli until the scientists try to kill him at which point he is moved into a VR simulation of small-town Kansas based on the memories of his “parents”. Despite showing a complete lack of empathy, the Powers That Be are anxious to put Superboy to work at some sinister yet undefined purpose. Meanwhile, a mole inside NOWHERE feeds information to reporter Lois Lane about the sinister goings on.

This script by Scott Lobdell reads more like a #0 Issue for his upcoming Teen Titans book than a Superboy comic, with everything leading up to a final splash-page depicting him standing alongside other teen superheroes. There is more focus upon Superboy’s doctor – a skinny redhead prodigy with glasses (figure that one out, comic fans!) and a security guard named Rose Wilson (no prize for guessing who she is) than there is on Superboy himself. This is not surprising given that, at present, Superboy is a cipher with the emotional maturity of a toddler, who can’t begin to understand the emotions his teenage body and implanted memories inspire. While the idea of telling part of the story from this perspective is an inspired idea, I’m afraid Lobdell can’t quite pull it off. Using the redhead Doctor who seems to have developed an attachment to Superboy as a focal point throughout might have been more effective, particularly if she is who I think she is… or will be.

Thankfully, the art by R.B. Silva and Rob Lean is all-around excellent. My one complaint is that some scenes seem posed and lifeless, with little organic flow to them. Still, all of the characters are distinctly designed and the line-work is particularly noteworthy: the inks aren’t too thick, yet the foreground figures are quite clearly separated from the background without any mess.

In the end, your tolerance for Superboy may come down to how big of a fan you are of Teen Titans or Scott Lobdell’s writing. The story here isn’t bad but there has to have been an easier way to streamline Superboy’s origins, staying true to what came before while utilizing the interpretation of the character from the Young Justice cartoon. Perhaps there will be a pay-off in the upcoming Teen Titans #1 that will make this worthwhile in the end. We can only hope.

DC Comics News From SDCC: Day One

'Flashpoint' Panel Confirms Event Will Result in DC's Relaunch Continuity.

50,000 DC Comics fans say "Well, duh..."


Sterling Gates adding a "brand new thing" to the Speed Force that he's very proud of.

SPOILER: It's a caramel center.


Wally West to show up in Kid Flash Lost #3 in an unexpected way.

SPOILER: Drunk. And naked.


Gail Simone reassured a fan that Stephanie Brown would not disappear.

SPOILER: Because technically, if you never existed, you can't have ever disappeared.


Regarding Catwoman - Judd Winick stated that in his first interview he said "sexy" about forty-five times, and it wasn't enough -- and that it was a "dirty, dirty book." Winick described her as sexy, dangerous, prone to stealing things and very, very smart.

Starman has stated that Catwoman was doomed to early cancellation about forty-five-hundred times since it was announced Judd Winick would be writing it, and it wasn't enough -- and that Winick's remarks were "very, very repetitive. Repetitive."


Lobdell said he "doesn't do dark," so this is going to be a "fun" book about a bunch of damaged characters, starring Jason Todd, Starfire and Arsenal.

Noted how incredibly easy it is to do a comparatively fun book with these characters, after what was done with them in Countdown, Titans and Cry For Justice.


On Starfire: Lobdell stated that he wants to shift Starfire away from being fully integrated into human society, and show her more alien side.

Reworked costume will help to show off EVERY side of Starfire.


Wonder Woman's costume to now feature 'retractable pants'.

At least until fan outcry suggests they aren't popular, in which case DC Comics will retract the retractable pants.


The Marvel family is on hiatus for the time being, though they will play a role in Grant Morrison's upcoming Multiversity story, in a book with art by Cameron Stewart titled 'Shazam's Thunder'.

Captain Marvel fans rejoice, for this means Judd Winick is not writing Power of Shazam again.


Because they want to return characters to younger incarnations, Arsenal is now too young to have had children, so Lian Harper no longer exists. He will also have two arms and likely won't be known for abusing heroin.

Roy Harper fans confused. Happy that Rise Of Arsenal is no longer in continuity but sad that all the good stories with Roy Harper are gone too.


Mystery woman on Justice League International cover identified as Lady Godiva.

Disappointed Donna Troy and Gypsy fans mourn. Everyone else asks, "Who the @#$% is Lady Godiva?"


Oliver Queen's new company, Q-Corps, will be “Apple-esque”, says writer J.T. Krul

We hope they mean Apple-esque in that they sell lots of cutting-edge technology to the masses and not because they make substantial financial contributions to anti-gay hate groups.


Dan Didio Says No Big Events For DC in 2012.

Joe Quesada expected to announce No Big Events for Marvel in 2012 by weekend's end.