The Flash #22 - A Review (WARNING! SPOILERS!)

It's a race against time as Batman and The Flash move to catch The Reverse Flash before he runs to his death. Thankfully, an unexpected and unknown ally will be there to help them find their way home...


Normally I wouldn't drop a spoiler-filled page like this in a review but with Jay Garrick on the cover of the comic, there seems little point in avoiding it.

The Button concludes with little in the way of revelation for those readers who read DC Universe Rebirth. The biggest takeaway is that Jay Garrick - the first Flash - is trapped outside of time in the same way that the original Wally West was. The ending of the issue - and the ad for the next big event - also seem to confirm what astute readers guessed regarding who is responsible for changing The DC Universe... and possibly for creating it in the first place.

Where this is going is still anyone's guess but the JSA's disappearance also seems to be tied into a man who appears to be a ninety-year-old Johnny Thunder, desperately trying to summon his Thunderbolt. Then there's that blonde woman in Arhkahm Asylum (my money is on her being Saturn Girl)  who keeps insisting that things are wrong and there's no future.

Thankfully, this issue is entertaining even if there's little development of the on-going saga. Joshua Williamson has an obvious love and knowledge of the characters involved and there's a great scene that sums up the difference between Bruce and Barry - despite similar training as detectives - and how they consider their shared experiences.  The artwork by Howard Porter and Hi-Fi is similarly fantastic, with bright colors and smoothly-flowing action sequences. I also like how Porter's design for Jay Garrick resembles actor John Wesley Shipp.

Final Analysis: 9 out of 10. It's not shaking up the DC Universe or answering any questions but it's a solid comic with some great artwork and some neat character studies of The Flash and Batman.

Batman #22 - A Review

Following the trail of The Reverse Flash back in time, Barry Allen and Bruce Wayne find themselves in the alternate timeline Barry dubbed Flashpoint. The problem is that Flashpoint shouldn't exist anymore - a fact that is doubly worrying to the Batman of that reality, Dr. Thomas Wayne, who is rather annoyed by the fact that he still exists...



The plot thickens in this third chapter of The Button but it still feels like we're largely running in circles regarding some grand, epic reveal regarding the nature of Life, The Universe and Everything in the DC Rebirth Reality. Thankfully, there's some wonderful character material in Joshua Williamson's script. The best moment involves the touching interaction between the two Batmen, as father and son see the depth of their love for each other.

The artwork by Jason Fabok and Brad Anderson looks amazing throughout. There's little in the way of action apart from a battle with the allied forces of Atlantis and Themyscira. This fight seems to occur only because there needs to be -something- to add urgency to Barry and Bruce trying to leave Flashpoint apart from the universe falling apart but it's brilliantly depicted in spite of that.

Final Analysis: 8 out of 10. Another solid issue, though most of the material in it is extraneous in terms of plot.

The Flash #21 - A Review

Barry Allen is used to investigating unusual crime scenes - both as a CSI for the Central City Police Department and as The Flash. Yet even by Barry's standards The Batcave is an unusual locale and The Reverse Flash is no ordinary murder victim. With the assistance of an injured Bruce Wayne, Barry must piece together what few clues he can about the murder of his greatest enemy before taking a trip back in time to see the murder take place!


This second chapter of The Button proves stronger than the first. This is not to say the first part was bad but it was, for the most part, an extended action sequence more concerned with set-up than content. This issue offers us mysteriy aplenty and there is much for those amateur sleuths among the readers to consider.

The high-point of Joshua Williamson's script, however, is the interplay between Bruce and Barry. Strangely enough we don't get to see these two heroes team up in an intellectual capacity often and it's oddly compelling to see them talking shop. Howard Porter's artwork, well-progressed past the excesses of his more elastic work on the 1990's JLA title, looks fantastic throughout, with Hi-Fi's colors providing the perfect finishes.

Final Analysis: 9 out of 10. Flawed only in that there's very little progress on the actual plot, but the great character writing and artwork makes up for it.

Batman #21 - A Review

Returning to his investigation of the mysterious blood-soaked button that materialized in The Bat-Cave shortly after the return of the first Wally West, Batman makes a shocking discovery. Summoning Barry Allen to ask for assistance after he detects the influence of The Speed Force at work, Batman quickly finds himself facing a new foe - one who claims to be an old enemy!


Those hoping for quick answers to the mysteries posed by DC Universe Rebirth #1 in this issue will be sorely disappointed. Batman #21 ultimately does little but give us more mysteries to ponder. It must be said, however, that those mysteries are well-presented and that Tom King's script - based on a plot by Geoff Johns - does a fine job of setting up the story to come.

Apart from the titular Button, there is little obvious connection to Watchmen in the main plot of this issue. Subtextually, there is a mirror story, seemingly unrelated to the main action, which parallels the battle between Batman and the apparent villain of this issue in a way similar to the stories within stories of Watchmen.

The influence of Watchmen is more obvious in the artwork. Most of the pages - saving a few splashes - display the three-by-three grids utilized throughout Watchmen. Jason Fabok masterfully constructs surprisingly detail-driven pictures within the confinement offered to him, with Brad Anderson utilizing a perfect palette to finish it all.

Final Analysis: 8 out of 10. A solid start.

Dallas Comic Con 2013 - Sunday, Part Three

And now, the last of the last day's pictures...


Dallas Fan Girl as a crossplay Hawkeye.   

Raven from Teen Titans.

Lara Croft from the recent Tomb Raider reboot.    
Mrs. Incredible.    
An interesting trio: Black Widow, Black Canary and crossplay Comedian.
I'd met the Black Canary the day before, when she was a crossplay Hawkeye.
She was disappointed I wasn't Green Arrow for another day.    
Crossplay Loki.    
Rainbow Brite.
 Black Widow and crossplay Captain America.  
 Aqualad vs. Deathstroke.  This won't end well.    
Crossplay Eleventh Doctor.   

Thanks again to everyone who posed and to the staff of Dallas Comic Con and The Irving Convention Center!

Dallas Comic Con 2013 - Friday, Part One

The day didn't start off the best.  Nathan Fillion called in sick to the convention, which eliminated much of my plans for the day.  It also ruined a special day I had planned for a good friend who once waited in line a long time to get me the autograph of my favorite Firefly character's actor at a Con I couldn't attend and I planned to return the favor.  Still, once I took off my Dresden Duster (I lasted about five minutes wearing it in the line outside. Texas heat is worse when it's humid.) and got into the building, things improved.


My name is Harry Dresden. Conjure at your own risk.
I got through half my autograph list for the day - all the comics I wanted to sign. I had planned to get both Kevin Conroy and Adam Baldwin (the voices of Batman and Green Lantern: Hal Jordan respectively) to sign my copy of Injustice: Gods Among Us.  But when I tried going to both their tables, I managed to catch them while they were away doing a panel or a photo op or taking a break.  Oh well - something to do on Sunday.

Naturally, in between all the wandering around I too quite a few cosplay pictures...



A pair of Samuses. Samusi? Whatever you call the plural of Samus, there's two of them!  

The Atom and Atom Smasher.  

The Clock King. I was reportedly the 7th person all day to recognize him.  

Codex from The Guild. She was with The Clock King. Reportedly, I was the 3rd person to recognize her.  

Batgirl and a Little Sister from Bioshock. I thought she was American McGee's Alice. She was quite understanding about the confusion, thankfully.  

Wonder Woman.  

Princess Zelda from Glitzy Geek Girl.  

Catwoman.  

Wonder Girl - Cassandra Sandsmark.  

Who is he? That's The Question!  

The Question and Rorschach. Classic Coca Cola and New Coke.

Watchmen Prequels Officially Announced.

SOURCE: DC Officially Confirms BEFORE WATCHMEN Prequel Series


In response, Alan Moore to summon Cthulhu from the mighty deeps.

Still, Alan DOES look striking as The Crimson Corsair...





But in all seriousness, am I the only one disturbed that DC Comics is wasting creators like Amanda Conner or Len Wein on this project when they could be creating exciting NEW material?

Watchmen Prequels in the works.

SOURCE: We Warned You: Watchmen 2 is really happening.

My response?

Why Question Geek Girl Cred?

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following was left in our mailbox, written on a mole-skin notebook wrapped in plain brown paper. There were no stamps on the package, nor was an address written anywhere on it. It is published without comment, though an examination of the supplemental materials has led us to conclude that if this is a forgery, it is a damn good one.

*****


Journal. Final Entry. 6.23.11

I write this knowing full well that it may be the last thing I ever write. And yet, the truth must come out. Questions have been asked. Answers have been sought. And still the truth must come out.

It all began months ago, but the battle is as old as humanity itself. It all began when a kerfuffle arose over the idea that certain kinds of women cannot be proper geeks. Or that no woman at all may lay claim to the title of geek This train of thought went on to state that any attractive, well-spoken woman who claimed to be a geek was “faking it” for some commercial purpose.

The truth, as always, is far more sinister. Like the true purpose of aglets.

I began seeking answers earlier in the week after the oldest battle began again. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding how the newly crowned Miss USA referred to herself as a history geek and spoke of her alleged love of studying history and the Game Of Thrones book series. Unlikely? Most would say yes. Conventional wisdom dictates that beauty pageants and modern fantasy literature go together like bikini models and doctoral studies. Yet the world of geeks is hardly conventional or wise...

Days passed. Trail continued as I read the response to the scandal. One of the geek-girls - the so-called Nerdy Bird Jill Pantozzi – asked several questions of her own...

“Why not take a person at face value until you have serious reason to think otherwise? Why does being a beauty pageant contestant mean you can't also like Star Wars (which Campanella also mentioned at another point in the competition)? What is at the base of this denial of identity?”

Ultimately all these questions came down to one question: who profits? How does a woman ultimately profit from pretending to be a geek?

I studied the Hot Women Pandering To Nerds video for hours yet gleaned few answers. Surely geek males are a minority, not worth pandering to? How does it profit Rosario Dawson to speak a few sentences of Klingon? How does it benefit Megan Fox to pretend that she reads comics and likes drawing? Will pretending to like Star Wars help Jamie Alexander to find acting work?

The most frequent answer when one questions the existence of geek girls is that most of them are ugly and desperate. So great is their desire for the affections of a man that they will weather any indignity - commit any act – all to win the smallest smidgeon of male approval. And while many of these “hot” geek girls may be filled to the brim with daddy issues… still one wonders how it benefits them to pursue the approval of those who are – traditionally – the least desirable companions.

And yet, are geek males really that undesirable to a calculating female mind? Today geek males rule much of the world. A small cabal of computer geeks control our technology. Many of the nerds who played games of power in the Student Council grew to become political leaders. And many of the creative powers in Hollywood are geeks. Such men, while physically diminutive, could be stable providers and would likely be happy for any female attention. Still, powerful though they are, their numbers are small.

Additionally, the rich and powerful would easily have the means to make their secret shames accepted - place comic books on the racks of every news stand in the nation and finance Dungeons and Dragons tournaments in place of football in every high school. So subtle seduction with silky slatterns cloaked and costumed as that most mythical of maidens - the gorgeous geek girl? Improbable. Too much work for too little gain.

After much serious study, it would prove to be a joke that led me to the answer. Ironic.

It was a comment repeated by many a geek girl over the last day – apparently a mocking reference to an early story which likened geek girls to unicorns in that they did not exist. Several opined that there were other, more powerful mythical creatures that they would rather be.

Geek Girls as creatures of myth? Thesis. The pieces were beginning to come together.

The final piece came with a fiery editorial by one Devin Faraci, whose mocking words not only called into question the geek credentials of Miss USA but the very validity of the geek girl blogsophere! Within hours, that very same blogosphere was torn between those who wishes to see him raked over the coals and those who thought that he had a point, tactless though he was in presenting it.

It was then that the pattern hit me.

Every time it looked like the geek girl community was making progress in stopping the pointless sniping over what constitutes a geek and who is or isn’t a shill for a corporate master, some mainstream media blogger would emerge to raise the scandal anew or urge the geek girls into a frothing blood lust against one another. Like clockwork. As if a whole society of men were watching over the geek girl population... as if waiting for something…

After several days of investigation, I had found the truth in a book belonging to a group known only as The Codicil. The geek girls ARE creatures of myth. But they are not unicorns. Or dragons. Or nymphs. They are Immortals. Immortals born at random, blessed with the gift of long life and magical skill and yet cursed at the same time. For The Codicil’s text – which I was able to glance through for just a few moments before being discovered – talks of a time of turmoil which is fast approaching.

Indeed, I fear it has already begun.

Consider once more the conventional wisdom – that no attractive woman would ever be considered a geek or identify herself as such. Yet in the past five years the number of attractive geek girls in the public eye has risen sharply. The Codicil text notes this and explains that while each geek girl is blessed with long life, she may still die if another of her kind severs her head from her neck. And for each of her kind that she vanquishes, the victor geek girl absorbs the knowledge, youth and beauty of her fallen sister. Thus each geek girl is forced to fight eternally against her own kind - conflict after conflict - until only one of them is left.

Such is the way it has always been and such, so The Codicil believe, must it always be.

What we saw when Miss USA outed herself as a geek was a calling out to others of her kind. A subconscious signal - for most geek girls are ignorant of the truth or the power they wield and The Codicil prefer to keep it that way - that the final battle... the time of The Gathering... is about to begin.

The Codicil text is conflicted upon when and where The Gathering will take place. Some say it will happen in San Diego. Others say it will happen in Atlanta at the place of The Great Dragon. Regardless, all agree that The Gathering shall be a great and bloody display and that many innocents will die along with the Immortals.

Of course these battles have been going on in the shadows for years. It is a matter of record that Gail Simone claimed the head of Devin Grayson several years ago, thus cementing her position as Queen of DC Comics. And even now rumors have spoken of heated battles between Olivia Munn and Blair Butler on the rooftops of Los Angeles…

I post this now, knowing that The Codicil – who desire secrecy above all else – will likely kill me for having exposed them and their plans to continue to reduce the numbers of geek girls by encouraging them to turn against one another.

Know this – if I die, I die content, secure in the hope that this knowledge might encourage peace between the geek girls that still remain.

I hope to prevent a dark future where Action Chick Katrina Hill and Jessica Mills die on one another’s blades in the aisles at ComicCon. I hope that Felicia Day and Kristen Bell can throw aside their weapons and exchange hugs, not deathblows. But above all else, I hope for a world where the most outrageous nonsense regarding this issue is written by comic book parodists and not serious journalists.


Sincerely,
The Answer

The Opening Credits Of Watchmen

Despite my Feminist issues with how Silhouette's death is portrayed, I cannot deny that this credits sequence is a finely directed piece of art. So if you haven't seen the movie yet - or just want to watch this again - here is the opening which seems to have wowed even those who didn't like the movie that much.

http://youtu.be/4uj_QfMEEr8

Thoughts On Watchmen: The Movie

How did I feel about it?

Let's do this in good and bad stages. And though this should go without saying, do not click on the links below unless you have read the book AND watched the movie.


THE BAD STUFF


1. Looks Like A Movie, Feels Like A Novel. A Russian Novel...

The biggest problem with the movie? It tries a little too hard to be a faithful adaptation of the book. Now, I know that may sound blasphemous to some and confusing to others but let me explain. It's obvious they put a lot of effort into getting as much of the book as possible on-screen but it doesn't look like much thought was put into exactly what should go on-screen.

Alan Moore himself pointed out the dangers of too-much detail in a film adaptation of a book in a recent interview. Oddly enough, he was talking about League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and not Watchmen but the same principles seem to apply.

"The things I was trying to instill in those books were generally things that were only appropriate to the comics medium. They were only about the comics medium, in a certain sense. To transplant them to the screen is going to chop off a good 30 or 40 percent of the reason why I wanted to do the work in the first place."

This is the grand irony of Watchmen. It is very faithful to the source material but in his efforts to get as much of the source material on screen, director Zack Snyder has created what is effectively a three-hour PowerPoint presentation on the Cliff Notes version of Watchmen.

There's no delicate way around it so let's be blunt - this movie is, at points, a little slow.
I admit that may be because I've read the book and knew what was coming for most of the movie... but I noticed very little gasping or audible reaction from the people around me as the movie went on.

The action-scenes all seem overly long with director Snyder's trade-mark slow-motion effects. Many of the action scenes are extended beyond what we saw in the comics - particularly The Comedian's death, which opens the movie and Veidt's battle with a would-be assassin. And the opening credits scene - while beautifully shot and set - has nothing to do with the main story of the movie though it does give us a lot of sly references to the books, such as the revelation that The Comedian was the true assassin of JFK.

And speaking of the opening credits...


2. I Can't Believe It's Not A Music Video!

There are a LOT of music-video moments throughout the movie, where a dominant song is played over a scene in order to suggest mood or place in time.

The effect works in some scenes, like the opening credits in which we see the history of the 1940's Minutemen heroes laid out to Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin'. In other points, like when K.C. And The Sunshine Band's Boogie Man blares as The Comedian is shooting protesters during a 1970's flashback, it doesn't. And in the case of Nite Owl/Silk Spectre's overly-long sex-scene - which is set to Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah - the effect is laughably awful.


3. The Devil's In The Details

Like the film-version of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy from a few years ago, Watchmen tries and fails to achieve a difficult balance between being accessible to those who haven't read the book and devoted fans of the book. There are many images and moments which will mean something to those who have read the book but will be totally meaningless to somebody who hasn't. And the dedicated fans are likely to be annoyed at the minor details which are included in the final film while sacrificing some fairly major ones.

Example #1: The eventually destruction of New York does give us the scene where news-stand owner Bernard and comic-reader Bernie hug desperately in the face of their impending doom. In the book, it is a powerful moment given the slow evolution between the relationship of the two characters and their eventual friendship and the common ground they discover. In the movie, it is two random people who the sharp-eyed viewer may have been spotted in a blink-and-you'll-miss moment during an earlier establishing shot.

Example #2: The details of Walter Kovac's transformation into Rorschach are changed, with Kovacs' killing a kidnapper/murderer with a meat-cleaver to the head rather than by trapping him in a burning building. In the book, this scene is very cinematic and very symbolic as we see the depths of Roraschach's new-found resolve to punish evil as he waits for the building to burn while white smoke billows up and makes random shapes against the black sky. Just killing the man with a cleaver seems... anti-climactic.


4. Sexism Or Satire?

Quite a lot has been written about the lack of Feminist perspective in Watchmen. Certainly the book has a greater percentage of male characters compared to female characters, with only three female superheroes and none of these characters are particularly well developed. Laurie is defined almost entirely by her relationships to the male cast. Her mother Sally is a headcase who fell in love with her attempted rapist, with the implication that she dressed up in a sexy costume to fight crime because "she was asking for it". And all we know of Silhouette and her life comes through another character talking about her death.

This can be explained (and somewhat forgiven) by the fact that one of Alan Moore's goals with Watchmen was to satirize the cliches of Silver Age comics while examining and explaining some of the sillier aspects of those stories. Like why a woman would wear a swimsuit and high-heels to fight crime. But Snyder seems to have missed this angle of the story and - as he did in 300 ironically aggravated the problem with his attempts to ensure more equal-time.

You might recall that in that 300, Snyder introduced a subplot not in the original book where Gorgo, Queen of Sparta, attempted to field more troops to aid her husband through politicking. The problem was that this effort to bring a feminist perspective to 300 was negated when the strong-female icon surrenders her body to the whims of a rapist. In a similar vein, we learn about Silhouette in the opening-credit montage but we get no more information than Moore gave in the brief description Rorschach gave of her life.

How do we learn about Silhouette's life in the movie? Through two scenes with no dialogue. One shows her replacing the sailor in the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse upon his homecoming from WWII. The other shows her and said nurse, bloody and suggestively dressed, stretched out on a bed with "Lesbian Whores" painted in blood on the wall behind them.

Neither of these moments were, it should be noted, in the original book and their addition does nothing save to add unneeded shock value or serve as pornography for a particularly disgusting breed of fan. One supposes they needed something to make up for the cutting of the Kitty Genovese scene.


5. Adrian's Not A Villain! Really!

I don't know if the problem was direction or with actor Matthew Goode... but those who didn't read the book will easily be able to pick out Adrian Veidt as the villain of the piece based on the way that he caries himself and acts. Goode plays Ozymandias as cool and dispassionate to the point of being near-Autistic - a far cry from the ever-smiling charmer of the original book. It was meant to be a shocking surprise that this man could possibly come up with the plan that he did, much less put it into action. The film Ozymandias never smiles and he'd certainly never demean himself by shouting "I Did It" and jumping up and down as his plan succeeds.



THE GOOD STUFF


1. The Ending

It never occurred to me before, but Nite Owl and Silk Spectre's reaction to Adrian's plan succeeding in the book basically comes down to "We're powerless to do anything and there's a bear-skin rug here. Wanna fuck?" In the movie, Nite Owl vents his rage in a much more convincing manner.


2. When The Music Works, It Works.

Distracting as the music is at some points, it is pretty cool that they played the Jimi Hendrix cover of All Along The Watchtower as Night Owl and Rorschach get ready to storm Adrian Veidt's fortress, given that the song was quoted in the book during that scene - "two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl".

There are a few other songs mentioned in the book which are used in the movie, such as Nite Owl's ship playing Billy Holiday's You're My Thrill during the apartment fire scene. And in one of the more few additions that works, a muzak version of Tears For Fears' Everybody Wants To Rule The World plays during the scene where Adrian Viedt meets with several American car company CEOs to discuss his plans for renewable energy. Would that more of the music had been so subtle.


3. Good Production Values

There's no denying that the movie looks amazing. The special effects are dazzling, with Dr. Manhattan being the best CGI creation since Gollum in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But more than that, the sets... the costumes... the whole package looks marvelous.


4. Definitely Deserves The R-Rating

There were some fears that the movie might be "nerfed" in order to try and get it down to a PG-13 rating. Of course we all know that Dr. Manhattan's glowing blue schwanz has made it into the movie intact. But so did all of the other adult situations, for better or worse. Leave the kids, grandparents and conservative brother-in-law at home if you're going to see this.


5. Rorschach.

Jackie Earle Haley nailed the part, plain and simple.



The Final Word? Out in the theater lobby afterward, I heard one tween say that it was like watching The Passion of The Christ without sub-titles. That seems as good a description of what the movie is like to someone who hasn't read the book as any. And as for those who have read the book - just stay home, reread the book and wait for my review of the even-longer director's cut that is promised for the DVD before spending any money on this.

Watchmen Footage From San Diego ReEarthed

Watch it quick. We don't know how long this may stay up.



And is it just me, but with the mustache and the cigar as a young man... doesn't the Comedian look like Groucho Marx?

Watchmen Trailer is Out!

It was supposed to show up with The Dark Knight tonight... but it got leaked early.





If you no likely embedded video, check out: http://www.movieweb.com/video/V08G4asxyEIKST

The Mount - The Lost Archer Column

I had planned to talk a bit about various things relating to Green Arrow, archery and the world at large back when we were doing the Archers issue. That plan changed with current events, which are still draining me of the urge to write. Still, I'm out of ideas for anything else to write about and returning to routine is a part of the healing process. So reader, please forgive me if this month's column seems a bit fragmented.

Hutch (the editor) and I had a talk before the attacks and discussed the reality of an archer vigilante. He said that he was pondering writing about the impossibility of everything relating to Green Arrow, which sounds funny coming from a man whose favorite superhero had an obsession with Indian Rubber Men and isolated a chemical that gave him stretching powers in his garage. But who am I to judge? (Just kidding, Michael.)

Well, I just recently started taking archery lessons, so I offered to write a counter-point article on how it MIGHT be possible to do it from the prospective of one who knows. Of course if you read last month, you know we didn't wind up doing that.

Archery is a great sport. It builds up your arms and shoulders without making you sweat too much and it's a great way to relax. It is also insanely difficult. I've only had one practice session so far where I didn't have at least one shot go wild and miss the target completely. Still, I manage to hit where I am aiming seven times out of ten. The trick is all in learning how to aim properly.

So I have to admit that while it is extremely unlikely that anyone could seriously make it as an archer superhero, it isn't quite as impossible as you might think. No more so than a man suffering a great personal loss and then devoting his entire life to a crusade to prevent others from suffering as he has and capturing criminals, to the point that he forms a network of others to aid him. Batman? No, I'm talking about a man named John Walsh.

The amazing thing is that all the stuff about archery technique I've read in the Green Arrow comics is accurate and helpful. For example, one of the Grell comics talks about how you have to relax and not worry about where the arrow will go; just trust that it will find it's own way. It's not just zen; it's good advice, because if you worry about seeing where the arrow is going, you throw your sight off and can't shoot straight. Even Green Arrow #1 by Kevin Smith was helpful, with Roy's speech about how Ollie taught him to just wait for the right moment before shooting. I'll take two minutes to line a shot up sometimes, just waiting for my hand to steady itself and my eye to line up the bullseye before shooting.

Speaking of Smith's Green Arrow, I doubt anything I say at this point will make you pick up the book if you haven't started reading it already. If you haven't picked it up my now, either low-tech heroes aren't your thing or you're just not a fan of Smith's work. Well, Different Strokes for Different Folks and all that.

But for what my opinion is worth, it's one of the best books DC is putting out right now and it is well worthy of all the praise and accolade it can receive. By now it's no secret that Oliver Queen is back from the dead, but I shall not give the how and why away here. It's way too complex to explain. Let's just say that the book is a crash course in DC History 101, has a lot of cameos you'd never expect and that it has that most astonishing of all things; a Spectre Hal Jordan that actually seems like Hal Jordan. I'm also fond of Smith's take on Black Canary; just the right mix of tomboy and beauty queen.

Speaking of the Pretty Bird, kudos to Chuck Dixon for restoring the Canary cry. If you haven't read the story in the pages of Birds of Prey yet, go rush out and grab #31-35 now before all the collectors start hoarding them.

And speaking of Chuck Dixon and comics hoarding (oh, am I smooth with the transitions or what?), you might also want to check out Dixon's swan song crossover with DC: The Last Laugh. I'm really enjoying this crossover despite a few problems with the scripting. For one thing, there's a lot of needless repetition, with the same scene being shown from different viewpoints across two books. For example, the new Birds of Prey covers a scene from Dinah's perspective that Oracle watched in Last Laugh #2. This makes a lot of the tie-ins seem like filler. Also, it's hard to keep track of some of the characters... especially the new ones Dixon created especially for this story. There's also a lot of obscure characters who are given major roles here, and it's kind of hard for us to care about them since we don't know who the are. I think I may be one of a dozen people who can identify Dina the US Marshal and hands up all of you who remember the black Mister Miracle. It's not quite Our Worlds at War, but then again that's a bit too high a mark to hit right now. You may as well ask to write the next Watchmen.

And speaking of Watchmen (last time: I promise!), I just started rereading it and it's really freaking me out reading about a pending war in Afghanistan and Pakistan what with everything that is going on in the news. All the conspiracy theories of Rorschach have a certain eerie resonance, when one considers the reports of the anthrax letters coming from Christian Terrorist groups in the US or the Bush family's financial ties to the Bin Ladens. All in all, I wouldn't recommend reading it right now. Dark Knight Returns either.

And if you think I'm going to use that as an opportunity to talk about the new Dark Knight Returns sequel... you'd be wrong. Hey, I keep my promises. And I need something to write about for next time.

So happy trails to you, 'til we meet again!

The Mount - Lost Comic Treasures!

All righty everyone. Unca Stars isn't just going to entertain and inform you youguns about some obscure bit of comics trivia this month. He's also going to give you a chance to earn big money. Well, maybe not money. Unca Stars has that student loan to worry about. But you might have a chance to win anything of your choosing from his Magical Box of Comics for Sale. Sound good so far, kiddies? Then read on!

Perhaps not all of you out there know about the infamous "lost comics" of DC Comics. For those of you who don't, let me bring you up to speed. A lost comic is a comic that, for one reason or another, was never meant to be released to the public. Lost comics tend to be very rare occurrences, since editors usually catch any problems before an issue is sent to print. In most cases, these lost comics are shredded... hence the name of lost comics. But sometimes... some of these lost comics get loose. And they can prove quite valuable.

Running down the list of the more famous lost comics, I realize that I cannot continue without mentioning the most famous of the lost comics; Elseworlds 80 Page Giant and the original version of League of Extraordinary Gentleman #5. The Elseworlds 80 Page Giant was pulled at the last minute, due to a classic Superbaby story showing little Clark Kent getting into all kinds of trouble... including one scene where he somehow gets inside a running microwave oven. DC, apparently fearing the PR scandals and potential for lawsuits, had all the issues of the comics shredded, except for a few issues that were delivered to the UK. Similarly, LOEG #5 was pulled because of an authentic period advertisement placed in the book. LOEG long made a habit of having real Victorian-era ads in their book in order to create the illusion of the book being a classic serial novel. The problem with LOEG #5 was that one of their more prominent ads was for a feminine hygiene product manufactured by the "Marvel" company. Again, worried over the idea that a certain competitor might be offended, DC shredded almost all of the original issues. And again, a few managed to get out. Now you all might ask... what does this have to do with your free comics?

I'm trying to track down some of these lost comics. Issues that while not as famous as the Elseworlds or LOEG #5 are still of interest to me as a fan and collector.

Lucky you! You all get to help me look. Here's how it works. In the following paragraphs, I'm going to describe the lost comics I'm looking for. If you can find a sign of where I can get that comic or if you have that issue yourself and are interested in trading it, write me and give me the relevant information, including websites and or/prices. If you tell me where I can get the comic, and I get it from there, you get a number of comics equal in value to whatever I pay for the lost comic. You'll get the list of what I have as soon as I confirm a sale. Or, if you have one of the following, I can just trade you straight value; my comics for yours... whatever I have that you want is yours.

First, there is the Wonder Woman Hentai special; Wonder Woman Against the Octoprobes of Gamsaro. Released in Japan only, this comic detailed Wonder Woman's fighting against a gruesome race of alien invaders, the eight-tentacled Octoprobes. It was shredded by DC due to the rather graphic artwork of famed Japanese comic artist Hujiro Teep Whing. It is valued at being worth 70 dollars in mint condition.

One of the most infamous of lost comics is the extremely rare Watchmen #13. It's existence is denied to this very day by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and DC Comics itself. Regardless, it is out there somewhere... and it completes the story that was cut off with what supposed to be an open ending to the whole story. It's all there... did Rorschach's journal get printed? Did it expose Ozymandias' plans to the world? Did it have any effect? At all? All is answered in this lost comic, worth $750 in mint condition.

Originally printed to keep Mark Waid from signing an exclusive contract with CrossGen Comics and leaving DC, this next comic was printed when DC offered Waid a chance to do a revitalization of any classic character he wanted to. Not surprisingly, the master of comics trivia chose a popular but obscure and often ignored hero for this rare privilege. Sadly, the marketing department quickly realized that the market for The New Adventures of Silent Majority was very small. In fact, they pinpointed it being made up of 17 people, one of those being Mark Waid and the other sixteen being die hard fans of The Force of July and/or Fanzing writers. Still, some copies were printed and are now worth 240 dollars to the right collector.

Lastly, there is a copy of the original print to Nightwing #47. Written during a week-long period, shortly after a camping trip where Chuck Dixon was accidentally struck in the head with a canoe paddle, this issue differs dramatically from the eventually published version. So illusive is this comic, in fact, that nobody is quite sure what is different about it. The rumors persist though.

Some say that Dick Grayson, tired of the corruption of the Bludhaven PD and his discovery that his newly adopted sidekick Tad is a murderer, gives up his career as a vigilante. Some say he outs himself to Bruce and Barbara. Others say that he moves to New York to begin a new life as a dancer on Broadway. On an interesting note, it is also rumored that about this time, Dixon also submitted a proposal to DC to bring back More Romance Comics.

Further, it is rumored that several members of the Dixonverse discussion boards got wind of this, traveled to Dixon's home and set about a brief period of therapy involving repeated watchings of True Grit with John Wayne, a strict diet of raw steak and schnapps and repeated blows to the head with a croquet mallet. Regardless, a week later a new Nightwing #47 script was submitted after a few of the mystery issue were already printed. This comic, which Dixon has no memory of writing, is valued at $450.