So, I wanna start this week’s column with a musical interlude. I’ve been driving around Kentucky in my mom’s car that has a broken CD player, so I’ve been listening to a lot of Top 40. My attention was drawn immediately to Baby Bash and T-Pain’s song “Cyclone.” To the civilian’s ear this song (dig the YouTube video below) would seem about a sexy lady who dances very well in a tornado-like fashion. The civilian would be wrong. The the true believer is able to recognize that this song is actually about one of DC Comics’ newest superheroes: Harvard freshman Maxine Hunkel, the “teen-aged wind witch” who fights the good fight along her comrades in the Justice Society of America as Cyclone.

You see, the lyric “Going hard when they turn the spotlights on” is not actually about a lady who shakes at the club. Rather, as a theater major, Maxine has to contend with stage lights a lot and she doesn’t back down (except when she’s nervous about meeting the Superman of an alternate Earth). The song mentions that she has her own entourage, this of course in reference to the Justice Society. And anyone who would doubt that she could make someone want to do it all night long should just look at the lovely portrait of her by Alex Ross below the cut. (more…)

Pretty much the only comic I bought this week was Countdown #17, so I thought instead of doing my usual round up of what’s been going on in comics this past week, I would do something a little more creative in honor of the Iowa Caucuses. I remain the insurgent Edwards supporter on the Obamaniac Providence Daily Dose, but what’s more interesting than that would be looking at some superheroes from the DC Universe and predicting what candidates they would support in the 2008 election.

The Democrats:

The Flash I (Jay Garrick) would support Hillary Clinton.

Why: The original World War II-era who resides in Ohio’s Keystone City is probably a moderate voter. With some conservative notions about family life, he’s been around the block enough times with the Justice Society to keep an open mind and his experience of being investigated the HUAC has led him to distrust the hardline held by the likes of the Neocons. The relative sanity of the Clinton years has made the last eight years of Luthor and then an alien android masquerading as president has synched the Democrats for Jay in ‘08. Clinton beats out Obama for Jay, because he’s impressed by her experience and aire of intelligence. Plus, he’s mad old and that puts him in the Clinton camp.

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I am not a happy camper right now, because every comic book store in striking distance of my sweet little hometown of Richmond, Ky, is sold out of what has routinely been my favorite book on the weeks it has come out: Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. This angst aside, the comic book peace train must keep chugging along and it was a big week in comics with with other things that bear reporting nonetheless.

For instance, the delayed release of the Brave and the Bold #9 written by Mark Waid and drawn by George Perez (though in the hokey team up fashion of book, they both take the title “storyteller”). Following the tradition of the Silver Age book of the same title, the series is composed of storyarcs formed by broadly related team ups of different characters from around the DC Universe that weave together to tell a big story. (more…)

I always liked comic books growing up. What red-blooded American boy wouldn’t? When I was little, X-Men seemed like where it was at. Probably because of the cartoon on the Fox network and prevalent Arcade game. There was even a short period during middle school when I picked up the comic every couple of weeks off newstands — quite a feat for someone without a car. However, as I’m sure I’ve made apparent by now, I owe my current addiction to comic books and obvious allegiance to DC Comics to the allstar superteam that is the Justice League of America, more specifically the writing of Grant Morrison and Mark Waid.

Back in the late nineties and early part of this decade, JLA (and an embarrassing number of ill conceived, related miniseries) the book I followed (if in trade paperback form from the local media megastore in my hometown of Richmond, Ky). These high years of the Justice League title experienced by me in between the waning days of middle school and the first half of high school were super-influential in forming what I expect out of superhero comics. That is to say, superhero mega-epic that shakes the foundations of reality with a twist of the absurd to keep things interesting. The pages of JLA read like contemporary myth always pointing out that the Justice League was the Justice League, iconic and without equal–heroes as or more mythic than Hercules, Beowulf, Hiawatha, Lancelot, El Cid, or whoever you got. THEY WERE THE JUSTICE LEAGUE and it was bad ass.

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Geoff Johns, arguably DC’s biggest scribe right now, struck again and with gusto this week. Starting his career at DC with the Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E maxiseries in the late ’90s, Johns has produced one of the most solid bodies of writing in mainstream comics. His strength seems to be writing things that should not work and making them incredibly enjoyable. Following this trend, he has been one of the architects responsible for the best weekly comic ever 52, the rehabilitation of Booster Gold, the reentry into continuity of Midwestern vigilante Wild Dog, the fixing of Hawkman’s unbelievably broken continuity, and most significantly the resurrection of Silver Age Green Lantern Hal Jordan.Making it his mission to reconstruct the Green Lantern mythos, Johns has retconned Jordan’s disgraceful death in the early ’90s and laid the blame of his betrayal of the Green Lantern Corps and subsequent usurping god-like power from the Green Lantern central power battery on his possession by the sentient manifestation of fear itself. The project of reconstructing of the Green Lantern mythos in a characteristically Johnsian seemingly ill advised and radical way was continued this week in the final chapter of this year’s blockbuster Sinestro Corps War maxiseries taking place in The Pick of the Week: the super-sized and much delayed Green Lantern #25. (more…)

It was a great week to be a fan of superteams! Along with DC’s Justice League of America #15 (no less than two weeks late) and Justice Society of America #11, we got the premier issue of the Marvel’s third volume of the Ultimates (above) which is my Pick of the Week.

What’s an Ultimate? you might ask. Well, a couple years back someone at Marvel had the beautiful idea of starting an imprint with a new continuity for all their famous characters. So when you go to Newbury Comics and look at the Marvel side of the rack along with Amazing Spider-Man, Astonishing X-Men, and Fantastic Four, you’ll also see Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men, and Ultimate Fantastic Four. This is absolutely wonderful because Marvel continuity is really hard to follow. The Ultimates are the equivalent of Marvel’s Avengers (think the Justice League, only less cool) in this imprint. (more…)

I’m a happy man this week, because my two favorite books came out: Countdown to Adventure #4 of 8 with stories by Beechen and Gray and the Pick of the Week: Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #3 of 8 with Arlem’s art conveying Palmiotti and Gray’s story well and the stunning as ever cover by Dave Johnson. You all have heard me rant and rave about these two series enough at this point, so it’s probably safe for me to focus on something else at this point, suffice it to say that you need go out and by Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #3 right now, because an army of six inch tall people (made thus by military experiments) has declared war on the federal government. I was also finally treated to the tenth installment of Sinestro Corps War which is around 3 weeks over due with a different author and sentiment than earlier parts of the series. Tomasi did a good job writing it, because we never got Tales of the Sinestro Corps presents Anti-Monitor and it seems like the series is puttering out. I hope I am proved wrong, because it’s been a blast heretofore.

I was also sad this week because I was forced for financial and artistic reasons to drop three titles. I am no longer reading Chuck Dixon’s Batman and the Outsiders, Simon Furman’s Transformers: Devastation, or the X-Men Messiah CompleX miniseries. In Dixon’s there wasn’t enough Batman for my taste, Transformers has been washed up for years (if you really want to read something good by Furman check out his run at the end of the old Generation 1 comic in the ’80s), and the art and story in Messiah CompleX were not doing it for me. But for you, my beloved readers, I’m still going to try to keep my ear to the ground and eventually figure out what’s going on at Marvel, so don’t get discouraged. Market forces tell you not to buy unentertaining comics. You should listen. (more…)

  Despite the abhorrent lack of the annual JLA/JSA Thanksgiving team ups to which I’ve grown accustomed over the years (check out: JLA/JSA Vice and Virtue), sitting in my parents new den in faraway Richmond, Ky, I had the pleasure of reading two books by Mark Waid starring the Flash that captured the spirit of Thanksgiving: Flash #234 and the Pick of the Week: Brave and the Bold #8. Ol’ Marky Mark’s Kingdom Come miniseries was the reason I got into DC Comics back in 8th grade and so I make a point of trying to read everything he puts out within reason. I have not been let down by his ongoing runs on the two aforementioned titles.

Waid’s run on the Flash back in the ’90s was well appreciated by many fans. He turned former Kid Flash Wally West into the definitive Flash for my generation and invented such important Flash concepts as the Speed Force–the extradimensional energy source from which all superspeedsters draw their power. However, in the world-shattering Infinite Crisis, Geoff Johns sent Wally into the Speed Force with Kid Flash, his wife and two kids. Only Kid Flash, Bart Allen returned and he had aged four years to pick up the mantle. (more…)

This week, I have one piece of advice for you and one piece of advice alone. This will strike some of my readers as unorthodox for me, because I’m going recommend something about a Marvel comics character that no one cares about instead of giving advice re: DC. Go to the comic store. Go to where they have this week’s Marvel titles. Among the endless X- and Avengers books you will The Pick of the Week: Captain Marvel #1 of 5 by Brian Reed, Lee Weeks, et al. Unlike most of Marvel’s books, in this title you don’t have to deal with endless Wolverine.

Talking about Captain Marvel can be confusing, because both of the big two (i.e., Marvel and DC) have a character of that name. The original Captain Marvel (now owned by DC) is a teenage boy who when he utters the name of the wizard Shazam is endowed with the powers of ancient gods and becomes essentially Superman in red with cornier facial expressions (yes, that’s possible). In the heyday of superhero comics in the ’40s, he was America’s most popular superhero, surpassing even Batman and Superman. Unfortunately, he went out of print for a 20 year period when his original owners at Fawcett were sued by DC with the claim that Captain Marvel was copyright infringement on Superman in the ’50s. Long story short after trials and retrials, the slump in superhero comics and the ongoing litigation made it cheaper for Fawcett to just settle by giving up on the poor guy and leasing him to DC. DC didn’t start using him again till the ’70s. You can get the d/l on him here. (more…)

Last week, I said I was going to decide whether or not I was dropping Peter Milligan and Max Fiumara’s Infinity, Inc. Alas, I am. I didn’t even buy issue #3 this week, because as I flipped through it, it just wasn’t doing anything for me. I had no emotional investment in the storyline. It joins the ranks of Countdown to Mystery and Metal Men as a 52 spin off series that I’m not reading. Incidentally, I was glad that they did not follow through with their threat at the end of issue #2 to kill Steel. I’ve loved Steel since I first read The Death of Superman back in like 1994.

In lieu of this book, I’ve decided that since I’m writing a column and all I should start venturing into Marvel Comics. But where to start? I certainly didn’t want/didn’t have the money to spend on back issues that I did when I was breaking into DC again this summer. Last week, I dissed the new X-Men Messiah CompleX 12-part weekly series in favor of Countdown to Adventure #3 of 8. It was the correct alignment. However, this Wednesday, I scooped up the special first issue and chapter two which takes place in Uncanny X-Men #492 (see above) written by Ed Brubaker with art by Billy Tan, because it seems to be the easiest way to break into Marvel right now. (more…)

It was a big week in comics on both sides of the DC/Marvel divide. In the DC camp, Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns started up new Batman and Superman story arcs launched in Batman #670 & Action Comics #858 (awesome interview with Geoff Johns here) respectively. Over at Marvel, they launched X-Men Messiah CompleX, which they’re billing as the “The Most Important X-Men Story in 10 Years.” (I remain skeptical that it could possibly be better than Buffy and Firefly’s Joss Whedon’s work on Astonishing X-Men.)

Despite my oft acclaimed never-ending love for Morrison and Johns and a lingering sympathy for the X-Men left over from time immemorial, I was more-or-less oblivious to all of this. Which begs the question: where in the omniverse was democratic socialist, comic nerd superstar Daily Dose columnist Will Emmons while all this was going-on? (more…)

So we’re going to play a special game this week called “Hot and Not.” I’ll talk about what ruled in comics this week and grind my axe against what was kind of annoying. It’s like “In and Out” (not the burger joint) only dorkier.

Hot:

*Both stories in Flash #233 ruled. This issue was advertised as the Justice League coming to take the Flash’s prepubescent children from him, because he’s been taking them into battle with him. Waid did much better. He told a story about how the Justice League’s a family. But the real gem came in the art by Braithwaite in the six pager about Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick at the end. This book has finally started to pick up. (more…)

Welcome to the third edition of “This Week in the Multiverse.” It was a pretty slow week in comics for me, so I’m going to take this opportunity to have a column-length look at the new Justice League of America series.

This week we saw #14 of the series and the penultimate part of Dwayne McDuffie’s Injustice League Unlimited storyline. But up through #12, the series was written by Brad Meltzer, the author of the universe-shaking Identity Crisis miniseries that began setting the stage for the altered DC Universe we have today. Everyone loved Identity Crisis. One guy at the comic book store back home referred to it as “our generation’s Watchmen.” And while I wouldn’t go that far, Meltzer’s first foray into the DC Universe was quite impressive. This is a man who managed to make the Silver Age ally of the Flash, Elongated Man and his wife interesting. (more…)

Welcome to the second weekly installment of “This Week In the Multiverse,” broadcasted to you from my Fortress of Solitude deep within Vartan Gregorian B on Thayer St.

Last week, I promised you that I would talk up the two best things spinning off from last year’s weekly 52 series. But first I want to say a fond farewell to Earth-3’s hero, the nemesis of Gotham City’s Owl Man, the Jokester. The dear clown departed from life this week in Countdown 29. I knew he was not long for this world when they introduced him two weeks ago in Countdown 31, as there’s only so much one can do with a good version of the Joker, but seeing him cut down so soon was almost too much for me to bare. In two issues of Countdown and one Countdown special edition, we saw him throw himself into battle against the entire Crime Society and his capacity to love his daughter. I hope Jason Todd feels bad for yelling at him last week. (more…)

Proud to introduce a new regular column by anarcho-comic book obsessive Will Emmons: This Week in the Multiverse. On Wednesdays Will goes to Newbury Comics to check out the new releases. On Saturdays he’ll let us know what gems he’s found. In 30 years, he’ll cry to his kids about how his mom threw them all away.

Hi, welcome to my new column–“This Week in the Multiverse.” Weekly, I’ll be discussing what’s going on in comics—mostly stuff from DC comics but a few titles from other companies as well—I only have so much time and money. I’ll be choosing a Pick of the Week and using this as soapbox to be an opinionated dork. I hope to publish future installments of this every Saturday evening.

This week, former Robin, Jason Todd continued to prove he is the most abrasive person in the Multiverse as he faced off with his Earth-15 counterpart who is that world’s Batman in Countdown #30. The series is fun, but isn’t as exciting as last year’s 52. Paul Dini is a great writer, but he’s nothing compared to heavy hitters Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, and Grant Morrison all writing on the same book. Also on the Countdown front, we got to learn the origin of Earth-3’s superhero Jokester and his battle against Gotham City’s tyrannical Owl Man in Countdown presents The Search For Ray Palmer: Crime Society by McKeever, Igle, and Hunter. It was a cool story with my full endorsement.

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