During Grant Morrison's rather insane run through the BATMAN series a while back, there were two issues that seemed a little off: BATMAN #666 and BATMAN #700. These featured a rather violent Batman a generation into the future. We learned that this Batman was the grown Damian Wayne, and he seemed a little off in the head (he talks to a cat named Alfred) and he's got a bit of an invulnerability power not seen before. Morrison seemed to be messing with our heads with this, because some time after that, in current continuity, Damian was killed at the hands of his mother, Talia al Ghul.
With Damian's recent resurrection -- and with super powers, no less -- it seems almost a certainty that this Batman is an established future, much the way that Jason Todd's death became an established past with statements made in Frank Miller's BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.
Submitted by Mike Weaver on Wed, 02/18/2015 - 07:50
What’s this now?
As part of Critical Blast’s journey through the DC Multiverse, Open Mike Night will be expanding to showcase some of the comics that helped shape DC’s many, many worlds. We have some pretty cool features planned here, so keep coming back.
As Marvel keeps rolling out their Secret Wars plans, we will probably be expanding to include some of those worlds too. More on that in the coming weeks!
BATMAN: BLINK collects two stories from the inventive concept that was LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT, a series where Batman stories could be told without regard to where in the current continuity any of the other Bat-books might be.
In this volume, written by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie, readers are introduced to a blind man who has the ability to see through the eyes of others if he touches them. To date, he's been using this ability to live the good life -- just wait until the last 'touch' pays their bills, then use the information about their checking account to funnel money to another account. It was a pretty sweet con... until his last 'touch' puts him behind the eyes of a wanted serial killer, and he witnesses the next victim's capture. He stops this from happening, but in doing so makes himself a suspect.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 02/17/2015 - 03:00
Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week. Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that. Let's get to it!
MPH #5 (Of 5) – I have to admit, I actually had forgotten that this series hadn’t finished yet. When you’re doing a short mini-series, why don’t you just finish the series before you release them? MPH has been an excellent series from Millar about super speed pills falling in the hands of some small time criminals. Starlight and MPH were two of my favorite series last year, so I am really looking forward to Chrononauts in the coming weeks.
It's a big chapter in the (after) life of Lenore, the cute little dead girl, as creator Roman Dirge delves into the Secret Origin of Taxidermy. No, not the art of mounting dead animals (and I don't mean... oh, just for get it!), but Lenore's chilling and sinister friend with antlers, who has a penchant for killing.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Mon, 02/16/2015 - 09:52
Announced on Newsarama over the weekend:
Looks like someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting a promotion.
Deadline is reporting that Adrianne Palicki, who has guest starred recently on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as Bobbi Morse (a.k.a. Mockingbird), has been upped to series regular. Palicki debuted in the role in the second episode of the show's second season, and will be seen next in the mid-season premiere on March 3.
In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Palicki's character of Bobbi Morse was introduced as a HYDRA operative who had secretly been working as a double-agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. Morse's ex-husband, Lance Hunter, remains a HYDRA agent.
If the first volume of SECRET ORIGINS makes anything else clearer about the continuity of the New 52, it is this: It's a Batman world, and we're all just living in it.
This set kicks off just the way it should for a new series of origins of DC characters -- with Superman, whose origin comes courtesy of Greg Paks and Lee Weeks. It's a unique way to tell the age-old story, as Paks chooses to come at it from the point of two mothers, each carrying the same message despite being galaxies apart. Tony Bedard and Paulo Siqueira deliver the origin of the other Kryptonian sporting the crest of the House of El, Supergirl. This provides a detailed look into her family history, including the military and scientific roles played by her parents, and how those roles conflicted.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Sat, 02/14/2015 - 03:00
Spider-Verse has been going on for about 30 comics and 6 months now. All together, it was a really good event. It was pretty epic in scale, and you can tell the creative team was having a lot of fun throwing together different versions of Spider-Man and seeing what would come out of it. We got to see some characters I really miss take the spotlight like Mayday. We've also gotten some interesting new characters added to the mix, like Silk and Spider-Gwen, both will be receiving their own series in the coming weeks. And we finally got to see some confrontations between Peter Parker and the Superior Spider-Man. I also thought the Inheritors were impressive villains, and it was great to see something done with the lore JMS had built up during his run. So I was really looking forward to seeing how this story would play out.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Fri, 02/13/2015 - 16:00
Titan Comics sent us over the following solicit for Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #9, which will be coming out in June...
DOCTOR WHO: THE TWELFTH DOCTOR #9
Writer: Robbie Morrison
Artist: Brian Williamson
Publisher: Titan Comics
32pp – FC - $3.99
Release Date: June 3, 2015
Doctor Who: The Twelfth Doctor #9 (in stores June 3) sees the Doctor rub shoulders with Rat Pack members Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin! A brand-new story begins, as the Doctor and Clara are forced to ally with gangsters on the Vegas strip to combat an even more terrifying foe!
Will the Doctor's morals prove as alien as the unearthly invaders – or can he triumph without compromise... in 'GANGLAND'?
Submitted by Mike Weaver on Fri, 02/13/2015 - 03:00
Maillaro: We decided to double it up with some X-Men this week.
You might wonder why exactly we picked Uncanny 250. There is literally NOTHING special about that issue other than the number. Something we started doing in this column a long time ago was that we made a commitment to review every fifty issues of Uncanny X-Men. It's take some time, as it just tends to happen when we feel like it, but this is our fifth entry in the series. 1, 50, 100, 150, 200, and now 250.
LEGO does it again with this humorous treatment of our favorite super heroes.
JUSTICE LEAGUE VS BIZARRO LEAGUE opens with an introduction to who Bizarro is and what his motivations are, as well as how Superman thought he had dealt with the simple-minded creature for good. But a year later, the Justice League -- Superman (Nolan North), Batman (Troy Baker), Wonder Woman (Kari Wahlgren), Cyborg (Khary Payton), Guy Gardner (Diedrich Bader), Plastic Man (Tom Kenny), Flash (James Arnold Taylor), Hawkman and Green Arrow (both voiced by Phil Morris) -- are up against Gorilla Grodd (Kevin Michael Richardson) and his mind-controlled crew of Giganta (April Winchell), Penguin, Deathstroke, and Captain Cold. This was a fun melee battle scene that brings in characters we've never seen in LEGO minifig version before, creating an immediate want in the market for some figures that don't exist yet. Genius! (Because I want my Plastic Man minifig!)
To say that the Internet has revolutionized society is a saying so commonly obvious that even the television gecko and camel sneer at me for saying it. But for fans of comics and fantasy, it truly is a whole new world -- or rather a doorway to whole new worlds -- as it allows new artists to have their material seen by millions of people at once. I've seen my share of struggling artists showing off their talents (and, sometimes, lack thereof), but I was particularly taken with the work I started to see from a name I hadn't encountered.
The Ame-Comi vision of DC's super heroines in statue form was so popular that DC brought the characters to the comics. Whether the Ami-Comi girls exist on one of the reserved 52 worlds of the DC multiverse isn't made clear, but the changes are more than simply aesthetic. Almost all of the male characters have been represented as females, including Darkseid. It's similar to the conceit of the gender-swapped reality of Earth 11, but also radically different in regards to the relationships of the characters to each other and their world.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 02/10/2015 - 18:43
You know, being a comic journalist is always a pretty fun gig...but then there are days you get to announce things like this, and it becomes the best job in the world:
Sony Pictures Entertainment and Marvel Studios announced today that Sony is bringing Marvel into the amazing world of Spider-Man.
Under the deal, the new Spider-Man will first appear in a Marvel film from Marvel's Cinematic Universe (MCU). Sony Pictures will thereafter release the next installment of its $4 billion Spider-Man franchise, on July 28, 2017, in a film that will be co-produced by Kevin Feige and his expert team at Marvel and Amy Pascal, who oversaw the franchise launch for the studio 13 years ago. Together, they will collaborate on a new creative direction for the web slinger. Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Tue, 02/10/2015 - 03:00
I've been a fan of The Dresden Files for a while. Mike Weaver (my co-writer on Open Mike Night) introduced me to the books years ago. I even liked the short-lived TV series on Sci-Fi. All that said, this is my first time reading any of the comic series.
According to Dynamite, this series takes place a few months after the events in the book White Night.
The Dresden Files: Down Town #1
Written by: Jim Butcher & Mark Powers Pencilled by: Carlos Gomez Cover by: Stjepan Sejic Colored by: Mohan Lettered by: Bill Tortolini
Published by: Dynamite Cover Price: $3.99
Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Mon, 02/09/2015 - 06:21
Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week. Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that. Let's get to it!
Amazing Spider-Man #14 - The end of Spiderverse! I've really enjoyed this crossover, and I can't wait to see how this changes the status quo for the Spider-Man titles. I especially wonder what's going to happen to Spider-Ock, since he seems to have a sense that he is working on borrowed time.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Sun, 02/08/2015 - 03:00
Divinity is the first new Valiant series in a while that doesn't seem to have any direct connection to the rest of the "Valiant-verse." I think that is a huge strength for this book. Don't get me wrong, I love the Valiant universe, but this book felt very unique and distinctive, standing out even among the rest of the terrific comics that Valiant puts out every month.
Divinity #1
Written by: Matt Kindt
Pencilled by: Trevor Hairsine
Inked by: Ryan Winn
Colored by: David Baron
Lettered by: Dave Lanphear
Published by: Valiant
Cover Price: $3.99
Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Sat, 02/07/2015 - 03:00
This might sound strange, but I only recently became a Spawn fan. I couldn't even tell you what made me decide to check out Spawn, but after doing some marathon reading over the last several months, #246 was the first issue I bought new. Which was a real hassle, because Spawn is one of the few mainstream comics that was not available digitally. I've mentioned in the past, I really don't have a regular comic shop, and it seemed like most stores don't order much Spawn at this point. I also don't have a lot of room to store comics right now, but I was really invested in Spawn, so I would make the effort to get these issues.
The third volume in the worlds most expensive series with the greatest publishing interval is finally here -- and it's worth it on both counts.
SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE's third volume picks up right where the second volume left off -- with the world leaders aghast at this new Superman's brashness at deposing a despotic leader, and the United States military complex hiring the two most brilliant minds on Earth to devise a way to stop him: Lex and Alexandra Luthor.
Oh, and it introduces us to: The Superman Signal! But more about that later.
Submitted by Mike 'Ace' Maillaro on Fri, 02/06/2015 - 11:10
From DC:
This summer, DC Entertainment launches a bold new direction for the DC Universe (DCU) that is even more inclusive and accessible to a wider group of readers as the publisher continues to evolve comic storytelling for its next generation of fans. Award-winning, critically acclaimed writers are headlining the June 2015 slate of DC Comics’ new periodicals and graphic novels, including Gene Luen Yang, Bryan Hitch, Garth Ennis and Ming Doyle.
Beginning June 3rd, the DC Comics line of comic books will consist of 24 brand-new series that will begin at issue number one, as well as 25 on-going, bestselling fan favorite series that will continue without a break in the issue numbering. The total number of periodicals in the DCU will be 49, with additional new titles debuting throughout the year.
