They pull me back in.

And for serious, I wanted to be out.  I wanted to do a series of optimistic posts looking at promising upcoming comics.  I wanted to make it so the titles of the posts ended up being the lyrics to ‘Tomorrow’ from the musical Annie.  Because, that’s why.  Then I see Ian Sattler responding to people being upset with Cry for Justice like this:

“I’m happy it upset people because it means that the story had some weight and emotion.”

Mister Sattler is a very nice and gracious man, whose job it is to sell this series, so I understand him trying to put a good face on it but – come on.  We’re not teenagers anymore.  Not every kind of attention is good attention.  People aren’t responding the series because it has emotional weight.  People responded to All-Star Superman or New Frontier because they had emotional weight.

People are upset because it’s an 1) unpleasant, hacky gimmick, in a 2) clunky, unecessary story, establishing an 3) already-established character trait while 4) taking away the originality of at least three different characters.

The reason it got such a big response is because people could point to one book and talk about how it distilled the worst of the status quo in comics right now.

To wedge myself out of the pit of mild crankiness I’ve been in regarding comics, I have started looking ahead to things that I look forward to.

Thank you, The Brave and the Bold, for seemingly being an impossible title to bog down in misery, no matter what medium you are in.  Here we have a female team-up book, a happy-seeming story, and complete indifference to current continuity.  It has everything I’m looking for in a book.

Moreover, it has Barbara Gordon as  part of it all.  This is the kicker for me.  She’s a sentimental favorite, and while I think her role as Oracle is great character development, I can’t get over the fun she had as Batgirl.  I’m always willing to see more of that.  This and Wonder-Con, another reason to look forward to April.

I don’t think anyone reported on it when it happened, but DC pulled several subtext-laden quotes from Milestone Forever #1. They said that the quotes weren’t covered under fair use and they didn’t want to get sued. However, rather than informing McDuffie of this at the time and giving him a chance to alter the quotes or create new ones, they waited until the book was at the printers. That’s shady, but okay, maybe they really would’ve gotten sued.

Milestone Forever #2 comes out later today, and whoops, it happened there, too. Click through for the quotes. Read them? Okay, now look at this one again:

“Sometimes I suspect that we build our traps ourselves, then we back into them, pretending amazement the while.”
—Neil Gaiman

Whoa! Neil Gaiman! That’s a good one, right? The thing is, it’s from The Sandman #75… a book wholly owned by (wait for it) DC Comics.

So! Let’s recap. DC Comics pull quotes from Milestone Forever #1 and #2 because they didn’t want to get sued. They wait until the book is at the printers to let the writer (and owner of the work) know, preventing any changes from being made. At least one of the quotes they pulled was from a property that they own completely, it being a legacy character and created pre-Vertigo. It’s the latest in a long line of shady, but legal, moves they’ve made regarding McDuffie and Milestone, and possibly the last, considering that McDuffie has no announced DC work coming up.

Were they gonna sue themselves? Is that it? Was Karen Berger gonna run across the hall and whack Dan Didio with a shoe if a quote from The Sandman made it into a comic that isn’t from Vertigo?

Or is someone at DC a petty, childish, scummy, shell of a human being? I don’t know who, nor do I have any ideas, so I’m not dry snitching here. I honestly want to know: who’s dicking around McDuffie? ’cause at this point, beyond of a shadow of a doubt, somebody up there is a firm believer in Industry Rule #4080: comic book people are shady.

I could go on and on and pile insult upon insult, but you know what? This situation should be clear to anyone with half a brain and half a shred of basic human decency. Someone there is prizing beef over money, and someone up there is mighty stupid. End of story.

This issue of Wonder Woman ends with something I had just about given up on seeing; sunny skies.

I’ve had to gnash my teeth over Wonder Woman for a long time, now.  She’s a character that I should like, but mostly I don’t.  She’s in a world I should like, but mostly I don’t.

When the book gained Gail Simone as a writer, I was absolutely sure I would like the book, and at the beginning I did.  Then came Genocide, and the Nemesis/Wonder Woman break-up and the slaughtering of pregnant women and the crows, and – I picked up some issues, but I kept putting them down.  It was well-written and well-drawn and the character was interesting, but (despite my last entry here) I couldn’t take any more misery.  I wanted Diana to win something; a fight, a game of chess, a church raffle, a free super-sizing of fries with her happy meal.  Anything. 

And now, for the first time, things are looking up for Diana and the rest of the characters of Wonder Woman.  It feels like a break with the past, and a new, more trimphant era beginning.

Judd Winick’s Jason Todd resurrection story, Under the Hood, is coming out in straight-to-dvd animated movie form this fall.  So far, they’ve released few details.  There’s talk about how the story will be dark.  And there is a model of Nightwing.

This angular style seems to be the new trend in animation. 

Batman from the The Batman Strikes.

Martian Manhunter from Crisis on Two Earths.

Seriously, every superhero’s head seems to be modeled on Tahmoh Penikett’s skull.

There is also a quote from Judd Winick.

“What I loved best about it is that it had a really amazing beginning and a really strong ending, which pretty much most movies ride on.”

Read the rest of this entry �

I have a friend, who shall remain anonymous for reasons that are going to become clear.

She insists that sometime post-Dinah and pre-death, Green Arrow actually hooked up with Catwoman.  I know and you know that this is a scandalous falsehood.  But could it have actually happened?

I leave it to you, internet.  Have you heard of this issue?  And if so, what are the odds that Ollie turns out to be the father of the Catbaby?  (Yes, I know, in canon it’s Sam Bradley.  Still, imagine the dramatic story that will be the origin of The Green Kitten.)

As always; Spoilers.

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Guess.

Which series.

I’m buying.

My, god.  He’s got a *Bat*buckle.  From io9.

-Gavin read President Evil for some strange reason.
-6th Sense’s 4a.m. Instrumental for the theme music
-I made Esther read the first volume of Yotsuba&!.
-She made me read Devin Grayson’s run on Gotham Knights.
-Then we fought to the death!

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Hunh.

With this little information, I can’t say much, except that I hope it will be more Young Justice and less Justice League.  I loved the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited series. 

I just really don’t want to see The Justice League, Only They’re Teenagers.  Young Justicehad its own feel and its own cast  (the fact that Arrowette is on the show is a good sign).  I hope that they’re not going to shove adult heroes into teenage roles.

Okay, enough about what I hope it’s not.  Here’s what I hope it is.  I hope that they have the dorky-as-hell Superboy.  He was fun and shallow, but also very sweet, with a poignant back story.  I hope that they include both Cassie and Cissie, and that they’re friends all the way through.

And I hope that they have the adult superheroes in the show, just as they were in the comic; stepping in and annoying all the kids.  Young Justice wasn’t just a series about a team of kids.  It was a series about a team of kids who were rebelling, and challenging, and clinging to, and thinking about, and testing the grown-ups in their lives.  That was part of what made it fun and poignant.  If it’s just a bunch of kids fighting monsters, it would just be like Teen Titans Go!

Oh, and I hope they have the supercycle.