Posts Tagged ‘spoiler’

Comics round up – the DS reading list for June

Saturday, June 28th, 2008
Jaime Reyes. Promotional art for Blue Beetle vol. 7, #2 (2006), by Cully Hamner.

Image via Wikipedia

Things have been slow on the DS front as things have not been slow on the real life front (Don’t ask about my word count. It frightens small publishers).

Comic Review 1: Robin/Spoiler.

I’ve just read the Robin/Spoiler special in all its awesometastic awesomeness.  Steph’s diary notes are squee worthy. A totally awesome combo would be Spoiler + Blue Beetle as a team up.  The Jaime Reyes and Steph Brown combo would be awesome.

I love Steph going “Tim Drake Wayne” in her diary. That’s awesome. Also, this version of Robin is much more the Robin I grew to like in the main DCverse.  BabyBatcontrolfreakTitanRobin doesn’t resonate with me as a Tim Drake that fits into the larger DCverse.

Blue Beetle 27

On the Blue Beetle Foreshadowing Hammer of Doom, could the end two pages of Blue Beetle #27 please, please not be a foreshadow? Not just for the sake of the characters, but for the sake of the sales and story writing quality of the title?

BATMAN:WIP and Trinity (1 to 4)

Meanwhile, DC Universe hits the almost but not possible combination punch with Trinity AND Batman RIP. I read both. I paid money for both. Side by side, they suck.  Side by side they are two of the worse comics series to experience back to back.

ndividually, I’m finding myself quite fond of Trinity, and Batman:RETCON IN PROGRESS is very cleverly shaking the foundations of the DC established known continuity.

Here’s the problem though – on the right hand, Batman is a mythic level centre piece of a year long arc.  On the other hand, it’s the end of the Batman as we know it *handclap* it’s the end of the Batverse as we know it *handclap* and the two storylines are on the shelves at the same time.

That makes them both suck.  It’s not even the MuliWolverine syndrome (Sixteen Skrulls and counting). It’s two totally divergent stories in allegedly the same continuity.  Together, they’re fail.  Separated by a year or two, they’d both be key parts of the DCverse.  Right now, you can’t take either as serious contributions to the mythos,

Batman:WIP Theory: Given the number of times the DC universe has been hit with time rifts, weirdness and reality mergers, I think the events listed in Batman#677 did happen – but happened on Earth n+1 rather than the main timeline.  This time crisis/infinite crisis  sort of thing should have resonant impact on key players like Batman.

Oh, and if Jezebel Jade is the villain and/or cops a fridging, DC needs to hire writers. Actual writers, not story recyclers.

Trinity: I couldn’t stop laughing at the open serious seriousness visions – and thinking “Oh hey, it’s baby from that time when Dick Grayson humped the TimeStream back in inFinite Crisis”. I think the Tarot card metaphor is straining at the edges by #4, unless they start putting together a full deck of DC cards. That has merchandise and mythos approval.

Booster Gold #10:

Good comic, and ouch ending. Oh man. Oh man. That part of the arc ain’t over though, because there’s just something that says things turn out in an unexpected way.

Rightio, that’s the monthly wrap up.  I’m going to run silent for a little while whilst on tour for my day job, and whilst I set to planning what to do next with the DS column.  Suggestions and ideas would be most welcome.

Zemanta Pixie

Robin 170: Lack of Case acknowledged, and the Robin 171 teaser

Sunday, January 20th, 2008

 

Robin 170

Thanks to Mary, Weaves, and the host of others who have going OMG! about this issue.

Earth to Tim Drake. Thanks for picking up on that one. I see you were trained by the World’s Greatest Detective (/obYoung Justice joke)

Spoiler Warning

I have a vastly lowered set of expectations for Robin 171. I have a total lack of faith in this being anything but a swerve by DC.

This lack of faith is partly based on the experience, and partly on an assessment of the industry. What makes major players in an industry decide that screwing over the buyer was a better choice than selling products? I’m thinking about the way that representative from DC comics admitted to using pages from the Dixon Outsiders run out of context in the DC Previews / Solicits for the express purpose of inciting blogger anger. Using the sales tool to piss people off doesn’t fill me with the sort of confidence that I think they had in mind*

Given that, and the way that various other issues from DC have been handled with a sneer, a dismissive way, and a petulant whine about sales figures, I can’t bring myself to trust DC enough to feel excited about Robin 171 – which means, as some who has a car named Redbird (with the Tim Drake HeroClix and a Spoiler HeroClix on the dashboard), and had been buying the Robin series when it started (including the two variant covers), I wanted back into the love for the comics.

I don’t feel excited, I feel a pre-emptive dread that this will be a swerve, and it’ll be a swerve to go “HAHA! WE TRICKED YOU! YOU SUCK! YOU SUCK A LOT! HAHAHAHAH!” followed a few weeks later with some industry figure going “See? We screwed over the Steph Brown fans, and they didn’t buy up the comics after we screwed them over, so she doesn’t sell that well”.

I want to be wrong about Robin 171. I really do want to be blown away by the return of Spoiler.

I just hope that the opportunity to annoy a cohort of vocal fans is not more important than the idea of selling product to the same group.

Anyone want to bet on 171? Will it be a swerve or straight up?

*I have been reminded that it was Chuck Dixon, the person bringing us Robin 170 and Robin 171.  I feel less confident about 171