London Comic League

I decided today, while I was doing a little tidying in my room, to pull out all my variant covers and stick them on my wall around my Batman poster. They all have backboards and there’s all sealed in bags.

Hey, you know what? This picture would be completely awesome if it wasn’t for the fact that YOU CAN SEE EVERY INCH OF SUPERGIRL’S ASS. Can we cover it up a bit? This is silly.

I was checking out my rss feeds this morning, and two of my favourite Tumblr thingies (what are they? are they blogs? Tumbles? I don’t know, I don’t use it) hit the nail right on the head.

First up is DC Women Kicking Ass talking about the slimming down of Amanda Waller. Reading through the commets at the bottom of the page fill me with a lot of hope for the comic world, assuming the publishers pay attention to their fans. Having said that, the fans of today are the artists and writers of tomorrow, so maybe comics in the future will be more diverse and stay that way.

Second up, something I saw over on the Oh! My God! Moster is Girl! tumble. Lets take a look at the cover for Birds of Prey 4, released yesterday:

And now lets look at Hark, a vagrant 311

Is sexism over? Everybody show me your butts and cleavage and I’ll let you know. OH WAIT.

So this week we see another epic selection of comics from the DCnU. While nothing has been given away about the exact nature of the tie in to the old universe, I’m sure some of you will have noticed the hooded woman from the final pages Flashpoint showing up in all of the comics. I really don’t know anything about that just yet, though I have read one spoiler, for the life of me I can’t remember where, alas.

As you know, I don’t have the time nor the money to buy every single comic that hits the shelves every week, but I do try my best to get as many as I can. This week I picked up Mr Terrific, which I was part of my “original” pull list for the new 52. I promised myself when I updated my pull list that I would still keep an eye out for this one. I feel quite disappointed about this comic, truth be told. Ok, the cliffhanger is there, some things have been left unexplained, but I guess I just didn’t like the pacing on this one. I just wasn’t gripped. I do enjoy the cover art though, so I may save this book for another project.

Next up was Suicide Squad which unfortunately reeks of a poor man’s version of Secret Six. What secret six had was a good balance of gender (3 men, 3 women, and Rag-Doll, the he/she wonder) which is distinctly lacking from this book. I like Harley, I like that she pulled a great Harley face, but having her as the only woman on the team *and* dressed in even skimpier clothing than before? This just smacks of pandering to the male audience, which is a shame because I know of a lot of female readers who liked the Secret Six dynamic. We also see Amanda Wallace in this issue, while appearing a lot younger than before (as most characters are), she has also lost a lot of weight, which again seems pointless and actually quite insulting. All this said, however, I did thoroughly enojoy reading this book, with it’s quick introductions to the characters working seamlessly into the story to stop new readers from feeling left out. Well worth picking this one up.

Superboy was the next on my list. A nice little recap of the Superboy creation story, which covers all bases and a little more. The scientist in charge of Superboy doesn’t have a name and is constantly referred to as Red, so I’m interested to find out what role she plays in all of this. I have a suspicion that she’s going to become Conner’s partner/love interest for the next year or so. Speaking of “Connor,” although he isn’t named yet, I think it’s safe to assume that’s the name he will pick up, but some people are aware that the Kent family is dead, so I’m interested to see if he will be raised in Smallville and by whom.

I was quite lucky to get my hands on Batman and Robin today. When I called my comic shop at 10.30 (half an hour after they opened) to reserve it, I was told that it was the last copy on the shelves! Looks like the bat series is going to be insanely popular. A very strong bat book, this one, coupling classic bat intrigue, awesome Damian one liners, and a brilliant insight into both Bruce’s gentle side and his serious, hard has nails side. Nothing at all to complain about in this book and I’m looking forward to reading what else Tomasi has in store for us.

Finally, we have the book that we’ve been waiting for since the Elegy story arc finished in Detective Comics 860. Batwoman is back, kicking more ass, looking more goth, and hitting more ladies than ever before. Bette Kane, Kate’s cousin, makes a return to the Universe, though not yet as Flamebird. Though it seems tacky to bring a sidekick in for one of the most badass characters in the DC Universe, I won’t pass judgment just yet. It may not be Greg Rucka writing this one, but I have a lot of faith in J.H. William III and W. Haden Blackman to pull off something bigger and better than the last time we so the red dark angel of the night grace our pages.

Well, that’s it from the DCnU this week, but I also managed to get my hands on Buffy season 9 (1 normal cover and the 25 year variant!). Although it’s sad not to have buff on our screens any more, the comics are a great replacement and I strongly advise any fan to go out and buy them. This one was a great start to the new series, with the usual mix of willow-speak, sexual tension and wild parties that you expect from the Buffy universe. There is an epic ending to this issue which I really don’t want to spoil. Go out and buy it, if only to complete your Buffy collection.

Wait. That’s how you’re starting this series? Where the hell do you go from there?! Of course, I can’t spoil it, but if you haven’t read it, do so now.

Such an amazing issue! I cannot begin to imagine what’s going to happen next because it was so shocking, so gruesome, so imaginative, I was lost for words. Best of all, this issue contained exactly the kind of bat art I love. What impressed me most was the gothic train that had pulled up at the station. Very reminiscent of the Batman Animated Series, it added a little bit of class that Gotham needs.

One thing that has annoyed me are those three lines to each side of the bat logo. I don’t know why they’re there and quite frankly they make the bat logo look hideous.

Copyright DC Comics.

You see this? You see how badass this is? This is exactly why I was excited by Animal Man. Fantastic read, great art, absolute mind fucking imagery. Brilliant!

Guess which three comics I was most excited about that I couldn’t get today? Yup! Batgirl, Animal Man and Detective Comics! Turns out DC was sold out at least 4 weeks ago, Batgirl went first thing this morning, and Animal Man sold out just before I turned up at the shop. I guess I’m going to have to set up a standing order after all.

There’s a common theme in the DCnU reboot: no one is married. First we heard that Lois and Clark wouldn’t be together, and now Barry and Iris have split up. While this makes some sense, hell it’s a complete reboot, right?, we still see some old stuff. Tim Drake and Damian still have rolls, Dick is Nightwing, these are things that happened AFTER the marriages and are still going to be in continuity.

If Barry and Iris aren’t married within two years of the reboot I will be very surprised. It’ll be different for Lois and Clark, however, because there is so much you can do with a “separated”story line. Lois needs to discover who he is because she’s the best damn journalist in the world, dammit!

Now, if you want a chuckle, take a look at Gutters issue 186 to the left. Superbly drawn, superbly written, absolutely spot on.

Yesterday, Gail Simone was tweating about comic book conspiracy theories. There’s a rumour that Paul McCartney is dead so I figured that a Ted Kord could replace Paul in this story, and be a member of the pop-foursome The Blue Beatles.

A quick Image Search revealed this gem on Batbro’s Deviant Art Page. Nice work, Batbro! If there are any more Blue Beatles images out there, I would love to see them!

I’ve just taken my pull list for the next couple of months out of my draw and taken a gander. This week I have two awesome comics to look forward to. First up, we have Batgirl. Written by the extremely witty Gail Simone (Secret Six, Birds of Prey), I have extremely high hopes for this franchise. My gut tells me that having such a high-profile and prolific female writer on DC’s (second) most important female character will lead to intense story lines and a character that doesn’t come across as stereotypical woman. I think you know what I mean. She’s not going to appear to be cowardly and weak, or wear high heels and revealing clothes.

Gail Simone’s run on Secret Six was truly amazing. I haven’t read them all yet, but I’ve just been past the issue where Bane rides into battle on a dinosaur (yes, seriously, check it out). With this kind of imagination, I fully expect to see Batgirl taking on the biggest and baddest people in Gotham. My knowledge of Babs’ history isn’t too hot, but I’m hoping we see this iteration of the Batgirl get some kind of arch nemesis. Batman has the Joker, Red Robin has Anarchy, Batwoman has Alice, and now we need someone good for Barbara.

Does a female lead need to have a female nemesis? This is something that we see all too often. Take a look at The Catwoman film (yuck) and the pilot for Wonder Woman. Both had female baddies and BOTH worked in cosmetics. I hope we don’t see Batgirl fall into this trap. Hell, I don’t mind a female baddy (diversity, yay!), but can we at least show how strong Babs can be against a guy?

Next up is Animal Man. I don’t really know much about Buddy Baker as he’s been a second stringer for a long time now. From what I can tell, Animal man can borrow powers from any animal that he comes into contact with. Run as fast as a cheetah, fly like a bird, swim like a dolphin, etc, etc. On the surface, Buddy sounds like an absolutely terrible, run of the mill super hero. Been there, done that, needs more imagination.

Now take a look at the image to the left. First of all, the art looks AMAZING. Secondly, HE’S BLEEDING FROM HIS EYEBALLS! Although issue 1 is being published by DC, issue 2 and beyond will be Vertigo, which means much more adult content. If this one isn’t on your pull list, you need to update it straight away.

Finally, this week we see Action Comics, Detective Comics, Justice League International and Swamp Thing. All exciting, yes, but nowhere near as exciting as the two listed above. DC Comics, your new universe? BRING IT ON.