Random Thoughts 3

-Someone bought a copy of Action Comics #1 (Superman's debut) for... [bad Dr. Evil impression]one million dollars. Both the buyer and the seller remain a secret. This is the most expensive comic in the world, beating out another copy of Action #1 by $700,000. Guess I know where that a mill goes when I win Powerball.



-Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths is second best DC DTV. (the first being New Frontier) The Blu-Ray version has:

• a doc on the many different Crhisis that have occurred in the DCU since 60's with lots of creator interviews


• four episodes (two two-parters) of Justice League


• The first of a series of shorts focusing on lesser known characters. This time it's an excellent Spectre story with Jim Corrigan in a nod to his 70's horror/noir stories


• A sneak peak at Under The Red Hood, the next DTV


• The Wonder Woman TV pilot (Linda Carter starring)


• The Mercy Reef/Aquaman pilot. The crew behind Smallville give Arthur Curry the same treatment as Clark Kent. They liked the actor so much that they cast him as Green Arrow when the series didn't get picked up.

-The Christopher Nolan "overseeing" the next Superman movie rumor [false] would be something I'd totally be happy with. Goyer's writing it BTW.

-More DC ring promos on the way. A White Lantern ring joins the Flash and second GL ring. It will also be included in the set of light-up rings in July/August from DC Direct.

That's all for now--

This Week's Comic Stack

OOPS! This didn't post when I thought it did....

The Good:

• Blackest Night: Flash #3- Wally and Barry try to save Black Lantern Bart. Captain Cold has to deal with the BL Rogues, leading the new Captain Boomerang to a dark place.


• Green Lantern #51- Hal confronts BL Spectre as Parallax.


• Green Lantern Corps #45- Kyle and the other GLs try to save Guy from his Red Lantern infection.


• Incredible Hercules #141- In this issue Hercules Dies!


• R.E.B.E.L.S. #13-


• Captain America #603-


• Guardians Of The Galaxy #23


• The Stand: Soul Survivors #4


• Marvels: Eye Of The Camera #6- long delayed conclusion very emotional and best issue of series, but it should have been a one-shot

The Alright:

• Justice League Of America #42- progressing nicely with the new team.


• Supergirl #50- concludes the Lana Lang subplot, features an amusing backup co-written by Supergirl portrayer Helen Slater.


• Amazing Spider-Man #621- Spidey vs Mr. Negative


• Avengers Vs. Agents Of Atlas #2- time tossed heroes reminiscient of Avengers Vs Invaders maxi series


• Uncanny X-Men #521- Magneto is up to something involving the return of a lost X-Man

Random Thoughts 2

-DC Entertainment announced new positions. Jim Lee and Dan Didio will be co-publishers and Geoff Johns takes the position of Chief Creative Officer.

As much as I have disliked a lot of the stuff that Didio has done in the last few years, I give him full credit for being bold and innovative. That, along with one or two writers on key projects has increased the popularity of DC characters and the company as a whole.

Some of his wins/fails:

• 52- a weekly comic series; a win
• All-Star line- created to be a continuity free, new reader friendly line; a zero sum gain, split between the Silver Age inspired Grant Morrison Superman and the ultra violent Frank Miller Batman (other titles like Wonder Woman and Batgirl failed to materialize) while a commercial success neither was exactly what the line was touted to be.
• Countdown- the follow up weekly to 52; fail
• Trinity- although better than Countdown the third weekly was overshadowed by Final Crisis; fail
• Green Lantern- since Rebirth has brought Hal and Corps into spot alongside Batman and Superman in prominence including two ongoing series, minis and one shots; win
• Wednesday Comics- a weekly newsprint collection of comic strips; win
• Final Crisis/Batman RIP- plagued by lateness, continuity lapses and a densely written plot line these events sold well; just barely a win
• Infinite Crisis/Identity Crisis- brought back the event to comics; win

Jim Lee, while a great artist hasn't exactly set the comics world on fire as an editor. He has been in charge of Wildstorm for over 17 years. In the last five the Wildstorm Universe has been relaunched three times, the last two occurring within a year. Of all the DC imprints it is the weakest.

As a rule, leading by committee is a mistake. SomeONE has got to make the decisions. Whether they are good or bad, that same person takes the credit/blame. So this setup has me wary.

Geoff Johns is the single most valuable person to DC. No other writer has proven that they understand the fans connection to characters or the connections and places that those characters have within the DC Universe itself. It is because of Johns' writing that I'm such a DC fan now. I have hoped that this would happen for quite a while. I hope he can guide other writers to maximize their storytelling. It seems that seems that writers chosen to follow his runs on series (with editors making bad decisions) manage to run them into the ground.

• Hawkman- his second title as sole writer enjoyed a brief stint by Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti, but was turned into Hawkgirl as part of One Year Later.
• Flash- after he left the title struggled before being canceled, relaunched by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo (creators of the Flash TV series) with Bart Allen as the Flash, it tanked fast
• Teen Titans- Sean McKeever (admittedly losing half the cast to editorial decisions) ruined what was left of Johns' combination of Young Justice and Titans
• JSA- Bill Willingham and Matt Sturges have divided the team in two in a move that is against the creed of the group. While great writers on other titles, neither "gets" the JSA right.

-I can't wait to see Crisis On Two Earths when it comes out Tuesday on DVD/Blu-Ray. The Crime Sydicate main story and the Spectre short.

That's all for now

Random Thoughts 1

This is a new and hopefully frequent posting reflecting the title of this blogsite...

-I'm really enjoying the Marvel teaser images of the new Secret Avengers team. And by that, I mean trying to figure out who they are. (as if the creative team wasn't enough to get me interested)

-I had a fun time thinking about Marvel characters who could become deputized by the DCU Lanterns (ex: Captain America= Hope= Blue Lantern) and then discussed it with a friend.

-I got excited about toys announced at this past weekends NY Toy Fair. Including:

• A Wal-Mart exclusive (generally bad news) DC Universe Classics five figure set made up of Green Lanterns. There's a Hal Jordan with Parallax induced grey temples, a Sinestro in his old GL suit, Tomar-Re (the orange fish-head alien), John Stewart wearing the suit from the Mosaic story and last, but not least, Guy Gardner.
• A DCU Classics Supergirl Vs Lex Luthor in Battlesuit two pack
• The Marvel Universe Galactus that's 19 inches high with light up eyes and seven or eight voice clips.
• Transformers Generations (replacing the Universe line) coming out with a G1 inspired Thrust, the IDW inspired Drift and a Marvel Comics inspired Darkmount (Straxis)
• Masters Of The Universe Classics had a bunch of figures including two that never got a US release. I just wanted the Whiplash figure, who will come with a classic 80's head and a 2002 redesign head.

-I finally got some answers on Lost this Tuesday. Old Smokey or FLocke (fake Locke) tells why Jacob brought the main cast to the Island...as candidates to become the next Jacob.

-I scratched my head as the Losers movie (great comic series BTW) got pushed back to a higher profile opening on June 4th. Then got moved back to its original opening in April.

-I bought a bunch of Masters Of The Universe Classics stuff on MattyCollector.com:

• Battle Cat- 'cause He-Man needs a ride
• Trap Jaw- he was my favorite figure of the original line
• Man-At-Arms- a pet is cool, but you need a wingman

The thing is though,... OK, the new merchandise went on sale at 12:00 noon. I was able to be online at exactly 12:01. The Man-At Arms was a re-release, but the site wouldn't allow me to buy it as it "thought" it was out of stock still. Not wanting to lose out on other figures, I removed it from my cart. I finished my purchase at 12:09 (site traffic slows processing) and I checked to see if that problem was fixed. I noticed that the two other figures have sold out. In not even TEN MINUTES! I checked out the week old forums the site has and they were ablaze with angry customers (formerly potential ones). Now, the website is the ONLY retailer of these figures (other stores buy from them and resell at a markup) you would think that they would know the demand for these figures. Long story, short... I am lucky! I even got the Man-At-Arms when I checked to see if that glitch was fixed.

-As corny and low budget as it was, Smallville will never be as cool as the JSA episodes/movie.

That's it for now....

This Week's Comic Stack

Finally able to get to the comic store after the East Coast snowstorm.....

The Good:

• Adventure Comics #7- Tony Bedard steps in to give an excellent and fairly important Blackest Night tie-in.
• Secret Six #18- The Six and Suicide Squad crossover concludes as the two teams join together to fight Black Lanterns.
• Booster Gold #29- Dan Jurgens run is nearing an end...but this issue ramps up the tension as BG finds out he his in Coast City on the day it's destroyed. But he's still unaware that the mysterious time traveller he's tracking is his sister.
• Amazing Spider-Man #620- Mysterio's plot unravels as "Silvermane", Mr. Negative and Spidey battle.

The Alright:

• Action Comics #27- Chris(Nightwing) learns about the legend of Flamebird and Nightwing before confronting Jax-Ur and Captain Atom prepares to go after Mirabai
• Stange #4- Strange has to heal the magical "stroke" that has happened, and he is going to operate on Eternity to do that. His new apprentice faces Silver Dagger while protecting Strange's body.
• Realm of Kings: Imperial Guard #4- The Guard/Jammers face an infiltrator as the evil beings of the alternate universe bear down on them.
• New Mutants #10- Cyclops observes the team for the leader of the next generation of mutants as they deal with the Savage Land Mutates who are seeking out Magneto.
• Human Target #1- Len Wein captures the feel and style of the TV show well. The source material, while entertaining, doesn't have much else besides the action. Too bad DC doesn't let him revisit the DCU character. A second shorter story comes off like a deleted scene, nice to see but not good enough to make it into the final cut. If you love the show, pick this up, if not then don't bother.

Trade watch:

R.E.B.E.L.S. Vol 1: The Coming of Starro- If you (like me) passed on this excellent series by Tony Bedard, Andy Clarke and Claude St. Aubin. Then got sucked in through the Blackest Night crossover issues, here is the chance to start over. Vril Dox tries to assemble a team to fight against Starro who has taken over several planets and his own police organization L.E.G.I.O.N. Cloned from Brainiac on Colu, he isn't evil but doesn't care about using people to get what he wants. A fact that will often put his allies in as much danger from him as his enemies.

This Week's (and the last two) Comic Stack

I've been so bad at writing and posting... plus this week Lost returned, so I was rewatching season 5 preparing for it...Anywhoo, without further ado (nor any pics)....

The Good:

• Invincible Iron Man #23- more suspense as we wait for Tony to regain his mind
• Nova #34- alternate reality fun and games
• Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #3- WW as Star Sapphire vs BL Max Lord
• Zorro #19- top notch as always

The Alright:

• Torch #5- Triple the Torches in this issue was fun
• Question #37- The art and story gets lost under the scratchings of Seinkienwicz
• Superman: World Of New Krypton #12- To be concluded...in Superman? Why did they do it this way?
• Zorro: Mantanzas #1- Old school writer Don McGregor gets off to a clunky start, but lots of promise for next issue
• Lone Ranger #20- more drama and little action

The Bad:

• Siege #2- {Incoming} the awful dialogue and pacing totally destroy the "WOW!" moment in this issue, as a character Marvel has built up for the past few years is literally ripped apart.

And some outstanding books from previous weeks:

• Atom & Hawkman #46- Atom saves the Universe
• Green Lantern #50- Return of Hal Jordan Parallax
• Starman #81- The Shade is awesome...too bad no Jack or Tony Harris interior art
• Mighty Avengers #33- Hank vs Norman for a Cosmic Cube and Hank's distraction is the best "You already have the Cube"

Hopefully I'll be on schedule next week