Things I’m Obsessed With Right Now: Comics News Edition

This weekend didn’t quite shake out as I hoped writing wise, mostly because my body finally caught up to me exhaustion wise, and also I was watching a lot of Mad Men. So that leads to of course, “Things I’m Obsessed With Right Now.” And there’s been a lot of cool stuff happening in comics so let’s talk about that!

• Damian Wayne lost his superpowers and he’s heading to Gotham Academy! The last few pages of issue 5 had me kicking my feet excitedly. Everything about this makes me so happy. Now that he’s back I just want a larger presence in the Bat Books for Dami. I think it’s what we all want.
• All-New, All Different Avengers, A team that will feature Kamala, Miles and Sam Alexander. This is amazing. I love everything about this. I was nervous for Sam coming out of Secret Wars, because Richard Ryder, who I’m sure is great, but isn’t my Nova, Sam is my Nova. I was less nervous for Kamala and Miles, because Kamala is kind of a big important deal at Marvel these days and because Miles is like, the reason Secret Wars is happening right? So they can quit the Ultimate Universe, but keep him around?
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad #1, which I completely adored. I have a whole post about it, but I was particularly enamored of the art. The Disney Kingdoms imprint is a pretty great thing.
• We Are Robin is going to be about a bunch of Gotham kids just fighting crime on their own, like that Wonder Girl gang over in Titans, and I love that.
• Oh and the end of the first arc of Gotham Academy, which had Olive learning that her mother still remembered her (though still not clear on what happened there.) and standing up to Batman, which was, pretty bad ass of her, and the gang forming a group to solve mysteries at school and I’m so glad this book got renewed.
• A whole bunch of magical girl style comics coming from Boom & Dark Horse in the next few months, I’m looking forward to reading them, because well, I am.
• Not comics news exactly but HUGE nerd news, Maisie Williams is going to be on Doctor Who. I feel like watching her and Capaldi have some sort of “Grumpy Off” is going to be wonderful.
• Captain Marvel is definitely totally absolutely not in Avengers: Age Of Ultron, nope, no sir, absolutely not at all. OK, I’m sounding incredulous and I don’t exactly not believe it, but I sort of really want her to be in it. Although, seeing her pop up either in Civil War or Guardians 2 would be more fun, because, you know, Kree stuff…
• Secret Six #3 has been pushed to after Convergence, which is, something of a bummer, because I really, really want to know about WEIRD SEX ON THE COUCH!
• Star Wars, this series is fantastic. I’ve been trying to write about how much I like it, but I just haven’t been able to create a full post. It’s a fun story about life for the gang in between Star Wars & Empire, so we’re seeing Luke’s antagonism towards Vader grow, Vader’s realization about who his son is, and of course, my favorite part, Han and Leia’s relationship development. *Swoon*
• GUYS! WE ARE EXACTLY 30 DAYS FROM AGE OF ULTRON! (Ultron Countdown will be at the bottom of every post from now on.)

So that’s where we are, I know it’s brief and there isn’t a lot here.

DC Comics Wrap Up: 10/1/2014

Hey guys! Gotham Academy came out this week and it wasn’t the only fairly awesome thing to happen in the DCU, I really, really enjoyed this week’s books (with one not so tiny exception), and I’m excited to see where things are going.

Grayson #3

Guns. I don’t know if you realize that Dick is a secret agent now, so he has a gun. So  the villain of this issue is named Gun. And Dick is bad at shooting his gun. And everyone yells at him about it. Look, we’ve had 3 really good issues here, but this one was kind of a clunker. While I like the idea that Dick is hesitant to embrace some of the changes in his life, in particular the idea of fire arms and lethal force are difficult for him, there had to be a more subtle way of showing that than what’s d0ne here. In the meantime, he also has sex with the girl agent who’s teaching him to shoot, because if there’s anything you learn being raised by Bruce Wayne it’s that if a woman challenges you, you should immediately sleep with her. Immediately. Also she dies, because guns are BAD! And sleeping with members of the Bat-Family is hazardous to your health.

I really didn’t like this issue. Like at all. It seemed off in tone, it didn’t feel like the character I loved. But as always, the two pages of Dick and Bruce talking was insanely good and made me cry. And Spyral is clearly up to no good.

I miss Nightwing. Can he come back soon?

Wonder Woman #34

I’m going to miss Azzarello’s Wonder Woman with it’s crazy family dramas, deep mythical undertones and epic violence. Diana leads her forces against The First Born and realizes that the only way to defeat him is by having Zeke sit on the throne of Olympus or something? Look, when I said I was going to miss this version, I meant it. Not because I always loved the ride, but because at least there was a ride. This Wonder Woman, for better or worse has a point of view. And that’s a nice thing. Oh, also there were giant Steampunk Elephants, which is pretty fun.

Action Comics #35: “Afterdoomed”

After flying through some black holes to get rid of Doomsday Clark returns to Earth. The first thing that happens is that a Waynetech Satellite shoots some kryptonite at him. Ha! Bruce, you scamp! Kara briefs him on the Brainiac recovery efforts, Lois challenges him to a blog off, and he says that maybe we don’t need Superman anymore. Also, Lana and John Henry are officially a couple! YAY! And Lana is super pissed because he couldn’t save her parents…we’re veering dangerously close to Smallville territory there. Oh also Bruce tells him to take some time off to recover, which, I mean, pot, kettle? Right?

Batman/Superman #14: “Blank Slate”

So amnesia Bruce is running around having Shenanigans, and then Lois almost dies and he confesses to Alfred that he doesn’t remember anything. Alfred is kind of like, “AWESOME! Now you can just be a person. That’s all I ever wanted for you!” Which is actually perfectly in character for Alfred. Also, Catwoman convinces Superman to go all all powerful overlord. So that’ll be fun.

Justice League #34: “Injustice League Epilogue: Unlikely Allies”

Poor Captain Cold has been having weird dreams where The Flash is also his abusive father, which is one of the most spot on interpretations of dream logic ever. Also, Lex is trying to get the league to trust him and they don’t. And it turns out they’re trying to arrest him, but he’s cut a deal with Owlman. And Flash is trying to get Jessica to control Power Ring and it is not going well.

JUSTICE LEAGUE!

Future’s End #22

Terry and Plastique become full blown partners when he explains what the future means and what happens. I love the idea of that. It’s very cool. Also, Billy visits Tim, as does Ron Raymond. And Michael talks to Madison and OH MY GOD WHEN ARE FIRESTORM, SHAZAM AND RED ROBIN GOING TO GET IN ON THE ACTION? Also it turns out that The Blood Moon is Brainiac’s home planet. So we know what that means now.

Gotham Academy #1: “Welcome To Gotham Academy”

If I could accurately describe each and every panel of the book I would. But as it is, I’m just so happy that it’s finally here. I’m thrilled that we got glimpses of our entire cast, but for the most part just focused on Maps and Olive. (Who are both great by the way, especially Maps. I adore her.) I love that the book plays with the fact that it’s always raining in Gotham. And the image of Olive on her knees surrounded by her soaking wet books is framed to look like Bruce with his parents.  When Maps and Olive Go On An Adventure it doesn’t feel forced, it feels, nice and fun. Bruce Wayne’s two pages are also great. What happened between Olive and Batman? What’s the deal with Olive and Kyle? I don’t know, but I also can’t wait to find out! Yay Gotham Academy!

 

 

 

They Stole My Name!

It was announced yesterday that there will be two new Bat-Books come September. (Because obviously we don’t see enough of Gotham City. I’m kidding, obviously.) And while one of them I will probably ignore, as it is entitled Arkham Manor, and have something to do with Arkham Asylum being moved to Wayne Manor, and I really couldn’t care less, the other I will probably read like, all the time.

Because it’s going to be called Gotham Academy. 

Now, we don’t know a lot about the series yet. We don’t know what characters it will feature. (Although I’d put good money on Tim and Steph and maybe Harper.) We do know that it will be about Gotham City’s most elite prep school.

Now, I’m extraordinarily excited about this but I’m also a little bit annoyed because well…you know that Bat-family themed teen soap that I joke around about dreaming about making that I actually have several outlines and an early draft script started on my computer for, so it’s less a joke and more something that I would love, love, love to do, even if it’s highly unlikely?

Yeah, guess what it’s called?

Now, my guess is that this Gotham Academy and my vision of it will have little in common, because I can’t imagine that there are many people who are interested in seeing the teenage proteges of Batman (and probably Helena because duh!) take part in Gossip Girl type love triangles by day and fight crime by night.

I mean, people besides me obviously. Because I of course want to see that. It’s all I want to see. I have gotten drunk and bored my friends with this idea many times. I once promised another drunk actor friend that I would make him Dick Grayson, should this come to fruition in the next ten years. He was either deeply flattered or humoring me. Or possibly both.

Anyway, I’m just going to have to come up with a different name for my imaginary Bat-family themed teen soap.

Like One Wayne Hill, or The KC (Kane County,) or Gotham Palisades: Insert Fake Zip Code Here, or of course Gossip Bats.

But hey, chances are I’m going to like Gotham Academy  quite a bit. As it is a comic book about characters peripheral to Batman and for the most part I like those a whole lot.