Captain Marvel Loses His Name

Same guy

I recently wrote up a big post about Carol Danvers in anticipation of her then-upcoming film. Now, in the interest of fairness, I want to do something similar for the other Captain Marvel; everyone’s favorite homeless orphan boy turned superhero, Billy Batson! Or, “Shazam”, if you’re nasty.

The original Captain Marvel predates both Carol Danvers and her predecessor Mar-Vell by about thirty years, debuting back in the Golden Age of Comics. Published by Fawcett Comics at the bottom of 1939, Captain Marvel’s title was considered to be the most popular of the era, outselling Superman. When taking that in mind it might seem a bit curious as to why Billy isn’t more of a widely known character in modern pop culture. Indeed, he can’t legally be called “Captain Marvel” and instead has taken the name “Shazam.” The sad fact is the Billy was the victim of circumstances, both legal and internal design, and where he was once the most popular superhero in America he has since fallen to the level of second-tier, maybe even third-tier, character who struggles to have new ongoing series greenlit. With his new movie about to hit theaters his fortunes are swinging back in his favor, but the fact is that Captain Marvel should be a face on the Mount Rushmore of superheroes alongside the likes of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Spider-Man. But he’s not even close.

Today we’re going to talk about the rise and fall of the Big Red Cheese!

More on the power of Shazam after the jump.

Black Superheroes: Amanda Waller

She's here to manipulate meta-humans and chew gum
...and she just shot the last gum dealer

Name: Amanda Waller

First Appearance: Legends #1 (1986)

History: Amanda Waller’s life was altered when her husband, son and daughter were murdered. She left the Chicago housing projects where she lived along with her surviving children and went on to earn doctorate in psychology and political science, eventually becoming a congressional aide (she also has military training). During her time as an aide Waller came across the existence of the Suicide Squad, two separate teams of non-powered individuals taking on high risk missions. Taking elements from both teams she pitched a revival to her superiors. Her version would be made up of captured super villains who would be forced to take on missions that would be considered suicide runs for the government (super villains are extremely expendable). Her superiors agreed and placed in charge of the team. Since then Waller has become a prominent figure in the DC Universe having been associated with many government sponsored organizations dealing with super human affairs including Checkmate and most recently her own version of the Justice League of America. Uncompromising and ruthless Amanda Waller is very dedicated to serving her country…by any means she sees fit.

Beta Says: Okay, okay, I fully admit that I’m cheating with this entry. Amanda Waller is not a superhero. In fact at best she’s an antihero and at worst she’s a very deadly villain (IGN actually put her on their Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time list). However most of the time she’s portrayed as someone with the best interest of people at heart who just happens to be a real jerk about it most of the time. In a way she’s DC Comic’s equivalent of Nick Fury, though I think any sane person would find her significantly more intimidating. In all honesty I’ve been aching to write about Waller for years, especially after the Great DC Reboot of 2011 got its mitts on her. Because for all her faults she’s a damn cool character.

More on “The Wall” after the jump.

Nerd Rage #13: Whatever Happened to Cass and Steph?

Probably the oddest odd couple of the DCU

Beta is Dead is now three years old and to celebrate I thought I’d revisit an older topic. Recently one of my old articles was floating around tumblr and brought some eyeballs over to the blog. It’s certainly a hot topic and still pretty relevant even today but sadly it’s outdated. Similar its sister article, which isn’t as popular but still just as relevant I’d say, is also out of date due to the events of the past two years. So I figured now would be a pretty good time to pick up where I left off with two of my favorite superheroes, and former Batgirls, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown.

Now I feel I covered the details of who these two characters are very well in past articles (here and here) so if you don’t know who they are you can check those out. However if you’re too goddamn lazy here’s the short version of what I previously wrote:

1) Cassandra Cain, daughter of the amoral Lady Shiva, was a martial arts prodigy who was literally bred and raised to serve as the ultimate assassin and bodyguard for Ra’s Al Ghul by the League of Assassins. She rejected this and eventually joined Batman as the new Batgirl. After years of serving the role DC Comics decided to try turning her into a villain, becoming a murdering despot despite being totally against her character, but it backfired and resulted with a public backlash before turning her back to normal. Soon after this she abruptly quit being Batgirl, leaving the mantle in the hands of…

2) Stephanie Brown became the vigilante known as The Spoiler in order to rebel against her super villain father the Cluemaster. She became a frequent ally of Robin (Tim Drake) before a series a events led her to replacing him as Batman’s partner…only to quickly be fired from the role. DC then killed her off in a particularly controversial (and brutal) way while also denying that she was ever truly Robin. After a few years she was retconned back to life and soon afterwards took up the mantle of Batgirl from her friend Cassandra.

Today I’d like to catch up with both characters and see where they are now and what can be done for them in the future. If you regularly read this blog you likely already know what became of them during The Great DC Reboot of 2011 and you may also know what I’m going to say. Everyone else may want to prepare themselves for good old fashion nerd rage.

The very best of friends acquaintances!

Two former Batgirls after the jump.

Support Cassandra Cain

I'm still working on the next blog (which will be a Nerd Rage, so it's taking longer than a review) so in order to pass the time I decided to bring this to your attention. If you like or are interested in non-white female superheroes then you'll want to check this out.

Pictured: Toxic material. So I'm told

So you guys should know by now that I’m a big fan of DC Comics character and former Batgirl Cassandra Cain. For those of you not in the know Cassandra was a member of the Batman Family, Bruce Wayne's adopted daughter and, of course, served as Batgirl from 1999 to 2009; a full ten years. The character had several ups and downs (I wrote an article that detailed some of this). She eventually passed the mantle of Batgirl to Stephanie Brown and then disappeared from comics for a short while before resurfacing under a new costumed identity called Black Bat in mid-2011. Then, before anything really got to be done with her and her new role in the comics, The Great DC Reboot of 2011 happened and, much like Stephanie and my beloved Wally West, she was apparently wiped out of continuity (her mother, Lady Shiva, was dramatically de-aged in the reboot making unlikely that Cass exists). She has not been used in any capacity and even when writers had ideas how to bring her back they have been vetoed. There have been murmurs and rumors that key executives at DC consider her (and others) to be toxic to DC, whatever that means, and thus won’t use her. As of right now Cassandra is not being allowed to be written about and her fans, who were very vocal about her treatment over the years, are left with many questions and few very unsatisfactory answers.

However a new movement conceived to show DC that Cass still has fans that support her and show that she can still be relevant is underway. Tomorrow (August 31st) the Cassandra Cain Campaign will begin. The organizers are asking fans to go to Comixology and purchase a digital copy of the Batgirl #1 (2000) which was the first issue of Cain’s ongoing series (for the low price of $1.99). The goal is to get the title onto the site’s bestseller list to make a statement to DC about the financial viability of the character. The tublr starting this campaign has all the details you need about all of this so go check it out here.

Lately a lot of people in my personal life have been complaining to me about the lack of women of color as superheroes. Well this is something you can do to help with that.

Black Superheroes: Static

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Black Superheroes: Mister Terrific II

See? Look at that jacket. Cool as ice!

Name: Michel Holt

First Appearance: Spectre #54 (1997)

History: Michael Holt was brilliant at everything he’s ever done. A genius with a mind bogglingly aptitude for damn near everything Michael had a working understanding of such concepts as theoretical physics before the age of ten. He breezed through school earning no less than 14 Ph.Ds. He became a self-made millionaire through this company Cyberware. He earned a Gold Medal in the Olympics. He was also lucky in love, at least until the day that his wife Paula and their unborn child were killed in an accident. Devastated Holt decided to end his own life but was stopped by The Spectre (Of all people) who informed him of the story of Terry Sloane, the Golden Age hero Mister Terrific. Sloane’s background was remarkably similarly to Holt’s (Though Sloan was going to kill himself because he was bored rather than because he lost someone). Inspired by the tale Michael decided to use his own near perfect skills to help the world as the new Mister Terrific. With his scientific genius at his disposal he created the T-Mask, which makes him invisible to technology, and the T-Sphere’s, which had an assortment of uses. Also his badass leather jacket. Mister Terrific would go on to become a members of the revived Justice Society of America, where he eventually became chairman, and Checkmate as the White King.

Beta Says: Okay, so the reason I’m doing this one on Mister Terrific despite the fact that I’ve written on him just a few months ago is two-fold: I love the character and it gives me a chance to talk about the now failed new series.

More after the jump.

Nerd Rage #8: Final Thoughts On the Intitial DCnU

The DCnU does its best to remind you that Aquaman is awesome

We were solidly in Month Two of the Great DC Reboot of 2011.  When I first herd about this big company spanning relaunch I was upset and extremely skeptical, but now after having read a number of the new titles…well, I’m still upset.  Yes I admit that I have read some good comics and I know that there are several comics I didn’t read that have been critical successes as well.   However I still feel like there are a lot of problems with this whole stunt, and it is a stunt.   As of right now I’m sure DC Comics doesn’t care too much about whatever is being said in general (Like, if DC were to read this bog they probably wouldn’t take it any mind) because the bottom line is they killed in sales in the month of September.  Of the top twenty spots seventeen were DCnU books, including all of the top five.  Compare this to Augusts’ sales where things were much more evenly distributed (But Justice League #1 was still the top seller).  Even if a million people went on the internet to declare their hatred of the comics good sales would keep DC motivated to make more of the same.  They’re a business and that’s what businesses do.  Even so these numbers are still in the short term.   Before the new comics came out none of us really knew which ones would be good and which ones would be crap so I imagine most of us just bought what looked good and seemed to gel with our sensibilities.  Not every comic in the top twenty was really all that great after all.  It will be interesting to see what the coming months will tell for DC and whether they can keep this momentum up now that fans have a better idea where to put their money.

Also I’d like to point out that Batgirl #1, Batwoman #1 and Wonder Woman #1, three books I gave positive reviews of, all made it to the Top 20 while Red Hood and the Outlaws #1, which I hated, did not.  I feel somewhat vindicated.

In any event today I want look at the new DCU and discus a bit more on what changed and speculate if it’s good or bad.

More rants after the jump.

Mini-Reviews: Captain Atom, Teen Titans, Firestorm, Stormwatch

As I mentioned in the last blog I wanted to catch up with all my missed posts from the past few days.  The easiest way to do so was to write them all at once but in an abridged form.  I’ve wanted to try doing Mini-Reviews for a while now but haven’t gotten around to it.   This seems like a good time to try it though.  So these reviews will be much shorter than normal and lack a lot of the more “rant” elements my reviews tend to have, nor will they have the huge amount of information ad background I usually give; just my thoughts on what I read and what I liked and disliked.

So the reviews I’ll be doing today are Captain Atom #1, Teen Titans #1, Stormwatch #1, and The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men #1.   Check them out after the jump.

Review: Wonder Woman #1 (2011)

If you don’t think Wonder Woman is a badass then you and I have nothing to talk about!

Assuming you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know that I am very partial to strong women, especially when they are the main characters.  And as far as superhero comic books go they don’t come stronger than Diana.   One of the most iconic and recognizable women in not only comic books but in American pop culture Wonder Woman is one of DC Comics’ famed “Trinity”, alongside Batman and Superman, who are considered the company’s top heroes not only in real life but within the fiction as well as they typically seen as the example for other heroes to aspire to.  In theory.  Unlike Bats and Supes Diana hasn’t traditionally been a heavy seller.  While Superman usually stars in at least two ongoing titles a month and Batman in about seventy-nine Wonder Woman struggles with just one and has been canceled more than once because of that.  As a result DC has on numerous occasions tried to reboot and revamp the character in order to attract readers, most of them unsuccessful and sometimes laughably so (Remember that period when Wonder Woman had no super power, learned martial arts and ran a goddamned boutique?).  The most recent example of this was literally just over a year ago in Wonder Woman #601, under our old friend J. Michael Straczynski, when her entire origin and history was thrown out (Possibly only temporally, though I don’t think it was ever truly resolved) but more importantly her classic costume was replaced with a more “modern” and “hipper” (Though ironically not original) look with pants and a jacket.  There was HUGE media buzz over this; you almost certainly saw the images!

Wonder Woman Reboot #475

So OF COURSE a year after the most recent disappointing reboot of Wonder Woman DC has opted to reboot her AGAIN.  At this point it’s clear a lot of people don’t really care about Diana that much these days, especially with the recent surge of popularity Green Lantern has over the past few years.  However I maintain that at her core Wonder Woman is a fantastic character but she suffers from all these “Bold New Directions” and a string of writers who clearly have no idea how to write for the character.  The number of writers to have successfully “gotten her” and how to do so have been few and far between and as a result Diana is probably the most inconsistently written character DC has.

So here we are again: Another Wonder Woman #1 (Titled “The Visitation") and I have no idea how many of those there have been (639?). However this issue is written by Brian Azzarello, famed writer of 100 Bullets.   It is also being drawn by Cliff Chiang whom I’m less familiar with but on the other hand he’s impressed me after listening to some podcast interviews with him.  In theory this could be a recipe for brilliance.  In theory.

Full review after the jump.

Review: Blue Beetle #1 (2011)

Blue Beetle #1 is one of those titles that certain diehard fans have been demanding for the last few years which implies that in theory this should be one of the bright spots of the DCnU. Sure a lot of back-story and character development has been lost.  Sure Starfire has basically become little more than fan service.  Sure there are tons of characters, a lot of them women, who are mysteriously absent from the comics.   At least we DC answered our request for   to get his ongoing title back, right?   Right?

Jamie’s last book was somewhat sabotaged by the fact that DC had a few months prior published Countdown to Infinite Crisis wherein the former Blue Beetle Ted Kord, a character often thought of as a joke, was written as an inanely badass hero that made many fans who didn’t care about him at all beforehand suddenly declare him to be one of their favorite characters (It was that well written)…only for him to be murdered in that same issue and replaced by Reyes not long after.  Understandably pissed off at DC for playing with their emotions a lot of fans (Myself included) refused to embrace the new Blue Beetle which undoubtedly hurt sales.  The problem?  The new Blue Beetle was actually a really awesome comic.  D’oh!  Jamie was a likable, responsible, and realistic character who ended up being a very unique type of comic hero with a very strong supporting cast and the book ultimately downright fun superhero action.  His relationship with his family and friends was different from every other teenage superhero history because very soon after he acquired his super powers he was instantly teleported away for a whole year causing his loved ones to think he had died or possibly even simply abandoned them.  The struggled of regaining their trust and, in some ways their love, played a huge role in th e expertly written drama of the book.  To be frank Blue Beetle was one of the best books of the 2000s, probably THE best book you never bothered reading, and if people like me and probably you as well had just picked it up when it was still around life in general would have been better for us all.

But hey, on paper we have a second chance to make it right. This was my main motivation to pick this book up because I didn’t want to live with the shame I’ve been holding these past few years of not supporting one of the best superhero creations in history.  Anyway this book is titled “Metamorphosis Part One” and is written by Tony Bedard with artwork by IG Guara (Pencils) and Ruy José (Ink).If you couldn’t tell by now this has been one of my most anticipated books of the reboot.

Full review after the jump.

Review: Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

Before we review this thing let’s briefly talk about Jason Todd.

Jason was the second person wear the identity of Robin, after Dick Grayson.  Initially a carbon copy of his predecessor Todd’s background and personality was altered following the companywide reboot (Sound familiar) Crisis on Infinite Earths.  The new version of the character was disliked by fans so greatly that DC held a phone poll to let fans decide if Jason would survive the events in the classic story A Death in the Family; they voted to kill him (Although years later the validity of the vote is in question as apparently some asshole in California called hundreds of times with the vote of “Kill Him”).  Batman would consider Jason’s death his greatest failure and use it as a reminder when dealing with new sidekicks and partners (This is partly why he treated the Spoiler so bad, presumably).

However Jason was brought back to life seventeen years after that phone poll (In real time) but now he was an antagonist to Batman rather than ally.  Todd, calling himself the Red Hood, initially became a brutal vigilante who took things 100 times farther than Batman usually would.  Over the years Jason suffered from inconsistent writing as DC couldn’t agree whether he should be a straight up villain or an antihero.  During the events of Battle for the Cowl Jason finally become an irredeemable, and crazed, villain and that was pushed to even further depths in Grant Morison’s very good Batman and Robin where he basically became Dick Grayson’s (As the New “Batman”) archenemy.  The point is that the way his character development has ultimately worked the last few years the Red Hood has become a psychotic super villain who is obsessed with destroying everything Batman stands for an replacing him as the new, monstrous protector of Gotham.  A role, I must add, that he was excellent in.

So let’s give this guy a solo title, shall we?  Because...why the hell not!

Jason Todd in his natural state

I’m not the biggest fan of villains getting their own superhero books, though it’s certainly not something that should never tried once and a while.  Secret Six is the best example.  But under normal circumstances I wouldn’t touch Red Hood and the Outlaws with a ten foot pole.  However it also stars Arsenal who’s been one of my favorite characters since 2003 during Judd Winick’s run on The Outsiders and I was hopeful that the horrifying changes to his character over the last few years would be undone in this reboot.   Anyway this comic was written by Scott Lobdell and drawn by Kenneth Rocafort and his title “I Fought the Law and Kicked It’s Butt”.  And no, after reading the story I don’t think that title makes a whole lot of sense.

Full review after the jump.

Review: Batwoman #1

F***k yeah, Batwoman!  It’s about goddamn time!  For background on Batwoman check out my review of Batwoman #0 from last year.  Now if you haven’t noticed by now I’m a huge Kate Kane fan and have been eagerly anticipating this new series for damn near a year now.  Now considering that Batwoman #0 came out last fall I’m sure you’re wondering what the hell took so long for her to get to Batwoman #1. 

When Batwoman debuted in 52 back in 2006 it was to a large amount of fanfare about diversity and progression (Some of it a little dumb).  They said the ultimate plan was to get her in her own title but then a long while passes and nothing happens.  Finally in 2009 DC announced that Batwoman would take over the lead character status of Detective Comics, as seen in Batwoman: Elegy.  That book was awesome and was supposed to spin-out into its own title but that never happened.  Eventually Greg Rucka, one of Kate’s creators and primary writer during her Detective run, left DC for independent work (And later Marvel Comics) leaving the would-be soldier’s fate up in the air.  Thankfully J.H. Williams III, the artist for that run of Detective, stepped up to take the reins of Batwoman.  DC finally announced an ongoing Batwoman series in 2010 written by Williams and co-written with W. Haden Blackman and co-drawn by Amy Reeder (Meaning Reeder will take on art duties later).  The problem was that DC had dated the comic earlier than Williams was prepared for and ultimately the book was pushed back to February of 2011.  As a compromise Batwoman #0 was created and released in November of ’10, which if you recall I really loved it.  Unfortunately by the time winter came around Batwoman was pushed back again to April, apparently due to problems with the art (I think that’s right; I might be remembering it wrong).  But by the time April finally came around DC canceled the book!  At the time no reason was given, though most people assumed that it was just going to be pushed back to sometime in the fall…or go the way of Vixen’s book during the DC Implosion.   In the wake of the announcement of the DCnU things became clear: DC had decided to delay the book until the fall to coincide with the reboot of the continuity; what’s the point of starting a new series in April when it was going to be canceled due to companywide mandate in August anyway.  

So finally here in September I have a copy of Batwoman #1 in my hands.  Sadly all the press, all the build-up and all the publicity Kate had when she was first created is all gone by now as DC failed to strike while the iron was hot.  Hell, and potential readers DC got form BW #0 is likely mostly gone as it’s taken so long for the follow-up to come out.  This issue is titled “Hydrology Part 1: Leaching” and it seems that while Reeder (Shockingly only one of two women currently working for DC as creators) is on the creative team on this particular issue she’s not involved as Williams does all the art.  So we’re ten months passed from Batwoman #0 and two years passed from Batwoman: Elegy.  Was it worth the wait?  And can Kate survive without Greg Rucka?

Find out this and more after the jump!

Review: Demon Knights #1

Gone, gone the form of man.  Rise the demon…ETRIGAN! 

Two things: 1) I don’t know much about Etrigan the Demon other than he was a creation of Jack “The King” Kirby, is a jerk, and talks in rhyme.  At least he does sometimes.  So in honesty I’m not all that interested in an ongoing title starring the character.  2) While I’m a big fan of the fantasy genre I’ve never really cared about it in comic form.  I’m not against it I just haven’t really found any that I was terribly interested in.  Except for Bone, I suppose.  So really under normal circumstances I almost certainly would have never picked Demon Knights #1 on my own.  The only reason I did last week was because Paul Cornell seemed to be the only person who treated to the infamous Batgirl of San Diego Comic-Con with any sort of dignity (Read her story here) and I decided to buy this book.  Also The Lady, who is the biggest Whovian I know, pointed out that Cornell apparently was also a writer for Doctor Who and she got excited.

This book was written by Cornell with art by Diogne Neves (Pencils) and Oclair Albert (Ink).  The story is titled “Seven Against the Dark”.  Even though I think Cornell is a rock star I have no real way of knowing if he’s any good at what he does; I never read any Doctor Who novels.   So I’m jumping in pretty blind here.

Full review after the jump.

Review: Mister Terrific #1

Today we have another example of DC Comics attempting to increase the diversity in their books by taking a well known black character, who has never starred in his own book, and finally giving him a solo title.  Mister Terrific, aka Michael Holt, was created in 1997 by John Ostrander and Tim Mandrake and based on the original Mister Terrific from the Golden Age of Comics.  Though not possessing super powers he possesses a brilliant mind and an aptitude for science which he uses to create the T-Mask, which renders him invisible to technology, the T-Spheres, which have a large verity of functions including holographic projection, generating electric charges and granting limited flight.   For most of the character’s existence he has been associated with the Justice Society of America.  He is super badass, succeeds in everything he does and is informally known as the world’s third smartest man…a title that is repeated every goddamn chance anyone at DC gets.

Mister Terrific #1 is written by Eric Wallace with art by Gianluca Gugliotta (Pencils) and Wayne Faucher (Inks) and is titled “Software Update”.  Without a doubt, after Batwoman #1, this has been my most anticipated comic of the reboot. I  truly believed that Mister Terrific is one of the coolest characters DC has to offer and I often wondered why he wasn’t in the spotlight more.  So I was hoping that this book would be one of the best titles released this month and be one of the few bright spots of this whole DCnU mess.  I mean...he’s black.  He’s a black superhero and I can’t help but be partial to that fact since I’m black as well.  I like seeing myself in superhero comics and it’s nice to pick up an issue of something that’s not one of a thousand white dudes.  But after all this time does the character stand well on his own or fall flat?

Full review below.

Review: Batgirl #1 (2011)

So let’s briefly talk about Barbara Gordon.  Like with Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown I have a lot to say about this character and her story, but it really deserves a post of its own so I’ll be as brief as I can.  

Barbara is the second Batgirl but the first serious attempt of giving Batman a competent female ally who wears the symbol of the Bat (The previous Bat-Girl, and her aunt the first Bat-Woman, was little more than bumbling sidekick).  Barbara, on top of being the daughter of Batman’s longtime police contact Jim Gordon, was not a teenage sidekick but rather a full grown woman, with a PhD. in library science (I think.  Feel free to correct me in her degree was in) and a skilled fighter who operated without Batman’s permission or training; she didn’t need either, mainly because she’s goddamned awesome.  She even retired as Batgirl after years of service to use her abilities for other, more practical pursuit (Yes that happened).  However in the 1988 comic The Killing Joke she is shot in the stomach by the Joker and permanently paralyzed from the waist down.  But because, as we established, Miss Gordon is a badass she soon becomes Oracle, an information broker and world class hacker who aides various superheroes in the war on crime (And eventually establishing a network between them) and begins employing agents to fight the forces of evil on a global scale, the most famous of whom were the Birds of Prey (Including her best friends Black Canary, The Huntress, and Lady Blackhawk).  Over the years she has become not only one of the very few disabled superheroes in comics but frankly she was more effective, and invaluable, in this role than she ever was as Batgirl.  Unfortunately, for reasons seemingly due to low sales of Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl title and the idea that they wanted to bring familiarity for casual readers back to the book in the Great DC Reboot the powers that be in DC Comics decided to return Barbara to her classic role as Batgirl, restoring her legs in the process, in Batgirl #1.

The trade-off is that it’s being written by Gail Simone who is one of the best working writers in comic books today, having written Secret Six and being most famous for runs on Birds of Prey.  There is also art by Adrian Syaf (Pencils) and Vicente Cifuentes (Inks).  This issue is titled "Shattered".

Like with my Spider-Man: One More Day review this is a pretty controversial comic but I want to focus on whether this is a good comic on its own merits rather than because of my personal feelings on who is or who isn’t Batgirl.  Still I do want to very quickly state my opinion on the matter before we get into the review: Yes, I agree that Barbara Gordon has no business returning to the role of Batgirl.  While I’m not happy they decided to restore the use of her legs I can live with that aspect but de-aging her (Which they have done) and putting her back in that identity feels like a straight up demotion.  You likely wouldn’t see Dick Grayson return as Robin or Wally West return as (Ugh) Kid Flash (At least freaking I hope not. Has Wally been accounted for yet?).  Barbara graduated from being Batgirl a long time ago and moved on to bigger, better, and more important things as Oracle and I find it a bit ridiculous that I’m being expected to take her seriously here.  She used to wage cyber-warfare on global threats and use her genius to regularly help save whole nations and even the world.  Now she’s gone back to fighting muggers and gangbangers on the streets of one city? Please.

Oracle reacts to Batgirl #1

 Actual review after the jump.

Review: Static Shock #1 (2011)

Let’s try to keep this review shorter than yesterday.

Created by the late Dwayne McDuffie and John Paul Leon in 1993 Static was one of several heroes developed by Milestone Comics, an imprint of DC whose mission statement was to address and possibly help balance the severe lack of minority superheroes.  In 2000 a cartoon based on the character called Static Shock was broadcasted giving Static a significant boost in mainstream exposure (Putting him heads and shoulders above his fellow Milestone characters).  In 2008, noticeably several years after the cartoon had ended, DC finally decided to bring Static into the DC Universe proper (They did the same with other characters from the Milestone continuity but Static was clearly the bigger deal) where he was mainly associated with the Teen Titans.   Throughout his return to comic book DC had been saying that a new ongoing title, something Static hadn’t had in years, was in the works for a 2011 release.  However Static Shock #1, as it was titled, was canceled earlier this year before it had a chance to see print but we now know that was likely done in order to save the title for the DC Reboot this month.

This issue, titled “Recharged”, was written by Scott McDaniel and John Rozum with pencils from McDaniel and inks by Jonathan Glapion and LeBeau Underwood.  There has always been a serious lack of black superheroes with ongoing titles and this is one of three new solo books staring an African American crime fighter in DC’s Reboot.  Was it worth the wait?

Full review after the jump.

Review: Justice League International #1 (2011)

I shall now begin my review series on the Great DC Reboot of 2011.  Because of lack of money and also interest I won’t be reviewing all 52 titles but rather I’ll picking the ones I had something of an interest in.  If you need a refresher of which ones those were click here and here.  As the DC reboot began with Justice League #1 it’s only fitting that I begin my coverage there...but since I don’t give a crap about anything going on in that book let’s take a look at Justice League International #1 instead.

 JLI isn’t a new concept.   Since its debut in the 60s the Justice League of America always seemed to get rebooted every few years, getting major changes in the roster and setting.  Following a blundered re-launch fans have nicknamed “Justice League Detroit” DC gave the reigns of the book to Keith Giffen and J. M. DeMatteis who, after being told they couldn’t use most of the company’s biggest names (Ironically due to a companywide reboot following Crisis on Infinite Earths) they decided to use several lesser known characters and take the book into a more comedic route.  The title was dubbed, of course, Justice League International.  While this would severally damage several characters over the next twenty years by typecasting them as comedy characters who kept getting their character development reset to match their portrayal into that book it did create a very strong cult following for several of the team’s more prominent members to this day.  Those members included (But not necessarily limited to) Booster Gold, Blue Beetle II (Ted Kord), Fire, Ice, and Guy Gardner and his bowl cut.  They’re have been a lot of call backs and reunions featuring the majority of these characters over the years, most of them not taking itself terribly serious (Such as the Giffer/DeMatteis created Formerly Known as the Justice League miniseries).  But finally in 2005 following the awesome yet terribly infuriating death of Ted Kord in Countdown to Infinite Crisis this started to change as DC attempted to move Booster Gold away from his comedic “sellout” persona once and for all which they did successfully in 52 and Booster’s follow-up solo title where he became basically the most badass character in the DC Universe.  Following the trend in the pages of Justice League: Generation Lost Booster, Fire, Ice, Captain Atom, Blue Beetle III aka Jaime Reyes and eventually a new Rocket Red teamed up to accidentally form a new, more insanely awesome version of the JLI.  While I never got to finish that book what I did read of it was some of the best superhero comic writing I’ve ever read and cemented my status of a fan of the various characters that appeared.  This book was supposed to lead into a new ongoing series featuring this new revamped team where Batman and Booster teamed up to start the team in earnest.  That didn’t happen, presumably because it would have been too much awesome for our space time continuum to handle.

The JLI we deserve, but not the one we need right now?

The comic I'm looking at today was written by Dan Jurgens with art by Aaron Lopresti (Pencils) and Matt Ryan (Ink) and is titled “The Signal Masters Part 1”.  So if this isn’t a follow-up to Justice League: Generation Lost then what the hell is it?  And what’s the point? 

Click below for the full review…and answers! 

Beta Vs. DC Reboot: Part Two

Batman: Back to the Well #1

The New DC Universe starts today.  Regardless of mine or anyone’s feelings this is happening and it will affect the state of DC Comics for the foreseeable future possibly for the better, possibly for the worse.   I’m sure by the end of the year we’ll know have a better idea which way things are leaning.  Yesterday I ran through about half of the upcoming DC titles.  Today we’ll look at the other half.

I will mention one thing before I get into it.  It has been announced (Via Twitter? Groan) that Stephanie Brown will be appearing in the New DCU as The Spoiler.  We already knew her tenure of Batgirl is over but I assumed she was going on the shelf along several other characters DC can’t seem to decide where they fit into all of this.  I’m torn on this. As you may recall I love The Spoiler but I was warming up to Steph as Batgirl. I think I’ll be happy that she’ll be around but I’d be lot happier if she was starring in an ongoing feature.  How about a Black Bat/Spoiler team up book?  I’d buy the hell out of that.

Still no answers about whether she was ever Robin or even Batgirl in this new universe.  Oh well, we’ll see soon enough.

More Reboot Titles after the jump.

Beta Vs. DC Reboot: Part One

Because fans have been demanding a low-powered, t-shirt wearing Supeman for years

So back in June I first brought up the 2011 DC Reboot.  It had only recently been announced, there were a lot of questions and a lot of hot emotions flying around that had to be reined in due to the risk of making knee jerk reactions.   But it’s been a few months now and I know a lot more about what DC has in store for us and a lot of questions have been answered.  Right now I feel I have a much better grasp of everything and that I can give a more thought out opinion on the matter. *Ahem*

Goddamn it all to hell!

Look, there are a lot of positives about the reboot.  And it is indeed a reboot.  We now know that this is a new universe with a new continuity where superheroes have only existed five years at most (That’s not one of the good things).  Titles in general will indeed be more accessible for “new readers”; this being a new universe, albeit one that shares similarities to the one that it’s replacement, that is basically starting from scratch could in theory bring in a whole new generation of readers.   Characters that didn’t have ongoing titles will be receiving them shortly and several of them are black which is damn cool.  I’ve also changed my tune about WildStorm being incorporated into the universe.  The way I see it (Now) a lot of story possibilities are opened up if these characters are part of this new universe, and there’s something kind of neat about books like WildC.A.T.s or Gen¹³ being a part of the DCU proper.  Plus if comic book characters like Captain Atom, Plastic Man, The Question, Static and, of course, Captain Marvel can be incorporated into DC’s main continuity then why not Jenny Quantum?

Despite all this I still feel like the cons outweigh the pros.  With this change I still feel like DC is telling me “We don’t really care about your business, so stay if you like but we won’t miss you if you leave.”  Still it’s impossible to really say too much about all this because even if a lot of the ideas on paper look incredibly stupid and insulting in practice DC may come out with a lot of winners writing wise.  After all they do have a lot of talented guys (And mostly guys, sadly) working on these books so there could be great stories being written and technically that’s the most important thing.

In a possible futile gesture to give DC a chance to keep me from turning my back on them and becoming Marvel exclusive I’ve decided to check out a number of these books.  And since I have a blog where I review stuff I figure I might as well write up what I thought about them.  Starting this week DC will release Justice League #1 and as I understand it will take place in the past, unlike most of the other comics coming out.  As I look at the list of comics I know for sure I’m not going to buy them all as most of them I’m not all that interested in.  Some of those I won’t be reading for political reasons.  But there are a few that I am super interested in buying, possibly thousands of times over.  So let’s take look at where I stand with these individual books.

More after the jump.

Batgirl VS. San Diego (Comic-Con)

Sorry abut the lack of updates.  I'm currently working on reviews for Captain America: The First Avenger and a new anime series.  I'm hoping that they'll be done by this weekend (Maybe).

REBOOT, DAMN IT!

 Today I wanted to just share a link to DC Women Kicking Ass (Which you should be reading anyway because it's pretty darn cool) as there is a really intriguing interview up today.  One of the more interesting stories from the San Diego Comic Con this past weekend was about a woman, dressed as Batgirl/Stephanie Brown, attending several DC Reboot panels and flat out asking questions, and thus voicing concern, about the lack of focus on female characters and a lack of female creators and was met with both praise and shocking jeers from other fans and panelist.  This is an interview with her where she tells her adventure from her point of view.  It's a very interesting and thought provoking , and somewhat disturbing, read.

Click here for the interview.