Comic Book Journal

Another week and lots more to tell in the webcomic world.

Dominic Deegan: Oh man, was this an eventful week. If you’re the least bit interested in webcomics, please check this one out, as it is sometimes the pinnacle of webcomic achievement. Refugee orcs have lost their homeland to a violent storm while Dominic Deegan and his students participate in a food drive - FYI, orcs are herbivores - but all is not what it seems. In today’s webcomic, Dominic recieves ill tidings his evil necromancer brother Jacob might be back in business.

Least I Could Do: Rayne is revealed to be suffering from a disappointedly non-life-threatening disease vestibular neuronitis, though this does little to calm our hero. He barrates nurse after nurse for even the tiniest bubble in his IV. But the hospital incident isn’t without its own forms of payback, as his buddy Noel tells a semi-delusional Rayne there is a “ward for unwell emo boys” in the hospital, sending the delirous Rayne scampering off muttering “Crying newage hippies . . . should send . . . them to . . . Vietnam!”

If neither of these mainstream editions floats your boat, check out the Librarianist for a full frontal play on words and scernarios just as funny as “Far Side”. The webcomic could do with a little better navigation though, and might want to try using the traditional First Previous Forward buttons on the bottom of the webcomics.

Well, that just about wraps it up here. As always, if you have any webcomics you want reviewed or recapped, be sure to let me know. At the moment I’m trying to recap webcomics that update 3 times a week or more.

Also, when suggesting webcomics to be recapped, make sure they are story-bound like Dominic Deegan and not joke-bound like the Librarianist. I just need material to include in the recap, and it doesn’t do anyone any favors if I’m not summarizing random joke scenes - something would probably prove unfunny and boring the first time.

This week I’m going to the comic book shop, so expect plenty of reviews Monday through Friday. Also, you can look forward to another Top 10 by Saturday!

Have a good weekend, everyone!

As summer draws closer (though you wouldn’t know looking outside my window), it can mean only one thing: time, yet again, for the annual “big summer event”, the comic book equivalent (or rather, attempt of) a much hyped blockbuster.

Interestingly enough, Marvel hasn’t spared spoilers left and right, as was the case with previous summer event “Civil War”, and by and large only three words spell out the future for the Marvel Universe: World War Hulk.

If you’re just joining us, let me set up the scene. The Illuminati, a gathering of the greatest minds in the Marvel Universe, voted a while back to put a final option regarding the Hulk - luring him to space station to fight some vague villain, and then shooting him off into space, blissfully believing he’d cause less damage that way.

Yeah, right.

Hulk’s coming back even more enraged than . . . well . . . Hulk normally is. He wants payback, and seeing how two of the Illuminati are the “victors” of Civil War (Tony Stark and Reed Richards), it looks like the world is going to pay along with it.

But here’s a surprise: Hulk isn’t going at it alone. So whose going with Hulk? That’s what I’m answering today, in order of most to least likely.

Amadeus Cho
Odds of Helping Hulk: 100% (Marvel Confirmed)
Who He is: Absolutely no clue. Apparently he’s a teenage supergenius who’s taken on Reed Richards in the past on behalf of the Hulkster himself. He’s friends with Hulk, and the solicitations read that he’s going to take things to “the next level” in terms of the conflict.

She-Hulk
Odds of Helping Hulk: 80%.
Who She Is: Hulk’s more more calm, and much more hot, cousin. In a Marvel preview, she’s seen walking through the desert as the human alter ego Jennifer Walters in a torn SHIELD outfit, still reeling from the events of Civil War. She’s also chatting with Amadeus Cho in a diner. Jen is Hulk’s cousin and loyal friend - Bruce Banner is family, and Jen would be among the first people to help him out. In her ongoing series, She-Hulk’s proven she can stand on her own - but can she stand for Hulk’s barbaric justice?

Namor the Submariner
Odds of Helping Hulk: 65%
Who He Is: The only Illuminati who didn’t vote to send Hulk into space, and who fought, most admirably, to prevent it. If anything knows a thing or two extra about rage, its definitely the surly Namor. Not only did he fight on the losing side of Civil War, but he also lost one of his own - Namorita - in the opening volley of Civil War. With that stablizing element removed, Namor may not only throw it in with the likes of the Hulk, but go all in. Make no mistake, if Namor joins Hulk, he, unlike She-Hulk, will fight to the bloody end.

Doc Sampson
Odds of Helping Hulk: 40%
Who He Is: Essentially a gamma-irradiated shrink, Doc Sampson is also on the list of people Amadeus Cho wants to talk to. He’s one of Hulk’s friends, and like She-Hulk, one of Bruce Banner’s confidants. But the two have slugged just as many times as they’ve spoken. Since he knows a lot about the Hulk’s interior psyche, its possible both he and She-Hulk would side with the gamma giant to try to reach Bruce Banner and put the breaks on this battle. Seeing as how Doc Sampson is a pro-registration ally of Tony Stark’s though, it doesn’t seem very likely he’ll join up with Hulk.

Hulkling
Odds of Helping Hulk: 10%
Who He Is: A young gay and green size-changer in the ranks of “Young Avengers”, Hulkling actually has no relation to the Incredible Hulk. It has since been revealed Hulkling has no relation to the Hulk - he is in fact the son of Captain Mar-Vell and the Skrull Princess Anelle. Still, World War Hulk has to have some effect on Teddy Altman - even if its just as minor as his name change. Plus, since his father Mar-Vell recently returned during Civil War, it seems he’d more than likely be tied down by that development that my Hulk’s concidental World War.

Or “image inducers” to be more specific. Don’t know what I’m talking about?

Comic book cliche number . . . ummm . . . I’ve lost count.

The image inducer is the X-Men equivalent of the Star Trek’s holodeck - it can produce a variety of images ranging from real people to imagined ones - but it is limited to changing a person’s appearance instead of that of a setting.

Nightcrawler was the first to use it - I think - so he could walk around in public without causing a panic. It was as simple plot device, although a largely unnecessary one in my opinion - if you’re Nightcrawler, you can bamf from spot to spot and you can blend in with the shadows. Why do you need a Tony Stark-built image inducer to boot?

If there was one hero who knew how to use an image inducer, it was Deadpool - although I use the term hero lightly. Deadpool used an image inducer - built by his arms dealer Weasel - to royally mess up the world’s most unlucky superhero’s personal life - that of Spider-Man’s!

Well, it seems an image inducer is back in the hands of the world’s most unlucky hero - Spider-Man just got one compliments of Beast, in order to find employment at a local school. The image inducer, once again a plot device, explains away that Peter Parker’s problematic work experience having revealed his identity on national television and turn on Tony Stark’s team.

This is good and all - it sets up a (temporary at best) status quo for Peter, but what’s the point of Peter Park unmasking himself in Civil War #2 if some if not most of the nasty side effects can be explained away by a simple image inducer?

Civil War may have vowed to change to face of the Marvel Universe, but I guess we can always fix that up with an image inducer.

Wizard is reporting that though screenwriter David Goyer (Blade, The Invisible) couldn’t catch the Flash, he’s now setting his sights on Green Arrow - although the result is not what you might expect.

The project is called Super Max, and has Green Arrow wrongly accused and convicted of a crime, and then behind bars as regular ol’ Ollie Queen - stuck in a maximum security joint with many of the same supervillains who first put behind bars.

Personally, I’m going to file this premise under the “I’ll Believe It When I See It” category. It sounds like Suicide Squad meets Prison Break - which isn’t suprising. I’ve noted in other blogs before that the wealth of supervillainy in both Marvel and DC is an untapped resource for big screen film producers.

I’m not certain I like the Green Arrow angle. Green Arrow has appeared on life-action TV before - played by Justin Hartley in Smallville. But while Hartley is a decent Arrow, he’s just not Oliver Queen. Ollie is a man who won’t shut up about anything and won’t back down about anything either. He’s one of the most intriguing and dynamic voices never heard (except maybe Justice League Unlimited) on film.

Goyer has confirmed this won’t be a dimmed-down vision, and though G.A.’s costume is on for only the first ten minutes, Queen will have to contend with “a lot of characters with powers” as well as “out-of-control heroes”.

Who could we see, and who should we see? Maybe Nite-Wing or Lock-Up for the (anti)-heroes? And the villains? Well, I’d love to see Captain Cold or Deathstroke behind bars.

What, or rather who, do you guys think?

MORTAL KOMBBAAAT!!!!!

Ooops, sorry, I . . . uhhh . . . guess I got a little ahead of myself.

No, what has begun is Dimestore Productions annual Small Press Idol, a competition pitting multiple creatives teams against one another for a Dimestore imprint mini-series deal, among other prizes.

The competition began several months ago with a number of contestants posting cover and pitches, including yours truly.

Now if you excuse the enormous potential for bias herein, Round 2 has begun.

The website is still a little shakey, as the massive competition has been forced to change servers. Over 69 projects have qualified for the second round, and will submit character designs between now until May 6th, with voting, both public (yes, that means you) and by judges continuing until May 13th.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with this competition, and I’ll be bringing you highlights and updates as they come in. Also, if you’re looking for a cheap source of advertising under $100, you might want to consider Dimestore - I’m sure they could use the funds after all the server-hopping.

Almost forgot . . . here it is, your Daily Comic Book Quote:

(Sentry saves Ms. Marvel from Mole Man Monsters.)

“You’re welcome.” Sentry

“Yeah, thanks.” Ms. Marvel

“Uh, yum.” Wasp

“Focus on the monsters, you unbelievable tramp.” Ms. Marvel

Well, its Week 2 of the Comic Book Journal, and I think we’re off to a great start.

Check out Top 10 Accidental Comic Book Discoveries, last week’s feature-length list. We made it all the way to the front page of Netscape with the list this past weekend, and with any luck, we’ll have just as good response with next’s week feature-length list.

I want to thank my fellow bloggers at 451 Press for pushing Top 10 Accidental Comic Book Discoveries all the way up the list - in particular Toy Bender’s Paul Rudolph, who made this all possible, as well as Paul’s ubber-strange banter-partner YouTube Digger Dave Parrack, Keith Rose of Watching Heroes, Allison Boyer of Reality on Bravo, Daniel Perez of IPStart.com, Jamie Rubusch of Fiction Scribe!. Be sure to give them a read!

Its the start of the new week for Dominic Deegan and Least I Could Do, and already we’re knee-deep in natural disasters and 50 foot woman anatomy (don’t ask) respectively. Speaking of webcomics, I also got a link in the mail from the weekly web-funny Librarianist, so expect that Friday as well.

DC is still weeks behind on my 52 subscription, but I’m so hooked I don’t care. Black Adam has lost everyone he cared about, utterly destroying every organism in an neighboring country, and now he’s on the way to give the mad scientists who created the Four Hourseman (including T.O. Morrow, Will Magnus and Dr. Sivana) a piece of his mind - and lightning by the looks of the cover!

Expect more topical news of comic book tomorrow. For now, here it is your - your Daily Comic Book Quote.

“Yeah, I didn’t know there was banter involved. I don’t do banter.” - Iron Fist

“You’re doing banter now, Fist.” Luke Cage

“No, I’m not.” - Fist

“I didn’t say it was good banter.” Cage

–New Avengers #27

Comic books are, like any entertainment industry, one built around hype. We may not always admit it, but comic book companies are all about promoting the next Watchmen, the next Sandman, just as much as Hollywood is searching for that next Godfather, that next Star Wars.

Funny thing about success is that sometimes it happens to people who weren’t looking for it, or at least not in the way they thought. Like penicillin for pages and panels, here are the Top 10 Accidental Comic Book Discoveries:

Hellblazer: Alan Moore claims to have discovered the character he first breathed to life in the pages of Swamp Thing through a real life meeting. The face-to-face was supposedly in Westiminister, London, as the reclusive writer described to Wizard Magazine an encounter with John Constantine at a sandwhich bar. I guess “Life Imitates Art” isn’t a one-way street after all!

9. Harvey Pekar: Not all success stories center around those seeking fame and fortune. A collegue of Robert Crumb and a pioneer in autobiographical comic books, Pekar’s small-press fame lead to eight appearances on David Letterman (though he was subsequently banned for criticising General Electric) as well as ultimately a feature film adaptation starring Paul Giamatti.

As Scott McCloud writes, “For years, Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor had been a lonely standard bearer for comics autobiography, but suddenly the ‘Alternative’ shelves were swarming with the things — almost enough to constitute a full-fledged genre of their own.” Pekar’s discovery by a largely mainstream culture is a success story in and of itself, documenting how Pekar met succcess on his own terms, not someone else’s.

8. Heavy Metal: Least we forget, not all comic book success stories are American. Its easy to point to Japanese manga, which have now densely populated a shelf of their own in Barnes and Noble. But while interest in manga and anime has slowly but steadily grown for decades, it was a French magazine of all things which virtually exploded on export.

Originally entitled “Metal Hurlant” (Screaming Metal) in France, this illustrated adult fantasy magazine nearly trippled in sales upon its re-naming as “Heavy Metal” by the editors of National Lampoon magazine. In addition to its overseas appeal, “Heavy Metal” would herald the apperances of the likes of Trina Robbins, Howard Chaykin, Walt Simonson and Michael Moorcock among many others. The magazine would also spawn two animated films as well as a video game, feeding a generation of science fiction and fantasy fans who had grown tired of mainstream superheroes.

7. Hellboy: If you’re a comic book fan, it stands to reason you should probably attend comic book conventions. There, you can buy (or at least drool over) rare comic book memobilla, meet and greet your favorite writers, maybe, just maybe, launch a demonic superstar from the pit of the convention hall.

Mike Mignola coined Hellboy while drawing a simple comic con cover - one that would slowly metamorphosize into the wise-cracking-demon-hunting-demon for Dark Horse Comics. Now, with a golden comic book empire as well as one feature film, two (going on three) animated DVDs and talk of a second film, Mike Mignola has effectively proved that comic conventions are moved than sweaty fans and overpriced hot dogs.

6. Golden Age Comic Boom: Not all accidental discoveries are good ones. You might be wondering, how can comics worth hundreds of thousands, if not millions be a bad thing? This is actually two accidents in one - the first the unforseen effect of a sixty-odd year history, and the second an accident waiting to happen in the comic book industry.

It was in the 1990’s that news stories were first a flutter with tales of kids finding big bucks in their grandma’s basement. Old comics from the 1940’s were all the rage, and suddenly the possibility of raising your kid’s tuition in these dimestore rags was a real possibility. But this mainstream interest backfired in the comic book shops, as the resulting “collector bubble” burst, with the industry leaders like Marvel and DC offering variant issues of big events like “The Death of Superman” to entice the non-comic crowd. Soon the truth came out: Golden Age comic prices were only hiked up by the shredding and recycling of World War II rationing efforts, with the regular laws of “supply and demand” applying to everything.

And that, my friends, is why your gold-etched copy of “The Death of Superman” is still worth only five bucks.

5. Maus: Unlike Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, both of which had the backing of a major comic publisher, Art Spiegelman’s Maus was for the most an underground experience, published for 3 pages in Apex Novelties in 1972, and then in serial form starting 1977 in RAW Magazine. Once collected, however, the graphic novel had a profound effect on the medium, even winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1992.

I suspect the core honesty of the book aided its impact. Art’s father, although a Holocaust survivor, exhibits racism, and one point even Art himself confesses fears his father has become the stereotypical stingy Jew. Though it may be a bit of a stretch to call this comic’s mainstream inception accidental - as the underlying metaphor of the Holocaust Jews being depicted as mice to the cats of the Nazi party was visually profound - it is amazing that such an underground graphic novel rose so quickly to the ranks of the literary elite in a time when comics were still fighting public perception as “funny-books”.

4. Star Wars: Okay, okay, I know most of this is a movie truimph, not a comic triumph, but some credit has to be given to George Lucas for holding on to the merchandising right for Star Wars, an overshot and overbudgeted film so sure to be a box office bomb, so no one really gave a Wookie in 1977. The instant success of the movie made merchandising possible, and much of that merchandise exists to this day in the form of comic books.

Though Star Wars slipped in and out of comic book form afterwards, it was truthfully Mike Richardson’s Dark Horse Comics, which expanded the view of the Star Wars Universe beyond the canon of the films, giving fans a view of characters ranging from Kevin Rubio’s bumbling Tag and Bink to Timothy Zahn’s fan-favorite figure Mara Jade.

But none of this would have happened if a maverick director all but relegated to failure for a cheeseball sci-fi flick hadn’t kept his merchandising rights.

3. Superman: We’re already in the Top 3, and you might be thinking, if this is the beginning of the Top 3, why is Superman on the bottom already?

Well, because Superman was a mediated discovery - creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster had high hopes for the last son of Krypton - but no one else did.

In fact, DC editor Vin Sullivan accidentally discovered what would would become the publisher’s most recognizable hero in the slush pile.

Supes joins the ranks of Stephen King and Nicolas Sparks as book-selling personalities gracing the interiors of waste baskets and slush piles alike, with Sullivan chosing the Siegel and Shuster creator simply because it looked different than all the rest.

Who knew waste disposal systems were such fountains of creativity?

2. Spider-Man: Once again, like Siegel and Shuster, writer Stan Lee had high hopes for his bold new superhero Spider-Man - but his boss Martin Goodman didn’t. The idea of a teenager being the hero instead of the guy in short-shorts running beside the hero was a laughable one back before the dawn of the Marvel-lead Silver Age.

So Lee put Spidey on the cover of the last issue of a failed series Amazing Adult Fantasy - figuring his boss wouldn’t care about Spider-Man taking up the front page of a cancelled series. But Amazing Fantasy #15 struck a cord not just in sales, but in a fan mail explosion, one which ultimately garnered Spidey his own comic, Amazing Spider-Man.

In retrospect, Spider-Man’s success paved the way for a large number of similarly angst-ridden teen heroes, including the X-Men, Teen Titans and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But none of this wouldn’t have happened if Martin Goodman, who favored square-jawed Golden Agers like Captain America and Ka-Zar, had his way.

I mean, can you imagine a Silver Age sans the wry and skiny Spidey, replaced by the bare-chested Tarzan clone Ka-Zar?

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Unlike Stan Lee or Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird didn’t have high hopes in the least when they penciled on masks and ancient ninja gear onto four overgrown turtles - they were just brainstorming.

But still, Laird and Eastman knew something was up as a result of their accidental discovery, so they gathered funds from tax refunds and family loans to publish one single issue - parodying current comic hits like Daredevil (”The Foot Clan” to “The Hand”), New Mutants, Cerebrus and Ronin.

The resulting pop culture tidal wave was probably more than any Laird or Eastman could have prepared for. The subsequent Saturday morning cartoon, airing several years after the start of the creator’s Mirage series, included a far more humorous and self-conscious tone in contrast to the Laird and Eastman comicseries, which parodied the darker tones of Frank Miller and Dave Sim.

With the release of the latest TMNT at the box office, there’s no doubt from the box office numbers that TMNT still holds a popular grasp on pop culture.

Not surprisingly, Peter Laird was attached as executive producer of the CGI film, which beat down the competition for a No. 1 spot when it was released.

This will be a weekly webcomic segment I like to call “Weekly Webcomic Wrap-Up”. At the end of the week, I’ll recap the weekly events in the latest world of webcomics. While I hope to expand the list of webcomics wrapped to a sizable portion, today I’m just going to provide a double-edged starter list for those who aren’t too familiar with the genre. In other words, if you aren’t too big into webcomics yet, these are two comics you need to read.

Least I Could Do: This one gets me every time. For Mature (okay, semi-mature) Readers only, Least I Could Do focuses on the exploits of the mischevious Rayne Summers and friends. This has been a pretty eventful week for Rayne in particular. First, he is assigned to aid the very charity worker he attempted to woo with an elaborate ruse a year ago (with horrible results). And if that weren’t enough, Rayne is felled by a mysterious illness while walking in the park with his friend Noel. Too bad Noel thinks he is the butt of of one of Rayne’s many jokes and doesn’t lift a finger to help him immediately. This all leads Rayne to fight through the medications in further attempts to do Noel harm on the way to the hospital. The latter two strips show Rayne back to his trouble-making ways, though no explanation has been made to his illness.

Dominic Deegan: Pictured above, a disarming and addictive manga-esque comic with a lot of admirable qualities, including ample charm and a devoted fanbase. Also, an eventful week for prophetic seer Dominic Deegan. First, the gossip-mongering mage Neilen is dealt with, when his equally mischevious co-worker Runcible Spoon pretends to be his newly-elected superior and offers him more money - for more work (not Neilen’s strong point). The shifty mage resigns at that point. The later half of the week had Orc refugees finally being allowe back into their homeland, after epic storm have ravaged their countryside into rocky, uninhabitable lands.

I’ll keep you up-to-date with more webcomic happening from the two above webcomics and more. If you’d like to suggest some more webcomics for me to read, review and (possibly) recap, you’re more than welcome to it!

Expect a big feature tomorrow!

It all started when he learned the Starman in the current Justice Society of America was that Starman, from the Mark Waid and Alex Ross magnum opus Kingdom Come, the one whose probably been blown all the way from kingdom come (no pun intended) and back by a UN nuke.

And then next issue, Wildcat’s son inexplicably transforms into . . . . well . . . a wildcat: one strikingly similar to his Kingdom Come counterpart.

And if that wasn’t enough, look to the two-page Countdown ads in virtually every other comic in the DCU. I first glanced over a cape-and-cowl figure, thinking it was Dr. Mid-Nite of the JSA. But it wasn’t.

It’s Red Robin. (Yes, the superhero! Geeze, why do you always have to go thinking about food!)

There are other, more subtle examples. Cyclone, for instance, the JSA’s newst member, and granddaugter of Ma Hunkel, was designed by Alex Ross himself to be the younger version of the one seen in Kingdom Come. And Roy Harper is (thankfully) Red Arrow instead of Arsenal.

In some ways, all of this is a good thing - setting up DC’s equivalent of “Days of the Future Past” - a gritty apocalyptic domain which is both always preventable yet always present in some shape or another.

But yet, I have to question some things. First, wasn’t elements of Infinite Crisis a retreading of Kingdom Come, with Checkmate representing a strictly human effort to contain the superhero community. Secondly, doesn’t superheroes taking sides against one another - chosing Batman or Superman - sound eeriely like Civil War - choosing Captain America or Iron Man. I’ve always thought the mini-series was influenced by Kingdom Come in some small way.

So, with this in mind, is there more to this Kingdom connection, and if so, is it as relevant as it was 10 years ago?

Marvel might say that its entire universe was altered by the Civil War shake-up, but its the Avengers, now even more scrambled than “Disassembled”, which bears the most visible change.

Though I’m, as always, behind the curve, I’ve managed by now to pick up both the first New Avengers post-Civil War as well as the first issue of the Mighty Avengers, and I have to say, I’m impressed.

Both books are written by Brian Michael Bendis, promising well-balanced characterization with addictive, if not hilarious, dialogue (like when Spider-Man suggests the whole team wear matching Dr. Strange outfits).

New Avengers, or as Spidey puts it, “The New New Avengers”, has the awesome roster of Wolverine, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Spider-Woman, Ronin and Dr. Strange heading to Japan, where Echo, the 1st Ronin, was left to fend for himself when Civil War found her teammates literally slugging one another.

Mighty Avengers, on the other hand, has Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, Sentry, Wasp, Wonder Wan, Black Widow and Ares rounding out the public teams, which won Civil War but seems to have lost a greater battle. Now, in between bouts with giant monsters and a revamped Ultron, Tony Stark refers to Captain America as simply “Rogers” and views Spidey and Luke Cage as threats to world security, all to the chargin of his loyal field commander, Ms. Marvel.

All of this leads to question I’ve been wondering for the last few years of “Avengers” history - do the ends justify the means? “Avengers Disassembled” made the Scarlett Witch an unstable psychopath who ultimately wished away 90 percent of the mutant population, but such events paved the way from the fanboy team-up of Iron Man, Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Spider-Woman in the pages of “New Avengers”.

Now the likelihood of seeing that team is next to nil, with Captain America dead and the team still split down the middle. But “Civil War” engineers like Warren Ellis and Brian Michael Bendis are working wonders with the premise, and these climatic shake-up’s certainly do sell comics - just look at how much air-time Steve Roger’s death got in mainstream media.

But still, is it worth it, to throw monkey wrench after monkey wrench into fan-favorite ideals and traditions? You know the old saying - its all fun and games until someone uses an eye (for comics).

Black Adam is one of the most complex anti-heroes in DC Comics lore. The predecessor of Captain Marvel, Teth-Adam brought an eye-for-an-eye mentality during his shift from black-as-night baddie to tortured anti-hero.

Black Adam will set off World War III in 52 #50 and given the events of the latest comics, it’s no wonder. Let’s take a look at the play-by-play which caused it all.

Major Spoilers Below:

The Four Horseman: Not very original, especially consider the Marvel counterparts, servants of Apocalpyse, appeared a little while back. These Four Horseman bring major pain to Black Adam’s kingdom, and do worse to his family. But while Apocalpyse’s Horseman bear a psychological threat as often former members of the X-Men, only Sobek, the treacherous Horseman of Famine stands out as memorable in 52. All the rest are glorified cannon fodder for an enraged Black Adam.

Osiris: Two questions. Did he have to die, and did he have to die so gosh-darned horribly? I believe the answer to both is a resounding “No!” Osiris actually overshadows Black Adam in the later issues as the younger, optimistic brother-in-law determined not to succumb to violence in the path to becoming a hero. Wracked with guilt, however, after the accidental killing of a bloodthirsty supervillian, Osiris lets his guard down around Sobek, then masquarding as the obligatory animal sidekick, who feasts of the young man’s flesh as he powers down. He is found torn apart the next day by Adam and Isis.

Now don’t get me wrong - Osiris does have it coming. His blissful innocence prevents him from seeing the classic crocodile tears. Osiris should pay the price. He should be maimed, wounded, even disfigured. But why does he have to be killed? Why is DC so focused and determined to kill off young heroes, after hailing Infinite Crisis as a return to the Silver Age? Seems a step backwards rather than forwards.

Isis: The first woman to stand toe-to-toe with Black Adam, I wasn’t at all surprised that she bit the bullet. Isis sacrafices herself to stop a Horseman before falling victim to Pestilence. Like Osiris, an opportunity missed. Her brother Osiris at least was able to mingle with the likes of the Teen Titans and Suicide Squad, while Isis went from suprising supporting character to amazing female lead to tragic eye candy in the course of several issues. Worse, since she, like Black Adam, was overshadowed by the Osiris subplot, the full measure of her ultimate heroism seems more like a final footnote more than anything else. If there is any justice, Isis should have a listing at Women in Refrigerators at the very least.

Expect more on 52 when I finally get the remaining issues in the mail!

Welcome to the Comic Book Journal, the new blog for panels, pages and everything between from 451 Press.

My name’s Richard Pulfer, and to fall back on a cliche, I’ll be your host.

I’ve decided the best course for introducing myself is a great big unadulterated rant about my picks and faves in the comic book community. So here goes nothing:

I’ve Been Reading Comics Since: At least the fourth grade, but those were just some Dino-Riders I picked up at the drug store. I didn’t get the good stuff until the 7 or 8th Grade when my uncles gave me some 400 comics, including Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe, some Power Man and Iron Fist, and a treasure trove of Frank Miller’s Daredevil.

Favorite Superhero: I love Starman, and I’ve never been able to say it in public, as usually people get mixed up with a cheesy John Carpenter movie of the same name.

Favorite Supervillain: I’m tempted to say the Shade of Starman, but he’s really not a supervillian. Still, I like the conflicted villains the best. Captain Cold of the Flash. Spider-Man’s Sandman (Thomas Haden Church of late). And especially 52’s Black Adam (whom I’ll be dealing with specifically tomorrow).

I’m Reading: Scott McCloud’s Reinventing Comics. I’ve read the first and third book, leaving me only this penultimate installment to ponder.

I’m Playing: X-Men Legends II. Yes, I’m way out of date with video games - I only just got Marvel Ultimate Alliance for Christmas, leading me to consequently play the entire series in reverse order.

I’m Fuming Over: How something exceptionally bad has happened to virtually every character I liked in 52, and how DC had the nerve to try and get me to sign up for a Countdown subscription when I’m still several weeks behind in the 52 subscription.

Well, that’s enough out of me. I’d love to hear your responses to those few questions as we kick off this ink blot on the blogosphere.