Comic(s) of the Day: Injustice-Gods Among Us v2 #1-3

by Orion Tippens, ADC

Comics of the Day Review:

Injustice: Gods Among Us volume 2, #1-3 (single digital issues)

Writer: Tom Taylor

Pencils: Bruno Redondo

Inks: Julien Hugonard-Bert

Published by: DC Comics

Note: The single digital issues of Injustice are later collected and released in print.

Story:

Set in an alternate DC universe and based on a videogame (as a prequel, so far), Injustice: Gods Among Us brings us a familiar continuity gone horribly wrong.

Spoilers ahead:

These issues continue a long story from Injustice Gods: Among Us volume 1, in which Superman is now a megalomaniacal psychopath with murderous tendencies, much later after the death of his wife and unborn child. He declares himself sovereign of Earth and drug dealer of special performance enhancers – all for the making of his “better world.” Meanwhile, Batman is recovering from bad injuries, remains in hiding while building his own insurgency to this super-regime. Also, cosmic forces are showing an increasing interest in this developing situation.

Thoughts:

I am a huge fan of this series, my favorite guilty pleasure in mainstream comics: not so much for the videogame tie-in but for the creative writing and freedom involved. The writer from the very beginning took this control, and the destinies of our familiar DC universe cast, and ran away with it all. Injustice is

Quote of the Day: Ed Brubaker on superheroes

by Mike Hansen

From Point Blank #1 (the prelude to Sleeper) – click to make bigger:

I love it when comics mix genres. Ed Brubaker’s blend of crime and superheroes in Sleeper and Incognito is a blast. His murder/revenge story in Captain America was easily the best thing about Marvel’s Civil War event a few years back. (I’m still woefully behind on new comics, but what I’ve read of his horror/crime series Fatale has been amazing so far…)

Upgrade or Downgrade? Black Orchid Deluxe hardcover

by Mike Hansen

I hadn’t intended to do another Up-or-Down so soon, but I’ve gotten several requests for more, and since they’re easier to do as I’m organizing my comics and cleaning up my place, why not?

As I’ve mentioned, in the late 1980s-early 1990s DC Comics was on to something truly special. Few publishers at the time were turning out classic after classic (Dark Horse is the only one that comes to mind) and, though I was too young to appreciate it at the time, DC proved beyond a doubt that comics post-Watchmen/Maus/Dark Knight Returns were validated as true literature.

One of DC’s earliest projects to demonstrate this was 1988’s Black Orchid by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean, one of their first U.S.-published comics works (along with The Sandman). A strange, short tale about unintended consequences and beauty in a violent world, Black Orchid was the first story to reveal the sophistication of Gaiman’s later self-contained works (his early Sandman stories were strange, cliffhanger- and superhero-populated affairs) and McKean’s sense of story-as-design he later applied to Arkham Asylum and Cages.

The 1993 trade paperback (1st printing). Note the DC logo blotching an otherwise beautiful cover.

THE GOOD: The 2012 oversized Deluxe hardcover edition of Black Orchid is

Cool Art: World’s Finest ad by Steve Rude & Karl Kesel

by Mike Hansen

Here’s a preliminary version of Steve Rude’s cover to World’s Finest (1990) #1. Unlike the final, painted version by Rude, this ad version is inked by Karl Kesel and traditionally colored.

To the best of my knowledge, this version has never been collected in any DC book: I know for sure it wasn’t in the original 3-issue miniseries or the recent Deluxe Edition hardcover (I’ve never owned the older trade-paperback collected edition, but I’d be surprised if this was in there).

Anyway, cool art, huh? This is pretty much exactly how Superman and Batman should look, especially in comics aimed at kids under 18. (Remember when superhero comics were aimed at kids?)

Upgrade or Downgrade? Animal Man Omnibus

by Mike Hansen

Okay, this is gonna be a quick one, since I’ve been away… I’ve been recovering from a rather inconvenient surgery (minor skin cancer, fortunately quite curable), so apologies for my infrequent posting over the last few months. One of the few things I’ve been able to do easily over the past several weeks has been to FINALLY organize my comics collection, so expect a lot more stuff in the near future. Onward!

The Animal Man Omnibus is 99% perfect. The story contents remain an essential touchstone for mainstream comics’ transition to more mature and deconstructionist material, and made Grant Morrison (The Invisibles, All-Star Superman, New X-Men, Doom Patrol, Batman, JLA, etc.) one of comics’ biggest names. (John Byrne did a fun, goofy take on a main character that knows it’s a fictional comic-book character in Sensational She-Hulk, which was published at about the same time as this Animal Man material – but Byrne’s mastery of old-school, 1960s/70s-inspired comics storytelling hasn’t received the same accolades as Morrison’s innovations.)

A missing Animal Man piece that’s finally been reprinted.

THE GOOD: This book features Grant Morrison’s entire run on Animal Man, including Animal Man #1-26 and a story from Secret Origins #39. Morrison took a ridiculous character (a guy in orange tights who gains the powers of animals) and built the perfect story around him, one that breaks down the entire idea of the role of superhero stories. The story is a must-read for anyone who appreciates a mature take on the frankly immature superhero concept, and has a permanent place in comics history.

Extras include all

Upgrade or Downgrade? Hellblazer: Original Sins

by Mike Hansen

Hellblazer: Original Sins (1st & 2nd DC Comics printing)

Occasionally, I’ll buy more than one edition of a graphic novel. Sometimes it’s by accident (which is surprisingly easy when one has thousands of books!); sometimes it’s because the newer one looks like a better version…

After a big move five months ago, I’ve finally gotten around to organizing my comics again, and I’ve discovered a LOT of duplicate material in some of my books. So as a Public Service, I thought I’d share what I know, so you can make a more informed decision on which books to buy. I’m a giver.

I’m starting with DC/Vertigo’s Hellblazer books, as I’ve managed to amass most of them over the last 21 years. It’s one of the best horror comics series of all time, so if all you care about is whether it’s good the answer is YES. Hugely imaginative, massively influential, the stories of John Constantine remain as potent today as they did when they were first published over the last 26 years. Even the character’s creator, Alan Moore, has praised the work of writers Jamie Delano and Brian Azzarello on the series, despite his general hatred of DC Comics.

1993 Warner Books edition

(It’s a shame that DC decided to incorporate its “mature” characters back into its New 52 superhero line. If only DC knew how to properly manage its intellectual property and branding, instead of taking an “all or nothing” approach to its company-owned material, draining the life and power out of ideas that now fall far short of their potential. I’m grateful that a large enough audience exists for the “real” John Constantine so the Hellblazer stories can continue to be reprinted.)

I’ve given DC Comics a hard time a lot lately (because, let’s face it, that company has done a shit-ton of stupid things in public in the last few years – hell, in the last few weeks), but the company hasn’t survived for over 75 years by being stupid all the time. The DC of today doesn’t

San Diego Comic-Con 2013 pictures (part 2)

Photos by Orion Tippens

Occasional caption text by Mike Hansen

Dustin Nguyen (Li’l Gotham) rocks the stage.

I saw The Wolverine

by Mike Hansen

Probably my favorite of the international posters, even if the tagline is as cheesy as U.S. posters: “Fugitive, Hero, Legend.” Really? “Inmortal,” indeed…

They finally got the claws right.

Every X-Men film has its nitpicky moments, giving long-time comics readers like me something to complain about (in the right company). The first couple of X-Men films get a pass, because they were at the very beginning of the superhero-film wave that didn’t really get going until the first Spider-Man movie. Both of them have a lot of good visual and character moments, but watching them now reveals a lot of stuff that would make me cringe if they were made in 2013. The near-franchise killer (despite its initial box-office success) X-Men: The Last Stand is still nearly unwatchable for me, with its odd and pointless creative choices. Likewise X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which clearly owed its limited success to the last bit of goodwill fans had for the material (not to mention the rough cut’s leak, marking the beginning of the end for MegaUpload and making it really damn tough for me to complete my AC/DC bootleg collection – but I digress…).

I usually like teaser posters more than later ones. For me, less is more.

X-Men: First Class was a big step back in the right direction, with its bold and ballsy 1960s Cold War setting and the kind of reboot no superhero franchise in any medium had seen yet: nailing down the premise’s origins in a specific time in history, despite the unofficial Marvel “ten-year rule” for its oldest characters (i.e., as of 2013, the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man got their powers in 2003 – even though their first appearances were in 1961-1962). This kind of thinking has also led to creative disasters like DC’s New 52 reboot (although one of its few good ideas was Grant Morrison’s run on Action Comics featuring the early days of Superman), so it can be a fine line to walk between respecting and adapting source material, and just doing overpaid fan fiction. First Class also had that great, super-brief scene with Wolverine, one of the few times I’ve seen a scene designed as fan service really work. (Will its other choices, like an early furry Beast and using Cyclops’s brother, make sense in the long run? Time will tell…)

I think this poster was for the Japanese market. I dig it, especially its similarity to the new X-Men: Days of Future Past teaser posters.

The Wolverine has none of the problems of previous X-Men films. It’s a tight story set (mostly) during just a handful of days, some time after the events of The Last Stand (none of which are directly referenced, other than that Wolverine killed Jean Grey and is now haunted by this). The story is mainly

Tonight in Portland: Batman ’66 signing!

by Mike Hansen

At Bridge City Comics, owned and operated by my homie Michael Ring. Check it:

 

…Also, note the CORRECT use of the apostrophe in ’66 in the headline: none of this upside-down, lazy smart-quotes crap on this website. ONLY THE BEST FOR YOU.

Orion’s Exclusive ECCC Pics (part 1 of 2)!

by Orion Tippens

(Mike here: Orion KILLED it with these sweet pics from the 2013 Emerald City Comic Con. I’m just going to post these in random order: together, these photos really capture the essence of walking a convention floor. Click on each photo to make it superbig. How many of the brilliant creators in these photos can you name? And yeah, I probably should’ve tried to post these a couple weeks ago: I’m polishing up the final draft of a script that’s being drawn for Comic-Con. More in a bit…)

The 1st Spider-Man Fantastic Four appearances – never to be touched again by human hands.

Poison Ivy vs. Batgirl

hint: webcomics genius.

Fauhawk Superman vs. old school Lex Luthor!

Writer of great DC comics of the past, now a voice for creator-owned books and digital publishing.

REPRESENT!!

Wil Wheaton surrounds himself with love.

If you don’t own all of his comics work, you really should. REALLY

Did anyone actually PAY $1000 for a year-old Walking Dead comic?!

Extermination has never been so colorful, and huggable.

Looked at this and I thought, what would be the worst thing you could bring home to show the wife and kids after a day at a comic con?

artist on one of the better-selling New 52 DC series.

hint: you may have a tattoo of his artwork.

Just letting you all know, Invincible is the greatest superhero epic story ever!

hint: Okay, this one’s a freebie.

Only at a comic or related convention is this considered normal.

Emerald City con life.

hint: Really nice Image artist…

…doing what he does best.

hint: one of Image’s best-selling artists.

It’s not a comic con without some huge tower of geek apparel for sale.

I’ll post the creators list after this break: