DC New 52 Review – Justice League #01

All you comic nerds out there know that this week DC Comics began their relaunch of all their titles with the first issue of Justice League. It was paired with the final issue of Flashpoint which would be the last story of the old continuity (but more on that in another post). I probably won’t do a post for all 52 new books (I’ll probably read them all and give them a shot though), but the one’s that stick out I’ll do a post on and give you my thoughts and opinions on how it turns out. AND OBVIOUSLY, SPOILERS!!!

Quick Info

So this new series of Justice League is being written by Geoff Johns (who is probably my favorite writer from DC) who been in charge of the last few DC mega-events including Infinite Crisis, Blackest Night, and Flashpoint. This will be his return to writing League stories since his short run on a couple issues of JLA. Other New 52 books he will write are Aquaman and Green Lantern.

The artist on this one is the legendary Jim Lee, known for his work on Uncanny X-Men in the 90′s, WildC.a.t.s. in the 90′s and the short lived All-Star Batman & Robin. This will be his return to being a series artist since 2008.

About the Story…

• Never realized that you know the origin story of Superman, Batman and such, but there isn’t a clear origin story for the Justice League (as oppose to the Avengers – heroes come together to fight an enemy that one of them can’t do alone), this issue kicks off the opening story that will bring them together

• The first characters we are introduced to are Batman and Green Lantern, so far their abilities and powers seem unchanged, one thing I noticed though is that this Batman seems less hard-nosed and confident as we are used to, while the new Hal Jordan seems more like Guy Gardner (more cocky and brash – guess similar to his movie persona then)
• In these “past stories” they’re playing off this the heroes are new and not trusted by the public thing and with the opening frames it seems to work with the GCPD hunting down Batman (strangely though even using lethal force on the guy – what did he do exactly to piss them off?)
• It was really hard to figure out who the villain Batman was fighting in the beginning (I originally thought it was a smaller revamp of Killer Croc) but you get to the reveal of it saying “For Darkseid!” and then its obvious now – it’s a parademon. Definitely love this new cyborg looking look to the parademon
• Then the discovery of the new Motherbox, but the dumb thing was that since Green Lantern or Batman didn’t know what to do with it, they go to their “resident alien” Superman
• Then there’s a little Vic Stone (aka Cyborg) sidestory which doesn’t give me confidence on him being picked to the Justice League over the usual Teen Titans, in fact he hasn’t even gotten his powers yet. In my eyes, Martian Manhunter was snubbed!

About the Art & Design…

• Jim Lee’s art is just amazing, he really good at depicting excitement and adventure which is totally what Justice League is about. He also puts a lot of detail into his work which is a little troubling since he’s had deadline troubles in the past (can he do this month-to-month again?).
• Another great thing is all of Batman’s gadgets are actually drawn in and not just “assumed there” in use (for example Bats will just but grab his grappling hook, not just jump to a line that’s magically already there)

• One thing I dislike is even though it is more practical, all the new costumes look like body armor, instead of the fabric look we are used to, many are wearing hard shell looking costumes – might take some time to get used to
• There’s also a thing some people have against many of the costumes having collers now especially on Superman, also with Superman his red “trunks” are missing and though this also makes sense to loose those it just looks off in a way

 

Final Thoughts

It’s a short and sweet open to the a new story arc/origin story to the Justice League. We are sort of jumped right into things so I guess we’ll have to read the other 52 titles hopefully to fill in some of the blanks of what’s new and why things are the way they are. We’ll see if it keeps up next month when issue two drops.

 

Amazing Spider-Man Film Update

In case you did not know, there’s going to be a brand new Spider-Man movie coming next year and it’s not going to continue the Spider-Man trilogy from the 2000′s, but reboot it all over again. The film is currently in post-production and this is what we know so far…

Cast -

• Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker (you know him as Eduardo Saverin from The Social Network)

• Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy (you know her as Wichita from Zombieland or Jules from Superbad)

• Rhys Ifans as The Lizard (you know him as Xenophilius Lovegood from the Potter films)

The director will be Marc Webb who has only worked on one other movie and that’s (500) Days of Summer. So we’ll see how well he does with the jump from indie romance to superhero blockbuster.

The Costume -

The real reason I’m doing this post today is because Entertainment Weekly released new photos of the film today and it includes the full Spider-Man costume and other stuff.

Amazing! Comic Moments – August Week 4

I’m super-behind in comic reading the for the week, so it will be a quick Comic Moments for the week.

Marvel Moment…

Amadeus Cho is a F’ing Super God (Heroic Age: Prince of Power #4)

This issue closes the Prince of Power miniseries with Amadeus pulling a fast one on just about everybody and drinking the elixir to make himself a god that rivals even Odin. In this case a blue triple-eyed, 4-armed naked dude. But in the end he siphons all of it to a returning Hercules. And the cliffhanger kicks off the Chaos War saga which promises to be the biggest smackdown beat-em up in Marvel history. Looking forward to that.

DC Moment…

Jade has Lantern Powers (Justice League of America #48)

Jade continues to make her resurgence in the DCU by randomly becoming a White Lantern for a brief moment in the battle against her father Alan Scott. The battle really wasn’t much besides a couple of energy blasts from key characters, but hey at least we can move forward with the JLA storyline.

Must Read of the Week…

Batman#702

This is the second part of the filler that tells what happened in between Batman R.I.P. and Batman: Battle for the Cowl (along with some lead-up to his eventual return in the upcoming issue of Batman & Robin). Though Grant Morrison continues to lay down thick narrative that relies heavily on background reading, this one isn’t too bad (mostly you need Final Crisis read). It is a pretty good read with it good seeing Batman as a more of his detective self identifying the god-killer bullet. But damn it, please don’t make Batman fight anymore of Superman’s uber villains, it just makes everything super ridiculous.

Amazing! Comic Moments – Week 3 August

Marvel Moments…

Hulk Vs. Red Hulk, Finally It Ends (Hulk #24)

SPOILER! Hulk beats Red Hulk (Thunderbolt Ross) both physically and mentally this issue. And it’s splash panel after splash panel of Hulk beatdown goodness. Though the last issue of Incredible Hulk was better to me, this one ends with a setup that could be pretty cool heading into the future of the Marvel U.

THE NEW POWER MAN! Find Him on Craigslist (Shadowland – Power Man #1)

Almost remniscent of Kick Ass, this new Power Man gets his jobs via the internet, in this case Craigslist. Taking up Luke Cage’s old moniker, this new kid on the block looks to bring a fresh vibe to the New York underground superheroes like Cage and Iron Fist. It’s one of the more interesting sidestories to the Shadowland tie-in books.

DC Moments…

What a Dick! Bizarro Supergirl’s Origin Tale-ish (Supergirl #55)

Bizzaro wanted to escape the exploding Bizzaro World with Bizzaro Girl, but all didn’t go according to plan. Just a funny moment to start the issue, and this Bizzaro saga for Supergirl should come to an end next issue.

Jade and Obsidian Fuse Together!? (Justice Society of America #42)

To tell you the truth, the JLA/JSA tie-in with Brightest Day is just plain random as seen here with a fusion of brother/sister duo Jade and Obsidian. Next issue ends all this madness and hopefully bring better storylines.

Moment of the Week…

Those Meddling Kids! (Avenger Academy #3)

Avengers Academy slowly gets better and better with every issue. In this one the kids take a “field trip” to The Raft prison on a scared straight kind of thing. Hazmat, Mettle, and Veil break off from the group to face the man who put hurt them all, Norman Osborn. It seems more and more that these kids are destined for villainy, by just being the way they are and that seems to be a fresh twist to the teen hero books.

Must Read of the Week

New Avengers #3

For me, New Avengers still stands as the best Avenger title of the Heroic Age reboots. There’s a nice mix of comedy, action, and storytelling that makes the comic more enjoyable. It calls on the feel of the early New Avengers comics post-Disassembled. Also the ending that brings past a huge part of Dr. Strange’s origin story is totally awesome.

Amazing! Comic Moments – August Week 2

DC Moments…

Black Canary screams White Canary through a Wall (Birds of Prey #4)

And you thought fishnet girl’s superpower was stupid (still kind of is). But this is one of the few time that we’ve seen Canary use it at a high impact level. It also looks kind of like the kamehameha from Dragonball Z.

Playing some Bball with Supes (Superman #702)

Unless you have superpowers, how did you think this was gonna end up. He’s friggin’ Superman.

Marvel Moments…

Tony and Pepper sure “repulse” each other (Invincible Iron Man #29)

Not much action at all in this issue, but there was this LOL worthy moment with Tony Stark and Pepper Potts who can’t seem to be able to kiss each other since their mechanical repulsor hearts push off of each other. Yay for puns!

Blade/X-Men Crossover (X-Men #2)

This vampire saga that they’re using to launch the new X-Men comics is pretty weak so far. Really, it just doesn’t fit and seems to be catering to the Twilight fans out there (which makes no sense whatsoever). Blade (yup same dude from those movies) makes a major appearance for once and lobs off this weird reptile vampire.

Moment of the Week…

OH SH*T! You’re Gonna Get It Now! (The Thanos Imperative #3)

So there’s one thing there is promised in Marvel’s space comics: absolute sheer impossible-to-defeat villains that are beyond anything a person can realize. And then there’s the guys that have to stop that. From left to right is: Quasar (resurrected hero with powers in his armbands), Beta Ray Bill (alien Thor), Gladiator (that one alien guy from X-Men’s time in space), Nova (Marvel’s Green Lantern, but not), Silver Surfer (he’s a silver surfer, get it?), Ronan the Accuser (he’s the guy who’s not Beta Ray who has a hammer). With introductions out of the way, it’s time to kick ass!

Must Read of the Week…

The Incredible Hulk #611

With almost a two year absence from the Marvel Universe, Hulk returned LAST issue, and how do you top that? You have him duke it out with his half alien son Skaar. The last time Hulk was let loose he level and enslaved all of New York and beat to a pulp almost every superhero in the Earth’s arsenal. Skaar amazingly held his own in this issue and the ending is pretty campy, but it will be interesting where the Hulkverse will head after this World War Hulks business.