DC Has To Stop and Marvel Should Too

DC are you listening?


Maybe I'd read Secret Invasion if it had cool sound effects like this:

Nah... it's just glitz...

-Swinebread

Atomic Romance Awards

It’s the First Annual Atomic Romance Awards! This is my special tribute to the comic books of 2007 that have earned fame or infamy in my little corner of comic fandom. Now you might think there are some obvious choices missing from the winner’s circle, but as I’m not buying a huge swath of titles published by Marvel or DC this makes sense. The Atomic Romance Awards reflect my personal preferences and that’s just how it should be… …it’s my blog. So, I’ll end the banter and let the ceremony begin.

Note: The Atomic Romance Award categories were painstakingly developed along with a rigorous vetting process for the awardees. In other words, this is bunch of crap I made up off the top of my head.

Best Title Overall: Army of Darkness, Dynamite Entertainment.

Runner up: The Walking Dead, Image.

Best Writer: Dan Slott She-Hulk, Marvel Comics.

Runner Up: Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead, Image

Best mini-series: Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born, Marvel Comics.

Runner up: Captain Carrot and the Final Ark.

Best Adventure Comic: Jungle Girl, Dynamite Entertainment.

Runner Up: Black Coat, Ape Entertainment.

Best Horror Title: Fall of Cthulhu, Boom Studios.

Runner Up: The Secret, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Sword and Sorcery Title: Red Sonja, Dynamite Entertainment.

Runner Up: Conan, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Sci-Fi Title: Star Trek Klingons: Blood Will Tell, IDW.

Runner Up: Terminator 2 Infinity, Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Art: Jae Lee & Richard Isanove – Dark Tower: The Gun Slinger Born, Marvel Comics.
Runner Up: Phil Noto Jonah Hex, DC Comics.

Worst Costume: Earth-11 Wonder Man.


Best Costume: SHIELD She-Hulk


Best Dramatic Moment: Spock’s lack of emotion shocks vicious Aliens, Star Trek Alien Spotlight: Vulcans #1, IDW

Runner Up: Suicide by Zombie, Walking Dead #41, Image.

Best Comedic Moment, Zombie Hulk wipes butt with the Necronomicon, Marvel Zombies vs. the Army of Darkness #5, Marvel Comics/Dynamite Entertainment.
Runner Up: The Sandy Eggo Comic Con in Captain Carrot and the Final Ark #1

Best One-liner: Ash: “Save the Whore Save the World” Army of Darkness From the Ashes # 3, Dynamite Entertainment.
Runner Up: Wolverine: “...I got better things to do than go around chasing Juggernaut’s sloppy seconds.” She-Hulk #16, Marvel Comics.

Biggest Surprise How Good It Was: Planetary Brigade trade paperback, Boom Studios.

Best Single Issue: Jack of Fables # 16, DC Comics.
Runner Up: Fall of Cthulhu # 7, Boom Studios.

Worst Single Issue: Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special, DC Comics
Runner Up: Green Arrow and Black Canary Wedding Special, DC Comics (it's that bad)

Best Trade Paperback: 52, DC Comics.
Runner up: El Cazador, Disney

Best Collection of Older Comics: Chronicles of Conan, Marvel Comics/Dark Horse Comics.
Runner Up: Sword of the Atom, DC Comics.

Best Comic Company: Dynamite Entertainment.

Dumbest Moment: Killing Captain America.

Worst Editor-in-Chief: tie Dan Didio & Joe Quesada.

Silliest Outrage: Mary Jane Statue (on all sides).

Biggest Disappointment: Cancelled Showcase Presents titles, DC Comics
Runner Up: Star Trek: Year Four, IDW.

Lamest Promotion: Countdown’s Evil Shall Inherit the Earth

Favorite Earth from DC’s 52 Multiverse: Earth-3.
Runner Up: Earth-10

Favorite Hero: Red Sonja.
Runner Up: Captain Carrot.

Most Ruined Character: Spiderman,
Runner Up: The Flash

Favorite Villain: Kulan Gath, Red Sonja
Runner Up: the Governor, Walking Dead.

Best Origin Story: Book Of Thoth, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Cameo: Bald Female Luthor, The Search for Ray Palmer: Superwoman/Batwoman #1, DC Comics.
Runner Up: Zombie Ham, The Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham #1, Marvel Comics.

Team or Character Most in Need of Another Mini-series: Captain Carrot.

Team or Character Least Deserving of Another Miniseries: Green Lantern

Best Cover She-Hulk #20, Marvel Comics.


Worst Cover: Spiderman/Red Sonja #1


Most Shocking Cover: Black Summer #0, Avatar.

Biggest Bone Thrown to Female Comic Fans: Earth-11.
Runner Up: Gail Simone on Wonder Woman.

Best Title I Have No Desire to Read: Buffy: Season Eight, Dark Horse Comics.

Best Title I have a Desire to Read But Won’t Until the Trade Comes Out: Conan, Dark Horse comics.

Worst Title I’m Really Glad I Didn’t Read: Amazons Attack, DC Comics.

Best New Anti-Hero: Tallulah Black “The Ballad of Tallulah Black,” Jonah Hex #17, DC Comics.
Runner Up: Sergeant Hook, Army of Darkness: From the Ashes, Dynamite Entertainment.

Biggest Blood Bath: Black Summer #2, Avatar.

Best Porn Face: Jungle Girl #2 Cover, Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Supporting Character: Lori Grimes, Walking Dead.
Runner Up: Stu, She-Hulk.

Biggest Fanboy Moment: The appearance of the old style cylons in the Battlestar Galatica comics.

Most Rapists: Jonah Hex. DC Comics.

Best Formerly Un-cool Character That’s Now Very Cool: Doll Man.

Best Gunfight: Jonah Hex 25, DC Comics.

Most Friendly Depiction of Native Americans: Lone Ranger

Most Not So Friendly Depiction of Native Americans: Streets of Glory.

Best Letters Page: Walking Dead

Best Retcon: It wasn’t’ Alley Cat Abra that killed Little Cheese, it was her evil clone, Dark Ally! Captain Carrot and the Final Ark, DC Comics.

Best Monster: The Harlot, Fall of Cthulhu, Boom Studios.
Runner Up: Mutant Evil Ash From the Ashes #4, Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Sword Fight: Wolfskin #1, Avatar.
Runner Up: Sword of Red Sonja: Doom of the Gods # 3.

Most Squandered Potential: Shadowpact.

Best Free Comic Book Day Comic: Astounding Wolf-Man #1, Image.

Best Marvel Essential: Silver Surfer Vol 2

Best Showcase Presents: Adam Strange Vol 1

Best Crossover: Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness, Marvel Comics/ Dynamite Entertainment.

Best Death Scene: Spiderman eats Mary Jane and Aunt May, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days.

Biggest Oh Come On!: Spiderman One More Day,
Runner Up: Spiderman Reign

Best Reunited Lost Love Scene That Didn’t Happen: Captain Carrot and Wonder Wabbit.

Lamest Country in Marvel Atlas Volume 1: Any made up Balkan nation that’s not Latveria.

Cover That Makes Me Think About Vagina the Most: Shadowpact #16



Favorite Lesbian: Batwoman

Most Anticipated Title for 2008: The Twelve, Marvel Comics.
Runner Up: Superpowers, Dynamite Entertainment.

Worst News: Rob Liefeld is drawing Killraven… …and Robert Kirkman thinks it looks good.

Congratulations to all the winners!



-Swinebread

My New Comics

This week’s best cover is Criminal Macabre: My Demon Baby #1.

Shadow Pact #17, DC Comics.

Criminal Macabre: My Demon Baby #1, Dark Horse.

Green Arrow & Black Canary Wedding Special #1, DC Comics. Yeah, yeah, I picked it up… what the hell, why not.

Spider-Man/Red Sonja #2, Dynamite Entertainment/Marvel Comics.

Zerokiller #2, Dark Horse.

Jungle Girl #0, Dynamite Entertainment. Hmmm… aren’t you supposed to release a 25¢ teaser comic before issue one comes out?

Jungle Girl #1, Dynamite Entertainment.

Trade Paperback:
52 Vol #3, DC Comics. This has been good so far, too bad it all went to crap with Countdown and its related series.


-Swinebread

The New DC Implosion?

Wow, and I though Marvel was F***ing up. Apparently my “wait and see plan” on buying new comics (otherwise known as “buy the trade if the series gets a good response”) was a much better idea than I thought. Rumor has it (yuck, yuck) that Countdown sucks hard. It’s ill-conceived, poorly written, and totally unintelligible unless your reading dozens of other titles a month. Amazingly, DC has centered their whole line on this loser. Countdown is the Heaven’s Gate of Comic Books and no Director’s Cut is gonna save it.

Now, I’ve been reading the collected 52 trades as the response was positive, but I was weary after Identity crisis, Infinite Crisis, and a multitude “no resolution” miniseries. But now I realize that 52 was a fluke. We’re back to the murder and rape fest that’s typified mainstream comics of late.

Valerie D’Orazio's insightful post at Occasional Superheroine lays it bare in a 12-point argument that’s very illuminating. Dan Didio is in trouble. He knows it. We know it. Dogs know it.

After reading the Newsarama interview with Dan Didio, I have come to the conclusion that the situation at DC has become so dire that to continue to publically mock "Countdown" would be in bad taste.

Honestly, I do not see the current regime at the company lasting any more than 6-12 months tops. "Final Countdown" will indeed mark the end of an era, an era that started strongly -- if not controversially -- with "Identity Crisis," reached its peak with "52," and crashed and burned with "Countdown."

Some of her arguments really stand out for me such as: #3 Didio has helped launch a renaissance in feminist comic book activism. # 4. DC is just doing “the Crisis” over and over again (boring), #8 DC is pissing off the Big Dogs at Time/Warner with their “DC Hates Women” storylines. #10 Sales are tanking, and #12 investment in the short-term as opposed to the long-term (which has been one of my biggest gripes).

The “DC Hates Women” has gotten so bad it’s making its way into mainstream press. See here for the Mother Jones article that Valerie mentions. Also in a following post, she notes how the new Batwoman, a character I was really enjoying from 52, disappears from the DC universe. I guess the neo-con fundies can’t allow a gay character that’s related to one of the big three (Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman) and so DC caved. This tells me that that all the work that went into 52 was quickly undone by Countdown and other DC titles.

Oh and for the fanboys out there who defend the “DC Hates Women” storytelling lets use a little analogy. It would be like Uhura on Star Trek, who didn’t get a lot of screen time but was present and accounted for, suddenly getting raped and murdered to get a rise out Captain Kirk. Sure women in comics haven’t always been well presented but what’s happening now is altogether different. The difference in this case being sexism from the greater society reflected in comic stories vs. the misogyny of a few creators and editors that pull the strings. Do you get it now? The old stories were sexist. The new stories “hate women.” These are two separate issues, with the later being the most insidious.

So I guess I’ll buy the last two trades of 52 and wonder at what could have been.

-Swinebread

Blog Positivity Day...

Rascally Heidi Meeley at Comic Fairplay has put the word out for Blog Positivity Day just to counter some of that negative comics backlash we might be feeling towards the industry. See here for the details.

Well, most of my special comic book moments have already been mentioned in this blog, but I guess I’ve got a few things I'd like to speak to.

Right now I am reading 52 via trade paperback. I decided not to pickup the individual issues, and I discovered it was worth the wait. The tight plotting demanded by the original weekly schedule and the ability to read each story one after another, makes for a satisfying comics experience. Much like having the DVDs to a whole season of a beloved TV show. 52 actually reads like the third season of a series, with Identity Crisis, Countdown to Infinite Crisis, Infinite Crisis and a myriad of other mini-series and issues being the second season (none of this impedes enjoyment though). Of Course the first season would have to be the rest of DC comics history, and Paul Levtiz, in the first story afterword, basically says that 52 is a collaboration across time with all the creators that have ever worked at DC over the years. That’s another thing that I like about the trades too, each issue gets and afterword.

I had given up on crossover stories. I was disappointed with the way Infinite Crisis played out and found most of the lead in and lead out mini-series unsatisfying with little or no story resolutions. I know the ultimate end of the 52 series, that the multiverse is back with 52 alternate universes, but that knowledge isn’t ruining it for me. In fact that’s the reason I decided to pick it up in the first place. I’m an alternate universe kinda guy. Only the first two trades are out now, so the whole series could go to crap but I got the feeling it doesn’t.

After all this blabbing the real positive thing I actually wanted to talk about was the depiction of Batwoman. I remember last year when there was this entire hullabaloo about her being a lesbian. News story after news story speaking about how sensational it was. I groaned to myself thinking it was another gimmick. Well, all these months later I’ve discovered it was really well done and the sensationalism came from the news organizations themselves rather than DC. What really worked for me was the meeting between Renee Montoya and Kate Kane in week 7; the look in their eyes, and the recognition of a deep history between the two really sold the scene for me. I’m a fan of Love and Rockets and the exchange between the two really borrows some of that old school, girl love from Las Locas.

A few other comic book moments:

Volume 12 of the Chronicles of Conan. I’ve read the original Queen of the Black Coast story by Howard, but the death of Bêlit in Roy Thomas’ comic adaptation still broke my heart. This trade clinched it for me that Conan the Barbarian is the best mainstream comic book of the 1970s (IMHO).

I am really happy that Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew is getting a new miniseries and past issues are being collected in the Showcase trade.

I have to mention She-Hulk #20 that just came out. That has got to be one of the best covers ever. On top of that, Dan Slott ties up most of the loose ends from his run, which is much appreciated. Most of the book is exposition, but it’s the most entertaining exposition I’ve ever read. Weird Huh!

I’m totally stoked for the Great Disaster collection as well. I’ve always wanted to read the Atomic Knights stories and Hercules Unbound as well. Wild and Wahoo post-apocalyptic adventures are the best!

-Swinebread

My New Comics

This week’s best cover is The Walking Dead #39.

Red Sonja #24, Dynamite Entertainment.

Star Trek: Year Four #1, IDW. It’s here! Yes, Arex and M’Ress are in it.

Battlestar Galactica #12, Dynamite Entertainment.

Ninja Scroll #11, DC Comics.

Raise the Dead #4, Dynamite Entertainment.

Black Summer, #1, Avatar.

All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, #3, Marvel Comics. The character entries in these things are ridiculously long now… and yet I still buy them. The Sub-Mariner entry is five pages long! It does have the Annunaki, which are the ancient gods/demons that first appeared in Conan #30. That’s kinda’ cool.

The Walking Dead, #39, Image. Wow, I’ve been readin’ this comic for 3.25 years. This issue has seven pages of letters.

Backissue, #23 (magazine) Tomorrows Publishing. Great article on the Isis and Flash TV shows and an excellent retrospective on Star Trek comics.

I also picked up the trade 52 volume 2, by DC Comics.


-Swinebread

My New Comics

Not much this week
This Week's cover by default is Wrath of the Titans #1.

Wrath of the Titans #1, Bluewater Productions. That’s right! This is the comic sequel to one of my childhood favorites: Clash of the Titans. See, old Ray Harryhausen never got to make the sequel he planned despite the fact that Clash of the Titans made money. But now, through comics, we get to see what the next story would have been. Check out Bluewater Productions site here.


52 Vol 1 trade paperback, DC Comics. I wanted to see what all the hype was about even though I know the big surprise at the end… Well, come to think of it, maybe that’s why I picked it up. Also, from now on, I’m gonna’ buy these big events and miniseries from the big two (Marvel and DC) in TPB form only.

-Swinebread