Its all over for Marvel.

There's a big battle brewing for Marvel, and its not just a Super Bowl wager.  Marvel is counting down to a new Secret Wars event which will in turn lead to Marvel rebooting its continuity.  This, of course, has lead to much wailing and gnashing of teeth from fans who are quite reboot weary.  The weariness comes from DC Comics being on their, I think, fourth reboot at this point.  This has a lot of fan looking sideways at this and there's still a bit of a bitter air about DC's last reboot which has gotten mixed reviews.

Let's break this on down.

For those new to this concept, a "reboot" is a resetting of the continuity in a fictional world.  This sounds crazy on the surface as one would wonder why you want to ignore stories and risk alienating long time fans.  People spent time and money reading these stories.  They're invested.  But now that investment doesn't matter?

It does matter, but there's a case to be made for reboots and they are necessary on occasion.

WHY SHOULD THERE BE A REBOOT?

* If there is confusion as to continuity.  I'm not just talking about a subject in the continuity that someone can read up on.  If the question is "What happened to Mister Awesome?" and the answer is "Well, this happened to him.  It was in (insert title of storyline here).  You can check it out in (name the trade or the issue numbers here)." then you don't have a problem.  However, if the question is "What happened to Mister Awesome?" and the reply is "Do you mean the main Mister Awesome, the Extreme World Mister Awesome, or the one from the other dimension that's currently being Mister Awesome while Mister Awesome is presumed dead but is really lost in the multiverse with a genetically altered chinchilla?" there may be cause for concern.

* You're planning on incorporating something you've acquired into your main continuity.  Companies merge.  Each have characters that would work great together.  Parallel Earth team-ups are starting to get played out, and it time to properly get everyone in the same sandbox.

*Time has marched on.  If characters have a specific tie to a specific ear they can get dated, and that gets awkward.  Superheroes tend to have fountain of youth going for them, but even that fountain can't explain away a disco inspired wardrobe for a character that couldn't have been born in the 70s.

DC'S REBOOTS

DC rebooted everything in the mid-80s with their CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS.  At the time DC had a lot going on.  Their main characters existed on "Earth 1".  Their Golden Age characters existed on "Earth 2".  Captain Marvel and his buddies had their own Earth as did Blue Beetle and the characters he shared a world with.  That's a lot for keep straight.

So, they had one big event to bring everything together.  George Perez drew just about every character DC every had at some point.  Its a classic story, and well worth reading.  

But the relaunch had a couple of flaws here and there at to the new continuity.  Its a huge undertaking with multiple creative teams that really need to be coordinated with each other.  So, years later DC released ZERO HOUR to try to smooth over some of these issues.  The whole point was to try to streamline things, and it worked for the most part.

Characters moved on and the Silver Age heroes passed torches to a newer generation.  Unfortunately, some people didn't like that and they somehow ended up being in charge.  There ended up being more changes which culminated in FLASHPOINT and THE NEW 52.  This went down because the powers that be at DC wanted their Silver Age heroes back in the saddle and Jim Lee could now bring in his Wildstorm properties over.  It hasn't gone very well. There was an initial sales bump, but  things are waning.  

The reboot just seemed too forced, and the execution on the follow up was kind of haphazard.  Also, some real fan favorite characters got written out.  Fans of Stephanie Brown or Wally West were left shrugging their shoulders.

WHAT'S UP WITH MARVEL?

There's been a lot brewing with Marvel as to build up to SECRET WARS.  Jonathan Hickman's runs on AVENGERS and NEW AVENGERS have been leading up to this directly.  The storyline has been really great.  I haven't felt this gripped by a storyline since Morrison's Batman epic.  The real question is: why is Marvel rebooting everything now?

Marvel released an alternative "Ultimate" line of comics years ago, and they've been a success.  The continuity for the main Marvel Universe and the Ultimate universe are different, and both have their merits.  In fact the Marvel movies have drawn from both as source material.  There's also been other alternate realty stories that have gone on and there's some fondness for some of the characters that have appeared there, but not in the main continuities.

Remember what I said above about why you should consider a reboot?  Marvel is there.  If you ask about Captain America, you're needing to be more specific.  Also, let's look at the Punisher and Ironman.  Those are two characters who have their origins linked to America's adventures in southeast Asia.  Punisher is a Vietnam War veteran.  So, that would make him around 60 now.  Nick Fury is in his nineties easily.

Time has moved on, and some things are needing a polishing.  So, this reboot I'm all for.  

WHAT I WOULD LIKE TO SEE

Yeah, everyone else has sounded off, and I'm following the herd.  Moo.

* Ironman being more hero and less villain.  Seriously, he's been shady as hell since that awful CIVIL WAR comic.  It would be nice to put all that behind us and have him back as a proper hero.

* Miles Morales and Nick Fury from the Ultimate universe being in proper Marvel.  These characters are well liked and interesting.  There's plenty of room for them.

* Cyclops not being creepy and Jean Grey not dying over and over and over again.

* New Universe stuff!  Hickman worked the White Event into his line and its was an interesting take on things.  That and I have all the old PSI-FORCE comics and I still think Wayne Tucker was cool.

*That One More Day business being gone forever and ever.  Seriously.  That was just dumb.  I'd even be cool with resetting Spidey back to his high school days.  

* Deadpool not existing.  Yeah, I know that's not going to happen.  I just don't like Deadpool.

That's pretty much it.  I think we've got some really great writers over at Marvel right now, and they'll do a great job with the relaunch.  Just as long as they don't make it a habit.

Little free advice for DC.

AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. premiered this week and its getting good reviews and people are liking what they see so far.  Marvel is firing on all cylinders to the point that in an interview Chris Hemsworth was asked about the rivalry between marvel and DC and he pretty much replied "What rivalry?"  Such is the extent of whupping Marvel is putting upon DC on both the large and small screen.

Right now, I'm firmly in the Marvel camp.  They're giving us these really fun movies and on the DC side we and given a whole lot of dark and grittiness.  The creative directors over at DC are pushing the dark crap to the point that they don't want their heroes to have pleasant personal lives.  They're current big event is all the villains taking over their books.  Meanwhile, Marvel is serving up insane space adventures with its heroes rising up against threats that I can't begin to fathom how they're going to beat, but the good guys have Captain America so we know the good guys have got this.

Right now, Marvel's got a better paradigm about its creative direction, but what I'm looking at is its paradigm in its direction into other media.  They have major movies in different franchises linking together in a shared universe, and now a network TV show linking to that.  Disney is loving this.  They don't have to look far to get their stuff out.  They have a successful movie business already and they own ABC.  They're being smart.

DC Comics is owned by Warner Brothers.  Warner Brothers has a TV station, the CW and they make movies.  So why can't they put two and two together and start making things exciting for fans?  The season premier of ARROW will be hitting soon.  Think they'll mention the huge alien invasion in another city?  Even in passing?  Of course not.  They refuse to let the chocolate mix with the peanut butter.  So instead of dropping a line or two and linking the show to the new Superman franchise MAN OF STEEL launched, their big news is a TV show about Commissioner Gordon before Batman came on the scene.  

Everyone, including Warner Brothers, wants a Justice League movie to happen.  The new Superman movie will have Batman in is played by Ben Affleck.  Some of you are upset by this casting choice.  I'm upset that they aren't firing Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder and letting Affleck write and direct it as well as play Batman.  There was the GREEN LANTERN  movie that did not do too well, but it did indeed happen and has established the character.  There's talk of a Flash TV show spinning off from ARROW.  A big hang up for a lot of people is that Wonder Woman hasn't made it to the big screen yet.  We can work around that a bit.

My suggestion: link the TV and movie properties.  This gives you Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, the Flash, and possibly Black Canary to play with.  The Justice League movie can introduce Wonder Woman.  Give people something to really get excited over.  

Ticked at the Big Two?

Rats! Its Friday, October 28, 2011, I missed the great Pumpkin last night, and this is The Side. And i heard this was the one with the alternate ending where the great Pumpkin actually shows us and take Linus as his disciple and they go around the neighborhood to punish all the children that didn't believe.

Lucy didn't meet a pretty end.

COMIX!!

Boy howdy, there's some stuff going down with the big two right now, and its not very good for either of them.

DC Comics are disappearing from the shelves at Barnes and Nobles and not because people are buying them. The deal with Amazon that left B&N out in the digital cold has them taking the books off the shelves. I stopped in briefly at one of the local stores. They still had some trades. One thing that was pretty noticeable is that the monthly floppies were mostly stuff from before the reboot. I saw one copy of a reboot book and that was it. Yikes. Not good for a company looking to really push their new material.

Don't expect there to be a DC shaped hole on the shelves though. B&N have struck a deal was 2000AD, so we'll be seeing some interesting stuff on the shelves fairly soon. This is also good news for local comic shops as the new car smell of the DC relaunch is still giving many stores a sales bump and they no longer have to worry about competition from the country's top bookstore chain.

DC isn't the only company facing a bit of ire. There's another Marvel Boycott but this time its about the recent company layoffs. It seems that some people don't remember back when Marvel declaring bankruptcy was pretty much an annual event. Them getting bought out by Disney means they have more financial stability, but that doesn't mean they have access to Scrooge McDuck's money bin and can do whatever they want. They are still a company and still have to turn a profit. The economy is currently in rough shape. Marvel is still based in New York which taxes folks and companies pretty heavily. They're having to do what they have to to maintain their company and sometimes that means laying people off. Its a shame, but that's reality.

What's really stupid is people boycotting because of it thinking that this will make them turn around and hire everyone back. Now, if you are truly uncomfortable buying their books then you shouldn't buy them. The thing is, Marvel is doing what they have to because they have a cost to deal with. So if they are denied revenue due to an extended boycott that's just going to lead to more layoffs. This is the second proposed boycott of marvel this year. I guess the whole "Fear Itself" event was inspired by people scared fans will make them lose their jobs.

MUSIC!!

Time for a little bump and grind music.



That's it for me guys. Have a good weekend, and we'll see y'all Sunday.

This blog is for mature readers only

Howdy! Its Wednesday, October 5, 2011, I really wish I didn't have to sleep, and this is The Side. I've got about two dozen things I'd love to be writing and drawing right now. I can't skip work, obviously. Can't do too much when the kids are awake. It would be nice if I could spend the hours that everyone's asleep to work on all the creative projects I want to. I'd try it, but I fear the amount of caffeine it would require for me to function would kill me.

And I can't go dying! There's too much to do!

COMIX!!

With the big stink around some of the stuff DC put out in the reboot, DC had to respond, and respond they did. This brings us to ratings systems and responsible parenting. I'm a big fan of ratings systems because the alternative is nasty things like censorship, and nobody wants that. The comics industry has been very good about posting their ratings right on the covers. If something is meant for mature readers there's no question about that because we're told so up front.

Back when I was a kid we had the Comics Code Authority which had some pretty strict guidelines and, for the most part, the major publishers complied to it with most of their books. There are many who think the code was some terrible thing and it hindered artistic expression, but when a parent saw a kid reading a comic with the code stamp on it they had a bit of reassurance that there wouldn't be anything like say Catwoman giving Batman the full cowgirl on a rooftop. My folks never looked through the comic they got me. When I got an issue of DETECTIVE COMICS in the mail I could sit down and read it without my mom or dad looking through it first.

The first time my father looked through anything I purchased was a comic magazine which I believe was called "Comic Things" which talked about comic book stuff. It was like WIZARD but, y'know, fun and good. He picked it up when I brought it home and gave it a quick flip through. Nothing objectionable was in there, so no problem. This is what's known as good parenting. Your kid brings home something new that you're not familiar with, then you need to get familiar with it.

So why didn't they look through my comics? Pretty simple. DC and Marvel were names they trusted to publish material that they were comfortable with me being exposed to. Now, its decades later, and I'm the parent. I'm the guy at Comic Kings trying to recommend a book to my friend's wife for their kid to read because he likes superheroes. Looking through the main rack away from the kids area I only spotted one title that I felt comfortable recommending to the kid, who was about the same age I was when I started reading comics. Not very comfortable.

DC has a point. If you have a problem with their books then you shouldn't let your kid read them. But something that is pretty sad is that they have lost the trust of responsible parents whose kids love DC's characters and want to read their books. They seem to have no problem with this. The Starfire controversy isn't just about portraying a particular character as an alien sex-being. Its about portraying that character as such when very recently she was portrayed as an adorable wholesome character. Its creepy.

DC's not going to change what they're doing. All their eggs are in one basket now and they're fully committed to what they're doing. I'm very sad that I can't let my kids read the comics that feature characters they like, but its been that way for a while now. I do greatly enjoy some comics out there that are directed at mature readers, but the balance has shifted in the audience. We've gone from the majority of comic being things that people of all ages could enjoy, to the majority of comics being things not suitable for little kids to read.

There's still some really great kids comics out there, and they're worth finding, especially if you have a little reader in the house. However, as for the DC's new "52", the message is clear, kids aren't the target audience and you should keep the books out of their hands.

MUSIC!!

Nice little tune. I always thought what they did with the video was really, really clever.



That's a wrap for me. See y'all Friday.

Leaving the costumes on

Boom-chika-boom! Its Wednesday, September 28, 2011, sex sells, unless you're kinda nasty looking and need a bath, then you're going to have a hard time finding a buyer, and this is The Side. Yeah, when I don't put my thoughts about comics on the website I do comic reviews for due to not wanting to possibly dent business, then there's something really wrong. Of course it might even get a little sales bump considering there some folks who would buy the issues in question curious as to whether or not things are as rotten as I make them out to be.

They are.

COMIX!!

Yep, more stuff coming out of the DC reboot that's getting some buzz, and not very good buzz. It seems some of the writers are a bit confused as to how to portray women who are confident in their sexuality without making them out to be Slutty McSlutsluts. This got kicked up due to RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #1 and CATWOMAN #1. I wasn't expecting much form the Red Hood book as it looked like they just threw three characters together and are trying to make a go of it. I do raise an eyebrow about Catwoman. She's the modern superhero genre's first femme fatale. The character is important. She's strong, independent, and sexy. Yes, she's a 'bad guy', but that just makes her relationship with Batman that much more interesting.

When they ended CATWOMAN #1 with a sex scene like something I would expect from bad fan art, I could only shake my head. Judd Winick is known for including quite a bit of sex in his comics. THE OUTSIDERS had someone hopping into the sack with someone nearly every issue. There's nothing wrong with sex in a superhero comic, but there's a certain way to handle it.

Before the reboot, it was obvious that there was a sexual relationship between Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. In BATMAN INCORPORATED #1 there a scene in a luxury hotel in which they get a little downtime, and its obvious that the two of them have a little fun, but its not blatantly shown. It wasn't in your face. A good writer knows when to let the reader's imagination fill in the blanks. That scene was sexy without being smutty. Yes, there was Selina wearing her unmentionables and a pair of boots with a bottle of champagne. This was after the same issue showed her and Batman team up to take on a bunch of goons and a giant robot. The tone had already been set that this book is about the awesome. Conversely, CATWOMAN's tone seems to be about sex. The opening pages don't even show her face. They focus more on sexualizing the character with images of her not quite dressed so the first thing you know about this character upon opening the comic is that she wears a red bra under her costume.

The mockery has already begun in earnest. There's also been a little flap about the comic catering to the "lowest comic denominator", and I wouldn't go that far, but even though I'm not purchasing the DC reboot, I expected them to have some higher standards as to what gets on the page. I seriously doubt that when the guys making this book were putting it together they were thinking to themselves about how to best portray an attractive female who is strong, confident, and comfortable with her sexuality.

But that was the theme last week, as RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #1 didn't do much to win over certain demographics. There was a very powerful piece which I have to link to a screen capture of because Felicia Day caught sight of it, and when she tells people to check something out online, that something had better have some damn good servers. Kids still read comics. Kids care about these characters. Kids grow up and buy things. DC wanted new readers, but it seems they only wanted new readers 18 and up. At first I thought the issue with Starfire was just a shame and a waste of a character. I hadn't even factored in all the kids who loved her on the old TEEN TITANS cartoon show and heard that their favorite superhero is in a new comic. The discussion in that piece I linked to is powerful stuff, and I highly suggest reading it.

Just when i thought the reboot might now be so bad DC keeps letting me know they aren't interested in my business.

MUSIC!!

Its attack of the super group, because something in this post should be about something super.



That's it for me. Time to make the doughnuts! See y'all Friday.

Insert "Bunky" joke here

I feel thuper! Its Friday, September 23, 2011, thanks for asking, and this is The Side. Spent some quality time under a house fixing insulation that wasn't installed properly by another contractor on a house that's suppose to close today. Time crunch, couldn't get the person who did the original work in time, under I go.

Its unpleasant to work with that stuff. The fiberglass insulation itches something fierce. Being the crawl space isn't fun and even if you don't have claustrophobia, being down there is nearly enough to make you want to start. But the job is done, and while it was pretty unpleasant I can't really complain because first off I was working and right now, working is a very good thing.

Also it being a vacant house with newly renovated bathrooms and nice showers to choose from after the ordeal was a bit of luxury.

COMIX!!

The DC reboot is in full swing. The new #1 issues are steadily rolling out. I haven't been buying any of them, but a few have ended up in my pull box. Joey at Comic Kings has been very happy when I told him I didn't want them, as he had a serious run of people who came in at the last minute asking for the books. You can't pre-order books a week in advance. If you didn't know that before, you do now. So even with ordering a lot of extra books, he's still a little short. Seems that people will still show up for first issues. The real question is, will they show up for subsequent issues.

There's been a lot of talk about diversity with the characters. Its not just white guys on parade anymore. Although there's still a bit of fanboyism that's in the way. Hal Jordan is still Green Lantern, even though John Stewart has a strong following thanks to the old JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED cartoon. If DC wanted to really impress me with their push for diversity they'd have made John the main Green Lantern. It might almost make up their their notion that diversity is good unless we're talking about paraplegic women.

We do have new gay heroes too! That should be good, but when I hear people talking about Bunker, I'm having my doubts. I have no problems with gay characters. Greg Rucka created some really great ones. The thing that has me worried is reading Brett Booth tweet that:

We’re trying to make being gay a part of who he is, your gaydar should be pinged right off the bat:)

OK, that's a pretty poorly phrased statement. Your sexuality is a part of who you are. Its not difficult to make being gay a part of who a character is. If that character is romantically attracted to other characters of his or her same gender, then they are pretty much gay. Now, what I'm really, really, REALLY hoping that he doesn't mean that being gay is going to be this characters defining characteristic. This is partly due to this character being on the Teen Titans and defining teenage characters by their sexuality just isn't a good idea. Moreso, defining any character by their sexuality is a bad idea. Is Bunker's (Whose dumb idea was that name? Why don't you just set the ball on the tee?) main motivation for everything he does going to center around him being gay?

I'm not saying that having an openly gay character is a bad idea. I'm not saying that having an openly gay character in the Teen Titans is a bad idea. In fact, its a great idea because it opens the door to having great stories addressing issues of prejudice. Much like Chris Claremont's 80's UNCANNY X-MEN run used the genre to look at prejudice. Unfortunately, I seriously doubt that we're going to have the same thoughtful and nuanced approach to the issue here. When I think of a character like Tommy Jagger, who was gay, I don't just think "Oh, he's gay." No, I think about what a great character he was and how much I could relate to him. I looked forward to reading comics with him in them. He wasn't there to be in my face to make me think about diversity, but the way the entire Rucka CHECKMATE series was written you accepted diversity because everyone brought something awesome to the table.

So the question is: Will Bunker bring something to the table that fans and readers can appreciate, or will he be there to pander to one group of people for the sake of being "diverse"? I'm really hoping its the former, but unfortunately I'm having serious doubts.

MUSIC!!

Because gay dudes are hardcore, yo!



That's all for me today. Looks like its going to be a soggy weekend again, but I'll still see y'all Sunday.

DO OVER!!

Alrighty then. Its Friday, September 2, 2011, I'm ready to go, and by 'go' I mean the heck outta Dodge, and this is The Side. Yeah, I know this post is a bit video heavy, but that's how we roll sometimes.

I attempted to us the new Blogger interface for this. Horrible experience. I'll be keeping the old interface for a while, thanks.

RE-SOMETHING

DC has officially kicked off its reboot with JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 this week. I haven't been to the comic shop, so I haven't picked it up. Oh, and there's another reason, I think this entire reboot thing is stupid, and don't intend to pick it up. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, here you go.



So while the video says "everything will be alright" after listing a ton of reasons why I'm not on board with this, it turns out everything is not alright and the word is getting around that this new Justice League book isn't very good at all. Its basically Batman meets Green Lantern. Batman's back to being a jerk. Hal Jordan is still a douche. They go try to beat up Superman, who is now a young douche, and that's about it. Meet the new DCU, where you can see the heroes try to beat each other up and posture in "badass" manners. Screw this. That's not even getting into some of these horrible designs. My kids can't even recognize these characters anymore.

I'm not totally against reboots and/or remakes. I think there's some things really important to consider when these are undertaken. Primarily, are you doing this for the right reason? If you truly believe that it needs to be done in order to create something better, then you're on the right intentional track. That's one of the main problems with the DC re-boot. They're trying to gain new readers, so its a stunt to gain money. Not good.

If you remain true to some key themes in the original work, you're probably on a good track as well. Its sort of the same rule has handling an adaption from one medium to another. Alterations are more readily forgiven if they keep the spirit of the original work.

What can be a problem is re-imagining a work. That's when you take a work and then put your own spin in it. A great example is the Mortal Kombat web series. Kevin Tancharoen re-imagined the concept and removed a lot of the mystical aspects of the storyline, but kept a bit of the fantastic nature. He made a video, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, and it was a huge hit with Mortal Kombat fans. It got the go ahead from Warner Brothers to do a web-series, but it had to get Ed Boon, one of the original game creators and current head dude of things Mortal Kombat, to give the final go ahead. Well, Tancharoen's vision pretty much got squashed, and the web series ended up being a series of videos telling the origins of various characters from the games. The videos were still very good, pretty much a let down from what Rebirth promised. That's with the exception of the "Raiden" episode, which really was a great video, and the best of the series.



Mortal Kombat is about two things: martial arts and brutal finishes. Tanchareon switched the other worldly characters with twisted serial killers, but maintained incredible martial arts fighting and a brutal edge to things in the Rebirth video. But his vision didn't get the go ahead, so we're kind of left to wonder how awesome his take on things really could have been. I would love to sit down with him and talk about it though.

It does really boil down to change. On one hand DC is trying to change what they have in order to gain fans, and the fans they have are backing away from it. On the other hand, you have a fan who made something great and generated a lot of buzz and new fans, but the original creator put the breaks on things and might have shut the door on something really promising.

I've done it too. My old comic NIGHT LIFE got a bit of a reboot because when I did the original comic in college it was much later on in the character's lives. I wanted to go back and start telling their stories from an earlier spot. Sure some things got altered a bit, but my abilities and sensibilities as a storyteller have changed quite a bit sense college.

Hitting the get "Do Over" button doesn't automatically make something bad. You just have to make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.

MUSIC!!

Here's something a bit different your ya: The Oakridge Boys covering The White Stripes.



That's all for me guys. I'm getting out of here for the weekend. I haven't visited my dad in far too long and decided kind of last minute to take a trip to the mountain to see him. I'll be back Tuesday, so definitely no Sunday update again, and possibly no update next Wednesday. Yes, yes, I'm a bad blogger. See y'all later, and enjoy your Labor Day weekend.

The Carpet I've Been Called On.

MY EYES! Its Wednesday, August 10, 2011, if that's love in the air it smells a lot like smoke, and this is The Side. Wildfires have flared up in the Great Dismal Swamp again, so if the wind is blowing the right way things get very hazy and being out in it is about as much fun as hyperventilating in a bar. We actually saw the smoke on Monday from the beach. We noted a weird looking cloud which looked like something from a volcanic eruption.

This is one of those few times in which i miss having my old Blackberry. It would have been a hell of a picture.

HOPE AND CHANGE AND BLAH BLAH BLAH...

Last go around, I posted up about the lack of women working at DC Comics and people wanting this rectified. That got more comments than usual, including me getting called out for posting "bullhock". There goes my PG rating. The cry of "bullhock" came from Linda, and Linda has quite often has acted as the throttle to my insanity, so its obvious we have to dive a little bit deeper here.

First off, I'm sticking with what I posted about being against quotas. The best person should get the job regardless of gender. Yes, there is a disproportional amount of men as opposed to women working over at DC, and its gotten to be more so with the dumb reboot.

Second, let's dissect this. There was a post from Jim Lee and Dan DiDio concerning this. For those who don't feel like clicking over and reading it, they say that they've heard this complaint and will be incorporating more women into creative teams. I don't really put much credence into anything DiDio says, but I do have a bit more faith in Lee. He's always seemed like a straight shooter to me, so I'm going to take them at their word here.

Right now nothing is being done to hire more women at DC. They aren't looking for much new talent either right now. There's a reason for this: they're kinda busy at the moment. The incident was the San Diego Batgirl Cos-player only happened a couple weeks ago. That may sound like a lot of time, but its not when you're in the process of relaunching your entire superhero line. Seriously, this is the main focus of DC right now. When they go to conventions they have got to be selling this like its the greatest thing ever. Its not like just doing an "event" which readers can read or ignore. They can't ignore this. And it better work, or someone might not be in the same position they previously were in. Right now, the focus isn't on hiring because they are having to push what they've got on deck to launch next month.

Linda said it was a "good old boys club", and she's absolutely correct. The guys who organized this picked people we have worked with and trust to see this through. You and I may not agree with these choices. I certainly don't. Right now there're people in key positions at DC who were doing high profile stuff in 90s. You want to see a "good old boy club", then look at the creative staffs of the big two and Image back then. We're getting a lot of these guys popping back up again, because its business and a lot of business is who you know.

I'm not excusing or condoning any of this, but this is how it is. Now, the real gist of all this is not about how it is, but about how it should be.

I put at the end of the last post that DC has done its part, and they have. They've acknowledged that there is a problem and they want to fix it. I also said that people need to do their part and I think that's gotten misconstrued as me saying "ladies need to step up their game", and that's bullhock. Gosh-darnit.

Pull back and look at the board, people. DC has its narrative, and it has nothing to do with what's in our pull boxes every week. Its narrative is that certain writers and artists and awesome and that this relaunch is going to be the greatest thing ever. The SD Batgirl changed that narrative at the year's biggest nerd prom. That event was the start of a movement, and a movement requires people to do stuff. I'm not just talking about women who want to work for DC. I'm talking about everybody who gives a damn about this. That gal made such a stink that DC had to acknowledge this, and that's amazing.

And here's where we go from here.

We need to stay in contact with DC about this, either online or at conventions. We need to be vocal about what Lee and DiDio posted, and praise them for it, so they don't forget it. Right now there's no openings for fresh faces, but that's going to change. Don't expect it next week, and this is good. This allows people to start getting noticed. Push your work and show them that you've got what it takes. They might not be looking at portfolios now with the reboot, but talk to somebody and let them know that you are definitely interested when the time comes. And stay in contact. Getting a job in for a big comic company requires harassment.

And if you aren't looking for a position with them you need to be encouraging to people you know who are. And you should also be seeing the DC guys at cons and tell them about how you think its a good thing that they're planning on having more women on staff.

DC Comics is looking to take their intellectual properties into the 21st century and they've recently been forced to consider that their idea of taking this into the future might be open to improvement. Its up to us as readers and people who genuinely care about comics to keep this movement going. Don't count on special treatment because you're a woman, because this is about equality, not being special.

Right now we have to sit and wait. Certainly, remain vocal about this matter. I wouldn't expect much as far as DC bringing a significant amount of fresh talent in until next year. This year belongs to the reboot.

Patience.

MUSIC!!

You know how some songs just make you angry? Not like "Crap, I'm trying to eat my sandwich and Lady Gaga just came on the radio, now I've lost my appetite" angry. I mean angry music! This is one of those.



I swear, every time I hear it, I'm consumed with rage towards little green pig heads.

Before I go, my condolences to the Team Six members, support staff, and families who lost friends and loved ones this last weekend. It was a terrible thing, and my heart goes out to them. God bless, and we'll see y'all Friday.

DC Needs Women!

It never ends! Its Sunday, August 7, 2011, nobody's happy with anything comic related, and this is The Side. I rattled off the laundry list of why people are ticked at comicy type things last go-around and I went and left out that people are ticked that DC Comics is run by a bunch of woman haters.

OK, maybe not, but some people are ticked nonetheless.

Here comes another one where you're probably going to like me a little less when this is over.

Y HALLO THAR, DC

There's been a stir lately about the number of women that DC has on their staff. The most prominent incident drawing attention to this was a young women at the San Diego Comic-Con who was dressed as Batgirl and went to every DC panel she could and kept bringing it up. I think it can be agreed upon that having a staff of people from varied backgrounds in such a large creative company is a good thing. If there's a bunch of guys telling stories about women and there's not a female voice in the room to act as a throttle to keep things reasonable things can get offensive quick with that being the original intention.

There's a problem here though. How many women are applying for jobs at DC? Not nearly as many men. So, are we going to have to have quotas now? Ten people try to get a foot in the door, one of them is a women, so the guys are out of luck?

You can't just be a company like DC and turn around one day and say, "we're going to hire more women". You're going to have to make women want to work for you. Women read comics. I've seen them with my own beady eyes! I've seen them write and draw comics! Its true! But when I go to the comic shop its still mostly guys buying and reading comics. There's not a lot of local female talent making comics around here either. In fact the only ones I personally know of, last I checked, were off doing their really awful manga. They have no interest in working for DC.

To make matters even dumber, remember Minx Comics? This was a DC imprint that focused on female creators and they did stories with female protagonists. One of the books, EMIKO SUPERSTAR, was a complete gem. It sold horribly. The entire line tanked. So where were all these people clamoring for more women working for and with DC Comics when DC was pushing women working for and with DC Comics. Hypothetically, if Minx had been a success we wouldn't be having this rant. The talent from Minx would have, in all likelihood, transitioned over to some of the DCU main projects.

So what does DC have to do? They have to maintain fair hiring practiced. They've already put word out that they would like more women to work for the company. That's all they really can do, without initiating some stupid like hiring quotas. If you want more women to work for DC then you need to encourage female talent to apply for positions there and put their best foot forward. You also need to support the talented women who already work for the company.

My time buying DC Comics is coming to a close because when that reboot hits, I'm out the door. I don't have a horse in this race. I've got a ton of gripes about the company but their hiring practices concerning gender is not one of them. They've opened the door for fresh talent to come in and there's a real opportunity for a significant and positive change in the medium.

DC has done their part.

Go do yours.

MUSIC!!

Hey, speaking to the ladies...



Hopefully everyone will be in a better mood on Wednesday. See y'all then.

The Goon will never be lonely

HACK! Its Friday, July 1, 2011, I'm under attack from killer mucus, and this is The Side. I'm still sick, and honestly not feeling much better, but I wanted to get this weeks reviews out because the book were really good this week. I've been flip flopping back and forth all week before doses of DayQuil and NyQuil because I honestly don't have time to just be sick. Hopefully with the long weekend I'll have a chance to rest a bit.

COMIX!!!

Its about damn time THE GOON #34 came out. Eric Powell has been really busy lately churning out content, so its not like he's been slacking, but I've missed this book so much. After an all-to-brief prelude of pounding the crap out of sparkly vampires, the kids at the McGreg Home for Illegitimate, Wayward, and Possibly Homicidal Youths have a problem with the new girl. She's a Tween and, therefore, the devil. Can the Goon save kids even though he's liquored up to the gills? This comic is an out and out blast. If you've never picked this book up before you're in for a treat. Its flat out hilarious, and doesn't apologize for being just venomous in its humor. Rarely do I get a complete laugh out loud and confuse the missus moment in a comic but this one delivered repeatedly. Buy this book. Drop what you're doing and go buy it right now.

BATMAN INCORPORATED #7 takes us out west for a visit with Man-of-Bats and his son Raven. We get to see how things are with a "Batman on a budget". Gang activity on the reservation turns out to be much more as Man-of-Bats is targeted by Leviathan. There's a lot in this issue about the plight of Indians in this country, but it doesn't come across as too heavy handed. It illustrates what these characters have to deal with on a regular basis. This was a really good issue with a few twists and turns in it that made it very enjoyable. I expected the story to take one direction, but Morrison didn't take the easy, clichéd route. Chris Burnham continues to impress on the art. Great issue.

DETECTIVE COMICS #878 wraps up the "Hungry City" storyline. Snyder did some really great thematic stuff here, while still delivering a good story. It deals a lot with our expectations of people and our gut instincts about them. The plot line with return of James Gordon plays heavy here. There's been so many questions hanging in the air about this guy and we get a lot of them answered here. Great use of the story involving Tony Zucco's daughter in that. Snyder is showing himself as an excellent storyteller here. He's also got an incredible handle on Dick Greyson as Batman. Very good stuff.

THE WALKING DEAD #86 is still dealing with the aftermath of the "No Way Out" storyline. This isn't a bad thing as people who have read this comic for a while know that this isn't a rushed book. Kirkman knows how to take his time. This is great as it builds a lot of suspense and interest in the characters. This has always been a character driven book. Yes there is a little shirmish with some roamers, but we're led to worry more about Carl's fate, how Rick is handling it, and what may or may not be going on with him and Andrea. There's nothing there suggesting there's an affair going on or even building. These are two characters in this story that are still around from the first group, so they've got a lot of history. It could be a healthy amount of respect and friendship between the two. We'll see. Very compelling reading and that's what I've come to expect from this series.

ELEPHANTMEN: MAN AND ELEPHANTMAN #1 was on the flip side of THE WALKING DEAD this week, so you got two comics for the price of one. This comic has been around for a while but this is my first time checking it out. Its very solid sci-fi, with a detective story sitting in the middle of it. Our main character, Hip Flask, gets taste of what its like to be a human. By the end of it he's not sure if being a human is a good or a bad thing. I'm a little curious about this series, but that curiousity is a tad morbid. Its obvious that human women are romantically involved with some of the Elephantmen which is just really weird, and a bit kinky. So I can't say that I'm "in" as far as this book goes, because while I am curious about this world the storyline isn't what drew me in. I'm a bit on the fence, and might have to buy issue 2 before I really get on board here.

MUSIC!!

Federali over at Kings has a new video out. Check it!!



That's all for me today. I'll hopefully see you guys on Sunday with my thoughts on Google+. See y'all then. I hope.

Listen Up, Newbie!

Dammit Vivian, its Wednesday, June 15, 2011, the weather has cooled, and this is The Side. After some nasty heat last week the weather is being much more pleasant this week. As it was I thought I was going to lose ten pounds just from sweating. Saw an article this morning about Sunspot activity going into a phase of non-existence, which it does from time to time. They writers were all concerned that the cooling effect would offset global warming and give us all a false sense that the horror of global warming had been defeated.

They're writing that the Sun has an effect on the warming and cooling of the planet, and yet that global warming thingie is still all our faults.

Sometimes I think Al Gore's superpower (besides hypocrisy, being fat, and being a complete joke of a human being) is getting media people to completely buy into his bullshit.

COMIX!!

Let's talk about gaining new readers. As I've been talking about on here, DC will be undertaking a massively ridiculous stunt in an attempt to gain new readers. This stunt has gotten media coverage and quite a few articles in the news. I'm not just talking about the funny book news beat. The Associated Press has covered this, and there's been a few articles popping up on Yahoo. So this stunt has gotten noticed. That's not a guarantee that it'll generate new readers. I've checked out comments on these articles, and the changes and renumbering DC are going to implement are not going over very well. A lot of people think its pretty stupid.

They're doing this to try to gain new readers, but its alienating existing readership. I'm not the only person who won't be buying DC comics soon. The people that aren't reading comics don't care. This "event" is stillborn. There is an important question to be raised here:

Is it up to the comic book publishers to acquire new readers?

Not entirely. The comic publishers job is to get the books out, and advertise the books. Editorial's job is to make sure the books aren't entire clusterfucks, and are the best products that the talent can deliver. The talent (writers, artists, letters, etc.) are responsible for doing their best to put together a quality product that people will want to buy. The talent doesn't have to go to conventions or be accessible online to the fans. Editorial sure as hell shouldn't be involved it writing stories or dictating what they want to see to the talent.

This is supposed to be simple. The talent have something to offer. The editors and publishers makes its its the best it can be and get it out for people to buy. Then they get feedback. They get to see the numbers for sales. They see people talking about these things online. They hear about it at conventions. Hopefully they they take this feedback constructively and go with what works and go back to the drawing board with what doesn't. That's not the case here, because they want readers, and they need new readers.

They're hoping that people who don't buy comic books will suddenly start buying comic books because all these issues have a number 1 on the cover. The problem is is that they're trying to assume all the responsibility for attracting new readers and it not the case.

What DC needs to do is what every comic publisher needs to do: put out the books and make them good. "Events" don't draw new readers. They are aimed at existing readers. The average guy on the street doesn't care about Barry Allen or Hal Jordan. If its Kyle Rayner and Wally West appearing as Green Lantern and the Flash respectively that is not going to have any bearing whatsoever as to whether or not someone who isn't reading comics will decide to pick it up. The cover needs to look cool and if they flip through the book it should look like something neat is going on in there. That's all they can do.

As for gaining new readers, I had two experiences recently that I want to share.

The first involved one of my students at Karate. I was getting ready to take my kids home and one of the younger students was sitting in the foyer looking pretty bummed out. Her father was in the adult class and she had forgotten the book she was reading, so she had nothing to do for an hour. I went to the car where I had a couple of comics in there. The student was an eleven year old girl and I gave her a recent copy of TEEN TITANS. Nicola Scott's awesome artwork and a solid story by J.T. Krul. The next week when I saw her she told me how much she loved it. She had never read a comic book before. She might start reading them if she can get out to a comic shop (unfortunately there's not one close to her house).

I didn't start reading comics because of an event. I started reading them because my grandparents, bless them, gave me a FANTASTIC FOUR comic. I didn't know if they got it for me, or if Gran'dad is a secret FF fan, but he gave it to me and I loved it. The next time I visited he gave me an IRONMAN comic. I was hooked. I cherished those books. I was three or four when I got them and I still have them somewhere.

Like the noble zombie, readers create new readers. You can't push comics onto a non-reader, but if we want the medium to grow fans we have to be observant and look for those who may be open to giving a comic a read. If you approach someone with a "dude, you've got to check this out", you're not going to get anywhere. Enjoy your hobby, and if someone takes an interest be nice and let them read one of your comics. Don't be a weirdo about it either. Those goofs in the book stores getting weird over their manga and acting like I'm the nutter for not knowing everything about their favorite manga aren't doing manga itself any favors.

The second incident involved my buddy's son. He's four. He knows who Superman and Batman are through pop culture and cartoons, but he hadn't read a comic. They live maybe two miles from Comic Kings. His parents asked me to let them know the next time I was going to the comic shop so they could take him and i could show him around. Once they got there the red carpet was rolled out for the kid. It was obvious that this was his first time in the shop. I showed him where the kids comics were and after checking out everything he picked one out, SCOOBY-DOO, which was a bit of a surprise since he really likes superheroes. He was offered some of the free posters and stickers the shop had for promotions. He was interested in the Pokémon cards so they let him have a couple from the 5 cent bin. They even gave him a T-shirt. So the kid thought it was the greatest place ever.

Comic shops build readerships. The shops have to be clean inviting places. There's one in town that's just an absolute pit. Its not terribly clean, and there's hardly any natural light in the place. In contrast, Comic Kings is nice and clean. They have a lot of merchandise on the walls, but you don't feel like you're walking into a dungeon when you go in. The staff are helpful and friendly, and that's important. If someone is a new reader and they go walking into a comic shop for the first time it should be a pleasant experience. They don't need to feel like its a hassle of weird to get their comics.

Having a kids comics area is a great way to go. Most mainstream comics are geared towards 18 to 35 year olds. But there's a lot of really good kids comics out there as a well and having a nice section just for them makes them happy and makes the parents feel better about taking kids to the comic shop. Its not like when I was a kid. I can't wring 60 cents off my folks for an issue of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA at the 7-11. Another local shop, Local Heroes, has a great kids section complete with a little chair for them to sit at and read the books. My daughters love it.

Having events at the shops can go either way. Comic Kings got on the news for giving away 2,000 copies of the Obama SPIDER-MAN comic. People were lined up out the door. News crews showed up. Yes, it was good publicity, but it didn't generate any new readers. It didn't even give the store a sales bump that day. It was a bunch of Obama fanboys lining up for something free. But doing things like having hosting TCG tournaments and making a big deal out of Free Comic Book Day can pull in a new reader or two.

In conclusion, DC's latest stunt won't do what they want it to do. The problem is what they want to do isn't really all on them. If we want to medium to grow in readership we have to do it. Not aggressively, but in a rational inviting manner. The many comic book movies don't translate into new readers, but play it right and readers and shops can use them to get a few. There's not going to be a massive influx, so go for a few. These numbers add up, especially if you're patient.

MUSIC!!

Caught this on the video channel my TV randomly grew.



That's it for today. I actually had a dream last night in which I was told I must buy more comics for the good of the industry. I'd say DC is hiring telepaths for their sales staff, but if that was the case you'd think they'd know their stunt is doomed to failure by now. Oh well. See y'all Friday.

WTFDCU?

Its Sunday, June 12, 2011 and this is The Side. Sorry, I don't have anything on last night's UFC. Wasn't able to make it to go watch the fights. Congrats to Junior Dos Santos for the big win. I'm looking forward to him getting his shot at the title.

COMIX!!

I'm stuck in an awkward position, and not because I slept on the couch again. I review comics every Friday, but this isn't the only place that my reviews appear. They also appear over at the Comic Kings site. Comic Kings has been very good to me over the years, and I'm more than happy to put my reviews up on their site. Its minimal trouble, and decent exposure for my blog. I also put the occasional comic related piece or comic movie review up.

On here, I've been pretty clear about what I think about the impending DC reboot. However, I've been keeping my feeling on this mum on the Comic Kings site, because while I'm not going to be buying DC comics once this thing goes into full swing, I don't want the shops business to be hurt. They've been very cool about my feelings about this. They didn't say anything when I started scratching stuff off my pull list. Right now as far as my DC reading I'm down to ACTION COMICS, DETECTIVE COMICS, BATMAN INCORPORATED, and BATGIRL. But I have been adding other titles to my list like MORNING GLORIES, THE WALKING DEAD, and USAGI YOBIMBO. While I don't see myself quickly making up the gap in my reading, I'm sure it'll pick up a bit.

Let's talk about the point of this reboot: getting new readers. The Missus asked a brilliant question when we talked about this, "With them trying to get new readers, are they trying to get rid of the old ones?" I've seen the renumbering stunt quite a few times before. Its something I never really approved of. The thought is that people feel more comfortable jumping onboard a title with its first issue. I never thought I'd see the day that they do this to ACTION COMICS or DETECTIVE COMICS. That's not even my main gripe. They say that they want to move the DCU into the 21st century. I know that there's a problem with some things time-wise. There's characters from World War II still active who have to be pushing ninty and that's being generous. But I'm looking at who they have on board for this. A lot of these guys have had their heyday nearly twenty years ago.

Rob Leifeld is drawing a book? And the defenders of it are the people who read HAWK AND DOVE way back in the 80s? How's that going for new readers? Jim lee is designing outfits which look like the stuff he was designing back in the 90s. I've gotten a look at the covers for these impending first issues, and a lot of them really do look like early image books. This isn't a good thing.

And what on Earth are we doing having artists double as writers again? Tony Daniel, Ethan Van Sciver, and J.H. Williams III are all writing books. I'm going to say this as nicely as possibly: just because you can draw a comic does not mean you can write one. No one is asking Grant Morrison to go draw a comic, now are they. We saw a lot of this in early 90s Marvel and Image, and we got a lot of really stupid comics from that little experiment. Speaking of Image, a lot of Jim Lee's Image creations will be melded into the DCU proper. There's also going to be a "darker" side to the DCU. I bet it'll be dark and epic! Epic and Dark! And George Perez is writing SUPERMAN. You're not going to hear me say a single bad word about George Perez, but this is a guy who can draw any character doing anything and make it look like spot on. Why is one of the best artists ever in comics writing a book and not drawing one?

Where's Bryan Q. Miller in all this. I'm not seeing his name anywhere. They show Mark Waid the door. Greg Rucka gets out. Nick Spencer gets off the reservation. Now I'm not seeing anything by one of the most enjoyable writers currently in DC. But Judd Winick is still around. Yay.

Speaking of writers, there's a bit of confusion going on. Some people are saying that everything that's gone on in the DCU has still happened. Others are saying that this is taking the characters back to earlier points in their lives, hence Barbara Gordon walking again. (Sidenote: way to show diversity. Have your premier disabled character magically out of her wheelchair.) But Geoff Johns said that all the stuff he's done with "Blackest Night" and his other crap have happened. And somehow all of the Robins are around in some way. But Lois and Clark aren't married anymore. There's no consistency here, unless its "Geoff Johns is awesome and we won't write off anything he did".

So, obviously I don't what DC is up to one bit. But a part of me is stupid and thinks that this'll all just be temporary, and in six months they'll come back to their senses and put everything back as they found it. This is the same part that previously said stupid things like "There's no way they'd be dumb enough to bring back Barry Allen." I still can't bring myself to wish ill on the company because if this goes horribly, and it will, then likely they'll make an even worse decision to try to "fix" things. I love the DCU. I love the characters. Its the editorial shenanigans that should be helping books get out and not making dictates as to what they want to see. They say they want to move forwards, but all I'm seeing is a lot of looking backwards.

Will this help bring in new readers? No. I'm honestly expecting the numbers to go down. All of this won't bring in anyone who doesn't currently read comics. If you want to see new readers you have to get comics in view of people who don't normally read them. Can't really get them on newsstands anymore. Even 7-11 is doing away with selling anything more than newspapers are far as reading material. Really it comes down to the current readers. They have to be willing to say to a friend "hey, I think you might dig this" and put an issue in their hand. I did that the other day with one of my students. They forgot the book they were reading at home. I had an issue of TEEN TITANS in the car and she wanted something to read while her father's class was in session. She loved it. I've created more new readers than this stunt DC is pulling will.

So, if you're excited about what you are seeing from DC's plans, then by all means go buy the books. Hope you enjoy them. I'm going to be off reading something else.

MUSIC!!!

Any time is a good time for some Warren Zevon.



That's it for me today. See y'all Wednesday.

How far has Hellboy come?

Hey now. Its Friday, June 3, 2011, I got lucky last night, and this is The Side. By lucky I mean I was in a convenience store last night. I was down to my last buck before payday, and since there's not much you can do with a buck nowadays, I bought a scratch off lottery ticket. I won ten dollars!

Figured I'd push my luck and used that money to get more scratch off tickets. After going through most of them I had won a dollar, so I'd at least be back where I started. Sure enough the last ticket won me twenty dollars. For a brief instant I considered getting more lottery tickets, but there's a point where you've got to quit when you're ahead.

COMIX!!

HELLBOY: THE FURY #1 begins the wrap up to the huge arc that's been going on for a while now. Big Red has gotten King Arthur's sword, been offered to be a king, and has a nasty queen witch to battle. There's a lot of elements going all the way back to the beginning of the series. There's mentions of Rasputin. Alice Monaghan, the baby from "The Corpse", is all grown up. There's a lot going on, and we jump in right with Hellboy going to confront Nimue. In the meantime its looking like King Arthur's true heir is rising up. There's a big battle going on, and looking like a bigger one is on the way. This one is tough to jump onboard on if you haven't been following what's been going on. Fortunately, Mignola and Fegredo give us a two page recap just to refresh our memories. They're going for "epic" and doing a pretty fine job of it.

With the DC reboot still just a little ways off, I'm finishing out the stories for a bit of closure for myself.

SECRET SIX #34 has the team back from Hell, but there's still the matter of Scandal Savage's girlfriend, Liana, having been kidnapped by lunatic whose torturing her and planning on killing her. Things don't go well for the dirtbag responsible. We also see Bane go out on a date. In a stunning change of pace none of the team tries to kill anyone else on the team. This is probably as close as this book gets to being upbeat. Yes, its always fun in its own unique and twisted way, but there was a slightly different tone here. We can get behind the team's motivation to save Liana and put down the guy who was torturing here. We can enjoy Bane being out on a date with the nice little stripper who really likes him in as close to a romantic comedy as this series can get. Gail Simone hits all the right points here, and fleshes them all out beautifully. Although, I'm still unconvinced about King Shark being a Shark.

MUSIC!!

The actual video is pretty cool until it turns into a "hurray for liberals" bit. Ah well. I could get it embedded in here anyways. As such. Enjoy some penguins.



That's it for me today. Got a Karate tournament tomorrow and I'm hoping for some big trophies. We'll see what happens and I'll tell y'all about it Sunday.

Done with DC

Its Wednesday, June 1, 2011, and this is The Side. It really sucks when you realize that something you've really enjoyed for over a decade has jumped the shark.

COMIX!!

I've been a solid DC reader since 1996. I've read a lot of their titles. I've been cautiously optimistic about the company and the direction its taken over the years. Sure there's been plenty of missteps and stupid moves, but I've always felt overall that they were a solid company and despite the missteps they would come through. lately there's been rumors of renumbering all their titles back to #1. I called it an aggressively stupid idea. I figured with a recent letter writing campaign that got WONDER WOMAN back up to its proper numbering that we had taken a step to move past the constant relaunching to titles.

Guess I was wrong.

I actually had a bit of hope when they said there was going to be an announcement coming from Geoff Johns, DC's creative director, and Jim Lee, DC's co-editor-in-chief. But the announcement was that they're going to be doing JUSTICE LEAGUE?

This is one of those times in which I'm trying very hard not to just type the word "fuckers" about a thousand times. I've just lost what faith I had in DC. So when they do their relaunch I won't be onboard. I just can't support something this dumb coming off of this stupid FLASHPOINT event. Honestly, I feel a bit betrayed by a company I put such an investment of time and interest in. I'm typing this wearing my favorite t-shirt. Its a Wal-Mart shirt with the Silver Age Justice League on it, and I feel like a fucking tool wearing it.

So where does that leave me? I'm getting away from DC. Marvel's got nothing that I'm interested in. I still get HELLBOY and few odds and ends from other companies. So I guess I'll be exploring a bit more of the stuff from Dark Horse and other companies.

I feel like its 1996 all over. That's when I dumped Marvel entirely due to their going exclusive with Diamond. I'm dropping the vast majority of my reading list. But now there's a lot more webcomics so I may very well just read more of those.

I'm going to miss superheroes.

MUSIC!!!

Four guys who don't need electricity to make awesome music.



That's it for me today. I'm going to go and try to deal with the fact I'm going to be one of those guys who only reads independent comics. I promise not to be as pretentious as most of those tools.

Vulcan Doomsday!!

Hey there, sports fans. Its Sunday, May 29, 2011, I'm needing more coffee, and this is The Side. Typically, this is when I'd start talking UFC as there was card last night. Unfortunately, I didn't get my kitchen pass, so I wasn't able to go watch it. More unfortunate was how the card shaped up in light of the number of injuries going around.

The scheduled main event was Frankie Edgar in his rematch title defense against Gray Maynard. Their last fight was a war that went to a draw. Unfortunately, Edgar has a couple of bulging disks in his back and can't fight right now. He's probably going to need surgery and I wish him well. This put the Jackson-Hammill fight in the main event, and Jackson had a broken hand going into it, so he wasn't able to throw his big bomb punches. Didn't make for an exciting card.

Injuries happen. It seems sometimes that I'm always injured, either with something new, or an old injury flaring up. When you're not training competitively, you can train around it. However, if you try to do that when you're looking to keep your championship you're either going to lose that championship, get hurt worse, or most likely both. I respect the heart of a fighter who wants to step in the ring even though they aren't 100%, but I'd rather these guys take care of themselves and be healthy. That's how sports like MMA keep going strong.

COMIX!!

My books didn't get in until Friday, which would make posting my reviews Friday morning rather difficult. So, here we go.


A massive object is heading for Earth at near lightspeed that'll wipe out all life on the planet upon impact. Inside it are a bunch of homicidal Doomsday clones. This looks like a job for Superman. ACTION COMICS #901 gave me what I've been waiting for: Superman and his allies up against incredible odds with world at stake. Its a cat-and-mouse game as the heroes race to figure out how they can possibly stop a bunch of Doomsdays, and it gets worse when they learn that giant space station thingamahoozits they're on is heading straight for Earth and not in a good way. Forget the whole Superman walking around and being a douche. Paul Cornell serves up tight action with Superman in what feels like a space horror story. Kenneth Rocafort and Jesus Merino are definitely up to the task of bringing the tension and action to the page. It was weird to see an Obama analog for the President in the issue. I do like that DC had a history of having a fictitious government type folk. That was one of my gripes about the JMS stuff. I don't read comics for diatribes about "real world" stuff. I want escapism and a good story. That's what I got here. Kind of funny that there was that flap over the idiotic Superman story in the last issue about Superman renouncing his United States citizenship and in this issue we get "Superman, your country needs you now!" Love it!

Also this week DETECTIVE COMICS #877 continues "Hungry City". Scott Snyder and Jock continue to deliver with this book. Dick Grayson is trying to help a business owner who is being pressured by criminals to launder money. That businesswoman also happens to be the daughter of the thug who murdered his parents. Oh, and there was that whole whale inside of a building thingie to figure out. Snyder really has Dick Grayson-Batman figured out. He plays the Dark Knight role very well when battling thugs and tracking down leads, but he's still the Grayson we know and love when Tim is giving him grief. The story itself is revealing slowly. We're fully on-board with Dick as he tracks down leads and presses for information. We don't see what's coming, and this is so important for detective fiction. We're having to put the pieces together right along with Batman, and it keeps us engaged. This isn't so much a "Sherlock Holmes" Batman in which he's five steps ahead of everyone in the story as well as the audience, with the reveal of how he figured everything out later. This is the audience righting shotgun on a mystery, and I'm loving the ride.

One last thing. There's a lot of rumors going around about a big announcement that's going to be coming out from DC. A lot of it seems to be that they're going to re-set all their comics back to #1 to try to get more readers. That's just rumors at this point, but let's remember that we just had three big centennial issues, with the fans voting to have WONDER WOMAN renumbered so that she could get the centennial issue she deserved. DETECTIVE COMICS is about a year out from hitting #900. Not saying that's ruling out a re-set stunt, but doing so would be aggressively stupid.

MUSIC!!

Because when you're Mister Spock everyone else and sod off.



That's it for me today. If you see someone who served our country, tell 'em "thanks". We'll see y'all Wednesday.