Wizard World News Pt. 2

Wizard World Philadelphia and Heroescon in Charlotte, NC continued today and there was plenty of news for the second day.

More Flash Info

Starting off at Heroescon, Dan Didio said that Flash #13 will crossover with JLA #10 and that at that point Bart Allen will cease being the Flash. It would seem to me that it would be a waste to kill him off, though that's what many people want. Didio also admitted that everyone at DC is a bunch of sneaky underhanded bastards:

DiDio said that “Flash” #13 will cross over with Justice League of America #10. “That will see a resolution to the story with Bart Allen as the Flash,” DiDio confirmed. He also said that while people might be confused, there is a guideline for the Flash family and always has been. “The plan that is in place with the Flash has been in place for a year. We misled people and we apologize. Mark Guggenheim did interviews as if he was the ongoing writer when he knew that he would only be on the book for a few issues.”

The "All-Flash" that was mentioned yesterday was apparently a one-shot to give the new creative team time to catch up, and that when Mark Waid takes over, they will return to the numbering from the previous series, starting at #231.

Jimmy frickin Olsen

I am pretty well tired of talking about this guy already, but being a major part of the biggest storyline this year means that I will continue to. Didio had this to say about Olsen knowing Jason Todd's secret identity:

“What Jimmy knows and doesn't know is a major plot point in ‘Countdown,'” confirmed DiDio. “It is not a mistake.”

Irwin Schwab

When asked if there was a chance of the return of Ambush Bug, they had this to say:

Jones: "God, I really wish..." DiDio: "We've got Keith Giffen in the offices nearly every week, so we'll see."

OMG! No really, one of these days when it is really slow, I'll go into depth on my love affair with Ambush Bug, including lots of panels from his comics. The most awesome news out of this thing yet for me.

Along the same vein as Ambush Bug, they also announced that in October we can expect something involving Captain Carrot and the Zoo Crew.

El Douche' de Leche(rous)

A new image with Tony Stark in some type of handcuffs was released. This may be misdirection, but I could also see El Douche' being offered up as the instigator for WWH by the rest of the Illuminati, and getting removed as the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. SO who would replace him? I think they may be setting up Jennifer Walters (She-Hulk) as the new Director.

Why She-Hulk you ask? Simple, they have taken her powers away, first of all. Of course everyone thinks it is temporary, but Stark said in WWH #1 that it was made to be permanent.

Secondly, she is a lawyer, and after the El Douche' debacle, they are going to want someone on the up-and-up. Who better than a highly respected lawyer. However, if Nick Fury returns, all bets are off, but I think that Marvel has had enough of him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Also, with issue #22, Peter David will be taking over for Dan Slott on the writing duties. Even though his comments don't point directly at the assumptions I am making, he says that she will not be "lawyering" and that there will be at least three "What the hell?" moments in his first issue. Sounds like big plans and a big writers for the Green Goddess.

Or like I said, this could all be misdirection and they will continue to torture me with many more years of the Boozehound Billionaire in a position of unjustified and dangerous power.

Bend(is)ing us over a barrel

I have nothing to say except this: Don't trust anythign this man says. Turns out he has been twisting the Marvel Universe around his little finger for years. Grrr. Skrulls. Oh yeah, he said that anyone with a suspect resurrection is under high suspicion of being a Skrull. He mentioned Hawkeye specifically. This had better fucking "WoW!" me big time for all the bullshit leaps of faith we have been asked to take over the last few years in the Marvel U.

And last, but most definitely not least

Messiah Complex

Marvel announced the next big crossover involving the X-Men will be called Messiah Complex" and will begin in October. The good news is that it is only an X-Men crosover and the only book you need to buy outside of the monthly titles is the "X-Men: Messiah Complex" one-shot that kicks it all off. Nick Lowe, editor of all things X, had an interview with Newsarama and laid out the plan for the event.

• Chapter 1: (X-Men: Messiah Complex One Shot).
• Chapter 2: (Uncanny X-Men #492)
• Chapter 3: (X-Factor #25)
• Chapter 4: (New X-Men #44)
• Chapter 5: (X-Men #206)
• Chapter 6: (Uncanny X-Men #493)
• Chapter 7: (X-Factor #26)
• Chapter 8: (New X-Men #45)
• Chapter 9: (X-Men #207)
• Chapter 10: (Uncanny X-Men #494)
• Chapter 11: (X-Factor #27)
• Chapter 12: (New X-Men #46)
• Chapter 13: (X-Men #208)


Also from Newsarama:

NRAMA: What can you tell us about the story at this point, without giving too much away?

NL: Something happens in Chapter One that changes everything. It stratifies the world of the X-Men in a clear way. It unifies the heroes in a way they haven’t been for years, and all under Scott Summers. Cyclops steps up huge in this event and will get people talking.

NRAMA: Of course, we have to ask, what can you tell readers about what this will do to the X-corner of things coming out the other end. Is this of the “things will never be the same” type deals?

NL: It is. There will be a significant and final shift in the status quo and even with how people look at mutants. Also, coming out of the event, readers will have a more clear idea of what the X-Men are and what every book means. Gone will be the days where readers will be confused what book is which and what the difference is.

Well, that's it for today. Would have had all this earlier but it was 91 degrees out, I live on a lake, and there was no way in hell I was going to sit inside and stare at the computer all day. Tomorrow looks like a hot one too, and it's Father's Day, so don't expect too much until late. See ya then.

CG

New Transformers Trailer - 6/16/07

Nothing ground breaking here, but we see a Constructicon that I hadn't seen before. Enjoy!



CG

Wizard World News Pt. 1

A few things are coming out of Wizard World Philadelphia already. I'll be keeping an eye on this all weekend and into next. A lot of the news is the same coming from different sources, so I am not going to give five links to every bit of news. At the end of each WWP (Wizard World Philadelphia) post, I will just have a whole bunch of links from where I found stuff. Ok on with the good stuff.

Best news I have heard so far

The Flash will be ending with issue #13, to be restarted with a new #1 soon after. Even better news is that Mark Waid will the writer and pencils will be done by Daniel Acuna on the relaunch which will be called All-Flash. Many, many thing can be read into this. The biggest being the demise of Bart Allen. Considering we have seen the cover with Bart laying on the ground surrounded by the Rogues, this would be the logical progression to that cover. However, Waid was the creator of Impulse, and I don''t know how writers feel about killing off one of their own. Can't wait.

Amazing Cubed

I don't understand this announcement, or more precisely, why they felt the need. All the Spider-Man titles will be folded into one, called Amazing Spider-Man, and being released 3 weeks a month. Why only three? No clue. Why all the same name? *shrug*

Was it really that confusing? Do people have a hard time following all the different titles for Batman, Superman, X-Men, Avengers, the Legion, etc.? Maybe I am like comic mensa or something, but there is this thing on every comic, it is called a title. Read it and you will know what comic you are buying. Let's take this one step further and just slap the same cover on it every week, then they don't have to be worried about being fooled.

Securing Trademarks

A few titles will be making a return no doubt for no other reason than to keep the trademark on some cool names. Among them: Suicide Squad, Infinity, Inc. (likely the crap we saw in 52 from Luthor) and a vague reference to Doom Patrol ("sometime between now and 2030"). These were mostly some great ideas in the 70's and 80's. I guess they could be interesting, but they could also suck, but at least the trademark would continue to be tied up and we would be spared another Champions embarrassment.

One More Day

What would you do if you only had one more day? Not sure, but I know I wouldn't be caught reading Spider-Man.

Amazonian Announcement

Dan Didio suggested at Heroescon in North Carolina that a Wonder Girl spin-off miniseries coming out of the pointless painful current Amazon Attacks series. He also said that Uncle Sam will be making more appearances, which could suggest that Amazons Attack is a multiverse story (somehow, I hope).

That's all from Day One (Friday). There will be more than the usual posts this weekend. I'll be covering the rest of WWP and Heroescon, and there does happen to be other stuff going on, too. Marvel has a new character "wiki" that I am going to explore more, a new Transformers video I'll be posting tomorrow and more.

CG

Off the Rack - 6/15/07

I hate getting offtopic, but this is too good to pass up. Via Hot Air, the website The Raw Story is reporting that at least 3 pieces of crap were found in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday. And before you ask, no they weren't Senators.

"Usually, if a turd gets into the Senate, it’s because he or she was elected," Emily Heil reports. "But on Wednesday, several large piles of actual, nonmetaphorical 'No. 2' found their way into the Capitol, and the source isn’t yet clear."

Heil continues, "On Wednesday afternoon, Capitol Police cordoned off a section of the hallway on the third floor of the Senate side of the Capitol, where at least three piles of the stuff were causing a stench — and a stir. At first, the word circulating among the staff was that a visiting child had fallen ill while in the gallery. But then the prevailing theory was that the foul stuff had come from an adult or group of adults making a yet-to-be-determined political statement."

Witnesses said they couldn’t believe that a single culprit could have produced the volume of poo present or that a person could have, well, deposited it the normal way without attracting attention. Several witnesses speculated it had been brought in from elsewhere.

Yeah no duh, can you imagine someone squatting in the U.S. Senate? They have stated officially it was probably "an unfortunate incident involving a child". THREE piles? Pretty impressive kid. They should go with a "terrorism through defecation" angle if you ask me.

CG

New Batsuit

I first saw this last night and was too tired to do anything about it, but Entertainment Weekly reveals the new Batsuit in their issue hitting the newsstands. Superhero Hype has a scan of the page already and plenty of details are revealed there.

For the first time (in what, like 6 movies?) they made the cowl separate so that Batman can move his head around and not look like an idiot who probably doesn't swing his arms when he walks either. What? What's that you're saying? It wasn't the cowl, it was bad actors like Clooney and Kilmer? No freakin way...

Moving on, composite suit, blah blah blah, 200 separate pieces, blah blah blah, the razors on Batman's forearms are actually part of the suit, blah bla... what the fuck?

That actually makes me mad. I thought one of the coolest parts of Batman Begins was that they showed Bruce at the League of Shadows using the serrated forearms before he was ever Batman, or in a suit. He uses them to block sword blows, not shoot fucking rockets out of them! They couldn't even wait a couple movies to retcon stuff out of Batman Begins?

Now I am not one of those idiot fanboys who won't go see a movie because of some thing like this. I am one of those other idiot fanboys who will go see the movie no matter what, but mark my words, when they shoot fucking rockets out of his forearms, I am going to yell Bullshit! as loud as I can in the movie theater.

What's next? Is his codpiece (look it up) going to be extra large to accommodate the supply of nuclear tipped explosives it is going to fire in the next movie? Are they going to bring back Bat-nipples so he has a way to cut glass? Arrrgghh! Frickin rockets out of his forearms!

OK, I am over it now. No, seriously, I am. *breathe* *breathe* Anyhow, The Dark Knight comes out July 18, 2008, and between now and then a lot can happen, but to be honest, it looks like they are off to a good start.

Another thing, real quick, if you saw pictures of the Joker's car (allegedly), they have all been taken down from Superhero Hype and Coming Soon. net (SHH's sister site), probably meaning they are fake. That doesn't stop me from putting one up though. But be warned this is likely not Joker's car at all.

The main problem with this car and why I knew it wasn't real in the first place is because IT CAN'T SHOOT ROCKETS OUT OF IT'S FOREARMS!!

CG

New logo and stuff

So I changed the logo on the top of the page and made a few other changes. Eventually I want to have a header that spans the entire page, but haven't figured it out yet. Probably easy, but I am new to this stuff, so if anyone knows how, I would appreciate the help.

Other stuff to note is the lack of the comic shop locater, and the list of local comic shops is gone. No big deal. In their place is a list of Featured Posts so it will be easier to find the regular features that I hope you all will keep coming back for.

Did you enjoy Hulk vs. Bizarro? I hope you did, and I am working on some other great content for you. So that it is clear, I don't mind linking some pictures I find on the internet, but stealing someone's art work like that would just plain be rotten of me. Through email correspondence, I received permission from the great guys at 50 Foot Robot Studios to feature HvB and will be hosting it regularly on Mondays and Thursdays, so come back often, because I promise it gets even more awesome (including an appearance by my favorite Transformer Grimlock!).

Please make use of the comment section and my email address thecomicrack@yahoo.com and let me know how I can make this blog better. If you have any news that I am missing, photos or links you think I should put up, send them to me and I will give you credit where credit is due.

Thanks,

CG

Linkblogging is bad for your health....

....and I am a sick, sick man. Where would I be without the occasional post full of other people's content? Nowhere, I tell you. Between this and pictures of half naked girls (I am aiming for a high pagerank for the term "half naked girls" in case you couldn't tell) I actually pull off this blogging thing quite well, if I may say so myself. Onward with the linkblogging!

• Paris Hilton got fired by her agents this past week, reports WWTDD.com. What does this have to do with comics? Not much, other than the reason she was fired was because Jessica Alba (also represented by the same agency) gave them an ultimatum saying she was embarrassed to be associated in any way with Hilton. So they tossed the no-talent whore. Yes, I mean Hilton, how dare you say that about Sue Storm! Oh yeah, this also gives me an excuse to post these new photos of Alba in a yellow bikini that surfaced yesterday.


• In more Paris Hilton news, and speaking of having no talent, Stan Lee is reported to be making a Paris Hilton-inspired comic. No, I didn't mean Paris that time. "The Man's" office confirmed this to the NY Daily News, and said it will be done in the same vein as great sequential art like Striperella. I don't know who in this story I am sicker of hearing about.


• In some real comic news, Brian Michael Bendis is in large demand after being responsible for writing New Avengers #31, which slipped completely below my radar in Waiting on Wednesday this week. It's late Thursday night, if you haven't read this comic or read about it yet, you deserve to have it spoiled for you, so here it goes: Elektra is a Skrull. There I said it. Wow. No, really, I was shocked, and it took me about 15 minutes for it to really sink in that this throws just about everything into turmoil in the Marvel Universe. Back to the links, Bendis did at least three big interviews this morning, for more info on what the hell is going on, take a look at all of these, none of them paint the whole picture, but put them together, and you can pretty much figure it out.
  
  
  • IGN
  
  
  • Newsarama
  
  
  • CBR
  
  
  The one thing I will say here is that he makes one thing very clear. The Captain America who was shot was not a Skrull. However, he hints pretty strongly at Tony Stark possibly being one. That would be an easy out for that douchebag, so I hope it is just a ruse by Bendis to throw people off. I swear if they make Tony Stark a Skrull and give him a free pass from all the bullshit he pulled in Civil War, I will stop reading any Marvel title with that boozehound asshole in it. And as the "Director of S.H.I.E.L.D." that is pretty much all of them except the X-books. I am gonna cross my fingers and trust they wouldn't do that to me.
  


• I was gonna put all the movie news here, but instead I made it into it's own post, so go here and see what happened on that front if you haven't already.

Have fun with all this comic goodness, and I'll see you tomorrow with more.

CG

Movie News: Avengers, JLA and more

The Hollywood Reporter says today that writers for both an Avengers movie and a Justice League of America movie have been set and that both movies are moving forward.

Zak Penn, who wrote the screenplay for Marvel's upcoming "The Incredible Hulk," is slated to pen the live-action adaptation that would be titled "The Avengers."

While the roster for the Avengers has changed since its inception in 1963, growing to include the likes of Spider-Man and X-Men hero Wolverine, the classic iteration of the team consisted of Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and the diminutive Ant-Man and Wasp. Other members have been the Hulk, the bow-and-arrow-wielding Hawkeye and the probability-altering gypsy Scarlet Witch.

It's all speculation for now, since Penn has not even started writing the screenplay yet, but it is also confirmed by Superhero Hype in an interview they had with Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios. Feige also talked about a number of other Marvel properties including Captain America, Punisher 2, Ghost Rider 2, Wolverine and his dream of a Power Pack movie along the lines of Goonies.

For the JLA movie, writers Kieran and Michele Mulroney have submitted a draft of a script already and those who have seen it have said it looks very promising. The Mulroney's are responsible for, among other projects, the action film "Mr & Mrs. Smith" starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. While I am a big fan of Jolie's *ahem* assets, her acting never interested me until thsi movie, because the action scenes were amazing.

This is also reported at Slashfilm, where they remind people that Christian Bale and Brandon Routh have been reported to be under contract for a Superman/Batman movie, which could make it easier to get the two stars to appear in a JLA film.

With the NY Comicon starting today, we could possibly expect more movie news to be released this weekend. Stay tuned.

CG

Hulk vs. Bizarro #1: Meeting of the Minds

In my never-ending quest to bring you all more relevant content (re: not half-naked girls), I will be hosting the hilarious web comic "Hulk vs. Bizarro" here every Monday and Thursday, courtesy of 50 Foot Robot Studios, beginning today! Thanks to Mike Nelsen for permission to use his work. Enjoy!

(Click image to enlarge)

WWH - Greatest Idea Ever?

First they make everyone in the Illuminati look like total douchebags, then they let us see them getting their asses kicked and running around scared. World War Hulk #1 was one of the best comics I have read in a long, long time. I got done reading it for the second time and my wife asked why I had a goofy smile on my face, and I told her "This is why I love comics". And it is absolutely true.

We put up with a lot of dialogue and drama and all the filler that they put in comics nowadays to make comics more realistic. And they do a good job of that. But sometimes I just want to see shit blow up and see complete and total assholes like Tony Stark get put in their place. I want to see the Incredible Hulk be fucking incredible! WWH #1 gives me all of this and more.

Amadeus Cho is a great character, and making She-Hulk matter again is something I never thought would happen. Doc Sampson continues to baffle me as to why he even exists. He really is a very annoying character. A superpowered psychiatrist? Gimme a break.

As I have said before, it is going to be very interesting to see which side people fall on. However, in the preview for Hulk #107, he says "If they are humans, they are Banner's friends." *GULP*

A few things I have not figured out though:

1. Obviously none of the Illuminati are going to die. So is Hulk ultimately going to fail?
2. His intelligence seems to be even higher than it was on Sakaar. I always thought the madder he got, the stronger he got, but conversely, he also got dumber.
3. Why do we have to put up with the whole Frontline bullshit again? Did they actually get a positive response on the Civil War version of this? Am I missing something?
4. Why does Joe Quesada say in his "Cup of Joe" feature after the story that we seeing the "final act in a saga of Marvelous proportions", when writer Greg Pak and WWH editor Mark Paniccia said in an interview today at Newsarama

   "Greg Pak: What goes up must come down. So from day one of planning Planet Hulk, we knew the Hulk would return to Earth for some payback in the story that eventually became World War Hulk. The top secret third part of the story was something that came to me during my first few weeks of outlining Planet Hulk. Joe and Hulk editor Mark Paniccia loved it and it's been part of the plan ever since."

I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. Speaking of Hulk, I just received permission to start regularly featuring the hilarious webcomic "Hulk vs. Bizarro" More information tomorrow and we will be seeing the first installment, and continuing twice a week, every week.

CG

More Megan

Megan Fox is so amazingly hot that she even looks good in a tablecloth.

Anything else I might say would be considered lewd, but expect more of her in the near future...

Oh, is it the future already? Good, here ya go:

And so far I count four tattoos I have seen on her (there is one about laughing at butterflies on her shoulder blade or some stupid shit like that that's not pictured here), which I normally don't find terribly attractive, but she pulls it off as well as anyone I have ever seen.

Some one said somewhere else that I am too lazy to go find, that she is the next Angelina Jolie, and that she is gonna blow up after Transformers releases. After? She already has in my opinion.

Not that anyone is actually reading right now, but I will have some stuff to say about World War Hulk tonight sometime, probably right before I go to bed. Amazing issue, what I read comics for. See you then.

CG

What the...?

OK still waiting to go to the comic shop (kids are sleeping and vacuuming near their heads isn't waking them up), and I am bored. So I decided to look through the keywords that have brought people to The Comic Rack. I swore to myself long ago that I would not do the "keyword game" that is often contrived on other blogs. Most of the keywords were expected and common. #2 and #3 were "girls kissing" and "kissing girls" with other variations of the same theme scattered throughout. Nothing surprising. Until I saw this:

"pregnant kick problem solved comic"

Now, I have sat here for the last half hour or more trying to figure it out. I have put it into various search engines to see if something pops up that would make the slightest sense at all out of those words put together, and how does that point here of all places?

As a result, I am going to do a little "10 Pages Deep" on this tonight, and I'll post my findings tomorrow. The only difference being that I am going to start on page one, where you can find nuggets of wisdom like this - Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex - a study into the sexual practices, and dangers, of Superman having sex. An excerpt:

What arouses Kal-El's mating urge? Did kryptonian women carry some subtle mating cue at appropriate times of the year? Whatever it is, Lois Lane probably didn't have it. We may speculate that she smells wrong, less like a kryptonian woman than like a terrestrial monkey. A mating between Superman and Lois Lane would feel like sodomy-and would be, of course, by church and common law.

Compelling. Stay tuned.

CG


UPDATE: Unfortunately, I found what was being looked for with these keywords, and I am a little sick to my stomach. There is humor and then there is stupidity, this is definitely not humor.



I was going to do a whole post on those keywords, but I don't even want to encourage this type of bullshit.

Quickie while I wait for my comics

I watched this awhile ago and had all but forgotten about it. If you haven't seen "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" before, the language is pretty sketchy and very NSFW, but it is absolutely hilarious. My mom, who is absolutely devoid of a sense of humor, was nearly in tears after watching it.



Awesomeness of the highest degree.

CG

New blog links

It's been a few weeks now since I launched The Comic Rack, and I have added some content to it since the beginning. I'll start by highlighting the other great comic book blogs I have linked to recently:

• Progressive Ruin - I have linked a couple stories from there, and it is my first stop of the day. It almost always make me smile, and if I ever get to Ventura County, CA, I'll be stopping by.
• The Merc with a Mouth is Back - A shout out to my most frequent, and usually only, commenter. Aside from that, his blog is a good read if you want some humor injected into your day.
• Hellhive - Lots of videos featuring everything from trailers to youtube videos to a recent series on drawing comic books.
• Comics and More - A mix of previews and reviews, and if you like manga, stop by for Manga Mondays every week.
• Legion Abstract - Very well thought out looks at the Legion of Superheroes and more specifically he gaping hols in their continuity.

And a few others I have recently started reading, but are not as familiar with, but so far look like they are worth giving a shot:

• Comics Make No Sense
• New Seed Comics
• Shelley's Comic Book Shelf

For new features here at The Comic Rack, I have been working hard to include things I think people will like without finding them annoying:

Digg Button
Wondering what that thing is on the top of very post? Click it and "Digg Me!" and let me and the entire Digg community know that you enjoyed this article. Very simple, very quick and very much appreciated.

Comic Space
If you are not familiar with it yet, head over to Comic Space and set up an account. It's like myspace for us comic lovers. See lots of great artwork there, visit creator pages, receive regular bulletins, and visit my page and add me as a friend.

Polls
I finally found a poll service that doesn't spam you every time you roll over it or click it. Try it out, I'll change it weekly to fine tune the content on the site to what you as readers want.

RSS Feed
If you are not familiar with RSS feeds or Atom feeds, click on the little orange thng on the right and add it to your bookmarks. From there it becomes self-explanatory, and helps you sort through what you want to read each day. Personally, I have 12 feeds that are the first thing I check each day.

Hometown Comic Book Shops
I added this pretty early in making this site, but so far, no one has emailed me their hometown shop. You never know who is reading this blog and they may not be aware of a shop you know about. Share that here and maybe you can turn someone on to your favorite place to go on Wednesdays.

Comic Charities
I have included links to three comic charities on the right, and the reason for this isn't for any reason other than they are causes that need as attention as possible. Please check out their sites, and if you are the charitable type make a donation if it fits you.

And finally, something experimental, that may or may not suck:

Email Subscriptions
I have no idea if this works or not. The site swears that it will not sell your email address, but you just never know. So if someone who has read this far, and has a junk email account laying around, could please try this out and email me to let me know how well it works, I would be vry appreciative. It seems like a good idea, I guess we'll see.

Don't forget, you can email me at thecomicrack@yahoo.com if you have a link exchange request, if you want to tell me how awesome I am, or if you want to tell me anything else.

Thanks,

CG

Waiting on Wednesday - 6/12/07

For the first time in about 3 weeks, I am excited about the comics coming out tomorrow. There are a number of good ongoing series that come out, and a few miniseries starting tomorrow. The main focus of everyone is going to be World War Hulk, of course, and it will be my main focus too. However, I am going to skip that in favor of looking at what else will be available, there will be plenty of WWH news in the coming months.


Marvel

• Sub-Mariner #1 - Namor returns to his own title with a 6 issue mini called "Revolution". S.H.I.E.L.D. goes after Namor when they think he is responsible for a terrorist attack on the U.S. But there may be forces in Atlantis who want to see Namor dethroned. As the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Iron Man is after the King of the Seas as he tries to find out who is behind the attacks on the surface world.
  
  I have never really been the biggest fan of Namor, but I recently saw the episode "Imperius Rex" on the Fantastic Four cartoon, which was very well written and made me appreciate the Sub-Mariner more than I did previously. I am going to pick this miniseries up, and if it is good enough, hope for an ongoing.
• Avengers Classic #1 - This is the kind of thing Marvel (and DC) need to do more often. They need to reprint the classics, so that the younger generation of comic book lovers can experience what made these characters so great in the first place.
  
  Much like X-Men Classic, they are reprinting the original stories and artwork of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, and also adding a couple of new short stories, which I would assume are set in the early days of the Avengers. I dont read the Avengers for the simple reason that I never had a connection to them in the beginning. There were tons of X-men and Legion comics, along with Superman, Batman and all the others in my Grandma's basement, but never the Avengers. I hope this will give me that connection and I can begin to enjoy them like so many others do.
• After those two and WWH #1, there are 3 or 4 other titles worth picking up this week if they interest you, but I don't have enough time or room to go into detail on them all. Among them: Franklin Richards: World Be (one-shot), Punisher War Journal #8, Cable & Deadpool #41 (aftermath of attack on Providence from the X-Men series), Hulk: Planet Hulk TPB (read up on what pissed off the Hulk so bad), and last but not least, Marvel Illustrated: Treasure Island #1 (comic style interpretation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson story).

DC

• By far the one issue you should not miss is Green Arrow #75. Ollie Queen finally sucks it up and asks Black Canary to marry him. This will be the final issue in the ongoing series, and will lead into at least 2 miniseries that have already been planned that will deal with Dinah's answer to Ollie's proposal. This is a 40 pg issue for only $3.50, so send GA off in style with big sales this week.
• Green Lantern Corps #13 - The Corps must battle the ghosts of their past on Mogo, the sentient planet, in this issue beautifully drawn by Patrick Gleason. Visit his website for some great sketch work of the GL Corps, including everyone's favorite poozer, Kilowog.
• Superman/Batman #36 - The final issue of the Metal Men storyline, where Brainiac has assumed control of them and is using them against the World's Finest. You just know Batman is going to have a solution to this problem since he spends all his time in his cave wargaming every possible confrontation... ever.
• And of course: Countdown continues with issue #46. They are promising a revelation about Jimmy Olsen and what the hell is going on with him. Last week, this comic finally got good, let's hope they keep up the good work and make this title worth buying the rest of the year.
• And much like Marvel, there are many other good titles this week: JLA CLassified #39, Trials of Shazam #7 (of 12), Batman Confidential #6. And if you have a spare 50 bucks laying around, DC is releasing the Jack Kirby Fourth World Omnibus Vol. 1, 396 color pages putting The New Gods, The Forever People, Mister Miracle and Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen in order.

Not even gonna bother with Independents this week, if you like them, you know when they are coming out. None of them float my boat this week, so I am not going to feign interest. Gonna be a busy day tomorrow reading everything, so unless I post something else tonight, see you all on Thursday.

CG

On the Rack - 6/12/07

Supergirl in Smallville

I missed on posting about it yesterday, but Supergirl is coming to Smallville. The CW reported that casting has begun for the role of Supergirl for the television show. They will use the story that Kara Zor-El was launched from Krypton as a teenager at the same time as baby Kal-El but some type of cosmic disturbance caused her to be trapped in suspended animation until now. She will be about the same age as Clark and will possess all his powers and be able to fly, which Clark has not up to this point in the series.

"One of the joys of creating 'Smallville' has been our ability to reinvent and reinterpret classic DC Comics characters," said 'Smallville' executive producer Al Gough. "Miles and I believe that Supergirl will give our series the mythic jolt that it needs as we head into our seventh season."

There are many different incarnations of Supergirl that they can use, but any of them from the picture on the right will do.

So who is going to play the Maiden of Might, the Girl of Steel? And any chance of a boob window like Powergirl? Unlikely, but a few candidates that I thought of:

Megan Fox - She will be #1 on my list for every role from here until I get tired of looking at her, and that won't be happening for a long, long time. The only problem is after Transformers and her starring role in my dreams, I don't see her being available any time soon for a TV show, no matter how much I want her to (Megan Fox on my HDTV would be a million times better than Kristin Kreuk was a few years ago on my 27' Panasonic".)


Sienna Miller - She has a role in the upcoming Stardust movie and could definitely pull it off physically, anyone who has seen "Alfie" would agree, if not google it. Which is also the reason why it probably wouldn't happen. The CW would likely look poorly on an actress who has so many nude pictures floating around. But if they wanted some publicity, this would be a good way.

In all likelihood though, they will choose relative unknowns as they have for every other role on the show. The best thng tha could come out of this is seeing whether people like the character of Supergirl, which could eventually lead to a feature film. At that point, I could see either of these actresses actually being possibilities.

CG

To Bit torrent, or not to Bit torrent....

If you have been coming here now for the last couple weeks, and I know there are some of you out there, then you obviously want to hear what I have to say. Now it's my turn, I need your opinions: Digital Comics Yes or No?

By digital comics, I don't mean Marvel's Digital Comics. I discovered those a while back and they were great, but never in succession, rarely encompassing an entire story, and for good reason. If they gave you everything, you wouldn't go buy the back issues, right? Wrong. It never once made me entertain the thought of going out and buying a ton of back issues I can't afford anyhow.

So I looked around, hoping to uncover the magical comics Itunes. Never found it. In fact, I found an absolute lack of any other type of digital comics anywhere. I was prepared to pay. I literally spent three or four days looking for anything. I have to admit, I had no clue what I was about to discover.

I stumbled upon a blog article about comic torrents and it more or less pointed the way to the digital comic motherlode. I am not going to link to it myself for my own reasons, but if you want to find it, it is out there. These sites have essentially any comic you want, all in scanned digital form. There are specialized readers, downloaders, sites full of everything you could want, and even forums for requests.

The first thing I downloaded was "The 100 Greatest Comics Ever". It had pretty much every comic you could want from a historical standpoint. First appearances of every one of the major characters in comicdom and plenty of offbeat, but influential comics too. Download after download, miniseries after miniseries, creator run after creator run. I was in comic heaven. Missed part of Infinite Crisis? It's right there. Missed the Moon Knight issues of Civil War? Click here to download. The first 800 or so appearances of the Legion of Superheroes? Got it. I was now 80 gigs deep in comic history.

Then came the problem. I felt bad about it. I felt like I was cheating someone, but couldn't figure out exactly who. I didn't download new comics, I still go to my local comic shop every Wednesday like a cow to financial slaughter. My pull list is 15 comics deep (counting Countdown 4 times), that's around 50 bucks a month, and that does not include all the specials, Civil War tie-ins, 52, Countdown, etc.

I can hear it now, "Suck it up, it's only a few hundred dollars a year, if you can't afford that, you need to rethink your hobbies." That's great and everything until your wife tells you that she is pregnant with your third child. And your unemployed (gainfully though!). A job is not a problem for me, the ones I want just don't pay more than my unemployment check I am guaranteed for the next 5 months.

So, yeah, I can afford my pull list, but it gets harder and harder to justify buying the plethora of other comics that come out each month that aren't on it. Especially now with my daughter coming into her own as a comic fangirl. She's 5 and asks about the "Fantassick Fo" constantly, her favorite easily being Thing. Action figures, Archie comics Wolverine bobbleheads add up pretty quick, too. I love Wizard mag, she loves ToyFare, so I get them both. I spend upwards of $60 to $80 a month on comic books and related items. It is totally worth it.

So where is all this rambling going to? The multitudes of damn near necessary comics that I can't afford every week are sitting there free. I refuse to make excuses about being able to read classic comics I would otherwise be completely incapable of reading. I was too young to read Neal Adams on Green Lantern. Batman: The Dark Knight escaped me at the time as a cultural milestone. I have read both of these now and am a better and bigger comic fan for it. But downloading the new ones bothers me.

For example:
Teen Titans #47

I enjoy Teen Titans but just not enough to have it on my pull list. It agonizes me sometimes because I have always followed them and would love to continue but I just can't afford to add any more. Issue #47 however, crosses over with Countdown. Now I am fully aware that it is the type of story that it is not necessary to read to comprehend Countdown, but we all know that it is difficult to knowingly ignore a comic that is tied into an ongoing series like that. DC and Marvel know it too.

So I decided I was not going to buy it. I downloaded it. And I still can't figure out who I am cheating. Adam Beechen, the writer? I don't think they get paid per comic sold, and besides, I wasn't going to buy it. DC Comics? As I said, I wasn't going to buy it. Myself? In a small way, yes, there is something about holding a comic in your hands and feeling the paper and seeing the richness of the color, something the scans have a hard time reproducing on a laptop. But I can get over myself. So who got cheated, who got robbed? The way I see it, no one, in fact, I can almost see a benefit to all this.

Enough of the Problem, now onto the Solution

If you could preview a comic (other than standing at the rack) for a small price, would you? I know I would. Why can't the comic companies come up with a simple interface, like Itunes, and use it to allow us to either (1) preview a comic in hopes we would buy it or (2) outright sell back issues online?

(1) Simple, with digital rights management setup in a number of other industries, the comic industry can too. Music labels are able to allow you to download a track or even an album full of songs that "decay" on your hard drive. They come with a preset amount of time that they are available to you. After that, they erase themselves.

What people generally say to denigrate this is "Those hackers will always come up with something to defeat anything we do". And you know what, they are right. Hackers will always come up with a way to defeat something. But if they are willing to do that, they won't be paying either way. So why not ignore them, and concentrate on the people who are willing to pay?

(2) If that isn't what would work, and if the technology is too much or something, then just sell back issues outright online. Come up with a user friendly interface, a user friendly comic book reader (or use current formats available and buy them out) and offer only comics that are (upcoming arbitrary number) 3 weeks old. Keep them available for another 3 weeks or longer, but take them offline eventually.

Me personally, if I do want to read a story that intersects with another one, like Teen Titans #47, I don't really have a problem waiting a couple weeks or so. Not being able to read it though because of my personal financial situation is unacceptable to me.

For option (1), charge $0.99 for one week access to said comic. Watermark them or something so they can't be reproduced and pirated.

For option (2), charge $1.99, put the adds in there, offer digital specific adds, whatever floats your boat. But don't charge the full amount. For one, they are back issues at this point, and two, I would have to believe that the amount of work you put into it would be cheaper than distribution across the country. Give us a break.

Now I know that some readers are comic shop owners and see this as an attack on there business, but I don't believe it is at all. If I go download Teen Titans #47 and enjoy it more than another comic on my pull list, I will replace it, or wife willing, add it. If the option is not there though, there is no way I will/can do that. Also, I simply would not pay 2 to 3 dollars every month to buy a comic a few weeks late that is available to me instore. Like I have said, there is an intimate experience in reading a comic book that is in your hands.

So, what say you, The Comic Rack faithful (all 5 of you! I kid, I kid.)? I know you are not the most commenting people, but I would love to hear what you have to say about this. I personally think that digital comics, done the right way, could be an important part of the future of the medium.

If you got this far, thank you.

CG