Monthly archives: June, 2007

Jun162007June 16, 2007August 19, 20071Commentby Fin Fang Doom

Con News Roundup

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With Heroes Con and Wizard World Philadelphia both happening this weekend, there’s a crap load of comic book news coming out right now. Of course, we won’t get into the really juicy stuff until the Comic-Con in San Diego next month and Wizard World Chicago in August, but that doesn’t mean there still isn’t a lot of stuff worth noting:

Flash 232– Flash: The Fastest Man Alive is being cancelled with next week’s issue 13. In it’s place will come a brand-new Mark Waid-penned Flash series starting up in August, continuing the numbering from the last series. Hmm…DC rebooted The Flash with a new #1 after Infinite Crisis when Wally West kicked the bucket. Could a return to the numbering of the series when it starred Wally West also mean the return of the man himself? Dear god, I hope so. I’d love to read a new Mark Waid series, but not if it starred Bart Allen.

-Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man and Sensational Spider-Man will be cancelled after August’s One More Day crossover to make way for thrice-monthly issues of Amazing Spider-Man. There will be a team of writers and artists trading off storylines, though, so it’ll probably still be like getting 6 issues of Amazing for two months and then 6 issues of FNSM for the next two, but they’ll all share subplots and what-not now. Speculation is that Dan Slott will be part of the writing team. Hopefully it’s the Dan Slott that wrote the Spider-Man/Human Torch mini-series and not the Dan Slott that wrote the Free Comic Book Day issue. (more…)


Jun162007June 16, 2007August 19, 20073Commentsby Jim Doom

Book of Doom: Sub-Mariner #1

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As I sat down to write the preview to this week’s Book of Doom, I honestly thought to myself, “What have I done?” (and then I typed it).

When it’s my turn to pick, I try to pick something I’m unfamiliar with, but also something that has a chance of being liked. This usually means a #1 issue or the beginning of a new arc, so that it’s a good jumping-on point and everyone doesn’t just rip on the book because they don’t know what’s going on.

This week, the two first issues were World War Hulk #1 and Sub-Mariner #1. Incredible Hulk #106 was our Book of Doom a month ago, so I figured the tie went to Namor.

I fully expected this to be a piece of crap. The first hint was the Michael Turner cover. The subtext told me “We think this book stinks, so we’ll stick Turner on the cover duties so maybe it’ll sell a little extra.” I couldn’t think of any compelling reason to give Namor his own series, so it just seemed like some delayed post-Civil War cashing-in.

It’s probably obvious by this point with all the setup that I didn’t think it was crap. I actually really, really enjoyed this. I have never really cared for Namor at all in my history of reading Marvel comics. I’ve gotten a bit of a kick out of his characterization in the Illuminati series, serving as the arrogant conversational foil for the rest of the gang’s attempts at civility. But a cocky, condescending, essentially racist, super-powered monarch just kind of runs its course after a while.

So what I really loved about this book was its depiction of the other side of Namor. And I don’t mean a soft, cuddly romantic side, but a side of Namor when he realizes he’s not in control. His no-nonsense tough guy facade isn’t enough. He’s still a badass, but he’s in unfamiliar territory and realizes the situation is bad enough that he is actually in some trouble.

I don’t think that his fish-out-of-water status, so to speak, was better conveyed than in the conversation between him and Iron Man about the gravity of the situation in Kansas. Namor starts and finishes that discussion with his normal dismissive attitude, but in the middle, when the situation really clicks and before he’s had a chance to re-compose himself, he slips and calls Iron Man “Tony.” Namor the Gruff Ruler temporarily steps aside for Namor the Guy Who Realizes This Is Worse Than It Seems, and that is what makes this situation compelling.

Namor is typically a loner on the surface world, but he always talks tough because he knows he’s got the might of Atlantis behind him if some air-breather wants to get tough. But now, as he has to solve this mystery, he is truly alone. He doesn’t have any backup or any enforcer muscle. Like any good ruler, his duty is to his people, but his enemies are on all sides.

Helping Matt Cherniss and Peter Johnson’s story was some great art by Phil Briones. I don’t know who anybody is on this creative team, but it was fantastic. The splash page of the skeleton on the throne was beautifully composed. Briones’ art style makes me think of what Barry Windsor-Smith might have drawn like had he come along in the post-Image world.

There’s no doubt that much of my excitement with the book came from my lack of any positive expectations. But a book has to do more than simply not be awful to make me want to come back, and I definitely look forward to the rest of this series.

Enough from me. Let’s see what the rest of the Legion had to say, starting with celebrity guest reviewer Allen Holt from Jimmy Olsen’s Blues: (more…)


Jun152007June 15, 2007August 19, 20072Commentsby Jim Doom

An Interview with Doom DeLuise about the implications of New Avengers #31

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JIM DOOM: Hello, Doom. Thank you for joining me for this interview.

DOOM DeLUISE: Not a problem, old chap.

JD: First off, did you read this Newsarama interview with Brian Michael Bendis? (editor’s note: You can read the interview here)

DD: Are there spoilers in this?

JD: Yes there are, so if you haven’t yet read New Avengers #31, don’t read that interview.

DD: I have read the comic in question.

JD: Very well. The interview I present to you is about what it means for… (more…)


Jun152007June 15, 2007June 15, 20076Commentsby Doom DeLuise

First Look: The Dark Knight

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The Dark KnightHoly awesome costume, Batman. This is the first image of the Batman from the upcoming Warner Bros movie, “The Dark Knight.” It looks a lot more realistic than past Batman costumes, and I, for one, can’t sing its praises enough. Apparently, it’s made up of some 200 different parts, the hardest of which to make is the new cowl. Unlike other cowls from the previous Batman movies, this one is modeled after a motorcycle helmet, meaning that this Batman can move his head around without having to do that awkward head + neck + shoulders + upper-body swivel that he’s had to do in the past just to look to the left.

Maybe it’s just me, but the costume also looks a lot more lightweight, which would be a necessity if Batman were really actually doing the things he does in the movie, in real life. I’ve always thought it silly that all of the actors who have portrayed Batman have since complained that the costume has weighed hundreds of pounds and is impossible to move in. Seems like the exact opposite type of costume Batman would really want.

“The Dark Knight” doesn’t come out until July 18, 2008, but everything I’ve seen from it so far suggests that it is going to be amazingly awesome with a big heaping dose of ass-kicking. Sorry, I can’t contain my excitement.

Credit to Entertainment Weekly for the scoop.


Jun142007June 14, 2007January 12, 20098Commentsby Jean-Claude Van Doom

Worst to First: 6/13/06

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I read a ton of books last week and most all of them sucked. And I mean really sucked. Lots of money spent + little enjoyment = terrible week. This week, thank the Lords of Doom, is about the exact opposite (in part thanks to me giving up on Countdown). There wasn’t really a whole lot I cared to read (and only three made the trip home), but everything was pretty darned good. Well, except that one book…

Worst: Justice #12

Two years later, this bloated epic of nothingness finally comes to a close. It’s probably a bit unfair to expect Kingdom Come from every book that Alex Ross works on, but the guy produces such so seldomly and his painting aspires to such an epic feel that it’s kind of hard not to give him a high bar to clear.

Now, I’m still very interested in re-reading Justice as a complete volume now that it’s finished, but my initial reaction to this penultimate (that means last, right?) issue leaves me thinking that the Justice storyline is a retread of every generic JLA or even Super Friends good-guys-vs.-bad-guys battle. The only real point of interest is the villains’ tactic of masquerading as heroes, but the writer never delves further into the hero-villain relationship. It is all just Brainiac and his evil machinations. Ooh.

While the world has plenty of room for fun, throwaway stories like that, Justice only gets half of that equation right. It offers no fun, only pretensions of intelligence and grandiosity. While the signs were there throughout, this comes out in full at the very end, as Batman is monologue-ing to Alfred (who really brought the yawner on himself by asking the dumbass question, “Sir? Has everything returned to a state of normalcy?”). Batman goes on to deliver about 19,000 words of nothing. He starts by saying he hopes the world will be improved after this latest survival (hints of Watchmen?), then talks about how heroes are only heroes because they faced hardship (and because writers thought it would make them interesting), then imagines a grand future created by today’s struggles.

I hate to go on for so long, but WHAT THE FREAK? That’s the hero babble equivalent of some wannabe-Romeo saying, “Baby, you complete me.” I’ll go ahead and say it: I hate this series. I may not re-read it after all.

Over and out: Green Arrow #75

This is one of those series for me that was always on the verge of being really enjoyable, but never quite reached fifth gear. Still, I’m sad to see it go. We get an action-full finale (penultimate?) with plenty of good moments sans explosions and arrows as well. The deus ex machina of the full JLA save-the-day was pretty jarring and made me lose serious interest in the final pages, which is too bad, because it was a touching and important moment. (more…)


Jun142007June 14, 2007January 12, 2009NoCommentby Jean-Claude Van Doom

More on Cap: The Chosen

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A day after we here at Doomkopf broke the news of the upcoming Captain America: The Chosen series, Marvel officially released news of the book. So, if you’re keeping score at home, that’s a scoop for the partners in Doom.

Okay, okay, enough tooting of the horn. Even thought it feels good, real good. In what is no surprise whatsoever, Marvel slipped the news to Newsarama in the form of an interview with David Morrell, author of the mini. Some new details come out, such as the book being on the Marvel Knights line. For some reason, artist Mitch Breitweiser is credited with pencils, though he actually does the inks (he uses almost no pencil). There are also samples of his art, which is as good as billed.

Again, a Q&A with Breitweiser is forthcoming.


Jun132007June 13, 2007August 5, 20078Commentsby Doom DeLuise

So the Justice League Sucks

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Justice League

About ten months ago now, the Justice League was given a new ongoing monthly series (or tri-monthly, for the first few issues), and it’s been a fairly unremarkable ten months. The first story-arc was focused on the Red Tornado and his quest for a human body. In the first issue, we had a decent set-up, with the Big Three examining photographs and deciding on the new team members. The same set-up was done over in the pages of the Justice Society of America. The only difference is, after the first issue, the JSA had all of its members falling in rank, while the JLA didn’t quite become a team until about the fifth or sixth issue. Oh, and I guess it’s 52’s fault that there was no explanation given for how they got Red Tornado’s android body in issue one or how Will Magnus had a fully functioning team of full-size Metal Men in the same issue. I don’t particularly care, either way.

The main problem I have is this: The final team sucks. Look at that photo up there. Look at all of those possible characters that could’ve been thrown in to the mix. Better yet, look at the original picture that DC released last summer. Now, imagine all of the possibilities you could come up with for a Grade-A whip-ass team. Now, instead, take the seven boringest, most worthless characters, toss in Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and you have yourselves the current JLA.

Let’s go through these lousy members one by damn one: (more…)


Jun132007June 13, 2007August 19, 2007NoCommentby Doom DeLuise

Countdown: Forty-Six

Posted in 52 / countdown / trinity, reviews by

countdown 46I’m giving Countdown a stay of execution. While the series didn’t improve much this week, the Jimmy Olsen story alone is going to keep me around for at least one more. So, let’s go through the quick and dirty.

This week, Jimmy Olsen decides to do some investigating after he receives an odd note at the Daily Planet. It brings him to Metropolis’ Suicide Slum (what a terrible name–nobody is going to want to move there!) where he meets up with Sleez, former servant, aide and counsel to Darkseid. Unfortunately, as he’s about to tell Jimmy how to take Darkseid out once and for all, the roof of the building they’re in collapses, somebody says some ominous words, and Sleez is shot through the chest with some light ray. Light ray. Hrm. Anyway, Jimmy sums up my thoughts perfectly when he posits the question, “What the hell is going on here?”

Elsewhere, Mary Marvel enjoys her new powers and beats up some demon made out of dead babies. Yep. Over in Keystone City, the Rogues get into a little squabble that ends about as abruptly as it began, and, in Washington DC, Jason Todd meets up with Donna Troy. Jason seems to know way more than he has any right to, which is odd, and the Monitors dispatch their personal Hit Woman, Forerunner, to take care of them, which she pretty much does. It’s a nice little bit of continuity that Jason and Donna think there’s only one Monitor. It goes against this “Every character knows everything that’s ever happened” mentality that’s been going around lately.

In a series where not much of note has happened, the introduction of Forerunner should have been quite a home run, but it simply isn’t. She’s a generic looking elven type thing with purple hair and blue skin. Actually, she looks a lot like Duela Dent, only a little bit different. She could have been a lot cooler, or, even better, the Monitors could have used a character that we’re actually familiar with so that we could be impressed by the fact that DC can make old characters that have lost our interest, well, interesting again.

That’s my real problem with this series so far. Nothing is interesting in it. There is absolutely no reason to care about anything going on so far. While continuity issues certainly are confusing, they don’t detract from the story for me nearly as much as the story detracts from itself through its sheer awfulness. I mean, at the end of 52, didn’t it strike you that Black Adam really wanted his powers back, so that he could continue World War III, so that he could kill everybody who was responsible for the loss of his family? Why would he just give them up at the beginning of Countdown? And to Mary Marvel? What a lame character to give such enormous power to. DC accomplished something with 52–they made me care about characters I had never cared about much previously. To just throw one of those away so soon, with no reason given, in this series just makes me incredibly annoyed.

I’m giving this series a shot. It just seems like DC is going out of its way to make me decide otherwise.


Jun132007June 13, 2007January 12, 2009NoCommentby Jean-Claude Van Doom

DOOMKOPF EXCLUSIVE:Captain America lives

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Maybe you’ve read this week’s Lying in the Gutters, in which Rich Johnston relates the old news that David Morrell, the novelist who created Rambo, wrote a Captain America mini-series that will debut this fall. Want some new news? Well then, you came to the right place.

At this week’s Wizard World Philadelphia, Marvel will announce the upcoming release of Captain America: The Chosen (The revelation of that name, and most of what follows, is a Doomkopf exclusive). It’s a six-parter that follows a solitary soldier and shows Captain America through his eyes. Marvel editor Andy Schmidt, who left the company last week to pursue a freelance writing career, talked briefly about the series recently.

While Morrell was long ago announced as the writer of the series, another you-heard-it-here-first is that the series is illustrated by Mitch Breitweiser, an up-and-coming Marvel-exclusive artist who previously filled in on Ultimate Fantastic Four and did all the art on the Drax mini-series that led into Annihilation.

Having taken a look at Mitch’s work on the series (No, I won’t tell you what happens in the story), I can say I agree with Mitch that it’s his best work yet. His style is gritty and realistic in the vein of Michael Lark, Steve Epting and Tommy Lee Edwards, among others, and it’s a good fit for the story. Mitch also is doing painted covers for the series.

Coming in the near future we’ll have a lengthy Q&A with Mitch and more about his upcoming series.

Oh, and that nagging question — is the good Captain dead or alive? The Chosen takes place outside of continuity. So, he’s still dead, for now anyway.

UPDATE — I forgot to mention this before, but this series was originally titled Captain America: The End. Why the change? Probably because of that other “end” the Captain recently experienced.


Jun122007June 12, 2007August 2, 20071Commentby Jim Doom

Book of Doom: Sub-Mariner #1

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What have I done?

In celebration of my 100th post here at the Legion of Doom, I have chosen Sub-Mariner #1 for our weekly Book of Doom, that’s what! I don’t know if it’ll be good, and I don’t even know anything about it to be honest, but some of us here at the Legion approach the Books of Doom with the hope of being exposed to something new, and what better way to expose ourselves to the Man in the Scaly Speedo than with issue #1? If nothing else, it’s another chance to see Michael Turner find a way to avoid drawing feet.

DC seems to be screwing up their own Sub-Mariner in the pages of Countdown, so let’s see if Marvel can do better with theirs. (If that sentence made you go “Huh?” allow me to share some thoughts from the Fortress Keeper: “Teth-Adam is nothing more these days than a second-rate Sub-Mariner Namor originated the whole ‘violent yet noble anti-hero puts needs of own kingdom over all else, thereby antagonizing the spandex community’ routine. Heck, Black Adam even has pointy ears!”)

So join us on Saturday for our weekly roundtable, with celebrity guest reviewer Allen of Jimmy Olsen’s Blues. And now here’s what Marvel has to say about this issue:

Terrorists have attacked the American mid-west and the fingers point to…Atlantis? Namor the Sub-Mariner is lord of Atlantis, so is he the man behind these attacks or is it the actions of a sleeper cell within his own nation? Those questions and more will be answered this June in Marvel’s brand new Sub-Mariner #1 (of 6) limited series, written by Matt Cherniss & Peter Johnson (Powerless), with art by Phil Briones (White Tiger). This is Namor like you’ve never seen him before, fighting SHIELD – and Iron Man – to make sure those responsible pay in full!

(DOOM note: That’s right – Namor will be taking on all kinds of governmental forces who want to shut him down for the threat he poses to the rest of the world!)

Marvel urges retailers to check their order on Sub-Mariner #1 which not only features one of Marvel’s most enduring heroes, but also ties into the wildly popular Initiative storyline and comes directly out of Namor’s pivotal appearances in the mega-hit Civil War. Now Namor must defend himself from both those who seek his crown and those who seek to control him. It’s the world against Namor…and the world better watch out!

Also, don’t miss out on your chance to own the new poster (on-sale now) featuring superstar artist Michael Turner’s stunning cover to Sub-Mariner #1!

SUB-MARINER #1 (of 6) (APR072332)
Written by MATT CHERNISS & PETER JOHNSON
Penciled by PHIL BRIONES
Cover by MICHAEL TURNER
32 PGS./Rated T+ / $2.99
FOC 5/24/07, On Sale 6/13/07