Tagged: Action Comics

Shelf Watch: This Week’s Comics

Shelf Watch: This Week’s Comics

Every week I look ahead at Diamond’s shipping lists to see what I’ll be reviewing for the Weekly Haul. Here’s what’s on tap this week (reminder, comics aren’t out till Thursday):

Not sure why, but I’m looking forward to Image’s I Kill Giants #1, even though I don’t have much of an idea what it’s about. The art reminds me a lot of Alex Robinson’s — but with more manga influences — so that might be a lot of it.

Dark Horse has a couple of usual suspects on the way in The Goon #26 and B.P.R.D.: The Warning #1, as well as the Hellboy: Oddest Jobs trade. I’ve been especially impressed with The Goon of late, after it nosedived when Eric Powell shifted his focus to Action Comics and the Chinatown GN.

DC has a fairly ho-hum slate. Tops would be Booster Gold #1000000, though DC’s Web site says that’s not coming out till next week. There’s Final Crisis Requiem, the one-shot that deals with the Martian Manhunter’s death (glossed over in Final Crisis), and the Batman books are tied into the lackluster RIP storyline. Nothing screams "must read."

Marvel has a big headline with Secret Invasion #4, but aside from that there’s nothing of exceptional interest, aside from the preview for Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s Captain America: White and the always excellent Nova (issue 15). Am I the only one already tired of Matt Fraction’s Invincible Iron Man, even though only the third issue is coming out now?

In the small presses, there’s the eighth volume of Bone and the trade of Badger Saves the World. Other than that, pretty slim pickings.

What are you looking forward to?

Interview: Geoff Johns on the Return of Brainiac in Action Comics

Interview: Geoff Johns on the Return of Brainiac in Action Comics

  • News
  • June 11, 2008

Writer Geoff Johns is best known for re-imagining some of the most beloved heroes in the history of the DCU.

With his work on such books as Infinite Crisis, 52, Green Lantern, Booster Gold, Teen Titans and Justice Society Of America, Johns has “re-booted” some of DC’s most beloved classic heroes, including Hal Jordan, Booster Gold, Power Girl, The Teen Titans and The JSA.

But Johns’ ability to restore characters to their original glory does not stop with DC’s greatest heroes. No, he has left his mark on the villains as well, creating and revamping some of the scariest villains in DC’s arsenal. From his work on The Sinestro Corps War, and his run on The Flash he has placed Sinestro, Superboy-Prime, Cyborg Superman and The Rogue’s Gallery of The Flash back atop DC’s roster of its most dangerous bad guys.

Now Johns is reintroducing the most evil super computer of all, Brainiac, in the pages of Action Comics. Along with artist Gary Frank, the new arc, entitled “Brainiac” begins in Action Comics #866, in stores today.

First appearing in Action Comics #242 as a bald, green-skinned humanoid, Brainiac is the machine responsible for destroying Krypton and shrinking the city of Kandor down to bottle size. This five-issue arc will attempt to reintroduce the character who is arguably one of Superman’s most dangerous enemies back into the DCU.  

I had a chance to speak to Geoff Johns about the new arc in Action Comics and the experience of working with his mentor, Richard Donner.

COMICMIX: For starters, tell us about the upcoming “Brainiac” arc in Action Comics. What can fans of the book expect?

GEOFF JOHNS: Gary (Frank) and I are reintroducing Brainiac. The character has been around for a while now but he’s kind of been in a lot of different forms. Our goal was to create a villain that represents… well, we actually say it in one of the issues. For us, Luthor represents the worst of humanity and Brainiac, for us, will represent the worst in extraterrestrials. So we’re building off that. We want to introduce a Brainiac who is frightening, powerful and a little bit mysterious. We also wanted him to be very unsettling, very alien and feel different then the other adversaries that Superman has. The idea is to make Brainiac one of the villains that Superman dreads when he has to face him, rather than just another slot in a long line of villains. I think our first issue has a real creepy vibe to it and Gary did a really great design on him.

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Happy Birthday: David Michelinie

Happy Birthday: David Michelinie

Born in 1948, David Michelinie loved comic books from early on and knew he wanted to write them. So he took a chance, and in the early 1970s he moved to New York to work for DC Comics.

He started out writing backup stories on House of Mystery and House of Secrets, then wrote seven issues of Swamp Thing. In 1978, he switched over to Marvel and immediately began writing The Avengers. From there he moved to Iron Man, Amazing Spider-Man, and Star Wars.

Michelinie was responsible for introducing both Jim Rhodes and Tony Stark’s alcoholism during his run on Iron Man, but he is perhaps best known for the supervillain he created and introduced in Amazing Spider-Man: Venom.

Since then, he has worked on Action Comics, Rai, H.A.R.D. Corps, Captain Fear, The Bozz Chronicles, and many others.

Big-Time Comics Links

Big-Time Comics Links

  • News
  • July 18, 2007

Comic Book Resources has the second half of their look at Homosexuality in Comics.

Brian Cronin at Comics Should Be Good has a new, useful, term for our collective little dictionary of comics: False Epiphany Characters. (Also for that same dictionary, and from the same place: Grace Notes.)

Steven Grant gives us a thumbnail history of the convention once and forever known simply as “San Diego.”

And Josh Elder (any relation to Will, I wonder?) of the Chicago Sun-Times looks at the launch titles for DC Comics’s Minx line.

Borders is moving Tintin in the Congo to the adult section in the USA as well (after British complaints), reports Fox News.

Edward Champion thinks the “real books” industry should take an idea from the comics world and institute “Free Book Day.” I think that’s a splendid idea.

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Comics News, Links & Reviews

Comics News, Links & Reviews

Living Between Wednesdays has discovered some very weird Marvel toys, and documents them for our amusement. (That one there makes me want to sing: "Macho, Macho Spider! I’ve got to be a macho spider!…"

Chris Sims (of Invincible Super-Blog fame) has been annotating all of the Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter comics so far, and he continues his streak with the new nine-page story in the hardcover collection of the Guilty Pleasures adaptation. Thrill to the snark about Sausage-on-a-Stick! Witness a whole string of eyball-closeup panels! Meet the man known as…Dolph!

The Charleston Gazette reviews DMZ: Body of a Journalist, the second collection of the DC Comics series written by Brian Wood and illustrated by Riccardo Burchielli.

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HEROES CON: DC Up-to-date

HEROES CON: DC Up-to-date

  • News
  • June 16, 2007

At Heroes Con in Charlotte N.C., DC Comics held its second panel, titled “Countdown and Beyond,” helmed by Dan DiDio under the watchful eye of the VP of Marketing John Cunningham, who was working double duty, also manning the Powerpoint slideshow. Provided were the clarification of how The Flash cancellation/relaunch will go down, as well as the timeline for the Black Canary/Green Arrow wedding.

First, The Flash will be, as previously reported by Mike Gold, ending its run with issue number 13. DiDio admitted to falsely leading readers and retailers alike that the current Flash writer, Marc Guggenheim, was going to be a long term installation and that the orders for issues 14 and 15 were purposely solicited. Flash #13’s story will conclude in JLA #10, followed by All Flash Special #1 the third week of July. The third week of August will see Flash #231 on stands and will go on monthly from there.

Editor Jann Jones feels that while Black Canary can kick some serious butt superheroes may not make the best wedding planners, bringing us The Black Canary Wedding Planner in September to kick off “wedding month.” The second and third weeks we’ll see the bachelorette and bachelor parties in Countdown and JLA respectively. The big event will happen the last week of September with the Green Arrow/Black Canary Wedding Special, written by Dwanye McDuffie – who will also be taking over at JLA with issue #13.

DiDio also says Action Comics is back on track and we can expect to see a couple months where we are doubled up with issues. In addition, a future issue will feature panel in 3-D whenever the action takes place in the Phantom Zone.

Other titles that may or may not have been previously announced were various 52-related spin-offs: Infinity Inc, Black Adam, The Crime Bible featuring The Question and the Four Horsemen, who are not dead but will be facing the three heroes that were missing in 52.

We were given some details about new horror-themed DCU based comic/character Simon Dark, who resides in Gotham and seems to be a twist on a Frankenstein-like being. This is meant to be part of the move to help populate the universe with more “mystical” type characters since the siphoning off of many such folks to Vertigo. Apparently it’s a one way trip since it was said in no uncertain terms that Swamp Thing, Hellblazer and their mature title ilk will not be reappearing.

MARTHA THOMASES: 52-Skiddoo

MARTHA THOMASES: 52-Skiddoo

This is the week that DC’s 52 came to a close. The company’s first attempt at a weekly comic since Action Comics Weekly more than 15 years ago, unless you count Mike Carlin’s interconnecting but freestanding Superman series. It was, by most accounts, a commercial and critical success. 52 re-defined what comics can do, as narrative and as pop culture events.

When I was a kid, a comic event was a much smaller achievement. I started reading comics when I was five (for those of you keeping track at home, that was 1958). My parents would go to the train station on Sunday mornings to pick up the just-delivered New York Times, and I’d get to buy a comic. One comic. Because it had to last all week, I wanted the one with the most story. Eventually, after lots of trial and error, I decided that DC was the best for me.

It’s not that I didn’t sample Marvel. I did. But the book I tried had a story that was continued next month. When I looked for the next issue thirty pulse-pounding days later, it wasn’t there. Newsstand distribution was like that. I was happier getting a DC book, with two – sometimes even three – complete stories in each issue.

(Kids today, they have it easy. They can buy multi-part stories in trade paperback collections. In my day, we had to walk to the convenience store, picking up deposit bottles so we could afford to buy comics that might not even make it to the racks. In the snow! With no shoes!)

This is not to say we didn’t enjoy events. I remember in 1961, when there was a “novel-length” (that meant it took up a whole issue) story, “The Death of Superman,” that made me cry when Krypto said goodbye. There were Wonder Woman stories where she used a Paradise Island computer to imagine what it would be like to have adventures with herself as a baby (Wonder Tot) and a teenager (Wonder Girl). Basically, just being allowed to get a comic was enough of an event.

In those days it was assumed that most kids would read comics for a couple of years in grade school, then discover the opposite sex and go one to other amusements. There was no reason to worry about continuity, because no one expected the readers to stick around long enough to notice.

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MIKE GOLD: Would Superman trust the president?

MIKE GOLD: Would Superman trust the president?

  • News
  • April 30, 2007

Would you trust the President of the United States with your most precious secret?

If the polls are even remotely accurate, today a substantial majority of Americans would not. Perhaps any reasonable person would not trust any politically motivated opportunist with such knowledge. But there was an unfortunate time when Superman did.

In Action Comics #309, cover dated February 1964, The Big Red S needed someone to cover him at an event where it was necessary for both Superman and Clark Kent to be in attendance. I won’t trouble you with the details – Batman was similarly engaged – but Supes asked the President to stand in. Evidently having nothing better to do, John Kennedy said “sure, you bet, champ” and did the Iron Mask bit. Superman closed the story with “If I can’t trust the President of the United States, who can I trust?”

Sigh. Young-uns, now you know why we Baby Boomers long for the good old days.

Of course, the good old days weren’t always so good. Sharp-eyed reader that you are, I’m sure you noticed how this particular issue was cover-dated “February 1964.” History-aware that you also are, you knew President Kennedy was murdered in November, 1963. You probably did the math, remembered that cover dates were well in advance of newsstand release dates, and figured they (sorry about this) dodged the bullet.

No such luck. Action Comics #309 appeared in distributors warehouses about two weeks after the assassination. Editor Mort Weisinger, who by that time was well on his way towards finishing Action #313, didn’t remember the JFK story had yet to see print. Few others at the company knew of the issue’s contents. The book was not recalled at the distributors level. Comics got the lowest priority on the shipping chain: imagine Fed-Ex offering “Overnight,” “Two-day,” and “Eventually” and you’ll begin to grasp the problem.

Not that it stayed on the racks very long. Enough people saw it to express outrage, not knowing the molasses-like nature of the newsstand distribution process in those days. So word got out and many (certainly not all) retailers removed the issue. In those days, many distributors split their top-selling comics, distributing a part of the print run once again several weeks later. Those who were paying attention pulled Action #309 from this second round.

But there was Superman, answering the question: Who do you trust?

What would The Man of Steel do today? I wonder.

Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix.com.

Artwork copyright 1963 National Periodical Publications, Inc. Renewed by DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

ComicMix Podcast #3 is now online!

ComicMix Podcast #3 is now online!

Our third Podcast is now available for your downloading pleasure.

This time around, Mike Raub reveals how Action Comics ends its 69 year streak, talks about more cool action figures, denotes the cinematic meeting of Ghost Rider and Captain America (!!!)  and has a revealing interview with… ummm… me, where I get to rat out ComicMix’s own Glenn Hauman and Brian Alvey.

Plus — can the sound of Tiffany’s voice cure cataracts? You can find out on our third podcast simply by simply hitting the play button:

Just in case you missed our first two podcasts, they can be found here and here.

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