Previously, I reviewed Gail Simone’s first volume for the rebooted Batgirl series, The Darkest Reflection, which is a part of DC’s New 52 initiative. In the review, I mentioned my appreciation of Gail Simone’s writing, and how the series was off to a great start, and how I was looking forward to the next volume, which we now know is called Knightfall Descends.

The question at such a point, of course, is whether the second volume can match the first volume, and whether it can exceed expectations.
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Today on the Kirkus Reviews Blog, I talk about Once Upon A Time Machine – a collection of comics based on fairy tales and other classic stories, all with a unique twist.

From the post:

This massive book caught my eye for a couple of reasons. First, I know Dark Horse puts out great books.  Second the cover was a fascinating mix of fairy tale creatures and science fiction elements like rocket ships and wormholes.  Who wouldn’t want to pick that up and thumb through?  It’s essentially an attempt to reimagine classic fairy tales (a trend these days) in a science fiction setting.  Editors Andrew Carl and Chris Stevens, sought out a plethora of indie and up and coming writers and artists like Farel Dalrymple (Pop Gun War), Ryan Ottley (Invincible), Khoi Pham (Daredevil), and Brandon Graham (King City) to put a wholly new and different spin on these familiar stories.  And I have to admit, they have done a damned fine job of it.

Click on over to check out the complete post.

With DC’s relaunch of its entire line-up under the “New 52″ umbrella, several Batman-related titles were announced, no less than ten of them! We have the main Batman title, Nightwing, Batgirl, Batman and Robin, Detective Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight, Red Hood and The Outlaws, Batwing, Batwoman and Birds of Prey. That’s one heck of an overdose of everything Batman. Plus the fact that the first twelve issues of most of these titles came under the Court of Owls crossover event, and keeping track of the various appearances and stuff is pretty overwhelming. At least, that’s one of the reasons why I avoided reading anything other than Batman by Scott Snyder, Birds of Prey by Duane Swierczynski and Nightwing by Kyle Higgins until now.

Recently, it was as if there was more and more praise for writer Gail Simone, who is penning Batgirl at the moment. It made me curious. I’ve never had much of an interest in Batgirl, a character little seen in the movies and the various TV shows alike. Duane and Kyle have both featured her quite a bit in their ongoing series, with Batgirl being one of the core members of the current incarnation of the Birds of Prey, so I wondered how she would be written in her own solo series. And how it would all tie to the various crossovers that are ongoing for all Batman-related titles. As I said above, first we had the Court of Owls crossover, and now we have Death of the Family, in which Joker returns to Gotham with a vengeance and an axe to grind.

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Richard Sala is a prolific artist of the weird and fantastical, with a varied collection of tales that feature detectives, witches, zombies, fairy tales, cat women, and more. Beginning with his 1984 Night Drive, Sala has drawn a new comic title nearly every year. His work has appeared on RAW, BLAB!, and even serialized as an animated cartoon for Liquid Television.  Today, I want to take a look at his series Delphine.

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This is the weirdest one ever.
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Plastic Man just wants to mail his letter…
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Soon, theaters will be playing The Dark Knight Rises (midnight showings tonight in most markets), so with that in mind, I put together a list at the Kirkus Reviews Blog called 5 graphic novels starring Gotham’s protector, 3 of which I believe helped to shape the Nolan trilogy.

From the post:

The Dark Knight Returns – If we look at the Christopher Nolan and Tim Burton Batman flicks as being dark, even harsh, in their portrayal of Batman, we aren’t wrong.  A far cry from the campy days of Adam West running around in the cape and cowl, these films have had a mood and tone that at least partially comes from my next pick, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns (ISBN-10: 1563893428).  Set in Batman’s future, Bruce Wayne is fifty-five years old, retired, and Gotham is a very different place without him.  Superheroes are all but gone, and crime is mostly unchecked.  When Two-Face returns, Wayne puts on the cape and cowl once more, but finds Gotham and the world, unwelcoming to his brand of vigilante justice.  The Gotham PD hunt him relentlessly, the American government sees him as a threat to their authority.  Worse, Batman alive and well brings The Joker back and he is deadlier than ever.

Please click through the Kirkus Reviews to see the other Batman graphic novel picks!

Evil is afoot, but Supergirl is grounded…
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You really don’t want to go into battle with a utility belt loaded with the wrong stuff…
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How did the Super Best Friends Forever get their name? Click the video to find out…
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On the Kirkus Reviews blog today, I list my Top 5 Graphic Novel picks starring the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man!

From the post:

Sergei Kravinoff burst onto the pages of The Amazing Spider-Man in 1964.  Since then, he has hunted Spidey relentlessly in the hopes of proving to everyone he is the greatest hunter in the world.  Collecting Web of Spider-Man #31-32, Amazing Spider-Man #293-294, and Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132, Kraven’s Last Hunt, written by J. M. DeMatteis and illustrated by Mike Zeck, brought Kraven and Spider-Man together for their final confrontation.

Driven mad by his inability to defeat Spider-Man, Kraven the Hunter launches his ultimate end-game and manages to defeat the web-head.  He shoots him, and buries him.  To further prove that he is the greatest hunter in the world, Kraven takes on Spider-Man’s mask and hunts his latest enemy, Vermin, and defeats him in a brutal attack.  Two weeks later, Spidey wakes up (he was drugged, not killed) and has to dig his way out of his own grave. Kraven is no longer interested in him.  Vermin, however, is out for revenge following the beat-down Kraven gave him.

Click through to the Kirkus Reviews blog to read the full piece and see all my picks.

Here’s the trailer for the new Judge Dredd movie that 2000 AD co-creator John Wagner praised on his Facebook page, saying, “Dredd as it should be done.”  As for Karl Urban and Olivia Thirlby, Wagner had this to say, “Karl is a great Dredd and Olivia gets Anderson completely. This is Dredd as it should be done – true to character, visceral, unrelentingly violent (but not off-puttingly so).”

Visceral and violent?  Take a look at the trailer and let us know what you think in the comments…
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One of my favorite shows form the CartoonNetwork swath of DC inspired fare, was the Teen Titans.  It had a great mix of anime, humor and DC Comics to amuse.  Sadly, the show is gone, but those characters and the sense of whimsy the show displayed, lives on as part of the DC Nation Shorts on CartoonNetwork.

Here’s ‘Turning Back the Clock’, where we get to see the various incarnations of the Titans and their uniforms.

My next piece on the Kirkus Review Blog is on Elric: The Balance Lost Volume One.  Chris Roberson, author of Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, iZombie, and the new science fiction novel Further: Beyond the Threshold, and illustrator Francesco Biagini, pick up the tale of the 428th Emperor of Melniboné for a comic series from Boom! Studios.

Here’s an excerpt from the piece:

Talk to a fan of the sword and sorcery genre, and it won’t take long for the conversation to turn to Elric, the 428th Emperor of Melniboné. With alabaster skin, and wielding the soul-eating sword Stormbringer, Elric is the Eternal Champion, someone who is chosen to fight for the cosmic Balance. In Moorcock’s stories, Elric is one of many such Champions, who exist in every different version of reality throughout the multiverse. Each Champion must fight for the balance between Law and Chaos, two opposing forces locked in an eternal struggle for dominance. Should either side win, all would be lost.

Check out the full article over on the Kirkus Reviews blog.

Okay, there have been plenty of these DC Nation shorts during the Saturday morning block on CartoonNetwork, but this one really tickled me!  When he starts listing the ingredients in the sandwich (each one matching a letter in ‘SHAZAMwich’, I lol’d).

“..the chalky-ness of zinc…” Read the rest of this entry

In episode 131 of the Hugo Nominated SF Signal Podcast, Patrick Hester asks our irregulars to weigh in on: Female superheroes who deserve their own movies.
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Another short from the DC Nation block of Saturday morning programming – this time, Animal Man shows us how he fights crimes.  Against animals.
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If there is any superhero in the DC Nation who gets less love than Aquaman, it has to be Plastic Man.

Part of the DC Nation block on CartoonNetwork every Saturday (Currently showing Green Lantern & Young Justice: Invasion – both of which are well worth your time), we also get little Short Films – like this one, featuring Plastic Man.
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About a week ago, someone sent me an article which pointed out that, surprisingly, Disney had bought Marvel Comics for something like four billion dollars. This deal outraged some fans, irritated others, and gave great amusement to still more. Mostly, I couldn’t muster any ire. I’m a life-long comic book fan, and someone who extols the virtues and capabilities of the medium. Nevertheless, the news made a blip on my radar and then I got on with my day.

Then, yesterday afternoon, I saw a different article, which was that Warner Brothers were taking DC Comics and ‘re-branding’ it DC Entertainment.

Both articles — and the interview I’ve just linked to — are full of fairly sickening big-business gibberish talk. I mean, who really wants to grow up to “handle the strategic development of creative license opportunities’? Who talks like that? If someone talked to you in that fashion on the street, you’d call for the police and take them away for some sort of treatment. Electro-shock, for preference. But I digress.

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