DC Changes

So Marvel isn't the only company that's going to be shuffling the deck this summer.  DC is going to cancel some books and start up some new ones.  Check out the full list here.  There are a few things to take note of:

                                                          

• It's not a reboot! - There were some clickbait headlines like 'DC says goodbye to New 52' on a lot of rumor sites.  As always, those sites are trash.  The New 52 continuity is still the existing timeline that the current books are existing in; the only thing changing is that the label 'New 52' won't be on the cover anymore. Which makes sense because after four years it's kinda dumb to call it new anymore.  But of course there are the New 52 haters who are hanging on to hope that DC will ditch the whole thing and go back to the way things were before Flashpoint.  Sorry guys, not happening.  And the further out we get from the Flashpoint changeover the less utility there is in going back, especially as the DC Film Universe begins to kick in and cement at least some of the changes on film. 

                                                      

• New solo series on deck - For the first time in DC Comics publication history, Cyborg and Starfire will be getting their own solo series.  Cyborg's series is going to be written by an African-American writer, David Walker, so that's a double whammy on the diversity front.  No doubt they're getting the character more exposure leading into his big screen debut as part of the Justice League and his own future solo film.  But all signs point toward this series being a keeper.  As for Starfire, this is also some new territory for the character.  Given that people are rightfully asking for new material and new opportunities for existing characters, this is another good step.  Starfire has slowly been promoted from a member of an ensemble to part of a trio to a solo act.  Of course, both series success will come down to the writing and whether or not people buy it.  Hopefully they will.

                                       

             

• Missing in action - One name that didn't make it to either the returning or cancelled series lists is Supergirl.  I haven't heard anything about the series being cancelled, but not seeing it on the continued list a cause for concern.  It's a good series, and the character has been given her own personality and purpose separate from just being Superman's cousin.  Seeing as how there's a TV series for her in the works, it's highly unlikely that her solo series is gone for good.  My guess is that it will be back, maybe starting over with a new number one issue.

We have until June for all of this to start, but from the looks of things it will be interesting.

X-Men Casting Questions, Part Deux

As you may have heard, there were three additions to the cast of the next X-Men film, Age of Apocalypse.  While Michael Fasbender, James MacAvoy and Jennnifer Lawrence will return as Magneto, Prof. Xavier, and Mystique, the roles of Jean Grey, Storm, and Cyclops are being filled with new faces. Grey will be played by Sophie Turner. Storm by Alexandra Shipp, and Cyclops by Tye Sheridan.  The casting of Storm has been met with the most consternation.  For one Shipp looks like this:




and is being cast to play Storm, who looks like this:



 Now the obvious logic here is that director Bryan Singer is going for a younger Halle Berry by casting Shipp, but that of course brings back the original disdain people had with Berry being cast originally.  Berry, of course, looks nothing like the character as she's drawn in the comic books.  The other problem a lot of people have is that Shipp isn't considered a good actress right now.  Her most recent role was starring in a universally panned biopic of the late pop star Aaliyah, in which her own performance was dumped on as much as the movie itself.  If you're a fan of Storm, which most people who are X-Men fans are, then this was an extra punch to the gut to go along with the one you got 15 years ago.  Do I understand?  Sure.  But........a few things:

• These movies are their own thing.  The famed Claremont/Byrne print run is not going to be represented on film, and neither is the 1990s cartoon series.  Those are probably the two most beloved runs for the X-Men in either medium, and barring some major changes we're not going to get those on the big screen.  (The irony of ironies of course is that the cartoon series took a boatload of liberties from the print material and yet there are people who love them both)  These movies are almost more like science fiction films that feature the X-Men characters than actual X-Men films.  Singer and company have chosen to go their own way.  Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.  If you've stuck with the movies this long, then you've probably accepted that.

• Storm, Cyclops, and Jean aren't going to factor into the story much.  The X-Men movies are four character shows and those characters are Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, and Wolverine.  That won't ben changing either seeing as how three of the four actors are big time A-listers now.  You can count on each movie focusing on the Xavier/Magneto relationship with a major plot thread for both Mystique and Wolverine.  Everyone else is a role player.  Now of course that's going to cause a disjointed story seeing as how Cyclops is the leader of the X-Men and all, but that's what they're going to do.  With that in mind it makes sense to not put much diligence into casting anyone outside the big four.  They'll probably have a few lines each and a bunch of special effects laden action scenes.  Whether or not that's a good or bad thing probably won't be known until we actually see the movie.

So why do they continue to take such big detours from either of the forms that fans would accept the most?  Well, that's pretty easy to explain.  Here it is:

                                                                $748,000,000

 

That's the worldwide gross of X-Men: Days of Future Past.  It also has an 8.1 rating on Imdb.com.  And that's following a $353 worldwide gross for X-Men: First Class.  So they doubled up from one movie to the next, which means that people like what they're doing so they're going to keep doing it.  It's no different than the Transformers films; they have a formula and it's working so they're going to ride it until it doesn't .  If you don't like what they're doing the only thing you can really do it tap out and stay away.  Your move.

 

Marvel Reboot Time!

The big news coming out of Marvel yesterday was that everything ends this Spring.  The 616 Universe, the Ultimate Universe, all the other alternate universes.....gone.  OK, actually merged together, not gone.  The Secret Wars event starting in a few months will be the culmination of the Time Runs Out arc running through the Avengers and New Avengers series, where worlds are being sacrificed in something called an Incursion in order to save the main earth in the 616 universe.  The final incursion will occur between the 616 Earth and the Ultimate Earth and then it's on to Secret Wars, where everyone that's going to exist afterward (and at least one or two token sacrificial lambs) will make it to Battleworld and duke it out.  For all intents and purposes this is Crisis on Infinite Marvel Earths.  When it's over, bad plot turns will have been erased by way of retcon, some of the cooler more recent characters will get a chance to shine in the new, singular Marvel Universe (I'm talking about you, Miles Morales and alternate world Gwen Stacy), and there will probably be at least one resurrection (prime candidates are the soon-to-be killed off Deadpool, Charles Xavier, and that guy they killed off last year....I think his name is Wolverine). 

The reaction I've seen so far is mixed.  Some are excited and ready for what the event could bring, but others are having a similar reaction to the one DC received from a lot of longtime readers when they launched the New 52.  Marvel has already been catching heat from readers and collectors over their annoying habit of making new number one issues for series that weren't even being cancelled, and now EVERYTHING could possibly start over with a new number one, save the handful of series that just started within the last few months.  Let me tell you, that sucks.  A lot of people who were close to fed up over the new number one issues situation are claiming that they're done with Marvel over this.  Marvel is likely gambling that the new start will bring in new readers similar to how the New 52 brought people like me in because there was a recent jumping in point.  With the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe there is a pool of thousands of potential new customers to reel in and there are characters whose existing series have grown in popularity because of the MCU (Black Widow, Guardians of the Galaxy) or are about to get an MCU close up (Ant-Man) and have the chance to catch fire with a new title. 

As someone who is more reader than collector, the only thing that ultimately matters is good stories.  There are a few things I hope do or do not happen, though.  I really hope they keep the tie-ins and crossovers to a minimum.  That's beyond wishful thinking, of course, but there are only so many books one can buy and read.  Second, I hope they don't undo all of the new developments that happened last year.  We all know that it's only a matter of time before Wolverine is alive again, Steve Rogers is Captain America again, and the hammer is back in the hands of Odin's son.  But seeing as how those things just changed late last year it would really suck for them to get undone in mere months time.  And lastly, let's hold off on the resurrections, ok?  We know Wolverine will be back either during this event or shortly after by way of something that happens during it.  But please, no bringing back Uncle Ben or Professor Xavier for that matter.  Those deaths are crucial parts of Marvel lore and would be stupid too undo now just because you can. 

All in all, this should be pretty damn interesting.  Even though I'm more of a DC guy, I will more than likely be checking this out.  Marvel has a really good chance to polish off their current continuity and kick off a new one in pretty spectacular fashion.  We'll see how it goes.

New Day for Star Wars

 

The pictures in this post are a few of the variant covers from the Star Wars comic series that Marvel kicked off last week.  And while the new movie doesn't drop until this December it's safe to say that the Star Wars phenomenon is back, alive, and well.  Judging by the first issue, the comic series will be a good one; Marvel employed one of their best storytellers in Jason Aaron to work on it so they're serious about making a good comic and not just something to capitalize off of their parent company (Disney) owning the source material.  So now the first two steps in the revival (the Rebels cartoon series and the comic) have come off well, and only the worst naysayers aren't waiting with bated breath for Episode VII to hit the theaters.  And we have one person to thank for all of this: the man who gave it to us 37 years ago, George Lucas.  Why him?  Because he did the only other thing he could for all of us Star Wars fanatics:  He got out.  That's right, I'm glad he got out and you should be too.  Because quite frankly, if the franchise was going to have any further life it had to be without him at the helm.  That may sound harsh but it's the truth.

I remember when Episode I came out in 1999.  I remember going to the theater, ready for the next chapter in the first series I loved as a child.  I left the theater underwhelmed.  Now I tried valiantly to defend it against all the people who unloaded their disgust on Lucas' work, but ove r time and after repeat viewings the awfulness of the dialogue, the acting, and Jar Jar Binks was no longer deniable.  Episode II had a better story, but the painful dialogue remained.  By the time Episode III rolled around I was just hoping for a decent ending to it all.  Thankfully, Episode III mostly delivered on the initial promise of the prequels.  With the end in sight and less need for backstory most of what made the first difficult to watch was kept to a minimum.  But I don't think it's a reach to say that there weren't a lot of people walking out of the theater after Episode III ended saying 'Bring on Episode VII! We need to see what happened after the Empire fell!'  After three movies with Lucas fully at the helm it was pretty clear what that meant.  Awesome special effects, great visuals, great action scenes, a good enough overall story, painful dialogue, and wooden acting.  The plusses enticed you but the minuses scared you away.

The next big project that came from Lucasfilm was the Clone Wars animated series.  It was excellent, and no doubt much of that was because Lucas was directly involved in the creative process.  The Clone Wars series was what we were hoping for from the prequels, and that was both a boon and a punch to the gut.  Even though I have the entire series I haven't watched it all because I really wish they could have done that instead of the films that we got.  Then a few years later the announcement came that Lucas was selling it all to Disney.  While some didn't like it I was ecstatic.  Disney is about good storytelling and using good storytelling to maximize their income.  I knew they were going to put good people on any future endeavors because that's the best way to make the most money.  Done right, Star Wars is a printing press even after the so so taste the prequels left in our mouths.  But it was clear that Lucas wasn't going to do it right.  He remains a master of visuals but has not business writing a script or directing a film.  Under his direction a star studded cast of Natalie Portman, Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Jimmy Smits sounded like they were reading off of cue cards with tips like "show some emotion here" written in parentheses before their lines.  And don't get me started on Hayden Christiansen's emo Anakin Skywalker.

Now after all the Lucas bashing let me say this.  I am eternally grateful to George Lucas for giving us Star Wars.  Going to the movie theater to see that on the big screen when I was all of three years old changed my life.  But I am equally grateful that he felt comfortable enough to hand things over so that some new stories can be told.  Lucas is a pioneer in special effects and  through his production company changed the way movies are made.  The things we take granted in science fiction/fantasy films today would not be there without his work.  Being a not so good director or script writer does not nullify all of that.  But it does mean that, at this point, the product is better without his involvement.  So bring on Episode VII, more comics, and more animation. The foundation that he laid is ready to be built on and taken to a new level. 

We're number one! (Again and again)

We have numbers in for the top selling issues of comic books for last year.  Marvvel dominated the top ten, and in from a character standpoint it was once again a Spider-Man/Batman year.  But there's something else that you hear about in chat rooms, Facebook rooms and the like that is driving a lot of reader and collectors nuts: the preponderance of number one issues.


  

By my rough count 29 of the top 100 were #1's of some kind (series starts/re-starts, first issues of special event series, or special one-shots), and 100 out of the top 500.  One-shots are no big deal, and new series starting are actually a good thing since it's bringing in some new material.  But the re-starts of existing series are nerve-wracking.  Marvel was the egregious here - in 2014 we got #1's from the following long established character and titles:

• Amazing Spider-Man
• Thor
• Spider-Woman
• Wolverine
• Hulk
• Daredevil
• Silver Surfer
• Fantastic Four
• The Punisher

I really hope this doesn't become a thing, but it looks like it will be.  DC re-started Suicide Squad and Teen Titans almost immediately after "series ending" issues.  Now in both cases there were new directions taken and new creative teams coming onboard, but they recently switched teams and tones on Batgirl and Green Arrow without starting over with new number one issues.  I just don't find it necessary to start all over with a new number one issue unless you're doing a full-on New 52 style reboot of everything.   Of course the real reason to do these new number one issues involves a different kind of number:  sales.

     

Like I said at the top, number one issues make up a major chunk of the top selling issues.  Whether it's a new series or the next chapter in an existing one, a number one issue always gets more attention and often sells well.  But if you're a serious collector it flat out sucks.  The one argument I'm sympathetic towards when it comes to people bashing the New 52 is that the long running legacy titles (Batman, Superman, Detective Comics, and Action Comics) could and should have been continued with their existing numbering.  Every time you start over with a new number one it devalues the previous number ones.  For collectors who put real time and effort into putting together a collection of a series it's a real deflater.  Unfortunately the only way to put an end to the practice is to stop buying these number ones, and as the sales numbers show that's not going to happen.

Changes, changes

Soooo.....on your left is the original Power Girl aka Kara Zor El from Earth 2, and on the right is Tanya Spears the new Power Girl.  The internet has been hot today over this, mostly because this week's slate of DC Comics has a last page feature about it.  But the seeds for the switch were planted last fall in World's Finest #23 when Tanya found out about her new abilities moments after Kara went home to Earth 2.  The range of reactions has been somewhat predictable; there are enthusiastic supporters who love the move along with the usual change haters who despise any alteration to any existing character.  The funny thing is that they didn't really change the character.  Kara Zor El is still the same person she's always been with the same blonde hair and ample cleavage, it's just that the moniker she used on Earth 1 is being used by a different person.  This isn't much different than Dick Grayson becoming Nightwing and Jason Todd taking over as Robin.  (Or Tim Drake taking over Todd, or Damian Wayne for Drake, etc).  And Power Girl is a third tier character at best.  She usually has some presence in some DC title but it's not like she's Wonder Woman or even Batgirl.  What she is, and has been for decades, is something else:  major eye candy.  Power Girl was one of a few characters that appear to made for the sole reason of appealing to horny dudes who read comic books.  She doesn't have the detective skills of Batgirl, she isn't the icon of female empowerment like Wonder Woman, and she isn't a sultry, sly manipulator like Catwoman.  She also isn't a super spy type like Black Widow.  She's been an easy on the eyes, super-powered woman with a fun personality.  And some folks are wed to that.

By contrast the new Power Girl is a teenage girl genius, which seems to suggest that there isn't much chance that she's be played up as any kind of gratuitous sex symbol.  Her costume is decidedly different; she wears pants and a jacket vs the skimpy one piece, leg baring outfit that Kara is known for.  And the Kara's infamous "boob window" will not be replicated on Tanya's suit, which makes sense for a teenage character.  This is definitely a nod to a segment of the comic reading audience that is ripe for more representation; more girls and women are reading comics, and that includes women of color.  So we're going to see more characters like Tanya and the new Ms. Marvel and fewer 'thirst trap' kind of depictions like what was done with Starfire when the New 52 kicked off.  Some people are not going to like that, but it's due.  When the original Power Girl was drawn up, the creators admitted later that they kept making her breasts bigger every month to see how long it would take for one of the bigwigs to notice and say something to them about it.  That kind of thinking flew in 1976, but not so much in 2015.  Ultimately, the character will succeed or fail on how well she's written; she's starting off with the Teen Titans but that could all change if she takes off, or if she nosedives.  But it's a cool first step in my book; it will be nice to have a new character that my daughter can look at and see herself.

Robin has risen

                               

(SPOLIER ALERT)

OK, so the Robin rises story arc has come to a close and Damian Wayne has returned from the grave to reclaim his position as the sidekick to his father Bruce.  It was a year and a half ago that Damian was taker out by one of Talia al Ghul's minions, sending Batman into somewhat of a spiral that was pretty bad even for him.  To pass the time between his death and return we got a series of team-ups between Bruce and several different members of the DC Universe.  First there was a "stages of grief" arc of sorts where Bruce paired with each member of the Bat Family (Red Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl, and then Nightwing with a Catwoman issue thrown in for good measure), then we got a run of Batman and Two-Face stories where the two adversaries found themselves on the same side for once.  Then it was back to another series of team-ups after Bruce paired up with Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and the Frankenstein in pursuit of Ra's al Ghul and Damian's body.  Finally, with Damian's body taken to Apokolips by Darkseid's subjects Bruce went in pursuit to retrieve and hopefully revive his dead son.  Which he did of course.  He is Batman after all.  So now Damian is indeed back, but like with a lot of comic book/fantasy series resurrections he came back different.  Instead of being a normal kid with exceptional intelligence and fighting skills, he now has super strength which adds a whole new dynamic to the story and the partnership with Bruce.  With this chapter wrapped up and a new one to begin, there are some questions ahead.

Was all this necessary?

I'm sure that's what a lot of people are thinking right now.  Damian was killed in Batman Incorporated #8 back in 2013, much to the chagrin of readers who'd finally gotten to like him a little.  And like most comic book deaths, the number question immediately afterward is whether or not they will stay dead.  Darn near every major character in both companies has either been killed or presumed dead at some point or another and they always find a way back to the land of the living.  We just went through a farewell to Wolverine that lasted several months and had tie-ins and crossover with what seemed like a zillion other titles, and no one really thinks he's going to stay dead.  Damian's passing didn't go anywhere near that far.  All of the Bat-related titles the following month had some kind of reflection on it, including a pretty riveting 'silent' issue of Batman and Robin.  Once that was done it was back to business as usual; Damian's death affected the storylines of the books he was involved in, but that was it.  Keeping it relatively low key like suggested that it just might stick.  That and the introduction of Harper Row, who was shaping up to be the sidekick in waiting, gave us enough to think that Damian would be gone for good but once Ra's al Ghul stole his body from the grave it was clear something was afoot.  So within a year and a half or so we got a death and resurrection of an important character.  Was it a good idea or a waste of time?

I say yes it was a good idea.  At the end of the day these are stories and as long as they are good we should be happy.  If you ask me they handled it right.  The death and immediate aftermath were pretty gripping, we got some good stories n between, and the return was insane, over the top, and really cool.  We got to see the full range of Bruce Wayne as a character, and seeing the whole crew back together to rally around bringing Damian home after they'd been at odds for over a year was good stuff.  We got to see the true devotion of Tim Drake, Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd, and Alfred to Bruce and each other and the lengths to which Bruce was willing to go to save his son.  This kind of year-plus long journey is why we read these stories in the first place.  And that they were able to do it within the regularly scheduled books with a minimum of money grab special issues (just two, Robin Rises: Omega and Robin Rises: Alpha) helps even more.  In essence, it was a major event series without all the Special Event bells and whistles, and we should applaud that.    And it was just good storytelling.  We got to see full on crazy Bruce 'I'm effing Batman and don't you forget it' Wayne, willing to face off with Darkseid of all people even if it killed, and a Batman arc that ended on a happier note for once with father and son back together to take on the bad guys.  The Dark Knight does deserve to win sometimes, after all.

So what comes next?

That's the real fun part isn't it?  Damian has powers now, so the entire  dynamic has changed.  Bruce referred to Damian's newfound abilities as a problem, even though they ultimately saved everyone's bacon.  But in Bruce's mind, Damian having powers is a problem because now it changes the one thing that control freak Bruce has over everyone else in his crew: they can't take him.  How Bruce deals with that variable will be a major point going forward.  Then there's the matter of Dick Grayson.  Right now Bruce is the only one who knows Dick is still alive.  Even Alfred believes that he died when Crime Syndicate took over the world during the Forever Evil storyline.  What's Bruce going to tell Damian when he asks about him?  Will he keep the lie going like he has with everyone else or he will tell his son the truth?  And when truth does eventually come out what's going to happen to the Bat family, including Damian?  And lastly, where in the current timeline will Damian's return fit in?  Right now there are several storylines going on without him, so where exactly they choose to drop him in will be very intriguing. We shall see.   I think there's going to be plenty of excitement  to come here.

End of the Year Stuff (Comics)

What was big in the comic book world this year?  Lots of stuff went down, some of which I actually stayed on top of.  I'm mainly a DC reader, although I do check out some Marvel stuff here and there.  Both major companies put out a lot of game changing (or attention grabbing, at least) material that generated a lot of commentary.  Here are the ones that stood out the most with me.

Best Event Series: Forever Evil.

Marvel had Original Sin, Death of Wolverine, and Axis going on this year and while I heard good things about both I chose Forever Evil for one reason: a good resolution.  The Original Sin conclusion left a lot of people saying 'is that it?' and the Death of Wolverine ended in a way that a lot of people I talked to thought was pretty lackluster.  Forever Evil, in my opinion, did not do so.  One thing that I look for in an event series is an extraordinary resolution.  After all, these series usually center around an antagonist that has overcome all the usual methods of opposition or a problem that is beyond the conventional methods of solution.  (Spoiler Alert) Forever Evil put Batman in a position of having to work with Lex Luthor and having Luthor, Sinestro, and Black Adam help save the day.  The Crime Syndicate didn't just get brushed aside in two panels on the last page the way Thanos got dealt with in Marvel's Infinity.  The event also shook up the Justice League and "killed off" Dick Grayson.  It made changes that are not going to be undone in time for the next movie or that will be bypassed in 2015 like Marvel is going to do with it's re-imagining of older storylines. 

Best Stunt - Sam Wilson as Captain America

Marvel closed out the year by starting up story arcs with major changes to Captain America and Thor.  Thor was replaced by a yet-unnamed woman after Odin's son lost his worthiness to wield Moljnor while Cap was replaced by longtime compadre Sam Wilson (the Falcon) when he was drained of his super soldier serum during a fight with the Iron Nail.  Both were seen by many as stunt re-castings that were designed to drum up interest and would be undone just in time for Avengers: Age of Ultron to hit the theaters with Rogers and Odin's son in their traditional roles.  Having read both series during these runs, I have to pick the Cap as the better of the two.  It moves a lot faster for my tastes and has been almost nonstop action, and has played up the differences between Sam and Steve in action as Cap without hitting us over the head with it.  I also looks like, given that we've only gotten two issues of Sam as Cap and three with Lady Thor that these will actually continue past May when Age of Ultron drops. Stunt casting always earns a collective groan from longtime readers/viewers, for good reason but so far this one has been done well. 

Quietest Demise - Ultimate Marvel



I wrote about this earlier this year, and it looks to be coming true.  Within a month or so, the only remaining Ultimate Marvel series will be the Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man book.  All-New Ultimates is ending in January and Ultimate Fantastic Four is ending soon as well.  Ultimate X-Men ended during the Cataclysm event and never returned once that was wrapped up.  The Ultimate Universe has become known for killing off characters in droves; by the time Cataclysm was over such stalwarts as Captain America and Thor and another well known character in the Vision were dead or presumed so.  A previous Ultimate Event series, Ultimatum, killed off damn near half the Ultimate Universes' X-Men including Wolverine and Magneto.  In the last five years it's been open season on Ultimate Marvel characters and the end result is slim pickings for any current books.  There have been stories on all the rumor sites about the Ultimate Universe ending next year, along with a cryptic poster from Marvel with all the living Ultimate Marvel characters with the words 'The End" emblazoned on it.  As far as I know the company hasn't made any official announcements so we'll see.  The Ultimate Universe was supposed to serve as an alternate, more modern version of the 616 Marvel Universe (from the standpoint of character origins at least) but as the 616 universe has come to look more like the film universe that's becoming less important, not to mention the difficulty of maintaining an entire alternate comic universe alongside the regular one without writing the same stories twice or going too far out in an effort to be different.  A lot of the things you see in the Marvel films from both Marvel and Sony are inspired by Ultimate Marvel stories, so if it does cease to exist the Ultimate world will live on for a little while at least in spirit. I'm guessing that Miles Morales will be brought permanently to the 616 world through some kind of space-time continuum chicanery soon and that will be the end of it all.

Best Twist: Lex Luthor, Justice League Member

The resolution and aftermath of Forever Evil saw none other than Lex Luthor cheered across the world as a hero.  Now this isn't the first time Luthor was held in high esteem by the world (he did get elected President in pre-New 52 world, after all) and it isn't the first time he worked alongside the usual good guys of the DC Universe but what's different I that now he's doing it as a full fledged member of the Justice League.  Now he's still the conniving snake that he's always been and the other league members don't believe he's had a real change of heart but it's been refreshing to see him around to poke jabs at the often self righteous and sanctimonious members of the league like Superman and to even top Batman I calling out the hypocrisy of the others.  Him telling Bruce Wayne that they're basically the same guy (which is true in a way) and Bruce's defiant reaction has been priceless.  The current story arc involving a virus that Luthor created when he was more villainous getting accidentally unleashed now that's on the good side has been a good illustration of the complex relationship that he has with Batman, Superman and the others and when the falling out inevitably happens and Luthor is back amongst the permanent rogues gallery it should be epic.

So those are the things that stood out for me the most.  Lots of other great stuff was offered from both companies from the conclusion of the Zero Year arc, Superman: Doomed, Red Daughter of Krypton, the Green Arrow Outsiders War, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy series, the aforementioned Ultimate Spider Man series, and New Avengers, just to name a few.  Hopefully 2015 will bring as much good stuff as 2014 did.  Speaking of which....

Big Story for 2015: Comic world, meets film world

There were a few seeds planted in 2014, but one thing to really watch out for in 2015 and beyond is the convergence between the comic and film universes among the two major companies.  In the past we got movie/TV characters being later introduced in the print world, like Harley Quinn.  But now the print series are undergoing some changes to make them fit more with the TV/movie world.  Marvel is changing the origin of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch so they are no longer Magneto's children; obviously this is because the Marvel Movie Universe does not include Magneto so their origin in Ultron will have to be explained some other way.  On the DC side, John Diggle and Felicity Smoak have been added to the Green Arrow series; the writers of Arrow have taken over as the creative team behind the book so what they're doing here is bringing some synergy between the two mediums.  The Marvel re-imaginings of several of their classic tory arcs will likely include some tweaks to line up more with the Cinematic Universe and as the DC Film Universe moves forward we'll probably see film versions of the classic characters that look a lot like their New 52 print counterparts.  This will likely be a polarizing move, especially on the Marvel side where classic stories and characters could be changed to fit the existing but still developing film world.  DC will have it a little different since their film world hasn't really unfolded yet, but the New 52-ish version of Superman and Wonder Woman that we are and may be getting will definitely have their detractors.  As with everything, we'll see how it goes. 

What I'm thankful for

Being that this weekend is Thanksgiving I figured I'd name a few things that I'm thankful for from the subjects I cover here.

TV

  

Good Superhero Shows - When I was little I watched reruns of the old Adam West Batman show, the Lynda Carter's Wonder Woman, and even some of the George Reeves Superman Show.  The only show that was running current episodes was the Lou Ferrigno Incredible Hulk show.  All of those were enjoyable programming for a young boy not yet 10 years old. Trying to watch them now fluctuates between amusing and painful.  West's Batman was not a serious show so you can live with that but the others were supposed to be and that just makes them worse now than they were then.  After those days other than a very short lived Flash series there wasn't much being offered.  There was Lois and Clark, which I didn't watch so I got no real opinion on, and then not much else until we got Smallville. Smallville ran for 10 seasons so it had a following and I won't bash them.  But after a season or two, I just couldn't stick with it.  And while that was going on there was a short lived Birds of Prey series that I really wanted to like but......in hindsight it wasn't very good.  Now that may sound like a lot, but mind mind you that this all happened over a span of 30 years.  Given the sheer number of series that come and go on broadcast television, that's a drop in the bucket.  So for there to be four quality superhero shows on now (Arrow, Flash, Agents of Shield, and Constantine) on now with more on the way (Supergirl, Marvel's Agent Carter miniseries, and a possible Teen Titans series on TNT) is huge and something we can't take for granted.

Movies

We went four for four on superhero movies this year - Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Amazing Spider Man 2, X-Men: Days of Future Past, and Guardians of the Galaxy.  There was also a lot of stuff that I didn't get around to seeing but was very successful - Godzilla, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  The Hobbit series wraps up this December as well.  Next year we get Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Fantastic Four (I'm not particularly optimistic about it but I'll still give it a chance), and we close out the year with a little movie called Star Wars - The Force Awakens.  With the Star Wars teaser trailer dropping today, the Internet may actually break. This is high tide to be a fan of these movies.  For the next five or six years we're going to get a plethora of goodness between the Marvel Studios films and the DC film Universe getting kicked into gear and Star Wars getting jumpstarted.  Don't listen to the naysayers and enjoy it all.

WWE

It's been a tough year for the WWE with major losses financially (largely due to the costs of the WWE Network they started up this year), injuries to key players like Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns, and departures from stars like CM Punk and major contributors like Alberto Del Rio.  But despite all that, the company has given us some great things.  When the fans turned on the originally planned Batista vs. Randy Orton WrestleMania main event, they listened and gave them what they wanted by inserting Bryan into the match and putting the belt on him.  When Bryan went down they smartly put the belt on John Cena as a placekeeper to set up a decisive win by Brock Lesnar at Summerslam.  And when all looked lost heading into Survivor Series they gave us Sting in a WWE ring to turn what would have been a forgettable night into one a lot of us will remember.  Hopefully, the injured players will be able to go again in 2015 and more people will sign up for the network.  The Network is awesome - there is no reason to skip out on it if you are a fan.  You get every current Pay Per View Event, along with access to the entire back catalog of WWE and WCW Pay Per View shows, and old shows from damn near every company that was relevant in the 80s and forward (with the obvious exception of TNA).  I highly recommend it for any fan out there, and hopefully it will turn profitable because it was a great addition in 2014.

Comics

There was lots of good stuff in the print world.  DC's Forever Evil event series wrapped up with a bang, Lex Luthor joined the Justice League, Future's End and Batman Eternal have entertained on a weekly basis and we got another great Superman event with Doomed.  On the Marvel side there was Death of Wolverine, Orignal Sin, and the Axis series.  Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider Man was excellent all year as were some other series that I don't read personally that scored high with those who do - Captain Marvel, Deadpool, Hawkeye, and Superior Spider Man.  As we end the year with new chapters of Captain America and Thor with Sam Wilson and an yet to be revealed lady taking on the titular roles in both books. Both major companies put out some really great work this year and I'm especially thankful for Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo's Batman, Gail Simone's Batgirl, Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow run and anything done by Geoff Johns.  On the Marvel side I'm thankful for the Guardians of the Galaxy series, Black Widow, and Storm.  All three have been great reads.

So yeah, a lot to be thankful for in 2014, with a lot more to come in 2015!

DC Movie Schedule Drop

Warner Bros released it's entire planned schedule for it's movies from the DC Comics Universe.  Here's what we got:

2016 •DAWN OF JUSTICE • SUICIDE SQUAD
2017 •WONDER WOMAN •JUSTICE LEAGUE
2018 •THE FLASH •AQUAMAN
2019 •JUSTICE LEAGUE 2 •SHAZAM

In addition there are no dates but plans for a Green Lantern Reboot and a Cyborg movie, probably in 2020.  So contrary to what a lot of people were thinking and spouting off about on the internet, DC did indeed have a plan they were cooking up.  What's intriguing here is that DC will be getting into the meat of their schedule as Marvel goes and finishes up Phase 3 with the big Avengers-Thanos throwdown in 2018.  By then the murmurs about Superhero fatigue you're getting now will be full throated roars, so having a new slate of characters and stories up and running can breath any necessary new life into the genre.  Holding off until 2016 to start things off also means that you won't have a situation where both companies run out of steam at the same time and we hit with a plethora of second rate films on both sides.  The order of releases is interesting also.  We get Dawn of Justice then an immediate changeup to the Suicide Squad.  That gives an opening to introduce ARGUS (DC's version of Shield, with a little less morals) and some of the DC villains.  Wonder Woman gets her big introduction, and then the Justice League's big bow follows.  Then we get the Flash and Aquaman movies to expand on whatever introduction we get to them in the first Justice League film followed another full feature for the whole team followed by Shazam.  And once that's all wrapped finished we get Green Lantern and Cyborg movies to flesh out those characters.  Holding off the Green Lantern film until later also allows them a chance to get a better Green Lantern in place so that no one will care about that debacle with Ryan Reynolds anymore.  There's still a lot of time (almost two years) before we get the first movie so there are a lot of questions to be answered between now and then.

• Will we reach peak whining fanboy? - It's only been a couple of days, and it's already been unbearable.  I've heard that DC took too long, that they're rushing things, that they're copying Marvel, that they're not copying Marvel enough (by not connecting the movies to the TV shows), and that the movies are gonna suck anyway (I swear DC has seemed to have cornered the market on pre-hate).  And then there's the crying about the casting choices.  They chose to cast a different actor to play the Flash than on the TV shows; that set a lot of people off even though many of them didn't like Grant Gustin being chosen to play him on TV until three weeks ago when the show debuted.  Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot have been panned as choices for Batman and Wonder Woman ad nauseum, as has Jesse Eisenberg as the pick to play Lex Luthor.  I'm getting real close to asking the White House to name a new national holiday, Smack a Fanboy Day.

• Will we get any major story adaptations? - Obviously doing something huge like Blackest Night or Crisis on Infinite Earths is too much to ask.  But will we get something like Tower of Babel (which was already adapted into the animated film Justice League: Doom), or the Justice League - Origin from the New 52 continuity (which was also turned into an animated movie, Justice League: War)?  Maybe.  The separate films slated for Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman could be based on one of the well known story arcs as well.  More than likely you'll get an adaptation in name only, where the title and some elements of a known arc are used but with an original story (like Captain America: Winter Soldier).

                                                           

 
 

• Who else are we getting? We know about the Justice League members, Lex Luthor, and the Suicide Squad.  But as these films continue who else from the extended DC Universe will we get to see?  When they get around to doing another Batman film I'd like to see the extended family (Nightwing, Red Robin, Red Hood, Batgirl) in action.  I'm hoping that Green Lantern will be John Stewart (or Simon Baz if they really want to get crazy with it) and not just Hal Jordan again.  What other bad guys will we get?  Ocean Master (for Aquaman), Cheetah (Wonder Woman), Sinestro (Green Lantern)?  Or could we get the Red Lanterns?  There's so much there to work with beyond Luthor and Darkseid.

 We got a year and a half to speculate and find thing out.  I'm looking forward to it.
 

Calm down with the 'Civil War' talk already, will you?

               
OK, so the news that Robert Downey, Jr. is set to play a big role in Captain America 3 got everybody running 90 miles an hour with the crazy talk.  With 30 seconds of the announcement, there were a million pieces being filed with the title "Civil War' in the title.  By the end of the day it seemed that a lot of people had settled on it being a done deal that Cap 3 would either set off or be totally about story based on the 'Civil War' Marvel series from about ten years ago.  You would think that there was an official studio announcement that yes, the subtitle of Cap 3 would be Civil War and that the story would be based on it.  But I sure as heck didn't see that anywhere.  Remember folks, until you get an official studio release anything you hear is a RUMOR and nothing else.  'Sources close to the studio' could be anyone from a top executive to the guy who wrote the piece.  Some of these websites do talk to people, but it's more often than not it's a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy.  They don't have Joss Whedon or Kevin Fiege answering their phone calls.  A lot of these stories are people projecting their desires onto anecdotal evidence and creating a narrative.  And these sites are wrong more than they're right.  Now, they very well could be doing a Civil War-type story but I doubt it.  Cap 3 comes out in 2016 and there are way too many things that would have to be set up in order to make it plausible.  Here's my short list:

• Need more people - Right now, we have the six Avengers (Cap, Stark, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Hulk, and Thor) and we're getting Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, and the Vision in the Avengers: Age of Ultron movie. And you can throw in War Machine/Iron Patriot and Falcon.  So that's eleven people. A Civil War story is going to need more people in order for the factions to have any weight to them.  Now there will be more available as the Netflix projects drop, but for a movie coming out in 2016 they don't have a whole lot of time to finish shooting.  

• A place to fit in - Marvel is building towards a big throwdown with Thanos for Avengers 3 in 2018.  Everything they've done has pointed that way.  How do you fit a Civil War story in there, deal with the fallout, and then get back to the Thanos story?  And when is Cap going to fit in time to find Bucky, which is what he was setting out to do at the end of Winter Soldier?  Assuming that he hasn't succeeded on that mission by the time Ultron comes out, that still has to be resolved doesn't it?  2015's slate of films is already set with Ultron and Ant-Man.  Yes, you could use season three of Agents of Shield as your runway, I guess.

• Spider Man? - Spidey is a huge part of Civil War in the comics.  He is the first to comply with the registration act and unmask himself, then goes to work for the establishment side before having a change of heart.  As you know, Marvel doesn't have movie rights to Spider-Man so unless the rumors are true about a sharing agreement being worked out there is no Spider-Man for the film.  Now you could use a character they do have to play that role in the story if need be, but that would kinda suck.

Of course what is very likely to happen is that the movie has the subtitle 'Civil War' and have an entirely different story.  That is, after all, what they did with Winter Soldier and are doing with Age of Ultron.  We'll see folks.  Until then, don't jump to any conclusions.

Big change for Batgirl

                                                      
                                                      

OK, so the new Batgirl comic dropped last week.  It's the first issue with the new creative team, and with the new team has come a change in the overall tone and setting of her story.  The 34 issue Gail Simone run was excellent and was loved by fans and critics alike; pretty much everybody was sad to see it come to an end.
Simone is one of the best comic writers out there and has written for Superman, Wonder Woman, and Deadpool before her work on Batgirl.  Anyone following her has tough shoes to fill, but doing it with a major change in the stories is an even bigger challenge.  The  Simone run was very dark in tone, as grim as many of the Batman story arcs that we've seen over the years.  That's probably what made it work for so many people.  The new team is lightening things up a lot.  In Simone's last issue Barbara Gordon found out the her brother James Jr. was not dead, thus exonerating her from his murder (in a fight between the two James went over a rail and seemingly vanished at sea; presumed dead, Batgirl was fingered as his killer and had to go underground).  Having dealt with that problem and one of her main enemies in Gotham, Knightfall, Barbara opts to leave the part of Gotham she's lived in all this time and move to a safer, more hip part of town.  The move across town is an obvious allusion for the move from one creative team to another.

So in issue 35, we find Barbara with new roomates, a new outlook on life, and a new start.  Instead of being haunted by the Joker, she's haunted by the news she gets about a drunken make out session she had with a guy the night before.  Her new roommates are much more fun loving than the environmental activist she shared an apartment with before.  The only throwback we get to the old days are when she meets up with Dinah Lance (Black Canary), who things are still frosty with after the last mission they went on together as the Birds of Prey.  By issues' end she's suited up again and gone into action, and gets a cryptic phone call from someone claiming that they know who she is.  Now a lot of people are upset over the change.  Batgirl was one of the best liked New 52 titles among the people who read it, and as we all know the number of people looking for a reason to whine about the New 52 are legion and looking for any reason to dish up some new complaints.  This is right up their alley.  Now forget that a lot of the complainers are the same people who didn't like them going back to Barbara as Batgirl in the first place when New 52 started; consistency is not a requirement to complain about comic books, after all.  People wanted their Batgirl to stay dark, dammit!  No time for happier stuff!

I've only read issue 35 once; I haven't given it my second reading where I usually soak in all the nuance and detail.  I enjoyed Simone's run on the book, but I'm perfectly fine with them changing things up.  The Simone run got a little too melancholy for my tastes at times.  It's understandable that Bruce Wayne has a life that always goes to pot just as it starts to get better.  Dick Grayson went through a lot of that in the Nightwing series, too.  But somebody in the Bat family needs to live it up a little.  Jason Todd is nuts, and Tim Drake is all responsible as the Teen Titans leader.  That leaves Barbara; seeing as how she's the one with the closest to a normal life of the crew it makes sense to lighten her story up a little for a spell.  No murdered parents and no death at the hands of the Joker followed by a dip in a Lazarus Pit. Yes, she has a psychotic brother and yes she did get shot and paralyzed by the Joker, but she recovered from all that.  She can have some fun in her story without it turning into a death wish for those around her.

We'll see what happens over the next few months.  If you've been reading it, I advise you to continue.  Don't drop the book because it switched up some.  After 34 issues, maybe it was time to do so even if things were going strong.  The books are for enjoyment after all.