Comics

Alright, so the first issue of Dynamite's multi-world zombie adventure, DIE! NAMITE, was pretty much living up to expectations. We've seen Vampirella and Red Sonja cross paths so many times, with so many variations, they're veritably sorority sisters. And while we didn't see Dejah Thoris, we did see the brief return of John Carter. But the first inkling that this had the potential to over-deliver came at the end when Red Sonja encountered the least likely character of all -- Evil Ernie's possessed happy-face button, Smiley. That made me sit up and take notice.

This second issue, however, pulls out all the stops, and brings in a lot of new characters that go in uniquely unexpected directions. We'll get to them in a minute.

Those loveable orphans from THE GOON get a one-shot adventure in time when a mysterious man from the future hires a time-traveling mercenary to retrieve an object from the past. At stake is the last of the Squeaky Air Breakers bicycles.

Guess who has one. That's right, the Unholy Bastards themselves, and they leave it behind when they run off to see old Mrs. McGreg having a deranged battle with the mailman. But they quickly follow after it when it gets stolen, leaping throug the open time warp and finding themselves in the prehistoric era before finally making their way to the future -- a future where the orphanage is run by Mrs. McGreg clones and the children are in need of a violent liberation.

Tom Sniegoski, steve Mannion, and Scott Brown collaborate on this moral parable, delivered by The Goon and Franky themselves. Expertly drawn and irreverently written, these rotten little kids will capture your heart -- and then put it in a jar and pee on it.

Don Diego de la Vega -- aristocratic playboy son of a wealthy aristocrat, in the infant days of La Reina de los Angeles, which would one day become the city of Los Angeles. In his daily life, he has access to information about the ruling class and their unfair, ruthless treatment of the peasantry. In secret, he adopts the costumed identity of El Zorro, "The Fox," to fight those abusing their power with his whip and his blade.

The impact of Zorro is felt across the entirety of the spectrum of the comic book industry, The Zorro movie has been made a seminal part of the Batman mythos itself, so influential it is.

BUTCHER QUEEN is set in a future seen through the eyes of Rutger Hauer sci-fi films. It's focus is on Syd Kiowa, a former police detective on the outs and on the run who has banded together with a rag-tag group of bounty hunters composed of a few aliens and a synthezoid cybernetic.

This latest issue from creators Jim Ousley and Ben Sawyer, PLANET OF THE DEAD, finds her and her crew being sought out by the Interdimensional Task Force for an assignment she is uniquely qualified for. The existence of multiple dimensions has been recently discovered, and one of those alternate Earths is looking to make colonization inroads to Syd's Earth. But the man behind it is the alternate-version of a criminal Syd has faced before when she was on the force.

There's a lot to unpack here, so get comfortable. You may want to order in, have a drink ready. Maybe even go pee first. But the tl'dr of this review is this: Cecil Castellucci sent Batgirl out on a self-centered, narcisisstic, self-aggrandizing, self-righteous, holier-than-thou, solipsistic whimper of a comic book that was less written than it was defecated.

So let's start with the first story of this terrible trio, "Little Wonders" with art from Emanuela Lupacchino with inks from Wade Von Grawbadger, Mick Gray, and Scott Hanna. As you can surmise, the art style is going to shift throughout this tale due to the amount of cooks in the kitchen. It shows as we go from scene to scene, following Barbara from the graveyard with her father, to the Batcave with the Bats, to the streets of Gotham that are in chaos.

Warning: This review will contain major spoilers for BATMAN: THREE JOKERS #3.

There's a part of me that wants to review BATMAN: THREE JOKERS based solely on the three issues of the series. That may sound odd to some, but you have to place the story in its original context: that it has been anticipated story for several years now, ever since writer Geoff Johns first dropped the hint when he was writing JUSTICE LEAGUE. But more on that in a little while.

Keres, Goddess of Death, hosts another GRIMM TALES OF TERROR anthology, just in time for Halloween. The horror anthology comic has long been a staple of the comic book industry -- playing a large role in what nearly killed it during the Wertham era, and then a regular go-to for twist-ending shorts from the likes of DC's HOUSE OF MYSTERY, Charlton's MIDNIGHT TALES, and PC's TWISTED TALES.

Blake has had enough, and is ready to call it quits. Not his relationship or his job -- Blake's ready to check out completely. Buy that farm, kick that bucket.

And it's not that he hasn't tried. He's tried. He's tried a lot. The problem is, he keeps getting back up, no matter method he employs to end his life. Nothing kills him -- even though it still hurts like hell. As the tagline says, "Suicide is the worst way to find out you're a superhero."

Anyone collecting comics in the 1990s will remember Youngblood as being one of the tentpoles of the Image Comics revolution, vaulting creator Rob Liefeld from stardom to super-stardom in the industry. With the entire philosophy of Image being one of creator ownership, it came as something of a surprise a few years ago when it was discovered Rob Liefeld no longer owned the team that had become so popular. That property, as well as another Liefeld property, Supreme, now belong to one Andrew Rev, a name once known in the comics industry for taken over the yoke of Comico and sending the comics publisher that had, once upon a time, rivalled Marvel in terms of units, into a nosedive.

Sixteen year old Mary Shelley carries a 197-year-old burden. She's the great, great, great, great, GREAT granddaughter of the original Mary Shelley -- you know, the lady who invented the science fiction genre with her story about a doctor who revives the dead? Right, that Mary Shelley, and that book. And ever since that fateful publication, the Shelley lineage has been populated with authors, including modern Mary's grandmother (recipes) and her mother, Tawny, who writes a mega-successful mystery series about a crime-solving sleuth, also named Tawny.

Mary is the one next in line, with the expectations that she, also, will find her voice and take up the pen. But there's a problem with that.

She doesn't want to. In fact, she doesn't know what it is exactly that she wants to do, but she knows it isn't that.

If you've seen any of my livestream rants on our YouTube channel, you know I regularly decry the loss of the "one and done" comic books, issues that contain a fully realized story--no continuations, no reference to extra-titular events. So, seeing as how Robert Venditti has complied with that in his delivery of "Death Trap," the story contained in JUSTICE LEAGUE ANNUAL #2, it behooves me to not only read it but to review it for others as well.

As soon as I saw the design for this first issue -- a zombified Red Sonya and the "how did they not think of this before" title, DIE!NAMITE, I knew -- absolutely knew, I say! -- that this was going to be a Johnny-come-to-lately knockoff of the inventive and entertaining DCEASED, a hanger-on for the fans of THE WALKING DEAD still pining the demise of that series. It was obvious -- obvious, I'm telling you! -- that they were going to give their licensed characters the zombie treatment, present them as a threat to surviving heroes, and wrap it all up in the five-issue allotment scheduled for the run. But, what the hell, it could be fun.

With an event as big as Joker War, spanning as many titles as it did, it's easy to slip in a few stories here and there, some shorts that just didn't fit into any of the established titles. That's where the one-shots come in, like BATMAN: THE JOKER WARZONE, telling stories that happened behind and between the scenes.

Having good writing skills benefits a student during his academic life. The skills remain just as significant, if not more, once you enter the job market. Reading comic books is a useful and exciting option for kids, as well as adults, to polish this skill. Here are some benefits of comic books.

Reading Comprehension

Between FLIGHT, COPPER, paperback cover illustrations of the Harry Potter books, and eight volumes of the best-selling graphic novel AMULET (with a ninth in the works), writer/artist Kazu Kibuishi is a role model for not excepting or expecting anything but success. His canny understanding of storytelling, as well as of where the market swings are in comic book culture, have made him an expert in the artform, capable of speaking on subjects from the most esoteric anime to your run-of-the-mill superhero arc.

Critical Blast is joined by UNSTITCHED creator Justin Dutton to spend an hour with Kibuishi discussing these aspects of the graphic novel industry, and what traits make for stories that stand the test of time -- and remain evergreen sellers in bookstores. Check the video below for all the details.

Sixty-five million years ago, dinosaurs disappeared from the face of the Earth.

Yesterday, four of them came back -- crash landing into the Mayberry-esque town of Riverside Junction in the same ship that took them away millennia ago.

The ten-dollar-comic is rapidly becoming a regular thing at the local comics shop. True, it's been reserved for these 80th aniversary specials, but as we continue marking that particuar milestone, we'll soon have overlap with 80th anniversaries of later characters and 85th anniversaries of the ones we just celebrated. So the bottom line is to get used to them.

Fortunately, with books like DETECTIVE #1027 -- this one celebrating the 1000th issue of the title since the introduction of Batman -- you get a collection of really good short stories featuring the world's greatest detective. Unfortunately, it doesn't lead off with them -- all the more surprising given the Bat-experience of the writers.

Eleanor isn't having an easy time of it lately. The new baby brother seems to constantly be taking more and more of mom and dad's time, taking away from her play time and her story time.

But Eleanor has a bigger problem,and she doesn't even know it. A dark and evil force has set his sights on her, and she's going to need a special defender, an experienced knight, to fight on her behalf to keep her safe.

Enter Muffins: Muffins is a T.E.D.D.Y. -- a Terrifically Effective Dreaming Defender. Yeah! Unfortunately, Muffins is not a fully-trained T.E.D.D.Y. but rather an over-eager rookie, who overheard there was a threat when he eavesdropped on his teacher speaking with the Dream King in Dreamland. Ready to prove he's got the stuffing of the greatest T.E.D.D.Y. ever, Muffins takes a shooting star to Earth and lands in Eleanor's bedroom.

BURBANK, CA (Sept. 18, 2020) – Calling all comic book fans to Explore the Multiverse! DC today announced the evolution of DC UNIVERSE into DC UNIVERSE INFINITE, a premium digital comic book service set to launch on January 21, 2021. With access to more than 24,000 comic books at launch, DC UNIVERSE INFINITE subscribers will also encounter digital-first comics, member access to DC fan events, as well as a steady stream of recently released comics six months after their physical versions hit store shelves. Following its initial launch, DC UNIVERSE INFINITE will begin expanding globally in SUMMER 2021.

I've been ambivalent about this whole "Joker War" going on in the BATMAN books. Tynion's run has been a welcome change of pace from the eternal misery of the previous eighty issues, and the premise of the arc has been a solid one. Basically, Joker has always known the identities of the Batman family, and has taken advantage of a long-planned heist that puts him in charge of the Wayne fortune -- as well as the company and real estate, giving him access to not just the money but the research and development areas -- that is, the weaponry of the Batcave.