BatWondy! Have a date!

Yeah a real date!  JLA 90:

Fun fact: At first glance both the boyfriend and myself assumed that was Superman's arm.

News on how the date went to come later..

Happy Imbolc :)

Have a good day everyone :)

BatWondy! Tries to be grown up!

Well, Diana at least tries to be a grown up. Batman, well, he doesn't like intimacy.

From JLA #76:

A few issues later, Diana tries to organise a date.  You can see how well this went:

In JLA issue 80:

Dude.  You don't stand up Diana.  Fool.

Batwondy! Strikes again!

Check out this gorgeous flirtation scene:

From JLA 61.  The sexual tension, it is palpable.  And entirely understandable, because who wouldn't love Wonder Woman?  Now Batman, he's only likeable when softened up by someone else.  Like Wonder Woman.  He needs someone who won't take his shit, who doesn't hero worship him, who knows him and who he respects.  This is why Selina and Diana are both perfect matches for him.  Well Diana's better, obviously.

And then there's this from JLA 70:

This is where it all came to a head:

From The Obsidian Age storyline, which ran from JLA 66 to 78.

Aww, aren't they lovely together?  I shall leave you to dwell on that, and tomorrow we will see the aftermath.

BatWondy!

I could definitely tolerate seeing more Batman if the scenes were like this one from #66:

And then there's this, but I'm not sure which issue I got it from now.  Batman has just done his disappearing trick:

Usually I'd say that Di's comment is sarcastic, but maybe it's filled with love instead?
Of course, he doesn't really appreciate this, and responds to her possible love and protection with sarcasm:

Again, I'm not sure of the issue number.  And then, I can read so much into this bottom panel too:

I love projecting onto my comics.  More coming later!

Bruce and Diana....

Girls Gone Geek have been doing a 12 days of BatWondy series, which I urge you to check out and this has prompted me to look at Bruce and Diana's near fling in JLA vol3.

To whet the appetite, I present you with this:

From JLA number 76, Diana uses Bruce as a baseball bat.  Because who wouldn't.

A more serious look at their potential relationship to come along soon..

Webcomic linky time!

I'm getting slack with real posts again.  Forgive me and please take a gander at these here links, which are my pitiful attempt at today's blog:

What's normal anyway?  - a new webcomic about being trans male.  Only a few strips in so far, but it looks interesting and the art is sweet, if a little amateurish.  I'm sure it will improve over time.

Reynard City - I've been threatening to blog about this for ages.  I discovered it via twitter (@reynardcity since you ask) and from my initial browsings it looks to be about superhero foxes who come to earth.  It's written by folks from my city, and as Norwich doesn't get enough credit for being a creative, artistic city, I feel duty bound to promote things from here.  We aint all farmer hicks you know.

Comics are put up regularly in pdf format and it looks inventive and fun.  They are also looking to get funding to make it into a TV show and seem a pretty ambitious lot.  The comic itself is done by a range of artists, some better than others.  On the whole, the art could do with more nuance but I guess that will come over time.  Check it out.

Moving away from the webcomic side of things:

Before Christmas, Girls Gone Geek did a series of posts on a Batman/Wonder Woman pairing.  It was great.  It has inspired me to collect other BatWondy pairings and I have them all saved waiting to be posted.  Some time soon.  Or tomorrow.

Fuck Yeah Nerdy Nails - oh ye gods I love stuff like this.  The adorable @smash_is_nerdy from twitter is one of the moderators of this tumblr.  Please go look at it!

Fuck Yeah Gotham Slash - Does posts of Gotham slash.  Wonderful.  There's lots of BoP and DinahxBabs stuff on at the moment.

A note to my fellow citizens

Dear motorists and pedestrians of Norwich,

When you are going about your daily travels in this fine city of ours, I would be ever so grateful if you could look around you.  I am the one on the biccyle, with lights, helmet and a flourescent jacket over my rucksack, making me resembling a turtle.  I am not hard to miss and I am quite comical in appearence.

Despite the hilarity of my dress upon said bycycle, I do not wish to be knocked down by a car, bus, coach, minivan or lorry.  I also do not wish to run a pedestrian over.  All you have to do to avoid this is use your mirrors (if you are in a vehicle), or look both ways before crossing the street (if you are a pedestrian).

This simple and effective strategy will prevent raised blood pressure, shock, a certain amount of blue air, my brakes and my sanity.

I thank you kindly for you reading this.

Yours, in fear of her life.

Because of Steve, I bring you tastelessness

Following on from this post about that disastrous Black Adam mini, I bring you scans of Adam doing interesting things with a yeti's insides.

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

And then I bought Gail Simone's books

Which is Secret Six, Birds of Prey and also Action Comics 896.  Ok, so Action isn't really Gail's, but it does have Secret Six in it.

I'm glad I bought Action, otherwise Secret Six 29 would have made no sense.  And when you have an issue which narrated by Ragdoll who thinks he's an angel in heaven, you'd really like to know the backstory.

Action Comics was Lex vs Ra's with the Six in the way.  The art is adorable, Lex is sneaky, there's something about a prophecy and I sort of want to pick this up now but I shall hold off till Superman comes back to it.  Hopefully with a heroic and admirable personality.

The Jimmy Olsen back up was very surprisingly good.  Chloe Sullivan from Smallville features and had a wonderfully Chloe line - you're kinda unintentionally cute when you're ineffectually jealous Jimmy Olsen.  Have I mentioned how badass Chloe has got in SV season 9?  She's badass.

Birds of Prey had possibly my favourite line of the week.  Batman turns up to help out the Birds (under Oracle's permission, not just because he decided to), and Dinah comments:

"But Damn it;s good to see him back.  And not just because he makes a bigger target."

OH DINAH I LUFF YOU!

Dawn continues to be cute and vomity.  I didn't know that was possible, but apparently when i can't smell the vomit it is possible.

Wonder Girl one shot and Superman 707

Nicola Scott gives Cassie a really wide face.  Almost aquiline.  I like it, but it's always surprising to see it.  More surprising is that Scott isn't the inside artist.  Some pencils seem a bit off but the colouring on this si great.

Even more surprising is that this isn't a bad issue, at all.  After seeing the previews - basically of Cassie's mum being horrible to her - I expected the worst.  But I like Cass, so I bought it anyway.

It turned out to introduce a new heroine - Solstice, who's an Indian girl clad in sunlight and gold clothing, whose parents know she is a superhero.  I want to read more about Solstice.  The issue ended with Cass and her mother hugging, which was pretty adorable.

I don't think this issue will change anything, it didn't reveal anything major (as I don't expect DC to do much with Solstice, although I fervently wish they do), it didn't explain or link to the Wonder Woman but it turned out to be good enough.

As for Superman, this title was not as dull as earlier ones, but not as good as last the issue.  First there lots (and I mean lots) of exposition.  Then Superman fails to be Super in any way and is actually rather rubbish, then he's mean to Lois.  Then we find out he's being mind controlled, then the Superman Squad turn up.

I can't help noticing there's a lot not-white characters being introduced this week.  Are DC paying attention?  Are they making their books more diverse?  I hope so, because the Superman Squad is the only bit of this book I'm really interested in.  Well, that and the ass whupping Lois is going to give Clark when he gets his mind back.

Thinky thoughts about lovely comics

New comics day is now a Wednesday for the UK, yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!  However I am probably not going to manage to get in to the shop on a Wednesday lunchbreak, so i'll still be picking them up on a Saturday.  Still, it's nice to know I've got the option if I so want.

Right, I am very aware that I haven't reviewed the weekly floppies for aaages.  The thing is, December happened and I only had about 3 spare night during the whole month so this sort of dedicated reviewing got pushed aside.  Then I found I was forgetting what happened in the previous month's issues, so now I reckon some reviewing would do me and my little old memory some good.

Aren't these special covers just wonderful?  I mean I bought the Green Lantern Emerald Warriors books just for the special ragey logo.  I still have a beef with the Supergirl logo being pink (grrr) but all the others are simply fabulous.

I'm not sure what book was my favourite last week.  It might have been Batgirl 17.  Steph teams up with Damian, but not really because he's a moody ten year old and takes after dear old Dad, but anyway, Steph discovers that Damian doesn't know how to have fun.  So she takes him to a bouncy castle and jumps up and down in it with him.  This is adorable.

In other Robin news, Damian describes Alfred as an adeqaute servant, and that his culinary skills leave much to be desired.  Damian also likes to hang upside in his room.  For fun and profit.  (Maybe).

The kid is devilspawn, I'm telling you.

Then I found out Bryan Q Miller who does Batgirl also writes for Smallville.  I recently bought the box set and am now up to the JSA episode of season 9.  I think Mr Miller's involvement with Smallville makes him 300 x more awesome.

Speaking of the Batclan, Red Robin was also a lot of fun.  Robin and Tamara Fox find themselves  in the Unternet and their choice of costume is really quite interesting.  I've no blinking idea how they got into the Unternet (or even what it is, which demsontrates why I need to review my comics).  When the other heroes turn up they also look different - Bart is in a Flash costume, Kara is a silver age Supergirl dress, Cassie (Wonder Girl) looks divine, and Cass Cain is in a Batsuit.  Kon is in a blue Supersuit with yellow arm bands, M'gan M'orzz has a white sleeve suit on, Aqualad is in a variation on Arthur's classic getup, and Jamie Reyes, Garth and Raven look pretty much the same.

It's a gorgeous splash page.  Kara and Cassie (Sandsmark) look especially great.  Kara looks so determined and sure of herself, and like she's having fun.  Cass looks like a modern goddess.

Hurrah for Norwich Theatre Royal!

Last week I was looking for interpreted (into BSL) performances at my local theatre - Norwich Theatre Royal.  I knew they had interpreted performances, I've seen some before and as I'm gearing up to do my level 3 I thought I'd go see some shows and gaze in awe at the fluent, accomplished terps they use.

I went to the What's On page, as you do, and expected to have to scroll through each show to find which ones had signed performances.  How tedious.  Then I noticed they had a listing for Audio described dates.

A-ha!  They are disability aware, there will also be a hyperlink to the signed shows!  There wasn't  Oh dear.  So I emailed them asking for a list of signed shows and asking why they didn't have a list on their website (seeing as they had gone to the bother of the listing the audio described dates).

This was at 11.41 am on 13th January.  At 14.19pm the same day I got an email back, giving me info about the signed shows (including the names of the interpreters) and saying:

"I am sorry there isn't a separate list on the website, and I will ask our Data & Online Manager if this can be arranged"

On 17th January at 13.33 I got another email saying:

"I have updated the website too, and will endeavour to do so for future signed events"

Wow.  They fixed it almost immediately (well, in 4 days, that's immediate enough for me).  You can see the hyperlink on the website here.

Congrats Norwich Theatre Royal!  I am incredibly impressed with the theatre and stunned that they took my query seriously and then did something about it.

Now I have tickets to see Yes Prime Minister (signed), and am thinking about another 2 or 3 shows!

JLA - Pain of the Gods

In my recenbt marathon run of JLA v3 I read Pain of the Gods.  As it's a self contained story and I enjoyed it I thought it would be perfect for New readers....  Upon rereading it prior to writing the review I changed my mind.

Whilst it is a good story it's also quite heavy handed.  Each hero comes face to face with death - either their own or a person they failed to save.  The story is about how they cope with the threat of mortality and how they support each other.  A lot of the dialogue, especially in the group scenes, reads like group therapy.  It's almost like Chuck Austen wanted to write a story about loss and had to fit the JLA into that story.  I'm not convinced that that's the best way to approach storytelling.

There's also the situations that they find themselves in - Green Lantern interrupts a couple of Domestic Violence incidents but one woman is knifed.  J'onn J'onzz does his undercover detective thing and confronts a cheating husband, who then threatens to murder his wife.  Violence against women to prove a moral point coupled with casual sexism makes me yawn.

Then I thought about the title some more - 'Pain of the Gods' is very grandiose and dramatic.  It seems a wee bit self important, like the genre is taking itself way too seriously.

Then again, some scenes are well done and the art is great.  Have a gander:

 

OK, one of those panels might be more scary than great and another one might be a reference to a Superman movie, which might be why I like it so much.

Despite the problems with some dialogue in this trade on the whole it is a enjoyable, but I think you need to be a dyed in the wool JLA fan to really like it.  It's by fans, for fans.  If it was produced differently, with the emphasis less on corny group support this would be far more accessible to new fans.  Which is a pity, cos I'd love to recommend the book for it's art.

Has anyone else read this?  Did you like it?

Black Adam: The Dark Age

Massive spoilers ahead.
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Who decided this mini was a good direction for Black Adam?  I really liked him, Isis and Osiris in 52.  he was a sympathetic character and they had an interesting dynamic.

And now, now..now Black Adam is a cannibal.  He's got Isis' bones.  He's going to find a Lazarus Pit to resurrect her.  He has no food, so his faithful servant/follower insists on being Adam's dinner.

I am not kidding.

What, Adam being responsible for genocide wasn't dark enough for you?  You had to have him tucking into a human leg?

And then... Isis is resurrected, completely sane (what's her secret? Everyone else is driven mad by the Lazarus pit).  Then she falls to rotting pieces.  Adam somehow fetches her bones out of the pit (HOW???), leaves, meets a yeti, stabs it and uses its still living guts as a rope, so that he can recover his bag filled with his wife's bones, which he has carelessly dropped down the cliffside.

If you would like to see scans of this delightful scene, please leave a comment and I will post the scans for you.  They're incredibly tasteless.  This whole mini is incredibly tasteless!


By the way, this sentence at the top of the word balloon is one of the worst I have read in a long time:

Where's the punctuation?

As for Adam's magic word, it turns out to be a phrase.  Chocolate Egg Cream.  It's a dessert.  That's ridiculous.  It's less ridiculous than the one he gets hampered with in Countdown (which I haven't read yet, so I don't know why Adam gets a new word).  Why on earth would you just give him one word though?  All he would need to do is read the dictionary aloud till he got the right one.  Sheesh.

Peter J Tomasi wrote this.  I thought he had a good reputation?  What gives?  The art is by Doug Mahnke and is also pretty terrible.

Superman/Shazam: First Thunder

Spoilers ahead



OK, first of all, how did this get through what is essentially an all ages book?

Secondly, the ending for First Thunder made me tear up.  I won't post it all, instead here is one page that contributed towards the emotional state:

Judd Winick gets Superman.  This book is great.  Go read my review of it here.

Mr Manhunter

You appear to be having a moment of stupidity. Go away and think about what you've just said.


From JLA 63, the Golden Perfect story arc.  A fabulous arc by the way.

Don't mess with Mary Marvel

Whether she's in costume or out.

 

Yeah, I love her.

From Power of Shazam   #30.

This should happen more often

I forget which JLA issue this from.  Possibly from one just after the Obsidian age.  Any help?

Oh do go away

Also from the Golden Perfect story arc, this time it's JLA issue 64.

This was the only reference to sexism made in this story, sexism didn't seem to be part of Jarhanpur's culture so it seemed like this was thrown in to a) rile up Wonder Woman, b) set him against the heroes, and c) show how much of a bad guy he is.   A hint - decrying sexism within your comics is most effective when you decry all sexism, and not just when it suits you.

I'm guessing that Jarhanpur is meant to either in the Middle East, or in Asia somewhere.  It's not entirely clear what country it is modelled on.  Which is part of the problem.  America gets to be defined as America,  Britain and Western Europe get fairly distinct identities, but as soon as you get past the old iron curtain, or head into territories not dominated by white folk, superhero comics seem to put each culture and society into one giant melting pot and you end up with generic ex Communist country or generic non white country.  Characters become caricatures and the creators seem to have done absolutely no research on said country.

It's depressing and more than a little racist.  Because hey, they are all the same over there.  Not like us.  And their evilness can be shown in just a few offhand statements that us in the enlightened West would never ever think, no sirree.

Bah.