adventures

Blue and Gold Finally

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This is a book I have been waiting for for somewhere between 10 and 700 years. Anyone who knows me knows that Booster Gold and Ted Kord are two of my favorite heroes in all of comics. And I say Ted Kord So no one gets confused with the other versions of the Blue Beetle(Even though for me there are no other versions).

I have been reading about Booster Gold’s adventures since Dan Jurgens first introduced him to us in the 80s. The fact that he is going to be writing this limited series just makes it all the more special.

But for me Booster and Ted really became Blue and Gold under the watchful eye of Keith Giffen and JM Dematteis. They gave us the goofballs we all know and love. Yes Booster is a self-centered, wannabe celebrity hero but the end of that line is important part. He is a hero and his heart is always in the right place even if he does screw things up. And Ted, both headed his best friend who gets dragged along in his crazy capers mainly because he would do anything for his friend.

It would not have mattered what they said the plot behind this limited series was. I was down from the word go. How they could have just told us that Ted and Booster were going to open up a superhero bar… Oh wait didn’t DC do that before. The point is these are characters that are worthy of some time in the spotlight.

Everything doesn’t have to be Batman. Everything doesn’t have to be serious. Sometimes you just need hears that you want to have some fun. And after the last year of the real world we could use that.

Blue & Gold #1 (of 8) by Dan Jurgens and Ryan Sook arrives on July 20 with a cover by Sook ($3.99) and a card stock variant cover by Dave Johnson ($4.99).

The High Road

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I often speak of taking the high road.

Of trying to be the better person.

When we feel we have been wronged it is so very easy to get down in the muck with those that have hurt us. After all if they can stoop to such depths why can’t I.

We all know what is right. And what is wrong.

And that is why we take the high road.

Why we don’t take short cuts. Why we try to set a good example for others.

We know better. That is all it takes.

I do not always reach this high standard I set for myself. And when I fail…I have my own ‘jiminy cricket’ yelling in my ear telling me so.

We can always bring the negative but it stains our souls just a little bit every day. Personally, I would rather bring some light, some joy to an ever darkening world.

So I take the high road.

Three Joker’s Thoughts

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The Criminal. The Comedian. The Clown.

Bruce. Barbara. Jason.

Three Joker’s meet three heroes.

Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok present us with The Three Jokers nearly 5 years after the concept was first introduced during the Darkseid War storyline in the Justice League book. Teases of it showed up here and there in the Batman books for DC Comics. By moving it to the Black Label line it is not shackled by that continuity of the regular comic books.

If you ask anyone I am not the biggest fan of the Joker. This is a character that is often overexposed to levels usually limited to Batman and Wolverine in today’s comics. Because of that sometimes alternate takes on him do not seem to fit together and want nice neat puzzle. By creating the concept of the Three Jokers, Johns nicely wrote a way out of this particular conundrum.

The art is wonderful. Jason Fabok’s work has been missing for far too long. He had really come into his own during the Darkseid War storyline. Which unfortunately seems like the last time we saw Fabok’s work. Besides depicting the current day story He also depicts scenes from the past most notably some of the more chilling scenes from The Killing Joke and Death in the Family.

This is one of Johns strengths-pulling from DC Comics history as a foundation for new stories. This is not simply a story of Batman versus the Joker. I would say in this first installment it is much more about Jason Todd and Barbara Gordon. Red Hood and Batgirl.

Of all the members of the Bat family they have suffered far worse than anyone else. And the Joker’s desire to make them suffer has little to do with either Jason or Barbara, it is all about hurting the Bat.

The best and probably most disturbing moment of this issue came when the Joker was reliving his beating to death of Jason Todd. Not only did Jason, just a kid then, beg for his life He also said he would do anything if the Joker would spare him.

He said he would be HIS Robin…

And in a way he has. Taking the moniker Red Hood(one of the Joker’s earliest aliases), at times becoming a criminal and then a merciless vigilante breaking Batman’s one rule. You could say that Jason’s change it since coming back from the dead may hurt Bruce even worse than his death.

This is just a first issue. There will be much more to unpack and I’m sure many more twists and turns before we come close to the finish. But it was a very good start.

And one that may even soften my personal stance on the Joker.

That in itself is a huge accomplishment.

There is no Safe

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We are in uncharted territory. You could not possibly write a narrative of the last six months and sell it to anyone. This year is simply been unbelievable.

Covid 19 is the pandemic that no one saw coming and the one we simply cannot seem to shake. The reality does not matter. People are scared. Some worry about their health and their family’s health. Others are far more concerned with their livelihood and slowly moving forward to some sense of normalcy.

The one word I hear over and over again during all of this is safe. People want to be safe. There were those that don’t think we should open up anything until it is safe.

There is no Safe.

Safe does not exist. It was not safe before and it will not be safe later. We simply did not notice. 38,000 people died in car accidents in 2019. Nearly 60,000 people died from the flu. That is not to make light of the Coronavirus death toll. That is to say it was not safe.

There is a new reality we have to accept. People die. Waiting for it to be quote/unquote safe before we live our lives is a flawed prospect.

Should we take precautions?

Absolutely.

Should we wear a mask right now?

Yes.

Do whatever you can to do to protect yourselves and others from catching the virus. If you are still fearful of it stay at home.

But wait for it to be safe. Remember I just told you that does not exist.

New Reality

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The Magic Kingdom has been closed for nearly a month. 

Bars, restaurants, parks…the entire world seems to have been shuttered for the foreseeable future.

My generation grew up with post-apocalyptic stories. Dawn of the Dead, Escape from New York, Planet of the Apes, Road Warrior. 

We never dreamed that we would be living in one of those tales.

Yes we don’t have spikes, chainsaws and flamethrowers coming out of our cars. There are no zombies wandering the streets(yet).  But it does feel like the end of the world.

At least the end of the world we knew.

We sit at home in our PJs binge watching Tiger King(what the hell?) the world has gone silent. Politicians fight over reopening society and others argue about social distancing or herd immunity. The real question is what will the world look like after.

There is not simple restart button. Fear has taken over much of society so how will that change us.

What happens to parks and bars and sporting events? 

What happens to simple greetings? Handshakes? Hugs?

Do we become a cold, detatched society? 

Are we now afraid of human contact now?

All from a virus. Not war or terrorism. Not some nuclear death from above. But from an illness most will not contract.

And that’s the end of the world.  

 

 

Not Your Father’s Legion

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6 years. It’s been over six years since we had a Legion series.

It’s been five years since they guest starred in Justice League United.

A long time for a book that has been more or less a constant since the 70s. There had been a couple of pieces of it coming back with appearances Justice League United and Saturn Girl showing up in Doomsday Clock. Truthfully I thought we were going to have to wait until the often delayed Doomsday Clock finished. Things change.

Brian Michael Bendis and Ryan Sook changed all that. On November sixth we saw the first of a new series of the Legion of Superheroes written by Bendis with art by Sook and colors by the fantastic Jordie Bellaire. As far as a creative team you could not ask for much more.

It is early but promising. The Legion is a tough nut to crack. So many characters, so much history. It is hard to know where to start. A chase through the remains of old Gotham is nice. Leading off with Ultra Boy is even better. Some things change, some stay the same.

We got to see some nice throwbacks to Legion history: A reimagined Mordru, a changed Earth(calling back to the destruction of Earth in the five years later era), a new Superboy and a new connection to modern day DC Comics with Aquaman’s trident.

There are several new threads to pull here. Possibilities abound.

Are there concerns as a long time Legion fan?

Of course. We have been burned so many times that we have grown cynical. But there is light in the darkness. Hope.

And at least for me that is what the Legion has always been about.

Avengers: Endgame- Old Business

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After a long wait this weekend Avengers: Endgame opens. It is the culmination of so so many movies that we have all enjoyed.

But before we get onto the new there is still some old business to be taken care of.

There there is a need for some to assess blame even when it comes to a movie like Avengers Infinity War. Let us be honest there is a lot of blame to go around but many want to lay all that blame squarely at the feet of Peter Quill(Star-Lord).

Let us put aside for a second the fact that most everyone who watched Avengers infinity war knew the movie was going to end with the snap. That was a narrative necessity, there was simply no way around it it’s just how we got to that point.

I could go in-depth how different actions by Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, Quill or even Thor could have changed the outcome. But to blame any one character for the ending that we were going to get to anyways is a little ludicrous.

Some argue that Star Lord’s behavior attacking Thanos was not what very heroic. That does not matter because what it was-was very human.

I do not understand why some want their big screen heroes to not act human. The ancient Greeks and Roman made a point of showing their gods to be very flawed and very human. That is part of the whole thing.

Yes Peter Quill did not did not do what we think we would want our heroes to do but that’s okay. It is understandable this is a man who as a child was kidnapped from his home, was raised by space pirates, who fought and scraped for what little he did have. This is a man who finally found some semblance of a family and and had it torn away.

This is how you act when these things happen. Star-Lord is still on a journey, on his heroes journey. He simply is not there yet.

There is still time for redemption for him and for all the other heroes.

But that is all for the old business. This weekend we get to see the new and I think it will be extraordinary.

Justice League Dark: Act II

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Once upon a time(or 2011) writer Peter Milligan and artist Mikel Janin teamed up to give us comic fans a wonderful gift. Justice League Dark. The team(don’t call them that) that was certainly not a team. Bringing together some of the more occultish characters in the DC Universe(with a healthy nod to the Vertigo imprint) it was one of the best surprises of the New52 era. Unfortunately it has been conspicuously absent from the otherwise wonderful ReBirth run.

That is no longer the case.

James Tynion IV(on words) and Alvaro Martinez(on art) debuted their version of Justice League Dark last week.

Spinning out of Dark Knights Metal and No Justice, we find Wonder Woman attempting to put together a team of magic/occult based heroes to combat new threats from that world. Magic is malfunctioning and Diana believes it will only get worse.

The set up works. As much as many look up to her the magic world sees her as an outsider. She may have been born of gods and magic but that does not mean she is one of them. Initially her only recruits are Detective Chimp and a decidedly more docile Man-Bat. Of course by the end of the first issue Swamp Thing and Zatanna have joined the fray.

The art by Martinez is clean and imaginative. Tynion seems to have a good handle on each characters voice. This book has so much potential.

I have a fondness for titles that play around the fringes of the comic universes. Added to the main cast you have potential appearances by John Constantine, Dr Fate, Etrigan/Jason Blood and many, many others.

It was a great start.

Things are about to get weird in here. Can’t wait.

Marvel Really Wants X-Men to Succeed

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(There is a reason I used a Russell Dauterman X-Men piece here…more on that later)

At at San Diego Comic-Con Marvel Comics released few pieces of X-Men news that should have gotten everyone’s attention.

As expected they officially announced X-Men Black. Rather than a new Black Ops team led by Magneto like many speculated about. We will be getting a series of one-shot books featuring the premier X-Men villains. Honestly it feels like Marvel wants to channel DC Comics New 52 villains month.

These books should build anticipation but anticipation for what.

Well we got the answer to that as well. In November, Marvel will be premiering a new Uncanny X-Men book.

Yes you heard that right. The granddaddy of them all, the first mutant book by Marvel Comics is coming back. No creative team has been announced but just the fact that the Uncanny X-Men is returning should be enough to whet the appetites of many fans.

Marvel has tried hard over the last few years to bring the X-Men back to the level they were when Chris Claremont and Jim Lee will working on the title.

From from the Astonishing X-Men to teams such as X-Men Blue, X-Men Gold and the more recent X-Men Red it has been clear that Marvel has not quite managed to hit the right formula.

The creative team for the next Uncanny title has not been announced but I do have speculation.

With Chris Claremont writing the Magneto X-Men Black issues it only makes sense to bring the greatest writer in mutant history back home. There may be other options but this just feels right.

If you have Clermont writing it then who should draw it. Are you bringing back a name from the past or something new.

Well it just so happens that Russell Dauterman, who did an incredible job the last few years on the Thor titles, has been without a book since he finished Jane Foster’s journey as Thor.

Told you there was a reason I chose that picture earlier.

Dauterman would be perhaps the best artist on X-Men since Jim Lee left for Image Comics. His art simply comes alive on the page. So let him bring the X-Men back from the dead.

Make it happen Marvel.

We will be watching.

DC Universe Presents: The Titans

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The first day of San Diego Comic-Con and DC Comics has hit the ground running with the first trailer for the new live-action Titans series. This is just the first of a slate of brand new programming for the DC Universe streaming service which it was announced will cost approximately $75 a year.

I thought they did I good job. Raven seeking out Dick Grayson is a nice callback to Marv Wolfman and George Perez’s run on the New Teen Titans in the 80s. That run is still considered one of the all time greats (not just for Titans but for comics period).

Brenton Thwaites makes a believable Dick Grayson-his anger at Batman may have been a little over the top. Raven as portrayed by Teagan Croft seems to have combined several of her previous versions into one. It works for me.

You only see glimpses of the other main characters but at the least they look the part.

It was just enough of a tease to leave me wanting more.