More info about this video after the break.

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More info on what’s reviewed after the jump!
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More info on what’s reviewed after the jump!
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Alright, so here’s the deal. I attended the DC Nation panel at Chicago Comic-Con on Friday completely ready with my laptop to take notes and give you guys a great rundown of what DC announced at CCC and all of the spectacle that comes with these kinds of panels.

Except… I can’t do that. Because for some reason, DC decided that this year, they don’t want to talk about shit. I started off the panel taking notes of everything that was said, but about 10 minutes in, I realized that nothing was being said. All DC was giving us was a rundown of all the books that they are publishing. That’s it. So I stopped taking notes.

Now, I’m not here to rag on DC and say anything bad about them, but seriously, when  you come to a major comic book convention, you have to come with a least something to get people excited. I can’t say that Marvel really announced a lot of stuff at their panels, but at least they gave fans something, instead of just saying that you should buy their books.

And then, to make matters worse, the Q&A portion of the panel turned into the moderator bashing the fans asking questions because they were asking for spoilers. Yes, they may have been asking for hints at what was coming in the big DC storylines, but that’s no reason to bash them. And then other fans started to yell at each other for asking dumb questions.

Bottom line, this panel was a mess. It put a terrible taste in my mouth. I decided to skip the Sunday Conversation because of this panel and am not sure if I will ever attend another DC panel at a convention.

Secret Six #10

Secret Six #10 Cover

Written by Gail Simone
Art by Nicola Scott and Doug Hazlewood
Cover by Daniel LuVisi

After a couple of breather issues a new arc starts with issue 10 of a continually excellent series.  This issue brings a bit more darkness and serious tone to the series, yet still maintains tension breaking humor and continues to grow these characters individually and as a team.  Ms. Simone has written these characters in such a way that we start caring for them, we get invested in their lives.   Then she reminds us that they are amoral at best and they aren’t the “do-gooder” heroes that we normally read.

I’m excited to see where this arc takes us.  Character issues from the first arc are being addressed here. Character motivations, especially Deadshot’s, are being examined more closely.

Plus a new mystery around an old name surfaces.

In depth review spoilers abound

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DC’s big summer crossover for 2009 is here at last. Geoff Johns has teased this comic since 2007, since the end of The Sinestro Corps War, and appears to have laid the groundwork for it since 2004’s Green Lantern:  Rebirth. Issue #1 finally made it to the stands, as did the first issue of the Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps miniseries. So how were they?

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Short Pants No More!

For the past few years, the issues of Detective Comics written by Paul Dini were at the top of my “to read” pile the Wednesday they came out. Gritty, snarky, and new-reader friendly, Detective was everything that a comic book should be. As his run continued, he did have to accommodate the occasional editorially-mandated crossover (such as “The Resurrection of Ras Al Ghul”), but immediately returned to his previous “done in one” method of storytelling. During the “Batman R.I.P.” event, he had written the uncharacteristically long 5-part “Heart of Hush” arc, which I would have liked a lot more had it been two issues shorter and about anyone but Hush, a character that I have little to no interest in. Then the Bat-Titles took a break, in order to get back on schedule.
Anyway, despite shaking the Batman titles to their very foundation, DC decided to keep Dini and Grant Morrison around to write the adventures of the new Dynamic Duo. Can Dini get great stories out of Dick Grayson like he did out of Bruce Wayne?
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Oracle: Search for the Cure #1-3

Written: Kevin VanHook
Art: Don Kramer and Jay Leisten(1,2); Julian Lopez and Bit(3)

Issue 1

Cover: Guillem March

I’m not sure this is so much of a review as it is a rant.  The last issue of Birds of Prey saw Barbara Gordon leaving the team to take care of some personal business.  This personal business leads her to Gotham City and, conveniently, her part in The Battle for the Cowl.  Needless to say it seems that DC is also intent on taking a once brilliantly written character down a few notches, both in quality and characterization.  Only time will tell if the character will spiral further into cliche or once again rise to the status she once held.

If you are like me you’ve likely picked up a series or two not because they were great, but because you felt the need to have a complete collection.  I slogged through these issues because of that obsessive compulsive need and I’m here to try and talk you out of doing the same.  If you are curious about the story and want to pick it up: don’t.  If I can’t convince you to do that, at least try the following:

1.  Wait until the trade paperback.
2.  Let someone else buy it, read it, and then immediately take it back to sell used, probably swearing all the way.
3.  Pick up the copied used, after it has been reduced to a ridiculously low price and consigned to the ultra-bargain bin.

All told that if there is any justice in the world you should only have to wait a week for all of that to happen.

Slightly spoilerific review below

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Batman and Robin #1 cover

I’m not a DC fanatic. Not one bit. I read JSA a bit and I keep up with summaries of major events from what I read online or hear from Nick, but other than that I don’t know much about the DC Universe. Despite all that I did what many new comic fans do: I picked up a #1 of a comic, in particular Batman and Robin.

Without giving away spoilers of Final Crisis (which I assume most people already know) I had an inkling as to what this series was going to be about, but never did I think I would like let alone thoroughly enjoy this issue. I couldn’t name one thing about this issue that felt off, and I barely understood half of the references to characters in the issue. It could be Grant Morrison’s writing mixed with Frank Quitely’s art, but hot diggity damn this issue was good.

More after the break. (some spoilers)

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Faster than a Speeding Recap: Superman has moved to New Krypton to keep tabs on General Zod. He has been drafted into the Kryptonian Military and serves directly under Zod. Naturally, this is the kind of thing that the Green Lanterns of Space Sector 2814 would want to investigate. So here they are…

Let it be noted here that 3 June 2009 was a great day for comics. Aside from the comic I’m about to review, it also saw the release of Batman & Robin #1 (off to a great start), War of Kings #4 (some truly epic space opera), Mighty Avengers #25 (where Reed Richards & Henry Pym argue about whose… brain is bigger), and Secret Six #10 (Why aren’t you reading this title?!?).  Even in some lofty company, this comic is still my pick of the week.

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