Triple Shot: BATMAN #21, THE BLACK BEETLE: NO WAY OUT #4, ARTIFACTS #28 at FORCES OF GEEK

Can Scott Snyder retell the origin of Batman all the while respecting the past?  Has Black Beetle put together the pieces of Labyrinto’s dangerous puzzle?  What is the fate of The Glacier Stone?

We just barely answer any of these questions in this week’s Triple Shot! Light week!

BATMAN #21
WRITER: Scott Snyder
PENCILS: Greg Capullo
INKS: Danny Miki
Publication Date: June 13, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: DC Comics
UPC: 6194130640702111
Buy it HERE

Sure, it is Superman week with Man of Steel opening in theaters, and also this Snyder (Scott) writing the new Superman title, Superman: Unchained.

There’s no reason for us not to go back to Wayne Manor for the origin of The Batman in Batman #21. This embossed cover comic is the first in the ‘Zero Year’ storyline—one meant to replace Batman: Year One in The New 52 parlance.


Fans of the Batman Begins will recognize a beat or two, from Bruce Wayne being away from Alfred for a period of time, but this story is all new, all different.

We’re introduced to Bruce’s Uncle Philip (Martha’s Brother) who is running Wayne Enterprises. Also, we get an origin of the giant penny, shining in copper glory in front of Wayne Tower. We get introduced to the Batcave, Riddler, and The Red Hood Gang as well.

Intriguing story here so far but something is missing. I love seeing tales of Bruce Wayne training to become Batman, and let there be a million of them, please! Denny O’Neil and Edward Hannigan’s Shaman delivers an awesome origin of the Batcave from Legends of the Dark Knight, set just before Miller’s Year One.

We’ll see how this susses out, Snyder sneaks in tropes of the Batman lore in interesting ways, but he only has one shot at telling the origin of Batman in The New 52. Trying to top the 26 year oldYear One could be daunting, Batman fans have held on to that story very tightly. Snyder’s modernizations and imaginings of the Lucius Fox tech are already super cool here in issue #21.

THE BLACK BEETLE: NO WAY OUT #4 (of 4)
WRITER / ARTIST: Francesco Francavilla
Publication Date: June 13, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
UPC: 
76156822686700411
Buy it HERE

The first miniseries of Francesco Francavilla’s The Black Beetle, which sold out of initial copies, concludes this week. The slick pulp detective superhero book will be collected in hardcover in the fall for a beautiful collected edition.

Francavilla’s Eisner Award winning art coupled with his love for the noir pulp drama gives us a book based on a character that’s both familiar and unique. You might assume this is a reboot or an old hero, but The Black Beetle who serves Colt City is an entirely original creation.

In this fourth issue, we discover the secret of his nemesis Labyrinto and the mysterious mob murders. A deep seeded revenge tale leads the cool looking Labyrinto to unspeakable deeds against friends and family, but The Black Beetle is hot on his trail, and has been for a while. 

The Black Beetle will return, also in the fall for the start of a new arc, Necrologue. Francavilla is on to a hit with this Dark Horse series, we will be returning for more.

ARTIFACTS #28
WRITER: Ron Marz
ART: Marco Turini
COLOR: Bill Farmer
Publication Date: June 13, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Image Comics
UPC: 70985300779102811
Buy it HERE

The 13 Artifacts of the Witchblade / The Darkness universe are being sought in the latest Ron Marz comic.

Defrocked priest and wielder of the Rapture Tom Judge along with The Magdalena and thief Michael Finnegan descend upon a mansion Norway, each hoping to get their hands on The Glacier Stone.  A terrifying demon has been summoned to protect the stone and the three team up to scare the powerful demon into the woods after a drawn out fight scene in the mansion.

The speechless demon baits Magdalena onto some ice, where she ends up single-handedly slaying the demon with her Spear of Destiny. The Glacier Stone is lost to the depths of the ice to be found, presumably after the the spring season hits.

As a comic book fan, I couldn’t have been less prepared for picking up a Witchblade title randomly from the shelf! My unfamiliarity with the book, and clean slate with the characters gave me a good perspective. Ron Marz can write an action packed comic and Turini is great at drawing the two major fight scenes as well. I enjoyed the supernatural elements that reminded me ofHellblazer, and thought the character design of the demon was quite spooky. 

This was a solid comic that I didn’t feel I needed a tutorial on Witchblade mythos to enjoy. Next month’s arc starts off the brand new ‘Geometry of Hell’ storyline.

[READ MORE at FORCES OF GEEK]

DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for June 12, 2013

 




COMICS

It’s Superman week. Man of Steel hits theaters. Will fans be disappointed (Superman Returns) or is this the start of a beautiful friendship (Batman Begins)? May as well hit you over the head with the big two DC heroes in the picks this week. …Superman Unchained drawn by co-publisher Jim Lee and written by our man Scott Snyder. … Where do you go when the Year One story has been set in stone? Head backwards for another Scott Snyder book starring the shadow to Superman’s cape in Batman #21 - Zero Year. … Black Beetle #4 of 4 concludes this week as Colt City’s noir vigilante takes on Labyrinto. We hope to see more of Francesco Francavilla’s best-selling throwback crime story soon! … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com.

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!

Triple Shot: X-MEN #1, CHEW #34 and EARTH 2 ANNUAL #1 at FORCES OF GEEK

This week’s Triple Shot relaunches one of Marvel’s hottest books with an all-female cast, you’ll be hungry for more after reading the latest issues of Chew and Earth 2, but for different reasons.

There’s a new Batman in the town, but is his reveal the ultimate bat-tease?

X-MEN #1
WRITER: Brian Wood
ART: Olivier Coipel
Publication Date: May 29, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Marvel Comics
UPC: 75960607924700111
Buy it HERE

The role of female characters and creators diminishes over the years for some unknown reasons. When a book stars a female, or if Gail Simone publishes a new book, tumblr explodes with glee. 

This book, is certainly no exception to that rule, as popular writer Brian Wood (The Massive, Star Wars, Mara) relaunches X-Men at number one. 

Starring in the book are Psylocke, Rachel Summers, Storm, Kitty Pryde, Rogue and the return of Jubilee.

Jubilee’s a mom now, that is to say she’s the adopted mother to an orphaned baby. She’s on here way back to the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning with the tyke when she realizes she’s being followed and calls home for help.

This book has all of the elements of great comics, X-Men or otherwise. An orphaned baby with powers that may hold the secret to mankind’s survival, the best train scene we’ve seen since Skyfall, and a billion year old mystery to be solved with Caselli and his sister, Arkea Prime.

Oh, and there’s a Doop cameo. 

So far Bendis has done Uncanny and All-New X-Men right, and here comes along Brian Wood to add to the modern mythos. This is for certain the book people will be talking about most this week.

CHEW #34
WRITER: John Layman
ART: Rob Guillory
Publication Date: May 29, 2013
Price: $2.99
Publisher: Image Comics
UPC: 70985300808803411
Buy it HERE

This cover ships with three covers!

No, no no, silly, not three variant covers available from exclusive retailer, three covers on your book, with the cut along the lines marks so that you, the comic collector can play the interchangeable face game with the covers.

ComiXology customers will have to use their imagination on this gimmick cover that is the direct opposite of your comic shipping in a bag, it’s asking, nay, begging for you to take scissors to your cover!

Do you have the guts…or another $2.99 to spend? Layman and Guillory continue to have fun with this detective book from the lettering to the cover concepts and sneaky inside jokes. This issue has Olive donning a Mike Norton Battlepug shirt.

We’re 4/5ths of the way through the Bad Apples storyline, wherein our hero Tony Chu is hunting down the Vampire Cibopath. His hunt leads him to Eastern Europe, an undisclosed location that could be Transylvania.

This issue serves us up a plate of new food-related powers including one guy that can string guitars with pasta noodles. Admittedly, not a very useful power but he looks like Slash so that’s cool. Senator David Eccles is a Bromaformutare—meaning his head transforms into the last thing he ate. On his campaign trail, he first looks like Mayor McCheese but takes a bite out of an apple pie before his speech is over. That is one way to get votes in the Chew-verse. Also, this can get you in trouble if you are literally what you eat in the Chew-verse where chicken is illegal.

This book is consistently great and surprising, and the schedule ships toward the end of each month. Just as I’m getting full from a month’s worth of comics, I always find room for Chew!

EARTH 2 ANNUAL #1
WRITER: James Robinson
ART: Cafu / Julius Gopez / Cam Smith
Publication Date: May 29, 2013
Price: $4.99
Publisher: DC Comics
Buy it HERE

It all seemed right. I mean, I’m not buying issues of Earth 2regularly, but I’m hip to the concept.

Earth 2 is the closest we’ll get to Elseworlds in the New 52 so you an imagine how I nearly made a boom tube when the solicits were shoving a new Batman my way. I’d already bought the action figure in my mind because the design was equal parts Batman Beyond, Flashpoint Thomas Wayne Batman and Alex RossKingdom Come Batman.

Spoiler warning - if you desperately want to know the identity of the Earth 2 Batman, you won’t find him here. Batman stays on the sidelines as we watch the origin of Captain Atom and briefly see some action with Kirby Fourth World creations Mister Miracle and Big Barda. 

James Robinson is a great writer, and the art by Cafu (T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents) is amazing. Sure, not everyone buys these Annuals, but I feel completely duped by DC Editorial promising something (for a hefty $5, noless) and not delivering. 

I’ve no gripe with the Captain Atom origin or the Barda, Scott Free and Hawkgirl cameos but I bought this book under false pretenses. Marketing led me to believe an alternate version of the Dark Knight would be revealed. He was there and he fought a bit, but we are no closer to knowing the man behind the mask. This was a miscalculation, I can’t imagine I’m the only one feeling this way. I don’t care about the Earth 2 continuity a year after it’s launch but thought this might lead me in.

No way am I enthusiastic about getting the next issue to have the same bait and switch happen. This was a $5 trick you played on me, DC. I’m not happy.

DigBoston and LeaguePodcast Comic Book Picks of the Week for May 29, 2013

COMICS

For some reason, it is still X-Men, but this X-Book puts the ladies at the forefront. X-Men #1 debuts this week at Marvel NOW! with ladies at the helm of this team featuring Storm, Rogue, Jubilee, Kitty Pryde, Rachel Grey, Rogue & Psylocke. … Whoa-oh-oh! Positive. Last summer we interviewed Alan Grant (Detective Comics, Judge Dredd) about his Tales of the Buddha Before He Got Enlightened and now the trade paperback is available. Tales of Sex, absurdity, meditation, smoke and rock & roll from Alan and Jon Haward are now available at the TFAW.com link and Renegade Arts Entertainment. … Who is the new Batman of Earth 2? Find out in Earth 2 Annual #1 - the closest thing you can get to an Elseworlds story these days. … Picks this week from LeaguePodcast.com..

Pass the Daily Dig along! Your friends can sign up here!

EARTH PRIME TIME: SUPERMAN: UNBOUND

Superman: Unbound is the latest DC Universe Animated Original Movie based on an Action Comics arc written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Gary Frank. Though not bogged down by New 52 continuity or pre-Flashpoint Superman Family architecture, the movie does a fair job at retelling the story of the five part Superman: Braniac in 75 minutes. Rumors are that this could be the last DCAU movie set in the old timelines, so continuity buffs and those wishing to celebrate Superman’s 75th birthday this year should give this a chance if you have not already. Since the story references Silver and Golden Age Superman subjects like the Bottled City Of Kandor and Collector of Worlds, this is both a movie for new fans anticipating Man of Steel and those with the House of El’s shield tattooed on their arms. Speaking of which, Supergirl is in for the action too.

 
Our story opens with Lois being abducted by some bad dudes in all black swat outfits from The Daily Planet. Perhaps a nod to our favorite Superman joke, Lois is in a pink outfit (and later has a pink phone and a pink laptop). She’s amazingly calm, because in this version, Lois and Clark are boyfriend and girlfriend. He has a way of saving her from these things.

It turns out that she’s not going to be rescued by big blue because he is dealing with an earthquake elsewhere. High over Metropolis, Miss Lane is in the back of a helicopter, almost helpless if not for her wit.

Heeding the call for action Supergirl uses her powers to defeat the bad guys until Kal shows up.

Cousin Kal reprimands her for using excessive force. This serves the story as an opportunity to introduce the villain of the movie, Braniac. Though not a direct sequel to Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, one can see this as the introduction of the character of Kara-El, cousin to Kal-El Superman.

Lois and Supergirl - Superman Unbound

Both movies rely on Supergirl’s motivations to drive the main story, in fact my girlfriend pointed out to me that the first film should really have been called Superman/Supergirl Apocalypse, as Batman and Wonder Woman were secondary characters.

Even with the amazing Andrea Romano as voice director there are still old fashioned gender issues in mainstream media.

Back on Krypton, before the explosion and Kal being sent to the Kent Farm, older cousin Kara witnessed a ship helmed by Braniac invade the capital of Kandor and slaughter many innocents. As the collector of worlds, Braniac bottled the city after shrinking it and he put this among his collection. Kara’s parents survived the blast and live in the bottle. Kara now can’t stand bullies, so she feels justified using so much force.

[READ MORE at DIGBOSTON.COM]