New Man of Steel Trailer!

Here is the first full-length trailer of “Man of Steel.” From what we can gather here, it looks like the thrust of the film will be Clark’s internal struggle about his purpose and powers (obviously, it’s an origin story), and the world’s wariness and animosity towards him. Personally, I think he looks like a good Superman, and Amy Adams as Lois Lane will be interesting for sure. And with Zod as the villain, maybe we can finally expect some real action this time around.

Superman and the Dangers of Aging Your Characters

Following up on the recent news that Superman was able to locate Krypton with the help of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Superman has also now watched the destruction of his home planet. According to science,

The data from all of the telescopes are integrated and assembled by Superman to create images of Rao and Krypton. The images of Krypton’s tragic death have just reached the Earth, twenty-seven years after the event. Surrounded by astrophysicists, Superman witnesses the destruction of his home planet. In other words, Krypton was located on its final day of existence.

I’m not entirely sure how science is able to take images from the depths of space and turn them into 3D HD holographic movies. Maybe Superman has a Kryptonian projector with him.

DC has described the events that took place in Action Comics #14 as ‘game-changing’. But I’m not sure how that could be. Even people that know nothing about Superman know that Krypton blew up. The top five things people know about Superman: 1) He’s Clark Kent, 2) He’s crazy about Lois Lane 3) He’s vulnerable to Kryptonite 4) Lex Luthor hates him 5) Krypton blew up. How can this be anything other than more retreading of the Superman origin story? Can we maybe move on yet?

For me the biggest story out of all of this is dating the destruction of Krypton to 27 years ago. That in itself immediately dates everything that has to do with Superman. The old DCU was very careful never to date anything because it would age their characters. They simply used phrases like “many years ago,” or “Before” to tell you when something occurred, and that was it. I’m not creating a timeline of the DC Universe, I don’t need to know in what year Batman’s parents were killed in order to compare it to the arrival of Superman.

10 Things to be Learned from DC Comics’ February Solicitations

DC Comics released their solicitations for February 2013 and now we know what the DC Universe will be like in three months time. It’s given us clues as to what will be happening soon as well as down the road. There’s plenty of guesswork, but it’s all we can really do.

1. Justice League Expansion? The solicits for Justice League #17 mentions the possibility of the Justice League finally expanding its roster. While it might not be right away, it still could be happening in the very near future. Maybe we’ll finally see the likes of Firestorm, Atom, Deadman, Element Girl, Mera and Lady Luck(?) We were told would join the Justice League eventually.

The odd part about this is the inclusion of Hawkman and Green Arrow in this picture. The two will soon be appearing in Justice League of America and this picture was released before that title was even in a twinkle in Geoff Johns eye. It’s pretty obvious that the title was not something they had on their schedule at that point, since Justice League International was supposed to be the ‘other’ Justice League team. Then again, Deadman is there and he’s been in Justice League Dark since the beginning, so maybe I should be giving them more credit.

Get Into The All-New Atom

The All-New Atom: My Life In Miniature (#1-6)
The All-New Atom: Future/Past (#7-11)
The All-New Atom: The Hunt For Ray Palmer (#12-16)
The All-New Atom: Small Wonder (#17-18, 20-25)

Do you know about the old Atom? You should, but even if you don’t, that won’t stop you from enjoying the new one. The Atom is a character who can shrink down to minuscule size to fight crime. That is actually a useful power when you need to be stealthy and you get the chance to explore tiny civilizations or dive into the human body. He can also punch people in the face really hard when he shifts his molecular density. The All-New Atom comes into possession of the Bangstick, a staff that allows him to fly and shoot energy blasts, so he does pack some heat.

The Atom as we know him today was created by the legendary Gardner Fox in 1961. It was part of National Publications’ (soon to be DC Comics) effort to revitalize and reintroduce their super-heroes after they had fallen out of favor in the 1950s. This era would be known as the Silver Age of comics, begun by the revamp of the Flash from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen, Ray Palmer replaced the Golden Age Atom, Al Pratt, as well. While the concept of the Flash remained intact, the Atom was reinvented for a new generation. Al Pratt was simply a really short man who fought crime with his fists. With science-fiction booming, the Atom was now a man of science who developed a way to shrink himself and decided to fight crime. He was one of the first Justice League recruits and even mentored a new group of Teen Titans for a time, but no one likes to talk about that anymore.

Halloween Double Feature: The Cryptics/Teen Titans Lost Annual

3 out of 5 stars
IDW
Writers- Steve Niles, Benjamin Roman
Illustration- Benjamin Roman
Colors- Too Many to Count

The Cryptics is for kids. The book follows a group of young movie monsters before they grow up to be icons. Wolfy the werewolf, Drac the vampire, Sea-Boy the little creature from the Black Lagoon and Jackie Jekyll/Hyde are neighborhood friends who go one wild adventures.

The first issue is a series of short vignettes into the everyday lives of the Cryptics. They are cute little comic strips beefed up as full blown comics. The second issue concerns Wolfy being mistakingly sentenced to Heck and the rest of the gang set out to rescue him. They are joined by a crybaby Vinny Helsing and meet the Grim Reaper himself. In issue three, the group fights Nazis and penguins in the Arctic, during their search for Frankenstein’s Monster.

Review – JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice

All the Justice

4 out of 5 stars
DC Comics
David S. Goyer/Geoff Johns – Writers
Carlos Pacheco – Penciler
Jesus Merino – Inker
Guy Major – Colorist

Virtue and Vice is your elevator into the DC Universe, if that elevator suddenly went into a freefall and dropped you down into the sub-basement. It is a perfect sample of what the DCU can offer and is a great introduction into the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America. There are no origin stories, no hard hitting narratives; instead, Goyer and Johns cut out a healthy slice of continuity and offer it up as an appetizer to impress you.

The heroes here are not iconic, but current (2002 current). Unless you’re a DC Universe continuity cop, you probably won’t be familiar with everything. Nothing is explained to the reader up front, but rather through the progression of the story answers can be found. It’s not outright confusing, but you just have to deal with the fact that Wally West is the Flash, Kyle Rayner is the one and only Green Lantern, JLA headquarters is on the moon and Lex Luthor is President (yes, that was a thing that happened). Several references are made to previous stories that took place in each teams’ ongoing series, JLA and JSA, but an unfamiliar reader can simply pass that off as ‘casual’ conversation.

Get into Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters

Freedom Fighters (1976) #1-15
Crisis Aftermath: The Battle for Bludhaven (2006) #1-6
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters (2006) #1-8
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters: Brave New World (2007) #1-8
Freedom Fighters (2010) #1-9

The Freedom Fighters charge into action

It might be a hokey name, but Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters is supposed to be fun. It is the story of Uncle Sam, the spirit of America brought into corporeal form, bringing America’s heroes together to fight villainy. In recent years Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray took to revitalizing these characters to become the flag bearers of DC Comics’ patriotic superheroes. They also work for the government, making for an interesting juxtaposition of political intrigue and spandex clad super heroics.

The characters who make up the Freedom Fighters were originally owned by Quality Comics, a competitor to DC Comics’ predecessor, National Publications. After going out of business in the 1950s, Quality Comics’ properties were bought by National Publications, who eventually reintroduced some of their new characters as the Freedom Fighters. The team was placed on an alternate Earth, Earth-X, where the Nazis had won World War II. This meant the war time characters could continue their war time adventures indefiniately. It wasn’t until the 1985 Crisis on Infinite Earths, where DC Comics consolidated all their alternate Earths into one streamlined continuity. The Freedom Fighters were now free to interact with Superman, Batman and the Justice League.