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.

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.