Batman fighting – and beating up – the Gotham police is well-known to long-time comic book fans and even the general public via the movies and other media. But starting in Batman issue #44, the Dark Knight has to unclench his fists as he reflects how both the superhero and philanthropist Wayne personas may have added the all-too real-world problems of racism, police brutality, poverty and societal clash to the fictional city.
There are a few iconic Batman stories that die-hard fans are quick to share with new and old fans alike, but one story stands above the rest as one that not only changed the face of Batman in the decades to follow, but also the rest of the comic industry. The Dark Knight Returns took a dark look at the future of Gotham City, as a retired Bruce Wayne once again dons the cape and cowl, along with a new partner and a renewed fight against crime. While TDKR is never far from any dedicated fans comic shelf, the upcoming Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has brought TDKR back into the forefront, with many of the themes and scenes from the comic set to appear in the film.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you will be aware that Phantoms star Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel follow-up, currently titled Batman Vs. Superman. The internet has been up in arms about the casting, and so far the man himself has remained relatively tight-lipped. However, Ben Affleck appeared last night on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon to promote his upcoming movie Runner Runner, co-starring Justin Timberlake, and the subject of Affleck playing Batman inevitably came up:
Affleck talks about how he was warned about the internet backlash following previous casting choices. “They said, ‘Just don’t use the Internet for a couple of days,'” the actor told Fallon. “And I said … ‘I handle shit!'” Ben fAffleck’s curiosity couldn’t prevent him from having a little peek when the news was made official. “I saw the announcement, I look down the thing. The first comment? … ‘Nooooooooooooo. And I was done! We’re going to be Luddites for a while.'”
Affleck still seems very pleased with his casting and told Fallon:
[quote]It’s so awesome, man. I’m so excited. They called me up and asked me if I wanted to do this. And I said, ‘I’m not 25, man, are you sure about this?’ And they said, ‘Come down, we wanna show you what we’re doing.’ Zack Snyder’s directing it and he has this amazing take on it. Obviously you can’t do what Christian [Bale] did, those movies were amazing. But Zack wants to something different but still in keeping with that.[/quote]
There is mixed feeling over here at Grizzly Bomb over Affleck’s casting, I for one am on team Affleck. He is a solid actor and in recent years has proved his salt both in front of and behind the camera. At least the rumor that pop star Justin Bieber being in the running to play Robin in the movie has now been quashed. The Wrap reported on Sunday that the whole thing was potentially set up for an upcoming Funny or Die sketch.
Affleck will next be seen on the big screen alongside of Justin Timberlake in gambling thriller Runner Runner on September 27. Batman Vs. Superman is aiming for a July 15, 2015 release.
Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order…
Marvel’s Infinite Comics Launches New Weekly Wolverine Title!
Digital comics are weird. On one hand, they’re obviously the future of the medium, and I don’t mind them per se, but I’ve always preferred the idea of trades being released digitally, rather than individual issues. The bang per buck of a digital trade makes a lot more sense to me than a single issue for $2 or whatever the price may be. I can appreciate the attempt to give digital comics some added value over the printed page, specifically by utilizing the medium of a digital format in creative ways. That doesn’t mean I like it, exactly, and in my opinion I find it a bit redundant. It’s why I never liked “motion comics” or anything, because to me the beauty and simplicity of comics was the utilization of static images to convey motion and a sense of movement in every scene. It’s one of those things that sounds a bit fluffy when you describe it, but it’s a legitimate complaint, I believe. It’s yet to be seen if Infinite Comics will prove to otherwise be successful, but for not it’s an interesting idea, and this Wolverine comic will probably prove if Infinite Comics has legs or not.
A lot has been said about Orson Scott Card and his planned Superman story. The thing about it is, I truly can’t get behind reading the work of a man that vile and terrible. He’s pretty (obviously) famous for his vitriolic and terrible political opinions, and while at heart I think that shouldn’t affect the work itself, it definitely does. I’ve had a couple of discussions about separating the art from the artist and have generally come to the resolution that it’s amicable to do so, but ultimately impossible. A great piece of art can and will be tainted by the real life nature of the person who created it. It’s the focal point in some cases, as with serial killers and their art that is occasionally sold or displayed in museums. Did I just compare Orson Scott Card indirectly with the likes of John Wayne Gacy? Yes, but you know, F the both of them. A brilliant character who stands for acceptance, love and hope like Superman doesn’t need to be written by a hateful bigot like Card anyway, so good on Sprouse for deciding to leave the story. Obviously he can’t full on come out and admit exactly why, but c’mon, we all know why. A side of me is curious as to what Card’s story would have been though. Curious, but glad it didn’t happen.
In other, much better Superman news, there’s the wonderful announcement that Scott Snyder and Jim Lee are taking over Superman soon with Superman Unchained, a new book coming out just in time to coincide with Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel. Aside from there obviously being a terrifying conspiracy between all those named Snyder working on Superman projects, this sounds and seems pretty damn amazing. For those who haven’t or aren’t reading Scott Snyder’s work on Batman right now, he’s absolutely killing it. Just balls out, hands down killing it every damn month. Normally I’d be pretty worried by a book with just the mere idea and title of a book called Superman Unchained‘, because let’s be honest, that’s kind of a lame title. But the Snyder’s (Scott and Zack, respectively) seem to understand that you can inject some of that tried and true Gritty Edge™ the kids love these days and still keep the Superman character intact. Hopefully they will, anyway. I have more faith in Scott Snyder because he’s a pretty brilliant writer, and the idea of trying new things with the character is an interesting mission statement for the book. I’m looking forward to reading it in line for Man Of Steel come April.
I’m not terribly familiar with AstroCity, I am pretty familiar with Kurt Busiek’s myriad DC works. He’s written a ton of great story arcs in the past and is one of those names that I see on books all the time. He’s not a super notable stand out for me, but I do know the name and know he means quality. It’s not like you’d jump into a book of his and find yourself reading something awful. That being said, perhaps it’s my own ignorance of Astro City that’s kept Busiek from joining the list of names that I immediately gravitate towards every time I approach the wall at my local comic shop. Here’s the description of the book, via [ComicsAlliance]:
[quote]Astro City began as a sort of anthology series in 1995 and followed the superheroes, supervillains and everyday citizens who lived in the eponymous city. Critically-acclaimed, and the recipient of a number of Eisner and Harvey-awards, the series has been on an indefinite hiatus since May of 2010.
The new series will be available in June, but you can find the original series collected at your local comic shop or public library.[/quote]
It certainly sounds interesting, and is yet another title to put on my increasingly longer list of books to read, when I have the time and money.
Marvel’s New Teasers Showcase New Savage Wolverine Creators!
New teasers from Marvel are no surprise, and lately have been hitting pretty much every other day. These new ones are unique in the fact that they are both promoting a new book with very minimal taglines that are very vague… which actually makes them not unique at all and well in line with the rest of Marvel’s teasers.
So the teasers obviously showcase both Wolverine and Spider-Man, along with the creative team of Zeb Wells and Joe Maduiera. It just so happens that this story, which had been previously teased as a Wolverine/Spidey/Elektra mini-series, will now follow Frank Cho’s arc over in The Savage Wolverine, which is apparently aiming to be a team-up book like Avenging Spider-Man. Wells and mad previously worked together on the opening arc of Avenging, and I am looking forward to this new arc for Savage. Seeing Joe Mad draw Wolverine always takes me back to the 90s X-Men stories like Onslaught that I remember so fondly, and I am definitely interested in this new story. –S. Fraser
Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order…
The Superman/DC/Shuster Legal Battle Continues
For those who don’t know, basically DC has said that Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel gave up their rights to reclaim their half of the rights to Superman, and the Shuster estate has fought against that argument for a long time. As far as I can understand, the Shuster estate is appealing against a recent judgement made by a federal judge, who ruled they officially gave up their rights in an agreement made in 1992. It’s a little bogged down by legalese, and the complicated nature of who deserves what rights is what makes it even harder. I think it’s mostly a case of DC as a publisher trying to split hairs over what is or isn’t owed, and while I don’t know all the details, I’m sure the Shuster estate has a valid argument. All I know is I wish this whole court thing would get settled definitively, once and for all, either way. Then we could look back and judge the facts. I’m sure somebody more knowledgable than I could make a great argument for either side, but for now it’s a little sad to see yet another legal dispute in the comics world be dragged on further than it ever should have.
I’m a sucker for time travel stories. They’re practically my favorite genre of Sci-Fi stories, if it could even be called a genre. It’s a storytelling trope that’s always captivated me, and hearing about a new miniseries involving time travel certainly captured my interest. In particular this one is by Ed Brisson, who up until now has only been a letterer, but is taking a step into the fray as a writer. His book, called Comeback, is about a time traveling agency called Reconnect, that provides a very special service. For a hefty price, they’ll go back in time and save somebody you loved/cared about/whoever from dying. As with all time travel stories, the price paid for manipulating the space time continuum is more than just monetary, and can result in lots of bad things happening if things should go wrong. Of course the whole thing is very illegal, and there are certain physical repercussions for traveling in time. The book is sold out at the distribution level, so getting a copy of #1, which is currently out, may be hard for the time being, but that’s why digital comics and back issue hunting exist.
A great interview going into more detail with writer Ed Brisson is here.
A Quick Look at BOOM’s Hellraiser:The Road Below
I’ve been a big fan of Hellraiser for a long time, pretty much ever since I saw the first one as a young lad. Since then that franchise has always held a place in my heart near and dear to me, which is why I was taken by such surprise to see that there was still a Hellraiser comic series going on today. Furthermore, that it’s multiple issues in! I guess keeping up with all the hoopla from the big two, you’ll always have certain titles fall by the wayside, even ones that are based on a franchise you’ve long loved. While I haven’t read a Hellraiser book in years, the comic itself looks pretty interesting from the preview shown. It’s not written or drawn by any big names I recognize, but it deals with Kirsty Cotton dealing with a war between evil forces, and there even seems to be some mention of a Cenobite Queen? Whaaaat? Man, if you’re a Hellraiser fan who is intrigued, (like me), this preview may sell you on picking up this book, and finding it’s older issues to catch up.
Snyder Wrapping Up His Run On Swamp Thing with #18
If you haven’t been reading Swamp Thing, you owe it to yourself to go and pick up every issue you can find and catch up, along with Animal Man. They’re probably the two best books to come out of the New 52, and Scott Snyder has proven himself to be an incredible writer who can tell amazing stories. Swamp Thing is one of those characters who is criminally underrated, and Snyder has managed to take everything about him and do things with his character that haven’t been done since Alan Moore had his seminal run. Hearing Snyder was leaving the book was certainly saddening, but it’s going to be interesting to see his take on Superman, and for me personally, it’s a trade off I’d make every single time. While we still don’t know who is gonna fill in for Snyder and Swamp Thing artist Yanick Paquette, but whoever they are they’ve got big shoes to fill. I can’t recommend Swamp Thing enough to people, and every time people look at me like I’m crazy, but then come back next week telling me how wrong they were about it, I just tell them don’t thank me; thank Scott Snyder.
DC and Marvel. Two companies that pretty much define and are synonymous with comics for the general public, but for most comics fans they couldn’t be more different than peanut butter and toothpaste. One thing the two companies, and endless fanboys keep track of, is sales. Recently with Marvel NOW!, Marvel’s been taking the top spot, but that doesn’t mean that DC is doing too shabby either. DC is staying strong, and their books are selling pretty consistently. While it’s interesting to watch DC talk about their marketing strategies, and to formulate your own opinions about what they could be doing better, or are doing just fine, one can’t help but think if all of the competition is a good thing. It’s brought the best out of both Marvel and DC, and we’ve gotten some great books on both sides. As long as they’re both not in a creative lull, the books are selling well, and comics fans are getting great stories, it’s really a win-win for everyone. Comics are more popular now than they’ve been in a long time, and while DC is currently playing catch up over in Hollywood, I have no doubts they’ll be leading the way when it comes to the printed page.
Welcome to Comic Rack! My pick of the top five comic news stories in no particular order…
Jeff Lemire Speaks About Wrapping Up Sweet Tooth, New Project Called Trillium
Jeff Lemire is by far my favorite comics writer out there right now. Aside from writing the best book in the New 52, the guy’s original work is spellbinding. But enough of me gushing about Jeff Lemire, the fascinating thing is his planned projects to come. Along with wrapping up his award-winning Sweet Tooth, a series which if you haven’t been reading, I implore you to go out and read right now, he mentions a new project. The project in question is called Trillium, which sounds like it’s going to be the most amazing book ever made specifically for me.
Described as “The last love story ever told,” Trillium is a sci-fi story that alternately takes place 1,784 years in the future and 92 years in the past. In the year 3797, botanist Nika Temsmith is researching a species of strange, plant-based life forms on a science station on the outskirts of colonized space.Meanwhile, in the year 1921, a war-scarred explorer named William Pike leads an expedition into the jungles of Peru in search for the fabled Lost Temple of The Incas, which is said to have magical healing properties.Despite being separated by space and time, Nika and William fall in love, and their love leads to the end of the universe.
I want this cover as a poster now.
I LOVE these kinds of ideas, in any medium. It reminds me of Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, which was a movie I loved on so many levels for a multitude of reasons. The idea of Lemire attempting Hard SF, and mixing it with “Lost history of the world” type fiction, is pretty much my favorite mixing of genres ever. It’s why I loved Lost so much, and it’s why the fact that this is only going to be a 10 issue limited series is the only thing that I can think of negatively about this project. Every single other thing has me giddy with anticipation.
You can hear watch him talk about wrapping up Sweet Tooth and even more about Trillium over here at [Newsarama]. You can even hear how to pronounce his name, if you were curious like me!
Scott Snyder Talks About His Plans For Superman
You can’t see it, but underneath his shirt, Jim Lee is wearing Batman tights.
I really dug Scott Snyder’s run on Batman lately, and read it every month right up until I couldn’t afford to any longer. What is left me with was the distinct impression that he’s a dude who knows how to write characters well and tell horrific, yet deeply haunting stories without going into shock tactics. The fact that he’s approaching Superman brings a lot of hope for me, because as I’ve said before here, the new 52 Superman comic has been quite the letdown so far. The way Snyder speaks about taking grand ideas, and really bringing a large, epic scale to his Superman story has me excited, especially since he’s using brilliant examples of Superman stories to compare it to.
This Superman story really is the biggest, most epic Superman story I can do. It’s sort of like, I always imagine they’re gonna kick me off right after the story so it’s like everything I love about Superman in one. It’s similar where it really is largely about things that I find most heroic and wonderful about him is his sense of restraint in the way that he’s this super hero who has the ability to reshape the world in the way that he thinks would be best. And yet instead he challenges us to do it ourselves, and he looks to us to be inspired, and to inspire us. The story really takes its structure from that, it has the DNA of a lot of my favorite Superman stories like “What’s So Funny About Truth, Justice and the American Way?” and “Kingdom Come” and “Red Son.”
It really sounds like he’s got something great up his sleeve. You can see the full interview here, where he talks a bit more about his other projects as well.
Jason Aaron’s New Thor Sounds Interesting, To Say The Least
I’ve never been a huge fan of Thor, but not in the way that I am with Spider-Man. I’ve just never really gotten into Thor the way other Marvel fans have. That’s not to say I don’t find his character interesting or appealing, as any loyal reader here can attest to my dislike of Spider-Man. I’ve always thought Thor was a great character, and who doesn’t love Mjolnir? My problem has always been that when I think of a definitive Thor story, I tend to go blank. This could be one of those situations where my ignorance is showing, as it did with X-Men: Days of Future Past. Regardless of my ignorance, one thing I do know is that Jason Aaron is a great writer. I’ve only just now started reading the first trade of his highly acclaimed series Scalped, which I’ve heard referred to as The Wire of comic books. Anyhow, the guys plans for the character sound like he’s got some great stories to tell, and even casual but ignorant fans of Thor can get excited for that.
“What I wanted to do with this book was focus in on a big way on Thor himself,” Aaron said. “I’m going to focus on not one version of Thor but three.” He promised a young Thor drinking and carousing with Viking women, a modern Thor on a cosmic quest and a new future Thor who’s missing limbs and more. Meanwhile, all three will be attacked by a new villain described as, “This is a being who’s been stalking the cosmos for centuries killing gods. We don’t know why, and we don’t know where he came from…At the end of the day, it’s about ‘Who is Thor? What does Thor want? And how has he changed over the years?'”
You can read a lot more at the interview with him over at [CBR].
New Judge Dredd ‘Year One’ Announced Alongside A Slew Of 2000 A.D Projects
If there’s one thing we can thank the recent Judge Dredd movie for, is that along with being an awesome movie, it’s brought a renewed interest in the Judge, and a seemingly coordinated plan of new projects that span the gamut of the 2000 A.D world. I’ve always had an interest in the Judge, but never really got around to readying any of his stories, having always put it off until later. However, I’ve always really found the character fascinating, and my cursory knowledge of him is particularly peaked with the announcement at NYCC Judge Dredd panel.
Several major announcements were made in the course of the panel: “2000 AD” editor Matt Smith will be writing a “Judge Dredd: Year One” miniseries for IDW Publishing, and writer John Wagner, who created Judge Dredd along with artist Carlos Ezquerra, will return as the writer of the “Judge Dredd” series in 2013. Wagner’s last Dredd work was the “Day of Chaos” story.
That in and of itself is enough to get me interesting, as a ‘Year One’ series for the Judge sounds excellent. Given that for Americans at least, he’s a relatively more obscure character, it could be a great introduction for plenty of new readers to become familiar. I know it’s something I plan to pick up on my list anyway.
You can read more about the Judge Dredd Panel and the LONG list of details about other 2000 A.D projects here.
Brian Michael Bendis’ All New X-Men Seems… New?
So a running theme during this Comic Rack has been my ignorance of properties that are non-DC centric, and while I’d love to say I’m not a fanboy, by any stretch of the imagination, there’s no way I am not one. The difference is that I can admit when I hear a good story idea, and will be willing to give a book a shot, solely based on the strength of its idea alone. My main excuse for not doing so lately, is that I am constantly, consistently broke. Being a comics fan is quite expensive, and if you plan to follow any ongoing series that is remotely popular, at some point you’re going to have to buy multiple books to finish the story. This is one of the main reasons I’ve recently stopped reading a lot of comics, (DC included), because as much as I love them I can’t afford them, and just can’t justify *acquiring* them off the internet.
But when I hear an interesting idea, I tend to like it, and Brian Michael Bendis, love him or hate him has great ideas. His recent idea to take the X-Men and make them all new, at first had me skeptical, until I heard his pitch for it.
The idea of transporting the original teenage X-Men to the future is one that’s been floating around Marvel for a while now, and it was the chance to tell that story which initially drew Bendis to “All-New X-Men.” “There was this idea at Marvel retreats called ‘Days of Future Now,'” Bendis told CBR News. “It was literally the idea that the original X-Men would come here, to what would be their ‘Days of Future Past,’ and it would be horrifying and startling for them to see what the X-Universe had turned in to. I loved this idea, but I was on the ‘Avengers’ books. It never stuck to the wall and just as a fan I wanted someone to write it so I could read it. It never happened, though.
I gotta be honest, that sounds really awesome. It’s actually something I’ll definitely read, whenever it comes to trade paperback. If you want to read more about the idea, and I mean a LOT more, along with lots of other info about Bendis’ X-Men plans, and his journey getting to this point in the X-Men timeline, just go here. You’ll be glad you did.
Grizzly Bomb 