And before that, he sold gourmet hamburgers

Yeah, I always dressed this way.
Unless I didn't.

Taking The Robin Out Of Red Robin | Bleeding Cool
As of the upcoming Teen Titans #0, Tim Drake, the kid who was Robin from 1989 to 2009, in the second half of the Batman animated series, and in the currently running "Young Justice" television series... was never Robin at all. Which isn't to say that all of his history just vanished, but that his adventures as Batman's partner now all occurred under the name "Red Robin".

And actually, that's not the part that confuses me. Even though I guess now all the Stephanie Brown fans can sarcastically reply, "We feel your pain." Now all the Stephanie-was-never-really-Robin talk makes sense, since she was replacing a guy who was never really Robin either. Yeah, that solves everyone's problems.

The part that bothers me is that as of his first appearance post-New 52, less than a year ago, when every DC title was restarted in an is-it-or-ain't-it soft reboot, he was still a former Robin.

Note to DC Comics: It's not multiple earths and heroic legacies that confuses readers, it's crap like this.

(Just in case you don't get the gourmet hamburger thing.)

New DC Gay Character Is An Iconic Male… | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

New DC Gay Character Is An Iconic Male… | Bleeding Cools “One of the major iconic DC characters will reveal that he is gay in a storyline in June”

Well, if DC was trying to upstage Marvel's upcoming Northstar nuptials, they did it. Now everyone's wondering who it will be.

Some are sniping at Fox News for having used the phrase "a gay Superman", replying "Of course, it's not going to be Superman." I'm not able to think of any reason why Superman would be off the table. Since the New 52 reboot, his relationship with Lois Lane has been deleted, and with it any sexual identity at all. I do recall a semi-official statement from Grant Morrison that the New 52 Superman is not able to breed with human women--but the exact reason why this might be true is open to interpretation. It's a valid alternative reason for his steadfast refusal to marry Lois all those years.

The initial interpretation of Didio's comment is that a familiar character not yet reintroduced in the New 52 will be gay. But Courtney Simmons' phrasing implies that the victim test subject character may already have been seen, just not specifically identified as gay.

I find myself longing for the good old days when comic book characters didn't have sex. That meant if it was important to you that your favorite character be gay, well, he might have been: There was no evidence to the contrary.

If we're going to play the guessing game, I don't think we can attach too much importance to Simmons' description of the character as "iconic". This is DC Marketing talking here: As far as they're concerned, they're all iconic. It could be Alfred, Zatara, or Charley "Golden Eagle" Parker. Or pretty much anybody or everybody on Earth 2.

If they are playing fair with "iconic", though, I vote for Barry Allen. The new original Silver Age Flash is badly in need of some defining characteristics, and gayness might just be the shot in the arm he needs to become an icon for the twenty-tens.

OOPS:  Apparently Scott Snyder has confirmed that it's a character we have not yet seen in the New 52. Which narrows the field quite a bit, if they are playing fair with "iconic". The most likely bet, then, is someone in Earth 2 (Flash or Green Lantern).

Hoppy? HOPPY?

"And this is my rabbit Hoppy."

Hoppy the Marvel Bunny is back, but Ralph Dibny is still gone for apparent good?

Oh, now that's just cruel. 

The Return Of Vibe And Hoppy The Marvel Bunny To The New DCU | Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

"This is an Imaginary Story... Aren't they all?"

Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep!!: Obviously, Too Much Alfredo Before Bedtime...
It's too bad that DC doesn't do Elsewhere stories anymore (unless, of course, you consider the whole nu52 an Elseworlds story...)

That would be wonderful news.

I've been thinking of it as Heroes Reborn Part II. You know, because it worked so well the first time. The same Usual Gang of Idiots were largely responsible for both.

Nu52: Now with 90% less context

No, Princess, he wasn't just touching your lasso.
He was grabbing your ass. And you let him.
C'mon, how did he get his hand between your lasso and your hip?
Ladies and gentlemen, Hal Jordan!

I'm really loving Comics Alliance's Point/Counterpoint on the new Justice League, even if I'm not sure which is which.

Point/Counterpoint: 'Justice League' Is Everything Wrong With Comics: "[Darkseid] does nothing but show up, say his name, and then trade punches until this stupid story runs out of pages."

Yep, that's about it.

Point/Counterpoint: 'Justice League' Shines with Strong Characters: "In the first arc of the comic, Batman, Green Lantern, Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg join together to fight an invasion from Apokolips, during which Darkseid shows up personally. Batman finds out from Steppenwolf and Desaad that Darkseid is looking for his daughter, who is apparently on Earth. And in terms of the overall plot of the arc... that's about everything that happens."

And that's your defense? That we're hip-deep in Character Revelation that has nothing to do with the story? Six issues of arc get a 50-word synopsis, and you're OK with that?

Although, actually, he got more out of it than I did. I totally missed the Darkseid's daughter thing (a thrown-away line of dialog dismissing a macguffin who's never seen or named).

Where's my copy of New Frontier? At least that takes more than five minutes to read.

There's plenty of Batgirls, but only one Oracle

Patron Goddess by ~kit-kit-kit

This is why you want to be very cautious when you go eliminating a character from continuity. You never know when someone is going to come along and do something really awesome with her that you didn't see coming.

"We're not a team, and we're not friends either."

Justice League #6

That was a conclusion? (Spoilers ahoy.)

They don't know who or what Darkseid actually is. They don't know why he's interested in earth. They don't know what he or his Parademons were trying to do. Except for Superman (who somehow learns it while being tortured), they don't even know his name -- until he says it himself, for no apparent reason.

They think they've destroyed all the local Mother Boxes, and that Darkseid therefore can't come back to earth for a long time. This makes about as much sense as Mr Mxyzptlk being tricked into saying his name backwards.

It reminds me of Jean-Luc Picard's first encounter with the Borg, which ends when Q decides he's bored and takes the Enterprise back out of Borg space -- where he put it in the first place.

The Justice League isn't calling itself the Justice League. They clearly don't want to travel together, until Batman points out that if they play nice with others, maybe it'll confuse the police enough that they will stop trying to arrest them.

And I haven't mentioned the art yet, which is so cluttered and detailed that I can't figure out what I'm looking at, or supposed to be looking at.

And Pandora is... oh, never mind. When she was a mystery, she was interesting. Now we've seen every seam on her costume, and we've seen her tattoos, and we know that she's Nu52's Uatu the Watcher, observing us but forbidden to act... Bored now.

Unsatisfying. We'll see if it grows on me. In the meantime, I'll wait hopefully for the real Justice League to come back from multiversal purgatory and kick these pretenders' asses.

Heck, these guys will do.

Just thinking

AKA O.M.A.C. #9?

DC Universe: The Source » Blog Archive » JUSTICE LEAGUE Group Solicits

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #9
It’s the JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL against O.M.A.C in a fight to the finish!

Now I'm getting the idea that O.M.A.C. was always meant to be an eight-issue mini. The alternative is that DC is disorganized enough to have coincidentally cancelled a title written by their editor-in-chief one month before a scheduled crossover with JLI. I mean, if they thought the crossover would do O.M.A.C.'s sales numbers any good, wouldn't they have made sure that the title would continue long enough after to reap the benefit?

So where are all the
characters who are
supposed to be on
Earth-2?

The same reasoning applies to Mister Terrific being cancelled the month before the appearance of Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest, all the more so since Karen Starr has been seen (briefly). So far, I haven't seen anything going on there to indicate that Mister Terrific has to inhabit the same earth as the Justice League. He did mention Superman once, but now that we know to expect a Superman on Earth-2... perhaps it has been an Earth-2 title all along.

Now, if O.M.A.C. and Mister Terrific really were meant to only run eight issues, I don't have any problem with that. In fact, I think it's a great use of the flexibility of storytelling 22 pages at a time.

But if it really is just a coincidence, and these titles aren't building on each other to create a larger cohesive story, I'm going to be really disappointed.

But then, we're already getting an indication that the New DC really isn't that organized, since the "New 52" is actually 55 or 56 titles.

On another subject, if I wanted to buy a Batman story but am unable to work up any interest in the Court of Owls, I'm pretty much out of luck, aren't I? I mean, is this storyline really worth ten comics each month? And if it is, why not publish it as a monthly $30 trade? If DC really wants to expand the niche that comics occupy, that would be a heck of a statement.

Hm. I wonder if Pandora (the new 52 mystery woman) will appear in the second wave #1s?

So close

Congratulations, DC, for changing your mind.

Well, did you change your mind, or did somebody get sacked or replaced and the new person decided you needed a new identity?

In any case, I should offer you hearty congratulations for coming up with a logo that would support being rendered in the primary colors one associates with comic books.

I should congratulate you, but I won't, because you clearly don't intend to use it that way, and it's purely accidental that it does work so well. See above right for an example of what I mean by that, since your designers apparently didn't think of it.

LATER: I hear there's been a small internet explosion over the fact that the cover mockups include an image of a clear post-New 52 Batman numbered #708. What it says to me is that the decision to re-do the corporate identity came from a different office than the decision to restart numbering. It might even indicate that the new corporate logo has been essentially a done deal waiting for the right moment to announce for quite a long time. Why now? Well, because they've had the press releases ready for a while, just waiting for the news to leak (which it just did), so now's the time to make it look like an actual plan instead of an accident.

And I see from the mockups that the logo will bleed off the left edge of the cover. Interesting.

LATER STILL: GeekDad points out that this new design is a departure from the continuity apparent in every previous DC logo back to 1940 (even including the briefly-used AA bullet). He calls it a clear indication of a "new regime in control", and that seems right to me. (See also SignalNoise.)

But everything adds up to the new DC wanting to be known as an entertainment company, not a *shudder* comic book company, which makes my color treatment highly unlikely indeed.

I mean, if I owned Superman, I'd be reminding the world of it at every possible opportunity, and one way I'd do that is to happily use his uniform colors on my corporate logo.

That's what was missing...!

Yeah, the powers that be looked at the DC lineup with eleven bat-titles, and said to themselves, "You know what we need, is another Batman monthly."

Okay, I'm trying to be realistic. I knew all of these new titles wouldn't last. I won't claim to have correctly predicted the ones they just cancelled (I was sure "I, Vampire" and "Frankenstein" would be the first to go), but you just had to know that some of the New 52 titles were never intended to be long-term ongoing features.

And I'm not going to go neener-neener because "Justice League" is shipping late. Cue Iago: "Oh there's a big surprise! That's an incredible - I think I'm going to have a heart attack and die of not surprise!" By my reckoning, this makes twice: #2 was eight or nine weeks later than #1, after all.

So, DC, are you still publishing Showcases?

I just have to say it

This month:
Action Comics #6
Wolverine #300

Something is very wrong.

Grandpa Geek

Exclusive Preview: Retelling Superman's Origin Story in Action Comics No. 5 | GeekDad | Wired.com: I have been reading comics for a couple of decades, starting with The Death of Superman. Since then, I’ve gone back and read older stories from the ’80s and before.

Oh, dear. When you talk to me about the Death of Superman, my first thought is the one from 1961. I actually have to search my memory to find another one, and even then I mentally stumble across his near-death from Virus X (the one where he revealed his secret identity by writing it on the surface of the moon) before I remember so-called Doomsday.

I forget my classics aren't everyone's classics, you know?

Then I hit this breathless praise:

This is the first time the DC new universe version has been told, and who better to tell this not-so-secret origin than superstar writer Grant Morrison and his equally super (see the pattern?) art team of Andy Kubert and Jesse Delperdang? Morrison has been steadily fleshing out the character’s beginnings since he first came on board with the Action Comics relaunch debut.

Yeah, I see what you did there. Sigh.

Superman's been around since 1938. In 1948 he finally learned the details of his own origin, that he is the last (or so he thought) survivor of another planet, known as Krypton. (We readers knew, but he didn't.) Between and since, there's been plenty of "fleshing out the character's beginnings", and just because Didio and Lee write pretty press releases doesn't mean it didn't happen.

Even Alan Moore remembered Lyla Lerrol when Superman Annual #11 ("For The Man Who Has Everything", 1985) came around, but I guess that's before your time too, isn't it?

Okay, I'm being unfair. I shouldn't dismiss a retelling of the origin story before I've actually read it: Goodness knows I've read several retellings of it already, and some of them I really liked. But the hyperbolic "nobody but Grant Morrison could have done this" really grates on my nerves. I can't think even Morrison would agree with such praise.

She loves me like a rock

I don't care if it is the dumbest disguise ever, my Momma says it's good. See Mike Draw.

Living on borrowed ideas

Newsarama.com : DIDIO: CHALLENGERS Return Reinforces New DC Approach"It's actually very grounded in reality because it starts off as a reality TV show," DiDio said.

He said this with a straight face? He thinks "reality TV" actually reflects reality? Sometimes it's easy to see DiDio started in television writing and showrunning.

I really want to like the new Challengers. If Jerry Ordway is involved, it won't completely suck. And Ordway says this:

Without the luxury of an open ended run, our focus is narrowed, and there has to be some resolution as well.

Well, now, there's a new and different idea. A story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Imagine that.

Farewell, My Rubbery

He wears swim fins over his
super-hero boots?
And he leaves his wife alone on
the boat? Ralph, I think you're
missing the point of this
"honeymoon" thing.

So, there may or may not be a creative embargo on the "world-famous" Elongated Man.

I can't get too bothered over the lack of plans for an action figure: There have been several EM figures over the years, none very satisfying. As paradoxical as it may seem, even an invisible Invisible Woman is easier to render in plastic than a hero meant to look plastic. In all fairness, Plastic Man and Reed Richards figures look just as stiff and lifeless. Maybe, instead of using standard molded plastic, Mattel should look into the process used for bendy, pliable Gumby and Pokey. Or Stretch Armstrong.

Poor Ralph doesn't even have an iconic look anymore. Should they dress him in his original purple tights with removable mask? The maroon-and-black "satellite Justice League" look? The white-and-orchid "Justice League International" suit? Zombie Black Lantern Ralph?

DC clearly isn't interested in building his stock by actually using the character, and hasn't been for at least a decade, since the popular-but-apparently-embarrassing Formerly Known as the Justice League, which itself was a revival. When Grant Morrison was making an Iconic Justice League and needed a stretchy guy, he went with Plastic Man. Ralph and Sue were on DC's "death list" at the time of Identity Crisis. For all that he stole every scene he was in, he wasn't central to the story. The world's second-greatest detective never really tried to solve the only mystery that ever really mattered to him. Even Sue, so cruelly treated by Jean Loring and Dr Light, was only a macguffin. (I don't think DC yet 'gets' how offensive it was for Sue to be raped by Dr Light for no better reason than to be a red herring distraction to the mystery of her own murder.) Ralph's own subsequent death in 52 and brief zombie resurrection in Blackest Light were little more than afterthoughts. And the Dibnys' even briefer appearances as ghost detectives in The Outsiders, well, that was just twisting the knife for this longtime fan.

And the "New 52"... I mean, seriously, in which of these series would Ralph fit? When they were trolling for members for the new Justice League International, it was Plastic Man whose name came up. He was dismissed, but at least he was considered. Where's Ralph? (Do I sound bitter?)

So I get it, DC. You could bring them back, you just don't want to. Julius Schwartz said he'd never have created the Elongated Man if he had known DC owned Plastic Man. That's that.

Tell you what. Just print that blasted Showcase Presents The Elongated Man Volume 2 and I'll buy the thing and stop bothering you.

Taste the rainbow

I really want to like the new Green Lantern animated series. I had hoped to see more of Hal Jordan and his "civilian" supporting cast, which I thought would be possible with a series focusing on one character.

However, DC Animation obviously feels that teams are what pays the rent these days. That, and a desire to attract younger viewers, would be why they chose a hero who comes with 3599 dressalike teammates and a full spectrum of color-coded bad guys. We only meet three Red Lanterns in this episode, but you know the other colors have to be in the wings. And any Green Lantern series that doesn't include Star Sapphire should turn in its power rings.

Another decision I'm not crazy about was to pull a Star Trek Voyager on Hal and Kilowog, stranding them 18 months'  travel time back to Oa at whatever the ring's top speed is, vs 9+ months to repair the warp drive: Either way, It guarantees we won't be seeing any familiar faces unless their backstories are significantly rewritten. Or unless the Guardians had more than one of those experimental starships.

But it does cut down on the number of dressalike teammates we're likely to encounter. And I liked Batman: Brave and the Bold. So maybe this could work. I found myself liking this man, this Hal Jordan who seduces an AI navigational system. Hal, have you met Jim Kirk? I'll bet you would get along famously. Kilowog sure isn't Spock, though.

Actually, characterization is pretty consistent with the comics, as I've come to expect with Timm/Dini DC shows. There's a reason these comic books have lasted as long as they have, and the producers have wisely chosen to keep a lot of it.

Which still leaves two really big problems. One, SPOILER ALERT, is the fact that the Big Damn Green Heroes... lose. This setup wasn't content to put Hal and Kilowog umpteen kessel runs away from anything familiar: We spent an hour (less interminable commercials) getting invested in our three ringslingers and drumming up a serviceable bit of "how are they going to get out of this one", only to discover that they don't get out of it. Another Green Lantern dead, and the planet he rode in on destroyed. Most of the people were relocated successfully, including our casualty's wife and child, on a completely new planet with nothing but the shirts on their backs. I mean, thanks for not letting us all die, but you couldn't have just moved the bomb? There's a lot of unapologetic onscreen death and destruction in Green Lantern.

The other really big problem is CG animation. I was hoping that once I saw it in extended action, it would grow on me. It didn't: I felt like I was watching someone play a video game. Give me old-fashioned hand-drawn cel animation every time.

I wish I'd said that

Ralph Dibny, the World-Famous Elongated Man:
An ear -- In the Fireplace!: Reviewing "Ten Miles to Nowhere!"
To me, this is one of the greatest Elongated Man stories. Yes, it has some silly, far too coincidental aspects, but there's a lot of great characterization. I believe that Ralph was one of the earliest heroes to develop a personality (back then, heroes used to be distinguished just by uniform, hair color and powers).

Yeah, that and Carmine Infantino made Sue Dearbon Dibny so doggoned cute, and Ralph just the right blend of handsome and goofy.

Youthification

The suddenly-svelte Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad gets all the attention, but she's not alone. Commissioner Gordon in Detective is looking distinctly Year One-ish, with vivid red hair: How long has this been going on?

And how about that bat-family portrait in Batman? See how much shorter and slimmer Dick Grayson is? How could he possibly have passed for Batman for the last year-plus?

What about Perry White in Superman? Heck, what about Morgan Edge, who's been not only youthified, but apparently Samuel-L-Jacksonified?

They told us up front they were going for a younger, less experienced DCU: I don't know why anyone should be surprised by what we're seeing in the books.

On the other hand, I'm not sure who they thought would see it as necessarily an improvement, either.

Let's just call it what it is. The DCU hasn't absorbed the Wildstorm universe: It's the other way around.

Compare and Contrast

Remington Steele: NBC television, 1982-1987. After four years of romantic tension between the male and female leads, the producers have the characters get married. The show dies after six more episodes, partly due to failing ratings (and partly, it must be noted, because NBC programming preferred Hunter and scheduled it in Steele's time slot).

Moonlighting: ABC television, 1985-1989. After two and a half years of romantic tension between the male and female leads, the producers (and the characters) yielded to temptation. The show's ratings took an immediate nosedive (aggravated by the stars' lengthy absences, Cybill Shepherd to have a baby, Bruce Willis to make Die Hard) and never recovered.

Catwoman: DC comics, 2011. After seventy-one years of romantic tension (off and on, mostly off through the height of the "seduction of the innocent" scare and the Comics Code) and endless did-they didn't-they hints and parallel-world cheats, Batman and Catwoman have undeniable on-panel sex in the rebooted issue #1.

In a similar vein: If you loved Starfire on Cartoon Network's Teen Titans, you'll hate her in Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Shortpacked! by David Willis - Math

So far, so good

DC's New 52 is a decent collection of comics. Not everything is award material, but then only DC editorial may have thought it might be. But mostly it doesn't suck. I've already spoken about Justice League and the fundamentally wrong-headed idea of issuing it first. (Team-ups are something you build up to, not something you lead with.)

Week two gives us thirteen more titles. These are not detailed reviews, just hit 'em fast and move on first impressions.

Action Comics: Since I haven't drunk DC's kool-aid, I'm not predisposed to nominate Grant Morrison for sainthood for deigning to write Superman. Philosophically, though, I do like the approach. It is actually fun, as a comic named Action should be.

Animal Man: You can tell they like Morrison around here.

Batgirl: I'd almost rather The Killing Joke be written out of continuity than see Barbara freeze in a crisis because of flashbacks to it.

Batwing: Even in-story, marketing is the reason this character is wearing a bat. Have you no shame? (At least he isn't being called the Black Bat, which must have been tempting.)

Detective Comics: Ew. Thanks for reminding me why I stopped reading Batman. Is there supposed to be any detecting going on around here?

Green Arrow: When Green Arrow is a better Batman book than Detective, you're in trouble.

Hawk and Dove: Why does this look like an unused (with good reason) inventory story from 24 years ago?

Justice League International: Why does the Hall of Justice even exist? Why are we getting Justice League spinoff titles before the actual Justice League title begins telling contemporary stories? The book is counting on us already knowing and liking these characters: I thought this was supposed to be an All New DC Universe?

Men of War: Wow, real continuity. This isn't Frank Rock, who still served in WWII.

OMAC: Finally someone remembers OMAC is a Kirby concept. Surprisingly good.

Static Shock: Skimmed it. Found nothing that demanded a closer look.

Stormwatch: Week two of The New 52, and already we're getting footnoted flash-forwards to books that haven't been published yet. DC Editorial, this is a Calendar; Calendar, DC Editorial. Get to know each other, will you? Characters I don't know are introducing themselves clumsily and giving me no reason to like them. J'onn J'onzz' presence just looks intended to manipulate me into buying the damn book. Interesting how they mention his Justice League roots here, but not in Justice League or Justice League International. If they don't think he can carry his own book, why do they think he's going to lead me into Wildstorm? I think I'll start calling him "the Martian Moses."

Swamp Thing: Alec Holland and Superman stand around and talk. *Yawn*.