Signal Watch Reads: Justice League #1 (welcome to the DCNu)

Justice League #1
Part One
writer - Geoff Johns
penciler - Jim Lee
inker - Scott Williams
colorist - Alex Sinclair
letterer - Patrick Brosseau
associate editor - Rex Ogle
editor - Eddie Berganza
cover - Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair
variant cover - David Finch, Richard Friend, Peter Steigerwald
this review is of the print version, standard cover, read 09/01/2011 1:30 am

So, Justice League #1.  Its been a long time in coming.

To contextualize, my reading of Flashpoint #5 concluded about two minutes before I picked up Justice League #1.  DC's decision to release the two simultaneously makes perfect sense, and I was more than delighted to have them both to read back to back.  especially as both are written by Geoff Johns and it was great to make the transition with the same writer.

The problem is that as someone who has been a fan of DC Comics since late middle school, how do you read this comic as something that you'd put in somebody's hands who doesn't know much about Batman and Green Lantern except what they'd seen at the cinema?  I can't really make that call.  And the more I think about it, I don't know that I can write a useful review.  Say you're from the Amazon jungle and you meet a fellow Saudi Arabia who has seen a movie or two with jungles...  once you get him off a plane on the Amazon, what does that guy see that you don't?  And what are the million things you see that he hasn't learned to see yet?

Signal Watch bears Witness: Midnight Release of Justice League #1 at Austin Books

So, I wasn't going to go to the midnight release of Justice League #1.  And then, mid-afternoon, I had this thought that "gee, this sort of thing only happens every so often.  I don't go to midnight movies anymore, I don't go to late concerts, and hopefully DC won't be re-launching their entire universe again in the next twenty years.  At which point I'll be 56, and there will be no way in hell I'll be showing up for midnight releases then..."

So at 11:00 I hopped in the car and drove up to Austin Books, arriving around 11:30ish.

The deal was that ABC wasn't just having Flashpoint 5 and Justice League 1 available, they were also putting back issues on sale, and all DC Superhero trades were 25% off. 

I ran into Brandon outside, came inside and paid my $8 cover charge, which got me a receipt, which would get me my comics at 12:00. 

Comc Book Brandon shows off a comic I will never be able to afford.

I did take advantage of the 1/2 off sale and picked up a few issues of Men of War to work on my Enemy Ace collection.  Truth is, there's a big sale at Austin Books this weekend, and I plan tos pend time hitting the dollar bins, so I'm watching my pennies a bit.

So many nerds packing in so tightly.  It must be New Justice League Day!  EEEEEEE!!!!

This was still before midnight, and people were sort of lurking about, very ready for their brand new Justice League.  I heard some people standinga round me talking about how they'd never bought a DC Comic before, which I found exciting/ bizarre.  But I think that's what the relaunch is all about:  get some folks to try the comic that they've never tried before and get people reading some DC.

But to the one guy criticizing his friend for being into Aquaman: let it go, dude.  There's no one right answer in superheroes, and especially in comics.  Also, Namor is one of the oldest characters in superhero comics. 

Kids today.  No respect for history.

The crush to the register was more of a slow mosey to the register.

There was a bit of a line to checkout after midnight, but everyone was in such a good mood, it all went off without a hitch. 

Via Twitter I've talked a bit to the brains behind website The Kryptonian, Aaron.  I happened to run into he and his lovely fiance, Michele.  You can see Aaron's report here.  Youc an read his review here.  And see his enthusiasm at nabbing an alternate cover here:

that dude in the back was really excited about photobombing the happy couple

I went home, read some comics, and crawled into bed in the wee hours. I'll write up some on both Flashpoint 5 and Justice League 1 in short order.

Austin Books once again did a fantastic job hosting, and it was great to have the opportunity to share in the anticipatory atmosphere DC has been working so hard to build. ABC made the event easy and fun, and I think that's a pretty big success.

No Post Wednesday

So I went to the midnight DCNu Justice League #1 release party.  It was fun!  I met Aaron Ortega who runs The Kryptonian and his lovely fiance, Michele.  I saw the first Hal Jordan comic, picked up my Flashpoint and Justice League comics, and bought a few issues of old school Men of War for 1/2 off (it features a lot of Enemy Ace).  And I briefly chatted with Brandon.

I'm calling it a win.

We'll talk Flashpoint and Justice League later this week, if that's cool with you.

Here's Marie Windsor to keep you company while I go do other stuff.

Ms. Windsor will have none of your shenanigans.

Everyone say good-bye to Superman's red trunks. It is the end of an era.

Just look at those trunks, people. Those terrific, red trunks that were the source of so many people snickering.

After 73 years of freaking out the squares, come this evening, Superman is storing his underwear on the inside.

This here picture above is a "turn-around" by comics artist Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, a personal favorite of mine. They use these to show characters from all sides for reference for artists.
One aspect of the DC Relaunch is that Superman is getting a costume that won't be the source of jokes, thanks to those red undies.  It likely also is being done to combat the potential effects of a lawsuit by the Siegel estate, which could claim they own the original look of shorts and belt over blue.

As a reminder, as of midnight, Superman is supposed to look like this:

In time, I guess I'll get used to it, though I have a hard time believing it will be the permanent solution once a new regime comes to DC. And I really, really don't know how this works with their massive licensing group where most of DC's real money is made.

Anyway, we hate to think we cannot deal with change, so we're embracing the new uniform on our Man of Steel.  But we just can't quite let it go...

Adios to the Old DCU

This week we'll see the last of DC's continuity as its been for the last 25 years.

But let's raise a glass, shall we?

Here's to 25 years of recent continuity.

It was a mess, it didn't make sense a lot of the time, it included the personification of lousy fanboy behavior punching the walls of reality in a hissy fit and accidentally bringing Jason Todd back from the dead...  But if it weren't a totally screwed up timeline and it didn't drive us all crazy, it wouldn't be the DC Universe.

Signal Watch Watches: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Anyone who brings up the Planet of the Apes franchise around me is going to regret that slip of the tongue. I love the Apes. I love not just the premise of Cheston landing on a strange planet where Apes evolved and man did not (ahem, SPOILERS) but the twist ending that lets you know this was a Rod Serling Joint.

I love that there are four more Apes movies of varying quality with a bizarre and twisted time-travel logic to them. I love Roddy McDowell as Cornelius and Caesar, and Kim Hunter as Zira. I love Cheston as Cheston on a planet full of intelligent Apes. I love the fact that Beneath the Planet of the Apes stars James Franciscus, who is sort of a mini-Cheston AND Cheston.

I'm not old enough to have participated in the Apes phenomenon the first time around, and while I watched the movies as a kid (and liked them), it was in college that I became obsessed. Like all good sci-fi, it was a terrific inversion of our world and our way of looking at our fellow beings.

Today would be Jack Kirby's 94th Birthday

Did you enjoy the movie of Thor? Captain America? The Fantastic Four movies? The X-Men?

aw yeaaaah, Kirby!

What about Thundarr the Barbarian, the 1980's kid's cartoon?

All originated by Jack "King" Kirby. Today would be Kirby's 94th Birthday.

You can visit the online museum dedicated to Jack Kirby right now.

In the future, Kirby will suffer from the same rumors that plague Shakespeare today. How could one man come up with so many ideas? Produce such a volume of work? How could one man have contributed so much to the story-telling mythology of America and the World? He makes Hans Christian Andersen seem like a slacker.

Signal Watch Reads: Action Comics 904 (Final issue of the longest running series in American comics)

Action Comics 904
Reign of the Doomsdays Finale
writer - Paul Cornell
artist - Axel Gimènez (pp 1-16), Ronan Cliquet (pp 17-20)
colorist - Brad Anderson
letterer - Rob Leigh
cover - Kenneth Rocafort, variant cover - Jerry Ordway & Paul Mounts
associate editor - Will Moss, editor - Matt Idleson

Let us bid farewell to Volume 1 of the longest running comic in America. Action Comics has been in print since the spring of 1938, and yesterday saw the final issue of the first volume of the comic which created Superman, and therefore, maybe, superheroes, into existence. As much as I understand the need for DC to have a massive new effort to bring readers to their comics, part of me wishes that the only convincing strategy was a break in the numbering on Action. Its like congress suddenly deciding we're going to still have Uncle Sam, but now he's got a mustache instead of the chin slinky. Its just not the same.

I have been in a bad mood for days.

It's hot in Austin.

only the world weary face of Sterling Hayden can convey how much I am sick of this heat

"How hot?" you ask.

So hot that somehow comics scribe Chris Roberson of Superman, Elric and Starborn fame somehow wound up on NPR Wednesday bitching about the heat in Austin.  And rightfully so.



Like, seriously. Its just ridiculously hot. I left Arizona partially because it was this hot all the time (only without the humidity, so I could feel my eyes boiling in the sockets in August)*.

I've realized I've just sort of been in a bad mood for a month because I can't step outside without feeling like I'm cooking in my own juices.  Also, I'm sort of mean on the best of days, so there's that.  But add 70 days or whatever the hell we're dealing with of 100+ days.   You know what?  You have your political debates about global warming.  Its too damn hot, scientifically.  By that, I mean, summer 2011 has been stupidly, morbidly hot.

Hayden knows this heat is just utter BS, but that's the hand we were dealt.  You just gotta live with it.

Maybe its coming back from a vacation and realizing that not only is the "summer" over and you've got nothing to show for it, but that work is getting back into the manic high gear of the fall.  And it still won't really cool down until October 1.

Anyway, I need to unclench a bit, I think.  There's nothing bad going on other than that I'm sick of the heat, and I haven't been swimming nearly enough this year.

I know I'm grumpy about unfinished business and projects.  I know there's movies I want to see.  I wish I had more money.  The cat keeps looking at me weird, and the universe may or may not be headed for a state of total entropy.  I don;t even care which it is, I just want for science to tell me which so I can PLAN AHEAD.

I am in a bad mood.

Hayden shouldn't have to tolerate this heat bunk, or the commies putting fluoride in the water supply

*and partially because of my disdain for Kokopellis as suburban decoration.

Frankenstein turns 80 (sort of)

According to website Frankensteinia (who I would think would know), today the movie Frankenstein turned 80 in that August 24th, 1931 marked the start of filming.

You kids today and your "Final Destinations".  In my day our monsters grunted and  wore sport coats, like gentlemen!

I don't know exactly when I finally watched Frankenstein.  It certainly was never on TV while I was growing up (black and white movies did poorly back then, thus the horrendous Turner colorization effort circa 1991), and I recall it just wasn't really around much of VHS that I ever saw at Blockbuster or wherever else I was renting movies.  Mostly I remember books around the house about monster movies, but who knows when I saw this at long last?  I do know I saw the Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein movie first when I was at a birthday party when I was very little (it was on 8mm.  Pre VHS, people).