New Comics Day

Big week. Seems like DC's trying to shovel out as much as possible before the reboot.

• Incorruptible #20 - I think this and Irredeemable might be on my chopping block. I like'em, but.. eh.
• Invincible #81
• Fables #107 - This may go away soon, too.
• FF #7
• DC Retroactive : Superman 1970s
• DC Retroactive : Green Lantern 1970s
• DC Retroactive : Justice League 1970s - Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes.
• Batman : The Dark Knight #4
• Gotham City Sirens #25
• Wonder Woman #613 - Oh, see, that ending makes total sense because derp. Wait, no, it doesn't.
• Green Lantern Corps #62
• Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #12
• Detective Comics #880
• Brightest Day Aftermath : The Search for Swamp Thing #2
• Superman #713
• Justice Society of America #53 - I love how they're still pretending the story will matter in two months.
• Teen Titans #98
• Action Comics #903
• Flashpoint : Hal Jordan #2
• Flashpoint : Project Superman #2 - Good dog. Very good dog.
• Flashpoint : Lois Lane and the Resistance #2
• Flashpoint : Kid Flash Lost #2
• Tarot #69
• Bomb Queen Presents : All-Girl Special #1 - Annnd I'm done with Bomb Queen.
• Butcher Baker : The Righteous Maker #5

Ta-da.

New Comics Day

This week's batch. Fairly substantial.

• Hack / Slash #6
• Knights of the Dinner Table #176
• Herc #5
• Warlord of Mars #8
• Darkwing Duck #14
• DC Universe Online Legends #12
• DC Retroactive : Wonder Woman 1970s
• DC Retroactive : Flash 1970s
• DC Retroactive : Batman 1970s
• Cinderella : Fables Are Forever #6
• Batman : Gates of Gotham #3
• Superman / Batman #86
• Justice League of America #59
• Batman #712
• Zatanna #15
• Supergirl #66
• Power Girl #26
• War of the Green Lanterns Aftermath #1
• Legion of Super-Heroes #15
• Flashpoint : The Outsider #2
• Flashpoint : Wonder Woman and the Furies #2
• Flashpoint : Deadman and the Flying Graysons #2
• Flashpoint : Legion of Doom #2

That's it!

Heroes Rebored, Judgment Day

More Origins summary soon, but this is the week I have to turn in my Previews order form, which means I had to make my final calls on which of DC's new titles, if any, I wanted on my pull list. There were a couple of close calls that I ultimately decided against, because I just don't have any investment in the new continuity - this includes Blue Beetle, the Green Lantern titles, and many of the Batman family of titles. I may flip through them at the comic store and consider adding them later.

So, when I last discussed the future of my pull-list, I was waffling between a cautious and an optimistic approach - between about 9 titles and 25 titles. I ended up between those two numbers, leaning towards the cautious side, at 15. So DC's reboot means they're getting half as much money from me.

Here's what I decided to pick up and why :

Justice League - This is the tentpole book of any DC Universe, and I haven't missed a Justice League issue since Grant Morrison relaunched the title in the 90's. More than anything else, this will be a barometer of the suck / doesn't suck quotient of the new DCU.

Justice League International - Honestly, I waffled on this one - without the continuity connections behind it, I don't know if I'll enjoy it, but I'm willing to pick up the first three issues on name alone.

Wonder Woman - Mainly buying it for the art. May not stick around, despite my love for Cliff Chiang's work.

The Flash - This was a last minute 'why not' addition to my pull list. The first two months' solicits seem interesting, at least.

The Savage Hawkman - I just really want to see how they try to lay a new foundation for one of DC's most continuity-plagued characters.

Action Comics - This is probably the other tentpole book of the DCU, especially with Grant Morrison and Rags Morales on it. The solicits have not been encouraging, though.

Superman - Just for the snapshot of Superman's status quo in the new DCU.

Justice League Dark - I really like the premise.

I, Vampire - I really like Andrew Bennett.

Resurrection Man - I have a complete run of the original series of Resurrection Man, so.. yeah.

Demon Knights - The information that has come out about this series since my last assessment cemented it into my 'must buy' category.

Stormwatch - This, too, looks like it could be really, really good.

Voodoo - This is an art buy. I love Sami Basri's stuff.

Legion of Super-Heroes - I will always buy whatever main Legion title is being published.

Legion Lost - This, on the other hand, is on a short leash.

Of the fifteen, I'd say most are on the bubble - if they don't entertain me in the first 3-4 issues, they'll get dropped. The exceptions (which will be given a little more leeway) would be Justice League, Action, Legion of Super-Heroes, Stormwatch, Resurrection Man, and Demon Knights - all of which are either important enough or intriguing enough for me to stick with them a while.

New Comics Day

This week's haul.

• Guarding the Globe #5
• Gladstone's School for World Conquerors #3
• FF #6
• Batman : The Dark Knight #3
• Red Robin #25
• Teen Titans #97
• Detective Comics #879
• Birds of Prey #14
• Batgirl #23
• Green Lantern #67
• Green Lantern Corps #61
• Booster Gold #46
• Flashpoint : Citizen Cold #2
• Flashpoint : Deathstroke #2
• Flashpoint : Emperor Aquaman #2
• Flashpoint : Frankenstein #2
• Charismagic #2

That's it!

Origins 2011, Day Two

Day two - wisely, I had scheduled nothing earlier than 9AM, to avoid pesky early morning hassles. My schedule was thus :

9AM - 1PM : Global Defense League : Dimensional Distress (Mutants and Masterminds)
2PM - 4PM : Shadows Over Camelot (Board Game)
7PM - 11PM : Invasion High School (Big Eyes Small Mouth 2nd Ed.)

Between the second and third event, I even had time to do an initial sweep of the dealer hall, setting my sights on a few things I would later purchase.

The first session was a rock-solid superhero game - fairly straightforward, but no less fun for it. I played a Green Lantern type, so I got to do some creative blasting and bashing. Shadows Over Camelot is a pretty neat little board game of the 'One of you is a traitor' variety. Not something I plan to buy, but something I'd probably play at any invitation.

The third session was the winner of the day, though. A typical Japanese High School is attacked by aliens, who use combat robots to subjugate the populace. This proves to be a golden opportunity for the members of the Alien Defense Club and the Robot Defense Club to finally prove which group is superior! It was fairly pun-laden, almost to the point of distraction, but the hilarious characters to choose from really made my night. They included parodies of Squall (FF8), Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Ash (Pokemon), All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku-Nuku (Eponymous), a Magical Girl, and a Gun Bunny. If the latter two were specific parodies, I missed'em, but the game was a riot.

I mean, the Ash expy had Pokemon that included Fistbump (a surly drunken one) and Ivyskank (a Dryad with plant and seduction powers). 'Nuker Nuker' was a squirrel in a female android body. The Squall/Cloud parody was 'Barometric Pressure', and wielded a Sword-With-a-Gun - two weapons affixed to one another via duct tape. That's who I picked. He had a power - Sacrificial Girlfriend - that he could invoke to have his girlfriend, 'Aerihed', show up in a scene and take a damaging hit meant for him.

We had to fight our way past the Hall Monitor Nazi Club, and mind-controlled members of the Assault Rifle and Chainsaw clubs. It was fantastic.

Still, not quite as fun as Lawfully Blonde.

New Comics Day

More Flashpoint stuff.

• Irredeemable #27
• DC Universe Online Legends #11 - Going to be dropping this one soon, I think.
• Batman and Robin #25
• Batman Beyond #7
• Superboy #9
• Adventure Comics #528
• Secret Six #35 - Oh, crap!
• Flashpoint : Abin Sur #2
• Flashpoint : Batman, Knight of Vengeance #2 - Nice. Beautiful.
• Flashpoint : Secret Seven #2
• World of Flashpoint #2
• Flashpoint #3 - Oh, man. Poor Krypto.

That's all.

Origins 2011, Day One

I'll be skipping over the minutiae of the trip, the hotel, etc. Most of that was uneventful, except that the Hyatt had a Monopoly board set up, and allowed people to roll the dice - if you got a 10, you got your parking comped by the hotel. I managed to luck out on that - and then my friend Andrew, who had flown up, and was staying in the same room. took a roll on my behalf and won it a second time.

My schedule for the first day was :

3PM - 5PM : Painting Miniatures : Tools and Supplies
7PM - 11PM : Lawfully Blonde (4th Edition D&D)

The painting class was extremely helpful - explaining the virtues of miniature paint vs. craft paint, why you don't want to skimp on brushes, and the like. It is directly responsible for my spending nearly $200 on paint and probably $100 on supplies and tools to up my game in painting minis.

Lawfully Blonde was one of the most hysterical RPG experiences I've ever had. Six low-level adventuring sorority girls. Investigating goblin saboteurs interfering with their favorite salon. The catty remarks were flying, and the three guys playing got into it as much as the three girls. During a skill challenge to catch a fleeing goblin, the bible-thumping Paladin (of Pelor, sun-god) girl tried to flash some cleavage, arguing for a Diplomacy check. One of the other players inquired "You use Diplomacy for that?" and was answered "Well, there's no skill for Whore." The Paladin became the butt of most of the jokes after that, as the Bible-thumper AND the Tramp.

My character had a special rivalry with her, too, giving me ample opportunities for undercutting remarks - the most blistering of which I will recount to give you an idea of the atmosphere of the session :

Tiffany! (the Paladin, played by the girl next to me) : "Well, I took a class on Forensics, once.."
Brianna! (the Psion, played by me) : "Waking up covered in evidence does not constitute a class in Forensics, Tiffany."
Tiffany! "... Pelor loves you, even if you will end up in Hell, bitch."

I seriously haven't laughed that hard in a while.

Another one - after much amusement was had about the Paladin mentioned she had 'contacts' in the Thieves Guild (via her Streetwise skill) causing us to wonder how many of them she'd had contact with..

Tiffany! : "Pelor believes in free love."
Brianna! : (to the others) "Oh, so that's why she doesn't charge."

Since my character was the bookish one, and had glasses, I decided she was the hipster chick of the bunch, and used History during the skill challenge to recall a little-used shortcut.

Brianna! : "There's this little alleyway back here, you've probably never heard of it.."

So that was a great start to the Con, for me. I was apparently in the same hotel as the girl who played the Paladin, so we walked past each other at the elevators several times over the next few days - I couldn't tell if she recognized me or not, but I resisted the urge to say "Bitch!" just in case she didn't.

Heroes Rebored, A Trend

Item! DC Comics Creative Honchos Dan Didio, Jim Lee, and Geoff Johns have responded to the fans clamoring for the return of the Justice Society, with a just announced 53rd title for launch this September!

"We didn't realize the depth of the following that these characters had," said Didio. "So we just had to find a way to make room. Of course, we had to adjust things to fit with the new creative direction."

Justice League Old #1
Written and Drawn by Marc Silvestri (Witchblade, Cyberforce)
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Things at the Shady Pines rest home have gotten a little TOO shady - now it's up to the DC Universe's oldest heroes - and Shady Pines' newest residents - to solve the sinister secret of the nursing home, before their afternoon nap.

No word on Justice League Special Dark (Yummy), Justice League After Dark (Mature Readers), Justice League Grimdark (by Warren Ellis), or Justice League Lite (50% less fat).