O Jericho, Where Art Thou? Oh brother...

Back in the days leading up to INFINITE CRISIS, continuity was (supposed to be) at an all-time high in the DC Universe. Pretty much all the storylines in all the books were reflected back on each other. It was so bad, that if (ha, when) a book shipped late, you had to backtrack your thinking to keep it all in order. Everything was tied together. Dan Didio said in an interview (and I'm totally "quoting" this from memories that are a few years old) that it was important for the continuity to be tight, so that the importance of INFINITE CRISIS could be felt, that it was affecting the entire DCU, and some other crap like that. But that after IC, the reigns would be loosened a little.

Well, the reins were loosened a lot. So much that it was impossible to follow any one character, as they'd be appearing all over the place with no discernible connections from appearance to the next.

• Supergirl was in the present and the future.
• Power Girl was running around with the JSA while apparently adventuring in Kandor with Supergirl.
• Giganta was simultaneously romancing Ryan Choi in THE ALL-NEW ATOM and pounding the crap out of Donna Troy in WONDER WOMAN.

It was just this side of ridiculous. But at least you could "justify" it as different writers and editors just playing around without checking up on one another. But...

Backstory:

Waaay back in THE NEW TITANS #83 (February 1992), Deathstroke ran a sword through his son, Jericho, to save Jericho's soul from the Trigon-tainted Souls of Azarath who were possessing him.

Between 2003 and 2007, in TEEN TITANS, it was revealed that Jericho had been inhabiting Deathstroke's body since his "death." He was then trapped onto a computer disk (what?), and eventually grown a new body and made whole and good. He took possession of Match (the evil clone of Superboy) and stayed in him to keep him under control at S.T.A.R. Labs until they could figure out how to deal with him.

But...what if you have the same writer and the same editors working on two different books, using the same character, but in no way connected to one another? How do you justify that...?

Two weeks ago:

TITANS #6
writer: Judd Winick
editors: Rex Ogle, Elisabeth V. Gehrlein and Dan DiDio
release date: October 15, 2008
artists: Julian Lopez, Prentis Rollins & Bit

The Titans return to Titans Tower, after rescuing Raven from the influence of Trigon (again), to find Match waiting for them. But his speech patterns are different. He cries out: "It's me! It's Joey! I'm Joseph Slade! I'm Jericho! Please, I need your help! I can't get out!"

So now we know that Jericho has been keeping Match under control since...
Oh. Wait...

DC UNIVERSE: DECISIONS #3
writers: Judd Winick and Bill Willingham
editors: Rex Ogle, Elisabeth V. Gehrlein and Dan DiDio
release date: October 15, 2008
artists: Rick Leonardi and Dan Green

Our heroes can't figure out why presidential candidates are trying to kill themselves, other than they are being controlled by somebody. Of course, the first person they suspect isn't even a super-villain, it's (as far as anyone knows) another hero! And they're right!

Jericho has been possessing the candidates and planting bombs so they'll be blown up!!

Except that he's still keeping Match under control at S.T.A.R. Labs. Isn't he...?

WTF? I'm so confused.

And why is Jericho suddenly a bad guy? Even in the solicitations for TITANS #9 it says: "With Jericho around, no one is safe. He can hide in plain sight, and he's far more powerful than he's ever been before." Yeah, he was bad when he was possessed by the evil Souls of Azarath. And still tainted from spending so much time living in Deathstroke's head (apparently he's so messed up that he can't even remember his name!). But Geoff Johns fixed all that before Joey took over Match. What up?

I know that Judd and Dan loved the Wolfman/Perez NEW TEEN TITANS. That's why they brought the line-up back together. But do they have to love it so much that they keep retelling the old stories? Raven under Trigon's influence, check. Jericho as a bad guy, check. I suppose the next storyline will be Cyborg getting a new flesh-and-bones body that rejects him... Or Donna Troy searching out her past...

C'mon guys, fresh, please. Fresh!

If anyone but Winick and DiDio were working on this book, I'd think the "Joseph Slade" slip was a clue. That maybe we're dealing with an alternate-earth Jericho. But neither of them are that clever, so it was just a stupid mistake that no one caught.

On the other hand, Julian Lopez's art has been a breath of fresh air!! I really wish he was sticking with the book.

Okay, the end.

Oh wait...

P.S. This is why I almost never write lengthy posts. They ramble and make almost no sense. And I don't have an ending to wrap it up pretty. Oh well, I guess you'll get over it. LOL

Who is Wonder Woman?

You read a lot about writers saying that Wonder Woman is a hard character to write. Because she's supposed to be this ultimate warrior, but she's also supposed to be a deliverer of peace. And it's hard to make the two concepts work together. But I think Gail Simone gets it.

WONDER WOMAN #19 written by Gail Simone; art by Bernard Chang and Jon Holdridge

Diana has the ability to, and if need be will, beat your ass. But she'd rather not if there's any other option. She is determined to find a solution that leads to peace.
She could've beaten Procanon Kaa into submission, but she wanted the ending to be mutually peaceful and not just "Nyah, nyah, I kicked your butt!"

I've been reading Wonder Woman for over 30 years. And I've always enjoyed the super-hero stories to the "Ambassador of Peace" blah that's been shoehorned in since the 80s.
Gail gives me both and makes it work. I'm loving this.

PS - I've read a lot of online grumbling about how "bad" Bernard Chang's art is. I'm like "WTF?" I think the art on these past 2 issues has been great. True, he may not draw Diana as classically beautiful as Terry Dodson, but it's not like she's beastly by any stretch of the imagination. I don't know. Maybe I'm just stupid...

Titans (whatever) #1

TITANS #1

written by Judd Winick
art by Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund

Okay...
When this book was first announced I was kind of excited. I mean, THE NEW TEEN TITANS has always been one of my all-time favorite comics. I love these characters and having them come back together was just too much to ask. Even though the previous TITANS revival kinda fell apart, I still wanted to love that one, too.
Judd Winick wasn't really a stumbling block for me. I know a lot of people on the internet seem to hate him, but he's written some good stuff (GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY, the first couple years of THE OUTSIDERS) along with the bad (TITANS/YOUNG JUSTICE: GRADUATION DAY, TITANS EAST SPECTACULAR). So, I wasn't too worried.
Ian Churchill's art on the other hand had me a little trepidatious. I just don't get it most of the time. He can draw a pretty man on occassion, but on the whole it just does nothing for me. But I read the interviews, and Winick seemed like he was excited and got the group. So I thought it might me all right.
I guess I was kinda wrong. This book just doesn't make any sense. I could go into more detail, but Troy Brownfield over at Newsarama has pretty much taken all the words out of my mouth.
Go read his review and then come on back. I'll wait.

Hmm, hmmm. La la la la...

Oh, hi! Okay: First of all, I don't hate it quite that much. But it's close.
What is the timeline on this thing? Are they all attacked at once? They couldn't get ahold of Dick to let him know what was happening, because his comm was cut while he was fighting. And how long was his fight that they got ahold of Batman and he got to Dick before Dick was done? Or did the other attacks happen before Dick's? And how did they get away.
Especially Donna. She was out in space with Kyle, gets attacked by some tentacle thing, and then has time to get free, come back to earth and change clothes. All the while that Dick is running around with glass sticking out of his neck. !!??? And where did Kyle go? He was a Titan once. He did get attacked same time as Donna. Were they just like "Okay, see ya later!" !!???
About the only thing I didn't hate that most people seem to have a problem with is the return of Trigon. I love him. I hope he turns out to be cool. But really, this should have been a lot more Raven oriented for Trigon's return...
All in all, there were some highlights in the artwork :). However if these weren't my favorite characters, I probably wouldn't be back. But I have to keep reading to see if maybe it gets better. Please.

And now for something completely different: Here's a review of the book from an alternate universe. I really, truly cannot believe we read the same book. I so wish I could love it as much as this guy did.

The Trouble with Titans

TEEN TITANS: THE JUDAS CONTRACT - Originally slated to be the third film in the DC Universe direct-to-DVD series, the project is currently on hold.

THE TITANS - Yeah, I've already mentioned that mess to the left, but it fit in with this post. The first issue is drawn by Ian Churchill (or scheduled to be, anyway). The second by Joe Bennett. Two strikes out the gate. And as much as I absolutely love GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY, the TITANS EAST SPECTACULAR was more craptacular than anything else. Not sure I hold out much hope for Judd Winick's handling of the Titans.

Gotta love a house ad that's drawn by an unspectacular artist who's not associated with the book. Dick and Donna look okay, altho Donna's not wearing the new costume. Kory, Vic, Gar and Raven all look like crap. Wally would look alright if not for the freaky-scary not-quite-human-looking pose...and the whole eunuch-thing going on.

Yes, I do have one question: Aside from having a cool cast of characters...what exactly is supposed to make me want to read this?

SUPERGIRL #27 - I have come to firmly believe that DC's directive to Kelley Puckett when he took over this title was something along the lines of: "We need to kill this book and fast. We want you to write completely unintelligible stories that lead nowhere. Be sure to include Superman, so it looks like we care, but write him so bizarrely out of character that he seems like an impostor. Just write the worst crap you can come up with so we can get sales down and cancel it!"

TEEN TITANS: YEAR ONE #3 - Could somebody please remind Amy Wolfram that she's no longer writing for the cartoon? I thought I was reading an updated telling of the first adventure of my favorite characters. But this totally pulled me out of the moment:Yes, the (yet another) Aqualad (as) punchline is cute and all, but I wanted to take this semi-seriously, even if it is just a comic.

DC SPECIAL: RAVEN #1 - Y'know, this could quite conceivably be the greatest comic ever written.

But I'll never know because the artwork is so horrendous as to make it completely unreadable. I tried. I really did. But by about the third of fourth page my eyes started bleeding and I just couldn't continue on. The Rob Liefeld art on Gail Simone's TEEN TITANS story a couple years back had close to the same effect. But even Rob's art wasn't this bad (and it's really hard to say that without choking). Maybe some decent coloring might have helped subdue and pull it together, but alas, that was not the case.
And the RAVEN "logo"? Talk about an afterthought...
Who thought this was a good idea?

Superpowers: Who were those masked men?

I absolutely love golden age comics and the golden age heroes. Especially the less-famous ones. So when I heard about PROJECT: SUPERPOWERS. I was so excited!! Issue #0 came out this week and it rocked. I also picked up THE TWELVE, but it's a little too "modern-age dark" for me to get into the novelty of the golden-age heroes. I don't know how SUPERPOWERS will go from here, but the first issue was fun!

I loved this double page spread! Alex Ross, Stephen Sadowski and Captain Moreno knocked it out of the park (except for half the guys having purple skin tones [wtf])! I knew about a third of them at first glance, but was really curious about the rest. So I spent the day going through International Hero and Golden Age Hero Directory picture-by-picture until I could match them all up with a name. So I figured if someone else wanted to know, here it is:

Maybe I'll get bold and go through the rest of the issue later. But I don't know, LOL! It was time consuming!!

Countdown to Final Crisis 13

The last 3 issues of COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS have been pretty damn good. The story is rolling. The sad part is, they've stopped telling a lot of the stories. No Jimmy Olsen. No Karate Kid. It's all been about "The Challengers" (Donna, Kyle & Jason), the Monitors, Monarch and Superman-Prime. But it's been fast-paced and interesting.

Maybe a little too fast-paced? I have no idea what happened between panels one and two of this page...but something must have.

Yes, I'd like some cheese with my whine!

ARRGH!
I got the DC Direct Wonder Woman Series 1 actions figures awhile back. And I was so irritated, that I decided to not talk about them until I calmed down. Apparently that isn't going to happen, so...
WTH? On the left is the prototype image that was released as a preview for the figure line. In the center is the same prototype from the back of the package. On the right is the actual figure.
WHERE THE HELL DID THE EAGLE HEAD GO!?
I know that a prototype is sort of a this-is-basically-what-the-figure-will-look-like. And usually changes are mostly made when the prototype has some sort of error. But this one was right! Why was this stupid change made!? I'm so irritated!!
Hey stupid DC Direct sculptors, read this!!
Meanwhile, I hate you.

Lethal Force Enabled!

Y'know, it was one thing when it happened a couple months back in GREEN LANTERN CORPS #16. In fact, it was kind of a cool moment.
But, for crying out loud, this week everyone is trying to get in on the act:
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #21:
MIDNIGHTER #14:
Can we find a different phrase, so it doesn't feel like ... deja vu?

Snoring now.

COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #23

Written by Paul Dini with Keith Giffen, Story Consultant
Art by Tom Derenick & Wayne Faucher
Cover by J.G. Jones

Well, about the nicest thing that can be said about this issue is that it's presented with a beautiful J.G. Jones cover.
Otherwise, ugh. I felt like I was reading an issue of COUNTDOWN PRESENTS THE SEARCH FOR RAY PALMER. Issue after issue of that series is like a waste of time because absolutely nothing happens to advance the story. And this fits right in with those.
Three issues ago (COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS #26), we had basically an all-recap issue. But nothing about it felt stagnant. It still moved along, and even partially forward.
In this one we got nothing except an extended Mxyzptlk-tortured-by-Superman-Prime scene, that ultimately led to...nothing.
And why do they keep introducing potentially interesting characters, like Jokester and Annataz Arataz, just to kill them off? While forcing us to endure Forerunner?
About the only good thing about this issue (and I'm being subjective), is that it sort of helps save Tom Derenick's art from last issue. The writers actually told us that Superman-Prime is 19 years old. He looks 30. And the last issue made no sense, because why was he suddenly so big and bulky. And old. But what Tom couldn't show us, the writers told us. So there is that.

And I'm wondering how the battle between Sodom Yat and Superbrat-Prime turns out in this coming week's GREEN LANTERN CORPS #18, which obviously takes place, oh yeah, before this...

RE: Green Arrow/Black Canary #2 Preview

Okay, I forgot about "Athena" and her group heading over to the island in COUNTDOWN. So that explains the "Amazons" that kidnapped Ollie.

But that doesn't explain how Hippolyta is on the island "alone" (WONDER WOMAN #14) and unaware that it's inhabited (GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #2)!

AHHH!

Supergirl #23 (January 2008)

Written by Kelley Puckett
Art and Cover by Drew Johnson and Ray Snyder

Can anybody tell me what the hell is going on here?
The art is wonderful (yeah, that's kind of a pun. if you don't get it, tough).
The writing seems decent enough. I absolutely loved the exchange between Kara and Batman.
But the whole space thing!? I have no clue!!
Why did she fly away from the ship? Why did she fly through the sun? After she got back, what was the whole "Wait a second...two hours." thing? If she'd been gone two hours Batman should've come and got his box, but he didn't? So she wasn't gone two hours? Ack.
I mean, I figure the whole Superman/Green Lantern Corps thing was probably some sort of fake thing. But how did she figure it out? One little clue for the readers may have been nice.
I didn't f-ing get any of it.
Maybe I'm just stupid.

Well...probably.

The Brave and the Bold 7. December 2007

Okay, since I gave George Perez down-the-road for not getting Wonder Woman's costume right on the solicited art for BRAVE AND BOLD 7, I guess I should be fair and note that it was corrected on the released issue:

Half-ass corrected, and probably not by George, but corrected, none the less.

And George did get it right on the interiors, and awesomely so. Even if he forgot the seams on her costume. But I can deal with that.

Wonder Woman and the Teen Titans...of Earth-462

Waaay back in INFINITE CRISIS #6 (MAY 2006), George Perez drew a two page scene which featured the Alex Luthor-recreated multiverse. In one of the panels, at the bottom between pages 6 and 7, was a scene from Earth-462. It was set during World War II and featured alternate versions of Wonder Woman and the Teen Titans. This immediately caught my eye, because the Wonder Girl depicted was the Debra Winger character from the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series.
The Wonder Woman however, was very different. This was the Wonder Woman portrayed by Cathy Lee Crosby in the 1974 TV-Movie that predated the Lynda Carter series. You can read all about it here.
Anyway, it caught my eye...except for the fact the colorist obviously didn't know or didn't care that this Wonder Woman had existed before, and colored her completely wrong. As bad as the movie was, it still has a small little place in my heart and it bugged me. So I decided to recolor it.
While I was at it, I decided to add color to the Titans characters to make them stand out more.
Below on the left is the scene as it appeared and to the right is my recolorization.

With the original blend-into-the-background coloring, it's a little harder to pick the Titans out. But the originals are all there: (clockwise from the bottom) Robin, Kid Flash, Speedy, Wonder Girl and Aqualad.
Apparently I have to much time on my hands sometimes. LOL!

Okay, bye.

Donna Troy is not your Bitch!

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with this turn of events in COUNTDOWN 27 (OCT 24 2007):
But they did make it all better in COUTNDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS 26 (OCT 31 2007):

And it totally rocked.
Proving once again that Donna Troy ain't nobody's bitch...Re-Todd!

And can we have more Scott Kolins, please?

What's that smell...?

Oh, whoops, I left out last week's comics. Really should have put them up...

WONDER WOMAN 12. OCTOBER 2007
Considering all the troubles that this title has been having since it started last summer...you think they'd try a little harder. I know it's just a fill-in-to-kill-time until Gail Simone's run starts, but sheesh. This was just bad. They'd have been better off just skipping a couple months. The story wasn't much to talk about, just a standard yawn fest. Surprisingly, the Dodsons didn't hit the cover out of the park, either. And the art...oy. The best I can say is that it was servicable. It wasn't horrible, but you couldn't call it good.

COUNTDOWN 35. AUG 29 2007
Meanwhile, down the block...the art in this issue makes the pedestrian art in WONDER WOMAN look like a George Perez original. I'll just say it: the art in this issue was bad. Horrible. I could barely read the thing. I'm actually kind of liking COUNTDOWN, but they're trying hard to push me away.
Even J G Jones' cover was not up to snuff. It was absolutely nothing compared to the masterpieces he was creating on a weekly basis for 52. Maybe he needs tighter deadlines to turn out the good stuff.
And the origin of Parallax confused me. I thought that the reason that Hal Jordan went crazy was because he was infected/possessed by the Parallax entity. But here it looks like his going crazy opened him up to the possession. And I was under the impression that the entity was named Parallax, but again, it seems that it was just the name Hal took up after becoming evil. I don't know. At least the Ivan Reis art was hot.

COUNTDOWN TO ADVENTURE 1. OCTOBER 2007
Well, at least the art doesn't suck.
I have no idea what's going on. I've never followed Adam Strange, so I just have to go with the flow and hope something starts to make sense. And it seems like it's been longer than "weeks" since week 51 of 52, but Starfire's been unconscious since then, so what do I know?
The first 10-12 years that I was reading comics I was dealing with the multiverse. Never had a problem with it. Wasn't confused at all. But this new multiverse is making my head spin. The Monitors have been watching Earth-48 for eons...even though this multiverse is supposed to be new. So is the current Earth-2 supposed to be the same Earth-2 from the original multiverse, since the current multiverse seems to have always been around now retroactively? AHHHHH! Make it stop!

AMAZONS ATTACK 6. LATE OCTOBER 2007
Beautiful art, but sheesh...
Remember back in the day when a mini-series was a self-contained story (not counting titles that may have crossed-over)? A beginning, a middle and an end. OMG. DC just doesn't do that anymore. And this is the worse example. A complete cliffhanger ending with no next issue. WTF? And where on earth did this villain get the power to do all the crap she's been doing? I don't know. It just made no sense at all.
But Pete Woods was amazing. At least there's that.

THE CREAM ALSO RISES:
TEEN TITANS 50. OCTOBER 2007
At least there was one book that didn't have any major suckage.
This was fun. I absolutely LOVED seeing all the old Titans creative teams come back and revisit. I'd like to see this kind of thing more often. Mike McKone and George Perez were awesome. I could've done without the Lobo crap, but over all I like the way it cut back and forth between remembering Bart, the flashbacks, and the set-up for the next storyline. It was a well-done book!!

Hopefully this week's books will be better. Hopefully a lot better. Even though, thanks to the holiday, I won't see them until Monday. Grrrr....

Not a good week to be Zatanna

Here's what Zatanna was doing the week of 8.22.07:

COUNTDOWN 36.
AUGUST 22, 2007

SUPERMAN 666.
OCTOBER 2007

I'm just saying...

Countdown 38. August 8 2007

I'm not really sure why the cover announces: "The First Appearance of Mr. Action! Collector's Item!" when Jimmy has been running around the pages of COUNTDOWN as Mr. Action for the past 3 or 4 weeks. But what do I know?

I'm not familiar with Shane Davis' art (although I checked ComicBookDB, and it says he drew an issue of WONDER WOMAN), but I like this cover. The Titans look great!


Thank goodness that Jesus Saiz is back on the art!! It seems like it's been a couple of weeks since the art in COUNTDOWN hasn't been hard on the eyes.

And he draws an awesome looking Batwoman! Love her!


"History of the Multiverse" Two things first: 1) Jerry Ordway should always ink Dan Jurgens. I love both of these guys seperately as artists, but when they come together, it takes them both to another level, in my opinion. 2) How the heck old is Jason Todd supposed to be!!?

This part of the whole COUNTDOWN/DC Universe story is confusing the heck out of me! Why do they have to be exterminated? Why did Duela have to die? I understand that they "aren't supposed to be here," and that they're presence is an anomoly that's causing stress to the multiverse (I don't get it, the "why" is not clear, but I understand it from a storyline POV). But why do they have to die? Why don't the Monitors just put them back on the Earths they belong to? Why is that not an option? The writers really need to clear this part of the story up.

Classic DC Character #3: Wonder Woman

Okay today we're going to talk about this:


Here's the description from the Dark Horse website:

Dark Horse Comics and DC Direct, DC Comics' action figure and collectible company, have the collector market buzzing about a new series of vintage-style statuettes featuring four of DC Comics' best-known characters.

This month we feature the third statue in the series-Wonder Woman. The sculpting and packaging design are inspired by the original "Golden Age" version of the Amazon Princess, and echoes the look and feel of her earliest comic appearances.

Limited edition of 2,000 pieces. Each statuette is packaged in a litho-printed full-color tin box and includes a vintage-style pinback button, and booklet about the character.

First of all, it clearly says that it's inspired by the original "Golden Age" version of WW. If you look at the pic there to the left, you can see they did a pretty accurate job of getting the costume of the "Golden Age" Wonder Woman right. So, why on earth, did they put a picture of the Silver Age Wonder Woman on the package!? The eagle's not perched on her belt, the boots are completely different. Was it so hard to find a picture of Wonder Woman that reflected the design of the statuette!?

My other thing is: the description also says "includes a vintage-style pinback button, and booklet about the character." Hm. I guess not all 2,000 of them included those items. Because #865 of 2,000 didn't include either.

Not to mention, it's all carved looking, like it's supposed to have been made from wood or something. But the seems from the mold are so extremely prominent, that it completely ruins the effect. Unless I just don't know what they were trying to go for.

All in all, definitely not worth the price of admission. Don't get me wrong, I actually kind of like it. But it's a $10 maybe $20 item, not $50. Not even close.

Some of this week's comics...

BIRDS OF PREY 108. SEPTEMBER 2007
I hate Gail Simone.
Okay, not really. But I do hate that she's leaving BOP. I'm torn though. She's leaving BOP to write WONDER WOMAN, and WW needs it bad!!
I also hate that she made me cry in this issue!! What a great ending to her run. It would be really easy to stop buying the book right here. It was perfect. It ended, but is still open to continue. How do you do that!? LOL!!
And that four-page spread (which should've been a fold-out, dang it) was awesome. I totally didn't see that coming or how Babs was going to get out of her predicament. Great work by Simone! We love you Gail!! Can't wait for WONDER WOMAN 13!!!

BLACK CANARY 2. SEPTEMBER 2007
Despite some hideously piss-poor anatomy on the cover, the art in this issue is just gorgeous!! Who is Paulo Siqueira and why haven't I seen his work before?
The story is pretty interesting. Loved BC kicking Kobra's tail. That was fun, and very in the characterization that Gail Simone established for her in BOP.
Not sure what to say about the story. I wasn't a fan of the idea of Dinah being saddled with a kid, but now that Sin's here, I don't want anything to happen to her!! Not sure where this is going, but the cover to BC 4 does not bode well for a happy ending...

COUNTDOWN 41. JULY 18 2007
I'm glad I'm so lazy. Last week I was going to complain about how the amazons are attacking America over in AMAZONS ATTACK...but Holly and Harleen are hanging out in some sort of amazonian women's shelter in COUNTDOWN...and nobody cares? But in this issue the repercussions started. Saved from foot-in-mouth that time!!
And the art was so much better in this issue. The art in COUNTDOWN 42 was so many levels of suck I don't know where to begin, so I won't.
Not nearly enough Donna Troy. Una? Ugh is more like.

AMAZONS ATTACK 4. SEPTEMBER 2007
Well, wow, it only took four issues for this to start to get interesting.
I've loved it all along, if only for Pete Woods art *faint*. But started rocking in this issue. Although, I thought Superman was supposed to be faster than a speeding bullet...okay, whatever. Not so much anymore, I guess.
The resolution to the cliffhanger from WONDER WOMAN 10 was kinda lame. I really would've liked to have seen just how far poser Hippolyta would go.
And please give us some answers: How did the amazons come back? When? How come, when at the time of her death the monarchy of Themyscira had been abolished, Hippolyta is suddenly queen of the amazons again? AARRGGHH!!

And now for this week's Greatest Comics Moment!
From the pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 11:


The highlighting is all mine. I take full credit. If I could write it in the sky with neon lights...trust me, I would. It's like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. The only thing that could make me happier is if it had read: "Michael Turner's last cover for DC Comics EVER!" Then all would be right with the world. (Plus it's funny that they mis-spelled Michael...I love it!)

That's my opinion. And it's my blog. Get over it.

Citizen Steel and Power Girl - Cosmetic Dehancement

When the solicitations for the July DC Comics came out, they included a hot Alex Ross cover for Justice Society of America 7 featuring Citizen Steel which caused some internet hub bub. Imagine my dismay when the actual comics came out: They had taken away Steel's Express Overnight Special Delivery package and left him with Media Mail. :( I'm used to straight, sexually-insecure male artists being afraid to draw male heroes in an anatomically-correct way, but if the artist isn't afraid to be real, leave the art alone!!! For pete's sake!
Although, to be fair, they'll do the same thing to some images of lady heroes, too. Case in point: Last month's Justice League of America 10. Michael Turner apparently went a little overboard with Power Girl's bra size, so DC whacked off a couple cups before publication.
Anyway, judge for yourself. Here are the solicited covers, the printed covers and a couple of Flash animations that emphasize the de-emphasis. Enjoy.

Justice Society of America 7. September 2007
Justice League of America 10. August 2007
The more things change...