Thursday, October 20, 2011

Super-Supergirl?

In the new Supergirl No. 2 comic, Supergirl seems to be shown as being stronger than Superman.
No explanation was given for that.
This scenario has been tried before, the last time Supergirl rebooted. Even then, no real explanation was given.
I just don't care for a slim Supergirl being stronger than a much heavier, taller and muscular Superman, so DC had better make this only a temporary situation.
IT's OK for the new Supergirl to have an attitude, but not greater powers.
UPDATE: Even at Comic Con 2012, there were references to Supergirl's superior super abilities..

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Action Comics "No. 1" -- A Throwback to Superman's Roots

Action Comics No. 1 (the 21st Century version, not the 1938 original), is a throwback, a re-imagination of the Man of Steel today.
The cops are after him, everyone is suspicious of him; and his powers are far less.
Contrast that with the new "Superman" comic, where he's shown a few years later, and you have two different, but connecting storylines.
It's probably Superman's growing powers that are the hardest to get use to.
(Spoiler ahead ...)
He gets knocked out stopping a train at the end of Action No. 1, while he's far too powerful for that later. He leaps at first and progresses into flying.
His costume also gets fancier as time goes on.
Clark Kent is really characterized as a whimp in the new comics.
So, overall, it's a B+ for Action comics; an A for Justice League comics; and an "F" for Superboy comics so far.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Justice League No. 1: Four Star Caliber!


I have now digested the first DC Comics reboot issue, Justice League No. 1, and it is certainly four-star material.
The only shortcoming it had was that the story seemed too short, but then there were limited pages and it is continued to the next issue ...
I loved the idea of all the League members initially being independent of each other and of most not trusting each other to begin.
Of course, the public doesn't even trust super-heroes yet either.
Superman's new uniform is the best reinvention of the outfit to date.
Green Lantern was clearly overconfident and flabbergasted that Batman has no "powers."
The next issue is "Superman vs. Batman" and that should also be great.
The mention of one word, "Darkseid," also means the League is headed for the greatest of villains soon.
I'm not sold yet on Cyborg being a member of the Justice League, but time will tell. I think the Martian Manhunter would have been a superior choice.
Anyway, as long as DC keeps most of its first string of heroes in the issue, that's perfect. DC editors have never learned in several decades that second-rate team members dominating the League doesn't work and is doomed to be mediocre.
Keep up the great work DC!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Farm Boy Superman? It has been done before ...

DC is apparently redoing Superman and his origin story his fall.
He will be more of a "Farm Boy" turned Superman.
However, that has been done before, somewhat .....
Take Superboy issue numbers 15 and 16 (1981). Superboy went to a parallel Earth and trained another Clark Kent who was simply a strong farm boy and who wanted to be a circus performer -- not a super-hero.
Superman will also have a slightly different costume in this latest reboot.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

New DC Comics World: Their Biggest Reboot Ever?

DC Comics has announced that starting in September 2011, it will reboot virtually all of its comics.
This looks like it could be DC's largest-ever start over.
Hopefully it is good news.
Superman comics in particular have been lagging in recent years. Not only in that there are less than ever out there, but their stories have been lackluster.
It would sure be great to read another Man of Steel beginnings miniseries, with imagination, like the John Byrne one of the mid-1980s.
The super needs put back in Superman.
The Justice League needs it original members.
DC needs to quit wasting time with second-rate heroes or even their occasional attempts to create new heroes -- after all, none of these things worked well for them in the past.
Also, the Legion needs a 21st Century presence. It was "Superboy and the Legion" in its early days and that worked well. Anything else is hollow and will fail, I guarantee it.
Not many things in life can have a "do over," but comics can. Hopefully DC will do better this time, than with its previous, limited attempts at doing so before.

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Smallville Finale Review: Needed More Flying

The finale to "Smallville" was OK, but it could have been better.
There needed to be MORE flying for sure. After 10 years of being deprived of that super-power (expect for one past episode where Clark Kent caught up to a private plane while flying in his Kryptonian persona), I'm sure fans wanted more flight.
Flying is perhaps Superman's most admired power, after all.
I'm not totally sure how much DC's current lawsuit affected the finale, but the final episode seemed to also be purposely avoiding a clear view of Clark in the familiar super costume.
I also didn't care so much for an intangible Darkseid villain.
Lex Luthor coming back was great and how that was weaved into the story.
I also never did get to see the telescopic vision power used by Clark.
The X-ray vision power also too often seemed to only look at skeleton structures of people and not through walls.
Yes, I'm hard to please ... but thanks to Smallville for a decade of some great memories and episodes, like the Legion of Super-heroes one and the Perry White story.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

All Star Superman Video Review

What can I say? The new "All Star Superman" animated video that DC released in late February is simply worth four full stars ...
It is nearly perfect and a joy to watch in both action and drama.
It has a classic love story for the tender-hearted, all-out action for the roughhousers and puts the Man of Steel where he should be ... on a super level.
Even though I had read the comic book it was based on, the video streamlined the tale and actually improved a B+ comic book story to an "A" video.
It was more than worth the $13.99 pre-order Amazon price I paid for it.
The lone criticism I have is why animaters often times fail to put an "S" symbol on the back of Superman's cape? This new video also overlooked the cape symbol. But,other than that, it's excellent.
Now the $64 million question --- why can DC do so well on some animated movies, like this one, and yet not so well usually in the live motion picture realm?
Is this saying DC needs to use previous great Superman comic book scripts for its live movies too? I don't know, but I'm asking the question, cause live movies is where DC needs help.
-Finally, as far as DC animated movies about Superman go, I'm still waiting for the story from the "Secret Identity" graphic novel of Superman to be made into an animated movie. I feel that and another tale, "Speeding Bullets," are both worthy of animated movies in the future.

Next Superman Movie Villain

I'm tired of Lex Luthor as the key villain in most of the past Superman movies.
Now it looks like ZOD will return as the next villain for the December 2012 movie.
Why?
Can writers do nothing but rehash previous movie villains? Do they not know how many better villains are out there?
Darkseid or Brainiac would have been my two obvious choices as superior villains.

Throwing out Bad Comics

OK, so I am finally starting to separate and will eventually get rid of all those bad DC comic books, that in retrospect, I should have never brought.
Top of the list is the year-long "Trinity" DC tale. Worst comic in years.
Second are all the Action comics without Superman -- the ones with other heroes and Lex Luthor only.
Third is "Time Masters." That was an awful work with no inspiration or direction. I could have found any fifth-grader with enough imagination to have outdone that go nowhere plot.
Next are all the JLAs with far lesser heroes.
I'm tired of running across all these and other comics on my shelves that I will never re-read, they are so bad.
DC are you taking notice of this? I am going to quit purchasing such crap. If a series starts out bad, it rarely ever gets much better.
I'm going to cut my losses early in the future.
In the meantime, I figure I've wasted at least $450 on this junk.
DC, you need better quality control.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Second or Third String JLA Doesn't Work!

DC Comics -- you never learn do you?
You put in a fourth-string Justice League of America back in the early 1990s and ruined that comic for several years. Now for many new issues, you are almost doing the same sub-standard thing?
What are you thinking?
Would I keep paying to see San Antonio or Boston play in the NBA if they kept using primarily back up players?
Well, that's what you are doing with the JLA and there is no sense to it.
Either bring back the original 7 (or close to it) or I may be canceling my subscription.
(Yes, I have a subscription to Action, Superman and JLA Comics.)
You have tested my limits already in Action comics with the bizarre all-Luthor stint, going well beyond reason and now are you out to ruin the JLA too?
Well, the JLA isn't the world's greatest super-heroes now -- that's not opinion, just fact.
What's the use of having super-heroes better than than the Marvel Universe if you stop using them?
I'm already spending less than half on comics that I did last year, because Superman is featured far less than ever before and now the JLA is following that trend.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

DC Doing Less Superman

There's no question that DC Comics has less stories on Superman this year than for many years. By this time in 2010 (mid-February), I had spent about $60 on comics. So far in 2011, the total is just $36.
Since all I purchase are Superman stories, that's a pretty good indicator of less Man of Steel features.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Superman is Super Again

After several years of lackluster Superman comic stories, "Superman" issue No. 708 finally created some magical awe and "wonder."
Although the Superman writers got their geography mixed up and had some of the story take place in Lincoln, Nebraska, instead of Omaha, as previously announced, this was one of the best Man of Steel sagas in a few years.
There was good action and imagination -- a glimpse at Supermen and Superwomen of the future, a new female villain and a heavy-hitting guest star -- Wonder Woman.
Here's a comic that will be fun to re-read over the years.
This is how all Superman comics should be.
When Superman returns to Action comics soon, hopefully 2011 will be a banner year for Kal-El.
As a sidelight in the latest Superman issue, Wonder Woman has "re-started" her career from scratch. All written about her before is apparently gone.
So, how Superman can not know her is somewhat absurd, but hey, anything is possible in comics!