LUCIDMEDIA

Lucid Comics May 7 2008

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Wednesday, 07 May 2008 06:24

With the incredible success of Iron Man not only is a sequel now in the imminent offing with an expected release date of 2010. The success of the Jon Favreau-directed film also enhanced Marvel’s business acumens as the decision to produce their own movies in-house seems to have been a smart move. As for the future, look for Iron Man 2 to be joined in the summer of 2010 by Thor directed by Stardust’s Matthew Vaughn, which are to be followed in 2011 by Nick Cassavetes’ Captain America and then The Avengers, which will team up all three heroes as the leaders of Marvel’s premiere super-team. So far only Zak Penn(X2, X-Men the Last Stand) is attached as writer. In the meantime, Marvel movie fans can checkout The Incredible Hulk on June 13th and then next year the sequel Punisher: War Zone and the spin-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Also on the books is Ant Man written by Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright.

“Here’s my card…”

The latest trailer for The Dark Knight was unveiled last weekend on the viral site “Why So Serious?” Not only does it up the action quotient and give us little bit more of Heath Ledger’s Joker to chew on, it also gives us a split-second look at the creation of Two-Face as played by Aaron Eckhart. The clip shows Eckhart’s Harvey Dent with the left side of his face pushed against the floor and being submerged by an orange liquid as the Joker voiceover says, “This city deserves a better class of criminal… and I’m going to give it to them.” As if on cue, a picture of Eckhart in Two-Face make-up hit the web Tuesday, and while there was some doubt as to its authenticity, it’s worth noting that Warner Bros. ordered the picture pulled from whatever site it ended up on. See the new Dark Knight trailer yourself at http://www.whysoserious.com/happytrails/trailer.htm

Spidey Goes to the Library (of Congress)

In recognition of the changing face of comics and graphic novels, the Library of Congress received a donation of original Steve Ditko artwork from Spider-Man’s first appearance in Amazing Fantasy #15. The 15” x 21”, black and white pages, along with three other stories by Ditko and Stan Lee that were in the same issue, can be viewed at the Library by request. (And some of the artwork can be see online here: www.loc.gov/blog/?p=290)

"The donation of these wonderful drawings is a treasured gift to the American people. The opportunity to see the original art behind the published stories will benefit comic-book readers as well as popular-culture scholars," said Sara W. Duke, curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Art in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division in a press release. "Looking at the drawings inspires a new appreciation for the artist's skill and design choices and also deepens our understanding of how a superhero created to attract a teenage audience became a cultural icon with mass appeal."

Mega-Crossover Mega-Update

DC’s Final Crisis

The underwhelming conclusion to Countdown to Final Crisis gave way to the preamble to Final Crisis last week with the release of DC Universe #0 and for the price of 50 cents it gave a lot of bang for your half-a-buck. The big news was the return of Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash, who’s been dead since Crisis on Infinite Earths #8 twenty-three years ago. Over the course of the issue, it was slowly revealed that the narrator of the story was none other than Allen… well, not quite. Rather it was implied only to be confirmed in a New York Daily News article that same day, which quoted co-writer Geoff Johns saying, "When the greatest evil comes back to the DC Universe, the greatest hero needed to return." The New York Times also picked up the story.

Marvel’s Secret Invasion

So far Secret Invasion is right on schedule with a tie in New Avengers #40 released last week and the second of eight issues of the main series to be released this week. While the question that will preoccupy readers this week will be the nature of the 70s heroes that immerged from the Skrull ship at the end of issue #1; are they the real heroes, impostors or a mixture of both designed to be a berserker to keep the heroes occupied? Last week’s New Avengers filled in some of the background of the events prior to the Invasion; from immediately after the Illuminati’s escape from the Skrull home world as shown in New Avengers: Illuminati #1 and the revelation of Elektra as a Skrull in New Avengers #31. Primary among these revelations is that the Skrull Queen, Veranke, wanted to lead the Skrull infiltration of Earth as… Spider-Woman. Really? Wouldn’t this make Spider-Woman like a quadruple agent? Does anyone else think that this is a red herring? Although it certainly would explain how she became the centre of everyone’s universe a few years ago.

Reviews

Young Avengers Presents Vision
Written By Paul Cornell - Pencils By Mark Brooks
Marvel Comics

This Young Avengers mini has been a godsend; it’s just too bad that the book’s original creators are too busy to do a proper follow-up. But still, getting these individual nuggets made by some of Marvel’s finest have been a nice snack to tide over even the biggest YA fan (and I’d like to count myself in the running). In this one we get a twofer: we catch up with the junior version of the Vision as well as Stature, the sole member of the team to sign up with the Initiative. There is some good action as the duo face-off against a group of terrorists looking to exploit the Vision for his technology, but the really great stuff is the exploration of Vision’s human side and that includes his mutual attraction to Stature. The only complaint I have is that there’s a feeling of impermanence to these stories, as if they’re writing around the fact that they can’t do anything substantive with the characters.

Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Written By Ed Brubaker – Pencils By Doug Mahnke and Patrick Zircher
DC Comics

With the increasing hype surrounding The Dark Knight it seems appropriate to visit the comic based exploits of The Joker. The Man Who Laughs is a more recent offering written by Brubaker who, before causing the Shi’ar Empire to fall and plotting the death of Captain America, revisited the very first meeting between Batman and the Clown Prince of Crime. Instead of being about the Joker, Brubaker takes the story from the point of view of both Batman and (then) Captain Gordon as they try to wrap their heads around what will be the first of a new breed of criminal in Gotham. It’s a great homage to the original story and Brubaker’s expertise with crime fiction pays off in creating just the right tone. Anyone interested in getting some insight on the real Joker before Heath Ledger has his turn this summer could do much worse than checking out this book.

B.P.R.D. 1946 #4
Written By Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart – Pencils By Paul Azaceta
Dark Horse Comics

If there’s one thing better than Nazi mutant vampires, then it has to be mechanically enhanced gorillas controlled by everybody’s favourite Nazi head in a jar Herman von Klempt. This has been a great mini-series so far for a couple of reasons. First, the Hellboy universe is always aces when the Nazi occultists are the bad guys. Second, it’s a great place to jump on for fans of the Hellboy movie and may be out of their element considering that Big Red isn’t even part of the B.P.R.D. any more in the current storylines. But most of all because this book really nails the tone; it’s frightening, outlandish and irreverent all at the same time. Brought to life through the usual collection of odd characters, this B.P.R.D. is a great book for fans and familiars alike.

New Releases

May 7

Dark Horse
ABE SAPIEN: THE DROWNING #4
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 8 #14
CONAN #50
THE RETURN OF THE GREMLINS #3
STAR WARS: LEGACY #23

DC Comics

ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #11
THE ALL-NEW ATOM #23
BATMAN VS. THE SCARECROW
BATMAN: DEATH MASK #2 (OF 4)
COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #7 (OF 8)
DC SPECIAL: RAVEN #3 (OF 5)
DC UNIVERSE SPECIAL — JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
DETECTIVE COMICS #844
INFINITY INC. #9
JLA PRESENTS: AZTEK — THE ULTIMATE MAN
JONAH HEX #31
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #45
LOONEY TUNES #162
METAL MEN #8 (OF 8)
NIGHTWING #144
THE QUESTION VOL. 2: POISONED GROUND
RANN/THANAGAR: HOLY WAR #1 (OF 8)
SUPERGIRL #29
TOR #1 (OF 6)
THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT #1

Image Comics

BOMB QUEEN VOL. IV: SUICIDE BOMBER
DEAD SPACE #3
DYNAMO 5 ANNUAL #1
GEMINI #1 (of 5)
JACK STAFF #16
LUCHA LIBRE #4
MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS #8
PRETTY BABY MACHINE #1 (of 3)
SCUD #24
SUBURBAN GLAMOUR, VOL. 1
WITCHBLADE #116 (2nd print)

Marvel Comics

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 558
AMERICAN DREAM # 1
AVENGERS/INVADERS # 1
CABLE # 3
DARK TOWER: THE LONG ROAD HOME # 3
FRANKLIN RICHARDS: NOT-SO-SECRET INVASION # 1
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN # 1
IRON MAN: VIVA LAS VEGAS # 1
LOGAN # 3
LORDS OF AVALON: SWORD OF DARKNESS # 4
MARVEL ADVENTURES SPIDER-MAN # 39
MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE # 11
MIGHTY AVENGERS # 13
MOON KNIGHT # 18
NOVA # 13
OMEGA: THE UNKNOWN # 8
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL # 19
SECRET INVASION # 2
THUNDERBOLTS: REASON IN MADNESS # 1
X-FACTOR: QUICK AND THE DEAD # 1
YOUNG X-MEN # 2

Collections:
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA HC
ESSENTIAL X-MEN VOL. 1 TPB (ALL-NEW)
FANTASTIC FOUR: THE NEW FANTASTIC FOUR
HULK: WORLD WAR HULK
IRON MAN: ENTER THE MANDARIN
IRON MAN: WAR MACHINE
NEW AVENGERS: ILLUMINATI
SHE-HULK: JADED PREMIERE

May 14

Dark Horse
B.P.R.D.: 1946 #5
THE END LEAGUE #3
THE GOON #24
SERENITY: BETTER DAYS #3
STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD REPUBLIC #28
STAR WARS: REBELLION #14

DC Comics

52 AFTERMATH: THE FOUR HORSEMEN
BAT LASH #6 (OF 6)
BATMAN #676
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #17
THE BATMAN STRIKES! #45
BATMAN: THE JOKER'S LAST LAUGH
BATMAN: THE RESURRECTION OF RA'S AL GHUL
BOOSTER GOLD #9
BOOSTER GOLD VOL. 1: 52 PICK-UP
CARTOON NETWORK ACTION PACK #25
CHECKMATE VOL. 3: THE FALL OF THE WALL
FINAL CRISIS: SKETCHBOOK
GOTHAM UNDERGROUND #8 (OF 9)
GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #8
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #24
GREEN LANTERN: NO FEAR
THE HUNTRESS: YEAR ONE #1 (OF 6)
THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31ST CENTURY #14
SIMON DARK #8
SUPERMAN #676
TINY TITANS #4
TITANS #2
WONDER WOMAN #20

Image Comics

CASANOVA #14
DEATH GRUB #1
PvP, VOL. 5: PvP TREKS ON TP
SCREAMLAND #3 (of 5)
THE WALKING DEAD #49
TRANSHUMAN #2 (of 4)
TRUE STORY, SWEAR TO GOD #11

Marvel Comics

ALL-NEW IRON MANUAL # 1
AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL # 20
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 559
ANITA BLAKE, VAMPIRE HUNTER: GUILTY PLEASURES # 11
CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI: 13 # 1
CIVIL WAR CHRONICLES # 11
CLANDESTINE # 4
DEAD OF NIGHT FEATURING MAN-THING # 4
FOOLKILLER # 5
GENEXT # 1
GIANT-SIZE INCREDIBLE HULK # 1
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY # 1
IRON MAN: LEGACY OF DOOM # 2
MARVEL ADVENTURES HULK # 11
MARVEL SPOTLIGHT: HULK # 1
NEW EXILES # 6
NEWUNIVERSAL: SHOCKFRONT # 1
PUNISHER # 57
SECRET INVASION: FANTASTIC FOUR # 1
SKY DOLL # 1
THE LAST DEFENDERS # 3
THE TWELVE # 5
THUNDERBOLTS # 120
WOLVERINE # 65
WOLVERINE: THE AMAZING IMMORTAL MAN & OTHER BLOODY TALES # 1
X-MEN ORIGIN: COLOSSUS # 1
X-MEN: LEGACY # 211

Collections:
AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL VOL. 3: MIND GAMES
ESSENTIAL OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE - MASTER EDITION VOL. 2
HULK: WWH - GAMMA CORPS
HULK: WWH - X-MEN
IRON MAN AND POWER PACK: ARMORED AND DANGEROUS
NEW X-MEN BY GRANT MORRISON ULTIMATE COLLECTION BOOK 1
PSI-FORCE CLASSIC VOL. 1
ULTIMATE HULK VS. IRON MAN: ULTIMATE HUMAN PREMIERE HC