LUCIDMEDIA

Lucid Comics May 21

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Wednesday, 21 May 2008 05:12

Comic News:


Ohio State makes a super merger deal

Ohio State University announced last week that it was acquiring, with the intention of displaying, some 200,000 pieces of artwork from the now defunct International Museum of Cartoon Art. The Museum was closed in 2002 after two of its investors filed for bankruptcy and after the Museum itself had moved no less than three times. According to the Associated Press, amongst the pieces OSU is acquiring is thousands of comics along with “original Dick Tracy and Prince Valiant drawings; original 1890s-era artwork for the early comic strip Hogan's Alley; and a story board done by Walt Disney for one of his first Mickey Mouse cartoons, Plane Crazy.” This collection will supplement OSU’s already vast archives and the college is now looking for a bigger space to display it all, which will be named after Beetle Bailey creator and Museum founder Mort Walker.

Guests announced for Fan Expo

Toronto’s Fan Expo draws tens of thousands of people to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre every August, and organizers have begun to announce their guest list for this year’s event. On the Comics side Toronto fans can expect to see Alex Ross (Marvels), Brian Bolland (The Killing Joke) Mark Bagley (Ultimate Spider-Man), Adam Hughes (Catwoman), Steve McNiven (Civil War), Tim Sale (Batman: The Long Halloween), J. Scott Campbell (Gen 13), Matt Fraction (Immortal Iron Fist) and Peter David (Stephen King’s Dark Tower). The Sci-Fi section also announced their line-up last week and it is quite a list. Look for Star Trek Voyager’s Kate Mulgrew and Next Gen’s Brent Spiner, Battlestar Galactica’s father and son Edward James Olmos and Jamie Bamber, Smallville’s Michael Rosenbaum and Laura Vandervoort, notable sidekicks Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) and Renée O'Connor (Xena: Warrior Princess) and Boba Fett himself Jeremy Bulloch. Also expected are real life astronaut and second man on the moon Buzz Aldrin and the Fonz Henry Winkler for some reason. More information can be found at http://www.hobbystar.com/fanexpo2008/

Last chance to vote for Shusters

This Saturday is your last chance to vote in the fan categories of the Shuster Awards, Canada’s annual tip of the hat to our country’s best comic creators. You can vote for your favourite English language comic creator, your favourite French language creator and, of course, your favourite International comic creator. The Shusters, which are named after Superman co-creator Joe Shuster, are given out every year. But for 2008, award organizers, The Canadian Comic Book Creator Awards Association, are doing something different. Usually the awards ceremony, this year on June 14th, is held in conjunction with the Paradise Comic Con, but since Paradise is being held later this year, the Shusters are having a full day of programming all their own starting with a Sequential Art Symposium from 10 am – 5 pm. The location this year will be the Lillian H. Smith Library Auditorium on College in Toronto. For more info, or to vote, go to: http://joeshusterawards.com/

Mega Crossover Mega Update

Secret Invasion – Marvel

The Secret Invasion chugs along slowly with a few more revelations and developments. In Secret Invasion #2, we pick up where the first issue left off with a pending showdown between both teams of Avengers and the group of possibly-Skrull heroes that emerged from a crashed spaceship in the Savage Land. Obviously, a big fight erupts and out of it we get some confusing results. While the spaceship Spider-Man and Hawkeye are revealed to be frauds (read: Skrulls), Mockingbird, the long (thought) dead wife of Hawkeye (now Ronin of the New Avengers) seems to be the real thing. At least Ronin thinks so. From Mockingbird we get a glimmer of possibility that the Captain America that came out of the spaceship may also be the real deal. Apparently it was Cap that led the captured “heroes” to rebellion and return to Earth. Now, is it just me or does this seem too easy? I’ve got to say though, that if Iron Man isn’t a Skrull then it follows that Cap wasn’t either. Meanwhile, the issue ends with the full-on invasion begins in New York City, and the only ones there to stop it seem to be the Young Avengers. To be continued… Also, we’ve started to get the first issues of a couple of tie-in mini-series: SI: Fantastic Four and SI: Captain Britain and MI13. Captain Britain was a decent entry detailing how the British heroes, including a Skrull John Lennon, are fighting to stop the invaders from destroying the Siege Perilous. But it remains to be seen what the wider impact of this story is going to be.

Meanwhile, the mystery of Sue Richards is explained in the Fantastic Four crossover series. As it turns out, Sue hasn’t been a long-term Skrull replacement as sort of implied in Secret Invasion #1, also I think it’s safe to say that no other member of the Four is a shape-shifting alien in disguise either. Instead the surprise ending goes to the Skrull Lyja, who once posed as Alicia Masters and married Johnny Storm, turning out to be Sue’s double. Still, with Ben and Johnny in the Negative Zone, Reed incapacitated by Pym-Skrull and Sue who-knows-where, the FF have effectively been removed as an obstacle to the invasion as it rolls on.

Final Crisis – DC

As you’ll see below, Final Crisis doesn’t get rolling until next week. In the meantime though Comic Foundry published an interview with Grant Morrison, in which the writer talked about how he’s going about putting his own personal mark on the company-wide event.

Comic Foundry: “How editorially rigid is Final Crisis? Are you still able to make it your own?”

Morrison: “There’s been no intrusive editorial input of any kind into the story content of Final Crisis. It feels very much my own and JG’s. I agreed to incorporate a couple of suggestions for specific story beats Dan DiDio and Geoff Johns asked for and rejected some other things which didn’t seem to fit what we had planned.

“As far as connections with the rest of the DC Universe, I’ve been working quite closely with Geoff to expand some of the strands of Final Crisis into stuff he’s been doing or has planned. As an example, I introduced the idea of the “Alpha Lanterns” into issue 1 of Final Crisis, then Geoff went back and worked them neatly into the fabric of the jaw-dropping work he’s doing on the Green Lantern book. Same goes for Greg Rucka and the “Crime Bible” and “Question” storylines, which feed into Final Crisis and bring to a conclusion some of the ideas we’ve been developing since 52. We’re also prepping a couple of satellite series and books that will work in their own right, while adding color, detail and background to the ongoing Final Crisis storyline. Otherwise, JG and I are doing our own thing, and there aren’t too many tie-in books this time around.

“Crisis also ties up a lot of threads from my own work going back through 52 to Seven Soldiers, JLA in the ’90s, and beyond. So yes, I’d say it’s a “personal” project more than it’s a corporate trademark workout, but, you know, I’ve always felt it was possible to do both simultaneously.”

Reviews

Thunderbolts #120
Warren Ellis and Mike Deodato, Jr
Marvel Comics

Well, we knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. In this issue, Ellis and Deodato finally get the chance to unleash Norman Osborne’s inner Goblin as Venom and the Swordman’s tear through Thunderbolts HQ forces Norman to open his stored footlocker filled with Green Goblin gear. Deodato does a great job of using the panels as a reflection of Norman’s madness; it’s a cathartic moment for the character, he’s been waiting for the right reason to become the Goblin again. Not that anyone in the Thunderbolts is truly sane, but this issue shows that the current craziness is not entirely of their own doing. Still, Ellis maximizes the story potential of the series, milking it for maximum moral ambiguity. Despite all the action, the book’s most compelling question remains: who watches the watchers? It’s been too long between issues.

Action Comics Annual #11
Geoff Johns & Richard Donner and Adam Kubert
DC Comics

Now that’s a Superman story done right; it has epic battles, dire consequences and just the right dose of pathos and humanity. This issue wraps up what was supposed to be a 12-issue arc by Johns, Donner an Kubert, but what we lose in length, they more than make up for it in impact and action. This is some of Kubert’s best stuff, from the flipable, Kryptonian cover to the interior where some gorgeous splash pages feature enough battle scenes to put any Hollywood blockbuster to shame. But aside from the wicked art, it’s Johns and Donner’s narrative that’s the real star, hopefully proving for the last time that Superman isn’t as hard to write as everyone thinks. Johns and Donner get these characters, from Lex Luthor’s snide, borderline racist comments about aliens to Superman’s daring-do humanism.

TV Review – Smallville’s season ending fizzle

Not since Star Trek Voyager has a TV show so consistently disappointed like Smallville. In last week’s season finale, what should have the dramatic moment of the series, the moment when Clark and Lex see each other for what they really are, was underwhelming at best, and as a send off for Michael Rosenbaum as Lex, who’ll only be back sporadically next season, it was barely befitting a Star Trek red shirt. Plus it was another sufferable Smallville cliff-hanger.

Looking back from the end of season seven upon the year that was, what did we get? More Clark mopping over Lana, more Clark not following his heroic arc towards life as a superhero/reporter in the big city, more pointless guest shots and cameos, more lame meteor freaks and the underwhelming addition of Supergirl/Kara.

And it’s worth pointing out that Lex finding out that Clark is Kal-El from Krypton is a little piece of knowledge that’s not going to stick because in the future, he doesn’t know. I already know how this is going to be resolved: through some Kryptonian hocus pocus, Jor-El will separate memories of Clark from Kal-El in Lex’s mind ensuring that Lex will think of Clark as nothing but a mild-mannered guy from Kansas while ensuring Luthor’s hate and disgust for all things Krypton. Be sure to refer back to this come fall. Or not, because I don’t think that I’m even going to check back with Smallville in the fall. Rosenbaum’s gone, as is John Glover as Lionel Luthor, and they were pretty much the two best reasons to watch this show. Also, say goodbye to Kristen Kreuk as Lana, who got a much more unceremonious goodbye than Lex; she bids adieu to Clark with a DVD. Hey writers, I thought that the Clark/Lana relationship was important, after all, it’s only been built up over seven years. It’s kind of a slap in the face of Kreuk too, considering her character’s spent every episode since the writer’s strike in a coma. And before I talk about how Smallville can and should improve in season eight, I’d like to state my extreme umbrage over the whole Veritas storyline. So apparently, the Luthors, the Teagues, Virgil Swan and Oliver Queen’s parents were all involved in a conspiracy to await the arrival of the last son of Krypton and protect him to be Earth’s protector. This falls into a couple of things that really bother me about Smallville overall; first, that it thinks were too stupid to believe in coincidence and second, that it makes Clark’s future as Superman more a matter of destiny than choice. He’s practically being forced into role at the gunpoint of prophecy, instead of just deciding to use his powers for the betterment of all of mankind.

Anyway, Smallville will be proceeding next year without the input of showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and how the show will go on without the masterminds of Shanghai Noon, I’ll never know. But those working on the show next year have to make some hard decisions.

1) Get Clark on track. Give him a pair of glasses, send him to the Fortress to begin his training and start pointing him towards that blue and red suit and a newspaper career. It’s getting ridiculous that all he seems to have the initiative to do anymore is his chores.

2) Don’t bring in Doomsday. Why, oh why do you think this is a good idea? Because you’re the only ones. The character was solely a plot device and his only purpose was to kill Superman. I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

3) Take Green Arrow down a notch. I like the character, but he’s really on a high horse. Besides, Superman is the eventual leader of the Justice League, so it hardly makes sense for Arrow to keep barking out orders and he has to have a reason to follow the Man of Steel someday.

4) Set an end date. Look at Lost and Battlestar; both shows are on creative highs because they know the end is near. You don’t even have to work that hard to figure out the end because it’s already written.

New Releases

May 21

Dark Horse

EMILY THE STRANG #3: THE REVENGE ISSUE
THE END LEAGUE #3
GRENDEL: BEHOLD THE DEVIL #7
PIGEONS FROM HELL #2
STAR WARS: DARK TIMES #11-VECTOR PART 5
STAR WARS: LEGACY #24
INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL #1

DC Comics

BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS #7
BATMAN VS. TWO-FACE
BIRDS OF PREY #118
THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #13
CATWOMAN #79
CHECKMATE #26
COUNTDOWN TO MYSTERY #8 (OF 8)
DC SPECIAL: CYBORG #1 (OF 6)
DC/WILDSTORM: DREAMWAR #2 (OF 6)  
THE FLASH #240
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #15
ROBIN #174
SCOOBY-DOO #132
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: GREEN LANTERN VOL. 3
THE SPIRIT #17
SUPER FRIENDS #3
SUPERMAN/BATMAN #48
SUPERMAN: ESCAPE FROM BIZARRO WORLD
TANGENT: SUPERMAN'S REIGN #3 (OF 12)

Image Comics

BOMB QUEEN V #1 (of 6)
DARK IVORY #2 (of 4)
DYNAMO 5 #13
GODLAND #23
GUTWRENCHER #3 (of 3)
HAWAIIAN DICK #4
INVINCIBLE UNIVERSE PRIMER #1
PvP, VOL. 5: PvP TREKS ON TP
THE PERHAPANAUTS #2
THE WALKING DEAD #1 SPECIAL EDITION

Marvel Comics

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN # 560
AMERICAN DREAM # 2
AVENGERS CLASSIC # 12
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE # 13
BLACK PANTHER # 36
CAPTAIN AMERICA # 38
FANTASTIC FOUR # 557
GHOST RIDER # 23
INCREDIBLE HERCULES # 117
IRON MAN: DIRECTOR OF S.H.I.E.L.D. # 29
MARVEL ADVENTURES THE AVENGERS # 24
MARVEL ADVENTURES TWO-IN-ONE # 11
MARVEL ILLUSTRATED: THE ILIAD # 6
MIGHTY AVENGERS # 14
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR # 54
ULTIMATE X-MEN # 94
WAR IS HELL: THE FIRST FLIGHT OF THE PHANTOM EAGLE # 3
WOLVERINE: ORIGINS # 25
X-FACTOR # 31
X-MEN: DIVIDED WE STAND # 2
Collections:
 HULK VISIONARIES: JOHN BYRNE VOL. 1
HULK: WWH - INCREDIBLE HERC
MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR VOL. 8: MONSTERS, MOLES, COWBOYS & COUPONS
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE MIGHTY THOR VOL. 7
MARVEL MASTERWORKS: THE MIGHTY THOR VOL. 7 HC
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY VOL. 1 PREMIERE

May 28

Dark Horse

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL #2
SPEAK OF THE DEVIL #6
STAR WARS: KNIGHTS OF THE OLD #29—EXALTED PART 1
USAGI YOJIMBO #112

DC Comics

ACTION COMICS #865
ALL STAR SUPERMAN #11
THE ALL-NEW ATOM VOL. 3: THE HUNT FOR RAY PALMER
BATMAN #677
BATMAN: GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT #1 (OF 12)
BLACK ADAM: THE DARK AGE
BLUE BEETLE #27
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #45
COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS VOL. 1
FINAL CRISIS #1 (OF 7)
GREEN LANTERN #31
THE HUNTRESS: YEAR ONE #2 (OF 6)
JACK KIRBY'S O.M.A.C.: ONE MAN ARMY CORPS
JSA CLASSIFIED #38
JUSTICE VOL. 1
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #21
THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #42
SHADOWPACT #25
THE STARMAN OMNIBUS VOL. 1
SUPERMAN: WORLD OF KRYPTON
TEEN TITANS #59
TEEN TITANS GO! #55

Image Comics

THE NEARLY COMPLETE ESSENTIAL HEMBECK ARCHIVES OMNIBUS TP

Marvel Comics

ANGEL: REVELATIONS # 1
DAREDEVIL # 107
GIANT-SIZE ASTONISHING X-MEN # 1
IMMORTAL IRON FIST # 15
INCREDIBLE HULK OMNIBUS # 1
KING-SIZE HULK # 1
MARVEL 1985 # 1
MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR # 36
MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN # 13
MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS # 9
MARVEL ILLUSTRATED: MOBY DICK # 4
MARVEL ILLUSTRATED: PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY # 6
MS. MARVEL # 27
NEW AVENGERS # 41
NEW WARRIORS # 12
POWER PACK: DAY ONE # 3
SHE-HULK # 29
THOR # 9
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN # 122
UNCANNY X-MEN # 498
WOLVERINE: FIRST CLASS # 3
X-FORCE # 4
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS # 12
X-MEN: LEGACY # 212
YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS # 5
Collections
ESSENTIAL RAMPAGING HULK VOL. 1
EXCALIBUR CLASSIC VOL. 5
HULK: WWH - FRONT LINE
IMMORTAL IRON FIST VOL. 2: THE SEVEN CAPITAL CITIES OF HEAVEN PREMIERE
WOLVERINE: ORIGINS VOL. 4 - OUR WAR
X-MEN: THE COMPLETE ONSLAUGHT EPIC BOOK 2