Wednesday 28 January 2015

Secret Origins #9 Preview

SECRET ORIGINS #9
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by ALISSON BORGES
Cover by BRYAN HITCH
Swamp Thing, Power Girl, and Green Lantern John Stewart take the ORIGINS spotlight in this issue!
JANUARY 28 | RATED T | $3.99 | PRINT | DIGITAL













Monday 19 January 2015

Pre-Crisis Earth-2 Convergence Variant Covers

CONVERGENCE: ACTION COMICS #1
Written by JUSTIN GRAY
Art by CLAUDE ST-AUBIN
Cover by AMANDA CONNER
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Superman teams up with Power Girl, but can they stop a nuclear strike by Lex Luthor and Stalin of Red Son Moscow?

CONVERGENCE: DETECTIVE COMICS #1
Written by LEN WEIN
Art by DENYS COWAN and BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Helena Wayne and Dick Grayson fight side by side in memory of Bruce Wayne as they decide who will become the next Batman.

CONVERGENCE: INFINITY INC. #1
Written by JERRY ORDWAY
Art and cover by BEN CALDWELL
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! The young heroes of Infinity, Inc. must choose between the path set for them by their parents or the one they’ve set for themselves as they face postapocalyptic Jonah Hex.

CONVERGENCE: JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
Written by DAN ABNETT
Art by TOM DERENICK and TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by DAN PANOSIAN
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Older and in full retirement under the dome, members of the Justice Society get the chance to regain their youth to stave off forces from the Qward Universe. But the promise of youth comes with a deadly price!

CONVERGENCE: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #1
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by JIM FERN, JOE RUBINSTEIN and SHANNON WHEELER
Cover by AARON LOPRESTI
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Read the most unusual tale in all of Convergence! The Seven Soldiers of Victory regroup to defend their city against the Qward invasion, while cartoonist Scribbly Jibbet transcribes their adventures.








As I mentioned last week on the original post, these are not most inspired variant covers ever designed, not even by graphic design standards. Ironically it did inspire me to create a Chip Kidd variant cover of my own, especially since there are not enough women fronting any of the Earth-2 ones other than Jenny-Lynn Hayden (Jade) for Infinity Inc. It took all but five minutes to put together in photoshop, having spent more time looking for the right font and editing the DC logo than making the cover itself.

I realise I may be biased, but I honestly like my variant cover for Detective Comics better:

CONVERGENCE: DETECTIVE COMICS #1
Written by LEN WEIN
Art by DENYS COWAN and BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Helena Wayne and Dick Grayson fight side by side in memory of Bruce Wayne as they decide who will become the next Batman.










I should make one with Kara for Action Comics...

Sunday 18 January 2015

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress, Day 07: She Has Strong Potential To Draw More Women To Comics

Dear DC Comics,

What more can be said about Helena Wayne at this point that hasn't been said already? After all that's been discussed this past week, there are more than three good reasons Helena Wayne is a highly marketable, even highly sellable character. The problem is you need to actually be smarter about the way you use her in the DC Universe and how you try to sell her to a wider demographic. It is in these two areas where you have consistently failed the character, particularly in ways that made female readers feel excluded as a potential audience, and drove even interested male readers away from her.

Saturday 17 January 2015

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress, Day 06: She Diversifies A Disproportionately Male Wayne Family

Dear DC Comics,

There is no more beloved DC family than the Batman family, but the Wayne family itself is a sausage fest with the added bonus of ignoring the existence of important female members like Martha, Selina, and Helena Wayne. In fact, there is no sexism more overt than the way you treat the female Waynes from the way you downplay Martha's importance to Bruce's narrative, to the consistent fridging of Selina Kyle (Bruce's wife on Earth-2), to the way you've marginalised Bruce's own daughter in the New 52 to make sure you had a male Wayne as his successor on Earth-2. You even walked the extra mile of allowing the fridging of Helena Wayne in your latest event so that your story could focus on that male Wayne less than few Earth-2 fans care about.

I often find myself wondering if you are even aware of the overt sexism surrounding the Wayne women, or if you just plug your fingers into your ears and sing to yourself 'La la la la la, sexism? What sexism? Don't look at me! I'm just fulfilling my male power fantasy with characters who actually look like me!'

Friday 16 January 2015

Pre-Crisis Earth-2 Convergence Cover Solicitations

CONVERGENCE: ACTION COMICS #1
Written by JUSTIN GRAY
Art by CLAUDE ST-AUBIN
Cover by AMANDA CONNER
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Superman teams up with Power Girl, but can they stop a nuclear strike by Lex Luthor and Stalin of Red Son Moscow?










CONVERGENCE: DETECTIVE COMICS #1
Written by LEN WEIN
Art by DENYS COWAN and BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Helena Wayne and Dick Grayson fight side by side in memory of Bruce Wayne as they decide who will become the next Batman.

CONVERGENCE: INFINITY INC. #1
Written by JERRY ORDWAY
Art and cover by BEN CALDWELL
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! The young heroes of Infinity, Inc. must choose between the path set for them by their parents or the one they’ve set for themselves as they face postapocalyptic Jonah Hex.

CONVERGENCE: JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #1
Written by DAN ABNETT
Art by TOM DERENICK and TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by DAN PANOSIAN
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Older and in full retirement under the dome, members of the Justice Society get the chance to regain their youth to stave off forces from the Qward Universe. But the promise of youth comes with a deadly price!

CONVERGENCE: WORLD’S FINEST COMICS #1
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by JIM FERN, JOE RUBINSTEIN and SHANNON WHEELER
Cover by AARON LOPRESTI
Variant cover designed by CHIP KIDD
On sale APRIL 29 • 32 pg, FC, 1 of 2, $3.99 US • RATED T
STARRING HEROES FROM CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS! Read the most unusual tale in all of Convergence! The Seven Soldiers of Victory regroup to defend their city against the Qward invasion, while cartoonist Scribbly Jibbet transcribes their adventures.








I'll be honest about the variant covers and say they look very uninspired, especially since I could have made these same covers in Photoshop in less than half an hour. All I'd need to do is to blow up a panel, apply a gradient, add some text, slap on the DC logo, and BAM! I'd have the variant covers. I can even make them all using the same PDF file. I'll post the variants on a separate post and you'll see what I mean.

That nitpick aside, I'm very much looking forward to these pre-Crisis Earth-2 titles. The New 52 Earth-2 characters that didn't survive Earth-2: World's End (Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Val-Zod, Dick Grayson, and Thomas Wayne) will be on the main Convergence miniseries, but honestly I could care less for this one. I'd be more interested if it wasn't so Thomas Wayne-centric, but alas. Since Thomas Wayne is not a character I care about, and very much the only character DC cares about above the other Earth-2 characters, I have a profound lack of investment. Hopefully, this will be the last we see of him. If DC insists on keeping him around despite having far more interesting Earth-2 characters than him, they are beyond help.

Honestly, DC. I don't know who you're trying to sell this character to, but I can safely tell you he is not the character the majority of Earth-2 fans are interested in reading about. We want Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, Kendra Munoz-Saunders, Kara Zor-L, Helena Wayne, etc. We've been saying this for the past year or so. If you want to cater to the Flashpoint Thomas Wayne fans, develop him within the context of that universe where the idea of him as Batman actually worked. Let the legitimate Earth-2 characters have their own universe to themselves. Let Helena Wayne be the hero of her own narrative.

That said, if you want to get to know the Classic Earth-2, want the real Justice Society back, or just want to support Earth-2 period, buy these titles if you can! I know $3.99 is pushing it, but at least we're briefly getting the real Earth-2 back! (This is probably the most I'll spend on DC this year).

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress, Day 05: She Was A Member of DC's First And Oldest Team, The Justice Society

Dear DC Comics,

We're about to have another conversation about your baffling decisions again--this time your decision to completely erase the Justice Society from the current Earth-2. This isn't even going into the fact that Earth-2 was the biggest wasted opportunity of the New 52--a discussion for another day. What's more baffling are the reasons for the erasure of the Justice Society, and dumber yet was the decision to destroy Earth-2 after only three years of existing. Even if the Justice Society does form on Earth-1 with the refugees from Earth-2, it'll be nothing short of another Justice League team on an Earth full of Justice League teams.

Thursday 15 January 2015

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress, Day 04: She Had Her Own Narrative Complete With Her Own Cast

Dear DC Comics,

We're on Day 04 of our ongoing discussion, and we still have so much more to go over.  One of those things being the fourth reason I love the Huntress, which is the fact that prior to the New 52, she had her own narrative, complete with her own supporting cast of characters.

Wednesday 14 January 2015

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress, Day 03: She Is Friends With Power Girl

Dear DC Comics,

Good news! Reinstating the Earth-2 Huntress and Power Girl friendship was one of the best things you did in the New 52! I just wish their book actually had a better editor, a more clearly defined direction, and especially a different creative team. While I 110% understand why Paul Levitz was attached to a Huntress/Power Girl book given his history with both characters, it was still a book that could've greatly benefitted from being written with more depth, and by a writer who doesn't shy away from exploring loving relationships between two women on a deeper level.

Worlds' Finest #30 Preview

WORLDS' FINEST #30
Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art by JED DOUGHERTY
Cover by YILDIRAY CINAR
A refugee from Apokolips brings warnings of doom, an impatient emissary is determined to bring Superman back for her master, and Batman wonders if Terry Sloan plans to betray the world.
JANUARY 14 | RATED T | $2.99 | PRINT | DIGITAL











Tuesday 13 January 2015

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress, Day 02: She Was A Lawyer

Dear DC Comics,

Continuing our discussion from yesterday, another thing that immediately drew me to the character of Helena Wayne was the fact that she had a career in law! While career women have a lot more representation in today's media than they did at the time of Helena Wayne's initial publishing, they are still regrettably lacking in representation in superhero comics, including your own. Even the ones who did have careers in the past no longer have them in the New 52. Why is that?

Monday 12 January 2015

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress, Day 01: She's Batman and Catwoman's Daughter

Dear DC Comics,

For a publisher that's currently engaged in one of the most overt love affairs with Batman any of us has seen in recent years, it's amazing to me how often you ignore Helena Wayne's existence. It is especially alarming how often you downplay her status as a legacy character, her importance and contribution to Bruce Wayne's mythology, often attributing all that she revolutionised to his son, Damian, a character that appeared in comics only eight years ago. You even went out of your way to deny that the Huntress existed as Helena Wayne for two decades, effectively denying her of her own birthright and legacy. I was even surprised you left her out of your 75 Year Batman Anniversary issue of Detective Comics #27 despite being the daughter of the original Golden Age Batman (a character you clearly acknowledged as the character's first incarnation), and despite having stories that explored the idea of Bruce Wayne as a father and husband. It very much says that even you are selective of your flagship character's history, particularly in ways that exclude important women from his mythology.

Sunday 11 January 2015

Seven Reasons DC Comics Should Love The Huntress: Introduction

Dear DC Comics,

You and I have been on a love-hate roller coaster for quite some time now. I'd even call it an abusive relationship since I very much love your characters and their respective mythos, but you--the publisher that owns them--have consistently found new ways to violate these characters and everything they stand for in the last three years, and for no good reason than what you think will "sell" better. Most of the time, I can't work out the logic behind many of the regressive changes you've imposed, let alone how these changes are supposed to appeal to a diverse readership. The fact that you've repeatedly found new ways to marginalise (even brutalise) your women characters in particular (including queer and women of colour) on the basis of their gender (and, to an extent, their power levels) has made reading your books a rather discomforting experience these past three years.