GEARS OF WAR 2!!

GEARS OF WAR!!! YEAH! Much too busy playing GOW 2 to blog it up this week...but those of you in the same boat or just wanting something cool to read be sure to check out Gears of War #1 and #2 from Wildstorm this week.
The book is alot of fun and very very bloody! Mature Readers only!

Anyway...off to play some more! BOOM!!!

Superman New Krypton

Yeah, so only got time for a quick one today. Superman New Krypton!!! What is it? well it's the latest and greatest Superman cross over. With this one we see the return of the superman shield numbering (that little shield that tells you what order to read the books in). We haven't seen this shield since...Our Worlds at War and Jokers Last Laugh crossovers several years back. and you know what? i welcome it back with open arms!! Now the books will be crossing ongoing titles Action Comics, Superman and Supergirl, and it will also include a few one-shots.

As of late the current superman writing and art team have been working very hard to create a consistant superman universe and are doing an excellent job of it. Previously Supergirl was almost competely seperate from supes main books...but now she's almost become a Robin or Nightwing like character, appearing in most issues with actual important role to play.

So what's it all about? Well Superman is having both the happiest day and the saddest day of his life. It seems Brainac had a little peice of Krypton locked in a bottle for some time, and recent events have caused to land right on earth! While the emergance of 1000 kryptonians might be the greatest news Supes could ever get, the result of his conflict with Brainac would be loss of Pa Kent!! So not only does supes have to figure out how to introduce his people to Earth he must deal with putting his father to rest! on top of all that throw in a top secret government plan that sole task is to kill superman!!

and if that page dosen't get you!! i don't know what will!!

I told you...I'll be BACK!

Hey all!! it's been quite some time since I had a chance to update the blog! alas it takes some effort to get the scans up and running, and i think they make a huge difference when reviewing/previewing books, so I didn't want to start posting text only...anywayz, here we go:

Robin #179
I thought i'd kick off this long overdue review with a great book that some of you may not be reading...ROBIN!! what batman's sidekick??? No, he's not mearly a sidekick but he's perhaps one of the DCU's best characters...along with Nightwing of course.

Now i'll try to keep this short and simple as usual. Those of you not familer with Robin here's a quick refresher: Tim Drake is the 3 Robin, previous Robin was Jason Todd (now known as RED HOOD) and of course the 1st Robin was Dick Grayson. Dick Grayson gave up the mantel to become Nightwing, and Jason Todd...well he was brutally murdered by the Joker (oh yeah! that guy!). So while Dick and Jason were both chosen by twist of fate to become Batman's sidekick, Tim Drake actually earned the mantel via his own means...discovering who Batman was! So Tim has always been the DETECTIVE. He's young and still in school trying to deal with an awkward social life while fighting crime...so he's dealing with alot that Batman and Nightwing don't have, which is what makes him such a great character. Ok...moving on.

Batman is missing (see Batman RIP...eventually) so Robin and Nightwing are left with the daunting task of filling in for perhaps one of the greatest heroes of all time! Not only do they have to fill in...but they have to some how maintain that Batman is still out there...because if the criminal element discovers Bats is gone...it will be MADNESS!!! oh quick item...Freddie Williams II has one of the best renderings of Robin i've seen, it's actually suprising that he hasn't been seen on more bat books.
This getting kinda long...so i'll try to wrap it up. Bottom line...you have a great character who seemingly has the weight of the world on his shoulders...he's trying to get the Gotham gang wars under control without revealing that Batman is gone, he has to deal with school and the lack of his legal guardian (Bruce of course) to cover his back when he misses classes or tests, then not to mention he also has the return of his previously dead girlfriend (Spoiler) to deal with...oh and on top of all that...who is this RED ROBIN character?!?!?

ROBIN #179...pick it up and you'll enjoy it for sure! In fact i'll give you the Heroes World guarantee on it, you read it and don't like it? bring it back and i'll swap it up for something else! (book must be returned within a week and in same condition of course)

Punisher War Zone Poster

Hey guys, it's going to be crazy this week so I won't be able to get a blog up, but i did find this cool shot of the poster for the upcoming Punisher War Zone.

how is this cool??? well with the success of Iron Man, and seeing how good the previews for The Hulk look, this could be another marvel blockbuster???

here's hoping so!

new books will be ready for Thursday (if we're lucky late wednesday) and we'll see you at Anime North if your coming!

Colossus One-Shot, GeNeXt #1 and Batman RIP!

Hey all, it's a mighty big week!! So i've got a few snippets from a few of my favs.

First up X-Men Origins: Colossus:

If this is any indication of what the orgins series are going to be it's a welcome addition to the X-men line. What it is bascally is a more detailed and mordern retelling of...well an X-men's "origin". This issue features one of my all time fav characters, the Colossus, who according to many surveys is one of the top fav characters up there will Jean Gray and Wolverine. The one shot covers alot more than you'd expect, from his brothers death, to discovering his powers, his sisters birth and right up to his recruitment into the X-men.

As you can see in the panel above, it's been modernized. Nothing really has been changed except for the addition of a certian character that i don't think was attached to his original orgin. It even has the famous tractor scene.
A really cool thing that is brought up within the issue? How about the idea that instead of hating and fearing mutants like America, Russia would want to control the power and harness it as a weapon...now that would make a cool What If?? What if Colossus became Russia's Super Soldier. Nonetheless it's a good read with great art so pick it up!

next up...GeNeXt #1:

"Because you demanded it!"...no really, you did! Marvel announced that Chris Claremont would helm a new X-book, and all the concepts were posted on their website and were voted on by the public, and this is the book that won! The concept is simple...what if the Marvel Universe aged in real-time?? what does that mean exactly?? well founding and original members of the X-men would be in their 50s and even the new mutants would be in their 30s, meaning there is a whole new generation.
Why is this different from what we've scene? well the rest of the universe has aged quite a bit and instead of simply bringing in new mutants that seem to just add to the x-men universe, these guys are pretty much the replacements! You have a very old Beast watching the danger room, and X-23 running the training sessions a job historically given to wolverine. So far no sign of other x-men other than the fact that Prof X is dead. Revealed so far...Oliver Raven son of Rogue and Gambit, Becka Munroe daughter of Storm and unknown father (i suspect wolveirne or black panther), and Pavel Rasputin grandson of Colossus. While the book seems fairly short and dosen't cover too much ground, you are treated to a nice sketch book that details each character. Clues are dropped that this might possibly be in the same timeline as X-men: The End. An interesting read with alot of potential.

Lastly...Batman #676 R.I.P!!!

So it's finally here, the result of all of Grant Morrison's build up over the last year or so. The rumor is that Batman will change forever!! Possibilities are...Bruce finally gives up the mantel, or might even get dead!

This issue is perhaps some of the best Tony Daniel work i've seen. While not alot is given away in this issue yet, there is the return of a very key character that would have to be involved if Batman were to infact die. Batman RIP is a 20 part crossover that will be spanning Batman, Detecive, Nightwing, Robin and Batman & the Outsiders.

Secret Invasion #2 and Nightwing #144

Yeah, so it's a big week!!! So I'm going to quickly go through these cause there is so much more to read!!

First up is Secret Invasion #2:

Well if your not already reading Secret Invasion...then what the heck man?!?! Seriuosly it's marvels big crossover for this summer and whether it's a hit or miss it's always worth checking out. So far...it's been pretty damn good. Bendis at the helm leading the project...which he hasn't done since House of M...and great art by Leinil Francis Yu.

The premise? well to put it short: every character in the marvel universe could be a Skrull! Yeah it seems that simple, but marvel has been laying the groundwork for sometime apparently (i'd say only since Secret War that bendis did a year or so back). Skrulls have discovered a way to completely infiltrate the identity of someone and can only be detected when death occurs. Yeah that's right when the occurance of death insues, then we discover if you were a skrull or not, seems simple right?

This being the 2nd issue it means that the big fights will commence, and we get some really good hero vs hero battles here. Captain America is back (well possibly) and a host of others stright up duking it out! Iron Man goes back to basics when his armor is super hacked, and Hawkeye goes back to what he does best...bows and arrows.

All this action and we're treated to some really cool full-out Skrull versions of characters. Making for what i hope is an even craizer 3rd issue!! Check out super X-men skrull with wolvies claws, colossus' armor and cyclops' beams!

Also be sure to check out Mighty Avengers and New Avengers also both helmed by Bendis that are great additions to the story. Mighty Avengers covers what Nick Fury was up to while he was absent from the rest of the marvel universe, and on the flip side New Avengers covers what the skrulls were up to!

Now secondly a quick note on Nightwing #144:

If your into DC stuff at all, or even if you've been hardcore marvel fan, this is the book to read. Dick Grayson is probably one of the best characters in the DCU and his book is now doing a really good job of showing it. Look at this little panel that shows how much thought he goes through before busting some heads.

It's small details like this that are making this book such a great read. Also if you enjoy Nightwing pick up Green Lantern Corps also written by Tomasi for some interglactic police goodness!

The Dark Knight

All I can really say is...simply amazing!
Although visually I love the above poster (and must have it by the way!) i'd say the below poster more captures the whole Batman mythos, just look at that city that he has to watch over. Superman has always had his definitive watching from the clouds image, and now i believe we've got our batman equivalent image.

Now i'll bet these got you in the mood to read some batman stuff!!

Here's a list of what I've got on the stack for this week:

Batman The Long Halloween - leob & sale tell a great detective batman story

Batman Under the Hood vol 1 & 2 - the return of Jason Todd...and it's awesome!

Batman No Man's Land - Batman straight up running things when Gotham city is declared No Man's Land!
Batman and Son - the setup to the upcoming BATMAN RIP. be ready for Bruce Wayne's son and a host of imitation batman running around with guns and such