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(From "Baffling Mysteries" number 9, 1952.)
Comments Off on How it could sense me while I'm talking out loud is indeed a baffling mystery.
Posted in Daily Random Panel
Today I just want to take time to enjoy awesome looking images. So take this as a "Free Draw Friday" to post an image that you love. It could be one of your favorite HeroMachine creations (your own or someone else's), or something you drew yourself, or just a really cool picture you found on the Internet. All day long you can come back here to see what others have put up and get a little lift.
Here's mine (via Reddit):
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Posted in Sharing Day
(From "Baffling Mysteries" number 9, 1952.)
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Posted in Daily Random Panel
By: Andrew Hines
I'm going to break my own rule and cover an actual Batman issue. I've made due the last few months by not getting involved with a title directly involving the Caped Crusader. With that being said, this issue gives us something we rarely see in one issue, a glimpse into Bruce Wayne's path to becoming Batman. We all know his origin story, but this is a look at something more special: his training. We've seen a few glimpses from the old DCU and more in-depth in Batman Begins. What we get here is more specialized training with one of his many teachers from across the globe. We also get a new insight into Mr. Alfred Pennyworth in the side story in the back of this issue.
Gregg Hurwitz is another writer I'm not as familiar with. He did surprise me earlier this year with his run on Batman: The Dark Knight. He continues to make a name for himself with this issue, which could have easy seen Bruce bouncing back and forth between various instructors. Thankfully we see a singular instructor somewhere in the Himalayas. As is typical with the Dark Knight, he doesn't find a Mr. Miyagi type of instructor, but rather a cold and disciplined man.
As far as the art on the main story, Tony S. Daniel has done a good job so far. The same can be said for Richard Friend's inks and Tomeu Morey's colors. It's not as dark as the typical Batman issue, but only because that's not exactly who he is yet. The art is consistent from panel to panel. The only real downside is that .... well, there is no downside. It's a good issue from start to finish.
The backup story is just as good, with James Tynion IV as the writer, and Henrik Jonsson as the penciller, Sandu Florea and John Kalisz on inks and colors. We mostly see Alfred waiting for Bruce to return and another character that you need to see for yourself.
Both of these stories have good pacing and some surprising twists. The issue overall deserves an "A-". It's good, but come on, this is Batman we're talking about.
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Posted in Super-Hero Stuff
If you’re just tuning in, our goal is to write our own Choose Your Own Adventure where every choice is twofold, with one leading to further adventure and the other to a gruesome death. Here were our choices from last week:
Oh, you’re going to tell daddy over my dead body! You spring into action, grabbing a handful of those cheap office pens, just in case you need to throw stuff at him. You begin to notice your age as you pant towards the brat, but you’ll be damned if that stops you! You whip a pen at him, missing completely (unless you were actually aiming at Sue with the lazy eye from accounting, but you know you weren’t).
He looks back to see if that was you, makes an obscene gesture, and picks up the pace. If you don’t do something soon, you’ll have to listen to your boss lecture you for 15 minutes about conducting yourself in the office! 15 friggin minutes!!! You take every pen in hand, and throw them with all your might. Nailed him!
He turns around again, probably to make some stupid remark, when he runs right past his dad’s office, and down a stairwell. You hear him make a large amount of shrieks and shrills, as any annoying child is prone to do when they’re making a big deal out of some broken bones. Oh wait, this is bad! Now he’s going to tell his dad you made him fall! Unless he broke his mouth. Can you break a mouth? You’re not sure, but you bet that kid just found out.
Do you:
A – Check on the poor boy with the possibly broken mouth?
B – Beat him to his dad, and make up a story about him screwing around?
Such unchecked violence! At this rate we could be on cable. We had some great entries, seriously well written. I loved the Zombie approach from borntobealoser, but since we did such an adventure with "Zombocalypse Now", I thought we should try something different. Thus, we're going with logosgal's!
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Posted in RPG Corner, You're Going to Die
(From "Baffling Mysteries" number 9, 1952.)
Comments Off on "My Humiliation" is a weird name for a bull
Posted in Daily Random Panel
By: Andrew Hines
For as long as I can remember, the Phantom Stranger has been the greatest mystery of the DCU. Who is he? Where does he come from? How does he know so much about the DC(n)U? Is he really as neutral as he claims to be or is he a villain biding his time? These were actual questions from my 10 year old brain the first time I saw him in Adventures of Superman #548, "A Stranger Stalks Metropolis." Unfortunately this was during the height of the "electric Superman" period where DC was all into the digital age and then some. This issue reminds us of how well Public Domain characters can be utilized for comics.
Co-publisher, Dan Didio has given life to The Phantom Stranger. He begins without even using the character's name though still telling us exactly who we're dealing with through some awesome writing. With time, I can see him being a truly integral part of the DCnU. It's a great intro issue and I hope to see Didio do more in there future. I'll admit, I don't typically follow Didio's work as much as I do other writers', so this is a treat. I think he did a good job with a pretty obscure character, given that he has more creative wiggle room. Of course, being one of the top bosses doesn't hurt.
Brent Anderson's pencils combined with the inks and colors from Scott Hanna and Jeremy Cox, respectively, gave us some decent art to go with a good story. There are good scenes and decent effects. Most notably, the thing that really caught my eye was Anderson's decision to literally draw outside the lines. Several pages show effects that reach beyond the edge of the panels and flow across the page. For a title such as this, it's a great decision. The panel layout works as well, as there are places, such as pages 8, 24 and 25 where the panels, or lack thereof work best for the visual layout.
In all, it's a good issue that deserves a "B". I don't want to set the bar too high on an origin story and make the rest of the run look bad. If you want to know more about the classic character, go to the character's page at http://www.comicvine.com/phantom-stranger/29-3298/.
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Posted in Super-Hero Stuff
In the last 10 years there seem to have been very few events worthy of actually being events. Blackest Night is the latest big event to really make a lasting mark on a comic book universe. Furthermore, it's the only one that I believe fans don't hate outright for taking over the comics. I'm not even bothering with Avengers vs X-Men, since it just seems to be filler for Marvel at this point. The House of Ideas is running out of them, clearly. Speaking of which, House of M seems to have been swept under the rug. Only Messiah War, Age of Apocalypse and the full Phoenix Saga have had a truly lasting impact on the Marvel Universe.
The only time in probably the last 30 years that an event has been so sweeping and ended up completely re-shaping that company's universe as a whole was DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985). The Flash, Barry Allen died during the event and has probably been the only "real" death in comic book history, or at least the longest-lasting. It shaped the other characters relationships as he was the first to die and not come right back from it. (The fact that I'm primarily referencing DC events should come as no surprise.) Of course, he was brought back after 22 years in the events of Final Crisis (2008). Then, the biggest game-changing event in comics became Flashpoint, which the publishers ended up using as a segue into DC's New 52.
In my mind, unless it really does re-shape the universe the characters live in or leads to some larger story that does, we really don't need yearly events in comics. If we have to live through one, make it a Crisis on Infinite Earths or Phoenix Saga. We don't need to see another Civil War and then watch everything go back to normal a few months later.
With that said, what are your thoughts on comic events? Do you have a favorite (in any company) or one that you could live without?
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Posted in Randomosity, Super-Hero Stuff
Marvel can teach us many things about the wonderful world of being feral:
I think we can all be thankful that comics still has so much to teach us. Thank you, comics!
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Posted in Bad Super Costumes
(via Steve Bunche.)
Comments Off on Note to DC Comics: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons figured this out TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.
Posted in Daily Random Panel
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com