Phantom of the 52

Posted on September 5, 2012 by | Comments Off on Phantom of the 52

Phantom of the 52

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

Comic Book Events: Do We Need Them?

Posted on September 5, 2012 by | Comments Off on Comic Book Events: Do We Need Them?

Comic Book Events: Do We need Them?

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

"Feral" means "Big Hair"

Posted on September 5, 2012 by | Comments Off on "Feral" means "Big Hair"

Marvel can teach us many things about the wonderful world of being feral:

  1. Metal is out, because feral animals don't smelt.
  2. Claws come out from between the fingers, not from the tops of the hands, because that's how it happens in nature. To feral things.
  3. No clothing. I mean, when was the last time you saw a beaver in a yellow spandex costume? No, wait, don't answer that.
  4. Except for loin cloths. Loin cloths reek with feral-ness.
  5. Hair takes on the shape of whatever hat you would be wearing if you were not feral. Only more so. Thus we have the ten-gallon-hat shaped pit viper of the lower Colorado River Valley. It's both feral and an excellent rancher.
  6. Being feral means your lower teeth are enormous.
  7. Feral things drool. A lot.
  8. Going feral can turn your deltoids into mushroom caps. So don't do it, kids.

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

Note to DC Comics: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons figured this out TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.

Posted on September 5, 2012 by | Comments Off on Note to DC Comics: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons figured this out TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS AGO.

(via Steve Bunche.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

META: HM3 ads

Posted on September 4, 2012 by | Comments Off on META: HM3 ads

I just updated the HeroMachine 3 app page to support Google Ads. It seems to work but the code is weirding me out, so if you see anything not behaving correctly, please let me know.

I believe I have it set up where if you go to the widescreen view, the ad disappears so you can see the entire canvas, and then it comes back when you return to the default. Again, if not, holler.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, Meta

Movie Iron Man vs. Movie Batman. Who wins?

Posted on September 4, 2012 by | Comments Off on Movie Iron Man vs. Movie Batman. Who wins?

Our Versus poll today comes from Facebook commenter James Wickenden, and pits the two most iconic comic book movie characters against each other. Both are multi-billionaire inventor/crusaders who employ clever technological goodies in their fight against crime. So which would win in a head-to-head battle?

It's clear that the Iron Man armor employs a superior battery of weapons and defensive capabilities. It's essentially a one-man army corps. Batman's tech in the movies is effective, but lacks the raw firepower Stark Enterprises brings to bear. So from the standpoint of raw power, I give the edge to Iron Man.

Whenever we have a poll involving Batman, the conversation inevitably turns to "Will he have time to prepare", with the assumption being that if the answer is "yes", the result is "Batman wins". But the movie Batman doesn't seem to have the same supernatural ability as the comic book version -- he gets outthought and outfought by Bane up until the bitter end, while movie Stark seems to always be the one who's one step ahead of the game.

The caveat to that is that in the "Avengers" movie, Tony had to rely on Hawkeye's tactical abilities to swing the tide of combat. I think movie Batman would be at least equal to movie Hawkeye, so in combat tactical ability, I'd go with Bats.

For me, the tiebreaker comes down to the fact that Batman's girlfriend get killed, while Iron Man manages to hang on to Pepper Pots through three movies now. That's pretty good. So I'd vote for movie Iron Man if it were me, but I'm curious as to which way you'd go, and why. So please comment and tell us your thinking!

[polldaddy poll="6510336"]

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Posted in Versus

META: I get spam

Posted on September 4, 2012 by | Comments Off on META: I get spam

Maybe if you stopped associating with Nazis you'd be in a better mood.

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Posted in Meta

I'm no witch and I'm pretty sure *I* can interpret it …

Posted on September 4, 2012 by | Comments Off on I'm no witch and I'm pretty sure *I* can interpret it …

(From "Baffling Mysteries" number 9, 1952.)

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Character Design Challenge 99: Wingin' It

Posted on September 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on Character Design Challenge 99: Wingin' It

There's no WAY I'd take this case!

Your Character Design Challenge this week is to create the most awesome illustration possible featuring any item from the Backplane-Wings set. You could create an angel, or a bird-themed character, or a sea-faring monarch with teeny tiny wings on his ankles (as if anyone would believe that!), or a big flying mech, or an aircraft, or a sadistic vampire in his bat form, or anything else you can think of so long as at least one Wing item is present in the illustration.

I'll pick my personal favorites when the week is over, with the one I like best being featured in the right column for the week. The rules otherwise are the same as always:

  • All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like the HeroMachine forums, ImageShack, PhotoBucket, or whatever);
  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • The image cannot have been used in any previous HeroMachine challenge;
  • Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension] before you upload it. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
  • Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). See this post on how to get the direct link for most sites.
  • All entries must be in by next Monday, when I'll choose my personal favorites.

No limit on entries this week, so knock yourselves out. Just make them good!

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Posted in Challenges, Character Design Challenges

Caption Challenge 128 results!

Posted on September 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on Caption Challenge 128 results!

Many thanks to everyone who entered our last Caption Challenge, which tasked you with writing the best headline for this comics panel:

Here are the ones that I personally found the funniest:

  • Mark: When a mob boss tells you to get off his lawn, you listen.
  • fuzztone: You gotta mouse? We gotta solution.
  • ProwlerKnight: They should’ve bought some girl scout cookies
  • Mark: No child will ever be trapped in here again, once we fill this old well with lead.
  • Jawsabi: This is WAY better than laser-tag!
  • Twiggy: The New Orleans mob decides to deal with Hurricane Isaac their own way
  • Jake: Not everyone appreciated the Kenny G concert.
  • McKnight57: In the mob, a 21 gun salute happens BEFORE the burial.
  • Herr D: Dick Tracy never found out what happened to “Crawls” McGee.
  • The Occupant: And I thay it’th Duck Season!
  • spidercow2012: Don Vito said to clean out the rain gutters, so…
  • X-stacy: And that’s when I found out everybody really was a critic.

And my overall favorite? Fuzztone! The idea of a Mob-run extermination agency tickled my fancy and the line's well written.

Thanks everyone! I'd love to hear about your favorite(s) in the comments, so if you're computer-bound on this holiday (or stuck at the airport like me), chime in.

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Posted in Challenge Favorites