“News, reviews and opinions from the world of comics”Volume 12 #2 June 2008

Final Crisis #1After 52 weeks of 52 and another 52 weeks

of Countdown. it’s here — Final Crisis! This book should (in theory) tie up all the loose ends from the last two years of weekly DC Universe mayhem, as well as set the stage for what’s to come in the foreseeable future. Who will live? Who will die? DC is really not saying. But with scripts by Grant Morrison, whose JLA’s are some of the best-written DC super-hero books ever, and far too rare interior art by J.G. Jones (Wanted), who did all 52 beautiful covers for 52, it’ll be a great time fi nding out.

For a sneak peek, check out the Final Crisis Sketchbook. Sketchbook is a bit of a misnomer, since it’s chock full of material by both Jones and Morrison — sketches, designs, script notes, etc.

DC Universe #0As Final Crisis approaches, it’s easy to forget

what other tricks DC has up their sleeve this year. Well, DC Universe #0 is here to remind us that there is much awesome-ness looming in the multiverse. Such as...

Batman RIP Just the idea of Batman poten-tially dying has Bat-fans in a frenzy. With the unpredictable nature of writer Grant Morrison and a giant event on the horizon, you never know what to expect. Could it happen? I don’t know! Will there be a new Batman? I don’t know! Who could be the aforementioned new Batman? Gaagh, I don’t know!

James Robinson on Superman It’s a good month for Starman fans. Firstly, the Starman Omnibus series is beginning this month with its fi rst of four giant and amazing hardcovers. Secondly, (and this is the big one) Starman scribe James Robinson is going to start writing Superman! Here’s hoping he stays on for a while and makes Superman as good as Geoff Johns’ Action Comics.

Green Lantern: Blackest Night If it’s a good month for Starman fans, it’s looking to be a good couple of years for GL fans. Mongul and his many-colored rings. The Sinestro War fallout. Division within the Green Lantern Corps. All of the these things seem to be leading to Blackest Night. “What is Blackest Night?”, I pretend you ask. “Why it’s a story about zombie Green Lanterns”, I say. And while zombie comics may be reaching their saturation point, Green Lantern zombie comics are a most welcome addition.

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newuniversal: shockfront 1

Warren Ellis is back in the saddle again, taking some of Jim

Shooter’s terrible ideas from the mid-1980s and making them good (or at least really inter-esting). To be fair, Keith Giffen, Peter David, and

John Byrne tried the same thing 20 years ago, but it didn’t work out. Shooter should have probably green-lit Peter David’s new marketing slogan, “The New Universe — it doesn’t suck anymore.” It’s true again today.

Batman: Gotham After Midnight 1

Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and Kelley Jones (Batman: Red Rain) together on a Batman horror comic for an entire year. ‘Nuff said.

Madame Xanadu 1Matt Wagner writing Madame

Xanadu for Vertigo should be great. This mystical character has been around the DCU for years, but they haven’t done much with her. “Rising star artist” Amy Reeder Hadley is also really good.

Wolverine 66Mark Millar and Steve

McNiven, the team that brought

Fluffy GNWe don’t normally promote

cute bunny comics here at the Orbit anymore (not since Elizabeth went to the CBLDF anyway), but this is a super-cool, Italian, indy, cute bunny comic. By Simone Lia, the creator of Monkey & Spoon for AdHouse.

Life Sucks GNRead too many Anne Rice

books? Well, consider how life would be for a real vampire today – if your vampire master owned a convenience store and forced you to work there

at minimum wage. And the cool vampire you hate starts hitting on the one girl you’re interested in. And you don’t have any vampire powers because you don’t drink human blood, just plasma.

you Civil War, are together again! This time they’re bringing us the 8-part story “Old Man Logan”, set fifty years after Millar’s “Enemy of the State” run. In the words of Mark Millar, “This is the Wolverine story that I want to be remembered for.”

Checkmate 26 Picking up right where he left

off in Incredible Hulk, Bruce Jones takes over on Checkmate. The Black King’s plans go awry, and accidentally create a super-being — who sure seems kind of Hulk-

y to me.

Charlatan Ball 1Joe Casey and Andy

Suriano seem to be chan-neling pure 1970’s Jack

Kirby here. Kind of like Godland, only better...and

weirder.

Ultimate Origins 1Marvel’s sneaky. They look at

their entire Ultimate universe, and then do a series that explains the origins of a whole bunch of guys and how it all ties together. Plus it’s by Brian Michael Bendis and Butch Guice, so it’ll be awesome. Sneaky, sneaky Marvel!

All-Star Superman 11Okay, one more time – I don’t

really like Superman comics. But I LOVE All-Star Superman. It is really one of, if not the best, super-hero comics being done right now. Plus, with Morrison wrapping up

the first storyline at issue 12, it’s getting crazy! The headline will read… Superman Dead! (But no black armbands required this time.)

War Heroes 1

So Mark Millar’s Ultimates comics were high-octane explodey a w e s o m e n e s s . Based on his ideas for a third Ultimates series, you’ve got all

military recruits getting their own superpowers in Project Olympus. Bonus - it’s drawn by Tony Harris!

Conan The Cimmerian 0

At the end of Conan #50, he heads back home to Cimmeria, so that means it’s time for a relaunch! Tomas Giorello is the new artist, but he looks pretty great. And we’ll probably have lots of violent mayhem on the northern frontier, if you like that sort of thing in your Conan comics. Plus, it’s only a buck!

Trinity 1After the

d i s a p p o i n t -ment that was C o u n t d o w n , you would think low expectations would be the way to go with DC’s new weekly

series, Trinity, but no way, Jose! Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley? Sounds good. It’s about Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman instead of Forerunner and Trickster? Hooray! A weekly DC book I want to read? It’s like it’s 2006 all over again!

Reign in Hell 1

There is a war for the throne of Hell of the DC Universe! Who will win? Neron? Lord Satanus? John Byrne? Written by Keith Giffen but probably not as funny as Ambush Bug.

Marvel 1985 1The Marvel

heroes of 1985 invade regular Earth of 1985 with Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards at the helm. Millar is usually good at

delivering the mayhem, so expect to see many landmarks destroyed. Also, we finally get to find out what Doctor Strange thinks of the Goonies!

Skaar, Son of Hulk 1If you haven’t read Planet

Hulk or World War Hulk, I won’t spoil this one for you, but the title is kind of a giveaway. Skaar looks to be full of more of the same over-the-top smashing that has made the last year-plus of Hulk comics so much fun.

Sky Doll 1 I know. It’s a Marvel book!

What if I told you that it’s a Marvel reprint of a Euro-

pean series of albums starring a robot sexpot? AND that it’s a diatribe against organized

religion disguised as a sci-fi epic? AND that it has

amazing art?

Water Baby I know. It’s a DC book! What if

I told you that it’s a DC reprint of a European series of albums star-ring a robot sexpot? I’d be lying. It’s a Ross Campbell (The Aban-doned, Wet Moon) book about a chick who gets her leg bitten off by a shark and goes on a road trip. It’s basically an Oni book that happens to be published by DC’s super-rad Minx line.

Johnny Boo HC James Kolchaka’s new kids’

book about a cute little ghost.

Read the Free Comic Book Day story. This and Top Shelf’s other new series, Yam, are guaranteed to be the best kids’ comics not called The Amulet that come out this year.

Monster Zoo GNAnother foray into the weird-

ness of Doug TenNapel’s mind. I guess there’s no new Earthworm Jim game on the horizon, if he has time to keep pumping out GNs. But the video game world’s loss is our gain — check it out!

Star Trek: Assignment Earth 1

John Byrne brings us the classic Trek spin-off series that never was. Should be cool, but you really have to squint in order to pretend that the blonde is a young Teri Garr....

The Big Book of Barry Ween, Boy Genius TP

Before he was a big-time DC

Comics writer, Judd Winick used to do a brilliant, funny comic for Oni called Barry Ween. Finally all these stories are available in one single volume for your reading pleasure. Think South Park meets Calvin and Hobbes....

The New York FourOkay, so maybe Local is so

late since Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly had to do an entire graphic novel for the Minx line! I read a preview copy, and it’s great. A young girl starts school in NYC, and lives with three other

girls in a single apartment, while tracking down her estranged sister. Plus romance! It’s awesome drama, with great Kelly art.

Wolfskin Annual 1

For anyone who missed the gore-rific carnage of the Wolfskin

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All-Star Batman and Robin Vol.1 HC

Frank Miller is very lucky that Jim Lee draws this book. Five issues of Batman in a car calling Robin a moron? No way! Five issues of Batman in a car calling Robin a moron with Jim Lee art? Yes way!!

Superman: Last Son HC

This story-arc by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner seemed destined for Battle Chasers/Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine status, but DC finally managed to put out the last issue only eight months late. I imagine it’ll read better in this collection because you’ll actually be able to remember what the story was about when you get to the last part. Plus, the 3-D section is pretty cool. (3-D glasses are included)

Infinity Inc. Vol.1: Luthor’s Monsters TP

Infinity Inc is a Vertigo series disguised as a DCU series. Full of internal struggle and a dissection of what it means to have powers, this first storyline

was amazing. For my money it’s the best stuff Peter Milligan has put out since X-Statix.

Buffy Vol.2 TPMore Buffy Season 8, but this

time written by Brian K. Vaughan (between Y: The Last Man ending, and the TV writers strike, I guess he needed something to use his awesome creative energies on) and focusing on Giles and Faith. Read it if you love Buffy. If you don’t love Buffy, watch Buffy.

Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite TP

This book is weird. But good weird in the best way. Seven super-powered kids are adopted by a millionaire inventor, and fight an animated Eiffel Tower

and the zombie robot Mr. Eiffel himself! That’s pretty cool when they’re 10 years old, but the story is really about their dysfunctional

family, and trying to survive each other ten years later

when their adoptive father dies.

Fables Vol. 10: The Good Prince

TPThe reason it’s been so

long since the last Fables trade is that this one is huge! Flycatcher remembers more of his past as the Frog Prince, and heads out into the Adversary’s Empire – with Sir Lancelot and a little thing called Excalibur! Plus a few ghosts of some old enemies like Sher Khan and Bluebeard....

Y: The Last Man Vol. 10: Whys and Wherefores TP

The end is here! Finally, Y: The Last Man wraps up – with char-acters dying and devel-oping very u n e x p e c t e d relationships. Could Yorick even find his girlfriend that

he’s been searching for all this time? Plus, a look into the future of a manless Earth! The ending actually lives up the series.

Demo TP

Back in print, finally! This set of 12 short stories by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan all revolve around life, love, and loss – and for you super-hero kids, there’s some super-powers too! Like what if you COULD come back from the dead…?

Conan: Born on the Battlefield TP

This book collects all the framework stories from Kurt Busiek’s Conan run to tell the complete story of Conan’s rise from a young boy born in the midst of a battle to a vicious man in the brutal mountains of his homeland.

The Sword Vol.1: Fire TPThe Luna Brothers might

be the best cliffhanger/thriller w r i t e r s in comics besides Brian K. Vaughan. In their new collection, a handicapped girl is forced to watch as a group of people with

supernatural powers slaugh-ters her entire family while demanding the return of a magical sword. Then she FINDS the sword – and can suddenly walk again. A great new thriller! Plenty violent too.

EC Archives: Frontline Combat Vol.1 HC

Harvey Kurtzman’s genius is truly on display in Frontline Combat. Although these were done in 1951 and ‘52, they are still considered some of the best war comics ever created. Mainly set in the Korean War, but with some good historical settings as well, they have art by some of the EC greats like John Severin, Wally Wood, Jack Davis, and Will Elder! Truly amazing.

Loveless Vol.3: Blackwater Falls TP

It’s been so long since the last volume of this fantastic western comic, we figured you might need a reminder that it still exists. Not sure why Brian Azzarello can’t make deadlines, but as always, his books are worth the wait.

Eternals TPNeil Gaiman and John Romita

do their take on 1970’s Kirby wackiness. And finally affordable — 256 pages for $24.99 — 3 bucks less than the single issues.

World’s Finest Deluxe Edition HC

Steve Rude (Nexus) at his artistic peak, in a beautiful over-sized hardcover! P.S. Stars Superman, Batman, Lex Luthor, and the Joker. You must have this.

Countdown to Final Crisis Vol.1 TP

Some people love weekly comics.... For those of you who didn’t want to deal with a weekly comic (again), here’s 300 pages of Countdown in one easy-to-read volume.

Legion of Super-Heroes: 1,050 Years in the Future TP

To celebrate the 50th anni-versary of the Legion, DC has compiled a greatest hits collection featuring rare early appearances, as well as classic Legion stories from all eras. From Silver Age goofiness to Jim Shooter’s teenage genius to Keith Giffen/Paul Levitz classics from the 1980s — they’re all here in one handy volume. I assume DC has worked out the whole Superboy lawsuit thing, or this could be really late....

Creepy Archives Vol.1 HCHere at the Orbit, we are

constantly raving about the great EC Comics of the 1950s. In case you were wonder ing what those great artists did in the 1960s — this is it. Al Williamson,

Alex Toth, Frank Frazetta, and Joe Orlando are all represented in this first volume — printed full magazine size! Even better, later volumes will include other EC greats, as well as the youngsters who were inspired by them — Richard Corben, Berni Wrightson, and Neal Adams, to name a few.

Killing Girl Vol.1: A Sister’s Love TP

Animators Frank Espinosa (Rocketo) and Toby Cypress split the art duties on this tale of a Mafia hitwoman. The TP has an extra “Art of Killing Girl” section, featuring art by both great anima-tors. And if you didn’t already read Rocketo, check it out. Abso-lutely beautiful art, and a cool retro sci-fi story to boot.

series, we get another one-shot! It won’t have Ryp on art, sadly. But this time our hero will be in a city – a lot more potential deaths there. Plus investigating criminals is more fun with a broadsword.

Cowa Vol. 1Akira Toriyama is coming off

his best-selling D r a g o n b a l l series with an all-ages humor comic! Taifu has to help save all the adult monsters from a Monster Flu

with all his friends. But really, anything that stars a half-vampire/half-werekoala is a good start!

Real Vol. 1Takehiko Inoue’s Vagabond is

one of the best manga being done, and his basketball manga Slam

Dunk is the best-selling manga of ALL TIME in Japan. Now, here’s another one by him with a heavier theme, as a young tough cripples a girl in a motorcycle accident and drops out of school to try to deal with it. Plus, his life focus of basketball is over when he quits the team. Crazy!

Big Planet Orbit Volume 12 #2; June, 2008 is published by Joel Pollack, Peter Casazza, Jared Smith, and Greg Bennett for Big Planet Comics. www.bigplanetcomics.com.

Big Planet Comics, Inc. 4908 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814, 301.654.6856

Big Planet Comics of VA Inc. 426 Maple Ave. East, Vienna, VA 22180, 703.242.9412

Big Planet Comics of DC Inc. 3145 Dumbarton St. NW, Washington, DC 20007, 202.342.1961

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Big Planet Comics of College Park Inc. 7315 Baltimore Ave. , College Park, MD, 20704, 301.699.0498

A look at comic f ilmsComics Roundtable with Greg Bennett, Kevin Panetta and Jared Smith

KP: So, it seems that everyone in the entire universe loved Iron Man. It definitely got me psyched for this summer’s movies. What about you guys?

JS: I was psyched anyway, but it was pretty cool to have a comic book movie you can be proud of (that people realize was based on a comic book anyway, unlike Men in Black or A History of Violence). I’m still a bit leery of Hulk though, it’s hard to get rid of the green-gagging taste from the last one. I am pretty interested in Wanted though, just for the novelty of another non-superhero comic book movie. Oh wait, the comic book of Wanted IS all superhe-roes! But the movie’s not. Now you’ve got me really confused Hollywood! But you have to admire a superhero comic book that blatantly bases its character design on Eminem and Halle Berry getting made into a non-superhero movie starring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. Eh, close enough - I’d be happy if every comic book movie had Jolie in it.

GB: I’m a little nervous

about Hulk too, but I’m excited by the idea of a shared Marvel Universe in all these films, now that Marvel’s doing all their production in-house. I’m not sure if The Punisher will be part of the big picture, but who cares? That dude from Rome is awesome! DC’s definitely gonna have to step it up. Must admit that I’m cautiously optimistic about Dark Knight and Watchmen though.

KP: I can understand being cautious about Watchmen. I’m the

one guy who didn’t like 300! As far as Dark Knight goes, though, I think Christopher Nolan kicked a whole lot of ass with Batman Begins and I imagine the trend will continue through Dark Knight. Anyone who gives an actor The Killing Joke and says, “Here’s how I want you to play the Joker,” is alright in my book. Dark Knight and Hellboy 2 are my big comic movies this summer for sure.

JS: My one worry with Dark Knight is that I enjoyed a lot of the background of Batman Begins more than when he finally put on a costume. Any time Batman is standing in a well-lit place, he can look a little silly. More shadowy spots and Joker and all will be well! Hellboy 2 is top of the pops for me too. I’ve deliberately avoided learning anything about it,

because I know it will be great and want to be surprised and amazed by everything Guillermo del Toro throws at us. Watchmen is on my danger list just for the attempt to cram such a complicated comic book into a 2 hour movie. We’ll see I guess, the sets and costumes look pretty good for it at least.

GB: Holy crap! I just did an imdb search on Avi Arad, the Marvel movie producer.

Iron Man (2008) TV series (in production) (executive producer) (2007) The Avengers (2011) (announced) (executive producer) The First Avenger: Captain America (2011) (announced) (executive producer) Ant-Man (2010) (announced) (executive producer)

Doctor Strange (2010) (announced) (executive producer) Nick Fury (2010) (announced) (producer) The Hands of Shang-Chi (2009) (announced) (producer) Spider-Man 4 (2009) (announced) (producer) Luke Cage (2009) (announced) (executive producer) X-Men Origins: Magneto (2009) (announced) (producer) Silver Surfer (2009) (announced) (producer) Deathlok (2008) (announced) (producer) Iron Fist (2008) (announced) (executive producer) Thor (2010) (pre-production) (producer) X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) (filming) (executive producer) Robosapien: Rebooted (2009) (filming) (producer) Punisher: War Zone (2008) (post-production) (producer)

Yow! What’s DC got coming up long-term? Constantine 2, Shazam, Metal Men? They’ve got some catching up to do. That Marvel list is crazy.

KP: What are you talking about?! DC’s got the awesome Joss Whedon directed Wonder Woman movie coming out soon, right? And the all-CGI Justice League movie? Isn’t that what indefinite hiatus means?

JS: Well, at least they don’t

have to worry about the picketing Iron Man got from the Crimson Dynamo Soviet League for Historical Accuracy in the Devel-opment of Combat Suits. Plus, Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit’s movie’s pre-production’s promotional trailer. And I don’t think DC can ever top Robosa-pien ...