A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Savage Hawkman 1, Justice League Dark 1, Fury of Firestorm 1

Savage Hawkman 1
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels

One of the ten things Newsarama doesn't like about the New 52 is that a lot of titles feel like they're just retreading old ground. Savage Hawkman is not one of those titles. When I read on the first page that Carter Hall has been Hawkman in the past but is now trying to get away from it, I breathed a sigh of relief, because that meant I wasn't going to re-reading Hawkman's origin story, like I am in Supergirl and Blue Beetle, and because the idea of Carter Hall burning his Hawkman suit because he's trying to get away from the superhero life feels fresh to me. And then we find out that Carter is a cryptologist who specializes in alien artefacts, which is also new, and then we find out that the Nth metal has somehow bonded to Carter's body, refusing to let him get away from Hawkman, which is also new. The story itself didn't quite wow me--it was okay--but at least there are a lot of cool new ideas floating around here, so I'm thinking I'm going to like this series.

Justice League Dark 1
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels

This book had a few things going against it:

1. The title sounds stupid.
2. I don't care much about any of the main characters.
3. I just don't get into magic stories.
4. I generally don't like Peter Milligan as much as I think I should, and sometimes find his writing too confusing too enjoy. 

Given all that, I enjoyed this well enough. The team hasn't yet called itself "Justice League Dark" (but then the team hasn't formed yet), the characters are interesting enough to make up for the uninterestingness of magic, and the writing is easy enough to follow--I could tell who was who and what was happening at all times in the book. Still not a Wow, but I'll give it a few more issues.

Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men 1
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels

First, I have to say this title is too long. You can have "Fury of..." or you can have the subtitle, but you don't get to have both. Also, I felt pretty stupid when I first noticed about five months after the initial solicits were released that it says "Men" plural and not "Man."

Anyway. Even though this appears to be a hard reboot starting over with the character origin, it still feels fresh because it's doing something with the character that hasn't been done before--Jason and Ronnie as two separate Firestorms who then combine into a big ugly Firestorm. Also, we get the Firestorms of all Nations:

I'm pretty sure that's Firehawk with the blue wings, so we'll be seeing her again before long, and the guy on right looks like he could be Hotspot--perhaps he's the Firestorm of Africa in this International League of Heroes--and if we're going with existing characters as Firestorms around the world, then I'm betting that the Firestorm of Japan is Rising Sun. At any rate, this panel was a nice tease.

The main thing I do not like about this iteration of Firestorm is the ugly designs of the title characters. The strength of Firestorm's character, the thing that has made him endure over the years, is his unique, cool-looking design. The designs here for Ronniestorm (aka Firestorm Red) and Jasonstorm (aka Firestorm Yellow) are relatively bland and uninspired. And the big ugly combined Firestorm? He is big, and boy, is he ugly.

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Supergirl 1, Birds of Prey 1, Blue Beetle 1, Legion of Superheroes 1, Captain Atom 1

Supergirl 1
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels

There's nothing bad about this comic except for that godawful costume, but at the same time there's nothing in this first issue that convinces me there was a reason the story of Supergirl first coming to Earth needed to be told yet again, just a few years after the last time. (The last time, by the way, is on sale for a buck an issue this weekend.) The only part of this issue that made me stop and say, "Hey, that's cool," is the moment when Kara first discovers her superhearing, and she hears lines of dialogue from other comic books:

One of my favorite things about comics is the shared universe aspect, so I get turned on by moments like this.

Birds of Prey 1
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels

Fun, fast-paced story with a cool premise--Black Canary has been framed for murder, so she has to lie low while still trying to do good. I like that Dinah is intentionally putting together a team simply because she wants to help people. It seems that superhero teams are more often thrown together against their will in order to battle some common threat, so it's nice to see a superhero being proactive about forming a team. Also, I'm glad that Barbara shows up, even briefly, and shows off her Oracle skills.

And in case you didn't believe me about Supergirl hearing lines of dialogue from other comics, here's one of those lines:

Blue Beetle 1
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Pixels

So, let's take a fan-favorite character who very recently had a critically-acclaimed series in which his origin was already told and then expounded upon, and reboot him completely, except let's not make any substantial changes--we'll just retell the same origin story, but watered down now and decompressed. And whereas the previous series was often laugh-out-loud hilarious, let's make this one just mildly humorous, but throw in a lot of Spanish words to give us diversity street-cred. And mems how one of the best parts about that series was the supporting cast? Let's keep that same cast, but mess with them unnecessarily, for example turning the goofy but lovable best friend into an annoying gangsta wannabe. Sound like a good idea?

Legion of Superheroes 1
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels

At least this first issue is a little more new-reader-friendly than Legion Lost 1 was--each of the characters gets a little caption intro blurb thingee, so I know who's who even though there are a bunch of new characters I haven't met before. Also, I dig that Mon-El is Legion leader, as hopefully that means he'll get a lot of screen time. (He's soooo dreamy.) I think I'll be completely immersed in this Legion within a couple of issues.

Captain Atom 1
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels

From the more godlike powers to the philosophical pondering to the more-blue-than-silver look, this is very much Captain Atom as Dr. Manhattan. Very appropriate, I'd say. (Now that would have been an interesting take on Blue Beetle--make him an out-of-shape, middle-aged man with an inferiority complex, struggling with impotence.) I was surprised to see that Freddie E. Williams II is inking himself here, as the style is very different from his previous art I've seen. I applaud him for experimenting with something new.

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Demon Knights 1, Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE 1, Legion Lost 1, Mr. Terrific 1, Superboy 1

Demon Knights 1
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels

I won't say this is my favorite comic ever, but I'm glad that Stormwatch convinced me to give this a try. Paul Cornell manages to take two characters I've never found interesting, Etrigan and Madame Xanadu, and make them interesting. He's also set up an interesting premise, bringing together a team of somewhat familiar DC characters in the Dark Ages to battle Mordru and the "Questing Queen" (should I know who she is?). It's also not lost on me that out of this team of seven, four are women, one a cross-dresser, one a paraplegic, and one a Middle Easterner. And this is centuries before diversity became cool!

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. 1
Rating: 4 out of 5 Pixels

This is another one that I was not going to buy, but I'm glad I changed my mind. Jeff Lemire writes a solid first issue--the cast of characters is introduced, the concept and setting are fleshed out, and an engaging conflict is established right from the start. I love Father Time as a little girl, I love that Ray Palmer shows up, and I love the miniaturized floating headquarters--as I've said, I'm a sucker for cool secret hideouts.

Legion Lost 1
3 out of 5 Pixels

This is a decent story, but doesn't work so well as a first issue. I've been a Legion fan for nearly twenty years, but I don't know these characters--I know both Waid reboots much better than the classic version, and I'm not quite caught up on recent Levitz trades in order to get acquainted with characters like Tyroc, Tellus, and Chameleon Girl. Gates I know, and I'm pretty familiar with Dawnstar, Wildfire, and Timber Wolf. If I were a brand new reader reading a Legion story for the first time, though, I'd be even more lost than the titular characters here. We don't even have the little caption boxes providing name, home planet, and powers, as is common in Legion books. Also, I'll be pissed if (spoiler alert) Gates is really dead. He's one of my favorite characters from the first 90s reboot.

Mr. Terrific 1
3 out of 5 Pixels

This is an okay comic, but it didn't wow me. And I'm afraid that in order for this comic to succeed, it needs to wow people. It's a title starring a lesser-known minority character, launched in the midst of 51 other new titles. It has a strong lead character and interesting supporting characters, but the conflict is a little too vague so far to really grab onto. Here's hoping issue 2 has something more tangible to grip readers and keep this title alive.

Superboy 1
4 out of 5 Pixels

This, on the other hand, wowed me. Of the three Scott Lobdell titles, this was the one I was least excited about (hence putting it on my Month Late list), and after loving Teen Titans and hating Red Hood, I didn't know what to expect of Superboy. What I got is the most interesting take on this character since his introduction nearly twenty years ago, a well-rounded supporting cast (hey, Rose Wilson has two eyes again!), and a great narrative twist halfway through the first issue. I love the reason why Superboy ends up going to school in a small town, I love that he's fascinated by the redhead (presumably for the same reason), and I love that Lobdell seems to be picking up on the Superboy/Ravager relationship that was just blossoming in J.T. Krul's Teen Titans. I hope this leads to Ravager joining Lobdell's Titans. This title just may end up graduating to my Day-And-Date list, especially if it continues to tie closely into Teen Titans.

I have just one nitpick, though: Is it just me, or is R.B. Silva's Superboy very oddly proportioned?

He has the forearms of a gorilla! Least sexy dude in briefs I've seen in a while.

A Month (plus one week) Late and a Dollar Short: Animal Man 1, Batwing 1, Detective Comics 1, Green Arrow 1, Static Shock 1, Swamp Thing 1

Last week the first batch of New 52 comics dropped a dollar in price and I picked up six of them. I read them last week but didn't get a chance to review them until now, so I guess we can consider how well I remember them as one indicator of how good they were. Keep in mind, though, I was exhausted from moving and in my fourth week of shingles, so I wasn't in the best frame of mind for reading critically. I know I fell asleep with the laptop on my lap during a few of these, and I'm not sure that's an accurate reflection of their quality. So here goes:

Animal Man 1
Rating: 4 out of 5 Pixels
This was my favorite of the bunch. The concept of Buddy Baker as celebrity environmentalist feels unique, and even if the concept of Maxine manifesting freaky animal powers doesn't seem so unique (I haven't read a lot of Animal Man, but I swear I've read a story like this before), it's well done with engaging writing and quirky artwork.

Batwing 1
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels
Well, at least this Judd Winick comic didn't end with the protagonist having sex with Batman (though that would have been interesting). The artwork is pretty, the story has Batman elements but doesn't feel purely derivative (it's uniquely a Batwing story, not just a story about Batman where Bruce is black instead of white), but flipping through the pages again just now I'm just as confused about the chronology of events as I was when I read the comic in my Lortab-induced haziness last week.

Detective Comics 1
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels
This is a pretty decent Batman comic, just not awesome in the way that Batman and Batman & Robin are. Also, I'm confused by the whole Alfred hologram thing, and the last page with Joker's face cut off (retroactive spoiler alert) is gross. But I'm curious to see where it goes.

Green Arrow 1
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels
I really dig the concept of this reboot--Green Arrow as Bill Gates meets James Bond. As for the story itself, it's kind of bland. The villains are uninteresting and don't feel like much of a threat, so the cliffhanger ending doesn't really have me hanging.

Static Shock 1
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels
A very compressed, wordy comic. I dig. I also like the headquarters Hardware has set up for Static:

I'm a sucker for cool secret hideouts. Also, this book's cliffhanger has me genuinely wondering what's going to happen next issue.

Swamp Thing 1
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Pixels
I want to like this comic, I really do. It's well-written and has pretty artwork. But I just can't get into Swamp Thing, as much as I try. The fact that tonight I couldn't even remember for sure whether I read this last week says something. I'll give you another issue or two to hook me, Mr. Snyder, but if you haven't convinced me by then I'm afraid I'll just have to love you on Batman only. But I am anxious to read your Detective run that was finally released on Comixology last week...

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: The Last Flashpoint Friday

Flashpoint 5
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Andy Kubert, Jesse Delperdang, & Sandra Hope
Rating: 2 out of 5 Pixels

In this finale that was meant to tie-up about twenty loose plot threads, introduce the biggest reboot in decades, and wow us all to pieces, Geoff Johns fails to deliver. Instead what we get is a story that takes us from Point A to Point B in a rather anticlimactic fashion, playing fast and loose with logic as it does so. Somehow, Barry saving his mother thirty years ago was "like a bullet shattering a windshield," altering time in every direction, in ways that no one bothers to explain. When the Flash runs, it's not so much about traveling from one place (or time) to another, but rather just the act of going really fast makes him magically appear wherever the story needs him to be, whether it's on his mother's couch or at his cosmic treadmill (which apparently exists in empty space, outside of reality) at the precise moment when he needs to be there in order to stop himself from saving his mother's life and thereby destroying the world. I can deal with these leaps of logic, though. Comic book laws of physics are typically... creative, especially when it comes to time travel and alternate realities. The thing that really bugged me about this issue, that made me just now drop the rating from 2.5 to 2 Pixels (even lower than I rated Red Hood and the Outlaws 1), is this scene:

See, Geoff Johns realized that if Barry decided to sacrifice his mom, even in order to save the entire world, he wouldn't come across as a hero. Rather, he'd come across as a douche who decided his mom's life wasn't worth everyone else's. So Johns writes in this scene where Barry's mom herself makes the decision to die in order to save the world, so instead of being the victim of Barry's douchery she's a hero, right? Except that this scene more or less comes out of nowhere, as far as characterization is concerned. We've seen Barry's mom for what, a few pages in the first issue or two of the series? If she was going to be the hero of this series, then she needed to be a bigger part of it all along. We needed to get to know her so that we'd understand that she's the type of person who sacrifices herself to save the world. We needed to care about her so that we recognize what this sacrifice means to her. Not what it means to Barry. Because this woman has been in the background for most of this series (as most women have), this scene comes across instead as her recognizing that she's not as important as the big (male) heroes, Flash and Batman and Cyborg, so she might as well just get out of the way so they can have their happy world back.

Sorry, Mr. Johns, I generally like your writing, but this just doesn't work for me. You created a (female) supporting character simply as motivation for the (male) main character, then tried to convince me that she's the hero of the story when in fact you just didn't want to make the main character look like a complete asshole. Bzzt. Try again.

Also, is it just me, or does Batman have a total double standard when it comes to fellow heroes who have tried to rewrite reality and in the process have killed innocents? Remember how he didn't forgive Green Lantern for years? This time, Flash tells him, "You know what? I just tried to go back in time and save my mom, but instead I created this new reality where millions of people suffered and died needlessly." And Batman is all like, "No worries, bro, it's cool."

Admit it, Batman, you just don't like Hal. It has nothing to do with him having been Parallax.

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint Friday

This week's flash reviews:

Flashpoint: Project Superman 3
Does it make it better or worse for the woman in the refrigerator to be self-aware enough to recognize that she's a woman in a refrigerator?

Personally, I'm kind of bothered that Lois sees herself as "the girl" and not "the hero." (Or, y'know, both.)

Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance 3
This book should have come out two weeks earlier. One scene leads directly into Wonder Woman and the Furies 3, which came out last week (speaking as if I'd bought all these books on their initial release date), and another scene leads directly into Project Superman 3, which came out the same week as this, but with no indication that I should read one before the other. Yes, I can put the pieces together even when read out of chronological order, but one of the appeals of a collection of miniseries like this is the connections between them and how they all come together to tell a larger story than each one tells individually. A little more planning in the scheduling department could have made that aspect work just a little better.

Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost 3
I did not expect to see Max Mercury in this comic, nor many of the other references to Bart Allen's history. Sterling Gates clearly knows his Mark Waid. I would love to see a Gates-written Kid Flash ongoing. Also, Bart being the speedster to sacrifice himself in this universe-altering crisis? I didn't expect that. (Because, you know, he's alive in Teen Titans 1 next week.) Still, a nice touch.

Flashpoint: Hal Jordan 3
The end of this issue would make a great origin story for Carol Ferris, Green Lantern, who now has Hal Jordan as her very own woman in a refrigerator.

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint Friday

Flash reviews for Flashpoint Friday:

Flashpoint: Abin Sur 3
It's like Zero Hour and Blackest Night remixed: Sinestro very nearly becomes Parallax, trying to destroy the universe in order to make a better one like Hal once did, and then Abin Sur becomes a White Lantern to save the Earth, like Sinestro once did.

Flashpoint: Legion of Doom 3
Well, Cyborg, to tell you the truth, yes, those pants do make your butt look big.

Also, Flashpoint Plastic Man grosses me out.

Flashpoint: The Outsider 3
It's one thing to say that Aquaman is a completely different person because he was taken from his father when he was a kid, but it's quite another to say that J'onn J'onzz, who was already an adult with a completely formed identity on Mars, would turn into a greedy, vengeful sadist because when he got to Earth he was treated like a science experiment. Sorry, I don't buy it. The character in this story is fundamentally not J'onn J'onzz.

Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies 3
I've seen complaints similar to my complaint about J'onn above, except in reference to Flashpoint Wonder Woman. I have to say, though, I like that this issue gets down to the core of who Diana is in any incarnation--the struggle between war and peace, warrior and diplomat.

After reading all these comics that end with "To be concluded in Flashpoint 5," I can see how that final chapter of the mega-story was set up to do a lot, so I'm not surprised by the many reviews out there saying it failed to meet those expectations. I'll see for myself in two weeks...

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint Friday

Because I don't feel like writing full reviews, a sentence or two on each of this week's month-old Flashpoint tie-ins:

Flashpoint: Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager 3
See, this is why I will not be buying the new Deathstroke series: No matter what version of reality he's in, Slade Wilson is a skeevy old man who sleeps with teenage girls. The fact that he's just finished boning a girl his daughter's age makes it uber-creepy when he says things like "Every bone in my body wants to take my daughter in my arms."

Flashpoint: Deadman and the Flying Graysons 3

This picture made me wonder how much time Starfire spends waxing:

In the spirit of yesterday's post, I'm happy to say that Starfire is not the only one looking ridiculously sexy in this issue:

Yes, Deadman, yes it is. And a nice body to go with it too. Thank you, Fabrizio Fiorentino.

Flashpoint: Citizen Cold 3
Of all the deaths in Flashpoint, it's Wally West's that makes me the saddest, because even though I know it doesn't "count," it looks like this is the last we'll see of the character for a while.

Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown 3
Okay, Jeff Lemire, you've convinced me to give Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. a try. Damn you.

Flashpoint: Emperor Aquaman 3
So will the unknown final fate of Mera's severed head be a major plot point in Flashpoint 5, or is this just a really strange throwaway line?

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint 4 + Other Flashpoint Stuff

Flashpoint 4
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artists: Andy Kubert & Jesse Delperdang
Release Date: August 3, 2011 (print)/September 2, 2011 (digital)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels

In a recent post at Living Between Wednesdays, Johnathan asks what the theme of Flashpoint's world is. I don't know how well this theme carries through the end of the series, but I believe this panel from issue 4 suggests one possibility:

Flashpoint asks, "What would the DC Universe be like without hope?" Which makes it even more ironic that in the world of Flashpoint Barack Obama is president, whereas he isn't in the "world with hope" Billy Batson refers to above; is Geoff Johns really that cynical or did he just not carry that thought through to its logical conclusion? Regardless of Johns's feelings about President Obama, the fact that he's contrasting the hopeless world of Flashpoint with the hope-filled DCU gives me hope that the new DCU he's now constructing will not simply be a Marvelized DC Universe. Many consider the primary difference between Marvel and DC to be the latter's optimism versus the former's pessimism, and I'm reassured to see that Flashpoint 4 suggests that Johns considers that hopeful optimism an intrinsic part of the universe he's recreating.

When Justice League 1 came out this week, I was beginning to feel annoyed by DC's decision to release Flashpoint digitally a month after the print release date. Now that the New 52 has begun, who cares about Flashpoint? I'm thinking now, though, that it will be kind of fun to read the final month of Flashpoint concurrently with the first month of the New 52, and look for thematic throughlines.

Mini-reviews of other Flashpoint titles released digitally this week:

Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance 2
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels
Lois Lane meets up with Grifter's Resistance. High adventure with several unexpected cameos. I like that this story picks up threads from Flashpoint: Canterbury Cricket, as part of the appeal of Flashpoint is the idea of an entire world being contained within this set of miniseries and specials, and otherwise the Canterbury Cricket one-shot might have felt relatively pointless.

Flashpoint: Project Superman 2
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels
I was feeling pretty uninterested in this story about some random guy who the government tried to give Superman's powers, until the last few pages where we see a tweenage Kal-El meet a tweenage Lois Lane for the first time, protect her from a threat, and then watch her father selflessly sacrifice himself to save both kids. It was a nice moment, and good to see Sam Lane not be a total bastard for once.

Flashpoint: Batman, Knight of Vengeance 3
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels
I really dig the premise of this series, that (spoiler alert!) Bruce Wayne was killed by a mugger instead of his parents, and that Thomas becomes Batman and Martha the Joker. This makes the Joker interesting in a way that the character has never been for me, and makes for a fascinating Batman/Joker dynamic. This issue has a particularly poignant moment in which Thomas asks Martha whether he should do what he can to change history so that they die instead of Bruce, and she makes him promise her he will do so.

Flashpoint: Secret Seven 3
Rating: 2 out of 5 Pixels
Um... I'm not sure exactly what happened in this issue. I'm kind of sort of intrigued by the possibility that plot threads will carry over from this book into Justice League Dark, considering the fact that both books share the same writer, protagonists, and antagonist, and the fact that these characters by their nature transcend dimensional boundaries, but honestly if Justice League Dark is as confusing as this is, I don't see myself sticking with it for long.

Flashpoint: World of Flashpoint 3
Rating: 3 out of 5 Pixels
This issue returns to the theme of hope, the idea here being that hope does exist in the world of Flashpoint, it's just not so visible. A nice issue focusing on the relationship between Traci 13 and her father, but the niceness crosses the line into cheesiness on the last page, in which everything is tied up nicely in a neat little package.

My Digital Pull List: The New 35... maybe 36

With tomorrow's midnight release of Justice League 1, the New 52 begins. (Incidentally, I'm curious to see whether there will be a midnight release on Comixology since DC has given retailers the option, and if so what time zone's midnight it will be. If Justice League 1 is in fact released digitally at, say, midnight Eastern time, I'll be reviewing it within an hour thereof.) At any rate, since the subtitle of this blog is "My Digital Pull List," I thought it would be appropriate to actually list the titles I plan on getting. Since I'll be buying only the comics I'm most anxious for on the day they're released and waiting a month to buy the rest when the price drops a dollar, I'm dividing the titles into two lists (each subject to change without warning). Also, a word or two on why I'm planning to buy each one. Without further ado:

Day-And-Date

• Justice League--because, duh, Geoff Johns + Jim Lee + World's Greatest Heroes (tm)
• Action Comics--see above, but insert Grant Morrison + Rags Morales in Geoff and Jim's spots, and lose the plural on Heroes
• Batgirl--I'm a little skeptical about Babs losing the wheelchair and the Oracle identity, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Gail Simone
• Justice League International--I enjoyed Generation Lost and although this is not by the same writer, it looks like it's going for a similar feel, capturing the essence of the Giffen/DeMatteis League without trying to recreate it
• Stormwatch--I loved the Authority trades I read a while back, I love the idea of mixing J'onn in with Wildstorm characters, and there just aren't enough comics starring a Superman analogue and a Batman analogue who are in love
• Batman and Robin--Tomasi and Gleason do good stuff, plus this looks like the place I'll be getting my Damian fix
• Batwoman--Pretty pictures with the added bonus of supporting a book that stars a gay female lead
• Green Lantern--As hesitant as I usually am to jump on bandwagons, I've been on the Geoff Johns bandwagon for some time now
• Batman--Batman is my first love, and I've been hearing good things about this Scott Snyder chap, so I'm excited to read his stuff
• Green Lantern Corps--Seems like a package deal with Green Lantern
• Nightwing--My other first love
• Red Hood and the Outlaws--I was a little skeptical when I first heard about this, but the more I hear the more intrigued I am by the idea of putting these former Titans together on the road to redemption; also, I recently read Winick's Red Hood miniseries and that made me actually like the character for the first time
• Wonder Woman--Honestly, I'm not as in love with Azzarrello as I think I'm supposed to be, but I'm curious to see what he does with Diana; also, I loves me some Cliff Chiang
• Aquaman--Geoff Johns has done right by every other character he's taken under his wing, so I have faith he'll do a good Aquaman
• Flash--I guess character loyalty more than anything, though I admit to being a Wally fan more than a Barry fan; I'm curious to see if Francis Manapul writes as well as he draws
• Green Lantern: New Guardians--see Green Lantern Corps above; also, Kyle is my Green Lantern
• Superman--Package deal with Action, plus George Perez has a history of doing well with freshly rebooted characters
• Teen Titans--This is one of two titles, along with Justice League, that I will always buy no matter who's on the team and no matter who the creators are, because that's the kind of comic book reader I am; even though I'm a little turned off by the idea of erasing the characters' history and drastically changing them, my fears are somewhat put to rest by recent interviews with Scott Lobdell where he insists the characters are the same at their core--hopefully this is at least true in the case of Tim Drake, my third first love

A Month Late and a Dollar Short

• Animal Man--I've always liked the character and I've heard good things about Jeff Lemire, so I'm willing to give this book a chance
• Batwing--Judd Winick is hit-and-miss for me, so I'll give him a chance to hit me with this one
• Detective Comics--I don't have a lot of faith in Tony Daniel as a writer (though his art has improved much over the past years), but I have been enjoying his run on Batman well enough
• Green Arrow--I'm enjoying JT Krul's current run on GA enough to read this, just not enough to make a must-read-right-now
• Static Shock--I like the character, plus I feel the need to support books featuring minority characters (so long as I have a genuine interest in the book; I'm not buying, for example, Voodoo)
• Swamp Thing--I'm giving this book a try purely based on the fact that everyone is talking about how great Scott Snyder is lately; I've never been hooked by the character before, despite giving him several chances, so we'll see how long this book keeps my interest
• Grifter--Still haven't decided for sure on this one; initially I was interested because it looked like he was going to be hunting white Martians and I liked the DC/Wildstorm mashup concept, but now it's looking like they're some other species so I don't know whether I'm still interested
• Legion Lost--I dig the Legion and I dig Nicieza (his run on Red Robin has been fantastic); I'll be pissed, though, if Gates really dies in the first issue
• Mister Terrific--Mainly I'm just curious to see how he works as a solo character, especially if the JSA is no longer part of this universe's history
• Superboy--Mainly interested because it looks like this will be closely tied to Teen Titans
• Birds of Prey--Right now my only reason for buying this book is Black Canary, despite her god-awful costume redesign; the creative team is going to have to convince me to keep reading
• Blue Beetle--His last book was pure awesome, so Tony Bedard has some big shoes to fill; I'm not crazy about the fact that it appears they're starting over from scratch, essentially retelling a story that was told only a few years ago
• Captain Atom--It looks like they're trying to make the character more Dr. Manhattany, which may or may not work; buying this mainly because I've generally enjoyed JT Krul's stuff so far
• Catwoman--See Batwing above
• Legion of Super-heroes--Again, I love the Legion; since they're in the future and don't interact with other books much I figure I can afford to wait a month for this one; as a side note, I think it's dumb to hyphenate "super-heroes," but that's how it's solicited
• Supergirl--As with Blue Beetle, I'm not crazy about the idea of starting over from scratch yet again with this character, but I'm not 100% certain that's what they're doing; honestly, I just want Peter David to come back and bring Linda Danvers with him
• The Fury of Firestorm--I've always found the character visually appealing, and I kind of like the Jason/Ronnie combo, and Gail Simone has never written a single word I didn't enjoy (her thes are great)
• Justice League Dark--I can't say I'm a big fan of any of these characters nor of magical characters in general, but Peter Milligan is one of those writers I'm supposed to like, so I'm giving this a chance to wow me
• The Savage Hawkman--Like I said, I don't have much faith in Tony Daniel as a writer, but I've always had a soft spot for buff men who don't wear shirts

A few notes on what I'm not getting:

• As much as I think it's good for DC to be trying non-superhero genres, I'm trusting that those books will find their audience without me. Just not into war comics or westerns or swords and sorcery. 
• Even though I think I'm supposed to like Peter Milligan, I don't want to read a monthly comic about an entire corps of characters whose power is to barf up blood.
• I may check out DC Universe Presents in the future, but I have never been able to care about Deadman.
• I'm kind of sort of interested in Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., but money doesn't grow on trees, you know. Ditto for Hawk & Dove. 
• I like Harley Quinn, but I'm waiting for a book that has a character that actually looks like her before I buy it. And seriously, what's with King Shark's eyes?
• Sorry, Dan Didio, you're welcome to hire yourself as a writer, but that doesn't mean I want to read what you write.

Diving Into Digital Part 4: Welcome to Pixelated Panels

The downside of buying comics online--whether digitally or through an online store like G-Mart--is that you don't get the social connection that you might from the weekly trip to the comic book store. To be honest, the only comic book store, of all the comic book stores I've frequented over the years, where I made any kind of social connection was Drom's Comics in Davis, California, where each week I'd chat with the owner, who was a really cool guy, about everything from who Bruce Wayne's replacement would be after "Batman R.I.P." to the woes of trying to raise children in today's modern world. As uncommon as that experience was for me, it was a good experience, and I miss it.

The upside of the internet is that it provides opportunities for social connection that those of us who aren't exactly social butterflies might not get otherwise. When I discovered Living Between Wednesdays a few years back, I was ecstatic to learn that there were people out there in the world who not only cared about comics in the same way I do, but who also said really clever, funny things about them. I quickly discovered several other blogs in the comics blogosphere, like Green Lantern Butt's Forever, Every Day is Like Wednesday, and the Absorbascon. Inspired by these blogs, I tried starting my own comics-themed blog, but then I discovered that I didn't have much to say that other comics bloggers were not already saying (my friend, Theric, now uses that blog to review mostly indie comics; check it out).

With all the buzz around digital comics lately, though, and my own immersion into the new medium, I'm hoping I've found my niche. I'm taking my cue from another comics blog I follow, Collected Editions, except that while Collected Editions is the "wait-for-the-trade headquarters," I intend to make Pixelated Panels the read-it-digitally headquarters. What does that entail? I imagine this blog will evolve over time, but at least right now, these are the regular features I have planned:

• Day-And-Date: Yes, I know "day-and-date" is an absurd, redundant term, but I'm embracing the absurdity and using it to describe reviews of titles that are released (and which I buy) digitally the same day they're released in print. You can expect to see these reviews every Wednesday night. 
• A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Reviews of comics that I wait a month to buy, in order to get them a dollar cheaper. Consider these reviews your reminder that Hey! These comics are a month old now, and maybe worth checking out for a buck less than cover price.
• Digital Dollar Bin: Reviews of comics that you can get for $0.99, either because they're on sale or because they're old enough that this is the designated price point. 
• Digiversity: As you may have guessed by now, my thing is superhero comics published by DC. In order to broaden my horizons, and perhaps yours, I'm challenging myself to regularly sample new things, whether it's a Marvel or Vertigo or Archie comic I can get through Comixology, or a webcomic on some random dude's website. I'll report back on my findings. 
• Digital Horizons: A weekly roundup of news related to digital comics, and my ponderings thereon.
• Unpixelated Panels (with a tip of the hat to the Collected Editions feature, Uncollected Editions): This is where I'll talk about comics that are not yet available digitally, but should be. And eventually this blog will be so popular and have so much sway with digital readers that the powers that be will have no choice but to respond to my call to action. 

So there you have it, folks. If you're not wowed by the awesomeness of Pixelated Panels yet, just wait. I'm sure I'll come up with something. Hopefully. Maybe. Pretty please?

A Month Late and a Dollar Short: Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost 2 and Flashpoint: Hal Jordan 2

In what will hopefully become the first of several cases of my wishing for something on this blog causing that thing to happen, this morning when I happened to check on the website of the comic shop I frequented when I lived in Seattle, Comics Dungeon, I discovered that they now have a Comixology-powered digital storefront, so today I bought my digital comics through them. I don't know how much comic shops actually get out of this program--I fear it's not much--but buying my digital comics through a business that's done good by me in the past makes me feel a little less like a dick for going digital at the expense of the direct market. At any rate, on to the reviews:

Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost 2
Writer: Sterling Gates
Artists: Oliver Nome and Trevor Scott
Release Date: July 27, 2011 (Print), August 26, 2011 (Digital)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Pixels

Although there's nothing really outstanding about this series, I find myself enjoying it just a little bit more than a lot of the other Flashpoint minis because it stars the same Bart Allen I know and love, not some unfamiliar alternate reality version of him. In this issue, for example, he references the time he flew the Batplane, he makes a joke about how no one ever believes him when he says he has a plan, and his virtual reality upbringing plays a central role in his victory over the issue's villain. He even makes references to cousin Jenni and her teammate, Brainiac 5. Not surprisingly, considering his close ties with Geoff Johns, Sterling Gates knows Bart Allen well, and as a result reading this issue feels like visiting with an old friend. The comfort this gives me in contrast with the discomfort at reading unfamiliar versions of characters that should be familiar in other Flashpoint tie-ins makes me worry just a little about the more permanent tweaking that will happen with the New 52. Several writers have insisted that regardless of changes to their histories, the characters will remain who they are at their core. I hope they're right.

Also, I kind of like the nod to Back to the Future with Bart's hands fading away as reality changes, but Oliver Nome makes it a little more gory than Steven Spielberg did:

Flashpoint: Hal Jordan 2
Writer: Adam Schlagman
Artist: Cliff Richards
Release Date: July 27, 2011 (Print), August 26, 2011 (Digital)
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Pixels

So despite what I said above about wanting to read stories with familiar characters, this story was just a little too familiar. Flashpoint Hal Jordan is pretty much exactly the same as regular Hal Jordan, except without the ring. This story is your standard "Hal Jordan is a cocky, immature bastard but when duty calls he grows up and saves the day, but in his own reckless way" kind of story. So I guess I want stories about the characters I know and love, but I want them to be new stories. There's nothing wrong with this issue, there's just nothing spectacular.

Also, I think it's weird that Carol Ferris's pilot nickname is Sapphire. That would be like Hal Jordan's pilot nickname being Lantern, before he ever heard of the Green Lantern Corps. They used that nickname for her in the movie too, didn't they?

Also also, I'm officially joining the camp of people who are kind of weirded out by Barack Obama not only appearing in, but having a speaking role in DC superhero comics.