CUP o’ KRYPTONITE

Greetings again comic fans.  Hope things go well for you.  Not much in the way of “news” in comicland this week.  Which is fine.  I dislike the majority of the comic “news” sites and REALLY dislike the message boards even more.  I was not much of a fan of Legion of Three Worlds, but have to say the end (it did actually finish, it just seemed like that last issue never came out) was nice as it made fun of posters on comic message boards and equated them to crazy super villains.

I don’t know if I would go that far, but I think certain writers and executives and editors at the big two comic companies go a little over board in the attention they give the posts made and the posters who make them.

Why am I mentioning this, well it involves what took place in the last few pages of issue seven of Justice League: Cry For Justice.  I am giving you the big SOILER ALERT right now as I am about to talk about and ruin the ending of this book.

I’m going to do it.

Please avert your eyes!!

Your Last Warning!

DC’s Continuity and Morals: The fans who care and the writers who don’t…

Last week DC released the book Justice League: Cry for Justice #7 and with it came a storm of posts about the righteousness of what is done at the end.  In issue six Prometheus (Grant Morrison’s super villain created during his run on JLA) is defeated as he is taking down a group who might be the Justice League (I’m not really sure, I didn’t read the first couple issues.)  During the fight Arsenal (Green Arrow’s former sidekick Speedy) losses an arm.  (Yep, the whole thing, shut-up it’s important later.)

While Prometheus is imprisoned at a secret Justice League compound or something a back-up/fail safe goes into effect threatening a number of DC cities like Opal, Central and Fawcett with shimmery destructive, er, destruction.  If Prometheus is not released he will destroy one city at a time until he is.  The Justice League refuses and Prometheus levels Star City, Green Arrow’s home town, killing tens of thousands of people including Arsenal’s daughter Lian.

A lot of bad James Robinson writing (he has done so much better than this) later and a lot of different people talking leads someone, not sure who, in the Justice League to officially decide to let him go (the big splash page makes it look like everyone is talking at once.) I guess they do this so none of the other cities will be destroyed as they could not figure out a way to stop the destructive destruction which might or might not have started in the other cities that were not Star City.  (I wasn’t really sure if all the cities were actually being destroyed or not or if they were lightly being messed up… the art or storytelling isn’t very clear.)

This all, I guess, takes place before Blackest Night and in an epilogue three pages later, Green Arrow shows up in a secret secret Prometheus hideout and puts an arrow between Prometheus’s eyes exclaiming “Justice.”  Hence the name of the book, get it?

There are a number of problems I had with the few issues I read, but the posters on a few boards were put off by Green Arrow killing.  I ask, seriously, that is your problem?  The series is ripe with plot holes, inconsistencies throughout and art that didn’t flow well with the dialogue on the pages, but if the big ending/cliffhanger/thing is your first problem maybe you should look at the book again, but if you know your Green Arrow continuity this should NOT be a surprise.  Ollie has killed several times.

Now, he is no Wolverine, who can easily be put in the mass murderer section of our righteous quagmire, but in just a quick look through the first few issues of the Mike Grell ongoing Green Arrow series from several decades ago, Ollie and Black Canary kill nearly a person an issue and in The Long Bow Hunters (the mini-series Grell wrote and drew before the ongoing was started) Ollie kills or allows to be killed four people who had captured Black Canary and were torturing her.  Ollie is no Superman or Batman who always find a way.

I understand what is going on, the old “need to shake up the character and the character’s around him by creating a big moral question of right and wrong” card.  We want to question the thought process of the Justice League and Green Arrow’s morals.  I get it.  No really I do, but get your facts and your continuity straight first and didn’t we do this a few years ago?  What did we call it calling it… uh, Identity Crisis?  Nah, no one will remember, go with it.

The basic moral question, I guess that is a personal judgment call.  I like Superman and Batman and DC comics of old and do NOT believe killing is ever an option for a DC hero.  Marvel, hell, it’s a little more morally malleable.   I’ve read a lot of Punisher and LOVE Jason Aaron’s take on Wolverine in his Weapon X book, where Logan admits to holy righteous roller Captain America he’s a mega-murderer.

DC heroes don’t kill, but Ollie already has and, I guess, did so again for pretty good reasons. (Torture of your wife or girl friend equals pretty good reason.  Killing nearly 100,000 people in your home city, probably good enough reason for someone who has let people drown and allowed others to kill because they were poisoning the streets or running drugs or just a generally bad corporate criminal.)

So, where is this going?  This week Justice League: Rise and Fall Special comes out.  This is supposed to try and jump start the failing Green Arrow book (though the last couple jump starts haven’t helped either and this book has been REALLY bad lately.)  It is a major story arc that will put Ollie on the outs with and on the run from the Justice League.  This could be either good or bad as it sort-of ties you into a corner.

Breaking a bat-back is one thing, killing a Bat-man is another.  Having a Batman die via super evil god bullet that propels the victim into the past, probably easy to fix (Wow, that sounds bad when you say it out load, sorry Curt.)  Killing off Superman’s dad via heart attack, not so easy.  What I’m trying to get at is everything is fixable in comics.  Some fixes are as easy as forgetting about the pesky continuity.  Some are tougher when they are rather recent.  Do you make Ollie an outlaw for the next couple years?  Is he an assassin now?  Or this all years until we forget he hunted down and murdered someone.  “Hey, no problem.  We forgive you, come on back to the League YOU helped found.”

It is at least a different direction and take on the character and heroes in the DC universe, but major changes are sticky things when consequences to the book are not fully thought out.  I’ll be reading, as I have a full run of every solo issue Green Arrow has ever appeared in and can’t stop now.  (At this point I don’t stop even if, shudder, Judd Winick comes back on the book, though that would seriously make me stop and think about stopping.)  But will other readers come on and give it a try?  Hopefully it will at the very least take a “good” turn in writing if though a “bad” one for the morals of one of DC’s top characters.

Review time…

Holy Cats, that new Steven King book “N” is great!  Alex Maleev’s art is so very creepy and Mark Guggenheim’s story telling is fantastic.  The basic premise is that the remains of a house where a grisly murder took place hold an evil spirit/demon/monster thing and after driving one man to kill themselves is after a new victim.  It takes place in Maine, too.

The thing I liked most about Guggenheim’s storytelling was his pacing.  It starts in the past with two page spreads and very little words, letting the scary pictures do the haunting.  It draws you in,  and will not let you go as it moves forward in time from one lost soul to the next.  I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoys a good horror comic.  It is only four issues, but is priced $3.99.  It will be out in hardcover not long after the last issue is out, if you can wait that long.

Two quickies…

If you are not reading Unwritten and Sweet Tooth, I ask what is wrong with you.  Both are quickly climbing up our sales charts with Unwritten one of our best selling books.  Currently all seven issues of Sweet Tooth are in stock, starting with the first issue which is only a dollar.  The first arc tells of the post-apocalyptic road story an antlered boy and his savior take to the mythical (?) preserve.  Great, Sad and scary.

And Unwritten, the messed up alternate adult version of Harry Potter, has its first trade out and collects the first five issues for only $9.99.  Everyone should be reading this book.  If you have to drop a crappy superhero book and start reading this one on Wednesday.  No, scratch that, don’t drop a book, just eat less for dinner that night.

Join the BPRD…

Yep, another issue of BPRD is coming out this week making it worth doing the shipment.  Who knows, no BPRD, maybe I just decide to not do it some week.  Write Dark Horse and tell them to keep it coming or NO COMICS!

Nonetheless, now is your chance to join the BPRD yourself.  I’ve always thought you were a little weird, but now you can finally fit in.  Here is what Dark Horse sent me today:

The stories in Hellboy, BPRD, Abe Sapien, Lobster Johnson and Witchfinder share a weave of common threads: strong characterization, an ongoing storyline that’s shared between titles, a pantheon of heros and villains, cool monsters, awesome superpowers and smash-em up action.
To celebrate a particularly exciting publishing period, we’ve created a new program that will give our most loyal fans something extra. We’re calling it “Join the BPRD!”
Readers who sign up will have access to monthly exclusives and first looks, including: news, covert art, interiors, editorial commentary, creator signings, first-in-line privileges, contests, discounts, freebies and more. The program will run on the Facebook platform as it allows fans to share a common social network, chat with each other, give us feedback, track events and get excited. We’re encouraging readers and retailers to join Facebook, but we’ll make the program available to non-members via a regular newsletter as well.

I’m already signed up and you can too!  Go here: www.darkhorse.com/Newsletter

Iowa Public TV Challenge…

I want to challenge all of you to call in to Iowa Public Television on Friday night and make some pledge (small is fine, just make a pledge) during the Red Dwarf segment between 10 and 12:30.  Several customers from the shop, a number of the 501^st Central Garrison and others from Geeky Christmas will be there taking pledges.

You’ve heard my praise of Public Television in the past.  We have a great station here in Des Moines and it needs help.  Frankly, this is something that needs to be done, because our suck government won’t do it for us, but don’t get me started down that road.

So please, if you can, call and make a pledge.

Last week saw the February Previews ship.  Usually there are some kind of great hidden gems in there for specific people, but unsure how to get this knowledge to the specific people who need/or would like to know about it.  (without driving myself crazy with extra work trying to.)

So, this week I would like to highlight just a few things I found that might have some interest for you.  If you sit up in amazement and say “I’ve got to have that when it comes out”  Just e-mail me or let someone know the next time you are in the shop.  OR, you could always get a coffee and sit with the phonebook shaped catalogue and flip through it?

…Now with panels instead of paragraphs.

There are some big names in literature getting in on this comic thing.  I’ll comment more on this with some general thought surrounding this later, but right now I just want to point out the books.

First up is Janet Evanovich (and Alex Evanovich) and her new work, Troublemaker.  Published through Dark Horse, this is a continuation of her very popular Barnaby series as a 112 page graphic novel.  The book will be hard cover and feature art from Joelle Jones, who most recently did the Dr. Horrible one shot.

Next up is James Patterson and a serialized version of his Witch and Wizard series.  Battle for Shadowland will see his teenage characters go up against the New Order after magic is declared evil incarnate.  The series will come from IDW, but will only feature characters from Patterson, not his actual writing.

And then there is Stephen King.  This guy, he sold a book or two here and there, has already been working with and in the world of comics for some time and it is understood he is a very big fan of the medium.  His Stand and Dark Tower series have been very successful, especially in collected form outside of the direct comic market.

Now he finally putting pen to paper for comics in American Vampire.  (He did do a short Marvel story some years ago in a benefit book, but nothing since.)  King will write one of the two stories in the new mini-series about a new form of vampire, purely American and not glittering in any way.  The first issue arrives on March 17^th from Vertigo.

King also has an adaptation of his novel The Talisman coming from Del Rey books (but not for a couple months.)  It will be hard cover and feature the writing of Robin Furth and Peter Straub.  I believe this to be a series of books, much like the Stand and Dark Tower are.  It tells the story of a journeyman traveling from our earth to an alternate world.

AND… this very week will see the MUCH less hyped series “N.”  It is based on Just After Sunset from a recent collection of King short stories.  It is only a four issue long mini-series and has some serious hitters putting in work on it.  Mark Guggenheim is taking on the writing chores and Alex Maleev will be on art.  I really haven’t seen much on this, which kind of surprises me.  The story, however, sounds great.  It revolves around a Stonehenge like structure in, of course, Maine that might be controlling one man and may have already killed another.  Oh, and there is an evil eye at the rock ring’s center and scary looking demon on the cover.  Okay, I’ll read it.

How many Hornets are too many?…

One month ago there were, count them, NO Green Hornet books out.  In two months time, there will be not one, not three, nope… not four, keep going, YES, FIVE!!  In comics, nothing says success like over saturation?!!?

All this is structured around Kevin Smith’s script for a Hornet movie that didn’t get enough traction a few years ago.  (A shame, because I think more so then the eighteenth X-Men movie or the forty first Superman re-boot, this could have been pretty good.)  It is that script that is being turned into Kevin Smith’s Green Hornet (book 1.)  This comes out Wednesday.

Then there is The Green Hornet: Year One (book 2) written by Matt Wagner and Kevin Smith’s Kato (book 3) written by Ande Parks and drawn by Ale Garza.  These start next month in April.  After that are Kato Origins: Way of the Ninja (book 4) and The Green Hornet Strikes (book 5.)  They will be out in two months, May.

I could not find a listing in Previews as to the limited-ness of their runs, but I assume some, if not all, are limited to some extent.  Every single one of them have at least two variant covers and several have multiple regular covers.  The regular Green Hornet (um, book 1 if you need numerical reference) book’s issue three has at least seven different covers listed and order options for a signed one as well.

Who would unleash such a monster on the unsuspecting comic buying public, well, none other than Dynamite Entertainment the comic publishing wing of super speculating Dynamic Forces.

So, why is this too much?  Well, I was marveling over this onslaught (get it?) aloud and my wife asked what I was mumbling about.  I told her, “well, there will be five different books from once there were none, all based around Green Hornet” and I kid you not, she stopped me and said, “who is Green Hornet?”  My wife is not dumb and fairly with it on pop culture references. I rest my case on this being too many books too fast.

More Rings Anyone?…

The Blackest Night ring promotion must have gone over well, because there are more to come.  I don’t want to give anything away, but there will be White Lantern Power Rings associated with the release of Brightest Day #1. (The “revelation” of this new Lantern was in Blackest Night #7 which came out last week and frankly, if you didn’t see that coming, you are blind as a Batman.)

There will also be Flash rings connected with the release of the new ongoing and relaunched issue number one.  If you are not familiar with the character of Barry Allen, he carried a tightly rolled up costume inside a lightning bolt emblem embossed ring.  (Yeah, and still no one knew it was him.  “Hey, Barry was your high school the Bolts?”  “You born in the year of the lightning bolt?”)

We will be offering the same deal with both of these rings that we did with the Blackest Night tie-in books.  Buy the book, get a free ring or if you just want the ring it will be $2.00.  We hope this will present a reason to stay with the book.  Pretty good guess that once the Legion of Super Heroes is relaunched with Paul Levitz at the helm, there will probably be flight rings too.

Two books to report on…

Read today that Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray’s new creator owned book, formerly called Splatterman, has had to go through a renaming.  Due to a legal challenge and deciding on the better part of valor they will now call it Random Acts of Violence.  It is set to come out April 28^th and though the price will be $6.99, you will get 66 pages of blood spattered goodness.

Speaking of violence and blood, Crossed #9 hits stands Wednesday and Avatar is already set to go with a new story happening “at the same time” the events in Garth Ennis’s twisted tale take place.  It will be called Crossed: Family Values and if your thoughts are, “no, no one should write more,” go read the editorial page in Previews by long time twisted story teller David Lapham.  It is some funny and probably rather sane logic that he lays down about creative types, insanely horrific storytelling and Garth Ennis.  It had me turned from, “no I don’t want any of that” to “yes please, more.”

AND… if you have not read Crossed, one of the best and most disturbing horror reads I’ve ever put before my eyes, it is due out in trade paperback and hardcover sometime in April.

A Beer with Batman…

Though that sounds better, I would rather have a beer with Superman, but as we know DC won’t allow that (tried to happen on the cover of an issue of Action Comics once, don’t ask) but now you can if you want to.  There are pint glasses offered from the company Toon Tumblers again and now available to be ordered individually.  We will be getting some of these, but preordering (making it a little easier for me to know how many of each to order) will get you a dollar off each you put down AND pay for.  They are $10.99 each and Batman, Superman, The Joker, Justice League, Aquaman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman are all available.  I have several Marvel characters myself and they just so mauch better then a regular plain pint glass.

Enough hocking of goods.  Time for some incoherent rambling.

Best Selling Blah, Blah, Blah…

Isn’t it great that we are being blessed by the mere presence of such a fantastic bunch of writers who so graciously are bestowing their talents to us, the sub-humans that dwell in the dark dank corners of comic book shops like foul bug eyed morlocks.  These the high and mighty of the New York Times’ Best Seller ranks, who can’t sell an idea to Whorey-wood anymore because of those darned upstart comic creators, are now going to give it the “old college spirit” and try their hand at this new literary SUB-genre.

My mother gave me an article out of that there Des Moines Register Newz-paper about the James Patterson book I mentioned above.  (I think she gave it to me because she secretly wants to read it without saying the words, “Son, would you please order me this comic book.”)  In the article, Patterson is quoted as saying, “Comics could reach a much larger audience than they do right now.  With the quality work and talent that’s out there, this industry could be much bigger.”

WOW JAMES, are you going to save us?  Well, [expletives deleted] and the horse you rode in on.  Frankly, we don’t need you.  I was fine without these writers and will be fine once they go away.  Thanks for gracing us with your presence, but kindly go back to where you came from and leave us alone.

OH, I get why the comic companies what them here.  Publicity, real mainstream news attention and you get to have your COMIC books on the same rack as the REAL literature.  You get to feel like you’ve made it in the REAL world of REAL publishing.  And with a big city name on it, you can sell it to some Hollywood hotshot for big bucks.

Some of the above is sarcasm, if you hadn’t guessed, but a goodly amount is straight up fact.  We need to be proud of our medium for what it is and challenge the interlopers to produce.  Anyone remember the cluster left in the wake of Dick Donner on Action Comics or Brad Meltzer’s run of quality on Justice League?  I’m not saying we need a secret club with decoder rings, though the blackest night rings really kind of do that for us already, but the above noted publicity/media attention and new readership, which are all good things, should not be worth sacrificing our industry’s soul.  Or is it too late for that at this point?

(and you thought you wouldn’t get some real venom from me this week?)

I have a lot to bitc… uh, say this week, but am more tired than usual, so, we’ll see what we get to.  I’ve gotten less than the requisite eight hours per night for a good long while and have a scrimmage tonight, game Wednesday and tournament Saturday… and I’m tired now?  On the fifth and six shots of espresso for the day and blasting some Black Sabbath into my head should do the trick.

What would you pay for Action Comics #1…

There is a reported copy of Action Comics #1, graded and slabbed at 8.0, reportedly being sold for 1 million dollars.  Obviously this is only reported and would be the highest a comic book has sold for.  I found the news on, as always, Bleedingcool.com.  Rich Johnston reports that this is the second highest grading of a non-restored copy of Action ever found.  Just imagine for a second… 8.0 (the best was an 8.5) copy of the most important comic ever!  Holy Cats!!  The thing is I would want to look through it just once, especially if I bought it for 1 million dollars.  Damn right I’m looking through it… with gloves mind you.

A few years ago I read about a bounty of a million being put on a mint copy of Action #1 and reportedly, no one bit on it.  At the time it was estimated that five near-mint copies existed in the world and one was in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC (I’ve seen it and could not figure out how to get it and live to look through it.)

This comic is the (pardon my blasphemy) cup of Christ for comic collectors.  It is rumored that Action #1 does not have a decrepit old knight guarding it either.  Though, as you stumbled into a comic shop inside a mountain and this old LARPer is sitting behind the counter and you have to choose the comic of Christ with such choices as Action #1, Detective #27, Fantastic Four #1, Adventure #247, Amazing Fantasy #15 and say, New Mutants #86 among other crappy 90’s titles.  Of course the stupid Nazi in front of you decides to pick first, takes Youngblood #1, and turns to dust.  Stupid Nazi.

You go and, of course because you are smart and have an eye for actual quality and talent, choose anything else and make your way out of the shop.  You go to pay for it, but the dumb blond Nazi, why are you associating with so many Nazis, makes a break for it and the whole shop crumbles around you.  You survive and a nerdy dork (not a Nazi, but possibly a librarian) rides from the shop with you, nearly falling off his horse while you head off into the sunset.

Seriously, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a TERRIBLE film!

DC’s “big changes”…

Who cares?  Not I, said the surly man sitting in the shadows drinking his scotch and wearing two or three days of scruff on his face.  Last week Warner Brothers, Time and a slew of other corporate conglomerates sent out a figure head to announce that a bunch of yes men would helm the NEW DC.  Shocked I was not.  This is the latest in a line of revamps Warner has been doing to the comic subsidiary over the last couple years.

(I still hate the new ice cream logo.)

I could go off about the people who were put “in charge,” but if you read my posts you’ve heard it all before and probably read the “news” several days ago.  So, minor comments and on to something else.

I have some minor respect for Jim Lee because of some of his maneuverings to get Alan Moore’s stuff out through Wildstorm.  Remember, Tom Strong, Promethea and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen all came out in very regular fashion from Wildstorm, a side company of DC, who Moore would no longer work with.  In an interview with Comics Journal, Kevin O’Neill, artist of League, credits Lee with getting the Black Dossier published.  I’m less of a fan of his art as I have been with some of the stuff (Ex Machina) published under his watchful eye at Widstorm.  So, Lee is good.

I don’t like Dan Didio’s decisions as editor and chief and that won’t change now that he is Executive Vice Executive of Executive decision making.

Geoff Johns, can be a talented writer, but he can be, in my eyes a little lazy.  A long time customer said this weekend to me, “You don’t have to worry about re-reading those old back issues with Johns at the helm of your favorite character, he’ll just re-write them for you.”  But that is Johns the writer.  Could he help steer the DC in the right direction, I think so.  He probably has for several years and he just hasn’t had a Executive Executive name attached to him.  And he is probably being paid a lot more now.  Green Lantern, now $3.99 an issue?

Both are yes men to me and both willing to do as the company says even if it hinders a legacy of a character, old story or creator.  The other two I am somewhat unfamiliar with, but I’m sure are more of the same.  I will keep reading my characters I have read for nearly 30 years (sigh.)  I will read them like I read Marvel.  Hate the company, love the characters, hope not to have a storyline like Cap-wolf.

The concern I have about all this is for Vertigo.  I hope to hell they are just left alone.  They have been over the last decade and have put out the best stuff the company has published in that time.

We are going to see more and more multi-media crap that has nothing to do with comics, only loosely based on something that might have once been a comic.  There will be press.  More news of movies then comic book stories and maybe that is good.  Let the unwashed masses watch barely tolerable movies based on those things we collect and enjoy.

I would dare say if the under ware on the outside crowd gets their capes and cowls pushed, Vertigo will continue to quietly publish money for the company.  The stuff will quietly be turned into movies, the type where mongoloids will continue to say, “I did not know dat waz comic book first.”   We will feel smarter for reading and collecting it before it was made into a terrible film..  Hmm, maybe there is a silver lining here and it is called superiority.

I hate being proven somewhat, sort-of wrong…

Now, I am in no way saying I was wrong with what I said last week about the Tea Bag Party people.  I stand by it, I believe in a strong government that watches over its people and protects them (not what we currently have, by the way.)

However, the long hand of the fake conservative tea party reached out to our shop today and slapped me upside the head.

(Think of it as gnarled, like Death’s, in a Ron Lim drawn Silver Surfer book.  Hmm, Sarah Palin kind of looks like Thanos’s idea of Death too.  Put Death in glasses, Palin in a purple hood… Creeeeepy. )

The Iowa Department of Agricultural something something and Land Stewardship stopped by to check our scale and make sure it was accurate.  (I didn’t even know these guys existed, let alone did this for coffee shops.)  We got a fancy sticker and wrote them a check for their, and I guess my, efforts.  They check to make sure business’s aren’t ripping people off.  When you buy a pound of beans, you actually get a pound of beans type of thing.  I get it.  I support it.  You don’t want gas stations not giving a full gallon of gas when that is what you pay for do you?  It makes sense to have the government do this.  I don’t like paying taxes either, but I understand we (the royal we) as a society need to do this to keep the infrastructure intact …however…

I could not get the ghostly sound of a moronic yet slightly hot “hockey mom” out of my head.  “Don’tcha know, the Tea Party does not support such horrific taxations without the representations.  Told yah so.  Told yah so.  Told yah so.”

And, Speaking of horrific…

Supposedly, next week will see Crossed #9.  I await this book like nearly nothing I can think of in recent comic memory, except maybe the final issues of Transmetropolitan and my favorite comic series of all time, Preacher.  The one book more than any other series I would want to be stranded with on an island.

You ever thought of it?  What book would you want washed up with you?

Yes, Kyle, All Star Superman, I hear you.

So… let’s see, anything happen in the world of comics this last week?  No.  Anything happen in the real world that impacted comics?  Heck, yeah.  I’ll get to all three of what I thought were the week’s big stories, but first, this word from our sponsor, Previews, the comic shop’s catalogue.  Orders are due this week if you want anything strange or weird from the back of the book.  Stuff can be ordered after the initial order has been placed, but guarantees on shipping drop considerably.

Also, I want to point out a book that is shipping this week.  It is called Doomwar.  It is taking the place of Black Panther for the next couple months.  This storyline has been growing for several months and will now include lot of guest stars in the miniseries.  I was very unsure what to order on this.  Two people, the only two get Black Panther each month, will be getting it pulled, but you might want to let me know if you want it added to your pull list.  Here is the solicit:

Wakanda has been conquered, its Vibranium reserves plundered. Storm faces execution in the next 48 hours. And Dr. Doom stands triumphant. It will take the combined forces of the X-Men, the Fantastic Four and the two Black Panthers to stand against him. A war has begun that will pit the world’s most relentless super-villain against a collection of the world’s most powerful super heroes — one that will span the globe, offering twists and turns and surprise players (hello, Deadpool!) that neither side will see coming.

First Event…

The Tea Party doesn’t like Captain America.

This last week the internet, e-bay, Des Moines Register (who has given these clowns a lot of face time lately) and our shop were ripe with talk of tea bagging and parties who want to do it to others before they get it done to them or something…

This is, if you haven’t heard, all in reference to Captain America #602 in which a protest, resembling a Tea Party rally, is shown and in it are signs taken from actual Tea Party rallies.  Organizers and Right Wing Nuts got up in arms because, among other things, the protests are being staged and pushed by an ultra nationalist hate group, The Watchdogs, now run by the evil Cap from the 1950’s.

If your head is spinning from all this allow me to try and explain a little.  The Tea Party is a national group, who in my opinion might be the dumbest political group in America and that is really saying something.  They seem to support very small government, little to no taxes and a rather extreme right wing social agenda.  They, however, do NOT support Libertarians or are affiliated with Libertarian candidates and tend to take marching orders from politicos like the handlers of Sarah Palin.

I can find no information on an actual “party” platform, a leader or leadership group (except many splintered fringes) and can also find no reasoning as to how NO taxes and very little government keeps the infrastructure intact or the wars these people are so fond of going.  This, of course, is what separates them from Libertarians, one of the smarter and certainly most American of all political movements (and mind you, this comes from a Socialist.)  (If you don’t know about the Libertarian Party, please go do some research on them.  My guess is they are closer to your political philosophy then your realize.)

I could go on and on with this.  I love politics and have since I was young, but how this relates to Captain America is even more infuriating the political movement I’ve mentioned.  The problem certain Tea Party people had was that Cap was against their movement.  However, nowhere in the story is the protest called a Tea Party rally, except one placard a person is carrying and I’ll get to that in a second.  In the comic Cap and Falcon (Bucky and Sam) never come down on the protest, only the people organizing it; calling the protest anti-tax and the organizers anti-government.  If the Tea people had ever read any Captain America they would know Cap is NOT the government and is NO one particular ideology or party.

What the delusional Tea people don’t get, and I think this goes a long way to helping you understand their “party,” is that the essence of the character Captain America is more than one person or a group.  He is everything good and right (not politically) about America.  He is the Marvel equivalent of Truth, Justice and the American way, even more so, quite literally, then Superman.

So, what was the one actual literal connection to the Tea Party movement?  In one panel a placard says “Tea bag the Libs, before they Tea bag you.  The letterer very last minute had to get all the signs in this protest filled.  He went to the internet and used actual signs used at anti-tax rallies, including this exact sign.  Now giving this issues of Captain America the infamous name, The Tea Bag Issue.

If you would like to read more, on this including some very interesting twitter responses Ed Brubaker made about the Tea Party movement (probably proving that the protest IS a tea party protest – well, duh!) check out this site on Bleedingcool.com:  www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/10/marvel-to-remove-tea-bag-gag-from-captain-america-reports-fox-news/ and the Cup o Joe page from Joe Quesada on Comicbookresourses.com: www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24784.

And if you would like to read a rundown of what the right wing started posting on blogs about that horrible freedom hater Captain America, head back to Bleedingcool.com: www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/15/how-the-blogosphere-learned-to-hate-captain-america/

and a great story on the national movement: www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/tea_party_movement?utm_source=EMTF_Onion

Now, if anyone actually cares, I really liked the issue. It reminded me of old Mark Grenwauld written stories from my childhood.  I can NOT say this enough, even though Cap Reborn was a disaster of monumental proportions, the book is still really good and I think everyone should read #603, which is on sale THIS WEEK!!

Second big event…

This one I’m pretty sure you didn’t hear about.  There was a court case that has some in the comic industry a little on the concerned side.  It is, as it always seems to be, a free speech/obscenity trial.  This one deals with some extreme Japanese manga on the sexual side.  Everything in question dealt with the sexual abuse of minors.

Here’s the thing, guy who was convicted, they gave him six months and he was from Iowa by the way, went through a series of psychological studies and was deemed not a sexual predator and won’t even go on the sex offender watch list.

I’m going to have you read more on Bleedingcool.com: www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/11/iowa-man-sentenced-for-six-months-for-drawing-obscene-comics/

In the piece, and there are some links to a manga site with details on the case, Rich Johnston states “It is always forms of free speech that you personally object to, that make it more important to defend.  Defending free speech that you agree with is too easy a battle. If free speech means anything, it should include speech that you find offensive. Otherwise, it isn’t free…”

After reading about the case, I took a second, thinking about what if anything I had in my collection that might be deemed “to offensive.”  Of course the first and last thing I came to was Preacher and who would consider that “to offensive.”  I might not like little girl hentai from Japan, but the slippery slope is one that when started down, it is very hard to get back to where you once were.  Again, I am concerned about the “progress” we are making as a “free” society.

And the third non-comic world event…

Diamond had another delivery truck accident.  This one severe enough to send two people to the hospital.  I talked to my customer service rep and she said that it appeared there would be no shortages, allocations or delays we didn’t already know of.

Related to that, the snow in the Washington/Baltimore area is playing havoc on the Diamond home office, some reorders and their website.  Hence, no “Expected to Ship” list again.  Hell, there is barely a website for them right now.  My rep said they don’t know what to do with all the snow.  Kids haven’t had school in over a week.  Kind of makes the annoying-ness of near constant snow falls of the last month seem, really, not so bad.

Lastly…

If you see the hockey jersey in the shop it is the jersey of the Cup’s D league sponsored team.  I had a few for sale last week, but they sold much quicker than I ever thought possible.

Two things on this, if you want one, let me know.  I can get them and get them printed, but I’d need a couple on order to warrant the expense (or it would cost you WAY too much.)  I will be doing a new jersey for my C league team this fall; a great old school one that uses the Hartford green third jersey for the base.  It will rock your socks off and hopefully be filled with the power of many goals for the team.  Expect info on these in the coming months.

And, if you are watching some Olympic hockey and saying, “hey, that Cindy Crosby doesn’t have much, why did the Americans put that loser on the team?  I could do better.”  Well, there is still room in the beginner league.  Let me know if you need info.

It has not been a good weekend.  The shop’s main computer succumbed to its virus on Saturday and was pronounced dead at approximately 8:45 that evening.  The shop computer, also known as that stupid slow ass piece of crap, was diagnosed with a pathogen that slowly drove it and others around it berserker mad.  Truly sad is the fact that in its final moments and in a fit of dementia shop computer convinced the POS Point of Sale and Internet Café Software to go with it into the waiting hands of sweet oblivion.  Funeral services for the three have not yet been planned.

What I’m saying is I’ve been working long and hard to get this new POS up and running and won’t have much for you this week.  That and Ronnie and I drank ourselves into a stooper after losing big on the Bears last night.

Interview with Grant…

Found a great link to an interview with Grant Morrison, writer of Batman and Robin.  Give it a read if you have time: comics.ign.com/articles/106/1063765p1.html.  Why do I keep talking about this book?  Because a) it is better than all the other cape and cowl books on the rack and b) you keep buying it.  It is by far our best selling comic (that is not a mini-series about undead ring wielding super-freaks.)  It is our best seller by almost double the next comic.

People like Batman and now more than ever one of the caped crusaders books isn’t complete unreadable crap either.  So, go read the article and enjoy.

Disturbing news…

I found some disturbing news this last week.  Bleeding Cool was the first to post some pseudo official information on a Watchmen 2 comic sequel and/or prequel.  I will post links in a bit, but the basic gist of the articles is that with Paul Levitz “stepping down” as President of DC, editor and chief Dan Didio would finally push through this project to make profits and impress his new overlor… er, bosses.

This project has been rumored for some time, even long before a movie was in the works and though financially this sounds like a no brainer, you need to understand some history (and have read the original) to know why this is the worst of comics never ending stream of bad ideas.

Alan Moore, writer of Watchmen, has not had a good history with DC due to issues with royalties, creator rights and merchandising.  Obviously there would be no Alan Moore on this project and even though Paul Levitz didn’t see eye to eye with Moore on many an issue, Levitz would never have let this idea of a Watchmen sequel come to pass.

Levitz is one of the great 70’s and early 80’s writers and is most predominately known for his long and beloved run on The Legion of Superheroes.  Levitz has been criticized for, lack of better words, not being Marvel and it finally cost him his job.  Levitz had a good and stable run as head of DC and though DC may not have ever dominated the sales charts during his tenure, the company never went bankrupt and was always profitable.

If you were paying attention last fall after Marvel was sold to Disney, DC announced some changes in how they would be doing business under their long time corporate umbrella Warner Brothers.  Levitz resigned to move back to writing – in other words was pushed out – as Warner wanted one of their own controlling how the comics were being streamlined to make the parent company more money.  And yes, you can read that as they wanted the comics to be better turned into movies, TV and other forms of film like animation.

As sad as this all is, it is to be expected.  Warner couldn’t sit back and watch as it’s film rivals churned out super hero success after super hero success and they didn’t have to pay a dime for rights.  This is not to even mention all the actual potential (and actual quality) that exists in the Vertigo vault.  So… of course without the last roadblock a corporate shill like Didio would gladly take marching orders to make more Watchmen.  “Yes Sir, Madam.  How much, How many and How fast?  Quality is no issue here at the new DC!!”

I got to meet Paul Levitz at a comic convention a few years ago.  He was THE HEAD of the publisher, President and he was on the floor and greeting customers and retailers, signed autographs and took questions at panels.  I was able to spend a little time with him and two of the best people I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting at a con, Louise and Walter Simonson.  Levitz was an average guy and I’m guessing will be much happier just writing and not dealing with the crap what I’m sure comes with running a comic company.

It is just very sad that things he fought to keep from seeing the light of day are now the first things to be rolled out only months after leaving office.

Here are some links – YEP, all Bleedingcool.com.  Why even bother going anywhere else?:

The Rumblings First:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/03/get-ready-for-watchmen-2/

Rich lists out all the potential of Vertigo for the mindless hordes of Hollywood:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/04/the-untapped-movie-mine-of-vertigo-comics/

Why I use “” around the words News when referring to comic “news”:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/05/watchmen-2-how-modern-journalism-works/

And possible confirmation:

www.bleedingcool.com/2010/02/05/richard-pace-confirms-possible-existence-of-watchmen-2-project/