WCAH Episode 11: That's a Were-Steamer!!!

In this episode, we discuss Blackest Night #1, Deadpool stuff, SDCC, Twilight hatred, X-Men: Necrosha, Dark Reign, New Avengers, Blabbity blah blah...IT'S COMICS!!!

We have a twitter account! For more frequent comic-oriented updates, follow us: TWEET. Also, feel free to email us: aboutheroes 'AT' gmail.com (I know I say a different account name in the podcast, i made a new one!!!)

West
Coast About Heroes - Episode 11

DC vs Mortal Kombat.....REALLY?!?

ZOMG! A DC VIDEOGAME IS COMING OUT!!!
It's DC vs Mortal Kombat.
.....
WHAT? There really isn't a 'Happy' part to this one. Mortal Kombat hasn't been relevent or popular in almost 10 years, and aside from Rayden (spelling? don't care enough to check) everyone else who's part of the MK crew would get their asses kicked in a fight against DC characters. Ugh. Think about it. When's the last time you played a good DC oriented game? Want to hear MY answer? NEVER. I have never played a good DC game. Yeah, some of the Batman games were alright when I was a kid, but nothing special.

Anyway, reports say they're going to magically make DC characters such as Superman crappier with a Magic Handicap. All I really have to say is...this is dumb and I hate them for knowing that nerds like myself will at the very least go out and rent it (not buying, I refuse to do that) to indulge my morbid sense of curiosity. Well, maybe we'll be able to play online and one of you guys out there in whereveryouareland can get on and kick my 'Reptile' ass with any number of DC characters that'll make the game. In my opinion it would be smarter for them to do sort of a Marvel Nemesis take and just MAKE UP characters to fight our heroes. Ugh. That game was crappy, but it's sure to be better than this thing. Ok, bitch-session: OVER.

Mark Bagley at DC: First Look

Eat your heat out Spider-Ben! Bagley has officially moved to DC Comics, with the release of his first piece of art for the company. It's rumored that Bagley will be pencilling the next DC weekly comic, written by Kurt Busiek. How will Bagley do it?  Some folks have speculated that Bagley will do about 14 pages a week, and the rest of the book will be back-up stories from other writers and artists.  Who knows, maybe Bagley can do 22 pages in one week!  This announcement has been out for awhile, so Bagley is probably working up a big lead if it is the weekly series.  From the looks of it, whatever it is, it involves the Big 3, and judging from the quality of this art, at least the art will rock.  Hopefully Kurt Busiek's story will rock as well because the current Countdown weekly was failing on all cylinders until the Monitor War started recently.  If it's not a weekly book, I predict that it will be a book involving the Trinity.  A new book called Trinity?  The JLA?  We know that DC plans on having another weekly series after Countdown, so the odds are that will be what Bagley is working on.  Ok DC, now you got me excited again.  Damn.

Thanks to Newsarama for the pic and the news.

Detective Comics 840 Review

Writer: Paul Dini
Artists: Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs

If you get nothing else from this review you at least won’t make the same mistake I did. After reading five pages, I said to Omar “Hey Detective doesn’t conclude the Resurrection of Ra’s storyline, like we thought it did, and mentioned on the podcast (we all speculated that there might not be an aftermath issue at all).” Turn to the next page and “oh, never mind.” Ra’s and the ninja’s do show up, and deliver some very mixed feelings. In fact, this is probably the most mixed up I’ve ever been about a book.

I liked the stupid villain at the beginning and I really liked Batman’s line, “Every time I think I’ve seen it all, up pops a new criminal with a new obsession,” true and classic. I like the simple fight and I like how when I turn the page suddenly Ra’s is standing there. I don’t like Ra’s being an Albino, that ain’t my Ra’s, nothing against Albino’s, but its always appeared to be such a lame excuse for villainy…oh he’s white, really white, and he’s evil. Ra’s has lost almost all his credibility with me, and he had a long time standing as my favorite Batman villain. If you ask me, the reason for this story is nothing more than Ra’s himself trying to prove that he isn’t some lame result of what could have been an awesome return of an awesome villain.

If you, like Nick and Melanie, felt the conclusion to the Resurrection of Ra’s crossover was quick and wrapped up too neatly then you will probably not get much gratification in this “aftermath” issue. It is just as quick and ties things up even neater than they were left in the final part.

In no time Ra’s goes from threatening to move in to Gotham to…moving in to Gotham. And equally as fast Batman swoops in knocks him off his rocker and away Ra’s goes from the picture. For one panel it seemed like Batman had really killed Ra’s, which had me saying “uh, what?” then of course he isn’t but rather disposed of the same way all Gotham villains are. Basically for me, this issue very loudly proclaimed “WE JUST SPENT A CROSSOVER BRING BACK ONE OF THE BADDEST BATMAN VILLAINS just so we could have him be quickly disposed of in a single issue and shrink wrapped so completely that the word “end” at the bottom of the last panel is almost unnecessary.

Now of course we haven’t seen the end of Ra’s, but I was hoping the Resurrection was just the beginning. I never expected Ra’s to go down so easily. And sure some may say, “oh maybe he’s planned for all of this,” to you I say, go back and look at how comatose the guy is, and how serious Batman is to get rid of him, no, this is for real.

Now to add a few more things I liked about the issue: I liked the lack of narration and how some panels were just ambiguous enough to make you go back and look at them a few times. They act almost as unimportant/important clues to the story being told, and you have to keep reading and catch what is being said in order to make them make since. Dini did a great job with that aspect of storytelling, especially Alfred mentioning how Bruce had to steal clothes, and the entire reason for Bruce mixing drugs in a laboratory so state of the art that it would make a Meth head from the year 2999 drool. I also really liked the art. I can say without a doubt that Nguyen and Fridolfs are not for everybody but I’ve always liked an angular Batman and they really delivers him to me. There was also a clear amount of history between Batman and Ra’s that I can’t conclude without mentioning. The chemistry of the two is one of the reasons I had such mixed feelings. All their talk and banter really seemed to be setting up something big like a Gotham centered grudge match. All in all I’m sorry to see Ra’s disappear so soon, if this is in fact the end, as you may have already guessed C.

Action Comics Publishing Delays

Action Comics was good then it got delayed. 844 and 845 came out in October and November respectively, but where is the third issue? It's supposed to come out on February 28th, but we'll see. Meanwhile Issues 847, 848, 849, and 850 are all fill in issues. Here is the schedule below.

844 october Johns Donner & Kubert Part 1
845 November Johns Donner & Kubert Part 2
846 February 28th Johns Donner & Kubert Part 3
847 March 28th Dwayne McDuffie and Renato Guedes (spin off for Johns' story) Part 3.5
848 April 25 Fabian Nicieza and Allan Goldman (separate storyline Part 1)
849 May 16 Fabian Nicieza and Allan Goldman (separate storyline Part 2)
850 May 30 Kurt Busiek and Renato Guedes (Supergirl on Cover)

Issue 847 is a fill in for the current arc "Last Son" and is ties in with the same story, everything else after that is separate from what Johns and Donner are doing. Johns said on Newsarama that he and Donner would be back with issue #851 and then an arc with Goon creator Eric Powell on art. You can read that here.

All-Star No More?

Over at superherohype there seems to be some concern on the status of All-Star Batman and Robin. Some are under the impression that issue five will be the last issue and the book has been cancelled. Others just think that the suscription to the book has been cancelled (since, you know...you'd only get one book a year). Some even went as far as to email DC themselves to see if all the All-Star line had been cancelled. I'm just really shocked so many people gave a flying fuck.

Preacher Series Coming to HBO!

HBO is developing a one-hour series based on the popular 1990s Vertigo comic
series, Preacher says The Hollywood Reporter.

Mark Steven Johnson (upcoming Ghost Rider, Daredevil) is writing the pilot, while Howard Deutch is attached to direct. Johnson and Deutch will executive produce along with Michael De Luca, George Agusto, Chris Bender and JC Spink.

Preacher, which ran from 1995-2000, told the story of a down-and-out Texas preacher possessed by Genesis, a supernatural entity conceived by the unnatural coupling of an angel and a demon. Given immense powers, the preacher teamed with an old girlfriend and a hard-drinking Irish vampire and
set out on a journey across America to find God -- who apparently had
abandoned his duties in heaven -- and hold him accountable for his
negligence.

The series was created by Irish-born writer Garth Ennis and British artist
Steve Dillon, who will serve as co-executive producers. Ken F. Levin, who
represents the duo, also will serve as co-executive producer.

There have been several attempts to bring the comic to the screen, whether
big or small, but nothing stuck, says the trade. A movie version, to have
been produced by Kevin Smith's View Askew, among others, got to the casting
stage, with James Marsden attached.

Guys, I'm freaking stoked about this. Preacher was awesome. The only way
it could really be done with justice is on HBO. This is perfect. The only
thing I'm kinda worried about is Mark Steven Johnson. I mean Daredevil
sucked. Ghost Rider...well in my opinion, it could go either way. I'm not
sold on it yet. Still, HBO is the way to go. Just thought I'd give you
guys a heads up.

-Joshiebear

I am The Goddamn Grifter!

There is no way to avoid them....Newsarama isn't even bothering with spoiler warnings in their main tag lines. But anyway, DC gave newsarama the cover to issue 1 of Wildcats. I've never been a huge Wildcats fan, but the original was the epitome of 90's look to comic book heroes. Wildcats 3.0 was actually decent, so I'm excited about this, especially with Grant Morrison coming on as writer. Of course this news let's us know two things: 1) Grifter survived the wounds from Captain Atom Armageddon and 2) All Star Batman and Robin will probably wrap up with issue 6 (if the fucker ever comes out) by September. Damn, even Todd McFarlane is drawing one of the alternate covers.

DC 52 only $2.50!!!

I know, it's pretty messed up that $2.50 is a deal on a comicbook! But, at a time when DC, like Marvel could be charging $2.99 for a very anticipated story, you have to give them props. This series has some great talent at the helm. We are talking: Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid with layouts by Keith Giffen. Hell, even Dan Jurgens (Zero Hour) has an involvement doing a history of the DC universe backup story in each issue. DC is really stressing you pick pick this story up weekly because they will not see a collected edition until the final issue is published in 2007. They are promising the book to be out every week with no delays. If you do the math it's about $130 and about ten bucks a month; believe me I have spent twice as much on really shitty stories ahem ahem Onslaught! With a creative team in this book how can they go wrong? I am really looking foward to this!

Do you remember 1990? Before Smallville, hell, before Lois and Clark?

I remember this little show that CBS did in the fall called the Flash, that ran up against the Simpsons. Yeah I know, what the hell was CBS thinking? In 1990 I was more of a Marvel guy, so when I saw the 90 minute pilot, I was like there is no way Barry Allen can carry a TV show!!!! Of course I was 12...what the hell did I know. I ended up loving this show, it was sooo ahead of its time and probably up until Smallville my favorite live superhero show. I mean how can anything Howard Chaykin (American Flagg) produced be bad? There is no way!!! And damn if it wasn't released on dvd today! It contains all 21 episodes and the pilot. I highly recommend not just for Flash fans but comic fans as well.