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Earth 2: World’s End #1 is the perfect jumping-on point

Earth 2: Worlds End #1 Written By Mike Johnson, Marguerite Bennett, and Daniel H. Wilson Art by Eddy Barrows, Jorge Jimenez, Ardian Syaf, and Paulo Siqueira Published by DC Comics   Earth 2: World’s End is a series that has a lot to do. On top of keeping the rigorous pace that a weekly series …

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Swamp Thing “The Anatomy Lesson” is a Revisionist, Suspenseful Masterpiece

Swamp Thing #21
Written by Alan Moore
Pencilled by Stephen Bissette
Inked by John Totleben
Colors by Tatjana Wood
Published by DC Comics

If you walked down a street and asked a random passerby to name a comic book writer or artist, they would probably say Stan Lee. After that, they would probably say Alan Moore. Alan Moore is famous for Watchmen, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and other books whose film adaptations he has disowned. Before doing these famous and popular comics, he did some work for 2000 AD,Marvel UK, and Warrior where he wrote Marvelman, which was later changed to Miracleman and was a dark deconstruction of the superhero genre. This dark deconstructive theme continued to Moore’s first work on an American comic: DC Comics’ Saga of the Swamp Thing.

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Barbara Gordon Moves to a New Side of Gotham in Batgirl #35

Batgirl #35 Written by Brenden Fletcher and Cameron Stewart Art by Babs Tarr Published by DC Comics   Landing on shelves this Wednesday, Batgirl #35 feels likes something from a different time and place. It goes against the grain compared to DC Comics’ regular output, a laid back slice of life superhero tale where our …

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Batman #35 is Superhero Storytelling at a Mythic Level

After spending a year developing the origin and mythos of Batman, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo turn him loose in Batman #35 and show him at his prime fighting some of Earth’s mightiest heroes. The scale of the comic is huge as Batman battles the various Justice League members, and Capullo’s art shows their might in comparison to Batman’s mortality. The comic opens at the Royal Theatre in Gotham, which has spent lots of money on a special crane so there can be a literal “deus ex machina” in a staging of the Oresteia. Snyder and Capullo stage their narrative like a Greek tragedy giving Batman his own fatal flaw in the story. From Batman #35, it seems that the “Endgame” will be looking at Batman as legend while having many twists and turns along the way. Snyder does a good job showing Batman’s unique contingency plans for stopping the Justice League while Capullo shows them in action from Wonder Woman’s window breaking power to Flash’s crackling super speed. If anything, Batman #35 is an argument for why Greg Capullo should draw Justice League. FCO Plascencia continues to set the mood with his colors from the mix of somber and bright coloring in the theatre to Batman’s shadowy greys and blacks and the various color schemes for the Justice League members.

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To Better Know a Hero: Green Arrow

      Real Name Oliver “Ollie” Queen First Appearance More Fun Comics #73 (1941) Nicknames and Aliases The Emerald Archer, The Battling Bowman, The Arrow, The Hood. Powers and Abilities Green Arrow is a phenomenal archer, considered one of the best in the DC Universe, as well as an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant, swordsman, and detective. Weaknesses …

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To Better Know a Hero: Flash

Real Name Barry Allen First Appearance Showcase #4 October 1956 Nicknames and Aliases The Scarlet Speedster, Fastest Man Alive. Powers and Abilities Super-speed, including the ability to run up walls and over water, to create powerful updrafts of air by running in a circle, and to vibrate his molecules at such a speed as to …

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The New Main Man Gets Ready to Ride in Lobo #1

Lobo #1  Written by Cullen Bunn Art by Reilly Brown Published by DC Comics Lobo #1 is penned by Cullen Bunn, who seems to be mostly writing villains these days (Sinestro & Magneto) so he’s in familiar territory. Pencils are handled by Reilly Brown. His art doesn’t exactly pop, but it’s serviceable. Brown does prove himself …

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Booster Gold Returns with a Lot of Implications for the DC Universe

Ever since the cancellation of Justice League International in 2012, Booster Gold has remained an enigmatic figure. The annual which concluded JLI had Booster Gold encounter a future version of himself sporting and A.R.G.U.S. logo before both of them were vanished at the hand of some unseen force. Booster has been completely MIA with the exception of a guest appearance on All-Star Western. After being gone for nearly two years, Booster Gold returns under the pen of his creator, Dan Jurgens.

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Gotham, Ep. 1.01, “Pilot” gives Gordon the spotlight

Batman is one of the most iconic comic book superheroes of all time and has been amongst the pop culture zeitgeist for, at most, three quarters of a century, being adapted into all kinds of media from novels to video games and of course, to film and television. Strangely enough, as popular as the hero has been throughout the decades, the character has had very little time on the live action small screen. Even now, in this newest retelling of his origin story, Batman himself is not expected to make a full costumed appearance. Instead we are introduced to all the tangential characters that surround the Batman mythology and formulate Batman’s allies and foes.

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Astro City # 15 is a tightly paced ending to Ellie’s story

After a first half built around a central question that took its time setting up characters and mood, Astro City # 15 concludes the two part storyline focusing on Ellie, an elderly woman with a mysterious past and a proclivity for repairing robots. But while the first half of the story felt very deliberately paced, focusing on setup, part two feels positively overflowing with exposition and story momentum, taking off at a run early on and not stopping for the world.

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‘Teen Titans’ #2 delivers

It is becoming difficult to categorically criticize DC Comics. It seems recently that DC has had quite a bit of difficulty pushing out new titles, or bringing together new creative teams without them almost immediately becoming groan-worthy. It was almost easy to write off the company as a whole. However, Pfeifer and Rocafort seem to have found a winning strategy in Teen Titans. The second issue of the series is just as fun and entertaining as the first, pushing away all doubts about the series.

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‘Astro City’ # 14: On Robots and Where They Go

‘Where do all the robots go?’. It’s a pretty good question, when one thinks about it, just another of the many things comics never really address. When mad scientist X, Y or Z comes in to town, the proud new owner of something large, shiny, ambulatory and looking to cause some ruckus, and said shiny thing is quickly reduced to a collection of paperweights of various size…where do they all go? As always, Astro City is here to shine a light on the lesser-known side of any comic book universe, the robot junk yard.

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‘The Multiversity’ #1 is an insane love letter to the passionate superhero fan

STORY BY Grant Morrison ART & COVER BY Ivan Reis, Joe Prado COLORS BY Nei Ruffino PUBLISHER DC Comics This one is a lot to take in. Literally years in the making, Grant Morrison’s The Multiversity has finally landed and it is as every bit strange, surreal, fun, and ambitious as you’d expect from the …

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Top 10 “Batman Year One” Moments

Batman Year One was the first Batman (and DC) comic I read back in 2010. The things that stood out to me were the poetic nature of Frank Miller’s writing (mainly the caption boxes), the parts that Batman Begins homaged, and how Jim Gordon seemed to have more page time than Batman. After rereading this story a few times over the year, I realized that Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli could have named this story “Jim Gordon Year One” and his ups and downs as he goes from a do-gooder cop from Chicago to an overworked Gotham policeman who has an affair with one of his co-workers to an ally of Batman. His character arc is just as compelling and more down to earth than Batman’s. Letterer Todd Klein shows this more grounded story by using more traditional letters in contrast with the fancy cursive script he uses for Batman’s caption boxes. However, both characters have their share of great moments in “Batman Year One”, which is also a little bit of an origin story for Selina Kyle’s Catwoman too. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this highlight reel of the best parts of “Batman Year One” in chronological order.

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The Butler and the Bat: Alfred’s Influence and Legacy

“’Alfred’ – he said not long ago – ‘if anyone ever asks for an obituary, tell them Batman’s big secret was a classic Whodunnit(?)… Only it’s not about who killed Batman, but who kept him alive all these years.’ And he stopped there, leaving the rest to me.” The ending of Batman #683, a monologue …

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‘Batwoman Elegy’ is a Dark, Inspiring Example of Diversity in Superhero Comics

For a few months, Batwoman, who had been recently revamped as a lesbian and former US Army cadet, headlined DC Comics’ flagship book Detective Comics. Kate Kane made her debut as Batwoman in 52 #7 and played a big part in the weekly series helping her ex-girlfriend Renee Montoya and the Question track down the followers of the Crime Bible.

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‘The Killing Joke’ Is The Best Joker Story Ever Told

In the pantheon of Batman stories there’s a handful that come up every time someone ranks the best. The Dark Knight Returns, Batman Year One, and The Long Halloween usually all make the list. And then there’s the Killing Joke. The Killing Joke stands out from the crowd for a couple of reasons. For one thing, unlike the above mentioned stories, The Killing Joke is a graphic novel and not a collection of previously individual issues. For another, The Killing Joke isn’t really a Batman story. Sure Batman is in it, he even plays an important part;but The Killing Joke is above all else, a Joker story.

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‘Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?’ is a good ending for Batman

After Bruce Wayne’s death in Final Crisis, DC Comics gave legendary comics creator and novelist Neil Gaiman the chance to pen one “last” Batman story in the vein of Alan Moore’s What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, which was the last Superman story before Crisis on Infinite Earths. Equal parts love letter and thesis statement, Gaiman and artist Andy Kubert open the comic showing the usual Gotham City skyline, but with the names of important Batman creators, like Bill Finger and Jim Aparo in the background.

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‘Grayson’ #1 is a Successful First Mission

After the Crime Syndicate exposed his identity in Forever Evil, Dick Grayson is now a top secret super spy for the Spyral organization. This organization first appeared in Grant Morrison’s Batman Inc and exists to hunt down errant metahumans. Writer Tim Seeley and co-plotter Tom King revive this concept to give Dick Grayson something to do in an universe that unfortunately knows his secret identity.

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