Comic Book Movie Review: The Spirit

The Spirit was an over-the-top, ridiculous movie, and I enjoyed it...mostly. There are times when it is evident that this is Frank Miller's first attempt at directing a movie on his own. These moments mainly show up in scenes with Louis Lombardi's multiple characters. The timing created by the editing together was often awkward. I also do not think the scenes with Lorelei, the Spirit's angel of death, were necessary. While the sequences make sense to someone that has some knowledge of the comics, they would be utterly confusing and distracting to someone that does not know who she is. Miller tries to explain it, but I'm not sold that it worked in the movie.

This movie is very well cast. Gabriel Macht, someone I had never heard of, did a great job with the personality of the Spirit. His voice-over narration add quite a bit to the movie. In fact, all of the actors had the personality of the characters down pretty well. Well, maybe with the exception of Samuel L. Jackson's portrayal of the Octopus. Having not read any stories with him as the villain, I cannot say for certain if this truly how the Octopus acted. The interactions between all of the characters was a strong point of the movie. While I do not know if Sam Jackson accurately portrayed The Octopus, he certainly was entertaining. He was a good villain to be opposite of Macht's Spirit.

Do I think this movie will be successful? Not likely. There are several factors working against it. The first is timing. There are four other movies opening this weekend, all with big name actors in starring roles. Secondly, this really is an odd movie. In staying true to the spirit of the comic (no pun intended), Miller has made a movie that might be a bit on the inaccessible side to the common movie-goer. Lastly, it is being labeled as a Sin City copy. While the previews have reinforced this label, I do think it is a fair one. This movie is not Sin City. This is as much Sin City as All-Star Superman was New X-men. (Grant Morrison and Frank Quitley did both books, for those that do not get the reference.) There are moments that go into the black and white silhouette shot, but only to highlight moments. The vast majority of the movie is shot in a faded color, noir style. The style works for the movie.

I do recommend seeing this movie, but try to go in with an open mind, and maybe some knowledge about the comics.

Astonishing reading guide

Still working on my X-Men multi-book reading guide (that will accompany my history) - I'm now working on the period between House of M and Messiah CompleX. It would seem that Astonishing X-Men #13-24 (with the Giant Size at the end) will go between X-Men #204 and the Messiah CompleX one-shot. This is completely because of the Kitty Pryde Factor - Kitty was a part of the title in the X-Men story, but was conspicuously missing from Messiah CompleX (leading many readers to guess the ending). The two storylines, however, interlock together giving no break point to allow any other storylines to take place. This was not the case with the first two storylines of the title - in which two issues of Uncanny and a five-issue mini-series fit in - but cannot be avoided here. The X-Men story is the last one before Messiah starts, and Kitty is in that story. Fortunately, Astonishing is really good, so it won't be a pain in reading.

From the Box: X-Men #62-64

I've been working on an extended history of the X-Men following the main team's 45 year history. As I sat down to work on it, I realized there was quite a bit in the way of details that I had forgotten, so I went back and started to re-read the series. With my biggest hole in knowledge falling in the mid-90s, I created a reading order list for the two main titles (Uncanny and X-Men) and got to it. Why it took me so long to realize that this would be a good time to work on From the Box is anyone's guess. But I digress - let's move on.

This storyline comes at somewhat of a transition point for the X-Men. Falling after Onslaught but just before Operation: Zero Tolerance, the story is basically using three issues to kill time while reminding everyone that the plot point of the Legacy Virus is still out there. Another transition point is that Scott Lobdell was still pulling double duty on the X-Titles, as a replacement for Mark Waid had not yet been added, so while Lobdell was handling plot, Ben Raab took scripting duty. I am familiar with Raab as the closing writer for Excalibur, having the unenviable task of following up an enjoyable run by Warren Ellis. Tough luck, man.

But the main story on the creative team is that it's the debut issue on art for Carlos Pacheco, and to celebrate the occasion, #62 was released with two covers - both by Pacheco. Even though the book was in its 60s by this point (issue count, not age), Pacheco was just the third regular artist for the title, following Andy Kubert, who came in when Jim Lee left the book. Pacheco would stick around for a year before heading off for other projects, and it was more often good art for Marvel's merry mutants.

The story features an odd grouping of the X-Men in Cyclops, Wolverine, Phoenix, Storm and Cannonball as the rest of the team - Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Bishop and Joseph - had been sent to Shi'ar space over in Uncanny. These X-Men answer a summons from an old acquaintance of Wolverine's, but come across a battle between Shang-Chi (Master of Kung-Fu!) and a bunch of ninjas. No, really. Wolverine helps out, threatens Shang for no reason, then all is explained and they go after the fabled Elixir Vitae of Shang-Chi's father, which may or may not be able to cure the Legacy Virus.

Now let me stop right there, because that's really all you need to know about this story. Nothing else substantial happens. The X-Men come across a very-much alive Sebastian Shaw who sends them to Wilson Fisk (Kingpin) who actually has the Elixir, then after Shaw and Fisk threaten each other, Storm blows the whole thing up and no one gets anything. Seriously - that's it. There's not really even a climactic moment to finish it up - Storm gets tired of waiting for one and blows everything up. The X-Men fly home and all is fine.

There were 2.5 character returns in this story, in Shang-Chi, Kingpin and half of one to Shaw, who had actually returned to life quite a while earlier in the pages of X-Force. Shang-Chi served no purpose in the story, aside from lending his father's Elixir to the story. For those of you not up on your Marvel B-listers, Shang-Chi's father was Fu Manchu, though by this point Marvel no longer had the rights to use his name, so he was simply referred to as "your father". Kingpin had been chucked from the New York underworld by Daredevil, though I have no idea as to his timeline, so I couldn't tell you how this all lined up. Apparently, though, this was a big deal. To my knowledge, this remains the only interaction between Wilson Fisk and the X-Men, but I'll fact check myself later.

What really makes this story suck, though, is the writing. Lobdell's plot is pretty thin, and Raab's script is downright awful. I cannot recall a storyline in which more exposition has been tossed out in page after page. An entire page is used for Kingpin to share through inner-monologue the entire history of Hong Kong. Shang Chi thinks about the X-Men's mission statement once per issue. He starts calling Storm 'wind-rider' right after he meets her. He also refers to the Legacy Virus as that thing he had been hearing so much of in the news, though the X-Men had just explained it all to him a few minutes prior. Cannonball repeatedly refers to himself as the 'greenest' of the X-Men (demonstrating how badly the character was handled at this point) and both Wolverine and Jubilee (in an O:ZT interlude) take turns mentioning that he is the best at what he does.

Pacheco's art is the bright point of this story, as all of his characters are quite nice to look at, though Phoenix and Storm have a bit of the overly rounded look (if you catch my drift) that was so prevalent in the 90s. His Wolverine looks awful, but that's hardly his fault. This was during the time when somebody thought it would be a good idea to devolve Wolverine into a beast-like humanoid, and give him a perpetually ripped costume with bandana. He looked strange in it, and downright horrible with 'street clothes' on. Fortunately, just after O:ZT, the look was abandoned and Wolverine returned to being human.

This story is recommended only for completists and those wondering just how the X-Men got on a plane for the start of O:ZT. Other than that, try to stay upwind from this one. It's a stinker.

Tidbits

Secret Invasion and Final Crisis cost.

Newsarama had an interesting article calculating the total cost if someone were to buy everything tied into both major events. In a nutshell if you do not want to read the article, for someone to buy every Secret Invasion tie-in, it would cost them $378.78. That is 125 issues, averaging a monthly cost of $29.14. For Final Crisis, there are two ways to look at it: without Countdown and Death of the New Gods, and with those two series. The other Countdown tie-ins have nothing to do with Final Crisis. So, the total cost for Final Crisis without (and with) is $135.08 ($317.56). The "with" figure totals 95 issues with an average monthly cost of $15.12, aided by the year-long nature of Countdown.

Blue Beetle getting cancelled.

This has been suspected of getting cancelled for some time, as its sales have been abysmal for quite some time. I gave this series a chance when it started, but it got cut after issue #4. It was not cut because it was a bad book, I was just trying to cut back. I have always heard good things about this book, but it seems like it could not find an audience. Kind of like Manhunter.

New Watchmen trailer.

There is a new preview for Watchmen on Yahoo! Movies. It is neat. If you have not already seen, I suggest you do.

Some Important Differences to Note

DC Cancels Nightwing, Robin & Birds of Prey

DC confirmed to Newsarama that they were canceling Nightwing, Robin & Birds of Prey, with February being the last issues to come out. DC did not confirm why these books were getting canceled, but I have a few thoughts on the matter.

First thought that comes to mind is the timing of it. Didio has said that the DCU will reflect what happens in Final Crisis starting in March. Also, the R.I.P storyline in Batman is almost completed. After its completion, a "Battle for the Cowl" storyline has been hinted upon, and teased, as shown by the promotional buttons I received at The Zone. (There was also one picturing Hush, but I did not feel like finding it for the picture.) Also, sales on these titles have been solid. Not necessarily good, but solid. This leads me to believe that the cancelations are story-driven.

Now, from a story-driven cancelation, there are two likely possibilites. These books are canceled, and new books are launched, starting with issue #1. (I personally do not understand the fascination with #1 issues for the sake of giving someone a place they feel like they can jump onto a title. Likewise, I do not buy the excuse for not getting into a book because it has too much history. I do not pick who I talk to based on the amount of history I have to learn about them. But I digress.) The rumor I saw floating around is that after "R.I.P." two books would be launched, titled Red Robin and Batman & Robin, with the mystery (as of this writing) of who would be in what position, this could work. Another possiblity is that the books are only going on a hiatus for a little while, and then starting where they left off.

Either of these scenarios is possible, and would not be new for DC. When Bart Allen became the Flash, they started Flash: Fastest Man Alive, and this book lasted until his death. When Superman "died," his books went on hiatus for a few months to convince people that Superman was dead.

So, what is the better scenario? Beats me. Anyone that proclaims they know that one of these options will be bad before reading anything is a moron, and does not know what they are talking about. However, I will make a bold prediction. The people that post on the comments pages of CBR and Newsarama will not like whatever Dan Didio says is going to happen. Call it a hunch.

Heroes shake-up

I've not made it a huge secret that I haven't been a big fan of Jeph Loeb lately. As it turns out, the execs at NBC have had some issues with him as well, as he has been ousted as a writer/producer for the not-as-much-of-a-hit-as-it-used-to-be Heroes, as has Jesse Alexander. The studio is apparently not pleased with the creative direction the show has been going in and the subsequent dip in ratings.

I can't say one way or another whether that was the correct move, as I have no idea of the influence Loeb or Alexander had on the show. What I am aware of is that Heroes needs a bit of fixing to make it once again the powerhouse that it was in its first season. Currently (as of episode 8 of the third season) the show is hardly recognizable from what it had been two seasons prior. Most characters have changed drastically, and some with no purpose whatsoever. Pieces of the plot seem to have been thrown in just to give the main cast something to do, and some characters got way to much screen time only for their stories to go nowhere until they eventually faded away (Maya, Monica). I'm not saying that I'm not still glued to my screen every Monday evening, but the show could probably use some work.

Will this help? I guess we'll see with Chapter 4.

DC's bad, but Marvel ain't so good either

It's always fun to listen to a back and forth between J.R. and Casey over the major crossover events of both DC and Marvel. If you could not tell, J.R. is a DC fan, while Casey's firmly with the Marvel line. And thus, sides are chosen and the conversations begin. Casey's argument is easier to both make and support, as the company has had a constant string of crossover events that began back in 2004 and still have some time before they wrap up. Identity Crisis to Infinite Crisis to Final Crisis with at least one countdown mini series (or numerous ones together) - it's fairly obvious that DC has been completely wrapped up in this.

But don't think that Marvel hasn't been just as bad about the major event crossovers - they're just a little more sneaky about it. The first big one was House of M, followed by a lead-up to Civil War, then the event itself (which was delayed over time), then World War Hulk and finally Secret Invasion, which seems like it has been going on forever. But unlike DC, Marvel was also running crossover events elsewhere - the two Annihilation series for its cosmic characters and Endangered Species and Messiah Complex for the X-Books. That's quite a bit as well.

Think about all the tie-ins Marvel events have gone with as well. For each of the three major arcs, side mini-series have been released to flesh out the story - just like DC did with each of its books. Alongside that, several books have gotten absorbed for several months while the event was going on. House of M claimed numerous titles (from my collection, New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men and Cable & Deadpool spring to mind) aside from its minis. Civil War did the same thing, tying up New Avengers while putting out several side minis and launching Front Line, which ran 12 issues during the event. World War Hulk tied up Hulk (of course) as well as having its minis and another Front Line. Secret Invasion? Both Avengers titles have been tied up FOREVER, numerous minis have been released and of course, Front Line. From what I read, X-Factor, Captain Britain, Deadpool and others have given issues to the event.

On the other hand, no DC books I'm reading (Booster Gold, Green Arrow and Black Canary, JLA, JSA, Teen Titans, Legion of Super-Heroes) have tied into Final Crisis. For that matter, neither have the Batman books (which have a story of their own going). That might give cause for arguing the overall importance of the event, to which I would point to the Marvel events which have their mini-series so the titles themselves do not have to reflect the event. The argument can go back and forth until your head starts spinning. Trust me - I just got mine to stop.

My point here is not to bash Marvel or DC. My point is the show that one cannot justifiably argue about the crossover events of one company using the other as a defense. Both companies are just as bad about them and the sheer number of titles they put out with them. So shut up about it and go read what you enjoy. It's just easier that way.

This Post Was Originally Scheduled for July

So I just saw this, posted about a week ago that says that J.G. Jones won't be drawing the last issue of the much ballyhooed Final Crisis. I can't say much about the series, since I gave up on it after reading the first issue. I haven't even heard much about what's going on in the book or in the slew of related mini-series that seem to come out every week. It may be a convoluted mess or it may be the single greatest DC story ever told, I can't say. If it turns out to be the latter, I'll read it. The former, I just saved myself some time. That's the lesson I learned after Infinite Crisis.

But enough complaining about DC. The point of this post is about punctuality. Specifically the punctuality of artists. Even more specifically, the punctuality of artists who happen to be working on heavily hyped series that were announced and being worked on long before they were scheduled to hit the shelves.

Now, if I'm not mistaken, J.G. Jones had around a year's worth of lead in time for his work on Final Crisis. In fact, I think I mentioned that in this post I made a while back:

"GM: Well, the way it worked out was that I started writing Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, around the same time as the 52 series was starting to come out...Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started."

So Grant Morrison (That's what GM stands for, in case you were wondering) started writing the book in the spring of 2006. Jones began drawing it in the spring of 2007. The first issue of Final Crisis came out in May of this year. And it's not like Jones was drawing anything else at the time. Sounds to me like he had a year to work on it. He made it through the first couple issues okay, but then issue number three was delayed. It was announced that issues four through six will feature Carlos Pacheco as a fill-in artist. And now the seventh and final issue will be drawn by Doug Mahnke with no J.G. Jones at all.

Over on the Marvel side of things, Joe Maduriera is just as guilty. He was announced as the artist for Ultimates 3 in the fall of 2005. It was his first work for Marvel since 1997 and his first comics work in five years. Since Maduriera's last comic, his creator owned Battle Chasers series, was often severely delayed until he gave up on it after nine issues fans questioned his ability to get a series out on a regular schedule. In an interview with Wizard, series writer Jeph Loeb assured everyone that since there would be a several month break between the last issue of Ultimates 2 and the first issue of 3, he and Maduriera would have plenty of time to get issues done and keep the book ahead of schedule. Even if he Jeph Loeb couldn't finish his scripts until the last issue of Ultimates 2 came out in the spring of 2007 (And it's not like Ultimates 3 relys heavily on what happened in one and two. Actually, I don't think Loeb read either of them.) Maduriera still had around six months to work on a five issue miniseries which was the only book he was doing at the time. And still there was a four month delay between issues three and four. What gives?

In an email to Comic Book Resources, Jones summed up his situation thusly:

“Any problems completing the series are my own,” he wrote. “I love Doug Mahnke’s art, and he would have probably been a better choice to draw this series in the first place.”

Wow. Jones either seems disappointed that he couldn't finish the series or bitter than he was taken off of it. Or both.

What problems could have come up that would get these artists so far behind schedule? How could you have approximately a year or better head start on a project and still fall behind on it? Are they sick, distracted, a perfectionist, or just plain lazy? Or is it the comic companies they work for having unreal expectations?

Just so you know

Good lord, I am sick of Skrulls.

In honor of tonight's debate

Heroes Recap: Volume 3: Chapter 3

Each week, Comicdom Wrecks! (whose staff consists of three Heroes-loving nerds) will be recapping the most recent episode of Heroes. Lost somewhere in the season? Forgot something that's taken place? Check the Recaps to find what you may have missed.

HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!

9/29/08 - Volume 3: Chapter 3 (One of Us, One of Them)

Story 1 – Villains Escape (Peter, Angela, Sylar, HRG)
The escaped villains, with Peter still inside Jesse, rob a bank. When the police arrive, Knox reveals that he called them to allow the Company to find them, giving them the chance for revenge. The German wants no part of the plan, but is killed by Knox with a punch through the stomach. Angela reveals to HRG that his partner will be Sylar, who she is confidant will be able to control the hunger that causes him to kill people for their abilities. The two arrive at the bank, with HRG going in and telling Sylar to remain outside. Inside, Knox has learned that Jesse is an imposter with a trick question and knocks him down, but is distracted by HRG’s arrival and allows Peter to use Jesse’s sound manipulation to knock everyone away. Future Peter arrives and knocks Peter out of Jesse and teleports them both into the future. With Jesse back to himself, the tide turns on HRG, who is actually saved by Sylar. The hunger gets the best of him, however, and he kills Jesse, which in turn allows Knox to flee the scene.

Story 2 – Hiro’s Formula (Hiro, Ando)
Hiro and Ando arrive at a theater in Berlin, Germany where Daphne arrives and tells them that she’s already delivered the first half of the formula and is going after the second half. She runs into the building but finds that her speed is no longer working. Hiro spots the Haitian, whom he recognized from the future, and follows him into the theater. Hiro and Ando set up an interception for the Haitian’s meeting and knock him out, getting the formula. However, with her powers functioning again, Daphne quickly steals the second half of the formula and takes off. Hiro and Ando barely have time to react before the Haitian recovers and captures them. They are then incarcerated in Level Two of Primatech.

Story 3 – Nathan in Congress (Nathan, Linderman, Tracy)
Nathan is sworn in as Senator from New York, but is distressed to find that Tracy is missing. Traveling to her home, he finds her distressed about Niki Sanders, which again has Nathan questioning whether that’s who she really is. Tracy travels to New Orleans to find Niki, but discovers in a funeral home that Niki has died. She is spotted by Niki’s son Micah, who realizes that she’s not his mom, but helps her understand that she’s not the only person with powers. He uses his power to compare all the data he can find about the two women and learns that they were born on the same day by the same doctor, a Dr. Zimmerman. Tracy finds the man who reveals that he “created” her.

Story 4 – Parkman in the Desert (Parkman)
Usutu brings Parkman to an area of rocks he has painted upon, depicting stages of Parkman’s life. Parkman questions one of him and a woman, happy, but Usutu tells him that this one no longer exists, as the future has changed. He sits down and goes into a “painting trance” (like that of Isaac Mendez). When Usutu comes out of his painting trance, Parkman sees that he’s replaced the painting of a happy family with one of him holding a woman he doesn’t recognize. He questions what the whole thing means, and follows Usutu’s guidance and goes into a similar trance himself.

Story 5 – Suresh’s Formula (Suresh, Maya)
Neither Suresh nor Maya appear in this episode.

Story 6 – Claire’s Mission (Claire)
Finding herself unable to return to the menial tasks of high school, Claire asks her mother Meredith to train her to fight so she can take on villains from her dad’s files. Meredith takes her to a storage container and ignites the air around them, making it impossible for Claire to breathe. After much demanding, Claire finally reveals that her desire to battle is not to ‘save the world’ but to hurt villains like Sylar who caused her so much pain.

Debuts

• Bridget Bailey (Tehmina Sunny) – An employee of the Company who can see the history of any object.
• Dr. Zimmerman (Ronald Guttman) – A doctor apparently responsible for the “creation” of Niki and Tracy.

Deaths

• Niki Sanders (Ali Larter) – While she didn’t actually die in this episode, her final fate is revealed.
• Bridget Bailey (Tehmina Sunny) – Killed by Sylar.
• The German (Ken Lally) – Killed by Knox as an example to the others.
• Jesse Murphy (Francis Capra) – Killed by Sylar.

Revelations

• The Haitian is still working for the Company.
• Sylar has gained the ability to learn the history of an object on contact as well as sound manipulation.
• Usutu’s power is revealed to be precognitive painting.

Chapters 1 & 2

Longshot and Dazzler

In last week's X-Factor #35, oft-forgotten X-Man Longshot debuted in the title, apparently set to join the cast. As he had not been seen in several months (since the end of Exiles), a bit of exposition came forth in a conversation between him and Strong Guy. It was there that Longshot explained why he was no longer in a relationship with Dazzler (as they had last been seen) and commented that there was really nothing between the two of them - that the whole thing seemed forced. It was (in my eyes) a well-deserved comment on the part of Peter David on the longtime relationship between the two characters. I found it to be quite amusing.

The explanation is not exactly simple, and a history lesson of Longshot and Dazzler is forthcoming to help get you through it. You're welcome.

Longshot debuted in a cult-classic self-titled mini-series, and was quickly shoehorned into the X-Men in an annual that also featured the debut of the X-Babies (and that's all I'm saying about that one). He briefly vanished during the Mutant Massacre, only to show back up in its aftermath, in which he quickly became a member of the new team. An amusing trait of the character was his attractiveness to the opposite sex (mullet notwithstanding), and his naivity to the matter due to his nature. However, that was quickly abandoned in a suddenly developed relationship between him and his teammate Dazzler.

The Longshot relationship always puzzled me during the "Australian Era" of 80s X-Men. The dialogue would have you believe that there was a love-triangle going between him, Dazzler and Rogue, but this really never was touched upon in the stories themselves. Dazzler and Longshot were just sort of a couple until he left the team right after Inferno. All right, to be fair, they did get a bit physical at one point, but they were possessed by demons at the time.

It was sort of out-of-sight, out-of-mind once Longshot left the team, as Dazzler began hitting on Havok (chicks dig moody depressants, after all) and then got her mind wiped by a journey through the Siege Perilous. Wherever writer Chris Claremont was planning on taking either story (Longshot's departure and Dazzler's amnesia) didn't come to anything by the time he left the book. It was plotter Jim Lee and scripter John Byrne who actually finished the Longshot story, pulling in Dazzler and restoring her memories in the process. The battle left Longshot in charge of the Mojoverse, Dazzler pregnant, and the readers feeling that the relationship was much more than earlier stories had ever implied it to be. So they lived happily ever after.

Or not so much.

Turns out that a universe-ruling Longshot and an expecting Dazzler weren't too interesting. In fact, the few writers that did use either character often didn't use them together, with an obligatory reference to how the other one was doing just for fun. Dazzler was given an implied miscarriage by Fabian Nicieza just after the Age of Apocalypse and the two were sort-of broken up when Dazzler showed up to help the X-Men apparently unaware of where Longshot might be. She settled into random guest appearances here and there and he ended up in Limbo (the unused kind, not the demon kind).

Eventually, Longshot was brought into the Exiles, though he had no memories of his past life. This was a welcome attempt to get him back to the basics of his character that had become lost over the years of sort-of romances and universal uprisings. He stayed with the team until the title ended with a Chris Claremont written crossover between the Exiles and New Excalibur (of which Dazzler was a member) and almost all of the characters were shuffled so an all-Claremont-created team could relaunch Exiles. For Longshot, this meant heading back to Earth with Dazzler in an effort to rekindle their romance. So they lived happily ever after.

Or not so much.

Turns out the Longshot/Dazzler coupling is still not interesting, and really hasn't ever been. The effort to put them back together after all of their convoluted non-use felt like a forced issue. They were together in X-Men, they should be together now. That's exactly how it was presented in Longshot's X-Factor appearance when he flat out said it felt more and more awkward trying to make it work when it really didn't. So finally, Dazzler and Longshot have both returned as usable characters in the X-World. Let's just hope they stay away from each other this time.

Recipe for suck: add comic characters to FPS game

I spotted this baby on the Playstation Blog today:

For those of you too lazy to click the link, the news is that this new game is going to be released exclusively for the PSN - all you X-Box Live users can suck it.

Actually, no not really. The game is an arena-based multi-player first person shooter using the engine of whichever Unreal Tournament game came out last. That means you connect to a server, you show up in a room, you kill other players. No story necessary.

Now, I am aware that there is a dedicated fanbase for FPS games like this one, but if history teaches us anything, changing the rather colorful cast of storyless characters that can be blown up repeatedly into comic-based ones doesn't really work. Comics are illustrated stories. When you create a game, you need to have some kind of story there.

So what's the history that teaches us this? Many moons ago, there was a Quake II conversion that featured the X-Men...except your mission was to go around blowing up the X-Men. The game didn't go over to well and can actually be downloaded for free at numerous sites, provided you have a working copy of Quake II.

Will I be buying this? No sir, I don't think so. It just seems lazy to me.

Heroes Recap - Volume 3: Chapters 1 and 2

Each week, Comicdom Wrecks! (whose staff consists of three Heroes-loving nerds) will be recaping the most recent episode of Heroes. Lost somewhere in the season? Forgot something that's taken place? Check the Recaps to find what you may have missed.

HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!

9/23/09 - Volume 3: Chapters 1 & 2 (The Second Coming, The Butterfly Effect)

Wrapping Up – Who Shot Nathan?
Most of the themes of this arc are set up immediately with the answer to who shot Nathan in last season’s finale. Peter (the scarred one from the future) travels back in time to stop Nathan from announcing the existence of superhuman powers to the world, thereby preventing his timeline. The problem is that the longer he stays in the past to make sure the job has been completed, the more of what was supposed to happen is disrupted.

Story 1 – Villains Escape (Peter, Angela, Sylar, HRG, Claire)
Claire gets a visit from Sylar who cuts her head open and studies her brain, gaining her healing. When she heals from the attack, she can no longer feel pain, which she begins to associate with the loss of her soul. While with Claire, Sylar finds a file on Level 5 of Primatech, which houses some of the most dangerous prisoners ever dealt with by the company. He kills Bob, gaining his transmutation, but is confronted by Elle and HRG, both of whom he quickly dispatches. As he tries to cut open Elle’s head, she instinctively unleashes a torrent of electricity that shorts out the building’s security and sets the prisoners free. Unbeknownst to them, one of them is possessed by Peter, whom his future alter-ego locked within the mind of a prisoner. Angela, now in charge of the company with Bob’s death, fires Elle and warns the future version of her son that he had better get to fixing this mess he made. Sylar, who was knocked out by Elle’s attack, is held prisoner in a Level 5 cell. At the Bennet house, HRG prepares to go after the escaped prisoners, and leaves Claire in the care of her birth mother. The escaped villains, unknowingly joined by Peter, kill two people and escape in their car.

Story 2 – Hiro’s Formula (Hiro, Ando)
Bored out of his mind after becoming majority owner of his father’s company, Hiro is excited to receive a video recorded by his father before his death. The video tells of half a formula locked away that could possibly destroy the world. As soon as Hiro opens the safe, the formula is stolen by Daphne, a speedster who is not completely subject to Hiro’s abilities. Unwilling to travel back in time, Hiro travels forward to discover what the formula could possibly do, but witnesses his own death at the hands of Ando, who seemingly possesses lightning powers. As Tokyo explodes, Hiro returns to the present, doubtful of Ando and determined to get his formula back. A private investigator discovers the name and address of the crook. Hiro and Ando travel to France and set a trap for Daphne, allowing Hiro to plant a tracer on her. They follow her path, planning to get the other half of the formula before she can.

Story 3 – Nathan in Congress (Nathan, Linderman, Tracy)
Doctors rush to save Nathan’s life, but are ultimately unsuccessful. As Peter looks over his brother’s body, his wounds heal and he regains consciousness. As he convalesces, he is visited by Mr. Linderman, who begins telling him of what he is capable of. Nathan travels to the hospital chapel, and before news cameras, gives a monologue about how he has been blessed by God, no longer willing to reveal his secret. This change of heart prevents Peter (future) from shooting him again. The news coverage brings Nathan to the attention of the governor of New York Robert Malden, whose assistant Tracy recommends that Nathan be appointed as the replacement for the recently deceased senator from New York. When Tracy visits Nathan, he mistakes her for Niki Sanders and is skeptical of the offer, but eventually accepts it under the advice of Linderman, as long as Tracy serves on his staff. Tracy herself is confronted by a reporter who accuses her of being Niki Sanders, and even produces hotel security footage of Niki and Nathan together during Nathan’s campaign. As Tracy lays a hand on the reporter, his entire body freezes and shatters, causing her to run in fear.

Story 4 – Parkman in the Desert (Parkman)
Parkman finds Peter in a storage closet, apparently searching for the gun that was used to shoot Nathan. When he questions Peter about it, unaware that he is actually a version of Peter from the future, Peter transports Parkman to Africa and leaves him stranded there. After walking for some time, Parkman collapses. He is visited by a large turtle, who points him to a water-enriched root. As he thanks the turtle, he is found by a man who knows his identity, but is unnerved that the transpiring events are not how he painted them.

Story 5 – Suresh’s Formula (Suresh, Maya)
Having sent Molly to a secret location to keep her safe, Suresh begins working with Maya on locating the source of the superhuman abilities. When she tells him that her powers manifest when she becomes upset and fade when she calms, he succeeds in creating a formula that theoretically can manifest powers in any human. She tells him that it should be destroyed, but instead he injects himself with it and manifests heightened strength, speed and other senses. He becomes uncharacteristically aggressive and sleeps with Maya, before waking up to find that a piece of his shoulder seems to be peeling off.

Extras
Knocking out the future – Peter’s presence disrupts key events in the future:

• When Claire calls wanting to help, he tells her to stay put, leaving her home alone when Sylar comes knocking.
• Sylar’s presence in the house gives him access to the Level 5 file, which sends him in that direction and leads to the villains’ escape.
• Sylar’s attack leaves Claire unable to feel pain, which has her questioning her humanity.
• Nathan’s wounds lead to his spiritual revelation, which gains him the attention that leads to his nomination.
• Parkman is sent to Africa, where he is told he is not supposed to be.
• The Peter of the present is locked in the mind of one of the Level 5 inmates when they escape.

Debuts

• Tracy Strauss (Ali Larter) – Advisor to Governor Malden, she is seemingly identical to Niki Sanders, though she apparently does not know the woman. Seemingly possesses freezing abilities.
• Daphne Millbrook (Brea Grant) – Speedster and master thief, her stealing of Hiro’s formula has made her his declared nemesis.
• Flint (Blake Shields) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing pyrokinesis.
• Jesse Murphy (Francis Capra) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing sound manipulation abilities. The host body of Peter Petrelli.
• The German (Ken Lally) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing magnetism manipulation.
• Knox (Jamie Hector) – A prisoner of Level 5 possessing fear-based powers.
• Robert Malden (Bruce Boxleitner) – Governor of New York looking to fill a vacated Senate chair.
• Usutu (N’Tare Mwine) – An African man who discovers Parkman in the desert. Apparently possesses the ability of precognition, represented through paintings (perhaps like Isaac Mendez).

Deaths

• Bob Bishop (Stephen Tobolowsky) – killed by Sylar for his abilities.

Revelations

• Angela Petrelli’s power is revealed to be precognitive dreaming. This was hinted at in the first season, as Peter first began envisioning his and his brother’s powers in dreams.
• With Bob’s death, the only surviving founders of the Company are Angela Petrelli, Maury Parkman and Adam Monroe.
• Sylar has gained the abilities of healing and transmutation.

Value to whom, exactly?

I have always been a follower of the belief that something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it. So while watching a video about the San Diego Comic Con, I was puzzled by an old Flash comic, graded (and therefore sealed) of course, going for $65,000. Why in the world would anyone pay that much for a comic they can't even read? Just to sell it to someone else?

I will never buy a graded comic, and will never send my out for the treatment. I just don't get it - like people who won't take Transformers out of the box.

Millar to launch Ultimate Avengers, making Ultimates as useless as it is bad

Next year, Marvel will be launching a new title - Ultimate Avengers - written by Mark Millar who is credited by many to be pretty much the co-father of the Ultimate universe, with Brian Bendis (think My Two Dads). According to Millar in a CBR interview, the new title will be six issue stories in which Nick Fury gathers heroes to fight threats to the Ultimate universe.

Now I know what you're thinking - isn't there already an Ultimate Avengers of sorts in The Ultimates? Why yes, yes there is. But don't worry about that book - it's terrible and it looks to remain terrible for the near future.

I find it...intriguing that Marvel would bring back Millar and put him on a book whose concept is so much like an existing title...when that book seems to be losing the direction that originally made it such a hit. I, for one, am excited. After all, I dropped Ultimates 3 after three issues. I would love to get Millar back to the Ultimate U.

Watchmen Movie Troubles

Here is a good article from the New York times about the legal battle between Fox and Warner Bros. over the rights Watchmen.

From the Box: The X-Cutioner's Song

After great effort (and a lot of help from the Marvel Chronology Project) I put together a reading order of my archive of X-Men back issues and got to reading, starting at the 1991 launch of the second X-Men book (now called X-Men: Legacy). Not too far in, I came upon the 12-part, 4-title crossover, the X-Cutioner's Song. I've had the trade paperback of this for a while, but it always seemed to convoluted to really get into - but as I didn't want to read only half of the story, I dusted it off and got to it.


It was a laborious read, I'll have you know. To get into, you need to have some knowledge about past X-Force/New Mutants history as well as X-Factor knowledge. The basics are thus:

• Stryfe, who leads a bunch of generic villains known as the Mutant Liberation Front, looks exactly like X-Force leader Cable when not wearing his helmet.
• Apocalypse has two (rather redundant) groups of followers: the Four Horsemen and the Dark Riders. Neither should be in action without Apocalypse, who has been MIA since a battle with the original X-Factor.
• Mr. Sinister has a thing for Scott Summers and his juicy DNA (ewwww).
• The New Mutants left the X-Mansion to become X-Force, and none of the X-Teams particularly enjoy that.
• No one has much love for Cable.
• Cyclops was forced to send his son into the future after the baby was infected (by Apocalypse) with the techno-organic virus.

Once you have that down, we can get underway. Apparently, Cable shoots Professor X at a Lila Cheney concert, the Dark Riders (not working for Mr. Sinister instead of Apocalypse) kidnap Cyclops and Jean Grey, who are then traded to Stryfe for Summers DNA, which is a ruse - the container actually unleashes the Legacy Virus. The X-Men and X-Factor go after X-Force to get Cable, jail them, go around fighting for a while, then end up on the moon when Stryfe and Cable duke it out until Cyclops detonates a time portal. Ending comes, la la la. Oh yeah, Stryfe is apparently Cyclops' son who happens to be a little bitter about what happened to him. You can understand that, right?

The story, while about four parts too long, wasn't anything terrible. It got all the teams together, tied up a couple loose plot threads (for a while) and put a lot of focus on Wolverine, Cable and Bishop - the overly popular characters in the huge muscles, huge guns era of the early 90s. Looking back, with over 15 years having passed between then and now, the story doesn't really hold up too well.

• Down the line, someone decided the son should be the good guy, so it was revealed that Cable was actually Cyclops' son, not Stryfe.
• The crossover was a prominent reason that Peter David left X-Factor. The book would continue on with sub-par storylines for years, then sink into drivel before being retooled into the even worse Mutant X.
• Shortly therafter, a character was introduced actually called the X-Cutioner (a name so ridiculous, you'd think they went back in time to the Silver Age to make it) that had absolutely nothing to do with this story. Later readers would be confused by the two.
• Apocalypse had yet another death scene, this time in front of Archangel. That would have meant something had he not been revived when someone else needed a benevolent villain to stand around and holler nonsense.
• The story's epilogue released the Legacy Virus, which was a really big deal at first with characters worrying about the quickly-spreading disease infecting "hundreds" of mutants, and killing off big names like Magik, Mastermind and...uh...Revanche. Eventually, the Legacy Virus hit the background when (I suppose) creators didn't want to kill off major characters for the hell of it and the "hundreds" turned out to mostly be Genoshan mutates. No one seemed to notice when Moira MacTaggert and Pyro held on for years with the disease when everyone else died in like five days. Eventually, the virus was done away with at the cost of Colossus.

And thus you have the legacy of the X-Cutioner's Song. If you're aching to dive in, check out the trade. Actually, I managed to find all twelve individual issues for 50 cents each in a bargain bin, some even in the original bag complete with card! How X-Citing!

Origins can be good

Back in April, .I complained about the solicitation of an X-Men: Origins one-shot starring Colossus. I felt there was simply no reason to expand a character like Colossus' origin to anything that would warrant it's own one-shot. I didn't buy the book, but reviews I read (such as this one from Paul O'Brien's X-Axis) pretty much summed up my thoughts on it: nothing unreadable, but pretty much unnecessary.

However, when I saw a solicitation for another X-Men: Origins book starring Jean Grey, I was more intrigued. Jean Grey was (as she's still dead) a character with a pretty interesting back story before she got to the X-Men. For those of you not in the know, when Jean Grey debuted in X-Men #1 back in 1963, her lone power was telekinesis. Over time, she was given telepathy and a back story was provided to explain why she had not used them the whole time: while still a child, her best friend was hit by a car. Jean telepathically connected with her as she died, which mentally scarred her. Professor X was called in to help heal the damage, and he blocked off her telepathic powers until she was ready for them.

The Origins issue is a retelling of that story with a heavier focus on what Xavier actually did, and it's excellent work. The writing works and the painted art is gorgeous. It shows that you don't have to add new events to an origin for an issue like this. Just expand on what's already been established to allow readers to get a better grip on the character.

There's another one coming out soon for Beast, so let's hope that quality too.

Happy Friday

From Mike Sterling's Progressive Ruin (which you should be reading):

Some people might wonder just how the Dark Knight managed to end up with his upper body in the mouth of a mechanical sea monster whilst wearing a kilt...but I think I'll just go with it without asking questions.

New Comic Day points

This week's titles: X-Factor, X-Force, Mighty Avengers

• I finally have my compromise on X-Force. Take it for exactly what it is and don't worry about the bigger picture and it's actually not that bad.
• Larry Strohman's return on X-Factor after over 15 years since his last run has left me uninspired. Of course, I wasn't huge on him back then either.
• I couldn't tell you which of the Secret Invasion stories happened in Mighty or New Avengers. The books are once again on hold while the big story goes on.
• The majority of the opening arc of X-Force doesn't really need the team in it. Take them out and just toss in someone else hacking off Angel's wings, and you arrive at the same point. Just saying.
• Have to give it to the X-Teams to going back to basics with most of the books. Focus the entire line and reestablish things like "villains" so 3/4 of the titles aren't running around aimlessly.

Fall Out Boy comic looks to be done - thank god

Back in February, a press release came out saying that there would be a comic released based on Fall Out Boy. You know, the band. As if the world needed yet another comic book based on real life people stinking up the new comics rack (remember the old WWF and WCW comics?), it seemed that the Dabel Bros. Publishing was gung-ho about showing the band adventuring their way through comicdom (probably in an emo-tional way).

Leave it to the Simpsons to set things right with the world.

Turns out that the name Fall Out Boy has been owned for some time by those wonderful makers of the Simpsons. It also turns out that they don't think highly of a comic being released with a name they own by another publisher. So when the Simpsons lawyers called, the band backed away from the situation. The publisher is apparently still fighting to get it to go, but no one is really psyched about it anymore. They won't even be able to use the name Fall Out Boy for the cover - much like DC can't use the name Captain Marvel as a comic title (despite it being the name of one of their bigger heroes).

So everyone should be content to let this thing fade quickly and quietly from memory...until the band's drummer Andy Hurley apparently made a douche bag out of himself by giving an interview to Comic Book Resources saying that the project was never approved and sounded lame to him, even though he had apparently been all for it until the Simpsons thing started. So the publisher turns around and gets in a tizzy about that and now it looks like we really won't be getting a Fall Out Boy comic.

Believe me, my heart bleeds.

The Loeb universe

I'm a bit puzzled by the recent works on longtime writer Jeph Loeb. To me, Loeb's name always gave me pleasant memories of his workings with Tim Sale and even his lesser-known, yet still enjoyable run on the post-Age of Apocalypse X-Force. Before his exclusive signing with Marvel, I was enjoying most of his run on Superman/Batman and his credited episodes of the series Heroes on NBC have been fantastic. Good stuff, I would think.

Since his Marvel return, he's been hit-and-miss, with more of an emphasis on miss. I strayed away from Onslaught: Reborn not because of him, but because of Rob Liefeld's art and because it was an anniversary story that should never have been made. I'm sure it was good for what it was...or something like that. My first exposure was his Wolverine storyline "Evolution" which was pretty much abysmal. If you didn't catch it, check out the X-Axis' review of it. While Wolverine isn't one of my pulls, Casey faithfully reads it and shared with me the issues, and I had trouble getting through the whole thing. Blatant contradictions with numerous titles including X-Men and Cable & Deadpool made me shake my head. Never mind the ridiculousness of the whole thing - it was like the editors gave Loeb the go-ahead for anything, then had to go back and correct the details (like showing Feral and Thornn powered when they were victims of M-Day).

Somehow I missed issue #4 of Ultimates 3, but after reading Casey's copy of the issue, I have decided not only to skip the issue, but to drop Ultimates altogether. I have been reading Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men almost since the beginning of their runs. I followed both chapters of Millar and Hitch's Ultimates and am somewhat familiar with Ultimate Fantastic Four. The point here is that I'm quite familiar with the long-building continuity of the Ultimate universe. Loeb, however, has taken that and pretty much thrown it to the wind. It seems like he's decided exactly what he wants to do with which characters and to hell with what's happened before.

Examples of this in just four issues have been the fight with Venom (who has been missing since his debut in Ultimate Spider-Man and is just now returning to the picture), the unexplained arrivals of Black Panther and Valkyrie (who was a non-powered wannabe in Ultimates 2), the blatant romance between Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, the changing of Captain America to depressive, and the odd characterization of Hawkeye.

To me, the final clincher was the appearance of Pyro in issue #4 as a homicidal member of Magneto's Brotherhood. That characterization showed me that Loeb did not bother to see what Pyro had done in the title before. He just new that he had appeared, so he got his design and put him in the role he wanted. In actuality, when last we saw Pyro, he was a member of the X-Men and quite amazed to be on the team he was! He had secretly infiltrated the Mutant Liberation Front, but was quite on board with the X-Men. How he went from that to murderous psychopath member of the Brotherhood wasn't - and likely won't be - explained. It's Pyro, and Pyro is a villain. So there you go.

The writing in Ultimates 3 seems to be blatantly egotistical, and what kills me is that the editors seem to be turning a complete blind eye to it! As for me, though, I'm tired of questioning why I'm shilling three bucks a month whenever the book comes out for something I'm not enjoying. For the bigger picture, perhaps? Well, that obviously doesn't fit here. Loeb's got his own picture and that's that.

I say enough.

R.I.P. Michael Turner

Michael Turner passed away last night at the age of 37. He had been battling cancer since the year 2000. For details, check out the CBR article. Personally, I always enjoyed his work, interior or covers.

Is Titans really that big a franchise?

As far as needless title launches go, I had to give it to DC with Titans - an ongoing with the old-school Titans joining together for no particular reason. Not a lot of setup - just a Titans: East teaser and there you have it!

My problem with this book (and why I decided not to add it to my list) was because the book really doesn't seem to matter. Nightwing is busy in his own book and in the Batman world. A big part of Flash's story in JLA has been his lack of time for his family (in Flash) and the JLA, let alone the Titans, yet in Justice League America #20 he rededicated himself to the league. Red Arrow also has a prominent role in the JLA where his story focused on his graduating into Green Arrow's place on the League - not with the Titans anymore. Donna Troy became a watcher of the Monitors with Kyle Rayner and Ray Palmer at the conclusion of Countdown. Beast Boy rejoined the Doom Patrol during the One Year Later gap and even became leader.

So does all that make Titans a book being put out simply to put a book out? Looks that way to me.

So then I come to the end of this week's Teen Titans #60 and I see that a certain member of the team's adventures will be continued in Terror Titans #1! The Terror Titans are the small group of young villains who have plagued the Titans recently (not to be mistaken for the villainous Titans: East from a few arcs ago). Do they really need their own six issue mini? Does the only Titan going over have enough star power to carry the book? Seems the overwhelming Titans editor thinks so. What's his name here? Ah...a Dan DiDio. Ever heard of him?

This is getting ridiculous. I'm going to be sticking with Teen Titans, thanks. Adult Titans and villain Titans don't particularly interest me. They're missing the point here.

On A-List team books

I'm a big fan of team books. I really like the aspect of having an ensemble cast of characters coming together to fight for the good cause. If done well, you can have a group of heroes that normally wouldn't shine on their own (ever wonder why Rogue and Gambit series keep getting cancelled?) become a big thing as a group.

Of course, the more popular thing to do is to take your already established characters and shoehorn them together. That's cool - people love seeing their favorite heroes working together. But if you throw too many in, you run into a problem of telling consistent stories without having to stretch the limits of your threat. There's only so much that can challenge a group made up of several near-invulnerable heroes, after all.

In the Justice League, you have the big three - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman - two Green Lanterns and the Flash. Never mind the rest of the team (Black Canary, Black Lightning, Vixen, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl and Red Tornado) - with just those six characters, you have the entire power core of the DC heroes. Who is going to stop them?

Once this realization came to me, I quit complaining about the constant villain team-ups. What else can you do against them?

Avengers has had this problem several times. The original line-up featured three of Marvel's biggest solo stars (Iron Man, Hulk, Thor) and added Captain America three issues later. Once the series got going, however, the three originals were gone - replaced by side-characters Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. From this point on, Avengers dug its own character niche in the Marvel Universe - certain characters were Avengers - and that was that.

JSA is like that now. JLA seems to be on the fence about it. On the one hand, the book heavily pushes the more unknown characters: Black Canary is the leader, Black Lightning has a substantial role, Vixen has a long-running subplot, Hawkgirl and Red Arrow are bumping uglies. On the other, the book still seems to long for the Grant Morrison days of jam all big characters into the book. Morrison made it work, though, and soon added lesser names like Plastic Man and Steel. JLA has seen two big villain team-ups thus far.

Perhaps it's because I fondly remember a League featuring two major characters - Batman and Martian Manhunter - and a load of second-stringers and nobodies. Even when the book was changed from comedy back to action by Dan Jurgens just before Doomsday, the League was made up of the same cast of lower talents. Over those 70+ issues, though, certain characters became core Leaguers - even if the DCU proper didn't think too highly of them. I think that's what the League could use now. Dip into the vast pool of DC heroes (if any survive the usual Crisis cullings) and get yourself a base of heroes that can come in and out of the scene. Rotate your leader and have them put out a call, with who knows showing up. I would like to see something like that, with the lesser heroes actually having a challenge, rather than seeing what's going on now.

One more shot at DC, then I'll go back to X-Men

Spotted this over at Every Day is Like Wednesday which sums up my thoughts on DC's weekly-book crossover to mega-event shenanigans.

"You might remember that particular creative team from Gotham Underground, the series that tied-in to Salvation Run, which was a tie-in to Countdown, which was a prequel to Final Crisis, although the writer of Final Crisis recently disavowed it as such."

Exactly.

Marvel shipping schedule set to pound the crap out of reader, pocketbook

Today's shipping list is a little light for me - DC's Justice League of America alongside Marvel's Ultimate X-Men and X-Factor. A pretty calm week and looking at next week, I found I will need the rest up.

DC remains calm - only Teen Titans will be coming out. Marvel, on the other hand, has Fantastic Four, Immortal Iron Fist, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimates 3, Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: First Class, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Legacy, and Young Avengers Presents. That's 11 Marvel books (and I'm still deciding whether I want to get Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers - I'll probably wait and see if they do something like they did for Civil War).

Perhaps you think I simply had an unlucky week, but look at it like this: both Avengers books are coming out on the same week. One would assume that you would have them coming out two weeks aside from each other so you get an Avengers book every other week, but apparently that is not in the cards.

Also, there are five X-Men books coming out this week (I don't read Wolverine: Origins). By my count, the whole X-Men line consists of 13 titles (if you include Astonishing X-Men which rarely comes out and New Exiles which really isn't an X-Men book). Both of the main X-Men titles (Uncanny and Legacy) are coming out on the same day, as are two of the three Wolverine titles. Keep in mind that three are coming out today, and you have eight titles - three short of the consistent titles in the line - are out in two weeks. There's no reason to bunch up so many titles at once.

I don't often defend DC, but I'll give them this: with some exceptions here and there, they get their books out consistently on schedule. Certain titles are first week, second week and so on and they usually remain there month after month. Marvel has more of a "put them out whenever" schedule, so it's always a crap shoot whether a title you're looking for shows up on the schedule or not.

But once again I feel the need to move past bitching and defend my point. How would I fix the X-Men scheduling system? Let's take a look:

There are 13 titles on the X-Men line: Uncanny X-Men, X-Men Legacy, Young X-Men, and X-Factor make up the main storyline titles. X-Force and New Exiles are in their own little worlds which don't get mentioned too often in the main titles. Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, and Cable are solo books based on X-Men characters. X-Men: First Class, Wolverine: First Class, and Ultimate X-Men are not in main continuity, and Astonishing X-Men is kind of an addendum title that is the award-winner when it feels like coming out. And in case you were wondering, I do not consider Captain Britain & MI-13 to be an X-Men book. It's almost a Marvel Knights title.

Considering these books to all be monthly in a four-week standard month, I'd place the four main books in separate weeks, with Uncanny and Legacy two weeks apart from one another. This schedule was followed during Endangered Species and Messiah CompleX and I greatly enjoyed the line's consistency. So you have the following:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men
Week 2: Young X-Men
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy
Week 4: X-Factor

Since weeks 2 and 4 are a little lighter, more for the dedicated X-Men reader, I'd toss the spin-off team books there to thicken them up a bit:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men
Week 2: Young X-Men, New Exiles
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force

Tossing in the side solo books, I would want to keep the two Wolverine titles separate from one another, as to keep the density of the character down, yet I still run into the problem of putting two out in one week, as Wolverine is also in both Uncanny and X-Force. But alas, such cannot be helped. Cable I toss onto week 3, as I think weeks two and four have enough blood and angst with Young X-Men and X-Force:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: Origins
Week 2: Young X-Men, New Exiles
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy, Wolverine, Cable
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force

Three more titles to go to even out the weeks at three X-Books a piece, we'll try to balance the titles. X-Men: First Class and Ultimate can go into weeks 2 and 4 to give each week an X-Men team book, and Wolverine: First Class will finish the stack:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine: First Class
Week 2: Young X-Men, New Exiles, Ultimate X-Men
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy, Wolverine, Cable
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men: First Class

But I've made a mistake. On week 1, I've put two Wolverine books. This is an easy fix, as First Class is an out-of-continuity book, I'll simply switch it with the almost non-X-book, New Exiles for my final shipping pile:

Week 1: Uncanny X-Men, Wolverine: Origins, New Exiles
Week 2: Young X-Men, Ultimate X-Men, Wolverine: First Class
Week 3: X-Men: Legacy, Wolverine, Cable
Week 4: X-Factor, X-Force, X-Men: First Class

So where do you put Astonishing on the event that it actually does come out? I left week 3 as the only week that does not have two team-books for just that purpose, and it is two weeks away from the other main X-Men team book, Uncanny.

So there you have it - a balanced X-Men schedule. On months with a fifth week, you can fill the gap with annuals or the dreaded needless one-shot issues. How would you balance your favorite comic-family schedule?

May's Sales Estimates

I was going to write another article on DC, and how they added Carlos Pacheco to Final Crisis to assist JG Jones with art chores, and how it has not been a good couple of weeks for DC, but I decided against it. Instead, I am gonna comment on the Diamond sales estimates. Fun.

I like the estimates posted on CBR more so than the one posted on Newsarama. CBR has actual number of units, number of units the last issues sold, percentage change, and weeks late. Before discussing these, it should be noted that these are what Diamond sold to the comic shops. There is no way to tell what was actually bought from the stores, as not everyone uses a point-of-sale inventory system.

It is not surprising that Secret Invasion #2 outsold Final Crisis #1; 200,344 to 159,036. While both of these numbers seem high, neither of them is close to Secret Invasion #1, which sold over 267,000 copies. For comparison, Civil War #1 sold 260,700 copies with #2 only dropping to 253, 900 copies. Infinite Crisis #1 sold 249,265 copies. With the inevitable decrease in sales that most series experience, the lower starting point for Final Crisis does not look good.

Events have been good some of both companies ongoing titles. New and Mighty Avengers maintained an increase in sales with their Secret Invasion tie-ins. Both issues of Batman released in May as the first two parts of the RIP storyline saw a dramatic increase in sales. Justice League also saw an increase with its "Sightings" tag. Invincible Iron Man had a good debut, but issue 2 will bring about a better view of how this book is doing.

Personally, it disturbs me how poorly Nightwing and Robin are selling. Both are in the 30,000 area. Fortunately, there are ongoing titles selling worse, but they are below Supergirl. For comparison, Catwoman, selling 19,000 copies has been canceled. Some titles below that sales mark include: Checkmate, X-men First Class, Shadowpact, Spirit, Marvel Comics Present. Not saying these books are in danger, but it is something to keep an eye on.

As If I Needed It, Another Reason to Hate Countdown

Recently I discovered an interview with Grant Morrison over at Newsarama. He discussed his plans for Final Crisis and the DCU and even addressed some of the complaints that have surfaced about Final Crisis #1 not jiving with Countdown or the Death of the New Gods mini series. You can read the whole thing for yourself but here are a few of the bits I found interesting...

"GM: Well, the way it worked out was that I started writing Final Crisis #1 in early 2006, around the same time as the 52 series was starting to come out...Final Crisis was partly-written and broken down into rough issue-by-issue plots before Countdown was even conceived, let alone written. And J.G. was already working on designs and early layouts by the time Countdown started. There wasn’t really much opportunity, or desire, to modify our content at that stage...so when Countdown was originally being discussed, it was just a case of me saying ‘Here’s issue 1 of Final Crisis and a rough breakdown of the following six issues. As long as you guys leave things off where Final Crisis begins, we‘ll be fine.’ Obviously, I would have preferred it if the New Gods hadn’t been spotlighted at all, let alone quite so intensively before I got a chance to bring them back but I don’t run DC and don’t make the decisions as to how and where the characters are deployed...J.G. and I had no idea what was going to happen in Countdown or Death Of The New Gods because neither of those books existed at that point. The Countdown writers were later asked to ‘seed’ material from Final Crisis and in some cases, probably due to the pressure of filling the pages of a weekly book, that seeding amounted to entire plotlines veering off in directions I had never envisaged, anticipated or planned for in Final Crisis. "

So Countdown and its ever abundant spin off mini-series and one shots were conceived and written after the die had already been cast for Final Crisis? Really? And still no one bothered to make sure everyone was on the same page? No one made sure Morrison knew about what was going on in the lead in to his series? No one made the other writers aware of what Morrison was doing? There were not just months, but years of lead in time to make sure everything went smoothly for what is unquestionably the most high profile book on DC's schedule this year and still something slips by the editorial staff? Are you kidding me?

Isn't Final Crisis supposed to be the series that solves DC's continuity mess and creates a sense of order and cohesion for the universe? Actually, isn't that what Infinite Crisis before it and Crisis on Infinite Earths before that were supposed to do? If you're writers and editors aren't on the ball to make sure everyone's working toward the same end then any sense of order and cohesion goes right out the window.

And another thing about the disconnect between Final Crisis and Countdown...

"GM: The way I see it readers can choose to spend the rest of the year fixating on the plot quirks of a series which has ended, or they can breathe a sight of relief, settle back and enjoy the shiny new DC universe status quo we’re setting up in the pages of Final Crisis and its satellite books. I’m sure both of these paths to enlightenment will find adherents of different temperaments."

Call me crazy, but I interpret a major part of this interview as Morrison washing his hands of Countdown, saying he doesn't care what happened in it, and giving a big middle finger to all the fans who spent well over $150 to read Countdown as a lead in to his Final Crisis. So the responsibility falls on Morrison for only caring about what happened in his seven issues, and then on Dan DiDio and the editorial staff for giving Morrison free reign and not making sure Countdown and the rest of the DCU fell in line.

This is not the way to build an orderly, cohesive universe. This is the way to make the "C" in "DC" stand for clusterfuck.

Time to refine DC

To say that DC hasn't been "new reader friendly" would not be an unfair statement. Since the countdown to Infinite Crisis started back in 2005, there have been few "jumping on points" for those not quite familiar with the DCU. One Year Later's novelty depended on you knowing what had been before and therefore familiar with the references to how things had changed over the missing year. Before and past that point has been crossover, crossover, crossover. DC's plan seems to be to get readers to buy as many obscure titles as possible. The punishment for not doing so? You miss an important chuck of any ongoing story.

But last week, I saw a vision of hope for DC in the form of Trinity. I don't read reviews outside of Paul O'Brien's X-Axis, so I have no idea what the fanboys are saying about it, but I really enjoyed the first issue. New readers might be able to as well - all you need to know is who Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman are, that they are close friends, and that Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are the secret identities of Superman and Batman. Everything else is explained. It's pretty easy to assume that anyone interested in a DC comic will know these simple matters.

This is what DC needs - a point to take a break and let the universe catch its breath. Give a couple months without the crossovers, the mega-events and the endless tie-in mini-series and let the characters redefine themselves. As it is now, it's hard to tell what's going on with whom, as the characters are jumping around event to event at every turn - and with two consecutive weekly mini-series wrapped up, there have been a lot of places to jump.

Marvel's starting to show signs of this as well by linking Civil War to Secret Invasion, but I'll hold my judgment until after the event ends. More refined, the X-Men have been going full-tilt since Endangered Species started, but with Uncanny #500, the book hits its defining issue and moves forward.

But DC needs to do something badly after Final Crisis that lets the DCU become more reader-friendly. It's the entire reason Crisis on Infinite Earths was done to begin with.

DC, What Did You Do This Time?

Well, that was quick. It seems like only yesterday that I was excited about Chuck Dixon returning to write Robin. To add to my enthusiasm, Dixon would also be writing Batman and the Outsiders. Well, here we are 4 issues and a special into his run on Robin, and 7 issues into his run on Batman and the Outsiders, and Dixon is no longer with DC. Yes, the man who has had incredibly long runs on the other Bat-books that he has written is gone after a few months.

When the comment "I am no longer employed by DC," appeared on Dixon's message board, coming from Dixon, there was a lot of speculation as to why this happened. Most of the speculation focused on Didio and Morrison. It appears that some of that speculation is correct. Follow up comments by Dixon appear to indicate that it was something involving Didio.

I have defended DC many times before, but there is not a likely scenario that is defensible. Granted, we do not, and probably will not for a while, know exactly what happened. However, that is probably because what happened stemmed from a creative difference on the direction of either of the books Dixon was writing. When it was announced that Dixon would be returning, he said that he was excited about immediately being handed a major story to be a part of. I doubt the return of Stephanie Brown, Spoiler, was that big event. What that leads me to believe is that Didio either did not tell him everything that was going to happen in Batman RIP, or Didio just flat out lied. Adding to speculation that this has something to do with Batman RIP is the lack of details emerging from either side. To say that "Chuck Dixon was not happy that Tim becomes Batman, and Damien becomes Robin," would spoil the story. (Not saying that is going to happen, but that is a popular theory.)

Regardless of the specifics, this does not look good on Didio. Batman RIP is not a storyline that just recently came up, and they decided to immediately run with. It has been in the works for quite some time. Long enough that how things would end should have been known by all involved. Once it is understood what is expected of everyone, that is how things should proceed. Whether Didio was not honest with Dixon on how Robin would be after RIP, or if he allowed things to change after everything was agreed upon shows a complete lack of editorial leadership. It is Didio's job to keep everything straight in DC, and that does include sticking with the plan. When in charge of a large universe of characters, spanning multiple books, there needs to be a clearly defined direction. If that means telling a writer that he cannot change things, and needs to stick to the original plan, then so be it.

In conclusion, this may be completely wrong and off-base. If it is, the I will apologize on here. However, I doubt I will ever need to do that.

Marvel decides there aren't enough books starring Wolverine

There was a time when Wolverine could only be found in the pages of Uncanny X-Men. I know it's shocking. Don't be embarassed if you need to catch your breath. In the mid-80s, it was decided that the superstar X-Man could probably sustain adventures of his own, and thus Wolverine was launched (after a successful mini-series). Alright, that's fine. A lot of team players have solo books (Iron Man and Captain America, for example).

But now, two decades later, Marvel has taken the pint-sized psychopath's popularity and gone positively bat-shit crazy. Besides his role in the pages of Uncanny, he also is leading the black-ops strikeforce team in X-Force, has stayed with the unregistered team of New Avengers, has three books of his own (Wolverine, Wolverine: Origins, Wolverine: First Class), only one of which really telling an ongoing story, and has recently been the subject of an ungodly surge of one-shot stories and mini-series. Logan wrapped up last month, Wolverine: The Amazing Immortal Man and Other Bloody Tales came out a week later, Wolverine: Dangerous Games kicked off June, and last week's X-Force: Ain't No Dog's main story was - you guessed it - a Wolverine story.

August will feature Wolverine: Killing Made Simple that brings back (by no one's demand) Nanny and the Orphan Maker and September has Wolverine: Roar and Wolverine: Saudade. To add with that, September's issue of Wolverine: Origins kicks off a four issue crossover with X-Men: Legacy!

I don't know what type of fan is so into Wolverine they're willing to shill out their hard-earned dollars to get all of this drivel (in fairness, not all of it is) but they need to knock it off. Perhaps if sales tank enough on these things, Wolverine can get back down to a manageable level. But I can bitch about it all day long. How would I fix it?

First, stop the one-shots and the mini-series. Wolverine is appearing in at least six different ongoing titles a month, complete with two dedicated specifically to him in current continuity. There should not be anything that can be brought out in a one-shot or mini that can't be handled in one or more of those titles. And if you actually read the issues in question, you'll see that they're actually isn't anything brought out. They're simply basic "milk-the-franchise" stories.

Second, cancel one of the current continuity books. While Wolverine: Origins (launched right after Wolverine discovered his entire past in House of M) features an ongoing plot dealing with the inner workings of the character, Wolverine is a book of rotating writers and artists whose stories really don't match up together or with any other title for that matter, except for occasionally Origins. So get rid of Origins while moving the stories and creative team over to Wolverine. Focus, people. Focus.

Third, refine Wolverine's presence in the Marvel Universe. It's a running joke that he's everywhere at once, and that shouldn't be. Put him on the X-Men and keep him there. Yank him from the Avengers as they have their own massive list of characters that can fill the void. X-Force is a little trickier, as his presence is quite important, but since the characters involved don't really fit and the concept goes against 40+ years of continuity, why not just scrap the whole book? I like that idea.

So what are we left with? Wolverine with solo adventures in Wolverine and team excursions in Uncanny X-Men and fun, nostalgic, out-of-continuity trips in Wolverine: First Class. With such a refined area, now you can reintroduce the one-shots but only few and far between! Even guest spots in New or Mighty Avengers won't be too much of a problem. But with the saturation down, these books might actually receive the bump that Wolverine's appearance should bring if they weren't so plentiful.