House to Astonish Episode 144
It’s been a big few weeks for comics news, and we’re running through the DC Rebirth announcements, the Image Expo presentation, Gerard Way’s new DC imprint, the sale of CBR to Valnet, the (very) minor trinkets of Marvel news from the past couple of weeks and a little bit of chat about Batman v Superman. We’ve also got reviews of The Fix and Black Panther, and the Official Handbook of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe is seeing stars. All this plus a series of adaptations of BBC science documentaries, a joke about pirates and non-relevant facts about the Circuit Bancaixa.
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Philip Tan is the terrible one that did Uncanny X-Men with Austen, Billy Tan is the alright one that did Uncanny X-Men with Claremont and some X-23.
Pre-Flashpoint Superman is already in New 52 continuity; he ended up there (along with Lois and their son) following Convergence and is currently the star of Jurgens’s Lois and Clark book. I’ve been quite enjoying that, but I’m still surprised it’s got enough clout to take over a main Superman title.
The Unique Selling Point, incidentally, is the marriage, as the title suggests. Well, that and him keeping a low profile due to not wanting to step on the toes of this universe’s own Superman.
As I understand it, Super-Sons is in continuity – it’s Damien Wayne (because everyone loves Damien) and “Jonathan White” from the aforementioned Lois and Clark (because … he also exists).
“. Well, that and him keeping a low profile due to not wanting to step on the toes of this universe’s own Superman.”
So it’s a book about Superman super-subtly/not properly being Superman?
I agree with Paul about the Image Expo and DC announcement – way too much information to take in at one time. I can see nicher Image books wanting the publicity boost from it, if that actually happens, but DC can tend to get front page news with new title announcements whenever they want. Dumping 30 odd titles together did no favours to most of them.
As far as the actual DC books themselves go, some of them sound interesting, but I still don’t trust DC to not cancel or completely change them before even the first collected edition is out.
You missed one obvious potential opponent for the Star Thief – Dazzler.
New Blue Monday remastered trades coming this summer. And Chynna is writing that gotham academy/ Lumberjanes crossover.
The Blue Monday at Image stuff was announced at a previous Image Expo – seems like it was a year ago, but I’m not sure. I’ve been checking periodically, and just saw that some new trades (and I think eventually new material) are coming later this year, finally. Hopefully people still care – I’d like to read more about those characters, minus the wacky talking animal stuff.
More than anything, Marvel’s prices have driven me away from floppies towards waiting for trade. Black Panther is an extreme case, but it holds for a lot of other titles too. Spider-Woman 5, for example, was a great comic. It focused on new motherhood and superheroes, and showed Jessica overwhelmed in a way that very rarely happens in comics, but is the frequent experience of new parents. And it was great art, with some really innovative tricks and paneling from Rodriguez. I’ve shown it to a lot of people who don’t read superhero comics regularly, but they were interested.
But there’s no way they’ll buy it themselves, or I’ll be staying with the title in singles, because it’s $3.99 American, which puts it near $6.00 (with tax) Canadian, and that’s not a price anyone I know is willing to pay for a monthly 22 page comic.
I can’t tell if I’m burning out on Image Expos, or if this one just had too little info about too many books. There was a whole lot of “I’ll check out the full preview when it hits”.
As mentioned in the podcast, there’s also the factor of previous Expos listing books that were nowhere near ready to solicit. I’ve got Ludocrats, Snot Girl, and Heartless still on my list of interesting books coming out “soon”.
I can’t believe Al mis-pronounced the title of Rob Williams’ current J’onn J’onnz-featuring title – as all HtA/SILENCE! audience members know, it’s Martin Manhunter!
Hi
Can you please link the article about the Image titles that have yet to come out? Thanks.
Here you go: http://comicbook.com/2016/04/07/image-expo-looking-back-and-looking-ahead/
Wait, so there was a Defenders story about a princess whose amazing powers go wild after a traumatic incident causing her to lash out and put the world around her into a strange stasis until someone manages to talk her down? And her name was Ilse? If they printed that today, people would openly mock you if you tried to convince them it wasn’t a “Frozen” ripoff/homage/parody.
Also, the N52 Superman is going away completely, at least for a while. Tomasi’s book also stars the Superman with a wife & kid, as do JL and Trinity.
“So it’s a book about Superman super-subtly/not properly being Superman?”
Basically, yeah. He’s got a black stealth-suit, and he takes care on natural disasters and the occasional supervillain if no other heroes are around, and without anyone seeing him. Also, checking up on people who were supervillains in his universe, just in case. Lois, meanwhile, is exposing Intergang under the name “Writer X”.
The black stealth-suit has a sodding great S on it though, because it’s like a compulsion with him.
So Lois wrote the Brotherhood?
Save yourself the bother with BvS. It is (at best) a collage of slow mo, striking images that loose their impact when played one after the other after the other. I feel like their is a crucial scene missing to explain Batman’s paranoia and nightmares. Like, he’s shooting up venom or suffering PTSD.
I think they were going for -sigh- the Frank Miller version of Batman, where he’s *always* suffering from PTSD.
There were bits I liked and bits I didn’t. The bits based on Man of Steel’s “Everyone Hates Supes”, nope. The bits based on DKR, double nope. The bits based on Death of Superman, not bad. The setup for WW and JLA, YES! Yeah, the best part of this movie was the possibility of a better movie in the future.
Anyone else see that special about Tim Burton”s Superman Lives?
It was going to be based, sort of, on the death of Superman comics run.
Pity the plug got pulled on it.
Paul,
I’m always surprised when you say that you refuse to read the Bat-books because of crossovers. I think, certainly over the last ten years (since Grant Morrison) that they’ve been the best “family” at keeping their titles separate. Most crossovers tend to be thematic and driven by the flagship book (e.g. when Morrison did RIP, other Bat books did “RIP” tie-ins that had nothing to do with it) and could be ignored or enjoyed as you wished.
And if you just read the flagship, you can ignore everything else.
Was there any connection between ‘Princess Starthief’ and ‘Original Starthief’, Barry Bauman, from Warlock #13 and #14? Apart from the name, the shtick of stealing stars with their mind and being in a coma? Consequently I think that Princess Starthief along with the cosmic parties and cosmic shopping should also be on a cosmic quest harassing Eternity and the like seeking the, no doubt, cosmic answer to the question, ‘Why must there be a Starthief?’
Also, does anyone else think Wakanda’s recent terrible misfortunes have anything to do with Reggio Hudlin’s version, where Wakanda was the best ever and always? Some sort of unconscious reaction?
Completely agree with Luke, the batman books have been mostly self-contained and crossover in the past decade.
Also I refrained from listening to the podcast until I saw BvS, and you didn’t even speak about it, damn.