GeekMom: Comic Book Corner — October 3rd, 2012

Happy Comic Release Day! Welcome to another installment of GeekMom Comic Book Corner, where we recap our adventures in comics for the week as well give you some of the latest in comic book news.

Dakster Sullivan –Detective Comics #0

I’ve been a fan of Batman since I was a child, but due to the darkness of his comic book stories, I haven’t read many of them. I decided to pick up Detective Comics #0 on a gut feeling that I would be able to handle the story and I’m happy to say I was right. The story takes you back 10 years, where Bruce is about to learn his final lesson before returning home to Gotham City. The home of the legendary Shihan Matsuda helped shape Bruce Wayne into the man he would need to be to become Batman.

Bruce learned some very valuable and very harsh lessons under Shihan Matsuda. He trained his body to endure physical hardships and his heart to abandon all emotion towards others. I could see this was difficult for him, but he listened to his master and worked hard at every lesson.

The wife of  Shihan Matsuda had a different view on things and felt Bruce should not block his emotions or the light from his heart. Instead, she felt he should be full of both light and dark and not allow his heart to wither from lack of loving another. At one point it looked like Bruce was listening to her, but then something happened and I’m afraid everything she said to him turned to dust.

In the end, Bruce had to witness first hand the actions of a person who blocked their heart from the one who loved them and one who felt death was the only solution to a problem.

Curious to know what I’m pulling this week? Check out my pull list on Comixology.

Kelly Knox – Smallville Season 11 #18

Smallville Season 11 has become the series I look forward to reading the most every week, thanks to the terrific writing by Bryan Q. Miller and art by Jamal Igle. I love the look of Batman in his Smallville incarnation. The Batsuit appears to similar to chain armor, and I love the attention to detail spent on the cowl. (The cowl only covers half of Bruce’s head, presumably solving the problem of being unable to turn his neck or head that many actors struggled with inside their own “real-life” versions of the Batsuit.)

The current chapter in the story, “Detective,” continues to follow Superman’s first encounters with the World’s Greatest Detective. This week’s digital issue brings Batman face-to-face with Joe Chill, whose name longtime readers of Batman comics will recognize as the murderer of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Smallville Season 11 #18 also includes a subplot with Lex Luthor; while I’m not a huge fan of his scenes because I want to see more of Clark and Bruce, I get a kick out of seeing Lex’s bumbling assistant Otis from the Superman films in Bryan Q. Miller’s world of Smallville.

Each issue of Smallville Season 11 brings Superman and Batman closer together to becoming the World’s Finest team-up. While I wish we could have seen it on the television screen, I have a feeling that seeing it in the continuing story of the comics is just as good of an experience — if not better.

Corrina

I present to you what I consider the last word on the Wonder Woman/Superman romance. Apparently, we’ve all been looking at this the wrong way. But BrettC and his evil twin set us straight! Warning: the video contains some strong language might not be safe for work:

Once I was done being amused by brettc001 and his evil twin, I settled into reading a couple of Marvel collections I received as review copies.

Astonishing X-Men: Northstar by writer Marjorie Liu and artist Mike Perkins collects the storyline that received so much publicity earlier this year, including a discussion on The View: the courtship and wedding of mutant hero Northstar and his human boyfriend, Kyle. Everything concerning the relationship between Northstar and Kyle is pitch perfect and it’s not spoiling anything if I say that the story ends with a wedding. The quiet moments between the other characters are also well done.

Unfortunately, the superheroics are a little more confusing. It seems there are some mutants sent after them with the power of illusion for some reason and the story flashes forward and backward a little bit and the reader has to pay close attention to be certain whether it’s an illusion or a flashback. The art is sometimes murky and that doesn’t help. I would recommend this to newer readers but with reservations.

Secret Avengers by Rick Remender and artists Patrick Zircher and Gabriel Hardman collects the story of how the team was turned over from the original founder, Captain America, to Hawkeye and introduces some new team members. As it features a number of the Marvel characters I enjoy–Hawkeye, Captain Britain, Black Widow, Valkryie–I expected to be entertained. Instead, the heroes bickered a great deal and not in an entertaining way. The basic plot, about sentient artificial intelligences banding together, is solid but the art in the later issues is murky and makes the story harder to follow.This is not the place to start with the Avengers, as new readers are going to be quite confused.

Rebecca Angel – Library Wars

I picked up Library Wars because well, a library at war? My kids and I read it, and we all agree it is one of the better mangas we have come across in a long while. It’s shojo, so romance is a big part of the plot, but unlike most shojo, the romance moves and changes. Even more different was the appearance of an action-based story line, usually associated with shonen. In Library Wars, Iku Kasahara has joined the Library Forces which protect the pervasive censorship of the Media Betterment Committee, which destroys books based on whatever the government deems “unsuitable.” Because of the Library Freedom Act, passed decades earlier, librarians are the last stand in this controlled society.

Kasahara is trying to honor a young man who saved a book she loved as a young girl. The young man was part of the Library Forces, and she holds his vague memory in her heart. Now an adult, she is in training with some very attractive male supervisors, and fellow trainees. Kasahara becomes the first female to ever be accepted in the elite foces of librarians. Every day is a struggle, but she continually tries her best. I recommend this series to manga lovers everywhere.

Comic Book News:

Marvel is going pink for October

This month, Marvel is teaming up with Susan G. Komen for the Cure for National Breast Cancer awareness month. Select titles and educational material will be released with a pink makeover. Of the cover’s released so far, my favorite has to be Invincible Iron Man #526 and The Mighty Thor #21.

In addition to the variant covers, every title released by Marvel in October will feature a one page advertorial educating readers about Breast Cancer.

Marvel released one of the advertorials on Monday and I couldn’t be more proud of them. Instead of the typical aim towards women, the advertorial looks at breast cancer in men. While statistically women are more likely than men to be diagnosed,  I feel like people ignore the men when it comes to breast cancer awareness. It’s nice to see the men getting some attention for a change.

Cancer doesn’t discriminate and neither should the awareness campaigns.

MULTIVERISTY is coming in 2013!

MULTIVERSITY is an 8-issue series comprising 6 one-shots and a two-part conclusion with each issue featuring a 38-page lead story followed by an 8-page backup. Each issue takes place on a different parallel world from the main DC Earth and functions as a number one issue. Each world in the Multiverse publishes comic books about the heroes on the OTHER worlds. Once the characters realize this, they then unite to respond to the villains!

That’s what DC’s press release says. Corrina is thinking this translates as “We are giving Grant Morrison the power to do whatever the heck he wants with the superheroes he wants to write, just so long as it doesn’t affect the rest of our universe.”

DC Comics Releases 100 of their Top Selling Graphic Novels into the iBookstore

Fans of the iBookstore have a reason to celebrate today because DC Comics has released 100 of their top selling graphic novels into the iBookstore. Some of the titles released include Watchman, V For Vendetta, Worlds Finest and many others. For a complete list check out DC Comics website.

Get Well Soon wishes to Stan Lee

We would also like to give a shout out to Stan Lee for a speedy recovery from his pacemaker surgery. Hopefully he will be back out in the field commanding his troops again soon.

Looking for something else, readers? Check out this week’s listed books:

Action Comics #13 (CP) Animal Man #13 Batman Scooby-Doo Halloween Fest #1 Batman The Dark Knight Vol. 1 Knight Terrors HC Batwing #13 Before Watchmen Rorschach #2 (Of 4)(CP) Death The Deluxe Edition HC Detective Comics #13 (CP) Dial H #5 Earth 2 #5 Fairest #8 G.I. Combat #5 Green Arrow #13 Green Lantern #13 (CP) Green Lantern #13 I Vampire Vol. 1 Tainted Love TP Justice League Of America The Rise Of Eclipso TP Legends Of The Dark Knight #1 Scooby-Doo Where Are You #26 Smallville Season 11 #6 Stormwatch #13 Superman Batman Sorcerer Kings TP Swamp Thing #13 Sweet Tooth #38 World Of Warcraft Curse Of The Worgen TP Worlds’ Finest #5

Age Of Apocalypse #8 Age Of Apocalypse Vol. 1 The X-Terminated TP Amazing Spider-Man #695 Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3 Dr. Octopus SC (Young Readers Novel) Avengers Academy #38 Avengers The Bride Of Ultron HC (PE) Avengers Vs X-Men #12 (Of 12) AvX Vs #6 (Of 6) Criminal The Deluxe Edition Vol. 2 HC Daredevil End Of Days #1 (Of 8) Defenders #11 Disney Fairies Magazine #9 Halo Fall Of Reach HC Man-Thing Omnibus HC Marvel Previews #110 (October 2012 For Products On-Sale December 2012) Marvel Universe Ultimate Spider-Man Comic Reader #3 Marvel Zomnibus HC Minimum Carnage Alpha #1 Muppets #4 (Of 4) Road To Oz #2 (Of 6) Spaceknights #1 (Of 3) Spider-Man Nothing Can Stop The Juggernaut HC (PE) Twelve Vol. 2 TP Uncanny X-Force #32 Uncanny X-Men #19 X-Men Bishop’s Crossing HC

Acronym Key:  VC = Variant Cover  / HC = Hard Cover / TP = Trade Paperback  / CP = Combo Pack  / PE = Premier Edition

Liked it? Take a second to support GeekDad and GeekMom on Patreon!