The weekend is almost here! Who’s spending the weekend watching Iron Fist? Sound off in the comments below!
While you wait for the weekend to begin, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
Around the Tubes
Screen Crush – Warner Bros. Pushes Back ‘Aquaman’ Release Date To Christmas 2018 – Not too surprising.
Around the Tubes Reviews
Talking Comics – All-Star Batman #8
Nothing But Comics – Mirror #6
All-Star Batman #8
(W) Scott Snyder (A) Mark Morales (A/CA) Giuseppe Camuncoli
In Shops: Mar 15, 2017
SRP: $4.99
“Hats and Bats”! Underestimate the Mad Hatter at your own peril. Batman takes on one of his most dangerous and deranged foes in a mind-bending tale from the powerhouse creative team of writer Scott Snyder and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli!
All-Star Batman #8
Written by: Scott Snyder
Art by: Mark Morales, Giuseppe Camuncoli
Cover by: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Variant cover by: Francesco Francavilla, Giuseppe Camuncoli
“Hats and Bats”! Underestimate the Mad Hatter at your own peril. Batman takes on one of his most dangerous and deranged foes in a mind-bending tale from the powerhouse creative team of writer Scott Snyder and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli!
This week on Gotham Weekly, our hosts battle some slight sound issues to talk about the past two weeks of Batman family comics.
Included in this episode is:
Batman #16 by Tom King and David Finch
Nightwing #14 by Tim Seeley and Marcus To
Batgirl #7 by Hope Larson and Chris Wildgoose
All-Star Batman #7 by Scott Snyder, Tula Lotay
Detective Comics #950 by James Tynon IV, Marco Takara, Alvaro Martinez, Eddy Barrows
Batgirl And The Birds Of Prey #7 by Julie and Shawna Benson, Chloe Roe
Red Hood And The Outlaws #7 by Scott Lobdell and Miko Colik
It’s a new week! We’ve got previews, interviews, reviews, and so much more lined up! Stay tuned for what’s going to be a fun week. While you await all of that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
Around the Tubes
Carleton College News – Filmmaker Jonathan Gayles presents convocation on Black masculinity in comic books – Interesting, this would be really cool to check out.
The Creators Project – An Artist Is Deconstructing Comics into Grids in Order to Challenge Power Structures – Pretty cool.
CBR – The 15 Weirdest Superhero Toys – These are awesome!
Comics Alliance – Everything Under The Sea: Aquaman’s Weirdest Silver Age Moments – Some crazy moments.
CBR – FX’s Legion Debuts To Decent, Not Great, Ratings – Not too surprising.
The Beat – A year of free comics: Princess by Tom Scioli – Go read it!
Around the Tubes Reviews
Talking Comics – All-Star Batman #7
Talking Comics – Detective Comics #950
Talking Comics – Moonshine #5
Driving – Steve McQueen in Le Mans
Talking Comics – Superwoman #7
All-Star Batman #7
(W) Scott Snyder (A) Francesco Francavilla (A/CA) Tula Lotay
RATED T
In Shops: Feb 08, 2017
SRP: $4.99
“Poison Promises”! Step aside, gentlemen-Poison Ivy is about to steal the spotlight in Batman’s continuing rogues gallery road trip. Scott Snyder teams up with mega-talent Tula Lotay to reimagine the Dark Knight’s most seductive villain.
It was new comic book day yesterday. What’d everyone get? What’d you enjoy? What didn’t you like? Sound off in the comments below! While you think about that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web in our morning roundup.
Around the Tubes
ICv2 – Confessions of a Comic Book Guy – Everything Isn’t Political – Agree? Disagree? Sound off in the comments!
CBLDF – CBLDF Joins Statement Opposing U.S. Immigration Ban – This is good to see.
ICv2 – New Issue of ‘Resist!’ Planned – Good! The first was fantastic.
Kotaku – Marvel vs. Capcom 3 Pulls Through For 9th EVO 2017 Slot – Still going strong!
ICv2 – LefField Media Invests in Rose City Comic Con – Mazel tov!
The Beat – Yet another lawsuit: Wizard World suing Shamus Brothers and friends over possible takeover – Maybe all the lawyer bills will put them out of business?
Kotaku – Obama Is Now Free To Dunk All Over NBA 2K17 – Awesome.
Around the Tubes Reviews
Talking Comics – Action Comics #973
Newsarama – All-Star Batman #7
Newsarama – Kingpin #1
Atomic Junk Shop – Time Share
In All-Star Batman #7, talented artist Tula Lotay joins writer Scott Snyder to spin a Batman and Poison Ivy tale that is both cold and beautiful. They characterize Poison Ivy as a woman, who just wants people to feel good about themselves and finds special cures through her intense botanical studies. Except, her special relationship with plants can also be used as a weapon, both physically and mentally, and she uses them in this way from the opening scene. However, unlike Two-Face and Mr. Freeze in previous issues, she is the most receptive to working with Batman to help a young girl, who was killed by a remnant of Mr. Freeze’s biological weapon from All-Star Batman #6.
Lotay uses a variety of color tones to reflect Poison Ivy’s shifting moods from golden eyes as she hypnotizes a pushy shop owner to not tell the authorities about her presence (And to pay for his son’s art school.) to angry pinks and purples as she finds out that Batman is using her pity for the young girl to help him to stop this virus. Snyder’s choice of setting is quite poetic as Poison Ivy is nurturing a “Tree of Life” in Death Valley that is sadly interrupted when the Blackhawks come in to take her for questioning. It’s an intrusion of the superhero genre into an intimate, and educational conversation about the nature of life, and the power of botany to restore and inspire people
Lotay draws Poison Ivy like a nature goddess with the makeup under her eyes reminiscent to her take on Morrigan and Tara in her The Wicked + The Divine guest issue, and everything that she does in this issue is to preserve plant life while defeating the humans that would get in her way. The fights in All-Star Batman aren’t strictly laid out in grids, but flow seamlessly with Ivy’s plant tendrils feeling like a natural defense response instead of a punch being thrown. The desert sand and light brown colors around her and Batman continue to add to that feeling of conflict between human and nature with Batman taking nature’s side in this case.
In his plots for both Batman and All-Star Batman, Scott Snyder likes using race-the-clock, cure the virus type storylines that have started to wear thin in a similar manner to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s obsession with stopping the portal/putting the thing in the thing third acts. Except this repetitiveness in plot type is more than remedied in Snyder’s portrayal of Batman and Poison Ivy’s relationship in All-Star Batman #7 that goes from a simple hero/villain battle to working together as allies, but definitely not friends. There are callbacks to her origin where Ivy tells Batman that she focused on the manipulative side of her plant pheromones because this is what she thought Bruce Wayne wanted even though he was more interested in her holistic approach to finding medicine from plants from the cold bark to the beautiful flower.
All-Star Batman #7 concludes with a wonderful Francesco Francavilla-drawn backup story featuring Duke Thomas’ continuing efforts to come to terms with his own relationship to Batman’s villains (The Riddler in this case) that continues to be laid out like a crossword puzzle. But All-Star Batman #7 is truly Poison Ivy and Tula Lotay’s party as she captures the beauty, intelligence, and passion of this complex scientist/antihero/nature goddess, whose abilities are more blessing than curse for once. This is all handled through her gaze (Not Batman’s) with many panels of her eyes conveying different emotions in different colors.
Story: Scott Snyder Art: Tula Lotay, Francesco Francavilla
Story: 7.0 Art: 9.5 Overall: 8.2 Recommendation: Buy
DC Comics provided Graphic Policy with a FREE copy for review
Wednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in!
We’re bringing back something we haven’t done for a while, what the team thinks. Our contributors are choosing up to five books each week and why they’re choosing the books.
Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this Wednesday.
Ben
Black History In Its Own Words (Image Comics) – Criminally, I’m behind on Ronald Wimberly’s work, despite the fact that his recent Image Comics work, Prince of Cats (once a publication of Vertigo), has been making waves with its unique premise and gorgeous art. Black History In Its Own Words sounds like a great endeavor in the same effort as March, using the comics medium as a way to educate on important moments and figures in black history. We already know comics can be art, can be literature, but what about educational? Comics can be a teaching tool for reading and drawing, so it only makes sense it should take the next step in teaching all too important academia such as history, science, math, government, etc.
All-New Wolverine #17 (Marvel) – I’ve only read the first volume so far, but X-23 as the All-New Wolverine has one me over. She continues on the powerful themes of the original character, dealing with anger and finding more meaning in life than violence, while exploring her own unique personality. Most superhero comics have overdone action to the point that it’s no longer fun, but the creative team here manages to keep it so while not forgetting character development. Definitely one of the best among new Marvel titles.
Paul
Top Pick: Inhumans vs. X-Men #4 (Marvel) – This event has been a rock ’em sock ’em ride from the get go. The X-Men are fighting for their survival and they are definitely not holding back. The action has been non stop as the X-Men have taken out the Inhuman’s heavy hitters, but they may have underestimated the Nuhumans and their ability to push back. It’s only going to get more cut throat as this goes on and I can’t wait to see where this goes.
Jessica Jones #5 (Marvel) – When I started reading this title, I was a little annoyed that Marvel took Jessica back to her “darker” self, after everything that was established with her and Luke Cage. But I have bee enjoying this title, and the last issue definitely cleared some things up for me. I’m liking the set up of the “big bad” in this title and I am curious to see what the end game is. I very good title that I recommend.
The Unworthy Thor #4 (Marvel) – Odinson is held prisoner on the Collector’s ship; a strange hammer within his reach, but the Collector wants the power for himself. And to make matters worse, Proxima Midnight and Black Swan have crashed the party. I’ve been enjoying this book, but really just want to see Odinson get his hands on this hammer already!
Justice League of America: Rebirth #1 (DC Comics) – I’ll be honest, the Rebirth titles I was reading didn’t hold my interest (though I do want to go back to Red Hood, Birds of Prey and Teen Titans as I lost track of them) but I am intrigued by the team line up of this book. I read the Rebirth stories for The Ray and Killer Frost, which I enjoyed, and Black Canary and Vixen are favorites of mine, so I’m hoping this book can deliver.
Joe
Top Pick: Kingpin #1 (Marvel) – Matt Rosenberg has been of the best and most consistent writers lately. He has done some fantastic miniseries, and we get him on a big Marvel ongoing. Finally! With how he wrote the character on the CW2 miniseries, and it being the best thing to happen to that event, my expectations are through the roof for this book. Be excited.
Moonshine #5 (Image Comics) – This has been a solid and underrated book by Azzarello about mobsters, Appalachia, and werewolves. It is such an original tale that has packed an intriguing mystery about city slickers coming to the mountains with booze and blood involved.
Detective Comics #950 (DC Comics) – The oversized anniversary special that is priced at $3.99, that is a beautiful concept everyone should follow. I love this series, and James Tynion IV hasn’t let me down yet. I don’t expect him to anytime soon.
The Unworthy Thor #4 (Marvel) – It’s been so far so good for the return of Jason Aaron writing Odinson, and there’s only a few issues remaining. Will Thor get his original hammer? Or at least the ultimate version? Will he ride off into the sunset and allow Jane to remain the God of Thunder? I suspect a new ongoing. I can’t wait to find out.
The Flash #16 (DC Comics) – Finally the Rogues have returned! Josh Williamson has done a solid job with this series, but now that the Rogues have returned, it’s getting even better.
Alex
Top Pick: Ninjak #24 (Valiant) – This is the first time that Ninjak has been my top pick in a long time, if ever. Matt Kindt has always been consistent with his writing on the series, but with the last issue he kicked it up a gear, and I can’t wait to see where he takes us with this issue.
All-Star Batman #7 (DC Comics) – Scott Snyder and Jock gave me Batman #44, which remains one of the best issues of Batman I have ever read. Needless to say, I’m excited to get a whole story from these two.
Divinity III: Shadowman #1 (Valiant) – Honestly, this was a toss up between this and Detective Comics #950, with this issue coming out on top because of it’s relation to the main Divinity III miniseries. The more content I can get from the Stalinverse, the happier I am.
Red Hood And The Outlaws #7 (DC Comics) – An unsung gem in DC’s line up, this darkly funny (whether it’s supposed to be or not) series has become one of the ones I look forward to the most each month.
Brett
Top Pick: Black History In Its Own Words (Image Comics) – Ron Wimberly takes us through a look at Black History framed by those who made it. As a white guy with a large gap in my knowledge, I’m looking forward to filling in some of that.
Black #4 (Black Mask Studios) – The series has been an interesting one, and while not perfect, each issue has been thought provoking with a depth not usually found in superhero comics.
Death Be Damned #1 (BOOM! Studios) – Seven outlaws have killed Miranda Coler and her family, but her death turned out to be a little less permanent than they expected. A western tale of revenge is exactly what I’ve been looking for.
Divinity III: Shadowman #1 (Valiant) – This latest “event” miniseries from Valiant has been absolutely amazing. Any opportunity to get more about this world, I’m excited.
The Fissure #1 (Vault Comics) – El Sueño, Texas was a single street town withering under the shadow of the Mexico-U.S. Barrier. Then the pavement split, and a massive crack spread from one end to the other, rapidly swallowing El Sueño whole. Young couple Avery Lee Olmos and Hark Wright fight to escape the mysterious sinkhole and the malevolent force that beckons from its depths. Writer Tim Daniel has kicked ass with these types of stories and this debut from Vault Comics is one I’ve had my eye on for quite some time.
DC Comics has announced that in April they’ll be increasing the price of some of their comics from $2.99 to $3.99. But, with the increased price comes a digital copy of the comic that can be redeemed. Current comics that are $3.99 will also receive the digital code. This does not impact the twice monthly comics which will remain at $2.99.
This is similar to a program that Marvel launched in late 2011 and recently changed.
Titles impacted include:
We’ll be monitoring this change to see the impact in both physical sales and digital activity. How will the price increase impact your purchases? Sound off in the comments!
