My NYCC Experience Pt. 4

While I attended many panels over the course of New York Comic Con 2013, I’ve chosen to start with the ones that will matter most to you guys. With that in mind, I’m going to fast forward to the Sunday Morning.

On the tail end of the convention, Dan DiDio, Co-Editor of DC Comics held a surprisingly intimate discussion about his tenure, the directions that DC has and will be heading, and his thoughts on the state of the brand – and on his birthday, no less!

The panel opened with a brief celebration, the assembled fans singing happy birthday to the controversial captain of the comics giant.

From there, John Cunningham, VP of Marketing for DC, took us on a retrospective of DiDio’s life and career, starting with a baby picture and taking us through his first rejection, some questionable fashion choices, his tenure over the incredible ReBoot, and to the beginning of his time at DC. That’s where things started to get interesting.

DiDio is a highly polarizing figure in comics, drawing all manner of hate from many contingencies. It is admittedly hard for many to transfer that level of outrage from a monolithic figure to the man in the cap that sat before the audience, but the panel neither cemented his status nor absolved his many unpopular decisions. What it did do was provide some fascinating context.

Phantom Stranger #1

By: Dan Didio (story), Brent Anderson (pencils), Philip Tan (inks), Ulises Arreola (colors)

The Story: Judas Phantom Stranger sets out to earn redemption in the most bizarre way possible…he has to keep betraying people until every piece of silver he received betraying Jesus is paid off. It’s been 2000 years, and he’s gotten rid of 2. Man. Remind me never to piss off God. (My mother just told me that I’m too late)

The Review: Where did this book come from? The #0 issue last month was pretty good. It’s one of the strangest (no pun intended) takes on a superhero comic I’ve seen in the past few years. Plus the guy wears a fedora, which I have been rocking since before Mad Men and hipsters had to ruin them (they kept rain out of your eyes! The rims are perfect!). But the fedora fits the Stranger well because he is quite possibly the most Noir superhero ever created. That title gets passed around. Batman is a good example. Daredevil has had it for years. But now that Mark Waid has decidedly taken Daredevil out of the Noir spotlight, it’s time for a character to step in. To have his life beaten to shit again and again and again. To have nothing hopefull ever happen to him. And every time something good and wonderful is shown, it’s to let the reader know it will be taken away in heartwrenching brutality (wow, so Whedon basically has Noir at the spine of all his work.) We need a hero to fall into a dark abyss.

The New 52 #1 – Free Comic Book Day Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Everyone needs a lawyer—especially when your judges are master mages.

The Review: I like free stuff as much as the next person.  I’m an old hand at waiting for five minutes to get a sample of some Costco microwaveable piece of whatever that you can inhale in three seconds.  So of course, Free Comic Book Day has all kinds of appeal for me.  But—and I don’t think I’m alone in saying this—I’ve always found the gratuitous offerings less than stellar, either being forgettable fluff pieces or thin teases for upcoming events.

DC’s contribution to comic lovers’ favorite holiday isn’t just a prelude to their next company-wide Big Event; it’s an Event that doesn’t even show up until next year.  This kind of move has always struck me as overly confident.  Whoever’s in charge must believe that whatever story they have up their sleeve must be big and important enough to keep you intrigued for twelve or more months, and they must be pretty certain they can build up the tension properly until then.

Suicide Squad #2 – Review

Written by Adam Glass, Art by Federico Dallocchio and Andrei Bressan, Colors by Val Staples

The Story: Suicide Squad is dropped into…some stadium (they forgot to give us the name in this issue and I’m too lazy to go back to the last one to figure it out) and are instructed to kill everyone inside because they’ve all been turned into CRAZY TECHNO-ORGANIC ZOMBIES. Kid, meet Candy Shop. Candy Shop, meet Kid.

The Good: Man this was a good first issue. Oh wait…this was the second. Damn–would have made a much better first issue. In fact, after reading this, I’m really not sure what the point of issue one was. Everything a #1 issue should be, Suicide Squad #2 is. It gives us a story. It sets up the characters in a natural way, showing their characteristics unfold while the plot does. No shoehorning, no gimmicks. It’s…and this pains me to say after the first issue was handled so poorly…pretty well written. You actually get to feel for the characters this time. Deadshot is shown to be a capable leader of the team. Diablo’s pain is seen instead of shown. We don’t even have to know what he did to be so concerned with innocents (I didn’t care enough when I read it in the first issue and I still don’t) to feel his genuine need to redeem himself. Even Harley gets some nice character moments. But even while the other members are becoming more interesting, it’s still King Shark who’s the most fun. As Deadshot says, he’s the wild card. Predictably unpredictable. Willing to eat techo-zombie flesh.  The design of the character might not be great–and as someone pointed out last month, taken almost entirely from another series–but his character is great. I don’t even want to know his back-story. I’m perfectly happy with King Shark being King Shark (and I thought I’d hate this character the most). Glass leveled up since the last issue and is really bringing us some good material now. There are great surprises and the promise of an insane story. Let’s hope he can keep it up.

Detective Comics #2 – Review

Written and Drawn by Tony S. Daniel, Inked by Ryan Winn and Sandu Florea, Colored by Tomeu Morey

The Story: Batman and Gordon discover the Joker’s face left behind in Arkham and begin their investigation. But first, Batman must save a little girl…

The Good: An issue 2 that doesn’t feel like filler to fit a trade. This has a story to it. Beginning, middle, and end. Character arc. Subplots. So many comics now are one note made-for-the-trade these days that getting something with a lot of content is almost overwhelming.  But Daniel gives us a lot of meat for our three bucks, whether it’s developing Bruce’s personal life, showing us how Gordon works, or building towards the crescendo of the issue, there’s nothing thrown in for filler. Everything is working towards something. And this mystery is just beginning to explode. It’s so hard to write about these issues without spoiling them or mentioning some very intriguing key parts. So, how to do this and be vague… The new villain set up in the last issue, the Dollmaker… I am now convinced that he is a credible threat to Gotham. Riddler, Two-Face, Penguin–you’ve got a new buddy in your league and he is young and hungry (well, maybe not young. And maybe a bit more hungry in a literal sense). But Dollmaker succeeds as a villain where Morrison’s Professor Pyg fails–in that, I didn’t give a crap about that villain and never saw him as a threat to Batman. Dollmaker is. I am interested in Dollmaker and his….agh…can’t say it. And he’s a villain with a scheme. Okay, all villains have schemes, but you get the sense that he really has something cooking in that deranged noggin.

Deathstroke #1 – Review

Written by Kyle Higgins, Pencils by Joe Bennett, inks by Art Thibert, colors by Jason Wright

The Story: A dude with Wolverine’s candor and Deadpool’s skill kills a lot of people.

What’s Good: Is it wrong to say that out of all the New 52 I’ve read so far, this is the one I’ve had the most fun reading? Death Stroke…he’s not one of the good guys. He’s not even an antihero. At least, not yet. He’s not like Deadpool, doing the mercenary thing but also willing to be the hero when he needs to be. He’s just a mercenary out for blood. No law. No code of conduct. (No way did I just accidentally quote X-Men Origins: Wolverine). The issue starts by showing you exactly the kind of guy Mr. Wilson (really?) is. He’s–in his associate’s words–“a major damn badass.” To prove this, he rips the door off of a cargo jet going 300 miles per hour, twenty thousand feet in the air. Also, by the double page spread very early on, you know that if he were singing a duet with Julie Andrews, he might count decapitating Russians as one of his favorite things. Higgins sells Deathstroke with the kind of ease that makes it clear that the writer had a damn good time with this character. The twists are well placed, and the action is incredible. Of course, that’s also thanks to Bennett’s pencils–who seems to love the character as much as Higgins. He really has Deathstroke do some pretty insane stuff. Both the artist and the writer are on the same page–they are not looking to tell a story about a Merc with a Heart. This guy is brutal, all the way down to Wright’s color scheme, they’re out for blood. And I think it’s going to be one hell of a ride.