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There are a few posts I'm working on, but I'm not sure when I'll be done with them. In the meantime, Graeme McMillan over at io9 has put together a list of 75 Books You Should Own for DC Comics' 75th Anniversary. In the spirit of various "which books have you read" memes, I'm just going to run-down the list with occasional brief commentary. The ones in bold are the ones I own.

• The Superman Chronicles Vol. 1
• The Batman Chronicles Vol. 1
• All-Star Comics Archives Vol. 1
• The Spirit Archives Vol. 13
• The MAD Archives Vol. 1
  
• Showcase Presents: Strange Adventures Vol. 1
  
• Showcase Presents: Bat Lash (Frankly, I didn't know this was out. Now I want it.)
  
• Showcase Presents: Sgt. Rock Vol. 1
• Showcase Presents: The Flash Vol. 1
• Showcase Presents: Justice League of America Vol. 1
• Showcase Presents: The Doom Patrol Vol. 1
• Showcase Presents: House of Mystery Vol. 1
• Diana Prince: Wonder Woman Vol. 1
• Green Lantern/Green Arrow Vol. 1 (At some point, I really should get the second volume.)
  
• Showcase Presents: Teen Titans Vol. 2
• Jack Kirby's Fourth World Vol. 2
• The Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga
• The New Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (There are few books that I've almost bought more times than this one. It's perpetually in my Amazon Cart, but never in the order list.)
  
• Saga of The Swamp Thing Vol. 1
• Showcase Presents: Ambush Bug (I'm counting this one not because I own the collection, but because I own all but, like, three of Ambush Bug's appearances in floppy form. And I still might get the Showcase edition.)
  
• Crisis On Infinite Earths
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
• Watchmen
• Batman: Year One
• Superman: Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow
• Batman: The Killing Joke
• The History Of The DC Universe
• Batman: A Death In The Family (Get the new hardcover with "A Lonely Place of Dying.")
  
• Justice League International Vol. 1
• Animal Man Vol. 3: Deus Ex Machina
• The Sandman: Fables and Reflections
• V For Vendetta
• Why I Hate Saturn
• Enigma
• Static Shock: Rebirth Of The Cool
• Batman: Mad Love And Other Stories
• Understanding Comics
• The Invisibles Vol. 1: Say You Want A Revolution
• Starman Omnibus Vol. 1 (The Omnibus collections will probably be on an upcoming Birthday list, but I have all the older trades)
  
• Preacher Vol. 1
• Stuck Rubber Baby
• Kurt Busiek's Astro City: Life In The Big City
• Kingdom Come
• Road To Perdition
• Transmetropolitan: Back On The Street
• JLA: Rock Of Ages
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 1
• Absolute Promethea Vol. 1
• The Golden Age
• The Absolute Authority Vol. 1
• 100%
• Absolute Planetary Vol. 1
• Hellblazer: Haunted
• Sleeper: Season 1
• Wildcats Version 3.0: Brand Building
• Gotham Central Vol. 2: Jokers and Madmen
• 100 Bullets Vol. 1: First Shot, Last Call
• Y: The Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned
• The Filth
• Ex Machina Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 (I've been collecting this in the regular trades since the start.)
  
• Fables Deluxe Edition Vol. 1 (I sold the individual issues a while back, but I just haven't been inclined to buy the hardcovers yet.)
  
• Bizarro Comics
• Human Target: Chance Meetings
• We3
• DC: The New Frontier
• Green Lantern: Rebirth (I don't own the collection, but I have the individual issues.)
  
• Seven Soldiers of Victory Vol. 1
• 52 Vol. 1 (Another one where I have the floppies, but not the trade.)
  
• Wonder Woman: Who is Wonder Woman? (Ditto.)
  
• The Winter Men
• Doctor 13: Architecture and Mortality
• All Star Superman
• Water Baby
• Bayou Vol. 1
• Blackest Night (If they can count it without the trade being out yet, I can count it while owning all the issues so far.)

Overall, it's a pretty good list. I think I'd argue for the inclusion of JLA: Tower of Babel and Superman For All Seasons, and I suspect that some people would quibble over whose Hellblazer to include, but in general it's pretty comprehensive.

Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths

Man, that was amazing.

I've finally been getting around to watching these Direct-to-DVD films, and I've been pretty impressed. "Green Lantern: First Flight" was good, "Wonder Woman" was loads of fun, and I even branched out and watched "Hulk vs. Thor," which was probably the best non-"Spectacular Spider-Man" animated Marvel thing I've ever seen. As it stands, the only DC animated films I haven't watched yet are "Superman/Batman: Public Enemies," which I'm not particularly excited about, and "Justice League: New Frontier," which I don't want to watch until I have the chance to re-read the story. Especially since I have this snazzy Absolute Edition.

But I haven't looked forward to any of these films as much as "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths," which stands as the only one I've actually bothered to pre-order. I was not disappointed. I don't feel like I could be superlative enough in describing it or running through the plot or going over how much I enjoyed the fight scenes and the plot and the little fanservice bits. Like, who Superwoman turned out to be the counterpart of? Totally brilliant.

So rather than gush, I'm going to praise the flick a different way, by going over all its faults. I think you'll see my point.

• So, first, some of the super-speed effects were a little odd, where we saw a bunch of afterimages (specifically of Johnny Quick) instead of various sorts of blurring. The overall effect of that really didn't make him look like he was moving quickly, though it was really just in one scene as far as I noticed.
  
  
• It took me awhile to get used to Mark Harmon as Superman. It's not a bad choice, and I think the tone and the drawl it play up both the farmboy and tough-as-nails aspects of his character, but it was fairly jarring at first.
  
  
• The sound effect for Superman's heat vision was terrible. Maybe it's just me, but heat vision should sound more like "fsssshhh" than "pew pew!"

That's it. That's the complete list of problems I had with "JL:Co2E." It was a pretty awesome movie.

And "The Spectre" was similarly awesome. I especially liked the '70s cop movie flair to it, complete with washed-out visuals. I think it really added to the kind of EC-style horror that the story seemed to be going for. I can't wait to find out what the next one will be...wasn't "Jonah Hex" rumored at some point?

So, yeah. Go. Buy. Watch. Be happy.

Quick Question

Anyone know if it's still canon that Peter Parker's parents were government secret agents who were killed by the Red Skull? Because that doesn't get mentioned enough.

Seriously, Peter works with Nick Fury often enough that it'd be interesting to see Nick trying to groom Peter into a spy like his parents.

In which I make the obvious joke

So, Mark Millar is doing some kind of promotion offering free advertising to shops that display this moderately profane, fairly kid-unfriendly poster in their stores, because that's surely what we should be encouraging. Having read the first two issues of Kick-Ass, I have to wonder:



Well, what doesn't?

The other big Superman news

Apparently, Christopher Nolan is helping mentor the next Superman movie. Now, I'm still among the three people who really liked "Superman Returns," and I'm a little disappointed to have a reboot, but I can accept "SR" as a coda to the Donner/Reeve universe if it means having a Nolan-quality flick in the near future (and hopefully a Justice League movie thereafter).

Overall, this can only be good news for Superman, because I can't think of anyone I'd blindly trust with a superhero film more than Christopher Nolan. A movie like "The Dark Knight" gets you a lot of capital in my book. It also gives me hope that the "darker/edgier" talk that keeps getting bandied about the Superman films won't be handled in the wrong way, since those are words I don't think associate well with Superman.

I think it's way too early to speculate on plot or theme or tone, but I think they'd do well to take some hints from All-Star Superman (address the origin quickly, if at all; stick to big sweeping events and grand ideas). Obviously, it's going to need a little bit more conventional superhero action. To that end, I've been thinking that you could build a whole movie around Luthor and Metallo as the villains, while setting things up for an eventual sequel with a Johns-esque Brainiac. I don't think it's controversial to say that the biggest problem with Superman movies has been their general aversion to typical superhero stories, and I trust a Nolan-helmed team to understand that.

Regardless, I'm excited, and I hope this all pans out. The DC movieverse(s) shouldn't be without the Man of Steel.

The 100-Minute War

I've got about 75% of a big post on the "New Krypton" storyline finished and percolating, but I haven't had time to work on it recently. I have, however, had time to read about the upcoming "War of the Supermen," which will apparently be over in less than two hours.

I'm actually not sure what to make of this, but I suspect that it'll mean a liberal application of Phantom Zone projectors or Kryptonite or Coluan shrinking technology. I'd actually really like New Krypton to stick around, to stay in Earth's solar system and continue causing drama for the El family, rather than getting put back in the bottle one way or another.

The most interesting possibility for this short war, I think--the one that opens up the most new story options--is also the least likely, in my estimation. But a 100-minute war against thousands of people who have all of Superman's powers doesn't sound like a victory for the squishy people of Kleenex who are occasionally punctuated by spandex-clad metahumans--especially with Batman missing. The War of Supermen could end in a Kryptonian victory.

Despite the possible cries of "OMG U GUYS R RIPPIN OFF DARK REIGN," I think this could really open up some really awesome story possibilities: the Kryptonian occupation and apartheid; a resistance movement led by Superman and Batman--or better yet, a resistance movement led by the returned Batman, whose partial goal is to rescue Superman from the Phantom Zone--secretly fighting against the Kryptonian regime; Krypton's drive to increase their empire; the uneasy alliance between Earth's heroes and villains; Zod triumphant; Lex Luthor's time to shine...the opportunities are endless.

Why is it unlikely? Well, first, it would necessarily impact nearly every DC Comic in a major way, suddenly thrusting everything from "Batman and Robin" to "Secret Six" into a world under the thumb of alien dictators. Besides that, it doesn't really fit into the whole "Brightest Day" motif of the coming year. It would also mean that the story would have to be more finite, I think, than otherwise might be necessary (I'm still hoping for a semi-permanent New Krypton in the DCU).

It'd be a nice change of status quo, and it'd remove a lot of the problems I have with Zod, although the story so far has done quite a bit of that as well. I doubt that it'll happen, but I'd be pretty excited if it did.

A belated gift

I finally have a scanner of my very own, which means I can finally send Chris Sims the Daft Punksmas present I made for him! Happy holidays, everyone!

Things which might make me unpopular

If reading various Twitter feeds is any indication, I'm in disagreement with a great many comic fans about quite a few things. I've been making a little mental list of these differences in geek opinion, presented for you here:

• I like "Family Guy." I like the "manatee jokes," I like the obscure-reference-based humor, I like the general attempts to offend just about everyone and the jabs at offensive stereotypes. Sometimes I think they go over the line, but I also think that's often the point. The biggest problem I have with them right now is that they're relying too much on callback jokes and reused jokes--the most egregious example being that they ended the second James Woods episode in exactly the same way as the first. On one hand, it was ballsy and funny, on the other hand, it was really lazy. In general, though, I think the show has mostly improved over time.
  
  
• I also still like Kevin Smith movies. I haven't watched "Zack and Miri" yet, but since I'm the one person who enjoyed "Jersey Girl," I don't suspect I'll dislike it. I'm a big fan of Shakespeare, I enjoy Oscar Wilde, but every once in awhile I like to hear an hour and a half of dick jokes.
  
  His comics? Okay, I'm totally with the crowd on that one...except "Green Arrow," which was quite enjoyable last time I read it.
  
  
• Similarly, I don't have any real problem with Brian Michael Bendis's dialogue. I credited that recently with why I don't have huge issues with the dialogue in Diablo Cody's movies (or at least, the two I've seen), and I think it applies to Kevin Smith movies as well. The scripting is heavily stylized, certainly artificial, overly clever, and sometimes results in multiple characters sharing a single voice--and those are all flaws. But in most of those cases, they're occasional flaws. My biggest issues with "Jennifer's Body" were all with the story; my biggest issues with Bendis is when the "Ultimate Spider-Man" dialogue that fits high schoolers carries over into "New Avengers;" my biggest problem with Kevin Smith is how much of his Twitter feed is about analingus. Dialogue that's somewhat more stylized than normal dialogue (because all written dialogue is stylized)? Not a big problem.
  
  
• I like Alex Ross's art. I've seen complaints about his photo-referencing, and I think that's kind of ridiculous. There's a big difference between staging and taking your own photos to use as specific references, and pulling out the latest Hustler like Greg Land. I understand the complaint that he makes characters look old, and I guess that's just a taste thing. I don't mind it, although I do think it's a bit odd that there's no real difference facially between "Kingdom Come" Superman and "Peace on Earth" Superman. Still, I enjoy his work, and I think it deserves a lot of the credit for helping comics attain some of the legitimacy as mature art that they've developed over the last couple of decades.
  
  
• I'm enjoying "Blackest Night." I suspect that at least some of this owes to my deliberate avoidance of certain tie-ins, like "Justice League of America." But the core story and the Green Lantern tie-ins have been generally quite good. Oddly enough, I think there's been less senseless death and gore than most Geoff Johns crossover events, and I think the story's been pretty compelling all along. Plus, I sincerely doubt that much of this death will stick, and a zombie story's not a zombie story without a few infected heroes. Some tie-ins have been admittedly fairly weak--I've already forgotten pretty much everything about the Batman and Superman miniseries--but that's the case in most crossovers, isn't it?
  
  The Wonder Woman thing? Yeah, that's just stupid. Johns backed himself into a corner by making all the Star Sapphires female; otherwise Diana and the Atom should have been swapped. As a matter of fact, the only DC heroes I can think of right now for whom the Violet ring would be appropriate are all male: Wally West, Superman, Kyle Rayner, etc.
  
  
• I have almost no desire to see "Avatar." Cameron's hit-and-miss for me; "Terminator 2" was great, sure, but "Titanic" was an overlong cliché story populated by one-dimensional characters. It was "Dirty Dancing" on a sinking boat. Everything I've heard about "Avatar" suggests that it's a lot closer to the latter than the former: an amazing visual spectacle with a crappy paint-by-numbers story. Well, watching that CGI dude smack balls-first into a propeller wasn't enough to make "Titanic" enjoyable, and so I doubt that it'll be enough to save Smurfahontas for me. The only two things that make me want to see the movie at all are that I imagine it'll look better in IMAX than on my crappy TV, and I hear it does a good job of portraying scientists as people rather than cardboard cut-outs. Does that add up to the cost of an IMAX 3D ticket and three hours of my life? Not yet it doesn't.
  
  
• I've still never read anything by Warren Ellis to make me want to read things by Warren Ellis. I want to want to read things by Warren Ellis, but so far the desire's just not there.
  
  
• Similarly, the only Mark Millar book I've ever read that wasn't underwhelming and wasn't co-written by Morrison was "Red Son"--and even that apparently had Morrison input. "Chosen" was disappointing, "Civil War" was crap, and two issues of "Kick-Ass" were two more than I needed to realize that I didn't want to continue reading it. The latest idea--what if Batman actually were the Joker?--sounds like Millar read "Irredeemable" and decided to do it with a Batman analogue instead of a Superman one.

There, that'll do for now. I might as well wait for them to come take my comic blogging license away. I wasn't using it anyway.