Comic Books Comic Book • Page 411

On the note of “diversity”/representation in comics...

This is a cover drawn by Walt Simonson in 1994 for the first crossover of Milestone Media, a company founded & owned by 4 black men that had their work published by DC Comics (a year or two after Death of Superman).

That Simonson hero shot features four black men, a pregnant black teen, a Korean American, a Japanese American lesbian, & a Palestinian woman.

This same comics line had a series called Blood Syndicate, about a literal street gang of superheroes who got their powers from being gassed by the cops (in a “Big Bang” that also created Static [Shock]), written by a gay cartoonist of Puerto Rican descent. One of the members is a closeted homosexual, & another a trans man. (As an aside, another member is a talking dog named Dogg, who’s just delightful.)

Also, when Dwayne McDuffie wrote in Icon about Rocket contemplating her choice after finding out she’s pregnant, he had a woman co-write that issue.

I cannot emphasize enough how much McDuffie & friends’ Milestone Media venture in the 90s reflected marginalized demographics & the real world so much better than... the entirety of modern American superhero comics? In an organic way. While, also just being good ol’ superhero comics! (Which, certainly reflect the “extreme” 90s comics energy at times, but nonetheless do, imo, really stand the test of time.)

 

‘Batman: The Dark Knight’ by Tom Taylor and Andy Kubert Debuts Tuesday, April 13

This is gonna be good huh?

 

Anybody read Endless Winter? How was that? Sounds interesting but also somewhat overwhelming

 

It... wasn't really all that interesting. It's there, it's an alright story. Pretty by-the-numbers.

 

Just seems like alot in the span of 1 month

 

It was a one-month filler event to bridge the gap between a bigger company-wide event (that it overlapped with) & a two-month initiative/“event” that leads into a big relaunch.

Comics are fun.

Some of the creators were older creators, & a podcast I listen to with some older readers dug it, so if you’re of a certain era of DC reader (I think late 90s, give or take) & craving a nostalgic Justice League story, it’s for you. If you’re anyone else... just ignore it, lol.

 

I didn’t realize Tomasi was continuing to write more Super Sons with Damian and kid Jon Kent. May have to check that out.

 

It's shaping up to be quite a fun series and really makes me wish they hadn't aged Jon up in the proper DCU.

 

Yeah, as I was reading it I couldn't help but think "this doesn't need to be an event..." but also I don't think I'd really have cared about this story over like 4-5 months in a monthly series, so meh from me.

But as Tim said, it definitely has a different vibe. Just wasn't my thing.

 

it was alright. Fun to have a quick event. Black Adam had a really good story. Its something you’ll have fun reading but forget immediately after

 

Read that Lobo issue of Death Metal. That was awesome

 

The updates / changes for DC Universe Infinite look pretty good, and feature some changes I wish Marvel would add for Marvel Unlimited (iOS stuff like custom icons, widgets + adding the mature readers library).

DC LAUNCHES DC UNIVERSE INFINITE, THE PREMIER DESTINATION FOR DC FANS

 

id love to be able to have this but WB have the absolute worst track record with bringing their services to canada so i have to faith (we cant watch majority of HBO max shows anywhere still).

The #1 feature i wish marvel unlimited would add is being able to follow a series so i can just subscribe to the new series i read and get notified when new issues drop.

 

YES, SECONDED SO HARD YES

 

Tired: getting the app to read Batman comics.

Inspired: getting the app to read Milestone & Vertigo comics.

 

Venom #200 in April is apparently the finale of Donny Cates & Ryan Stegman’s run.

 

Damn right when I'm getting caught up (almost). Still looking forward to reading through them.

 

I just ordered the first 4 Venom trades from the library. How many total are there so far?

 

Tbh Vertigo stuff is what is most interesting to me because it's hard to get alot of it from libraries and such

 

In the main series, 4, with the 5th coming in a couple months. There’s also the companion/spin-off called, I think, Venom Unleashed, which has some side stories that flesh things out but aren’t essential.

Also, the one trade is called “Venom (vol 3?): Absolute Carnage” but is actually a tie-in to the main Absolute Carnage event miniseries (by Cates & Stegman), which is in its own trade.

 

If Marvel keeps letting Chip Zdarsky write Spider-Man stories with fun premises not restricted by continuity, I’m gonna keep buying them.

 

I'm interested in Chip's take on Batman. Never read his stuff before