DC Retro-Active: Dan Didio on Batgirl

from the back matter of all DC Comics shipping with a cover date of November 2009, from the desk of Dan Didio himself, regarding the process behind choosing the character behind the mask of the (then) new Batgirl, Stephanie Brown.




let's type out the bit with the retro-active ironic value:

[...]Choosing the new Batgirl was not an easy decision, and strong arguments could be made for most of them. At one point we were sure it would be Barbara (she was as close to being Bagirl again as Nightwing was to being dead) but after long discussions it was agreed that Oracle had become such a strong character, there was no sense going back [...]

cue September 2011, a scant two years later:



yeah, dude, whatever
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the complete Emma Frost in one panel

Source: X-Men Schism #1 (Jason Aaron, Carlos Pacheco), Marvel Comics

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X-Men: Schism the XXX Parody

through the wonders of creative censoring and panel rearrangement, we are finally ready to reveal the true reasons behind the Schism (TM) between Cyclops and Wolverine in the latest great summer X-over.

X-Ploitation!

Original Source: X-Men Schism #1 (Jason Aaron, Carlos Pacheco), Marvel Comics

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Mutant and Prude

now, Marvel, is this the sort of 'square' message you want to be sending new readers flocking through your comics in search of hot and bothered Michael Fassbender action? Magneto don't swing.

Joe Casey's Vengeance could very well turn out to be the best damn Marvel book since Milligan/Allred's X-Force. which just also happens to be the last time we saw a Marvel hero partake in a threesome

Source: Vengeance #1 (Joe Casey, Nick Dragotta), Marvel Comics

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this blog doesn't encourage cruelty against animals

...except when it's funny.

Source: Secret Six #35 (Gail Simone, Jim Calafiore), DC Comics

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Death Before Snoo Snoo

that Namor sure has his priorities mixed-up.

Namor makes a crossover appearance in this week's Uncanny X-Men #540 in the middle of the ongoing events of Fear Itself: the Deep where -I'm assuming without having read it- he's fighting the Hammered-up Attuma and saving people's lives during what Marvel is trying to sell as its most cataclysmic event yet that has the entire Marvel Universe populace shaking in fear

Emma is equally perplexed as this reader concerning the reasons that would prompt Namor to abandon the battlefield in the middle of Attuma's rampage.

is he looking for reinforcements? does he need the help of te world's premiere telepath to defeat the mass-murdering monster that has -supposedly- caused the whole world to sink into fear?

nope. he just wanted to get in her pants. noble.

Namor, you old horndog!

Emma, being the lady she is (current outfit in that first panel notwithstanding) pushes him away, despite being obviously in heat. or that could just be Greg Land's infamous porn photo-referencing giving the reader mixed signals

the whole uncomfortable eyesore of a sequence does end on a remarkable character moment though, I'll give Kieron Gillen that:

ouch. Namor, you dick!

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Justice League International Mystery Woman revealed?

oh, come on people, this was such an easy one!

backstory: when the solicitations for DC's new 52 titles launching in September first started pouring in, a lot of chatter started online about the identity of a mystery woman on the cover of JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #1:

who later, even more mysteriously, disappeared from the cover in the final solicitations of the book. check it out, that blind spot right next to apparent team leader Booster Gold:

now, speculation about the mystery woman's identity raged from Donna Troy to Gupsy, but the answer was quite different and indeed fairly obvious and had actually just been revealed that very same week in the pages of Booster Gold #45. BG#45 was a Flashpoint tie-in issue, written by Dan Jurgens, who also happens to be writing Justice League International #1. madness!

it only really took me so long to realise because I hadn't read BG #45 until tonight. and cockiness aside, I'm surprised noone else made the connection. then again, it may have required a Greek to spot another. see, inside the pages of that issue, we're introduced to a miss Alexandra Gianopoulos, a Greek woman through whose house Booster Gold plummets during his fight with the Flashpoint version of Doomsday.

Alexandra proves to be more than collateral almost-damage as after the fight with Doomsday Booster Gold drops her to her cabin for a spot of to-know-us-better and knife-waving

introductions are made, niceties are dispersed, and Booster Gold is on his merry way, with the reader (well, this reader anyway) being left wondering what was the point of wasting all this page space introducing a stranger civilian character, and so close to the title's cancelation.

but LO AND BEHOLD, as soon as Booster flees the scene, miss Giannopoulos puts on a light show of her own and flies off to do some superheroing of her own, green glow, dramatic origins and everything:

(well it really depends on your individual definition of superheroing of course, as her first act of derring-do is to shoot at a U.S.AirForce air carrier. I'll still side with my homegirl on this one tho, that nasty big plane had it coming!)

so, how do you figure? Greek conspiracy or wishful thinkgeek?

the physical likeness, the relation to Booster Gold on the cover and Dan Jurgen's involvement in both titles scream no-brainer to me, but then again, I'm only Greek ;)

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it's medicine time!

Jason Aaron guarantees you will never not squeam at a flu shot again in your life!

p.s. stabbing Wolverine in the eyes with ejection needles and THEN having a nurse hit him over the head with a fire extinguisher over and over again while he's down? best moment of the year!

Source: Wolverine Weapon X
Art by: Yannick Paquette
Words by Jason Aaron
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X-Men Movie Vs Family Tree

i'm a great big fan of Joe Stone's instant classic X-Men Family Tree, and I thought I'd use it to map out the missed intricancies of the X-Men's incestuous lives through the characters' appearances in the X-Men film franchise.

there's 5 markers under each character, for the five X-movies. in order: X-Men, X2: X-Men United, X-Men: Last Stand, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and X-Men First Class. a lowercase letter indicates cameo appearances. fun with OCD!


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@JohnTikis #blogoscars

For the new two weeks i'll be using this blog to host my great friend @JohnTikis for the Greek #blogoscars, Blogovision - The Movies vote, 77+ Greek Bloggers voting for our own winners in the oscars categories. it's going to get surreal. posting will revert to pure Greek goodness for that time, pay us no heed :)


for SUPPORTING ACTORS



10 Matt Damon- True Grit



9 Masaki Okada-Kokuhaku



8 John Hawkes- Winter's Bone



7 Andrew Garfield-Never Let Me Go



6 Ben Mendelsohn-Animal Kingdom




5 Βαγγέλης Μουρίκης-Attenberg



4 Joseph Gordon-Levitt- Inception



3 Geoffrey Rush- The King's Speech



2 Andrew Garfield-The Social Network



1 Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin και το υπόλοιπο τάγμα- Des Hommes Et Des Dieux




SUPPORTING ACTRESSES



10 Olivia Williams-The Ghost Writer



9 Ιωάννα Τσιριγκούλη-Χώρα Προέλευσης



8 Yoon Yeo-jeong- Τhe Housemaid



7 Barbara Hershey-Black Swan



6 Τα burlesque girls στο Tournée



5 Mila Kunis-Black Swan



4 Angela Wesselman-Catfish



3 Chloë Moretz-Kick-Ass



2 Lesley Manville-Another Year



1 Jackie Weaver-Animal Kingdom



DIRECTORS

10. Luca Giadagnino-Io sono l' amore
9. Αθηνά Ραχήλ Τσαγγάρη-Attenberg
8. Sang-soo Im- The Housemaid
7. Tetsuya Nakashima-Kokuhaku
6. Mark Romanek-Never let me go
5. Jean-Luc Godard- Film Socialisme
4. Apichatpong Weerasethakul-Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives
3. Edgar Wright-Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
2. David Fincher-The Social Network
1. Gaspar Noé-Enter the Void


SCREENPLAYS

10. Please Give-Nicole Holofcener
9. Greenberg-Noah Baumbach
8. True Grit-Joel Cohen, Ethan Cohen
7. Never Let Me Go-Alex Garland
6. Easy A-Bert V. Royal
5. Kokuhkaku-Tetsuya Nakashima
4. The Social Network- Aaron Sorkin
3. Toy Story 3- Michael Arndt
2. Blue Valentine-Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, Joey Curtis
1. L' Illusioniste-Sylvain Chomet, Jacques Tati



LEAD ACTORS




10. Romain Duris- L' Arnacoeur



9. Jesse Eisenberg-The Social Network



8. Μάκης Παπαδημητρίου-Χάρισμα



7. Jeff Bridges-True Grit



6. Éric Elmosnino-Gainsbourg (vie héroïque)



5. Danny Trejo-Machete



4. Colin Firth-The King's Speech



3. Ryan Gosling-Blue Valentine



2. James Franco-The Howl



1. Vincent Gallo-Essential Killing




LEAD ACTRESSES






10. Rinko Kikuchi- Norwegian Wood







9. Jennifer Lawrence- Winter's Bone







8. Jeon Do-yeon- The Housemaid







7. Ariane Labed- Attenberg







6. Jeong-hie Yun- Poetry







5. Takako Matsu- Kokuhaku







4. Michelle Williams- Blue Valentine







3. Hailee Steinfeld-True Grit







2. Emma Stone- Easy A







1. Tilda Swinton- Io Sono L' Amore






BEST MOVIES



20. Des hommes et des dieux.

''Forgive me, Father, for I was bored.''

19. Easy A

''One of the most smug and obnoxiously self-aware films I've ever seen.''

18. Inception.

''One way to salvage some fun with this blunderbuss would be to fall asleep while watching and dream up a better movie yourself. Try it. You'll avoid a headache.''

17. Film Socialisme

''Incomprehensible, incoherent and intolerable.''

16. Les amours imaginaires

''The story feels tired, and the cyclical ending is about as surprising as the calorie count of a Cinnabon.''

15. True Grit

''I see no reason why someone like Sarah Palin would not love this film.''

14. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

''Also versus coherence, versus maturation, versus real emotion''

13. Attenberg

''Too weird for its own good''

12. The Housemaid

''Curiously passe, a luxe exercise in one-note nastiness''

11. L' illusionniste

''A cliché-riddled nostalgia trip''

10. Copie Conforme

''Certified Copy is a fraud as a film.''

9. Uncle Boonmee who can recall his past lives.

''Uncle Boonmee should count himself lucky if none of his future lives include having to watch this movie.''

8. Kokuhaku

''You'll need caffeine on an IV drip to survive it.''

7. Io sono l' amore

''Uncomfortably close to being an extravagantly elongated, Fendi-clad episode of Dynasty.''

6. Never let me go.

''Everything is in its place, including the overly tidied-up meaning.''

5. Toy Story 3.

''So besotted with brand names and product-placement that it stops being about the innocent pleasures of imagination -- the usefulness of toys -- and strictly celebrates consumerism.''

4. Blue Valentine

''Too self-consciously indie-hipster.''

3. Winter's Bone

''A bit of poverty porno''

2. The Social Network

''The genesis of Facebook as weepy bromance''

1. Enter The Void

''Utterly silly excuse for maximum debauchery''

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Gaga goes Kirby?

i'm just saying...

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Shelf Porn

so apparently, this is a thing we're doing today. Ilias Kyriazis challenged me (practically)

so here's (most of) my shelf porn, I've left out the main DVD shelf and some other random comics shelves around the house. cos you can never have enough really, can you?

needless to say, I have too many comics

*annotated for hilarity and OCDness

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FF twitter-craze

"it's hella boring tonight. I'm gonna read the entire Hickman FF run from the start. hells to the yes."

that was me, 6 hours ago, on my new comics-specific twitter account. what followed was a 6-hour long live-tweeting marathon as I read through the last issues of the Mark Millar run and then the entirety of Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four, two years worth of FF stories, and tweeted or twitpic'd every thought or comment going through my head in the process. It's a worthwhile exercise in insanity.

and you should read all about it and tell your friends (cos papa's account is new and he needs more followers)

#ff @theComicsGreek

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Hercporn fanmail

Dear Marvel. As much as I rejoice in the news of the continuation of the overarching Hercules saga by mr Pak and mr Van Lente in a new title with a new #1, and as much as I appreciate the gay overtones in the book's solicitations --

This April prepare for Herc #1 – an explosive new ongoing series from New York Times Best Selling writers Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente and artist Neil Edwards setting Marvel’s baddest bone-breaker loose on a raging one-man beat down of the Marvel Universe’s vicious criminal underground. And he won’t be relying on his fists alone! Armed with the keys to Ares’ abandoned armory, Hercules is ready to unleash three thousand years worth of brawling experience upon his foes while preparing to confront the perils of FEAR ITSELF!

-- I must voice my concerns as per the sudden, and ill-thought-of, surely the product of a momentary lack of good judgement, perhaps following a drinking binge in one of the creator summits or a drunken bar-crawl around San Diego with an assortment of nerds of the heterosexual persuasion, decision to, well... how do I put this...

to clothe him.

I mean, you have a loyal fanbase that has grown accustomed to, nay - I say spoiled by - bare hairy leather-strapped thighs, naked hairy torsos with bulging heroic pecs, ridiculously short manskirts with revealing slits in the front, and a constant barrage of compromising positions that, had they been featuring a female character in similar garb and positioning, would have resulted in an endless storm of menstruation-fueled hate letters from feminist organisations piling up at your doorsteps.

simply put: We want our hercporn back.

signed,

your Mighty Marvel Queers

p.s.

-sigh-

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X-Men Legacy #244

Creepy.

Mike Carey is one of the best horror writers in comics, it's good to see him dusting off some skills in his current x-workload, even if it's for one page. The rest X-Men Legacy #244 has Rogue following the young mutant Blindfold who's following the hints in her precog dream on the first page and questioning various persons of dangerous interest around the island, as a means of tying up (the seemingly un-tieable) events from the last year's worth of storylines on the book (Emplate, Proteus, Sentinel) - and thus producing a linear coherent feel to this title which has suffered lately mostly as a result of being treated by editorial as the perrenial stepchild of the X-Men books - and reintroducing us to some characters that will doubtlessly be the focus of the next few months' worth of stories in the much-anticipated (and very-cool-looking) Age of X storyline. I mean, Dragoness? Whoever dug her up? (and after much deliberation I even spotted Stinger in a panel there.)

The issue is a whole lot of summarisation and exposition and some interestingf character work culminating in an out-of-nowhere nonsensical final battle with...

yes... a giant Spider-Squid. that was kinda cool and random.

p.s. I can't be the only one with severe eye-ache at Rogue's current outfit. I have yet to see a single artist draw it in any pleasing way. Just a great big green eyesore. with cleavage.

burn it!

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find the odd one out

anyone can play along from home. Christos Gage has created in Avengers Academy a fresh batch of riveting and diverse teenage would-be(?)-heroes, and, as is evident from their brief character bios in the issue summary page cropped above, he has smartly used each of their powers as a subtle and powerful metaphor for their personality. well, for the most part. one of them may have just been saddled on him to boost (?) sales through the crossover factor with a currently successful cartoon program. dunno, you figure it out.
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speaking of birds behaving queer...

must be some new batch of Q1N1 avian flu. second hit already this week.

(That is of course the Batman villain 'the Penguin' having a fit in the pages of Gail Simone's as-of-lately very-theme-specific Birds of Prey)

Source: Birds of Prey #8 (DC Comics)

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RuPaul's Duck Race

The financial crisis has hit Duckville the hardest and Donald has had to seek out other, baser, means of employment. No, he's not actually the surprise contestant in the upcoming RuPaul's Drag Race Season 3, but he does somehow (ok, so I didn't actually read the whole issue) end up in a Hollywood flick, in drag, as the leading man's paramour (including an almost inappropriate almost gay kiss).

If there's one thing to take home from this issue, it's that we finally get an answer to the ages-old question: 'What would Donald Duck's drag name be?'

DONNA MOO GOO!



Thank you for this, Boom Studios! When reached for comment backstage , Donald didn't have much more to add than the obvious:




Source: Donald Duck #362 (Boom! Studios)
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Tough Guy Talk circa 2011

to say that the new 'vs vampires' adjectiveless X-MEN book sucks would be both an appropriately cringeworthy pun and an understatement.
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in space noone can hear you bark Cowabanga

When Cosmo, the telepathic commie space dog, surfed through space with the Silver Surfer, silver-shiny-shiny herald of the planet-eater Galactus. Hilarity ensued.


Source: The Thanos Imperative: Devastation #1 (Marvel Comics)
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