RED ROBIN #13
WRITTEN BY FABIAN NICIEZA
ART BY MARCUS TO

It looks like Franken-Castle isn’t the only character with a ‘Hit List’ last week in comics.

Red Robin’s second year of publication begins with the return of former Robin writer, Fabian Nicieza, and his ‘Hit List.’ While I haven’t read Nicieza’s take on Robin, from what I could gather from this book, it looks like he’s picking up where he left off with Tim Drake while incorporating former writer Christopher Yost’s ideas into the mix and that’s always a good thing.

This issue pretty much reads like a debut issue for a new title, showing us the current status quo, introducing the characters to newer readers and giving us an idea where the next few issues might be going. In that sense, this is pretty much a solid issue that accomplishes everything that it sets out to do. The highlight for me is how Nicieza handles the dynamics between the family of Batman characters in Gotham.

It’s no secret that Bruce has amassed a pretty large brood of characters in Gotham City and, save for Daniel’s Batman, they rarely ever interact with each other. Nicieza rectifies that by incorporating all these characters into this book. He even adds to that by reminding readers that Drake and Grayson have ties to other DC Universe books by bringing up the Justice League of America and Teen Titans in conversations between characters.

Oh, and speaking of conversation, his dialogue is pretty good. He even continues the trend of Damian being absolutely awesome in all of his guest appearances outside Batman and Robin [well, barring that horrible moment in Battle for the Cowl - but that didn't happen].

Like I said on the previews, Marcus To is a great artist and it’s amazing that he still hasn’t skipped an issue ever since he started a 8 or so issues ago. He makes everyone look like a million bucks and I’d be glad if he got more higher profile work after he finishes up his run in Red Robin.

This is how you reinvigorate interest in your run on a title after taking the baton from a [arguably] bigger name. Nicieza outlines everything he wants to do with that title in that final page, which you can check out here, and I honestly can’t wait to see where he goes with this title. It’s not going to be the biggest, most important Bat-book in the stands, but it’s going to be the one that has ties to all of them while still having solid writing and solid art. This is most definitely a book to watch.

RED HOOD: THE LOST DAYS #1 (of 6)
WRITTEN BY JUDD WINICK
ART BY PABLO RAIMONDI

Judd Winick is a controversial figure in comics. I’ve seen a lot of hate for him online thanks to his runs on The Outsiders, Titans and even his work on Green Arrow. However, I can’t really hate the man because I think he’s churned out the best Jason Todd stories since his resurrection by retcon punch in Infinite Crisis. I absolutely loved his ‘Under the Hood’ and I absolutely can’t wait to see it animated as the DC Animated Universe’s newest feature film.

With the feature film due in a few short months, it’s no surprise Winick’s penning another Red Hood story to ‘tie-in’ with it. Unsurprisingly, this is very good stuff from Winick. However, this story doesn’t really feature Jason Todd, in fact he doesn’t even have a speaking role in this issue, instead it fills in the gaps from Batman Annual #25, I think, and tells the story completely from Talia Al Ghul’s  point-of-view.

It’s easily the best I’ve seen her written in quite a long time and it really lays out her motivations for what she did and why she decided to use the Lazarus Pit to give Jason back his memories. However, I feel like I’ve seen most of this book before in various snippets from both volumes of Under the Hood. While it’s nice to see them cast in a new light, it is also disappointing to find out that we’re not getting a lot of ‘new’ material here.

Despite my minor problems with the script, Winick’s collaborator, Paolo Ramiondi, is a very, very good artist. If you saw the previews at the back of most of DC’s books this week, you’ll know that the art is very, very solid and he’s able to keep that quality up for the rest of the book. I’ve never heard of him before, but you can rest assured that after his performance here, I’ll be looking out for his name on the stands.

This reads much better as a companion piece to Under the Hood so I think I’d much rather wait for the collected edition for this series. Despite DC’s atrocious schedule for their collections [two years before I get a trade of the Sinestro Corps War, really?] I think that this story will read better as a cohesive whole side-by-side with Winick’s original Red Hood tale.

Despite how tired and overused the image of Batman leaping through the rooftops of Gotham is, Jock makes it fresh by capturing Batman in mid-jump. In the cover, we barely get a glimpse of him but the silhouette produced is more than enough to make me thing ‘Batman’ without actually seeing him. It kind of reminds me of Paul Pope’s approach to the character in Batman: Year 100, where nobody, even the reader at times, really gets a good look at Batman – which really makes sense if you think about it. The lens flare is a nice touch as it accentuates, for me at least, the ‘street’ feel of the entire cover. I can almost see a snippet of this cover being taken and turned into a front page photograph for a Gotham tabloid – ‘BATMAN: THREAT OR MENACE’ [sorry, JJ]. This also makes me wonder why still haven’t seen a ‘MARVELS’ for the DC Universe, I’d love to see a tale like that.

Check out the entire cover behind the cut, folks.

Recently, unconfirmed, but still very convincing, photos of the movie logos for Green Lantern and Thor surfaced online. The Green Lantern logo came along with a poster featuring the tagline ‘Anyone Can Be Chosen.’ While the tagline might be slightly inaccurate – because technically not everyone can be a Green Lantern – it’s still an incredibly intelligent marketing ploy.

I can honestly see people [and kids!] eating that up and buying merchandise just to become ‘part of Corps.’ What are the chances we’ll be seeing novelty rings sold around toy stores around the time of the movie’s release? I know I’d like to get my hands on better versions of the Green Lantern power ring. Perhaps I could finally get a lightup one for a reasonable price point.

Tagline and marketing possibilities aside, the logo itself is a little underwhelming. I find that the imagery they used for the Lantern looks pretty weird. I get what they’re trying to do, making the flat lantern shape look a little more like a cross between the classic and the modern. But I don’t think the inner green ring really works. To me, it ends up looking more like a lime lifesaver than a power battery for the universe’s most powerful weapon. I’d much prefer it if they kept it simple and ditched the inner entirely or if they gave the image more depth much like the classic lantern.

Thor’s logo, on the other hand, is really simple and plain. However, I find it really interesting that they’re going for a more space-y feel than a Nordic one. If this is the real deal, what are the chances that this means that Thor isn’t a divine god and more of an advanced warrior race similar to Orion of the New Gods? If you were trying to ground things, I’d definitely say that advanced alien civilizations are much easier to swallow than full-on gods, so I really wouldn’t mind the change to the origin story. It would explain why Thor’s body armor looks a little more different and intricate than what you’d normally expect from a Norse god.

Interestingly enough, the movie logo they’re using doesn’t resemble the more traditional logo they unveiled a few years ago when they first showed their plan to do The Avengers in 2012. Perhaps this means we’ll be getting new logos for Captain America and The Avengers soon as they inch closer to their release dates.

If you’re hankering for better quality pictures, check out /Film for Green Lantern’s [they even have the poster with the tagline over here] and ComicBookMovie for Thor’s.

BRIGHTEST DAY #3
WRITTEN BY GEOFF JOHNS and PETER J. TOMASI
ART BY IVAN REIS, PATRICK GLEASON, ARDIAN SYAF, SCOTT CLARK and JOE PRADO

Y’know, for an issue entitled ‘Revelations,’ there sure isn’t a lot of stuff going on in this issue. It’s basically the same thing we’ve seen for the past two issues: Deadman is ‘porting around and clueless, Aquaman is confused about his dead fish and Ronnie and Jason are still pissed at each other although it seems their dynamic might be changing pretty soon. The Hawks and J’onn’s stories, on the other hand, are moving pretty well considering how many pages they seem to be getting every week. While I like J’onn’s story, I still can’t seem to get into the Hawks’ tale at all which is quite a shame.

I really don’t understand why it’s taking so long to get actual answers and give us some plotline progression for the other stories. It makes we wonder if this series would’ve benefited if it focused on two or three of the characters an issue instead of using all of them at the same time. I mean, we still haven’t seen a follow up on the first issue’s cliffhanger with Black Manta two issues later – and that’s really annoying considering how excited I was to see more of that play out. Perhaps if they alternated a bit with the page allocation, I might be enjoying this series better.

It also makes me wonder if I would’ve enjoyed the Brightest Day better if they just ditched the weekly series format altogether and instead made a spin-off series for each and every character currently attached to the series right now. Perhaps they could have experimented with a format similar to Seven Soldiers of Victory. I know I’d be more inclined to give an Aquaman mini by Geoff Johns a shot rather than something like this.

While I’ve been praising the art team on this series so far, I have to say I’m quite confused with what happened to the art on Firestorm’s story. The backgrounds look terrible. I didn’t notice them before but they really bothered me now and it’s really disappointing to find a chink on the single part of the series that I found to be really, really exceptional.

This is definitely the last issue of Brightest Day I’m going to picking up. I’ve given this series four shots and it’s only really impressed me once. Perhaps it’ll be a little different when it gets a little more steam a few months from now, maybe I’ll give it another shot then – but right now, it’s definitely not worth my time and my money.

I AM going to one tomorrow, though. And, judging by what my dentist told me, I might be completely out of it tomorrow after the entire procedure is done. What does that mean? No reviews tomorrow.

I might be able to get up a Brightest Day #3 review up later tonight if I have the time. But if I don’t, well – let’s just say that I didn’t enjoy it and I’m not bothering with it anymore after this one. Would anybody like to make suggestions for two other titles to fill in the void this series leaves?

Oh, and depending on how bad I feel tomorrow [by that, I mean if I'm totally out of it], the reviews for Red Hood: The Lost Days #1 and Red Robin #13 may or may not come sometime next week as a new edition of [really] Late Reviews. Apologies folks, I hope you bear with me.

The scan, which isn’t mine, is the unfortunately cancelled Blue Beetle series, specifically issue #16. Check it out folks, it’s really a great series – especially when Rogers completely took over the title.

Well, if you said no to any of those – you’re in luck, because I’ve gathered both images under one post in an awesome COSTUME DOUBLE FEATURE. Check both of the images out behind the cut.

Click to embiggen, folks.

Yeah, that’s pretty awesome wasn’t it? Hankering for more? Check out a few more better, bigger and awesome images from Ain’t it Cool News [for Cap] and Collider [for Thor].

I’m really digging both of the costumes we got here. Captain America’s outfit looks like a really cool, Ultimized version of his Ultimates costume, if that makes any sense. I also like how they somehow incorporated the stripes motif without literally putting the stripes in.

It really looks practical, if not a little bulky. Still, I’m sure a Super Soldier like Cap would still be able to move with relative ease despite the inherent bulkiness of his suit.

As for, Thor. I’m still a little surprised with how much it looks like his 616 outfit. I know we’ve seen part of the costume on Hemsworth before, but it’s still a little shocking to me how much it resembles Olivier Coipel’s redesign.

Oh, and check out Mjolinir, folks – THAT looks pretty awesome. I can’t wait to see him lug it around and bash faces in with it.

I also find it quite strange that we still haven’t seen his helmet yet. Personally, I love the helmet and I hope that they haven’t done away with it altogether.

Also, I find the armor interesting because it looks less like something you’d see on a Norse Warrior god and more of something you’d see on a technologically advanced race. I don’t really feel like speculating, but what are the chances that we’ll see a cross between his Ultimate and 616 origin for the movie?

Well folks, with that Green Lantern post I did awhile ago, I’ve pretty much covered all three major comic book movies coming out on 2011. I have to say, I’m excited for all of them and it totally sucks that 2011 feels like an eternity away.

I know I just said it, but man – now more than ever, it’s a really, really good time to be a comic book fan, wouldn’t you say?

I mean, seriously – check the synopsis out it just reeks of Johns:

“In a universe as vast as it is mysterious, a small but powerful force has existed for centuries. Protectors of peace and justice, they are called the Green Lantern Corps. A brotherhood of warriors sworn to keep intergalactic order, each Green Lantern wears a ring that grants him superpowers. But when a new enemy called Parallax threatens to destroy the balance of power in the Universe, their fate and the fate of Earth lie in the hands of their newest recruit, the first human ever selected: Hal Jordan.

Hal is a gifted and cocky test pilot, but the Green Lanterns have little respect for humans, who have never harnessed the infinite powers of the ring before. But Hal is clearly the missing piece to the puzzle, and along with his determination and willpower, he has one thing no member of the Corps has ever had: humanity. With the encouragement of fellow pilot and childhood sweetheart Carol Ferris (Blake Lively), if Hal can quickly master his new powers and find the courage to overcome his fears, he may prove to be not only the key to defeating Parallax…he will become the greatest Green Lantern of all. “

Now that isn’t all of the synopsis and if you want to see everything check it out over here from ComicBookMovie.com the site that confirmed the authenticity of the synopsis in the first place.

While the synopsis given seems a little different from what I expected it to be, I still think we’ll be seeing something pretty close to what we’ve got going on in Green Lantern proper right now.

Between this, Captain America and Thor, 2011 looks like a pretty awesome time to be a comic book fan, wouldn’t you say? I absolutely can’t wait to see some epic 3-D ring-slinging action and crazy CGI for Parallax [hopefully he doesn't get Galactus'd] when this movie hits theaters next year.

Actually, I was thinking of not even bothering with the previews considering that THIS is by far the smallest week I’ve ever had since I started collecting two years ago. With only one major release from DC, which I’m kinda iffy with, on my pull list this week, I might consider picking up a few other titles just so I have more things on my plate to read and perhaps even review.

Hit the jump button to see what I’m picking up this week and if you’re interested, why not drop me a comment and tell me what you’re picking up as well.

BRIGHTEST DAY #3
WRITTEN BY GEOFF JOHNS and PETER J. TOMASI
ART BY IVAN REIS, PATRICK GLEASON, ARDIAN SYAF, SCOTT CLARK and JOE PRADO
$2.99 for 32 pgs.

Like I said a few weeks ago when I reviewed the last issue, this issue is probably going decide this title’s future on my pull list. While I enjoyed the first issue, partly because of Ivan Reis’ wonderful, wonderful Aquaman art, the other stories didn’t really grab me as something I’d want to read every other week. The second issue confirmed my problems and really just showed me that I’m not going to enjoy anything other than the Aquaman feature.

Normally, I’d have dropped the title after a lackluster second issue, but I really think that Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi can do much, much better than this and up to now I’m still holding out that this might be the one that’ll lay my fears to rest and blow my mind with undistilled awesome. Still, despite my faith in Johns and Tomasi, I really don’t think I should be spending my money on a series that continues to disappoint me while I continually hope for it to get better. So I’m drawing the line with this issue, let’s hope it’s good DC.

Check out the preview directly from The Source by clicking over here.

ON THE MAYBE LIST

RED ROBIN #13
WRITTEN BY FABIAN NICIEZA
ART BY MARCUS TO
$2.99 for 32 pgs.

I really enjoyed the finale for Christopher Yost’s run last issue. So much so that I’m really interested in seeing where Fabian Nicieza will be taking this series for it’s second year.

While I don’t know how he did in his run on ROBIN before it ended a year ago, I do know that his work was the only thing worth reading during DC’s abysmal BATTLE FOR THE COWL crossover event.

That’s more than enough to convince me to give his debut issue a shot. I mean, if he could make me tolerate BATTLE FOR THE COWL, he’ll probably make RED ROBIN the greatest thing ever. And if he doesn’t, at the very least this issue will look good thanks to the very capable Marcus To.

Check out the preview, also from The Source, by clicking over here.

RED HOOD: THE LOST DAYS #1 (of 6)
WRITTEN BY JUDD WINICK
ART BY PABLO RAIMONDI
$2.99 for 32 pgs.

Judd Winick writing Jason Todd again. That’s all DC had to tell me to get me interested in this series. Despite what others might think, I feel that Winick’s the only writer whose written Jason Todd properly ever since his resurrection at the end of Infinite Crisis. The only thing that’s stopping me from picking this up is the fact that I think this will read better as a collected edition rather than a monthly series. I might as well pick it up just so I can review more than one book come Thursday.

Check out the preview and the very awesome art from Raimondi by clicking over here.

While the teasers from ComicBookResources.com seem to harken to something a little less cynical or a little more ‘lighty brighty,’ if you will, the title of the comic certainly gives off an opposing feeling. I hope I’m wrong because I’d love to see Millar do some traditional, black-and-white super heroics for a change.

Also, I do have to say that it’s quite nice to see Leinil getting a really huge project to his name. While his Secret Invasion gig was pretty big, I’d say that actually owning a comic book with someone like Mark Millar is a bigger feat than that. Congratulations to him.

Anyway, this looks pretty interesting. Then again, Nemesis sounded pretty awesome on paper and fell pretty flat when it actually came out. Speaking of which, whatever happened to Nemesis? Has the second issue even come out yet? Either way, I’m hoping for the best for Superior – I’d love to see Millar in top form again.

So, here’s to another month of posts and I hope you guys will stay tuned for more. Oh, and thanks for reading guys, I really appreciate it.