The leisurely comic discussion thread

[Stavros]

How hard do nipples have to be to poke through leather? And oddly enough, she's the only one drawn that way. So in the DCU cotton and Spandex are more ridged than leather.

He's certainly drawn her costume ridged. I think you meant to say that leather should be more rigid than cotton or spandex.

Theories. Kryptonian women from that reality lack nipples, Zatanna cast a spell by saying selppin edih. What you can't tell is that Vixen is actually using her animal powers right there and has 6 nipples, so the total for the group is actually fine.

[SuaveStar]

What you can't tell is that Vixen is actually using her animal powers right there and has 6 nipples, so the total for the group is actually fine.

Dear god, it's total recall all over again...

[Missy]

Yeah, I meant rigid.

[Koete]

Amazon has a bunch of Marvel Omnibi for $15.Probably a pricing error, but hey, it's worth a shot.

[KnightWing]

Amazon has a bunch of Marvel Omnibi for $15.Probably a pricing error, but hey, it's worth a shot.

HOLY F!

I think I need to buy me some omnibi.

[Koete]

I ordered Invincible Iron Man Omnibus Vol. 1 and The Death of Captain America Omnibus, fingers crossed they go through.

[Dread]

Amazon has a bunch of Marvel Omnibi for $15.Probably a pricing error, but hey, it's worth a shot.

Wait. Acts of Vengeance Omnibus? Oh God...

[KnightWing]

I'm kinda wanting that Ultimates Omnibus. The Ultimate U may have gone down the drain after awhile, but its early days were glorious.

[dc20willsave]

It's taking me screaming at myself that I'm drunk not to buy the Howard the Duck omnibus. Yeah, I get more responsible when I'm drunk. I'm fucked up like that.

[Stavros]

I got four of them, even allowing for international shipping and the fact that between all four of them it'll be about 6 weeks for delivery its still worthwhile to get that many for about £50. I got DD by Bendis Vol 2, DD by Brubaker Vol 1, The Death of Captain America and the Invincible Iron Man.

Even if I didn't want them in the end I could resell those badboys for 3-4 times what I paid for them.

[dc20willsave]

Some of the Omnibuses have been marked down to 8.24.

[Koete]

Did another order for The Complete Invincible Library Vol. 1 and Madman Gargantua. They'll probably be cancelled, but eh, why not.

[dc20willsave]

Did another order for The Complete Invincible Library Vol. 1 and Madman Gargantua. They'll probably be cancelled, but eh, why not.

Got the Invincible Library also in addition to the Ultimates Omnibus.

[Stavros]

If I didn't already own all the Invincible trades I'd be mad tempted to buy those Omnibi. If I hadn't already ordered four books I might still have.

[Koete]

My Death of Captain America Omnibus has been marked as being prepared for shipment and cannot be canceled or changed.

[Stavros]

My Death of Captain America Omnibus has been marked as being prepared for shipment and cannot be canceled or changed.

They aren't allowed to refuse an order that's been made unless they can't get the stock as far as I know.

[SuaveStar]

Prices are back up. Sale over.

[dc20willsave]

I haven't gotten an e-mail canceling the order yet and my invoice hasn't changed so I think everything is going good.

[Koete]

They've charged me for The Death of Captain America Omnibus so far.

[Missy]

Damn. I was waiting 'til this evening to order the books.

[Koete]

When Omnibi are $15 and $9, you can't wait.

[SuaveStar]

Damn. I was waiting 'til this evening to order the books.

Same.

[SuaveStar]

It’s go time, folks.

Starting in July with SUPERMAN #701 and WONDER WOMAN #601, superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski — a man who’s created layered and compelling characters and worlds on the big screen, on television and across the comic book spectrum — dives head-first into the DC Universe by taking the ongoing writing reins for two-thirds of the fabled DCU trinity.

We’ll have more details about who’ll be teaming with JMS on both titles — not to mention the exciting new directions he’ll be pointing our heroes toward — in the coming months. But today is about JMS and how he sees these great characters and what they stand for.

Later today we’ll be posting an essay from the writer, nailing in a few paragraphs what makes the Man of Steel and Wonder Woman such important parts of our cultural mythology. In my day-to-day here at DC, I see a lot of amazing things cross my desk. Images, new titles, plot directions, you name it. But this essay is something special. It had me rooting for these characters in a whole new way. It’s that good.

But before we get there, let’s touch base with JMS about this news. Take it away, sir:

“For as long as I’ve been doing conventions (starting in the early Cretaceous period, when it was just me and a handful of pterosaurs on a panel debating whether or not mammals with opposable thumbs were really necessary to the writing of quality comics, a point still hotly debated today), there has always been the same question from folks in the audience: “Is there any one character who is your dream character to write for?” The answer has always been the same: Superman. When I first came over to DC, that dream was realized in part by Dan DiDio’s gracious invitation to write the first of potentially many Superman original graphic novels. Now the dream has come fully true with the opportunity to write for the mainstream title, in a story that returns Superman to his roots in a way that will have the whole country talking about him in ways that we haven’t seen in a long time.

Similarly, the chance to write Wonder Woman — the nearest analogue to Superman in the DCU — is massively exciting. She’s a vital, powerful character, and we hope to bring a more contemporary sensibility to her character will retaining everything that makes her unique.

That DC is willing to jump-start these two runs in the pages of their respective anniversary issues is a great opportunity and a vote of confidence in what we have planned for these characters. I’m looking forward to this with more excitement than words can convey.

It’s gonna be a blast.”

And

One of my very earliest memories as a child is of watching one of the Superman cartoons created by Max Fleischer. In particular, a scene where Superman puts his cape around Lois Lane to protect her from an incoming tide of molten metal. I imprinted on that image like a baby duck, and a lot of what I laughingly call my personality was formed in that moment (which is why a cel-recreation of that image is one of the first things you see upon entering my home, before you get to the row of wall after wall covered with artwork by Alex Ross, Curt Swan and others, as well as just about every bit of Superman memorabilia ever produced).

As a kid growing up in the mean streets of New Jersey, Superman was an icon for me. It was a tough life: we moved about 21 times in my first 17 years, we didn’t have much money, and every day was a struggle. When I told grown-ups that I was going to be a writer someday, nobody listened, nobody thought I had a chance, because as far as teachers were concerned, kids like me who came from nowhere and nothing were dead-enders, destined to end up working at the gas station at best or in jail at worst. Writers were supposesd to be Ivory Tower guys with leather patches on the elbows of their smoking jackets, who went to the right schools and came from the right families. I lived in the world of No, a place populated by bullies and street fights and tenements, with no possibility of escape.

But Superman…see, Superman could do anything. If there was someplace he didn’t want to be, he could just fly away. And he couldn’t be hurt, which to a kid who got beat up pretty regularly in fights and elsewhere was a pretty attractive idea. Superman taught me the morals and ethics I draw up on to this day: to play fair, not to lie, and to be willing to put yourself between harm and those you care about.

If Superman could do anything, then maybe I had a chance. Maybe I could become a writer. Maybe I could even learn to fly. That symbol, the S, became a badge for me, and growing up I always made sure I had it somewhere on me, like a shaman’s charm. That may sound silly, and from a grown-up perspective it probably is silly, but as Henry Kissinger once said, it has the added benefit of being true. And it helped me get through the hard times, which is why I continue that practice to this day…right now it’s on a key-chain in my pocket.

For me, and I suspect for a lot of people, that symbol stands for the belief in our own potentiality, in what we think we can do, and try, and aspire to. I was watching the news recently, and they were showing Palistinian protests, followed by a story on the night life scene in LA, and later on, a live report from London about somethingorother…and in the background of each of those stories there was somebody wearing a Superman t-shirt or cap. It’s universal.

And there’s a reason for that, a secret no one knows, but I’ll tell you, because of how long I’ve known you, and our longstanding friendship.

And the secret is this:

The Superman symbol is Kryptonian for No Limits.

And whether or not you speak Kryptonian (or Kryptonese), you know that…you know that deep inside, where even the cynicism of the world cannot reach.

I’ve told this story before in other places, so at risk of being redundant…back a few years ago, I was at the Chicago Comic Con when a guy in his 20s grabbed a bunch of expensive stuff off a table in the dealer’s room and made a run for it. The ownere ran after him down the aisle, yelling “stop him!” As he came in my direction, everybody parted like the Red Sea.

I brought him down like a gazelle, and we held him untnil the police showed up.

Afterward, one of the con organizers said to me, “Why’d you do that? He’s a big guy, you could’ve gotten hurt.”

And I pointed to where I’d been standing when it happened: right in front of a ten-foot-tall cutout of Superman. “How could I stand in front of that, in front of him,” I said, “and do nothing?”

As Superman has been for me, so Wonder Woman has been for a lot of women readers, so the chance to dive into that character is something I’m eagerly anticipating. This is a strong, mythic, powerful character who for some time now has been kind of drowning under the weight of her own mythos, so I’m looking forward to paring away some of the layers of debris and undergrowth that have piled up around her in order to get to the core of the character. Coming from the world of TV and film, the first rule you learn is to service the main character more than anything else, so I’ll be writing with an eye firmly fixed on that rule.

As part of that process, we’re going to be looking more closely at how Wonder Woman appears, and functions, and her role in the DCU…and what we have planned will, we hope, come across as dynamic and powerful as she deserves to be.

Similarly, we plan to bring Superman back to his roots, to really explore who he is…how he sees us, and how we see him, in a much more personal way than we’ve seen in a while. This is part of a larger effort that will have national ramifications, but I can’t say much more about it than that for now. Keep an eye on this website for more information when the time is right…but for now, let’s just say that Superman may be a lot closer in proximity to you, the reader, than you ever guessed.

To kick off both efforts by appearing in the anniversary issues of these two characters is a great opportunity, and a good jumping-on point for readers.

If there’s any other message in this to readers, it’s in these two characters as icons of hope, that it doesn’t make any difference where you come from, or where you went to school, or who you are, there’s hope. That a kid from Jersey with Superman as the icon that kept him alive for years would one day end up writing the character is as absoutely unlikely as it is utterly inevitable. And if that’s true for me, it’s true for you, if you follow your dreams and your passions in full flight.

Don’t give up.

No Limits.

It’s never too late to learn to fly.

J. Michael Straczynski

DC source

[KnightWing]

O_O

...

...JMS ON SUPERMAN AND WONDER WOMAN?!?!?

My every prayer has now been answered.

That being said, though, it's slightly odd that he'll now be writing both the ongoing Superman comic and the Superman: Earth One graphic novels. Will they really be that different?

[SuaveStar]

That being said, though, it's slightly odd that he'll now be writing both the ongoing Superman comic and the Superman: Earth One graphic novels. Will they really be that different?

He'll start from scratch with E-1, he can have his own continuity going on. With the main book, he has to follow up on all the war of the supermen and 100,000 Kryptonian shite.