LIST WEEK continues here at ONCE UPON A GEEK!  Today’s list comes from the UGO.com and is the ‘Top 50 WTF Moments in Comics‘.  My thanks once again to my buddy ‘lessthan12parsecs’ for posting this list to THE UNIQUE GEEK (given how many funny links he posts, I really can’t see how he has time for anything else).

Here is how they describe ‘WTF Moments in Comics’…

It’s Wednesday. You just plopped down twenty (or more) of your hard earned dollars for this week’s crop of comics. You open up this month’s latest issue of your favorite monthly. When all of the sudden… WTF?! That’s right, something happens to make you lose your $#!t. Whether it be a new costume that’s really an alien or the resurrection of a long dead character, comic books have a long history of turning convention on its ear. Sometimes these moments are great; sometimes, not so much. No matter what the results are, the reaction remains the same. What. The. F*ck?

Great idea for an article!  This is a really fun list.  Just a few good ones to watch for include:

• 43. Fat Evil Scientist Marries Nice Old Lady… GROSS!
• 38. Johnny Storm Cockblocks, Gets What He Deserves
• 34. Bucky Lives! Oh, And He’s A Commie Assassin!
• 30. Publicity Stunt Breaks Batman
• 29. Hey, Captain America! Nice Rack!
• 28. Spider-Man’s Ex Gives His Arch Enemy A “Happy Ending”
• 27. I’M THE GODDAMN BATMAN!
• 25. Magneto Strips Wolverine of his Adamantium: But He’s A Hell Of A Dentist
• 22. Mr. Kirby Goes to DC Comics
• 16. Sidekick Shoots Arrows and Heroine
• 11. Joker Paralyzes Batgirl: Just One Bad Day
• 9. The Death of Supergirl and the Flash: Back When the Word “Crisis” Actually Meant Something
• 8. The Robin That The Fanboys Killed
• 4. Superman Fights Ali: Who Is The Greatest Of All Time?

Click here to read the ‘Top 50 WTF Moments in Comics’.

On an urelated note, sucks about Michael Crichton dying.  He’ll be missed.

Today’s list comes from my buddies over at Old-Wizard.com and is ‘Top 10 Worst Superheroes‘.  While I don’t agree with some of the choices on this list (i.e. Aquaman, Blue Beetle, and Thing), I do find their superhero comments rather funny.

Click here for the ‘Top 10 Worst Superheroes‘.  Thankfully, they were sure to include the Sentry.

Oh yeah, you one more since it’s election day. From Pink Raygun.com, click here for the ‘Top 10 Uses for McCain-Palin Signs‘.  Enjoy!

While at DragonCon this year, I commissioned a sketch from artist David Wong.  I’d seen some of his work in the past at DragonCon and was impressed.  He doesn’t draw comics for the primary publishers, but he appears to make his living off his art.

I just received my commission in the mail.  The image below is Blue Devil (in his classic gear) versus Doctor Fate (with his signature ankh shield).  Both are in my ‘top five favorite characters of all time’ and both happen to be magical, so I thought an image together would make sense.

When I asked for these two characters I didn’t think about the fact that the color scheme would be a bit limited.  Both characters primary colors are blue and gold.  It’s a happy accident that having only two main colors created a nice sense of balance in the sketch.  Also, I feel the artist did a good job using various blues and orange highlights to bring out texture and shading.  Nicely done.

I think the sketch came off pretty well.  The only part I’m slightly disappointed in is Blue Devil’s face.  It just doesn’t seem quite right.  Other than that it looks pretty good.  Doctor Fate looks great!  In an ideal world, Blue Devil would have been sketched by Paris Cullins and Doctor Fate would have been sketched by Walt Simonson.  One can dream…

Next year I gotta figure out a way to get a sketch of Firestorm, Aquaman, and Flash all together.  Hmmm… if only George Perez was coming next year.

Did you notice that Chuck Dixon included one of the ‘Bloodlines’ parasites in his last issue of ‘Batman & the Outsiders’?  Seriously, dude.  I wouldn’t lie to you.  Check out ‘Batman & the Outsiders’ #10.

So do you think that was Dixon’s way of flipping DC the bird, or do you think he was building a story utilizing a completely unexpected antagonist, or perhaps did DC make him include the ‘Bloodlines’ parasite and that is what finally made Dixon quit?  I personally opt for the second.  That’s a pretty bold move drudging up a villain that comes with so much crappy baggage.

If you are not familiar with the ‘Bloodlines’ story that ran through the DC Annuals back in 1993, then you can read about it on Wikipedia by clicking here or at the DC Database by clicking here.  After you finish reading up on ‘Bloodlines’ (or finish digging around in your brain to remember this story), prepare yourself to feel a little queasy. ‘Bloodlines’ really wasn’t a very good story.  There were certainly some clever things that came out of it, but overall the storyline was pretty awful.

Needless to say, I was shocked when one of those parasites showed up in ‘Batman & the Outsiders’.  I imagine Dixon was building to something, given the way it was written.  It’s a shame that Dixon isn’t with DC anymore.  He really was taking his DC books in interesting directions.  I’m bummed that we won’t find out where he was going with the ‘Bloodlines’ parasite, the re-tooled OMAC, and Elongated Man & Sue as the ‘Ghost Detectives’.  It took a writer as good as him to make these types of plotlines interesting.

The first comic I bought as a collector was Secret Wars issue #2 back in sixth grade.  Some of you may recall I wrote a post about this experience back in June.  Before I begin my rant, I want to be sure you understand that Secret Wars issue #2 should in no way to be confused with a completely separate nine-issue comic book limited series entitled Secret Wars II.  That’s important.  Don’t forget that.

The original Secret Wars 12-issue limited series was a solid story and a huge success.  So of course, it spawned a sequel.  Secret Wars II was about the entity that instigated the first Secret Wars, the Beyonder.  The Beyonder visits Earth in search of enlightenment and inevitably comes into conflict with Earth’s superheroes and the cosmic entities that exist in the Marvel Universe.  It’s pretty much universally accepted by fans that Secret Wars II was a poorly executed and poorly written series.

Marvel Comics has announced that in February they will release a new hardcover — Secret Wars II Omnibus.  This omnibus will collect all nine issues of the Secret Wars II mini-series, as well as several of the related crossovers.  All told it will reprint 46 comics, be 1168 pages, and retail for $99.99.

Okay, hopefully you’ve taken a second for all that to sink in.  So I can now say…

WTF, mate?!?!?

Are you serious?  Secret Wars II for $100?  Are they out of their friggin’ minds?  Seriously, dude!  This is an abysmal comic.  In fact, you can pick up almost every issue of Secret Wars II in your local comic book shop for less than $1 an issue (some of the crossovers can be more expensive).

The comics collected in the omnibus include: Secret Wars II issues #1-9; New Mutants #30 and #36-37; Captain America #308; Uncanny X-Men #196 and #202-203; Iron Man #197; Fantastic Four #282, #285, #288 and #316-319; Web of Spider-Man #6; Amazing Spider-Man #268 and #273-274; Daredevil #223; Incredible Hulk #312; Avengers #260-261 and #265-266; Dazzler #40; Alpha Flight #28; Thing #30; Doctor Strange #74; Cloak and Dagger #4; Power Pack #18; Thor #363; Power Man and Iron Fist #121; Peter Parker, Spectacular Spider-Man #111; Defenders #152; Deadpool Team-Up #1 and Quasar #8.

It’s fair to say that while the primary book Secret Wars II was awful, some of the crossover issues were pretty good.  There were really two categories of crossovers.  Crossover issues that REALLY connected to the Secret Wars II plot, and crossover issues that barely paid lip service to Secret Wars II.  For example, while New Mutants #30 was a good comic, the Secret Wars II plot point was resolved in three and a half pages.  Obviously Secret Wars II was not integral to the plot of this comic.

Some comics that tied-in to Secret Wars II really benefited from the connection.  My personal favorites were Web of Spider-Man #6 and Amazing Spider-Man #268.  These comics form a two-part story in which Spider-Man has to deal with the collapse of the skyscraper that the Beyonder turned into gold.  While the Beyonder makes no appearance in these issues, the story does spin directly out of Secret Wars II issue #2.  There are some great moments dealing with moral issues in this one.  The government secures the building made of gold because it’s worried about what the influx of this quantity of gold could do to the world economy.  Spider-Man witnesses the Kingpin receiving pay-offs from government agents, while he himself is shot at for trying to help people.  So in a moment of frustration, Spider-Man takes a golden notebook from the skyscraper.  The moral issue becomes whether Spider-Man has the right to take the gold as compensation (especially since the Kingpin is making a profit from the government).  It’s a well written story by Danny Fingeroth and Tom DeFalco, and is a great example of what classic Spider-Man stories should be like.

A few others worth mentioning are:

• Daredevil #223 written by Denny O’Neil and Jim Shooter in which the Beyonder gives Matt Murdock back his sight.
• Thor #363 and Power Pack #18 in which they battle Kurse, an extra-dimensional Dark Elf whose powers have been amped by the Beyonder.  This is an unlikely, but nice team-up written by the husband and wife team of Walter & Louise Simonson.
• Incredible Hulk #312 written by Bill Mantlo may not have tied closely into Secret Wars II, but was one of the most influential single issues in Hulk’s history.  This story explores in-depth Bruce Banner’s back-story and the horrible relationship he had with his father.  This issue influenced both Peter David’s run on the book and the Ang Lee film.  And it featured art by Mike Mignola prior to his Hellboy work!

There are some other good Secret Wars II crossovers (like the Uncanny X-Men books), but the ones above happen to be favorites.  All of which you can pick up online for a handful of dollars right now.

If you are considering ordering the Secret Wars II omnibus, ask yourself… why on Earth would I pay $100 to read a few good comics and a whole bunch of crappy ones?!?!?!   I recommend you just pick a comic shop (brick-and-mortar or online) and purchase a few of the good crossovers from their back issue selection.  Save your wallet and your brain the pain of the omnibus.  Remember, friends don’t let friends buy bad comics.

Marvels was an award-winning publishing sensation in 1994 that made Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross into stars.  Coming in December is the long-awaited sequel, Marvels: Eye of the Camera by Kurt Busiek and Marvel-newcomer Jay Anacleto.  Now this is a comic worth getting excited about folks!

Marvels examined the Marvel Universe from the perspective of an ‘everyman’, news photographer Phil Sheldon. This street-level series portrayed ordinary life in a world full of costumed supermen, with each issue featuring events well-known to readers of Marvel comics as well as a variety of minute details and retelling the most infamous events in the Marvel Universe. In addition to the strong storytelling, the book featured amazing photo-realistic renderings by Alex Ross which took the comic book reading community by storm.

Here is the description of the six-issue mini-series Marvels: Eye of the Camera from Marvel Comics …

News photographer Phil Sheldon’s back, with the man-on-the-street’s perspective on the big events of the Marvel Universe, from the Avengers, the all-new X-Men and the Secret Wars to Dracula and the Werewolf By Night. But this time, Phil’s world is going to be rocked not just by superheroes and super-villains — but by something far more personal, as well.

This sequel has been in the works for a long time.  Originally it was scheduled to come out in early 2004 (as noted in this Newsarama interview with Kurt Busiek from 2003).  Fast forward nearly five years later and it’s finally ready to hit the shelves!  According to Tom Brevoort, it’s been slowly worked on all this time; they didn’t stop and start, they just didn’t do a lot quickly.  When asked if the plot had remained the same from their original 2004 plan, Brevoort said yes, you could almost go back and reprint the article from five years ago.  Therefore go ahead and read the 2003 Newsarama interview with Kurt Busiek for more details on this series.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera looks to be another phenomenal comic from Kurt Busiek.  In addition to Marvels, Kurt Busiek has written his own fantastic series called Astro City which often features superheroes from the perspective of the ‘everyman’.  Busiek has a special talent for believably showing how superheroes can impact the normal life of the man on the street.

In regard to the artwork, some of you may be thinking that without Alex Ross it won’t be any good.  Admittedly, I was concerned myself when I saw he wasn’t attached to this project.  However, if you look at the three cover images here, I think this project is in good hands with Jay Anacleto.  While he’s different from Ross, Anacleto appears to do a very good job mixing photo-realism with superheroics.

Personally, I almost missed hearing about this series altogether.  Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, but I haven’t seen much publicity surrounding this book.  In fact, the only promotion I’ve seen was the listing in the Marvel Previews catalog.  Surprisingly, it didn’t make the cover (instead we got ‘X-Infernus’ & ‘Punisher War Zone’) and no ads.  If I didn’t catch the listing buried on the bottom of page 41, I wouldn’t have known this was coming out at all. I’m not sure if the lack of promotion was simply an oversight from Marvel, or if they are hesitant about this series for some reason.  I imagine Marvel is worried that without Alex Ross this new mini-series might fail.  Or perhaps they are concerned about this book shipping on time.  During an August interview with Brevoort, he indicated that Anacleto was halfway through drawing issue #5.  Sure hope he can finish in time.  If he took five years to draw four and a half issues, who knows how long it will take him to finish issues five and six.

I am sincerely looking forward to this series.  I recommend to everyone who has read Marvels to at least give this book a shot.  If you haven’t read Marvels… then you’re broken.  Plain and simple. Go buy a copy right now and come back when you are fixed. 

Visit us here at ONCE UPON A GEEK tomorrow when we talk about another publication from Marvel that is equally as memorable as Marvels, but not remembered nearly as fondly…

Dude, I’m totally jazzed!  It’s just been announced that DC Direct will be producing a Blue Devil action figure!  That’s right, because I demanded it!  Yup, just me.  I can’t imagine anyone else besides me has been clamoring for this.  Blue Devil just so happens to be one of my top five favorite superheroes of all time.

The figure is part of the new “History of the DC Universe” line from DC Direct.  These Series One figures are due in stores on June 10, 2009.  … … Seriously, dude … … June 2009?  You’re killing me!  I can’t wait that long.  I guess I’ll just have to play with my Justice League Unlimited Blue Devil figure until then. 

I’m not entirely sure that I love the face on this prototype figure.  My hope is that the final figure’s face will look slightly more like the comic character.  I love that the figure is patterned on his classic costume.  While his Shadowpact garb is pretty tough looking, I prefer Blue Devil’s original blue & gold suit.  Just for fun, here are a couple classic covers from the Blue Devil comic books series.  Sooner or later, I’m going to write a few posts here about the wonder that is Blue Devil and why he deserves to be one of my top five favorite superheroes of all time.

Blue Devil’s first appearance is below.  I’m a sucker for this comic.  Typically when I stumble across this comic in a quarter/fifty cent bin, I end up buying it.  Even though I know I’ve got a handful of copies of this comic already.  It’s a sickness.

Here is Blue Devil #6.  Around this time it was established that Blue Devil had become a weirdness magnet. Lots of fun hijinks came out of that plot thread.  I’ve always loved Blue Devil’s facial expression and clean lines on this cover.  Just a really nice piece.

Okay, back to the action figures… Here is the official information from the DC Direct website about the new figures:

HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE: SERIES 1

BASED ON THE ART OF GEORGE PÉREZ

The first in an ongoing line of action figures that spans the broad history of the DC Universe, as presented by artist George Pérez in the classic book HISTORY OF THE DC UNIVERSE!

Planned to include more characters than any DC Direct line ever, this series will feature characters from a variety of teams and eras, as well as some renegade solo characters.

The History of the DC Universe will undoubtedly increase the breadth of DC characters available as action figures, while satisfying many oft-requested fan favorite characters.

Here is a shot of the rest of the figures in Series One of the History of the DC Universe line.  I can’t wait!

I recently recorded an episode of Views from the Longbox with Michael Bailey in which we covered the 1988 story “Batman: Death in the Family“.  The episode should be available for download within in a few weeks.  “Death in the Family” is the story in which the second Robin, Jason Todd, was murdered by the Joker.  … Sorry if I spoiled anything for you there.  You should probably be caught up enough in your reading to know about that. If not, my bad. I mean, it only came out 20 years ago.

Reading that story inspired me next to re-read the 1989 stories “Batman: Year Three” and “Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying“.  “Batman: Year Three” chronicles the third year of Batman’s crime fighting life, the year Dick Grayson came to live with him and became Robin.  Published immediately after “Batman: Year Three”  was “Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying”.  That story is set in modern times and tells the story of teenager Tim Drake and his desperate attempt to reunite Batman and Dick Grayson (now known as Nightwing).  During his quest, Tim Drake finds himself becoming the newest Robin.

So I’m only two issues into my new reading assignment, but I just gotta rave about “Batman: Year Three”  — well, at least Parts 1 & 2.  Wow!  What great comics!  First off, check out the amazing cover below for Part 1.  George Perez did an outstanding job depicting the death of Dick Grayson’s parents, while wrapping other story elements around the image.  Just a truly iconic cover.

The inside isn’t disappointing either.  Pat Broderick’s interior art is impressive!  His facial expressions always communicate exactly what the character is feeling.  He is also a master of creating a sense of motion in his work.  Finally, in this comic there are typically 6 panels per page (some with as many as 10 panels).  This is something you just don’t see in modern comics any more.  The panel per page count is WAY down nowadays.

The reoccurring theme throughout “Batman: Year Three” is that Batman is over the edge.  Just months before, Batgirl was crippled by the Joker.  Shortly after that, Robin was murdered.  Batman is mentally traumatized and descending into a brutal existence.  Despite a long-standing strained parental relationship, Dick Grayson returns to try and help Batman mentally recover.  This provides the framework to tell how Dick Grayson came to live with Bruce Wayne and eventually became Robin.

I won’t go into too much detail here because we’re going to review these stories on an upcoming “Views from the Longbox” podcast.  However, I have to compliment Marv Wolfman for putting together a phenomenal story.  It’s structured incredibly well with three intertwining plots — Batman trying to stop an organized crime killing spree, Dick Grayson trying to reach Batman emotionally, and Alfred doing what he feels is right to protect his loved ones.

Each issue is packed with story and you walk away feeling like your time was definitely worth it.  This is Marv Wolfman at the top of his game.  It’s a real shame “Batman: Year Three” has never been collected into a trade paperback.  I guess it probably never will be now, since the more recent “Batman: Dark Victory” provides a slightly different origin for Dick Grayson’s Robin.

If you don’t own these issues, you can pick them up dirt cheap at Mile High Comics right now.  “Batman: Year Three” runs through  Batman issues #436-#439.  Seriously, at the time of this writing you can buy all four issues from Mile High for a combined total of $3.05 plus shipping.  If you also want to pick up “Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying”, that story runs through Batman issues #440-442, and New Titans issues #60-61.  That story will set you back a whopping $5.20 plus shipping (at the time of this writing).  It’s a great time to buy back issues if you are interested.

If you already own these issues, I highly recommend you dig them out and re-read them.  I think you’ll  find a satisfying story that offers a quality and quantity that seems to be lacking in most comics nowadays.

The new cartoon “Batman: The Brave and the Bold” is beginning to look like awesome!  Check out this teaser trailer below.  The music has me totally groovin’!  If you can’t see the embedded video, click here.

How cool does that look?!?!  I know many of us believed this cartoon would be for little kids (like the “Super Friends” action figure line), but I gotta say after seeing this trailer it looks pretty interesting.  For most of us geeks, nothing will ever compare to “Batman: The Animated Series”.  However, I think this show has a chance of being great with a different kind of Batman.  At first glance, it looks like this cartoon will embrace the kookiness of the 1960’s TV Batman, and meld it with modern action and fun superheroics.  How can it not be awesome with fantastic guest stars like Green Arrow (Van dyke-less), Blue Beetle (the new BB), Plastic Man, the Atom, Red Tornado, and Aquaman?

I’m willing to give this new cartoon a chance to win over my heart.  And if the music in this trailer is indicative of the music in the series, then it had me at “Hello”.

My thanks to EDP over at “I don’t read my blog either” for posting this video and making me realize how cool this series could be.

Just a heads-up… I’ve been horribly negligent and haven’t mentioned the podcasts I’ve appeared in recently.

The Unique Geek Issue #76 features the usual gang as we discuss what we were looking forward to at DragonCon 2008 (obviously recorded prior to the event).

The Unique Geek Issue #78 features audio recorded while the Unique Geeks were on-site at DragonCon.  We recorded the audio by just putting a digital recorder down and forgetting about it (most of the time). So you will hear a bunch of background noise, but there is some good stuff in there. This is one of those ‘casts that you just play in the background while doing any number of more important things. You can hear exciting things like how much to tip a “special” masseuse, Ravenface and myself arguing about Star Wars (I was right!), and Jon making coffee.

Views from the Longbox Episode 51 & Episode 52 feature Michael and I giving our recap of DragonCon 2008.  In these podcasts we discuss things like the dealers room, why Laurell K. Hamilton is awesome, why Mai Tais are now the official drink of the Unique Geek, art sketchs we commissioned, what happened Sunday night after Michael left,  and the unfortunate death of Michael’s grandfather while we were at the con.

Be sure to check out these podcasts and the rest of The Unique Geek & Views from the Longbox podcasts.