It looks like Terry Dodson will quit not-drawing Wonder Woman for DC to start drawing Uncanny X-Men for Marvel. Why the move? “I get paid more,” he explained, jokingly. (God, I hope he was joking). Like a lot of “exclusives” though, this one just excludes him from working with DC, not other publishers who aren’t Marvel, which seems to be a major reason why he took it.

Apparently he’ll be doing every other arc, switching back and forth with another artists. I’ve long thought
that getting two or more artists with similar styles to take turns on arcs was a great way to deal with the potential delays. However, Marvel found an artists whose style looks absolutely nothing like Dodson’s for him to work with—Greg Land.

I think FunnyBook Babylon summed up my own reaction quite well:
http://www.funnybookbabylon.com/2008/03/15/an-impassioned-plea-to-marvel-comics/

Updated with added Caleb . . .

I’m glad that James Robinson is coming back to the DC fold in a big way. I loved Starman and Golden Age, and he did a great job helping to bring back the JSA. But his new Justice League title, covered at Newsarama . . . I’m not so sure.

The main hang-up I have with it is the constant failure of books that strive to do the whole “proactive” thing. It works for an arc or two, but it never carries onward in any constructive capacity. Perhaps Robinson is the guy to do it, but I’m not sure.

It’s like this: the super-hero, almost by nature, is a reactive beast. Kind of like your local fire department. Sure, the FD can educate people about fire prevention, but they do their BIG WORK when something is burning. Same with super-heroes. They can patrol the hell out of their respective cities, but they do their main thing when the aliens arrive, the volcano erupts, etc.

Therefore, proactive is hard to write. If the world’s greatest detective (Batman) still finds himself showing up after crimes, then, no offense, how are Hal and Ollie going to get there first?

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Welcome to the first edition of CON JOB, a new rotating feature in which we take the latest news from conventions with a bucket of salt. Let’s start with . . .

The first big news that struck me was that Jeph Loeb will be re-teaming with his long-time collaborator Tim Sale for a fourth “color” book for Marvel, entitled Captain America: White.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s the never-before-revealed story of how Captain America and Bucky Barnes were secretly married the night before their final mission near the end of World War II.

Loeb’s always seemed to do his best work (that is, his least-awful work) when paired with Sale, so perhaps this will yield some good results. I’m not holding my breath though; some of their more recent work—including their Catwoman series and Spider-Man: Blue—has been pretty bad. But, in both cases, Loeb did afford Sale plenty of opportunities to draw plenty of characters. At the very least, the art should be nice and, if Loeb sticks true to recent form, he’ll take a “greatest hits” approach to the cast, and we’ll get to see Sale’s take on every Captain America character ever.

Here’s hoping Batroc the Leaper and The Falcon make it in somehow…

This week in our Best Shots column at Newsarama, we cover the following . . .

Feature Reviews:

Justice League: The New Frontier Special; review by The Rev. OJ Flow

Logan #1; review by Corey Henson

Cable #1; review by Jeff Marsick

DC Special: Raven #1; review by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Young Liars #1; review by Richard Renteria

Penance: Relentless #5; review by Richard Renteria

La Perdida; review by Michael C. Lorah

Tonoharu Vol. 1; review by Michael C. Lorah

North World Vol. 1; review by Troy Brownfield

Justice League: The Lightning Saga hardcover; review by Tim Janson

Plus, Pellet Reviews: Grimm Fairy Tales #22 (by Jeff); Justice League Unlimited #43 (by Caleb); Supergirl #27 (by Brian Andersen); Atom Eve #2 (by Brian); Dan Dare #2 (by Troy); Uncanny X-Men #496 (by Troy); Buffy the Vampire Slayer #12 (by Troy); Green Lantern #28 (by Troy); and Gravel #1 (by Troy).

By the way . . . No Vlog this week, but the Siegels shall return soon.

Look! It’s our boy Caleb!

As he himself says at his blog, the sublime “Every Day is Like Wednesday“: J. Caleb Mozzocco is a freelance writer based in Columbus, Ohio. You can read his writing on comics in Las Vegas Weekly every Thursday and the Best Shots column at Newsarama.com every Monday.

Our man in Columbus has certainly been busy lately. Take it, Caleb!

“This week on Every Day Is Like Wednesday…

Last weekend was Billy Ireland Weekend, a three-day look at somewhat forgotten early 20th century Columbus cartoonist Billy Ireland, occasioned by OSU Cartoon Research Library Lucy Shelton Caswell’s book and lecture. You can read it here, here and here.

Golden Age Wonder Woman and her mom used Amazonian technology to tell us who isn’t going to win this fall’s presidential election.

Rumors of the Martian Mannhunter’s impending demise occasioned a look at just how hard it is to kill J’onn J’onnz.

Wednesday night saw the weekly review of all the super-comics that followed Caleb home from the shop.

Thursday brought the weekly EDILW link-dump, including a review of Therefore Repent!

And, finally, to help kill time while watching the State of the Union speech, Caleb takes us on a poorly photographed personal tour of all the comics art and comics-like art hanging on his walls.”

I should also note that Caleb often runs hilarious cartoons featuring comic characters in uncomfortable situations, such as Batman giving Christmas gifts, or this gem, wherein Caleb accidentally introduces Black Lighting to J.E.B. Stuart.

Check out his work, won’t you?

So, what’s a Wonder Woman milkshake? And what’s a Black Canary milkshake? No idea, but if you visit a certain superhero theme park in the DCU, you can get the latter (and, formerly, the former). At least according to Wonder Woman #6, anyway.

The good people at Everyday Is Like Wednesday want to know what’s in those shakes, so we’re launching a contest to solicit help in finding out. Click here for the contest details, and submit your suggested recipes for a chance to win fabulous prizes. And by “fabulous prizes” I mean crappy original art.

Happy Easter from Every Day Is Like Wednesday!

Easter Day rabbit-related comic book link-blogging: Comic Book Bunnies / Legion of Super-Peeps / Scott Shaw and Captain Carrot / Bully’s Story of Easter…As Told By Comic Book Covers with Bunnies on Them / Giant Green Star Wars Rabbit! / Hoppy The Marvel Bunny and Company Throw Down Against Mxy, King Kull and Mr. Mind / Golden Age Green Lantern vs. The Rabbit Men

Practice, meetings, a team captian, framed certificates, and even team picture day…

Man, I always assumed being in the Justice League of America would be a lot cooler than being on my high school track team.

…this week at Every Day Is Like Wednesday.

And lest you think that I just took a random panel from a Golden Age Captain Marvel comic book out of context because I find it amusing to think of a superhero decking a sheep in the face, let me assure you, that is not (entirely) the case. In the very next panel of that story, Cap tosses that K.O.-ed ram into a pen, so that the other sheep will all follow after it. Because everyone knows that sheep will follow their flock’s knocked out alpha male wherever you fling it.

Wisdom of Solomon, baby.

Having forgotten to pick up Rick Vietch’s Army @ Love on Wednesday, I returned to a comic shop this weekend to correct that oversight, and ended up walking out with more and I’d intended, including John Romita Jr. 30th Anniversary Special.

I usually pass up these Marvel Spotlight-type things, which tend to be advertorial in nature, but after the first half of J. Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Manrun, Black Panther #1-#6 and Wolverine: Enemy of the State, JRJR’s stuff is pretty much buy on sight for me. And this is nothing but JRJR work, right?

I regretted the purchase almost immediately. There’s some worthwhile stuff in here, but I’m not sure it was worth $3.99, nor was it what I would have wanted, if I were allowed to design my own JRJR 30th anniversary special (I think I would have preferred something like a collection of covers and splashes, unencumbered by text like logos and UPC symbols and the like).

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When I first saw the teaser trailer for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I was as ecstatic as one could get for an upcoming movie (and believe me, I can get pretty ecstatic for new movies; years of film critic-ing hasn’t been able to beat my enthusiasm for the medium out of me just yet).

It literally looked like its creators had somehow discovered exactly what I used to imagine between the panels of the old Mirage Ninja Turtles comics, back when it was still prefaced by Eastman and Laird’s and had the blocky, chunky text logo, and committed it to film.

As the release date crept closer and the other trailer made it online, my enthusiasm wilted. I didn’t see a lot of ninja action, but I did see a lot of monsters, a turtle on a motorcycle wearing head to toe armor (with pig ears on the helmet?), and some skate-boarding in the sewers, much like one of the many lame scenes in the original live-action film. I also heard a lot of crappy dialogue, and more than enough out of Michelangelo to make me want to stab him in the face until he stopped talking.

By the time the screening rolled around, I went from super-excited to cautiously optimistic. Perhaps I benefited from lowering my expectations, but I really enjoyed the film (You can read to what degree and why here at donewaiting.com, which is the online home of my film reviews).

I had a lot of questions going in though, and just had to wait until I saw it to get answers to them. Well, you don’t, because I’m here to answer all of your hypothetical questions. Ready?

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Last Wednesday Marvel Comics’ much trumpeted 14,000-part political allegory/superhero slugfest finally reached it’s oft-delayed conclusion.

And it wasn’t very good.

But if writer Mark Millar and Marvel Comics failed to reward readers’ investment of their hard-earned money and patience with a good story, it’s not like reading the series was a complete waste. After all, if you didn’t read it, you might not get all of the jokes the Internet has told at Civil War’s expense this past week.

Take Christopher Bird’s re-dubbed version of the series, which has all that great Steve McNiven art, with the added bonus of a plot that makes sense, strong, consistent characterization and lots of swear words. Bird started with #5, and worked his way in both directions until he’d improved the whole darn thing. If Marvel were smart, they’d cut him a big fat check and release this as a trade paperback. In the mean time, you can check them all out online:

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

and #7

(Bird has similarly skewered Greg Land art and a Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld collaboration. Sure, they’re easy targets, but it’s still pleasurable to see Bird beat on them).

Then there’s Chris Sim’s crayon and stickfigure Civil War In 30 Seconds, which proves you can do at least 22-pages of awesome original art a month (as long as you don’t commit yourself to drawing every single hair in Hercules’ beard).

Kevin Church of Beaucoupkevin.com gave two of the sillier panels of Civil War #7 the Bird treatment.

And Sleestak has been trying to find Hercules a slightly less dated catchphrase to shout in the heat of battle.

Greetings and welcome to the new ShotgunReviews.com. Since 1999, we’ve done our best to give you worthwhile (and often funny) reviews and columns, and it’s time to shake off the rust and do it a little differently. We’ve kicked around a few ideas regarding how we’d do this new thing, and we hope you like what you see.

The new design comes to us from Barb Hallock, a student of mine with the appropriate attitude for this place (that is, bad). The more bloggish format puts us more on par with the current landscape. After all, we’ve been doing this almost eight full years. It was time for a big change. I think that you’ll agree that the new format, with a huge list of categories and easy searching, is a good one.

As part of that big change, we’ve brought in an influx of new talent from a variety of places. The entirety of our Best Shots team, responsible for the Best Shots column that runs every Monday at Newsarama.com, is now operating here in several capacities. You’ll also meet several talented young writers, including Barb herself, who will be tackling a variety of topics.

However, if you’re one of the rare folks that has read us since 1999, don’t get too worried. Shawn Delaney will still grace us with terrific music reviews, as will Jonathan Birdsong and the Lyrical Lounge crew. The Russ is back on wrestling coverage in full force. L.I. Rapkin’s already kicking in some culture. Eric Barker’s already opened the film vaults. And they aren’t the only familiar faces lurking around.

In the next few days and weeks, you’ll see the roster expand a little more and you’ll see some new recurring columns and features that we hope will become favorites. If you want to check out the old stuff, the old site currently still exists in its full glory under the archive button. If you want to talk about any of the stuff, old or new, visit our newly established forums.

So there’s my big speech. Enjoy yourselves, express yourselves, and invite friends. ShotgunReviews.com never went away, but we are most certainly back. Thanks for your time.