Spoilers After The Break: The Final Days Of Superman

Unlike some of our readers who may not have been born yet, I was a regular in the comic book stores in 1992 when DC pulled the ultimate publicity stunt and killed off the Man of Steel.  His death in Superman #75 sold 3 million copies.  It was a perfect storm.  You had regular comic readers interested.  Former comic readers interested.  Non-comic readers.  The young and old.  Fans of the Superman movies or various TV shows.  Everyone was talking about it.  It was during a time when the death of a character seemed to actually mean something and didn’t happen every other day.  Especially to such an iconic character.   Sales were also boosted by occuring during the comic market boom as people were buying multiple copies as investments, hoping to cash in down the line.  Especially the variant black polybagged version which featured the logo above.  “Fans” were buying two copies.  One to open and read and one to lock away in a pressure sealed vault for safe keeping.

As we know, the market boom crashed not long after and this issue has often been attributed as having a major role in that.  But that’s a different column.  We’re here today to talk about the potential latest death of Superman.  More (including spoilers) after the break on the ongoing Final Days of Superman storyline in Superman #51, Batman/Superman #31 and Action Comics #51.

Going Through The DCAU Part Fifteen

Yup, time for more cartoon talk with Jimmy and Tom.

This time, we’re covering the Batman The Animated Series episodes “What Is Reality?” “I Am The Night,” and “Off Balance”.

Tom’s Geek Year In Review

2015 is over in a few more hours, so how was the year we just had?  You know, from a Geek Perspective?

Some good, some bad.  Like every year.

Let’s Here It For The Superhero Girls Of DC!

Back in April, DC Comics and Mattel revealed the DC Super Hero Girls to the world. At the time, there was little information about the toy line beyond vague promises of figures, dolls, comics, books and clothing themed around DC’s strong lineup of female superheroes. Recently at New York Comic Con, the world got its first look at the toy line, including dolls based on Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Harley Quinn and more!

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #37: Minion

This is not him.

Over the years, DC’s Teen Titans group has been one of those perennial books that’s always around.  At one time, The New Teen Titans, as written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by George Perez, was one of it not the hottest comic around, rivaling The Uncanny X-Men for popularity.  The classic line-up that included Nightwing, Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Changeling, Wonder Girl, and some others was all the rage.  Other Titans came and went, such as Kid Flash, Speedy, Aqualad, Red Star, Pantha, and Wildebeest, but the core group was what the fan remembered.

Then, after the Zero Hour storyline, a new line-up appeared.  Gone were most of the classic Titans, possibly due to no longer technically being “teens”.  In its place was a line-up that at least looked interesting.  There was former Speedy Roy Harper, now going by Arsenal.  Donna Troy went by her real name and was, at the time, a member of the spacefaring police force, the Darkstars.  Former Team Titans from a collapsed future timeline Mirage and Terra were there.  So was the at-the-time only Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner, as were two teen heroes from the period, Impulse and Damage.

Oh, and then there was Minion.

Superhero TV Poll

The Flash returns tonight to the CW, and fans probably couldn’t be happier.  But there’s a lot of superhero bouncing around TV right now.  Which one excites you, dear reader, the most?  Answer the poll after the cut.

Are You Ready For Supergirl?

 

Coming soon to CBS, it’s Supergirl, in a costume that Jenny hated.

Well, that’s all I’ve got.  Some footage after the cut.

Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Heroes Case File #31: The Huntress

Offhand, I could not tell you which Huntress is in this picture.

Superheroes, for the most part, don’t age.  Marvel and DC have their superhero universes set in some sort of sliding scale timeline, where almost everything that’s happened since the superhero line was created somehow only occurred over a ten to twelve year period.  That means that even though there are Fantastic Four comics depicting Reed Richards and Ben Grimm in the trenches of World War II, today neither of those gentlemen are that old.  Aside from a handful of World War II era heroes and villains who have managed to stay active and keep their ties to the war (Captain America, the original Justice Society), or even the rarer other type (Frank Castle is a Vietnam vet), heroes are pulled from eras they existed in to avoid explaining how Batman swings through the streets of Gotham without a walker.

But there are ways to allow heroes to age, and one of them DC used to have was Earth-2.  Originally the home of the Justice Society of America, Earth-2 was the place where the Golden Age heroes did their thing.  And while none of them quite reached the state we’d consider “elderly,” some of them did marry and have children.  One of them was the Earth-2 Batman, and he had a daughter, and oh man, is this one messed up history.

Superheroine Steampunk Super Art!

I’m so in love with artist NoFlutter (Jennifer), not only because she has a great name, but because she completely reimagined some of our favorite superheroines in adorable steampunk style. Captain Marvel (featured above), is simply perfect for cosplay or any space on my wall – can we make that happen Jen? Check out Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Power Girl after the break:

Jimmy Attempts To Read All Of Convergence: Week Eight

I’ll admit I ran out of steam and interest with the release of Convergence #8.  It took me awhile to get around to completing my reading of the tie-ins, and it didn’t help they were some of the weaker tie-ins of the bunch.  Plus Secret Wars was full steam ahead over at Marvel and I was excited to move onto that.  As such, this final post on DC’s big early summer event got lost in the shuffle.

But since I am contractually obligated to finish these posts, I’ll make a very late attempt to clue things up after the break.

Be sure to catch up on all the Convergence happenings with coverage of:

Week One: Part One, Part Two
Week Two: Part One, Part Two
Week Three:Part One, Part Two
Week Four:Part One, Part Two
Week Five: Part One, Part Two
Week Six: Part One, Part Two
Week Seven: Part One, Part Two

Read on for Week Eight spoilers after the break for Convergence #8, Convergence Action Comics #2, Convergence Detective Comics #2, Convergence Blue Beetle #2, Convergence Booster Gold #2, Convergence Crime Syndicate #2, Convergence Infinity Inc #2, Convergence Justice Society Of America #2, Convergence Plastic Man And The Freedom Fighters #2, Convergence Shazam #2 and Convergence World’s Finest Comics #2.