According to the DC Comics website: JLA 118 is 09/14 and 119 is two weeks later.

Whew! And here I thought I missed it like I missed Omac 4.

"The new comic I'm most interested in" award goes to Warren Ellis twice in row.

This week with Jack Cross #1

http://www.dccomics.com/media/covers/4095_180x270.jpg

And Fell #1 coming soon (The Ben Templesmith art and $1.99 cover price don't hurt either ;) ).

http://www.newsarama.com/Image/Fell/Fell1_t.jpg

Anybody else plan on picking these up?

There was a Supergirl arc in Superman/Batman ran from issues 7-12 (I think) and has been reprinted, which re-introduced this version of Supergirl.

And as far as I know, the Superboy who lives with Ma & Pa Kent and who is in Teen Titans is the same that was introduced during the 'Return of Superman' arc following his death.

I have Fell 1 & 2 preordered via DCBS - also looking forward to Fear Agents, with art by Tony Moore & Cory Walker (who launched Walking Dead & Invincible, resp).

Why do comic publishers feel this need to make children and female replicas of their male heros? Makes no sense. Why can't Superman be the only one from Krypton and why does he need to have a Supergirl cousin or whatever and a Superboy...son or whatever he is?

That was the whole point of "The Man of Steel" mini from Byrne back in the 80's. It seems all of what Byrne stipped away has been undone in some way or the other. Pretty much any reboot always ends up back the way it started and nothing ever really changes.

On the other hand, is there an easier way to make strong female characters? What was the last strong original female superhero they came up with?

Don't forget they also brought back Krypto (though I still have no idea how that happened). He even has his own cartoon. Where's Beppo (since Streaky and Comet the super horse already kinda came back)?

Well, since Power Girl is really Earth 2 Supergirl, I guess they'll be going back to that somehow. It's gotta be better than the crap we've gotten up to this point about her origin (didn't she at one point give birth to a mystical son with the help of Arion or something??? At some point after she had become a short haired feminist? or something?)

And of course they reason why they have to make derivatives is because hey, if you can relate your hero to Superman or Batman, you have instant sales! Or something. Not to mention that most of these characters were introduced long ago and people miss them... if a Barbara Gordon-like Batgirl came out, I'm sure fans would pick it up.

The last non-derivative great female superhero... well, when you think about it, who was the last great non-derivative male superhero that someone created?

The Goon
Hellboy
Invincible
Sleeper
Ex Machina

How non-derivative they are? How great? That's a matter of opinion. :p

I feel like I'm missing out by not having read JSA. Is there a good jumping on point that isn't issue number 1? I would like to read some of that stuff before the crisis goes down since it seems like it's going to be all kinds of important. How far back would you say it's essential to go back to kind of understand whats going on or is it pretty much a start from #1 kind of deal?

I felt the same way. I went to the Chicago Wizard Con with that thought in mind and came home with 7 of the first 8 trades (all at 50% off). I've since gotten the one I was missing and the newest volume (9).

It's a great series. But, I'm only 1/3 into Volume 2 and can't answer your question. I just don't think you'd go wrong with starting at the beginning. :)

Yeah when I got back into comics last year I decided to make JSA my main book. I had forgetten how the Trade Paperback thing worked and the JLA just seemed to much to collect from issue #1. I'm anal that way. :lol: Anyway, I decide to start buying JSA starting with January of 2005 and I've collected all the trades from the series start up until January 05. I think I'll start buying JLA trades soon but I'm in no hurry.

JSA is a wonderful book because it's like the best of both worlds. The Old, and The New. The heroes are really great and, although there's a hell of a lot of Time Travel in earlier adventures,(Annoying at times, Think Start Trek crutch) they still seem to make it all work.

The last few frames on the last page of Villians United #4 -other-

Regarding Superman:

Yes, they pretty much undid almost everything that was rebooted post-crisis.

-The "S" symbol is a Kryptonian symbol

-Superman exists in multiple incarnations in multiple dimensions

-Krypto came from a pocket universe via Hypertime

-Beppo is back but he's not a super-monkey

-There's more than one type and color of Kryptonite

-Superman once again, possesses god-like power levels

-Superman says "Great Rao!" and speaks Kryptonian

-Supergirl is once again his cousin from Krypton and Superboy is a younger incarnation of him with the same powers slightly scaled down

-...need I remind anyone of Superman Red/Blue?

At least in that case, it helped get rid of the "Electric Superman" era.

Andrew

Is it me or is Walking Dead running late?

Walking Dead ships about once every 1.5 months.

It's certainly very late. Even weirder: Midtowncomics has it as shipping this week, but my order from DCBS doesn't include it. :(

Hmmm, the Walking Dead running late.....I wouldn't complain. I'm surprised they can even walk.

Anyone get the new Adventures of Superman? My LCS only had dinged-as-all-hell copies and didn't want to spend my cash until I found a nice NM copy. Is it worth hunting down?

Speaking of the Walking Dead, that book is going to get the Omnibus treatmeant soon. According to Rich Johnston, the book will contain the first 24 issues along with a wealth of extras. I just bought the first three trades and I was hella pissed to learn about this, until I saw that it's going to go for about $100 bones.

Yeah, I'm tired of this double dipping. It's to the point where I'm considering not buying trades until I know for sure a HC isn't coming out. I love the Invincible Ultimate HC, so that's my prefered format.

But what about Astonishing X-Men? Will that be a HC someday? And will the Shanna series be collected in the "dirty" version the way it was intended? These are things a consumer should know, dammit.

But, just like DVDs, the very point of the consumer not knowing is the economic model. If you think the tpb will be the only one, you'll buy it. The HC comes out and you might buy that too. I'm guessing a few PO'd fanboys is worth the double dipping money the companies get.

I hear ya barkin' big dawg. But just like DVDs, I see myself slowly keeping my money and not buying either version. I don't like how this is done. You don't see "regular" novels coming out in paperback first to see how they sell then getting the HC treatment later.

Chew, tell me that the Packers defense will somehow step up this year. Good grief!

Yeah I've just started buying HC's and they're fantastic. They collect more of the run and just look hella sexy on my book shelf. So far I have Runaways v1, the first HC of Waids FF run, Ultimate Spidey barnes and noble exclusive (talk about a monster), and the Invincible trade. This time next year I'll probably have 30 -wink-.

Some books you can just tell will get some HC love. Like Astonishing (I would be my future children that all of Whedon's run will get the HC treatment), or more anything Bendis does, but it does hurt on these less popular books - not knowing. Who would have ever thought that Runaways would get a HC? Invincible? But I sure as hell won't be double dipping on anything. It's not out of frustration or anything, but really the mainthing I want is the content of the story. If I buy the TPB first, so be it.

It would be nice if the less popular books gave heads up though even if it only might happen. Like fans of Strangers in Paradise and Bone knew full well what the different format releases were going to be well in advance.

All that said, lets all band together and use our collective karma to make a New Frontier HC a reality! DVDTALKERS UNITE!