Civil War #3: This book is FINALLY picking up speed.

I enjoyed Justice League #0 today. Not really a plot, but it was nice to see the interaction between DC's big 3. Interesting the way it would show us important snippets in the past league history and then what is to come. One of those future scenes seemed like it could be set in the Dark Knight universe.

Glad I'm not the only one that is bothered by Civil War and its treatment of heroes. I like the idea of the story, but after M-day and Stamford, their treating everyone like crap.

And down the street at DC, you've got people in the street cheering the lighting of the bat signal, and jumping for joy when Superman flies by.

Now that i think about it, DC's Legends Mini series comes to mind, when thinking of Civil War.

I dont know, maybe my DC bias is showing.

Speaking of JL, did anyone read WIZARD #178? It had a piece on who may or may not make it into the new League with Brad Meltzer based on what he thinks the "Big 3" would probably choose or veto. It was pretty interesting. I also found it interesting that JSA'ers Power Girl, MR. Terrific, and The Flash(Jay) all had a "decent" shot compared to other Leaguers like Hawkman and Hal Jordon(GL). Batman was the key veto vote on both of those due to past events like Parrallax(Hal) and the Mind Wipes(Hawkman being a major supporter of this)

That's odd, considering that this is supposed to be the "less dark" Batman that has recognized his mistakes. I'd say that if those incidents are enough to keep GL and Hawkman out, then constantly allowing secret files and secret identities of heroes to fall into the wrong hands (OMAC, Tower of Babel) is enough to veto Batman's membership.

Yeah, Bat's an ass....we get it. But that isn't gonna happen.

I think you're missing the point. Batman is supposed to be the kinder gentler guy now, having learned his lesson that he can't do everything on his own. Not so much of an ass now. So he should be recognizing that if he's been given a 2nd, 3rd, 4th chance, maybe others should also.

This week's haul:

Civil War - art so pretty, story was a bit on the fluffy side, but loved the final page.

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters - lukewarm on this 8-issue miniseries, but liked the quick intro to the team members.

Supergirl and the Legion - felt like a Strangers in Paradise issue in tone, but in danger of showing little momentum in storylines.

JLA 0 - the menegerie of artists in this issue made for jarring page turns as the past history of the JLA through the decades gets some coverage in preparation for the new relaunch.

52 - Batwoman finally gets in on the action. Donny Troy's history lessons finally concludes. As a weekly, it's still okay, the writing/plotting isn't quite up to engrossing levels of a torrid page-turner yet.

Also picked up Runaways (will blow through the entire second volume soon), She-Hulk (also will be reading the second season in one or two chunks), and Superman/Batman (a few months behind for now).

No, I understand what you meant and I was just having a bit 'o' fun with you. I'm not sure how close the piece will be to what's really going to happen in the DCU even with that Meltzer guy involved in the article. Also, it's 3 people choosing and just because Batman may or may not have issues with certain heroes there's still Wonder Woman and Superman. If you read the article all 3 have issues with different heroes for different reasons. i.e. The article talks about how WW is looking for forgiveness after the Max Lord incident so she's probably sympathetic to Hal Jordon and Superman has probably already forgiven him. So what does that mean? 2 against 1 right? So who knows...

I think Justice League of America #0 wins the award for "Least accessible comic book of the year"

The art isn't my favorite, but that last page was amazing. I'm enjoying the story of Civil War, but the characters just seem off to me. I can buy Captain America's actions (and his new crew) as well as Iron Man's, but I just don't see Spidey acting the way he did. Or the heroes being so gung-ho about fighting each other. It all feels wrong in the grand scheme of things. But like I said, I am enjoying the story.

I'm currently working my way through the Dreadstar Definitive Collection HC Volume 1. I think the title still holds up quite well and is still as good as I remember it to be.

I noticed on one of the last pages it stated: "Volume 2 2005"

I don't see that it ever came out. Does anybody have any information on this? I was really hoping to get the complete series over again in this format.

It never did come out.

But on a recent Newsarama interview, Starlin said that Dynamic Forces would be releasing a reprint of Metamorphosis Odyssey.

He also said he has one more Dreadstar story he wants to do someday, but no plans to do it any time soon.

Dreadstar is probably my favorite comic of all time.

Thanks for the info, even if it's not what I wanted to hear. I saw that "Odyssey" HC at Amazon when I was trying to find V2, looks like I'll have to pre-order it.

Any idea if there's a difference between the PB and HC other than binding? Both say 240 pp.

This reminds me somewhat of the Claremont-Byrne-Austin Star Lord which I picked up in a reprint around the same general time (just one long issue, I think), and by "general time" I mean during my pre-college collecting days. That was a good read.

I'm enjoying the tie-in issues more than the mini itself. Amazing Spider-Man, New Avengers, Fantastic Four & CW: Frontline seems to be fleshing the storyline out a lot more than CW is.

The CW mini just feels like a series of events that you only get to glimpse moments of. Issue 3 was the first issue that (to me) felt like a "full" issue.

Got this from the animeondvd manga forum, but it's an interesting read:

http://www.tcj.com/277/i_middaugh.html

It's a Comics Journal interview with Dallas Middaugh, Associate Publisher of Del Ray Manga. I know most people here don't care about manga, but I did think his thoughts on the Western comics world were interesting.

I see his point about Infinite Crisis. If I weren't a huge DC fan, I would probably have been very lost. Not sure about Civil War, since I'm not currently collecting it, but I do know that I haven't collected X-men in years, and I'd be very lost if I picked up one of the titles today. The Graphic Novel collection is becoming more and more the norm, but I don't really see that much space given to American comics in bookstores. For those that frequent their LCS, are there kids coming in to buy this stuff, or is it mostly people like us in our 20s and up?

I do wish that the Disney stuff would make it's way to the bookstores... that to me seems like the perfect match.

I just finished reading that. Wow, you aren't kidding! I think I got most of the "time periods", but that was a tough read.

What a horrific way to relaunch a book. The art jumps ironically helped the story flow better.

I think IC had a nice double-whammy in inacessibility: You had to pick up a lot of the other tie-ins to get the full picture, and you had to be pretty aware and well-versed of another crossover maxi-series (and some of its tie-ins) to really pick up what's going on.

I think the first is a given for any company mega-crossover, but it was hard to really appreciate what was going on unless you were pretty familiar with Crisis on Infinite Earths. It seemed like DC was picking up new readers with the 4 precluding minis and Identity Crisis, but the lore ramped up exponentially that it was impossible to really understand what was going on in Infinite Crisis unless you were already a big fan of the universe.

At least, that's the impression I got.

Marvel's more conventional approach to a summer crossover and the consistent art direction for the main mini-series is a big plus in my book.

This week's issue of 52 was the first one I've enjoyed in quite a while. I think because it didn't jump all over the place and just focused on one specific storyline. And the "History" back-up story ended in an interesting way.

Yeah, but it ticked me off in that it occuring in the DCU.

IC was a great story with poor execution.

Civil War is a lukewarm story but it's being executed extremely well.

Does anyone know if there is a place to watch videos of panels from comic-con(not sure if video is even allowed in the panels). WHile reading about all the panels is interesting, it would be cool to actually see them.

I finally got around to reading the Face the Face storyline in the Batman books. Ok, I'll admit that the Kinder Gentler Batman is interestingbut I guess I'll miss the asshole bat.