Tag: Superman

DC/IDW’s ‘Love is Love’ Honors Pulse Victims

On By Mark PerigardIn Comics2 Comments
DC/IDW's benefit book 'Love is Love'
DC/IDW’s benefit book ‘Love is Love’

DC and IDW Publishing’s “Love is Love” welcomes the best and brightest comics creators today to honor the victims of the Pulse shooting in Orlando in June.

Marc Andreyko (“Batwoman”) has gathered such talents as Paul Dini, Gail Simone, Phil Jimenez and Brian Michael Bendis as well as a few folks you don’t typically associate with comics: Patton Oswalt, Taran Killam, Morgan Spurlock and Matt Bomer.

Most of the stories in this 144-page trade paperback run just one page.

One page?

What kind of impact can one page deliver?

Continue reading “DC/IDW’s ‘Love is Love’ Honors Pulse Victims” →

‘Batman v Superman’: Dawn of the Dimwits

On By Mark PerigardIn Movies2 Comments
The gang is all here: 'Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.'
The gang is all here: ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.’

In Warner Bros.’ “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” DC Comics’ two greatest titans go mano-a-mano.

The loser: Audiences.

Warning: There be spoilers. If you haven’t seen the film – and I encourage you to wait until it’s on TNT some Sunday morning next year – tread at your risk.

Continue reading “‘Batman v Superman’: Dawn of the Dimwits” →

Superman & Batman: The Original Super-Friends

On By Mark PerigardIn Comics4 Comments
'Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice'
‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’

The world waits with bated breath for the opening of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” on March 25.

The Dark Knight meets the Man of Steel for the first time in a live-action film, and it looks to be a brawl for the ages.

And that got me thinking. How did the comics – you know, the source material for just about every blockbuster film keeping the major studios afloat these days – handle the first meeting of DC’s greatest titans?

What threat could possibly be dire enough to bring the two champions of justice together?

The Anti-Monitor? Darkseid? The Joker and Lex Luthor together?

Would you believe … a cruise ship vacation?

Continue reading “Superman & Batman: The Original Super-Friends” →

Vandal Savage Wars on the JSA – and Wally Wood Saves Us All

On By Mark PerigardIn Comics6 Comments
With one mighty leap, the Golden Age Superman shatters a castle wall.
With one mighty leap, the Golden Age Superman shatters a castle wall in “All-Star Comics” No. 64.

A strong creator can make you rethink everything you thought about a character – and even an art medium.

Until “All Star Comics” Nos. 64 and 65 hit the drug stores in late 1976, I had never given much thought to artwork.

Now that must sound insane considering we’re talking about comic books, a form dependent on art expression. But I was – and am – a reader who places a premium on the story, the plot, the characters. A comic today can have the most dynamic, muscular art today, but if the story is dumb, I will feel as if I wasted my money.

Continue reading “Vandal Savage Wars on the JSA – and Wally Wood Saves Us All” →

The JLA/JSA Nightmare: When Nazis Rule an Earth

On By Mark PerigardIn Comics1 Comment
The Justice League and the Justice Society meet the heroes of Earth X
When the JLA and the JSA met the Freedom Fighters of Earth X!

Len Wein had a problem: He was too good.

The writer for “Justice League of America” had marked the 100th issue of DC’s premier team book in 1972 with a rousing, riveting three-part JLA/JSA team-up that brought together 33 heroes to save Earth 2. It was a time-spanning epic that re-introduced the Golden Age heroes the Seven Soldiers of Victory and an old-school story so much fun, it sent a generation of comic book lovers into orbit.

A year later, Wein was ordered to do come up with something even better.

Continue reading “The JLA/JSA Nightmare: When Nazis Rule an Earth” →