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Note:Spoilers below for this issue!

With all the (unnecessary) hype surrounding DC’s reboot of Alan Scott I decided to check out the premiere issue of Earth 2. (side note: bought it digitally and it still cost $3.99. DC, please get on lowering the price points of your digital comics) I read the Huntress mini, which was fantastic, and have World’s Finest on my pull list so why not read this and get a fuller picture of what’s happening, right?

Right off the bat, I like that they’ve cut these Golden Age heroes’ ages down by sixty plus years. We see Jay Garrick and he’s twenty-one. Alan Scott is probably in his early thirties. Removing seventy years of back story from these guys is brilliant. Now, that’s not meant as a jab to who they were before or the stories that have been told, but if you’re a company attempting to start fresh this is the way to do it. (sidenote two: this is where Marvel’s Ultimate-verse failed; they had a chance to go in new directions and they just wound up telling the same stories.)

Thing two that I liked, and what has me most interested in this world, is that there is no Trinity. Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are dead. They were killed saving the world from an alien invasion from the world of Apokolips. So we’re left with, so far, Huntress (Batman’s daughter and former sidekick Robin) and Power Girl (Supergirl, Superman’s cousin). Jay meets a crash-landed Mercury at the end of issue one and, I’m assuming, Alan isn’t too far behind in becoming Green Lantern. That’s pretty gutsy, killing off the three biggest heroes, and I’m really hoping it’s a world building point that’s held to.

The inclusion of Apokolips has my interest piqued, too, and I’m really hoping this means we get Big Barda (and Mister Miracle? That would be pretty sweet!). I’m curious, though, to see how this ties in with the New 52 titles as Darkseid’s already made an appearance in Justice League. I worry that this will become needlessly complicated.

Ultimately, though, I feel that this is a book, and a premise, with great potential and I’m interested in seeing how everything comes together and plays out. It’s great seeing Nicola Scott’s pencils, too; I love her art.

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herochan:

Aquaman

illustration by Alex Hislop

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Remember when Apollo and Midnighter got married back in 2002 and the biggest controversy was Midnighter’s godawful costume?

herochan:

Reebok X Marvel Limited Edition Sneakers!

Zombiebacons: Here is the first line of the Reebok X Marvel collaboration that I designed. I’ve been working with kids footwear to create Spider-Man licensed shoes for a few years now, and finally, we can get some adult sizes for us grown-up nerds (and nerd-ettes)! The sneakers drop this summer at specific retailers, read more info here, here, here and here. The first lineup is Captain America, Red Skull, Spider-Man, Venom, Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Chamber, Black Widow and Emma Frost.

Kind of want those Emma Frost sneakers :T And I do need new shoes …

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comicsforever:

The First Green Lantern, Alan Scott revealed to be the New Gay character for the DCnU // Newsarama (2012)

This is the big reveal, so it’s now official: Earth-2 Green Lantern is the gay character DC Comics announced a couple of days ago. To learn more from author James Robinson, architect of this idea click here.

Personally, I don’t see what the big deal is. Characters are reworked, revamped and retooled all the time and it’s usually done to reflect the changing times. DC has reset their entire continuity and stable of characters with the new 52 so why is it so shocking that - wait for it - there’s been changes made to their characters? I like the idea and, more so, I like that Alan is no longer a man older than my own 89 year old grandfather who is still, somehow, able to fight super villains. I say give it time and give it a chance.

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And now comes the part where I post a selection of Liefeld’s own art. For those of you who might not know about Rob, here’s his story in a nutshell: He started over at Marvel but in the early 1990s left, with a handful of other artists, and created Image Comics. He was huge at the time (he starred in a Levi’s commercial directed by Spike Lee!) and dominated the comics landscape in the ’90s. The only problem being that he can’t draw. At all. He’s self-taught and in twenty plus years hasn’t improved. At all. What gets most people is that he is still employed in comics to this very day for reasons unknown.

What are proportions? Like, I get that Glory is an amazon and is probably over six feet tall but yikes. Her THIGH is bigger than poor Avengelyne’s torso. (maybe angels don’t need spines or internal organs?)

Believe it or not, people are not built like action figures. They do not have a neat ball join that they pivot around on that connects torso to hips. They also have thicker ankles than that.

This is how I drew when I was, like, thirteen. Because, well, for one this art was popular in the comics I was reading and, two, I was thirteen and just starting to learn how human bodies were put together in art. I was not a professional comic book artist.

Again, not how a human torso actually works.

This is my personal favorite not for any wonky anatomy issues, but for the kiss itself. You see, Mr Liefeld was quite upset when Peter David outed Shatterstar, a character Liefeld had created back in the ’90s. Dudes kissing dudes after decades of romantic overtones? Not ok. Ladies kissing ladies because it’s hot? Aww yeah.

So there it is. My obligatory Rob Liefeld bad art post.

A sample of the ~quality~ one came to expect from your typical Avengelyne issue. Divinity is Avengelyne’s kid sister; I guess all angels dress like that? (which, ok, angels-as-strippers was funny and tongue in cheek when Spawn did it but no so much over here).

While I have no idea about Bloodwulf, he looks like another fantastic 1990s Rob Liefeld creation. And I have no idea what’s happening with poor Avengelyne’s torso (a common theme).

That Alphonse Mucha cover hurts me. :(

And I wasn’t kidding about her new costume being fishnet with censor bars.

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Oh, Avengelyne. You stand as an awful testament to the follies of the mid-1990s. See, back then, a fad ran rampant through comic books and this fad was the “bad girl.” She was super sexy and scantily dressed and usually had a sword or some other weapon … She was badly drawn (as you will soon see) and her primary focus was to titillate a pre-teen male audience. For all the complaining people do about Power Girl’s costume or new Starfire or a few panels of Catwoman, all that pales in comparison to this.

Avengelyne was created by Rob Liefeld (which, right there, should tell you that this a quality comic book) and Cathy Christian, a former Vamperilla model. Her back story isn’t really all that bad: She’s an angel who’s been banished to Earth for daring to question God. Her time on Earth is meant to be a sort of penance and, while here, she fights demons and monsters and stuff. In a bikini. Which later become a fishnet bathing suit with censor bars. And she teams up with other bad girls like Darkchylde and Shi and Warrior Nun Areala and Glory.

We also got, from time to time, pin-ups of her real life counterpart! Remember when comics used to do that? They’d publish a swimsuit or lingerie issue and there’d be terrible art AND hot ’90s babes in it? Man. Those were the days.

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awyeahcomics:

Wonder Woman & Wonder Girl by Daniel Krall

Really digging that Wonder Girl! And I love it when WW is in Greco-Roman gear.

I am in possession of a wealth of Avengelyne comics. Tomorrow, when I get home from work, I am going to share this MASTERPIECE with all of you.

BRACE YOURSELVES.