Static
Grumpy Old Fan | Already? DC Solicits for January 2012
"I throw him a growl I've brought all the way from Africa"
I was going to open with some snotty Wow, the holidays went by super-quickly! comment, but then I read the first issue of Justice League in seven weeks. Sometimes DC gets ahead of itself; sometimes it’s a little behind. Happens to the best of us — sometimes you do two solicitation roundups in three weeks….
Anyway, with the January solicitations, the New-52 books each turn five issues old. Series wrapping up their first arcs this month include Blackhawks, Batwoman, Animal Man, and the Deadman feature in DC Universe Presents. (Not to worry about the latter, because there is a lot of Deadman in these solicits.) I’m not sure why five issues is such a wonky number for story arcs — there are five-issue miniseries all the time and they collect just fine. Still, I expected most of the New-52 books to take six issues for their introductory stories, and most of them may yet do that. Only a few books look to finish their first arcs after December’s issue #4s (Hawkman and Frankenstein, probably OMAC, maybe Batgirl), and those plus this month’s are barely an eighth of the relaunched line. It makes next month’s solicits more intriguing, I suppose.
Regardless, we live in the now (as it were…) so — onward to January!
Continue Reading »
- October 20, 2011 @ 02:12 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | New 52, week 1: These boots are made for leaping
Static Shock #1
It was the strangest thing — when I woke up this morning I was younger, single, and most of my clothes had high collars and funky seams….
Okay, let’s cut that out right now. Don’t worry, I’m still middle-aged and married, with the same beat-up wardrobe. However, I have read all but one of this week’s New-52 books, and now I get to share them with you. (The local comics shop got shorted on Batwing #1, which is too bad, because as one of the few sort-of new concepts being offered, I was especially looking forward to it. Next week for sure!) Generally I thought most had at least some potential, and I was mostly impressed with the efforts the various creative teams made. Of course, that doesn’t mean I liked everything, but I did like more than I thought I would.
Onward–!
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- September 8, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Trailer arrives for DC’s Static Shock #1
Somehow I missed that Scott McDaniel got the jump on the trailers for individual titles in DC Comics’ September relaunch with this teaser for Static Shock #1, which of course stars the Milestone superhero created by Dwayne McDuffie and John Paul Leon.
The brilliant, slightly awkward high school student Virgil Hawkins transforms into the cocky electromagnetic hero Static!
A mysterious tragedy forces the Hawkins family to relocate from Dakota to New York City! Virgil embarks upon new adventures in a new high school and a new internship at S.T.A.R. Labs!
As Static, he dons a new uniform and establishes a new secret headquarters! But is he ready to take on the new villains who lurk in New York City’s underworld?
Written by McDaniel and John Rozum, and illustrated by McDaniel, Jonathan Glapion and LeBeau Underwood, Static Shock #1 arrives in stores on Sept. 7.
- August 30, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
DC’s New 52 art explosion on Twitter
Batman by Greg Capullo
The artists behind this September’s “New 52″ have taken to Twitter, thanks once again to David Macho, revealing a whole lot of art from the new books that are due next month. There are a couple of hash tags to follow over on Twitter … #52splash will show you pages of new stuff from Greg Capullo (above), Scott McDaniel and many others. And as Kiel noted last week, #thenewvillains hash tag that kicked off last week slowed down after last week’s push, but a few new posts have popped up today.
And speaking of villains, I don’t think anyone has shared artwork yet for the villain of the new Justice League title — who it turns out is one of DC’s biggest and baddest, Darkseid.
Check out more artwork after the jump, and watch the hash tags for more!
- August 22, 2011 @ 02:24 PM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | The Alternative Thirty
DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore
[A quick note before we go too much farther: I started writing this post before DC’s big announcement about its September-and-beyond plans. In fact, I wanted this particular post to be about something other than Flashpoint and/or line-wide reboots -- so depending on your perspective, I picked exactly the right week, or exactly the wrong week, to draw that line. In any case, it’s probably not hard to tell, from the past few weeks’ worth of posts, where I stand on current events.
[So there you go. On with the business at hand.]
Since it’s pretty much summer, and time to think about catching up on reading, let’s revisit DC’s list of “30 Essential Graphic Novels” — “best-selling titles that you must read[, ]whether you are just beginning to discover graphic novels or you are an established fan looking to expand your collection.”
The list is almost four years old, and has had a few minor updates. (Pride Of Baghdad replaced The Quitter, and Crayon Shinchan replaced Sword Of The Dark Ones.) For the most part, though, it’s the same compilation — heavy on the Batman and the Jeph Loeb, a decent amount of Alan Moore (but no Swamp Thing), a couple of Sandman books and Hellblazer, but no Wonder Woman, no Joe Kubert, and no Jack Kirby. While there are at least a couple of representatives from each of DC’s imprints, there aren’t many hints at the real scope of DC’s diverse publishing history.
- June 2, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Dwayne McDuffie, gone too soon
Static #1
Dwayne McDuffie was a great writer of superhero stories, consistently producing solid, entertaining tales about characters familiar and unfamiliar, across a variety of media. He was also a vocal advocate for diversity in the superhero genre, both in terms of characters and creative personnel.
My first real exposure to Mr. McDuffie’s work was through Static, the 1993 series he co-created with fellow Milestone founders Derek T. Dingel, Denys Cowan, and Michael Davis. The Milestone panel at the ‘93 Chicago Comic-Con was handing out copies of Static’s first issue — a shiny-silver-logo variant, naturally — and I was hooked instantly. In any age Static would have stood out as an energetic and thoughtful teen-superhero serial. In the summer of 1993, though, with the speculators’ market at full swing and superhero comics chasing one fad after another, Static’s reliance on fundamentals was especially refreshing.
To some extent I think that’s what helped make Mr. McDuffie’s work so effective. He understood that the best superhero stories bring the epic and fantastic down to personal levels, but he was careful to slight neither the epic nor the personal. His work spotlighted relationships as much as spectacle. When Earth was invaded by Hawkgirl’s home planet of Thanagar (in “Starcrossed,” a 3-episode arc of “Justice League”), it tested both Hawkgirl’s loyalties and her relationship with Green Lantern. McDuffie’s tenure on Fantastic Four started by repairing the damage to the Richards’ marriage wrought by the events of Civil War. The Beyond! miniseries (a sort-of sequel to Secret Wars) was all about relationships, since it stranded a handful of superheroes on a distant planet.
- February 24, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Fellow creators and fans remember Dwayne McDuffie
I’m still in shock over the sudden, tragic death of comics writer, Milestone Media co-founder and animation producer Dwayne McDuffie, as I’m sure many of his fans, friends and fellow creators are. I’ve rounded up some thoughts and memories from some of those folks, as well as a few items of note about memorials and some of his work.
- If you’re attending the Emerald City Comicon March 4-6, they’ve announced a memorial panel remembering McDuffie that will take place Saturday at 7 p.m. in Room 4C1-2. Per writer Mark Waid, C2E2 is also planning to hold one.
- Both Heidi MacDonald and Rich Johnston posted pages featuring the parakeet metaphor that McDuffie first introduced in Hardware #1 — a scene that, for me personally, sparked one of those lengthy late-night discussions about society, racism, politics and a whole lot of other things with my older brother. As Heidi points out, McDuffie revisited it in both X-O Manowar and at the end of the Milestone Forever two-parter, basically bookending the life of the Milestone Universe.
- The Weekly Crisis, meanwhile, looks at a poignant page from McDuffie’s more recent Fantastic Four run.
- The good folks at the Project: Rooftop site have declared “McDuffie Week” at their site, and have put out the call for redesigns of Static. Dean Trippe writes: “Dwayne’s work in the field of comics and animation was near-universally respected. His knowledge and understanding of the DCU heroes in particular, always meant a lot to me. He worked for Marvel, DC, founded Milestone along with Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Derek T. Dingle, achieved more respect and admiration as a screenwriter for Justice League Unlimited and other DC animated projects, faithfully bringing the light of our heroes to the non-comics-reading public. Dwayne has left us far too soon, with too many wonderful stories left untold.”
- February 23, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Budgeting made easy: DC Comics Solicitations for May 2011
Booster Gold #44
Learning that DC was cancelling five superhero titles reminded me immediately of the “Saturday Night Massacre,” when President Nixon’s firing of special prosecutor Archibald Cox led directly to the resignations of Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckleshaus. But, you know, that’s just me. I may be one of the few superhero-comics bloggers who went through a Watergate phase in college. Got two term papers out of it, at any rate.
But I digress. As we all know, the May solicitations are out, and DC will still be publishing a significant number of superhero comics — so let’s get to ‘em, shall we?
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YOU MIGHT HAVE HEARD THERE IS A GREEN LANTERN MOVIE
Seems like the last time DC did a multiple-issue “prequel series” to one of its big movies was 2006, with four lead-ins to Superman Returns. I liked Superman Returns, but those related comics weren’t too memorable. However, I do like the creative teams on these one-shots — Geoff Johns (a no-brainer for GL), Marc Guggenheim, Jerry Ordway, Joe Bennett, Karl Kerschl, Fernando Dagnino, and Cliff Richards, plus the screenwriters — so they may be more worthwhile.
- February 17, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Static Shock returns to comic stores this May
Static Shock #1
DC Comics has revealed the release date, art team and first cover for Milestone Media and cartoon star Static’s new ongoing series. Static Shock #1 by Felicia Henderson, Scott McDaniel and Jonathan Glapion will arrive in May, with a cover (above) by Keron Grant.
Announced last July, Static Shock sees the return of the second Milestone Comics character to his own comics series this year, as Virgil Hawkins joins Xombi on comic store shelves again.
Static was one of the four original titles published by Milestone Media back in the 1990s, and his title ended in 1997. He made the jump to TV in the form of an animated series, Static Shock, and joined the Teen Titans shortly after the Milestone characters were merged into the DC Universe in 2008.
- February 11, 2011 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Static gets his own comic again in 2011
DC Comics announced on their Source blog today that former cartoon star Static would get his own ongoing series again next year. Felicia Henderson, who has written the character before in the pages of Teen Titans, will write the title, while the art team will be announced at a later date.
“When I met Dan DiDio, the first character we ever discussed was Static,” Henderson told the Source. “Writing Teen Titans gave me an opportunity to play with this character a little. Now he’s getting his own book and I’m writing it! I’m a big Dwayne McDuffie’s fan, so it’s a privilege to reimagine the coming-of-age of a character he created. If not for the big bang, Static would be a regular, awkward, teenage guy trying to find himself — chasing girls, playing video games, downloading underground mixes of his favorite music. Instead, he has no time to find himself because the call of the superhero has found him. It’s a comic book writing dream for me.”
Static was one of the four original titles published by Milestone Media back in the 1990s, and his title ended in 1997 when the comics line was shuttered. He made the jump to TV in the form of an animated series, Static Shock, and joined the Teen Titans shortly after the Milestone characters were merged into the DC Universe in 2008.
- July 16, 2010 @ 02:38 PM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim: Matt Wayne
The Brave and the Bold 24
Matt Wayne‘s latest work for DC comes out this week, The Brave and The Bold 24, featuring the “first meeting of Static and Black Lightning” (as detailed by DC here). Given that Wayne was a Milestone editor back in the mid-1990s, this marks a return to some old friends for the writer. In addition to discussing his comics work, we also discuss his career in animation in this email interview.
Tim O’Shea: You’re shifting Brave & Bold gears, as you wrap up a stint writing the DC Kids Brave and Bold, you will be writing the non-kids line The Brave and The Bold 24, where Black Lightning and Static team up for the first time. With two heroes with similar powers, did you enjoy getting to show their differences in this issue?
Matt Wayne: Sure, any team up’s going to have that aspect to it. For instance, my next episode (Menace of the Conqueror Caveman!) of the Batman: Brave and the Bold show [to be replayed this Thursday, June 18, according to IMDb {check those local listings}] will pair Batman and Booster Gold, and they’re both gadget guys. The differences between the two need to come out in the course of the action, or it’s not a good team-up. There isn’t much in life that’s more entertaining than putting two toddlers in a wading pool and watching them compare belly buttons. But if anything can top that, it’s hero team-ups done right!
- June 15, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Tim O'Shea