Tom Taylor
Do costumes in Injustice do justice to Justice League’s costumes?
The first issue of the improbably titled Injustice: Gods Among Us includes a dystopian future featuring a fascist Superman, a half-dozen or so superheroes, a handful of supervillains, a pregnant Lois Lane, the deaths of multiple characters, a submarine hijacking and the detonation of a nuclear bomb.
I was most interested in what everyone was wearing.
Injustice is the print version of the digital-first comic based on the upcoming fighting video game from the makers of Mortal Kombat. The game is, of course, based on DC’s characters, so with the release of this issue, the circle is complete: This is the precise part of the tail where the transmedia ouroboros chomps down.
The aspect of DC’s overall New 52 refurbishing — from the de-cluttering continuity reboot to the costume redesigns — that has most fascinated me is that the timing seemed to indicate it was part of a transmedia strategy, which of course has led to months of trying to figure out why particular changes or decisions might have been made, and what that indicates about the publisher’s priorities.
This deep in to the New 52, it’s clear DC eschewed making its comics universe more closely resemble that of the popular, all-ages cartoons like Justice League Unlimited, Teen Titans, the decades of assorted Batman shows and even Young Justice, which seems rather remarkably able to synthesize aspects of complicated comic-book continuity. And it’s clear the publisher has instead focused its energies on the older teen/adult audiences of video games Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City and, to a lesser extent, Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies and their DC Universe Online video game.
So here’s a comic book based on the company’s next big video game, which was being developed and produced just as the New 52 line was being developed and produced: What will this comic look like? What will it be like?
Comics A.M. | J.K. Woodward reflects on wrath of Hurricane Sandy
J.K. Woodward
Creators | Artist J.K. Woodward (Fallen Angel, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who) recounts how he and his wife lost everything but their cat and the clothes they were wearing during Hurricane Sandy — and how what happened afterward changed his perspective: ““When things are going right, you really don’t know what kind of world you’re living in. You tend to be cynical. But there has been such an outpouring of support not just here but from the comics community — we did a podcast interview, for example, and I mentioned how we had to go to the laundromat every day because of our clothing situation. As a result of that, two days later I went to my studio was packed full of care packages with toiletries and other necessities. It showed that what should have been a real tragedy turned into a blessing. It gave me a much more positive outlook.” [The Conway Daily Sun]
DC’s Injustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic arrives in January
With the release this afternoon of DC Comics’ January solicitations arrives the official announcement of Injustice: Gods Among Us, the prequel to the upcoming fighting game from WB Games and NetherRealm Studios.
Studio Co-Founder Ed Boon beat DC to the punch a week ago when he revealed at EB Games Expo in Sydney, Australia, that a comic was in the works. He expressed a desire to see the Injustice version of the DC Universe expand into other media.
Debuting in April for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii U, Injustice: Gods Among Us features such DC characters as Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, Harley Quinn, Green Arrow, Cyborg and The Flash fighting on multiple levels in such locations as the Batcave and the Fortress of Solitude. NetherRealm, a division of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, developed the 2011 remake of Mortal Kombat.
The 40-page Injustice: Gods Among Us #1 is written by Tom Taylor (DC Universe Online: Legends, Star Wars: Invasion) and illustrated by Jheremy Raapack (Resident Evil, Batman: Arkham Unhinged). Curiously, the solicitation states, “The first time in print for these digital-first stories.” However, there’s no indication they’ve appeared online — at least not yet.
What Are You Reading? with Kevin Church
Happy Sunday and welcome to What Are You Reading? Our guest today is Kevin Church, writer of The Rack, Signs and Meanings, the new Monkeybrain series Wander: Olive Hopkins And The Ninth Kingdom and many other comics.
To see what Kevin and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
DC’s digital-first Batman comic launches Thursday
Legends of the Dark Knight, by Ethan Van Sciver
On the eve of the debut of its digital-first Batman comic, DC Comics has revealed the line-up for the first six chapters of Legends of the Dark Knight, along with art from Ethan Van Sciver.
Announced in April at Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo as part of an expansion of the publisher’s digital-first slate — Ame-Comi Girls launched May 28 — the out-of-continuity series features standalone stories by different creative teams chronicling some of Batman’s cases.
The first chapter, by Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof and Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth, Animal Man), premieres Thursday and takes place early in the Dark Knight’s career when, as Lindelof recently told Comic Book Resources, Batman is “still working out the kinks, as it were.” “One of the things that I really like about Jeff’s writing that not a lot of people are doing right now in the industry is that it’s funny. It’s fun,” he said. “It’s not funny like a wink outside the panel where it’s broad humor. There is just a sense of amusement about everything.”