Deja vu all over again

I realize that I’m coming late to this party, but I recently came across this issue of Powers from 2003. In this story (written by Brian Michael Bendis) a supervillain gathers other super criminals together to form a criminal cartel to protect themselves from the heroes and to bring the fight to the superheroes and to their families.

In New Avengers #s 32–37, in a story arc entitled The Trust written by Brian Michael Bendis and published by Marvel in 2007, the semi-mystical crook named The Hood organizes the supervillians in New York City into a crime cartel to stand strong against the superheroes. A review of that storyline begins here on SpiderFan. To be brief, The Hood uses his supernatural powers to not only assist, and head up, but to protect and rescue his “Crime Inc.” group as he brings the fight to the superheroes and their family.

While I didn’t read the entirety of the Powers storyline, I did read the whole Marvel storyline when it appeared in New Avengers. As a story arc this was a very engaging and really held me throughout its run. It wasn’t until after I had read the New Avengers Storyline that I discover and read the Powers storyline. To be sure, I only read one issue in what has to be a multi-issue story arc, but it obviously the prototype for the Marvel storyline that ran in New Avengers. I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen this before. Virtually the same storyline written in two separated comics for two different companies.

Now I really want to go and find the rest of this story so I can how it played out with different characters.

Spider-Man made me gay

Well, no, not me, so much, but well, here is an image that a buddy of mine sent me that apparently came from the floor of the recent San Diego International Comic Con. I’m not entirely sure why he chose to use the, ah, interesting colors for his costume, but yea, it certainly is “festive” ain’t it?

And while I’m talking about ComicCon, I thought that I would add in this story that my son shot over to me today, also from ComicCon.

POW! ZOWIE! Scholars discover the comic book.

(Oh yeah, before I go on, I have to tell you that I HATE with a passion funnybook news stories that use “Pow”, “Bam”, “Zap”!

San Diego - Amid the spectacle of the world's largest comics convention, tens of thousands of attendees had Batman on the brain.

But only graduate student Kate McClancy came armed with an analysis of how an asylum in the Caped Crusader's world reflects the American debate over treatment of the mentally ill.

It's an obscure topic, to be sure. But Ms. McClancy's treatise was right at home at Comic-Con International, which was held here this past weekend.

You can read the rest of that story here.

Funnybook from my friends

As I’ve mentioned in the past, I have several friends that produce their own comics. Today I have a very cool computerized comic produced by my good buddy from CAG Michael Finger. The comic is entitled The Mating of an Amazon. In spite of the racy title of the comic (and the really racy image on the cover), there is no nudity in the comic. There is, however a pair of scantily-clad Amazonian women chatting (and wrestling) in the comic.

As Mike tells me, the comic was an exercise in rendering in 3D, that he then produced and distributed for free at a recent New York con over the Summer. Personally I very much enjoyed the comic, and hope that Mike choses to continue his experiment.

The Batman marketing machine (finally) rolls into town

You remember a week or so back when I was talking up The Dark Knight before I had even seen it, and wondering where oh where the Batman food tie-ins were? I mean we all saw the Iron Man and Hulk fast food toys (wait, now that I think of it, where were the Hellboy toys? did anybody see any Hellboy toys?)

Still, I knew from the Bat Blog that there were some Batman food toys in the offing, only I never actually saw any. Well, today that changed. I managed to score a Batman figure from Cheerios. Previously I had managed to acquire a Joker figure, but I was afraid that I was never going to be able to get my hands on a Batman (Not that I’m such a big Batman fan, mind you, I just love those superhero food toys.)

So, you can see by this posting that I did (after searching virtually every store that carries cereal in town) to get my hands on what has to be the last box of Cheerios with a Batman figure in it. Cool, eh?



Not sure that I’m going to work so hard to track down the other two figures, though. I have one of each and that should work for now.

Oddball heroes around the world

Yeah, it was late last night that I found this little pit of info I had been drinking heavy, so perhaps that is why I found it as funny as I did. Anywho, i thought that I'd share it with you while I wait for my client to contact me this morning and as the printer endlessly spits out the document that I sent to it. (Hey, how long is this contract anyway? 133 pages! That will teach me to hit print before I do a page count check!)

10 Weird Foreign Superheroes

I know that we have had some oddball heroes here in the good old U.S. of A., but we simply don’t hold a candle to some of the hose-jobs that populate other places around the globe. Just check out some of the losers heroes on this list Including this Japanese Spider-Man from Japan over on our left:

The Watching has begun

If you have already seen The Dark Knight then you have already seen the trailer for The Watchmen. If you haven’t seen the trailer, or you just wanted to see it again, well, I’ve posted it below.

Oh yeah, as you can tell, Watchmen also made the cover of this week’s Entertainment Weekly, so you might want to rush out and get your copy now. Then you will want to go here and download (to your Itunes) the first animated installment of Watchmen. This half hour installment comes directly from the comic, complete with 3D animation and Dave Gibbon’s art. Interestingly enough, Alan Moore’s name is no where to be seen. Not really surprising as he has repudiated the entire Watchmen film.



Still, it is worth downloading and watching. Me, I can hardly wait for the film.

The Once and future Batman?

Let’s just file this under “When actors who play superheroes go bad!” eh?

Batman star Christian Bale arrested by London police on suspicion of assault

Christian Bale, the actor who plays Batman, was arrested today for allegedly assaulting his own mother and sister before last night’s premiere of The Dark Knight.

(for the rest of this story, read it at: Times Online)

Seems to me that someone has been believing his own press clippings.

Knight of the Bat

Well superheroes and superheroines, it it now official, this past weekend Gotham’s Dark Knight dethroned Marvel’s corporate icon. That’s right. Batman’s latest film topped 155 million for its opening weekend, finally toppling Spider-Man 3 from the top of the heap.

This is more than just another superhero blockbuster summer thriller, this is a seminal event in both the lives of the characters as well as in movie making. Let’s stay away from the tragic death of its co-star Heath Ledger for the moment, and look at what we have. This is a roller coaster ride of epic proportions. not just a bad guy who robs a bank and is put down by a costumed vigilante this is a labyrinthine thriller the kind of which that are — generally speaking — reserved for films not so filled with men dressed in spandex.

What makes this film work so well is that not only is this The Batman, but it is also The Joker. Not the cackling Cesar Romero character nor even the (admittedly) more malevolently Jack Nicholson version, but this creep was downright chilling. He was no madman, but a preternaturally calm, and incredibly lucid figure. The film offers no origin for The Joker, preferring to go with the Joker’s own ever-shifting story of who (and what) he is. All the better.

Plus, the best parts of this film are the trailers. It is with this film that not only do we get an extended look at The Spirit, as well as a first look at Watchmen. And what could be cooler than that?

One last sip of The Incredible Hulk

OK, Kids, here you all go with the final 7-eleven Hulk straw. It was acquired for me by my good friend, and fellow CAGer Liz. Thanks Liz. She has been both a good sport and a good Pal since we met a year or so back. This past year she had entered her work into DimeStore Production’s annual Comicbook Idol. I know that she got through the first couple of rounds of voting but I don’t know what has happened (I think she missed the last cut).

Anyways, this is the last of the fast food toy images for a while. There doesn’t seem to be any Dark Knight fast food toys, and I don’t think that there are any other superhero movies ‘til the end of the year.

Tie one on for Spidey

OK kids, this is probably going to be my final “wearable heroes” postings as I’m all out of superhero clothing for the time being. As you can see from the image on the left Sometimes I even wear Spidey on my head (not sure what happened to this image, the hat is yellow, and the pic looked good when I took it, but this is what I got when I posted; I’m blaming Skrulls). Still, no hero wardrobe is complete without a tie. That’s right, a tie — and well — I have two:



The white tie is from the ‘70s and (while you can’t see it here) it actually has a very nasty rust-colored water stain on it, which I Photoshopped it out for this posting). The other tie is from the ‘80s or ‘90s. that was a gift from one of my kids as I recall, probably given to me on Father’s Day I would imagine.

This next item is a baseball glove that my brother purchased for my son when my son was very young. I don’t know that Dylan ever actually used the glove, as he was never really into sports and played T-Ball only for one year before moving on to soccer. (I think that my daughter, Kayla might have, years later gotten more use out of the glove, but she too was more into soccer, and then basketball.)

Anyways, it has passed from them to me. (To be sure, I’m thinking that the gift was always more for me than either one of them in the first place.)



Needless to say, you are going to want to be able to tell time, so this Spidey watch (from the House of Kraft) could be very well just the thing.



Then, finally, because you are going to want to hide who you are wearing all of this crap way-cool Spidey stuff, a Spidey mask.



Welp, I’m done with this thread for now. Next up will be my observations of the new Batman flick

More heroes from my closet

Over the past couple of days I’ve been posting images of some of my wearable heroes. Well, here’s something interesting, Most of you folks think that — as a certified Marvel Zombie — I’m all about Marvel wear, well, what that is essentially is true, it is not entirely so (as the Superman hat to the left can attest). hence, I will now present some of my non-Marvel wear:

First up is my Calvin & Hobbes shirt. Now I know what you are thinking, Bill Watterson never authorized any Calvin & Hobbes merchandising. For him, it was all about the comic itself. Well, when I purchased the shirt, I didn’t realize that, so I bought the shirt. It was only later that I realized that it was a bootleg. Needless to say, as I love the characters so much, I can’t get rid of the shirt, only as you can imagine, I no longer wear it out of the house. All-in-all a fair compromise (And Bill, if you are reading this, I’m sorry, but if it helps, I’ve purchased all of your books about Calvin & Hobbes).



Next up are a pair of Image shirts that I scored back in ‘95 at the San Diego Comic Con. That was perhaps the most fun I ever had at a convention. I was at the height of my professional career and knew or was known by most of the Pros at the event. (Oh yeah, the image off to the left is the back of the Wetworks T.)






While I was at this convention, I also donated blood at the Robert A. Heinlein blood bank, and received this free T-Shirt: I’m also including the small logo on the front as well as the back image. Technically not a comic-T but as I got it in San Diego, at a Con, I think it should count.



Next up are a couple more shirts that I scored at that ‘95 San Diego Con. One from Tekno Comics (a company that no longer Publishes) and a Dark Horse Star Wars shirt:





Hey, remember the Warren Beatty Dick Tracy movie? Don’t worry, I do, and this was the T-Shirt that people who saw it on opening night got. In fact, it was “technically” our entrance. Everyone was supposed to wear the shirt into the film. Several did, but many did not.



This next shirt I got at last year’s MoCCA convention. I have no idea what the comic it is promoting is about, but it was free, and it is kinda cool. Still, it is mostly a shirt I wear around the house, rather than out and about.



These last two shirts I got several years ago from not a comic book company but some Tech company (OKI Semiconductor) that had commissioned the creation of these two characters to promote their product lines and/or services. I tried at the time to convince them that I could create actual comics with these characters, but I never really got anywhere with them.





OK, that’s it for now. See you again tomorrow.

The more you wear...

OK kids, if you didn’t get enough of superheroes you can wear yesterday, here comes part the duce. This first shirt was acquired for me by my lovely daughter at some event where there was a guy airbrushing T-shirts:



Cool, eh? Still, while I know that many of you think I’m all about Spidey-Man, but that isn’t entirely true. Nope. Sometimes I wear the FF on my chest.



Sometimes I wear the Silver Surfer.



Sometimes I even wear Stan.



Then, of course, there ar the two T-Shirts I received back in the late
’80s/early ’90s when I freelanced for Marvel and was invited to their summer, company picnic. The image to the left is a close-up shot of the logo on the right breast of th front of this T. while the Wolverine is what appeared on the back.



Originally, Wolverine was in B&W, and I had my Brother-in-Law air brush the art, as he was looking to practice,and I though that it would be really cool to have Wolvie in color. As I recall, this was the second year I was invited to the picnic. The first year we received the shirt that appears below. I mean, what is a picnic with out an ant or two, eh? The Picnic(s) were at some place in Jersey. I took a train into the city, the subway to Marvel’s office, and then was bused to Jersey. All-in-all a good day.



Oh yeah, On one of those trips, they also gave us this hat to wear, and while I really haven’t worn it since (I do wear the shirts), I can’t bear to part with it.



Additionally not only had I been invited to Marvel’s Summer event a couple of years in a row, but I had also been invited to their year-end Holiday party (always held in January, for some reason), which was a great big bash that took up the entire top floor of some big hotel in NYC. Unfortunately there were no giveaway Ts with those events, but they were way cool anyway.

I’m going to leave off here for now, and pick this up again tomorrow with a batch of non-Marvel items that I have in my superhero wardrobe (and again, remember, these aren’t all of my wearible art, just the ones that I could find).

Funnybook wearables

OK Kids, this post is precisely what it sounds like. Sure, sure we all have comicbook wearables, and lately, as you have all have oohed and ahhed over some of the stuff I’ve already posted. So I figured that I’d post for you as much of what I could find this time out.

You ready? I hope so, buecause this is going to be a fun ride for some of you folks. Well, the first thing you can see is a Spidey pin I acquired back in the mid-‘90s (San Diego I believe).

What you see here is a Batmnan pin that I picked up when Batman Begins hit the theaters. Both of these pins adorn a black leather vest of mine that I often wear at conventions

OK, here we go, I’m going to start off simple with a fes Spidey T-SHirts:





OK, so I’m an aging hippy, get over it:



This next T-shirt was a giveaway that I received by mailing in prof-of-purchase seals from some Brach’s food product. I think that I got it around Spider-Man 3. You can see the Brach’s logo that appeared on the left sleeve.



This T-shirt also came by trading food proof-of-purchase seals for it, only I don’t remember what product. This shirt was also from Spidey 3 as I recall.



This next shirt is from my Mom, who purchased it In Italy a couple of years ago when she went there.



These next two shirts are not T-shirts, but something more. The first is a silk Spidey Club shirt and the second is a Spidey jersey. I got them both at an extreme markdown at a local store (they were originally $50.00 each, but I got them both for $30.00 for the two of them — cool, eh?).





OK, I’m going to cut this off her for now. This isn’t all of my funnybook wearables (not by far), but I didn’t want to overload you all. Come back over the next couple of days, and you’ll see what I have for you.