Superman Red Son Hardcover for $16.49

What if Superman were to land in Russia, instead of Kansas? Mark Millar takes a crack at showing you what happens.

Superman rises through the Russian ranks, keeping America on it’s toes. America might have nuclear weapons, but Russia has the greatest living weapon. This changes the entire history of the planet. Luthor is still obsessed with destroying Superman, but it’s under the guise of protecting American interests. Superman still wants to help people, but his Russian upbringing and the reality of the world change his actions from the Superman we’re used to seeing.

What I liked best about this graphic novel is that it’s well thought out. Mark Millar did an excellent job developing the world, it’s history, and the characters themselves. Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Braniac, Bizarro, Lois Lane, they all exist in this world and they’ve all been changed.

The art compliments the story well. Plenty to like about the illustrations themselves, the new designs are fantastic, and I’m a huge fan of Batman’s warm hat, despite the mockery it received. Probably because I have one of my own, warm hats rule.

Once Luthor becomes President of the US, the last bastion for capitalism, the story builds up to a satisfying final battle. The only time I found the story to be a letdown was after the final battle. It goes into a wacky time travel situation that I felt didn’t added to the story.

4.5/5. One of the better “What If” style stories I’ve read, it’s very well realized.

I’ll be honest, as goofball as the Return of Superman comic arc was, I didn’t mind it. It was fun to see Cyborg Superman come back during the Sinestro Corps storyline.

This one seems to be lacking something that was fairly prominant in the movie and comic but I suppose it is a little more kid friendly.

One of my favourite villains from the Superman animated series.

Someone could nitpick and say this wasn’t DC but it’s an imprint OWNED by DC so too bad.

This piece gets crapped on a lot because it’s too “anime” for most comic collectors, but I think it looks cute. Supergirl’s got an adorable face and despite how much skin this costume shows, it’s not geared towards a sultry look but a more playful one.

There’s good and bad with the sculpting. I find her torso looks strange and as you can see from the final image, she’s got poor posture. You don’t see that at all from the front, which is how she’s meant to be displayed. Also, her boobs are angled all weird. The flowing cape and skirt are nicely done, the rest of her pose is good, and the wind-blown hair works well.

There’s a bit of an issue with her upper arm, where they attached it. Same with the side of her stomach. They should’ve taken a little more time to smooth that out. I’ve heard that’s one of the issues the re-releases of this address, they’re more smooth.

The colours on this piece are incredibly vibrant. The skirt, cape, the yellow, her eyes, all that detail work is more than fine. Nice solid colours, no drips. They could’ve shaded the hair a little though.

The base is simple but it’s perfect for what it needed to be.

3.5/5. One of the better Supergirl statues and not just because there aren’t many available. It’s cute and reasonably priced. It would’ve scored a 4 without the casting issues.

Buying Options : If you’re lucky and catch it during a re-release, just buy it from whatever comic shop has it on sale. If you want it immediately, check Ebay. Make sure to check Amazon as well.

Masters of the Universe Classics Skeletor and Mo-Larr from the Robot Chicken sketch – we saw this set at Mattel’s collector event at Toy Fair. Skeletor is missing a tooth, like he is at the end of the sketch.

Masters of the Universe Classics Orko – comes with a Prince Adam “accessory.” Adam, a fully-articulated figure, was positioned in the package sideways below Orko, obscured partially by standard packaging. When you dip Orko in hot water, he turns transparent and “disappears.” When you dip his spellbook in hot water, the SDCC logo appears. I imagine the SDCC logo is exclusive to the version that will be sold at SDCC, but I’m not sure if Orko’s disappearing act is also exclusive to the show version.

DC Universe Classics Plastic Man – he’ll come with attachments, with the suitcase as the SDCC exclusive piece. His head and arms plug into the suitcase.

DC Infinite Heroes Starro and Justice League 5-Pack. This will be a bendable Starro that looks like it could be 12-inches tall, and comes with the original Justice League in what looked to be Infinite Heroes scale – Green Lantern, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. In addition, there’s mini-Starros that look to fit on the faces of both the DCIH pack-ins and DC Universe Classics figures.

If you want to see the video footage, here’s a link to the article/video.

Absolute Kingdom Come available at Amazon for $47.50

This short series is one of the better known DC events. It’s one of the best examples of Alex Ross’ work, just utterly gorgeous through every issue. The premise is that in the future, Superman, and most of the classic heroes, have retired. A new generation of heroes roam the streets, but their methods show they care little for what happens to the people they’re protecting, leading to a massive radioactive event that wipes out the food supplies of most of America.

Certain events lead Superman to change his mind, coming back to change the fate of the planet. The story build up involves a superhuman gulag, a human coalition against superheroes, leading to a giant war amongst superbeings. You can’t ask for much more than that!

The writing in it compliments the art well. It deals with hope, what it is to be a hero, how time changes us all, wonderful themes to play with. As far as DC comics go, I consider it a must-read.

5/5.

The Supergirl is fairly rare and goes for well above it’s retail price while the Batgirl does not, she’s cheap as hell. Both of them are from the first series, the Adam Hughes line. Both also have more than one version, the series 2 Supergirl, and the upcoming Series 3 batdance Batgirl.

The Supergirl really takes it up a notch since she’s rarely ever depicted like this. She’s adult, sexy, and playful. The interesting choice of hair and outfit work incredibly well. The Metropolis themed base compliments her nicely. Among the best in the line. Be careful with this one, the fingers are sensitive. I accidentally broke one, fortunately, in a way that doesn’t really show up.

The Batgirl is also very nice, just not as nice as the Supergirl. Her base is decent, but it doesn’t say Gotham to me. The pose is fine, though I question why they gave her a batarang. From certain angles, it looks more like she’s holding a gun. Holding the mask with her other hand is a great touch. Just make sure you don’t lose the mask!

The paint on both is superb. Supergirl has a variety of muted colours mixed with the traditional Supergirl colours. Batgirl has a great mix of dark and vibrant colours, the yellow costume elements and red hair come off well.

4.5/5. Supergirl is a 5, Batgirl is a 4. Both strong entries into a fantastic line of busts.

Buying Options : While the Batgirl may be available at some stores still, Supergirl isn’t. Off to the secondary market you go. Batgirl is in stock over at Amazon, though at an inflated price.

52 Volume 1 for $13.59 currently at Amazon

I’d heard a few good things about this run, but I hadn’t so much as read a single issue before now. The gist of it is 52 issues that detail what happened in the missing year of the One Year Later event that resulted in some pretty huge changes for the heroes of the DC universe.

It primarily focuses on side characters like Booster Gold, The Question, Black Adam, etc… and their adventures. At the end of quite a few issues, they explore the history of the DC universe with Donna Troy, then later on they start exploring the origins of various DC heroes and teams. It’s quite handy!

It turns out all those little side stories start building together into two massive events. One that threatens the entire Earth and leads into the short side-event World War III, and another event that threatens the whole multiverse. But it’s so well written and the characters are all so fascinating, it doesn’t feel like some contrived attempt to make a huge deal out of a weekly comic, it feels natural. Similar to how I find Dark Reign, while it’s considered an event, it’s more about changing the Marvel universe week by week over a longer period of time.

This event made me care for the characters involved. It helped flesh out a massive part of the DC universe for me while rarely trotting out the big guns. If DC was looking to help readers get into their universe, Infinite Crisis and this follow-up were a fantastic idea and a success.

4.5/5.

52 Volume 2
52 Volume 3
52 Volume 4

World War 3 for $10.18 currently available from Amazon’s third party sellers.

World War 3 - At some point it was decided that this event was too big for 52 and it got it’s own 4 issue spinoff. It takes place over roughly one week and there’s a few continuity errors between this and 52 that I noticed, but no big deal.

Black Adam had some serious shit happen to him in 52. I don’t want to spoil it, but let’s say it enrages him to the point where he declares war on pretty much the rest of the planet. He wants revenge and nothing’s going to stop him.

It’s a great setup, it simply lacks any depth. Keep that in mind. These 4 issues have soul-searching by the Martian Manhunter, but the primary thrust of the comics is Black Adam destroying everything he possibly can and every hero around banding together to try to stop him. That’s it’s primary goal and it certainly makes for an exciting read for a character that was given plenty of time to develop in 52.

4/5

Infinite Crisis for $10.19 currently at Amazon

I’d read this one before, but I was pleasantly surprised when I re-read it. I’m not sure why I thought it was average before, it’s a good read.

The thing about DC events is they’re ambitious. Sure, they have plenty of other problems, but a DC event usually ends up doing something ridiculous like destroying thousands of universes. This one doesn’t disappoint!

Earth-1 is a dark place. Heroes have done things they shouldn’t have, Wonder Woman murdered someone on tv, too many heroes have died. The remaining citizens of Earth-2, and one from Earth-3, the ones cast away after Crisis on Infinite Earths, have decided that enough is enough. Earth-1 is corrupt and they’re going to get Earth-2 back.

My primary problem with this particular event is, even after reading the assorted comics leading up to it, it’s still a little confusing. I doubt they could’ve prevented that due to all the characters they trot out and all the multiverse business. Oh, and that Superboy is a giant baby and I hate how he became a major character for years afterwards due to this event. Although he’s pretty hilarious in the current Blackest Night arc.

The art is well done, the story is enjoyable despite some confusion, it’s an epic fight between all sides in the DC universe.

4/5.

Villains United for $10.39 currently at Amazon

There were a bunch of separate stories that lead up to Infinite Crisis, I’m going to take a crack at reviewing the two that I enjoyed – Villains United and The OMAC Project. You can risk your time by reading the others on your own.

Villains United - This was a six issue miniseries that focuses on Catman, referred to as a joke of a Batman villain, and a team of villains that’s recruited together under threats of death to their families/etc…

After the events of the Justice League in Identity Crisis, Luthor’s been attracting villains to his “team”, offering them protection and revenge. So along comes this new mysterious overlord, gathering together a select few villains to go up against Luthor.

They end up going on some pretty cool missions, there’s some great action, the art is top notch and fits the story well, and the payoff at the end is solid. Considering I knew nothing about the villains involved, and that this is simply an intro to Infinite Crisis, I don’t think I could’ve asked for more.

4.5/5

O.M.A.C. Project for $10.19 currently at Amazon

The OMAC Project - While I liked this one, I had some problems with it. The primary one is that it takes place after some important events have already happened, so it might have a few spoilers you weren’t expecting. But if you don’t care (or already know) it’s not a big deal. Let’s just say that if you’re planning to read Infinite Crisis, you should google up a reading guide first, it’s confusing.

Anyways, for those not familiar with Identity Crisis, the basic idea is that the heroes did certain things that upset a whole lot of people. They did something to Batman’s memory that understandably, had him pretty pissed off. He created a system (OMAC) that could track every single hero. Unfortunately, he loses control of that system. Not only that, but a virus infects certain humans, making it possible for OMAC to convert them into the DC equivalent of sentinels.

As the story goes on, OMAC activates more and more of these sentinels with the goal of eliminating all metahuman activity. The whole trade is loaded with action since the superheroes are fighting a good million of these drones. It’s a strong lead-in to the event itself.

4/5.