Preliminary Con Prep: Terrificon 2024

It's that time of year. The days are short. The nights are long. It's cold and raw.

And I start thinking about convention season.

Specifically, I start thinking about my favorite convention, Terrificon and at least start to loosely think about goals and sketches. I hope to meet some creators and hopefully some friends on August 16-18!

As always, the showrunner Mitch Hallock has put together a tremendous guest list. As of today, there is a glut of comic talent that is going to be there. Now I have had the luxury of having been to many cons over my life. So I have met many of the superstars that have been listed, including but not limited to Jim Lee, Chris Claremont, Scott Snyder, Howard Chaykin, the Simonsons, and lots of others. While I am sure that I will have books to get signed from many of them, I thought I would focus on the announced guests that have grabbed my attention the most.

And at the top of the list is:

Happy Valentine's Day

Hey all!

Hooray for romance!

Happy Valentine's Day for those celebrating!

Review: Kneel Before Zod #2

 When Kneel Before Zod was announced as a mini-series, I didn't know what to expect. For a while Zod was everywhere. Then he was nowhere. Now he was going to headline a book? And from creators who I didn't really know.

Kneel Before Zod #1 came out last month and was a solid first issue, laying out a number of plot threads. One of the more interesting ones was seeing the beginning of a rift between Ursa and Zod. For the last couple of decades, the two have been a team. Zod was the more calculating leader. Ursa the blood thirsty assassin, the tip of his sadistic spear. 

Last week Kneel Before Zod #2 came out and focused mostly on their interactions. Joe Casey shows us how things are unraveling. After years of seeing Zod portrayed as the ultimate alpha predator, looking to amass power and destroy his enemies, this issue showed us some cracks in his psyche. Last issue we saw him hallucinating Jor-El. This issue we see a weary leader who is a bit lost in machinations. His bloodlust seems dimmed. And Ursa is there, ready to seize control of their situation. Again, interesting. More than I thought the book might be. 

It is, for sure, an about face for everything we have read of Zod recently. While it seemed shocking, and maybe a bit out of character, I had to remind myself that it has been a while since we have seen him. Time has passed so there maybe things we don't know that has led him here. I am a giant fan of John Boorman's Excalibur. In that movie, Uther Pendragon, after years of marauding, wants to settle back and raise a child. He grew weary of battle. This issue reminded me of that.

All this leads to the dramatic cliffhanger of Ursa seizing control. Unfortunately, all thoughts about where this might go were spoiled by Bleeding Cool here. Read at your own risk.

Dan McDaid's art is bold and has a sort of blunt beauty to it. His Ursa is wonderfully mad. 

As an aside, seeing Ursa dominate Zod might rankle some people. But this is completely in her character. It made some sense to me that if she saw weakness, she would take control.

On to the book. 

Review: Superman '78 The Metal Curtain #4

Superman '78 The Metal Curtain #4 came out this week and was a quick, entertaining read by creative team of writer Robert Venditti and artist Gavin Guidry.

I have very much enjoyed the Superman '78 titles mostly for the character interactions. Here, this issue very much had the feeling of the action sequence in a possible movie. Earlier we saw Metallo nearly take out Superman but pulled away because the USSR leaders wanted Superman's defeat to be televised.

In this issue, Metallo takes the fight to American land, calling out Superman in Washington D.C. and once again nearly defeating our hero before an unusual ally lends a hand. Since this is mostly a brawl, and a well drawn and choreographed one, the book reads quick. But you need this to again show that Metallo is a legitimate threat. Even though the villain suffers a setback here, there is still no obvious answer to how Superman will defeat him. As a result, the tension is ratcheted up here, a nice plot nudge in a middle chapter.

Robert Venditti continues to write a brilliant Hackman-esque Luthor who both helps and derides Superman here. And we also get several more nods to the movies in the book, subtle so not overdone but appreciated.

Gavin Guidry continues to bring it here with perfect expressive work. We feel Clark's concerns over again facing the K-powered assassin. We see Lex's joy over saving Superman. But we also get nice action in the brawl. A couple of panels, seen below stand out.

On to the book. (Apologies for panels, scanner on the fritz.)

Back Issue Box: Adventure Comics #283

Today was an open slot in the blog schedule and had been a while since I had done a back issue so I was pondering what to cover. With Kneel Before Zod on the shelves, I thought looking back at the original Phantom Zone story and the introduction to General Zod might be fun.

So set the time machine for 1961 and Adventure Comics #283. In all transparency, I have this issue in the Tales From The Phantom Zone trade so might be mining that particular collection more in the future.

Pretty solid cover here by Curt Swan promoting The Phantom Superboy and name dropping the Phantom Zone for the first time. And nice ethereal colors on the phantom hero, showing us the terrain in the background.

On to the story.

'The Phantom Superboy' was written by Robert Bernstein with solid art by George Papp. 

As was the custom back in the day, the opening page was almost a second cover teasing the story. Given how the Phantom Zone and the two villains in the story have remained major components in the Superman mythos, it is a little amusing that neither are strongly shown in either place.

Instead, here, we learn that Superboy is an intangible phantom and that the Clark Kent robot that is imitating him is about to reveal his big secret. Obviously this very Silver Age story construct is a silly part of this story.

DC Comic Solicits: April 2024

The April 2024 solicits for DC Comics came out last week. Here is a link to the entire slate:
https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-april-2024-solicitations-covers/

This includes a place holder for DC's FCBD comic. Not much has come out about this book other than it will introduce the next big event and is a reaction to something '30 years in the making'. Now Zero Hour came out in 1994 and the rumors on line are of an ultimate universe style line at DC. But that strikes me as similar to the ' ____ Earth One' books. 

More pertinent to this site is the beginning of House of Brainiac running through the Superman books. I am pretty excited to see a true storyline running through all the books! 

Action Comics #1064
Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
Art and cover by RAFA SANDOVAL
Variant covers by JORGE JIMÉNEZ, PAOLO RIVERA, and MICHAEL WALSH

HOUSE OF BRAINIAC PART ONE!

BRAINIAC ATTACKS! Brainiac’s Lobo army invades Metropolis in an action-packed oversized issue! The Super family and all the heroes of Metropolis join the fight, but will they be enough to hold off Brainiac’s lethal and crazed soldiers?! Can Superman and Lex learn what Brainiac is searching for? He’s not bottling Metropolis, so what is he collecting instead?!

First off, I am so happy that Rafa Sandoval is back on the book. I have come to really love Sandoval's take on the character and the whole family.

One thing for sure, under Phillip Kennedy Johnson's tenure, the super-family grew. With a team of Kryptonians, Phaelosians, and others numbering (I think) 9, you need a big threat to bring some realistic risk. An army of Lobos? That'll do.

Review Batman/Superman World's Finest Annual 2024

The Batman/Superman World's Finest Annual 2024 came out this week. But it was a bit of a feint. This really is more akin to an old style Showcase comic with 4 stories, 3 of which seem like pilots for new books. 

It is true that the first story, a tale of the 5th dimensional imps, will lead directly into the main World's Finest book. But otherwise, this was more akin to one of the event-related anthologies than to a Superman and Batman book.

I'll briefly review each story but I'll start by saying there is one winner, one 'okay' and two 'not bad's. Is this worth the $4.99? Is this a bait and switch, not really since the topics are right there on the cover. I knew what I was getting in to.

Overall though, I felt a little taken advantage of. Batman/Superman World's Finest is one of DC's best books these days. It has been a very consistent winner. So attaching it's name to these 4 disparate stories seems like a sleight of hand for my five bucks. 

The opening story is by World's Finest scribe Mark Waid who is joined by Cullen Bunn. Edwin Galmon is on art.

It is a silly story where we have Mr. Mxyzptlk calling to order a meeting of the Just Us League, a team of 5th dimensional imps who have attached themselves to an Earth 0 hero. The imps trade barbs and blows, showing us just how silly they are. But Mxy called them together because a great threat is coming. It seems that there are 5th dimensional imps who link themselves to villains.

It is a cute tale with Galmon's art being an easy fix. Who knew there was a l'il imp Black Canary out there. And despite the existence of Mxy and Bat-Mite for decades, villain-linked imps is a new idea. Given the 'red on black' text by the main bad imp,. I suppose they have linked to Darkseid or the Batman Who Laughs. If there is an imp for every DC hero, does Kara have one?

This wasn't bad. I'll have to see how the story is fleshed out in the main book to decide if this prologue was needed.

On to the rest.