Paul Cornell Speaks

And I listen. I am absolutely loving CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI:13, and CBR has an interview with the series' writer, Paul Cornell.

If you haven't been reading this new series, it's not too late to join in. It really is an ensemble book, with the Black Knight, Pete Wisdom, Spitfire and new character Fazia Hussain form the core of the developing team, with guest appearances so far by Union Jack, Blade, a bazillion Skrulls and whole bunch of otherworldly nasties.

Great mix of the supernatural, great British humour and strong characters already emerging. Fazia has the potential to be very interesting, although I'm not sure where Cornell is going in giving her Excalibur on top of her already very interesting powers. Dane Whitman is a favourite character of mine and it's great to see him being utilised here.

Check out the interview, and more importantly check out the comic!

Well that doesn't sound good.....

Not sure if I like the sound of the solicit for LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #49:

THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #49

Written by Jim Shooter

Art and cover by Francis Manapul & Livesay

Timber Wolf goes berserk! A Legion Espionage Squad risks death to explore the heavily defended Intruder Planet. Lightning Lad finds comfort in the arms of...the president? Meanwhile, Phantom Girl is catastrophically injured, and she’ll never be the same again! All this, and the beginning of the Universal Annihilation War!

On sale December 31 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US

It may be be moot if the current Legion wraps up after LEGION OF THREE WORLDS (personally I hope this version sticks around and we get the old Legion as well), but Phantom Girl IS my favourite Legionnaire, and I don't want anything too catastrophic happening to her, thanks very much!

Save the Aquaman Hoodie!

Aquaman fan alert!

The Point has an online campaign to save the Aquaman Hoodie, promised by 80sTees.com but then pulled from sale. Apparently they have offered to reconsider if 200 people promise to preorder. The Point's campaign has 112 members at the moment, so obviously we need some more Aquaman fans to join the fight.

Now, you need to do this because, well, I WANT MY AQUAMAN HOODIE!!

Come on, be a sport. Join. Get your Auntie to join. Your dog, I don't really care.

Just join!!

You're a Good Man, Bill Melendez

Very sad to hear about the passing of Bill Melendez, the animator of the Peanuts holiday specials and also the voice of Snoopy in some of the programs.

I don't think any kid of my generation who grew up in America could have escaped having the Peanuts specials imprinted on their brains. The Great Pumpkin remains my favourite, with the Christmas special a very close second. Oh, maybe I love the Christmas special more. As a kid, the holidays just didn't feel like holidays until the Peanuts special had aired.

Reading the Wikipedia entry for Peanuts, it's clear that Melendez made a huge contribution to what is "Peanuts" in animation today, for example, the muted trombone sounds that replace adult voices. Classic.

Sad I think the kids today are bombarded with so much that there probably isn't room for anything to become iconic in the same way. With so much going on around them, what will they remember, and treasure?

I need to get a copy of the Christmas special for my kids. We don't really do Halloween and don't have Thanksgiving in Australia, but I know they'll love the Christmas one.

Thanks, Bill, for all the memories. We'll try to make sure they live on.

ComicGeek: Week Ending 29 August

Yikes! Another week, and while crossovers continue to confound, another pile of corpses litter the halls of DC Comics, and meanwhile, who's doing the forbidden naughty in the closet?? Let's get started:

I tend to order my pile in reverse order of interest: get the questionable titles out of the way first and save the cream, the ones I know I'm really going to enjoy, for last. I'd already heard a bit about TEEN TITANS #62, so I placed that right on top. The short of the long of it: Marvin and Wendy find a dog, take it in, and at the end of the issue it apparently kills them both in typical DC-gruesomeness. Oh, and Miss Martian apparently leaves, although she's on next issue's cover. I can't say I feel alot about Marvin & Wendy, assuming they're really dead, but it does seem like a pretty big waste of supporting characters with potential, and the gore is, as usual, unnecessary. I didn't like Sean McKeever on BIRDS OF PREY, and I don't like him on TITANS either. Shame, too, because the current cast does have potential. As much as I want to drop this book, I like the characters too much. We'll see how long that can stretch.

Next on the pile was THE NEW AVENGERS #44 and THE MIGHTY AVENGERS #17. This Secret Invasion stuff is just all over the place and I can't keep up. I'll give Bendis credit for the intricate plotting of this crossover event, but all the flicking back and forth in time, the clones, the fakes etc. is very hard to keep up with. I hate the way that both Avengers books have been taken over by the backtracking for SI: it provides colour but doesn't advance the story, and meanwhile both books are totally derailed. As for the "event" itself, It's been ages since we've had a Skrull reveal of any significance, and I'm not sure I actually care anymore. End, please.

I had FINAL CRISIS: ROGUE'S REVENGE #2 closer to the top of the pile because I'm pretty dubious about FINAL CRISIS, but that wasn't really giving the issue its due. The Flash Rogues are infinitely interesting when written well, and Geoff Johns can do that like no other. They're in fine form here, although it's a pretty gruesome issue, with the crew wasting their would-be replacements in the standard DC gore. Not sure how well this is going to be wrapped up with only one issue to go, and even less sure how much I'm going to like the new Flash status quo once FINAL CRISIS is finally over. All I can say is Wally had better still be in the picture or I'll be throwing chairs and stuff.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #18 was next. Alex Ross is a divisive character, most love him or hate him. I'm edgy about what's happening in JSA, which has the potential to be great title but is being too driven by fulfilling the KINGDOM COME legend at the moment, and wondering what will become of the title and team when this is over. Having said that I found this issue surprisingly enjoyable. The Dale Eaglesham artwork is growing on me, and certainly handles the Gog character well, but I really hate the way he draws Jay Garrick. Biggest development in this issue is that Lance Thompson gets killed in battle and then resurrected by Gog as Magog. That can't be good. Best twist is the final page, where Power Girl, still on Earth Two, visits the E2 version of Michael Holt (Mr Terrific on E1) for help. Fun will follow. I just hope this is leading somewhere positive.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #45 was close to the bottom of the pile, because I'm a diehard Legion fan. As much as the Levitz era Legion is "my" Legion, I love the Threeboot Legion, especially since Shooter has come on board, and it's a bit of a shame that I doubt it will survive LEGION OF THREE WORLDS. This was a fun issue, tying up some plot threads while opening others. Shooter is giving the characters the beginnings of personality and texture. Francis Manapul's art has potential, but it's still patchy in places. One of the keys of a successful Legion artist is how well they can handle one of the series' main characters, the 30th Century itself. Keith Giffen is the one who found and developed it's personality by giving the scenery and background characters a life of their own, and really only a few artists like Lightle and Moy have been able to pull this off anywhere near as well. As for the closet couple, it's here at the end of #45, when Invisible Kid finds Ultra Boy and Saturn Girl in a clench! I don't mind Shooter playing with the traditional Legion relationships, and I hope he keeps toying and keeping us guessing in that regard. As long as Lightning Lad ends up with Saturn Girl and Ultra Boy ends up with Phantom Girl, of course.

And finally, for something that's always reliable, I left THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #18 to the bottom of the pile. This book never disappoints, even with a change of creative teams. I enjoy it because it treats the readers with intelligence, the main character is being well developed, and it is essentially a standalone story - you don't need to be reading anything else to understand it. The current storyline is delving further into the legend of the Iron Fist while giving us a bit more of Danny's personal life as well. Thoroughly satisfying.

Well that's this week's rundown and body count! I'll make sure to break out a fresh set of body bags before I pick up next week's haul.

Until next time!

ComicGeek: Week ending 22 August

A week in which my beloved LEGION is at the forefront of the comics world seems as good a time as any to start what I hope will be a weekly rundown of my faves or not so faves from my weekly comics pull list.

LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #1 has been a long wait for this long-time Legion fan. Being a huge fan of the Levitz Legion, I've never really recovered from the Five Year Gap (especially since they killed off my Phantom Girl), and while I have enjoyed other incarnations, especially the current Threeboot Legion, I have longed for some resolution to the Legion's increasingly muddled history. I'm not going to pin too many hopes on this, but it is at least encouraging to see DC acknowledge the conundrum and try to address it, and extremely encouraging to see that Superman is right where he should be: firmly in the middle of it all.

It's encouraging to hear quite a few people who aren't reading FINAL CRISIS talk about picking up this title, and you certainly don't need to be reading the main book to follow it. It will help if you've read Geoff John's Legion arc in ACTION however, as the "main" Legion in this book (at least Issue #1) is the Legion introduced in that run, which is as close to the Levitz Legion as we're going to see. While trawling the web I found GeniusboyFiremelon's pretty comprehensive annotation of Issue #1 if you need help making sense of who's who and what happened.

The Perez art is fantastic of course, and the issue is well written, with hopes that the uber-annoying Superboy/man Prime is going to do something here besides rip people in half, which would be a nice chance.

No idea how this is going to end, but I am definitely along for the ride!

In broader brushstrokes, BIRDS OF PREY #121 signalled a continued turnaround for this title which seemed to be floundering under Sean McKeever, Tony Bedard is bringing some fun and direction back to the title, which seems refreshed with a new location, some new cast members and some interesting subplots. I'm not a fan of the Misfit character, but even she is less annoying and more interesting in Bedard's take, and the subplot involving a link between Misfit and Black Alice is looking to be interesting.

Issue #121 continues building up the Birds' new Rogues Gallery at "Platinum Flats", and adds the Joker into the mix for an interesting turn. It's very well scripted, fast paced and engaging. Well supported by Michael O'Hare's art, altho Nicola Scott's pencils were missed by this reader.

If the rumours that Bedard will be writing a Legion title after Final Crisis are true, I'm cool after reading this.

I'll give a quick mention to JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #24 simply because it's nice to see this title has had a run of solid issues that don't rely on crossovers. Dwayne McDuffie is handling the reigns of what should be DC's flagship title well without having to be overly flashy - anyone that can centre a storyline on Vixen and Animal Man is tops in my book!

McDuffie's use of the JLA cast is excellent, and I enjoy the way that heroes other than the Big Three get the limelight - my favourite moment in this issue came when Black Canary shatters Amazo's head with her canary cry. Zatanna is also used well in this arc, and if future covers are anything to go by it looks like she may be joining the roster, which is fine by me.

Hopefully whatever Final Crisis does to the DCU won't mean that this title has to be rebooted, because it's sailing along quite well, thanks.

As much as I hate to do so, I'm going to have to flag one of my favourite books, X-FACTOR, for issue #34, as my pan for this week based solely on Larry Stroman's art. I. Do. Not. Like. A great comic is always about the synergy of writer and artist, and I am missing Pablo Raimondi something chronic! .

A shame, too, because these last couple of issues with She-Hulk, Longshot and Darwin have had the potential to be quite good, and seem to be important for the future direction of the book, but Stroman's storytelling just isn't up to the task. There are still some panels from #33 I'm trying to work out where he's just missed the mark completely.

I don't know how long Stroman is around for, but if it's permanent, then I may have to make a permanent exit from what has been one of my fave titles in the last few years.

Until next week!

The Hoff is Everywhere

It's set to mangle MySpace, batter Bebo and make you forgo Facebook. What else could I be talking about but Hoffspace?

After reading that the former Knight Rider star had set up his own social networking website at a blog on my local paper's website, I remained unconvinced and had to google for myself. It wasn't until I came upon the actor's eponymous website that I realised that, by golly, I think this thing is real.

Why has he set this up? I'll just give you this little gem:

"I realized that while two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me... So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me."

I kid you not.

You need to go to "Hoffspace" for yourself to judge, but it looks bonafide and it certainly has alot of members. The whole thing is so vain and self involved it's hard to believe it's real..... until you remember it's the Hoff.

It could be the next big thing. My suggestion: get your mouse a' movin' and make haste to Hoffspace before your favourite nick gets taken - it could become social death not to be there

Or..... maybe just death.