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In
an effort to make its stories more accessible to new

readers, DC recently launched The New 52, cancelling all of its existing titles

and starting 52 new series with revamped and rebooted versions of its major

characters. But how will the New 52 affect the DC universe? Will new readers

actually be attracted? Will old fans still be interested? Will the new titles

be fresh and new, or disappointing and unfaithful to the original continuity?

After buying and reading all but a few of the 52 new #1s that DC released over

the course of a month, I have set out to review some of the major ones and let

potential readers know which new titles are and are not worth reading. So,

without further ado…

Action Comics #1

Writer:
Grant Morrison

Penciler:
Rags Morales

Review
by Samuel N. Harris

In the year
1938, a new era was born. Action Comics #1 was published, featuring the
first-ever appearance of a character called Superman, the very first in a new
breed of action heroes and cultural icons who came to be known as superheroes.
People loved Superman for many reasons—he was larger than life, he always did
the right thing, and he always saved the day in the end. He was a hope and an
inspiration to many fans and readers. But as the decades wore on, times changed
and grew more complicated, and so did people’s views of the world and their
opinions of what a hero should be. It sometimes seemed like Superman’s iconic
do-gooder quality was old-fashioned and outdated and was being replaced by
darker, more modern heroes. Therefore, the people who wrote and drew Superman
stories had to come up with new ways to make Superman seem new and fresh and
exciting—and they’re still trying to come up with such new ways today. Enter
the new Action Comics #1, part of DC’s recent universal reboot, and the
company’s latest attempt to make Superman relevant and appealing to a new generation
of readers.

Within the first
few pages of Action Comics #1, we get to see Superman in action, and it’s
already a very different Superman than many readers may be used to. We see him
taunting and insulting criminals, defying police orders, and holding and
dropping criminals from far above the ground (although flying down to catch
them before they land) in order to scare a confession out of them. From the
beginning it is clear that this is not the same old Superman who has always
been an upright crusader for justice. This is a Superman who seems to relish
and enjoy the power he holds over criminals, is not afraid to use some very
forceful tactics to get what he wants out of them, and cockily yells “Catch me if
you can!” as he runs away from the police officers who try to arrest him for
his vigilante ways. Whereas the old Superman was always a model citizen and a
moral example in almost every area, this one has no qualms about placing
himself above the law that he claims to uphold or disrespecting those who do enforce
it legally. To be fair, I have heard some praise for this violent champion-of-social-justice
persona on the basis that it is closer to some of Superman’s original
appearances back in the Golden Age (from Superman’s first appearance up through
the late ‘40s or early ‘50s). This may be true, but I’m not familiar enough
with the Golden Age comics to testify either for or against that. All I know is
that it’s not a Superman I’m familiar with, and, quite frankly, it’s not one
that I’m very comfortable with either.

But let’s forget about Superman for a moment and
think about another important element of his story—his alter ego, Clark Kent. Midway
through the comic, the high-and-mighty Superman graciously decides to humble
himself enough to don the plain, loose-fitting clothes of mild-mannered Clark
Kent, a freelance newspaper reporter struggling to pay the rent in his modest
apartment, making friendly conversation with the gray-haired landlady about
this mysterious Superman character and how he recently threw an abusive husband
out a window and into a river. Yes, in this rebooted DC continuity, Clark Kent
and Lois Lane are inexplicably no longer married, leaving Clark as a young
bachelor again. We do get to see Lois for a couple of pages—she and Jimmy Olsen
are working on a story and are employed by a rival newspaper than the one Clark
works for. But gone is the decades-long relationship of Clark and Lois that
eventually led to a beautiful marriage. In its place is a newer, younger Clark
Kent who readers are supposed to be able to relate to more.

Call me old-fashioned if you must, but I’m really
not a fan of how Superman is portrayed in this comic—and, apparently, in the
new DC universe as a whole. Within the pages of the comic he goes from being a
brutal, arrogant vigilante to an unassuming, down-on-his-luck young bachelor,
very much in the vein of classic Peter Parker character. Not only is it not the
Superman I know, but the two different sides of his personality don’t seem
consistent with each other either (although I realize that he does have to act
lowly and unimposing as Clark Kent so people won’t suspect his alter ego). I
feel like the creators can’t decide whether they want Superman to be more like
Batman or Spider-Man. I say, why can’t we just let him be Superman? Is that
really too much to ask?

I’d also like to complain about another, albeit more
minor, aspect of this comic: Superman’s costume. Instead of Superman’s
traditional full blue costume, this issue features him in a short-sleeved
T-shirt with the Superman logo on it—and a regular pair of blue jeans and
sneakers. It’s the sort of costume that I would expect to see on a younger
character like Superboy, but not on the classic, imposing, larger-than-life
figure of Superman. Not only does the costume take away from the iconic nature
of the character, but it’s inconsistent from the costume Superman wears in
other newly rebooted DC comics such as Justice League and Superman. Is this an
oversight on DC’s part, or is there some reason for this inconsistency? I have
heard rumors that Action Comics #1
actually takes place ten years in the past of the new timeline—putting it five
years before Justice League #1—when Clark
Kent was just starting out as Superman and the world was just beginning to
learn about him. This would be one possible explanation, and I guess it would
mean that Superman started out in plainer clothes ten years ago, then
eventually donned a more ideal costume by the time of Justice League and into the present. But I haven’t heard this rumor
officially concerned by DC, and nowhere in Action
Comics #1 does it say that the story takes place in the past. Superman’s
new costume—and this comic’s place in the new DC continuity—continue to baffle
me.

In all fairness, not everything about this comic is
bad. I have no problems with the plot itself, and the story is at least somewhat
interesting. It features Superman trying to stop criminals and other crises
while Lois and Jimmy try to learn more about him, and while Lex Luthor and
General Sam Lane (Lois’s father) work with the government to try to bring
Superman down. It was fun and entertaining to see Superman in action while
other forces work behind the scenes. But “fun and entertaining” is about the
highest praise I’d be willing to give this comic; it’s not anything much deeper
than that. The plot of the comic isn’t bad, but it’s not particularly amazing
either, and for me, it doesn’t replace the fact that Superman’s character is
portrayed so differently than he ever has been before.

Before DC’s new reboot, Action Comics was one of the longest-running comic books still
around today, and it had the highest number of issues of any other superhero
book. It began in 1938 and continued until this year, when it became the first
superhero comic ever to reach issue #900. Personally, before I knew about the
DC reboot, I was looking forward to seeing Action
Comics #1000 hit the stands in a few more years—I didn’t know what they
would’ve done for such a milestone, just that it would have had to be something
huge and spectacular. But then the New 52 happened, the numbering of the issues
started over at #1, and a long, rich tradition of comics was casually swept
under the rug. I was disappointed to learn that DC's long-running titles, such as Action Comics and Detective Comics, were being restarted and re-numbered after so many continuous issues. I might be okay with that if the new Action Comics series lived up to or even surpassed the quality of its
predecessor—but based on what I can see from #1, it doesn’t. I realize that it’s
important to change characters and storylines sometimes, to make them more
complex and multifaceted, to let them grow and mature with the times—but I don’t
think that this is the way to do it. In my opinion, Action Comics #1 has taken away from Superman everything that
really made him Superman—not the superhuman powers, but the iconic, imposing
appearance, the larger-than-life heroics, and the uncompromising morality. It
doesn’t seem like Superman to me, and it doesn’t make me very eager to read Action Comics #2, or any of the other
issues after that.

Image Comics has recently partnered with Graphicly,
an online digital comics reader, in order to bring its comics to readers in a
more convenient digital format by making them available online.

Image Comics is one of the largest comic book
publishers in America, and the largest creator-owned one. They publish titles
such as Invincible, the ongoing
adventures of a young superhero who inherited his father’s powers, and The Walking Dead, the zombie-filled
comic that has now been adapted into a successful television series. Graphicly
had already partnered with quite a few other publishers, including Marvel
Comics and Archie Comics, to make comic books available to be read online. Now
Image’s major titles will be readily available for readers online through Graphicly’s website as well.

Due to their partnership with Graphicly, Image
comics will also be available on Barnes & Noble’s NOOKcolor, Amazon’s
Kindle Fire, and through Facebook as well, as Graphicly is the only comic
reader currently available as a Facebook application. Users will be able to
browse, purchase, read, and share comics directly from Image’s Facebook page,
making comics more easily accessible than ever.

Another great benefit of this new partnership is that
Image’s comics will be made available on Graphicly the same day that they are
also released in print. Although other comics publishers have delved into
digital comics before, such as Marvel with their large collection of digital
comics on their website, it has often taken several months for comics to be
transferred into digital format after being released in print. With Image
Comics on Graphicly, though, the print and digital copies will be released at
the same time, so readers who prefer the digital format will not have to miss
an issue or get behind on their reading.

Thanks to the technological wonders of the digital
age, comic books are becoming more and more accessible online instead of just
through print. So if you’re a fan of great comics, take advantage of the
situation and check out some of Image’s newly available comics on Graphicly.

In an effort to make its stories more accessible to new
readers, DC recently launched The New 52, cancelling all of its existing titles
and starting 52 new series with revamped and rebooted versions of its major
characters. But how will the New 52 affect the DC universe? Will new readers
actually be attracted? Will old fans still be interested? Will the new titles
be fresh and new, or disappointing and unfaithful to the original continuity?
After buying and reading all but a few of the 52 new #1s that DC released over
the course of a month, I have set out to review some of the major ones and let
potential readers know which new titles are and are not worth reading. So,
without further ado…

Justice League #1

Writer: Geoff Johns

Penciler: Jim Lee

Review by Samuel N. Harris

Justice
League #1 is the very first comic book of the New 52—readers’
first introduction to the newly rebooted DC universe after the events of Flashpoint. The story is set five years
in the past, at a time when, according to the narrator, “the world didn’t call
them its greatest superheroes . . . the world didn’t even know what a superhero
was.” This story shows us the beginning of the Justice League—or, at least, the
League as we are meant to understand it today—and of a new age of DC
superheroes.

First of all, if we’re being completely accurate, this
comic book is actually not about the Justice League—at least, not yet. It’s
about the superheroes who will become the Justice League just starting to come
together. Although the cover contains a pretty full roster—Superman, Batman,
Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg—this issue mostly
just features Batman and Green Lantern (conveniently two of DC’s most popular
characters currently, due to their recent movies), with a brief glimpse of
Cyborg and a quick cameo of Superman at the end. This is the story of the
Justice League’s origin, but it is not a complete story—it will be continued in
subsequent issues, so the readers can see just how DC’s central super team came
to be in the new continuity (and so DC can sell more comics).

This issue wasn’t bad, but it was a little disappointing
for me. As a longtime fan of comics, it hurts me a little bit to see the
characters who I know and love being reinvented in ways that ignore their
previous continuity. When I see Batman and Green Lantern meeting for “the first
time,” with Green Lantern being surprised to find that Batman is even real, and
Batman saying that he’s never even seen Superman before, I hurt for the years of
friendship and camaraderie for these characters that are now being swept under
the rug. At least they’re saying that this happened five years ago and not in
the present day—a detail which I carelessly overlooked my first time through
the issue, and so I initially thought that DC was telling its readers that its
heroes were just now coming together for the first time, which wouldn’t quite
fit with the stories being told in some of the other New 52 issues. But still,
to be told that the Justice League has only been around for five years, when in
fact I know that it’s been around since the 1960s and that Superman and Batman
have had team-ups even before that, is a little jarring for me.

Another minor criticism I have with this issue is
Superman’s costume as portrayed in his cameo at the end of the issue—not
because there is anything inherently wrong with the costume, but because it’s
completely different from the one that he wears in the new Action Comics #1 (although it appears to be the same as the one he wears in Superman #1). This newly revamped DC universe seems to be
inconsistent with how it wants its major characters to be portrayed from one
title to another—but more on that when I write my reviews of the new Superman
titles themselves. 

One thing that I do
like about this  issue—and apparently
this whole new Justice League
series—is that Cyborg, who had been a member of the Teen Titans in previous
incarnations, is now going to be part of the Justice League instead. I like
Cyborg’s character, and I think it’ll be nice to see him getting to hang with
the heavy hitters in the Justice League now instead of with the sidekicks (no
offense to the other members of the Teen Titans). Cyborg was included in the version of the Justice League that appeared on the TV series Smallville, so it will be interesting to
see that team membership transferred into a comic book instead. Though Cyborg
only gets a few pages’ worth of attention in the first issue—and that in the
form of his alter ego before he even becomes Cyborg—hopefully we’ll be seeing
more good stuff from him in the issues to come.

Like I said, this is not a bad issue. It features Batman
and Green Lantern teaming up to investigate a mysterious alien threat, and it’s
an enjoyable read. It’s not bad at all—but it’s nothing particularly special
either. With the gimmicky new continuity changes hanging over the reader, and
the fact that this issue is only a bit of a slow start to a larger story, it
was hard for me to really appreciate this story or to be extremely impressed by
it. Maybe things will get better with issues #2 and on—but somehow I expect
that those will follow a fairly predictable pattern as well, something along
the lines of all the heroes meeting each other, teaming up to stop the alien
threat from Darkseid, and then deciding to work as an official team before the
narration flashes back to the present and shows what the League is like once
they’ve been around for five years. I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining read, and
I may catch up on it eventually, but I for one probably won’t shell out any
more money to buy these issues as soon as they come out each month. The Justice
League will have to do better than this to really make me excited about reading
their new series.

BTW, Here's the cover! (super art by CCAS member Mitch Martin)

(www.itscaptainsun.com)

Next Tuesday is the official release date for my new book “Rescue Me! What Superheroes Can Teach Us about the Power of Faith”. If you haven't already heard about it, “Rescue Me!” is a comic book/devotional that helps kids connect classic superhero themes with the amazing message of the Bible. Check it out at www.itscaptainsun.com. (available on Amazon.com and a deluxe edition from Lulu.com)

Hi all ! Looking for an artist to continue some steampunk character development work I had started a while back. I have a budget to work with (cash money!! whoa!), so please email me links to your portfolio and we can talk! I have a minimum of 4 characters I need developed and if it works out maybe some continuous freelance. I have 3 characters complete I can send those as art direction. 

It has been a while since we had a post, but at least this one will be filled with lots of news. First off this Friday we will begin production of our TOP SECRET project "Broken Wings." While this will be held under wraps until it's release, we will release some details about the project.

• It will be a full color comic book featuring the artwork of Jamie Cosley.
• It will be our first comic book available in print in both English and Spanish.
• It will be free in digital format (in English) via the iBooks store, readable on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

In an effort to make its stories more accessible to new readers, DC recently launched The New 52, cancelling all of its existing titles and starting 52 new series with revamped and rebooted versions of its major characters. But how will the New 52 affect the DC universe? Will new readers
actually be attracted? Will old fans still be interested? Will the new titles
be fresh and new, or disappointing and unfaithful to the original continuity?
After buying and reading all but a few of the 52 new #1s that DC released over
the course of a month, I have set out to review some of the major ones and let
potential readers know which new titles are and are not worth reading. So, without further
ado…

Flashpoint #5

Writer: Geoff Johns

Penciler: Andy Kubert

Review by Samuel N. Harris

Okay, so, technically, Flashpoint #5 is not part of The New 52—but it did lead into the whole thing. If you’re not familiar with what happened, then allow me to explain.

This most recent reboot is certainly not the first time—or even the second—that DC has decided to revamp their whole universe as an attempt to bring on new readers and make their characters seem fresh and
original again. It began with the classic Crisis on Infinite Earths back in the mid-80s, and happened again (although to a
somewhat lesser degree) with the similarly named Infinite Crisis in 2005. And what better way could there be to revamp and entire universe full of years of continuity than to create some sort
of infinite crisis—a crisis that spanned all of space and time and multiple
different alternate realities and happened to end with some of those realities
and timelines getting drastically changed?

It may sound epic and dramatic on paper, but longtime comics fans who have seen this kind of thing before often have another word for it: gimmicky. And, as far as I can tell, that’s what Flashpoint also was: a huge, reality-spanning crossover event that may have seemed epic, but was only concocted as an in-story excuse for the
creators to reboot the whole universe and pick and choose with no restrictions
what they did and didn’t want to keep in continuity or in the status quo of the
new DC universe.

Now, in all fairness, I could be wrong about Flashpoint. I will admit that, before this reboot, I had been a little behind on following DC comics, and so I hadn’t actually read the entire Flashpoint series or any of the tie-ins to the event in other series. In fact, the only Flashpoint
issue I got or read was #5, the final one of the 5-issue miniseries, because it
was the only other in-continuity DC comic that came out on the same week as the
newly rebooted Justice League #1. I
had decided I wanted to see what the reboot would be like and would try
(keyword: try) to reserve judgment
about the whole ordeal until after I had actually read the new issues. And so I
figured, even though I hadn’t read the beginning or middle of the Flashpoint story, it wouldn’t hurt to
buy the end and see exactly how it led into the beginning of the new universe.

Well, it turned out that I was right. It didn’t hurt to read the ending of Flashpoint without having read the beginning, because the ending was a lot like other
reality-spanning crises I’ve read in comics: a whole bunch of different heroes
and villains fighting for a while, appearing and disappearing seemingly at
random, and sometimes even meeting alternate versions of each other, while a
few of the heroes desperately try to put reality back together before it all
falls apart. Again, maybe it’s my own fault for reading the end without the
beginning, but the story of Flashpoint
#5 really didn’t grab or impress me too much, especially since I already knew
exactly where the ending was headed: towards a fresh and new DC universe where
everything that happened before may or may not be canon anymore. Since I
already knew that the end of the story would potentially negate everything that
had come before it, specific plot details and characters involved in this story
didn’t really seem terribly important to me.

However, one aspect of Flashpoint did indeed confuse me: the very ending, in which, for the last few pages of the comic, the Flash and Batman are hanging out in the Batcave together, reflecting on the crisis they’ve just been through and
remembering the different alternate realities they’ve just seen. This scene
confused me because it was my understanding that it wasn’t supposed to be
possible in light of the universe being rebooted. I thought the superheroes’
stories were more or less starting anew with no regards to previous
continuity—so how do Batman and the Flash still know each other, and how do
they remember everything that’s just happened? How does the story end on a
peaceful note, as if nothing had changed, when in fact all of reality was
supposed to have changed? And how does this last scene fit in with the newly
rebooted DC universe as it is supposed to be after the events of Flashpoint? I don’t have the answers to
any of these questions. But since the whole universe has been rebooted anyway
and the continuity may or may not be the same anymore, I’m guessing it doesn’t
really matter a whole lot and won’t have any bearing on the rest of the DC universe from here on out.

So, here’s my advice. If you want to get into DC comics, then skip Flashpoint and just jump into any of the newly rebooted series—which seems to be what DC wanted people
to do anyway. Maybe Flashpoint would
make more sense if you read the whole series, but knowing what I know of previous
huge, reality-spanning comic book crossovers that lead into universe-wide
reboots, I’m guessing that I wasn’t missing a whole lot and that the real focus
was supposed to be on the newly rebooted comics coming out afterward. Sure, the
whole thing may be a big marketing gimmick to attempt to boost sales and bring
on new readers, but if you’re still interested in reading after this, then
don’t confuse yourself with Flashpoint.
You’re better off just starting with one or more of the new series—which I
shall proceed to review next.

So I decided to do my pages in 3D (or at least one of them).

I may do radically different approaches. I still think there's a few pages left in the Prodigal Son thing. If anyone wants to add a page mention it in the Prodigal Son thread.

Anyway  - here's the sculpt, a work in progress. If anyone has insights or commentary have at it. The shoes and hands need some serious work - but it's coming along.

Should I go with "more realistic hair" or sculpted hair?

Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.
Psalm 105:15

Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:5

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:
Luke 6:37

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
John 7:24

The Bible

I'm finally getting my pages done for the Prodigal Son - And the opening shot is the home office...just wondering if there was a way to make a full vertical page more cinematic...

Suggestions?

Well, we are in the final days of pre-production of "Rescue Me: What Superheroes Can Teach Us About the Power of Faith". The final chapter is almost complete! After that, we will have few weeks of editing and tweaking (if necessary) the final proof copies (of both the standard version, and the "Super Nova" premium edition). Thanks for your prayers and support! While you wait, enjoy a few sneak preview panels of the book! And let us know if you like what you see!!!

My hopes for joining this site are grand but completely attainable. Is there an artist out there with a passion for Christ in need of a storyteller and friend? I would like to partner with that person/those people and make the most compelling, soul-stretching manga/comic of its time.

The template for this idea is my completed novel Radon Valley. You can read it here (free with no gimmicks) and imagine how many youth and young adults we would impact by making this novel a graphic rather than just a book: http://www.authonomy.com/books/36572/radon-valley/

Consider glancing at a few chapters. Get a feel for the characters and the story. Help me spread the Word of God to the people unreached; they are not unreachable, but they are unreached - the manga generation.

With love,

 - TMN

Parents (and even Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents!),

Just one more week before the deadline (Sept 16th) for our Captain Sun drawing contest for boys and girls, ages 5-12! The winner will have his or her drawing printed in the new book, "Rescue Me! What Superheroes Can Teach Us about the Power of Faith", and the top three finalists will each receive an autographed copy of the book! For all the details see below or visit Captain Sun on the web (itscaptainsun.com).

And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to the site or "Like" us on Facebook (facebook.com/itscaptainsun) to stay up to date!

Hope you guys ready for this, don't know if any one has posted this already. For all you illustrators, animators, doodles, which includes me. :) This is for us.

Wacom has just made our life much easier. Check out Inkling. INKLING BY WACOM

Not available till mid September though, and for only $199.00

Got to get me one. Beautiful isn't it? Let me know what you think.

Click below to check out the Doctor Doom & Darth Vader character mash-up in Jack Kirby fashion! 

Thanks for your support/vote!