Panel Discussion: Dark Avengers #2, Batman/Superman #55, The Great Unknown #1, and More

Beatdown of the Week - Superman/Batman #55

For those not following Batman/Superman (like myself, three days ago), the context here is Batman has been temporarily granted Superman's powers, and he's gone mad! Mad with powers! It's up to Wingding to take him in...

Whak! Chok! Pwn'd!

Acrobat leaping powers, activate! (Get it? AcroBAT?)

And the finishing touch...
...years of bitterness from being forced to wear a little yellow cape, expelled in one move. Robin Classic FTW!

Great art and more violence, after the jump...

Best Splash Panel - Dark Avengers #2
Oh, Sentry! What WON'T you do?

The Magic of Comics - Black Lightning #4
Fantastic balance between foreground and background, stillness and movement, light and shadow. And not a single sound effect to clutter it up.


Best Character Moment - Robin #184
The laugh-out-loud ridiculousness of Batman's death-holo-chamber aside, this page is the only time in the last three years of reading DC that I can remember feeling something for Jason Todd other than annoyance. It's nice to see that for all his nihilistic badboy crap, the prospect of receiving beyond-the-grave instructions from his Bat Dad is enough to turn him into a little kid again.

Worst Luck - Church of Hell #1
This is why you should never give in to anger, young Jedi. You might accidentally punch your friend so hard he falls out a sixth story window.

Most Practical Advice - The Great Unknown #1

If you don't want to click for higher resolution, basically this guy keeps a bunch of fast food soda cups in his trunk so he can reuse them infinitely and never pay for soda. I have often thought about doing something like this, but this guy actually did it. Inspiring.

Burn of the Week - Dark Avengers #2
Sometimes I think I only like Moonstone because she's a stereotypically hot villain, but then she says something like this and I know it's true love.

Panel Discussion: Scans From Thunderbolts, Hack/Slash, Black Lightning and More

Movie Moment - Street Fighter Turbo #3
Here, Mexicano street fighter El Fuerte knocks a frying pan on American Eagle's head, but the fight is resolved because the food is just that freakin' good (also, Native American pride).

We've got some major league Robert Rodriguez fans here at Gnerd, so we were quick to spot this Once Upon A Time In Mexico reference. In that movie, Johnny Depp kills a cook because his spin on this VERY SAME dish is just to damn good to exist.

Writer Ken Siu-Chong must be a Rodgriguez fan, but he's clearly never had the dish in question, cause it's actually spelled Puerco P-I-B-I-L, not P-E-P-I-L. BUSTED! Eh, it's all good ese! Here's the recipe for those of you playing at home, courtesy of the man himself.



Sexy Prezes, Sexy Lezes, Violence, and a Scary Looking Dog, after the jump...


Unnecessary Roughness - Black Lightning #2

This kid isn't like, a child rapist or anything. He's a small time dealer. And here's Black Lightning smashing his face into a window frame not once, but TWICE, before even asking him any questions! That's some Gitmo shit right there. Even Batman usually just hangs people upside down or something.

Project Runway Award - Thunderbolts #128
Whoa! Lookin good, Mister O! Last time we saw the Prez in the Marvel universe, he was looking like a big eared square. Now, he's rocking some sweet shades and even sweeter shading, courtesy of artist Roberto De La Torre. Now that's change I can believe in!

Character of the Week - Pooch, Hack/Slash #19
Ah, Pooch. Over the last year we've come to know and love this dumb, hateful, servile and self pitying little demon horse/dog. But before this issue, we have never understood his most endearing quality; loyalty. Pooch sacrifices himself to a demon asassin to protect his master, his master's friends, and even the other dogs at his master's kennel. He ends up frozen and dying alone on a rock, hoping only that when his master finds him, "he will pet the corpse of his loyal Pooch". Spoiler Alert: Pooch survives, but if he didn't, this would have been a tearjerker to rival this mess.

Beatdown of the Week - Black Lightning #2
Not so much a beatdown, but a single kick that takes out no less than FOUR GUYS!


Banana Randomizer Award for Achievement in WTF - Star Trek: Countdown #1
WHAT?! This is supposed to be a PREQUEL to the Star Trek movie, in which Kirk and co are like, 20-somethings. And here's Data as the CAPTAIN of the Enterprise? And is that Tasha Yar? What? What? Screw this. None of the real Enterprise crew was even in this piece of crap, it was all about some Romulans in their stupid bathrobes. Uch. Tie-Ins at their worst, right here.

Wait, What? - Hack/Slash #19

This is hot, but why has Margaret never kissed a girl before? I thought she was a lesbian. CASSIE is the one who has never kissed a girl before. No? Is this an editorial mistake, or did I miss something? Either way, hot.

Most Extreme Foreshortening - Thunderbolts #128
This is almost some cool Aeon Flux looking stuff going on here...but man she's got a big head.

Panel Discussion: Scans From Mercy Sparx, Black Lightning Year One, and Detective Comics

Best Art - Black Lighting Year One #1
Blue Beetle is no more, but artist Cully Hammer lives on, bringing another less-than-popular minority superhero to life with kinetic energy and gorgeous urban backdrops. This is just one particularly beautiful panel from a good old fashioned foot chase scene, no superpowers, no lasers, just men in motion and trash cans getting knocked over. Good stuff.

Most Courteous Death - Detective Comics #852
I know my Panels have been kind of a Hush lovefest for the last several months, but dammit, I just can't get over how Dini made him into such a great villain so quickly! In this issue we hear more of his inner voice, and his "gentleman psychopath" persona is nicely displayed in this quartet of panels where Hush ponders how best to get rid of a ladyfriend. He goes with poison, so as to spare both his victim and the boat's upholstery any unnecessary bloodshed.

Burn of the Week - Mercy Sparx #2The part I really like here is the act of tossing someone out the window and saying, "Later, Whore!" It's just really hard to come back from something like that.

Downer of the Week - Black Lightning Year One #1
This is like the forth season of The Wire on crack. Jefferson Pierce is trying to be an awesome principal in the ghetto of Metropolis, and as soon as he starts to get through to one of his thuggish students, the other kids essentially crucify the poor kid to the school's trophy case. Where did they even get those big wooden stakes?! This is all in issue one, by the way. Jeesh.