Panel Discussion - Scans from Batman and Robin, Daredevil, Hellboy, and More!

These are a bit late, but there were a ton of books this past week, so we couldn't just let it go. Firstly, the aptly named...

Took Long Enough - Batman and Robin #6
AHR and I have often discussed the rich vein of misery-ore that is Jason Todd; and yet he has gone untapped since his unceremonious resurrection during a crossover event (Superboy punched a wall... yep.) Leave it to good ol' Grant to breathe life into a character that virtually everybody hates. Here we get a taste of the unique pathos that could only belong to a character who was universally hated, voted to die, pointlessly resurrected only to be universally hated again, starred in terrible crossover event comics, and constantly struggled for the approval of a psychotic who is now dead. Much like Dini did for Hush, I now care about Jason Todd.

Added bonus of Grant's Jason Todd? An unironic awareness of the absurdity of the DC Universe-I love it when characters call the DCU on its super hero death BS. Much like Ralph Dibny in 52, Jason seems to be uniquely aware of the fact that people die and are reborn willy nilly in this world. Why is it only the crazy ones seem to notice?

No Comment - Green Lantern Corps #42

Yikes. Is it just me, or do these two seem to be having too much fun defiling the zombie corpse of Kyle's ex? Makes you wonder what kinda green constructs they "play with" in their down time. Feels more like a disturbing scene from Dexter-if Dexter was set in space and featured red-skinned hotties and zombies... and if Dexter was a pervert.

Best Return to Form - Daredevil #502
It's great to see Kingpin revisiting his Frank Miller glory days-back to his ol' needlessly-murdering self. Super classy touch using the shadow to depict the action, with the contorted hand in the foreground. On an unrelated note: Never make fun of Kingpin's juice.

He's Behind You! - Batman and Robin #6
Usually, there might be a bit of dramatic irony-the character unaware of his/her surroundings while we, the readers, can clearly see the danger looming. That's not how Batman and Robin roll. First you have newRobin being a dick, like the dickish homicidal 10-yr old he is. Then you have him actually announce "He's behind you", all non-chalant like. Then BAM. Classic.
And a less clear cut example from earlier in the same book... but looming danger indeed! Look out Batman! There's a psychotic hanger-on arming himself with heavy artillery behind you! Whew, he caught it. Don't want newRobin doing this again.

Meh... No biggie - Hellboy: The Wild Hunt #8
Wow, waita take a heavy situation lightly. Not only do they casually mention it, but visually, they're tiny within the already small panels. Great way to completely downplay the crazy shit that just happend. Just so you know, that's excalibur, the sword in the stone, that he's lackadaisically swinging around.

Cute Overload - B.P.R.D.: 1947 #5
Lastly, another bit of Hellboy. For a hellish demon spawn, Hellboy makes a pretty damn cute kid. I was torn about which panel to choose-there were about 6 or 7 adorable panels... and putting them all together tells a cute little mini story about Hellboy wanting to play catch (awww). For the rest of the adorableness, pick up the issue (also other stuff happens).

Panel Discussion - Scans from The Great Ten, Secret Six, Psylocke, and More

Best Historical Revisionism - The Great Ten #1


The 2008 Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremonies were already one of the most mind-blowing spectacles I've ever seen. How much more awesome would it have been with actual Superheroes involved? We'll never know cause all we get to see is the Great Ten standing in the center of the Bird's Nest, or whatever that mega-stadium was called. What a rip.




Fearful Symmetry - Psylocke #1

Do not wan. We get a lot of these split-screen Psylocke shots, and I suppose they serve a thematic purpose, but I don't see a reason to expose us all to this ugly smooshfest.

Oedipal Issues - Secret Six #15

Is it really necessary to show us via flashback that Floyd's mom once dressed up EXACTLY like Floyd's future sex partner, the inimitable Jeanette?

Movie Moment - Dark Reign - The List: Wolverine

This issue is actually from last week, but I couldn't let a There Will Be Blood reference go unmentioned. Especially one that doesn't go for the easy milkshake meme. Great body language from Normie here.

The Magic of Comics - Age of Reptiles: The Journey #1
I can't begin to tell you how excited I was this week when, while scanning the new books, I came across this title. As a kid, Delgado's previous Age Of Reptiles series were 2 of my absolute favorite books. The middle school me nearly died inside when I saw this. If you want near flawless visual storytelling, pick up any of the Age of Reptiles books-the entire story is told sans text, and without the conveniently recognizable expressions of the human face. Plus Delgado's always good for a clever, and unique visual cue to get a story point across. Take, for example, the middle divider with the dinosaur eyes-it took me a moment to understand what I was looking at, but it's a brilliant little moment. The first panel is the T-Rex, with the angry mama Triceratops reflected, the second is the round eyed, terrified baby dino with nothing but a full view of terrifying teeth. And the last is the determined mother, with the T-Rex and baby reflected. A great, and efficient, way to quickly get across 3 very different points of view.

Another example of great visual storytelling-we have the adorable little baby Triceratops shouting at the threatening T-Rex, the classic "is-this-kid-serious?" look on the T-Rex, followed by a quick barked out threat that sends the cute little guy shaking behind the legs of the grownups. Nearly every page of this book has a little gem like this.

In-Joke Alert - Assault on New Olumpus #1

Wheatcakes! Cause that's something Aunt May talks about...in the past. Sorry folks, slow week.

Panel Discussion: Scans from Beasts of Burden, Thunderbolts, Spider-Woman, and More

Cute Overload - Beasts of Burden #2
This book is actually dark and sad and terrifying, but come on, CUTE DOGGIES! The really remarkable aspect of this sequence, in which neighborhood dogs bug our animal heroes with a bunch of frivolous cases, is how Jill Thompson's dog drawings perfectly evoke the personalities Evan Dorkin has written for them in just one panel. We've got the thuggish bull terrier, the dopey briard, the gossipy Pomeranians, and the paranoid Chihuahuas. Anthropomorphizing animals never seemed so true to life.

Pretty girls, crazy supervillians, and cop abuse, after the jump...


Excessive Force - Azrael #1



Gotham is just a mess since Batman died. Robin is slicing faces off with a hacksaw, and Azrael is beating the living crap out of a room full of cops! This isn't even the old crazy Azrael, it's some new perfectly sane guy who just happens to be down with kicking cops in the nuts and punching their noses into their brains.
This scene makes it all better.


Fun with Montage - Power Girl #6
Why are trips to Ikea always fun? Actually sometimes they're horrible and boring, but I've definitely had trips much like the ones experienced here by Power Girl and her galpal whatshername. Amanda Connor continues to turn out the most lighthearted yet densely communicative art on the stands today. I love all the Swedized words - it took me a while to get "tasty rolls" from "tejsti rohls". What is the name of the store, "Aidja", supposed to be?


Best Visual Metaphor - Thunderbolts 137
This panel completely sums up Norman Osbourne's role in Dark Reign. Sitting on his Green Goblin glider (why not?), setting up dominoes, boozing it up. He's completely given up any pretense of pretending to be sane around his underlings. It's kind of classy, somehow.

Photo Reference Done Right - Spider-Woman #2
I don't understand why some comic fans get upset about photo referencing. The model in this case, Jolynn Carpenter, is actually credited at the head of the book along with the writer and artist. I've never seen this done before, but it's a good idea. If you're going to have someone "playing" a comic character, they should get a credit. These panels are beautiful, thanks both to Carpenter being really gorgeous and to artist Alex Maleev's beautiful colors and shadow effects. There's also some very subtle compositional touches that link the panels together - check out how the outline of her shoulder in the top panels becomes the edge of a shadow in the second panel.

Panel Discussion: Scans from Secret Six, Red Robin, Dark Reign: The List, and More!

Every week (usually) we at Geekanerd rip panels from our comics and put them on display here, recognizing the best, worst, and weirdest moments of the week. Click for higher res.

Oh Hell No - Thunderbolts #135

Crazy unbelievable things happen all the time in comics, and this is how things should be. But every now and then there's a panel or two that just makes you go, "Oh hell no." These panels are fine examples. Lightsabers deflecting laser blasts, that I buy. Little metal bracelets attached to superhuman arms deflecting bullets, okay. But a thin metal blade deflecting a hail of near point-blank gun fire? You pushed me too far, comics. I just don't see it happening.

Best Punchline - Secret Six #13

So maybe this joke is actually not any funnier than any other bit in a Gail Simone book (it's a high bar), but the rarely used "PUNCHLINE SPOTLIGHT" really brings it home. If this were a cartoon, there'd be a wacky musical stinger and all the other Sixers would yell "waaaughh!" and fall down. This is why there should be a Secret Six cartoon. I will fund it.


Worst Peer Counseling - Red Robin #4

Regardless of whether or not Tim should be in therapy, Dick should not be suggesting it mid-fight as Tim throws a kick to his face. Tim is not likely to be receptive, and it's not going to defuse the the tension at that particular moment.

Most Unintentionally Hilarious Panel - Political Power - Barack Obama
But does young Barry Obama actually smoke that gigantic blunt? We'll never know, because this is the end of that scene. Either way, that picture of the beatifically young and innocent Mr. Obama with a huge joint in his face is totally awesome.

Best POV Shot- Secret Six #13
In case you ever wondered what it would be like to be Deadshot, here you go! Bursts of light, dead people, and bullet casings, in that order.

This one-panel sequence is just a idle daydream, but it's worth noting that in Deadshot's rebellion fantasy he kills his teammate Ragdoll along with his employers. Is that really necessary? I understand wanting to make a clean break of things, but Ragdoll tends to just go with the flow; I'm inclined to believe if Floyd decided to revolt against his employers (which I suspect he will by next issue), Ragdoll would switch sides just as easily - he's not much of a threat on his own anyway. I think the choice to include Ragdoll in the carnage is a way to indicating Floyd's distaste for the mission, and anyone who'd go along with it, despite how he himself has rationalized it.

Nitpick Alert - Red Robin #4
It's great that Tim hearts the troops, but I think he may be selling himself just a leeeettlle bit short here. This kid has taken on trained ninjas from the League of Shadows, not to mention all manner of alien/demon things during his Teen Titan adventures. I think he can handle a trio of soldiers.

Achievement in Rudeness - Dark Reign: The List #1

Context: Hawkeye (or Ronin or Clint or whatever) wants to pull a CIA style assassination on Norman Osbourne, cause why not!
DAMN! This is why people hate superheroes in your universe, Ms. Marvel. They're so damn superior! Can you please give whatshisname a real answer about why it's not okay to just kill Norman Osbourne? At least pull out the old "because we're better than that" or "it's a slippery slope" or "at what cost" or "who's next?". Don't just pick at your gloved fingernails and look at him like he just peed on the carpet. This is why I only read Marvel books for the villains.

Best Detail - Secret Six #13
Look, I know there are multiple scratches on the walls in Scandal's bedroom. She wears huge knives on her hands, it'll happen. I get that. But I just feel that it would be remiss not to point out that the wall above the headboard of her bed appears to be splintering apart. I appreciate that.

Panel Discussion: Scans from Wednesday Comics, Batman, Dark X-Men, and More

The Magic of Comics - Wednesday Comics This could be a silk screen print hanging on a gallery wall of a pop art exhibit. It looks unlike anything you expect to see in most mainstream superhero comics because it's extremely flat, the birds in the backgrounds almost just look like stamps or stencils, and yet there's a fantastic sense of dynamism. It gives up the illusion of movement and instead just gives us a single moment frozen in time. Kyle Baker rules.


Simile of the Week - Batman #688
For those of you who don't have amazing eyesight and don't want to click to enlarge, Dick is comparing wearing Batman's cape to "wearing a ball gown made of Kevlar". Judd Winick, every now and then you really come through. Dick's complaint is certainly valid, but how can anyone pass up a chance for effects like this?

Achievement in Character Design - Wednesday Comics
Karl Kerschl is pretty much my favorite comic artist working today. Here, he gives us Iris West in the classic newspaper comic style that inspired Wednesday Comics in the first place. The result is a strikingly beautiful character design that is on one level an homage to an older time, but the clean lines and quality of expression is timeless.
Even though Iris is emoting Roy Lichtenstein-esque pangs of lovesickness, Kerschl brings a gravity that keeps it away from camp, and allows these panels a sort of unironic dignity that really caught me by surprise.

Fun with Lighting - Dark X-Men #1
Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but to me this looks like a photo that was taken with almost no light, so the exposure had to be cranked way up. This would make the dark stuff visible, but the bright spots, such as the monitors, would be crazy blown out. Taking this image into that level of realism makes the freaky character design of Evil Beast all the more creepy.

Best Head Trip - Wednesday Comics
Ben Caldwell takes a simple concept (Wonder Woman suddenly finds herself in "the land of men" for the first time, with no idea how she got there), and makes it extremely trippy by ramping up the fish-out-of-water feeling by making our world seem as bizarre as any alien world seen in comics. The neon gaslight colors of this night cityscape make the whole thing seem like a terrible dream....and check out that Shreck building - is this taking place in the Tim Burtonverse?! Crazy!
Even something as familiar as a pigeon looks like a horrible alien when viewed through the eyes of someone who's never seen one before. Still kinda cute though.

Best Running Gag - Ms Marvel #40
Deadpool isn't even IN this panel, but his inner-panel-voice is still doing the editor's job of catching readers up on references to past issues. He does it a few time in the first part of the book, and you know when Deadpool does something more than once he's setting you up for an awesome joke...
Boom! Goodnight, everybody!

Panel Discussion: Scans from Secret Six, Marvel Divas, Batman and Robin, and More

Best Art - Frank Quitely, Batman and Robin #2
The action scenes in this book by drawn by Frank Quitley bring the effects of the Batverse regime change into sharper focus than several books worth of philosophizing, angsty conversations, and images of Dick starring at the cowl. The fights in this book show that a clean, simple switch has taken place; Batman is now the showboaty, eager to prove himself fighter, and Robin is now the self-assured, methodical heavy-hitter. It's madness!

The Robin in the splash panel above could only be Damian Wayne. He's not displaying any of the flash or childish excitement that every other kid to brought to being being Batman's sidekick. Damian's form is straight-up Black Ops. He's is an assassin in superhero's clothing, and this panel nails that dissonance.

Meanwhile, seeing Dick in the Batsuit makes you realize how damn HEAVY Bruce's style really was. Seeing Batman move with this sort of grace is exciting, because it's been so rare up to this point.

Also, I don't think I'll ever get tired of these art-integrated sound effects, especially when they have to do with Damian getting forcibly implanted into a wall. Nerd!

George Bush doesn't care about black Superheroes, hating on the Justice League, and a spoiler for Secret Six #11, after the jump...

Orson Welles Award for Emphasis Fail - Justice League: Cry for Justice #1
BOLDING certain words in comic book scripts is just something we've all learned to live with. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Let's just reflect on what the bolds are trying to convey in this conversation.

GA: This is BAD.
BA: HOW do you know?
GA: I know WHEN Hal gets like this - things happen.

By emphasizing "how" we can only interpret Dinah's reaction as "Yes, I also know this is bad, but it's really the methodology of how Ollie came to his conclusion that I'm interested in." And when Ollie emphasizes "when", he's trying to convey....I actually have no idea how you could justify that emphasis choice. Say it out loud. It's insane. PS: This award is in honor of THIS classic meme, which I believe actually predates the internet!

Social Inequity Alert - Marvel Divas #1
I'm primarily a DC reader, so I always feel a little jarred when the Marvel uni starts talking about things that happened in our real, Earth Prime timeline. Here Captain Marvel (???) recounts how after Katrina hit, she and some other black superheroes went to New Orleans to clean up "the mess you white people left behind". One might question why in a world with superheroes, an American city could have flooded with such horrible consequences in the first place. Maybe at the time the supes were like, "Oh a Hurricane is going to decimate New Orleans? Eh, as long as there's no death ray involved, I'm sure the Government norms can deal with it."

Worst Use of Powers - Secret Six #11
I love Secret Six, and I really, really love Scandal Savage, but she's really not making her powers work for her. She's basically Wolverine, except no one is particularly afraid of her so people are constantly surprising her by shooting her in the face and stabbing her in the stomach just because they can. I mean sure, she heals, but it's not instantainious, so for a few minutes she always ends up bleeding on the ground. It's just terribly undignified.

However, this is the second issue in the last few months in which we've seen Scandal in boyshorts, so whatever, Secret Six; it's all good.


Slash Alert - Justice League: Cry For Justice #1
"What's there to say? Kiss me, you fool!"

Panel Discussion: Buffy Season 8 #26 Special!

The start of Jane Espenson's new arc on Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 8 was so full of in-jokes and easter eggs, I had to give it it's very own Panel Discussion. Medium spoilers for the issue.

Project Runway Award

Andrew has the heart of a nerd and the eye of an aesthete (because gay guy = automatic fashion fan in popular media) , so of COURSE he's got the Ecko Boba Fett Sweatshirt! I see a million of these at every convention I go to, and you know, usually the guys wearing them look pretty damn good in them.

Here's a shot of Andrew's full ensemble, which includes the essential brown pants. Check out the real sweater on the Ecko site, or just look at this photo from the 2009 NY Comic Con. I'm telling you, it really is a good look.

Easter Egg Alert

Maybe you just looked at this sequence and said "Sexy!" and moved on, but I said, "Sexy! Hey, what book is that on the table?"
Aww! Of course Willow is reading Wicked, not only is it about cool teenage witches, it's also nerdy and full of lesbian subtext. Willow is so a fanfic writer.

Best Series Callback

I don't think Andrew ever adequately repented for killing his best friend, but I have to admit his fantasy about what he thought would happen after killing Jonathan was a definite highlight of Season 7. So I was really pleased to see it rendered here in panel form; check the scene below to see how precisely Georges Jeanty replicates.

Untold Stories

This is all very sweet in the foreground, but what exactly is the drama in background? Why is Kennedy glaring at Faith? Am I forgetting something that happened in the series between them, or does everyone still just hate Faith so much they're openly hostile to her at all times? Poor Faith, she's always failing at life. Or maybe she just hit on Willow (speaking of fanfic).

Double Standard Alert

As much as I love this issue, I must call continuity on this plot point. Willow has just disappeared into some torture dimension to subject a captured demon to some patented Rosenberg Enhanced Interrogation tactics. Everyone acts like this is some sort of unheard of war crime, but Buffy TOTALLY killed a vampire prisoner like ten issues ago! I believe it was in Wolves at the Gate, but basically Willow traps a vampire in a box, and Buffy interrogates him, and when they're done they set him on fire and he dies and they all walk away looking really badass. At the time I was all, "DAMN! The Scoobies are hardcore now!" But no, apparently only Buffy is allowed to abuse prisoners, cause you know, she's Buffy.

To be fair; Willow's tendency towards evil (Oh, Willow!) is a theme of Season 8, so I understand that it's concerning when she specifically uses her powers to torture a prisoner. But still. There's no precedent for any of the White Hats giving a shit about killing and/or hurting demons, so I maintain this moment doesn't work.

Second Best Series Callback

Xander's line on the left, "It's always good to ask" and Dawn's "Yes it is" recalls the fact that last time these guys all busted into Buffy's bedroom unannounced, Buffy was naked in bed with fellow slayer Satsu, aka A LADY! Wow this was the most lesbtastic Panel Discussion ever, no wonder I liked this issue.