Panel Discussion: Scans from Dark Reighn: Fantastic Four, Superman/Batman, and Manhunter

Burn of the Week - Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #4
Valeria Richards, ladies in gentlemen. Totally unimpressed by Todd McFarland.

Banana Randomizer Award for Achievement in WTF - Superman/Batman #61

Mash-Up Madness! In this issue, pairs of Batman and Superman characters meld together to form various comical combos, such as Jimmy Two-Face and Lex Joker. But this metal "waddle-clicking" mob boss penguin skeleton thing...there's just no justifying that.

Unless...
It's MEPENGTELLAO! The mostly deadly of them all.

Best Actor - Streets of Gotham/Manhunter #1
Gordon continues to be the most likable Regular Joe in comics. This moment is small, but Geroges Jeanty gives Gordon a really cute look of flattered surprise when SuperLawyer gushes over their introduction. The classic Tie-Straighten move in the second panel is a great touch.

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 Blue Beetle, Runaways, Superman/Batman and More

Every Monday, we at Geekanerd rip panels from last Wednesday's comics and post the best, the worst, and the weirdest. Those who didn't read books last week, beware of minor spoilers.

Clearest Example of Batman's Insanity - Superman/Batman #52
In case you need context, Lil' DC heroes and villians have invaded, and the JLA needs to sort it all out. But what you need to know is none of the big heroes ever really lay a hand on the Lil Legion of Doom, I mean they're just so cute, and they're kids, after all, you can't exactly beat up a kid...unless you're a crazy Bat Man, of course. And look at that white-rage expression in his eyes; Batman just sees some Joker-based entity and he goes all "Kill Bill".

On an unrelated note, Catwoman's mid-kiss expression is priceless. This book is amazing.

Awards for Best Actor, Best Coloring, and Most Misleading Cover, after the jump...


Best Actor - Jaime Reyes, Blue Beetle #31

Andrew Coelho is a Blue Beetle artist from around the time the series started, and he's fantastic at wringing sharp, teenager-appropriate expressions from Jamie's armor-abstracted face. Let's examine...

Here we have embarrassed teenager eye-roll. You can really hear the "MooOMM!" intonation of his line.
With just a little lower-lid action, here's the perfect picture of an awkward superhero photo op.

One might call this expression "whedonesque"...

This moment works on the strength of the script alone; this thug just punched Jaime's mom at the hospital she works at, just as Jamie busts in. His expression in the lower panel is a really funny yet touching expression of a young kid who's so angry, he just swings out and doesn't care about having a cool, scrunched up hero face. It's like if " >: O" were a real facial expression.

Best Use of Color - Runaways #2
Last month my only gripe with the new Runaways creative team was that Christina Strain's colors were too "day-glo". But this week I had to eat my words, cause her it's her bright and neon pallete that makes this scene especially remarkable. I can't remember seeing water colored like that before in a comic, but it's instantly evokative of the way the ocean actually looks during a sunset. Great stuff.

Movie Moment - Superman/Batman #52Any fans of The Hudson Hawk out there? In that movie, there are two henchmen named Igg and Ook. And when they are eventually killed with bullets to the head, they grunt out "Igg!' and "Ook!". I rest my case.

Most Misleading Cover - Back to Brooklyn #1 (Variant Cover)How could I not get this comic? That's my subway train stop, and that girl is smokin' hot and looks like she could be a real badass hero/antihero. But you know what? She's in the comic for like two pages, and she's not attractive, tough, or heroic. She's not anything. She's like gray wallpaper, which is pretty much the color pallete of the actual book.

Now That's Comedy - Runaways #2I feel like this is really funny even out of context. Though I've been wrong before.

Snap Judgements: Reviews for New Avengers, Superman/Batman, Runaways, and More

Short comic reviews based on initial, lizard-brain opinions. Arranged from BEST to WORST. Beware some potential spoilers.

Superman/Batman #52 gets an A from AHR

Any criticism I might have about this book is negated by the fact that I read the entire thing with a huge smile on my face. It's part 2 of 2, but here's all I needed to know; cute lil DC characters drawn by former Blue Beetle artist Rafael Albuquerque. Michael Green, he of the both excellent and horrible Lovers and Madmen story, serves up some moments of sheer cute-larity. Even when things go dark, they don't get ugly. WAN MORE PLZ.

Runaways gets an A from AHR

Fun and funny art, plenty of LOLs and :(s. Also lesbians. And you know you're reading an awesome book when you have a gay couple who are being hated on not because they're gay, but because one of them is a skrull. Oh Marvel, you'll win me over yet! I haven't read much of this title, and if you haven't either, check it out; they do a great job filling new readers in on what's going on.

Blue Beetle, New Avengers, and Avengers: Initiative, after the jump...

Blue Beetle #31 gets a B from AHR

This series continues to be really good. Not John Rogers good, but better than 85% of all superhero comics good. It's certainly the best thing I've read by Matt Sturges. I like the border patrol arc, maybe Jamie can take on the housing crisis next?

Avengers: The Initiative #17 gets a B from Albo

As tired as I am of Sectret Invasion, The Initiative does a pretty
good job of telling interesting stories with the mega event as its
backdrop. Ant-Man, stranded in this series after his brilliant Robert
Kirkman solo series got canned, finally gets a moment to shine with
his particular brand of false, cowardly "heroism." There's also a
great pep talk from Nick Fury wherein he goes on about how the
"Greatest Generation" were really just a bunch of scared kids in
trenches, just like you.

New Avengers #45 gets a C from Albo

Man, I bet I would just love this issue if I had read all of that "No
More Mutants" crap a while back. There's a cool alternate reality,
some classic "Back to the Future" style flashbacks where we get to see
a famous scene from a new perspective... All kinds of cool stuff. Oh,
yeah, but I don't know what the hell is going on. My fault, I know, I
know.