Panel Discussion: Scans from Robin, Shadowpact, Umbrella Academy and More

Every week 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 the pics for high res goodness, and beware SPOILERS.

Earth Prime Cameo - Dan DiDio, Robin #170
In the grand tradition of comic creators appearing in ink, a man bearing the distinctive goatee and bald pate of DC Editor Dan DiDio showed up as a thug in the latest issue of Robin. The in-jokeiness is pushed a step further given that in the first few pages DiDio gets beaten up and robbed by a new vigilante who we're meant to believe may be ex-Robin Stephanie Brown, who's torturous death and subsequent lack of respect is an injustice many place on DiDio's shoulders. Given the perceived jab at Stephanie's fans earlier this year, perhaps this cameo amounts to a sort of mea culpa. I don't expect this girl to actually be Stephanie Brown (we can't have all the personifications of Batman's failures come back to life, what's next, his parents?), but hopefully this new arc by Chuck Dixon will bring a more emotionally satisfying climax to Stephanie's story. And for the sake of comparison, here's how DiDio was previously drawn in the 2006 DC Editorial Christmas greeting.


Some weird, kinky shit after the jump...

Best Reason Not To Date Online - Shadowpact #21
Detective Chimp, what you are doing is wrong. So very wrong. You are not a furry! You are an animal! Furries are people! People who's strange lifestyle choices do not necessarily mean they're into bestiality, and whether they go there or not is certainly not up to you!

In other, even more traumatizing monkey comic panels...

Banana Randomizer Award For Achievement in WTF - The Umbrella Academy #5
Not since Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man have we seen such a horrifying depiction of animal testing. The problem is it comes of absolutely no where. I love this series, and up to this point didn't mind it's challengingly complex storyline, but no matter how many times I re-read this issue, I couldn't figure out how this flash-back fits in to anything that precedes or comes after it. The setup of this scene has another character about to launch into his own life story, when suddenly this nightmare is splashed across the page, apparently psychically broadcast by the monkey character in the lower left hand corner. Why? How? To what end? The monkey doesn't seem to actually be DOING anything to make this happen, there's no universally accepted symbol of psychic transmittal like closing ones eyes or holding up their hand. I can accept some mysteries left open in an on-going storyline, but leaving a provocative image like this completely unresolved is unacceptably confusing.

Finally, a bonus panel I forgot to include last week...

How They Like It - Green Arrow Black Canary #4

Wonder Woman, are you suggesting you plan on individually tying up every person who happened to be in the hospital hallway? I wonder what Golden Age Wonder Woman would think about that idea?

Oh. Well. I'll just leave you to it, then.

Panel Discussion: Countdown, Simon Dark, Booster Gold and More

Albo is shirking his blogging responsibilities this week, so Panel Discussion this week is all AHR, which roughly translates to all DC. Hoo boy. Get ready for some goofy, wacky, and bizarrely violent crap! Also, huge spoilers for last week's comics after the jump...

Meme Alert: Countdown - Arena #2
That's Earth 32's Bruce Wayne, and of course what he means is "I'm the goddamn green lantern." Putting damn in bold won't make up for the PG rated swears, DC.

Enough Already! - Countdown #20
So on his blog, Paul Dini said that since Trickster recently died of a smashed face, "Piper won't have to listen to gay jokes anymore". He LIED to us, readers! Unable to cope with the loss of his boorishly gaycist non-friend, Piper has resorted to talking to Trickster's corpse and making gay jokes about himself. Make it stop.

The Banana Randomizer Award For Achievement in WTF: Wonder Woman #15
Silly nazis; if you go poking around in an Amazonian horse stable, don't look surprised when you find a vagina-with-teeth tentacle monster. Try to die with dignity.

Less Is More Award - Simon Dark #3
Comics have the habit of cluttering up the frames with extraneous sound effects and non verbal exclamations like "Wh-" or "Hhn?". A good facial expression and a sharp panel composition can speak volumes all by themselves, as shown by this completely "silent" sequence which perfectly evokes Simon's unnatural stealth. The art in this book has been fantastic for all three issues, I hope it finds an audience soon.

Beatdown of the Week: The Joker vs Booster Gold, Booster Gold #5Booster time travels into the Killing Joke to try to save Barbara Gorden's spine (and make a lot of comic fans very happy), and succeeds only in getting beat across the face with his own adorable robot pal. Where is your futuristic artillery now, Skeets? Even AI gets flustered around the Joker.

Biggest Set Up: Green Arrow - Black Canary #3
Ollie, please! "Safe"? Don't say things like that. You're a Superhero. A DC Superhero. Your loved ones are not safe. Oh well, it's not as if some sort of hand-of-god lightning bolt is going to come down and...
...right. As much as I usually love Cliff Chiang's smooth cartoony art (not to mention Trish Mulvihill's exquisite colors), the horrified expressions here are a little reserved given the situation. Canary and Speedy seem to be wearing looks of "Is he alright?" His ribcage is showing, ladies, that's a bad sign.