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 Teen Titans #71, Ink #1, and Batman in Barcelona #1

Beatdown(s) of the Week/Burn of the Week - Ravager vs Wonder Girl and Bombshell, Teen Titans #71

Ravager is back at Titans Tower, and this time she's not taking any shit!

First of all we see a rare example of an EMOTIONAL beatdown...

BOOM! Guilt trip in yo FACE, Cassie! Who's the villain now, hmm?

Later on, Ravager manages to depower the treacherous Bombshell, and face kicking ensues!

Oh snap! Apparently depowering works on Amazonian Girl Gods too (???)! But nah, she ain't even worth it, so Rose just says "Tool" and walks out on those tools.

That, to borrow a word from the internet, is called OWNAGE.


The Ol' Alter-Ego Blues - Batman in Barcelona: Dragon's Knight #1
The Alter-Ego Blues is a phenomenon costumed heroes experience when people call their civilian-personas out for being lazy, irresponsible and generally uncaring. IRONYYY! But as far as I know, no one has EVER had the nerve to admonish Bruce by asking, "Would your parents be proud?" It is a GOOD THING this conversation was being held over the phone, because in Bruce's little "..." pause bubble, I imagine his face went from neutral to near-murderous psychopath with alarming distinction.

The Magic of Comics - Ink #1
Ink is by far the best Final Crisis: Aftermath book I've read, and it's made me an instant fan of penciller Fabrizio Fiorentino and colorist Michael DiMotta. These page compositions are fantastic; look at the balance in theses two ultra-widescreen panels. In the top panel, no space is wasted as the Tattooed Man conjures up a barbed wire panel, and in the panel below, that space is used to show the distance the wire has to travel, as well as the tension of how hard TM is pulling to knock one of the thugs right off their feet. The very subtle splash of blood on the thug's leg is a painful reminder or exactly what's going on here.

Later on, a gang killing is played out in five panels on one page, and each one expresses an important dramatic beat; the stab of the knife. The surprise. The realization. The literal gravity of the situation, as the blood drops into frame and the victim drops his bag. The finality of death. This is an amazingly poignant death for a character who is so insignificant in the larger scheme of the book. Take another look at his hands - the way they go from frozen in pain to limp is a sad and beautiful story all by itself.

20% Gratuity - Ms Marvel #39
Hey, 9-11. I see what you did there.

Best Use of a Repeated Panel - Ink #1
Just had to get another page from Ink in here. There are lots of great touches in this inventive and gory page, but the way hostage's look of frozen terror goes from part of the tension to sight gag is my favorite part.

Panel Discussion: Scans from Rasl, The Cabal, Runaways, and More

Every week Geekanerd throws their books in a scanner to bring you the best, worst, and weirdest panels from the week's comics. Moderate SPOILERS after the jump.

Project Runway Award - Ms. Marvel #38
Wow, Emma Frost. We all knew your original costume was purposefully sexy but...you just grabbed it out of one of those sleazoid porn/lingerie stores on 8th avenue? Girl could have at least paid for it, it probably cost like $30 bucks. Stay classy, Marvel!


Most Horriffic Death - Rasl #4
Make sure to click this for the full effect. These saliors crewed a ship that was teleported as part of a millitary experiment. But every sci-fi geek knows if there's one kind of future-tech you don't want to mess with before it's ready, and that's teleportation. The guy in the middle panel is the most horrifying, with the majority of his head and face stuck in an iron beam. The guy behind him is so scared he turned into The Scream!

Movie Moment - Runaways #10
Even superheroes like to pretend that they're Jedi.


Most Irresponsible Use of Superpowers - Ms Marvel #38
As previously seen in other Dark Reign titles, now that the Avengers team is staffed entirely with villains, cops on the Superhero Cleanup Beat will have to get used to dealing with a lot more corpses.

Banana Randomizer Award for Achivement in WTF - Runaways #10
In comics, the whole dramatic premise of "magic" is anything can happen at literally any time. In this climactic scene, the villian manages to steal whatsername's powerful staff, when a heretofore undiscovered giant dragon EXPLODES OUT OF IT and eats him alive. Problem solved!

Best Acting - Dark Avengers #4
Usually we don't give out the best actor award for one panel, and we ESPECIALLY don't give it out to a character as photo referenced as the new Tommy Lee Osborn. BUT: I just love Norman's expression in this issue-ending panel. I've really enjoyed Osborn since he's been on anti-psychotics (OR IS HE), we've seen him in a lot of very desperate moments that are generally rare in mainstream supervillians. His palpable fear at seeing the Sentry alive and well after being killed for like the BILLIONTH TIME is a nice moment to end on.