Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Comic Covers This Week




 
This February, all the DC comic titles will have variants that include everyone's favorite psychopath - Harley Quinn. I have always been a fan of hers from back in the Animated Batman TV series. Mad Love was mad great.
 
I have all but stopped reading these series, choosing instead to just check out the art. I only read complete collections these days. I can afford to wait six months to read the entire story arc and one time. I can pick and choose the best of the best.
 
Some comics like Batgirl or Harley are must reads for me. I tend to be very loyal to characters I like. Flash is always a favorite but Superman has left me cold for years. I am still stinking from the death of Damian Wayne, the last Robin. He was a fresh character that revised the whole Batman Universe - until he was killed off for no earthly good reason - well other than SPITE. Screw you Grant Morrison. Fan of the genre will understand what I am talking about.
 
Marvel is just all over the place with their comics. I like Hawkeye but little recently from the House of Ideas has excited me. They seem to be resetting everything to align with the cinematic future of the Marvel characters like the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
 
Marvel has a lot to teach to DC in terms of live action, star studded superheroics like a Justice League movie or the Shazam film to which Dwayne Johnson is attached. DC in return has shown Marvel how to do animated features like Kurt Busiek's MARVELs series from the 90s. What about a Spiderverse animated feature. Something a little darker. Something involving time travelling and involving all the various Spider-Heroes from all the various dimensions. That way you can include Spider-Gwen in the mix.
 
 
Wolverine vs Conan?
It worked in the comic book.
 
 
I wish some young, hip, special effects outfit in Canada would take on this project. The characters are so great and there are many excellent stories from the comic to draw from. Guardian has one of the best costumes in comics and I would love to see a live action film of Alpha Flights Canadian adventures.

 
In a perfect world, Marvel and DC would share their characters with each other more often. Either one of these stories would make excellent animated features. It will never happen of course because both sides would fight over every little detail and spoil the whole project.


 
And finally the one great, unused property in comic book history. What happens to heroes who get injured in the line of duty? Who can they get medical attention from? They can't go to a regular hospital in costume because then they would get arrested. No, they need NIGHT NURSE. The rest of the series just writes itself.
 
 
They actually made FOUR issues of this series.
I have them all.
 

6 comments:

j-swin said...

dc's animated movies are pretty good story wise, wish they would go back to stylized art for each one instead of this quasi-anime look they've had since at least flashpoint, but the content is solid. the new batman-assault on arkham was good, nice to see the baddies get the spotlight for a change. harley was the best part, can't wait to see what they do with aquaman this spring.

j-swin said...

i also love the batman: tas ep where harley is singing to the mobsters while batman is tied up. classic crazy.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

At least putting Harley in every cover makes for interesting story illustrations unlike those "selfie" covers they did a couple month back which just screamed "gimmick"!

Mike D. said...

Do not like 52 Harley

Jeff said...

I'm with Mikey D. She's gone from Harley Quinn to Whore-y Quinn with the New 52 redesign.

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

This too shall pass. Better she change and stay in the mix than disappear from view.