The Monitor Tapes for Monday, February 9th, 2009
ADVENTURE COMICS #0
Ah, the smell of nostalgia, it never gets old! Or does it?
With the recent retcons and redux of old stories, it is a bit curious to see that DC would reprint Adventure Comics #247 (the first meeting of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes). Perhaps it’s due to the importance of the title, Adventure Comics as it would become the home to the LoSH as the book continued on with new popularity of the 30st Century heroes (retconned to 31st in current continuity, as the LoSH hail from 1,000 years from now).
The reprint story it’s self wastes no time introducing the three main characters from LoSH, Lightening Boy, Cosmic Boy, and Saturn Girl. As they screw with Superman (or in this case Superboy) in the typical fashion of the time (I’m sure you’ve familiarized yourself with Superdickery.com, if not check it out to see what I’m talking about) they take Superboy into the future (their present) to show Clark what a huge impact he’ll have on the future. In that future, over the space of a couple pages, you see a retro future that remains clever in the predictions of the world of tomorrow even if it seems stale and yesteryear. The best part is that the school teacher teaching “Superboy” history dosent even blink or think anything out of the ordinary when the real Superboy pops in to replace the Superboy android when it breaks down. I’d imagine with how the DCU operates now, no one really thinks anything is that unusual with the multiple Crisis’ and disasters over the years.
Back to the story it’s self, the LoSH basically sets young Clark on a series of trials against the three Legionnaires. Superboy fails as each time another crisis pops up and he speeds of to correct them, losing the individual tasks. As the ending reveals however, the tasks Superboy completed were in fact the tasks he was being tested on as the LoSH clearly picked up Clark’s Superdickery as well, revealing the initiation as a bit of a hazing initiation (the Silver Age was chock full of these type of shenanigans). Clark also ends up showing up the new turks by mimicking their abilities to avert another disaster and winning the highest award possible from them (the final panel showing Clark’s dad not blinking at the medal is priceless, as I’m sure his dad has seen all sorts of weird things at this point).
The remaining six pages are devoted to an installment of the “Origins and Omens” back up feature running through DC’s comics this month. Lex Luthor and Brainiac are spotlighted as the Oan now known as Scar narrates events read from “the Black Book”, a new entry in the Green Lantern saga. Lex as of recently has been under thumb of General Lane, Lois’ father formerly dead, now with a mad on bent to destroy all Kryptonians. He’s been given the locked down Brainiac for study in the pursuit of taking his tech and reengineering it for his own purposes.
As Lex waxes poetic on his rise and fall, he uses Braniac as a wepon to escape the confines of the military lab. Unfortunately, Luthor soon learns he’s actually the puppet of Braniac and reveals they won’t be leaving and why they’ll be working together (the Great Brainiac Luthor team-up). The final page reveals to be that Luthor’s “Son” (Kon- El/ Connor Kent/ Superboy) will be under the dominion of the Black Lanterns as the prophetic line “The dead will save you, Lex Luthor. From Brainiac. From Superman. And from yourself.” is uttered by the one names Scar. Finally, the remaining solicitation for Adventure Comics #1 reveals these stories to continue in the solicitation image below.
Who are the blacked out figures, only DC comics knows!
News! Since I was on vacation over the weekend, it seems there was a lot of news via the New York Comic Con. From the Con and the Livejournal community scans_daily (originally scanned from the Con Programs), I present you with two previews of upcoming DC books this year.
Dectetive Comics #854
Greg Rucka (W) JH Williams III (A)
(Click images for larger versions)
Acording to Greg Rucka himself via his Livejournal Account- http://ruckawriter.livejournal.com/
“Which means finally – finally! – I can openly admit that yes, JH Williams III and I have been working on a Batwoman title for nearly two years.”
I can only hope that means they’ve got a good stockpile of material on hand. From the looks of it, the art seems to harken back to Rucka’s previous run on the title, something I loved from his time on it. Plus, I can only hope that Dini will in fact return to the Batman universe writing Bruce in one of the two new announced titles, either Batman (I’ve heard starting with a new #1) or Batman and Robin (if I had to take a guess, I’d bet on Batman and Robin featuring Morrison, and Dini on the self titled).
Flash: Rebirth #1
Geoff Johns (W) Ethan Van Shiver (A)
DC comics in stores 2/11/2009
ACTION COMICS #874
ALL-STAR SUPERMAN VOL. 2
BATMAN #686
BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS SPECIAL
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #26
BATMAN: R.I.P. THE DELUXE EDITION
BOOSTER GOLD #17
GREEN ARROW/BLACK CANARY #17
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #33
NIGHTWING #153
R.E.B.E.L.S. #1
ROBIN #183
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: AQUAMAN VOL. 3
SIMON DARK #17
SUPERMAN #685
TITANS #10
TRINITY #37
VIGILANTE: CITY LIGHTS, PRAIRIE JUSTICE
VIXEN: RETURN OF THE LION #5 (OF 5)
WONDER WOMAN: WHO IS WONDER WOMAN?
As always,thanks for reading!