The Jimmy Olsen story "The Human Porcupine" was apparently fraught with errors.
Dig the politically incorrect editorial reply:
BONUS: What DC Editorial recommends as proper Jimmy Olsen Fan Club attire:
BONUS: What DC Editorial recommends as proper Jimmy Olsen Fan Club attire:
Bizarro-Mike loves all these items from new Previews! Previews am not June 2008 edition! Bizarro-Mike not want you to follow along, and ‘specially not want you to find links to earlier installments in sidebar!
Bizarro-Mike not start looking at items now! You not look also!
p. 133 – The Joker Poker Set:
“This unique collectors’ item includes a deck of 54 prop replica Joker cards (as seen in The Dark Knight film!) and a standard ‘playable’ 4-suit, 54 card deck defaced by The Joker.”
I like how “playable” is in quotes, as they know you’ll try to use this set for a poker game, and the people you’re playing with will put up with it once, at most, maybe.
p. 263 – Hack/Slash #15:
p. 286 – High School Musical Volume 1 GN:
p. 410 – The DC Vault A Museum-in-a-Book Spiral HC:
p. 418 – Dilbert 2.0 20 Years of Dilbert:
“Also included is a piracy-protected disc that contains every Dilbert comic strip to date….”
By “piracy-protected,” they mean “protected at least until the many man-hours and tons of money poured into the DRM protection scheme is handily undone by a quickie bit of programming by a bored 15-year-old computer geek in Ohio…assuming whatever ‘protection’ they’re using isn’t already obsolete by the time this comes out.”
Whoops, sorry, turned into Boing Boing for a moment.
p. 419 – Whack-A-Zombie Kit:
p. 441 – Rasl T-Shirt:
p. 442 – Iron Man Belt Buckle:
Additional theoretical selling point: if the repulsor emitters on Iron Man’s palms glowed. Or blinked.
p. 443 – Otaku Collegiate Navy T-Shirt & Hoodie:
p. 454 – Lego Indiana Jones “River Chase” Set:
p. 464 – Rocky 3 Minimates Box Set:
p. 479 – Indiana Jones Artifact Desk Accessories:
…and the Holy Grail Paperclip Cup. I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Jesus used it for, too.
p. 481 – Star Wars Spirit of Obi-Wan Bobblehead:
p. 497 – Shining Wind 1/8th Scale Statue Series Blanc Neige – Wind Edition & Elwyn:
p. 528 – Marvel Metamorphs:
WHAT MUST NOT BE SEEN – Hulk vomits out the remnants of his victims:
“…[Gives] kids a whole new perspective on their favorite heroes!”
I’ll say.
p. 537 – Pooh & Friends Halloween Figurines:
Marvel Previews p. 61 – Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe:
…Oh, wait, it says “Skull variant.” Never mind.
Then again…there are letters missing from “pencils” and “available,” so that “skull” could be missing an “R,” too.
…what’s the point of soliciting retailer orders for multiple covers of Wizard if they’re going to all get covered up by the same video game ad in the mag’s protective baggie?
For some reason, I found myself oddly amused and compelled by Chuck “Bouncing Boy” Taine’s moustache, first appearing late in Vol. 3 of Legion of Super-Heroes.
I was unsure about it at first, but ultimately I think it gives Chuck a little more character, just a touch more realism. It makes him look more like a plain ‘ol guy, you know…comfortable with himself and not at all imposed by all the perfect physiques in the skin-tight outfits runnin’ around him.
I was certain there was a shot of him using his bouncing powers with moustache, but I can’t find it at the moment. That’s okay, because I’m sure it can’t match how I’m picturing in my mind – a thin strip of hair, stretched across his surface like a furry equator.
Keep rockin’ that ‘stache, Chuck.
That, my friends, is “high concept.”
That particular image was from the flashback issue explaining just who this new Laurel Gand person was. I sorta liked that costume, reflecting the color scheme and design of her ancestor/teammate Lar Gand (AKA Mon-El), as well as the costume of the no-longer-in-that-particular-continuity-for-the-time-being Supergirl. Laurel Gand’s regular costume also reflected the original Supergirl’s, sort of, in that she wore a headband…but she also had some serious butt-floss shorts, which did not reflect Supergirl (at least not until Michael Turner got his hands on her).
She also took on Supergirl’s romance with Brainiac 5:
Well, I wasn’t expecting to churn out a couple paragraphs about Laurel Gand today. See what reading tons of Legion comics can do to you?
Another thing I’ve been meaning to address is the multiple reboots of the series. We know the big reboots, where Legion continuity was started from scratch (Zero Hour, the recent reboot with the Mark Waid series), and there were, as I mentioned, soft reboots …attempts at revitalizing/reworking the series without ignoring what came before (the five year gap, Legion Lost, etc.). The Legion Omnicom has a good overview of all these shenanigans. It all feels like a desperate flailing-about — repeated attempts at trying to find a take on the Legion that’ll click with a larger fan audience than the die-hard Legion fans who’ll read anything with the Legion logo on it. The Teen Titans franchise sort of went through this after the New Teen Titans series ended, but sales are reasonably strong for the new Teen Titans book(s) now.
The most recent Legion series reboot started strongly enough, but now sales seem to be back down to what pretty much every other Legion series has sold over the last ten or fifteen years. (Judging by our store’s sales, anyway…I haven’t checked actual sales figures — or what passes for ’em — but I expect they’ll at least in part reflect my observations.) DC’s been trying to build interest and curiosity (and, apparently, some measure of frustration) in the team, by having at least two or three distinct, and mutually-exclusive, versions of the Legion running around in current titles…leading into a tie-in to the imminent Final Crisis crossover. Whether that’ll revive interest in the Legion again remains to be seen…I’m thinking likely not, though there ain’t nothing wrong with publishing a George Perez-drawn Legion comic in the attempt.
Lemme ask you guys…I’ve been a die-hard Legion fan for nearly 30 years now. I’ve stuck through the reboots and continuity brouhahas all this time because I happen to like the concept of the team, and the interactions among this particular group of characters, and all the goofiness that comes with it. How many of you have been reading Legion for an extended period of time? How many of you were Legion fans, but had enough of the various tinkerings with the formula and dropped the book? How many of you came on with one of the various reboots, attracted by the fresh starts they offered? Please let me know in the comments.
And please forgive my “laser-proof breasts” joke. But, honestly, look at that panel! How else am I supposed to take that? (EDIT: And I’m apparently not the first to point out this panel for a little good-natured mockery, which surprises me not in the slightest.)
Not that it was a real kneeslapper to begin with, but still:
Anyway, in other news:
Okay, actually I’ll just keep nagging him about a Warhammer Vs. Cthulhu comic book every time I see him. That’s nefarious enough.
Good luck, Ian! I know you’ll do a great job!
Me (sorting out some comics from a purchased collection): “Huh…what’s up with this turtle on the left?”
Me: “Oh, c’mon. His name is not ‘Slash.'”
Aaron: “I’m not joking…it really is.”
Me: “Well, let me look, then….”
And I’m assuming Slash is not shouting his name, but rather letting the sound effect of his claws whipping through the air provide his introduction. I wonder how many people he’s done this to over the years think his name is something like “WHIIISH” — that’s not nearly as menacing.
By the way, there’s all kinds of weird-ass stuff going on in the Archie Turtles series. When the giant floating cow-head that the Turtles occasionally ride around in is one of the least bizarre things, you know you’ve got one peculiar comic. I never paid much attention to this book in the past, figuring it was just a watered-down version of the original Turtles. But, having looked through a number of them, and having some of the old plots described to me by former Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures reader Employee Aaron…well, I may need to reconsider my earlier dismissal.