Supergirl

Last Night at Sketch Charlotte, I drew this Supergirl. I've cleaned it up and edited out the Sketch Charlotte logo that Brandon puts on the paper for posting on the Sketch Charlotte site. Go over there if you want to it in the original scan.

I really like drawing Supergirl as a teenager, and by that, I mean 16 or younger. While this isn't my favorite Supergirl outfit, My favorite ones make her look too old.

Dan DiDio is Wrong

I've been hesitant to talk too much about the Watchmen prequels. While the situation irritates me from a creative standpoint (read: no imagination to do a sequel or a prequel), it doesn't really affect me. However, recently, Dan DiDio gave comments about the controversy surrounding it and addressed Watchmen co-creator Alan Moore's complaints about the prequels and the way DC has treated him over the years. The article is at the Guardian's Facebook page.


Let's start at the beginning:

"We knew when we were trying to build these books that there were going to be a lot of questions, concern, and a lot of deep introspection about what we're trying to do here. We wanted to make sure if anything that the books could stand on their own merits and their own creative strengths, which is one of the reasons we assembled the teams we did," said DiDio, who admits that at one point, "even our own internal staff were having problems with it". But "we're not going to shy away from the controversy on this – as a matter of fact we're embracing it because we have belief in the strength of the product and stand behind it."

This is something that I can't dispute the facts on, because Didio doesn't give examples of which DC staff members having problems, but given if the treatment of writers recently that have publicly complained about their treatment by DC, I doubt very seriously that anyone complained to Dan Didio, and the staff members he is talking about are ones he is certain exist, but hasn't been able to identify. As far as having belief in the strength of the project, flooding the market with 35 issues is not demonstrating faith in the strength of the product, it's catering to a collector's mentality in the grand old Pokemon "gotta catch 'em all" mentality DC has exhibited under DiDio. Flashpoint, Final Crisis, Darkest Night are also examples of this strategy.

In the prequels, DiDio revealed, the Silk Spectre comic is a coming-of-age story about a girl in the late 60s who rebels against her mother, the Comedian's back story will take a look at "turbulent times in the government", Nite Owl's is "almost a father and son-style story as one man hands the mantle of Nite Owl to the other" and Dr Manhattan's a time-shifting journey through history. Rorschach's story, predictably, is "extremely violent".

Silk Spectre's mother drove her to the Crimebusters meeting. Her mother pushed her into being a super-hero. If she were rebelling she would have quit the costumed gig like she had in the original story. The Golden Age Nite Owl didn't know who Dan Dreiberg was until well into the near ending of his career by the Keene act, there was no passing of the mantle, and no father and son relationship, not even in the original story. I find the Dr. Manhattan time shifting story as wholly unoriginal, as Alan Moore used it as a plot element in the original story, and as a way to tell the history of the characters. Rorschach was meant as an homage to not only Ditko's Question, but Mr. A as well, a crimefighter that sees the world as black and white. The ultra-violent nature was only a side effect of the perceived insanity created by his failure to save a small child. If an Ultr-violent story was desired, I would propose the Comedian for the venue, but putting out a violent story for the sake of a violent story is not good writing. The violence in Watchmen reinforced the characters, progressed the story and resolved sub-plots. It wasn't there for the sake of being there.

The Ozymandias prequel "is basically the string that ties it all together, from his story of how he first formulates his idea of how to save the world to the moment when he decides to execute that plan", and the Minutemen miniseries will chronicle "the final days of the Minutemen and how that team really came apart". The first book in the series, Minutemen #1, is out on 6 June, with a new issue to follow each week.

This is strictly retelling the same story that got told in much briefer form in the original story, and in a way that revealed the nature of the Ozymandias character. The Minutemen falling apart was not a "final days" story, but a final years as everything slowly deteriorated as society changed. The story was also told already by Alan Moore.

DiDio is hopeful the books might just help save the struggling comics industry. "Honestly, it dates back to when we started the 'New 52' line of books and relaunched the entire DC universe. The industry we saw was fading, for several reasons, whether the strength of the product or the fact there's been so many other distractions taking people away from buying comics. We saw our sales not just in DC but across the industry starting to flag a bit and we knew we had to do something about it, take some dramatic steps in order to reinvigorate our fan base and get people excited about comics again," he said.

The industry is fading for several reasons, competition for entertainment dollars from video games, the Internet, and a distribution system that does not reach out to find new readers in places that they already go. The industry also loses fans when editors like DiDio tell them to buy more every few months. DC has produced good books, but over saturation of pricey collections like the Absolute Editions and leaping from event to event has demonstrated no confidence in those creators. DiDio goes for the fast solution, instead of the slow build. Look how long it took for Sandman to generate it's fan base of people who didn't read comics. DC squandered that by not building another book that people that don't read comics can get behind while that fan base were buying Sandman. The only title to come close has been Fables, which started six years after Sandman ended.

"Once we reintroduced our line it gave us the strength to say we should look at other things that we knew would excite the fans. When you have a product like Watchmen that is as worldwide known as it is, and the fact there are millions of copies in print, we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't go out and say, 'is there other ways we can grow new material from this?' We went out and reached the original creators and they had passed, but we still believed this was the right choice to make. And in doing so we went out with the strongest creators possible, so while you may question the decision you can't question the quality of the product and the quality of the people behind the product."

He's making a straw man argument here, because I don't believe anyone is question the quality of the work that they haven't seen yet or the quality of the creators. They are question DiDio's ethics. He can't defend the later so he creates the former to swat down.

DiDio says he can understand Moore's perspective. "Honestly I can understand why he might feel the way he does because this is a personal project to him. He has such a long and illustrious career and he's been able to stand behind the body of work he's created. But quite honestly the idea of something shameless is a little silly, primarily because I let the material speak for itself and the quality of the material speak for itself."

Then why is he talking so much about it?

As for depending on Moore's ideas, DiDio says that "all the characters in all the universes and all that we do in comics, we're constantly building on other people's lores and legends. Watchmen in some ways fits that bill as we have done in so many series in the past. In this particular case we feel very strong about what we're doing and honestly I'm going to let the product speak for itself."

Again, then why is he talking so much about it?

Even Moore himself has worked with characters he hasn't created, points out DiDio. "Realistically some of Alan's strongest works at DC outside of Watchmen were built off of characters like Swamp Thing which was created by Len Wein, Superman, Batman, so many of our great characters he's worked on and they helped build his career."

However Alan's strongest work has probably been outside of DC. From Hell, America's Best Comics, Miracleman and so many more were done without DC having creative input behind it, either literally or historically. Many of the stories Alan Moore did for DC, outside of Swamp Thing, which was some of his earliest American work in a market that had few outlets for talented, yet relatively unknown creators. DC has also made use of those few stories for some of their biggest projects over and over again, cheapening the impact. 


The majority of characters that Alan Moore has used that he hasn't created have come from the public domain, and in many ways the depth of redefining that he has done with those characters shows Alan Moore's talent for creating something out of whole cloth that no one else thought to try in nearly a century. It also shows Moore as a well-read writer with interest outside of comic books, albeit a genuine love for them, although that love has been deteriorated by his treatment from DC over the years.

DC says Watchmen was "a work for hire agreement at the start", however. And it provides such a rich basis for prequels, according to DiDio. "The stories and ideas are so well defined, and there are so many throwaways in the body of the original work, a one-line mention or a side item or a cameo shot of a character, that were basically great wonderful springboards we could grow the world from," he said. "That's why when everybody says this is a finite story, true if you're looking at the beginning, middle, end of that particular story itself. But when you're talking about the characters, there's nothing finite about them. They have endless possibilities in the types of stories we could tell with them. And like I said we've found the right creators to tell those stories."

Again, we come to the straw man argument, DiDio doesn't address the contract, and the company line is that it was work for hire, although it has been firmly reported that the rights were meant to transfer. However, instead of defending the companies enforcement of its side of the agreement, that it is within their right to keep it in print as long as it makes them a profit, he goes back to the potential that the characters have for more stories.

The artists and writers working on the books – including Brian Azzarello, Darwyn Cooke and Len Wein – have "an incredible résumé of classic stories which have really helped change what comics are today", said DiDio. "From our standpoint we wanted to make sure that regardless of what people feel about how this came about to be, they have no question that this isn't the best people possible to do it. If it was ever going to be done, these are the people that should be handling it."

Again, I don't think anyone has criticized the creators. I certainly wouldn't, because for the most part, I actually think that they're all quite competent in their ability to craft a readable and in most cases, an enjoyable comic. I don't know why DiDio keeps coming back to his straw man after he's already knocked it down. I appreciate that he's standing behind his talent, I just wish he would when they disagree with him publicly.

He has not spoken to Moore about the prequels, but said that if the British author "did get a chance to read them, I hope he looks at them with an open mind and a chance to understand this is a love letter to what he created, and more importantly that the strength of his work is allowing other people to grow and tell other stories which will hopefully inspire other creators along the way. In the way he was inspired by the creators when he was younger, we're hoping these ideas and these books are inspiring new people, so that we continue to grow the comics business as a whole."

Nothing DiDio has done has strengthened the industry. Its shaken down readers for more money from more product. All great stories produced by DC has been in spite of his leadership, not because of it. Grant Morrison can write a good Superman story. Adam Hughes will always produce a cover that will catch the eye on a rack. Bill Willingham can modernize and humanize characters. I can go down the list, but all the great work that DC has put out under Dan DiDIo has not been affiliated with his massive editorially driven events. I remember Final Crisis as anything but interruptive. I remember Darkest Night as annoying, I remember the New DC 52 as forgettable. 

Will there be more Watchmen follow-ups? "Let's wait and see how these work first," said DiDio. "At this point the audience will decide that." So who watches the Watchmen? It's up to you.

I have a well read, stained, first print of the Watchmen TPB. I keep it on my shelf and it remains an example of what a super-hero comic can be. Nothing has come close. It doesn't need anything else to make it complete, I never wondered about what happened in between those scenes because frankly, it never mattered. The story was told, and it was finished.


Now I just wish Dan DiDio would be as well.

"Give Me A Needle And I Could Make It Work"

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #54

February 1994

I've made it no secret that I'm a fan of the Legion of Super-Heroes. My absolute favorite incarnation has to the Giffen/Bierbaums era also known as the "Five Years Later" Legion. After they blew up the Earth, the Bierbaums left the writing chores up to colorist Tom McCraw and there seemed to be a struggle to find a direction for the Legion. The idea struck someone to put the team through some major challenges and put them on the run.

SYNOPSIS:

The Legion has just defeated Glorith, but at significant cost. Celeste Rockfish has apparently been aged to the point of death, Brainiac 5 has been advanced to a point where his body is riddled with age. Devlyn O'Ryan and Mysa have been reduced in age to teens, and Kent Shakespeare is a child. Jo is raving mad because he's learned that his lost love Tinya is still alive, displaced somewhere in time by Glorith. When Celeste's body vanishes, replaced by a green energy body. Brainiac 5 suggests that the team goes to Quarantine for tests on their changed bodies.

On Quarantine, we learn that for the most part the changes made by Glorith are not harmful, although Devlin and Celeste have trouble adjusting to their new forms. Celeste's new form is the result of her body merging with the Green Lantern energy years ago, and now that Glorith has destroyed her body, that energy is no longer restricted by spending most of its power just to keep Celeste alive. Brainiac 5 is now dependent upon an exoskeleton to remain mobile, but he needs to return for his files at the Legion HQ on Talus. They leave Devlin and Kent behind. Jo wants to go back in time and look for Tinya, Wildfire wants to leave as well for his own personal reasons, and while Rokk and Brainy can't convince them otherwise, they do welcome Spider-Girl to the team, as appreciation for her help.

Rokk's wife and child have been brought to Winath by Garth Ranzz signalling some troubles the Legion is having with the Science Police. When the team get to Talus, they find it guarded by the SP's and the newly enlisted Subs waiting to arrest the Legion for conspiracy against the United Planets. In the battle that follows, they find themselves captured, being taken off guard by the Subs and their new members.

Former Earth President and Legion member Jacques Froccart protests the Legion's innocence despite holos showing the Legion aiding the Khunds. Using his invisibility he discovers that Universo is behind the charges in a plot to take over New Earth. He assists the Legion in escaping while he works to clear the Legion of the charges.  The Legion escape with the help of Loomis, who has operated as their mechanic on Talus, although Violet seems to be taking charge and giving orders during the escape.

After being safely away from Webers World, Rokk argues with Vi and gives leadership over to her. She decides to use one of Jo's hideouts on Rimbor as a base. Vi orders everyone to come up with new uniforms and identities, using what they have on hand.

After arriving on Rimbor, Laurel and Mysa fence unneeded supplies to gain credits, but are getting the short end of negotiations until Mysa uses a little sex appeal to get a better deal. As the Legion finish off their new costumes, Spider-Girl returns hurt badly  and informing them that she and Jo have been attacked.

REVIEW:

This was one of those transitional issues of the Legion that took the team in a different direction. With only minimal exception, this has been done to boost sales. Usually it doesn't work.  I'm unapologetic in my love for Giffen's "five years later" Legion, and I find this new direction just a punishment.

Tom McCraw does an adequate job of writing the Legion, and he keeps the voices pretty much the same, with the exception of Mysa and Rokk. Rokk gets explained in later issues, but Mysa never does. The concept of the Legion being framed as traitors is not a new one, and I sigh at the lack of originality in it. Universo's motivation doesn't make sense in that he was practically the hero that masterminded Earth's liberation. If  his desire was to take control of New Earth, he had every opportunity to do so. The new uniforms we see in the story are slight, but the cover does feature them prominently, in a nod to the cover of Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Which transitions me to the art. Stuart Immonen is, in my opinion one of the best comic book artists around today. His style in these early days was very naturalistic, with an excellent use of black in his composition. The colors are adequate for the time, albeit a bit flat and some cutting to denote shading would have helped Immonen's artwork immeasurably. The costume designs are for the most part, forgettable. Wildfire's looks like a bad flame job that you give a car. Laurel's actually reminds me of the cape that Laurel Kent used to use to cover up with around the dorms at Legion academy way back in LOSH #304. it lacks something to make it stand out as Laurel, though. I really like Timber Wolf's outfit, as he really doesn't require a whole lot to discern his personality and identity. Brainiac 5 is the other standout for me, since Brainy has always been rooted to wearing coveralls instead of a formal costume. I can completely do without Ayla and Vi's costumes, though. I do question the logic behind Violet's choice. If the point is to conceal their identities, why isn't she wearing a disguise?

NOTES:
This issue has not been collected to the best of my knowledge. Do not be surprised if you can pick up a copy of this in a bargain bin as most fans completely write off this version of the Legion, as DC practically has.

FINAL RATING: 6.0 (out of a possible 10)

Without Stuart Immonen's art, this would score much lower. If I were reviewing this book as it was a half year later, it would most certainly be almost as low as that Spider-Woman issue I reviewed.

Wonder Woman

I did this drawing of Wonder Woman in my spare time, just so I could work on that costume. I used to hate this costume; call me a traditionalist. I don’t hate it as much now, but I still feel like it’s more complicated than it needs to be. Wonder Woman has one of those iconic costumes that only a few redesigns have managed to pull off. I could probably have silhouetted Diana in mostly shadow and have her still be recognizable as long as enough of her costume is visible. I wish the metallic elements were gold instead of silver, as that's just part of the color scheme. I still don't like the choker though. It just looks dangerous.

The trickiest part of this drawing  for me was retaining her femininity, but weird things happen to your drawing style when you watch a two day marathon of RuPaul’s Drag Race. Fortunately, Wonder Woman has black hair, so I could fix her face to get her  femininity back. I had to reference the hands so that Diana didn’t end up with man-hands.

By the way, you can buy the original drawing by going over to Etsy and purchasing it there. I also have some other stuff for sale there, but that's going to be another post.

First Thoughts on the DC Relaunch: Part Four

Okay, this is gonna be the last one of these, just because I need to back to drawing Jet-Pack Jenny

Catwoman #1 - Hey remember those Catwoman comics that were delightfully dark capturing the character's nocturnal nature and how well she blended in with the night skyline? Yeah, I hated that, too... (smell the sarcasm there?)  The solicitation looks to keep the general sense of the character, but I would expect nothing less of Judd Winick except to not go anywhere different or challenging with the character, and what I loved about the last Catwoman series, besides the Adam Hughes covers, was that the character was put into situations that challenged her and helped to evolve her character. I've not seen Judd Winick do that for any character since Kyle Rayner, and even then, the challenges were trite, and in the infamous "girlfriend in the refrigerator" scene, downright offensive. Seriously, if there's anything by Judd Winick that's genuinely good and original, please let me know, I'd love to have my opinion of him change. This series doesn't look to be it though.

Justice League Dark #1 - Shade the Changing Man, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, Zatanna and John Constantine versus the Enchantress. It's written by Peter Milligan, but what's the reason all these characters, with only one of them ever associated with the Justice League , are calling themselves the Justice League? Zatanna's iconic look is the victim of DC's "women must wear pants unless they're jailbait because pedophiles still buy comics" editorial policy? Every time Zatanna's costume has been changed in the past 20 years, it's always come back to the tuxedo and fishnets. DC keeps dragging characters like John Constantine, Swamp Thing, Shade the Changing Man, and Madame Xanadu back into the arena where they have to interact with super-heroes. It makes me think that the new corporate policy is that Mature readers titles and creator-owned titles just don't make enough money, especially when it comes to making films and merchandising.

Stormwatch#1 - This book along with Grifter #1 and Voodoo #1 have me curious as to the role of the former Wildstorm characters and the entire alternate Earth they were given just a few years ago. The solicitation for Stormwatch ties that series into events occurring in Superman #1. My instinct tells me that those events either merge the two Earths or transport a bunch of the Wildstorm characters to the DC Earth. Ultimately, do I care? No. The redsigns of Midnighter and Apollo, take their iconic nature from them, make them look like disposable new characters that will be forgotten in ten years except for footnotes on Wikipedia. Voodoo and Grifter could be good if the creative teams could have the courage to divorce them from the rest of the DC Universe long enough to stand on their own. There's the challenge these characters have always had though, is that they are constantly stuck with writers that have to remind readers that they exist in a world of super-heroes, and in doing so, lessen their importance to their own stories. With Stormwatch, its importance was that they (and their counterpart, the Authority) dealt with problems too big for anyone else to deal with. Now they exist in a world where Superman, and Justice League exist, not to mention all those Green Lanterns, including three somehow stationed on Earth.

Hawk & Dove #1 - Seriously? Does Rob Liefeld have pictures of Bob Harras in congress with farm animals? Seriously, that's the only reason I can come up with for him still getting work, despite not improving a single bit over twenty years. I think this title is the problematic one of Bob Harras taking DC in this new direction. The tastes and tones in these new solicitations is firmly rooted in the 1990s, and Harras is just coming across as one of those guys that can't get over how big comic books were back then, and think that it was because the comics were so great back then. Well, they weren't. There were good books then but most of them were crap. It's just like that now, and it has always been like that. There are creators in this relaunch that really want to make good comics, but there's some there that just don't want to lose their jobs, and some like Rob Liefeld that while they want to make good comics, just don't know how.

First Thoughts on the DC Relaunch: Part Two

Previously, I talked about the three most likely titles for me to pick up out of the DC relaunch. Let's keep going and get into more of a rant here. For those of you that like seeing me get frustrated at terrible comics, get some popcorn and enjoy the ride.

Batgirl #1- Well Barbara Gordon is finally gonna be Batgirl again. Somehow she's gonna walk again and be jumping off of rooftops. In a world where Bruce Wayne was folded in half and got to walk again, it always seemed funny that Barbara Gordon's one shot to the spine kept her in a wheelchair. Gail Simone is writing, so it should be well-written, and it's always refreshing to see a female character written by a talented female writer. I don't care for the artist.  It looks like Adam Hughes will be doing the covers, but with Adam Hughes on the outside, I don't feel good about the inside matching in aesthetic sensibility. That just pisses me off a little bit.  It's books like this one is shaping up to be that I'm glad most shops let you flip through a book before buying it.

Justice League #1 - Geoff Johns and Jim Lee and this is the book that is setting the stage for the entire relaunch. There's not a lot to determine quality based on the solicitation. However, we do get to see a first look at the costumes where everybody gets collars, even Wonder Woman, whose costume doesn't have shoulders, gets a choker that looks like it'll injure her throat if she looks down.  Green Lantern gets no redesign except for his collar, Flash gets some Lightning bolt elements. Superman's shield gets a major redesign, he gets a high collar, and the red trunks are gone. My opinion is that Superman doesn't look like Superman anymore but some guy that's pretending to be Superman. The biggest offense to me is Cyborg who looks like he was thrown in there to have a black guy on the team. I stand by my whitewashing comments and really think we'll see him thrown into the background. The Justice League doesn't need a scientist, they have Barry Allen. Gadgetry? You have Bruce Wayne. Technology? Superman has an entire Fortress filled with alien stuff from all over. Please excuse the rhetoric, but Cyborg is a super-token.

Suicide Squad #1 - A fellow member of Sketch Charlotte remarked about this cover on Facebook and my first thoughts were that someone saw all the cosplay girls dressing up as the Arkham Asylum version of Harley Quinn and wanted to see how far they would go. Harley's costume is entirely impractical but I'll agree that it needed reworking as when rendered in a naturalistic style, the original Bruce Timm costume doesn't translate well. When the Arkham version was sitting around and getting good fan response, why redesign it? The team consists of King Shark, an old Superboy villain from Hawaii, now apparently a hammerhead and Suicide Squad regular Deadshot, also redesigned, and you have a reprise of the team of villains that the government sends in because who cares if criminals die, and after all, why do we need to even worry about their civil rights? Seriously, the concept behind this title is one I stopped caring about somewhere around fifteen years ago, but that pretty much sums up my relationship with most superhero books.

To be continued….

First Thoughts on the DC Relaunch: Part One

Please keep in mind that any facts that I relate are not researched and may be completely wrong.

This September, DC Comics will relaunch all of its comics. Everything is cancelled including some comics that were really finding their legs, and some are relaunched with new number one issues as part of a 52 issue "relaunch," which includes new costumes for many DC Heroes, including Superman, designed by Jim Lee.

The concept of restarting all DC titles with new number one issues first was proposed following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, and has since been mentioned almost as a joke as sales figures reveal that number one issues sell better.  The only DC monthlies that I have been reading have been Legion of Super-Heroes, Adventure Comics and Zatanna. I'm disappointed that Zatanna is leaving, and that the legacy of Adventure Comics is gone. The Legion will have two titles, including one that strands some of them in the 20th century, because we haven't seen that before. Now just explain why a team that has history at its fingertips and regularly travels through time can't just go back and get them as they regularly did for two of its members in the past.

My first thoughts on the costume redesigns are comprehensively, why redesign? When this is part of a massive PR event, the impact of the redesigning of Superman's costume is lessened. The other iconic redesigns are minimal and serve only to say that everyone was redesigned so Superman is no big deal. You'll see them in the covers I post here, and I apologize for any broken images or links, since there is no way I'm hosting copies of these images on my web site. I'm going to start with the stuff I'm actually looking forward to and then skip around, depending on the order I come across the cover images.

 Batwoman #1 - Well, It's about damn time. This title is almost a year past its original solicitation and surprisingly, I still care. I was a fan of Greg Rucka's stories in Detective Comics last year and I may very well end up regularly buying this series regularly. Rucka really reformed the characters reason for existing beyond simply to have a lesbian super-hero and transformed her into a fleshed out character whose sexual orientation has little to nothing to do with what she does or why she does it.  My hope is that it's kept only loosely tied into the other Batman family books and given a chance to rise or fall on its own merits. J.H. Williams is a great artist and the fact that he's getting assistance on the writing gives me hope. As far as relaunch news goes, I'm actually pleased by this possibility

Legion Lost #1 - Yeah, I'll buy this. I'm a sucker where the Legion is concerned. Seven Legionnaires are stranded in the 20th century. For the record, this has been done before, back in the 90s when DC did the Final Night crossover, which was very well done in my opinion. My feeling is that they'll use this to fill the space-faring hole left by the cancellation of R.E.B.E.L.S., and not keep them all on Earth, especially considering that these are, with the exception of Timber Wolf and Tyroc, the most alien-looking members of the Legion.  For those of you not familiar with the members in the cover image, Clockwise from the top are Wildfire, Dawnstar, Timber Wolf, Gates, Tyroc, Chameleon Girl, and Tellus. Wildfire is an interesting choice, since part of his shtick is that he's an energy being that must have his containment suit to be able to function as a super-hero. He's constantly, getting it blown apart. In the 30th century, the Legion just runs him a new one, in the 20th century? Sorry, Wildfire, you're just gonna have to tag along and watch from the sidelines if you get your suit blown apart. Chameleon Girl is interesting too, as she's a reluctant super-hero, primarily a shape-shifting actress with little combat experience who is separated from her husband in this series. I like this idea, but the execution may leave it lacking for me as much of the past year of  the Legion has been doing.

Legion of Super-Heroes #1- I'll buy this for certain, again, I'm a sucker for the Legion, and this promises to be a straight continuation of the currently running series. From the cover and the solicitation from DC, several of the Legion Academy students are admitted to the Legion to make up for the loss of the seven members lost in the 20th century. Dragonwing is shown on the cover, and her powers are flashy enough to be interesting. What other students make the cut remains to be seen. What's sad in the broad context is that this will be the seventh series titled Legion of Super-Heroes, and the sixth first issue for this title, and fourof those six first issues are in the past 20 years. The artist for this series is slated to be Francis Portela, whose fill-in work has out-shown regular artist Yindray Cinar in my opinion. Portela doesn't skimp on backgrounds and has a great sense of anatomy and composition. His personal style is very fluid and organic with just enough cartoonish elements without being a caricature. I look forward to this one actually. That's more than can be said for some of the new series.

To be continued....