Superman guides us through the New 52 - O.M.A.C.

You know what doesn't make me mad?

Another installment of Superman guiding us through the New 52, that's what!

And since we just happen to have a picture of Superman duking it out with OMAC up top, we might as well talk about O.M.A.C. #1 by Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen.

When I first heard they were bringing this title back, my first thought was "Really? With DiDio writing?" Then I saw that Keith Giffen was on pencils and plots and all is right with the world. After reading this issue, I'm glad to say that not only is everything right with the world, it's even better!

This issue scratched the Kirby itch in a big way, that not even Morrison was able to do during his Final Crisis saga. It's an unapologetic homage to the mad-cap craziness that was Kirby at DC during the early 70's. The fact that they were able to work a "Build-A-Friend" into the first issue was just the icing on the cake. For those of you unaware, that's one of those flying bathtub ladies from the cover of the original OMAC #1.

As much fun as the story was, it wouldn't have been half as entertaining without the fantastic pencils of Keith Giffen. I've been a fan of his style for a long time, but I haven't had this much fun with the energy and dynamism (is that a word?) of his stuff since his early Defenders.


All in all, if DC can manage to make the rest of their fringe and bottom-tier titles half as entertaining as this one, they just might be on to something with this whole reboot thing.

Script by Len Wein
Pencils by George Perez
Inks by Pablo Marcos
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by John Costanza

DC Comics Presents #61
The Once And Future War!
September 1983
Copyright (c) DC Comics

and

Story by Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen
Pencils by Keith Giffen
Inks by Scott Koblish
Colors by Hi-Fi
Letters by Travis Lanham

O.M.A.C. (Vol. 2) #1
Office Management Amidst Chaos
November 2011
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Famous' Firsts - George Perez

As promised at the beginning of last month, we'll be spending the next couple of our Famous' Firsts posts looking at the first time each of the creators involved in the DC New 52 initiative first got their pencil or typewriter involved with the Man of Steel.

Today's entry features the mighty talent of George Perez!

Now this will actually be the second time that George Perez has made a high-profile entry into the Superman line, with the first being the helming of Action Comics when it returned to a monthly after its stint as Action Comics Weekly. For whatever reason, his time on the title never panned out, and he left the title with the potential for a great run never realized. Here's hoping the second time doesn't set a pattern.

That wasn't however, the first time George Perez got the chance to draw Superman. For that, we have to go back another eight years or so to some of Perez' earliest DC work in the pages of Justice League of America #185.


In looking at that panel, you can definitely see the beginning of the George Perez style. The funny thing is, however, is that I see it in the rubble and background more than with Superman himself!

George Perez is definitely famous for his massive crowd shots and dense illustration, but hands down, he's the best rubble illustrator in the business...and he's got three decades of work to prove it.

Script by Gerry Conway
Pencils by George Perez
Inks by Frank McLaughin
Colors by Gene D'Angelo
Letters by Todd Klein

Justice League of America #185
Crisis On Apokolips or Darkseid Rising!
December 1980
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The Future of Superman

So we're going to take a break from our daily grind of exploring Superman's varied history to take a trip to the future.

The future?

Yes dear readers, the future!

Now, unless your internet has been living under a rock for the last week, you've undoubtedly heard about DC relaunching their entire universe in a little over three months time. For the first time in 25 years we'll be getting a Superman #1, and for the first time in 73 years we'll be getting an Action Comics #1!

DC has finally graced us with some official announcements, so let's take a look and see what we've got.

ACTION COMICS #1

Written by GRANT MORRISON

Art by RAGS MORALES and RICK BRYANT

Cover by RAGS MORALES

Variant cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS

On sale SEPTEMBER 7 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T

The one and only Grant Morrison (ALL-STAR SUPERMAN) returns to Superman, joined by sensational artist Rags Morales (IDENTITY CRISIS), to bring you tales of The Man of Steel unlike any you’ve ever read! This extra-sized debut issue is the cornerstone of the entire DC Universe! This momentous first issue will set in motion the history of the DC Universe as Superman defends a world that doesn’t trust their first Super Hero.

So all week long there was a couple of rumors floating around, one of which was Grant Morrison taking control of the original and longest running superhero title. I tried not to get my hopes up, but to actually see the rumor pan out makes me pleased to no end. He's one of the true modern masters who isn't afraid to tell a challenging and complicated story, and I welcome someone with his vision to dig a little deeper into the character of Superman. His ambition sometimes outweighs the execution (or, to be fair, the audience's patience), but his reverence for the character is well known, and I look forward to reading his Action Comics.

His partner in crime for the relaunch is Rags Morales, and I've been a big fan of his since I saw his work on Black Condor for DC. It's one of my favorite books from the 90's, and I've gladly followed him from series to series. His run on Hawkman and Identity Crisis were a couple of exceptionally strong showings. Unfortunately, I've been slightly underwhelmed with his sporadic work since then. Looking at the promotional image above, however, has put any fears to rest. The man's an artist of the highest caliber, and I truly hope we're looking at a new high-point for him.

Now, the promotional copy released is not 100% specific, but it looks like this title will (at least initially) be covering the history/origin of Superman. Between Birthright, One Year Later, Secret Origin, and Earth One...that's probably the last thing I wanted to see revisited. But it's a new world, so I guess it's inevitable and it has to start somewhere. The fact that they're making Superman the first super-hero again makes me happy. After Grant Morrison's wonderful four panel origin story for Superman back in All-Star Superman, I actually find myself intrigued to see what he can do when he expands upon that idea a little.

Hideout X-1, we barely got a chance to know you.

SUPERMAN #1

Written by GEORGE PEREZ

Breakdowns and cover by GEORGE PEREZ

Art by JESUS MERINO

On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

The new adventures of Superman begin here! What is The Man of Steel’s startling new status quo? How does it affect Lois Lane and The Daily Planet? There’s no time for answers now, because Superman must stop a monstrous threat to Metropolis – one that he somehow is the cause of!

There was another rumor floating around that George Perez was coming back to the Superman titles, both writing and drawing. This one was about 3/5 right, as Perez is writing and providing breakdowns for Superman #1. Now this guy's a major talent whose been building on his legacy since the mid 70's. That's not to say that this particular announcement didn't give me a little pause, but let me explain.

I'll take an artist of Perez' talent on the Superman books all day long, but I worry about the consistency. To say that Superman fans have been getting the short shrift for the last four or five years is an understatement. If we haven't been waiting months on end for creators to tell a story in a monthly book, we've had to endure years (yes, years) of Superman books without Superman in it! It's gotten to the point now that I just want a Superman book with Superman in it...consistently.

Perez has definitely had his issues over the last decade with being able to turn out a monthly product. To see that he's only providing breakdowns is a big sigh of relief. I'm looking forward to reading his stories, as his run on Wonder Woman was epic in it's scope. Will lightning strike twice? We shall see.

What really made me smile about this announcement was with who was handling the other half of the art, Jesus Merino! He's obviously no stranger to Superman, as he's been doing the odd fill-in on Action Comics over the last couple of months. His time with Superman actually spans back farther than that, as he was Carlos Pacheco's inker when the pair did stories in Superman Batman and Superman. I've been a fan of these two since Avengers Forever, but I never realized how much influence he had on their collaboration until Pacheco left for Marvel and Merino stayed with DC. Pacheco's pencils, in my opinion, have suffered under different inkers, while Merino has really impressed me doing both pencils and inks. To see that he's been rewarded with relaunching Superman's titular series has me tickled. This was actually what I was hoping would happen, but I figured it never would. It's always nice to be proven wrong every once in a while.

Rounding out the Superman Family of books are another relaunch of a Superboy and Supergirl title. By my count, this is the fifth go-around for each of these characters.

SUPERBOY #1

Written by SCOTT LOBDELL

Art by RB SILVA and ROB LEAN

Cover by ERIC CANETE

On sale SEPTEMBER 14 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

They thought he was just an experiment – and a failed one at that! Grown from a combination of Kryptonian and human DNA, the Clone was no more than a set of data to the scientists of Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. But when the scope of his stunning powers was revealed, he became a deadly weapon! Now the question is: Can a clone develop a conscience?


SUPERGIRL #1

Written by MICHAEL GREEN and MIKE JOHNSON

Art and cover by MAHMUD ASRAR

On sale SEPTEMBER 21 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Meet Supergirl. She’s got the unpredictable behavior of a teenager, the same powers as Superman – and none of his affection for the people of Earth. So don’t piss her off!

Since I basically just got two Superman books, both written with my personal tastes in mind, I'm ready to roll with the punches on these two. And with these final two solicits, there's some good and bad so let's break it down.

THE GOOD

• R.B. Silva! This guy blew me away on the Jimmy Olsen co-feature. To see that he's still with DC and still in the Superman stable is great, and definitely makes the loss of Nick Spencer sting a little less.


• Likewise, Mahmud Asrar on Supergirl is a great score. He's a rising star and it's good to see DC trusting him with a major relaunch title.


• Eric Canete on anything makes me happy. Even if it's just one Superboy cover, I'll take it. At least we know the DC editors have his number, let's hope they keep utilizing him.

THE BAD

• Are we really getting angry/indifferent Supergirl back again? I'm not sure how I feel about that, but the solicit is vague enough that I'm not that worried yet.


• Scott Lobdell. I read enough of his work for Marvel during the 90's that I could probably live without ever reading another. Alas, he's got three titles in the reboot, so that's not going to happen.


• Green & Johnson wrote some average stories for Superman Batman, so I'll give 'em another chance, but I'm not initially wowed.


• Supergirl's costume I generally like, except for the bare knees. Unfortunately, they are what draws my eye every time I look at it.

A little more bad than good, but like I said, as long as they can get the books out consistently they're going to get a lot of slack from me.

Copyright (c) DC Comics

Once around the old rumor mill

So the word is someone may be coming back?

I'll see how the rumor plays out before I put any official comments into writing, but I will say my first reaction was "Whoa!"

Script by George Perez
Breakdowns by George Perez
Finished Art by Brett Breeding
Colors by Glenn Whitmore
Letters by Bill Oakley

Action Comics #643
Superman On Earth
July 1989
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Ten Days of Action Comics #6

We're quickly approaching Wednesday, and with it the release of Action Comics #900. Like we did for most of last week, we're taking a look at all of the centennial anniversary issues of Action. Up today is issue #600!


Like yesterday's issue #500, this one feels very anniversary-ish...what with the gold statue and all.

Readers of my other blog, The Random Longbox, may remember that I took an in depth look at this issue last year. Click on over here, here, and here if you need more than one panel of Superman excellence today,.

And readers of this blog have come to expect a Superman vs. Dinosaurs themed posting today, to which I apologize and promise the Sunday versus posts will resume next week. In the meantime, if you squint really hard and look at the cover for today, you can almost imagine that Superman is fighting a pterodactyl instead of Mat-Bat. Almost.

Pencils by John Byrne, George Perez, Kurt Schaffenberger, Dick Giordano, Curt Swan, Mike Mignola
Inks by George Perez, Jerry Ordway, John Beatty, Murphy Anderson, Mike Mignola

Action Comics #600
May 1988
Copyright (c) DC Comics