The Nerdy Bird Adores - The Brave and the Bold #16

The Brave and the Bold has been a hit or miss book with me. Some have been so great (Supergirl & Lobo) while others (Superman & Ultraman) have not. I'm bound to like it when Batman is teamed up with anyone but this past week they lured me in with another favorite. Catwoman. I'm such a sucker.

"I can hear you."

Sometimes I forget Catwoman used to be a hooker (well, depending on who you ask). That is until she talks about Superman like this, "It's always the bad boys with me. Maybe just this once I should consider a Boy Scout. It's not like I'm going to break him. Despite my very best efforts. Mmmm." Wow, Catwoman just made me blush. The Brave and the Bold has been said to exist "in a really nice apartment right next to continuity," so I guess that's how they get away with it seeming like this is the first time she's run into Superman. 

"Where are the wigs?"

Against his better judgement Superman decides to go undercover with Catwoman at a high-price auction where a map to Clayface's protoplasmic pool is being sold. Of course before they do anything they must find disguises. Catwoman thinks he's doing a lousy job of it and whips an outfit together that is an exact recreation of his usual Clark Kent get-up. It was pretty great to see him bumbling around like usual and her thinking it was an act.

"SMAK"

With barely any effort at all a vial of the pool is back in the hands of the good guys and a few partially Clay-mated bad guys are rounded up and handed over to the authorities.  Catwoman had so much fun she suggests doing it again, next time in Metropolis with Poison Ivy. Superman can't say no enough but asks, "She's the one who dresses just in leaves?" Yep. That'll be a double-no from the Boy Scout. Hrmph. Batman would've said yes.

Nerdy News

A few blog-worthy bits of Nerdy News today...

Via AintItCool.com we have this lovely Watchmen cover from this weeks Entertainment Weekly. Likely one of the many that will be appearing between now and when it's released in 2009, this one in particular seems to be filled with nerdy bits. Star Trek, Terminator and more!? I'm sold. Here is the link to the article itself online with some other pictures.

Of course your Watchmen fix could not be complete without seeing the first trailer which Apple posted today. I haven't watched it yet actually, I'm waiting until I see it in theaters before The Dark Knight this weekend.

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Once again, The Sun has solidified it's foothold as one of the most dedicated media outlets in the world. They've discovered our sweet, charming Black Canary has dabbled in S&M. I know, I know, it's tough to hear. Personally, I'm holding back tears. Not our Dinah!

They're actually reporting that the Christian Voice has an issue with this new Black Canary doll. She's part of Mattel's fall line of collector edition Barbie's that also include Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman and some REALLY creepy baby dolls of Batman and Catwoman. 

"Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far," the Christian Voice said, "A children's doll in sexually suggestive clothing is irresponsible - it's filth." 

Sigh. Where are the days of innocent Malibu Barbie? Oh wait, we all know how well THAT turned out.

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And last, but not least, it is my pleasure to inform you that a geek-filled show from Britain is about to be available in the U.S. Oh yeah, I'm talking about Spaced.

I remembered seeing it was going on-sale months ago but completely forgot about it until Freakgirl and Geekboy reminded me today. I was turned on to Spaced this year by my boyfriend and a few other friends who told me I'd love it. I'm usually hesitant when people push something on me like that but I eventually gave in and...I loved it of course. 

It's a fairly simple comedy, starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson (Hynes) about a girl and a guy who pretend do be seeing each other in order to get an apartment. Throw in a few crazy neighbors, two best friends and almost non-stop geek references and you've got yourself a winner. There were two seasons but they are both on this version coming out Tuesday. 

If you've never seen the show, do yourself a favor and just buy it. I can't give you a money-back guarantee but I'm pretty confident in saying you'd be making a fine purchase. But if that's not good enough you can get your look at the series on BBC America starting July 21 at 3 a.m. Ok, you might have to DVR those, you're not all night owls like me.

DC Comics at the NY Comic Con - One Liners Galore

"How many people here want to know what's going on in the DC Universe?" That question was posed by Sr. VP/Executive Editor of DC Comics Dan Didio at the start of Friday's "DC Nation" panel of the NY Comic Con. It was met with a decent amount of applause and lots of laughter when some of the DC editors raised their hands. After two DC panels I'm still in the dark about what's going on in Supergirl but at least I now know lots of new and exciting things about to happen in the DCU. Here's some news from both.

Gail Simone filled us in on what's coming up in Wonder Woman. "Some of the best scientists in the entire world have the mathematical formula to take down Wonder Woman, so we're going to create a new Rogues Gallery for her," she said. As if that wasn't scary enough she followed it up with this, "Someone believes the Amazons are a failed experiment and is going to create their own Amazons. However, we are going to have a new Wonder Woman -- who is a man." No one in the audience knew quite how to respond to that so Didio asked if we liked their working title of The Manazons. It was a resounding no from the audience. One fan yelled out, "It sounds like a drag show!" Here's hoping it doesn't stick.

Peter Tomasi and Geoff Johns

Senior Coordinating Editor Jann Jones has been working hard on comics aimed at kids. She introduced a new six issue mini-series on the way called Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade. "We have a real commitment to taking our characters and making them really accessible to young kids," said Didio. And yes, 8th grade Supergirl will have a super cat.

The subject turned to the new Blue Beetle. After the crowd hollered that most of them read it, Didio admitted it is one of their weaker sales but, "one of the books that has the most support right now." Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler announced something different that would be happening in May. "Blue Beetle #26 is actually entirely in Spanish with English script in the back of the book," he said. Sadler and Didio said it is a good spot to jump on board. Blue Beetle is one of my favorite books so I was concerned about it's sales. At the second panel I decided I'd ask a question to see if I could help things along. Basically, I figured most people who weren't reading the book were big fans of Ted Kord and were still sour over his death during Countdown to Infinite Crisis. I stated that fans could still see him in recent issues of Booster Gold and asked if he was sticking around for good. "I can't tell you that," said Geoff Johns. What can I say? I gave it a shot. Speaking of Booster Gold Johns said that in issue one-million, "We find out who Rip Hunter is."

Of course the panel would finally get around to discussing Batman R.I.P. When asked directly by a fan if Batman was going to die, Didio put it to the panel. Keep in mind, most of their answers were in jest so there's no way to tell if they were telling the truth. Though by process of elimination one of them has to be right, right? Here were their varying answers:

Ian Sattler - "Someday."

Peter Tomasi - "Mmm could be?"

Geoff Johns - "Uh, no."

Sean McKeever - "Absolutely yes."

Jimmy Palmiotti - "Twice."

Gail Simone - "Of course."

Keith Giffen - "God willing."

Bob Wayne - "Not in a movie year!"

Jann Jones - "Mostly?"

Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones and Gail Simone

During the second panel the writer of Batman R.I.P., Grant Morrison, got a chance to speak. Didio asked him what that stood for and Morrison replied, "'Rest In Piece' apparently -- but he doesn't." Morrison sounded excited that this would be the culmination of all his Batman work. "Basically if you miss this one, you miss your chance to say goodbye," he said.

Geoff Johns announced that in the JSA Annual in July, called "Welcome to Earth-2", Power Girl finds herself back home there. Jimmy Palmiotti then announced some of the biggest news of the day. He and Justin Gray will be working on a new on-going series with art by Amanda Connor called Powergirl. "It's one of the books we've been asked for the most," said Didio, "I'd just like to say, we heard you. We just wanted to get the right team, the right style and the right jump-off point." Hooray for Powergirl!

About forty-minutes into the first panel and numerous questions being directed at Geoff Johns he finally decided to say, "You know what's weird, is that most people call me 'Geoff Johns' instead of Geoff." That didn't stop the fans, they kept calling him by his full name. Though one younger fan finally just said Geoff, with emphasis.

Gail Simone, Geoff Johns and Stephan Roux

In the second DC panel, just before she had to leave, Gail Simone delivered what was probably my favorite news all weekend. "We are doing a new Secret Six, ongoing," she announced. She anticipated us asking who the six would be, "Catman, Deadshot, Scandal, Ragdoll -- an A-list Batman villain -- and a new character that I've created with Nicola [Scott]." She revealed the new characters name is Jeanette and she has a secret that even the Secret Six do not know. She added, "It is going to be literally, the most ballsy DCU comic out there and it's going to be done by two redheaded women. So how cool is that?" Pretty cool if you ask me.

I was saddened to learn that Catwoman is getting canceled. A fan said he heard a rumor online and Didio confirmed it saying, "Catwoman is canceled, but that doesn't mean you won't be seeing the character in the DC Universe. By the next day of course news of the books demise had spread and by the time the second panel rolled around there was one very angry female fan who go up to demand an explanation. "I heard you're canceling Catwoman and I'm pretty pissed off about it. I just wanna know what's gonna happen to her," she said. Ian Sattler fielded this one, "She'll be in the Batman universe." But she quickly replied, "That's not good enough." She left unsatisfied with their answers and scared the panel so badly Didio felt the need to ask the next fan to, "Please be nice to us."

For the record, I did ask about Supergirl after my Blue Beetle question. I asked them what was going on, because I had no clue. Ian Sattler told me to hang tight, "Supergirl is gonna be a lot closer linked to Superman and Action shortly." Johns decided to add, "Supergirl is gonna be intricate, the character in the book is intricate to all the Superman plans for the rest of the year."  He continued to say she was an important character to the DCU, "We've got a story that's gonna kinda tilt her on her head but in a good way." I'm happy to hear that obviously because I think Supergirl deserves a lot more attention than she's gotten lately. But did you notice none of them actually told me what's going on right now in Supergirl? Nothing to do but wait I guess.

Grant Morrison

I think a good place to end would be with the fan who asked if Zatanna would be showing up anytime soon. After a few jokes about how she was sitting in the front row, i.e. me, Didio replied, "Reign in Hell and possibly something with Paul Dini coming very soon." Sounds good to me.

I'm 'Super'confused

Kara Zor-El! You go straight to your room and don't you dare come out until your series starts making some sense!

I've tried my best to stick with the latest run of Supergirl. I really have. She's is one of my all-time favorite super-heroes. This is me in Kindergarten.

But when Supergirl starts promising little boys with brain cancer that they aren't going to die, I draw the line.

Like I said, I love Supergirl, but this Kelley Puckett run is really trying my patience. Number 26, which I just read, made marginally more sense than the last three issues. That doesn't mean a lot considering the last three issues made no sense at all. Page upon page of little or no dialogue, traveling to other dimensions and, oddly enough, coming up with ANOTHER origin for Kara. How do you do that? More to the point, how do other people LET you do that? One of the previews actually said, "Confused?" Yes! Yes, I am! And I'm pretty sure everyone who has stuck with this book (all ten of us) is too. So please stop wasting time making us scratch our heads and start getting to the heart of the matter. Soon would be nice.

The only good part of this run so far has been Batman's pitch-perfect cameo in the first issue.

Supergirl: Look, I've been on this planet like, two years, right? The only person I've ever met who's weird enough to come up with something like this...is you?

Batman: I'll take that as a compliment.

Also, I'm not usually very picky about the art in a book, but I'm really beginning to wonder here. The little boy with brain cancer (Thomas) she was saving in Metropolis looked like he was about to cop a feel instead of hug her. I actually thought she might have become a little bit narcoleptic in this issue too.

I'm sticking with it because I'm a sap for Supergirl but for heavens sake start giving us some answers. I'll happily be proved wrong if there really is going to be something important coming from this story line eventually. But from what I've seen so far, there isn't. I'd much rather they scrap this and let her series be intertwined with Countdown for the time being but it's probably too late for that anyway.

If you're good Kara, I'll bring you a cookie later.