Friday, October 30, 2015

Supergirl S01:E01

Jason Book and I discuss the pilot episode of Supergirl, on CBS.


Jason was disappointed with a few aspects of the show but liked it overall. I was forgiving of some of the special effects and was pretty thrilled with the rest of it. Melissa Benoist is great and they have set up lots of interesting story points and relationships that can be explored into the future.

Here is our video from earlier in 2015 with our original anticipations for the series.

Top 5 Batman Costumes

The Halloween season has gotten Jason Book and I thinking about our five favorite Batman costumes. In the past we've listed our favorite Superman costumes, and as with that list, we focused on comic books rather than movies or television.


Here is our list (in no particular order):
  • Neal Adams blue cape and cowl
  • New 52
  • Gotham by Gaslight
  • Batman Beyond (okay, it started on tv but moved to the comics)
  • Alex Ross Justice

Monday, October 26, 2015

Batman 45: Full arrival of Mr. Bloom

Jason Book and I discuss the most recent issue of Batman, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo.


Another strong issue shows Gordon teaming up nicely with his mech-suit, Bruce having some restlessness (even though it was pretty great how he reclaimed the debris from Endgame), and the full arrival of Mr. Bloom on the final pages.

Friday, October 23, 2015

The Flash S02:E01-02

Jason Book and I discuss the start to season 2 of The Flash, airing on the CW.


Overall, we feel the show is continuing well from season 1 and maintaining its streak of high quality, with a good blend of action and character moments.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Justice League 44: Darkseid War escalates

Jason Book and I discuss the September chapter of the Darkseid War in Justice League #44, by Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok.


In short, this arc continues to be really good! This issue contains what will probably end up being the heart of the physical fight between Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor. Batman and Green Lantern also explore a bit of Anti-Monitor's origin, and Kalibak and Grail have some sibling issues.

Monday, October 12, 2015

DC Sales Stabilize in September

Following Convergence in Spring 2015, DC Comics initiated a soft relaunch with the DCYou initiative. In the main ongoing titles, the New 52 continuity was maintained but several new titles were introduced with their own separate continuities and the overall editorial position became one geared more toward story freedom and title integrity rather than a tight interlocking universe. They also continued their move toward more diversity in the overall line of books, which seems to be working in terms of bringing in diverse readers, though it might take some time to see the strategy pay sales dividends.

As I covered before, the DCYou launch and its associated marketing push led to a bit of a dip in sales rather than a boost. But there were positive underlying signs related to readership and quality indicators. Now, Diamond has released the September 2015 sales numbers and I think things are looking okay for DCYou. Here are some observations:
  • A significant portion of Marvel's success relative to DC stems from its Star Wars titles rather than its mainline Marvel universe. In a sense, there are two big players (Marvel and DC) and two mid-sized players (Star Wars and Image), though certainly the success of Star Wars feeds Marvel from a business perspective.
  • DC only posted 34 books in the Top 100, whereas they usually post between 35-45 on that chart (37 in August, 34 in July, 44 in June). A slight piece of silver lining is that 19 of the 34 DC books were in the Top 50 (up from 18 in August).
    • Marvel: 57 in the Top 100, with the 4 Star Wars books posting in the Top 11.
    • On a personal note, I was happy to see all 4 of the Superman books posting in the Top 50, with an average Diamond index (i.e., metrics relative to sales of Batman) of 34.16 (similar to the 35.0 in August). But this is down from late summer 2014, when the same four Superman books averaged 46.8. Perhaps the new take on Superman has not panned out as DC had hoped.
  • DC maintained a 26% market share for retail and 26% share for units (25|27 in August, 24|24 in July, 28|25 in June). Retail, of course, is the more important of those numbers and so 26% is a fairly good number, down only relative to the June numbers in the last 4 months, and June was boosted by a flurry of #1's with the DCYou.
    • Marvel: 33% retail and 38% units in September, benefiting from the continuing Secret Wars event and those 4 Star Wars books in the Top 11.
  • Continuing a recent trend, DC fared well on the trade paperback / graphic novel side of the market. DC had 5 graphic novels in the Top 10.
    • Marvel had 0 graphic novels in the Top 10.
Two of the new books that I have really enjoyed are Prez and The Omega Men. Both are politically a bit risky but, I think, very well done. The Omega Men has been a critical hit, but was nearly canceled after its first arc. Luckily, the fans spoke out and DC agreed to continue the series for at least 12 issues. I hope Prez is able to continue, as well.

Superman 44: First day without a secret identity

Jason Book and I discuss Superman #44, written by Gene Yang with pencils by John Romita Jr, published by DC Comics.


Overall, we enjoyed this issue, which wraps up the "Before Truth" story arc that precedes the other "Truth" stories that have already been printed in Action Comics, Batman Superman, and Superman Wonder Woman. This issue explains a bit of Perry's hard feelings toward Clark, which has surfaced in other books, and also ties in with the Divergence Free Comic Book Day preview where we saw Lois and Clark interacting at a hotel. The art is still not good, but somehow I've gotten used to it over the past year.

We've also covered previous issues in the arc.

Friday, October 9, 2015

Gotham S02:E01-02

Jason Book and I discuss the first two episodes of Season 2 ("Rise of the Villains") of Gotham, airing on Fox.