I missed a few weeks, so this edition of the Doomino Effect is going to be jam-packed with weeks-old books, but I’ll put the new stuff first.

I sat down to read last week’s comics at McDonald’s with DeLuise last Wednesday. We had just come from the shop with fresh comics in hand. I decided I wanted to start with Superman #686, the first issue of Mon-El subbing for Superman. I read the first page, in which bystanders on the streets of Metropolis go through the “It’s a bird, it’s a plane” thing. I told DeLuise I didn’t even want to read it anymore. He said “Let me guess — next page is a splash page of Mon-El.” Well, duh.

There is something quite fundamental about this situation that puzzles me. The people of Earth (or just Metropolis? Can’t remember) banned all Kryptonians except for Superman. The reason? The superpowered Kryptonians posed a threat to them, but Superman had earned their trust, so it was okay for him to stay. So Superman acknowledges this trust by defecting from Earth to join New Krypton (even if it’s just a ruse) and leaving a super-powered stranger in his place, who, as far as Earthlings know, might as well be a Kryptonian.

How would this work? The whole functional premise behind this is that Earthlings only trust Superman when it comes to Kryptonians. If I’m an Earthling, I’m not so sure that the distinction between Kryptonians and Daxamites would effectively be anything more than a semantic argument — they’re still super-powered flying people that I don’t know and I don’t trust. Superman could very easily say “Hey, it’s cool, Mon-El is someone you can depend on,” except for the fact that Superman just publicly defected from Earth to join the people that the Earthlings don’t trust.
(more…)

Sorry I dropped the ball last week, folks. Things have been confusing in Doominator land, between work, allergies and night classes, last Sunday ended up a catch-up day - and not, unfortunately, a Doomkopf one.

So let’s start. Remember. You give me something to sum up in a sentence, to varying degrees of success and seriousness.

This week’s questions come from the ever-hungover Doom DeLuise

1. Who is Xorn? Not Magneto, either. The actual Xorn.

(more…)

Plot itself: Cyclops’ elite force of murderers is hunting Cable and the messiah child through time. They land in a future with Deadpool and some sinking feelings. In the meantime, Bishop, the guy who came back to warn the X-Men of a traitor only to himself become a traitor, strikes a deal with an all-too-familiar face.

My thoughts: Well first of all, it was a quagmire to get this issue. Though I live in a fairly large city, there are only a handful of comic stores. My store dropped the ball and forgot to pull this for me. So that kind of sucks, because I had to go on a goose chase and ended up finding it at a chain bookstore with a creaky-ass rack.

So, that said, was the chase worth it? Kind of maybe I guessish? Everyone else is absolutely right. This is a rehash of X-Men in the year’s passed. Days of the Present Past if you will. Spoilers after the jump.
(more…)

Comic artist Bob Hall (Batman, Avengers) is having a gallery show on Friday, April 3 at the Project Room at 1410 O St. in Lincoln. Some of his comic book work from the nineties will be on display on Saturdays throughout April. Bob will be at the Project Room on First Friday at around 6:30 doing sketches as well.

For more information on Bob, check out his website at bobhall.com and for more information on the Project Room, visit projectroom.us.

So I may have snoozed my way through Stump the Doominator this week (it’ll be back next Sunday) but that doesn’t mean I’m skimping on the Book of Doom. The pickings were a little thin this week, and I refuse to read another Bat-book. But the second part of the Messiah trilogy is upon us, and I do love me some X-Men … even if the core books aren’t involved. But anyway, here we go …

Marvel Comics

(W) Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost
(A) Mike Choi & Sonia Oback

The X-Men event of the decade. The birth of a single mutant child forever changed the landscape of the X-Universe. Some see the baby as the last hope for mutankind’s survival; others see it as the bringer of the Apocalypse. No one knows which side is right because Cyclops handed the newborn over to Cable, believing his son could save both the child and mutantkind. But Cable never came back. Now, months later, Cyclops has found his son hiding in the future… and he’s sending in the one team that will do what needs to be done in order to ensure the survival of their species: X-Force.

FC, 48pg $3.99
Item Code: JAN092540

I’m sick. This sucked. Take ‘er away, boys.

Doom Fritter:

If the recession has hit, nobody told Marvel or DC. They keep pumping out more and more titles with little regard to the cropped and controlled distribution of the early decade. I mean, honestly, good for them. They’re apparently doing very well at the moment. I just hope that this boom isn’t crushed by another near-bankruptcy.

The latest on the stack of comics nobody asked for (which includes Fantastic Force and the blue-laser-Superman (I just saw that today wtf?)) is Azrael, who replaced Batman for a time in the early-ninties. The book itself wasn’t too bad, which is a pretty high compliment for a wallet-sucking tangential mini-series.

The story of Michael Lane taking on the mantle of Azrael was suitably dramatic, and the man behind the mask has a rather charged personality which helps make good storytelling. Even so, it wasn’t clear as to why a group would recruit a violent psychotic who admitted to helping kill the Batman for an “opportunity to serve the public good.” The only thing I can think of is that he desires some kind of redemption over something. Killing his family? I don’t know; it was pretty ambiguous.

Another thing that wasn’t very clear was the storytelling itself. It got murky at times, especially toward the ending fight scene, and the reveal was spoiled when all I could think of was “where’d he get the mask?”

Despite its flaws, some of the pacing came off quite well, and the style of the art itself is actually pretty interesting, like ink and watercolor or marker. The colors work well for the mood of the story.

If you’re down with this whole “Battle for the Cowl” thing, you would probably be well-served to pick this up. If not, well, you’ve probably already passed this one by. I mean, it’s Azrael. Who cares?

Doominator: (more…)

Andy Diggle just confirmed on twitter what had been rumored since Joe Quesada accidentally slipped last week — Diggle will take over Daredevil with the renumbered issue #501.

I have mixed feelings on this. The only Diggle work I’ve ever read was Green Arrow: Year One, and while it started strong, I ended up hating it. Throughout the course of my reviews, “GAYO” became the refrain for Diggle’s campy writing and comedically common use of ridiculous coincidences to drive the plot. But the guy is clearly doing something right, as Marvel has signed him to an exclusive deal and his work on Thunderbolts seems pretty highly regarded. So I’m willing to give it a chance.

In his latest Cup O’ Joe column today, Joe Quesada got a little nostalgic about the book: (more…)

[SFX: Intro Music]

DOOM DELUISE: Hello and welcome to the latest Podcast of Doom. I’m your co-host Doom DeLuise, and with me as usual is my fellow co-host Jim Doom. What’s on your mind, Jimmy? Can I call you Jimmy?

JIM DOOM: So I don’t know about you, but I’ve been on a steady course of not being very excited about comics anymore. I bought two today. In fairness, I would’ve bought three, but you took the last X-Factor.

[sound of audience saying, "oooh," in unison]

I wonder if there isn’t a direct relationship between how much extra money I have to throw around and how much I enjoy my comics. When the first variable declines, I become a little more aware of how much joy I’m getting per dollar spent. So that direct relationship is based on an indirect one, that sees scrutiny of entertainment cost effectiveness rise as enjoyment falls. I should make a graph.

I remember back in the early days of grad school when I was working two jobs, taking in a monthly stipend and living in a $300 apartment. I would buy like 10-12 books a week. And I thought comics were awesome.

DOOM DELUISE: I remember back when I was making a [bleep]-ton of money, and I lived in an apartment that was costing me $175 a month with all utilities paid, I was buying about thirty to forty dollars worth of comics a week, and I probably hated most of what I was reading, but I still felt really excited to sit down every week and tackle my new pile. I haven’t felt that way in a long time.

Now that I’m only buying two to three issues a week, I’m finding that I’m not even getting through all of them until my Tuesday afternoon crap.

[sound of audience laughter] (more…)

Jeffrey Brown inhabits that corner of comics that goes straight for the life tales, eschewing spandex for flannel, and never settling into the overwrought. In books like “Unlikely” and “Clumsy,” he showed a warts-and-all sentimentality about relationships. His writing and art have matured over the years since he started, and it’s obvious in seeing his newer works. It’s gone from relationship-focused to life-encompassing, and even campy and ridiculous, as seen in certain backup stories in “Feeble Attempts.”

This summer, he’s got a new book on the horizon, and is enjoying being “past” the days when all his stories were about love or lack there-of. I started my request by telling Jeffrey my secret identity, and then my codename, which I referred to as “dorky.” I thought I was in good hands when he said, “Thanks! I don’t think ‘Doominator’ is all that dorky …”
(more…)

After being one of the (few) shining moments as The Comedian in Watchmen, Jeffery Dean Morgan is looking to capitalize on his newly minted fame. So how do you follow up a revered Vertigo adaptation? Why, with another revered Vertigo adaptation, natch. According to a tweet by Andy Diggle, Morgan is “a lock” for The Losers, which starts filming this summer.

While Diggle doesn’t mention Morgan’s role, it seems likely that he’d take on the role of Max, the series’s enigmatic villain (pictured), though I could see him as Clay, the Harrison-Ford–style team leader, too. Either way, as a fan of The Losers, and now a fan of a Morgan, it’s more than reason enough to start getting excited about the intense, politically-tinged action-thriller.