Comics Catch-up: Superior Spider-Man (What you need to know)

Welcome to Comics Catch-up! This feature helps to get you up to speed on some of the biggest books coming to the shelves. This week I'll be getting you ready for Superior Spider-Man #9!

Superior Spider-Man #9

As you've probably heard, Doctor Octopus is Spider-Man.

A few months ago Doctor Octopus swapped minds with the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker. Otto was placed into the body of Spider-Man and Peter into the dying body of his greatest enemy. Pete had only a few hours to live and had to move fast to defeat Ock. He escaped from Otto's prison cell and into one of his secret hideouts. He broke into Avengers tower with one of Ock's gold Octobots, which the villain used to complete the brain swap.

A final fight between Ock and Spidey took place, Parker tried to use the Octobot to get back into his body but failed. Ock was about to win, but Pete did all he could, he forced his memories into Octavius' brain and made him learn that with Great Power comes Great Responsibility. This supposedly turned Ock into a "hero". And with the Superior Spider-Man you should take the word "hero" very lightly.

Ock as Spider-Man

Although Peter Parker supposedly died in Ock's body, there was still hope for him, he was left as a "ghost" following Ock through his life, able to affect some of the former villain's actions. But he couldn't be heard or seen by anybody.

Since he became Spider-Man, Otto has brutalized most of the villains he's battled and killed Massacre, a man
who's killed hundreds.

Recently, Otto's been able to hear Peter's voice and has, obviously, been getting suspicious, And he's not the only one. The Avengers battled him and did a full brain scan on him to check what had suddenley happened to their team-mate. Ock thought he'd been found out andthis was game over for him, but to his suprise they didn't find anything wrong with him.



Otto kills Massacre

Looking over his brain patterns, Ock found an anomaly. This anomaly went by the name of Peter Parker. It was Pete who'd been found out, and Doc's preparing to get rid of him once and for all using the invention that allowed Ock to control his robotic arms
.

Get ready for a major story that's apparently going to make you angrier than when you read Amazing Spider-Man #700!

Superior Spider-Man #9 hits the shelves on May 1st, written by Dan Slot and with pencils and inks by Ryan Stegman. Also with colours by Edgar Delgado.

X-Men: Battle of the Atom announced at C2E2, scheduled for September.

Today is Marvel's X-Men panel at C2E2, they've got lots of announcements including Wolverine becoming killable and the cancellation  of the long running X-Factor series, but there's one that seems quite big. Battle of the Atom!

This is a ten part crossover in the X-books that takes place within two months, beginning in X-Men: Battle of the Atom #1 and running through the other X-Men books between September and October.

The storyline involves three teams of X-Men, the originals, the Uncanny and a team from the future led by Kitty Pride including Kate Bishop and Deadpool, supposedly, having a battle.

I've never been a major X-Men fan but I've been getting into the All-New X-Men series and this news seems pretty exciting.

Battle of the Atom will be written by Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron and Brian Wood.

Battle of the Atom artwork

Future Deadpool design.

Wolverine: Killable announced at C2E2.

Today at Marvel's X-Men panel at C2E2 a new arc in "Wolverine" called Killable. Written by Paul Cornell with art by Alan Davis the story starts in issue 7 of the series and will apparently take on a Western feel, with Sabertooth finding out and gathering super-villains to "kill the little runt". Sounds fun, not for Logan, I guess.

According to Marvel the conclusion will be a "major media moment" and will possibly echo a plotline in the new Wolverine movie.

Fans are already going out and saying that he's definitely going to die. This was actually a rumour that Bleeding Cool ran a while ago, and it seems they could be right.

Other announcements from the panel included Battle of the atom, starting in September and the cancelation of X-factor.

the cover to Wolverine #7, the start of the "killable" arc.

Interview: Joshua Hale Fialkov talks Alpha: Big Time, I Vampire, Ultimates and more!

CrimsonSquire: First off, Hi, Josh! Thanks for doing the interview!

We’re going to start off with some questions about one of your current books, I Vampire,

Now, the lead in your book, Andrew Bennet, isn’t an extremely well known character, does it feel more difficult to write a book about a character who’s not a household name?

I, vampire #19, the final issue in the series.

Joshua Hale Fialkov: It has it's pros and cons.  The mainstream superhero comic market is always somewhat resistant to books that don't have Bats or Spiders or Avengers on the covers, and I think that a mainstream superhero horror book is something that hasn't really broken through in thirty years or so, with the exception of maybe the Marvel Zombies stuff.  So from that standpoint it was a bit of an uphill battle.  But, the benefit is that people know less about these characters and their expectations are much less set in stone.

CS: With the series coming to a close soon, do you feel you’ve accomplished what you wanted to with these characters, or do you feel there are more stories you’d want to tell?

JHF: To some degree.  Once we knew we were cancelled, we'd already started a storyline that I didn't want to abandon, but, at the same time, didn't really have room for it and the ending.  But, y'know, even having any forknowledge at all is a lucky thing, and, I'm certainly proud of what we did in these last few issues, particularly in the final one.

CS: Do you feel more of a sense of creative freedom when writing a book like I vampire, considering there’s more to explore in that corner of the DCU?

JFH: Work for Hire comics are always that, work made for hire.  So, it's DC's book, just like Alpha is Marvel's book, or Echoes is my book.  So, there's going to be restrictions and guidelines you are expected to follow.  I think I, Vampire certainly flew under the radar frequently, but, there was still editorial oversight, like there always is.  Again, I think considering all of the things the book had against it from the jump, DC did stand by it, and we got to do a comic that at the very least is completely different from anything else in the New 52. 

CS: Josh, in a few months you’ll be taking on the writing duties on the Ultimates, is this an intimidating task, considering the history this title has?

Ultimate Comics Ultimates #25,
Fialkov's first issue.

JHF: I love being challenged, and Ultimates has definitely been one.  It's certainly the most iconic of the Ultimate books other than Spider-Man, and has a pretty rich history of great creators.  But, I can't really think about that.  I get to tell stories with some of my favorite versions of some of my favorite characters on a canvas that's far bigger than anything I could ever have hoped for.  Almost nothing is off the table, and in my first couple of issues, the status quo of both the team AND the Universe as a whole get tossed on their ear.

CS: Do you feel like you have more control over the Ultimates than other Marvel characters since they’re not part of the 616 universe?

JHF: Oh yeah, we get to have semi-regular conversations with EVERY one of the creators working in the universe, for a start.  So, we all know what each other are doing in far more detail than I think is even possible in the 616.  I like to think of the Ultimate Universe as a bit of the test kitchen for Marvel characters, too.  We get to really experiment and upend expectations in a way that's really liberating and exciting.  Honestly, it's been better than I ever could have dreamed.

CS: Do you take a different approach to writing characters that are household names like Thor compared to someone like Andrew Bennet?

JHF: To some degree, because established characters have more clearly established wants and goals driving them.  With Andrew, I pretty much kept the bulk of what JM DeMatteis had established, but, had a free hand to write the character from scratch.  Here, people know what Ultimate Thor or Ultimate Hulk or Ultimate Cap sound like, and how they think, so, you have to be true to that.

Hulk. With two Infinity Gauntlets.

CS: Is there anything you’re aloud to tease about your run on Ultimates?

JHF: Well, if Hulk with two infinity gauntlets isn't enough to bring you, I don't know what is.

CS: Onto some questions about one of your current books, Alpha: Big Time (which I’m really enjoying By the way!)

JHF: Thank you!

CS: Alpha started off his comic book life as a bit of a jerk, by the end of the series do you think Andy’ll become less jerky?

JHF: I dunno, the path from being a teenage jerk to being an adult not-jerk (or adult less-of-a-jerk) is a pretty long one.  I hope people understand him more by the end of the miniseries.

CS: Alpha: Big Time is over half way through it’s run, when it’s done do you think Alpha will still have a lot of story potential, any more that you’d like to write?

Alpha, Big time #5, the final issue.

JHF: Both Nuno and I are heartbroken that it's ending.  It's bar none the most fun I've had writing a book in so long.  He's so brash and foolish and self-centered, that it taps into all the worst parts of my personality (or, some would say, personality problem), so getting to exorcise that part of me is liberating in a very big way. 

CS: Andy’s obviously still learning to be a good superhero, how does it feel to tell the story of his journey?

JHF: My real background is in coming of age stories... If you look at, for example, ELK'S RUN or ECHOES, those are both stories about people growing up by the force of the circumstances around them.  This is very much in that vein.  And again, I spend so much of my time writing dark, twisted stories, that getting to tell something that's light and fun is really, really exciting.  Although, it gets pretty twisted before it's over. 

CS: In the last issue of the book, Andy developed a new power, or powers, Super senses. Can we expect this change to play a big part in the last two issues, and for Andy’s future?

Alpha, Big time #4. Guest starring Thor.

JHF: Oh yeah.  One of the big things Thomas Brennan and Steve Wacker tasked us with was really clearing up his powers and his purpose in the Marvel Universe.  So, the idea of giving him super senses to go with his other powers just seemed right for where he's going. 

CS: Can we expect anymore established Marvel characters in the book?

JHF: We've got more Superior Spider-Man, obviously, and, issue 4 has Thor show up to give Alpha some 'God to God-like powered teenager' advice.  It's awesome.  Verily awesome. 

CS: What can you tell us about the final two issues of the series? 

JHF: They're a really, really fun ride, and Nuno Plati is doing the work of his career on the book.  I really hope folks give it a look, cause, it's honestly one of my favorite things I've ever worked on

CS: Thanks, Josh!


I, Vampire #19 is out in stores now, Alpha: Big Time #4 is released May 8th and Josh Fialkov's run on Ultimate comics Ultimates starts with #25 in June.
You can also catch Josh on his website, thefialkov.com , and his twitter, @JoshFialkov .

DC Comics tease Cyborg Superman.

DC started a feature on their blog recently called "What's New in the New 52?", I talked about one of their first editions, the Joker's Daughter.

Today they put up a post teasing another pretty big pre-flashpoint character, the Cyborg Superman.

Here's the picture that DC posted, the New 52 re-design sketch by Kenneth Rocafort.

Here's what DC said on the post: "some of you might remember the last time a Cyborg Superman showed up . Would we dare revisit such a classic storyline? Hmmm. Well, never say never, right? As I've been telling you, all bets are off. Everything's on the table. 

Sorry to make your head explode on a Friday, but enjoy Kenneth Rocafort's lovely sketch in the meantime. We'll be in the conference room discussing... oh, never mind."" (That sketch is seen above, obviously)

Here's the link to the original article by DC, http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2013/04/26/whats-new-in-the-new-52-%E2%80%93-cyborgsuperman

Review: Justice League Dark #19

I haven't read much of this series since the first few issues, I've never been too keen on the magic and supernatural corner of the DCU, but I actually quite enjoyed this issue.

If you know enough about the backgrounds and personalities of these characters, and you want to start with this issue, it's not really that confusing, and is still quite enjoyable. Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes have done a great job on writing this issue, and have come up with an interesting plot. The story is great and different, obviously, to a lot of the mainstream DC books at the moment.

The art in this issue is also brilliant, Vincente Cifuentes does a great job of showing action scenes, and any crowd scenes in the book are done really well. He's also really good at drawing facial expressions.

I only have one problem with this issue, and that's that the cover is a little misleading, the Flash appears on two pages of the issue, and never comes face to face with the whole team. This, obviously, isn't really the immediate creative team's fault, as there were probably editorial changes between the cover being produced and the finished interiors.

All around, it's quite a good issue to read, and is very enjoyable, however, if you only bought this for the Flash you may be a little bit dissapointed.

Rating: 8/10

Review: FF #6

FF is one of the funniest and most enjoyable books you could produce, it's got amazing art, great writing, and the perculiar and unique comedy that this book is perfect at. That sentence sums up my thoughts of this comic completely and I could leave it at that, but I know that's not much of a review, so let me say some more.

Matt Fraction has managed to write a brilliant story in this book, and every issue manages to sum up who the character's are, which is NOT their counterparts on the original Fantastic Four team, and he shows this perfectly, and shows the public's reaction to this replacement team brilliantly.

He also adds in a lot of humour, which isn't something you see much of in recent comics. It's not usually straight-forward jokes, but the situations and characters are so different, weird and unique that it make sthe stoty funny. And the fact that the Baxter Building now officially has a Karaoke stage inside the Observatory on the roof is enough to give this issue a 10/10.

The art in this issue is by a stand-in artist, Joe Quinnones. The art style is very similar, and I'll be honest, I've had to update this review since it took me a few days to notice it wasn't Mike Allred. A lot of times a stand-in artist is seen as a bad thing, but Joe Quinnnone's art fits the style of the book really well, so it's definitely not a problem.

The creative team also aren't afraid to bring up topics that some people see as "difficult", and being able to include LGBT topics in a story is something a lot of creators can be too scared to do, but Matt Fraction and the stand-in artist, Joe Quinnones show it perfectly.

Overall, one of the best comics out this week, and one of the best series being produced in comics at the moment. Roll on the next issue!

Rating: 10/10!

You definitely need to buy this book!

Review: Fantastic Four #7

Warning, Spoilers!

I'd just like to start off by saying that Fantastic Four, as well as it's sister book, FF, is one of the most interesting books on the shelves. It's awesome to see Matt Fraction's take on the Galaxy, past and future of the Marvel Universe, and he manages to come up with some brilliant concepts, the idea to have the Fantastic Four see the birth and death of the Universe was great, and I've never seen that done with any characters before.

Basically, in this issue, the Fantastic Four travel to the end of everything, the Big Crunch. This was a great idea for a story, and I really enjoyed reading it, it's written smartly, and lives up to the excellent standard set by the first six issues of this series.

I'm also a big fan of Mark Bagley's artwork, he was one of the first artists whose work I saw when I was starting to get into comics, and I've loved it in everything I've seen it in. He manages to draw the alien species so well, and all of them look completely different, as they should.

The one page in this issue most, though, was the one of Valeria explaining why the Alien observers' plan would not work. It really sums up that character, shows that she's not to be underestimated and that she doesn't let being a kid get in the way of speaking her ideas to people.

The end of the issue was a great example of Matt Fraction's really intelligent writing, I know it's a little off topic but it ties perfectly to the ending of this week's "FF", I don't want to ruin it, but I'm sure you'll understand the onnection when you've read both of the issues.

All around, this is a fascinating and well written comic, with great artwork and an interesting plot. Another great issue by Fraction and Bagley!

Rating: 10/10!

Review: Teen Titans #19

Teen Titans #19 cover.

Teen Titans is a series that hasn't had the best comments from a lot of fans, but I've enjoyed it mostly since the beginning, and I disagree with most of the bad comments it's been getting. That said I did have one or two issues with this...issue, but we'll get onto those later.

Just to quickly sum up what's going on in this issue, Tim Drake has started taking his job more seriously, and isn't really treating the rest of the Teen Titans like equals, more like minions, and they're not taking it too well. They're getting quite suspicious of him, and very impatient with him, since he's barely told them anything about himself but they're risking their lives for his cause. I like that Lobdell is re-enforcing the fact that they aren't a fully formed team yet, and there are still very obvious problems between some of the members, and you would expect arguments between a team of super-powered teens.

I love Eddy Barrows' art on the book, he seems to portray the characters' emotions and movement styles just right. Although it's very different to the previous artist, Brett Booth's, art style which I was a big fan of, it's certainly up to the same standard and is pretty much excellent.

I like Scott Lobdell's writing, and he comes up with some good plots for this book, but I'm not too keen on some of the lines he gives the characters, and he seems to write teenagers quite stereotypically, with too many "like"s. Also, I'm not very keen on his use of thought bubbles, he uses them to explain things that have happened before but makes the characters speak in quite a patronising way for the audience.

My final problem is that you see Beast Boy in this issue, but it's set after the events of "The Ravagers" #12, which doesn't come out until next month, and it sort of spoils what happens in the final story in that book, pretty much revealing that Deathstroke's ruined the Ravagers, and pretty much everything's gone wrong.



Overall, it's a good issue, but I'm not keen on some of the aspects of the story, like how Lobdell writes teens.

Rating:
6/10

Thor: The Dark World trailer released.

Today, Marvel released the first Trailer for the second Thor film, "Thor: The Dark World". This movie comes after last year's Avengers movie, and, judging by what we've seen today, it looks pretty good.

So, what we can see from the trailer is Thor has returned to Earth, we're not too sure if his main montive was to see Jane Foster, or because he knew about the threat which I guess for now we'll call, "Darkness". He then goes back to Asgard, with Jane and we see a few battles, and Odin.

The end of trailer is the best part, I think, with the return of Loki, being recruited by Thor to fight this threat.

But did anybody else see BRITISH poilce at 0:42?

Thor: The Dark World is released later this year, starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Christopher Eccleston and Tom Hiddleston.

Bruce Wayne shall become a bat. Again.

This wednesday Batman, Incorporated #10 hits the shelves, Bruce's had it pretty rough in the past few issues, his son; Damian Wayne, Robin;  has died, he's become an outlaw in the city he's saved countless times, argued with his oldest friend, lost the trust of Commisioner Gordon and the crime-fighting organisation he's spent years building has gone underground and half of it's destroyed. So, yeah, he's probably gonna be a little bit ticked off.

Batman, obviously, wants to avenge his son and all his other falen allies, and he's going to be very, VERY desperate. Desperate enough to transform himself into a monster, perhaps, to get revenge on the evil mastermind who did all of this to him, the mother of his son, Talia al Ghul.

Well it seems that's the case judging by the gatefold cover of the issue, before you look at it, here's a bit of info you might want to know.

Leviathan, Talia's criminal organisation has been using the Man-bat serum, created by (you guessed it!) Man-Bat. It was used to tansform regular soldiers into deadly human/bat hybrids, obviously if this serum got into the hands of one of Leviathan's enemies it'd be pretty bad for them.

Oh...

Batman, Incorporated #10 cover. By Chris Burnham.

Boston Comic Con cancelled due to ongoing man-hunt.

Just a few minutes ago the Boston Comic Con twitter account sent out this tweet:

"ATTENTION: Boston Comic Con has been cancelled. We will try to reschedule for a later date. Thank you for your support & understanding."

This is obviously due to the ongoing man-hunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspect, the whole area is on Lockdown and that, obviously, would make it pretty much impossible for the convention to go ahead.

In case you don't know much info on why this man-hunt is happening, earlier this week two bombs exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Police managed to find two suspects. The police tracked them down, one suspect has been killed along with a 26 year old police officer. The second suspect is still on the loose, assumed to be armed and dangerous, and police have put most of Boston on lockdown to search for him.

Pesronally, I hope they find the murderer soon.

Update: the covention is due to be rescheduled to sometime later this year.

First "Thor: The Dark World" poster released, and it's photoshopped!

Today the first Thor: The Dark World poster was revealed, it looks pretty amazing, I mean, considering it's photoshopped.

Yes, this is an official poster, but it's just a photoshopped set image, but it looks pretty good compared to some film posters with a ton of production put into them.

Here's the poster:

Thor: The Dark World poster.

And what I said about it being good compared to some posters with lots of production, well, compare:

The Wolverine poster

Guardians of the Galaxy, set in the future of a different dimension?

Guardians of the Galaxy concept art.

Today, Bleeding Cool reported on a casting call for the upcoming Guardians of Galaxy movie, Reading through the list of requests including Amputees and Bald people, I noticed something interesting. Every description included a line reading "For new Marvel superhero film about a team of super heroes who protect the galaxy in the future of an alternate dimension".

Now, I know this was the case with the original Guardians of the Galaxy comics created in 1969, but I think a lot of people were under the impression this'd be set in the same time and universe as the Avengers films (also, pretty sure the current comics are set in the current 616 timeline ). Well, I guess it's not the case for the film.

I'm wondering if there's still anyway to get any Avengers involved, since that seems to be one of Marvel's biggest selling points for most of their films. But to be honest, if it's got an Avenger, most people WILL go and see it.

Here's the Bleeding Cool article I spotted it in: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/04/19/who-wants-to-be-in-guardians-of-the-galaxy-it-helps-if-youre-an-albino-bald-or-missing-a-limb/

By the way, didn't notice the bit at the bottom of their article, so it could be known news by now.

DC Comics tease... The Joker's Daughter?

DC have started a new feature on their blog called "What's new in the New 52?", the second edition went up today and they teased something rather interesting. The Joker's Daughter.

The only text DC posted reads, "Something evil lurks under Gotham City and it wears the Joker's face"

The Joker's daughter design, drawn by Brett Booth.

The original Joker's Daughter was Duela Dent, the daughter of Harvey Dent, A.K.A Two-Face. She, however, took on the name of the "Joker's Daughter". Her origin then got a bit more confusing, she was then the Daughter of the Earth-3 version of the Joker, the Jester, a hero on that world. She's worked with the Teen Titans a few times and was pretty much a good guy, I think.


So, what do you think of this? And what's the Joker going to do without his face? I mean it's pretty important...

I'm pretty sure this will  be in the main Batman book, by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, who have pretty much taken  charge of Joker in New 52, and have done a lot to do with what the city's really like, including how it was built and what's underneath it.

Here's DC's article: http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2013/04/18/whats-new-in-the-new-52-%E2%80%93-jokers-daughter

Review: Nightwing #19

Nightwing #19 cover, by Booth, Rapmund and Dalhouse

some SPOILERS below, be warned!

Let me just start off by saying that I loved this issue, I've enjoyed Kyle Higgins' run from the start, Love Brett Booth's art ( and with Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse, it's even better!) and Dick's one of my favourite characters. So this issue was pretty perfect.

Kyle Higgins' decision to send Nightwing to Chicago was a great idea, it gives the character a chance to shine without being in the shadow of the bat, and it's nice to see Nightwing as the only masked hero and not surrounded by all the other Bat-Characters.

It's also really fun to see Nightwing take easy care of the Chicago Police Department, who definitely seemed a bit unprepared for somebody like Dick Grayson.

Now onto the art, which I loved. This is the same art team as most of the first 16 issues of Teen Titans, which was one of my favourite New 52 books, mostly because of the art. Brett Booth has a really great style, he manages to capture Nighwing's movements just right, and seeing Nighwing's facial expressions in this issue, He also manages to show the emotions of the character well.

The Inks and Colours by Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse really add to Booth's art, they've become a bit of a team in the New 52, with a lot of Booth's work being inked and coloured by the pair.

My only problem with the issue is that the cover is a bit misleading, Nightwing and the Prankster never actually come face to face, and the villain only turns up in the last few pages. But this isn't a major problem.

Score: 9/10 !

Comics Catch up: Nightwing #19

Welcome to comics catch-up! In this feature I'll be getting you up to speed on what you need to know for some of this week's comics!

Today we're talking Nightwing!

Issue 19 of Nightwing hits the stands tomorrow, April 17. Written by Kyle Higgins and Pencilled by Brett Booth ( with inks and colours by Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse ), this issue takes Nightwing to a new enviroment for him, the city of Chicago.

So, here we go!

Dick recently became involved with a project to re-invent Haly's circus, his former home, in one of Gotham's abandoned areas, Amusement mile. He was setting it up with the daughter of the man who murdered his parents, Sonia Branch, who he soon became romantically involved with.

Dick was doing a good job setting up the new Amusement mile when tragedy struck, Tragedy in the form of a maniacal homocidal clown. The Joker.

The Joker burned Dick's plans to the ground, murdered his friend Jimmy, and ex-girlfriend/ traitor, Raya Vestri. He pushed the Bat-family away from eachother.

Dick was hated by some members of the circus and blamed for the death of Raya and Jimmy, as you can guess, he was in a pretty bad mood.

After the events of the Joker attack ( Death of the family), Dick nearly brutalised a group of men scavenging the Haly's corcus grounds for "trophies" from recent events. Dick was stopped by the son of Batman, and former Robin, Damian Wayne.

Dick managed to hunt down the man collecting these "trophies", the Dealer. He'd taken the Flying Graysons outfit of Dick's father, John Grayson. Dick was in the middle of getting the suit back from the Dealer, when a fire broke out in the building. There were people who were bidding for items in the building and they were trapped, Dick managed to save the people, but his father's suit burned.

After all of the tragedies in Dick's life something worse than anything else happened, Damian Wayne, effectively a little brother to Dick, died. Dick was in a terrible state, he felt utterly destroyed.

The final shock in Dick's life was something unvelievable for him. Tony Zucco, the man who killed his parents, was alive. Dick couldn't stay in Gotham any longer. He had to find him.

Dick has now moved to Chicago, a city without masked heroes, and where vigilantism is banned. He has one Nightwing suit and hardly any money.

As you can tell, these are tough times for Dick Grayson.

Nightwing 19 hits stands April 17, by Kyle Higgins and Brett Booth. with inks and colours by Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse.

Interview: Brett Booth on Comics, Nightwing and more!

CS: First off, Hi, Brett, thanks for doing the interview!

BB: You are most welcome!

CS: Brett, how does drawing a solo book like Nightwing compare to a team book such as Teen Titans or even crossover stories, like the Culling story?

BB: It's different. WAY more backgrounds! There are different tricks you need to do. In a team book you can use the other characters to create depth, in a solo you have to do it with backgrounds. The Culling was a bit different, that's a crossover kinda thing and that can get messy. So much in every panel, you just want it to end!;) With a solo you can focus on just the main character more, so he or she needs to look good!

CS: Is there any particular aspect of a character that you add or exaggerate when you're drawing Bat-related characters like Dick and Tim?

BB: Well, I try to make their agility pop. They are the more acrobatic characters so they move with more of a purpose. And Dick needs to reflect this even more than Tim. He needs to be agile yet graceful, flashy yet elegant. Hard to do right and I have plenty of scrapped pages to show this. It needs to be 'right'.

CS: How closely do you work with a writer when you're drawing a book? And do different writers control different amounts of the storytelling duties?

BB: It's different with every writer. Scott left me alone after some headbutting at the beginning. Took me a bit to figure out how to do the panels for him to show the story and not over panel the page. I usually call them up and talk to them if I want to move something around or tweak it. Most times they're game, anything to make the book look better!:)

CS: Now, onto some questions about your new book, Nightwing!

How does it feel to be joining the book in what seems like a new beginning for the character and the series? With Dick Grayson moving to Chicago after Gotham, and, I'm assuming, a new supporting cast.

BB: Well... MOSTLY new cast. It's both easier and harder. Now everyone has to be introduced and this can be a slow process. With the old city you could just drop a name and you knew who they were, now you have to explain everything. On the other hand I'm not stuck drawing to someone else's designs so more freedom

CS: I've noticed that your Nightwing costume is a little different to Eddy Barrows and Juan Jose Ryp's. Specifically the finger stripes, belt and neck. Were the small changes your idea?

BB: Kyle and I were talking and he mentioned the finger stripes. They couldn't figure out a way to do them with the new gauntlets. So I took a stab. After the stripes, we decided to see what else we could tweak and after a few designs we had something we liked. We were going to work up to the changes but our Editor said to just go for it, and we did.

CS: Is there anything specific you like to do for drawing Nightwing? Any specific research for his style of movement?

BB: Not really. Because you sort of have to pose him for what he's doing. Forcing him into some pose just 'cause I saw it doesn't quite work. He really needs to flow on the page but that needs to work with what he's doing

Nightwing Design, by Brett Booth. With added finger stripes!

CS: Now, you've drawn a lot of Nightwing for your weekly Sketch Saturday that you do on your twitter page, did drawing Nightwing in a book feel slightly easier than drawing a character you'd never drawn before?

BB: Yeah, because I already have a feel for him. With all those sketches, they serve a few different purposes, one is me getting a feel for a character. It usually takes me a few issue to get a proper feel for someone. This way I knew what I was doing right out of the block!

Sketch Saturday Nightwing, by Brett Booth

Sketch Saturday Nightwing, by Brett Booth

CS: How much research do you do before drawing a city? Is it harder to draw real cities than Fictional cities, and which do you prefer?

BB: It depends, if I have to do something specific I'll try and get some shots of what I need. Most cites look pretty much the same. Average person wouldn't know the difference if they were magically plopped into one. 

I prefer fictional, because I can make the city do exactly what I need it to do! And what's in my head is simply cooler;P

CS: Is it nice to still be working with the same inker and colourist, Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse, that you were on Teen Titans?

Nightwing print, by Booth, Rapmund and Dalhouse

BB: Yep! We're one crazy dysfunctional family! But we can count on each other to get stuff done!

CS: Can you say which issue you're on at the moment?

BB: Was in the home stretch of 21, but got pulled off to help on another book. So 21:)

Sneak peek at Nightwing #21, by Brett Booth

CS:  Is there anything you can tease for the upcoming arc in Nightwing?

BB: Nope;)

CS: A few more general questions here.

Now, you do a lot of costume designs for characters in the New 52, if you could re-design any of the existing characters who would you pick?

BB: Hmmmm.... not sure. Earth 2 Flash I think. I just don't like that helmet... I know, WW 1 but with all the changes on Earth2  that would have been a good one. I know I'm in the minority on that!

CS: are there any characters, from any company that you'd like to draw in a regular book?

BB: Besides Wally West and Ted Kord? Booster Gold! Cyclops from the X-men. He was may favorite character growing up!

CS: And one crazy question, if Dick Grayson was a fruit, what would he be?

BB:  Pineapple... Wait that's Ted Kord.... Blueberry

CS: Thanks again, Brett!

BB: Best!

Nightwing #19 is released on April 14, and is written by Kyle Higgins and pencilled by Brett Booth. With inks and colours by Norm Rapmund and Andrew Dalhouse.

You can also catch Brett on his blog, http://demonpuppy.blogspot.co.uk/ . And his twitter page, https://twitter.com/Demonpuppy .

Batman Fights for family and Lives for love! Wait, what?

Well, if you're a little confused by the title, don't worry. You're not the only one.

Basically, the other day ABC Family put up a trailer for their showing of Batman Begins, in which they ruined  Batman Begins. For everybody. Forever.
  

Yeah, you hear them right. "He fights for Family, and lives for love". Now, that wasn't a good trailer, they've sort of messed up the point of the film, and I'll never watch the film the same way again. But let's look at that statement for a moment. And yes, that's a que for an analysis.
So if you don't want to hear an analysis, well....
Oh, well, hear we go anyway.

"He fights for family"

So, I'm going to look at this, now. I think it might technically be true...
Thomas and Martha, the most important members of the Wayne family, to Bruce at least, I think. They were killed in front of Bruce, think we all know that, after they died, he started the path to being Batman, and fighting crime.
Dead family.
Fighting crime.
Fights for family?
Fights because of his family, pretty sure "Fights for family"... might actually work.
Also, in the comics, I can see Batman carrying on fighting because of the latest death in his family, Damian Wayne, his son.
So, yeah, he sort of Fights for family.

"He lives for love"
Okay, we all know Bruce Wayne's had his fair share of Girlfriend's but that's not what I'm focusing on. The love of the city, the love of his ( remaining ) family, the love I guess Thomas and Martha would be feeling for him, in whichever after-death state you believe in. I think that's what keeps him going, the love of the people he cares about. I think it's what keeps him alive.
So, maybe he "lives for love" a bit too. Just maybe


So, ABC family were... sort of right, I guess. I know they didn't mean any of it like that, but if you really pick it apart, it works.

But that trailer still ruins Batman Begins for me.

- Harry, CrimsonSquire

So, who managed to get 700 free Marvel comics?

You might remember a couple of months ago Marvel dropped the news that they were giving away 700 free issues. This was a pretty massive new, and, yes, I was a bit excited . Well maybe some more than  a bit, but who doesn't love free comics?


But, basically, it didn't work. It was a pretty good idea on Marvel's part but Comixology wasn't quite ready. So; imagine a sea of angry and impatient comic book fans all racing to their computers and tearing through the internet to one single web-page. Yup, the web page can't take it and, basically, the whole site crashes.

So, while we were all living in a free comics-less wasteland called the internet, people over social media started to think "was that REALLY a good idea, Marvel?" Probably followed by some useless faces or hashtags you have to think ages about to work out... Anyway, back to the point, Marvel started to think  about what to do. After a month or two, A sign up turned up, you could sign up and Comixology would e -mail you when they were ready to put up the books.

This is obviously better than  no comics at all, the problem was, if you didn't sign up quickly, you couldn't get the free comics.

Luckily, I managed to sign up in time and got, well, a lot of them. (700 of 720, in fact)
But anyway, did you manage to get free comics or did you forget after it broke the first time?

- Harry, CrimsonSquire

Welcome!

So then, welcome to Crimson Squire Comics, my new blog about the world of comic books.

You could've seen me in two places, most likely my Twitter account, @CrimsonSquire. And if you're very lucky you might spot me doing some occasional posts on my Comicvine.Com account, also CrimsonSquire ( Well, I say lucky...).
So, I'm going to talk about pretty much just about comic books, maybe some film or TV things though.
So, thanks for visiting the new blog, hope you stick around and keep reading!
-Crimson Squire ( Or, Harry)