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There are a couple of interesting ideas indicated in these panels, but maybe the most interesting (to me, at least) is the idea of Ralph and Sue Dibny being on the same “team” of the person who raped Sue – Dr. Light.  The only thing I could think of that could be worse would be having the woman who killed Sue – Jean Loring – as a Black Lantern.

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

New York Daily News had the scoop.

“The original Captain America is finally coming back,” Marvel Comics editor in chief Joe Quesada told the Daily News. “We’ve been patiently planning for this moment for 21/2 years.”

The rest of the article is a basic rehash of what we already know. Cap died two and a half years ago, major uproar, Reborn will be five issues, yadda yadda yadda. You can read the article here.

I’m sure this is good news for most fans, but I’m actually pretty disappointed. The death of Steve Rogers was such a major move that I think it needs to stick awhile longer. We’ve seen some great stories about what the loss of Steve meant to his friends and enemies, and there’s still alot of ground that could be covered. Not to mention that this does a huge disservice to Bucky, who had just seemingly gotten comfortable in his own skin and the Captain America uniform. The article doesn’t mention what will happen to Mr. Barnes, by the way.

It doesn’t really matter what I think, though. Marvel’s going to do what they’re going to do. I just hope they can make the story of Steve Rogers’ return as good as the story of his death.

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Here’s a cool little blast from my past. Artist Brent Engstrom designed a mashup of the Endless from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and the Garbage Pail Kids from my youth.

Check out Engstrom’s blog for more cool artwork!

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

So… meet Harper, our new evil overlord

Don’t let his cute tininess fool you… he is FIERCE!

Anyway, while I’m paying tribute to the new ruler of our galaxy, I’ll be on hiatus.  Try not to miss me too much and I’ll be back as soon as I can.

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

This one is almost as great as Scott Kurtz’s “My Parents Are Dead!” comic from a few years ago.

Batman jokes are never not funny, people!

Not by Scott Kurtz, but still hilarious

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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First things first – Here thar be spoilers.

You have been warned.

For those who are just joining us, here’s where things stand: Everyone thinks Batman (Bruce Wayne) is dead.  Two-Face and The Penguin are at war to rule the streets.  A new Black Mask has shown up, sprung pretty much every other member of Batman’s Rogues Gallery, blown up Arkham Asylum, and implanted explosives into the criminals to make them work for him in his bid to wipe out Two-Face, Penguin, and anyone else who gets in his way.

Meanwhile – Tim Drake (Robin), Dick Grayson (Nightwing), and Barbara Gordon (Oracle) have recruited pretty much everyone they have ever worked with into a network to protect Gotham City.  Jason Todd has taken to dressing up as Batman and killing criminals.  Though he doesn’t agree with Jason’s methods, Tim agrees that there needs to be a Batman and thinks that Dick is the one to take on the mantle, but Dick refuses.  Last issue, Tim decided that if Dick wouldn’t be Batman, he would and went after Jason, only to get beat down and stabbed with a Batarang.  Damien (Wayne) is running around being his normal douchey self until he gets beat down by Killer Croc and Poison Ivy and Dick has to rescue him.

And that’s all you really need to know up to this point.

In this issue, Dick finds Jason’s hideout via a transponder chip planted in Tim’s batsuit.  From his inner monologue, we find out that Dick hasn’t been refusing to take on the Cowl because of fear, but because Bruce’s last message to him was a request for him to let Batman rest.  Dick, however, is coming to the realization that Nightwing and Robin aren’t enough – Gotham needs the symbol of the Bat.

When Dick arrives, Jason has moved Tim and refuses to tell Dick where he is, only insisting that Tim is dead.  Dick reveals that he knows about Bruce’s final message to Jason – a plea for Jason to find help with his issues and apology for not helping him a long time ago – and figures that’s what drove Jason to overcompensate by going all murderous vigilante.  Not really seeing how that compensates for being psycho, but I’ve never had my brains bashed in by a dude in clown makeup.  Dick may be onto something, though, because Jason throws a fit, sets off a bomb in the hideout, and escapes.

Tim, however, isn’t dead.  The kevlar lining in his batsuit fractured the batarang and he effectively possum to buy himself some time to recover.  All that recover may have been for nothing, though, when the bomb goes off.  Luckily for Tim, Damien has recovered from his injuries and teamed up with Squire to catch up with Dick and offer support.  They never do catch up to Dick, but they are able to save Tim from being buried in rubble.

Dick escapes the explosion and catches up with Jason for a final battle on a speeding subway train.  Dick tries to get Jason to turn himself in and get help, but when does that ever happen?  When it’s apparent that Jason has lost the fight, he promises that he’ll see Dick “sooner than [Dick] think[s]” and drops off into the abyss.

In the final scene, we see the new Batman’s inner monologue accepting his place as Batman.   The obvious guess for who is wearing the cowl is Dick, but we never see his face and, since that Robin is obviously Damien, Batman could just as easily be Tim.

Nonetheless, I’m fairly certain that Dick is now Batman, Tim is now Red Robin, Damien is Robin, and Jason Todd is the new Black Mask – who has run off Two-Face and Penguin, solidifying his place as Gotham’s top crime lord.

…at least until Bruce comes back to become Batman again and Joker clocks Jason with a crowbar one more time.

Really, there is no way that this series could have lived up to the hype, and I’m not sure I’ll ever accept anyone but Bruce Wayne wearing the cape and cowl, but I’m not going to call this a disappointment.  The series did its job of serving as a transition between RIP and the next chapter of the Batman mythos.

I would have much preferred that there be no need for this miniseries, because I love me some Bruce Wayne, but I’m pretty much over that now.  Besides, Bruce will come back eventually

I’m also not crazy about Jason being the big villain of this whole thing – I’m ready for some Jason Todd redemption – but we can’t always get what we want, can we?

Nonetheless, Tony S Daniels did a pretty damn good job here.  If you’re a Batman fan, I recommend picking all of the Battle For The Cowl issues and one-shots if possible, or at least grabbing the trade when it finally comes out.

[Edit: In a recent interview with Newsarama, Tony S Daniel confirmed that Dick is now Batman, so that speculation can now end.]

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Via Whedon.info, we now have the official synopsis for the second season of Dollhouse:

CAROLINE (Dushku) – code name “Echo” – is an “Active,” a member of a highly illegal and underground group of individuals who have had their personalities wiped clean so they can be imprinted with any number of new personas. Hired by the wealthy, powerful and connected, the Actives don’t just perform their hired roles, they wholly become – with mind, personality and physiology – whomever the client wants or needs them to be. Whether imprinted to be a lover, an assassin, a corporate negotiator or a best friend, the Actives know no other life than the specific engagements they are in at that time.

Confined between missions to a secret facility known as the “Dollhouse,” Echo and the other Actives, including SIERRA (Dichen Lachman) and VICTOR (Enver Gjokaj), are assigned engagements by ADELLE DEWITT (Olivia Williams), one of the Dollhouse’s leaders. After each scenario, Echo, always under the watchful eye of her handler, turned head-of security, BOYD LANGTON (Harry Lennix), returns to the mysterious Dollhouse where her thoughts, feelings, experiences and knowledge are erased by TOPHER BRINK (Fran Kranz), the Dollhouse’s genius programmer. Echo enters the next scenario with no memory of before – or does she ? – as she seemingly begins to remember her original memories and slowly pieces together her mysterious past.

Former FBI Agent PAUL BALLARD (Tahmoh Penikett) determined to solve the mystery of the DOLLHOUSE and find the missing Caroline, accomplished his goal in the first season finale and was convinced (or was it coerced ?) to become Echo’s new handler. DOLLHOUSE revolves around Echo’s blossoming self-awareness and her desire to discover her true identity. But with each new engagement, comes a new memory and increased danger inside and outside the Dollhouse.

DOLLHOUSE is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. The series was created by Joss Whedon, who directed the pilot and serves as executive producer and writer. Liz Craft, Sarah Fain and David Solomon are co-executive producers, and Eliza Dushku serves as a producer.

So we now know that Ballard didn’t join up to be an Active, but rather to be Echo’s new handler and to keep an eye on her. I’ve also been hearing rumors that Miracle Laurie will be back as Mellie/November/Whatever her real name is, so I wonder what’s up with that. And Alan Tudyk almost has to be back as Alpha, right?

I know I’ve been a little too caught up in TV and movie news lately, but I’ve been slacking on the comics reading. We’ll get back to the written stuff soon, I promise.

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Fox has already spent the good will they gained from bringing back Dollhouse for a second season by canceling Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, according to “sources”.

The general consensus seems to be that TSCC was the superior show among Fox’s Friday Night offerings, but I never really could get into it, no matter what night it was shown.

The bright spot, in my opinion? River Tam is now free to play the previously unseen active known as “Golf”. You may want to snicker at her name, but then she’d kick you in the face without you ever seeing it coming.

Of course, neither of these announcements will officially be made until tomorrow morning, with Fox’s Fall lineup announcement, but they both seem pretty certain, along with Chuck’s return for thirteen more episodes.

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.

The way Chris Hemsworth got the part of Thor is one of those great Hollywood backstories that happens only once in a blue moon. Ward had found Chris during one of the manager’s many scouting trips to Australia. Ward brought him to Los Angeles and really put him out there to casting directors and production executives. As for the major agencies, I hear CAA passed on the meeting, Endeavor took it but passed on repping him, and ICM was interested but dragged their feet. But Eileen Feldman got his appeal immediately.

Chris had read for the part of Thor but wasn’t given a test because a casting director had nixed him early on. I’m told Chris’ younger brother Liam (who’s also a ROAR client) then tested for the role of Thor, but Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige passed. Then, after a conversation with Ward (”You’ve got to reconsider Chris, he’s your guy”), Feige decided to let Chris read again. And once Marvel put him on tape, it was “Oh my god”. Branagh came to town last week and saw the Chris test and made the final casting decision today.

To be fair to Hemsworth, he’s not totally unknown – you may have seen him as George Kirk in JJ Abram’s Star Trek reboot and he was recently cast in the Red Dawn remake.

I haven’t seen Star Trek, though, and I’ve never heard of this dude, so I’ll just have to hope that he’s good.

In celebration and hope, I give you Thor, God of Metal!

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©2009 For The Love of Comics. All Rights Reserved.