This week, Cartoon Network stops showing these shorts in two parts contained within one half hour block and just shows one ten minute short in a fifteen minute block. It’s weird, I know. Cartoons.

Here’s how “Ghost Boy” is described:

Beast Boy pretends to be a ghost haunting Starfire so she will do his bidding. When she figures out the ruse, she and the other Titans convince him that he’s actually dead.

I look forward to your thoughts, opinions, gripes, live-blogging, etc.

Comics artist Luke Pearson made his debut back in 2010 doing short stories for various UK anthologies like Solipsistic Pop and Ferocious Quarterly, doing work which reminds me of a young Tove Jansson or perhaps Jason but a more sophisticated design sense. Pearson was very prodigious in 2012, doing these shorts as well as some webcomics and an excellent early series of music-themed strips for the now-defunct London alternative newspaper The Stool Pigeon. At the end of 2010 Pearson self-published his own ongoing strip series Hildafolk that reads like a European folk tale as retold by Hayao Miyazaki. That excellent work caught the notice of the upstart UK press NoBrow in 2011, leading Pearson to contribute to that publisher’s yearly anthology of the same name and later publish two follow-ups with Hilda, Hilda & The Midnight Giant and Hilda & The Bird Parade in 2012.

Pearson’s gone on to do more shorts for various anthologies like Secret Prison and illustrations for magazines and covers, but his Hilda series has become his signature work — and for good reason. Like a European country-side version of Jeff Smith’s Bone, the three Hilda volumes are energetic and innocent.

Here’s some examples of Pearson’s work in the three years he’s been a professional artist, so check them out and then consider going out and catching up on his work in print.

Boy, that sure sounds familiar…

Anyway, here’s the trailer. I can’t wait to see this one!

The Wolverine hits theaters July 26, 2013.

When is “old school” just…old?

This question has been lingering in my mind all weekend, informing many a conversation regarding the latest Star Trek movie, our associated podcast, and quite a few rushed emails.

A bit of context: I have always considered myself an old-school fan of Star Trek. I grew up watching reruns of original series as a kid with my brother and dad every night, and saw the movies as they came out in the theaters starting with the first one. I’ve seen every episode of every season at least once, and have been to more conventions than I care to admit. I even auditioned as a marine in Enterprise, a role I lost to what looked like a real, actual marine.

So, I know Star Trek.

[pause]

So what?

Star Trek Into Darkness, it has to be said, is a fun film. The cast is super solid, the character moments are really entertaining, it’s well paced, the special effects are awesome, the ship looks bad-ass, and it’s really great to see Earth in the 23rd century. It also has to be said that the film is a mash-up of “Space Seed” and Wrath of Khan and is, quite possibly, the most frustrating Star Trek film in history.

Basically, if you were not a Star Trek fan, you probably, quite rightly, enjoyed the film. If you are a fan, your feelings are probably a bit more complicated. I am not going to go over that struggle—Conor, Paul and I did that for almost an hour in the podcast. (And then for 20 more minutes after we finished the show that I wish was recorded.) This article comes from what happened after I recorded that show, after seeing the film a second time (3D and Dolby Atmos, both recommended) and after a lot of soul-searching.

Star Trek Into Darkness marks the beginning of a very important generational transition for fandom, one that I am sure has happened before, but perhaps never explicitly discussed before the Internet age.

It marks the moment that older fans like myself realized that the newer generation’s interests have truly supplanted ours.

So what if Into Darkness re-shoots one of the most pivotal moments in Star Trek history? No one cares, old man! There is a huge community of moviegoers who are walking out of that movie right now who couldn’t care less—they did not grow up on Star Trek and do not give a shit that we did. Our precious qualms about Kirk and Spock “deserving” that moment?  Whatever.

Hate to break it to you, grandpa–Superman flies now.

These kinds of transitions happen all the time, of course—musical taste being probably the most obvious example. I remember feeling slightly irritated about how irritated I was getting with modern music, until some kind of age/taste membrane just broke and I just didn’t care anymore.

But this is different. This is my youth, this is my mythology, this is the universe and the family of characters that taught me how to be the person I am today. Star Trek is a huge part of who I am, and helped me think about complex issues at a relatively young age, helped me understand humanity, even though I was completely oblivious at the time and just stoked to see the Kirk and team shooting phasers at really creepy flying sucker-mouth aliens.

In other words: the past.

Being a Star Trek fan, has been, historically, an ongoing conversation between generations of fans because there has been a TV series that has tied us all together, either through re-runs or new broadcasts. There was a Star Trek episode on every week, if not every day, and each show was an opportunity for new and old viewers alike to continue that conversation. Yes, episodes are available on disc and online, but that kind of on-demand viewing is all about the individual experience, which is great and fine, but if it comes at the expense of the shows being just out there, I think it changes the dynamic a bit. When you have to work a bit to watch a show, the relationship you have with the show and the characters becomes a bit more substantive, and makes being a fan a bit more work, thereby strengthening the community.

I talked to a friend of mine at a BBQ this weekend and I asked him if he saw Into Darkness and he said, “Yeah, but I hadn’t seen the first one,” and I replied, “Oh, you haven’t seen Wrath of Khan?” and he replied, “No, the other Star Trek that came out a few years ago.”

We continued talking and I found out that he hadn’t watched anything Star Trek, ever.

And right then and there, it didn’t matter that I was an “old school” fan. I was just some old guy complaining about how this cool new film ripped off some other old film that my friend hasn’t seen and didn’t care about anyway.

Star Trek Into Darkness is not an homage to “Space Seed” and Wrath of Khan. It’s a film that takes moments from that classic episode and that fantastic movie and tells a new story, for a new generation of fans who have no idea who Ricardo Montalban was and who probably will only see the movie once and will probably see the third (and last) Abrams Star Trek movie and get on with their lives.

Which is fine—it has to be. My love of Trek, my desire to go back, week after week, to this cast and their wonderful ship, to go out and explore, week after week, is just that: my desire, a desire deeply rooted in the past, rooted from the fierce belief that Star Trek is, at its core, a necessary television show, the kind of series that if you randomly turn on the TV one Saturday afternoon and find that it is on, smile broadly and sit down and watch the damn show, commercials and all, because that episode means something to you.

I am lucky, in a way. I can do that with a ton of Star Trek episodes.

(I just wrote that sentence and imagined myself in an old folks’ home, shushing other old farts to be quiet so I can “watch my show, dammit, it’s my turn this week!”)

Today is different. The mantle has been passed.

Of course, this mantle of fandom is passed from generation to generation all the time. Look at comics. My frustration with the modern Superman’s personality is shrugged off by younger readers who enjoy Kal-El’s new slightly snotty attitude. I used to watch Japanese animation on rented VHS tapes in the 80s, now anime is a huge part of popular fan culture with fans dressing up in characters I’ve got zero relationship with — it’s been a very long time since I’ve bumped into a Lynn Minmay or Shogo Yuhagi at a convention! I completely missed the boat on the new Doctor Who. And, of course, there will be more Star Wars — which will be, clearly, a new generation’s series of movies.

This is a great time to be alive—one in which we can argue about the merits of a new Star Trek movie and fret about upcoming Star Wars films. It’s a time of enormous change and transition, and for everything we gain, there are things that we lose.

Case in point, the Kirk/Spock scene in Into Darkness. I get that, for some, it is an homage to an earlier time. I guess what is lost in this homage is the emotional honesty that permeated the original scene in Wrath of Khan. When Spock died, that was it. We did not know, as we did going into the movie last Thursday night, that there would be another Star Trek film. When we left that theater, we were truly bummed. Spock was dead. A friendship that had been with us for decades was over. I remember arguing with my friends over and over again, trying to come up with ways to bring Spock back to life. We had to live with that loss for years before Nimoy was convinced to come back and Star Trek III was announced and then finally released. That sadness was true, it was real. It was grounded in the shared time and experience we had with the characters, that the characters had with each other.

The scene in Into Darkness took all of those feelings and exploited them, laying that gut wrenching sadness on top of this new scene, and it just wasn’t fair. On the podcast Conor said it right: that scene wasn’t earned. For old school fans—it wasn’t right, it wasn’t true. This universe’s Kirk and Spock have only been around each other for a few years, and from just a pure audience’s point of a view, for less than a few hours, if that!

For everyone else: it was sad for a few minutes and then the Tribble and the everything all worked out fine. Good or bad, that’s the new way it went.

However, this is not only about old moments getting copied and pasted into a new stories with a quick “find/replace”.

One last point, my last point, the most important point: at the end of the day, Star Trek Into Darkness was supposed to be, finally, our movie, our expression of what Star Trek meant. This was the opportunity for my generation to finally make our Star Trek movie, free of Shatner, free of Picard, free to make what we had to make, leveraging our experiences, our fears, our desires, our wisdom to make a Star Trek film that would forever mark the time that we owned the legacy. The transition was made in 2009, the hand-off from past to present completed, just as it had been done fifteen years earlier in Star Trek: Generations, when Picard and Kirk worked together. In 2009′s Star Trek, Spock Prime and Kirk Pine met, both Spocks had their scene…and it was done. And now, this movie, Into Darkness, what does it do? Instead of doing it’s own thing, it goes back and uses story lines from the original TV series, and the best Trek movie, and brings Nimoy back!

It was time to cut the cord and, instead, we went back into the womb. We did not “boldly go” — we retreated to the comfortable, we retreated to the sure bet.

We did not make the leap.

This is personal for me because I feel like I blew it, somehow. This sounds ridiculous, but Star Trek is one of the reasons I am an actor and honestly, a part of me truly feels like I didn’t work hard enough to be a part of this effort, that I didn’t make a chance to audition, I didn’t make a chance to look at the story, I wasn’t a part of it at all, and I desperately wish I could have been so I could have raised my hand and just said something. So, in a very real way, this is film is not only about my being frustrated with the movie and the folks who made it, but with myself for not being in a place professionally to have been able to do something about it, and that, in a way, my time to make a difference has come…and gone. And if as an actor I was unable to make a difference for something that I care so much about, I find myself wondering if, as a fan, I am no longer relevant.

Star Trek, at its core, is the expression of a generation, a treatise on what our society values and where we dream of going as a species. Star Trek Into Darkness, is a fun movie-going experience, filled with great moments, thanks to one of the best casts to have ever been a part of the franchise (Chris Pine is insanely good), and I wish, from the bottom of my heart, that this was not a movie series but an ongoing TV series that would just go on — there’s just so much potential. But it’s not a TV series and will never be. It is a an entertaining movie that, at the end of the day, fails to live up to the legacy it so brazenly exploits. It is not what it needed to be: a modern day Star Trek. Unlike the best episodes of the series and films, Into Darkness does not express my generation’s yearning to understand ourselves and our humanity. It does not celebrate our thirst for exploration nor does it underscore the challenges we must overcome to fulfill the promise of our shared potential.

The next movie could very well do that — I truly hope it does.

It has to. It’s Star Trek.

Mike Romo is an actor in Los Angeles. He’s back to giving the film 3.5 stars and hopes he can be part of the iFanboy Heist Crew again.

Josh Flanagan says try…

The Bounce #1

 By Joe Casey and David Messina

I’ll be among the first to declare that I’ve maybe had enough of the continual reinvention of the superhero trope. However, I’ll also be the first to declare that if there’s anyone allowed to still do it, it’s Joe Casey. The guy knows superheroes, and their history, and their memes and standards, and I think, in his darkest heart, he loves them, in his way. Like Sex, Casey is taking another foray in the world of costumed crusaders, and I have no idea what to make of this one yet, other than the trust that I have in Casey’s past work.

Conor Kilpatrick says try…

Uncanny Avengers #8AU

By Rick Remender, Gerry Duggan, Adam Kubert, & Laura Martin

Listen, I get it. I understand. I too have been avoiding the Age of Ultron tie-in books like the plague, not even buying the books for the series that I read. But this one is different, or so writer Rick Remender has been claiming over and over again on Twitter for the last month in a desperate attempt to alert people like me that this issue is important to his ongoing story. So here I am passing on the information. Because I trust Rick to shoot me straight. Help me help Remender help you.

Paul Montgomery says try…

Star Trek: The John Byrne Collection HC

By John Byrne

Whether you thrilled to Star Trek Into Darkness or walked away shaking your head, you’ll likely get a kick out of IDW’s new hardcover collection of four Star Trek mini-series by the legendary John Byrne. Included here are “Assignment Earth”, “Crew”, “Romulans” and my personal favorite “Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor,” starring Bones and his magnificent Motion Picture era beard. It’s all tremendous, wacky fun.

Because werewolves.

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MAN #20

Written by Dan Jurgens
Art by Dan Jurgens
Cover by Dan Jurgens, Ray McCarthy
22 pages/color/$2.99

Overwhelmed and beaten by a crew of Super-Villains, Ronnie and Jason are about to find out how bad things can get when Firestorm is labeled a living weapon of mass destruction and slated for dissection!

Now, how’s about a preview?

5. Jack O’Lantern

Jacky-boy’s a fairly unoriginal Spider-man villain when you get right down to it. He stole a most of his image from Green Goblin. Then he saw a poster for Return to Oz and thought “Yeah, a pumpkin head! I will just set mine on fire. Yeah, yeah that’s ticket.”

4. Dormammu

A nemesis of Doctor Strange who goes by many names: Lord of Chaos, The Dread One, Easily Extinguished with a Fire Hose.

3. Flaming Carrot

A weird, awesome character. If it wasn’t for Flaming Carrot we would have never gotten Mystery Men. If we hadn’t gotten Mystery Men, then we would have not gotten the music video to Smashmouth’s “All Star“. So, be thankful. Be very thankful for Flaming Carrot.

2. Firestorm

I just want to say, this is the highest Firestorm has gotten on any list.

1. Ghost Rider

When it comes to having your head on fire, Ghost Rider really knocks it out of the park. Sure,there are other skeleton, fire heads in the Marvel Universe (Blazing Skull) but do they ride motorcycles? Were they former stunt men cursed to become a demon of vengeance? Were they played by Nic Cage? Twice? No. No, they weren’t.  Ride on Fire Skull Head. Ride on.

What are the iFanboys buying? Check their pull lists out here: Conor, Josh, and Paul.

And what about the rest of the staff? What are they buying? Check out their pull lists: Jim, Mike, Molly, Ryan, Ali, Timmy, Chris, Jeff, and Matt.

This week Conor Kilpatrick has the Pick of the Week!

Bonus Question: If you and your friends decided to pull a heist, what would your role in the gang be?

Batman: Gotham Knights #53

By A.J. Lieberman, Alejandro Barrionuevo, Francis Portela

Wolverine #15

By Greg Rucka, Darick Robertson, Tom Palmer, Jimmy Palmiotti

Adventures of Superman #628

By Greg Rucka, Matthew Clark, Nelson

NYC Mech #1

By Ivan Brandon, Miles Gunter, Andy MacDonald

Invincible #12

By Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Bill Crabtree

Justice League of America: Another Nail #1

By Alan Davis, Mark Farmer, John Kalisz

New X-Men: Academy X #1

By Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, Randall Green

Seaguy #1

By Grant Morrison, Cameron Stewart

Robin #126

By Bill Willingham, Damion Scott

That was the week that was in comics. Seaguy is brilliant and New X-Men get’s a fresh new number one. Also, a fan favorite dons the Robin costume. So, did you read any of the comics that came out this week? If you did, be sure to let us know what you thought of them.

It’s just that… every once in a while, I feel like I’m not giving my palate enough of a workout. No matter how much you love it, your favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor is not a suitable diet for every meal. As we creep up on the midpoint of the year, I find myself developing a bit of a tummy ache, and so I thought I would turn to the iFanbase to see if you have anything that’s good for what ails me.

Here’s where I am:

“Look at what we’ve become,” I was thinking this weekend. “Is this all we’re going to get from now on? Rebooted universes telling and retelling us stories we already know, down to using the same beats, even the same dialogue ‘with a twist’? Is the mainstream nothing more than a mama bird now, prechewing all the food for our imaginations and regurgitating it into our open mouths?” For a change, it wasn’t comics that made me think this, but rather Star Trek Into Darkness, for reasons I wouldn’t dream of going into here; you haven’t seen it, and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. I don’t need to tell you, though, that anyone old enough to read an Original Recipe comic only to live long enough to see the Ultimate/Zero Hour/Disney XD/Hollywood iteration of it come into existence has had some version of that thought at least once. And then an edgier, more modern version of that thought a few years later.

Where have you gone, Dashiell Bad Horse?

On the way home from the movies the other night, I stopped into my comic shop just because it’s practically in earshot of the theater and finally picked up Scalped, Vol. 9 because it was there. I may have a selective attention span– there’s no “may” about it, actually– but it seems like it’s been a while since there was a book we talked about or felt about the way we talked and felt about Scalped. There was a time when I’d hop from foot to foot waiting for the store to open on “Scalped is out” day, but I don’t really have any Scalpeds in my life right now. Locke & Key is rounding third base. Vertigo is being beamed aboard the mothership. I could try to sound well-rounded and say with a straight face, “I read books from all the smaller publishers,” but I’d be talking about Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Planet of the Apes. The indie-est purchase I’ve made this year was, I believe, Sesame Street #1.

Thank God for Brian K. Vaughan. In this context, and just in general.

Comics, as an entity, seem to have a cyclical nature in this country. Every year is someone’s year. The last two years have seen the Big Guys rejuvenating their lines with varying long-term results; maybe we are due for an independent renaissance next, or at least due for my dumb ass to notice how great everything already is. I must confess, though I give just about every Image #1 a chance, not a whole lot has moved me of late. Plenty of good-enough, but not nearly enough wow. Maybe I have a little of that grass soup malaise after all.

When’s the last time you made a concerted effort to broaden your horizons a little bit?

I bet everybody interested enough to spend time on a site like this has at least one neglected pet book they wish we would shine a spotlight on. Well, the handy comment window below is your chance to tell me about yours. Is there anything off the beaten path that should be getting more attention than it is? Is the next Scalped or Y: The Last Man buried in the marketplace somewhere right now? Make a good enough case, and I may end up not only reading it but highlighting it on a Monday afternoon just like this one. Then you could say, “I helped bring an audience to my favorite book,” and I could say, “I have a new favorite book and one less column idea to come up with,” and we could all go home happy. Consider it your good deed for the day.

Jim Mroczkowski could not believe someone managed to surprise him in the fiftieth retelling of “Spider-Man No More.”

From Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #11 (2007)

Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen’s Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. ongoing series was a stand out title over at Marvel. Stacked full of D-list heroes, Nextwave was put together by the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort or H.A.T.E., an acronym that should have given the team pause. After learning that H.A.T.E. was as evil as their name suggested, the team left and began to actively work against them. From Fin Fang Foom to Celestials, Nextwave had their hands full in battling some pretty heavy duty opponents. But really, this whole thing was an excuse for Ellis and Immonen to have loud, crazy fun.  No where is this better shown than in the series’ eleventh issue.

In this issue, Nextwave make their way through two-page spread after two-page spread of ludicrous canon fodder. This particular two-page spread is my favorite of this sequence. Here, Nextwave is battling against snakes flying planes, hordes of primates dressed like Wolverine, and one giant King Kong-esque ape also with Wolverine powers holding what appears to be a banana bomb. It’s wonderful. This is Ellis and Immonen having a grand old time.

We know many of you requested a wakeup call only upon the release of some actual gameplay footage, but this video offers just under five minutes of worthwhile Batman bravado.

Joystiq also confirms some of the voice talent making their way to Gotham. Roger Craig Smith (Ezio Auditore of Assassin’s Creed fame as well as a few incarnations of Captain America) plays Batman, while Troy Baker (Bioshock Infinite‘s Booker DeWitt) assumes the role of the Joker. Mark Hamill stepped down as the clown prince of crime with Arkham City. Longtime Batman voice artist Kevin Conroy also announced that he would contribute to the game, though his role is currently unknown.

Look for Batman: Arkham Origins on PC and consoles this October.

Every Monday here at iFanboy, we look at comics’ greatest characters and stories and try to imagine what they’d be like in film or television. From the story concept to the people in charge and all the way down to who’d play who, we do it and we call it Comic Book Casting.

John Prophet is a clone. He’s not the only clone, but one of an army genetically engineered humans created by the Earth Empire for missions to protect humanity and their goals. In the revamped Prophet series by Brandon Graham, Simon Roy and others, it follows individual clones as they take on separate missions — and sometimes take on each other, or even their overlords.  The comic itself is as much about that storyline as is its a bizarre magnetic alien anthropology class, meeting different cultures, aliens and machinations and seeing the various John Prophets trying to survive, persevere and soldier on.

Since it’s debut last year, the Prophet series has garnered a cult-following in the comics community and here at iFanboy, and when conversations inevitably turn to potential movie adaptations Prophet is held at arms-length; not because it wouldn’t be an interesting movie, but that adapting it with any level of effectiveness seems challenging and nigh impossible. But I’ve got a plan.

The Concept:

The challenge with any potential movie adaptation of Prophet is the difficulty in translating the non-linear and sometimes esoteric story into the built-up format you think of as big budget action movies. This’ll never be Avatar, but can be something entirely different and great. Instead of fitting it down that path, imagine Prophet as a survivalist movie like 127 Hours or the haunting The Road…. just in outer space. By giving it that spine of humanity, you could add the ample accoutrements of science fiction, globule aliens and wonder as long as you stay true to that humanity.

For storyline, I’d seize upon the storyline of the initial story with a young John Prophet being awoken centuries later than planned and on a last-ditch effort to revive the Earth Empire, but I’d weave that into the second major arc — the Old Man Prophet arc — to build a longer series of movies with the two Prophets eventually crossing paths in the ashes and potential resurrection of the Earth Empire. But with crazy aliens, adventures and histrionics along the way.

The Director:

This isn’t your typical type of special effects-laden action movie, so you’ll need more than just your typical special effects-laden director. I nominate Amelie and City of Lost Children director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Jeunet’s ‘only done one traditional Hollywood film — the uneven Alien Resurrection – but he’s more than made up for it with his unconventional, superbly films before and since. The Prophet comic we know it now is as much about the setting, style and tone as much as the characters and story — sometimes with the former outweighing the latter. With that in mind, Jeunet seems like one of maybe a half-dozen known directors who could hope to translate it effectively to the big screen without turning it into The Chronicles Of Riddick or something.

The Cast:

Young John Prophet – James Ransone: Ransone’s no household name, but after his work on Generation Kill he’s been one to watch as a young actor clawing his way to the top. Recently appearing in Treme, Ransone will next show up in the American remake of Oldboy and looks to be one of those actors who becomes an “overnight success” after years of work under the radar. For why he’d be good for this role, Ransone brings a quiet convinction and physicality to his roles and young John Prophet needs all those things.
Old Man Prophet – Dustin Hoffman: Dustin Hoffman may not be looked upon as an action star or frequent star of sci-fi epics, but I think a good story is a good story — and making this thinking man’s science fiction movie in Prophet could be just the thing to bring Hoffman — and non-scifi fans — into the fold. Similiar to the way The Road brought readers — and viewers — into the world of apocalyptic stories, so could Prophet – and so could Dustin Hoffman.
Caravan King – Chiwetel Ejiofor: The Caravan King may not be the classic arch-nemesis out of classic action movies, but I think something could be done to develop him into a sizeable threat on Prophet’s longer road. Ejiofor is an actor’s actor, and having him to the voiceover for this could really bolster this villain’s presence in much the same way Gary Oldman did in Kung Fu Panda 2.
Xiux-Guin Blade – John Hawkes: I once described Xuix-Guin as the Boba Fett to Prophet’s Han Solo, and while that’s not completely apt it’s in the same ballpark I think. Hawkes has a signature voice and cadence, and I’d love to see him suit up as Xiux-Guin and make this fantastical creature work as more than just special effects but a deliberate, dangeorus character.
Rein-East – Helena Bonham-Carter: Bonham-Carter has quietly become one of the signature actors of our generation, and she’s no stranger to sci-fi films and working under prosthetics.Pulling in her to play Rein-East may seem like a no brainer.
Jaxson – Ron Livingston: After his work on Office Space and Band of Brothers it seemed like Ron Livingston was destinated to be an A-list actor. While we’re still waiting for those pieces to come other, I’d love to see him step in here as Jaxon, Old Man Prophet’s eating robot. Comic relief? Maybe, but with potential to be something more.
Diehard – Clarke Peter: Still clothed in the memories of his time as one of the key faces of Rob Liefeld’s Youngblood series, Brandon Graham evolved him into being a different kind of character in the pages of Prophet. I’d love to see Prophet movie cast completely against type and hire The Wire alum Clark Peters to voice Diehard, giving him a sizable voice, presence and experience that would quickly break the stereotype Diehard’s developed and make him one of the most intriguing characters around.

So as of today I am leaving Earth 2 with Issue #16.It’s been a blast.Man, it’s a lovely day.Think I’ll take Rex to the beach.

— JamesDRobinson (@JamesDRobinson) May 17, 2013

and

Yes, this also means I’m no longer working at DC Comics.Best wishes and regards to Dan, Geoff and everyone.

— JamesDRobinson (@JamesDRobinson) May 17, 2013

This is a blow for, well, everyone involved, as Earth 2 is one of DC Comics’ handful of high quality books that remain since The New 52 launched and that was mostly due to James Robinson. He had made the book his own and was clearly playing a long game, taking his time to build a deep and interesting world not influenced by any other books at DC.

It’s getting really hard to ignore the slow and steady exodus of creators from DC books, especially veteran guys with years of industry experience.

Justice League of America’s Vibe #4

By Sterling Gates, Manuel Garcia or Fabiano Neves, possibly Sandra Hope Archer, Brad Anderson, & Carlos M. Mangual

Oh, hey. How YOU doin’?

– Conor Kilpatrick

FF #7

By Matt Fraction, Michael Allred, Laura Allred, & Clayton Cowles

This was a wonderfully sweet moment that makes no sense if you haven’t read the issue and Scott Lang’s speech to the kids of the FF.

– Conor Kilpatrick

Nightwing #20

By Kyle Higgins, Brett Booth, Norm Rapmund, Andrew Dalhouse, & Carlos M. Mangual

I’m not a Brett Booth fan but credit where credit is due: this two-page spread is an exercise in beautifully luminous chaos. Lots of credit also goes to inker Norm Rapmund and especially colorist Andrew Dalhouse.

– Conor Kilpatrick

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #23

By Brian Michael Bendis, Dave Marquez, Justin Ponsor, & Cory Petit

Ultimate Comics Miles’ Dad #1 might be the best thing to happen to the Ultimate line in over a decade.

– Paul Montgomery

Wolverine and the X-Men #29

By Jason Aaron, Ramon Perez, Laura Martin, & Joe Caramagna

I love the joyous Bamf in the back on the left. He’s so psyched that they found something!

– Conor Kilpatrick

Sword of Sorcery #8

By Christy Marx, Aaron Lopresti, Travis Moore or John Livesay, Hi-Fi, & Rob Leigh

Eclipso’s defeat reminded me very much of that of The Wicked Witch of the West.

– Conor Kilpatrick

Nova #4

By Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines, Marte Garcia, & Albert Deschesne

This book is pure fun

– Conor Kilpatrick

Battlestar Galactica #1

Variant Cover by Chris Eliopoulos

It’s not just that it’s a chibi/baby variant, which are relatively popular these days. It’s that it’s a baby variant for Battlestar Galactica, which, in its modern incarnation is so cold and self important. Not that I didn’t love it. But this is like tarmac foam, preparing readers for the relative mirth and good humor of oldschool Battlestar Galactica, of which this series takes its cues. I also had to laugh because I was kicked off a very similar, if bright tangerine, version of this same coin operated Viper at a local Pathmark about a week ago, even though there were no kids waiting in line like that adorable Cylon, and I didn’t reek of the reefer.

So say we all.

In his book, Morrison describes a series of episodes in his own life that were affected by his willingness to embrace the notion of actual magic, including the use of sigils and incantations. There were drugs involved along the way, but Morrison’s magic as he describes it is more than just a trip in his own mind. In one instance, he even describes bringing his ailing cat back to life via a spell. Morrison’s take on the magic of it all is at times a metaphor for the power we all possess to manifest good things in our lives (which I firmly believe), but the other side of the coin seems to involve a genuine belief in magic and occult. Again, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this, as it went against everything that was hammered into me as the son of a Origin of Species-thumping scientist who lived in a house where pure science and logic were the only truths one needed to adhere to.

Now I knew going in that Grant Morrison was associated with magic and the occult. After all, these themes are front and center in a lot of Morrison’s works. But I did find myself a bit surprised to by Morrison’s desire to impart the practices of magic to the reader. More specifically, I was also a bit taken aback by the fact that one of my favorite comic book writers, a man I absolutely respect on every creative level, was embracing what to me felt essentially like hokum. As you might have guessed by now, I’m not the kind of person who believes in the particular brand of Grant Morrison practices or any magic for that matter. I’m not judging Morrison at all; in fact, I sort of envy his ability to put his faith in such things. It’s just not something I’m able to do. And to his credit, Morrison’s worldview and its connection to magic are manifested in his creations; they are a part of his vision and voice. That comes through in his comics and I appreciate it on the level of fodder for comic book fantasies. Still, I found it distracting.

What I found in the months after learning about Morrison’s fondness for magic was that it affected my experience of reading his works. Simply put, I wasn’t exactly able to read his creations without bringing the man himself to my mind. Basically, I was no longer able to simply read and experience his stories on a pure level. All of this led me wonder whether or not it’s really possible to separate the creator from the creation in cases where the creator is bringing along some unwanted level of reputational baggage. In this world of Internet connectedness, it’s almost impossible to pick up a comic and not know at least a little something about the person who created it. If you’re like me, and comics minutiae is part of your obsession, then you bring your knowledge of writers and artists to the table each time your pick up a book. So what happens when you know too much about the creator of a particular book? And what happens when the person writing the book has a reputation, negative or otherwise? Can we as readers enjoy a comic simply as a comic and not as an extension of the personality we essentially “know” thanks to the Internet?

In this case of someone like Orson Scott Card, it’s fairly safe to say that most people now have a hard time accepting his work at face value. Card has made some pretty hateful opinions known, so I personally find it hard to ignore the source when it comes to material he’s written. I’m sure there are people out there who can, but I don’t happen to be one of them. Sure, he’s a creative guy and I wish I didn’t know his politics, but knowing them makes it tough to truly embrace the product he’s putting out into the world. As for someone like John Byrne, the vitriol and negativity that seem to be associated with him seem to me to taint anything he puts out into the world these days. Knowing what people know about John Bryne and his reputation essentially sullies anything he puts out there. I’m not saying he’s doing his best work now, but I have my doubts that a great “return to glory” creation would ever gain any traction because of the negativity associated with the John Byrne name. I use these examples in conjunction with Grant Morrison only because they all seem to elicit emotional responses and not because Morrison’s fondness for magic should be construed as any sort of negative.

We so easily see behind the curtain these days that anyone who isn’t perfect runs the risk of alienating their audience, perhaps merely because they’ve been deemed “tough to work with” or “a strong personality.” And yes, there are creators out there who are just plain jerks. Is it possible to truly separate creation from creator? Can someone who is reviled, rejected or misunderstood as a human being still create worthwhile material? There are egos at play in the comics industry, just like any creative business, so it’s not surprising that people develop reputations of one type or another. But is it fair to judge books on the idiosyncrasies of the writer and not simply on whether or not a book is viable as a stand-alone example of good comics? Personally, I find it hard to not think about the person behind the creation once I’ve become aware of them. Knowing the writer can be a blessing or a curse depending on the situation, it seems.. In the end, a great comic shouldn’t be judged by anything more than what’s on the page. But can we separate the creator from the creation? Or, in this age of endless information, are these creations destined to be tainted by the knowledge that those who create them may not live up to the standards we as fans set?

Gabe Roth is a writer living in Los Angeles. He doesn’t believe in magic at the moment, but that may change. He’s @gaberoth on Twitter.

Paramount Pictures

Directed by J.J. Abrams
Written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof
Starring: Chris Pine (James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Zoe Saldana (Nyota Uhura), Alice Eve (Carol Marcus), Benedict Cumberbatch (John Harrison), Bruce Greenwood (Christopher Pike), Karl Urban (Leonard “Bones” McCoy), Simon Pegg (Montgomery “Scotty” Scott), John Cho (Hikaru Sulu), Anton Yelchin (Pavel Chekov), a tribble (itself), Peter Weller (Admiral Marcus)

Reveling in the disregard of the Prime Directive, Star Trek Into Darkness makes as strong a case for Starfleet’s sacrosanct dictate as either of the Kirk’s previous misadventures in cowboy diplomacy. Not only as a model for interactions between civilizations, but between timelines. And film franchises.

Four years on, the elegance of ancient Ambassador Spock’s incursion into a time stream born of his very arrival, the elegance of Kurtzman, Orci and Lindelof’s 2009 Star Trek script, has begun to splinter. That film remains a benchmark for lovingly jump-starting a science fiction brand, a new course plotted with past sights and sounds carefully archived, not incinerated in the astral wake. More importantly, it’s a rollicking good time. Unfortunately’s Nimoy’s Spock Prime didn’t make that trip alone. The tattooed Romulan miners were one thing, but the nostalgia-ridden influenza blankets stowed in the cargo bay are another matter entirely.

Spock brought ghosts, and they haunt all of Federation space. And so we Star Trek Into Darkness.

Though the young crew of the Enterprise are cast into the fog of war, the true darkness of the title might be the looming shadow of 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Unfortunately, discussing this new film in any meaningful way requires punching through the spoiler barrier and barreling head-long into the reveals. If you’ve yet to head Into Darkness, proceed with caution.

And tempered expectations.

The Wrath of Khan isn’t so much a touchstone for Abrams and his screenwriters as it’s a lodestone. Or, applying the relevant markers, a black hole. It’s evident from the wonderful opening escape on the feral planet Nibiru when Quinto’s Spock resigns to his fiery doom within an active volcano. He shrugs off the Enterprise with, “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” A familiar, weighty mantra the elder Spock eventually refuted in the previous series. It’s a welcome, spooky homage. Sadly, it doesn’t end then and there.

Cut to dreary London and the plight of the Harewoods, a Starfleet clerk and his wife grieving for a young daughter hovering between life and death. The promise of restorative blood from a mysterious stranger endowed with the voice of Severus Snape ushers the girl to remission and her father on a suicide bombing of Starfleet’s archives. The very suggestion of altered human chemistry, of eugenics, should be enough to trigger echoes of Herman Melville by way of Ricardo Montalban. Bundle that with some inescapable, years old rumors, the introduction of Carol Marcus and Benedict Cumberbatch’s uncanny martial prowess, and we’re whispering John Harrison’s true name as he offers it to Kirk from his cell. Cumberbatch makes for a sinister terrorist, but he’s never afforded the mirth or eccentricity that Montelban enjoyed, even forgetting the hair and the pecs. There’s no denying the actor’s seductive power, but the script only ever employs his cold fury. As Khan himself puts it, he’s only being used for his savagery. There is nothing wrong with Cumberbatch’s choices or even his casting, but the screenwriters seem to have reconfigured the character as a Romulan. That Javier Bardem offers a more resplendent, operatic vision of Khan as Silva in last year’s Skyfall strengthens the inclination that Admiral Marcus opened the wrong pod. It might help to pretend that in this time line, Khan’s humorless brother Karl Noonien Singh was awoken from his medically induced coma instead.

As for the Admiral, it’s not unheard of for Starfleet high command to go rogue, and using the the destruction of Vulcan as a springboard for military escalation has merit, a major sticking point remains. Peter Weller is lost in space. Though neither of the Marcuses turned in particularly inspired performances in roles that demanded it, Weller seems particularly out of place in an otherwise remarkable ensemble. It registers like the bona fide Baltimore cops and officials thrust into small cameo roles on The Wire, though not nearly as charming at this scope, in this pivotal a role. He desaturates most, though not all of his scenes of their starry luster.

In stark contrast, his fellow Batman voice actor Bruce Greenwood gifts Christopher Pike with a dignity befitting the best of Roddenberry’s immortal captains. We want to drink with him, but we also want to follow him headlong into the Neutral Zone, no questions asked. His reclamation of the Enterprise captaincy rang a death knell, softening his final moments, but when Spock related the man’s dying emotions as gleaned through their melding of minds, the knife twists.

The brightest point remains that bridge. Even with a significantly reduced occurrence of lens flare. It’s that core group of actors. Pine never disappoints, offering a fully wounded Kirk, still brash but so eager to be a better leader. He cherishes that ship and that crew, and even if the musical chairs they’re playing with the captaincy often descends into farce, his loss of command is the best thing that ever happened to the character. It tells us everything about him. With his predecessor still looming in the wings, it’s difficult to fully evaluate Quinto’s Spock. There’s a sitcom logic to the character’s inability to evolve, and the pressure of portraying that struggle for humanity or for balance must be an impossible burden for actor and writers both.

Zoe Saldana deserves better than a bickering girlfriend/boyfriend subplot, but thankfully that thread is sheared off in short order, and we tend to agree with her. Uhura and Spock don’t always make sense, but it’s easy to see why he’s fascinated. Lending ferocity and compassion in equal measure, she’s handily ousted Bones from the trinity. This reviewer finds it hard to begrudge her that, even if can never get too much Bones. Karl Urban does his able best to provide levity as the weary country doctor, a somewhat diminished role, but always a pleasure on screen. He even gets an away mission! He also mixes metaphors with nearly as much abandon as this reviewer does. John Cho, Anton Yelchin and most especially Simon Pegg are awarded ample opportunity to demonstrate why they’re the Right Stuff with key moments of heroism and humanity. Scotty’s decision to resign his post and Kirk’s pained acceptance of that slate proved one of the most powerful moments in the film, especially in relation to those clearly meant to outdo them all.

Now, here’s where the ghosts come in.

Though we welcome the wrinkled visage of Leonard Nimoy’s Ambassador Spock and his gentle, grandfatherly wisdom, the cameo literally undermines Quinto’s primacy. After such an elegant bow in the coda of the previous film, those ears probably should’ve remained on the mantle, allowing for a graceful and poetic exit for one Spock and the assumption of his stature by the other. Instead, we’re left with another reminder of the original iteration’s sublime alchemy, a vintage only sweetened by time. As a result, all that follows feels less substantial, an exercise in the butterfly effect nearly as ephemeral as the Monarch itself.

The ironic reversal of the Wrath of Khan finale rings hollow for many reasons. Admittedly, Pegg capably echoes DeForest Kelley and James Doohan’s original lines, some of the saddest, heartbreaking words of resignation ever uttered by that original, unshakeable cast. It’s a bit spooky. Otherwise, it all feels like a pantomime. As ever, Pine and Quinto do their level best, but this is only their second appearance together. It’s impossible not to contrast that with the veritable lifetime audiences enjoyed with Shatner and Nimoy leading to the original iteration of this moment. The moment isn’t earned, but nor should it be strived for. Pine, Quinto and their crew are too good, too talented to spend their tenure on screen playing Lucy and Harpo with the old guys. They’ll never match up playing the same scenes and they’ll never forge ahead to earn their own unique moments of genuine emotional resonance. They already escaped the event horizon in 2009. Nimoy christened their ship. The torch was passed.

The wormhole they’re circling in pursuit of easy fan service is in all actuality a black hole. It’s yesterday. As such it is the very antithesis of Star Trek. Now is the time to boldly go where no one has gone before. It’s right there in the thing.

 3 Stars

(Out of 5)

Paul Montgomery
Can we talk about how Lobot’s on the bridge crew?
paul@ifanboy.com

He’s one of Superman’s most feared and most popular rivals, and he’s the key antagonist in the upcoming Man of Steel movie. Created back in 1961 by writer Robert Bernstein and artist George Papp, Zod was commander in the Kryptonian military that turned down a dark path and attempted to rule Krypton as his own. Thwarted by Superman’s father Jor-El and others in the Kryptonian government, he and his lieutenants were banished to the Phantom Zone prison and left there to die. But with the destruction of Krypton and the orphaned Superman finding a home on Earth, the ghosts of Krypton followed Superman to haunt him anew. One part Hitler, one part Satan and one part General Patton, General Zod exists in rarefied air among Superman villains; he’s one of the few Superman openly fears, and as a one-time peer to Superman’s father and a fellow orphan from Krypton, has something few others in the universe have in common with Superman.

And yet, Zod was a throwaway character for the first twenty years of his existence. Originally introduced as a villain not for Superman, but Superboy, he was a one-off villain that was only used a dozen or so times in comics after his debut. It wasn’t until the filmmakers behind the original 1970s Superman movie picked up on him and made him a key component of the first two films that he achieved the status he has now. Since then, comics creators from John Byrne to Steve Gerber, and Jeph Loeb to Geoff Johns have enlisted him to face off against the big blue boy scout.

In this week’s Where Do I Start?, I scoured the back issue bins and picked out five essential stories that show Zod at his best — which is at his worst. There have been several versions of Zod in comics, but I stuck to the ones true to his Kryptonian roots. I avoided the Russian Zod and the doppelganger from Superman: For Tomorrow, and stayed true to the character itself.

Superman II: As I said earlier, Zod didn’t really become a force in the Superman mythos until these original Superman movies — but boy did he make a mark. Thanks to screenwriters like Mario Puzo and director Richard Donner, Zod is plucked from obscurity in old DC Comics and re-fashioned into the ultimate antithesis of Superman’s father Jor-El, compounded by his original origin as a military genius disgraced by his evil intent. Actor Terence Stamp is given a relatively blank slate here to work with, filling it with his own abilities and ideas without having to lean to much into being true to Zod’s comic appearances. Before Superman II Zod wouldn’t even be in the top 20 of Superman villains, but after this he skyrocketed easily into the top 5, some would say second only to Lex Luthor.

Superman Vs. Zod: The trades department at DC knows what they’re doing with the Man of Steel movie coming out this summer. Earlier this year they put together a great, simple and short collection of some of Zod’s best battles with Superman in an aptly titled book called Superman Vs. Zod. This collection pulls in an issue from the recent Superman: Last Son of Krypton arc I recommend later on in this list, but the key text in this book for me is the 1961 one-off issue Adventure Comics #283 by Robert Bernstein and Howard Sherman. Neither are real legends in the industry, but they (along with George Papp) created Zod here in this issue when he faces off against a young Superboy. Positioned as almost a Kryptonian Hitler, Zod  is shown here destroying a moon and raising a robot army in what became the chief offense for him being imprisoned in the Phantom Zone in the first place.

Superman: Last Son of Krypton: In many ways, this story is a thematic sequel to movie Superman II, and no wonder — it’s written by director Richard Donner and Geoff Johns. Joined by artists Gary Frank and Adam Kubert, it follows Superman as he attempts to find out the origins of a young Kryptonian boy who crash lands on Earth just like he did as a child. That’s compounded when Zod and two allies escape from  their Phantom Zone prison once again and look to turn Earth into a New Krypton. This sets up the later over-arching story-arc Superman: World of New Krypton, but that ended up fizzling somewhat in the end and I can’t recommend it fully. Stick with Last Son of Krypton, to see Superman versus Zod with some surprising allies for the Man of Steel.

The Supergirl Saga: The final story in John Byrne’s epic run on Superman is capped off when he (with assists in one issue by Jerry Ordway) brings Zod in to face Superman with Supergirl in the middle. This Zod from an alternate dimension killed Superboy in that dimension and most of the universe in the process, but our own Superman is brought in when a plea from a rag-tag group of survivors reaches across the dimensional barrier. Superman is dwarfed by the power of Zod and his generals, forcing him to re-think his oath to not kill anyone as it looks to be his only chance to stop them. This three issue arc hasn’t been collected, but can be found in the 1980s Superman series issues #21 and #22, and then Adventures of Superman #444.

The Phantom Zone: This long-forgotten 1982 miniseries by Steve Gerber and Gene Colan is finally getting it’s due with a collected edition coming from DC in July 2013. But whether you wait for that collection or seek it out in singles,The Phantom Zone series is a must-have for Zod fans. Imagining a Superman/Zod series written by the creator of Howard The Duck brings up some special expectations, and this lives up to that. In this, Gerber and Colan reveal that the prison dimension that is the Phantom Zone has secrets that Krypton didn’t know about; namely a secret backdoor and some beasts native to the Phantom Zone. In this miniseries, Zod and his fellow prisoners break out and trade places with Superman using the menagerie of monsters they control from the Phantom Zone. With Superman under thumb, Zod treads the JLA Satellite like a backyard baseball and throws it to the other side of the universe and even beats up Green Lantern and takes his ring.

We’re promised a full trailer next week, but until then, here’s a tease of Bruce and Slade’s first dance. Keep in mind, this is a cinematic trailer and does not necessarily reflect in-game visuals. Actually, let’s say it certainly doesn’t.

Between this and Grand Theft Auto 5, not a bad sendoff for the current console generation. To be honest though, I’m still a means more eager about that Metroidvania-style portable companion game launching alongside it.

Batman: Arkham Origins hits the PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii-U on October 25th.