Actually, this week it means many of you will be rushing off to your local multiplex after work to check out Man of Steel, but it also means that it's time for another Week-In-Review. This was a MASSIVE week for DC Comics and our fans. In addition to the release of the eagerly anticipated new Superman movie, we saw the debut of our blockbuster new Superman comic--Superman Unchained--and gave out another great Superman comic in shops across the country on Wednesday for free! Then there was E3, where we made a splash with not one, not two, not even three, but five different DC video games. And last but not least, we can't overlook our brand new DCComics.com and VertigoComics.com home pages, which proved to be quite a hit with fans when they debuted this week.
Here's what fans had to say about all of this and more...
A few weeks ago, we mentioned that the DC Week-In-Review would be going on a short hiatus before returning in a new format. What we didn’t mention was what that format is.
Well, you’re about to find out. Welcome to the new, fan-driven DC Week-In-Review. Yes, rather than us telling you about the exciting stuff taking place in the world of DC Comics each week, we’re giving your fellow fans (or, more technically, their tweets) the spotlight. After all, there’s no better gauge of what’s exciting to fans than…well, the fan community!
What’s exciting fans this week? Man of Steel, Villains Month, the new Green Lantern creative teams, Superman Unchained and more! For a snapshot of what DC Comics fans are talking about this week, take a look a below. If you scroll further down, you'll find links to the stories and videos (including the latest Man of Steel trailer) that prompted some of their tweets. And to be a part of the conversation in future DC Week-In-Reviews, make sure you’re on Twitter and that you tweet @DCComics about what’s exciting you each week in the world of DC Comics.
Ahem… Yes, we’re going to review the recent past by talking about the future. And if the thought of that makes your head hurt—it is Friday, after all—just think of it as our super power. It’s not that effective when it comes to fighting evildoers and saving the world, but it’s a lot of fun when it comes to writing weekly review columns.
So let’s talk about what’s to come, shall we? Let us take you to a brighter, sunnier time in the not-so-distant future that some people refer to as…August.
Yes, the August group solicits are out, and they bring with them lots of changes to DC COMICS – THE NEW 52 and the DC Universe in general. Check them out below…
If you’re wondering about the future of the Green Lantern Corps, well, they’re in very good hands. And those hands belong to Mr. Van Jensen. And when they’re not writing about the adventures of Guy Gardner, John Stewart and the rest of the Corps, they’re answering interview questions.
As for the future of Batman…well, it lies in the past. Yes, we’re talking about the past few days by discussing the future, which also lies in the past, at least when we’re not talking about the Batman of the future…and, well…uh…Batman?
No, for the next year, Batman’s core comic book title is jumping back to the beginning in the highly anticipated storyline, “Batman: Zero Year.” And we got the scoop on what to expect directly from the men responsible, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, along with a look at two intriguing pages from the first issue.
So it looks like in the past, Batman wore latex masks and did a bunch of upside down workouts. At least, when he wasn’t fighting Deathstroke.
Or did you miss this?
That would be the new teaser trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins, the next installment in the popular Arkham series. So when will we be seeing more? Like maybe a full trailer… Well, let’s just say the future on that one is looking bright.
Okay, those Splinterfolk are scary. Like, tell us when the David Cronenberg movie is coming out sort of scary. But nowhere near as scary as how much of a Superman expert your kid will be if you were to win this week’s DC Comics Fan Family Weekly Giveaway. Enter to win between now and Thursday and your child (and their parents) will be quoting Kryptonian to you in plenty of time for Man of Steel.
Finally, on the subject of imagination, ours are going wild envisioning what Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette may have in store for us in the upcoming Wonder Woman: Earth One. It’s one of the many reasons—5.2 of them, to be specific—we’re ready to return to Earth One.
We’re also ready for the weekend. Yes, it’s great looking deep into the future of DC Comics, but right now, we’d be happy simply to jump forward in time a few hours to Saturday morning. After all, that’s when tickets go on sale for Walmart’s advance screening of Man of Steel. We may not really be able to travel through time, but we can still make sure we see the new Superman movie before anyone else.
With that, we’ll consider this little jaunt through the future by way of the past done. We’ll see you again in seven—er, or actually not. The DC Week-In-Review will be going on hiatus for a little bit, but will return soon in a new-and-improved form. We hope you’ll join us for it, and in the meantime, be sure to keep your eye right here on DCComics.com for all the latest and greatest news from the world of DC Comics!
No two ways about it. It’s hard to top free comics. All of us here at DC work on comic books, and we still love Free Comic Book Day. No matter who you are, it’s impossible not to feel a little deflated that Monday after FCBD weekend. It’s the most Monday-like of Mondays. As if the day spent the entire weekend drinking power smoothies and doing P90x workouts so that it could completely kick our butts when it returned.
So how did we survive and get through another week? By focusing on all of the great DC Comics stuff to hit the web this week, much of it right here on DCComics.com. And guess what? We’re 100% free to read too!
Here’s what went down this week on the DC Comics website…
Let’s face it, the only way to get through the Monday morning after FCBD is to spend it talking about FCBD. That’s what all of our great fans were doing on Twitter, so we compiled some of those tweets and photos into one awesome post. You want to know how DC fans spent their Free Comic Book Day, well it’s all right here.
And speaking of Superman un-thinging things, this week also saw the release of Superman: Unbound, the latest DC Universe Original Animated Movie. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can now buy or rent it on Blu-Ray, DVD, OnDemand and Digital Download. And if you like to sample before you buy, check out this exclusive clip from the film.
Or how about these GORGEOUS Jae Lee pages from BATMAN/SUPERMAN #1. Those should please fans of both characters, as well as pretty much everyone with a set of working eyeballs.
And if you like early looks, “What’s New in the New 52” sure didn’t disappoint this week with sketches of Cheshire and Dr. Phosphorus. One question, though. Do you think Cheshire’s hair ever gets tangled up around those swords? If she’s not careful when she draws those things, she could be in for one embarrassing trip to the hairstylist.
On Thursday, we checked in with our friend Robert Venditti, who has quite a lot to say about Green Lantern. Which is good, since we don’t want writers who don’t have anything to say. So what can we expect from his opening storyline? Click here, Lantern fans, to find out.
And speaking of Suicide Squad, we also gave you a look at its shocking final page in today’s “This Just Happened” feature. Though, actually, the entire issue #20 was pretty shocking. You should read it. Preferably before you click on this spoiler-filled link.
You might have heard about Infinite Crisis and Batman: Arkham Origins, two of the highly anticipated new video games coming out from DC Entertainment later this year. Well, if you’re as excited as we are about them, you’re going to want to get your hands on these upcoming statues and action figures from DC Collectibles based on characters from the games. Somehow, we doubt Hera would approve of Wonder Woman’s new look.
And with that, we wrap up this installment of the Week-In-Review. Because we’ve reached the end of what we wanted to recap, and NOT that we just remembered we still haven’t bought Mom a gift. That’s totally not why we’re wrapping this up and Googling the nearest Williams-Sonoma… Yeah…
Have a happy Mother’s Day weekend, and we’ll see you again in seven!
Last week was all about some of our favorite DC super heroes fighting with each other to save the world. This week saw some of our other favorites fighting with each other over…a sandwich.
But to be fair, it was a legendary sandwich!
Okay, once again we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here’s what went down this week on the DC Comics website…
Yes, Injustice: Gods Among Us has now been in stores for over a week, and yet, we can’t get enough. We’re ready for more (crazed DC Comics ubergeeks that we are), and we started things off with our first glimpse of what’s to come—Injustice’s first DLC character, Lobo!
Also, in the DC Comics Fan Family blog—which all of you with kids are reading, right?—we kicked off a series of weekly fan giveaways. Now, these are different than the occasional Twitter giveaways we run in the fan blog. These giveaways aren’t done on Twitter, and the prizes we’ll be giving away here are things meant to be enjoyed with all the little future DC Comics readers in your life. Like this week’s prize, a free download of the DC Super Friends – Hawaiian Ice Mystery storybook app. You have until the end of next Monday, April 29th to enter, so don’t miss out.
And as if that wasn’t good enough, we’re also offering a special limited time offer on subscriptions to any of DC’s all-ages comics. If you subscribe before May 6th, you can save 55% off the cover price! Here’s where to go for all the info.
Okay, okay. We know what you’re thinking. All of this is great if you’re a parent, but wake me up when you have something cool going on for the rest of us. Well, it’s time to stop hitting the snooze button my friend because we’re currently giving away copies of Injustice. You can find out how to enter here, but you need to act quickly. This giveaway ends tonight at midnight, which means you don’t have much longer.
But there was a lot more to this week than just cheap comics and free games (though, really, do you need more than that?). After all, this week saw the Cartoon Network debut of Teen Titans Go!, the newest DC Animated Series. We’re really excited about this new show, and the twonew clips we debuted on the site on Tuesday only added to our fervor. But what really set us over the edge was the premiere episode, which we enjoyed the heck out of. And then we wrote about why we enjoyed the heck out of it. And then we went out for awesome sandwiches and pie to celebrate.
If you missed the premiere of Teen Titans Go!, you can look for the debut episode to air again tomorrow morning on Cartoon Network as part of the DC Nation block of programming. And speaking of DC Nation, this week we added the last of the Season 1 DC Nation Shorts to the site. You can now check them all out in our video section. Or if you’re just interested in the final five, you can click their links below. And if you were wondering, we did save some of the best for last.
Hey, while you’re at it, be sure to vote for your favorite series of DC Nation Shorts. Right now, SBFF is only in second place while The Bat Man of Shanghai has fallen to third, and we can’t have that, people!
Wednesday brought us some great new comics…and some equally great new captions. Don’t know what we’re talking about? Then you should really check out this week’s special edition of Caption This!.
But hands down, the most exciting news coming out of Thursday was the announcement that Walmart will be selling tickets in their stores for an exclusive advance screening of Man of Steel. We don’t know about you, but a chance to see this movie before everyone else with a theater full of Superman fans… That might as well be our Kryptonite.
Spoiler alert time! Which of you out there have already read JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #19? Whoa… It’s surprising enough that the Flash is guest-starring in this series, but Swamp Thing as well? But the biggest shocker was the arrival of… Well, click here to find out.
So what are you doing this weekend? Because we know what we’re doing. We’ll be at C2E2 with another awesome slate of panels. If you’ll be there as well, you’ll want to check them out because, well, you never know what might be revealed.
Busy week, no doubt, but we have two days of amazing hot dogs and cosplay to look forward to before doing it all over again. We’ll see you again in seven!
It may be going up a bit later than usual, but if you think we’d let this week pass without another patented (as soon as we remember to call the patent office) DC Week-In-Review, you’ve clearly been hanging out with B’dg because that is NUTS!
No, it’s been an unbelievable week for DC Comics fans, and if you don’t know why… Well, then you’re probably in the right place.
But before we get to all the juicy, amazing details, we may as well just get this out of the way now.
Yes, the new Man of Steel trailer came on out Tuesday, and unless you’ve just arrived from another planet yourself, you’ve probably already seen it. But we figured it couldn’t hurt to see it again. And again and again and again.
You get the point.
But that was hardly the only huge item of comic geek awesomeness to drop this week. (Uh… Yeah, that term we WON’T be patenting.) Tuesday also saw the release of Injustice: Gods Among Us, the eagerly anticipated new fighting game from the fine folks at NetherRealm (who know a thing or two about fighting games).
Oh, and then there was the matter of this week’s Injustice Battle Arena. Originally, the winner was going to be revealed in a live finale that was scheduled for Monday night. But out of respect to the events in Boston that day, the event was recorded, but rescheduled for another day. It went up on the Injustice Facebook page on Wednesday, but if you haven’t yet seen it, you can see all three parts of the Battle Arena finale below.
Also on the animated front, we continued our roll-out of the DC Nation Season 1 shorts here on DC Comics.com. This week we added Superman of Tokyo, New Teen Titans, Vibe, Sword of the Atom and Thunder & Lightning to the site. This is your chance to watch these awesome and oftentimes experimental DC Comics shorts in full, all in one place, so be sure to check them out!
So let’s see, we’ve discussed movies, video games, animation, TV… What’s missing?
Harras chose to focus on what’s ahead, but have you seen what’s happening this very month in the pages of your favorite DC titles? Wowza! No wonder this whole month is keeping us on edge. Which, consequentially, is the subject of this week’s “5.2 Reasons” column.
Yesterday, we also heard from Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul—aka our fearless Flash creative team—on their upcoming story arc, featuring Reverse-Flash. Even better, they gave us a sneak peek at some gorgeous new art. Have you seen it? Well, you really should wait when it comes to the Flash, so click here to check it all out.
And speaking of the Flash family, Kid Flash played a key role in this week’s JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA’S VIBE #3. But it’s the last page of that comic that plays a key role in this week’s “This Just Happened.” Click here to see it, but only if you’ve already read the new issue…or just love having things spoiled for you.
That’ll do it for this week, and that’s a good thing. We’re not sure we could handle any more DC Comics awesomeness. Well, okay, maybe that’s not entirely true. Who’s up for some Injustice?
You’ve probably noticed that we’re more than a little excited about Injustice: Gods Among Us dropping next week. As fans of DC Comics and fighting games, this is like a dream that’s come true and taken us out for ice cream. Right now, there’s little that’s exciting us more than the chance to finally sit down and play the game.
Or rather, that was the case until this week came around.
Oh man, this week! We started with group solicits, made two major announcements, and posted more videos to DCComics.com than we have in the past four weeks combined. Three of them even had Plastic Man in them!
And since we know it’s pretty hard for anything else to compete with original Plastic Man shorts, why don’t we just save some time and make this easy for all of us?
But before you get lost in all those amazing covers and enticing descriptions, may we remind you that after ten weeks of crazy competition, we’ve finally reached the Injustice Battle Arena finals. And finalists don’t get any bigger than Superman and Batman.
We also counted down the 5.2 Reasons we’re excited for the game. And we debuted the latest character trailer, which features Hal Jordan struggling with himself. (And we’re not talking about internally.) This trailer may have flown a bit under the radar amongst all of the Battle Arena excitement, but make sure you check it out. It’s one of the best ones yet.
Yes, it’s been an amazing week for fans of DC video games. Battle Arena has gotten us excited about Injustice, which is just around the corner. But on Tuesday we announced Arkham Origins, the thrilling prequel to Arkham Asylum and ArkhamCity, and now we’re excited about what’s awaiting us after summer. Like really excited. Like “right on the brink of doing something insane in hope of getting thrown into Arkham before remembering that it’s a fictional place that doesn’t really exist” sort of excited.
And that was only one of our big announcements this week. We also announced “Trinity War,” a huge crossover event involving all three Justice League titles and written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Lemire. Okay, technically we announced this storyline in last year’s Free Comic Book Day offering, but this is the first time we’ve talked about what it is. And man, that triptych cover is unbelievable!
On Thursday, we began debuting the Season 1 DC Nation shorts right here on DCComics.com. We started off with the aforementioned Plastic Man shorts, and then moved on to DC Nation’s Farm League, which went up today. We’ll be adding a new series each weekday until the debut of DC Nation’s second season on April 27th, so look for our next one on Monday. If you haven’t seen these, you’re going to want to. They’re fun, alternative takes on DC characters and ideas. Some are funny, some are exciting and some are just plain crazy. However, all of them are worth a minute (two minutes, tops) of your time.
Finally, we ended the week like we do around here—by spoiling one of this week’s comics. So what did you think of BATMAN AND RED ROBIN #19? And how awesome is it to see Carrie Kelley in DC COMICS – THE NEW 52? Of course, if you’ve read the issue, you know she’s only a part of it. If you’re curious about the rest of the story, click here. But watch out for spoilers!
Yeah, plenty going on this week, and next week’s shaping up to be a good one as well. On Monday night, we have the live Injustice Battle Arena finale, and that’s just the start of the great Injustice stuff we’ll have happening here on the DC Comics site. In fact, look for cool new features on the game, comic, action figures and more every day next week. And we may even have a few copies to give away…
If we were a roll of a certain popular, circle-shaped hard candy rather than a comic book publisher, we’d be one of the multi-flavored ones. At least this week. (And yes, we do spend our lunch break thinking up analogies like that. What of it?) We started the week off with a laugh and a wink before getting very serious for a moment. Of course, that’s until we found ourselves becoming quite excited about things just over the horizon.
Yes, we take April Foolery pretty darn seriously around here, and we weren’t about to let the first of the month pass us by without having a little fun with it. If you visited DCComics.com that day, you were treated to a slide suggesting we had revealed the newest Robin over the weekend at WonderCon. Of course, anyone who found that news to be worrisome really couldn’t have been farther off the mark, as the post you were taken to quickly revealed.
However, that was just the beginning of our fooling around that day. We also offered up some great joke ideas to play on a few of your favorite super heroes and villains. However, the real joke could be found in our “newly updated” character bios for Batman and Superman, and we didn’t come clean about it until the following day. It’s not surprising that we decided to have some fun with the fact that Mrs. Wayne and Mrs. Kent both have the same first name. What is surprising is how many of you thought our little joke would be a great idea for a real story twist!
Speaking of kids, if you have any young girls—or snowboarding enthusiasts—in your home, you may want to let them know about the Supergirl Snow Pro this weekend.
Moving on in the week, we announced our exciting C2E2 lineup. Yes, we know it feels like we just finished up with WonderCon. That’s because we just did.
Let’s give a very respectful, dignified and proper round of applause to Saucer Country and to Amanda Conner, who have been nominated for Hugo and Reuben Awards respectively. These are serious awards, so they deserve serious applause.
As we reached the end of the week, we announced a new wave of Annuals hitting shops in July. Any Animal Man fans who were hoping to see Travel Foreman take on Buddy Baker again are going to be pretty happy…
Of course, any Batwing reader who hasn’t read this week’s BATWING #19 yet is probably NOT going to be very happy if they click this link. That’s because it leads to today’s This Just Happened column, which spoils the issue’s big twist.
Finally, as good a week as this was, it closed on a sad note when we learned of the passing of beloved comic book artist and one-time DC Comics Publisher Carmine Infantino, who died on Thursday. Among other things, Carmine was responsible for redesigning the Flash, creating the Scarlet Speedster that comic book fans know today. We shared a few thoughts on Carmine’s passing and legacy here at DC Comics and in the industry as a whole, and of course offer our deepest condolences to his family and friends.
Yes, many flavors this week, some sweet and some somber. And we can expect even more next week. We’ll see you again in seven to discuss it!
Oh sorry, this keyboard doesn’t seem to work unless you really slam the keys. We’ll try to type a little quieter.
It’s time for another DC Week-In-Review, Bat-fans! And by now you’ve no doubt noticed that we spent much of this week partying like it was 1966, what with all of the great news and products breaking this week about the classic Batman TV show. But we’ll get to those in a moment.
First, let’s take a look at some upcoming DC Comics covers. The whole covers. Yes, we’ve been unveiling April’s gatefold covers in their full, unfolded glory, and man, some of them are shocking. They’re also pretty darn beautiful. Don’t believe us? You can check out all of the ones we’ve revealed so far right here. Man, we’re still speechless over that Batman and Robin gatefold.
Oh wait… We haven’t revealed that one yet. Sorry. (But wait till you see it!)
Masters of the Universe fans! The first issue of He-Man’s new monthly ongoing kicks off in a few weeks. By now, you’ve surely seen the variant cover, right? No, not this variant cover. This one. Yeah, it’s fun! But you’ll have to subscribe to the series to get it.
And speaking of Masters of the Universe, we also gave you your first look at the new issue. That Pop Mhan must be powered by Grayskull or something.
Wednesday brought with it a new edition of Ask DC Collectibles—this time all about the new Injustice: Gods Among Us line of action figures! They’re 3 3/4” which means you can now have Deathstroke take on that silent, sword-wielding ninja from that other popular franchise. You know you’ve been dreaming of it!
As for us, we’ve been dreaming of owning our very own super-pet one day. Now, thanks to our brand new Super-Pet Selector Quiz, we know exactly which one we’ll pick. But that’s not what matters. This column is for you, the fans. So do YOU know which costume clad critter is perfect for you? You don’t!?! Then take the quiz and find out!
Now, on to some talent interviews. Brian Azzarello has been killing it on Wonder Woman. Seriously, we love this series, and we love the guy writing it. And we especially love hearing him talk about the series, like he does here. Of course, we’re also pretty keen on Kyle Higgins so we’d call his thoughts on Nightwing’s current relocation a must read as well.
Do you have a spouse? Kids? Parents? Dog? Do you live in what could be called a household? How’d you like to be the hero of it? Because if you win this awesome prize package, that’s exactly what your family will call you. (And psst! You don’t need to have a full household to win. This stuff looks just as great in a studio apartment in Toledo.)
Harley Quinn’s quickly becoming a favorite character in both the Injustice game and comic series. The latest Injustice character trailer gives us a glimpse of her storyline—time to switch the relationship status to “It’s Complicated”—and a sweet, sweet surprise cameo by the Scarecrow.
Okay, time to hold the Bat-phone and stock up on shark repellent, the Batman Classic TV Series is coming back in a big way. First, we listed off the 5.2 reasons it’s the right time to dig the show.
Don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see some bell-bottom clad butt-kicking. (Yes, yes, we know that Batman doesn’t wear bell-bottoms on the show and likely won’t in the comic. But a fan can dream!)
That’s it for this week’s review. Join us again next week for a new column. Same bat-time, same bat—er, we mean… We’ll see you again in seven.
Unless you happen to be a scarlet-clad, single-syllable super hero, it can be really difficult to keep up with all of the great news and features to hit DCComics.com sometimes. Sure, most of it can be found right here in the blog, but there’s the video section as well. Have you visited it lately? The video section’s a pretty happening place these days, and it’s only gotten...er…happeninger since the start of Injustice Battle Arena. Why, this week alone we posted a dozen Battle Arena clips starring the likes of Kevin Smith, Jace Hall and one Mr. Stan Lee. (Maybe you’ve heard of him?)
But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. We’ll break down the Battle Arena in a moment, but first let’s take a look at the rest of what went down this week on the DC Comics website…
We started things out with our June group solicits, which featured several brand new, eagerly anticipated new titles. Titles like Superman Unchained, Batman/Superman and Trinity of Sin: Pandora (which you’ve gotta admit, sounds a little like a metal album). Of course, that’s just the start of what’s on tap for June. Check it out!
Of course, we can’t discuss this week without at least mentioning the three “Requiem” titles that hit shops this month—namely BATMAN #18, BATMAN AND ROBIN #18 (a completely silent issue) and BATGIRL #18, which just happens to be the subject of this week’s This Just Happened. Man, remind us never to complain about our slacker brother again. Also, bigtime spoilers at that link, so consider yourself warned.
Okay, let’s talk Injustice Battle Arena! This week, the tournament entered the quarter final round, which means we were treated to not one, not two, but FOUR high profile match-ups. Superman vs. Green Arrow! Aquaman vs. Green Lantern!The Flash vs. the Joker! Batman vs. Wonder Woman! (Seriously, how can you pick between Batman and Wonder Woman—and if you have to, how can you possibly pick Batman? C’mon, the dude has no super powers!)
But ultimately, this round, like the ones before them, was decided by votes. Your votes. And who did you vote for? Watch all four fights and learn who’s moving on by clicking the links below:
So, what did we learn this week? We learned that all it takes to bring down Green Lantern is a single piranha (at least according to Jason Mewes). We learned that there are some awesome sounding comics coming out in June. Like ridiculously awesome. Like so awesome, the mere thought of them sets our brains a-quiver (which is kinda gross, so we’re going to stop thinking of them for a little bit). And we learned that Stan is still the Man!
That’s it for this review. Have a great weekend and we’ll see you again in seven!
