We’re comin’ at’cha this week with all the bonus comics found in Volume 4: Atomic Robo and Other Strangeness available later in August. The first one was posted ages ago, but between moving, working, traveling, and PC to laptop to Mac switches it was only this afternoon I was finally able to get my hands on some Photoshop action to get them online for you fine folks. I wasn’t happy with posting them page-by-page as we’ve done in the past, so instead we’ll drop full four page payloads with every update. Like this one!

The new DC Universe Online trailer looks pretty cool. But their Superman really bugs me.

It’s not that they went with Dickhead Superman from the third movie to show, I guess, how the rigors of endless conflict with Luthor has dragged him off his moral high ground. Okay, it’s not just that, but it’s a good place to start I guess.

Then there’s the implication that there’s all this war, all this senseless destruction and death, and Superman is just kinda chillin’ out in space? It’s clear that he’s not unaware of what’s going on down on Earth (and elsewhere, but we’ll get to that in a minute) because he can hear Wonder Woman scream. So, he’s probably heard the screams of everyone else who died while he was up there.

I mean, you can try to sneak in a line about “self-imposed exile” all you want, but that doesn’t make it internally consistent with the character. This is Superman we’re talking about. He doesn’t do self-imposed exile when the fighting gets rough. He’s too injured to go on? Good thing it’s Superman then, ’cause he fights harder. Even if he knows it’ll kill him. That’s what he does, that’s what makes him Superman.

What he does not do is brood out in space growing a grimdark five o’clock shadow while a global war kills billions of people due to his inaction. In fact, if dictionaries worked this way, that’d be the dictionary definition of what Superman does not do.

But it doesn’t stop there! Superman’s final breath is spent telling Luthor he’s already lost everything. And then it’s revealed: Brainiac’s been waiting all this time to invade Earth and lol @ Luthor for wiping out all the super heroes so he can sweep in and steal the planet out from under him.

Okay, so now Superman not only takes a beard break from the war, but he’s plainly been aware of Brainiac’s machinations for who-knows-how-long and never made the slightest effort to stop it? Superman just let the Earth fall? Twice? In one afternoon? C’mon.

I know all this sounds like a lot of fanboyish nerdrage. And, hell, maybe it is. But what galls me about all this is how easy it would’ve been to do right by Superman without changing the plot. Because, really, when they were plotting out this video they had to ask “Why doesn’t Superman just stop this from happening?” And their answer was “Self-imposed exile.” That’s a terrible and clunky answer. They could’ve had their cake an eaten it too. Here’s how: Superman was already dead.

Have Luthor wearing Superman’s dirty and ripped up cape as his own cape or belt or flag. The implication is clear: Superman is dead and he has been for a long time. Though the kryptonite spear bit is pretty brutal, leaving it up to the viewer’s imagination is always going to be more brutal. The apocalyptic cityscape and subsequent invasion from Brainiac are no longer what Superman selfishly lets happen; they’re the tragic consequences of his death. The horrible future is still Luthor’s fault, he’d still want to go back, and holy shit, Supes’ ruined cape would be a hell of a selling point to the Heroes of the Past.

The only thing you lose with this version is seeing Superman in action. And, granted, they had some fantastic minimalist realizations of Superman’s powers in that video. But c’mon. You’re telling me they couldn’t have had Flash moving faster? Couldn’t have shown Black Adam being stronger?

I dunno. I’m just a big ol’ softie for Superman, and it’s always a disappointment when the focus is on how powerful he is as a plot device instead of how powerful he is as a character.

Check ’em out!

Matt’s churning out HIKYM pages again. The ball, she’s a-rollin’ again.

Meanwhile, I’ve got another top secret project in the works. The big third act twist this time? It ain’t comics! Stay tuned.

Well, one of my secret projects dropped earlier today. I’m writing an all new on-going series about Captain America’s World War 2 adventures!

The hook is that we’ll chronicle his earliest days in the war. He’s still a rookie, he’s the got the weight of the whole war on his shoulders, and no one really believes this flag with legs can do what the propaganda posters say he can.

Get the details from Marvel. Or Newsarama. Or CBR.

It’s a real honor to have a chance to play around with such an iconic character. I know people who love Cap have had to put up with a lot of goofy stuff over the years as people try to reinvent him or put their stamp on him or whatever. So, here’s my open letter to you:

Dear Cap Fans,

The Cap I’ll write may not be exactly the Steve Rogers you know, but only because he hasn’t become that yet. This is the story of how he went from that skinny kid from NYC who just wants to do his duty to the vanguard of American military strategy in the largest conflict in history.

Plus, we’ll totally punch out Red Skull.

Hope to see you there,

Brian!

Straight from the horse (molester’s) mouth:
In short: the server literally exploded! So our replacement parts are now, and have been, on order, and it takes a few business days for delivery. They are slated for arrival tomorrow and the server should be back up and running at that point. Currently we do not think there will be any data loss, it should all be intact.

In other news I’m back home after another successful Connecticon. I just want to thank everyone who came out and made it a success. Sorry to all my industry “peeps,” but between Scott Wegener having no clue what a bad idea looks like when he has one (that’d be Saturday night) and then me simply passing out stupid early Sunday night, I didn’t get much of a chance to hang with ya. Guess I’ll just have to come out again next year! Addendum: holy shit there were straight up three vendors with RPG books as 50% to 100% of their wares, not to mention the fourth vendor in the back with RPGs making up about 25% of his stock. It was bliss.

Closer to the home front, it sounds like the fine folks at Marvel will announce my newest project with them Wednesday. Stay tuned!

And right up the grille of the NP.com itself, I think Matt has finally got himself a PC with a clean non-viral bill of health. The punchy-kicky ball of How I Killed Your Master oughta be rolling again soon!