So this Blackest Night stuff is pretty cool.  I don’t read a lot of DC comics (and by this I mean any) on a regular basis, but I was getting a lot of suggestions from people that this was going to be a great book.  My intention was to stick to the 8-issue mini-series and not buy all of the tie-ins and spin-offs that are bound to be a part of this event.  However, when I went to my local comics shop last week, they didn’t have any more copies of North 40 so I used the money to pick up an issue of Green Lantern that serves as a prelude to DC’s new event series, Blackest Night.  I’m probably going to spoil things that happen in these books, so consider yourselves warned.

Green Lantern #43 (GL43) was totally creepy and a clear example of a comic that isn’t meant for kids.  It tells the back-story of the Black Hand (a character I have no familiarity with (like a lot of DC characters)) and how throughout his life he’s been surrounded by death.  I got what was going on and how he was selected to lead the Black Lanterns (a group of undead villains powered by black rings and a black battery in Space Sector 666), but what I don’t understand is why this is happening now.  Is it because Hal Jordan (The Green Lantern) and Barry Allen (The Flash) came back from the dead? Or is this one of the mysteries of Blackest Night?  The main things that might be missed if you didn’t read this issue are the life history of the Black Hand, his transformation into the leader of the Black Lanterns, and the fact that the Oa gnome with the scar on his face is the one who seems to have started the whole thing.

Upon finishing GL43, I went and dug up the Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) Blackest Night #0 (BN0) issue that I picked up back in May, but  hadn’t read (and was lucky to be able to find given the current state of my collection).  BN0 was a cool set up and bridged the gap between GL43 and Blackest Night #1.  I don’t know if that was necessary, but it’s interesting on its own and it was free.  The pages in the back describing the powers and members of the various groups representing the emotional spectrum was incredibly helpful and I referred back to it a number of times while reading Blackest Night #1, to summarize:

http://sinccolor.deviantart.com/art/Blackest-Night-114033719

Red = Rage
Orange = Avarice
Yellow = Fear
Green = Willpower
Blue = Hope
Indigo = Compassion*
Violet = Love
Black = Death

The main event, Blackest Night #1 was a really fun book.  Granted it was more set up for the most part (although it’s set up for the entire DC Universe), but a number of significant things happen.  Hawkpeople are murdered, Bruce Wayne’s skull gets carted around town (although I have suspicions that it isn’t actually Batman’s skull), and thousands of Black Lantern rings distribute themselves across the universe awakening the dead to serve in their mission to kill everything.  A nice background is given for the Green Lanterns of Earth, most of whom I have only the most cursory of knowledge of.  My only complaint is that in a few scenes names were being thrown around that I didn’t recognize and I wasn’t sure what the significance was.  The book made me want to know more though.  The artwork was top notch, and rendered an amazing number of characters (both living and dead) beautifully (and incredibly creepily).

I’m intrigued.  I will certainly continue with Blackest Night, and I’m even interested in checking out the stories that got everything to this point.

*Thanks to the commenter below for the correction.

For those that don’t know me that well, I’m an improvisational actor, among other things. I had an audition on Sunday that didn’t actually materialize, due an unforseen automobile accident with the directors. They’re okay, but I had driven in to the city, and parked in a place I need to pay 10 bucks to get out of, so I stepped round to the Wawa on 2nd street and South to get monies aforesaid. While strolling toward the Wawa, I stopped in front of the TLA, whose marquee indicated that VNV Nation was playing that night. I called my wife, asked if she was interested, and we got tickets.

Now, I never considered myself a huge techno or electro fan, but VNV Nation is good music. Nary a guitar, just drum machines, synths and keyboards, and the voice of Ronin Harris. Like I told PTB, it’s like early Ministry, sans the yelling, as Ronin’s voice is comprised of more dulcet tones than we typically hear from Alain Jourgensen. I don’t know the lyrics to any of the songs, but VNV puts on such a great show, I’m too busy dancing and shouting along with choruses I learn in the moment to care that I don’t know the words.

This from a guy who never quite gets comfortable with music lacking guitars.

But maybe life is changing. My real latest distraction right now? Autotune the News. Ever heard of T-Pain? Has the Vocoder and the Antares Auto-tuner burrowed its way into your brain through your ear in the last few years? The Brothers Gregory understand. They also understand that CNN and current events need some tarting up before the hoi polloi take notice. Thus, Autotune the News.

There are only 6 tunes at last count, but I frequently return to their YouTube account and play them all. Combine comedy with sterling beat production that Timbaland is embarassed he didn’t come up with, and gold is produced.

I can not do AtN justice by myself, so without further ado, check it.

One of the things I really like about MLD is the professional dedication to not allowing any personal bias impact our writing that each of our writers constantly displays. Unlike the current President of the United States who during the Major League Baseball All-Star game earlier this week seemed to forget that he needs to appeal to more than just a small group of fans of that other team from Chicago, we at MLD recognize that our audience is not only national, but global. We cannot make such a petty mistake as displaying any type of loyalty to a brand, sports team, corporation, musician, writer, artist, etc.

It’s just not appropriate.

Having said that, I’d like to welcome back to Major League Baseball Pedro Martinez. I hope he shoves a few 90 mile per hour fast balls up David Wright’s left nostril as the Phillies grind the Mets down with the back of their heel like a used up, spit out cigarette again this September.

And if he sucks on the field, I’m sure he’ll at least be good for a laugh. When a team sells out two out of every three games they can afford to spend a million dollars on renting a clown who used to be a brilliant athlete for two months on the off chance his tank’s not empty.

It’s been six months since our first post on MLD and I thought it would be fun to talk about some of the experiences we’ve had and milestones we’ve reached.

We’ve had hits from around the world, which is always incredible to me.  Seeing pageloads from all over North and South America, Europe and Asia is pretty cool.  Still waiting for Australia, Africa and Antarctica, along with 10 states.

While we haven’t gotten as many comments posted here as we’d like, there has certainly been a great response and great support from the people reading the site.  If you’re hesitant to post your reactions here, don’t be.  You’re among friends who would love to hear what you think.

Some of the feedback we have received has helped with a lot of our site updates and changes we’ve made to our navigation since we started out.  Hopefully, you can find anything you’re looking for when you’re on the site, and any suggestions are always welcome.

The searches that have been used to get here are probably the most fascinating part of the site to me.  Countless people have found us searching for “floories” along with “male nudity”, “tearjerkers“, “how to roast peppers for human consumption” and various spellings of “Djurjevic“.  Of course there’s always the odd search for “pocky” every now and then.

Thank you for the attention you’ve paid to MLD.  It’s great to know that there are people out there enjoying what we’re doing.

I know Blackest Night shipped this week, but for me THE comics event of the Summer started last week with the debut of Wednesday Comics #1. Wednesday Comics is exactly the type of outside the box project I wish we saw more of today. DC has collected some of the biggest names in comics including the Newbery Award winning Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred, Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Rizzo, Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook, Paul Pope, Kyle Baker, Walt Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze… the list just goes on an on… to work on a weekly series styled after the Comics section of the Sunday newspaper. Giant, full color, one-page stories will run over the next 12 weeks starring Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Sgt. Rock, Metamorpho, the Teen Titans, Hawkman, and more. Each page is four times the size of a regular comic page and looks amazing.

To publicize the event, DC struck a deal for the entire Superman story to run on USAToday.com in weekly installments. The first part of the story was even published in the print edition of that paper (though let’s be honest… in 2009 more people are reading the online version than the print edition). I don’t know that this is going to bring a ton of new people into stores looking for the full version of Wednesday Comics, but it’s still something beyond what we normally see in terms of promotion.

I’m typically a story guy. The writing is what keeps me coming back to a book month after month.  And if there’s anything that seems clear from WC #1, it is that you’re probably not going to get a particularly satisfying piece of any story on a given week. Most of the features in issue one are heavy on origin and back story.  This is ok in my opinion because how many people know ANYTHING about Kamandi or Adam Strange or even Deadman? The one story that I DID really enjoy, however, was Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred’s Metamorpho: The Element Man.  That comic was just retro fun.  While the story doesn’t seem to be the focus in WC, it took a surprisingly long time to read the issue and there’s definitely enough story to not leave you feeling short changed.

Really it’s clear right from the second you unfold a copy of Wednesday Comics and finally grasp the size of each page that this project was always about the art.  The opening Batman story isn’t anything special, but starting with page 2 and 3 with Kamandi and Superman I had a giant grin on my face as I read through the issue like a 1o year old in 1964. I love the retro designs of the Green Lantern story, the strange oddly faceless art on Teen Titans, the otherworldly colors on Wonder Woman, the intensity of Sgt. Rock and Easy Company. I suspect the Demon/Catwoman team-up is going to be great fun. I like the idea of the Flash page being split up between a Flash story and a parallel story featuring his future wife.

However, the two absolute highlights are Kyle Baker’s art on Hawkman and Paul Pope on Strange Adventures.  Kyle Baker is a guy who I’m only really familiar with his cover artwork for projects like The Truth and Plastic Man both of which had a cartoony feel to them.  His Hawkman, however, leaps off the page and into action (apparently featuring the Aquaman-esque ability to control birds… is that normal?  If so, I never knew that.)

There’s something about Paul Pope’s odd art and the attacking Rock-People of Ragathann… I guess the way it revels in its pulp roots… that I just love.

To me THIS is a book worth $4.  And that’s something I can’t say about too many other books on the market. Yes, this review is a week late. I intended to skip it and just review issue 2, but my shop was sold out.  AGAIN.  Good sign or bad sign?

PS Dan Didio go away.  Stop writing comics.  Stop editing comics.  There’s no reason for your writing to be in this book except that you keep chasing the talented writers away from DC… having said that thanks for allowing DC to try something special.