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Find out what happens in the latest installment of Jun Mochizuki's latest epic adventure tale, The Case Study of Vanitas , the same day as Japan! |
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Supergirl finally enters the world of INJUSTICE! Witness her origin on Krypton, the planet's tragic fall, and learn just who will be her guide on Earth. |
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Waves of zombies just keep coming, first in the Call of Duty®: Zombies games, and now from Dark Horse Comics! The Tranzit crew find themselves in an unfamiliar location, scattered and disoriented. And as they face a new type of enemy, it becomes clearer than ever that they need each other to survive. Stuhlinger and Russman aren’t used to having teammates, but Misty and Marlton will have to convince them to band together if they all want to make it. |
![DC COLLECTIBLES [JANUARY 2018] RELEASES: PRE-ORDERS](http://www.dccomics.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_teaser/public/field/image/Spot_2_660x480_v01_r02_594c6076af51e8.76274745.jpeg?itok=ds7p0DBS)
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Welcome to New Vulcan! Uhura and Spock adjust to life in the growing colony...and discover an ancient secret that could change the destiny of Vulcans forever! |
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#1 New York Times Best Seller! Following his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed run on Detective Comics, writer Scott Snyder (American Vampire) alongside artist Greg Capullo (Spawn) begins a new era of The Dark Knight with the relaunch of Batman, as a part of DC Comics—The New 52! After a series of brutal murders rocks Gotham City, Batman begins to realize that perhaps these crimes go far deeper than appearances suggest. As the Caped Crusader begins to unravel this deadly mystery, he discovers a conspiracy going back to his youth and beyond to the origins of the city he's sworn to protect. Could the Court of Owls, once thought to be nothing more than an urban legend, be behind the crime and corruption? Or is Bruce Wayne losing his grip on sanity and falling prey to the pressures of his war on crime? |
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NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series SANDMAN is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in graphic storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision.  In PRELUDES & NOCTURNES, an occultist attempting to capture Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his seventy-year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power. On his arduous journey Morpheus encounters Lucifer, John Constantine, and an all-powerful madman. This book also includes the story "The Sound of Her Wings," which introduces us to the pragmatic and perky goth girl Death.  Collecting issues #1-8, this new edition of PRELUDES & NOCTURNES features the improved production values and coloring from the Absolute Edition. |
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Scott Pilgrim is dating a high schooler, but when Ramona Flowers starts skating through his brain, everything changes. While Scott pursues Ramona, someone else has their sights set on Scott: HER SEVEN EVIL EX-BOYFRIENDS. If he wants this relationship to work, he needs to defeat them all--but even that herculean task might not be enough! Bryan Lee O'Malley's epic graphic novel series returns in this series of remastered, full color editions. Including all-new bonus materials, this book is a must have for all Scott-a-holics. |
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WHY WE LOVE IT: STEVEN UNIVERSE? is a show that captured our hearts almost immediately. We’ve been fans of Rebecca Sugar’s from her work on ADVENTURE TIME for years and as the first lady to run her own show at Cartoon Network, we couldn’t wait to collaborate with her! WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT: A comic about a boy and his friends living in a small beach community, who just happens to have magical powers and fight monsters on the side?! Fans of ADVENTURE TIME and Sailor Moon are gonna dig this series presented in a zine-like format of mini-comics, recipes, games, and more! WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Steven really wants to enter the annual Beach City Bike Race but everyone else is a little worried. Steven just makes the cut-off for age, which means the other bikers will be a lot older than him. Connie agrees to help Steven the old-fashioned way through good ol’ exercise but Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl have other plans... |
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The wait is over! Ever since the conclusion of Avatar: The Last Airbender , its millions of fans have been hungry for more—and it's finally here! This series of digests rejoins Aang and friends for exciting new adventures, beginning with a faceoff against the Fire Nation that threatens to throw the world into another war, testing all of Aang's powers and ingenuity! * The continuation of Airbender and the link to its upcoming sequel, Legend of Korra ! * Written by Gene Luen Yang, author of the National Book Award-nominated American Born Chinese . |
By: Jaclyn Cascio (@jaclynator)
Danish visual effects supervisor Tim Smit took a gamble, taking his 2009 short film piece and expanding it into a full-length feature film in his directorial debut. Initially released in video-on-demand format with a limited theatrical release last week, how did Smit’s project fare? Read on for a review of Kill Switch!
Kill Switch is a creative twist on a cliché concept. Time travel and multiverse tropes have been explored in both television and film fairly extensively. Kill Switch jumped on the multiple universe bandwagon, and who can blame them? There’s a lot of potential there! The redeeming factor in Smit’s project is that it dove into the potential of the trope, by telling the story of how the new universe came to be. In a current political climate focused on renewable energy, Kill Switch is relevant to the issues of the world today. What if we could create another universe to pull unlimited energy from without hassle or harm? It’s a great concept to build from (even if, like all science fiction films, the futuristic technology goes predictably awry).
The plot of Kill Switch is promising. A new man-made universe designed to be devoid of organic life that will serve as an energy source for our world, but things don’t go exactly as planned… It sounds like a sci-fi hit. However, even a promising plot can be poorly executed. And that’s where the trouble with Kill Switch begins. An interesting concept was lost in the chaos of first person perspective, under-developed characters, and slow pacing. A great idea was put into action in a creative form, but that unique story-telling strategy was ultimately ineffective.
With a history in visual effects, it’s no surprise that writer/director Smit pursued the idea of telling the story using first person perspective, much like a video game. Merging movie fun with video game media is a high aspiration, and with the advancement of VR technology, there might be a future in it. But if Hardcore Henry taught us anything, it’s that first person perspective story-telling in movies isn’t fun to watch (yet). The concept works well for video games, where the player has control of where to look, where to go, and what to do. But that perspective without freedom to choose can get boring fast. We only want to be the hero (or the villain) if we have the freedom to act. If we lack the freedom, then most of us are perfectly content, as viewers, to watch the lead play the part. Kill Switch had some stunning special effects, especially considering its limited budget, and the undertaking of first person perspective was perfectly in line with video game expectations. Small details such as slowing down the action and movements during first person perspective shots for the viewer’s convenience is a sign of the expertise of the visual effects talent behind the camera. But we still lose the opportunity to watch the lead in action.
Losing the opportunity to watch the lead work is especially tragic in Kill Switch because we lose out on the wonder that is Dan Stevens. Ridiculously beautiful blue eyes aside, Stevens is an extremely talented actor, capable of selling his performances, sometimes without saying a word. Skilled enough to subtly express emotion or mood with body language and facial expressions alone, Stevens is a force to be reckoned with. (His work on Legion and Downton Abbey speaks for themselves.) But due to the first person perspective of much of the film, Kill Switch was never able to unleash the full force of Stevens in the most effective way possible. He did some commendable voice acting for the role, and the moments he was on screen were a treat, but he could have been so much more useful to the story in other ways.
By not employing Stevens fully, emotional connection to characters was difficult to establish. It is difficult to make a character appealing when the audience can’t even see them. Compounding the lead character problem is the lack of development of supporting characters and the relationships among characters. First person perspective forces interaction with the environment, but the strength of film projects generally doesn’t come from the environment. It comes from the characters interacting within that environment. With the lead character alone for some time, exploring the alternate universe to try to figure out what was happening, there was some difficulty getting into the story. (It’s not easy to get excited about watching someone search for a cell phone or first aid supplies.) Then, even worse, when new characters were introduced the audience was expected to get on board with the history between the characters with very little background information. Without emotional investment in the characters, the final choice that the lead character had to make lacked the intended impact. The “cost” of the decision should have been something the audience could empathize with, but lack of connection reduced the cost to negligible proportions. The resulting apathy is the opposite of the desired reaction a film-maker wants from the audience, yet apathy is what resulted from characters without character.
Kill Switch currently stands with a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.6/10 on IMDb. The film had a lot of potential with tools (story, technology, and talent) available to make it great, but it fell short of that greatness by a long-shot. No one really wants to dislike something fan favorite Dan Stevens is a part of, but Kill Switch stretches the love anyone has for Stevens (and first-person shooter games) beyond the breaking point. It is an unfortunate 91 minutes that could be spent actually playing and enjoying a video game instead of trying to watch one.
By: Peter Cimpoe
The greatest foe a potential X-Men reader will ever face is where to start. I’ve encountered countless fans of the movies, cartoons, and video games who have never read an X-Men comic. They love the X-Men as a superhero team, but they are intimidated by the sheer volume of comics and compendiums available to them. Most guides that I have encountered recommend either Grant Morrison’s run of New X-Men or Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men. Both are excellent, easy to pick up, solid runs. However, neither are responsible for what the X-Men are about in our cultural consciousness. And no, Stan Lee was never the major force behind the X-Men as we know them today and anyone who’s read Stan Lee’s era of the X-Men can attest to that being a good thing! Chris Claremont was the creative spark that shaped the X-Men comics into everything we love about the X-Men. He was the hand that turned a team of teenagers into a powerhouse of compelling and equally complicated characters. And yet, despite all this, his name has never held the same literary prestige as Frank Miller or Alan Moore. While Frank Miller and Alan Moore’s writings are described as gritty, adult and groundbreaking, Claremont’s writing is too often described as “camp.” And I agree! But again, that’s a good thing. Chris Claremont’s heavy hand is exactly the reason why anyone interested in the X-Men should read his run if they want to know what the X-Men are really about. Claremont and camp are what define the X-Men. Dark and serious do not equal better storytelling and I don’t think “campy” is an intrinsically a bad trait. Fans interested in reading Claremont’s X-Men run shouldn’t be advised to look past the campy qualities in order to experience the great stories. They should embrace the camp as a central part of what’s great about the X-Men universe. And no piece of Claremont’s writing better exemplifies this statement than the Dark Phoenix Saga.
The Dark Phoenix Saga is, without a doubt, the most iconic X-Men story. It is a superhero classic. Comic book critics will usually include it on their list of must-read comics of all time. And yet, despite all the accolades that are heaped on the saga, I am often dismayed to read the standard accompanying footnote that follows Claremont’s name: It is dated and it is “of its time.” People knock down the comic book’s style of artwork, which is ridiculous, because Dave Cockrum and John Byrne created a visual narrative that is animated and effective. There is movement to the panels, a sense of urgency and speed. Another common criticism of Claremont’s work is that there is too much dialogue, that it is overly narrated and unnecessarily dramatic. Anyone who doesn’t like wordy narration and over-the-top dramatics should probably steer clear of reading Watchmen or any other works by Alan Moore then. Most often criticized is the tie-in deal Marvel had with Casablanca records to create a disco-themed superheroine, Dazzler, and shoehorn her into the main Dark Phoenix story. Do I wish that this part of the story were omitted from the overall plot? Absolutely not. It’s ridiculous but it’s also memorable and it’s a fun read! Disco doesn’t ruin the Dark Phoenix Saga anymore than the Batmobile ruins Batman. It’s silly but that’s what separates superhero comics apart from other mediums and genres. We enter these spaces for a special kind of pandemonium that only exists in comics and we stay for the titillating story and endearing characters. Claremont’s X-Men innovated the superhero genre and created a new kind of comic book soap opera. Removing the camp element would be to take out what is most integral to X-Men comics. When you make the X-Men dark and serious and take out the improbable, you don’t invariably end up with War And Peace.
Perhaps my greatest issue with the whole “Chris Claremont is dated” statement is the word “dated” itself. Claremont, beyond anything else, was incredibly ahead of his time. His work heavily featured powerful women (he transformed the unimpressive Marvel Girl into the powerful Phoenix) and he had a black woman, Storm, lead the X-Men team in an era when neither women nor black characters led major superhero teams. Claremont subtly hinted at LGBTQ characters existing in this universe. He did this at a time when Marvel editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter, explicitly forbade homosexual characters from appearing in Marvel comics. Claremont was behind the first openly LGBTQ character at Marvel – Northstar – and he had originally intended for Mystique and Destiny to conceive of Nightcrawler together naturally. This idea was quickly shot down by the Marvel execs but Claremont did not quite back down either. He made it so that Mystique and Destiny’s partnership could be interpreted as one that was romantic in nature, albeit between the panels. Years later, Mystique and Destiny’s romance would become officially canon as the times caught up with Claremont. On the flip side, modern adaptations of classic Claremont X-Men stories have taken a non-progressive step backwards. Bryan Singer’s film adaptation of Days of Future Past is a prime example. Most major key players in the original comic were women. They propelled the plot forward and remained integral to the story, while the film replaces almost all major female characters with male leads. Mystique remains central to the movie’s plot; however, her motives and relationships are warped to the point where she seems to function as an extension to the men that surround her. Claremont’s Days of Future Past, on the other hand, was far more progressive in comic book form than it ever was on screen some decades later. Perhaps this is all to say that Claremont dared to take chances during a time in history where it was considerably more difficult, inflammatory, and dangerous to do so and he did because he knew that these were the stories that he needed to tell. And they were important stories told in the only way that he knew how to tell them: the Chris Claremont way.
If you don’t know where to start with X-Men comics but want the pure, essential X-Men experience, read Chris Claremont’s run. If you want a more conventionally palatable comic book featuring X-Men characters, pick up Joss Whedon’s or Grant Morrison’s books. Both are excellent, but Claremont’s run will always be at the core of what defines X-Men comics. After overcoming the decision of where to start, the second greatest enemy the X-Men reader will ever face is the enduring concept that X-Men comics are a chronological story with the faintest idea of continuity. Don’t expect one answer for why Professor X is in a wheelchair or what Cyclops’ eye beams are able to do. That’s also part of the package. It’s part of the overreaching, space opera dynamics that make the X-Men so great.
