Luthor proves Superman is NOT an American

After weeks of digging and speculation, the 2012 Presidential hopeful, Lex Luthor finally found the evidence to prove Superman's "Alien" citizenship. Superman, who recently denounced his American citizenship, could not be contacted for comment. But many joggers who witnessed his "stroll" along America's Highways quoted Superman as saying, "Um... no... really... I'm from Kansas... I mean... Um... Metropolis... Crap... nevermind".

Many people interviewed were confused by Superman's "denouncing the American way", but we were able to speak with a random passerby. Widowed Martha Kent spoke about her deceased husband and his fondness for Superman. "I know Superman has his reasons, but my Jonathan always knew him to have a good kind heart. And I suspect he still loves baseball and apple pie... lets see what Clar... er Superman has to say in the weeks to come.", said Martha.

Its coming... Free Comic Book Day!

Free Comic Book Day is a single day - the first Saturday in May each year - when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely FREE* to anyone who comes into their stores. *Check with your local shop for their participation and rules. To learn more, Click here.

And what is CBXF doing this May 7th? Our very own Tracie will be doing free sketches at Krypton Comics. Please stop by and say hello & get a sketch!  The rest of the gang plan on seeing Tracie as well as a few other stores in town. Catch us as we do a podcast and see what each store has to offer. You also be sure to check out one or all of the LCS here in town. Here's a list of the Omaha Area Comic shops! Happy FCBD!

Krypton Comics,  Ground Zero Comics,  Dragons Lair,  Legend Comics,  Comic City

OCW - Week 5 : April : Klarion the Witch Boy

Well, Klarion has been seen a lot lately... but still is a bit of an unknown. The Witch boy and his Cat familiar have popped up in the new Young Justice cartoon, The Seven Soldiers of Victory, and a few others. If you'd like to learn more about Klarion, check him our here.

Tracie's Pull List - Week of Apr 27, 2011

We're about a week and a half away from THOR opening in the US, The Avengers started shooting yesterday and Free Comic Book Day is fast approaching.

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about comics right now.

Here's what I'm looking forward to this week:

Nerdgasm: Filmvengers Filmsemble

Chills. Tingles. Hot flashes. Sweaty palms. A little drool in the corner of the mouth.

The Avengers started filming yesterday under writer/directer Joss Whedon and Blog@Newsarama just shared this set photo from Entertainment Weekly and I'm going to have to go find somewhere to collect myself.

Yes, it's just chairs. I see that. But... but it's chairs SIGNIFYING that this is a REAL FOR-REAL THING THAT IS REAL AND HAPPENING AND REAL. They are making a movie right now where Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and The Hulk are going to team up and fight dudes or monsters or each other or each other and THEN dudes and monsters. And Hawkeye, Black Widow, Maria Hill, and Nick Fury will be there and they're all going to be in the same room together high-fiving each other. (maybe not high-fiving on screen... but in my head, they definitely are)

I don't now if they make buckets big enough to contain my drool as the Thor film is just a scant 9 days away from opening with Captain America following just two months after that. Then all the pieces will be in place, The Avengers will be starting it's 3rd month of shooting and I will have been moved to a padded cell somewhere to protect myself and others until Lord Whedon presents this monumental film to the world.

--And I don't think I'm overselling it when I say "monumental" because regardless of how the film turns out, it is still a movie where Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and The Hulk hang out and do/hit things.

I'm going to go breathe into a paper bag for a little while.

CBXF Mailbag

You know this has been on my mind ever since I first heard about Project Superman, but I think I finally understand why I don't follow Superman comics. It isn't like I dislike the character. While I never really got into the movies as a kid I loved re-runs of The Adventures of Superman and looked forward to Lois and Clark the New Adventures of Superman every week to say nothing of STAS.

I think my problem is that every time I look at one of his titles it is always has the author either trying nerf his powers or come up with some new outlandish villain that is a match for the Man of Steel. The thing is this Superman he is always going to win out I never have any doubt about that, there is no suspense. And more often then not it seems the solution to his problem ends up being him punching someone. I would love it if more stories where about him finding a clever solution instead of him just using brute force. I think one of the few recent authors that got was Joe Kelly (I really want to start to track down his run on Action). I think if any character needs to evolve beyond the current superhero model it needs to be Superman, he was the first and should continue to lead the charge.

The next matter is why I like Batman books over Superman books. I say books and not characters for a reason. I like the idea of Batman books more because of Gotham City. I think DC has done a big disservice to Superman by not building up Metropolis as much as Gotham. While Metropolis does have certain features it just seems to lack any real character of it's own, you can point out landmarks but you can't really describe the city. And it is a reason I think Superman books have never really taken off like the Batman books, it is much harder to ground a spin-off when it lacks a unifying element. The various Bat books have such a great leg up, Gotham provides a basic setting and mood that all the various can share (like Marvel had with the X-Men). I think while still do it do they really need to push the fact that Metropolis is a city full of science. I mean the one character that ever really did anything with that was Steel. 

OCW - Week 4 : April : Enforcer

Jon Frank's Enforcer

Jon added his contribution for the OCW this week.

OCW - Week 4 : April : Enforcer

Wasn't this a song by "Snow" in 1992? Ya know...

Enforcer, you no say that's who I'm gonna blame
a licky boom boom down
Detective man said Daddy Snow, I stabbed someone down the lane
a licky boom boom down!

OWC The Enforcer

This was my pick for this go-a-round. Always thought this was a nice, simple design. Reminds me a lot of the golden age Manhunter from DC. Anyway...




-Dr. G

Issue 28: Canceled Book Avengers!

Smallville Finale promises fanboy moments

We have plans to do a review of the finale of Smallville Finale, coming May 13th. iFanboy.com shows a teaser image of possible things to come.

Friendly Fire -Audio Podcast - Episode 4 (part1)

OCW- Fury

When I first heard we were going to do this, I was like, "Awesome a chance to draw a fetishist who pretends to be an animal for sexual gratification!"
Then I was told it was FURY, not FurRy.
So I was all, "White one or black one?"
They were all, "No FURY, not Nick FURY."
So I was like, "who?"
And they were "Pre-Crisis Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor's Daughter"
And I was like, "Pre-op Wonder Woman? Whatever, I am phoning this in."

Tracie's Pull List - Week of Apr 20, 2011

Mmm. Yes. Breathe in that crisp, New Comic Book Day air.

It's Wednesday and, once again, here's a rundown of the comics I'll be picking up with a few anecdotes as to why.

Feel free to join in with your own!

OCW - Week 4 : April : Enforcer

Each week we choose an obscure character and our team of artists & comedians will post their interpretations sometime the following week (Or later). We love getting submissions, but we can't guarantee we'll post them all. If you'd like to contribute your illustration for this or any past OCW, please email a jpeg to: Comicbxf@yahoo.com.  Check the blog later this week to see the next OCW posting!

This week's pick for the OCW was Dr. Geektarded's. He choice was Ghost Rider's obscure nemesis, "The Enforcer"! Ok, so he looks like the Punisher and wears a bullet-proof uniform, this "D" lister made his way into a handful of books across the Marvel plane before his demise at the hands of the Scourge in a now legendary Captain America run. For more on the Enforcer, check here.

CBXF Mailbag

We received an email and we couldn't help but responding.

Marvel needs to ****ing stop We are only four months into the year and how many major storylines has Marvel spoiled to the papers so far? This just ####ing ridiculous. We don't need speculators right now we need to grow the market. The worse thing is it robs every loyal reader of surprise that they spent issues worth of time and money to get to. Seriously #### you Marvel, #### you right up the ###. I am so happy I no longer given them any of my money.

Jaden

CBXF's Tracie responds...

I was going to attempt to avoid the story when I saw that news had broke in the New York Post, this morning, about upcoming changes in Ultimate Spider-Man but looking at the press release, it's not too horribly spoilery.

OCW - Week 3 : April : Fury

When I first started collecting comics, I discovered the series by DC, Who's Who. When I came across Fury, I was stunned. Wonder Woman has a daughter? I later learned that the Huntress was originally Batman's Daughter. I began to dig and learn all about the Multiverse and what came before. Fury has a rich and confusing background, but I really liked her look.

Events that shaped me as a reader of comics

With my last few stories sparking conversations, I wanted to list some of my favorite "Event" story lines. This is my top ten for one reason or another. These major story lines really affected me as a comic book reader/collector. Obviously this isn't the definitive, or shared opinion of the whole CBXF team. Its my own personal opinion. I know Monty wouldn't even have Blackest Night in the realm of possibilities, but I wanted to share what molded me as a Comic book reader. Please let us know if I missed one on your list. Or what would your order be?

OCW- Goldbug!

Wow, late to my own party here... This week was my pick and I went with Goldbug. I wanted to do a Luke Cage villain, because Power-Man is right now one of my favorite characters, but if you are like me, you don't know much about his swingin early stories. Goldbug is a Luke Cage Villain from back in the day and I love this rip off off Spider-Man and the Blue Beetle. Plus, his power is SQUIRTING GOLD GUNK ON YOU. I mean really.

OWC Goldbug

I'm soooooo behind. Sorry Rob. Here's Goldbug, the non-reincarnation of Bumblebee version)

-DG

Flashpoint... First Impressions

Yesterday, I wrote about Marvel's Summer contribution... and it sparked a bit of controversy. Mainly because of DC's event counter part... Flashpoint. I've been festering about my feelings towards Flashpoint for about a month... and what finally pushed me to the boiling over point was placing my DCBS order the other day. Honestly, it looks like a cool concept, but I have a few problems.

So what is Flashpoint? (Here's the wiki entry)

Cover of the Month: April

This month was really difficult to pick my cover for the month of March. There were a lot of great covers... but I went with the most visually striking. Justice League Generation Lost #21 by Dustin Nguyen was so profound I couldn't help but pick it for my Cover of the Month.

Thanks, Comic Geek Speak!

A few weeks ago, we met and interviewed Peter Rios and Brian "Pants" Christman from Comic Geek Speak. They were incredibly encouraging and asked us if we'd like to do a promo for our show and they'd play it on theirs. We jumped at the chance. We'll today they posted their "Indy" episode #1055 and at 16:38 you can hear our little promo. CGS is one of the best podcasts out there, and even though its bad business to send listeners to another podcast... CGS is one we listen to quiet often! Check the episode out here! Thanks again guys!

Tracie's Pull List - Addendum

Captain America The Fighting Avenger #1

I've been waiting for this book for so long that I seemed to have completely missed it on this week's shipping list.

The Fighting Avenger was meant to be a companion series to my beloved Thor The Mighty Avenger with the same sort of sensibilities and charm of that series but when Mighty Avenger was canceled, The Fighting Avenger was put aside and reshuffled. It was downgraded from ongoing to mini-series and from mini-series to one-shot, compiling the two issues that were completed into one giant-sized comic.

Regardless of that fact, I remain excited to read this tale from Atomic Robo writer/co-creator Brian Clevenger and the always delightful Power Pack art team of Gurihiru.

While I get whisked away thinking of what could've been, we do still have one last treat to look forward to from this once hopeful line of comics. Free Comic Book Day will see a Thor/Captain America: The Mighty Fighting Avengers team-up comic by the stellar Thor: TMA creative team of Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee.

And hey, if you happen to be in Omaha, NE on May 7, look me up.

OCW - Week 3 : April : Fury

Each week we choose an obscure character and our team of artists & comedians will post their interpretations sometime the following week (Or later). We love getting submissions, but we can't guarantee we'll post them all. If you'd like to contribute your illustration for this or any past OCW, please email a jpeg to: Comicbxf@yahoo.com.  Check the blog later this week to see the next OCW posting!

Lyta Hall... for a character that is obscure... she kind of has her hand in everything DC. She is the Post Crisis daughter of Steve Trevor & the Golden Age Wonder Woman on Earth 2. She was part of the team Infinity Inc. And she went on to marry Hector Hall, the Silver Scarab... After the Crisis it gets fuzzy. She got pregnant and gave birth the re-born Sandman (Morpheus) Daniel. Kind of... long story. THEN during Geoff Johns run on JSA, Hector Hall became the new Doctor Fate. I'm actually leaving stuff out. Yet, most people don't know who Lyta is. Hense... she is this weeks OCW. Check out the wiki link here.

Tracie's Pull List - Week of Apr 13, 2011

I used to do this sort of thing several years and few blogs ago but I thought I'd give it another try and invite any of you to join in with your own Pull Lists.

Here's a rundown of the comics I'll be picking up this Wednesday with a few anecdotes as to why.

Fear Itself, First Impressions...

I just finished reading the Book of the Skull & the first issue of Fear Itself warming me up for yet another summer filled with comic book events. I've been forcing myself to resist most spoilers and in the process knew almost nothing about the plot of this story before reading these 2 issues. My instincts and gut reaction to the 'hype" of Fear Itself was.."Ok Marvel is just making a Cross-over that will capitalize on two of their properties making their way to film this summer…Let hurry up and put out an event that showcases both Captain America and Thor." And to be honest… that is partly true. But as I read on and dug deeper into this, I found that Matt Fraction has woven a very interesting event, with huge depth and a back-story that doesn't need to be shoehorned into continuity like other cross-overs seem to suffer from.

OCW - Week 2 : April : Goldbug

I couldn't help it... He has a beetle on his chest, man! Its a Red-Ted Kord. It is! Anyway, sorry I didn't color it too much. I just wanted to get up a post.

OCW - Week 2 : April : Goldbug

Jon Frank's drawing of Marvel's Goldbug

Turning crap into pure gold! Check out this unusual villain from Marvel. Jon added this contribution to our OCW this week. Thanks for the drawing, Jon!

Whatever Happened to Wilddog?

A couple of weeks ago, at Kansas City's Planet Comicon, I saw a Cosplayer dressed like the hockey masked freak and it got me thinking. Hey DC? Whatever happened to Wilddog?

I’m not saying I miss this lousy DC version of Punisher, but haven’t we seen just about every old character from DC come out of the woodwork? Vixen, Red Tornado, Vigilante, Ambush Bug, and even Lobo have made a small comeback into DC of late. During the 52 series, we got a little slice of what the entire DC universe had been up to. But nothing about the Madman with the Hockey mask? Wouldn’t it be awesome if some really great writer took a whack at him? Like someone with a great reputation of restarting characters, like Geoff Johns. Can’t you see it, a Wilddog Rebirth? Come on DC, I know he was an all around lousy character. Not really one redeemable quality to him at all, really. I mean, I never read what was even going on with him in the Action Comics Weekly Series, way back in the mid 80’s. Ok, on second thought, Cancel this request. I don’t want a Wilddog come back. Please focus more on wonderfully handled characters like... um Walking Superman or Arsenal!

Friendly Fire -Audio Podcast - Episode 3

WHITE LANTERN REVEALED

Today, BRIGHTEST DAY #23 hits the stands and is expected to finally reveal the identity of the White Lantern.

Who is this mysterious entity that's been (somewhat dickishly) guiding Boston Brand all this time?

Rumor has it pointing to a character DC hasn't published for quite some time.

A character who's appeared in other media quite famously.

A character whose existence outside of the DC Universe is better known but who once met Superman.

I think we all know by now who it is.

Even More Quarter Bin Treasures from Planet Comicon

Flash issues# 74 -79 : The Return of Barry Allen

Another series of books I'm constantly searching for is Mark Waid's early run on Flash. These books are where I first discovered Mr. Waid, as well as the fact that the Flash can actually be cool. This run is still early on in his Flash lore. No Speed Force yet, no Impulse... but you can see the seeds being planted and the direction Waid is pointing as we are re-introduced to Golden Age speedsters, Max Mercury and Johnny Quick. Waid would eventually pull all the speedsters under this umbrella and give them something to tie them all together.

These specific issues are the "Return of Barry Allen"... well sort of. Is it really Wally's Uncle, returned from his heroic death in the Crisis? What has brought Barry back from beyond?

In issue 79, Waid tells a story of how fans were constantly asking, "Now that you are writing the Flash, when are you going to bring back Barry?" It turns out this story was meant to help fans appreciate Wally and pay homage to what Barry meant to Wally and the Flash legacy as a whole. Wally stops seeing Barry as a unrealistic icon and realizes that he can not only be his equal, but surpass his greatness as a hero and literally run faster than Barry ever did. In the process, The Flash's greatest enemy has returned... I don't want to spoil this any more than I already have, but Waid makes the hardcore Flash fan realize... Wally can fill those Flash boots.

OCW - Week 2 : April : Goldbug

Each week we choose an obscure character and our team of artists & comedians will post their interpretations sometime the following week (Or later). We love getting submissions, but we can't guarantee we'll post them all. If you'd like to contribute your illustration for this or any past OCW, please email a jpeg to: Comicbxf@yahoo.com.  Check the blog later this week to see the next OCW posting!

Who is Goldbug?  No clue. Comic Vine lists him as a minor villain, who was obsessed with gold. He has faced off against many heroes. Most notably, Power Man, Luke Cage! Care to read more and get ideas to send in some illustrations, Check out this link to Comicvine.com

Treasures from Kansas City's Planet Comicon 2011

Half the fun of going to comic conventions for me is the deals in the long boxes and cheap treasures. Every year I go through my comics and document issues I'm missing and then I get my fingers dirty as I flip through long box after long box seeing if I can't discover some cheap loot! Most of these finds aren't valuable... at least not financially. But each one is unique to my collection.

Legion of Super-Heroes issue #38
Why was this special??? When I started seriously collecting comics, Superman was put into a situation where he had to execute the 3 villains of Krypton in a pock-universe created by the Time Trapper. I was so lost. What was this pocket Universe, Who was the Time Trapper? I didn't understand what the ramifications of the Crisis were. And the Superman books kept mentioning this issue as important. I was led to believe Superboy died... But in this Pocket Universe, the Pre-Crisis Superboy still exisited. This was the book that documented his heroic passing and put an end to Superboy in the Post-Crisis DC World. I've been looking for this book since I began collecting comics. Once I saw that familiar flag and Superboy silouette, I knew I found gold.

OCW - Week 1 : April : White Lightning

Tracie's pick this week was the Impulse villain "White Lightning". I'll be honest, I did absolutely no research on her. And my color/inking job was super sloppy. But I really liked my pencils this week. So I included my original sketch. I'll say this about characters designed by Humberto Ramos, they are very curvy! Maybe we'll be more productive next week. Keep watching!

CBXF Exculsive, Our Own Rob Granito

I made this!!! See, I signed it!

Sources from ABC News, Newsweek, & Vibe along with reporters from Comicbook Crossfire have discovered that a plagiarist was right under our very nose. Early Friday, Comicbook Crossfire's very own Robb Blum was proven to have been a fraud. Robb was accused of falsifying professional credentials in order to get more people to view this very blog.

Smallville's Blue and Gold team - Re-visted

Earlier I was skeptical about how the Booster Beetle team would appear on camera... (Blue & Gold). Based on this photo... I feel a bit better. Now lets hope Beetle is equally treated. If you'd like to see more, check out this story from ComicAlliance.com.

Poorly Drawn Conclusions

The Wasp was asking for it!

More Photos from Kansas City's Planet Comicon 2011

Adult Costume Winner for Planet Comicon 2011 - Mr. Freeze!

Thanks to CBXF's trusted snap photographer, Tim Hamm we were able to document many incredible costumes from this year's trip to Kansas City. Thanks for catching so many great images, Tim! This earns you the title of CBXF's honorary "Peter Parker". (Unless you like Jimmy Olsen better?)