Since you readers already know how much we enjoy the comic book stuff here at the PiercingMetal Command HQ, I had to take a moment to make sure that you know that the new fighting game “Injustice: Gods Among Us” will be available tomorrow…..

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After having reviewed what seems to be a teeming amount of the releases from DC Comics under their “The New 52″ initiative, I admit that I have come to really enjoy presenting some views to our readers and fellow fans of the hobby. Newcomers might not realize that DC Comics started their relaunch back in September 2011, and so far its been broken up into a number of waves. Some titles from back when this began are already long gone and in some sense even a couple of replacements have been cancelled but the new titles always leave us with 52 different titles a month. That being said, we are now at The Fourth Wave of titles and what is interesting to me is how it has been about ten months since we last saw a wave be introduced. The unaffected family of titles falls to the Superman and Green Lantern ones (each currently have four titles per month) but there will be some more coming later in the year for these. I will discuss those at that time.

Starting in February of this still brand new year 2013, DC Comics will hit us hard with their Fourth Wave of The New 52 titles and while I will get to the new titles in a few sentences, let’s first take a look at the titles that will be going away. On the cancellation block are “Blue Beetle”, “Frankenstein, Agent Of S.H.A.D.E.”, “Grifter”, GI Combat” and “Legion Lost”. Of the batch of them I think I am really only going to miss the “Franksenstein” title since it was a fun read and quirky at times. Maybe we will find him being called upon in the “Justice League Dark” title since he seems to fit the criteria of being one of DC Universe’s “weirdies”. The reasons I will not really miss the rest are simple. I have not enjoyed the integration of the Wildstorm characters into the traditional DC Universe so that means “Grifter” didn’t win me over. It did have some moments but I always felt these characters were out of place. This was so much different an integration from when DC took all the Charlton Comics characters under their wing after the “Crisis On Infinite Earths”. The war titles I have never been sold on and they are a far cry from the original greatness of Kanigher and Kubert and titles like “The Haunted Tank”, “Sgt. Rock” etc. I preferred the original Blue Beetle title (well, the one with Ted Kord at least) and I felt that The Legion Of Super Heroes was best left in the future with the occasional trip to the past. That’s all I have to say about that.

Joining “The New 52″ for this Fourth Wave are “Justice League of America”, “Justice League of America’s Vibe”, “Katana”, “Threshold” and “Constantine”. So what do I think for this go round? I’m very open to an additional Justice League title but am not sure what to expect of this particular team. “JLI” was interesting in it’s own right so let’s see what happens. “Vibe” was never a compelling character to me when he was in the way back in the day “JLA” of the 90′s so his getting a title struck me rather strange. “Katana” I always enjoyed from her original appearance as an Outsider and she did fine with the Birds Of Prey so perhaps this one will stick. “Threshold” brings some characters from other titles into a more cosmic playing field and I think we needed that outside of what Green Lantern or Superman often give us. “Constantine” will be the one with the most attention as it finds the Brit now fully entrenched in the conventional DC Universe as opposed to Vertigo where his “Hellblazer” title just finished at issue #300. Constantine is also a member of the Justice League Dark but this new title will likely allow him to interact with other heroes and villains of the DCU. I’m most intrigued about his happenings. So what do you readers think? The comments are open for opinions and of course we shall be striving to review many of these titles going forward.

Official Website: www.dccomics.com

Readers can peruse all of our existing blogs about “The New 52? by using this tag – http://www.piercingmetal.com/wordpress/?tag=the-new-52

I’m getting to this a little past the show’s premier, but that was based on my being busy with all the posts involving the NY Comic Con 2012 so please pardon me for the lapse. In any event, DC Comics has given us a live action television series called “Arrow” which will bring to life the adventures of a hero we know and love called Green Arrow. The official byline is below:

The television series iteration of the DC Comics character stars Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, an eccentric billionaire who was recently discovered alive on a deserted island after having been presumed dead for five years. Queen returns to Starling City and begins moonlighting as a crime fighter. Arrow premieres on Wednesday, October 10th.

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Just for one month…….

New readers might not be aware of this right off the bat but my longer term ones do and that is that I’ve been trying to do more and more comic book related narratives here on the Official Blog for PiercingMetal.com; So far I’ve presented dozens of pieces on the DC Comics initiative for “The New 52″ and that leads me to their next big move which is offering up their readers “0″ issues. Speaking personally, I guess I would have started off the line with that, but I guess it was a nicer idea to put 52 brand new number ones in the hands of fans when they started this last September. Now with the first anniversary of this grand undertaking just coming up they are marking the occasion by doing something special once again. Every title published during September will be issue “0″. Make room in your collection for them.

My plan is to wrangle up as many copies of these issues as possible and deliver narratives in the same kind of segments that I did with the other titles (in essence, a posting for Batman titles, Superman, Green Lantern, The Justice League and so on). It works better for keeping the focus on the mythos for those heroes and makes more logical sense. Until then please stay tuned.

Official Website: www.dccomics.com

I’ve been reviewing as many of the titles as possible here on the PiercingMetal Musings blog for the big September 2011 initiative by DC Comics that they called “The New 52″ and now that the first and second wave have passed it is time for, yep you guessed it, the Third Wave. It sure seems kind of soon but oh well, I am not in charge of how they do things over at DC Comics. So what does this one entail? Well according to what I have read the latest titles to get the chopping block are “Justice League International”, “Captain Atom”, “Resurrection Man”, and “Voodoo”. I was always kind of 50/50 on these books in the first place and am not surprised to see some of them go. I did enjoy “JLI” and “Resurrection Man” but even the redo of this last character was better the first time around. “Captain Atom” kind of lost me, and “Voodoo” never really did it for me. Sorry to those creative teams who put them out there, I mean no offense to your work. I guess I am getting fussy about what I sit down and read these days.

The other day DC Comics let on what the Third Wave of titles would be and those are “Talon”, “Sword of Sorcery”, “Phantom Stranger”, and “Team 7″. Let’s look at where they will land as far as the existing family of titles go. Nothing is being added to the Justice League, Young Justice, Green Lantern or Superman titles with this bunch but “Talon” falls to the “Batman” related titles and now gives that family of releases thirteen titles. Holy printing press Batman that is a lot of titles to keep up on. One title joins “The Edge” roster and two more become part of “The Dark”. What do I think for this go round?

I’m curious about how “The Phantom Stranger” will do in a full on title because the overall mysterious nature of the character leaves him to be most exciting when used in a sparing fashion. “Sword Of Sorcery” brings back Amethyst Princess Of Gemworld to the DC Universe and offers a backing feature with Beowulf. As far as Team 7 goes, I am not sure. I was only ever a casual fan of the title when it was originally in the Wildstorm world so let’s see what happens. What do you readers think?

Official Website: www.dccomics.com

Readers can peruse all of our existing blogs about “The New 52″ by using this tag – http://www.piercingmetal.com/wordpress/?tag=the-new-52

Perhaps I should not have been surprised about this but I guess that I actually am just the same. It seems that the folks at DC Comics will be offering fans of the legendary maxi-series “The Watchmen” a series of titles that let us know what happened before that whole store went down. The title is “Before Watchmen” but before you ask, neither Alan Moore or Dave Gibbons who created the original story will not be involved in the series run.

I loved the original series and have read it several times over the years but I kind of felt that what was done was done. I am not too sure that I agree with doing prequels for many of the characters without the guy who created them in the first place, but DC Comics thinks we will enjoy it. Despite my reservation about the whole thing, I do think that the characters they selected will make for some interesting tales and am willing to give them a shot. Starting in June we shall see the following titles come out at comic shops and specialty stores everywhere. I’m pretty sure that we shall see trade paperbacks coming out to collect them all in one place because that is what has been happening for a few years now.

Before Watchmen: Minutemen #1
Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre #1
Before Watchmen: Comedian #1
Before Watchmen: Nite Owl #1
Before Watchmen: Ozymandias #1
Before Watchmen: Rorschach #1
Before Watchmen: Dr. Manhattan #1

Here are a couple of relevant links related to “The Watchmen”; If you’ve not yet read the amazing story or seen the very entertaining live action version then please use these to get up to speed. You can learn more about the original “Watchmen” series from the Wikipedia entry HERE.

As our readers know, we have been offering up some reviews of the recent crop of comics from the DC Comics line and adding them to our ever expanding Comic Booking It narratives and Convention Adventures coverages. Doing that sort of thing made this little bit of news something that I wanted to share with you all since it seems that we have come to a time when the illustrious DC Comics is opting to change their logo. I did some internet searching and downloaded some publicly available images of their logos from across the years and will offer up a little homage to them all as we approach the company newness. This has been covered by a number of other comics centric bloggers but I felt like tossing my own thoughts into the mix as well. Here is the company’s first one from 1940. Around this time the world at large had only recently heard of the mighty Superman and fantastic detective Batman. That must have been way cool to have such interesting new characters coming to life on the illustrated page.

DC Comics - 1940

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It’s been a few months since DC Comics began their “The New 52″ initiative for their fans and while some of it has been solid, there have also been some lackluster moments in the run of titles. The announcement came that the following titles would be ending after their eighth issues (“Blackhawks”, “Hawk and Dove”, “Men of War”, “Mister Terrific”, “O.M.A.C.”, and “Static Shock”). I will be honest here and say that I will not miss most of the ones that are being cancelled with the exception being “Hawk and Dove” based on my always liking the characters along with “O.M.A.C.” as it was different and just a little bit of “Mister Terrific” since it was becoming more interesting. I had never been a fan of the Blackhawk angle and war comics just don’t appeal to me unless it was something more classic like we got with “Sgt. Rock” or the strangeness of “Weird War Tales”.

The Second Wave titles are “Earth 2″, “World’s Finest”, “Batman Incorporated”, “The Ravagers”, “G.I. Combat” and “Dial H”. The way the titles are being segmented is with two going to the Justice League family of titles while one apiece goes to Batman, Young Justice, The Edge and The Dark. No additions or subtractions will affect the Superman and Green Lantern titles with this go round. Only time will tell if this will change, but right now these families of titles only have four books apiece so they might leave well enough alone if the sales remain strong.

Am I excited about any of these? Well yes and no. I am intrigued by “Earth 2″ and “World’s Finest” since they present a different heroic timeline and reality while the latter title takes the time honored place of Superman and Batman and gives the limelight to Power Girl and The Huntress. That should be interesting. Not so much keen on the Batman Incorporated title but will enjoy seeing “Dial H” back in action. As far as the new war title, let’s see what it offers. My review plans for these books will find them being included in the ongoing family of titles postings. It makes the most logical sense to do it like that.

Official Website: www.dccomics.com

Readers can peruse all of our existing blogs about “The New 52″ by using this tag – http://www.piercingmetal.com/wordpress/?tag=the-new-52

As previously blogged about in the PiercingMetal Musings; DC Comics recently re-launched a number of titles and started them off from issue #1 under the branding of “The New 52”. The initiative’s prime objective being to up the number of titles available each month and to offer new readers an easier chance to jump on board with their characters. The New 52 titles have been grouped into eight specifications such as Green Lantern or Batman themed titles. Last month we blogged about as many of the individual first issues as we could get our hands on and segmented each of the posts based on what family they fell into. Here is our continuation of the overview with the second issues of the Superman family of titles.

The New 52: Superman #2

Superman #2: I admit to being left a little for want with the debut issue of Superman in “The New 52” so I was eager to see if the second issue would snap me to attention a little bit more. The cover definitely intrigued me and found the Big Red S being pummeled into a building by some invisible assailant. OK so it’s nice to see that he already has his hands full and is not near omnipotent (that was always an issue with the original Superman of several decades ago). The assailant appears to have some kind of a Kryptonian connection because we find it speaking the language to our hero but the rationale behind its ire is still unclear. Eventually the Man Of Steel comes out on top but if you think his troubles are over you are far off the mark here. As it closed up I found myself a little more interested than I expected to be. It’s going to take a little while to get used to Lois and Clark merely being acquaintances and I am still not sold on his “loner” angle. I guess this particular revisionist view is doing that to a lot of people.

The New 52: Action Comics #2

Action Comics #2: Did not review.

The New 52: Superboy #2

Superboy #2: This issue gives us a lot of behind whooping as the people behind the apparently devious Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. put our anti-hero into the middle of an alien prison breakout. Suffice it to say there is not as much dialogue that reveals any deeper insight into his creation but we do get a solid representation of some of his powers. I hope that we don’t wait endlessly for some rationale behind his creation as that will get tedious. Wondering how long it is before he is a part of the Teen Titans and his origin is revealed. Not too bad for the sophomore issue.

The New 52: Supergirl #2

Supergirl #2: Kara Zor-El had landed on Earth but we begin with a flashback to her not too distant past where she appears to be a teenage girl who is caring for her little baby cousin Kal-El back on Krypton. When she flashes back to today’s world she is facing a grown up Superman who she does not yet know was this same baby from her last memory. There is a lot of fighting between the two of them while she tries to get used to her powers and all the while Superman is trying to help her realize her potential and tell her all is okay. It’s an uphill battle I am afraid to say but the storyline is fast paced with heaps of action which I liked. Supergirl eventually learns who this is but refuses to believe him because he was but an infant when she last saw him and his Kryptonian seemed to have been learned from a textbook. Funny stuff for sure. We also see some mysterious goings on in the background in terms of her means of arrival and I am guessing this shadowy figure is none other than Lex Luthor. The story is by Green and Johnson while art comes care of Mahmud Asrar. I was still on board with this one and hope they keep me so and not disappointed.

I left this batch of titles finding a little more interest in both Superman and Superboy and a continued appreciation for Supergirl. Since I did not manage to get a copy of Action Comics #2 I cannot speak to this edition for you. I was happy to find myself a little more entertained than I was by the first issues and I guess my expectation for one of DC Comic’s mightiest franchises was a little too high for my own good. Let’s see what they do with issue #3 for these characters.

As previously blogged about in the PiercingMetal Musings; DC Comics recently re-launched a number of titles and started them off from issue #1 under the branding of “The New 52”. The initiative’s prime objective being to up the number of titles available each month and to offer new readers an easier chance to jump on board with their characters. The New 52 titles have been grouped into eight specifications such as Superman or Batman themed titles. Last month we blogged about as many of the individual first issues as we could get our hands on and segmented each of the posts based on what family they fell into. Here is our continuation of the overview with the second issues of the Green Lantern family of titles.

The New 52: Green Lantern #2

Green Lantern #2: I mentioned in my synopsis of Green Lantern #1 that we were dealing with a non-ringed Hal Jordan (who had apparently been disgraced in the eyes of both the Corps and The Guardians and hence was denied his incredible Power Ring) and strangely enough it appeared as though the villainous Sinestro was now on patrol in this sector of space and once again had the ring. Whether this is the Guardians larger plan or there is a defect in the great battery who knows, we only seem to know that Sinestro is once again a Green Lantern whether he likes it or not. The once and perhaps still super villain comes to Jordan with a proposal and that is he will fashion a ring for him to wear but there is clearly more than one catch. The Sinestro created ring cannot harm the Korugarian and Jordan can only keep it if he agrees to be bound to Sinestro’s will. The two fight but Jordan’s new ring is no match for its creators and after some battling against each other, the unmatchable powers of the ring is needed to save innocent people from a recently destroyed bridge. The pair butt heads during the rescue and in the end Sinestro shows just how powerful he remains and how the ring is much “bigger” than Jordans flying around and making shapes out of its energies. A sinister presence is found to be behind the bridges destruction and this creature is after Sinestro and labeling him a traitor to his own Sinestro Corps. I will not ruin how this battle ends but apparently the beings that Sinestro left behind to guard his world are now its masters and need to be dealt with. Hence the meeting and alliance with Jordan. This just got a whole lot more interesting to say the least. The creative team remains Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy and Keith Champagne. Nice tight artwork and a fast paced storyline. Great job on issue #2.

The New 52: Green Lantern Corps #2

Green Lantern Corps #2: We last found the Corps dispatched to see why some of their number were missing and in fact they had been brutally murdered. A remote world was the next discovery and the entire populace was dead while the other missing Green Lanterns were found with their rings and fingers removed. There was something nasty out there with a bone to pick with the GL’s that was for sure. We do meet the sinister presence that is behind everything but they are not really revealed or their methods explained. They appear to be a race of thieves who are stripping other planets of their natural resources. One only can guess that the murder of the Green Lanterns and whatever other race they encounter is simply because they were “in the way” of their plans. A typical evil villain motif yes? The Lanterns manage to get in the way of the evils next attack but they lose one of their own to them in the process. This Corps member is eventually returned but he comes back with the entire villainous force behind him. I sense a bloodbath with issue #3 and #4. The creative forces of Tomasi, Pasarin and Hanna keeps you glued to each and every page. This title remains strong with issue #2. Keep it coming.

The New 52: Green Lantern: The New Guardians #2

Green Lantern: New Guardians #2: When we last saw Kyle Rayner he was in a little bit of trouble because a number of the power rings from across the spectrum and various Corps had all focused themselves on “choosing” him to be their bearer. Remember that these rings normally choose its replacement wearer except in this new storyline where Ganthet gave Rayner his Green Lantern power ring. We found the other members of these rings corps being not too happy with the situation and they wanted their comrade’s rings back. Four against one proves to be a nasty fight but Kyle demonstrates his heroism by not wanting innocent citizens harmed and while it seems as though Star Sapphire is in his corner there are others who are not in their number. There is a lot of action across the first section of the book and when a Blue Lantern shows up, he and Rayner head to OA to get some answers. Do they find them out? Well, I shall not ruin this part for you but will say that a startling transformation comes about. Bedard, Kirkham, Tolibao Batt make it all happen for the readers and I am down with this title.

The New 52: Red Lanterns #2

Red Guardians #2: Did not review.

Closing up I would have to say that the Green Lantern grouping of titles that I examined is keeping it interesting with enough of the various mysteries that are taking place having some of the reasoning revealed as the tales develop. I did feel that both the Corps and New Guardians titles were faster reads than Lantern itself happened to be but I didn’t mind that. Perhaps I spoke to soon about my reservation on four different titles for the Green Lantern mythos. Bring on issue #3 is all I can say.