Much like with Katana, Fearless Defenders was a lone offering from one of the Big Two superhero publishers that I bought with any regularity. And now it's cancelled. To be honest, I didn't like it quite as much as I did Katana, but Fearless Defenders featured a character for whom my dedication is true. Dani Moonstar. I usually follow creators or series rather than single characters, but Dani Moonstar was my Marvel Cass Cain. She's one of those characters I will buy stories in which she appears even if they stink. She and I just kind of hit it off when I read Marvel Graphic Novel #4 The New Mutants the year it came out and in The New Mutants regular series. She was my "in," the character I identified the most with and one I tend to write a lot about when I'm doing the comic book fan blog thing.
And Fearless Defenders certainly did not stink. While I could never match the love its hardcore fans hold for it (I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who loved Katana; a fandom of one!), it does bum me out we won't have new issues.
I need new Dani Moonstar adventures, but I'm not too worried about her future. Unlike DC, Marvel tends to keep its characters around. They may not appear in a book for a while-- they may even be killed at some point-- but you can rest assured they will come back at some point and if you ask about them at conventions, editors won't treat you as if you'd just murdered a puppy in front of them. Dani Moonstar is, if anything, a survivor. She's survived all kinds of crazy codename and power changes, lost her powers, gone from one team to another, emerged unscathed from the bitter ending of multiple titles and even has her own (albeit hideous) plastic action figure now.
Monday, November 18, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
5 minute marker Cass!
Look, Ma, no hands! I did this today trying to warm up a little. I haven't drawn in a while and it shows!
Thursday, November 14, 2013
The penultimate issue of Katana
I bought Katana #9 last night on Comixology and it made me feel a little wistful. I haven't had time to read it because I also bought The Walking Dead #116-- the series title of which is also kind of apt for Katana, huh?-- and that one is an absolute must-read-immediately for me with this big jerk Negan about to get his comeuppance. We hope. Wistful is not an emotion I'd associate with The Walking Dead. But I will give Katana its reading this weekend. Just one more issue to go and the coolest looking redesigned character in the New 52 DC universe will go back to being a supporting player in everyone else's comics rather than a star of her own.
That's a shame, but it's not as if there aren't other comics out there to read. Boom!, IDW and my beloved Dark Horse put out comics that appeal more to my sensibilities than DC's New 52 books-- and Dark Horse's especially feel like better value for the money even at $3.99. Even so, at that price, I still don't buy new comics like I used to. $2.99 seems to be the uppermost limit of my comfort level and a book has to be something really special to make me pay more. I've spent more than I care to disclose on $1.99 back issues and .99 sales issues, but I'm down from buying 10 or so new comics a month to two or three.
One of those just happened to have been Katana.
That's a shame, but it's not as if there aren't other comics out there to read. Boom!, IDW and my beloved Dark Horse put out comics that appeal more to my sensibilities than DC's New 52 books-- and Dark Horse's especially feel like better value for the money even at $3.99. Even so, at that price, I still don't buy new comics like I used to. $2.99 seems to be the uppermost limit of my comfort level and a book has to be something really special to make me pay more. I've spent more than I care to disclose on $1.99 back issues and .99 sales issues, but I'm down from buying 10 or so new comics a month to two or three.
One of those just happened to have been Katana.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Jesus, Dan DiDio, I was just speculatin' about a hypothesis. I know I don't know nothin'.
Apparently, there's this All Access video that shows a whiteboard in an office over at DC (NYC or beautiful downtown Burbank?) with the names of some prominently MIA fan fave characters on it-- Donna Troy and Wally West. While I like both those characters-- the 1960s-era Teen Titans Wonder Girl (the "clean" version with the upbeat, hedonistic outlook, before they turned her character history into so much narrative spaghetti) is number three on my list of beloved DC characters after Cassandra Cain and Superman and one spot above Big Barda-- the reason we're here talking about this isn't that Stephanie Brown's name is there alongside them. We already know she's coming back. Our reason is Russ Burlingame at Comicbook.com floats a possibility for a certain "blank space."
Cassandra Cain.
Well, absent any clues-- is this for a comic, something they're going to present to the TV side of things, are they characters returning or characters they're thinking about banning any mention of at an upcoming convention because they're sick of answering the same questions the same way?-- a blank space could represent any character whose name isn't already on the board, whether or not that character has made a New 52 appearance yet. So Cass seems like a reach.
On the other hand, that still leaves the possibility it's Cass. And while some of you reading this may or may not be rolling your eyes (don't deny it; I can actually hear them and they sound like balls rolling around on a pool table) at how dumb I must be, it's still vastly more entertaining to think they're doing this deliberately to stoke this very kind of speculation as a way to hype what will be one of-- if not THE-- most talked-about reappearance of a former character.
And that talk will mostly consist of, "I don't see what's the big deal," "She's way over-rated," "I never really cared that much for the character," "They're just going to wreck her again," and "Her fans are completely insane."
Well, until we get more information, just call me Chief O'Doole.
Cassandra Cain.
Well, absent any clues-- is this for a comic, something they're going to present to the TV side of things, are they characters returning or characters they're thinking about banning any mention of at an upcoming convention because they're sick of answering the same questions the same way?-- a blank space could represent any character whose name isn't already on the board, whether or not that character has made a New 52 appearance yet. So Cass seems like a reach.
On the other hand, that still leaves the possibility it's Cass. And while some of you reading this may or may not be rolling your eyes (don't deny it; I can actually hear them and they sound like balls rolling around on a pool table) at how dumb I must be, it's still vastly more entertaining to think they're doing this deliberately to stoke this very kind of speculation as a way to hype what will be one of-- if not THE-- most talked-about reappearance of a former character.
And that talk will mostly consist of, "I don't see what's the big deal," "She's way over-rated," "I never really cared that much for the character," "They're just going to wreck her again," and "Her fans are completely insane."
Well, until we get more information, just call me Chief O'Doole.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
The future of this blog...
Approximately six people a year read this blog. I don't think the problem is lack of interest in Cassandra Cain. It's been a while since she appeared in a comic but you can still find people talking about here online here and there and most of the time their comments are positive. And with Stephanie Brown coming back to comics, it's only a matter of time before Cass does as well. That will generate an upswelling in Cass conversation.
No, the problem is this blog is pretty boring and I don't update it regularly enough. I could add interest by generating controversy (easiest way) or by writing better posts (most difficult way), or I could just quit altogether (I doubt anyone would care).
The problem with generating controversy is it cheapens the dialogue. We comic book fans are already touchy enough without someone deliberately trying to irritate everyone just to get some blog traffic. Occasionally we will accidentally do this, but that's okay. That's bound to happen if you have an opinion on anything. I'm just not the kind of person who particularly enjoys making people angry, especially not on purpose.
And while I'm very lax in updating here (and in generating detailed, interesting posts), I'm not really much for simply quitting. Plus, I'm too much of a Cass fan simply to take off the Bat-suit, hand it to my friend and then slink away in the rain wearing only my underwear.
Anyway, the point is, I've been writing these crazy Cass match-ups, which I get a big kick out of doing (even if no one particularly enjoys reading them). I think adding some original artwork would improve them. Or, almost as fun, make them even stupider. I don't have much time for drawing these days (I work 12 hours a day, six days a week and there's this whole being married thing that also takes up a lot of time I used to spend reading, thinking and writing about Cass) so I don't know how often I'll be able to produce posts with original illustrations.
I don't seem to have the ability to knock out "cartoony" stuff that looks anything other than rushed or slapdash. That's fine occasionally, but when I see some of those people who can produce art that looks deceptively simple posting away on semi-regular schedules, it makes me feel artistically inadequate! So that's largely out unless I'm just in a mood. And drawing something more detailed, which I am actually fairly competent at doing, takes a massive investment of time. Which I have little of (see above).
There may be some reviews of things I think appropriate, too, but if I'm not reading a whole lot, I'm not going to be reviewing that much, either.
Anyway, that's the scoop. If there's a big Cass announcement, though, all bets are off!
No, the problem is this blog is pretty boring and I don't update it regularly enough. I could add interest by generating controversy (easiest way) or by writing better posts (most difficult way), or I could just quit altogether (I doubt anyone would care).
The problem with generating controversy is it cheapens the dialogue. We comic book fans are already touchy enough without someone deliberately trying to irritate everyone just to get some blog traffic. Occasionally we will accidentally do this, but that's okay. That's bound to happen if you have an opinion on anything. I'm just not the kind of person who particularly enjoys making people angry, especially not on purpose.
And while I'm very lax in updating here (and in generating detailed, interesting posts), I'm not really much for simply quitting. Plus, I'm too much of a Cass fan simply to take off the Bat-suit, hand it to my friend and then slink away in the rain wearing only my underwear.
Anyway, the point is, I've been writing these crazy Cass match-ups, which I get a big kick out of doing (even if no one particularly enjoys reading them). I think adding some original artwork would improve them. Or, almost as fun, make them even stupider. I don't have much time for drawing these days (I work 12 hours a day, six days a week and there's this whole being married thing that also takes up a lot of time I used to spend reading, thinking and writing about Cass) so I don't know how often I'll be able to produce posts with original illustrations.
I don't seem to have the ability to knock out "cartoony" stuff that looks anything other than rushed or slapdash. That's fine occasionally, but when I see some of those people who can produce art that looks deceptively simple posting away on semi-regular schedules, it makes me feel artistically inadequate! So that's largely out unless I'm just in a mood. And drawing something more detailed, which I am actually fairly competent at doing, takes a massive investment of time. Which I have little of (see above).
There may be some reviews of things I think appropriate, too, but if I'm not reading a whole lot, I'm not going to be reviewing that much, either.
Anyway, that's the scoop. If there's a big Cass announcement, though, all bets are off!
Saturday, November 9, 2013
A Cass mention in a cosplay article!
You know I'm a fan of cosplay. The Star Phoenix has a short and sweet article on cosplayer Kristin Spearey where she and her son dress as a female Joker and Arkham Asylum Robin, complete with "recipes" for both costumes at the end. Nice costumes! The female Joker is fantastic idea and she carries it off very well. I mean, why not adapt a character and make him or her your own? But the main reason I'm telling you this is because of this bit:
Kristin's favourites are a Cassandra Cain bat girl, a Harley Quinn she made herself and a Hello Kitty mascot costume.
Kristin's favourites are a Cassandra Cain bat girl, a Harley Quinn she made herself and a Hello Kitty mascot costume.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)