Although it can create a few new problems...

Al isn’t that great at giving advice.

SDCC 2010 was this weekend and I figured I would share some of the news that impressed or excited us. Some people lament the lack of focus on comics and extreme commercialization of Comic-Con. While I can’t speak on that from first hand experience, I think Comic-Con is a product of it’s patrons. As long as people want movie previews and tv show panels, that’s what studios will provide.

DC announce a new Flash book titled, The Flash: Speed Force. It’ll be staring Wally West and Bart Allen, with Jesse Quick, Jay Garrick, and XS. I’ve been pretty vocal about my problem with DC not using Wally West. He was the Flash for 20 years. Geoff Johns explained he wasn’t using Wally, because he wanted people to get used to the return of Barry. I guess I can understand that, and I’m glad they are finally doing something with these characters.

A while ago, DC announce they were making a Young Justice cartoon for Cartoon Network. This weekend, they followed that up with an announcement that there would be a DC All-Ages tie in book. Considering the high quality of the DC Kids/All-Ages books, I’m definitely looking forward to this one.

I know I’ve been critical of Grant Morrison, but my opinion of him change quite a bit this weekend after reading his various panels. Morrison is a very different writer than Geoff Johns, who I consider the pinnacle of comic writers. Morrison is not about continuity, he’s about story telling. He believes DC created a great cast of characters, and wants every possible story told about those characters. He seemingly believes in telling modern day myths, and you should be enjoying the stories, not worried about how Batman R.I.P. and Heart of Hush happened in the same week.

Morrison announced his new Batman book, Batman Inc. coming out in November. This will be a Batman team-up book, and I think it’s a perfect fit for Morrison. Let him integrate the Batman family into a solid, kick-ass crime fighting unit, as they should be. Morrison is also getting his Multiverse book. It’s going to be characters skipping across dimensions, having wacky adventure. This is the kind of insanity Morrison should be writing. If it’s anything like his old Doom Patrol, it’s going to be hated by most people, but loved by me.

A lot of other stuff came out of Comic-Con, but those were the big announcements that got me excited. I hope to attend Comic-Con next year, and give you guys a first hand account.

One of my goals with Ret-Conned, other than making a billion dollars, was trying to make people love comics as much as I do, by showing what I enjoy about them. Something I realized, it how intimidating the whole comic world can be. Action Comics is going to hit issue #900 this year, and the uninitiated might think it’s all but impossible to jump into that world.

So I thought over the next few weeks I hope to give you a few comics and trades you can pick up with little or no knowledge of the comic universe as a whole. In theory, if you enjoy them as much as I do, you’ll feel like you can dive in head first to comic culture. The first comic I’ll be talking about is Superman/Shazam! First Thunder. This mini series by Judd Winick shows the first meeting between Superman and Captain Marvel. I’ll give a full review soon.