Dirk Daring #7

In case you happen to live in a country other than the US or you live on the West side of the Rocky Mountains, you might not realize that a huge chunk of the country is in the middle of a new Ice Age. The North East part of the country is so buried in snow that I’ve heard polar bears have setup camp in Times Square. Down here in Texas, we don’t have snow (yet, it’s predicted to come tonight), but it’s been at or below freezing for the past couple of days. Texas was designed to withstand intense heat and hurricanes, not intense cold, so we’ve had rolling blackouts and all sorts of other fun complicated issues. For most people (like me), that means we just get to hunker down in front of a fire. For people like Kris who are tasked with stopping the world from plunging into chaos so that people like me can just sit in front of a fire, it means long grueling hours with little rest or appreciation. Fortunately in difficult times like these, heroes like Dirk Daring leap to the rescue so that tired souls like Kris can get some much deserved rest. Regular comics should resume on Monday, if the whole city hasn’t been encased in a giant block of ice.

Samuel L. Jackson shocked the world last night by casually mentioning that he will be in both Thor and Captain America. This shouldn’t be a big surprise since he’s been in practically every Marvel movie since 2008. The more interesting thing is what he had to say about the new Avengers movie. First, he reiterated something previously stated from Joss Whedon that Scarlet Johansson’s Black Widow will be the only female member of the Avengers, which is a shame because there are a lot of really cool female heroes that at one time or another have been associated with the Avengers. He did state that there will be other women in the movie and that he’s currently help screen test actresses for the part of Nick Fury’s assistant and sidekick. Since Fury is in charge of SHIELD, we can infer that this means it will be a female SHEILD agent, of which there have also been several. While Jackson didn’t state who the character is, the Internet has been a buzz with speculation of the most likely possibilities.

First, there’s Sharon Carter who not only has been an agent of SHIELD, but also was Captain America’s girlfriend AND was brainwashed into murdering Captain America. To make matters even more fun, and really creepy if you think about it, Carter is the niece of Steve Roger’s World War II era girlfriend, who will be appearing in the Captain America movie. Secondly, there’s Maria Hill who also kind of ran SHIELD at one point when Fury disappeared. Finally, there’s also Carol Danvers who later became Ms. Marvel. Today the names of those actresses screen testing were leaked. I know that hair color is usually not a major factor in picking an actress, but I just want to point out that the four women named are all brunettes of which Maria Hill is the only brunette in the rumored possible parts. Granted, Morena Baccarin was rumored to be up for Janet Van Dyne, the Wasp and the first female Avenger, back before Joss Whedon announced that Black Widow would be the solo female Avenger. Now that she’s on this other short list, maybe Van Dyne will be in the film, just not as an Avenger? The world may never know, at least until 2012 when the movie comes out.

The Captain America trailer will be released during the Super Bowl on Sunday. I am actually going to a Super Bowl party with the express purpose of seeing the trailer. Supposedly there’s a football game going on too, but I don’t even know who’s playing, so it can’t be that important.

As I mentioned above, Kris has been busy and didn’t have a chance to get his comics this week, so my thoughts on his pull list are below.

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

• Batman Beyond #2 - I’m getting this one day-and-date digitally. Barda in the future Justice League really makes me miss Big Barda in the current continuity.
• Daomu #1 - The best selling Chinese comic is being translated and published in English. Beautiful artwork and an intriguing story. Think I’m going to keep an eye on this one.
• Gotham City Sirens #19 - This series is not as good as when Paul Dini originally started it, but Calloway is improving with each issue and things are getting interesting again.
• House of Mystery #34
• Secret Six #30 - Considering that Bane was originally designed to be Batman’s equal in intelligence and strategy, he comes off as a real idiot in the beginning. It seems like he’s gotten more naive and stupid even during Simone’s run on Secret Six.

Travis, what’s on Kris’s pull list?

• Age of X Alpha #1 - This was a collection of stories setting the stage for Marvel’s Age of X alternative universe. Basilisk is a way cooler code name than Cyclops.
• Azrael #17 - This book has always had some weird Muslim/Christian dichotomies and parallels. Looks like they’re going to end the book with them too.
• Batman Beyond #2
• Brightest Day #19 - With only 5 issues remaining, things are starting to come to a head. We’re starting to get a feeling for who’s going to make it out of here alive.
• DC Universe Online Legends #1 - Bi-weekly tie in comic to the game that addresses what future Lex Luthor is doing while you’re running around in the past playing with your new super powers. Cool idea, but really only interesting to those playing the game.
• Freedom Fighters #6 -
• JSA All-Stars #15 - This was the second issue of this arc and I had a really hard time remembering what happened last issue. This one wasn’t any more memorable. Remind me to never try to french kiss Power Girl.
• Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1 - The main story was a good, but typical, stand alone Legion story. The four page “History of the Legion” board game was pretty cool.
• Life with Archie Married Life #7
• Secret Six #30 - The Secret Six is really the Secret Eight as Simone keeps picking up villains that she enjoys writing. She does a really good job of capturing the voices of the Doom Patrol.
• Spider-Girl #3 - This issue was low on action and high on exposition as Spider-Girl comes to terms with her father’s death, ultimately turning to a character who should be dealing with issues of their own.
• Superboy #4 - We learn more about Psychic Boy’s mission. Meanwhile, Connor continues to have girl problems.
• Superman 80-Page Giant 2011 #1 - Another set of the “next generation” of comic writers get to test the waters. I really enjoyed the Perry White/Ted Grant story. People need to stop writing Bizarro stuff until the Superman editor comes up with the official way that Bizarro people are supposed to talk.
• Time Masters Vanishing Point #6 - This mini series started out as a loose tie-in to Return of Bruce Wayne, then it became a random romp through time. This issue cleaned up the RoBW thing AND tied the mini into Flashpoint. Temporal overkill.