The Facebook page for Young Justice: Legacy has posted the box-art for the upcoming video game (shown above). This has been the first post-Young Justice weekend after the season two finale so it’s nice to see that the (now) ironically titled Young Justice: Legacy video game is still moving forward.
Ain’t It Cool’s John Ary recently posted a video to YouTube with the title “Why Christian Bale is Bad for the Justice League”. This is a response to the rumour going around Warner Brothers is trying to get Chris Nolan to godfather the drifting Justice League movie.
Nolan I can see coming aboard in some Producer level capacity, but we’ll have to see whether that includes the rest of his entourage. Attached to that rumour is that Nolan would try to get Bale back again as Batman. Ary does a good job in undercutting that idea and I can’t say I disagree with anything he says.
Ivan Reis has been talking to Newsarama‘s Vaneta Rogers about leaving Aquaman and taking over Jim Lee’s pencilling role on Justice League. He describes his own style as “cleaner” than Lee’s and that one deliberate change he has made is to consciously draw a smaller Cyborg, a more human looking figure, as opposed to the constant “battle mode” version favoured by Lee:
I’m going for a more ‘humanized’ type of body for him, instead of making him bulkier and heavy. It’s my idea to make him more human, and make him blend more with mankind. He [still] has control of what his body can look like, so he can choose when to go ‘Battle-Mode on!’”
The transition to the new book has been made easier for Reis by the fact that his first arc is a crossover with hid old Aquaman book. He told Newsarama that:
Right now, I’m wrapping up my first arc, ‘Throne of Atlantis,’ and it’s a direct follow-up from the events on Aquaman, but now dealing with a more expanded universe and cast of characters,[..] It’s a mix between Lord of The Rings and Clone Wars for me.
Go see Newarama for the full chat.
There is a new trailer for the remainder of Young Justice’s second season. Fair warning of significant spoilers if you haven’t seen the episode “Depths” yet…
The villains I could identify include Deathstroke, Despero, Mongul, the return of the Red Volcano, and that toy soldier could indicate the Toyman. I’m not entirely sure, but that thing Aquagirl destroys could be the Brother Eye satellite.
We see Doctor Fate and Captain Marvel having more to do.
Aquagirl makes an appearance so her death may be explained. There is also the new wave of teen heroes that have been hinted at in previous episodes. Those shown in this trailer are a variation on the Apace Chief, Static, and teleporting person. A new Guardian hints that Mal Duncan may be using one of his costumed identities from the comics.
There is even someone that looks like a possible Green Beetle (?).
The narration is rather over the top, but this is the first clear look we’ve had at the upcoming Young Justice: Legacy video game. As we know, the game will be set during the 5-year gap between the Young Justice and Young Justice: Invasion and will be fully canonical with the Earth-16 Universe.
We’ve seen game play before, but this is the first really clear look. It reminds me of the X-Men Legends and even of Justice League Heroes games from a few years ago. I suspect that I’ll be more interested in this for the story than for the gameplay, but it should be fun.
Justice League Dark writer Jeff Lemire and his new co-writer Ray Fawkes have been interviewed by Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers about their post-Books of Magic plotlines. Lemire started off by explaining how Ray came to be his cowriter,
So when I got the Green Arrow assignment, I knew my schedule was going to tighten up quite a bit. And I had a decision to make. Would I leave Dark, which I didn’t really want to do? Because I really liked the characters in the book and feel like we’ve been getting some momentum going. So it just seemed like a good opportunity for me to ask Ray to come in and co-write with me, and help me schedule this stuff.
To start, when I needed the most help, we would talk the stuff together, and Ray would do the bulk of the scripting, and then we’d go over it together. So it really helped free my time quite a bit. That’s how it started. And now, it’s become, pretty much full collaboration, where we’re both really 50/50, writing the thing. It’s been really fun.
They also described how the format of the book would revolve around Zatanna, Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Deadman, and Frankenstein. The latter being added as his own book has just been cancelled and Lemire had developed an affinity for Frankenstein after writing his first New 52 adventures. Zatanna will also be more of a focus over the comics months.
The writers commented finally on their longer term plans,
Lemire: Geoff Johns and Scott [Snyder] and Pete Tomasi and Scott Lobdell and I were all in New York after the Comic Con there, and we had a writers summit with editorial. And we made plans.
Yes, the Justice League Dark team and the members — we have plans for all those guys throughout that, and we have plans to tie closer to what Geoff’s doing.
Geoff and I also want to do something in the future with the Justice League Dark team and what he’s doing with magic in Shazam.
So there are a lot of opportunities to keep this book closely tied with what’s going on in the bigger universe.
Fawkes: During Trinity War, readers are going to want to keep a really close eye on what John Constantine is up to.
I must admit that I had my concerns when it was announced that Ray Fawkes was coming on board. I should stress that its nothing to do with Ray’s abilities, I’m sure he’s a great writer, but I was afraid that Jeff was on his way out. This interview really set those issues to rest. It looks like Justice League Dark will remain one of DC’s better books.
A perplexing thing appears in DC’s solicitations for February. The Young Justice comic, the one that ties with into the Cartoon Network series, has a large “Final Issue” notice stamped on the blurb for issue 25. Yet looking back in the sales charts we see that the title is consistently selling about 7500 units per month and has done so for the last year. The direct market numbers for cartoon tie-in books are always very low — I’m not quite sure how the economics work, but whatever they are they haven’t noticeably change in the last year. So absolute sales numbers in the direct-market cannot be the reason that it’s ending.
Nothing has been said and this is just my speculation, but there is one way that this could be the last issue of Young Justice, but not the last comic book to feature the cartoon continuity. Issue 25 will conclude the storyline that essentially serves as a prequel to the second season continuity. CN rebranded the show as Young Justice: Invasion for that second season.
Logically DC could be rebranding the comic as Young Justice: Invasion and relaunching it with a new first issue – it’s what they did when Justice League changed into Justice League Unlimited. A relaunch might also let they do some sort of digital-first type of release like they are doing with the Arkham City tie-ins. For that matter they could even do an online only tie-in to the Young Justice: Legacy computer game.
That’s my theory anyhow. A bit of wishful thinking and a pinch of reasonable.
DC have announced their marketing strategy New 52′s Justice League of America to MTV Geek. The book hits in 2013 and will be accompanied by two new ongoing titles featuring members of the team, a change of writer on another team-members book, and one of the most over the top variant cover shipments ever.
Justice League of America (vol. 3) #1 ()‘s cover has been designed by David Finch in homage to Joe Rosenthal’s photograph of the “Raising the Flash on Iwo Jima” from World War II. Finch’s version relegates the characters to a small area at the bottom and uses the flag as a large blank canvas into which DC can drop variant logos for each of the variant covers. The “regular” cover will just feature the normal Stars and Stripes in this space (shown above left). Each of variants, however, will feature the flag of a different US State — all 50 of the them — with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico added to bring the number up to 52 complete DC’s favourite meme.
I must admit that I rolled my eyes when DC announced this initiative. It seemed that they’d lost all sense. However, even DC realise that 52 collectible covers is going too far. Comic shops are therefore able to order any of the covers in any quantities they want to. The idea being that an Illinois comic shop could focus their order on the Illinois variant, an Hawaii comic shop could order the Hawaiian variant, etc. DC Sales guru, Bob Wayne explained to Newsarama that :
The idea that was suggested was we highlight that it’s the Justice League of America by taking the flags of the 50 states. And the only thing that might be a stretch to some people is that, because 52 is a number with some resonance for us, we took the 50 states and added the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to get to 52.
So it’s not an incentive. And retailers don’t have to hit any buying threshold to purchase the variants. They can purchase what they want of any of them, or none of them.
You can buy all variants just from your state. But we’re also going to be offering a block set of all 52 variants, plus the standard cover, to make it easy for people to want to buy the whole set so there’s no collectability chase involved with it.
We just thought it was a fun way of pointing out that this is the Justice League of America.
And just as an aside, New York’s State Logo is Excelsior so DC are going to be producing a cover high-lighting Stan Lee’s famous catchphrase.
The release of the new JLA will be accompanied by Jeff Lemire taking over as writer on Green Arrow. He told CBR that his idea is for “a hard-hitting, thriller/action/crime book”. There will also be two new ongoing series featuring Vibe (stop sniggering) and Katanna.
The Katanna series will be written by written by current Green Arrow and Catwoman writer Ann Nocenti and illustrated by Alex Sanchez. Nocenti told MTV Geek that,
KATANA will be a lean, mean, and very visual book. There will always be a spectacular battle in a striking setting. I am inspired by both Japanese Samurai films, in particular the films of Kurosawa, and how they share the spirit of American Westerns, with the influences running in both directions, and including the “Spaghetti Westerns” and films of Sam Peckinpah.
Katanna’s star had been on the rise before this. She had been part in the New 52′s Birds of Prey and is duo to appear as Batman’s partner in a new animated series comic next year.
The Vibe book will be written by Andrew Kreisberg, one of the creators of WB’s Arrow adaptation of Green Arrow, and will be illustrated by Pete Woods (the promo cover above is by JLA’s David Finch). The promo image that DC released shows Vibe fighting Para-Demons with Darkseid’s head appearing ominously in the background. Kreisberg told the premise of the new book to MTV Geek,
And so we [Andrew and Geoff Johns] began the process of reimaging Cisco “Paco” Ramone. Cisco is a normal Hispanic teenager in Detroit… he goes to school, has a job, is ignored by his parents and both loves and loathes his ne’er do well brother, Dante. Normal… except that after being caught in the event horizon of a boomtube when Darkseid invaded Earth 5 years ago, Cisco has acquired the ability to generate vibrational forces. When we meet him, he has no plans to be a superhero. But when his powers become known to A.R.G.U.S. and Amanda Waller, Cisco is recruited by AGENT DALE GUNN. Detroit is an inter-dimensional hot zone. Any number of beings and creatures are able to enter our dimension through the motor city. Cisco is the only one who can sense these incursions… and fight them. And so, to save our dimension from dark forces from beyond our Universe, Cisco becomes the super hero known as Vibe.
I must admit that they sound like they’ve actually found an angle that makes Vibe work. I’m a sucker for series like OMAC, Chase, Manhunter, and the like which really delve into DC’s mythology – the guts of their Universe and it looks like Vibe could be one of those books. Nocenti’s Green Arrow run has been a little uneven, but her style may suit Katanna more. It is Jeff Lemire’s move to Green Arrow that probably interests me the most. He’s a great writer and the New 52′s Green Arrow really needs sorting out.
Upcoming this November, the Justice League continues their breakdown as the Cheetah Superman battles his former friends. Meanwhite, Justice League Dark kicks off a new storyline after the shocking conclusion of October’s Annual. The focus is upon new members Frankenstein, Amethyst, and Black Orchid. In the other Universes, stories are coming to an end as the yet-to-be Justice Society’s first adventure comes to a conclusion in Earth 2 and it’s the final fight against Kobra in Batman Beyond Unlimited.
We may not have any knew Young Justice episodes until January, but the comic book title continues an epic five-part story that bridges the gap between the first and second seasons.
CBR has spoken with Geoff Johns and new Justice League artist Ivan Reis about their plans for Superman, Wonder Woman, and the crossover with Aquaman. The idea, at least for the moment, is to let the relationship develop organically,
“We have a story for it. As you saw in ‘Justice League’ #12, right now it’s just a kiss. Issue #13 follows up on that, and #14 goes further. We’re trying to let it really play out, and build to a storyline that kind of illustrates, if these two are together, how people view them. How does Batman view it, how does the team view it, what does it mean to them, their private lives, the villains, the world?” Johns said. “There’s a lot of ramifications to it, and whether they are compatible or not in the long run is the story.”
They also spoke with Ivan Reis about making the transition from Aquaman to Justice League.
“I’ll respect Jim Lee’s style, but I’ll try to make it work in my style. I’ll try to find a perfect way to make the costume work with what I do,” said with a laugh. “Of course, some things change a little, but I’ll try to follow the design by fixing some things to work with my style.”