The JLA by Bruce Timm & Yoakum

The second Bruce Timm commission inks, following the Batgirl of two days ago. you know what i learned from inking this one?

Hawkgirl is bad ass. She's fun to draw. Why don't we have a monthly Hawkgirl comic?

Alex Ross: The Bulge That Ate Chicago

C'mon, do we really need to get riled up over this?

And by this I mean the argument over whether Steel has a hard on or not.

Its clear that he has something going on down there, but I've seen waaaaaay too many homophobic blogs from men who would have no problem with prepetually erect nipples on Wanda and She-Hulk and labia hugging thongs on Fairchild of Gen 13 or the current Star Sapphire cringing over the moderate bulge presented here. Brian Cronin's description of the image as "creepy" is just bizarre. Don MacPherson even goes over the top with this line: And if one looks closely, it’s not just his fists and flesh that are hard as a rock.

As for those arguing that he has an erection, I have one thing to say: If you think that that is an erect penis, I feel very sorry for your significant others. Really.

With Ross here, we live and die by the International Male Photo Reference. Personally, I'm way more jealous of his abs. You know how hard it is to get that six pack?

I'm cool with it. Why's it buggin' you so much?

Rhetorical Question: Do Turner's Women Have Intrernal Organs?

Of course not. We all know that. Its just been proven once again by the sneak peak cover of JLA #10 the Meltzer has posted on his My Space page, that I've stolen and posted here.

OK, I'll be up front about this: I like breasts as much as the next heterosexual man, probably even more so. But this Power Girl is just out of bounds. Really. If they are going to be that big, than I want a body behind them that can at least look like it might hold them up and instead we literally have a chest cavity smaller that the mammary gland on top of it.

Obviously I'm wrong and the market place is correct because Turner keeps getting work, and I've never met Michael so I'm not picking on him personally, but this just doesn't work for me.

I'm clearly not a true fan boy anymore. I've lost my credentials.

In Review of: New Frontier by Cooke and Stewart

Is it wallowing in nostalgia to try and update your favorite myths? Is it, for want of a better term, fanwank to try and imagine a complexity to beginnings of the Justice League or Abin Sur’s crash that simply wasn’t there at the beginning? Does the origin of Jon J’onzz really need the Miller-ization that takes place in these beautifully crafted trades?

Such is the beguiling series of questions that plague me in regards to Cooke’s New Frontier.

It almost seems that the work cannot possibly be seen with rose colored glasses as an integral part of the evaluation. Cooke was doing the work with a real love of the material and shows, no question. He’s filled out things, answered questions, given us background motivation that would never have been possible in the late 1950’s. More than anything this is a work of love, one that dovetails fairly well with Robinson and Smith’s Golden Age book. If you have a love of the early Gil Kane Green Lanterns and Atoms, get nostalgic at the goofy ernestness of Sekowsky’s JLA’s, then you’re bound to love this series. It would be hard not to. Unlike a Miller Batman: Year One, this is not a radical re-interpretation of the beloved Silver Age characters, but a reaffirmation of their continued relevance.

It is also a rather nostalgic wankfest that has an almost Roy Thomas-level need to fill in the gaps and motivations of many of these same Silver Age legends. And that may not be a bad thing.

I think that this stands out in stark relief to the dismal handling of the characters that exists right now. Hal Jordan went insane? Not in this universe. He may be flawed, but this Hal longs for the stars and gets his wish. Nothing insane about this man. This Batman has none of the psychotic about him, but he is the true Dark Knight, in classic fashion.

Cooke’s art is lovingly colored, and the coloring is a delicious surprise here. Dave Stewart expands on the palette that would have made sense on the books of the early ‘60’s vintage, without making it appear too modern or not “of the time”. It’s a delicate task, and he performs admirably. I have to say that I’ll be ya that the art looks even better in the Ultimate version of this. Cooke puts in a million great touches: the Flash’s large Infantino head, the real reason Batman adopted his 1950’s look, the ins and outs of the Ferris-Jordan relationship, Lois Lane as a real investigative reporter. Its fun stuff.

My own touchpoint this series is simply not one of nostalgia. I never fell in love with those beloved-to-others Infantino Flashs, I never really dug the early JLAs. I come to this book with all the accumulated continuity without any of the childhood emotion. I reserve that for old Marvels. So in the end, I really enjoyed New Frontier, thought that it was a great ride, but I didn’t have me dancing around the room in childish wonder at seeing my heroes again as they once were: unsullied by years upon years of meaningless continuity and forced relevance.

And don’t we all want to do the Comic Book Happy Dance?!?