Superboy Lives!!?!

Well, when I picked up my comics yesterday I certainly was not expecting that. What am I talking about? I'm talking about Action Comics #871 and the (potentially) triumphant return of Superboy!





While I had known that Nightwing and Flamebird would be appearing in this issue, I assumed they would just be typical Kryptonians from the Bottle City of Kandor. (I never get tired of typing/saying "Bottle City of Kandor.") But Geoff Johns still has the ability to surprise me. I did not expect the Boy of Steel to return this week. But is it truly him? Here are some points to consider:

- Superman, Supergirl, and some other Kryptonians fight Doomsday. We all remember that Superboy made his appearance as one of the "replacement Supermen" after Superman's first fight with Doomsday.

- During said fight Doomsday hurls a statue of Superboy at Superman, causing Superman to recall Conner and talk about Doomsday making the fight personal.

- When the two members of the Kryptonian Army (or whatever) attempt to free General Zod from the Phantom Zone, their guns are destroyed by "natural tactile-telekinesis!"

- The possessor of this tactile telekinesis took much joy in shouting out his power as he used it.

- Superboy used to say "tactile telekinesis" so often that a supporting cast member in his old series bet him that he couldn't go a full day without saying it. (Superboy lost that bet.)

- We are then introduced to the new Nightwing and Flamebird. This Nightwing has tactile-telekinesis, is young, has dark hair, and could very easily be Superboy with a bad pseudo-Batman costume.

- Nightwing attempts to give himself first billing "Nightwing and Flamebird" before Flamebird corrects him by saying "Flamebird and Nightwing." Superboy was known to do something similar, when he insisted on being called Superman as opposed to Superboy.

- Flamebird refers to Nightwing as "Kid" which was pretty much what everyone called Superboy before he bothered getting himself a secret identity.

And for some not in-story reasons that this makes sense:

- This was written by Geoff Johns. Geoff was the last person to regularly write Superboy in Teen Titans, and was the SOB that killed him off in Infinite Crisis. So if a writer was going to bring him back, Geoff would be that writer.

- James Robinson has been spending a lot of time reintroducing Cadmus into the Superman mythos. Bringing back the Guardian, Dubbilex (albeit briefly), and the Newsboy Legion. And what is Cadmus' most famous creation? Why a flying clone of Superman of course!

Now these facts seem pretty clear and obviously we should all be celeberating The Kid's return! It just seems a little too good to be true to me. The story continues next week in Supergirl, so hopefully we'll learn more then.

But all signs seem to point to the S-boy being back!

I can't believe it's done!

So finished the NY Bar today. I can't believe how fast the past two months went. It seems like yesterday that I was graduating. Two months of studying, then taking an exam that was designed by some pretty cruel sons of bitches. Now that I'm home and I don't know what to do with myself. I keep getting a guilty feeling like I should be studying! It's crazy.

I think tomorrow will be relaxing. I'll sleep in, pick up the new comics since I couldn't go today (slow week anyway), get Spaced on DVD, spend the rest of the day in bed watching Spaced.

Then I'll worry about getting my room back in order (there are outlines, books, and notecards everywhere!) and maybe finding a job so I can support my lifestyle. Apparently you're not allowed to take out more student loans when you're not a student.

Happy Independence Day!

Cyborg Superman says "Have a Happy and Safe Fourth of July... or else!"

Cover of Superman #79, by Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding

SuperBOY-Prime??

So Wizard World Chicago is in full swing, and I've been doing my obligatory constant refreshing of newsarama to see what the hell is going on in the world of comics. There has been some nice bits, looks like Impulse may finally be coming back, which is nice. But the big news is when Dan DiDio said:

Didio also paused to point out the special nature of Legion of Three Worlds. “We’ve got Geoff, we’ve got George, we’ve got SuperBOY Prime (yes, we can say that again).”

For those that don't know, Geoff is Geoff Johns, current writer of Action Comics, JSA, and Green Lantern and George is George Perez, artist extraordinaire.

But apparently, DC is allowed to use the name "Superboy" again!! Not sure what this means and exactly what happened, but if we're allowed to say "Superboy" in a comic, that can only mean that Superboy has thrown off the chains of the legal system and can once again return to comic books everywhere!




Hooray!

(And Fuck Superboy-Prime. There I said it. Again.)

Cover of Superboy #17, by Karl Kesel & Tom Grummett

Trapped in Bar Review!

So my life has been reduced to studying for the Bar and sleeping. I'm in class diligently taking notes from 9:00 - 1:15 everyday, then I get a short break before doing practice multiple choice and reviewing my notes.

Graduating from Law School is not all its cracked up to be, because there's a little thing called the Bar Exam just a few months after. I think a lot of people don't realize this, as I received many 'congratulations' and 'you must be so proud.' It just all seems a little premature. The J.D. doesn't mean much until you pass that damnable exam.

Anyway, lets talk about comics.

Here's an excerpt from last week's DC Nation Column (#115):

In CRISIS Mode

-- 1985, CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS. "Worlds will Live, worlds will die." Heroes died, like Barry Allen, the Silver Age Flash.

-- 2005, INFINITE CRISIS. "The worst day in the DCU." Conner Kent died, but worse, a hero of the first CRISIS fell to be reborn as a Prime force for destruction.

--Now, FINAL CRISIS. "The Day Evil Won." A trilogy comes to an end.

Who will live? Who will die? Who will be reborn?

Now, more specifically:
"The worst day in the DCU." Conner Kent died, but worse, a hero of the first CRISIS fell to be reborn as a Prime force for destruction.

Now this may be the worst day in the DCU (I wasn't too happy about it), but where the HELL does Eddie Berganza get off saying that EVEN WORSE than Superboy dying, is Superboy-Prime going evil. Superboy-Prime is a spoiled little bastard and that's ALL he ever was! Now we're supposed to feel sorry for that murderer? I mean, of course I'm biased because he killed my favorite character, but he also PUNCHED OFF PANTHA'S HEAD! RIPPED OFF BOTH OF RISK'S ARMS! Sorry, but reading "but worse, a hero of the first CRISIS fell to be reborn" really irked me. Fuck Superboy-Prime. There. I said it.

On a more positive note, we did get to see Sparx in Final Crisis #1. This fulfilled two things I like to see in my comics, nods to Superboy (Sparx was a Superboy supporting character, first appearing in Superboy's issue of Bloodlines), and proof that the 90s did actually happen, despite DC's efforts to forget that decade. It's nuts, the appearance of a Bloodlines character in a mainstream book, and not just as cannon fodder. OK, she got taken down easy by Dr. Light and Mirror Master, and had Dr. Light make lecherous comments, but she didn't die.

That's all for now, time to get back to my note-taking.

Happy Earth Day!

Superman Loves the Earth...

Do you???

Be sure to recycle, at least for today. And why not switch to some energy efficient bulbs? They last longer and it's good for the environment!

All-Star Superman #10 by Morrison & Quitely.

Siegel's reclaim part of Superman Copyright!

So no updates on Superboy, but a big decision has been handed down in regards to the ownership of the Superman copyright. I haven't read the opinion yet, but from what I understand the Siegel's have regained the copyright to the material published in Action Comics #1. This material contains the basic premise of Superman, including his alter-ego Clark Kent, Lois Lane, his alien origins, and his occupation as a crime-fighter. The basic layout of his costume was also originally seen in this issue.

You can read some commentary on it from Jeff Trexler, who has been doing a great job of keeping everyone updated on the Superboy/Superman legal actions. The Senior Copyright Counsel for Google, William Patry, also gave his opinion.

Even more coverage at The Legion Omnicom and the NY Times. Michael at the Legion Omnicom has been doing a much better job keeping everyone updated on the Superboy Lawsuit than I have.

And for the brave, check out Newsarama and the accompanying comment thread.

The opinion, available at the Trexfiles link above, is a daunting 71 pages, so I'm just making my way through it now. I'll be posting with my thoughts soon.