toy collectwhore: Red Lantern Mera

I have never really been a fan of Aquaman.  I am not alone in that being Arthur Curry and every other iteration of the superman of the sea has been a book that was consistently killed off.  Things have changed in my love for Atlantean heroes since DC mega-events Blackest Night and Brightest Day-- because of the fabulous Mera (and ahem..Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis).

Red Lantern Mera

Artistic Integrity:   This fig is a thing of beauty.  So many reasons to love it-- the most obvious standout is the amount of incredible detail put into Mera.  From the nasty scowl to the protruding bones, a trident that looks identical to the books along with nearly every other aspect of the mold mimicking how she is illustrated.

DC Direct could have gone the easy route in making her costume a nice bright red as it is without all of the immaculate sculpting that looks as if each scale was placed on the fig individually.

But, oh no they didn't.

Take a look at the art below and we get the rare situation of the figure standing out even more so than the art.  Love Nicola Scott, but DC Direct really worked their toy-mojo on this one.




 4 out of 5 shakas

Fun Factor:  The redic craftsmanship that you see in every scale of her fit makes you all but overlook that there is less than 10 points of articulation.

Sure, Mera is quite limited in how she can be posed but when you put her on the shelf amongst the rest of the collection-- she pops right out.

I so appreciate how Geoff Johns helped to push having a bunch of obscure, C and D-level characters put to the plastic so that we can rock em in all of their fabulous glory.

How awesome is it that they included a Red Lantern Dex-Starr?!  Very, very cool yo!

4 out of 5 shakas

Fo-reals brah:

So can't wait until this Fall so that I can add a Red Lantern Guy Gardner to the rest of the Red Lanterns that will also be featured in their very own book around the same time via the scribework of Peter Milligan.  And let's hope that we get to see Mera revisit some of her rage in those pages.
 

4 out of 5 shakas








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big O

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if you don't know, now you know- Scream Awards 2010

Yes it is that time again where you and I get to let our voices be heard and pick (before October 19th) from all of those wacky, crazed Spike: Scream Awards covering all that streams through the Popular Arts- be it film, television, animation and yes, comicbooks. 

The 4 categories that we really only care about are:

BEST COMICBOOK ARTIST:  Charlie Adlard- The Walking Dead / Darwyn Cooke- Parker: The Hunter / Fabio Moon- BPRD: 1947, Sugarshock, Daytripper / Frank Quitely- Batman and Robin, Batman / Jill Thompson- Beasts of Burden / JH Williams III- Detective Comics: Batwoman...and the C&D vote goes to..

BEST COMICBOOK WRITER:  Jason Aaron- Scalped, Wolverine: Weapon X / Darwyn Cooke- Parker: The Hunter / Garth Ennis- The Boys / Geoff Johns- Green Lantern, Blackest Night, The Flash Rebirth / Robert Kirkman- Thwe Walking Dead / Mike Mignola- BPRD:1947, Hellboy In Mexico...and the C&D vote goes to..

BEST COMICBOOK MOVIE:  Iron Man 2 / Kick-Ass / The Losers...and the C&D vote goes to..

BEST COMICBOOK or GRAPHIC NOVEL:  Asterios Polyp / Blackest Night / Chew / Parker: The Hunter / Scalped / The Walking Dead...and the C&D vote goes to..

I am looking forward to Geoff Johns coming home on October 19th with two more matching Screams to go with his 2 awards from last year.  Props to Spike for throwing shine toward this once invisible art prior to it being the cool thing to do these days.


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big O

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WTF moment of the week: Blackest Night series 7 & 8

It's kinda scary how behind I am with things being away on vacay for the last few weeks (yeah internet in Bali is close to dial-up). But after finally catching up on nearly 3 weeks of reading-- I finally got to stumble on this news of two more waves of Blackest Night figs!! Thank you Geoff Johns!

Now that DC Direct has pushed out the majority of core characters central to the instant classic Blackest Night story, we can finally see some of the other prominent players that made BN so damn fun.  Right away, I nearly wet my boxers from the inclusion of Red Lantern Mera in series 7 (due in late November) and the badassery of  Indigo Tribe: The Atom--easily my second favorite character of Blackest Night (first of course going to Larfleeze!)-- released in series 8 right before the Holidays.

Not to take away anything from the craftsmanship in earlier lines, but these two figures alone are way beyond the levels of detail in anything I have seen out there since maybe, Atrocitus and Black Hand.  I was stunned  how authentic Mera's sculpt was designed to highlight nearly every scale in her costume (including that funny ass feline is a nice touch) and the insane iteration of the Sword of the Atom influenced Indigo Tribe fig slays.

Just bananas.

Of series 7, I will also pick up Sinestro Lantern Arkillo but may pass on Black Lantern's Terra and Supes though getting Scar (packed with BL Terra) should be a must-have.  As for series 8 that on top of  IT Atom includes Orange Lantern Lex Luthor, Sinestro Lantern Scarecrow and Black Lantern Flash, man don't get it twisted, these are must buys!!

Strongest line IMO since wave 2.  DC Direct is hearing it now...cha-ching!

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big O

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Ticklin' Spines - 3/31/2010

Title - Writer / Artist / V-variant cover (artist)


Adventure Comics #512 (#9) - James Robinson & Sterling Gates / Julian Lopez & Clayton Henry (cover - Joe Quinones) / V (Rafael Albuquerque)

Blackest Night #8 - Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis / V, 2 ( Rodolfo Migliari, Reis/sketch)


Dark Wolverine #84 - Marjorie Liu & Daniel Way / Guisseppe Cammuncoli (cover - Salvador Larroca)


Detective Comics #863 - Greg Rucka / Jock (cover - JH Williams III)


Fantastic Four #577 - Jonathan Hickman / Dale Eaglesham (cover - Alan Davis)


Gotham City Sirens #10 - Paul Dini / Guillem March


X-Force #25 - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost / Clayton Crain / V (Crain)


X-Men:Second Coming #1 - Craig Kyle & Chris Yost / David Finch (cover - Adi Granov) / V (Finch)

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chessie

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if you don't know, now you know- White Lantern Sinestro

In a special interview included within the Green Lantern: First Flight DVD- Geoff Johns stated, "Sinestro-- the greatest lantern of all". And with the final page flipper of Blackest Night #7, we are now in on what GJ had planned all along.

Doug Mahnke and Shane Davis slay their interpretations of such on the covers of GL#52.

Hal Jordan and Sinestro represent the yin and yang of the Lantern Corps, both living through the life of an intergalactic hero and villain. What better way to relish in this than having the first White Lantern be the great Sinestro.

Just fantabulous.

Looking forward to the other surprise White Lanterns-- like, say White Lantern Reverse-Flash?

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big O

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WTF moment of the week- Blackest Night: Flash

Of all the highlights in this heaping, overflowing cup of BN Flash #3 (though the first shot of the White Lantern logo was stupid-fly) I just had to go with the final, intimate scenes between Boomerang and the Rogues.  Poor ole Owen, never really thought through all of the things that his savage Black Lantern pops was asking of em and well...

you can guess what happens next, or just go out and pick up of this must have Blackest Night ish!  Johns/Kolins definitely position the gangsta-ass eskimo and his rogue squad right where they need to be-- all set for some serious raucous with Barry- in the upcoming Flash book. 

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big O

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Johns is Killing It

Geoff Johns has shown that hard work, extensive research and maniac-level passion can equate to die-hard reader loyalty to the extent that anything bearing the GJ label translates to heavy sales. With Blackest Night: The Atom and Hawkman #46, I found myself following suit with this claim.

In just this one book, Johns effectively characterizes the low-pro heroics of Ray Palmer, especially focused on emotionally charged combat with the primary antagonist (not Hawkman), ex-wife Jean Loring. And as expected with the quirky themes that make the Atom so enthralling, Johns/Sook/Pasarin magnify every interaction between the two-- as they battle it out within the infected ring of Indigo I.

 

Johns remixes and sequences Gil Kane's The Sword of the Atom with a natural tone that allows Ray Palmer to relive his days as a tribal warrior but with some splashes of indigo, of course.  This beautiful Blackest Night revival special has added some fun to my bin digging adventures as I hunt down some of the OG source material.

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big O

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if you don't know, now you know- Brightest Day

Monday dread was quickly shaken off today with some good coffee and intel from the Source on what is to follow one of the greatest comic events (Blackest Night of course) since Crisis on Infinite Earths.

From 6am to just a few hours ago, DC has been taking over comic feeds across the interweb- releasing bits and pieces of what we can look forward to in April and the rest of 2010 through the DC Multiverse.

As one would expect, the brain trust of this follow-up event will be led by Geoff Johns & Peter Tomasi who have laid all the groundwork of the Green Lantern  / Blackest Night mythos and will be kicking it all off with Brightest Day #0 with the uber-talent of fellow Outsiders creator- Fernando Pasarin.

What got me out of my seat though, were the words Deathstroke's Titans being articulated verbatim by Dan DiDio as being part of the Brightest Day plans.


The new creative talent connected with this dope concept are Eric Wallace and Fabrizio Fiorentino- known for their most recent collabo, Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink. Things will kick off with the one shot- TITANS: VILLAINS FOR HIRE, with the regular series spinning out after.


Under the leadership of Slade-- we can expect his revived son Jericho, the Tattoed Man, Chesire and most likely Arsenal to round out the new Titans roster. 

With the core of the new JLA consisting of the old Titans crew, it is great to have an anti-hero book that can level out the playing field in the DCU.


The natural conflict that rests between Donna Troy, Cyborg, Batman/Nightwing and Deathstroke's Titans should make for some great drama on a more grand scale than previously held and have somewhat of a..do I dare say- New/Dark Avengers dynamic, with the use of the Titans name being smeared, or at least perceived as such by the heroes.


In a fantastically, rich IGN interview Johns explained how Brightest Day will unravel into the DCU in similar fashion to how 52 streamed from Infinite Crisis (thankfully it won't be a weekly-- whew!).


Not a bad idea bringing forward under-valued properties like Atom, Mera and Dove.  Looking back who would have thought that nearly 3 years later- Batwoman, The Question, Booster Gold and Rip Hunter would be focal points of such great books.


With the White Lantern logo reveal being an obvious indicator of a new Corps, which I don't quite know how to feel about-- we can assume more changes to characters that we care about...and hey, where is Stargirl in the cover below?

Will she be a White Lantern ring bearer? Who do you expect to join the new Corps?? Let the rumor mill spin baby!!!


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big O

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WTF moment of the week- Blackest Night

How genius of DC to have Blackest Night #6 (sure, maybe Diamond has something to do with it) be the lone book on the last Wednesday of 2009. Whoa. What a treat it was.

Pick it up, jump for joy through the big chase and especially kickass moment where Ganthet takes his rightful place in helping to even the odds.

Happy New Years, be safe and Beware their Power!

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big O

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Ticklin' Spines - 12/30/2009

Title - Writer/Artist / V-variant cover (artist)

Blackest Night #6 - Geoff Johns / Ivan Reis & Oclair Albert / V,2 (Rodolfo Migliari, Ivan Reis-sketch variant)

Support independent comic books & creators. This week is indy comic book week.  For SF BAY locals- Check out the bananas Holiday Sale @ Comics Conspiracy

All Toys - 50% off!    All Current Comics - 40% off!     All Trade Paperbacks/Hardcovers - 30% off!    All Statues - 20% off!
All Back Issues (under $10) - $1 each! (50% off back issues $10 or more)

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chessie

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Migliari is Killing It

Argentine superstar cover artist Rodolfo Migliari has been making noise for years by way of his breathtaking illustrations, but with his recent works on the most notable Blackest Night books (Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Blackest Night) it looks like his star is on the rise.

Thanks to his hard work, obvious talent and Geoff Johns, Migliari will be getting some small-screen shine on the Smallville special- Absolute Justice with his painting of the Justice Society of America, airing on the CW February 5th..

Check this footage from the Casa de America in Madrid where 25 of his most notable works are on display through January 17th. 



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big O

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