Art Attack: September 2011's Coolest Covers

-Had like ten more covers originally, but cut it down to at least a semi-manageable visual number. Good month for art, y'all.

-Still not sure how I feel about Superman's new look(s), but Rags Morales knows how to create a striking image. Glad to have him back on a regular super hero book!

-That Animal Man cover by Travel Foreman sure as heck got my attention.

-I am not anticipating a bad Daredevil cover any time soon.

-Steve McNiven got Steve Rogers' face pitch perfect for Fear Itself--great "acting" work.

-My favorite touch on the Generation Hope cover by Rodin Esquejo: Velocidad displaying his powers in a neat visual way.

-Hercules in a Spider-Man costume should not work. It does. I want that action figure.

-Cover artist of the Month? Patrick Zircher. Good take on a classic set-up with Mystery Men, creepy Kingpin variation on Amazing Spider-Girl.

-What IS that thing holding Dani Moonstar on David Lafuente's New Mutants cover? Love it!

-That Scalped cover by Jock is darn clever.

-Kaare Andrews Ultimate Comics Ultimates cover is my current desktop background.

ABE SAPIEN: THE DEVIL DOES NOT JEST #1 by Francesco FrancavillaACTION COMICS #1 by Rags MoralesAMAZING SPIDER-MAN #670 by Humberto RamosANIMAL MAN #1 by Travel ForemanBUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON NINE #1 by Georges JeantyDAKEN: DARK WOLVERINE #14 by Giuseppe CamuncoliDAREDEVIL #3 by Paolo RiveraDAREDEVIL #4 by Marcos MartinDARK HORSE PRESENTS #4 by Geof DarrowFEAR AGENT #31 by Tony MooreFEAR ITSELF #6 by Steve McNivenGENERATION HOPE #11 by Rodin EsquejoGREEN LANTERN CORPS #1 by Doug MahnkeHELLBLAZER #183 by Simon BisleyHERC #7 by Carlo PagulayanIRON MAN 2.0 #9 by Salvador LarrocaJOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #627 by Stephanie HansMEN OF WAR #1 by Viktor KalvachevMYSTERY MEN #5 by Patrick ZircherNEW AVENGERS #16 by Mike DeodatoNEW MUTANTS #30 by David LafuenteOMAC #1 by Keith GiffenRED SKULL #3 by David AjaSCALPED #53 by JockSPIDER-ISLAND: AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL #2 by Patrick ZircherSPIDER-ISLAND: DEADLY HANDS OF KUNG FU #2 by Sebastian FiumaraSWEET TOOTH #25 by Jeff LemireULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES #2 by Kaare AndrewsTHE UNWRITTEN #29 by Yuko ShimizoX-23 #14 by Kalman Andrasofsky

Sean & Megan Watch Game of Thrones: Baelor

From the blog that brought you "Lynn Phegley Watches Lost," get ready for another experience that redefines the art of recapping TV shows!

Sean T. Collins is a friend to the Cool Kids and avid devotee of George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Fire and Ice" series of books, upon which the HBO television show Game of Thrones is based; he is currently chronicling the series on two separate blogs, one with book spoilers and one without.

Megan Morse is Ben's wife who has never read the Martin books and does not typically go in for the fantasy genre but loves Game of Thrones for reasons she doesn't even fully understand.

Each week, Megan will provide her analysis of the show from a neophyte's standpoint and then Sean will interject with his informed reactions and insights, answering her questions and commenting on her observations.

Whether you're a nerd or a newcomer, if you're watching Game of Thrones this is the recap for you!

Megan: This was one of my favorite episodes. I don't think it's hard to tell from some of my criticisms in the past that I don't have a terribly long attention span sometimes--sometimes if just one character talks for more than a minute, I'll zone out and make a note to have Ben pause it after the scene and tell me what happened, which he loves--so I loved how packed this was with a variety of different things. I loved the action, I loved the cliffhangers, but I also loved the character development with Tyrion and the drama with Daenerys and Drogo. This episode had it all--and it ended with a beheading!

Sean: "I'll take 'Things People Never Say About Army Wives' for $200, Alex."

Megan: Let's start with the stuff at the stuff at the Twins and Robb's campaign. First and foremost, I was excited that Lord Frey was played by Filch from Harry Potter! Frankly I've been disappointed to this point that we've only had one other Harry Potter alum--that I know of--so this was nice. More actors from Skins also please! There are lots of out of work British actors who I actually know. I have never seen Lord of the Rings, so that doesn't help me.

Sean: Game of Thrones is certainly shaping up to be for UK character actors what Law & Order was for New York theater veterans.

Megan: Where was I...right, the Twins. I appreciated Lord Frey; he was very snarky and quippy--that may be a made up word--much like my husband. I like that nobody will marry his kids; it actually made me think of friends from big families where not all the siblings are married and the parents can't get them out of the house, so this is not a problem limited to Game of Thrones--very sympathetic issue.

Sean: Ha, I'd never thought of it that way before, but it makes sense. In the books, the characters say that Lord Frey is the only lord in Westeros who could field an army out of his breeches -- that's how many children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and in-laws and bastards and grandbastards he has. Add that drain on his resources to his festering resentment for the greater Houses like Tully and Stark and Lannister, who he feels (correctly!) only use him for his bridge, and you've got the recipe for a cantankerous old shit.

Megan: It is interesting how Robb agreeing to marry himself and Arya off to essentially cross a bridge was not that big a deal in the larger scheme; interesting in the sense that I felt bad for him for a second, but then much like he did, just kind of brushed it off as "That's just the way it goes."

Sean: Perhaps this is what maturity looks like in Westeros: coming to terms with the fact that your life is not yours to control. I wouldn't trade being a lord for being one of the smallfolk for anything, but even the highborn are basically puppets to genealogy and politics.

Megan: Robb's whole progression has fallen into kind of a grey area for me. He's really growing on Ben because he's into honor and all that junk, but I just want to be entertained. There are certain story lines I crave and want to get more of; there are others I actively dislike because they are keeping me from the good ones; then there are the ones I don't actively dislike, but I'm still not counting the minutes until they get back to them. Up until this point, the Stark-Lannister war on the whole was in that last category, but now I'm getting more into the Lannister side, while the Stark end is ok, but not great.

Sean: I think that's understandable. With the exception of Arya, who's not exactly a shotcaller for the Starks, none of them have the spunk that Tyrion or even Jaime have displayed.

Megan: As to why I'm enjoying the Lannister camp scenes more, that's mainly for the great Tyrion stuff. I was actually souring on him a bit last few week because I didn't find him as interesting at the camp as I did in his previous situations, but this may have been his best episode yet--yeah, I think it was. Obviously he's funny, obviously he's charming in his own way, but aside from little glimpses, we haven't gotten to see his more serious sympathetic side until this week and he gained a whole new endearing dimension as a result. The story he told of his marriage was crushing and I think Peter Dinklage earned his eventual Emmy by showing he can do the heartfelt stuff with this character as well as make people laugh.

Sean: My favorite detail about that sequence was when he starts losing to Shae in the game of "I Never" they're playing: After being forced to take a few drinks after whiffing on several guesses, he kind of stammers and says "We went over the importance of not lying, didn't we?" or something like that. He's having a really, really hard time dealing with not being the smartest guy in the room. But what separates him from his siblings and father is that you never get the impression that placing second would make him want to kill the person in first place. You know what I mean? That's Tyrion's charm in a nutshell: He's smart, he's funny, he's ruthlessly cunning but not actually ruthless, at least not that we've seen. Chalk that up to the years of psychological abuse he endured at his father's hands, I suppose, and to the horrible fate of his wife. I'm guessing that when you're exposed to something like that, ruthlessness either loses a lot of its luster or, as was the case for the Hound after his abuse by the Mountain, it becomes the only language you speak.

Megan: Kudos also to Bronn, who is one of the unsung stars of the show for me; his facial expressions reacting to other people are gold. I'm very intrigued by Shae as well--definitely want to know her story.

Sean: Bronn is terrific -- Jerome Flynn's a real MVP. Fun fact about Shae: In the books, she's a native of Westeros with the same roughly English vibe as everyone else, but the filmmakers and George R.R. Martin were so impressed by Sibel Kikelli's audition that they rewrote the part around her.

Megan: Still don't like the Wall, but at least there was stuff going on there this week. I wouldn't have known that the Lord Commander was Jorah's dad unless Ben pointed it out to me, but that's just because I semi-intentionally stop paying attention whenever Jon Snow comes onscreen.

Sean: The Old Bear's a good dude. And convincingly cast, I thought -- he looks like he could be Jorah's dad, sure.

Megan: How does the he have a son if guys on the Wall aren't supposed to take a wife or have kids?

Sean: Jeor took the Black well after Jorah was born, in order to allow his son to take over his lordship. Pretty selfless when compared to the likes of Walder Frey. It didn't work out, since Jorah disgraced himself by selling some poachers he'd captured into slavery, but that was the idea.

Megan: Similarly, I was splitting my focus between the laundry on my living room floor and that Keeping Up With The Kardashians had just started taping when we learned that Aemon is a Targaryen, but Ben caught me up; I do think that's cool and hope there's some payoff ahead since we thought there was only one left in Daenerys, but now we know that not to be the case.

Sean: If you've still got this thing on a DVR someplace [EDITOR'S NOTE: Nope, just unwatched episodes of Hellcats], watch that speech again. I like how this sudden agony and fury suddenly comes out of this frail old man. He still has some dragon left in him, it would seem, yet tempered with a hard-earned wisdom and kindness that I don't think too many Targaryens shared by the time of the Mad King.

Megan: With Aemon alive, does he technically have a more legitimate claim to the crown than Daenerys if the Targaryens were to regain control?

Sean: No, because Maesters forsake their House names and are sworn to serve for life. It was easy to miss, but he mentions that he was actually offered the crown during a shaky period of succession decades and decades ago -- I believe the High Septon, basically the Westerosi pope, can release people from their vows -- but refused. The fact that Robert let him live speaks volumes about how secure people are that men on the Wall stay on the Wall.

Megan: I liked the other guys passing around Jon's new sword like it was a toy; I guess that's their equivalent of the iPad or the Wii coming out and their buddy getting one.

Sean: Ha! That's brilliant.

Megan: The stuff across the Narrow Sea was well done from the start. From the very first shot and the way Drogo was hunched over on his horse, I wasn't even sure it was actually him, as they did a great job making him sickly and Jason Momoa really altered his physicality; he's obviously a huge guy, so when they take the time to diminish him, it's striking. When Daenerys was standing over him, both in the road and later in his tent, I'm not sure if it was the way the scenes were staged or the way she was carrying herself, but she honestly seemed bigger than him.

Sean: The bigger they come, the harder they fall. Last time we saw him he killed an armed man with his bare hands; this time he can't even sit up. I loved how ominously matter-of-fact his bloodrider was: "He fell from his horse." Right then and there you know the jig's up.

Megan: I liked getting the contrast between how the Dothraki society works and how things are done in Westeros, as explained by Jorah; as opposed to over in King's Landing where it's all about manipulation and bloodlines to secure you and your children's positioning, with the Dothraki, they're just going to fight amongst themselves and whoever wins is king, so if Drogo dies, Daenerys has no claim whatsoever.

Sean: Although you do start to wonder how much the Westerosi concepts of lineage are just a pretty lace covering they drape over the same might-makes-right system the Dothraki don't bullshit themselves about.

Megan: I guess this speaks to the strength of how they've portrayed Daenerys and Drogo's relationship as I've said in past weeks, but it never really occured to me that her mounting desperation to save his life was from anything other than caring deeply about him. If she was truly concerned about the life of herself or her son, she could have just escaped with Jorah, so I didn't feel like she wanted Drogo to live just so the Dothraki wouldn't kill her or her baby. Is it possible she was just concerned that if Drogo dies the Dothraki wouldn't cross the Narrow Sea and she wouldn't get her throne? Maybe, but I'm sticking with the idea she loves him and would do anything to save his life.

Sean: Since I've read the books I know there's really no question here: She stayed because she loves Drogo and wants to save him. But you raise an excellent point about the quality of this storyline in the show. Viewers have no recourse to Dany's interior monologue and thus have no idea if she's sticking around out of love, or in hopes that reviving him will simply save her bacon and allow her to continue the march to Westeros, which would be quite an understandable conclusion to reach. They must rely on the cues given by the writing and performances, and those cues leave little doubt why she's doing what she's doing. She's for real.

Megan: Final thoughts on the Narrow Sea stuff: Who do they hate horses so much? Is that three that they've killed?

Sean: Yes, horses have not fared well on Game of Thrones. And they actually cut a gory horse death: In the books, Tyrion makes it into that battle, and ends up surviving in part by accidentally disembowling a horse with the spike on his helmet when he stands up off the ground. Forget the Night's Watch: Westeros needs a Sworn Brotherhood of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Megan: Also, Mirri Maz Duur is creepy, so good casting. I really have no thoughts on Jorah at the moment, even though he finally took some action; I'm mainly interested in him for exposition.

Sean: I thought it was cool to see the contrasting fighting styles of him and Drogo's bloodrider. You can see the advantages and disadvantages of both, though in the end it was obviously unfamiliarity with fighting in armor that did whatsisname in--a contrast with the trial by combat between Bronn and Ser Vardis in the Eyrie, where Bronn knew he needed to tire his armored opponent out first before going in for the kill.

Megan: Was I surprised that Ned got beheaded? I was, but not entirely. Ben was sure he would somehow survive and I was pretty steadfast that it was not certain. Clearly nobody is safe on this show. I'm glad for that. Everything feels more important and every moment is more tense when anybody could go at any time. There are a lot of shows that are framed in such a way that certain characters are never at risk. At first, I thought this was one of those shows, but clearly I was wrong.

Sean: That's for damn sure. What surprised me most is how intense this was for me, even though I've read the book twice (and actually had it accidentally spoiled for me beforehand!) and knew everything that was going to happen. The filmmakers used every trick at their disposal to make that scene as intense as possible. I can only imagine how it felt for newbies. I've read some articles that say that this was one of the most narratively audacious moves ever made by a TV drama -- killing off its main character and biggest star in the first season. You're right, it's crystal clear that no one is safe...though that's a lesson that stings every new time we learn it, I can promise you that.

Megan: I'm starting to get a feel for how you described the way the book is structured in terms of its narrative and how it translates to the show. Ned was the focal point at the beginning, but they've been moving around lately where he has been featured less and it doesn't feel like the show is fundamentally shattered even if he's gone. Those were his chapters and now we've "read" them, so onto the next set.

Sean: That's what the network's counting on, certainly.

Megan: Hey, one last question: did they steal the crow mail system from Harry Potter and the owls?

Sean: Ha! No, A Game of Thrones came out first. You can see its influence on Potter in several ways--the owls are the most obvious, but there's also the whole Ron/Ginny incest storyline, and the part where Neville decapitates a horse.

Why Won't This Work? Outsiders

Looking over the 52 books DC will be rolling out this September—and August technically—as part of their massive publishing overhaul, you’ll see a lot of diversity. There are the traditional heavy hitter super hero books, some out-of-left-field revivals, genre-stretchers in fields like western and horror as well as new takes on classic characters and concepts.

One thing you won’t see—aside from a Justice Society, which is really another discussion—is a series starring any incarnation of the Outsiders.

This will mark the first time in eight years DC will be without an Outsiders ongoing series (I don’t count the new Red Hood book as a replacement). The most recent series—set to end this month at issue #40—began in 2007 as the second incarnation of Batman & the Outsiders before dropping the first part with issue #15 and became the fourth volume of Outsiders; it continued directly from the previous series that launched in 2003 alongside Teen Titans.

On the one hand, I’m a bit surprised there will—apparently—be no more Outsiders come September if only because they’ve been a DCU fixture for quite some time now; the current eight year run surpasses previous five and two year stints outside of limbo. On the other hand, it doesn’t come as a shock as DC seems to be lining up characters and concepts with a strong brand identity or hook, and as I’ve discussed with my blog-mates here on a few occasions, I’ve never seen Outsiders as fitting those particular bills.

The Outsiders were introduced in Brave and the Bold #200 in 1983 and then moved quickly into their own Batman & the Outsiders regular book. The initial roster included Metamorpho, Black Lightning, Katana, Geo-Force and Halo, but as I touched on recently, the group’s primary identity was as Batman and the guys who would help him out on missions the Justice League didn’t want to touch. That’s not a knock on those characters—Black Lightning and Metamorpho in particular I would consider DCU cornerstones and particularly resilient players—but when one guy’s name is “above the fold,” there’s really no questions whose show it is.

“Outsiders” is a cool name and conjures up images of a group that doesn’t fit in or operates far outside the law, but while both those concepts did play somewhat into the series’ initial incarnation, it really was more “these are the guys we’re having back up Batman because he’s cool enough to have a team book he doesn’t need to share with Superman and Wonder Woman.”

Batman left the book in 1985 and it became just Outsiders. I don’t know sales history well enough to speak too authoritatively—maybe somebody in the comments can clarify—but given that it lasted a few more years, I’d guess at least initially the established momentum of the book and the fact that readers had formed an attachment with these non-Batman characters—it should be noted that the series was supported by a trio of hugely talented creators in writer Mike W. Barr and artists Jim Aparo and Alan Davis, so the stories were going to read and look good regardless of the high concept behind them—sustained some success before it tapered out gradually.

Why don’t I think Outsiders continued past 1988 while the Justice League, Teen Titans and Legion of Super-Heroes marched on? Because it really had nothing to distinguish itself, and with team books that’s even more important I’d argue than series starring solo characters.

The Justice League is the A-list of DC heroes. The Teen Titans are the next generation. The Legion of Super-Heroes lives in the future. Across the street, the Avengers are Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The X-Men protect a world that hates and fears them (honestly, they’re comics’ true outsiders). The Thunderbolts are bad guys trying to become better.

Dig deeper and you’ve got some other teams that may not be published consistently, but get lots of chances because they’ve got something unique at the heart. The Suicide Squad is villains being pressed into heroism against their will. The Defenders are powerhouses who don’t really get along but put aside their differences for the greater good. The Doom Patrol is a team of freaks (again, they’re closer to outsiders than the Outsiders). Even Alpha Flight and Excalibur have different settings to their advantage.

Then you’ve got that long list of teams who outlived their premise but the names are recognizable so you’ll see new books featuring them every now and again and sometimes if you get lucky with the right creative team or new spin, they land. Infinity, Inc. was the Teen Titans of Earth-2, but then there was no more Earth-2. The Champions were the west coast super heroes but then the Avengers got a west coast branch.

X-Factor is kind of a unique case (appropriate given the name): they started out as the original X-Men, but once those characters left the book morphed into a government-sponsored mutant team and later a mutant detective agency. Perhaps no team has proven as adaptable over the years as X-Factor, with the recognizable name remaining, but mission statements sliding in and out as necessity demanded.

At times, Outsiders has come close to being DC’s X-Factor, but more often than not it’s been another Champions or Infinity, Inc.

In fact, I’d say the book’s initial cancellation in 1988 came about at least in part because of the last part of that statement. The Outsiders even without Batman had something of their own identity as the official super hero team of Los Angles, but following Crisis On Infinite Earths, Infinity, Inc. also made their home in L.A. That’s not to say the City of Angels isn’t big enough for two teams—Marvel’s New York has at least half a dozen at any given time—but that there were two books about super hero teams set in L.A. in 1988 without anything to really distinguish either probably spoke somewhat to their redundancy, and neither lasted to 1989.

Five years later in 1993, Outsiders returned, maybe in part because there was a strong pitch—Mike W. Barr was again writing, this time with a young Paul Pelletier on art—but more likely because it was the 90’s and a lot of books were getting green lit. I was only 11 at the time, but I didn’t really have any nostalgia to see Geo-Force or Looker again—Black Lightning and Metamorpho were otherwise engaged at the time, so their spots went to fairly forgettable newcomers like Wylde and Technorat, though we did get the pretty cool Faust out of the deal as well—and didn’t get the sense anybody else did either. The book did play somewhat on the name as Geo-Force was framed for murder and he as well as his allies become fugitives, but it would only run 24 issues before being cancelled in 1995.

In 2003, while Young Justice gave way to a new Teen Titans, a fresh take on Outsiders rose from the ashes of the previous Titans book. Name aside, this was a fairly fresh take on the old brand, with former Titans Nightwing and Arsenal putting together a group to replace their former one. Judd Winick was the writer—Tom Raney started out as the artist but subbed out for Matthew Clark—and I thought came up with justification for why the Outsiders existed beyond there just being another super team; at the outset, he utilized my least favorite comic book cliché of “these are pro-active heroes,” but that seemed more window dressing for the heart of the book. What was really going on—in my eyes at least—was that Nightwing no longer wanted to work with other heroes because the death of Donna Troy burnt him out on being a Titan, but his buddy Arsenal didn’t want him to become like Batman—in demeanor—so he convinced him to found this new crew on the basis that they wouldn’t be friends, like the Titans, but strictly professionals with limited emotional attachment.

It also helped that Winick filled out the roster with a combination of less overt ties to the original Outsiders—Black Lightning’s daughter, Thunder, as well as pseudo-Metamorpho clone Shift—and actual misfits who wouldn’t fit in on the Justice League—uncouth female bruiser Grace and “reformed” killer robot Indigo. Jade—ironically formerly of Infinity, Inc.—filled the final spot to give another known quantity and it made for an interesting dynamic. Winick even had a nice moment at the close of the first arc where Nightwing informed Batman he’d be leading this new team and that they’d be called the Outsiders, with both men exchanging a smirk.

I was a big fan of Judd Winick’s Outsiders. I thought the writing was good and the characters were fun, but perhaps more than anything I was impressed that he located a niche in a universe that already had the JSA, JLA, Teen Titans and more for the Outsiders to fill. I actually became an even bigger fan following the One Year Later jump as Winick pulled an X-Factor move and changed the game.

One of the threads that ran prior to Infinite Crisis was that as more traditional heroes like Captain Marvel Jr. and Nightwing’s former fiancée Starfire joined up, it became more and more difficult for them to remain a “strictly business” operation. Ties began to be formed and Dick Grayson didn’t like where things were headed. After Jade was killed, Starfire was lost in space and Captain Marvel Jr. became involved in the Marvel Family upheaval, Nightwing took the opportunity to revamp the operation. He faked the deaths of everybody but himself and Arsenal—kicking Roy Harper out of the group because he had a daughter and couldn’t do the things required that were coming—and turned the Outsiders into a completely off-the-grid black ops squad doing dirty deeds in the post-Infinite Crisis DC Universe. Grace and Thunder stuck around, Shift reverted to Metamorpho, Katana returned and the villainous new Captain Boomerang joined hoping for redemption.

For awhile, I touted Outsiders as my favorite One Year Later DC title around the Wizard offices. It had elements of the sneaky stuff and moral handwringing I loved in the original Suicide Squad, but it was even more complex with genuinely good people crossing lines to get things done. There was a great scene in the first arc where Superman came close to shutting the team down, but Nightwing “bluffed” him off their scent with a piece of Kryptonite in a lead-lined box, and then we find out he wasn’t bluffing. Winick’s writing was smart, Clark’s art was slick, and for awhile, the book was gold.

Like so many good things, though, this incarnation of Outsiders had to come to an end. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be terribly long-term—you can’t really keep a character as prominent as Nightwing as a true outsider for long and the idea worked in large part because of him—but it got a good 18 issues before ending in a crossover with the also excellent Checkmate by Greg Rucka where control of the group returned to Batman.

Things came full circle to an extent as Batman & the Outsiders returned in 2007 with Chuck Dixon writing. I didn’t stick around for the re-launch, but from what I understand the first year or so were pretty standard super hero adventures—that’s not a knock on their quality as, again, I didn’t read them and thus can’t judge—with Batman and Outsiders vets Katana, Metamorpho, Grace and Thunder being joined by a rotating assortment of members including Martian Manhunter, Catwoman, Green Arrow and Batgirl. Geo-Force and Black Lightning would eventually rejoin and then the series name reverted to simply Outsiders with issue #15 as Batman seemingly died during Final Crisis.

I followed the 10-issue post-Final Crisis run written by Peter Tomasi—I’m a Tomasi fan—and there were some decent stories, as he had the conceit of Batman leaving behind in the event of his death a plan for the Outsiders to continue with the original team plus The Creeper and a new Owlman, whom together he felt all possessed a skill or talent needed to basically create a composite replacement Batman. While that was a neat starting point, though, more and more once again without Batman or the true outsider status Winick created, it felt like just another super hero team with no real reason to exist.

That brings us up to the present day, the current volume’s cancellation and no announced plans for a new series during the Fall re-launch.

I guess the moral of the story—if there is one; there rarely is in my ramblings—is that some team books in comics have characters or names or basic ideas so strong and iconic they can exist just on that. There will always be a Justice League series, an Avengers series, a Teen Titans series, an X-Men series. Once you go beyond that top tier, you need to work to make sure your team book has a reason for being (not that you shouldn’t even on one of those titles). Sure there are fans out there whose nostalgia for Mike W. Barr’s work or seeing Geo-Force paired with Katana will make them pick up any Outsiders series, but I don’t believe it’s a huge group. Likewise, Batman is a character who is too in demand to base an entire team around; odds are he’s going to be needed elsewhere at some point, and you need a back-up plan.

Judd Winick took the idea of Outsiders and really gave it some thought; kicked kudos to the guys who came before and the fans who loved that work, but also found a particular way to approach the franchise that had legs. I hope that when the next Outsiders re-launch comes around—and it will come around—whoever gets the chance to shepherd it will do the same.

Paragraph Movie Reviews: Love and Other Drugs

If you don't have plans to see this movie, you can check the spoilers here and then come back.

This movie has a lot of charm, but it also feels like three or four writers took turns on the script without really consulting one another. For the most part it's fun and it never becomes unwatchable, but the emotional transitions are so abrupt and ill-paced that it's hard to get a grip on what you're watching. For most of the first hour, it seems to want to be a comedy centered around a burgeoning relationship, and that works, because the funny parts are the standout and because the stars craft a love story you care about. However, somewhere in the second half, the plot gets dropped off a cliff into melodrama with bad romantic comedy cliches, the characters skew way off their established behaviors and the whole enterprise has difficulty recovering. Jake Gyllenhaal has the strongest performance as he turns up the charisma and makes you believe him capable of being the smooth-talking ladies man who is just now discovering emotion; when he has to dig a little deeper during the third act, he falters. Anne Hathaway vacillates between being incredibly winning and trying way too hard; she's too smooth and callous at times, and the uneven writing of her character in particular does her no favors. Josh Gad is the standout of the supporting cast as the consistent comic relief while Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria and Judy Greer deliver when they're onscreen, but aren't there long enough to make any real impact. If this movie had figured out where it was going early on, it could have been a keeper, but it ends up instead as just two hours of ok diversionary entertainment.