Taking Requests For DC Team-Up Fics + Last Chance To Vote on Fanfic Universe Name (FEEDBACK REQUESTED)

So, remember a while back when I talked about What I’d Do Instead of Superman/Wonder Woman? Y’know, the random crossover book? Well, having FINALLY written Will & Hope, I’ve decided that I’m going to start taking requests from people to do crossover team-up fics of various DC superheroes. Basically, you post a request on here or in the comments for my fanfics, listing 2-3 heroes and 2-3 of their villains, and provided I like the idea of the team-up and it works within the canon of my fics, I will give it an honest shot.

Just as examples, you could ask for something like Wonder Woman and Batman taking on Cheetah and Bane, Robin and Raven battling Harley Quinn and one of the Sons of Trigon, Superman and John Stewart fighting Atomic Skull and Atrocitus, whatever. You don’t HAVE to post a plot idea if you don’t want to, but I suppose it could help. One thing I do ask, or rather recommend if you want better odds of me agreeing to do it, is that you list characters that have appeared in my fics thus far, the heroes at least. I’ll probably post a list of characters that have appeared thus far in my Fanfiction.net profile, (which is J.A.Phillips, btw), but for now, here’s a list of heroes and villains that have appeared or been referenced to thus far, more or less in order of appearance.

Heroes: Batman (Bruce Wayne), Robin, Martian Manhunter, Batman (Thomas Wayne), Superman, Supergirl/Power Girl, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Black Canary (Dinah Laurel Lance), Raven, Huntress, Batwoman, Batgirl/Oracle, Green Arrow, Black Canary (Dinah Drake-Lance), The Flash (Wally West), Green Lantern (John Stewart), The Flash (Jay Garrick), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)

Villains: Tony Zucco, Copperhead (female version from Arkham Origins), Rupert Thorne, Lew Moxon, Carmine Falcone, Gillian Loeb, Victor Zsasz, Manchester Black, Lex Luthor, Plasmus, Atomic Skull, Magpie, Baud, Dyna-mind, Parasite, Solomon Grundy, Toyman, The Joker, Firebug, The Riddler, The Jokerz, John Corben/Metallo, Nasthalthia Luthor, Bizarro, Jared, Trigon, Omerta the Silencer, Aquarius, Bleez, Atrocitus, Sinestro, Weather Wizard, Volcana, Dex-Starr

All of that aside, I’ve decided that, starting with my upcoming Justice League fanfic, I will be listing all of my fanfiction under a name for my fan-made universe. So, with that said, this is the last opportunity to vote on the name: Either Earth 52, so named for being the reality that doesn’t exist in the comics, or Infinite DC, named after Ultimate Marvel and for being influenced by the events of an infinite number of other comics, TV shows, movies, and so on.

Anyway, if you have a request for a team-up, post it below, and I shall see what I can do for you in the future. Ja né!

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What I Bought Today – Nightwing #24, Red Sonja #4, Fearless Defenders #10 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

So, other than Batman #24, I did get some other comics, so let’s once again check out…

So, to start with, let’s talk about The Fearless Defenders #10!

Before I start, I should note that this is technically a tie-in to an event going on in Marvel entitled Infinity. And I’m just gonna say this right now: I know precisely jack squat about what’s going on in Infinity. I know it has to do with an invasion by Thanos, and that the Avengers are otherwise occupied, and that tons of characters are involved so we see the various perspectives as the invasion occurs, but I honestly don’t know much else. In fact, this is the second time this has happened recently, as Adjectiveless X-Men is currently involved in a crossover with the other X-Men books. Maybe I’ll pick up the trade if it turns out to be any good, but for now, I have no idea. Otherwise, I just wanna say, DC and Marvel really need to hold back on major crossover events until a comic has at least hit 12 issues. Seriously, this keeps happening. You need to actually have a status quo BEFORE you can shake it up. lol

Thankfully, you don’t really need to know too many details of Infinity, as the opening narration gives just enough that you get the jist of what’s going on in this issue at least: During Thanos’ invasion, Attilan, home of the Inhumans, has blown up in the skies over Manhattan, and now people are turning into cocoons. One such individual is a girl named Ren Kimura, a young girl who has issues with her parents over her love of dance and lesbian lifestyle. Hatching from the cocoon, however, she finds her hands being covered in razor-sharp ribbons that are as strong as steel. Long story short, she gets attacked by one of the Wardogs of Thanos while his buddies are Caroline LeFay’s Doom Maidens, but is saved by the Defenders. LeFay wants the people in the cocoons for herself and tries to take Ren by force, but apparently she can launch out more ribbons at long-range, and using her various dance techniques, she’s able to defeat Scorpia and Shriek, while the Defenders send the rest packing too. Thus, the comic ends with Valkyrie becoming Annabelle, who convinces Ren to join the team, and it seems the two may be somewhat smitten with each other. Overall, fun comic as always, and Ren is a very welcome addition to the team.

Nightwing #24 picks up where the last one ended, with Tony Zucco offering to help. Apparently, Prankster‘s father, Harold Loomis, was the electrical engineer of a train line project the now-Mayor and his brother convinced City Hall to go through with, but Loomis died on Halloween in an accident, and Cole’s brother, William, took the fall for it. Wallace Cole never actually stole any money, and Prankster killing criminals was to make it so that when he told the people of Chicago that Mayor Cole stole $52,000,000.00, they believed him. All he’s really after is revenge for the death of his father. Prankster’s also planted enough explosives in Pilsen Station to cause Chicago’s entire south end to collapse in on itself. Luckily, with a little help from Zucco, Nightwing is able to save the Mayor, send the bombs into the lake to explode harmlessly, and bring Prankster in, Zucco deciding to let himself be apprehended as well. He doesn’t want to run anymore, and wants his son to know he took responsibility for his actions, but it seems it’s too little, too late: Zucco’s wife and son have left him, leaving him with the choice of beating the charges against him and going back to his old life, or going to jail and being a martyr for a life that doesn’t exist anymore…Also, that guy Maxwell is a super-villain.

Red Sonja #4…Seriously, if you love Gail Simone‘s writing but are not getting this book, there’s something wrong with you. We see that Annisia is kinda completely butt-fucking INSANE, as a farmer who tries to break quarantine insists that no one has died of the plague since the king was killed and Sonja was sent away, but Annisia talks to her invisible friends, I-I mean the souls of the dead, if she should offer him mercy, and then proceeds to cut his head off. Ayla and Nias, the twins assigned by King Dimath to be Sonja’s bodyguards, give her some of the elixer created by the king’s son, Timath, and tell her that if they can get her home, Timath can cure her…and Sonja, being Sonja, is more concerned with whether or not they brought alcohol. XD

Anyway, they begin their trek back to the quarantined kingdom as Sonja has flashbacks to her time with Annisia in the colosseum, where the two fought as sisters for their survival. However, along the way, Ayla and Nias are attacked by men of the deep (basically fishmen), led by Toda the Tormentor, a slave-driver. Toda’s men are about to kill Ayla, but Sonja recovers enough of her strength to take them all down, despite having to be blindfolded earlier to keep her eyes from being harmed by the sun. And so, the comic ends with Sonja removing the blindfold and declaring that she’s coming for Annisia. Again, GREAT issue. 🙂

So, that’s it for this week’s comics. Now, as you all know, I have a certain purchase to make this weekend. However, instead of a What I Bought Today, I will instead be giving updates on my Twitter, as well as talking about information officially unveiled upon the game’s release, and giving an overview after I’ve defeated the Elite Four. I might do day-end updates on my progress in the game on here, too, haven’t decided yet. In the meantime, though, check in next week when I look at Batman and Robin #24 and Supergirl #24. Ja né!

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What I Bought This Past Week – The Movement #4, Earth 2 #15, Batman #23, Nightwing #23, Fearless Defenders #8, Red Sonja #2 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

…Yeah, I did it again, leave me alone. lol

Before I start, I’m just gonna make it clear, I didn’t buy Batgirl #23, nor will I be. When Batgirl eventually leaves this asinine storyline, I will start buying it again. Others who choose to buy it, feel free. I do not blame any of you and respect your opinions. However, I personally cannot read this. Gail Simone knows why, and I’m just hoping this particular arc doesn’t drag much…That having been said, we DO have some Gail Simone books to look at, so let’s start with The Movement #4.

Okay, looking online, I see that this book has quite a few detractors. I think I kind of get why, but I’m still enjoying the heck out of it. That said, there is something that kinda bugged me about this book, and ironically, it’s regarding my favourite part of it: The back-stories. Specifically, we’re finally getting an idea as to who some of these people are. Mouse was a child born of a wealthy family who connected better to rats than people, so he escaped his home to the sewers. Katharsis was an immigrant who joined the Gotham City Police, but left after she killed a man who got away with assaulting and murdering an immigrant girl. Tremor ran away from home after a car accident with her friends and was enlisted by Amanda Waller to infiltrate The Movement, though later in this book, she tells military officials to tell Waller she quits. Finally, Burden was believed by his VERY religious parents to be possessed by the devil and thus ran away as to not burden their lives. I don’t have a problem with any of these back-stories. My problem is that we should’ve gotten them at least a couple of issues ago, maybe even one or two every issue so that, by this point, we’d be caught up on them all. Still, can’t fault this particular issue for that, and it is showing general improvement of the story-telling. That said, given the number of detractors to this book, I’m sadly expecting to hear any day now that DC is cancelling it, which will be a shame if it happens.

Honestly, not much to say about Earth 2 #15. The JSA fights the Terrors and get their asses kicked, Hawkgirl follows the bread-trail of clues regarding Sam’s murder to a place where she gets caught in a net, and Mister Miracle and Big Barda fight Fury while some of Miracle’s back-story is explained, only to be interrupted by Red Tornado. Granted, everything looks really awesome, and there isn’t really fault to it, it’s just that, overall, not much happened. Surprisingly, I find the next big arc they’re moving toward to be a bit more interesting, and that’s taking place AFTER James Robinson leaves, so…Huh? Me confused now.

Batman #23…Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have finally brought us to THAT point in the story. No, he’s not in the costume yet. Before that. That moment where he’s sitting in the chair, and he’s speaking to the ghost of his father, and sees the dark figure, and says “Yes, Father. I shall become a bat.” Also, the Red Hood Gang leader’s motivations are explained a bit more, we get some genuine goodness out of Alfred and Edward Nygma. If I had a single problem with this book, it’s simply that Snyder seems to be having some trouble deciding if Batman: Year One is still in canon with this story, or if Zero Year is the replacement origin for Batman. I honestly don’t care which he decides, although looking at how the scene with the bat is depicted…Yeah, it’s the new origin for the New 52 Batman. And again, I don’t care. I know a lot of people LOVE Year One, but personally, you’re not gonna hear me weep over the fact that Frank Miller’s take on Batman’s origins that also showed Selina Kyle as a prostitute and Jim Gordon as an adulterer has been retconned (although I hope the better parts of the story, of which there are still plenty, manage to pop up).

Before I talk about Nightwing #23, I wanna share a revelation I’ve had recently. I finally figured out what it is I love so much about the Nightwing book in its current setting and plot: It honestly reminds me a lot of Spider-man before they ruined Spider-man. Think about it: Snarky and acrobatic superhero with a complicated love life and a tragic childhood fights to protect a city that isn’t 100% sure whether to trust him or not. Hell, even the red on his upper torso and arms kinda makes his costume resemble Spider-man’s a little bit. Although, I should probably be careful saying stuff like this. Otherwise, instead of his constant attempts to kill off Dick Grayson, Dan Didio might just decide to force Kyle Higgins to write a story where Dick sells out his loved ones to the devil.

Anyway, getting back to Nightwing #23, it continues to be a great read. Nightwing is fighting to protect the people of Chicago, but he’s clearly beginning to run on fumes, as he’s apparently been doing this for several days. Then again, he might’ve gotten a booster from the red-head he saves who gives him a big one on the lips (What IS it with you and red-heads, Richard? Barbara, Starfire, you even had a crush on Batwoman for a while). Meanwhile, the Mayor’s denying the allegations of the Prankster, even though his own men have pretty much figured out the truth of it all, but in the end, Prankster ups the game a bit by apparently kidnapping the Mayor. However, despite all this, the single last person in the world that Nightwing would ever expect to give him aid offers to help stop Prankster: Tony Zucco, the man who murdered Dick’s parents, and the very reason Nightwing came to Chicago in the first place…So tell me something, Dick, IS it like a free ride when you’ve already paid? lol

So after Fearless Defenders #7 a couple of weeks back, I was kinda confused, so I checked in with Cullen Bunn on Twitter to figure out exactly what had happened to Annabelle and Valkyrie. To quote his exact words, he said “They switch, like Don Blake and Thor….but there are some twists to how it works.” And before anyone asks, no, Valkyrie is NOT already hosting a body, as to again quote Bunn, “She’s just herself these days, I guess, ever since she was ‘reborn’ post Ragnarok.” Anyway, this is kind of a filler done-in-one book, but a good one. Plenty of great scenes, and a lot of references that got a laugh outta me like Misty Knight in the intro page talking about how Tumblr was pretty upset over Valkyrie killing Annabelle. Also, apparently Elsa Bloodstone, the monster hunter, is now a member of the team, and we get some info regarding the forming Doom Maidens. All in all, good stuff.

Red Sonja #2, and HOLY SHIT. Again, this is clearly Gail Simone being allowed to write whatever the frak she wants, and it is GLORIOUS. Although, there’s one scene that makes me wonder if she inherited Scott Snyder’s fear of horses. lol Anyway, we get some more glimpses of her time spent at the arena, fighting for her life, until only she and her now opponent, Annisia, were the last girls left. They managed to escape that fate, but now they’re on opposing sides, Annisia motivated by the ghosts of their fallen comrades at the arena that only she can see and may not even be real. Anyway, long story short, it turns out Red Sonja has the plague, and she surrenders to save the lives of the people she’s protecting, but Annisia has her marked and exiled to the snowy mountains to wait out the last of her days…Yeah, somehow, I don’t expect this badass to die to something like the plague. 🙂

Anyway, that’s all I bought this past week. I’m thinking from here on out, I may need to change the layout of how I do my recaps of what I buy every Wednesday, but as far as next week goes, we’ll see Supergirl taking on Cyborg Superman some more, we’ll see Superman battling the alien kept underground by the military, we’ll see the X-Men prepare for Battle of the Atom, and we’ll see Batman teaming up with Nightwing and…Robin?! See you guys then! Ja né!

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What I Bought Today – Batman #22, Superman Unchained #2, Nightwing #22, Batgirl #22, Fearless Defenders #6 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Well, despite heat and sore feet, I have ventured uptown on this Wednesday and returned to show you all…

*Groan* Well, this was the expensive week. Five books, one week. Thank God three of them were among the cheaper ones out nowadays. Let’s begin with the two expensive ones, starting with Batman #22.

Yeah, I’m calling it right now: Red Hood One is The Joker. Maybe it’s someone else and this is a HUGE swerve, but I’m pretty sure it’s him. And if that’s the case, I would just like Scott Snyder to know that I’m fine with that, so long as we learn NOTHING ELSE ABOUT HIM. NOTHING. The whole point of the character is that we’re not supposed to know who he really is. Otherwise, Zero Year has been superb. I have a slight issue with Bruce and Alfred coming to the point where one actually has to hit the other, but considering it’s Alfred having to slap some sense into a younger and rasher Bruce Wayne, I guess it works. The Riddler proves to be an awesome villain hanging out in the shadows, though I HIGHLY doubt he’ll remain there much longer, as he clearly has plans that will require him to step out into the light. Overall, great issue, can’t wait to see what in the hell happens next.

Superman Unchained #2…When I saw the preview pages for this, my reaction was “Ooh, this looks good!” And you know what? That’s the first frakking time I’ve ever had that reaction to a book starring Superman in the New 52. I’m gonna spoil the first 8-10 pages a bit for y’all, so if you don’t wanna know what happens, skip ahead to the next book I talk about now: Superman flies to Dubai, sees thousands of people trapped in the Burj Khalifa after it’s knocked over (which, for those unaware, is the TALLEST MAN-MADE STRUCTURE IN THE WORLD), and manages to save them all at the last frakking second, even with a giant mech suit trying to kill him…Okay, for realsies? This is the best Superman title going right now, but it really says it all that this is the best Superman title simply because it FEELS like a Superman book and doesn’t do anything to screw up the winning formula for him. Hell, we even see Lex Luthor up to his old tricks! Now, of course, there are some moments that feel SLIGHTLY groan worthy, like Superman later having to fight corrupt soldiers, and once again we find Lois Lane in need of being rescued, but I’ll still fuckin’ take it over the Lobdell titles! Oh, and don’t even get me started on Justice League, that’s a rant for another day!…Oh, and Batman was in this. lol

Nightwing #22 was great. Will Conrad’s art is actually really good, and because of the similarity to Brett Booth‘s work (minus the beefcake) and the fact that the book still has Andrew Dalhouse as the colourist, I honestly might not have noticed the difference too much. The stuff with Tony Zucco honestly makes me wonder if Zucco is actually legitimately reformed or not. Prankster very quickly capitalizes on the mistake Nightwing made by not personally ensuring he gets handed over to the authorities, as he holds Chicago ransom and reveals the sins of the Mayor. Overall, continues to be great.

Batgirl #22………Oh boy. Look, I’m gonna skip what I thought of most of this book, because thank God, most of this book actually works REALLY WELL for me. I’m not really a huge fan of the romantic interest in this series, but this issue helps to sell him for me, and I’m grateful for that. Also, the first page was hilarious. However, I have to talk about the ending, because it encompasses the worst of this book nowadays: Jim Gordon is an idiot right now in Batgirl. I don’t know if Gail Simone is intentionally writing him to be an idiot, but frankly I don’t give a damn. IT’S ANNOYING AS FUCK. I’ll talk more about this in a separate rant, but for now I’ll just say that I’m already fed up with this, and if it gets much worse, I might just be dropping Batgirl, at least until this particular story arc is over.

Fearless Defenders #6 was okay. I really feel bad for the fans, though, since a character they really grew to like has died. I won’t spoil it, but suffice to say for a friend of mine who made a guess on it, it’s NOT Hippolyta. Unfortunately, I can’t feel too bad since I’m rather unfamiliar with her (in fact, note to self: Buy first 4 issues of this book to get caught up). Kinda ends on a pretty sad and uncomfortable note, but we’re left with the promise that it could get better, so I guess we’ll see. I will once again say that it is AWESOME to see all these super-heroines in the same place at the same time. ^_^

So that’s it for this week. Next week, it’s Catwoman’s turn at bat with Crazy Steve-I mean Batman, and Supergirl has an encounter of the Cyborg kind. Ja né!

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What I Bought Today – Nightwing #18, JLA #2, Batwoman #18 (WARNING – SPOILERS)

Yep, ’tis Wednesday once again, and despite the snow storm (this IS the first day of Spring, right?), I went to the comic book store, so let’s check out…

Yep, not only did I get the comics I had intended to, but I bought a little something extra too. So with that said, let’s look at the extra comic I bought, Batwoman #18.

Before I get into the comic, I suppose I should cover some of Batwoman’s background for people who don’t know much about her and think of her as older Batgirl or female Batman. Katherine “Kate” Rebecca Kane’s parents have both had extensive military backgrounds, and Kate herself joined a military academy, but despite being the top of her class, she’s forced to leave when she refuses to lie about her lesbian relationship with another student. One night months later, Kate is attacked by a mugger that she manages to defeat with her military training, just as Batman arrives. After helping her off the ground, Batman leaves the scene and Kate finds herself fixated by the Bat-Signal. This eventually puts her on the path to becoming Batwoman. She’s since been a leading character in 52, she took over as the main character on Detective Comics for a time, and now has her own solo title in the New 52. She’s battled the likes of the Religion of Crime, her insane sister Beth (also known as Alice), the Weeping Woman, and even Medusa. Kate has also been romantically involved with quite a few women in the DC universe, including Renee Montoya and Mallory Kimball, she’s worked alongside Wonder Woman on occasion (suggesting she has a small crush on Diana), is close allies with Nightwing (who is attracted to her, unaware of her orientation), and is currently engaged to Maggie Sawyer. And at this time, Batwoman is being forced to work for the Department of Extranormal Operations, also teaming with Betty Kane, once Flamebird, now going under the alias of Hawkfire.

Anyway, regarding Batwoman #18, it’s okay. I know that sounds like an insult nowadays, but really, what can I say? Not much happens, or at least not as much as I was hoping for. We get a fight scene with Batwoman and Hawkfire battling Mister Freeze, but the two are held back due to Agent Chase and Batwoman’s father giving what I honestly believe to be unhelpful advice to Batwoman and Hawkfire respectively. They eventually manage to take him down, but an accident injures Freeze’s leg, possibly critically. Batman shows up after the fight, and there’s some tension between him and Batwoman, not helped by Chase wanting to keep Batman out of their affairs. Luckily, they manage to leave the situation without a fight, but it’s clear that the DEO plans to try to gain further control over Batwoman by any means necessary. Also, we see a little of Maggie, and have it confirmed that yes, she and Kate ARE engaged, but I’m honestly a bit bothered that we don’t see more of what her reaction was to finding out Kate was Batwoman RIGHT BEFORE Kate proposed. Oh well, I’m just glad that it DOES look as though we will be getting a wedding from those two. There just aren’t enough DC superheroes with families these days.

I have no idea why Batgirl is on the cover, btw. She’s not in this book, at all.

Nightwing #18 continues the Requiem month for most of the Bat titles, and thankfully, this one actually ties in a bit to what’s going on with Dick Grayson in this story. He’s now dealing with the loss of Haly’s Circus, the circus folk leaving him, his complicated relationship with Sonia, and the deaths of two of his friends from the circus AND his former partner and brother in arms. It’s a horrible situation he’s in right now, and we see how it affects him and how, in the end, it looks as though he’s all too eager to leave Gotham, as Sonia drops a bombshell on him: Tony Zucco, her father and the man who murdered Dick’s parents, is alive and operating out of Chicago.

I find it hilarious that the one in the front, Simon Baz, has yet to be physically present in this book since he’s in outer frakking space. lol

JLA #2 was kind of odd, but in the way that I wanna see what happens next. We see that the Secret Society is looking to recruit Scarecrow (this was also alluded to at the end of Justice League #17 last month, btw), and that they have seemingly created duplicates of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The wide array of emotions and personalities is put on display as the members of the League interact. Catwoman seems to have a small attraction to Steve Trevor, which is expanded upon when she learns of his relationship with Wonder Woman and it makes her feel connected to him, due to her own history with Batman. Katana drops a sorta funny line when J’onn is trying to make small talk and she replies that she’s not here to make friends, but that she will not hesitate to cut the first person who tries to harm her team-mates. Stargirl seems the most excited to be there, and she honestly seems like the most fun character of the group (meaning she’ll probably be my favourite, lol), while Vibe seems a bit uncertain as to why he deserves to be there. Hawkman comes off as rather insane, honestly, walking in with someone else’s blood all over him. We see that there’s some frayed issues with Trevor and Green Arrow (told you he was alive), since Steve doesn’t want Ollie on the team, feeling he isn’t ready for that. We find out that J’onn used his mental powers to allow an agent of the Secret Society to get into the White House and almost kill President Obama before J’onn stepped in, thus ensuring the President would allow the JLA to exist, and am I the only person bothered by the fact that they’re using real people in this comic? But yeah, all things considered, this book still works despite some hiccups.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. Next week, we watch the fallout of Robin’s death kick into overdrive in Batman Incorporated, catch up with Calvin Rose in Talon, and hopefully I manage to get the books I missed last week, Batman #18 and Batman and Robin #18. Ja né!