The Death of Team UP Books

The Death of OngoingTeam-up Books

Where have all the Team up Books gone.

DC practically created the genre.  I learned more about DC Comics characters through those titles than anywhere else.  The same was true of the Marvel books.

Marvel and DC had long standing team up titles.  They even had special event cross overs with each other and minor publishers.  Then the genre started to dry up.

Brave and the Bold died then came back briefly only to die again.

Now, to my knowledge, not one title exists.

Below is a list of ongoing team up series from Marvel and DC.

 

1. World's Finest (mostly Batman and Superman-with an occasional guest star) From issue 198 to 214 It featured Superman and a guest-star. That title was canceled at issue 323. It is a new 52 title now featuring Power Girl and Huntress.
2.Brave and the Bold (In the beginning all sorts of  characters, then Batman and a guest-star. That title was canceled with issue 200.  DC brought the title back in 2007, but it ended after 35 issues.)
3. Super Team Family ( reprints of teams in the begining, then team-ups. The  total run was only 15 issues)
4.DC Comics Presents (Superman and guest stars)  It Lasted 94 issues or just under 8 Years.



Marvel Team-Up (This featured Spider-Man and a Guest star.  This title lasted 150 issues).
Marvel Two in One ( This featured the Thing and a Guest Star.  This Title lasted this lasted 100 issues)
Super-Villain Team-Up ( It lasted 17 issues).
Ulitimate Marvel Team-Up (It last 16 issues, and only a year)


The following is a list of what Wikepedia defines as team-up comics:

A+X

Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine

Avenging Spider-Man

Batman/Hellboy/Starman

Batman/Judge Dredd: Judgment on Gotham

Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman: Trinity

Batman/The Spirit

Green Lantern/Superman: Legend of the Green Flame

• Spawn/Batman
• Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four
• Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do
• Superman & Batman: Generations
• Superman and Spider-Man
• Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man
• Superman/Batman
• Superman/Fantastic Four
• Superman/Shazam: First Thunder
• World's Finest Team

DC Comics 2012 Review

Another year is over for all of us.

If you are a DC fan, 2012 was good one.

My Top Ten Favorite titles of 2012 were the following

1. THE OTHERS story line in Aquaman. It not only added back story to Arthur Curry, it drew me to a title that I hadn't been reading prior to that story line.

2. Justice League. That is all I need to say.  The Flagship title leads the charge and takes no prisoners.

3. Earth 2. Being a big fan of  The Golden Age DC characters, I love Robinson's take on them.

4. Sword of Sorcery

5. DC Universe Presents. This title gives me my "First Issue Special" and "Showcase" fix that has not been filed for years.

6. Birds of Prey

7. Red Hood and the Outlaws

8. Suicide Squad

9. Green Lantern

10. Red Lanterns

My Top 10 Disappointments of 2012

1. Frankenstein, Agent of Shade.  The art and the stories drove me away from the title.  I loved the old Spawn of Frankenstein series, but I have never really liked the idea of "Shade".  I am, however,  starting to like his addition to Justice League Dark.  We will all see if he works out in that title.

2. National Comics.  There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to who they introduced.  The constant draw of First issues only panders to collectors who buy comics only to make money off of them.

3. Justice League International. I really had hoped for old DC villains to show up in that title, but all we got is villains that seemed like they were rejected by Marvel.

4. Hawk and Dove. Bought every single issue, but the stories seemed to be lacking something that I never could put my finger on.

5. Mister Terrific- I had hoped for better stories on this title, but was left wanting more.

6. The Freedom Fighter's titles: The Ray, The Phantom Lady and Doll Man, and The Human Bomb.  I liked the new physical take on them, but the villains just don't appeal to me.  I feel, that knowing about what quality had to offer in terms of names of villains, that that DC could had done better.


I also enjoyed the following story regarding 2012 on the Newsarama, the link is below

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-comics-2012-year-in-review.html

Comic Book Resources is doing there top 100 comics of 2012. The link listed below:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/tag/top+100+comics+of+2012

Comic Vine doesn't seem to have a review for 2012.

2013 Looks promising for the following reasons:

1. Justice League of America
2. Threshold
3. Justice League "Trinity War"
4. The Bat Titles finishing up the "Death of the Family" story line.
5. Earth 2 continues to evolve with the introduction of Fury and other new version of the Earth 2 heroes.
6. Earth 2 continues to evolved with the re-introduction of Golden Age villians such as Wotan.
7. Lady Luck, an old Quality comics character is getting new life.
8. Element Woman. She was introduced in FLASHPOINT in 2011  Who seems to be based on Element Girl,a fictional DC Comics superhero,  who first appeared in Metamorpho#10 (Jan-Feb 1967)

May plans for 2013 for this blog include the following:


1. A video version of this blog on YouTube.
2.A more in depth discussion of particular topics
3. An actual fan story of how Spider-Man is rejected by the Justice League.

That is all I have for now

Happy New Year

Go Forth and Do Well

Shane

Young Justice Trailer, what I missed the first time

Young Justice fans if you missed the new trailer for the 2013 return of  "YOUNG JUSTICE" here it is:

http://youtu.be/aoQEdi3sCSs

If you are a fan of the Old Teen Titans, you will briefly see that Mal Duncan becomes THE GUARDIAN.  A brief scene show the team, and a person wearing the THE GUARDIAN's uniform with his back to the audience.

I could be wrong, but why would the producers have Mal, unless they wanted to explore that character?

Don't know.

Go Forth and Do Well

Shane

Spider-Man rejected for Membership in JLA even more

Three other REASONS:

1.  Even the Avengers Rejected him for full Membership.

2. As of Spider-Man 700... He is dead.  The Justice League doesn't allow dead people. It kinda crimps their style.

3.  He is a Marvel Character.. kinda hard to commute between Universes.  And, to be honest, the power to  teleport is not one of his powers.

Batgirl's new writer

Presenting the new writer for Batgirl...... Gail Simone...

Hmmm wasn't she the old writer?

Social Media strikes back... Fan support via the internet has put her back in the saddle.

Hopefully she will work to regain the sales numbers.

Go Forth and Do Well

Shane

DC vs Marvel

JLA Rejects Spider Man #2 Reason

His costume looks like he is wearing pajamas

JLA Rejects Spider man ....the continuing Saga

I want to comment I a respons to my blog:  SykoSvens wrote the following

"SykoSvens has left a new comment on your post "Spider-Man rejected for Membership in the JL": 

http://braveandboldlost.blogspot.com/2012/03/justice-league-of-america-and-spider.html  
yea it was a thing... its actually considered canon " 

I went to that link.  I saw the cover.  I have to tell you When a site tells me that The team up never happened....but should have...then I get critical.  

1.  Anyone who knows the history of the DC / Marvel team-ups knows that it practically took an Act of Congress to get the Superman vs Spider-man cross over off the ground.

2.  The Cross overs contained the logos of both companies.  These examples use a title that ended at number 15.

3.  The cover art is done by two different Artists John Romita Sr (who has never worked for DC), and Dick Dillin.  And to make it worse both are taken from actual JLA and Spider-Man covers.  I have seen the JLA art, I just don't remember which cover.

4. Compare the covers below and note the Marvel logo is on JLA / Avengers and not the bogus Super-Team Family.

So my point once again is it never happened.  And it won't happen unless Marvel sees a profit in it...

Doctored cover with Dillin and Romita Sr. Art 

Cover art by George Perez

GO FORTH AND DO WELL

SHANE

JLA Rejects spider-man #1 Reason

He Can't Tell the Difference between the President and a Super-villain.

See below pic.

Spider-Man attacks Obama in Oval Office

Young Justice Returns Jan 10

What we have learned from the Young Justice Trailer

The following villians with be on the show
1.Deathstroke
2.Despero Or least it looks like him.
3.Toyman?
4.Red Volcano
5.Mongul
6.Vandal Savage

Check out  the following link for DC Nation's facebook page to see the preview trailer:


http://www.facebook.com/dcnation


Go Forth And Do Well

Shane

DC VIDEO WATCHING FOR THE HOLIDAYS

HERE ARE MY HOLIDAY SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR DC COMICS VIDEO WATCHING OVER THE HOLIDAYS

ON THE INTERNET

1.Netflix has added some great DC Comics Videos.  There was a time all you could get on Netflix was the old old Superman show videos.  That is not true now.  Below are just a few of the titles that have been added to the streaming side of Netflix.

2. KidsWB also has a limited amount of old episodes of Batman Beyond, The Batman, Batman the Animated Series, and Warner Bros Cartoons.  These are free to watch.  The website is http://www.kidswb.com/video

ON CABLE

Cartoon Network announced that New Episodes of Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series will start on January 5th, 2013.

ON TV

4. Vortex-The CW's Saturday Morning Programing has reruns of the Justice League Unlimited Series on at 9:30 on Saturdays.

Don't forget that Amazon, Google Play, Blockbuster, and the other pay video sites have all of the super hero movies from 2012 online as well.

That's is all for now

Go Forth and Do Well

Shane

Marvel's NEW 52 LOL

Gail Simones departure the real reason

If you look at the cold hard facts of publishing you would know why Gail Simone is exiting "Batgirl"

Actual Sales in dollars was heading down for the Batgirl title.

DC wants to have a healthy collection of titles.  In order to do that they need to insure that the titles live up to the company's expectations.

Looking at the Diamond figures for the last 3 years I found that the title went up when she took the title, but has started a downward trend.

Stories are important to the business, therefore, companies first blame the writer for a loss of sales.

That is why Simone is gone, plain and simple.

Go forth and Do well

Shane

Santa on Facebook

Simone leaving Batgirl--My take on it.

Gail Simone No Longer DC's BATGIRL Writer

The full story is on the link below.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/gail-simone-no-longer-batgirl-writer.html

Now My take:

Let me get this straight.

 Batgirl is a title that is a solid performer in sales. Due in a large part to the excellent writing of Gail Simone. So I am baffled why they are dropping her from the title without a real reason why.

Granted I am a big fan of Simone's writing.  Her writing on "Birds of Prey" clearly defined how you do a female super-hero group.  

To be honest, I do not read "Batgirl".  I read "Batwoman".  I have more interested in Batwoman since DC reintroduced the character.  I just felt that my buy pile had only one space for a Batman related female.

That being said, I have also heard good things about the Batgirl title.  Things that, if Batwoman's title were not around, would make me read Batgirl.

Maybe DC is looking for more of an audience for this title.  I am not sure changing writers is going to do that.

I also think that they should have waited until after the "Death of the Family" crossover to make a change.

The cross over would lots of people a chance to check out the title.  It could have increased it's audience, or maybe not.

I guess time will tell.

I really think DC should have done things in such a way that Simone was happier with the change.  As it is, the change is posted all over the Internet long before DC announces it to the readers.

Something to think about.

Go Forth and Do Well.

Shane

My Must buys of March

The following title are ones I look forward to each month.  Each has a great new look at the DC Universe. 

 My Favorite so far is Earth 2.  It takes the golden age heroes and makes them even more likable.  

EARTH 2 #10
Written by JAMES ROBINSON
Art and cover by NICOLA SCOTT and TREVOR SCOTT
1:25 B&W Variant cover by NICOLA SCOTT and TREVOR SCOTT
On sale MARCH 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• As Wotan holds The Flash’s mother hostage, Khalid must finally come to terms with his destiny as Doctor Fate!

My other favorite is World's Finest.  I have always love Huntress and Power Girl. In their original forms.

WORLDS’ FINEST #10

Written by PAUL LEVITZ
Art and cover by KEVIN MAGUIRE
On sale MARCH 6 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• After being attacked by a group connected to the missing Mr. Terrific, Power Girl and Huntress take the fight to Holt Industries, where they make a shocking discovery!
• Plus: Huntress is personally affected by a tragedy in The New 52.

I think the next 3 are on about almost everybody's must buy list.

The back up stories in JLA and JL make them even more appealing to me.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #2
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Backup story written by GEOFF JOHNS and MATT KINDT
Art and cover by DAVID FINCH
Backup story art by SCOTT CLARK
Variant cover by SCOTT CLARK
1:100 B&W Variant cover by DAVID FINCH
On sale MARCH 6 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• The new Justice League of America team continues to form, but the question remains: What do these heroes want in return for their membership?
• Secret motives are everywhere, and the outcome will have a huge impact on this team and the rest of The New 52!
• Plus, the alien MANHUNTER’s back-up series begins revealing more about J’onn’s plans for this team...and the other Justice League.

his teammates.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #18
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Backup story art by GARY FRANK
Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
Variant cover by AARON KUDER
1:100 B&W Variant cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO
On sale MARCH 20 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with four covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• Cyborg takes center stage as events fall into place for next month’s massive new story arc: “OFF THE GRID”!
• Also, Batman continues to be question the Superman/Wonder Woman alliance and Aquaman’s future with the League.
• Plus: The Shazam backup story reveals the origin of Black Adam—and what it means for Billy Batson’s survival!

AQUAMAN #18
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and cover by PAUL PELLETIER and SEAN PARSONS
1:25 B&W Variant cover by PAUL PELLETIER
On sale MARCH 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• The critically-acclaimed adventures of Aquaman continue with “DEATH OF A KING.”
• Unfolding out of the events of “THRONE OF ATLANTIS” comes a mystery that sends Aquaman to the ends of the Earth to solve an ancient murder—one that will reveal a horrific truth about Arthur Curry and threaten those closest to him today.
• Plus, Mera has a quest of her own involving a long-forgotten adversary of Aquaman.

All in all these stories are sure to among the future classics.

More on the other advance stories next blog.

Go Forth and Do Well

Shane

DC Comics Advanced Solicits for March 2013

DC has posted an advance set of solicits for March 2013 online.

You will find the link below:

http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2012/12/07/advance-look-at-march-solicits

More of my take on my next post.

DC only has 49 New 52 Titles in February

DC is only publishing 49 New 52 titles in February.

But that begs the question: what does DC call its New 52?

There is a Human Bomb Mini series in February, does that qualify?

Does Before the Watchmen qualify?

Just what exactly qualifies as New 52?

They do publish well over 52 titles, but not all or in the current continuity.

So what exactly do we, the reader, consider as New 52.

I have my ideas as to which ones, and at my count it is 49.