Sunday, January 22, 2012

Superman #3

I've got a backlog of 195 New 52 DC Comics titles.

I should be writing Chapter Three of Dwarf Lover.

I really should at least finish Genesis in my Literal Bible Study Guide.

I've got a stack of good books to read including The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night and The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick which is not going to be a breeze.

I've got a bunch of bad books to read including the Twilight series and There Is No Year.

I've got my Old Computer Adventure Game Walkthroughs and Reviews to write.

I've got a girlfriend who wants me to go get Burgerville and then we'll probably watch an episode or two of Buffy, Sixth Season.

And now I'm playing Wizardry V, Heart of the Maelstrom, as well.

I mention this because many of these projects actually fascinate me more than reading the next episode of this guy:


Nice buns, Supes. What's up with the Red Jockstrap lines?

Now, it's not a bad comic! It actually falls into the upper half of those I've read so far. It's just that, well, it's Superman. And I've been reading Superman comic books all weekend! It probably would have been better if I'd read the George Perez Superman before the Grant Morrison Superman because Superman is just not going to live up to Action Comics.

Maybe I can make this quick! If George Perez just writes Issue #3 as one big action scene, I really won't have much to say!

Damn. First page and I'm already scanning something. And it's not even the real first page! It's the inner cover ad!



This is the first time I've seen this ad across the last 50 or so comic books. What has happened is I've gotten used to seeing the same ads over and over, depending on the number of the issue. Also a lot of ads for other current DC 52 titles and mini-series.

But I have yet to see this Lego ad (and the other ads in this comic: Mario 3D, Mariokart and How to Train Your Dragon books). Do ads for different comic books cost different amounts? Is Superman a premium comic book to get your advertisement in? Up until this, I just thought people bought ad space with DC and their ad was placed across all the comics for the month. I really, really thought that since I've seen the ad for The Big Bang Theory in syndication about 500 times.

Seeing this ad for the first time and thinking back to Wonder Woman #5 where many of the ads were for Brian Azzarello's other collected works, I have to wonder about DC's ad sales policies.

The back cover ads have all been the same as well which made me think all ads are just purchased for a month and stuck on all comics. Five issues (although I don't see any ads for any #1 issues due to my Big Book of DC First Issues) and the back cover ads have been Got Milk, Nova, Smallville, Joe Kubert's art school, and Ink Masters. Those guys must have paid the big bucks because glancing at the back covers again just now, I also see an occasional Gamefly or Batman: Arkham Asylum ad. And one Darkness 2 ad.

Man, that was a distraction! That was probably much more interesting to me!


Why didn't he just move the bus? No damage to the tracks. No whiplash and other injuries to all the monorail passengers.

Superman #3 begins with a recap of Action Comics 1-4!


And spoilers! You mean he saves Metropolis?!

The recap/synopsis is a report being put together by this Billy McCoy guy working for PGN who likes to sensationalize the news and seems to have a bit of a grudge against Superman. But he has a point, one that I brought up last issue about Supes being the cause of trouble. I even called him a menace just like this guy:


Shades of Glorious Godfrey and the Legends Cross-over.

And then Superman fights an ice alien that speaks DC's alien language incorrectly. It looks like gibberish and it is gibberish unlike Issue #1 where it looked like gibberish but it wasn't gibberish it just spelled gibberish!

The narration boxes in this issue act exactly like thought bubbles. Whereas last issue (or issue #1? I forget already!) the narration boxes were Superman's voice over as he recorded the events in his audio diary.

When Superman finally wins through by just getting lucky due to a 'feeling' and then blasting an innocent person possessed by the alien with his heat vision but not actually harming the innocent, we see that all the aliens that have attacked Superman have maintained a connection and are in possession of the bodies of normal humans. The fire guy is one of the Astrodome security dudes. The invisible lizard is a Hispanic homeless guy who was living in the underground transit system. And the ice lady is Heather Kelley, a reporter who works with (and has a crush on) Clark Kent.

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