New Beginnings - Multiversity #1

by Jon Lock

Somewhere in a mundane world a boy dissects a comic book – literally – with scalpel and forceps. This “supposedly haunted” comic is the story of a boy dissecting a comic book; only it’s also the tale of Nix Uotan the Superjudge, last of the godlike Monitors, who descends into a work of fiction to investigate a caustic blight on the face of creation and becomes trapped at the hands of the demonic Gentry. With all of existence in peril it’s up to a crack team of superheroes from across the multiverse to rescue Uotan – not to mention his partner Stubbs, the talking pirate monkey – and prevent the destruction of the universal orrery.

Confused? Welcome to the marvellous mind of Grant Morrison. It’s his world, we just live in it.

To those familiar with Morrison’s work, it should come as no surprise that the Multiversity is Meta is a capital ‘M’. More than just a love letter to the endless possibilities of a super-heroic multiverse, this is a story about comics themselves and the language of sequential storytelling. Surrounded by hellish foes, the Superjudge feels the panel borders contracting around him. Heroes from one universe discover that their lives are another world’s comics. One character directly references DC and Marvel (or “Major Comics” for legal reasons…)

On the face of it, however, the Multiversity is primarily a comic about the dark, the wonderful and the outright ridiculous. Quite how much enjoyment you get out of the book will depend on how much weirdness you’re willing to tolerate along the way.

Moving along at a fantastic pace, this first issue Multiversity introduces us to a staggering array of characters and concepts – each of which could support a series of its own, let alone a brief cameo. Amidst the breakneck chaos, there’s a lot to love. An Aboriginal yet strangely familiar thunder god brushes shoulders with a thinly veiled homage to Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon. Captain Carrot, a Bugs Bunny-esque Superman with the daunting power of cartoon physics, taps into our recent Rocket Raccoon goodwill, while Barack Ob… sorry, President Calvin Ellis, the Black Superman of Earth-23, feels like Morrison’s pitch for the best Superman comic you’ll probably never see.

The art team, as led by Ivan Reis on pencils, deliver a solid if unexceptional looking book, balancing the demands of a large and complex cast. Special mention should be given to the depiction of the Gentry, whose suitably unsettling appearance brings to mind a Hieronymus Bosch-like vision of hell. There’s also enough subtlety in the art to depict two teams of Avengers analogues (classic and modern) while still retaining a sense of uniqueness. As with any Morrison book, however, the script is the real attraction, and it’s here that the Multiversity’s strengths and weaknesses are apparent.

In a sea of mundanity, any Morrison project is a welcome breath of fresh air, and while his ambition may occasionally outstrip the success of his stories, you can’t help but be excited for a writer willing to take such risks. While at times his offbeat storytelling can feel like “weird for weirdness sake,” it’s often saved by his infectious faith in the power of superheroes and the medium of comics in general. The Multiversity is an exciting comic, but it’s also a confusing and slightly impenetrable one. It remains to be seen if readers unfamiliar with Morrison’s quirks will be willing to stick around for the inevitable resolution. A collected edition, where a spider web of plot threads can be contained neatly, might be easier on the brain.

With DC glossing over its past in the form of the New 52, it’s indicative of Morrison’s star power that he’s been given full access to the dustier corners of the archives. This begs the question, however, as to who exactly the Multiversity is aimed at. Classic DC fans, alienated by recent editorial decisions, may be unwilling to risk being bitten again. A modern generation of readers, raised on the New 52, might be baffled by the unfamiliar faces and references to retconned events such as Final Crisis. Mad, challenging, bizarre and steeped in its creator’s personal logic and mythology, ultimately the Multiversity is a book for fans of Grant Morrison. 

Read into that what you will.

Jon Lock is the writer and creator of Afterlife Inc. 

Rescuing Strays – Grant Morrison’s Action Comics Vol Three

by Jack Meldrum

Volume Three: At The End of Days

Okay.

I need a minute. Let me just compose myself.

Volume Three of Morrison's Action Comics run is a transcendent and almost flawless piece of comics. And I love it. It makes the previous two volumes better by virtue of their leading into it. It feels like a magic spell, some sort of occult incantation designed to transform the mind and reshape the soul.

It being Morrison, it might be just that.

End of Days opens on one of the best single issues I've ever read  - a story about a boy and his dog, and ghosts, and Halloween. It features the wickedly cool Dr. Xa-Du, a Kryptonian scientist with the ethical integrity of wet string, who makes himself real outside the Phantom Zone with pure willpower. He's another living idea, of course, just like so many of the foes we meet in Action. The story itself is a tear-jerkingly sweet little tale, a critical interlude in the mind-bending space opera we're stepping into. Xa-Du is poached by the Little Man for his Anti-Superman Army and Krypto joins the Superman cast and I cried and cried when the little dog gets carried to the sun by his loving master.

It just amps up from there. In the mind of the five-dimensional Ms. Nyxly, we see Superman save astronauts on Mars and we meet the Little Man for real, as the legitimately terrifying, 5D satanic monster Vyndyktvx. The Little Man really is the devil.

After that, it's nothing but flawless, pitch-perfect comics. Soaring, sweeping emotion. Meta-fictional madness. A tight, dense, mythical story where Superman, in the end, fights his own extradimensional doppelganger, Superdoom – himself just another tool of the cackling Vyndyktvx. We meet our Mxzptlk, a charmingly corny old bloke, and we see everything Morrison put into play in the past two volumes collide in a cross-time war against the sun-god.

Vyndyktvx is one of Morrison's finest creations, a master plotter without a conscience, hamstrung by his own addiction to complexity. He appears, in fleeting, as a heinous tentacled beast, and more often as a many-faced, multi-armed thing. He's truly incredible. Employed as the power behind every plot in the run, Vyndyktvx crosses time and space to stack the deck against his self-declared nemesis, and Morrison and his cabal of artists make him... unfathomable.

Constantly, this last volume reminds us of what Morrison has said since issue one: that Superman has power as an idea, a concept, a myth. In the end, the very end, that's all that matters – the vast, cross-time madness of Vyndyktvx's scheme, a scheme we met as far back as that first page, that we first saw in those crazy encounters with the Legion of Superheroes, collapses with nothing more than one word (not that I'm telling you what it is), because we believed in Superman. He stops doomsday, banishes the devil.

Grant Morrison is one of the best comics writers who ever lived. He's not the best, but he's my favourite, and this run manifests his everything. This is a story about stories, one where the sanctity of ideals is what wins the day. One where dimensions bend at the whims of a monster but where it's us, in ourselves, inspired by one man, who can change everything.

It's a wild, deranged, hyper-intelligent drug trip of a story, a life-changing exploration of everything Superman was and is. It dives deep into the power of the written and spoken word, the unbreakable power of the human soul, the potency of belief and faith. It's everything I ever wanted in a comic. Everything I ever wanted from Superman. And I want you all to read it. To join in, to be there at the end of days, to add your name to the moment where we banish the devil, together with a boy and his dog.

Jack Meldrum has no words. Murdlem Kcaj believes in Superman.

Rescuing Strays – Grant Morrison’s Action Comics Vol Two

by Jack Meldrum

Volume Two: Bulletproof

Having spent Volume One redefining the myth of Superman, Morrison then proceeds to reinvent the myth of Clark Kent. On top of that, he recreates a long-forgotten character and starts to stack the cards for his grand finale.

Bulletproof is probably the weaker of the three volumes. As second acts so often are, there's a bit of a sense of wheel-spinning – even when the final instalment reveals just how much this one mattered, there's still an odd, wandering feel in places. But it is still very good, especially in the places where it escapes the three-part Forgotten Superman story and focuses on what are, essentially, massive metatextual middle-fingers to DC corporate/heartwarming and ingenious dissections of what Superman is.

In the opening salvo of these surreal trips into Morrison’s meta-myth, we meet Calvin Ellis, President of America in Earth-23. This charming, charismatic man of colour (and blatant Barack Obama parallel) is also the Superman of Earth-23, and his story is a brief interlude in the narrative of these volumes as much as it is a high point in the themes. Ellis fights a paranoid, drug-addled Lex Luthor and then encounters a musical meta-machine that summons the awesome Superdoom, a monstrous Superman dreamed up in a universe where Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane created a Tulpa-device to teach children.

It is very hard to talk about Superdoom without becoming a little sketchy – Morrison's work is dense and florid – but he's a Superman perverted by malignant businessmen, a tool of a fascistic society created by the still-present, still-enigmatic Little Man and employed to hunt down dissidents. He's been modified incessantly by a committee to be as marketable and effective as possible. He's a murderous psychopath, hopping from universe to universe in these bizarre cross-dimensional cubes that, somehow, every Lex Luthor dreams up.

He's the most effective parody/satire/commentary on DC's approach to Superman in particular that it's a miracle they let the run continue.

The following series of stories involves a three-part story with three distinct ideas. We see Clark Kent die, replaced by 'Johnny Clark', as our protagonist wrestles with the reality of being a living ideal. We meet Captain Comet, or Adam, the 'Forgotten Superman' who enlisted with an alien army to fight... something. Something ominous. And we have further development of the Anti-Superman Army, the nefarious team run by the Little Man. This story is a little too ponderous, and and perhaps a little too fast – nothing quite hits the mark in the story itself. But it's still so bursting with smart, potent ideas that it deserves reading.

Much better are the 'backup' stories. We have more exploration of Superman-as-concept and myth, more consequences to his presence. And there's the wonderful The Boy Who Stole Superman's Cape, from DC's Zero Month, which features all of the themes in the volume explored in perfect harmony with a sweet, charming little tale.

And at the very end, we meet Ms. Nyxly – Clark's landlady – properly. Which means we meet Nyxlygsptlnz, Princess of the Fifth Dimension... and the whole story kicks into high gear.

Jack Meldrum was President on Earth-10, once. He quit when he found how the hours worked out.

Rescuing Strays – Grant Morrison’s Action Comics Vol One

by Jack Meldrum

A little while back, the final volume of Grant Morrison’s Action Comics dropped. I bought it, instantly. I'd had it pre-ordered for months. I'd read every issue digitally at least a dozen times each. I'd cried during it more than I did even for All-Star.

Grant Morrison’s Action Comics run is my favourite thing in comics, ever, so far. I think it's wonderful. And magical. Mythical. Mind-bending, transcendent wizardry.

And now that you can have it all, I'm going to try to sell you on it.

Volume One: The Men of Steel

Morrison’s run doesn't begin with a hackneyed origin story. It doesn't even have his previous take, that glorious one-page, four-panel recap from All-Star Superman. It begins with police storming the mansion of new character Glen Glenmorgan, ready to stop... Superman? Superman clad in jeans and a t-shirt, grinning like a kid.

From the word go, Morrison steeps the story in Superman history. But not in a slavish or detrimental manner. Morrison takes the germ of that first Action Comics issue, way back in '38, and reinvents it. Here's a rougher, leaner, cruder Superman, a Superman who throws abusive husbands into the river and jumps of rooftops to shake information from oozing, corrupt businessmen. He's just a kid, but one helluva kid – a kid with all the morals and decency Superman has always had. You can see, in this dangerous, intelligent, wild young boy, the makings of that shining paragon.

And Morrison just goes on shooting. We have Lex Luthor as a slimy soda-chugging brain-for-hire, playing every party against each other with his 'Gemini' alias. We have the recurring figure of the Little Man, a bizarre dwarf who seems to be playing parties we can't even see. We get Brainiac, Metallo, the Legion of Superheroes, and it's all completely wild. Huge, comics-perfect action ensues. Morrison and Rags Morales slam Krypton-sized metaphors into single panels, like when Superman is KO'd by a speeding bullet-train. Or when he stands, god-sized before a shrunken Metropolis, and they hold their candles to him. Or when the Legion of Superheroes – involved in a curious time-travel plot that is the secret story behind this run – extract Kryptonite from the Anti-Superman Army, in their fortress in Superman's brain.

There's a profound rejection of anything 'easy' here. Nobody is a writ-large archetype or a cutout. Glenmorgan, wicked as he may be, is also a man of faith, led astray by the devil in the form of the Little Man (who, we'll learn, is very much a Faustian figure). And so on. And so forth. But always coming out in this first volume is how powerful Superman is as not just a mere superhuman, but as a beacon of hope, and an ideal made manifest. He fights super-metaphors in his super-foes.

And as the run goes on, we'll learn just how crucial those super-metaphors are. Because Morrison’s run, at the core, is not about Superman as a character – even though he handles him very, very well. It's about Superman as an idea. And about how powerful those ideas are.

Jack Meldrum knew how powerful Superman was as an idea, but he didn't know why kids love Cinnamon Toast Crunch

New Beginnings - Batman Incorporated

This week’s new beginning is more of a continuation. Batman Incorporated already had its first outing last year and now we have its rebirth within the New 52. Although many may argue that going back to an issue one is not the correct thing to have done as this is not strictly a reboot either.

The story continues on from where the previous bumper one-shot left off, with Leviathan - the sinister organisation out to finish Batman and Bruce Wayne - growing its membership in its own unique fashion whilst Batman and Robin are trying to get closer to them. It has dropped a timeframe in as well due to the opening page being Bruce Wayne’s arrest, before the story then moves back a month. There’s no further connections to ponder so the arc has been left wide open. But is that a weakness or a strength? It gives Grant Morrison such a large scope to take this wherever he wants from after the first issue.

This is clearly a foundation issue as the majority of it is spent with Batman and Robin chasing through the city and not the other members of the “corporation”. The other thing that I found surprising is that it is outside of the current setting considering that all of the Batman titles are tied into the Night of The Owls storyline which could have still worked very well considering. However, even with it outside of this arc, and almost this continuity as a result, there are still issues being dealt with between Bruce and Damian. A prime example of this is the difference between them over the ability to kill, which Damian has done.

There are some odd moments of humour mixed in as well such as “Bat-Cow” and the request of a “perv suit” but this doesn’t distract from the main story. I did like how it didn’t even try to come close to wrapping things up or even making obvious links. The development of Leviathan is separated out and also has enough time spent on it that it gives the depth that an aspiring criminal organisation needs to be taken seriously by Batman. Even the addition of the supposed dead members of Batman Inc. is done quickly, but in a way that means they are now on your mind.

What Morrison does do is pull the loose story that has flowed through this issue together with a completely normal person. He has no powers, no skills but has a son who he is willing to do anything for. In a strange reflection of Bruce Wayne himself - this is a lowly cabbie driven by the same paternal instincts has become an adversary. A really nice touch.

The artwork is good from Chris Burnham and fits in with more how Batman and Robin used to look than the original issues of Batman Inc, but is does have tonnes of detail. At some points it felt a little small and cramped but there’s a huge amount of information that is trying to be conveyed. There's a particularly striking page, where the first panel is akin to a splash page, but there are three subsequent panels within that image, drawn as if they are being projected onto the side of Gotham buildings.

If you were a fan of the original comics last year then you want to be picking this up as it pulls you back from the cliff hanger that it left and opens it all back up again. It also helps that Morrison is still at the helm to keep it steady.

Matt Puddy is loving the sun!

Five By Five - Comics, week 2: All Star Superman

Oh Superman, Superman. With your chiseled jaw and your lovely manners, you’re just the kind of superhero any girl could take home to meet her parents. Whilst Batman might come across as sullen and a little bit emo (what’s with all the black?) and Spider-Man tends to leave those sticky patches all over the place (highly undesirable when meeting the potential in-laws) Superman could be trusted to sip his cup of tea, and say all the right things about being a good person and choosing the righteous path and always remembering to floss.

The thing is though, as a hundred bitter single guys will tell you, that just isn’t always enough to get a girl’s pulse racing. And to be honest, Superman has always struck me as just a little bit, well, dull... So when faced with the Man of Steel himself on the cover of All Star Superman, cape flowing, hands beatifically raised, there may possibly have been some eye-rolling and pre-judging going on. Hard as it may be to believe it’s possible that I even approached the text with something less than true literary impartiality.

So this is where I tell you that the All Star version of Superman blew all my preconceptions away right? That this version of the character left me quivering with scholarly excitement and barely suppressed lust. Well, not quite. Superman here *is* distinctive (particularly in his Clark Kent incarnation) but essentially he wouldn’t be Superman without that aura of incorruptible goodness and perfection. It makes him iconic of course; an archetype of chivalry and moral courage. But it also makes him only slightly less bland than a sandwich made with one of those blasphemous plastic squares of cheese.

The point is that, as with swallows, one flying guy in a cape does not an amazing graphic novel make. And that’s OK. Because one flying guy in a cape plus a bunch of other interesting, well realised characters, deftly handled plotlines, and recurrent thematic ideas? Now you’ve got a summer.

Let’s assume for a moment that as a reader of this blog, you’re pretty likely to have come across Superman in one form or another; comics, eighties movies, life-size cardboard cut-out that you stole from the foyer of your local cinema growing up, whatever works for you. All Star Superman takes all of that accumulated baggage and turns it into lore, so that rather than a jumble of admittedly interesting but rather abstract ideas, what we get is a narrative with a beginning, middle and end. I won’t give away the hook that drives the story forward, but the premise allows for myriad explorations of mortality and what it means to be human, as well as what it means to be a super hero.

Superman himself of course has always struggled under the weight of dual identities, and there’s a stroke of genius in the artwork and the writing here. I’ve always found the ‘Clark is Superman, just with glasses and a suit’ school of thought a little less than satisfying, but in All Star Superman the two men *move* differently. Clark is a pot-bellied, head-bowed cerebral type; too busy thinking about his next story to exert much control over his hulking farm boy’s body. Whereas Superman is straight and tall and rigid (ahem), a Kryptonian arrow pointing the way to justice and betterment and all of that other good stuff. It’s effective and it has the odd side effect of placing doubt in the reader’s mind as well. There’s an early scene where Superman tries to convince Lois that he and Clark are one and the same. And even though I *know* he’s telling the truth, I sort of understand her skepticism. Is Clark truly a part of Superman or just a disguise he wears?

Lois, by the way, is gorgeously drawn and splendidly fiery throughout, though it would have been nice to see her with a bit more to do than just hanging around like some kind of sexy occasional table. To be fair, there is a gleeful episode where Lois’s Superwoman gets to wear the outfit and try out some saving of humanity for herself and her lack of hesitation when faced with the chance to live in Superman’s world for a while is telling. (We’ll gloss over the fact that even as a superheroine she still ends up as a bit of a damsel in distress). This trying on of Superman’s role is a recurring theme throughout, with both Jimmy Olsen and Lex Luthor also metaphorically donning that lycra and giving superpowers of their own a go at various points.

This question of what it means to live in a world where super-powers exist seems to be pretty central to the story in general and it’s not Superman who struggles with it, but the characters around him. Jimmy, a pair of wonderfully disdainful Kryptonian time travellers, Zibarro (more on him later), but none more so than Lex Luthor. I’ve never come across a Lex with more fully realized motivations than the one here; utterly unable as he is to reconcile himself to being ‘just’ an ordinary human in a universe where Superman is constantly buzzing around like a red and blue bee, stinging away at Lex’s own need to be brilliant and special. There’s almost a sibling-like relationship between the two of them as Lex rails against an older ‘brother’ the world will always prefer and Superman, ever patient, continues to try to re-direct Luthor’s energies. Lex’s focus is a world without Superman, and yet he positions Superman at the very centre of his own personal world.

Lex’s bigger problem though, is the story’s other over-arching message. ‘Superman’ is more than just the cells and the outfit that make up Kal-El. ‘Superman’ is an image of selflessness and idealism; an idea; a theory. And just as it’s impossible to destroy an idea once it’s free in the world, it’s equally impossible to destroy Superman. On a literal level, this manifests as a bunch of other red and blue clad heroes that haunt the pages throughout All Star Superman. Not only Lois as Superwoman, but future incarnations of Superman himself, as well as flawed doubles like the heartbreaking Zibarro, alone in his sentience on a planet of lesser beings (spot the unspoken metaphor…).

And maybe that’s why I’ve never been able to get on board with Superman as a character. I’ve been going about it in the wrong way, because fundamentally he’s more than that. All Star Superman makes this transience explicit. It isn’t Superman’s own story, it’s the story of humanity pursuing the ideals he embodies: goodness, self-sacrifice and, OK, who doesn’t like a chiseled jaw?

This week Kate Townshend is hoping you’ll join her in ignoring the temporal lapse between this and the last Five by Five column. It’s one of those timey, wimey, wibbly wobbly things.

A DC 2011 Retrospective - Batman Inc.

Well, not so much of a retrospective this week, as Batman Inc. returns for one last issue in 2011 - Leviathan Strikes!

It’s meaty, it’s massive, it’s Morrison! But is this weeks Batman one shot worthy?

On first impressions you have to at least admit that being given a one-shot that is the size and feel of a small graphic novel is really nice especially when it’s only $6.99.

For those who aren’t aware, Batman Incorporated was a short run title that was a natural progression from Bruce Wayne’s journey back through time following his “death”. It was Bruce’s vision for setting up an international network of fully backed individuals all under the corporate logo of Batman himself. Dotting across the world, the issues handled the recruitment and review of candidates and their setups ensuring that they were suitable for the big plan.

Unfortunately, in the grand DC scheme of things, Batman Inc didn’t make it through the recent 52 reshaping. Instead we have seen titles such as Batwing appear on our shelves as a direct result and a number of loose ends which the premature pausing of the series created. Now this one shot is giving the reader a chance to tie up some of those loose ends.

Written entirely by Morrison with Chris Burnham and Cameron Stewart providing the artwork for each of the chapters there is a great continuity throughout the entire issue and it tracks back really well.

The first chapter is following Stephanie Brown (back when she was still Batgirl) as she begins a new academic year in what can only be seen as a feeder school. In this case though the feeder school is designed to produce a very special type of femme fatale for Leviathan, Batman Inc’s corporate nemesis. As with many of Morrison’s stories not everything is as it seems.

What’s great about this chapter is that it is non stop. You’re always engaged and even when it slows down the addition of a scenario or a protagonist such as Son of Pyg, a particularly sadistic and twisted individual, keeps you interested.

The second chapter is more to do with addressing where Batman left off with trying to address what Leviathan actually is. It’s twisty and turny with no end of ideas coming from Netz, the post mortem villain, and leads you to think about a variety of different possibilities whilst also piecing a bigger story together behind it. It’s a smart piece of writing to manage it all as well with the reader having to work to keep up. This isn’t a bad thing though as it’s just a different method of storytelling made and is equally as rewarding. Even better still is that it keeps growing and building to quite a significant moment, one which suddenly makes complete sense across so many levels by revealing just who exactly is behind Leviathan and it’s one that hits on so many levels that you can only respect the planning behind it all. Talia Al Ghul, a woman who has affected the Waynes in so many ways and now has an even bigger part to play.

Overall this is a great one-shot. The price may dissuade some readers but all I can say is that Morrison has taken some possibly dubious building blocks from the Batman Inc run and forged them into something with a lot more promise and pretence making this worth the cost. Batman Inc. returns in 2012 and this is an essential read before then.

Matt Puddy is wishing you all a great Bat-Christmas!

FACT x IMPORTANCE = NEWS

A much quieter week this week, but there are a few odd gems that stand out. Here it is, the best in TV, film, gaming and comic book news from across sci-fi, fantasy and more.

A STAKE THROUGH THE HEART

I'm sure you've heard about this already, but for the one person who just got back from Narnia, here it is again. Warner Brothers have decided to reboot Buffy The Vampire Slayer, WITHOUT the character's creator Joss Whedon.

Sadly the rights to Buffy reside with the director of the original 1992 film starring Kirsty Swanson. The studio has optioned the rights from Fran Rubel Kuzui, her husband Kaz Kuzui and Sandollar Productions. The reboot will be produced by Atlas Entertainment from script by Whit Anderson. Anderson is an actress turned screenwriter, so that'll be good (sarcasm mode off).

Kristin Dos Santos from E! Online emailed Joss Whedon for his reaction and received this beautiful (and paraphrased) email:

Kristin, I'm glad you asked for my thoughts on the announcement of Buffy the cinema film. This is a sad, sad reflection on our times, when people must feed off the carcasses of beloved stories from their youths—just because they can't think of an original idea of their own, like I did with my Avengers idea that I made up myself.

I always hoped that Buffy would live on even after my death. But, you know, AFTER. I don't love the idea of my creation in other hands, but I'm also well aware that many more hands than mine went into making that show what it was. And there is no legal grounds for doing anything other than sighing audibly. I can't wish people who are passionate about my little myth ill. I can, however, take this time to announce that I'm making a Batman movie. Because there's a franchise that truly needs updating. So look for The Dark Knight Rises Way Earlier Than That Other One And Also More Cheaply And In Toronto, rebooting into a theater near you.

Leave me to my pain! Sincerely, Joss Whedon.

To read the full article and email, head to E! Online.

Just to make you laugh even more, Kirsty Swanson has expressed interest in reprising the role.

Former Buffy and Angel stars documented many of their reactions on Twitter. Eliza Dusku had this to say, "Joss made the "Buffster" & w/out him... I just don't trust the girl. Or the world."

Here, here.

Finally, over on the set of Bones, creator Hart Hanson tweeted this picture of him and David Boreanaz saying, "I just informed DB that they are remaking Buffy."

WHO'S THAT COMING DOWN THE CHIMNEY?

Last Friday saw Children in Need bring us our first glimpse of A Christmas Carol, the festive episode of Doctor Who.

‎"Amy and Rory are trapped on a crashing space liner, and the only way The Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser, in a festive edition of the time-travelling adventure, written by Steven Moffat. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve?

Amy Pond is played by Karen Gillan, Rory Williams by Arthur Darvill, The Doctor by Matt Smith and Kazran Sardick by Michael Gambon."

A Christmas Carol will transmit on December 25th, in both the UK and the USA. This will be the first time the Christmas special has been seen on the same day on both sides of the Atlantic. Great news!

JUST WHY?

To being our wrap up for this week, SFX have the first set photos from the filming of Ghost Rider 2 - though I'm struggling to care.

GOING BATTY

Following up on our early review of Batman, Inc. - Grant Morrison spoke to Comic Book Resources about the future of the new title.

GHOSTLY BOOCHIES

Kevin Smith finishes his run on Green Hornet this week. He also spoke to Comic Book Resources - all the cool kids are doing it.

Speaking of Kevin Smith, here's the teaser poster for his new, independent horror film. Something different from the Bluntman. I have high hopes. See you next week.

Ben Fardon hasn't written the word "Snoogans" in years. Thankfully, that is now remedied.

New Beginnings Double Bill - Batman: The Return & Batman Incorporated #1

Over the past year it’s fair to say that the Batman franchise has undergone some radical changes. We've had the death of Batman, the Battle for the Cowl, the debut of a new Dynamic Duo and the Return of Bruce Wayne. As the dust settles we are now presented with Bruce’s vision for an international crime fighting organisation.

Helmed by the renowned Grant Morrison, both the one-shot (Batman: The Return) and Incorporated flow seamlessly from his previous story arcs. This is both a blessing and a curse. Morrison’s obviously seen the bigger picture - he's in a unique position to support the franchise - using his history with the Dark Knight to support the new titles having already re-invigorated the Batman title and established Batman & Robin. The link through these titles works very well, but without the one-shot in the middle, Batman Incorporated could come across as a new beginning to the casual reader. Again, perhaps that's part of the publishing strategy.

Batman: The Return is a fantastic little one-shot in more than a few ways. For me it was an immediate treat from the feel of it, even before having a proper look at David Finch’s cover image. That - together with the actual production of the issue - are smooth in conception and touch. In fact the artwork throughout is both gritty and deep; further enhanced by Batt’s inking. A lovely touch is the extra behind-the-scenes material which will further your understanding and appreciation of what a good team can provide an eager reader.

The story itself is a progression from Morrison's exit on Batman & Robin #16. It begins with an iconic but self indulgent opening, that I personally found pleasing. The piece itself builds from a typical Batman rescue - done in Bruce's own distinct style - into an interesting plot complete with new landscapes, a new adversary and a new opposing organisation. Interestingly as well it explores the dynamics of Batman and Robin - or rather the lack of rapport between Bruce and Damien. This underlines Bruce's plans to create a crime fighting corporation. A nice touch when you consider the amount of writers who are accused of creating explanatory storylines to fill plots holes. The forethought is appreciated.

Batman Incorporated, whilst still a Morrison, has a completely different feel to it. When trying to read it straight after The Return I honestly struggled with the artwork. The style, whilst not bad, is a completely contrasting affair with an almost cartoony feel to it. There are a few little touches that were nice though, such as the glossy cover which instils a new and shiny feel to it all. Sadly after the weight and feel of The Return it still left me feeling a little underwhelmed.

Reading through it, I felt more of an understanding for the story but didn't become immersed in the way a good comic should. Morrison’s ideas developed well - thanks in part to the assistance of the premise provided by the one shot - but the way in which it was presented through the pencils and ink was overwhelming camp and theatrical. For me all that was missing was the flashes of BAM! or THWOCK! and the occasional cackling of Ceasar Romero and I would have been transported to Adam West’s Batman; not the harder black and white Dark Knight I’ve come to appreciate. Even the final page was reminiscent of the old TV show. It could almost have been, “Same Bat-time, Same Bat-channel.”

I’m not saying I don’t like it, but as an opener I felt I needed a bigger hook to keep me wanting more. I want the opening issue of a new title to really provide this, despite using such established characters. Mark Millar has a gift for giving us new creative approaches to old protagonists, but here Morrison's new direction doesn't excite me yet. I have to say that I want to see more, partly from morbid curiosity and also partly from intrigue. Either way I feel that this title will become a labour of love, unless it proves itself in the next few issues.

Matt Puddy has never been caught by anyone growling "I'm Batman" in front of the mirror. Doesn't mean he doesn't though...