Category: Comics

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I suppose it was too much to hope that the traffic spike from Smallville’s Flash guest spot would translate into a long-term increase, but it seems to have dropped to normal levels after 1½ weeks:

Traffic graph showing 3x traffic for Oct. 20-21, dropping to 2x then leveling off to about normal by the end of the month.
Daily traffic for Flash: Those Who Ride the Lightning (October 2004)

Still, it was a pretty huge spike, and I’m seeing a lot of new referrers as well. At one point the top non-search-engine referrer was actually Television Without Pity (although they seemed a bit confused about the reference they were linking to — they picked an alternate universe for Bart’s “start a league” line instead of, say, the Justice League). Lots of Smallville and Superman forums, sites, blog and LiveJournal posts linked to Bart Allen (Impulse/Kid Flash), Bart Allen (juvenile delinquent) and Superman/Flash races. It’s always nice to get some exposure outside of the usual sources, even if it is only temporary.

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Wow. I expected a spike in traffic after the Flash appeared on last night’s Smallville, but I wasn’t expecting a three-fold increase!

It’s all on the Flash site — no sign of spillover onto this blog, for instance — but Bart Allen’s 15 minutes of fame have propelled him to the #3 spot (right after the Teen Titans and Raven).

With luck I answered people’s questions about the Flash, Bart Allen, and just who is faster in a race between the Flash and Superman. With more luck, some of them will be intrigued enough to come back. With even more luck, some of them will pick up the comic to see what they’re missing.

Continue reading →

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Now that I’ve got the complete Alias comic book in TPB form, I’m selling the individual issues on eBay. In getting that set up, I was reminded of an interesting piece of symmetry between Alias and another Bendis series, Powers.

Both feature ex-heroes who now work as “normal” detectives. Christian Walker is a homicide cop, and Jessica Jones is a private investigator. Early on we learn that Walker’s hero identity was Diamond. When we finally get the details of Jessica’s back story, it turns out she went by the name Jewel.

The similarities pretty much end there, though. Despite the names and circumstances, the characters, stories, and overall feel of the two books are quite different. Alias is “comic book noir,” and Powers is a cop show in a city overrun with super-powers. Alias tends to be far more character-driven. Jessica gets into trouble during investigations, but it’s her and the people she’s looking for who are most affected. Powers works on a bigger scale, looking at superheroes as celebrities, and when things go wrong, they affect everyone.

(I’ve got a dozen or so issues of Powers up for auction as well — for the same reason!)

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I recently rented two of the Justice League DVDs. So far I’ve gotten through the opening 3-parter, “Secret Origins,” and the 2-part “Paradise Lost.” I have no idea how far into the series the second disc is.

A scene that stuck in my mind was the newly-formed League looking around their headquarters. As the heroes are deciding whether to join, the Flash remarks on its well-stocked kitchen and offers, “Iced mocha?” Wonder Woman tastes one and says, “Mmm, they don’t have anything like this on Themyscira. I’ll stay.” Aha! The way to an Amazon’s heart is through iced mochas!

So it was even more funny in “Paradise Lost” when the Flash started fantasizing about Paradise Island: “The beach, hundreds of women, and me, the first man they’ve seen in, well, ever. And what do I have with me? Iced mochas for everyone!”

Anyway, on to the review: It’s certainly better than I remember Superfriends being. It does still have a significant cheese factor at times, Continue reading →

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I was thinking about the series of “Rogue Profiles” we’ve been getting every once in a while in The Flash and realized that quite a few villains based their M.O. on a childhood trauma.

It’s been long established that Heat Wave was trapped in a walk-in freezer during a school field trip, and has had a life-long obsession with heat. So when he decided to go into crime, a flamethrower was a natural choice.

The Pied Piper is another one: he was born deaf, and his wealthy parents found a doctor who could give him hearing. Naturally he became obsessed with sound, so sonic tech was his weapon of choice.

The Trickster was born into a family of acrobats but afraid of heights. So he invented “air walker” shoes, which he later used to start his criminal career — by holding up and robbing airplanes. Continue reading →

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Well, I picked up JLA Secret Files 2004 today. Not because I read JLA, or even Justice League Elite (I read the first two issues, but it hasn’t really grabbed me), but because I figured there’d be a good image to scan of the Flash’s alternate costume for JLE. (It’s odd to be using that abbreviation again.)

The main story, as it turned out, focused on the Flash dividing his time between the two teams as they work cases that turn out to be related. It’s an OK story, up until the end, which features the most boneheaded use of super-speed I’ve seen in a long time. Continue reading →

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Via PeterDavid.net:

To promote Fallen Angel, DC re-released the first issue as a free promo edition and sent it out to comic stores this week.

It seems someone’s already selling it on eBay as a “Hard-To-Find Retailer Variant.” In fact, based on the auction start time, it looks like it went up Thursday afternoon, within hours of it being available to, uh, “sell.”

Keep in mind that this has the word “FREE!” emblazoned in at least 48-point type on the cover (you can read it clearly even in the thumbnail).

Of course at $6.49+$3.85 shipping it’s already creeping up on the cost of the trade paperback ($12.95) that contains the first six issues. Anyone who’s just curious about the book and can’t find the promo copy would probably be better off ordering the trade instead.

This is the kind of thing you’d expect on Opposite Day. Selling something free. Marketing the reprint as a collectors’ edition. Heck, just targeting the collectors’ market for a book that’s more suited to people who actually read comics.

“We’ll clean ’em out the American way.
For something free, they don’t care what they pay!”
—The Engineer, Miss Saigon

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