Saturday, January 9, 2016

The Weird Science DC Comics 2015 Awards Show Podcast



The Weird Science Get Fresh Crew get together to discuss their picks for DC Comics Best of 2015.  *Warning* The Quality is not the greatest as all our efforts failed and we were forced to use the raw Skype call.  Hopefully you can get past that and enjoy the show.

Midnighter #8 Review and *Spoilers*


Be Afraid. Be Kind of Afraid


Written by: Steve Orlando
Art by: David Messina, Gaetano Carlucci, Romulo Fajardo Jr and Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016

*Non Spoiler Summary and Score At The Bottom*


I will readily admit it, I am not a fan of Steve Orlando's Midnighter, but I go into every issue with an open mind.  I hope that everyone out there believes that because it's true.  In fact, I may even skew towards the positive side of things before cracking open the cover.  Stop laughing and trust me when I tell you that I really want to like it.  Things would be so much easier if I did.  In fact,  I can imagine a life where I love every single book I read and review, a life where the creators I idolize love me back and DC Comics has me on speed dial (I know that's not a thing anymore, but at least I didn't say rolodex.  Give me a break, I'm an old man!)  What a wonderful life that would be and I can almost touch it if I close my eyes and concentrate real, real hard.  Unfortunately, when I open my eyes again, it all comes crashing down because of tiny things like honesty and integrity.  Still, a voice in my head keeps screaming, “Why can't you just love Midnighter like every other reviewer out there?”, while another one that sounds just like Emmanuel Lewis reminds me to “Keep it real up in the field.”  So, going into this month's Midnighter I will keep it real, for myself, for you guys and especially for Webster...mainly for Webster, God rest his soul.




Friday, January 8, 2016

Top 5 Fridays: Top 5 Moments In The DC Comics Television Fall Season


Welcome back to another (ON TIME!) edition of Top 5 Fridays! When I first started on this blog, I did reviews on Arrow, Gotham and The Flash's fall seasons. Since then, like a plague, I've infected the site with my fanboy theories, reviews, and now Top 5's. With it still fresh off New Years I decided that this week's Top 5 should harken back to what got me started on the site: DC Television. Like my Characters I Want to See in DC Television list (which you can read right HERE ) I will be picking my number 1's from each show, rather than it going down a normal Top 5 as usual. Why? Because $%#! the system of Top 5 lists! Lets start!

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Telos #4 Review and *SPOILERS*


Sorry Telos, But Your Princess Is In Another Castle


Written By: Jeff King
Art By: Carlo Pagulayan, Igor Vitorino, Jason Paz, Marc Deering, Jose Marzan Jr., Peter Steigerwald, Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Telos is kind of a hard sell and after reading the first three issues of this book....... well, it's not getting any easier.  We've got our boy from Convergence going on a crazy mission for Brainiac in order to get information about where his family is and along the way he's made friends with Techne: the leader of the resistance against Computo, K-Rot and Stealth from Threshold and Captain Comet doing all he can with his telepathy and wouldn't you know it........ they all want Telos' help before they'll help him with his own mission........ Well, not K-Rot and Stealth, they just seem to be along for the ride and like shooting at things.  So yeah, we got a big story, involving a lot of characters and a big evil computer man and as for Brainiac...... well, we don't know what the hell Brainiac is up to, but maybe we'll find out here.  Let's jump into this issue and see what happens now that Telos is confronting both Computo and Brainiac and the rest of the crew are facing off against a back from the dead, upgraded Validus.  Let's check it out.

Action Comics #48 Review




Where is My Supersuit?


Written by: Greg Pak
Art by: Aaron Kuder, Rafa Sandoval, Jordi Tarragona, Tomeu Morey and Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016

It's been kind of hard recognizing Superman these days.  I'm not talking about the Truth t-shirt or the waning (or is it fluctuating?) powers, either.  I'm talking about the man under the tights and what I see is a man that is far from super.  I'd love to say that Kal-El has become something else, but the way the Truth story has gone, this self-centered prick that we are getting seems to have been underneath the curl and the smile all along, he just didn't show it when he was on top of the world. Now that his friends won't let him play and people aren't cheering his name, he has become more concerned with getting back his powers than saving anyone and has even become suicidal at points.  While Dan Didio has promised this will all change in April, I'm afraid the damage is done and one of the greatest superheroes of all-time has been tarnished more than anyone can imagine.  Maybe, just maybe, it's not too late. Maybe this issue of Action Comics can begin the healing by giving us a Superman we can get behind and begin to love again.  Maybe it won't and I'll be the only Superman fan left on Earth.  Well, which is it?  Let's find out...


Batman and Robin Eternal #14 Review



We'll...Live


Written by: James Tynion
Art by: Fernando Blanco, Roger Robinson, John Rauch and Marilyn Patrizio
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2015

This issue starts the second half of Batman and Robin Eternal and from talking to anyone who will actually talk to me, the trolley is getting less and less crowded with fans.  I can't blame readers who got off at an earlier stop because after the crazy hype that proceeded the first issue's awesome cliffhanger, we haven't really gotten much to keep the fan's interest piqued.  I'm not saying that EVERY issue has been bad, just most.  However, I'm going into this issue with high hopes as I liked the last issue and James Tynion is back again this week for another go at it.  So, did Tynion make it two in a row or will more people tell me they are dropping this book?  Let's find out...


Green Arrow #48 Review and *SPOILERS*


An American Werewolf In ........America


Written By: Ben Percy
Art By: Patrick Zircher, Gabe Eltaeb, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

October is a time when you break out the horror flicks and have yourself a scare or it's a time for ghosts and ghouls to come out of the shadows and terrorize young children or if your cousin Ricky is spending the night, for you to pretend to be said ghost or ghoul and crawl underneath the bed like a goddamn alligator and start pulling his sheets down slowly.......... ah, good times.  Anyway, as we saw last October it was time for Green Arrow to take on a bunch of infected people who had become werewolves and even though it wasn't that great of a story....... fuck it, it was October and it was an Annual so let the monsters play........ Well, like any classic monster, it looks like it's returned from the grave and Oliver Queen has to continue his transformation from that story where we saw the leader of a werewolf biker gang bite him.  This isn't a story that I'm looking forward to, but I'll try to keep an open mind while I wait for Green Arrow to........ well, be a little more Green Arrow again and quit hanging out in the horror section of the comic shop.  Let's jump into this issue and check out werewolf Ollie.

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Green Lantern #48 Review and *SPOILERS*


Noise Pollution

Written By: Robert Venditti
Art By: Martin Coccolo, Billy Tan, Mark Irwin, Tony Avina, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016


*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

We're back on Earth and after seeing Hal Jordan get a hair cut in the previous issue, I think it's safe to say that we can move past that whole Renegade thing because while it didn't seem to go anywhere before, we all know that you can't be a bad ass Renegade with short hair........ You just can't.  So yeah, Hal's back on Earth and after spending a day with his brother and his family, tragedy struck when a group of Modoran radicals targeted the Coast City Amusement Park and Hal's nephew Howard was injured in the attack.  If that wasn't enough emotion for you, then we also had Parallax from Zero Hour show up in this Universe and he wasn't too happy to find out that Sinestro has a Corps all his own.  While I wasn't a huge fan of Convergence, I have to say that it's posthumously making our current stories pretty interesting.  Let's jump into this issue of Green Lantern and see if Hal Jordan can keep his cool while going after Sonar and his radical army and what Parallax is going to do in a whole new, whole different Universe than his own.  Let's check it out.

Batman: Arkham Knight : Batgirl and Harley Quinn Special #2 Review



Gosh, But These Ladies Can Chat

Written By: Tim Seeley
Art By: Matthew Clark, Sean Parsons, Rob Schwager
Letters By: Travis Lanham
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: January 4, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Concluding the poor widdle digital title that went unloved by DC’s marketing department, we return to an early adventure of Batgirl and the origin of Harley Quinn as defined by the video game Batman: Arkham Knight. Except that Harley looks nothing like she does in that game. And neither does the Joker. Neither does Batman, come to think of it, though you only see him in one panel, all ensconced in shadow. So maybe we should dispense with the whole video game backdrop and take this issue on its own merits, because it wouldn’t be the first time a comic book publisher slapped the name of a licensed property to which it had no connection in order to artificially boost sales. Unrelated to that thought, be sure to buy DC’s anthology title Legends of Tomorrow due out in March! While you’re waiting, you can read my review!

Batman Beyond #8 Review and *SPOILERS*


Keep Out!


Written By: Dan Jurgens
Art By: Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo, Dave Sharpe
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Okay, we've taken care of Brother Eye and now it's time to get the world back on track in order for the future to be the bright place we all think it's supposed to be.  Yeah, it's going to be a long hard road, but what did you expect when Neo Gotham was the only city left really standing in the world?.......... I think I'm really just trying to convince myself here because what I want more than anything is the simplicity of seeing Batman punch a supervillain in the mouth for just being a jive "schway" talking turkey.  It is what it is though and for the most part I've dug what we've gotten so far and at least with Brother Eye put down, we know that for the most part that we can put Futures End behind us....... and that's a good thing........ and yeah, I just said the most part.  Let's jump into this issue and see what's up with Matt McGinnis' journey to Metropolis and what Batman will do when he finds out that he has to let people suffer.  Let's check it out.

Swamp Thing #1 Review and *SPOILERS*






Return to the Houma Lou Swamp

Written By: Len Wein
Art By: Kelley Jones, Michelle Madsen
Letters By: Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! My dearest wish has been answered in the positive with the return of Swamp Thing! You may already know, dear reader, that Swamp Thing is one of my favorite characters in the DCU. But what you probably don’t know is that Swamp Thing was actually my introduction into the DC Universe, and the book that got me interested in superhero comics in the first place! With co-creator Len Wein writing and, heir-apparent to Bernie Wrightson, Kelley Jones on art, what could go wrong? What? Does that sound ominous or something? Kind of like my enthusiasm for the book is about to be tempered by its reality? What would give you that idea? Just read on and find out how wrong you are!

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Superman Annual #3 Review and *SPOILERS*


Failing At Life


Written By: Greg Pak, Gene Luen Yang, Peter J. Tomasi, Aaron Kuder
Art By: Dan Jurgens, Rafa Sandoval, Ben Oliver, Bill Sienkiewicz, Trish Mulvihill, Lee Loughridge, Tomeu Morey, A Larger World Studios
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: December 30, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

I'll start this out by telling you to read Superman/Wonder Woman #24 before getting into this if you're really looking to get the full depowered Superman story...... You know, on the off chance that you're a masochist like that.  While we've been dealing with the wild world of Mythbrawl lately, we're out of that territory now....... thankfully and it's time to get to the meat and cheese of the story and what Vandal Savage has planned with his little family business he's got going on......... but first, why not a backstory about what made Vandal Savage the go-getter he is today?  That's right, we've got all the writers from the Superman titles adding their two cents into this one as we see Vandal's backstory and what Superman's up to after all his crazy adventures with Wrath, Vandal, Mr. Bend and Hordr_Root.  Let's jump into this Annual and see where the next leg of this story will take us.  Let's check it out.

Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Five #3 Review


Written by: Brian Buccellato
Art by: Tom Derenick, Rex Lokus and Wes Abbott
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: January 4, 2016

Year Five of Injustice is off to a great start and has given me back that old Injustice feeling.  Fans know what I'm talking about...the smile on your face as a favorite character gets the crap kicked out of them and the gleeful giggle as and enemy gets put down for a dirt nap.  Oh, the little things.  Brian Buccellato continues the fun times as we catch up with Doomsday, Parasite, Bane and a very special guest.  It's fun, but is is good?  Let's find out...


Superman/Wonder Woman Annual #2 Review


Ups and Downs


Written by: Sholly Fisch, K. Perkins, Keith Champagne and Peter J. Tomasi
Art by: Too many Guys and Gals to mention here.
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: December 30, 2015

Sometimes I don't know what DC Comics is thinking.  They start off the New 52 by announcing that Superman and Lois Lane would no longer be a couple and after the Clois fans out there erupted in anger, gave them the Superman/Wonder Woman book.  Talk about adding insult to injury.  Maybe you haven't noticed it, but in our neck of the woods, I can still hear the screaming and yelling.  Maybe that's because I actually like Superman/Wonder Woman as a book and a couple and that has made me a target of the hate.  If you are one of those haters, just click on the "Featured Post" on your right or maybe listen to our podcast because this review is not for you.  Don't look at it.  Shut your eyes. Don't look at it, no matter what happens.  You have been warned...Weird Science is not responsible for any face melting that might happen from this point on.  No that that's settled, let's get on with it...


Batman & Robin Eternal #14 Preview


Written By: James Tynion IV
Art By: Fernando Blanco & Roger Robinson, John Rauch
Letters By: Marilyn Patrizio
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016


Grayson, Red Hood, Red Robin and Harper Row have uncovered the full scope of Mother’s dangerous operation, and they’re ready to spring their trap! But there’s one problem: Cassandra Cain has gone rogue, and they may not be able to pull her back from the edge! There’s no time to lose, either, because for every mystery they solve about Mother, there are more waiting to be discovered, including Mother’s next target, a place that couldn’t be more personal to Dick Grayson!

A place personal to Dick Grayson? I wonder if it's the same place my wife and I like to make whoopee. This series has had its ups and downs, but with James Tynion IV at the quill it's a safe bet that the dialogue won't make you want to murder the English language. This issue crosses the halfway mark for the series, and let's face it: if you've hung in this long, might as well stay the course.

Action Comics #48 Preview


Written By: Greg Pak and Aaron Kuder, 
Art By: Aaron Kuder, Rafa Sandoval, Jord Tarragona, Tomeu Morey
Letters By: Steve Wands
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016


"The Savage Dawn" begins! Following recent events in the Superman Annual, Superman is becoming increasingly desperate to regain his powers! The situation is dire, as he must rescue his fellow Justice Leaguers and save the lives of the soldiers facing Vandal Savage!

Superman getting his powers back? Count me interested. This "Truth" story arc has left me a little cold, but Action Comics has proven to be one of the more enjoyable titles in the Superman line. And with Aaron Kuder on art, you know it's going to look awesome!

Batman Beyond #8 Preview




Written By: Dan Jurgens
Art By: Bernard Chang, Marcelo Maiolo, Dave Sharpe

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2015


No good deed goes unpunished! Freeing the world from Brother Eye was only the beginning—with Neo-Gotham now standing as the only stable society in the known world, thousands of refugees have fled their war-torn cities to come knocking at the gates. But when the mayor of Neo-Gotham claims his city can’t support the whole world, the fate of these people will rest on Batman’s shoulders.

While I think I was looking more for a villain for Batman to punch in the face and whatnot, I do like the idea of making this world that Tim Drake inhabits feel real and there isn't anything that screams real like refugees.  This future world is in a shit place right now and like it or not, it has to have some time to get back to some semblance of normal.  Hopefully along the line though, Batman will find someone to punch in the face.

Green Arrow #48 Preview







Written By: Ben Percy
Art By: Patrick Zircher, Gabe Eltaeb, Rob Leigh
Cover Price $2.99
Release Date: January 6, 2016


As a result of the traumatic effects of the recent ANNUAL #1, Oliver Queen has contracted the Lukos virus! As he struggles to find a cure, he must stay far away from his friends and family—or else he’ll tear them to shreds!


It's solicits like this that make me miss the good old times with the Bone Cult.  In case you don't remember that "recent" Annual, it was in that book that Ollie took on a werewolf biker gang....and got bit for his trouble....... Yeah, this is gonna be a long couple of months for Green Arrow fans.

The Weird Side #1

Welcome to the Weird Side!

Art and Story by: Paul B.




Monday, January 4, 2016

Daredevil Battles Hitler #1 Review and *SPOILERS*—Just For the Hell Of It Mondays



Did No One Think of Just Punching Hitler in the Face?



Creators: Bob Davis, Charles Biro, Bob Wood, Jack Cole, Victor Pazmino
Published By: Lev Gleason
Cover Price: 10 cents
Cover Date: July 1941

*Non-Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

I know my tens of readers are probably sick of me dragging some weird, obscure comic books into the spotlight for Just For the Hell Of It Mondays, so this week I decided to pick a character that’s everyone’s favorite: Daredevil! You know Daredevil! Fighter for justice! Righter of wrongs! Snazzy dresser with a two-tone body suit and spiked belt! What’s what? Oh, you must be thinking of that other Daredevil, the blind lawyer that hardly anyone knows about. I’m talking about the original Daredevil from the Golden Age of comics, who first appeared in Silver Streak Comics before getting his own title—and this is a review of the first issue! Read on!

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Weird Science DC Comics Podcast Episode 52: Stolen Valor



Jim and Eric celebrate the New Year (and one year of podcasting) with their usual comics talk, stories and utter nonsense.  Eric went to a New Year's Eve party, but Jim takes a walk down memory lane as he recounts some past New Years of his own.  It's all about Y2K and stolen valor.  He still doesn't understand how it happened, but Eric rips into him all the same.  The two finally get into this week's DC Comic Books, but make sure they offend everyone with their Indian rain dances and nonsense.  It's another long one for the #hardestworkingguysinpodcasting...enjoy!