After a five month hiatus, I am compelled to run another "Martian Sighting." I quit because DC Comics had murdered Martian Manhunter, but were still profiting off his corpse with reprints and the odd t-shirt. Didn't seem worth my time to point out the character was still alive in the back catalog, but too much coolness is available for pre-order to ignore this time out...
LEVEL-GREEN CONFIRMED:
TRINITY #36-39
Written by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza
Art by Mark Bagley & Art Thibert, Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens, Tom Derenick & Wayne Faucher and Mike Norton & Ande Parks
Covers to issue #36 by Shane Davis & Richard Friend; covers to issues #37-39 by Andy Kubert & Jesse Delperdang
The war to save all of reality rages on and is waged in the memory of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. But the legendary Trinity battle to end the conflict themselves by becoming more than just a memory!
Issue #36 on sale February 4; issue #37 on sale February 11; issue #38 on sale February 18; issue #39 on sale February 25 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US
Sure, it's some Multiversal duplicate, but at least he's in the classic costume. Plus, there may be Despero...
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL VOL. 1 TP
Written by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis
Art by Kevin Maguire, Terry Austin & Al Gordon
Cover by Kevin Maguire & Terry Austin
Collecting the classic JUSTICE LEAGUE #1-6 and JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #7! Can an unlikely new Justice League lineup work as a unit to stop terrorists at the U.N., the Royal Flush Gang, and other threats — or will they succumb to squabbling and bad jokes?
Advance-solicited; on sale March 4 • 192 pg, FC, $17.99 US
I intentionally skipped this in hardcover specifically because I hated J'Onn's eyes. They were really dark blue in that period, so that garish red in the re-coloring bugs the tar out of me.
SUPERMAN/BATMAN: ENEMIES AMONG US TP
Written by Mark Verheiden
Art by Ethan Van Sciver, Matthew Clark, Andy Lanning, Marlo Alquiza and Joe Benitez
Cover by Ethan Van Sciver
Don’t miss this explosive new trade paperback volume collecting SUPERMAN/BATMAN #28-33! The JLA's Martian Manhunter attacks Batman! The villainous Parasite and Titano return! Superman's allegiances will be tested in this story involving the Green Lantern Corps and more!
94 Advance-solicited; on sale March 25 • 160 pg, FC, $12.99 US
Ethan Van Sciver drawing a classic (if evil) Manhunter from Mars battering Batman is heavily fortified with vitamin WIN. Add the first Post-Crisis appearance of Zook for the championship. Lose the game to a lame story and a replacement artist...
SHOWCASE PRESENTS: JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VOL. 4 TP
Written by Gardner Fox and Dennis O’Neil
Art by Mike Sekowsky, Dick Dillin, Sid Greene, George Roussos and Joe Giella
Cover by Neal Adams
The JLA continues to fight evil in this new bargain-priced volume collection JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #61-83. These epic tales feature the JLA debuts of the Red Tornado and Black Canary, plus the annual adventure with the Justice Society of America!
Advance-solicited; on sale March 11 • 544 pg, B&W, $16.99 US
Reprints J'Onn J'Onzz's final appearances as an official member of the team for the next fifteen years. Includes the first appearance of Commander Blanx and his eradication of life on Mars.
Dc Originals Boxed Characters 2 Red T/S
DC Comics' biggest stars feature on these classic blue and red t-shirt designs that hearken back to days gone by! Now you can take the DC Comics heroes with you wherever you travel with these "Boxed Characters" designs featuring retro art! MED-XL SRP: $16.99 XXL SRP: $19.99 Release Date: February 25, 2009
By "retro" they mean chopped-up and recycled. Not a bad design, though.
JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED MARTIAN MANHUNTER SYMBOL T-Shirt
The animated Justice League returns on these two new shirt designs. Justice League Unlimited Hawkman and Martian Manhunter Symbols features the distict animated symbols screenprinted on gold nugget and deep forest 100% cotton shirts respectively. Also still available are the previously offered JLU Green Lantern and Flash Symbols. The League has arrived!
S - XL $ 17.95 XXL $ 20.95 Release Date: February 25, 2009
It will be mine, though I wonder why the "pie slices" aren't white...
I don't get why pie slices is MM's symbol...
ReplyDeleteI think the tee shirt will have to be mine.
ReplyDeleteWhich tee, Sarah?
ReplyDeleteKaiser, I was all set to say something cocky like "take it up with Joe Certa" or "because," until I realized I haven't the faintest clue. For me, it's always been there, since it was on the belt of the Super Powers action figure that introduced me to the character. A quick glance over my back issues indicates it was Michael Nasser/Netzer who started the trend in print, though he may have been working off a style guide.
Netzer used to visit this blog, when he still operated one of his own, and even designed our banner. Unfortunately, he disappeared from the internet months back without a word, so I'm not sure if he's readily available to ask...
The retro style Justice League shirt also appeals to me, since the Winged Wonder is on there as well, right below the Alien Atlas. Is it me or do these shirts remind anyone of The Brady Bunch? Couldn't they get a picture of Julie Schwartz in the middle? (The shirt also features Gren Arrow and Plastic Man... can Adama and Rick be far behind?)
ReplyDeleteWith the Martian Manhunter symbol t-shirt, I can only hope that at some point DC will give us a nice Hawk logo shirt as well.
The MM symbol t-shirt....I would love to be able to wear that when I teach my workshops on the history of comics in america. Snazzy.
ReplyDeleteI always wondered the same thing..its kind of a weird symbol, and it doesn;t seem to tie into anything with J'onn. It does have a little bit of a primal design...like something you might find carved into a cliff face somewhere to represent the sun, or another planet (mars?). Maybe its some kind of martian hyroglph.
Grasping at straws, can you tell? :)
Wow-- bringing back Martian Sightings was a good idea, considering all the comments here! Good thing next month's solicitations are already in the works.
ReplyDeleteSarah, I've given some thought to the symbol in the past, and have my own fan notions about what it represents. Per John Ostrander, it's a shape-shifting plant that acts as a Martian's clothing. He dubbed it a "zook," tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Luke, the images from this Very Brady T-Shirt have popped up without cropping elsewhere, such as here. There's dude-centric versions too, that I'll post inevitably. If you like the grid though, there's another offered this month with other heroes. As for the Hawks logo shirt, are you being ironic? It's offered for pre-order this month as well!
HOLY CRAP!
ReplyDeleteNo I was not being ironic! I don't get Previews so I was unprepared for the sheer awesomeness!
Hee hee! Glad I could serve!
ReplyDelete