On the eve of the what is being touted as an iconic moment between icons, it looks like its the end of the line for one of comics longest standing romances. This week Justice League #12 hits the stands and will feature the first kiss between Superman and Wonder Woman (their first as far as the new 52 status quo is concerned that is.) What does that mean for Lois and Clark?

Well, if you are a fan of the romance that first hit print in 1938, we have bad news for you.

Jim Lee and Geoff Johns spoke with with the Associated Press, the AP’s Matt Moore writes:

One aspect that did not survive the relaunch: Lois Lane’s role as Superman’s love. She’s still around, but the two have never dated, nor are they likely to.

Geoff Johns, who writes “Justice League” is laying out a story that looks not only at the couple but the effects on others, too, Lee said.

“The way Geoff unfolds the story and the implications of 2 of the most powerful characters in the DCU becoming a team is something that goes beyond the question of ‘What about Lois and Clark?’” Lee said.

“This is a statement to every nation and geopolitical organization in the entire DC Universe giving creative teams ample material to explore this relationship on so many different levels.”

Now, I do realize it was more the writers assumption than a direct quote from Lee or Johns, however the powers that be at DC are also completely avoiding addressing the now retconed out of existence near 75 year romance. Everything points to big blue and the amazonian’s new relationship to be the modern comic book power couple, meanwhile Lois is shacked up with some other dude and views Clark as simply a friend and a colleague.

Personally, it seems like an odd choice to make really. Not only does it ignore one of the most widely known facts about the characters, that Lois and Clark are destined to be together, it also seems to contradict the up coming big screen reboot of the Man of Steel.

An interesting choice, DC editorial.

Source: Newsarama

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It’s breaking news in the world of superhero romance, Superman and Wonder Woman, easily two of the most iconic and most powerful heroes in DC‘s, are hookin’ up. And it’s no one issue stunt or an Elseworld’s tale or even some silly dream sequence, this is for realz. As writer Geoff Johns revealed to Entertainment Weekly, “This is the new status quo.” Apparently, a big event, something possibly tragic, will rock the league and the two supers will seek solace with one another.

I can’t say the news is completely shocking, ever since the New 52 began there’s been rumors the famed marriage of Superman and Lois Lane had been dissolved in order to make way for a new romance between Supes and Wondy. I guess, I just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. Here’s the big reveal on the cover of Justice League #12, releasing August 29th,

Honestly, the cover is beautiful and it’s a great superhero spin on famous scenes Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss and Alfred Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day in Times Square photograph, which artist Jim Lee drew inspiration from. But something about this new super-romance feels very stunt-like to me. I know, I know, Johns say this isn’t a stunt, but why the hell else would you put Superman and Wonder Woman together if it wasn’t to ruffle some feathers and make a big fuss? Isn’t that what a stunt is? And Johns says they’re hoping to ’cause a stir, and you know a big stir is coming as the legions of Superman/Lois Lane fans will be airing their outrage in the coming days.

Ugh, I don’t know about you guys, but this feel wrong. It seems cheap and lazy. Of course your two most powerful characters would get together, it’s predictable. Granted, I dropped Justice League after issue six so I have no idea what kind of flirting or pent-up sexual frustration the two heroes have been dealing with. Maybe this is something readers have been aching for.

No matter what, I’ll always prefer my Superman and Wonder Woman more like this,

Less like this,

And besides, it’s Batman and Wonder Woman who should really be getting together,

(This last panel comes courtesy of Jill Pantozzi, @TheNerdyBird. She spreads the Bat-truth.)

Anyway, what say you about Superman and Wonder Woman being an official thing? Do you mourn for poor, spurned Lois? Or do you think this is the only way those two could every really be happy? I mean, I guess it all worked out that way in Kingdom Come.

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Hi kids. Matthew here. You might have noticed a different name at the top of Comics Rewind this week. Well, shocking as it may seem, I am far from the only comics enthusiast here at NerdBastards, and this week our own Jason Tabrys emailed and asked if he could write about a comic he’d developed a strong opinion about. Since I’m forever digging my way out of a mountain of back issues, I figured I’d pass the torch to him this week. I’ll be back next week with more of my own thoughts. For now, enjoy Jason’s take on Batman: Hush.

Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, and Scott Williams’ Hush series is often described as a great and contemporary masterpiece. After reading the collected works (Batman #608-619) I have a hard time agreeing with those exact words, but I do think that the story is damn fine with masterful art (Lee is the finest active Bat-penciler around) and that it should perhaps stand as an unrivaled entry point for new readers who need to spy both the Bat Man’s origin, his angst, and his ultimate mission.

Why does Hush fall shy of greatness in my view? Essentially, it tries to say too much and tries to fit in too many stories, leaving us off balanced and ultimately not as affected by the conclusion because we’ve already been lead to believe that the true mastermind has been unveiled numerous times.

In the beginning of the story we see Killer Croc, almost sympathetic and drawn like a blur of tough skin and sharp teeth. Poison Ivy is seductive and sinewy as she pulls his strings — a puppet-master who is also a puppet herself. We’re “introduced” to Catwoman as a shadow, crawling in the background with a treat in hand. Soon we learn that she is under Poison Ivy’s spell and soon we see that Batman is under hers.

The entire run pays respect to the characters noir origins with constant double-crosses, and an uneasy relationship with a strong willed and equally suspicious “dame” who may or may not be in on the con. As I said up top, we’re thrown off balance, but so is Batman as he sees the open and flourishing relationship between Clark Kent and Lois Lane with envy in his eyes. Can he let Catwoman in, can Bruce Wayne pull back the cowl and share his life?

That question, along with Batman/Bruce Wayne’s intimacy and trust issues, his guilt for the times that those closest to him have been hurt, and his instincts which seem to be betraying him due to the head spinning games that are encroaching on his world stand at the heart of Hush.

Major Spoilers Ahead!

Speaking of those games, we get a glimpse of nearly every primary Bat-character: from Harold Allnut to Jason Todd, the other two “Robins”, the Joker, Harvey Dent, Oracle, Huntress, Clayface, Jim Gordon and others — all written wonderfully, all standing out as unique characters in this world who either tax or enhance Bruce Wayne and Batman’s life. We are also introduced to Doctor Thomas Elliot early on, an old friend of Bruce Wayne’s whose childhood trauma paralleled his own and who, as an adult, seems to stand as tall as the man Bruce Wayne could have been — a rich, successful surgeon, with a heart of gold — just like Thomas Wayne.

At the end of the game, when all the music stops playing we know how different  ”Tommy” is, a bizzaro version of the boy who grew up grieving for his parents and vowing to apply justice to an unjust world. And though there is one last twist at the end that reveals the identify of the mastermind behind all of this, I am vastly more interested in the metaphorical “New Batman” that is left standing after all is said and done.

After a war that sees ally’s and enemies fall, a relationship bloom where the earth had been previously salted, the strength of his friends, and the realization of his worst fear, Batman’s world is changed, but he is not and as we step away from the book we see a more damaged Bruce Wayne who is even more suspicious and un-trusting. In essence, while Batman has won the war, Bruce Wayne has not.

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As The New 52 marches on into its third wave, rumors are afoot that one of the forth wave books may be an oldie but goldie from the early Image days of Jim Lee’s Wildstorm: WildC.A.T.s.

We all know that Lee will check out of pencilling Justice League at the end of his current run, and the supposition is that Lee is leaving to work on WildC.A.T.s, the creator-owned book that Lee helped launch Image Comics with back in 1992. It’s worth noting that a couple of WildC.A.T.s have already had their own solo books in the New 52 – Grifter and Voodoo – so perhaps going out there with an all-new team book with the characters is a natural evolution.

DC had nothing official to say about the rumor, but it is worth noting that this would be the sixth iteration of WildC.A.T.s to hit the newsstands in the last 20 years.

What do you think Bastards, would you be excited to see another Jim Lee drawn WildC.A.T.s book?

Source: Bleeding Cool

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Free Comic Book Day 2012 is now less than two months away, and DC is pulling out all the stops for their issue. Check out the new Jim Lee cover featuring DC’s Holy Trinity and the mysterious Pandora.

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Yes it is that time again, time to rip into a new week of comic book releases. A handy guide to how you should spend your money at the comic store and also a great excuse for me to ignore my wife and family. I assume an oversized pull list is not grounds for divorce. One small note about this weeks edition, when I got home (stack of comics in hand) a power outage forced me into reading them all by candle light, just like Amish comic book fans! Hey, it was either that or learn to churn my own butter and how am I suppose to do that without access to Wikipedia?

As another calendar year is about to wrap I’ve been reading a lot of speculation on the comic industry in 2012. My opinion? I think it’s going to grow and flourish. Not the heady heights of the speculative driven market of the early 90s but it will thrive. Six months ago there was a lot of doom and gloom about the future of comics, sales where shrinking, readers where starting to drop off and, the whole industry seemed stagnate (and also Marvel fired a bunch of support staff, always a bad sign.) Now? Sales are up, hitting some highs even, and say what you will about digital, it is a evolution of the industry and is apparently reaching new readers. Yes, I am old fashioned and prefer the ever growing stacks of comics that crowd my office. I also have an iPad filled and each week seem to buy at least one or two books digitally.

One last thought on 2012 in comics, and that is Free Comic Book Day! Mark your calendars kids, the next one hits on May 5th, 2012 – the day after Avengers debuts in theaters – so it should be a damn exciting time to be a comic nerd. If you haven’t seen it yet, here’s Jim Lee’s t-shirt design to mark the event.

Looks good, love the return of the thought bubble (so… the ‘Y’ is thinking about what year it is?), just… I know this is old news and we’re all suppose to be over it by now, but… damn it. Superman looks naked without the red underoos on the outside.

 We should probably get to reading some comics today, shouldn’t we. Ok, this week we’ve got a whole new number one  from DC’s New 52 to go through. It’s something old that is new again, for like the 9th time, I’ll warn you my expectations are low. Also, Marvel’s latest hero vs hero slug fest kicks off with a shot so we’ll see who fired first and if we really should care. The last two, horror comics seem to be hitting a renaissance of sorts so we’ll check back in on a book that helped make that happen and a new one that looks so damn nice.

Your 4×4 fast and furious reviews start after the jump.
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As if the Amazon Princess hasn’t gone through enough changes lately, the DC Source Blog revealed today she’s getting a new origin story. Which isn’t neccesarily a bad thing because as comic book fans know the origin of Wonder Woman is weird as fuck. She wasn’t born, she was sculpted out of clay by her mother, Hippolyta and the goddess Athena blessed her to be as, “beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules.” Boom, Diana, Amazon Princess, Feminist Icon, Wonder Woman was created.

Ever since then the origin has been muddled and altered by writers to fit whatever version of Wonder Woman they wanted. At one time, I think they hinted at her father being Hades, which was even weirder. Now, in Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang’s new Wonder Woman she’s getting a daddy. Officially. No more clay and desperate pleas for a daughter from Hippolyta.

This new origin story won’t be revealed until the third issue, out November 16th, but Azzarello spilled the beans in an interview with the New York Post. Spoiler warning, if you don’t wanna who’s her daddy, stop reading. Duh.

She’s going to learn she’s not who she was told she was. Everybody’s got a father. Even if he’s not the nicest guy in the world.

Who? Oh, only the king of the gods, Zeus. Yup, Diana’s just another demi-god bastard of the great Zeus. Hey, wait! That’s kind of a craptacular origin for the most empowering woman in comics. Hmm, I’m not too sure how I feel about this, Azzarello.

Jim Lee, DC co-publisher, of course thinks it’s a wonderful idea, just like that new costume he designed for her last year which caused the internet to explode over a pair of pants,

In this case, making her a god actually makes her more human, more relatable. We’re approaching all the classic characters in a way that feels true to their origins but thoroughly modern.

And didn’t Zeus normally rape most of the woman he begot little godly children on? More and more I’m thinking I’m not going to like this one bit.

But I’m totally willing to give it a shot. I don’t know if you read Wonder Woman #1, but it was easily one of the best books of the relaunch. Diana was strong, sexy, and could kick ass like it was her one and only purpose. And they didn’t spend pages upon pages explaining to us who she was, we got right to the action. It was a great way to hook new readers, and I have to admit this new origin will probably win over more new readers. It’s easy to comprehend, simplistically explains why she so powerful and it’ll had all sorts of juicy, Olympic family drama. And even with all that, somehow bringing a man into the origin of comic’s most famous feminist icon leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

What do you think of Diana’s new parentage? Simpler? More comprehensible? Better all around and I should stop my silly feminist ranting?

Source: The Mary Sue

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*Editors Note: Comic-book aficionado and friend to Nerd Bastards, Jeremy Hudson has volunteered to read and review every first issue of DC’s New 52. Jeremy is a funny bastard and knows his shit. His reviews will inform and entertain. Enjoy.

I have just finished reading Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1. The NEW DC UNIVERSE IS UPON US!

Funny… I half expected a thunder clap after that.

So let’s begin. It seems like only yesterday that the powers that be at DC Comics decided that the weight of years and years of convoluted continuity, self-conflicting story lines and just sheer entropy had finally impacted sales enough that it was time to hit the reset button and give the DC Universe a clean slate to work from. Grab the two biggest names in the industry and have them helm it. Take recently acquired properties from now defunct comic lines and work them into continuity. Give new readers a chance to jump in at the starting point of characters that had their start decades ago.

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Unless you live in a whole, under a rock, which is under an even bigger rock you’ve heard about the unprecedented move DC Comics is making come September to relaunch their entire line. And if you have somehow avoided this news one, bully for you, that’s some damn impressive isolationism and two, you are who DC wants to snag with this new promotional push. (Particularly if you’re a male between the ages of 18-34, because, apparently, they’re the demographic that really matters. Not that I’m bitter about be cast aside by the comics industry, again, or whatever. Grr.)

Anyway, my repressed anger aside, Bleeding Cool released today the official presentation video from DC Comics announcing the relaunch. Well, not so much announcing as validating. The video features snippets of Dan Didio, Jim Lee, Grant Morrison, Bob Harras and Eddie Berganza explaining how excited they are for the relaunch and why it’s needed to re-energize their line of comic books. There are also flashes of the cover artwork featuring many of the redesign characters, but really, you can check out every cover for the new 52 relaunch in our Nerdy Bastards Guide to the New DC Universe.

Are you excited? Are you a a complete comic n00b whose been ensnared by these 52 new #1′s and plan to enter the comic book nerd fold? Are you a long time fan whose really frustrated by these changes? Sound off in the comments. Also, if you’re still a little unsure of what this whole relaunch really means, Newsarama has a great list, Busted! Fact-checking Ten MYTHS About the DCnU you should really check out.

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All right, big changes are coming to DC Universe in an effort to condense their ever-so-convoluted history and attract new readers with a simple and safe, #1. A lot of characters are getting new back stories, different histories, and some might not even exist anymore! Needless to say many, many comic book fans are freaking the fuck out. Unless you only woke up from a coma, like 20 minutes ago, you haven’t heard the apocalyptic news that DC is rebooting their universe. Well, reboot might not be a fair word. Relaunch? Revamp? Shake-up? Slight alteration  of everything just enough to piss off your die-hard fans? Yeah, it’s something like that.

Of course this isn’t the only time DC decided change was needed. There’s a reason we refer to certain eras in comics as ‘golden’ or ‘silver’, they predominately refer to differences in characters and stories as they reflect their time period. We’re entering a new age now and it’s exciting, thrilling and a little disconcerting.

Listed here, all in one handy post is every new #1 title beginning in September in the post-Flashpoint DCU. Their covers, their quick solicits and a few snarky comments from myself. I admit now I am no DC expert, just a fan. And there are going to be some books I’ll have little to say about, others I could probably devote an entire post to, but I’ll try an keep ‘em short. If I don’t share the same concerns you do about a title or I just say little about your favorite new book please, please, please share your thoughts and feel free to contradict me in the comments section. On to the books!

JUSTICE LEAGUE #1

Written by GEOFF JOHNS, art and cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS.

On sale AUGUST 31 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US RATED T • Combo pack edition: $4.99 US

Comics superstars Geoff Johns and Jim Lee make history! In a universe where super heroes are strange and new, Batman has discovered a dark evil that requires him to unite the World Greatest Heroes! This spectacular debut issue is also offered as a special combo pack edition, polybagged with a redemption code for a digital download of the issue.

I think this sounds solid. We’re going to be introduced to our favorite heroes as younger, more inexperienced people and with the team of Johns and Lee, it’ll rock. They want to put their best foot forward with this book, this’ll be the title that introduces new fans to the core of DCU. It’s great to see Cyborg being included in such an iconic group, too. They’re starting out strong with their whole plan to diversify the DCU. We’ll just see how long that plan continues…

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