(1) FANBABES: Former FANBABE of the YEAR Ana Aesthetic is smokin' as Emma Frost the White Queen in her new shoot, and you can check out more of it here (the guy in the video isn't doing what he looks as though he is).
(2) The acerbic Charlie Brooker, Guardian columnist and writer of Big Brother gets zombified comedy-drama Dead Set, responds to David Cameron's recent call for British films to be more commercial by offering some suggestions (with tongue firmly in cheek) for British-made superhero movies:
"Superhero films are guaranteed box-office gold – so let's make a British one: a Dark Knight facsimile about a vigilante Beefeater in a rubberised outfit who lives in the Tower of London with an army of ravens.
"Also, how about Paddington Bear as a wisecracking CGI hero? The marmalade sandwiches he enjoys won't 'read' overseas, so we'll replace those with peanut butter and jelly, but otherwise he's exactly the same loveable British Paddington Bear, minus the bit about him being an immigrant from darkest Peru. Also, he wears sunglasses and says 'Woah, THAT's godda hurt!' and is voiced by Ashton Kutcher."
(3) THE STARS #1 written & pencilled by Kurt Belcher, inked by Stuart Berryhill, published by Earthbound Comics.
A super-team of yesteryear, The Stars have been put back together--with their number depleted--following a hiatus resulting from a mission gone wrong.
In a gesture of 'good faith,' the President of isolationist republic Um-Kulthoum has brought The Stars in to take down a resident terrorist sect--though the President's 'bread-breaking' doesn't extend as far as allowing the team to search for Weapons of Mass Destruction while they're at it, as a supervillain team are sent in to intervene when they do.
(Right click and 'Open in New Tab' to enlarge.)From here we jump over to the super-heroics of some new would-be Stars members--and the taking down of whitebread armored hero Panzermannen by a shadowy group of supervillains who have designs on influencing just who is going to be joining The Stars...
Steeped in superhero comic-influences spanning Lee & Kirby to Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, The Stars is kind of a more traditional The Authority that borrows liberally from other superhero books--one of the team, Grand Britannia, resembling Captain Britain somewhat, and their 'eye in the sky' Dr. Mole pretty similar to Fantastic Four villain the Mole Man. And btw, Dr. Mole, you'd do well to be less concerned with your 'P's and 'Q's--preceding every critical warning to the team (such as when they're about to get obliterated) with a "Pardon" or "Don't mean to interrupt." There's a time and place for politeness and it isn't when you've got a nuke up yer ass.
The book's quite raw, particularly in the art department, and the narrative could flow and hang together a bit better--and having British members among a team called 'The Stars' doesn't seem the most natural fit--the name evoking, to me at least, 'stars 'n' stripes.' But if you enjoy a traditional superhero comic that does also have moments of edge and originality stemming from its influences (a giant Japanese breakdancing robot super-villain), you can check this first of a 6-issue mini-series out at Earthboundcomics.com where it's available to buy in print and digitally, and comes with two cover variants--one by Belcher and one (pictured) by Top Cow & Zenescope artist Martin Montiel.
(4) Remi Nicole is the worst superheroine ever. She can't even fly and all she does is get arrested.
(5) RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #5: written by Scott Lobdell & illustrated by Kenneth Rocafort.
One of the unholy trinity of perceived audience-alienating DC New 52 launches, along with Catwoman and Voodoo (with honorable mention going to Batgirl), Red Hood and The Outlaws copped a lot of flack for its rebooted Princess Koriand'r a.k.a. Starfire seemingly being portrayed as something along the lines of a lobotomized sexbot, as parodied here by Auggie18:
I didn't pick up the first issue of the book, but I saw and heard enough to make me want to check out issue #4--which one of my Twitter pals Jesse Robels described as "very different [from previous issues] and crazy" (which sounds good to me)--and what I found was an offbeat book with flawed, conflicted characters, and I liked the feel of it. Rocafort's art is very nice and his Starfire is hot, but things have definitely moved away from how she was coming across at first--apparently, issue #3 having revealed that her overt lack of memory and emotion were in fact defensive facades, as she isn't able to come to terms with her past. And rendered 'human' and vulnerable in issue #5--her bond with team-mate Roy Harper a.k.a. Arsenal developing, Starfire's emotions begin to come to the surface.
Former Robin, Jason Todd a.k.a. the Red Hood is also struggling with issues of the past--having been killed by the Joker (before he "got better" due to Superboy Prime having altered reality--or whatever reason the New 52 universe holds for his resurrection) and Batman having failed to avenge him; and former Green Arrow protégé Arsenal is billed as a "recovering superhero" (whatever that means--perhaps it was explained in the first ish).
The main 'villain' of the peace, Crux, is also flawed--this time detrimentally--carrying something of a hokey spin on Batman's origin wherein a spacecraft belonging to Starfire's race accidentally crashed on his family, killing them, and he's gone a bit mental and turned himself into a kind of alien and dedicated his life to wiping out all alien life. As you would. There's more alien threat in the form of The Untitled, a race that have infiltrated the US, and whom Red Hood holds responsible for slaughtering his former post-Batman mentor and crew, the All-Caste. Though, in battle with a female Untitled member, it turns out the Red Hood may not have his facts straight.
I found the All-Caste/Untitled stuff somewhat confusing (though I assume would have less so if I'd been in from the beginning) but in some ways that fits the book, which is largely told from the not-necessarily-accurate perspective of its conflicted male protagonists. Red Hood and The Outlaws is a book that's flawed and misunderstood, but with an intriguing humanity to it.
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