antiterra

That's the actor who plays Drogo in Game of Thrones, right? Give him the lead in a He-Man movie and that'll make him the official go-to guy for big, brawny, bare-chested barbarian-type dudes.

By the way, what's become of the Red Sonja movie that was in preparation a few years ago? Has it vanished into limbo?

 Very, very happy to see Scott Snyder post here on Comicvine!

Last year, Rucka and Williams set the bar impossibly high on Tec with their Batwoman run, but Snyder (and Jock and Francavilla, whose pencils blow me away each month) has managed to bring Tec to the very top of the Bat-books pile. Considering the competition, that's no small feat.

I haven't read issue 876 yet (I'm always 2 weeks behind since I live in Europe), but everything so far has been deliciously nightmarish (knife-wielding Babs in issue 873 still terrifies the crap outa me!).

The best compliment I could pay Snyder is to say that there's a little bit of Dini in his focus - not in the tone, themes or style, because Snyder is very much his own voice and not an imitation of somebody else, but in the way that, like Dini, he understands how you can't write a truly compelling Batman book without placing Gotham at the heart of it, without writing the city as a central character.

In Streets of Gotham, Dini and Nguyen practically gave us a study of how the "Gotham of yore" has endured into modern times - it's a Gotham steeped in tradition, a city that's very much like its founding families: majestic, full of secrets and shadows, equal parts nobility and shame, high rises and dank alleyways.

Snyder's Gotham is more nightmarish, a twisted rabbit hole/gaping mouth. It offers a warping landscape that coils itself around the psyche of the characters, feels for the cracks in the armour and morphs into the most unnerving and rattling scenery for them.

In a way, Snyder's Gotham reminds me of Morrison's Doctor Hurt: instead of going after "the Batman" with brute strength, they challenge the men behind the cowl, wear them down psychologically, chip away at their fortitude and mental strength by building a custom-tailored hell for them. Except that Gotham - maybe paradoxically for a creature of stone and steel - feels more organic and animalistic than most human foes would.

That, and Snyder just gets what makes Dick a Batman of his own. That's the biggest challenge for Bat-book writers these days and Scott clearly doesn't have a problem with it. No need to check the colour of the symbol to know it's Dick and not Bruce.

Wow... Sorry for being so stupendously off-topic, but when I'm enthusiastic about something, I tend to get carried away. :)

All in all, I'd say X-Factor are hands down the best dressers in the superhero community - no surprises there, they are the coolest cats on the block, after all.

Most of their clothes look like casual wear tweaked to give them that super-team vibe. You probably wouldn't go to work dressed like Monet or Shatterstar, but neither would you look ridiculous, boring or all pervert-like.

I like the current relationship in X-Force because it makes a lot sense, there's some real substance to it, it's deeper than just two good-looking mutants hooking up.

Warren's efforts to control Archangel, Betsy's helping him, the similarities between how they've both evolved in recent years (both more prone to violence, increasingly desensitized to killing)... it all makes for an interesting dynamic. They keep each other in check through the care and affection they share, neither wants to become a killer but they can feel that their moral compass has shifted a lot. This is definitely the kind of drama that I welcome in my X-books.

My humble contribution to this thread, from the great Phil Noto.

Noto got it just right, didn't he? You just know Diana would be the aggressive one and Bruce would be like a scared kid! xD

" its pointless to even write anything bad about Emma here because it will be spit on and turned upside down to prove my point is wrong and how much other people  "win".  ... so blah blah blah  blah she blah blah sucks blah blah blah .... "

It is indeed pointless when what you write is solely based on your personal dislike of the character, and flies in the face of everything that actually happened in the comics. "Emma is like Paris Hilton" isn't an argument, it's a cheap shot that simply doesn't apply - unless I've missed all the instances where Paris Hilton mentored young people in her community, risked her life for others, suffered immeasurable pain as millions died around her, expended great energy to turn her life around and atone for her past, rained hell down on whoever dared to attack her children, and so on.

If you feel so negatively about Emma, then at least do us the courtesy to take the time to explain why. You can't just throw a quick jab at the character and expect everybody to go, "Oh, yeah, that's so true."

It's simple: if you want to have a discussion, you need to present arguments. The Dark Huntress and others have presented theirs in defense of Emma. All you could offer was weak criticism that doesn't hold any water when confronted with facts. If Emma is a bimbo, then Reed Richards can barely spell his own name and Bruce Wayne has the planning skills of a goldfish.

In your defense, I do think Emma is one of those characters who are particularly easy to paint with a sloppy brush, who easily lend themselves to caricature and misconceptions. It's easy to see Emma as a bitch, Batman as a dark vigilante with a perpetual frown, X-23 as nothing more than a female Wolverine or Supergirl as miniskirt-wearing jailbait for pervy nerds. It's easy... until you actually read the comics, until you read Morrison, Chris Yost, Marjorie Liu or Sterling Gates.

Bottom line: I don't think you're being willingly hateful or ignorant, but you need to at least acknowledge the possibility that maybe you don't have the complete picture when it comes to Emma Frost. I'm not saying you wouldn't still hate her if you knew her better, but it would make your criticism a better basis for discussion.

Nice! I hope it's better than Iron Man and Wolverine, though. Great animation and CG, non-existent story and character development.

I'll sound like a broken record, but Marvel really should have hired Production I.G., who have proven time and time again that they can deliver the goods both in the style and substance departments.

" @PrinceIMC: Wolverine actually is in love with Jean, Namor i think just wants some ass so yea , there is a difference lol "

Ha-ha, so true! Namor is the Marvel U's #1 Horn Dog.

Namora, Emma Frost, Sue Storm and the latest piece of Atlantean tail in his ongoing - the man will jump anything with a pulse and a comely body. Impervertus rex!

IMO Batman has never been cooler than he is right now - and that's your answer right there if you look at Morrison's entire run on the character.

One of his big underlying themes is that Batman isn't alone (hell, one of the first things Morrison did was give Bruce a biological son), that he isn't a one-man operation, that yes, he does need help because, for all his intelligence and planning skills, there are schemes that simply cannot be accomplished by one man alone. That, and he's not all, you know, omnipotent and immortal...

And you know why that makes him cool? Because there are so many heroes, friends and allies who are always ready and willing to provide that help, just because he is who he is.

This ability to inspire such loyalty in others is precisely what makes him cool, so kudos to Morrison for putting great emphasis on  something that's always been true, but never as evident and as expertly showcased.

"
   cute as hell  "

Aye, verily.

Cute... or the cutest?