positronic

@Squodon "Way to teach women their place, Dynamite. I really wish comics would stop doing that."

Yeah, and while they're at it, I wish comic books would stop sexually objectifying men by drawing them all handsome and buffed with ripped abs.

So then when did the "modern" version of Batman begin?  We've obviously gone beyond the "Batman Year One" era Batman at this point.  I guess the most obvious answer is "With Detective Comics #1 last September", but since most, if not all, of the pre-New 52 elements seem to carry over, what is the approximate starting point of modern Batman?  Is it "Batman and Son" by Morrison & Kubert?

No big mystery. Mob boss Lew Moxon hired Joe Chill to kill the Waynes.  And before you cry "Silver Age continuity", notice that Grant Morrison acknowledges Thomas Wayne's "Bat-Man" masquerade party costume, so the story is part of modern continuity (unless the "New 52" DCU is already throwing out such recent stuff as Morrison's work).

Well said, TheCrowbar. Until and unless readers AND publishers in other countries embrace superheroes as a genre, I don't see it changing. And even then... Japan has a decent contingent of superheroes, but their presence in manga and anime doesn't amount to much, the only medium in which they seem to flourish is the tokusatsu TV series (Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai -- ironically, many of the TV characters were created by Japanese comic artists, but they never seem to be as popular with manga readers as with TV viewers). Many countries embrace the MEDIUM of comics, but not many embrace the GENRE of superheroes.

It's seems that America produces more than enough superheroes that exporting them seems to satiate the limited demand of the rest of the world.

The entire run of Jason Aaron's PunisherMAX (Volume 2) has been fantastic. If anything, even better than Garth's Ennis' run (although Aaron couldn't have done it without what Ennis had set up before). Although I'll be sorry to see it go, I can't wait to see the ending.

Overlooked in between the much-reviled "FrankenCastle" and Greg Rucka's new Punisher series (which doesn't do it for me) is a very good little miniseries, Rick Remender's "In The Blood". I must admit I prefer the MAX universe Frank Castle, but this story was very, very good for a Punisher story set in the regular Marvel universe. Having said that, no other Marvel universe superheroes or supervillains appear in the story, and that's to its benefit.

And yet BEN 10 (in all its various incarnations) keeps going and going. It's way past 65 episodes now. Yeah, I know it's not DC (but it's still a great show), but it just goes to show that not everything Cartoon Network does has to end when it reaches the magic number of 65. In fact, if you include the episodes from The Adventures of Batman and Robin and Batman-Superman Adventures, BTAS ran over 65 episodes too.

Yes, all things must end sometime, but the real tragedy here is that they introduced SO many characters that would have been perfectly suited for a spinoff series if done in exactly the same manner: Plastic Man, Shazam!, Metal Men, Doom Patrol, Challengers of the Unknown, Kamandi, OMAC... the list goes on.

@NyxEquitis said:

Who's the queen of Diamonds girl?

Cool. Secret Avengers vs. the Royal Flush Gang. Hey, waitaminnit....!

@Afro_Warrior said:

@positronic:

Destroyers was a five issue mini planed for February, here's the link to Vine article.

http://www.comicvine.com/news/marvel-cancels-victor-von-doom-and-destroyers/143822/

Ahh, too bad. I enjoy Fred Van Lente's humorous, slightly skewed take on Marvel characters, and may well have liked this series.

The article mentions DESTROYERS is cancelled. I work part-time in a comic shop (and fill the subscriptions every week) and even I've never heard of this one. Did the writer of the article mean ANNIHILATORS: EARTHWAR (meaning it won't make the end of its miniseries run), or is this another solicited-but-never-made-it-to-print titles like VON DOOM? If so, I missed the solicitation. On the other hand, Marvel just announced a month or two ago that the previously-limited ALPHA FLIGHT was upgraded to an ongoing series. Now it's cancelled? WTF?