Marvel’s announcement of the Avengers vs X-Men event made me realize how refreshing DC’s decision to stop major events in The New 52 has been. I know it won’t last forever since DC’s already hinting at something with The Mysterious Purple Woman, but it’s still been nice just reading stories and not worrying about The Next Big Thing.
Over on Ye Olde Webcomic, Kris and I had figured that the seventh issue of DC’s The New 52 series would start to see creative team changes. Considering that DC has announced three new creative teams this week, it looks like our theory is holding true. The party line is that all three creators voluntarily decided to leave their books, although the post announcing Fabian Nicieza’s departure had a weird wording to it:
His schedule just couldn’t keep up with a monthly series right now. It’s a bummer because Fabian and I had discussed some really cool ideas for the series, but I understood his reasons, and we parted on a positive note with hopes that someday we can reteam on something else down the road.
Is editor Brian Cunningham saying he understands Nicieza’s reasons for leaving Legion Lost or Nicieza’s reasons for not being able to keep up? When the plans for The New 52 were announced, DC was pretty clear that delays of the monthly releases dates would not be tolerated. I’m wondering if these voluntary departures are as voluntary as pirate boarding parties back on the high seas where the true measure of a man was how many of his limbs weren’t wooden.
Nicieza is the only writer departing a book who isn’t already working on a second book. It will be telling to see how long he’ll have to sit the bench before he can get a new project. Cornell’s still writing Demon Knights, which is the biggest thing I care about from this news until the rest of the March solicitations come out.
Changes to the Firestorm creative team matrix -
I’m a big fan of Simone’s run on Secret Six and her original Birds of Prey run, but all of the more recent stories that she’s written have fallen flat for me. Granted, I don’t think replacing her with a much less experienced writer who will continue to work with an artist-turned-writer with even less experience is a good move.
Harry: This is horrible!
Hermione: We’re all going to die!
Ron: Don’t worry. I got this.
Progress.
After my previous blog post, I reworked my corporate objectives so that it included Be Awesome (most of the others were a verbose equivalent to Meet Your Deadlines that actually listed what the deadlines were) and submitted them to my manager. I figured that I’d have to cut it, but at least for a minute I let my strategy show. You know what? He liked it. Said it was a good objective to have and insisted I keep it. The fact that it’s now within the corporate system that I plan to Be Awesome in and of itself means I’m on my way to Be Awesome.
When you set your life objective to Be Awesome, don’t hide it. Own it. There’s no reason to be ashamed of Being Awesome.
Today I had to work on my 2011 Objectives for my office job. There are seven bullet points filled with buzzwords, techno-jargon, and productivity slang to outline what I will do this year and how my managers can evaluate my accomplishments at the end of the year. I really hate doing this objective stuff because it’s all bullshit noise that clouds what you need to be doing. To really get things done you only need two objectives (in order of importance):
If you meet both of those, everything else is taken care of.
(via Kerry Callen’s Blog!: If Bruce’s Mood Had Been Different That Night…) (found via @ihnatko)
Back in the Silver Age, a woman named Kathy Kane was Batwoman and her niece Betty Kane was the original Batgirl, so that Batman & Robin would have female equivalents and the fancy millionaire spending all of his time with a prepubescent boy would be a little less creepy.
In the Modern Age, Barbara Gordon was the first Batgirl. Bette Kane was introduced later as another teen hero named Flamebird. Finally, Kate Kane was introduced as Batwoman during 52. It had been pretty much understood that Kate & Bette were just the modern re-interpretations of the Silver Age Kathy & Betty. Now it looks like Grant Morrison’s claiming that the Silver Age Kathy Kane exists in Modern continuity and was also at some point Batwoman. I don’t understand this man’s obsession with incorporating the Silver and Modern Ages, but it’s starting to get pointlessly stupid.
Finished watching Smallville season 2 last night. When Lionel Luthor helped rebuild the Smallville High Torch newspaper offices, he replaced all of the Macs with Alienware boxes. That’s how you know he’s evil.