The Nitpicker #38.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

"Is here Dali Planit. Dilivrees in reer or punch in face." Sign outside the "Dayli" Planet on Bizarro World. Spelled with random mirrored letters, of course.

Welcome to our 38th issue, I'll try to keep this intro short. The quote of the week was about the only thing I liked about Action Comics 855. In fact, this issue has all the Silver Age staples that should have stayed there, and it's the Nitpicker's Pick for worst book of the week. Bizarro, as a failed clone of Superman was ok; but now we again have the square planet and the entire population of the planet, including Bizarro Jimmy and Bizarro Lois. The elements like a Marlon Brando looking bearded Jor-El, the sunstones in the fortress, and all that, which were palatable in limited doses in the previous storyline by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner, plus other things like Bizarro World, all work together to create a tale which is too reminiscent of Silver Age silliness.

What's the pick for best book of the week, you say? Well, I didn't find much excitement in this week's books, but I'm going to have to say the Ex Machina Masquerade Special. The story is good, a little bit too soon for Halloween; but entertaining, and well told as Brian K. Vaughan has us used to. It's nice to see more of the back story on Mitchell Hundred, of his days after the accident that gave him his powers, but just before he started his superhero career. The art by John Paul Leon (pencils and inks) is good, some of the faces look a little different than what regular series artist Tony Harris does, but they look fine. The biggest problem i have with this book is that the colors (by JD Mettler) are a little bit too muted at times. Still, a good read.

Last week's STN was again spotted by Roy, and it was indeed the fact that Jericho did not wear a cape back when he first appeared. I think he's worn one at some point, but I don't really care... I mean, it's freaking Jericho. On with the nits, aight?
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"WOODY ALLEN KENT."

TITLE: Action Comics.

ISSUE: 855.

CULPRIT: Eric Powell (artist) and/or Geoff Johns & Richard Donner (writers).

NIT-TO-PICK: Why does a ten year old Clark Kent (who looks more like Woody Allen that Clark Kent) wear glasses, if he has no secret identity to protect? I mean, look at him, it's a young Woody Allen!!!


NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"BOOOOOOM!"

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 06 of 06.

CULPRIT: Will Pfeifer (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Oh, so the twist behind the Amazon attack was that Granny Goodness was masquerading as Athena? I can't claim credit for coming up with the theory, but I've been espousing that idea since somebody mentioned it in a Newsarama thread a month ago. Apart from that, are we really supposed to believe that "Athena" arrives via a very audible boom tube; and none of the heroes with super senses or high technology realized it was an Apokoliptian boom tube that brought the "Olympian" goddess to Earth?

Oh, and to all of you out there: it's A-po-ko-lips.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"IT'S JUST A RANDOM ISLAND, WHO'S GONNA NOTICE?"

TITLE: Batman Annual.

ISSUE: 26.

CULPRIT: David López (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Look at the image below. On the left, the fragment of Australian map shown on page 12 of this book, and on the right, a fragment of a real Australian map the comic supposedly portrays. Let's play spot the seven differences!!!


NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. Please López, you could have at least looked at an Australian map.
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"IMMORTAL EYES."

TITLE: Batman Annual.

ISSUE: 26.

CULPRIT: Trish Mulvihill (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Now, this might be a side effect of the Lazarus Pit, but I've been unable to find any references. When shown as a young man, Ra's al Ghul has amber-colored eyes, but later in life, his eyes are green.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
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"COVER THIS UP."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: JG Jones (cover artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: This book is definitely getting better and better, finally shaping up. Manuel García's art, though free of blunders like the Question's condom mask, still falls short of other artists like Jesus Saiz. Better or not, this book is not devoid of nits yet; on the cover, Una's (ugh!) boots have holes on the sides, ala Duo Damsel's seventies costume, but that design element is not present on Una's costume in the comic. Plus, she's not wearing her gloves (but she might be wearing the bracelets). Not to mention the fact that she's got a completely different haircut, and freckles she's never had.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
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"IT'S BREAST TO LEAVE THIS AS IT IS."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: JG Jones (cover artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Also on the cover, Zatanna is wearing an open-breasted (and not just open) shirt, showing a lot of cleavage (never a bad thing), but she wears a regular tuxedo shirt (complete with bowtie) in the comic.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"DON'T FORGET YOUR JACKET."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: Manuel García (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page seven, Mary Marvel gets turned back into just plain Mary, and this time she's wearing her jacket, as opposed to the last time we saw her de-powered (last issue), when she wasn't.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"SUPERDICKERY!"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: Sean McKeever (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page nine, Superman says to Jimmy that he "kept insisting that you had special powers (...)" What do you mean Supes? You saw Jimmy grow to a giant size!

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars... there might be a point to this.
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"IT WAS TEMPORARY."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: Manuel García (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Red Arrow's tattoo is missing from his arm in the above mentioned page. Yet another HNS badge to Roy for spotting this.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
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"MONKEY BUSSINESS."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: Manuel García (penciller) and/or Sean McKeever (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: When the flashbacks of Jimmy getting his ass kicked by the JLA are shown, Vixen is shown manifesting gorilla powers. The whole point of her in JLA was that she's not able to channel animals any longer, only metahumans. And yes, I know that gorillas are not monkeys, but apes. Oh, and look at how much better DC is doing at admitting these things over at Newsarama:

"NRAMA: With friends like those, though… On a side note - Vixen's loss of her animal powers was an important element in Brad Meltzer's JLA run that, to date, hasn't been reversed or "fixed," Yet in this issue, she's clearly possessing the power of a gorilla. What gives?

Mike Carlin: I’d say that Jimmy is a fairly easy guy ta knock down... And Vixen was just imagining what she would do if she needed more strength to knock him down.

NRAMA: …

MC: Is yer B.S.-O-Meter going off...?

NRAMA: Er, yeah.

MC: Okay, it was probably a screw up.

Sean McKeever: I would say that we're seeing how Jimmy imagined things went down based on what he's being told. That’s how you lie to the fans, Carlini! Er, I mean..."

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
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"THESE ARE BETTER, MORE LIKE THE ONES WORN IN FAME."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: Manuel García (penciller) and/or Sean McKeever (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 16, Una is not wearing metal or similar material bracelets, she's now wearing obvious cloth bracelets.

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars.
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"BLACK HAIR MAKES ME LOOK MORE BADASS."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: Pete Pantazis (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Same page as above, Karate Kid's hair is colored black, when it's brown.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"THE COLOR OF... SOMETHING."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 35 of 52.

CULPRIT: Scott Beatty (writer, The Origin Of Parallax backup story).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 22, green is referred to as the color of courage... when it's the color of willpower, according to current Green Lantern mythos.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"WE USE IT TO SEND LETTERS."

TITLE: Countdown To Adventure.

ISSUE: 01 of 08.

CULPRIT: Adam Beechen (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 3, the Zeta Beam is referred to as a "communications beam", when it's, specifically, a teleportation beam.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
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"HE MATURES SLOWLY."

TITLE: Countdown To Adventure.

ISSUE: 01 of 08.

CULPRIT: Eddy Barrows (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: I know that some (if not all) of Animal Man's Vertigo adventures are probably considered a separate continuity now that he's returned to superheroics; but do we need to de-age his kids? Maxine was about 7 or 8 towards the last time we saw her, and Cliff was around 12. Now they look like 3 and 8 respectively. Cliff could be 10 at most, maybe a childish looking 12 (particularly going by the fact that he tries to take a picture of a semi-naked Starfire to show a friend), but by page 18, he looks as short as Maxine, and his face makes him look 5. Then by page 19, panel one, Cliff looks about 10 years old, and by panel 2, he looks 12 again...

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, because of the age discrepancies inside this book.
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"I DON'T WEAR THE COLLAR TURNED UP, I WEAR IT TURNED OUTSIDE IN."

TITLE: Countdown To Adventure.

ISSUE: 01 of 08.

CULPRIT: Eddy Barrows (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Just noticed this one while doing the one above; Cliff is wearing a collared shirt on page 18, but on page 19 he's wearing a regular t-shirt..

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"NAH, LEAVE THEM ALONE."

TITLE: Countdown To Adventure.

ISSUE: 01 of 08.

CULPRIT: Justin Gray (writer, Forerunner backup story).

NIT-TO-PICK: Forerunner's story, and the story of her race is told on this backup story, and the nine planets of Sol system gather an elite force to wipe them outs; nine of them survive, thinning the Forerunners from a thousand to a hundred. They are allowed to live, so they can submit to a peace accord. So, why didn't they send another force to wipe them out completely?

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
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"THEY'RE STILL IN THE LAUNDRY."

TITLE: Fantastic Four V1.

ISSUE: 549.

CULPRIT: Paul Pelletier (penciller) and Paul Mounts (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: The Thing and the Human Torch are still wearing the regular blue Fantastic Four uniforms, instead of the black ones they should be wearing, plus Johnny Storm's haircut and length is different than what it should be.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
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"IT'S A WEAPON TO REPEL OURSELVES."

TITLE: Fantastic Four V1.

ISSUE: 549.

CULPRIT: Dwayne McDuffie (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 28, they refer to the Oditopians using a weapon to repel... the Oditopians, when it should say the Contrasepsis.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"MAYBE SHE DID CHANGE THEM."

TITLE: Outsiders: Five Of A Kind.

ISSUE: 05 of 05.

CULPRIT: Jason Wright (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: The quality on this last issue dropped a bit, but it didn't sink as low as the first issue. Again, Grace's eyes are colored green. She usually wears violet contacts, but in Amazons Attack she had blue contacts, then green ones. I still consider this a nit, but I'm keeping it at only 5 Bazzars, since she might have had time to actually change them this time.

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars.
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"SPINNING AROUND."

TITLE: Outsiders: Five Of A Kind.

ISSUE: 05 of 05.

CULPRIT: Marc Andreyko (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page nine, Diana changes into civilian clothes with the trademark spin... since when has she been able to do it in modern comics?

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, unless someone corrects me.
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"THAT TOO IS GONE."

TITLE: Outsiders: Five Of A Kind.

ISSUE: 05 of 05.

CULPRIT: Art Thibert (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Same page, Grace's tattoos are gone from her lower torso.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, she could have covered them with makeup.
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"GO AHEAD, TRY IT."

TITLE: The Mice Templar.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Possibly Judy Glass & Will Swyer (editorial assistance, no actual editor is credited).

NIT-TO-PICK: BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!!!!! Sorry... the nit is not in the comic, but in the history of the making of the book at the end of the story. Look at this image below, and tell me if you can Spot The Nit!


NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars.
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"LOVE GLOVE."

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 50.

CULPRIT: Rod Reis, Tom Smith & David Curiel (colorists) & Mike McKone (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page five, panel three, look at Robin's glove:


Why is it fingerless, and in the shape of a black plastic bag, when in the previous panel it was the appropriate green (this is his previous costume), with all fingers? Plus, not part of the nit, but that panel makes it look like Robin's talking when it's Wonder Girl's speech balloon. But never mind that.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
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"A MATTER OF SCALE."

TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.

ISSUE: 12.

CULPRIT: Paco Díaz (artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: The Department of Metahuman Affairs agents are once again shown wearing the scales of justice as their emblem, when that's just Nemesis' emblem.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
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"I DON'T WORK HERE."

TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.

ISSUE: 12.

CULPRIT: Paco Diaz (artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 22, panel one, an agent in the background is missing the emblem from his uniform.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
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"I DECIDED TO GO BUSINESS CASSUAL."

TITLE: World War Hulk: X-Men.

ISSUE: 03 of 03 (and the previous issues too).

CULPRIT: Ed McGuinness (cover penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Besides being pointless, this could have been told in just one issue. Plus, it had the sappiest iteration of what I call the World War Hulk formula. What is the WWH formula? Easy: 1) Hulk threatens to smash, 2) character XYZ attempts to talk him down, 3) Hulk seems to listen, 4) Hulk either resists the attempts to talk him down, or was faking interest, 5) Hulk smashes XYZ and either captures or lets him/her go for some reason. In this case, Hulk beats the crap out of all X-teams assembled, and only lets them live after a sob story from Mercury. Yawn. Don't get me wrong, some of the crossovers and tie ins with WWH are fun (like Initiative), but most books are just being repetitive.

Oh, the nit.... yeah, sorry. On the cover, why the hell is Hulk wearing his usual purple-torn-pants-only "costume", instead of the gladiator getup he's sported so far? Fact, I just realized that he's not wearing his current costume on the covers to the other two issues, it wasn't that obvious because these were close-ups.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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That's it for this week, as far as nits go. Before telling you the average, let's see what the WTF?/DAYAMN! moment of the week was. It's a WTF? moment, and it was from Countdown. As I said, Manuel García's art for this book didn't reach Question condom mask levels, but still... is this Amalgam Superman/Squirrel Girl?


Ew! The average for this week, now that you ask, is 7.3 Bazzars, the highest in some time, since issue #31's 8.1. Let's see what next week brings us. That's it for now, until next week, I'll be on the outlook for more nits, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!

The Nitpicker #36.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

"This is Gotham! You can't swing a dead sidekick here without hitting a super-villain!"

Before I get on with his column, I want to do something I should have done in last column, but since some days had already passed, it slipped my mind. I want to dedicate this week's columns to Mike Wieringo, who left in the prime of his life. He was a great artist, and I particularly enjoyed his Spider-Man and Flash. You'll be missed, Mike. More on Wieringo's passing here, and check out this moving tribute piece my friend Trasgo made for Wieringo, featuring Impulse and the Thing grieving for the artist.

Don't know how to pick up the mood from there, but let me just tell you that the quote of the week comes from Countdown #37, and it's spouted by the Trickster while he runs from Poison Ivy. A no-brainer, really, but still funny... the runner up was Rip Hunter's quote about Superboy's reality-punching. On a more positive note, if you're a regular reader you might already know this, but I still have to mention it. The lovely and talented Gail Simone posted some comments on last column, basically taking a rolled-up newspaper to my nose... I dodged, and nitpicked back at her, getting her to confess that, and I quote "I really like this site!" Wow... like I said in the comments, this is a real honor for me, because not only I really enjoy her books, but I look up to her and hope to one day break into the industry the way she did. For those of you who are not aware of it, Gail was noticed by an editor after writing a column for Comic Book Resources called You'll All Be Sorry for a couple of years (go read it, is very funny). She wrote it at first for no money at all, and then, for very little money, but what she accomplished was worth more than money.

She honed her writing skills, both from a stylistic aspect, and from a performance aspect. Not only did she get better at writing, but by setting herself a weekly deadline, she forced herself to write, write and write. It's the same as an athlete, who will polish his form at running by stretching, doing push-ups and so on, but who will only get faster and gain more endurance by... you guessed it, running, running, and running. Not only did she get better at writing, but she proved to editors that she was hard-working, and could keep a deadline. Gail, not only are you one of the best writers in the industry today, but you seem to be a very nice and generous person, and gracious when receiving critique. You are truly an inspiration, and I hope you keep coming back week after week to read my column. I promise not to pick on your books... no, not really. What I can do, is retract when proven wrong. You see, last issue I picked on Gail's latest Gen¹³ issue when I thought Freefall was referring to Daybreaker as Midnighter. Thing is, I had missed one or two issues of the book, and didn't know (or didn't remember, I might have actually read it, but I read so much I sometimes have a hard time remembering everything) that the actual Midnighter had talked to the team, in this incarnation. So that's one nit less for last column, which actually makes the average go up to 6.4 Bazzars. Wow, that's a real increase!

Brown nosing time is over, it's time to reveal last time's Spooooot The Niiiiiiit... and nobody got it, again. What's going on with you people? In this case, the problem was that Karate Kid and Una (ugh!) are confused by Oracle's use of the expression "web fu", understandable, since it's 21st Century slang. But then she explains "(...) I was trying to block his infiltration of my intranet files (...) he was attacking all these remote system with a very clever, albeit somewhat flawed carnivore virus -- -- that dumped illogical data into computer controlling airports, city power grids even NASA..." and they just stand there, completely lost. May I remind you Jimmy and Justin, that these people come from the 31st Century? Or at the very least, the 30th? That Starman, over in JSA, only a few months ago, solved an equation Mr. Terrific couldn't solve, by using knowledge acquired in elementary school? This, as shown before, gets you 8 Bazzars.

Before we go on with the nits, let's go over the Nitpicker's Picks Of The Week, shall we? Best book went, hands down, to Booster Gold, despite a couple of nits. Great art, and great script; Geoff Johns showing his love for the DCU; and Jeff Katz probably helping as well. From Booster being, well, Booster (in all the ways, the annoying, and the good ones), to setting up and interesting premise, not to forget Superman and Batman giving Booster the recognition he deserves. I mean, if Geo-Force can be in the league, Booster sure can... dammit, in my book, he’s' proven himself more than Black Lightning, Vixen Hawkgirl, and Red Arrow all put together. Most important, he shows that he can do what needs to be done, glory and fame be damned. That's a hero for you.

Worse book of the week is Superman/Batman. It barely had a nit, but it's so bland, so boring, and so uncompelling, that I really don't know why I keep reading this book... anyway, let's get on with the nits.
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"I CAN'T GO A DAY WITHOUT CHANGING MY EYE COLOR!"

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 05 of 06.

CULPRIT: Brad Anderson (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Yawn, wake me when it's over. Oh, next issue? Good! In this particular issue, on page five, Grace's eyes are colored green, when she usually wears violet-colored contacts. Yes, she could be wearing different contacts, but considering Anderson colored her eyes blue on issue 3, and it doesn't seem she would have time to go around switching lenses, I'm going to rate this higher than the 1 I gave it two issues ago.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"IF THE GLOVE FITS... THEN CHANGE IT!"

TITLE: Black Canary V3.

ISSUE: 06 of 06.

CULPRIT: Paulo Siqueira & Joe Prado (pencillers) and I.L.L. (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 10, Merlyn is now wearing gloves that correctly cover all his fingers but his thumb and pinky. This wouldn't be a nit, except for the fact that he was wearing different gloves last time, as you all know. Yes, this could be considered correcting a nit, but it still reeks of just plain not paying attention, particularly when considering the next nit.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, you could look at last issue, could you?
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"AND CHANGE IT AGAIN!"

TITLE: Black Canary V3.

ISSUE: 06 of 06.

CULPRIT: Paulo Siqueira & Joe Prado (pencillers) and I.L.L. (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 13, Merlyn is back to wearing the gloves that cover his thumb, index and middle fingers. WTF?

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, this is out of control...
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"THIS TIME AROUND YOU'LL GET IT!"

TITLE: Black Canary V3.

ISSUE: 06 of 06.

CULPRIT: Paulo Siqueira & Joe Prado (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: You know what? Black Canary gets to be featured in Spoooooooooooooooot The Niiiiiiiit once again! Since you all had a hard time with the last two, I am cutting you some slack this time. It's really, really easy; because it's a big one, and I'm not giving you a whole page, but three images from pages 20 and 21. Plus, you also know it's a pencilling nit, so... come on, it's really easy to spot.


NIT-O-METER: I was going to give this 10 Bazzars, but that'd be too much... it gets an 8, because it's blatant, but really, unimportant at the end.
<-------------------------------->
MAGIC FISHNETS!"

TITLE: Black Canary V3.

ISSUE: 06 of 06.

CULPRIT: Paulo Siqueira & Joe Prado (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On panel 2, Black Canary's fishnet's can't be seen. This time around, it's pretty minor, since she's seen from the distance and we can't even see her facial features.

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, but if pure laziness was nitpicked, it'd get a higher rating.
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"SAY WHAT?"

TITLE: Booster Gold V2.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Geoff Johns & Jeff Katz (writers).

NIT-TO-PICK: Well, you already know I liked this book, but as I said before, it doesn't mean there's no nits to be picked. On the first page after the cover (page 1 or 2, depends on how you're counting), Skeets tells Booster that "The Ace android of this era has yet to be upgraded to zero-point energy fuel cells. That means his optically accessible neural net is vulnerable." But Booster asks him to put it in "Twenty-first Century English"... I speak 21st Century English, and I understand what he said... Booster, same as with last week's Spot The Nit, is from the future, in this case, the 25th Century... so he should be more than able to understand what Skeets is saying.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars, he could be joking.
<-------------------------------->
"WHERE DID THOSE COME FROM?"

TITLE: Booster Gold V2.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Dan Jurgens (pencil layouts) and/or Norm Rapmund (finished pencils).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8 (still counting after the cover), panel 2, Booster is holding something (apparently newspapers) under his arm, which he wasn't before.

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars.
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"MANY YEARS AGO..."

TITLE: Booster Gold V2.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Geoff Johns & Jeff Katz (writers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 29, the shadowy figure that stole the Supernova costume approaches a young Katma Tui on her planet, Korugar. She looks 8-10 years old, 12 at the most, by Earth standards. The caption reads "8 years ago."; are we supposed to believe that the very much adult Katma Tui that trained and then married John Stewart (and oh yeah, died) was a kid 8 years ago? That she was, at most, in her late teens when she died, if we are to assume that was just two years ago that she died? I don't think so.

Yes, some people at Newsarama suggested that "time is broken", or that Korugarians mature faster than humans, but I don't take it.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, I'm willing to go softer because of what I said above.
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"IT'S OUT OF JUICE!"

TITLE: Brave And The Bold V3 (and not V2, like I've said in the past).

ISSUE: 06.

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, Hal Jordan says that his ring doesn't have enough reserve to go back to Earth from Rann... you do remember you can charge it, right Hal? Particularly when on page 13, and after being used for some stuff, your ring has enough power to fuel a Zeta-beam that brings Batman to the present.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, it would have been better to say there was no time to charge it.
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"FOR AND OLD MAN, HE SURE PACKS A MEAN PUNCH..."

TITLE: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

ISSUE: 23

CULPRIT: Peter David (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Peter Parker allows himself to be beaten up by J. Jonah Jameson, who turns his face into a pulp. Please, this is Spider-Man, who even if he doesn't defend himself, still has a measure of invulnerability (a durability of 5, according to Marvel's own OHOTMU ratings, corresponding to "bulletproof"); while Jameson is a normal human, who's at least well into his sixties. Jameson is not rated on Marvel's website, but as a normal human, he shouldn't have more than a rating of 2 in strength, meaning "able to lift over own body weight, up to twice own body weight".

Spider-Man has taken blows from superhuman foes without getting hurt, or at least not as hurt as he's shown here. Come on, are we really supposed to believe that Jameson can really leave Peter looking like this?


NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"SO JONAH, HOW DID YOU REALLY HURT YOURSELF?"

TITLE: Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

ISSUE: 23

CULPRIT: Todd Nauck (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Jameson is hurt when a door hits him in the face, but he's got too black eyes, and absolutely no bruises in his nose or forehead. It's not consistent, in my opinion.

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars.
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"HEEL OR FACE?"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 37 of 52.

CULPRIT: David Lopez & Mike Norton (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: Agh! Who injected botox on every woman's lips for this book? That aside, on page 5, panel 3, Mary Marvel's boot don't have heels as pronounced as they should be.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, I'll keep it steady.
<-------------------------------->
"SDRAWKCAB SEOD TON NAEM SDRAWKCAB!"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 37 of 52.

CULPRIT: Adam Beechen (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On pages 5 Zattana's spell is written incorrectly, not only the words are backwards, but the sentence is. It says "Emoh su ekat.", when it should be "Ekat su emoh.". Her spell is correctly worded on page 7, though.

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"ARRR! WHERE BE THE WENCHES?"

TITLE: Marvel Illustrated: Treasure Island.

ISSUE: 03 of 06.

CULPRIT: Roy Thomas (writer) or Mario Gully (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On a few pages, women can be seen as part of the crew... I don't remember women in the crew in the book, but I could be wrong.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"MY CHEEK IS DOWN HERE!"

TITLE: Marvel Illustrated: Treasure Island.

ISSUE: 03 of 06.

CULPRIT: Roy Thomas (writer) or Mario Gully (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 17, Abraham Gray is said to get a "knife-cut on the side of the cheek"; but the art shows him bleeding from what appears to be a cut from his cheekbone to his forehead.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"WE CALL IT STEROIDS."

TITLE: Superman/Batman.

ISSUE: 39.

CULPRIT: Alan Burnett (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Batman mentions, on page 12, that Jonathan "Scarecrow" Crane is "Lazy, really. Even his musculature is chemically enhanced."; which is not entirely correct. Jonathan Crane, as the Scarecrow, has no physical abilities, although he has transformed, in occasions, into the Scarebeast, a creature of superhuman strength and durability.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THOSE OTHER TWO WHERE JUST POSERS!"

TITLE: The Flash V3.

ISSUE: 231.

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: From the beginning of the story, the narration says stuff like "But miracles don't happen in Keystone. They haven't for over a year. Not since the city lost its angel.", and a reporter says "(...) what would appear to be the first super-heroes this city has seen since the disappearance of the Flash!"

Yes, Wally West disappeared over a year ago, during Infinite Crisis, but up until what can't be more than a month or two, Bart Allen was the Flash, and he was based in Keystone from the time he started operating to when he moved to Los Angeles. And Jay Garrick, who is also the Flash, and a super-hero on his own right, has been operating out of Keystone since, like, forever...

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"KIDS SURE GROW FAST... BACKWARDS, AND CHANGE!"

TITLE: The Flash V3.

ISSUE: 231.

CULPRIT: Daniel Acuña (artist, correctly credited with a "ñ").

NIT-TO-PICK: I like the Tornado Twins, but they look nothing like they did when they appeared in Justice League of America:


(sorry for the horrible quality of the JLA pic) The ages are consistent, as Iris seems to be about two years older than Jai in both instances. However, in JLA they look like they're in their pre-teens to early and mid-teens (say 10-13 for Jai, and 12-16 for Iris); while in this book they look like they are 8-10 and 10-12 respectively. Jay now has black hair, when they were both red-haired; and in JLA, Iris was definitely a teenager, she even had a decidedly feminine figure (I know there seems to be a hint of breasts on the current picture, but it's not present in the rest of the book).

Yes, I know they aged at superspeed; they might have aged back and forward for all we know. Oh, and Jai could have dyed his hair... but still... One more thing, I don't see why Wally and Linda would be so eager to have their kids be superheroes. I understand that it's their family business (on dad's side, at least), and that they need training with their powers... I could even see him taking them along as sidekicks when they're (mentally and physically) about 15 or so, to help in disasters and such.

But I couldn't bring myself to take my kid along to battle supervillains or supernatural monsters. Well, I guess that kids with superpowers who know their dad is a hero will want to go out, and as a father, I'd rather have my kid come along with me instead of striking out on his own. I still wouldn't allow them to wear costumes that show their hair and most of their faces, though. "Hey, have you seen the brother and sister who just moved into the neighborhood? Yes, they boy's the Asian-looking kid and she's the redhead. Don't they look exactly like those superheroes we saw on TV?" Good going there, Wally.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
That's it for this week, but not before I introduce you to a new feature. I regularly pick on the bad, lazy, or just plain wrong stuff I find on books; and I usually took the time to say if I liked a book or not. Then I came up with the Nitpicker's Pick of the Week to actually spotlight one good book, and one bad book each week. Still, not being a bad book, or great book, or having a tons of nits, does not mean that there won't be a page or moment that will make me go "WTF?!?!" or "DAYAMN!" So, starting this week, I give you the "WTF OR DAYMAN MOMENT OF THE WEEK!" This week, it's most definitely a WTF moment... allow me to introduce you to... THE VAGINA MEN FROM KEYSTONE CITY!!!


Ewwwwww... Flash and the Tornado Twins really need new foes, they can't battle escapees from Penthouse Comix every week from now on, can they? Before we go, let me just add that this week we had another regular 6.3 Bazzars average. That's it for now, until next week, I'll be on the outlook for more nits, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!

The Nitpicker #30.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

Well, I'm back after skipping a week, as I said in my last column, I was working on something. I've been invited to take part in a book of essays celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Legion of Superheroes. It's taken me more than I expected, but it's to be expected, since I've never written such a long article. My essay ended up being 17 pages long!

I'm very happy with the result, and as soon as the book is on sale, I'll let you know. As for this week's column, it's certainly beefy, both in amount of nits (35), and in content, with several fun things I spotted.

Now, on two personal notes, I was reading the Sinestro Corps Special, which, whoa, is one of the best single issues I've ever read, don't miss it, and on page 27-28, when they show the spread of the whole Sinestro Corps, I found... MY DAD!!!! Look below, and tell me if it ain't him!


Man, I know he's a lawyer, but this is too much... maybe he can get me one of them rings? And the second not is, that while write this, sitting on my shoulder is the newest member of my family. No, I didn't get a parrot, and no, I didn't have a second kid and sit him on my shoulder. I'm talking about Baudelaire the cat, a one month old kitten we've adopted. Here he is:


Ain't he cute? And as much as I like Charles Baudelaire the poet (in fact, I don't like poetry, yet his book The Flowers Of Evil is one of my favorite books), he's not named directly after him. Who can tell me who I named him after? Hint, it's comic book related.

Now, before going to the nits, lemme show you a pic of my two year old, Gabriel, so he doesn't get too jealous.


Isn't he a cutie as well? He's a comic fan already, and Green Lantern is one of his faves (granted, I kinda forced it upon him, but well). He can recite Hal Jordan's oath and make his daddy very proud.
<-------------------------------->
"I'M THE BATMAN, YOU'RE THE LADY."

TITLE: The Brave And The Bold V3.

ISSUE: 04.

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 3, panel 2, Batman says "La Dama, run!"; "La Dama" means "The Lady", and you would never call her "La Dama" when talking directly at her, it's like saying "The Lady, run!"

I was going to give this just 5 Bazzars, but since Blue Beetle does the same, it goes up.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars
<-------------------------------->
"IT SMELLS LIKE POOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"

TITLE: Checkmate V2.

ISSUE: 15.

CULPRIT: Greg Rucka & Judd Winick (writers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 15, our heroes (that is, Checkmate operatives plus most of the Outsiders) access the bad guys' hideout through a waste disposal pipe, and they even acknowledge it smells like shit.

Then why is Fire flying around in her full "human torch" form, and the (methane-filled) place is not blowing up to hell?

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"WE DON'T LIKE YOU TONY!"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 45 of 52 (you know the drill by now).

CULPRIT: Mike Marts (editor) and/or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: As Marts himself admitted in this Newsarama piece, Tony Bedard, who was Paul Dini's co-writer for this issue, wasn't listed in the credits.

Instead, Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti, who co-wrote issue 46, are listed.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"OR MAYBE IT'S THE ZIGGY MARLEY SONG?"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 45 of 52 (you know the drill by now).

CULPRIT: Jimmy Olsen, after all he MUST DIE... err, no... sorry... Paul Dini (head writer) and/or Tony Bedard (writer), possibly even Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the double spread made by pages 7 and 8, Jimmy Olsen recaps about the New Gods (where did he learn so much about them?), and refers to the Forever People as the Tomorrow People, which was actually a British TV programme.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, don't fuck with the King.
<-------------------------------->
"I CHANGED WHEN NOBODY WAS LOOKING!"

TITLE: The Invincible Iron Man.

ISSUE: 19.

CULPRIT: Butch Guice (penciller/inker) and Dean White (colorist... funny, a colorist named White).

NIT-TO-PICK: Iron Man's new Hulkbuster Armor, as first shown on page 18 (shown below, right), looks different from the one shown in World War Hulk (left). Dammit, can't these guys coordinate the designs?



NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THIS IS POWERGIRL, AND THATS BAT MAN..."

TITLE: Justice League of America V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Brad Meltzer (writer) and/or Rob Leigh (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Now, the Lightning Saga was a fun read, especially for us Legion fans, but there were quite a few errors. That, and the fact that after the long-assed decompression hellfest that this book's been this past 10 issues, with Meltzer writing the contents of barely 6 issues into 10 full books; has made this barely readable.

We're gonna start with an easy one... on page 5, Nura Nal refers to herself as Dreamgirl, when her name is Dream Girl.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"YEAH, AND GUYS FROM XANTHU HAVE FOUR TESTICLES!"

TITLE: Justice League of America V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Brad Meltzer (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 7, Superman confronts Sensor Girl and scans her "TWO HEARTS" to make sure it's her... what? Orandians have never been physically different from humans, there's never been any indication that they had two hearts before.

This might not be a nit per se, since there's no actual reference that ever said her race had only one heart, but, in any case, it's shoddy writing.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I THOUGH HE WAS RAISED IN KANSAS..."

TITLE: Justice League of America V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Brad Meltzer (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: And then, on the same page, Superman says "Rao..." Dammit people, this isn't Pre-Crisis!!!

NIT-O-METER: First time this happened, in Superman/Batman Vs. Alien/Predators, I gave it a 6. Then it happened in Countdown, and I gave it a 7. Now it's getting 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"JUSTICE HEAGUE OF AMERICA."

TITLE: Justice League of America V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Rob Leigh (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Last page, on the credits, the title of the story is written in Interlac font, to simulate the Legion's future language. However, when translated with this chart, it becomes clear that they've made a goof.

See, the title is undoubtedly meant to be "The Villain IS The Hero In His Own Story", but they wrote "Tle Villain Is tle Lero in lis Own Story", confusing the "l" with the h". Granted, they are similar, but they didn't have to do this by hand, dammit, since there is a freeware Interlac font, made by Kashif Khusain, back in 1994. Props to Kashif, it's a great font to have.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, just because this is a stupid mistake to make.
<-------------------------------->
"EKS-MEN."

TITLE: X-Men: Endagered Species.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Mike Carey (writer) and/or VC's Joe Caramagna (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 23, Sebastian Shaw mentions Magneto by his "first name" of "Eric", but it's Erik, as I have pointed out in the past, and as Marvel has it on their website.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, since it keeps being happening.
<-------------------------------->
"GEE MARTHA, EVER HEARD OF SECRET IDENTITIES?"

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 03 of 06.

CULPRIT: Will Pfeifer (writer) and/or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Superman flew last issue to put out the fires in Kansas' fields, and on this issue, on page 2, after doing so, he gets a kiss from Martha Kent, who, IN FRONT OF A LOT OF PEOPLE, and without any indications that she's whispering, says "You've done enough Clark.

Way to go Martha, even if she is whispering (and the speech bubble doesn't have a dotted outline, nor is the font in it smaller than other bubbles; just by kissing Superman, she is compromising Clark's secret. Hey, at least the Kents look kind of old here...

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"HYUK, HYUK, AH RULE 'LECTRSHUTY!"

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 03 of 06.

CULPRIT: Will Pfeifer (writer) and/or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Then on page 3, one of the Kents' neighbors calls them over to his truck to watch the news on a TV hooked up to the lighter of his truck (because, you know, Kansas cars don't have radios, and the people there have never heard of batteries), and he says "This TV hooked up to the lighter in my truck--check it out!".

It's like he's saying that the TV hooked itself up to the lighter, shouldn't he say "This TV is hooked (...)"? And it's gotta be a crappy TV, 'cause there's no image on the screen.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"BEING SHAZAM THE WIZARD DON'T PAY MUCH..."

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 03 of 06.

CULPRIT: Pete Woods (penciller/inker) and/or Will Pfeifer (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 14, panel 3, Captain Marvel is seen battling some monsters with other heroes. It's not entirely clear, like it was on the cover of last issue, if this is supposed to be Billy Batson or Freddy Freeman, but it can't be either.

Billy is no longer Captain Marvel, he's now Shazam (long white hair and white uniform), and Freddy, who's still undergoing his trials, doesn't yet have the power to fly, like this Cap seems to be doing, he doesn't have a cape yet, and his hair is longer than what can be seen her.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, as this is clearly happening at the same time Countdown is (though I don't know how the heroes are here and at other places at the same time, it's worse than it's ever been).
<-------------------------------->
"RUBBING IT IN BATMAN?"

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 03 of 06.

CULPRIT: Will Pfeifer (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 17, Batman asks Oracle to connect him to Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), referring to him as "the Mayor of Star City". Uh... Bats... Ollie is not Mayor anymore, y'know?

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"EYE SEE YOU..."

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 03 of 06.

CULPRIT: Brad Anderson (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 19, Grace Choi's (from the Outsider) eyes are colored blue. Her eyes, while being dark-colored, are usually covered with purple contact lenses.

Yes, she could be wearing blue ones, but methinks it's actually the colorist not checking references.

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
<-------------------------------->
"OH D?OS M?O!"

TITLE: Blue Beetle V7.

ISSUE: 16.

CULPRIT: Phil Balsman (letterer), and maybe also John Rogers (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: When I pick up Blue Beetle, not only do I know it's going to be a good read, I also know it's going to have at least one Spanish language related nit!

In this case, on page 10, panel two, Paco starts reciting the Hail Mary in Spanish, but he says "Dios et salve, Mar? a (...)" instead of "Dios te salve María(...), which means "God save you Mary", the equivalent of "The Lord is with thee".

Two things are wrong here, the first is "et" instead of "te"; and the second one is the tilde on "María" being replaced by "? ". This is something that happens sometimes with fonts or programs with character sets that don't include Latin characters such as the accented vowels (I think that's the reason).

In any case, I'm going to give props to John Roger for trying to get this right. In this case, it seems like an honest error. It's still funny, so I'm gonna show you the image. Even if you don't speak Spanish, you can notice there's something wrong there:


NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars (it's an honest error, but still, how could you not notice there's a question mark in the middle of a word?).
<-------------------------------->
"SO, NOW I'M NOT IMPORTANT ENOUGH FOR CAPS?"

TITLE: Blue Beetle V7.

ISSUE: 16.

CULPRIT: John Rogers (writer) and/or Phil Balsman (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: I caught this nit while working on the one above. On the panel before the Hail Mary debacle, Paco says "oh god.", which, contrary to normal comic book speech, is not capitalized, maybe to show the low tone he's saying it (instead of the usual effect of just making the font smaller).

However, "God" should be capitalized, since, as a Christian (as shown in the following panel, he's at least raised as a Christian), you'd refer to God, not god.

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"YEAH, IT DON'T PAY GOOD, SO I'M LEAVING IT TO FREDDY..."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 44 of 52 (yadda, yadda).

CULPRIT: Paul Dini (head writer) and/or Adam Beechen (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 6, Billy Batson (formerly Captain Marvel, now Shazam) tells Mary Marvel (or is it Black Mary now?) that Freddy Freeman is undergoing the Trials of Shazam to "(...) be the new Shazam."

WTF? Billy, don't you remember the difference between Shazam and Captain Marvel? Come on, you can call Freddy Captain Marvel, Joe Quesada's not watching!

I'd like to thank TobiasJeth from #comic-scans for bringing this to my attention, although I'd already spotted it coming from miles away.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"BAD HAIR DAY."

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 44 of 52 (yadda, yadda).

CULPRIT: Carlos Magno (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Holly Robinson (formerly Catwoman II) gets invited to what looks like Amazons or the kind of porn movie I like on page 15. However, her hair (not to mention her attire), looks nothing like it did the week before. See below, on the left, we have Holly from issue 45, and on the right, from this issue:


Mike Marts explains on Newsarama that, having several artists on one book, changing almost weekly, can cause things like this. I think it shouldn't, I mean, I can understand character's faces looking differently (Holly looks like two different women from 45 to 44), but editors should make sure artists stick to the "extensive database of visual reference" Marts says all artists work from. Then he says "(...) in Countdown #45, Holly was having a bad hair day". Pfft!

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I DIDN'T CUT MY HAIR, I SUCKED IT INTO MY SKULL."

TITLE: Black Panther V4.

ISSUE: 28.

CULPRIT: Francis Portela (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Johnny Storm, in this issue has very different hair than he had in this week's Fantastic Four V1 547, see below. Below, left, Johnny's hair on Black Panther, and on the right, his hair on Fantastic Four. See?


NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, time can have passed but not that much.
<-------------------------------->
"BUT WE DON'T LIKE THE BLACK ONES!"

TITLE: Fantastic Four V1.

ISSUE: 547.

CULPRIT: Paul Mounts (colorist... hehe... mounts).

NIT-TO-PICK: See below, at right, the black uniforms Johnny and Ben are wearing to match the ones worn by their current teammates (Black Panther and Storm). At left, you can see the wrongly colored blue ones, as in their classic ones. Last issue of FF, they were wearing the black ones...


NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, yes, they could be wearing their spare uniforms or something...
<-------------------------------->
"THE JUSTICE LUEAGUE IS COMING UP."

TITLE: JSA: Classified.

ISSUE: 27.

CULPRIT: Pat Brosseau (letterer) and/or Frank Tieri (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, the newscaster says "(...) Justice Socoiety (...)" Uuuuh....

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THIS BOOK IS WRITTEN BY DAN SLUT & TY TEMPLETONE."

TITLE: She-Hulk V2.

ISSUE: 19.

CULPRIT: Dan Slott & Ty Templeton (writers) and/or Dave Shape (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: We've been over this before, haven't we? Back when I trudged through Civil War: Battle Damage Report....

She-Hulk, or more precisely, Jennifer Walters, works for law firm Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway. The first three names come from the names of the founding fathers of Marvel Comics: publisher Martin Goodman; publisher and writer Stan Lee, (born Stanley Lieber) and writer/artist Jack Kirby (born Kurtzberg).

Now, any good Marvel fan knows this, and any writer or letterer intending on spoofing this, needs to know this as well. Then why, for the second time in a few months, is this spelled wrong? On page 7, panel one, the caption says "Kurtzburg". DAMMIT!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, repeat, and fucking with the King. At least this time just got one name wrong.
<-------------------------------->
"UH... IT'S OVER ALREADY?"

TITLE: She-Hulk V2.

ISSUE: 19.

CULPRIT: Dan Slott & Ty Templeton.

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 10, the newscaster talks about New York recovering from "(...) the Hulk's recent attack on Earth!"... uhm... I know this is not a very serious book, but could it at least pretend to follow the company's overall storyline?

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"SHHHH, IT'S A SILENT WAR!"

TITLE: Silent War.

ISSUE: 06 of 06.

CULPRIT: David Hine.

NIT-TO-PICK: Good miniseries, bad last issue, horrible ending. But where does this whole thing fit with World War Hulk? Black Bolt leads the Inhumans, and Attilan is still standing in World War Hulk, but in this comic, Maximus takes over the Inhumans government, and the city is destroyed.

I mean, I like big storylines, but editorial needs to coordinate this better.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I SHAVED."

TITLE: (Supergirl And) The Legion Of Super-Heroes V5.

ISSUE: 31.

CULPRIT: Kevin Sharpe (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Tony Bedard is no Mark Waid, but his Exiles wasn't bad, and this book is not going downhill, for the moment. However, I do hope Kevin Sharpe is only a fill-in penciller, because he's awful... well, not so much, his faces suck.

In this case, the first nit is his; on page 5 (during a dream sequence), Brainiac 5 sports his usual circuit lines on the right cheek, but then on the first four panels of page 6 he doesn't have them, only to have them, appear on panel 5.

Yeah, I guess they could be retractable or something, and while he was sleeping (he's woken on page 6 by Star Boy) they're withdrawn... but... I don't think so.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THIS ARGUMENT IS SO OLD, WE DON'T KNOW WHAT WE'RE SAYING ANYMORE."

TITLE: (Supergirl And) The Legion Of Super-Heroes V5.

ISSUE: 31.

CULPRIT: Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 10, the speech bubbles for Lightning Lad (Garth Ranzz) and his brother Mekt Ranzz are switched between the two. It's even more noticeable because Mekt says "Seriously, Mekt!" and Garth goes "You were always a sore loser, Garth."

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"MATH IS DIFFERENT IN THE FUTURE."

TITLE: (Supergirl And) The Legion Of Super-Heroes V5.

ISSUE: 31.

CULPRIT: Tony Bedard (writer) and/or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Legion of Super-Heroes election results (page 9): Brainiac 5: 7%, Cosmic Boy: 23%, Lightning Lad: 26%, Supergirl: 54%. So, it adds up to 110%! What?

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THEY'RE SPITGUARDS."

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 48.

CULPRIT: Al Barrionuevo (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: See below, where the hell did those Spaaaaaaace Amazon helmets come from!?!? Not in any issue of Wonder Woman or Amazons Attack have helmet like this been show, nor do they look anything like what an Amazon would wear.


NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I'M BLEACHING IT FOR THE WEDDING."

TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Alex Sinclair (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Black Canary is not platinum blonde, yet on page 10, as you can see below, her hair is clearly that color, instead of matching Nemesis' hair color, as it should.


NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"NEXT UP, THE AMAZON CALLED BRITNEY."

TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Jodi Picoult.

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 12, Nemesis, disguised as Hippolyta, orders an Amazon to bring "her" something. He calls the Amazon "Marta", which is a Georgian Italian, Spanish, Polish and Portuguese from the Hebrew/Aramaic language.

Some people claim it's been around longer than that, meaning dedicated to Mars, Roman god of war. Still, the Amazons are Greek, not Roman. And how the hell does Nemesis know the Amazon's name? Does they wear nametags?

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S THE HULK MAN, I JUST SHITTED MYSELF UP TO MY EYEBALLS!"

TITLE: World War Hulk: X-Men.

ISSUE: 01 of 03.

CULPRIT: Laura Villari (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the last panel of the last page (23), Professor X's eyes are colored brown, and his eyes are blue, as you can see on Marvel's site. Good book, by the way, mostly a fight, but a great fight.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, it's minor, but you could check your references, couldn't ya Laura?.
<-------------------------------->
"BUNCHA CRACKERS AIN'T GONNA TELL ME NOT TO EVACUATE MA 'HOOD!"

TITLE: World War Hulk: Front Line.

ISSUE: 01 of 06.

CULPRIT: Paul Jenkins (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: The book shows poor neighborgoods like Harlem not being evacuated after the Hulk's threat. Are we supposed to believe that Luke Cage, who's team is working in the evacuation under a temporary amnesty, would not make sure his 'hood is evacuated?

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"IT'S A FINGER TRICK..."

TITLE: X-Men V2.

ISSUE: 200.

CULPRIT: Chris Bachalo (penciller) and/or Edgard Delgado & Antonio Fabela (colorists).

NIT-TO-PICK: Gambit's gloves have been traditionally depicted as having the thumb, index, and pinky fingers uncovered. Here, when he is first show in full view, on page 19, his thumb is covered.

Well, he's been shown sometimes with gloves that have naked thumbs, so that's not the nit. On page 22, his thumb can be seen uncovered, only to be covered again on page 23. And there it is, free again on page 24, and apparently too on page 30!

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"I'VE ALWAYS BEEN VERY IMMATURE"

TITLE: X-Men V2.

ISSUE: 200.

CULPRIT: Mike Carey (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 20, Rogue's shown remembering her past in her room at Mystique's house. Problem is, she's shown as a child, when she ran away and was taken in by Mystique when she was a teenager already.

Granted, this could be Rogue's screwed up memories, or it could be that Humberto Ramos' (penciller for this page) style makes her look like a little kid when she's supposed to be a teen. Hell, Mystique looks like a kid here... just look:


NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars.
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See, didn't I tell you this week was beefier? And the average of 6.1 Bazzars isn't bad either; lower than last column's 6.3, but not by much, and way better than the 5.1 before that. Well, as for next week, I might miss that week as well, since I'll be out of the country for a few days. So I'll most likely see you on the week after, until then, remember nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!

The Nitpicker #27.

DISCLAIMER

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]

As the random bit of information/rant I include in each column's intro, have you seen these so-called "Ultimate Guides" on Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man that a publisher called DK is putting out? I've only skimmed over the Wonder Woman and the Superman ones, but for being released now, they are wildly out of date, and contain a lot of omissions and mistakes.

For example, the Superman one shows Byrne designed Krypton (although some parts of the book show early 2000s designs), instead of Birthright Krypton. They show Jimmy as giant Turtle Boy, but not as Elastic Lad, and when they show Superboy (Kon-El) in his second or third uniform, you see him wearing the earphones and goggles that gave him hearing and vision powers, but the caption says "the shades are just cosmetic" or something like that.

I'm not going to actually read these things and catalog each and every single nit, since I believe they would put Civil War: Battle Damage Report to shame, and it would take me to long. Plus, they're written as if for idiots. However, I did learn one thing: who's Darkseid's worst enemy? Superman, perhaps? The High Father, maybe? Jimmy Olsen?

No, it's paparazzi

Also, on Countdown #48, it's confirmed that Mary Marvel and Black Adam are in the "Consulate of the Great Nation of Kahndaq", which validates last week's nit by Mike Marts. Anyway, let's get started with last week's nits, shall we?
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"I'VE GOT A NEW POWER, PARTIAL LIMB INVISIBILITY. I'M THINKING OF TRYING OUT FOR THE LEGION AS PARTIAL-INVISIBILITY LAD."

TITLE: New Excalibur.

ISSUE: 20.

CULPRIT: Jeremy Haun (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Take a look at this image from pages 6 and 7:

Where the heck is the rest of Juggernaut's left leg?!?!? His right leg is behind Pete Wisdom and a box or something, but where is his left leg?

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
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"I'M THE HUGGERNAUT, BITCH!"

TITLE: New Excalibur.

ISSUE: 19 & 20.

CULPRIT: Jeremy Haun (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Let's zoom out, and see the whole image. Now, the Juggernaut used to be ginormous; but after loosing the complete powers of the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, he lost some of his size. Now, he's still huge, and his official bio at Marvel.com lists him at 6'10". However, look at the picture below, and consider the heights of the other characters: Captain Britain (I love his new uniform, by the way) is 6'6"; Dazzler is 5'8", and Pete Wisdom is 5'9".

It doesn't seem that Juggernaut is just 6 inches taller than Captain Britain; he looks about 2 feet taller, and Pete Wisdom looks about the same height that Cap, and Dazzler looks a feet shorter than Cap and Wisdom.

Speaking of the Juggernaut, do you know the guy actually has fans that are enraged over him being a hero, and call him names like "Imposternaut" or "Huggernaut" (I love that one)? Me, I liked what has been done with the character, and I think the arc in New Excalibur #13-15 robbed him of a little of his redemption, and, by providing a backstory on how he actually became the Juggernaut, made him a lot more worse than he was. And I think Frank Tieri, who was guest writer, should have lest that alone, for Chris Claremont to deal with. But that's not a topic for this column...

Looking back at issue 19, he's drawn at a normal (if large since he's supposed to be 6'10") size, but only when out of uniform. When he's wearing his costume, he looks freakingly massive, and the only explanation for this is that, somehow, he's drawing power from the Cyttorak gem that he secretly kept on issue 15... but wouldn't his teammates realize that?

NIT-O-METER: This was just going to be 8 Bazzars, but since it's not just Juggie's size that's warped, but the other characters', it's going up to a 10. This guy needs to work on that.
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"NOT EVEN AN ALTERNATE REALITY BEAST GETS A BREAK?"

TITLE: New Excalibur.

ISSUE: 20.

CULPRIT: Jeremy Haun (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 7 (actually a spread between pages 6 and 7), you can see the members of Shadow X, or whatever they're calling this evil X-Men group, and Beast's feet are normal sized, basically the same size as Captain Britain's.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
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"FILLING? BLIMEY, WHAT'S THAT?"

TITLE: New Excalibur.

ISSUE: 20.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer) and maybe Jeremy Haun (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 20, Albion and Sage (infiltrated as one of his followers) break into a secret installation of the British government, where they apparently hold... a treasure vault like Scrooge McDuck's?

One would think that, even if all the gold and treasure there is magical crap, that they'd catalog and archive all the magical objects properly, instead of just having them buried in gold coins.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, it's just cheesy. Although I must say, that New Excalibur is the best Claremont has written in years, not on his old level, but at least enjoyable.
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"WE JUST BROUGHT A CAPTAIN MARVEL BALLOON ALONG FOR THE RIDE, TO INTIMIDATE THE AMAZONS."

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 02.

CULPRIT: Pete Woods (artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: What's Captain Marvel (obviously Billy Batson) doing on the cover in his traditional uniform? Billy Batson is now long-haired, with white hair, and a white uniform, having taken the place of the wizard Shazam, and Freddy Freeman hasn't yet finished the trials to become the new Captain Marvel.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
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"WHERE IS MY DAUGHER? WASN'T SHE HERE A MOMENT AGO? GODS, AFTER I CONQUER AMERICA, I'M GOING TO KILL THESE WRITERS!"

TITLE: Amazons Attack.

ISSUE: 02.

CULPRIT: Will Pfeifer (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 16, Queen Hippolyta asks Donna Troy (what's her codename now, anyway, Troia?) to bring her "her daughter", that is, Wonder Woman. Huh? Didn't she meet her at the end of issue 1, and Wonder Woman V3 #8? The timeline on this story is horribly screwed up.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"YO NO HABLO ESPAGNOLO, EVEN IF MY LAST NAME IS HISPANIC."

TITLE: Blue Beetle V7.

ISSUE: 15.

CULPRIT: J. Torres (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: You know how I get mad with English-speaking writers screw up when having characters speak in other languages? Well, imagine how I felt when I saw Spanish mistakes in an issue of Blue Beetle written by somebody whose last name is Torres. And I decided to check on the guy, and turns out he's Filipino, and raised in Montreal, so he gets a pass.

On page 5, Jaime's mother walks into his room since she heard him wake up a little bit rattled, and she says "Mi hijo...?", to say "Son...?", but that's not correct. In Spanish, the way she says it, it's like saying "My son...?", and she's not Odin checking in on Thor. The correct way would be "Hijo mío...?" or even "M'ijo...?" or "M'hijo...?"

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzars, I'm gonna go soft on J.
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"AND I SCREAM AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS... WHAT'S GOING ON?!"

TITLE: Blue Beetle V7.

ISSUE: 15.

CULPRIT: J. Torres (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Torres, you brought this onto yourself! On page 15, Livewire is siphoning energy from the Blue Beetle armor, and Jaime says "Que paso...?", as if to say "What's going on...?", but in Spanish, that means "What happened...?", it would be "Que pasa...?"

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars. I can't be that soft.
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"GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST!"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 48 of 52 (yup, in reverse, it is, after all, a countdown).

CULPRIT: Adam Beechen (writer) and, less likely, Paul Dini (head writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 17, panel one, Superman says "Great Rao (...)"... what is this, pre-Crisis?

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
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"AND I STOLE THIS POWER FROM PARTIAL-INVISIBILITY LAD!"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 48 of 52 (yup, in reverse, it is, after all, a countdown), History of the Multiverse backup story.

CULPRIT: David Baron (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the larger panel of page 22, Vandal Savage's right leg is missing a chunk, look:

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars. By the way, the red circles in the picture are all my doing.
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"BETTING ON YESTERDAY'S FIGHTS."

TITLE: JSA: Classified.

ISSUE: 26.

CULPRIT: Matt Haley (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 16, panel 5, a battle between Solomon Grundy and Martian Manhunter is being shown on a TV screen, as if current, since it's a "superhero vs. villain" betting bar. However, Manhunter is shown in his traditional, round-head, briefs and cape look, instead of his current, conehead and full body suit look.

Since you can see Miss Martian fighting Deathstroke, this seems to be OYL, and Martian Manhunter changed his look during World War III, before the start of OYL.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, since it could very well be an unmentioned battle between Miss Martian (along with the rest of the Titans) and the Terminator during the "52" year.
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"I'M CRAAAAAAAZY, THAT'S WHY EVERYHING I DO OR SAY IS WACKY!"

TITLE: Justice League of America V2.

ISSUE:

CULPRIT: 06.

NIT-TO-PICK: On the last panel of page 3, Superman shows his Legion ring, and the "L" on the symbol is readable from left to right, as it should be, when his palm faces down. But on the spread formed by pages 4 and 5, on the upper right part of page 4, you can see that Starman wears a ring that, not only looks very different from Supes' (although you can chalk that up to it being shown from a distance), but the L is a mirror image that would only be readable (but still a mirror image) if Starman was doing a thumbs up gesture. See below:

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
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"UH.... I SAID IT TELEPATHICALLY, AND NOT EVEN THE READERS KNOW I DID!"

TITLE: New Avengers: Illuminati V2.

ISSUE: 03 of 05.

CULPRIT: Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed (writers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the spread formed by pages 10 and 11, panel 5, Dr. Strange says that the inhabitants of the faux New York City they find have no minds, but then on page 12, panel 2, Mr. Fantastic says "Charles, you're saying that these people aren't real?", but Xavier hasn't said anything referring the "people" of "New York City".

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
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"NOW, NOW, IS THAT THE SAME MOUTH YOU SAY 'IMPERIUS REX!' WITH?"

TITLE: New Avengers: Illuminati V2.

ISSUE: 03 of 05.

CULPRIT: Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed (writers), but most likely Bendis.

NIT-TO-PICK: Another spread, between pages 22 and 23, on the third panel, Namor says "And quite an %^$#ing idiot." Wow, I just realized this is a double nit!

The first nit I realized, is that Namor wouldn't speak like that, ever. Bendis is probably indulging in his potty-mouth tendencies (shown in full glory on the Powers letters page), taking advantage of what seems to be a new Marvel policy: you can have your characters curse as long as you censor the words.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, pretty bad characterization for a well known character like Namor.
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"THIS IS AN NIT."

TITLE: New Avengers: Illuminati V2.

ISSUE: 03 of 05.

CULPRIT: Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed (writers) and/or VC's Cory Petit (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the same sentence that above, the double nit I realized while writing that one up, is that it says "an" instead of "a". If it said "And quite an irritating idiot!", then that'd be ok, but it obviously says "fucking", so it should be "And quite a fucking idiot!"

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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"LOOK INTO MY EYES."

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 47.

CULPRIT: Chris Batista (penciller) and/or The Hories (whoever that is, colorist)

NIT-TO-PICK: I've always been puzzled by domino masks. Well, not always, but I was, during some time. Then I dispelled the first mystery about them: they're held with spirit gum or some other sort of adhesive. Then I wondered, why do most of them (and some full superhero masks, for the matter) have all-white eyes. Then somebody told me that, at least in the Batman's case, the mask has night-vision lenses, or at least some sort of lens that conceals the wearer's eye colors.

Then on this comic, on pages 2 and 3 (a spread, seems like a theme in this week's column), we can see in the second panel (the actual spread) on the far left (for the readers) Robin, whose domino mask sports white eyes, and we can't see anything behind the white lenses. But on the same panel, on the readers' far right, we can see Nightwing's blue eyes completely, even behind his mask. Speaking of blue eyes, I was checking on something earlier, and all four in-continuity Robins (Dick, Jason, Tim, and Stephanie) have/had blue eyes. Bruce, is that a fetish of yours?

Then on the same double page, but on panel 3, we can see both Robin and Nightwing, and their eyes (both of Robin's, and Nightwing's right one) are concealed behind white lenses. On page 4, Dick's eyes are still concealed behind the lenses on both panels he appears in. We're still good on page 8, panel 1, where both batboys have white lenses; but on panel 4 of the same page, we can see Dick's eyes but not Tim's. Incidentally, Dick's eyes seem... weird, like he can move them independently, see?

I know, some people can actually do that, moving their eyes independently, that's why it's not going down as a nit. On the last panel of page 8, they're too faraway fro us to see their eyes, and actually, the level of detail on that panel is pretty low. You tired already, Batista? It's just page 8! He obviously is, because on page 9, panel 2, background characters Wonder Girl, Donna Troy and Ravager are doing their best Question impression:

But I digress, I can't call that a nit.... even if I want to.... The thing is, that on panel 1 of page 9, you can see Dick's eyes again, but not Jason Todd's, and not Tim's. Panel 2 shows them from a distance, so nothing can be gleaned there, but on panel 4 you can see the outlines of Jason's eyes. Panel 5 again has white lenses for everybody.

Turn to page 10, and the first panel shows Jason's eyes a little bit more clearly, and nothing for any of the three former Bat-sidekicks, just white lenses. What the hell is going on here??!!?

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, it could be a lighting effect, that is, depending on how the light hits the lenses, you can see the eyes behind them, but given the positions of the characters heads when they share panels, it's not very likely that lightning is the cause.
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So, that's it for this week; 16 nits, so no backlog material had to be used, and an average of 6.8 Bazzars. Whoa, that's only one point below our highest ever average (7.8, issue 20), and it ties with issue 2 as our second highest average. I'm thinking that the average might have been higher, but I haven't gotten my copy of Star Trek: TNG: The Space Between that was released this week yet.... hehehe. Catch you in a few days, have a good week, and until then, remember that nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!