BACKLOG NITPICKING: The Nitpicker #22.

[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN... ah, who am I kidding, everything here is from books published months ago.]]

As it says above, this column is all old stuff, it's all the nits I gathered from the books I read back in January. Only one nit, the first one, is from February, because I only noticed it (or was told to notice it) last week. I was going to include it in my column with the April nits, but since this is getting posted before, here it goes.

As you can see, I called the previous post "RETRO NITPICKING", because it's a "reprint" of one of my old columns. This time, however, since it's all new material, but from books released months ago, gets labeled "BACKLOG NITPICKING". Oh, yes, I'm totally swiping this from KODT's "RETRO KODT" strips...

I haven't finish reading all the books from last Wednesday, so I haven't finished writing the April column. I have, however, written up every nit from the first three weeks of the month, so I guess I should have the next post up by Monday or Tuesday next week.
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TITLE: Flash: The Fastest Man Alive.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Andy Kuhn (layouts), Ron Adrian (finishes), Joan Hilty (editor) and Rachel Gluckstern (associate editor).

NIT-TO-PICK: This one is actually from February, but I couldn't just let it pass. First I'd like to mention that since Marc Guggenheim took over, this book as gotten a lot better. Not great, but at least passable. However, and this column is called The Nitpicker; there was a little problem.

This story, as most DC stories of the past year, is set OYL, right? Right. So Flash, Bart Allen, who used to be Kid Flash II, gets a phone call from his friend Robin, from the Titans, who asks him to rejoin the Titans. But when they show Robin (pages 13 and 21)on the other side of the line, he's wearing his pre-OYL costume, the one he's wore since he became Robin... and he’s had his new costume for about a year now.

Thanks to my friend Red Roy for pointing this out, albeit with the wrong issue number.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, this is really sloppy.
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TITLE: All-New Atom.

ISSUE: 07.

CULPRIT: Gail Simone (writer) and/or Pat Brosseau (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 19, panel 4, the Linear Man Ryak the Ravager says "I will wipe you from this plain".

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Battlestar Galactica: Zarek.

ISSUE: 01 of 04.

CULPRIT: Unknown (whoever writes legal print).

NIT-TO-PICK: Yes, you've guessed it. They did put "Gallactica" in the legal print of the credits page.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 31.

CULPRIT: I.L.L. (colorist)

NIT-TO-PICK: Not mentioning the stupid names for countries like "Santa Bertriza" and "Del Canto", or cities, like "Dolores Negro", I do have to say that on page 22, the UN Peacekeeping soldiers how in both countries are not wearing that force's blue helmets.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, won't hurt to watch the news now and then.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 31.

CULPRIT: Howard Chaykin (writer) and/or Killian Plunkett (penciller), and/or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 23, the hospital plaque reads "El Hospital Memorial De Quita Hernandez Y Tadeo Ruiz" (attempting to mean "Quita Hernandez And Tadeo Ruiz Memorial Hospital"); and while that is grammatically correct, it's not appropriate for a plaque.

In Spanish, hospitals are simply called "Somebody Suchenson Hospital", as "Hospital Fulano De Tal"; and it's already clear that the hospital is called like that in memory of the person. But if you wanted to actually name it that way, you'd use "Hospital En Memoria De Fulano De Tal".

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, I was surprised that not many other Spanish-related errors found their way into the book.
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TITLE: All-New Official Handbook Of The Marvel Universe A-Z.

ISSUE:

CULPRIT: Jeff Christiansen (head writer/coordinator); and any of the several writers in the book (entries' text is not individually credited).

NIT-TO-PICK: On his profile (page 32), specifically in the Abilities/Accessories section, Warpath is said to be "skilled in wielding a bow staff." Uh... hint, sometimes, foreign words are not written like they're pronounced in your language.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Battlestar Galactica

ISSUE: 05.

CULPRIT: Whoever writes credit pages; there's not even an editor listed in the credits.

NIT-TO-PICK: On the credits page (no, it's not "Gallactica"), specifically in the recap, it says "COLLECTEDIN" instead of "COLLECTED IN". Of course, I noticed this when I was going to write up the nit after this one.

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Battlestar Galactica

ISSUE: 05.

CULPRIT: Greg Pak (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 23, the number 8 who calls herself Captain Valerii orders that her new crew install a docking bay where people can hang on to the ship (outside of the actual artificial atmosphere of it) during FTL jumps. Now call me crazy, but I've never seen any sci-fi faster-than-light method that allows a human being to travel outside the ship and survive...

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 90.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Sabretooth, on page 7, and then Heather Hudson, on page 11, refer to the Timebreakers (who are all insectoid) as the "lizards". In fact, Heather refers as a lizard to one of the chief Timebreakers, who looks just like a praying mantis, and then to the lower caste Timebreakers as "the bugs".

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars, I think they previously called them all bugs.
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TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 90.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 20, Heather Hudson comments that she is thankful for a "mutant metabolism", since she's eating pizza by the boxes. Thing is, Heather was never a mutant... she was just possessed by the mystical beast Tanaraq, and now she doesn't even have any powers.

And in any case, unless you're Wolverine, or Sabretooth, or somebody with powers like that, why would your metabolism burn calories faster? It's bad enough that Chuck Austen (I think it was him) decided that mutants are immune to AIDS...

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, you should read up on characters you're going to write.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 32.

CULPRIT: Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 11, panel 3, the person who'll become the Red King, Darrin Profitt, is referred to as "Profit" in a word balloon, when in the same panel, you can see the name on his door, "Profitt", and only three panels later, somebody says "Profitt".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Star Trek TNG: The Space Between.

ISSUE: 01 of 06

CULPRIT: David Tischman (writer) and/or Robbie Robbins (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 11, first panel, Data says "compters" instead of "computers".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Star Trek TNG: The Space Between.

ISSUE: 01 of 06

CULPRIT: David Tischman (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Picard decides to use the slingshot maneuver to travel back in time, and when Worf comments that figuring out the exact "time dilation" would require a one in a million calculation. So Picard then tells Worf to "start brushing up on your math".

WTF? What does Worf, the Tactical officer, have to do with a slingshot maneuver calculation? That's something for the helm, maybe with help from Science.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer) and/or Todd Klein (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: The first dialogue, on page 2, mentions a peak in the Andes called "Guagua Pinchichua", it's actually "Guagua Pichincha"; while "Nelvado del Ruiz" is actually "Nevado del Ruiz".

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars. These are not typos, they are sloppiness.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Superman, on page 18, says "Great... Rao..."... what? What is this, pre-Crisis? And there he goes again, on page 35. WTF?

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer) and/or Todd Klein (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 19, one of the guides that leads Lois through the Andes yells "¡Aye Dios mío!", meaning "Oh my God!", problem is, it's "Ay", not "Aye".

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Superman And Batman Vs. Predators.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Mark Schultz (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 34, Superman says he's "without his peak power", because he's underground, away from the sun. But he's been away from the sun for barely a few hours, at most, and he hasn't really expended his energies... what is he, Birdman?

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Y: The Last Man.

ISSUE: 53.

CULPRIT: Brian K. Vaughan.

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, Waverly, the former-supermodel-turned-garbage-collector-turned-corpse-collector who was the first woman who Yorick ran into after the plague hit, says "Andelay, hombre", which is Mexican slang for "Let's go man", however, it's actually "Andale."

My good friend Kal Lor-Van just came up behind me while I was writing the column (we work in the same place), and argued that it's written that way so non-Spanish speaking people understand what it means, since "Andale" wouldn't be pronounced the same by an English speaker.

But I disagree, I am more inclined to believe that this is an error on the writer's part, as it is much too common for English-speaking writers to not bother to find out how something is spelled in other languages. There are plenty of examples in my column, starting with this very same one (see a couple of nits back).

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Checkmate V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Greg Rucka (writer) and/or Ken Lopez (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: In the roll-call on page 3, Fire's last name is given as "DACOSTA", when it should be "DA COSTA", or "da Costa", if not spelled in capitals.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
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TITLE: Hellblazer.

ISSUE: 228.

CULPRIT: Denise Mina (writer) and/.or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 6, one of the characters says "If England lose (...)"; it should say "If England loses" or "If England were to lose".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
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TITLE: Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight.

ISSUE: 214.

CULPRIT: Phil Winslade (artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 15, Batman lets Deadshot know that he has discovered the identity under which his "family" (his daughter and her mother) live under now; saying that if he could find them, others could, and that Deadshot has many enemies. He offers to provide them with security (the same the JLA uses for their member's families) if Deadshot drops the contract he's working on.

However, on page 16, the dossier that Batman shows Deadshot has pictures of a blonde woman (presumably Susan, his ex-wife) and a blond boy Edward (his dead son). Zoe (his daughter) has dark hair, and so does her mother, whose name I can't remember now. If it was a full dossier on Deadshot, then it would have pictures of both his ex-wife and son, and Zoe and her mother... but there's only photos of Susan and Edward.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. I'm not blaming Christos N. Gage, the book's writer, because he wrote the miniseries where Zoe and her mother first appeared, so I doubt he gave these descriptions to Winslade.
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TITLE: JLA: Classified

ISSUE: 33.

CULPRIT: Dan Slott (plot) and Dan Jurgens (script).

NIT-TO-PICK: Superman, on page 3, is covered with a polymer, that, according to the Red King (who says so on page 4) "is preventing his body from absorbing the solar radiation that fuels his powers." Come on people, Superman is not a 1987 solar powered calculator!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars for the repeat offense, even if it wasn't him the first time, I expected more of Dan Jurgens.
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And that makes for an average 5.1 Bazzars, lower than the last new column, and the lowest we've had since column #16. Hope next week we get a higher score. Until then, I'll be on the outlook for more nits, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!
PS: The signature has returned!

RETRO NITPICKING: The Nitpicker #2

NOTE: Here's the second column I did; originally published in issue #550 of the CBEM (11/18/05). It contains my favorite nit since I started doing the column, the often-cited "THE INCREDIBLE COLOR-CHANGING CAPE", by our friend Jeromy Cox (who's now been replaced as most nitpicked colorist by Moose Bauman); as well as the first examples of the Kents deaging horror, and my first rants about Decimation.

I've already writen up the nits from the first three weeks of April; I debated posting them now; but I'd rather post all of the month's nits together, probably on Friday, after I've read this week's comics. So, to give you something to chew on, I decided to post one more of the old columns... I'll probably do this once per month; until I run out of them; and also, I might do shorter columns with 4-6 nits; with older stuff that I read every once in a while, and stuff from 2005-2006, and January/February 2007.

Oh, and don't forget, in two or three weeks, we'll have a 52 Special, with all the 52 nits (some that I published, and some that I've saved for the special.). Enjoy the retro column for now.
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Hello readers of this wonderful e-mag, welcome to this week's Nitpicker's Column! I hope you're enjoying reading my column as much as I'm enjoy writing it. And I hope next time I can write earlier in the week, since it's 05.22 AM and I haven't gone to bed yet, because I stayed up late writing this!

Just a question, I want to know your opinion: should I send the most blatant nits I find to each book's lettercol? Let me know what you think. That's it for this week, without further ado, I present this weeks nits:
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"THE INCREDIBLE COLOR-CHANGING CAPE"

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 29.

CULPRIT: Jeromy Cox (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Alright, we all know that before Tim Drake, Robin's costume sucked ass. The scaly green speedos, the bare legs (or skin-colored pantyhose in Burt Ward's case), the unsufferably bright colors of the yellow cape and red tunic, all that made for one of the worst costumes in comic book history. So when Robin II (Jason Todd, previously thought dead), currently Red Hood, decided to make some changes to his old costume (same one Dick Grayson wore before him), I thought, ok, that's cool.

You see, Jason is all nutso, and appears in his Red Hood garb before Robin III (the aforementioned better-costumed Tim Drake), but takes off his villainous costume to reveal a Robin suit underneath, and challenges Tim to a fight. How the heck did he keep that cape from bulking up on the back of his tight leather jacket, is beyond me. Thing is, Jason decided he was leg-shy, and threw in a pair of yellow tights to cover his legs (maybe he hadn't shaved) and instead of the elf-slippers, a pair of elf-boots.

Apparently, as we see in page, he borrows a page from Tim's book, and also wears a yellow-on-the-inside and black-in-the-outside cape. Makes sense, you can hide in the shadows better (never mind the yellow tights). But... on the next page, his cape is yellow, inside and out. But... in the last panel of that page, it's black outside, yellow inside again!

In page 10's first panel it's all yellow, then in the third panel it's yellow inside, black outside (although that could be a shadow), because in the last panel it's yellow outside again. It's still all yellow for all of page 11, and when we see it again on page 14, and apparently it's still all yellow in pages 15 through 17, and then he's gone. What gives?

NIT-O-METER: I'm tempted to give this a 10, but it's not a nit that affects the story. Still, it's pretty major, so it gets the highest score so far, the first-ever 9 Bazzars!
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"I RECCOMMEND THE KRYPTONIAN ANTI-AGE TREATMENTS!"

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 29.

CULPRIT: Tony S. Daniel (penciler) and, only barely, Jeromy Cox (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 12, Jonathan and Marta Kent look in their late 40s or early 50s (both with brown hair, and Pa Kent with an almost full head of hair), when from previous references (including the recent Action Comics 822 and 823) both of them look like they're in their mid-to-late 60s, if not more (Johnathan looks past 70 in Superman 220, and Teen Titans V3 01 they both look about 70); with white hair and Pa with severe baldness. What, they died their hair, and Pa got some hair plugs? Puh-leeze. Daniel drew them much too young, and Jeromy Cox made it worse by coloring their hair brown.

NIT-O-METER: I just noticed they also look too young in Teen Titans 26, their previous Titans appearance, so it's 7 Bazzars.
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"WHAT? HE'S ALIVE? AND HE'S GONE BAD?

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 29.

CULPRIT: Geoff Johns (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Sheesh, even if Teen Titans is currently one of my favorite series, this issue is just full of nits (I found four in total)! Jason Todd leaves after beating the crap out of Tim Drake, and in pages 18 and 19 the other Titans are wondering how he got in. Cyborg says the Tower's security system runs a DNA check to authorize entrances, and Donna Troy points out that Jason was once a Titan, if briefly.

Come on, it's been on the Batman books for months now (dunno exactly how many since I don't read them), and Bruce knows it: Jason is alive and he's evil now, he's gone all Punisher on Gotham. Most likely the bat-family knows it; Tim Drake knows it and points it out in page 7. You'd say they'd notify the Titans, I know maybe Batman is ashamed of having left Jason for dead, but still, he should have known that not telling them would endager them. Bruce, Dick and Tim would know the Tower's security system lets in former members based on a DNA scan. Would it let in Terra? Jericho (if he still had a body)? Hell, I wouldn't even let Superboy in automatically, given his recent behaviour.

NIT-O-METER: This deserves a 6, it's not big, I know they had to justify Jason's breaking into the Tower, but they could have done it other way.
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"DUDE, WHAT'S WITH THE EARS?"

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 29 and others.

CULPRIT: Tony S. Daniel (current penciler), Mike McKone (previous penciler), probably other pencilers, and Geoff Johns (writer) should check on this.

NIT-TO-PICK: I'm cool with the Teen Titans cartoon, even if they've changed some stuff, like putting too much clothing on Starfire... but I don't like the fact that they're changing stuff in the comics to conform to the show. Maybe this isn't a nit, given Beast Boy's powers, but his ears have always been normal looking when in human form, and nowadays they're usually drawing them pointy, like an elf's... I mean, hes' a shapeshifter, and he might just have enough control after all these years as to only shift a small part of his body, but he normally doesn't do that, and it'd probably require some concentration to do so.

In Doom Patrol V3 19 his ears are normal, looking at some random issues of the current Titans run, they're normal in Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files 2004, issues 05 and 12, in Teen Titans-The Legion Special and in The Return Of Donna Troy, pointy in issue 01, and alternately pointy and normal in issue 13 and 17, and in the latterin he even has fangs in one of the panels, like in the cartoons. Again, this could be just Gar showing fine control of his powers, but it's too much. Since in most places his ears are normal, I'm going to consider the pointy ears a nit.

NIT-O-METER: It's long running, but not that important, I guess... so just 4 Bazzars.
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"IT'S ALL SMOKE AND MIRRORS!"

TITLE: Teen Titans V3.

ISSUE: 29.

CULPRIT: Tony S. Daniel (penciler)

NIT-TO-PICK: Beast Boy again... in page 20, he shifts from a gorilla shape into his usual, green human form, and does so with a sort of "poof" (my word for a cloud of smoke and motion lines indicating a sort of small explosion), instantaneously. Usually, Gar's shifting is done between panels, but in the few ocassions I could find off-hand where it's done on panel (Doom Patrol V3 19, Teen Titans V3 01 and 02, The Return Of Donna Troy 02), he shifts forms by "traditional" morphing, that is, with transitional, progressive transformation from one form to another.

Also, nothing to do with this, but I'm pissed off at John Byrne's (an all-time fave of mine) reboot of Doom Patrol, because in this Teen Titans issue Beast Boy doesn't remember Elasti-Girl being his adoptive mother, even if the Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files 2004 profile on him says he was adopted by her and Mento. Still, something's fishy about the Doom Patrol reboot, in story (apart from me not liking it, that is); several hints have been dropped in DP's current series, and in Teen Titans, Gar doesn't remember if Elasti-Girl's dead or not... Maybe it has something to do with Infinite Crisis, with all those people from other Earths popping in...

NIT-O-METER: 5 Bazzar's, not a big thing, but still, annoying and indicative of lazyness to research previous books.
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"MICHELIN MAN"

TITLE: Decimation: House Of M - The Day After.

ISSUE: Single issue.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: *sigh* Claremont used to be one of my favorite writers, but in the past few years, he's completely lost his touch. In this nit in particular, the first mutant shown to have lost his powers is Blob (in pages 3 and 4), who loses all his extra body mass... but retains the extra skin. This makes no sense, from a biological point of view, because since it's his X gene that gives him the mass (and presumably, the extra skin to hold it), and the gene is removed from his genetic make up, he should lose the extra skin too, and be turned into a normal human. A fat one, of course, since he ate like a pig, but normal, not a skin-colored Michelin Man. Iceman (who was now completely made of ice) also lost his powers, and he looks just fine, human again, so why not Blob?

NIT-O-METER: I'll give this 7 Bazzars, since it's lousy writing, done for a gratuitous and superflous scene.
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"HEY, NEVERMIND ABOUT OUR DAUGHTER... HOW'S EVERYBODY ELSE DOING?"

TITLE: Decimation: House Of M - The Day After.

ISSUE: Single issue.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer) & Randy Green (penciler).

NIT-TO-PICK: Chris, Chris, Chris... In page 10, Iceman's working the phones, along with other staff members, to explain to the student's parents the situation (mutants losing their powers, etc). Each staff member appears to have an holographic image of the student whose parents are on the phone, most likely with data about the student also on display.

Iceman speaks to Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid, apparently the parents of Mercury (Cessily Kincaid).. but tells them that Noriko still has her powers! Noriko Ashida is another student, and since the Kincaids are ashamed of Cessily's mutation, why would they'd be asking about another student, one they most likely don't know exists.

Furthermore, the holo image proyected in front of Iceman is obviously, even if we can just see the figure's back, not Cessily's. It's got Noriko's hairstyle, and it's wearing the uniform of her training squad, the New Mutants, which is quite different from the uniform worn by Mercury's squad, the Hellions.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, this is crappy writing, not bothering to pay attention to what other people have written, when it's relevant to what you are writing.
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"HOW MANY MUTANTS ARE THERE LEFT NOW, ANYWAY?"

TITLE: Decimation: House Of M - The Day After.

ISSUE: Single issue.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Okay, following the last two issues of House Of M, and thanks to the Scarlet Witch, there are very few mutants left on the Earth 616 of the Marvel Multiverse. Come on, who didn't see it coming when she said "NO MORE MUTANTS!"?

In Decimation, page 19, the White Queen says "Before the Scarlet Witch, we numbered millions, Scott. (...) Right now... at best... we're barely hundreds." In page 10 she states that the number of mutants in the Xavier Institute campus dropped from 182 to about 27. That's about an 85 percent drop, whereas, assumign there were 2 million mutants in the world (the minimum for "we numbered millions) and now there's only 200 mutants in all the planet (a plausible number for being barely hundreds), that would mean an overall 99.9% drop in the mutant population.

It could be the Scarlet Witch's unvoluntary doing, but it's too convinient that a larger percentage of mutants at Xavier's didn't lose their powers, and most main characters still have them; and furthermore, X-Men associated mutants in the rest of the world, like (Dazzler, Pete Wisdom, Multiple Man, for example), making up a good part of the 0,01 percent of mutants in the rest of the planet to keep their powers.

This is a royal mess, even if it's a good plot idea, the Marvel editors and writers should agree to a number and just stick to it, because it gets even worse: in New X-Men issue 20, page 18, Cerebra (the mutant detecting computer at Xavier's) states that there's been a 91.4 percent decrease in the world mutant population. If we take Emma Frost's statement in Decimation that mutants numbered millions, at its minimum that would be 2 million mutants in the world. A 91.4 percent reduction of that amount would still leave 172.000 mutants in the planet, which is more consistent with the 84 percent reduction in the mutant population of the Xavier Institute.

With a few hundred thousand mutants in the world, I can safely believe more main character mutants have kept their powers, because there's a higher probability, coupled with the fact that the Scarlet Witch might have (willingly or not) spared them. Also, practicality-wise, leaving just a few hundred mutants in the world would make most mutant plots inconsequent, and that wouldn't make sense.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars seem fair, since this is a mess they should have straightened out BEFORE publishing the stories.
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"WHAT IS THIS? FRIENDS? WHERE THE HECK ARE JOEY AND CHANDLER?"

TITLE: New Excalibur.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Chris Claremont (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: I'll give it to Chris, this first issue of New Excalibur is the best I've seen him write in a while. Not quite up to his standard of yore, but at least it's readable. I also dig the new Captain Britan costume Brian Braddock's wearing. But, the issue has some stuff that quite doesn't fit. First, I find it highly unlikely that the first person Psylocke doesn't call to say she's alive wouldn't be her twin brother, Brian; but I can accept that he might have been in another dimension or somesuch thing.

Secondly, and this is the nit, Captain Britain and Juggernaut are awfuly familiar with Dazzler. In page 16 Brian calls Dazzler by her first name, Alison, something he wouldn't be likely to do since they're not friends, have never been in a team together, and to the best of my knowledge, haven't even spent time together (Dazzler and Psylocke were teammates in the X-Men, but Captain Britain hardly appeared in X-Men in those days). I can understand he's worried about her health, since she's a friend of his sister, and a comrade-in-arms, but when he's administering CPR to her he says "Breath Alison, there's my brave girl." I could see it if he was saying that to Kitty, who was his teammate for a long time in Excalibur, and they're friends... but with Dazzler?

And in page 18, Juggernaut calls her Alison too, and is extremely worried about her health. Come on, I know that Cain is a good guy now, and the transition was handled perfectly, it's one of my favorite X-Men storylines of the recent years; but still, he's not friends with Dazzler either, has never been in the same team than her, in fact, they've only been enemies (although I don't really remember if the X-Men fought Juggie during Daz's time in the team). Even if Juggernaut's an X-Man now, and a good guy, I can't really see him behaving as he does ("What'm s'posed ta do, Wagner, just stand around like a lump 'til some doc tells me she lives or dies?"), so concerned, even by the health of X-Men he's fought alongside, like Havok or Iceman.

NIT-O-METER: It's bad enough that Chris didn't pay attention to what others wrote, now he doesn't pay attention to the stuff he's written himself? Still, it's not much of a problem, just some slightly-off characterization and dialogue, so I won't let it go higher than 6 Bazzars.
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That's it for this week, starting with this column, I'll give the average ranking for each week. Last week we had a 5 Bazzars average, climbing this week to 6.4. Either the pros are getting sloppier, I'm getting more perceptive, or I'm being more nitpicking every day... who knows? Until next week, I'll be on the outlook for more nits, because (almost) nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!

PS: Waddaya think of the nifty signature? Should I keep it?

OH MY GOD!!!!
Look at the number of nits in my previous post... it's 52!!!!!! This has got to be some sort of signal...

It's Crisis time, or Countdown, or whatever it's time for! We need a new Flash (because honestly, the current Flash book sucks arse)... can we get this Flash?

The Nitpicker #21.

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

Alright, so it took me three weeks instead of one to finish this column... but to my defense, there's 52 nits in this column, about three times the amount I usually put inj a post. You'll find this column filled with Civil War fallout (and I do mean full); as well as some DC goodness, with Dynamite Entertainment mixed in to balance it out a little.

These are all the nits that I found in comics released in the month of March, although one or two might be from February, and probably one is from April... more april goodness in the next post (hopefully in less than a month). Also, coming very soon, 52 Special, after it ends.
<-------------------------------->
"SOME PEOPLE SAY IT'S A POOR MAN'S STTAR WARS"

TITLE: Battlestar Galactica: Zarek.

ISSUE: 02 of 04.

CULPRIT: Unknown (whoever writes legal print).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the credits page, in the small print legal text that every comic has, it reads "Gallactica" instead of "Galactica". Funny, I didn't notice this until checking this page for the next nit.

By the way, I was only looking at that because I wanted to see the actual notation for the title (not the logo on the cover or at the top of this page), because I guessed it was "Battlestar Galactica: Zarek", but it wasn't, it doesn't have the colon... yet on Dynamite Entertaintment's webpage it's billed both as it is in this book, and as "New Battlestar Galactica: Zarek".

Ah well, I decided to go with what I wanted, and what makes more sense... Battlestar Galactica: Zarek.

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar, just a typo, and in one of the most harmless places ever... or is it? Actually, I just discovered that they repeated the error on issue 4; I didn't check the other issues... but I'm guessing they did this the whole series... what about the other Galactica books? Good question... this gets bumped up to a 3 for repeated offense; and I'm e-mailing Dynamite Entertaintment to let them know. I wonder if they're doing it with the other Galactica books...
<-------------------------------->
"OH, THE HARDSHIPS OF GUERRILLA WARRIORS!"

TITLE: Battlestar Galactica: Zarek.

ISSUE: 02 of 04.

CULPRIT: Brandon Jerwa (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 14, we see where and how revolutionary Sagittaron leader Tom Zarek has been hiding since he went underground: wearing a fancy suit and hanging out at a posh apartment in a skyscrapper? Huh?

How in hell is he there, when he's leading a revolution that has to steal weapons from the government to sustain itself? It looks as if there's been some part of the plot that has been deleted from the book...

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, it doesn't make sense and it makes the story confusing.
<-------------------------------->
"WE HAD TO SELL OUR COSTUMES SO TAR PIT DIDN'T MAKE US HIS BITCH..."

TITLE: Outsiders V3.

ISSUE: 46.

CULPRIT: Judd Winick (writer) and/or (most likely) Carlo Barberi (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 10, the narration describes Iron Heights Penitentiary, and it's metahuman dungeon (dungeon, yes, I'm sure that's how the Department of Correctionals likes to refer to it); the Pipeline, where supervillains are forced to "(...) remain in the costumes that once represented bravado, and now only suggest their absurdity."

Yet, on panel three, you can see Double Down and Cicada, who're wearing what looks like ordinary orange prison outfits, as opossed to Tar Pit who... well, we can only see him from chest up, but I think he's nekkid, as he goes around when he's outside (don't worry, we cant' see his... tarstick), so I guess that is his supervillain "costume".

Now, as far as I know, Cicada and Double Down don't wear orange costumes when they're doing their supervillain thing outside of prison.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"WHO CARE'S, HE'S JUST A WALKING PILE OF TAR!"

TITLE: Outsiders V3.

ISSUE: 46.

CULPRIT: John J. Hill (letterer) or Carlo Barberi (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Same page, same panel, Tar Pit's name is spelled Tarpit... now, I don't have a comic handy to check this, but most web sources I've found have him as Tar Pit.

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
<-------------------------------->
"DID I SAY THAT? OR WAS IT YOU?"

TITLE: Outsiders V3.

ISSUE: 46.

CULPRIT: John J. Hill (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 17, panel 5, the word balloon that contains a line obviously spoken by bumpy-headed-inmate (I'm not going to look up his name), is clearly positioned as if it was Captain Boomerang II's.

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, it's quite a goof-up, but it doesn't substract from the ability to read the story.
<-------------------------------->
"I WONDER WHY SUPERMAN, GREEN LANTERN AND FLASH AREN'T THERE..."

TITLE: The Mighty Avengers.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Frank Cho (penciller) or Tom Brevoort (editor) and Aubrey Sitterson (assistant editor).

NIT-TO-PICK: I was going to include this on my end of Civil War special, but then I decided that it wasn't Civil War proper; yes, it is a CW consequence, but it's not a direct aftermath, like The Confession was.

Anyhoo, on the double spread on pages 7 and 8, Iron Man brings up images of a gazillion superheroes on a wall of monitors; he's discussing with Ms. Marvel who to choose for their new (or is that mighty) Avengers team. Actually, now that I realize it , I'm not so sure that Frank Cho drew all the images in the monitors, or they just copy and pasted from other books... which could make it the editors' direct fault.

In any case, the problem here is that, apart from showing images of villains like Bullseye (even if he's a Thunderbolt), Carnage or some other symbiote freak, the Green Goblin (who, as Norman Osborn, out of costume, now manages the Thunderbolts), and people who I seriously doubt would register; the monitors also show Captain Britain, who's not an American Citizen, and therefore not obligated to register (unless he wants to operate on American soil, and I kinda doubt it).

To make things worse, the monitors also show the images of two foreign rulers, Black Bolt of the Inhumans (who are currently, or who knows when, thanks to screwy continuity, at war with the US), and Namor of Atlantis (who was an ally of Captain America's anti-Registration side, and most likely still pissed off overall at the surface world, as he usually is). Oh, one more thing... there's a monitor showing the frickin' Hulk, who for all Iron Man knows is living a pacific existence in a distant alien planet (poor Tony, he doesn't know was coming to him... and he calls himself a futurist!).

It seems to me that somebody cut and pasted random faces fro mother books, a theory that is reinforced by the fact that a couple of monitors show pieces of other images, such as the monitor to the right of Green Goblin (top left corner of page 7), which shows an enlargement of the Goblin's lower face, or a monitor at the top of page 8 that shows a zoomed view of the monitor containing Captain Britain's face.

NIT-O-METER: 9 Bazzars, this whole comic sucksed arse, and this is one of the "highlights".
<-------------------------------->
"POOR SALAKK..."

TITLE: Green Lantern Corps V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Moose Bauman (colorist, and regular guest in this column).

NIT-TO-PICK: Moose (how the hell can you go around in life with name like "Moose"? He probably gets the "where's Midge" joke a lot...), when are you going to realize that Salakk's skin is PINK, or at least hot pink, and stop coloring him reddish brown (like you do in this issue) or bright red?

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, Moose is incurable.
<-------------------------------->
"NO, REALLY, POOR SALAKK!"

TITLE: Green Lantern Corps V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Dave Gibbons & Patrick Gleason (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: Not only our good buddy Moose (pffft!) miscolors Salakk, but the pencillers come along and screw up his head shape as well. Look at single-paneled page 3; they make it roundish, as opposed to pickle-shaped, as it is.

To be fair, it's not a problem with their knowledge of the character but with perspective, since in the following double-page spread, side and top views show him with a correctly-shaped head.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"MAYBE IF WE ALL STAND AND WALK NEXT TO KILOWOG, NOBODY NOTICE HOW HORRIBLY TALL WE ARE..."

TITLE: Green Lantern Corps V2.

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Dave Gibbons & Patrick Gleason (pencillers).

NIT-TO-PICK: On panel 5 of the aforementioned double-page spread, Kilowog walks in with five, yes, count 'em, five, other alien GLs... and they're all about the same height and build as he is. Anybody see what's wrong here? Yes, exactly. Kilowog is 8' 3" tall and weights 620 pounds... are these FIVE Lanterns as big as he is? Hmm.... somebody forgot how massive the 'Wog really is.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, not as bad as when somebody made Lockheed as small as Cyclops' head.
<-------------------------------->
"WHO'S NEXT, IRONMAN?"

TITLE: Knights Of The Dinner Table.

ISSUE: 124.

CULPRIT: Tony DiGerolamo (writer of "Looking At Comics" column).

NIT-TO-PICK: I said some time ago that I would stop even mentioning typos in KODT, but I was speaking about the comics themselves, not the columns in the magazine. Now, even the columns I ignore mostly (on terms of nits, that is, I do read them), because even if the magazine includes comics, most of the columns are not about comics.

"Looking At Comics", however, is obviously about comics. In this case, one of the comics Tony reviews is "Spider-Man/Power Pack #3", but he writes "Spiderman"... and everybody knows it's spelled "Spider-Man"!!!! Except for those damn Spaniards, who used to "translate" the name as "Spiderman", even going to the trouble of editing the cover logos...

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazars, it might just be a typo... but it's not, because it repeats itself through the review...
<-------------------------------->
"FLAGS OF OUR COPPERS"

TITLE: Punisher War Journal V2.

ISSUE: 05.

CULPRIT: Matt Fraction (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 3, last panel, the wannabe cop named Ian states that "Cops and firemen don't have flags of their own? Au contraire, they do, for instance, the NYPD and the FDNY have their own flags, just click on the links.

Yes, I know, I uploaded those images to Wikipedia, along with the descriptions, and integrated them into the corresponding entries... but I found the images and the information elsewhere in the web, and decided to share it with the world.

This could be a mistake on the character's part, but we're talking about somebody who believes himself to be a policeman when he's only a citizen patrol volunteer or some sort of thing like that... he's obssesed with being a policeman.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, a little bit of research doesn't hurt Matt...
<-------------------------------->
"THEY SHOT MFK!"

TITLE: Amazing Spider-Man.

ISSUE: 539.

CULPRIT: Axel Alonso (editor).

NIT-TO-PICK: When Spider-Man has Mary Jane register Aunt May (shot down by the Kingpin's sniper) in the hospital, he tells her to use May's maiden name "Fitzgerald"... but as far as we know, her maiden name is "Reilly". What gives?

Credit where credit is due, I did not realize this on my own, I only realized it after I read this post on Newsarama. Thanks BradE!!!!

Once more I go out of my way and point out an editor as the culprit. Why? Because in Newsarama's Cup of Joe for March 30, Axel Alonso said: "That was an error. Just slipped through the cracks. JMS emailed us to fact-check Aunt May's maiden name, and in a glitch, we gave him the wrong name. It was one of those "D'oh!" moments that just got past everyone here. We've fixed it for the second print and the trade."

Fitzgerald, as I found out the other day, is the maiden name of Mary Parker, Peter's mother. So, having too much Spidey knowledge actually made Axel and his people go wrong?

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, Reilly being May's maiden name is the whole point of the Spidey-Clone calling himself Ben Reilly.
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S THE LONG LASTING WEB GOODNESS!"

TITLE: Amazing Spider-Man.

ISSUE: 539.

CULPRIT: J. Michael Straczynski.

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 24, Spidey recovers his cloth black costume from a webbing bundle under a gargoyle high atop a building. He says "I put this here a long time ago."... but his webbing disolves after an hour or so; even his current organic webbing can't last that long (the latest Spider-Man handbook says the natural webbing lasts for about a week)...

JMS should know better. In fact, in the same Newsarama column cited above, he says: "(... ) it's been established that Peter had to modify his original web fluid so that it dissolved within an hour to insure that nobody got trapped there for an undetermined amount of time and potentially died. Since we did not see the scene in which he puts the costume up there, I would submit to you that he used the unmodified, longer lasting webbing. Since each new batch has to be changed in order to make it last an hour, having the basic materials to put it there would not have been difficult."

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying. If there's a specific issue where that's stated, please show me, but I'm pretty sure that's a retcon. In fact, the whole reason Peter could not benefit financially from his invention was the fact that it can't last for more than an hour or so... I only recall this being true in Ultimate, but I haven't seen anything to prove what JMS says either.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"WE JUST LOVE OUR LANGUAGE A LOT"

TITLE: Birds Of Prey.

ISSUE: 104.

CULPRIT: Gail Simone (writer) or Travis Lanham (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, panel 1, the caption box says "Baku, capitol city of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijani." Problem is, Azerbaijani is the language, or the people (sometimes also called Azeri), the country's name is Azerbaijan. Sorry Gail, you know I don't like to pick on you.

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar, it might just be a typo.
<-------------------------------->
"HITCHIN' A RIDE"

TITLE: The Brave And The Bold V2.

ISSUE: 02.

CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On this issue, Batman uses a civilian jet, piloted by someone working for Waynetech, to ferry him to Texas, jumping from it... doesn't Batman have his own plane?

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THAT MEDDLESOME UN!"

TITLE: Checkmate V2.

ISSUE: 12.

CULPRIT: Greg Rucka.

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 21, Beatriz "Da Costa" Corvalho's father, Ramon Corvalho, a former Brazillian military officer responsible for torturing, killing, and making people dissapear under Brazil's military regime of the 70s, is arrested by UN representatives... but why would the UN interfere in an internal matter like that?

Both in Argentina and Uruguay, although I do not have information regarding Brazil, former dictatorial officers responsible for crimes have been tried in-country; sometimes countries even investigate matters together (since Operation Condor, in which Colonel Corvalho participated, involved cooperation between the dictatorships in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Chile). But all arrests and prosecutions have been made locally, the UN has no jurisdiction.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars. Rucka can do better than this....
<-------------------------------->
"FROM WHAT WESTERN TO ANOTHER..."

TITLE: The Lone Ranger V5 (even if it's Dynamite's first volume, let's just honor history).

ISSUE: 01 (Director's Cut).

CULPRIT: Brett Matthews (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 12, on his comment about the violence in the book, Matthews mentions that The Ranger "was always going to be an earnest, TRANSITIONAL Western"... what's a "transitional Western"? Or did he mean "traditional Western"?

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, it might have been a typo (like "tranditional") that the spell check caught and turned into "transitional".
<-------------------------------->
"IM' PRETTY SURE THIS IS WRONG..."

TITLE: newuniversal.

ISSUE: 04.

CULPRIT: Warren Ellis (writer) or VC's Rus Wooton (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 15, panel 2, Izanami Randall (who received the powers of Nightmask), says "I m' a damn American (...)". I guess the apostrophe doesn't go there, does it?

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S THE EDITOR'S FAULT... THE TV EDITOR..."

TITLE: Fantastic Four.

ISSUE: 543 (story: C'mon, Suzie, don't leave us hangin').

CULPRIT: Dwayne McDuffie (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: The story is set post-Civil War, and it shows a documentary made to commemorate the anniversary of the first appeareance of the FF... and it's well established that even if parts of it were filmed before CW, it's released afterwards.

But when showing parts of an interview with Spider-Man, he's billed as "Spider-Man, aka "Peter Parker", Avenger"... uhm... as far as the public is concerned, he's a former Avenger... same thing for Luke Cage, who's presented as "Avenger and former FF team member", and Wolverine, who's billed as "Avenger and X-Men member". Unless, of course, they mean the "Secret Avengers", an out-of-character term used to refer to Captain America's faction in CW; first (to my knowledge) used in-character by Iron Man in Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

Also, Spider-Man is wearing his classic costume, not the Iron Spider armor, or his black costume, so this confirms that the interview was taped after he defected from Iron Man's side, and before the end of the war; or before he got his Iron Spider costume. In any case, the captions should say "Former Avenger" for all three of them; or "Secret Avengers member".

Even if the war just ended 3 days ago, Spidey and Luke Cage have been outlaws for quite some time, and even in 3 days the network would fix the captions before airing the documentary.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S IN HERE EYES!"

TITLE: Fantastic Four.

ISSUE: 543 (story: C'mon, Suzie, don't leave us hangin').

CULPRIT: Paul Mounts (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 33, new team members Storm and the Black Panther reveal themselves... and Storm's eyes are glowing yellow.

WTF???! Storm's eyes are blue, regular human white-and-blue eyes, and when she uses her powers (WHEN-SHE-USES-HER-POWERS!), they turn solid white. Not yellow. Not glowing. Not when she's just standing there.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"WHO CARES ABOUT BRAZILLIAN SUPERHEROES, ANYWAY?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Damn... this book was one hell of a heavy read. It actually reads like an official report of the post-CW Marvel 616 Earth. It's 64 four densely packed pages of almost pure text, with few images (one or two per page), and absolutely no comic pages.

It has a "head writer" and "coordinator", but only one plain "writer"; and of course, someone in charge of "proofing coordination". One hell of a job guys, seems like you fell asleep while doing it (just as I was falling asleep while reading the book); there's exactly 26 nits in a single book... that's almost 1 nit every two pages!. I probably missed a few, in fact, as I simply write down page numbers when I'm reading the book and find a nit, sometimes I go back to the page to read it and write up the nit, and I can't remember what had caught my eye... it happened a couple of time with this book.

That's gotta be a record, even talking about a 64 pages long book made up entirely of text. Not to mention the fact that it says that it's been 6 months since the SHRA was passed, and most book make it feel like it was a month at the most, maybe two (and Irreedemable Ant-Man even goes so far as saying the war lasted only one week).

The first nit I found is on page 7, where Iron Man refers to South America. He cites several South American heroes killed by Zeitgeist, including one "Captain Forsa" from Brazil. The right name for the hero should be "Capitão Força", and if you want to translate it, translate the whole thing into "Captain Force" or "Captain Strenght". Of course, this nit should probably go as a nit first found on Alpha Flight V1 #78, where Capitão Força first appeared, but I never read that book...

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, you know how I hate when they get non-English languages wrong.
<-------------------------------->
"THEY'RE ALL DEAD, AND THIRD-WORLDERS, SO WHO CARES?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: What was I saying about further nits that had escaped me in this book? While researching for the previous nit, I found one more nit. Same page, same freaking paragraph, same damn sentence... the Guatemalan superhero also killed by Zeitgeist is referred to as "Macambra", when her name is actually "Ojo Macabra" (which should actually be "Ojo Macabro", but that's something else).

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, use reference material people.
<-------------------------------->
"YOU'RE STILL UNREGISTERED?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, on Arachne's profile, it states that she's an "Unregistered superhuman (...); charges of SHRA violations dropped in exchange for participation in Omega Flight"

So, she was apprehended, right? Don't you get de facto registered if you are captured? More so, wouldn't that be necessary if you are sent in an exchange program of sorts to work in another country's superhero team? Not to mention the fact that Arachne had already worked for the government as a member of the C.S.A.'s Freedom Force, and even got her powers from C.S.A.' experiments.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THE MUTANT MISADVENTURES OF CLOAK AND WHATSHERNAME"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 16, profile for Cloak & Dagger, Dagger is referred to as "Dazzler" in the last sentence. Funny, seeing how people in the Marvel Universe (and probably real people as well) sometimes confuse her with Dazzler...

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. People, you're getting PAID for doing this, this is not some Wikipedia, or some fanboy's website!
<-------------------------------->
"LAYOUT? WHAT'S THAT?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Also in Cloak & "Dazzler"'s profile; the last line of the first column is too close together, the justification for the whole book sucks, whith four words in one line with huge gaps, and eight in the next one with little space between each word. In this case, however, it's ridiculous; there is like only twice the space between word and word than there is between each letter of a given word.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars, just for the shoddy layout of the whole book.
<-------------------------------->
"HE JUST PULLED OUT HIS ILUMINATTI MEMBERSHIP CARD"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Dr. Strange's profile, on page 21, reveals that he was granted some measure of immunity from the SHRA, "inasmuch as his activities could by definition not be limited to American territory and interests." and his legal status is "pending", because his "duties as designated protector of the entire Earth dimension exempt him from many facets of the SHRA".
What?!?!? So just because he doesn't limit his activities to the US, he's exempt from the SHRA? Most superheroes, particularly super teams, are dedicated to the defense of the whole planet, or anybody, anywhere, that requires their help... only the more local heroes, with more limited resources, are limited to one specific city or area.

And it's not about the magic either, because there's other magic-wielding heroes registered or unregistered, who are not exempt.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"EVEN THE REST OF HER POWERS ARE INVISIBLE!"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 22, Fantastic Four's profile, the Invisible Woman's powers are described as "can render herself and other objects wholly or partially invisible by mentally bending all wavelenghts of light in the vicinity around herself or the target in question."

Huh? What happened to her power to proyect forcefields??!?! We're only talking about one of the most important characters in the Marvel Universe, heck, it's one of the first four characters we can call part of the Marvel Universe, and were not added to it by retcon.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. Simply outrageous.
<-------------------------------->
"YEAH, WE AIN'T GOT NO PROOF, BUT HE'S RUNNING WITH THEM!"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 30 shows Iron Fist's profile, and within said profile it says that the hero is presumed to be the Daredevil impostor that fought on Captain America's side during the CW; but there are no conclusive proofs. It also says that he claims that the Iron Fist who's part of the ilegal Avengers team is an impostor.

If there's no confirmation of him being the Iron Fist in Luke Cage's Avengers, why does his group membership state he's a member of the "Avengers" (quotation marks are not mine); with no "presumed" or "unconfirmed"?

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"MY NAME'S IRON MAN, HE'S IRON FIST, IT'S LIKE WE'RE BROTHERS! I'M TEMPTED TO LEAVE HIM ALONE IF HE'S HUNG THE PAJAMAS!"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Again, Iron Fist's profile. Why would he be allowed to run around unregistered, why would his status be "determination awaiting legal decision", and why is there "some temptation to leave him undisturbed if he has retired his costumed identity"?

Even if he has retired from superheroing, he is a superhuman, he has superhuman abilities, and as such, must register. He might not be required to get a superhero license, if he claims he's not going to operate as one anymore, but he needs to register.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"WELL, CYCLOPS' GOT HIS OPTIC BLOWS..."

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Still on page 30, Iron Man's armor is said to be armed with "repulsar" rays. It's "repulsor", and they do this again on War Machine's profile on page 57, so it's not a typo.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, this is like saying that Thor has a magic sword.
<-------------------------------->
"CITIZENSHIP? THE KINGPIN IS NOT BOTHERED BY SUCH TRIFFLE MATTERS!"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: You can hardly turn a page in this book without finding a nit (or two, or three) , huh? On page 31, Kingpin's profile omits the fact that he was released from prison, stripped of his American citizenship, and exiled to Europe.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"AND MY PROBLEM WITH THIS IS THAT THEY FORGOT PART OF THE"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Prowler's profile, on page 43, ends like this "(...) and his cape can be expanded via a network"; nothing else, no period to mark the end of the phrase (which even then would make no sense), no continuation of the sentence in the next page.

NIT-O-METER: 9 Bazzars.
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"OUR FUNDING USED TO BE PROVIDED BY THE EUROPEAN COAL AND STEEL COMMUNITY, BUT THEY CLOSED DOWN..."

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 47 features the profile of S.H.E. (Super Heroes Of Europe); a stupid name for a team, if you ask me; but it mentions that major funding comes, in part from, the "Hero Organization of the European Community". There's no such thing as the "European Community", the former European Economic Community is now called the European Union.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, it might be called differently in the Marvel Universe, but I doubt it.
<-------------------------------->
"STAN WHO?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the same page, She-Hulk's profile states that she works for "Goodman, Leiber, Kurzberg & Holliway", when in fact the firm is called "Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway".

Of course, the firm's first three senior partners are named after Martin Goodman (Marvel Comics first publisher), Stan Lee (born Stanley Lieber) and Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg). I didn't know the name of the firm, since I don't follow She-Hulk's adventures; but I noticed the reference and thought odd that they'd mispell Lieber and Kurtzberg.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.... no, 10 Bazzars! You can't spell THOSE names wrong!
<-------------------------------->
"JUMPP AROUNDD!"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Still on page 47, in the last paragraph of She-Hulk's profile, part of ther powers are "ascend 600 feet in a single jumpp".

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
<-------------------------------->
"SO, SPIDEY, HOW DIDJA GET YOUR POWERS, ANYWAY?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 50, Spider-Man's profile states him to be a mutate of "basis unclear"... first of all, I'd say that many people in the Marvel Universe (whenever I say Marvel Universe, I'm of course speaking of the main continuity, 616), particularly those in the superpowered community, or at the very least someone like Iron Man, would know that Spider-Man's powers come from being bitten by a irradiated spider.

Not only that, but only a few lines further into the profile, it says "Following mutation from an irradiated spider bite", with no qualifiers to signify uncertainty, such as "presumed" or "supposed".

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"... AND WHEN WAS IT THAT YOU GOT YOUR NEW POWERS?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Also in Spidey's profile, it says about his powers that he developed new powers (including his new organic webs) as a result of additional mutation that happened "prior to joining the previous incarnation of the Avengers".

WTF?!?!?!? Spider-Man was already a member of the Avengers when "The Other" storyline took place. This is outrageous, they can't even get simple facts straight... and they get paid for doing this?!?!?!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I THINK YOU HATH MISSED WORD!"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: First of all, I have to complain about Clor's (the Thor clone/cyborg) profile being under "Thor", and Stark referring to him as Thor throughout the profile, as if he were the actual Thor.

But that's not the nit, the nit is that in the second paragraph it says "use this genetic material to clone of the Thunder God." Missed a word? Verily!

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars.
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"I SNEAK IN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT TO MAKE MYSELF A SANDWICH. TONY HAS THE BEST STOCKED FRIDGE THIS SIDE OF THE HUDSON RIVER"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 59, Wolverine's profile cites his bases of operations are the Xavier Institute and Avengers Tower. Uuuuh.... if he's no longer a member of the official Avengers team (a fact that's also mentioned in this same profile), how is his base of operations Stark Tower?

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, copy and pasting from other profiles is not a nice thing to do...
<-------------------------------->
"YOU DARE FORGET MOST OF MY SUPERPOWERS?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 60, X-Factor Investigations' profile describes one it's members,. M, to be precise as "super-strong M"; which is a gross misunderstatement, since M posesses several other powers, among them telepathy and super-intelligence.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, this is not as big as forgetting Invisible Woman's forcefields.
<-------------------------------->
"PERCENTAGES, SHMENTAGES"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Also on page 60, on X-Factor Investigations' profile the number of mutants that were depowered on M-Day is said to be "over 90%"; but on the same page, on the X-Men's profile, it says it's "over 99%".

Yes, more than 90% could be more than 99%... but Marvel has a history of not making up their minds as to the figures for M-Day. You'd think they could at least keep it consistent within the same page.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, not for gravity, but for repeated offense.
<-------------------------------->
"YOU MEAN YOU HAVEN'T READ THAT STORY YET? OOPS..."

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: The Young Avengers' profile, on page 62, states that their base of operation is Camp Hammond, and their major funding comes from the US government. This means they've join the Initiative. When? Because only Stature had joined the pro-Registration forces; Wiccan was captured by them, and the rest of the team was still on the loose and operating without registering.

I can understand if they decided to register, every last one of them... but it hasn't been shown in any story yet, nor any explanation is given in the profile. Giving incomplete information in this kind of profile is bad enough, but spoiling a not yet published story is worse.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S A WHOLE 'NOTHER EARTH"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 62, still on the Young Avengers' profile, it says that Iron Lad is from "Other-Earth". He is actually from "Other Earth". What's the difference? Well, I guess this is why they call me The Nitpicker!

Iron Lad hails from Other Earth, aka Earth-6311; while Other-Earth, aka Earth-712, is the house of the Squadron Supreme. See? There is a difference.

NIT-O-METER: I'd give this just 1 Bazzar for being a typo, but a typo that changes what you are referring to completely (it's a completely different parallel Earth!), that deserves at least a 5.
<-------------------------------->
"WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CALL YOU ANT-HONY?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 66, the Civil War Files Appendix; El Muerto's secret ID is given as "Juan-Carlos Estrada Sanchez"; but Spanish first and middle names are not hyphenated.

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, although this is probably Peter David's fault, as the writer who co-created the character in the first place; and the name is spelled the same in Marvel.com's profile
<-------------------------------->
"HOW ABOUT I CHANGE YOUR LAST NAME TO FLAMINGI?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer), and Michael Hoskin (proofing coordination).

NIT-TO-PICK: Still on the Appendix, on page 67 we've got Terminizer, who's civilian name is given as Luis Guiterrez. Guiterrez is not a last name, it should be Gutierrez.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars, even though it probably is the fault of Steve Gerber, who created the character; I found it in one site as "Guitterrez", which is even worse.
<-------------------------------->
"MR. PRESIDENT, WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW A SECRET? OR A FEW HUNDRED?"

TITLE: Civil War: Battle Damage Report.

ISSUE: One-shot.

CULPRIT: Anthony Flamini (head writer/coordinator) and/or Ronald Byrd (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: And my last nit to pick with this book: the fact that this is supposed to be a report for the US president; coupled with the fact that Tony Stark stated at the end of Civil War that he became director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to be the one in charge of safeguarding the secret identities of the heroes who registered.

Why is this a problem? Well, in his report, Tony reveals the identity of EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER whose identity is known. Oh, sorry... not everybody's identity... he withholds the identity of Initiative characters like MVP and Trauma. Thanks a lot, Tony!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"WE'RE USING SOME TECHOLOGY FROM KRYPTON THAT CLARK FOUND IN HIS FORTRESS, TAKES OUT AROUND 30 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE!"

TITLE: Action Comics.

ISSUE: 847.

CULPRIT: Renato Guedes (penciller, inker, colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: I'm sick and tired of this. Superboy Prime punches non-withstanding; Birthwrong aside, Ma and Pa Kent are 60ish; if not 70ish... Clark's about what, 36? And they found him as a baby, when they were already kind of old to have kids of their own?

Say they were 40.... they should be at least 76, or if they were 35 (and that's not too old to have kids for a woman, not to mention a man); 71... but in this comic they look like they're 50 or so... but with absolutely no gray hair... not to mention the fact that Pa Kent has a full head of hair!!!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars; this is completely outrageous, it's even worse than the last time they did this!
<-------------------------------->
"DEJA VU... NO, TOO DIFFERENT TO BE A DEJA VU..."

TITLE: Black Panther V4.

ISSUE: 26.

CULPRIT: Reginald Hudlin (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: This is actually the editors' fault (yes, it's ALWAYS the editors' fault, but this is different). Same thing that happened between Civil War and Punisher War Journal happens here, the scene we saw in Fantastic Four #543; that of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman telling Torch and Thing they were going to have replacements for the former, happens differently on page 18 of this issue; from dialogue, to art, to clothes they're wearing, to action... EVERY detail is different!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, if they have editors, why don't they coordinate these kind of things?!?!?
<-------------------------------->
"I'M NOT FEELING MYSELF TODAY"

TITLE: Black Panther V4.

ISSUE: 26.

CULPRIT: Francis Portela (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the first panel of page 23; the Thing (who'd been adequately drawn in the previous pages) looks more like Concrete than like himself. His arms are deformed, he's barely got shoulders, and his neck is gone, with his head squashed until it becomes wider than it is high... only to be correctly portrayed in the next panels and pages!

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, sloppy. Yes, I know, I like the word sloppy... don't read into that, please...
<-------------------------------->
"WE SPEAKING ENGRISH!"

TITLE: Blue Beetle V3. Or V7, if I count the four series starring Dan Garret, published by Fox Feature Syndicate and Charlton Comics... what do you think? I think Blue Beetle deserves the same honor to tradition the Lone Ranger does. So V7 it is, from now on.

ISSUE: 13.

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

NIT-TO-PICK: Well, this is one of my pet peeves when it comes to mistakes in comics. I'm obviously not talking about Beast's shape, because this is a DC book. Moose Bauman does not color this book, so it's him working his magic here. And even though Ma and Pa Kent live in Kansas, which is relatively close to Texas, it's not about them looking their age.

Yes, you've guessed it! Somebody miswrote something in Spanish!!! On the last panel of page 8, Jaime Reyes (the current Blue Beetle, for those of you not paying attention) and his friend Paco, surprise Jaime's father with the re-opening of his autoshop/gas station. And there's a big, fat sign that reads "SE HABLAR ESPAGNOL", which is meant to mean "WE SPEAK SPANISH".

Now, there's two wrong things with this. First, and more obvious to those who speak Spanish, is the fact that the word "Spanish", in Spanish, it's spelled "español". That little "n" with a hat (seriously, that's how my first grade teacher referred to it when I learned how to write) is called "eñe", you can do it by doing ALT+164 (or 165 for capital) in ASCII codes, and it sounds just lik an "n" with a "i". So "español" sounds like "ehs-pa-nee-ol"; and "mañana" ("tomorrow") sounds like "ma-nia-na".

Second, and less important, is that the usual phrase you put in this kind of signs is "SE HABLA ESPAÑOL", which means "WE SPEAK SPANISH". By conjugating the verb "hablar" ("to speak") like they did, they actually wrote "I KNOW HOW TO SPEAK SPANISH."

Barring the fact that this kind of lettering is too clearly seen in the page (not just some scenery) to not have been done by the letterer (under orders from the writer), the artists are not at fault. It wasn't penciller Rafael Albuquerque, because even if he's Brazillian and might not speak Spanish, he didn't draw that page. And David Baldeon, penciller for this page, is from Spain, so there's no chance in hell he'd write that and make that mistake.

Yes, they might say that, in character, neither Jaime nor Paco (who is, obviously, also Hispanic) can write Spanish very well... but I don't think even them (who have been shown speakin Spanish) would write it like that, not with the hundreds of like signs you're bound to see in shops all over a border city like El Paso, TX, where 76.62% were Hispanic or Latino in the last (real world) census.

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, I wish writers did a little bit more of research when writing characters of and ethnicity other than their own.
<-------------------------------->
"HOW DO YOU WRITE 'LET'S GO' IN MEXICAN?

TITLE: Blue Beetle V3.

ISSUE: 13.

CULPRIT: John Rogers (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: OK, this does it! On page 19, first panel, Paco says "VAMANOS!" which is intended to be "VAMONOS!", that is, "LET'S GO!". ARGH!!!!!!

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. I can't take it anymore... ok, ok... I'm a little trigger happy... just 5 Bazzars...
<-------------------------------->
"I'VE GOT A MONSTER COLD, AND I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING..."

TITLE: Fantastic Four.

ISSUE: 544.

CULPRIT: Dwayne McDuffie (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 9, Black Panther is shown eavesdropping on Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man by using a bug, when he's only standing a few feet away. The Black Panther has superhuman senses, good enough to know if somebody is lying, for example... and he can't listen in a conversation near him without tech?

Yes, they can say that Tony Stark had some kind of jammer that prevents superhuman senses from listening in on the conversation, but a) they didn't establish that, and b) it would also jam listening devices.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, you shouldn't get to write characters you're not familiar with. What's next, Storm having fun inside a coffin?
<-------------------------------->
Well, that's it for this post, and the average Bazzars is 6.8; second highest ever, and only one point below last week (our all-time high). See you all later!