Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The Nitpicker #29.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

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

So, here we are for this week’s column… short and sweet one, both because I only found 10 nits this week (just barely meeting the quota I established for the weekly column), and because since I’d finished reading all last week’s books on Friday, and it’s Tuesday morning when I’m writing this (the intro, outro, and headlines, in that order, are the last things I write). However, since I still need to edit some images and touch up some other details, I’ll hold it off until Wednesday night my place, or even, if it takes that long, past midnight and already into Thursday.

As I was saying, I barely found ten nits in the last week's books, so I was on the verge on fortifying this column with some backlog nits from my vault. But no, not this time, and, if I might say so myself, there's not much meat either. Alas, let's go on to the all-new nits for this week.
<-------------------------------->
"WE'LL CALL YOU WHATEVER WE WANT!"

TITLE: Countdown.

ISSUE: 46 of 52 (and they go backwards, remember?).

CULPRIT: Paul Dini (head writer) and/or Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Grey (writers), and/or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, panel 4, Heat Wave and the Trickster refer to Mirror Master as "McColloch", when his last name is "McCulloch".

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, not a big deal, but you should at least check the names of the character you're using.
<-------------------------------->
"BLUE AND BLACK ALL OVER."

TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 95.

CULPRIT: Unknown (no idea which book they cropped that image from).

NIT-TO-PICK: On the first page, where a recap and a current roster is shown, as you can see below, Spider-Man 2099's mask is all blue/black, lacking the red markings it should have.


NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I FEEL SO PRETTY!"

TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 95.

CULPRIT: Clayton Henry (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Look at this image below, this is how AOA Sabretooth should look:


Wild, feral, savage, you name it.... Yet now, he looks ruggedly handsome:


Great Caesar's Ghost! He looks like a beefed up Brad Pitt!

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, this is horrible.
<-------------------------------->
"DON'T YOU KNOW..."

TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 95.

CULPRIT: Clayton Henry (penciller) and Will Quintana (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: As you can see above, Sabretooth's eyes have been colored blue, when his eyes (for this, which is the AoA version) are all white, with no visible pupils. Even the 616 Marvel Universe Sabretooth hasn't got blue eyes, his are amber.

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"... BLUE EYES!""

TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 95.

CULPRIT: Will Quintana (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Psylocke's eyes, during the whole issue (like Sabretooth's) are colored incorrectly. As you can see below, her eyes have been colored blue, when they are (in her current body, Kwannon's) purple, and have been that color from before she was in Kwannon's body, when they were cybernetic. Only her original eyes were blue.


NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I JUST LOVE THESE SNEAKERS, AND IF I TAKE THEM OFF, MORPH WILL STEAL THEM!"

TITLE: Exiles.

ISSUE: 95.

CULPRIT: Clayton Henry (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 20, panels 1 and 4, Spider-Man 2099 can be seen clinging to a ceiling while wearing sneakers; but his powers are not like Peter Parker's, as in he actually climb walls using retractable talons on his fingertips and toes. At first I thought this might be a difference between this Spidey 2099 (who is from Earth-6375) and the "real" Spidey 2099 (from Earth-928), but as you can see in their Marvel Universe profiles (click on the links on their names), they have basically the same powers (any difference is caused by whoever built the entries).

NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. Wow, I just realized that we just had six nits from Exiles, and Chris Claremont isn't responsible for any of them... AMAZING!
<-------------------------------->
"FASTER THAN A BLACK CANARY!"

TITLE: Green Arrow V3.

ISSUE: 75.

CULPRIT: Judd Winnick (writer) and/or Scott McDaniel (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 3, panel 1, Black Canary is deflecting arrows with a tube or club or something like that. Come on! She's nowhere near as fast or as trained with weapons as to do that!

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I PICKED UP SUPERVENTRILOQUY FROM SUPERMAN!"

TITLE: JLA: Classified.

ISSUE: 39.

CULPRIT: Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 12, panel 2, the speech balloon should point to Amazo, not to Professor Ivo.

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"I'M SO EVIL I CHANGE MY HAIRDO BETWEEN PANELS!"

TITLE: Trials Of Shazam.

ISSUE: 07 of 12.

CULPRIT: Howard Porter (artist).

NIT-TO-PICK: Page 2, look at these two panels below. On the first one, panel 1 (as well as in panels 2 and 3), Sabina has two piggy tails), while on panel 4 has just a ponytail, and an overall different hairdo.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"HULK SMASH NOT-SO-SMART PRESIDENT!"

TITLE: World War Hulk.

ISSUE: 01 of 05.

CULPRIT: Greg Pak (writer) and (not very likely) John Romita Jr. (penciller).

NIT-TO-PICK: Let me just start by saying that this blew me away. While Pak is doing a wreck of a job over at Battlestar Galactica, he's doing one hell of a job with Hulk.

On page 33, panel 1, the President of the USA (presumably him) is shown in the oval office, cheering for Iron Man. Uhm... the country is being invaded by the freaking HULK and this guy is not in a bunker somewhere surrounded by half of the army and all of The Initiative?

NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
Ok, so this week's average was 6.3, not bad, not bad, and definitely an improvement over last week. As I said in the intro, there's not much stuff on the column, and what there is, is not that big... my excuse is that I need time to work on a piece for a book, something that's very important for me (and not just 'cause I'm getting paid). More details are forthcoming, but you'll hopefully get a beefier column next week. Until then, remember that nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!

Thursday, June 14, 2007

The Nitpicker #28.

DISCLAIMER (angry creators, please read)

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

Welcome to issue #28 of the Nitpicker! Let's give a warm welcome to our new readers at Comic-Scans.net, and a big thanks to all the crew there, especially Brecht, who heeded my cries for attention and accepted the column on the site.

This week, we have all the nits I found on last week's releases, and some from books from weeks past that I hadn't gotten yet. Also, as you'll notice at the end of the column (if you're reading this outside the Nitpicker's home site), I've decided to centralize the comments for each column on the comments section of each post at the home site, so I can keep better track of them. I please beg of you that you comment through that link, or comment at the site where you read this, and copy paste the comment at the link.

Before moving to this week's nits, let me show you something that made me happy. What you see here is two panels from this week's Superman V1 663, where Kurt Busiek does something that almost moved me to tears: he wrote a completely correct dialogue which is partly in Spanish!


Yes Roy, I know, he did not use an opening exclamation sign, but since he's actually writing in English (except for the Spanish parts), that's excused. Other writers who want to include foreign languages in your books: LEARN FROM KURT BUSIEK!!!!
<-------------------------------->
"THIS IS A BIG THING."

TITLE: Avengers: The Initiative.

ISSUE: 03.

CULPRIT: Stefano Caselli (penciller/inker).

NIT-TO-PICK: Well, well, well. I'm enjoying this book, I loved the Scarlet Spiders, and I totally liked Slott's characterization of Spidey. The psyche Peter put on Komodo is a perfect example of what a darker-humored Spider-Man can be. The action on the book is fun, and the huge cast (cameos and guests included) is handled perfectly. The art, so far, has been good, not my particular style, but adequate to the book, and with no gross mistakes. Until now. Look at these images of the Thing, guest instructor, on pages 9 to 11. On the first one, he looks like he's around two feet taller than Justice, whereas he's just 2 inches taller. Justice has a height of 5'10, and the Thing is 6' tall.


And here, look at him here, he's a lot bigger than all the recruits who are fighting him!


Here, Komodo, who is the size of a normal girl (I couldn't find a profile for her yet, she's too new a character to have one, apparently), but I'm pretty sure she doesn't shrink to a lizard's size, and here she is, literally wrapped (or her arm, at least) around Ben Grimm's finger. And he says he needs it for bowling? What bowling ball is he using, one he swiped from Galactus?


And here, he's yet again twice the size of the recruits; and that green haired girl on his back is like a scarf.


Finally, look at where this guy with the tiger stripes on his suit (whichever loser he is) is only up to the Thing's waistband. Hell, Rage, seen by the Thing's right, is a pretty big dude... who in fact is actually taller than the Thing, at 6'6"!!!


NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, Marvel has an excellent database at Marvel Universe, as well as resources that are probably only available to artists and writers... oh, oh, and I know... YOU COULD READ A DAMN COMIC WHERE THE THING HAS APPEARED BEFORE!!! There must be one or two.
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S A MATTER OF ACCENT."

TITLE: Avengers: The Initiative.

ISSUE: 03.

CULPRIT: Dan Slott (writer) and/or VC's Joe Caramagna (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 9, panel 2, the Black Widow (Natasha Romanova) exclaims what all Russian Marvel characters must, "Boze moi!", which means "My God". Thing is, the "z" is missing the hacek (a sort of accent to change the pronunciation of a letter, it should be "Bože". The hacek is necessary when romanizing languages such as Russian or Czech.

NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar.
<-------------------------------->
"WHEN ARE WE AGAIN?"

TITLE: Battlestar Galactica V4 (taking into account the Marvel series, an Ace Books single issue, and the Maximum Press series).

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Whoever writes the recap on the interior front cover, probably the editor or assistant editor, but none are credited.

NIT-TO-PICK: Yet another example of a nit I find when writing up the ones I found when I first read the book. The recap text says "Taking place after the return from Kobol and the arrival of the Pegasus (...)", when it should say "(...) and before the arrival of the Pegasus (...)".

NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzars, it sets an incorrect timeline for the series, although it's obvious that the Pegasus is not present.
<-------------------------------->
"FEEEELINGS.... LALALAAAA FEEEEELIIINGS!"

TITLE: Battlestar Galactica V4

ISSUE: 10.

CULPRIT: Greg Pak (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: Have I mentioned that this series is very badly written, and immensely boring? Yes, I have. All this crap about the Returners, bio-Cylons (for lack of a better term, I'll that one to refer to the human-looking Cylons) made in the image and with the memories of dead humans (such as Zak Adama), as prototypes for the bio-Cylons that appear in the show... well, it just doesn't feel right.... In fact, it goes against what Ronald D. Moore (the show's producer and co-creator) has said, which is that the bio-Cylons are not copies of existing humans.

And I mean this apart from the bad writing (remember a few columns back, the ship that crossed the universe in ten seconds?); the idea of the Returners is just plain bad. The idea of the Antebellum Cylons (Cylon Centurions from before the Cylons gained sentience and revolted) is actually interesting, and should have been used on the show, but it's not enough to salvage this book.

In fact, do you know what this book reads like? Like the bad issues of Marvel Star Wars. That series was very entertaining and at times even complex (for the time), but every now and then it had very awful ideas from some writers about additions to the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which was still in its infancy. And the art... I understand the legalities of making characters look like the actors, which they don't in this book. But that is not an excuse for horrible facial expressions, and characters looking different from panel to panel.

But I digress.... The nit that occupies us in this case, is that on page 6, panel 4, one of the bio-Cylons (a number 3) says about the number 8 she's talking to (supposedly the original "Sharon", the one directly based on the human one), is "different", adding that "You feel things." (bold is from the comic, not mine. Um.... I thought that ALL the bio-Cylons had feelings... that's kind of the point....

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"HER EYES HAVE CHANGED COLOR BEFORE..."

TITLE: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 8.

ISSUE: 08.

CULPRIT: Dave Stewart (colorist).

NIT-TO-PICK: I like this book. As a fan (but not fanatic) of Buffy and Angel, it's nice to read a canon continuation of the TV show. I mean, I'm not a fan to the point of reading other Buffy comics or novels, but this, an actual continuation of the story, yes, thank you very much, particularly when it's initially written (and later executively produced) by its creator, Joss Whedon. The art is a little simplistic, although the characters resembles the actors enough, but the worst thing is the colors, which are too plain and bright.

In this case, speaking of the devil, the nit is a coloring nit. On page 20, panel one, a close-up of Willow's face shows that her eyes are blue, when actress Alyson Hannigan's eyes are hazel (and at times look green)

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, only because it's such an obvious close-up.
<-------------------------------->
"SAY MY NAME, BITCH!"

TITLE: The Irredeemable Ant-Man.

ISSUE: 09.

CULPRIT: Robert Kirkman (writer) and/or possibly (but not likely) VC's Rus Wooton (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 20, panel 3, Abigail (aka the Visioneer) calls Ant-Man (who she knows as Derek Sullivan, aka the Slaying Mantis) by his real first name, "Eric", which she doesn't know. Next page, first panel, she calls him "Derek". Oh, and it's official, this guy is more of a jerk than previous comic book jerks, like, surprise surprise, Hank Pym, or, in another universe, Booster Gold. Although the latter has done much better for himself recently.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"HOW ABOUT WE TAKE A PICTURE OF THE GUY IN THE MONITOR WITH THIS CAMERA, AND SHOW IT AROUND?"

TITLE: Mr. Stuffins.

ISSUE: 01.

CULPRIT: Andrew Cosby & Johanna Stokes (writers).

NIT-TO-PICK: This is actually a book from a few weeks ago, which I just picked up. And it's a fun read, not deep, but fun. It's a teddy bear, with commando and espionage programming, and a Vin-Diesel-In-The-Pacifier personality. Plus, on the cover, he's spoofing Bond. Go, read it, it'll be fun. Tell them I sent you, and you won't get jack shit extra.... but you'll spread my name around. In fact, look at how badass and cute he looks:


As for the nit, on page 20, panel 3, the spooks from whatever organization that's after the programming that animates Mr. Stuffins are looking for who bought the toy bear. They see the security camera footage that shows the toy's purchase, and say that they will "(...) enhance this image, zoom in on the credit card and get a name." So, you broke into the mall's security room and tied up the guard, and broke into the store to search every remaining teddy bear for the disk, but you can't go through the toy store's records of the day's purchases?

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"MOMMY, MOMMY, I WANT A GREEN GOBLIN ACTION FIGURE!!!"

TITLE: New Warriors V4.

ISSUE:

CULPRIT: Paco Medina (penciller) and/or Kevin Grevioux (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: First of all, let me say that this is a good book. I've never been a New Warriors' fan, but the recent trend at Marvel of reusing old team names has gotten me interested. I was pleasantly surprised by this book, and plan on keep reading it. And now that I learn that it's written by the guy who wrote that train wreck of a movie that Underworld was, I'm even more surprised.

One criticism that some people have made is that Beak (Barnell Bohusk), formerly of the X-Men and the Exiles, and now a former mutant, looks too handsome in his human appearance, and not at all as he was shown in Exiles, with a large nose. He could, however, have de-mutated further after losing his powers, or he could be wearing an image inducer since he's working for the New Warriors, a clandestine hero team.

What troubles me, the only thing I found that might constitute a nit, is that an add for Thunderbolts toys can bee seen on a toy store window on panel 2, included in the group shot are Venom, Penance, and... the Green Goblin. Norman Osborn works as the Thunderbolts' Director, but he's not (currently) part of the field team as the Goblin, and even when he was, he wasn't publicly know as part of the team, as far as I remember.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"HERE WE GO, ONE MORE T.I.M.E.!"

TITLE: Omega Flight.

ISSUE: 03

CULPRIT: Andy Schmidt (editor) and/or Will Panzo (assistant editor).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 4, the recap and credits page, on the recap, what else, it's "USAgent", instead of "U.S.Agent".

NIT-O-METER: It was 2 Bazzars the first time they did it, 4 the second one, and now, it's 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THI'S IS NOTT A MISTEKE."

TITLE: The Phantom V7.

ISSUE: Annual 01.

CULPRIT: Rubén Procopio (artist for chapter one).

NIT-TO-PICK: This is also something from a couple of months ago, but I just got my hands on it now. I'm not going to even rant about Procopio's first name missing the accent, since he probably lets it be spelled like that (although it's spelled correctly on his own website, Masked Avenger Studios, and even signs his pages and sketches like that.

The thing here is, that on page 14 of this (very fine annual), they show some sketches of his for the book, and as you can see below, he writes "Devide's into "5" seperate piece's". Wow, is this a combo nit if I've ever seen one, and do I really need to spell it out? Alright, I will. First of all, it's "divides", with an i, and no apostrophe; then it's "separate", with an a, and finally, it's "pieces", with no apostrophe. And what the hell is up with that "5" between quotation marks?


I had never heard of this artist before, but I assumed that he was Hispanic. Well, I checked Wikipedia, and in fact, he's Argentinean, so I was willing to cut him some slack. However, I read a bit further and noticed that he moved to Los Angeles when he was four, that is, 42 years ago! In fact, he's been working in the animation, comics, and sculpting fields for more than 25 years.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, for such a combo. His credits as an artist are impressive, but his command of the English language is not.
<-------------------------------->
"LANGUAGE, LANGUAGE!"

TITLE: The Phantom V7.

ISSUE: Annual 01.

CULPRIT: Chuck Dixon (writer for chapter three) and/or Terri Boyle (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 29, the Indian boy on panel one says "Si, senor.", which is meant to be "Yes, sir.", but the word for sir or mister in Spanish is "señor"; the priest on panel four also says "senor". If you don't want to mess around with letters that don't exist in the English alphabet (because "ñ" is a separate letter, and not just an "n" with a tilde), then make it phonetically, and write "senior" or something like that.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THEY'RE LIKE, YOUR COUNTRY'S PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE?"

TITLE: The Phantom V7.

ISSUE: Annual 01.

CULPRIT: Mike Bullock (writer for chapter five) and/or Terri Boyle (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 53, panel five, Temur Singh mentions "al queada"; when it's spelled (in the romanization) al-Qaeda, al-Qaida or even al-Qa'ida.

NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, you could, I don't know, check the net or read the news?
<-------------------------------->
"I JUST WANTED TO USE PULASKI SO BAD..."

TITLE: Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between

ISSUE: 05 of 06.

CULPRIT: David Tischman (writer).

NIT-TO-PICK: I said that this series (apart from the horrible art, especially when it comes to human faces) was getting better. And then they come up with a Wesley Crusher story! Nyargh!

This story wasn't bad, it did read like an actual episode of TNG. However, it felt rushed, both in the sense that it wasn't paced correctly, and seemed like a 15 minute episode; and in that in one or two pages at the end, we learned that every mission we've seen in the book (dispersed along the seven seasons of the show) has had its results co-opted by some shadowy organization or person, to use to military ends. And we learn of that with only one issue to go? I'm guessing the conclusion will also feel rushed.

What's the nit this time? Well, on page 12, Dr. Pulaski (yes, it's that season) is complaining over comm to Riker that Data (we later learn that it was under Riker's orders) and put her research on hold so he could analyze some soil samples, even though, as Pulaski remarks herself, the Enterprise has more than one science lab.

Why the hell would Riker send Data to co-opt Sickbay's lab (which of course, should have space for more than one experiment)? The answer is easy: Tischman wanted to show that Pulaski didn't like Data, so his book would be just like the show, and couldn't think any other way of doing it. Shoddy writing, I tell you.

Also, I'm not going to take them into account as nits, but the art keeps on sucking hard, with non detailed and just plain horrible faces everywhere. Look at Wesley here:


Is he half-asleep at the helm? Or is he stoned? And by the way, what the hell is that in the floor next to that empty chair? Was there a carpet there, and somebody removed it?

Now, compare the two images of Data below. How can that be the same person? The image on our left is not even of Data standing in the background, and yet, there is almost absolutely no detail on that face!


God, Casey Maloney is definitely not paying attention to his pencilling on this book.

NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"THEY'RE UTTERLY DELICIOUS!"

TITLE: Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between

ISSUE: 05 of 06.

CULPRIT: David Tischman (writer) and/or Chris Mowry (letterer)..

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 13, panel five, the fruit that was referred to as "uttaberries" until then, is now referred to as "utterberry", and then on page 18, panel one, it's "uttaberries" again.

NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"HEY, SAVIER!"

TITLE: Uncanny X-Men.

ISSUE: 487.

CULPRIT: Ed Brubaker (writer) and/or VC's Joe Caramagna (letterer).

NIT-TO-PICK: On page 9, panels one and three, and then on panel 3 of page 10, Xavier refers to Magneto as "Eric", when, as given by Marvel, his alias is "Erik".

NIT-O-METER: 4 Bazzars, as this is not the first time this happens.
<-------------------------------->
So, this week's average is just 5.1 Bazzars, nothing that big but the Thing-thing. Again, let me welcome our new readers, and plead you to at least copy your comments on the link below, if you're not reading from the column's home site. This week I think I put in more "review-ey" comments about the books, since I don't have the time to write actual reviews, I thought I'd squeeze them in here. Well, I'm going to read some of the books that came out today, catch you next week, and remember that nothing escapes...

THE NITPICKER!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

#27 UPDATE!

I just edited #27 to show the image of the Legion rings that was missing. By the way, the column will now be featured weekly at #Comic-Scans, thanks to Brecht and the rest of the crew over there.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Creator sighting!

Scott Tipton, writer for Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell miniseries caught me taking the nitpicking machine to his book, and left a comment on the Shotgun Reviews side of column #26.

Check it out, and congratulate the man for taking all of my acid in good stride. Catch you next week with the new column, I've already started taking note of the nits I've found so far this week.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

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?
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
"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.
<-------------------------------->
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!