#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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
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.
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 I've only skimmed over the Wonder Woman and the Superman ones, but for being released now, they are wildly out of date, and contain a lot of omissions and mistakes.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!
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 paparazziAlso, 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!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The Nitpicker #26.
DISCLAIMER
[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]
So, here we are with the new and (hopefully) weekly Nitpicker! I know I promised that I'd post on Friday or Monday; but I write this thing on my free time at work, and since I didn't work on Friday, and Sunday was quite busy, it ended up being today, just in time for new comics! As I said last week, I'm going to start posting weekly, with fewer nits, to have a more active schedule.
Each week I'll have at least 10 nits, and if I can't find that many in that week's comics, I'll use my vast backlog reserve to get to that amount. This week, for example, we have more, just with this week's comics we got up to 17 nits (thanks to Superman/Batman and Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell that contributed with ten of them).
While not a nit, this is not totally off-topic, so I thought I'd mention it. Am I the only one who finds funny that MAD Magazine rewards readers whose letters are published in the magazine with a set of notebooks featuring "The Art Of Vintage Marvel"; when MAD is published by DC Comics? Whatever, let's get on with this week's nits!
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S AN ANCIENT WAKANDAN STORING METHOD."
TITLE: Fantastic Four V1.
ISSUE: 546.
CULPRIT: Paul Pelletier (penciller).
NIT-TO-PICK: Page 14, panels 2 and 3... are we supposed to believe that the Black Panther, the king of Wakanda, one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth, stores a machine created by Dr. Doom to siphon the Power Cosmic off the Silver Surfer, in a wooden crate held together with screws, with the words "Plan G" painted on one side? Come on!!!
NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars, this is preposterous.
<-------------------------------->
"WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE DAMN PLANET?"
TITLE: Star Wars: Legacy.
ISSUE: 12.
CULPRIT: John Ostrander (script), maybe also Jan Duursema (co-plotter), and/or Michael Heisler (letterer).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 4, they mention the planet Zonoma Sekot, when it's Zonama Sekot.
NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzar, it's a typo, but you should check your references.
<-------------------------------->
"DON'TFORGETTHESPACES"
TITLE: (Supergirl And The) Legion Of Superheroes V5.
ISSUE: 30.
CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer) and/or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).
NIT-TO-PICK: First of all, you'd notice that I've changed the notation on this book. We all know that Supergirl is, eventually, going back to the 21st Century (actually, she's already there/then... time travel makes my head hurt!), so the "Supergirl And The" part of the book's name is going to be dropped at some point. As it is, the book is V1 of "Supergirl And...", but when it loses the "Supergirl...", it'll go back to being "Legion...", actually, V5 of the book. I have, erroneously, been referring to this book as V4, when it's actually V5... I was not counting a "Legion Of Superheroes" book that ran for four issues back 1973, reprinting Adventure Comic stories; I didn't know it had existed.
As for the actual nit here, on page 4, panel 3, Dream Boy says "You wereabout to ask."; obviously a space is missing there. Speaking of Dream Boy... boyohoboy, is that a sissy name or what? I guess it is, a sissy name, for a sissy powered guy, with a sissy perm... I guess that since Element Lad now wears a manly haircut, albeit with a soul patch, they needed somebody to be the George Perez-y 80s permed sissy).
For those of you who are now wanting to see the level of sissines that Dream Boy takes things to, behold (and compare to retro Element Lad)!
Oh, yeah, and see here new, manly, soulpatched V5 Element Lad:
Note: I don't have any kind of problem with gay people (which Element Lad was/is, sort of); I'm just making fun of their costumes and hair. Speaking of gays and comics, please check out Blockade Boy (by its namesake) and The Absorbascon (by Scipio), both ran by gay comic fans, an incidentally, very, very funny. Actually, come to think about it, since Blockade Boy is a character, I'm not sure if the actual blogger is gay.
NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar, not a big thing at all.
<-------------------------------->
"SOME BUILDING WITH FOREIGN PEOPLE, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?"
TITLE: Countdown.
ISSUE: 49.
CULPRIT: Mike Marts (editor).
NIT-TO-PICK: Speaking of Countdown, we've seen that Jimmy Olsen has elastic powers, so he might not be the Jimmy of New Earth. Anyway, this nit is not really in the comic, but in Mike Mart's weekly Q&A at Newsarama, about this particular comic, so I'll stretch my modus operandi slightly.
In this issue, Mary Marvel visits Gotham, where she wanders (actually runs, while being chased by some lowlifes) into an abandoned building, which apparently used to house some sort of diplomatic mission from Kahndaq. It can't be the Embassy of Kahndaq, formerly of Themyscira, since that building is located in New York City, because nations can have many consulates in important cities of a particular country, but only one Embassy in that country, generally in the capital city.
Yet in the aforementioned Newsarama piece, Marts said "It’s the abandoned Kahndaq embassy. Abandoned and left vacant after the events of 52 and World War III." Well, this is almost as bad as having an Embassy for your country located in a city on your own country.
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, it could be higher, but it wasn't actually in the book itself.
<-------------------------------->
"NIT-PICKING OR NITPICKING?"
TITLE: The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
ISSUE: 08.
CULPRIT: Aubrey Sitterson (editor, who, oddly, has no assistant editors); or whoever puts together the layout of the letters page.
NIT-TO-PICK: On the letters page, on the bottom, readers are encouraged to send letters to "The Irredeemable Antman (...)"; but the book's name is "The Irredeemable Ant-Man". I'll have to check if it's the same on the previous seven issues.
NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar, sometimes I nitpick for the sake of Nitpicking.
<-------------------------------->
"DO OR DO NOT, TRYING IS DISHONORABLE!"
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: This book is a good read, much better than the TNG one IDW is putting out at the moment (The Space Between, was it?); but it's got some conceptual errors.
First of all, on page 4, panels 3 and 4, it says, about Klingon culture, "For a warrior, no credit is given for mere effort. And one who tries valiantly and fails... is still no less a failure." Hmm... and here I thought I'd seen tons of episodes where Klingons claim that there is honor in dying in battle, even if you lose the battle, as long as you fought valiantly and honorably.
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"SAY, WHY IS THE FLOOR OF THIS O.R. PAINTED RED?"
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: And on with this book's misconceptions about Klingons; the scene showing the Klingon's operation to appear human on page 7; it is accepted that Klingons, due to their warrior culture, have underdeveloped medical science and technology (compared to the Federation); but this is way too much.
The Klingon "doctors" operate dressed in armor (with no gloves or surgical mask), in an obviously non-sterile environment (complete with bloodstains in the instrument cart), no anesthetics, and with surgical instruments that look like power tools. Yes, we know that they're tough motherfuckers; however, they're not stupid, and even if their medical science is not as advanced as the Federation's, they wouldn't operate under those conditions if they want their patient to survive.
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, it's really stupid. The artist (David Messina) gets a pass because the description of the procedure comes from the script.
<-------------------------------->
"I'M A KLINGON DOCTOR, WHAT THE HELL DO I KNOW ABOUT KLINGON ANATOMY?"
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, panel four, one of the doctor talks about how the now cosmetically human looking Klingon won't pass a medical scan, due to the vast difference between human and Klingon anatomy. He mentions a "more substantial rib cage, significantly larger heart, and three lungs."
Gee, of course humans don't have all that, but in Star Trek, they must also have, as the Klingons, two livers, an eight-chambered heart (which does not necessarily mean bigger), 23 ribs (more ribs, not just "more substantial ribs"), two stomachs and a double-lined neural pia mater (brain membrane).
Just for reference, the Klingon call their redundant organ systems brak'lul.
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars; I'm not a Klingon expert, but when I read that, I knew that it didn't sound right.
<-------------------------------->
"WE DID THE FEET FIRST."
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: Back to page 7, on the fifth panel (or the main one); the patient's feet look human, they don't have the characteristic ridges Klingon feet present (as seen in the The Next Generation's episode "Ethics" and Enterprise's "Broken Bow").
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"METAL MEN? OH, RIGHT, THOSE METAL MEN!"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: What hell's going on here? Last issue, neither Batman nor Superman know who Will MaG... sorry, Magnus and his Metal Men are; but now, on page 3, they do? What gives? I tell you, this book keeps getting worse and worse.
NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. How is Verheiden capable of excellent Galactica episodes, and of this crap at the same time, is beyond me.
<-------------------------------->
"SWEATING ROBOTS?"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 11, Superman tries to use his super senses to see if Metallo is lying; and says that Metallo's Kryptonite heart "doesn't jump" when he says a supposed lie, or that he's not perspiring or breathing abnormally.
Little problem there... Metallo doesn't have any organic parts other than his brain, and if he's got any kind of simulation of body functions, they're just that, simulations. And the Kryptonite heart wouldn't jump, because it's not really a heart, it's just a lump of radioactive rock that powers the robotic body Metallo's brain wears as a prosthetic.
NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, I'm handing 'em out as if they're candy, but they deserve it.
<-------------------------------->
"YEAH, I NEEDED HER BEFORE GOLD 'CAUSE SHE'S GOOD WITH BLOW.... ERR... ACCOUNTING!"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 12. panel 3, Will Magnus explains that Gold is not finished yet because of the high price of his material. However, Platinum (or Platinia, as they call her now) is fully built, and platinum is more expensive than gold, usually twice the cost of gold.
NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, a little research doesn't hurt.
<-------------------------------->
"I GOT A NEW DOG, IT'S A POMERANIAN."
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers) and/or Adam Schlagman (assistant editor) & Eddie Berganza (editor).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 17, Superman says that he doesn't meet with Batman in his fortress because Batman "hates the dog"; but Krypto has been missing for over a year, as revealed in Superman #662 (which also states that Superman hasn't had much time search for him; yet he jokes about him. Insensitive bastard.)
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"ME SUPERMAN. ME NEED ENGLISH TRANSLATION."
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 18, Batman says about Metallo "The cybernetic implants have an on-board CPU which has been compromised by malignant code."; and Superman asks "What's the English translation?"
Come on, do you really mean that Superman, who, as Clark Kent, is an award winning journalist, regardless of his super powers, and also, has some extent of super intelligence, or at least, quicker thought processes than regular people.
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"OH, AND I SUPPOSE YOU BUILT BROTHER EYE FROM OLD NINTENDO CONSOLES?"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: And things keep getting better and better... if by "better" we understand "so ridiculous not even a Mort Weisinger edited Superman book would try to pull it off".
Still on page 18, Batman describes to Superman how Metallo's human brain communicates with his cybernetic body: a Bluetooth protocol. Of course, that's what I was missing from my cybernetic theories... the only thing you need to interface a human brain with a robotic body is an off the shelf wireless communication protocol!
NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, please. Perhaps Batman is dumbing it down for his not too bright friend Superman, who needs an English translation?
<-------------------------------->
"DEJA VU WITH DIANA!"
TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.
ISSUE: 09.
CULPRIT: Jodi Picoult (writer).
NIT-TO-PICK: In this issue, Diana meets with her mother, Hippolyta, but hadn't she already done that, under completely different circumstances, as shown in Amazons Attack #1 and Wonder Woman V3 #8?
NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"RESURRECTION IS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE IN COMIC BOOKS!"
TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.
ISSUE: 09.
CULPRIT: Jodi Picoult (writer).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page five, panel 3, Superman says, about the possibility of Hippolyta being alive "(...) is impossible. I saw her die.".... Right Supes, because you, Hal Jordan, and Oliver Queen, just to mention a few, have never returned from death. Right, and since you haven't, it's obvious that it shouldn't be possible either for the queen of a magical island of almost immortal warriors to come back from among the dead?
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
There, we got a 6.3 Bazzars average, which is good, it's more than one point higher than last week. Again, thanks to Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell and Superman/Batman for making my job so easy. Next week... well, next week I'm sure we'll have some stuff to rant about.... for example, Star Trek: TNG: The Space Between is coming out, so I'm sure I'll be able to have some fun with that...
And ooh.... lookie here.... nothing to do with nits, or at least I haven't found any in that book, but the thing is, The Boys #7 is finally coming out, with the book having found a new home at Dynamite Entertainment. Good news there. Well, that's all for this week, until next, keep in mind that nothing escapes...
THE NITPICKER!
DISCLAIMER
[[WARNING! THIS COLUMN MIGHT CONTAIN SPOILERS!]]
So, here we are with the new and (hopefully) weekly Nitpicker! I know I promised that I'd post on Friday or Monday; but I write this thing on my free time at work, and since I didn't work on Friday, and Sunday was quite busy, it ended up being today, just in time for new comics! As I said last week, I'm going to start posting weekly, with fewer nits, to have a more active schedule.
Each week I'll have at least 10 nits, and if I can't find that many in that week's comics, I'll use my vast backlog reserve to get to that amount. This week, for example, we have more, just with this week's comics we got up to 17 nits (thanks to Superman/Batman and Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell that contributed with ten of them).
While not a nit, this is not totally off-topic, so I thought I'd mention it. Am I the only one who finds funny that MAD Magazine rewards readers whose letters are published in the magazine with a set of notebooks featuring "The Art Of Vintage Marvel"; when MAD is published by DC Comics? Whatever, let's get on with this week's nits!
<-------------------------------->
"IT'S AN ANCIENT WAKANDAN STORING METHOD."
TITLE: Fantastic Four V1.
ISSUE: 546.
CULPRIT: Paul Pelletier (penciller).
NIT-TO-PICK: Page 14, panels 2 and 3... are we supposed to believe that the Black Panther, the king of Wakanda, one of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth, stores a machine created by Dr. Doom to siphon the Power Cosmic off the Silver Surfer, in a wooden crate held together with screws, with the words "Plan G" painted on one side? Come on!!!
NIT-O-METER: 3 Bazzars, this is preposterous.
<-------------------------------->
"WHAT'S THE NAME OF THE DAMN PLANET?"
TITLE: Star Wars: Legacy.
ISSUE: 12.
CULPRIT: John Ostrander (script), maybe also Jan Duursema (co-plotter), and/or Michael Heisler (letterer).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 4, they mention the planet Zonoma Sekot, when it's Zonama Sekot.
NIT-O-METER: 2 Bazzar, it's a typo, but you should check your references.
<-------------------------------->
"DON'TFORGETTHESPACES"
TITLE: (Supergirl And The) Legion Of Superheroes V5.
ISSUE: 30.
CULPRIT: Mark Waid (writer) and/or Jared K. Fletcher (letterer).
NIT-TO-PICK: First of all, you'd notice that I've changed the notation on this book. We all know that Supergirl is, eventually, going back to the 21st Century (actually, she's already there/then... time travel makes my head hurt!), so the "Supergirl And The" part of the book's name is going to be dropped at some point. As it is, the book is V1 of "Supergirl And...", but when it loses the "Supergirl...", it'll go back to being "Legion...", actually, V5 of the book. I have, erroneously, been referring to this book as V4, when it's actually V5... I was not counting a "Legion Of Superheroes" book that ran for four issues back 1973, reprinting Adventure Comic stories; I didn't know it had existed.
As for the actual nit here, on page 4, panel 3, Dream Boy says "You wereabout to ask."; obviously a space is missing there. Speaking of Dream Boy... boyohoboy, is that a sissy name or what? I guess it is, a sissy name, for a sissy powered guy, with a sissy perm... I guess that since Element Lad now wears a manly haircut, albeit with a soul patch, they needed somebody to be the George Perez-y 80s permed sissy).
For those of you who are now wanting to see the level of sissines that Dream Boy takes things to, behold (and compare to retro Element Lad)!
Oh, yeah, and see here new, manly, soulpatched V5 Element Lad:
Note: I don't have any kind of problem with gay people (which Element Lad was/is, sort of); I'm just making fun of their costumes and hair. Speaking of gays and comics, please check out Blockade Boy (by its namesake) and The Absorbascon (by Scipio), both ran by gay comic fans, an incidentally, very, very funny. Actually, come to think about it, since Blockade Boy is a character, I'm not sure if the actual blogger is gay.
NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar, not a big thing at all.
<-------------------------------->
"SOME BUILDING WITH FOREIGN PEOPLE, WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?"
TITLE: Countdown.
ISSUE: 49.
CULPRIT: Mike Marts (editor).
NIT-TO-PICK: Speaking of Countdown, we've seen that Jimmy Olsen has elastic powers, so he might not be the Jimmy of New Earth. Anyway, this nit is not really in the comic, but in Mike Mart's weekly Q&A at Newsarama, about this particular comic, so I'll stretch my modus operandi slightly.
In this issue, Mary Marvel visits Gotham, where she wanders (actually runs, while being chased by some lowlifes) into an abandoned building, which apparently used to house some sort of diplomatic mission from Kahndaq. It can't be the Embassy of Kahndaq, formerly of Themyscira, since that building is located in New York City, because nations can have many consulates in important cities of a particular country, but only one Embassy in that country, generally in the capital city.
Yet in the aforementioned Newsarama piece, Marts said "It’s the abandoned Kahndaq embassy. Abandoned and left vacant after the events of 52 and World War III." Well, this is almost as bad as having an Embassy for your country located in a city on your own country.
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars, it could be higher, but it wasn't actually in the book itself.
<-------------------------------->
"NIT-PICKING OR NITPICKING?"
TITLE: The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
ISSUE: 08.
CULPRIT: Aubrey Sitterson (editor, who, oddly, has no assistant editors); or whoever puts together the layout of the letters page.
NIT-TO-PICK: On the letters page, on the bottom, readers are encouraged to send letters to "The Irredeemable Antman (...)"; but the book's name is "The Irredeemable Ant-Man". I'll have to check if it's the same on the previous seven issues.
NIT-O-METER: 1 Bazzar, sometimes I nitpick for the sake of Nitpicking.
<-------------------------------->
"DO OR DO NOT, TRYING IS DISHONORABLE!"
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: This book is a good read, much better than the TNG one IDW is putting out at the moment (The Space Between, was it?); but it's got some conceptual errors.
First of all, on page 4, panels 3 and 4, it says, about Klingon culture, "For a warrior, no credit is given for mere effort. And one who tries valiantly and fails... is still no less a failure." Hmm... and here I thought I'd seen tons of episodes where Klingons claim that there is honor in dying in battle, even if you lose the battle, as long as you fought valiantly and honorably.
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"SAY, WHY IS THE FLOOR OF THIS O.R. PAINTED RED?"
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: And on with this book's misconceptions about Klingons; the scene showing the Klingon's operation to appear human on page 7; it is accepted that Klingons, due to their warrior culture, have underdeveloped medical science and technology (compared to the Federation); but this is way too much.
The Klingon "doctors" operate dressed in armor (with no gloves or surgical mask), in an obviously non-sterile environment (complete with bloodstains in the instrument cart), no anesthetics, and with surgical instruments that look like power tools. Yes, we know that they're tough motherfuckers; however, they're not stupid, and even if their medical science is not as advanced as the Federation's, they wouldn't operate under those conditions if they want their patient to survive.
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars, it's really stupid. The artist (David Messina) gets a pass because the description of the procedure comes from the script.
<-------------------------------->
"I'M A KLINGON DOCTOR, WHAT THE HELL DO I KNOW ABOUT KLINGON ANATOMY?"
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 8, panel four, one of the doctor talks about how the now cosmetically human looking Klingon won't pass a medical scan, due to the vast difference between human and Klingon anatomy. He mentions a "more substantial rib cage, significantly larger heart, and three lungs."
Gee, of course humans don't have all that, but in Star Trek, they must also have, as the Klingons, two livers, an eight-chambered heart (which does not necessarily mean bigger), 23 ribs (more ribs, not just "more substantial ribs"), two stomachs and a double-lined neural pia mater (brain membrane).
Just for reference, the Klingon call their redundant organ systems brak'lul.
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars; I'm not a Klingon expert, but when I read that, I knew that it didn't sound right.
<-------------------------------->
"WE DID THE FEET FIRST."
TITLE: Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell.
ISSUE: 02 of 04.
CULPRIT: Scott and David Tipton (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: Back to page 7, on the fifth panel (or the main one); the patient's feet look human, they don't have the characteristic ridges Klingon feet present (as seen in the The Next Generation's episode "Ethics" and Enterprise's "Broken Bow").
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
<-------------------------------->
"METAL MEN? OH, RIGHT, THOSE METAL MEN!"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: What hell's going on here? Last issue, neither Batman nor Superman know who Will MaG... sorry, Magnus and his Metal Men are; but now, on page 3, they do? What gives? I tell you, this book keeps getting worse and worse.
NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars. How is Verheiden capable of excellent Galactica episodes, and of this crap at the same time, is beyond me.
<-------------------------------->
"SWEATING ROBOTS?"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 11, Superman tries to use his super senses to see if Metallo is lying; and says that Metallo's Kryptonite heart "doesn't jump" when he says a supposed lie, or that he's not perspiring or breathing abnormally.
Little problem there... Metallo doesn't have any organic parts other than his brain, and if he's got any kind of simulation of body functions, they're just that, simulations. And the Kryptonite heart wouldn't jump, because it's not really a heart, it's just a lump of radioactive rock that powers the robotic body Metallo's brain wears as a prosthetic.
NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, I'm handing 'em out as if they're candy, but they deserve it.
<-------------------------------->
"YEAH, I NEEDED HER BEFORE GOLD 'CAUSE SHE'S GOOD WITH BLOW.... ERR... ACCOUNTING!"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 12. panel 3, Will Magnus explains that Gold is not finished yet because of the high price of his material. However, Platinum (or Platinia, as they call her now) is fully built, and platinum is more expensive than gold, usually twice the cost of gold.
NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars, a little research doesn't hurt.
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"I GOT A NEW DOG, IT'S A POMERANIAN."
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers) and/or Adam Schlagman (assistant editor) & Eddie Berganza (editor).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 17, Superman says that he doesn't meet with Batman in his fortress because Batman "hates the dog"; but Krypto has been missing for over a year, as revealed in Superman #662 (which also states that Superman hasn't had much time search for him; yet he jokes about him. Insensitive bastard.)
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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"ME SUPERMAN. ME NEED ENGLISH TRANSLATION."
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page 18, Batman says about Metallo "The cybernetic implants have an on-board CPU which has been compromised by malignant code."; and Superman asks "What's the English translation?"
Come on, do you really mean that Superman, who, as Clark Kent, is an award winning journalist, regardless of his super powers, and also, has some extent of super intelligence, or at least, quicker thought processes than regular people.
NIT-O-METER: 6 Bazzars.
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"OH, AND I SUPPOSE YOU BUILT BROTHER EYE FROM OLD NINTENDO CONSOLES?"
TITLE: Superman/Batman.
ISSUE: 35.
CULPRIT: Mark Verheiden & Marc Guggenheim (writers).
NIT-TO-PICK: And things keep getting better and better... if by "better" we understand "so ridiculous not even a Mort Weisinger edited Superman book would try to pull it off".
Still on page 18, Batman describes to Superman how Metallo's human brain communicates with his cybernetic body: a Bluetooth protocol. Of course, that's what I was missing from my cybernetic theories... the only thing you need to interface a human brain with a robotic body is an off the shelf wireless communication protocol!
NIT-O-METER: 10 Bazzars, please. Perhaps Batman is dumbing it down for his not too bright friend Superman, who needs an English translation?
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"DEJA VU WITH DIANA!"
TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.
ISSUE: 09.
CULPRIT: Jodi Picoult (writer).
NIT-TO-PICK: In this issue, Diana meets with her mother, Hippolyta, but hadn't she already done that, under completely different circumstances, as shown in Amazons Attack #1 and Wonder Woman V3 #8?
NIT-O-METER: 7 Bazzars.
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"RESURRECTION IS ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE IN COMIC BOOKS!"
TITLE: Wonder Woman V3.
ISSUE: 09.
CULPRIT: Jodi Picoult (writer).
NIT-TO-PICK: On page five, panel 3, Superman says, about the possibility of Hippolyta being alive "(...) is impossible. I saw her die.".... Right Supes, because you, Hal Jordan, and Oliver Queen, just to mention a few, have never returned from death. Right, and since you haven't, it's obvious that it shouldn't be possible either for the queen of a magical island of almost immortal warriors to come back from among the dead?
NIT-O-METER: 8 Bazzars.
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There, we got a 6.3 Bazzars average, which is good, it's more than one point higher than last week. Again, thanks to Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell and Superman/Batman for making my job so easy. Next week... well, next week I'm sure we'll have some stuff to rant about.... for example, Star Trek: TNG: The Space Between is coming out, so I'm sure I'll be able to have some fun with that...
And ooh.... lookie here.... nothing to do with nits, or at least I haven't found any in that book, but the thing is, The Boys #7 is finally coming out, with the book having found a new home at Dynamite Entertainment. Good news there. Well, that's all for this week, until next, keep in mind that nothing escapes...
THE NITPICKER!
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