Comic conventions

One thing that is huge to the comic book fandom is conventions. I have never personally been to one (not yet at least) but I have heard they are incredibly fun. This is where fans, artists, and companies all meet in a convention center. Artists and companies have booths where they sell merchandise, art, announce upcoming events and promote their product. Some fans dress up as their favorite comic book characters. Most fans will simply attend to get the chance to meet celebrities, artists, and spend time with other fans. The biggest of these is the International Comic Con held in San Diego (which I plan on attending in July). They not only promote comic books but movies and television shows. There is a smaller convention held in Kansas City called Planet Comicon. This won't be held until March, however. It will be at the Overland Park International Trade Center. For more information check out www.planetcomicon.com 

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Huntress #1

Every week new comic books come out at the local comic book store Gatekeeper Hobbies. I've got a pull list set up with every book I'm subscribed to. This week one of the most notable books I picked up was Huntress #1 written by Paul Levitz, and with art by Marcus To and John Dell

The Huntress title revolves around Helena Bertinelli, the daughter of an Italian mob boss who lives in Gotham and fights crime as Huntress. However, the Huntress title was originally held by Helena Wayne. She was the daughter of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle (Batman and Catwoman respectively) and took up the mantle of Huntress after her mother was murdered in the field.

Helena Wayne has become, by far, one of my favorite female characters in the Batman mythos despite the fact that DC chose to kill her off in 1986 during the last major reboot "Infinite Crisis." A year later Huntress resurfaced with a different background and that is who we see in Huntress #1. I decided to pick up this title mostly for the fact that Marcus To, one of my favorite comic artists, is the one doing the pencilling for the art. I then found out that the writer for the book would be Paul Levitz. He was the original creator of Helena Wayne in the 70's. After learning that fact there was no doubt in my mind that I needed this book.

I was more than impressed with the first issue of the six issue run. The art was fantastic, and I knew I could expect no less from Marcus To. The writing was also amazing. It was exactly what I had hoped for from this book. I've been bored with a few of the #1 title's I've read from the New 52 in the last month. Since writers are starting a new story it takes a couple issues to really get into things. That is definitely not the case with this book. Levitz did a great job of providing exposition quickly and breaking straight into the action. The book is fast paced but still drew me in and quickly created a sense of attachment to the rebooted character. I can honestly say this book is the one I am most excited to continue reading out of all the new books.

However, what really excited me was the final page which announced that after this mini series is complete, DC will be putting out a new Justice Society book based in Earth-2. This "earth" (an alternate universe in the comic reality) was the original home of Helena Wayne. This page also went into detail about Wayne and how the Huntress mini series has connections to Karen Starr, Helena Wayne's best friend, and the book that she is in. All in all it speculated that Helena Wayne will be resurrected and find her way into comics once again.

Please let me know if this blog post lacks coherency. I'm just a little bit excited at the moment and that probably has a negative impact on my writing abilities.

This video is a trailer for something that I will be referencing a lot in this blog, the DC reboot. In September DC Comics stopped every one of their titles and relaunched 52 books from #1. Many characters where re-imagined, stories were changed, and some characters were taken out entirely. This was an attempt by DC to bring in new readers considering the company has been behind Marvel in sales for the past 6 years. There has been a great deal of controversy surrounding the "New 52" and I can guarantee I will discuss this quite a bit.

My introduction

Before I start babbling about comics, I feel like it would be a good idea to introduce myself and explain why this topic is so important to me. I'm Morgan, a 20 year old college student, who, for all intents and purposes, is pretty normal. I was introduced to all things nerdy by my big brother when I was a kid. I found myself hooked on Power Rangers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and X-Men while most of my friends were playing with Barbies. When my brother told me about Batman, that became my sole focus. I was intrigued by the fact that a human could run with the superheros and be just as effective. I only got more obsessed when I learned about the girls on his team. I felt like I could relate to these girls like Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, or Batgirl and Spoiler respectively. They became a positive role model in my life when those were few and far between. I admired the fact that these normal girls could be so strong and do such extraordinary things. 

I fell out of the fold a few years back, but in the past year I've been renewing my interest and diversifying what I read. Now I'm just as hooked as I ever was and I'm pretty sure there will never be a lack of things for me to say on here.

This post might be the fluffiest piece of fluff that has ever been fluffed out. I promise my content driven posts won't be this terrible.