Month: January 2016

Eclipso Annotations Nearing Completion

Almost finished the notes on the tie-in annuals – only three more to go, then a detailed look at Eclipso: The Darkness Within #2 and that’ll be the main annotations completed. I also plan to have a look at the solo Eclipso series that followed it, as well as how things got wrapped up in the pages of The Spectre.

Having to read (or in some cases re-read) the annuals has been kinda fun on the whole, as I remember the early 90’s DCU with some fondness. However, having just re-read the Justice League Europe annual, I’ve been reminded of how terrible Power Girl was written back then – she was portrayed as constantly angry, a state put down to being allergic to artificial sweeteners in diet soda. So, in the annual, having been annoyed by her team mates, what does she do?

Power Girl Soda

Yep, she binges on diet soda and gets angry. No prizes for guessing who from the JLE gets eclipsed…

Crisis House Ad

Came across this house ad for what was then titled DC Universe: Crisis on Infinite Earths in Green Lantern #186, cover dated March 1985:

GL 186 Crisis Ad2As the first issue of Crisis was cover dated April ’85, just one month later, I can only guess that the ad was done months in advance which is why it still had the original series title.

Sill, it’s sort of nice to see that even at that early stage, the tag-line of “The DC Universe will never be the same” was in place.

New Bloodlines?!

A few weeks ago, I finished transferring all the annotations I’d done from the old site to this one and then thought about which DC event to start afresh. If I’m honest, my choices were either Eclipso: The Darkness Within or Bloodlines mainly because I already owned all the annuals and book ends for both of them. Knowing Bloodlines would be a little less enjoyable due to the – shall we say, weaker – storyline, I went for Eclipso and am currently about half way through the write-ups.

Now, in a wonderful example of sod’s law, I read that DC are going to be revisiting Bloodlines with a new six-issue mini series in April with the following details:

When a meteor crashes to Earth, bringing with it an unspeakable alien presence that terrorizes a nearby small town, the lucky ones die first. As for the rest, they find themselves locked in a hellish struggle for control of their bodies and their minds. This isn’t just an invasion. It’s an infestation. What would you do if the greatest threat to humanity was hidden away inside you?
Award-winning writer J.T. Krul (Teen Titans, Green Arrow, Jirni) and superstar-in-the-making V. Ken Marion (All New Soulfire, Jirni) bring you their dark and horrifying science-fiction epic about tortured souls who are cursed to a fate worse than death…much worse.

Here’s the cover to the first issue:

NewBloodlinesCover

That looks like an updated Razorblade on the left, Gunfire or maybe Ballistic behind her, Loose Cannon in the front and – a real maybe – Geist in the background?

Given the original Bloodline parasite’s were and obvious rip-off homage to the Alien xenomorphs, I wonder if the floating ball things with hooks are a more subtle reference to the face-huggers?

Either way, it seems I need to get my skates on and finish the Eclipso annotations because – obviously – the whole of the internet will be wanting to find out more about the original Bloodlines series now this has been announced.

Are You Joking