Saturday, February 27, 2010

New Aquaman Merchandise!

What a great week to stop at the comic store! Not only were Blackest Night 7 and Flash Rebirth 6 in, but also these great Aquaman action figures! First up is Aquaman from Blackest Night and it's great! Black and gold replace green and gold in this awesome design! This figure is also the first to feature the type of gloves Aquaman will probably be wearing when he comes back (also seen on the cover of the Brightest Day 2). On that cover, we see Aquaman without the usual fins on his gloves, but rather one side of each glove flares out to form what looks like two smaller fins. A minor change.And then there's this cool Ed McGuiness designed Aquaman! This is the second in the JLA Classified series. This features Aquaman as he appeared in his fifth series issues 50 to 75. The green tights, long hair, and gladiator look replaced the familiar green and gold in issue 5 of this series. I liked the updated green tights, even though I wasn't a fan of the harpoon hand or the shell headband. Erik Larsen added the shell headband to the costume when he took over writing the book in issue 50. The one thing I don't like about the figure is that the belt insignia is wrong... it's not supposed to be a captial 'A', but rather an 'A' without the cross bar. Other than that, it's a good thing!Here's the first JLA Classified action figure, just because it's cool to see the same artist have two versions of a character. It featured Aquaman as he appeared in his sixth series issues 15 to 39. One of the best costume updates he's ever had... I really liked the gold trim around the neck and wrists of this costume! Some artists gave him a high collar like he had in the blue camoflage version and that was really nice with the gold trim! I didn't mind the water hand, although I know some people hated it! Once again the belt insignia is weird on this figure as well, but the updated insignia seems hard for artists to get right.And for comparison, here's Aquaman's first belt insignia, and his second.It's amazing the amount of figures Aquaman has had... It'll be stunning to see my Aquaman shrine when I finally have room to display these figures out of their packaging!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Justice League Crisis on Two Earths

Today was the release date for the latest direct-to-DVD animated movie from DC Entertainment, Justice League Crisis on Two Earths! I already knew from clips that this was going to feature the big six of the Justice League, without Aquaman. That doesn't mean he's absent completely though... He's called up by Batman to help defend the Justice League satellite, along with Black Lightning, Black Canary, Firestorm, and Red Tornado.He gets a few choice moments in the battle with the Superwoman and her Super family - Captain Super and Uncle Super - here he's leaping onto Captain Super.Batman tells Aquaman to watch himself as they are much stronger than he is. To which Arthur replies: "That remains to be seen!" Red Tornado catches Captain Super in a cyclone and launches him toward Aquaman, who punches him through the ceiling into the hangar deck and through a plane along the way.Aquaman gives as good as he gets and it's clear the writers knew the what the character brings to the fight. Here's Aquaman versus Uncle Super:In the end, it's a great movie that never slows down. And it's also a treat to see other familiar faces of the DC Universe!I didn't care for the stunt casting for the voice work, but at least Andrea Romano was the voice director. She does outstanding work and always gets the best out of her performers. I kept comparing this release to the last direct-to-DVD animated movie, Super Batman Public Enemies, and the difference in the voice cast is noticeable. When Andrea has the opportunity to put together a voice cast, it's awesome!
That said, It's a very good movie and well worth the price of admission!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Brightest Day is Bright Indeed!

I didn't want to hope for fear for those hopes being dashed like all the other times, but I'm glad I can say Aquaman Is Back! Ok, not quite yet, but in May Brightest Day 02 comes out and this is the cover:
He's back baby! And relatively intact: 2 hands, same costume with possibly a slight tweak to his belt emblem, or it could be due artistic differences (it looks very close to the emblem used in Aquaman v6 issues 15 - 39), and a definite change to his gloves. Rather than having a fin on the gloves, one side of the glove tapers off into two fin-like extensions. I can live with that. In the announcement post at The Source, Geoff Johns had this to say:
“Brightest Day’ is about second chances. I think it’s been obvious from day one that there are major plans for the heroes and villains from Aquaman to take center stage in the DC Universe, among many others, post-Blackest Night. ‘Brightest Day’ is not a banner or a vague catch-all direction for the DC Universe, it is a story. Nor is ‘Brightest Day’ a sign that the DC Universe is going to be all about ‘light and brighty’ superheroes. Some second chances work out…some don’t.”
It's about time DC!