Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #1
Written by Steve Darnall & Alex Ross
Art by Jonathan Lau
Colors by Vinicius Andrade
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Alex Ross, John Cassaday, Jae Lee & Ardian Syaf
Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt Ashcan
Foreword by Mark Waid
Written & Illustrated by Pete Morisi
Colored by Mike Kelleher
Pete’s Dragon
Written by Steve Darnall
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: September 5, 2012
Cover Price: $3.99

Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt #1 is probably one, if not THE MOST, original super hero story that you’ll read this year. Hands down, bar none. It’s a great change of pace from the “normal” super hero genre books that are being published right now. In short, pretty sure you’re gonna enjoy this one.

Where the heck has writer Steve Darnall been? I read a LOT of comics, ladies and gentlemen, but I haven’t seen his name in a looooooong time. And that’s a shame. In fact, after an exhausting internet search, I can’t find anything credited to him since 1999. Again, really a shame. I absolutely LOVED this book and so will you. It’s quite different from a lot of first issues, there’s no book length long origin, no “I shall be called THUNDERBOLT” moment, but there are panels and inner monologue that give us small clips and snippets of an origin, and the rest pretty much takes care of itself.

Following the lead in Scott Snyder’s current run on Batman, DC Comics has posted a graphic containing all of the titles that will be participating in the Batman crossover event Night of the Owls.

Night of the Owls started this week with a prelude in Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows’ Nightwing #8 which kickstarted the first issue in the crossover event, Batman #8 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. The concept of the mini-event is that Gotham City has a sordid past that even Bruce Wayne was unaware of. The Court of Owls, an evil group of assassins, has been controlling the fate of Gotham the entire time. There’s much more to the story including Dick Grayson’s lineage and an all out assault against the Wayne family and other leaders of Gotham City. It’s a war of Bats vs. Owls when most of the Bat-family is called upon to participate.

Action Comics #900
Written by Paul Cornell, Paul Dini, Richard Donner, David S. Goyer, Geoff Johns, Damon Lindelof
Art by Pete Woods, Gary Frank, RB Silva, Ryan Sook, Brian Stelfreeze, Miguel Sepulvedo, Matt Camp, Jesus Merino, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Rags Morales, Ardian Syaf, Jamal Igle, Jon Sibal
Letters by John J. Hill, Rob Leigh
Covers by David Finch, Alex Ross, Gary Frank
DC Comics
$5.99
Release Date: April 27, 2010

Action Comics #900 is quite simply a celebration of everything great about Superman as a character. The issue, throughout most of the stories, is a showcase of Superman’s willingness to help and serve the human race primarily through self-sacrifice. Most of the recent anniversary episodes that we’ve seen, primarily through DC Comics, have been treated as anthologies with three or more short stories, one focusing on the end of a story arc, a couple of “untold tales,” and then one that starts the next story arc in Superman #700 and Wonder Woman #600; either that or a one and done story like Batman #700.

This book, on the other hand, focused more than half of its attention on the wrap-up of Lex Luthor’s Black Ring storyline by Paul Cornell and Pete Woods, and the return of Superman into Action Comics. Unfortunately, it also includes the recent Reign of Doomsday story arc, although in this issue it was a minor distraction, but still paled in comparison to the epic showdown between arch rivals Superman and Lex Luthor.