The Monolith
Written and created by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray
Artwork and Cover by Phil Winslade
Introduction by Jim Steranko
Coloring by Chris Chuckry
Lettering by Nick Napolitano & Phil Balsman
Designed by Bill Tortolini
Edited by Joey Cavalieri & Harvey Richards
Image Comics
Release Date: July 25, 2012
Cover Price: $17.99

It’s odd when DC attempts to ground their weird and exciting fictional universe, full of Kryptonians, Lantern Corps, and Ambush Bugs, in some sort of “˜real’ world. How one defines what’s ‘realistic’ is subjective, of course, and has led to approaches like Batman: Year One and Identity Crisis. As you can see, the typical story involves the same line-up of characters in their same fictional locations. There’s a new direction in The Monolith that writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray took. They created a new character, based not-so-loosely on the Jewish legend of The Golem, and the action in the book is smack-dab in the actual New York City (with Depression-era history attached to boot!).

So how does this stack up? It’s got some good qualities and some bad. And how is this an actual DC book and not, say, a Vertigo title? Well, it’s subtle and shows up around the edges, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Each and every week “Firework Fred” MK2Fac3 and “Firecracker Frank” Henchman21 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible”¦ theoretically. They look forward to some more than others, I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of July 4, 2012. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Um, yeah, sorry about the delay, folks! We were just sitting over here drinking non-alcoholic beverages in celebration of freedom and such, so we got a little too distracted by the holiday to get this up in time. You forgive us, right? Sure you do. I mean, I’m sure that you might have gotten distracted by all the booms and crackering of fireworks too and missed picking up new comics, right? That’s what I thought. Well, there’s a decent amount of stuff that came out this week, but a lot of it is more new issues than new comics, you know what I mean? Not a lot of fresh pickings. Nonetheless, you should read on because there are new comics to love and behold. Which ones? Like I said, you’ll need to read on for The GoD List.

Each and every week “Americana Assassin” MK2Fac3 and “Midwest Marauder” Henchman21 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible”¦ theoretically. They look forward to some more than others, I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of June 20, 2012. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Whhaaaaat?!!? You remember me, right? Well, I apologize for the lack of fac3 (faceless?) time on these here websites. A lot has changed recently and Tuesdays and Wednesdays have become even busier for me recently, what with the new job and all… (pausing for congratulatory high fives), so I’ve been away for like a week or something and some have said that I phoned in the previous week’s, but to those people (HENCHMAN!!!), I say this, “I’m back, BABAY!” And there have been some truly amazing comic books over the last few weeks. Did you guys read Creator Owned Heroes? I may be jumping the gun a little bit since it’s only been one issue, but I honestly think it could be a game changer. And while this week may not be jam packed full of potential game-changers, there’s some really good stuff to look forward to. So, follow me past the break, so that we can talk about all the great comics that are coming out this week. This is The GoD List, after all.

Each and every week “Gainfully Employed” MK2Fac3 and “Two More Vodka Cranberries, Please!” Henchman21 read a lot of comics. Seriously you guys, a lot of comics. Maybe too many comics. I mean, it is possible”¦ theoretically. They look forward to some more than others, I mean, who doesn’t? So, let’s take a look into the depths of their pull lists, grab some comics, and we’ll let YOU know what the top books to look forward to are for the week of June 6, 2012. Single issues and trades, they’re all here.

Guys, a lot has happened over the past week. I got a job, Henchman got a mohawk, and DC Comics thought it would be a good idea to release Watchmen prequels! Well, if you want to read about that, then you can just go look to another article, because there will be none of that here! What will be here? Well, we’ve got some pleasant surprises for you, so just keep on reading as we show you The GoD List, a place where you will find out all of the comics that you should be reading this week!

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.