“No, let me tell you about true power. And, in using that term, I don’t mean simple capacity.”

I’ll be honest, Matt Wagner‘s Grendel mythos has always been on the outskirts of my comic book radar. My first exposure to it came when one day in the mid-1990’s I randomly decided to grab the Grendel: War Child trade paperback, mostly because Grendel Prime looked absolutely badass on the cover and I’m a sucker for a good cover. The story was interesting enough to eventually lead me to pick up the Batman/Grendel crossover books, which is where I got my first dose of Hunter Rose.

Let’s clear one thing up right away concerning the first Grendel, Hunter Rose…he’s a villain. He’s a cold-blooded sociopath whose amazing physical and mental prowess are matched only by his drive to dominate and control. Grendel directs his criminal empire with the same surgical precision he wields his twin-bladed staff with, and he has no qualms about cutting through anyone who gets in the way of his desires.

Deadline Hollywood Tweets:

“ABC Greenlights ‘S.H.I.E.L.D’ Marvel Pilot, Joss Whedon To Co-Write & Possibly Direct”

Deadline Hollywood Story:

“ABC has ordered a pilot for S.H.I.E.L.D, a live-action series from The Avengers writer-director Joss Whedon, Marvel TVand ABC Studios.”

“Earlier this month, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that it had signed an exclusive film and TV deal with Joss Whedon, which included him writing and directing The Avengers sequel and develop a live-action series for Marvel TV and ABC, both owned by Disney.”

Full story here

If you’ve been around long enough, the words ‘Image Comics’ sets off a barrage of memories that render you completely useless for about an hour and a half. Ridiculously long Con Autograph lines (I stood in them), Spawn Mobiles & Youngblood Jets (I took pictures of them), Image 0 coupons (I left them attached), severely missed release schedules (I patiently waited) and some of the best damn creator/artists Marvel had ever seen, left the era of standard page rates and moved on to banking serious coin off their own intellectual properties (I had long boxes full of it). It was unprecedented.

Cool Whitewash Jacket Todd

Five years in and half the founders were no longer on regular schedules and most weren’t even on their own books anymore. A few of them went back to Marvel to help launch the Heroes Reborn line (In my opinion, some of Jim Lee’s best work was on FF Heroes Reborn).  Shortly after Heroes Reborn, a founding member withdrew his imprint, while the rest contemplated ousting another. After the dust had settled, Rob Liefeld withdrew his imprint from Image Comics and thus Marc Silvestri returned with his Top Cow imprint (Silvestri’s Top Cow published comics outside of Image for several months until Rob Liefeld removed himself). Even though Image was producing a lot of good quality comics, Image wouldn’t see anything as special as it’s initial inception until some 10 years later. Enter Robert Kirkman.

Looking for a little pick-me-up in the dating scene? Don’t look now but the man of steel and the amazing amazon are available! Check our their profiles on Match.com!

Superman’s Profile

Wonder Woman’s Profile

Superman Named the World’s Most Kissable Super Hero According to Match.com Survey

I was absolutely stoked to get the opportunity to meet Chuck Dixon at WizardWorld ’98. At the time Chuck was 80 issues into his Detective Comics run (#644-738), 20 issues into his Nightwing run (#1-70, 101-105), 52 into his Robin run (#1-100) and just months away from starting his Birds of Prey Run (#1-46). Chuck Dixon WAS the Bat-Universe for those of us that read Bat-Books in the mid to late 90’s. This man bleeds comic scripts. A couple years later at WizardWorld 2000, Chuck hosted his own comic writing panel and I can remember someone asking him,  “Typically how far in advance do you write your stories?” Chuck responded that he was ” at least 6 months ahead on all his titles” and that he was “17 issues ahead on Nightwing” and that he could be further ahead, if it weren’t for the pesky cross-overs.

Chuck has written some of my favorite Batman stories of all time. His Nightwing was my favorite character for nearly a decade. I can’t think of any other writer that might have written more issues in my comic collection than Chuck Dixon. What should I have him sign? An issue of Airboy? Detective? Nightwing? Robin? Punisher War Journal? I’m not sure what the hell was going through my young head, but I chose Seven Block. An obscure-ass 25 cent bin drop-out that I had picked up while rummaging in some dealer’s trash bins. Seven Block is a graphic novel, published by Epic comics, about some inmates that volunteer to take part in biological experiments in the prison infirmary, so that they can get away from the other not-so-friendly inmates. Not Chuck’s best work. I could have picked 4 dozen other issues that would have meant more to me. Chuck was amused though. He never thought in a million years he would be signing of copy of that.

In honor of my Chuck Dixon Autographed copy of Seven Block, I’d like to share some of my favorite Batman stories penned by Chuck.