steve orlando

This week marked the final issue of Batman & Robin Eternal, and while we're still close enough to it that the honeymoon has barely even started, let alone ended, I'm pretty sure that I can declare it to be my all-time favorite weekly DC project. The shorter run benefited the project, but it was the story that made this comic great. It weaved its way through Batman's long history of sidekicks --- a history that pretty much introduced the very concept of sidekicks to the world of superhero comics --- and ended up looking at Batman, Robin, and what those characters mean, in a way that I'm not sure any other story has.

DC Comics hosted a special livestream event at WonderCon in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon to unveil the creative teams behind its DC Rebirth event, which relaunches the entire DC Universe line with new issue #1s and multiple double-shipping titles. The relaunch will set the future course of DC Comics at a time when fans are wondering whether the company will embrace a new and diversifying audience or double down on serving a shrinking core audience. The event was introduced by DC All Access host Tiffany Smith, with DC co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio and chief creative officer and Rebirth chief architect Geoff Johns introducing and interviewing the creative teams as they joined them on stage at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

It looks like the old exclusive wars of the late 2000s are back on, as DC Comics have announced today the signing of three new top-tier names to their roster of exclusive talent. Steve Orlando, Evan “Doc” Shaner and Jesus Merino have all reached agreements with DC Entertainment to work solely on books for DC and Vertigo. This announcement follows a previous sweep of signings that included Omega Men’s Tom King, Poison Ivy’s Clay Mann and Harley Quinn’s John Timms. With convention season heating up, it wouldn’t be surprising to see more names announced as the year goes on.

It’s been roughly a month since DC Comics announced its latest publishing venture, DC Rebirth, and outside of the titles of the comics, and the news that over half the line will be published twice-monthly, we don’t know a whole heck of a lot. Big announcements are expected at Wondercon on March 26th, but we can’t wait that long, so we’ve put together a list of our biggest hopes --- and our most realistic fears --- for DC’s line-wide relaunch this summer.

Last week, I interviewed Midnighter writer Steve Orlando, and as you usually do with this sort of thing, I asked him what we could look forward to in the book's next arc. I don't know why, but for some reason, I wasn't expecting the answer to be, "Midnighter gets shot into space by a giant cannon so that he can crash into a space station riding in the bullet and then fight the Suicide Squad." Really though, I should've. Considering that previous stories in this book have involved Freedom Beast showing up to fight people who were making giant elephant leopards, and that this issue is itself the sequel to a story where Midnighter fights bad guys with a gun that shoots demonic possession, transportation by giant space cannon seems like the next logical step. Check out an exclusive preview.

Over the past eight issues, Midnighter has sent its title character on a grand tour of some of the weirdest corners of the DC Universe, pitting a leather-clad fighter with a computer brain against custom-made vampires, combination animals, an endless string of easily murdered clones, and more. And through it all, writer Steve Orlando and artists David Messina, Stephen Mooney, ACO and Alec Morgan have crafted one of the best books on the stands, full of adventure, action, and a surprising amount of gut-punching emotional content. It's a great book, which is why I spoke to Orlando about the process of fitting the Midnighter into a world that already has Batman, the big reveal in #6, the rocky relationship between Midnighter and Apollo, and the plans for the book's future --- which involve the Midnighter getting shot out of a giant gun into space. It's based on a true story.

Welcome to Cast Party, the feature that imagines a world with even more live action comic book adaptations than we currently have, and comes up with arguably the best casting suggestions you’re ever going to find for the movies and shows we wish could exist. This week I'm envisioning a gay superhero action blockbuster, whether Hollywood is ready or not. That gay superhero (gay Batman, if you want to get specific) is, of course, Midnighter. He was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch, but this movie will adapt the current Midnighter series written by Steve Orlando, with art by ACO, Alec Morgan, Stephen Mooney, and David Messina.

You'd think the Power Rangers would've had more luck with comic books. They are, after all, superheroes, and not only that, but they're superheroes in a story that brings in pretty much everything superhero fans love: Secret identities, star-crossed romance, giant robot dinosaurs, moon witches, a disembodied head floating in a tube. Admittedly, some of those might just be things I'd like to see in superhero stories, but the point stands. The show's coming up on 23 years of success on television, and while it seems like everything it needs to make a good comic is right there already, every attempt up to now has resulted in what you could charitably refer to as a mixed bag. Now, it looks like that might finally change. This week, Boom Studios is launching an ongoing Power Rangers series with a zero issue, and I have to admit that for a first issue, it's got everything I want from a Power Rangers comic. And by that, I mostly mean that there's a Bulk and Skull solo story.

There are a lot of really great reasons to read DC's Midnighter ongoing series, but on the offchance that you needed a little extra push to get started, Steve Orlando and David Messina have provided a moment of pure, perfect beauty in the latest issue. When he's called in to investigate (read: punch) mysterious gigantic animals showing up in Rochester, New York --- apparently a burgeoning hub of super-crime --- our hero encounters a gigantic tusked leopard the size of an elephant. And in case you missed it, he throws an engine block right into its face. It's beautiful.

More than two decades after their television debut in 1993, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are finally getting a long-overdue style makeover for their upcoming Boom Studios series by writer Kyle Higgins and artist Hendry Prasetya. The series launches with a "Green Ranger: Year One" story arc in issue #1 in March 2016, and the issue will feature eight variant covers, including this Kevin Wada cover featuring the iconic Power Rangers team in their classic MMPR costumes. The series also includes Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #0, a one-shot prelude scheduled for January 13th, which features an ongoing back-up Bulk and Skull storyline by writer Steve Orlando and artist Corin Howell.