4 Comic Books That Are Perfect for the Fall Season

I don’t know about for you, but for me, Fall conjures to mind red, brown, and yellow leaves layering upon the streets of New York City, masking the quotidian eyesores of plastic bottles, pizza crusts, and nameless paraphernalia whose grimy details I will spare you from learning. It also conjures up pumpkin spice lattes and candy corn. Now I ask you this, when enjoying your pumpkin spice lattes and candy corn (and no need to be embarrassed; it’s a well known fact that everybody loves this perfect 1-2 combo), is there no better activity to partake in than reading a good comic…or watching a good a movie…or spending time quality with a good friend? For the purposes of this article, we’re talking about reading a good comic. With the previous clause taken as a given, I now ask you, what comic book should you read? To which I will reply before you even have a chance to think, “THESE FOUR”:

Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes

The dark, beautiful stylized aesthetic of the whole Sandman series makes it the perfect read for any colder, drearier months–but, if I had to choose one graphic novel for you to sink your candy corn-covered-teeth into, it would undoubtedly be the first one.

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.net.

How The New 52 Buffed and Nerfed Female Characters in the DC Universe

Producer 1: I have an idea! Let’s forget the long history of character arcs, plots, and places, and completely relaunch our superheroes”

Prodcuer 2: What, are you crazy? The fans will kill us! That’s tantamount to rewriting the Bible in their eyes.

Producer 1: Producer 2, I feel like you’re being a little extreme. They’ll still have all of their old comics to play with. At the very least this can be a little experiment.

Producer 2: A little experiment that will get us killed! Whatever we create, they’ll compare to the originals. 

Producer 1: What originals?

Producer 2: You know, everything that existed in the DC universe before.

Proder 1: Multiverse.

Producer 2: What? 

Producer 1: There were 52 worlds before. 

Producer 2: Sure. 

Producer 1: And the continuity between those worlds was all garbled up. 

Producer 2: Yeah, but they’re comics books. There are thousands, if not millions of them. How could we ever make sense of the continuity of things?

Producer 1: By starting over. 

With that fictional conversation, the New 52 were reborn. Like Producer 2 feared, many people were underwhelmed with the reboot. But it’s not just because it’s a reboot of what everyone knows. It’s because a lot of the reboots were over-sexed (Starfire), over-bloodied (Wonder Woman), and in general over-edged versions of their former selves. Yet, it wasn’t all bad. Batman and Justice League were done particularly well, the new characters were amazing (Prez, Midnighter), and though some female characters lost some of their feminist spirit, others emerged stronger than they were before.

Below’s a look at 3 female characters that the ups and downs of their New 52 reincarnations...

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.net

EVEN IF THE SUICIDE MOVIE SUCKS…

…it’s worth checking out the comic book universe on which David Ayer’s lackluster movie is based. It’s the perfect setup: a band of villains forced to reluctantly fight for good.

The Comic Book You Need to Read for Every Suicide Squad Character (@EstebanRules) from Damian Esteban

In the process we learn that some of these bad guys have some good in them, some of these bad guys had  some good in them, and some these bad guys are just bad.

*PHILOSOPHICAL EXTRAPOLATION ALERT*

This is what’s ultimately amazing about Suicide Squad or any other villain-centered story, it forces us to think about those that we would normally write off as the bad guys…

For the full blog, go to DamianEsteban.net