With just ten days left until Christmas we are rapidly approaching the red zone for shopping. I know I reminded you all last week but your LOCAL COMIC SHOP is a fantastic resource when shopping for that nerd, geek, or dweeb on your list. Heck, even if you DON’T know what to get them you can buy a gift certificate and then they can go nuts on some back issues on Boxing Day.
Behold! Consumerism!
Nightwing Volume 1: Leaping Into The Light
Tom Taylor (W)
Bruno Redondo (A)
DC Comics
Nightwing has easily been one of the standout books for me this year since the book has returned to prominence with the top tier talents of Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo (if there were any more t’s in that last sentence the alliteration officials would’ve thrown a flag on the play). The last decade for the character of Dick Grayson has been somewhat tumultuous due to a long-rumored editorial bullseye being trained on the character. Not to retread well trod ground but some higher-ups at DC did not see the point of legacy characters (Wally West included) and wanted them to GO AWAY.
Lucky for us that this is comics and regimes change quickly and our favourite characters tend to endure. It’s kind of weird for me that Dick Grayson made the leap from Robin to Nightwing in my lifetime and that this version of the character has been Nightwing for almost as long as he was Robin at this point.
While I am a fan, I’ve read Nightwing pretty sporadically over the years. The title has gone through many, MANY iterations, ranging from spectacular to god-awful. Not too long ago there was a major change status quo of the book that took place in an entirely different title. I picked up the new issue of Nightwing one Wednesday and was totally confused as to what was going on because Dick Grayson got shot in the head in the Batman title I wasn’t reading. Comics!
Nightwing Vol. 1: Leaping Into The Light is very much a reboot. Taylor’s run on the title may have started with issue #78 but it could just as well be a new first issue. Here’s the blurb:
Nightwing is back in Blüdhaven and his drive to keep his adopted city safe has never been stronger! But protecting Blüdhaven is no small task, especially now that it’s being menaced by Nightwing’s most terrifying foe yet-a mysterious and murderous villain with a penchant for stealing his victim’s hearts, known only as Heartless. Collected in this Infinite Frontier Nightwing evolution are issues #78-83.
This collection is a great jumping on point for new readers and old fans alike. The book has been consistently readable over the last few months, even though it lost some momentum due to a couple of issues being shoehorned into the Bat-book Fear State crossover.
Young Justice
No, not the comic! This is Young Justice the TV show!
I’m going to make a big claim here and honestly what’s the point of having a column on a website if I’m not making big claims? Young Justice is EASILY the best thing DC/WB has done since Batman: The Animated Series and Justice League (the animated series, not either of those…other things).
Young Justice started off on Cartoon Network before famously being canceled for “not selling enough” toys only to find new life on streaming services. Seriously, fans of the show (myself included) streamed the crap out of it until our prayers were answered and it was revived for the DC Universe streaming app. Until that app did what we all expected it to do and promptly shat itself to death at the thought of the oncoming Disney+ competition.
But it doesn’t end there! Young Justice lived once again this time via HBO MAX and we’re in a new golden age of shows that are essentially niche or cult favorites getting second and third chances due to streaming services needing hashtag: content. I pray to Bruce Campbell and Joe Dante every night that we’ll get reboots of The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Eerie, Indiana respectively.
So why is Young Justice awesome and why is it part of the BBP! Holiday Gift Guide? Everything about the show is fantastically written with some of the best serialized storytelling a DC Animated show has every pulled off and it also lets its characters grow and change. I’m not sure what kind of roadmap the creators have plotted out but they easily have multiple seasons (probably in the double digits) of story left to tell.
The DVDs and Blu-Rays are available to purchase online and they’re a great addition to the physical media library of any DC fan out there. Heck, you could even gift someone a subscription to HBO Max (if you’re in the states) and binge the show if you’re fortunate enough to have any time off around the holidays.
Young Justice is currently in the midst of its fourth season on HBO MAX, but a fifth season is not quite guaranteed just yet. So please, for ME, give the gift of Young Justice this year. Stream it non-stop, leave it on for your pets or just fall asleep to it!
EDITORIAL INTERJECTION!
Hello, hi, it’s me, Andy Burns, EIC of Biff Bam Pop!, taking up some of E.A. Henson’s valuable space here; I asked permission, and he was cool with it. You see, as I was reading through his column and seeing the solid DC gift suggestions, it occurred to me that right here, right now would be the perfect place to share another reco I’d been working on.
Along with Batman: The Animated Series, WB also gave us Superman: The Animated Series, which ran for three seasons during the late 190s and dovetailed directly into the Justice League and Justice League Unlimited animated series. While not quite on part with B:TAS, due mainly because of just how gritty and groundbreaking that series was, there’s no question that Superman: The Animated Series was definitely of high quality, from both an animation and storytelling perspective. Though it looked “ok” when it arrived on DVD about a decade or so ago, the show has now been gorgeously upgraded to Blu-ray, like B:TAS and Batman Beyond, both released over the past few years.
As per the PR:
Superman: The Complete Animated Series Blu-ray features nearly 21 hours of entertainment spread over six Blu-ray™ discs, including all 54 exciting episodes, an all-new series-defining featurette entitled Superman: Timeless Icon, a special video commentary episode and three specially selected episodes with audio commentaries by the showrunners.
All 54 episodes have been remastered from the original 35mm Interpositive sources, giving special
attention to extensive color correction, dirt and scratch clean up, and adding a grain reduction pass
to create a pristine picture, all while making sure not to affect the original lines in the artwork of the
animation. The audio was retransferred from the original audio masters, and the series is presented
in its original aspect ratio (4×3).
As someone who first watched this when it aired on television, and who owned it previously on DVD, trust me when I tell you that Superman: The Complete Animated Series has never looked or sounded better than it does on Blu-ray, and for any DC fan, whether it be comics, films, or animation, this is pretty much a must-have.
