A week ago, we unveiled the details about THE FIRST WAVE, writer Brian Azzarello and artist Rags Morales’ gritty pulp romp, featuring Doc Savage, Batman, the Spirit and more. But did you think we’d stop there?

As we noted, superstar artist J.G. Jones will be handling variant covers for the mini-series, and we snagged an in-progress look at the cover to THE FIRST WAVE #1. We even pulled the very busy Jones away from his desk for a second to give us his thoughts on the story spinning out of November’s BATMAN/DOC SAVAGE SPECIAL. Take it away, J.G.:

“I’m just happy to be aboard the First Wave bus along with the serious talents doing the heavy lifting. I love the world that Brian has inhabited with these iconic pulp characters, and the artwork by Rags is spot on perfect. Catch the wave; it should be a wild ride!”

Well said. And now, the cover…

We decided Brian Azzarello put it best, so why try and spruce things up with a cheeky headline?

Yesterday, we caught a look at J.G. Jones’ amazing cover to the BATMAN/DOC SAVAGE SPECIAL, which kicks off a new era for the Doc, and and provides the springboard for more stories focusing on characters like The Blackhawks, Rima and more. Oh, and Batman.

And, as we promised yesterday, we’ve got comments from Azzarello, who’s masterminding the whole shebang. Take it away, Brian:

“Cities are urban jungles– and there’s also unchartered mysterious countries with their own jungles as well. It’s world where you’re guilty before being proven innocent– something that rarely happens. Little people make big mistakes and suffer the consequences. Life is cheap, and everyone has their price. Where part of the thrill of being rich, is watching the poor suffer. Y’know, my kind of place.”

But that’s not all. Both Azzarello and cover artist J.G. Jones will be at the Chicaco Comic-Con this weekend, talking up the special with Senior Story Editor Ian Sattler. If you’re in the area, be sure to swing by and say hello.

And, because it’s Friday and we want to send you off with a smile on your respective faces, here’s artist Rags Morales’ variant cover for the BATMAN/DOC SAVAGE SPECIAL, which hits in November.

Did you think we’d have only one bit of news on Thursday? Well, think again.

As we’ve noted here, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Doc Savage in the pages of DC comics in the near future. Now, we can actually give you a tad more, detail-wise.

This November, writer Brian Azzarello teams with artist Phil Noto for the BATMAN/DOC SAVAGE SPECIAL #1, which sets the stage for an entire new world for the Doc, along with a slew of characters that will pop up later, including the Blackhawks and Rima, the Jungle Girl. It all starts here, and I’m not exaggerating when I say you’re really in for a treat.

Azzarello is no stranger to noir or gritty storytelling, as anyone familiar with Vertigo’s 100 BULLETS and the recent JOKER OGN can attest. Coupled with Noto’s neo-classic art style and you’ve got the perfect launching pad for a collection of books that will pull these beloved characters into the 21st century.

Oh, and did I mention Batman? Yeah, you may remember him.

So, allow your jaw to drop at the J.G. Jones cover below. Then come back tomorrow for another treat, plus comments from Azzarello himself.

Yes, indeed friends, those are the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS you see below. What does this mean? Well, it’s simple – in the same way the Milestone and Red Circle characters have been integrated into regular DCU continuity, so will the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS. That’s pretty much all we’ve got to say at this point, aside from the lovely designs by superstar artist J.G. Jones you see here.

And this bit of info is just the tip of the proverbial iceburg here at San Diego, as everyone is settling in for the DCU Editorial Presentation in Room 6B. Dan, Ian Sattler and a few special guests will be talking shop on all things DCU, including BLACKEST NIGHT, WEDNESDAY COMICS, BATMAN, SUPERMAN, RED CIRCLE and lots more. So come join us, why don’t you?

• The Miami Herald’s Richard Pachter has a few kind words for the FINAL CRISIS HC, calling the collection “provocative, thrilling and resonant.” And because it’s not a blog post without me shamelessly interjecting my life into it, it’s nice to see my old stompin’ grounds giving DCU books some love.

• Continuing their concerted BLACKEST NIGHT coverage, IGN unveiled a first-look at GREEN LANTERN #43, a prologue to BLACKEST NIGHT #1 spotlighting Black Hand. And, in case you missed it the first time, up above is a spread from #43 which has a few hints about BLACKEST NIGHT, to say the least.

• Over at THE BEAT, Heidi has the 2009 Harvey Award nominees. Winners will be announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con, which will be held October 10-11, 2009. The ceremony and banquet for the 2008 Harvey Awards will be held Saturday night, October 10. Congrats to DC’s nominees, which include Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely for their work on ALL STAR SUPERMAN, Alex Ross for his cover work on JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA and Rob Leigh for his lettering on THE SPIRIT.

Two big things are hitting the wire today, so here we go:

Today marks the launch of IGN.com’s BLACKEST NIGHT mini-site, which will include previews, interviews, video features, sketches and more exclusive content. Check back on Monday, as IGN will unveil a first look at GREEN LANTERN #43, a BLACKEST NIGHT prologue, and early next month they’ll debut an exclusive video feature about the upcoming event, including interviews with series writer Geoff Johns. So, swing on over and bookmark the page, as it’ll be the hot spot for all things BLACKEST NIGHT.

The New York Tmes unveiled their weekly graphic novel bestseller list, and Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, Carlos Pacheco and Doug Mahnke’s superhero epic FINAL CRISIS is atop it, in its first week of eligibility. Neat, huh?

Other notable titles making the list: BATMAN R.I.P., BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE, JOKER and BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS.

As discussed in yesterday’s FINAL CRISIS post, here’s the introduction to the hardcover, from Jay Babcock, editor/publisher of ARTHUR magazine. Enjoy:

It’s another rainy Wednesday. We’ve been doing errands all afternoon in a borrowed car and we’re on our way home after the last stop: Fat Jack’s Comic Crypt in downtown Philadelphia. I’m in the passenger seat, giggling like a monkey.

“What are you laughing at?” my girlfriend asks in that way you do when you’re concerned for someone’s mental health.

In my best solemn narrator impression voice, I read aloud: “‘As he speaks, the vast, slow motion INVASION OF REALITY begins. Machines bigger than CITIES arrive out of the VOID and ANCHOR themselves to the garbage heaps of LIMBO.’”

“It does not say that,” she says with a breaking smile.

I turn the page and continue: “‘Phantom armies clash on the battlefields of LIMBO. This strange, last outpost of EXISTENCE. The FORGOTTEN versus the YET TO BE. Like some half-remembered dream. All the rules of Existence are broken.’”

“It does not say that,” she says, starting to chuckle.

“And then Superman yells, ‘There are 52 WORLDS in the multiversal super-structure! …Warn everyone, like Paul Revere! Tell them Mandrakk is coming! I’LL DO WHAT I CAN TO PLUG THE HOLE IN FOREVER!’”

“Wow. And this is a Superman comic book? People are reading this?”

“It’s Superman Beyond 3D Number 2, which is part of the Final Crisis miniseries, the number one title from DC right now.”

We’re stopped at a red light that never turns, so I show her the comic book. And she starts laughing, too. How old are we? We’re both 38. But in this moment I feel like I’m 12 years old, reading aloud from Crisis on Infinite Earths, riding home from an after-school trip to Comics Plus in Pomona, California with my eighth grade friends, courtesy of Kevin Kolodziej’s endlessly benevolent supermom. Or, closer, I’m 28, reading aloud to a college friend on the phone some fantastic captions from a worn-out back issue of New Gods (or was it Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Best Friend? I can’t remember) I’d just found at Another World Comics in Eagle Rock, California, where the excited narrator is describing the Forever People, Jack Kirby’s cosmic techno-hippies who live harmoniously in a psychedelic tree village somewhere outside Metropolis….

It’s that laughter, that kind of involuntary-response joy/wonder/glee at first awed, disbelieving encounter with an over-the-top-and-beyond your idea/image in a comic book—something so WEIRD and GREAT and TRUE that you can’t believe it actually got published—that is happening here, in this moment, as we wait for the accursed light to change, as we turn the pages and get to the part where Captain Adam demonstrates quantum super-position, and then Superman reaches his hand through… Well, you’ll be finding out through what exactly soon enough. Let me just say this: I’ve been loving moments like this for as long as I’ve been reading comic books, which is a pretty long time, and no one has delivered more of them per issue during the last 20 years than writer Grant Morrison, from Animal Man, Doom Patrol and (Final Crisis overture) Flex Mentallo to New X-Men, JLA and All-Star Superman. But Final Crisis is his grandest-scale moment yet, a particularly harrowing section of the story that is the DC Universe, in which the ultimate conflict goes down—not who would win, Superman or Darkseid (although that’s in here, too)—but the real biggie: existence versus non-existence! Is versus Isn’t! UNIVERSE VERSUS             !!!

Final Crisis is a major achievement of 21st century imagination and craft in mainstream media, works on countless levels, far too many for me to enumerate here. Final Crisis is so good that although it’s part of a continuing, decades-in-the-telling saga involving countless characters, you can follow the plot and dig on the ideas and the dialogue and the sheer spectacle of the events that spiral from the trash up into the transcendent, even if you’re not familiar with all the backstory. (Rest assured that there are detailed annotations available online regarding previous references to Darkseid’s hatred of music, which parallel earth Nubia and where her Wonder Horn comes from, and so on…) Of course, that’s the way it’s always been with DC Universe comic books: you don’t always know everything about everyone, and sometimes you miss stuff, and sometimes you only suss out later what something was really all about. (Same is true for life in the real world, actually…) Final Crisis continues in that tradition, but as you’ll see, it’s at a higher dose—a different pitch, a denser signal—than usual, one that mirrors the world we are living in, when too many things really are going terribly wrong all at the same time, when headlines really do scream about catastrophe, turmoil, doom, collapse and apocalypse.

And maybe that’s this audacious work’s genius, even more than its elegant architecture, its overwhelming dazzle, its virtuoso artwork by J. G. Jones and Doug Mahnke: the way that it shows us, sitting here in a car, a path beyond the current situation, out of economic cataclysm and endless horrible wars and ecological peril and unchanging red lights. We’re being flat-out wowed into a very psychedelic, progressive, imaginative space by a superhero comic book. And that makes us laugh. We hum a brighter, richer tune. And then the light changes, and we go.

Plugging the hole in forever,

Jay Babcock
Philadelphia
February 2009

Jay Babcock is the editor and publisher of Arthur, the free bimonthly magazine of “homegrown counterculture” and Rolling Stone’s “Hot Magazine” of 2005, whose contributors have included Alan Moore, Paul Pope, author Douglas Rushkoff, musicians Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), David Byrne (Talking Heads), and many others.  His writing on music, culture and ideas during the last 15 years has appeared in Mojo, Vibe, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the LAWeekly.

The FINAL CRISIS hardcover is out this week, and we’re happy to try and list why this collection is essential reading.

Springing from the riotous imagination of New York Times bestselling author Grant Morrison comes a super-hero epic unlike any other (and that’s a good thing). From his earliest work on the metafictional romp ANIMAL MAN to the psychedelic historical mash-up of BATMAN R.I.P., Grant Morrison has built a reputation as a writer overflowing with ideas and executing said ideas with pinpoint precision, energy and a flair for humanity amidst a tidal wave of action, drama and off-the-wall characterization. In short: You don’t just read a Grant Morrison book. You experience it.

FINAL CRISIS pairs Morrison with a trio of artists up to the task of matching his exhilarating output. Featuring the modern, cinematic line work of artists J.G. Jones (52), Carlos Pacheco (SUPERMAN) and Doug Mahnke (BLACKEST NIGHT #0, GREEN LANTERN, BATMAN), FINAL CRISIS is a mind-warping, kinetic rollercoaster ride into the past, present and future of the DC Universe, through the funky, thought provoking filter that is Morrison. A Crisis unlike any other, FINAL CRISIS is as much blockbuster popcorn movie as art house piece.

Join a cabal of the universe’s deadliest villains lead by the mysterious Libra, engage with new, exciting characters like the Alpha Lanterns, watch a legendary hero return and an equally legendary hero fall and experience Morrison’s grand plan for Jack Kirby’s New Gods in the FINAL CRISIS HC collection, which includes FINAL CRISIS #1-7, FINAL CRISIS: SUPERMAN BEYOND #1-2 and FINAL CRISIS: SUBMIT.

The FINAL CRISIS hardcover will be in comic shops on June 10 and in bookstores June 16. Swing back to The Source tomorrow to get a first look at the hardcover introduction, by Arthur Magazine editor and publisher Jay Babcock.

And, because it’s all about me, here’s my favorite sequence, from the second issue of FINAL CRISIS, featuring the return of you-know-who.

We teased the amazing Starro design sketch by J.G. Jones not too long ago, but why not unveil the reinterpreted villain’s final look?

CBR spoke to R.E.B.E.L.S. writer Tony Bedard about Starro, and he had a few interesting tidbits:

I want to leave some mystery because we’re slowly unveiling the new Starro over the next few issues of ”R.E.B.E.L.S.” and then really going in-depth with the upcoming Starro special. I think it’s safe to say that the Star Conqueror is a cosmic Genghis Khan, but he’s also much more than that.

And here’s what he looks like, courtesy of the cover to R.E.B.E.L.S. #6, by Kalman Andrasofszky:

Starro designs by superstar artist J.G. Jones. What is this for? When is this coming out? Stay tuned.