Asgard Kart by Dan Hipp
Thor by Cliff Chiang
Alpha Flight by Eric Canete
Iron Giant by Giovanni Valletta
Inigo Montoya by Andy Kuhn
Lois Lane by Ryan Kelly
Gizmo Duck by Joe B
Swamp Thing and Yoda by Gavin de Lint
Oracle by Phil Noto
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that oracle sketch is fantastic, the emotion conveyed in her face is pitch perfect!
Gizmo Duck! F-yeah!
Wow. That Alpha Flight sketch is pimp.
Love that Oracle sketch! I’m sad she is going back to Batgirl. Barbara is a MUCH better character as Oracle.
God dammit Noto, you strike again!
Wow, I almost completely forgot about Gizmo Duck. That brought back lots of memories.
That Babs sketch is remarkably poignant.
I love the Barbara Gordon, very timely! Swamp thing and Yoda is really cool to. Dagoba perfect!
That Cliff Chang Thor is just pretty…
Oracle waving ‘bye’ next to the note ‘Oracle: 1989-2011?’ Damn. Just damn. Love Oracle. Will be checking out Batgirl, but I will miss Oracle immensely.
Also love that Canete Alpha Flight. And the Chiang Thor… great stuff.
Seems a shame to get rid of the Barbara Gordon that over came so much. It’s a beautiful sketch.
I find it hilarious that people want a character to be a cripple again.
If this was real life then most would be questioning that logic.
that’s a great big ‘if’, TNC.
@TheNextChampion It’s not a question of us wanting her to be crippled. Barbara before The Killing Joke was just kind of there. She was a mediocre vigilante who was around because they needed a female version of Batman. After the Killing Joke, when she was in the wheelchair, their was a real effort made to do something with her, and have her not be defined by her injury or her handicap. She became an inspirational figure to other people with disabilities and she became a far more fleshed out and real character. It wasn’t until she was put in her role as Oracle that she went from being an after thought to one of the very best characters in the DCU, if not all of comics. By taking her out of that role and putting her back as Batgirl, they are running a very real risk of taking away everything that makes the character special, and making her no different from a dozen other masked crime fighters prowling the roof tops.
@JohnVFerrigno
agreed. It seems a mighty odd decision considering DC’s supposed dedication to diversity.
Excellent selections as usual. I really wish we could see art on this level appear in comics more than the highly processed stuff we wind up getting.
@JohnVFerrigno — I do think having a disabled hero in the DCU is very important and i do agree with you that “healing her” might turn the character a bit generic. However from a story perspective, it seems a bit unbelievable that a character so close to Batman would be confined to a wheelchair permanently with all the access to Wayne Tech and closeness to the Justice League and so on. I mean Batman could very easily call in a few favors get some magic or alien tech etc….it just seems like a problem that could be solved for that person in that world.
Love the Oracle piece, but this time Ryan Kelly’s Lois Lane takes the cake.
@wallythegreenmonster: I guess it comes down to what you want the character to be, or to represent. I’m sure you could write a story where Tony Stark gets Dr. Strange to magically cure him of his alcoholism, but what would that say about the character? Sometimes comics (and all art) are escapism, and sometimes they show us ourselves. In the real world, real people are really confined to wheelchairs. For life. And to show us a character like that who is every bit as important to the fight as Batman is a powerful thing. She was a great Batgirl, to be sure, but depictions of superheroics like that are plentiful. Depictions of Oracle’s superheroics are few and far between. And will be missed.
@SkipSpacer –i agree. The Oracle character is very inspirational one for sure and i agree that its a loss to comics.
@JohnVFerrigno I’m not saying she wasn’t a unique character because of her disability. But DC has kinda played it out for as long as they can. You don’t know (but then again neither do I) that DC won’t make Barbara interesting as Batgirl again. I have the mind set of ‘wait and see’ before deciding letting her walk again is a good idea.
I want to play that ‘ThorKart’ game so badly now…
Best sketch up I’ve seen in a while.
Quick question to everyone based on the Babs piece; do you want/care if Barbara Gordon in the new DC universe is basically a girl in her early 20s again, or do you prefer her to be older? I know that sounds dumb possibly, but that time between is so non-exisitent to me as a fan. There are the Batgirl Year One kind of stories or her as Oracle, and I’ve read very little of the in between.
I want the hell out of that Inigo Montoya!
@JohnVFerrigno I don’t think that Barbara was mediocre as Batgirl or an afterthought. She was a great character as Batgirl; she was a great character as Oracle; she’s a great character – period.
I defintiely think loosing Oracle as a character is unfortunate.
I had always maintained that having Barbara make her way back to being Batgirl-woman after her time as Oracle would make her a badass crimefighter combining all those talents that could rival Batman.
But with the look of how this is happening now- it seems as if we might be trading one Stephanie Brown for another.
That Oracle is amazing.
I think I said it last week, but since it’s still true, I’ll say it again.
Following Phil Noto on Tumblr was a very good and very easy decision.
He should be the new rotating interior artist on Uncanny X-Men with Carlos Pacheco instead of Greg Land.
I own the Asgard Kart sketch, so insanely excited about putting it up on my wall. Also? The Oracle sketch is fantastic
@wallythegreenmonster is Barbara being in a wheelchair the MOST unbelievable thing about the Batman family.
The thing I liked about Oracle is that in a world of demigods, she was a reminder that sometimes bad things happen, and there won’t be a hero there to save you. Her return as Oracle is inspiring. I also think having her as an older character was a good choice. She & Renee Montoya seem like the only women superheroes who don’t look like they’re in their 20s.
Also @wallthegreenmonster, Bruce Wayne couldn’t heal himself when he was paralyzed. He had to resort to magic.
I need to stop looking at this every week. It makes me want to buy more original art than I can afford.
Dan Hipp and Phil Noto always put out great pictures. 😀 Gizmo Duck is always a win.
Also, it’s a character it’s not like people are wishing for a real person to remain in a wheelchair. As readers we want our favorite characters to be interesting. To that end, writers place those characters in precarious situations and force them to rise to those occasions. If a character doesn’t show change or deal with repurcussions then readers move on. Now I will find myself hoping that they don’t tease a barbara gordon paralyzation every other year. It won’t live up to expectations.
@conor You’ve read far more Batman stories than i have, but when Barbara was Batgirl, I had very little interest in her. Once she became oracle, I felt she became a far more interesting character.
@wallythegreenmonster The problem with just having some amazing cure for Barbara to walk again is where do you draw the line? If there is no reason for her to be disabled, there is no reason for ANYONE to be disabled. Once you cross that line, doesn’t it become the responsibility of the heroes to cure EVERYONE in a wheelchair, not just their buddy?
INIGO! I LOVE YOU!