GREEN LANTERN

Imagine if the ring on your finger was more than a piece of gaudy jewelry. Instead, it’s the universe’s most powerful weapon. It can create whatever you wish out of pure energy, its might limited only by your imagination and will. And with it comes exclusive membership to an exclusive intergalactic police force with alien officers spanning the cosmos.

The only catch? Mastering that power and being a Green Lantern means facing your fears, and for headstrong Hal Jordan, that’s something he’s been avoiding his whole life.When just a boy, Hal witnessed his greatest nightmare—his pilot father dying in a tragic plane crash. Nevertheless determined to follow in his footsteps, Hal repressed his fears, becoming a reckless, defiant test pilot. But when a dying alien crashes on Earth, the irresponsible Hal is chosen to be that alien’s successor in the Green Lantern Corps, a universe-wide peacekeeping force over 3,600 members strong.

And his life only gets wilder from there. Alien romances. Intergalactic wars. Power-hungry super-villains. Wielding a Green Lantern power ring—a weapon fueled by willpower—he can fly and create constructs made of pure energy, generating anything from massive green fists to emerald rifles that can snipe from a planet away. But while Hal tends to ignore his fears, he’ll learn the only way to truly master his ring’s power is by confronting and overcoming them.

Prepare for 'The Flash' with DC Comics' 'Season Zero'

While the Flash is gearing up for a run on his own CW series, debuting Oct. 7, you can get a jump on the scarlet speedster’s adventures today with DC Comics’ Digital First series The Flash: Season Zero.

Written by executive producer Andrew Kreisberg, along with series writers Brooke Eikmeier and Katherine Walczak, The Flash: Season Zero takes place after the pilot and before the rest of the series. It follows the young superhero as he begins to learn his powers with the help of his S.T.A.R. Labs team, under guidance of the suspicious Harrison Wells, as well as his role as protector of Central City as he faces off against newly super-empowered criminals.

While the Flash’s main Rogues Gallery, including Weather Wizard, Captain Cold And Heat Wave, are scheduled to appear on the TV series, there’s still a limit to the scope of what the show runners can realistically produce for television. The comic book series, however, will take advantage of artistic expertise of Phil Hester, showing The Flash take on even more outlandish foes from the DC Universe, starting with Circus Barker Mr. Bliss, and his Carnival of Meta human Freaks.

But the comic won’t just be all spectacle. Expect more intimate moments between Barry and his supporting cast; his imprisoned father Henry Allen, mentor Detective West, best friend/unrequited love Iris West, and her new beau, Officer Eddie Thawne. With each issue containing some clues hinting at future episode storylines, the writers ultimately want this to enrich the TV viewing experience. Just don’t expect an Arrow/Flash crossover in these pages. Due to the shifting timelines between the series, the writers are saving that for the screen.

The first chapter of The Flash Season Zero is available today. New issues of The Flash and Arrow will be available bi-weekly, alternating every Monday, and they will also be collected and published monthly, the first print issue of which will be available on Oct. 1, the week before the TV series’ season premiere. Check out a sample of the artwork below by Phil Hester.

10 Crazy Villains The DC Cinematic Universe Will Never Admit Exist

For the past several years, DC has been watching the money pour into Marvel’s coffers as they’ve expanded their cinematic universe well beyond ten films, with plans to expand it even more.

Now they’re learning.

Between Superman Vs. Batman, the Justice League film, and a Wonder Woman movie, DC is taking a trick from the fellow comic giant’s book and developing their own cinematic universe. That leaves fans with more questions than a child pondering the inception of a newborn, like Who’s going to get a full movie? When are those movies going to come out? What lesser known (yet greatly loved) characters will get nods and cameos?

But even more than the heroes, fans are curious about the villains, because while many of the heroes that the DC Cinematic Universe will incorporate are very obvious, the studio choice of villains isn’t always so clear-cut. The DC Universe has some pretty well-known characters that will obviously be drawn out, such as The Joker, Lex Luthor and Sinestro, but there are also some pretty hokey characters that will send filmmakers running to the hills faster than The Flash himself.

In a spirit of embellishing the ridiculous, reveling in the unbelievable and mocking the cheese (and the corn), these are the villains that DC writers probably wish they’d never been so high as to create in the first place.

MAN OF STEEL

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a
plane! It’s…Well, you know how it ends,
don’t you? It’s a sentence so iconic,
there are probably kids shouting it in
Swahili as you read this.
The most recognized superhero in pop
culture, Superman has been elevated to
mythic folkhero status. Rocketed to
Earth from the dying planet Krypton,
baby Kal-El was found by a farming
couple who named the boy Clark Kent
and raised him as their own.
Discovering his enormous powers, they
instilled in him strong moral values—and
inspired him to become a hero.
Superman has super-everything—
strength, speed, flight, invulnerability as
well as his renowned X-ray and heat
vision. The most powerful being on the
planet, his amazing abilities are also a
melancholy reminder of how different he
is from the people he’s dedicated to
protect.
A universal icon, Superman means
different things to the many diverse
people he inspires: He’s an alien; an
immigrant from a faraway land just
looking to help; a country boy fighting
the never-ending battle for truth and
justice. And recent comics have truly
spotlighted his role as the people’s
hero: Following a neophyte Man of
Steel still learning his powers’ limits,
Superman fights the evil corporate
tycoons and corrupt one-percenters that
have overwhelmed the establishment.

Batwoman writers quit DC Comics after lesbian marriage storyline dropped

Two writers who co-author the
Batwoman comic book series have
resigned from DC Comics citing last
minute changes to their storylines –
including the gay marriage of
Batwoman and her girlfriend.
In a blog post, which is no longer
available online, the writers J.H Williams
and W. Haden Blackman declared that
they were leaving DC Comics alleging
that they had been asked to "alter or
completely discard many long-standing
storylines that we feel compromise the
character and the series".
They said: "We were told to ditch plans
for Killer Croc's origins; forced to
drastically alter the original ending of
our current arc, which would have
defined Batwoman's heroic future in
bold new ways; and, most crushingly,
prohibited from ever showing Kate and
Maggie actually getting married.
"All of these editorial decisions came at
the last minute, and always after a year
or more of planning and plotting on our
end."
Batwoman as a character disappeared
from comics in 1976 but was
reintroduced to DC Comics in 2006 and
earned her own stand-alone storyline in
2010 in a spin off series.
While there have been other gay
characters in the history of DC comics,
Batwoman is the first ongoing comic
series headlined by an openly gay
hero, and earned the series an award
from GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation) last year. Issue 17
of the comic showed the pair getting
engaged, which was a first in a
mainstream comic.

Superman and Wonder woman share the spotlight with the new World Trade Center building in poster

DC Comics is promoting the New York Comic Con convention this fall with a poster that prominently features the Man of Steel, Wonder Woman and the new One World Trade Center. Look up in the sky! It’s a bird, it’s a plane ... no, it’s One World Trade Center! The official DC Comics poster for the upcoming New York Comic Con features a completed World Trade Center tower sharing top billing with Superman and Wonder Woman. Drawn by French artist Stephane Roux, the posters of the Man of Steel leaping a really tall building in a single bound will soon be plastered in comic stores and Metro North stations. “Nothing in the city’s skyline embodies that same spirit of the city more” than the new One World Trade Center, said Lance Fensterman, a vice-president of ReedPOP, an event producer. This year’s New York Comic Con will be Oct. 10-13 at the Javits Center.

Batman-The Dark Knight

Dark Knight. Caped Crusader. World’s
Greatest Detective. Whatever you know
him as, wherever you know him from—
the blockbuster movies, TV shows,
video games, cartoons, or millions of
comics—Batman is proof you don’t need
superpowers to be a superhero… and
the poster boy for what a bad
childhood can do to you.
Millionaire Bruce Wayne was just a kid
when he watched his parents get
gunned down during a mugging in
Gotham City. The crime would define his
life, as he dedicated himself to
becoming the world’s greatest weapon
against crime—the Batman.
Forget his Batarangs, Batmobile, or
Utility Belt filled with high-tech weapons.
Batman is the most feared superhero of
all, because he’s pushed himself to the
absolute pinnacle of human
achievement. He’s a brilliant detective
who’s mastered fighting techniques the
world’s barely heard of. An Olympic-
caliber athlete with a plan for every
occasion, Batman’s seemingly always
five steps ahead of his foes. But in his
crusade against injustice, two questions
always loom: How far will he go to
protect the innocent, and will he
sacrifice his humanity along the way?