What you will read after this brief introduction is December's column which is devoted to what DC has dubbed "Villain's Week". This special week was supposed to be the last week of the year, thus the titles to the book which featured various villains was called "New Year's Evil". New Year's Eve just happened to be on a Wednesday which also happens to be the day the new DC periodicals arrive into stores, so they devised this whole scheme around it. So far, so good! But, here is where it starts to go sour. The books got rushed to the presses and came out for Christmas Eve. This blew the whole plan, it's not New Year's Evil any more folks, they should of just changed the titles to Christmas Evil or something of the like. For the next couple of days I debated on whether or not I should write this month off because of the lack of time or submit this column. So I figured "Let them eat cake." Very roughly translated that's "Something is better than nothing."
The following is December's column in it's entirety before DC thrusted the New Year upon us.
BODY DOUBLES: Starring Bonnie and Carmen; two sharp shooting chicks from the pages of Resurrection Man face-off in a competition against some of DC's assassins like Deadline, Deadshot, and Merlin.
Wally's Words: I've only read one issue of Resurrection Man, It was good, but due to insufficient funding it's not on my must have list. The bottom line here is that the issue that I did read didn't have these two gunslingers in it. I would imagine that there are others out there, like me, wondering who the hell Bonnie and Carmen are and why they got there own book.
DARK NEMESIS: Axis, Vault, Carom, and Blizzard have to rely on their other teammate Scorcher to get them out of a jam, but Scorcher seems to have plans of her own that will effect the Teen Titans continuity.
Wally's Words: Okay, what the hell is going on around here? I've never heard of these five spuds either. Where is the vile scum???
DARKSEID: Even though he is part of the Source Wall, he is still making an appearance in front of various leaders struggling for control over Apokolips.
Wally's Words: All right, finally some vile scum. Let's face it, did anyone think they would get through this (evil) holiday without running into him. But, as for my commentary on the storyline, eh!
GOG: The mentor of Magog from the acclaimed Kingdom Come makes his debut in the DCU. He is trying to stop the oncoming events foretold in the Kingdom series. But what he does takes us one step closer to those possible future events becoming a DCU reality.
Wally's Words: I think everybody knows how fast the Kingdom Come series disappeared from the shelves, so I'd pick this up a.s.a.p. or face the risk of not finding it later.
MR. MXYZTPLK: The little imp does what he does best and becomes a nuisance to several other heroes.
Wally's Words: Somebody wake me!
PROMETHEUS: This is the introduction of a major new JLA adversary who has stolen Superman's power, Batman's knowledge, and Flash's speed.
Wally's Words: This, like the JLA title, I'm sure will sell well. I'll pick this one up, because it's writer Grant Morrison hasn't let me down with the JLA yet. I also read an interview with Mr. Morrison where he refers to Prometheus as the anti-Batman and will also be the first JLA villain that will bring Batman down.
SCARECROW: The harbinger of fear rises to the challenge to scare a fearless, mild-mannered law student.
Wally's Words: I always liked the Scarecrow, but he never really had a story that went big. I'm still waiting.
THE ROGUES: The Trickster, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, Captain Boomerang, Weather Wizard, Mirror Master and Piper join forces to try and become...heroes? (But we know better, don't we?)
Wally's Words: I thought this was villains week, what's this hero crap? Nah, seriously though, I’m looking forward to this, It seems like it's going to be entertaining in a whimsical sort of way.
Also, on a similar note, Wizard put out a special publication last month called "Dark Book '98". If you don't have it, and can still find it, pick it up. It's dedicated to the best and worst villains in comics including some of our very own favorites from the DCU. For all you Bat-maniacs there is a special section devoted to Arkham Asylum, too.
Next, on a dis-similar note, I've had the rare privilege to view a screening copy of the soon to be released "Batman: Sub-Zero". No spoiler here though, just that it's only major downside is that it's short, only about an hour long. I guess that's why it went straight to video. But the animation, as always is cool, as well as the small parts that are computer animated.