So...first snow of the year (kinda, sorta) is here (Massachusetts).

For those of you who have been paying attention, Paramore's been talking about the release of their newest single "Renegade" ever since they played it during the encore of the FBR 15 (the Fueled By Ramen 15th Anniversary concert). They have now made Renegade available for purchase on their official website as part of a bundle deal and somebody has been kind enough to upload it to youtube for your listening pleasure.

“HALF AS BRIGHT”

The smoke clears over Utopia. Schism is over. But there's little time for celebrations and little to actually celebrate. Who leaves? Who stays? Who joins? Who kisses who? The fallout will rupture the tightest group on the X-Side of the Marvel Universe.

Gallery

Courtesy of Bleeding Cool

The Batman monthly comic from DC Comics is usually regarded as a solid, reliable seller, published every month whatever, which is why Diamond Comic Distributor make it the standard against which all other comics are measured – they don’t release the sales figures, just how each comic performs against each other.

Well, Bleeding Cool has received an advance look at the Top Twenty sellers through Diamond for the month of September, DC’s relaunch, and it’s a revelation. DC have claimed seventeen, with Marvel’s Fear Itself coming in at the eighth best seller in volume (though at $3.99, it’s the sixth best seller in terms of revenue). More surprisingly, the heavily hyped Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 only comes in at ninth place.

This month, Batman #1 became literally the standard against which all other books are judged, the bestselling comic of the month, just ahead of Action Comics #1 (in sales if not dollars) and well ahead of all the other books, and DC have grabbed seventeen out of the top twenty places on the chart. It’s a rout.

Bleeding Cool also reported that DC have beaten Marvel in marketshare for both unites sold and for revenue – but only just on the latter, despite their million dollar promotional effort. Of course DC published around half the comics Marvel did for September.

Also, this may be the first time John Constantine has appeared in the top twenty for quite some time…

Units	$	Comparison	Title
1	2	100.00	BATMAN #1
2	1	96.99	ACTION COMICS #1
3	3	75.19	GREEN LANTERN #1
4	5	68.60	FLASH #1
5	4	62.83	SUPERMAN #1 [*]
6	7	54.87	DETECTIVE COMICS #1 [*]
7	8	52.22	BATMAN THE DARK KNIGHT #1 [*]
8	6	49.37	FEAR ITSELF #6
9	9	46.30	ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #1
10	11	45.24	BATMAN AND ROBIN #1 [*]
11	35	44.60	GREEN LANTERN NEW GUARDIANS #1
12	12	43.25	BATGIRL #1 [*]
13	45	40.45	WONDER WOMAN #1
14	13	39.68	GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1 [*]
15	49	39.10	TEEN TITANS #1
16	16	38.36	AQUAMAN #1 [*]
17	51	38.33	BATWOMAN #1
18	10	38.18	AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #669
19	21	35.32	RED LANTERNS #1 [*]
20	24	33.36	JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK #1 [*]

Source 
I can't help but feel like we seriously missed out on this one :(

(This comment is in response to somebody commenting about how the BOP team was strictly Caucasian and how they'd wished there had been more Renee Montoya)

I know people have gotten mad at me for saying this, but I was a little intimidated to put Renee in. She’s been so much Greg Rucka’s character…and he has been very nice about letting me use her, but I also know he loves her and has a direction for her that he wants to explore himself.

I loved writing her in Bop and I felt it really worked nicely…moved the tone of the book a little bit, for the better, in my opinion. But by that time we knew I was leaving the book so it didn’t mean asking for her to join.

The first team list was given to me; Hawk, Black Canary, Oracle, Huntress, Zinda, and Dove. That was the mission they asked me to undertake. And I had so much on the plate just making that work in a way I liked (I think issue one is a ton of fun and along the lines of what the series should be).

But the screw up is still mine, I was paying attention to making what I had work, and I didn’t really fit it together that it was a group of purely white people until I was well underway. When you’re working with scripts and you love the characters, I don’t know, sometimes incredibly obvious stuff gets missed. Somewhere before the art started coming in I realized we had a snow white team, and I started thinking who would be good to bring in.

I wanted it to be a character with her own fanbase and many of the best were not available, like Vixen and Rocket. Then we got the word that we could bring Cass in, we would just have to wait a little while. That made me ecstatic. Then they took her away in the middle of writing the issue where she debuts in the book and we had to scramble a bit.

So while I didn’t pick the original team, I share some blame because I foolishly didn’t really catch the problem until we were well along in the first issue. If I’d asked for a character up front, DC would have been okay with it for sure. A missed opportunity. From issue one on, whenever anyone remarked that the team was all white, I had to just bite my tongue because, YAY! CASS IS COMING. When it didn’t happen, I was crushed.

Bop was enough of a hit that all the major things like cast changes had to be approved, which meant it took a good while to shift to try to get someone else great after losing Cass.

It’s a business with a lot of variables, unfortunately.

If you've been following my blog posts tonight at all, you'll see that I was trolling through Gail Simone's tumblr. She's great about answering questions and one of them was the following:

You like the Marvel family, you also are VERY popular. Why on Earth haven't they let just write up a book of it yet?

Her response: There IS a good reason for it, one that makes me happy. But I can’t yet answer this, I’m sorry.

And I’m unpopular, everyone says so! ;)

Courtesy of the (as always) amazing DC Women Kicking Ass tumblr.

Top 10 things not to say to a female reader of superhero comics

Just sayn’

1. The people who read superhero comics are men and sex sells. If you don’t like it don’t read the comics.

So why is the top selling comics of 2011 a book that has no female characters in it? Or why are the Batman books the top selling books when they rarely feature any female characters?

2. If you don’t like these comics why don’t you go make your own comics?

Would you tell a sports fan unhappy with their Football team to go create his own Football team? No? Then don’t say this.

3. Why don’t you read Manga?

Not everybody likes Manga. I don’t like Manga.

4. There are plenty of female friendly comics out there that aren’t superhero comics. Why not just read those?

Because I like superhero comics, which have brought me much joy through the years except when they don’t.

5. You have Wonder Woman/Batwoman or X.23 what else do you want?

I want more books like that.

6. Marvel is worse, why are you b!tching about DC? or DC is worse than Marvel, why aren’t you b!tching about DC?

What does what one publisher does have any relation to what another publisher does?

7. If all you feminists stopped all your b!tching and bought more chick comics, there would be more chick comics. It’s your fault.

Of course it is. It couldn’t possibly be that the publishers market almost exclusively to males.

8. Who cares if there are books that treat female characters as objects. Why not just focus on the books that don’t.

Because some of those books have characters I like? And mainly because the demeaning treatment of female characters is a human issue not a female issue.

9. Birds of Prey! Gail Simone!

Yep, happy to have them. But that’s one book and one creator.

10. Vote with your pocketbook. If you don’t like something don’t buy it.

Gee, I would have never, ever figured that out by myself! And I already do that. But wait, I thought we dumb feminists couldn’t get our sh!t together to get enough chick books sold, how the hell are we going to impact sales enough to make anyone change? Ha, gotcha!

So, I was cruising through tumblr today when I saw these. I'm seriously hoping that other Secret Six members (read: Scandal Savage) will be appearing in something eventually as well.

Catman will be coming back in something soon

And when he does so, he will be verified as bisexual.

Boston 12:30 AM

The night air was chilled on her skin, the smell of the sea drifting in the wind. Halle had somehow made her way back to Boston, back to her favorite city in the world. She looks over her shoulder as she walks into a pub. The door opens and several sets of eyes go straight to her. Her outfit is inconspicuous, as always. A pair of supple leather boots, snug jeans, a band t-shirt and a loose leather jacket. There were weapons hidden all over her body. Wrist sheaths for daggers. A back of the pants holster for her gun. A second gun hidden in a boot and yet more knives in the other boot. This was Halle O'Rourke and she never went anywhere unarmed.

They lose interest as she walks in, a nonchalant air about her. She looks like some of the other women in the bar, a girl tired after her day of shopping. She intentionally gives off an innocent feel. The last thing she wants is people taking note of her, of people remembering her and being able to describe her at a later point in time. A minute later a barmaid comes over to her, a bottle of beer in her hand, the Green Monster brew, her personal favorite and a hit amongst locals. "Courtesy of Gregory." She says as she gestures to a man across the bar, watching her as he languidly sipped his own drink. Already she had been noticed, that was most unfortunate.

"Give him my thanks." She picks the bottle up and twists the top off as she brings it up to her lips, pretending to take a sip. No alcohol for her, not out in public. Nothing that dulled the senses or altered awareness of her surroundings. That couldn't be afforded. The bell over the door bings as somebody else walks in. Somebody who looks out of place. Her eyes are immediately drawn to him and a scowl crosses her face as she makes him. It was Trey Calhoun, the agent who had been chasing her specifically for the past sixth months and her former handler. They'd been trying to bring her in for three years, ever since she'd gone off-mission.

Placing her bottle down on the table, she quietly gets up, knowing that he'll follow her. Following the signs, she makes her way back to the women's restroom, her boots padding softly on the hardwood floor as she goes. As expected, he follows several seconds after. Pushing open the door that leads to the women's restroom and stalls, she walks over to the side. It was clean, the smell of antiseptic in the air. Looking at the line of mirrors she does a quick check for feet to make sure nobody was there. The black tiled floor was clean, the green of the walls relatively unmarred. The sinks all had individual little soap dispensers, a homey touch showing that somebody tried to make the place inviting. Her back was against the wall and out of the line of sight of whoever would walk in next, she waits, knowing that he would come. The door opens and she waits to make sure it's a man's footsteps before launching into action. The second she has confirmation, she launches into action.

Slamming him up against the wall, she holds her arm up to his throat, cutting off his air. "Sixth months and this is the best you've got? Did you really think that I didn't lead you here? That I didn't know you were behind me the whole time?"

He smiles, his hands gently grasping her arm. "Can't...can't breathe."

"Good." Her purple eyes light up with anger, the words nearly a growl.

"Well. If you like it rough, I'll be sure to oblige." And with that he grabs her arm, turns her around and slams her against the tile wall. Leveraging against her with his right arm and the weight of his entire body, he reaches behind him to grab the cuffs that were hooked onto his belt.

She took his moment of slight distraction and used it to her advantage. Wrenching her arm out of his grasp, she slams her right elbow into his jaw, knocking him for a loop. Spinning away from the wall, she turns to face him. With an upward lunge, the top of her head connects with his jaw, knocking him even more out of sorts. She follows him as he falls backward down onto the floor, turning him onto his stomach. She yanks his right arm behind his back as she settles on his lower back, her knees on the ground on either side of him. Slipping a knife from her wrist sheath, she holds the edge of it to his carotid artery. "You were my handler for three years. I loved you. I like to think that you loved me back, that it wasn't all some damn charade. That love I once had for you, it's why I won't kill you. But rest assured with the knowledge that if you ever try to bring me in again, I will end your life and I will take down every support agent that you're stupid enough to bring with you." Applying just enough pressure to break the skin, she makes her point. "Am I making myself clear?"

"Crystal." He sputters the word, his voice hoarse.

"Good." Leaning down she whispers in his ear, almost in a lover-like fashion. "Let them all know that this is what happens when you excommunicate somebody who's more talented than anybody under their command and now angry to boot." She knew that her time was limited, that somebody was bound to have heard the commotion. So she delivers the coup de gras and slams his head against the tile floor, effectively knocking him out. Looking down to her leather jacket she pulls at the edge of it, tearing the seam of the shoulder. Next she runs her hands through her hair, making it appear even more disheveled. Quickly, she un-clips Trey's credentials and slips them into the back pocket of her jeans. In the next minute, the door opens to the sight of her sitting on the floor, appearing much worse for the wear. A line of tears slips down her cheeks as she looks up at the man who opens the door.

"Is everything okay in here, miss? What happened? Did this bastard...are you okay?" He appears quite worried, truly concerned as he comes into the bathroom, a look of fury in his eyes.

"I'm fine." She intentionally causes her voice to tremble. "I can take care of myself, it seems. I just...I need to go. I can't be here anymore." She slips an elastic off her wrist and pulls her hair back into a low ponytail. Walking quickly out the door, she makes her way out of the pub and onto the cobbled stone streets of the city, her breath fogging in the air. She pulls the credentials out of her back pocket and flips them open, staring nostalgically at the photo of the man she had loved so much.

If you follow Kyle Higgins on Twitter (@KyleDHiggins), you will notice that he's been answering a ton of fans questions about Nightwing. Things like this are one of my favorite things about Twitter and social networking in general. It allows you to interact with creators in ways that were formerly not so possible.

What we've gathered so far:

• His history with the Teen Titans is NOT erased
• He is 21 years old
• There will not be a match between him and Two-Face any time soon
• The first arc is going to be six issues long
• The first villain that he's going to face is Saiko
• Seemingly, Bludhaven exists (undamaged?). However, Dick will not be going
• His response to "any interaction with Babs" is "how could there not be?" So he's not saying there's a relationship, but there's definitely something. And this guy really seems to get Dick...so hopefully we'll be able to watch them slowly build up a relationship between the two of them.
• NOTHING WITH STARFIRE!!!!!!!!!! "Will there be a nightwing batgirl starfire thing going on?" His response is: "No plans for Starfire"
• Dick's time with Batman will be a big influence on him
• There are no plans for Tarantula to show up in any way, shape or form.
• There WILL be interaction with Tim, Damian and/or Jason
• He's been thinking about future interactions between Dick and Slade (Deathstroke)
• No plans on Wally West showing up (which is not surprising, seeing as how the editorial mandate seems to pretty much be write Wally out of existence -___-)
• He is still the original Robin
• He went back to Nightwing because Bruce came back (which hints to Final Crisis, or at least Bruce's death in some form still being in canon)
• Higgins will be working with mostly new villains
• Bludhaven will still be in his past
• Damian WILL be showing up in Nightwing
• Dick was Batman in the DCnU
• Nightwing will be traveling for the first six issues and (if I interpreted correctly, will not be in Gotham for them)
• His history with Starfire is not erased