On the surface, the civilian identities of Bruce "Batman" Wayne and Clark "Superman" Kent both look pretty similar. They're both generically handsome white dudes with dark hair and chiseled jaws. At times, they've even imitated each other, in order to help the other maintain plausible deniability around their respective secret identities.

Comic artist Greg Capullo, who's done some critically acclaimed work on books like Batman, Spawn, and X-Force, as well as numerous hard rock and metal album covers, recently shared his personal approach to differentiating between the two characters in their civilian identities:

How I draw Clark vs Bruce 🤘🏻✏️🤘🏻 pic.twitter.com/D1olQ9bRcA

— Greg Capullo (@GregCapullo) July 15, 2020

Superman, he notes, has deeper set eyes, with a straight nose and thin lips as well as a cleft chin. Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, has more noticeable eyelids, along with a scooped nose, fuller lips, and a longer chin.

These are subtle distinctions, of course, but with enough artistic consistency, can really help to make a difference and bring these characters to life. Read the rest

Superman's cape, as worn by Christopher Reeve in Superman (1978), sold at auction yesterday for $193,750. From Julien's Auctions:

Includes a copy of Superman #331, which advertises on a banner above the front cover logo “YOU COULD BE A WINNER IN THE SECOND SUPERMAN MOVIE CONTEST!” Within the comic book is a full-page advertisement for the contest that lists “FIRST PRIZE” as “THE ACTUAL CAPE WORN BY CHRISTOPHER REEVE IN THE FILMING OF SUPERMAN THE MOVIE!..."

Accompanied by nine pages of supporting documents of authenticity, including a letter to the winning recipient of the cape, signed by DC Comics President Sol Harrison and dated February 27, 1978, and a letter from DC Comics’ Steven Korte to Sotheby’s, New York, dated October 21, 1997.

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In last week's Superman #18, the eponymous hero held a press conference to reveal his identity to the public. Comic book continuity is ever-shifting, of course, and the connection between Superman and Clark Kent has been known or exposed by other people before, just as the genie will someday be placed back in the bottle once again. In this particular context, Superman was inspired to come clean after learning about the lies and deceptions of his birth father, Jor-El (who also used to be dead, but now is not, because comics). This revelation also comes on the heels of an epic crossover that shattered the acronym-happy intelligence community of the DC Universe with some other truths and justices.

This curiously came on the heels of the Inspector General's report on the origins of the FBI investigation into the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. The results of this investigation were as much of a political Rorschach test as anything is these days. But one thing it did reinforce was the FBI's overconfidence in its own self-righteous status quo enforcement, for better and for worse.

While there was (unsurprisingly, IMHO) no political bias found in the FBI's motives, the IG report did note a handful of oversights and omissions that had been along the way—a detail that the President's stalwart defenders have eagerly jumped on. For anyone who's ever paid attention to anything the FBI has ever done, however, this all came across as the same standard over-zealous stuff the organization's also done—again, for better, and for worse. Read the rest