Shane Talks Previews: July 2009 - DC Comics
Alright! Here we go.
Blackest Night #1 (of 8)
DC begins their summer event, Blackest Night. I'm a bit surprised to see it at eight issues over the seven that Final Crisis got, but then again, Ivan Reis is a much faster artist than J.G. Jones. We're already beginning to see the tie-ins, as well, with a 3-issue miniseries focusing on the Green Lantern Corps. It looks like each miniseries will be published within a month--at least, that's the impression that I'm getting. Quite a few of them, though. Also, Titans will be tying into the event, at least somewhat. Why Tempest is involved, I'm not sure--he's certainly not dead--but.
Wednesday Comics
This is the comic that I'm excited for. All-star creative teams working on, for the most part, characters I love? I'm particularly interested in Kamandi (Dave Gibbons, Ryan Sook), Adam Strange (Paul Pope), Metamorpho (Neil Gaiman, Mike Allred), The Demon and Catwoman (Walt Simonson, Brian Stelfreeze), and Hawkman (Kyle Baker). And then there's Sgt. Rock (Adam Kubert, Joe Kubert) which looks very impressive, and I'm sure quite a few of you can't wait!
Justice League: Cry for Justice #1 (of 6)
Although I'm still a bit puzzled as to why they downgraded this to a miniseries (sure, the painted art, but you'd think DC would want another strong, reliable seller like this will probably be), this looks very good. James Robinson is obviously no slouch, and Mauro Cascioli is very talented--I just finished reading Trials of SHAZAM!, and he was really rather good there, taking over for Howard Porter and even surpassing him in that style. It looks like he's even improved, if the cover is any indication. I think that this book, if done right, could be a very important story to the DCU, and I look forward to reading it.
Justice Society of America #29
Now that Geoff Johns is gone, the new writing team has some pretty big shoes to fill. I'm still a bit skeptical, but after reading some interviews, they at least seem to understand what makes the Justice Society special. Will that translate well into great stories? Maybe, maybe not, but I'm cautiously optimistic. I'm also glad to see Jesus Merino getting work, because he's very talented. The preview pages look incredible. Jesus Merino is usually paired with Carlos Pachecho, but he's a very talented artist in his own right.
Other little tidbits from DC:
Action Comics #879 introduces the Captain Atom co-feature. The fact that both Action and Detective now have co-features makes me wonder if Adventure Comics will have one as well. Nothing's been announced, of course, but it seems like it would make at least some sense. Also of note--all of the Superman books seem to be going into another crossover next month. I wonder if they'll all interact, or if it will just be a shared theme?
Brave and the Bold #25 is another fill-in issue featuring a Milestone character--this time, Hardware meets the Blue Beetle. Although I'm glad that the Milestone characters are being used, I have to wonder--just when is JMS going to take over this book?
Green Arrow/Black Canary #22 begins the Black Canary co-feature. Although it was suggested earlier by DC that the book would revert to having just Green Arrow's name on the cover, the solicits say otherwise.
Len Wein continues writing stories for Justice League of America. Good for him.
Gail Simone writes Black Canary again in Wonder Woman #34. That should be interesting!
There's a new printing for Absolute New Frontier. As someone who bought the original printing, I hope that they don't include the one-shot published recently--that would be rather inconvenient for me!
The Rick Remember issues are skipped in the Booster Gold: Reality Lost trade (which also is softcover, suggesting that Booster Gold won't be doing hardcover for the first print run anymore). As someone who enjoyed the plotlines Rick Remember and Pat Oliffe used during their Atom/Booster runs, I'm disappointed. I'd hoped that they might continue them elsewhere, too.
DC Comics Classic Library: Batman - A Death in the Family will include not only the death of Jason Todd, but the introduction of Tim Drake as well! These new hardcover collections are great, I'd recommend them. Bonus materials and commentary in an attractive package, great to introduce somebody to the characters and the major stories.
Superman: New Krypton Vol. 2 skips the one-shots (Jimmy Olsen, Guardian), just like the first collection. I'm not sure how I feel about that. They weren't major parts of the storyline, sure, but they did introduce important plot points that are felt in the books right now. Maybe they'll be included in the next Superman collection?
J. Torres and J. Bone take over Batman: The Brave and the Bold, the tie-in comic to the television show. I wasn't a fan of the comic so far, but I'll gladly buy these!
"New printing" implies to me that ABSOLUTE NEW FRONTIER will stay the same (as opposed to calling it a "2nd edition"), but I agree that the solicit isn't clear on this. I'm sure they know that adding material would piss people off, so I hope they have the sense to leave it alone. I liked the recent special but I don't think it was essential material.
ReplyDeleteI'm very much looking forward to BLACKEST NIGHT because Geoff Johns has been building up to it for so many years, much like Bendis did for SECRET INVASION, but boy there are going to be a *lot* of books. The main series, 6 mini-series, and the two ongoing GREEN LANTERN titles last time I checked. Marvel's publishing a lot of DARK REIGN miniseries too. I wonder if the other titles at both companies will suffer because it costs so much money just to follow these events.
Shane . . .
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up on July titles. I look forward to your picks from Marvel and other companies in the next postings.
Wednesday Comics weekly sounds cool - - I'll order that. I was a fan of the Action Comics Weekly back in the 1980's -- the last time that I read any DC titles on a regular basis.
Blackest Night sounds worthwhile -- although Jeff makes a good point aabout multi-title/crossover events. It's those type of things that make me stay away -- it's not just the money it takes, it's the time as well, especially when you know some of it will be just fluff that you later regret picking up . . . . Mike
I read something recently about why Action Comics Weekly failed back then -- it had a lot to do with the nightmare logistics of having to Fed Ex art pages all over the country every week. Now that everything's submitted digitally, it's a lot easier to pull off a weekly book.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that's encouraging about Blackest Night is that Geoff Johns has spent the last few weeks in the DC office in New York (he lives in California) coordinating the event. Hopefully, that level of commitment will be reflected in the finished product.