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By Jason Bourgeois
The look at DC's revamped universe continues this month. Last month I took a more broad view at the endeavour, looking at what the grand idea was, as far as we can tell right now, my thoughts on the changes overall, and just what DC may have been thinking with this. But for this time out, I want to take a more in depth look, and break things down title by title, with whatever specific thoughts I might have. It's one thing to stand back and look at the big picture, and another thing entirely to really look at the details.
So yes, that means taking quick looks at 52 different titles, although there is some compression that occurs. Get comfy, grab a drink, and read onward!
Everything starts with the Justice League title that will actually be one of only two DC comics coming out in the final week of August, along with Flashpoint #5, the book that breaks the universe and puts it back together again. But how does the Humpty Dumpty fare?
JUSTICE LEAGUE is probably the best book to introduce the new universe in. It introduces your big characters all at once, in a familiar setting. It will have that air of familiarity while being something new at the same time. The opening arc will take place five years in the past, and chronicle the creation of this new Justice League, just as the world is learning of superheroes. That is the biggest change to the new DCU right there. No superheroes, at least not publicly, before five years ago.
That has caused a lot of twitching among people, along with the overall ten year timeline DC has loosely said is in existence. I'm not TOO concerned about it, since Marvel has had their sliding 10 year timeline for 20 years now (Yeah, don't think too hard about that or your head will explode) and DC did the same thing at the end of Zero Hour, saying Batman and Superman first appeared on the scene ten years ago.
The biggest problem of this is that things might be getting too compressed. DC has said many of the big events have still occurred in their lengthy history, and we already know there have been four Robins. Is four Robins in 10 years too many, too quickly? This need to protect the intellectual properties in a perpetual bubble is becoming increasingly problematic. There has to be SOME advancement, or else things like Scott getting married to Madelyne Pryor three days after Jean Grey dies for the first time start to happen.
So yeah, I have some concerns here, but it's not a huge deal, until you REALLY start to think about it. Which comic geeks will do, but anything looked at with a lot of scrutiny in comics falls apart fast.
The lineup is pretty familiar, although there is the notable omission of Martian Manhunter, but that's ok for now. He's been replaced with Cyborg of the Teen Titans. Or not, since this might mean he was never a Titan. That remains to be seen how that will untangle. Or unravel. I like including some more diversity into the DCU's big team, but at the same time it feels a bit like tokenism. I am so the last person to talk about diversity in comics, but as long as the stories are good, they can write about whomever they want.
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL is up next, and springs out, somehow, from this year's weekly JL: Generation Lost miniseries. I'm pretty sure most of the set up from that book will remain intact, considering the characters, and all the work they put into that title. This is one I am most looking forward to, since Dan Jurgens is a solid writer, and I'll buy almost anything Aaron Lopresti draws. Having two of my favourite characters in it, Booster Gold and Guy Gardner, also help. I'd be buying this book if it was a rebooted DC or not. Which is how I looked at most of the books. Forget the numbering, forget the revamping, does this look good? And JLI does.
AQUAMAN is a tough sell in any universe. He has a crazy loyal audience, that's always begging for more, yet he never seems to set the sales charts on fire. They've handed him over to Geoff Johns though, so maybe he can work his magic on the king of Atlantis. Or maybe not, since I don't plan on getting this book. If the buzz is good, I'll give it a chance, but I'm not a huge fan, and nothing about this jumps out at me.
WONDER WOMAN is another title in that same vein, for me. Not a huge fan, looks fine, but nothing that really grabs me. If people like it, I may look, but right now I'm just not that interested. I almost wonder if the last year of JMS inspired Wonder Woman stories, was a test run for a rebooted universe and Wonder Woman. It doesn't seem like that's the case now, but who knows what initial plans were? But in all honesty, Wonder Woman is probably a character, much like Aquaman, that could use a serious revamping, and could stand to benefit the most from this.
FLASH on the other hand is a character I've long had an interest in, off and on at least, and his new book seems to be more of the same from recent years. He could also stand to be spruced up quite a bit, but he's not that broken either, so maybe it's for the best to keep Barry the way he is. And yes, I'm going out on a limb with the assumption that this is Barry. They JUST brought him back, they're not going to toss him aside already. Francis Manapul is mostly known as an artist, and I'm not sure how good of a writer he is, so this book is an expectant question mark.
CAPTAIN ATOM has long been out of the spotlight, at least in his own book. The last time anyone really noticed him was during the Armageddon 2001 crossover from 20 years ago. He's about due for a new book. I do think it's funny that they're making him a 'god among men' and having issues with losing himself. Hello, Dr. Manhattan? Another solid creative team that could do great things with him.
FURY OF FIRESTORM kinda baffles me. Remember what I said about Flash being rehabilitated and brought back, so how could they futz him up? Well, then there's this book. Brightest Day brought back Ronnie Raymond, made him part of Firestorm again, and set up a new status quo...and then this book resets him back to a high school student? Bizarre choice. But, it IS being written by Gail Simone, so this should at least be a well written, and well reviewed book, even if the whole reasoning behind it is lost on me. This could go eitther way. It could bring old Firestorm fans along, fans of both versions, or it could totally turn them off with the restart of the property.
GREEN ARROW and SAVAGE HAWKMAN both look like they're restarting the characters from scratch, and basically taking a back to basics approach. I'm not sure how necessary that is for Ollie, but for Hawkman? He probably needs it. He's been so screwed up since 1985, and every attempt to fix him hasn't done much more than make it worse. I don't know if this time will do the trick, but fingers crossed.
Now, MISTER TERRIFIC is an interest choice. The JSA seems to have been written out of continuity for the time being, although I would not be surprised to learn they were out there during World War II, but acting in secret. But he's another African American who is getting his own title, adding to DC's continued attempts to add diversity to their line. I applaud the attempt, but the book holds no interest for me. This book is my number one pick for first cancelled.
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS is a return of the anthology title. I always like seeing these, but they do seem to be a hard sell, typically. Rotating casts and creators make it hard to hold onto readers. Hopefully top shelf creators will help that, and I will be looking in on Deadman's opening arc.
Now we get into the Superman corner of the universe, with ACTION COMICS. Possibly the most divisive decision DC could have made. I'm not sure I like Superman being the first superhero. If he is, that kinda implies his arrival sparked the creation of them, but that's likely me reading too much into things. Although, if he didn't, why is he the first? I'm passing on this book, since Grant Morrison has not done much that I like in recent years, and I couldn't care less about another Superman origin story. Bad enough they're overdone, but they're overdone this century, even.
SUPERMAN is being brought to us by George Perez. Well, that's all you needed to say. I'll at least give this book a look. I'm not too keen on pulling a One More Day with the wedding of Lois and Clark, though. DC so could have had it both ways, with a single Superman in the past-set Action Comics, and keeping the older fans happy with the married Supes in this title. An easy solution. But no, we need to go back to the relationship drama, because married people are uninteresting and unrelatable. As for Superman's new clothes...I kinda like it. I'm not sure he needs armour, but clean it up, and I like the general design.
From man to SUPERBOY now, and...I don't know what to make of this book. It looks like they want to redo Superboy to be more in line with the Young Justice cartoon, but they still want him to be who he always has been. Sadly, since this is by Scott Lobdell, a writer I actively avoid at all costs, I don't really care.
SUPERGIRL gets her 12th personality in almost as many years, and again, I'm not sure where this one falls for me. It looks interesting, but do we really need the petulant teenager routine again?
I'm just going to take most of the Batman books as a whole right here. If you like Batman now, you'll like Batman in September, plain and simple. They're keeping the creative team from the best selling, best reviewed title, and moving them over to BATMAN, and almost nothing is changing about the Batman side of things. So this is really business as usual.
Unless you're BATGIRL. Poor Babs was still shot by the Joker, but now she's suddenly ok, and a college student. Again, this is by Gail Simone so could be good, but it's going to entirely depend on the execution and undoing of the past 25 years. I'm on board, but I have my reservations.
There's also two new titles, BATWOMAN and BATWING. The former is the long delayed series, and probably for the best that they held off until the reboot, although with everything the character's history is loosely tangential to, it will be interesting to see how well she ties into the new DCU, and how much they had to change because of the delays into rebootdom.
The latter is the Batman Inc character who is basically the Batman of Africa. Could be interesting, but not much I'm interested in, either.
BIRDS OF PREY also gets completely shifted around, with all new characters, and Black Canary. Not sure how this title works in the wake of what's happening with Oracle. I'm checking it out due to momentum, but it could be dropped very quick.
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS is more by Scott Lobdell. But it looks like Arsenal has his arm back, and they've also said he's been deaged, so it looks like he never had a kid. This is going to be controversial among fans, and probably will go over about as well as killing Lian did. Starfire also looks to be completely rebooted, which is a shame. I'm not sure how the universe is going to be shaken out with these half-measures of a half restarted universe.
And whereas Batman has very few changes occurring to his corner of the universe, GREEN LANTERN has next to none. If any. Considering this has been DC's most well-received franchise since the book started five years ago, that's understandable. The flagship title picks right off where the final issue before the restart finished up, with the status quo they spent the last few months setting up. All the creative teams remain in place on all three titles, they're just being moved around or the books renamed. The GL changes are purely cosmetic. I've enjoyed the Green Lantern franchise for the past six years, and I'm sure this will be more of the same, all safe bets to buy.
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK is a book I am totally on board for. I love magic and mysticism, and Milligan can be one of the best writers of that sort of stuff. The cast is great, if off beat, and very much the Vertigo League you would expect from a book with that title, from this creator, and about the magical side of the universe.
SWAMP THING is another book that's taking the new status quo that they are setting up over Brightest Day and the last few months of the old DCU, and running with that, and bringing him back into the DC proper. Not a huge fan, not very interested, but Scott Snyder is a good writer, and the book should be perfectly fine, and cater well to people wanting a book starring Alec Holland and his mossy alter ego.
ANIMAL MAN also returns, and it becomes clear that Grant Morrison has become a driving force, whether by coincidence or by design, of the revamped DCU. Which I don't mind, despite my reservations of the man's own writings. He has good ideas, and with other people playing with them, they become more palatable, and more coherent. That said, I'm not that interested, although again, perfectly fine creative team.
FRANKENSTEIN: AGENT OF SHADE, is a book that is so very close to being one I want. It sounds fun in exactly the same ways JL Dark does, but slightly less interesting. But c'mon. Frankenstein the secret agent? SO close.
I VAMPIRE, is a title I have almost nothing to say anything about. Looks fine, but is kinda random. I do really like DC branching out into more genres in the DCU, not just the straight superheroes, and blending things together. It reminds me of the old CrossGen comics. More diversity in storytelling ideas is just as important as diversity in characters, in my opinion.
RESURRECTION MAN! I am so glad to see this guy coming back. This was a little known title in the late 90s, that was a pretty original idea for comics of a man who constantly dies and comes back with a new power each time. Bringing him back now is brilliant, and is another of my most anticipated books.
DEMON KNIGHTS and STORMWATCH are both books by Paul Cornell, one of my favourite writers, and someone I've interviewed, so both immediately went on my buy list. Whether they stay there is up for grabs, but I feel confident. DK is about the REAL first superhero group from the times of King Arthur. Suck on that, Justice League. It starts the Demon, naturally, and a few other familiar faces, as well as new ones. Again, I love the melding of medieval fantasy, and superheroes.
Stormwatch, along with GRIFTER and VOODOO, brings the old Wildstorm universe into a full on merger with the DCU. They've crossed over in the past, but now they are part of the universe, and always have been. I question whether we need Apollo and Midnighter in the same universe as their archetypes, Superman and Batman, but they're also different enough that there's room, I suppose. The other two titles are bringing in some of their old concepts with the Daemonite aliens, and I wouldn't be surprised if they build up to a WildC.A.T.S. book in a few months.
DEATHSTROKE looks to be taking Titans place, since that was pretty much his book anyways. If you like Deathstroke, you'll probably enjoy his ongoing adventures. Doesn't grab me though.
Same goes for OMAC. They seem to be bringing him more in line with the old Kirby concept, mixed with a few leftover ideas from the recent style of OMACs, but overall, another title that I'm passing by. Although Keith Giffen does tend to do some very off the wall stuff, so this will please anyone who is a fan of his wackier work, I'm sure.
SUICIDE SQUAD returns, taking a few of the old Secret Six characters, Harley Quinn, and others, and tossing them together as a black ops supervillain team. It's a tried and true concept that's worked plenty of times before, and this one should do well enough, if it's not lost in the shuffle.
BLACKHAWKS, MEN OF WAR, and ALL-STAR WESTERN are three more titles that show DC branching out into more ideas than just tights and capes. Western is mostly a continuation of Jonah Hex, but bringing him more up against contemporary parts of the DCU, like having him visit Gotham of the 1800s. It's a good way to explore the past, and make a book off in the lower end of sales feel more relevant. Blackhawks is a reinvention of the old WW2 team in modern times, but still a war title, while setting it in modern times, updating the concept. Men of War brings in the grandson of DC's classic character, Sgt. Rock, and has him leading a new Easy Company. My biggest concern here is that both titles sound far too similar, in updating old war concepts for the modern era at the same time. It could backfire.
TEEN TITANS...oh look, more Scott Lobdell. Teen Titans is becoming such a continuity mess in the reboot, even if it wasn't by Lobdell, I would be very hesitant in this book. I do not know what to make of it.
STATIC SHOCK continues the trend of merged universes like Wildstorm, by adding the most popular Milestone character to the DCU. He's been here for awhile actually, but there always seemed to be problems getting the ball rolling on him, so now is probably the best time to launch a new book with him in it, especially with the whole diversity thing they're going for.
HAWK & DOVE would be a title I'm getting, but then they put Rob Liefeld on art. Sigh. With Rob, Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and editor Bob Harras, DC 2011 looks a lot like Marvel in 1990. Look at some of the costume designs across the line. This does not fill me with hope. But as for Hawk & Dove, I'll check it out in December, when Liefeld gets distracted and they replace him.
BLUE BEETLE makes his return, or A Blue Beetle does. They're sticking with his most recent incarnation, and not bringing back Ted Kord, or Dan Garrett. Which is probably good, and again with the ethnicity. But I like Jaime, so this is all good. Although, it looks like he's starting over from scratch too. Is that really necessary after only being around for a few years? And what about the stories that DID happen, that he was a part of, an integral part of, even? Head hurts... Do we have to go through the Reach invasion again? Sigh.
Ironically enough, LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES remains one of the least untouched books. What with all their other reboots, I guess they figured it was time for a break.
Although LEGION LOST does bring a section of the team to the 21st Century, much like they did 10 or so years ago. Fabian Nicieza is writing, so the book should be just fine. And since I'm a huge LSH fan, and nothing much is changing, it should be no surprise I'm getting these two books.
And I *think* that's all the books. If I missed one, my bad, but it's a long list! There's some clear underlying trends, and most of them are for the good, I think. They're keeping their top selling franchises intact, with only minor changes, since those are working. They're spreading out to feature different types of characters, both in race and in story type and genre, as well as very 90s costumes.
I hope you enjoyed my in-depth look at everything DC is doing, since it was pretty random, but it did help me clear up a few thoughts, and maybe point out a few things to people.
The timeline stuff better end up making more sense than not as things go on, or else we'll have another crisis on our hands in five years to try and fix things again, and will likely go back to where we were. Which might not be all that bad, but I'm still willing to give this new DCU a chance, since on balance, things look better than they look bad.
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