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| The Pinnacle of Modern Comics |
For other optimistic (read: foolish) DC Comics fans, the promise of the New 52 was something we could hang our hopes and dreams on: a chance to pair up the best possible creative teams with characters that fit their aesthetic, a chance to give new books a fighting chance, to revive old titles, and to re-energize their entire line.
Then, we got “Mister Terrific” and “The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men.”
But, there was one area that post-Flashpoint DC has absolutely thrived in, and that is in their miniseries.
Depending on how you’re counting, DC has released either 5 or 7 minis since the relaunch. “Batman: Odyssey” and “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents” are technically miniseries, but are really just the completion of pre-‘Flashpoint’ stories that aren’t really cannon. “Batman: Odyssey” is my favorite comic of all time (well, not really), and “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents” has continued to be fantastic. But it is the other five minis that I really want to focus on, and to see what can be learned from DC’s success in this area of their publishing. I reviewed each of these at least once for Multiversity, and was impressed with each of them for various reasons (including “Batman: Odyssey” – it takes balls to publish something so unbelievably terrible). Hit the jump for talk of faux-Swamp Things, umbrellas, flight rings, male nudity in comics and murders in Italy.
(Note – I’m not including “The Shade” in this discussion, simply because it is 12-issues long and, to me, that is a maxi-series)
Let’s start with the other questionably included mini, “My Greatest Adventure.” This is a second volume (sort of) of the classic anthology series, featuring characters from a book that DC launched last year (which was then called “Weird Worlds”), with Robotman replacing Lobo, and Garbage Man and Tanga reprising their roles as the characters no one is buying the book for. Matt Kindt and Scott Kollins rocked the shit out of the Robotman story, both updating and staying true to the character’s origin. I hope this is the back-door pilot to a new Doom Patrol series, or even having Robotman joining another team book.
Then there was Garbage Man, a super fun faux-Swamp Thing story written and drawn by Aaron Lopresti. It is a classic-looking mini with some really fun moments, but I really can’t see anything being done with this character, long-term, because of just how Swamp Thing-y it really is. Finally, we have Tanga, which is just plain bad. Sorry Kevin Maguire! Good luck on “Worlds’ Finest!”
But overall, this anthology worked like a charm – it gave hints of what books by these characters would look like, and hopefully, will enable DC to continue to publish some sort of anthology (“DC Universe Presents,” while a longer-form version, is enough for me). What I kept thinking while reading these issues was this: this would’ve been a fantastic way to break into web-only content. 6 installments of 3 stories, spread out weekly online – think about it, DC.
Next up we have “Legion: Secret Origin.” Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I have never been a Legion fan, for the simple reason that I haven’t wanted to give up a month to catch up on the history and to learn all the damn names. But I wanted to give this book a shot, and so I picked up the first issue and found a completely accessible, well told story about the early days of the Legion. Why, pray tell, wasn’t this how the New 52 handled the Legion? “Legion Lost” can still exist, but let this be the “Legion of Super-Heroes” book for the New 52. This miniseries looks great (tip of the hat to Chris Batista and Rich Perotta), and tells a story that needed to be told, despite what hardcore Legionnaires will tell you.
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Huntress presented a more extreme take on a vigilante hero post-‘Flashpoint,’ and was used to set up the forthcoming “Worlds’ Finest” comic. It succeeded on both accounts; the beginnings of “Worlds’ Finest” are here, and it took me aback to see Huntress so cavalierly popping caps in people. Earth-2’s, apparently, more violent nature is put on display without being excessive, and Marcus To’s pencils were downright gorgeous each issue. Both “Huntress” and “Legion: Secret Origin” were written by Paul Levitz, and he managed to use both as establishing stories that weren’t the boring, redundant origin tales we got in a bunch of the New 52 books.
“The Ray” came out of nowhere for me, and quickly became the best New 52 book that wanted to introduce a new take on a character (I don’t mean “Barry Allen in single now,” I mean “Starfire is now a tabula rasa/fuck machine”). The Ray shares nothing with any of his prior namesakes except for the moniker, and manages to be a new character with a diverse background that doesn’t seem forced. The fact that he is a Korean-American is really only notable because he dates an Indian-American whose parents don’t approve of his not being Indian. There are no embarrassing kimchee jokes or references to Kim John Il – this is just a solid superhero story (with my favorite super villain origin ever) with above-average art (courtesy of Jamal Igle) and a fun new character that spends a good bit of the first issue naked, having to cover his little Ray up with things like a guitar. What’s not to like?!?
And, finally, the best of the bunch: “Penguin: Pain and Prejudice.” This has become THE definitive Penguin story, and manages to take disparate elements of his character (the umbrellas, his night club, his family) and weave together a story so tragic, beautiful and chilling that it practically begs for an animated feature to come from it. I can’t praise this book highly enough, so track it down.
When we look at these as a set, we see some really great ideas for how to do minis in the future. There are three points I think are worth addressing:
1) The art makes the mini
What is frustrating about modern comics is that sometimes the best artists are somewhat left in the wilderness, due to their process not being conducive to the monthly schedule. And that is where minis can come in – Igle, To, Szymon Kudranski, these are all excellent artists without monthly books. Let them all do a mini once a year. As much as I enjoyed each of these minis, I don’t know if I’d have read them if they had less than great art. I know I said I wasn’t including “The Shade” in this, but Cully Hamner, Darwyn Cooke, Javier Pulido, Jill Thompson, Frazer Irving and Gene Ha represent the best case scenario here. Many of these folks would fall helplessly behind on a monthly book, so let them knock 3-6 issues out of the park and use them for fill-ins. I think the tenor of the conversation about fill-in artists would change significantly if Hamner or To was the fill-in. Or, go the JG Jones route, and be a cover artist in between minis.
2) Reward success
Greg Hurwitz did great work on his Penguin mini, and now he’s the new monthly writer of “Batman: The Dark Knight.” Matt Kindt’s Robotman piece was ace, so he’s taking over “Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.” You can put a lesser known guy or gal on a mini (which, I would presume, sell more for the character and the art than the writer, or at least it is less of a factor than it would for a monthly), where their story will be pitched in full, and more carefully edited and, if he or she impresses, they are ready for monthly duties. This works even better with web-only content, but I think I’m the lone voice advocating for that, so we’ll move on.
Continued below3) There are already enough Batman and Superman books
“Legion: Secret Origin” sort of breaks this rule (as there are already two Legion books being published), but for the most part, we got stories not available elsewhere. None of these (again, save Legion) could have worked quite as well in a monthly book. Penguin became the “hero” of his book, leaving Batman in a limited role; someone buying a Batman book may not want four issues of Bats being a supporting cast member.
People will read a mini about a character that always has interested them, even if only in a minor way. So, please DC, use your minis as a launching pad for ideas that aren’t quite ready for a monthly book just yet – let people get a taste for who someone is before expecting them to add it to their pull list. I think if DC had released “O.M.A.C.” as a mini, the perception of the 8-issue story would’ve been totally different, and maybe a year down the road, after a guest spot in Justice League International, we’d see an “O.M.A.C.” ongoing that would work.
But even if DC sees this, prints it out, and uses it as toilet paper, I can’t fault them for the way they’ve approached their minis thus far. Each is worth a place in your collection and, hopefully, each has inspired DC in some way to replicate their success.
