This is an interesting month from DC for a few reasons; we get more cancellations, we get the first Liefeld-free month since the New 52 began, and we see parts of the publishing slate growing stale. Hopefully, next month’s four new books, whatever they are, add up to more excitement than was generated this month.
Round Three of the DC cancellations are in, and “Grifter,” “Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.,” “Blue Beetle” and “Legion Lost” are all going to that Paradise Island in the sky. The “Grifter” cover is full of WildStorm characters, continuing to suggest a WildC.A.T.S. book or, as is my current crackpot theory, a book simply called “WildStorm.”
“Frankenstein” is the real bummer here, especially since Matt Kindt has been doing a great job bringing the weird and the science in equal portions. “Legion Lost” will likely wind up linking up with the main Legion book, and “Blue Beetle” is leading directly into…
Keith Giffen’s new book, “Threshold,” sounds like a weird mélange of The Running Man, Battle Royale, and the Hunger Games — so, basically, like a better version of “Avengers Arena.” But, it has Keith Giffen and a slew of great cosmic characters, as well as a Larfleeze backup drawn by Scott Kollins and Tom Raney on the main story’s pencils.
Month after month I tout the amazing work being done on “I, Vampire” by Andrea Sorrentino, particularly in this time of fill-ins and the short runs that most artists have before needing a fill-in. In that regard, kudos to Sorrentino for making it until #16 before needing a hand. Let’s hope that Dennis Calero does a fine job, but that Sorrentino is back next month.
Yildiray Cinar is also drawing a two issue arc on “Earth 2,” filling in for the great Nicola Scott. His arc features both Steppenwolf and “the last Amazon” — Cinar’s style should be an interesting fit for the book. Hopefully the two month break will let this be the last fill Scott needs for a while.
Look at the awesomely bizarre team Animal Man has wrangled up on this cover!
The multi-book, multi-month crossover has replaced the “Event Comic” at DC nowadays. Super books have ‘H’el on Earth,”Rotworld’ is going strong in “Animal Man” and “Swamp Thing,” ‘Death of the Family’ is consuming the Bat books, ‘Rise of the Third Army’ covers all the Lantern books. And now, “Justice League” and “Aquaman” are engaged in ‘Throne of Atlantis,’ yet another multi-book, multi-month crossover.
While in some ways having books connected and intertwining is rewarding, it can also make for dull month to month reading. “Supergirl” can’t do anything truly interesting for a few months because of the crossover with lesser books, and so I find myself contemplating, at least temporarily, dropping that book. Part of the fun of the various Bat books is the different stories that go on, yet all but a handful of them are doing Joker stories in January. In this “writing for the trade” era, what I wouldn’t give for a series of one and done stories, like the pre-‘Flashpoint’ “Jonah Hex.”
“Insurgent” is a new miniseries from the relatively unknown writing team of Todd Farmer and F.J. DeSanto, with art by Federico Dallocchio. It is described as a sci-fi/action type story and, while I applaud DC for trying something new, the only news of this series comes 2/3 of the way through their solicits, and it sounds, frankly, like a less than unique idea. Perhaps they were blown away by the pitch; good, now promote it. This seems to be to be another miniseries destined to sell poorly and be largely forgotten by issue #3.
“Minutemen” wraps, “Comedian” and “Ozymandias” have their penultimate issues released – it’s almost over folks, we can get through this.
With “American Vampire” going on hiatus, Vertigo is releasing just a five books this month: “Saucer Country,” “The Unwritten,” “Fables,” “Fairest” and “Hellblazer.”
Yes, there are announced minis coming from Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire, but Vertigo is in a real rut right now. DC needs to turn some of their focus to Vertigo, and bolster the line that, often times, was the only critical or commercially successful part of their publishing slate.
