Yesterday we brought you a look at Dark Horse’s June solicitations, and today we move on alphabetically to the first of the Big Two: DC Comics. However, an interesting thing happened while writing this article: what was supposed to be a simple look oer the various offerings of the company, a little bit of emotion eeked out of the sides and spilled onto the keyboard in the form of fingers hitting keys. For better or for worse, we’re just going to go with it.
Take a look behind the cut as a simple column turns into a glorified rant piece, and check out DC’s full solicits here.
And So, It Begins
The whole “Before Watchmen” hooplah begins in June, and it’s the talk of the town (if the internet can be called a town). Back when it was first announced, we threw together a quick response article where various members weighed in, and my response — if I do say so myself — is quite hilarious.
That being said, now that it has been a over a month since it was announced and considering I’ve never said anything about this whole thing anywhere, I figure that if you come to this article you might want my two cents. So I’ll give it to you:
All things considered, as a comic fan, I’m willing to buy into shit., and I mean that literally and figuratively. On the figurative side, I say it as slang — if Marvel and DC are releasing Summer Event X (“Flashpoint,” “AvX”, whatever), I’ll play along and buy it. I’m into the shared universe concept, and big events can be fun. I’ll buy into that shit. On the literal side, I mean what I say — I will buy shit. If Marvel and DC are releasing Summer Event X (“Flashpoint,” “AvX”, whatever), I’ll keep buying it even if it is terrible, because whatever, I started it, I’m into the shared universe concept, and I usually finish what I start (it’s very rare I don’t finish buying a mini, even if I don’t like it too much, because I’m not a crafty consumer).
All that being said? Couldn’t care less about “Before Watchmen.” Don’t care about the creative teams (sorry Darwyn, Amanda, J. G and the Kuberts), don’t care about their visions for the character, and I think it’s a waste of time and money. I also think it’s a waste of an illegal download, so I guess I’ll never know if I’m wrong.
But hey, buy what you like.
I Am Literally The Worst Person To Handle This Particular Column Right Now
I feel horrible for writing this, but it’s true. I love doing Soliciting Multiversity. I like going over Dark Horse, Image and Marvel stuff, and sharing what looks cool. I don’t know about you readers, but I like to think I share an amusing perspective on things, or at least help to recommend a title or two.
On the other hand, I just don’t care about DC Comics anymore. Not entirely, obviously. There will be a few recommendations after this long whinging rant, but in looking over these solicits, I see very little that interests me. I’m probably not picking up any of DC’s Second Wave outside of Morrison’s continued Batman story, and the majority of these books just look bad: Justice League, World’s Finest, Earth Two, Captain Atom, DCU Presents, Firestorm, Green Arrow, Hawkman… I could go on and on and on about how dull a lot of this looks.
So if the point of this article is to share what looks “cool”, then I’m a horrible candidate to handle this. I don’t think a billion Batman books are a good idea, nor do I care about the books Johns is writing (but congratulations to Aquaman on finally becoming mainstream popular, I guess?). I love Bryan Q. Miller’s “Batgirl”, but I have no interest in a Smallville comic. I also have to confess that I’m confused at why some of these are still being produced, like “Catwoman”, “Red Hood and the Outlaws” or “Captain Atom.” How did that end up happening? Enough people actually like those books to warrant their survival? And here I thought all that internet outrage meant something. I read Brian’s last review of “Suicide Squad” and I am shocked that anyone wants to read the book he describes.
Continued belowClearly I’m not the target market anymore. I used to love DC Comics, as much as I loved Marvel (ok, maybe a little less). I try, generally speaking, to pimp out independent work over the stuff the Big Two puts out here on the website because I think it’s important to share the wide world of comics to an audience who might not see it, but I still buy a ton of comics that star superheroes I loved as a kid. Creator-owned might be my particular bread and butter, but dammit if the superheroes aren’t a great desert! Yet, looking at what DC plans to put out in June, I don’t see much of a place for me any longer.
Again — there are a few things I’m interested in here and there: “Wonder Woman” has been really good, Snyder is creating magic in “Batman” and “Swamp Thing” (which twists my life upside down since I’m notorious for bashing both characters), and of course I like “Action Comics.” I’ll share a bit more about some of these books in a minute, but I just want to point out that DC’s not devoid of ostensibly good content. However, I also know that absolutely no one cares that I like or don’t like these books, because I’m not delusional. I am one voice on the internet, one singular opinion, and I’m also often not the popular one — which I’m absolutely ok with. But with that in mind, it’s personally a bit sad to me to see how little I care about most of these books that are full of so many characters I used to really enjoy.
Perhaps next month I’ll hand over the reigns of this particular column to someone who can give a shit, but for this month you get a whiney rant. Sorry, folks. For a more positive look at DC Comics, you’re going to have to hit up another URL.
The Weird DC Might Just Be The Best DC
Now for the not so whiney stuff.
If there is one side of DC that I will say is fairly enjoyable, if not always noteworthy, it’s the “weird” side: “Animal Man” and “Swamp Thing” are fun (and Yannick Paquette is killing it in that book, for the record), “I Vampire” ended up surprising me (although I’ll admit that it is losing me) and Matt Kindt taking over “Frankenstein” is a great prospect, I believe. I really have nothing nice to say about 90% of the mainstream DC books (save for “Batman”, “Flash” and “Wonder Woman”, I guess), but when I look at all the fringe stuff DC is publishing I kind of feel like somebody over there is interested in making some interesting comics.
To tie back in with what I was talking about in that above rant, I guess the battle of DC for my affections goes like this: I honestly believe that the majority of what DC is publishing here is incredibly generic, but when I look at the titles that aren’t “making headlines” because Batman or Superman or whoever isn’t in them, more often than not I am reminded of why I used to really like DC Comics.
And I can remember when I rather vehemently bashed the idea of a comic starring Swamp Thing! Now it’s one of the few I still get. How times change!
Oh, and — I have no real thoughts on “Dial H” (and can’t have any since I haven’t read it) but I must say these Bolland covers remind me of my “Doom Patrol” trades in a good way.
These Three Bat-Family Covers Look Nice
They also happen to correlate to the only Bat-Family titles I’m remotely interested in reading, so there you go.
Man, that Burnham can draw, can’t he?
Oh, And There’s Vertigo!
The true greatness of DC Comics lies solely in the Vertigo imprint. Literally all their best titles come from Vertigo: “American Vampire” and it’s new mini “Lord of Nightmares” (with art by Dustin Nguyen!), “Fables” and “Fairest,” “iZombie,” “Spaceman,” “Saucer Country,” “Sweet Tooth,” “Scalped,” “The Unwritten” — almost everything they publish I plan to buy. I look down the list of Vertigo titles and see but three books that I’m not getting (and two are pending because I need to read their first issues). That’s how you should run things.
And would you look at that “Scalped” final cover? My god. It’s beautiful. (And don’t forget why.)
Right, And This Bad Boy – The Invisibles Omnibus
I have all of “the Invisibles” already, but I can’t say I’m not tempted to buy it again.
