Resignation Superman-Big Head Todd and the Monsters


Superman-Robyn Hitchcock



Superman-The Drive-By Truckers

Robin is such a show off.

I missed posting news two weeks ago, (I was sick!) and then SDCC came along…So, like I do each year, I’m trolling the ‘net and looking for the most interesting (to me) news to come out of Comicon (or elsewhere), and providing it in three installments, chockablock with stuff you may have missed or stuff you may have read before, but bears repeating.

Today: DC.  Hit the break!
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Me and a buddy of mine refer to the New 52 as the Marvel-ization of DC, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Justice League.  But the purpose of his article is just to let you know that one of the better DC writers, Jeff “Sweet Tooth and Animal Man” Lemire is taking over Justice League Dark from Peter Milligan.  You may not have read any of Milligan’s run, but it wasn’t half bad.  I just find it hard to relate to DC’s “magical” characters–John Constantine, Deadman, Zatanna, etc.  Anyway, the book is basically the Secret Avengers counterpart to The Avengers.  (Like Justice League International, the DC B-team, is the new 52 counterpart to New Avengers.  Now, I know JLI predated New Avengers, but that was the GOOD JLI.  The new 52 JLI has no real form or purpose.  Hence, it’s been cancelled.)

Lemire promises to kick the series into higher gear, emphasizing action over mysticism, which should be a welcome change.  Milligan’s book was good, as I said, but it was….Heavy.

He also promises to develop the Steve Trevor (DC’s Maria Hill) team, ARGUS (i.e., S.H.I.E.L.D.), in the pages of Justice League Dark, and to feature some of DC’s other fringe characters like Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE (whose book he happens to write as well) and Felix Faust.

Is anyone clamoring for this book?  Probably not.  But Lemire did a great job with Animal Man, so I’m willing to give it a go.

…AKA: GRANT MORRISON FINALLY STARTED WRITING ACTION COMICS!

I have been wholly underwhelmed by the new 52 reboot of Action Comics written by the best living comic book writer.  When I finished reading Action Comics #8, I said that that was the last issue I’d buy.  Then, I decided to give Grant Morrison one more chance.  After all, he’s best known for slow burn, so maybe he was building up to something.

I still don’t know what he’s doing with the “main” Superman, but Action Comics #9 was an out-of-canon multiverse story of Earth 23 that was classic Morrison.

Without giving too much away, Morrison tells the story of a black Superman (although his race really is irrelevant to the story) at war with his own Luthor, who must confront his own legend.  More precisely, he must confront what the multiverse wants in a Superman.  Along the way, Morrison does what he does best: Questions the meaning of a “super man” not by looking at the concept, but by looking through it.

Action Comics #9 proves that Morrison still has a lot to say about the Man of Steel.  Which is a good thing, because I was beginning to wonder.

The art, by Gene Ha, is great as well–it’s a slightly shadowy, slightly serious style that’s grounded in reality rather than larger than life.  Perfect for this story.

The backup story is typical filler, but after reading this comic I’m in a forgiving mood so I’ll choose to ignore it rather than get irritated about DC taking my money for seven pages of worthlessness.

Superman, by http://frankespinosanuevomundi.blogspot.ca/

Chicago’s Comicon brought with it tons of news that you’ve probably heard elsewhere first, but I wanted to add commentary on the stories I found most interesting.  I’ll be doing posts on DC, Marvel, and “everyone else.”

This one’s for DC.  Hit the break to learn about DC’s digital first line, news on Before Watchmen, and a half dozen new titles you might be interested in….

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The paint ain’t even dry on the new 52, and DC promises to cull 6 crappers out of the rotation, cancelling Blackhawks, Hawk & Dove, Men Of War, Mister Terrific, OMAC, and Static Shock—all with issue #8. The titles will make way for:

· The return of Grant Morrison’s Batman, Inc. Rather than being a 12-issue series that would end Morrison’s work with Batman, it’s now being promoted as a “reader friendly” new series that will fit Morrison’s ideas into the new 52. Grant will still be the writer, at least initially. Not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, Morrison Batman is never a bad thing. On the other hand, I can’t imagine it without being laden thick and heavy with continuity. That’s pretty much what his entire run has been about: Batman’s bizarre past and the vast legend that exists. In fact, that was the very basis for Batman, Inc., in the first place!

· A new book by James Robinson and Nicola Scott titled Earth 2. And with the return of Earth 2, Crisis on Infinite Earths is officially out of the New 52 lexicon. The new 52 was supposed to clean up the DCU, but it turns out they just can’t wait to start muddying it up again.

· World’s Finest featuring Power Girl, written by Paul Levitz with art by George Perez (two old timers on a very, very old character). The story will involve PG trying to return to Earth 2, which is where she started out according to her pre-New 52 origin. I’m already getting continuity-annoyance.

· Dial H. Remember this one? Dude dials a rotary phone thingy and gets powers? High concept. It’ll be written by China Mieville, best known for non-comic Sci Fi novels.

· G.I. Combat. So the good news is they’re dumping Men of War and Blackhawks, but the bad news is they’re replacing it with this. Which will be written by JT Krul. Which means it will suck wind.

· The Ravagers. Sounds a bit like Runaways: Four kids with powers fleeing an evil corporate-like entity who wants to make them be bad guys.

In with the old, out with the new…Let’s start this year with a look back.

2011 was a year in which many Marvel mainstays had relaunches/reboots (Daredevil and Moon Knight being the most successful, “Power Man” less so), and every DC character was reborn.  It was a year in which there were at least 52 more #1s than usual.  But 2011 also saw indie books rising in popularity due to successful TV shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead and pour-over from last year’s high-profile Scott Pilgrim film.

According to Diamond—the official distributor of the comic book medium—Justice League #1 was the best-selling issue of the year.  DC actually beat Marvel for a couple months, but sales from September to November gradually slowed, and by December Marvel was back at #1—albeit barely so.  Marvel sold 39% of all comics sold in December, while DC fell from 39% to 38%.  So, it looks like 2012 will be a return to normalcy.

But there’s no denying DC’s short term success: Not only did they have the three best-selling comics of 2011, but they’re also probably three of the top sellers of the past 10 years.  Justice League #1 topped 361K sold, and Batman and Superman both topped 250K.  Marvel’s best seller of the year was The Death of Spider-Man (Ultimate Spider-Man #160), which sold a comparatively small 159K.  It’s best-selling book of the past 10 years, however, was the Obama issue of Amazing Spider-Man, which told 530K.  And that was just on a sucky back-up feature.  Marvel should make The President as ubiquitous as Wolverine.  They’ll sell tons!

So what else is new?  Muppet Thor for one thing!

Hit the break and read on…

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