Remember the whole idea behind DC’s new 52? It was to shrink the publishing line to ensure quality over quantity. Well, guess which big two publisher now has more than 52 titles?
And most of the picks for the 4 new titles are mad-crazy:
- Talon. A spin-off from Batman’s “Night of the Owls,” to be created by the current Batman writer Scott Snyder, along with James Tynion IV, and Guillem March on art. It will tell the tale of a Talon assassin who betrays the organization and is hunted by them. This one actually could be good. The others….
- Sword of Sorcery by Christy Marx and Aaron Lopresti. This book will feature Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, reboot of an absolutely dreadful 1980s comic. Kitsch, maybe as a one-shot or a mini, I understand. But this is just nuts. Oh, but I’m sure that the Beowulf back up feature by Tony Bedard and Jesus Saiz will save it…
- The Phantom Stranger by Dan DiDio and Brent Anderson. Because books like this always sell so well for DC. Not!
- Team Seven by Justin Jordan and Jesus Merino. Because bringing Stormwatch into the DCU (from Wildstorm) is selling so well. Not! again. In this iteration, the team will be hunting Superman. Basically, this is yet more evidence that Marvel’s core concept of heroes-as-antiheroes is driving DC’s reboot.
And the above don’t even count Batman, Inc., which is supposed to be a 12-issue series but looks like it might be extended, and the new Earth 2 book. So, really, we’re talking 58 regular titles.
On top of this publishing boost will come the “#0” issues this September: An attempt to keep up the [hype?] momentum from last year’s new 52 launch by releasing prequel issues to all the new 52 titles…Even the cancelled ones! Now, we all know #1 issues sell well. But are comic collectors also crazy enough to buy #0 issues?
We’ll see.
