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Tuesday, February 15, 2005
DC for May
I'm fairly grumpy and tired after dealing with incompetent people all morning (note to doctors: hire courteous and competent receptionists and you'll go a long way towards keeping patients happy), so of course that puts me in the perfect mood to play every blogger's favorite game: "What Looks Good/Bad/Terribly Ill-Conceived in the Previews."
I count eight statues, a prop replica and an over-priced "Ken as Batman" doll, as well as the film adaptation and a trade collecting the adaptation and Batman stories that vaguely resemble the content of the film. Here's hoping Batman Begins does better than the Catwoman or Elektra movies.
Batman Family
Most of the Bat-titles this month appear to be "Part X of Y" so there's not much to talk about there. Batman Villain Secret Files could potentially be interesting, but it's more likely to consist of largely unnecessary recaps of prior stories and vague hints regarding future stories. Year One: Batman/Scarecrow holds no appeal for me at all, and I'm apparently the one person out there who doesn't thrill to Brian Azzarello's work (his run on Superman notwithstanding), so the paper-back publication of Broken City doesn't register with me either.
About the only thing that does stand out is the first two issues of the Englehart, Rodgers and Austin mini Dark Detective. Their original run on Detective is well-regarded for good reason, and really, how can you resist a cover like this?
Superman Family
The new art teams on Superman and Adventures of Superman are promising, and I'd really like to buy and enjoy Gail Simone's run on Action, but unfortunately she's been paired with an artist whose work I don't want in my home.
A similar problem exists with Superman: Infinite City, with art by Carlos Meglia. I really, really don't like his work, and my first reaction when I heard about this book was, frankly, to be appalled that he's still getting work from a major publisher. (I was tempted to simply not say anything at all about this book, since I can't say anything positive, but like I said earlier, grumpy today.)
DC U
I really don't care that they're relaunching Green Lantern. I won't be buying it and I'm sort of annoyed at the deification of nostalgia that the return of Hal Jordan signifies.
I can't be the only person out there who finds the concept of The Omac Project appealing, can I?
A Teen Titans/Outsiders cross-over makes sense given how the titles launched, and if you're a fan of both titles it's a nice little gimmick, but now even I'm starting to think that maybe DC needs to back off of the heavy cross-title continuity a bit.
The Rann/Thanagar war launches and the creators are people who have put out quality work in the past, so I'm willing to give the series the benefit of the doubt, even if others feel that its existence somehow lessens the quality of the Diggle/Ferry Adam Strange mini.
With this month's Seven Soldiers titles, Shining Knight and Guardian, Grant Morrison revives a DC stunt from several years back, the extreme close-up head-shot. If I read some of the news regarding this series correctly, all the second issues of each of the titles will be like this. Frankly, I can't tell if that's brilliant branding or just a really dull idea.
The cover to Villains United spoils the identity of those shadowy figures who have been appearing in DC titles lately. Again, it's a premise I find intriguing and creators I trust, so I'm looking forward to it despite it's involvement in this big push to make the DCU more interconnected.
Wrath of the Spectre collects the Michael Fleisher written Spectre stories from Weird Adventure Comics. It's always good to see DC putting quality older material out in trade format, rather than the Archive format, even when it's not something I have any particular interest in, as is the case here. I wouldn't mind some cheap trades for DC's fantasy or western titles, however.
Johnny DC
Looney Tunes features a parody of the Odyssey...hey, if the makers of the Simpsons comic can make humor based on the classics work, why not DC?
DC's long-ago Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy adaptation is re-offered as part of the Johnny DC line...which is a surprising choice.
CMX
Nothing new here, just further volumes of existing titles, though several first volumes are re-offered as part of something called "Manga Month" which I'm going to guess is going to be a branding strategy within the May Previews.
There's usually at least one title in this section that looks good to me, and this month it's Olympus by Geoff Johns, Kris Grimminger and Butch Guice. Archaeologists and mercenaries fighting monsters from Greek myths...I'm already eager to get my hands on it.
Different Ugliness, Different Madness by Marc Males looks promising as well, and I'm glad to see that the Humanoids line is publishing "realistic" fiction as well as the genre fiction people seem to expect. If a book like this gets a strong critical reaction it raises the profile of the line, which means that maybe more and more diverse offerings could be made available. Were such a thing to happen, I wouldn't mind seeing an English language edition of Lost Future.
Wildstorm
The Warren Ellis written Desolation Jones makes it's debut, with art by JH Williams III, and the Devin Grayson with Brian Stelfreeze mini Matador does as well. That's two long-ago announced books coming out at about the same time. Both look exactly like the sort of thing I really want to read. We also get a new issue of Planetary.
And over at the America's Best Comics imprint, the Top Ten graphic novel, The Forty-Niners is due to be released as well. It's a good month for Wildstorm fans with patience.
Vertigo
More continuing on-goings and minis, so not much to comment on, save that the Preacher graphic novels are being re-released with new trade dress, and, it appears, that the price of the books has been set at $14.99. I could be wrong, but I don't remember all the books having the same price in the past. If it is the case I'm very curious as to what prompted this move. My guess would be that it's a reaction to the uniformity of price amongst manga titles, and a sign of how important bookstore sales really are to a trade paperback line.
DC Direct
You know, Megas XLR is an occasionally amusing show, but I'm not sure it warrants a $125 statue.
Wow. These Alex Ross designed JLA figures look really, really boring. Apparently an effort has been made to have Black Manta's mask look more, I don't know, functional or "realistic." It's the freaking Black Manta! It's not supposed to be a "practical" mask, it's only supposed to look cool to boys aged eight to twelve!
Wow, I must be more tired than grumpy because I'm actually a little enthusiastic about most of DC's output for May...either that or DC is actually promising to put out material that actually looks like it might be good.
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