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Monday, June 19, 2006
DC for September
Full solicitations are up in various places. You can sort of tell that summer is over, as the rush to get new titles launched seems to have died down somewhat. But let's look at what's offered that catches my eye and/or scorn anyway.
The Morrison and Dini runs on Batman and Detective continue, and frankly I'll be happy if they're at least more substantive than the Robinson arc, the entire point of which seems to have been returning Two Face to his prior status quo of deformed villain. And people got on my case when I said the run read like filler...
Batman and the Mad Monk #2 gets an early lead as contender for "Best Cover of the Month"
But is then immediately upstaged by the cover to All Star Superman #6.
I'm the only person who cares that Blue Jay is returning in Action #843.
Ian Churchill does much to mitigate his anorexic Supergirl with the sheer comic-booky silliness of this cover to Supergirl #10.
And although I find Darwyn Cooke's seeming obsession with the Eisenhower era irritating at times, the cover to the "Absolute Edition" of The New Frontier is quite nice.
The one-shot sequels to the Countdown minis get collected as Infinite Crisis Companion, as well as an October shipping collection of the Superman Returns prequels. Way to capitalize on the moment there, guys...
There's an obvious candidate to fill this "mystery spoiler-free silhouette" cover to Birds of Prey #98. And just when I was starting to foolishly hope that maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't have to hear about the "horrible desecration to the memory of one of the most rich and compelling characters in comics history" until a comic with her in it actually came out...
I don't know why publishers keep giving Michael Turner cover assignments, yet he does one more cover for Justice League of America, and it's another one of those "mystery spoiler-free silhouette" jobs. Since trying to guess who fills those slots seems to be de rigeur, here goes: Clock-wise from the top, we've got Hawkman. I just don't see Kendra with a big mace, nor do I see Turner obscuring secondary sexual characteristics on a female character's outline, plus Hawkgirl has her own solo book at the moment. Next we've got an extremely generic female outline that could be just about anyone in the DCU. I'm guessing the green bow is a misdirection and that's Roy/Arsenal/Speedy there, as one of the teases for this new series was that a "Titan" would graduate, and he's the only former Teen Titan so far unaccounted for in the One Year Later status quo. Next we have another female character with very distinctive gloves and some kind of top-know or long pony-tail. You'd think with such a distinctive outline that it'd be an obvious answer, but I'm drawing a blank. We clearly have a Green Lantern of some kind. I'm hoping it's John Stewart, as I just plain don't like Hal Jordan, and he, Guy and Kyle already have books of their own. The flying figure in the center says Captain Atom to me. Don't know why, it just does. And finally, the last figure, in the upper left, another gimmie, as it's the Red Tornado's distinctive collar and tornado-trail. Plus, you know, he's mentioned by name in the issue synopsis.
Jim Starlin brings back both Captain Comet and The Weird in a new Mystery in Space series that also ties in to Starlin's previous Hardcore Station mini. The Weird is one of those forgotten gems of the post-Crisis era, so it's nice to see that he somehow survived being atomized at the end of his mini.
Showcase Presents The Phantom Stranger. One word: YES!
If anyone tries to tell you that they're a comic book fan, and then they bad mouth the idea of Krypto the Superdog, they're a damned dirty liar and a hypocrite and you have my permission to sock them in the jaw.
Densha Otoko is one of three versions of the same story coming out from three different manga companies this year. There's this version, a version from Viz, and a shojo version from Del Rey. The story, about an anime nerd who saves a girl on a train from a groper, doesn't sound particularly compelling in any of it's multiple formats, but I understand it's something of a phenom. Frankly, the story strikes me as a borderline misogynistic fanboy wish fulfillment fantasy...or did I just explain to myself why the story is popular?
Snakes on a Plane: the comic. Just when I thought they couldn't get me to care any less about the concept than I already do.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier is at last solicited (when it will actually come out is still anyone's guess). I somehow doubt that this will prompt as much message board anguish as Lost Girls, but then once people work out what a "Tijuana Bible" is I'm sure we'll see some.
Fables gets a hard-cover graphic novel, 1001 Nights of Snowfall, as well as a twenty-five cent reprint of the first issue. See, now that's a clever and timely cross-promotion.]
There's also a bunch of truly ugly statues and toys solicited, but they hurt my eyes too much to examine them closely.
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