DC Solicitation Sneaks: March 2023
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Superman: Lost #1 (of 10)
2023 is the 85th Anniversary of the first appearance of Superman, and DC has decided that the best way to showcase this is… to have the character deal with a massive case of PTSD.
No, wait, hear me out.
This new maxiseries from writer Christopher Priest and artist Carlo Pagulayan has Superman being called off to deep space on what sounds like a routine Justice League mission. While Lois Lane isn’t any stranger to these kinds of things, her world is rocked when the Man of Steel shows back up in her apartment one evening unfamiliar with her or anyone else around him. It turns out that routine mission resulted in Superman being lost in space for 20 years and now he has to find a way to process that lost time with people he hardly recognizes anymore.
Had something like this happened in the monthly “Superman” or “Action Comics” series, we’d likely get an issue dealing with it before Superman went back to business as usual. The fact that “Lost” is a ten-issue miniseries about this subject indicates Priest and Pagulayan are serious about digging into the implications of how this time away from Earth has affected the Man of Steel. While Priest is likely still best known for his defining run on “Black Panther” in the 00’s, he’s also been doing good work over at DC, and he has a lengthy run on “Deathstroke” with Pagulayan as proof of that. If nothing else, it sounds like an interesting premise with a creative team that stands a decent shot of doing justice to it.
Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1 (of 6): Jon’s previous series may have wrapped up, but his adventures will live on. For six months, at least. Writer Tom Taylor returns for this miniseries which sees Jon venturing out into the multiverse. Why? The villainous Ultraman has made it his mission to kill off all the other Kal-Els from other universes. Why is he doing this? Because he’s the evil version of Superman, duh! Jon’s going to stop him, since that’s what Supermen do, and maybe tie up some loose ends from his previous series in the process. Regular artist John Timms won’t be back for this, but Clayton Henry should fill his shoes nicely.
While I haven’t been keeping up with Jon’s previous adventures, that’s going to change. Superman: Son of Kal-El vol. 1 – The Truth is finally arriving in paperback in these solicitations. So I’ll finally get to see what Taylor and Timms did with the character’s solo adventures and if his relationship with journalist Jay Nakamura is as adorable as it was hated by bigots (and it was SO HATED by bigots). Also, we’ll get to see Henry Bendix running Gamorra, which is a plot point that will likely be of interest only to people who remember these things from the days when Warren Ellis wrote “Stormwatch” and “The Authority.”
Batman: One Bad Day – Ra’s Al Ghul: While we’re on the subject of Taylor, he’s writing the latest and last installment of the “One Bad Day” one-shots. This one sure seems like it’s taking place in its own continuity as the Demon’s Head finally overcomes the obstacle to his plans that is the Batman. Now he can finally turn the world into the utopia that he’s dreamed of for hundreds of years. Sounds great, right? Well, the solicitation text describes this as an “epic tragedy” so it could be that this is only an utopia in Ra’s eyes. However the world turns out, it’ll look fantastic since Ivan Reis is handling the art for this one shot. Also, if anyone is wondering about when or if these “One Bad Day” one-shots will be collected in a single volume, you’re going to have to keep waiting. DC isn’t quite finished milking the existing audience for these yet…
Batman: One Bad Day Box Set: This isn’t a collection of all of the previous one-shots in this series. No, it’s a box in which you can store the hardcover editions of them when they’re released. Included here is “The Riddler” and a new hardcover edition of “The Killing Joke,” which is where the line that serves as the branding for all of these titles originates from. So if you’ve been waiting for these one-shots to be collected in hardcover format, then this is for you. As for me, I’ll keep waiting for the all-in-one edition.
Unstoppable Doom Patrol #1 (of 6): Rising up from the aftermath of the “Lazarus Planet” event is the return of the World’s Strangest Heroes as they attempt to help out all of the new superhumans in the DCU. Familiar faces Robotman, Elasti-Girl, and Negative Man are joined by Beast Girl and Degenerate, with Crazy Jane’s new alter The Chief leading them all. While this isn’t a bad setup for a “Doom Patrol” miniseries, it’s coming from writer Dennis Culver who is a total unknown to me. The person providing the art, however, is someone I’m very familiar with: Chris Burnham. His detailed style is always a bonus to any series and this one is VERY lucky to have him. I mean, I probably wouldn’t have mentioned this miniseries here if he wasn’t involved.
The Jurassic League HC: It’s the Justice League as dinosaurs, what more do you need to know?! How about the fact that it’s only co-written by Daniel Warren Johnson, who also provided covers for the miniseries. If you’re wondering, “Why isn’t he also drawing this, THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!” then you’ve identified my main issue with this miniseries. Johnson is someone who could wring all the visual excitement from such a setup with his art art alone and if he had drawn it, I’d have had no problem giving this the “Above-the-Board” recommendation for this month. Instead, the art is being provided by Juan Gedeon (who’s also co-writing) and Rafa Garres, who aren’t bad but don’t inspire the same level of passion in me.
Superman: Space Age HC: Writer Mark Russell and artist Mike Allred showcase the title character’s emergence into the world as a superhero and his desire to do his best to save it. This is as the world itself transforms into a place that tries its best to fight that idea. 250+ pages of Allred drawing the Man of Steel is certainly an appealing prospect. I’m less sold on Russell’s involvement as I did finally get around to reading “One Star Squadron” and it didn’t find a good balance for its darkly comic sensibilities and overt sentimentality. Maybe Allred will do a good job selling what the writer has to offer here?
Justice League vol. 1: Prisms: Do you know what else is finally getting a softcover edition in these solicitations? The first volume of Bendis’ “Justice League.” I could be mistaken, but it appears that his tenure on the title was more about getting another notch on the writer’s belt rather than contributing anything to the overall narrative of the DC Universe. This means that it’ll have to entertain on its own merits as opposed to being part of a larger story. Which, going by the writer’s track record at DC, is more of a coin toss than a sure thing. For anyone who has been invested in the writer’s run on this title, its final volume, Justice League vol. 3: Leagues of Chaos is also solicited here.