DC Solicitation Sneaks: March 2021
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Suicide Squad: Bad Blood
“DCeased: Unkillables” was great fun, and it showed that writer Tom Taylor knew how to have fun when playing around with some of the DCU’s less scrupulous characters. Now imagine him and artist Bruno Redondo, at the wheel of comics’ least reputable team. I would think that this is a setup for some great dark comedy, with some thorny moral issues thrown in for good measure. Such as: What happens when the surviving members of the super-team that the Squad has been sent to take out are forced to join up with them. I feel bad for any members of the team who aren’t mentioned in the solicitation for this volume. As for the two that are — Harley Quinn and Deadshot — it should be interesting to see if their plot armor holds up against whatever Taylor and Redondo have in store for them.
Infinite Frontier #0: Is this a glorious new start for the DCU in the wake of “Death Metal?” Or the comic book equivalent of the peasant from “Holy Grail” who goes, “I’m not dead yet!” Just about every creator who is worth a damn at DC is looking to convince us that it’s the former as they set up the next phase in this fictional universe. So what can we expect from it? How about the Joker performing his biggest attack on Gotham City yet. The Justice League welcoming Black Adam to their ranks. Amanda Waller plotting an assault on Arkham Asylum. The Green Lantern Corps summiting with their enemies. Wonder Woman settling into her new role while a woman in Brazil discovers her own connection to the Amazons. There are a lot of promising storylines here, and some of them will likely be teased very well here. However, that’s all this issue is: A bunch of teasers. The actual delivering will be left to the creators in their own titles. Still, if this doesn’t spark everyone’s imagination, there’s always the solution of “MORE BATMAN!” And on that note…
Batman: Urban Legends #1: Would you be willing to plunk down $8 a month for a 64-page anthology featuring supporting characters from the Bat-mythos? DC is betting you will with this new series that has stories about Jason Todd from Chip Zdarsky and Eddy Barrows, Grifter from Matthew Rosenberg and Ryan Benjamin, Harley Quinn from Stephanie Phillips and Laura Braga, and Black Lightning, Katana, and Metamorpho from Brandon Thomas and Max Dunbar. Chances are that there’s something here which someone will find interesting. For me, it’s the “Grifter” story from Rosenberg as the character’s hard-bitten smartass demeanor sounds like a perfect fit for the writer’s style. Now, this doesn’t mean I’ll be buying this anthology series. No, I’ll be waiting for this story to be collected into its own volume like any sensible person should do for the story that interests them.
The Joker #1: This isn’t the first ongoing series for the Clown Prince of Crime. He had one in the 70’s that lasted for ten whole issues. While a villain-centric series was likely a tough sell back in that era, I have to admit that it’s harder to imagine being asked to root for the character now. What with his overall insanity and body count having become exponentially worse in the intervening decades. This new series advertises itself as picking up from the events of “Infinite Frontier,” with the Joker’s latest gag turning him into the most wanted man in the world, with James Gordon joining the hunt to bring him in. While I’m questioning the logic of this series needing to exist in the first place, there is one thing that gives me hope for its future: Its writer, James Tynion IV. I realize that may sound funny, given how I’ve written about his conventional writing in the past, but he showed on his contributions to “Justice League” and “Hell Arisen” that he’s actually really good at writing villains — Joker included. So I’ll give him, and artist Guillem March a chance to show me what they can do here because this whole idea just might be crazy enough to work.
Superman: Red & Blue #1: Not content to leave the color-themed anthology market cornered by Wolverine and Carnage, the Man of Steel gets into the action with this new miniseries. John Ridley, Brandon Easton, Dan Watters, and Marguerite Bennett write while, Clayton Henry, Steve Lieber, Dani, and Jill Thompson illustrate. It’s a very solid creative lineup for this first issue, which also includes Wes Craig. The “Deadly Class” artist is writing and illustrating a story here as well. Good for him, though, I have to wonder if he took this job because he’s waiting on Rick Remender to deliver more scripts for the next volume of their creator-owned series.
Detective Comics #1034: Writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Dan Mora kick off a new era for the Dark Knight as he has to figure out how to operate in a Gotham that is much less friendly to vigilantes these days. This sounds fine, but it’s Mora’s presence that troubles me. Not because he isn’t a great artist, but because he’s already doing one ongoing series. That would be the Kieron Gillen-written “Once and Future” which recently kicked off its third arc. Is Mora going to put every other artist out there to shame by illustrating TWO monthly titles? No, of course not. Is he giving up on “Once and Future?” That’s not true either. The actual answer involves compromise. Gillen mentioned in his most recent newsletter that the creators have planned for this and there will only be nine issues of “Once and Future” in 2021. Which sounds about right, though it does leave you wondering how many there will be in 2022 if Tamaki and Mora’s “Detective” run really clicks with fans.
Justice League #59: It would seem that Bendis isn’t done with the DCU just yet. Now he’s taking on the DCU’s biggest superteam with one of his frequent artistic collaborators at Marvel, David Marquez. Their version of the league is made up of characters both expected — Superman, Batman, Flash, Aquaman — and unexpected — Hawkgirl, Hippolyta, Naomi, and Black Adam. Well, maybe Naomi’s presence should have been expected since she was co-created by Bendis. The writer is apparently positioning her as central to his first story as the League has to take on a threat from her home planet. This all sounds well and good, and I’m looking forward to seeing how wild card Black Adam interacts with the League, even though I have to admit that Bendis’ DC work hasn’t been on the level of his best Marvel stuff. Will he finally deliver something on that level with this series? *crosses fingers*
Dark Knights: Death Metal — The Darkest Knight: Remember how there were a lot of one-shots solicited alongside “Death Metal” that advertised their connection to the main event? Well, this volume collects most of them. I’ll admit that I’m curious to see if their connections are worthwhile, but I think I can wait on that until I read “Death Metal” itself. That said, I can’t imaging feeling too charitable towards these stories if the event itself leaves me feeling like I have to read all of these to get the full story.
DCeased: Dead Planet HC: The first “DCeased” miniseries ended with the surviving heroes and humans leaving Earth for a new home, Earth-2, after the mutated Anti-Life equation turned even more into ravenous monsters. The second, “Unkillables,” had some of the most prominent remaining heroes and villains teaming up for a fight for survival that was more fun (and funny) than its parent miniseries. Expect the casts from both miniseries to team up as a distress call brings some heroes from Earth-2 back to Earth to find out if there’s a way to save everyone. That this reunites writer Tom Taylor with original series artist Trevor Hairsine tells me that this probably isn’t going to be as entertaining as “Unkillables,” but it should still be worth a read regardless.
Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 2: Trial of the Legion: The first volume was impressive in that it wound up telling a decent story while featuring a cast that was far too large for its own good. Is that something specific to Bendis and Ryan Sook’s take on the team, or something of a feature (and not a bug) when it comes to stories involving the “Legion” specifically. Anyhow, this looks to be the team’s last go with the characters, so I’ll just be happy if they manage to tell another story that manages to come together in the end. In spite of its large cast. Oh, and in case anyone’s wondering, this does not collect the two-part “Future State” story that Bendis wrote. If you want that, it looks like you’ll have to buy the issues yourself, or whatever collection it winds up being featured in.