DC Solicitation Sneaks: November 2020
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Batman: City of Bane Complete Collection
First of all, I am expecting this to be good. Writer Tom King has been grinding Batman down for the past few volumes so that Bane’s takeover of Gotham will look convincing. While it’s always hard to see the Dark Knight on the losing end of a struggle for an extended period, it is without fail followed by a storyline where he puts the bad guys in their places and shows he was one step ahead of them the whole time. It’s… uh, just a shame that Alfred won’t be around to see it. For now, at least.
What makes this collected edition even better is its price. You see, this storyline was originally split up across two hardcover volumes priced at $25 each. This “Complete Collection” will only set you back $25 total. Even if Amazon’s $30 cover price turns out to be the right one, it’s still an insane bargain. One that makes me glad I waited for this edition.
The Other History of the DC Universe #1: Back for another go-round, years after it was originally solicited. The good news is that the reasoning behind the delay of this miniseries wasn’t down to DC getting skittish about its premise or content, or creative differences with its Academy Award-Winning writer John Ridley. No, the word is that DC wasn’t happy with the art being delivered by the original artist and wanted it to have visuals of a more superheroic variety. Which is why the first issue now has art from Giuseppe Camuncoli, and that’s fine by me. A miniseries that showcases the history of the DCU from the perspective of minorities certainly deserves some A-List art.
Dark Nights: Death Metal Infinite Hours EXXXTREME!: Another month, another round of “Death Metal” one shots. This time we’ve got the comedy one-shot, and… this. I don’t exactly know what its aim is, though the solicitation text lets us know that it involves Lobo telling stories of the Multiverse as he remembers them. So, that makes this a one-shot that’s going to specialize in gratuitous, wanton, over-the-top violence and bloodshed? Which is fine. Nothing like truth in advertising. Though I do find it amusing that this was the one-shot that Becky Cloonan signed on for. I guess she still has some more superhero violence issues to work out after her run on “Punisher.”
Sweet Tooth: The Return #1 (of 6): Was anyone really clamoring for a re-imagining of Jeff Lemire’s signature series? I mean, beyond that one guy at DC editorial? I know that I’ve been disappointed by how conventional the writer’s output has been for a while now. The thing is that “Sweet Tooth” was the series that originally convinced me that he was a creator worth following. Even if the story of a hardened old man learning to love again after encountering a young human/animal hybrid boy in a post-apocalyptic world was certainly familiar, Lemire found interesting ways to tell it through the comic’s layouts. I’ll be all in for this series if he somehow manages to conjure that visual magic again for this re-imagining.
The Green Lantern: Season Two vol. 1 HC: Some of you may see this volume and go, “But what about the ‘Blackstars’ miniseries that was done between Seasons One & Two?” Even though a collection of that three-issue miniseries was solicited, it has apparently been scrapped. That’s not a problem because the “Blackstars” miniseries is now being collected with this new volume of the series. I imagine it’s going to read a little weird since the mini was meant to be the climax for Season One and should be experienced on its own. That’s not the biggest problem this volume faces as it’s not immediately clear whether writer Grant Morrison will slow down enough to do more with the crazy ideas that he brings to the table, or just keep throwing indigestible weirdness at the reader.
Shazam and the Seven Magic Lands: Say what you will about the scheduling of “Doomsday Clock,” but it never went so far off the rails that DC felt compelled to bring in fill-in teams to keep it going. That said, it’s infinitely more likely that you’ll see this collection on my shelf than that (or any other) misbegotten sequel to “Watchmen.”