DC Previews Picks: January 2020
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Superman: Heroes #1
This is a one-shot featuring a stellar cast of creators: Bendis, Greg Rucka, Matt Fraction and Jody Houser share writing duties, while Kevin Maguire, Steve Lieber, Mike Perkins, and more provide the art. So what kind of event would bring all these creators together? Nothing more than exploring the fallout amongst Superman’s friends, family, and foes after the Man of Steel reveals his identity to the entire world.
SAY WHAT? That’s right folks, it’s not an imaginary story (for now, anyway). Bendis is spearheading a story where Superman reveals his identity to the world. While there could be some kind of fake-out planned here, it also feeds into rumors about DC’s upcoming “5G” initiative which will see many of the company’s most famous superheroes replaced by a younger generation.
As someone who has been reading superhero comics for a very long time, I just want to say that I’m fine with this. DC has been trying to find a new way forward with their push towards a younger readership while keeping older readers like me happy. If they want to push through a crazy storyline like this to keep Superman relevant, then I say more power to them — especially with the talent they’ve got involved here.
Wonder Woman #750: The 750th issue of any series seems like an odd one to feature a 96-page issue with lots of creators both new and familiar to the title character. Yet it really feels like DC is trying to capture the same kind of sales magic that “Action Comics #1000” and “Detective Comics #1000” both had. It’s not going to work. 750 isn’t a big or round enough number for fans to give it the same consideration. It’ll probably be a good anthology, however, with the likes of Gail Simone, Greg Rucka, Joelle Jones, Elena Casagrande, and more contributing to it. No sign of Jim Lee providing interior art in the solicitation. Which means he won’t be able to pull off the hat trick of contributing to all three of these anniversary issues if that remains the case.
Birds of Prey #1 (Prestige-Format One-Shot): Brian Azzarello always seemed like an odd choice to write this series. He approaches the superhero genre from the same kind of weird angle that Si Spurrier does and while that has resulted in some good stories like his run on “Wonder Woman,” it can just as well alienate comic fans as well. No one seems to talk about “For Tomorrow,” the 12-issue Superman story he did with Jim Lee much these days, do they? So it was a bit odd to see him set to write this latest incarnation of “Birds of Prey,” especially with a movie based on it due out in 2020. Apparently someone realized this and… the four completed issues of his “Birds of Prey” are now a Black Label one-shot. A curiosity that may wind up being a nicely-illustrated — courtesy of Emanuela Lupaccino — footnote in the series’ history when it arrives in January.
Batman #’s 86 & 87: Tom King’s run may be over, but DC is still keeping the numbering for this current run of “Batman.” It’s almost to #100, in case you hadn’t noticed. The team who’ll be bringing it to that nice round number are James Tynion IV and Tony Daniel. While the latter is arguably one of the all-time great “Batman” artists at this point, Tynion really didn’t impress me with his run on “Detective Comics.” “Justice League” has shown that he’s better when working from a villain-centric perspective. Having Batman try to sort out a Deathstroke/Riddler feud doesn’t seem like the proper way to go, however.
That being said, King was let go because sales declined precipitously under his watch. While Tynion and Daniel are basically on “Extended Fill-In Duty” here, one would think that the expectation in giving them the reins is that sales on “Batman” will go up. It’s possible they will in the short term if DC hypes their debut issues up enough, but there’s also a real chance that sales will dip even lower than King’s lowest for this extended fill-in duty of a run. Which would be great for purposes of enjoying some grade-A schadenfreude at DC’s expense, but not much more.
Justice League #39: Scott Snyder wraps up his run on this series. Well, he was sharing it with James Tynion IV even before they started co-writing issues, so it’s kind of hard to view this as a real end-of-an-era deal. The way things have been going, Tynion will be writing #40 himself next month. It also feels odd that he’s leaving the series now as the business with Perpetua and the Dark Multiverse is still kicking into high gear. Maybe he’s leaving to make it happen himself, or finally get back to focusing on creator-owned work. HA! Who am I kidding, it’s definitely the former. Anyway, this issue also features art from Jorge Jimenez, who has really emerged as a star artist after his work on this series.
Batman: White Knight: The Deluxe Edition HC: Among the extras in this new edition are creator Sean Murphy’s sketches and original inked pages. So if you were hoping to see the naked bits of Harley Quinn that were covered by word bubbles in the first edition, this is likely to be your best and only chance!
Legion of Super-Heroes: The Road to Legion: Is Bendis going to be the first creator to get me to buy an ongoing “Legion of Super-Heroes” series? Maybe. It depends on how the stories collected here turn out to be. If anything, my utter lack of knowledge regarding the Legion’s notoriously tangled continuity is going to be an asset in trying to get some enjoyment out of this.