DC Previews Picks: January 2015
Was anyone crying out for a collection of comics featuring DC’s 80’s vigilante Wild Dog? If you were, then I have some bad news for you. While never formally announced in their solicitations, a “Wild Dog” collection was being advance-solicited to booksellers only to be recently cancelled. It’s not the only loser in this situation. A fifth “Showcase” volume for “The Flash” and a first for “Blue Devil” have also been given the axe, while a complete collection for “Injustice: Year One” will also never see the light of day. Same goes for collected editions of stories from the 80’s featuring “The Omega Men,” and something just titled “Bad Girls.” Also of note here is the short-lived “Manifest Eternity” series from writer Scott Lobdell and artist Dustin Nguyen. It hails from the latter days of Wildstorm and featured a sci-fi vs. fantasy war setup and lasted all of six issue. I imagine that its proposed release was meant to capitalize on the recent high-profile work of its creators. So if having Lobdell and Nguyen (the real draw here) as creators couldn’t drag this out of obscurity, it’s likely a complete “Manifest Eternity” will only exist for those who bought it in single-issue form.
Poison Ivy: Cycle of Life and Death #1 (of 6): Given how long the character has been around, it’s actually surprising to realize that Poison Ivy hasn’t had a miniseries to herself before now. Then again, who exactly was demanding this in the first place? The solicitation text doesn’t inspire confidence either as it has her working at the Gotham Botanical Gardens in what I can only assume is some kind of work-release program. Naturally someone gets killed and she’s framed for the crime. I’d probably feel better about this if the text advertising this didn’t include, “But can she keep her friends and hold down a regular job at the same time?” She’s a friggin’ supervillain! Why the hell would she worry about those things in the first place!?
Swamp Thing #1 (of 6): The character’s co-creator Len Wein returns to the character for this new miniseries. That being said, while he is the co-creator, the biggest mark on the character was left by none other than Alan Moore. It should also be noted that Wein also had a hand in writing the “Ozymandias” miniseries and other material for the “Before Watchmen” project. He’s also following up the character’s most recent ongoing series from Scott Snyder and subsequently Charles Soule. What I’m getting at here is that Wein is coming into this with the odds against him. At least there will be some appropriately moody and spooky art from Kelly Jones. So, likely to not be a total loss I guess.
Quarantine Zone HC: Written by Daniel H. Wilson, author of “Robopocalypse” and DC’s recent “Earth 2” titles, with art from Fernando Pasarin and Matt Ryan. Now, I could’ve sworn that DC had thrown in the towel when it came to putting out original graphic novels like this. I can only assume that Wilson’s work for the company, and his status as a bestselling author made for a special exception in this case. It does have an intriguing high concept: In the future, the root of all evil has been discovered — a virus which modifies a human’s neural pathways for empathy. However, the description that follows involves people who have the virus being quarantined regardless of whether or not they’ve done bad things and the rest of the world in a sterile, crime-free environment with a paranoid fear of further outbreaks of the virus. Were I a betting man, I’d say that this story will center around a decent person with the virus leading a revolution to overturn this system and show that locking up people with the potential to do evil is WRONG! Or maybe Wilson will take a page from “Robopocalypse” and chronicle this in a series of vignettes. Whatever the case is, I think it sounds like a safe bet to wait for the reviews on this one.
Batgirl vol. 2: Family Business: The soft reboot of this series from writers Brendan Fletcher and Cameron Stewart, and artist Babs Tarr was a great deal of fun. Now we get to see if that opening arc was a fluke or if these creators have the energy to go the distance. Working in their favor is that the issues collected here now have the new “Batman” status quo to bounce off of. You know, how “Batman” is now a mech-suit being piloted by Barbara’s father, police commissioner Jim Gordon. That’s going to make for some interesting encounters when these two cross paths on the street. Particularly since I don’t think that Gordon knows what his daughter is up to most nights. And on that note…
Batman vol. 8: Superheavy: The most recent volume (which I’ll get around to talking about on Wednesday) left off promising a dramatic change in the title character’s status quo. So dramatic that Jim Gordon is now running around as Batman with his very own mech suit. How exactly did that happen? What kind of job is Gordon doing as the new “Batman?” And why is this volume called “Superheavy?” Lots of questions, but it remains to be seen how many answers we’ll get with this volume. I’d also have concerns for this clearly temporary shift in the status quo, but after Snyder’s work supplanting the legendary “Year One” with his “Zero Year” arc, I have faith that he knows what he’s doing and has a good plan in store for this story.
Azrael vol. 1: Fallen Angel: Did you know that the character who replaced Batman after the “Knightfall” event in the 90’s went on to have a solo series that ran for a hundred issues? Did you also know that his first appearance and miniseries were illustrated by future Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada? Both of these statements are true. As for whether or not either of these things have held up in the intervening decades is up for debate. That said, if you’re one of those readers that allowed Azrael’s solo adventures to run for a hundred issues and you want to see all of them collected at some point, you’re probably going to want to pick this volume (collecting “Sword of Azrael 1-4” and “Azrael” 1-6) up as soon as it comes out.
Secret Six vol. 1: What is the Secret of the Six?: I’m always up for more “Secret Six” from Gail Simone. Unfortunately the latest relaunch of this series was waylaid by some significant delays after issue #1 came out. How did this happen? Well, original artist Ken Lashley is now drawing “X-Men” comics over at Marvel, so draw your own conclusions. However, his replacement is Dale Eaglesham, so the odds of the series usual high quality in writing and art is likely to be maintained.
Egypt: This miniseries from Peter Milligan is billed as a lost Vertigo classic. If nothing else, vintage Milligan is usually a safer bet than his modern offerings. The solicitation text doesn’t offer a lot to go on besides the setup of a drifter dying and being reborn into some kind of Egypt-themed world, I think. That’s not a lot to go on, but picking this up will likely send a message for DC to collect more old uncollected Vertigo miniseries and maybe even finish putting the rest of Milligan’s “Shade the Changing Man” back into print.
Doom Patrol Book One: In which Grant Morrison’s legendary run on “Doom Patrol” is re-collected in fewer volumes. I picked up his run in single issue form via Ebay before it was originally collected in six volumes. Why they’re re-printing it now instead of bringing those older editions back into print, I’m not sure. Still it would be nice to have this on my bookshelf proper, and finally read the skewering of 90’s Image that was “Doom Force” at long last. Meh, maybe I’ll just wait until they’re all re-collected in these new editions to make sure I’m not re-buying something in a format that won’t be completed.