DC Previews Picks: July 2013
I wrote about how I wasn’t expecting much from the new creative teams for the “Green Lantern” family of titles last month, and apparently DC has tried to rectify that by adding DRAMA to the equation. Josh Fialkov, slated to write both “Green Lantern Corps” and “Red Lanterns” walked off both titles after he said DC was pushing a storyline that was going to kill off John Stewart on him. Killing off a much-liked character who also happens to be the company’s most prominent African-American superhero aside, no good is going to come from the fact that editorial told Fialkov one thing when he pitched them whatever storylines he wanted to tell and then told him something else after he got the job. If DC wanted a talented writer drone who would do whatever they said, they certainly did a poor job of vetting Fialkov before bringing him on. Which reminds me, Scott Lobdell will be taking over for Andy Diggle on “Action Comics” for a bit after the latter walked off the title due to unspecified “creative differences.” If these creative changes spark a massive upswing in sales for any of these titles, I will be forced to conclude that we do not live in a rational universe.
Anyhow, “Trinity War” kicks off after the break.
Justice League #22, Justice League of America #6, and Justice League Dark #22: When rumors of this crossover broke a while back, it was thought that the “Trinity War” in question was going to involve some kind of dispute between Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Because they’re DC’s “trinity” of key superheroes, you know. Matt Wagner also did a really good miniseries called “Trinity” chronicling their first meeting several years back. Today, it appears that the war in question is going to involve DC’s three Justice Leagues with Pandora, The Phantom Stranger, and The Question either caught in the middle or pulling the strings. Geoff Johns is writing two-thirds of this crossover with Jeff Lemire and Ray Fawkes picking up the slack in “Dark.” Unlike Marvel, however, DC has yet to manage the trick of making it seem like there’s a (somewhat) cohesive narrative to their universe which is how the former company got me to pick up something like “Avengers vs. X-Men.” As there’s no such narrative here, this event looks to be deeply skippable for me.
Batman Annual #2: A tie in to the “Zero Year” storyline running in the parent title. Though the solicitation text is extremely vague, talking about “dangerous elements” leading Bruce Wayne to his final destiny, it can only be an improvement on the previous annual which ruined Mr. Freeze for the New 52. AMIRITE?
Batman, Incorporated #13: From the solicitation text, “Batman saves the world and loses everything.” Much as I want to like the pure simplicity of that sentence, I can’t help but pick apart at its logic. After all, I don’t think he’ll lose his wealth, gadgets, key members of his supporting cast or anything else integral to the character of “Batman” (without editorial approval of course). It’s also hard to imagine him losing something greater than his only son as well. His sanity? People have been arguing about whether he lost that long ago for years now. So what’s left? Only Grant Morrison knows for now.
Batman: The Dark Knight #22: Ostensibly the “Batman” book for artists after it launched as a vehicle for David Finch to write and illustrate, with Ethan Van Sciver taking over after he left. Now that Van Sciver has departed, the latest artist is… Alex Maleev!? But… he’s supposed to be joined at the hip with Bendis and Marvel? If he’s the new artist here, then what’s going to happen to the schedule of the recently resumed “Scarlet?” I’m more concerned about the latter than anything else, though I’d have loved to see the negotiations involved in bringing Maleev over to work with the Distinguished Competition.
Batman ‘66 #1:Y eah, there really is a lot of noteworthy “Batman” stuff being solicited for July. I’ll be skipping this one, though. While a lot of people have nothing but undying love for the campy 60’s TV show that this is meant to be continuing the spirit of, I do not. Why? Well, much like Garth Ennis who didn’t grow up reading superhero comics and never acquired the suspension of disbelief necessary to enjoy them, I didn’t watch the “Batman” TV series at all as a kid. The Tim Burton movies and “The Animated Series” pretty much crystallized what my platonic ideal of the character is, and it’s not this.
Batman vol. 3: Death of the Family HC: Okay, last Bat-related thing for this month, I swear. This is the next volume of the Snyder/Capullo run and the spine of the latest crossover. Short version is: The Joker is back and he’s out to destroy Batman’s “family” because he feels that will make his antagonist that much better. It’s interesting to note that as this title was exploring a metaphorical take on death, Morrison was delivering the actual thing in his title. That said, this is five issues of Snyder/Capullo telling a single story without any interruptions or weird pacing issues. I’m expecting a marked improvement from the last volume.
Green Lantern: Rise of the Third Army HC: Now I was expecting to buy this as soon as it came out, but then DC revealed that all of these titles would be collected individually as well in their own volumes. More importantly, even if I did buy the two volumes that make up this crossover and “Wrath of the First Lantern,” I wouldn’t get the final two issues of Johns’ run. So I guess I’ll be waiting for vol. 3 of “Green Lantern” than bothering with either crossover.
Wonder Woman vol. 3: Iron: Featuring the New 52 introduction of the New Gods. Now I don’t really care too much about these Kirby creations outside of their presence in Morrison’s run on “JLA” back in the late 90’s. However, Brian Azzarello made their introduction so tantalizing and logical in the previous volume that I’m actually eager to see what he does with them here. Can I wait for this volume? I can, but it’s going to be VERY hard.
Collider #1: A new sci-fi series from writer Simon Oliver (who brought us “The Exterminators” and a good “Hellblazer” miniseries in “Chaz: The Knowledge”) which features a government agency dedicated to dealing with breakdowns in the laws of physics. Now, it could be that the solicitation text just isn’t doing a good job of articulating this title’s concept, but I can’t imagine that we’d be able to survive as a species if physics started breaking down all over the world. It sounds like a localized thing here, but we’re also told that it’s getting progressively worse. This is a concept so bizarre that I want to like it, but can’t quite wrap my head around how it could be done. I guess I’ll have to buy it to see if Oliver, and artist Robbi Rodriguez, can pull it off.
The Unwritten: Tommy Taylor and the Ship That Sank Twice HC: Mike Carey’s excellent series about fiction and its influence on us gets its first spinoff project. It’s described as both a prequel which will explain Wilson Taylor’s experiments on his son, and Tommy’s swashbuckling adventure on the high seas. Do I need to know any more to want to pick this up? Nope.