DC Solicitation Sneaks: May 2024

Above-the-Board Recommendation:

The Flash vol. 1:  Strange Attractor

Simon Spurrier and Mainstream Superhero Comics haven’t always been a great fit.  Marvel gets a lot of credit for giving the man multiple miniseries and ongoing titles to work with, and while they were generally quite good, his most successful stint came nearly a decade ago with a 24-issue Legion-centric run on “X-Men:  Legacy.”  “The Flash,” however, represents his most high-profile superhero work at Marvel or DC to date and I’m still scratching my head at how he managed this.  Maybe someone at DC really liked his Justice League invades Space Iraq story he did a few years back?  Maybe they felt bad about canceling his “Hellblazer” run and wanted to make it up to him?  Maybe they read his story about superheroes being useless in the face of real threats (“Suicide Squad:  Blaze”) and figured he was the right guy to reinvent Barry Allen for his latest ongoing series?

Whatever the case was, Spurrier’s run on “The Flash” reaches issue #9 in these solicitations and gets its first collected edition as well.  We’re getting issues #1-6 plus a “Beast World” tie-in and the lead-in story from “Flash #800.”  The writer has talked about introducing cosmic horror to the series, which looks like it’s going to take the form of dark vibrations from beyond the Speed Force that are going to cause him to use his powers in ways he hasn’t before.  Whatever they are, they’ll be new to me no matter what since this will be the first time I’ve followed “The Flash” on a regular basis.  Which may be for the best if Spurrier is really going to give us a radically new take on Barry’s world.

The Boy Wonder #1 (of 5):  It’s early in Damien Wayne’s career as Robin and Batman has left the town on urgent business.  Which is a problem since there have been a rash of abductions in Gotham with whispers of demonic activity behind them.  This will lead Damien to team up with his Boy Wonder predecessors – Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin – to get to the bottom of things before more people disappear.  This comes to us from writer/artist Juni Ba and it honestly feels weird to be reading a story that talks about being explicitly centered in Damien’s early years.  Specifically because they’re still fresh in my mind after he was introduced by Grant Morrison back in the mid-aughts.  Still, I guess there’s room for a story like this since he was used exclusively by the writer in his early days as no one had any idea that he’d become an integral part of the current Bat-mythos.  I wonder if there will be any mention about how Damien beat up Tim “Red Robin” Drake and  stole his costume back in his introductory arc?

Nightwing #114:  Bruno Redondo, the artist who joined Tom Taylor when he started writing this series, returns for a new arc “Fallen Grayson” *rimshot*.  The premise sounds very, very silly as it’s described here as Heartless’ efforts to bring down Nightwing reach their climax as he… loses his ability to leap.  I hope it reads a lot better than they’re making it sound here, especially since this may be the final arc of Taylor’s run.  Nothing has been confirmed yet, but Redondo mentioned on social media that he was returning to the title for one last time.  So even if “Fallen Grayson” *rimshot* reads as silly as it sounds, it’ll at least look really good.

Power Girl #9:  A “House of Brainiac”-tie-in wherein… HOLY CRAP, DID YANICK PAQUETTE JUST DRAW POWER GIRL NAKED FROM THE WAIST DOWN?!  ON THE COVER NO, LESS?!?!  Wait… on closer inspection it looks like she’s wearing some kind of form-fitting leggings due to the difference in color between them and her exposed shoulders, and the creases seen on the right.  So false alarm, everyone:  Paquette did not draw Power Girl naked from the waist down for this cover.  Which means that you’re only going to want to read this series if you’ve already been reading it, or are determined to collect every “House of Brainiac” tie-in that’s being published.

Wonder Woman vol. 1:  Outlaw:  Writer Tom King and artist Daniel Sampere’s run gets its first collection and it starts off with a mass murder perpetrated by an Amazon.  At least, that’s what the United States thinks, and it has brought our country to the brink of war with Paradise Island.  The only hope to avert it lies with Wonder Woman finding the Amazon accused of the crime before the U.S. strikeforce does.  Which is only the start of Diana’s problems as a new villain by the name of Sovereign also has her in their sights as well.  King’s work at DC has always been marked by his ambition to do something different with the characters he tackles, sometimes for the better (“Batman,” “Mister Miracle”) other times for the worse (“Strange Adventures”).  If nothing else, you can’t accuse him of never having a plan for what he does, which I certainly appreciate.  That bodes well for this first volume of “Wonder Woman” as well as…

The Penguin vol. 1:  Oswald Cobblepot has just successfully faked his death and is living a peaceful retirement in Metropolis.  While he’d normally be content to enjoy his new life, and the havoc that his death has wreaked on Batman’s life, our government has other plans.  Now Oswald has to become the Penguin again and take back his criminal empire, and the Iceberg Lounge, from his squabbling children.  It’s a precarious situation that he finds himself in as one false move will likely see him put in the ground for real this time.  While I’m interested in this for the reasons outlined above for “Wonder Woman,” this comic also sees the writer playing with a storyline originally set up by current “Batman” writer Chip Zdarsky.  So much so that the story Zdarsky wrote is included here.  Which means that if this series does turn out to be good, then we owe Zdarsky some thanks as well, and while we’re still on the subject of King…

The Human Target vol. 2:  …his maxiseries about Christopher Chance investigating what role the Justice League International had in his (we’re told) fatal poisoning gets its second softcover collection.  This ran concurrently with “Danger Street” as the writer’s latest maxiseries for DC and was easily the more straightforwardly enjoyable of the two with its first volume.  Will that change when each series gets its second, concluding volume?  We shall see, but my money’s on Chance keeping his lead here.