DC Previews Picks: June 2012
The “Before Watchmen” titles launch this month.
Moving on…
Superman: Action Comics vol. 1 — Superman and the Men of Steel: There was a very funny fan-made ad created ahead of the “New 52” as an exuberant fan pitched a lot of the changes at his blind date on her doorstep. What I remember most about it was the flashy text at the end which proclaimed that no matter what happens, Grant Morrison writing “Action Comics” would be awesome! Though the buzz on it indicates that we’re not in for the second coming of “All-Star Superman,” it does indicate that the issues collected here will make for a very good read. And at 256 pages for $25, it’ll be decently priced too.
Demon Knights vol. 1: Seven Against the Dark: Writer Paul Cornell does a swords-and-sorcery title set in the DCU’s Middle Ages with art from Diogenes Neves. Cornell’s name alone gets this title a look and its disconnected nature from the rest of the “New 52” also gives me the impression that it could turn out to be one of those fringe titles where a lot of the best stuff in the company is done (see also: Morrison’s “Animal Man,” Robinson’s “Starman,” Brubaker/Phillips’ “Sleeper”). Also, the writer’s wit combined with craftiness of Etrigan the Demon should come off like chocolate and peanut butter.
Absolute Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn HC: It’s $99 in the oversized format, but if you don’t own the three volumes it collects already…
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors: It almost feels like an afterthought in this day and age, but as a lead-in to “War of the Green Lanterns” I’m curious to see how it set things up. Or, I could just wait a month until Comic-Con and get it then.
Uncharted: I like the games that this comic is based off of, but despite the great strides in presentation the sequels have made, I still like the first one the best. That’s because it had the best pacing as the tension rose steadily until the end when all hell broke loose and the game hit its highest points. This is opposed to parts two and three where their “most awesome” sequences occurred about halfway and two-thirds of the way through their narratives (respectively) and everything after that just didn’t impress me as much. I’m hoping that the comic won’t have the same problem, but as it’s a videogame spinoff from some people I’m not familiar with, I’m not even sure if it’ll be good.
Fables vol. 17: Inherit the Wind: With Mr. Dark off of the table since the last volume, there’s no big bad to drive the plot. However, there was a rather large plot thread left hanging which would make any fan eager to see how the picking of the North Wind’s successor is resolved.
American Vampire: Lord of Nightmares #1: Art by Dustin Nguyen! Whooo! After years of great work on the Bat-titles, he finally gets to cut loose on a mature-readers series. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with that freedom here. As for the story, I’m hoping it’ll be less ridiculous than what we got in “Survival of the Fittest” and more in line with the tone of the first two volumes. Speaking of which…
American Vampire #28: So he is back! That’s great news, even if it is a spoiler. Now the question is how did he survive those fatal wounds in vol. 3? I’m betting that Scott Snyder has a real good answer for that.
The Invisibles Omnibus: As with “Absolute Batman & Robin,” if you don’t own vols. 1-7 of this already…
Scalped vol. 9: Knuckle Up & Scalped #60: All I know is that the final arc of this series jumps forward a few years. This leads me to believe that vol. 9 ends with things on an upswing for Dash Bad Horse and select members of the supporting cast, and writer Jason Aaron is just skipping over the dull, happy parts to get us back to the point where everything comes crashing down again. The joke would be to say “As usual for the series,” but even though Aaron has made a habit of throwing his characters a shovel just when they thought they couldn’t dig themselves any deeper, the tone never descended into miserabalism. Plus, the last cover’s callback to the first is quite clever and though I don’t think fatherhood will change Dash that much, it should be interesting to see if he can actually raise his son to not make the same mistakes his dad did. If that’s the only thing he accomplishes, it’ll still be the closest thing to a happy ending this series gets.