DC Previews Picks: March 2014
DC’s new weekly series “Batman Eternal?” That’s old news now with the announcement of their newest weekly series “Future’s End.” Taking place “Five Years Later,” which is also thought to be the theme of the company’s event for this coming September, the only characters mentioned as participating in it so far are Batman Beyond, Frankenstein and Firestorm. There will certainly be more announcements about the cast in the near future, though this strikes me as one of those events where EVERYONE gets involved. More important is that the title has a writing staff announced: Jeff Lemire, Keith Giffen, Brian Azzarello and Dan Jurgens. It’s an eclectic group to say the least as Giffen and Jurgens have been in the mainstream for almost their entire careers, Lemire started as an indie creator and still does creator-owned work alongside his DC commitments, while Azzarello… Azzarello has done some truly fantastic work over the course of his career, but the majority of it hasn’t been on high-profile event series like this. Like Matt Fraction, the man seems to do his best work off in the margins outside of the spotlight. In any event, it’s an interesting mix of writers that at least makes me curious about how this is going to turn out.
Batman: The Dark Knight #29: Apparently this was one “Batman” title too many. Originally started shortly before the “New 52” as a vehicle for David Finch to write and draw the character, it was beset by delays and had to have Jason Fabok brought in to finish the art on the first arc. Finch got his act together for the relaunch, but he left over a year ago and the title was since rebranded as the “artist driven” Bat-title. That apparently only went so far, though it did have former Marvel-exclusive artist Alex Maleev on for an arc. Artist-driven doesn’t really do anything for me, and that’s why you’ve yet to see me review any volumes of this title here on the blog.
Animal Man #29: Well this is interesting. Apparently Jeff Lemire has reached the end of his story with the character and received special dispensation from DC to cancel the series himself. Given how I felt about the writer’s handling of the whole “Rotworld” event, it’s probably for the best. Still, if there’s only going to be two volumes left to the title I may as well pick them up to have the whole story. Unless the forthcoming vol. 4 is terrible enough to convince me that the finale is not worth my time. Which is a very real possibility at this point.
Black Canary and Zatanna: Bloodspell HC: An OGN from Paul Dini featuring Zatanna? Sold! Aside from being one of the key creative forces on “Batman: The Animated Series” Dini has also written a lot of good comics (mostly featuring Batman) over the years. There’s always a sense of fun underlying his work, even when you feel that he has to cater to the morbidity of current tastes. Given that it features art from Joe Quinones, whose style is pretty far removed from “dark,” I’m expecting that this could be an entertaining romp featuring this female odd couple. I’m in.
Batman vol. 4: Zero Year — Secret City HC: Frankly it’s more fun to wonder about the issues being collected here than to talk about whether or not this will be any good. (Which I’m betting it will.) DC lists this in their solicitations as collecting issues #21-24 with the volume totalling 176 pages in length. That averages out to 44 pages an issue, which certainly sounds unreasonable. However, a quick look over at Amazon says that the volume will also be collecting issue #0 and Annual #2. Now the page count sounds a bit more plausible, though one hopes that they’ll refrain from ruining another villain in this Annual.
Absolute All-Star Batman and Robin, The Boy Wonder HC: The “Batman” title everyone loves to hate gets the Absolute treatment. It’s really a special kind of terrible that makes me sad we’ll never see the end of the story. I’ll eventually get around to writing about this. Someday.
Final Crisis (New Edition): Now with the added story pages from the Absolute edition and the “Batman” tie-in issues written by Grant Morrison. Priced at $20, this is an extremely good value for your money and I’d recommend it. Even if it’s not clear where the story was meant to go in the end, it’s still full of fantastic epic moments involving its cast. Will I want to re-buy it after picking up the original hardcover? Maybe if I can get it for half price…
American Vampire: Second Cycle #1: It’s good to see this title back, even if now has a silly subtitle. The series now moves into the 1960’s and while the solicitation text clearly tells us that Skinner has taken up residence in Mexico, Pearl is only mentioned to be hiding from her past. However, given that she’s wearing a “peace” button on the cover, the antiwar movement of the era is likely to play a part in her story now. Also of interest is that the Gray Trader, the character who made a very creepy appearance in the last issue of the first volume, is apparently going to be playing a larger role here too. Even if Stephen King isn’t around to kick things off, I get the feeling that there’s going to be plenty to like about this new volume.
Steig Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire HC: Worth noting because DC originally published their adaptation of the first book in Larsson’s “Millenium Trilogy” in two parts. Which have since been collected into a single paperback edition also solicited here. Now they’re just adapting the whole of the second novel in one go. Which is the way things SHOULD have gone from the start.
The Books of Magic (New Edition): Before there was Harry Potter, there was Tim Hunter. He was an ordinary boy destined to be the greatest mage of his era, but not without getting some special tutelage from the likes of the Phantom Stranger, John Constantine, Dr. Occult, and Mr. E. One could argue that his fate is sealed by getting ANY kind of teaching from John Constantine, but he’s actually the least dangerous person Tim encounters in his journey. Written by Neil Gaiman, it’s as good as you’d expect coming from him with fantastic art from John Bolton, Scott Hampton, Charles Vess and Paul Johnson. It also features the charge of the Trenchcoat Brigade, so there’s that to recommend it as well.
100 Bullets: Brother Lono: It’s the epilogue I’ve been wanting ever since the main series concluded. Whether or not it’ll actually be what I want is another story. Azzarello seems to thrive on defying expectations, so I’m curious as to what story we’ll be getting here. Much as I like the character, I’m actually more interested in the state of the world now that it no longer has the Trust pulling its strings. Will that be story I get? Probably not, but I’d still like to find out what kind of story is inside.
Jonah Hex: Shadows West: Unless you absolutely hate, hate, HATE westerns or the character this is something you need in your library. Actually, I think it’s something you need in your library as “Two-Gun Mojo” is one of my favorite stories of all time and the other ones collected here, “Riders of the Worm and Such” and “Shadows West,” are still good. Joe Lansdale and Tim Truman’s “Weird Western” take on the character ruined me for Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray’s version, and if you want to know why here’s the reason.
Flex Mentallo: Man of Muscle Mystery: The title that no one thought would ever be collected is now available in trade paperback. Which I’ll be buying because I originally passed on the hardcover after a friend of mine tracked down the original issues for me to read online. I realize now that’s a terrible reason to pass on reading this story, so I’ll be making amends for it come March.