DC Previews Picks: November 2012
Joe Kubert passed away over the weekend and while he certainly deserved the title “legendary artist” for his work on “Sgt. Rock,” “Tor,” “Fax From Sarajevo,” and numerous other DC war and superhero titles, his legacy extends far beyond his artistic skills. The man also founded the “Joe Kubert School of Cartooning and Graphic Art” which trained many of the industry’s top talents, including some of my personal favorites like Adam Warren, Alex Maleev and Steve Lieber. Cartooning was also in his blood, just take a look at the careers of his sons, Adam and Andy. I’m not going to say that he went out on a low note by contributing to the “Before Watchmen: Nite Owl” mini-series because I’m betting that he saw it as a chance to collaborate on a project with Andy, and everything I’ve read about that series tells me that its awfulness is due in no part to his work. He was overseeing and contributing to a “Joe Kubert Presents” (issue #2 is solicited this month) mini-series spotlighting unpublished and new work, though its fate at this point is uncertain. He will be missed, but his contributions to the industry ensure that he won’t be forgotten.
Batgirl #14: In the interests of diving right into the usual madness of these solicitations, there was a big fuss when the cover for this issue was released since it spoiled Greg Capullo’s new look for the Joker after his face was sliced off in the first issue of “Detective Comics.” Based on the Ed Benes cover which features it, I will say that the basics of the new look are… disturbing, which means that it’ll be something to see once we get a look at Capullo’s actual take in a couple months. This is all part of the “Death of the Family” storyline spearheaded by Scott Snyder and Capullo in the wake of “The Night of the Owls” crossover. Though the big event is the Joker’s return, the appeal for me lies in seeing Snyder tackle the character proper after his bit part in “The Black Mirror.”
Green Lantern vol. 2: Revenge of the Black Hand: Despite what the title says, my main interest lies in the other story collected here: “The Secret of the Indigo Tribe.” While they made a big splash in their first appearance by turning the tide in “Blackest Night” Geoff Johns has been hinting for a while now that even though their powers are based on compassion, the tribe itself represents a kind of brainwashing as well. Said brainwashing has also precluded its leader from disclosing the fact that Abin Sur, the Green Lantern who crashed on Earth and gave Hal Jordan his ring, once put her in prison. Black Hand was also made part of the tribe at the end of “Blackest Night,” but I’m guessing that his tenure there will be coming to an end soon. Just a hunch.
Wonder Woman vol. 2: Guts: Brian Azzarello has an almost willful disregard for tackling any story in a conventional manner. Whatever the material, he’ll try to find some way to upend your expectations of it at some point. This is best seen in his masterpiece “100 Bullets” and an immensely entertaining run on “Hellblazer,” but not so much in the murky, dull western “Loveless,” and the too-clever-for-its-own-good “Doctor Thirteen.” “Wonder Woman” turned out to be an example of the writer on top of his game as he turned this series about one of the industry’s iconic characters into a bloody soap opera of the Greek gods without completely departing from the conventions of the superhero genre. It was great stuff and while my motivation for picking up the first volume in hardcover was due more to my desire to cover it for the podcast, I’ll be picking up this second volume in that format because I genuinely want to.
Superman: Grounded vol. 2: Part of me is morbidly interested in picking this up because I heard that the second half of this arc, after featuring a much-maligned first half written by J. Michael Straczynski, actually turns a lot of that terrible stuff on its head and makes it work. But then I’d have to buy the reputedly awful first volume, and life’s just too short you know?
Absolute Top 10: Everything Alan Moore did with this series that married the rhythms of an American cop show to the most outlandish aspects of the superhero genre. While DC’s “Absolute” title signifies their oversized prestige hardcover omnibus format, you can also take it here as something you “absolutely” must have in your collection. It’s a shame we never got a proper “season two” from Moore, or that DC never bothered to sign off on the completion of Zander Cannon’s actual second season which compared to the first much better than you’d expect.
Northlanders vol. 7: Brian Wood’s “other” creator-owned series for Vertigo wraps up here. It never quite hit the heights of “DMZ” but I don’t think he was really swinging for the fences here. “Northlanders” came off as his attempt to challenge himself as a writer by writing something very far removed from the “of the moment” characters and topics that have dominated his work in the past. It didn’t always work, there were times early on when the characters and narration sounded a bit too “modern” and the less said about “Metal” the better, but there were some great stories in here about people forging their way in a hostile environment that still managed to have resonance to the events of today. I don’t know much about “The Icelandic Trilogy” going into it, but I’ll be looking forward to finding out more about it.