DC Solicitation Sneaks: August 2021
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Superman vs. Lobo #1 (of 3)
They’re the last sons of their respective worlds and… that’s about all they have in common. So what possible reason could the Man of Steel and the Main Man have for teaming up? Well, it turns out that there’s this god called Numen who’s currently the most popular being in the universe. He’s a jealous god, however, and Superman’s do-good nature and Lobo’s do-bad mentality have proven to be enough of a distraction that Numen figures that they both have to go. For his own sanity, of course. This comes to us from writers Tim Seeley and Sarah Beattie and while I’m familiar with the former’s work on titles like “Revival,” they’ve both worked together on the indie hit “Money Shot,” which is about interstellar sex workers. Another veteran of a series about sex workers, Mirka Andolfo, will be illustrating this. (The series in question being “Unnatural,” and not “Mercy”). If that’s not the right pedigree for a title like this at DC, then I don’t know what is.
Any takers on whether or not we’ll be dealing with “Super-Dick-ery” or “Lo-Boner-Gate” after the first issue ships?
Batman: The World HC: Not a comic about Batman taking over the world. Though, if you think about it for a second, aren’t we already living in one? …Now that I’ve got that out of my system, this is a graphic novel anthology spotlighting an international group of creators telling stories about the Dark Knight. In a move likely meant to entice American fans to pick this up and a testament to this team’s drawing power, “Joker” and “Damned” creators Brian Azzarelo and Lee Bermejo are representing America. The only other creator I recognize here is Piotr Kowalski from Poland, with France, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Korea, China, Russia, and Japan also being represented.
If you’re wondering, given my love of manga, whether or not I’m familiar with the mangaka behind Japan’s contribution, the answer is, “No.” Okadaya Yuichi is a name that’s unfamiliar to me. A quick browse through her Anime News Network Encyclopedia page tells me that those hoping for a more bishounen/BL-skewing Batman should start getting excited about her contribution now.
Batman: Fear State — Alpha #1: What comes before the “Future State?” The “Fear State,” obviously. DC’s big stopgap event from earlier this year went over so well that they’re actively mining it for future stories. This looks to be the biggest of them yet as the Bat-family faces off against the dual threats of Scarecrow and Peacekeeper-01 with the arrival of an “Anti-Oracle” and the return of Poison Ivy thrown in to keep things interesting. While it normally doesn’t take much to get me to read something Batman-related, “Alpha” is being written by current “Batman” writer James Tynion IV, which I’m taking to assume to mean that he’s spearheading the whole thing. I’ve talked before about how the writer is usually at his most interesting when he’s writing supervillains instead of superheroes. Which is why I still haven’t picked up any volume of his “Batman” run yet. (I’m waiting for a deluxe edition that collects everything from the start of his run up through “Joker War.” If I don’t get that, then oh well…) This is all to say that while I’ll be sitting this one out, Tynion’s fans — and I know there are a lot of them — will likely want to check this out.
The Next Batman: Second Son HC & I Am Batman #0: John Ridley’s reinvention of “Batman” continues… in a way that confuses me. You see, I thought that “The Next Batman” was specific to the events of “Future State.” The solicitation text for the solicitation of these issues tells me that now Jace Fox has transitioned to the present-day DCU. I don’t know what I missed here, but I think this is just some confusion I have to work through myself. Also, a quick search of Amazon shows me that there’s no hardcover collecting Jace’s debut in “Future State.” So if I want to read just his story, then I’ll have to buy the big-ass “Future State: The Next Batman” collection. Oh well. I guess I’ll see if the other stories that were hitched to this one for that event were any good after all.
Batman ‘89 #1 & Superman ‘78 #1: You wanted more stories set within the continuities of the classic “Batman” and “Superman” films? Well, DC is giving them to you. They even got the writer of “Batman (‘89),” Sam Hamm, back to write this series with Joe Quinones. Robert Venditti and Wilfredo Torres, who are no creative slouches themselves, are tackling the “Superman” title. I can see how this would appeal to some people, but not me. I mean, we did get more stories within the continuities that were established by these films. They were called “sequels.”
The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox #1 (of 7): Matthew Rosenberg has been kicking around the fringes of the Bat-titles after writing stories in “Future State” and the current “Urban Legends” anthology. Now he finally gets to write a solo series of his own. As the title implies, this is all about the Clown Prince of Crime and the mysterious, magical box the GCPD has recovered along with a corpse and a whole lot of supervillains after his latest episode. What does it all mean? The Joker is perfectly willing to talk about it all, but can anything that comes out of his mouth be trusted? “A Puzzlebox” promises a dozen tales of murder, mayhem, and mystery, which has me guessing that it’s going to be like “The Usual Suspects” if it was an anthology. I’m down for that. While Jesus Merino and Joshua Hixon are listed as the artists on this issue, the solicitation promises a “multitude of rising-star artists” for subsequent issues.
Aquaman 80th Anniversary Special #1: You should know the deal by now: A multitude of creators who’ve either had significant runs on the character, or are just plain A-listers, contribute stories to the character to celebrate their anniversary. While it’s nice to see Aquaman get his turn with this treatment, I’m wondering why we’re not getting stories from Peter David and John Arcudi. Both creators also had runs on “Aquaman,” with the former’s being quite influential for its time during the 90’s.
Suicide Squad: Trial by Fire: Hey, do you know what comes out in August? James Gunn’s “The Suicide Squad” movie. Do you know what’s in these solicitations? A whole lot of “Suicide Squad” collections. So I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out what is, if not the best, at least the most influential of them all: The first collection of John Ostrander’s run on the title. The new cover may reflect the new movie’s team, but inside are the same stories about some of the most terrible people in the DCU undertaking missions that they likely won’t come back from. While a lot of quality stories followed from this one, I always thought this volume set a really high bar for the series overall. If you’ve got any love for the “Suicide Squad” concept, this volume deserves a place in your library.
Batman Black & White (vol. 5) HC: The latest volume of this irregularly-published-yet-long-running anthology gets a collection. Moreso than other anthologies, “Batman Black & White” has always had a higher hit-to-miss ratio. Maybe it’s because the continuity free, noir-inspired format allows its creators to play to their strengths and bring out the best in the Dark Knight. Expect to see contributions in this volume from the likes of: Jorge Jimenez, John Ridley, G. Willow Wilson, Daniel Warren Johnson, Bilquis Evely, Tradd More, Oliver Coipel, Nick Bradshaw, Riley Rossmo, AND MORE!*
*”More” not limited to but including Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie.
Batman: No Man’s Land Omnibus vol. 1: Even if “No Man’s Land” was just responsible for getting Greg Rucka into the comics industry, it would have been worth it. Fortunately, this was one of the best Bat-events of its era and its initial five-volume collection did a good job of presenting the key stories from the event. It was by no means complete, which is why we got a much larger series of collections for it several years back… which were also recalled due to printing issues. Now we’re getting this massive collection which looks to collect the first third of the event from the primary “Batman” titles and all of its tie-ins. I’m not sure if I need to know what was going on in the seven issues of “Azrael: Agent of the Bat” collected here (among other tie-ins), but the overall quality of the event means that I am at least tempted to find out by picking up this 1,120-page $125 volume.
Hill House Box Set: Joe Hill’s comics imprint had the bad time to come out at DC after it shuttered Vertigo, but before they started up Black Label. Would it have given us more than six volumes if it had started up under either of those imprints? We’ll never know, but we got some good comics out of it. Granted, “Basketful of Heads” and “Plunge” weren’t as good as Hill’s best comics work, Mike Carey’s “The Dollhouse Family” was at least an enjoyable reminder of the kind of supernatural horror Vertigo used to deliver on a regular basis, and I never got around to reading “The Low, Low Woods,” or “Daphne Byrne…” What I’m trying to say is that if you were ever interested in reading these comics, you can now buy them in one big box set! Which is something that I would certainly do if I hadn’t already bought half of the comics in it because buying this box set is the only way you’ll get the collection of Hill and Dan McDaid’s “werewolves on a pirate ship” epic “Sea Dogs.” This was originally a series of backup strips published through Hill House titles when they were originally serialized. Not only is it collected here for the first time, but it’s also getting an extra 14 story pages for this collection. This is EXACTLY the kind of incentive that would normally get me to pick this up without a second thought. Except I’ve already bought half of the comics in this set, so…