DC Solicitation Sneaks: February 2021
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Dark Nights: Death Metal HC
I’m not giving this collection of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s latest (and most likely, last) DC event this spot based on my expectations for it. No, I’m one of those guys who thought that “Metal” was just alright and not one of the best DC events. The reason it’s here is because it’s coming at a time when an event series about the fate of the DCU actually has more weight to it.
Back in September, many long-time DC employees were laid off in a corporate downsizing effort that was described by a lot of people as a “bloodbath.” Around a month later, even more people from DC were laid off as well. DC is still in the comics publishing business, but these moves do not inspire confidence that its corporate overlords at AT&T/Time Warner have any interest in it. In fact, the solicitations for this month and the last have been made up of material that was supposed to be part of DC’s latest relaunch. That will be happening next month, and whatever form it’ll take… who knows? A better question will be whether or not DC can effectively publicize and distribute whatever it has planned for next month.
Which is why Snyder and Capullo’s “Anti-Crisis” feels like it has more relevance than it normally would. Where previous Crises sought to destroy, the aim of this one is to celebrate and raise up all of the crazy corners of DC’s history. On paper, it sounds like a fitting last hurrah for the DCU. Whether or not that’s actually the case remains to be seen.
Future State: Superman — House of El #1: Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Scott Godlewski show us the future of Superman several centuries from now. Clark is still around, but he’s got grandkids now. Rowan and Rowan Kent, the son and daughter of Jonathan. They, and some family friends, are going to have to come together to face (what else, but) the greatest threat they’ve ever seen: The Red King. I don’t know enough about Jonson’s work to gauge how excited I should be by this premise. I’m just bringing it up here because, as I just mentioned, it feels like the kind of “last” story that has a bit more weight than it normally would at this time.
Generations: Forged #1: As I understand it, this 80-page $10 one-shot is springing out of the end of “Death Metal” to set up the future of the DCU. Whatever it is. Co-written by Dan Jurgens, Andy Schmidt and Robert Venditti, it sees an eclectic group of heroes sent through time by Dominus to restore the shattered timeline only to find a greater threat at the end of their journey. How eclectic is this group? Well, it includes “1939 Batman,” Kamandi, Steel, and Sinestro — for starters. As for whether this sounds like something that’s worth the cover price… Ehhhhhhhhh. I’d say wait for the reviews. If it doesn’t sound like it’s $10 worth of good comics, then you’re probably better off just absorbing all of the spoilerific details that are sure to come out when this is published.
Wonder Woman: Earth One vol. 3: Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette’s trilogy of graphic novels about their origin story for the Amazonian Princess reaches its conclusion. Even though the second volume didn’t tell as interesting a story as I’d hoped, there were still plenty of interesting details to hold my attention and convince me to stick around and see how it’s all going to end. Then there’s the fact that once this is done and “Green Lantern: Season Two” wraps up, Morrison will have nothing on his plate at DC. Unless he’s got some secret project that’s being kept under wraps, these might be the last two titles we’ll see from him at the publisher for a while, if ever. I’m not worried for his future, as I’m sure he’d have no problem finding a home for his comics work at Image, Dark Horse, BOOM!, or any other publisher.
Batman: A Death in the Family — The Deluxe Edition HC: The infamous storyline that saw the “Jason Todd Robin” dead at the hands of the readers who called a hotline to vote for his death. While I’ve heard that DC had planned to kill Jason Todd off anyway, the vote-by-phone campaign gave them the cover to do that regardless. However, there were actually two versions of the issue that followed the campaign ready to go. Obviously we got the one where Todd died, but what about the issue where he lived? It has yet to make a legitimate appearance, until now. This volume lives up to its “Deluxe” description and will include pages from that never-before-seen issue. It’s great news from a historical, preservationist perspective. As for how these pages will actually read? Eh. I’m pretty sure they’ll just establish that Todd survived the Joker’s beating and the bomb he left behind before Batman heads off to stop the Clown Prince of Crime’s latest plot as Iran’s new ambassador to the U.N. (Yes. This was an actual part of the plot from this storyline.)
The Batman’s Grave: The Complete Collection HC: Yes, I’m buying this. I’ll have a lot more to say about that once I’ve read it and write the review.
The Final Night: Probably not the first time I’ve mentioned this event series in these solicitation write-ups. It’s one of the better-regarded DC events from the 90’s as it saw the entire DCU enveloped in darkness as an alien known as the Sun-Eater came to chow down on the sun (obviously). One person has the power to turn the tide, and unfortunately for the good guys it’s someone who was once one of their own, but suffered a devastating fall from grace. Maybe this will be the edition I’ll finally buy. After all, it’s one of only two DCU crossovers that Garth Ennis participated in while he was writing “Hitman.” That’s gotta count for something. Right?
John Constantine: Hellblazer — Rise and Fall HC & vol. 2: The Best Version of You: You wait years for a Mature Readers “Hellblazer” series to come around and suddenly you get a round of solicitations where two such volumes are solicited at once. “Rise & Fall” is a collection of the three-issue miniseries from Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson that sees the streetwise magician investigating a case of dead billionaires with wings sprouting out of their backs. I think there may be some social commentary buried there, but the brief glimpse we got of Taylor and Robertson writing Constantine in “DCeased: A Good Day to Die” was enough to get me interested in seeing them take on the character proper. Meanwhile, “The Best Version of You” is the concluding volume of writer Simon Spurrier’s run, which he was very upset about as he had started to lay groundwork for the title’s second year. He did say that there’s resolution at the end of this volume to the story he started to tell in vol. 1, so the conclusion shouldn’t leave the reader hanging too much. Which is good, since that first volume (review forthcoming) was pretty much exactly what I was expecting from the writer’s take on “Hellblazer.”
Superman vol. 3: The Truth Revealed: While I’ve been talking about how the endings in these round of solicitations have more weight to them due to DC’s uncertain future, here’s a storyline that feels undermined by it. After all, Superman revealing his identity to the world is a development that should have wide-ranging, years-long complications for the character. Now it just feels like, “Hey, DC’s closing up shop, why don’t we have Superman throw out his secret identity?” In short, another gimmick storyline for a character who has already had too many of them in his history to count. Hell, it’s not even an original gimmick. Will the writer be able to wring a worthwhile story out of this setup, regardless? I certainly hope so.