DC Solicitation Sneaks: March 2022
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Batman: Beyond the White Knight #1 (of 8)
“Batman: White Knight” was an interesting “Elseworlds”-style story that sought to interrogate some of the more questionable/problematic aspects of the Bat-mythos before backing off and delivering a conclusion that mostly returned to the status quo. Its follow-up, “Curse of the White Knight” then took a wrecking ball to said status quo and took the series in some genuinely surprising directions. Both of these miniseries were written and illustrated by Sean Murphy, who also co-wrote the interquel “White Knight Presents: Harley Quinn” with his wife Katana Collins while Matteo Scalera provided the art. It was a perfectly readable story even if the parts of the story that tried to follow up on Bruce’s situation fell flat.
Now Murphy is back with the concluding(?) chapter of the “White Knight” series in “Beyond the White Knight.” If you’re wondering if the “Beyond” in the title is going to refer to a certain futuristic version of the Dark Knight, then you’d be right. This miniseries picks up 10 years after “Curse” with Gotham Motors CEO Derek Powers seizing control of the Wayne family fortune and is turning the GTO into a more fascist crime-fighting force. Into this mix comes a new Batman and it’s not clear whether or not they’re the solution to this problem. All of this has convinced Bruce Wayne that it’s finally time to bury the idea of Batman for good. He won’t be able to do it alone, though. He’s going to need the help of someone with a very deep grudge against him: Jason Todd.
Anyone who has read the first two “White Knight” volumes knows that Murphy is a big fan of “Batman: The Animated Series” as he managed to work in a lot of references to it, in a way that helped the story rather than hurt it. From this solicit alone, it’s clear he holds the same kind of affection for “Batman Beyond” and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how he works that series into the “White Knight” mythos while also bringing the story to an end. At least, I think it’s ending. Even if it isn’t, I’m expecting great things from this story after how good “Curse” was.
Batman: Killing Time #1 (of 6): Even after his “Batman & Catwoman” maxiseries was meant to mark the end of his run with the Dark Knight, Tom King can’t quite quit him yet. “Killing Time” is set much earlier in Batman’s career and focuses on his efforts to get back a priceless artifact that was stolen from him by the unlikely team of Catwoman, Riddler, and Penguin. If you’re thinking, “That sounds like a well-balanced villain team-up that’s doomed to be undone by its members inability to trust or not betray one another,” then you’d be right as the solicitation text lets us know, “what fun is a heist without a bloody double cross or two?” King’s run on “Batman” was marked by his ambition to try new things with the character in ways that worked more often than they didn’t. This miniseries, with art from the very talented David Marquez, looks to be his way of having some fun with the character while also adding to his take on the Bat and the Cat’s history. Should be a lot of fun.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #1: The “Batman/Superman” team-up title is back and as hinted at last month, it’s being written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Dan Mora. This will be Waid’s first DC work in quite some time after he appeared to be inseparable from the company during the 90’s and early 00’s. As I’ve mentioned before, the fact that he’s back at the company now is mainly due to the fact that Dan Didio is no longer with the publisher. While it’ll be nice to see Waid take on DC’s two biggest icons, and the story for the first arc involves Batman recruiting the Doom Patrol to find a solution to Superman’s Metallo-supercharged powers, my only concern here is with Mora. While he’s a great artist, he’s also been busy with “Once & Future” with Kieron Gillen over at BOOM! That they’re about ready to wrap up their fourth arc while the artist has been working on “Detective Comics” is impressive. Nevertheless, I’m still just a little concerned that moving onto an even higher profile title is going to disrupt his schedule even more. Hopefully I’m wrong about this.
Batman/Fazeclan #1: …this is not for me. Also, Batman: Don’t take any cryptocurrency recommendations from these guys.
Shadow War: Alpha #1: Kicking off a crossover that sees Talia Al’Ghul and the League of Shadows at war with Deathstroke and Deathstroke, Inc., with Batman and Robin caught in the middle. What set off this war? That would be Deathstroke’s assassination of Talia’s father, Ra’s. You know, the same Ra’s who is functionally immortal due to his regular dips into Lazarus Pits across the globe. Either writer Joshua Williamson has made a major oversight here or he’s got a really clever twist planned. Based on what I’ve read from the writer, I hate to say that the former seems more likely than the latter.
Naomi: Season Two #1 (of 6): What took so long? After the first miniseries debuted to lots of buzz, Bendis and Walker’s new superheroine only showed up in the writers’ other DCU titles, “Action Comics” and “Young Justice.” By the time this issue debuts, more than three years will have passed since the release of the first issue of “Season One.” Was there some holdup due to the forthcoming “Naomi” TV series from Ava DuVernay? I’m asking these questions because the first season of this comic was just okay. It was an origin story that felt more concerned with trying to wrongfoot the reader than with telling a compelling story on its own. The solicitation for this issue doesn’t offer any clues to how the writers are going to fix that. Not when I’m being reminded that Naomi’s archnemesis is called… Zumbado! Jamal Campbell returns to illustrate this miniseries, which means that it’ll at least look great if nothing else.
War for Earth-3 #’s 1&2: These are the bookending issues of a crossover between “Suicide Squad,” “Flash,” and “Teen Titans Academy,” written by Robbie Thompson and Dennis Hopeless. The concept here is that Amanda Waller has made it her mission to take down the evil versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman that run Earth-3 while the members of the other titles, and Rick Flag try to stop her because reasons. While the idea of seeing Waller try to take over an evil reality is certainly an interesting one, you know that DC isn’t going to let that happen because it’s too villainous an act. Still, seeing this miniseries got me thinking, “What is the ‘Earth-3’ version of Waller like?” If you’ll recall, this Earth is the one in the multiverse where everyone’s moral compass has done a 180. So does this mean Earth-3’s Waller is more Claire Huxtable than Annalise Keating? I’m curious, but not quite curious enough to invest in what’s likely to be a $30 hardcover collection of this storyline. Maybe if it’s a $20 paperback, though…
Suicide Squad: Get Joker HC: Brian Azzarello and Alex Maleev’s “Jokerverse” take on the Squad gets collected. The idea behind this story is simple: It’s been decided that the Joker must pay for his crimes and Task Force X has been charged with taking out the Clown Prince of Crime. Only… things don’t go well for the Squad once they’re in the field and the Joker winds up flipping the premise of this story on its head. What I’ve heard about that does make me more interested in seeing how this story plays out. Though this Black Label miniseres came off with far less controversy than the last one Azzarello was involved in (remember Batpenis-gate from “Batman: Damned”), it still managed to ruffle a few feathers. Particularly those of Wild Dog creator Max Allan Collins, who wasn’t too happy to learn that Azzarello had his character take part in the Jan. 6th Insurrection.
Batman vs. Bigby: A Wolf in Gotham: It’s not that often you see Batman team up with a creator-owned series, but it does happen. This crossover with “Fables” featuring its grumpiest detective is just the latest. Heck, it’s not even the first time “Fables” has crossed over with another title, as that happened in “The Unwritten.” In this case, we have the “proper” version of Bigby Wolf coming to Gotham on the trail of a book from Fabletown that’s being used to cause all sorts of magic-based havoc in the city. This is something that has not gone unnoticed by Batman, and I’m sure that the two will have no problem working together to solve this problem. Oh, who am I kidding! They’re going to have a knock-down, drag-out brawl when they meet before developing a grudging respect full of bickering in this particular team-up. “Fables” creator Bill Willingham returns to write this miniseries, with art from Brian Level, which should ensure that the quality is on par with his long-running series.