DC Solicitation Sneaks: March 2024
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Poison Ivy vol. 1: The Virtuous Cycle
“Poison Ivy” by writer G. Willow Wilson and artist Marcio Takara was originally greenlit as a six-issue miniseries and conventional wisdom dictated that you wouldn’t have been wrong to bet against it being just that. A one-off miniseries by some respected creators who would move on to another project when it was done. Except that didn’t happen. It was first extended by six issues into a twelve-issue miniseries, and then into the ongoing series it remains today – issue #20 is in these solicitations.
Clearly Wilson and Takara were onto something with this first arc and I’m eager to know what it is. Not eager enough to have bought these issues in hardcover, but that could change depending on how good this volume is. Which is something I know nothing about beyond the fact that it was good enough, and sold well enough, to warrant its transformation into an ongoing series. So I’m expecting to be pleasantly surprised by what I read here as well.
Not until May, though. For some reason every collected edition solicited here isn’t actually coming out in March.
Batman/Dylan Dog #1: The long, long in the works crossover between the Dark Knight Detective and the supernatural investigator native to European comics finally sees its first issue published. How long has it been in the works? Long enough for “Something is Killing the Children” artist Werther Dell’edera to have drawn part of this issue. Gigi Cavenago illustrates the rest of it and Roberto Recchioni writes all of it. I have no familiarity with “Dylan Dog,” but it does sound like the kind of thing that would be up my alley. That said, and assuming the information here is correct, this is being solicited at a very good value of 88 pages for $5.
Batman: Dark Age #1: You know a miniseries was successful when the creators take the format for it and apply it to another character. Which is what “Superman: Space Age” creators Mark Russell and Michael Allred doing with this Batman-centric take on that series. At least, I think that this is distinct from “Space Age” even though the solicitation text indicates that it’s “spinning out” from that title. Seeing Batman’s perspective from that miniseries honestly sounds kind of redundant since he had a not-insignificant role there that wrapped up definitively at its end. So I really hope that Russell and Allred are going for a completely new take on the character here, which will be worth reading based on how good “Space Age” was.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #25: The Waid/Mora machine keeps chugging along with this anniversary issue that spotlights the first meeting between Lex Luthor and The Joker. I realize that this story has probably been done before elsewhere, but the thought of this A-list creative team tackling it for the modern era certainly does sound immensely appealing. More so than the celebrity cameo featured on one of the variant covers, which is none other than… William Shatner? While the man’s a living legend, this reads more like a tribute to his equally legendary ego rather than his skills as an actor. I mean, it doesn’t even look like he’s actually featured in the issue itself – just this variant cover. Did he just call up DC one day and say, “I want to be in a comic book cover, damn it! Put me on one!” and DC just capitulated rather, figuring that this was the easiest way of dealing with him. Not that I can blame them, but it still feels kind of disappointing that it’s this cameo which attracted all the attention for this issue, rather than the actual story that’ll be in it.
The Flash #7: Simon Spurrier is still writing this. Which means that his take on the Scarlet Speedster has been well-received enough to not see him kicked to the curb after his first arc. Now let’s see if he can keep the momentum going and make it to issue #12 – and beyond! Regular artist Mike Deodato, however, has either moved on to something else or is just taking this issue off as #7 is illustrated by Ramon Perez, who is no slouch himself.
Batman: The Black Mirror – The Deluxe Edition HC: Scott Snyder’s first major “Batman” work, featuring Dick Grayson as the Dark Knight, gets an oversized hardcover treatment with additional extra material. Sketches, designs, and a wraparound cover are promised, but nothing related to the writing of it is mentioned. This was a great story and positioned Snyder as the Next Big Thing. Which he was – for “Batman” stories.
Batman: Wayne Family Adventures vol. 4: The hit Webtoon series gets its fourth collected edition. I picked up the first volume on good word of mouth, and it was… fine. It’s cute, no doubt about that as there’s an undeniable charm to seeing the Bat-family deal with its own brand of domestic houselife. Which means that you’ve got a lot of very basic stories – Duke Thomas struggles with getting a girlfriend, Damien and Tim getting into a prank war – that are novel only because they’re being filtered through a specific Bat-lens. It all leads me to believe that I’ve seen everything this series has to offer after reading its first volume.
Batman: Fortress: The miniseries arrives in softcover. In retrospect, it feels like DC did a poor job selling the core idea of this miniseries. Which is that Batman has to break into the Fortress of Solitude to find Superman. Why? Because Earth is being invaded by aliens and we need the Man of Steel’s help. Written by Garry Whitta with art from Darick Robertson, you can get this in hardcover for $20 on Amazon right now. Which is the cover price for this volume when it’s set to arrive in May.
Superman: Space Age: Hey, I was just talking about this! Russell and Allred’s miniseries arrives in softcover for $25. Which isn’t much of a markdown from the $30 hardcover I already own. So get it now or get it later.
Justice League vol. 3: Leagues of Chaos: Bendis’ lame-duck run on the “League” comes to an end as the team throws down against Xanadoth, the original Lord of Chaos. The writer’s first volume wasn’t bad, but also wasn’t a patch on his work on “Avengers” over at Marvel. I’ve already ordered vol. 2 in softcover, so I might as well pick this up when it arrives in April. Unless vol. 2 turns out to be really, really bad. Which I can’t rule out these days.
Zatanna by Paul Dini (2024 Edition): Reprinting the series that wasn’t entirely written by Dini. I own the previous edition and I can tell you that was still pretty fun. However, looking at the solicited list of creators, I feel I should remind DC that one of the credited writers now goes by the name Lilah Sturges. So you should probably check to make sure that’s been corrected for this edition before its April release. Unless this change is why “Zatanna” is getting a new edition next year, in which case – good on you DC!
Fables: The Deluxe Edition Book 16: Boy, remember when the biggest concern for this series was that creator Bill Willingham’s politics were going to seep further into it? Man those were better days. Now DC is in the awkward position of publishing a series where its creator has disavowed his working relationship with them to the point that he’s put “Fables” itself into the Public Domain. While DC still has publishing rights to the stories he wrote, Willingham has said that his working relationship with the publisher has deteriorated to the point where he feels that it’s in his best interest to take away their ability to profit from it. There hasn’t been any word from either side after this so that assumes talks are either not happening on either side or are being kept private as they try to work something out. My money’s on the former rather than the latter being the case, though.
Anyhow, this wasn’t my Above-the-Board Recommendation for this month because, like I said the last time it was solicited, having a hardcover edition of this story would look funny on my shelf next to the paperbacks of the previous volumes.