DC Solicitation Sneaks: May 2021
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Batman: White Knight Presents — Harley Quinn
All things considered, Harley was left in a pretty good place at the end of “Curse of the White Knight.” Even if she was prepared to break the law for Bruce Wayne’s sake, she still wound up free of a lot of the baggage from her past. Which is good since she’s a single mother of two now. Of course, when your baggage includes a long and twisted history with both Batman and the Joker, it’s safe to say that there’s always going to be something coming back to find Harley when she least expects it. Which is going to be really inconvenient since this story also finds her helping out the GCPD and FBI track down a new, brutal serial killer that has sprung up in Gotham.
The real question here, however, is whether the “White Knight” brand can survive, and even thrive when Sean Murphy isn’t the main writer and artist. He’s co-plotting this volume with new writer Katana Collins, so it’s safe to say that this story is going to be significant to this “Batman” story he’s been telling. That alone is enough to get me onboard with this, but this story will also have art from “Black Science’s” Matteo Scalera who showed on that series that he’s very good with high-energy action storytelling.
Mister Miracle: The Source of Freedom #1 (of 6): I don’t know how Shilo Norman was a part of “Future State,” but we’re apparently getting the story of how he got there with this miniseries. Or his exploits there were found to be popular enough that this miniseries is seeking to reintroduce him to DC’s current readership by playing up the connection to “Future State.” Anyhow, the master escape artist/crimefighter is facing a challenge from an upstart in Metropolis who wants to show the world that he’s a better escape artist than Shilo. This is being written by Brandon Easton, who has history writing various “Transformers,” “Star Trek,” and “Judge Dredd” titles for IDW as well as “Andre the Giant: Closer to Heaven,” but the real draw here for this series is its artist. Fico Ossio did some amazing work on “No One Left to Fight” over at Dark Horse and I’ve been waiting to see what he’d be illustrating next. So that’s good for this series, even if it means we may not be getting that follow-up to “No One Left to Fight” anytime soon.
Future State: Gotham #1: Because futuristic fascist states where superheroes fight the power are in right now, we’re getting a continuation of the titular event. Featuring Jace Fox, the Next Batman, who has been framed for the latest disaster to hit Gotham City. Now, the Red Hood has been tasked to bring him in, dead or alive. Josh Williamson writes, and Giannis Milonogiannis illustrates, and I really can’t bring myself to be interested in this. The last thing I read from Williamson was the underwhelming “Batman/Superman: Who are the Secret Six?” and I prefer Milonogianns’ indie work on titles like “Prophet” to what I’ve seen him do in “All-New Ultimates.” Though, it’s been a few years, so maybe he’s improved at handling mainstream superheroics.
Legends of the Dark Knight #1: The series that popularized the “rotating teams of creators” approach to series in mainstream comics makes its (digital first) return. Leading the charge is the artist of “Transmetropolitan” and (the first half of) “The Boys,” Darick Robertson, as he writes and draws a story about a new villain who has shown up in Gotham. I know, it must be Tuesday, right? This villain aims to set himself up as a drug dealer to the other villains, and… that’s it. Man, if I wasn’t already familiar with Robertson’s work, I’d likely pass on checking out the opening arc after reading that solicitation. That said, this is going to be a three-issue arc, so hopefully the copy on these solicitations will improve before the next creator(s) arrive for issue #4.
Batman: Earth One vol. 3: Wow, it has been a while since we last saw an entry from this particular series of graphic novels. Given how creators Geoff Johns and Gary Frank were busy for so long with “Doomsday Clock” and how they’ve now moved on to their creator-owned title “Geiger” at Image, I didn’t think we’d ever see this volume. Yet here it is, and it’s all about the return of Harvey Dent. Or at least, a terrorist group claiming to be funded by him. Naturally it’s going to fall to Batman to figure out who’s behind all this… right after he figures out why his grandfather, Adrian Arkham, has resurfaced after all these years. The first two volumes of this series were all right and I know that the Johns/Frank team can sell comics. I just get the feeling that after almost six years, people have either moved on from caring about this series or just forgotten about it. What I’m saying is, don’t expect a fourth volume (wherein the Joker might finally show up, unless he’s actually the villain here) of this series unless it sells really, REALLY well.
DCeased: Hope at World’s End HC: Between the first and second volumes of “DCeased,” DC published a number of digital-first short comics that filled in what other notable characters were up to while the modified Anti-life equation was turning everyone on Earth into a ravenous zombie. These were all written by original series writer Tom Taylor, and some pretty talented folks were tapped to provide the art for these stories: Dustin Nguyen, Renato Guedes, Karl Mostert… Given that Taylor showed with “Unkillables” that he can make a side story to the main event even more entertaining than the event itself, I’m thinking he’ll be able to deliver the goods when he just has to deliver some short, sharp, shocks in an alternate universe where everyone is fair game. Which is why all Jimmy Olsen fans should start praying that whatever fate awaits him here isn’t too gruesome.
Future State: Justice League, The Next Batman, Superman: The first “Future State” collections are here, and I was not expecting to see them collected this way. These are three BIG collections — “Justice League” is the smallest at 296 pages — and they’re collecting all of the titles by group, as the name of each volume implies. Which is a good thing if you’re looking for a relatively affordable way to read a big chunk of these stories. Not so much if there were only specific titles that you wanted to read. Which is why I’m glad that DC is publishing John Ridley and co.’s “The Next Batman” in its own volume.
Batman: Damned: Will Batpenis return when this infamous miniseries is reprinted in softcover? Inquiring minds want to know! Plus, it’s really the only reason you’d have to pick up this story unless you’re a really big fan of Lee Bermejo’s art who didn’t already buy this collection in hardcover.