DC Solicitation Sneaks: May 2022
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Fables #151: The Black Forest (part 1 of 12)
“Batman vs. Bigby” was only the warm-up act to the return of DC/Vertigo’s longest-running creator-owned series. “Fables” was the story of what happened when the fictional characters of folktales and legends were driven from their homelands and settled down in New York. Creator Bill Willingham and a host of talented artists, chief among them being Mark Buckingham who returns to illustrate this maxiseries, got a lot of mileage out of this setup that saw Snow White married to the Big Bad Wolf, Cinderella becoming a master spy, Gepetto turning into an authoritarian dictator, and making all of these storytelling decisions work.
The series ran for 22 volumes and was still firing on most cylinders when it wrapped up. So when I read the solicitation text and see that Willingham and Buckingham have a new Adversary planned for this story who wants to get even with Gepetto, a new Jack-in-the-Green, and the return of a Fable long thought dead, I’m confident that we’re going to get some more quality stories out of these setups. Some have remarked that Willingham’s politics have become deeply unfashionable in the years since “Fables” ended (to cite one example: the dude has nothing but good things to say about Israel and its policies), yet the things that linger in your mind about that series are its characters and their often fraught decisions. Provided the writer hasn’t decided to use this series as a bully pulpit for his politics, I see no reason not to look forward to its return.
Batman: Fortress #1 (of 8): An alien ship descends upon Earth, causing communications and power distribution to go haywire in the process. Most of you read this and probably thought to yourself, “Must be a Tuesday in the DCU.” Tuesday or not, you can usually count on Superman to handle or at least be involved with the superhuman response to such an event. Except that he’s nowhere to be found this time. So now it’s up to Batman to coordinate things in the Man of Steel’s absence. This comes to us from writer Gary Whitta (“Rogue One,” “The Walking Dead” game from Telltale) and artist Darick Robertson, who previously collaborated on “Oliver” which was a futuristic twist on the tale by Charles Dickens. Though Batman is the star here, the solicitation text promises a story that will turn everything we know about Superman upside down. That’s a big ask in this day and age, and leaves me more interested in picking up “Oliver” to see if the team is capable of delivering upon it.
Aquaman: Andromeda #1 (of 3): There have been more than a few Black Label miniseries involving Batman, and at least one each for Superman and Wonder Woman. Now, Aquaman is getting one of his own from writer Ram V and artist Christian Ward. The solicitation text talks about Point Nemo, the spaceship graveyard that’s the furthest point in any ocean from land. It’s normally just a point of curiosity for the King of the Seas, until something starts waking up down there. Not only does this attract the attention of Aquaman, but also his longtime rival Black Mant, and the nations of Earth as they send their experimental submarine Andromeda to Point Nemo to see if this thing can be secured for their benefit. Ram V is a writer who I’ve heard good things about, even though I’ve yet to read anything from him that has really blown me away. Ward, on the other hand, is an artist who has really come a long way since I first saw his work in “Infinite Vacation.” If he’s been given enough time to bring his A-game to the project, then his vision of the DCU under the ocean should be something to see.
The Jurassic League #1 (of 6): It’s the origin story of the Justice League as they fight against the threat of Darkside. The twist here is that this is happening well over 65 million years ago and that all the members of the League are intelligent dinosaurs! It’s a ridiculous premise and I can only hope that co-writers Daniel Warren Johnson and Juan Gedon take it as un-seriously as possible. Regrettably, Johnson will not be providing the art to the series as Gedeon will be doing that. I mean no disrespect to Gedon, but Johnson is one of the best artists working in comics today and I’d have no problems recommending this series to anyone if he was the one drawing it.
Danger Street #1 (of 12): Master of the Maxiseries, Tom King, is back again with another one. This time it’s about the ambitions of three superheroes, Starman, Metamorpho, and Warlord, whose aims to join the Justice League take a dark turn. How dark? Dark enough to involve the summoning of Darkseid so they can defeat him in a fight and prove their worthiness. This is a terrible idea for any team that isn’t the Justice League, the Legion of Super-Heroes, or the team up of Green Arrow and the Atom. It’s clear that King is looking to explore how B-list heroes deal with having their heroism recognized in the eyes of others; though, involving Darkseid in this does come off as a bit extreme. The writer is joined by frequent collaborator Jorge Fornes for this maxiseries, and it’ll be to actually consider checking this out when it’s done. This is opposed to actively ignoring their previous collaboration, the “Watchmen” sequel “Rorschach.”
Black Adam: Rise and Fall of an Empire: With the “Black Adam” movie starring Dwayne Johnson set for later this year, DC is starting to get material featuring the character back into print. Of the other series being offered here, “The Dark Age” and “Black Reign,” this is the most interesting. Why? Because it’s a collection of all the Black Adam-centric stuff from “52.” That weekly series did a lot of great work in giving more depth to a character traditionally regarded as a villain, turning him into a proper antihero with a surprisingly tragic arc. It was easily one of the best, and most surprising storylines in “52” and while I do recommend the series as a whole, reading it in isolation will still be plenty entertaining.
Batman: The Adventures Continue vol. 2: The first volume of the continuation of the seminal animated series, from a couple of the writers who worked on it – Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, delivered some fresh takes on the Red Hood and Deathstroke. As well as the quality Joker material that you’d expect from these guys. While there were some rough spots early on, the overall quality of that miniseries was such that I’m very much looking forward to this second volume. Which involves the assassination of Gotham’s mayor and Batman’s subsequent investigation turning up evidence of a secret organization underneath the city known as the Court of Owls. That’s right, one of the most noteworthy parts of the Snyder and Capullo run is getting the Animated Series treatment, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like!
Checkmate: This is either the culmination of Bendis’ Leviathan-related storytelling at DC, or its lame-duck resolution. Former Manhunter Paul Kirk is now the head of an organization that is looking to save mankind from itself, whether it wants his help or not. The problem for the superhero community is that he’s not determined to fight them on their own terms. He’s all about trying to find ways to bring them over to his side or to control the general flow of information to make their actions ineffective. It’s with the intent of fighting that approach that the new Checkmate is formed with members including Green Arrow, the Question, and Talia Al Ghul looking to put an end to Kirk’s ambitions. If nothing else, I’m glad that DC has stopped putting all of Bendis’ work in hardcover first. That means I’ll be able to pick this volume up when it comes out. As for whether or not it’ll make for a good read, well… “Event Leviathan” did set a low bar to clear.