DC Solicitation Sneaks: September 2023
That’s right, this is going up on a Tuesday night. Why the change? With there not being a direct link to the podcast as part of the blog, there’s a three-day gap every other week now. To deal with that, I’ll be posting things every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and every other Wednesday when a podcast doesn’t go up. Feel free to start taking bets as to when I forget to update on this new schedule because I’ve been doing it the old way for a VERY long time now (in internet years).
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Superman: The Warworld Saga
I’ve been hearing good things about Philip Kennedy Johnson’s run on “Action Comics” for a while, and this story in particular. The reason I haven’t made an effort to check it out yet is because it was originally published as a multi-volume saga and that kind of thing usually reads best in one sitting/edition. Enter “Superman: The Warworld Saga” which collects the entire story, and a lot of ancillary material, in one volume. Yes I could buy all three volumes of “Action Comics” which feature this storyline right now (and for slightly less), but this edition is also collecting a lot of tie-in material not featured in those editions. Also, some of that material looks to be written by Simon Spurrier, so that’s definitely an incentive for me to pick up this edition.
As for what “The Warworld Saga” is about: It has Superman traveling to the title planet with his handpicked version of the Authority to liberate it. Which sounds like an easy enough job when it’s being ruled by the tyrannical Mongul. Except that even tyranny can be difficult to overthrow when it’s the only life its people have known. Superman and the Authority are going to face an uphill struggle, the kind of which they have never seen before, and I want to see how they’re going to handle it.
Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War #1 – Battle Lines: What could possibly come between the Bat and the Cat? How about the fact that Gotham has become much safer, and a lot more authoritarian, after the Dark Knight’s trip through the multiverse and Catwoman may have had something to do with that. Also, she was kinda, sorta involved with how the Failsafe automaton Batman’s backup personality built in order to stop him if he ever went rogue came online and tried to kill him. That might drive a wedge, you know. This is being co-written by current “Batman” and “Catwoman” writers Chip Zdarsky and Tini Howard. So the crossover should flow well between their respective titles. I’d like to say I’m interested, but I haven’t been reading either title. As it appears to be building off developments in the titles from both writers, I have to imagine that this will be of interest to anyone already reading “Batman” and “Catwoman.”.
Batman and Robin #1: The Bruce/Damien team-up series makes a return as a host of Bat-villains turn Gotham into an urban jungle. This sounds at odds with what’s going on in “The Gotham War,” but I guess you’ll just have to go with it. A new foe waits in the wings, looking to take advantage of the chaos to turn one of Batman’s greatest assets against him. “We Only Find Them When They’re Dead’s” Simone Di Meo provides the art, which means that this series is going to look good. Joshua Williamson writes this series, which means it just became deeply skippable to me!
Birds of Prey #1: Now written by Kelly Thompson! Which means that I’m going to have to start buying this series. While “Birds of Prey” has traditionally involved Black Canary and Barbara “Oracle” Gordon teaming up with their friends to fight crime, Babs isn’t mentioned in this solicitation. Instead, Dinah Lance will be teaming up with Big Barda, Cassandra Cain, Zealot, and Harley Quinn for a mission involving an extraction without bloodshed. While the extraction shouldn’t be a problem, I foresee issues with the second condition – especially with the last two members of this team. Thompson’s partner in crime on “Hawkeye,” Leonardo Romero, provides the art here, which means that this is likely going to be as entertaining as it is morally dubious!
Wonder Woman #1: Tom King debuts as the writer of the Amazing Amazon’s latest ongoing title. After a mass murder involving an Amazon takes place on U.S. soil, the government passes the Amazon Safety Act which bars all of them from the country. Any who don’t comply will get the A.X.E.: The Amazon Extradition Entity, a task force set up to remove them by any means necessary. Naturally this is a problem for Diana, who is determined to find out the truth behind the incident that set all this in motion. King usually has different, but good ideas about the characters he writes so I’m interested in seeing what he has to say about Wonder Woman. As well as if he’ll be giving us a proper run on this title, and not jumping off at issue 12 to turn this into a surprise miniseries. Daniel Sampere illustrates and he sounds like a solid choice after his work on “Dark Crisis” and “Justice League.” By the way, do you know who else has different but good ideas about the characters he writes…
The Flash #1: Simon Spurrier, that’s who! It looked like he might have been done at the publisher after the “DC Bloodbath” that saw a lot of longtime editorial personnel let go a while back along with the cancellation of the “Hellblazer” series he was writing. However, it looks like there’s someone in editorial who still really likes his work, which is why he got the opportunity to write “Suicide Squad: Blaze” and now this. The word is that he’s looking to bring some Cosmic Horror to the Scarlet Speedster as something from the dark, beyond the Speed Force starts whispering to Wally West. Mike Deodato illustrates this new series and I’m curious to see how he mixes with the weird ideas Spurrier is going to unleash here. Which will hopefully go down well with Wally’s, uh, passionate fanbase. I know I bring this up a lot with Spurrier’s superhero work, but this feels like another situation where we’re going to get a fresh new take on the hero that gets to run until the writer is done with it, or he’ll be off the title in a year (or sooner).
Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham #1 (of 4): Writer artist Rafael Grampa gives us a miniseries where Batman has decided to kill off Bruce Wayne for good and become the Caped Crusader full-time. Not a moment too soon either as a new group of supervillains emerges from the depths of the city and a serial killer stalks its streets while his victims all have a connection to Batman. Grampa is a hell of an artist, that’s not in doubt. He hasn’t done much as a writer, however, but this may be a case where it’ll be worth it just to see his artistic vision. DC believes that to be the case too. They’re offering a “noir” edition where you’ll be able to see Grampa’s work in black and white. I’ll cost the same $7 for each 48-page issue as the color version, if you’re interested.
Fables: The Deluxe Edition, Book 16 HC: Advance-solicited for November! Collecting the 12-issue return of the classic Vertigo series… assuming that all twelve issues are out by the solicitation date. The series has been suffering delays, which has led to issue #161 (part 11) being solicited here. So if #162 is solicited for (and comes out) in October, this collection should still hit its release date. If it doesn’t, then you’ll just have to wait longer. Like I’ll be doing for the eventual softcover edition of this. You know, so it’ll fit right in on my shelf next to all of the other volumes of “Fables” that I own.
The Human Target vol. 1: Collecting the first half of Tom King and Greg Smallwood’s miniseries about master-of-disguise Christopher Chance. He impersonates targets of criminals in order to catch the bad guys, only this time things have gone a bit sideways. Chance was hired to impersonate none other than Lex Luthor, and now he’s been hit with a slow-acting poison. Now he’s got to figure out how to stay alive along with who would be clever enough to try and kill Luthor in this fashion. His first suspects: None other than the Justice League International. While I realize that collecting the entirety of this maxiseries will set me back $40, that’s still less than the $60 I would’ve had to pay if I’d bought both of these volumes in hardcover. I’ll call that a win.