The DCU 52
Come September, DC will be relaunching the entire DC Universe with 52 new titles. As you might have gathered, Al and I will pick up the first issue of pretty much anything, if only to review it. But 52 in one month? Boy, that’s a lot.
On the other hand, I’m willing to throw a bit of time and money in it for the first month, in order to give a chance to the ones that sound like they might have something to offer.
So which ones do I really want to read? In a shameless bid to start an incredibly unwieldy comments thread, let’s go through them all and see. (I’m working here from the list on Bleeding Cool, by the way.)
1: Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. It’s the flagship; it’s the lynchpin for the relaunch; it’s by the two guys who are supposed to be driving the line. It’ll probably be good, but at any rate it’ll be essential reading for industry-watchers. That’s 1.
2: Justice League International by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti. Um… I was kind of looking forward to this, coming out of Generation Lost. (And the very fact that they spent a year setting up a new title to be launched after the reboot? Kind of suggests that there’s going to be enough previous continuity floating around to create all sorts of confusion. Have they learned anything from Crisis?) But, yeah, I was up for an ongoing Generation Lost series. Dan Jurgens, though? I haven’t read anything I liked from him in years. Call this a no.
3: Teen Titans by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund. One of those “it’s been around for decades, we must keep it going” franchises. Would I pick up the existing Teen Titans series just because this creative team came aboard? Not unless it was a podcast week and there was nothing else to talk about… so that’s another no.
4: Suicide Squad by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy. Another of the franchises that will not die, and I’m already reading the same premise in Thunderbolts. Never heard of the creators. Not exactly grabbing me.
5: Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales. All-Star Superman was as good as everyone says, and while I gave up on Morrison’s Batman pretty quickly, I’m interested to see what he can do with Superman in a monthly comic. That’s 2.
6: Superman by George Perez and Jesus Merino. Hmm, my every instinct says I don’t want to be buying the Superman B-title… but it’s got Perez writing and doing the breakdowns, and that’s got to be worth a look. Call it 3.
7: Superboy by Scott Lobdell, RB Silva and Rob Lean. Don’t care about the character, wouldn’t start buying the book just because of a change of creative team… no.
8: Supergirl by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar. Not so much a character as a continuity quagmire, the last thing Supergirl needs is yet another reboot. It’s going to take more than a renumbering and a change of creative team to make me care about the low-end books in the major families.
9: Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. I’ve never got in to the Batman books and I don’t expect this to be the time… but I’m vaguely intrigued by the creative team, actually. Might be interesting. Let’s call it 4.
10: Detective Comics by Tony Daniel. Heavens, no.
11: Batman: The Dark Knight by David Finch. Yeah, cos that turned out so well last time.
12: Batgirl by Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf and Vicente Sifuentes. Ah, the controversial healing of Barbara Gordon. That’s going to be a tricky one to pull off, but yes, I want to know what Gail Simone can do with it. That’s 5.
13: Batwoman by J H Williams III, Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder. I ordered it when the solicited it back in the spring, I’ll be ordering it again now. 6.
14: Catwoman by Judd Winick and Guillem March. The solicitation tells us nothing other than it’s another Catwoman series. Doesn’t really excite me. If there’s good word of mouth, I’ll buy the digital version, maybe.
15: Red Hood and the Outlaws by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort. One for the Batman completists, methinks.
16: Batwing by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver. This is a spin-off from Batman Incorporated, featuring the Batman of Africa. That… sounds like it could be pretty terrible, actually – references to the entire continent of Africa as one indistinguishable place are never a good sign – but I have a strange instinct to order it, if only for the trainwreck factor. 7.
17: Nightwing by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows. Rewinding the clock on Dick Grayson? Not interested.
18: Batman and Robin by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. I do not need more than one Batman title in my life.
19: Birds of Prey by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz. Wasn’t wild about Swierczynski’s run on Cable, not really excited about reading him on Birds of Prey.
20: Green Lantern by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy. Ah, now we’re getting into the Green Lantern books, which are pretty much carrying on as they are. Al likes them, but I’ve never much cared for the concept, and reboot or no reboot, they just feel like an inaccessible mythos to me. (And yes, you could say the same about the X-Men, but I wouldn’t start reading them right now either.)
21: Green Lantern Corps by Peter J Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna. See above.
22: Green Lanterns: New Guardians by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt. See above.
23: Red Lanterns by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes and Rob Hunter. Dilemma. The Red Lanterns don’t much excite me. It’s the Green Lantern D-title. But it’s Peter Milligan, and he’s rarely less than interesting. A very, very borderline yes. That’s 8.
24: Aquaman by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Clearly a priority for DC if they’re putting this creative team on it. Aquaman’s kind of a challenge to make interesting, but I’m perversely curious to know how they’ll tackle him. 9.
25: Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. Never really cared for Wonder Woman, never really cared for Brian Azzarello… but the combination of the two sounds so bizarre that I can’t help wondering what it’s going to read like. 10.
26: Flash by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul. I really liked Manapul’s art on the recent, abortive Flash run. I’ll give it a go for that reason alone. That’s 11.
27: Green Arrow by JT Krul and Dan Jurgens. I bought the first issue of Krul’s Green Arrow last time round; it was okay, but I didn’t come back next month. Nothing here to change my mind.
28: DC Universe Presents by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang. Essentially a five-issue Deadman mini, since something else takes over the book after that. Jenkins is one of those writers who used to be consistently interesting and then kind of went off the rails a while back. It’s a skip, I think.
29: Savage Hawkman by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan. I have no interest in this at all.
30: Blue Beetle by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara. I like Jaime Reyes, I like Tony Bedard, I’ll give this a shot. 12.
31: Fury of Firestorm by Gail Simone, Ethan van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar. Vague apathy towards the character is outweighed by the fact that it’s Gail Simone. 13.
32: Mr Terrific by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson. Not familiar with the creators, solicitation makes it sound like a cut-price Future Foundation. Nah.
33: Captain Atom by JT Krul and Freddie Williams II. Well, that’s certainly being published in September.
34: OMAC by Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish. DiDio writing? Next!
35: Static Shock by Scott McDaniel, John Rozum and Jonathan Glapion. Static’s a well-liked character, and I’ve always enjoyed McDaniel’s art. I’ll give this a go. 14.
36: Hawk and Dove by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld. This is a joke, right?
37: Deathstroke by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert. Another of the franchises that won’t die. Not interested.
38: Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela. This is another of the titles that’s basically just renumbering and otherwise carrying on as normal. Not reading it now, not planning to start in September.
39: Legion Lost by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods. Hmm. Never really followed the Legion, not buying the A-book, but I do like Nicieza and Woods as a creative team. Let’s try it out. 15.
40: Grifter by Nathan Edmondson, CAFU and BIT. Yeah, because that was the problem with the WildStorm characters – they weren’t in DC continuity. Judging from the solicitation, they’ve grafted on the premise from Rom (he’s killing monsters in human form, but everyone else just thinks he’s a serial killer). All that said… Edmondson is writing Who is Jake Ellis, which is great. This could actually be good. Sod it, let’s say 16.
41: Voodoo by Ron Marz and Sami Basri. There is a limit to my curiosity, however.
42: Stormwatch by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda. Now with added Martian Manhunter. But also with added Paul Cornell, and I’d by Paul Cornell on anything, so that’s 17.
43: Animal Man by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and Dan Green. Lemire’s Sweet Tooth is very good. This will be nothing like it. And there’s another, quirkier Jeff Lemire book further down the list. So, pass.
44: Swamp Thing by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette. Yeah… I kind of get the vibe of worshipping at the idol of a beloved Alan Moore comic every time they revive Swamp Thing. I’ll pass, thanks.
45: Justice League Dark by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin. Worst. Name. Ever. But it’s Peter Milligan writing both Shade and John Constantine, so that’s a definite yes. 18.
46: Demon Knights by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert. I really would buy Paul Cornell on anything. I don’t know what the hell this is, but I’ve already decided to buy it. Let’s look it up… Madame Xanadu and Etrigan in the dark ages? Yeesh. I give that six months. But it’s Paul Cornell, so 19.
47: Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli. This would be the other Jeff Lemire book I mentioned above. Sounds a bit like overly self-conscious genre-blending, but let’s find out. 20.
48: Resurrection Man by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino. I don’t remember this making much impact on me the first time round.
49: I, Vampire by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino. A vampire comic in the DCU? Can’t say that really grabs me. I’d maybe try it in a quiet week, but not with all this stuff out there.
50: Blackhawks by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley. A modern day war comic. Not really my genre, and Ken Lashley’s art isn’t a draw for me.
51: Sergeant Rock and the Men of War by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick. Modern day mercenaries versus supervillains, from the sound of it. Feels like trade mark servicing to me.
52: All-Star Western by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey and Meridat. Their Jonah Hex run has been well received, and I get why, but I’ve never been much of a western fan in any medium.
That’s twenty out of fifty-two. Not too bad, DC. Not too bad at all.
10 years ago or so, I basically only read DC: the only stuff from Marvel I read was Spider-man, whereas from DC I read: JLA, Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern (always liked Kyle Rayner), Nightwing, Young Justice and probably others I can’t remember.
Nowadays I only read the X-Titles (thanks to the movies, Morrison and the first few arcs of ultimate X-Men getting me hooked).
Absolutely nothing in that list interests me: over the years I completely stopped caring about the “iconic” characters (too many reboots and “back to basics” and rehashes), while the “legacy” characters grew on me (like Wally West, Nightwing, Robin, Impulse, Blue Beetle…) but DC likes to screw with those characters too much to invest in them.
I like most of your choices. I think Winnick writes women well, so I might give his Catwoman a chance. Animal Man by Jeff Lemire seems like a slam dunk. And Blackhawks by Mike Costa – this is the guy who co-writes/co-wrote G.I.Joe: Cobra. I think he deserves a shot.
@moose n squirrel
I see where you’re coming from but I disagree that The Spectre belongs in Vertigo.
The mainstream DC is always going to flirt with magic heroes and villains, they can’t all be shipped off to Mature Readers.
I first encountered the Spectre when I murdered my girlfriend in cold blood and he transformed me into a living but unmoving department store doll that was then fed into a furnace.
Adventure Comics was where I read about the Spectre. If anything I see him more as some sort of magic propelled Punisher. He’s a bit too gaudy for Vertigo. Giant Scissors chopping criminals in half.
DC seems to be on a big push or magic in the mainstream universe and I can think of no better character to spearhead this push than The Spectre. He even has a superhero costume and not a trenchcoat!
Yes, they went a bit overboard with his power levels and then had him lose to every ‘next big threat’. If he was a WWE wrestler, he’d be Kane.
Think of all the gorn Geoff Johns could pump out using him! :-p
Superhero costume or no – and really, his “costume” consists of a green cape at this point – the Spectre isn’t a superhero character; he’s a horror character. His best series have always played as a kind of modified horror anthology: some crook commits some horrible crime, and the Spectre arrives to wreak some even more horrifying vengeance on the crook; next issue introduced a new crook and we repeat the process. Ostrander and Mandrake shook up the formula a bit by expanding the scope of the stories (should the Spectre judge whole societies? countries? the world?), by tossing in a few heavies that were in the Spectre’s weight class, and by directly confronting the inherent monstrousness of the character. But the essential nature of the book – a horror comic dressed up with magical trappings, relying heavily on over-the-top gore and delightfully disturbing visuals – remained the same.
And no, there’s no problem with his “power levels.” The Ostrander/Mandrake Spectre was more or less omnipotent, within a few select constraints, and that was all to the good – it meant that when he went off the rails and decided to destroy the world, that was a serious threat – and a threat that couldn’t be resolved simply by calling up the Justice League or the Green Lanterns. Whenever the Spectre was about to do something wrong or crazy, the only thing to do, usually, was to try to talk him out of it – which made for a far more interesting series. In a Batman story we’re meant to ask ourselves, “how will our protagonist do X”? In a Spectre story, though, we find ourselves asking “SHOULD our protagonist do X?”, or even if he has the right to be doing anything he’s doing at all. Those are far more interesting questions to me. They make for stories about character, about decisions, about ethics – not about whether or not Space Thing #1 can beat up Space Thing #2.
That’s why the Spectre doesn’t need to be in the current hyper-congested, hyper-connected DCU, where editors and writers only seem interested in the character as a yardstick for how powerful the current crossover’s End Boss is. As I said, I’d stick him in Vertigo. Or, since it seems there barely is a Vertigo anymore, I’d put him in Limbo, until someone at DC remembers how to use the character again.
Moose, the Spectre in the Golden age was very much a superhero, down to the tough-guy quips.
I like the idea of a powered down, vaguely sinister superhero Spectre, a la the Golden Age, although without the quips.