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DC Comics Thread
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I guess we’ll still have to wait until the issues finally arrive but it is suspicious when they seem to have gone down a route of a lot of no-name writers and rumoured page rate cuts. It’ll be a sad day if they have decided their path is to say characters are all that matters and not the material and one I think will fail if they are doing that.
Yes, exactly my thinking too – I’m extra sensitive to it because of everything else going on at the moment.
Hopefully they’re there on the final covers.
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BLACK ADAM DC Comics Original Art Sketch! Pen and ink with white out on 9×12” illustration board! This is sketch 54 of a series of 60 original pieces. Proceeds to benefit comic shops in need during this unprecedented year via @BincFoundation. https://t.co/2vo0YrZIbG pic.twitter.com/A4sQ3PmgbW
— Jim Lee (@JimLee) December 30, 2020
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Most recent “I feel old” comics moment: it’s ten years since the Scott Snyder/Jock/Francavilla Batman: The Black Mirror run in Detective Comics.
https://www.dccomics.com/comics/detective-comics-1937/detective-comics-871
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In August it’ll be the 10 year anniversary of the Nu52 and comics going day and date digital.
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I think the best thing Valiant have done is launch slowly and keep their line pretty lean. Launching a dozen titles and over-expansion to try and mimic Marvel and DC killed off pretty much every other superhero publisher.
Yeah, I think that’s part of what killed the original Valiant. They went from a fairly tight, well-thought universe in the early days to an over-expanded, bloated mess. I think that, by the end, they were up to sixteen books, and a number of those like Turok, Hard Corps, Secret Weapons and Armorines, felt really pointless. I went from buying all of their books to bailing on the line around the time Secret Weapons was announced. I was losing patience with the books they were publishing, and figured it was time to dump the line.
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Legion of Super-Heroes #10
Welcome to New Krypton
By Bendis, Sook, Von Grawbadger & Bellaire.
The third sentence on the first page of this issue reads:
“I am the Legionnaire they call me the Karate Kid.”
It’s not a proper sentence. The word “me” needs to be deleted or it needs to be re-punctuated.
And it basically sums up the entire series so far that I genuinely can’t tell whether it’s Bendis’ deliberate attempt at “quirky” dialogue or it’s just editorial incompetence.
I’m very tempted to end this review there, because if DC don’t care then why should I?
But, to be honest, the issue does improve after that, to the point where it’s one of the better issues of the series so far (a low bar, to be sure). This is the first issue that gives me the feeling of reading a proper Legion comic.
The action jumps between multiple small groups of Legionnaires visiting different planets to follow different plot threads. Yes, I said plot threads. This issue does have actual plot lines, instead of sequences of confusing fights and random posturing. I’m frankly astonished, and mildly impressed. This is what the series should have been from the start.
Before we get too carried away, we need to note that a lot of the plots points are annoying and inconsistent with things said in earlier issues, and the dialogue is still typically inane.
But there are intriguing elements. I like the look of the Elders of Oa and wonder about their backstory. I wonder how and why the UP appears content to turn over political prisoners (Crav The General Nah) to them for summary justice.
I like the seed of doubt being sewn as to whether the Legion will defeat the coming “Great Darkness” or cause it. That elements works because this Legion incarnation is so new (and so morally dubious and functionally incompetent) that I could believe they will actually cause it.
I like the fact that this Mon-El is polyamorous and everyone is ok with that.
I (still) like the character of this Brainiac 5, and especially his talk with Ayla.
I’m intrigued by the way none of these Legionnaires seem to know about each other or what they can do. It makes sense in a large and newly formed organisation. Imra knows so little about her team that she has to be told by Superboy that you should call Doctor Fate when there’s a magic problem. I mean, like, duh! (But also, they have to be told that Mordru the Demon Gangster uses magic, when they’ve literally fought him just last week and he has the word Demon in his name. Not the brightest sparks, these Legionnaires.)
Are we supposed to assume that the Zod on New Krypton who is Mon-El’s great-grandfather is the Zod, and are we supposed to know how he’s 1000 years old and why he’s not evil? Is this explained in Bendis’ Superman comics, or is it a mystery to be explored later?
And are we supposed to know who Rogal Zaar is in the big last page reveal? It rings no bells from previous Legion continuity, so I assume somebody Bendis has created, but he’s frankly not visually interesting enough for a full-page reveal.
So … I have mixed feelings. The issue is doing may things right, but it’s saddled with a bunch of mostly stupid and unlikeable characters so it’s going to be an uphill struggle for the series even if the plotting does manage to tighten up.
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And are we supposed to know who Rogal Zaar is in the big last page reveal? It rings no bells from previous Legion continuity, so I assume somebody Bendis has created, but he’s frankly not visually interesting enough for a full-page reveal.
This is a character Bendis created for his run on the Superman books. He is responsible for destroying Krypton.
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Rogol_Zaar_(Prime_Earth)
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I like the fact that this Mon-El is polyamorous and everyone is ok with that.
The best dressed man in the galaxy is a total slut? PM me his phone number!!
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Are we supposed to assume that the Zod on New Krypton who is Mon-El’s great-grandfather is the Zod, and are we supposed to know how he’s 1000 years old and why he’s not evil? Is this explained in Bendis’ Superman comics, or is it a mystery to be explored later?
Read issue #11.
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the issue does improve after that,
this is kinda disappointing. I read your reviews to a get a slightly malicious glee out of your suffering. any kind of positivity is a bummer.
It makes sense in a large and newly formed organisation
no it doesn’t. c’mon. The reason they are ignorant is because Bendis’ bad writing. All the flaws in the characters and gaps in their knowledge are because of poor writing not any kind of coherent plot threads.
Don’t go soft on me now Meadows. I expect a vicious deconstruction and plenty of vitriol and spite in #11’s review.
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The best dressed man in the galaxy is a total slut? PM me his phone number!!
you know this sounds like the Anders we know and love but he has only 5 posts. Who are you? and you realize if you are some sort of evil imposter(you probably have a beard. all evil imposters have beards) expect swift and brutal retribution.
p.s. if it is our Anders
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I’m sure David was just having a good day or something.
The poor bastard.
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I’m sure David was just having a good day or something.
Christmas spirit and all that
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It occurs to me that DC missed a great opportunity over the past four years by not publishing a new PREZ book that mimics the shit that has actually come out of the White House since January 2017. Someone like Jeff Lemire or John Layman could have had a field day with it.
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Batman Slaps Robin – The Origin of the Panel
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I’m currently re-reading Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, and I just got to the bit where John Byrne left Marvel for DC. One of the things he worked on there was the mini-series “Legends.” Len Wein was the scripter, and both he and Byrne had fallen out with Jim Shooter, so they featured a Shooter analogue, who dressed like Star Brand, wields “ultimate power”, but ends up shooting himself in the foot. Subtlety was never a strong point for either creator..!
As big of an ass as Byrne was and is, though, I LOVED his art during this period. With Karl Kesel’s inks on this series, and Dick Giordano’s on Man of Steel, it really revitalised his work. Also I love the way he drew certain characters in their “definitive” style, so his Captain Marvel is very C C Beck, and his Joker and Batman are very Neal Adams-inspired.
This was the first time I was really interested in DC comics, in the Post-Crisis era – for a while the DCU felt very shiny and new. What a shame it only took 3 or 4 years before they settled back into a predictable rut, proof that there’s really no point in rebooting these universes because it doesn’t solve anything.
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proof that there’s really no point in rebooting these universes because it doesn’t solve anything.
That is so true. The changes never last long. Nowadays, the changes to the status quo are so frequent due to various events that they never get a chance to truly be explored. They either get pushed to the side or simply get undone.
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That is so true. The changes never last long. Nowadays, the changes to the status quo are so frequent due to various events that they never get a chance to truly be explored. They either get pushed to the side or simply get undone.
Yeah, exactly. I think nowadays the reboots are as much ego as creative bankruptcy. Very much like the Shooter analogue above (which I actually think is pretty harsh) they want to recreate the world in *their* image.
And even if it tidies up continuity for a short time – which Crisis on Infinite Earths did – it doesn’t last. You’ve only got to look at how quickly the Ultimate Universe became convoluted and unwieldy to realise that rebooting is just like putting a sticking plaster on a broken leg.
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You mean like Hydra Cap?
Not sure if that qualifies because I think with Hydra cap the plan was always to revert. I’m thinking more along the lines of “Superman revealing he’s Clark Kent to the world” or “Alfred is dead now”.
I mean, obviously both of those are going to be reverted, but the take-away is that it will be up to some other writer to… how should I put it… Put the genie back in the oh fuck off.
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There was a lot of bullshit talk at the time, particularly from Spencer (and Brevoort; can’t forget Brevoort) that this was permanent, that it was the one true Cap, and that it’s not okay to punch Nazi’s. I’m sure the ultimate resolution where another Cap came back and beat him up was a reaction to the huge negative press that this idea got. That ending didn’t align with Spencer’s earlier comments at all.
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This phenomenon occurs on the singular title-level aswell, not just the company wide universe-level. A lot of writers wants to “shake things up” and “leave their mark” on a title they’re writing more than they want to tell a good story. Some writers seem to think those things are one and the same.
This idea of constantly rebooting, and the realization that most “events” (like the death of a major character) are only temporary, were what drove me away from the Big Two.
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This phenomenon occurs on the singular title-level aswell, not just the company wide universe-level. A lot of writers wants to “shake things up” and “leave their mark” on a title they’re writing more than they want to tell a good story. Some writers seem to think those things are one and the same.
This idea of constantly rebooting, and the realization that most “events” (like the death of a major character) are only temporary, were what drove me away from the Big Two.
Yeah, the comics landscape of the big two has become rather scorched by an ever-changing at the same time ever-similar status quo since, well… since the death and rebirth of Superman I guess.
I used to think that there were a couple of characters that would stay dead, and these days I can’t help to think I was naive.
Jason Todd, Bucky Barnes, Gwen Stacy… Even Uncle fucking Ben came back for a couple of issues some years back.
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Secret DC Black Label title coming from Jeff Lemire and Doug Mahnke – Newsarama/GamesRadar link
With a character Jeff Lemire has been pining for for years
Jeff Lemire has announced that he is working with artist Doug Mahnke on a secret series for DC’s Black Label imprint. Revealed in his newsletter, Lemire said he and Mahnke originally talked about working together over a decade ago, with the plan finally coming to fruition.
“I fell in love with Doug’s work when he did Frankenstein with Grant Morrison and have been a devoted Mahnke Fanboy ever since,” Lemire writes. ” One of the first pieces of original art I ever bought was a page from Doug’s Frankenstein when I met him at a Con in Toronto over a decade ago. I had just started Sweet Tooth then and I remember showing early pages to Doug. He and I talked about working together since, but our schedules never lined up.”
Lemire worked briefly with Mahnke back in 2013 when he co-wrote Justice League of America #6 and #7 with Geoff Johns. But that seems to be a mere appetizer for this feature-length DC Black Label project.
“Well, they finally did later last year and now Doug is drawing a new DC Black Label book I wrote,” Lemire continued. “People often ask, ‘Is there any DC or Marvel characters you still really want to write?’ and this is that character. My favorite DC character that I never really got the chance to do the way I wanted. But now I have. Cannot wait for you all to see Doug’s work on it too!”
Lemire said he has another unannounced, unrelated DC Black Label project in the works but gave no further details.
Although Lemire is no longer a DC-exclusive creator, he has been very busy at the Black Label imprint with Joker: Killer Smile, The Question: The Deaths of Vic Sage, Batman: The Smile Killer, and Sweet Tooth: The Return.
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Excellent. Thanks for sharing.
lemire’s Question black Label series was terrific & I enjoyed Killer Smile. Lemire has always been good but he’s been good the last couple of years.
Mahnke has always struck me as having some real horror influences behind his art and given Lemire has referenced the Frankenstein designs here I get the sense it will have at least some sort of tone.
I wonder what it is. He says it’s not someone he’s worked on before so it can’t be Animal Man or even Swamp Thing who appeared in the Rotworld crossover issues, I wonder if its The Spectre……I really hope so.
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Legion of Super-Heroes #11
The Fall of New Krypton
By Bendis, Sook, Von Grawbadger & Bellaire
Things I like in the first page monologue: Mon-El is as irritated by this Legion as I am. We are in agreement that the emphasis on Superboy and Saturn Girl (and now their romance) is annoying. We agree that it’s stupid that this team doesn’t share information in the way that you would think a functioning team should.
‘I left the Legion because things were getting too heated and no one was listening to anyone else.’ Hey, Mon-El, don’t tell us, tell Bendis!
I do find it amusing that Mon-El wanted to be called Superman when he joined the Legion but they wouldn’t allow it.
Ok, so that’s the most fun that a first page has yet been in this series. But you’ll be glad to hear that the rest of the issue is downhill from here.
The story itself opens with a bang, or technically with a BOOM, as a giant flying creature attacks the team on New Krypton and … well, I’d like to tell you how the fight goes but I cant, I literally cannot make sense of the action depicted in the art. There’s some action. That’s it.
The team on Xanthu waffle around and then Doctor Fate spontaneously disintegrates, which I’m sorry to say I found mildly amusing. (Later, Saturn Girl (I guess) reports to Brainiac 5: ‘Doctor Fate disintegrated in the middle of our mission!’, which I found even more amusing. I am a bad person.)
Jo the Ultra Boy Nah declares that now he’s ruler of Rimbor he’s dismantling the government and calling free and fair elections. This whole sub-plot on Rimbor is actually pretty cool and I’m eager to see how it goes.
There’s a conversation between Triplicate Girl and Dream Girl on Earth. It’s the kind of thing I would normally welcome as a character-building interlude, but here both characters are annoying and the conversation trickles out half-explained information in a most annoying way.
Then we check in with the team on Daxam, who are also having an annoying conversation (I refer you back to the above paragraph).
Another sub-plot I do actually like is Brainy’s suspicions of the Elders of Oa. I found them an intriguing group when they were introduced last issue, and I still think Brainy is the most sympathetic and best developed of all these Legionnaires so I’m interested in anything he’s doing.
I do like the small-teams-on-different-missions approach to plotting the Legion, always have, but I don’t think Bendis has the skill to do it and make enough if it interesting (or even comprehensible, in some cases).
And then we’re back to New Krypton and my interest plummets back to somewhere near absolute zero. It looks like we will have a big and incomprehensible fight next issue, so at least I won’t have to expend any effort on trying to review it.
On the bright side, my comic shop saved me a the Nicola Scott variant cover, and I love Nicola Scott:
She’s unfortunately saddled with the horrible character designs, but this is still a beautiful cover.
Onwards and downwards …
The Legion is melting down and I know how they feel:
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Lords of the Ultra-Realm
I just wanted to mention this one quickly before it goes up the loft to be put into a long box.
I took a punt on it based on the obscurity and because it is written by Doug Moench.Without going too in-depth;
It’s a 6 issue mini from 1986, with a follow up one of special from 1987.
Moench describes it as sci-fi fantasy, it’s more fantasy than sci-fi, however i don’t see any blatant parallels really in term of the concept and tone. It’s pretty atypical of the genre.It’s a dense and fairly complex read, as there are quite a lot of characters in it, but Moench is very careful to recap at the right times in order to reinforce what you know already. It’s a clever tactic and I think it really helps the reader stay with the book. As opposed to holding your hand it just appreciates that there’s a lot to take in and doesn’t leave you flipping back to double check names and affiliations. In some modern books I’d have just lost interest half way through.
It took me ages to get through it but it was never chore. I genuinely enjoyed the plot developments and I was always keen to know what happened next. I trusted Moench and I understood by the end that it would all make sense.
I enjoyed the special even more than the main series. I felt it used what was established by the end of the mini, to tell a story in that world, with the new status quo and also the benefit of the reader knowing the world and the rules. The special carries a mature readers label, and understandably so. There are a lot of very adult and sometimes challenging themes and some racist language used. But all within the context of the book and the reader is trusted to be adult enough to understand this.
Yes, this issue would never be published today, as cancel culture would be all over it from day 1 for multiple reasons, none of which would be merited but that’s where we are at.
It’s sad that we have to turn to past works now to be treated with respect and intelligence in what we choose to read watch , without having the world censored for us by the permanently outraged online community.
I’ve made a conscious decision to compensate for the lack of new DC (going forward) and Marvel books I’m picking up, by dipping my toes into the past with some of the titles I never read as they came out.
Part of the enjoyment of this was seeing the other really interesting titles that DC were publishing in this era and I’ve since gone to pick up another 9 or 10 series I saw advertised or mentioned in these issues.The ‘meanwhile’ column adds to the whole experience, with a different editor taking the reins each month and writing some really interesting, honest and frank columns on the industry and what is happening at DC and elsewhere. Moench’s letters column is also incredibly forthright and transparent. It’s hard to believe how respectfully and honestly the customers used to be treated by DC back when the likes of Jeanette Khan and Dick Giordano were around.
A million miles away from where we find the company or their competitors now.Back the to the series and this is a little gem I recommend to anyone looking for something different from the big two, when they were more willing to try something new and adventurous with their books. I’m really glad I picked it up.
I can’t really give a synopsis without taking another 10 mins to explain it, but I’d you are interested I think wiki gives an overview.
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Red Rain is still my favourite Batman OGN.
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I listened to a Dan Didio interview on Word Balloon today. He gave an interesting perspective on the DC strategy.
Now bear in mind he left the company at the end of February so anything he speculated on could have changed but some seems to be being enacted around now like he approached John Ridley to write for Batman.
So the theory was that comics as they currently exist are really unfriendly to new readers (which is true). Typically $4 for 20 pages that are a single part of a 5-6 part story. Under the current model it isn’t economically viable to either drop the price or increase page count and leave it at $4.
Their experience with the Walmart books was they did better at attracting new readers with a more expensive package but with more pages and more standalone material. That seems to be being extended to the direct market line too with more material but a lower number of books. If the rumours of dropped page rates are true too then that could also allow more for less.
So the bright side of this is none of it is DC intending to leave the comics market.
I’m still not convinced it’s the best path though. I think they (and Marvel before them) miss the point of how the Walmart books and the direct market should work. The direct market is not new reader friendly and I don’t think ever will be, you have to search out stores which may not exist in smaller towns and in larger ones can’t afford locations with a high footfall, it’s always going to be what it always started as – a shop for existing fans who wanted more.
The Walmart books should be the way in for new readers (as well as trades in bookshops) then they’ll become Wednesday warriors if they like it enough. While Walmart has a very wide reach they should move away from an exclusive with them and get it in as many places as possible and link in each issues where you can get more with ads for collections and comic shop locations. This is essentially what Panini have done in Europe for decades and their format is close but they could make cheaper with making it all reprint and put it everywhere a magazine can be sold. It becomes the gateway drug
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Damian Wayne Takes The Hero’s Journey in a New Robin Ongoing Series!
Thought Damian wasn’t going by Robin anymore.
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I remember when Marvel carpetbombed various markets with Ultimate Spider-Man trades and compilations.
Which was immediately an inherent error. Flooding with material is something the direct market works on. Marvel had good intentions with those books in the early 2000s but very bad implementation, you don’t need a raft of books, you need one or two and focus on them.
They then find that people don’t have a great appetite to buy 7 books at $5 a pop (probably more like $8 nowadays) and call it a failure.
You should start with a Spider-Man reprint book, just one, maybe expand to an Avengers or X-Men after that works, don’t go any further.
I think the DC Walmart books have been better at that but then they muddied the waters with new material by fan favourite creators which then had them boasting of supermarket sell-outs probably driven by existing fans.
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For me, price is still the prohibitive factor
Digital comics should cost next to nothing; 99c max per issue if they can’t work out a way to make money from doing them for free.
Print comics in supermarkets need to be on the cheapest possible paper, with the most pages possible, at the lowest possible price.
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Like the book market, I think both physical and digital can happily coexist. It’s not one or the other.
I agree but like the book market, digital prices need to cost less than the physical version.
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They’re really missing a beat by not having Damian in his own “Son of the Bat” (a nod to the classic Shadow of the Bat) book instead of insisting to keep him as Robin… But I guess that would be redundant with Jason Todd running around… they should’ve never revived him, and Damian could’ve gotten the anti-Batman role, while Dick’s already in a good place as Nightwing, and Tim remaining as Robin, ’cause let’s be honest, he’s the best Robin.
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Digital comics should cost next to nothing; 99c max per issue if they can’t work out a way to make money from doing them for free.
Digital day and date comics are priced artificially high to protect comic shops.
The reality is a publisher makes roughly 70% of the cover price for a book sold on Comixology, they make roughly 30% on a print comic. They could charge just over a dollar and make the same money.
It’s why you see 99c comics fairly frequently in digital sales but only after their value to comic shops has expired.
If you want to attract new readers though you don’t really have to be obsessed with how new the material is though. Those of us from the UK were most likely introduced to comics by Marvel UK or Panini. All material at least a year old but we didn’t know that. Using reprint material Panini worked out how to sell 3 issues of Marvel comics for just over the price of 1 US import.
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I think we now need to move on from worrying about protecting the comic shops if we want the industry to grow.
The number of (ahem) people reading comics illegally is absolutely huge and dwarves those paying for them.
By charging so much for day and date they are training people to seek the books for free, which once they realise they can do by a simple 2 second google search, there’s no turning back. So people who want to read digitally but don’t want to pay that price are not going to go to the shops anyway.
Find away to funnel income in from those lot and train new readers not to go down the illegal route and the publisher might make some decent money again which hopefully leads to paying decent rates and getting quality books out rather than shite that is flooding the market just now.I think we need to get to the stage we are at with other media, where people who want physical books will be the niche market and the comic shops who can adapt by also selling online, on eBay or finding other ways to bring people into their shops will be the ones who survive.
The back issue market on eBay is thriving just now so there’s still an audience for print and now older comics again.
Some retailers won’t survive but it’s inevitable. Comics are too expensive to keep going the way they are.I think growing the industry digitally is the best option for everyone.
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I think we now need to move on from worrying about protecting the comic shops if we want the industry to grow.
Specially since, it seems, they never cared to worry about themselves.
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To be fair the Marvel Unlimited offering is really good. I pay annually and that deal comes to $5.75 a month, so roughly the price of one and a half comics, to read as many as I want.
The problem we get with digital is there is never any transparency on numbers, Marvel have been running this for many years and DC are following very soon. That suggests it works but there’s no way for us to see. Maybe the solution is already there.
You also have to accept that in any hobby there are varying levels of engagement and that will always happen. Think of sports, there’s a huge number who might watch the odd game on free to air TV, then that gets lower for those who pay, lower again for those who buy a ticket and lower again for those who get a season ticket. The last group is the most valuable but you need the first to feed that for future.
That’s why the people that only ever focus on Diamond numbers are wrong (albeit actually those numbers aren’t bad before we go down the ‘comics are dead’ path again).
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(albeit actually those numbers aren’t bad before we go down the ‘comics are dead’ path again).
Spoilsport!
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Now this is some more promising DC news. Tom Taylor and Andy Kubert on a new Batman book.
Oh yes fuck yes alright yes awesome wohooo!
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Any word if that book is about Damian-Batman? Looks like it from the costume.
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No, it’s Bruce as Batman, they released some more details here: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2021/01/15/%E2%80%98batman-the-dark-knight%E2%80%99-by-tom-taylor-and-andy-kubert-debuts-tuesday-april-13
It’s a little unclear but I think it may be an out of continuity thing with an older Brice Wayne, it’s a 6 issue mini series.
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Any word if that book is about Damian-Batman? Looks like it from the costume.
Kubert also designed that future Batman costume for Damian in Batman #666 so that might be why.
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DC Solicitations for April – Continuum link
Check the solicit for Action Comics.
Apparently the Midnighter back-up hints at some future Authority?…Edit” here it is In GamesRadar – Newsarama story
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hum… yes and no, Damian’s trenchcoat wasn’t really a trenchoat per-se, it was a more stylized thing:
That other one is a regular trenchcoat, and he has the more squared/Miller-esque ears and arm thingies, and the fat-bat symbol, and yes those goggles… plus well, it’s an older bruce blah blah… it really screams Batfleck. But sure, I can see the confusion, specially since it’s also by Kubert.
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@davidm might appreciate this:
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DC Universe Infinite is launching in the US on the 21st (global rollout in the summer).
Anyone signing up?
https://support.dcuniverse.com/hc/en-us
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DC Universe Infinite is launching in the US on the 21st (global rollout in the summer).
Anyone signing up?
I’ll definitely sign up when it’s available here.
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Me too. When I was growing up DC comics were actually quite hard to get, they didn’t appear much on the imports to newsagents and never had regular reprint titles like Marvel UK provided. So there’s actually a lot of old runs I’d be curious to read in full, far more ‘classics’ to delve into . That they are including Vertigo/Black Label sealed the deal though.
While we wait though I am curious if any of our US guys try it out. $75 a year to access 24,000 comics plus everything new on a 6 month delay is great value.
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Not sure that I would take advantage of the Marvel or DC offers, but I might sign up for Comixology’s smaller publisher catalogs.
The problem really with the Comixology offering is it’s selective and not complete.
If you pay your roughly $6 to Marvel for Unlimited then you get everything scanned from 1961 to 2020.
Comixology Unlimited has the indies onboard but it’s more 0f a ‘try before you buy’ concept. If you like Hellboy you can read the first two trades free but then pay for the rest. If there was truly a Dark Horse/Image/IDW/BOOM offering of everything they make I’d snap it up.
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For UK/Ireland people, there’s a new DC partworks from Hachette, Heroes and Villains:
https://hachettepartworks.com/en-en/dc-heroes-villains-collection/
The cheap first issue is Gaiman’s Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, with a bunch of Gaiman’s other Batman stories, plus Alan Moore’s story from Batman Annual #11, to fill out the collection.
Next few issues are the start of the Amanda Connor/Palmiotti Harley Quinn, For the Man Who Has Everything, Rucka’s Wonder Woman, and King’s Batman.
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I liked volume one and the Blackstars mini, but I feel like volume two has been a bit patchier. It still has its moments though.
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Connor could be the second best artist to draw Harley behind Dini. Her style fits Harley’s character very well.
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I believe we have created a consensus about how bad they are handling the DCU so normally i would just let things go but this one is truly bad. Like the recent death of Alfred, DC made a a very large change to Superman as well when he revealed he was Clark Kent. According to this article I read on CBR, they have extended that event to awful assumptions.
It’s hinted that the fallout Superman experienced after publicly revealing his secret identity to the world led to him enduring cataclysmic tragedy and forcing his eventual exile from Earth. Seeing this example of trust gone wrong, the next generation of superheroes tightly guard their own secret identities as best as they can. To take this edict one step further, the team(JL) has tacitly banned its members from fraternizing
WTFFFFF?
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I believe we have created a consensus about how bad they are handling the DCU so normally i would just let things go but this one is truly bad. Like the recent death of Alfred, DC made a a very large change to Superman as well when he revealed he was Clark Kent. According to this article I read on CBR, they have extended that event to awful assumptions.
It’s hinted that the fallout Superman experienced after publicly revealing his secret identity to the world led to him enduring cataclysmic tragedy and forcing his eventual exile from Earth. Seeing this example of trust gone wrong, the next generation of superheroes tightly guard their own secret identities as best as they can. To take this edict one step further, the team(JL) has tacitly banned its members from fraternizing
WTFFFFF?
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I didn’t like the decision to kill off Alfred but the shift in dynamics that it has created has made for some really good and different story options that I’m enjoying.
Seeing Bruce under a different microscope makes for some interesting reading. The current Batman run since Alfred’s death has been terrific and The Future State: Dark Detective book from Tamaki and Mora is also really good.
I dont mind these creative decisions, my bigger issue is unegaging zero effort, writing and lazy dialogue.
I think most good writers can work with the bigger or unpopular creative decisions and still write good books around them.
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Talking of good writers who can produce pure gold from the worst of editorially driven ideas …
It’s an old interview that has resurfaced, but it’s worth a read. Brought back so many fond memories. What a phenomenal series Hitman was.
https://www.gamesradar.com/uk/dc-hitman-garth-ennis-interview/
One of the two series I own an original page of artwork from. Worth every damn penny.
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Milestone Returns to DC With An “Infinite Edition” and All-New Digital First Series!
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Milestone Returns to DC With An “Infinite Edition” and All-New Digital First Series!
Do they deliberately want this to fail?
Ive been so excited about Milestone’s return for what feels like years now but at $4.99 and $3.99 for digital only books there’s no way I’m paying that and there’s going to be an abundance of people going straight to the illegal sites to read this stuff.
So stupid.
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Pinch of salt time, given the source, but Rich Johnston is claiming…
Last year, a number of high-rolling individuals were given tours of DC Comics Burbank with AT&T/Warners officials. And as a result, there may be some new options. Because Bleeding Cool has been made aware of plans by big-time DC Comics fans with access to a lot of money. Many millions from across many businesses.
A collaboration of some of the biggest cheeses who, with a combination of personal wealth and raised capital, are making an approach to AT&T. Not to buy DC Comics outright from AT&T/Warners, not to touch the movies, the TV, the games or the merchandise — but solely the rights and ownership — of the comic book side of the publisher. To be able to create and publish the DC Comics line as they would like. Let Warners do the movies and TV shows, but take all the cumbersome work of actually publishing comic books off their hands, while Warners are free to adapt if they wish.
So if you were one of these millionaires and could take over ONE character or team, who would you pick? My answer would be…
But only if I can get Ramona Fradon to draw it. https://t.co/99gXV3TefP pic.twitter.com/JbYjnfxx5K
— Steve Bannister (@SteveisSensible) February 16, 2021
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For some reason it got caught in the spam filter Steve. I’ve unspammed it.
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Thanks Dave!
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On the story itself, it’s an interesting one. On the face of it, it sounds great – give the DC characters to people who care about them – but I’m not clear on how the economics of it would work and how that then filters down to the end product of the comics themselves.
For me it seems that DC’s owners are currently less willing to spend money on top talent and their books are suffering as a result. I’m not sure getting new fan-management (fanagement?) in would make a huge amount of difference if they’re still going to be constrained by the current economics long-term.
But if they’re talking about carving it out in a more meaningful and separate way and running it as a more separate business long-term, with a different financial plan, that might be interesting.
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Well it being a rumour aside the story seems to suggest they either buy or lease the publishing rights. That would essentially make them like Panini in Europe (but originating new material). In that scenario they’d run their own budgets.
The interesting thing with that kind of deal would be innovation. Say it is Nicholas Cage and Patton Oswalt owning ‘DC Publishing’ and Bendis comes to them with an idea like ‘Naomi’, who owns that? If you remember the Marvel licensed books of the 80s they did. Characters from Rom and Micronauts they originated stay with them. Would Warners TV and film just be able to use any concept in a DC book as they do now or have to pay for the ones the licensee originates?
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I disagree really. It’s a way they can guarantee an income and remove the overhead. Comics are never going to be a big cash cow in a conglomerate like Warners but they know the material feeds their merch and TV/film slates.
It’s not even new, it’s well documented that in 1984 Warners approached Marvel to make their comics, Jim Shooter had a business plan worked out and John Byrne even mocked up a cover to say he’d want to do Superman. It was Marvel that backed off, not Warners changing their minds, because First Comics had issued an anti-trust lawsuit against them and taking over DC’s comics too would take them to 88% market share so the lawyers put a stop to it.
I mean it may well still be bullshit because it’s a Bleeding Cool story but it’s not that far fetched as an idea.
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