(No stickers, please.)
Here’s where we can discuss the new books that come out each Wednesday.
The Ongoing New Comics Thread
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Wonder Woman: Dead Earth #2
This is a tremendous comic. If you ignored the first issue, thought it wasn’t for you or the concept didn’t intrigue you, I’d urge you to give it another look.
While it’s far from a traditional Wonder Woman comic, with its post-apocalyptic setting and lack of conventional superhero trappings, it’s nonetheless one of the strongest takes on the character that I’ve seen in a long time.
There’s strength here, from a warrior who is also a leader of armies (and, more widely, of humanity). But there’s also compassion and sensitivity and love here, as well as a strong message of peace that’s conveyed via the book’s focus on the brutal cost of war.
And the art is glorious, with a roughness that belies the care with which the visuals are crafted, especially when it comes to the thrilling battle with a gigantic monster or the eerie discovery of a ruined long-lost location (with that particular standpage such a showstopper that I pored over it for several minutes).
The closest match in terms of style that I can think of is Paul Pope, but Daniel Warren Johnson is really doing his own thing here, with some wonderful smaller techniques (including hand-drawn integrated sound effects) that only add to the already strong core of the book.
And the story he’s producing is genuinely worthy of comparisons to Dark Knight Returns, in the way it tells a bold new tale that reinvents its central character while also staying true to her core, while at the same time turning in an extremely well-written and well-illustrated comic.
If you haven’t already, then I urge you to check it out.
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Wolverine #1 is so freaking good. I’ve got to keep an eye out for this Benjamin Percy guy going forward. The art by Adam Kubert and Viktor Bogdanovic is great, a well thought out pairing there. Kubert’s pencils haven’t looked this good in ages, imo. Frank Martin’s colors match him really well, it reminds a bit of the pairing of Steve McNiven & Morry Hollowell. Bogdanovic is new to me but he’s a lot like Greg Capullo. The art in this book is very 90s but in a good way, Capullo’s a good guy to emulate.
Percy has Wolverine’s voice down, which is harder than you might think. I’ve read plenty of stories where Logan comes off like a parody of himself, some stories by the otherwise brilliant Jason Aaron included. Each of the two stories in this issue (a covert ops style yarn reminiscent of Greg Rucka’s mid-2000s run and a horror story) are immediately compelling and executed to perfection. I can’t wait to see where this book goes.
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What is Hell Arisen and why is there the interest in it? Is this the usual Bleeding Cool speculator-feeding frenzy for something that’s going to be forgotten within a month?
(Remember that New52 Catwoman issue with “the Joker’s daughter”? No, me neither.)
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Year of The Villain – Hell Arisen is a four issue mini series, that is basically Batman Who Laughs vs Apex Lex. It’s part of the Snyderverse, and segues into the forthcoming Metal sequel.
The reason it’s driving speculators wild is that #3 is the first full appearance of Punchline. Who is allegedly the new “big deal” a la Harley Quinn.
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Thanks for the explanation.
I had a quick google and it looks like Punchline is a new girlfriend for the Joker – is that right? So we’ve gone from the Joker’s daughter to the Joker’s girlfriend.
I look forward to speculators next going wild for the first appearance of the Joker’s mum.
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Funnily enough, Brian Hibbs just wrote an editorial on this phenomena at Bleeding Cool earlier too. Worth a read to see it from a retailer’s perspective.
Hibbs is writing for BC now? Are they blackmailing him?
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I read Giant Size X-Men #1 and enjoyed it a lot. It’s maybe a little too reverential to Morrison and Quitely and sticks a little too close to their template, like a cover version that isn’t confident enough to do something differently to the original. But it was a decent ride with nice, clear art and the final revelation is interesting and ripe for follow-up.
I also read X-Men #7 and thought it was pretty good, an interesting musing on the philosophical and moral questions raised by the mutant resurrection program, and also an interesting way to address the legacy of House of M.
Finally, I also read Batman: Curse of the White Knight #7. It’s very much a penultimate issue, tying off a lot of plot threads and setting everything up for next issue’s climactic showdown, but it does it fairly well. There are also a couple of nice moments in their own right, including an early major revelation (that doesn’t quite land as it should, but anyway) as well as a nice “hero moment” for what has always been the best Batmobile – and judging by the preview art for next issue, it looks like there’s more to come on that front in the finale.
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One other thing that surprised me a little is that all three of these books were $4.99, despite all being fairly straightforward regular issues (although they might have been slightly longer than usual).
I still bought them and thought they were good comics, but it’s an amount that I’d only spend on people who I am pretty sure will deliver a good book like Hickman and Murphy. If I was at all on the fence about buying these, the price would be a big turn-off, and I certainly wouldn’t take any chances on unknown creators at this price point.
I remember the incremental jumps from $2.49 to $2.99 and then on to $3.99 all being widely complained about, so in a sense this is nothing new, but I do wonder whether there’s a bit of a psychological barrier with the $5 mark.
Certainly I look at some of the special issues being marketed at $7.99 (or whatever) and wonder how many people are really paying that much for a single floppy comic, when you can almost get a TPB for that.
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It’s happening on OHCs too.
The White Knight OHC edition os RRP $50, the OHC for House of X / Powers of X was RRP $60, when it should have been RRP $35-40.
Everyone has their limit that they’re not prepared to go past but I’m getting closer to that now.
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Certainly I look at some of the special issues being marketed at $7.99 (or whatever) and wonder how many people are really paying that much for a single floppy comic, when you can almost get a TPB for that.
Greg Rucka’s LAZARUS RISEN is a quarterly book retailing for $7.99; that price includes 64 interior pages of all-new material, including a 44-page story, a 4-8 page prose story with spot illustrations, a letters column, book reviews, editorial material and other stuff. I have no problem paying that price, because I’m getting more bang for my bucks than if I were to buy two issues of HOX/POX or similar book for $3.99 each.
Your mileage may vary…
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Over the last couple of weeks, I have tried 2 or 3 times to write down some reviews of the books that I have read recently. But, they always devolved into an endless rant, and so I’ve decided not to do that.
I will just say that I’m incredibly disappointed in the way Scott Snyder’s Justice League wrapped up, and move on.
Is anyone still reading Batman, after Tom King left? There used to be quite a bit of chatter here about it, but not much recently.
Four plus issues into James Tynion’s run (Batman #86 – 89, plus a brief epilogue in #85), and I’m enjoying it a lot. That’s not going to surprise anyone. You all probably remember how much I adored Tynion’s Detective Comics run. But, sadly, this run isn’t anywhere nearly as fun as that was. It’s just all so completely ordinary. There’s absolutely nothing special here, it’s just a really well told Batman book, with mostly great art, with the classic rogues gallery.
It’s very different from Tom King’s run. In fact, if I called this Batman Hush #2, you’d know exactly what you were getting. Which, I suppose is all exactly what DC wanted.
All that being said, the Batman: Pennyworth RIP special was very good, and a lot closer to the sensibility of Tynion’s Tec run, focusing as it does on the wider Bat-family. The book is basically a wake following Alfred’s funeral, with lots of recriminations and ill feelings. There were some nice vignettes here that brought a smile and the occasional tear, as to be expected given the subject matter. The book’s clear nod to Ennis & McCrea’s Hitman was brilliantly done.
And, I read these two books back to back this morning. The similarity between both covers is striking. Am I the only one who sees it?
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I think it will help, Ben, as #39 ends on a literal cliffhanger. However, I can’t imagine Death Metal #1 will pick up the moment afterwards; it will be more like “some time later” so as not to alienate newer readers, thereby rendering the entire Justice League run superfluous. There’s also some thematic problems that I have with the denouement of “The Justice/ Doom War” that perhaps strike a little too close to home; knowing your tastes these will likely give you cause for concern too, Ben. I am still looking forward to Snyder/ Capullo’s Death Metal, but I feel like this series ultimately squandered its early potential and left a bitter taste in my mouth.
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JL #39 spoilers: at the heart of “The Justice/ Doom War” was the premise that humanity had to choose justice (the assembled DC superheroes) over doom (Lex & his cronies). Humanity chose doom, after everything. A realistic portrayal no doubt, but a bitter pill to swallow.
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I agree with Vik. The end to Snyder’s run very well could be ruined by its timing(which would be a real shame since so many issues went into it) especially due to the cliff hangerat the end of 39.
I have read Tynion’s Batman and like what he is doing. I did not read the end of King’s run but Batman is still affected by it in Tynion’s run so I would think twice about spending much money on it.
I am currently incredibly underwhelmed by the up coming summer events from DC and Marvel (Dr. WALLYMETRONHATTEN and Hickman’s tarot card special) not to mention Death Metal. I enjoy events(I loved Aaron’s War of the Realms) and hope things may turn around by the summer but this current blahness is disappointing.
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Yeah looks like they’ve set the prices to parity. It was very generous before but now it’s gone completely the other way as the exchange rate is around $1.30.
I’m now shifting to buy off the US site in dollars.
I’ve been moving away from singles anyway the past few months. I’ve found I am more often than not reading several in a row as they read better that way. So if I’m doing that then I may as well get the trade version and save money. As much as I think it’ll be great I’m not paying five quid for a single issue of Strange Adventures.
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So if I’m doing that then I may as well get the trade version and save money
When I decided to do that, I found that when the trade eventually came out I just wasn’t that bothered.
Not saying that it will work like that for everybody, but people might be surprised at how much they are buying monthly out of habit, and when the habit stops you can’t remember what the compelling reason was for spending all that money.
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When I decided to do that, I found that when the trade eventually came out I just wasn’t that bothered.
I do find that more with Marvel and DC, there’s a certain drive to keep up with the continuity and once it has passed you are tempted not to bother. I don’t find it with stuff that operates on its own terms like most indie fare.
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Saw on Twitter a few people (including Ciaran Downey who use to be our photoshop star on Millarworld) complaining about the increase in Pound and Euro pricing. Comixology just trotted out the same cut and paste line in response about ‘various elements that affect the price point’. So it’s all deliberate and meant to be permanent.
The reader reaction was pretty much the same as here, that a price increase is often understandable but to go from £2.99 to £4.99 (or £5.49 to £7.99) for the same product overnight is crazy. One pointed out that Forbidden Planet are offering to post a copy of Strange Adventures to them for 40p cheaper than the digital price (including the postage costs).
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It’ll be an interesting social experiment to see what this does for the business. There’s an inelasticity of demand when it comes to comic books. I remember the doom sayers crying out when $2.99 became the norm. Again when $3.99. We’re not far off $5 a comic now. I’m still buying things, even though I may grumble and grouse. But, it’s not really here where the problem lies, it’s with new readers, and the price of entry into this crazy hobby. ComiXology and the relatively inexpensive experience was a fantastic entry point to the industry, as evidenced anecdotally by their main demographic being different than those in the bricks & mortar comic shops. This price increase shafts that audience totally. I fear it will be a deal breaker for them, but it will be interesting to see how they react. In my case, I’m annoyed by the jump being unreasonable given the economics of it, and regret the loss of cheap inexpensive digital bargains, but digital was only ever a supplemental experience to me. In reality it won’t bother me too much.
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Interestingly in the Twitter threads someone pointed out that Amazon have not made the same adjustments. You can buy the first trade of Hickman’s X-Men there for £7.49 while it’s £10.99 on Comixology. Since you can synch them up into app I’ll be taking a closer look at the Amazon store now.
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Strange Academy#1, by Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos, was a really great first issue.
I know collectively we’re probably not the target demographic for this book, but I’ve always been fond of the superhero school sub-genre, and this is a really good example of that. What it lacks in inventiveness it makes up for with impeccable delivery from an accomplished creative team.
I have never read anything by Young beforehand, that he wasn’t drawing himself, so I was a little wary going in. But, he grabbed my attention from the very first page, juggling a massive cast of characters (humans, Asgardians, demons, frost giants, swamp creatures, faeries, and sorcerers supreme) and giving everyone a distinct voice and personality.
I read an interview with him on Newsarama recently where he said he loved the Lobdell/ Bachalo Generation X years, and Jason Aaron’s Wolverine & The X-Men. You can feel the influence of those books here; it is very much in that vein.
I have been a fan of Humberto Ramos’ artwork for a long time. Decades. It has never looked better than it does here. Look at this:
I really enjoyed this and look forward to reading more. It’s getting difficult to argue that the Cebulski era of Marvel isn’t bearing fruit. They do seem to be having a bit of a creative renaissance right now. Long may it continue.
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Money Shot #5 was the end of the first arc, and probably the end of me reading the book. As a fun sex-positive sci-fi romp it’s been an enjoyable read, but it’s very light and there’s barely enough substance to the story to sustain this opening arc, let alone future stories. The art is good and the writing enjoyable but at the same time it doesn’t feel like an essential read.
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Interestingly in the Twitter threads someone pointed out that Amazon have not made the same adjustments. You can buy the first trade of Hickman’s X-Men there for £7.49 while it’s £10.99 on Comixology. Since you can synch them up into app I’ll be taking a closer look at the Amazon store now.
I’m sure it comes down to different legacy contracts between Amazon and ComiXology before their purchase but there are times that it feels like Amazon would just prefer to shut it down and roll it into their Kindle business.
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I read Giant Size X-Men #1 and enjoyed it a lot. It’s maybe a little too reverential to Morrison and Quitely and sticks a little too close to their template, like a cover version that isn’t confident enough to do something differently to the original. But it was a decent ride with nice, clear art and the final revelation is interesting and ripe for follow-up.
Can you spoil the ending? I’ve only been picking up the main X-Men book.
I also read X-Men #7 and thought it was pretty good, an interesting musing on the philosophical and moral questions raised by the mutant resurrection program, and also an interesting way to address the legacy of House of M.
I feel like this book finally found its stride a few issues ago. It still feels a bit like vignettes to pay of to a larger story than a story within itself though.
I think it will help, Ben, as #39 ends on a literal cliffhanger. However, I can’t imagine Death Metal #1 will pick up the moment afterwards; it will be more like “some time later” so as not to alienate newer readers, thereby rendering the entire Justice League run superfluous. There’s also some thematic problems that I have with the denouement of “The Justice/ Doom War” that perhaps strike a little too close to home; knowing your tastes these will likely give you cause for concern too, Ben. I am still looking forward to Snyder/ Capullo’s Death Metal, but I feel like this series ultimately squandered its early potential and left a bitter taste in my mouth.
I have similar feelings on Snyder’s Justice League run. It had a lot of early promise to fizzle out at the end. I honestly don’t look for there to be much payoff. If you remember, Dark Nights: Metal had a similar fizzle at the end. It almost felt like a new universe was created at the end where Doom won and the heroes were saved and sent to another universe. I also wonder if John’s Doomsday Clock finally finishing and its continuity changes impacted this at all.
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Can you spoil the ending? I’ve only been picking up the main X-Men book.
Final page spoilers:
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That’s interesting. The day-and-date price for digital comics have always been the same as print in the US. So if your LCS did any kind of discount, they were cheaper. I didn’t realize digital had a slight discount in the UK.
It’s not quite as straightforward as that, as it’s down to a combination of Comixology’s £/$ exhange rate being overly generous to UK customers until recently, and also to how each individual UK comic shop chooses to price the issues. (Each sets their own exchange rate, essentially – there isn’t a standard UK-wide price for a $3.99 book, say.)
My LCS always seemed to use a pretty fair exchange rate and I also get a discount for having a standing order, so I was happy with the pricing for physical issues. But now my decision is even easier given the Comixology price hike.
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Diamond UK has a set exchange rate they charge to the retailers but each shop then will set their particular price.
Truth is it’s just the difference you get when the cover price is another currency, $3.99 is something where the value changes daily. Comixology had for a while set a very generous rate, partly because I believe the apps in Google demand a price point has to end at either .49 or .99 and they set it when the pound/euro were stronger.
That they adjusted up is not too surprising (and Bleeding Cool reported that some US customers were even buying on the European sites to save money) but they’ve adjusted really high so now a $4.99 comic is actually costing $6.50 at today’s rate. If you buy it direct from say Image’s site which only lists in USD the same comic is £3.82 under the actual exchange rate so much cheaper than the £4.99 Comixology are now charging. Even with your credit card company taking a little bit in conversion charges the comic would be a pound cheaper.
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Can you spoil the ending? I’ve only been picking up the main X-Men book.
The new team of X-Men free the original team from Krakoa and Polaris shoots the whole island into space. The issue ends with the line “What are we going to do with 13 X-Men?”, so it’s a kind of cliff-hanger set up for a continuation of the series.
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The chancellor just announced the axing of VAT on digital publications to match with paper (about time). I’d be interested to see how soon Comixology would like to reflect that in their pricing. That could result in me having a bigger list than zero to discuss this week.
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The chancellor just announced the axing of VAT on digital publications to match with paper (about time). I’d be interested to see how soon Comixology would like to reflect that in their pricing.
They’ll probably reflect it with a 30% price increase.
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The weekly 2000AD prog has been pretty solid of late. some decent (albeit non Wagner) Dredds, an amusing all ages special (which I’d happily read more of), Dan Abnett’s fantasy/magic strip Feral and Foe has been an entertaining romp, and Henry Flint has been back doing art for a new series. That said my bubble was burst picking up this and last weeks prog when I saw the return of the serviceably mediocre Skip Tracer and the fact there’s a new Survival Geeks coming imminently.
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Strange Adventures #1
Catching up on last week first, I read Strange Adventures #1 and thought it was an excellent start. This is definitely the Tom King of Mister Miracle, mixing Adam Strange’s colourful cosmic space-hero life with the more mundane and grounded realities of his Earthbound existence (in this case, a book-signing tour).
I liked the way the story develops here, the rhythms of the storytelling with the repeated scenes and the economical way in which we follow developments through only brief snatches of conversation, slices of life.
The two artists also work very well together, with a fairly traditional flashback/present-day split that helps to make the contrast between then and now very clear, with a classic clean quality to Shaner’s work on the flashbacks and a more textured and realistic look to Gerads’ present-day art.
The turns taken by the story (including cameos from a couple of other DC characters) felt fresh to me as I haven’t been following any of the build-up or hype for this book, so even the core premise and conflict at the heart of the story came as a surprise. It works for me so far and it’ll be interesting to see how it’s further explored as the series goes on.
We talked a bit about pricing upthread and how we choose to spend our money, and this is one of those examples of a $4.99 book that actually felt like it was worth the money. As long as you don’t buy it on Comixology, that is.
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Green Lantern Season 2 #2 was… not good. The story was hard to follow when I think it was trying to be straightforward.
I’m glad you felt this too. I read it a few nights ago and felt like I was missing something. A lot of the dialogue felt quite nonsensical and I struggled to follow even basic elements of the plot as a result. Nice art, but the story fell completely flat.
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X-Men #8 was pretty solid although I’m annoyed it required some familiarity of Hickman’s New Mutants, which I bailed on.
Same here too. I didn’t enjoy New Mutants and bailed after a couple of issues, so it was a shame to feel like a script from that title had been shoehorned into this one.
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RE: GL #2 –
Yeah, I often had to read an exchange 2 or 3 times and even then I was still foggy on the details.
I also thought the opening hook of an experimental “city of the future” being so weird and off-putting that it was transformed into a haunted tourist attraction was a lot more interesting than the story we ended up with about underground vulture people.
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I also thought the opening hook of an experimental “city of the future” being so weird and off-putting that it was transformed into a haunted tourist attraction was a lot more interesting than the story we ended up with about underground vulture people
I presume some of this stuff is from pre-existing old Silver Age GL stories, like with his Batman run.
If so, it doesn’t work quite as well here, and doesn’t feel like it’s serving the larger story in as meaningful a way.
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Page 1: *grimaces*
Page 2: *grinds teeth*
Page 3: *rolls eyes*
Page 4: *shakes head in disbelief*
Page 5: *eyes begin to glaze over*
Page 7: *realises he’s turned two pages at once and it hasn’t made any difference to the incoherence of the story*
Page 8: *losing the will to live*
Page 9: *running … out … of … ways … to … express .. the badness … *
And here ends my review of Legion of Super-Heroes #4.
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Green Lantern Season 2 #2 was… not good. The story was hard to follow when I think it was trying to be straightforward.
Sadly it’s another case of Morrison starting off with a great simple concept and then going off up his own arse pretty quickly. Somewhat reminiscent of his Action Comics run where there was so much that could be done with the young social justice warrior Clark and then he got bored of it as soon as it started and it became a convoluted mess that ended with a whimper.
I really really liked the Euro comics style space cop stories that opened the series and was gushing in my reviews here but it became a chore to read before it reached double figures.
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starting off with a great simple concept and then going off up his own arse
This needs to be on the trade as a review quote!
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I found I enjoyed GL season 1 issues that I was unsure about when I read them all together. Dialogue was still spotty in places but I could see the links between plot points more clearly. I don’t see that happening with this issue, it’s just nonsense after the first 5 or so pages.
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I found I enjoyed GL season 1 issues that I was unsure about when I read them all together. Dialogue was still spotty in places but I could see the links between plot points more clearly.
Definitely. Rereading it in trade, I found it a lot more coherent than in singles (which I still enjoyed, but mostly on the level of individual adventures.)
This is true for a lot of Morrison’s work in general.
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starting off with a great simple concept and then going off up his own arse
This needs to be on the trade as a review quote!
Of every Morrison comic?
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starting off with a great simple concept and then going off up his own arse
This needs to be on the trade as a review quote!
Of every Morrison comic?
If it fits….
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Same here too. I didn’t enjoy New Mutants and bailed after a couple of issues, so it was a shame to feel like a script from that title had been shoehorned into this one.
Maybe Hickman promised Brisson he would let Brisson have the book after the NM returned to Earth.
Quick backstory from NM
They want to visit Sam in Shiar Space
Cyke gets them a ride on Starjammer
Starjammers steal something and leave NM there for blame
Sam and Imperial Superguardian Wife save them
Rahne steals object back from Starjammers for spite
X Men 8
From Text pages in XM 8 this story may shift towards Gabriel Summers and his return to that part of Space.1 user thanked author for this post.
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Thanks for the NM summary, Don!
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Legion of Super-Heroes #4
By Bendis, Sook, Von Grawbadger & Bellaire
This is the hotly anticipated ‘secret origin’ issue. Superboy finally gets to watch his induction presentation, which really isn’t as interesting as it’s been built up to be, and is very annoyingly presented. It makes you long for the days of death by PowerPoint.
In terms of the origin, we still have the same three founders, with minor tweaks to their individual backgrounds that I don’t feel enhances the characters at all. Change for the sake of change, which seems to be the ethos of most reboots these days. (At least the original Crisis was rebooting the DC universe for a reason, regardless of whether you think it was a good reason or not.)
The formation of the team is more of a substantial change, with them being specifically gathered by the UP leadership in order to, presumably, act as an official peace-keeping organisation. I say ‘presumably’ because we only have half the story, because it’s Bendis and he can’t tell a whole story in 20 pages. Maybe we’ll get the full origin eventually.
In general, you may have gathered that I’m not a fan of the new series. At the moment, I’m honestly buying it out of a sense of duty to this APA, because I’m really not enjoying it as a comic. Though I am getting a certain malicious pleasure out of roasting it in these reviews.
I have always found Bendis to be a poor writer, and he evidently hasn’t changed over the years. I fully admit he’s probably actually pretty great at what he does, I just don’t like what he does. The ‘naturalistic’ dialogue just sounds horrible in my ears. Maybe it is how people would speak, but I think you need to temper that with what’s actually readable. The great writers of literature can make you believe dialogue is natural even when it’s been artificially tidied up, and I’d argue that that’s a better way to write than trying to be faithful to actual speech.
But the dialogue isn’t the biggest crime. At least in this current series, his plotting is just jumbled and incoherent, not aided by characters giving half an explanation and then forgetting what they were saying. I’m all for planting mysteries in comics, leaving things unsaid, maybe obfuscating things in the art to allow dramatic reveals, but when you’ve got a cast and a world that’s already as big and complex as the Legion, you need to have some explanations, some anchor points for the reader to know what’s going on. It’s a serious problem here.
Good points: well, a lot of his humour does hit the spot for me. I’ve chuckled at some of the characters’ one-liners, and liked the running gags such as Superboy not sitting still long enough to watch his induction presentation.
I actually like how Saturn Girl is written, and the way her power is portrayed (it’s useless: she typically puts all her allies to sleep but not the bad guys; but at least she realises it’s useless and tried to warn people!). Most of the other Legionnaires are pretty anonymous and interchangeable at the moment though, even after four issues. It’s as if Bendis can only work on one a couple of personalities at a time, which is a fatal flaw in someone writing the Legion.
So, what else can I say? It’s a badly written comic in many respects and I don’t see it getting any better.
There’s some really nice art, though unfortunately it’s servicing some truly dreadful character designs.Onwards and downwards…
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TL;DR
Here’s the US version of David’s review:
It’s mostly shit.
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TL;DR
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Hey boys, we got ourselves an illiterate.
(With apologies to Bill Hicks)
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Did some checking, and it looks they did cut it down to eight issues, but a month later they gave the other four issues back to them.
The Green Lantern: Season Two Restored to 12 Issues From Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp
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Could the problems with Morrison’s Green Lantern come down to the fact that DC took away one third of his second season, reducing the issue count from twelve to eight in order to fit that event it later this year?
I’d say no because it went off the boil long before that.
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I do wonder if Morrison’s limit is six issues. It limits him in that he has to get in and out of the story. Beyond six issues, the story starts wandering off to fjords.
I can understand that take, and I think lots of stories benefit from being short and succinct.
But I think there are some good counter-arguments where Morrison is concerned.
His Batman run ended up as a sprawling epic that’s successful because it can take the time to explore Batman from so many different angles and put the character in so many different types of stories.
Doom Patrol, Animal Man, New X-Men and Invisibles all benefit from being long-form works that can set up plots that don’t pay off for quite a while, at the same time exploring lots of different characters and ideas along the way.
And JLA – although not my favourite of his works – managed to sustain itself for a long time too.
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Haven’t read the others
You’ve never read The Invisibles or Doom Patrol?!
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