DC's April previews...reviewed!

THE PLAIN JANES Written by Cecil Castellucci. Art and cover by Jim Rugg. When a transfer student named Jane is forced to move from the cool confines of Metro City to Suburbia, she thinks her life is over. But there in the lunchroom at the reject table she finds her tribe: Three other girls named Jane. Main Jane encourages them to form a secret art gang and paint the town P.L.A.I.N. — People Loving Art In Neighborhoods. But can art attacks really save the hell that is high school?

They had me at “art and cover by Jim Rugg." This is the first offering from the new and much ballyhooed Minx imprint, so it will be especially interesting to see how good it is and how well it sells.


52 VOLUME 1 TP Written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid. Breakdowns by Keith Giffen. Art by various. Cover by J.G. Jones. After the INFINITE CRISIS, the DCU spent a year without Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman —a year in which those heroes were needed more than ever as the fate of the world hung in the balance. Don’t miss the first of a four-volume collection featuring the lead stories from 52 weeks 1-13 of the unprecedented, critically acclaimed weekly series of death, danger, romance, terror and the never-ending search for heroism in the DC Universe’s most eventful year ever.

Alright, what the fuck is this doing here? 52’s main selling point is that it’s a weekly book that you can’t read in trade form, because there is no trade. I was sure DC would wait until the series wrapped up to even solicit trade collections, and yet here’s a solicitation laying out the plans for it’s collection, letting readers know they can feel free to drop the series now and catch up later in trade, and/or that they never needed to read it weekly at all anyway.

Additionally, it is going to make for a pretty terrible read in trade format, considering how often the artists change. I don’t mind the various styles in a weekly, 22-page format, but as a 300+ page read, the changes in art are going to be harder to forgive.



Simone Bianchi does a wonderful Harley Quinn, doesn’t he?



And Michael Kaluta’s Aquaman is similarly awesome. I have a feeling that whatever happens beneath it, Tad Williams’ Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis run is going to be worth purchasing just to get the Kaluta covers.




FIRESTORM #35 Written by Dwayne McDuffie. Art by Pop Mhan & Rob Stull. Cover by Pete Woods. The end is here as Firestorm faces the fury of a superpowered Kalibak and a horde of Parademons! After this battle, you’ll see a Firestorm that’s never been seen before! Final Issue.

Annnd that’s the end of Firestorm, a title that just never seemed to catch on. I’ve only tried two issue of it, and didn’t like either of them, so I probably won’t shed any tears over it’s cancellation. I am planning on picking up this last story arc though, as it’s written by McDuffie and features some New Gods goodness. This ish looks particularly good, with Pop Mhan art and an awesome cover. Regarding “a Firestorm that’s never been seen before!”, it’d be nice if they merged Jason and Ronnie, thus making fans of both happy. Or happier than the current either/or proposition, which has the unfortunate side effect of alienating whatever Firestorm fans were out there to begin with.


GREEN ARROW #73Written by Judd Winick. Art and cover by Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens. Green Arrow’s run as mayor of Star City may come to an end when the truth comes out about some of his extracurricular activities!

Oh my God! Someone finally noticed that the only two men with weird little blonde van dyke goatees in America both live in the same city, both wear a lot of green and are never seen in the same place at the same time!


JLA CLASSIFIED #37 Written by Peter Milligan. Art by Carlos D'Anda. Cover by Howard Porter. Kicking off the 5-part “Kid Amazo!” Professor Ivo and Amazo have hatched an unusual experiment that just might mean the downfall of the Justice League—but could their experiment turn on them? Meet the robot Amazo’s only child: Kid Amazo.

Fourth time’s a charm?


SHOWCASE PRESENTS: THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT VOL. 1 TP Written by Robert Kanigher. Art and cover by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito. Over 500 pages of classic adventures are included in this value-priced volume collecting one of the most unusual series ever from DC Comics! On an unnamed, uncharted Pacific island, dinosaurs continued to thrive while World War II raged across the globe. It’s there that members of the U.S. Military found themselves armed only with standard-issue weapons against the deadliest predators ever to roam the Earth!

Yes!


THE LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES IN THE 31st CENTURY #1 Written by J. Torres. Art by Chynna Clugston-Flores. Cover by Steve Uy. An all-new series spinning out of the smash-hit TV show, written by J. Torres (Teen Titans Go!, Sidekicks, Alison Dare: Little Miss Adventures) and drawn by the creator of the indie favorite Blue Monday, Chynna Clugston-Flores! To stop the Fatal Five from destroying Metropolis, the Legion of Super-Heroes travel back in time for reinforcements, because this looks like a job for…Clark Kent?! Can six teenagers from the future help a mild-mannered reporter become the Man of Steel, or will the Fatal Five determine his destiny before it’s even begun?

Well this came as a surprise—Chynna on a Johnny DC book? I’d be even more surprised if I didn’t just see this exact same creative team handle the Teen Titans’ latest go-round with the Mad Mod (a character Chynna was born to draw) in the last issue of Teen Titans Go!. It took me a couple of weeks to get around to it, because I had no idea she was doing the art for it. And while it was interesting to see her drawing the cartoon Titans, it also made me kind of sad, as it meant she wasn’t drawing new Blue Monday (Or Strange Town, or Scooter Girl or even Queen Bee.

Though I’ve never seen this particular cartoon, and I’ve never been much of a LOSH fan, I’ll definitely check this out for Chynna’s work (and when did Chynna Clugston become Chynna Clugston-Flores?!), but don’t have high hopes. In general the Johnny DC titles are frustrating reads in the art department, simply because it forces some very talented artists to filer their personal styles through the cartoons’ rigid character designs, and the details are rarely pretty (in Chynna’s Teen Titans issue, for example, the best part was when Mad Mod dressed them up in mod gear.

And then there’s the fact that if she’s drawing this, it means she’s not drawing new Blue Monday. Damn it!