Written by MARC ANDREYKO and JEFF PARKER
Backup story by DAN DIDIO
Art by STEVE LIEBER
Backup story art by PHIL WINSLADE
Cover by EVAN “DOC” SHANER
...
After the events of the DEATH OF HAWKMAN miniseries, Adam Strange is blasted through multiple dimensions only to land on Earth! There, instead of super-powered beings and legendary crime fighters, he encounters a boy adventurer and his scientist father—and they’re the only ones who can help him return home. Jonny Quest, Hadji, Dr. Quest and Race Bannon have a plan, but it’s going to involve a dangerous trek through Dino Boy’s Lost Valley of prehistoric threats!
And in the backup feature starring Top Cat, breaking out of prison is challenging enough for a cat, but sometimes it means stumbling through a cosmic portal to planet Earth…and right into the hands of Batman!
On sale MARCH 29 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
Hobbyist comic book writer Dan Didio takes a gig from a freelancer in the back-up to one of the four DC/Hanna-Barbera crossovers being published in March, with his story being a...Top Cat/Batman crossover...?
Some of these are really weird sounding, particularly the back-ups, but I kind of have to see them in order to tell how weird. For example, this sounds fairly straight, as old-timey space hero Adam Strange (created in 1958) fits in perfectly well with the old-timey adventure heroes from the original Jonny Quest show (debuting in 1964), but some of the others sound like they may be more in line with DC's recent slate of weird Hanna-Barbereboot books like Scooby Apocalypse and The Flintstones.
I find this particular annual and pairing to be the most interesting of the four crossover annuals because it is one where the DC character seems like it might very well be the lesser of the two properties in terms of popularity at the moment. I mean, I'm not sure what the sales are on the Death of Hawkman miniseries co-starring Adam Strange are, and if they are in excess of the sales of Future Quest or not, but I have to imagine that it's the "Hawkman" and the "Death" that are generating a fair amount of whatever sales might be attached to it.
ALL STAR BATMAN #8
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI and MARK MORALES
Cover by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI
...
“Hats and Bats”! Underestimate the Mad Hatter at your own peril. Batman takes on one of his most dangerous and deranged foes in a mind-bending tale from the powerhouse creative team of writer Scott Snyder and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli!
On sale MARCH 8 • 40 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
I'm looking forward to this one, if only to see what writer Scott Snyder does with The Mad Hatter. I'm hoping it's something good enough that it can make me forget I ever even read Gregg Hurwitz's reinvention of the character for The Dark Knight.
I can't believe the title "Hats and Bats" wasn't taken already. I'm picturing The Mad Hatter attaching tiny little mind-controlling top hats onto the tiny little heads of bats to send after Batman, but something tells me that is not what's going to be happening here.
Written by TOM KING
Art and cover by DAVID FINCH and DANNY MIKI
Variant cover by TIM SALE
...
“I AM BANE” part three! Bane broke the bat before, but it wasn’t enough—now he’s going to break everyone else! Bane is coming, and no one is safe!
On sale MARCH 1 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
The worst Bane artist returns to draw Bane again. Hooray...?
You know what would be really awesome? If instead of just drawing variant covers for this series, Tim Sale moved inside to draw the David Finch issues. I'd love to see Sale interiors on a book starring the modern Batman, instead of the "Year One" era version he's been so long associated with.
The reference to Bane and Batman's "Knightfall" battle here is a reminder that this story would probably sound a hell of a lot more exciting were it taking place in a DCU that never rebooted, as the story in w hich "Bane broke the bat before" isn't one we've ever been told. I mean, we read "Knightfall" decades ago, but we don't know how that story went down in The New 52-iverse, other than very, very, very differently.
DEATHSTROKE #15
Written by CHRISTOPHER PRIEST
Art by CARLO PAGULAYAN and JASON PAZ
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
...
Faced with a career-ending diagnosis, Deathstroke is coached by Power Girl to reinvent himself—and comes face to face with a rival assassin known as Deadline!
On sale MARCH 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
I am actually more interested in seeing The New 52 Deadline than I am Power Girl, who is apparently the one from Teen Titans (the young woman with Elasti-Girl-like size-changing powers, not Power Girl-like powers, who was technically Power Girl II, although since New 52 Power Girl I was really just Earth 2 Supergirl disguised as Power Girl I'm not entirely sure if she still counts as Power Girl, or if that would make Power Girl II just "Power Girl" and AAAAAUUUGH!)
Anyway, Deadline kinda fascinates me only in that he's got Mister Miracle-like flying discs he rides around on, and his name sounds like the exact sort of name a writer might have desperately settle on for his new assassin character because he had to settle on something before his deadline... "Aha! That's it!" I can imagine his creator exclaiming. (That creator, according to Wikipedia, was Roger Stern in 1989.)
Written by ARNOLD DRAKE and BOB HANEY
Art by BRUNO PREMIANI and BOB BROWN
Cover by BRUNO PREMIANI
The complete Silver Age adventures of the Doom Patrol, comics’ strangest super-team, is collected in a single hardcover! Led by their wheelchair-bound chief, Niles Calder, three outcasts of society—Negative Man, Elasti-Girl and Robotman—take the qualities that made them freaks to become heroes. Together, the trio takes on bizarre menaces including General Immortus, The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man and The Brotherhood of Evil! Collects MY GREATEST ADVENTURE #80-85 and DOOM PATROL #86-124.
On sale JUNE 21 • 1,056 pg, FC, $99.99 US
I don't care what Gerard Way or anyone else tries to tell you, this was the greatest version of the Doom Patrol ever, not Grant Morrison's. I mean, all versions of the Doom Patrol generally have something to recommend them (with the possible exception of John Byrne's ill-considered soft-reboot...although it did have a four-armed gorilla in it), but no matter how self-consciously weird Morrison and any other later writers might have tried to be, there's no topping the effortless weirdness of Arnold Drake and Bob Haney.
I mean, try to think of these things in context. Now you see a gorilla with a machine gun on the cover of a Doom Patrol comic, and you just find yourself asking where his beret is, and why he's not speaking in a French accent. But in 1964? You would simply have flipped your lid. I think that's something that kids in the early 1960s did. Flipped their lids.
Anyway, $100 is a lot of money, and 1,000 pages is a lot of pages. I'm glad I bought these old comics back when DC was still doing those Showcase Presents volumes, which, like Marvel's Essential volumes, are pretty much my favorite way to read old comics.
Don't get me wrong, the current Doom Patrol series is off to a good start, but nothing they've done can compare to one's first exposure to The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man.
GREEN LANTERN/SPACE GHOST ANNUAL #1
Written by JAMES TYNION IV and CHRIS SEBELA
Backup story written by and art by HOWARD CHAYKIN
Art and cover by ARIEL OLIVETTI
...
Trapped in a strange rift in time, Green Lantern and Space Ghost are forced to battle a variety of foes—and each other! And even if they manage to survive, they will be thrown into a world with no concept of interstellar travel—or even what an alien is! Stripped of their weapons by a xenophobic culture, the duo will have to battle to regain them—but what happens when Space Ghost dons the Emerald Ring and Hal Jordan put on the Power Bands?
And in the backup feature, Ruff and Reddy were once the toast of nightclubs, variety shows, late night chat fests and Broadway. Learn how they became the comedic duo of yesterday…before they hit rock-bottom today!
On sale MARCH 29 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
This one is so obvious that it doesn't even seem all that remarkable; in fact, there was a point while I was reading the 2005 Space Ghost miniseries, also drawn by Ariel Olivetti, that I wondered if DC would go ahead and introduce Space Ghost into the DCU proper, as that take really fit right into the DCU of the time (I think the case could probably be made that Space Ghost, as a space-based superhero, actually fits into the DCU better than some of the space-based characters that reside there, like, for example, Adam Strange).
Ruff and Reddy sure seems like a pretty deep cut. I have watched a lot of cartoons in my time, and I didn't recognize the name. I had to google them, and while they look familiar now that I've seen them, I'm still having trouble remembering if I had ever seen a cartoon featuring them or not.
JUSTICE LEAGUE: BREAKDOWNS TP
Written by KEITH GIFFEN, J. M. DEMATTEIS and GERARD JONES
Art by KEITH GIFFEN, CHRIS WOZNIAK, BART SEARS, KEVIN MAGUIRE, DARICK ROBERTSON and others
Cover by CHRIS SPROUSE and BRUCE PATTERSON
In this 1980s adventure, Justice League America and Justice League Europe are at their lowest ebb. Maxwell Lord has been shot, and both teams have been ordered to disband by the United Nations. While the teams are in disarray, one of their oldest foes, Despero, returns with revenge in mind—and it’s up to Lobo to team up with Booster Gold to beat him. Collects JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #52-60 and JUSTICE LEAGUE EUROPE #29-36.
On sale APRIL 5 • 416 pg, FC, $39.99 US
For the longest time I considered Breakdowns to be the ultimate "final" story arc, as Giffen and DeMatteis spent literally hundreds of pages closing out their historic run on the franchise, not only tying up what at the time seemed like dozens of different little plotlines, but also filling the story with call-backs to moments throughout their, what, five year run?
Doing the math, it looks like this collection contains some seventeen issues, which, if published monthly, would be about a year and a half on a single monthly title. That means this final arc from the pair's years-long run on the Justice League franchise (which included two monthly ongoings and various annuals and specials) was about as long as some creators' runs on some super-books these days.
This is a really nice drawing of Martian Manhunter, and this issue will apparently focus on him and all of the other alien characters regular writer Sholly Fisch can squeeze into 20 pages. It was weird seeing this image, because my first thought upon seeing it was "Martian Manhunter! Man, I miss that guy." And he just had his own series again! I guess I just miss the "real" Martian Manhunter, who I haven't seen in a new DC Comic in...God knows how long. About five years now, I guess. The pages of Brightest Day, maybe...?
Written by ROB WILLIAMS
Art and cover by JOHN ROMITA JR. and DANNY MIKI
...
“BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE” part three! Shot. Stabbed. Beaten. Maimed. Brought back from the edge of death and sent out to do it all over again and again and again. This has been the life of Floyd Lawton, a.k.a. Deadshot. But not anymore. The moment Suicide Squad fans never thought would come finally arrives when Deadshot achieves that which no one else has: escape! All it will cost is one of his teammates’ lives…
On sale MARCH 8 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
SUICIDE SQUAD #14
Written by ROB WILLIAMS
Art and cover by JOHN ROMITA JR. and DANNY MIKI
...
“BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE” part four! Consumed by rage following the brutal murder of one of her Suicide Squad comrades, Harley Quinn goes AWOL on a one-(psychotic-)woman mission of vengeance against Rustam and his unstoppable new ally, the most dangerous foe Harley has ever faced: Deadshot.
On sale MARCH 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T+
The only two things I don't really like about the current Suicide Squad book is it's weird format, featuring a 12-ish page lead story and an eight-ish page back-up, and Jim Lee's artwork. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what JRJR does with the characters and the book. I like that he's keeping his spiky Killer Croc redesign from the pages of All-Star Batman, and that he's given Harley a redesign as well. Hell, he even makes New 52 Deadshot look better than usual...
Written by TONY BEDARD
Backup story written by MARK RUSSELL
Art and cover by BEN CALDWELL
Backup story art by DALE EAGLESHAM
Variant cover by BEN CALDWELL
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for details.
“SUICIDE SPLITS”! Mistaken for metahumans, thrown in the bowels of Belle Reve, the animal rock band Banana Splits are recruited by Amanda Waller for a secret mission: to save the Suicide Squad! What follows is the weirdest team-up you never thought you’d see! How can Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky stand up to Harley, Deadshot, Katana and Croc?
And in the backup feature, Snagglepuss is a Southern gothic playwright working with an ensemble cast of cultural figures, exploring an intensely creative time in the New York City theater scene of the 1950s.
On sale MARCH 29 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T
Now this is the weirdest of the four Hanna-Barbera/DCU crossover annuals--the fourth one, which I didn't mention here, features the time-traveling Booster Gold visiting the Flintstones' town of Bedrock which, again, is a fairly natural fit. It's kind of too bad that artist Caldwell has designed the Banana Splits to look so...different than they appeared on television, because as is they just look like animal-headed tough guys, like something from the world of Kamandai, maybe. And not, you know, this.
Written by PETER J. TOMASI and PATRICK GLEASON
...
“SUPERMAN REBORN” part one! In DC UNIVERSE: REBIRTH #1, the enigmatic Mr. Oz told this Superman, “You and your family are not what you believe you are. And neither was the fallen Superman.” Now, in the first Rebirth crossover between SUPERMAN and ACTION COMICS, the shocking truth behind Oz’s words is revealed. It begins with one of Oz’s prisoners escaping, and ends in a tragic moment for Lois and Superman.
...
On sale MARCH 1 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
ACTION COMICS #975
Written by DAN JURGENS
Backup story written by PAUL DINI
Art by DOUG MAHNKE and JAIME MENDOZA
Backup story art by IAN CHURCHILL
Cover by PATRICK GLEASON and MICK GRAY
...
“SUPERMAN REBORN” part two! Celebrating our 975th issue with a supersize special as another layer of the Superman/Clark Kent mystery is exposed! And in a backup story written by Paul Dini with art by Ian Churchill, learn what it all means for the Son of Superman, who is the prize in a deadly game!
...
#975 on sale MARCH 8 • 48 pg, FC, $3.99 • RATED T
SUPERMAN #19
Written by PETER J. TOMASI and PATRICK GLEASON
Art and cover by PATRICK GLEASON and MICK GRAY
...
“SUPERMAN REBORN” part three! In the penultimate chapter of this tale the life of Superman’s son hangs in the balance—and the Man of Steel faces the truth about his life!
...
On sale MARCH 15 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
ACTION COMICS #976
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by DOUG MAHNKE and JAIME MENDOZA
Cover by PATRICK GLEASON and MICK GRAY
...
“SUPERMAN REBORN” finale! As this epic tale wraps up, Superman’s life is drastically changed…and that’s all we are saying for now—except that you won’t want to miss it!
...
On sale MARCH 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Well it's about goddam time. From the sound of it, this is the story arc that is going to resolve what the heck is up with Superman and, perhaps, the DC Universe as a whole post-Flashpoint. Originally, the creation of The New 52-iverse was the work of Pandora, an effort to make the DCU stronger in order to face an oncoming threat. In the pages of DC Universe: Rebirth, we learned instead that it was actually the nefarious actions of Doctor Manhattan, and done to make the DCU weaker.
The mysterious "Mr. Oz" (Ozymandias?) has been hinting all along that something was up with Superman and his family, and this promises to resolve that, so...hooray, I guess. I am hopefully it doesn't break the Superman franchise too hard. While I didn't much care for Superwoman (more for the bait and switch marketing and the particular character starring than the actual creative talent on display, which is pretty damn good) or Action, but Superman proper has been superb since "Rebirth" launched.
The "tragic moment" makes me worry a bit about Jonathan, as Superman and Lois having a son together doesn't seem like the sort of thing that can or will last indefinitely--these characters and their storylines have their own kind of gravity, in which the tendency is to always eventually retreat towards the direction of either their original or most popular iterations--but then, Jonathan is starring in Super Sons now, so he seems safe. Let's hope Krypto is, too!
The cover I posted above is Gleasons, from Action #976 (I think). That is the New 52 Superman and the Rebirth Superman; the latter of whom is actually the pre-Flashpoint aged by somewhere between 5-8 years or so. You'll notice each bears a crackling aura, however, and one is red and one is blue, suggestive of the time, well, times, that Superman has split into two distinct selves in the past. When New 52 Superman died, his body released a bunch of red lightning, some of which infused Lana Lang with her powers. Her current design? Just like that of the post-Crisis Superman Red.
I have no idea what all of that means...the auras could simply be a design note on that particular cover...but Rebirth Superman is a little bluer than usual (note the boots, for example), so perhaps we'll find that Mr. Oz and/or The Watchmen didn't simply fuck around with continuity, but also split the DCU's greatest champion in half...?
Written by BENJAMIN PERCY
Art by KHOI PHAM and WADE VON GRAWBADGER
Cover by KHOI PHAM
...
“THE RISE OF Aqualad” part one! New story! New city! New member? As the team adjusts to their new lives at Titans Tower, Damian investigates a series of strange disappearances in San Francisco. Meanwhile, Jackson Hyde heads west to fulfill his destiny…and finds himself in the crosshairs of the Teen Titans!
On sale MARCH 22 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Around the time the Young Justice cartoon launched on Cartoon Network, Geoff Johns went about creating a new, black Aqualad in the pages of Brightest Day. That was Jackson Hyde, who was pretty obviously created to at least visually echo the Aqualad from the TV show, although the characters were so different one wonders why Johns didn't just introduce Kaldur into the DCU (Perhaps Johns and the YJ producers were working independently?).
Jackson was one of the many unfortunate casualties of Flashpoint, his loss being particularly vexing/galling because no sooner had Johns finished introducing him than DC rebooted, and erased him from existence. So hey, it's nice to have him back. This time, it appears that they're just going to make him look exactly like YJ's Kaldur.
WONDER WOMAN: WHO IS WONDER WOMAN? TP NEW EDITION
Written by Allan Heinberg
Art by Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, Gary Frank and John Sibal
Cover by Terry Dodson and Rachel Dodson
Wonder Woman goes undercover in her former identity of Diana Prince, acting as a secret agent and member of the Department of Metahuman Affairs. Her first assignment…to save Donna Troy, the current Wonder Woman! Collects WONDER WOMAN #1-4 and WONDER WOMAN ANNUAL #1!
On sale APRIL 26 • 144 pg, FC, $16.99 US
Grr...just seeing this pop up in this month's solicitations reminded me that it existed, and irritated me all over again. Writer Greg Rucka's (first) run on Wonder Woman came to a confused and messy end as DC's Infinite Crisis event neared. As part of the cosmic shenanigans of that series, elements of DC's continuity were to be rebooted, and so Wonder Woman received a character-specific reboot: In particularly, the character reverted to her pre-Crisis (On Infinite Earths) status of having been a founder of the Justice League of America and a contemporary of Batman and Superman's, rather than having arrived in "Man's World" many years after they and pretty much all of the DC heroes active in the late 1980s had begun their careers.
To relaunch the character, DC hired TV writer-turned-comics dabbler Allan Heinberg (who had a comics hit at Marvel with his original Young Avengers series...which he would sporadically return to over the years). Heinberg and the Dodsons produced all of four issues before Heinberg went MIA, so it was basically just enough to set up a very, very different new status quo for the character, including giving her a secret identity again and making her a secret agent for an agency charged with tracking and occasionally combatting super-humans like Wonder Woman. Heinberg also introduced Nemesis as a love interest, and made him into something of a doof.
A short period of fill-in writers followed, and then Jodi motherfucing Picoult (!!!!) was somehow convinced to write Wonder Woman for DC Comics and...it went very, very badly. In fact, I can't think of a worst missed opportunity in DC Comics history. Maybe comics history in general. And then, finally, DC had Gail Simone take over. Fans were pretty happy, and the series regained a sense of stability for a while, although I personally had a really hard time reading Simone's run: I found it hella boring.
Finally, J. Michael Straczynski came on to give the Amazing Amazon another bold new direction--involving a pair of pants and her leather jacket from the '90s--but he abandoned his planned run about halfway through, just as he did his similar work on Superman--because he is the worst. And then Flashpoint rebooted the title.
Long story short, this collection features the much trumpeted beginning of what was supposed to be a bold new era for Wonder Woman, but was really just the start of the most confused, disappointing and all-around mismanaged volume to ever feature the character, and that's saying something.
Hell, you look at Wonder Woman from 2006-2011, and you can almost see where DC was coming from with their New 52 reboot. Like, this title and this character was so screwed up at that point, and the publisher had blown it so many times with what was supposed to be a brand-new, high-profile book starring the character that it's not that difficult to sympathize with the perspective that maybe it would be better to just start over from scratch.
Written by PETER DAVID, TODD DEZAGO, D. CURTIS JOHNSON and others
Art by TODD NAUCK, HUMBERTO RAMOS, MIKE MCKONE, ALÉ GARZA, CRAIG ROUSSEAU and others
Cover by TODD NAUCK and LARY STUCKER
The original run of YOUNG JUSTICE is collected at last from YOUNG JUSTICE #1-7, JLA: WORLD WITHOUT GROWN-UPS #1-2, YOUNG JUSTICE: THE SECRET and YOUNG JUSTICE: SECRET FILES #1. Witness the formation of the original Young Justice team, including Superboy, Impulse, Wonder Girl, Secret and Arrowette as mentors like Red Tornado and Nightwing guide the group into adventure!
On sale APRIL 19 • 360 pg, FC, $29.99 US
Warning: This is almost nothing at all like the cartoon series of the same name, despite including some of the same characters and at least one of the same settings (Oh, and one of the episodes of the TV series was based pretty directly on World Without Grown-Ups). That said, it's really rather good. I enjoyed the hell out of this series, and read it from the The Secret one-shot until it was unfortunately cancelled with Graduation Day to make room for the Geoff Johns-written Teen Titans and the Judd Winick-written The Outsiders.
This volume will likely be a bit on the rocky side, given that it includes work from so many more writers and artists than the eventual long-time Young Justice creative team of Peter David and Todd Nauck.
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