Saturday, June 22, 2019

Marvel's September previews reviewed

ABSOLUTE CARNAGE: AVENGERS #1
LEAH WILLIAMS (W) • Salvador Larroca (A) • Cover by Clayton Crain
...
CAPTAIN AMERICA! HAWKEYE! THE THING! WOLVERINE!
Years ago, Cletus Kasady used the Carnage symbiote to take over a small town called Doverton, Colorado, as well as the team of Avengers who arrived to stop him! Barely able to free themselves from his control during their first meeting, this small band of heroes will have no choice but to assemble once more after they discover that Doverton’s entire population has recently fallen victim to Carnage’s more lethal designs…
40 PGS./One-Shot/Rated T+ …$4.99


The Absolute Carnage miniseries and crossover event continues into September, and picks-up still more tie-ins. In addition to this Avengers one-shot, there's two even weirder-looking ones, Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance, featuring Danny Ketch and a Ghost Rider I've never heard of, and Absolute Carnage: Symbiote of Vengeance. Oh, and an issue of Amazing Spider-Man ties in to the story, as well.


CAPTAIN AMERICA #14
TA-NEHISI COATES (W) • JASON MASTERS (A) • Cover by ALEX ROSS
IMMORTAL WRAPAROUND VARIANT COVER BY TBA
“THE LEGEND OF STEVE” CONTINUES!
As Steve Rogers continues to try to prove his innocence and remain one step ahead of the pursuing Nick Fury, he and Mockingbird journey to Iowa, where a town is held in the thrall of the mysterious group known only as –THEM!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99


Huh. If an Avenger was going to square off against Them, I would have assumed it would have been Ant-Man.


This is a pretty striking cover by Julian Totino Tedesco. How striking? Well, the night I first saw it, I dreamt about it. In my dream, there was an old, beat-up comic from the '80s or '90s that had the same basic concept, only it was Wolverine's head under some kind of metal character's head, like Death's Head or someone, and, in my dream, I thought, "Oh, that's where Tedesco got the idea for his cover." But that was all a dream!

Anyway, my point is that this image was striking enough that it embedded itself in my subconscious.


This is Terry Dodson's cover for the second issue of Gwenpool Strikes Back, and it's a pretty nice offering from the artist, whose many characters-just-posing covers can kind of blend together sometimes. I like the little details on Mister Fantastic in which he is stretched out of proportion, but just slightly so, as you can see in his neck and how weird his fingers look.


Wow, look at Charles Xavier's bald head shine on that cover! I don't think he just shaves his head. I think he polishes it, too.


IMMORTAL HULK #23
AL EWING (W) • JOE BENNETT (A) • Cover by ALEX ROSS
IMMORTAL WRAPAROUND Variant Cover by TBA
• The war has come home – and Shadow Base is the battleground.
• The stage is set for the final confrontation between the new ABOMINATION...
• ...and the IMMORTAL HULK.
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99


Yikes, check out the face of the new Abomination. That design is certainly abominable. I know I've talked about how powerful the horror imagery in this book has been, both on Alex Ross' covers and even more so in artist Joe Bennett's interiors, but I think this is perhaps the best of Marvel's serious comics...that is, the one's that aren't also comedies, which tend to be the ones I generally gravitate towards.


SAVAGE AVENGERS #5
GERRY DUGGAN (W) • MIKE DEODATO JR. (A) • Cover by DAVID FINCH
IMMORTAL WRAPAROUND VARIANT COVER BY TBA
• The Marrow God has eaten the sentient population of entire planets, but he never had to dance with the Savage Avengers. Kulan Gath is on the verge of defeat...or is that what he wanted the entire time?
• A Pyrrhic victory lights a fuse that will only burn more of the Marvel Universe.
• Plus, the Punisher is curious about Crom...
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99


I'm not sure a white suit is a good idea hanging around this particular group of characters.

The last bullet point in this solicit is the one that excites me the most. That it's only one of three bullet points tells me that this is not, in fact, the case, but I would like nothing more than 20-pages of Conan trying to convert the presumably atheist Punisher* to Crom worship.


Nice cover for Magnificent Ms. Marvel by Eduard Petrovich.


MAN-WOLF: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION TPB
Written by GERRY CONWAY, MARV WOLFMAN, DOUG MOENCH, TONY ISABELLA & DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT
Penciled by GIL KANE, ROSS ANDRU, JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE TUSKA, GEORGE PEREZ, SAL BUSCEMA, MIKE VOSBURG, JIM SHERMAN & ALAN WEISS
Cover by JOHN ROMITA SR.
When J. Jonah Jameson’s astronaut son, John Jameson, brings a strange red gemstone back from the moon, he finds himself transformed into the macabre Man-Wolf! Becoming a lycanthropic creature on the loose, the Man-Wolf battles Spider-Man, Morbius, Kraven the Hunter and more — while investigator Simon Stroud comes ever closer to the Man-Wolf’s true identity! Jameson soon discovers the truth behind the gem — but does his destiny lie in Other Realm wielding the sword of the Stargod? Or will the parasitic stone mean his destruction? Man-Wolf takes on Frankenstein’s monster, She-Hulk and more — but can Spider-Man save him from a fate worse than death? Collecting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1963) #124-125 and #189-190; GIANT-SIZE SUPER-HEROES #1; CREATURES ON THE LOOSE #30-37; MARVEL PREMIERE #45-46; MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #36-37; SAVAGE SHE-HULK #13-14 and material from PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #3.
408 PGS./Rated T …$39.99
ISBN: 978-1-302-92000-5


I reeeaaallllly want to read this comic, based on how bonkers the Man-Wolf character has always looked and sounded to me (I've never really ran into him at any great length before though...just a few issues of some She-Hulk comics here and there (Remember when the Raimi Spider-Mans mentioned John Jameson? Just think, if Sony managed that franchise as tightly and ambitiously as Marvel Studios managed theirs, we would have not only gotten that Spider-Man 6 movie in which Tobey Maguire fights Alfred Molina's Sinister Six by now, maybe there would even be a Man-Wolf spin-off franchise by now. Sigh...)

That said, $40 seems like a pretty big investment in a comic book about a super space werewolf whose dad is the coolest character in the Marvel Universe, you know...? Even if it is a 400-page monster of a book. Maybe Amazon will have it at a deep discount...


MARVEL-VERSE: IRON MAN GN-TPB
Written by FRED VAN LENTE, DAVID MICHELINIE, BOB LAYTON & KURT BUSIEK
Penciled by JAMES CORDEIRO, GRAHAM NOLAN, JACKSON GUICE & SEAN CHEN
Cover by DAVID MARQUEZ
ON SALE NOVEMBER 2019
Iron Man is one of the greatest heroes in the Marvel-Verse – and these are some of his most action-packed adventures! When the genius Tony Stark is held captive and forced to make weapons, his best chance of escape lies in building the greatest weapon of all – the very fi rst version of the Iron Man armor! Then, Shellhead meets Webhead as Iron Man and Spider-Man team up to take down the deadly Radioactive Man! And when Tony Stark makes a dramatic public return to start the next chapter of his business life, a newly-souped up Iron Man finds himself targeted for death! Finally, does Iron Man stand a ghost of a chance battling the Marvel-Verse’s most fearsome armored foe — the dastardly Doctor Doom?! Collecting MARVEL ADVENTURES IRON MAN (2007) 1, 7; IRON MAN (1968) 234; IRON MAN (1998) 1.
120 PGS./AGES 10 & UP …$9.99
ISBN: 978-1-302-92117-0


Okay, I give up--what the fuck is "the Marvel-Verse"...? This looks like a mix of those continuity-lite, all-ages comics Marvel was publishing off and on in the '00s, paired with a couple of old, canonical comics of relatively great age. There's another Marvel-Verse collection solicited featuring Thanos, but all of its contents seem to come from the MCU proper.



MILES MORALES: SPIDER-MAN #10
SALADIN AHMED (W) • JAVIER GARRON (A) • Cover by MAHMUD ASRAR
VARIANT COVER BY JAVIER GARRON
VARIANT COVER BY ED MCGUINNESS
IMMORTAL WRAPAROUND VARIANT COVER BY TBA
SPIDER-SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL OR BIG 250th ANNIVERSARY ISSUE?
That’s right, it’s our 250th issue and it’s Miles Morales’ birthday! But YOU’RE getting all the gifts! A mystery dating back to Miles’ first appearance? Answered! A terrifying villain destined to become one of Miles’ greatest adversaries? Revealed! Special guests, like maybe Peter Parker: Spider-Man? YOU KNOW IT! All busting out of 25 pages by main series storytellers Saladin Ahmed and Javier Garrón, PLUS a bonus back-up by Ahmed and a special guest artist delving into the history of your new favorite character, STARLING! Your FOMO is well-founded! DON’T MISS IT!
40 PGS./Rated T …$4.99


Your tenth issue can't be your 250th issue! That's not how counting works!



Dang, Tradd Moore is so good...


SON OF SATAN: MARVEL SPOTLIGHT #12
FACSIMILE EDITION
Written by GARY FRIEDRICH
Penciled by HERB TRIMPE
Cover by HERB TRIMPE
From Hell he came! By day he is Daimon Hellstrom, but by night he is known as the Son of Satan! Trident in hand, striking birthmark on his chest, and with the strength of a hundred men, Daimon is on the trail of his accursed father — and woe betide anyone who stands in his way! Watch in terror as the Son of Satan fights his way through an army of demons as he pursues the ultimate family feud — with the soul of Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider, at stake! It’s one of the all-time great Marvel comic books, boldly re-presented in its original form, ads and all! Reprinting MARVEL SPOTLIGHT (1971) #12.
32 PGS./one-shot/All Ages …$3.99


Having read the above issue and the first chunk of Son of Satan comics in Essential Marvel Horror Vol. 1, I've been disappointed with almost every later appearance featuring the character. Like, when you first appear wearing a shirt but no cape, holding a trident made of psycho-sensitive devil metal "netharanium" and riding on a flaming chariot pulled by flying demon horses, it's kind of hard to maintain that level of intensity for, like 40 issues, let alone 40 years. But when he just shows up in a red suit and casting the occasional urban magic spell these days, well, it's almost always something of a let down.


SPIDER-MAN #1 (OF 5)
J.J. ABRAMS & HENRY ABRAMS (W) • SARA PICHELLI (A)
Cover by OLIVIER COIPEL
...
WHO IS CADAVEROUS?!
The most shocking and incredible comic of 2019 is here as J.J. ABRAMS (STAR WARS, STAR TREK, SUPER 8) and his son HENRY ABRAMS are joined by superstar artist SARA PICHELLI (MILES MORALES, GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) team up for SPIDER-MAN! What do they have planned for Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson?! Who is Cadaverous?! The Modern Master of Mystery Makes His Marvel this September!
40 PGS./Rated T …$4.99


Hm. This is an unexpected writing team. I suppose Abrams earns a gig writing a Marvel comic via the good at/popular in another medium route that many non-comics writers before him have scored such gigs in the past, but what about his son Henry Abrams? Is he there just because his dad is J.J. Abrams? (I don't see any writing credits for him at comics.org or IMDb.com). That, of course, doesn't necessarily mean he will be bad at writing comics or anything, but the nepotism is particularly in your face here and, in general, it's not like nepotism is a generally positive force in this world. Who am I to judge them personally, though? Like, I'm pretty sure if my dad was a pretty famous movie director, I'd ask him to help me get a gig writing comics, too. And I guess you can't blame Marvel too much either, as getting a popular filmmaker to write a comic for them was probably pretty appealing no matter which relatives he wants as his co-writer (Although I imagine the editors are hoping this goes better than that Iron Man comic Jon Favreau started, or Kevin Smith's Daredevil: Bullseye. Hopefully they've learned to not solicit miniseries from filmmakers until all of the scripts are in.)

That's a particularly strange choice of title for the comic, given that it's just a miniseries. I can't imagine why it isn't called Spider-Man: Cadaverous or something like that; it will certainly be sold in trade format with a sub-title.



STRIKEFORCE #1

TINI HOWARD (W) • Germán Peralta (A) • Cover by ANDREA SORRENTINO
...
NO COMPROMISE. NO MERCY.
ALL NEW, ONGOING SERIES!
From the dark minds of rising stars Tini Howard and Germán Peralta comes a tale of the underside of the Marvel Universe! A new threat is secretly taking over the planet -- and the more people who know about it, the more powerful the threat becomes. Blade dealt with this threat once before, and hoped to never have to again. He can’t bring the Avengers in on this -- not just for their own safety, but for the safety of everyone on Earth. So he must recruit a team of heroes accustomed to darkness -- a strikeforce. Blade, Angela, Spider-Woman, Wiccan, the Winter Soldier, Monica Rambeau and Daimon Hellstrom join forces to fight the fights that no other Marvel team can take on!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99


Based on the cover, the organizing principle of this team book is...characters chosen from a hat containing the names of all the Marvel characters...? There are a couple more mentioned in the solicitation copy, but they are just as random as all of those pictured on the cover/s. I'm unfamiliar with the work of the creators, and the team features such an odd make-up--like, original Champions odd--that I'm not sure what to make of the book. I do like Son of Satan (although I prefer him as he was in the comic pictured above, where he was more akin to a Satanic Namor than a ginger John Constanine) and Blade, so...we'll see.

It's a shame that Spider-Woman is back in her dumb bodypaint costume so soon after her redesign (and that she appears to be completely Porcupine-less).



*This is something I think about a lot, but I often wonder if the heroes who live in superhero universes are made more or less likely to have particular religious beliefs or practices, based on what they saw. Like, if you've been to hell or heaven and died and come back repeatedly or used ectoplasmic guns to hunt evil people for angels or whatever, does that make you 100% certain in the existence of God and the immortality of the soul and afterlives as sketched out by various religions, or do you instead just assume that those entities are just aliens and their realms of existence just alternate dimensions, like, I don't know, the god-like Watchers and Celestials and Asgardians and The Negative Zone and Asgard and so on. I think these questions are magnified in intensity in the DC Universe, where more characters have died and been resurrected more often, and The Spectre has been walking around and talking to the heroes for decades.

Anyway, the fact that The Punisher kills criminals like he's swatting insects makes me assume he hasn't given too much stock in heaven and hell, but I could very well be wrong, given I've missed something like 10,000 Punisher comics. A conversation between Conan the Barbarian and Frank the Punisherian makes me excited to read this series, though.

Friday, June 21, 2019

DC's September previews reviewed

Something about those piles of rubble in the foreground of this cover image to Batman #78 by Tony S. Daniel looks weird to me. I guess it's mostly that when we get a Batman "pose" cover like that, he's usually posing atop a gargoyle, rooftop or maybe even a sign or fire escape, rather than a pile of rubble. That is, presumably, reflective of the contents of the issue, and Daniel wanted to show that Gotham City was in more dire straits than is usually the case when Batman and/or Catwoman pose for covers.

On the other hand, the rubble piles are stacked in such a way, and lined up just so, that they also happen to obscure both characters' feet, which makes me wonder if the image wasn't composed specifically so that Daniel wouldn't have to draw feet. If so, mission accomplished! There are two people in the image, which equals four feet, but he ended up only having to draw, like, half a foot.

Man, the more I look at it, the more crowded and unsightly the image looks. Daniels has gotten to be pretty accomplished and Jim Lee-like figure work, but overall, that's a not-very-good cover image. I wonder what it will look like with the logo and other stuff added, making it still more of a jumble and, I imagine, obscuring important-ish information like Batman's head and the bat-signal.


Catwoman's ears look weird and horse-like here and I don't like them. Um, that is all. I didn't mean to dump on Daniel so much this post. I'm sorry, Mr. Daniel.

Oh hey, the lady Catwoman is attacking, is that Magpie...? It looks like her costume from Beware The Batman, but with her original, John Byrne-designed glasses. I really rather liked what they did with the character in that show; in fact, I think that particular cartoon is really underappreciated. The computer animation was not to my taste, and they certainly made some unusual choices, but I really dug the fact that the creators seemed to have sat down, reviewed all of the Batman villains ever, and then restricted themselves only to ones that hadn't appeared in all the previous Batman cartoons, so that instead of The Joker, Catwoman and Bane we got Anarky, Magpie and The Silver Monkey. It was a really weird show, but it was a good, refreshing kind of weird.

What was I talking about...?

Oh yeah, Batman #79's cover. I kind of love that Bane stamped his "logo" on those boxes. The solicitation mentions that Batman and Catwoman are teaming up to attack Bane's supply line or some such, and it doesn't look like it would take the World's Greatest Detective to find Bane's supplies...

Oh hey, Daniel didn't draw any feet on this cover, either! But see how much more natural the image looks? Like, the lack of feet was the tenth thing I noticed, not the first, and it doesn't seem to be an intentional design choice in the way that the awkwardly-placed rubble piles in the previous image did.


BATMAN AND THE JUSTICE LEAGUE MANGA VOL. 3 TP
written by SHIORI TESHIROGI
art and cover by SHIORI TESHIROGI
In the next chapter of the manga adventures of the World’s Greatest Super Heroes, Ocean Master has summoned a massive tidal wave to flood Gotham City! While Aquaman tries to reason with his brother, Batman is determined to stop him by any means necessary. Superman soon joins the fray, but the challenge becomes even greater when the mysterious oni known as Akurou summons a giant snake to engage the heroes. Plus, new villains arrive on the scene—Sinestro, Reverse-Flash and Cyborg Superman...and the nexus point of the greatest congestion of ley lines on Earth is revealed to be directly under the Batcave!
ON SALE 10.02.19
$12.99 US | 208 PAGES


Reminder: This series is great and I love it. I'm looking forward to meeting the new characters--well, new to this narrative, of course--and seeing how Teshirogi has redesigned them. That Reverse-Flash chest emblem, for example, looks neat.


Oh hey look! It's a Kevin Nowlan cover randomly atop an issue of Batman and The Outsiders! That's cool. Comics generally look better when they have Kevin Nowlan covers atop them. And look, he even incorporated black-colored lightning bolts into it, of the sort I've argued that maybe Black Lightning should be throwing around these days.

Sadly, Nowlan's just drawing the cover, and not the interior pages. Sadder still? He did not get to redesign poor Cassandra Cain's dumb "Orphan" costume...


BATMAN/SUPERMAN #2
written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
art and cover by DAVID MARQUEZ
variant cover by JEROME OPENA
The Batman Who Laughs’ plot is bigger than either the Caped Crusader or the Man of Steel realized. Following a showdown with the devious killer’s first sentinel, a jacked-up, Dark Multiverse-infected Shazam!, the pair has to figure out who else has been targeted for similar transformations. Their first two guesses: someone very close to Batman and the one hero that would make failure nearly impossible—Superman himself!
ON SALE 09.25.19
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T


Oh come on now. Is there a single Captain Marvel/Shazam fan on the planet who wants to read about a "jacked-up, Dark Multiverse-infected" version of the character...? No, the answer is no, there is not. And if a wisenheimer out there says that they are a fan of the character, they just wish he was a little more jacked-up and Dark Multiverse-infected, they are liars. Liars, I say!

Also, the jacked-up, Dark Multiverse-infected Shazam looks dumb...though not really any dumber than the New 52 redesign of the character, I guess. I wish they would have at least gone comically evil in the design, and given him, like a curly mustache or purple and green costume or something...

...

Oh no. I can't stop saying "jacked-up, Dark Multiverse-infected"...!


DCEASED: A GOOD DAY TO DIE #1
written by TOM TAYLOR
art by LAURA BRAGA, DARICK ROBERTSON and others
cover by RYAN SOOK
variant cover by FRANCESCO MATTINA
horror movie variant cover by YASMINE PUTRI
While the mainstays of the Justice League—Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman—battle the worldwide infection in the pages of DCEASED, a group of other heroes work to stop the impending apocalypse—no matter who they have to kill!
Mr. Terrific assembles a motley group of surviving heroes including Mister Miracle, Big Barda, John Constantine, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold as they attempt to fight back against the tide of death. Can this ragtag group save the world where the Justice League has thus far failed?
ONE-SHOT | ON SALE 09.04.19
$4.99 US | 48 PAGES
FC | RATED T+


I've only read the first issue of DCeased so far, but I really, really didn't like it.

It just read like DC's Marvel Zombies, but somehow even less inspired than the original Marvel Zombies which, remember, was a spin-off of a Mark Millar comic (Granted, that was before Millar had completely given up on trying, and had yet to transition into having popular artists draw up the notes from his old Marvel/DC pitch files as pitches for Hollywood movies starring Marvel and DC analogues but still).

I think it was all the more disappointing than it might have otherwise been because I've seen really rather great work from Tom Taylor, and a lame comic from a great comics writer will always read worse than a lame comic from a mediocre comics writer.

Anyway, it's apparently selling like hotcakes, so it's getting a spin-off featuring John Constantine and some of the publisher's fun third-stringer characters.

I'll try it again when they release it in trade, which I imagine will include this as well.


DOLLAR COMICS: DETECTIVE COMICS #854
written by GREG RUCKA
art by J.H. WILLIAMS III | cover by J.H. WILLIAMS III
Reprinting the first chapter of Batwoman’s epic clash with the Religion of Crime.
ON SALE 09.04.19
$1.00 US | 32 PAGES | FC


This appears to be DC's answer to Marvel's True Believers series of $1 reprint comics. I've never quite understood the exact economics of those, but my guess is that Marvel considers them as a sort of advertising for trade collections and/or runs of trades (certainly most of the ones I've bought and read end with a "Continued in..." slug referring the reader to a collected edition of some form).

The particular titles that DC is starting with here are the first appearance of Batwoman outside of 52 (the first chapter in her first starring solo arc), the first chapter of the "Hush" story arc in Batman (which is not a very good storyline, although it doesn't fully fall apart until the last chapter or so, and up until then is mostly an okay "Greatest Hits" type of story in which Jeph Loeb has a popular artist draw all the Batman characters), the first issue of the first New 52 Harley Quinn ongoing (which I sort of hated, as it was the introduction of the Jimmy Palmiotti/Amanda Conner "Deadpool, but sexy" take on the character, but I was and am obviously in the minority there) and the first issue of Crisis On Infinite Earths (which every DC fan should read, if only to see George Perez draw the entire DC character catalog circa the mid-1980s).

In addition to being single issues that point toward particular collections, three of the four have multi-media tie-ins, in the form of an upcoming Batwoman TV show, a direct-to-DVD animated adaptation of "Hush" and a Harley Quinn animated series (plus that Birds of Prey movie). Actually, I think the "Arrowverse" stuff have been doing things with the infinite Earths and Monitor, so hell, maybe that counts too, I don't know.

I'm certainly on board with DC publishing $1 reprints, as I like cheap comics and have always preferred DC's characters to Marvel's, but I won't be purchasing any of these, on account of the fact that I've already bought and read all of these.



DOOM PATROL BY JOHN BYRNE OMNIBUS HC
written by JOHN BYRNE with CHRIS CLAREMONT
art by JOHN BYRNE, DOUG HAZLEWOOD, JERRY ORDWAY and others
cover by JOHN BYRNE
The original World’s Strangest Heroes are back, in the way that only the legendary John Byrne can deliver! Picking up in the wake of the events of “The Tenth Circle” saga in JLA, this series reunites Robotman, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man and Niles Caulder with a host of edgy new superheroes! They’ve defeated the vampire Crucifer...or have they? This title collects JLA #94-99, DOOM PATROL #1-18, SUPERMAN #20, a story from SECRET ORIGINS ANNUAL #1 and behind-the-scenes material.
ON SALE 02.19.20
$75.00 US | 7.0625” x 10.875”
672 PAGES | FC
ISBN: 978-1-779500847


I'm sort of surprised to see this here, although I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, as there is a Doom Patrol TV show now, and that show looks pretty good from what I've seen of it (that is, trailers on YouTube). In addition to John Byrne's relatively short-lived Doom Patrol series, this collects the JLA arc by Byrne and Chris Claremont that rebooted the Doom Patrol independently of the rest of the DC Universe (in my reading experience, those types of reboots never work, and will just be cleaned up in the next line-wide reboot anyway), and, if memory serves, this signaled the ruining of the Doom Patrol characters for a bit and, more relevantly to me at the time, the beginning of JLA's slide into irrelevance prior to its relaunch after Infinite Crisis.

Prior to this JLA arc, the book was written by Grant Morrison (with fill-in issues and arcs by Mark Waid, Mark Millar and Waid and Devin K. Grayson), then by Mark Waid (with one fill-in issue by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty), then Joe Kelly (with a fill-in by Rick Veitch), and then there was a three-issue arc written by Denny O'Neill where the book got...weird, essentially becoming an anthology series, with an arc apiece from Byrne and Claremont (bad!), Chuck Austen (bad!), Kurt Busiek (great!), Geoff Johns (better than Identity Crisis, at least!) and Bob Harras (okay!). The Byrne and Claremont  arc was the second of those arcs from the "Fuck it, it's an anthology now" period of the book. So while it's not necessarily Byrne's fault, when I think of the Byrne Doom Patrol, I think about my once-favorite comic book title falling apart.

That said, I never read any of these comics. I think I read JLA #94 and maybe #99. I do not feel any great compulsion to read it now, either.

I like the reference to "edgy new heroes" in the solicitations, though. The only "new" Doom Patroler I remember was a gorilla who had not two but four arms. That's twice as many arms as gorillas usually have! Edgy!


GOTHAM CITY MONSTERS #1
written by STEVE ORLANDO
art by AMANCAY NAHUELPAN
cover by PHILIP TAN
...
Leviathan has dismantled S.H.A.D.E.—and that means Frankenstein is once again a free agent! Now he can set his sights on his former mentor, Melmoth, the one evil that got away. With bad things happening all across the Multiverse, this may be Frankenstein’s last shot at setting things right. Of course, Melmoth has his own agenda, and it’s going to take more than a lone monster to take him down. So Frankenstein heads to Gotham City in search of allies and recruits Killer Croc, Lady Clayface, Orca and vampire Andrew Bennett. But will even these dread creatures be enough to save humanity before the entire cosmos collapses in on itself?
ON SALE 09.11.19
$3.99 US | 1 OF 6 | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T+


Steve Orlando, an apparent Grant Morrison fan turned professional comics writer who writes Morrison creations, gets his hands on another Morrison co-creation...or, re-co-creation, I guess.

I've read enough of Orlando's work to know this is very much not for me (and I'm still pissed off about that Promethea appearance), but I think it's worth pointing out the appearance of Orca, The Whale Woman on the team line-up. Everyone thought it was so funny when Larry Hama and Scott McDaniel introduced her in a 2000 Batman arc and now, not even 20 years later, she's been in a movie and is a Lego and has become a recurring villain in the pages of Nightwing and now a new miniseries called Gotham Monsters featuring, like, one to three monsters from Gotham.

Orca is a good example, I think, of creating new characters for your Big Two super-comics, even if it means you lose ownership of them (Especially if they're just so-so characters; like, Hama and McDaniel were unlikely to ever do an Orca, The Whale Woman ongoing series at Image and then see it optioned by a studio and turned into a blockbuster movie). Maybe Orlando will create some new characters some day. In the meantime, I guess he'll stick to those Morrison has created and worked on...?

"Lady Clayface" is a particularly weird inclusion on the team. I only remember her appearing in a couple of Batman stories proper (as opposed to Batman and The Outsiders), most memorably "The Mud Pack" four-parter by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle, and she was thus never much of an ongoing presence in Gotham City. I think the last I saw here was when Jean-Paul Valley was Batman, but Wikipedia says she is in Johns' Watchmen II: The Story Continues, sooooooooo maybe this is a post-whatever-Johns-is-doing-to-continuity storyline...? That, or she's being reintroduced here for the first time; Clayface continuity is probably the part of Batman continuity most screwed up by The New 52boot.

 Like, yeah, obviously the Robins and Batgirls are all fucked up now in terms of who came when and which stories happened and how, but the Clayfaces aren't really touched on...they seem to have just given Clayface I the powers of Clayface II and left it at that; I don't know if Clayfaces II-IV even existed anymore...


Hey, that's the least terrible Carol Ferris has looked in a long time...! Another high five for the The Green Lantern artist Liam Sharp!


HARLEY QUINN AND POISON IVY #1
written by JODY HOUSER
art by ADRIANA MELO
cover by ELENA CASAGRANDE
...
Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are taking their show on the road in this new miniseries! They’ll have to evade villains and heroes alike while they explore their relationship and unpack their time and experiences at Sanctuary. Set after the events of HEROES IN CRISIS and smack in the middle of “Year of the Villain,” it’s a journey across the DC Universe that will change their friendship forever...if they live that long!
ON SALE 09.04.19
$3.99 US | 1 OF 6 | 32 PAGES
CARD STOCK VARIANT COVERS $4.99
FC | RATED T+


What's the comic book equivalent of the term "box office poison"...? Is it just "comic shop poison"...? Because I've gotten the sense that no one really liked Heroes In Crisis much at all, and I wonder how series spinning out of and deliberately name-checking DC's logic-defying story of superhero PTSD/super-mass shooting-esque events/hero-turned-murderer will be received. Usually these two characters are played for laughs when they are together, but then there's that whole Heroes In Crisis angle, as well as a reference to the "Year of the Villain" effort, which seems to involved Underworld Unleashed-like villain upgrades.

By the way, what the fuck is going on with Ivy's design on that cover...? She looks oddly Swamp Thing-y...



INFERIOR FIVE #1
written by KEITH GIFFEN and JEFF LEMIRE
art and cover by KEITH GIFFEN and MICHELLE DELECKI
backup story written by JEFF LEMIRE
backup story art by JEFF LEMIRE
variant cover by JEFF LEMIRE
The citizens of Dangerfield, Arizona, are beset by strange goings-on after the “Invasion” that rocked the DC Universe, but only five misfit kids seem to notice them. Can they uncover what’s happening before some sinister force collects them all? Find out in this new miniseries!
And in the backup feature with story and art by Jeff Lemire, the Peacemaker is on a top-secret mission from Checkmate and Amanda Waller to find a mysterious weapon before the Russians can.
ON SALE 09.18.18 | $3.99 US
1 OF 12 | 32 PAGES | FC | RATED T


Weird. Given that the solicitation copy seems to suggest a "new" Inferior Five rather than the originals--last seen in the pages of Scooby-Doo Team-Up!--and that their story is the work of Keith Giffen, I am going to hazard to guess that the existence of this book has something to do with trademark renewal, but that doesn't mean it won't also be worthwhile. I imagine some folks will be more excited by the prospect of Giffen doing his own art (or at least part of it) than by the fact that there's an Inferior Five reboot coming down the pipeline.

The fact that the book is being paired with a Peacemaker back-up is also kind of weird, and that's another character so out-of-left field that I have a feeling that characters was on the same list as the Inferior Five, in terms of IP DC has to do something with every so often for some legal reason. Or maybe in hopes of getting a sixth CW show going, I don't know. A Checkmate-related story seems oddly timed too, given that Bendis' big event comic was premised on Leviathan dismantling all such organizations.

Anyway, that too will have Lemire drawing his own comic, for the first time in...way too long, really. I was just thinking the other day how weird it is that I've enjoyed all of Lemire's personal work for Top Shelf and elsewhere, but his superhero writing has always left me cold, and I wondered if part of it wasn't just the corporate, doing-it-for-the-paycheck aspect as much as cartoonists tend to do their best writing when they are also drawing that same work.

Anyway, this is the all-around most surprising solicit of the month, I think.



JUSTICE LEAGUE #31
written by SCOTT SNYDER and JAMES TYNION IV
art by JORGE JIMENEZ
cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
variant cover by JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO
“The Justice Doom War” part two! The culmination of Lex Luthor’s plan hinges on his beating the Justice League to the prize, ratcheting up the peril as the Year of the Villain continues! The Totality has shattered and its pieces have been tossed across space and time. Thus, the Justice League must also split apart, forming three search teams to comb the past, present, and future to re-combine the Totality before the Legion of Doom can get its villainous hands on the cosmic weapon. What allies will our heroes find in these other timelines? In the future, it’s the Last Boy on Earth, Kamandi! But in the past, there are the familiar faces of the Justice Society of America!
ON SALE 09.04.19
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T+


Oh wow, I really like that first cover, which is Julian Totino Tedesco's variant cover for the issue. I like that all of the pictured characters seem to be striking poses that are fairly natural-ish for them, and to be all doing so on the same cover. The Batman pose is pretty nice, too; on a Batman comic (or in a Batman comic) we would see him coming at us from the front, but here, on a JLA cover, we see him from a different point of view. I also lie that everyone seems to be wearing spandex or tights of some kind, rather than weird, sectional armor (aside from Wonder Woman, of course). Hell, I don't even see The Flash's stupid lightning bolt-shaped eyebrow patterns on his cowl, but maybe that's just because it's far away.

As nice as that cover image is, though, that's probably not the one that will be talked about most, given the fact that the JSA is on the cover of the other one, and while this may involve some dumb multiverse stuff, where the JSA ends up inhabiting some kind of Earth-2.9 or whatever, I'm hopeful that the DCU is being restored to it's post-Crisis, pre-Flashpoint continuity, at least regarding the Golden Age heroes having existed in the DCU, as foreshadowed in DC Universe: Rebirth. Maybe Geoff Johns' Watchmen Vs. Justice League story is finally wrapping up and they can make good on shooting off all the Chekov guns in that one-shot from a million months ago...

Anyway, the JSA is back! Hooray!


That's quite an unfortunate haircut on poor Klarion, The Witch Boy, a kid not really known for having decent-looking haircuts. The Floronic Man and Solomon Grundy have both seen better days too, come to think of it...


LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES: MILLENNIUM #1
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
art by JIM LEE, DUSTIN NGUYEN, ANDREA SORRENTINO, ANDRE ARAUJO and others
cover by RYAN SOOK
...
Brought to you by some of comics’ greatest talents, this epic story spans the course of 1,000 years and, for the very first time, connects all of DC’s future timelines! Starring the unlikeliest of DC heroes as she learns to cope with newfound immortality and roams through the disparate societies of Batman Beyond, Kamandi and Tommy Tomorrow, wrestling with her own inner demons and desperately trying to find her purpose in an ever-changing world. Do not miss this truly unique take on tomorrow’s DC Universe, all leading up to a special launch on the millennium!
ON SALE 09.04.19
$4.99 US | 1 OF 2 | 40 PAGES
FC | RATED T


Hmm. I have no particular interest in the Legion of Super-Heroes characters or comics--although I do find a couple of aspects of the basic concept extremely compelling--so I am not one of the many, many DC fans who will likely be very excited that DC seems committed to bringing them back in some capacity (a return that, like that of the JSA, was teased forever ago now, in the pages of DC Universe: Rebirth). I think the fact that Bendis appears to be attached to their return in some capacity also means DC is committed to making it work this time too, in the way the team's way too many past reboots indicate that DC wasn't too terribly invested into whatever was going on 1,000 years in their future.

Personally, I thought writer Geoff Johns had done a pretty solid job of "fixing" the franchise forever ago, when he was writing Action Comics and did that Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds series, but just like everything else Johns seemed to have fixed for the publisher, that too was jettisoned in The New 52 reboot.

I hope I'll be able to read this one day. Andrea Sorrentino's inclusion makes me think I might not be able too. Like, I know this is more a matter of personal taste than the quality of the art or the talent involved in producing it (although Sorrentino's storytelling does leave a lot to be desired), but I just have a really, really hard time reading his art.

Given the subtitle, and its history at DC Comics, I can't help but wonder if this will have any kind of connection to the 1988 crossover event, particularly since Millennium seemed to have such an influence on Bendis' Secret Invasion series.


LOIS LANE #3
written by GREG RUCKA
art and cover by MIKE PERKINS
variant cover by NICOLA SCOTT
Jon Kent surprises his mother with a visit to her hideout in Chicago with big news that ties directly into the events of SUPERMAN #15, also on sale this month. While Lois must deal with her now-17-year-old son making life-changing decisions, the two Questions—Renee Montoya and Vic Sage—try to understand their own confusing continuity.
ON SALE 09.04.19
$3.99 US | 3 OF 12 | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T


Wait, Jon is 17 now? Jeez, the last time I saw his age mentioned in a comic book he was still too young to technically qualify to be a Teen Titan. They really do grow up fast.


NAOMI SEASON ONE HC
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS and DAVID F. WALKER
art and cover by JAMAL CAMPBELL
DC’s biggest, newest mystery starts here! When a fight between Superman and Mongul crashes into a small Northwestern town, Naomi begins to uncover the last time a super-powered person visited her home—and how that might tie into her own origins and adoption. Follow Naomi’s journey on a quest that will take her to the heart of the DC Universe and unfold a universe of ideas and stories that have never been seen before. Join writers Brian Michael Bendis and David Walker and breakout artist Jamal Campbell in Wonder Comics’ massively ambitious new series and star...Naomi. Collects NAOMI issues #1-6.
ON SALE 10.23.19
$19.99 US | 160 PAGES
FC | ISBN: 978-1-4012-9495-3


I can't believe how wrong they spelled the word "volume." It's V-O-L-U-M-E, not S-E-A-S-O-N.


SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP #50
written by SHOLLY FISCH
art and cover by SCOTT JERALDS
Magical fanboy imps Bat-Mite and Scooby-Mite are back—and they’ve brought along a host of Batmen and Scooby-Doos! But when the mites conjure up the ultimate trans-dimensional menace for our heroes to battle, will even a League of Batmen and Society of Scoobies be enough to save their infinite Earths? Plus, can they unravel the mystery behind the shadowy figure known only as…Scrappy-Doo?
ON SALE 09.25.19
$2.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED E
FINAL ISSUE


What?! "Final issue"...?! That's...that's about the worst comics news I can imagine! Scooby-Doo Team-Up is one of only two regular, ongoing series that I order in single issues anymore (the other is Justice League), so this, like, the second-to-last nail in the coffin of my comic book buying, as opposed to graphic novel buying, I guess.

The good news is that this sounds like it might be a particularly awesome issue. I've often wondered about some sort of "Crisis of Infinite Scooby-Doos" type of comic or cartoon story, in which the various Scooby Gangs of all their many iterations intersect in some way. I doubt that's what this will be--like, I don't see Freddie Prinze Jr or Robbie Amell's live action Fred Jones appearing alongside the trap-obsessed lunkhead from Mystery Incorporated and the pint-sized, buzzcut conspiracy theorist of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, as awesome as that might be--but rather Scooby-Doos from alternate dimensions. I hope those Scoobies will correspond to extant worlds in the DC Multiverse that correspond to the Batman's that appear. Like, I would love to see Earth-3's evil Scooby Gang, Earth-2's World War II-era Scooby Gang, Earth-X's Nazi Scooby Gang...maybe a Scoobies from the world of Kamandi where he's a hyper-evolved dog man and the kids are barbarians, or from the world of the Atomic Knights, where the gang rides around on Scooby's back or...Oh man, is there a Scooby-Doo from the Elseworlds Red Rain-verse? A Scooby-Doo '66? (If so, would Scooby and company even be distinguishable from the characters in the first season of the original Scooby-Doo cartoon?) Does the Dark Knight Returns-iverse have a Scooby-Doo? Is there a Scooby-Doo One Million?!

Oh man, the more I think about Scooby-Doos from all the worlds that have Batmen, I am getting more jazzed--I hope this is 80-pages long and drawn by an all-star roster of artists...

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I have to go write some Scooby-Doo Meets Vampire Batman fan-fic, and imagine everyone looks like Kelley Jones drew them...