DC's May previews reviewed

What kind of terrible monsters run DC Comics?! The images above are the two covers for Action Comics 2022 Annual #1, one by Francesco Francavilla and one by Steve Rude. I can't believe DC is making people choose between the two! 

That's cruel and unusual, that's what that is. 

So CBR's headline for their posting of DC's May solicits said "Aquaman Goes Adults-Only", which sure made it sound like we'd be getting some kind of Aquaman porn comic, but apparently they were simply referring to Aquaman: Andromeda #1, a prestige-format, 17+ sci-fi horror comic starring the Atlantean Ace. 

Will Aquaman's penis be in this issue, or did DC decide against showing their superheroes nude after that first printing of Batman: Damned #1...? I guess we'll have to wait and see! This is by writer Ram V and artist Christian Ward. 

Based on Howard Porter's cover for Batman #123, it looks like Prometheus has a role of some kind to play in the ongoing Batman event, "Shadow War." Poor Prometheus. The guy took on—and almost took down—the entire JLA in one of his first appearances, and he's been fairly ill-used ever since the last time his co-creator Grant Morrison wrote him, in JLA arc "World War III". Now the one-time anti-Batman and League-level threat appears to be just another Batman villain. 

Er, not to judge this story before I actually read it, of course...! I'm just thinking of some of the past Prometheus stories I've read, and the character's general trend. Hopefully writer Joshua Williamson restores the character to his original stature in this outting, but I guess we'll see. 

It sure is nice to see Porter drawing the character again, though! 

I've been waiting a long time for Sam Hamm and Joe Quinones'  collected Batman'89. Not simply since it was announced, but more like 33 years. 

One of the stories in Batman anthology Batman: Urban Legends #15 is, as artist Riley Rossmo's variant cover makes clear, a Batman/Plastic Man team-up. I'm pretty tempted to buy the issue just for that, even though it's not clear whose responsible for it (Rossmo's not listed as an interior artist, but he does a pretty neat Plas, huh? I bet he'd be well-suited to the character, based on what I've seen of his work elsewhere). I suppose it will show up in a trade I could just borrow from the library eventually though, huh?

I find this genuinely interesting. DC is publishing a $35, 360-page trade collection entitled Black Adam: Rise and Fall of an Empire that is essentially all of the Black Adam bits from 52 extracted from that series  and then reassembled to tell just that one storyline from the ensemble book. 

I can sort of understand whey they're doing it, as they want to get all the Black Adam product in stores they can to capitalize on the rather silly-looking movie that's coming out, but I don't know, that's an awfully weird way to get an extra Black Adam trade. 

I can't imagine how it will read. My guess is that it should hang together pretty nicely, given the mostly isolated nature of many of the storylines in that series, but I can't imagine it will look all that great. While 52 was an excellent comic, the artwork was almost necessarily weaker because of the relentless pace of a weekly comic.

DC's also offering a 52 omnibus this month, for those who want to read the whole series. 

This Earth-Prime series starring the heroes of the CW TV shows based on DC Comics is not for me, but, again, I'm a big fan of cover artist Kim Jacinto's work. If Jacinto were drawing the interiors, I might actually be tempted to pick one of these up. (Who is the scary-looking alien on the Legends of Tomorrow issue, by the way?)

Rossmo draws a pretty great Batwoman, too. This is his cover for Harley Quinn #15.

Juan Gedon and Daniel Warren Johnson achieve a sort of perfect balance between incredibly dumb and totally awesome with Jurassic League #1, the first issue of a miniseries which casts the Justice League as anthropomorphic dinosaurs. It's a genuinely great idea for a one-shot, but this sucker is going to be six issues long. Its going to have to be extremely well-made then, to justify its continued existence after the shock of the title and concept wears off. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing if they can really pull this off. 

They're really embracing the Nightwing-as-a-source-of-beefcake thing, huh? This is a variant cover for Nightwing #92.

Robin #14 is the seventh chapter of the "Shadow War" event. I'm not sure if Connor Hawke is even in the story or not, but he is on this Dexter Soy variant cover for the issue, and I like that Connor Hawke fellow. 

The great James Stokoe provides a cover for the goofily titled Shadow War: Omega #1. He provides just the cover though, so don't get too excited.