DC's April previews reviewed

ACTION COMICS #1000
Cover by JIM LEE and SCOTT WILLIAMS
Stories and art by an all-star lineup of top talent
Celebrate 1000 issues of Action Comics with an all-star lineup of top talent as they pay tribute to the comic that started it all! From today’s explosive action to a previously unpublished tale illustrated by the legendary Curt Swan to the Man of Tomorrow’s future—this very special, oversized issue presents the best of the best in Superman stories!

FEATURING ALL-NEW ART AND STORIES BY:

BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
JOHN CASSADAY
OLIVIER COIPEL
PAUL DINI
JOSE LUIS GARCIA-LOPEZ
PATRICK GLEASON
BUTCH GUICE
GEOFF JOHNS
DAN JURGENS
TOM KING
JIM LEE
CLAY MANN
BRAD MELTZER
JERRY ORDWAY
TIM SALE
LOUISE SIMONSON
SCOTT SNYDER
CURT SWAN
PETER J. TOMASI
MARV WOLFMAN
…AND MORE!

DECADES-SPANNING OPEN-TO-ORDER VARIANT COVERS BY:

STEVE RUDE (1930s)
MICHAEL CHO (1940s)
DAVE GIBBONS (1950s)
MICHAEL ALLRED (1960s)
JIM STERANKO (1970s)
JOSHUA MIDDLETON (1980s)
DAN JURGENS (1990s)
LEE BERMEJO (2000s)
…PLUS A BLANK VARIANT COVER!
PRESTIGE FORMAT • NO ADS • On sale APRIL 18 • 80 pg, FC, $7.99 US • RATED T

Here it is, the one-thousandth issue of Action Comics, a milestone that loses a bit of its impact thanks to DC's Marvel-ous numbering shenanigans with the title over the course of the last few years. Of the involved creators, the big name there is definitely Brian Michael Bendis, the long-time Marvel creator who will be making his DC Comics debut with this comic. Bendis is also an artist, although nothing he's drawn has been published in...well, a damn long time, really, not counting reprints of his older, pre-Marvel comics. I would love to find out that he is illustrating his own contribution to this book, but I am almost certain that is not the case. Fun fact: Bendis and Superman share a home town; they both come from Cleveland.

The rest of the contributors are all fairly predictable ones, so I find myself most curious about the "...AND MORE!" creators. Hopefully Jon Bogdanove's one of them...he has to be, right? And Garth Ennis and John McCrea, who were responsible for one of the better Superman stories I've ever read. Hell, maybe the "...AND MORE!" will even include a second female woman lady contributor! Imagine a woman drawing Superman...anything is possible!

BATMAN #45
Written by TOM KING • Art by TONY S. DANIEL and SANDU FLOREA • Cover by TONY S. DANIEL
...
“THE TRAVELERS” part one! Booster Gold has come to Gotham City, and he’s enlisting Batman and Catwoman to go on a time-traveling mission to rescue…Booster Gold! It seems a younger Booster Gold has gone back in time to kidnap an even younger version of himself, and to rescue his own past, Booster must pursue both of his previous incarnations through Batman’s history to find out what is going on. The start of a new story that will sow the seeds for a whole new epic to come—and also the return of Master Class artist Tony S. Daniel (DAMAGE) to BATMAN!
On sale APRIL 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Huh. A Booster Gold story by someone who is not Dan Jurgens; this could prove pretty interesting. Writer Tom King's portrayal of DC superheroes who aren't part of the Bat-family proper in this book have been pretty hit or miss so far (Superman? Hit. Wonder Woman? Miss), so I'll be curious to see what he does with a character like Booster Gold, especially considering how divorced from the regular Batman milieu time travel is.

I was a little surprised to see that Tony Daniel is handling the art on this, though, as he has his own regular book he's supposed to be drawing and creating coming out on a monthly basis now. Perhaps he got so far ahead on Damage that he had room in his schedule to do a few issues of Batman...?

BATMAN ’66 OMNIBUS HC
Written by JEFF PARKER, TOM PEYER, ART BALTAZAR, FRANCO, LEN WEIN, HARLAN ELLISON, MIKE W. BARR, RAY FAWKES and others
Art by JONATHAN CASE, TY TEMPLETON, RUBEN PROCOPIO, CHRIS SPROUSE, CHRISTOPHER JONES, MICHAEL AVON OEMING, DARIO BRIZUELA and others
Cover by MICHAEL ALLRED
Put on your go-go boots and get ready to “Batusi” as DC reimagines the classic Batman TV show! In these tales, the Dynamic Duo takes on the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, the Penguin, the Mad Hatter, The Joker and more of the world’s most colorful Bat-villains! And in BATMAN ’66: THE LOST EPISODE #1, an outline from the original TV series featuring Two-Face is adapted to comics for the first time!
This new Omnibus collects BATMAN ’66 #1-30, BATMAN ’66: THE LOST EPISODE #1 and a story from SOLO #7.
On sale AUGUST 8 • 928 pg, FC • $125.00 US

Any excuse to post a Mike Allred image! So, this is just about everything Batman '66 DC ever published, excepting only the various crossovers with other TV shows or, in that one case, the Legion of Super-Heroes. That's a pretty great package, then. I can't imagine this is the best way to experience those comics--omnibuses that big can be hard to hold together for too long, I've noticed from too-fat comics collections circulating at the library--but those are some pretty great comics and man, just look at that line-up of writers and artists above...

Wow. That is a damn fine cover by Freddie Williams II. It will be affixed to the cover of the final issue of Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II.

DAMAGE #4
Written by ROB VENDITTI • Art by CARY NORD • Cover by TONY S. DANIEL
Poison Ivy attacks a group of fieldworkers, forcing Ethan to choose between transforming into Damage and saving them—or protecting his own sanity! And will Colonel Jonas and her squad capture him before he discovers the truth about what he really is?
On sale APRIL 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Oh. So that's how Tony Daniel was able to find the time to draw this month's issue of Batman. That's weird, because this suite of books--originally announced as "Dark Matter", but later changed to the more anodyne "New Age of Heroes--was specifically sold as a line of books created by and drawn by particular artists. In the case of Damage #1, Daniel even got top-billing over writer Rob Venditti in the first issue.

Now, Cary Nord is a great artist, and I would be much more likely to read a comic book with Cary Nord art in it than I would be to read a comic book with Tony Daniel art in it, but I can't imagine that this is good for the sales of a comic book which has been marketed and sold for a few months as "the Tony Daniel book." As I said of the first issue, Daniel seems to be the only selling-point of what is otherwise a pretty naked Hulk analogue/rip-off.

There's something very first-few-years-of-Image Comics about this...

That's a pretty nice cover by Tim Seeley for April's issue of Hellblazer.

NIGHTWING #42
Written by COLLIN KELLY and JACKSON LANZING • Art by JORGE CORONA • Cover by JORGE JIMENEZ
...
“THE CRIMSON KABUKI”! When Damian Wayne disappears during a solo mission to Tokyo, Nightwing must enter the seedy underworld to save the boy who was once his Robin. But Dick will have to ascend the Crimson Kabuki’s tower of crime and survive a game of death against three of Japan’s most powerful fighters. Can Nightwing defeat an entire building of elite fighters, or will he lose Damian forever?
On sale APRIL 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

NIGHTWING #43
Written by MICHAEL MORECI • Art by MINKYU JUNG • Cover by JORGE JIMENEZ • Variant cover by YASMINE PUTRI
“THE BRAVE, THE OBNOXIOUS AND THE INEPT”! All Dick Grayson wants is a night to himself. But when Robin and Arsenal come calling in need of his help, Dick has to throw on his Nightwing costume and get to work. Before he knows it, he’s neck-deep in League of Assassin ninjas and trying to stop Arsenal’s sometime-girlfriend from killing them all—assuming Robin and Arsenal don’t kill each other first!
On sale APRIL 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Wow, those pants do not go with that skin-tight superhero costume at all, Dick...

So, what's going on with Nightwing? That's two consecutive issues by two entirely different creative teams, neither of which includes current regular writer Sam Humphries. Was Humprhies run only meant to be a single arc, or is he just taking April off, and because the book is bi-weekly, that means we get two fill-in issues by two fill-in teams...?

Well, I suppose I'll stick around a bit, as I do like the Dick Grayson/Damian team. I would really be interested in seeing Damian and Roy Harper interacting...were this Roy Harper still the "real" Roy Harper. I don't have any interest in or knowledge of the rebooted version of Roy, let alone any affection for him, as I did for the pre-Flashpoint version of the character.

Scooby-Doo Team-Up: The best DC superhero comic, or the best superhero comic from any publisher?

I like how hard the title character of The Silencer is smooshing her gun into Deathstroke's face on this cover. I suppose it's worth noting that John Romita JR is just drawing the cover of this issue of his comic, while Viktor Bogdanovic is drawing the interiors. So of the four "New Age of Heroes" books shipping in August, two of them already have fill-in artists drawing them. Not a good sign for a group of books that was always going to have an uphill battle to survive the modern direct market.

SUPERMAN #44
Written by PATRICK GLEASON and PETER J. TOMASI • Art and cover by PATRICK GLEASON • Variant cover by JONBOY MEYERS
“BOYZARRO RE-DEATH” part three! Gathered together from the cosmic recesses of the universe are the most powerful forces of bad ever assembled! Now the Super Foes face the Legion of Fun—and the only heroes who dare to stand against this intergalactic threat of the Bizarroverse are Superman and son!
On sale APRIL 4 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

SUPERMAN #45
Written by PATRICK GLEASON and PETER J. TOMASI • Art and cover by PATRICK GLEASON • Variant cover by JONBOY MEYERS
“BOYZARRO RE-DEATH” finale! The challenge of the Bizarroverse continues as the Super Foes battle the Legion of Fun! As Superman and Son return to Hamilton for a quick recharge, they learn what the little town truly meant to them—and what they meant to the locals of the town.
On sale APRIL 18 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Damn, that is a great-looking cover. I dropped this title a while back in order to switch to trade. It's going to be difficult to not buy these issues in the shop the week they come out.

SUPERMAN BY MARK MILLAR TP
Written by MARK MILLAR
Art by ALUIR AMANCIO, MIKE MANLEY, SEAN PHILLIPS, MIKE WIERINGO, GEORGES JEANTY, JACKSON GUICE and others • Cover by BRIAN STELFREEZE
This collection brings together timeless tales from Superman’s goodbye to Earth to Lois Lane’s personal account of a life forever changed by Superman. And from his Eisner-nominated run on SUPERMAN ADVENTURES come stories that explore the heart of Superman and the root of Lex Luthor’s obsession with him. Plus, a tale of a world in which Detective Harvey Dent goes from man to Superman.
Collects SUPERMAN: TEAM SUPERMAN #1, TANGENT COMICS: THE SUPERMAN #1, SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #19, 25-27, 30, 31, 36, 52 and stories from SUPERMAN 80-PAGE GIANT #2 and DC ONE MILLION 80-PAGE GIANT #1,000,000.
On sale MAY 30 • 280 pg, FC • $29.99 US

So if you only know Mark Millar from his mostly garbage Millarworld comics and his annoying interviews, it may surprise you to learn that he used to write some damn fine comics, and that his Superman comics of the 1990s were some all-time classics, particularly his work on Superman Adventures, the comic based on the Superman: The Animated Series cartoon. Swear to God. I've read all of these save the Tangent Comics special and the short from the 80-page giant (God, I used to love the 80-page giants, though!), and they are all pretty great. I would not be surprised to find that the two I didn't read were pretty good too.

TITANS ANNUAL #2
Written by DAN ABNETT • Art by TOM GRUMMETT • Cover by PAUL PELLETIER and ANDREW HENNESSY
“Titans Apart” finale! Arsenal and Donna discover the truth about the Bliss conspiracy…only they’re too late! With the Justice League off the board and the Titans divided, who will stand against the evil Brain as he attempts to create his new world order—and kill everyone on Earth in the process?
On sale APRIL 25 • 48 pg, FC, $4.99 US • RATED T

Okay, stupid question: Have Monsieur Mallah and/or The Brain appeared in the New 52-iverse yet...? It seems like they would have had to by now--like perhaps in Forever Evil somewhere...?--but I can't remember seeing them anywhere.