DC's November previews reviewed

ADVENTURES OF THE SUPER SONS #4
written by PETER J. TOMASI
art by CARLO BARBERI and ART THIBERT
cover by DAN MORA
Jon Kent learns it’s better to be dead than red…Kryptonite, that is! Traveling the cosmos to get home and escape the intergalactic teen baddies known as the Gang, Superboy and Robin wind up on the so-called “Planet of Mystery.” There, Superboy deals with Red Kryptonite exposure, which throws his powers out of whack, while the planet haunts and taunts them both with nightmare creatures. They’ll need to wrap up this rest stop ASAP though, as the Gang is hot on their tails looking for a pound of flesh—which is a lethal amount when you’re a tween!
ON SALE 11.07.18
$3.99 US | 4 of 12 | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T

I applaud the "Planet of Mystery." Nice job, Peter Tomasi.

Hey look, in the background, near the top of this cover of Aquaman...is that Orca, The Whale Woman? Orca, The Whale Woman is in the midst of quite a revival these days, I tell you.

Wow, imagine how tight Batgirl's costume must be for it to conform so tightly to her rib bones that you can see them through it like that. That was never a problem for her with her previous costume.

JUSTICE LEAGUE/AQUAMAN: DROWNED EARTH #1
written by JAMES TYNION IV
art and cover by HOWARD PORTER
...
“Drowned Earth” part one! The Ocean Lords—ancient sea gods with a grudge against Aquaman and Wonder Woman—invade the Earth with an alien army and flood the globe. As Batman, Superman and the Flash race to stop the waters from rising and turning everyone into aquatic monsters, Mera seeks the advice of an old enemy, and Arthur must face down Black Manta…or lose his connection to the ocean forever!
RETROSOLICITED | ONE-SHOT
ON SALE 10.31.18
$4.99 US | 48 PAGES
FC | RATED T+

AQUAMAN/JUSTICE LEAGUE: DROWNED EARTH #1
written by SCOTT SNYDER
art by FRANCIS MANAPUL and
HOWARD PORTER
cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL
...
“DROWNED EARTH” finale! Aquaman faces the truth behind Atlantis’ past and must find a way to reclaim the power of his birthright or watch the floodwaters drown everything he has ever loved! With the world at stake and the Justice League on their last sea legs in their battle against the Ocean Lords, Arthur makes the ultimate sacrifice to return balance to land and sea!
ONE-SHOT
ON SALE 11.28.18
$4.99 US | 48 PAGES
FC | RATED T

Sigh...

Okay, so Justice League, which along with Scooby-Doo Team-Up is the only DC comic I am still buying and reading serially, is doing a weird event story in November. It will involve two issues of the title, #11 and #12, plus Aquaman #42, which is officially a "tie-in" as opposed to part of the story proper. But the story will begin in a special, extra-length, higher-priced one-shot entitled Justice League/Aquaman: Drowned Earth #1...and it will conclude in another special, extra-length, higher-priced one-shot entitled Aquaman/Justice League: Drowned Earth #1, which is almost the exact same goddam title they just moved two words dammit. That's some real Marvel-level bullshit there, reminding me of that Marvel Rising book with Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel where it was a whole miniseries with similar sounding titles and #1s on every issue, except the first issue, which was #0. I honestly can't see any reason for DC to make keeping track of this story so goddam difficult, and I have to imagine that whatever benefit there is to concluding a four-part story in a book with a #1 on the cover is going to be eaten up by people not ordering it because they thought they already did.

Also, that is just a lot of pages of a Justice League adventure for a lot of money in a single month. It's $18 for the four parts, and $22 if you want the Aquaman tie-in. At that point, why wouldn't you just wait for the trade? You obviously won't have to wait very long, and if it's any more expensive, it won't be by very much.

I'm going to have to give this one some serious thought. I do enjoy reading Justice League serially, but with a month like this, I don't know that it even makes sense to do so...


BATMAN: DAMNED #2
written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
art and cover by LEE BERMEJO
As Batman’s descent into the madness of Gotham City’s decadent underbelly continues, he must try to exorcise some of his demons…and who better to help than the Demon, Etrigan himself. And where there’s demons, there’s also a Deadman, a Spectre, an Enchantress and a host of other supernatural friends and foes—it’s a veritable Grand Guignol!
PRESTIGE FORMAT
ON SALE 11.21.18
$6.99 US | 2 of 3 | 48 PAGES
APPROXIMATELY 8.5” x 10.875”
FC | MATURE READERS

In general, I'm not a fan of artist Lee Bermejo's artwork, but I am kinda curious as to what his Etrigan might look like, given the variety in interpretations that Jack Kirby's demonic hero has had over the years, and that fact that Bermejo's style leans so hard towards realism. I suppose I'll flip through the eventual collection when it hits the library.

DC NUCLEAR WINTER SPECIAL #1
written by PAUL DINI, STEVE ORLANDO, PHIL HESTER, MARK RUSSELL, MAIRGHREAD SCOTT and others
art by CULLY HAMNER, PHIL HESTER, GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI, YASMINE PUTRI and others
cover by YANICK PAQUETTE
The holidays are tough enough as it is, but when you’re living in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (or, you know, 2018) the world can seem bleaker than ever. So do yourself a favor this holiday season, break out your best eggnog and enjoy 10 all-new stories featuring the World’s Greatest Heroes, including looks at the futures of Batman, Superman and the Flash, as well as many more denizens of the DC Universe.
PRESTIGE FORMAT
ON SALE 11.28.18
$9.99 US | 80 PAGES
FC | RATED T

This is another tough one, as it features creators whose work I generally seek out, like Paul Dini, Phil Hester and Cully Hamner, as well as one creator that I really want to avoid rewarding, Steve Orlando. I don't like that over-sized specials like this are now at the price point of, say, the first volume of an Image trade paperback collection, or where the average manga collection was a few years back, but I also genuinely love holiday specials like this (As I think I've mentioned before, at this point I've pretty much given up on my long-time life goal of becoming a professional comic book writer making mainstream publisher money someday, but this particular sort of book, the holiday anthology special, is the one format that I still feel strongly attracted to).

I also kinda dig that the idea here isn't just "Christmas...and maybe a Hanukkah or Kwanzaa story," but that there's a specific theme to it this time around.

THE GREEN LANTERN #1
written by GRANT MORRISON
art and cover by LIAM SHARP
...
Superstar writer Grant Morrison (Batman, All-Star Superman) returns to DC alongside red-hot artist Liam Sharp (The Brave AND the Bold, Wonder Woman) to launch a new, ongoing series: THE GREEN LANTERN!
In this debut issue, when Earth’s space cop, Hal Jordan, encounters an alien hiding in plain sight, it sets off a chain of events that rocks the Green Lantern Corps—and quite possibly the Multiverse at large—to its very core. There’s an inter-galactic conspiracy afoot, as well as a traitor in the GL Corps’ ranks, so strap in for more mind-bending adventures in this masterpiece in the making.
ON SALE 11.07.18
$4.99 US | 40 PAGES
FC | RATED T

Mainstream comics' most exciting writer takes on its most boring character! Morrison writing a book about a cosmic superhero with a magical ring that translates his thoughts into reality and whose milieu is full of alien worlds sure sounds like a match made in super-comic heaven, but then, on the other hand, Hal Jordan. So, a toss-up...? Liam Sharp is a hell of an artist though, and I'm curious to see him drawing as much as the DC Universe as he cares to draw, after his stints on Wonder Woman, and that oddly titled Wonder Woman/Batman team-up miniseries.

Kicking the series off with an over-sized, more-expensive-than-usual issue seems like a pretty Marvel-ous move, though, and screams, "Just wait for the trade, you fool!" to me.


SHAZAM! #1
written by GEOFF JOHNS
art and cover by DALE EAGLESHAM
backup story art by SEN
...
The superstar team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Dale Eaglesham reunite to launch the first all-new SHAZAM! monthly title set in the DC Universe in almost 20 years! (What took you guys so long?!)
Teenager turned super-hero Billy Batson struggles to balance school and superheroics! (Guess which one is more fun?) But when Shazam unlocks a shocking secret deep within the Rock of Eternity, it challenges everything he knows about the worlds of magic and his family’s future as its champions! Also, witness the bizarre team-up of Dr. Sivana and Mr. Mind as they set off to build a society all their own! Don’t miss the start of an epic run in the making as “Shazam and the Seven Realms” begins!
ON SALE 11.21.18
$4.99 US | 40 PAGES | FC
RATED T

Ha, 10, 15 years ago I would have been pretty damn excited to hear that JSA creators Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham were going to launch a new monthly starring one of my favorite DC superheroes, but that was before Johns rebooted the character. I was not terribly fond of his somewhat more mature, realistic and gritty take on the character in those Justice League back-ups--eventually collected into a standalone trade paperback collection--which read an awful lot like his spec script for a Captain Marvel movie in the form of a comic book. Having seen the trailer for the upcoming Shazam movie, it seems that's pretty much exactly what Johns and artist Gary Frank's New 52 Captain Marvel reboot was.

I'm not fond of the poor costuming changes, like the glowing billboard on his chest or the hood, nor the refocusing of the character as some kinda magical superhero, all of which simply seem to be incredibly transparent efforts to differentiate the character from Superman...apparently just for the sake of differentiating him from Superman. On the other hand, I fucking love Captain Marvel, and am glad to see two of the greatest supervillains in comics history name-dropped right there in the solicitation for the first issue, along with an allusion to The Monster Society of Evil, a name that makes The Brotherhood of Evil and The Legion of Doom sound genteel by comparison. (Although now I find myself wondering after Johns' version of Sivana; I feel like he played a small role in that New 52 strip, but I can't recall the specifics of his conception...).

It's really a shame this isn't by Grant Morrison and Doc Shaner, who did such an amazing job with these characters in their Multiversity special, and they did so without trying to reinvent the wheel and coming up with something less round, but I'm still intensely curious about this (I've been wondering, for example, what they were going to be calling all those other "Shazams" like Freddie, Mary and the other characters ever since I read the trade collection; this has certainly been in the works a long-ass time, as all of those characters appeared alongside Captain Marvel Shazam in that DC Rebirth house ad...)

Oh, and this is another high-profile new series launching with a $5 #1 issue; one more and it's officially a trend!

SUICIDE SQUAD BLACK FILES #1
written by MIKE W. BARR and JAI NITZ
art by PHILIPPE BRIONES and SCOT EATON
cover by FRAZER IRVING
Two members of Task Force X are back in these all-new adventures! First up: “REVENGE OF KOBRA” by writer Mike W. Barr and artist Philippe Briones. To oppose the terrorist Kobra is to earn his un-dying hatred, and that’s what the samurai Katana did when she killed his beloved Eve. Now Kobra stalks Katana beyond the bounds of the Earth itself, to a supernatural world where he will steal from her everything that she has—including her very soul! And in “SUICIDE SQUAD BLACK,” by writer Jai Nitz and artist Scot Eaton, Sebastian Faust, the U.S. government’s top arcane operative, has gone rogue! To track down America’s most dangerous magician, Amanda Waller assembles a special-ops team unlike any other: an expendable coven of dark-arts experts including El Diablo, Enchantress and Gentleman Ghost. They are Suicide Squad Black, and they will take you to places where even the dead can die!
RESOLICIT
ON SALE 11.07.18
$4.99 US | 1 of 6 | 48 PAGES
FC | RATED T+

While this doesn't sound appealing to me, having read past, similar Squad adjacent comics featuring Barr on Katana and Nitz on El Diablo, I have to confess this cover made me realize how excited I would be at the prospect of a Gentleman Ghost series...

Good thing that piece of rubble was there, or else where would Superman have planted his right foot...?

WONDER WOMAN #58
written by G. WILLOW WILSON
art by CARY NORD
cover by TERRY DODSON and RACHEL DODSON
...
“THE JUST WAR” part one! A new era of Wonder Woman begins as best-selling writer G. Willow Wilson (Ms. Marvel) makes her return to DC with art star Cary Nord (Conan, THE UNEXPECTED) joining the series!
Far below Themyscira, Ares, the God of War, has been imprisoned for generations, repenting his past sins. But his new cellmate Grail may have an unexpected effect on him…and the plan they’ve come up with will change Themyscira—and the world— forever! When Wonder Woman rushes to Eastern Europe to rescue Steve Trevor from a mission gone wrong, she’ll find herself face-to-face with a very new, very different God of War!
ON SALE 11.14.18
$3.99 US | 32 PAGES
FC | RATED T

Well I guess that explains why ever since Greg Rucka left the book with 2017's issue #25, all of the writers scripting issues--Shea Fontana, James Robinson, Steve Orlando, James Tynion IV--have been on the book on a temporary, fill-in basis. DC must have been trying to get Wilson on this book for months and months now...?

I like that whoever wrote this solicit took the time to point out that Wilson is returning to DC--i.e. they found her first! Wilson first came to my attention with the 2007 original graphic novel Cairo with M.K. Perker (which I remember liking quite a bit, despite not remembering anything specific about it now), with whom she went on to create ongoing Vertigo series Air. She did a little work in the DCU, including the awkwardly titled Outsiders: Five of a Kind--Metamorpho/Aquaman #1, part of DC's mid-aughts efforts to make an Outsiders revival stick past the presence of writer Judd Winick, and a miniseries starring Vixen, plus some fill-in issues of that dumb Superman story J. Michael Straczynski started then abandoned aaaannnd that's it.

What a difference going on to co-create Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan for Marvel Comics made for the types of assignments DC was willing to give Wilson...! Honestly, this is a pretty big deal for the character and for the publisher (and, to a lesser extent, the writer), and Wilson is probably the biggest "get" of a creator that DC has gotten for their Wonder Woman title since...Jodi Picoult, probably...? And that went over like a ton of bricks, so let's hope this goes better! (Honestly, how could it not?)

Pairing Wilson with such an excellent artist is certainly a good start, although I have to confess complete disinterest in the plot part of the solicitation, which sounds like Generic Wonder Woman Story #3 on a menu of generic Wonder Woman stories. I'm certainly hoping to be proven wrong, though! Best of luck to Wilson and company on what I hope turns out to be an excellent run...