DC's March previews reviewed

The first collected volume of Batgirls is still languishing atop my to-read pile, but I do like this portrait-style cover for Batgirls #16. 

Here's this month's Brian Bolland portrait of a Batman rogue, courtesy of a variant for Batman—One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul #1 by Tom Taylor and Ivan Reis. 

I was going to buy DC's DC's Legion of Bloom #1 anyway, because I buy all their 80-page giants, but man, putting Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man on the cover ain't exactly going to discourage me. 

I don't know what's going on with Ram V's Tec run, but the covers have been to die for. This one, atop Detective Comics #1070, is especially awesome.

Big Frank Miller energy on this cover for Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #2, by the great Guillem March. Sadly, March is just doing covers on the series, not interiors. 

Multiversity: Harley Screws Up the DCU #1 by Frank Tieri and Logan Faeber is of interest mostly because DC felt the need to put the word "Multiversity" in the title, presumably indicating that this takes place...somewhere out in the multiverse, as opposed to the DCU. It's therefore not the DCU she's screwing up, so don't worry about that. I like this cover. 

Electric Superman powers, like in the comics from 1998! Val-Zod from the New 52  Earth-2 series Earth 2, from 2012-2015! Ultraman, from Earth-3! You know, based on the solicit for Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent #1, the book doesn't sound too terribly new-reader friendly for a new #1. 

I mean, I might personally be okay—there's a bit about Jon Kent's backstory from the Bendis years which I missed mentioned in the solicit too—but this sure doesn't sound like it was designed for brand-new readers, or even readers of Jon's recent appearances in Superman: Son of Kal-El. That said, it's written by Tom Taylor, and that guy generally knows what he's doing when it comes to comics-writing, so I'm going to assume pains are being taken to make this a first issue that reads like an actual first issue. Art is by Clayton Henry, whose work I generally like. 

There's a pretty nice Captain Marvel image by Michael Cho—I mean, the costume is trash, but it retains enough of the original design to be recognizable, at least—on the cover of Superman: Lost #1 for some reason (Well, the some reason is there's a new Captain Marvel movie coming out next year that looks...well, it looks like the sequel to the first one, anyway, and a bunch of DC Comics have Shazam: Fury of the Gods variants on them). 

Superman: Lost is a new maxiseries written by the great Christopher Priest with art by his Deathstroke partner Carlo Pagulayan. That should be worth keeping an eye out for. In collected form. Next year. But hey, that's just me now; if  you read the single issues and dig 'em, do let me know. 

DC's February previews reviewed

I'm glad to see the name "John Henry Irons" appearing in the solicitation for Action Comics #1052 rather than just "Steel"; the thing I dislike about Natasha Irons-as-a-Steel is that it has a tendency to pull focus away from her uncle, and there have been time where it might have been nice to see John Henry appearing in a comic that he didn't because his niece was there instead. Ideally, creators like Action's Philip Kennedy Johnson, Dan Jurgens and Leah Williams can find ways for both heroes to be active as heroes. (I'm still not digging the jackets, although Nat can use one more than the others, as she doesn't usually rock a cape, and her design has thus always looked a little naked.)

The Killing Joke-inspired Batman — One Bad Day: Clayface #1 by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing and Xermanico looks like it will feature the Basil Karlo version of the character with the Matt Hagen  version's powers...The Newe 52 Clayface, then, rather than the pre-New 52 version of either character  (Karlo did get shape-changing powers during "The Mud Pack" storyline, but he also got Clayface III's burning touch, with the recent Clayface seems to lack). Anyway, here's  Brian Bolland's portrait-style image of the character which will serve as one of the variants. In Bolland's version at least, Clayface is one of Batman's most terrifying-looking villains. 

Collecting all three Batman/Spawn crossovers—the new one by Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo plus the two 1994 one-shots by Frank Miller and McFarlane and Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant and Klaus Janson—the  $29.99, 280-page hardcover Batman/Spawn: The Deluxe Edition seems like a pretty good way to collect all three crossovers. 

It's sort of odd they are all so short, though, isn't it? I understand why they did two publisher-specific one-shots in 1994, but I'm unsure why the latest one is just another one-shot as opposed to something more substantial. Surely the creative team and the pairing of the heroes would generate enough sales that one would think DC would want to sustain them for an entire miniseries, right...? 

I'm not sure what inspired the re-release of 2000's Mike Mignola-spearheaded Gotham x Lovecraft Elseworlds series Batman: The Doom That Came To Gotham, but I remembered liking it an awful lot as it was originally released in a series of three prestige format issues.  I'd recommend it. 

Kelley Jones draws one of the covers for Batman Vs. Robin #5, featuring Batman and...Alfred....?  

Hopefully this means Alfred is coming back to life. I don't know exactly how he died other than Bane, but I've been patiently awaiting his return. Surely this Lazarus Planet business with resurrection juice spitting from the ground in volcanoes and touching down on land in storms would be a good-enough way to bring him back, right...? 

Although I know the creators involved—writer Marguerite Bennett, artist Meghan Hetrick—DC/RWBY #1 just makes me feel old and tired. 

The solicitation copy for Nightwing #101 says Dick gathers a group of friends to be the premier league in the DC Universe and moves their base of operations to Bludhaven: "Meet the new Titans!" Are they the guys on this variant cover? Because if so the New Titans look an awful lot like the old Titans, and seem to just be missing Tempest/Aqualad and Arsenal/Speedy...

Sandman Mystery Theatre Compendium One gives me exactly what I want in a format I don't want it: Matt Wagner and company's masterpiece back in easily accessible print, but in the form of one of those too-big-to-actually read books. This first of two collections will weigh in at 984 pages and include the first 36 issues of the series, plus an annual. I've never read the whole series in order, something I'd like to do in, say, a series of trade paperback collections, but, based on what I have read of it, I would highly recommend it. I'm just not sure the doorstop collection is the way to go. 

DC may have gotten a little carried away with variant covers for Joshua Williamson and Jamal Campbell's Superman #1, seeing as they solicited 10 regular variants, plus a one-in-25, a one-in-50, a one-in-75, a one-in-100, a one-in-200 and a special $7.99 "Phantom Zone foil variant", but I do kinda like the Nick Dragotta variant, shown above. Simple, but effective. 

Someone please talk me out of buying Whiz Comics #2 Facsimile Edition.

DC's January previews reviewed

I confess that I'm not really feeling the matching jackets that the Superman family seems to be adopting on the cover of Action Comics #1051, although it is a nicely rendered cover. 

Also, should I recognize those two little kids behind Superman..?.

What kind of maniac eats with gloves on...? 

That's one of the covers for Batgirls #14. I prefer this one, as it doesn't include anything as crazy as people eating hamburgers and french fries while wearing gloves:

That's nice. 

Brian Bolland draws Bane, for the cover of Batman—One Bad Day: Bane #1, part of a series that is one of DC's stealthier attempts to wring blood out of Alan Moore's brief career writing for them decades ago. 

DC's doing another season of their book set within the continuity of the old Batman: The Animated Series cartoon, written by B:TAS alumni Paul Dini and Alan Burnett, and they got Kelley Jones to draw, well, everybody for the cover of Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Three #1. It's interesting to see the show's Bruce Timm designs in Jones' style; look how small Batman's ears are!

There's also a variant cover in which Kevin Nowlan draws not everybody, but a lot of folks, that allows for the same sort of pleasure:

Neat. Interiors will be drawn by Jordan Gibson. 

After one-shot specials devoted to heroes of Asian descent and LGBTQ+ heroes, DC's finally getting around to a special focused on their black heroes, DC Power: A Celebration #1. 

This particular cover shows the difficulty of creating diversity among characters in the superhero market, as the easiest strategy is to just give a black character someone else's laundry, as David Brothers wrote so memorably years ago. Thus we have a Black Superman, a Black Batman, a Back Wonder Woman, a Black Aqualad and Kid Flash and not one but two Black Green Lanterns.

Far harder is to come up with original characters with their own names, power-sets and stories that aren't related to one of the handful of successful franchises like, on this cover, Black Lightning, Vixen and Cyborg. 

According to the solicitation copy, we can expect stories featuring Cyborg, John Stewart, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Batwing, Vixen, Amazing-Man "and more." I'll be curious to see how many of those within the book are legacy characters vs. original ones, and I'll be curious to see which version of Amazing-Man shows up; I always liked that character, and while his costume colors aren't the greatest, he's an interesting enough hero with plenty of potential and, again, isn't just a lieutenant version of a white hero. 

This is one of the few books I'll be pre-ordering (Along with, if you're keeping score at home, Harley Quinn Romances, Batman: Dark Knight Detective Vol. 7 and mmmmaaaybe Batgirls Vol. 2. Everything else I can trade-wait at the library). 

Kind of amazing that DC has done so many Valentine's Day-themed romance specials over the years and they're just now getting to one with the obvious-in-retrospect name of Harley Quinn Romances #1. All of the covers are pretty great, but I liked this one the best, as it feels the most like a romance paperback...albeit with Brainac's ship in the background.

It sounds like it will start the predictable usual suspects (Harley and Ivy, Apollo and Midnighter, John Constantine), but there will be some unexpected characters appearing, like Fire and Ice (are they a couple now?) and Power Girl. 

What's this on the cover of Nightwing #100? Is Nightwing...taking off Batgirl's costume...? I see bare shoulder! I know we're all adults here, and obviously this is a Babs Tarr image, but I have to ask: Is it too sexy? 

It's one of several great variants for the issue, which also include these:

See? Nice.

I really like this cover for Tim Drake: Robin #5. I hope the series is really good.

DC's December previews reviewed

There are too many great variant covers for Action Comics #1050 to even point to in this post. I'm going to go with this one by Mike Allred as an all-around favorite though, given that it's not only a nicely rendered image, but it also compresses, like, the whole history of Superman comics into a single, crazy-looking image. 

This month's variant cover scheme is apparently holiday-themed covers, like this one for Batman #130 by Laura Braga, seemingly displaying what a terrible gift-giver Bruce Wayne is. 

You can never have too much Mike Allred. This is his variant for Batman: The Audio Adventures #4. I don't really know what that series is, but I like the version of Batman Allred draws for it. 

Dang, no Kelley Jones variant cover on Todd MacFarlane and Greg Capullo's one-shot crossover Batman/Spawn #1. I'd really like to see what Jones could do with Spawn's cape. Anyway, here's a pair of the 15—15!—variant covers that are shipping with the book, which is actually the third go-round between the pair, but the first written by MacFarlane. 

Whatever else one might say about the Batman—One Bad Day series of comics, at least they are giving us nice, portrait-style images of various rogues by the great Brian Bolland. Here's his cover for Batman— One Bad Day: Catwoman #1, by G. Willow Wilson and Jamie McKelvie.

The latest continuity/cosmology mucking ends with Dark Crisis #7. Let's hope, likely in vain, that this is the last one for a few decades and DC has finally picked a status quo they can live with and just make good comics set within. 

So that's where he gets those wonderful toys...

That's Jim Lee and company's holiday variant cover for Detective Comics #1067. I suspect these holiday images are old ones being recycled for this purpose, as several of them have out-of-date elements, like Batman getting his car from the Christian Bale movies, for example. Others feature out-of-date costumes on characters. For example...

Here's a weird mix of characters on the holiday cover for Flash #789 by Sean "Cheeks" Galloway; both Wonder Woman and Flash are clearly sporting their New 52 duds. It's a little less clear what's going on outside, but is that supposed to be the kid from Sweet Tooth caroling with Batman and...I want to say Cyborg...? . 

I guess this is supposed to be Lois Lane on the cover of Superman: Son of Kal-El #18...? It scares me. 

Well this is as interesting as it is unexpected. Tales From Earth-6: A Celebration of Stan Lee revisits the 2002 Just Imagine... event in which Stan Lee, paired with one great artist or another, re-created an iconic DC character to reflect his own sensibility. Apparently Earth-6 is the place in the DC Multiverse where the various Just Imagine... characters now all dwell. The $9.99, 96-page one-shot revisits the various characters, with all-stars among DC's current contributors doing the creative honors. 

DC hasn't done much with these versions of their characters, so it will be interesting to see what they pull off here, particularly to see if the characters stand-up without Lee and the caliber of talent he was working with to prop them up. 

DC's November previews reviewed

Based on the image they released with the solicitation, it appears that Batman/Spawn: The Classic Collection will be getting a new cover by Spawn-turned-Batman-turned-Batman/Spawn crossover artist Greg Capullo. 

The collection will include both of the distinct and unrelated Batman/Spawn crossovers from 1994, Image Comics' Spawn/Batman by writer Frank Miller and artist Todd McFarlane, and DC Comics' Batman/Spawn: War Devil by writers Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant and Doug Moench and artist Klaus Janson.

 I bought and read both of them at the time. As I remember, neither was terribly good, not even by the standards of a Batman inter-company crossover. 

I remember the Image one being particularly badly written, and being disappointed that the man who made Dark Knight Returns had crafted such a poor story. But I also remember that one being the one with art I was more excited about at the time—the whole point of the endeavor would be to see McFarlane drawing Batman, right?

I remember almost nothing at all about War Devil, save for how I was disappointed in the art at the time (Not only was it not McFarlane, it wasn't even the ideal artist for the team-up, Norm Breyfogle). That, and I remember thinking how weird it was that it was for a single Batman story to be written by all three of the Batman writers as a team. 

I'm looking forward to revisiting these stories now, and I will be happy when I can do so without digging through my comics midden to find them.  

The release is coming ahead of a new Capullo and McFarlane Batman/Spawn crossover, which will be interesting. I hope they get Kelley Jones for a variant cover of that....I'd love to see Jones' take on Spawn's cape. 

A lot of people seem genuinely excited about Batman: The Deadly Duo, a Marc Silvestri-written and drawn seven-parter teaming Batman with The Joker. 

Personally, I'd be more excited if variant cover artists Kyle Hotz or Kelley Jones were handling the interiors, but that's just me.

Here' s Hotz's variant for #1:

And here are Jones' variants for #2:

In November DC will be releasing ''90s" themed variant covers, like the above one for Batman Vs. Robin #3. Some seem to depict the characters as they appeared in the 1990s, some are from artists who drew them in the '90s and some are reimaginings of the characters with '90s stereotypical fashions. 

This one seems to show Batman and Robin as they appeared in the '90s...but the artist has given Batman more pouches, in the form of a utility garter. Batman never wore one, of course, but Jean-Paul Valley's Batman costume did include one (I always wondered how he opened his pouches given the bladed claws on his fingers), as did Spoiler Stephanie Brown's original costume. 

Is there a more perfect—I mean, purrfect—artist to provide a '90s variant to Catwoman #49 than '90s Catwoman artist Jim Balent....?

This year's holiday special is called DC's Grifter Got Run Over By A Reindeer, presumably because "Grifter" sounds as close as they could get to "Grandma" with a DC hero, even if he is an emigree from the Wildstorm universe. Now that I've moved almost exclusively to trade-reading, these seasonal specials DC produces are a special treat that I always look forward to...and it remains my greatest writing ambition to someday contribute to one of 'em. 

Scary Plastic Man images should be against the law. Like this cover for DC Vs. Vampires #11? It should be totally illegal. 

I'm sorry, but I just don't have the bandwidth to deal with Batman's Sexy Mom wearing a Batman's Sexy Mom Halloween costume on the cover of Gotham City: Year One #2 right now...

I'm glad the JSA will be returning with a new book in Justice Society of America #1, although I've grown a bit leery of writer Geoff Johns' work. He would, of course, seem like the ideal writer for the series, given his run on JSA and its related titles, but it's been a long time since I've read and enjoyed any of Johns' work, the New 52 seemingly have stripped him of his ability to write continuity-driven stories that made sense and that worked with the characters.

Now we've got a new continuity again, so it will be interesting to see if Johns takes a starting-from-scratch approach like that he took with the Justice League in the New 52, or if he will resume the past continuity that he wrote the team in during the past. Personally, I'm hoping for the latter, but assuming a mix of the two. We'll see. Mikel Janin will be the artist attached. 

Hey do you guys remember the column where I said that it was kinda lame that Hippolyta was temporarily replacing Wonder Woman on the Justice League line-up while Diana was off being presumed dead or a goddess or whatever, just like she did during the Morrison run on JLA, and that instead they should have had Nubia join the Justice League....? (This would have been back during Bendis' brief run on Justice League). Well, Nubia  is finally joining the Justice League in the pages of Nubia & The Justice League Special #1. I'm not sure how permanent this is—the precise League line-up seems to be in flux as the characters are presumed dead in the ongoing Dark Crisis—but here's hoping she stays on the team for a good long while. 

Remarkably, she's only the second black woman to ever appear on a Justice League line-up, following Vixen's stint during the Detroit era. Is that right? I think that's right. That doesn't sound like it should be right though, does it? Yeesh. 

This is why it is my humble belief that the Justice League should have a huge, 20-30 hero roster, so they can accommodate a much more diverse group of heroes and genuinely represent Americans and readers. I'm sure I'll tell you of my ideal Justice League line-up someday...

Despite my reservation with Johns, I'm definitely up for a series in which artist Todd Nauck draws a bunch of weird Golden Age kid superheroes. That Manhunter's robot dog Robby is in it is only one more reason to be particularly excited about Stargirl: The Lost Children #1, which seems to follow from the pages of last year's Stargirl Spring Break Special #1. 

What's better than Mike Allred drawing Superman? Mike Allred drawing the whole Justice League, even if they are a little worse for wear. This is the cover of Superman: Space Age #3.