Wednesday Comics vs. The New 52: Hawkman

Winged Wonder Hawkman fights sky-based crimes like airplane hijackings with his Thanagarnian wings and the help of his feathered friends...and fights unforeseen adversaries like alien invaders and a Tyrannosaurus Rex with the his big-ass mace and the help of any fellow Justice Leaguers who aren't too busy to lend a hand. By Kyle Baker.

Archaeologist Dr. Carter Hall specializes in deciphering lost languages and exploring ancient ruins, and his latest unleash a deadly alien plague and unlock his destiny as the new, savage Hawkman. By Tony S. Daniel and Philip Tan.

Wednesday Comics vs. The New 52: Catwoman and The Demon

The disguised witch Morgaine le Fay hires super-thief Catwoman to steal a powerful artifact from handsome occult collector Jason Blood which will allow her to commit great evil; when Catwoman discovers she's been duped, she teams up with Blood and Blood's demonic alter-ego Etrigan to save the day. By Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze.

Gotham City cat-burglar Selina Kyle has been targeted by unknown antagonists who want her dead badly enough to blow up her apartment—before she can get to the bottom of that mystery, however, she has Russian mobsters to steal from, revenge to be taken and Batmen to bang. By Judd Winick and Guillem March.

—AND—

The demon leads a sort of medieval Justice League consisting of such characters as Shining Knight II, Madame Xanadu and Vandal Savage in the Dark Ages of the New 52iverse. By Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert.

Wednesday Comics vs. The New 52: The Flash

Police scientist Barry Allen uses his fantastic super-speed powers to protect his city, his world and time itself from the machinations of super-intelligent, giant gorilla mad scientist Gorilla Grodd—but can he save the day and his relationship with Iris West? By Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher.

Police scientist Barry Allen uses his fantastic super-speed powers to protect his city from the new villain Mob Rule. By Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato.

Wednesday Comics vs. New 52: Sgt. Rock

During World War II, United States Army Sergeant Frank Rock is captured and tortured by his Nazi foes while Easy Company desperately searches for him; he's ultimately saved by a noble photographer pressed into service by his captors...along with the loyalty of his own troops and possession of the sort of grit forged by years of battle. By Andy and Joe Kubert.

In 2011, the original Sgt. Rock's grandson takes command of a new sort of Easy Company, a group of contractors made up of ex-military men, and leads them into battle in a world re-made by meta-humans with god-like powers. By Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick.

Wednesday Comics vs. New 52: Wonder Woman

"When an ancient evil threatens mortals' world, the Amazons prepare their greatest champion, the Princess Diana"...but first, she must seek out The Seven Stars of the Amazons, "the Queen's heavensent arms and aids," while facing human foes like Dr. Poison and The Cheetah and various mythological menaces, by Ben Caldwell.

When two different Olympians seek to fill the vacant throne of Zeus, Wonder Woman finds herself embroiled in a pantheon-wide power struggle, as she defends the one-time human consort of the king of the gods and his unborn child and discovers she's much more closely related to the Olympians than she ever knew, by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang.

Wednesday Comics vs. New 52: Supergirl

Superpets Krypto the Superdog and Streaky the Supercat are acting out, which, given their Kryptonian super-powers, is causing all sorts of trouble for Supergirl (not to mention all sorts of property damage). She's on their tails, and trying to figure out what's making them act so squirrelly, with expert advice from the likes of Aquaman and Dr. Mid-Nite, by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner.

"Meet Supergirl. She’s got the unpredictable behavior of a teenager, the same powers as Superman – and none of his affection for the people of Earth. So don’t piss her off!"...by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar.

Wednesday Comics vs. New 52: Teen Titans

Two generations of teenaged heroes face a surprisingly powerful new version of the villain Trident, a villain with surprising connections to several of their greatest adversaries, in a fight-heavy adventure with superior character design (and sub-par visual clarity), by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway.

Batman's former sidekick Red Robin teams with "the mysterious and belligerent powerhouse thief known as Wonder Girl and the hyperactive speedster calling himself Kid Flash...a few other tortured teen heroes" to combat a mysterious organization targeting young meta-humans, by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund.

Wednesday Comics vs. New 52: Green Lantern

Cocky, life-of-the-party test pilot Hal Jordan faces a former rival for the U.S. space program-turned-alien monster, and learns his friend's possession is actually the first part of an alien invasion of Earth—good thing Jordan's also a super-powered space cop charged with protecting the planet! By Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones.

Demoted, renegade Green Lantern Hal Jordan is recruited by his replacement (and former archenemy) Sinestro to fight by his side and unravel a great threat to the universe that their mutual friend foresaw, by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and seemingly every freelance inker whose contact info DC has.

Wednesday Comics vs. New 52: Superman

Powerful, strange visitor from another planet Superman comes face-to-face with his own alien nature, and begins to doubt himself and his place in the world, until he reconnects with the people in his life and realizes that those relationships are what help make him the hero he is, in a story by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo.

A powerful, strange visitor from another planet wearing a Superman-brand t-shirt and red towel cape shows up in Metropolis and all but turns the city on its head, by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales and Rick Bryant...and a heavily-armored Superman defends Metropolis from elemental threats with a connection to his home planet, by George Perez and Jesus Merino.

Wendesday Comics vs. New 52: Batman

In his guise as Batman and as Bruce Wayne, Gotham City's Dark Knight unravels a murder plot in which he gets closer than usual to the killer, by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.

Batman and his crime-fighting partners unravel an ancient conspiracy and discover the mysterious Court of Owls, by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo and Jonathan Glapion (Also, a bunch of other stuff happened in Batman's other three books and the seven other books in the Batman line of books).

Wednesday Comics Vs. "The New 52"

In 2009, DC Comics launched Wednesday Comics, an ambitious project that relied on the publishers deep stable of character and top talent comprised of industry veterans, superstar creators and up-and-comers to temporarily revive the classic Sunday adventure comic strip.

Published large newsprint and available each Wednesday, the project was essentially a funny pages of DC Comics characters. Not all of the strips worked all that well. Some worked better than others, some worked better some weeks than others, but it was undoubtedly a success—a project designed to grab attention and to hold it, and, it's worth noting, providing easily accessible versions of the various characters in standalone stories that should have proven just as entertaining to folks who had never read a DC comic book as they would have to old hands.

I began thinking about Wednesday Comics again a few months into DC's 2011 "New 52" reboot/rebranding, as so many of the stated goals of it seemed to coincide with what DC had done a few years earlier with Wednesday Comics. In short, I was curious to see how many of the characters characters/features from Wednesday Comics were also chosen as stars in The New 52, and how many of the creators from the earlier project were involved in relaunching the DC Universe.

Wednesday Comics had 15 regular features, starring 16 different characters/teams of characters: Batman, Kamandi, Superman, Deadman, Green Lantern, Metamorpho, Teen Titans, Strange Adventures starring Adam Strange, Supergirl, Metal Men, Wonder Woman, Sgt. Rock and Easy Company, The Flash, Hawkman and The Demon and Catwoman, who shared a feature.

Of those, ten characters received their own titles in the initial 52 books of the New 52 (and, in the case of Superman, Batman and the Green Lantern characters, multiple titles apiece), so it’s easier to name those who didn’t: Kamandi, Adam Strange, Metamorpho, The Metal Men and Deadman didn't get their own books (although Deadman has appeared in Justice League Dark, and the initial DC Presents story arc). (If you’re wondering about Sgt. Rock, his grandson starred in the short-lied Men of War series, which was canceled after eight issues, and The Demon lends his name to the title of the ensemble book Demon Knights, in which he appears).

Very few of the 27 writers and artists involved had New 52 projects.

Batman writer Brian Azzarello was and remains the writer of Wonder Woman.

Kamandi artist Ryan Sook has provided cover art for DC Comics Presents. Supergirl writer Jimmy Palmiotti has been co-writing All-Star Western, co-wrote The Ray and will be co-writing the upcoming Phantom Lady minis-series, which Supergirl artist Amanda Conner is providing cover art for.

Metal Men writer Dan DiDio wrote the short-lived OMAC series (which, like Men of War, was one of the first titles canceled with its eighth issue), an arc of DC Comics Presents and will soon be writing an upcoming Phantom Stranger series.

And that’s it.

Some of these creators would have been rather unlikely ones to continue their vision, or similarly reinvent other characters, on a regular, monthly DC comic book—Metamorpho writer Neil Gaiman, for example—and others have continued to work for DC in other capacities (Azzarello, Conner and the late, great Joe Kubert all worked on various aspect of that stupid Watchmen thing, Allred and Eduardo Risso on Vertigo projects), but there are some very talented, familiar superhero creators in this mix—Kurt Busiek, John Arcudi, Karl Kerschel—and some exciting new comers—like Ben Caldwell or Sean Galloway—whose presence in the New 52 would have been welcome.

I wonder if it's also worth noting how little effort went in to redesigning the more iconic characters. Paul Pope, another artist whose stature is such it's hard to imagine him on a monthly, in-continuity DC Comic, redesigned the hell out of Adam Strange, of course, but mostly by bringing the pretty generic sci-fi/fantasy elements up-to-date from their post-WWII trappings. Lee Bermejo gave Superman an S-sheild belt-buckle like the one Brandon Routh wore in the last Superman movie. And that's...that's about it, really. Caldwell redesigned the villains and supporting cast members of Wonder Woman, but his Wonder Woman looked and dressed almost exactly like the DCU one.

The New 52, meanwhile, rather radically redesigned everyone's costumes, including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Hawkman and The Flash, about a half dozen of the best superhero costumes in esistence.