Thursday, June 2, 2011

DC Relaunch! New books, round 1


Very interesting. What seems the strangest about all these relaunches is how many of the titles are being written by creators that DC already had in-house. Sure, there are a few big surprises (I'll go into that below), but if some of these guys couldn't draw me in for current DCU books, they sure won't sell me on a total reboot.

And that's what this is, a hard reboot. With characters de-aged and given new origins, this is a whole new DCU.


Wonder Woman - Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, that's a pretty solid team, and probably the biggest names of the bunch. This should sell nicely, although Azzarello's super-work has been hit (Doctor 13) or miss (everything else) with me. Probably a pass or wait-for-trade for me.

Aquaman - Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. This one is mighty tempting, just because Aquaman is one of the characters most in need of a relaunch and simplified origin. This is a solid maybe.

Flash - Francis Manapul is writing and drawing the next chapter of the Scarlet Speedster. Whether it's Barry or Wally, I'll hold off to see if Manapul is a solid writer or not.

Fury of Firestorm - Gail Simone and Ethan Van Sciver are writing with Yildray Cinar drawing. This seems like the hardest reboot, with Ronnie Raymond and Jason Rusch as contemporaries, and it seems each can become his own Firestorm. Again, a bit too far off the core concept for me.

Savage Hawkman - Tony Daniel's writing is usually pretty bad, and Philip Tan hasn't blown me away. Plus... oh man, that costume is hilarious. It's like a joke, right? And with that level of reboot, no thanks.

Green Arrow - JT Krul gets to keep his writing job and Dan Jurgens joins him on art. I like Jurgens, but there isnt much "wow" factor for me here.

Justice League International - Dan Jurgens is a surprising choice to write this, it certainly won't be funny. Aaron Lopresti is a solid artist, so this is the first YES on the list.

Mister Terrific - Mr. T is my favorite character on the JSA, but Eric Wallace's writing on the Titans book is enough to warn me off this. No thanks! (And that's saying something, since I love Roger Robinson's artwork.)

Captain Atom - JT Krul and Freddie Williams are a solid enough creative team, but I find myself uninterested in "starting over" with Captain Atom. I think my favorite parts of the character are his experiences in the DCU.

DCU Presents - The first Deadman arc by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang will be interesting, but Jenkins is another creator whose work I rarely love. Perhaps a future arc will be more my speed.

So 10 or so titles in, and I'm planning to sub to Justice League and Justice League International. Aquaman has a decent shot for me too. Other than that, I'm holding off for now.

1 comment:

Jeff said...

Yuck. Not much in there for me.