You can judge a comic book by it's cover

Any vet in the world of publishing be it mainstream or comic books will always confirm the cover is key to capturing the attention of any potential reader and therefore potential sale in any retail establishment.

Here is proof positive the editors at DC don't follow that train of thought.

These are the upcoming covers for Superman. DC Comics number one icon. A four color, larger than life superhero that can perform any remarkable act any artist can imagine. Out of a sea of titles on any retail shelf...who the hell would look twice at these?

And yes, the storyline is a dull and interor art is as subpar as this would lead one to believe. Save your pennies. Better yet, support your local comic shop and buy a back issue from 75 years of Superman publishing.

You'll be much more satisfied in the end.

Bye Bye Power Girl

The new creative team taking over the title with issue 13 is none other than DC's favorite and always available hack, Judd Winick and yet another unknown penciler named Sami Basri. Most likely more cheap artist labor from South America (DC loves the farm team down there, the books are full of these guys). I'll never know if the guy is any good since Judd is on board.

DC loves a hack like Winick because he hangs around the NYC offices and local bars kissing ass with editors year in and year out. And for all the time he's put in, he's yet to write any super-book that is anywhere near memorable much less entertaining. Fuck. They'd do better if they made the title a pinup book monthly. No story.

Yet another DC book I can cross off my list. Going to be a cheap DC buying season. At least until Jim Lee and Geoff Johns can get in there and right the ship.

2010 is DC's year to fire everybody

Once again both IVC2.com and The Beat provide the comic book industry a great monthly service in posting and analyzing publishing numbers from both Marvel and DC Comics. By any measure, 2009 was a dreadful year for DC.

Yes, Blackest Night performed very well but this arm of Time/Warner needs much more than just a short term storyline to work for them. Dan Didio and his team of editors and creators have torpedoed all the core books in its arsenal. All the bread and butter Hero books have been just slaughtered. Consider:

1 Year comparison declines for core team and icon books...
JLA -7.5%
Wonder Woman -19.1%
Detective Comics -19.5%
Batman -25%
Titans -33.9%
Superman -41.3%
Action Comics -44.3%

Superman titles down nearly half (!!!) of where they were a year ago and DC is betting the farm on a major Superman title Summer event. An event that is supposed to at least match Blackest Night sales numbers. When you have lost half of your audience already, how can you expect everyone to return to follow a saga that is basically the ending of the crappy, overblown saga that has been crippling your sales all this time? The answer of course, is that it won't.

On top of this graphic novel sales are in decline and not likely to improve soon. The economy certainly has played a part in the general audience malasie and a year of awful stories in 2009 sure won't help trade sales in 2010 but another pending issue could make things even worse. Indications are Borders Books retail chain will either fold or soon dramatically change purchasing practices that won't make any publisher happy. The Comic Book industry has a major interest in Borders staying healthy and rely on them for serious trade stock support.

We are watching a four alarm fire going off in DC's New York offices and there Dan and his crew lounge, blissfully unresponsive. How many other American companies can sit around and watch any of their commodities take these kind of double digit drops month after month for a solid year with no relief in sight and not eject everyone in charge? Well, yeah, that happened in the auto industry I guess for decades but look where that got 'em.

Warner Bros West Coast execs are bound to act in 2010. The question is, can the industry hold out until that happens and will anyone care by that point?

DiDio firing watch update - DC Comics restructuring

Oh Dan, with the new restructuring of DC Comics moving under the Warner film division's wing we can only conclude that your remaining days as EIC of DC Comics just got a lot shorter.

Our prediction: DiDio will be asked to leave the editor chair and take up a new position within the new DC entertainment structure once the ducks are in place. More than likely heading up the inevitable digital comics initiative the new boss Diane Nelson wants to get moving on quickly.

A blind person can see DC Comics editorial needs a reboot and this restructuring will be the perfect opportunity shake things up and still save face for a lot of the current regime's failures responsible for the mess it's in.

Wally Wood's T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents to return from DC. yay.

I missed it at San Diego (as did most everyone else, based on the covergae) T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS are returning to print integrated into the DCU. In much the same way the Milestone and Red Circle characters have been integrated into regular DCU continuity, so will the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. AGENTS. That’s pretty much the worst thing that could've happened to these great characters.

The recently deceased owner of the THUNDER Agents, John Carbonarro, had previously set up a deal for the property at DC, but after creative conflicts the project was abandoned. The designs by artist J.G. Jones you see here are from that attempt, of which two issues were reportedly in process or maybe even finished before the project was bagged. It seems likely that DC has cut a deal with the heirs to publish the previously done work, which will no doubt crash and burn just like DC's horriffic re-launch of the Red Circle properties.

No news as to how the "creative team" at DC plans to roll the characters out, except that they'll appear in a flagship DC book before their own book launches. It might not be as bad as Rob Liefield's planned launch in the 90's, but considering the state of DC's current editorial, I can't say that with any certainty....

Weekly Comics Swill Report

This week was light with only a handful of books from DC (to meet demand perhaps?) and a smattering from Marvel & the Indies. It was also the first week in the last four that Bowen Designs wasn't shipping two or more mini-busts and the only hardcover of note was DC's horrible Final Crisis, so my bill was moderate.

DC:

Batman #687
The normally reliable Judd Winick turns in a script that's reminiscent of everything else about the "Death of Batman" storyline; a wasted opportunity.

From the failure to make any noise marketing-wise, to it's falling guillotine on Grant Morrison's previously brilliant career (some of those issues were as bad as the Sopranos coma/dream episodes), to the"dredge up and insert some rightly forgotten history" directive that seems to be infecting all DC titles, to it's thin and predictable plot points, this issue lands with all the excitement of a lead ballon. Artist Ed Benes can do better and here seems to be reaching for the same sub-Jim Lee style that evaded Tony Daniel before him.

Like all DC in-continuity superhero books of late, this book has had its identity edited out of it. The issue plods towards a much-ado-about-nothing reveal of Nightwing as Batman at the end, in the most squandered "death of a major character" story in recent memory. Some of Marvel's 90's X-Men Annual crossovers were better executed events than this load of crap and that's saying something.


Flash: Rebirth #3
This is another continuity crazy book that is virtually impenetrable to an outsider. Not a good way to re-launch a book that features the return of a beloved character, especially one whose best stories were relatively simple stuff. Every issue feels more and more like a boring lecture about the speed force delivered with all the enthusiasm of a 65 year old physics Professor on downers. I expect more from both artist and writer. Van Sciver in particular is pulling off the tricky stunt of making his art look both busy and lazy at the same time.

Preview of upcoming JSA JLA mini/maxi-series:
The one potentially bright spot in DC's core universe might just be this upcoming mini that was given a seven page preview in last week's books. It features nice painted art and a compelling premise; Hal Jordan's Green Lantern is tired of getting abused by the bad guys and calls on all the DC teams to do some ass-kicking of their own, essentially calling Superman and Wonder Woman pussies in the process. It's the wish-fullfillment of every disenfranchised DC reader.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a DC book that's about as plot heavy as a Transpoter film. After all the abuse these characters have taken under the current regime, a monthly book where they stay even marginally in character while beating on DC baddies is just the sort of stupid relief we all need.

Or they could go back in time and rescue the pink kryptonite from Dr Magnus' evil great great grandfather in the time of the Medieval Batman, setting off some sort of Kirby-Fourth-World-gadget-related cataclysm that "will rock the DC Universe to it's core!!" in a preferably impossible-to-follow weekly comic that everyone will stop reading after the sixth issue, but many will keep buying so they have a complete set "in case something that affects continuity of the ongoing books they read happens (DC will categorize this as earth-shattering), like 'Snapper Carr Stubs His Snapping Finger - Forever!' or 'Martian Manhunter dies.'" Which it won't.

Marvel:

Amazing Spider-man #597
I like Joe Kelly and am not one of the Post "One More Day" Revised Continuity Haters, so I'm a little bummed out that this chapter of an otherwise promising storyline seems to exist for no reason but to remind us that Norman Osbourne is a bad guy and not a particularly good father, either. Since that's the predominant story in nearly all Marvel books these days, it doesn't bear repeating here. You can do better guys.

Deadpool #11
This book continues to be a blast to read, Deadpool having settled into the most sympathetic writer since Joe Kelly or even Fabian. Way is clearly having a blast here and although the battle with a Hawkeyed-up Bullseye is all you get, it's so well done that you don't mind that the story barely moves forward.

Fantastic Four #567
Millar is one of the top British writers still working in superheroes that hasn’t completely lost his shit. This entertaining (if slight) second part of a four part Dr Doom storyline moves right along with a nifty Doom dream sequence that tells us oodles about the character without getting all psychedelic. Hitch's work looks amazing as usual and the story is unhampered by Dark Reign continuity.

Punisher Max #71
Under the great Johnson cover is another fine Punisher story that continues in the earthy vein that Garth Ennis so successfully utilizeded in revitalizing the lead. The humor isn't as evident, but the dialogue and motivations ring true to character. Nicely written and drawn.

Wolverine #74
Great artists, great writers, in two short part ones (!) of what appear to be two leftover inventory stories that seem to have been intended for Marvel's "experimental" black and white anthology from a few years back. Avoid this issue (and apparently next month's as well), this is a pointless issue featuring material that should have printed as back up stories. At least it was only $2.99.

Indies

Absolution #0, Resurrection #1
I've lumped these two together not because they are similar stylistically, but because both feature established mainstream comics writers breaking out their own creator-owned series. That said they are both fine books, but neither is anything more than promising at this point. Christos Gage's Absolution is another "superheroes in the real world" conceit that hopefully has more up it's sleeve than the well-worn ground it covers in this preview. You can't be too critical as it's a short "zero" issue, but unless some hereto unrevealed twist is lurking in the first issue this series will be nothing but a competently done retread of familiar concepts. Resurrection from Marc Guggenheim is slightly more intriguing, although the post apocalypse (this time it's an alien invasion and occupation which as suddenly ended) survivors theme is equally ragged. The art isn't doing a many-charactered story any favors as the designs aren't unique enough to give any of them personality beyond the limited capacity of the stylized drawings, but there are enough intriguing concepts and unanswered questions here to compel me to buy issue 2.

The Unknown #2
Fine work from Waid and Oosterveer as the story picks up speed, and mysteries start to unfold. I'm not typically a fan of contemporary magic / mystery in comics as it's rarely very well done, but this, like many other Boom! original series, is an exception to the rule and a mainstream looking book with a European flavor, covering unfamiliar ground with compelling panache. If you like this, seek out Waid's Potter's Field, which just came out in a trade.

Walking Dead #62, Hack/Slash #23
If you enjoyed previous issues of either of these books, you'll enjoy these. Probably the most consistent indies published on a regular schedule. Neither book is earth-shatteringly great, but both deliver good old meat & potatoes-style cheap thrills, and as such, are a welcome relief from the endless parade of unnecessarily overworked event books from the big two.