They have totally changed the opening to the Walking Dead.
Now, hit the break for lots more foolishness, including the latest on the “real” Batman movie, the status of the Deadpool flick, Green Arrow’s TV show, new Garth Ennis work, and the latest on The Walking Dead. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Captain America, Deadpool, Filthy Muties, The Avengers, The Caped Crusader, Thor, Zombies
The paint ain’t even dry on the new 52, and DC promises to cull 6 crappers out of the rotation, cancelling Blackhawks, Hawk & Dove, Men Of War, Mister Terrific, OMAC, and Static Shock—all with issue #8. The titles will make way for:
· The return of Grant Morrison’s Batman, Inc. Rather than being a 12-issue series that would end Morrison’s work with Batman, it’s now being promoted as a “reader friendly” new series that will fit Morrison’s ideas into the new 52. Grant will still be the writer, at least initially. Not sure how I feel about this one. On the one hand, Morrison Batman is never a bad thing. On the other hand, I can’t imagine it without being laden thick and heavy with continuity. That’s pretty much what his entire run has been about: Batman’s bizarre past and the vast legend that exists. In fact, that was the very basis for Batman, Inc., in the first place!
· A new book by James Robinson and Nicola Scott titled Earth 2. And with the return of Earth 2, Crisis on Infinite Earths is officially out of the New 52 lexicon. The new 52 was supposed to clean up the DCU, but it turns out they just can’t wait to start muddying it up again.
· World’s Finest featuring Power Girl, written by Paul Levitz with art by George Perez (two old timers on a very, very old character). The story will involve PG trying to return to Earth 2, which is where she started out according to her pre-New 52 origin. I’m already getting continuity-annoyance.
· Dial H. Remember this one? Dude dials a rotary phone thingy and gets powers? High concept. It’ll be written by China Mieville, best known for non-comic Sci Fi novels.
· G.I. Combat. So the good news is they’re dumping Men of War and Blackhawks, but the bad news is they’re replacing it with this. Which will be written by JT Krul. Which means it will suck wind.
· The Ravagers. Sounds a bit like Runaways: Four kids with powers fleeing an evil corporate-like entity who wants to make them be bad guys.
Tags: Superman, The Caped Crusader
In with the old, out with the new…Let’s start this year with a look back.
2011 was a year in which many Marvel mainstays had relaunches/reboots (Daredevil and Moon Knight being the most successful, “Power Man” less so), and every DC character was reborn. It was a year in which there were at least 52 more #1s than usual. But 2011 also saw indie books rising in popularity due to successful TV shows like AMC’s The Walking Dead and pour-over from last year’s high-profile Scott Pilgrim film.
According to Diamond—the official distributor of the comic book medium—Justice League #1 was the best-selling issue of the year. DC actually beat Marvel for a couple months, but sales from September to November gradually slowed, and by December Marvel was back at #1—albeit barely so. Marvel sold 39% of all comics sold in December, while DC fell from 39% to 38%. So, it looks like 2012 will be a return to normalcy.
But there’s no denying DC’s short term success: Not only did they have the three best-selling comics of 2011, but they’re also probably three of the top sellers of the past 10 years. Justice League #1 topped 361K sold, and Batman and Superman both topped 250K. Marvel’s best seller of the year was The Death of Spider-Man (Ultimate Spider-Man #160), which sold a comparatively small 159K. It’s best-selling book of the past 10 years, however, was the Obama issue of Amazing Spider-Man, which told 530K. And that was just on a sucky back-up feature. Marvel should make The President as ubiquitous as Wolverine. They’ll sell tons!
So what else is new? Muppet Thor for one thing!
Hit the break and read on…
Tags: Comic books, Superman, The Caped Crusader, Thor
launch in April, just a few months before each character will be featured in a major motion picture.Tags: Comic books, Filthy Muties, Spider-Man, Superman, Teen Titans, The Caped Crusader
As noted last post I’m doing a wish list—here’s the overall and indie one. D.C. and Marvel to follow.
Also known as the top 10 suggestions D.C. will ignore in 2012….For indies and the overall industry, go here.
10. Bring back Vertigo’s crime line. Seriously. It was awesome.
9. Bring back Gail Simone and the Sinister Six. It was a book that died in its prime and before its time.
8. Bring back Batman: The Brave and the Bold Animated Series. It was the best TV you’ve done since Teen Titans Go. Okay, that’s my last lament for returns. The rest of my suggestions are prospective….
7. Make JMS write Gotham Hospital, like he promised. Gotham Central was my favorite Batman book ever (take that, Grant Morrison!) and this concept focusing on a hospital procedural could be even better. And if J. Michael is too busy writing original hardcovers, get Greg Rucka to do it. Or Gail Simone. Or Brian Azzarello. Hell, there’s lots of folks who could have a gift for a gritty, serialized noir.
6. Kill the back up features. Sorry, guys. It’s why I quit reading Adventure Comics in the old 52, and it’s making me want to drop Action. If you can’t sell a title as a main story, why would think I’d want to lose pages out of the book I really want? As an alternative, offer the back-ups as premium digital content: A buck a month, e.g. This could also help you expand your digital presence which, frankly, is the future of the industry.
5. Fix the DCU. I’m not a slave to continuity, but the Batverse makes no sense at all anymore.
4. Less books, better books. Within three issues after the relaunch, about 1 in 5 new 52s have either rebooted creators or are looking like they’ll be cancelled. In fact, coming out with the hardbound “omnibus” of all 52 books in one shot makes it seem like some of these won’t even get collected in trade. If you would take my suggestion to publish bigger books less often.
3. Get Grant Morrison to bring his A Game to Action Comics. This title isn’t nearly the thrill ride it oughtta be. In fact, reading it kind of feels like work.
2. ‘Mazing Man: Absolute Edition and Steve Gerber’s Hard Time Vol. 2. Pretty please? These issues have never been collected, and they’re two of the best books DC has ever published!
1. Regular cross-overs with Marvel! Three of my most-re-read, most favoritest comics of all time were the Batman/Hulk and Superman/Spidey oversized comics and the JLA/Avengers minis. Granted, most of the other DC/Marvel stuff was sheite, but if you make a plan for an annual cross-over and dedicate the right talent to it, there’s no reason it couldn’t be good. And let the indies play, too—we all rise on the same tide, don’t we? Here’s my suggestions to start you off:
Tags: Comic books, Superman, The Caped Crusader
“The events of this issue take place before FLASHPOINT and the New 52.”
Grrrr.
Batman, Inc. was in my view the Best Grant Morrison Batman Story since “Batman & Son.” It was odd and often nonlinear, but not so much so as to be frustrating or hopelessly confusing. It was full of Bat-trivia, but not so obscure that I felt like I was being left out of the joke. And it portended big BIG changes for Batman.
Then Flashpoint came. DC promised that Morrison’s Batverse was still canon.
Then the last two issues of Batman, Inc. disappeared, put on hold for several months during the New 52 hype. And now, at last, the last two issues arrive as a $6.99 one-shot.
But there’s that caveat: “The events of this issue take place before FLASHPOINT and the New 52.”
So, basically, DC lied to us, which we all kinda knew anyway. Morrison’s Batman is not canon. And his upcoming
12-issue Batman: Leviathan series, which promises to put a period, once and for all, at the end of the extremely decompressed Batstory that Morrison has been carefully crafting for 5 years, will arrive in 2012 and…Will it matter?
I’ll still read it, because a good story is a good story, but I’ll be damned if I’m happy about it.
How was the issue, though? Worth $6.99?
The answer is: Yes and No. Yes if you bought the first 8 issues, no if you didn’t. It wrapped up several loose threads, answered some questions, gave a subtle shout out to Nick Spencer’s terrific indie book “Morning Glories” (see picture at right) and offered a hallucinogenic kind of locked-room-mystery, a type of tale that Morrison has spun several times in his years on Batman.
And it’s got hot ninja chicks. Gotta mention that.
It’s the kind of book you’ll want (need) to reread a few times before you’ve really got a hold on it.
Just like a Morrison book should.
I can’t wait for Batman: Leviathan in 2012, even if DC has completely torked up its continuity and relevance.
Tags: The Caped Crusader
From Marvel
Celebrating the best of the year….Hit the break.
Tags: Best of 2011, Comic books, Daredevil, Deadpool, Filthy Muties, Spider-Man, Superheroes, Superman, The Avengers, The Caped Crusader, Zombies
DC copped 40% issues sold, Marvel got 38%. Of course, DC is down a lot. 22% to be exact. But that’s totally to be expected, with the media push and 52 #1s in one month. I’d expect a little more downturn in the coming months. They’re still up from their pre-New 52 market share, but my prediction is that in a few months they’ll be back where they were before the whole relaunch. Does that mean it wasn’t worth it? Of course not. Those few months of big sales were BIG sales for DC—and the amount of hype and publicity they got can only be good for those of us who love comics. It’s probably due solely to the New 52 that overall comic sales are up 7% for the year—the first rise in yearly figures in two years.
The top 10 titles were still mostly DC: Justice League #3 led the pack, followed by #3s of Batman, Action, and Green Lantern. Interestingly, Marvel’s “Point One” book came in at #5—it had a $6 price tag and generally got bad reviews. (All filler! No meat!) I’m sure that helped Marvel’s dollar sales figs significantly. Also interesting: #6 in November 2011’s top 10 was the new Avenging Spider-Man title. I’m hoping that book is a hit, as I was always a big fan of Marvel Team-Up.
Rounding out the bottom four of the top 10, beginning at #7, were Uncanny X-Men #1, Detective #3, Flash #3 and, finally, Wolverine and the X-Men #2.
A bigger shock to me was what the New 52 continues to do for DC’s OGN/Trade Paperback sales. I thought the reboot essentially killed off their back issue market, since the New 52 meant the old stories no longer mattered. But DC had half of the top 10 paperbacks sold last month—in a pre-Christmas month that found graphic novel sales up 30% from October. A good month for trades! I’m also very, very glad to see Joe the Barbarian in the top 10. I know I had something to do with that—I bought two copies.
Here’s your top 10 trades. Note the complete absence of anything Marvel—despite their release of the amazing John Byrne Fantastic Four Omnibus.
10. Joe the Barbarian (DC/Vertigo)
9. BPRD: Being Human (Dark Horse)
8. Sailor Moon Vol. 2
7. Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns (DC)
6. Scalped Vol. 8 (DC/Vertigo)
5. Batman and Robin Vol. 2 (DC)
4. The Walking Dead Vol. 1 (reissue) (Image)
3. The Boys Vol. 9 (Dynamite)
2. Hellboy: House of the Living Dead (Dark Horse)
1. Batman: Noel Deluxe Edition (DC)
Daredevil vs. Mole Man by Paolo Rivera. You can get me this original art for my birthday or Christmas or just 'cause you love me.
Tags: Comic books, Daredevil, Grant Morrison Sucks, Justice League, The Caped Crusader
