DC Relaunch: Justice League Dark

The DC Universe has had its share of supernatural heroes, and but a few supernatural or magic based teams. The previous magic go-to-guys was Shadowpact, and more often than not they were kind of considered a joke (at least until things got way out of hand and you needed to fix it quick). But with more emphasis on the magic/mystic/peculiar side of the DC universe, it's time to take these guys seriously again. And this time, they've brought out the big guns.

Will they actually be called Justice League Dark? I don't know, but the fact that they're finally regarded as Justice League worthy is important, I think. These folks have certainly saved the world enough times over. Deadman? Oh yeah, and you never knew because you couldn't see him! John Constantine? Buy him a beer and a pack of silk cuts and he'll tell you a tale or two, and how he got snubbed every time (though that last time was with good reason). Zatanna has been on the Justice League (or she was in the last continuity), and Madame Xanadu has been knocking around so long that I'm gonna be talking about her and the Demon hanging out tomorrow back in just post-Camelot days. What has Shade done? Good question. He's the least magical of all of them, being an alien being projecting into unused identity (read:dead) and wearing an M-vest that does a number of things, and depending on the day, the M can stand for damn near anything.

So here they all are, purveyors of weird, ready to take on whatever is thrown at them, which alot of that is going to be the biggest hurdle: they have to get along the whole time. Constantine more tolerates Deadman than anything, and him and Shade get along okay, though everything goes weird. Xanadu has seen every Constantine, Zatara, and avatar of Nanda Parat (Deadman), and she's likely not that impressed. And Constantine and Zatanna dated once (awkwaaaard). And thrown into all of this is the Enchantress, who just can't seem to figure out if she wants to be bad or good. It's a toss up.

DC Relaunch: DCU Presents... Deadman!

Sorry for another delay folks. I just got done moving and we don’t have internet still. I had some things I wanted to talk to you all about.

Let’s talk about the anthology. Moreso what Didio has confirmed DCU Presents to be: a testing ground. I’m pretty young, so I wasn’tactually around when this sort of thing happened regularly, but I look back and am able to see where this was happening. Books like Showcase and Marvel Spotlight would run these stories with lower end or new characters to see how’d they’d do. The Flash of course being the best example of this, I love lookingback to what this title might have been like to collect at that time, if you were collecting it regularly.

It’s with that enthusiasm that we look at our book’s first story arc, featuring Deadman. Deadman has been kicking around in the background of the DCU for some time, and it’s been a while since he’s been as prominent as he’s become in Blackest Night and Brightest Day. Deadman is a tragic character, though recently he’s been given a new light. Boston Brand had it all. He was a famous acrobat and was murdered during the show. He is given new power to act as a ghost in order to find his murderer.He cannot be seen by normal peop e, but he can possess them and communicates with the outside world via this power.

More recently, he was resurrected the White Entity (during Blackest Night) and had to learn how to live again (Brightest Day), as he had become too comfortable and used to the state of disconnectedness that the spirit world gave. He does learn how to live, but as a result sacrifices himself so that someone else can live. Now, he’s stuck again as Deadman the spirit, and has to find his place in that role again.

Paul Jenkins will be writing this story with Bernard Chang on art. Paul Jenkins has been writing in comics for along time, having a notable sized run on Hellblazer, working on the Eisner award wining run on Inhumans with Jae Lee, and also created the Sentry with him. He also had long runs on Peter Parker: Spider-man and The Spectacular Spider-man.

Bernard Chang has previously worked on a number of different project. Most recently he has been working on Supergirl, but he has worked on a number of books for different publishers over the years, going back to when he got his start working for Valiant Comics back in 1992. He’s got a nice, clean style, and also quite capable of ramping up huge visuals that will prove interesting in Deadman’s journey through the otherside.

There was a large oversized collection of the Deadman material that’s been out of print for years. However, DC has decided to reprint some of the material originally printed in the pages of Strange Adventures.

Deadman, vol. 1 by Arnold Drake, Jack Miller, Carmine Infantino, & Neal Adams.

Blackest Night by Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis

Brightest Day by Geoff Johns, Peter Tomasi, & various artists

Tomorrow (or later today, for some) I’ll begin looking at Green Lantern, in which I will ONLY be talking about the comic.