DC Relaunch: Aquaman

For sometime now, poor ole Aquaman has had it kind of hard. Admittedly, most of the character that appeared in Superfriends didn't really get a fair shake, but he's in particular had a hard time carrying a series in recent years, and he's also come under fire from fans and Adult Swim as a useless character. Can he talk to fish, he can swim really fast, but what else is there? Well, y'know, being able to easily swim the depths of the sea typically gives you a pretty durable body and really impressive superstrength. He's also had some very interesting methods of his talking/controlling sea creatures, like the time he set Superboy straight by dropping a tsunami and a ton of whales on him.

Anyway, Aquaman has been getting some better attention these days, after being killed uneventfully and eventually brought back to life by Geoff Johns in the pages of Blackest Night and Brightest Day.

Aquaman is connected to the sea. And there's alot of stories to tell there, you just really have to grab the reader's attention in the first place. Over the years Aquaman has had it pretty rough, so while he can be an alright guy, he is often closed off from his friends. He's a king, but he'd much rather handle biz himself that send someone else off to do it. And since he's only half Atlantean anyway, his family, to him, is usually those he keeps close: his wife Mera, Aqualad, and Aquagirl. Mera is just as powerful as he is, and also has powers of hard water manipulation (essentially creating effective weapons out of nothing, which the current Aqualad has as well). He does have a short temper, especially when it comes to people messing around with his oceans.

Aquaman is an adventurer. When checking out his stories, fully expect there to be lots of stuff going on, and some hard action. It's fun, and all those people talking about Aquaman just talking to fish are missing out on that.

The new Aquaman will be handled by the Geoff Johns along with Ivan Reis. Together, they've worked on Green Lantern and Brightest Day. Reis has also worked with former Green Lantern Corps writer Dave Gibbons on the cosmic mini-series The Rann-Thanagar War.

My favorite Aquaman stories have been the work done by Peter David in the early 90s. While his run was cut short, his notable changes to the character (including the harpoon hand seen throughout the Justice League cartoons) have not been without recognition. However, much of it has not seen collection. Here is what you can find, aside from the Showcase and Archive volumes:

Aquaman: The Death of the Prince by Jim Aparo & Others

Aquaman: Time & Tide by Peter David & Kirk Jarvenin

Aquaman: The Waterbearer by Rick Veitch

Come back tomorrow where we'll be taking a look at the The Flash!

DC Relaunch: Wonder Woman

So I know this is late, but I decided to wait until all the books were up. And then I was busy yesterday. Anyway!

This next batch was announced shortly (and unexpectedly) after the Justice League reveal. The first of these that I'll be talking about is Wonder Woman (I am literally going in the order they appeared when announced).

Wonder Woman is interesting in that DC had just recently done some work to try and modernize her a bit. Most of that looks to remain the same, and most of that is visual anyway. There's a few points that remain constant. In fact, over the years, most of what has changed besides a few minor costume adjustments, has been whether or whether not she had an alternate identity. Most recently she has not had one, just FYI.

But what stays consistent is the juxtaposition of her Amazonian heritage, and her ties to divinity, against her unconditional love of humanity. I think that's important to the character, as is a certain amount of grace outside of battle. Now, on the other side of that she is and always has been a warrior. She is well trained, precise, and brutal. Now any number of things can actually happen in the comic, as you might imagine, but those are basics of her character.

The creators coming in on this are Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, who had previously worked together on a backup in Tales of the Unknown a few years back, which has been collected as Doctor Thirteen: Morality & Architecture. It came out after Infinite Crisis, which made some changes to the DC universe, and the mini poked a bit of fun at how some obscure characters can be left out when that happens. Despite starring obscure characters, it is easy to read if you have no prior knowledge of these characters (at the time I didn't).

Brian Azzarello is probably best known for his work with Eduardo Risso on the 100 issue crime epic 100 Bullets. He's also worked with Risso on an upcoming series called Spaceman, and numerous times on Batman, in the stories "Broken City," the currently running Flashpoint mini "Knight of Vengeance," and in a story serialized in the weekly effort, Wednesday Comics. Azzarello has also collaborated with co-publisher and new Justice League artist Jim Lee, on the year long Superman story "For Tomorrow."

Cliff Chiang is a dynamic artist who has been doing both interior and covers for DC for a few years. He notably has worked with Judd Winick on a run of Green Arrow/Black Canary (collected as "Family Business") and with Josh Dysart for Neil Young's graphic novel Greendale.

As far as my favorite Wonder Woman story is concerned, I am admittedly, a bit unfamiliar with the character. I did follow Gail Simone's run and have read the current story, "The Odyssey," and these are my favorites from those:

Wonder Woman - Ends of the Earth

Wonder Woman - Odyssey vol. 1 (vol. 2 is yet to be released)

While this goes out early this morning, late tonight I'll be posting on Aquaman. Stay tuned, and as always, feel free to share your favorite Wonder Woman stories in the comments!

DC Relaunch Daily, Part one: Justice League

As many of you who may stumble across this blog are aware, DC Comics is preparing a massive relaunch of their titles, with 52 new books being released to the general public (that's right they're not just for nerds anymore (p.s., they never were!)), not only in shops, but online the same day. For those of you aware, thanks for stopping by. Please link this blog to a friend who could potentially be interested in reading comics. Because that's what I want to do here.


I've decided that I want there to be more people reading. I like the idea of reading comics as something that people do because they enjoy it, not something we wallow in as nostalgia, whether it be people like myself who are regular Wednesday release readers, to the people who whenever I bring up comics they think back to something they read as a kid, and how much they loved it (but you couldn't get them to pick up a book if you tried). As comic book readers, we have a negative stigma. So invite those reading this to forget about that. DC has given you a way around the comic book shop. Comics are now released online. If you've ever been interested, even remotely, I'd like to help open the door. But, I'd imagine, you don't really know where to begin. So day by day, I'll be going over these books that DC is providing for you. By no means should you try to read them all! That way lies madness. But if something catches your eye, why not?



So I'll begin with the first title being announced, and that is Justice League by Geoff Johns & Jim Lee.


Here's the first cover that was released:


The Justice League has always been a team that handled the largescale threats to Earth that as individuals may have been a bit much. But together, they're the heaviest hitters Earth has to offer, and it's hard to get very far against that.



Most of these characters should be pretty familiar to you: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and Aquaman. Depending on your age, it may even be safe to say that you're familiar with Cyborg, as he was one of the main characters of Teen Titans (which was a great show for young and old, in my opinion). These are your Big 7, as they're usually referred to. The core of the Justice League. As you might imagine, being the biggest and most important characters in the DC Universe is a busy job in itself. A few members aside, these are protectors of their respective cities. So as per usually, there's a few more members that have yet to be revealed. Geoff Johns, the writer, has stated the League will boast up to about 13 members. So there's room for everyone.


I'd like to now talk about the creators working on the book, which can be, for many, as important as who the book is about.


Geoff Johns is a writer who's been working at DC Comics for sometime. Currently, in addition to writing, he is Chief Creative Officer at DC. He's well known for long runs on the comics The Flash, JSA (and later published as Justice Society of America), Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E., Action Comics, and for his very long run in revitalizing Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern, and expanding the Green Lantern franchise into multiple books and soon to be a movie. His works are known for having hints and seeds throughout a long run, while still being accessible to new readers jumping into the latest story. I myself started reading his Green Lantern about 25 issues in.


Jim Lee is an artist who has been in the comics industry for a long time. Part of the teams responsible for the immense popularity of the X-Men in the early 90s, he left Marvel Comics with other artists to start Image Comics. After a time, Lee took his properties and studio Wildstorm on its own, separate from Image. After a time it became enveloped as a line all its own within DC, publishing his Wildstorm Universe, licensed properties, and various creator owned works such as Alan Moore's ABC line of comics. Recently he was named with Dan Didio the co-publisher for DC Comics.



Just a few works by these two creators I'd like to recommend:


Green Lantern: Rebirth by Geoff Johns & Ethan Van Sciver
The Flash: Dastardly Death of the Rogues by Geoff Johns, Francis Manapul, & Scott Kolins
Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns & Gary Frank
Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee


And a few of my personal favorite Justice League storylines (excluding Justice League International, more about that later):



JLA by Grant Morrison & Howard Porter (vols. 1-4)
JLA: The Obsidian Age by Joe Kelly & Doug Mahnke (Books 1 & 2)
Justice League Elite by Joe Kelly & Doug Mahnke (vols 1 & 2)



Being as these are my personal favorites, I'd hardly say they are the easiest or the most representative of what you'll be reading in the new Justice League title. Merely representative of what I liked before. If you are interested in reading further, these suggests are here, and if any readers would like to further those, please do so in the comments! But I should say, do not feel pressured into reading these books as a primer for the new title. It should stand on its own.



Tomorrow, we'll be getting into the first of the solo titles announced, Wonder Woman!

Doctor Strange in Strange Tales

I love this book. It's odd thinking about how before the introduction of Doctor Strange, the book was a vehicle for the popular character of the Human Torch (Johnny Storm). I can't speak much on those stories, as I've never read them, but I find it interesting. Obviously they must have had something to have gone on a while, but still, what came after is what the book is known for.

And seriously, an anthology running Doctor Strange side by side with this cutting edge spy story? It was something altogether, and still stands high in my ranking of Marvel's ongoing titles. Every artist that works on this book is amazing. Specifically with regards to Doctor Strange, which is less consistent art wise than the Nick Fury feature that was dominated by Kirby and Steranko. While Steve Ditko is well known for his work with the character, each artist had his own story to tell.

Ditko really does lay the ground, setting up amazing characters in Nightmare, Mordu, Dormammu, and Eternity. Even after, he gives a little bit of character to henchmen of Mordu, allowing them the possibility to move beyond mere minions. Bill Everett follows with a short but fantastic little story regarding the origins of magic between the Ancient One and his former colleague, Kaluu. No sooner is this threat out of the way, than Umar makes her way in and taunts Strange. Her mechanizations lead in to Marie Severin on the book, who does some just beautiful art. Severin introduces the threat of Zom, the overseeing force of the Living Tribunal, and the threatening planetary superlord of Nebulos, and the return of Mordu. Dan Adkins wraps up the title with the Scientist Supreme, taking Strange into new worlds and bringing his magic against the might of science.

Everything about this book is exciting. The landscapes, the look. Even in the black and white Essential reprints, the amazing shading of the characters stands out (especially with Umar, Eternity, and Nebulos). The only thing that leaves me hanging is in this series ending, we still have a cliffhanger with regards to the whereabouts of Clea and her safety. Better read that Thomas/Colan run, eh?

Massive Speculation regarding November's Sales

The Diamond Top 100 and the ICv2’s Top 300 actual were posted, and always, there were a number of things I noticed. A lot of people look at the top first. What I see there is that DC knows what to do with its books. They’ve made a lot of mistakes, but they have really managed to come up with an effective expansion strategy. Whereas Batman and Superman were practically the only characters with multiple books, we now have Green Lantern sporting two satellite titles and The Flash prepared to expand. DC is constantly looking to recreate the magic of 52, where all of us were interested in the stories of character we previously had no interest in, andwhere we went out and bought a weekly book. They’re finally get a handle on it with the two bi-weekly titles, though like 52, the stories in Brightest Day have worked themselves into full issues and not just multiple segements per issue.

Marvel has managed to mold the Avengers into a successful franchise, which is fantastic. The X-Men is still doing amazingly well without controlling the way the Marvel Universe moves, and is really a testament to good storytelling that is self-contained with the Marvel mutants. Two things from the top 100 for Marvel: the market is ready for a Young Avengers title, and I expect to see a vampire-centric Marvel U title in the next year. More on that and more later in the week. There’s a lot I want to touch on.

Here’s what I see at the bottom though. First we have the initial “Danger Range” from 20,000-15,000 in sales. For Marvel, two titles are penned for cancellation (as per Alex Alonso): Deadpool Corps and Deadpool Team-Up. Personally I think this is a good move to get the number of Deadpool titles down. Marvel went a bit too far with that, in my opinion, and really spreadout their Deadpool reading viewers. The other is Namor, which is a sad little title due to constantly being tied in to events. This will be touched on later. DC has a few titles in this range: Booster Gold, Power Girl, JSA All Stars, and the Secret Six. Secret Six is going to be plagued by the villains for hire Titans title. I really feel the market is not able to support more than one of these kinds of books at one time, and Titans being tied into Brightest Day isn’t helping Secret Six at all. Honestly, the upcoming Doom Patrol tie-in won’t either. However, for DC titles, these are safe. The sad member of this group is Thunder Agents. Despite everything DC tried to promote this book, it debuts for November at 16,122. It doesn’t bode well for the future of the book.

The next section is the 15,000-10,000 range. Marvel cancels books in this range, typically. I think, and I’m not positive on this, but I think Marvel regularly publishes more mini-series than DC does, which definitely would make the number spread a bit trickier. However, Iron Man Legacy is still running in this range, which I have been continually surprised by after all the other titles Marvel has let go of. DC has a couple of books that live in this range, The Outsiders, Freedom Fighters, Batman Confidential, and REBELS. I’m actually quite surprised that Outisders has better sales than REBELS, due to REBELS having a much higher critical acclaim. But then the acclaim is also given to Thor, the Mighty Avenger, which pulls in at 8,720. To wrap this section, Marvel’s other books in this range are Black Widow, Hawkeye & Mockingbird, and Young Allies. All of which are done and will wrap in minis. I’ll give Marvel that, they usually allow the creator to finish telling his story.

Under 10,000. DC’s First Wave books are here, and I’m not really sure whether that is something that is still considered “safe” for that line. It’s below a lot of the Vertigo titles, and I’m not sure what will happen next with them. Personally I love reading The Spirit, and would be sad to see it go. Doom Patrol and Azrael are both here, with Azrael still chugging along somehow at 7,841. I think that the DP crossover with Secret Six will benefit it more than the other way around. Down at the bottom is the Mighty Crusaders, the wrapup of the debacle that has been The Red Circle stories, coming in at 5,006 for issue 5.

There’s a lot more I want to touch on, so I’ll be doing so in separate segments soon.

Brightest Day

I've been thinking about this one for a while. So I'm pretty late to comment on the obvious: Brightest Day will lead into the main characters getting their own series. The series proper will anyway, I can't speak in regards to the other resurrected characters. But at this point it's pretty obvious, especially since there's been rumors about Firestorm, James Robinson pretty much let slip about Hawkman, and there's no denying that Geoff Johns can't wait to let loose with Aquaman.

Geoff Johns has ultimately, figured out a winning formula. Bring a character back into the spotlight with a rebirth. Start new ongoing. Start spinning off from there. Green Lantern is 3 books deep right now. Flash is supposed to be getting it's first secondary book in 2011. Both have movies in the works. It's extremely impressive. So now we've got Aquaman (Johns/Ivan Reis, I'm betting), Hawkman/Hawkgirl/Hawkworld/Hawks (James Robinson/Philip Tan), and then Tomasi writing Martian Manhunter, I'm thinking, with Sterling Gates on Firestorm. Maybe even Igle back on Firestorm?

I'm wondering if this pushing back of Tomasi/Gleason's Batman & Robin is actually part of a preparation for a Tomasi/Gleason Martian Manhunter. Give a bit of breathing room, so to speak. Gates is purely speculation, but it'd make sense in regards to his suddenly departure from Supergirl.

More speculation. The single issue one-shots in January. Wonder Girl, Steel, Congorilla & Starman, and Shazam. Eric Wallace is the in house Shazam/Marvel Family man, it seems, so I won't surprised if after Osiris' story in Titans plays out that DC won't roll with the new series. I'd love a new Steel series, but that's just hoping on my part. Having never read any Doctor Who novels, I can speak nothing in regards to the man's work. Wonder Girl, I'm thinking is expansion on the Wonder Woman line. They've mentioned briefly giving a second book to them, and how she should have a secondary. If Krul was the original person offered Firestorm, then it would make sense why he declined as he had "too much on his plate." This is if he was the person who said it in the first place. Here's what I'm thinking with C&S. IF these are all testing for new ongoings AND James Robinson is writing a new Hawkman ongoing, then I would continue my speculation and say that he's off JLA sometime next year. Honestly, he's not able to pull off too many books at once, 2 ongoings and a mini (Shade) is pushing it a bit, historically speaking.

I fully welcome DC to disprove everything I've just said. I'd rather know that I was wrong than find out I've somehow looked at everything on my own and figured it all out.

The Marvel trinity

Many people put stock in trinities, whether it be religious, in film trilogies, or in this case, comics. DC probably has the best known comic trinity in Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. These three have been among their longest running, most popular, and most widely recognized characters. I should point out, this is not a direct reflection of sales. However, the average person knows who they are. Marvel considers itself to have a trinity as well, but it's certainly not as recognizable. At least not yet.

Probably the most recognizable Marvel characters are Spider-man, Wolverine, and the Hulk. Marvel considers its true trinity to be Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. The core of the Avengers. But just like the Avengers titles struggles, a few years ago these three heroes were far from the most popular titles running. But between Marvel Studios and clever revamps of all 3 books (Iron Man twice!), they are building that image.

The books have been well received, and the Iron Man movies as well. I saw an argument on a form about Marvel's trinity the other day, and I would agree that Marvel's central heroes are not very well known. I feel like this is changing.

To avoid spoiling, I'll be vague, but there is a teaser for the new Thor movie out there that got me very excited. It then dawned on me what was happening. The movies leading up to 2012's Avengers movie are Thor and Captain America, along with the Iron Man movies and the Incredible Hulk. These movies set the stage for these characters to be more household names, for the wider world to have an idea of who they are. Marvel has cleverly made their play to create icons outside of comic fandom that DC cemented so long ago. And if they're not careful, DC could lose ground with their franchises.

While Batman continues to be healthy, Superman's film franchise has been neglected, and the comics excellent but scattered. Wonder Woman suffers from many problems that would need to be resolved prior to any film possibilities. The comics have been well written and fun, but in many ways have gained no ground. So Marvel's trinity may prove to be the one of choice by the casual fan, the comic movie fan. It's an impressive move on Marvel's part that should make DC wary.