I had heard on the grapevine that things were not going well behind the scenes at DC with editors Pat McCullum and Alex Antone leaving abruptly and keeping completely silent about their reasons for going. It was suggested that non-disclosure agreements had been signed.
Now, Dan Didio himself has gone in an extremely abrupt fashion which only the ‘suits’ at the top knew about until it happened.
Dan has always been a person who liked to retain complete control over all the projects at DC which has, at times, caused creator feathers to fly. Currently at DC, a new direction – Generation Five, shortened to 5G – is in the works and disagreements over this have been at the root of the sudden departure. No firm details are known at this point, but it is felt that the Hypertime of Doomsday Clock will feature heavily. The first appearance of this will be on Free Comic Book Day with Generation Zero: Gods Among Us. This will then be followed by Generation One: Age Of Mysteries.
DC have been losing ground to Marvel over the last year and this is obviously their game plan to shake the universe up and gain market back from Marvel.
Watch this space…
DC and Batman
Tom King’s reign as writer on Batman came to an end with issue #85. Sales had been falling on Batman for a while and those that post online had been become disinterested in Tom King’s plots. The new team has come in and immediately sales have picked up… but only a little. This small bump goes some way to prove the naysayers online are a vocal minority. In the book, a new character has been added – Punchline, the Jokers new assistant – and this has sent speculators into a frenzy. Punchline’s first appearance in Batman #86 is fetching £26 to £30 already, and the first full appearance in Year of the Villain: Hell’s Arisen #3 is fetching over £30! This came out on February 26th and expect the value to increase as the print run was only about 33,000 compared to Batman’s 90,000 copies.
I just hope these speculators read the issue and keep on buying the comic!
Marvel
There is an incoming slew of extra Empyre miniseries and one-shots – too many for my wallet. I will stick to the main series and the Thor miniseries (I love a good Thor story!)
The main title to attract me this month is the Juggernaut five-issue miniseries by Fabian Nicieza and Ron Garney. Two seasoned creators working on a character I have loved ever since his first astonishing (at least to my ten year old mind) appearance in X-Men #12 in 1965. Most often a villain, a sometime ally, but always an intriguing character. Nothing can stop the Juggernaut, except himself?
Comic of the Month
Batman: The Adventures Continue #1 (DC Comics).
Back in 1992, the Batman Adventures series launched. Set in the animated TV universe continuity, Ty Templeton worked on that series and is the artist again for this 2020 continuation. The original was fabulous and is famed for the first comic book appearance of Harley Quinn in issue #12. If this series can recreate even half of the same fun, action and adventure that the first series contained, I will be happy. My confidence about this is bolstered by the fact that Paul Dini is co-writing with Alan Burnett. Please, please buy this and see how good comics can be!
Plus, if you were too young to have bought the original series’ debut issue, you can buy the reprint for the same price of $1.99. It’s listed this month as DC Classics: The Batman Adventures #1.
Graphic Novel of the Month
Pulp, an original graphic novel by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips, is a celebration of pulp fiction, set in the 1930s involving bank robbers, Nazi spies and Wild West six-gun punishment. Seventy-two pages of glorious art and a-thrill-a-page from two creators at the top of their game!
Mission for the month:
Blimey, Spring is nearly here! Dust down your lawnmowers, clean up your secaturs, and get at-one with mother nature. The longer days are coming and life steps up a gear. Lovely!
