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Wednesday, January 23, 2008

DC Solicits: Miscellaneous Thoughts

So the DC Solicits for April are up! I figured I'd jot down some of my immediate reactions in no particular order.

-I don't know what it is about Checkmate. I keep thinking I SHOULD be irritated by the whole "Let's pull out our unknown-until-now auxilliary members as secret weapons!" plot device, but instead I'm all peering intently at the picture trying to figure out who they are. I do see a cowboy hat...

-Steven managed to answer yesterday's question for me. Lance Corporal Reid huh? Well. He certainly looks interesting. And unlike certain people I quite approve of the Lance Corporal's rear end.

-I don't really get the appeal of the Tangent universe. Sorry.

-I guess the Titans 1 solicit seems to verify that everyone from Titans East is dead. Well, I suppose since Cyborg's alive, it's possible that a few others are too. I'm mostly ticked about Son of Vulcan and Hawk and Dove. I think they have a lot of potential.

-Still this should make a lot of old fans happy. Between this and Teen Titans Year One. I have to admit, aside from Wally, I've never been a big fan of anyone in the original line-up. So I'm less than enthused. But, well, I don't have to buy EVERYTHING. :-)

-I think the spotlight on Miss Martian sounds pretty interesting. I didn't think I'd like her early on, but I do.

-I like her a lot better than I like J'onn at least.

-I never liked the thought of putting Raven back at a high school age. It always seemed forced to me. Insta-teenaged hijinx with a character that ought to be much too old for it. I wonder if they'll undo it for Titans, so she can be the same age as the others.

-I heart the idea of Red Bee taking over the world. That's awesome.

-The story tying into Bruce's training in Japan could either rock or suck horribly. It's really that sort of storyline I think. If I remember the week it comes out, though, I'll probably give it a shot.
--It's pretty rare, I think, that this sort of story is written by a native (though, he might be 2nd gen, I suppose. I don't recognize the name. "American debut" would seem to imply that he's native Japanese...) Either way, it'll be interesting to see what he does with it.

-Is it just me, or does it seem like Zatanna's in Detective Comics a LOT. I never thought she was THAT interesting.

-For once, Supergirl's solicit actually looks interesting. :-) I wonder who helps out.

-Whew, it looks like Wally's family hasn't been retconned away by the new writer. I'm glad. I really like the Flashlets. They really bring something new to the table I think, and are part of what makes Flash so different from most other comics. I really REALLY like seeing Wally try to balance a STABLE home/family life with superheroics.

-More of Hal's origin story...that should be interesting. I actually like periodic retellings of that sort of thing. It allows for interesting updating. Besides, I'm just glad Emerald Dawn's wiped out for good. (Sure, EDII was decent, but if it ends up a casualty in the cause to retcon out ED? I'll happily stand the loss.)

12 Comments:

  • At January 23, 2008 5:17 AM, Blogger Elayne said…

    You don't have to worry about the appeal of the Tangent universe if you buy the book for the art. ;)

     
  • At January 23, 2008 5:25 AM, Blogger Flidget Jerome said…

    Is it just me, or does it seem like Zatanna's in Detective Comics a LOT. I never thought she was THAT interesting.

    Dini's basically married to her real-life version, hence . . .

    I'd be taking Son of Vulcan's limboing far better if it wasn't in the service of another everything-old-is-new-again revival of a team of superheros who should really be embarassed that they can't find anything better to do than re-live being 16.

     
  • At January 23, 2008 6:45 AM, Blogger LurkerWithout said…

    When did DC get a new Red Bee?

    *shrug* Sadly, it still looks like the only thing DC is tempting me to add is Checkmate. I sometimes feel sad that Marvel puts out more that catches ahold of me. But I was a Marvel-ite in the 80s and 90s more than a DC kid so thats probably part of it...

    The rest being that other than Blue Beetle hardly any DC books have characters I care about. At all. I wish Manhunter would come back at least. I really grew to like her nerd sidekick in the first two trades...

     
  • At January 23, 2008 11:24 AM, Blogger SallyP said…

    Bwhahahahha!

    But seriously, the Red Bee taking over the world is such a wonderful concept. Maybe there will be dinosaurs?

    I'm looking forward to the story of Hal's origin. Ivan Reis is back, and presumably,Hal won't be a drunk anymore. What's not to like?

     
  • At January 23, 2008 12:17 PM, Blogger kalinara said…

    Elayne: Honestly, if I'm spending 2.50-3 dollars on a book, I want it to have some semblance of an appealing story. :-)

     
  • At January 23, 2008 12:24 PM, Blogger K. D. Bryan said…

    I keep thinking I SHOULD be irritated by the whole "Let's pull out our unknown-until-now auxilliary members as secret weapons!" plot device, but instead I'm all peering intently at the picture trying to figure out who they are. I do see a cowboy hat...

    "Irritated"? Pfft! Dude, they're SPIES. I'd be disappointed if something like this didn't happen at some point. :P

    Cowboy hat is a girl, I think, from the long-ish, curly hair. Lumpy Head on the far left might be some version of, uh . . . Copperhead? Don't know. Iron Man looking guy in the front - possibly a member of The Great Ten? And absolutely no clue on Shotgun Man to the far right.

    Man, it's times like this I wish I grew up more of a DC nerd.

     
  • At January 23, 2008 12:29 PM, Blogger K. D. Bryan said…

    Waitaminute - are you sure that's a cowboy hat? Because if it's a curly-haired woman in a fedora, then I think the answer just became pretty clear who that silhouette on the cover of a Greg Rucka book is.

    Also upon further inspection, the Iron Man looking one either has weird boots or both robot knees and ankles. He may be completely some sort of robot then. Hmmmm.

     
  • At January 23, 2008 1:28 PM, Blogger Flidget Jerome said…

    Iron Man looking guy in the front - possibly a member of The Great Ten?

    Man, I would love it to be someone from the Great Ten. There just aren't enough non-American superhero teams, especially non-American superhero teams whose first language is something other than English.

    (On that note, Marvel, when are we going to see les Heroes de Paris again?)

     
  • At January 23, 2008 6:23 PM, Blogger Moriarty said…

    One of the best things in the solicits is the Kevin Maguire cover for Action Comics. Like Sally, some of my favorite comics were the JLI years, and no one could pull it off like Maguire. I really REALLY wish he could keep the schedule of a monthly book.

     
  • At January 23, 2008 9:54 PM, Blogger IslandLiberal said…

    They mentioned Checkmate's Rooks back in #17, I think (the one focussed on the former Master Jailer who's now the Castellan); at the time, the Castellan said he'd rather set off an atomic bomb than turn them loose.

     
  • At January 24, 2008 10:31 AM, Blogger SallyP said…

    Oh Matthew...you have SUCH good taste.

     
  • At January 24, 2008 8:07 PM, Blogger Unknown said…

    Dove did show up in the last Countdown to Mystery- 1, 2 panels at the most and all she's done so far is get Evol!Plastic Man's drool on her. But she's around, and that issue featured the Jean!Clipso/Mary Marvel fight, so there is still hope for the Titans East casualties yet.

    One thought about Titans East though: Your lead-in book to a series typically doesn't have a page of the members of the series' titular team telling you its a terrible idea.

     

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