Comics World Upheaval
For those that pay attention to the comics world like I do (IE, I check CBR and Newsarama and IGN Comics at LEAST daily), you should have noticed something by now:
A lot of Big Two titles are undergoing creative changes, rotating out both writers and artists, giving us a lot of fresh faces on some of our favorite titles. Let's go through some of them, shall we?
Superman
Rotating Out: James Robinson, Writer
Rotating In: J. Michael Straczynski, Writer
Personal Thoughts: To be honest, I was worried about this title anyway. James Robinson's "Atlas" arc did not wow me, and he shined best when he was doing the story around Mon-El, Superman's Daxamite "brother". With Supes returning shortly after War of the Supermen, its actually a good idea to get him off this title and perhaps on to something else. (Where's my Earth-2 Justice Society origin, Robinson??) When he did the Mon-El bit, his was one of the most compelling parts of the New Krypton saga (along with the maxi-series), so having him leave rather than risk tarnishing his run by doing more Atlas-like stuff is a good move.
JMS coming on though...I have no strong feelings toward the guy. I really enjoyed Supreme Power, but Squadron Supreme rang a bit hollow for me, and I have never read anything else of his so I am unaware if that's his normal quality level or not. What I DO know, is that he took Thor, a character who rarely anyone can make work, and shot him up to the Top 25. And if any other comic book character needs that right now, its Superman.
If he can do that, regardless of what I think of his actual writing, it'll be a huge deal for DC. He's talking about garnering national attention for the character, and my feelings on that are a combination of skepticism and "Please don't make Superman cheat on his wife/reveal he's gay/die AGAIN," since those are the only things that get comics any attention these days. But that's too far ahead for me to do serious speculation about. Right now two questions remain:
- Who's doing the art? This hasn't been announced, and its important. Ask any Thor fan and they'll tell you, having the artist JMS did was definitely part of what made the book such a success. He's going to need an equally impressive penciller if he's going to bring Superman to the same heights he took Thor too.
- Isn't he risking burn-out? JMS is obviously a professional writer, and those guys know tools to keep themselves from suffering true burn-out, but the question goes more to the fact that he's writing two Superman books now. Not two interconnecting Superman books, no--two Superman books in two different universes. I realize Superman: Earth-One will only ship once every six months or so, but that's still quite the creative gambit, I think. But time will tell if I actually know what I'm talking about or not.
Wonder Woman
Rotating Out: Gail Simone
Rotating In: JMS again
Personal Thoughts: I'm incredibly, incredibly sad to see Gail Simone leave. A (pardon the pun) wonderful writer who brought a human charm I'd not seen in Diana since her relaunch, I loved every issue of her run. And though she's got several issues to go and I'm already behind a few, already I wish she were staying. (Especially since I'd rather have Secret Six go away, really.) Still, in today's comic world 14 issues is considered a run, so to see her last from 16 to 47 is commendable.
As for JMS, well...Gail's excited. And Wonder Woman is (sort of) Thor's counterpart in DC, and we see how that worked out. Until we hear something concrete, its really too soon to comment much further than that.
Red Robin
Rotating Out: Chris Yost
Rotating In: Fabian Nicieza
Personal Thoughts: This one's interesting. I'm not sure WHAT to feel honestly, since I thought Chris Yost was really getting Tim in his more recent issues. I wasn't exactly on his side at first, but as his story developed it grew more and more obvious that Chris was really just pulling Tim Drake out of the torture porn hole DC editorial had thrown him down starting with...Gang War? Identity Crisis? Whichever came first. And once he'd done that, the Tim I'd grown to love over the first 100 issues of his original run was back.
...And of course, six issues later Yost is leaving. There's humor to be found in that.
But the guy coming in isn't a bad guy either. I liked what he did to close out the long-running Robin title, and understood that, given enough time, he could've written Tim out of that hole as well. But now that its taken care of, he can get on with writing the DC's biggest teen hero as he should be written. I hear Nicieza was made to write Robin, so I'm excited to see what he wants to do next with the character. (Getting him back in the Robin suit, or in a new costume with a new name, are both great starts.)
Power Girl
Rotating Out: Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray writers
Amanda Conner artist
Rotating In: Who the hell knows
Personal Thoughts: This book's dead in the water. Despite whacking me over the head with "women are better than men" in the comic, Palmiotti and Gray did a great job with this book, and Amanda Conner is the artist who made people cared enough to want to see Kara Zor-L in her own comic to begin with.
Its at this point all the people who said "they need to serious the book up" are going to realize that isn't going to work. Shame too, both DC and Marvel need more female superhero ongoings.
Thor
Rotating Out: Technically JMS, actually Kieron Gillen, writer
Billy Tan, artist
Rotating In: Matt Fraction, writer
Pasqual Ferry, artist
Personal Thoughts: Awesome. I'm sure Kieron Gillen is a great writer and all, but I was hoping at the start Fraction would be picked to write Thor. And Pasqual Ferry's art? I'm not sure why he's got the Iron Man glow, but I like it!
Batman
Rotating Out: Judd Winick
Rotating In: Tony Daniel, writer-artist
Personal Thoughts: Tony Daniel is an excellent artist. Great doing Titans, great here. Battle for the Cowl ticked me off 'cause no matter what anyone says I think Tim can pulp Jason, but he's been good on this title thus far.
It seems he's done a good job selling Dick Grayson to the fans, as well, which should bode well for the title. I look forward to reading future stories, as I have enjoyed the ones I've read already.
Anyway, I think that's it, but I could be wrong. I know Action Comics is swapping out Greg Rucka (fantastic writer) for Marc Guggenheim, which should be...interesting (a lot of people are still saying his run on Fastest Man Alive was the only thing approaching quality). And of course, there's the whole Avengers franchise being turned on its head, but that's really deserving of a column all its own.
In the meantime, ECCC and Mega Con are this weekend, so between bouts of Final Fantasy XIII I'll be posting about that.
Its Spring Break, so I'll be doing my best to make sure you see more updates. You should see at least two more today.
A lot of Big Two titles are undergoing creative changes, rotating out both writers and artists, giving us a lot of fresh faces on some of our favorite titles. Let's go through some of them, shall we?
Superman
Rotating Out: James Robinson, Writer
Rotating In: J. Michael Straczynski, Writer
Personal Thoughts: To be honest, I was worried about this title anyway. James Robinson's "Atlas" arc did not wow me, and he shined best when he was doing the story around Mon-El, Superman's Daxamite "brother". With Supes returning shortly after War of the Supermen, its actually a good idea to get him off this title and perhaps on to something else. (Where's my Earth-2 Justice Society origin, Robinson??) When he did the Mon-El bit, his was one of the most compelling parts of the New Krypton saga (along with the maxi-series), so having him leave rather than risk tarnishing his run by doing more Atlas-like stuff is a good move.
JMS coming on though...I have no strong feelings toward the guy. I really enjoyed Supreme Power, but Squadron Supreme rang a bit hollow for me, and I have never read anything else of his so I am unaware if that's his normal quality level or not. What I DO know, is that he took Thor, a character who rarely anyone can make work, and shot him up to the Top 25. And if any other comic book character needs that right now, its Superman.
If he can do that, regardless of what I think of his actual writing, it'll be a huge deal for DC. He's talking about garnering national attention for the character, and my feelings on that are a combination of skepticism and "Please don't make Superman cheat on his wife/reveal he's gay/die AGAIN," since those are the only things that get comics any attention these days. But that's too far ahead for me to do serious speculation about. Right now two questions remain:
- Who's doing the art? This hasn't been announced, and its important. Ask any Thor fan and they'll tell you, having the artist JMS did was definitely part of what made the book such a success. He's going to need an equally impressive penciller if he's going to bring Superman to the same heights he took Thor too.
- Isn't he risking burn-out? JMS is obviously a professional writer, and those guys know tools to keep themselves from suffering true burn-out, but the question goes more to the fact that he's writing two Superman books now. Not two interconnecting Superman books, no--two Superman books in two different universes. I realize Superman: Earth-One will only ship once every six months or so, but that's still quite the creative gambit, I think. But time will tell if I actually know what I'm talking about or not.
Wonder Woman
Rotating Out: Gail Simone
Rotating In: JMS again
Personal Thoughts: I'm incredibly, incredibly sad to see Gail Simone leave. A (pardon the pun) wonderful writer who brought a human charm I'd not seen in Diana since her relaunch, I loved every issue of her run. And though she's got several issues to go and I'm already behind a few, already I wish she were staying. (Especially since I'd rather have Secret Six go away, really.) Still, in today's comic world 14 issues is considered a run, so to see her last from 16 to 47 is commendable.
As for JMS, well...Gail's excited. And Wonder Woman is (sort of) Thor's counterpart in DC, and we see how that worked out. Until we hear something concrete, its really too soon to comment much further than that.
Red Robin
Rotating Out: Chris Yost
Rotating In: Fabian Nicieza
Personal Thoughts: This one's interesting. I'm not sure WHAT to feel honestly, since I thought Chris Yost was really getting Tim in his more recent issues. I wasn't exactly on his side at first, but as his story developed it grew more and more obvious that Chris was really just pulling Tim Drake out of the torture porn hole DC editorial had thrown him down starting with...Gang War? Identity Crisis? Whichever came first. And once he'd done that, the Tim I'd grown to love over the first 100 issues of his original run was back.
...And of course, six issues later Yost is leaving. There's humor to be found in that.
But the guy coming in isn't a bad guy either. I liked what he did to close out the long-running Robin title, and understood that, given enough time, he could've written Tim out of that hole as well. But now that its taken care of, he can get on with writing the DC's biggest teen hero as he should be written. I hear Nicieza was made to write Robin, so I'm excited to see what he wants to do next with the character. (Getting him back in the Robin suit, or in a new costume with a new name, are both great starts.)
Power Girl
Rotating Out: Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray writers
Amanda Conner artist
Rotating In: Who the hell knows
Personal Thoughts: This book's dead in the water. Despite whacking me over the head with "women are better than men" in the comic, Palmiotti and Gray did a great job with this book, and Amanda Conner is the artist who made people cared enough to want to see Kara Zor-L in her own comic to begin with.
Its at this point all the people who said "they need to serious the book up" are going to realize that isn't going to work. Shame too, both DC and Marvel need more female superhero ongoings.
Thor
Rotating Out: Technically JMS, actually Kieron Gillen, writer
Billy Tan, artist
Rotating In: Matt Fraction, writer
Pasqual Ferry, artist
Personal Thoughts: Awesome. I'm sure Kieron Gillen is a great writer and all, but I was hoping at the start Fraction would be picked to write Thor. And Pasqual Ferry's art? I'm not sure why he's got the Iron Man glow, but I like it!
Batman
Rotating Out: Judd Winick
Rotating In: Tony Daniel, writer-artist
Personal Thoughts: Tony Daniel is an excellent artist. Great doing Titans, great here. Battle for the Cowl ticked me off 'cause no matter what anyone says I think Tim can pulp Jason, but he's been good on this title thus far.
It seems he's done a good job selling Dick Grayson to the fans, as well, which should bode well for the title. I look forward to reading future stories, as I have enjoyed the ones I've read already.
Anyway, I think that's it, but I could be wrong. I know Action Comics is swapping out Greg Rucka (fantastic writer) for Marc Guggenheim, which should be...interesting (a lot of people are still saying his run on Fastest Man Alive was the only thing approaching quality). And of course, there's the whole Avengers franchise being turned on its head, but that's really deserving of a column all its own.
In the meantime, ECCC and Mega Con are this weekend, so between bouts of Final Fantasy XIII I'll be posting about that.
Its Spring Break, so I'll be doing my best to make sure you see more updates. You should see at least two more today.
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