New Wonder Woman and Secret Six, Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade, and eight months of sales data. If you don’t like numbers, use ctrl+f to skip to the reviews.
News
Direct Market Sales Watch
Going on a year since I last perused the sales numbers. As before, numbers are taken from ICv2, estimated sales to comic shops as reported by Diamond. Sales to book stores, supermarkets, etc. are not included. July ’09. August ’09. September ’09. October ’09. November ’09. December ’09. January ’10. February ’10.
Blackest Night launched as the highest-selling non-Marvel title in July, #2 overall behind the debut issue of Captain America: Reborn. With issue 2, BN took the top spot and never let go, only failing to hit #1 in January, when the main miniseries didn’t ship an issue and Siege #1 was the top seller. Interestingly, Siege sold a little over 108,000 for each of its first two issues. Compare that to BN‘s numbers:
#1 – 202,737
#2 – 155,512
#3 – 143,949
#4 – 137,169
#5 – 151,292 (ring promotion; 50 copies needed for rings)
#6 – 135,985
Skip month
#7 – 130,613
Those totals include reorders and all printings. Siege #1 didn’t receive enough reorders in February to make the top 300. Conversely, during the January skip, old issues of Blackest Night topped 43,000 in reorders, mostly for the previous month’s issue six, the lowest in initial sales. Total sales for Blackest Night #1 have now exceeded those of Captain America: Reborn #1, for which reorders only made the charts once. In short: Blackest Night is the best seller in the business right now, hands down.
And it has tie-ins. From a creative standpoint, from a reader’s standpoint, the tie-ins are annoying. Most are irrelevant, so readers looking to get “the whole story” are wasting money they could be putting toward comics we’ll still be talking about a year from now. From a financial standpoint, it’s obvious why DiDio cracked this baby wide open. It is a delicate ceramic piggy bursting with untold riches. First, the core titles, the ones directly connected to the Event.
Green Lantern
#42 – 84,131 (pre-BN)
#43 – 117,314
#44 – 109,599
#45 – 102,431
#46 – 103,666
#47 – 101,349
#48 – 100,371
#49 – 97,285
#50 – 106,444
#51 – 95,509
Green Lantern Corps
#37 – 63,574 (pre-BN)
#38 – 82,415
#39 – 84,241
#40 – 83,112
#41 – 81,377
#42 – 80,391
#43 – 77,774
#44 – 76,458
#45 – 75,404
Steady losses for the most part, but many books would kill to get a 10-20k bump that lasts close to a year. Sales will drop significantly after the crossover, but interest in the GL books is so high that they figure to stay very healthy for a long time. The brand is DC’s answer to the Avengers. You’d think JLA would be, but it’s not in the same league anymore.
Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps – Possibly the only tie-in mini that matters. All three issues shipped in July.
#1 – 87,910
#2 – 86,334
#3 – 79,624
Character-specific tie-ins were what you’d expect. Nominally connected to the crossover, they focused on heroes fighting undead teammates and loved ones.
Blackest Night: Batman
#1 – 100,714
#2 – 91,442
#3 – 86,760
Blackest Night: Superman
#1 – 87,016
#2 – 78,766
#3 – 78,265
Blackest Night: Titans
#1 – 71,321
#2 – 64,086
#3 – 63,670
Blackest Night: Flash
#1 – 80,313
#2 – 69,381
#3 – 65,348
Blackest Night: Wonder Woman
#1 – 70,578
#2 – 61,372
#3 – 58,700
Blackest Night: JSA
#1 – 68,721
#2 – 58,751
#3 – 54,906
It’s kinda depressing. These aren’t the worst comics around, but they’re neither great nor important to the Event or the characters. Wonder Woman’s mini wasn’t as good as her regular series, yet it sold twice as well. I suspect it’s much the same with the others. People seem to have caught on, judging by the lower sales of the second batch, though that surely has something to do with the properties involved. There was also a sharper dropoff month-to-month and no notable reorders, whereas the first three each made the charts at least once with reorders, Batman and Superman topping 10k with their first issues.
Now, the ring promotion. DC took a mix of successful and failing books, stamped Blackest Night on them, and threw in a bag of plastic rings for retailers to give away to customers. The catch? Retailers had to order 25 or 50 copies, depending on the title, in order to qualify for the rings. We won’t be examining the success of this promotion at the retail level, but let’s look at how it did for DC, how many stores gambled on the extra copies. No need to point out which issue was part of the giveaway.
Doom Patrol – Racing toward cancellation. 25 copies needed for rings.
#1 – 28,267
#2 – 22,001
#3 – 20,036
#4 – 53,748
#5 – 35,348 (Blackest Night)
#6 – 17,117
#7 – 15,689 (last issue with Metal Men)
Booster Gold – 25 copies needed.
#16 – 25,472 (Faces of Evil)
#17 – 24,732 (Origins & Omens)
#18 – 23,737
#19 – 23,203
#20 – 22,549
#21 – 23,222 (Blue Beetle added, $4 cover price)
#22 – 22,414
#23 – 22,108
#24 – 21,731
#25 – 21,597
#26 – 57,122
#27 – 40,256 (Blackest Night)
#28 – 21,967
#29 – 21,020
R.E.B.E.L.S. – 25 copies needed.
#1 – 23,739
#2 – 16,122
#3 – 14,442
#4 – 13,468
#5 – 12,909
#6 – 12,349
#7 – 11,682
#8 – 11,347
#9 – 11,284
Annual: Starro the Conqueror – 10,773
#10 – 51,100
#11 – 31,489 (Blackest Night)
#12 – 12,428
#13 – 11,836
Adventure Comics – 50 copies needed.
#1 – 56,706
#2 – 47,296
#3 – 44,431
#4 – 85,145
#5 – 59,876 (Blackest Night)
#6 – 42,514 (last Geoff Johns issue)
#7 – 53,721 (Blackest Night)
Outsiders
#15 – 30,024 (Origins & Omens)
#16 – 27,977
#17 – 27,171
#18 – 25,995
#19 – 27,485 (1 in 10 variant cover)
#20 – 24,323
#21 – 23,856
#22 – 22,775
#23 – 21,413
#24 – 55,704
#25 – 37,847 (Blackest Night)
#26 – 22,626
#27 – 21,167
Justice League of America – 50 copies needed.
#35 – 58,915
#36 – 57,549
#37 – 55,478
#38 – 61,012 (first James Robinson issue, 1:25 variant cover)
#39 – 89,376 (price increased to $4, pages added)
#40 – 68,672 (Blackest Night)
#41 – 62,262 (backup story added)
#42 – 57,522 (1:25 variant cover)
Now, that’s depressing. As you can see, on every title involved in the ring promotion, once the tie-ins stopped, orders went right back to their previous levels and continued dropping. No effect whatsoever. It’s simply impossible to save a comic with crossover tie-ins. Or giveaways, or variant covers. The only thing that seems to work is promoting the book itself, as in the stories in that series alone, and building buzz over time. Green Lantern found success that way, built it with its self-contained event, the Sinestro Corps War, and now it’s exploding with Blackest Night. JLA continues to tread water – albeit at a more than acceptable level for most titles – because it’s in constant flux, riddled with editorial interference and surrounded by controversy. Opinions are mixed at best, and it doesn’t matter how big a name you put on it when you yank him off in a year or two. It needs a sustained run that people can generally agree is worth reading. Smaller brands need a great deal more help. It might be best to publish fewer of them and not distract readers so much with tie-ins they don’t need. Of course, if DC didn’t load up on crossover sales, Marvel would. That’s the market.
And the market demands more tie-ins. More! DiDio delivered by necromantically reviving eight titles for one last issue. Like the character-specific minis, these exist solely to have more DC characters fight zombies posing as other DC characters.
Atom and Hawkman #46 – 40,383
Catwoman #83 – 39,239
Starman #81 – 38,671
Suicide Squad #67 – 37,818
Power of Shazam! #48 – 36,793
Question #37 – 35,940
Phantom Stranger #42 – 35,937
Weird Western Tales – 33,702
I don’t envy retailers trying to guess how what are basically eight one-shots will sell. Orders were nearly equal for each, with the most recent title faring the best in initial orders. Johns’ entry was the only one to receive significant reorders, finishing #1 in the end, while DiDio’s sold the worst.
But that’s not all! We have to have ring-free crossovers in regular titles, too. No one gets out of this Event untouched, though most will make it unaffected.
Secret Six – The best comic being published today! Maybe. Probably. Best one I know. Gail Simone and John Ostrander teamed up for a three-part Secret Six/Suicide Squad crossover, making Suicide Squad #67 one of the few tie-ins worth buying, and then only for Secret Six readers, as it has no importance in the greater Event storyline. Naturally, a bunch of people who couldn’t care less about these two teams bought each issue of the crossover, then mysteriously disappeared. No truth to the rumor they were hunted down and forced to watch the complete Birds of Prey TV series.
#7 – 24,365
#8 – 24,338
#9 – 27,116 (Battle for the Cowl)
#10 – 24,272
#11 – 24,357
#12 – 24,161
#13 – 23,919
#14 – 23,345
#15 – 23,190 (Ostrander guest issue)
#16 – 22,638
#16 1/2 (Suicide Squad #67) – 37,818
#17 – 38,515 (Blackest Night)
#18 – 37,876 (Blackest Night)
Numbers for March’s issue 19 aren’t out yet, but I’ll generously estimate them at 23k. By issue 20, we’ll be close to the bottom of 22k. Sales are declining slowly, but they refuse to stop.
Titans had a quick tie-in to their tie-in, so let’s take a quick look at the bump.
#14 – 32,321
#15 – 46,189
#16 – 31,408
Ayup. From there, it continued to fall, dropping below 25k in February. Over a thousand issues a month. Might not be around in two years. Teen Titans did the same, plus one issue, and their sales aren’t any healthier.
#76 – 29,166
#77 – 46,239
#78 – 43,400
#79 – 27,790
#80 – 26,537
Solomon Grundy was a poor-selling mini that ended with a tie-in. Appropriate enough, considering its protagonist is undead.
#1 – 23,175
#2 – 18,516
#3 – 16,482
#4 – 15,167
#5 – 14,043
#6 – 13,505
#7 – 25,927 (Blackest Night)
Presumably, there was a story leading up to the final issue, but nevermind that there are more copies of issue 7 than issue 1. Does that mean more people have read the end than the beginning? Probably, if people still buy comics to read. There seem to be quite a few who only do one or the other. Grundy popped up in Superman/Batman next for more tie-in action and predictable sales.
#65 – 34,585
#66 – 52,143
#67 – 49,650
#68 – 33,869
I think that covers them all. I hope so. Too many already and it hasn’t ended yet. DC’s other big thing is the Bat-Relaunch, which I covered way back when I last did a Sales Watch. Let’s see how it’s done since then.
Batman and Robin – After launching at #1, its second issue captured the 3rd spot amid stiff competition. Since then, it’s bounced between 2nd and 4th, only dropping as low as 5th once, when two issues shipped in the same month and the first ranked 4th. There’s no indication that readers care about the rotating artists. They’re here for Morrison and Batman, in reverse order.
#1 – 184,826
#2 – 129,086
#3 – 110,594
#4 – 106,925
#5 – 101,607
#6 – 95,690
#7 – 87,780
#8 – 87,302
#9 – 84,562
Batman – Back to $3 after the “must have” first issue with the new Batman. No longer the flagship Bat-Book, sales have fallen to their lowest level since dinosaurs walked the Earth. Or 2005.
#687 – 96,913 ($4)
#688 – 83,040
#689 – 78,392
#690 – 77,001
#691 – 71,431
#692 – 70,322
#693 – 68,983
#694 – 65,908
#695 – 63,467
#696 – 61,290
Detective Comics – Critically acclaimed but sans Man of Batness. Sells better than a Batwoman solo title would, but otherwise performs as expected of a fan favorite.
#854 – 79,573 (1:10 variant cover)
#855 – 61,205
#856 – 58,859
#857 – 57,063
#858 – 58,599 (1:10 variant cover)
#859 – 54,392 (1:10 variant cover)
#860 – 52,295 (1:10 variant cover)
#861 – 45,937
Red Robin – Outselling the old series for now.
Robin #181 – 27,891
Robin #182 – 28,684 (Faces of Evil)
Robin #183 – 31,682 (Origins and Omens)
Red Robin #1 – 71,925
#2 – 54,544
#3 – 50,329
#4 – 47,945
#5 – 44,776
#6 – 42,409
#7 – 39,528
#8 – 37,869
#9 – 36,466
Batman: Streets of Gotham – In freefall.
#1 – 57,650
#2 – 44,240
#3 – 40,353
#4 – 37,888
#5 – 34,533
#6 – 32,303
#7 – 30,290
#8 – 28,313
#9 – 27,023
Gotham City Sirens – Another failure. The market can only stand so many Bat-Family comics for so long. At best, series like these will settle in around 20k. More likely, they keep dropping until they’re begging to be cancelled, like Batman Confidential.
#1 – 52,439
#2 – 39,518
#3 – 36,772
#4 – 34,405
#5 – 33,015
#6 – 30,990
#7 – 29,709
#8 – 28,254
#9 – 27,172
Batgirl – A late arrival in August, DC kept the identity of the new Batgirl secret until the first issue shipped. The result? Lower sales than any other title in the Relaunch. It quickly fell below what the Oracle mini sold and is en route to its namesake. Once the hype faded, the only thing left to sell the book was the book itself, and that never works.
#1 – 51,724
#2 – 40,626
#3 – 37,011
#4 – 34,697
#5 – 32,482
#6 – 30,403
#7 – 29,524
Azrael – Launched in October, it missed the Bat-Window and proceeded to terminal velocity.
#1 – 35,311
#2 – 21,392
#3 – 17,757
#4 – 14,703
#5 – 12,865
Justice Society of America – This is what happens when Johns leaves a title. It doesn’t help that DC went from constant variant and Alex Ross covers to none as soon as he left. They basically stopped supporting the title, leaving only its momentum to carry it. No chance.
#23 – 61,385 (Faces of Evil)
#24 – 65,207 (variant cover; Origins and Omens)
#25 – 65,713 (variant cover)
#26 – 81,200 (three interconnecting Alex Ross covers; final Johns/Eaglesham issue)
#27 – 56,102 (Jerry Ordway fill-in)
#28 – 52,673 (Ordway)
#29 – 51,375 (Bill Willingham takes over as regular writer; note reaction)
#30 – 49,416
#31 – 47,436
#32 – 44,885
#33 – 43,218
#34 – 41,734
#35 – 39,934
#36 – 39,060
Annual – 33,518 ($5)
JSA All-Stars – Ignoring the brand’s flagging health, DC launched a sister title with terrible art. In issue two, it gained a backup story with good art, but at $4, it’s not the most appealing package.
#1 – 42,493 (1:25 variant cover)
#2 – 32,601
#3 – 29,666
Magog – Because the JSA Family is so strong, we have not one, but two! new ongoing series. “Ongoing” in the sense that they haven’t ended yet. How did anyone ever think this was a good idea?
#1 – 26,352
#2 – 16,193
#3 – 12,915
#4 – 10,700
#5 – 9,215
#6 – 8,548
Wednesday Comics – DC’s ambitious newspaper-style weekly series. Hit and miss, a laudable venture and a fairly consistent seller.
#1 – 51,814
#2 – 42,382
#3 – 42,423
#4 – 40,786
#5 – 38,657
#6 – 37,803
#7 – 36,783
#8 – 35,970
#9 – 35,961
#10 – 34,954
#11 – 34,266
#12 – 33,922
Power Girl – Losing its creative team soon. Can it survive without Amanda Conner? It might as well not try. Whatever power cheesecake once possessed, it can’t sell comics now. People simply don’t buy books with female leads, unless said book is Buffy.
#1 – 47,322
#2 – 36,756
#3 – 35,163
#4 – 32,140
#5 – 29,497
#6 – 27,060
#7 – 22,533
#8 – 21,760
#9 – 20,900
Wonder Woman – Case in point. After a valiant fight, it’s finally dipped below 30k, there to stay until issue 600. Variant covers were keeping it afloat, but they stopped after issue 33.
#27 – 32,322
#28 – 32,622 (Faces of Evil)
#29 – 33,237 (Origins & Omens)
#30 – 33,365
#31 – 31,857
#32 – 33,065
#33 – 32,755
#34 – 30,131
#35 – 29,657
#36 – 28,806
#37 – 26,972
#38 – 26,265
#39 – 26,152
#40 – 25,156
#41 – 25,354
Unwritten – Healthy for a Vertigo title.
#1 – 31,081 ($1)
#2 – 16,290
#3 – 17,208
#4 – 16,336
#5 – 16,011
#6 – 15,314
#7 – 14,763
#8 – 14,257
#9 – 13,792
#10 – 13,644
Vigilante – Mercifully cancelled with issue 12.
#7 – 11,483
#8 – 9,942
#9 – 8,387
#10 – 7,856
#11 – 6,971
#12 – 6,450
Locke & Key: Crown of Shadows – The third in a series of great horror miniseries. It’s an unlicensed, nonsuperhero book from IDW, so sales aren’t outstanding. Best to get the hardcovers, really.
#1 – 9,952
#2 – 7,707
#3 – 3,690
North 40 – Aaron Williams’ Wildstorm horror mini. Did about as well as could be expected, which is still better than his small press comedy stuff. One of the most overlooked talents in the industry.
#1 – 8,163
#2 – 6,523
#3 – 6,284
#4 – 6,068
#5 – 5,819
#6 – 5,490
Atomic Robo: Shadow from Beyond Time – Another overlooked small press gem. Obviously had reorders for some/all issues, but it barely made the top 300 in its first month, so only Diamond knows what the final sales were.
#1 – 4,234
#2 – 4,533
#3 – 4,210
#4 – 4,241
#5 – 4,225
Atomic Robo: Revenge of the Vampire Dimension – That’s a title that screams “buy me.” Screams that go unheard.
#1 – 4,372
Red Circle – Remember these? DC bought that whole crop of heroes to integrate them into the main universe. First, four $3 one-shots by JMS. Then, two $4 ongoing titles by no one anyone’s heard of.
The Hangman #1 – 20,295
Inferno #1 – 19,621
The Web #1 – 19,535
The Shield #1 – 19,088
The Shield
#1 – 16,997
#2 – 10,401
#3 – 8,546
#4 – 7,316
#5 – 6,444
#6 – 6,010
The Web
#1 – 15,507
#2 – 9,421
#3 – 7,631
#4 – 6,653
#5 – 5,809
#6 – 5,276
How much longer can they justify publishing books that sell poorly by Wildstorm standards? What they should do now is buy more stuff. Whatever’s lying about. More is always better.
G-Man: Cape Crisis – Five issue mini from Chris Giarrusso of Mini Marvels fame. Only the first issue made the top 300, at 294th, selling 3,104 copies.
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love – Six-issue mini spun off from Fables. Respectable sales for that. Fables sells 20k a month.
#1 – 20,337
#2 – 16,598
#3 – 15,827
#4 – 15,421
Red Tornado – Characters not to give a miniseries, no. 517.
#1 – 20,551
#2 – 14,383
#3 – 12,331
#4 – 11,009
#5 – 10,044
#6 – 9,581
Empowered One-shot – Sold 8,361 copies at $4. I need to pick this up myself, as it’s not due to be included in a trade for a year or more.
Joe the Barbarian – Grant Morrison miniseries about action figures come to life. Sort of.
#1 – 29,712 ($1)
#2 – 17,512
Wonder Woman
Out with Simone, in with Straczynski. The change figures to be good for sales, and I’m glad DC consider Wonder Woman a big enough property to attach a big name creator, one who’s done something to earn his rep instead of “TV writer who may or may not know which end of a comic is up.” JMS has done loads of TV work, and like most writers who work in that field, he’s prone to lateness. I can’t remember the last time Wonder Woman was late, probably because it hasn’t been late enough to be memorable in a while. I think you’d have to go back to Allan Heinberg, another notoriously slow TV import. I expect much better from JMS than Heinberg, but twelve issues shipping in a year would be a surprise.
Creatively, I don’t know what to expect. I enjoyed what little of Straczynski’s Thor I read, and I’ve heard more negative about his writing than I’ve seen. The problem is, I’ve seen very little. I’ve no idea how he holds up over the long run. The positives: he’ll be more resistant to editorial influence than most writers, Simone included. He has the clout to dictate terms to some extent. He’s anti-crossover, which is always good, and Wondy’s not Spider-Man, she’s not especially prone to being forced into crossovers. Most likely, he’ll tell his story and keep the book relatively secluded. Some fans would rather see Diana spend more time in the greater DCU than her own corner, but I greatly prefer self-contained stories. Hard enough finding a comic that works on its own without trying to work with the disparate pieces of the universe. If there were a comic universe where every series was of similar style and quality, you’d want them to fit together, but with DC and Marvel that hasn’t been the case in decades, if it ever was. I’d almost like to see them all given their own universe, but they wouldn’t be that different from each other, plots would be repeated more often than they already are, and the stagnant character growth would be… less charming.
Anyways, Straczynski’s run figures to feature sweeping change, much like he brought to Spidey and Thor. Change can be good or bad, so I don’t know which column to stick that under. I think, ultimately, Diana will still be Diana, and a shift in supporting cast was inevitable with any writer. I doubt he’s a weak enough storyteller that he thinks killing off characters is the only way, or a good way, to clear the decks. I know he’s used a healthy mix of old and new before, so the roster might be fundamentally the same as it was under Simone. The closest to a negative I can muster, aside from the probable delays, is that Wonder Woman won’t be “safe.” JMS won’t be content to steer the ship, steady as she goes. He’s going to make waves, and some people won’t like how they’re tossed about. I’m skeptical. Right now, I’m leaning toward leaving after issue 600 (45), if not 44, largely for financial reasons. I would like to stick with these characters, though, and as much as I love Gail Simone in general, it seems odd to abandon a series when I haven’t been completely happy with her work on it. There’s room for improvement, and JMS hasn’t proven to me that he can’t write a great comic. He’s more proven than Matthew Sturges was when he took over Blue Beetle, and Sean McKeever showed that past excellence is no guarantee of future decency with his aborted BoP run. I can risk my dollars or I can wait. Both have drawbacks. I’ll have to think it over.
The Eisners
Awards always have to be taken with a grain of salt. The nominees for the 2010 Eisners have me confused. I haven’t read most of these, so I can’t say they don’t deserve consideration, but I know Secret Six does. It didn’t make last year’s list either, and I pretended it had somehow missed the cutoff date. This year, there’s no excuse. Best Continuing Series, Best Limited Series or Story Arc (Unhinged or Depths), Best New Series (last year)… The only acceptable excuse for it receiving no nominations in two years is that it’s too awesome for the judges. I normally shy away from hyperbole, but I’m serious when I say that. Anyone who reads it can see it’s one of the best comics being published today. Should it win every award it qualifies for? Maybe not. Maybe it shouldn’t win any, but I refuse to believe it doesn’t make the shortlist.
But enough of that. Awards are subjective, like any opinions, mine included. Greatness needs no recognition to be great, and it’s possible, difficult though it is for me to believe, that people have good reason to neither like nor respect Secret Six. Let’s look at some of the other nominees.
A few titles stick out, some curious choices. Urgent Request from The Eternal Smile was not good and shouldn’t make the list for Best Short Story. There have to have been five better candidates in the past year. Brave & The Bold #28 made it for Best Single Issue/One-Shot. Might have to check that out sometime. Fables is up for Best Continuing Series again. Probably deserves to be. I can’t say, as I’ve fallen way behind on it. Blackest Night and Old Man Logan are up there for Best Limited Series or Story Arc. Were they really that good? I heard quite a few people loved the second, but Blackest Night’s not even a complete story. Peter J. Tomasi’s not credited, so I assume they aren’t including Green Lantern Corps, or for that matter, Green Lantern, which I understand to be essential reading. However good it is for an Event miniseries, it seems a stretch to suggest it’s one of the best series period. I’d be interested to hear opinions on that from anyone who’s read a good chunk of miniseries and significant story arcs in the past year.
Scott Pilgrim Vol. 5 is up for Best Humor Book, reminding me yet again that I need to buy it. Empowered got snubbed again, predictably. Flight Vol. 6 is up for Best Anthology, which either means it’s gotten waaaaaaaaay better since the early volumes, which were largely filled with tedious claptrap, or there were only four other anthologies published last year.
Now, the nomination that throws everything else into doubt. Every Eisner ever. It’s that bizarre. Best Writer: James Robinson. But wait! It gets better! While three of the other four writers are credited with multiple works (Bill Willingham only has Fables listed, which is plenty), Robinson has one title by his name. Not Superman, no. Not that one issue of Starman either. Only Cry For Justice. The comic gods must be crazy.
Reviews
New-Type Books
[DC] Wonder Woman Vol. 3 #41
Writer: Gail Simone
Pencilers: Chris Batista, Fernando Dagnino
Bondage and spankings. Glad to see Simone’s going out on a high note. This issue wraps up the mind control kids story, thankfully. Much better in execution than concept. Mind control is made virtually corporeal, a clear threat to overcome, and the story focuses on that battle while leaving plenty of space for characters to shine through. Achilles gets a nice nudge nudge wink wink moment that doubles as a setup for future writers to make use of him. He’s become interesting enough that I’d be sad to see him fade into the background like a thousand other DC characters. He never lived down to the “Wonder Man” hype; at his worst he was never a cheap attempt at replacing Wonder Woman, try as Zeus might. We also get another book to throw on the pile for defending Power Girl as more than a window to heaven. Sure, that’s part of her appeal, but Simone doesn’t invent the idea of Karen being a well-rounded character, she merely remembers it. As much criticism as I read about PG, I’m hardpressed to recall a time I haven’t found her engaging. She brought out the best in Geoff Johns, she was part of the JLI (and shone in ICBNJL)… The only time I haven’t liked her is in BoP, where she’s on poor terms with Oracle and only scowls when she’s seen at all. Maybe they can bury the hatchet in the new series and have PG make a proper guest appearance.
Art’s a bit of a mixed bag. More than adequate overall, but not as consistent as usual. That’s because, once again, the cover lists Lopresti and Ryan when their work is absent from the interior. They’re replaced by a pair of pencilers and inkers whose styles are close enough not to be jarring but create a noticeable schism in the book. Near as I can tell, Batista’s pencils are inked by Secret Six vet Doug Hazlewood, which is no small part of why they’re better than Dagnino’s, presumably inked by Raul Fernandez.
When the art chores change hands from Batista to Dagnino, the cord holding Power Girl’s shoulder pauldron turns into a strap. Then it moves, disappears, and reappears at Dagnino’s whim. Sloppy. There’s also a panel involving hot dog transportation that doesn’t seem to have gone to plan.
I didn’t say anything in last issue’s review because I wasn’t sure what was going on with the book at the time. It was probably announced somewhere and I missed it. At any rate, with Nicola Scott starting a three-issue guest stint next and Gail Simone leaving after that and part of issue #600, we can close the book on Aaron Lopresti’s run. And what a run it was. The best since Drew Johnson, in my opinion. I hope to see his work again, though none of the books he’s on in the next couple months interest me. Somewhere down the road, perhaps.
[DC] Secret Six Vol. 4 #19
Writer: Gail Simone
Penciler: Jim Calafiore
Ohmigosh, Black Alice is six. Catman/Huntress, Deadshot/Deadgirl Jeannette, and the Bane/Scandal father/daughter thing weren’t weird enough, weren’t sufficiently fractured, twisted and, arguably, abominable, so now we have Black Alice/Ragdoll. And she’s six. She is so six. I don’t know what happened to her that she’s not half grown up yet, but I’m starting to think she belongs on this team. Or in superdaycare. Alice is not a healthy girl.
Simone is all the way back. Last issue was good, but this is the first time since Calafiore joined that the book is truly great. Meaning no disrespect to Ostrander, I don’t think anyone else should write this team. Deadshot and maybe Bane, OK, but the team as a whole is too deeply rooted to its creator. What she didn’t create, she molded, perfected. Catman’s unrecognizable, and Bane is so compelling, so respected that I wonder if he’s done something to deserve it. We all know what he did to Batman, but that was a publicity stunt, at least on the surface. I know the character’s solid at the core, I know that much, but I’m not sure the idea of Bane has ever been executed so well.
And you know, it’s nineteen issues now. That’s more than the two minis and the BoP stint combined. Bane’s been part of the Six – Jeannette, too – longer than Parademon, Mad Hatter, Harley Quinn, Knockout. Give or take. Seems like only yesterday they were new, wet behind the ears. Blood, naturally. It gets everywhere. Bane fit in right away, he’s almost a fifth for the Core Four, but I think he’ll move on eventually. Knockout replaced Parademon as the group’s muscle, and without her, they needed Bane. When she returns, the Six’ll be seven or eight, and with Jeannette, that’s three who rely mostly on strength. Someone has to go. I’d sacrifice Jeannette, but Bane’s harder to hold onto. It might not be Simone’s choice, if she’d choose Bane. Maybe that was always the plan, for Jeannette to be the backup muscle. Maybe not. She’s stronger than him by far without venom, so effectively, she’s the real muscle. Bane’s the brains, like Scandal said before he deposed her. Maybe when Knockout comes back, she and Scandal and Liana will retire to a small island in the Pacific. Yeah…
Nah. Retirement’s not for action heroes anti-villains. I like the turnover on this team, I like being unable to narrow it down to six members I want to stick around. That doesn’t make goodbyes any easier. I’ll miss whoever leaves, even Alice, if only a little. The longer you’re in this book, the more endearing you get, and it’s like… Every issue, there’s something. Everyone gets a bit of quality time, a moment, a line, a chance to win readers over or keep fans happy. This is a Ragdoll-heavy issue – his parts are so good that, forgive my bias, I’d take them alone and be happy with the issue as a whole – yet there’s space for a good chunk of Black Alice, a new facet of Bane’s personality, an involved fight scene that involves none of the main cast, and more besides. Exemplary.
Trade
[DC] Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade
Writer: Landry Q. Walker
Artist: Eric Jones
If you like cute, humorous comics where there’s more chance of a lost friendship than a lost life, you’ll want to give this a look. As you’d expect from the title, this is a retelling of Kara Zor-El’s arrival on Earth and early days as Supergirl and Linda Lee. In this version, Argo was a moon of Krypton, protected from the planet’s destruction, but shunted into another dimension. Through convoluted circumstances, Kara basically falls into Superman’s lap, already in costume. There’s an explanation for everything, but y’know, it’s for kids, it’s not meant to rigidly adhere to logic.
The bulk of the story revolves around “Linda” going to Earth school. Typical fish out of water deal mixed with superhero/secret identity shenanigans, also typical, but well executed. I found it charming enough to excuse the fact that isn’t groundbreaking, nor a definitive showcase for the character. Supergirl here comes across somewhat like Superman as a teenage girl. Her friends and enemies are either Superman’s or analogues of his, not that the creative team makes any attempt to hide that. The most unique character is everyone’s favorite supercat, Streaky, who is totally not a feline version of Krypto. Totally.
So it’s not Supergirl: Year One. More like DC Adventures: Supergirl, or Smallville without all the parts that make it impossible to fit into continuity. It’s back to basics stuff that would fit right in with the regular DCU except for the radical difference in tone. Go back to the Silver Age and this could be a regular story in Action Comics.
Truncation
Wonder Woman – Winding down with short story arcs, which have been the strength of Simone’s run. Another good one here.
Secret Six – Back on top.
Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade – Zany fun. Needs a sequel.
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