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Heroic Age
by KC Carlson
This month, the big two launch their newest big efforts to attempt to collect all our money, Marvel’s The Heroic Age and DC’s Brightest Day. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – it’s just that both business also have several other things brewing this month, and you might miss them in all the hubbub, bub. But, like it or not, that’s what you have me for – I’m the person who always says “Hey! What’s going on over there – behind that curtain!” a lot more on that in a minute. Lemme get Brightest Heroic Age Day out of the way first.
I’d like to be able to say that both of these events are shiny new original concepts – and it may be true that elements of both may be things that we’ve never seen before – but both stunts build on what has come before and both are just the next big chapter of what has become the never-ending storylines of both the MU and DCU. I do find it fascinating that both business have made a decision to push the big RESET button at essentially the same time, however. (More on this and “The Old buy Changeth” in an upcoming KC Column.)
And yet, I find some of the individual offerings of both new events some of the most potentially exciting comics in a long time. I guess I’m really concerned about the sheer tonnage of what may be coming our way in the next few months.
Marvelous
Enter the Heroic Age
By my count, there are 17 different titles (not counting variants) being published under The Heroic Age banner this month. Here’s my useful checklist:
Heroic Age Magazine
Deadpool #23
Avengers #1
Avengers Assemble #1
Avengers spotlight #1
Atlas #1 (Watch for Roger’s interview with writer Jeff Parker!)
Captain America #606
Black Widow #2
Fantastic four #579
Age of Heroes #1
Enter the Heroic Age #1
Heroic Age: prince of Power #1
Invincible Iron man #26
Origins of marvel Comics #1
Avengers, Thor & Captain America: official Index to the marvel universe #1
Secret Avengers #1
Thunderbolts #144
Granted, a lot of these are one-shot, supplementary (and technically non-comics) items about The Heroic Age, including features, interviews, indexes, handbook pages, origins, and other ephemera. but that’s still a big chunk of books! and remember, Heroic Age is a marketing title, not one big Event, so a lot of of these books have independent storylines (at least ideal now!). If you purchased them all at cover price, it would cost you $68.83! Aren’t you pleased you’re a Westfield subscriber with a discount? and if you’re not – why aren’t you?
X-Men legacy #236
Also consider that this month marvel is also listing:
* 21 titles (14 of which are provided as “chapters”) of the new, major mutant storyline: X-Men: second Coming
* a mini-Hulk event (no, not about a tiny Hulk! stay focused!) of three titles vital to world war Hulks
* a new imprint (Astonishing) with just two titles (for now)
* a lot more jobs in their women of marvel Comics push
* 11 Spidey-related titles (including some new ones, and not counting utmost or Astonishing titles)
* as well as 654,430,279 new Deadpool titles! (Not really. April Fool!)
I feel for ya’, dear readers, for the decisions that have to be made in ordering books these days. I’m ideal there with you. I had to cut back on my reading and collecting in a big way a few years ago, which made it seem easy (at the time) to just cut off all of Marvel’s “cosmic” books and characters – which I felt were going nowhere. but that was before Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (and Keith Giffen and others) re-set Marvel’s cosmic corner of the universe in a big way. Now, I hear how terrific all of these books are on essentially a daily basis, but it seems that too much time has passed to catch up, and I still don’t have the money to go back and get them all at this point. I kinda wish I had gotten these books instead of some of the over-hyped and ultimately disappointing books that I did get. So, just another tip of how crucial it is to choose very carefully and get what you actually might like and take pleasure in rather than just getting some series by rote because there’s a big splashy marketing campaign.
Thanos Imperative: Ignition
I also bring this up to mention that D’n’A’s cosmic corner books (notably Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy) are taking some well-deserved time off this month – except for the opening blast in their next cosmic event: The Thanos Imperative: Ignition #1, which looks like it will be taking off in a big way next month. A word to the wise, if you’re trying to find something different.
Avengers #1
The a lot of interesting thing about the new Avengers title isn’t who’s a member. We’ve known for a long time that the whole point of this was to get Cap, Iron Man, and Thor all back on the team together. Hawkeye back in his Hawkeye personality is a plus as well, and Spidey is just gravy. I’m sure thatthere will be a couple of other membership surprises in Avengers #1 (or within a couple of issues). but the most interesting thing about the series takes place behind-the-scenes. Both Brian Bendis and John Romita Jr. have been marvel superstar creators for a decade or more, but this incarnation of the Avengers will be the first time the two have ever serviced a long-term project together.
Secret Avengers #1
More of a mystery: who are the members of the new secret Avengers series written by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Mike Deodato, which I am also recommending? marvel has been teasing the fans with a series of images showing the shadowed outlines of the characters in question. After severe study of these images, I have come to the conclusion that these are the members of the new secret Avengers: The silhouette (either the marvel or the Watchman character), the Phantom Blot, Felix the Cat, The Shadow, The Shade, and splash Brannigan. Either that, or all six of them are Venom.
No evil shall escape my sight
Brightest Day
Meanwhile, let’s break down DC’s Brightest Day, with 10 titles, for a integrated cover price of $32.90. Here’s the list:
Brightest Day #1 & 2
Green lantern #54
Green lantern Corps #48
Justice League: Generation lost #1& 2
Birds of Prey #1
The Flash #2
Justice league of America #45
Titans: Villains For hire special #1
Not quite as lots of as Marvel’s Heroic Age, but this does include two bi-weekly ongoing titles, representing a major getting commitment. Also, if Blackest night ends up the way that I and lots of other readers are expecting, I wouldn’t be shocked to see lots of other new (or returning) titles added to this list in the next few months. A revamped Titans for one.
DC universe Legacies #1
Here’s a sampling of what else is going on in the DCU this month: DC universe Legacies #1 (of 10) is much-needed look at the history of the DC universe from the dawn of the mystery men (the original Justice society era) to the present day, written by Len Wein and drawn by Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, and J.G. Jones. It’s a dream project for DC continuity geeks (like me), and I can’t wait to see how the new details of the mysteries of the DCU will unfold here, especially in the hands of these terrific talents.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1
Many of the DC choices this month are doing a kind of “What year is this, anyway?” thing in my brain these days, as I’m dealt with with the prospects of ordering titles starring Barry Allen as the Flash; my favorite era of the Justice league is again written by Keith Giffen; the Birds of Prey are back again with both Babs and Dinah, and both Gail Simone and Ed Benes. but the greatest brain shock of this month for a longtime legion of Super-Heroes fan (and former LSH editor) is the enjoyment of seeing legend… (wait for it) …dary legion writer Paul Levitz return to his favorite book for the third time. another legion “bouncing boy” with multiple check outs to the 31st century, Keith Giffen, once told me that there was something about the concept that keeps bringing people back to it over and over again. Hopefully, this is true of the legion fans as well. I’m intentionally trying to stay away from development info on the series (other than hearing that Yildiray Cinar (with that name, he could qualify as a legion member!) and Wayne Faucher will be the new artists on this go-round).
I’m a little sad that Geoff Johns had a fairly limited run on the Legion, but he handled the very crucial role of resetting (not rebooting) the LSH continuity back to roughly where Levitz had left it decades ago (amazingly without undoing anything that went afterwards) in the final Crisis: legion of three Worlds series and collection. This new Levitz series picks up on those mysteries, as well as Johns’ Superman and the legion of Super-Heroes storyline, as well as new questions – like the one posed by the first issue cover. Whose hand has both a LSH flight sound as well as a green lantern ring? I get chills…
Zatanna #1
The other DC project that I’m ecstatic about is Zatanna #1. DC has been attempting to launch an ongoing title about the mistress of Magic considering that the late 1990s, when I was still on-staff there. I’m pretty sure that writer Paul Dini was attached to the project even back then. considering that then, Dini has been using Zatanna on and off in his Batman stories over the years. At the same time, she’s been getting a lot more and a lot more “screen time” as a member of the Justice league in recent years. and now with the stunning artwork of Stephane Roux and Karl Story, and Dini at the keyboard, it looks like Zatanna’s time has come at last. Nioj eht nuf!
Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne
DC’s also got two other “big” jobs this month, that I’m sure lots of fans will be very interested in, but not so much me. first up are the first two issues of the six-part Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne story. That will be the utmost epilogue for grant Morrison’s final crisis as wellas the payoff of his Batman: R.I.P. storyline. There are some terrific artists lined up (Chris Sprouse in #1 and Frazier Irving in #2) that I am ecstatic about. but for me, this storyline has gone on way too long (with way too much extraneous stuff between the crucial elements of the story). I’m ready for the big wrap-up, but really a lot more interested in what comes afterwards.
Superman: war of the Supermen #1
Also coming this month is Superman: war of the Supermen, a four-part weekly series written by James Robinson and Sterling Gates and drawn by a passle of artists. this one completes off the year-long “New Krypton” storyline that, quite frankly, has tired me to tears. A long political struggle that has taken Superman out of his familiar distinctive costume for a lot of of the year and put him in some sort of jackbooted neo-nazi looking uniform, exiled him from earth (and from the comic that bears his name), and has him standing around for a lot of of that year being ineffectual and indecisive is not really my idea of a terrific Superman story. (Really took pleasure in the Supergirl title this year, however!) I chalk both of these series up to “forgone conclusions.” Let’s step on to something else. Both characters should have better.
And in other parts of the comics continuum…
Brody’s Ghost
I know that lots of of you out there are fans of mark Crilley, especially his acclaimed work on the terrific Akiko series for young adults. He’s been doing a lot of jobs away from standard comic book publishers in the past few years, including the four-volume manga series Miki Falls, among other projects, but he’s now working on a new project for Dark horse Comics. Brody’s Ghost is the first in a six-volume series. It tells the story of a young man named Brody who encounters the ghost of a teen girl who needs help tracking down a hazardous killer. First, Brody need to be trained by the spirit of a centuries-old samurai to unlock unbeknownst supernatural powers. Roger Ash has the details of this terrific new series in an interview with designer Crilley, coming up soon, ideal here at the Westfield blog.
Best of Dan DeCarlo
A couple of weeks back, I composed extensively about Dan DeCarlo and his struggle to claim creative ownership of his creation Josie (of Josie and the Pussycats fame), a character based on his wife. I discussed that IDW was compiling a collection of DeCarlo’s work for Archie Comics. That collection, Archie: the best of Dan DeCarlo, volume 1 is now available for ordering and is highly recommended. You may not know his name, but everyone who’s read comics for a lot more than 15 minutes is familiar with his work.
Dan DeCarlo had a nearly 50-year occupation working for Archie comics, a lot of of it in total anomonity (except for his very distinctive style and his facility in drawing the female form). during that time, he drew over 400 consecutive issues of Betty and Veronica, over 100 issues of Josie, was the primary artist on the Archie comic book in the 70s and 80s, and took over the Archie syndicated comic strip after Bob Montana retired. His style became the “Archie style” and other artists were instructed to “draw like DeCarlo.” Further, DeCarlo drew essentially every Archie cover, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s, and lots of a lot more for the next 30 years. nearly every one of the classic Archie character Pin-Up pages in the 60s, 70s, and into the 80s were his as well. even if you didn’t know his name, you knew his work.
Just as Carl Barks was the “good Duck artist” before his identity was revealed as the artist of Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, for a lot of of his occupation DeCarlo was known as the “good Archie artist”. This 152-page, full-color hardcover features reproductions shot from the original artwork and recolored, and it does a lot for setting the record directly and giving this terrific artist the recognition that he has long deserved. all of the stories are from DeCarlo’s normally accepted best period – from the mid-1950s