Tuesday 7 June 2011

The DC Comics Announcements: Part 4

DC Comics are slowly announcing their 52 new series which will kick off in September. Everything is going back to Issue 1, and while I am partially offended by that, let's see what the books/creative teams are shaping up like so far, and whether or not this is shaping up to be a good move from DC.

Note: All covers taken from IGN







Swamp Thing #1
Written by Scott Snyder
Art & Cover by Yanick Paquette
Scott Snyder is proving to be the defining feature of these recent DC announcements; he's starting to rise to the same status of genius newcomer that Geoff Johns enjoyed a decade ago. And DC are giving him the reigns on their newly resurrected character, Swamp Thing; following on from "Brightest Day" and (we can assume) Alan Moore's classic run on the character is no small feat, it looks to be just as engaging under Snyder's control; that and the artwork is by Yanick Paquette who was excellent on recent issues of "Batman Incorporated." This gives me a good feeling.
Potential for Success: 10/10




Justice League Dark #1
Written by Peter Milligan
Art & Cover by Mikel Janin
This is a strange announcement; a third Justice League book with a team consisting on magic characters from the DC Universe. It looks set to be horror-based with characters such as Deadman, Madame Xanadu, Shade the Changing Man and John Constantine all taking places on the roster. This is my problem, though; Constantine isn't a team player, so how this works I have no idea. Still, Peter Milligan has impressed me recently, and this could continue that; the art, too, looks nice though I'm not familiar with Mikel Janin's art. That Constantine thing really bugs me, though.
Potential for Success: 6/10




Animal Man #1
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art & Cover by Travel Foreman & Dan Green
"Animal Man" by Grant Morrison is one of my favourite runs in comic history, and so to see Jeff Lemire, a creator whose work I adore, take over the reigns of this series and push Buddy Baker in a new, darker direction is an absolute treat. It gives me all the right goosebumps when I read about it, and even though I'd rather have Lemire draw it, too, Travel Foreman & Dan Green will do a damn fine job. The premise seems to deal with Buddy's daughter manifesting powers similar to his and Buddy being forced to deal with that; it's another simple plot, but hopefully, like everything Lemire has written so far, it will be fantastically engaging.
Potential for Success: 10/10






Demon Knights #1
Written by Paul Cornell
Art by Diogenes Neves & Oclair Albert
Cover by Tony Daniel
This is an interesting premise for a book; it follows the adventures of Etrigan the Demon, leading a quest to defend humanity in the Middle Ages. It's set in Camelot, so that explains why DC's resident Brit, Paul Cornell, is writing it and hopefully it'll be more along the lines of his "Knight & Squire" series than his "Action Comics" run, in that it will remain good throughout rather than wavering horribly towards the end. I'm not familiar with the artists, but they've got to be a damn sight better than Tony Daniel who provides the "meh" cover.
Potential for Success: 8/10






Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #1
Written by Jeff Lemire
Art & Cover by Alberto Ponticelli
This is an oddity; DC seem to be bringing back all of their supernatural characters and Frankenstein is getting his own series. It sounds fairly good, and it has Jeff Lemire on writing chores, so it should have a decent story at least. In this, Frankenstein is an Agent of SHADE (The Super Human Advanced Defense Executive) and goes about dealing with strange international problems. I'm intrigued more than invested as of yet, but the artwork by Alberto Ponticelli is also a happy sign that this might be a surprise hit.
Potential for Success: 8/10






Resurrection Man #1
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Fernando Dagnino
Cover by Ivan Reis
Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning are two creators I know best for their work on the Marvel Cosmic line of comic books (which were all fantastic, save the most recent "Annihilators" mini-series). But this is a character the pair were known for back in the day, and it's nice to see them come back to him and make him relevant again; and they're bringing the excellent art of Fernando Dagnino, to boot. The premise is genius: It's about a hero who gets new powers every time he comes back to life. The story possibilities are endless, and I am irrationally excited about this.
Potential for Success: 10/10






I, Vampire #1
Written by Josh Fialkov
Art & Cover by Andrea Sorrentino
This is the strangest announcement from the supernatural sector of the DC Universe; it's a series about the Queen of the Damned, and it's written by an up-and-comer. I'm not familiar with either creators' work, so this could go either way, but the premise involving a vampire trying to stop his true love (the aforementioned Queen of the Damned) from wiping out humanity seems to be your fairly standard horror book plot. We'll see how it goes, but right now I'm not amazingly excited for this.
Potential for Success: 5/10








Voodoo #1
Written by Ron Marz
Art & Cover by Sami Basri
This is another weird one. This is a book about Voodoo. A Wildstorm character. That's the first example of Wildstorm being integrated into the DC Universe proper. The fact that Ron Marz is writing it doesn't fill me with much confidence, but Sami Basri's recent artwork on "Power Girl" has been nothing short of perfection, so there's a lot of potential there on the art alone. Voodoo, for those of you who don't know (ie: everyone) is a half-alien, half-human hybrid who has fantastic powers and must use them to confront the dark world that surrounds her. It sounds wrought, but hopefully there will be some decent stories to tell; and let's not forget, the artwork will be gorgeous no matter what.
Potential for Success: 7/10

No comments:

Post a Comment