Monday, March 12, 2012

Solicit groanings

The DC advance solicits are out! Time to get upset about books I won't see 'til June!
  • Remember how much I liked the new Power Girl costume?

    Why? It was such a good costume (if a little derivative of Supreme)! Like, has someone at editorial decided that all the costumes need to be equally awful?
  • I really like the name "Vostok-X," but I don't think that's enough to keep me buying Aquaman. I'm just burned out on Geoff Johns constant "let's set up these cool future plotlines" that ultimately fizzle out because he's not paying enough attention to the current plotline. See also: Justice League #6, which gave us a major anticlimax (set up by the last 5 issues) and rushed right into setting up the next big thing.
  • I like the "Firestorms around the world" thing that Firestorm's working with, and Firestorm as an allegory for nuclear power, but I just have no interest in the book anymore. There's too little going on for such a rich concept, and there's been nothing that Firestorm was doing that one of the other government-sanctioned hero books wasn't doing better.
  • Really wish I could care about Superboy, but "Superboy and Wonder Girl without adult supervision, wink wink" is...not what I want. Maybe "Superboy and Wonder Girl fight dinosaurs will make up for it--a similar plot, after all, got me to start buying Power Girl again. Heck, if this issue were just that one but with a find-replace on the dialogue, I'd be okay with that.
  • "Batman: The Dark Knight" looks straight-up terrible. Also, "it's not about [WORD], it's about [SYNONYM FOR THAT WORD]" is pretty terrible, even for solicit writing. Even for solicit writing that credits the wrong Batwoman artist and misspells "Kryptonian."
  • "Red Hood & The Outlaws" finally put some clothes on Starfire. I love the solicit: "RED HOOD learns that STARFIRE is one of the most respected and feared commanders in all of space! Who knew?" Who knew? Certainly not the potential readers who were turned off at the character's one-dimensional sex-object introduction. Man, if only issue #1 had decided to portray Starfire as a kickass starship commander instead of a contorted bikini.
  • I have to remember to drop Green Lantern Corps at the shop this week. "John Stewart just keeps killing Lanterns! The Guardians are bad people!" Ugh.
  • Every cover should be a Brian Bolland cover.
  • I was worried about Frankenstein post-Lemire. Then I read this: "Their first stop is the UNTROPOLIS – an exact copy of Metropolis that floats upside down in the 4TH CLOUD above Superman's home town." That is amazing, and I would like more of that please.
  • If I'd known ahead of time that Cully Hamner was off "The Shade," I would have considered dropping it again. But Frazer Irving is all kinds of great, so I guess I'm getting the whole thing.
  • Bat Lash backup in "All-Star Western"? Drawn by José Luis García-López? That's...wow, there aren't words. Crazy.
  • "The Ravagers" does the amazing by making costumes designed by '90s Wildstorm artists look well-constructed and sensible.
Okay, so there are definitely some highlights, but man does that costume redesign put a bad taste in my mouth.

2 comments:

mrjl said...

I just noticed, based on the first World's Finest covr, you can't actually see her neck, so the stupid collar could be in that issue to

LurkerWithout said...

"The Shade" has different artists for each arc. Right now its Javier Pulido who is doing a pretty fantastic job with the Shade in Spain...