It’s DC revamp time! Again

Posted on by martingray1

So, what do you reckon to the news from DC this week? The New 52 is long gone, DC Rebirth is so 2016, and as for all those mini line refreshes… well, did anyone ever have a handle on what exactly Dawn of DC was?

So, coming up in October we have DC All In, probably as unprepossessing a tag as you could get. It sounds like the rallying call of the world’s most unenthusiastic Scoutmaster. Where’s the excitement?I’d have gone for DC WHOA! How about you?

Anyway, this time DC is going for a two-pronged approach – instead of rewriting the universe, so wiping out characters and storylines, they’re keeping the current timeline and adding a new one. So, in the post-Absolute Power comic called DC All-In, written by Joshua Williamson and Scott Snyder, with art by Daniel Sampere and Wes Craig, the latest new Justice League’s fight with Darkseid sparks a whole new universe.

And among the most prominent occupants are…

… Absolute Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Their comics will be first out of the gate, with the likes of Absolute Aquaman and Green Lantern to follow.

According to the DC publicity, the Absolute Universe is a darker place, where, in the fight against evil, the heroes are the underdogs. That doesn’t mean the good guys will be grimmer, more violent, but that their idealism will shine all the brighter. The two universes will remain connected by one “mega-story,” which will span several years.

Scott Snyder will write the Absolute Batman series, with Nick Dragotta on art, Absolute Superman will be by Jason Aaron and Rafa Sandoval, while Absolute Wonder Woman comes from Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman. Obviously, you can’t judge how good a book will be from a single image, but this is what DC has given us, so, first impressions:

Batman looks blooming ridiculous – in a promotional video Joshua Williamson describes him as ‘a beast’ but I hear ‘obese’ – and while I’ve enjoyed a fair amount of Snyder’s work, his DC Metal stuff really wasn’t for me, and that’s what the Absolute pitch brings to mind. I’ll wait for this to show up on DC Infinite rather than dive right in.

Superman looks even more ridiculous, that hair, haven’t I seen that somewhere previously?

I’ve never developed into a fan of Jason Aaron’s work, I can’t imagine his Superman will change my mind, so again, it’s a wait and see.

As for Wonder Woman, I’m not keen on the tattoos but look at that thing she’s riding! Kelly Thompson mentioned on Twitter/X that it’s a Bone Pegasus, which sounds delightfully odd. What’s more, Diana’s series have lacked a sense of humour for many years, with Gail Simone being the last writer to allow Wonder Woman to have some fun. Thompson definitely puts humour into her scripts, and while I’m unfamiliar with the work of Hayden Sherman, that’s a grabber of an image. I am Cautiously In!

Back in the regular DC Universe, some creative teams will remain, others will be new. There’s no confirmation yet of a JSA ongoing, or whispers of a Legion of Super-Heroes series at all, but there is reason for hope as regards the latter. Because finally, after wanting to write a regular Superman series for ever, Mark Waid is getting the keys to the Fortress as writer of Action Comics. And it’s weekly, with solicitations mentioning classic Legion member Mon-El and talk of the team’s greatest foe, the Time Trapper… surely there’s a plan for the Legion of Super-Heroes to be embedded once more in DC continuity.

What’s more, there’s a back-up. The good news is that my repeated suggestion that, given DC obviously don’t wish to give Supergirl her own book, why not nod to history with a back-up in Action Comics – where she debuted and ‘lived’ for many years – has been fulfilled. She’s getting a strip alongside her cousin. The bad news is that while it’s being drawn by Skylar Patridge, who has an attractive clean style and worked on last year’s Supergirl Special, it’s to be written by Mariko Tamaki, who penned that same book. And Tamaki didn’t write Supergirl, she gave us an insecure, idiotic wimp. Maybe she’ll surprise me on this upcoming series – I wish her, us, and most of all Supergirl, luck.

I could go on. I usually do! But I’ll step away from the keyboard and invite your thoughts. The information is all over the internet. Are you All In?

28 thoughts on “It’s DC revamp time! Again”

  1. Hhmm, perhaps with the return of the Legion of Superheroes, we can see Clark as Superboy again? Why not? Jon isn’t Superboy and Conner is busy being a 5th wheel. All in!

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  2. I’m all out – not interested in the Absolute line whatsoever, and find my DC pull list reduced to Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Shazam, and (purely out of loyalty to the character) Power Girl.

    If they launch a new JLA post Absolute Power, I’m not even sure I’ll bother with that.

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    1. I would be loyal to Power Girl and buy the current series, but that just encourages DC to keep the current writer. I definitely think no series at all, would be better than the current whatever it is.

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    2. I understand the impulse to be “loyal” to a character, but I would counter that if you truly like a character you should shun bad material which degrades that character because you should ultimately want to see that character portrayed well by people who actually write well and get them. Regardless of what individual people in the company might think, DC as a commercial entity really only cares about sales. If you keep buying bad products, you just incentivize them to keep cranking out garbage that disrespects the character. Only by refusing to buy can you send a signal that what they’re doing doesn’t work, and thereby get them to stop and potentially try another approach. DC might take a long time to put out another Power Girl series if it cancels this one, but at least there’s a chance that series could be good while there’s no chance Williams will every write anything but trash for the character. In the meantime, there would at least be some hope for a decent portrayal of the character as a guest or backup in other titles, and in the end that’s better than continuing to see her humiliated month after month by a writer who doesn’t care about Power Girl or the readership.

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  4. First to be positive. Always good to make an effort to freshen things up/attract new readers. And it’s great that this ISN’T a reboot. Also I really enjoyed Scott Snyder’s Metal/Justice League/Death Metal epic. I thought it was the right mix of new and nostalgia, so having him back as the architect (?) is cool.

    Random thoughts/concerns:

    1. This just feels like yet ANOTHER parallel world/alternate universe storyline at DC. Snyder’s last big addition to the DCU was the Dark Multiverse. Now we have what sounds like Earth Darkseid. Just typing that out makes me feel like this has potential, but also reminds me how DC since bringing the multiverse back like 20 or so years ago never seems to use the storytelling possibility of what they ALREADY HAVE to its full potential. Instead we get lip service – there is a multiverse – and then we get ADDITIONS to that, which are used for an event, then set aside for another addition to the multiverse.
    2. Torn on having Darkseid as the villain. Josh Williamson initially used him as the bad guy in the run up to Dark Crisis.
    3. Still, on the face of it the idea that Darkseid seems to be creating his own Earth Prime def has storytelling possibilities. And Snyder is certainly good when it comes to big, crazy, epic ideas.
    4. I’m sure the stories will be totally different, but this reminds me a little of Marvel’s Heroes Reborn from the late 1990s when the Image crew took over the main titles for a year and wrote alternate versions of Marvel’s major heroes while the regular Marvel U. kept plugging along with books featuring other characters.
    5. Theory: Darkseid creates this NEW Earth Darkseid using some of the powers Amanda Waller has syphoned away from our heroes during the Absolute Power event happening right now. He’s the mastermind. Might this be an indication that Waller ISN’T who she seems/explain her controversial descent into darkness? A mind-controlled agent of Apokolips? An alternate Waller? A clone?
    6. For me, if the promise here is that the Darkseid Earth and the regular DCU will co-exist and that co-existence will culminate in some massive event in a couple years, that is more of a turn-off. Again, while I really enjoyed Snyder’s Justice League, it took up a couple years of storytelling. I’m just in a head space right now where I’d rather just have good stories featuring characters I live that are not building to any major event/tie ins, like what Waid has been doing on World’s Finest. Maybe we WILL get that, but for now it sounds like they are already laying the seeds for the next major event and I’m just burnt out. But that’s a 50-year-old reader who has been collecting for about 40 of those years talking. Newer fans and even other older fans might be totally on board with the concept.
    7. None of the newly announced books or the new creative teams on existing titles interest me. So I will be keeping an eye on future announcements/additions to DC’s publishing schedule. JSA? Justice League? Legion? What about less prominent characters like the Challengers, Doom Patrol, Metal Men, etc.?

    -Brian

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    1. Oh, I do like numbered points, Brian.
      1) Spot on, DC keep ‘restoring’ the Multiverse and nothing happens. I hope for a comic featuring Silver and Bronze Age stories and nothing happens. It’s very disappointing. Why make us suffer thoroughly the likes of Crap Metal with no reward?
      2) Wasn’t Darkseid also the big villain at the start of the New 52. Enough!
      3) Good with the big epic ideas, less so with turning them into compelling stories with a bow on ‘em.
      4) Absolute is different, we’re told, in that the new version isn’t replacing the current versions. Phew.
      5) Could be! Call it the Source Waller.
      6) Totally agree!
      7) Yes indeed, bring on some of the characters we’re not seeing. Firestorm would be lovely.

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  5. Also Martin, not sure Waid is the regular Action writer. I recall he was mentioned when it was announced that series would be featuring different creative teams. And he actually laid the seeds for this upcoming Phantom Zone story in World’s Finest several months ago. There was a “see upcoming issues of Action Comics” tease in that issue. I may be wrong, but I’m thinking he’s just on board Action for this one storyline, just like Aaron and Gail Simone have been.

    -Brian

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  7. I think, on the whole, it’s a pretty good plan. Keeping the current line (but revitalizing it, and pushing jump-on points) sounds very good to me! I’m interested in Waid & Henry’s Action Comics (hopefully they’re in it for the long haul, not just these four issues), and some of the other revitalization plans, especially new books. Plus, it looks like all the books I’m already buying — Birds of Prey, Flash, etc. — are keeping their teams. So I’m pretty happy with that side of the plan. (And hopeful for Legion! Fingers crossed.)

    As for the Absolute side? I’m less intrigued. Like you, the only one that’s been revealed so far that has the potential to grab me is Wonder Woman, since I like Thompson’s writing so much. I can’t say I find fault in Superman’s look, though… I’m digging the hair, even if you’re not. As for Batman…eh, I don’t read a lot of Batman anyway.

    But there are rumors of a Flash series written by Jeff Lemire, and a Green Lantern series by Al Ewing, and both of those pairings sound promising. It’s about time I gave Lemire another try.

    So we’ll see, I guess!

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  8. Thank you for your thoughts on this. The one thing I’m a little curious about is why you didn’t comment on what the solicits say is planned for Lois in Superman after Absolute Power. For what it’s worth, my thoughts on it were that it was lazy and boring. Lois has been put in that position on a number of prior occasions, and the stories featuring her in that role have never been interesting. Lois works precisely because she’s a grounded counterpart to Clark who helps to show him that a regular human can actually hold their own against a superpowered person like him and the rest of the Superfamily on an intellectual and interpersonal level through sheer force of will, intelligence, and moxie. Putting Lois on Clark’s physical level robs her character of a great deal of force, because there always seems to be this implication in doing so that she was never “truly” Clark’s equal when she was a regular person in spite of her exceptional personal qualities, and by extension that only other super powered people are somehow capable of being his peers.

    Additionally, any reasonably intelligent comics reader knows this isn’t going to last. She never keeps this state long term, and ultimately her time in this kind of role ends up being meaningless because within a year or two she just reverts to the status quo ante while Clark and everybody around carries on as if nothing much happened. Maybe this will be different, but based on DC’s track record this looks like it will just be another attempt at using a hackneyed gimmick instead of actual meaningfully creative storytelling, character development, and world building to boost sales.

    Beyond that, Absolute DC mostly looks like garbage. I’m not much of a fan of the Batman corner of the DCU to begin with, and this looks like it’s doubling down on everything dumb about that part of the DCU – excessive grimdark, valorization of vigilantism for its own sake, interminable supposedly deep psychobabble about Bruce Wayne’s anger and misery – to the max. If nothing else, this may be the dumbest version of the bat logo ever. A black rectangle with spikes; really? If you want to go full dark, just have him dress in all black with nothing on it. Otherwise, just do a version of the classic suit and leave the rest alone. The actual description of the title leaves me cold, and all in all this just seems like yet another attempt to ape the Chris Nolan films’ vision of Batman, without realizing that it was those movies’ intelligent characterization, plotting, and world building instead of their darkness that made them great.

    As for Superman, the whole claim that he has no home, and no family is concerning. Does this mean they’re going back to the Golden Age version of the origin where he was raised in an orphanage? At an extreme, is this a Superman who camps out in the wilderness or lurks in back alleys when he’s not saving people or fighting bad guys? Does this Superman have any attachment to human society at all? What is going on here? The fact that this is written by Jason Aaron only increased my distaste for this, because his awful stint on Action Comics resulted in one of the worst Superman stories I’ve ever seen. I have no confidence he has any idea how to write for Superman and predict this will be a disaster.

    You’re correct that the only potentially interesting thing here is Kelly Thompson’s take on Wonder Woman. Thompson seems like she could write a decent version of Diana, and I don’t mind losing Themyscira and the Amazons if the character retains their core values and personality. A Wonder Woman who simply is who she is without all the baggage of the pseudo-Greco-Roman mythology seems like a genuinely interesting, promising, new take on the character in a way the other proposals for Batman and Superman aren’t. I doubt I’ll pick it or any of the other Absolute DC titles up due to how awful the whole execution of the concept seems to be, but if any of them do succeed on a creative level (as opposed to a commercial level), this is the one I would bet on.

    Mark Waid will likely do a fine job with Superman, and I would be fine with him being given permanent control of the title after this. If bringing back Phillip Kennedy Johnson isn’t an option, he’s probably the best choice to helm Action Comics. What really has to stop is the Superstars garbage. Action Comics just needs to go back to having an ongoing narrative overseen by a single creator. The only downside to this is it seems like he’s going to focus heavily on Superman at the expense of the rest of the Superfamily. That’s a shame because I think PKJ’s tenure showed that integrating him with the family can make for richer narratives and world building. At this point hoping for more exploration of the rest of the family is probably a lost cause, but I can’t help but feel disappointed to see them shoved offstage when there’s so much that could be done with them.

    As for Mariko Tamaki, I’m cautiously optimistic on this. Yes, the Supergirl Special from last year was disappointing. On the other hand, Supergirl: Being Super was a genuinely enthralling alternate take on the character, and while her run on Wonder Woman, her Crush and Lobo miniseries, and her take on X-23 were all very good. She’s a fundamentally strong writer who’s done a very good job of writing for female superheroes, so I think it’s fair to say there’s a decent chance she’ll deliver a solid story for Kara (provided she doesn’t lean into her baffling inclination to make Kara an amnesiac who remembers next to nothing about Krypton).

    One last point I have to make is that I’m shocked Leah Williams’s Power Girl series is still apparently being greenlit. She’s now had a longer run on Power Girl than Conner and Palmiotti, even though her entire series isn’t as good as a single page from that run. The sales for this are bad, critics’ reviews aren’t good, and DC has no plans for a Power Girl movie, tv show, or game that this could possibly tie into. Particularly given that WIlliams herself doesn’t seem to care about Power Girl and writes this series like an indifferent hack, it’s utterly inexplicable why this thing is still going. Who is this for, and why is anybody at DC approving its continuing publication?

    Overall, I suppose I’m grateful that DC decided not to do a complete reboot of their universe. That said, little in this initiative seems particularly interesting or groundbreaking, nor am I seeing anything that will convince me to read more than the relatively small fraction of their output that I pay attention to. Nonetheless, I’ll be interested in seeing what your thoughts on this are when it comes out. In the meantime, thanks for the commentary, and thanks for your responsiveness to your commentors.

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    1. Lois with superpowers has indeed been done to death, which is why I didn’t mention it – I am very underwhelmed. Heck, I think I’d be more excited to see the return of Cir-El… I agree, Lois is fascinating as plain ol’ Lois, reporter extraordinaire. I want Superman and Lois meeting at dinner to swap details of their separate adventures.

      Ab Bats really does look and sound ridiculous, with retractable costume bits and, yes, that stupid logo. I couldn’t even get through the Nolan films so don’t want That Kind of Thing.

      The Superman description sounds like Superman for people who don’t like Superman… why would you bother? We had a version of Superman trying for a Golden Age sensibility with New 52 Action Comics and readers did not flock to the series.

      So let’s see what we get from Wonder Woman – I suppose Diana Prince living, working and kicking supervillain butt in the big city would be too much to hope for.

      I think the Super Twins need to be in a discrete Superman and Lois strip where there’s room to develop them, away from Action and Superman. I suspect, though, they’re on a one-way trip to Kandor.

      I packed in Being Super after the second issue. All those track meets!

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      1. Thanks for the reply. It would be nice to see more of the twins either in a Lois and Clark series, their own title, or some kind of “Superkids” book where they’re paired up with Damien or some other juvenile superhero who’s about their age (though your unfortunately probably correct that they’ll get axed relatively soon). With that said, taking attention away from the family by focusing on Clark isn’t just about missing out on them, but also Kenan and increasingly Jon. Both of them have barely been seen this year – Jon’s appearance in Absolute Power #1 was the first significant appearance of his I can recall anywhere since Beast World – and while Connor got some decent attention in House of Brainiac, he was also very much in the background outside of that event. I don’t mind Clark having a leading role, but the point is that heavily focusing on him usually means a number of characters generally seem to get marginalized and in turn Clark’s world and narrative potential seems more shrunken and emptier.

        Incidentally, I get why you dropped Supergirl: Being Super after the second issue, but the thing is that the last two issues were where it got really good. A lot of the track and field stuff went away, and the story’s pace picked up a lot while building out details related to Krypton, Superman, and Kara’s origin that made it feel much more like a Supergirl story (albeit, still quite distinct from how the character is usually portrayed). I’m pretty sure those issues are on DC Infinite, and if not Anj did some very good recaps of what happened in them for the reviews of them on his blog. The wider point is that if Tamaki makes her Supergirl story more like those latter issues her run on Wonder Woman instead of the Supergirl Special from last year, she might deliver a genuinely worthwhile companion piece to Waid’s lead story.

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      2. I’m just checking out Tamaki’s new Zatanna series on DC Infinite. Page 10 x Zee goes for a run. Also, she keeps her stage bunnies in tiny cages.

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    2. Based on the illustration, perhaps Absolute Batman is Bruce Bane. 😀 They introduce an alternative take that is of Hispanic heritage, with a different/modified origin.

      Joking aside, there was a speculation online that the Absolute Line would give DC a version of their characters that outside the “copyright Mickey Mouse scenario”. It does seem like they are trying to emulate the Marvel’s first Ultimate series. There is potential here, but just no to steroid Bat-Hulk. Troubled Emo-Supermanwill depend on the writing Amazonless Wonder Woman is a real unknown.

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  9. Likewise, Lois as Superwoman doesn’t have a lot of draw for me. It’s one of those tried-and-false premises that make me think “maybe someone will finally make this interesting, but I can’t see spending money to watch them try.”

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  10. That Batman. In some ways I like it as a cartoony piece of art, but I just can’t see how he’d operate. It makes no sense for Batman to be the size of a house as he’d only be able to run three feet without getting puffed.

    I’m sort of intrigued by the idea, but the whole Darkseid energy thing – wasn’t that the point of all those titles like the Terrifics, Sideways and Damage? And how long did that last? It seems odd DC are ready to go to swing for this, do they really think that there are people not reading the current titles who will want this? I also don’t like it when the writers say “you aren’t prepared for this” but then it turns out to be a bit like something that was done before. Part of the joy of DC is the worldbuilding, though most of the heroes are in very privileged set ups, so I guess that’s what they’re trying to get around? I’ll be interested if they’re not just versions of the characters that have had those things stripped away but none of these writers are guaranteed buys for me.

    That said, I have pretty much stopped reading most of the books because of Absolute Power. I might be tempted back to Superman for Dan Mora art though.

    Stu

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    1. I think a fair few people will be tempted by the SDCC-announced Justice League Unlimited by Waid and Mora. Their work has the sensibility I want to see in the DC mainline. The more I hear about the Absolute books the less I’m interested.

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  11. I think that, marketed correctly, there’s always going to be an audience for a radical new take on Batman and Superman… Wonder Woman and the rest of the DCU, maybe less so, but there’s an appetite for that, too. The question is, how long will that appetite last? That depends on execution.

    I suspect all three of these books will be better than they look to me right now. I’m not excited about any of them (and only really willing to give Wonder Woman a try so far), but there’s an audience… and I think this talent will speak to a lot of them.

    As for the “seen it before” concerns, the only answer to that is “sure…but not like this!” And whether that rejoinder succeeds or not is all in the execution. There’s really not a lot of comparison between the “New Age of DC Heroes” line (with the Terrifics, etc.) and this. Sure, maybe Darkseid energy is a common denominator (was it? I don’t recall), but a Superman book or a Batman Book is a much different thing than books starring newbie or C-list characters. Anything they have in common is overwhelmed by what’s different.

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    1. You are probably right, I mean, we’re getting the Elseworlds label back… and I still haven’t read all the originals. There are titles I’ve never heard of, such as Batman: The Golden Streets of Gotham and Batman/Houdini: The Devil’s Workshop…I suspect I’ll enjoy them more than Absolute Tosh.

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      1. I don’t remember much about those two particular titles… but I *do* remember that they looked *gorgeous*.

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Published by martingray1

Journalist, comic reviewer, theatre critic, film lover, biscuit fan, cat indulger