This week, Action Comics # 857 arrives in the stores, featuring the conclusion of the (in my opinion) rather blah "Escape from Bizarro's World" storyline that started in # 855. I don't know if it's the fact that it's all about Bizarros and their sort-of-but-never-really-backwards logic, the rather raw artwork by Eric Powell, or the involvement of Richard Donner (as co-writer), but I can't wait for that arc to finally be over.
Accentuating that feeling is what comes next. Next week, in fact. Yes, seven short days after Action # 857's publication comes Action # 858 (cover shown up above) and the beginning of what I hope will be a very long run by superstar artist Gary Frank. The talented Mr Frank first caught my eye when he drew Midnight Nation for J Michael Straczyski, back at the turn of the millennium (the most recent one, that is!) He has an extremely clean style and a true gift for facial expressions that really appeals to me, and he's impressed me of late on Supreme Power (again, with JMS) and a few issues of The Incredible Hulk. Hearing a few months ago that he would be joining Geoff Johns on Action Comics gave me new hope for that venerable title (and birthplace of Superman).
The first tale those two fine young gentlemen will be tackling is called "Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes." In it, we're told, the Man of Steel will travel to the 31st century to find out what happened to his old pals from his early days (back when it was Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, although no one at DC is allowed these days to utter the uperboy-say word!) What's a bit weird about this is that, in these post-Crisis years, we'd come to believe that Superman had never been Superboy, and furthermore had no prior Legion connection. What's more than a bit weird is that there are no fewer than three different incarnations of the Legion running around right now, between their own title, the JLA/JSA/LSH crossover of not too many months ago, and now this arc. A few days ago, though, we were given a clue to this mystery in an interview with Johns: in the new DC Multiverse brought into existence at the end of the 52 series, each universe would have its own 31st century, and therefore possibly more than one Legion of Super-Heroes may be co-existing! Hey, I can get behind that idea, especially if it's used effectively to tell a great story!
What worries me a little, though, is that DC is putting the first Frank issue out so quickly (and it's a 40-pager, to boot, instead of the normal 32 page size). While I'm eager to start reading this run, I'm nervous that delays will be inevitable, resulting in most of the wind being taken out of its sails around the 3rd or 4th issue. With the previous issue coming out on October 24th, why didn't DC simply schedule the next issue four weeks later? That'd give the creative team an extra three weeks of buffer, and nobody would've complained about the (entirely typical) four weeks between issues. This just seems like a very strange tactic, to me, and one that could easily backfire on DC.
Having said that, though, I'm jazzed as can be at the next issue of Action Comics. The next one after the one out this week, that is!
3 comments:
Thanks for reminding me of the title of 'Midnight Nation'--I was trying to remember the name of that book last week, and damned if I could.
I love Frank's artwork, but you're right--there will be delays, since his work is too detailed to come out each and every month. The Superman books have really been bit in the ass lately with highly hyped storylines that just fall apart when they actually hit the shelves, but this one does look interesting. (Or is that hype again?)
I like the idea of the three Legions, as long as two of them are the Levitz Legion and the other one is the DnA version. I'm also curious to see what the Shooter version will be like, but I suspect 'car' and 'wreck' will probably describe it very well.
I do like that cover, though.
I am at a complete loss to understand why DC would bring Shooter back on to the Legion. I'd like to believe it's because he made some awesome pitch that had the editor(s) going, "Ooooooh, that's amazing!" but I'm more inclined to suspect it was simply a case of, "Well, people always rave about the Shooter run back in the day, so how about we give him the book and maybe he'll catch lightning in a bottle again because we certainly don't have a clue how to!" I guess we'll have to wait and see on that front.
Newsarama had an interview with Johns recently on this topic (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=133564) and the question was asked of him: "And ... uh ... you guys are ahead on issues, right?" to which Johns replied, "We’re moving at a really good clip and, look, I know we have to earn the retailers’ and readers’ trust again on shipping. DC knows it." While I'm inclined to think that Geoff dodged the question - you'll notice he didn't say "Yes" or "No" but rather referred to their velocity - at least he's acknowledging the larger problem, which is late books across the board. And that's something.
From today's interview with Gary Frank, on Newsarama:
"I'm finishing my third issue at the moment, so I can promise that at least three issues will be out on time or, if not, it'll be someone else's fault [laughs].
Look, we're going well but we haven't made things easy for ourselves. Kicking off with an extended issue as well as redesigning a huge number of characters (with all of the referencing that entails) has led to some midnight oil being burned, but that's behind us now and I don't foresee the same kinds of problems that previously afflicted the book."
Why, DC? Why oh why did you push things by having his first issue come out the week after the previous issue? If he's only finishing up his 3rd issue right now, that sounds like around about the time the 5th or 6th is due, he may already be falling behind (assuming it takes him more than a month to do an issue).
Sigh.
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