Looks like Nightwing, Suicide Squad, Justice League America, Superman Unchained, Teen Titans and Stormwatch are all ending. Some of them -- JLA, and I'm guessing Nightwing and Teen Titans, and maybe Suicide Squad -- will probably be back in another form soon enough. Superman Unchained is basically a retroactive miniseries, which is no real surprise; initial pre-solicit talk about the book could never really agree whether it was an ongoing or a limited, anyway.
Stormwatch was always an odd duck, and I imagine DC will turn its attention toward finding some other square peg to jam into a round hole for a while. Meanwhile, we'll see at least one Wildstorm character, Rainmaker*, in The Movement -- which shows no sign of stopping, with issue 11 solicited and a trade collecting 1-8 in the works. (Which would mean a second trade would probably go to issue 14, unless it gets canceled and the first trade gets retroactively expanded.) But I'm glad to see that unusual book soldier on; I think it's a good concept, and well executed. (Though Freddie Williams II might be sitting a few issues out, since he's apparently going to be working on a Brain Boy mini for Dark Horse.)
*Any other Wildstorm characters showing up as regulars in other DC books? I don't follow a lot of them these days, so I don't know, but I'm curious.
But here's one title I want to shine a spotlight on: Batwing! When the New 52 first was announced, it was a title people pegged as not lasting a year. With issue 30, it'll be more than 2 1/2 years, and the title will have outlasted more than half of its contemporaries. Now, there's been a complete turnover to the creative team and the cast, including the title character, but I really do like the commitment it shows on DC's part to have a person of color as a prominent part of the Bat Family, especially with Cassandra Cain still sidelined. Hopefully Luke will have a prominent role in Batman Eternal, helping to keep his sales on solid ground.
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All the Wildstorm characters were rendered instantly redundant when they were brought into the DCU.
Superman seems to have more in common with dumb-collared Mr Majestic (created by Jim Lee) now than the with the Pre-52 Superman. Likewise Batman is probably tonally much more like the MIdnighter than most pre52 incarnations of the character. DC looked into the WIldstorm abyss and the WIldstorm abyss looked back, ... or is it vice versa?
I'm honestly not familiar with most Wildstorm characters, so I don't really have an informed opinion on that. Certainly, the Wildstorm heroes occupy some of the same archetypal "slots" as DC heroes (or Marvel heroes), but I don't know enough about Mr. Majestic to know whether Superman's become more like him... and why him, and not Supreme? (Except, I guess, that in a lot of people's minds, Supreme is more like the Silver Age Superman?) I've read maybe a dozen comics with Midnighter; Batman still seems a lot like Batman to me.
Mr Majestic was Jim Lee's baby, which is why the comparison to him rather than Supreme, but Mr M and Supreme both were versions of Superman that posited that the most powerful being in the world wouldn't have too much time for the moral niceities that restrain the rest of us schmucks.
The new Superman has already decided that a Demi-God makes a better love-match for him than some mortal female. I'm guessing he doesn't entertain the kids in the orphanage in his free time as much either...
Yes, "All the WIldstorm characters" was a bit of a generalisation, but their whole point, beyond making loads of moohlah for the Image boys, was what would the familiar archetypes be like out of their BIg Two context? And now they've put them all back in the context, so redundancy beckons.
I agree with the redundancy -- though I think a group like Gen 13 can coexist just fine with the Teen Titans -- they're just two groups of superpowered kids, one with a pedigree -- where a group like the Authority would have trouble coexisting with the JLA, since they're both positioned as the top dogs of their universes. There's only room for one alpha dog.
The first time Mr Majestic ever made an impression on me was when he had a later miniseries, once DC bought Wildstorm, with Ed McGuinness art, I think. Reviews made it seem like the title was presenting stories more befitting "classic" Superman than whatever was going on in the regular titles at the time. Never read it, but I wasn't aware of the original conception of the character. But then, that's pretty much spelled out in the name.
Oh... and one more thing of note: G'nort returns in Larfleeze #10!
One of Alan Moore's great Superman stories was dressed up as a Mr Majestic tale. Set at the end of time...
But 20th Century morality was a moot point by that stage.
Actually, there are a few debuts to discuss, too: A weekly in Batman Eternal, and two new ongoings: Sinestro and Secret Origins, which opens with origin stories for Superman, Supergirl, and Robin/Dick Grayson.
As well as a new lineup for Justice League, that includes Lex Luthor, and the returns of Ragdoll from Secret Six (Batgirl #30) and, in some form or another, Wally West (Flash Annual #3).
Oh, and one other development that I'm excited about -- All-Star Western gets a backup again, and it's a Madam 44 story drawn by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez! Now THAT's good news!
Oh, I never knew Moore wrote any Mr. Majestic stories.
Then again, the Violator series he wrote made me wary of all his Image work, so I probably saw that he was writing one and just shrugged. And then forgot about it in the ensuing 20 years.
Figserello said:
Yeah, it was kinda obscure. Just came across it as a cheap back issue. Bad Moore is still much better than maybe 90% oif what's out there.
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