The DC Comics Thread Vol. 3

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

GET A FIRST LOOK AT DC ZOOM AND DC INK TITLES DEBUTING FALL 2019

DC announced today new details surrounding its young reader imprints—DC Zoom and DC Ink—and revealed first looks at titles scheduled for release in fall 2019.

The cornerstone of today’s span announcement are two new graphic novels from DC’s middle grade imprint—DC Zoom—that will debut in October 2019:

• THE SECRET SPIRAL OF SWAMP KID by acclaimed writer and illustrator Kirk Scroggs tells a lighthearted coming-of-age tale about a half-human/half-plant boy named Russell Weinwright. The book is completely written and drawn in first-person journal entries and features a fun, innovative lined notebook-style format.
  
• DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: AT METROPOLIS HIGH marks the first DC Super Hero Girls (DCSHG) graphic novel by new series writer Amy Wolfram. Wolfram is joined by DCSHG veteran artist Yancey Labat for this original story set in the same universe as the new DC Super Hero Girls animated series created by Lauren Faust that will air Sundays at 4 p.m. ET/PT on Cartoon Network beginning March 17, 2019.

THE SECRET SPIRAL OF SWAMP KID and DCSHG: AT METROPOLIS HIGH will be joined this fall by previously announced DC Zoom titles by Meg Cabot and Cara McGee, Shannon and Dean Hale with Victoria Ying, and Minh Lę and Andie Tong, among others. Books published under the DC Zoom banner target middle grade readers ages 8-12 and tell stories focused on friends, family and growing up.

DC has also confirmed on-sale dates and shared early looks at forthcoming titles from DC Ink—the publisher’s new young adult graphic novel line. DC Ink books feature thought-provoking stories for readers ages 13+ that focus on everyday aspirations, struggles and triumphs. The current DC Ink slate for fall 2019 includes HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS from Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh, and Marie Lu’s BATMAN: NIGHTWALKER prose novel adapted in graphic form by Stuart Moore with art by Chris Wildgoose.

See below for complete creative teams and on-sale dates for all DC Zoom and DC Ink titles debuting in 2019 and January 2020. All 2019 titles are available to preorder now.

THE SECRET SPIRAL OF SWAMP KID and DCSHG: AT METROPOLIS HIGH will be joined this fall by previously announced DC Zoom titles by Meg Cabot and Cara McGee, Shannon and Dean Hale with Victoria Ying, and Minh Lę and Andie Tong, among others. Books published under the DC Zoom banner target middle grade readers ages 8-12 and tell stories focused on friends, family and growing up.

DC has also confirmed on-sale dates and shared early looks at forthcoming titles from DC Ink—the publisher’s new young adult graphic novel line. DC Ink books feature thought-provoking stories for readers ages 13+ that focus on everyday aspirations, struggles and triumphs. The current DC Ink slate for fall 2019 includes HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS from Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh, and Marie Lu’s BATMAN: NIGHTWALKER prose novel adapted in graphic form by Stuart Moore with art by Chris Wildgoose.

See below for complete creative teams and on-sale dates for all DC Zoom and DC Ink titles debuting in 2019 and January 2020. All 2019 titles are available to preorder now.

DC Zoom (ages 8-12):

• SUPER SONS: THE POLARSHIELD PROJECT(April 2, 2019)—written by Ridley Pearson and illustrated by Ile Gonzalez
• DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: SPACED OUT(June 4, 2019)—written by Shea Fontana and illustrated by Agnes Garbowska
• DEAR JUSTICE LEAGUE(August 6, 2019)—written by Michael Northrop and illustrated by Gustavo Duarte
• SUPERMAN OF SMALLVILLE(September 3, 2019)—written by Art Baltazar and Franco and Illustrated by Art Baltazar
• THE SECRET SPIRAL OF SWAMP KID(October 1, 2019)—written and illustrated by Kirk Scroggs
• DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: AT METROPOLIS HIGH(October 15, 2019)—written by Amy Wolfram and illustrated by Yancey Labat
• BLACK CANARY: IGNITE(November 5, 2019)—written by Meg Cabot and illustrated by Cara McGee
• SUPER SONS: THE FOXGLOVE MISSION(November 5, 2019)—written by Ridley Pearson and illustrated by Ile Gonzalez
• DIANA, PRINCESS OF THE AMAZONS(January 7, 2020)—written by Shannon and Dean Hale and illustrated by Victoria Ying
• GREEN LANTERN: LEGACY(January 21, 2020)—written by Minh Lę and illustrated by Andie Tong

DC Ink (ages 13+):

• MERA: TIDEBREAKER(April 2, 2019)—written by Danielle Paige and illustrated by Stephen Byrne
• UNDER THE MOON: A CATWOMAN TALE(May 7, 2019)—written by Lauren Myracle and illustrated by Isaac Goodhart
• TEEN TITANS: RAVEN(July 2019)—written by Kami Garcia and illustrated by Gabriel Picolo
• HARLEY QUINN: BREAKING GLASS(September 3, 2019)—written by Mariko Tamaki and illustrated by Steve Pugh
• BATMAN: NIGHTWALKER(October 1, 2019)—adapted by Stuart Moore from Marie Lu’s prose novel for the DC Icon series and illustrated by Chris Wildgoose

[Michael Heide Heide Finition Find all posts View Profile Close Michael Heide]

I'm not the target audience, nor do I have a daughter or niece in that age range.
I guess it's worth a shot, but all of these leave me cold. Then again, [skip to the beginning of this post]

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Bronze age Doom Patrol omnibus in the new DC solicits! Happy dance time!!!

This omnibus, which I NEVER seriously thought DC would do, collects EVERYTHING from the Kupperberg era when he had control of the DP from their Showcase revival until the issue before Morrison's run begins. They actually have EVERYTHING in this. I'm looking forward to having this so I can do one massive reread of all 3 volumes.

Now I just have to cross my fingers this doesn't get cancelled before I get ahold of it.

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

Bronze age Doom Patrol omnibus in the new DC solicits! Happy dance time!!!

This omnibus, which I NEVER seriously thought DC would do, collects EVERYTHING from the Kupperberg era when he had control of the DP from their Showcase revival until the issue before Morrison's run begins. They actually have EVERYTHING in this. I'm looking forward to having this so I can do one massive reread of all 3 volumes.

Now I just have to cross my fingers this doesn't get cancelled before I get ahold of it.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Extra, unpublished Kupperberg DP work? Take my money DC!

Oh man, I'm like Homer Simpson slabbering over donuts with this Doom Patrol love!! Plus these guys will get royalties out of this. Good for them.

[Agent Purple The Illustrated Man Find all posts View Profile Close Agent Purple]

I'm not even a fan of Doom Patrol and I still think this is a beautiful turn of events.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

So cool that all 3 omnibus together make a complete collection up to that point. And many would argue the last issue of Morrison's run is where it probably should have ended. It will make for some fun reading.

[Michael Heide Heide Finition Find all posts View Profile Close Michael Heide]

The Pollack stuff was not great. But I liked the Giffen revival in the very early 2000s. And Gerard Way's Young Animal series was what the Pollack run should have been.

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

The Fall 2019 catalog is up on Edelweiss, not too much in there that's a surprise, only things that really stood out were the Batman: Black & White Omnibus and the Swamp Thing by Nancy Collins Omnibus.

[Big Daddy Dave Skywalker Moisture Farmer Find all posts View Profile Close Big Daddy Dave Skywalker]

Seeing DC go for a Nancy Collins Swamp Thing omnibus, it would make sense if they did one after for #140-171, the remainder of volume 2.

[Star-Lantern Weaponer of Qward Find all posts View Profile Close Star-Lantern]

Jesus... So much Batman or Batman spin-off stuff. DC should change its name to Batman Comics. All it offers is Batman and a couple other things on the side. I get that Batman sells a lot, but DC and WB should really figure out how to make their other properties successful, too. It's just way too disproportionate over there.

[Trey Strain Guardian of the Universe Find all posts View Profile Close Trey Strain]

Jesus... So much Batman or Batman spin-off stuff. DC should change its name to Batman Comics. All it offers is Batman and a couple other things on the side. I get that Batman sells a lot, but DC and WB should really figure out how to make their other properties successful, too. It's just way too disproportionate over there.

I've been saying for a long time that DC promotes Batman at the expense of its other characters. They constantly tell the readers that Batman is the greatest this, the greatest that, and the greatest the other.

The readers simply respond to that promotion. They buy Batman, and they don't buy Green Arrow. You aren't going to buy Green Arrow when DC tells you that Batman is greater than he is. You're going to buy Batman.

The company does the same thing with Hal and the other Earth Lanterns.

That's just stupid. They should market their properties at the expense of Marvel's properties, not at the expense of their own properties.

[Star-Lantern Weaponer of Qward Find all posts View Profile Close Star-Lantern]

The company does the same thing with Hal and the other Earth Lanterns.

That's just stupid. They should market their properties at the expense of Marvel's properties, not at the expense of their own properties.

That's a good point. The way the company approaches Green Lantern currently is that the other GL's only get attempts if Hal proves successful enough. If Hal doesn't, then the other Green Lanterns are benched or put on a team if they're lucky.

The company conditions readers to prefer Hal Jordan over the others (or attempts to). Whether that's a bad move or not is up to opinion. Some may think it's best for the brand to have a central face, while others will feel that DC is stupidly limiting the potential of the Green Lanterns that aren't Hal by always having them beneath him in some fashion or another. As someone who didn't get into Green Lantern because of Hal Jordan, I found it frustrating, but nowadays I don't really care. I guess that's not a good thing, though, because I'm not nearly invested in the whole thing as I once was.

Where I think DC went wrong with both Hal Jordan, and kinda' Barry Allen...
DC likes to act like they are the original incarnations of their characters, deserving the most respect and reverence, but the fact is they just aren't, and no matter what you say, or how you try to present it, they can never be. Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent don't have that problem. Everyone accepts that they ARE the Batman and Superman, and other characters that may use those names here and there are just passing novelties. But Hal Jordan and Barry don't really have their identities totally on lock down like that. They might be the most popular characters of their respective identities, but the other claimants are too strong for them to be universally accepted as Flash and Green Lantern. But DC likes to act like they are, and that just frustrates some people. If Hal was the original GL then maybe things would be a lot different with the fanbase. I don't think Hal Jordan can ever truly universally be THE Green Lantern because Alan Scott was THE Green Lantern before him.

[Michael Heide Heide Finition Find all posts View Profile Close Michael Heide]

And Guy and John and Kyle were THE Green Lantern after him, each for their own tenure.

Same with Barry, there is a whole generation for whom Jay is THE Flash. And another one for whom Wally is THE Flash. There is an unlikely, but not impossible case to be made that if readers started consuming DC Comics when Bilson/Demeo or Guggenheim were writing the Flash, that to them, Bart is THE Flash.

When Didio and Johns gained influence over the DC Universe, they operated under the assumption that new readers don't like an origin that tied the current owner of a title to his predecessor(s). Wally got his powers in the presence of Barry Allen, Bart is Barry's grandkid from the future, Kyle got Hal's ring when Jordan became Parallax. And so on.
So they streamlined the DCU and their character origins by basically restoring the lineup of the Super Friends at the expense of all organic progress since 1986 and by sidelining, if not wholly removing later characters. Costing them a good chunk of those characters' fanbases. It's like if Marvel decided to retire Warren Worthington III or Johnny Storm because there were an Angel and a Human Torch in the Golden Age.

But hey, they had short term sales successes with those moves as long as they put the hottest writers and artists on Hal's and Barry's books. When Johns and his pencil buddies left the franchises, sales dropped massively. And while I really love what Morrison and Williamson are doing with GL and the Flash right now, they never really recaptured what they sacrificed with the GL and Flash Rebirths.

[Hypo Lil' Leaguer Find all posts View Profile Close Hypo]

DCeased #2 Variant by Yasmine Putri



DCeased #3 Variant by Yasmine Putri