DC Preview Review August Part 2 of 2

Remember boys and girls all of the commentary was done before the DCNu was announced. Some if the commentary feels a little dated, it is only because it is. Of course often I was guessing correcting also.
BATMAN INCORPORATED #10
Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art and cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
1:25 Variant cover by FRAZER IRVING
In “LEVIATHAN STRIKES,” Batman realizes to his horror that he’s been outwitted as the true identity of Leviathan continues to elude him. Is his deadly adversary an old foe with a grudge to settle, a new face of evil or something completely different? One thing is for sure: The surprise ending will not soon be forgotten!
On sale AUGUST 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
BATMAN #713
Written by FABIAN NICIEZA
Art by STEVE SCOTT and RYAN WINN
Cover by TONY S. DANIEL and RYAN WINN
Over the years, Dick Grayson has worn several guises: First, he was Robin the Boy Wonder, then Nightwing, and finally Batman. But now that Bruce Wayne has donned the cape and cowl once again, Dick finds himself at an identity crossroads.
On sale AUGUST 17 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
DETECTIVE COMICS #881
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by JOCK and FRANCESCO FRANCAVILLA
Cover by JOCK
This is it – the finale so twisted, so shocking we can’t even begin to give away details here! Be there for the extra-sized conclusion of the acclaimed run by Scott Snyder, Jock and Francesco Francavilla. DETECTIVE COMICS #881 is the issue everyone will be talking about. Believe it.
On sale AUGUST 10 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
BATMAN AND ROBIN #26
Written by DAVID HINE
Art by GREG TOCCHINI
Cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
1:10 Variant cover by J.G. JONES
Le Jardin Noir – France’s very own Arkham Asylum – falls under siege! Someone has freed the lunatics, and unless they can be stopped, they’ll turn Paris into a surreal Hell on Earth! Batman and Robin join Nightrunner in a mind-bending battle with the strangest lineup of villains this side of Bizarro World.
On sale AUGUST 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
BATMAN: GATES OF GOTHAM #4-5
Written by SCOTT SNYDER and KYLE HIGGINS
Art and covers by TREVOR MCCARTHY
1:25 Variant covers by DUSTIN NGUYEN
Batman, Red Robin, Robin and Black Bat are all thrown into a race against time as The Architect’s true plan is revealed! But what does that mean for Oswald Cobblepot and Tommy Elliot? And just how does the first Super Villain of Gotham City factor into The Architect’s plot to destroy the city’s first families? Be here for the exciting penultimate issue!
And in issue #5, it’s Batman vs. The Architect! The downfall of a major Gotham family! The betrayal of Damian Wayne! It’s all here in this final issue, plus the untold fate of Gotham City’s first Super Villain!
Be here as GATES OF GOTHAM sets the stage for a bold new direction in the Bat books!
Issue #4 on sale AUGUST 3
Issue #5 on sale AUGUST 17
4 and 5 of 5, 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
BATGIRL #24
Written by BRYAN Q. MILLER
Art by PERE PEREZ
Cover by DUSTIN NGUYEN
Stephanie Brown has done her best to put her past behind her, but as the Repears’ mysterious client stands revealed, Batgirl’s going to learn the hard way that those who fail history are doomed to repeat it. This issue has it all: Secrets unearthed! Alliances broken! Splash pages!
On sale AUGUST 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
RED ROBIN #26
Written by FABIAN NICIEZA
Art and cover by MARCUS TO and RAY MCCARTHY
Ready to operate from his new HQ, Red Robin knows that before he can fulfill his crimefighting destiny, he must close out one outstanding issue. His father’s killer, Captain Boomerang, was brought back to life... The time has come for him to return to the grave!
On sale AUGUST 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
GOTHAM CITY SIRENS #26
Written by PETER CALLOWAY
Art by ANDRES GUINALDO and LORENZO RUGGIERO
Cover by GUILLEM MARCH
A secret that goes back to the very first issue of GOTHAM CITY SIRENS will be revealed at last! But will it spell the end of the Sirens? One thing is certain – none of them will be the same!
On sale AUGUST 24 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
BIRDS OF PREY #15
Written by MARC ANDREYKO
Art and cover by BILLY TUCCI
In the concluding chapter of “War and Remembrance,” Lady Blackhawk and the original Phantom Lady are in the clutches of an enemy whose evil has lain dormant for decades! Can the Birds of Prey find and rescue their captured compatriots before it’s too late for them...and the world? This is the thrilling conclusion to a story fifty years in the making! Written by fan-favorite MANHUNTER scribe Marc Andreyko and featuring breathtaking artwork by the amazing Billy Tucci!
On sale AUGUST 10 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T

Jim: These solicitations worry me. The Batman stuff has been on a great track and it feels like they are doing a major overhaul. I thing Dick is going back to being Nightwing and I personally think that is a huge mistake. Didio was wearing a Nightwing t-shirt in recent conventions and all the issues this month speak of changes and shake ups. Batman and Robin, what was the main book a year ago has a fill-in team. Birds of Prey, has a fill in team. It just feels like we are getting a major shakeup.

If I’m right this is a major mistake from DC. Their lineup needs an overhaul, but this smacks of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. I’m wondering if they do this, do they lose Grant Morrison. Bob Harras does not have a great track record with enticing the best talent.

Lee: I understand your concern about Batman changing back to being Bruce Wayne but are you really surprised? I am pretty sure that every hero except Superman has had a different person wear the mask at one point or another. Heck, this is the second go around for Batman. This was an above average run and it had many good moments.

As we have said before, there just needs to be good stories. The person under the mask is irrelevant as long as the story is good. That and a return of the soap opera, personal lives moments and things will improve greatly.

Jim: I will always disagree that it can be Bruce forever, that way leads to no growth. When the Silver Age started we started the characters over, we could do it again. In 20 years Damian could be Batman, it actually allows for a greater variety of stories to be told.

Lee: Let me point out that your arguement is just as flawed as mine. As much as you don't want to read about an old Batman, I don't want to read about a new Batman learning to be Batman. Especially if I know that it is going to happen again every 10 years. But, the real problem is that some readers, you, have been around for over 40 or 50 years and you have read all the stories. Good stories will always trump new faces under the cape. I think we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this topic.

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT – MARSHALL ROGERS HC
Written by STEVE ENGLEHART and others • Art by MARSHALL ROGERS, TERRY AUSTIN and others • Cover by MARSHALL ROGERS
Marshall Rogers’s unforgettable tales of Batman are collected in this new title featuring DETECTIVE COMICS #468, 471-479 and 481, DC SPECIAL SERIES #15, SECRET ORIGINS #6, BATMAN: LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #132-136 and BATMAN: DARK DETECTIVE #1-6!
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 496 pg, FC, $49.99 US

Jim: Now this is the type of reprint I’m a sucker for, of course with that page count and that price point I’m sure it is the cheap paper being used. I wish for work like this, from an artist of Marshall Rogers caliber, it was in a higher end format. It is a shame that he died so young (57years old from a heart attack). I just hope his estate profits from this reprint.

The actual stories were great and I think I read the original Engelhart/Rogers run at least ten times over the years. Once the hard cover hits my set of these stories on comic format will be heading off to Flordia, New Jersey or France.

Lee: This is an interesting conundrum for me. I, like you, really love the Engelhart/Rogers run on Batman. But, unlike you I haven’t read it in 10 years and now I am wondering how well it will hold up. The visuals are outstanding but I only have so much room on my shelf for “art books.” Add that to the fact that the quality of the reprints is absolute shite and I am really worried about getting this.

I think DC is spitting these reprints so fast that there is no concern at all about the quality of the printing. I once had a friend complain that the DC archives were absolute crap reprints of the art, and the originals looked soooo much better. I never understood the comment because I had never seen the original books anyway. Something was better than nothing to me so I accepted it. But this is material that I own in original format. I know what the art is SUPPOSED to look like and this isn’t it. And least it appear that I play favorites, Marvel is just as bad. The Thor reprint “Quest for Odin” just about made my eyes bleed the repro was so bad.

Jim: The Archives are not crap reprints, but they look different from the comic. I do agree that much of the quality of the reprints has been lost and the companies are spitting out stuff like crazy. At least with digital files of books it will be easy to do compilations in the future. As for the story, I have read it a few years ago and it still reads well.

Lee: What???? You need to reread your first sentence. If it looks different from the comic then how can it be a good reprint? At best, it becomes acceptable. Even the early masterworks look like crap because the colors make your eyes bleed. I much prefer my Fireside reprints from the 70's because they are closer to the original.

NIGHT FORCE HC
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art by GENE COLAN and others
Cover by GENE COLAN and DICK GIORDANO
The creative team behind Tomb of Dracula reunited in 1982 for NIGHT FORCE! The series begins as the mysterious sorcerer Baron Winter assembles a team to take on an occult evil. But can the granddaughter of Dracula’s greatest foe, a powerful parapsychologist and a timelost warrior from the court of King David tackle these threats? Collecting all fourteen issues of the original series for the first time!
On sale OCTOBER 19 • 352 pg, FC, $39.99 US

Jim: This is not a book I’m getting but I’m confused as to why it is getting reprinted. I never remember this one being a book clamored for by fans. Where is the reprint of Batman The Cult by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson? Where the high end HC reprint of the short lived All Star Batman by Miller and Lee? How does this get moved into the reprint club prior to 50 other things that I could name deserving more recognition? I can only hope that DC pulled this together to put some of Gene Colan’s work out there so they could pay him as he is now apparently on his last legs and his family could use the financial support. Of course Time/Warner is a multi-billion dollar corporation and if they wanted to, they could just pick up his medical tab.

Lee: If they wanted to pick up the tab they could, and if they did they would set a precedent that could over time, crush the company. It would be nice for the company to have heart, but I understand too that at the end of the day, they are a company. But, I like to believe this is being reprinted to get royalties to Gene. It’s not a bad story and everyone that I know who has read it, likes it.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN OMNIBUS HC
Written by ALAN MOORE
Art and cover by KEVIN O’NEILL
At last, the original two LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN epics are collected in a single, hardcover edition!
In this amazingly imaginative tale, Allan Quatermain, Mina Murray, Captain Nemo, Dr. Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde, and Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man unite to defeat a deadly menace to London and all Britons!
Then, one month later, the skies over England are filled with flaming rockets as Mars launches the first salvo of an invasion. Only our stalwart adventurers can save mother England and the Earth itself.
On sale OCTOBER 26 • 416 pg, FC, $49.99 US

TOM STRONG’S TERRIFIC TALES VOL. 2 TP
Written by alan moore and STEVE MOORE • Art by ARTHUR ADAMS, ALAN WEISS, CHRIS WESTON, SHAWN MCMANUS, BRUCE TIMM, JASON PEARSON and others • Cover by ARTHUR ADAMS
The hero of Millennium City shines in this title collecting TOM STRONG’S TERRIFIC TALES #7-12! This volume features thrilling stories about Tom’s island youth, as well as the further adventures of science-fiction heroine Jonni Future and more!
On sale SEPTEMBER 28 • 160 pg, FC, $17.99 US

Jim: I wonder if DC is just f**king with Alan Moore. Reprinting more of his work, changing all the things in did in the DCU (Swamp Thing now fused with Alec Holland and Mogo the planet lantern dead). It just seems odd.

Lee: I think you see conspiracies where none exist. This is a cash cow for DC and they are exploiting it. I don’t think it’s anything more than that.

Jim: Also I have to note that DC is publishing a ton of current stuff in trades and pretty well ignoring their library of material. Marvel’s Masterwork line continues to crank out stuff (some of it not deserving reprint in a high end format) but they have a plan. DC appears to be lacking a strategy for their collected works department.

Lee: I agree with your assessment. Marvel, more or less, is consistent with their trades. DC is just all over the map. I wonder if the sheer enormity of the material available confuses them because it seems like they can’t even find a place to start.

100 BULLETS BOOK ONE HC
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art by EDUARDO RISSO
Cover by DAVE JOHNSON
The first of five oversized, hardcover collections of the Eisner Award-winning 100 BULLETS collects issues #1-19 of the crime series!
In the opening chapters, Dizzy Cordova, a Latina gangbanger who has just finished a prison sentence, is given the chance to avenge her family’s murders, and a downtrodden bartender receives the opportunity to exact revenge against the woman who ruined his life.
Then, as Agent Graves continues to approach and manipulate his “clients,” questions about the ghoulish agent start to arise as people from his past begin to appear, revealing interesting information about their former acquaintance.
And in this volume’s third arc, Graves pulls a young man by the name of Loop Hughes into his web of intrigue and deception. Armed with one of Graves’s briefcases, Loop tracks down his long-lost father and is soon drawn into the world of mob enforcement.
On sale OCTOBER 5 • 456 pg, 7.25” x 10.875”, FC, $49.99 US • MATURE READERS

Jim: At least at 19 issues in one book this series should be collected in five volumes. Vertigo is still the number one imprint in comics. I hope it survives all the coming changes from DC. I’m worried as this no DCU characters in Vertigo policy and the fact that Levitz left Karen Berger alone and I get the feeling Didio will not.

Lee: I think you are worrying about this too much. Yes, DC brought Swamp Thing back, and yes Constantine is likely going to the mainstream DCU too, but other than that what can they mess with. Swampy started in the DCU and that’s a big difference. Famous last words I am sure, but seriously, 100 Bullets was as far away from capes as you can get. And for the record, I’d love to see DC integrate Morrison’s Sebastian O into the DCU. Now that could be fun.


BATMAN BLACK & WHITE STATUE: BATMAN BY SERGIO ARAGONES
DESIGNED BY SERGIO ARAGONES
SCULPTED BY JIM SHOOP
BATMAN GOES MAD!
This latest statue in the popular Batman Black & White statue series is designed by Sergio Aragones’s with a classic MAD look!
This cold-cast porcelain statue measures approximately 6.5” high x 7.5” wide x 4” deep, is painted in monochromatic tones, features a Bat-logo-shaped base and is packaged in a black and white box. Limited Edition.
On sale January 18, 2012 * Statue * $90 US

Lee: I can’t believe you ignored this! Of all the Batman statues possible, I never thought I would see this one. Just perfect for those with a sense of humor.

Jim: True, but how can you not love Aragones art and it being brought to life like this is great.


Jim: Well the stage is set, now we have to wait and see what the DCU will look like in September. Of course how much information will they want to release?
Lee: Actually, the annoucement will have little impact on me because I read so little DC now as it is. I think it will be far more interesting to see everyone's reactions both good and bad. I vote for mass hysteria until the dust settles... or until whatever is going to change changes.