Wait, I’m Excited about DC Titles?!?
It’s time to get excited about a bunch of upcoming DC titles. Yeah, I’m just as surprised as you that I just typed those words. I’ve been as vocal a critic of the last few years of DC’s creative output as anyone with an internet connection, but I woke up this morning to a flurry of news about their new line up.
Granted, the first phrase I saw was “kills the New 52” so maybe I got a little too excited off the bat, but look. This is good. These announcements aren’t just good for readers, I think they’re good for comics. This is DC reacting to criticism and chasing trends to offer up more diverse entertainment. That’s good, no matter how long it took.
Art by Corin Howell
The New 52 was staffed with the old guard and primarily catered to them. Every book basically looked the same. The hidden gems were treasured as such, but never seemed to be enough to win back anyone’s favor, at least not completely.
It’s been over 3 years of this and I know I’m not the only one who was tired. Some of these new books are going to wake me up. I’m sure of it. Just let me be excited about DC! It feels good to be excited about DC again. Real good. It’s like when a buddy from high school got himself all cleaned up and you see him again for the first time and you’re just so proud of him. Maybe going a little far there, but still. There’s some really cool stuff going on here.
Art by Gustavo Duar
The New 52 sure wasn’t going to have Bizarro, Bat-Mite, and Prez titles in its line-up. Ever. This is an exciting sea change that looks like it’s injecting a little more fun and whimsy into the mix. Who doesn’t like whimsy? (For real: Who? Tell me so we can stop talking to them.)
The marquee announcement a lot of people are going to be excited about is Gene Luen Yang bringing his talents to Superman. I had just lamented the other day that I couldn’t wait for the day when I could look forward to a Superman story that didn’t completely miss the point of the Big Blue Boyscout and it looks like I gotta eat my words. Yang’s knack for bringing humanity to his stories is stunning and I’m so happy to see DC reaching outside of its standard talent pool.
We’ve also got the supremely talented Ming Doyle drawing Dark Universe and writing the new Constantine title with Riley Rossmo on art. These are good things. Very good things.
The wonderful Annie Wu drawing an ongoing Black Canary title written by Brenden Fletcher injected with some punk edge is exactly what I wanted and I didn’t even know it before Friday morning.
Art by Annie Wu
We’re also getting whatever this is.
We Are Robin #1 arty by Lee Bermejo
Section 8 has Garth Ennis and John McCrea returning to some Hitman characters, which is kind of weird, but it’s Garth Ennis and John McCrea returning to some Hitman characters so it could be amazing.
Before this just devolves into a list of things I’m personally excited about, it needs to be said, again and again, that there’s power in diversity. David L. Walker writing Cyborg is awesome. Putting a black writer on the company’s premier black character is a no-brainer that somehow took years for someone to put together.
There’s an amazing list of ladies that was suspiciously absent from the new 52, both on the creative and the character side. The diversity in tone and style is essential to DC having books that everyone is interested in. The whole line shouldn’t be for everyone, but everyone should be able to find some part of the line to latch onto. This is hopefully the beginning of a diverse line with a lot to offer.
They listened and for the first time in years I’m really excited about the future of DC comics.
And hey, Starfire finally looks like a book you could hand someone without feeling super ashamed about it.
Art by Amanda Conner
