Welcome to the second day of my brief misery tour.
DC Comics' contribution to Free Comic Book Day has finally been revealed.
And I don't think I am too happy about it.
Here is the link to Newsarama's coverage:
https://www.newsarama.com/48911-dc-s-fcbd-release-generation-zero-links-wally-west-and-doctor-manhattan-and-new-timeline.html
The article delineates some of the particulars and where this story is coming from but here is a blurb of the book being done by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Brett Booth.
In order to save his children and the multiverse itself, Wally West makes the ultimate sacrifice, taking his place in the Moebius Chair. Unbeknownst to him, the chair is packing a little extra power, having been imbued with the godlike powers of Dr. Manhattan! Now armed with infinite knowledge – and the powers of a god – Wally West can see the past, present and future of the DC Universe all at once...Including what needs to be changed.
There is so much about this that makes me bristle.
Yet another event that is centered around the Batman Who Laughs, so prominent on the cover.
Another event that seems to further distort any memory of Wally West being a grounded superspeedster. Hey, if making him a delusional murdered in Heroes In Crisis wasn't enough, let's merge him with Metron and Dr. Manhattan.
The weird aftertaste of Doomsday Clock has barely left my mouth and already we have another Dr. Manhattan sighting and another scrape at the Watchmen cash cow?
But perhaps the most off-putting of this announcement was that Lobdell was writing it.
Because putting a guy whose cipherous skills peaked in the extreme 90s in charge of yet another potential universe rewriting doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. That isn't looking forward. That's looking back.
Anyways, at least there will be a Blade Runner book out for FCBD.
I've still never seen Blade Runner, would I enjoy it?
ReplyDeleteAs for the Wally business, surely this one will end with him back to basic speedster?
Do you think DC planned this before King wrote Heroes In Crisis? Or have they just stumbled into this, having no better idea for how to redeem Wally from that debacle?
ReplyDeleteI don't see this leading back to Wally as a speedster right away. I think this is more like Hal Jordan becoming Parallax and Spectre for a generation.
Three new promos for the next Synder/Capullo Metal Event are out. Some were published in last week's comics, but here's an article that shows them all:
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2020/02/11/batman-scythe-bone-motorbike-teaser-dc-metal-2-death-metal-from-scott-snyder-greg-capullo/
- Wonder Woman brandishing a chainsaw
- Superman as a longhaired half-Bizarro
- Now Batman with a scythe on a motorbike made of bones
Just wow. A bad wow. I hope these turn out to be minor players, but we could end up with the Woman who Saws or something.
Do they intend to sync this up with Wally's adventures in the Dark Multiverse? I bet it just won't.
T.N.
My understanding, and I could be wrong, is that the next Metal event takes place right after the most recent issue of Justice League, where Perpetua won and rewrote the multiverse.
ReplyDeleteScott Lobdell did write three decent issues of Fantastic Four. However, I suspect that most of the quality there was due to co-plotting input from the artist-Alan Davis. Now, there is an artist whose Supergirl I would love to see.
ReplyDeleteScott contributed to and was apparently the main architect behind the "He'l on Earth" crossover arc, whose title is or should be banned. It is spoken of in hushed tones as "the arc of which one may not speak."
ReplyDeleteThe assumption was that he, Tom DeFalco and editorial edicts were behind the story, and that Mike Johnson, writing Supergirl, did the best he could given the situation.
T.N.
I always bristle at calling Wally a murderer. The deaths he caused were accidental, and completely unintended. He's guilty of covering that up, and his actions did cause the deaths. That's bad enough ... but it's not murder.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think DC had this in mind all along. King gave DC the basic plot of Heroes in Crisis, and asked DC which characters he could use for it. DC gave him Wally, Booster, and Harley. Which I'm sure changed the specifics of what King did with them, but the basic plotline -- a hero causes accidental deaths, and tries to cover it up until he can atone for them, while other survivors go on the run -- was in place before Wally was. He was probably suggested as a way to start moving Wally to a new place. (Not that that trick ever works.)