DC November Solicits

 

 The November solicits for DC Comics gave out last week and it increased my concerns over the future of my favorite characters and comics. Here is a link to Newsarama's coverage: https://www.gamesradar.com/dc-november-2020-solicitations/

 DC has recently gone through a purging, with editors fired and staff let go. Jim Lee has come out and said 'DC Comics is still in the business of making comics' ... and he said it unironically. Lee also said the focus is going to be on digital comics. He expects 20-25% fewer DC titles on the rack in the future.

And this new reality is shown to be right around the corner in these solicits. There are a number of cancellations in these solicits including Hawkman, Hellblazer, Suicide Squad and a book I cover here.

To make things worse, at least for me, there is just a glut of those Death Metal books here. I am completely uninterested in that.

On to the books.

ACTION COMICS #1027

written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
art and cover by JOHN ROMITA JR. and KLAUS JANSON
card stock variant cover by GARY FRANK

Is Superman on the ropes? An epic battle rages across the skies of Metropolis! The House of Kent, Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes’ Brainiac 5, and Young Justice’s Conner Kent all unite to face an enemy from another dimension unleashed by the Invisible Mafia! This kind of power can lay waste to an entire family of super-people!
All of this plus the future of the Daily Planet revealed! Another epic Superman story for the ages by the team of Bendis, Romita Jr., and Janson!

Now we're talking. Superman and Supergirl and the Legion coming together in battle! And an extra-dimensional villain? Will it be Blaze given Red Cloud's demonic look?

I am ready for this! Supergirl acting as a hero!

SUPERMAN #27
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
art and cover by IVAN REIS and DANNY MIKI
variant cover by TONY S. DANIEL and DANNY MIKI

A cosmic-level threat has come to Metropolis! Synmar has traveled across the galaxy to unleash hell on Superman—and our hero must learn that this creature is so alien that he will have to reinvent how he’s going to fight! To that end, Superman goes to the source to learn where this new nemesis came from, only to find himself in a corner of the galaxy he’s never seen before, way off the map—and he may find the return journey even harder than getting there in the first place! Featuring an appearance by the Justice League and a new foe unlike anything the Man of Steel has ever faced, this epic slugfest is brought to you by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Ivan Reis and Danny Miki!

I guess I will need to read this story before I judge. But I wish we would get more stories with the established Superman rogue's gallery than the creation of another huge baddie. Rogol Zaar? Apex Lex? Xanadoth? Synmar? 

I'd love to see Prankster, Mxyzptlk, Parasite ...

BATMAN/SUPERMAN #14
written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
art by MAX RAYNOR
cover by DAVID MARQUEZ
variant cover by BRYAN HITCH

NEW VILLAIN ALERT: THE COMPOSITE BATMAN/SUPERMAN! Enter the Composite Batman/Superman! The Dark Knight and the Man of Steel are trapped inside the Brainiac protocol’s deadly moon base, and this psychotic A.I. will not stop until it has merged with the beings it believes are its creators! And merging is exactly what our heroes are doing, as the deadly new fusion of the World’s Finest duo emerges to wreak havoc in the name of Brainiac! Can Steel and Batwoman turn the tide and save their friends?

The Composite Batman/Superman is one of the most ridiculous villains in DC's history. So I actually want to see what Joshua Williamson does to update or rethink him. 

And Steel and Batwoman also in here as a sort of variant World's Finest is great! I miss Steel!

LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #11
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS
art by RYAN SOOK and
WADE VON GRAWBADGER
Cover by RYAN SOOK
variant cover by NICOLA SCOTT

For a thousand years, the planet Krypton has been rebuilding itself, and the House of Zod has kept the legacy of Krypton alive throughout the galaxy. For a thousand years, the capital city of Kandor—home of the hero known as Mon-El—has been a beacon of hope across the universe. But now the shocking news that Superboy has come to live in the 31st century with the Legion of Super-Heroes has awoken Krypton’s greatest foe! How can the Legion of Super-Heroes stop the destruction of New Krypton? Plus, delve into the mystery behind Gold Lantern!

I have loved this new Legion and this solicit really grabs my attention. We know in the present Zod is trying to bring about a New Krypton. So to see that he succeeds in the future is a nice wrinkle. I can't wait to see it.

We have seen Mon-El not be too happy with Jon Kent. I wonder if New Krypton being established by Zod has made the El name historic villains rather than the otherwise heroes they are felt like.  Maybe Mon-El is angry or embarrassed about his 'villainous' ancestor.

I am so happy this book has survived the purge ... at least for now.

YOUNG JUSTICE #20
written by BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS and DAVID F. WALKER
art by SCOTT GODLEWSKI
cover by JOHN TIMMS
FINAL ISSUE

For the first time in months, the entire Young Justice team comes together to face a threat bigger than anything they’ve faced before. Just as the team has come to grips with their fractured legacy, someone from Young Justice’s past has come back to murder them! Guest-starring the Wonder Twins, Dial H for Hero, and Naomi—plus some other Wonder Comics surprises too hot to mention here! Don’t miss this final issue from the Eisner Award-nominated co-writers of Naomi!

Final issue.

Another of the books that I have loved has been Young Justice and it has been canceled. 

The book has meandered a bit around the mystery of how/where/when these heroes were during their disappearance. But I have loved the ride and I thought I had the time to let this book breathe and have things slowly unfold.

But nope. 

Young Justice is canceled. 

Nothing gold can stay.

DARK NIGHTS: DEATH METAL THE MULTIVERSE WHO LAUGHS #1
written by AMANDA CONNER, PATTON OSWALT, JIMMY PALMIOTTI, SCOTT SNYDER, BRANDON THOMAS, JAMES TYNION IV, and JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
art by CHAD HARDIN and others
cover by CHRIS BURNHAM

The DC Multiverse is a collection of alternate-reality worlds where anything is possible. Each world tells the tale of a possible split in reality, or shows how lives vary depending on a single, solitary decision. But now that the Multiverse has been destroyed, the Batman Who Laughs has used his god like power to create a new Dark Multiverse…a collection of 52 evil worlds, each more terrifying than the last. This one-shot offers the curious—and the brave—a glimpse into the nightmare realities that the Batman Who Laughs has created in tales by creators who know what it means to have a truly twisted sense of misfit humor. An Arkham Asylum even more terrifying than what we know? A world of evil Super Pets? All that and more in these new tales of the Multiverse Who Laughs!

And in the same month that so many books are canceled and some brightness like Young Justice is extinguished, we get this book.

An undead Streaky with a bloody maw.

Maybe this is why DC is struggling.