My Thoughts On DC Books Getting Cancelled In March

So, with the solicitations for DC in March out for all to see, a few cancellations have been made official, one of which I already talked about, one I knew about and didn’t mention on here, and one I just found out about and is making me rather sad. So, let’s go through all three and what my thoughts are on them.

Animal Man

Not TOO depressed about this one. Why? Well, for starters, I never read it, but I have seen bits and pieces, and I can say that while Animal Man isn’t my own personal cup of tea, I can see how a LOT of people would love the crap outta it. The other reason is that the writer, Jeff Lemire, is gonna be writing adding Animal Man to the roster of one of the Justice Leagues, likely either Justice League Dark or Justice League of Canada. Either one works, honestly. My only concern the ending of the Animal Man book, the status of the Baker family by the end of it, and if they will be appearing in the League book he’ll be in.

Batman: The Dark Knight

THANK FRAKKING GOODNESS, this book is getting cancelled! If I may be allowed to adapt a quote of Roger Ebert‘s, when he was talking about the movie North, I hated Batman: The Dark Knight. Hated, hated, hated, HATED that book. HATED it. Hated every single stupid, intelligence-insulting moment of it. And it’s gonna survive until #29, not counting the #0 issue or the Villains Month issues. The ONLY reason this book made it this far, and I know this, because I WAS one of the people who bought it for a while, is the title (because The Dark Knight was still hot), and the fact that Batman was the main protagonist. If you put anyone else in these scenarios and storylines, wouldn’t have ever made it past the first arc. And the fact that writers are very generously trying to make something out of the random, idiotic stuff that happened in it, I don’t know why they bother trying, but kudos to them. In fact, memo to me, come March or April, do something that carefully analyses the idiocy of this book.

Talon

Sadly, this book, not okay with it being cancelled. Going into Talon, I was initially concerned that this was gonna be a waste of time, and on the very first issue, I knew this was gonna be awesome, and it has been. Calvin Rose has been awesome, Casey Washington has been quite possibly one of the best new characters of the New 52, the story has been a great follow-up to the Court of Owls/Night of the Owls arcs of the main Batman series by Scott Snyder, and my only hope is that these characters continue to hang around. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they become regulars in the upcoming Batman Eternal weekly series. I’d LOVE it if Casey became the next Oracle type of character.

So, guess that’s one book I’ll be forced to drop. However, I’ve decided to stick with Talon until the last issue. Regardless of what happens, how it ends, and who stays or goes, I’ve stuck with it since the beginning, so I feel the need to stay with it until the end. I owe it to these characters, and I owe it to James Tynion and Scott Snyder. Still, I guess that helps me with my decision regarding what to drop for the new books in the new year, which you can still vote on, btw.

So, what are your thoughts on all of this? Comment below, and we’ll see how these books conclude in March. Ja né!

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• Lemire’s Animal Man series to end in March 2014 (comicsrefueled.wordpress.com)
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• ‘Talon’ added to list of titles ending in March (comicsrefueled.wordpress.com)

 

New Year + New Comics – Money = Having To Drop Current Titles

So, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m planning to pick up the new Black Widow, Ms. Marvel, and She-Hulk books when they come out. In addition, I’m honestly kind of enticed into at least checking out an arc of Iron Man‘s coming up soon where Malekith, the main villain from Thor: The Dark World, plans to find the Mandarin’s rings to gain even more power. However, since money’s gonna be a little on the tight side for reasons I don’t wanna get into, that means dropping some titles to make room for the new ones. So, let’s go through the books I regularly buy these days to get a better idea as to which stays and which goes.

Batman

Hell no, I ain’t dropping this book! This is the best frigging book DC puts out every month! Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have been putting out one of the best runs of Batman in years, and I’ve been loving the crap outta this book since day one that I’ve been buying it, and I honestly don’t see that changing any time soon. Batman STAYS.

Superman Unchained

Again, the best Superman book of the New 52, though largely because it still feels like the pre-Flashpoint Superman. Y’know, the far better one. lol Not planning to drop this one, but depending on how long it winds up lasting, I may not have a choice. For now, however, Superman Unchained STAYS.

Nightwing

Nightwing has been great, especially since the move to Chicago (although I still don’t understand why there and not a New 52 Blüdhaven, but whatever). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Nightwing has kinda been reminding me of Spider-man before Marvel ruined Spider-man. Now, depending on the ending and fall-out of Forever Evil, I MIGHT be dropping this book, or it might even be getting cancelled. We’ll just have to see what happens.

Supergirl

As great as Supergirl’s been, I’m thinking I might have to drop it, on account of a change coming up where Supergirl is going to be joining the Red Lanterns. Mind you, that all depends on whether or not this decision turns out to be permanent. If so, dropping. If not, we’ll see. Either way, though, I think I’m gonna skip the next arc involving Lobo, just because it doesn’t look terribly interesting and it’ll free up some cash.

Batgirl

Yep, I am coming back to Gail Simone‘s Batgirl, as was always my intent once Batgirl: Wanted was over. I won’t be picking up the next issue, since it’s a tie-in to an event I’m not gonna be following, but after that, apparently Batgirl’s gonna be teaming up with Strix, so that should prove interesting. So yeah, gonna say with some confidence that Batgirl STAYS.

Batman/Superman

Batman/Superman has been a lot of fun, albeit pretty different, and I do plan to get the trade for issues 1-4 when it comes out, perhaps for my birthday, but I don’t really plan to follow the crossover with Worlds’ Finest, so I guess whether I continue to pick it up after that will depend on what comes afterwards. Still, I give props where props is due to Greg Pak for making this a fun series, which is what a team-up book for Superman and Batman should be. Now if you could talk DC into bringing back the old Superman/Batman logo for it, that’d be great. I don’t care which hero gets top billing, just bring back the logo. lol

Talon

James Tynion’s Talon’s been AMAZING, but it’s also changing writers and gonna be going in a new direction, so I gotta wait to see how that goes before making a decision. If it remains as great as it’s been, and we get to see Calvin Rose and Casey Washington continue to be awesome, definitely gonna continue to pick Talon up.

X-Men

Brian Wood’s X-Men continues to be fun and engaging, which is good since it’s the only mainstream all-women team right now with Fearless Defenders being cancelled and Birds of Prey having Condor, AKA That Guy No One Cares About. And I know, the Birds have had a dude on the team before in the form of Hawk, but that was only ‘cuz Dove was on the team and it’s always best to keep Hawk and Dove together. Sadly, it had a little bit of a shake-up with its roster due to Remender deciding to kill off Rogue in Uncanny Avengers and Kitty deciding to go hang out with Cyclops of all people, but the current line-up works too, so I’m probably gonna keep with it.

The Movement

The Movement…Yeah, I’m sadly done with this one. Not Gail Simone’s best work, as I feel the overall storytelling and character arcs are kinda messed up, but the characters themselves are alright, and I hope that the book improves and gets new readers. Maybe I’ll pick it back up someday if that happens.

Red Sonja

On the other hand, Gail Simone’s Red Sonja is definitely sticking around on my pull list. This is Gail at her best, when the people above her basically just let her do whatever she wants, and it’s FANTASTIC. XD So yeah, Red Sonja STAYS.

Batman and Robin

And finally, Batman and Robin, or rather, Batman and Whoever these days. Look, I’m gonna be honest, I like Peter Tomasi‘s writing a lot, but at this point, if we don’t get a new Robin soon, this book is going to suffer a LOT. Why? Three words: Lack of direction. It feels like Tomasi is having to stall for the moment that either Damian comes back or someone takes his place. Batman and Two-Face has been alright, but if this continues for much longer, I may need to seriously consider dropping this book.

So, of the books I just listed, four are staying for certain and one is getting dropped. That leaves Nightwing, Batman/Superman, Supergirl, X-Men, Batman and _____, and Talon. Which of these books do you think deserve to stick around, and which do you think should be banished from What I Bought Today? Lemme know in the comments, and/or vote below which of the six you think is the best, and we’ll see what happens in the new year. Ja né!

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What I Bought Today – Talon #2, Batman Incorporated #5 (Warning – Spoilers)

Well, despite some kinda suckiness that occurred last night, I present to you what I bought today, and as always, I warn that there are spoilers here. On a side note, I would just like to ask, does anyone else giggle when they see the word “Spoilers” in anything related to DC? Maybe it’s just me, but whatev, let’s take a look at Talon #2.

And suddenly I’m getting Aerith flashbacks.

This comic remains awesome. James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder deliver again with a great story that shows Calvin Rose being awesome, we learn more about Sebastian Clark and why he hates the Court of Owls as much as he does, we also see Calvin’s more sympathetic side as he tries to reach his hand out to help an enemy who has resigned themselves to death, and at the end we see that the Court has unleashed a new, more dangerous agent to counter the threat of Calvin Rose. It’s a great story, but there is something I kind of have to pick on that sort of irritated me a slight amount: So Calvin Rose feels his number one priority is to protect the woman and her child he refused to kill and left the Court over, and remove all records of their ‘sentencing’, and that taking down the Court once and for all takes a back seat to that. We can argue whether he’s right or wrong in that philosophy, but I think what would help with understanding that mindset of his is if we saw a little bit more of their interaction. We haven’t seen any of that save for when they first met. That’s it! But it’s not too much an issue, since the ending of this comic seems to suggest we’ll be seeing them soon.

Also, continuing with my own pet peeve regarding comic books, cover’s kind of a lie since Calvin never actually enters the Tomb of he Unworthy, though we do see it.

My only other issue is that Guillem March was absent for this one, replaced by Juan Jose Ryp. I was kind of confused about that when I found out a couple of days ago, so I contacted Mr. Tynion on Twitter, asking why the change in artists, to which he replied back…

And I quote…

“This was planned right from the start, Guillem is still the main artist on the series, just has a couple breaks built into the year.” So apparently Guillem March is still onboard with Talon, which is good. In the meantime, while I prefer his work, Ryp’s is still fine.

The only way this image could be more awesome is if Damian just shouted “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!!”

Batman Incorporated #5, once again Grant Morrison delivers with this story. Now, I’m just gonna say this, I have not read Batman #666. I HAVE read about it, though, so I get the general jist of what happened. Bruce apparently saw a vision of it when he returned from his trip through time, and he tells Damian about what happens and why he has to leave his father’s side. Apparently it all falls into Talia‘s plans, in that she purposely planted Damian in Gotham to become Robin and eventually replace Bruce as Batman. We also see that apparently making a deal with the devil for Gotham’s protection, and also to become seemingly invulnerable, kind of has its loopholes, as Gotham City degenerates to such a point that the President has no choice but to order a nuclear strike on the city, as advised to him by, you guessed it, THE DEVIL. So yeah, Peter Parker might wanna take note, making deals with the devil can come back to bite ya!

Aside from that, we get some good bits like the return of wheelchair Barbara Gordon in the future, Damian telling his father that the future isn’t set in stone and that, above all else, he doesn’t want to leave his father. And then at the very end we see the Batmen of all Nations being caught in a trap as a building explodes, leading into the next issue that I now have to wait a month for…Grant Morrison, you can be kind of mean with these cliffhangers. lol

He even kinda looks like the trollface here, doesn’t he? lol

Well anyway, that’s all for this week’s comics. Next week, we return to Earth-2, find out what Huntress and Robin are up to, and figure out just what in the flippity-floppity fuck is up with Ivy and Clayface being MARRIED. Ja né!