teen titans
DC relaunch scorecard: DCnU or DC No?
Green Lantern #1, by Dave Johnson
Although it seems like DC’s big relaunch announcement came out an eternity ago, it actually took the publisher less than two weeks to roll out the 52 titles and their creative teams for the big relaunch/reboot/overhaul coming in September. Now that the cats are out of their respective bags, I thought I’d see where various creators and characters will land after the reboot.
So I went back through DC’s August solicitations to see who was writing or drawing what, and tried to map everyone to their post-relaunch project — if they had one. However, looking at DC’s August solicitations, there seem to be several fill-in issues, so where appropriate I tried to map the most recent ongoing creative teams to their new projects (for instance, I consider Gail Simone and Jesus Saiz the regular creative team for Birds of Prey, even if they aren’t doing the last two issues before September hits). Keep in mind that I just went through the ongoing series and skipped over all the miniseries … of which there are a lot, what with Flashpoint winding up in August.
It’s also worth noting that although several creators didn’t appear in the “big 52″ announcements, that doesn’t mean their tenure with DC is necessarily over — some, like Frazer Irving, have said they have future projects that haven’t been announced. So I tried to note where creators have talked publicly about their post-relaunch plans with DC (or lack thereof, as the case may be). The same could probably be said for some of DC’s characters as well. Or, as Gail Simone said on Twitter: “Again, September is NOT THE END. There’s still plans for characters that we haven’t seen yet.”
So let’s get to it ….
- June 12, 2011 @ 04:14 AM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Surprise me: DC Comics Solicitations for August 2011
Featuring the classic Blizzard vs. Polar Bear battle!
One tagline for the big alien-invasion movie Independence Day cautioned, “Don’t make plans for August.” Well, perhaps the biggest news coming out of DC’s August solicitations is the pervasive sense of foreboding they have about September. Rich Johnston maintains that a whole crop of new No. 1 issues is on tap for the fall, but there are no “FINAL ISSUE!” blurbs to be found on any of the current ongoing series.
While that doesn’t rule out a line-wide relaunch, the solicits also seem to say that readers won’t have to worry about a line-wide reboot. As noted in this space a couple of weeks back, the degree of change will probably be different for different titles. Nevertheless, now that we have a better idea of how August will look, let’s see what it says about September….
- May 19, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Lincoln’s log: lessons from Legacies
DC Universe: Legacies #3 -- the JLA by Garcia-Lopez and Gibbons
There’s a weird little sequence in the middle of DC Universe: Legacies #3 when the narration’s timeline goes all hazy and oblique, in order to move the story from sometime in the Eisenhower/Kennedy years right into the “X years ago” of modern continuity. Because Legacies tracks some sixty-five years of costumed crimefighting, this sequence bridges the gap between the Justice Society’s retirement and Superman’s debut.
“Hazy and oblique” are also good words for describing DC’s approach to long-term continuity. The history of the DC Universe is well-settled up to the early 1950s, but past then it becomes elastic. This is something we’ve come to expect: fudging the calendar keeps our heroes both as experienced and as youthful as they need to be. However, each passing year also widens the gap between the end of the Golden Age (early ‘50s) and the beginning of the Silver (thought to be 12-15 years ago). Through reader-identification character Paul Lincoln,* DCUL’s writer (and longtime DC favorite) Len Wein aims to put a human face on all those four-color adventures.
That sounds like the premise of 1994′s Marvels and its spiritual descendant Astro City. Really, though, any halfway-entertaining super-survey needs a narrator with a recognizable point of view. Even 1986′s History of the DC Universe, which was basically a series of George Pérez pinups arranged in chronological order, took its florid prose ostensibly from Harbinger’s meditations on the nature of heroism.
- April 7, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Into the hundred-issue woods
Green Lantern vol. 2 #100
News of The Flash’s cancellation has led to speculation that the title, whenever it returns, will pick up its original numbering. Considering that Wonder Woman was renumbered last year to reflect the accumulation of all its various incarnations, and Adventure Comics resumed its original numbering as well, Flash might not be the last title DC renumbers.
Today I’ll look at Flash and several other DC titles which could get this treatment in the next several years.
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First, though, let’s consider Wonder Woman. Last year, the 45th issue of WW Vol. 3 was dubbed issue #600, thereby implicitly treating the current series and its predecessor as direct continuations of the original 1942 series. The math was pretty straightforward: Vol. 1 went to issue #329, and vol. 2 went to #226, so that left the 600th issue to vol. 3′s 45th. (329+226+45 = 600.) Volume 2 did have two irregularly-numbered issues, #0 (part of 1994′s “Zero Month,” which the rest of us called August), and #1,000,000 (for DC One Million, naturally).
- March 31, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Talking Comics with Tim | Nicola Scott
Teen Titans 93
For longtime comic readers like myself, there’s nothing quite like when a team book introduces a new character to the mix. This Wednesday, artist Nicola Scott gets to bring Solstice, a character she designed, into the Teen Titans mix with the release of Teen Titans 93. In addition to discussing Solstice, Scott notes the shift in tone/sense of fun that series writer J.T. Krul has brought to the series; how she considers herself a character-driven artist; as well as the lessons learned from collaborating with the likes of writer Gail Simone/dealing in subtext (among other topics). At the end of the interview, she invites fans to suggest characters we’d like to see her draw in the future–be sure to chime in with your ideas in the comments section.
Tim O’Shea: Over at the Source, you expressed part of what appealed to working with J.T. Krul on Teen Titans. ” Character, tone, direction. He has blown me away.” What is it about Krul’s approach to character and tone that appealed to you?
Nicola Scott: Over the last couple of years the tone of the book seemed to have become quite dark, and seemed to be missing youthful energy and a sense of fun. The characters weren’t quite connecting in the way DC hoped for them to. Straight off the bat JT had them feel exactly like their regular selves. The comradery had returned too and that’s such an important ingredient with the Teen Titans. The script for the first issue was fun, a great recap of the characters and who they are to each other. There were some gags and some drama and it felt like young people with huge responsibility. Another ingredient that I think was important, was bringing it back to the core members. A couple of new additions is fine but when most of the cast is unrecognizable to outside readers, it’s hard to grow the audience.
- March 28, 2011 @ 03:06 PM by Tim O'Shea
Grumpy Old Fan | Going on about ongoing series, Part 3
Jonah Hex, stability's poster boy?
The first two parts of this little exploration looked at DC’s attempts to launch ongoing series in the ‘80s and ‘90s, when line-wide events became regular occurrences in the superhero line. However, as those surveys made abundantly clear, said events didn’t seem to relate much either to concurrently-launched ongoing series or to the relative success of said series.
Instead, the number of new ongoing series debuting in a particular calendar year looks somewhat cyclical. There were five new ongoings in 1985 (the year of Crisis On Infinite Earths), up to 14 in 1988 and 17 in 1992, then easing down to 15 in 1994, 13 in 1996, and 10 in 1997. In 1998 and 2000, DC launched only four new ongoing series; in 1999, six; and in 2001, seven. At the risk of exciting you too quickly with more numbers, a later year will have sixteen.
For now, though, we pick up in 2002, at the beginning of a quieter time.
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Continue Reading »
- March 24, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Compare and contrast: Sean McKeever on editorial mandates
J.L. Bell, who knows a lot more about this topic than me, has a great post about Sean McKeever’s varying accounts of writing DC’s Teen Titans. McKeever was responsible for scripting the comic, but the plot was dictated by editors, who have control over continuity. Here’s McKeever talking to Newsarama about writing Teen Titans in 2008, when he was still on the title:
I know people throw around the term “editorial mandate” like it’s some great horror, but I was actually really grateful for everything they had in place for me. Titans [of] Tomorrow was a story that I really wanted to revisit, and it was also really nice to have a premise thrown at me that I could dive into, so that while I was working on that, I could think a little more on my long-term plans for the book.
Here’s McKeever talking to Titans Tower earlier this month, after leaving DC for Marvel, about co-writing the Deathtrap crossover with Marv Wolfman following Judd Winick’s departure from the companion Titans series:
- January 17, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Mark Sable on Teen Titans: Cold Case and his dad
Teen Titans: Cold Case
This week saw the release of Teen Titans: Cold Case, written by Mark Sable (Unthinkable) and drawn by Sean Murphy. Originally titled “Father’s Day,” Sable details the book’s long road to getting published, as well as what the book means for him personally after his dad passed away earlier this year. I’d pull a quote from it, but really, you just need to go read the whole thing.
- December 23, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Morrison, Finch, Cornell, Paquette, Snyder, Daniel, Tomasi, Gleason, Scott…Larroca?: A Batman news round-up
Batman and Batman and Robin by Frank Quitely
Not since Bane broke all the lunatics out of Arkham Asylum has Batman had this eventful a week. Perhaps to avoid the avalanche of news coming out of San Diego next week, DC has spent the past few days announcing a slew of new Batman projects and creative teams. And heck, even Marvel got in on the act, sorta…
- July 15, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Grumpy Old Fan | Hot comics for cooler days: DC Comics Solicitations for September 2010
The Return Of Bruce Wayne #6
Here in Memphis, the heat index has been over 100 degrees for the better part of a week, and it’s not likely to let up anytime soon. If it’s this hot during the last week of spring, I can’t imagine what summer will feel like.
September seems very far away indeed.
And yet, it’s that time again, when we look ahead two-and-a-half months and try to figure out what will still hold our interest when summer ends, football starts, and the days grow ever shorter. Maybe by then it’ll only be in the 80s.
BRIGHTEST DAY
I’m probably not the first person to suggest this, but why not have a group of white supremacists, skinheads, etc., gather expectantly (if misguidedly) around the unfortunately-named White Power Battery, so that they might subsequently receive an appropriate beatdown? That would let Geoff Johns and Peter Tomasi distinguish between the mission of the white-light Lantern — white light being a mix of all the spectrum’s colors — and our society’s odious “white power” ideology.
- June 17, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Tom Bondurant
Quotes of the day | Tom Brevoort vs. the Titans franchise
from Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #3
“On sale today: HAWKEYE & MOCKINGBIRD #1. Guaranteed to have 100% less heroin use and impotence than the average comic starring an archer.” —Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, implicitly comparing H&M #1 to DC’s much-maligned Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal, on his Twitter account last week.
“On sale tomorrow: YOUNG ALLIES #1 by Sean McKeever and David Baldeon. It’s like what you wanted Sean’s TEEN TITANS run to be!” —Brevoort, contrasting McKeever’s new teen-team title with his creative-differences-marred previous teen-team title, on Twitter this week.
(Lest you think he’s saving all his DC disapproval for Titans-related books, he’s also unhappy with the length of Batman #700, but I wanted to stick with the theme)
- June 10, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Grumpy Old Fan | Titans, go … away?
The New Teen Titans #39
Thinking about the idea of “definitive” runs (touched on last week) brings me back to one of DC’s seminal creative teams. Of course, for fortyish DC fans like me, that team could only be Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, whose New Teen Titans helped DC straddle the line between Silver Age homage and Marvel-style soap opera.
When NTT premiered in the summer of 1980, the DC superhero line looked pretty static: Cary Bates and Curt Swan on Action Comics, Gerry Conway writing Justice League, Irv Novick drawing Batman, Don Heck drawing Flash. Not that these were talentless hacks churning out pulp dreck — far from it — but Marvel had Frank Miller, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Wolfman and Pérez themselves. Teen Titans was a twice-cancelled title, yadda yadda yadda, naturally it changed the course of DC’s history.*
It sounds redundant to call Wolfman and Pérez’s four-year collaboration “definitive” — how could it have been otherwise? — so I won’t dwell on that too much. Instead, for now let’s say it was a singular collaboration, with a beginning, middle, and end. Many of the book’s long-term story arcs began as character-based subplots, and many of those were on display in issue #1. Besides the issue’s main plot (Starfire escaping the Gordanians), Robin is snippy to Batman, Wonder Girl reminisces at the site of the abandoned building where she was rescued as an infant, Kid Flash has to be coaxed back into superheroics, and Cyborg hates his half-human existence.
- June 3, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Grumpy Old Fan | Today, DC stands for “dance card”
Strange Sports Stories #4
Every March, college basketball fans carefully study the NCAA brackets to see which teams have the best chance of making the Final Four. Every year, certain teams seem like locks, and this year won’t be much different. The high seeds will include perennial powerhouses like Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse, and Duke on the men’s side; and Connecticut and Tennessee on the women’s. The lowest seeds are, inevitably, those teams who are satisfied just to be included (fingers crossed for William & Mary — they’re so close!). That leaves the vast middle populated by a number of familiar names: Old Dominion, Winthrop, San Diego State, Siena, et al. You’re never surprised to see them, but they don’t make it every year. However, every now and then one of these teams becomes more of a fixture; and nowadays fans would probably be surprised if Gonzaga or Butler failed to make the tournament.
Naturally, comparing DC’s superhero line to the field of 65 isn’t especially precise; but there is the notion that a title or character can shake off that Cinderella status and become a perennial player in the Big Dance. DC has been working pretty steadily towards making its characters more “familiar” to the general public, and to a certain extent that means putting familiar favorites in its lineup. With that in mind, let’s examine the staying power of some venerable DC books and separate some pretenders from contenders.
- March 11, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Tom Bondurant
A sneak peek at Ted Naifeh’s art for ‘The Coven’ co-feature
Art by Ted Naifeh
The DC Universe blog provides a first look at Ted Naifeh’s art from “The Coven,” the new co-feature that will undoubtedly lead me to buy Teen Titans for the first time in a few years.
I’ve been a fan of virtually everything Naifeh’s done — Gloomcookie, How Loathesome, Courtney Crumrin, Polly and the Pirates, Death Jr., The Good Neighbors — so I’m undeniably biased. Add to that a fondness for mystical characters in general, and Traci Thirteen and Zachary Zatara in particular, and I really have little choice but to pick up May’s Teen Titans #83.
At The Source, Editor Rachel Gluckstern chats briefly with Naifeh and writer Rex Ogle, who provide even more reason for giving the back-up series a try.
“… I love Traci 13 and Black Alice,” Ogle says. “Each is so intensely unique and powerful, and hello, witches! Both ladies and Zach Zatara have all this potential for great stories, but they’ve taken a backseat because I think it’s hard to write about magic. You want to say, ‘Aww, man, look, she’s a witch, so she can do anything,’ but what I want to do is teach these kids about what it means to play with the fabric of the universe. When it comes to magic, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
- March 11, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Ted Naifeh summoning the Coven in Teen Titans
Teen Titans #83
Somehow I missed the announcement in DC Comics’ solicitations for May that Ted Naifeh, creator of Courtney Crumrin and Polly and the Pirates, is drawing the new co-feature that debuts in Teen Titans #83.
The news may provide a bit of context for the Batman sample pages and character sketches Naifeh recently posted on his website. (A multi-part backup story seems like the perfect way to test the waters.)
The co-feature, which I think replaces the Ravager story — sorry, I haven’t read the title for quite a while — stars the Coven: Black Alice, a goth teen who can temporarily borrow the mystical powers of others; Traci Thirteen, the daughter of paranormal investigator Doctor Thirteen who can tap into the magic of cities; and Zachary Zatara, the cousin of Zatanna who can manipulate magic by speaking backward. Rex Ogle is writing the story.
On his blog, Naifeh told fans this doesn’t mean he’s forsaking independent comics.
“For those of you worried that I’m going to be swallowed up by the DC machine,” he wrote, “rest assured that I will remain predominately an indy artist, devoted to my personal projects. But a guy has to pay the bills somehow. And frankly, I’m not above taking a few mainstream fans with me to the dark side.”
- March 5, 2010 @ 06:53 AM by Kevin Melrose