Broken Frontier

Hello, everybody! I’m William Gatevackes. Let’s take a look at the comics coming your way tomorrow, March 1st.

This week, the long awaited One Year Later event begins. Using the Infinite Crisis series as a spark, DC hits the fast forward button on all their mainstream titles.

DC is hoping that this will be an enticement for new readers, the logic being that the longtime fans will be in the same boat as newcomers for once. Both will be joining the story late, missing out on a lot of what has come before.

This policy of causing confusion to gain readers might not be the best way to go. It’s the overwhelming crush of the years of continuity that make comics inaccessible to new readers, not the fact that they feel left out. Jumping the storylines ahead one year would only serve to exacerbate the situation.

However, as a long time reader, I am excited by the event. Certain books excite me more than others, but I am interested in exactly how the status quo of all these titles will be affected. And I stand in awe of all the coordination it must have taken to make this all happen. All of the creators working at DC have had to make sure their stories don’t conflict with each other, had to show a world that exists post-Infinite Crisis without revealing the ending of that series, and had to write entertaining stories different from what has come before. This is not an easy task.

This effort might be hampered by late books. The Previews catalog stated that two of the most anticipated One Year Later revamps, Detective Comics #817 and Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #40, would be coming out this week. The DC Comics website says the same thing. However, these titles are nowhere to be found on the shipping list for March 1st on the Diamond website (the list I use to help write this column). So it looks like these titles will be at least a week late.

[Editor's Note: Both books have reappeared on Diamond's shipping list as of 02-28-06 with no explanation as to why they had previously disappeared from the list.]

Both of these titles have received a lot of press leading up to this event, and the excitement level, at least for this columnist, is high. Having them both delayed gets the event off to a bad start. It sends the message to fans that they might expect more of this lateness in the future, which is not a good way to get and keep new readers.

     

Throughout this month, I will be trying to cover each and every One Year Later book in the column. I might not have much to say about each book, and what I have to say might revolve around rumors of where the title is going, but I will try to cover each book as it comes out.

Outsiders #34 starts its One Year Later storyline with the team not existing. That is, not existing unless they are coming after you. This seems to be a return to the original motivation of the team, as it appeared in Outsiders #1. Then, the team was supposed to be a more proactive group, finding the bad guys beforehand instead of reacting to the chaos they cause. I thought this was an original concept, but one that wasn’t really followed through in the series.

The team centers around Nightwing, a character who, if you believe what DC has hinted at so far, will not be Dick Grayson. Rumors have Dick Grayson either dying or becoming Batman and the identity of Nightwing being taken over by Jason Todd.

I would hope that DC will not be going with the first route, killing off a character that has been around in one form or another for 66 years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they did. It would get DC a lot of publicity, perhaps even from the mainstream media. Whether it would get them more readers or not is unknown, but as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

     

I am also interested in seeing what secrets JSA #83 entails. The Golden Age, or Earth-2, characters play heavily in the plot of Infinite Crisis. Without spoiling anything for those who haven’t been following the series, I want to see how recent events in Infinite Crisis play out one year later.

The last One Year Later book is Blood of the Demon #13. This one seems to have the least amount of change, with only a second version of the main character added to the title. I don’t follow the book, even though it has received good reviews, but nothing in the OYL solicitations makes me want to pick it up.

Jonah Hex #5 isn’t part of the whole One Year Later event, probably because it takes place about one hundred and thirty years before, but it has been one of the better books on the market that you may have missed.

Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray are one of the most underrated writing teams in comics today. Their work on Monolith and Hawkman has been very solid.  And their writing on Jonah Hex is also good. Together with artist Luke Ross, they have created a comic that consistently entertains.

The series so far has focused on stories that are completed in one issue, which means that it is easy for new readers to jump on board. Each issue reads like it was an episode of a really good TV western. If the OYL books don’t excite you, perhaps you could give Jonah Hex a try.

And if you haven’t climbed on the Marvel Zombies bandwagon yet, you still have two issues to do so. Issue 4 comes out tomorrow, and features one of the grossest - yet, in my opinion, funniest - covers to date.

The series focuses on a universe where all the Marvel characters have become zombies, due to exposure to a virus from outer space. It deals with the characters’ search for food on an Earth they have pretty much picked clean.  Written by Robert Kirkman with art by Sean Phillips, it is a horror book with a sick sense of humor throughout. This might not be your cup of tea, but if you like a good story and can stomach the gore, this might be a good pick up for you.

     

And if OYL has sent you screaming away from any Marvel or DC book, but you still want to read about superheroes, you might want to try Speakeasy’s The Black Coat: A Call to Arms limited series, with the first issue expected to hit tomorrow. It takes place during the Revolutionary War, and tells the tale of a masked American spy known as “The Black Coat”.

While not the first comic book to feature stories set in the Revolutionary War (DC’s Tomahawk book from the 1950’s was set in that time period as well), it might be the only one currently being published. In these days where you try anything to get readership, a historical comic is a unique way to go. It should be interesting to see if this gambit is successful and leads to more titles like it.

[EDITOR'S NOTE : The following statement was released 02-27-06 by Vito Delsante: "As unofficial public relations for Speakeasy Comics, I feel it is my duty to inform everyone that as of 3:30 PM today, Speakeasy Comics has shut its doors and will not be publishing comics for, at the very least, the rest of the year. Most, if not all, creators have been contacted and informed. If I'm not mistaken, all books scheduled to ship in March will ship. April and May books are up in the air, while June books are cancelled."]

Finally, Marvel is starting a month-long New Universe event with Untold Tales of the New Universe: Star Brand. This will set the way for a new book written by Warren Ellis in the future.

The New Universe was a series of books created 20 years ago as part of the 25th Anniversary of the Marvel imprint. These books told the stories of newly created superheroes in a separate universe from the traditional Marvel one.

The entire line only lasted about three years, but the universe was revisited in the pages of Quasar and the Exiles. Now, in an age when nostalgia reigns supreme, the New Universe is getting a new lease on life.

While some of the characters and concepts were interesting, others were flat out goofy (yes, Kickers, Inc., I’m talking to you). The more I read the work of Warren Ellis, the more I respect him, so I can only imagine what he’ll do with this universe. But chances are, it could end up being very good.

That’s all I have for this week. Next week, it’s more One Year Later stuff, and I’ll squeeze in Thunderbolts #100 and Fantastic Four: First Family #1 as well. Until then, this is William Gatevackes, signing off and thanking you for visiting.