Broken Frontier

Hello, everyone! My name is William Gatevackes, letting you know about some of the comics being released tomorrow, April 26, 2006.

Solo #10 is hitting the stands tomorrow, and marks the latest in a bold experiment by DC Comics. The series offers 48 pages each issue to showcase the work of a different artist. This week, it’s Damion Scott of Robin and Batgirl fame. Each issue features stories drawn and some times written by the artist, showing off the varying styles of the creator.

It is a unique prospect, something quite unlike anything else on the market today. There has been a diverse mix of talent employed, from comic legends such as Howard Chaykin and Richard Corben to superstars the level of Tim Sale, from respected though somewhat left-of-center creators such as Michael Allred, Darwyn Cooke and Paul Pope to relative unknowns (in the United States at least) like Teddy Kristiansen and Jordi Bernet.

Each artist is given carte blanche to create. Each issue features a mix of DC characters and original works, with stories that range from skewed looks at a superhero to political commentary to the autobiographical.

The series has the feel of an independent book, out of sorts with anything else put out by DC. The fact that the title is so unusual and hard to classify might have doomed it from the start, because the title is rumored to be cancelled after its 12th issue. 

The title was a hard sell from the get go. In this day and age, when superstar artists and big, character-changing writing rules the day, a showcase for more obscure, albeit highly talented, artists working on quaint, 3- to 11-page stories could easily get lost.

Sales expectations for Solo probably weren’t very high. DC was probably thinking that they would continue to get the numbers they got for the first issue, which featured Tim Sale and sold 30,482 copies. Unfortunately, that was the high point, and future issues never climbed above 20,000. As a matter of fact, the Bernet issue only sold 11,752 copies and the most recent, featuring the work of Scott Hampton, only sold 12,000. These numbers are deadly for any comic.

I must say that I enjoy the series immensely. It offers me a look at the work of creators I admire and exposes me to artists I might not have seen otherwise. I have yet to find a terrible story in the series, which is not something I can say about any other comic book on the market.

The title is published bi-monthly, so there might be time to save it from the chopping block. If you or someone you know have a deep appreciation for the artistic side of comics or are looking for something a bit different to spend an extra $5 on, give Solo a try. And if you like it, buy the next issue (which will feature classic MAD artist Sergio Aragonés), and encourage your friends to do so as well. Because it will be a shame if an experiment of this quality fails.

For those of you who are sick of seeing books in the column with the word “Annihilation” in front of them, you can rejoice. This week’s Annihilation: Ronan #1 will be the last I cover for a while. This is because Ronan is the last of the four mini-series that make up this part of the crossover.

It is fitting that Ronan the Accuser gets his own mini-series, especially when Super Skrull got one as well. Because Ronan represents the Kree race in the Marvel Universe and the Super Skrull, naturally, represents the Skrulls. Many legendary comic stories have sprung from the animosity between these two races, and having them both in this crossover lends an air of grandeur to it.

One of the landmark arcs of the first Avengers series was the Kree/Skrull war, a storyline which ran from Avengers 89 to 97. Featuring the work of Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, two creators in their prime, this cosmic epic was one of the definitive and most fondly remembered Avengers stories of all time.

The mention of the words “Kree” and “Skrull” harkens the long time fan’s memory back to this tale. Whether or not the two races will resume their hostilities in this crossover remains to be seen. But their inclusion in this event adds a belief that Annihilation might reach the epic scope of the original story.

Ion #1 is another chapter in the ongoing soap opera revolving around the character of Kyle Rayner. When DC decided to shake things up with the Green Lantern character, they made the previous Lantern, Hal Jordan, a power-crazed, genocidal super-villain and replaced him with a new, younger character, Kyle Rayner.

I have written before on the outrage this change caused amongst fans of Jordan. But this is not to say that Rayner did not have fans of his own. Kyle Rayner inhabited the role of Green Lantern for well over 120 issues of the Green Lantern comic book. This doesn’t happen if the character does not have a following.

So when DC brought back Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, this raised the issue as to what to do with Kyle Rayner. This is answered with Ion, a more powerful identity he adopted for a few issues towards the end of the last Green Lantern series. Now he is no longer relegated to a supporting character in Hal Jordan’s book. He has a separate identity and a new ongoing series all his own.

But will this go over well with Rayner’s fans? Fans of Hall Jordan weren’t all that impressed with his return in the identity of the Spectre and still clamored for him to be Green Lantern. Do Rayner’s fans expect the same thing? Or will they embrace this new version of the character they love?

New Avengers Annual #1 marks the return of a once popular format, the yearly annual. Once common place at both DC and Marvel, the Annual took a couple years off. Now it’s back with a renewed focus that harkens back to the early days of comics.

Right before they fell out of favor, the annuals published by the big two weren’t anything special: usually fill-in issues with substandard stories. While some annuals were always the home to reprints and tales from some dark recess of the company’s filing cabinet, some were historic and featured some of the most memorable stories around.

The first appearance of the Sinister Six happened in an Amazing Spider-Man annual. One of the best Alan Moore Superman stories appeared in Superman Annual #11, and Reed Richards and Sue Storm were married in the pages of a Fantastic Four annual, an event echoed in this New Avengers Annual.

Yes, this issue features the wedding of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. This exemplifies the new outlook for annuals—only publish them if you can make them special. The recent Teen Titans Annual featured a tie-in to Infinite Crisis and gave us a little background into Superboy and Wonder Girl’s relationship. The true story of Jason Todd’s return to life was featured in this year’s Batman Annual. Both companies are using the format to focus on big events and pivotal stories. I, for one, approve of this trend and hope it becomes a yearly tradition again.

Finally, comic companies are actively searching for ways to bring new readers into the medium. One of the ways they are attempting to do this is by adapting other popular forms of media into comic form. Whether it is movies (Shaun of the Dead), TV (Family Guy), books (Neverwhere, Dark Tower), or video games (Halo, Tomb Raider), publishers are trying to siphon these properties’ fan base to increase their bottom line. Even nostalgia plays a part, as witnessed by the recent spate of comics from the 1970s and 1980s revived for today’s market.

Sometimes, companies combine nostalgia with these other concepts to reignite a once popular adaptation. The recent comic revamps of G.I. Joe, Transformers, Masters of the Universe and Buckaroo Banzai are examples of this. But not many combine various trends like Tron #1.

Tron not only was a fondly remembered movie, it was also the first movie to extensively use computer animation. The property was also a successful video game for both arcades and the home unit. And it also plays into recent nostalgia for all things ‘80s, the decade Tron first appeared.

Slave Labor Graphics is publishing Tron through their agreement with Disney (the studio owns rights to the property), and might get the independent comic company more notice and more revenue from the mainstream audiences. Many of the other adaptations listed above helped tiny publishers become a force in the industry. And as long as these types of books remain successful, we will be seeing many more popular concepts from other media become comic books.

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William Gatevackes is a writer living in Mamaroneck, NY with his wife, Jennifer and writes the periodic comic review at PopMatters. He is not old enough to be nostalgic for the 1970s, would like to forget the 1980s ever happened, but is looking forward to the inevitable renewed interest in the 1990s. Wouldn’t Titanic make an excellent comic book?