DC's December Solicits Got Me Thinking...

Its terribly interesting that stories are already surfacing of creative-team shake-ups on some of DC's New 52.  I'm curious if DC is committed to the characters enough to give them a year and chuck creators who aren't pleasing fans (and by employing interns to read reviews, it'd be easy enough to get some data beyond sales, which aren't indicative at this point as EVERYTHING is selling out) and try to, say, make, say Tremendous Man work with a new writer rather than blame Tremendous Man.

There's something to that, I think.  DC has a core of characters that it should be trying to make work, and my assumption is that the New 52 likely contained all of those characters (why else is Aquaman getting a shot by one DC's top talents?).  Heck, we've already heard Static ALSO had a creative shake-up, and I'm not surprised that DC wants that title to work.  Static is incredibly lunchbox friendly.

DC needs to be able to demonstrate to the folks upstairs that they can make The Super Friends sell.  That's the intellectual property.  The people upstairs don't care who makes it work, so long as it works.

But, the solicitations.  DC released solicitations for December books on Monday, and the New 52 party rolls on!

I found the solicits interesting for three major reasons:

1)  Flex Mentallo

For a quick review, I did write upon Flex before.

I don't know if DC came to terms with Charles Atlas or decided that they have Time-Warner lawyers at their back and on speed dial and screw the mostly defunct Charles Atlas company, or what...  But, yeah, the Atlas company started throwing around lawsuits that I don't think they would have won as this was clearly a parody, but DC caved.

I haven't read Flex Mentallo since 1996 or 1997 when a pal put his issues in my hand.  Its never been reprinted, so...  I'm quite pleased!  Its early DC Morrison and Frank Quitely.  You can read my buddy JasonC's annotations for the series here (Jason has a PhD in awesome, so you can trust him).

2)  By the time I order these comics or start plotting out what I'm going to get, I'll have seen first issues and made plans regarding how I want to follow these titles, or if I'll be following them.  The mad frenzy of "what will this be like?" should be somewhat done.

The hardest part is attempting to divine DC's publication plans.  Will books I was hoping would be collected actually BE collected?   I'm planning to read most Batman and all GL as collections, so I might be just left holding the bag if DC's plans don't jive with my own.

3)  This set of solicitations makes me feel... old.  When it comes to collections, here's a lot of stuff on here that I already own, and I suspect its being offered now for folks who came to comics in the last few years.

There are four "DC Comics Presents" offerings with comics I already have.  I think I have reprints of the source material for the Secret Origins book that's offered.  I bought Batman: Dark Victory when it was coming out.  And the Ed Brubaker/ Darwyn Cooke Catwoman stuff.  The Alan Moore book, it seems I read about seven years ago (and recently re-read portions of it).

In a way, its great news that (a) DC is going to keep their book/ trade side of the store going, and (b) my DC library may be as such that I may be looking forward to a reduction in expenditures on DC books if I already HAVE what DC is selling.  Sure, I suspect this month is a fluke, but its a nice thought.

And, hey, they're re-offering Seven Soldiers of Victory!  To me, that's good stuff.

Man, I really miss this series.  Klarion, you so crazy..!

The solicitations are also shorter than in past offerings, and that's okay.  DC is shoring up their publishing line to stay focused, and I'd rather they have 40 good books on the shelf than 78, only three of which spark my interest (cough.  Marvel.  cough.).

Also, over in Action, Superman is gonna fight a robot.

Man, everything about this series is making me happy.