Somewhat improbably, I picked up 24 of the 41 books in DC's recent Future's End event, 23 of them with the fancy-pants lenticular covers. This batch was ninety-nine cents an issue, down from the $3.99 cover price, and I'd probably be asking too much if I expected to find the most popular books like Harley Quinn or most of the Batman titles at that price.
Without being 100% up on the current DC status quo, this event was set five years in the future, after any number of terrible and life-changing events had happened to our heroes; up to and including a much-teased war with Earth 2. Or possibly the Apokalips of Earth 2? It's not necessarily important, depending on the book.
Out of the titles I've read, Grayson may be the best of the lot: I had read the Comics Alliance write-up on it, but was still surprised. I thought Constantine was pretty good, although I'm trying to remember how Dr. Fate transitioned from superhero to dick to outright villain. New Suicide Squad finally lives up to the name, but felt just a hair too thin. Star-Spangled War Stories wasn't bad: I didn't have any particular attachment to those characters, but I like Scott Hampton's art and that the story seems to wrap up the series preemptively. (That was the only issue I've picked up the plain cover for, so far.)
I found two two-parters: Justice League United/Justice League and Aquaman/Aquaman and the Others. They were both blah. (Captain Atom, with a crappier version of his 52-look, is the bad guy in the JL one, but I'll be damned if I could tell you why exactly.)
Somehow, the Demon is a romantic lead in the New 52, on more than one occasion: in Justice League Dark here with Zatanna, and previously in the cancelled Demon Knights with Madame Xanadu. It's a bold choice, I'll give 'em that. (From "Scars" Story by J.M. DeMatteis, script by Len Wein, pencils by Andres Guinaldo, inks by Walden Wong.) That actually almost made the issue for me, although if you read all the Future's End issues, some seams don't line up: before he can change into Etrigan, Jason Blood is apparently killed by a vampire Batwoman!
I don't know if I'd have paid full price for them, but the Batgirl and Red Lanterns issues worked for me: both were happy endings that probably couldn't happen without ending the characters' stories. But I was a little disappointed by the Booster Gold story: it seems to pick up from the last time he was seen in the New 52, but also ends on a cliffhanger that felt forced to me. I'm not sure if any of these made me want to run out and pay cover price for new DC books, but some of them made me a little curious how they were doing.
Apparently the Demon is a dynamite kisser.
ReplyDeleteMy girl bought that JLDark one. Weird to see them give hime the tretment like the Gargoyle or Beast, good soul trapped in a hellish body. And hoooking up with Z? Yeah she looks prety damn rough for it too.
ReplyDeleteShe bought a few of these, and after reading them, it's defintiely a mixed bag, and not in a good way. Some make sense, but very few. And the rest? Just bad. The hell was the point if none of these are being followed up on?
Gld you got yours for cheap, because that seems like the correct price worth charging, even though 50 cents is more like it.
I think--and this is pretty broad--these are all supposed to be what is going to happen, unless some changes are made. Like the Ghost of Christmas Future's End, or some such. Which is to say, an excuse for What If? stories with shiny covers...
ReplyDeleteDale, I got you the JLA issue! It kinda sucks, sure, but shiny cover! I'll tweet you later.