Tuesday, June 28, 2016

On The Shelf: Returns, delays, and other musings

DC Comics should be happy with the spike in sales for their books in the first few weeks of the Rebirth initiative. The home town store can't keep books in stock, attracting curious, casual consumers drawn to the reduced cover price of $2.99 per copy like moths to flame & light. I've only put orders in for a select few, based on my own point of interest.

The latest Rebirth 1-off I picked up was Titans, which picks up in part where DC Universe Rebirth left off last month, and in part from the conclusion of the Titans Hunt miniseries. Wally West (the original version, not the one used on The Flash) has returned, sparking the memories of his former teammates and friends. Mr. Twister, the villain in the miniseries, apparently will return, but there's something else afoot. Hmmmm.

Rating: B.

Dynamite Entertainment's latest The Shadow miniseries may be of the bait & switch variety.

The Death of Margo Lane sounds like it's fan-service to those in the fan base who are not fans of the character, introduced in the radio dramas, and most famously played by Agnes Moorehead, three decades before Bewitched made her an icon. The Shadow does have to rescue a kidnapped woman, and solve a mystery tied into it. However, do you really think they'll kill off Margo? After all this time? Your guess is as good as mine.

Rating: A.
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It didn't take long for DC to run into some creative issues with some of their recent releases. For example, Future Quest issue 2, due this week, has been pushed back a week with no explanation. As it was, when you do the math, they gave artist Evan Shaner an extra week, since this would've been five weeks between issues, to finish this issue, but expect the series to be continued on a six-week schedule instead of 4-5 weeks. Just a hunch.

Meanwhile, speaking of bait & switch, the long, unawaited return of Scrappy-Doo in the pages of Scooby Apocalypse will have to wait until issue 3, as he didn't appear in issue 2. Writers Keith Giffen & J. Marc DeMatteis have fallen into the trap of playing to the internet haters and using Scrappy as a villain, like he was in the 2002 "Scooby-Doo" movie. Amazingly, issue 2 arrived just 3 weeks after the 1st issue. Hmmmmm.

DC is also experiencing issues with some of their bi-weekly books, including Action Comics. This was to be expected, as DC foolishly decided to double the number of issues per month. In the case of Action & Detective, the idea is to speed up the countdown to the 1000th issues for both books. Ok, so why not do the same for Superman, Wonder Woman, & Batman?
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Archie Comics' 4th "New Riverdale" series will be Josie & the Pussycats, debuting in September, and written by Marguerite Bennett (DC Bombshells). With Sabrina making her "New Riverdale" debut in Jughead 9, also in September, it seems they're trying to suggest that maybe there's an attraction between the teenage witch and Jughead. Don't be surprised if another Sabrina book comes out next year as the 5th "New Riverdale" book, to offset the oft-delayed Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

Also returning in September is DC's Doom Patrol as the 1st book in the company's new Young Animal line, which will also include Shade the Changing Girl (yes, that's right), which, one can assume, would be the daughter of the original, who was introduced nearly 40 years ago by artist Steve Ditko. Then again.......!


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