Thursday, January 2, 2020

On The Shelf: A mishmash of marketing oversaturation

With "Birds of Prey (& The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)" due in theatres next month, DC continues to over-promote Harley on the shelves. Like, hasn't anyone figured out yet that if you milk the golden goose until it runs dry, it ultimately depreciates in value?

After all, Marvel did their fair share of going overboard with "hot" characters (i.e. Wolverine, Spider-Man), too, but with the marketing departments at the publishers, or, more specifically, their corporate partners (i.e. WB, Disney), it's all about making as much money as possible as quick as possible.

Take, for example, a trade paperback compilation carrying the title, Harley Quinn & The Birds of Prey. None of the stories inside come from any iteration of Birds of Prey, and the oldest entry in the lot comes from the mid-90's revival of Showcase spotlighting Black Canary, but also co-starring Lois Lane. A Harley solo story from one of her earlier series leads off, and has her crossing swords with the second Ventriloquist and Scarface. Seems the original Ventriloquist, Arnold Wesker, had befriended Harley at Arkham some time back, and she ain't digging his replacement. The upside to Harley's past as a psychologist is that it allows her to do some deductive reasoning of her own.

The rest of the volume is a mishmash, including a chapter of a Nightwing-Huntress miniseries that predates the much beloved Grayson solo series from a few years back, and the first half of a Renee Montoya-centric 2-parter by Greg Rucka from Gotham Central. This mix is because Renee, Huntress, & Canary will join Harley in the movie, but there's no real connection here. Caveat Emptor, kids.

Rating: C.
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So I finally scored a copy of Marvel Comics #1000, just for fun. All this does is set up the current 1-off, Incoming, and anything following in its wake related to the latest iteration of the Masked Raider, in a series of short pieces by Al Ewing. Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale reunite to revive, for one page, the 60's humor book, Not Brand Ecch, and you get healthy doses of the usual suspects (i.e. Spider-Man, Deadpool, X-Men). Otherwise, a vanity project that won't make much money in the secondary market.

Rating: C.
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Hot on the heels of Archie Meets Batman '66 several months back, DC & Archie Comics collaborated again, this time by sending Harley Quinn & Poison Ivy to Riverdale to meet up with Betty & Veronica. It would've been just fine, thank you, had Harley's creator, Paul Dini, wrote this himself, but nope. Marc Andreyko co-wrote it, and the two of them threw in almost everything, except for, of course, Batman. The variant covers for each issue, including one by Adam Hughes, are not quite the saving grace, but since this series ended, Betty & Veronica are currently in a crossover ongoing with Dynamite's licensed lethal ladies, Red Sonja & Vampirella (who are being overmarketed at Dynamite, by the way).

Rating: B-.
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IDW's second GLOW miniseries, GLOW vs. The Babyface, puts some focus on not only social commentary, but some predictable tropes as well. Actress Aimee Garcia (Lucifer) and retired WWE women's champion-turned-best-selling author A. J. Mendez (nee AJ Lee) spin the yarn of a supposed runaway who's trying to weasel her way into the lives of the cast of GLOW. However, when the youth's mom gets involved....!

Rating: B.
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In the final analysis, DC's Event Leviathan ended with 70's Manhunter Mark Shaw revealed as the villain of the piece. A 1-off, due in February, continues the story, which has zero connection to the Leviathan organization appearing on Supergirl this season. Meh.

Final rating: B.
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The original Question returns in a Black Label miniseries from DC. Subtitled, "The Deaths of Vic Sage", the story by Jeff Lemire purports to remind that, apparently, Sage was rebooted in the New 52 as some sort of immortal who keeps coming back to life. Artists Denys Cowan & Bill Sienkiewicz, who drew the first Question series for DC, written by Denny O'Neil, back in the late 80's, reunite for this one, which makes the story a little more palatable.

Rating: A.

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