It’s spring-cleaning at DC once again, with six more titles getting the axe. From the initial New 52 series, we see the end of Deathstroke, Fury of the Firestorm, and The Savage Hawkman – all with their 19th issues.
From the “second wave” of New 52, we see Ravagers cut at issue #11. And, perhaps more depressingly in terms of longevity, Sword of Sorcery and Team 7 – both of which were only launched in September 2012, will end with their seventh issues.
Of these, I’ve only read Deathstroke and Savage Hawkman, both of which I’ve had mixed feelings about, so I’m not exactly sad to see them go. Fury of Firestorm I was actually quite interested in, seeing as it was co-written with Gail Simone. I’ve decided to pick up the collected editions, once they are all released. I also recently bought the five-issue (2004-7) run of the character, written by Dan Jolley with art by ChrisCross, as part of this week’s ComiXology Black History Month Sale. I’m sure I’ll pick up the collected editions of the other New 52 cancelled series in the future.
In related news, DC has also announced two new titles that will be coming soon. Taking cues from contemporary American politics, these two titles – The Greem Team and The Movement – could be quite interesting, if they are done well. The fact that Gail Simone is writing The Movement certainly bodes well, though.
The two books were announced over on Huffington Post (which was interesting in itself), and Bryan Young was able to get Gail Simone on the record about The Movement:
“It’s a book about power – who owns it, who uses it, who suffers from its abuse. As we increasingly move to an age where information is currency, you get these situations where a single viral video can cost a previously unassailable corporation billions, or can upset the power balance of entire governments. And because the sources of that information are so dispersed and nameless, it’s nearly impossible to shut it all down… It’s an adventure story, but it really isn’t about mad scientists and jewel heists, it’s more about the injustices that can affect real people’s lives, just tarted up in costumes and superpowers.”
Sounds very Occupy Wall Street. It will be interesting to see what the team comes up with.
The tag-line for The Green Team – “Teen Trillionaires” – makes me a little worried, though. I’ve never been keen on books that feature kids as heroes or so centrally – there is a tendency, that I’ve experienced, at least – that the characters are invariably terribly written. Perhaps the only exception that I’ve been reading lately is Batman & Robin, in which Damian (Robin) is actually a complex, nuanced and compelling character (I’ve read up to #10).
No surprise in any of the cancelled titles. Deathstroke, Fury of the Firestorm, and The Savage Hawkman were in trouble from the start (cough, Rob Liefeld, cough). The Ravagers and Team 7 were a hard sell because they were spin-offs and Sword of Sorcery was badly titled. There wasn't much sorcery in that book.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I did note is that DC look to have move away from the 52 titles. 6 cancellation and only 2 new series makes it the New 48.
That's probably a good thing - to keep it at 52 was probably leading to bottom-of-barrel-scraping...
DeleteI wonder why they didn't keep Sword of Sorcery with the original title: "Amethyst"? I remember we had a copy of (I think) issue one of that series at one point. I can even remember some scenes from it. Weird. Wonder what happened to it...
As you said, SoS and T7 cancellations are depressing, given the length of both. The editorial hot shot duo of Bobbie Chase and Bob Harras did an interview about the whole thing at CBR and they failed to give any kind of explanation about the whole matter. The questions were excellent, the responses terrible.
ReplyDeleteTypical corporate BS.
T7 was interesting in that it brought a number of current characters together into a pre-New 52 story, and that really couldn't have become a stable series at all. It was badly marketed and should have just been a self-contained mini-series.
I've read the first four issues of Hawkman and I thought that it was mostly terrible. He does have a decent enough cameo in Justice League #16 though!
Hawkman just had WAY too much action, at the expense of the story. Which could have been interesting, which is why I read it for a little while.
DeleteI agree with you about Team 7.