Monday, May 13, 2013

DC Comics Axes Four More Titles

So DC Comics has decided to cancel four more of its New 52 titles – two from the original 52, one slightly new and one very new… Legion of Super-Heroes (#23), Demon Knights (#23), Dial H (#15) and Threshold (#8) will all come to an end in August 2013.

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Apparently Legion and Dial H are as head-grabbingly-angsty about their cancellations…

iFanboy (a great site, FYI) had this to say about the cancellation: “It sucks that just about every book that DC tried to publish that was outside of the traditional superhero vein was met with abject indifference from the buying public.” Also, as Mark Waid pointed out, this is the first time in about 40 years that DC will not be publishing a Legion title. Having never read that series (New 52 or pre-52), I can’t say that it means anything to me…

Of these four series, I’ve read the first volume of Demon Knights (written by Paul Cornell, and which I rather enjoyed, but couldn’t afford to keep reading on a monthly basis), and some of Dial H (which I thought was rather weird, and continues to prove that just because China Miéville wrote it, doesn’t mean I’ll love it…). I had been waiting for the first volume of Threshold to be available on ComiXology before trying it (though was a little wary of the talking rabbit character, I must admit…). And I was never interested in Legion of Super-Heroes. I’m not sure why…

There are some new series on the horizon, too: Pandora, Superman Unchained (by the awesome Scott Snyder – #3 cover art, by Jim Lee and Scott Williams, below), Batman/Superman, Larfleeze, The Movement, and The Green Team

SupermanUnchained-03-Art

10 comments:

  1. Threshold? #5 just came out last week which means the decision to cancel it was made before that. Just 4 issues in and they already decided to can it? Way too quick for a new series starting new characters.

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    1. Yeah. I got the impression that it was a bit of a slot-filler...

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    2. If that's the case, DC should have put it as a mini-series. If it does well, they could order more issues and keep the series going. Better to have a mini that became a regular series than to have a cancelled series on their hands.

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  2. The Movement's first issue was pretty good, so that series looks promising, I'll stick around for three issues at least before making my judgement - Gail Simone is going to have to impress though as it comes out in a pretty packed week for me comics wise (All New X-Men, Hawkeye etc).

    Batman/Superman and Superman Unchained are going straight on my pull list. The idea for the first is awesome and the latter is written by Scott Snyder with art from Jim Lee, so count me in for that. Not too sure about Larfreeze though, and I may pick up the Green Team depending on what week it comes out. It's a shame that Demon Knights got cancelled though, Paul Cornell's first volume was really awesome.

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    1. I don't buy any on release anymore. On ComiXology, DC's series all drop $1 when the next in the series is out. I just wait for the single issues that make up a collection to be discounted, and get them then. Don't feel in any rush to buy and read.

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  3. A series for Larfleeze? Er...yeah, sure...

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    1. Yeah, I'm a bit skeptical about that - he was the back-up story in Threshold, so I can't see why they would cancel the main series/story to replace it with something focusing on a character who has, let's be honest, been nothing more than a comic-relief-style character in the Green Lantern setting...

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    2. Actually, his backup story in Threshold was very good. Surprisingly so I must say. Keith Griffen gave him a long-suffering butler (called Stargrave) to serve as his foil and it worked beautifully.

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    3. Well, with luck he'll appear in the new series.

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