SDCC was quite the weekend. There was more coverage than any one comic news site could run at once so the internet was quite abuzz with all kinds of announcements and teaser images. It's a glory time for fanlads and fangals but after the glow, when everyone's back home, the hype has died down and we're all back to the usual grind what has stuck with us? We here at The Weekly Crisis have decided to spotlight our few top SDCC items and discuss why they're going to stay with us into the foreseeable future. Hit the jump to see it all.
Ryan L's Top Items
Iron Fist's New HomeAs if I would ever lead with anything else. Iron Fist is going to get a new title from Fred Van Lente and Wellington Alves. He's back to sharing the title as it'll be Power Man & Iron Fist in November for a 5 issue mini. Considering this isn't Luke Cage we're talking about, I don't know why Danny Rand is running second billing to a new fish but I'm still stoked to have him back in my monthly pull list.
I will say, I'm worried because this will be a mini that it'll hit the $3.99 price point which usually makes so many people trade wait so it's not going to do spectacularly in sales (especially with the aforementioned new Power Man still proving himself after his Shadowland mini) so it doesn't feel like the best way to get Iron Fist back onto the shelves but you never know. I'd rather 5 months of Van Lentean Fistery (try dropping that into conversation) than nothing at all. And you can get some good interviews with FVL at CBR and the new Iron Fist Fan site, as well.
Savage Sword
Yet again, an excuse to link to my great Savage Magazine Format op/ed piece. I wrote that because I love the old Savage Sword of Conan style magazines that Marvel used to put out and I like the B&W homages they're kind of doing now but then I see Dark Horse have upped the ante. Savage Sword will launch in December and will feature 80 pages of Robert E Howard goodness. Conan, Kull, Bran Mak Morn, and everyone's favourite, Sailor Steve Costigan are all going to be included in the fun and I'll sure as hell be there to join in. A glut of awesome artists are on board and it'll show some old content as well as new stuff. Paul Tobin will lead off with a 3-part Conan tale and from there who knows.
Greenwood and Guggenheim on StringersCall me biased, but Justin Greenwood is a good mate of mine and I'm stoked for Oni to be putting a big announcement and new release behind his name. He's been doing really solid work with Marc Guggenheim on Resurrection but now he'll be a co-owner of the series as he builds this title and world from the ground up with Guggenheim yet again. Stringers centres around the world of journalists who rush to crime scenes to film footage that then gets sold off to news stations quickly for the best price. It's a simple enough premise but gives that room that anything could kind of happen. I'm locking this one in as an addition to my pull list, even though it's apparently not launching until 2011.
Kieron Gillen Gets An Ongoing
I knew Kieron Gillen was going to have an ongoing announced at SDCC. It was an absolute certainty in my mind but I had to spend far too long wondering what title it would be. Marvel shocked me by creating a new series just for him (because that worked out so well last time) but it's one that's tied to the X-family of titles. Generation Hope will focus on 5 new mutants who have just flourished recently, even when we thought there'd be no more mutants. Each character is completely new and Gillen has room to fiddle even though he'll ultimately be tied to X-continuity and the goings on of the pseudo-titular character, Hope (mostly known from her time-hopping run with Cable). I think this series has potential but I'm just not across the line yet. I'll look for more news and previews later on and make up my mind, but I do hope it does well. Gillen deserves that much because he's really worked well in the many corners Marvel has shoved him.
Kelly Sue DeConnick Gets Osborn In JailIt's another mini, so it's also most likely another $3.99 price gouge which completely sucks because the premise of Norman Osborn in a very skanky and nasty jail is a delightful premise for a story arc. He was on top of the world not so long ago but now he's no longer the top dog and he's being buried far away. This feels like it could be a superpowered Oz, and that's a very good thing.
We here at The Weekly Crisis have supported Kelly Sue DeConnick for some time and with great reason, she's a top notch writer and this title could be her breakout to show she doesn't just write chicks well. There's a great interview with her up at Newsarama that discusses this project in details. The art by Emma Rios sounds promising and the initial cover is certainly a fantastic tease. I'm hoping I can afford this one when it launches in November.
Eric's Top Items
Really, there is just too much great stuff to list here. Batman, Inc. sounds fantastic, especially if Yanick Paquette does the art on the series for more than one arc as it would be nice to see on any of Morrison's Batman work have great and consistent art for more than a few issues. The new Seaguy series sounds fantastic and looks like it is returning to some of the themes that made the first such an engaging read. The few hints about Multiversity sound great as well and I'm very glad that DC is letting the artists take the time to do it right instead of rushing it out. The biggest announces though were Absolute We3, with ten new pages of Quitely artwork, plus Morrison's promise of a Flex Mentallo reprint or collection, even if no specifics were given.
Not a lot was announced that I was interested overall but the new series by Joe Kelly and JM Ken Niimura titled Immortal Sergent is must buy for me and I'll definitely be picking it up at some point. I'll also keep an eye on Marc Guggenheim's new imprint, which is getting Hollywood writers to create new content as comics books, just to see how it all works out given Hollywood's relationship with the comics industry. I might check out his launch title Utopian which is about what would superheroes do in an utopia as well. Finally, I'm very interested to see how John Layman's experiment with Chew works out. He is releasing issue #27 out of order between issues #18 and #19 in order to give readers a tease about the future of the series. Very much looking forward to how people react to that.
Not a lot of new manga series were announced in general but two did catch my eye. First, from Vertical, was Lychee Light Club by Usamaru Furuya. I've heard a lot of positive buzz about Furuya and Vertical has put some other titles I've enjoyed so I'll give it a shot. What got me excited though was that Yen Press is going to be releasing Kaoru Mori's The Bride's Stories. Mori is the creator of Emma, a series from DC's now defunct CMX imprint, which I enjoyed a great deal and made her a must read creator me so I am definitely looking forward to any new work from her.
Although Dan Slott's work on Amazing Spider-Man to date has generally been disappointing, I'm still excited for the title's new direction. Aside from the fact that Slott sound very enthusiastic about it, Big Time looks like it is going to an honest-to-god new direction for Spider-Man rather than a throwback to stories from 30 years ago with some new stuff mixed in. Add in the fantastic art team of Humberto Ramos, Marcos Martin, and Stefano Caselli I'm very tempted to follow Amazing Spider-Man, in singles no less, for the first time since I was 14 years old.
Not much to say other than it was nice to see a lot of comics and creators I like not only get some nominations but win as well. These include The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chew, JH Williams III, Beasts of Burden, Sin Titulo, Dave Stewart, Jill Thompson, Parker: The Hunter, and Marian Churchland. Congrats to all involved.
Not Sure Comic Con Gets Much Better Than This
Actually, as awesome as Stan The Man is on Odin's throne, Morrison did a short interpretive dance at his panel so that is possibly the only thing that could over take this but, sadly, I haven't seen any footage available so I can't say.
Kirk's Top Items
CrossGen Returns
With Disney, and now Marvel, owning the rights to CrossGen, it's been something of a dream come true to see the possibility of these properties seeing reprints (please make some oversized hardcovers if you can, the art is simply stunning across the board for CrossGen), revivals with finishes to stories that were cut short by the bankruptcy or outright fresh starts.
Infinity Gauntlet
I swear, if I was at Comic-Con, this would be mine by any means necessary.
Rocket Raccoon & Groot
Groot? Rocket Raccoon? In their own miniseries? Sign me up.
Immortal Sergeant from Joe Kelly & J. M. Ken Nimura
Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Nimura were the creative team behind one of my all time favourite comics, I Kill Giants. They were announced as having a new project in the works called Immortal Sergeant. I immediately took notice and can't wait to see what magic they work with this project.
Young Justice Trades
Every convention was the same question and answer regarding Young Justice trades - DC had no plans to reprint the material. With a cartoon in the works, it seems DC finally smartened up and reprinted one of their best series ever.
Matt's Top Items
Thor Props
Heresy, I know, but one of my favourite piece of news from Comic-Con had more to do with a movie. The Thor movie is shaping up quite nicely, with an all-star cast, but the props totally sent my inner fanboy into overdrive. I know people had complained about the lack of Loki’s horned helmet, but it wasn’t a big deal to me. Once I saw it and the other helmets from Thor and Odin though, something clicked in my head: this is going to be epic. The throne, Destroyer Armor, and the Infinity Gauntlet added to that. The designs may not be exactly like the original Jack Kirby ones, but the spirit, the grandeur, and the sheer scope of it means that it will at least channel the same tone.
Groot and Rocket Raccoon
The most unlikely of buddies are going to get their own spotlight in the future. The fact that they got Mike Mignola (who drew Rocket’s first mini) to draw the cover of it is just icing on this cosmic cake. And that’s another positive thing. While we don’t know exactly what shape or form the cosmic side of Marvel will look like, at least we know that they are going to keep pushing forward with it in one way or the other.
Suicide Squad Video Game
I think this should have been a bigger announcement, instead of a just a line dropped among other news in the middle of a panel that opened by saying “there is no big news here”. Anyway, the idea behind the Suicide Squad lends itself to a bloody video game pretty easily, and because they are using a small franchise, the developers can go wild on the whole thing (as opposed to if they were doing a Superman game or something). Want to make this even better? Then throw in the Secret Six into the mix, and get Gail Simone to write the plot behind it.
Conclusion
They are just a taste of the things we loved from this year's SDCC. It actually proved to be a con that still held a stack of cool news and reveals, no matter what the pundits thought it might be like beforehand. What were your favourite items from the SDCC? Let us know in the comments.
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8 comments:
I like how Kirk and me chose basically two of the same things. I swear we are not joined at the hip, it was a coincidence!
Did DC confirm that they were actually doing Young Justice trades? I only remember Dan Didio saying that they'd be reprinting some YJ in October, which I took as referring to the "DC Comics Presents..." book collecting JLA: World Without Grown-ups. OTOH, I only made it to 2 of the 4 DC Nation panels, so I'm sure I could have missed something.
"Morrison did a short interpretive dance at his panel..."
Oh my god, someone has got to upload this to Youtube.
And the Suicide Squad game made me wet myself. This has SO much potential.
@Speed Force - From what I've read, most transcribed it as "Young Justice reprints in October". I assume that's the actual series. I hope it's not just jerking our chain on it.
I won't care if Gail Simone doesn't work on the story for the Suicide Squad video game. I will care very much if John Ostrander doesn't
Steve Costigan!
Hey, did anyone else found the Thor trailer to be incredibly "meh"?
@Ivan, I'm actually thinking about writing a little piece about the Thor trailer, I dug the hell; out of it, siure, there were flaws but overall I'm pumped for this flick.
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