By Zack Quaintance — There are many comics things to like and don’t like this week, meaning of course that this is another usual week in comics. And here I am, writing my commentary round-up piece with the title I stole from star ESPN basketball reporter Zach Lowe (a fellow Zach!).

Anyway, onto the things...

The Comings and Goings at DC

It is, I’m about to prove, possible to like and dislike a thing. Let’s start with why I like this. I really really liked DC Comics putting the creative team of writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Mikel Janin on Wonder Woman this June, along with noting that they were without question going to bring back classic Wonder Woman, Maxwell Lord. Getting big names is something (relatively) well-paying superhero comics publishers are supposed to do, and DC Comics really hasn’t done much of it as of late with its superhero titles, presumably locked into a holding pattern prepping for 5G. 

Tamaki, however, is about as big of a name as one can get within comics these days. A book she wrote last year, Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me, was probably the single best comics work of 2019. Meanwhile, she also did some fantastic scripting for a DC property, with the Steve Pugh, YA book, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass. Putting Tamaki on Wonder Woman just in time for a movie (which, not coincidentally, involves Maxwell Lord) is exactly the right move, and the type of move fans have come to expect from the second largest publisher publisher of these superhero stories many of us love so much. This all makes this a thing I like, a lot.

Now for the part I don’t like. To make synergistic room for Tamaki on this book in time for the movie, DC Comics had to push off current Wonder Woman writer, Steve Orlando. This would be mostly fine under different circumstances. When a superhero publisher makes a big talent acquisition, books get shuffled around all the time. But DC as of late has what looks from the outside like a pattern of doing Orlando dirty, of giving him fill-in runs, fill-in artists, changed plans, and books that are bound to fail...which might all be why Steve has now gone freelance, following several years of DC Comics exclusivity. This is something I do not like at all. 

Steve Orlando is by all indications one of those writers who absolutely loves DC Comics, and he’s done some standout work for the publisher over the years, with my favorites being Midnighter, Electric Warriors, and his first brief stint on Wonder Woman, which yielded what is possibly my favorite single issue Wonder Woman story of all time, Wonder Woman #51. Books like Martian Manhunter, The Unexpected, and Justice League of America were all quite good, too. In a broader sense, however, Steve is the exact type of younger writer DC should be actively courting, nurturing, and supporting, rather than (presumably!) pushing away. He’s a millennial who takes superheros seriously. He knows and respects the institutions he works for, and he doesn’t condescend to fans or the material. By all means, get a big name like Tamaki on a character like Wonder Woman…but have a prominent and excited project to put Orlando on as well. That’s how it can and should be done.

I don’t like that Orlando is no longer with a publisher he so clearly grew up striving to reach. Here’s hoping Orlando’s forthcoming Marvel work is so good that DC identifies and eventually fixes its mistake. And maybe it will be. Sometimes a change of scenery can be good for both parties. 

More of Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp’s Green Lantern Series

There must be something in the water over at DC Comics right now, because they’ve made not but two totally sensical, regular publisher moves as of late. The first one is getting a big name like Tamaki to take over Wonder Woman just in time for the movie. The second is extending the popular and critically-acclaimed Grant Morrison and Liam Sharp (doing career work) run on Green Lantern Season 2 back up from 8 issues to 12. I like that. If I had to guess, I’d reckon this is all related to 5G prep. DC seemed a little hamstrung by the run-up to that, but now that it’s mostly likely not happening, the publisher is free to do regular big publisher things.

Three Jokers

I’ve been looking forward to learing the deal with the Three Jokers idea since Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok first teased it at the end of the Darkseid War event in the New 52 Justice League run back in 2016. Now, word has it that they’ve finished all three 48-page issues that tell this story. I like that kind of anti-delay level of preparation, and I like that we’re about to get this story, starting with Three Jokers #1 on June 17. I also like Johns work in general. It doesn’t always have a cohesive or engaging higher level of meaning, but also these are superheroes. They punch stuff. That’s fine. 

X-Men....Still

I’m happy to report this week that it’s been almost nine months since the Jonathan Hickman-led X-Men revival, and I’m still enjoying the hell out of all of these books. Everything that has written by Jonathan Hickman on it gets an extra like from me, but I like a lot of the periphery stuff coming out as well. This week is a prime example. I bought, reviewed, and really liked a Cable comic. Imagine that? I like that this revival is going so well that I’m finding myself engaged by long-time periphery titles that have never really done it for me for a sustained period of time in the past.

Bendis at DC...Still

You know what else I’m still really into? What Brian Michael Bendis is doing with a whole slew of Superman and Superman adjacent titles. The main Superman book with its ultra consistent artwork by Ivan Reis (also doing career best work) is the standout, but Action Comics and the Leviathan mystery series are fun enough, giving Bendis a chance to work in some deep bench DC characters that would otherwise be unused right now. I also like how Bendis and his collaborators have revitalized teen superhero storytelling at DC with the one-two punch of Young Justice and the Legion of Superheroes. A viable and interesting modern take on the Teen Titans continues to elude the publisher, but at a time where so much is in flux, it’s nice to be getting a memorable and coherent take on Superman from a superhero comics vet as seasoned as Bendis. 

My Shop is a Bad Idea Destination Shop!

Finally, hey would you look at this...my local comic shop got picked to be a Bad Idea destination shop! I’ve been clear in the past that I actually think Bad Idea is a good idea, so I’ve already done my due diligence and added their first book, Eniac, to my pullist. You, of course, can expect a full review when it hits in March.

All-Time Comics Great Kurt Busiek Clarifies Different Between Client, Customer

I don’t normally care to even give this stuff a little bit of air, but I do think it’s useful to discuss what a comics pro owes to fans, which is a topic that comes up outside of non-blatant troll circles every now and again. And I can’t really make that argument any better (or even close to as well) as all-time comics great Kurt Busiek did in an epic Twitter thread this week, laying out as he does how art for hire works.

The crux of it is that it’s a super odd jump in logic to say that a freelance creative’s customer is someone who buys an end product, rather than commissions it, and it’s one that shows a cursory misunderstanding of how artistic fields work.

Here’s a link to Busiek’s excellent thread, which was something this week that I liked.

Read this week’s comic book reviews here!

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.