DC DIGRESSION: A week of alternate worlds
By Zack Quaintance — This week, the big story for new DC Comics releases was a tale of two Batman comics (excuse the cliched lead construction). The first was the flagship title: Batman #93, written by James Tynion IV and illustrated by Guillem March. Being the flagship title, this is essentially the Batman comic of record, the one that pushes forward the narrative of the Caped Crusader within accepted DC Universe continuity.
The other Batman comic this week was Batman: The Smile Killer #1, written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Andrea Sorrentino. This comic is an over-sized prestige format one-shot, a coda of sorts on the same duo’s recently-concluded Joker: Killer Smile miniseries. All of these comics are part of the DC imprint, Black Label, which is an out-of-continuity set of stories that tends to feature top-tier creators (like Lemire and Sorrentino) doing contained stories. Stories that have clear beginnings and endings, executed with high production and aimed at eventual collected editions for the bookstore market.
Batman: The Smile Killer #1 by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino.
Batman #93 by James Tynion IV and Guillem March.
To put it simply, Batman: The Smile Killer #1 was a much better comic than Batman #93. The art was better, riskier, more memorable. The story concept — in which a young Bruce Wayne grew up watching an off-kilter clown television show that was seeding psychologically-manipulative beats within his brain — was far more interesting, more novel. Batman #93 was a house of cards comic, one that hit multiple familiar notes in a way that barely held together within its standardized episodic plot. It also felt edge lord-y as all get out. Most cynically, however, it was part of an arc that feels conceived to launch Punchline, a Harley Quinn variation the DC’s marketing and merchandising department may or may not have invented, or at least strongly suggested.
In short, the out-of-continuity idiosyncratic comic was a far more rewarding read. And why shouldn’t it have been? The publisher obviously invested far more resources into it, from the creative talent involved to the quality of the paper it was printed on. There were just more resources devoted to The Smile Killer book, and I’ve devoted roughly four paragraphs to this, because I think it speaks to a larger trend within DC Comics’ publishing: DC is investing far more resources these days into publishing stories outside of its in-continuity superhero monthly comics.
This was evident over the course of the past two weeks as well with the announcement of a new project, Hellblazer: Rise and Fall by Tom Taylor and Darick Robertson. Now, I’m content (more than content!) with the Si Spurrier and Aaron Campbell mainline John Constantine, Hellblazer series, but the splash that the Taylor/Roberston announcement made on social media was tough to ignore. Once again, it seems, DC Comics was saving its best creators and ideas for its bookstore-aimed Black Label line. I’ve talked about this shift quite a bit on every platform available to me (including this very column two weeks ago), but I think it bears reiterating because much of comics seems unaware (or unwilling) to accept that such massive shift is taking place, one in which the monthly superhero comics are starting to become the idiosyncratic niche publishing line versus the stand-alone titles of Black Label and the various YA publishing initiatives coming out of Burbank.
Hellblazer: Rise and Fall by Tom Taylor and Darick Robertston was announced this month.
There is, to be sure, much more to this. DC Comics has a history of creating evergreen work with bookstore potential (see Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, most of Vertigo, etc.), and creator’s are surely driving some of it, especially those like Lemire and Sorrentino, who have built names enough to do their own creator-owned work.
Still, the other point relevant here is that the very nature of the mainline superhero books for DC Comics seems to be changing, moving away from a 20-some page one-writer-one-artist $3.99 floppy format toward more giant-size multi-creator jam anthology comics. We’ve seen this borne out a few different ways of late, starting with the line of 100-page Walmart giant comics. This initiative has now ended, swapped out in favor of shrink-wrapped four packs of regular DC Comics titles, but in its earliest incarnations it involved mixing reprinted material with new content from top-tier creators, including Brian Michael Bendis and Tom King. In the direct market, that is bearing out in month after month of 100-page specials.
These specials started as celebrations of 80-year anniversaries for characters, and to date we’ve gotten them for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, The Joker, Catwoman, and — as of today — Green Lantern. But in recent days, DC Comics announced another anthology commemorating 1,000 issues of Batman, with a 100-page oversized Detective Comics #1027. Officially, this comic is celebrating Batman’s first issue, but, quite frankly, it feels like a flimsy rationale for the occasion. Indeed, that matters less because the book has assembled a murderers row of creative talent, including team-ups of Greg Rucka/Eduardo Risso, Grant Morrison/Chris Burnham, Tom King/Walt Simonson, James Tynion IV/Riley Rossmo, Peter J. Tomasi/Brad Walker, Dan Jurgens, Marv Wolfman/Emanuela Lupacchino and Bill Sienkiewicz, Brian Michael Bendis/David Marquez, Mariko Tamaki/Dan Mora, Scott Snyder/Ivan Reis, Kelly Sue DeConnick/John Romita Jr and Klaus Janson, and Matt Fraction/Chip Zdarsky.
Could DC Comics future be nixing monthly floppies for 100-page creator jam anthologies? Some signs are there…
Phew! With all this in mind, one potential future for the DC Universe seems to be (and I’m extrapolating quite a bit here) a timeline in which the publishing line consists of one-off prestige stories like those being told via Black Label, mixed with far far fewer monthly comics, doled out in 100-page, $10 anthologies instead of $4 20-some page floppies, thereby moving more copies of less books at a price point far greater, and these books are physically built for distribution and shelf placement outside of direct market retailers trained to delicately handled and disseminate the work.
So yeah, this week of releases gives us a glimpse at alternate DC Comics world, straddling the past with watered down comics like Batman #93 while looking toward the future with Batman: The Smile Killer #1 and the announcements of Hellblazer: Rise and Fall with Detective Comics #1027.
And now, on to brief look at the rest of this week’s books!
We are all sleeping on the Kelly Sue DeConnick-penned run of Aquaman #60, most frequently illustrated by Robson Rocha but this month drawn by Miguel Mendoca. It’s just been a stellar run of superhero comics storytelling, perhaps slept on a bit because it started with an abstract, ethereal arc. In my opinion, that arc has been an excellent thematic basis for the real world storytelling that has powered the rest, but I could see some of the usual superhero readers struggling with it a bit.
Justice League #47 wraps up a filler-heavy arc in a fairly trite fashion. This book has an actual panel wherein Batman and Green Lantern shake hands, remarking: “The Justice League is stronger together!” Oof.
Oh, and speaking of Green Lantern (as well as the 100-page jam anthology concept above), this week marked the release of the Green Lantern 80th Anniversary comic…and like all of these comics, some stories were just great and other stories totally forgettable. I bought it, though, and I’m guessing most folks will too. It’s a high-production value book you can spend an hour or so with, feeling satisfied with the price point.
Finally, Low Low Woods wraps up this week, and what a comic! That’s one I’m going to advocate heavily when it comes out in trade. It does something really challenging, adding a new concept to the horror genre. Hell of a book.
Warren Ellis.
Finally, the writer of one of DC Comics’ high-profile Batman projects at the moment — Warren Ellis — was the subject of sexual misconduct allegations this week, with multiple women coming forward to share experiences in which (generally) Ellis used his prominence within comics to spark romantic relationships that he often subsequently dropped in cold fashion. Ellis responded with a statement saying in part that he was unaware of his status and power within the industry, a notion that strains credibility given the man has nearly half a million followers on social media and a long history of critical and sales success. Meanwhile, this all comes within the context of a wave of other male creators being called for similar behaviors.
This speaks to a larger issue within the industry: for far too long it has been dominated by men, and some have created an inhospitable or inaccessible atmosphere for female creators. This is untenable and damaging to business, especially within a creative field that strives to capture the whole of the human experience (even within Batman stories). As such, DC should let actions speak louder than words (or Tweets) and cancel the remainder of Ellis’ Batman’s Grave (a comic I absolutely love). This would be a clear move for a publisher with a problematic past handling abuse allegations, nixing a high-selling comic with clear bookstore viability for years to come, and — perhaps most importantly — it would be a good faith move in the service of a better industry wherein lines between professional and personal relationships are respected, to the benefit of all parties.
DC has already pulled an Ellis-penned story from an upcoming event anthology, but that was an easy move, given it was two-pages from a book guaranteed to sell due to being part of an event. Pulling the remainder of Batman’s Grave would be much harder and far more meaningful.
Read past editions of the DC DIGRESSION column!
Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.