Grounded Expectations

At this point, we have no expectations for how ridiculous Grounded could get. When they first announced that Superman was going to spend the year walking across the country, it sounded ridiculous but we gave them the benefit of the doubt. Now eight issues into it, it is as ridiculous as it sounded and boring so very, very boring. Sometimes when you read it, it feels like the whole book is just making fun of Superman and any fans of the character, then you realize that they really are writing this in earnest, not as a joke. The Fortress of Solidarity introduced in the last issue has completely broken me and if it hadn’t done that, then the Wonder Woman is inspired to become a hero because she sees Superman stuff at the end of the book would have. We were really hoping that the Reign of Doomsday mini-event was how Editorial was going to quickly end the whole Grounded thing. Supes learns Doomsday’s back, flies off to go stop him and after an awesome battle he’s so caught up in being a freakin’ hero again that he forgets to go finish his walkabout. Unfortunately, the preview of the May solicitations show Superman unconscious in Doomsday’s clutches in Action Comics #901, but Grounded still continues in Superman. Apparently, Live Wire is in Vegas and crazy and Superman might be to blame. Of course he’s to blame, clearly she’s been reading the arc and couldn’t take it any more. I hope she wins.

The other big thing we’ve noticed in the preview of the solicitations is that Outsiders is ending with issue 40. This was another series that desperately needed to be taken out back and put out of it’s misery. I’m glad to see they’re doing that. I like a lot of the individual characters that are in the Outsiders, but Dan Didio has done an awful job of handling that book. After Batman died, the book was really interesting as it had the team collecting Batman’s villains who had gotten loose from Arkham. It felt like they were going to use the book to keep Batman’s villains occupied and in rotation until Batman came back, which was a very cool idea. Blackest Night derailed that and then Didio just made it worse. Suddenly, all of the emo craziness that Geo-Force dealt with in Last Will & Testament (honestly, the whole point of Last Will and Testament) came back out of nowhere and the book just spiraled out of control. It looks like in May Batman returns, as suddenly the book is Batman & The Outsiders again, and will shut the group down for being so messed up. Funny, that’s the same way they ended the last Outsiders series - you’d think they’d find something more original.