« Lazy Sunday | Home Improvement »
Friday
Jul152011

The Mighty Pen

DateFriday, July 15, 2011 at 12:00AM | AuthorTravis

I predicted that Green Arrow and Black Canary’s marriage was going to fall apart long before it happened in the Rise & Fall special. Kris didn’t believe it would happen and then once it did, he blamed me for psychically causing it. He still holds a grudge over a year later, especially when I start making new predictions.

For the record, I still think she looks like Power Girl.

After the initial 52 #1’s were announced for DC’s The New 52 initiative, it became known that those 52 comics were not the last of the new things that DC would be rolling out. This week, they’ve begun to slowly roll out the solicitations for October and new titles have come right along with it. First up, one of Batman’s greatest enemies, the Penguin, is getting his own five issue mini-series detailing his origin. The first arcs of every Batman book is introducing a new villain instead of using one of the myriad of established Gotham rogues. While I find that a little weird, Kris contends that they do that so they can focus on introducing the other changes to the universe without worrying about villain backstory. This Penguin series is specifically focusing on the time between when Oswald Cobblepot was born and when he became The Penguin, thereby filling in that villain backstory. At first, the Penguin seems like a surprising choice, but with the Cobblepots being a focus in Gates of Gotham, maybe it will make sense later down the road. I wonder if they will do something similar for all of the major Batman villains.

The even more exciting mini-series in the Batman universe for October is a new Huntress mini-series written by Paul Levitz. Huntress was one of the characters that both Kris and I were disappointed to see missing from the original New 52. Artwork will be handled by Marcus To, who has been doing awesome work in the current Red Robin series. Huntress starts out by going to Italy, probably getting in touch with her mobster family roots, and ends with her having a price on her head that will ultimately lead her back into the new Birds of Prey series, where every member appears to be a woman running from someone.

The name that was so conspicuously absent from The New 52 writers list after having such an influence over the Justice League over the past two years was James Robinson. Turns out that’s because he was getting ready to return to one of the characters that made him famous by working on a new Shade mini-series. That’s right everybody, two months into the new, less confusing, more approachable DC Universe and we have two characters of the same name. I can’t wait for Shade to make an appearance in Justice League Dark and we can have Shade the Changing Man’s Madness Vest face off with Shade’s Darkness Top Hat for the most outrageous magical costume piece only to both be beaten out by Zatanna’s Arm Stockings of Magical Raving.

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

Kris, what’s on your pull list?