Magical Conspiracy

Now that The New 52 is in full swing, we at Ret-Conned HQ are still trying to figure out the new timeline. To understand it all, one really has to get creative.

Demon Knights is one of the most intriguing properties coming out of The New 52. While some of the characters are familiar, this is the first major book DC book I can think of set in a medieval setting. From what I understand, the plot is essentially Seven Samurai set in a post-Arthurian medieval world with Etrigan the Demon running around being awesome. The beauty of the Seven Samurai is the plot of the story is so easy to understand that it can quickly get out of the way and let you focus on the interactions of the main characters, where the storytelling really takes place. This is a perfect situation for Paul Cornell who showed in the most recent Lex Luthor run of Action Comics that he can do some great character driven stories. (Honestly, I think that was the problem with Cornell’s Reign of Doomsday story in Action as it was more action driven then character driven.) The only thing that disappoints me about Demon Knights is Cornell’s decision to not have Etrigan rhyme, but having read stories with Etrigan and some seriously bad rhymes, I can understand the decision.

DC has also released its solicitations for December with The New 52 still going strong. Where previous months saw the additions of multiple mini-series expanding the universe, there is only one new mini-series The Ray that is Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti’s reboot of one of their characters from their Freedom Fighters stories. We also get an oversized Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes which looks like it is the collection of Batman Inc issues that didn’t see print before The New 52 reboot. We also have the first major creative team shake-up as JT Krul is leaving Green Arrow to be replaced by the writing team of Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen. Jurgens will still be doing art along with George Perez, making Green Arrow a book completely controlled by some of DC’s Old Guard. I wonder if this means that Krul couldn’t cut it on two books or if this is opening up Krul to do something else starting in January. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.