Earlier this week, Bleeding Cool reported that DC has decided to take several properties and characters away from Vertigo, namely those that originated in the DC universe. Characters that fall under that umbrella include Swamp Thing, but also Constantine, Sandman, and a lot more. Taken by itself, this new is a bit revolutionary, although not cause for great alarm, but when coupled with other recent announcements, it could mean a potential scaling down of Vertigo. Hit the jump to see some speculation on my part based on recent news and interviews.
Welcome to another edition of the Moments of the Week! It was a pretty small week in terms of books coming out, but we still had some pretty important moments showing up, such as Iron Man and Captain America arguing in Avengers: Prime, more mysteries developing from Brightest Day, and others. There is quite a bit of gore porn going on (as usual), but we shall counter that with the cutest scene ever. What am I talking about? You are going to have to hit the jump to find out.
Avengers Prime #1
Steve Rogers and Tony Stark face off in the ruins of Asgard, moments after the events of Siege. And yet, somehow, Tony already knows that Steve is going to be "the new Nick Fury". Precognition powers or continuity error? I think we know the answer to this one: BENDIIIIIIIIIS!
Transistors: the answer to everything!
Oh just Steve Rogers being his awesome self.
Brightest Day #3
Man, The Free Willy sequels really took a turn for the worse after the second one. Seriously though, the image of Aquaman getting mauled by an orca made me laugh out loud.
The implication here is that Ronnie Raymond knew what he was doing all along when he turned that girl into salt, and the whole time he was a Black Lantern. What do you guys think?
I'm going to spare you the "HEY KIDS, COMICS!" joke, and just point out that one of the corpses shown here, that were completely skinned, is from a teenage girl that was shown in the previous issue playing video games. You stay classy, DC. (cue the haters)
Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of our Fathers #3
Armless Tiger Man, the sensational character find of 2010. Or is he really a character from the Golden Age? Either way, completely ridiculous.
Franken-Castle #17
We all knew that Frank Castle would eventually go back to his former self sooner or later, and we see some of that seeding here. The Bloodstone, which has regenerative powers, is inserted into his body.
Invincible #72
Looks like the latest issue of Invincible was really... gut wrenching.
Joker's Asylum II - The Riddler #1
The Joker: Worst. Roommate. Ever.
Red Hood: The Lost Days #1
Jason Todd totally Kill Bill-ed his way out of the grave, apparently. I also wanted to mention Pablo Raimondi's artwork here, which looks absolutely spectacular here. He's much better suited to real life stuff than the space opera they had him doing in Realm Of Kings: Inhumans.
Red Robin #13
Oh no he didn't! He brought up the pixie boots!
The Thanos Imperative #1
Kirk mentioned some of the issues with the art and the coloring in his review of this book, but I also wanted to mention something else: What the hell is up with Groot? It feels like Miguel Sepulveda didn't know how to draw him, so he avoided having him throughout the issue (he only shows up in three or four panels at most), and he looks like crap in all of them. Not to mention he looks pretty small, considering other artists depict him the size of a small hill.
I have to admit, this is a pretty awesome splash page, and a demonic version of the Defenders with Namor, Doctor Strange, and the Hulk plus the others would make just about anyone crap their pants. That being said, if I am allowed to put on my nerd hat, we had already seen a Hulk, in the Realm of Kings one-shot, and he looked nothing like this, plus he was killed by the Revengers! Tut tut, DnA!
Thor and the Warriors Four #3
The Corporate Shake-Up
Vertigo has always been Karen Berger's baby
During the restructure of DC comics last year, there was one very big surprise: Karen Berger was not part of the new head office of the DC that is now made up of Diane Nelson, Jim Lee, Dan Didio, and Geoff Johns among others. Berger handled the Vertigo ship since it's inception in 1993, and has been responsible for a plethora of critically acclaimed and commercially successful comics, including several that have been turned into films and other media, not to mention working as a fertile ground for upcoming and hot new creators and being a key factor in introducing comic book collections and graphic novels into the bookstore market. The importance of Vertigo cannot be understated, both commercially and in the advancement of the art form. You would figure that during the establishing period of the new DC corporate organization, Berger would be rewarded for all her hard work. Did Berger get the raw end of the deal during this shake-up? Did that chill the relationships between the editorial offices?
The Direct Market
"I would like to see more focus on the periodicals"
In recent interviews, editors from DC have said that they wanted to concentrate more in the direct market, with the hopes of beating Marvel who is currently the leader in that front. More specifically, as the quote above signals, they want to concentrate on the periodicals. You know what titles have notoriously bad sales in the periodical direct market? Vertigo. Of course, to say that Vertigo titles are not commercially successful would completely remiss, as their titles usually do extremely well outside of the direct market, notably in book stores with their collections. Recently, Vertigo has started releasing original graphic novels, such as Area 10, Noir, and more, with several set for release in the future. Maybe Vertigo will start switching slowly to releasing material in the format, since it's the one preferred by the majority of their readers?
The CMX Effect
Over the course of the last six years, CMX has brought a diverse list of titles to America and we value the books and creators that we helped introduce to a new audience.
Of course, these news come hot on the heels of the closing down of another imprint over at DC, the CMX manga imprint. Much like Vertigo, their titles do not perform well in the direct market (though with the extra baggage of not being able to compete very well with other manga). With the kind of heat that the move earned among the fans, and with aforementioned worth of the Vertigo, it's very unlikely that the imprint would close down. That being said, it is a definite sign of the fact that the company is modifying and altering venues that are not profitable in the short term. Also worth mentioning is the recent change in structure to the way that Zuda works, which has dropped the competition aspect of it.Yet another symptom of the fundamental changes that are going on in DC. Will DC change Vertigo's publishing plans? As an effect of the tough economic situation, could Vertigo be on the receiving end of a cutback in their staff or resources?
The Past
"I think Vertigo has always been about just shaking up the status quo, telling stories that [make] you really think in a variety of genres."
And finally, all the characters that were originally DC's, though published under the Vertigo imprint, are going back to the main universe. During the early days of Vertigo and proto-Vertigo, many characters were originally introduced in DC, or Vertigo made popular reinventions of them, making them fresh or interesting again. Besides the aforementioned characters, this also includes other titles like House of Mystery, Unknown Soldier (which recently got a cancellation notice) Madame Xanadu, and if you want to get technical maybe even The Losers, among others. The most troubling one is perhaps Constantine, which is Vertigo's longest running title, with over two hundred issues so far. Removing all of these properties from the Vertigo imprint would be quite a blow, and reduce Vertigo's current output. It would also mean that all of the Vertigo titles left wold be creator owned, so if some kind of adaptation is made out of them, I'm not sure if DC gets any financial gain out of those.
The Future
"There's a flavor, there's a need, there's a tone to those type of stories, and we're going to make sure we keep doing them"
So where would that leave Vertigo? With less established properties to draw from, they will have to concentrate more on new creations. This is not completely a problem, as recent new titles like American Vampire, The Unwritten, Fables and Scalped have proved to be quite popular and critically acclaimed. Of course, completely foregoing the floppy format in the direct market could potentially be a problem, and something very unlikely for an American publisher of this size. Less resources is something that no company wants, and what could probably hit Vertigo the hardest.
Where do you think Vertigo is going to go next? Where do you want it to go? Do you think we'll hear more about the future of Vertigo this weekend t HeroesCon? Let us know what you think in the comments section.
The Thanos Imperative #1 Review *Spoilers*
Posted: 03 Jun 2010 10:42 PM PDT
After releasing a primer on this event earlier today, you probably should have expected me to come back with an image and spoiler heavy review of the first issue of The Thanos Imperative. Hit the jump to find out how the first issue holds up!
THANOS IMPERATIVE #1Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Art by Miguel Sepulveda
First off, this issue reminded me a lot of Annihilation in both scope and tone. We've got an army from another universe invading ours, all the heavy hitters - Thanos, Nova, Silver Surfer, Drax, Gamora, Gladiator, etc - involved, the prelude issue featured a huge reveal and kicked the war off with a bang last week and we even get a flashback to the original Annihilation to start the issue off.
Where both Annihilation: Conquest and War of Kings were sort of their own events and had their own themes and pacing, this is the first one that has recaptured that magic of the first Annihilation for me. Both were good in their own right and went their own way, but neither felt like a true sequel to Annihilation. Thanos Imperative does.
Rocket Raccoon threatens the weakened Thanos with the prospect of endless life.
One thing I think Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have managed to perfect over the course of their previous two events is the art of juggling their ensemble cast. There's a lot of people involved in this event and lots of bases to cover. They skillfully jump back and forth between these characters, always giving us just enough pages and information to make each moment matter without dragging down the story or creating jarring shifts in narrative. Every page feels important on some level and like the content we are getting matters and that's something many events struggle with delivering. Every event can manage a big splashpage or shock death or stunning reveal. Few can keep the story between these moments just as engaging.
If you read last week's Thanos Imperative: Ignition, you're familiar with the story. Adam Warlock/Magus destroyed several Universal Church of Truth planets and the faith power they had stored up in an effort to breach The Fault and make way for the arrival of his lord, the evil version of Captain Mar-Vell from the Cancerverse, the universe found on the other side of The Fault during the recent Realm of Kings storylines. This universe is one in which life has won out and now grows out unchecked like a cancerous tumour. They've literally filled their universe with the twisted, Lovecraftian monsters and doppleganger versions of our heroes and are looking to metastasize into ours. But first, they have to kill death in our universe or, at least, the Avatar of Death, presumably Thanos, though there are hints given here that he may not actually be the true avatar.
Meet The Revengers - evil versions of our Avengers from the Cancerverse
This issue continues the story set up in Ignition by showing the aftermath of The Fault armies invading our universe. The Kree and Shi'ar armadas stationed at The Fault were nearly decimated in the explosion set off by Magus and are now shown struggling against the Cancerverse monsters.
While the two empires deal with the initial onslaught of The Fault forces, the Guardians of the Galaxy were shown dealing with Thanos, who broke free of his restraints in Ignition. I loved this scene primarily for the Rocket Raccoon moment. Thanos had Starlord in a death grip and was about to kill him before Rocket Raccoon showed up in a power suit. He knew the suit wouldn't kill Thanos and told him as much. However, he tells Thanos that the suit will disable him in his weakened state long enough for them to drop him off at a nearby black hole. Yes, Rocket knows Thanos's weakness - he doesn't want to live. The event horizon would ensure Thanos lived an endless life and be unable to die. It was a great scene and captured what made both Thanos and Rocket great characters.
A quiet moment of contemplation for the Silver Surfer as he observes the fallout of the war at The Fault.
Another stunning moment in its simplicity was the arrival of the Silver Surfer. We were following the battle at The Fault between our universe's protectors and the Cancerverse's initial wave of monsters. This is a losing battle for us and we see each group taking heavy losses and the chaos that is ensuing. This is then juxtaposed with a zoomed out view of the conflict from the Silver Surfer's perspective light years away. Like I said, it's a simple scene, but powerful in its execution.
From here, Abnett and Lanning move the story forward at breakneck speeds. The Guardians of the Galaxy learn of the conflict at The Fault and decide to enlist Thanos's aid in stopping it. Thanos gets his old yellow and blue costume back and even Drax gets in on the retro look with a new costume based more on his older green and purple Drax costume instead of the Vin Diesel look he'd been sporting. The two even have a great moment where they acknowledge Thanos's death at Drax's hands in Annihilation while poking some fun at the nature of death in comics. The issue ended with the group using Knowhere's teleporters to enter the Cancerverse for some unknown reason (it's not explicitly stated why they go or what they are looking for), but are immediately confronted by that universe's evil version of the Defenders.
It's rare that a preview page for the next issue can overshadow everything else in a comic, but with a page like this, it'd be hard for almost anything to top it.
There was one more thing that made this issue special for me and it was the sketch previews for issue two found at the back. In a word, these are epic. I loved this first issue and it had me believing it was the true successor to the original Annihilation, but these preview pages were absolutely amazing. The most pertinent one to mention is the splashpage featuring Galactus, Tenebrus and Aegis all united together and shown destroying The Fault forces. I don't know how anyone could see this page and not be excited or left in anguish over the fact we have to wait another month for the next issue.
Final thing worth touching upon is the art. Miguel Sepulveda does some nice work here, but I felt it was a little inconsistent. There are moments it looks stunning, like with the Silver Surfer moment or any pages with The Fault forces, such as the Revengers or evil Defenders, not to mention that Galactus preview page, but there are others, like the early Guardians of the Galaxy pages and some of the Shi'ar and Kree moments, that look rushed or like someone else drew them, particularly when it comes to facial expressions. Overall, I'm quite happy with the art, but it's no Paul Pelletier (War of Kings) or Andrea Di Vito (Annihilation) either.
No comments:
Post a Comment