DC Solicits of Interest - Febuary 2013

[espanolbot]

KATANA #1


Written by ANN NOCENTI
Art by ALEX SANCHEZ
Cover by DAVID FINCH
1:50 Variant cover by DAVID FINCH
On sale FEBRUARY 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Retailers: This issue will ship with two covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• From the pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA and BIRDS OF PREY!
• KATANA is a former assassin on a noble quest to restore the OUTSIDERS to their former glory!
• Will she succeed, or will she be overcome by the power of her sword, the SoulTaker?

Looking forward to this, but is there something wrong with her legs?

BATMAN, INCORPORATED #8


Written by GRANT MORRISON
Art and cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
Variant cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
1:100 B&W Variant cover by CHRIS BURNHAM
On sale FEBRUARY 27 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $3.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with four covers. Please see the Order Form for details.
• Everything Grant Morrison has been planning since the start of BATMAN, INCORPORATED leads to this stunning issue!
• You must not miss this one!
This issue is also offered as a combo pack edition with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.

What a good solicit, I have no idea what the story of the issue is.

BATMAN #17


Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art by GREG CAPULLO and JONATHAN GLAPION
Cover by GREG CAPULLO
Variant cover by TONY S. DANIEL and BATT
1:100 B&W Variant cover by GREG CAPULLO
On sale FEBRUARY 13 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $4.99 US
Retailers: This issue will ship with four covers. Please see the order form for more information.
• This is it: The stunning conclusion to “DEATH OF THE FAMILY”!
• Who lives? Who dies? Who laughs last? Find out as Batman and The Joker face off one last time!
This issue is also offered as a combo pack edition with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.

Can't wait. ^^

BATGIRL #17


Written by GAIL SIMONE
Art by ED BENES
Cover by JUAN JOSE RYP
On sale FEBRUARY 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• Barbara Gordon must deal with the fallout from “DEATH OF THE FAMILY” in this issue that will forever change her status quo in The New 52!
• What does James Gordon Jr. have planned for his sister, Batgirl

Wow, James seems to be going out from the emotionaless, even tempered thing hasn't he?

DEMON KNIGHTS #17


Written by ROBERT VENDITTI
Art and cover by BERNARD CHANG
On sale FEBRUARY 13 • 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US • RATED T
• How can things get worse for Jason Blood, the man bonded for eternity to the Demon Etrigan? Let’s start with decades of brutal torture…
• Vandal Savage is on the scene to rescue Blood, which may not be a good thing.
• And where is Madame Xanadu?

In Justice League Dark and Stormwatch!

ALL-STAR WESTERN #17


Written by JUSTIN GRAY and JIMMY PALMIOTTI
Art by MORITAT
Backup story art by STAZ JOHNSON
Cover by BILL SIENKIEWICZ
On sale FEBRUARY 27 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T+
• Gather round for a lesson in the terrible secret history of Gotham City with Jonah Hex!
• Hex and Doctor Arkham are at the forefront as a disease threatens to destroy part of the city. The patient survival rate is looking pretty grim…
• Plus: In the backup story, meet Jenny Freedom and the StormWatch of the 19th century!

Yay, more Gotham history! And eee! Jennys!

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #5


Written by JOSHUA HALE FIALKOV
Art and cover by PHIL HESTER and ERIC GAPSTUR
On sale FEBRUARY 6 • 40 pg, FC, $3.99 US • RATED T
• The first time in print for these digital-first adventures!
• Gotham City private eye Slam Bradley finds himself in quite a predicament…
• Caught between the Black Mask gang, the GCPD, and Batman, Slam is desperate. Does he have one final ace left up his sleeve?

Slam! Black Mask! Probably there'll be no references to their previous meetings in the preboot DCU though...

Comments

[whoha]

Legend of the Dark Knight doesn't take place in the pre or post new 52 continuity. It's does the Batman Black and White approach to continuity with there being none from creator to creator.

[silverhammerman]

Yeah, I really don't appreciate how a lot of the time the solicitation text doesn't tell you a damn thing about the story. All the Before Watchmen stuff has been particularly bad about that, with a vague quote from the the story and another line wasted hyping the Crimson Corsair backup, like that's what everyone is just clamoring for with these books. It's immensely frustrating, but I guess that's just what happens when you're soliciting stories 3 months in advance and they're all continuations of stories that are currently underway.
Still not sure about Katana though, not only in that they're jumping the gun on the popularity thing, but also in that the character is just a little uncomfortable. I'll let the name slide, but the fact that she's literally got the Japanese flag on her forehead and is on a "noble quest" to "restore honor" is just a bit to much for me. It borders on Captain Ethnic territory for me personally, as a guy who knows virtually nothing about the character beyond what I'm seeing in the solicit. That, and SoulTaker sounds like a Legacy of Kain game, just putting that out there, especially if it's actually supposed to have that T capitalized.
Batman looks good, I wasn't looking forward to the story arc going in but the first issue was well written, so while I'm still not in love with it I'm definitely going to give it a chance.

[deleonjh]

They should at least update their stereotypes and have Katana on a noble quest to recapture her childhood Pokemon. Or go with a different stereotype and have her kill people by the light flashing from her supernatural vagina.

[donnblake]

I haven't followed the actual Death of the Family storyline, but damn that's a gorgeous cover (Batman 17).

[darkknightjrk]

What's also of note with the Katana solicit is that this apparently brings back some version of the Outsiders into the New 52.

With Incorporated, I think what we'll see is the reveal of who The Heretic is, who we see as that shadow at the bottom.

[victory_or_death]

Oh. I thought they were being menaced by Optimus Prime. O_o

[darkknightjrk]

Yep--he's basically been "Leviathan"/Talia's right-hand man since Batman: The Return, where Damian encounters him, saying that he doesn't know who the Heretic is, but soon he will. The popular theory is that the Heretic is the cloned Damian that we saw at the end of the Batman Vs. Robin arc.

[midnightvoyager]

The second and fourth covers are seriously hilarious. The second... Batman just looks super-comical. But the fourth? Oh my god the lines. Everything is lines. The costume is really ugly, the poses are ugly and weird and kinda jumbled... it's all pretty dang ugly.

[rainspirit]

Everything is lines... EVERYTHING IS LIIIIIIINES!

[darkknightjrk]

I honestly love both of those covers. Burnham's art in Incorporated saddles that line between realism and cartooning really well, and the Batgirl cover really sells the scariness of what is to come.

[junipepper]

I am perplexed by Damien's head; it appears to have been replaced by a dinner plate. Also, in my head canon, Batman and Robin have necks...

[lieut_kettch]

Jenny Freedom? Sounds like Jenny Revolution in the old WS 'verse. She was the spirit of the 18th century. Wasn't a lot of freedom going around in the world in the 19th, what with the US embracing Manifest Destiny, the British Empire at its peak, and Africa getting partitioned among the European powers.

IIRC, it was Jenny Steam that was the spirit of the 19th century. And her "Steam Wonder." Which was actually an coal-fired... uh, ehm, "hysteria cure."

[espanolbot]

It depends who the freedom is for. Slavery was abolished in the UK in 1833 (a little later in the Empire itself), and then in the US a little later (well... thirty to forty years later, and you needed a civil war to get it established properly). This is in addition to the rise of the general public being given the right to vote for the first time in UK and US elections (with exceptions that would be won in the 20th century), as well as the rise of communism, the tailend of the revolutions from the end of the 18th century and the like.

It would be kind of skewed if it turned out that Jenny Freedom was actually from the South, and the "freedom" she was meant to represent was freedom from the federal govnerment interfering in state affairs though...

As in, one of those people who saw Lincoln and the Union as tyrants trying to enforce their will on the entire country regardless of States' Rights, as opposed to being pro- or anti-slavery. (Hex joined the war on the Confederate side because he was from Virginia and he wanted to defend his home state, for example, rather than being pro-slavery.)

[eyz]

Katana!!! <3
I'll be looking forward to her own series^^

[leoboiko]

…"Katana" wields a falchion?

[wizardru]

Yeah, that's....super-weird. I mean, that's not some super-stylized version of a katana, it's a totally different style of sword. Odd art choice, that.

[espanolbot]

Artists are lazy sometimes and forget that a katana is a specific kind of sword?

Or the forsake accuracy for artist license?

[leoboiko]

It's just extra funny because she's not just a Japanese katana-user but even actually named Katana. Perhaps she's rebelling against stereotypes. (I actually think a falchion would be a better weapon for superheroing anyway.)

Then again, the lone shoulder guard makes no sense (and we have better armor nowadays), the sword guard is awful and backwards, the balancing of that huge blade without a pommel must be horrible, her legs are weird, her spine is weird, and the kana in the sign behind her are weird. So I guest it's better to assume the artist didn't care for researching anything and just wanted to draw whatever he thought was "cool" and "sexy", and let's try not thinking too much about it.

[junipepper]

"Looking forward to this, but is there something wrong with her legs?


I think those are supposed to be shadows, not that that makes any sense either -- and really, one shouldn't have to work quite this hard just to figure out which body parts are which. But it does provide a distraction from her weirdly twisted spine and her bizarre, utterly inappropriate, equipment...

I'm scrolling down the Batgirl cover and BOOBS BOOBS BOOBS

[maxisanacorn]

Babs is the most objectified Batgirl, for sure.

[blackruzsa]

Yup, Katana's left leg is larger than her right one, which is a tad too big even for one that's bending forward.