SDCC Comc News

[spider_man6]

Today at SDCC, a variety of new comics were announced from various publishers. Here are some of them.

At DC's "Dark Matter" panel, several new books were announced. The first is "The Terrifics" by Jeff Lemire and Ivan Reis. It's a Fantastic Four-esque book that features Mr.Terrifc, Phantom Girl, Plastic Man, and Metamorpho. It's described focusing on family, each hero having a similar black and white themed costume design. It was suggested by Scott Snyder that Plastic Man's new costume has a connection to his son, Offspring. Lemire is also doing a one-shot for Metal called "Hawkman: Found," and hints he may do a Hawkman ongoing later on.

http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/DC-Comics-Rebirth-the-Terrifics-not-Outsiders-300x158.jpg

Justin Jordan and Philip Tan are doing "Brimstone," a new horror book part of Dark Matter. The character can be seen on the far right of the Dark Matter poster for SDCC 2017, next to teleporter Sideways.

Scott Synder and a DC workshop writer, Tony Patrick, are writing a Duke Tomas book called "Batman: The Signal". Duke is now going to be known as the Signal and will operate in daylight.

Young Animal is doing a crossover with the Rebirth books through four one shots that will impact everything later on.

Meanwhile, Marvel announced at the "Secret Empire" panel that "Captain America," going forward, will be helmed by the "Daredevil" team of Mark Waid and Christ Samnee starting in #695. This will be a back-to-basics approach, with Steve wearing his classic costume and traveling the country to get input from people. No details on how Secret Empire's ending allows this, but we'll probably find out soon. Marvel also revealed that several series link Power Pack, Dazzler, and Darkhawk will be getting Marvel Legacy one-shots that continue each series for one issue. This allows the company to continue obscure and fan-favorite characters without starting new series.

And finally, IDW announced they've partnered with SEGA to do Sonic the Hedgehog comics starting next year. I know many here at scans daily were anticipating and hoping for this, so I hope this helps.

Honestly, all of these announcements are killer. I am particularly excited about "The Terrifics," as it's bringing back Plastic Man and Metamorpho.

Thoughts?

Comments

[informationgeek]

The Terrifics sounds like fun and like I said in a different topic, that's shade right there that DC's tossing at Marvel.

[spider_man6]

Yeah. It really is. Also, like I said before, them not have variant covers totally says they're throwing even more shade at marvel.

[thehood]

Especially since they have a writer that just come from Marvel.

[candescencearia]

IDW doing Sonic? Oh, thank God for that. And according to the announcement from IDW, it seems they have an ear to the ground for what the fans want.

Hopefully Capcom follows suit and switches Mega Man over as well. But otherwise, potentials for crossovers with the Hasbroverse, TMNT and MLP would be pretty rad, too.

[panthyr]

"Captain America: Grounded"?

[starwolf_oakley]

Captain America as a Hard Travelling Hero? Well, if Mark Waid is doing it. Waid can have Cap fight Nightmare or Klaw and have it work.

[thatnickguy]

I don't know. Nothing announced at SDCC so far is really getting me excited. Then again, I've lost pretty much all interest in anything DC or Marvel produces. With rare exceptions like Vision, Squirrel Girl, Prez, Omega Men; basically, books that are largely accessible without needing to follow the giant stupid events.

Image still has a panel sometime this weekend, don't they? Maybe some new creator-owned series will be announced that I can get excited about.

Also, you might want to re-size the image for this post.

[scorntx]

Gotta admire Snyder's commitment to making Duke Thomas happen, if nothing else.


Yay, more Darkhawk.
It'd be nice if a writer followed up on the whole "Fraternity of Raptors" plot from War of Kings.
Just... a group of dark magic fuelled assassins with power armour seems like the sort of thing that should be... maybe a concern?

[long_silence]

The Fraternity of Raptors was just in this week's All New Guardians of the Galaxy, apparently the Milano was one of their ships before Quill stole it and the Fraternity attacked to retrieve something they had left on board.

[thanekos]

I eagerly await Doctor Cyber's grudge against Mister Terrific.

[cricharddavies]

... Phantom Girl? As in the Legionnaire?

[katefan]

Hard to say from just this article, but it feels like Marvel has zero clues how to move forward after their Event and non-Event titles. DC seems to have some interesting ideas in the works.

And yeah, I agree with others, The Terrifics looks like it could be a lot of fun.

[michaelsaint]

I 100% agree with your assessment of Marvel's post-event ideas. It is like they have no real plans for characters or storylines.

I really wonder sometimes if Marvel's movie successes and merger with Disney haven't caused the company to lose focus on what they are. They make movies everyone wants to see but that audience is not the same audience that buys comic books regularly or ever will.

Balancing those two audiences and the desires of Mickey Mouse Inc. is probably a hard feat to accomplish.

[katefan]

I don't know about that. The movies cater to a broad fan base, while the comics seem very preachy. And now with the latest issue of America some of the writers aren't even trying to hide their social agendas.

And look, I don't need gratuitous sexualization in comics; I don't need Ed Benes drawing every heroine in a thong like he was wont to do over at DC a few years ago. But is is me or is there some sort of push to make more and more female characters unattractive or unappealing? Or is that just the artists they're hiring?

[stubbleupdate]

Which characters would you class as "unattractive and unappealing?"

[katefan]

By the way, I responded to Michael below, he echoed your question. I honestly didn't want you to think I was being disrespectful and ignoring your question. In retrospect I should have responded to yours and told him to look at my response to you. Apologies.

[michaelsaint]

I am going to second that.

Which characters are you putting in the class of "unattractive and unappealing"?

[katefan]

Squirrel Girl looks terrible in her own comic, America doesn't look very good when drawn by bother the artists that have worked on her title. I don't care for how Jennifer Walters looks either as herself or in her new incarnation. I've never been crazy about Spider Woman's new look. Mary Jane Watson used to be considered one of the most beautiful women in comics, she even made a living as a fashion model. Now she's just a poor Pepper Potts stand in, an utterly generic Riri Williams cheerleader.

Who else? Not crazy about Elektra's new outfit. I don't care how impractical her old one was, now she just looks like a generic ninja person. But I think the most terrible change has been to Captain Marvel, where they have steadily made her look less and less feminine over the past few years.

[michaelsaint]

Oh. I see what you are saying. That makes sense.

I guess some of the changes, like Captain Marvel's, are to appeal to different parts of the fan base, but others are might just be new writers and artists trying to make their mark on certain characters.

Honestly, I am not sure. I hadn't really noticed any of this stuff until you pointed it out.

Good eye.

[katefan]

I don't know if it's that I have a good eye or not. Comics are a visual medium and if the art and characters aren't visually appealing then I'm less likely to buy the comic. And Marvel and DC know this, too. Why else do you often see a comic where the cover art is superior to the interior art? I assume the cover artist is either too expensive to hire to do the interior art or (s)he can't meet a monthly deadline to do it. So we get slick packaging for a sub standard product.

Unless you're Squirrel Girl. I'll give them credit; most of the covers seem to be done by the interior artist so you what you see is what you get.

A good example are the first four issues of America. Those covers are nice? The interiors? Yeah, not so much.

Mod Note!

[icon_uk]

That image above the cut is significantly larger than the 300x400 maximum allowed. PLease either shrink it, or put it under the cut.

[malitia]

Well, my reaction was a resounding "Meh!".

[michaelsaint]

I really like this!!

It seems like a lot of fun and I love the originality. (Even though it is an obvious take on the Fantastic Four. In some ways I guess that makes it a twist on an old classic.)

I will definitely be adding this to my pull list.

[zachbeacon]

I kinda love that the Terrifics are clearly the FF ... who are clearly the Challengers of the Unknown.

Good luck claiming the moral high ground, Marvel.

Haven't laughed this hard at a someone "stealing" their own character since I saw that the Venom verse version of Ghost Rider looks suspiciously like Spawn ... who's really just those two with some Nightwatch thrown in.

[silverhammerman]

Thanks for posting, it's good to see a straightforward roundup of the actual comics announcements from SDCC.

Personally none of the DC Metal stuff has interested me so far, but I am beyond pumped about The Terrifics. Lemire isn't my favorite writer, but the concept and lineup sounds highly enjoyable and I'm given to understand that Ivan Reis will actually be sharing art duties with Doc Shaner, which is a hell of an art team. Plus I admire the outright cheek of DC here, just openly drinking Marvel's milkshake as it where.

Real question about Duke Thomas as the Signal: wasn't it stated months ago that his superhero name was Lark or something like that? Anyway, his series could be interesting, and while I don't much care for Batman's absolute glut of sidekicks at this point, I do like the idea of positioning The Signal to cover a niche that really isn't filled in the current take on the Batfamily. Though I do wonder how long it'll be until his default storyline becomes about how he's trying to be a bright and shiny hero but is constantly dragged back into Gotham's fetid underbelly. My guess is that at latest we see it literally as soon as a writer other than Scott Snyder is guiding things.

As for the Captain America announcement, I'm moderately excited, but not as much as I'd have been a couple of years ago. It's not the boldest move that Marvel could have made (If they really wanted to be bold they should have given it to David Walker) but as a team pulled from Marvel's very safe backbench goes, Waid and Samnee are virtually unparalleled in the strength of their collaboration. That being said... I don't think Waid is necessarily the right choice for this particular book at this particular moment. This series seems like as close as we'll ever get to Marvel doing a mea culpa for Nick Spencer's large scale trainwreck of a run, and I don't think that Waid is the writer for the job. Champions showed pretty clearly that Waid doesn't have his finger anywhere near the pulse of current events and his online behavior doesn't suggest that Waid would be at all interested or even equipped to win back the fans who have bailed due to Marvel and Spencer's nonsense. Which would be okay if this were a back to basics book in terms of focusing on action and adventure, but the premise of Captain America specifically going around and seeking input from people has me more than a little nervous.

[laughing_tree]

What makes you see the Waid/Samnee as a mea culpa? Waid was one of Spencer's strongest defenders on Twitter.

[silverhammerman]

Well that's exactly my point, though I should have been more clear. Marvel would never ever issue anything approaching a genuine mea culpa, especially these days, but course correction with a back to basics approach, an all star creative team, and a premise which is seemingly reacting to the fallout of Secret Empire almost looks like one, if seen from the right angle. And I think it's probably supposed to look enough like one that it could potentially lure back some less critical readers.

But as you said, Waid's vigorous defence of Spencer makes it pretty obvious that this isn't going to genuinely grapple with what went wrong during the previous run and the many valid criticisms which people had.

[laughing_tree]

What makes you see this as a mea culpa in *any sense*? Stuff like hiring an all star creative team and dealing with the consequences of the previous run are pretty obvious and basic things to do regardless of how well-received the previous run was, no? If anything, dealing with the consequences is more often done when the opinion of a previous run is positive.

When comics want to draw a line under previous work, the normal tactic is to quickly get it out of the way and never mention it again. See, for example, how Ennis spent a single page to undo the "Punisher as a supernatural angel" concept when he came on board.

[silverhammerman]

I don't really agree with your argument here, sure comics tend not to dwell on the past, and in the context of certain things (like angel Punisher, or The Draco) it's possible to dispense with them with a simple handwave before moving on, but if it's something big that's not usually the case. I mean after Grant Morrison had Magneto marching people into crematoriums, Marvel didn't just have Magneto return and then never speak of it again, they went out of their way to come up with a very convoluted explanation about how that definitely wasn't the real Magneto, no matter how little sense that made. Or look at DC Rebirth, which was all but explicitly about how the New 52 was a bad decision and DC wanted to bring back stuff that fans missed. There's a proud tradition in comics of vigorously retconning or trying to undo ill conceived material.

If it's a big enough disaster it's not unheard of for a publisher to address it. So I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to have at least hoped that Marvel might want to do right by certain fans in addressing their concerns. On further reflection it's pretty obvious that Marvel won't do that, but you can hardly blame me for hoping.