Reading Comics 229 "Tom King, Vertigo, Recent Comics"

Okay!  If I'd written this earlier, I'd be talking about less, but here we are and now there's more...

Apparently it was DC's decision for Tom King to leave Batman itself to finish the story in Batman/Catwoman?  Or maybe there's an explanation that doesn't sound sinister?  But, in news that's only relevant to people who aren't on the internet (yay troglodytes!), King's work is still appearing in the Superman 100-Page Giants found at Wal-Mart.  I confirmed this (but have yet to read it) with the recently released Superman Giant #12. 

Apparently DC has cancelled the Vertigo imprint.  There will be a lot of fans freaking out over this, how DC's killing a part of its soul or whatever, but really...I don't see a real problem here.  Vertigo hasn't really been Vertigo since Scott Snyder backed off of American Vampire, which was the last major series launched under the imprint.  And in that regard, the big send-off for trade-friendly Fables might be considered the real end of the imprint, getting a trade-size (and published in trade format, no less) final issue.  Fans will say it's because Karen Berger was released as managing editor, but Fables and the most recent issue of American Vampire were released in 2015.  That's a long time for the imprint to linger in irrelevance.  Meanwhile, times changed.  The Walking Dead, which in a lot of respects was a Vertigo title published by Image, was a game-changer.  Image itself transitioned into a Vertigo mentality after pushing the superhero format in the '90s.  And there are dozens of smaller publishers now operating that also follow the Vertigo template, which itself began by collecting a number of existing DC titles that were intended for mature readers, which...

And that's the new plan, by the way.  The new DC Black Label will now be the destination of anything that might've once been Vertigo.  There's also Brian Michael Bendis's Jinxworld, which is its own DC imprint, which in earlier times would have been part of Vertigo.  (Bendis was operating more or less this way with Marvel, too, which never made a serious move to expand into other creators producing creator-owned material.)

So again, I say there's nothing to complain about here.  Paul Cornell was able to retrieve the rights to Saucer Country, which for all intents and purposes was a post-Berger Vertigo series, and continue it at IDW as Saucer State.  The Vertigo mystique did nothing to salvage G. Willow Wilson's seminal Air, which sputtered under little critical or fan attention under Berger's watch from 2008 to 2010.  What Fables did was itself signal the end of an era, in which Vertigo was previously known for dark genre instead became home to light genre material, which couldn't sustain the same cult following.

Anyway, here's some comics I read recently:

Batman: Last Knight on Earth #1 (DC)
Here's Snyder and Greg Capullo reuniting for one last grand Batman story.  As suggested previously and as I hoped to see since Snyder's contribution to the 'New 52" era Detective Comics #27, it's finally an extended look at the concept of Batman producing a series of clones to continue the crusade past his original lifetime.  I'm not sure this debut entirely squares with the concept, but I do love that Snyder heavily leans into his concept that Batman and the Joker are essentially an odd couple, having progressed well beyond hero-and-villain status.  The idea of Batman carrying around the disembodied head of the Joker is the best thing I've come across in a Scott Snyder comic, where he's finally and truly gone as wild as he could imagine.

Daredevil #6 (Marvel)
Chip Zdarsky's wonderful run continues.  I hope fans are registering its existence.

Ascender #2 (Image)
Lemire and Nguyen's Descender sequel continues.

Doomsday Clock #10 (DC)
I made sure to buy this issue (I committed to tradewaiting the series after missing too many previous issues, including the first one) after coming back to the Geek Twins, a break that corresponded with the death of my mother and the exploding of what had been a regular blogging habit, and finding that they heartily recommended it as a unique way for DC and/or Geoff Johns to once and for all reconcile the multiverse by redubbing it the metaverse.  This issue sees Doctor Manhattan explaining his journey post-Watchmen by, in part, revisiting all the times DC has rebooted its continuity, starting well before the famous Crisis on Infinite Earths.  And my fears that Doomsday Clock would duplicate what Johns had done previously in Infinite Crisis were alleviated.  Basically the pivotal issue of the series and a landmark in DC lore in general.

Heroes in Crisis #9 (DC)
There ended up being a lively discussion as to what exactly this series accomplished over at Speed Force, and then DC solicited Flash Forward, which will act as a sequel and spotlight for Wally West, and I wonder if any of the fans upset over what Tom King "did to him" will begin reconsidering.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see.  Me, as I tend to, I thought King's work was brilliant.

The Immortal Hulk #2, 18 (Marvel)
Al Ewing put himself on the map with this one.  Essentially an in-continuity of the classic Hulk TV series, Bruce Banner's back as the Hulk, but he's skulking around the country trying to keep the beast at bay, and stumbling into horror stories along the way.  Anyway, it's good reading, and fans have certainly noticed, and I'm glad I had a look.

Naomi #5 (DC)
The other Bendis imprint at DC these days, Wonder Comics, launched Naomi with the promise that eventually it would seem important.  Well, I finally got to have a look, and with exactly the right issue, in which we learn that she comes from an alternate Earth, which is an idea that surprisingly hasn't really been done before, even though DC has visited dozens and dozens of alternate realities over the years.  The closest is Superman, probably, who in current continuity is actually a survivor of a previous one (which is something you don't need to know to enjoy his latest adventures, but sounds exactly like the insanity that led to Crisis on Infinite Earths to begin with).

Sasquatch Detective 64-Page Special (DC)
Originally a back-up feature in Mark Russell's Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles, this is essentially DC allowing itself to have some family-friendly fan with something that isn't based on an existing franchise.  If it were Marvel, there'd already have been an ongoing series and several dozen more concepts exactly like it.  DC restraint!

Superman: Leviathan Rising (DC)
Originally previewed in Year of the Villain, this intro to the Bendis event conveniently called Event Leviathan was most appreciated by me for its preview of Matt Fraction's Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, which was a real treat to read.  And for those wondering, the Bendis Leviathan is the same as the Morrison Leviathan, this time with (seemingly) less Talia.  So yeah, Morrison's Batman is the gift that keeps giving.