With tomorrow's midnight release of
Justice League 1, the New 52 begins. (Incidentally, I'm curious to see whether there will be a midnight release on Comixology since DC has given retailers the option, and if so what time zone's midnight it will be. If
Justice League 1 is in fact released digitally at, say, midnight Eastern time, I'll be reviewing it within an hour thereof.) At any rate, since the subtitle of this blog is "My Digital Pull List," I thought it would be appropriate to actually list the titles I plan on getting. Since I'll be buying only the comics I'm most anxious for on the day they're released and waiting a month to buy the rest when the price drops a dollar, I'm dividing the titles into two lists (each subject to change without warning). Also, a word or two on why I'm planning to buy each one. Without further ado:
Day-And-Date
- Justice League--because, duh, Geoff Johns + Jim Lee + World's Greatest Heroes (tm)
- Action Comics--see above, but insert Grant Morrison + Rags Morales in Geoff and Jim's spots, and lose the plural on Heroes
- Batgirl--I'm a little skeptical about Babs losing the wheelchair and the Oracle identity, but if anyone can pull it off, it's Gail Simone
- Justice League International--I enjoyed Generation Lost and although this is not by the same writer, it looks like it's going for a similar feel, capturing the essence of the Giffen/DeMatteis League without trying to recreate it
- Stormwatch--I loved the Authority trades I read a while back, I love the idea of mixing J'onn in with Wildstorm characters, and there just aren't enough comics starring a Superman analogue and a Batman analogue who are in love
- Batman and Robin--Tomasi and Gleason do good stuff, plus this looks like the place I'll be getting my Damian fix
- Batwoman--Pretty pictures with the added bonus of supporting a book that stars a gay female lead
- Green Lantern--As hesitant as I usually am to jump on bandwagons, I've been on the Geoff Johns bandwagon for some time now
- Batman--Batman is my first love, and I've been hearing good things about this Scott Snyder chap, so I'm excited to read his stuff
- Green Lantern Corps--Seems like a package deal with Green Lantern
- Nightwing--My other first love
- Red Hood and the Outlaws--I was a little skeptical when I first heard about this, but the more I hear the more intrigued I am by the idea of putting these former Titans together on the road to redemption; also, I recently read Winick's Red Hood miniseries and that made me actually like the character for the first time
- Wonder Woman--Honestly, I'm not as in love with Azzarrello as I think I'm supposed to be, but I'm curious to see what he does with Diana; also, I loves me some Cliff Chiang
- Aquaman--Geoff Johns has done right by every other character he's taken under his wing, so I have faith he'll do a good Aquaman
- Flash--I guess character loyalty more than anything, though I admit to being a Wally fan more than a Barry fan; I'm curious to see if Francis Manapul writes as well as he draws
- Green Lantern: New Guardians--see Green Lantern Corps above; also, Kyle is my Green Lantern
- Superman--Package deal with Action, plus George Perez has a history of doing well with freshly rebooted characters
- Teen Titans--This is one of two titles, along with Justice League, that I will always buy no matter who's on the team and no matter who the creators are, because that's the kind of comic book reader I am; even though I'm a little turned off by the idea of erasing the characters' history and drastically changing them, my fears are somewhat put to rest by recent interviews with Scott Lobdell where he insists the characters are the same at their core--hopefully this is at least true in the case of Tim Drake, my third first love
A Month Late and a Dollar Short
- Animal Man--I've always liked the character and I've heard good things about Jeff Lemire, so I'm willing to give this book a chance
- Batwing--Judd Winick is hit-and-miss for me, so I'll give him a chance to hit me with this one
- Detective Comics--I don't have a lot of faith in Tony Daniel as a writer (though his art has improved much over the past years), but I have been enjoying his run on Batman well enough
- Green Arrow--I'm enjoying JT Krul's current run on GA enough to read this, just not enough to make a must-read-right-now
- Static Shock--I like the character, plus I feel the need to support books featuring minority characters (so long as I have a genuine interest in the book; I'm not buying, for example, Voodoo)
- Swamp Thing--I'm giving this book a try purely based on the fact that everyone is talking about how great Scott Snyder is lately; I've never been hooked by the character before, despite giving him several chances, so we'll see how long this book keeps my interest
- Grifter--Still haven't decided for sure on this one; initially I was interested because it looked like he was going to be hunting white Martians and I liked the DC/Wildstorm mashup concept, but now it's looking like they're some other species so I don't know whether I'm still interested
- Legion Lost--I dig the Legion and I dig Nicieza (his run on Red Robin has been fantastic); I'll be pissed, though, if Gates really dies in the first issue
- Mister Terrific--Mainly I'm just curious to see how he works as a solo character, especially if the JSA is no longer part of this universe's history
- Superboy--Mainly interested because it looks like this will be closely tied to Teen Titans
- Birds of Prey--Right now my only reason for buying this book is Black Canary, despite her god-awful costume redesign; the creative team is going to have to convince me to keep reading
- Blue Beetle--His last book was pure awesome, so Tony Bedard has some big shoes to fill; I'm not crazy about the fact that it appears they're starting over from scratch, essentially retelling a story that was told only a few years ago
- Captain Atom--It looks like they're trying to make the character more Dr. Manhattany, which may or may not work; buying this mainly because I've generally enjoyed JT Krul's stuff so far
- Catwoman--See Batwing above
- Legion of Super-heroes--Again, I love the Legion; since they're in the future and don't interact with other books much I figure I can afford to wait a month for this one; as a side note, I think it's dumb to hyphenate "super-heroes," but that's how it's solicited
- Supergirl--As with Blue Beetle, I'm not crazy about the idea of starting over from scratch yet again with this character, but I'm not 100% certain that's what they're doing; honestly, I just want Peter David to come back and bring Linda Danvers with him
- The Fury of Firestorm--I've always found the character visually appealing, and I kind of like the Jason/Ronnie combo, and Gail Simone has never written a single word I didn't enjoy (her thes are great)
- Justice League Dark--I can't say I'm a big fan of any of these characters nor of magical characters in general, but Peter Milligan is one of those writers I'm supposed to like, so I'm giving this a chance to wow me
- The Savage Hawkman--Like I said, I don't have much faith in Tony Daniel as a writer, but I've always had a soft spot for buff men who don't wear shirts
A few notes on what I'm not getting:
- As much as I think it's good for DC to be trying non-superhero genres, I'm trusting that those books will find their audience without me. Just not into war comics or westerns or swords and sorcery.
- Even though I think I'm supposed to like Peter Milligan, I don't want to read a monthly comic about an entire corps of characters whose power is to barf up blood.
- I may check out DC Universe Presents in the future, but I have never been able to care about Deadman.
- I'm kind of sort of interested in Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E., but money doesn't grow on trees, you know. Ditto for Hawk & Dove.
- I like Harley Quinn, but I'm waiting for a book that has a character that actually looks like her before I buy it. And seriously, what's with King Shark's eyes?
- Sorry, Dan Didio, you're welcome to hire yourself as a writer, but that doesn't mean I want to read what you write.
