Wildstorm News

[Duncan]

So, here is the news:

Grant Morrison/Gene Ha - The Authority
Garth Ennis/Chris Sprouse - Midnighter
Brian Azzarello/Carlos D'Anda - Deathblow

Commence da commotion.

[Gray Lensman]

Some interesting choices here.

I don't like the Authority much, but Morrison and Ha sounds like a quality team on this title. Kind of on the fence here.

Ennis would probably be a better fit on Deathblow, honestly. That title works much better for the bloody war stories that Ennis does so well. On Midnighter... I'd be concerned that he'd try to use it to laugh at the superhero genre again.

Azzarello on anything tends to leave me cold, so Deathblow is out.

Good to see some interesting names on those books, but I'm not sure I'll buy any of them yet.

[peterh]

Interesting news to say the least. Wildstorm has been lagging in the sales department, though not in quality I'm told.

2006 seems to be the year they'll attempt a serious comeback. Morrison and Lee on Wildcats will definetly be a big seller and factor in these titles and Gen13 by Simone. Good news for Wildstorm.

As for the quality of the titles I'm pretty sure both Morrison titles will be good and Midnighter might be good too. Not too sure about Deathblow as I'm not a big fan of Azzarello. I might check out the Morrison stuff and maybe Midnighter, though I'll probably just look through it in the store.

One thing I have to comment on. Morrison is doing a lot of stuff these days. Seven Soldiers, two WS titles, ASS and maybe the much rumored Batman title with Kubert (We know it's not going to be Detective). Might he be overcommitting himself?

[Gray Lensman]

Interesting question. I don't think he necessarily is.

Seven Soldiers should be over by the time the Wildstorm titles come out, I believe. Morrison more than likely was ahead of schedule on 7S. I'd be surprised if any of those scripts aren't done by now.

As for the rest, four books a month is a decent workload, assuming the Batman thing happens. (I'm rather hoping not, as I don't much care for Morrison's Batman, but just as well.) It's not really an unusual load for a top creator these days.

Of course, there is the question of 52...

[peterh]

greylensman said:

Interesting question. I don't think he necessarily is.

Seven Soldiers should be over by the time the Wildstorm titles come out, I believe. Morrison more than likely was ahead of schedule on 7S. I'd be surprised if any of those scripts aren't done by now.

As for the rest, four books a month is a decent workload, assuming the Batman thing happens. (I'm rather hoping not, as I don't much care for Morrison's Batman, but just as well.) It's not really an unusual load for a top creator these days.

Of course, there is the question of 52...

Steve, I'm referring to the ongoing 7S title, not the minis

you might be right about four books a month. Morrison is doing 7S, WC and Authority monthly and ASS is bimonthly. 52 will have rotating writers so he could fit that in. Factoring in the possible batman title and we're up to some months with 5 books.

I'm sure he knows his own limitations, as you point out Steve, but I guess we'll have to see what happens in the long run

[Duncan]

Well, there's no definite ongoing 7S, is there? And if you look at the art teams for ASS, Authority and WildCATS I'd say there's next to no chance any of them'll be monthly. Also, the rumour was it would be 'tec, but I guess Dini and Morales (?) are on that - again that might just be a 6 month thing, though. I do wish there'd be some WS Signature or Vertigo creator-owned stuff in there to be honest. (p.s. Peter, WS hasn't really been batting anything like 1000 for several years, though the Signature stuff I'm reading is all very good.)

I think Ennis can do Midnighter, judging by these Punisher trades I picked up the other week, which were super-violent and not at all mocking. I'm gonna give it a shot, at any rate.

[peterh]

duncan said:

Well, there's no definite ongoing 7S, is there? And if you look at the art teams for ASS, Authority and WildCATS I'd say there's next to no chance any of them'll be monthly. Also, the rumour was it would be 'tec, but I guess Dini and Morales (?) are on that - again that might just be a 6 month thing, though. I do wish there'd be some WS Signature or Vertigo creator-owned stuff in there to be honest. (p.s. Peter, WS hasn't really been batting anything like 1000 for several years, though the Signature stuff I'm reading is all very good.)

I think Ennis can do Midnighter, judging by these Punisher trades I picked up the other week, which were super-violent and not at all mocking. I'm gonna give it a shot, at any rate.

There's a 7Soldiers #1 in the April DC solicits so I accidently mistook it for a monthly series. Didn't really read the solicit that closely. My fault

You're probably right about ASS and Wildcats being on a 6 week - bimonthly schedule though maybe Gene HA has enough lead time to make the books monthly. Maybe in 12 issues arcs and then taking a break before doing the next 12.

I'm thinking Dini and Morales will be onboard permanently, or at least a year. Getting the Kuberts is a big coup for DC and I doubt they'll wait half a year after Tec Launched, which will likely place us in 2007, before playing the Kubert card. My money is on Kubert on the regular Batman title.

[hector]

*gasp* Is it possible that The Authority will be readable for the first time since Ellis left? (though, admitedly, I didn't read Revolution)

[The Spider]

hector said:

*gasp* Is it possible that The Authority will be readable for the first time since Ellis left? (though, admitedly, I didn't read Revolution)

I read it, though. Dunno... it felt it little lacking to me, and I liked Brubaker's "Winter Soldier" story. Only AUTHORITY thing I think I really enjoyed after Millar left were the Lobo crossovers and Ennis' Kev miniseries.

[The Spider]

greylensman said:

Ennis would probably be a better fit on Deathblow, honestly. That title works much better for the bloody war stories that Ennis does so well. On Midnighter... I'd be concerned that he'd try to use it to laugh at the superhero genre again.

That's a possibility, so I'll probably see how the first issue looks before buying it.

OTOH, I've read the last two Kev miniseries and it seems like Ennis enjoys writing Midnighter, since the only Authority members focused on were him and Apollo in MORE KEV, and the focus was solely on Midnighter in MAGNIFICENT KEVIN. Strangely enough, I didn't mind the minor superhero ribbing Ennis did this time around.

[brett]

Never thought I'd be buying the Authority again.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if they put out a 7S monthly, but with say an Andy Diggle writing than the Grantster.

I'll be devastated if after all this time/teasing there's no Batman title from him.

[Elliot Kane]

Part of the point of The Authority is to challenge superhero norms, so Ennis might do well. That said, I'd prefer him on Deathblow, too.

Normally The Authority is not my thing, but... I'm darn tempted by Ennis & Morrison.

[hector]

brett said:

I actually wouldn't be surprised if they put out a 7S monthly, but with say an Andy Diggle writing than the Grantster.

I like Diggle. Too bad he's exclusive with Marvel isn't he?

I'll be devastated if after all this time/teasing there's no Batman title from him.

I'll make do with Robinson.

EDIT: Oh, and Dini and Morales, too.

[peterh]

hector said:

brett said:

I actually wouldn't be surprised if they put out a 7S monthly, but with say an Andy Diggle writing than the Grantster.

I like Diggle. Too bad he's exclusive with Marvel isn't he?

I'll be devastated if after all this time/teasing there's no Batman title from him.

I'll make do with Robinson.

Actually Diggle is currently DC Exclusive through summer 2006 at least. I don't remember anything about him being Marvel exclusive after that. I could be wrong, though.

DC Exclusive

[brett]

Oh, Robinson and Dini (watching BAS Vol 1 atm) are good, but damn it, I want more sci-fi closet action. Didio said @ Newsarma "Batman was the superhero book, and Detective was the crime title. Paul is one of the few people that I believe can go in and tell those kind of stories, so that’s what we’re going to have him do", sort of indicating Batman will be the more super-hero oriented book, so there is still hope .

[hector]

I'm a bit behind most news, but isn't the the Robinson arc sort of an inbetween?, with the Dini issues to follow, like the Busiek/Johns will be in the Superman titles, to make way to the 12 issue Busiek/Pacheco run.

Doesn't that leave one unaccounted Superman and Batman title for each? I believe Didio will make the announcement in February.

[Gray Lensman]

Right, Hector.

Robinson is doing an interim arc on both the main Bat-books. Johns and Busiek are doing an interim story on the Superbooks. Then we get Dini/Morales on `Tec and Busiek/Pacheco on Superman.

Didio is leaving the other announcements for later, yeah. I do like the way DC is slowly parceling out info these days. One Year Later is shaping up to be interesting.

So in theory, we could still get Morrison on Batman. I'm rather hoping not, since I didn't care for his portrayal in JLA. But it could happen.

[hector]

Having Morrison write Batman is like a chocolate box. You never know what will turn out.

(His Batman is different in Gothic, than in JLA, than in JLA: C. Myself I prefer the one in the middle)

[Gray Lensman]

Somewhere in the middle would be more reasonable. It'd be nice to have a Batman who's more human this time around.

[hector]

I meant the one in JLA. Y'know. I've always believed that with enough prep time he could beat the f''''''' sun or something.