NYCC 09 Round Up

A week late and a dollar short, I thought I'd see what those wacky people on comic land are planning to bring us in the next few months. Off we go...

Apparently, a lot of people were very excited about the DCU Online Game. Takes all sorts, I suppose. I guess the people who want to pretend to be superheroes on their computer will help to subsidise the cost of producing barely profitable comics for those who just want to read about them.

DC bring us previews of Flash: Rebirth, in which Geoff Johns finally gets to bring Barry Allen back into the DC Universe proper, and Detective Comics, in which Greg Rucka will be showcasing the new Batwoman. Good writers both, but neither title really interests me, if the previews are anything to go by.

Over at Marvel, it's the return of the New Mutants. Again. Aparently, we're losing the really quite good Young X-Men book to make way for this. Apparently, Marvel are just trying to shake some nostalgia cash out of their aging fanbase. It'll probably work. Not on me, though.

As I've previously mentioned, I'm a big fan of Marvel Cosmic Sagas, so War Of Kings seems more to my taste, although the panelists made it hard for even me to be enthusiastic about. Anyway, giving us the Kree versus the Shi'ar should be fun, almost as much as it was twenty years ago. For digital enthusiasts, Marvel plan to produce webisodes to fill in the gaps in the saga. Liking the idea of turning cosmic joke Blastaar into a Russel Crowe Gladiator type. Less excited about a Lilandra solo series, as she's possibly the most bland character Chris Claremont ever created.

Oh good grief, this is just sad. Remember when Chris Claremont was turfed off the X-Books back in the very early 90s? Ever wonder what he might have produced if that hadn't happened. Apparently someone at Marvel has. Ever wonder what would happen if a past his prime comic book legend was allowed to let his ego loose and produce, for want of a better word, fanwank? Prepare to find out. Personally, I thought we went through this particular exercise years ago with the Hidden Years.

The Superman books will be without Superman for the forseeable, and even the combined talents of Greg Rucka, Geoff Johns and James Robinson cannot help but make this sound like a 90s-style gimmick.

And speaking of the 90s, over at the X-Books, X-Force and Cable go head to head in the Messiah (sequel to Complex) War. Meantime, Wolverine's long-lost son shows up to take over his book, as (you guessed it) Dark Wolverine, while Logan gets yet another ongoing title. So, not going for anything new or fresh then?

Unsurprisingly, Dark Reign is talked about somewhat, and Joe Quesada reminds us that, although we moan and bitch about "events" in comics, we persist in buying them far more than "non-event" comics, so we really only have ourselves to blame.

We get some interesting news out of Dark Reign, as the Young Warriors make a comeback, under the authorship of Paul Cornell, whilst we wait for original author Allen Heinberg to make his return, one of these days.

Over at DC, they try hard to get us excited about the forthcoming "Batman's Totally Dead This Time, We Promise!" Batbooks. Greg Rucka tries again to promote Batwoman, telling us "she's kick-ass cool". So what's new, mate?

Meantime, Ed Brubaker, fancying a change from bringing us gritty street drama, decides to bring us his take on the origins of the Marvel Universe. Apparently, it's not just Marvels 2. Honest.

And that's about it. Nothing much to get excited about, or am I just getting old?