100 Issues Ago April 2013

This month’s 100 Issues Ago post is . . .

This must have been the shortest time between DC releasing to the press the plans for an “event” and then cancelling it! Each of the main New 52 series this month was to be branded with the above logo and have a fold out cover which would reveal a guest star or shock surprise that would make you say “WTF!”

Despite the assumption of comics being just for kids having been thrown out decades before, the press and retailers still rounded on DC and non-ironically asked “WTF are you doing?” figuring that somewhere down the line a parent would have to explain what those letters meant to little Johnny or Janey. So DC ditched it as quickly as they could.

The fold out covers went ahead though and, for the titles I was getting, most of them made me go “meh” rather than the desired response.

For ALL-STAR WESTERN #19, the big reveal was that Booster Gold had time travelled and ended up hanging out with Jonah Hex:

And it worked – the series as a whole was enjoyable and having Booster appear wasn’t as jarring as it could have been.

Elsewhere, the Green Lantern titles were still running the Wrath of the First Lantern storyline which was enjoyable enough; EARTH-2 was introducing its new Dr Fate; and despite Dan Jurgens’s best efforts, FIRESTORM was limping towards its final issue.

The biggest shift, though, was with STORMWATCH where DC gave the title to Jim Starlin and allowed him to remove the current, established team, and replace them with one of his own. Some of the main characters would remain but they were different versions than the ones we’d been reading about the month before. It did not bode well for the title.

Outside of the 17 DC issues this month, it was just FURY MAX from Marvel; have to wait until 2014 before DC was challenged by independent titles in my collection.

4 thoughts on “100 Issues Ago April 2013”

  1. Oh yeah, this weird month event thing. Dial H’s was that the main character dials up the Flash’s powers (which I think was reflected in that month’s issue of Flash, with Barry abruptly losing his powers) the first time he’s gotten powers of someone in his world and freaks at the implication. Also, it’s hard for him to adjust to the need to be going fast all the time.

    Katana’s was that her sword apparently was the prison for the Creeper, which was a demon now. Eeesh, not the best shift for that character.

    Batman Beyond Unlimited is the only other DC thing. Rocketeer: Hollywood Horror was wrapping up and Angel & Faith was almost to the point of actually resurrecting Giles.

    At Marvel, the high point is Daredevil, which is basically an awesome issue long fight between DD and Ikari, who is your standard evil mirror character, but Chris Samnee draws the hell out of that fight. Outside that, Avengers Arena, Captain Marvel, Captain America, Fearless Defenders, and Hawkeye.

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    1. Has the Creeper ever really been done well in the last couple of decades? I seem to remember some re-imagining of him as a horror style title…? It was a long time ago, so I may be wrong.

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      1. I’m not sure. I think Steve Niles did something with the Creeper post Infinite Crisis, and he usually writes horror, so maybe that’s what you’re thinking of? I didn’t read it, so I couldn’t say what it was like.

        There was the Vertigo mini-series from a few years earlier, Beware the Creeper, set in 1920s France, and the late-90s Creeper that Len Kaminski wrote. That one treated the Creeper as a distinct personality or something inside Jack Ryder that the experiments gave form to. There were a few horror vibes in that.

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