While we’re gathering our thoughts, hydrating, and moving to a new secured location, Newsarama’s Lucas Siegel has all the bullet points news from Marvel and DC at the show. Discuss. We’ll wait.
While we’re gathering our thoughts, hydrating, and moving to a new secured location, Newsarama’s Lucas Siegel has all the bullet points news from Marvel and DC at the show. Discuss. We’ll wait.
Johnny DC is no more. Licensed properties moving to Wildstorm, Tiny Titans allowed to remain, but no Super Friends, Billy Batson, or Batman:BatB.
Which means that if I want to give my 5yo nephew a superhero comic he can enjoy, it’s gonna be from Boom (Ultraheroes).
I really do hope that DC launches a young-reader line within the DCU imprint. Earth-14, perhaps?
According to the link they are re-launching the kid’s line. And I think I read that in some panel reports too.
I wonder what they have planned. It seems weird to do all of the shifting they are doing (closing Johnny DC & pulling characters from Vertigo) but DiDio & Lee appear quite set to make their own mark on the company.
Time will tell how that works out.
The moving of the Vertigo characters has got me worried. I am a vertigo fan and have always purchased a few titles and mini-series monthly. I think they will kill the popularity of some of these characters. I mean it is just a matter of time before Swampthing joins the JLA. Of have Hellblazer hook up with Batman. It seems the BIG two are ‘desperatly’ trying to revamp or re-invent themselves with moves like this. (Crossgen and Marvel another bad mix).
Thanks for the Ultraheroes shout-out, Torsten! It’s a lot of fun. Might I also suggest The Incredibles, our other superhero title? We’re especially proud of that one.
Also, I’m kind of a broken record when it comes to reminding folks about the great superhero titles out there for kids, but Marvel puts out consistently high-quality all-ages monthlies (they’re actually the only monthly comics I still buy regularly). I think Roger Langridge’s new Thor title bears special mention, not just because we’re biased towards him at Disney, but because it’s objectively really good.
And from what I hear from the creators, all the DC kids superhero comics are still happening, just under a different imprint. It would be good to see some real reporting on that somewhere, though, instead of rumor mill (which I just contributed to!). :)
D’OH! I forgot the Incredibles!
Yeah, the actual all-ages stuff at Marvel is good. It’s usually the only Marvel stuff I buy. It’s still a bit old for my nephew, so I use old issues of Spidey Super Stories (so cool, they’re endorsed by Morgan Freeman!)
I got my Johnny DC info from DC’s October solicits… says “Final Issue” for most of those titles. I do hope there’s a new imprint. Heck, I’d love to see a return of the “Li’l Leaguers” from Superman/Batman #51!
I was at the DC Kids Panel and he didn’t mention the line going away, just that they were re-tooling. Since the books are all loss leaders, they do a shake-up periodically to see if they can get a title that catches on, but Didio said they are committed to the imprint and will always have 6-8 kids books on the schedule. Billy Batson and Super Friends are done, but Young Justice and a new title will replace them (a lot of us pleaded for Wonder Woman).
BTW, Art Baltazar is one of the coolest guys ever.
I really have to say I am upset about the fact of no dedicated kids line for DC. My son loves the books. Marvel doesn’t have much in the way of true all ages kid friendly books, so the DC Johnny DC line was good for me to give my son (he is 6) and recommend to the parents at my wife’s school (she taught 2nd grade and now will be teaching 4th grade).
We get the Boom! Kids line and I pick up indie books for him, but sometimes it would be nice for him to have his version of Batman & Spiderman to read. I increasingly get the feeling DC & Marvel don’t care if they bring in new readers or not.
And Shazam was actually a very good book. My son would have loved a toy line out of that comic alone. And a cartoon we could have shared would have been great.
Podcast of the panel is up at the DC site. I had a listen again and there was still no mention of the line going away.
Here’s my perception of kid friendly material from the big two, Marvel in particular:
They hire their worst artists and most untalented writers on their “kid-friendly”material.
This is something I think Marvel is much more guilty of than DC.