[Alternate title: "Don't Wanna End Up A Cartoon In A Cartoon Graveyard.]

Ah, January! It’s dark and cold, and you really don’t want to go back to work/school/whatever, now do you? One of my law-school professors used to remind us that January could be gotten through with the help of one word: “April.”

So sit back, think of April, and sample my thoughts on some (but hardly all) of this year’s DC-superhero-related offerings. To steal a line from Tuesday Morning Quarterback, All Predictions Wrong Or Your Money Back.

1. The Dark Knight. My main question about this movie has little to do with its effect on sales of Batman comic books. Honestly, I don’t expect it to have any direct effect on those sales. The movies never do. Instead, I’m waiting for the general public’s reaction to a Joker unadulterated by camp, animation, or Jack Nicholson. If the latest Joker lives up to his bloodthirsty hype, it may set off another round of tut-tutting about “just what’s in those comic books, anyway?” Naturally, DC can answer with the 20th anniversary of The Killing Joke – action figures optional. Should be fun to watch.

In any case, I doubt that a too-violent Joker will drive people away from direct-market stores. It may just confirm for them they didn’t want to go there in the first place.

2. Final Crisis. This is a no-brainer. Although the direct market has come to rely on events, this one needs to be DC’s last line-wide crossover for a good long while. I don’t think fans are necessarily burned out on events, but I’d say they’re closer to being burned out on obligatory ones.

Grant Morrison has done this sort of thing already, with 1998′s DC One Million. It was successful largely because it told a self-contained story which didn’t try to rewrite cosmic rules. It was also significantly shorter than Final Crisis aims to be. However, even though it’s a “Crisis,” and even though I expect it to reintroduce an infinite Multiverse, I don’t think Final Crisis will be preoccupied with legislation. I think fans are willing to give Morrison and J.G. Jones the benefit of the doubt, making FC a big seller despite Countdown’s poor reception.

As for it being self-contained, I used to think that Countdown was setting up Final Crisis’ players in much the same way that Infinite Crisis’ feeder miniseries set it up. Now I’m not so sure. Since the last issue of Countdown is really going to be Final Crisis #0, the former may actually be clearing the decks for the latter. It’ll mean another series ending on a cliffhanger, probably, but at least Final Crisis promises some closure. Heck, it’s right there in the title. Clearly a lot is riding on 2008′s main event, but it’s less of a risk than Countdown was.

3. The 2008 weekly series. If the rumors hold true, and Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley are the main talents on a Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman-centric title, Weekly 2008 will have a lot going for it. Still, I think it needs to be disconnected from the main line of DC books. That separation was 52‘s strength, and Countdown looks like the contrapositive which proves the rule.

The question, though, is when Weekly 2008 will begin. The obvious answer is “right after Countdown,” but that would make it run concurrently with Final Crisis for most of the year, and I doubt seriously that DC would be quite so audacious. As per that Dan DiDio interview, FC will run seven issues over eight months — May to December — with a “natural break” between two of the issues and various specials dealing with the events of the “break.” Launching Weekly 2008 at the same time DC is promoting Final Crisis may make it hard to avoid associating the two; and after Countdown I doubt DC wants its readers to feel similarly overwhelmed.

Therefore, I see three likely starting points for Weekly 2008. If it’s in May, between the end of Countdown and the beginning of FC, it can capitalize on whatever momentum Countdown has built up, but it’ll have to be clearly distinct from Final Crisis. If it’s during FC’s natural break (whenever that is), it can take advantage of the lull between FC issues, but it will have to compete with FC‘s ancillary specials. Finally, if it follows the end of Final Crisis in December, Weekly 2008 will be able to capitalize on whatever changes FC has wrought, and will benefit from reader anticipation.

Nevertheless, I don’t see DC launching a big weekly series in the dead of winter, several months removed from the end of the last one. Accordingly, I’d expect to see Weekly 2008 somewhere in that “natural break,” and I doubt seriously it’s supposed to be as crucial to DC’s superhero books as Countdown was.

4. Wonder Woman. Now that Gail Simone is writing DC’s (if not all of comics’) highest-profile heroine, it’s time to see what exactly that means for the title. The big post-Infinite Crisis push fizzled thanks in no small part to shipping delays and a poorly-received crossover event. With Simone and the Dodsons free to tell more straightforward stories, the opportunity is there for the readership to respond. Obviously it’s not like DC would cancel the book, but at the same time I get the feeling that Gail Simone is its “last best hope.” If she can’t bring in new readers, and give the title some sustainable growth, DC may well figure that the book’s creative team doesn’t matter. Not that I’m predicting failure — far from it — but I can see the company just throwing up its hands should the worst happen. It’s not like there’s a movie to help promote the comic.

5. Justice League of America. I was disappointed in the Brad Meltzer run because it took so long to get going. I’ve been somewhat disappointed in the Dwayne McDuffie issues because they seem co-opted by crossover needs. Sooner or later, DC has to realize that JLA is its de facto “big crossover” title. Instead, the Justice League book has been at the mercy of the past few years’ perpetual-crossover mentality, rather than being the title most naturally suited to those kinds of epics. Case in point was last year’s “Lightning Saga,” which only served to set up other books’ stories (the “Earth-1 Legion” in Action Comics, the Flash relaunch, and whatever’s cooking with Despero, Degaton, and Ultra-Humanite in Booster Gold). Imagine Justice League and Justice Society crossing into each other for something on the scale of “Sinestro Corps.” Now imagine Justice League doing something similar for 22 pages every month. I certainly think the potential’s there — it just needs to be realized.

6. The New Teen Titans reunion. I’ve written about this a few times already, so I’ll try not to repeat myself too much. Basically, as a fan of the original, I can understand its appeal; I’m just not that sure about the new book’s execution. The previous reunion, headed up by Devin Grayson, Phil Jiminez, and Mark Buckingham, emphasized the warm-fuzzies of old friendships; whereas the Teen Titans East special seems like the new team may be grounded in guilt. Still, it’s encouraging that writer Judd Winick is taking the “non-team” approach, and for that reason I’m eager to read it. Anything that makes the book less of a perfunctory exercise in fan entitlement is a positive sign.

7. Superman’s 70th anniversary. Along with The Dark Knight, this is DC’s other big opportunity to grab some mainstream-media attention. Geoff Johns talks about giving the Superman books the “Sinestro Corps” treatment, but that’s only within the comics themselves. Heck, 2008 is the 30th anniversary of Superman: The Movie and the 15th anniversary of “Lois & Clark,” so you’d think at least the DVDs would get some new packaging. I therefore echo the call for a “Summer of Superman” in Cleveland, Metropolis, IL, and wherever else a red cape can flap in the breeze.

8. The Legion of Super-Heroes’ 50th anniversary. Metropolis, IL is excused from this one, but a 50th-anniversary event would be a good place to reconcile (and not necessarily eliminate) the competing versions of the team.

9. Manhunter, All-Star Wonder Woman, and/or All-Star Batgirl. You’d think at least one of these would see an issue published in 2008. My money — and not a lot of it, either — is on Manhunter. In fact, even if it’s none of these, I’d like to see at least one more solo-female-headliner series debut this year. Women are in leadership roles in a lot of the ongoing superhero books, including Justice League, Justice Society, Checkmate, and obviously Birds Of Prey and Green Arrow/Black Canary, but with Hawkgirl and Manhunter both gone in 2007, only Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Catwoman feature solo headlining heroines. That’s three books, two of which are part of patriarchal franchises. How about a Question ongoing, f’rinstance?

And finally …

10. The new Batman Encyclopedia. Because I am still, obviously, a huge nerd.

There’s more to talk about in the upcoming year, of course, but I figure that’s what the other 51 weeks are for. What do you think?

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Comic Books, DC Comics, Grumpy Old Fan, Version 1.0 Blog@. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.