Weekly Comics Spotlight #122

[Wood]

Hey Guys,

Hope you're geared up for a Merry Xmas.

Couple of thoughts on this weeks episode:

R.E.B.E.L.S. 11 - I've been LOVING this series and, like you, am disappointed and mystified at how poorly this sells. It's great that the "gimmick" bumped the book to 51K, and hopefully this will light a fire and make if viable for a long run, but I think we're all pragmatic to know that's unlikely. It's a shame b/c this is one of DC's best books of 2009, plain and simple

Nation X - Pleasantly surprised Bob enjoyed this book. As you noted, the X-universe has now got a consistent policy of putting out "slice of life" anthology one shots in conjunction with arcs. Manifest Destiny was another recent example to add to the ones John mentioned. I agree it was smart to have major X-men for a change, although I also agree the Iceman as source of water just seems ridiculous to me.

The God Complex - I feel particularly compelled to discuss this one b/c I'm the one who recommended this title on the Previews Spotlight show. Let me apologize to everyone for that. I really didn't care for this book. The art by John Broglia was evocative of Oeming's style, but it was muddy; which could have been either the production department's fault OR the inking process, hard to tell but either way it didn't work. Like John, the lettering gaffes bothered me to no end, and I called them out for it on this week's episode of 11 O'Clock Comics. All in all, this was a snoozer, poorly produced and I too am not going to continue with the series.

Quickly other points:

Adventures Comics - Totally agree with John. Obviously Wein was trying to be tongue in cheek, but it was too much. Superboy Prime, by his very design, is supposed to represent all that's bad with fanboys. Having such overt dialog and situations on top of his characterization is akin to someone walking in and telling you "look how smart I am" or "I am so rich"...and history tells me that if you have to tell someone how great/rich/awesome/etc you are, you probably aren't.

Daytripper - EASILY my pick of the week. Ba/Moon are a tour de force and this first issue was a perfect COMIC. In an era of waiting for the trade, this is an issue that someone can read and be fully satiated at the end of the issue. There's no cliffhanger that you have to come back for or be left wanting. Sure, I'm betting there's an overarching theme that will run throughout the maxi-series, but as a standalone issue this had a quality beginning, middle and end.

[HassanT]

Rebels is definitely one of DC best titles that no one is reading!! No offense to Jim Starlin, but this series blows away all the different DC cosmic series he has done over the past few years. I did enjoy the "trailer" for the next 12 months and thought it was a great idea. They did the same in Doom Patrol as well.

X-Nation #1 - I decided to past on this as I thought Marvel has been hit and miss with this format. However, if Bob thought this was a good comic book, I might have to pick it up.

God Complex #1 - I completely blame Wood for convincing me to buy this book Just kidding. I had a weird feeling after I was done with the book. I liked the book but I didn't love it. It was definitely missing something. I agree with Bob that this is a story that I read several times in comics. I pre-ordered the first two issues but will not pre-order the third issue until I read the second issue.

Adventure Comics #5 - I thought it was a fun read but I agree it wasn't the strongest Blackest Night tie-in. The best part of the book was the Superboy co-feature with an ending I did not see coming. I am going to miss Johns on Superboy.

Daytripper #1 - Great first issue. I saw the ending about 2/3 into it, but it was still very good. Vertigo has been on fire lately.

[jmcampbell]

I'm definitely with you guys on REBEL. What a good book. And Vril is an awesome character.

X-Nation, I've been avoiding 90% of X-whatever since House of M, but I may check it out based on your show.

Adventure Comics 5, on the last couple Eps. of Comics Radar we talked about whether DC was trying to redeem Prime in these couple issues and make him a sympathetic character. What do you think?

Finally, When's the new episode out? These lazy couple days before Christmas I've had lots of podcast listening time at work, so I've been checking every day for the new one.

[JohnMayo]

I'm definitely with you guys on REBEL. What a good book. And Vril is an awesome character.

X-Nation, I've been avoiding 90% of X-whatever since House of M, but I may check it out based on your show.

Adventure Comics 5, on the last couple Eps. of Comics Radar we talked about whether DC was trying to redeem Prime in these couple issues and make him a sympathetic character. What do you think?

Finally, When's the new episode out? These lazy couple days before Christmas I've had lots of podcast listening time at work, so I've been checking every day for the new one.

Vril is what makes REBELS. He is that kind of character that you can love to hate.

If the storyline in Adventure Comics was trying to redeem Superboy-Prime, it failed in my eyes. I'm now even less interested in the character than I was before.

We'll have a new Weekly Comics Spotlight episode out on Monday and the Monday after that. Beyond that, I'm not entirely sure. I'm still waiting on some data to crunch the 2009-11 sales estimates which is why we don't have the Mayo Reports ready yet. Once I get the remaining data, I'll crunch the numbers and get those episodes rolling.

[jonah]

Couple of thoughts on this weeks episode:

R.E.B.E.L.S. 11 - I've been LOVING this series and, like you, am disappointed and mystified at how poorly this sells. It's great that the "gimmick" bumped the book to 51K, and hopefully this will light a fire and make if viable for a long run, but I think we're all pragmatic to know that's unlikely. It's a shame b/c this is one of DC's best books of 2009, plain and simple

I'm another who's enjoying this book since day one. I'm hoping the title will get some kind of bump due to the cross over but 51K is probably going to give a distorted picture of the drop off. The blackest night crossover extends beyond one book so hopefully a few readers will stay in at least long enough to read the blackest night portion of the series. IF the comic manages to bump sales up 10% from it's sales prior to blackest night then the cross over has accomplished it's purpose. One of the major deterrents to readers picking up this book (IMHO) is that the story happens outside of most of the DC universe .. i.e. it's easily ignored. This is one of it's few opportunities to catch the eyes of readers who read the more mainstream titles in the DC universe. If DC wanted to do some more cross promotion of this title, I could see a natural cross over with the R.E.B.E.L.S. with the Green Lantern Corp.

Regardless, I'm hoping for at least 25 issues and a clean ending if it comes to that. I'm still stewing over Negation getting cut down in the middle of the story.