We’ve been pretty rough on DC lately. Maybe it was all those layoffs. Maybe it’s Watchmen fatigue. Maybe it’s all those comic shops that have complained about not getting their UCS/Lunar books on time. Maybe it was the Fandome virtual pep rallies (although to be fair, we’re out on virtual cons in general). Maybe it’s the fact they just tried to pawn Endless Winter off on us. Maybe it’s “Joker War” and its endless parade of Poochy characters.
But something happened last week. A shift in the wind, like the dropping of a few dozen solicitations. DC announced the lineup for its previously teased Future State – a two-month burst of anthologies, miniseries and one-shots scheduled for January and February, set in the future and featuring a broader-than-normal pool of talent, pulling not just from comics but from TV, movies and animation. And after that, in March, the series return to their regularly scheduled programming.
The cynic in me wants to say, “That’s just Convergence mixed with DC One Million,” but here’s the thing: You go sniffing around the DC corners of the internet, and you see a funny thing: Actual, God’s-honest hype.
I had to be sure, so I went to Xavier Files’ resident pollyanna and senior Batman correspondent, Matthew Lazorwitz, and he confirmed my suspicions, and ticked off some quality reasons: New-to-DC creators! Diversity on and off the page! Jo Mullein from Far Sector in a main DC book! Jen Bartel interiors! The fact that it’s not a reboot! The lack of Watchmen characters forcing their dark-and-gritty superhero deconstructionism on the DCU! Multiple Grifters!
Stop. You had me at multiple Grifters.
Matt and I went through the announcements and picked our 12 favorite stories:
- The Next Batman, by John Ridley, Nick Derington and Laura Braga. We feel like we’ve been waiting a long time for Ridley, the screenwriter behind the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and writer of the criminally underrated comic The American Way, to deliver on DC projects, and in the next few months we’re getting The Next Batman, The Other History of the DC Universe and even some Marvel stuff in Wolverine: Black, White & Blood. When it rains Ridley, it pours Ridley.
- Batgirls, by Vita Ayala and Aneke (backup). Look, X-Men fans don’t need to be told about Vita. We know. We stan. We expect they’ll handle multiple Batgirls — a subject plenty of Bat-fans have opinions about — with the utmost care.
- Grifters, by Matthew Rosenberg and Carmine di Giandomenico (backup). Ah, Grifter, the sensational character find of 1992. Jim Lee’s other Gambit. Now imagine more of him, all written by a post-Punisher, post-X-Men Matt Rosenberg. This is what Adam X meant when he pounded the bar and demanded to get “f—ing extreme!”
- Future State: Batman/Superman, by Gene Luen Yang and Ben Oliver. Three words: Gene Luen Yang. After putting out Dragon Hoops and Superman Smashes the Klan IN THE SAME YEAR, Yang is a walking Eisner machine. This may be more of a paycheck book for him, but it’s a paycheck he’ll richly deserve.
- Future State: Harley Quinn, by Stephanie Phillips and Simone Di Meo. Folks are just starting to find out about two-time WMQ&A guest Stephanie Phillips (Butcher of Paris, Artemis & the Assassin), and let us just say, from the bottom of our hearts, ABOUT DAMN TIME. There’s a reason she’s getting paired with a top-tier DC character and Simone di Meo, the artist behind one of BOOM’s hottest books of the year (Check out our coverage of We Only Find Them When They’re Dead if you don’t believe us).
- Superman of Metropolis, by Sean Lewis and John Timms. Lewis makes his DC debut on the Big Blue Boy Scout after cutting his teeth on great indie books like Thumbs and Coyotes. No doubt he’ll have interesting things to say about Jon Kent taking over his father’s mantle as protector of Metropolis.
- Immortal Wonder Woman, by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad and Jen Bartel. Jen. Bartel. Interiors. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
- Future State: Legion of Super-Heroes, by Brian Michael Bendis and Riley Rossmo. OK, this one’s less of a gamble, as it’s Bendis writing the Legion, which he already does and is already a book set in the future. But Riley Rossmo is one of DC’s secret weapons. Read his Martian Manhunter series and tell us he shouldn’t draw all the space things.
- Future State: Superman vs. Imperious Lex, by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh. It’s Team Flintstones and Billionaire Island taking the piss out of Superman and Lex Luthor. Again, a safe bet, but sometimes you need those. Also “Imperious Lex” is a better nickname than “Apex Lex.”
- Future State: Aquaman, by Brandon Thomas and Daniel Sampere: We’re curious to see what Thomas, known for books like Excellence and Sympathy for No Devils, will bring to Jackson Hyde, Aqualad, who’s having a year thanks to the queer YA graphic novel You Brought Me the Ocean.
- Future State: Swamp Thing, by Ram V and Mike Perkins. Ram V earned his horror stripes on Vault’s These Savage Shores. He’s more than earned a shot at the Guardian of the Green, and he’s got a great artist in Perkins (Lois Lane). And oh my God, is that Swampy trussed up like the Statue of Liberty?
- Mister Miracle, by Brandon Easton and Valentine De Landro (backup). People too often forget Mister Miracle is a mantle, passed down from Thaddeus Brown to Scott Free to Shilo Norman. Norman’s got a role to play in the Superman corners of Future State, and we look forward to Easton and De Landro’s take on him.
Will all these concepts live up to the hype? WHO KNOWS?! It’s October, these books aren’t coming out for three months. You read comics, you know how the cycle works. But for right now, in this moment, we feel good about it. Let us have this.
Dan Grote is the editor-in-chief of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Winston Wisdom.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
