Wednesday Comments – Ranking The DC Comics Weeklies

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DC Comics loves a good weekly. Actually they love any weekly. If they have a story that can stretch out into weekly installment, they will happily publish the tale, no mater how half-baked the idea.

I’ve read every issue of DC’s weeklies in the new millennium (I even read Millennium, but that’s another column altogether.) So I figured that I’d take this opportunity to rank DC’s weeklies from best to worst, including both Futures End and Batman Eternal.

This is my personal preference. Agree? Disagree? Feel free to leave comments below.

Wednesday Comics – You might say “but Mathan, this weekly isn’t even in continuity, what’s up with that?” You’re right, Wednesday Comments doesn’t take place in the hard fast continuity of the DCU, but that’s part of what makes it special.

Wednesday Comics was oversized, which allowed for some truly beautiful art from Paul Pope, Eduardo Risso, Amanda Conner and Brian Stelfreeze, among others. Additionally Wednesday Comics was fun.

Wednesday Comics, to me was hands down DC’s best weekly.

52 – The first of DC’s modern weeklies and the best in terms of those tied to continuity. 52 was overflowing with concepts and revitalized characters that sprang from the minds of Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Keith Giffen.

It was designed to bridge the game between Infinite Crisis and One Year Later and was a great exploration of characters that might have been considered “also rans” but proved that they still had what it took to be compelling.

The New 52: Futures End – I know this is going to be a controversial pick, but I’ll do my best to justify it. One reason it’s so high is because of it’s competition. You’ll see what’s ranked below it, and I think you’ll side with me on this.

But the other reason is that it’s a weekly with ambition. It’s shamelessly using characters who used to have New 52 titles that were axed. Hawkman, Mister Terrific, Amethyst, Frankenstein, Grifter, Deathstroke and Firestorm all used to have books and are now featured in Futures End. I like that DC decided that they way to make them more viable is to lump them together. You kind of have to applaud that.

Now it’s not even close to wrapping up, but I appreciate the scope and intention of this book.

Trinity – This is another ambitious weekly, beyond it’s schedule. Every issue featured the work of Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley, which is pretty impressive all by itself. But it also told a pretty comprehensive, if slightly confusing, story.

I didn’t really connect with the story, but I really appreciate what Busiek was going for. And he also did a good job of utilizing so many characters in the DCU. I should actually probably revisit this book.

Batman: Eternal – There’s nothing wrong with Batman Eternal, but the thing is; do we really need a weekly book set in Gotham? Aren’t there enough Gotham-centric books? On the market now there’s Batman, Detective Comics, Batgirl, Batwing (soon to be cancelled), Batwoman, Batman & Robin and Catwoman.

Batman Eternal is fine, it’s just mildly unnecessary. Of course I’m pumped that Steph is back and I like seeing Jason Bard get (re)introduced. I’m intrigued that Deacon Blackfire is returning to continuity. I don’t really need The Roman coming back, but if it means Selina returning to form, I’m down with it.

But yeah, it’s really hard to justify another book in Gotham, much less a weekly one.

Countdown to Final Crisis – Let’s be real; did anything good come from Countdown? The Multiverse can be awesome when done right, but Countdown was not done right. It was a book that tried to build on the buzz that 52 had and ended up tainting weeklies as a result.

I just glanced at the wiki page for Countdown and all of the horror came flooding back to me. What’s worse was that Countdown bled over into various other DC titles and minis. And while it was counting down and supposedly setting up Final Crisis, that book basically ignored Countdown in it’s entirety.

What a horrible moment in comics.

So, there you have it; that’s my list.

Like I said at the beginning we still have a third weekly book on the horizon and it’s centered on Earth-2. Where will it rank? I’m hoping high, but we’ll have to see what the end result is.

Anyway, it’s Wednesday so go out and buy from fresh new comics from your local comic shop.