Skitch Commentary on DC Retro-Active

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John Babos already covered this story, but I wanted to add some of my own commentary on it, so here goes:

At WonderCon, during the DC Nation panel they announced an awesome project called DC RetroActive – This summer DC will be releasing a series of one-shots of popular DC characters done the style of the books from the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. They also are tapping in to some of the old creative teams in order to really bring this to life.

For Batman: Len Wein is working on the ‘70s, Mike W. Barr on the ‘80s, and Alan Grant ‘90s. This is the one that really jumps out at me. At one point I had runs of Tec and Batman that stretched back 25 years, and I’ve read many Batman stories by all three men. These three books will all be excellent. My only gripe is that I wish they could have gotten Denny O’ Neil to do one, but I guess he’s enjoying his retirement. WE MISS YOU DENNY!!!

Superman’s got Martin Pasko (‘70s), Marv Wolfman (‘80s), Louise Simonson (‘90s). I have not read all that much Superman from the 70’s, but I love Marv Wolfman, and Louise Simonson is definitely one of my favorite people in comics. Her New Mutants run is still one of the defining runs in comics to me. In a lot of ways, I guess Dan Jurgens might be the better choice for 90’s Superman, but Man of Steel was my favorite Superman series at the time, so real glad it will be Louise.

Of the six titles, Justice League probably is the winner. How do you beat Cary Bates (’70s), Gerry Conway (’80s) and Giffen and DeMatteis (’90s)? You know, I don’t even care how many times They bring back JLI from the 90’s, it never gets old to me.

Wonder Woman’s got Dennis O’Neil (‘70s), Roy Thomas (‘80s), and William Messner-Loebs (‘90s). HEY!! There is that Denny O’ Neil guy!! WORKING ON WONDER WOMAN? BOO!!!! Wonder Woman is probably my least favorite major DC character, so these are the books I care least about. That said, it is great to see Messner-Loebs back in action. He’s one of my favorite writers all time, and I know he was in bad health the last few years.

Green Lantern…AGAIN WITH DENNY O’NEIL!! Okay, okay, how can I complain about that, Green Lantern/Green Arrow is brilliant and I have read the hardcover easily a dozen times. Len Wein represents the ’80s, and so unknown named Ron Marz is rocking the ’90s. Oh wait, I’ve heard of him…didn’t he create MY FAVORITE GREEN LANTERN, KYLE RAYNER! I’ve actually met Ron Marz at many cons over the years (Crossgen representing), and once I got to hear him say, “Who cares about Hal Jordan fans?” so he will always be the greatest GL writer in history to me.

Flash has Cary Bates (’70s), William Messner-Loebs (‘80s) and Brian Augustyn (‘90s). Messener-Loebs is actually some of my favorite Flash stuff ever. It would have been nice to get Waid representing the 90’s, but I have no problem at all with Brian Augustyn.

All in all, of these 18 books, there is just about none that I would pass up. I just hope they get a lot of great artists from the era to make these books work. Also, each book will feature 20 pages of classic stories. I do worry about them costing $4.99 each though. They better be Prestige Format for that kind of cost.

Mike Maillaro is a lifelong Jersey Boy and geek. Mike has been a comic fan for about 30 years from when his mom used to buy him Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Adventures at our local newsstand. Thanks, Mom!! Mike's goal is to bring more positivity to the discussion of comics and pop culture.