DC released their solicitations for January today, giving us a complete list of previews for the month and in a few cases announced final issues. This isn’t some new method of surprise, really, DC has done this with both the second and wave of New 52 books. They bring a few books to an end to replace them; Blackhawks, Hawk and Dove, Static Shock, Men of War, Mr. Terrific, and O.M.A.C. all ended to make way for Ravagers, Earth 2, Worlds Finest, Batman Inc, Dial H, and GI Combat. Come the next wave we saw the ends of JLI, Captain Atom, Resurrection Man, and Voodoo to make way for Talon, Swords of Sorcery, Phantom Stranger, and Team 7.
In other words, DC has a method that has been working for them. End some books that are either not working in terms of sales, or that have reached a conclusion, and then you pump in new ideas and creators to fill the created gap.
In January we’ll be seeing the final issues of Blue Beetle, Legion Lost, Frankenstein, and Grifter.
Justice League of America is set to start in February, which makes one of the replacement titles announced. The other is the recently announced Keith Giffen title, Threshold, which is going to be all cosmicy and include a new Green Lantern as a lead character. I wouldn’t be surprised to see DC stay mum for another several weeks about the other two. Pacing things out to time the reveals up with the release of the February solicits.
My guesses? A new Edge title and a new Dark title. Captialize on Wildstorm and find somewhere to keep pushing the Daemonite plot forward with Grifter and Voodoo gone, and maybe find some new Dark title to spin out of Rotworld. The timing is right.
Now, the Snyder/Lee Man of Steel book I’m imagine we won’t see until next summer, and my gut is telling me WildC.A.T.S. next fall or winter, but DC has been doing a great job of not telegraphing new books in advance.
I mean, I wouldn’t have expected a Talon ongoing, or Phantom Stranger, hell, don’t get me started on Sword of Sorcery.
