June Has A Lot Going On

First order of business is actually left over from May's solicitations. The next segment of Roche Limit, Clandestiny, will be starting up then. I missed it because I guess I was expecting them to pick up the numbering where they left off, with #6. Instead it's a new #1, so I guess this is really more a series of Mini-series than an ongoing. So I probably ought to factor that in to my 2014 Year in Review.

On to DC. It's the first month of post-Convergence, and there's a lot to unpack. Secret Six #3, which was originally supposed to come out in February, is pushed back to June. These sorts of delays don't bode well for the book. It's starting to remind me of that Grant Morrison/Jim Lee WildC.A.T.S. book that only shipped an issue or two then vanished. So maybe it'd be best to give up on Secret Six.

Harley Quinn got bumped up to $4 an issue, which is probably the tipping point for me to drop it. I'm thinking about buying the Harley Quinn/Power Girl team-up mini-series instead. It's still at $3 and I did find Harley and Peej's interactions amusing.

They gave Bryan Hitch a Justice League of America book to write and draw. Over/under on number of issues he completes before fill-ins or a new creative team shows up is set at 2. Place your bets! Also, because Comic Book Resources put all the Joker variant covers first, I thought they were adding him to the Justice League, which would be bold. Though I'd call bullcrap if Batman's head didn't explode on the first page. I have no intention of buying that book, it just seemed worth mentioning.

As far as new offerings I'm interested in, Starfire is a sure thing, though I wonder how much different of a tone Conner and Palmiotti will take from their work with Harley. I'm not sure they can write the books the same way, considering Starfire isn't crazy. Section 8 is almost a certainty, the only thing that holds it back is the promised appearance of Batman. I fear Ennis' usual "hur, hur, superheroes are dumb and useless" shtick, and I'm not sure I can handle multiple issues of it, even if he's poking fun at Batman. But I'll have to at least try it.

Beyond that, I'm thinking about the Lost Army Green Lantern book. It could be kind of cool, but I'm not sure about Cullen Bunn as writer. The only thing of his I've read previously was Fearless Defenders, which you may recall I dropped not because it was bad, but because it felt relentlessly mediocre. There was no spark to the writing (or the art), and I worry that could be the case here. Maybe Bunn only gets amped for his own stuff, as opposed to work-for-hire. And then there's the Batman Beyond book. The idea of Terry lost in a weird mash-up of Kirby future concepts, all on his own has promise. It seems like an odd enough setting to allow for some good stories, and you do something with trying to ration the Batarangs and such, since there's no one to make more, or to patch up the suit. Have him scrounging around, trying to help people as he can, finding lost caches of technology. Fallout 3 as a Batman comic, basically.

Of course, that's essentially what I was hoping for when I tracked down back issues of Bishop: The Last X-Man, and I wound up hugely disappointed. And I don't have the best track record with Dan Jurgens' stuff, so who knows.

On the Marvel side, we're another month into Secret Wars stuff, and a lot of ongoing series have just vanished. I could at least understand if May was the final issue of Daredevil. I don't recall it saying that specifically, but with that book, once I confirm the creative team hasn't changed, I'm in, so the solicit doesn't get much more than a glance. But Rocket Raccoon and Ant-Man are both gone, too. But Ms. Marvel and Unbeatable Squirrel Girl are still there, although Kamala's stuck in a "Last Days" tie-in. Boooooo, boooooo.

As far as the horde of mini-series they're unleashing go, I'll probably try Marvel Zombies, because Elsa Bloodstone's in it, and Kev Walker's drawing it. Also Mrs. Deadpool and the Howling Commandos. A story where Shiklah gets to be the star could be good, and it's not as though the pull list is stuffed to the bursting. Most of the mini-series, though, are either ones that don't sound good, or I can't deal with the creative team. Like, oh look, a Hulk-based mini-series written by Peter David, but oh, oh no, they put Greg Land on art chores. Or look over there, a mini-series where Peter Parker and MJ are married and have a baby! Oh, Dan Slott's writing it? Never mind. At this stage, I just can't trust him not to write something that's going to really irritate me, so the smart play is to simply avoid him.

At least it wasn't a boring month.