A Calm Set of Spring Solicits

April's solicitations suggest a quiet month for me.

There's still no sign of the Nocenti/Aja series, The Seeds, although Dark Horse's website still insists it's coming out March 28th. C'mon guys, there are so few comics these days I get genuinely excited for. In the meantime, there is still the Mata Hari min-series and the Empowered and Sistah Spooky series. Carla Speed McNeil's cover pokes fun at artists contorting female characters into ridiculous postures. The covers have all been really good for that series.

DC is going to have a big showdown between Batman and Deathstroke over which of them is Damian's father. Given the number of kids Bruce Wayne's adopted, it shouldn't matter to him though, right? He wouldn't simply hand Damian over to Slade Wilson with a pat on the head simply because the kid doesn't share his genetics, any more than he would foist Cass Cain off on Shiva or David Cain. Because they're not good parents, and neither is Slade.

Action Comics is shipping issue 1000, if that's something that interests you. The Demon mini-series is wrapping up, we'll see how that goes.

So maybe I misinterpreted what was going on in Bubba Ho-Tep and the Cosmic Blood Suckers, because the solicit for issue 2 is talking about Bubba teaming up with John Henry, boarding something called the Nocturne. But I could have sworn the first issue's solicit mentioned Nixon. Unless this is all taking place in the land of the dead, while I was just assuming it was the '70s? An understandable mistake, but still.

Giant Days #37 is finally going to have Daisy talk with her grandmother about the fact she likes girls, which I've been curious to see play out for a while now. It was #2 on the plot threads I wanted to see play out, behind Ed telling Esther how he felt. So the book is 2-for-2 already in 2018. Making a strong argument for Favorite Ongoing of 2018. Screw all that, "Give the audience what they need," nonsense, the audience wants what it demands! It's been a question hanging over things since Daisy realized she liked girls, which was back in the first four issues, there just wasn't any pressing need until she met Ingrid.

As for Marvel, things are slow. It's doubtful I'm going to still be buying Rogue & Gambit by April, and I've basically decided I'm dropping Deadpool again after this current story. I don't need to see a bunch of villains trying to kill Deadpool (who I'm almost guessing put the $20 million bounty on himself). I think that book is going to end with his "death" in May with issue #300, so they can reboot with a new #1 that month (because of course they'll double-ship), and provide a Deadpool in the comics more similar to the one in the hopefully hit movie that comes out that month.

Gee Calvin, that's kind of cynical. No shit, voice in my head.

Anyway, that would leave Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel, the latter of which is bringing Bruno back - hooray - apparently so he can be sad over Kamala and the Red Dagger. Boo? Shouldn't he be more eager to see Mike, who was, you know, his actual girlfriend before he went to Wakanda?

I might give Domino a try. Gail Simone is hit or miss with me, even on series she's written I liked, it would vary from arc to arc. David Baldeon isn't one of my favorite artists, but I've seen him draw issues here and there of various titles over the years - Blue Beetle, Young Allies, X-Men Legacy - and I don't recall having any complaints. Although it makes me wonder about the tone of the book. His style doesn't seemed suited to something that's going to be really violent, but maybe it'll be more crazy in a fun way. Hopefully.