It’s been two months since DC’s Rebirth – an audacious overhaul of the veteran publisher’s entire superhero comics line – and while the rollout of new comics has been staggered, sales have been supercharged. In July, DC achieved more market share than its bitter rival Marvel for the first time in years.
It feels like proof that DC’s course correction is resonating with readers turned off by the publisher’s previous New 52 reboot, which wiped away decades of continuity to focus on younger versions of iconic characters such as Superman and Wonder Woman. But DC hit a roadbump earlier this month with its all new Superwoman. This hero was trailed as Lois Lane with Superman’s powers (or at least, one incarnation of Lois – there are a couple of them knocking about DC’s current multiverse). After showing the street-smart journo getting a handle on her new abilities and cleverly saving Metropolis from a Lex Luthor-derived threat, writer-artist Phil Jimenez wrapped up his densely packed, often beautiful-looking first issue by – and here is the necessary SPOILER WARNING – killing her off. Some fans felt cheated, angry or simply confused. Marvel faced a similar backlash earlier this year when Captain America was unexpectedly revealed to be a sleeper agent for the nefarious Hydra organisation in a shocking final-page twist.
Yet even in comics, it’s rare for the title character to die in their first issue. So what happens next? Jimenez, who previously worked on an admired run of Wonder Woman in the early 2000s, has hinted at an overarching plan involving his ensemble cast (which includes, in a sneaky bait-and-switch, a second Superwoman) and the social media hoo-ha should at least juice up sales of issue two, due mid-September.
There have been countless westerns about grizzled gunslingers seeking the quiet life only to be inexorably pulled back toward violence. In Kingsway West, a new four-part miniseries from Dark Horse, the taciturn hero is Kingsway Law, a preternaturally handy-with-the-steel regulator in a 19th-century north California shaped by a very different sort of goldrush. It’s a vivid landscape where valuable-but-volatile “red gold” has caused mutations and magical phenomena, so as well as the standard wild west staples of six-guns and cool leather dusters, there are also bloodhound dragons and enchanted swords.
This inventive mix of Game Of Thrones and Unforgiven is notable for featuring a Chinese protagonist in a genre in which Asian characters have long been sidelined as voiceless railroad labour or simply ignored completely. While writer Greg Pak has invested a lot of effort into his alternate-history worldbuilding – this is the sort of comic that begins with a parchment map – the story is driven by emotion. Law has something very valuable taken from him, and will do anything to get it back, even in the face of overwhelming odds. With heavily lined art by Mirko Colak and vibrant colour treatments by Wil Quintana, it’s a handsome-looking book that feels as if it could go anywhere.
The beauty of being a Time Lord is that you can have adventures in parallel with your younger selves. To that end, UK-based publisher Titan Comics has been steadily growing its line of Doctor Who titles. There are now four separate monthly series, spotlighting Eccleston’s brooding Ninth, Tennant’s ferrety Tenth, Smith’s fez-loving Eleventh and Capaldi’s guitar-shredding Twelfth, respectively.
Perhaps looking to complete the post-2005 nu-Who set, Titan has also just launched a new official Torchwood series, written by star John Barrowman with his sister Carole. The sci-fi siblings previously collaborated on a Torchwood novel called Exodus Code and the new comic picks up some threads from that story. Captain Jack Harkness is policing time and space in a research boat called the Ice Maiden, complete with a crew of trigger-happy hotties and a wry AI. But when the historical birthplace of Torchwood is attacked, it gives the pansexual rascal an excuse to rescue his old partner Gwen from a Welsh caravanning holiday. With saucy repartee, smart-aleck captions and a bunch of ninjas on flying jet-skis, the Barrowmans seem to be having a whale of a time jump-starting the franchise, and that enthusiasm is infectious
