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Alex Lu and Kyle Pinion discuss Green Arrow #1 and find that this title is producing a superstar artist in the making!

Black Canary #2 (on sale 7/15)

By Harper W. Harris

The Fletcher-Verse: this is what superfans like to call the little corner of the DC Universe that’s penned (or co-penned) by Brenden Fletcher, including Batgirl, Gotham Academy, and the new Black Canary series. I got a chance to sit down with Brenden to discuss his inspirations, approach, and general disregard for continuity in Gotham Academy and Black Canary.

Gotham Academy #8 (on sale now)

Harper W. Harris: I’ve heard that Miyazaki is a big influence on what you’re doing with Gotham Academy. What parts or aspects of those movies did you want to bring into Gotham Academy and the tone?

Brenden Fletcher: I wouldn’t say that my love of Miyazaki is something that I’m trying to put on the page of Gotham Academy, or of any of my books. But discovering Miyazaki at a young age and his Studio Ghibli films really transformed my view of what it meant to tell a story, and how to approach character and drama. I think that’s what I’m trying to bring to all of this, I’m just trying to be mindful of his approach. These books are completely different from anything he’s done. So I’m hoping that when people are examining what we’re doing with that in mind, they’re not trying to look for specific elements or anything. I will say this however: I believe that what we have in common more than anything is the fact that we seem to be drawn to tell stories about female protagonists. If you look at most of Miyazaki films…[A saxophone plays in the distance] I’m sorry, that’s “Careless Whisper” on the saxophone being played at San Diego Comic Con. You don’t expect Wham on a Friday morning.

HH: No, it’s a little early for that!

BF: But yeah, I think I haven’t really figured out why it is I’m drawn to telling stories with female protagonists, but this has always been the case. Since I started writing, every story that I’ve felt connected to has had a female protagonist. I don’t do it on purpose, it’s just what interests me.

HH: So switching over to Black Canary for a second, that obviously draws from a very different creative pool than Gotham Academy, one that you have some personal experience with. How does your experience as a rock musician inform the way you write that book and formed that character?

BF: Yeah I’ve been playing music all my life. I’m primarily a singer; I went to school for music, studied voice and classical singing. I ended up doing musical theater for years, and on the side I was always playing in bands. At one point in my life I decided I didn’t like the formal aspect so much, so I wanted to get out of classical. I wasn’t really into the musical theater scene; I liked the jobs, but it wasn’t really me. So I spent more time writing music and playing music, and working on being a better instrumentalist and that turned into some touring and getting involved in the business of music. This was never something that I could make a living out of, I didn’t become a world famous musician, but I experienced enough of the life to inform this new world I’m building for Dinah Lance in the new Black Canary book.

HH: With Gotham Academy you’re co-writing with Becky Cloonan. With co-writing, I’m always curious about the process–what is the process like writing with Becky?

BF: It’s interesting: I think we could talk about it in terms of how Becky and I work, but this is a full team effort and Karl [Kerschl] is in on the story building at every phase of the project. We start usually by going out for a coffee–I’ve got some ideas, Becky’s got some ideas, Karl’s got some ideas. We turn that into a look at where the story should be going, and at that point Becky and I create a breakdown of the issue, what the twenty pages will roughly look like. We give that to Karl, he tells us we’re wrong and we have to back and retool it until he’s happy with it. From there we give it to the editors who sometimes tell us we’re wrong. Eventually we get to scripting, and that’s another stage where Karl will fix things or tell us things are wrong–or sometimes he just doesn’t, and I’m not even kidding you, he’ll just change things on the page, just draw where he thinks it should go, and 100% of the time he’s right. Karl is an extremely gifted storyteller, great writer, an Eisner award winning writer/artist. What we have is this incredible merging of visions–actually I think we share a vision, but we merge our talents and abilities and our individual ideas to become this wonderful thing that’s Gotham Academy.

Gotham Academy #9 (on sale 8/12)

HH: It sounds like Gotham Academy is a really collaborative effort, that’s great. So when you’re writing a script for different artists, so for example writing for Annie Wu on Black Canary, how is your scripting style different?

BF: Totally different. The only reason I’m writing full scripts for Gotham Academy is because I’m collaborating with Becky and because the office requires it–they like to see a full script. With Karl, we can pretty much get on the phone and say, yeah, page twenty looks like this, and he’ll deliver it and it’ll be perfect. Annie and I had a talk early on about how she likes to approach things, and she had been working with Matt Fraction on Hawkeye for a while and wanted a script that was closer to what Matt was doing. So this is the first time that I’ve written closer to what is known as the Marvel Style. Annie wants a looser breakdown of what the pages looks like with some script beats in there. She can push and pull those things as she wants, she adds beats, moves beats, but ultimately the core of the story I’m trying to get across, the core of the movement of the characters is all there on the page.

HH: When you first started out with Black Canary, were you able to pick and choose what aspects of her past you wanted to use? Given that it’s not your average superhero story, have you found it challenging to tell the story you want to tell within the confines of continuity?

BF: I have a relatively clean approach to continuity, which is just that I ignore everything that I don’t like. I will never contradict it to the best of my ability, but if something feels off to me I’ll try my best to avoid it. I am playing into a lot of the New 52 continuity for Dinah Lance, but using it for very specific reasons which you’ll see over this first arc. I’m trying to bring it all together and make it make sense in a way that makes Dinah feel like the iconic version of the character that we know and love.

HH: She’s a welcome member to the ever-growing Fletcher-verse!

Black Canary #1 and Gotham Academy #8 are on shelves now, with new issues coming in the next few weeks!

It’s that time again, as I delve into Week 3 of DC’s set of relaunched titles that have been dubbed as “The DC You”. This week marks a few changes worth noting up front, I had limited time in my pre-HeroesCon planning (which I’ll be attending for The Beat all weekend), so I’m only covering the new #1’s. My apologies to fans of the current Wonder Woman team, Secret Six, etc…but I’m throwing this together as quickly as I can before I hit the road. If anyone has thoughts to add about the books I didn’t get to this week or any of the below, hit me with them in the comments section, I’d love to hear what you think!

Again, my disclaimer, none of the below discombobulated and poorly thought-through ramblings should be considered actual reviews of any kind. And here we go…

Black Canary #1: This was probably the book that I was most anticipating, outside of Gene Luen Yang‘s Superman. I love Brenden Fletcher‘s work on everything he’s touched so far, and Annie Wu is artistic dynamite. I left this first issue mostly satisfied, Wu’s trademark dynamics are definitely in place and you can sense what Fletcher aiming for in a sort of Bryan Lee O’Malley-esque way. Much like the first relaunched issue of Batgirl that Fletcher, Cameron Stewart and Babs Tarr took over, there’s some clumsiness in establishing the new status quo and nailing the right voice for its central character. But also like Batgirl, I expect this to become a really fun ride from the second issue on. It’s good, I just expect it to get a lot better now that the preamble is out of the way.

Verdict: Going onto the pull-list

Doctor Fate #1: If you had told me that DC stalwart Paul Levitz would be the ideal candidate to write the story of a young Egyptian med student’s traversing of the Campbell mono-myth, well…I wouldn’t have believed you, especially given how my poor Legion of Superheroes ended up into the trash-bin in the New 52. But hey, guess what? Doctor Fate might be the best his writing has been in years. Sure, there’s a little strain as you can see Levitz attempting to hit some of that more youthful cadence, but his scripting goes down far better than Scott Lobdell‘s last week. But it’s Sonny Liew‘s art that makes this introductory chapter pop off the page. The same gorgeously rendered figures that populated The Shadow Hero are on display here, and the elements of Egyptian myth are wonderfully rendered in Liew’s hands. If Levitz lets his artist run wild, we’re in for a real treat.

Verdict: Going onto the pull-list

Doomed #1: Speaking of Mr. Lobdell, I had a morbid curiosity about Doomed. Just before the announcement of DC’s new line of titles, there were reports that the publisher’s leadership was angling for “blue sky pitches” from its various creators. This left me wondering what a writer whose work I generally dislike would produce if he was making his ideal DC Universe book. This first issue of Doomed is basically angling for a Spider-Man riff. It’s better than Red Hood/Arsenal in that this issue is not achingly horrible, but it’s still not particularly good. The attempts at humor are groan-worthy at best (and really wrong-headed at their lowest points), and no character talks like an actual human. But, I will give Lobdell and DC their due for introducing another person of color as a lead. In a month that saw veteran workhorses like Levitz and Dan Jurgens try to stretch their storytelling legs a tad, this is probably the closest we’ll get with Lobdell.

Verdict: Stopping here

Harley Quinn and Power Girl #1: While I felt just tad out of the loop having not read the Harley Quinn arc where these two popular characters initially teamed up, the narrative boxes at the beginning of the issue did a nice job catching me up (and frankly, put to mind how silly it is that DC doesn’t do recap pages). This was a good deal of fun, with a bit of a 70’s cosmic comics meets Space Quest. It’s basically Harley and Kara jumping from fantastic situation to fantastic situation in deep space. It’s light, pretty funny, and Stephane Roux puts in some gorgeous facial work, though Paul Mounts’ colors are what really pulled it all together for me. If you’re a Harley Quinn reader or dug the previous Power Girl series, you pretty much know what’s on tap here from Jimmy Palmiotti, Amanda Conner and Justin Gray. I’d say that’s a good thing.

Verdict: In for the next issue

Justice League of America #1: So, Bryan Hitch is a really good comic book writer. I had no idea. After this first issue, I’m very much on-board with his iteration of the Justice League. This is a straight-forward, yet supremely action packed Justice League tale, and it figures that the best showcase for Hitch’s talents would be something he scripted himself. He’s not the most subtle writer, but this first issue works as a terrific introduction to the seven founding members of the New 52 JLA and firmly establishes their personalities in a way that the Geoff Johns/Jim Lee relaunch fumbled with. You can sense that there’s also a grander plan at work here, with character based sub-plots being seeded that have the potential to lead in some very interesting directions. Maybe what I appreciated best, beyond the near-panoramic art work, was Hitch’s understanding of stakes. This is a JLA that struggles against even the Parasite, so what in the world are they going to do against an even bigger threat? There’s finally a sense of danger in a Justice League comic, which is something I haven’t felt in a long time. My hats off to you Mr. Hitch, this is easily the big surprise of the new relaunch.

Verdict: Going onto the pull-list

Martian Manhunter #1: Solo J’onn J’onzz books have had a pretty tough go at it, with John Ostrander having the only somewhat extended run with the character on his own. Post New 52 hasn’t been any kinder to our favorite Martian. Enter Rob Williams, the 2000 AD stalwart, along with Eddy Barrows. How do they fare? I’d say solidly. They’re taking J’onn in a very horror influenced direction that somewhat reminds me of Swamp Thing, and it’s actually the only new DC title thus far that’s really tackled that genre. On the other hand, I need another White Martian story like I need a hole in my head, and it seems like this tale is headed to that well again. But, plotting exhaustion aside, I really enjoyed Williams’ voice for J’onn and the idea of “the life he’s built up around himself as fiction” is a pretty compelling one. I won’t commit fully yet, but I can probably swing another month of this.

Verdict: On the fence

Prez #1: After finishing this comic, I immediately put it down and described it in painstaking detail to my significant other in excited tones. Mark Russell and Ben Caldwell‘s revival of one of the oddest titles in DC history is an entertaining political satire, that while taking shots at some fairly easy targets (the two party system, trending culture, apathetic voters) does so in a way that had me chuckling and made it feel just a smidge more daring than your typical Big Two comic. This is especially all the more apparent when you compare Prez‘s approach to real world issues vs. that of the far more milquetoast attempts at social/political relevance that the publisher has instituted in the past. Additionally, Caldwell’s panels are packed with little details that shouldn’t be glossed over either – anyone familiar with the artist’s Wednesday Comics entry should know what to expect. I hate that Prez is a limited series, but at least the set end-point will allow this team to make their mark and hopefully breathe this kind of life into another moribund DC property. Plus, this will probably be among the lower selling relaunch titles from this month, unless word of mouth is particularly strong. Here’s hoping!

Verdict: Going onto the pull-list

Robin: Son of Batman #1: Patrick Gleason was always the draw of the most recent run of Batman & Robin for me. That he was taking over the adventures of Damian Wayne as writer/artist had me quite curious what his scripting chops would be like. As a fan of cartoonists going it alone, I admire DC continuing to trust in all the tools of their illustrators, even if it’s produced only mixed results thus far. For Gleason’s part, I thought this was fun issue that veered into “a boy and his monster” territory between Damian and his pet Man-Bat, Goliath. Gleason picks up right where he and Peter Tomasi left off, and that could be a bit tough for new readers, as references are made to Damian’s resurrection, his relationship to the Al Ghul family, and a character that appeared in the first six issues of Batman & Robin. But, if you can hang with slightly heavy backstory, it’s an enjoyable read and now that Gleason is basically unfettered here, his layouts are lusher than ever. I liked it enough to come back next month to see where it goes next.

Verdict: In for the next issue

This week’s must-reads: Black Canary, Doctor Fate, Justice League of America, and Prez

Next week: I finally get my Yang Superman, Batgirl and Grayson are back (!!!!), Cullen Bunn takes over Aquaman, and WE! ARE! ROBIN! *BUM bum bum bum-bum-bum*

This past weekend, DC took over a panel room at Special Edition NYC to discuss their DC YOU relaunch titles.  Panelists included Gotham Academy writer Becky Cloonan, Midnighter writer Steve Orlando, Action Comics writer Greg Pak, Black Canary artist Annie Wu, Black Canary writer Brendan Fletcher, and Constantine: the Hellblazer co-writer Ming Doyle.  While no new titles were announced, the panelists were in great spirits as they discussed their respective series, offering insight into the future of their books.

First up was Midnighter‘s Steve Orlando, who reassured fans that he was not here to ruin the lives of countless presently despondent Authority fans by separating Midnighter from his long-time lover, Apollo.  At the beginning of The Authority, Midnighter and Apollo have been a couple for five years.  Orlando said he wanted to dial the clock back and explore how Midnighter and Apollo got together in the first place.   In addition, he offered the most quotable quip of the day when he revealed the covers of issues 2 and 3, summarizing the second issue as follows:

“If corporations are people, then they’re people we can punch.”

Next, we had Gotham Academy‘s Becky Cloonan.  The first trade of her, Brendan Fletcher’s, and Karl Kerchl’s series releases on june 23rd, which happens to also be Cloonan’s birthday.  She told the audience that Gotham Academy‘s next issue, which comes out this week, would explore the mayhem that ensues when Batman’s son Damian starts going to school with Maps & co.  She and Brendan also teased an upcoming plot point for the series.  Dr Kurt Langstrom, more commonly known as Man-Bat, is going to be a chemistry professor at Gotham Academy!

“Maps! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

Greg Pak discussed his new Action Comics arc, which began this past week.  In this story, Pak deals with the consequences of Superman’s secret identity as Clark Kent being revealed in Gene Luen Yang’s Superman series, which begins at the end of June.  Clark Kent’s costume has gotten a bit of a redesign centered around a neat S t-shirt that incorporates black into the traditional yellow, red, and blue.

He also showed off some fantastically designed covers for issue 42 and 43:

Finally, although Constantine: the Hellblazer co-writer James Tynion IV was not in attendance at the panel, co-writer Ming Doyle was there to take the reigns and quell any doubts about the return of the hellbound detective.  Doyle said that she and Tynion had given Constantine a “hot, young de-aging,” trading in the deteriorating body of the old Constantine for a new model that reflects the series’ new lease on life.  She made a point of saying that their Constantine is indeed bisexual, distancing them from the controversy surrounding the NBC TV iteration of the Hellblazer. Finally, Doyle took a moment to highlight Riley Rossmo’s art on the series, which breaks “DC house style” in interesting and exciting ways.

One of the biggest complaints about Special Edition NYC this year was the distinct lack of panel rooms.  Panels were hosted in one of two large booths, and the only thing that separated them was a thin curtain.  Audio from both rooms overlapped with one another, leading one guest to comment that it was “like being in two panels for the price of one.”  More accurately, it was like being in no panels although you were in one.  It did lead to a great moment in the middle of the DC panel, though:

Panel room 2 got their crowd to chant “Hey DC, what’s up with the Twix?!” at us. Maybe conjoined rooms aren’t so bad @DCComics @comicsbeat

— Alexander Lu (@Waxenwings) June 7, 2015

Nick Lachey probably never expected this kind of fame.