At least for a little while.

The first round of cuts from DC Comics’ the New 52 were announced today, and it’s 6 books that I barely laid a finger on: Hawk and Dove, Static Shock, Men at War, O.M.A.C., Blackhawks and Mister Terrific. I never read any of them, and only mentioned Mister Terrific once in my blog to mock it for its portrayal of Power Girl.

So we can probably blame me personally for these books’ poor performance. I’m sorry everybody. The books will be cancelled at issue #8 in April.

People didn't like the Rob Liefeld comic? Say it isn't so!

But then they will immediately be replaced by 6 brand new books! Which, quite frankly, mostly look just as terrible. But I guess there are only so many ways that DC Comics can mine the Batman, Superman and Green Lantern franchises for high-selling books. Though with this “Second Wave” initiative, they’re going to try and squeeze a little bit more blood from those stones. The new books will launch in May.

New Books:

• Batman: Incorporated: Writer: Grant Morrison. Artist: Chris Burnham. The acclaimed ongoing writer of ACTION COMICS, Grant Morrison, presents a fresh take on BATMAN INCORPORATED, in which the Batman brand is franchised globally in preparation for a major international threat.
  This is clearly the focal point of this Second Wave. DC had previously announced that Batman: Incorporated would return in 2012, so they probably just tried to come up with a bunch of other series to throw in alongside it. I’m definitely looking forward to this book, because Morrison’s original volume of Batman: Inc. was incredible fun.
  

  Because 4 Batman comics just isn't enough!

• Earth 2: Writer: James Robinson. Artist: Nicola Scott. The greatest heroes on a parallel Earth, the Justice Society combats threats that will set them on a collision course with other worlds.
  DC had also previously announced this series, starring popular super-team The Justice Society. I’m not going to get into the confusing aspects of that whole can of worms, but basically Earth 2 is essentially just that, it’s a parallel dimension that features different but familiar heroes to the normal DC Universe. But whereas over the past 20 years, the Earth 1 and 2 characters existed in the same dimension, the New 52 reboot split them apart again, sending the Justice Society and their like back to their own separate dimension. I won’t be buying this series.
• World’s Finest: Writer: Paul Levitz. Artists: George Perez and Kevin Maguire. Stranded on our world from a parallel reality, Huntress and Power Girl struggle to find their way back to Earth 2.
  Finally a proper return of Power Girl! She had been Mister Terrific’s ‘friend with benefits’ in his solo series, but now it looks like she’s coming back to a proper superheroic appearance. That’s pretty cool. Even if she won’t be written by the same teams who wrote her fantastic solo series last year.  I liked the first issue of the current Huntress mini-series, but haven’t picked it up since. I think the two of them will make a good team and I might actually pick up this book…even if I’m mostly blah to the whole Earth 2 nonsense.
• Dial H: Writer: China Miéville. Artist: Mateus Santoluoco. The first ongoing series from acclaimed novelist China Miéville, this is a bold new take on a cult classic concept about the psychological effects on an everyman who accidentally gains powers to become a hero.
  I assume this is an update to the classic ‘Dial H for Hero’ comic from who knows when. I never read it, I never cared for it and I absolutely don’t care for it now. This title just seems like a stab in the dark by DC. If those 6 titles I mentioned earlier are getting canned, there’s no way Dial H is going to sustain an audience unless it’s some surreal new fantasi-comic!
  

  I'm sure readers will 'hang up' on this series before too long. Nailed it.

• G.I. Combat: Writer: J.T. Krul. Artist: Ariel Olivetti. Featuring the return of a classic DC Comics series, THE WAR THAT TIME FORGOT, along with rotating back-up stories and creative teams – including THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER, with writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and artist Dan Panosian; and THE HAUNTED TANK, with writer John Arcudi and artist Scott Kolins.
  If those first two war-themed comics, Men at War and Blackhawks, didn’t sell, then there is no way that this new series is going to sell.
• The Ravagers: Writer: Howard Mackie. Artist: Ian Churchill. Spinning off from TEEN TITANS and SUPERBOY, this series finds four superpowered teens on the run and fighting against the organization that wants to turn them into supervillains.
  This series has potential, but not very strong potential. And the name is stupid. Anyone who has been reading my Teen Titans reviews knows that I haven’t been a fan of the super-villain organization N.O.W.H.E.R.E., which has been billed as the menacing organization for The Ravagers. So I’m not looking forward to a new book about teens fighting N.O.W.H.E.R.E. Also, why wouldn’t these four super-powered teenagers not simply join the Teen Titans? Is Red Robin that selective when it comes to team members?
  The only way I figure this book can succeed is if the team is made up of pre-existing characters who have been revamped and rebooted. There are a lot of Teen Titans and old Young Justice characters that aren’t being used, like Secret or (gasp!) the Wonder Twins!
  But a whole new team of never-before-heard-of nobodies isn’t going to cut it. Especially not with a name as generic and boring as ‘The Ravagers’. What will they be ravaging, exactly?

And that is the big announcement! Like I said, books like Batman: Incorporated are clear winners, while books like G.I. Combat are likely going to be cancelled in no time flat. I like what DC is doing, though. In the old system, and at Marvel Comics, new books come and go all the time. So making the cancellations/new books part of a big initiative/announcement is a good way to go. I don’t know why DC feels the new to glue themselves to 52 books at a time, but that’s their business, not mine.

As for the cancelled books, I’m not sorry to see them go. I never read any of them, and clearly not many people did either. It’s kind of too bad that Static Shock’s book isn’t succeeding, but the others are not a surprise. All of them are fringe concepts or only semi-popular characters. DC had to have known going in that these books would always been on the bubble.

I mean, c’mon, a Rob Liefeld book? That guy is practically an Internet meme he’s so detested by comic book fans.