It is fall in southeast Michigan and that means football and, as was the case this year, playoff baseball. It also means falling leaves and falling temperatures, frost on the windshield and pumpkins on the porch for decoration between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Sometimes fall even brings along some surprises.
In the case of comics, specifically comics with Detroit roots, fall of 2012 brings quite the surprise in the form of an announcement about a comic book series set to launch in February of 2013. MTV Geek was given the right to exclusively announce the upcoming series featuring a "fan-favorite character" that would be spinning out of the upcoming Geoff Johns-penned Justice League of America.
"Hot-diggity!" I thought. "Cyborg is FINALLY going to get his own series in this New 52 relaunch!" After all, there were 52 titles that launched. The first wave had six titles wash out (
Hawk & Dove,
O.M.A.C.,
Mr. Terrific,
Static Shock,
Blackhawks, and
Men of War) to be replaced with six titles that didn't include a
Cyborg solo series. Then a second round of cancellations was announced (
Captain Atom,
Voodoo,
Resurrection Man, and
Justice League International) only to have those replaced with four titles that, again, did not include a
Cyborg solo series. So when it was recently announced that DC was shutting down
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.,
Blue Beetle,
Grifter, and
Legion Lost, I got my hopes up again. After all, this would bring the total load of New 52 titles to 66 titles. Surely out of sixty-six titles ONE of those had to feature the solo adventures of Vic Stone, right?
Wrong.
The fan favorite characters getting their own titles are Katana and, as it will be billed on the cover: "Justice League of America's Vibe." Huh?
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE the Motor City League. I grew up in Toledo and fondly remember spending my meager allowance on Justice League comics fromt he local convenience store (seriously, they carried comics) and was completely unaware just how poorly characterized Vibe was. It didn't matter to me, I saw him as a guy who was pretending to be something he wasn't. Kind of like Nightcrawler from the X-Men. But not really. After all, Nightcrawler didn't breakdance, although he did have a ridiculously stereotypical accent.
So Vibe. Wait, I'm sorry, "Justice League of America's Vibe." Hmmm. I'm willing to give it a go. I'm not overly keen on the fact that I still don't have a Cyborg series, but at least Vibe will be set in the Motor City. I just hope they get it right. The first cover has a superimposed image of Darkseid and depicts Vibe fighting Parademons so it can't be all bad, right?
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| Cover to Justice League of America's Vibe #1 |
I think with this announcement it just might be time to change up the content and mission of this blog. I'll try to have an update soon.
