Oh that old New 52 gang…the memories. But it’s breaking up so fast. Over on Twitter, writer Paul Cornell confirmed that he was off STORMWATCH with issue #6, but
I’ll be staying on Demon Knights and Saucer Country, but #6 is my last issue of Stormwatch. Thanks, everyone, and good luck to Paul Jenkins.
The new STORMWATCH writer is Paul Jenkins, but he’s only been confirmed for two issues.
When a scientific experiment tears a hole in the barrier between dimensions, miners from a forbidden universe arrive to steal Earth’s gravity! Can Stormwatch—with their ranks depleted after recent cataclysmic events—find a way to repel alien excavators that shred our reality with every touch?
“The Stormwatch crew can’t ever catch a break — no simple threats like bloodthirsty monsters or world-dominating supervillains to stop, it’s always some mind-cracking knot that Apollo, Midnighter and the rest of the crew have to untie,” says editor Pat McCallum. “This time out, Stormwatch have to solve the puzzle of dimension-stepping gravity miners, creatures so alien they’re not even technically alive. The last stand of humanity or, as Stormwatch calls it, ‘Monday.’”
That sounds a bit less interesting than the book that Cornell had originally talked about:
Being among the “Edge” comics, there’s a certain freedom to experiment about this. One of the things I really liked about the Authority, Stormwatch and Planetary comics back in the day was that they could take things further. We’re still keeping that type of swagger. It’s a very attitudinal book. It’s kind of in-your-face. That kind of “looking down on the rest of the universe” is very attractive about Stormwatch. So that’s very much part of this.
It’s very fast-moving as well. We jam a hell of a lot into that first issue. There are lots of characters, there’s lots of action, there’s lots of locations. It’s sort of immediately obvious that this has a real point.
It’s at the crux of a lot of things for where DC is going to be in September. It’s a bit of a kingpin book. It united a lot of things.
Although STORMWATCH was part of the original Jim Lee Wildstorm universe, it’s kind of drifted into the “English dude” part of the universe–you can’t spell “English dude” without EDGE — having been revamped mostly by UK writers, since Warren Ellis gave it an electric prod up the arse back in the day. What English writers might step in for Jenkins once his two-issue run ends?
Also, it’s pretty clear now that the New 52 is going to be all about very, very short runs unless you are hitting right away.
I don’t know that we can generalize from the still relatively small number of lineup changes. Some of them seem like creative conflicts, some like underperforming, some like overcommittment. Paul Cornell will still be writing 2 monthly comics for DC, for instance, which is a full load for someone who is also writing novels, short fiction, and tv scripts.
The turnover seems less significant than it was during the previous year of mainstream DC.
The *real* wagering is on which of the New 52 is going to be the first book to completely blow a deadline.
“it’s pretty clear now that the New 52 is going to be all about very, very short runs unless you are hitting right away.”
Now? It’s always been clear. Even before the relaunch it was made very clear that they were going to keep close eyes on all titles. Acting surprised or trying to quantify these changes into something they are not is foolish.
I know they are both British, but Jenkins is no Cornell.
“That sounds a bit less interesting than the book that Cornell had originally talked about:”
Problem is that the book he delivered was less interested that the book that Cornell had originally talked about. I don’t even blame him for that, as the characters have been completely neutered as part of the merger into the DCU.
“The *real* wagering is on which of the New 52 is going to be the first book to completely blow a deadline.”
Anyone betting on anyone other than Justice League is making a sucker’s bet, IMO. Especially if he’s playing COD:MW3.
“What English writers might step in for Jenkins once his two-issue run ends?”
Hmm… which ones wrote crappy comics for Marvel 15 years ago? My money is on one of those dudes.
All I want to do now is ask Didio how DC now defines the word “consistency”.
so email him.
[email protected]
I email him every once in a while with suggestions. He doesn’t take them, but he’s always polite.
While Stormwatch started out with some general lag issue’s 3 and 4 seemed to set a good tone. Not sure why DC is in such a hurry to “fix” things when there isn’t a clear audience for the books yet. You keep changing the voice of a book then the message becomes garbled and no one end up listening to it.
Its a shame hes off the title, but its only been average at best anyway. After reading his Action run, I was pumped to see what he would do next. But lets face it, it hasn’t been great.
Was Peter David writing at Marvel 15 years ago? Because he should be on more than one title a month!