We’re not entirely clear what all this means, but we bet the peanut gallery will have something to say about it:

DC COMICS ANNOUNCES CONTENT UPDATES FOR ISSUES OF SUPERMAN AND SUPERMAN ANNUAL #13

Several issues of SUPERMAN and SUPERMAN ANNUAL #13 have changed contents as detailed below.

SUPERMAN #668 (AUG070237) now will feature the story solicited to appear in SUPERMAN #669. In this issue, written by Kurt Busiek with art by Rick Leonardi and Dan Green and a new cover by Renato Guedes and Wilson Magalhaes, The new 3-part story “The Third Kryptonian” gets under way. A year ago, Superman learned of another Kryptonian on Earth. Now the hunt goes into overdrive, as the Metropolis Marvel and the Dark Knight Detective’s search takes them from China to Gotham City to California and more. Plus, important developments for Superman’s foster-son Chris Kent, who also gets to meet Robin the Boy Wonder!

SUPERMAN #668 (AUG070237), which features a new cover by Renato Guedes and Wilson Magalhaes, is available for order adjustment through the Final Order Cutoff date of September 20, and is scheduled to arrive in stores on October 10.

SUPERMAN #669 (AUG070238) now will feature the story solicited to appear in SUPERMAN #670. In this issue, written by Kurt Busiek with art by Rick Leonardi and Dan Green and a cover by Jesus Merino, secrets of Krypton’s past are revealed in “The Third Kryptonian” Part 2 of 3, as survivors and enemies come fast and furious in a centuries-spanning story of interstellar adventure and survival. But someone’s stalking the third Kryptonian…and now he’s after Superman, too!

SUPERMAN #669 (AUG070238) is scheduled to arrive in stores on October 24.

SUPERMAN #670 (SEP070182) now will feature a story solicited to run in SUPERMAN ANNUAL #13. In this issue, written by Kurt Busiek with art by Rick Leonardi and Dan Green and a cover by Jesus Merino, it’s the slam-bang, no-holds barred conclusion of the 3-part story “The Third Kryptonian,” as the entire Superman family — Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, Krypto, Chris Kent and even Batman — makes a desperate last stand against a deadly threat to every Kryptonian in the universe!

SUPERMAN #670 (SEP070182) is scheduled to arrive in stores on November 7. Please note that this issue will have 48 pages with a cover price of $3.99 U.S.

SUPERMAN ANNUAL #13 (SEP070183) now will feature a lead story written by Kurt Busiek with art and cover by Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino. The big-action finale to the “Camelot Falls” epic! It’s Kryptonian versus magic, in an all-out confrontation between Superman and Arion, beneath the Atlantic. But how does Superman battle a sorcerer? And what does it mean for the fate of the world? The answers involve tidal waves, shipwrecks, secrets, revelations, New Gods, monsters, a walk through time with the Phantom Stranger and the truth about Khyber. Don’t miss the climactic chapter of a story that will have repercussions for Superman and his world for years to come.

In the backup story, written by Busiek with art by Renato Guedes and Wilson Magalhaes, the Superman family — including The Man of Steel, Lois Lane, Chris Kent, Jonathan and Martha Kent and others, are reunited for what may be the last time.

SUPERMAN ANNUAL #13 (SEP070183) is scheduled to arrive in stores on November 28.

Because of these changes, these issues will be made returnable at a later date. DC Comics apologizes for any inconvenience this may cause.

25 COMMENTS

  1. What it means is that the same scheduling eff-ups that screwed up the Johns/Donner/Kubert storyline in Action Comics are affecting the other Superman book as well, and that Rick Leonardi (awesome cat that he is) is pumping out his stories a month ahead of schedule to make up for it.

    I personally think that shuffling the last part of an “ongoing” story arc into an annual is just a horrific way for DC to treat their every-Wednesday-like-clockwork fans. I was hoping after the Action debacle that they would have learned their lesson and not put big arcs by notoriously slow artists into the ongoing series until they had the whole thing in hand, but obviously they haven’t quite yet.

  2. To correct Jason — it means that Rick Leonardi (awesome cat that he is) was already done with the next two issues, and working on what was to be the Annual and is now #670, so those stories were ready to go, and DC chose to bump them up rather than delay the book more.

    I can’t speak for the peanut gallery, but my reaction, when I got the news, was a mixture of “AAAAAAARGH!” and “Well, it’s gotta be done, doesn’t it? Books have got to come out.”

    And Rick’s first issue came out really well, so I think people are going to be happy reading it. Even if, like me, they wish they had the last of Camelot Falls beforehand.

    kdb

  3. >> I was hoping after the Action debacle that they would have learned their lesson and not put big arcs by notoriously slow artists into the ongoing series until they had the whole thing in hand, but obviously they haven’t quite yet.>>

    Oh, and remember — this arc started three months _before_ “the Action debacle,” so they couldn’t have learned from it when we started out, all sunny and young and innocent and foolish.

    I join you in hoping the lesson has been learned, though, and that this will be the last gasp of the Great Superman Scheduling Disaster.

    kdb

  4. Honestly, I just feel a sort of a grim resignation about the whole thing at this point. I will say that the pro who has chosen to weigh in here is turning in consistently good work, and does not seem to be a part of the problem. (A truly “involved” pro who enjoys fan interaction, I might add, based on his frequest contribuions at supermanhomepage.com.)

    I love Superman, and I love the scripts of John and Kurt, so for now I’m sticking with the books. But I do wonder if all this hoo-ha back and forth affects book sales, or if DC would even care. The jumpiness of the Wonder Woman schedule caused me to drop the book after about four issues, which kept my money in my wallet thgrough the fill-ins, and through all bazillion parts of Amazons Attack, etc etc.

  5. I’m a BIG fan of Kurt’s work. Hearing Rick Leonardi is jumping on board makes me smile. Rick deserves more mainstream work. Glad to have him on board. The rescheduling does suck, but what can you do? DC doesn’t seem interested in doing self-contained minis, and discarding the idea of monthly ongoings.

  6. >> Honestly, I just feel a sort of a grim resignation about the whole thing at this point. >>

    You’re not alone, my friend.

    And thanks for the kind words, guys.

    kdb

  7. It really doesn’t matter whose fault it is anymore, it’s just a tragic state of reality over at DC, something that happens only at DC and only with the Big 3: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

    Some whine that all people do is blame Dan Didio for these things but the truth is that these scheduling fiascos are the only things that have occured with consistent regularity (not the books themselves) since he took over as EIC, or whatever he is at DC.

    The pros can defend him too, make excuses for the rampant blunders until the cow jumps over the moon but what this practice demonstrates to the buying public at large is that at DC, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing and its all playing out in public for everyone to see and comment.

    Thing is, if you want people to stop whining or complaining, perhaps DC should get their act together and start behaving like professionals, stop giving people a reason to complain.

    Instead, these geniuses blame the consumers, telling them they’re impatient and what not about their comics.

    Well, why should they be?

    Comics have been a monthly serialized medium for what, 60, 70 years now. With the advances in technology, it should be much easier to get your product out.

    Though only at DC will they turn a blind eye to their own incompetence. In today’s environment, DC has become so arrogant, they don’t tell people to get on the ball, they have audacity to say the audience needs to change their tastes.

    But with all their smoke and mirrors, its clear that if they were behaving and doing their jobs like professionals, these things wouldn’t happen… and if they did, they wouldn’t be amateurish enough to permit such foolish idiocies play out in public to their own humiliation.

    Small press publishers don’t have this much nonsense going on.

    Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are the most recognizable comic heroes on the planet. They are supposed to be and should be, industry leaders.

    But, scheduling fiascos like this are really only the exemplary work of people who don’t know what’s going on, who can’t get a grip on what it takes to make these books work, books which have functioned without fail for over 60 years.

    Yes, times are changing but it’s only in today’s environment, could the brilliance of the regime at DC find a way to break the Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman machine.

    But alas, this is what happens when you have a leader who hasn’t got a clue, who is more focused on churning out dozens upon dozens… upon dozens and dozens, and MORE dozens of mindless, idiotic Countdown crossovers that will be forgotten this time next year.

    An industry leader who found a way to break the once monthly industry leaders called Superman Batman and Wonder Woman.

  8. I’ve got to say, incidentally, that while the delays in seeing things like “Camelot Falls” conclude are frustrating, I’ve been really impressed at how all of the fill-ins along the way have been written (or rarely co-written) by Kurt Busiek. His scripts certainly don’t seem to be the cause of the delays, and while it’s got to be exhausting to have to keep creating extra scripts that can get shuffled in, his hard work has gone a long way towards keeping me happy reading the book.

  9. DC should have just taken a page out of “The Princess Bride.”

    “Let me e’splain the Superman schedules….no, is too much, let me sum up. Rick Leonardi finish the books early so we shuffle them around a bit.”

    “What are our obstacles?”

    “There are a lotta fans don’ know what they get in their comics, and we may have to make them returnable.”

    “And what are our assets?”

    “Kurt Busiek’s brains, Kurt Busiek’s strength, and Kurt Busiek’s steel.”

    See how much simpler that is?

  10. It’s all for the benefit of the eventual hardcover and trade paperback collections. The people who support the monthly installments just aren’t the important ones anymore.

  11. >> How much of Superman is devoted to vigorously plumbing the semantic loophole contained within “Last Son Of Krypton?” >>

    Not all that much, actually, compared to how many times the other parts of the phrase come into play.

    The Phantom Zoners, current Supergirl and any Kandorians were all born before Kal, so they’re not “Last.” Chris Kent, Kandorian infants and pre-Crisis Supergirl were born after the planet’s explosion, so they’re not technically “of Krypton.”

    But it’s not exactly a loophole, since the idea that “Last Son” meant “Last Survivor” was a post-Crisis retcon. At the time the tagline was popularized, General Zod, Supergirl, Nam-Ek, Lesla-Lar, Zor-El and thousands of others were around as living survivors of the Kryptonian race, so “Last Son of Krypton” wasn’t intended to mean something that didn’t allow for them to exist.

    “Last Son of Krypton” meant that Kal was the last kid to be born on Krypton and survive the planet’s death. Everyone else is either older than he is (and thus not the last) or were born of some place other than Krypton.

    It does leave a loophole for a “last daughter” to have been born on Krypton after him and survive, but as far as I know there’s never been such a character.

    kdb

  12. >> The people who support the monthly installments just aren’t the important ones anymore.>>

    Unless you count the fact that they get more stories and sooner than the TPB crowd.

    I expect DC will collect some of the 13 issues of SUPERMAN and ACTION that have come out in between issues of the big arcs, but maybe not all of them, and not in any great hurry.

    The book-edition buyer has access to 16 issues’ worth of SUPERMAN and ACTION, post-OYL, with another 5 solicited, and another 5 expected pretty well as soon as “Last Son” wraps up. That’s 26 issues by sometime next year.

    Plus 3 classic DC COMICS PRESENTS reprints.

    The monthly-comic buyer has 18 issues of SUPERMAN, 19 issues of ACTION and an ACTION annual right now — 22 more issues than the book buyer has.

    And by the time the book buyer gets up to that 26 issue mark, the monthly reader will be up to about 52 issues’ worth of stuff.

    Over time, and as the schedule smooths out, the book buyer will get closer, but will never catch up and almost certainly never have all of what the monthly buyer gets.

    kdb

  13. “We’re not entirely clear what all this means, but we bet the peanut gallery will have something to say about it:”

    Awaiting Rich Johnston’s inside scoop.

    :)

  14. Well you’ve got to give people a shot at drawing a monthly comic, I’m sure everyone hired to do work thought they could fit in the monthly schedule. If they only let the proven few draw DC books it would get stale really fast. Things in real life do come up and kill schedules so is it really so horrible if we get a late comic?

    Slack must be cut, people!

  15. Kurt, thanks so much for the update. My reaction was the same as yours. I *really* hope that DC gets all this ironed out so these kinds of delays don’t keep cropping up.

  16. >> I expect DC will collect some of the 13 issues of SUPERMAN and ACTION that have come out in between issues of the big arcs

    Holy crapoly! I didn’t realize it was that many! That’s an inauspicious number. And, um, a high one…

  17. Wait — This just in:

    Reason for all the mishaps in scheduling for the big 3 at DC:

    After a huge success punching a hole in the wall to raise smelly Jason Todd from the grave, A Super Pissed Superboy Prime laid a big huge Super Fart, blasting a hole from the anti-matter universe into the DC Offices, blasting the scheduled issues of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman away.

    A true WMD, SBD…
    (Weapon of Mass Destruction, Silent but Deadly)

    Who says revenge is best on a dish served cold? Some say hot and smelly is just as deadly…

  18. Admit it Kurt: the mercury poisoning you had a few years ago was contagious and now it’s infecting your coworkers. We’re onto you!

  19. I just wonder whether Jerry Ordway would be interested in doing a monthly book. I could be mistaken, but I thought I read somewhere that he was available for a monthly gig, but that no one ever called him. If he is still capable of doing a monthly book (and I’m not aware of any reason that he would not be), why doesn’t DC use him? He was great on Superman in the late 80’s and early 90’s and I think he would be great today. Busiek & Ordway would be a hella cool Superman team. Just a thought.

  20. Because they are trying to put big artists and big names on the Superman titles, which is why they have Donner, Johns and Busiek and also Kubert and Pacheo.

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