5 ONGOING DC TITLES YOU SHOULD BE READING
As promised, the BEST DC ongoing series. Let's start.
Blue Beetle co-feature in Booster Gold (Matthew Sturges & Mike Norton)
I’m going to say it outright: I usually skip the Booster Gold part of the book and head straight to the back-up story. Blue Beetle is like an awesome prize inside a cereal box. A little plastic squirt gun with great characters, fights with giant robots, and (sometimes) Traci 13. I’ll eat the cereal, but I’ll always want to get at the toy first.
Blue Beetle was my favorite DC ongoing series. I’m glad that Matthew Sturges has the opportunity to tell more of Jaime’s adventures, even if it’s only eight pages a month. And, hey, there’s art by Mike Norton, who has done some other cool stuff (that I hope you buy from us...)
Secret Six (Gail Simone & Nicola Scott)
If you need a reason to keep loving DC Entertainment, it’s this comic. It’s a team made up of DC Villain’s, including characters that you’re probably unfamiliar with (Scandal Savage, Ragdoll II), characters that were kind of cool in the 90’s (Bane) and characters that were just plain lame (Catman). Gail Simone has thrown them together as an Awesome-For-Hire team and she has made it one of the best ongoing books. Ever.
She makes all these c-list villains work. They make sense together. Catman is a badass! Bane is hilarious! Scandal Savage is brutal! Ragdoll is creepy! The book has so many quotable and “OH MY GOD, THIS IS AWESOME!” moments that it’s always a Pick Of The Week.
You can pick up some trades to catch up (In this order, since DC doesn’t like numbering: Villians United, Secret Six: Six Degrees of Devastation and Secret Six: Unhinged) or just jump in to the current arc!
Justice Society of America (Bill Willingham, Matthew Sturges & Jesus Merino)
Matthew Sturges appears on my lists a lot. I’ll try not to mention him for the rest of this article. Instead, I’ll focus in on my love of Bill Willingham. He’s dreamy. AND Handsome.
He writes the amazing Fables series, which I’m sure you’re familiar with, which includes the spin-off series Jack of Fables, which is ,incidentally, co-written with the aforementioned person-who-I-said-I-wouldn’t-mention-by-name-for-the-rest-of-this-article (See: First Two Words).
Following an amazing run on the book by Geoff Johns, the Jack of Fables/House of Mystery team co-writes a superhero team book. And it is fun, dudes!
And LOOK they’ll be breaking the team into two: the Golden Age characters in Justice Society and the youngins in JSA: All Stars.
If you’re unsure, check out the Blue Beetle run. Seriously.
Detective Comics (Greg Rucka, J.H. Williams III, Cully Hamner)
The Bat-Family books have been amazing since… since Bruce Wayne was blowed up into Dinosaur Times. I would have put Batman and Robin on the list, but it doesn’t really need our recommendation since it’s being handled by the creative team behind ALL STAR SUPERMAN and NEW X-MEN.
Instead, I’ll focus on two other Bat Titles. The first is Detective Comics, which features the new Batwoman. Luckily, for people who didn’t read the entirety of 52, you don’t need to know the characters backstory to know that she is absolutely fantastic (for the three of you that did, you can feel superior in your nerdity. Feel good!)
If you need a hard sell, just know this: She kicks people in the face. Constantly.
These face kicks are illustrated by J.H. Williams III (Promethea) and the art is stunning. I’ve never seen anyone illustrate a punch to the throat more hauntingly beautiful. And I should know since I'm. amoung other things, a connoisseur of Punches To The Throat.
You also get a ten page Question co-feature in the back. It’s written by Greg Rucka and illustrated by a former Blue Beetle (I’ll stop, I promise!) artist, Cully Hamner. It features MORE kicks and MORE punches to the face and throat (respectively). It’s two stories for thre price one (plus one dollar) book!
Batman: Streets of Gotham / Manhunter co-feature (Paul Dini & Dustin Nguyen / Marc Andreyko & Jeremy Haun)
The second Bat Family book that I’ll mention is Batman: Streets of Gotham. It’s written by former Batman: The Animated Series (or BTAS for you gigantic dorks) scribe, Paul Dini. The book is sort of like "A Day in the Life of a Gotham City Citizen”. Gotham’s own Astro City. Batman shows up, of course, but each issue features a Batman villain, associate or a plain old person living in Gotham.
Chris Yost (New X-Men, X-Force, Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers) is the current guest-writer for the series and hopefully, writers of his caliber will be around of the other guest spots. Because he rules.
Like Detective Comics, this book features a co-feature. In this case it’s Manhunter, which was my second favorite ongoing at DC before getting cancelled. It’s written by Marc Andreyko, whose past work features Torso, a great crime comic co-written by Brian Michael Bendis.
Manhunter feels like DC’s equivalent to Marvel's current Bendis-Brubaker-Diggle Daredevil. In her own ongoing series, Kate Spencer was a lawyer-by-day/superhero-by-night who took metahuman related cases. Now she’s moved to Gotham City, to become the city’s new District Attorney. If you know your Bat History, you’ll remember that it was a position once held by Harvey Dent, who would later become Two-Face. She publicly denounces Dent/Two-Face and, well, he’s not too happy about it.
You get two great stories. It’s like TWO prizes in your cereal.
Okay. That’s it for this month. Up next: The Distinguished Competition. No Matthew Sturges this time around!
Later Days
& Comics
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The Secret Six, or the
The Secret Six, or the Secret Committee of Six, were six wealthy and influential men who secretly funded the American abolitionist, John Brown. They were Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Samuel Howe, Theodore Parker, Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Gerrit Smith vacation spots, and George Luther Stearns. All Six had been involved in the abolitionist crusade prior to their meeting John Brown, and had gradually become convinced that slavery would not die a peaceful death.
Brown was planning to capture weapons from a federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), and lead a slave rebellion in the South. However, while it is unclear whether these men knew of Brown's ultimate plan, the Six did not necessarily support the use of violence as a way to bring about the destruction of slavery. Many were ambivalent honeymoon vacation. Brown met with them several times over the course of 1858 and 1859 to discuss how he would attack the slave system.
In October 1859, Brown's plan failed. During and after his trial, the New York Times and the New York Herald began to link the names of the Six with Brown's. On November 7, Smith had himself confined to an insane asylum, denying that he had been involved in supporting Brown. Howe, Sanborn and Stearns fled to Canada temporarily to avoid arrest. Parker, dying of tuberculosis maui vacation, remained in Europe until his death in 1860. Higginson was the sole member to remain in America and to publicly proclaim his support for Brown. He even developed a plan to have Brown rescued from his jail cell, but Brown did not want any part of it.
In 1867, Gerrit Smith helped post bail to release the imprisoned former Confederate President, Jefferson Davis.