DC really only seems to make a habit of releasing TPBs or Showcases of their less-than-blockbuster properties when there is some sort of new release related to them that might help them sell some copies. The Batman & The Outsiders Showcases were coordinated with the relaunch of Batman & The Outsiders. They put out the DC Special issues to showcase stories that will be important coming up.
So...Grant Morrison (and Mark Millar) creation, Aztek, just had a TPB released. Grant Morrison is writing Final Crisis. Aztek was a legacy character (the memories of all who had worn the helmet were stored in the helmet itself). Aztek had been sent out to deal with a great evil.
Could a new Aztek be sent out to deal with an evil so great that we're apparently going to see the day it won?
The Wikipedia entry reminds us:
A younger black female Aztek was seen in Grant Morrison's run on JLA during "The Rock of Ages" storyline in which the JLA traveled to an alternate future overrun by Darkseid.Hmmm...
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And sometimes DC does put out tpb/hc's because of the quality of the creators or some other oddity. Afterall, they recently put out Geoff John's Stars And Stripes tpb's and I rather doubt it's because the lead is one of a cast of 100 in JSA. And in the June solicitations there's a Neal Adams Illustrated HC that has many war comics in it. Doubt we're seeing a resurgance of war comics. (Oh but if they want to re-release Weird War Tales I'm ALLLL for it!)
ReplyDeleteOf course, if there has to be some relevance then explain the forthcoming DCApes tpb in the June solicitations. (Of course they could just be jumping the gun because of Quesada's Ape project, who knows?)
Love your site btw. And no it wasn't because of Dan Slut errr Slott that I came across it. It was because of that viral marketing scam (or whatever it is) site marvelb0y at spaces.
We sure do miss whatever/whoever it was!
Glad to have you here! :)
ReplyDeleteI could argue with you on the Stars & Stripes thing...as it wouldn't have been released if the character wasn't in something at the time.
We do have "The War That Time Forgot" going on during the time of the release of HC. There's a sliver of marketing involved in all. ;)
I'm betting Aztek will play into Final Crisis somehow, I'm not saying he will be major, but they put Morrison's name all big on it for a reason. And yeah Stars and Stripe was because of two reasons, a it's lead is in JSA and two it was Johns first work, that's enough in and of itself, but it was also a good test book for that market as is Aztek. Will people buy those books collected? I did.
ReplyDeleteNeal Adams, could be because of the War stuff coming... War that time forgot and Sgt Rock and a few others, but more then likely because a. Neal Adams sells and B. maybe they are close to solliciting the Batman book that Frank Miller and Neal Adams have been working on forever...