Wildstorm Relaunches

[Craig Reade]

What are your thoughts on the upcoming Wildstorm Relaunch?

[Joe Illidge]

Maybe this time they'll get it right.

But I'm doubtful.

Historically, their relaunches have been lukewarm, and then flop out.

[Tiso]

As long as they do not make Captain Atom reboot the Wildstorm Universe to get rid of some of the inconsistencies in their continuity I will be fine with it. Majestic is a title that better not be ruined by these changes. The creative teams on Wildcats, Gen 13, and The Authority alone have me sold.

[Blake Petit]

The only "new" title I'm really interested in is Gen13, and that's mostly on the strength of Gail Simone. I voted for "as long as they don't mess with Majestic". :)

[T.C. Johnson]

I have never read any Wildstorm in the past. But I am looking forward to Gail Simone's Gen 13 as well

[Tiso]

I only read issue 1 and 2 of Gen 13 and only know about the characters thanks to Wikipedia and I still am interested in it only because Gail Simone, who I think is a dope writer is enough for me to get the book.

[S.A. Parvaze]

Midnighter, Deathblow, and Gen13 will all be on my list. I'm a little less certain about Grant Morrison's Wildcats or Authority -- it really depends on the story direction there. I guess I'm pretty benelovent to the relaunch, but I have some qualms about how they'll treat their past continuity (particularly on Wildcats and Stormwatch, whenever they get around to milking that cow again).

[Andrea Speed]

I really only enjoyed Stormwatch: Team Achilles. But that's not coming back...:sigh:

[Eric Barrett]

I was excited, until I heard that they might cancel my favorite book (in any universe): Majestic.

Ack! If they do that, I will not be happy...

[Blake Petit]

Majestic is your favorite comic? Really?

Not that it's BAD -- I think it's very good in fact. I just didn't think it was good enough to get "favorite" status. :)

[BeyondtheGrave]

I will probably get Gen13 and maybe Wildcats.

[Eric Barrett]

Majestic is your favorite comic? Really?

Not that it's BAD -- I think it's very good in fact. I just didn't think it was good enough to get "favorite" status. :)

If I had to explain why it's my favorite comic, I probably couldn't. I don't think it's the "best" comic out there from an objective perspective. But I just really enjoy reading it, and it's one of the few titles I really can't wait to read month to month.

To me it's the gateway comic to the wildstorm universe. :)

[Blake Petit]

I actually understand the "gateway" feeling. It seems that most of the rest of the WSU is flowing through it somewhat.

[JX141]

Just picked up the first 4 issues of the Captain Atom mini, will he be in WSU after this?

[Tiso]

Just picked up the first 4 issues of the Captain Atom mini, will he be in WSU after this?

Nope. He makes it back at the end.

[Joe Illidge]

Originally posted by Andrea Speed

I really only enjoyed Stormwatch: Team Achilles. But that's not coming back...

A sad thing, indeed.

Micah may have been a liar, but he could write his patootie off.

And the fact that he only acknowledged the James Robinson treatment of Ben Santini as source material for SW:TA gave him a thumbs up in my book.

[Mark Blicharz]

The only "new" title I'm really interested in is Gen13, and that's mostly on the strength of Gail Simone. I voted for "as long as they don't mess with Majestic". :)

Then they go and cancel it after issue #17. :mad:

[Blake Petit]

I know. DC really needs to start checking these CX polls before they make decisions like that...

[Craig Reade]

Oh well. I needed to drop some titles anyway. Sorry DC, you fudged up on this one!

[Blake Petit]

Oh well. I needed to drop some titles anyway. Sorry DC, you fudged up on this one!

We all do, but man, there are series far more deserving of cancellation out there...

[Craig Reade]

I just don't like the tease :). I was interested in checking out Wildstorm, and on the basis of Majestic's quality, I was open to trying more.

But Majestic isn't going to be a part of the new Wildstorm. So why have I been following it all this time?

Nope, of course I wish them luck, but when I picked "Better not mess with Majestic" I meant it. I am happy to go back to being a non-Wildstorm reader. I viewed Majestic as a harbinger of changes for the better at Wildstorm. Not a victim of change that needed to be swept away for all this new stuff.

I didn't mean I wanted Majestic cancelled - all I meant is, as a result - none of these new Wildstorm items are going to find their way on my list. Hey - in government, reductions in the rate of increase count as a "Cut" - why not in comics?

[Tiso]

Well Majestic will be in the new Wildcats relaunch and whatever has happened to him in his series will be built upon. Even still, cancelling the gateway book into the WildStorm Universe is a disaster waiting to happen. What further confuses me is that they would give the gay analogue of Batman his own book. Why? Majestic was part of the Wildcats, but he works so much more better on his own doing solo. Having Midnighter have his own book along with The Authority relaunch is plain stupid. It just seems like the book will be focused on him, but with The Authority in the background since we know Apollo and Jenny have to appear in the book. Majestic, I shall miss you and enjoy the TPB that I need to catch up on.

[Craig Reade]

That's exactly it - they go through this whole universe-crossing ordeal to pull some DC readers into Wildstorm, and then barely a year into it, they scrap the book all together and try a totally different concept?

I mean, sure, I like Majestic's character. But I was more into what the writing team was doing with the charcter - with the story. They weren't far enough in the transition process to get me to book jump. He still was dealing with backlash of his universe jump! We never got to see him settle into his status quo. Never had the team-up arc with the WildCATs to introduce us DC readers to that team.

Majestic was the perfect gateway book. They just axed it before they could use it to its full effect. And as a result, they are going to lose just about everyone they pulled into Wildstorm from DC as a result.

Bad, bad move. They could have rebooted Majestic, just keep the same team on board and give us a new origin arc. Existing readers would have ATE that up, like Legion readers did when Waid started that over...

[Eric Barrett]

Majestic was the perfect gateway book. They just axed it before they could use it to its full effect. And as a result, they are going to lose just about everyone they pulled into Wildstorm from DC as a result.
I agree. I was more sucked into Wildstorm than probably a lot of other people probably were. But all of the stories I liked still revolved around Majestic's "world".

I'm not really all that interested in reading the other books now. There are a ton of books in DC and Marvel that are now more relevant to the "core" characters that I follow.

[Craig Reade]

Exactly :). With my DC pull list in such flux right now with all the new books, I am content to go back to ignoring Wildstorm....

[Tiso]

Then to add insult to injury they just want to reboot everything using Captain Atom as the excuse to do so. A story so stupid. Here is my question on the first issue. Why did Captain Atom fight with Majestic? He was in the DCU for some time and made a big splash with the hero community. Surely he would have known about him to recognize him after he recovered from the first punch. Then we got that horrible Wildcats fight and Voodoo having powers like Magneto. Now we will never know about all these plots left unresolved. I need to read The Intimates again but Desmond was in a issue talking about Majestic ascension. No one bothers to keep track of timelines or stories from other books.

[Eric Barrett]

I haven't minded Captain Atom as the reason for the reboot. Lets face it, anytime you reboot a universe the story isn't going to be really believable. :)

But I agree with you Tiso about the fighting. I thought it was strange, if not unrealistic, that everyone immediately went after Atom, especially Majestic.

[Blake Petit]

I just chalked it up to Standard Superhero Meet And Fight For No Apparent Reason Syndrome.

As for Cap and Majestic not recognizing each other, let's not forget that for most (if not all) of Majestic's tenure in the DCU, Cap was missing and presumed dead.

[Tiso]

I just chalked it up to Standard Superhero Meet And Fight For No Apparent Reason Syndrome.

As for Cap and Majestic not recognizing each other, let's not forget that for most (if not all) of Majestic's tenure in the DCU, Cap was missing and presumed dead.

He was missing or presumed dead? Then he just appears in that Superman/Batman story arc that sends him to the Wildstorm Universe? Personally, we would not need a reboot if Wildstorm would stop yanking our chains. They never do anything to keep people interested in their universe to begin with. To be fair, at least DC did not do to Wildstorm that Marvel did to the Ultraverse, ruin it and cancel the heck out of it. What is the point of sticking with a company if they cancel their books left and right. I know DC owns them, but why does Wildstorm have to answer to DC in what books stay and go based on their sales? The last issue of The Intimates perfectly embodies how the writer felt about them with the scrolls at the bottom of the page.

[Eric Barrett]

I just chalked it up to Standard Superhero Meet And Fight For No Apparent Reason Syndrome.

That's a whole other thread topic there my friend. :LOL:

[Blake Petit]

I know DC owns them, but why does Wildstorm have to answer to DC in what books stay and go based on their sales?

You said it yourself -- because DC owns them. It's a business like any other, and they've got to make money if they want to STAY in business. Just like DC often has to answer to Warner Brothers (resurrecting Aquaman after "Our Worlds at War" because the WB wanted him alive is a good example).

Doesn't mean I'll always agree with their decision, but they've got every right to do it.

[Tiso]

You said it yourself -- because DC owns them. It's a business like any other, and they've got to make money if they want to STAY in business. Just like DC often has to answer to Warner Brothers (resurrecting Aquaman after "Our Worlds at War" because the WB wanted him alive is a good example).

Doesn't mean I'll always agree with their decision, but they've got every right to do it.

The WB, I should have known. SHAKEY FIST...... As much as I am looking forward to Wildstorm relaunches, unless they get more freedom we can expect these books to get canned all over again before 20 issues.

[AmazingMattMan]

i am assuming this only means wildstorm universe books right? not books published by wildstorm like ex machina? i havent heard anything about this so im not sure whats going on

[Blake Petit]

Yeah, this is only dealing with the Wildstorm Universe. Their other imprints aren't impacted by this announcement.

[Sasquatch]

it surely won't last.
as soon as morrison is out of wildcats and authority (and me with him) it's going to be the same mediocre and trite stuff it's been since the real writers left

[S.A. Parvaze]

Mediocre and trite?! I'm guessing that you never read Joe Casey's Wildcats or Micah Wright on Stormwatch. Or Brubaker on Sleeper for that matter. The entire "Eye of the Storm" era had some of the most innovative superhero comics I've read. Wildstorm's been anything but mediocre and trite in recent years.

[Blake Petit]

Not that I agree with Sasquatch's phrasing there, SA, but most of those titles you're talking about have been over for some time, and the stuff that's been around since then has been pretty sub-par. Except for Majestic and Captain Atom, there's nothing going on in the Wildstorm Universe proper that's interesting to me at all.

[S.A. Parvaze]

Well, that was Wildstorm's last push at doing something ongoing with its superhero line, which is I guess why I still consider it fresh. But I do see where you're coming from on that observation.

[B. Schatz]

While I agree there are many other titles out there that should've gone before Majestic, DC kept it going for longer than I thought they would: it had readers hemmoradging with every new issue, and I believe it's been below the 10,000 reader line for a while now.

And for those of you keeping score, below 10,000 is the culling line, unless you're Johney DC, who reaches the mass market.

[psilance]

the real problem is that the hey day of wildstorm is over. dc is never going to get the gigantic numbers for any wildstorm books like image did in the early and mid 90's. those days are over for wildstorm.

so as long as they have unrealistic expectations for wildstorm comics, such as any title selling as many copies as superman or batman for instance, then they're only setting up the universe for another flop.

[ForeverZeroV1]

im thinking most of these books will actually have pretty good sales wildcats with lee and morrison will for sure. Im sure gen 13 will as well thats probably the one i will be picking up

[Hammerdrake]

As badly as I'd like to see this new Wildstorm make it, I have no faith in the product. When you look at the histories of the folks involved, the direction they are trying to go and their motivation for going their, comibined with the quality of the products produced so far, I have to say it's headed for disaster. Without strong editorial control from DC, these writers and artists are just going to flounder, with late and uninspired books that will just degenerate into nothingness again and leave us fanboys with wanting! Been there done that with these guys too many times.


(Wow, that was a little more overly dramatic than I realized.)

[AmazingMattMan]

im interested in all these relaunches. i enjoyed gen13. wildcats was ok. authority, im 99% sure i wont read again unless most people say issue 2 is the best comic ever.

but still, i dont think this will go far. wildcats #2, is all ready cancelled due to delays. they are going for a march ship date. thats terrible because by then, i have a feeling no one will care :no: :(

[jonsnow]

im interested in all these relaunches. i enjoyed gen13. wildcats was ok. authority, im 99% sure i wont read again unless most people say issue 2 is the best comic ever.

but still, i dont think this will go far. wildcats #2, is all ready cancelled due to delays. they are going for a march ship date. thats terrible because by then, i have a feeling no one will care :no: :(

March!? Holy crap! Jim Lee is back to his old tricks, guy is a fantastic artist, but man can he not keep a promise. Gen13 is fun so far, Wetworks sucks hard, and the Authority just looked so awful I could not even begin to try and read it. Wildcats is cool, but March!? Whew, Jim buddy I think you have made some big problems for yourself.

[Noob Saibot]

Wetworks sucks hard, .


This is the last I'll speak on this ......but I just wanna say that I find it so irrational (and I'm tempted to use a stronger word) and ridiculous to claim that an entire series sucks based off of just ONE issue. Specifically since it was merely a set-up issue for things to come in the series.

:no:

[Noob Saibot]

On another note....I just want to post this cause its cool :)

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2508/dane3cm0.jpg