A lot of my fellow bloggers responded unfavorably to the news this week regarding the release schedule of rest of 2007's Showcase Presents. Captain Carrot, Suicide Squad, Secret Society of Super-Villains and The Great Disaster are summarily canceled with no date given as to when they might show up again. Let the rage begin.I for one, am not bothered. For one thing, I questioned from the first the decision to reprint material from the 80s while there was still plenty of stuff from the 50s, 60s and 70s that wasn't easy to find in quarter bins. Recent material is modern enough that it might even be better to reprint them in color. The Squad certainly deserves this treatment, and I'm sure the Zoo Crew would be easier to put in younger readers' hands if it were in color. Maybe it's time for a new format at DC: the softcover trade with color newsprint (like the Fourth World Omnibususeses, but without the high hardcover price tag).
Sadly, Suicide Squad was going to be the first Showcase Presents I wasn't going to buy because I already had all the issues. Too recent! The real shame is that they're still reprinting Batman and the Outsiders... THAT will be the first Showcase I don't buy. Probably. Secret Society I'll miss most, but never having read it, I don't know what I'm missing. As for The Great Disaster, it was intriguing sure, but the only comic I own in there is Hercules Unbound #1 and that SUCKED.
But more importantly, LOOK WHAT'S REPLACING THEM! Ok, Supergirl's silver age stories aren't exactly something I've been waiting for all my life, but she deserves as much love as Batgirl does. Brave and the Bold volume 2? That's Haneyriffic! World's Finest Comics features some of the earliest Showcased material, going back to 1954, and has such stories as:
I mean, really. And best of all: Sgt. Rock!!! The Unknown Soldier and the Haunted Tank are all well and good, but the Rock... No gimmicks, just Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert on beautiful, beautiful World War II stories. Kubert's work looks great in black and white too.A fair trade, and a semester I'm looking forward to.
Comments
And postapocalyptic knights astride large dogs with a Greek demi-god in as part of the story can't be all bad.
Walt Simonson art in there somewhere too, right?
But the characters and premise would change drastically from issue to issue with no warning or plan. Some changes were great, some were baffling.
It's a series that I'll always remember fondly, but I would never try to talk anyone into reading.