AKOMISMO

DC Comics has announced major content changes on two of its marquee titles. In a world where fans have gotten used to delays, this comes as both a pleasant surprise and bitter shock.

Action Comics, currently written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner with art by Adam Kubert, will see changes from issue #847 to 850. The likes of Dwayne McDuffie, Fabian Nicieza and Kurt Busiek will take over the writing chores, while on art we have the reliable Renato Guedes and Allan Goldman. (see Newsarama article)

Wonder Woman, a title relaunched back in June of 2006 is also seeing some change in its fifth issue. Currently billed to be the conclusion of the first arc “Who is Wonder Woman?”, it will now be a new story written by Will Pfeifer with art by Jean Diaz. (see Newsarama article)

When asked to explain this change, Action Comics writer Geoff Johns had this to say,

DC wanted make sure the last three issues of the “Last Son” storyline come out monthly, so we made the decision to ship four issues of Action by other creative teams, and then, when we have our issues written and drawn, ship the parts 4-6 of “Last Son” monthly.

Johns also chimed in an earlier post that Adam Kubert has been great on art, however he has been taking longer than expected.

While we haven’t heard from the Wonder Woman team yet, Allan Heinberg has been known for involving himself in every step of production. This is apparent as every issue of Wonder Woman has been excellent thus far however it is taking too long for a monthly or even bimonthly comic. Allan Heinberg is also an accomplished writer for shows such as The OC and Grey’s Anatomy.

But the reason for DC’s change in Wonder Woman is clear.

Come issue #6 in March, novelist Jodi Picoult comes on board for a new arc that ties into an event in April, Amazons Attack. Not wanting to lose momentum in its books, DC has found this content change a necessary move, though it has come as a surprise to some fans.

Personally, I applaud these content changes as they show DC’s commitment to getting their books out on time. Delays are a disservice to the comic collector. Unless a comic book has an extremely loyal following, the publisher knows it has to sustain a reader’s interest and commitment to a book by actually having it come out at a regular pace. This also deepens the habit of collecting the title, which ensures a loyal (or even ‘zombified’) fanbase for an extended run.

Nonetheless, DC is still giving their fans stories which still matter regardless of the change. At least they’re no longer recycling stories like the comics of old, and the fill-in books actually add on to the story.

But DC is not abandoning “writing for the trade” just yet. I have noticed something which trade collectors need not worry about. DC is keeping their primary story arc’s creative teams intact so that after everything comes out, they all still fit nicely in a collection. It just won’t be a straight collection of course (”Last Son” will now be #844-846, 851-853) but it will be Johns, Donner and Kubert all the way.

I can imagine how good that will look as a hardcover and as I wait, Action Comics comes out monthly. The way I see it, everybody wins.

Same story for the last part of “Who is Wonder Woman?” Chances are it will come out after Picoult’s arc, but if Heinberg and the Dodsons remain the team, then this will still come out beautifully as a hardcover as well.

So while interrupting an arc has definitely not been standard procedure, this may be one of the industry’s ways of coping with TPB writing which has arguably slowed down a lot of creative teams. These self-contained fill-ins may not easily fit in a trade collection, and that is the point. Fans want their comics monthly and DC is doing everything it can to give it to them.

How this impacts sales remains to be seen though. Regardless, I can’t imagine DC losing any money as they have books actually coming out now. And whether they can pull this off for All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder? That would be interesting.

There are many other All-Star artists out there after all, as these fill-in books are so ready to prove.