Welcome back to another exciting edition of Top 5 Fridays! With the release of the new comics this week, DC released its preview guide to Rebirth starting at the end of May. In it, we see covers and solicitations for the first issues of the relaunch, and while they already released the full list online, it still excites me to see it. Then it hits me: I need a Top 5. I'm excited for DC Rebirth. Why not do a list of DC Rebirth June launches. I say June Launches because if the presentation DC gave a few weeks back is correct, we'll be getting launches in July and August as well. So when July and August's Solicitations come out, I'll do Top 5s for those too! So what am I excited for? Let me tell you...
5: Superman
Superman has been through quite a few life-altering adventures in this continuity. He's become a god, doomsday, was beaten down BY a god, lost all his powers, gained a new one, and faced monsters that altered his very being such as Ultra Humanite and the Phantom King. One could argue in their attempts to make Superman cool and edgy fighting these gigantic threats, it moved Superman further and further away from being the symbol of hope he's supposed to be, and with the current Super League Story arc starting up, it looks like that hope won't be returning until the rebirth. When reading the solicitations of Superman there is one major change: This is not New 52 Superman. It's the Pre-Flashpoint Superman from Lois and Clark. His opening story arc involves his son Jon beginning to exhibit Kryptonian powers for the first time and how he deals with them...which actually sounds interesting! The only reason this is so high on the list is the fact that to get this Rebirth, it involves killing off a Superman that many of us have been reading for 5 years and have a connection to.
4: Green Arrow
I loved Jeff Lemire's run on Green Arrow. It added a bit of mysticism to the story of the Emerald Archer without making it feel right at home. After that arc, the writers tried to put Green arrow back into his more street crime fighting set once again, now throwing in characters from the show. It was decent enough, not as good as Lemire's, but interesting enough to keep me on it... Then the recent story arc...too off the rails to keep me interested. With rebirth, there has to be a Green Arrow story that had to draw me in. Something that I haven't seen in a long time. The solicitation came out and Black Canary is being thrown into the mix for the first time in this continuity. I was shocked. How could anyone not write THAT story before Rebirth? Green Arrow and Black Canary is one of Comics' iconic couples! Well, I guess it's better late than never.
3: Wonder Woman
The reason I'm excited for this one is pretty close to why I was excited for the last one. Brian Azzarello's run on Wonder Woman is pretty mythic and epic, but like all great myths, their stories had to come to the end. Meredith and David Finch had some large shoes to fill, and despite them trying hard, it was a battle for them to lose. While they brought interesting ideas such as a challenger to the God of War, the poisoning of the future king of Olympus, and the New 52 return of Donna Troy, it didn't quite pan and it out enough to gain new readers. It then hit me that the New 52 Wonder Woman(series not the character) has been dealing mostly with her and her position as a goddess. While I admit I have loved this new 52 series, for the most part, I know there's more to her than that. As the solicitation put it, it's time to remind us that she's more than a god...she's the protector of Earth.
2: Green Lanterns
After Johns run on the Green Lantern, the Corp ended up involved in a lot of besmirching events, but none were more affected than our Human Lanterns linked to them. John Stewart and his team couldn't stop planet Xanshi from being destroyed, Kyle Rayner inadvertently created an evil clone of himself bent on destroying existence, and the less we say about the destruction during Guy Gardner's Red Lantern Civil War the better. Yes, bad shiz happens to our human Lanterns all the time, and for the most part, they've fixed said problems and cleared their names. Let's give them an earned rest. We have new(ish) human Lanterns to check out. First, we have Simon Baz, who has been used practically never since the War of the Green Lantern part of Johns' run. Then we have Jessica Cruz, current Power Ring, about to become the first Female Green Lantern of Earth, who we've seen fight against the control of Earth 3's Volthoom and turning herself into one of the planet's protectors. Seeing these pair of young guns at the forefront of a comic still gets me excited for the future, especially with their first enemies being the Red Lantern Corp.
1: Batman
If it wasn't clear enough, a lot of us here at Weird Science like Tom King. Jim has been a huge fan of Grayson since the start, Papi Nacho has been loving Omega men(as have I), and outside of the DC spectrum, he has shocked me in the best possible way in Marvel's The Vision(seriously it's amazing and dark! Go check it out!). So you can imagine my surprise and joy when I see the man who is quickly becoming one of my favorite comic writers writing for one of my favorite series when Rebirth starts. It's practically a match made in heaven, and his first story arc already sounds promising with its solicitation. If he can make the city of Gotham as character driven as Omega Men and as dark as The Vision(seriously read this series, it's one of the best titles Marvel is putting out), this Batman run could surpass Snyders with ease!
That's it for this week's Top 5 Friday! What title are you excited for in June? Leave a comment and I'll see you next time.
