Wednesday, September 09, 2009

And the Names Have All Changed Since You Hung Around, Too

Originally I was just going to touch on Johns and Manapul leaving Adventure Comics in whatever I ended up writing about the second issue. But with all the recent developments it looks like there's enough to say to warrant its own post.

What Happened That You Have to Know About:

Disney bought Marvel. Warner Brothers waved its hands over DC in an impressive-looking way. Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul quit Adventure Comics as of #6 (I think). Paul Levitz resigned as President and Publisher and was announced as the new Adventure writer.

When Johns and Manapul quit, there was an outpouring of grief fit to break one's heart. How sad it was that they were leaving a title they had brought to such great heights. Were there any issues of Adventure that came out between #1 and #2? Because I only read one issue, and it was pretty fluffy. Something short of a legendary run, is what I'm saying.

Similarly, this business of how Levitz is taking over Adventure Comics, "featuring the Legion of Super-Heroes"... did I miss something? The Adventure I remember featured Superboy II and had a few pages at the back that were allegedly about the Legion. A lot of spin on the ball around here.

A lot of what I think about Levitz coming back is the same as what I thought about Shooter coming back, here. Levitz is, of course, a very different sort of cat from how Shooter is. I've never met either one, so I'm commenting on their public personae more than their actual characters, but I'm more optimistic about the guy who doesn't sound like he thinks he already knows everything there is to know.

And now we have some questions. I have no opinion at all about the answers, but we might as well list the questions:

Was this always the plan?
Did Johns leave because Levitz was coming on board, or did Levitz come on board because Johns left?
Who's the artist going to be? How long before Keith Giffen sticks his spoon in?
Do Clayton Henry and Mike Shoemaker still have parts to play on this title?
Does Levitz still have the mojo?
Is Levitz going to follow through on Johns's plans, or is that all out the window now?
Is the focus of Adventure going to shift away from Kon-El and toward the Legion? More than it might have anyway?

So, is it good news? Yeah, it is... but I can't tell if it's good news compared to what would have happened if this hadn't happened. Or if this is what would have happened all along anyway. I don't know what to make of it.

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