DC Buys the Archie Comics Super-Heroes

[The Toyroom]

The regular series had some good highlights (the Golden Age team-ups & the Challs), but the last two runs with Raven/Supergirl & GL/Phantom Stranger stunk. Who thought it was a good idea to shoehorn the supernatural PS into an outer-space GL story? Terrible, IMHO. And I did hear that a lot of Strazinski's B&B plans were being shot down by Didio. I read he wanted to do Batman/Swamp Thing but DC has relegated Swampy to the Vertigo titles and refuses to allow crossovers now into the DCU. Didio uses some excuse about he's a Vertigo character now, no longer part of DC? Weird, other heroes have gone over & come back, Phantom Stranger (starring in the current serial) being one, as is Deadman, Jonah Hex, and a few others. Sounds like a load to me, it's not like Vertigo can publish a successful Swamp Thing book anymore. The last couple tries tanked big time.

Most of the Waid run was very good IMO...but I agree that since then it's been crap. I expected more from Wolfman's Supergirl/Raven arc...the art sucked I think that was part of the problem. As far as the GL/PS team-up, it was a crap idea to begin, and didn't deserve to be a 4-issue arc.

It sounds like JMS is going to do what he originally wanted to do on B&B before he was saddled with the task of meshing it with the Archie characters.So I'm assuming that the Archie specials will be Batman-less and just focus on reintroducing the characters to the DCU.

And I really don't understand the problem with Swamp Thing in B&B anyway....since its relaunch B&B has been on the fringe of DCU continuity. In fact, that's one of the concepts that they seem to be trumpeting about the book....comparing it to the continuity or lack-of that is also exhibited in Superman/Batman. Where they're telling "good" stories and not really worried about where they fit in. Much like the original Brave and the Bold. So I don't understand the problem with having Swamp Thing in one or two issues in a book that isn't locked into continuity anyway. The whole Vertigo issue seems to be DC is afraid to sully a "mature" character by having him interact with the mainstream DCU just in case they have plans for him later on down the road in yet another failed relaunch. The Alan Moore version however is so identified with the character now that other Vertigo writers are only set up to fail simply because they aren't Alan Moore. With the in mind, I think it'd be a breath of fresh air for the character to return him to his roots (pun intended) and be more like the original Wein/Wrightson creation that teamed with Batman so memorably in several issues of B&B.

[Cosmicman]

I thought those Impact books were interesting back when they came out. I collected the Fly, The Shield and I think there was some Jaguar character. I need to go dig them out.
Would be nice to see them reintroduced into the DCUninverse. That is what they should have done back in the day when DC bought them.

[The Toyroom]

DC is only licensing them and they're not going with the !mpact versions but with the original Archie comics versions, albeit updated a bit for the times and the DCU.

[The Toyroom]

Looks like DC's attempt to integrate these characters in the DCU is already biting the dust....:

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/red-circles-closes-mighty-crusaders-101215.html

No surprises there for me....this had "SUCK" written all over it from the get-go. Another high-profile JMS project that doesn't deliver on its hype....

[palitoy]

I am a life long Red Circle fan, I have two copies of every Impact title safely tucked away somewhere (Someday they'll be worth a fortune!) but I totally flaked on this series, never picked up an issue, maybe my comic store didn't get it in.

[BlackKnight]

Yeah ..., I can't say I saw too Much either.
.. Or even know what's going on. However, as of late, I have tunnel vision of sorts when I comes to comic buying.

[Earth 2 Chris]

This seemed like an odd deal. I don't keep up much with what DC's doing these days, but this seemed like a non-event and a half-hearted attempt. Not surprised it died out.

Chris

[johnnystorm]

I liked the take on the Hangman, but it wasn't worth buying the other books for just the backup. Funny, this is exactlyy how the first DC/Archie Impact line went out...a bunch of individual series that petered out and eventually got combined into a lackluster team book.
I can't see why Archie doesn't just try & publish the original versions as a kids line similar to the DC Super Friends or Brave & Bold titles. I'd buy a FLY series in the Billy Batson vein! Got a pitch ready, Mr. MegoMilk?

[ctc]

>I can't see why Archie doesn't just try & publish the original versions as a kids line similar to the DC Super Friends or Brave & Bold titles.

I bet it's for the same reason Marvel and DC don't do romance comics any more: you fall into a certain rut, and it's seen by those in charge as a bad idea to "stretch the brand" by branching beyond it. Since the last attempt to do proper superheroes by Archie didn't go over so good, it'd be a tough sell for the execs if someone wanted to try again. "But; we're known for the wacky hyjinx of America's favourite teenager.... not superhero action stuff." The effect works the other way too: how many superhero fans would be put off by the Archie brand?

Don C.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Archie would do well to hire an editor/writer who loves super heroes (like Mark Waid, who of course worked on the !mpact line) to relaunch a line of the MLJ/Red Circle heroes. But like ctc said, they probably don't want to sink the money into it.

Chris

[johnnystorm]

Archie has used their backlog of characters though within the past year or so. A number of "old" heroes showed up in a big crossover last summer with the gang...and they are bringing back Cosmo the Merry Martian (YAY! An excellent series if you track it down!) and Sam Hill Private eye (!) this year, so I'd think a hero line shouldn't be out of the question. The key would be to only do one or two instead of a full blown line like they tried with Red Circle before. a Fly series like I mentioned in the Shazam vein or The Jaguar as an animal showcase book for kids would have a chance instead of out & out revamp serious stuff like they did at DC.
And just to mention the DC stuff again, a big part of the DC failure of the line was because DC just didn't use the characters within the DCU correctly. The initial B&B proposal they advertised never materialized. Sticking the Shield into the JSA or Hangman into Blackest Night would have been a plus, but I can see why they didn't, since after the license expires, you can't reprint those issues in trade without legal issues. And I think DC or DIDIO just didn't care, they just wanted the publicity of using the heroes again, just as they did with the Milestone group, another non-player they bragged about doing. Look for the THUNDER Agents to join that grouping in about six months....

[The Toyroom]

And I think DC or DIDIO just didn't care, they just wanted the publicity of using the heroes again, just as they did with the Milestone group, another non-player they bragged about doing. Look for the THUNDER Agents to join that grouping in about six months....

I think part of the problem with these "fringe" characters is DC's need to shoe-horn them in somehow in to the DCU proper. Especially when these characters are supposed to have been "around" for a while...How come we've never seen them before? And even when they spin them off in to their own separate earth, there's the problem of there only being 52 earths instead of infinite ones as in the past. It seems as though as every one-shot Elseworlds story is a place-holder now for a "52-earth". How 'bout when acquiring a license like the Archie or THUNDER characters just put them in their own universe and tell good stories? Worry about cross-overs later. But I guess that shows a lack of faith or an understanding of the core of the characters on DC's (DiDio's) part that they need to get the instant bump in sales by teaming with Batman....

[ctc]

>they are bringing back Cosmo the Merry Martian

Y'know.... he's been in almost every new Archie comic of the last 10 years or so, in cameo form. Weird....

>part of the problem with these "fringe" characters is DC's need to shoe-horn them in somehow in to the DCU proper

True; but they could do what they did with the Charlton characters back in the day: just sort of have them show up, with the idea that they'd been there as second-stringers for the last however long.

Don C.