COMICS PORTAL: Batman Eternal Weekly Coming!

I know some fans don’t like weekly comics. “I have to go every week to my comics shop! I don’t have time for that!” a friend told me once. I responded, “But that’s the idea!”

At the recent New York Comic Con, DC Comics announced that a new year-long weekly comic starring Batman and his Bat-family called Batman Eternal is coming in April, 2004. Check out this link for more information here at MajorSpoilers!

MY OPINION OF BATMAN ETERNAL

As a big Bat-fan, I am thrilled with the news. Not only is it going to be in shops each week, but many of my favorite Bat-creators are involved. That includes Scott Snyder, who will be “showrunner” for the project, as well as James Tynion IV, John Layman, Ray Fawkes, Tim Seeley and Jason Fabok. In my opinion, it’ll be great! They’ve already proven themselves to me!

I have spoken with several comics shop owners, and they love the idea! Anything that draws fans into their stores on a regular basis works fine by them!

I love the Bat-books as they arrive in stores, including Batman, Batgirl, Batman and … , Detective Comics, Talon, and all the specials. To have another book to look forward to each week is great and worth it!

HAVE WE REACHED BATMAN’S LIMIT?

Basically, we’ll have about eight titles or so each month with the Dark Knight. Of course, I love the digital-first books Batman Beyond 2.0 and Legends of the Dark Knight. I’m already buying Bat-books each week, so another one will be great!

I always like to ask if Batman has finally peaked, reached his limit. Based on opinions I read online, it seems that the folks who already think Batman has gone too far won’t pick this new title up. However, fans like me who want more good to great Batman are ready to plunk down our hard-earned quatloos for it.

I mean, ANYTHING those creators produce, I’m on board with. I buy comics for good storytelling. I’m a big fan of all the people working on Batman Eternal, so April can’t come soon enough for me.

Will everyone else agree with this? Probably not. What often happens is, the first issue will sell like crazy if for no other reason than it is a number one and highly collectible. What takes place each week after that will tell the tale. But I cannot for the life of me see Bat-fans turning down a Bat-book at least overseen by Mr. Snyder, for instance. To pass it by would be plain old Bat-crazy!

WEEKLY COMICS RETURN

DC made wonderful comics when they went with 52 and its subsequent weekly books, including Wednesday Comics. I didn’t care what the format was – I loved having something excellent to look forward to each week.

Are they tough to make? You bet! The deadlines are always looming, and in the past, they found they sometimes had to overnight things to the press to get the book to the stores on time each week.

Was it worth all that effort? Definitely, in my opinion! I met new creators, read interesting new takes on DC characters, and got to see the spotlight shine on several “minor” heroes. I was happy to learn more about them.

What I most enjoy about critics of weekly comics is that they often resort to the “DC only wants to make money” argument. Well, duhhh! It’s called “show business” for a reason. Does Marvel create comics so they can lose money? Not a chance! And you can say that about every other comics company – if they don’t make money, they can’t make comics! Really!

COMICS CONTINUE TO EVOLVE

Batman Eternal is a good example of how the comics industry continues to move into the future. I was sad when the weeklies stopped, and I’m just as happy now with this new title coming.

I now buy books several ways, including digital, at stores, in trades, weekly, and look forward to more avenues as we embark on the future of comics.

I already highly recommend this weekly title, even without seeing anything more than what has already been released! Great creators, great format, every week? Sign me up now!