DC are going to continue their "cascade" of creative-team switcharounds in May, with several artists tranferring from one book to another, for seemingly no reason. And... while we've already tried to hazard a guess at why they moved Jeff Lemire and Peter Milligan around earlier this month, throwing "Stormwatch" at Milligan and asking if he can save that sinking ship, we're at a loss to explain the news that several of their artists are being moved from one title to another, apparently at random.
Animal Man will be the starting point here, as acclaimed artist Travel Foreman leaves the title which he is being acclaimed for and moves to Birds of Prey. He will be replaced by Steve Pugh, who drew several issues of the 1990s Animal Man title. This pushes current Birds of Prey artist Jesus Merino over to Resurrection Man. That then pushes current Resurrection Man artist Fernando Dagnino over onto Suicide Squad.
And, seemingly, current Suicide Squad artist Federico Dallocchio vanishes into the ether.
Why are DC switching around the creative teams so much? After a massively promising start for their New 52 Initiative, this seems like an unbelievable step backwards for the company. Birds of Prey and Animal Man have both been received well by readers and critics, and the loss of Foreman in particular is bound to hurt the current Animal Man series, for whom his art is a headline draw.
Hopefully all the artists will be able to switch their styles and adjust quickly to the new comics they'll be drawing in May. Because otherwise, DC have just made a huge mistake.
1 comment:
DC is doing this because New 52 was such a last minute snatch and grab by a company that burned its readers out on events that the new event had to be salting the freaking earth. Travis left Animal Man for reasons I can relate to, his mom died, and while I was working on my latest series my dad died. It changes your tone and some things just don't seem so attractive for the time being. The New 52 was a cluster fuck of creators that could produce really quick work and keep a schedule and chronism beyond belief. Now the actual talent like Lemire, Snyder and Travis are perhaps not wanting to do what so many creators have done for the past decade and just ripe on the vine until they turn to vinegar. Look at their big picture; do you think any editor's first choice for the writer of Hawkman was Rob Liefield? This is a shock and awe campaign until the novelty wears off.
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