Monday, October 12, 2009

Starman #81!

SOURCE:Starman’s Back, But Not Jack Knight

At the Baltimore Retailer Summit Monday night, DC Comics announced as expected that “Blackest Night” and all its tie-in titles would take a month-long hiatus in January. But keeping with its "Back from the Dead" theme, eight one-shots will ship in the first month of 2010, delivering new "final" issues of eight previously-canceled fan favorite series.

Each series will pick up on its original numbering and feature characters from their original runs as they deal with the events currently unfolding in the DC Universe.

DC has tagged an all-star cast of writers to pen the books, but arguably the most significant rise is “Starman” #81, written by series creator James Robinson.

The Eisner Award-winning series, believed by many observers as the quintessential superhero comic book of the 1990s, ended near-perfectly with #80 in August 2001.

Robinson revealed exclusively to CBR News late Monday that while the series is back for one issue, its star "Starman," Jack Knight, is not.

“It’s very exciting to return to Opal City. And I’m trying to do a story that’s satisfying for long-time fans of ‘Starman’ and also fans of the 'Blackest Night’ series,” said Robinson. “The only thing I will say now, probably to the disappointment of some fans, is that this is not the return of Jack Knight. This will feature cast members of ‘Starman’ and it will feature a Black Lantern Starman but it will not feature Jack Knight.

“Jack Knight is happily, much as I am, ensconced in San Francisco, happy to be alive and away from all the craziness.”

21 comments:

  1. Gods, "Blackest Night" is still going to be happening in '10? I don't know what it is about DC's ongoing theme crossovers that makes me hate them more than Marvels. Both are stupid. I mean really stupid. But I can generally tolerate them more on the Marvel books I read then DCs...
    Then again I'm down to a single DC ongoing...

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  2. The Grey Lantern looks like Jay when he dons the Chronic outfit.

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  3. I think this is a neat idea. I've really only read one of those titles that was on the list and it really depends on which incarnation of the Suicide Squad they're talking about.
    Was there a particular reason why they were putting the brakes on Blackest Night for a month?

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  4. ... I hate Sadie. HATE HER.
    again... HATE HER... which made me hate the ending.

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  5. Zombie Starman orgies.
    Which would just be wrong since the only two dead Starmen are David and Ted Knight.

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  6. Don't worry. She's not in this.
    And refresh my memory - it's totally because she went in with the intent of seducing Jack into helping her but fell in love with him anyway, after running into him numerous times and being rude to him? Right?

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  7. And I'm not reading anything from Marvel.
    What's the one on-going?

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  8. Apparently the artist had other prior commitments for later in the year, so this is being done as a way of being sure he can do every single issue of Blackest Night.

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  9. Wonder if the BL will be Ted? Or probably poor David.

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  10. I'm kinda down for this. But iffy for two reasons:
    1) If Tony Harris isn't doing the art, then it won't be as momentus an announcement.
    2) As Lurkerwithout said, Blackest Night is going on too long. I miss the days of the done-in-one-month events like Zero Hour, Underworld Unleashed or Final Night.

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  11. That is kinda weird, what with me not having read this thread when I posted that.

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  12. Since it is apparently set in Opal, I imagine it would have to be one or the other.

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  13. 1. I don't suppose it's worth reminding you that Tony Harris didn't do most of the art for the second half of the series.
    2. I must admit it does feel a bit drawn out at this point but I'm sure that's because some marketing weasel said DC just HAD to compete with Marvel and their long, drawn-out storylines. At least the core Blackest Night story has been good, though some of the tie-ins (especially Titans) leave something to be desired.

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  14. 1) Yeah, I know. But Harris was the one that, art-wise, put Starman on the map. His design of the Opal City, Jack's tattoo's, and just the overall STYLE of the book was all thanks to him. I point out, specifically, the second Omnibus, which contains what I consider to be the high point of the series. So high, in fact, that I honestly don't believe that the series was as good compared to those stories. Not to say that I don't think the rest of the series isn't bad (Starman as a whole is still a great comic compared to so many others), but that was the creative team's strongest stuff.
    2) And we all saw how well that worked for Secret Invasion, didn't we? People were sick of it within the first two months because of all the tie-in issues and New/Mighty Avengers having about six months worth of single issue stories about the various Skrulls.

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  15. Actually, I saw an interview where it said he had to take a month off because the last issue was double-sized or something and they wanted him to do it all.

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  16. Depends on how you define Will Payton, actually, wouldn't it?

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  17. Must have. I just haven't read any Starman yet so I didn't click on it and possibly learn something I did not care to know.

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  18. I never really believed she fell in love with him at all. And then of course running off whilst preggers and then basically saying 'fuck being a super hero jack' in her oh so sweet letter. There were better ways for him to come to that. and it wasn't so much the being rude.. god I just hated her!

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