Judging the New 52: March 2014: Green Lantern

Before the New 52 launched in September 2011, Green Lantern was one of DC Comics' biggest success stories. After many years as a second-string title, it had been revitalised by writer Geoff Johns into one of the publisher's tentpole franchises - so successful that a Green Lantern motion picture got produced by Warner Bros ahead of The Flash, Wonder Woman and numerous other potential movie properties. While Johns remained to spearhead the Green Lantern Corps into the New 52, he has since departed the lead title - and the entire franchise seems to be in trouble without him.

If you want to know how much trouble Green Lantern is in, consider this: total sales across all five books in March 2014 was 136,797. Jump back one year, and that total was 191,248 - and that was across only four books. In the past 12 months the range has declined by 28%. Jump back to March 2012, and those four books sold 219,942 copies. Let's jump back even further to March 2010, when there were only two books in the line and between them they shifted 174,089 copies. That splits up to an average of about 87,000 copies per Green Lantern title. That average in 2014 is down to just over 27,000. In the past four years Green Lantern sales have effectively declined by almost 70 per cent. It was a tentpole for DC. Now it's just another second-string title.

Since September 2011 DC has published five ongoing Green Lantern titles. Of these, all five are currently ongoing - Larfleeze is selling so badly it has to end soon. The average number of issues per title currently sits at 26.

All sales data is taken from Comichron, and is the estimated sales of comics via Diamond Distribution to retailers - that is, what went into the stores, not what was actually sold to customers.I will be removing sales from September 2013, however, when DC ran its villain month. Some titles had as many as four issues in that months, and others had none, and sales regularly bore no resemblance to the titles they were ostensibly a part of. It's clearer without them.

Charts are colour-coded: anything in green is safely selling about 40,000. Sales below 40,000 move to blue, those below 30,000 to orange, and those below 20,000 to red. Anything selling less than 10,000 copies is listed in black: dead book walking.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: "The Schizoid Man"

The Enterprise rushes to the aid of the eccentric genius Dr Ira Graves, who lives in isolation on a remote planet. Despite Dr Pulaski's best efforts, Dr Graves dies - and Commander Data appears to have taken on the late scientist's personality.

"The Schizoid Man" continues Season 2's disproportionate fascination with Data. The series may have another seven lead characters around which to base its stories, but for now there's a clear interest in Data's artificial intelligence and robotic nature. This is only the sixth episode of the season, but it's already the third episode to be based either in whole or part around him. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, since "The Schizoid Man" is that most welcome kind of Next Generation episode: a good one.

Judging the New 52: March 2014: Superman

The Superman titles are an interesting part of the New 52. Let's be honest: Superman is a difficult character for DC Comics. He's hugely iconic, arguably more than Batman, and in merchandising sales alone towers over pretty much every comic book hero in the world. In practice, however, he proves extraordinarily difficult to write. There's a lot of clear demand for the character when these books launch: Action Comics alone launched with more than 200,000 units. That demands seems to slide off in the following months and years: basically, we want to read Superman, but we don't necessarily like the Superman comics that we get.

Seven Superman titles have been launched since September 2011. All seven continue to be published - although Superman Unchained is coming to a pre-planned conclusion with issue #9 - and the average number of issues per title is 20.

All sales data is taken from Comichron, and is the estimated sales of comics via Diamond Distribution to retailers - that is, what went into the stores, not what was actually sold to customers.I will be removing sales from September 2013, however, when DC ran its villain month. Some titles had as many as four issues in that months, and others had none, and sales regularly bore no resemblance to the titles they were ostensibly a part of. It's clearer without them.

Charts are colour-coded: anything in green is safely selling about 40,000. Sales below 40,000 move to blue, those below 30,000 to orange, and those below 20,000 to red. Anything selling less than 10,000 copies is listed in black: dead book walking.

Babylon 5: "A Late Delivery from Avalon"

I was dreading watching this episode from its basic premise: a man arrives on Babylon 5 claiming to be the King Arthur of British legend. It's the sort of ridiculous premise that J. Michael Straczynski loves on Babylon 5, whether it's Sheridan meeting Jack the Ripper or people travelling the galaxy searching for the actual Holy Grail. Sometimes it seems like there's no story idea too wacky and no premise too unwatchable for JMS. I steeled myself for another round and started watching.

Against my expectations, "A Late Delivery from Avalon" turns out to be a pretty good episode. It surprised me more than once, and it was a pleasant surprise each time. "Arthur" is played by Michael York, the first of the pleasant surprises since he's an excellent actor and gives his character a lot of dignity. The script allows him to interact with several lead characters - chiefly Dr Franklin, G'Kar and Marcus - and the encounter shines fresh lights on each of them. The episode's conclusion - and Arthur's true identity - is an effective and intriguing surprise. This is why I've been enjoying this slow rewatch of Babylon 5. While many of the episodes confirm my suspicions that the series is not for me (that's my polite way of saying it's pretty awful), the odd gem like this really does surprise me. There's something to this show - it doesn't get it right half of the time, but when it does it's often quite distinctive and special.

The Pull List: 23 April 2014

Evan Dorkin is one of my favourite comic book writer/artists. His comedic works are second-to-none, and I'm a proud owner of his collected works from Dork and Milk & Cheese. Eltingville Club is his scabby, relatively unpleasant story about a group of acne-ridden, selfish, horribly cringe-worthy teenage comic book nerds. They've had a string of strips included in the likes of Dork for some 20-odd years, and even starred in their own unsuccessful TV pilot, but now Dorkin has extended their misadventures into a two-issue miniseries in their own right.

It is absolutely cruel, gut-bustingly funny stuff, with no holds barred in depicting the worst possible kind of comic book shop with the worst possible kind of manager. The thing is, I've been to comic shops like this, and while Dorkin may be slicing into the subculture with a knife, it's a remarkably well-aimed and razor-sharp knife. As is generally the rule with comedy, this is not going to be for all readers, but if you're sick of the way Big Bang Theory softballs its criticism of bottom-of-the-barrel geekdom then this is probably right up your alley.

What's particularly impressive is how Dorkin manages to dig into all of the nasty satire and deliver a first-issue ending that's actually rather heartfelt and sad. You may hate these characters, but you identify with them too - or at least I did. Other readers may be too busy laughing at their expense. (5/5)

Dark Horse. Story and art by Evan Dorkin.

Under the cut: reviews of All-Star Western, Aquaman, Batman Eternal, Daredevil, Dead Body Road, The Flash, The Fuse, Manhattan Projects, The Massive and Star Wars Legacy.

Judging the New 52: March 2014: Batman

The Batman titles are pretty much the bedrock of DC's New 52: strong sellers, critically acclaimed (for the most part) and topping sales charts when collected into trade paperbacks and hardcover collections. Batman itself is the best-selling title of the entire New 52 and regularly tops the list as the highest-selling direct market comic book each month.

Since September 2011 DC has published 15 ongoing Batman titles. Of these, only three have been cancelled - Batman Incorporated back in July 2013 (although that was a natural end rather than a sales-based cancellation), and both Batman: The Dark Knight and Talon in March 2014. That means 80% of the line is still ongoing. The average number of issues per title currently sits at 25.

All sales data is taken from Comichron, and is the estimated sales of comics via Diamond Distribution to retailers - that is, what went into the stores, not what was actually sold to customers.I will be removing sales from September 2013, however, when DC ran its villain month. Some titles had as many as four issues in that months, and others had none, and sales regularly bore no resemblance to the titles they were ostensibly a part of. It's clearer without them.

Charts are colour-coded: anything in green is safely selling about 40,000. Sales below 40,000 move to blue, those below 30,000 to orange, and those below 20,000 to red. Anything selling less than 10,000 copies is listed in black: dead book walking.

Hugo Nominations: Best Graphic Story

This is the fourth and final Hugo category I wanted to talk about, and it's the one I want to talk about the most. Hugo Awards, we need to have a talk. I think you know what it's going to be about, because we've had this exact conversation before. First, let's just quickly recap the five nominees for Best Graphic Story.

- Girl Genius, Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City, written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
- “The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who”, written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Jimmy Broxton (Doctor Who Special 2013, IDW)
- The Meathouse Man, adapted from the story by George R.R. Martin and illustrated by Raya Golden (Jet City Comics)
- Saga, Volume 2, written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics)
- “Time”, Randall Munroe (XKCD)

The Best Graphic Novel intervention takes place under the cut.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Loud as a Whisper"

If something is made for a noble reason, and produced with the best of intentions, but still winds up feeling simplistic and on-the-nose, should we cut it a break? Or should we strictly stick to how an episode is executed? "Loud as a Whisper" is a difficult episode to review, because I applaud its intentions so deeply yet can't deny it's a pretty awful piece of television.

The Enterprise arrives at a planet to collect Riva, a celebrated Federation negotiator, in order to take him to settle a violent civil war on Solais V. The Enterprise crew are surprised to learn that Riva is profoundly deaf, and communicates via three telepathic translators. When all three translators are murdered in a disastrous first meeting on Solais V, Riva must find a way to recover from the emotional blow and learn a new way to communicate.

Guest star Howie Seago is, like Riva, deaf. He proposed an episode about a deaf character directly to The Next Generation's producers, and they happily took the project on. This was a great thing - deaf characters rarely get to be seen on television, and "Loud as a Whisper" does seem like a great idea on paper. That's the problem, however, it seems good on paper.