Bits of News From a Busy Week
It has been one of those good weeks with a healthy dose of interesting new items. Jim Doom already covered the strange case of Captain America and the Teabaggers, so here are few other things. 
Brightest Day
DC has already made it official that Aquaman will be alive and well for Brightest Day. Also the Brightest Day symbol will be the logo of a key hero to come out of the Blackest Night event. I’m assuming this means whoever the White Lantern is will be using this symbol.
The 100 Minute War
Also from DC this week the announcement that the War of the Supermen will take place in something called the 100 Minute War. The idea being that because it’s Kryptonians and the super beings of earth it would only last 100 minutes. It sounds a bit silly but this is a good move by DC as it will be a 4 issue mini series along with the Free Comic For a Day zero issue all in the month of May.
It looked like DC was building the Superman family of books to be the big event of 2010 like Blackest Night was for last year but it appears they shifted gears with this year’s focusing being on the Brightest Day books rather then Superman. Sales on the Superman family books are dropping slowly but surely as the interest just isn’t there beyond the core Superman readers. I know I have been pretty disappointed with the Superman books of late with too many of the books crossing over with each other and the storylines getting muddled in between. Brightest Day and its tie in books is a much safer bet for DC.
Marvel’s Heroic Age
Marvel will be relaunching a couple of their better books in the aftermath of Siege. Agents of Atlas will be simply be called Atlas now and The Incredible Hercules will become The Prince of Power. I’m glad to see that as those books are two of the reasons why I don’t outright hate Marvel. It’s sad they get overshadowed by more of the dumber things at Marvel, but to Marvel’s credit they have done a good job of keeping those two properties going despite lower sales compared to their top sellers.
They will also being releasing a anthology mini series called the Age of Heroes. It’s a good idea but these are exactly the kind of things that should be used as backup features. Anthology books rarely do not do well in the comics market. They could at least cut some fans a break and add them to the $3.99 books as backups.
Viz Signature
Publishers Weekly has a good interview with Viz editor Leyla Aker talking about finding manga that appeals to the adult market. It basically addresses fans like me who wants to read manga that is geared for a older crowd. It hasn’t been the highest priority for them as the traditional comics market is a tough sell when it comes to manga and they have had so much success with manga geared for boys and girls that adults were over looked. Viz has a done a good job of reaching the adult market now with things like Pluto, Vagabond, Children of the Sea, and others. It is smart for them to tap into this market now as graphic novels are doing quite well with adults in the general public as they are being accepted more and more by mainstream readers.