Or However Many I Feel Like, And They Might Not All Be Facts
Welcome back to By The Numbers, the column where I count things in this week’s new comics from DC! This column will contain spoilers, but I’ll keep them as vague as possible while still amusing myself.
Whiplash time! We go from a fifth week in which 8 DC issues come out to a week with 17 issues and at least 6 nerd conventions happening across the US and Canada. Plus one in Argentina, I think? I reported on Dragon Con, dear reader, and it was a very busy time. My coverage of that, including MANY interviews with comics pros, will be forthcoming. Keep an eye out.
17 damn issues. Wow. Let’s go.
Main Ongoing Titles
Batman #30
Number of Kite Man: Hell yeah
Cyborg #16
Number of stunning revelations about the true nature of things: 4
Deathstroke #23
Number of nuanced discussions of sexuality I expected to find in Stab-Man the Muderator’s book: 0, but then I was pleasantly surprised
Green Arrow #30
Number of perfectly good sound effects in this issue I can’t help but read as unfortunate words: at least 3 (Slurm)
Green Lanterns #30
Number of billion years in the past: 10
Number of colors of the emotional spectrum wielded by Volthoom in this issue: 5 of 7
Harley Quinn #27
Number of things this book has gotten right about roller derby, ever: 3 (It’s on skates, they go around a track, there are women with awesome names. Everything else is vicious lies.)
Justice League #28
Number of speech bubbles spoken by male characters: 149
Number of speech bubbles spoken by female characters: 65
Nightwing #28
Number of missed opportunities for a Cretan/cretin pun: 12
Superman #30
Number of colors of the emotional spectrum mentioned in this issue: 6 out of 7, which seems like and odd/significant omission
Other Titles
Astro City #47
Number of feels about a very, very good doggo: ALL
Bane: Conquest #5
Number of rubles worth of property damage in this issue: 12,433,987 (It’s all very scientific, I promise.)
Dastardly & Muttley #1
Number of pages I made it into the book before declaring “hell no”: 3
Hell no. Don’t hire Garth Ennis. If you do hire Garth Ennis, don’t let him write a children’s book, for chrissake.
Doom Patrol #8
Number of times Gerard Way’s Doom Patrol has dealt with previous creators casting Danny the Street/Brick/World as “cross-dressing”/”transgendered”: 0, which is somewhat surprising, since basically all of history has been recounted, and he can talk now, and the entire plot has revolved around him. You’d think it would’ve been at least mentioned. Or depicted. In neither his current form or flashbacks is he shown with the pink, frilly curtains in shop windows that he used to have. And there’s a trans woman on the creative team, too. Very interested to see what they do with that.
Injustice 2 #9
Number of echoes of a single sound effect: 3 (You don’t often see sound effects echoed in subsequent panels.)
Shade the Changing Girl #12
Number of people who are in some fashion “Shade”: 5
Number of them who do something equivalent to “die”: 3
