How does horror fare in the new DCU?

by: David Pinckney

September is coming to an end all 52 DC titles have hit the stands. It's hard to imagine such a wide scale reboot, but what is even harder to imagine is horror in the DCU proper. So how did it do? Well, it actually went over pretty well.

It's weird to think of some of these characters having a legitimate chance of interacting with Superman or Wonder Woman but that fact stands and it doesn't feel natural. Each book had its own voice that set them apart from other books. Demon Knights, for example, took place hundreds of years before the rest of the DCU in a mid-evil setting dealing with familiar characters and settings like the Lady of the Lake during King Arthurs reign.

Some characters seem to fit more then others like, Resurrection Man and Animal Man. Both feel like superheroes, Animal Man more so the Resurrection Man, but neither loose their grasp on horror. It honestly feels like these comics can actually make a horror fan who is a little put off by superheroes, ease into the genre without alienating either genres strengths. Animal Man truly hit its horrifying parts with ease and naturally. Resurrection Man hit the more psychological aspect of horror making for a much different read then Animal Man.

Horror even found itself in the most unlikely places in the new DCU. Wonder Woman even had some horror aspects. In this version of Wonder Woman we see a stronger, more “takes no disrespect” characterization. Wonder Woman had everything from gods, to beheadings animals with creatures rising out of the dead corpses. This is a completely unexplored tone in the DCU. As morbid as this may sound, this is very refreshing.

Deadman even gets his five minutes of fame headlining the DC Presents title. DC Presents will deal with characters headlining on a rotational basis. Deadman is a natural pick for this new DCU given his major role in Brightest Day. If your looking to just learn about the character this one is for you.

Swamp Thing, much like Deadman, was a good choice of characters given the events of Brightest Day. While, I'll admit, I didn't get to read Swamp Thing because it sold out at ALL of my local comic shops, the consensus is that Scott Snyder did a great job with the character and took him in a direction that proves to be fun and entertaining.

I, Vampire is yet another one of those books with a much different flavor then the rest of the DCU. Like Swamp Thing, I wasn't able to get my hands on this one, but it seems unanimous that I, Vampire is a great read. With writer Joshua Hale Fialkov on the comic who has written The Darkness, The Crazies, and many other comics, we can easily tell that not only did DC want to go big with this reboot, but they got the right talent on the right books.

Other comics like Suicide Squad, while not “horror”, do have some intense scenes that could also get the average horror fan interested.

Maybe you've wanted to get into DC but didn't know where to start. Maybe you just were not a big fan of capes and tights. Either way, if you have ever had the smallest of interest in getting into DC, pick up one of these titles. It bridges the gap between horror and superheroes. Everything is a number one issue so the hardest part about figuring out how to get into the DCU, is figuring out which title you want to get.

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Published on: 2011-09-28 (396 reads)