For the second time in less than a year, DC Comics has given its readers a mass cancelation of titles. The first of these occurred right before the new 52 reboot as every series was reset to issue number 1. The second was the cancelation of 6 series after issue 8 of the new 52 to make way for the second wave of the new 52. What differs between the two is the context of the cancelations. The pre-new 52 cancelation hit every series, most of which had been running with a fair amount of steam, and which upset at least a few fans for the sudden disappearance of some of their favourites. The pre-second wave cancelation does not have this going for it, in fact I am pretty sure most fans aren’t really bothered at all by the cancellations.
The worst hit week I think is the first week of the month, with O.M.A.C., Hawk and Dove and Men of War all going to the collector bins, and so this week was the first which saw any wholesale loss of titles in the new 52. I had been reading O.M.A.C., in fact I read the whole series as there was something about it which I found endearing, if not a little poor in quality. I had also been reading Men of War and Hawk and Dove, but dropped them both when I heard they were being canceled (Men of War was overwhelmingly confusing for me, and Hawk and Dove was mostly just bad.) Still seeing as they were on their last steps, I decided to return to Hawk and Dove to have a last look before their descent into obscurity. Of the other series to go I only have to look forward to the end of Mister Terrific (and I am looking forward to it) but at one point I was reading 4 out of the 6 which are getting cut. I guess my approach to these finals issues was a little biased in that I was expecting somewhat of the usual sense of a series that gets canceled in its infamy, namely that what the writer tries to fit the character and plot developments of about four years of issues into a single issue. In that I was not surprised by O.M.A.C. but was with Hawk and Dove. Both left off on a sort of more positive note, but Hawk and Dove didn’t feel like it was compacting the series as much as O.M.A.C. did. It will be interesting to see how the others wrap up, if the writers try to cram or if they don’t, but it is a rarity to see it six times in one month.
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