New Black Hood Coming from Dark Cirlcle / Archie in February 2015

[Blinky McQuade]

Prior to that last DC iteration of the Archie superheroes, DC had announced a relaunch of the characters by J. Michael Straczynski that would have teamed individual Archie superheroes up with iconic DC characters, in a sort of The Brave & the Bold format... I was really looking forward to that one (which seemed to stay close to the "classic" versions of the Crusaders), but for reasons unknown to me, it never happened. By the time DC did decide to reboot the characters, they'd lost a significant amount of goodwill on my part.



That's exactly the type of superhero title Archie Comics DID try to put out. Blinky, did you just "blink" and miss NEW CRUSADERS: RISE OF THE HEROES? That was precisely the type of book you're describing. Not "written down" to little kids, but firmly "Rated G" for General Audiences (or "All Ages", as they like to call it now). That initial story arc played very much like a DCAU version of Roy Thomas's 1980s INFINITY INC., maintaining previous continuity with the 1960s and 1980s Mighty Comics/Red Circle characters (with the exception that they were now legally constricted from using the Fly, the copyright to that character having been recaptured by Joe Simon's estate), as the now elder statesman original Shield (Joe Higgins) assembled a team of young legacy heroes as the New Crusaders. A couple of other original Crusaders made an appearance in that arc, and presumably we would have seen other classic older heroes introduced one by one, if the series had continued. Well, you're not alone, that's about as much attention as the comic book marketplace in general paid to the relaunch of those characters. Of course, Stan Lee's MIGHTY 7 didn't inspire a whole lot of credibilty in that area a year or two before.



Yes. In some ways the early incarnation of the Hangman was very close to being "the Punisher with a rope instead of a gun". I'd have less trouble accepting a lethal, slightly off-the-rails version of Hangman than I would of Black Hood.

Yes, I enjoyed the New Crusaders mini and the Legacy of the New Crusaders story between the reprints trade. I ordered the next New Crusaders mini Dark Tomorrow I believe it was called. Apparently, either not enough of people like me ordered it or there was another reason (I was fearing that since the end of the mini series resulted in a death of one of the members, that the higher ups at Archie felt it was not conservative enough for their traditions.--Ironically, within a year later Afterlife of Archie gets published. So it must be the first reason.). I was looking forward to that mini.

Yes, I remember the teaser on that Brave and the Bold concept and was excited. Batman was fighting the Black Hood and the Fly (if I remember right). That would be a great way to feature the Crusaders.

After reviewing some issues of Pep Comics (#29 for example), the Hangman stories usually featured some gruesome villain (Captain Swastika in this issue) who threatened or did some gruesome act (hot iron prod in shape of swastika against a potential female victim--other stories there were beheadings and such) who would usually end in a deadly fate of his own making. In issue 29, the Hangman mans a machine gun and "quiets" the Nazi villain's henchmen. Usually, Hangman uses psychology of the hangman gallows to intimidate criminals. Visually, very creative for a golden age comic. (source: comicbooksplus.com).

That same issue of Pep Comics 29 had wonderful story of Danny in Wonderland fighting a gnome war. I find Danny stories entertaining. You can not find those type of comic stories anymore in today's market.

[pulphero]

I really wish Archie Comics would make some of the Golden Age superhero material available in trade paperbacks and/or hardcovers. Back when the Red Circle line relaunched with New Crusaders, grandiose plans were announced to make nearly all of the back catalog available digitally, but I'm not sure if that ever happened, even in limited form -- at any rate, I can't seem to find any digital comics on Archie Comics' website under 'digital' or 'Dark Circle' now.

I understand their initial reprint of Golden Age THE SHIELD comics in trade did not sell well, and after a couple more trade collections (THE FLY and MIGHTY CRUSADERS) they seem to have given up on the idea (until the recent trade collections of NEW CRUSADERS and THE FOX). Maybe Print-On-Demand is the answer, through Amazon's CreateSpace or some other digital-to-print vendor. The publisher needs only provide the vendor with PDFs of the covers and each page of any print-on-demand book.

But maybe it's the format that's not right, and they should be producing them as $50-$75 archival hardcovers, the way DC, Marvel, Dark Horse, and other publishers do. Or maybe they can partner with Dark Horse or IDW, as they have for archival hardcover reprints of the regular Archie series. Still, it's too bad that lets out THE FLY, FLY-MAN, THE DOUBLE LIFE OF PVT. STRONG and the MIGHTY CRUSADERS, since the rights to The Fly and Lancelot Strong have reverted to the Simon Estate, but there's still all the Golden Age MLJ material, and that's a good place to start -- perhaps if those work out, they can hammer out an agreement with the Simon Estate for Silver and Bronze Age stories featuring the Fly and Lance Strong. At any rate, the more expensive format and price point seems to work well enough to be profitable for all sorts of comics from the Silver Age and earlier from many different publishers, so I can't imagine it wouldn't work for Archie Comics as well.

[pulphero]

And then there's THIS just in... Archie re-boots 6 titles, New 52-style.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/12/...teenage-drama/

...and just when I was getting to like Archie Comics again. ::sigh::

Waitaminnit, what was just I saying about "desperate cry for attention" and "dying company"...?

[Guest]

I jumped on the Archie heroes when the Double life of Pvt. Strong book hit the racks...and I suffered through the "campy" Crusaders period, myself.
I, too, liked the New Crusaders book... and, of course, I liked the back-up feature LEGACY OF THE CRUSADERS better.
Ian Flynn's New Crusaders-Rise of the Heroes was well-written enough and the art was good enough for the style it was done in.
I was disappointed when the series didn't (evidently)sell well enough...and did not continue.

I called Jim Simon about Archie using THE FLY and he was all for it. (That was months ago and there seems to be some "bad blood" over the hero so...)

Again, I'll say that Flynn is a good writer. He's made the video characters successful and now they seem to be headed for a movie.... (Sonic??)

But I find it strange that with the characters they have, Archie can't make their books "work" either.
And, of course, from a fan's point of view, I always have suggestions.

Archie has Flynn ...so, I would have tried to hire a bigger named artist or two for the two series...and see if the circulation improved enough to justify the expense.

I can't believe that DC and Marvel have an unbreakable hold on the Super-Hero market ...and neither Archie nor DE can't break into the competition.

Looks like we won't see NEW CRUSADERS --DARK TOMORROW and it's too bad. I thought they had a decent start. Certainly something to start from with those stories of the New Crusaders.
(A talking monkey named Dusty.?? OK. And they were bringing back the old heroes. Count me in.)

Kaminski, the Executive Director of Editorial, must know that the books weren't selling.

This new take.... good luck. When most of us (I think) just wanted to see the MLJ super-heroes done right, we are getting this stuff of a woman Shield and a Black Hood blasted in the face. OK...but it's not what I wanted to see from Archie's Dark Circle.

Archie said they had an all-star lineup for the Dark Tomorrow book...and then they dropped it.
Numbers on -Rise of the Heroes must have been bad.
To see the original BLACK HOOD and The original HANGMAN together at the end of Issue #5 gave me real hope that this series was going to make it.

"With the decline in the number of exclusive contracts being offered to comics talent and some veterans looking to explore new options, fans are seeing a number of long-time creators known primarily for one publisher, be it Marvel or DC, try their hand elsewhere. In March we have two big names talents from DC going to Marvel, as well as a host of new artists from around the industry.
As previously noted, long-time DC artist Chris Sprouse is making his first full Marvel comic in March with S.H.I.E.L.D. #4. While Sprouse contributed an illustration and a couple fill-in pages to Marvel in the 1990s, he’s primarily worked for DC and its various imprints for much of his career.

Wonder Woman artist Cliff Chiang also makes an appearance at Marvel in March, with a variant cover to Ant-Man #3. The acclaimed artist is known virtually exclusive for his DC work, going back to even being a Vertigo editor for a time, but with the conclusion of his and Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman Chiang has been seen contributing covers across different publisher– and now for Marvel. There’s no word yet on what Chiang’s next major project is – it could be creator-owned, it could be more DC, it could be Marvel – or heck, it could be something else."

With Flynn, Archie/Dark Circle should get a couple of "name-artists" and I think they could make the MLJ heroes "work".

Comics is a visual medium. You NEED a good artist to "carry the load" visually. With Flynn writing, a great artist, and Dark Circle having a full "bullpen" of MLJ characters ... I think it could "work."

But it seems that neither DE or Dark Circle "get it".!!??