>In fall 2016, former My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way injected a heavy dose of postmodern fun into DC Comics with a new “pop-up imprint,” Young Animal. Its ethos tied back to DC’s Vertigo umbrella from the early ‘90s, casting new optics on legacy characters including psychedelic alien Shade, the Changing Man and the trans-dimensional misfit adventurers in Doom Patrol. The ensuing series harkened back to an era that challenged the definition of comics with heady, mature themes, reveling in punk-rock subversion and literary complexity.
>Starting with Way and artist Nick Derington on a new Doom Patrol book, Young Animal later introduced Shade, The Changing Girl by Cecil Castellucci and Marley Zarcone, Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye by Way, Jon Rivera and Michael Avon Oeming and Mother Panic by Jody Houser and Tommy Lee Edwards. (A fifth series, Bug! The Adventures of Forager by Lee and Mike Allred, debuted last May and concluded this week.) The new Shade witnessed an avian alien inhabit the body of a comatose teenager, Cave Carson spelunked into family drama as the titular character's reality dissolved and Mother Panic offered a class-conscious take on brutal vigilantism. The entire experience was effortlessly cool, and a neon feather for DC as their biggest competitor, Marvel, drowned in tone-deaf events and misguided synergy.
Chase Watson
>Save Doom Patrol, Young Animal’s core comics recently went on hiatus following their 12th issues, but a new event—the 5-part "Milk Wars”—will see the characters cross over with core superheroes like the Justice League, Wonder Woman and Swamp Thing in January and February. Fortunately in March, Shade, Cave Carson and Mother Panic will return on a more permanent basis with new number-one issues and tweaked title changes, ushering these innovative comics into their next phases. A new miniseries, Eternity Girl by former Paste contributor Magdalene Visaggio and artist Sonny Liew, will also join YA’s ranks.
>Way summarized the reintroductions: “Young Animal is back to bringing the weird, with all your favorite characters going in drastically new directions not even they could expect. Find out what these characters are up to now, and how they’ve hit their next level of evolution. Catch up with Cave and Team Carson as they fly out of the earth and into outer space, follow Mother Panic while she discovers a Gotham City without Batman, and meet Shade’s new body! Plus the introduction of our newest character and title: Eternity Girl!" >Paste has the first covers and solicitations on these three semi-relaunches, and also exchanged emails with the books’ returning writers to discover more about the mind-melt future of Young Animal.
>Shade, The Changing Woman #1 Writer: Cecil Castellucci Artists: Marley Zarcone, Jamie Coe (Backup Feature) Release Date: March 7, 2018 Shade has shed her alien identity. She’s stepped out of her original Earth body and into another one. Now, free of the burdens of any past life, and finally on her own, she sets out to see more of her new home. But how does she cope when the madness takes all the human emotions she was forced to confront in the Milk Wars and turns them into a bouillabaisse of memory and confusion? And to make it even more challenging, Shade must also face her namesake, the original Changing Man.
Brandon Ward
Sorry for the formatting, this is a a long article >Paste: This title is appropriate, seeing how Changing Girl ended: Loma, like most teenage girls, found peace after discovering her own distinct identity and bodily agency—literally and metaphorically from Megan. So what phase of life will this new miniseries parallel? The wanderlust early '20s? The constructivist early 30s? Am I completely jumping the gun with this question?
>Cecil Castellucci: This is a hard question to answer without giving too much away. I will say that it’s a bunch of years later, but leaning more towards the wanderlust times. But of course to Shade, that means something very different than it does to a human. It’s true that she does have her own body and identity now. She can’t go back to who she was, she must become who she is. That’s definitely a part of being in your early adult life. You go out there, you make a lot of boneheaded mistakes. You still haven’t mastered your wisdom. You put away your childish things and you change. I find it funny that you say that she’s found peace. I think of it more as she’s found a bigger understanding about self and about how you gotta live it or lose it. If you look at the end of the last series, there are a lot of crumbs that I left there to follow. I can say that I will be picking up that trail and following it to its conclusion. I hope you’ll be delighted and have a few Oh! and Aha! moments when you read the new arc. >Paste: You also began to tie in Loma’s journey to greater Shade continuity. Should we expect more Rac Shade (the character created by Steve Ditko and featured in the Vertigo series by Peter Milligan and Chris Bachalo) and/or interaction with the other Young Animal denizens? For the former, how would you characterize him at this point?
Charles Wright
>Castellucci: I like being in my own bubble universe, where I can pluck some things, but mostly function in our own world. I think that makes sense for Shade. Obviously, in the Milk Wars crossover, there is a crossover, but all of our books are so strange, that I think they survive beyond and alone as well, kind of like someone you’ve heard about two towns over. As for Rac Shade, I would say that Rac has always been a big character in the book. Even if we didn’t see him a lot physically, his poetry definitely is a driving force of that book. I’ve always been interested in folding things in from Ditko and Milligan, but not having it be a direct sequel or continuity of it. I promise that I will continue to allude and give nods to the past. But this Rac is not quite the other Rac! But for Loma, Rac has always been her spiritual guru and that will continue in a more profound way.
>Paste: You, Marley and colorist Kelly Fitzpatrick conjured some gorgeous art-deco vistas of madness: often sensual, exotic and kinetic. How does madness shift into womanhood? Is there a different color palette? A different design? >Castellucci: Oh yes! Marley Zarcone is a genius and I can’t wait for you to see what she’s doing in the new book. It’s even more beautiful. Obviously, this is more a Marley question, but I can say that from seeing the pages from the first issue that everything about it is more mature madness. Loma Shade is a bit different, she’s got a new hairstyle and she’s a bit more mature. And I know that we’ve been talking about shifting the color palette a little bit to reflect growth, so you can expect that will be on the page.
Bentley Smith
>Paste: If we’re looking at Shade, The Changing Girl as the debut album and this as the sophomore effort, what band would your Shade saga be? >Castellucci: That’s a really great question. And a hard one. I loved the first Hole album, Pretty on the Inside. It felt like a call to arms to me when I was young. I started my own band months after hearing it (Nerdy Girl/Cecil Seaskull if you’re curious). The feel of that raw first album to Live Through This feels like the shift that I hear in Shade. Full disclosure here, one of my life-long besties is [Hole bassist] >Melissa Auf der Maur. >But of course, that doesn’t just cover it. It’s that feeling of going from something raw to something a little bit more mature in craft. The same could be said for a few other bands. >The Pixies: Surfer Rosa to Doolittle >Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted to Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain >Bjork: Debut to Post
>Paste: What has you excited about this next phase of Loma’s life that I’m not touching on? >Castellucci: The things that I’m always interested in when it comes to character and story are how do we become who we are? Loma is having to become something completely new. Shedding her past and embracing what she’s become. She’s a butterfly after all. She’s a bird. She’s a poem. She’s a-changing.
Isaac Richardson
Cave Carson Has an Interstellar Eye #1 Writer: Jon Rivera Artist: Michael Avon Oeming Release Date: March 21, 2018 After a year of multiverse-hopping and fighting in the Milk Wars, returning to a normal life of digging and cave-diving just isn’t the same for explorer Cave Carson. Sure, he’s got his podcast, family and that cybernetic eye, but reminiscing about times gone by isn’t the same as living. Luckily for Cave Carson and his daughter Chloe, they’re about to get sucked into an all-new adventure—literally—when they go spelunking into a black hole! But what’s caused this black hole to appear and what’s its connection to the intergalactic music sensation, Adam Starglider?
>Paste: What does bridging from “cybernetic” to “interstellar” entail? As your previous run had time travel and realities shards, how do you stretch your scope further into the black hole? What does interstellar mean to you? >Jon Rivera: In the last series, Cave discovered the "Reality Shards", which could transport him to different time periods and realities on Earth, but it's still Earth. This time around, Cave and Chloe are being accidentally thrust into the infinite possibilities of the cosmos. For an expert geologist like Cave, our universe is a playground. There's a new sense of wonder in Cave's heart, and it's incredibly exciting to explore. It's the open, untamed, nature of the cosmos which excites me. The sense of exploration has seeped into other facets of the book as well—we're being much more experimental this time around.
Robert Baker
>Paste: Will going from underground to the inverted heavens parallel a personal journey for Cave? >Rivera: We're joining Cave and his daughter Chloe about a year after the events of Milk Wars, and close to 2 years after the death of his wife, Mazra. We're catching up with Cave and Chloe at a pretty good point in their own relationship. They've spent this time adventuring together, making a podcast, and getting to know one each other as people. Both of them will be on parallel journeys. Cave will be confronting a dark time from his past courtesy of an old friend, an alien glam rocker named Star Adam. Chloe on the other hand, is questioning whether or not she joined her father's life of adventure for the right reasons. Is she running toward her own future, or hiding from it?
>Paste: Cave reached a semblance of familial harmony with issue #12, an intimate counterpoint to the chaos unfurling around him. What relationships are you excited to focus on? >Rivera: I love the relationship between Cave and Chloe, and it's my favorite part of the story to write. They will be joined once again by Marc Bartow, whose relationship with Cave is complex to say the least. He was Cave's mentor and psychedelic guru in the time period between the dissolution of the original Team Carson and the birth of Chloe. The original Bartow died years ago, and our current version is a refugee from an apocalyptic Earth (who Cave rescued in issue #8 of Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye). Since then, they've determined that their realities have an 86% compatibility rating, so most of their memories together are shared, but not all. Bartow compares it to them having seen different cuts of the same film. The nice thing about writing a grumpy character like Cave is exploring the type of people who still care about him.
Oliver Ross
I'm glad Mother Panic is alive
Jack Turner
>Paste: Watching the Metal Men interact in Cybernetic Eye was a lot of fun. Are there any other DC toys you’re excited to work with? >Rivera: Cave is an explorer at heart, so we will be venturing into some unseen parts of the DC Universe!
>Paste: What has you excited about this next phase that I’m not touching on? >Rivera: I absolutely love our last series: a melancholy, 12-issue story about a family in mourning set against the backdrop of a sprawling action adventure. That being said, I'm even more excited to move in a new direction. The stories we're telling this time are funnier, shorter and more satirical without losing the heart of what made the last series a success. We've already established these characters, and now it's time to set them loose on an unsuspecting, and unprepared universe.
Easton Adams
Mother Panic: Gotham A.D. #1 Writer: Jody Houser Artist: Ibrahim Moustafa Release Date: March 28, 2017 After the fallout of Milk Wars, Violet Paige finds herself in a Gotham City unlike any we have seen before. Ten years into the future, in a world without a Batman, Gotham City has been taken over by the Collective, with Gala acting as Head of Citystate. In a high-tech town with zero tolerance toward caped crusaders and masked vigilantes, except for those designed by Gala and her association of aristocratic artisans, what’s a woman who has vowed vengeance to do? And what’s happened to her mother, Rebecca Paige? Perhaps a sad clown who makes balloon toys shaped as tommy guns and machetes on the abandoned Gotham docks has the answers. Find out for yourself as Mother Panic returns to a different Bat-time, different Bat-channel.
>Paste: Mother Panic is the most political of the YA books, and its response has only grown in timeliness throughout the year. How do events like the recent tax reform legislation influence your scripts, of do they? How reactive is Mother Panic past the boundaries of fiction? >Jody Houser: The political timeliness of the book ended up being somewhat of a surprise when it first launched last year. We had always planned it to feel modern, but it ended up being more relevant to the moment than we expected. I don't necessarily react to specific events in the news when writing, but certain elements like class divide and anger at the abuses of the powerful have always been central to the story.
Gavin Russell
>Paste: Gotham A.D….Gotham in the Year of Our Lord. Who does the lord refer to in this case? Has Mother Panic ascended to a godlike vengeance? >Houser: The A.D. is more meant to evoke the feel of a different Gotham. The time and place that Mother Panic ends up in after the events of Milk Wars (the Young Animal crossover event that kicks off the second year of the books) isn't the same Gotham that she left. So she has to deal with being in a strange version of the city she knew, with none of the resources she's used to having. And yeah, she's pretty pissed off about it.
>Paste: What’s your take on Batman, who's had a nebulous presence throughout this series? Is this the one current DC book where he can be portrayed as the villain? >Houser: While I personally have always loved Batman, Violet Paige does not, and Batman's appearances in Mother Panic have always been colored by that dislike. There will be a new perspective on him and their relationship in the Mother Panic/Batman special (which Ty Templeton is drawing the hell out of). As for Gotham A.D., well, who's to say this version of the city even HAS a Batman?
>Paste: What excites you about collaborating with new artist Ibrahim Moustafa? >Houser: I love Ibrahim's take on Mother Panic and the new Gotham... His art definitely has the stylized realism feel we were looking for in this arc, and it works well with the noir feel the book has had before. At the same time, his work feels like the start of a brand-new chapter to Violet's story and a great introduction to this new flavor of Gotham City.
Camden Ross
>Paste: Martial arts/superhuman strength/tech suit…how do you approach an action scene? Are there any influences or flavors unique to Mother Panic’s sequences? >Houser: Brutality. While Violet does have skill in fighting, she depends much more on her superhuman strength than the heroes we're used to in Gotham. More impulsive, too. At the same time, she wouldn't be a match in a drawn-out fight for members of the Bat family, for example. So she tends to move fast and hard, whether in a fight scene or moving through the city.
So it seems like that crossover is causing a time-skip for most of the titles.
Jayden Jackson
Shade got bigger.
Landon Carter
Weren't all of these books selling like shit? What makes them think giving them a new name and #1 will increase sales? Is milk wars even gonna be that popular
Nathan Mitchell
She had an adult body in the last issue's reveal
I'd imagine they're hoping the Milk Wars crossover attracts a more mainstream audience, so relaunching so they can jump on board makes sense. Plus they're bringing it back under Vertigo from what I recall
Ian Richardson
>Is milk wars even gonna be that popular Probably.
Jacob Morales
I imagine they'll get cancelled after 12 issues since that would add up to be about 24 issues for those 3 books.
But that's a solid number of issues for Z listers.
What characters should get a Young Animal book next?
Chase Bennett
>Weren't all of these books selling like shit? Yes.
>What makes them think giving them a new name and #1 will increase sales? They know it won't sell better, but editorial likes for some critically acclaimed books to go on lnger if they are niche and they themselves like the books. Jonah Hex and All Star Western together was like 100 issues.
>Is milk wars even gonna be that popular No.
Jaxon Murphy
>What characters should get a Young Animal book next? J'onn
Adam Collins
>What characters should get a Young Animal book next? I think Kid Eternity would be cool.
Julian Jackson
I don't know if I want to continue with this imprint... only liked Shade and Doom Patrol anyway and Way is using too many Morrison elements instead of creating his own stuff. The hiatus on Shade is also abysmal. And line wide crossovers are retarded.
Chase Green
>Way is using too many Morrison elements instead of creating his own stuff I'm hoping that as it moves on, there will be more new ideas.
Hudson Diaz
>later Considering the delays... later can mean 3 years from now.
Matthew Rogers
I wonder if this means she'll just be writing a single arc of Renew Your Vows, or if she's going to continue working for both companies in the foreseeable future, I didn't mind the issue after the timeskip, but it's too early to tell if I'll continue to like it
Noah Cook
The Question (Vic Sage)
Ethan Sanders
Personally I want Raven to get one I think she could be interesting if they stopped putting her in Teen Titans and giving her to Wolfman, who stopped having ideas and being good over two decades ago There aren't a lot of empathy based characters
If you don't have an exclusive to one company you can write for both and creators are thirsty for money so she won't say no
Michael Cruz
Fuck Disney-Fox, this is the NEWS I've been waiting for.
Jaxson White
Unfortunately Wolfman has another Raven miniseries coming out again soon. He must have gotten tired of Donna in his old age, and has moved on to Raven
Jason Ross
I never thought someone would actually make this, top job
Zachary Carter
It's 12 issues long too. If it's anything like the last one, it's so decompressed it could've been squished and fit into half as many issues.
Anthony Allen
AT least these new Young Animal books and the new Raven mini are gonna end around the same time
Tyler Gray
So, they're teasing the Joker here, but we all know DC won't let them use him as a regular character in the most sweariest of all the YA books.
Michael Bell
I'm torn. I like Sonny Liew's art, but can't stand Visaggio
Liam Cruz
Shade is the best book published by the Big 2 and it's not even a contest
Tyler Reyes
I am so happy
Zachary Anderson
>No Batman.
3 issues tops then canceled taking the entire YA lone with it.
Grayson Scott
>Joker
Anyway DC is relaunching to get them 12 more issues
Dominic Allen
It's an imprint. 10,000 sales are expected and considered good.
Christian Bennett
Odd Man is pretty much tailor made for Young Animal
Juan Watson
Aren't they selling well in trades? Or at least Doom Patrol is? I love Mother Panic and honestly I can't say I'm excited for a status quo change.
Charles Bailey
I think he was in the Mother Panic backups
Ian Murphy
Wait I don't get it, are they cancelling Mother Panic or just giving her another comic where she's somewhere else?
We still gotta take down Gather House
Blake Reyes
No. >Shade The Changing Girl Vol. 1 Earth Girl Made Easy 2,182 >Mother Panic Vol. 1 Work In Progress 2,018 >Cave Carson Has A Cybernetic Eye Vol. 1 Going Underground 2,108
>Doom Patrol Vol. 1 Brick by Brick 3,888 >Doom Patrol Vol. 1 Brick by Brick 572 >Doom Patrol Vol. 1 Brick By Brick 562 >Doom Patrol Vol. 1 Brick By Brick 603 >Doom Patrol Vol. 1 Brick By Brick 353
Juan Perry
I'd like a 4-5 issue mini like Atomic Knights by Farel Dalrymple.
Ethan Harris
Those are great sales.
Jayden Russell
New #1's and a renewed push to hopefully increase sales. If it works they'll keep going, if not they might not get another relaunch.
Landon Miller
the creeper by brendan mccarthy can be under the normal imprint too just do it already
Ethan Green
It will never happen.
Dominic Lewis
hell yeah Shade lives!
Cooper Gonzalez
I'm kind of sick of this trend in comics since the nu52 that we have to cancel a comic after 12 issues and then re-number it. It's fucking annoying.
Connor Reyes
>And to make it even more challenging, Shade must also face her namesake, the original Changing Man.
Fuck yeah, I can't wait for Rac Shade. I don't think we've seen him since Justice League Dark #8 in 2012.
Cameron Smith
He was in one of the last issues of Changing Girl, but it was brief. It's probably also going to be a different kind of version, especially considering how the Milligan series originally ended.
David Bennett
DC barely does that though. There's a few exceptions like this and JL3000 bit that is mostly a Marvel issue
Matthew Long
So youd rather a good comic die at #12 with either a bunch of cliff hangers or a rushed shitty ending?
Cooper Richardson
>Shade has an adult body now
Xavier Howard
Element Woman
Daniel Powell
I'm honestly surprised they aren't all dead
Isaiah Powell
Not that excited for Shade having Rac Shade desu because one of my favorite things about the series has been that like the original Vertigo books, it uses the thing it's based on as a jumping off point and references it but doesn't bring it back wholesale
But really that's nothing new because ANYTHING with a new version of an old thing is destined to eventually cross over with the old thing, going all the way back to Flash of Two Worlds.
Most of those things don't really fit with what YA is about
Something like Dial H or Kid Eternity would be though
Kevin Turner
That's why you do something new with them instead of standard superhero shit.
Luis Turner
You MMHfags had your chance with the DCYou book.
Anthony Torres
Shade looking pretty thick in this.
Ayden White
I'm hoping the editor she has is good
Owen Edwards
I think Young Animal would be the perfect place for an Amethyst Princess of Gemworld book.
Austin Turner
I am sad that only Johns, Snyder, King, and Bendis have enough star power to write a D lister like Amethyst for more than 12 issues.
Because man do I want a nice 30+ issue epic of Amethyst and Gemworld.
Christian Ward
Wait. Bug is really finished?
Ryder Williams
It was a 6 issue mini that had delays
Jace White
Well she did give birth
Christopher Fisher
Me too, user. My Amethyst showcase collection isn't enough.
Eli Howard
The DCYou book was trash.
Andrew Mitchell
Vext
Nathaniel Evans
>buy Amethyst, Princess of gemworld showcase >it's in black and white fuck DC for being so stupid just like J'onn its pottery
Daniel Reyes
That's just through diamond. I imagine you could double those, at least, to account for Amazon and bookstores.
Chase Gomez
klarion the witchboy
Charles Hernandez
plas, psycho pirate
Wyatt Roberts
Doom Patrol Vol 1 is in the top 100 of all DC books which is pretty good. Hey, they gotta keep it cheep.
Xavier Ortiz
A new Seven Soldiers would be cool.
Jose Jackson
Yeah that's fine and all but when's my Bane coloring book?
Robert Evans
10/10 comeback Goyer. Really showed him.
David Brooks
>Cave Carson still going on Oh, thank god, I thought I was the only person in the world actually buying it.
Owen Anderson
For Doom Patrol, sure.
For everything else, not really no.
John Hill
would call you butthurt, but you're a virgin
Ryder Clark
This series has been the biggest disappointment and nepotism. Way decided to hand over his plot to a friend of his, and he completely shat on it. Even the plot twist in the end felt like "okay". Weakest of the imprint by a long long distance.
Jace Peterson
It was a lot better than everything from Rebirth, except for Deathstroke.
Thomas Carter
we're not talking about Prez or Bizarro user, but MM trash
Hunter Lee
Yeah, it was better than all of rebirth as well as Bizzaro. What's your problem with it? Not enough comfy "fun"?
Levi Robinson
No it fucking wasn't. It was plodding, drawn out garbage with a weak as fuck conclusion.
Logan Cook
>Plodding The conclusion might be disappointing, but I don't see how it was plodding or drawn out in any way. It had lot better pacing than any of your rebirth books and actually had ideas instead of splash pages of superheroes punching supervillains, which makes up your average DC books nowadays.
Ian Davis
>I don't see how it was plodding or drawn out in any way. Of course you don't. The fact of the matter is that he did a five issue set up and then fucked around for the last seven with shit randomly happening amidst a barrage of flashbacks that added fuck all to the narrative. >actually had ideas None of which proved to have any merit or developed properly. The seperate identitys fucking sucked and didn't even matter in the end, J'onn being some kind of bioweapon was painfully boring despite it having the potential to create inner turmoil and conflict but just boiled down into him being a little bitch that turns into a murdering asshole at the end, and fucking Mr. Biscuit overstayed his welcome.
Jeremiah Baker
It wasn't a mini series. It was outright cancelled, so offcourse they won't be going anywhere. It was still better than everything from Rebirth, where the most famous book is by a completely mediocre writer and is America tier.
Luis Collins
I'm aware numbnuts. That's why all the issues of the pacing and conclusion to this drawn out arc is his own damn fault. Maybe if he hadn't fucked off for so long people wouldn't have dropped it when it wasn't going anywhere. And quit letting your arguments boil down to >B-but it's better than Rebirth I don't give a fuck about Rebirth and it shows that the book couldn't stand on it's own merits and has to be compared to something you find mediocre so that it retains any fucking value whatsover.
Daniel Hughes
>Drawn out arc How the fuck was the first arc even drawn out? It was standard comic book pacing.
Josiah Miller
I'd love to see more wild dog but I'd imagine we'll probably get hellblazer (with it's original numbering + the issues it had from the new52 to rebirth) moved over to young animals next as it gets closer "400" issues
beyond that my wish list would basically be flex metallo, plastic man & the question
Lincoln Turner
it was boring
I'm pissed Wild Dog never got a collection of all of his stuff because he's on the CW now
Bentley Morgan
Am i the only one who finds YA to be a disappointment? The whole shtick of the imprint is to waste talented artists on mediocre writers. Good artists are getting wasted on Gerard Way's pal from writing class, a young adult novelist and Jody Houser. Next from their line is Sonny Liew drawing for Visaggio, which basically sums up the imprint.
Asher Sullivan
i liked the way wild dog worked along carson. he was a cool support character.
Evan Adams
Boy I have news for ya >A new miniseries, Eternity Girl
Brayden Edwards
They probably got Castellucci because she wrote for DC's short-lived Minx imprint, which targeted teenage girls, and hoped that some of her audience would follow.