Gen13 and Stormwatch PHD Changes as well as What's New in March

March is going to be a busy month with a trade paperback coming out for Secret History of The Authority: Hawksmoor on 3/25 as well as the continuation of World's End with The Authority #8 (3/4), Gen13 #28 (3/11), Stormwatch PHD #20 (3/18) and Wildcats #9 (3/25). Unfortunately, March is the last month we have Gen13 and Stormwatch PHD monthly as both titles are switching to bi monthly in April. I have no idea if this is creators running behind, running out of story, sales dropping or just waiting for The Authority and Wildcats to catch up with events. Let's just hope this won't be permanent.

With only 4 titles covering World's End I think it's a blessing and a curse at the same time. On one hand you only need to pick up 4 books a month (soon to be only 3) to be able to follow what's going on but on the other hand there's no Wetworks or any other stories going on such as Majestic to follow a single character. All we have right now is teams. With a storyline about the end of the world you'd think this would be the ideal time to have a team running around like Wetworks. None of this appears to be changing anytime soon either as the only new title coming out that will fit into all of this is the new Tranquility series but it won't even take place during World's End.

Also, with where events are right now it makes sense for most characters to stick with a team as what's left of the universe is extremely dangerous and tough to navigate but we have Majestic sitting over in Hawaii right now building his utopian society and until Wildcats catches up with him in the coming months we don't really know what's going on.

Going back to solications, in March we are also getting World of Warcraft #18, The X-Files #5 (of 7), Resident Evil #1 (of 6), Fringe #3 (of 6), Gears of War #5, Resistance #4 (of 6), Mirror's Edge #5 (of 6) and Ex Machina Special #4 among other titles. It appears we have a lot of mini series being wrapped up in the next couple months. It will be interesting to see if Wildstorm continues the mini series and starts some new licensed property projects or if they will focus on more Wildstorm proper and creator driven books. I guess we'll know soon enough. With the exception of Killapalooza, Prototype and Starcraft I haven't seen or heard of anything else starting up before the summer.

For the most part one would have to imagine the management over at DC prefers Wildstorm focusing on licensed properties as they probably sell the best on a regular basis. Not that I think this way but I imagine many people would much rather read about World of Warcraft than Gen13. Personally I'm hoping for more of a balance before we get to 2010. Titles have been coming out on time and the company seems more focused than they had been in years so I hope it's building editorial and creator confidence to refocus on Wildstorm proper and help expand on things that we were getting before the DC acquisition.

There's countless characters in limbo out there just waiting to be brought back into the fold. I'm not saying they all need to be featured in their own book but you can't really feature many characters when you've only got 4 titles to work with. With Tranquility starting back up, I propose having a 6th title starting up or coming back, be it The Paladins getting their own story, another Majestic solo series or the return of Wetworks. After Gail Simone wraps up Tranquility another one of my proposed titles could fill the gap keeping 6 titles going.

I really think doing something along those lines would help satisfy the fans who want more without cannibalizing their own sales. Put out 6 quality books a month and most of your fans would be willing to pick up at least 4 or 5 of them. If folks are willing to buy 40 or 50 monthly titles from the Big Two I think Wildstorm can squeeze in a couple more titles on everyones pre order list as long as their books continue to be on time and quality reads. If nothing else, an extra title or two would really help diversify what they're trying to do with World's End.

Apologies for my bit of a rant. I hope nobody thinks I was being negative I just want more diversity to help keep the excitement going. I just see so much potential with where everything is going right now and I love seeing everything coming out on time and the best part is, the bulk of the books are still only $2.99. Personally, if a couple more books came out I would gladly open up my wallet and pick them up.