Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers Of Victory - Just what the hell is going on?

Fysh

So yeah, as my posts for most of the last year and a bit have noted, I've been following the 7 Soldiers series with interest. Except, of course, that what with DC having a massive wet-your-pants moment with Infinite Bumthreat, I mean Crisis (you can blame Warren Ellis for that slip of the tongue), the closing issue of the whole saga hasn't made it out yet.

Now, admittedly I was aware of this a while ago - the closing issue was initially scheduled to hit shelves in mid April but was postponed to the 21st of June. It later emerged that all previous orders for the april shipping had been cancelled and retailers would have to re-solicit.

The reason this irritates me is that today is the scheduled launch date for volume 4 of the trades - the concluding volume. Now, as ever, DC were cagey about telling anyone if they were even going to do trades at all, so I'm somewhat vexed at having 29 single issues of a 30-issue story when I could have gotten them as 4 trades (and yes, less of the "but how do they know the trades will sell?" whingeing - it's fecking GRANT MORRISON. He has enough of a fanbase that he could pretty much release an OGN consisting of 200 pages in which he has smeared his thoughts on the page in his own excrement, and it'd still sell well. So let's not be silly about this).

More specifically, though, this is really crap because DC have gone out of their way to launch an event-based maxi-series that has so far proven to be reasonably good (certainly by the standards of what you normally expect from event-based storylines) and they've completely ballsed-up making the conclusion sufficiently available, because they were too busy spending all their time and money making sure everyone got to see Emoboy Prime have a bit of a minigoth moment. (As if it weren't apparent, my entire working knowledge of the events of Infinite Crisis has been gathered from Wikipedia articles on the subject and the odd scan from scans_daily, with ensuing bitchy comments).

My question, however, is as follows : given my previous personal experience with the inconsistent/consistently crap (depending on whether I feel like being nice or nasty about it) solicitations process in Other Realms, I don't know whether this is an issue for everyone across the board. So. Has anyone laid their hands on a copy of Seven Soldiers Of Victory #1, as allegedly shipped on the 21st of June by DC?

Draco

Did it? I didn't see it in either Sub City or Forbidden Planet and I don't remember seeing in Diamonds shipped list. Rather helpfully their shipping page is down so I can't even check.

Fysh

Well, I found out about the "re-soliciting" via various websearches I did when I noticed that the DC site's "What's on sale this week" section seemed to randomly move the issue from mid-April to late June. Other Realms say they haven't been told anything, so it's entirely possible that the bookend issue hasn't even made it onto the next solicitation list.

Glad to see it's not just me who's confused, anyway...

Draco

Fysh wrote:

the DC site's "What's on sale this week" section

That section can be completely inaccurate - diamond's shipping list is what actually gets shipped each week and is accurate from about Moday afternoon.

spooydermot

haven't posted in ages, so I'll throw in by two bits. I'm as irritated about the whole thing as you Fysh, to be honest it's really put a crimp in the on going story and i've an awful feeling that this issue #1 will be in very short supply (so as to sell more trades) or non existant i.e. tacked onto the last trade as a 'lost issue' ....as I said just an awful feeling,I've not heard anything of the like...

...and yeah whats with Diamonds shipping lists going awol ?

all in all I was enjoying the 7 Soldiers story, I know a lot of people felt let down by it, but my final judgement was being kept for the final installment to see if the whole thing would be neatly drawn together...

Fysh

spooydermot wrote:

whats with Diamonds shipping lists going awol ?

I was just wondering this myself as I went looking for them today after seeing Draco's post but couldn't find them anywhere. Oh well. *sigh*

spookydermot wrote:

all in all I was enjoying the 7 Soldiers story, I know a lot of people felt let down by it, but my final judgement was being kept for the final installment to see if the whole thing would be neatly drawn together...

Much the same feeling I had. Whatever parts of the story I might have felt were disappointing by themselves, I was still enjoying the whole (particularly after reading some of the Wikipedia articles on the series, including one discussing Kaballah mappings for the seven soldiers - ok, it may be rubbish, but it gives you another way of thinking about the whole thing). I really hope that the bookend ties up the whole story in such a way that makes sense for the characters involved, but the more of this arsing around I see, the less easy it is to keep thinking that'll happen.

That being said...

I just read here that J.H. Williams is the bookend artist, and more importantly that he hoped they wouldn't have the same delays on the second bookend that they did with the first. Now, given that he's recently taken over full art duties on a Batman book (I think) and had to junk drawing Desolation Jones to do it, it's conceivable that this is why the book's late. But it doesn't explain the apparent radio silence from DC about it.

Draco

some sort of upgrade with their server meant the list were unavailable yesterday. they're back now and no mention of Seven Soliders for the stuff that shipped for the 21st of June:
http://www.diamondcomics.com/shipping/archive/2006/062106.txt

On J.H. Williams, I thought he was only ever doing 6 Jones episodes anyway?

Fysh

I wasn't too sure one way or another, because given the schedule of the book I had the impression Ellis was going to wait and see how the first storyline did. (Perhaps at the behest of DC, who knows). It's a shame to see him go, but I'm curious to see someone else's take on Jones and his world.

RE: Seven Soldiers, I guess the quickest way to see the end of the story is to buy the TPB, but I'm still not sure I want the bloody things. Oh well...

irlZaphod

Seven Soldiers #1 is currently solicited for October 25th. That's at least the 3rd or 4th re-solicit of it, though.

Fysh

Oh, fer crying out loud....oh well. Cheers for the info anyway.

irlZaphod

I must admit, I haven't read any of the series (perhaps now with the delays, I'm glad of that), but that's pretty much everyone's reactions about it.

spooydermot

if anyone still cares (god knows ye've every right not too) I just checked diamonds shipping list and 7 Soldiers #1 will indeed ship next week.

Fysh

Yeah, I just rememebered that after looking around to see what DC is going to foist my way in the next few weeks. Given my brokeness it's likely this'll be my only purchase until the end of the month. It damn well better be worth it.

(I foresee a weekend of re-reading the series so far to bring myself up to speed...)

the Shades

Buy that and miss Wildcats and The Authority? Interesting choice.

Fysh

Funny you should mention those - I've been reading Stormwatch vol 2 and moving onto the Authority recently and somehow I've ended up keen on the Authority's characters but preferring Stormwatch. (Partly this is down to Millars fanboytasticness and allegedly humourous self-referencing in his first main storyline, I'll admit). As for wildcats, I've only read them in the end of Stormwatch vol 2 and...well...they're not my cup of tea. So yeah.

Draco

Well Seven Soliders #1 is on this week's shipping list. will be given the pay off we've been waiting for, or will it roll over, fart and make us sleep on the wet patch?

Fysh

There's a 7-page preview on the Newsarama site. Will be picking this up on my lunchbreak today assuming it's in stock in Other Realms, then reading it as soon as I get a chance.

Fysh

So.

I read the closing issue about 3 times, then re-read the entire series in one big go on Sunday. And I'm still not quite decided on it. Need to bounce ideas off people. (I posted more comments in the "what comic are you reading?" thread and can't be bothered cutting/pasting them).

However, in digging around I found this. Now, the newspaper segment was a really neatly done section of the comic, I felt, and the crossword was a nice idea. I skimmed it, guessed most of the answers, then carried on reading. However, the last comment on that link suggests that there's a bigger meaning to the answers, so...has anyone sat down and properly completed it?