Jeff Lemire turns out another horror-thriller, and a deconstruction of a DC superhero

Comic Book Club Live's announced Canadian writer Lemire is foisting yet another horror tale upon comicdom, as if we never have enough of such an overrated genre as it is:

The news was announced via Lemire’s blog, where he broke down the deal further noting that it’ll kick off with a three volume supernatural detective series with artist Teddy Kristiansen titled Mr. Oblivion.

Per Lemire, “Mr. Oblivion follows Marty McCabe, who was once the world’s greatest occult detective, Mr. Oblivion, but now, twenty-years later, sells real estate in the suburbs and struggles with middle-age, marriage, and a teenaged daughter. But, when the demons of his past return (literally), Marty must once again put on the fabled Merlin Mask to save his family, even if it eats his soul alive.”

No wonder this writer's one of plenty modern ones who've never impressed me. And if you want to know what Lemire's preparing for mainstream, he even announced 2 months ago he's writing a new take on Firestorm:

The series will launch in April and it’s been a real labour of love for the whole creative team. My editors Andrew Marino and Marquis Draper are two of the biggest Firestorm fans in the world and when I told them I also loved the character we knew we were going to swing for the fences with this one. The original Firestorm series told the story of Ronnie Raymond, a college student who was fused with his eccentric professor, Martin Stein, in a nuclear accident. Together they merged into the flame-headed hero, Firestorm. Our book will be both a deconstruction of the character and a love letter to his past.

If you’ve never read a Firestorm comic before, I’ve written the first issue as if it were the pilot episode of a new series, so it’s totally new reader friendly. And if you are an old school Firestorm fan (they exist, I swear!) the book is loaded with Easter eggs and nods to the past too.

Forget it, when somebody says they're deconstructing, that's pretty telling, because deconstruction became the norm in the past quarter century, and that's why calling this a "love letter" is no more convincing than to say Identity Crisis was one, recalling Brad Meltzer and possibly other DC staff called that repellent 2004 miniseries a "love letter" to the Silver/Bronze Age years ago.

If Lemire's new Firestorm series stars Ronnie Raymond though, that's pretty amazing they're willing to use the original star, considering that in 2004, they tried to race-swap Ronnie with a Black character named Jason Rusch, in an early example of social justice diversity pandering. And it ultimately led nowhere. Even today, they may have only partially jettisoned emphasis on the SJW-themed character, and this may also be the case when it comes to their race-swapping of the Atom and Blue Beetle. But, that only proves they're still making a joke of themselves, as is Marvel with some of their own diversity-pandering creations. And when they do that, it only robs said creations of agency, because they weren't created as their own protagonists, nor were they developed organically as successors for what was originally a role starring a white protagonist.

Lemire's one of quite a few writers working for DC/Marvel today who can't be taken seriously.