DC's New 52: Reviews and Discussion (Spoilers welcolme and likely)

Batgirl: I must be in a minority here, but this is a book I'm really enjoying. I mostly like Barbra's narration. Just, generally, I think it's a fun book and look forward to see where this current story line goes.

Batman and Robin: This book I just might drop. I'm not feeling it at all and it just doesn't interest me.

 

So, they're not even pretending that the Guardians are good guys any more, are they? Looks like this next Green Lantern arc (along with the New Guardians plotline) may finally be the end of that particular status quo. About damn time, if you ask me.

 

I'm that minority too. Don't really see what all the hub bub about the timeline and Oracle is about. Of course I was reading comics before the Killing Joke and before Oracle, so maybe that makes a difference.

 

I guess I can sort of see the loss of Oracle, but then again I think it's also interesting when characters change and become something different. If Barbra has been in that wheel chair for 10-20 years whatever it's been in real-life since the Killing Joke then I say it's time for something to change to make her different, her regaining her ability to walk and re-entering a Bat-life is interesting. Especially since they didn't just de-canon TKJ, Barbra is still dealing with the PTSD from that event and now survivor's guilt from getting her ability to walk again.

And, as I said, I really enjoy her as a character and her inner monologues. She's just a fun, care-free, flirty character. I like it.

 

It isn't about the loss of Oracle...it is just we're supposed to believe she's been crippled for three out of the five years of this compressed timeline. I normally don't really care about continuity...but they way DC has set up this relaunch and settled on a compressed five year time line with some events happening and some not happen is stupid to me. It doesn't make sense. Then again I'm a fan of most of the DCU prior to the relaunch which had a ten or twelve year time line. Damn. I'm sounding like EJA

 

Well, I know one the big issues with Barbara walking again, was the fact that as Oracle she had become a bit of an icon for people with disabilites, and so people were pissed that they were losing that. And as a person with medical problems (not quite bad enough to be considered disabled, but I've come close when things flare up) I can see where that could become important to people, and how it could be frustrating to see that being changed. Despite my mixed feelings, I do still plan on checking the series out though.

 

Maybe it's just me, and the fact I've not really read comics in a few years, but I don't care about the compressed timeline. Hell, I would've been fine if they made it so she had never been crippled.

See, I'm not sure how much sense that explanation made sense to me either. People in wheelchairs disappointed because there's now no superheroes... in.... wheelchairs? So now they've no one to look up in order to become a superhero... ?

Sure I can see it's nice in a diversity sort of way, but I'm sure that could be fixed as well by just making another Oracle-like character who is wheel-chair bound.

 

Maybe. I read and liked "The Killing Joke," but I just don't get the attachment to the old, ever-attenuated and misnamed "DC timeline," which like Marvel's continuity is so ridiculously convoluted and self-contradictory as to be a waste of time.

 

I really have wanted to like this book...I was really excited about Babs regaining her legs but haven't liked the execution at all.

@Dennis it isn't so much about the timeline it's about stories making sense and being logical at times...but like I say. Maybe I'm acting too much like EJA lol.

 

There came a point where the timeline and continuity became more important than telling good stories. No doubt in a few years that rot will set in for the 52 as well.

Me, I like it simple: The past happen then and the present happens now. No exact dates or timelines.

 

And let us not forget that Barbra Gordon was crippled (and likely raped) in The Killing Joke pretty much out of misogamy and callousness on the part of the editors/creative team at DC. It's not like they had a grand plan for her in making this Oracle/symbol for handicapped people character.

Hell, undoing her handicap pretty much undoes the terribleness that but her there in the first place.

 

Mostly It was Alan Moore's idea, but the guys at DC ( including Publisher Jenette Kahn) signed off on it.

 

Isn't the infamous quote "shoot the bitch" what someone said when the question was asked if they could even do it?

 

So which of current stories don't make sense because of the timeline?

 

^ For one thing I find it hard to believe that most of the past Oracle stories are compressed into a three year period. That just seems impossible even for a comic book timeline. Not to mention as others have brought up the fact that there have been five Robins over this five year spand and they're all still roughly the same age they were when the relaunch happened.

Batman and Robin #5: This book started off slow, but has picked up in the last few issues. I think Damian hasn't turned his back on Bruce but instead allowed Ducard to think he's gone rouge so that he can take him down in order to prove himself to his father. A lot of issues between father and son have been built up in this book. I was disappointed that Damian didn't mention Dick...and credited Alfred having more of an impact with his upbringing than Bruce. But then Dick is his older brother. This is the second best Bat book in the New 52 Bat Family.

 

The Robin thing is a bit sticky but with Oracle I don't see the problem. Even if every story was in continuity you probably couldn't fill five years of real time. Especially for plotlines that take place in mere hours of a character's life yet are spread out in close to a year of monthly comics.

 

DC is ending six of the titles with issue #8, then launching 6 new titles under the "New 52" umbrella. USA Today has the scoop.

 

Comic books take place in a very short amount of time, usually one day or less. And each comic ends with a cliffhanger that leads directly into the next one.

So if one comic equals one day, the 900 issues of Action Comics took place over 900 days, which is only two and a half years. And then there's a few time jumps like "One Year Later" after Infinite Crisis to add in as well.

 

Of the series cancelled I will miss Hawk & Dove the most. Not the art mind you but the premise of what they are. Just like the concept. Very surprised Captain Atom & Batwing survived the first round of cuts.
Both Earth 2 and Worlds Finest have my interest for the next round.

 

Seems to be the ones people were expecting - and right on time at the six month mark.

Yeah, Earth 2 and World's Finest sound worth checking out - particularly to see how that world is going to be "reconceived."