DC Announces Batman Earth One and Superman Earth One!

I'm stoked about the JMS book. He did a great job with Hyperion from Supreme Power so I know he can bring it with Superman. Not so sure about Johns on Batman. Johns is definitely talented and I love what he's done with Hal Jordan for the most part, but in some of those GL books he makes Batman out to be prick and I wonder if he can really give the character a fair shake. He seemed more interested in playing with the villains than doing something original and unique with Batman, whereas JMS seemed to be more focused on Superman/Clark Kent.

 

Don't usually read a lot of DC stuff, but both of these books look very interesting to me.

Interested to see what JMS will do with Supes, and I really like the idea that Alfred is a former Royal Marines bad-ass.

 

I'm very interested to see his take on Superman (particularly after reading some of his interview).

 

Shane Davis pencilled about half(?) of Jim Starlin's Mystery in Space with Captain Comet mini, and did an exceptional job. I was very disappointed when he didn't return for Starlin's subsequent minis with the space heroes.

 

Can't say I'm interested, but it sounds like a good project. I tend to get most of my TPBs and GNs around this time of the year (Christmas/Hanukkah/Birthday in January) and I am still trying to finish collecting Starman and Sandman, and I have a few other series in trade I wanted to get. So this is pretty low on my list.

 

It's coming out in 2010...and I tend to get the bulk of my trades and graphic novels at the end of the year as well since my birthday is on the 28th.

 

I don't know that I agree with that. His Thor was pretty heavy on very epic/classical stuff.

 

cool i love his b5 show! Can't want to see his superman

 

I didn't read but just the first half dozen issues or so. The parts I read were focused on inserting Norse mythology into the "real world" at the cost of Thor's grand Marvel mythology; he even dumped Asgard in the midwest so that we could get the added story of slack jawed hicks pointing their finger at it. It's the kind of disconnect I expect from JMS; after all, this is the man who was handed Spider-man and said, "Great opportunity for a serious book about sorcery and the occult!"

Rising Stars was pretty good; I won't deny that. But I believe the comics strategy for JMS after that has seen him trying too hard in my opinion. By that, I mean that he's overdone trying to be different; overshot the mark instead of keeping his eye on what he has. That's why I think he may be better off keeping to his own creations; I believe he can no longer wrap his head around playing in universes other people built. In fact, I think that having a property with an established history is seen as a challenge to him; he walks in thinking he has to make it different from everything the character is or else he's failed his job.

So I think he'll write Superman...and it won't be Superman. That's just not something I'm looking for; if I'm buying something with "Superman" on the cover, I'm expecting something with things I'll recognize. If I didn't want that, I would be buying something with an original title I had never seen before. That is where Geoff Johns "gets it" and JMS doesn't; Johns gave us everything we would expect from a Superman story and made it fresh and exciting while doing it.

 

It is interesting, because the article has JSM quoted as saying that he has no intentions to recreate the character to just leave his mark on it. I have no reason to believe otherwise. However, I wonder what he considers "not leaving his mark" means to him.

 

I don't see how he diminished the grand nature of it at all; everything about his depictions of the gods was big on grandeur (apart from Volstagg, but he's always comic relief). He did some stuff about their interaction with the regular world, but that's hardly diminishing.

 

I just finish reading the trade of volume one of JMS's Thor's run and I was highly entertained by it...but I do see Temporal Flux's problems with it.

JMS's Superman seems a bit like Smallville...we'll see. As I've stated I'll be buying both books, if they're released separately and not on the same day I'll buy Batman Earth One first.

 

Graphic novel collections are one of the fastest growing segments of the publishing industry. Expensive is a bit relative, a lot of people would rather buy a couple of thick, $30 graphic novels than 6-12 issues of a comic at $3-5 a piece spread out over a year, and I think that's what makes them more accessible to a lot of people. Also, graphic novels feel more like you're purchasing something to keep instead of just read and throw away like toilet paper.

 

Not too keen on the new costume for Batman. People complain that the shorts look like underwear, so they give him a suit that looks like longjohns (complete with flap!!!!) hahahahahahahaha

Anyone else see Christian Bale in Frank's Bruce Wayne?

Badass Alfred (with a tat and ripped arms) leaves me cold.

 

I'm excited. Hopefully they'll do some reimagining that's cool and new, and not just make things only slightly different.

Though I'm really disappointed that they didn't use this opportunity to put him in a new updated suit. The underwear just needs to go.

 

If it was underwear, why would they be on the outside and have belt loops?

 

Color me unimpressed on the Alfred as a muscled ex-military.

The ex-military part is more or less canon - he's supposed to have had some paramedic training during "the" war. (Which War? WWII or WWI or some other? ). It's the making him muscular and changing him to look like a Nick Fury wannabe that makes me go ugh!!

When you see current Alfred take care of business, you go "Yeah! Alfred is the man". But if this guy did it - what's the big deal? He already looks like Sgt. Rock!

And what's with the underoo-hate? It's tradition I tell you!

 

I'm not a big fan any sort of Alfred backstory: Alfred works best when he's just a Damn Good Butler.

 

This actually sounds like Geoff Johns is doing with his Superman Origin story, so I wonder how closely linked these two will be.

 

Batman's costume reminds me of Kick-Ass's.