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

Nightwing 2 (****) - This was a big improvement over #1 especially since there was much less blood here. I guess they are setting up the new situation with him running the Circus and the truth about the Circus.

Batman 2 (****)- Like Nightwing, the theme of both books seems to be the hidden secrets in the hero's past. In Bruce's case, it's the Court of Owl that seem to be a combination of Black Glove and Batman. A lot of this book emphasizes how much of Batman's advantage comes from his knowledge of Gotham whether it's train schedules or hidden bits of architecture. There seems to be a supernatural aspect too in the assassin that attacks Bruce.

With exception to Daniel and Finch, the Batbooks continue to consistently get the best writers.

 

They are, and to a far greater degree than I'm used to from DC. For one thing, there's some humor to the whole thing.

 

All fine and good, doesn't mean Batman should be taking the kid out to kick the ass of killers, thieves and madmen.

 

He was raised by thieves and murderers. Being Robin is literally the best thing that happened to him.

 

Pretty sure that's been in the Robin job description since the 40s.

 

word.

 

Indeed. And it's one more reason to hate Batman. Everybody wins.

 

@Trekker Damian Wayne was genetically and mentally conditioned by his mother to be the ultimate weapon. Since her morales are already compromised as it is she didn't care that her son was a child. As for his age he was ten when introduced in "Batman and Son" not sure his age now. I don't think he has celebrated a birthday yet in the comics.

Read Justice League #2 and admit that it was an improvement over the first issue. I would agree with C. Miller's review though. These seem to be caricatures not characters in the sense that these heroes are stripped down right to their very basic nature of who we all know they are supposed to be and not given much depth. It would also appear that Superman is incredibly powerful in this 52 'Verse. Anyway I liked the issue and the art is good. I guess I will be giving this a chance until the arc is complete.

 

^Remember Admiral the universe was introduced for new readers so stripping the characters down to their basic aspects was done for them. This is not limited to JL but every book that has been released. All the characters are back at stage 1 without all the layers built in. Its a tightrope to walk for such well known characters but leaves lots of room for changes in the future.

 

I'd agree in some cases, but not all. While yeah, not much light as been shed on their personalities yet in the books, it's only been one issue after all, there is room for depth there or at least they aren't playing up their lack of depth. Justice League has it's characters almost comically depthless, especially Green Lantern. Actually Hal Jordan is written poorly across the board. Hard to believe he's Johns' golden boy.

But in the end, my biggest complaint is that there's no meat on its bones. I should not be 8 dollars into a story where barely anything of note story wise has happend. I feel like DC should have done better with this, seeing as Justice League was supposed to grab new readers back. People seem to like it, so what do I know, but this kind of decompression where you only get two full stories year is what got me out of comics in the first place.

 

"No meat on it's bones" is a great way to describe the book so far. It is missing something to truly make it the special thing that DC promoted it as being.

 

Sounds like the previous continuity is still firmly in place in the B&R books, which may make it more difficult for me to continue reading. Which I likely won't as it's not one I wanted to follow anyway I just bought them so I could buy the sleeves and use my credit card. ($5 min. at the shop.)

Oh, I was a little annoyed by the Batman-themed graphic-novel style one-shot that was in the back of every issue this week.

 

As stated already several times "Batman, Inc" survived untouched from the previous continuity as did most of the previous stuff dealt with. If you were going into reading the Bat books thinking they were a reboot and a fresh start then perhaps they're not for you. Batman and Robin is simply a continuation of the previous volume.

 

Batman's self-titled book, The Dark Night and Detective Comics, too me, didn't seem to be weighted down as much by any remaining continuity, at least not enough to make me go "WTF?!." Which is what I did when I saw a pre-pubescent Robin in B&R running around unaware of his particular back-story. The other Batman titles didn't make me scratch my head as much and seemed to have an ounce or two of exposition to explain things.

I may read the two books again later as when I read them last night I was pretty tired.

 

That's because "The Dark Knight" pretty much is David Finch's own self-contained little story within the larger context of the Bat-Family. Same with Tony Daniel's "Detective Comics". "Batman", "Batman and Robin", and "Batman, Inc" are all within the same continuity structure as is "Nightwing" thanks to it's connection to "Batman".


I finished reading Supergirl which I am going to stick with. I am actually enjoying this book more than I thought I would be. Nightwing was an improvement over the first issue but I think I'm on the verge of dropping it. Legion of Superheroes is being dropped, have no idea what Levitz is working towards now if anything. Red Hood I'm keeping...great issue and the dynamic is slowly forming between Kory, Jason, and Roy. Batman continues to be my second favourite book after "Action Comics". Scott Snyder is just awesome and Greg Capullo's art work reminds me a bit of Tim Sale's. Just awesome.

 

Detective and TDK are being written by two idiots.

 

^ Yep.

 

Pre-Flashpoint, it was established that Damian is ten.

 

^ Mentioned that in my earlier post. Some books depicted him as being a little older, I think in the Supergirl crossover in particular (the first one) don't remember if an age was given. I like to think of him as 12 right now but he's probably still ten.

 

Sorry! Didn't flip to the next page.

I like to think of him as ten, just because of his relationship with Stephanie in Batgirl, where she tries many times to get him to be a kid. That makes sense to me for ten. That doesn't make sense to me for twelve.