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

[Derishton]

The Lensman wrote:

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Did he? At the beginning of the book it says the parademons swarmed Earth led by their brilliant and unstoppable leader, not a "general", named Steppenwolf.

Yeah, I see that - I tinkered with how I wanted to put my thought on the subject. I could see it being Darkseid himself, but I read Mercury's line as referring to something different and not an escalation of the threat from Apokolips. Maybe I'm reading some of the Trinity War rumors into this.

I was very impressed with what I saw as an in-joke: if you're going to replace the war against Nazi Germany as the crucible for the Earth-2 heroes, you might as well use "Steppenwolf" as the villain. It's the next best thing to using "Fancy Captain Nazi Pants."

Also, Steppenwolf looked like Magog to me.

[JoeZhang]

This is a guess not a spoiler - Alan is powered by the spirits of the dead in china who are trapped within a jade lantern.

[Derishton]

Huh! News to me, but cool. Raise the Green Lantern?

[JoeZhang]

Well he's flying to China in the first issue, the Green Lantern the character used in the past was a jade lantern from China and the cover I've seen he seems to be surrounded by the dead.

[Hound of UIster]

Interesting that is similar to the origin of the female Tangent GL that was also written by Robinson.

[Derishton]

It'll be tricky to pull that off. It was easier in the 40s to have a white guy be the recipient of "foreign powers", with all the weird science fiction/fantasy imperialism that might imply. But as Hound of UIster says, Robinson's mined that territory before. (I'll admit I haven't looked that closely at the cover in question; the Flash cover hurt my eyes.)

[Admiral Buzzkill]

That would be interesting. The cover image certainly is suggestive of a strong supernatural aspect to GL.

[Professor Zoom]

Any ideas who Powergirl and Huntress saw in the vortex (for lack of a better name?) Who were they following?

Edited to add: the more I think about it, the more I like it, it's a brand new universe to think about... and I don't know why I didn't have this reaction to the nu52.

[Agent Richard07]

Action Comics #9: Obama as Superman. Interesting read. And integrating the swastika into the S's diamond outline was pretty creative. I wanted give up on this title, but I think I'll stick around for this arc then drop it. ...if I can.

World's Finest #1: I like the duo of Huntress and Power Girl...



...I liked Helena as Robin better though. Wish we got more of that. And Power Girl's billionaire identity is a fascinating and impressive one. And hey, she's got the black World Express card.

Earth 2 #1: Seeing Wonder Woman get it was shocking. Good start though with our soon-to-be Flash. Nice touch with Jupiter and the Roman gods too.

Dial H #1: This one is different. The heroes Nelse turns into are a little odd and somewhat off-putting, but otherwise, this one's another fascinating read. Gotta move that phone booth to better quarters though. And a heart attack at 30?

Smallville #1: I haven't read the issue yet but I'm glad we have some version of Smallville with a full-on Superman, even if it's in the form of a comic book.

[The Lensman]

Professor Zoom wrote:

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Any ideas who Powergirl and Huntress saw in the vortex (for lack of a better name?) Who were they following?

Edited to add: the more I think about it, the more I like it, it's a brand new universe to think about... and I don't know why I didn't have this reaction to the nu52.

Back around Infinite Crisis, when they brought the multiverse back, I thought the idea of an Earth-Two line of books would've been cool because there would've been more freedom to tell the kind of stories a writer wanted to tell. You can't kill Kal-El, but Kal-L is a different story, as evidenced by them actually killing Kal-L.

I figured then that the best writers would've wanted to be able to write stories in an ongoing line of books, with variations on the main heroes, but with that freedom to do things like we're seeing in the current Earth-2 book.

This book started off with a bang, it's got a writer who does a good job when he has that freedom to do his own thing, he's got his own little world to play in and he has a love for those original heroes and concepts. Remember, it all started with his mini-series "Golden Age", which led to Starman, which led to JSA, a title that had a longer run than it probably ever had before.

Some may compare Earth-2 to Ultimate Marvel, in that there's more freedom to go crazy with ideas, and I'm okay with that. Plus I'd get a kick if Jay and Alan proved to be more popular than Barry and Hal.

I'm pretty excited to see where this series goes. Can't remember the last time I felt that way about a comic.

[Nerys Myk]

Professor Zoom wrote:

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Any ideas who Powergirl and Huntress saw in the vortex (for lack of a better name?) Who were they following?

Edited to add: the more I think about it, the more I like it, it's a brand new universe to think about... and I don't know why I didn't have this reaction to the nu52.

Its Mr Terrific

[Trekker4747]

Action #9:

Not too bad, very interesting story but also not quite what I was expecting. Really not much else to say about this one other than that.

Detective #9:

Night of the Owls begins and I'm not sure how this book's events is really fitting in with the other Bat-books but I actually enjoyed this one.

Dial H:

I'm on the fence with this one, while it was a good read it leaves much to be desired. On the cover of the book we see a mostly normal looking, if pudgy, man using the (antique) phone-booth that grants him his powers. Inside the book the artwork is very different and presents us with a near morbidly obese man as our "hero." It's quite the contrast and the artwork and dialogue of the book makes a bit harder for me to "connect" with the hero. The super-heroes he also turns into are also a bit of a disconnect from what I was expecting (which, really I don't know what that is) and not quite... Well, it felt more like the stuff that happens in "The Mask" movie where he just turns into a bizarre caricature of a superhero or something. I may give this one a couple more issues to hook me but after the first one it's not looking good.

Smallville ("Season 11") #1: Pretty decent book that continues the events of the ended TV series. I don't quite feel the characterizations of everyone is quite right but the book felt pretty good. The artwork in it while good is also somewhat pedestrian. It doesn't stand out in one way or another. And I liked Clark's "underwear-less" suit better than the one in the actual Superman books in the main DC continuity.

Also picked up last month's (Non-DC) Ghostbusters book, this series really continues to impress me in how good it is but in this book one of the more disturbing implications of what the Ghostbusters do is sort of brought to mind.

[JoeZhang]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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Its Mr Terrific

So he traveled back in time as well as across dimensions?

[Nerys Myk]

JoeZhang wrote:

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So he traveled back in time as well as across dimensions?

If the rumors are correct, then yes. Assuming that Karen and Helena's leap into the boomtube didn't change things.

[Professor Zoom]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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Its Mr Terrific

Ahhhh.