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

[JD]

Turtletrekker wrote:

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"As a person with eyes, I am a little offended."

Admiral_Young wrote:

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I was wondering if anyone would comment about that cover lol.

Professor Zoom wrote:

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It does sort of hurt. Both her and my eyes. Clearly the artist studied under Liefeld.

I think I stared that picture for a good minute or two, simply because I was trying figure out if would be physically possible for a woman to contort her body like that. Maybe it's just me but I'm thinking....no.

[Admiral_Young]

When I was browsing the previews before posting them I took a quick look at the plot tease for the book and pretty much dismissed the cover. I dropped the book after issue two. Disappointing.

[Trekker4747]

That cover is so out of proportion and reality Rob Liefeld looks at it and think it's ridiculous. Not so much the position she's stand/jumping/laying/sitting/splayed in but all of the proportions are just out of whack and it doesn't look like one element of that goes with any other element of it.

Anyway: Today I picked up:

Batgirl
Batman

Non-DC
Spider-Men (LCS Variant Cover) with the meeting of classic Spidey and Ultimate Spidey.
The Avngers Prelude: Black Widow Strikes #3
..Still looking for the rest of the books I'm missing in the Prelude/MCU books namely Fury's Big Week #4 and the other series of Fury/Prelude books that were released.

[Admiral_Young]

Batman and Robin #10: This was a great issue. Damian is the star of this book, but Red Hood has his moments, I still hear Jensen Ackles when reading Jason dialogue. I thought the portrait at the start of the book was fun stuff as well.

Batman #10: Wow. Will wait until others have read this to start talking about it...but Scott Synder you gloriously sneaky bastard you!!! He really truly is the new Grant Morrison and this story proves it to me. Just when you think the Court of Owls uber-arc is going no where...BOOM!!

[OdoWanKenobi]

Batman #10: Did Grant Morrison just start writing Batman again? Because this totally reads like something he would pull. Which is of course to say it was also awesome.

Batman and Robin #10: Tim and Damian both act incredibly childish and petty for a whole issue. I suppose it's well written pettiness, but it's still petty. Also, the art on this one is kinda atrocious. Nobody's face has any kind of definition. When they were out of costume, I didn't always know what character I was looking at.

Green Lantern #10: The best part of this issue is the Black Hand part. If Nekron is gone, though, who is sending him a black ring?

[Admiral_Young]

Tim and Damian are acting in character though. As Damian himself pointed out, Tim's the one who has given him the cold shoulder and looked down on him since they first met. I'm not condoning Damian's behavior by any means, but he does make several good points about Tim, and seems to LOVE to antagonize Tim. Tim really does make it easy for him to do so. The point was that they were being petty with each other as you say. That rematch was a long time coming too...even though there as no real result from it lol.

[OdoWanKenobi]

No, it's true. They're both acting completely within character. One thing I'm wondering about is if Damian says he's gonna take on every Robin, is he really serious about Dick? I mean, Dick is one of the few people in the world that Damian truly and completely respects.

[Admiral_Young]

I was wondering about that. I think we're seeing the seeds being sown for the long rumored Jeff Lemaire "Robins" book. I agree with you that Damian holds Dick in high regard. He despises Jason...and only has no respect for Tim. I don't think he really hates Tim. He's just trying to get Tim to admit things that Tim has long ignored. The same things that were explored in the Titans Tomorrow arc. Damian and Dick's relationships has been one thing that the New 52 has been inconsistent about in my opinion. "Batman and Robin" has mostly shown Damian to be respectful, Batman Inc Volume 2 #1 Damian had praise again. Then there's this issue lol. I did like the nod to Batman Inc though. The bounty on Damian is still in affect. So that is another clue as to when volume two of Inc takes place.

[OdoWanKenobi]

Yet somehow Leviathan Strikes takes place before Flashpoint, but after the first New52 Batman and Robin arc? My head hurts from that one.

[Admiral_Young]

^ That's correct. The entire first volume of Batman, Inc takes place in the DCU prior to Flashpoint. The second volume starts sometime between the first "Batman and Robin" New 52 arc and *now*. At least that is how I understand things.

What's even more migraine inducing is that Bruce has now has a "missing year" since Final Crisis no longer exists. His entire motivation for establishing Batman, Inc has been invalidated by the relaunch lol.

[Trekker4747]

I've flipped through "Batman" and just looking through it it looks fantastic.

[Admiral_Young]

Batman seriously blew my mind today. This story is what everything has been leading up to..and we still have the big game changer arc waiting for us at issue thirteen. This summer is going to be awesome if you're a Batman fan IMO.

[Agent Richard07]

I picked up Batgirl, the latest Watchmen installment and Saucer Country. I'm dropping Birds of Prey. Love the kick-ass ladies, but the story isn't holding me.

[Mr Light]

I'm not sure how I feel about the Batman #10 reveal... it's a little too soap opera-y... still an incredible story though!

[Allyn Gibson]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Batman #10: Wow. Will wait until others have read this to start talking about it...but Scott Synder you gloriously sneaky bastard you!!! He really truly is the new Grant Morrison and this story proves it to me. Just when you think the Court of Owls uber-arc is going no where...BOOM!!

OdoWanKenobi wrote:

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Batman #10: Did Grant Morrison just start writing Batman again? Because this totally reads like something he would pull. Which is of course to say it was also awesome.

That was a very Morrison-esque reveal. There are three possibilities -- 1) it's really that character, 2) it's someone who isn't that character but has always believed he's that he's that character, or 3) it's another Dr. Hurt situation.

OdoWanKenobi wrote:

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No, it's true. They're both acting completely within character. One thing I'm wondering about is if Damian says he's gonna take on every Robin, is he really serious about Dick? I mean, Dick is one of the few people in the world that Damian truly and completely respects.

I was thinking about that today, and I reached some conclusions that are dependent on how much of the pre-Flashpoint Batman continuity is still in play.

Go back to Batman: The Return. Dick assumed that he was going back to being Nightwing because the world didn't need two Batmen. Then Bruce recognizes that he can't work with Damian, so Dick continues as Batman in Gotham and keeps Damian in line.

Jump ahead to Leviathan Strikes! Talia puts a billion dollar hit on Damian's head.

Between that and Batman #1, Dick goes back to being Nightwing. Why? My working theory is that Bruce believed that Dick-Bats couldn't protect Damian from Talia's assassins as effectively as he could. That he could keep Damian on a shorter leash than Dick could. Bruce, however, seems to have called this one wrong...

The best thing for Damian, I think, would be for Dick to resume the cowl and partner him with Dick. Bruce is too invested in the idea of Damian as his son, so he lacks perspective. Dick has better people skills than Bruce, and he's not as close.

The only other person that Damian has any regard for is, odd as it sounds, Stephanie, probably because she just doesn't care about his mental games. But since we don't Steph's status in the New 52... *shrug*

Basically, I think that Bruce is going to have to bench Damian or partner Damian with someone else.