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

[dru]

Fist McStrongpunch wrote:

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Personally, I love decompression. I've recently been reading a bunch of older comics from Marvel and DC, and none of them are able to make anything seem nearly as epic or involved as it should be.

The Dark Phoenix saga wasn't epic?

Epic doesn't mean dragged out by endless minutia and talking heads. It means portraying heroic deeds, in grand scale. There's nothing epic or heroic about stiff figured, drawn like life models in Halloween costumes, standing or sitting around.

[Nerys Myk]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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I'm talking about the clique of 90s Marvel writers brought in by Harras. He is putting them in a lot of places where they don't belong. It really should be more indie, vertigo and current image writers with some pre-reboot dc writers, but Harras is putting his people all over the place and they really aren't very good. The replacement of Winnick on Catwoman by Nocenti and Lobdell on Red Hood and an attempt to give DeFalco a trial run of Nightwing, it just screams power grab.

And we know that it was Harras who got DeFalco the gig, how? Harras is already the EIC, who is he grabbing power from? The Batgroup editors already work for him!!!!!

If exMarvel writers can get the job done, then why not hire them?

[JoeZhang]

If getting the job done means "really bland" - then yes, he gets the job done.

[Hound of UIster]

Nerys Myk wrote:

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And we know that it was Harras who got DeFalco the gig,
how?

DeFalco, Nocenti, Mackie and Lobdell were all Harras's writers during the era that he was in charge of Marvel. You could believe they were all suddenly hired individually by DC despite many of them being out of comics for awhile or you could believe they were hired when Bob Harras was suddenly made EiC.

[Nerys Myk]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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DeFalco, Nocenti, Mackie and Lobdell were all Harras's writers during the era that he was in charge of Marvel. You could believe they were all suddenly hired individually by DC despite many of them being out of comics for awhile or you could believe they were hired when Bob Harras was suddenly made EiC.

There is no doubt Harras hired people he's worked with before. Not an usual practice. My comment was about the Nightwing fill in in particular, though.

[Trekker4747]

Batgirl: Fantastic book with some really fantastic art this month. Really loved the "past versions" of Babs' costume and, lord, this chick is a stunner. Interesting look at her character and tied with "Batman #0" in how she became Batgirl, including Batman giving her a "Nice..." response to her actions. Liked the ending with it tying in with "The Killling Joke."

Batman: This book continues to impress, good take on the rise of Bruce Wayne/Batman and personally where I think this book should have been with issue #1. The main story with the Red Hood group was good but ended abruptly (I wonder when it will be followed up on? With next year's "Issue 0" ("Issue 0.5?.) The second story giving "lip service" to the various Robins was okay but the best part of it was it tying into "Batgirl" showing Barbra's beginning interests in Batman.

[ElScoob]

Mixed feelings on the zero issues so far. They seem to be almost raising more questions than they answer. Despite some early rumblings to the contrary, it's clear that there's just no coherent continuity in mind. That's not necessarily a deal breaker--in truth I value a good story over slavish continuity any day-- but there's a bit of recovering continuity junkie in me that misses the Way Things Were. I liked that, pre-new 52, things had gotten to the point that you could still manage to fit a lot of old Silver Age stories into things. All such bets are off now, tho, it seems...

I've liked the Bat-zero issues so far, tho I don't like trying to fit four Robins into five years. I much preferred the early New 52 whispers that Batman's career may have stretched back a bit further than the magic Five Years. That's clearly been abandoned, though... And I'm still really confused as to how Damien works now if Bruce hasn't been Batman for much more than five years....

A bit disappointed with Legion Lost and Green Lantern Corps 0. Timber Wolf's origin has been revamped pretty wholesale, tho I suppose it still sort of works. Ditto Guy Gardner. His backstory was a little convoluted, and streamlining it works well enough... But it raises questions. So the Guardians had a two Lantern per sector deal back in 'year one'? Fine. Did Abin Sur have a partner? Did his/her death result in the ring seeking out Guy? If not, what did prompt a ring to go find him just then? And how does John fit into things now? Originally Guy was an alternate and John was tapped when Guy was incapacitated...

So confusing. I had hoped the zero issues would clear things up more...

--g

[Nerys Myk]

I assume Talia did the old rapid aging thing on Damien.

Good question about Abin's partner. One I never thought of and wonder if the editors and writers have. Then the whole police department set grafted on the Corps usually has me scratching my head. Especially GLs who function as some other than a sector patrolman. How do they find the time to patrol if they are the drill instructor, Keeper of the Book of Oa or Prison Warden?

[Admiral_Young]

Yes Damian was shown as being in a vat...and Talia is seen taking him as a baby as what can only be assumed to be a Lazarus Pit. We pretty much already knew this, the zero issue though was the first time we were shown it (not the vat part, but the Lazarus Pit).

Eddy Barrows might be Ivan Reis's replacement as "Aquaman" artist and the speculation begins as to who the writer will be.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/...st-on-aquaman/

Also Trekker, I doubt there will be any zero issues next year, unless sales on these were huge, the reason DC gave for having them was that they were supposed to mark the one year anniversary of the relaunch, which is why they've all been published in Sep. The continued in 2013 was most likely a reference to the "Death of the Family" story arc that is starting next month and that will go through until next year.


Batman #0: Loved this issue. It seems to me that DC is really influenced by Nolan's trilogy. Bruce's reluctance to move back into the mansion right away and instead making his base of operations in a brownstone close to Crime Alley where his parents died makes a lot of sense. His relationship with Alfred has yet to formulate and develop into what it is in the present time. They're not quite on the same page about his mission, again reminding me of the Nolan verison of Alfred. The Red Hood Gang is the most interesting aspect of this story to me. The back up story reveals that Jason Todd was a member of the gang who left. I'm guessing that the leader of the gang is the original Red Hood, which of course is the Joker prior to his dis-figuration. We get to see Dick, Tim, and Jason briefly prior to the incidents that caused them to meet Bruce and become Robin's. The artwork was fantastic and the backup story and how Jim Gordon intended on using the Bat Signal was fantastic. He intends on using it as inspiration and hope. Obviously we know it inspires Babs and yes as Trekker mentioned, it ties in nicely with "Batgirl #0".

[ElScoob]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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Yes Damian was shown as being in a vat...and Talia is seen taking him as a baby as what can only be assumed to be a Lazarus Pit. We pretty much already knew this, the zero issue though was the first time we were shown it (not the vat part, but the Lazarus Pit).

Fair enough... On the other hand, how many birthday battles were we shown?

--g

[Admiral_Young]

Enough to make clear Talia's conditioning of her son?

[Dark Gilligan]

ElScoob wrote:

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I've liked the Bat-zero issues so far, tho I don't like trying to fit four Robins into five years.

According to editorial comments made at Comic-Con, it's three Robins: Dick, Jason, and Damien. Tim never actually became a Robin: he went straight into the Red Robin role, allowing for potential overlap. My own timeline puts Dick as Robin for three years, Jason for maybe six months or so, then a gap until Damien came along.

[Captain Craig]

The Robin fuck up is just one of a list of reasons why the nu52 is imperfect.

[Trekker4747]

Which is why a cold, hard, reboot should've been done.

[Admiral_Young]

I would agree, but that was never going to happen as has been explained in the thread before. I know there are those who don't care, but for those who do, attempting to reconcile this compressed timeline is just...impossible. I understand DC's stance about making everyone younger, including the reality itself, but packing in everything into five years is just plain silly.