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

Green Arrow sucks in my opinion and reminds me too much of the Justin Hartley version...there's even a Chloe type character.

I'll be getting Action Comics, Justice League International, and Storrmwatch.

 

Nothin'. I'm not sure if that's solely because of economic factors... though they're sufficient.

No, wait, shit: Animal Man. Oh well. Admiral Young! I task you to buy this comic in my place.

 

Animal Man? I've never been much of a fan to be honest.

 

Totally bogus.




Well, since I can't contribute to the reviews and discussion of current comics, I figured I'd go into the old books. Don't worry, there are no words. Pictures say it all. From Superman and Legion of Super-Heroes, art by Gary Frank:















"I like to dissect girls. Did you know I'm utterly insane?"

THERE IS NO GOD, ONLY GARTH.

 

Ah Garth with his psycho eyes. That was a weird expression lol. Awesome panel though. Imra's expression is equally amusing especially taken into the context she has a massive crush on Clark

 

He obviously suffers from Coloboma.

 

Come, on all three look deranged and pushing 40. But I think Frank makes everyone look that way.

 

translation:

Let me guess you think Frank Quitely is a shit artist because of his clay people right?

 

I'll buy Action at Comixology later today.

Film at eleven.

 

I'd be happy to give Frank the speckt for a lot of things. I observed once--but maybe that was somewhere else--that there's no one in American comics closer to being a really good artist and just not doing it for me than Gary Frank. And it all comes down to bizarre facial expressions. All of the other fundamentals are very strong--clear storytelling, design, blocking, and so forth.

Quitely's a difficult case. On one hand, he has produced amazing pages. On the other, sometimes his perpetual sneers and occasional ventures into off-model territory do weary the soul. And you know who the real hero is? Jamie Grant. That man made Quitely beautiful, and no one cares. Where's his parade?

I mean, I can talk shit about J.H. Williams III if you want me to. It's hard, but I can do it. "Sometimes it's preferable to be able to actually read a comic, rather than just appreciate that it's vacuously pretty." Oh, that hurt. That hurt a lot. Don't make me do it again.

...At least J.H. Williams III can reliably draw human faces registering appropriate reactions to what's happening around them...

That said:





I liked both of these very much. Brainiac's adorable!

Oh, and he drew Wildfire right every time.

...

And since I've decided to expend 1000 words on this shit, I guess I'll go ahead and capsulize the story: it starts out on the wrongest foot with about every terrible Superman trope I hate. Clark Kent is a weenie loner who has no friends, and in fact has never had friends. Superman is called to the future by his Legionnaire sort-of-friends and the sun is red and he loses his powers before he even steps out of the building he arrives in. Ugh.

However, it goes on from there and it's basically a pretty good, less depressing riff on Days of Future Past. Beyond those initial, personal annoyances, I think it may have been my favorite Geoff Johns comic ever--with the one caveat that Earth Man (Space Nazi seen in the image above) and his Justice League of Earth are fucking pathetic. And I don't mean they "generate pathos," I mean they suck and are lazily written.

It would've been a far superior story had Earth Man actually believed in his monstrous spiel, unable to see that Superman was real and uncomprehending of Superman's core message of hope/understanding/breaking shit because of his pain and self-delusion.

Instead, he's a neurotic who knows he's neurotic, and Johns, with a brutally on-the-nose portrayal of a reject's psychology that makes Hal Jordan's impression of Tucker from Red vs. Blue look nuanced, fails to convince. He's Anakin Skywalker, and it's lame. People like that cannot hold it together long enough to inspire people to give them handjobs out of pity, let alone join mass movements devoted to killin' foreigners.

Cool power set, though.

 

The woman superhero looks a lot like Hillary Clinton.



Anyway, picked up Action Comics and the TMNT Raphael book today, due to a shipping error they didn't have Detective Comic's latest issue in, I will pick up that one tomorrow.

 

"Woman Superhero"??? LOL. I've never heard Saturn Girl described this way before...and don't think she looks like Hillary at all.

 

Action Comics... very good. Though... I'm a little confused... the story will pick up with issue 7?! WTF.

Edited to Add:

I sorta wish THIS was the Superman they would stick with, rather than the Superman in Superman. I like this younger version a whole lot.

 

I didn't know who she was, she was female, and apparently a superhero so, yeah, I called her a woman superhero.

And more her facial features have similarities to Hillary Clinton.

 

Grant Morrison is doing a origin and a story for #5 and a "present day" story (that impacts the "past timeline, AC is currently in) for #6.

 

Hurm. Seems to be breaking up a story in progress... Hurm. Well. I'll see how it goes...

 

To clarify Action Comics #4 main story was in the past...there will be an interlude as Trekker mentioned as Rags Morales leaves the book...this was brought up earlier in the thread. Adam Kubert will be doing fill in work on a two part story. We'll pick up the past story after the interlude when Rags returns.

Great stuff...and Steel!!! Intersting redesign. Terminatus seems to be an avatar of somekind for Brainiac. Yes this continues to be excellent. I really like how Sam Lane is being written and the same with Jimmy Olsen. The Steel back up story was nice. This and "Batman" continue to be the best books of the 52 that I'm reading, along with "Wonder Woman".

 

Oh, I knew it was in the "past." It's something I complained about earlier in this thread: if I was a new reader, not on blogs and stuff, how would I know it was "5 years" earlier?

Anyway. I'm really enjoying it (much more than Superman) and so, I would rather not see the story interrupted, but, I'll roll with it.

It's Terminauts. Like astronauts. And yeah, totally Brainiac. And I've always liked Steel...

 

The first issue established that it was the past of the New 52 when it mentions Superman has only been active for a few months.

 

Hm. Didn't remember that. Maybe I'm thinking of the Justice League book. Meh.