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

I think he wore out his welcome on the Superman titles, first. He was the last of the crew from Death of Superman left and a big part of Superman Blue, for example.

I used to love his art, but then, like his writing I started liking it less. Especially when many of his characters could be interchangeable and he seems capable of only doing a few poses. Again, like his writing, his art became stale in the late 90's.

 

I thought his art looked good on the Booster Gold 2000s series.

 

I call that era the "Noughties".

 

Forever Evil #4. I feel like nothing happened in this issue. We're 4/7 of the way through the series and the story hasn't really progressed at all. We're still setting up teams. We still don't know who the Hooded Prisoner is or who the alien is what wiped out Earth-3. Nothing is advancing.

Justice League #26. The quickie origins of these characters weren't very interesting.

 

Oh damn. Just realized this week's Flash is written by Christos Gage. Gotta make sure I pick that up because he is amazing.

 

Finally read Forever Evil #4 and have to disagree with Mr. Light. . While this was mostly set up for the final three issues, Johns chooses to focus on characters in this issue. Batman/Selina as he reveals the Cave to her for the first time. Superwoman/Ultraman as Evil Lois continues her manipulation of Ultraman, feeding his paranoia. Lex with his team. Power Ring and Deathstroke as well. Batman's response to Power Ring was epic, only to be followed up by the reveal of Sinestro on the final page as things heat up. The art has been beautiful as well. Compared to some of the other "event" books this year this has been completely satisfying thus far.

Also caught up on Justice League, and loving the Crime Syndicate backstories.

Was that also the first appearance of 52'Verse Eel O'Brien? I'm wondering if Plastic Man might not be the next character Johns will be writing an ongoing solo title for?

 

Bruce's Justice league contingencies were naff.

Black Hands Tech drains Green Lantern Rings.

Superman is still frakked by magic?

Wonder Woman... Superglue. Watch her ripping off chunks of flesh and hair tot he bone as tries to stay four limbed. Paste Pot Pete should have done much better as a Super Villan.

Flash would be screwed over by Count Vertigo's tech or a black light generator.

Cyborg can just be virused. Has Bruce got anything to do with OMAC in The New 52?

Aquaman can be deydrated by almost anything hotter than a bugzapper.

 

Your ideas are worse.

 

Worse than a yellow ring with 30 seconds of Charge?

 

So...having jumped into comics for the first time (after watching just about all of the DCAU and wanting more). I've got a couple of questions for the pros.

Does Action Comics ever get any better? I mean, everyone says how brilliant it is (at least the first run with Morrison), but I don't see it. I've gone through the first 2 TPB, which covers 2 arcs and I'm feeling flat. They build up Glenmorgan, calling him Mr. Metropolis even, and 2 issues later he's basically contracts Space Madness and goes away. Lame. Then they kill Clark Kent. Not original, but I'm intrigued. Then they kill his firefighting second identity. Haha Awesome. Hope they do it next week this could get hilarious...wait...no...magic landlady from the 5th dimension hand waves it all away. At this point, if I'm buying a Superman comic, I'm getting more out of "Superman" than his supposedly flagship title. Do I stick with that or go back to Action?

Every issue of Wonder Woman is awesome. That is not a question.

I hear good things about "Batman", but I have no interest in learning about things pre-reboot, and the Bat-titles were only sorta-rebooted. Do they make a lot of references to past stories or can I jump in and pretty much know everything?

Can someone recommend another title or two? I have greater interest in the main DC characters as opposed to the more obscure ones, but I'm open if they're REALLY compelling.

 

Aquaman, Swamp Thing and All-Star Western are books that i always look forward to each month.

 

Batman (the main title by Snyder and Capullo) makes almost no reference to past events and it is creating its own original story. It's quite excellent and I really recommend it!

When it comes to anything written by Grant Morrison, nothing is going to make sense until you read the entire run all at once Then it will be a twisted kind of brilliant. If you read all 16 (?) issues of his Action run it will all make sense. It's pretty good, but All Star Superman or any of his Batman stuff was better.

 

Just about everyone is frakked by magic. Takes a hard core practitioner to have a decent defense.

The Flash's sense if balance is probably one of the best around. He runs up the sides of buildings and over water. He spins fast enough to cause tornados. I can't see vertigo or Vertigo being a problem.

 

Surely like Daredevil attacked by sound weapons, the Flash's extreme need to maintain balance might mean that he is terminally more susceptible to being knocked off kilter by just a little quiver in his sense of equilibrium.

Precrisis Barry had his aura stripped, which meant that he had no heat shield anymore, but he tricked his enemy into fighting him in a lunal exhibit at the museum where they were pertetuating a vacuum for authenticity.

 

Yes, you need to read the entire story together--and read the spaceship two parter after the end of the main Brainiac chapter. Morrison does this, but be warned that he loves the Silver Age and his work reflects that. You don't really need to know specific early Superman stories to enjoy Morrison's run but it helps to understand that he is paying homage to the Golden and Silver Ages of the character and that that influences the tone of his writing.

The style of his run on Superman starts in the Golden Age, moves to the Silver Age and then the Bronze Age before ending with his own post-modern mash-up.

 

That is a good summation of his AC run.

 

Earth 2. I think it's great. I didn't think I would like it as a big JSA fan, but, I think it's by far the gustiest of the rebooted characters and books. They threw EVERYTHING out and started anew.

Of course, Robinson just left so, who knows... but Earth 2 and Wonder Woman, in my eyes, are the best and benefited the most from the reboot. Everything else is just same old same old.

 

I liked it when he went into a warzone, the US vs south American freedom fighters (Maybe?), and then Adam systematically destroys all the heavy and personal weapons in the theatre of engagement, until both sides would have no choice but to talk and make peace.

No one liked being patronized, especially the US Government so they all picked up as many sticks and stones as they could find, and went back to killing each other slowly.