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

Another goddam Crisis from the looks of it

 

Having little interest in Batman, I didn't care all that much for the issue. I really don't have much interest in comics where the heroes spend as much, if not more time, fighting each other than the villains. Someone should do a comic where the villains sit around a bar or coffee shop and watch the heroes beating the crap out of each other. A few entertaining one liners do not make up for the overall tedium that made this an over priced book that I'm unlikely to buy in the future.

 

It's another "paced for the trade" book and, while I think some fans will enjoy it, I don't see it attracting a lot of new readers, who are going to wonder why the book promises the "big seven" and all we get is part of an old Brave and Bold team up.

 

I'm going to give Grant Morrison's Superman comic a shot. Basically, All-Star Superman was the best Superman story I'd read in the last, what, 10 years? 20?

That sort of quality gives a writer a little benefit of the doubt when tackling the same character.

 

And this right here shows why the reboot/relaunch isn't as new as DC has been saying because their still doing the same old same old just with a new look and easier access.

Seriously unless the trades are going digital WHY did they move to the digital market when their still based around selling trades?

 

JL #1 will/has sold well. We have to wait and see if people come back for #2 and #3... that will be telling.

 

Read both Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 (Spoilers below).






With Flashpoint, it felt a bit anti-climatic. Overall I felt the Flashpoint main series was too rushed. It promised a lot of big stuff and I don't think it delivered. I do think the final issue at least got back to the series being about the Flash, whom I felt got lost a bit in the other books. There wasn't much payoff with the big battles either. To some extent, the megaweapon that took up so much discussion in the Aquaman/Wonder Woman books turned out to be a non-event. And it seemed that none of the characters, except Flash and Batman got any resolution. So many of those three-issue miniseries (with the be concluded tag) were left unfinished. Maybe these things will be taken up in later nuDCU books.

As for Justice League #1, I really liked the artwork. It took me back to Lee's X-Men #1. As for the story, like many others, I thought it was serviceable, but nothing special. I thought Hal came off as way too much of a jerk. Being a little cocky is fine, but he was an ass. I was surprised by that because it seems to me that Johns generally writes Batman as a jerk, but in JL #1, he came off as pretty regular. I liked the intro of Vic Stone and it will be nice to see his transformation handled within the pages of the book. The choice of Big Bad makes a lot of sense.

I can understand the criticism of the CBR reviewer. It would've been nice to see all of the Justice League in this book. Also since it was higher priced, a larger page count wouldn't have hurt and made the book feel as special as they were hyping it to be.

 

So anyone wanna take a guess who the mysterious Purple Lady is? I have no idea.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/08/31/52-appearances-of-the-strange-woman-from-flashpoint-5/

 

^
She's probably their Deus Ex Machina to return things to normal if the new direction flounders. I take it she's something like a Uatu the Watcher, yet maybe a bit more involved keeping things in balance.

 

^ That's kind of what I gathered. What I meant is I'm curious if this is a retooled character or someone completely new. I'm guessing the latter. Perhaps she's another rouge monitor?

 

^ Well, I look at the circumstantial evidence. Here we have someone in a purple robe with a hood shadowing their face and they have some connection to monitoring or even controlling time to a limited degree. And it was in a Geoff Johns story; a man who loves the Legion of Super-Heroes.

I'm guessing she's a version of the Time Trapper.

However, I'm disappointed that they didn't have the balls to just stick with this. Barry Allen screwed up the DC Universe, and they stuck this woman in there to take the heat off him. It's also there as a back door to get them out of it if they choose.

Anyway, Flashpoint was kind of lackluster in my opinion; and Justice League was pretty awful. What happened to that hint that DC wasn't writing for the trade anymore? This Justice League issue was one of the most decompressed things they've put out in a long while; it was part one of a six, eight or twelve part story instead of just being a story.

 

I didn't think about the Time Trapper. The previous one was revealed to be none other than a timey wimey Superboy Prime in the Crisis of Three Worlds trade. That makes sense if this is a new one.

Also I find it curious that another character has a hard time letting go of a family member and catastrophic changes are made because of it. This reminded me of Spider-Man's deal with the devil over Aunt May's life as a way to force apart the marriage of Mary Jane and Peter in Marvel. DC uses Barry Allen's mom as a plot device to create a new continuity.

 

I dunno, I'm only going by what was said here. It strikes me that Batman, as usual, is a preening dick.

In any event, I hate Hal Jordan too. Which is why a comic designed to make both of them look like jerks might be right up my alley.

 

I'm really hoping that this type of Batman writing is not what we can except from Johns in Batman: Earth One. Batman being a dick is something Frank Miller concentrated on and that Grant Morrison has evolved from in Batman, Inc (which I'm glad is still the present). I suppose the concept is that back in the day of this continuity Batman was a dick who learns to be a team player (as I think someone else in this thread pointed out).

 

Okay, this is the first comic I have actually purchased in twenty years. Overall, I liked it but agree that it wasn't spectacular. The art was great and I really enjoyed the revisions of the costumes. The changes were mostly subtle but they looked good.

The dialogue with GL and Batman was quite funny and I didn't mind the differences in personality as they are supposed to be just starting out. In fact, it makes me wish this relaunch was just ten books about the main characters and set at the beginning of their careers. This whole five years earlier stuff should just be the new present.

I liked the Victor Stone interlude. I am curious to see the rest of his new origin and would not be surprised to see him wind up being more closely connected with Darkseid.


As the first part of a story, it will keep me coming back for the series. However, as I live overseas and I will be purchasing these books through the iPad app, I will now wait until the books are reduced in price after four weeks. I bought this book today because I wanted to help boost the numbers (actually I may purchase a couple more this month too).

 

Time Trapper....now that could make things ever the more interesting.
Honestly it's a character I'd totally forgotten about.

 

That is true and also isn't; the Time Trapper is a complicated character. From the Wiki article:

And let's keep in mind one last thing about this DC relaunch. The *only* book that's keeping the older continuity and not relaunching is Legion of Super-Heroes. The separate Legion Lost series will feature a group of the older continuity Legionairres trapped in the present day of this new relaunch continuity.

 

I have the Legion of Three Worlds, it's a timey wimey thing that was retconned into the book so the Time Trapper's identity is constantly changing as plot's merit as you say.

 

Every time there is a crisis, there needs to be a new Time Trapper ().

I've speculated before that this current incarnation will be short-lived.

 

@Temporal Flux there are two different periods of time being explored in the relaunch continuity. The first arc of Action Comics (perhaps the first year) focuses in on the Five Years Ago past story line, as does the first arc of Justice League where we see how the members all meet each other. The rest of the books will be taking place in the present time of the continuity. Also the Legion of Superheroes books are not the only books from the previous books, the Bat-Family books also are intact, as is Batman, Inc when it returns. Also the present time Green Lantern books have characters and elements that have carried over.