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

[Derishton]

You and me both. The "Court of Owls", for the most part, seems like a dumbed-down Batman RIP conducted in a Blackest Night-style crossover pattern.

Late last week thoughts: Batwing 10 was ... not good. Winnick is either out of ideas or Editorial has said the regular Bat-characters have to fully take over the title. Either way my interest is waning quickly.

Frankenstein 10 was breakneck and had some good ideas, but using "Leviathan" as a code-name while Batman Inc is still going seems ill-advised. And Griffiths' character has changed inexplicably. Some nice hints that we're going to get into Frank's background in a bigger way than we have thus far.

[Admiral_Young]

Yep. I think I stated earlier on in the thread that it reminded me of a rehash of RIP. Don't get me wrong, I love Snyder's writing and his characterization is bang on, he is Morrison's heir apparent, if he isn't already his immediate successor, but I just felt this story arc isn't going anywhere and dragging on for no reason.

Just Wonder Woman #10 and Before Watchmen Comedian #1 this week DC wise.

[Derishton]

It's a shame, because Gates of Gotham was spectacular, marred only by the editorially-mandated order that Snyder spend the last few pages setting up Dick's pointless return to the Nightwing costume.

I have Wonder Woman, Red Hood, and DC Presents for later.

[Trekker4747]

Today I picked up:

Catwoman #10
Supergirl #10
Earth 2 #2 (First Appearance of Gay Green Lantern)

NON-DC:
Astonishing X-Men #51 (Gay Wedding)
The Invincible Iron Man #519 (Long Way Down Pt. 4)
Ghostbusters #10.
Also finally got in my trade of Iron Man Extremis yesterday.

[OdoWanKenobi]

Green Lantern Corps #10: So yeah, obligatory jailbreak for John. Part of me kinda wanted to actually see John get executed. It would have been a bold move, and possibly a defining character moment for Guy, being forced to watch his friend killed and be powerless to stop it. That, and John is easily the least interesting of the four Earth Lanterns, and has never really worked as well paired with Guy as Kyle did. Peter Tomasi just needs to write Guy Gardner forever. He's turned the character into my favorite Lantern.

[Captain Craig]

Trekker4747 wrote:

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NON-DC:
Astonishing X-Men #51 (Gay Wedding)
The Invincible Iron Man #519 (Long Way Down Pt. 4)
Ghostbusters #10.
Also finally got in my trade of Iron Man Extremis yesterday.

You didn't get the Splinter one shot? Are you done with the TMNT material?

[Trekker4747]

Captain Craig wrote:

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You didn't get the Splinter one shot? Are you done with the TMNT material?

Is that out this week? I didn't see it at my primary LCS, but they're scanty when it comes to IDW stuff, I check my secondary tomorrow.

[Captain Craig]

Yeah, it was out today, picked mine up.

[Admiral_Young]

Wonder Woman #10: Ah how I love this book. I don't quite know why but this book continues to be in my top three of the New 52 along with "Batman" and "Action Comics". The writing, the art, the use of the mythology. Just awesome. I loved the resolution of this arc as well.

[Hound of UIster]

It's one of the reboot's success stories.

Azarello's claim of having actually read all the previous stuff is really backed up here.

[Admiral_Young]

Agreed.

[shivkala]

OdoWanKenobi wrote:

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Green Lantern Corps #10: So yeah, obligatory jailbreak for John. Part of me kinda wanted to actually see John get executed. It would have been a bold move, and possibly a defining character moment for Guy, being forced to watch his friend killed and be powerless to stop it. That, and John is easily the least interesting of the four Earth Lanterns, and has never really worked as well paired with Guy as Kyle did. Peter Tomasi just needs to write Guy Gardner forever. He's turned the character into my favorite Lantern.

Have you read Guy Gardner: Warrior? Despite the dumb powers/origin, Beau Smith wrote an awesome Guy Gardner. Chuck Dixon should get some of the credit, since he started the ball rolling a few issues before the name change to GG: Warrior, but Beau really drove it home.

These two gentlemen really redefined Guy Gardner and made him from a grade-A jerk into a really defined character. Chuck Dixon wrote "Guy Gardner: Year One" and gave Guy a good back story, while Beau made him into the kind of character he is today. Dave Gibbons also wrote a great Guy early on in the previous GL Corps series and I loved his Guy/Kyle pairing in the GL Corps: Recharge mini-series.

I'm not knocking Peter Tomasi at all and I agree, he writes a great Guy Gardner, but if you like his take on Guy, check out the 90's Guy Gardner series starting with issue #11 if you haven't already.


As for "Night of the Owls" being similar to "Batman RIP," I think both of those stories are similar to "Knightfall." All three have a beaten/weakned Bruce facing an "ultimate enemy" and in the case of "RIP" and "Knightfall" both of those end with a new Batman (well, "RIP" ended, then we got Final Crisis, then "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader," then Battle for the Cowl, and then a new Batman, but you knew what I meant ).

[OdoWanKenobi]

I really should go back and read some of those. I wasn't so much in to comics at that point. I certainly have to give Gibbons a lot of credit, too. Guy and Kyle have kinda become my favorite bromance in comics. Seeing them broken up into different titles was heartbreaking. Not even a mention in GLC from Guy about his best friend being ejected from the Corps and going (as far as he knows) rogue.

As much as the jailbreak disappoints me, I do have to admit there was absolutely no freaking way Guy was going to sit idly by. It's not like he hasn't defied the Guardians, oh about a billion times before.

[shivkala]

When the title launched and Kyle was being Ion, Gibbons did a great job of not only building up Guy, but really defining Isamot Kol, Vath Sarn, Soranik Natu, and a few other Lanterns.

The trade-off for bringing Kyle back into the mix was a diminished focus on the other Lanterns, except for Soranik, due to the romance with Kyle.

The Guy/Kyle bromance was one of the best things about Recharge and Tomasi did a great job on developing it. John had his ups and downs during Kyle's run as "The Torchbearer," but Guy was the one who'd partner up with Kyle. Honestly, I was never a big fan of Ron Marz's writing style, but one of the best things he did was when he wrote Kyle and Guy (though, again, Beau Smith needs to get some of the credit, since Guy and Kyle first met up in a crossover between GL by Marz and Guy Gardner: Warrior by Smith).

Which brings me back to those issues. Even Beau Smith will admit the powers weren't that great. They were something that was editorially mandated. But, again, Smith did a great job focusing on Guy's character and really turning him from a lousy jerk into a jerk you'd want to have your back in a fight. More of a "jerk" in a "bro" kind of way, someone who's going to talk trash and tease you, but he does it because that's how he expresses himself.

If I've interested you at least a little bit, read this article buy Beau written in 2004 about his run on Guy Gardner: Warrior.

Here's a snippet, which is just a taste for why I'm a big fan of Beau as a person, writer, and comic fan himself:

DC wanted no relations to the old Green Lantern way. No rings! Not a problem with me. I had always thought Guy Gardner was a misunderstood character that was taken to the point of being a one-line joke. He was made into a cardboard character that had only one volume… annoying. He was always shown as a one-note jerk. No balance. Even jerks have other sides to their personality. Chuck had started laying a good foundation to the human side of Guy. I was there to take that and run to the next level.

[Derishton]

Hound of UIster wrote:

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It's one of the reboot's success stories.

Azarello's claim of having actually read all the previous stuff is really backed up here.

Totally agreed. Each issue of Wonder Woman is just a little bit more epic than the last. I think we're heading for some revelations (some of which might make people feel better about previous "revelations"), on the way to one of the best overall runs on Diana in ages.

And it's funny that it's Azarello, of all people, who decided to go with "love" as Diana's greatest weapon.