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

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by JD, Aug 30, 2011.

  1. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Sorry, didn't catch this...

    Supergirl was never... well, yeah, I guess it could get kind of violent, e.g. the fight with Batgirl (which is awful on a lot of external levels, but would have totally worked if not for all the talking, some of which involves the dumbest words ever written in a comic book: "red wavelength UVB lights"). But afaik she never killed a guy. Tried to kill the Anti-Monitor (and Matrix tried to kill Doomsday), if that counts, which for DC editorial purposes apparently does not. Alien monsters don't have souls. Which you'd think would make killing them even worse, but maybe not.
     
  2. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

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    :rimshot:
     
  3. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    :lol:

    You know, I didn't interpret that narration of Selina's the way others evidently did - I thought she was saying that her sexual encounters with Batman tended to be fast and kind of brutal because both their engines were really revving.
     
  4. Saga

    Saga Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    thats the way i interpreted it as well.
     
  5. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    If they manage to not fall into the trap of writing Supergirl as a human adolescent, I'll be pleasantly surprised. Of course, the fact that it's untrue to the character's circumstance is only half the problem; the other is that adults trying to write kids usually comes off as the phoniest thing in the world.

    Except for Frank Miller. Now that is a man who has his ear to the mouth of teenaged girls.
     
  6. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I could be wrong, but I believe you do not have to be online in order to read the books with the iPad app.

    EDIT: I just confirmed that you can read comics offline after you download them to the iPad.
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2011
  7. Admiral Buzzkill

    Admiral Buzzkill Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Well, she'll have to be human in her emotional reactions in order for people to identify. But yeah, it's hard enough for writers to get kids right without trying to fabricate a parallel "teen culture". Now watch them introduce some analogue to texting and Facebook when they flash back to Kara's life on Krypton - I mean, that's what kids do, right? :lol:

    BTW, look at the inset panel on page 12 - what's with Kara's hands? She didn't hurt herself by punching the mecha guy into the next province...am I wrong in interpreting those red streaks on her hands as the guy's blood?
     
  8. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    See for yourself...
     
  9. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Kara'll have a hard time cutting herself. Maybe she can get a kryptonite razor.

    But yeah, I meant speech patterns particularly, especially the use of specific Americanisms, notably the use of the speech disfluency "like" as a semantic vehicle. Socially constructed body language like in this cover isn't really well-thought out either:

    [​IMG]

    You know, on top of it being sort of misogynistic and making her look kind of retarded. (I'll say right now that they seem to be avoiding this very well. But what do they want, a medal?)

    Of course, behavior patterns which don't make much sense in context, like trying to go to high school or hanging out in bars with soft breakable apes, should probably be eschewed as well but that's all more arguable.

    It's because she has crystals inside her to fight Phantom Zone zombies.

    Not really (God I hope). At first I thought it was her own blood--that is, her powers were still ramping up and she wasn't fully invulnerable so she busted her knuckles on metal (which would make sense in the context of Action Comics 1, since we do still have a shared continuity). But I guess it being the other guy's makes some sense.

    Now that I look at it again I don't think it's supposed to be blood exactly, at all, but rather her arteries. They don't look like radial arteries and tributaries to me, but, hey, alien! so that's okay. They seem to be mirrored on each hand.

    So, I think what the scene's supposed to be conveying is that her x-ray vision is kicking in. I'd like to point out that there are better ways to portray this (i.e, showing an inset panel of her skeletal structure). But I honestly think this is what they're going for, since her super-hearing starts operating a couple of pages later, and it doesn't look like blood spatter from someone else, and Asrar didn't draw any injury on her.
     
  10. Gov Kodos

    Gov Kodos Admiral Admiral

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    Supergirl was enjoyable, but it's being an origin story gets some minus points. For someone totally new to the character this may be fine, but I know she's Kryptonian and Superman's cousin, I don't need an arc to tell me that. This may pick up, it was fun enough to get another issue or two at least.

    Wonder Woman was a fun, but too short read. No fault to the writer, I just don't want to wait till next month. I like the lack of origin story, being familiar with the character, origin information can come as we go along to give background for new readers. Lots of questions of interest, creepy gods who are getting more character than toga wearing bores, and a kick ass Wonder Woman. I have been missing her ever since Rucka left the book.
     
  11. Professor Zoom

    Professor Zoom Admiral Admiral

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    I don't know... it didn't look like Little Bruce made it out of the Batcave.
     
  12. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    A mixed bag this week, I really liked Catwoman and a few of the other titles but I thought that Legion was garbage. In particular, both the artist and the writer seemed to miss that if two legionnaires go undercover then it might be easier for them if they aren't wearing their legion outfits covered in giant legion symbols.
     
  13. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    :lol: Oh, God, how did I miss that?
     
  14. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I just re-read the issue again and the two Legionaires JoeZhang are talking about seem to be meant as diversions for the main team which was disguised. In fact the two characters question at the start of the issue what exactly their purpose is which the military captain did not divulge...I think. LOL.
     
  15. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    To make chemical reactions quicker, obviously. What other purpose can Chemical King have?

    Seriously, why is Chemical King in my comic book?

    He's like they realized Element Lad was a little too God mode,* so instead of a guy who can turn you into nitrogen, they made a guy who can just make the nitrogen in the air form covalent bonds with your skin and lungs. You didn't fix the problem! Go die in World War VII, Chemical King!

    And why does he use a Legion of Super-Villains naming formula?

    So, how much of that was ignorant and how much of it well-reasoned critique? I'm guessing 50/50, but I hope it made you smile. :)

    But, seriously, Tromians make Kryptonians and Daxamites look like punks. Good thing they're all dead, is all I'm saying. Jan's great, but I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing a universe with them. I admit it, I'm racist against matter transmutators.
     
  16. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Re-reading it, the idea was that because they had only just become legionnaires, nobody knows their faces and they could pretend to be two kids out on a joyride. At no stage, do any of the bad guys wonder why the male character has a huge legion symbol on his chest or the female is wearing a belt with a large legion belt-buckle.
     
  17. Admiral_Young

    Admiral_Young Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    ^ Well they are kind of naive in the future ;) Paul Levitz might be hailed as one of the best Legion writers but his style and writing logic can be frustrating at times, no doubt about it.
     
  18. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Something just occurred to me... You know who I'm really surprised didn't get a title in the relaunch? Adam Strange.

    And a random question: have they ever done a story where Jon or Martha Kent needed, say, a kidney? That'd be kind of awkward.
     
  19. Icemizer

    Icemizer Commodore Commodore

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    I found nothing wrong or upsetting with Catwoman, but of course I also read The Boys and Tarot so I may be a little bit jaded on the matter.
     
  20. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Red Hood has an interesting twist on how to reboot a character without rebooting a character - simply have her forgot all about her history as part of her character.