Oh yeah, a thousand times better. I'm not the biggest fan of those writers, but that was a decent series, and basically ignored anything that came before it anyway, at least in regards to the bad version of Starfire.
I didn't read her solo series, but she seems to be back to her old self in the Justice League Odyssey series that just wrapped up this month.
Yeah, I can see why that would be annoying. IMO, there are some elements of "The Dreaded" to the character of Constantine, and that's been the case since at least The Books of Magic. My favourite quote on that is mentioned on the Badass Boast/Comics page on TVTropes: YMMV, but for me, the problem isn't so much that she is "totally dependent on a guy" -- though I agree that it's not great -- but that it's Constantine, a "British arsehole" who's never been more than fifteen years older than she is and has limited formal, magical training. If for some reason a mentor is required -- and I'm not against it per se -- then centuries old magicians like Nabu/Doctor Fate, Nommo "Doctor Mist" Balewa, Jason Blood or even Madame Xanadu would provide this without being as insulting to Zee. While IMO Constantine certainly has his place, I'd say its fair that he's acquired almost "Batman Publicity" level prominence in the last ten to fifteen years or so, in ways that often don't make a lot of sense and even demean other characters.
DC has announced that Geoff Johns and Gary Frank are doing a third Batman: Earth One book that will be coming out next June. I've been curious about the Earth One books, but haven't checked any of them out yet. Are there any crossovers with the different series, or a they all standalone?
They pretty much stick to themselves. Officially they're set in the same universe, but from just reading them, you couldn't even tell.
I really liked the first two (Gary Frank has been my favourite artist since his Hulk run with Peter David and he's only gotten better), so this is definitely welcome news. Earth One is basically their Ultimate line to me. Just not as connected and way more sporadic. And like the Ultimate line, only a few titles worth reading with the rest being simply there. I honestly thought it was pretty much done, but glad I was mistaken.
DCComics.com has posted a whole bunch of articles about the different Future State series. Future State Takes You Beyond Tomorrow Gotham City: Life Under the Magistrate Legion of Super-Heroes Travels (Even Further) Into the Future Future State Introduces the Next Generation of DC Voices Truth and Justice Across the Cosmos From Themyscira to the End of Time
I am looking for the March, April, May solicitations to come out before deciding which series I will buy so it is good to have some idea of what Future State is actually about. At minimum, I will pick up Justice League, LSH, GL, and Swamp Thing. Anything else, I would have to see if it has any effect on my monthly pull list.
I'm really glad that this future slate stuff is just a throwaway event and not a new status quo, otherwise I probably would never get another DC Comic. As it is, I won't be reading a single one of these. It's just the same crap with a new paint job but somehow still ends up being worse.
Well, there is a chance that at least some of the stuff we see here will eventually happen in some of the comics. Most of this sounds like it has potential. I didn't see until after my other post that there is also a free magazine that has these articles, a few others, and a whole bunch of art that's not in the online articles. The digital version is free on Comixology and Kindle.
DC announces new ongoing series for Suicide Squad and Swamp Thing in March. Suicide Squad will be written by Robbie Thompson (who also wrote the Future State Suicide Squad book), with art by Eduardo Pansica. Swamp Thing will be written by Ram V (who also wrote the character's Future State issues, on top of writing the character in the last year of Justice League Dark) with art by Mike Perkins.
Cool. I am excited to have a new Swamp Thing ongoing. He is one of the characters who really benefited from the New 52. His original series built upon Moore's Swamp Thing and alongside Animal Man created some really interesting and fun concepts. The recent incarnation of Justice League Dark has only built upon that and made Swamp Thing a vital DC character again.
I'm kind of interested in a new Suicide Squad comic. I liked the Rebirth book, and while the one after that (which recently ended) wasn't very good, the concept works well enough that I generally try a new version out when they get made. As for Swamp Thing, I've only ever liked Charles Soule's run (he took over from Scott Snyder's really shitty run, during the New 52) and at this point I really just hate everything associated with the Red/Green/Grey dynamic, so that's a complete pass for me.
Further new launches in March are "Teen Titans Academy" by writer Tim Sheridan and artist Rafa Sandoval, and "Green Lantern" by writer Geoffrey Thorne and artist Tom Raney. In both cases, the creative teams are the same as the respective Future State books. TTA also appears to feature the Red X character, who will be introduced during Future State.
Geoffrey Throne is a former TrekBBS member and author of the Titan Treklit series novel The Sword of Damocles (among many other things).
"Justice League Dark" will relaunch with a new #1 in March, though Ram V stays on as writer. He's joined by artist Xermanico. Meanwhile, "Wonder Woman" will continue with #770 (good, I was actually afraid they'd start with #1 on the traditional books which just returned to the original numbering), written by Becky Cloonan & Michael Conrad, with art by Travis Moore.
JLD on my list. I have loved Ram V's work on this title--the story lines are written in a similar way to the New 52 Earth 2 book (which was under rated in my opinion). By this I mean that the stakes always seem to be high and the characters written in to a series of no win scenarios where their victories only lead to more complications.
Further post-Future State announcements: Writer Mariko Tamaki and artist Dan Mora take over Detective Comics with #1034. Writer Gene Luen Yang and artist artist Ivan Reis take over Batman/Superman with #16. Harley Quinn gets a relaunch starting with #1, with writer Stephanie Phillips and artist Riley Rossmo.