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

[Admiral_Young]

I've read that Johns is often the voice of "reason" and a counterpoint at times to DiDio and the other editorial voices. I'm not saying that Johns isn't responsible for a great deal of their creative planning when he most likely is especially since he's in charge of content for the company...but it's pretty much DiDio running the show and I wouldn't be surprised if most of these "ideas" are his and Jim Lee's, etc.

Also if Johns is the counterpoint to DiDio and company...that probably gives us an idea of what goes on during creative summits

I was also going to add about Michael being different and Ronnie acting like an ass...keep in mind when reading Future's End that this is Five Years in the Future. Most likely sometime after the upcoming Crisis (so far they've referenced a War) and we don't know yet how that has changed people or affected this world.

 

[Mr Light]

Makes sense to me. Johns' stories have generally been quite excellent and not too convoluted or confusing or fan-betraying. The worst you can say about him is that he brings everything back to the retro status quo pre-90s.

I actually think Infinite Crisis is the best crossover DC ever did. The lead up to it managed to organically involve practically every single book in fundamental ways, it created a crisis that managed to touch on every aspect of the DCU, and it brought lasting big changes to the world that were well done.

Not to mention how great Sinestro Corps War was. That's what got me back into comics after a ten year absence!

And that was with only so-so villains... imagine how cool it would be Darkseid and the Anti-Monitor as villains!

 

[JoeZhang]

So some other things we picked up this week from Future's end:

1) The invaders were from Earth-2

2) They are either still here or can still get here (Planet not destroyed?) - leading to ID cards.

So with that in mind, I am pretty much certainly that at some stage, of the POV characters is going to turn out to be the Earth-2 version not the Earth-1 (and maybe the same the other way).

 

[Allyn Gibson]

If the change to Luthor's status quo is permanent (he's basically now DC's Tony Stark instead of its Norman Osborn) or even semi-permanent (it lasts two years), then I'm really intrigued. I want to see where they're going with this, and I think it's potentially quite exciting.

 

[theenglish]

Trinity War especially was retooled so they could do Forever Evil. I personally believe that they originally intended Trinity War to be something else entirely and changed their minds at some point (which is fine). I read spoilers for the finale...and it certainly seems that we are on the path to the 52'Verses first Crisis in celebration of the 30th Anniversary of the first one.

For starters the Trinity War was most likely supposed to involve JLI and be a war between the Trinity of Sin rather than what we got.

I was also expecting it to involve Pandora's involvement in Flashpoint considered she was a focal point in the original #1's (but maybe that happened in Forever War?) I have only read the first half of it so far and none of Blight.

 

[Hound of UIster]

So, basically, Johns is going to re-write his own Infinite Crisis from 2005? I noticed there's an online video game or something called Infinite Crisis out at the moment.

No it's probably based on his pre-FP ideas for another Crisis following Brightest Day since he had brought back the Anti-Monitor after Sinestro Corp Wars and Blackest Night.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh yeah! At the end of Blackest Night didn't a mysterious bad guy abduct the Anti-Monitor??? I totally forgot about that!

 

[Admiral_Young]

Three issues in and I've decided to drop "Future's End". I see it's potential...just not feeling it right now. Perhaps I'll revisit it at a later date, or even when Five Years Later actually starts in September but for now I'll be dropping it.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Oh yeah! At the end of Blackest Night didn't a mysterious bad guy abduct the Anti-Monitor??? I totally forgot about that!

That was SCW. He was resurrected by the White Entity at the end of BN.

 

[Admiral_Young]

More changes stemming from the move to Burbank...Senior VP and long time DC employee Bob Wayne will be departing. He's the longest serving executive for the company.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05...eave-after-twenty-eight-years-at-the-company/

Here are some reactions from the industry.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2014/05/23/the-comic-industry-reacts-to-bob-waynes-departure/

It's pretty amazing to see all the changes that have been made in the last few months due to those not making the move.

 

[JoeZhang]

Oh yeah! At the end of Blackest Night didn't a mysterious bad guy abduct the Anti-Monitor??? I totally forgot about that!

That was SCW. He was resurrected by the White Entity at the end of BN.

SCW???????


BTW who is talking to the Anti-Monitor at the end?

 

[Admiral_Young]

SCW is short for Sinestro Corp War.

 

[Mr Light]

Batman # 31: I'm really loving the Zero Year story and I'm going to be quite sad when it ends. Yet another solid issue.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I'm collecting the issues with the Bombshells variant covers. You can see all 15 of them here. I missed the one for Action Comics but I have that on order so hopefully I'll get one.

 

[TheSeeker]

Batman # 31: I'm really loving the Zero Year story and I'm going to be quite sad when it ends. Yet another solid issue.

Agreed. It has been fantastic.

 

[theenglish]

Batman # 31: I'm really loving the Zero Year story and I'm going to be quite sad when it ends. Yet another solid issue.

Agreed. It has been fantastic.

This is the way the reboot should have started. Justice League could have taken a hiatus for a year and DC could have published "zero year" style runs for the titles. Sure there would have had to have been a number of series that couldn't have existed but a creative team could have managed to pull it off economically.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yep. I've said this in the thread many times since Zero Year started. Understandable why they didn't...but this is how they should have started the relaunch.

 

[Captain Craig]

Aquaman #32 w/a Swamp Thing crossover was a good read even if the battle between the two was short. Alec was trying to use reason to appeal to Arthur so the "fight" played out more like editorial fiat. "They have to fight", the 'gators attacking Swamp Thing visually felt more like a Man-Thing segment to me.
The segment with Mera diving into the Under Kingdom with a sub-culture was actually the most interesting part of the story I think.

JLD#32 - Who is Nightmare Nurse/Alice Winter/Asa is turning into a good story. I could wiki it I suppose but haven't yet, is Nurse a new character cause till she showed up a few issues back I wan't familiar with her.
Again, in this issue Swamp Thing asks a question of Brand to which seems like it would've been thought before---What does the House of Mystery want? One of the best little gem books still on the stand.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I thought the Swamp Thing issue with the crossover was even stronger. It really helped advance the plot that destroying the Parliament of Trees had consequences and that Alec had to devise a solution. Plus the art was simply gorgeous. It's one of the few comics where I think you can't replace the artist with some other guy and get something of equal quality.

 

[Captain Craig]

The art is indeed gorgeous for the book. Placing it in perspective to Alec's destruction of the Parliament of Trees does add more weight to it, you're right. Reading it initially I didn't even draw back on that, that's on me.