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

[JD]

I think the actual outfit really isn't that bad, they just need to lose the sleeves. I understand they want to keep the fishnets, but there had to be a better way to work them in. I don't see why they couldn't have just put her in shorts, and then had the fishnets with them.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

But the general consensus (in the thread and outside it) has seemed to be (could be wrong) that multiverse = confusing.

Yeah, that would be the DC editorial staff in the mid 1980s. Their solution to that was...novel.

 

[Myasishchev]

Is that Zatanna in the center of the cover for #2? The outfit isn't too bad, but WTF is with the sleaves, that just looks weird. Was that supposed to be their way of keeping her fishnets and putting her in pants?

I've seen plenty of sleeves like that.

 

[theenglish]

At least from the covers, Zatanna's costume looks fine IMO. She looks like a psuedo goth chick on any given day of the week.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

At least from the covers, Zatanna's costume looks fine IMO. She looks like a psuedo goth chick on any given day of the week.

What, she's chubby now?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Nope...she's got pants!

 

[theenglish]

At least from the covers, Zatanna's costume looks fine IMO. She looks like a psuedo goth chick on any given day of the week.

What, she's chubby now?

I said "pseudo".

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Okay, I don't get it. All the fussing about Didio making trouble with his remark about Crisis, and when I finally read it, it makes complete sense and there's nothing a reasonable person could find incendiary in it:

For those in crisis over Crisis, let me clarify. The topic of Crisis was much discussed among the editors and talent working on The New 52. With so many characters and histories restarting, major events like Crisis are harder to place when they work for some and not for others. (that was one of the problems coming out of the original Crisis). While we are starting aprx five years into our heroes' lives, we are focused on the characters present and future, and past histories will be revealed as the stories dictate. Yes, there have been "crisis" in our characters lives, but they aren't exactly the Crisis you read before, they can't be. Now, what this means for characters seen and unseen......well, that's the fun of The New 52, infinite stories, infinite possibilities, with the best yet to come.

That's pretty much the way I've understood the relaunch to work - it's the way it makes sense, and the approach looks pretty well thought out to me - those events which work for the new versions of the characters may be brought into continuity when they serve story purposes, and other things won't. It certainly seems like a more flexible approach than the theory behind COIE, so they've learned a little in 25 years.

Bleeding Cool compares the glitches with stuff in the relaunch to debugging a computer program - "These things are mindbogglingly complex, and big relaunches always have consequences that go unnoticed until you get the thing out there into the world and people start actually using it for awhile" - which, as someone who's worked as a programmer, makes a lot of sense to me too.

 

[Admiral_Young]

It does make sense but instead of going for a shock announcement on twitter like he did which he knew would get fans all wiled up he should have taken the time like he just did and explained the decision. Instead DiDio and others love making these types of announcements. I just find it funny all these little tid bits keep coming out.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Fans use "should" in all kinds of interesting ways.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Okay, I don't get it. All the fussing about Didio making trouble with his remark about Crisis, and when I finally read it, it makes complete sense and there's nothing a reasonable person could find incendiary in it:

One, reason is in short supply to many comic book fans. Two, people have an irrational hatred of Didio.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I know so few of these personalities. As a Trek fan, though, I do grasp the notion of laying every shortcoming in something I like at the feet of one or two people who are "in charge."

Don't the editors at DC and Marvel all change with some frequency, though, every few years? It must get exhausting.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Not really. They shuffle the editors around on books/groupings. Marvel has seen some change in the last couple of years since Quesada was promoted and basically given the same job Geoff Johns has at DC Ent. Some editors have been editors of their book/groups for a few years now.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I know so few of these personalities. As a Trek fan, though, I do grasp the notion of laying every shortcoming in something I like at the feet of one or two people who are "in charge."

Don't the editors at DC and Marvel all change with some frequency, though, every few years? It must get exhausting.

Yes thats usually when they change companies. The current EiC at DC was the guy that had the job at Marvel before Quesada. Likewise the current EiC at Marvel was a editor of Vertigo. Spider-books editor was a former DC editor. Bat books a former X-Books editor. Superbooks editor also got his start at Marvel.

Didio is an outsider. He use to do soap operas and transformers. He also got retroactively hated on by those people after they found out about his involvement in those areas.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Soap operas as in TV soaps?

Never mind - I'm reading about him on Wikipedia. TV soaps. So he knows another business.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I don't mind DiDio...used to love his 20 questions session on Newsarama before DC went through their huge editorial change and DC Ent was created. Now he seems to interact less with the fans than he did before. He has Berman and Braga type hatred with some fans.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I see over at Deadline that he was considered to be in big trouble and expected to lose his job over the summer of 2008. Things have certainly turned around.

 

[theenglish]

Does anybody know when the digital comics from the first week will be a dollar cheaper?

Will it be this Wednesday?

Also, I suggest opening a new DC thread this week for month two so new readers will find it easier to get on board.

 

[Captain Craig]

I finished up my weeks reads by polishing off Firestorm and Jonah Hex.

Fury of Firestorm #1 - the only book of the relaunch I bought that I was not satisfied with. First their both back in high school, the same school at that. Second, the contrived racial tension written into the characters. Lame. It's 2011, not 1970, but I guess that's what happens sometimes. The art was good and tease about how Killer Frost is going to apparently be linked to the Firestorm(s) is nice. Apparently there have been other Firestorms, or tests at least? It looked like a flashback showed 4 other "test subjects" as having experimented with the Firestorm matrix. Really don't know if I'll be back for issue 2.

All Star Western #1 - This tale of Jonah Hex in 1880's Gotham was a good read. Smart they kept the creative team from "old" DCU as they still have 'it'. Liked the art and the pseudo-Sherlock Holmes style narrative going on with Arkham. I'll for sure be getting issue #2. I'm wondering if at some point the title will have back-up features or split page count duties with say Scalphunter? It is after all All Star Western not Jonah Hex.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Orders for second issues of the relaunch may be up from the first issues in many cases:

It’s something I’ve been hearing from a number of retailers, but it seems to have momentum now. As a result of the sellouts, the second printings and the availability of day-and-date digital purchases for those whose shops had no print copies of the first issues available, I understand that it is quite possible that, in a reversal of usual practice, orders for DC comic books in October, pretty much across the board, may be increased on initial orders from September.

For large launches, publishers can usually expect retailers to order around 50-60% of their issue one orders for the subsequent issue, in the knowledge that speculators, the curious, those who didn’t like the comic and those who are now waiting for a collection won’t return. It’s why a second issue can be rarer and more valuable than that the first and it’s built into sales expectations. But in this case, the opposite is happening.

Returnability is also a helpful factor, retailers have been able to order high in the knowledge that for a relatively small fee, the comics can be returned to DC. Of course, this didn’t stop many of the books vanishing from the shelves.

Nevertheless the implication is that, just as DC are now expected to take the market share top spot away from Marvel in September, so they may well keep it in October…

DC Comics Issue 2 Orders To Outstrip Issue 1 Orders In Many Stores

He brings up something interesting: that direct retailers may be placing larger initial orders because of competition from the digital editions - some readers who come in to find the shop sold out may not return a second time to check on re-orders, but simply buy the sold-out title on the Internet in the interim.