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

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Yeah, calling this depiction of young city living "an extreme" is...misinformed.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Peter Parker ripped off Clark first. Clark's parents ( both sets) died in Action Comics vol.1 issue 1.

Bruce Wayne's parents died too, of course. Orphanhood seems to be a recurring element of these kinds of tales.

 

[Mike Farley]

Even Barry Allen, who's parents both used to be happily alive, has had them retroactively killed off to provide The Angst.

 

[Trekker4747]

You haven't presented a single plausible reason for that, though. What's your experience with urban living? Are you under the misimpression that there aren't a large number of young adults living like Clark in cities all over the United States while they try to build careers for themselves? Did you ever try to find a place to live in New York or Chicago when you were young?

Plausible reason? Why do I need to give a plausible reason for what I like and do not like. I just don't like it, I've got my reasons -thin as they may be- I think Clark's humble beginnings could have done in a different way.

And, being a happy little suburbanite in the mid-west no I never have tried to find a place to live in Chicago, NYC or even my own Kansas City, city-living isn't my thing and frankly probably too expensive for what I'd get.

So maybe that's why I don't like it, I've no idea what it's like from my experiences. I do know my cousin lives in a New York borough with two other female roommates in what she describes as a fairly nice apartment on par with what a three-bedroom unit would be where I live and her and her roommates are all post-grads in their early twenties in starting positions for their careers. To my knowledge none of them ever lived in some spare bedroom in a tenement covered with filth and junk.

Just personal taste, is all I'm saying. I'm sure Clark's humble beginnings could have been just as easily conveyed if he lived in tiny studio apartment that at least looked livable.

 

[Myasishchev]

One does imagine a man with superspeed would have a cleaner house. But then I look at my own house and figure my own free time is the functional equivalent, and I realize probably not.

 

[Broccoli]

Just personal taste, is all I'm saying. I'm sure Clark's humble beginnings could have just of easily had been conveyed if he lived in tiny studio apartment that at least looked livable.

But that's not what Morrison (or DC editorial) wanted to do or write about. Debating on whether or not it was a good narrative move is fine. Liking or disliking it is fine. However, you seem to be placing your personal taste onto the character. At that point it becomes less "this doesn't ring true for the character" and more "this isn't what I would do in his spot".

 

[Trekker4747]

And that he took a damn shower.

You are placing your personal taste onto the character.

I'm pretty sure that's how liking or not liking something works.

 

[Nerys Myk]

No it doesn't. I don't expect fictional characters to share my lifestyle, taste or prefered living conditions.

 

[Broccoli]

Right. It is one thing to say "I don't like Superman doing X, because of reasons A, B, and C." It is another thing to say "I don't like Superman doing X, because I wouldn't do that."

On another topic altogether...I stumbled upon this article from ComicVine. It is dated May 27th, 2011, and the author ponders if the DC Universe will be rebooted after Flashpoint. I am very amused-in-hindsight by the article considering what we know now.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah. Remember Rich from Bleeding Cool had the information sometime before he actually decided to reveal the information. So it's very possible Comic Vine did as well but decided to do a speculation piece about a possible reboot. It is amusing now. Reboot/relaunch didn't even register for me as a theory about post Flashpoint until Bleeding Cool broke the news.

Newsarama's Top Ten New 52 Titles That might be cancelled.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/10-dc-new-52-titles-on-the-bubble-111103.html

We should be hearing about cancellations soon methinks.

 

[Derishton]

The only title on there that I'd miss is Men of War, but it admittedly does have its flaws; and unlike Batman, who can apparently carry at least one title everyone hates but still continues to buy, that's the kiss of death for new ideas.

 

[Agent Richard07]

I lived worse than Clark when I was in my early 20s.

Newsarama's Top Ten New 52 Titles That might be cancelled.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/10-dc-new-52-titles-on-the-bubble-111103.html

We should be hearing about cancellations soon methinks.

The only title there I'm interested in is Voodoo. I have the the first two issues, but haven't read them yet.

 

[Hound of UIster]

Yeah. Remember Rich from Bleeding Cool had the information sometime before he actually decided to reveal the information. So it's very possible Comic Vine did as well but decided to do a speculation piece about a possible reboot. It is amusing now. Reboot/relaunch didn't even register for me as a theory about post Flashpoint until Bleeding Cool broke the news.

Newsarama's Top Ten New 52 Titles That might be cancelled.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/10-dc-new-52-titles-on-the-bubble-111103.html

We should be hearing about cancellations soon methinks.

Do they not realize that the writer for OMAC is in charge of DC Comics? The likelihood of that book getting cancelled is zilch.

 

[Broccoli]

If it isn't making money, they are not going to keep it around. Didio will then just assign himself another, new book. Then again, at the rate of current authors jumping off titles, he might just take an already successful book.

 

[Professor Zoom]

If it isn't making money, they are not going to keep it around. Didio will then just assign himself another, new book. Then again, at the rate of current authors jumping off titles, he might just take an already successful book.

....and kill that one too.

SNAP!

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

If they kill ten books I'll be impressed.

 

[Professor Zoom]

If they kill ten books I'll be impressed.

Yeah, I don't think they would kill ten at once. That wouldn't make much sense. Will all of those on that list be around in a year? Who knows, maybe not. But DC won't drop them all in the same month.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I dunno - the virtue of dropping ten books at once is launching and promoting a number of books at once as a "next wave."

 

[Professor Zoom]

I dunno - the virtue of dropping ten books at once is launching and promoting a number of books at once as a "next wave."

You gotta have those ten books ready to go. Probably if they made the decision NOW to have 10 new books in 6 months, they could drop 10 in a month.

The idea of a next wave, I think, actually would be a good way to continue the publicity, but, I think they have to back it up with story, Why the next wave? (Other than we had to cancel 10 books)

Why wasn't Hawk and Dove on the list? I can't imagine it's doing well, not with art that burns the eyes.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Back in March this year, Marvel Comics had a 40% share of money spent on comics through Diamond Comic Distributors, and a 45% share of the number of comics sold. DC had only 27.62% and 31.5% share respectively.

Well what a change half a year can make. After taking Marvel on marketshare for the month of September, albeit only by half a percent in dollar marketshare, in October DC Comics has soared ahead, buoyed by sales of second prints from September’s issues, and from many of their October titles maintaining or surpassing their initial order numbers for September.

Which means in October DC Comics has 42.47% of dollars spent on comics, to Marvel’s 29.1% share, turning that half a point gap into thirteen and a half points. And on actual numbers of products sold, DC has taken 50.97% of sales to Marvel’s 20.29%.

Which means more than one in every two comics sold by Diamond in October was a DC comic.
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It’s an incredible performance that can be laid at the feet of DC Comics, and specifically that they haven’t increased their sales at the expense of other publishers, rather everyone’s sales have either been maintained or are rising, as the DC promotional plan have brought in new readers or brought back lapsed readers – who have then gone on to try other non-DC comics.

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