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

[Professor Zoom]

Batman doesn't interest me in general, but based on a number of the comments in this thread I may buy the first few issues of Batgirl.

Have you tried Batwoman? I think it's WAY better than Batgirl--which is fine, but pretty generic. Especially the art.

Eh, I disagree. I've read Batwoman 1 and 2 twice and it didn't grab me. There's quite a bit of competency in there, sure, but overall it's tone and look just didn't ring well with me, nor did the story grab me.

To each his own. I just feel, creatively, it's well beyond most comics... at least in the art department.

It may work for some, but...

Butgirl,

Freudian slip?

as I said above, is sort of fun and there's even a nice touch there with Barbra still dealing with some PTSD from her crippling injury she's now recovered from. At this point the only thing I don't like about it is her roommate at her new apartment but that's likely to be a pretty minor character.

See, I just find it bland. Been there done that. Not the PTSD, which could be more interestingly done. The art and the writing... feels... the same as anything else really...

 

[Hound of UIster]

Writing feels like Simone phoning it in.

 

[Agent Richard07]

Butgirl...

Butgirl? Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anyway...

Voodoo #1 and #2: Love the art, especially in the first issue, for obvious reasons. The story is a fascinating one too, especially with that blond agent in pursuit of Voodoo. I'll keep reading for the eye candy and to see where things go.

Justic League Dark #1 and #2: Not the most compelling start, but I like the magic. Not too keen on most of the characters either, but I like Constantine and Zananna. Zatanna... I really like her new look. No more magician's outit and hat. She's very attractive too. I'll keep on just for the magic along with Constantine and Zatanna.

 

[sojourner]

I think they should bring back the Will Payton Starman as written for the first 35 issues. The issue that Keith Giffen wrote (I think it was #35) is still the funniest damn comic I have ever read, even surpassing his run on JLA.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Another thing from Action Comics #3 that I didn't mention before that I laughed at and thought was awesome was Clark sleeping with his cape over him. Morrison wasn't kidding when he said that Clark has a Linus's blanket type attachment with his cape!

 

[shivkala]

I think Dan Abnett or Andy Lanning would do wonders with GL just like they did with War of Kings, Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Agreed, Abnett and Lanning really know their cosmic stuff and I can see them including DC's other cosmic characters to build a rich tapestry. Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy lead me to believe that they would get Green Lantern back to its core concept of dealing with non-GL related stuff. There's a bigger galaxy of threats out there than just the ones created by the Guardians (Johns' run has been one Guardian mess after another from Parallax to Sinestro to the War of Light).

I don't dislike Johns' take, even now. I thought "War of the Green Lanterns" was surprisingly good. Maybe not "Sinestro Corp" good, but better than Blackest Night.

But I doubt either them or Cornell are likely to succeed Johns. The odds are it's either Pete Tomasi (whose writing is typically blood and guts) or Tony Bedard (whose writing is just uninspiring).

I like Tomasi's writing, as a whole. Yes, there is a lot of blood and guts, but also some decent storytelling. I do, however, agree that Bedard is just boring, with the exception of R.E.B.E.L.S., which was great.

I would really like for the writers to concentrate on exploring more of the other corps. I just dont think they are doing a very good job with the current writers.

At this point, they should just keep a few of the other Corps members as minor characters and just move on. It's pretty obvious we're never going to get the "War of Light" as seen at the end of "The Sinestro Corps War" as they seem to be more intent on telling stories involving the Corps working together.

 

[C_Miller]

For me Geoff Johns term on Green Lantern is getting old. I have credited him in the past for getting me interested in Hal Jordan (I was a Kyle Rayner and John Stewart fan) and the richness of the Green Lantern mythology as well as understanding it's place in the greater DCU but I dunno it feels stagnated to me now. I started losing interest during Blackest Night which I was incredibly disappointed by despite the potential and hype. I'm just not really feeling GL now.

Agreed. See, for me, I think Johns has already hit the peak of his career with Green Lantern: Rebirth, Sinestro Corp War, and of course Black Reign and Princes of Darkness over at JSA. And I don't think is 3-book workload along with a creative consultant role is doing him any favors. And I fear that if he spends any more time as DC's main workhorse, he's going to start to lose his legacy.

Look at Bendis. A few years ago he was on top, but how he's facing constant criticisms due to his lackluster Avengers, which he's insistant on spearheading and his books are no longer instant top ten books. Claremont is the same way. He wrote X-Men for 17 years, came back wrote both titles for like a year, wrote X-treme X-Men for 4 or 5, came back to Uncanny for another 3 or 4 and then was writing fringe X-Books for a couple years. Right now his writing is just bad or at best average and it's kind of gotten to the point where people are forgetting that he was the same guy that wrote Dark Phoenix Saga or Days of Future Past. And what's going against Johns is that he hasn't written anything that good.

This may be a little extreme, but I worry about it. I don't see Johns cutting back, but I think he should.

 

[Hound of UIster]

The workload is definitely not working in his favor. I think he can do a lot better if he cut back to 2 books (Aquaman or JLA). He really should leave GL.

 

[Icemizer]

Better yet just concentrate on Aquaman. There are only so many hours in a day and having what amounts to four jobs to do just lowers the quality of all of them.

 

[C_Miller]

Better yet just concentrate on Aquaman. There are only so many hours in a day and having what amounts to four jobs to do just lowers the quality of all of them.

Agreed. I actually think that out of the New 52, the one that shows the most promise is Aquaman. I haven't been impressed with GL in a long time and I can't stand Justice League to the point where I can't find a single redeeming quality to it. If he jus sticks to Aquaman, maybe he'll realize that he's a writer again.

 

[Captain Craig]

I agree, focus on Aquaman. I think there is enough to do there that it could be a second wind for him. We seem to agree he's been in more or less of slump lately and there is so much potential glimpsed just in BD and the first issues of this new series that he and Aquaman could get their mojo back together.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Aquaman is easily one of the strongest of the New 52 so far, and Johns would be well served to focus on that. It's not like his Justice League has been ground breaking so far, and his Green Lantern is stagnating. I don't quite buy someone's earlier exploitation that Johns has a hard-on for the Silver Age, though. I don't recall the Guardians being completely unsympathetic monsters back then.

I wouldn't want Tomasi on Green Lantern, though. I want him right where he is on Green Lantern Corps. Of course, that's not as good as it was before either. Ever since Blackest Night, the writers seem to have forgotten what it was that made that book work so well, namely that awesome supporting cast that they put together. It wasn't just about Guy and Kyle (and not about John at all. He kinda just disappeared from any book for years) but all the new characters like Soranik Natu, Vath Sarn, Isamot Kol, etc. who were all fully realized and interesting characters. Lately it's just been the main Lanterns, and the rest have faded deep into the background. Also, and I know I'm repeating myself a bit here, but it was a huge mistake to split up Guy and Kyle into different books. Their growing bromance was one of my favorite aspects of GLC for quite a while.

 

[C_Miller]

Actually my biggest problem with this reboot in general, which I have mentioned several times in this thread is the lack of new blood and how in a lot of ways, they're relying on the old guard. Giffen, Perez, Lobdell, Niceza, Liefield, Levitz, Johns, Jurgens, Winnick, even to some extent Morrison (although their writing has a habit of remaining fresh) are kind of the workhorses of this new era, yet they're the old standbys.

And with Tomasi and Bedard just reshuffling the old deck with the GL titles, Johns getting to remain on Green Lanter, Tomasi getting to write more on Batman and Robin, Daniel staying on Batman, even though he's been on the character since RIP, Abnett and Lanning back on a character they created. It just all feels like a been there done that kind of thing.

When I point to the biggest success of the reboot, I point to Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Animal Man by Jeff Lemire. Lemire wrote some scattered one shots here and there and a book for Vertigo as well as 11 issues of Superboy, but Animal Man is probably the best book of the relaunch. Brian Azzarello wrote 100 Bullets, probably the grittiest thing I've ever read, a by the book noir Batman story and some other insanely dark things, yet he was given Wonder Woman and is excelling.

It's risks and surprises like these that really made the New 52 a success for me. I wish DC had been willing to take more chances with creative teams...

 

[Admiral_Young]

I wouldn't call Aquaman the strongest of the New 52 so far but it is certainly on the right track and yes I would agree that Johns should concentrate his attention with Mera errrr Arthur (seriously I would have loved a Mera ongoing). Justice League is a meh for me right now and I'm more interested about catching up to the present. I think it was a mistake telling their origin story right off the start, and in the manner that he's doing it. I would have just jumped right in with them already established. I get why they're doing this, they're also doing world building and introducing us to the new status quo of the 52 Verse Earth.

 

[JoeZhang]

Sales of the second month of DC’s New 52 titles (all #2s) declined only 6% from the sales levels of the #1s, less than half the typical decay between the first and second issues of new series. Sales on 14 of the #2s were up from the first issues, fifteen if you count Justice League, which was up from the August number but down from the combined August and September sales.

The biggest gainers were Animal Man, up 14%; and Detective and Swamp Thing, up 7%.
The biggest losers were Superman and Blackhawks, both down 26%.

The second issues of the New 52 “controversy” books, Catwoman and Red Hood and the Outlaws, both of which drew attention and criticism because of female characters in sex-charged outfits having casual sex (see “New 52 Controversies”), were both up 6% vs. the #1 issues.

http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/21455.html

 

[Agent Richard07]

^ I got Red Hood just because of the controversy. It wasn't even on my radar before that. I'm also giving Action Comics another try because of all the favorable comments here. On the whole, I don't plan to get back into comics, but I think I'll keep up with a few choice titles until their present arcs are over or until they get stale.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Red Hood was originally intriguing to me because of the cast of characters involved. Winnick seems to like Jason Todd and writes him all right and the dynamic between the three is starting to stabilize after the "controversy" so hopefully it remains interesting.

 

[Silvercrest]

I think they should bring back the Will Payton Starman as written for the first 35 issues. The issue that Keith Giffen wrote (I think it was #35) is still the funniest damn comic I have ever read, even surpassing his run on JLA.

"186,000 miles per second. It's not just a good idea... it's the law."

 

[Trekker4747]

Aquaman: 1/2

Okay, I heard how good this book(s) was and how it re-establishes who and what the character really is so I took a look at it.

And, well... It's actually really good! This might be one I'll continue to follow. The first issue and part of the second issues are pretty heavy on clunky exposition on the part of AC and the other characters but I guess it had to be that way to re-affirm Aquaman's powers (which I admit I've never been thrilled with him mostly from the preconception that his powerset is limited.)

The artwork in both issues are good, loved the look of Mera and AC and overall, yeah I think I like this one!

Wow.

I like an Aquaman title. What have I become?

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ An Aquaman fan?