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

[Admiral_Young]

Fair enough. Like I said, it's fine if we disagree. I just happen to really like his New X-Men run. If it was so bad Marvel would be totally ignoring it! I will agree that RIP was sloppy despite the fact that I liked element of it. I first discovered Morrison during his JLA run which was fantastic for the most part and have been a fan of his ever since! He has been a writer that has rarely disappointed me, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. At least where his superhero work is concerned. There's stuff that I haven't read like WE3 which seems out there and I've yet to check out The Invisibles despite hearing some great praise for it. I have yet to read his Doctor Who work still as well.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Invisibles is "esoteric and overambitious ideas" Morrison. WE3 is very idea driven, but easy to understand.

 

[Admiral_Young]

DC and Marvel both are tied for marketshare but DC dominated in the Top Ten sales wise last month.

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/03/both-dc-marvel-for-marketshare-january-but-dc-takes-all-ten/

After the Before Watchmen announcement this week I might have to rethink my Marvel will be back on top statement. The summer is going to be very interesting. Self contained event arcs within the New 52 books, plus Before Watchmen for DC. Plus Batman: Earth One and maybe Multiversity finally...against whatever the Spider-Men is, along with the two Avengers Vs X-Men books and whatever else Marvel has yet to announce. Avengers will probably have started the Ultron War by that time, you'll have Bendis and Bagely's Avengers project, Spider-Man Season One. It's a great time to be a comic book fan whatever the case maybe I think.

 

[Captain Craig]

Read Animal Man #6 last night

Big waste of money. There no doubt was an easier way to show how Buddy's son felt about the risks his dad takes than wasting 17 pages of narrative watching a movie that fictionalized the very similar emotion.

 

[Derishton]

I haven't been reading Animal Man, but I'm not sure "easier" is why anybody with ambition writes anything. I was tempted to get the issue because I like the idea of a fictionalized account shedding light on the "reality", especially given Buddy Baker's heavily meta-textual career.

 

[Myasishchev]

Long Live the Legion!!! I just finished Action Comics...you guys are right that this is Morrison at his esoteric and overambitious ideas best! He did the Legion/Clark origin thing better than Geoff Johns did IMO! I had the same feeling reading that panel of Imra's dialogues that I did way back when Johns did Superman and the Legion of Superheroes and Paul Levitz Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes The Early Days...this is why I'm a fan of the Legion. It's a double paradox inspiration. They're inspired by Superman's example, but fort Clark he's inspired by them. The Legion are the first superheroes he meets at a point in his life where he's very lonely and has just discovered his powers, and he's enthralled and excited by them...it also helps that they come from the far future! I loved the Doctor Who reference! This issue does contain heavy stuff...particularly with the Anti-Superman Army hiding inside of Clark's brain!!!! LOL. Classic Morrison. The art is great and I loved the older versions of the Legion founders. I still suspect Morrison is seeding things for later on. He's been doing this all through this arc if one is paying attention. I loved the Smallville scenes and the back up story as well. By far this is still my favourite of the New 52.

Stop making me want to spend $4.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ I can't help myself. This is the Legion how they're supposed to be written! Not disjointed with confusing and seemingly abandoned plot points by Levitz

 

[Broccoli]

^ I wonder how much of that was editorial interference.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ You mean with Levitz's scattered writing? Good question...although he's a former editor himself who is supposed to have some clout at DC so who knows. He started off okay with the Early Days (which I have but already started with the abandoned plots!) but is the reason why I am not reading the main Legion book. Secret Origin started off slow but has sort of been entertaining the last couple of issues. I'm kind of getting it still due to the art work. The best Legion book right now is the IDW/DC Star Trek crossover! I really want Chris Roberson to take over on the main Legion book. He's shown he knows how to write the characters and knows what he's doing so far. It's been brilliant as I've mentioned before.

 

[Hound of UIster]

^ I wonder how much of that was editorial interference.

Probably none. His writing has been shit for all his recent stuff.

 

[Myasishchev]

^ You mean with Levitz's scattered writing? Good question...although he's a former editor himself who is supposed to have some clout at DC so who knows. He started off okay with the Early Days (which I have but already started with the abandoned plots!) but is the reason why I am not reading the main Legion book. Secret Origin started off slow but has sort of been entertaining the last couple of issues. I'm kind of getting it still due to the art work. The best Legion book right now is the IDW/DC Star Trek crossover! I really want Chris Roberson to take over on the main Legion book. He's shown he knows how to write the characters and knows what he's doing so far. It's been brilliant as I've mentioned before.

I'd bet four dollars Legion Lost is better.

But then again I hate inter-universe crossovers. They never feel right to me.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I dropped Legion Lost after the first issue...stupid concept. Has it been revealed why they were sent back in the first place? I know they're cut off due no more time travel thanks to Flashpoint. Somehow time's all screw up. I bet it has to do with Pandora (Purple Lady).

Also I too was hesitant over the crossover, but it's been really awesome so far. One of my favourite current books right now.

Actually I take back that Legion Lost is a stupid concept...I didn't like the team members involved (well most of them) or the creative team handling it. There should be no members of the Legion in the present unless it's the episonage squad involved or something like that...or they're trying to fix some kind of paradox, which is the usual reason why any members would come back to the present.

 

[Myasishchev]

They were chasing Santorum or whatever that dude's name was. He released a plague in the present so that Earth would be destroyed in the future (evidently he was one of the people who were ill-treated when Peter Petrelli and the Justice League of EARTH were in charge).

The first issue did suck, no question. It got better.

I do find it interesting/weird that Nicieza wanted to use the most obnoxious Legionnaires he possibly could, though. Wildfire, Dawnstar, and Timber Wolf? You just want to slap them in the mouth (or visor), in every panel, especially Dawnstar--if Dawnstar is speaking, no matter who's writing it, you know it's going to be total bullshit almost 100% of the time, as opposed to only 70-90% for Drake and Brin.

Yet, truly, it is part of their charm.

Unfortunately, Tyroc is extremely mild in his modern incarnation; he's not nearly as much fun when he's not angry, black, and showing a little leg. I miss the 70s, quasi-racist Tyroc.

OK, it's not great or anything; mainly it's just really pretty. I'm shallow like that.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah just not really interested in current Legion stuff which kind of sucks. If only Levitz had some kind of direction he was heading in. We had one actual story arc and that was the recent war against Saturn Queen and the Legion of Super Villains that was pretty cool but otherwise everything else was meh. Mon-El should still be Green Lantern, I guess they're going to come up with something else because far as I know Diogenes is still floating around since he left Mon. I know I'm not the only disgruntled Legion fan right now...I had hopes when the Legion remained intact after the relaunch but it's directionless right now. I kind of hope Levitz doesn't last too long, all due respect to his past work with the Legion. He just isn't recapturing that past glory. I read that there is supposed to be a Founders centric issue coming up in a couple months. I might check that out. But otherwise yeah meh.

 

[Saga]

i've liked most of the Legion stuff since the Superman and the Legion of Super Heroes stuff that Johns did. i would have liked more of the future GL/Mon-El stuff though. i really like the Earthman character arc too.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I'm not have a problem with either Legion Lost or LSH.

 

[Mike Farley]

I'm enjoying all 4 currently running Legion books.

Have my worries about DeFalco taking over Legion Lost though.

 

[Mr Light]

I've never been able to enjoy the Legion, which is odd because I love sci-fi and I love superheroes, so the two together should be awesome... but it was just so... silly... and none of the characters are interesting or iconic. And the villains are silly and/or lame.

Meanwhile, I absolutely loved the Green Lantern Corps, particularly when Patrick Gleason was drawing them.

 

[Admiral_Young]

The Legion is iconic and while I agree they have silly names, they''re basically teenagers and there's always a lot of drama and soap opera type stuff in the books. As I have said in the Star Trek/Legion thread, the Legion is not for everyone. It really depends on who is writing them. Geoff Johns did a great job in taking them serious. I will give Paul Levitz credit for attempting to give that same effort. He has passion and affection for the characters. He seems to like the 31st century based on his occasional facebook statuses I've read. Too bad his writing is the way it is. Mark Waid wrote a good Legion during the "threeboot" era.

 

[Captain Craig]

I've never been able to get into LEGION as a team book either. The occasional member or two crossing over into a book works and when I would follow a character back, the times I've tried, the dynamic and workings of the book/team were just not in synch with the crossover I had read.


Last night I read Swamp Thing #6, looks like we are finally about to get Alec in all his glory as the emissary to the Parliament of Trees based on the issues ending. Curious to see what is allegedly going to happen with Abby's transformation as the "champion of the Rot". I guess there is some irony in how Alec gets "killed" since we were told issues ago that his mortal death was necessary for the transformation.

Spoiler: How Alec ends the issue

That he gets a chainsaw to the chest is ironic I suppose since his next role will be in service to trees and the Green.