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

[Mr Light]

If they're going to completely rewrite history they might as well stay in the "past" with Action and Justice League. Maybe things wouldn't be so damn confusing then. Death and Return of Superman still happened, but Superboy was just created just now in the 5 Years Later time-frame? And Steel's origin took place back in Year One? Were there Replacement Supermen at all?

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'd be cool with a "Smallville" mini-series from either Johns or Morrison that deals with Clark's new past. I know we have had flashbacks in Action but this intrigues me. I also want more Krypton stuff. I love the new Krypton.

 

[Hound of UIster]

If they're going to completely rewrite history they might as well stay in the "past" with Action and Justice League. Maybe things wouldn't be so damn confusing then. Death and Return of Superman still happened, but Superboy was just created just now in the 5 Years Later time-frame? And Steel's origin took place back in Year One? Were there Replacement Supermen at all?

Steel - inspired by Superman's example in the Year One type story.
Superboy - cloned by NOWHERE, shows up with the rest of the new crop of metahumans

 

[Admiral_Young]

Steel was introduced in the past though...since we saw him emerge at the same time as Superman did. We just don't know when "Death of Superman" happened or how it happened this time around. As someone else suggested earlier in the thread they most likely happened differently in the 52 'Verse than in the DCU. Regarding Superboy, I'm still waiting to touch back on to Lois's investigation into NoWhere.

House of UIster...did a little digging around, and from the reviews that I've read on eight, no one knows who the "little satan" is that Glenmorgan was talking about or who we saw making those deals earlier in the book. He is obviously some kind of time traveller who has become an information and power broker in the "present" time. It's entirely possible he is a new character Morrison created. I can't think of who he might be at all. Perhaps an evil Mxy (not Mxy, but an evil Fifth Dimension being).

 

[Hound of UIster]

New character then like Nimrod, the K-Men, the evolving guy and the monster with bandages.

 

[JD]

I wasn't sure where else to post this and since this seems to be our DC Comics thread if JD doesn't mind...holy shit! I don't know if there are any MOTU fans in here but this is huge news for the fandom!

http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/04/06/dc-comics-he-man-masters-of-the-universe-comic/

So basically He-Man crossed with Once Upon a Time...sounds like an interesting take on MOTU.

I've never followed MotU before, but it is one of the franchises I've become curious about recently, so I might have to check this out.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I'm not sure if this is such a great comic to follow for a newbie since it has a premise where Skeletor is in control of Eternia (this is not a normal thing lol, just the live action film has done this) but yeah I'm just thrilled we're finally getting comics again. Looks like Mattel is finally revealing their 30th Anny plans for the rest of the year. Hopefully there is more good news along the way (like a progress report on the film that has been in development hell the last fifteen or so years).

July Solitics. Matches Malone!!!

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-comics-July-2012-solicitations.html

 

[Admiral_Young]

DC conducted a New 52 survey and this is their power point presentation of their results if anyone is still interested in this sort of thing.

http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album_view.php?gid=4181

 

[Hound of UIster]

Pretty bad news

 

[Sketcher]

Just read Action #8. Is it ever explained how Clark can suddenly fly at the end? I know in #6 they showed him possessing a Legion ring, but he didn't appear to be using one in the final panel. Did his new suit give him the ability, or was it actually just a massive super-jump ala Smallville?

 

[ElScoob]

Just read Action #8. Is it ever explained how Clark can suddenly fly at the end? I know in #6 they showed him possessing a Legion ring, but he didn't appear to be using one in the final panel. Did his new suit give him the ability, or was it actually just a massive super-jump ala Smallville?

I guess I assumed it was a super-jump akin to what he did the first time he made his way out to Brainiac/The Collector's ship. But that raises the question... if you can jump off the planet, defying gravity entirely... is flying all that far away?

It's one of those things that could have been made a little more clear, though, admittedly.

--g

 

[shivkala]

DC conducted a New 52 survey and this is their power point presentation of their results if anyone is still interested in this sort of thing.

http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album_view.php?gid=4181

Four slides in and I run across this:

"I can never recall a case where a fan base has been this rabid to participate in a simple market research study." --Tom Borys, Chief of Operations, Nielsen NRG[/url].

Funny, Tom, that's not quite the reaction

I'd heard about:

"Don't go to Meltdown Comics today unless you like getting buttonholed into douch-ey, stultifying 'New 52' surveys," Oswalt Tweeted on Wednesday. He later wrote, "I also bought my last DC comics, EVER, today."

Oswalt was quick to point out that his frustration wasn't directed at the store itself, tweeting, "Everyone -- Meltdown Comics is cool, they got f***ed just like their customers. But DC Comics? Bye!"

Strangest part of buying comics today - creepy close talker comes up, asks if I bought the new 52 and wants to talk to him in back about it. Thought he was a pedophile, but evidently someone hired the Nielsen people to do some kind of survey.

Other Los Angeles residents have confirmed for ComicsAlliance that the Nielsen employee was indeed a memorable character. One Meltdown customer told us the man was "super aggressive, like Gil the desperate salesman on The Simpsons."

Granted, Patton Oswalt is just one voice in the crowd, but, Tom Borys' quote just reads like BS.

 

[Hound of UIster]

>Taking anything About DC Comics By ComicsAlliance Seriously



You do remember they were the guys who were ranting about DC sexism and lack of female/minority representation (despite Batwing/Batwoman/Batgirl/Catwoman/BOP/Supergirl/BlueBeetle/Terrific/Static) while they all but buried Marvel canceling all their mainline female and minority centered books behind a half a page blurb and said absolutely nothing about the sexism and gratuitous cheesecake in Thor because Fraction was a friend of Hudson's.

 

[Trekker4747]

"Batgirl" is my only pull this week. Still a good book with a good end this week to the current arc and a set-up to the next one. I still find Babs to just be a fun character.

 

[Admiral_Young]

One of the results that I kind of had to laugh at was the who was reading the New 52. So only five percent are new fans? Did I read that right? Wasn't one of big things that DC kept harping on why they did was to draw in NEW fans? They could only get five percent?Unless I misread that result. If I was DC and got that figure back after saying all that rhetoric months on end I'd be pretty upset. It also partly says to me that this was nothing more than attempt at a sales spike and to dominate the charts as well which they've done successfully for a few months. Everything is going to balance out pretty soon as I've stated many times.


Superboy #8: This was going okay until now...truly not interested at all in this Culling story arc. Gen 13 fans should be pleased with this issue as both Grunge and Caitlin are in this issue. Superboy fights Grunge in most of the issue. I've been patient for something to happen in this book with the NoWhere arc but have become impatient and am dropping this.

 

[Hound of UIster]

I don't think you understand what the result means. The results apply not just to DC, but comics across the board. The majority of these "new" readers for both DC and Marvel are returning fans who have returned to reading comics via events like New 52 or AvsX. It really shows that new readership declined significantly sometime in the late 90s and early 00s.

The online surveys probably fail to capture the online fandom due to how fractured it is and how many of these fans don't even buy comics or speak English.

 

[Mike Farley]

There aren't any new fans to be had. Comics have successfully turned themselves into a small niche market.

 

[Professor Zoom]

There aren't any new fans to be had. Comics have successfully turned themselves into a small niche market.

Agreed. I think it's about getting those who left to return, at this point.

 

[The Lensman]

There aren't any new fans to be had. Comics have successfully turned themselves into a small niche market.

Agreed. I think it's about getting those who left to return, at this point.

I'm not sure they could really ever get ME back. I quit comics with a whimper, not with a bang. The day didn't come when I loudly proclaimed "I'm done!!"

The days came when I realized I hadn't been to the comic shop in a few weeks....and then the time between visits grew longer until one day I realized that I hadn't been in several months.

I wasn't happy with the pre-nu 52 Neo Silver Age as it stunk of shitting on younger readers with no connection to that time....and then the reboot came.

While for many it was a great jumping on point, for many others it was a great jumping off point. For me it made it easier to never look back. At least for monthly comics.

I don't recall what the prices were in my last couple of years....at least 2.99 IIRC. On recent forays back into the shop after a very long absence, no comic has looked interesting enough to shell out 3.99 for.

I do admit to being interested in Morrison's Action run, and the forth coming Earth-2 book looks interesting as well. However for the first time in 30 years of comics reading, I find myself being totally okay with "waiting for the trade".

At this point, even if they undid the nu52, I don't know that I'd go back to reading comics on a monthly basis because I just don't think I can afford it and it's not worth the value for your dollars.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Batman and Robin #8: The Born to Kill arc concludes with a pretty good issue. I finally get the conversation between Bruce and Damian that I've waited the entire arc for and it was worth it. Bruce hits it on the nail that they're problems are based on their misunderstanding of each other, not a dislike or hatred. Perhaps Damian felt that way when he was first introduced to his father, but not any more. He has evolved an incredible amount since "Batman and Son" even with the violent mood swings and inability to keep that part of him in check. Bruce reveals as we all already know, that he possesses those same urges as his son and it is a personal battle for him to push them away. It is the moral conflict that Bruce has faced since the first time he put on the cowl. Next we enter the Night of Owls event arc which should be interesting.