UA-100768763-1 Jump to content

DCnU


AdyCarter

Recommended Posts

So, whats everyone thinking of the relaunch thus far, JL #1 last week was ok, nothing stellar but a nice slow burn reintroduction, Im heading out in a moment to pick up this weeks new titles (Well Action, Batgirl, Swamp Thing and Animal Man at the very least) seen as we get them before America nowadays which is nice!

Its a hell of a gamble DC has taken here and Im hoping it pays off so Im actually buying a couple of titles now instead of just "magically getting them" :P

I just hope the relaunch sticks though, I don't want some kind of Infinite Crisis on Hypertime Flash Earths Hour to come along and undo everything!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 61
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The owner of my LCS said there is apparently a character featuring in all 52 comics that will ultimatly tie into the 2012 event. I can't help but wonder if this may be a storyline to snap back to the old DCU (either as a backup plan or because this will never stick).

***Warning - the following is a potentially anti-Batman rant***

From what I read of JL #1, I liked it br the bit where Batman pulled the GL ring off Hal. I hope this isn't another incidence of "God Batman" because I hate the way writers over power him; it's making him more invincible than Superman (whom I prefer anyway) and making me sick of the dark knight in general. It also doesn't help that two of my favourite series (Booster Gold and Secret Six) were cancelled and no sign of continuing in DCnU, while Batman has nine books. I'm far more interested in seeing the un-answered Booster questions answered than I am nearly a fifth of the new books dedicated to a "family" I have no interest in. I appreciate that there is no reason for them to stick to fifty two books and they may yet surprise me with a contiunation of Booster's story, but... I'd have also liked to see the long over due return of Ted Kord (or as I like to call him "Batman with a sense of humour, i.e. an interesting human level superhero". Nothing against Jamie but I want to see more adventures of the Gold and Blue. Heck, make Ted a mentor for Jamie instead of replacing him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I gave up reading monthly comic books a year or two ago, when I was able to break myself of the weekly comic book store habit and just wait for the trade (and, since I'm already behind, waiting until I find the book for a good price). So I won't have any opinions on the content for quite a while.

That said, I've no faith that the current DC Comics management will be able to deliver good comics from stable creative teams in a timely fashion. After all, they haven't done it for years. Despite the publicity campaign, I don't see why I should think this will turn out any better then One Year Later. My prediction is that that DC will outsell Marvel on the September sales charts, followed by a massive drop in October and November as things level out, followed by the usual patterns of late ships, unannounced fill-ins, and fast-disappearing creative teams that have been the DC norm for several years. I hate to be so pessimistic, but that's Dan Didio's DC for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

JSA had a handful of interesting human level superheroes (Wildcat, Mr. Terrific, Sandman (though I think he was ret-conned to have powers), Atom (at one point, anyway. . .)). Not sure if they're part of the new DCU or not.

Personally, I'm passing on this for now. I hate the new Jim Lee designs (good artist, but damn if that man hasn't designed some hideous outfits over his career), it screams of a cheap publicity stunt, and frankly, I haven't bought DC comics apart from JSA for years now anyway, so I would be passing even if they weren't revamping the whole line :D

And to paw's suggestion that they're setting up a return to the regular DCU, I have no doubts. Remember that Marvel was also adamant in saying that "Steve Rogers is really dead, like, for good," and how long did that last? Cheap sales gimmicks is the name of the comics game.

Edited by karamazov80
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah i've seen that Random Woman in a few titles, its the same person as in the timeline merging in Flashpoint #5, I sincerely hope they aren't pre planning a back door out of this, that said its made me actually pick stuff up for once which is the point I guess. To be fair to DC, the last time they did this is stuck reasonably well for a long time and i really enjoyed the "endings" they gave the old DCU titles prior to this although as mentioned Secret Six and Booster Gold deserved better.

I don't really have much love for Marvel nowadays as they bounce from event to event far too much and their publishing schedule is more borked than anyone elses has been for ages (Hello Young Avengers: Childrens Crusade). 52 and Sinestro Corps were probably the last things from either publisher I actually enjoyed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the early 90's, when X-Men was outselling every DC title, the latter had to kill their biggest superhero, Superman just to get back into the game.

Twenty years later, they need to reboot their entire Universe.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It also doesn't help that two of my favourite series (Booster Gold and Secret Six) were cancelled and no sign of continuing in DCnU, while Batman has nine books.

Booster's in the new Justice League International book.

I agree with you about Ted Kord serving as Jamie's mentor. It made no sense to me when they didn't bring back Ted at the end of Blackest Night, since he was the one dead hero that people would have been overjoyed to see. Johns said that he decided against it, because "everybody likes Jamie"; well, I like Jamie too, but that's no reason you can't find a role for Ted in the DCU. Shoulda brought Vic Sage back too....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Despite my initial pesimism, I am getting about half or so of the new 52. While I may prefer to see the return of Ted Kord or a continuation of Booster Gold, I am getting both the Jamie Blue Beetle and JLI (though do we really need Batman on it...? How about his British equivalent Knight if we need a Batman-esk character so badly?)

JSA had a handful of interesting human level superheroes (Wildcat, Mr. Terrific, Sandman (though I think he was ret-conned to have powers), Atom (at one point, anyway. . .)). Not sure if they're part of the new DCU or not.

JSA is coming back, but as part of Earth 2.

And to paw's...

Call me Peter :)

...suggestion that they're setting up a return to the regular DCU, I have no doubts. Remember that Marvel was also adamant in saying that "Steve Rogers is really dead, like, for good," and how long did that last? Cheap sales gimmicks is the name of the comics game.

Personally I just see this as Heroes Reborn DC style. I'm all for seeing some interesting re-shaking to the history of some characters, but I do dislike the "keep some ideas, drop others". Case in point, I consider "Death of Superman" to be one of my favourite stories, along with the various characters it introduced (especally Cyborg Supes and Doomsday; I like the villains who can match Supes in physical strength or abilities), while I also enjoyed both "Last Son" for the "Lois and Clark" adopt a son angle (offering some great emotional attachment) and the death of Jonathan Kent in Brainiac. However now all bar the Green Latern (yay!) and Batman (boo!) storylines have been scrapped I doubt any of them will make it through (certainly not the Brainiac one as the Kents died before Clark went to Metropolise). Granted I am keen to see how a "more alien-like" Clark works but I always felt he was fine and relatable without aspects like that.

It also doesn't help that two of my favourite series (Booster Gold and Secret Six) were cancelled and no sign of continuing in DCnU, while Batman has nine books.

Booster's in the new Justice League International book.

Yep which is why I'm looking forward to it (that and I loved the JLI Brightest Day storyline). However Booster was a great series which ended with a large number of unanswered questions including if Booster ever learns Rip is his son, whom is Rip's mother, what ever happened to Rani the girl Booster saved and adopted from the future (missing girl posters were seen in the last few issues), whatever happened to Black Beetle after his power up and who did the "Bwa ha ha ha ha ha" laugh early on in the series.

I agree with you about Ted Kord serving as Jamie's mentor. It made no sense to me when they didn't bring back Ted at the end of Blackest Night, since he was the one dead hero that people would have been overjoyed to see. Johns said that he decided against it, because "everybody likes Jamie"; well, I like Jamie too, but that's no reason you can't find a role for Ted in the DCU. Shoulda brought Vic Sage back too....

So what if people like the guy or not? People like Wally (potentially more so than Barry) but that didn't stop Johns bringing back Barry and Wally vanishing off the face of DCnU. If they listened to fans a) I doubt they'd be doing this in the first place and B) Wally (and Danna if she's also AWOL though I don't know much about her fanbase) wouldn't be MIA.

Edited by pawcanada
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've got about ten or so titles on my pull list. I haven't picked up JL yet, but I probably will pop into the LCS today or tomorrow. At first I figured this whole thing was a bunch of BS, but when it comes down to it, DC really did need a reboot to set some things straight. The new designs, especially Superman's, aren't the greatest. There seems to be the belief that the characters don't look cool enough for a younger audience. I personally feel that decades and decades of poorly managed history and story-telling have likely had a larger impact. All of the major stories of the last... almost decade are so steeped in history that a casual reader or newcomer will probably have a hard time coming on board. And then everything with the multiverse has been so over-used and allows for such ridiculous deus ex machina situations (seriously, while Marvel presents the absolutely brilliant reintroduction of Bucky through complex, solid story-telling, DC brings Jason Todd back to life by literally just saying, "Poof, he's alive again." Screw that.) So DC now has a chance to try to create a cohesive, manageable universe. It's a great opportunity, and if they can stay the path, it can work... for a time. I expect the proper costumes and real DCU will be back soon enough.

I'm giving DC the benefit of the doubt here for the present. The Man of Steel post-COIE Superman reboot was terrific. And the fact that Superman got not one but TWO more origin reboots after MoS (both in this century, mind you) along with Crisis after Crisis tells me that DC lost itself and is struggling to establish a fresh, appealing voice. I'm hopeful that these stories can be as good as the post-COIE stories that came from DC.

I'm saying all of this as someone with much love and respect for the characters of the DCU. I've always been more of a general DCU fan over Marvel, but the last ten years have been hard for DC. There've been a lot of poor characterizations, and things have gotten muddy. So while I don't mind the reboot, it's because I want to see the DCU the way it was, not the way it's been trending lately. I have fond

of the DCU and want things to go back to the way they were.

Spoilers/speculation:

I didn't read Flashpoint, so I may be wrong, but it's my understanding that the new DC is created by Flash trying to reset the proper timeline. I guess something went wrong and things are close but not quite the same. This pretty easily allows for someone later to come back and re-recorrect the timeline to restore the proper DCU. There's also the possibility that this doesn't overwrite the DCU so much as it coexists in the multiverse. I think it leaves things pretty open for DC: if things go really well, keep this DCnU only. If things go pretty well, restore the old DCU and keep the DCnU a la Ultimate Marvel. If things go poorly, restore the DCU and ditch the DCnU. Although I would prefer to see DC move away from its over-reliance on the multiverse.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My thoughts? Here we go again!

Another soft reboot. Another year or so of "did that happen or not?" I realize this is the hardest reboot they've attempted since CoIE, but it irritates me that DC keeps claiming it's not a reboot. Really? You just shipped the JSA and related characters back to Earth 2 after decades of their being on being on the post crisis "united Earth". Does that mean Huntress is back to being on E2 and Bruce's daughter? What about Black Canary, Red Tornado, and the Hawks? And that's just off the top of my head. If it's a reboot, then call it a total reboot. Start all over and let it ride.

Let me give some background: I was as avid a DC reader as a Marvel guy back in the day, and had a JLA collection as deep as my Avengers at the time, and a huge fan of George Perez and followed him to New Teen Titans. Then CoIE came, which completely screwed up Donna's origins, and the longer that reboot ran, then more that had to be "adjusted" and it just got annoying. So I dropped everything DC. I tried again from time to time, and about the time I was starting to get into it again, they had Zero Hour which changed things again. So I left again, and stayed longer this time. But I always like Hal, so I picked up GL and a couple of other things and while not actually buying the books, I was reading them at a friends. Despite the silliness of punching reality, by the time Brightest Day was over, I was surprised how well DC was holding my attention again. Now this. I don't have the mental energy to play this game again.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only have interest in the big name characters and plan to pick up their books just to read see their status quo myself instead of reading online summaries. But it'd be a hard sell to get me to pick up #2s of any of them other than JL, which was okay. Even then, I'm just waiting for Jim Lee to exit the book so I can drop it. But all this speculation stuff is almost making me to pick up titles I wouldn't want. And I have to stand back and think, why am I buying it if I don't particularly care for Batgirl? Yes, I get caught up in the speculation side sometimes and I have to curb that bad habit. Anyway, I'm a Marvel and I wish DC the best of luck in this bold endeavor.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since my first post came out more harshly than I intended, (not saying it isn't my opinion, just harshly stated) I want to make a clarification- This relaunch may in fact be the start of some of the best DC based comics stories ever written. It may be the bold shot in the arm that the dying monthly comics industry needs. And I truly hope that it is.

I am, if you haven't guessed, a continuity nut. I love it. I see it as a wonderful tool that can enhance a story, not the straight-jacket other writers seem to. But I have had to relearn DC's continuity at least three ties now, and after reading everything that's now different in this relaunch just from JL #1, I realize I just don't have the mental energy, nor the real desire to do so again. That's not a judgment of the quality of the story... it's just me. Perhaps, after all these years, I really am getting too old for this $#!%.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think you sounded too harsh for what it's worth. DC has had some craptastic continuity for a bit. Superman has had at least three different official origins since COIE, and that annoys the crap out of me. Then with a reality-altering CrisisHourPoint every year, the continuity is just constantly getting hammered to the point that it's too hard to follow. I like a clean slate just for the sake of saying here's where we are. And I completely agree with you that DC needs to be more up-front and direct about what's going on just to reassure fans. I'm a continuity nut too, and with DC it just gets too hard. Continuity should completely be a story-telling tool, but DC seems to have fallen into some awful trap where continuity just changes for the sake of changing without much of a reason. Infinite Crisis, Identity Crisis, etc- they all had their nice points, but when it comes down to it, the important aspects were just crappy writing and story-telling that mangled continuity. 52 and a lot of the GL stuff, on the other hand, are amazing stories that show how a properly handled continuity can really propel a story. But, you know, it's a passing of the torch. There was the Golden Age that gave way to the rebooted characters of the Silver/Bronze Age that gave way to the rebooted characters of the Modern Age. It sounds goofy, but we may be at one of those pivotal moments.

Edit: For clarity, and to help myself shut up, I'm only expressing my own positive thoughts about what's going on. I'm not as on board with this as these posts sound. I'm optimistic, but I see that there is plenty of room for this to go horribly wrong and the very nature of it puts it on shaky ground to start with. It's a slippery slope.

Edited by Turtle
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really enjoyed Animal Man and Swamp Thing, there "Dark" section of the DCnU line up definately seems interesting. The seeming methaphysical link between the two is an interesting take on things and makes perfect sense.

Stormwatch was reasonable and seems very much likes its going to be a cornerstone of a future event and oddly has footnote references to thing that have already happened in the Stormwatch timeline but will happen later this month in Superman. Wasn't overly keen on the art in this though.

Action Comics was good, very good, probably partly because it was double sized so plenty actually happened, I probably missed some footnote but this also seems to be set in the past as per JL.

JLI was fun, Booster and to be fair everyone in it were really well written.

Detective Comics, Batwing and Batgirl were all good, Batgirl easily the best of the three.

Green Arrow was okay, nothing exciting but a tolerable read.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm out.

I spent a great deal of time and money collecting the blackest night / brightest day saga so i could get 'in' with the DCU. I figured it was a good opportunity to get involved and play catch up; that i'd be on board and freshly schooled in all the major changes that happened through-out the story; that it would be a good jumping on point to get into the DCU with. An up to date list of deaths, re-borths etc . . .

I did not figure i'd see it all start again a couple of years later and have to start from scratch again.

I read this a few months back http://www.newsarama.com/comics/oracle-is-stronger-than-batgirl-110606.html

It always seems that fan-boys (& girls) rant on a bit too much about how drastically changing a character goes against everything that makes the character great & most of those rants come from nerds who don't like change (i say this, because i have been 'that guy' before).

But the story linked above seems a bit more than just a fan-girl's rant, and is worth a read.

It makes me very genuinely sad that we will no longer have Oracle around.

Edited by Nessex
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only got Detective and Action. Detective was good and I preferred that over Action (I like Batman more). I didn't know what to make of the ending. Not in a bad way, but in a wow, cliffhanger way. Action was surprisingly better than I thought mainly because I don't like Grant Morrison's writing. So this was the best Grant Morrison writing I ever read in that it didn't seem like the weird stuff I'm used to reading from him. But I'm still not sure if I'm going to pick up #2s or even stick through the first arcs yet of all titles I'm sampling. I'm leaning towards TPB later. Overall, keep up the momentum DC! You got this Marvel zombie very intrigued!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Only really seen the JLA issue and I only flicked at that because I wanted to see what they had done to the costumes. Batman and GL dont look too bad but the Superman armoury type is :down:

It does remind me of the photos seen of the new movie costume but I think thats because of there being no trunks on either.

When it comes to DC I'm more of an Earth2 JSA type of fan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aside from Superman's costumes, so far I'm really enjoying the New 52. I'm a little shaky on the timeline- Action Comics #1 is well before Justice League which is before JLI. All of the titles, while occupying the same universe, are not occurring at the same time. I've also got some issues with the world's view of superheroes. Some titles make it seem like heroes are frowned upon, feared, or even hated and hunted(ie, Action Comics, JL, Detective Comics). But some other titles make it seem like heroes are pretty cool or even popular (see Animal Man, JLI). I'm guessing that the end of the first JL arc results in that change.

What's more, a lot of what's been released so far seems to have occurred before the present. Flashpoint ends with DCNU Flash and Batman talking in the Batcave which is clearly a point that none of the characters are at in the DCNU right now. So a lot, if not all, of the DCNU is taking place in a relative past point.

Anyway, this is a pretty fun experience, and I'm having fun with it. But after reading Flashpoint, I have no doubt that the main DCU is coming back, it's only a matter of when. Although I'm enjoying this universe, I hope for the sake of those that are not that the main DCU comes back sooner rather than later.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just seen some images of the new Supergirl costume, which to me seems to have a nod towards Powergirl in it. Now I'm no prude..but it to me is cut very high across the hips. I don't know if its the red of the costume emphasising the "target" area but something about it is wrong to me.

If you havent seen it yet. http://dailyblam.com/news/2011/09/19/dc-comics-preview-supergirl-1

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now I'm no prude..

Never would have guessed by you're avatar.

but it to me is cut very high across the hips. I don't know if its the red of the costume emphasising the "target" area but something about it is wrong to me.

It's the red coloring. I mean it's high, but not eyebrowraisingly so. The red shape is... odd. And the boots are just silly. Love the cape though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just seen the DCNU Teen Titans and WTH have they done to Red Robin!

I Liked Red Robin from when I read Kingdom Come but never expected him to appear in mainstream DC comics. They then put him in his own series in his cool Dr Midnite looking costume which I liked.

I have no idea what the character in the New Teen Titans is but I don't recognise it as Red Robin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...