DC Relaunching Everything? - Part 3

[hippie_hunter]

How so? Yeah I see that it will make it easier for people to jump in to something, but overall it does not allow for good story telling. Stories like "Long Halloween" and "Killing Joke" wont be made anymore. I'm sorry but I have to diagree with you.

What are you talking about? Stories like the Long Halloween and the Killing Joke (which was released as a prestige format book anyways) will still be written. Forcing writers to write for the trade hurt comics with unnecessary padding or cut content just so they could fit in a standard sized trade paperback.

Now writers can write a story as long as they want. If they want a 3 issue story, they can have it. If they want a 6 to 8 issue story (the standard trade sized story), they can have it. If they want a 12 issue story (like the Long Halloween), they can have it. The writers now get to choose how long they want their stories to be. It provides for better writing.

 

[T-1000 2.0]

More like they are doing this to make the stories better. Writing for the trade that DC and Marvel have done lately hurt comics with unnecessary padding for a story that should have been cut an issue or two and cutting content from a story just so that they could fit in a standard trade paperback.

Add in the creators involved (Geoff Johns, Scott Snyder, Jeff Lemire, Grant Morrison, Gail Simone, Peter Tomasi, J.H. Williams III, Paul Cornell, Tony Bedard, Brian Azzarello, etc.), DC certainly doesn't care about the stories

And I hate to tell you this, but staying the course with the comic book industry is going to kill it. Fewer and fewer people are buying comics and the mainstream is needed in order to get it to prosperity. It's the same thing with movies and video games. Just relying on the film snobs and hardcore gamers is going to kill the industry.

This is true, I admit defeat . I guess I am just stuck in the old ways and this almost rapid change to digital is taking a little getting use to. Oh well live and learn.

 

[The Batman]

The story no longer matters. It is all about writing for the mainstream which will pick up reading comics and then drop them when something else comes along. Forget about the people who really read them. Oh well, I am sure in the long run this will really hurt DC.

You basically described what happened in the old days...when comics actually used to sell.

 

[stillanerd]

DC The Source blog revealed some of the characters for Demon Knights and Stormwatch:

DEMON KNIGHTS:

• Etigran the Demon
  Shining Knight,
  Madam Xanadu,
  Al Jabr (NEW CHARACTER: the medieval playboy inventor)
  Clytemnestra (NEW CHARACTER, mysteriously independent from her people on the Island of the Amazons, the greatest archer of her age, who makes her way through Europe, staying apart, able to ride but not to walk.)
  Vandal Savage

STORMWATCH:

• Martain Manhunter (who has "conflicted warrior feelings about how super heroes do what they do.")
  Jack Hawksmoor
  Apollo
  Midnighter (he and Apollo are meeting for the first time)
  Jenny Quantum (who ages with the century she’s the spirit of)
  The Engineer ("better qualified to lead her team that the man who actually leads it")
  Adam One, (NEW CHARACTER, the leader "who’s been aging backwards since the Big Bang, the master of tactics who… forgets things and isn’t that great at convincing people he knows what he’s doing")
  The Projectionist (NEW CHARACTER, "the voice of and god of the internet")
  The Eminence of Blades, (NEW CHARACTER, "the universal master of bladed weapons, who has terrible doubts.")

As for their concepts:

DEMON KNIGHTS: Swords and sorcery and super heroes. The Magnificent Seven in Dragon Age. Some previous sword and sorcery books always seemed a bit grey and brown to me. This one’s got a team of huge characters in a proper, mapped out, fantasy setting, with a certain grim Game Of Thrones edge to it.

STORMWATCH: We are not (expletive deleted) super heroes. This one’s the angry teenage sibling of the DC Universe, except in this case it does know better. Stormwatch were here first, saving the world is their job and they think super heroes are decadent gaudy amateurs. They’re the ruthless stone cold professionals. Right now it looks like they might be facing the enormous threat they were created to combat, only to find themselves having a bit of a crisis of leadership.

 

[Anubis]

The Eminence of Blades? Seriously?


That other guy sounds like the Drummer.

 

[Saint]

- DC just announced that they are done writing for trades:

"Another change DC is making is that they won’t be ‘writing for the trade’ anymore. Writers have been told to write the story they want to write and not worry about the trade collecting. If they can tell a well-paced story in 4 issues, they’ve been told not to pad it to make it 6 issues. Editorial can worry about how it’s going to be collected. Going forward, books will be trade-collected depending on how the story fits. If a book has a 4-issue arc followed by a 3 issue arc, the trade will collect both. If it’s 2 4-issue arcs or 3 2-issue stories, those will get collected. As a side note, DC is looking into a new trade dress to represent the New 52 and a better spine design to call out information for fans."

- The Death of Superman is also still in continuity. So Superman continuity isn't being completely rebooted.

- Scott Snyder being moved onto Batman is being treated as a promotion for the writer based on the incremental growth Detective Comics was receiving.

- Dan DiDio thinks that Stephanie Brown works better as the Spoiler.

Sounds good to me.

I think DC needs to handle trades the same way Image collects Invincible; collect everything, and collect consistently, with numbered volumes. I started reading Invincible long after the series had debuted, but it was never a problem because Image collects there series in two formates; first, a series of smaller volumes (4-6), and also a series of larger volumes (12 issues). I but the larger volumes, and that's how I've kept up with the series.

With DC, though, they collect individual stories, not volumes of a series. If DC does one thing with this relaunch, it should be numbered volumes. Everything is starting over, which means you can afford to do that. If somebody wants every issue of the Detective relaunch, they should be able to pick up Detective vol. 1, 2, 3, and so on.

 

[roach]

I love that they are no longer writing for trade...some of my favorite issues in the past were stand alone issues

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Oh s***, Vandal Savage is in Demon Knights? Just got even more interested in that series.

 

[SuperFerret]

So... no JSA because Superman was the first superhero, but Stormwatch gets away with it because they're "not ****ing superheroes" and they're dragging down the Martian Manhunter with that concept, while also burdening him with a team of gritty knock-offs and new characters that no one will give two ****s about?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, that concept for Stormwatch sounds pretty awful. Angry teenage siblings suck. Nobody likes them. Fact.

 

[SuperFerret]

At least I'm not a fan of Black Panther. That's all I have to say.

 

[SouLeSS]

The voice and god of the internet.

What a terrible, terrible idea for a character.

 

[Anubis]

I think the Stormwatch idea would work if instead of using the Authority plus Manhunter and some losers they made up, they just used all those Century Babies from Wildstorm.

The High, Jenny, Doc Brass, etc.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

The voice and god of the internet.

What a terrible, terrible idea for a character.

I expect to see him use the word "lulz" a lot.

 

[Tron Bonne]

I'll still probably check it out due to Cornell and MM, but I have to agree with what others are saying, the premise and stuff for Stormwatch does sound pretty bad.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't know what to make of that "warrior conflict" thing with J'onn. I may still try the first issue or two and see how Cornell actually portrays him.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Yeah, I don't get that at all. Has he ever had any kind of real 'warrior' connotation? I'm almost surprised they didn't put Wonder Woman in his place with the direction they seem intent in taking her in recently. Seems like something they'd try to do with her in light of recent-er event. I don't know what to make of the whole concept, though.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

He was a cop on Mars, but I suppose, given the powers all the Martians have, that does require some warrior-ness. I don't know. We'll see. Open mind and all that.

 

[SuperFerret]

I've heard J'onn referred to as a "warrior-philosopher" type before.

 

[hippie_hunter]

The concept for Stormwatch sounds terrible. Instead of creating new characters, why not use already existing Stormwatch/the Authority characters like Battalion, Weatherman, Diva, etc.

That said, I'm also confused on why they're giving Voodoo and Grifter solo titles as opposed to putting out a WildC.A.T.S. series.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I would've loved to see a Wildcats series. I want more Hadrian.

 

[fifthfiend]

I wonder what the internet would have done when the GL switched from a magic ring to and intergalactic police force ring....
...or when the all new all different X-men were introduced
...or Barry Allen first became Flash

Mindlessly defended those highly debatable changes via obtuse, ill-considered references to The Shadow.

 

[fifthfiend]

That said, I'm also confused on why they're giving Voodoo and Grifter solo titles as opposed to putting out a WildC.A.T.S. series.

Someone should let Gail Simone write Gen 13 again.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

F*** that, if Simone returns to Wildstorm stuff, get her ass back on Welcome to Tranquility. And get Neil Googe back while you're at it.

 

[fifthfiend]

I never read Welcome to Tranquility because I have room in my existence for caring about exactly one Wildstorm thing and the space is already taken by Gen 13