DC Relaunching Everything? - Part 6

[kguillou]

DC has really won me over this reboot. Coming from a lifelong Marvel Comics fan, i am very excited with what DC is offering now. Way moreseo than Marvel. From a quality standpoint, to pricing, DC is getting it right for me. Books like Flash, Batwoman, Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Batgirl, Green Lantern, WW, Swamp Thing, OMAC, Justice League are hitting all cylinders for me. The only thing imo, that DC still needs to work on Superman. I feel like they haven't quite figured out how to revamp him, because in all fairness he is a very hard character to update. His new costume looks so ugly and really needs work.

But yeah i think DC is doing great. Screw marvel and their $4 books. If Punisher and Daredevil weren't so damn good and not priced at 2.99, i wouldnt be buying anything from them atm.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Don’t call them Point Ones. Or Flashpoint Ones. But I understand that DC is planning a number of books, ancillary one shots if you will, intended to plug backstory on current New DCU comics, rather than offer extra exposition in the ongoing series, and breaking up the narrative flow.

Issue halves maybe? Issue zeroes? They’ll come up with something. Any suggestions?
DC Comics declined to comment, obviously. They’ve been doing that a lot lately.


http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/11/18/one-shots-at-the-new-dcu/

 

[Panthro]

DC has really won me over this reboot. Coming from a lifelong Marvel Comics fan, i am very excited with what DC is offering now. Way moreseo than Marvel. From a quality standpoint, to pricing, DC is getting it right for me. Books like Flash, Batwoman, Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Batgirl, Green Lantern, WW, Swamp Thing, OMAC, Justice League are hitting all cylinders for me. The only thing imo, that DC still needs to work on Superman. I feel like they haven't quite figured out how to revamp him, because in all fairness he is a very hard character to update. His new costume looks so ugly and really needs work.

But yeah i think DC is doing great. Screw marvel and their $4 books. If Punisher and Daredevil weren't so damn good and not priced at 2.99, i wouldnt be buying anything from them atm.

Too bad DC can't seem to translate comic success into movie success.

 

[moraldeficiency]

Zeroes seem right. They should also toss out a big one of just general stuff and charge like a dollar for it so everyone can get it. Like marvel point one without the price and more about the universe as a whole. That would be a smart move.

 

[Saint]

I agree with the "Flash greatly diminished" part. Minus the "ly diminished" bit.

Flash great.

If I ignore the massively wounded mythology (that's the part that's "greatly diminished"), it's acceptable as a standalone comic. As I've said before, I think Francis Manupal is providing some of (if not the) best art in the company right now, and the book looks pretty incredible and is laid out in a wonderfully unique way. However, I also think they need an actual writer on the book to make the story, well, good. It's not terrible, it's just not particularly interesting or well formed, I think.

There needs to be a solid sci-fi writer who's willing to collaborate with Manapul; someone who can bang out the story but will still give Manapul the freedom to plot the action sequences and lay the book out in his own way.

 

[Mystirious]

Don’t call them Point Ones. Or Flashpoint Ones. But I understand that DC is planning a number of books, ancillary one shots if you will, intended to plug backstory on current New DCU comics, rather than offer extra exposition in the ongoing series, and breaking up the narrative flow.

Issue halves maybe? Issue zeroes? They’ll come up with something. Any suggestions?
DC Comics declined to comment, obviously. They’ve been doing that a lot lately.


http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/11/18/one-shots-at-the-new-dcu/

If they are doing this it sounds like a good idea and a good way to let fans know what events are still in continuity and which aren't

 

[RoughNTumble]

I'd rather they not go into detail on the timeline, so I can keep pretending it isn't hopelessly broken.

 

[Mystirious]

Fair point

I think that they should make the timeline longer than 5/10 years. More like 15 or 20 years that would make a lot more sense

 

[hippie_hunter]

Fair point

I think that they should make the timeline longer than 5/10 years. More like 15 or 20 years that would make a lot more sense

DC's previous timeline was over 15 years. It led to where their superheroes such as Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Barry Allen, and Hal Jordan are clearly over 40. That's kind of a no-no.

 

[SpideyInATree]

The new series has been good but it needs more Wally

Agreed. However, Frances Manapul and Brian Buccaletto have been AMAZING in the artwork department. The book is one of the most visually stunning out of all the books I read.

However, in the Comic Geek Speak podcast I listen to they had a neat little theory on the Flash world that could bring Wally into the fold. The theory seemed to center on the Wally West of the "original" DC timeline searching for Barry and stumbling into the new DCU and can't get back to the original timeline. Something to that extent.

As someone who is kind of "new" to the Flash and I got sucked in by Johns' amazing run with Wally West I really would like to see Wally incorporated at some point in the New 52 world.

 

[kguillou]

DC's previous timeline was over 15 years. It led to where their superheroes such as Batman, Green Arrow, Aquaman, Barry Allen, and Hal Jordan are clearly over 40. That's kind of a no-no.

I think DC should just embrace the fact that comic book time is, shall we say, more elastic than real-life time. I'd rather they not try to explain everything and just go with it. It's just gonna make peoples' heads explode.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I think DC should just embrace the fact that comic book time is, shall we say, more elastic than real-life time. I'd rather they not try to explain everything and just go with it. It's just gonna make peoples' heads explode.

Exactly, while Marvel demands to keep Spider-Man into a state of perpetual man-childhood, they at least understand the need to not let him age past 25.

While it is cool to a certain degree that DC let their characters age rather slowly, you just can't have a Batman who is over 40 years old.

 

[Franklin Richards]

Batman at 65 was one of his coolest stories.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Batman at 65 was one of his coolest stories.

But it's intentionally kept out of continuity. Mainstream Batman will always be a guy in his mid-thirties.

 

[Saint]

Exactly, while Marvel demands to keep Spider-Man into a state of perpetual man-childhood, they at least understand the need to not let him age past 25.

While it is cool to a certain degree that DC let their characters age rather slowly, you just can't have a Batman who is over 40 years old.

Disagree.

 

[kguillou]

I admit though, i am curious as to what age Bruce adopted Dick. I mean in Nightwing, he's clearly a grown man, probably early 20's. Which by DC's timeline probably means Bruce took Dick in when he was...17/18-ish? And let's not get started on Damien. lol

 

[trustyside-kick]

Don’t call them Point Ones. Or Flashpoint Ones. But I understand that DC is planning a number of books, ancillary one shots if you will, intended to plug backstory on current New DCU comics, rather than offer extra exposition in the ongoing series, and breaking up the narrative flow.

Issue halves maybe? Issue zeroes? They’ll come up with something. Any suggestions?
DC Comics declined to comment, obviously. They’ve been doing that a lot lately.


http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/11/18/one-shots-at-the-new-dcu/

I hope we will get more information about this very soon.

 

[Saint]

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/11/17/harley-quinn-vagina-clown-car-suicide-squad/

Absolutely shameful. Crap like this (and post-Flashpoint Starfire) make me ashamed to be a comics fan.

 

[trustyside-kick]

Suicide Squad has been nothing but a crappy fan-fic for Glass.

 

[Lord]

I don't see how so many want to sleep with a psycho, completelly white person dressed as a clown all day. Harley Quinn is fun when well written, she is terrible in Suicide Squad.

 

[Cain]

I've never been a Harley Quinn fan.. My favorite heroes are in the bat verse; so by proxy I like a lot of villains too. She however just always felt like a contrived character. I realize she has her fanbase though and I feel for them. I grew up on Ostrander's Suicide Squad so I feel for the franchise as a whole. I'm not reading it but the backlash makes me always wonder why Secret Six got canned in favor of this crap.

 

[KingMob]

To be fair, that all white psycho clown has a pretty bangin bod.

 

[Cain]

Here's an interesting experiment: it's clear that the New 52 is a success at this point--but what about the reboot? When I think about the New 52 books that I enjoy the most, I find very few of them are books that actually benefited from the rebooted continuity. Indeed, it seems almost all of the genuinely good books didn't need the reboot at all, and some books were simply hurt by it.

Batman, Batman & Robin, Nightwing, Batwoman - did not benefit from the reboot, did not need the reboot in order to tell the stories currently being told.

Green Lantern, New Guardians, etc - did not benefit from the reboot, did not need the reboot in order to tell the stories currently being told.

Wonder Woman - Huge improvement, but so far the improvement has nothing to do with rebooted continuity. Could have been done in the previous continuity.

Swamp Thing - based on what I understand, it's not much affected by the reboot and didn't need it.

Animal Man - Not affected, didn't need it.


On the other side of things, books like Flash have been greatly diminished by the reboot. Truth is, the only books I've read that picked up the reboot ball and carried it to the touchdown are Action Comics and Aquaman. They made huge gains because of the reboot.

The real success of the New 52 isn't the reboot, it's the strategic assignment of quality talent (just like Spider-Man's BND). Most of these books would have been exactly the same (and exactly as awesome) if the same talent had been assigned to them with no reboot. Now, maybe that means that the reboot didn't need to happen (though I would say that, for the sake of Superman alone, I'm glad it did), or it might mean that the opportunity it presented simply wasn't exploited as well as it should have been. Also, they wrote out Wally West without even giving him a damn send off, so **** them forever. Ahem.

I'm interested to hear how other people's favourite books stack up; are the books you like ones that could have existed without the reboot?

Side note: Wonder Woman #3 was goddamn incredible. I'm making my incrediface right now.

Resurrection Man didn't really need a reboot either; just another volume. If you read the old series you're familiar with characters and tropes there so it's not really all square one stuff. All-Star Western is just a continuation of the previous Jonah Hex volume.

The WildC.A.T.S. characters on the other hand did get lots of reboot stuff well more so Voodoo a lot more than Grifter (Max Cash even gets killed again lmao) but in the end I don't think it was necessary to push the button like they did all over.

It's been entertaining though and I will say that with the new Flash book they've made Barry a lot more likeable than Johns ever did. I think more importantly with the reboot as a whole. It's that it's gotten comic book fans on a larger scale to diversify their tastes outside of just superhero books.

Dan DiDio is also the co-writer on an entertainingly written ongoing series which is the most surreal thing ever. Like one of those "I never thought in my life that..." type of moments. This whole thing has helped the industry in general with surprises like that. I didn't even think it but the numbers keep getting bigger and proving me wrong. Maybe it's a fad or maybe it's long term whatever it is; it worked.

 

[HighFivingMF]

My dog's name is Harley Quinn, so I'm used to the comics version not being as awesome as my Harley Quinn.

 

[SpideyInATree]

I read Demon Knights # 3 and Stormwatch # 3 and they are absolutely AWESOME! More people should be buying those titles. I was never into Stormwatch at all but the character Jack possibly has one of the coolest and most interesting power sets I've seen. Loved the scene where he was talking to Paris, Metropolis and Gotham...and how they were depicted when he spoke with them.