DC Relaunching Everything? - Part 8

[CConn]

I tried a lot of the New 52 titles, but these are the ones I ended up sticking with:

Action Comics
Animal Man
Aquaman
Batman
Batwoman
Green Lantern: New Guardians
I, Vampire
Resurrection Man
Swamp Thing

Aquaman's on thin ice, but the rest I'm pretty content with. Apparently, I've been drawn much more to the DCU Dark line than anything else. Oh, and Batman Incorporated is definitely going on my list when it starts.

As far as future titles: Literally everything about the upcoming Earth 2 stuff is unappealing to me, but I'm sure I'll end up checking out the origin issues for Alan Scott and Jay Garrick in Earth Two regardless. I just like those characters too much to completely ignore them. I gotta at least see what kind of damage is done to them, if nothing else. World's Finest, however, can go hang. I hate Huntress and I'm indifferent to Power Girl at best, and I certainly never liked their original origins as members of the Earth-2 Batman and Superman families, respectively.

Did you try Supergirl at all?

It's not Action-level good, but I certainly like it tons better than Aquaman and New Guardians.

 

[CConn]

Anyway, I'm getting...

Action Comics
Batman
Batman and Robin
Batwing
Batwoman
The Flash
Green Lantern
I, Vampire
Justice League
Resurrection Man
Supergirl
Swamp Thing

I'm very content with all of them. Except Justice League.

As for what I'll be picking up in the future...

Batman Incorporated
Batman: The Dark Knight (once Hurwitz takes over)
Dial H
Justice League Dark (once Lemire takes over)

 

[Mystirious]

Yep Supergirl has been pretty neat so far

 

[CConn]

Also, I'm sad I'm not buying WW. It's one of the few books I've followed consistently for all of my 7 years of comic book reading. I mean, I've stopped buying it before - Picoult, Amazons Attack, Hester's JMS impersonation, etc. - but I've never quite lost hope in her series as quickly as I did this time around.

 

[Llama_Shepherd]

My DCnU catalogue:

Currently getting-
Action Comics
Batman
Batman & Robin
Green Lantern
Justice League
Nightwing (which is pretty awful)
Red Hood

Will get-
Batman Incorporated

Dropped recently-
Flash (tbh I just forget to buy it)
Green Lantern: New Guardians

Dropped early-
Aquaman
Batgirl
Batwoman
Detective Comics
The Dark Knight
Teen Titans
Superman
Wonder Woman

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Did you try Supergirl at all?

It's not Action-level good, but I certainly like it tons better than Aquaman and New Guardians.

I didn't. No interest in Supergirl to make me even consider it.

 

[CConn]

See? Cramudgeon as ****.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I don't really see why he can't still be around though. If both Hal Jordan and Kyle Rayner can be around at the same time post flashpoint surely both Barry and Wally can be too

Erasing the Barry Allen/Iris West relationship pretty much makes Wally West an undoable character.

In order to properly re-establish Wally, you'd have to deage him to where he is around the age of the Teen Titans, not the age of Dick Grayson and Kyle Rayner, which would be stupid. To just simply stuff Wally in without a family connection to Barry would mess everything up. How would he become the Flash? Why would we have a grown man acting like a childish fanboy? And taking on a codename that is not the Flash would be a disservice to the character.

So basically any option to rework Wally, is terrible.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

See? Cramudgeon as ****.

How is that curmudgeonly? I've gotta have some baseline level of interest in a character to try their comic. Or did you try literally every New 52 comic, regardless of whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to the leads?

 

[hippie_hunter]

So what books are you all reading?

Action Comics
Animal Man
Aquaman
Batgirl
Batman
Batman & Robin
Batwoman
Birds of Prey
Blue Beetle - I anticipate this one to get cancelled anytime soon
Demon Knights
Flash
Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
Green Arrow
Green Lantern
Green Lantern Corps
Green Lantern: New Guardians
I, Vampire - I also anticipate this one to get canned
Justice League
Justice League Dark - was going to drop this one, but Lemire is jumping on
Justice League International
Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion Lost - dropping after the Culling
Nightwing
Resurrection Man
Superman
Swamp Thing
Teen Titans - hate this book
Wonder Woman

 

[CConn]

I checked out a lot of number ones (and twos, even), but these were the books that I had actually planned on getting or wanted to really like, but just couldn't...

All-Star Western - While there's nothing technically wrong with the book at all, I greatly missed the one and done format of the Jonah Hex series, and the mystical element of the book just seemed pointless. If I want mystical western stories, I'll just read The Sixth Gun.

Aquaman - I think as All Star Batman is to Frank Miller, Aquaman is to Geoff Johns.

Batgirl - I've never been a big Barb Gordon fan, and Simone really didn't bring anything to the table to make me gain any appreciation for her; the writing in general seemed very stilted and corny...almost akin to a bad comic in the late 80s.

Blue Beetle - I still don't quite get how Bedard - normally a pretty fun writer - could so quickly and so resolutely suck all of the fun out of the BB mythos.

Frankenstein - I'm still disappointed I had to drop this. I liked the characters and the concept, but the plotting just didn't grab me at all.

Green Arrow - As a very cleverly said somewhere before, this reinvented GA is much more similar to the classic 50s/60s verison of the character than the 70s-00s Ollie we all knew and loved. And considering classic GA is little more than a bland Batman-wannabe, that's not a good thing.

Green Lantern Corps - Nothing about the opening arc seemed at all new or inventive. If anything, it seemed like someone trying to poorly mimic Tomasi's earlier run - minus all of the character progression and development that made his old series so good.

Green Lantern: New Guardians - The art probably turned me off the most with this one; it just seems extremely amateurish when compared to the likes of all of the other books I buy. Plus the writing seemed pretty "writing for trade"-esque.

Justice League International - I still don't quite get how Jurgens - normally a pretty fun writer - could so quickly and so resolutely suck all of the fun out of the JLI mythos. ...did I say that already?

Nightwing - Nothing about the series really interested me. There seemed to be a regression character-wise for Dick, revisiting his history at Haley's Circus just didn't interest me at all, and even Barrows didn't seem on par with his TT/Action Comics work.

Stormwatch - It started out very promising, but by issue four the character development hadn't nearly reached a point to keep me interested. And with Milligan coming on, I lost all interest in it.

Superboy - I really, really wanted to like this series. But this Superboy isn't at all the character that I'm a fan of. Add onto that uneven plotting and an artist I don't particularly like, I was done after two issues.

Superman - It just seemed utterly pointless compared to Action Comics. Moreover, Perez's Superman seemed to lack the vigor and panache of Morrison's. Giffen and Jurgens' are a bit better...but it still doesn't seem like a title that's at all necessary.

Teen Titans - Red Robin was kinda cool for the first two pages of issue #1, then everything got terrible. And I can't stand super 90s Image artists.

Wonder Woman - Y'know, the overall story probably isn't that bad - and the art is great - but Wonder Woman has barely seemed like a supporting character in her own title. Not to mention the way in which Azz decided to reinvent the mythos just doesn't seem to be at all what WW needs to reinvigorate the character.

 

[CConn]

How is that curmudgeonly? I've gotta have some baseline level of interest in a character to try their comic. Or did you try literally every New 52 comic, regardless of whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to the leads?

If I hear a book is really good, I'll check it out dispite my lack of interest in the character.

I have absolutely no interest (maybe even bordering dislike) in Thor or his cast of characters, but I started reading JiM because I heard how good it was, and I'm glad I did. And I've recently tried Hulk as well for the same reason, and Avengers Academy a few years before.

And yeah, I tried pretty much all of the New 52 books that I heard good things about - including stuff I had no previous interest in like I, Vampire or OMAC. And in both cases, I was glad I did.

The same could be said for most Indie books I buy. Morning Glories, The Manhattan Projects, Bulletproof Coffin, Sweet Tooth, etc. and so far have pretty much loved all of them.

So yeah, 90% of the books I buy, I buy because they're good - not because of who stars in them. And most of my favorite books have been ones that I didn't have an initial interest in.

I'm the opposite of cramudgeon.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm the opposite of a shut your face, I'll read what I damn well want.

 

[CConn]

No, please do.

Being a cramudgeon is part of your charm.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I always thought so.

 

[CConn]

On a related note, I've actually gotten a ton better with not buying mediocre books just because my favorite characters are in them. I think most of us suffer from that trait of sticking with a book despite not liking it for those reasons. It's awful buying those books you know suck, but you just can't stop.

 

[Anubis]

I never had that problem.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I dealt with it on Fraction's Thor recently. I think he's been getting better, so I've continued to buy it, but I always wonder in the back of my mind whether he's really getting better or I'm just getting better at fooling myself.

 

[Anubis]

That kinda sorta happened with me and Hudlin's Black Panther.

 

[CConn]

Currently, I'm only doing it Cap and Incredible Hulk.

There's some aspects about both that I like...but yeah, I'm probably just kidding myself.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Did Hudlin's BP ever get good? I thought it always sucked.

 

[Anubis]

The best it ever got was Mediocre.

Parker had a 3 issue arc during Secret Invasion and I realized just how terrible Hudlin's run actually was. Didn't buy another issue.

 

[Saint]

Fact is, I think they just shuffled Wally away because they knew Barry wouldn't be successful if readers had the option of ignoring him and reading a Wally series instead.

I'm not sure about that. If anything, the whole reason they brought Barry back was because Wally's title was tanking. After Infinite Crisis the title just imploded, and not even Mark Waid was able to fix it. That's not to say it couldn't be fixed (everyone knows I'd rather be reading Wally), but their solution was Barry.

It just doesn't make sense to suggest that they were worried Wally would overshadow Barry when, at the time, Wally's book was doing so poorly and there seemed to be a general lack of ideas for the character.

And you know what? The way it was before Flashpoint was fine. Yeah, I didn't have a Wally book and that was too bad--but he was there. It was only a matter of time before he got his own book again, the same way Kyle Rayner eventually did. Now, though? Who the **** knows.

 

[Kurosawa]

Jesus Christ, will you ever go away? We get it, you hate everything having to do with the modern DC Universe. Make a thread about your old favorites and stay there. Surely it would be more enjoyable to talk about things you like rather than *****ing incessantly about people reading things that you hate? Your elitism reflects negatively on the stories you'd like others to read. You never shy away from telling people who are reading comics now that what they're reading is terrible and that what you like is infinitely better. Instead you should be telling them that you see that they're interested in these characters and maybe they should check out these older stories.

I don't want current comics fans to read the stuff I like, they just dismiss it as stupid old stuff written by a bunch of dead guys anyway. Trying to get modern comics fans to appreciate classic comics is like trying to get rap fans to listen to the Beatles. It's not gonna happen.

I've said it before, but whenever you go on these little rants, you do a disservice to the truth in what you're saying by using such immature verbiage.

I've forgotten more about comics than many of you guys will ever even approach knowing. That's not a boast, or an insult, if anything it's a shame. I know my opinions on comics are radical, and I don't expect anyone to agree with me. I know most modern fans have no interest in the history of comics and dismiss anything before the mid-80's or so as stupid. You guys got into comics when they had changed radically and you've been taught the comics of the past are stupid and immature. I can't change that, nor am I trying to. I know very few people take the approach that I do in their hobbies, and I don't take it personally when people disagree with me. I've never seen anyone change anyone else's mind on a message board yet, so it's not like I'm so special that I could do it when no one else ever has.

 

[CConn]

Honestly, I think it's time we all stop *****ing about a lack of Wally for at least 30 seconds, and actually recognize that their current direction with Barry is actually pretty good.

Sure, I'd prefer Wally to be around, and he'd still probably be my favorite Flash, but Manapul and Booch have very successfully created an entire different element for Barry. Retaining that sci-fi nature of the Flash with a classic everyman archetype. Different than Wally, more wholesome, more retro, but, at the same time, not at all boring or bland.