DCU Dark

[redhawk23]

^Lol that would be nuts!

Also has Swamp Thing ever encountered Poison Ivy?

Has she made an appearance in the new 52? If not then I wonder what ridiculous design Jim Lee is going to come up with for her.

The new Captain cold is dreadful.


On a completely different note, in the DC New 52 Free Comic Book Day issue, the comic features a place called the "black room" where a bunch of different supernatural artifacts are kept. Right in the middle of the two page panel that shows some of the contents of the room you can spot Etrigan's armore from Demon Knights.

 

[Mystirious]

Poison Ivy is in the new Birds of Prey comic book. Its a really good comic book that is definitely worth buying and I've been really digging it so far

Ivy is written really well in it

 

[chamber-music]

Enjoyed Jeff Lemire's Justice League Dark. Focusing on Constantine is a good idea as his one of the more intresting characters in the team.

His Unholy Trinity of John Constantine, Zatanna and Deadman. A plot ripped from an Indiana Jones-type action-adventure worked well.

Frankenstein and Etrigan are going to be revolving cast members as well.

 

[redhawk23]

Enjoyed Jeff Lemire's Justice League Dark. Focusing on Constantine is a good idea as his one of the more intresting characters in the team.

His Unholy Trinity of John Constantine, Zatanna and Deadman. A plot ripped from an Indiana Jones-type action-adventure worked well.

Frankenstein and Etrigan are going to be revolving cast members as well.

Really interested to see what Lemire does, won't be picking it up until next week though.

Etrigan and Xanadu in two titles? I wonder if any reference to Demon Knights will be made.

Frankenstein showing up as well?


I am quite excited for this title going forward.

Though I must say, the vampire cross over was fairly pointless.

 

[CConn]

Yeah, that was a pretty awesome first issue. For some reason, I don't think I really like the premise of JLA Dark, but Lemire presented it in a way that did have a very cool Indiana Jones-esque vibe to it.

He also did a pitch perfect job of making it extremely accessible to new readers (it almost felt like a #1, honestly) while still keeping a sense of history and continuity within the book.

 

[CrimsonMist]

Yeah, that was a pretty awesome first issue. For some reason, I don't think I really like the premise of JLA Dark, but Lemire presented it in a way that did have a very cool Indiana Jones-esque vibe to it.

He also did a pitch perfect job of making it extremely accessible to new readers (it almost felt like a #1, honestly) while still keeping a sense of history and continuity within the book.

Agreed. It was a great jumping on point. Considering I dropped the book after issue 2, this was a nice way of letting me know what happened in the mean time. The pulp vibe of it was really cool, too.

Though, unless since it's a reboot of alot of things, isn't Doctor Destiny's Dream stone Morpheus'? I'm kind of curious to see what's being kept and what isn't.

And if Lemire throws in Etrigan as a team member, he better rhyme!

 

[redhawk23]

Animal Man Annual was a waste, I must say, though the brief glimpse at a time when "The Red" overstepped its bounds was pretty great.

The new Justice League Dark is fantastic and I am quite glad to see the series apparently starting to find its footing as I like many of the characters and am interested in the premise but up to now I did not think it was coming together at all well.

It sort of reminds me of the show Dollhouse where after 5 or 6 episodes they finally figured out what they were doing and more or less had a second pilot.

 

[redhawk23]

Mother of God!

The unified cover art for Animal Man and Swamp Thing #12 by Steve Pugh and Yanick Paquette

Colors by Fairbairne

 

[Mystirious]

That's a pretty fab cover

Digging that artwork

The new Justice League Dark is fantastic and I am quite glad to see the series apparently starting to find its footing as I like many of the characters and am interested in the premise but up to now I did not think it was coming together at all well.

I dug seeing Felix Faust show up last issue and I'm already loving Black Orchid as a team member on the Justice League Dark

 

[CrimsonMist]

While I haven't gotten around to reading Animal Man #10 yet, I did read Swamp Thing #10 and I'm a little miffed at it.

There's a bunch of retcons to Abby's background that I don't like. The first example being that when Abby was a baby, she accidentally killed her mother by playing with dead tissue in her mother's brain. This, considering they've given Abby ties to the rot, is to be expected, I guess. But her mother was killed by villagers after she was accused of witchcraft in the previous comics. So to get rid of that is kind of silly. Then the book states that Abby is Anton Arcane's daughter and it seems to imply that Abby's real father, The Patchwork Man, doesn't exist anymore. And that's just as stupid, too.

The plus is that Francesco Francavilla does the artwork in this issue and it really made me realize how much better of an artist he is than Yanick Paquette in terms of story telling. Francavilla's layouts are simple and very effective. It's very easy to follow. His Swamp Thing is a little iffy, but overall, his artwork worked really well here. It harkened back to the Berni Wrightson period of the book, which was cool. I'd like to see Francavilla do more on the title, and do more for DC in general. Maybe the future will see that happens.

As it is, I'm getting a little pissed off at all the background changes Snyder has been making to the characters that he's working on. Does Mr. Freeze having a wife somehow make him less appealing to people between the ages of 18 and 35? Is the Patchwork Man and Abby's real father not appealing? Is it not edgy enough? What with the poor plot development with Abby being the avatar of the rot being nothing but small throwaway plot point that was easily resolved, Mr. Freeze abruptly becoming a part of the Court of Owls and the lagging pacing of both Swamp Thing and Batman as a whole, I'm becoming less and less enthused by what I'm reading.

 

[Spade]

Animal Man wasn't as gripping this week. The Red's constant change and the Hunter's plans with Cliff were some highlights, but the rest played out as an awkward crossover with Justice League Dark. I miss Foreman on the pencils, too.

Swamp Thing was the reverse, though. The pacing is much better than the last issue, and Francavilla's take is pleasantly distinctive. I don't know much about Anton Arcane, but he seems like a better antagonist than the nigh-omnipotent Sethe. It still has its issues, but I'm not so keen on dropping this as I was.

 

[chamber-music]

Animal Man's pace is getting a little too slow. Jeff Lemire is world building, creating or expanding the Red mythology but it feels like the plot is travelling at a snails pace because of it.

I hope he doesn't drag out the Barker family being reluctant to face their destiny much longer.

 

[Mystirious]

Hopefully the plot is going to start moving at a better pace before too long

Anton Arcane showing up in Swamp Thing made me happy I've missed that gloriously evil dbag

 

[Pyro Man]

So Resurrection Man is apparently cancelled after the 0 issue. No real surprise there, it was a low seller. I read it faithfully but I'm not terribly broken up over it since while I enjoyed it a good deal, of all the Dark books I read continuously (which was everything except JLD before issue 9 and I, Vampire) I enjoyed it least the least. At least this seems to imply we'll get answers and some sort of conclusion.

Frankly, I was really worried that Frankenstein or Demon Knights would be cancelled and replaced so I was relieved that they both survived.

 

[Mystirious]

I'm really digging Demon Knights so far this new arc has gotten off to a fun and interesting start and I really can't wait to get the new issue this week

 

[redhawk23]

Yes I was very afraid with the announcement of "Sword and Sorcery" that Demon Knights was at risk. It seems to have finally found its footing. I'm very excited to see the issue that came out today as the April and May issues were pretty great.

 

[Mystirious]

I'm hoping this weeks issue is as fab as last months

Bad ass lesbian princesses and talking horses

Good stuff

 

[trustyside-kick]

This month's Demon Knights was awesome as expected.

 

[Mystirious]

I'll be buying it today

 

[trustyside-kick]

I think that this issue proves that Shining Knight doesn't prefer women, too. Or could just not be the woman she reacts to. Fun moment, though.

 

[Mystirious]

It proves that Exoristos does fancy the ladies though so I'm happy about that

 

[Mystirious]

Is anyone else planning to check out that new Amethyst series when it starts

I loved the original one from a while back and I really dig the writer who's going to be writing the new series

 

[redhawk23]

Anyone else notice that Swamp Thing 11 is pushed back to the second Wednesday of the month?

Also, here's Paquette's cover for Swamp Thing #0.

Is it just me or do all of these covers all not quite work. This one isn't bad, but its just kind of meh.

 

[Mystirious]

I dig the Swamp Thing and Batwoman covers and I think the Demon Knights and Sword of Sorcery ones are quite neat as well

 

[Cain]

While I haven't gotten around to reading Animal Man #10 yet, I did read Swamp Thing #10 and I'm a little miffed at it.

There's a bunch of retcons to Abby's background that I don't like. The first example being that when Abby was a baby, she accidentally killed her mother by playing with dead tissue in her mother's brain. This, considering they've given Abby ties to the rot, is to be expected, I guess. But her mother was killed by villagers after she was accused of witchcraft in the previous comics. So to get rid of that is kind of silly. Then the book states that Abby is Anton Arcane's daughter and it seems to imply that Abby's real father, The Patchwork Man, doesn't exist anymore. And that's just as stupid, too.

The plus is that Francesco Francavilla does the artwork in this issue and it really made me realize how much better of an artist he is than Yanick Paquette in terms of story telling. Francavilla's layouts are simple and very effective. It's very easy to follow. His Swamp Thing is a little iffy, but overall, his artwork worked really well here. It harkened back to the Berni Wrightson period of the book, which was cool. I'd like to see Francavilla do more on the title, and do more for DC in general. Maybe the future will see that happens.

As it is, I'm getting a little pissed off at all the background changes Snyder has been making to the characters that he's working on. Does Mr. Freeze having a wife somehow make him less appealing to people between the ages of 18 and 35? Is the Patchwork Man and Abby's real father not appealing? Is it not edgy enough? What with the poor plot development with Abby being the avatar of the rot being nothing but small throwaway plot point that was easily resolved, Mr. Freeze abruptly becoming a part of the Court of Owls and the lagging pacing of both Swamp Thing and Batman as a whole, I'm becoming less and less enthused by what I'm reading.

I love the old continuity too as it's the one I grew up with but if after 10 months it's difficult to register that this IS a new continuity (therefore get Moore's ST run out of your head and take this new one as it's own thing) then perhaps you're better off just dropping these books. It's very clear that Snyder is going to do his own thing in re-establishing continuity in a new universe instead of adhering to what came before in the old DCU at this point even though he throws in a lot of nods to what came before with his new ideas anyway.