Official Batman Titles thread 2.0 - Part 6

[CConn]

well........not really.

although that may be more so due to the fact that I've never really been an avid comic reader/buyer.

aside from a few brief periods in my teen years, I never really bought or got into comic books. I guess I prefer to enjoy these characters through other media like games, tv shows, animations, and films.

and I've always been more of a gamer than a comic book reader. and there are a TON of games coming out in the near future. So, I really don't think I have the time, or the money, to keep up with all these titles......lol

plus, I'm not really "feeling" the new versions of the characters. they're ok. but I just get the feeling that everyone in this relaunch universe is somehow angry, edgy, cocky, or has an attitude.

so, I don't think I will be continuing with these titles.

in fact, I just cancelled my sub list at my local comic shop.

What books did you buy again?

I bet you, you just weren't buying the right books. I bet you could find 4 or 5 titles that you'd absolutely love.

 

[Mystirious]

Sorry to hear that Raven ;_;

I can really recommend Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E and Batwoman as well as Aquaman and Animal Man as absolutely fab and wonderful comic books if you do decide to give sime a try

Are you looking forward to Arkham City speaking of video games

 

[X Knight]

What books did you buy again?

I bet you, you just weren't buying the right books. I bet you could find 4 or 5 titles that you'd absolutely love.

I bought:

Action Comics
Superman
Supergirl
Superboy
Teen Titans
Justice League
Detective Comics
Batman
Batman and Robin

I may still pick up Justice League Dark and Nightwing......and maybe Batwoman and Batgirl ( if I can find it.....lol ).

 

[Assassin]

i picked up JL Dark and i was pleasantly surprised

 

[X Knight]

Sorry to hear that Raven ;_;

I can really recommend Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E and Batwoman as well as Aquaman and Animal Man as absolutely fab and wonderful comic books if you do decide to give sime a try

Are you looking forward to Arkham City speaking of video games

thanks for recommendations.

but aside from Batwoman, I really don't find myself interested in those other titles. again, just not my cup of tea.

and, yes, I am looking forward to Arkham City. I don't know if it will be a day 1 purchase, but I will definitely pick it up at some point. ( for me, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim is THE game for me for the rest of the year. Once that hits in November, I will probably be so wrapped up in that, I won't have much time for other games......or comics......lol ).

 

[CConn]

I bought:

Action Comics
Superman
Supergirl
Superboy
Teen Titans
Justice League
Detective Comics
Batman
Batman and Robin

I may still pick up Justice League Dark and Nightwing......and maybe Batwoman and Batgirl ( if I can find it.....lol ).

Yeah, for a reader like you, Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Teen Titans, Detective and maybe even B&R were bad choices.

Animal Man, Batwoman, Demon Knights, Frankenstein, Swamp Thing, Green Lantern Corps, etc. Would be much better. They all feature creative teams that are proven to tell great stories even outside of the superhero genre.

That's really what you need; assured quality to immediately grab your interest, and really submerge you into the medium.

 

[X Knight]

Yeah, for a reader like you, Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Teen Titans, Detective and maybe even B&R were bad choices.

Animal Man, Batwoman, Demon Knights, Frankenstein, Swamp Thing, Green Lantern Corps, etc. Would be much better. They all feature creative teams that are proven to tell great stories even outside of the superhero genre.

That's really what you need; assured quality to immediately grab your interest, and really submerge you into the medium.

yeah.....but the titles I picked up were the characters I'm most familiar with and the ones I'm most interested in.....lol

the other titles.......I really don't see myself being interested in them. again, I've never been much of a comic reader, and I really don't see myself spending money or time reading those.

but....that's just me.......

I guess, another thing is......I'm also waiting to see when and where Raven will show up. She was actually the character I was most interested in seeing in the relaunch. But, alas, for the time being, she is MIA......

but then......with the way they're "rewriting" the characters, maybe I don't really want to know how they will change Raven.........

 

[TheCorpulent1]

She was in Teen Titans #1 for like a panel. She's in the top-right of Tim's big Minority Report-esque screen when he's reviewing all the (ugh) emerging teen metahumans.

 

[Anubis]

yeah.....but the titles I picked up were the characters I'm most familiar with and the ones I'm most interested in.....lol

the other titles.......I really don't see myself being interested in them. again, I've never been much of a comic reader, and I really don't see myself spending money or time reading those.

but....that's just me.......

I guess, another thing is......I'm also waiting to see when and where Raven will show up. She was actually the character I was most interested in seeing in the relaunch. But, alas, for the time being, she is MIA......

but then......with the way they're "rewriting" the characters, maybe I don't really want to know how they will change Raven.........

Raven with new Skank action.

 

[CConn]

yeah.....but the titles I picked up were the characters I'm most familiar with and the ones I'm most interested in.....lol

the other titles.......I really don't see myself being interested in them. again, I've never been much of a comic reader, and I really don't see myself spending money or time reading those.

but....that's just me.......

I guess, another thing is......I'm also waiting to see when and where Raven will show up. She was actually the character I was most interested in seeing in the relaunch. But, alas, for the time being, she is MIA......

but then......with the way they're "rewriting" the characters, maybe I don't really want to know how they will change Raven.........

But you're kinda missing my point. Most people think you need to be interested in the characters to enjoy the book. I disagree. It's the writing itself that gets you hooked, and has you coming back for more.

For instance, series like Runaways, Youg Avengers, DMZ freatured totally newly created characters that I didn't give a flying **** about at first glance, but within two or three issues...I was hooked. The story, the characters...the writing made them great. And I found myself waiting more anxiously for those titles than even Batman's books.

That, IMO, is what you should be looking for as a new reader. If you keep yourself penned in to one small set of mainstream characters, you'll assured to be disappointed.

 

[Anubis]

Yeah, I never understood the whole following characters thing. You like the character because you saw something they were in that was good. That's how you grow to like characters. You read something with them in it, THEN you like them if it's good.

 

[TheDarkKnight08]

Considering the feedback TDK has gotten, I'm not even going to bother pcking them up. Batman, Detective Comics, and B&R were all fab, soI'm sticking to those. Overall, this relaunch has been mighty successful, particularly Snyder's Batman. Feels good knowing I can actually look forward to the next issue of a Batbook after so many years.

 

[yenaled]

But the last few years of Batman has been the best the book has been in 10 years.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, I never understood the whole following characters thing. You like the character because you saw something they were in that was good. That's how you grow to like characters. You read something with them in it, THEN you like them if it's good.

But after you read that first good thing with them, then you want to follow them in the hopes that other good things will be done with them. Following characters is fine; you're just getting hung up on the chicken/egg part of it.

 

[yenaled]

I always think it's gone beyond a healthy point when people are collecting appearances of a character. Say a one panel cameo is enough for someone to pick up a book.

 

[Anubis]

Them mofos make us all look bad.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm not even there with Thor yet. I'm not saying I won't be someday. But, thank the stars... not yet.

 

[TheDarkKnight08]

But the last few years of Batman has been the best the book has been in 10 years.

Well, maybe I exaggerated a tad. Everything Grant Morrison and Paul Dini have done on their respective books has been great, no doubt. Morrison's whole saga really did wonders for the character and put him in a place that was foreign to me as a fan, but worked so damn well that I’d die with joy if I knew he’d get to work with Batman again. However, everything Tony Daniel was up in Batman was far from interesting. The art was horrendous, to me at least: felt almost Liefeld-ish to me. His writing was worse, sounding like something some “edgy” high school kid would write to sound deep, but failed miserably. That’s what I was really talking about. Detective Comics was dominated by Batwoman, and while that run was beautiful and amazing, it wasn’t “Batman’s” book at that time. Batman and Robin was the only “Batman” book I was picking up about a year ago, which I loved. Return of Bruce Wayne was great fun, but I was disappointed to see that upon his return, only 2 titles would belong to him: Batman, Inc, which had a great premise, but only had a couple of issues that blew me away. The rest were kinda ehh. I’m not even going to touch Batman: TDK, so that should give you a good idea as to what my opinion is on that. So, now I’m ecstatic to see that after so long I can really be excited to see what’s going to happen in next month’s issue for any of the Bat-books I picked up, even Daniels’ Detective Comics.

 

[antsman41]

last ten years, couldn't hold a candle to 1991-2000. Rucka, Dini, Morrison and a few others have held that high bar into this decade. Everything else (mostly DC with their weak crossovers or huge fails at attempting to shake things up) has been holding them down and making it hard to keep loving the comic Batworld.

It's been nearly half/half for the last ten years. When we got something good, we got something bad.

Vaughn's Batman arc, Rucka's Detective arc, first few years of Batgirl (Cass), Officer Down, Hush, Gotham Central (as a whole), Bruce Wayne: Murderer?/Fugitive, and now Batwoman and Morrison's Batman & Robin are great but for every issue/story of those we had...

War Games, War Crimes, War Drums, One Year Later, Hush sequels, 5 terrible years of Robin, 3 terrible years of Tarantula (I mean Nightwing), cancelling of Gotham Central, Spoiler as a Robin/faking her death/or just being a waste of ink and paper, Jason Todd Resurrection, Batman: Confidential and a ****ing soft reboot.

When between 91-2000 we had;

Tim Drake's Robin, Knightfall/Quest/End, The Shadow of the Bat, Prodigal, Dixon/McDaniel's Knightwing, Contagion, Kelly Jone's Batman arc/random tales, Cataclysm, the most epic and darring storyline ever; No Man's Land. Plus, we had amazing little arcs in Legends of The Dark Knight.

The very few weak stuff in the 90's was Legacy (retread of Contagion), too many wasteful issues or oddball stories in LOTDK/TSOTB and Road to NML (too much Azrael and Bruce Wayne fighting the government)...

 

[CConn]

You really can't call the cancelling of Gotham Central a bad thing.

I mean, yeah, it sucked, but a series like that just isn't ever going to last a large number of issues at a mainstream publisher. If anything, it was lucky we had it for as long as we did. If it was over at Marvel, it'd probably have been cancelled by issue 12.

 

[maninthechair]

Wow... I loved Batman #1. I know some of you feel it was over hyped or over rated but I really enjoyed it. I hadn't read a new comic since Dick became Batman until this one and it was a great welcome back. I'm not bashing that period because I know a lot of people really enjoyed it, I just feel the Bruce is the only Batman nor do I want to have that redundant debate (we all have our preferences). Every once in a while I would check back on these forums to see if there was anything that peeked my curiousity, but even when I found out Bruce came back, I wasn't compelled.
Then I went on my tablet to scan through what they were doing with this new 52 idea. I thought it was a total reboot and I am very happy I was wrong. I just thought it's lame to wipe out the history of a character (even the stuff I didn't care for like Dick becoming Batman).
So I see Greg Cappulo is drawing an issue and figured I would give it a shot because I am a big fan of his artwork. I have seen him progress as an artist from his days on X-Force, to working under McFarlane and then developping his own style which is amazing in my opinion. He did not dissappoint. I'll agree, I wasn't a fan of the Riddler's mohawk but it was something original. His pencils were amazing and my favorite take on Two Face and Croc. I think he has far surpassed McFarlane (who is still awesome).
The coloring of this issue was fantastic. The three main scenes had distinct feels to it and althout I am guilty of it myself, colorists are often incredibly under appreciated. The pencils and inks are a huge influence on the story but in this case the coloring just gave each main scene/chapter of the issue a distinct feel.
Some commented on Snyder's writing style being redundant which may or may not be true... I believe this is the first time I read any of his work but I think it fits Bruce very well. The internal dialogue always works for his character and why change something that works so well?
So people have been saying other 52 issues were better and I look forward to reading them now but this was a very nice welcome back to comics.

 

[X Knight]

She was in Teen Titans #1 for like a panel. She's in the top-right of Tim's big Minority Report-esque screen when he's reviewing all the (ugh) emerging teen metahumans.

was that really Raven??

I couldn't really tell.......lol

Raven with new Skank action.

oh don't you go there.............

 

[Anubis]

It's gonna happen.

 

[X Knight]

But you're kinda missing my point. Most people think you need to be interested in the characters to enjoy the book. I disagree. It's the writing itself that gets you hooked, and has you coming back for more.

For instance, series like Runaways, Youg Avengers, DMZ freatured totally newly created characters that I didn't give a flying **** about at first glance, but within two or three issues...I was hooked. The story, the characters...the writing made them great. And I found myself waiting more anxiously for those titles than even Batman's books.

That, IMO, is what you should be looking for as a new reader. If you keep yourself penned in to one small set of mainstream characters, you'll assured to be disappointed.

oh.....I understand where you are coming from. if you don't try out new things, you'll never discover new things or broaden your interests.

for instance, I was at my local store a few weeks back. I was browsing through all the comic titles and came across some books called "World of Flashpoint," starring a character named Traci 13...........a character I had never heard of before. I liked the "look" of the character from the covers and that the books dealt with magic/sorcery stuff, which I like.

So, I picked up the books and I enjoyed reading them. I also looked more into the character of Traci 13 and I liked that she was half-Asian like me!


With that being said, I do think you are naturally drawn to characters or subject matters that you are familiar with and interested in. For most of the titles you suggested, while they may have great writing/creative teams behind them, I've looked at their covers and descriptions, and they are just not titles that I am really interested in.

I may, however, pick up JL Dark and give that title a shot, since I like magic and supernatural stuff, and I'm interested in Zatanna.

but, as I have also said before, my growing "disinterest" stems not only from the characterizations/writing of the books, but more so from the fact that I'm not really a big comic book reader/collector. I have other activities and priorities, and I really don't see myself having the time ( or the money ) to consistently follow 5+ titles a month.

maybe 1 or 2 titles......and maybe JL Dark will be one of those......but certainly not all the Super titles or all the Bat titles or all the Dark titles.......

 

[TheCorpulent1]

You really can't call the cancelling of Gotham Central a bad thing.

I mean, yeah, it sucked, but a series like that just isn't ever going to last a large number of issues at a mainstream publisher. If anything, it was lucky we had it for as long as we did. If it was over at Marvel, it'd probably have been cancelled by issue 12.

I'm okay with it solely because it was a creative decision to end it on Greg Rucka's part when it became obvious that Michael Lark and Ed Brubaker wouldn't be returning to the series. Rucka considered it a shared creation by the three of them, and he didn't feel right about continuing it without Brubaker and Lark.

That said, I'm less than enthused with how all of the characters except Montoya, Sawyer, and Allen fell off the face of the earth as soon as it was canceled. At the very least, other writers could've dropped Procjnow or Driver's name when Gotham cops show up on the scene now and then. Instead they just returned to Gordon, Bullock, and an endless parade of nameless GCPD cops. It's a miracle Williams bothered to salvage Sawyer and just keep her as-is, given how Montoya and Allen were forced to join the cape-and-tights set.