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The General Comic Discussion Thread - Part 2

Did anyone else find Absolute Batman #2 to be a bit of a drop off from the first issue?

There’s a fine line in these books between being fresh and cool and being gimmicky. I thought Scott Snyder got a little too close to that line for my tastes.
 
Did anyone else find Absolute Batman #2 to be a bit of a drop off from the first issue?

There’s a fine line in these books between being fresh and cool and being gimmicky. I thought Scott Snyder got a little too close to that line for my tastes.

Issue 3, out now, doesn't really get any better in my opinion. It leans too heavily on the audience knowing what the book is about, and tells us rather heavy handedly what it's about, without ever showing it to earn the plot turn in the last page of this issue. Of all the books, Absolute Batman is the one book not trying hard enough. Everything feels way too convenient. The idea of a "working class" Batman is an interesting idea that this particular book has not explored too well this far. If you squint with relative ease, this is just mainline Batman. I'll give it to the end of this arc to see where I go with it. It's unfortunate because as someone who grew to loathe Snyder, it says so much that I liked the first issue as much as I did.

But hey, Wonder Woman #16. Probably the single best issue of King's run so far. Detective Chimp serves as our focus in this story, yet another weapon in Wonder Woman's arsenal. What works about this book, and this issue in particular, is how Wonder Woman's revenge against the Sovereign is bloodless and the violence is minimal. King is subverting that expectation and it's so great. If he can seal the deal at the end of this arc to exemplify Wonder Woman as an ambassador of Peace rather than Lady Conan, I think this could be very satisfying.

Astounding because Jenny Sparks #5, out this week, continues to be unreadable trash. Believe you me, Heroes in Crisis, misguided and mishandled as it may be, is significantly better than this book. I remain unclear going into issue 6 (of 7) what the spine of this story is. I don't understand what it's about. I don't know what's going on. The character of Jenny Sparks, of whom I know nothing about, is awful and annoying. I don't know how Captain Atom relates to this story at all or how it relates to Jenny Sparks. There's something to be said for a story about the spirit of the 20th Century having to deal with the condensed nightmare of the first 25 years of the 21st Century. How Tom King manages to miss that by so great a margin is something I'm not sure in ever going to be able to reconcile.

Hellblazer: Dead in America #11 sees Simon Spurrier 's deeply disturbing examination of the inherent horrors of the American Dream conclude. I have to re-read it but I found myself pretty affected by the rage you can feel coming out of Spurrier 's pen. It's a stark reminder that this country isn't all it's advertised to be and that there's so much performative nonsense getting in the way of everything. This whole series was getting more and more hardcore with the politics and I'm rather surprised at how hard it went. It sets up a potential follow-up (or maybe that's my wishful thinking...the world needs more of THIS Constantine and much, much less of the chain-smoking Dr Strange garbage unfortunately co-exists). It also establishes a new and much welcomed status quo for Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing. I would very much love a black label Swamp Thing series, preferably written by Spurrier.

New Gods #1. I'm not gonna say much about this one. But it delivered. In both writing and art (my God the art!). I'm in. This book is gonna be special. Check it out. Don't sleep on it.
 
Did anyone else find Absolute Batman #2 to be a bit of a drop off from the first issue?

There’s a fine line in these books between being fresh and cool and being gimmicky. I thought Scott Snyder got a little too close to that line for my tastes.
That is always the problem with such books.
At one point you have to dive deeper into them to build the world and characters, which brings problems when you in this case do a batman book.
You still gotta keep the frame of what Batman is intact, and then it often happens that a book is more gimmick than anything.

3 Issues in and im a bit confused with Snyders idea of telling this story.
Because a lot of it focuses on Alfred and too little on this idea of the working class batman...or really any of the ideas he sold the book on.
At times it feels like he throws us into an arc that should happen 15-20 issues in, not 3.
Weird pacing and focus.
 
I...i...i got no clue how to process this, what in the seven gods names is this?
Who greenlights this stuff but not a aquaman run?
 
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No Aquaman, no Red Hood and the Outlaws. But there’s tons of Harley Quinn books.
 
Okay we get a Aquaman Run...point for DC.
But still...we dont need and never needed a Harley Quinn fart book.
 
Guess they must have found someone who liked the fart jokes in Batman and Harley Quinn.
 
Okay we get a Aquaman Run...point for DC.
But still...we dont need and never needed a Harley Quinn fart book.

I'm just gonna pretend I never saw the book lol. I feel like DC has to be in a decent spot with the Absolute books selling well. I'd just cancel this. I get it, it's an April fools book, but yeah... no lol.
 
Guess they must have found someone who liked the fart jokes in Batman and Harley Quinn.
Which is the wild thing because people were ready to lynch DC for that one scene in that movie...and now DC does a Book around it? Insane.
I hate it so much that DC still tries to make Harley their Deadpool...it is such a bad decision and i hate it.

I loved her kind of Redemption arc in Tynions Batman run, where it seemed they would include her in the Batfamily and all that.
I really liked a bit more serious approach to her...but for some reason they got scared and gone back to dialing her character up to 100 and go the Deadpool direction.
 
Which is the wild thing because people were ready to lynch DC for that one scene in that movie...and now DC does a Book around it? Insane.
I hate it so much that DC still tries to make Harley their Deadpool...it is such a bad decision and i hate it.

I loved her kind of Redemption arc in Tynions Batman run, where it seemed they would include her in the Batfamily and all that.
I really liked a bit more serious approach to her...but for some reason they got scared and gone back to dialing her character up to 100 and go the Deadpool direction.
Agreed.
They have ruined that character. One of the most cringe moments in recent DC history was having her beat an army of Amazons in hand to hand combat in the recent Birds of Prey.
I dropped the book immediately after that.
 
Agreed.
They have ruined that character. One of the most cringe moments in recent DC history was having her beat an army of Amazons in hand to hand combat in the recent Birds of Prey.
I dropped the book immediately after that.
I forgot about that, incredible Bad decision.
Like, i get her Holding her own somewhat since she has enhanced strength and all(unless thats Not canon anymore) but beating a bunch of them?
Thats almost as Bad as Selina defeating talia in Hand to Hand or batman knocking cassandra out with a batclaw Hit.
 
Say what you will about that scene with Harley. But that throwdown between Barda and Diana was incredible. However, I too dropped the book when it became apparent that Leonardo Romero was not coming back on art duties.

Speaking of which, I managed to get my copy of Absolute Wonder Woman #3 earlier as my shop was closing for the next week and a half for the holidays.

This is the best Wonder Woman comic since Historia thus far and I will die on that hill.
 
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I need to stop in and say:

We live in difficult times. But at least we have the treat of Mark Waid writing Action Comics as a weekly comic.

I’m still getting caught up, but I’ve really enjoyed his first arc.

I've enjoyed his exploration of the Phantom Zone. I know it hasn't been everyone's cup of tea, but I've liked most of it so far.
 
The only thing that I’ve read from Dan Slott was his Batman Adventures run, which was well written and very smart for an all-ages comic.

Anyone else have a more informed opinion of him?
 
The only thing that I’ve read from Dan Slott was his Batman Adventures run, which was well written and very smart for an all-ages comic.

Anyone else have a more informed opinion of him?

Online personality aside (take away his twitter account lol), he's 50/50. I've liked a lot of his early work like The Initiative, Spider-Man/Human Torch, Arkham Asylum:Living Hell. But as the years have gone on he is very hit and miss with me. You'll finx his Amazing Spider-Man run is praised by news outlets but I find to be super mixed. Some good, some bad, a lot of eh (though part of that is due editorial mandate mess post OMD). His recent Spider-Boy book though is surprisingly fun though.

So as far as this annoucement, I'm kinda eh. It doesn't inspire excitement in me but I'm also willing to give his first issue a try.

Side note he used to post on the hype years ago. (https://forums.superherohype.com/members/dan_slott.22628/)
 
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Online personality aside (take away his twitter account lol), he's 50/50. I've liked a lot of his early work like The Initiative, Spider-Man/Human Torch, Arkham Asylum:Living Hell. But as the years have gone on he is very hit and miss with me. You'll fine his Amazing Spider-Man run is praised by outlets but I find to be super mixed. Some good, some bad, a lot of eh (though part of that is due editorial mandate mess post OMD). His recent Spider-Boy book though is surprisingly fun though.

So as far as this annoucement, I'm kinda eh. It doesn't inspire excitement in me but I'm also willing to give his first issue a try.

Side note he used to post on the hype years ago. (https://forums.superherohype.com/members/dan_slott.22628/)
Ok. That’s cool.
I always wonder who on the hype might be a comic writer. There’s about 5 folks who I am pretty sure could be Tim Seeley.
 

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