The Official Previews Thread

[TheCorpulent1]

Not really. Batman came out of Infinite Crisis largely the same as when he went in. The main story of "Face the Face" is about Batman's suspicions that Harvey Dent--who was cured and whom Batman left in charge of Gotham while he was on sabbatical, re-evaluating life with Dick and Tim--has reverted to his old ways and started killing villains and endangering innocents.

 

[Doc Destruction]

Batman is actually pretty easy to glide back into right now. Morrison's Batman I would get into from the start of his run.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, they've retooled Batman so that he's recognizable to pretty much everyone--he's still Bruce Wayne, Robin is his adopted son, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock are the entirety of the Gotham Police Department, and all of his classic rogues are bouncing around throughout Detective Comics. Morrison's resurrecting a lot of Silver Age stuff over in Batman and doing typical Morrison insanity. I prefer Detective Comics (so much so that I'm not reading Batman) because Paul Dini is basically recreating everything that ruled about the Batman: The Animated Series in comic book form. The only difference is the art style.

 

[PhotoJones]

Not really. Batman came out of Infinite Crisis largely the same as when he went in. The main story of "Face the Face" is about Batman's suspicions that Harvey Dent--who was cured and whom Batman left in charge of Gotham while he was on sabbatical, re-evaluating life with Dick and Tim--has reverted to his old ways and started killing villains and endangering innocents.

Ooh...that sounds particularly good.

 

[Doc Destruction]

It really is.

 

[PhotoJones]

Yeah, they've retooled Batman so that he's recognizable to pretty much everyone--he's still Bruce Wayne, Robin is his adopted son, Commissioner Gordon and Harvey Bullock are the entirety of the Gotham Police Department, and all of his classic rogues are bouncing around throughout Detective Comics. Morrison's resurrecting a lot of Silver Age stuff over in Batman and doing typical Morrison insanity. I prefer Detective Comics (so much so that I'm not reading Batman) because Paul Dini is basically recreating everything that ruled about the Batman: The Animated Series in comic book form. The only difference is the art style.

Hmm...that doesn't sound so good. Specifically, Robin being Batman's son or having only two honest cops within the GCPD. I like the aspect of Gordon, Bullock and a handful of others fighting an uphill battle, but damn. Just the two of them? The bit about being just like BTAS sounds perfect, though.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'm exaggerating on Gordon and Bullock being the entirety of the GCPD. It just feels like they are to me because all of the brilliant characters Rucka and Brubaker created and/or brought to life in Gotham Central have all been abandoned now (except Montoya, who's the new Question, which is even worse than just fading into obscurity). It's more accurate if I say that Gordon and Bullock are the only cops Batman actually interacts with in his comics now. Bullock earned his spot back on the force by rooting out a lot of the corrupt elements of the GCPD, too, so the GCPD is really not as corrupt as it was before in general. Frankly, I find it to be a boring, useless, and mostly inconsequential entity because of that.

I'm not a fan of Tim being adopted by Bruce either, nor am I fan of Tim's overall characterization as mini-Bruce with a hint of Dick. But Tim's not much of a presence in Detective Comics, so I'm just biding my time, hoping McKeever and Dixon restore Tim to readability in Teen Titans and Robin, respectively.

 

[PhotoJones]

Dixon's always been good with Robin.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yes. I hope he recaptures the magic.

It's funny; DC just had Infinite Crisis and promised bold, new directions for all their characters with One Year Later, but now, a year after OYL, they seem to be reverting to a lot of the writers who made the characters great before Infinite Crisis--Marz on Kyle-related GL stuff, Dixon on Robin, Waid on Flash, Dini on Detective Comics (kind of a stretch, but the animated series was pre-IC and it was pretty much the best portrayal of Batman ever). I guess history really does repeat itself.

 

[PhotoJones]

Yes. I hope he recaptures the magic.

It's funny; DC just had Infinite Crisis and promised bold, new directions for all their characters with One Year Later, but now, a year after OYL, they seem to be reverting to a lot of the writers who made the characters great before Infinite Crisis--Marz on Kyle-related GL stuff, Dixon on Robin, Waid on Flash, Dini on Detective Comics (kind of a stretch, but the animated series was pre-IC and it was pretty much the best portrayal of Batman ever). I guess history really does repeat itself.

Hopefully the fans catch on the sales increase. Marvel's needs the competition. Badly.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I'll certainly be buying Robin again when Dixon takes over. God, I hated Beechen's run.

 

[PhotoJones]

Who's doing the art?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Freddie Williams III is sticking around, which kind of sucks. But it's Chuck Dixon writing Tim Drake again, so I'll deal with it. Williams isn't exactly a Herrera or Liefeld or anything.

 

[PhotoJones]

I thought he was one of the good ones. His covers are good...I think.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Patrick Gleason's been doing the covers to Robin. DC's tricky like that. Their cover artists are almost never the actual interior artists. I don't know why that is.

 

[PhotoJones]

Patrick Gleason's been doing the covers to Robin. DC's tricky like that. Their cover artists are almost never the actual interior artists. I don't know why that is.

Because their interior artists are bad?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Not really. Williams himself isn't even bad, per se. I'm just not a fan of his style. It looks almost Talent Caldwellish, especially in the faces--although he's definitely better than Caldwell.

 

[PhotoJones]

Not really. Williams himself isn't even bad, per se. I'm just not a fan of his style. It looks almost Talent Caldwellish, especially in the faces--although he's definitely better than Caldwell.

Ouch. Talent Caldwell needs to change his name, STAT. I'd be embarrassed if I were him.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

You might come to different conclusions. Here's some inked art from Williams:

http://www.freddieart.com/OriginalArt/High_HTML/Robin164Pg20.htm
http://www.freddieart.com/OriginalArt/High_HTML/Robin165Pg11.htm

... and a colored one:

http://www.freddieart.com/_CentralImages/CurrentSplash.jpg

 

[PhotoJones]

You might come to different conclusions. Here's some inked art from Williams:

http://www.freddieart.com/OriginalArt/High_HTML/Robin164Pg20.htm
http://www.freddieart.com/OriginalArt/High_HTML/Robin165Pg11.htm

... and a colored one:

http://www.freddieart.com/_CentralImages/CurrentSplash.jpg

He's not bad. It's alright. He's consistent with his work with those 3 pages, at least. It's a Caldwell/Medina hybrid. It's not bad. If I liked a book enough, his art wouldn't bother me.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Exactly my reasoning for buying the comic when Dixon comes on.

 

[PhotoJones]

I'll be on board, as well.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Wow, you're really expanding out into DC territory. Any reason in particular?

 

[PhotoJones]

I've always wanted to jump in, but haven't found the time or money. I won't be picking up ASM 3 times a month, so that covers me for Detective Comics, LoSH and Robin. And I was already going to start on JLA when McDuffie starts.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Technically, McDuffie started last week with the JLA Wedding Special. Which I passed on and, now that I want it, is apparently sold out at all of the comic shops in my city.