What were D.C.'s best books before I.C.

[Anubis]

I don't even see why you're taking it so litterally. Batman was a huge dick at the time. He was simply doing what it is that huge ***** do.

 

[fifthfiend]

It was just Batman being a dick. It didn't need to be accurate, the point was that everyone was just being ****s to each other. It wasn't all that accurate that Diana lost her way or whatever either, but it was just what the three -- and by meta-extention, casual comic book readers -- thought of the other at the moment.

Anyone who's actually been reading those books up to that point knew that Superman was still inspirational, and Wonder Woman was still humane, and Batman was still rational. But that didn't stop those criticisms from being the biggest things that the fandom perceived. We all know what I'm talking about; "Superman's too soft and not proactive enough! Wonder Woman's too unrelatable and godlike! Batman's a meanie and a lunatic!" The great DC Trinity of p***y, ***hole, and dick. It didn't matter that it wasn't true, the masses still cited it.

And all of this was just Johns' way of portraying that perception, addressing that perception...and maybe fixing the perception. Whether or not it actually worked is up for debate, but the entirety of Infinite Crisis was just one giant meta-examination of comics, comicbook characters, and of the fandom.

The thing is it wasn't so much a meta-examination as a failed meta-examination that came across as having less to do with some hypothetical fandom's view of the characters than of Geoff Johns'. Which is exactly why the you-haven't-inspired line fails so badly, it reads like Johns' utterly silly meta-critique forced into Batman's mouth. I mean I don't know, maybe Johns didn't intend to write it like that? But like I said, then Infinite Crisis happened, and Johns totally forgot how to write.

 

[Harlekin]

Birds of Prey and Outsiders. Teen Titans has gone downhill, although I still like and read it.

 

[Kitsune]

Additionally, Birds of Prey isn't actually bad right now, but Simone did her best work pre-OYL.

Speaking of which, there were some ****ing awesome JLA: Classified arcs -- Ellis' and Simone's -- and none of the recent ones seem to compare.

I heard Firestorm was pretty good, though I read very little of it.

I've heard the opposite. The guy who runs my comic book store kept telling me it sold so poorly that he wondered why DC hadn't canceled it.

 

[BrianWilly]

Was he talking specifically about sales or quality? 'Cause we all know there are truckloads of good books that never make the top 100.

 

[Arkady Rossovich]

Gotham Central.

Indeed. I said a long time ago that this was nonsense,but I was wrong.I got the first 3 volumes and I'm almost done with the second. Extremely good ,well worth the money. The artwork is incredible.

 

[Harlekin]

Yeah, it's a shame I never got into Gotham Central while it was running. Very good series.