DC New Boughts & Thoughts

[Kenney]

Maybe lacking isn't the right word. Maybe I should say the art hasn't been to my tastes.

[ThreeJackBogey]

Just got Animal Man and OMAC from TFAW as my LCS was out of both, and I didn't include them in my DCBS order. Can I get anymore acronyms in that sentence?

Animal Man: Solid issue. I like the setup, but I'm not sure I'm bowled over yet. The art is definitely unique, but without any previous exposure to the character, I may need a little more convincing on this one. I do like Lemire's naturalistic writing style. Pre-ordered issue 2. We'll see.

OMAC: Loved the art and the throwback writing style. I'm definitely hooked on this one. Makes me wish there was a New Gods title in the reboot.

Aside: Is Death of the New Gods by Starlin worth picking up sometime?

[Jon O]

Death of the New Gods is ok.  It's a fun story, but I'd read it as an elseworlds tale.

I also wanted to come back in and say Mister Terrific was awesome! One of my favorites in the line-up.  I do wish they'd went ahead and made him the smartest man in the DCU. Always felt silly to me that there was a definitive ranking of DC IQ's.

[valance_the_hunter]

I also wanted to come back in and say Mister Terrific was awesome! One of my favorites in the line-up.  I do wish they'd went ahead and made him the smartest man in the DCU. Always felt silly to me that there was a definitive ranking of DC IQ's.

Hooking up with power girl seems pretty smart to me.   

[DGoodhart]

Aside: Is Death of the New Gods by Starlin worth picking up sometime?

Yes!  It's a terrific story and Starlin's art is absolutely beautiful, it's definitely worth picking up...

Just got my order for the first two weeks of releases, but haven't had a chance to read them yet, hoping to add to this soon...

[Jon O]

Hooking up with power girl seems pretty smart to me.   

Exactly.

[Chris Campbell]

Exactly.

Yes, I really liked that.  Although the art during Power Girl's interaction with the other women was wonky.  I really liked Mr. Terrific as well. 

Still not sold on Superboy.  It takes something special for me to invest in a Superman family title.  Like Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns or Frank Quitely, for example.

[BobBretall]

Maybe lacking isn't the right word. Maybe I should say the art hasn't been to my tastes.

 

Better terminology.......

Someone might disagree that some particular art is bad, lacking, weak, etc because they might think it's the greates tstuff they've ever seen.   They should not argue when something is not to your taste.  That's a statement of absolute fact about your feelings/perception of the art.

(Same applies to writing.........   )

[glwarm76]

CBR ran it's new reader test for the second batch of DC's 52 titles. One of the interesting takeaways from this article was the confusion shared by a number of readers over the mission of the relaunch because many of the issues last week were tied to DC continuity before the relaunch. After reading Green Lantern #1, its hard to blame them. As much as I'm glad Johns is continuing the storyline I've been reading for years, I can understand the confusion of new readers. I would have been okay with a hard reboot, how many here would have accepted a hard reboot?

[Hassan T]

CBR ran it's new reader test for the second batch of DC's 52 titles. One of the interesting takeaways from this article was the confusion shared by a number of readers over the mission of the relaunch because many of the issues last week were tied to DC continuity before the relaunch. After reading Green Lantern #1, its hard to blame them. As much as I'm glad Johns is continuing the storyline I've been reading for years, I can understand the confusion of new readers. I would have been okay with a hard reboot, how many here would have accepted a hard reboot?

I don't know. They never did say they were going to reboot the whole line, just relaunch it. Their press release even said it. And to reboot everything would mean 52 origin stories. I like the idea of jumping right into their careers. Also, the one thing that DC has done well over the past several years was to developed their Batman and Green Lantern line of books and characters into successful franchises, the only successful franchises that they had. If they were to relaunch everything, including books that worked, then they would probably get into the trap and repeating the story lines that they already told. Also, it would be difficult to introduce Batwoman, Batgirl, Red Robin, Robin, Nightwing, and etc at the beginning if you started from scratch.

In all reality, we probably will not know if they made the wrong decision or not until a year from now, at least.

At this point, I am enjoying the comics they are produced, both the ones they relaunched or rebooted.

[DGoodhart]

Well, I know I'm gonna be a little bit late compared to everyone else, just by the nature of how I get my comics, but I finally read my first batch of the New 52 and just thought I'd pass on a few thoughts:

Justice League #1 - I thought this was pretty good for the most part.  I do agree with what others have said and think this would've been more satisfying as a double sized book just simply because I breezed right through the first read.  While I'd rather there was a little less decompression with this, I can understand using Justice League as the type of book to still stick with that sort of writing style.  The interplay between Batman and Green Lantern was OK and I thought Lee's art was stellar.  I appreciated seeing the little bits with Victor Stone, but have to wonder if they're planning to go further with him especially considering that they want to make him this "bigger" character (i.e. giving him his own book- I'd almost expect a Cyborg #1 to appear after this first arc finishes).  Sticking with this one for awhile anyway...

Action Comics #1 - Absolutely fantastic, just really exciting stuff and frankly DC should've launched this one right there with JL.  I cannot wait to see what happens next...

Animal Man #1 - Really enjoyed Lemire's story, but just wasn't as taken with Foreman's art (though I thought he picked up some steam by the end).  Planning to stay with this one for a bit.

Green Arrow #1 - I'm gonna buck the trend here, but I really enjoyed this quite a bit.  I thought Krul did a great job introducing this new version of Oliver Queen and his support crew and absolutely loved the Jurgens and Perez art.  Sorry to hear the Krul is leaving, but happy to hear that Giffen is coming in.  With Giffen coming on board combined with Jurgens and Perez, this one's got me more jazzed than ever.

Batgirl #1 - For the most part, pretty good, but I was left kind of cold by the end, but I think it's more with the overabundance of Bat titles more than anything else.  Simone's set-up was OK, and I thought Syaf really shined with the art.  I've got to make some changes though in what I buy and I'm basically finding that I'm less and less interested in the Batman family of titles (and the Green Lantern ones as well), so I'm not planning to stick with it.

Hawk and Dove #1 - Actually had a good time with this, though there's still some troubling aspects to Liefeld's art for me (mostly in facial expressions), but still planning to stick around for awhile.

Justice League International #1 - A nice solid super-hero book with some great questions posed around the UN plans for the team.  Lopresti's art was really, really nice.

Men of War #1 - Really on the fence with this one, I enjoyed it, but still have to make some cuts... still just weighing this one out...

Stormwatch #1 - I was left pretty cold by this one, I don't know, I think this is one group that might've been better served by still keeping it within it's own confines.  The artist looks like he's influenced a bit by Mike McKone, but there was still something there that didn't quite connect with me.

OMAC #1 - Absolutely awesome!!  Y'know, I think DiDio took a lot of crap with his work on The Outsiders (and I know I certainly dished it out a bit myself) and now I think if he'd had Keith Giffen working with him on the title from the start, it might be a whole different story.  DiDio was going for quite a bit of classic comic convention with that and I think Philip Tan was the wrong artist to help him pull that off, but with Giffen (and I liked the alter issues that he did with Giffen) he gets it down and it's nice to see them paired together again here.  Just one really fun book...

[PozrDu]

Justice League International #1 - A nice solid super-hero book with some great questions posed around the UN plans for the team.  Lopresti's art was really, really nice.

What I'll be interested in is...
what DC will do w/ J.L.I. when T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents relaunches.

If they're both in DC continuity, how many super-teams does the U.N. need?
You have to consider that in the recently ended T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents series
most of the old pre-DC continuity is intact.

[Jeff B.]

So Batwoman picked up in all it's awesomeness right where it left off.  Another gorgeous issue with amazing page layouts/panels leading us through a not so average Gothem crimefighter story.  Its like the Batman meets the X-Files or something.  Absolutely loved Elegy and feel like this was a great first issue to get us right back into the swing of things.

[thefreakytiki]

OK, round 3... FIGHT!

BATMAN #1
BIRDS OF PREY #1
BLUE BEETLE #1
CAPTAIN ATOM #1
CATWOMAN #1
DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS #1
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1
LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #1
NIGHTWING #1
RED HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS #1
SUPERGIRL #1
WONDER WOMAN #1

I'm buying all 12 but there are 5 titles I have high hopes for.  I LOVE finding out which of the unknown 7 jump out and make me giddy! 

I say yay to creative surprises!  It's like Christmas every week!



The Tiki

[JoeyN]

I'll be trying all of them, sans Legion.

[S. Earl]

Just Batman for me. I'm expecting great, great things. Scott Snyder has been on fire lately and I've loved Capullo ever since buying the Xforce issues Of The X-Cutioner's Song as a kid (loved that Xover).

[VinceB]

I'll be trying all of them, sans Legion.

 

[JoeyN]

I read it after the last relaunch for a while, and enjoyed it, but it just fell off and I just didn't care for it anymore.

[Ryan 'gobo' C.]

Batman, Wonder Woman and Red Hood (that preview was PRETTTY) for sure. Everything else will depend on reviews

[glwarm76]

I read it after the last relaunch for a while, and enjoyed it, but it just fell off and I just didn't care for it anymore.

My history with the Legion is limited to Johns and Waid. I loved Johns' Legion centered story arc in Action Comics and his Final Crisis mini series Legion of Three Worlds but when Johns ended his involvement with the Legion, so did I. Johns did a great job making the original Legion accessible, which is not surprising because making old continuity heavy characters more accessible is what Johns does best. Unfortunately, Johns involvement with the Legion likely doomed Waid's Legion reboot. I really enjoyed Waid's Legion because it was a fresh start and more accessible to younger readers. Waid's Legion would actually fit with the New 52 nicely, unfortunately it came a little too soon.