The New 52 general discussion

My thoughts on all 13 issues from the fourth (and final) week.

My ratings:

5/5 - Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Batwoman, Batman

4/5 - Action Comics, Men of War, Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Green Lantern, Resurrection Man, Birds of Prey, Green Lantern Corps, Wonder Woman, All-Star Western, The Flash, Justice League Dark

3/5 - Batwing, Justice League, Stormwatch, Batman and Robin, Demon Knights, Superboy, DC Universe Presents, Nightwing, Red Hood and the Outlaws, Supergirl, Aquaman, I Vampire, The Savage Hawkman, Voodoo

2/5 - Batgirl, Justice League International, O.M.A.C, Static Shock, Deathstroke, Grifter, Red Lanterns, Suicide Squad, Blue Beetle, Catwoman, Blackhawks, The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Men, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Teen Titans

1/5 - Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Hawk and Dove, Legion Lost, Mister Terrific, Captain Atom, Legion of Super-Heroes, Batman: The Dark Knight, Superman

I will be continuing with about 29 of the new 52 comics. I guess that's a victory for DC? I wonder how many of them I will still be reading at the end of the year.
 
I know this is the art nerd in me, but when I was reading Batwoman, there was something about the art that I couldn't put my finger one. Then when reading it a second time, it smacked me in the face. I think it's an amazing bit of visual metaphor by Williams.


(I know, most people won't care, but I need to share or I'm gonna burst)

13-14.jpg


What it is, when in the civilian world, everyone's coloring and shading's the same. Though, when out as Batwoman and "Plebe", you may notice, Batwoman is fully rendered and detailed (coloring wise). While Bette is only flat colored (where the base colors are put in place, with no shading or highlighting). It feels like it's like Bette's over top personality is being broken to be remade, like a soldier in boot camp.
 
Jaggyd said:
I know this is the art nerd in me, but when I was reading Batwoman, there was something about the art that I couldn't put my finger one. Then when reading it a second time, it smacked me in the face. I think it's an amazing bit of visual metaphor by Williams.


(I know, most people won't care, but I need to share or I'm gonna burst)

13-14.jpg


What it is, when in the civilian world, everyone's coloring and shading's the same. Though, when out as Batwoman and "Plebe", you may notice, Batwoman is fully rendered and detailed (coloring wise). While Bette is only flat colored (where the base colors are put in place, with no shading or highlighting). It feels like it's like Bette's over top personality is being broken to be remade, like a soldier in boot camp.
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Yeah Williams is great at that kind of stuff. I loved on the Black Glove arc where he gave each of the different Batmen a different artistic style. It's good artists like he and Francis Manupaul are on the reboot (but then we have Leifeld also so you win some you lose some).
 
Jaggyd said:
What it is, when in the civilian world, everyone's coloring and shading's the same. Though, when out as Batwoman and "Plebe", you may notice, Batwoman is fully rendered and detailed (coloring wise). While Bette is only flat colored (where the base colors are put in place, with no shading or highlighting).
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I think he did something similar (at least in certain spots) in the 2 Seven Soldiers bookends. I remember it specifically with the back history of Aurekles in Seven Soldiers #1.
 
Batman: The DArk Knight is bad enough to be a cult classic.

I'm going to get that terrible mixed metaphor voice over from the first few pages tattooed on my back. It's gonna be sooooo badass.

(God.... ALL this dialogue is priceless. "Do you think you could outpunt me, Bruce?")
 
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E said:
I think he did something similar (at least in certain spots) in the 2 Seven Soldiers bookends. I remember it specifically with the back history of Aurekles in Seven Soldiers #1.
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Yeah, he did. Jeebus, now you have me rereading SSoS... *fist shakes*
 
Thank goodness. Stormwatch #2 had the leap forward in quality I was crossing my fingers for... Action Comics #2 improved similarly (it's great to see Morrison doing a straightforward narrative)...

The star players are still Swamp Thing and Animal Man, which continue to be freaking awesome.

(Those are the only DC books I bought today. Which was a tremendous relief)
 
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Dr.Strangefate said:
Thank goodness. Stormwatch #2 had the leap forward in quality I was crossing my fingers for... Action Comics #2 improved similarly (it's great to see Morrison doing a straightforward narrative)...

The star players are still Swamp Thing and Animal Man, which continue to be freaking awesome.

(Those are the only DC books I bought today. Which was a tremendous relief)
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Yeah those are the four I got as well. All of them were great but I'm still loving Action Comics the most.

When does Justice Leauge 2 come out?
 
Action Comics getting much better...Grant Morrison building up momentum...love Luthor in this new version...pure evil...

Batwing really good!!! Great art and very fluent storytelling, kind of incredible how he got out of being sliced by a sword, but the last splash page made up for that...

OMAC...Dan Didio doing a better job at telling this story, the return of a major evil biggie (SPOILER), nice art!!!

Animal Man...getting wierder and wierder...fantastic art!!!! Along with Batwoman, the two best artists in the New 52

Swamp thing...way too wordy, Swamp Things yellow dialogue balloons made me sleepy, a bit of a letdown from No 1

Static Shock...better than No 1, but the art is highly distracting, i cant get this character yet

Green Arrow...horrible!!! This is not Oliver Green (not just the moustache issue), why am i following this comic?

Men of War...No 1 was better, i thought Sgt Rock was better off without metahumans

Detective Comics...hmmm...like the art, dont care much for the story...

Red Lanterns...Nice surprise, much better than No.1...looking forward to No. 2

Stormwatch...Promising, promising...

I did not catch "Hawk and Dove"...surprised by the first mini-series, Penguin and Huntress...as well as the announcement we are going to have an "Earth 2"...well, that didnt take long!!!!
 
So I haven't started Month two yet but I re-read month one today. I needed to see what I wanted to stay with. I still haven't gotten to read Animal Man, but since the second print came out yesterday my LCS should have it. I'll likely head up there later today.

Top of Month 1

All Star Western
Superboy
Batman
Demon Knights

Still pulling

Resurrection Man
Stormwatch
Swamp Thing
Action Comics
Green Lantern
Teen Titans
Legion Lost (Solely due to Legion Fandom. I hope it only makes it to 6.)
Legion of Superheroes
Deathstroke
Justice League
The Fury of Firestorm
Grifter

Dropped

JLI
Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
Green Lantern: New Guardians
Blue Beetle
Green Lantern Corps
Batman and Robin
Red Lantern

I also read Suicide Squad, Superman, Justice League Dark, and Batman: The Dark Knight with no plans to buy them before or after. Superman was probably the best of the bunch from them.
 
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Hm.... Stormwatch is still far from perfect, but if it continues this steady climb in quality, it'll be a must read by the end of the first arc.

I really dig Adam One. Interesting character, interesting high concept.

And the bit with the Fox was hilarious.
 
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Zombipanda said:
Hm.... Stormwatch is still far from perfect, but if it continues this steady climb in quality, it'll be a must read by the end of the first arc.

I really dig Adam One. Interesting character, interesting high concept.

And the bit with the Fox was hilarious.
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Wasn't Merlin of Arthurian Legend supposed to age backwards? Gotta wonder if we didn't see him in Demon Knights then...

And yeah, it was a marked improvement. Swamp Thing was better as well, but that might just be because I was less worried about what was going on and just enjoyed it.

Action was also quite good. I hope they don't plan to use Backmatter to justify the 3.99 price point each month though.

Still no Animal Man though. I'll have to talk to the owner tomorrow.
 
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Friday said:
Wasn't Merlin of Arthurian Legend supposed to age backwards? Gotta wonder if we didn't see him in Demon Knights then...

And yeah, it was a marked improvement. Swamp Thing was better as well, but that might just be because I was less worried about what was going on and just enjoyed it.

Action was also quite good. I hope they don't plan to use Backmatter to justify the 3.99 price point each month though.

Still no Animal Man though. I'll have to talk to the owner tomorrow.
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I thought about the Merlin connection immediately (though I only think the aging backwards thing is in Once and Future King). It also helps Cornell is writing both Stormwatch and Demon Knights. We'll see.
 
So as someone who rarely ever reads DC anymore, I decided to give a few of the New 52 titles a try. First one I read was Action Comics #1. Pretty great. I really enjoyed it, liked Morrison's attempt at trying to bring Supes back to his somewhat pulpier and formative roots from the 30's. And Lex testing the limits of Supes powers seems like its going to be a lot of fun. Otherwise, Lex was a bit boring, but I'm hoping Morrison allows him to show more later on in the arc/series. I even like the jeans. Rags Morales art is pretty spectacular as well.

Also read Justice Leage #1. Meh. It was ok, but all just set-up and none of it terribly interesting.

Superman #1 by George Perez was a decent read. I liked that it managed to mix a contemporary feel while at the same time injecting a noticeable old-school approach, especially in terms of the density of the story. Lots happened, and it served as a nice beginning.

Also read Detective Comics #1, and while it was ok, Joker cutting his face off was just...well, I don't know. We'll see where it goes.

I also downloaded Swamp Thing #1 (I'm going the digital route, sorry local brick and mortar), but haven't had a chance to read it yet... I got distracted by the Tom Strong comics they had available.




I'm glad DC did this reboot, as I've always shied away from DC in my later years because of the dense (and unneccesarily confusing) back-story/history/continuity of the universe. And while the Superman titles (and others) seem like a reboot, the Batman titles (and a few others) seem like there was no reboot at all. I've heard it referred to as a "soft reboot", but honestly, this seems like BS. If you're gonna do it, do it, don't say you're going to do it and only do it halfway, whatever the reason.

So far, thats my only gripe.

I'll definitely be sticking with Action Comics as long as Morrison is on the title, and probably a few others as well once I've had a chance to read more.
 
DIrishB said:
So as someone who rarely ever reads DC anymore, I decided to give a few of the New 52 titles a try. First one I read was Action Comics #1. Pretty great. I really enjoyed it, liked Morrison's attempt at trying to bring Supes back to his somewhat pulpier and formative roots from the 30's. And Lex testing the limits of Supes powers seems like its going to be a lot of fun. Otherwise, Lex was a bit boring, but I'm hoping Morrison allows him to show more later on in the arc/series. I even like the jeans. Rags Morales art is pretty spectacular as well.

Also read Justice Leage #1. Meh. It was ok, but all just set-up and none of it terribly interesting.

Superman #1 by George Perez was a decent read. I liked that it managed to mix a contemporary feel while at the same time injecting a noticeable old-school approach, especially in terms of the density of the story. Lots happened, and it served as a nice beginning.

Also read Detective Comics #1, and while it was ok, Joker cutting his face off was just...well, I don't know. We'll see where it goes.

I also downloaded Swamp Thing #1 (I'm going the digital route, sorry local brick and mortar), but haven't had a chance to read it yet... I got distracted by the Tom Strong comics they had available.




I'm glad DC did this reboot, as I've always shied away from DC in my later years because of the dense (and unneccesarily confusing) back-story/history/continuity of the universe. And while the Superman titles (and others) seem like a reboot, the Batman titles (and a few others) seem like there was no reboot at all. I've heard it referred to as a "soft reboot", but honestly, this seems like BS. If you're gonna do it, do it, don't say you're going to do it and only do it halfway, whatever the reason.

So far, thats my only gripe.

I'll definitely be sticking with Action Comics as long as Morrison is on the title, and probably a few others as well once I've had a chance to read more.
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Batman by Scott Snyder doesn't seem to be as continuity laden as the others and is overall one of the best books of the entire relaunch.
 
Action Comics is good but needs a better artist, Animal Man and Swamp Thing continue to be the best of the entire relaunch and Stormwatch is getting better but still has a long way to go.

I haven't read Batwing or Men of War (which I keep wanting to call Men at Work) yet.
 
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