DC Comics Thread

[Ezee E]

With the release of DC's new 52, there's a new interest to comics that I haven't seen in well over a decade.

I, myself, have gotten back into comics this way.

I've also downloaded them. While you can't appreciate the large layouts of Batwoman, I do like the focuses on panels, in which a small panel in a book can occupy a full screen without loss of detail.

DISCUSS.

[Sven]

A tip of the hat for creating this thread.

I am finding that thus far, halfway there, the books on a whole have been of surprising quality. Only a handful of nays and just a few more shrugs, these have been largely defensible individual works of comic narrative, if not quite art in most cases. The actual universe narrative doesn't make any sense, but it never has, and I have a hard time caring about that anyway. There's a lot of dynamism and talent on display, and a few great stories. And though little has been radical or earth-shattering, it's more comics and that's a good thing, and people are reading them and that's a good thing. Hopefully it is more than a flash in the pan.

[Ezee E]

A tip of the hat for creating this thread.

I am finding that thus far, halfway there, the books on a whole have been of surprising quality. Only a handful of nays and just a few more shrugs, these have been largely defensible individual works of comic narrative, if not quite art in most cases. The actual universe narrative doesn't make any sense, but it never has, and I have a hard time caring about that anyway. There's a lot of dynamism and talent on display, and a few great stories. And though little has been radical or earth-shattering, it's more comics and that's a good thing, and people are reading them and that's a good thing. Hopefully it is more than a flash in the pan.

It's certainly created a renewed curiosity in the comics themselves amongst people (myself included) that haven't read comics in well over ten years. So long as they don't have crossovers in which you have to get 6-7 issues, I'm fine.

So far...

Yays (Definitely continue to get):
Detective Comics
Action Comics
Batgirl
Batwoman
Animal Man (biggest surprise)

Maybes:
Swamp Thing

No's:
Men of War
Batman and Robin
Suicide Squad


Next week, probably just Batman and Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman has the neatest looking art direction that I've seen thus far. Getting it for that reason alone. The Flash has a similar appeal.

I find it funny on twitter that some people are confused about the timelines. I don't really care about it at all, enjoying them as their own stories.

[ledfloyd]

i was skeptical when the relaunch was announced, but at this point there are 5 issue #2s i want to read (action, animal man, swamp thing, batwoman and demon knights (and MAYBE batgirl)) which is like 3 or 4 more DC books than i was reading previously. and 5 of the 10 i've read i am interested enough to pick up another issue. so that's something.

[Sven]

My responses thus far:

Excellent
Action Comics
Swamp Thing
Red Lanterns
Demon Knights
Batwoman

Real good
Men of War
Detective Comics
Stormwatch
Batgirl
Suicide Squad
Green Lantern

Good
Justice League
Hawk and Dove
OMAC
Static Shock
Resurrection Man
Mister Terrific
Deathstroke
Grifter

Poor
Green Arrow
Animal Man
Batwing
Batman and Robin
Frankenstein

Awful
Justice League International
Superboy
Legion Lost

[Sven]

Seeing the preview for the Green Lantern Corps made me realize how frustrated I'm getting with establishing panels, though. It's like that damn fourth Harry Potter movie that couldn't introduce a new location with anything other than a sweeping CG establishing shot.

[number8]

Suicide Squad was one of my favorite series of all time. I was sad that it was cancelled, but I was happy that it had a lengthy run while staying top quality. Then along came Secret Six and while it was its own series, it paid plenty of homage to and respected Suicide Squad a great deal. It quickly became my new favorite series.

And then they cancelled Secret Six so they could poach the roster and start up a new Suicide Squad series that reads like an asshole's loose hair. :sad:

[Acapelli]

really not much else you can expect from a suicide squad book by adam glass, especially if you read his flashpoint tie-in "legion of doom"

what a crummy book

[number8]

Miguel Sepulvuda's cover for STORMWATCH #4 is very Burnham. Me like.

[Sven]

I never would've even guessed that was Sepulveda.

[Acapelli]

i think that is burnham

look at the street sign

[number8]

Doh. I think I figured out how people got confused, given the solicits. That's the variant cover. Sepulvuda does the regular covers and Burnham is doing variants.

This is Burnham's cover for #1. I wish I'd gotten this one.

[Ezee E]

I guess there's an easter egg of some woman in a red hood in all the issues.

[Sven]

New 52 readings:

Red Hood and the Outlaws - A more credible read than Lobdell's Superboy, thanks largely to Rocafort's efficient sequencing (even if some of his character figures could use some polish), but the dialogue is still a lurching terror, and the fantasy of Starfire, loose hips and dreamlike boobs and all, is pretty laughable. The loosey-goosey attitude is welcome, though. **1/2

Supergirl - This is barfy. Takes about twenty seconds to digest, lazy writing that banks on large panels of consequence-free action, destroying focus, replacing time, space, and character cohesion with randomly scattered robot debris. The slew of colorful sound effect texts creates an almost intriguing visual reason to look at a few pages of this otherwise unnecessary book. *

Nightwing - Eddy Barrows can draw single panels well enough, but his action sequences (nice opening subway scene aside) are illogical, his general sense of spatial orientation needs tuning. And I think Higgins, with this and Death Stroke, may be too infatuated with the concept of badassery. **

Blue Beetle - Ig Guara draws the hell out of this thing, and Bedard's script quickly and neatly introduces the fantastic spectrum of the narrative playing field. I hope the series veers toward the more outer-spacey milieu, as Guara's knack is clearly one for rendering creaturebeasts. ***

Legion of Super-Heroes - This book introduces about twenty characters, all of whom appear to have a significant level of involvement with the rote proceedings. Much too much to keep in mind. I've never read any Legion books, so as an introduction, I can confidently say that neither this or Legion Lost are sensible books for Legion virgins. Portela's artwork is a'ight, though. **

Catwoman - Delightfully, unapologetically trashy. March's unreal proportions still manage to entice given the healthily free-spirited context. Best is the subtle expressiveness of the faces and pheromone drenched creased leather of the final few pages. ***

Birds of Prey - Like Supergirl, it is a comic of few words, but this one has slightly more at stake. Still, the substance here is minimal. Starling's self-awareness makes for a refreshing trait, but Canary is basically a cipher. A good example of poor sequential decompression, reading like the first page of a chapter rather than the first chapter of a story. One thing I've noticed with several of these new books is a disregard for developing interesting antagonists. **

Captain Atom - I had no idea that Freddie Williams II could be this excellent. His inks achieve a stark, dramatic effect and his pencilling on Atom himself, complemented exceptionally by the always reliable Villarrubia, give the character a proper extraworldly feel. And the crazy stuff, monsters, atomic microscans, volcanic meltdowns, I couldn't be more excited by. The story is, aside from a scene or two of some rote exposition, a great showcase vehicle that leaves more than a trace of promise for a satisfyingly nuclear scale. ****

Batman - I like when stories are as much about places and locations as they are about characters and events. Snyder sets a clear design to wrangle with the concept of Gotham, and has already thrown a few exciting wrenches in the gears. Capullo's squarish Batman, despite its simplicity, is immediately signature. ***1/2

Wonder Woman - An admitted letdown. I'm confused about the key and the teleporting and the magic. And I think Chiang's action lines are tacky, even if his figures are impressive. And Wonder Woman kills centaurs. No sense for why anything matters. Yet another comic to feature a boring establishing shot of a city skyline, and definitely the lesser of the new 52 to feature post-possession disintegration. The best would be Demon Knights. **

Green Lantern Corps - Solid introduction that has the same rhythm and scope of a blockbuster. Pasarin's textures are as impressive as his sense of dimension, and Tomasi pitches the tone between lightheartedness and a-little-too-violent, a bankable window for sure. ***

DC Universe Presents: Deadman - I don't understand the last page, which was a nagging disruption from the reverie on which the book's laden approach to death, emptiness, and immediacy set me. I read it twice because I realized that I was barely aware of the fantastic artwork and its effective supplementation of Jenkins's emotional text. I do wish Chang would vary Boston's facial expressions a bit. ****

[Ezee E]

Sven, what did you think of the "establishing shots" in Batman? Pretty damn impressive to me.

It's definitely got the best "Gotham" feel.

[Sven]

Sven, what did you think of the "establishing shots" in Batman? Pretty damn impressive to me.

It's definitely got the best "Gotham" feel.

Oh, absolutely love those. Since it feels like Snyder is taking on Gotham specifically, it was only appropriate to dwell on the cityscape. But a whole bunch of these stories feel like they have to, in the most generic way, establish location first thing. Reading them all, the formula involved in writing and drawing these books has never been clearer to me.

[Acapelli]

freddie williams art makes me barf

[Sven]

freddie williams art makes me barf

Normally I agree with you. But have you seen pages from Captain Atom? It's unlike anything I've seen of his, and I like it a lot.

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Show Spoiler

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[Ezee E]

Catching up:

Action Comics #3 -- pretty nerdy and dumb. Award shows on El... Feels like I've seen this story before in Spider-Man.

Animal Man #3 -- great artwork and story continue on here. The family victims are pretty simple, but everything going on in "The Red" is both intriguing and fascinating to look at.

Batwing #2 -- The "realistic" artwork is nice, and I like that nonlinear form it had. Two issues in, and this is one of the bigger surprises out of the "New 52" that I've read. Although I'm not sure of the superpowers that are going on in Africa, it's still a fun one to read.

Detective Comics #3 -- This reads like bad fanfiction. The Dollmaker is an awful villain. I'd kind of like to see how it ends, but that last panel with "The Jokers" confirms that I'll be asking you guys if there's a resolution, as I don't want to even pay $2 for the next issue.

Swamp Thing #3 - I remember I was thinking of giving up on this, but #3 might be my fave issue of the Swamp Thing series. The exposition is gone.

Batwoman #3 - Not as good as the first two issues, but whoever is in charge of the panel creation is a genius.

Alright. Time to buy some now...

[bac0n]

Wow think I'm gonna drop Batwoman and Action Comics too, which means I'll be down to Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and Batman Inc for DC and that's it. And GL is dropping Mahnke so I may be dropping that as well.

Amazing how in the past few months I've gone from mostly DC with a Marvel title or two, to the exact opposite.

[slqrick]

DC is really gonna try and cash in on Johns leaving Green Lantern...5 books a month is ludicrous, especially with all the creative turnover. Batman Inc. is almost over, so there's really nothing I'm looking forward to from them at this point.

I wish Morrison was writing some Marvel instead of that whole DC Multiverse thing.

[bac0n]

Yeah the whole GL universe has become muddled. The past several major arcs have all been messes.

[number8]

Trying my best to avoid the supposedly huge Batman Inc 8 spoiler that got leaked today.

"Little did I suspect when I accepted the BATMAN writing assignment back in 2006 that I’d wind up spending the next six years writing the longest continued comic story I’ve ever attempted. I thought I’d said most of what I had to say about the character with Arkham Asylum, Gothic, and Batman’s appearances in JLA. Clearly, I was wrong.

The original pitch was for 15 issues winding up with BATMAN R.I.P. but something happened along the way and, as I was researching his rich history, I became fascinated by the idea that every Batman story was in some way true and biographical - from the savage, young, pulp-flavored “weird figure of the dark” of his early years, through the smiling, paternal figure of the 1940s and the proto-psychedelic crusader of the ‘50s, the superhero detective of the ‘60s, the hairy-chested globetrotting adventurer of the ‘70s, to the brutally physical vigilante of the ‘80s and snarling, paranoid soldier of the ‘90s.

By taking his entire publishing history as the story of his life, I was able to approach Batman from a different angle and the multifaceted character that was revealed became the subject of my story.

What would such a man be like, realistically? This was a man who had saved countless lives, faced innumerable perils, and even prevented the destruction of the world itself. This was a master of martial arts, meditation, deduction, yoga and big business. This was a man who had tamed and mastered his demons and turned personal tragedy into a relentless humanitarian crusade.

Taking that man seriously meant I had to throw out a few of the accepted ideas about Batman as a semi-unhinged, essentially humorless loner struggling with rage and guilt. The totality of his history and accomplishments made that portrayal seem limited and unconvincing, so instead, my Batman was a true superhero at the height of his powers and the peak of his abilities, surrounded by a network of friends and associates, all of whom had been inspired by his lead.

I chose to build my story around the basic trauma, the murder of his parents, that lies at the heart of Batman’s genesis. It seemed to me there would be a part of Bruce Wayne that resented his parents for leaving him and especially resented his father for not being Batman that night, so the principal villains were an archetypal bad father figure in the form of Dr. Hurt and a dark mother in the form of Talia, our villain for the concluding chapters of the story.

This master theme of damaged and ruined families was nowhere more in evidence than in the creation of Damian, the first “Son of Batman” to be acknowledged in the canon. In many ways this has been Damian’s story as much as it has been the story of Bruce Wayne and it’s a story that had its end planned a long time ago - for what son could ever hope to replace a father like Batman, who never dies?

And so, via Batman, Batman and Robin, Return of Bruce Wayne and Batman Inc. this epic tale has finally reached its finale.

Thanks to all the artists who helped realise the story – Andy Kubert, JH Williams, John Van Fleet, Tony Daniel, Ryan Benjamin, Lee Garbett, Frank Quitely, Philip Tan, Cameron Stewart, Andy Clarke, Frazer Irving, Scott Kolins, Chris Sprouse, Ryan Sook, Yanick Paquette, Georges Jeanty, David Finch, Scott Clark and of course, Chris Burnham.

Thanks to the inkers, colorists and letters and to my indefatigable editors.

Thanks to the readers who joined in the fun and contributed to the thought-provoking debates and analyses online.

The conclusion is finally here, with only four more issues to go. Four issues which take Batman to dark places he has never had to visit before. Four issues and I’m done, while Batman himself continues into as yet unimagined future adventures. He’ll still be here long after I’m dead and forgotten; long after all of us have come and gone, there will be Batman. It’s been a joy and a privilege to spend so much time in the company of pop culture’s greatest character but it’s going to feel weird waking up and not having Bruce Wayne’s calm, commanding, ever-so-slightly cynical voice in my head.

Batman forever…

- Grant

Scotland, December 2012"

[number8]

After all the titles I'm dropping next month at #18 because of creative team changes, I'm still getting Batman, Batgirl, Batman Inc, Wonder Woman (which I'm not enjoying all that much anymore) and All-Star Western. I can live with those for the foreseeable future.

[sevenarts]

I rarely see anyone mention Dial H in this thread. Easily one of the best DC series right now, mostly because it's so thoroughly divorced from everything else going on in the line.