The DCU 52
Come September, DC will be relaunching the entire DC Universe with 52 new titles. As you might have gathered, Al and I will pick up the first issue of pretty much anything, if only to review it. But 52 in one month? Boy, that’s a lot.
On the other hand, I’m willing to throw a bit of time and money in it for the first month, in order to give a chance to the ones that sound like they might have something to offer.
So which ones do I really want to read? In a shameless bid to start an incredibly unwieldy comments thread, let’s go through them all and see. (I’m working here from the list on Bleeding Cool, by the way.)
1: Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. It’s the flagship; it’s the lynchpin for the relaunch; it’s by the two guys who are supposed to be driving the line. It’ll probably be good, but at any rate it’ll be essential reading for industry-watchers. That’s 1.
2: Justice League International by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti. Um… I was kind of looking forward to this, coming out of Generation Lost. (And the very fact that they spent a year setting up a new title to be launched after the reboot? Kind of suggests that there’s going to be enough previous continuity floating around to create all sorts of confusion. Have they learned anything from Crisis?) But, yeah, I was up for an ongoing Generation Lost series. Dan Jurgens, though? I haven’t read anything I liked from him in years. Call this a no.
3: Teen Titans by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund. One of those “it’s been around for decades, we must keep it going” franchises. Would I pick up the existing Teen Titans series just because this creative team came aboard? Not unless it was a podcast week and there was nothing else to talk about… so that’s another no.
4: Suicide Squad by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy. Another of the franchises that will not die, and I’m already reading the same premise in Thunderbolts. Never heard of the creators. Not exactly grabbing me.
5: Action Comics by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales. All-Star Superman was as good as everyone says, and while I gave up on Morrison’s Batman pretty quickly, I’m interested to see what he can do with Superman in a monthly comic. That’s 2.
6: Superman by George Perez and Jesus Merino. Hmm, my every instinct says I don’t want to be buying the Superman B-title… but it’s got Perez writing and doing the breakdowns, and that’s got to be worth a look. Call it 3.
7: Superboy by Scott Lobdell, RB Silva and Rob Lean. Don’t care about the character, wouldn’t start buying the book just because of a change of creative team… no.
8: Supergirl by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar. Not so much a character as a continuity quagmire, the last thing Supergirl needs is yet another reboot. It’s going to take more than a renumbering and a change of creative team to make me care about the low-end books in the major families.
9: Batman by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. I’ve never got in to the Batman books and I don’t expect this to be the time… but I’m vaguely intrigued by the creative team, actually. Might be interesting. Let’s call it 4.
10: Detective Comics by Tony Daniel. Heavens, no.
11: Batman: The Dark Knight by David Finch. Yeah, cos that turned out so well last time.
12: Batgirl by Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf and Vicente Sifuentes. Ah, the controversial healing of Barbara Gordon. That’s going to be a tricky one to pull off, but yes, I want to know what Gail Simone can do with it. That’s 5.
13: Batwoman by J H Williams III, Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder. I ordered it when the solicited it back in the spring, I’ll be ordering it again now. 6.
14: Catwoman by Judd Winick and Guillem March. The solicitation tells us nothing other than it’s another Catwoman series. Doesn’t really excite me. If there’s good word of mouth, I’ll buy the digital version, maybe.
15: Red Hood and the Outlaws by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort. One for the Batman completists, methinks.
16: Batwing by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver. This is a spin-off from Batman Incorporated, featuring the Batman of Africa. That… sounds like it could be pretty terrible, actually – references to the entire continent of Africa as one indistinguishable place are never a good sign – but I have a strange instinct to order it, if only for the trainwreck factor. 7.
17: Nightwing by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows. Rewinding the clock on Dick Grayson? Not interested.
18: Batman and Robin by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. I do not need more than one Batman title in my life.
19: Birds of Prey by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz. Wasn’t wild about Swierczynski’s run on Cable, not really excited about reading him on Birds of Prey.
20: Green Lantern by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy. Ah, now we’re getting into the Green Lantern books, which are pretty much carrying on as they are. Al likes them, but I’ve never much cared for the concept, and reboot or no reboot, they just feel like an inaccessible mythos to me. (And yes, you could say the same about the X-Men, but I wouldn’t start reading them right now either.)
21: Green Lantern Corps by Peter J Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna. See above.
22: Green Lanterns: New Guardians by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt. See above.
23: Red Lanterns by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes and Rob Hunter. Dilemma. The Red Lanterns don’t much excite me. It’s the Green Lantern D-title. But it’s Peter Milligan, and he’s rarely less than interesting. A very, very borderline yes. That’s 8.
24: Aquaman by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Clearly a priority for DC if they’re putting this creative team on it. Aquaman’s kind of a challenge to make interesting, but I’m perversely curious to know how they’ll tackle him. 9.
25: Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang. Never really cared for Wonder Woman, never really cared for Brian Azzarello… but the combination of the two sounds so bizarre that I can’t help wondering what it’s going to read like. 10.
26: Flash by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul. I really liked Manapul’s art on the recent, abortive Flash run. I’ll give it a go for that reason alone. That’s 11.
27: Green Arrow by JT Krul and Dan Jurgens. I bought the first issue of Krul’s Green Arrow last time round; it was okay, but I didn’t come back next month. Nothing here to change my mind.
28: DC Universe Presents by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang. Essentially a five-issue Deadman mini, since something else takes over the book after that. Jenkins is one of those writers who used to be consistently interesting and then kind of went off the rails a while back. It’s a skip, I think.
29: Savage Hawkman by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan. I have no interest in this at all.
30: Blue Beetle by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara. I like Jaime Reyes, I like Tony Bedard, I’ll give this a shot. 12.
31: Fury of Firestorm by Gail Simone, Ethan van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar. Vague apathy towards the character is outweighed by the fact that it’s Gail Simone. 13.
32: Mr Terrific by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson. Not familiar with the creators, solicitation makes it sound like a cut-price Future Foundation. Nah.
33: Captain Atom by JT Krul and Freddie Williams II. Well, that’s certainly being published in September.
34: OMAC by Dan DiDio, Keith Giffen and Scott Koblish. DiDio writing? Next!
35: Static Shock by Scott McDaniel, John Rozum and Jonathan Glapion. Static’s a well-liked character, and I’ve always enjoyed McDaniel’s art. I’ll give this a go. 14.
36: Hawk and Dove by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld. This is a joke, right?
37: Deathstroke by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert. Another of the franchises that won’t die. Not interested.
38: Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela. This is another of the titles that’s basically just renumbering and otherwise carrying on as normal. Not reading it now, not planning to start in September.
39: Legion Lost by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods. Hmm. Never really followed the Legion, not buying the A-book, but I do like Nicieza and Woods as a creative team. Let’s try it out. 15.
40: Grifter by Nathan Edmondson, CAFU and BIT. Yeah, because that was the problem with the WildStorm characters – they weren’t in DC continuity. Judging from the solicitation, they’ve grafted on the premise from Rom (he’s killing monsters in human form, but everyone else just thinks he’s a serial killer). All that said… Edmondson is writing Who is Jake Ellis, which is great. This could actually be good. Sod it, let’s say 16.
41: Voodoo by Ron Marz and Sami Basri. There is a limit to my curiosity, however.
42: Stormwatch by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda. Now with added Martian Manhunter. But also with added Paul Cornell, and I’d by Paul Cornell on anything, so that’s 17.
43: Animal Man by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and Dan Green. Lemire’s Sweet Tooth is very good. This will be nothing like it. And there’s another, quirkier Jeff Lemire book further down the list. So, pass.
44: Swamp Thing by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette. Yeah… I kind of get the vibe of worshipping at the idol of a beloved Alan Moore comic every time they revive Swamp Thing. I’ll pass, thanks.
45: Justice League Dark by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin. Worst. Name. Ever. But it’s Peter Milligan writing both Shade and John Constantine, so that’s a definite yes. 18.
46: Demon Knights by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert. I really would buy Paul Cornell on anything. I don’t know what the hell this is, but I’ve already decided to buy it. Let’s look it up… Madame Xanadu and Etrigan in the dark ages? Yeesh. I give that six months. But it’s Paul Cornell, so 19.
47: Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli. This would be the other Jeff Lemire book I mentioned above. Sounds a bit like overly self-conscious genre-blending, but let’s find out. 20.
48: Resurrection Man by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino. I don’t remember this making much impact on me the first time round.
49: I, Vampire by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino. A vampire comic in the DCU? Can’t say that really grabs me. I’d maybe try it in a quiet week, but not with all this stuff out there.
50: Blackhawks by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley. A modern day war comic. Not really my genre, and Ken Lashley’s art isn’t a draw for me.
51: Sergeant Rock and the Men of War by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick. Modern day mercenaries versus supervillains, from the sound of it. Feels like trade mark servicing to me.
52: All-Star Western by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey and Meridat. Their Jonah Hex run has been well received, and I get why, but I’ve never been much of a western fan in any medium.
That’s twenty out of fifty-two. Not too bad, DC. Not too bad at all.
Only one definitely yes for me (‘Action Comics’) and a few maybes (‘Justice League’, ‘Justice League Dark’, ‘Batwoman’ but I still have to read the Greg Rucka run). Annoyed that ‘Batman Inc.’ is being derailed and saddened that apparently the JSA won’t exist at all.
It’s funny that Didio says they intend to “rest” the JSA for the time being; my thoughts instantly went to Paul’s repeated suggestions that DC rest the Flash for a bit. Of course given there’s a line-wide high-profile mainstream consciousness-penetrating revamp going on, they won’t do that to one of their marquee characters. But they really should.
Peter Milligan or no Peter Milligan, you are are going to get bored with a Green Lantern D-title quick if you are not following even care a little about the flagship of this line.
For me Justice League. Justice League International. Action Comics. Batwoman. Stormwatch. I’ll catch up with the Green Lantern books eventually.
Snyder is doing a good job on American Vampire and the cover by Paquette (I think) looks good, so I’ll pick up SWAMP THING. JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK because Milligan’s wriing it (though I fear they’re setting up a new John Constantine so they can cancel the Vertigo series after a year or so). I, VAMPIRE because I liked th character when I was a kid, not that interested in vampires though. I never heard of the writer and artist for this series so I fgure I get the chance to get to know a few new artists. And DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS because I like the anthology format for the series (might be better to just wait for the trades though).
Since I’m not all that interested in super heroes, though I enjoy the marvel mutant freak show, I’ll ignore the rest.
I’ll be picking up Batgirl, Stormwatch, and – heaven help me – Hawk & Dove. Considering Birds of Prey is currently the only DCU book I’m buying, that’s a significant increase for me.
I’d consider maybe buying Batwoman and Fury of Firestorm too I guess if reviews made them sound appealing.
I’m not a DC person, so my eyes glazed over almost immediately, but I have to say that a Paul Cornell Stormwatch is intriguing. Probably not intriguing enough to actually buy, but there you go.
My pull list is getting a total makeover, with only Hellblazer staying. I’m following Batwoman in trades because Williams III’s art screams “No ads, please.” So I’ll be getting…
Justice League
Justice League Dark (Milligan doing weird: I’m sold!)
Swamp Thing
Animal Man
Action Comics
Superman
Blue Beetle
Firestorm
OMAC (what can I do, I love Giffen’s art)
aaaand JLI. But for nostalgic reasons. Dan Jurgens writing on Booster Gold was flat and uninspired compared to Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz’s and Giffen and DeMatteis’ run. He can’t write comedy. Which is a prerequisite if you’re going to do JLI. So I’ll give 6 issues and see.
I’m cautiously optimistic and/or hopeful about the relaunch, so it’s good to see you interested in a fairly large number of the titles, Paul. I’m probably around the same number. Particularly looking forward to Action, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Simone’s and Cornell’s stuff.
I’ve seen a fair number of people online basically declaring it a flop because they’re only looking to get six or eight books, which seems to be missing the point. If this whole thing works, they’ll be casting a large enough net that their business *won’t* depend on targeting people who will buy half the line.
Funny but I have the same thought about Suicide Squad. It was one of my favorite DC books as a teen and they have tried too hard to recapture that feeling and failed. However Jeff Parker has come very close with Thunderbolts. DC should have thrown a ton of money his way if they wanted to restart that book.
Out of all those, Batwoman is the only one that really leaps out at me. The rest are a mix – there are a number of characters I like the idea of (Mr Terrific, Etrigan, Blue Beetle) but I think I’ll wait for reviews before deciding on anything.
A slightly more disappointing thing is that there are a few properties which I’m either buying or would jump on at a new issue 1 that appear to have vanished now – Powergirl, Zatanna, Justice Society and Secret Six are all things I’d give a go to varyign degrees dependant on creative teams, but no sign of any of them, tho of course they may still be around.
The only DC book I still bought in Trades was Jonah Hex. It was fun in what it did, it wasn´t that far removed from a Vertigo title and best, it had no continuoity cross-overs from the rest of the current DCU. It was a mean little Italo western and I actually thought of changing my buying habits and ordering it monthly.
But All-Star-Western with a Hex in Gotham meeting the founder of Arkham? This is exactly what I don´t want to read in this book, so thank you, I´ll pass. Not to mention the back-up strips with all those lame other western heroes.
Even if I thought Milligan´s Hellblazer a brilliant comic – which I didn´t, I think it is meh and hated the Shade crossover – I wouldn´t touch Justice League Dark with a stick. Terrible idea. I have no interest whatsoever on Alec Holland superhero or John Constantine superhero (shudder). So that is a big no.
The same goes for Batgirl. The only characters (as far as I know) which really were developed over the years were Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. For all the big words about re-invention and whatnot, turning the clock back 20 or more years on character development is just sad. I liked some of Simone´s stuff, and the heat she is getting over this is idiotic. This is a company-character she is working on, and if they make Barbara Gordon into Bozo the Clown tommorrow she can take the job or not. If she wants to earn the rent she will do it. So what. I bought BoP a while until Simone got replaced the last time but didn´t missed it afterwards. But Batgirl has zero interest for me; I passed on the last three incarnations. So no.
Scott Lobdell? The Wildstorm characters? The “new” Harley Quinn which looks like Rose Tattoo´s evil twin? Dear god, no.
The only book which maybe is of interest is one of the Batmans. I like the character and buy him now and then, and Morrisons take on the character frankly made me drop the book. So maybe this new direction will be interesting. I definitly will buy the JHWilliams one, for the art alone. But here I wait for the trade.
And I am not interested in the Digital versions either. As I have neither IPod nor IPhone and hate reading comics on the PC, this has no relevance for me.
I’m definitely getting All Star Western and Batwoman, but that’s it. Will flick through Morrison’s Superman, Wonder Woman and the Wildstorm ones in the shop and see. Otherwise it looks piss poor.
Is Xombi cancelled? That would be a shame. Particularly when they’re giving Liefeld a series.
Harley Quinn’s redesign looks like something from Grimm Tales. Naff stuff. The kindthat gives comics a bad name.
I love Milligan, Shade and JC, but I’m not buying it because I don’t want to encourage them. I like my Constantine as far away from the Justice League as possible.
I’ll definitely give Action Comics and Justice League a look and… that’s about it.
@Mika: How come, you’re wanting Hawk and Dove but passing on Batwoman?
@:Andy D: Toatally agree about Jonah Hex, that sort of tacky “I better go see Sheriff Jebediah Gordon cos I’s In Gotham of the past” bullshit will stop me getting #2, but I’ll try #1.
Isn’t Hex supposed to be a wanderer? I can’t imagine him staying in Gotham for more than a few issues.
Because there is clearly something wrong with me.
Or, less flippantly, because Hawk & Dove was the first comic I ever got into, and though it may be mostly nostalgia, I reread the whole of the Kesels’ run a year or two ago, and still really enjoyed it – despite the Liefeld art. So I have a lot of in built fondness for the characters, and it doesn’t hurt that Gail Simone putting them in Birds of Prey this past year reminded me of that.
Mind you, if it’s as terrible as it may well be, I probably won’t last past the first story arc.
I really would be better off buying Batwoman.
Ok, let’s play.
I quite agree with your choices. Besides Batwoman, which I was looking forward to way before the relaunch was announced, I would check both Cornell’s books, probably Animal Man instead of Frankenstein and both Milligan books. Red Lanterns, quite honestly, could easily suck, but out of morbid curiosity I would check it. Same morbid curiosity, btw, would not lead me to pay for checking Teen Titans or Hawk and Dove. Action could be good, but I was never sold on Perez as a writer in Wonder Woman. Speaking Wonder Woman, I guess Chiang is enough for me to try this, but I really do not have faith in Azzarello, unless he pulls a very bizarre one like Dr 13.
8 out of 52… then again, if they managed to hook me in all of them, it would still be a better proportion than the current output of DC or Marvel.
At the very moment these are the only ones with strong enough creative teams for me. I could become interested in more of them when more information becomes available, if the concept of the series sounds promising or the art seems interesting: JLA, Aquaman, Batgirl, Supergirl or Swamp Thing even.
I’m seriously considering getting none of these 52 titles come September. My interest is very low across the board.
Justice League Dark tempts me, but I can’t help but think it will be bad. I don’t see it lasting long, either. If I pick up anything, it will probably be this, but I am increasingly considering waiting for the trade.
Demon Knights has Madame Xanadu? That’s a plus. But it also has Etrigan, and that’s a minus. If it ever reaches trade status, I might flip through it then. It should be a fairly short lived series.
I’m almost tempted to get Suicide Squad just to see how bad it is. If the cover is any indication, that could be “pretty bad”. Too bad that at its best, it could only hope to equal Secret Six.
Net effect on my buying is -1 book a month (JSA, the only DC book I regularly buy). Or MAYBE a push if I decide to check out the Johns/Lee JLA. I’m mostly a Marvel guy, and more of a character follower than a creator follower (at least for the new generation of creators), so there’s not much on that list that even piques my interest except maybe Perez.
I’m by default a Marvel guy, but in the last year as my pull list shrank it also became largely DC: Secret Six, theoretically Batwoman, Power Girl and Batgirl from DC, only Herc from Marvel. For me Batwoman and Catwoman are the only two I’m even thinking of picking up (Batwoman time has cooled me on a bit, and Catwoman I wouldn’t be considering except for buzz about Winnick’s work on Power Girl and Generation Lost lately). I’m unusual among Gail Simone’s readers in that I never really got into her Birds of Prey run. I only tried her work there towards the end of the first run, and none of that, nor the relaunch made me want to go back and read more. I think her affection for the characters makes her less good at selling new readers on them. Secret Six is, I think, one of the best comics of all time, and I’m there if she ever relaunches it, but her Barbara Gordon as Batgirl holds little interest to me, and I don’t think she’s the writer to sell me on it. I frankly don’t see how more than 30 of these are going to run for more than 12 issues.
It struck me today, that if DC wants to use more mystical heroes like JLD….
Why don’t they use The Spectre?
Sure he was getting a little over-powered, but if you’re rebooting you can take him back down. He’s a magic guy who looks like a super-hero and has a decent look and you can get some great visuals out of the punishments he inflicts on people.
Anyways books I will pick up? Resurrection Man, I have faith in Abnett although I doubt it’s the sort of character that will sell too well. Animal Man, for old times sake. Maybe DCU presents.
Morrison’s Superman, like others have said should be great going on the strength of All Star Superman.
I loved Ostrander’s Suicide Squad…so that means I’ll probably hate THIS Suicide Squad. Paul and Tdubs both meantioned Thunderbolts in comparison, but if I could grab a creator to do Thunerbolts, it would be Larry Hama. I think of (all) the (excellent) stuff he did on G.I. Joe over the years and yeah, I’d totally choose him to flesh out DC’s d-list villains and black ops agencies.
I am also dissapointed by the shelving of the JSA, it started going downhill with all the Kingdom Come stuff but I think it was great having the ‘elder statesmen interact with the next generation of heroes’ angle. None of the characters at DC (or Marvel) will ever really age, so you need some old fogey heroes kicking about so you can do stuff like this. It will be a shame if DC totally writes them out.
That and Wildcat is awesome. I loved his 1 man demolition of the Injustice Society way back when.
I’m just so…underwhelmed. Too many vaguely-defined team books. But Paul Cornell is certainly capable of greatness, and with him on so many books I’m sure at least a few of these will be great. I guess I was hoping for some real outside-the-box thinking, instead of a bunch more Superman and Batman books.
But the day-and-date digital release of all of these is the real news, anyway. If a large number of these books are excellent, I admit that I’d be tempted to buy an iPad, which I’m sure is what they’re hoping.
Out of these 52 issues, what’s the over/under on dramatic splash pages of hordes of barely identifiable heroes and villains charging towards nothing in particular? I’d say somewhere around 80. That’s why I don’t buy DC comics.
There is a big difference between the 20-25 books I’m curious about and the, maybe, 5-10 I expect to buy past issue 1 of.
It seems like it’s gonna depend on if DCBS tries to get my business and puts them at something reasonable to grab a bunch. And even then, I doubt they’d keep it up with #2.
That being said: Batman, Action, Batwoman, Batgirl, Justice League, JLD, the Cornell, Snyder and Lemire titles… these all seem worth taking a look at.
I’m crying blood over the apparent cancellation of Batman Beyond.
DCfu is how I refer to this relaunch from this point forward.
I’m actually a little annoyed/disappointed that some of their books I’ve been really enjoying recently – Booster Gold, Secret Six, Zatanna – are nowhere to be found.
I’m willing to at least try JL, JLI, Batwoman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, all of Cornell’s books, all of Simone’s books, and one from the general Batman, Superman & Green Lantern lines.
Even then, most of those will probably get the usual 3-issue grace period. And the other titles will be dependant on reviews, especially if any have very strong word of mouth.
Most of what I end up getting will probably be bought in trades though…which means there’s a high probability I’ll have forgotten by the time DC eventually get them out.
Surely Batman Beyond isn’t a DCU title, so it wouldn’t be on this list?
I’m surprised by what’s left out of this list. In addition to titles listed at Bleeding Cool, The Question, The Spectre, and Doom Patrol are titles I’d kind of expect to see here.
I’m picking up the first issues of:
Action Comics
Storm Watch
and
Justice League Dark
At the moment Zatanna is the only DC title I read with any regularity so this certainly represents an uptick in my DC buying habits.
read, maybe a couple. buy, zero.
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/06/01/flipping-point-the-coin-comes-scarred-side-up/
Four for me. Down one from my current pull list, so that’s a reboot fail for this lifelong DC consumer. Good thing for Vertigo…
The only two I’m definitely going to get are Batwoman and Action Comics. However, I think I’ll probably pick those up in trade form.
And if Azzerallo’s and Chiang’s Wonder Woman gets good buzz, I’ll probably pick up the trade of that too.
So are these just straight renumberings? Are we getting minor changes to the past that come up as needed too? Or is the entire universe being rebuilt from day one? I really havent bothered looking into this very much.
I’m fairly new to DC, I started reading their books at the start of 2008 and for the last three and a half years I’ve been buying roughly 35 books a month. This reboot is probably going to make me drop DC altogether, depending on how much is changed. I’m not happy that the books I have been enjoying the most (Batgirl, Supergirl, Power Girl, Zatanna and Secret Six) appear to be cancelled or radically altered. I spend far too much money on comic books and this jumping on point also seems like the perfect jumping off point.
I’m not getting any from my comic shop, probably. I may get a few digitals once the prices drop, but nothing at cover price.
I’m tired of the way DC editorial treats fans of the “wrong” characters, either telling them to like what’s being sold or making promises that those characters will return in a big way and then not doing it. (Yes, I’m a Wally West fan, how could you tell? Also a fan of Superboy when he was Kon-El rather than Connor Kent and the 90s Legion of Superheroes.) I’m sure there’s stuff I’d like (Firestorm, Action, JLD and Stormwatch all being things that interest me), but I feel like DC has jerked certain segments of its audience around too much in the past five years to earn my money.
Currently buying four Batman titles. This gives me the chance to drop Tony Daniel’s title. Scott Snyder is my fav Batman writer since Rucka, but I’m not a fan of Capullo at all. Definitely still getting Batwoman, maybe finally give Simone a try on Batgirl.
JLA & Action I’ll get simply the #1’s. I still think this is an AOA stunt and will return to regularly scheduled stories in Sept. 2012.
“So are these just straight renumberings? Are we getting minor changes to the past that come up as needed too? Or is the entire universe being rebuilt from day one?”
it appears to be yes to both. some characters getting total reboots and some getting tweaks.
Hawk & Dove with art by Rob Liefeld? For real? I guess I keep seeing it in articles so it must be true. Who in their right mind would solicit this? 20 years ago, sure, but Liefeld is synonymous with bad art and taste. At least amongst anyone I talk to about comics. Maybe there is an untapped market of potential Liefeld fans out there who have been waiting for this, his greatest project, reuniting with those superfamous iconic DC heroes, Hawk & Dove.
Or not.
I’m really surprised Scott Lobdell is writing 3 titles. I haven’t heard his name since 1996. I’m actually curious to see what he does with what he’s been given. Looking back on his days as head X-writer, he did a good job, especially considering he was left with fragments of story ideas from Lee, Liefeld, Poratacio, etc.
Might have been tempted by Cornell on Stormwatch, but dear GOD those are some horrifically 90’s costume designs. It’s just not worth the eyeball trauma.
I adore Moritat’s art, but have no interest in seeing more of the Palmiotti/Gray version of Jonah Hex, now with bonus continuity in-jokes.
Blue Beetle I might pick up in trade – I like the character and Bedard’s a solid writer.
Lobdell’s another one I might keep an eye on, though it’ll take some good word of mouth to get me interested enough to buy. I like what I’ve heard him saying about his approach to the Teen Titans so far, and he knew how to handle a team book back in the day. Booth’s art is variable, though…he does great anthros, but his human figures are very hit-or-miss.
Generally, I’m just not very excited about any of this. Excepting a couple of Vertigo titles, I’m not a DC reader in general, and a line-wide reboot smacks more of desperation than an excess of creativity, especially when one of the major stories is that they’re turning the clock back 20 years one character. But we’ll see how it turns out, I suppose.
Well, Bob Harras has succeeded in recreating 1990s Marvel. And he’s getting to do Heroes Reborn across an entire company line. The more I read about this, the worse of an idea it sounds.
Trying to decide whether to edit my own thoughts and picks into this post too…
The only books here I’m legitimately interested in are Batgirl and Batwoman, plus the Green Lantern books which I’ve been reading for a while.
I’ll probably check out several others out of curiosity (Batwing, Red Lanterns), creator loyalty (Firestorm), or “brand” loyalty (Birds of Prey, JLI) but I’ll drop those pretty quickly if they don’t grab me right away.
What happened to “My Greatest Adventure” in all this? The Weird Worlds mini-series ended with two of the stories promising to continue in My Greatest Adventure, and they mentioned it on the podcast as being in one of the sollicits, but not only is it not on this list, there isn’t anything that looks like it might be the same premise with a better title. Are they just jettisoning it? I mean, I get that a lot of plotlines seem to be getting axed mid-story, but it seemed like the mini was introducing the characters specifically so they could be part of the reboot.
Was getting prior to relaunch, and still will be:
Justice League
Action Comics
Batman
Batwoman
Wonder Woman
Wasn’t getting prior to relaunch, but will be getting now:
Aquaman (for Ivan Reis)
Stormwatch (for Paul Cornell)
Demon Knights (for Cornell).
On the fence:
Superman (currently getting, and was planning to after hearing Perez announced, but the released cover is so bad it made me re-think)
DC Universe Presents (Jenkins still has enough good will from me for his work from a decade ago)
Justice League Dark (which I hadn’t been sold on at all until Paul boiled it down above).
Was getting, but no longer will after the relaunch:
Detective Comics (a big drop for me, and I likely would have waited out Daniel if it hadn’t been for the re-numbering)
So, everything I’m picking up I would have gotten even without the relaunch because I’m interested in the creators. Really, the only effect the relaunch will have on me is that it will allow me to drop Detective and maybe Superman.
I came out with fourteen, but that’s now rising to fifteen after politeness has basically obliged me to buy Hawk and Dove (Sterling Gates came after me on Twitter, following my suggestion in that blog post that he’d be unhappy to be lumbered with Liefeld, and said actually he was really pleased to be working with him and thinks he’s great. I don’t agree with him, but he was nice about it, so I said I’d give the book a shot on the strength of his Supergirl work).
I suspect the standouts of the entire relaunch will be Action Comics (obv) and Justice League Dark (despite the name that just makes me think of the time they brought out Mars Dark bars). I’m going the opposite way from you on Lemire (buying Animal Man, not buying Frankenstein), and despite also loving Cornell I’ll just be going for Stormwatch out of his two.
I’ve been trying to work out which titles are closest to the ones I currently get. I think Simone’s Batgirl is probably going to be thematically closer to Simone’s BOP than someone else’s BOP, even if I’m not crazy about the character regression.
(You know what I always wanted to see? A storyline where Babs [temporarily] got the use of her legs back, and kept being Oracle, because that was who she was now. Ah, well.)
Given the name, Legion Lost should be about the Earth-247 Legion jumping from universe to universe. It’s not, although it does feature Gates as a sop to us 90s Legion fans.
It’s a weird integration of selected bits of Wildstorm and Vertigo in the mainstream DCU. This could still crash and burn and we’d be left with DC’s version of “Heroes Reborn”, but considering all the stops they’ve been pulling for Flashpoint, I have to wonder if somewhere DC is going to try to have their cake and eat it too. Still, as long as _The Unwritten_ keeps going, I’ll be fine…
I’m almost exclusively trade-waiting all comics now. The only one in DC’s new 52 that’s got me tempted to put in an order for September is Resurrection Man, which I really enjoyed the first series of (well, most of it. Went off the boil after #1,000,000).
I’m considering and waiting to see reviews of Animal Man, Hawkman, Firestorm, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, JLI, Red Hood, Birds of Prey, Supergirl and Superman. And Nightwing, Batwoman, Batgirl and Batman will most likely go onto my near endless list of Bat-trades to pick up at some point.
Disappointed by the lack of Booster Gold and Secret Six. Also, potentially, by the large changes to Birds of Prey. That seems very much like a title waiting to fail given that it’s being kept alive despite being knee-capped by the removal of Barbara.
I’m fine with them ‘resting’ the JSA, but I hope if/when they do come back they either shove them off onto an alternate Earth or do them strictly in past continuity. It’s getting more than a little tenuous having Flash, Wildcat and Green Lantern around and being WWII vets. While there are some cool legacy characters in the book, they could just as well be used elsewhere (JLA, Titans etc).
“Why don’t they use The Spectre?”
The Spectre doesn’t work in the current, hyper-connected, continuity-heavy DCU. During the Ostrander/Mandrake run, you could have the Spectre destroy an eastern European country, spread his ghost-self across New York City, go on a rampage and threaten to destroy the world, all without mucking up the comic with extraneous elements like Superman and the Justice League (who generally didn’t belong). Similarly, you could have giant crossover events going on in the DCU without dragging them into the book (and dragging the Spectre into them, likewise). And that was as it should be – the Spectre is really a horror character rather than a superhero, and shouldn’t be dragged into superhero narratives.
But once crossover mania started really settling in, the Spectre needed to show up along with everyone else in the DCU, and that’s where the character stopped making sense – because suddenly you had him showing up in Green Lantern stories of all things, and the omnipotent wrath of God was getting trounced by blue-skinned aliens and glowing space bugs and a bunch of other Geoff Johns shit. In his own element, the Spectre is a glorious freak, a hybrid of loopy Old Testament wrath and EC horror; in the DC of the last ten years, he’s just another jobber to get smacked down by another dope with a silly magic ring.
The Spectre doesn’t belong in the current DCU. Where he really belongs, actually, is Vertigo – the Vertigo that used to exist, anyway, before DC decided to strip it and trash it in order to “reintegrate” it into the DCU to give us some sanitized, PG-13 version of John Constantine.
I get the “cast a wide net” – but I wonder, what would have happened if they’d done the reverse?
Instead of 52 titles, reduced the line down to a core of, say, 12 regular titles… top flight creators on all of them, in the belief people would buy those in really huge numbers, and allow you to “follow the entire line.”
(Okay, a lot of creators out of work or signing with other companies. And less choice. But aside from that…)
I did the exercise with my wife. We met thanks to comics and I’ve got bookcases full of them, but she’s not nearly as much a fan as I am/was and she’s never been much of a DC girl either.
She’s more the target audience than I am, knowing very little about the DCU and about the creators involved. So she went by the covers and the solicitations.
We divided it into what looks Good/Bad/Meh.
The Meh ones usually got comments of “bland”, “boring”, “generic”. They are:
– Justice League
– Wonder Woman
– Justice League International
– Captain Atom
– Batgirl
– Birds of Prey
– Teen Titans
(here she did like Red Robin’s new outfit)
– Stormwatch (that one got a maybe)
– Swamp Thing
– Justice League Dark
(would’ve been more towards Good if not for the cover she thought was too screamy)
– Animal Man
Then there are the ones that she felt looked actively bad for one reason or another, usually because of either the subgenre that doesn’t appeal to her at all, or simply because something in the cover or about the creative team makes her cringe. She won’t touch these.
So the Bad ones are:
– Fury of Firestorm (she hates Van Sciver. So do I, at that)
– Savage Hawkman (“pukey art”)
– Green Arrow (taking generic to a new level, she’s very down on Jurgens)
– Green Lantern Corps (“generic drivel”)
– New Guardians (“even more generic drivel”)
– Red Lanterns (“Why are they VOMITING BLOOD?!”)
– Detective Comics (“cover looks disgusting”)
– Dark Knight
– Nightwing (she actually used to love Dick Grayson’s book, was interested in this, then she saw the cover and the art killed it completely for her)
– Catwoman (the cover was just terrible and the solicit told us nothing)
– Superman (she has no room for more than one Superman book in her life and she has no love for Perez, unlike me)
– Supergirl (“looks like a twit with a Bad Costume”)
– Legion Lost
– Legion of Superheroes (BFG’s + whorish outfits)
– Static Shock (she has no interest in reading about teens, she’s passed that)
– Hawk & Dove (Liefeld, of course: “His head is THIS SMALL!”)
– Suicide Squad (“Is that supposed to be Harley Quinn?”)
– Blackhawks
– Men of War
– Deathstroke (the huge sword made her snort)
– Grifter (“too 90s”)
– OMAC (“sounds horrible”)
– Demon Knights
– Frankenstein
– Resurrection Man (“no interest in seeing someone die over and over”)
– I, Vampire (“jumping on the bandwagon, pfft”)
– Voodoo (“bluh” for lack of a better word 🙂
And then there’s the “Good” ones or rather, the ones she’s willing to try out the first issue and see if they can hook her better. Unlike most of us, she doesn’t know who most of the writers are or if any of the ideas have recently been used elsewhere. Again, she’s basing it on the info she’s given:
So what will I be asking my store owner to order based on her reactions? the following 10 for sure:
– AQUAMAN(in part because of me)
– FLASH (based on Manapul’s art)
– MISTER TERRIFIC (she likes the “third smartest man” bit, I’m not so convinced 🙂
– DC PRESENTS (she still thinks of the Jenkins who wrote Inhumans and the original Sentry stuff)
– BATMAN AND ROBIN (she thought the solicit sounded really good)
– RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS (big surprise for me there, but she likes the description. She did point out the ugly way the artist drew Starfire’s boobs though, all melon-y 🙂
– BATWOMAN (but based on Amy Reeder doing the art, not JH Williams, so when is Reeder coming on, if at all?)
– ACTION COMICS (in spite of disliking both Superman and usually Morrison, she felt interested in it)
– SUPERBOY (surprised me even more, but there was something there she liked. She must connect with Scott Lobdell or something, somehow?)
– BLUE BEETLE (despite not liking teens, she liked seeing him on the B&B cartoon.)
For her BATMAN, BATWING, GREEN LANTERN and ALL-STAR WESTERN are maybes that she’d prefer looking at in the store.
BATMAN she was interested in Snyder (me too) but not in Capullo (me too). Also “look at Batman’s package!”.
BATWING she was interested in the concept but also wary of it.
ALL-STAR WESTERN she really liked the solicit, but then I told her about Hex’s hole in his face and she has a problem with teeth showing like that.
And GREEN LANTERN she wouldn’t mind, neither would I, if not for all the other GL books. Buying one without the rest seems foolish, based on recent history.
The only one I might add for myself is SUPERMAN because of Perez but my god is that cover terrible. Jim Lee can’t design his way out of a paper bag. And George Perez has never been good with modern outfits anyway either, he’s all about classic stuff in my eyes.
So 10 first-issue purchases, 4 possibles, and the rest passes her by. But basically she wasn’t reading any DC at all, so I think that’s technically a good way for DC to rope her in. Now the big question will be, can they hook her?
And then there’s the biggest problem: the retailers say the publishers put the burden on them, but then what about the buyers, in this case? If I decide to tell my store to get 10 books (11 if I count Superman), then I’m basically stuck for 3 months unless I screw my store. That’s a 100-dollar investment where I can’t be sure it’ll pay off. If I don’t pre-order at the store, she might not be able to read stuff like RED HOOD at all because I doubt he’ll be ordering a lot of that. But if she thinks that book sucks after reading #1, what then?
And that’s where the digital stuff is appealing because she doesn’t mind too much reading on a screen, and then we can await reviews and get them later for cheaper, or otherwise in trade.
Neither of which are good for the retailer.
So as much as DC seems to be doing good for themselves, I doubt the retailer will be helped much at all.
Can the retailers still cut their orders down after we read #1 and say “no #2, thank you”? Because that would seem the fairest.
Meanwhile, we looked at the Marvel solicits for September, and she thought those were absolutely boring and horrible, she doesn’t want any Marvels. I’m tempted to add Daredevil because of Marcos Martin. But then I might as well wait for tpb’s there too…
The ads really do kill a lot of this (if I buy 12 series that’s around 144 pages of ads I’m storing each month. That’s ONE TRADE PAPERBACK WORTH!) Sure adds up and I already have literally over 10000 back issues to store. Again, trades or digital seem more appealing.
Unsure what to do and also unsure how long they can keep the 3-dollar price setting. I remember balking when they went from 2 to 2.25 and 2.50 and then to 3. I can’t take another one. Because unlike anything else, comics are still essentially the same as 30 years ago, except 7 to 10 times more expensive. Still the same amount of people working on it (far less than on a tv show which is essentially free or nearly so anyway), takes less time to read now than years ago, and there’s far less of a cohesive, exciting universe to be entertained by.
If we like the 12 books, then that’s around 400 dollars a year. We can buy a bunch of dvd’s, games and jigsaw puzzles with that. And all of those give us longer entertainment. But at the same time, I do tend to love comics… So I’m torn, let’s leave it at that 🙂
Hmm. Most of my interests are creator driven, I’ll be checking out the Morrison, Simone, Cornell and Lemire titles as long as the reviews aren’t too dreadful. (So yes, Paul and Al probably have a certain amount of power over whether I buy anything.)
Other stuff… Batwoman, I’m interested in based on the rave reviews, might check it out if they ever release a paperback trade of the Detective Comics run. And I hear enough good things about Scott Snyder that I might give his Batman a go. I’m similarly intrigued by the notion of an Azarello Wonder Woman.
That’s all, but I think that adds up to about 13/14 titles, which is more than the 1 DCU title I currently follow, so I can hardly say they’ve failed to stir my interest.