The X-Axis – 12 June 2011
This is the quietest week for X-books in some time, which is perhaps appropriate since everyone’s attention is on comics that won’t be out until September. Marvel have a few second- and third-tier launches out, DC are holding off on everything for the moment… yeah, we’re kind of in limbo right now. Which is kind of odd considering that we’re also in the big “event” season, but it’s clear that DC’s Flashpoint is basically an alternate reality story that doubles as a means to an end, while Marvel’s Fear Itself is just stumbling through the motions.
In fact, DC might have picked a good time to do a relaunch of the line. Sure, they’re hoping to get in completely new readers, and maybe they will. But in the short term I’d sure they wouldn’t mind picking up readers from Marvel – and with Marvel’s line looking particularly stale and shopworn right now, I can see the long-suffering Marvel hardcore being more than usually willing to see how the DC relaunch turns out. You never know.
On the other hand…
Birds of Prey #13 – …is the sort of book that gives me pause about how far DC has really planned this whole thing.
This is the end of a two-part story called “Hostile Takeover”, in which the regular cast team up with the Question to take on a mysterious new villain called Junior. There’s an extended fight scene with said villain (who does have an intriguing low-tech gimmick), but it doesn’t build to a clear resolution, and the story ends with the cast vowing to go after her. So it looks like it’s a set-up for future stories with the same villain. Meanwhile, over in the letters page, we’re told that Gail Simone will “continue zeroing in” on the characters in “upcoming issues.”
But the next two issues are a fill-in by Marc Andreyko, and then in September the book is being relaunched with Duane Swierczynski as writer. So this is the end of Gail Simone’s run. Without a proper resolution, and with a promise of future stories that won’t in fact exist. Uh… just when did DC decide they were doing this relaunch, exactly?
Needless to say, this isn’t the best of issues to go out on. Diego Olmos’ art is on the bland side, but the extended fight scene does manage to sell the central idea that Junior is a different (and demented) kind of fighter. But while she’s set up as a future threat, it’s hard to see where that can be going, if the whole line is rebooting in a few months time. As the middle chapter of an ongoing storyline this would be fine, but as a wrap-up? It’s a very odd choice, presumably forced on the book by circumstances – and that’s not a good omen for the reboot.
Empowered: Ten Questions for the Maidman – I’m not sure Empowered really lends itself to these one-shot formats. In the digests, Adam Warren does strings of short stories that kind of build into a narrative over the course of each volume, and given the book’s sheer oddity and campness, that hit-and-run factor works for it. With the one-shots, we’re getting book length stories, which doesn’t feel like it has the same energy. Mind you, with the next volume not scheduled until 2012, there’s no harm in putting something out there as a stop-gap. This book actually cuts back and forth between Warren drawing the regular cast talking about Maidman (perhaps Warren’s most bizarre creation, even by the standards of this series), and a full-colour TV interview with the man himself drawn by Emily Warren – an odd style clash that I’m not sure entirely works. But Warren also knows that if you’re going to go over the top in comics, you’ve got to go really over the top… and there’s something quixotically irresistible about his determination to wrestle real characters out of such deliberately contrived concepts.
Ghost Rider #0.1 – I’ve never been much of a fan of the Ghost Rider; he’s very much a character of the 1970s, and while the design is fantastic, it’s kind of hard to translate into proper stories. Jason Aaron seemed to be on kind of the right lines when he was turning the book into a weird kind of exploitation B-movie homage, though even that didn’t really hold my interest. And the opening page of this issue seems to hint in the same direction. But what we actually get in this issue (after an opening power-demo sequence) is Johnny Blaze moping about his curse, meeting a girl (which doesn’t go well) and then agreeing to palm the curse off on someone else. Rob Williams’ script is all a bit emo without much in the way of humour, and Matthew Clark’s art isn’t big on atmosphere either. Pretty much a distillation of what I don’t want to read in a Ghost Rider comic – but then like I say, I was probably never going to be the audience for this book.
Iron Man: The Iron Age – Alpha – I have no idea why Marvel have stuck “Alpha” and “Omega” issues on this miniseries, which seems to be essentially a straightforward Iron Man miniseries in which he travels through time meeting guest stars and trying to sort out a catastrophe that happens in the first issue. Perhaps they’re trying to pass it off as some sort of event, but I can’t help thinking that this is not the book on which to play that card.
Still, treating it as what it is – Iron Man in a time travel romp – it’s actually not bad at all. This is another Rob Williams story, and this time, I like the central idea quite a bit. The springboard is basically the return of a ridiculously obscure villain who fought Iron Man once in 1965 and was never heard of again, but who turns out to have been making preparations for a rematch ever since. That’s all fairly stock, but I do like the idea that Iron Man (and the readers) have no real idea who this guy is, while he naturally regards his one published story as the defining event of his life. And hey, it’s all just a starting point to do time travel and guest stars anyway, so it’s not like it needs to be Shakespeare.
A part of me thinks it’s a bad idea to wheel out the likes of Dark Phoenix for a story like this, since she’s one of those mega-villains who’s managed to avoid coming back frequently enough to undercut her prestige by losing all the time, but I’m not sure the book is actually going to do anything damaging with her; the story objective, from the look of it, is to alter history so that she never shows up in the first place. Not a must-read book, but a perfectly entertaining one.
Mystery Men #1 – A five-issue mini by David Liss and Patrick Zircher about pulp-era heroes in the Marvel Universe. In other words, since Marvel don’t own any, they’re going to invent some. Considering that DC’s recent pulp books didn’t exactly set the world alight, one suspects that this more somebody’s pet project than a bid for huge sales. (Though I can only assume that Marvel were just trying to drum up publicity when they solicited issue #1 with the “CLASSIFIED” tag normally reserved for books that link to major events – on the face of it, there’s nothing here to explain why they delayed the full solicitation.)
It’s not a team book, at least not yet. The main character is a gentleman thief called the Operative, who seems to consider that since it’s the Depression, there’s nothing wrong with stealing from the rich. The book is rather more vague about whether his social conscience extends to giving to the poor. There’s also a vigilante wandering around called the Revenant, who seems to have actual super powers and, further deviating from the pulp template, isn’t white. Sensibly enough, Liss seems to want to take the pulp influences, cross them with the Marvel Universe elements, and chuck in the sort of characters who were excluded from actual pulp stories because of the standards of the time, thus hopefully ending up with something that’s more than just a homage.
While stories set in the past with no established characters have never been easy to sell, this is very readable stuff, with Patrick Zircher’s art doing a good job of blending the various genre influences together. Of course, pulp heroes were the forerunners of superheroes, so it’s not like there’s a massive tone clash, but the superhero and magical elements don’t seem out of place in what’s primarily a sort of crime book. All in all, a pleasant surprise.
Wolverine #10 – Wolverine finally gets around to going after the Red Right Hand, who’ve been the villains behind the whole story to date. And naturally, they’re just trying to lure him into an ambush. So… what we get in this story is Wolverine taking on one of their quirky henchmen, Cannonfoot, intercut with the back story of the Red Right Hand’s unnamed leader.
The basic idea is that a young(er) Wolverine killed his dad, whom he idolised (even though the flashback makes it pretty clear that he was actually a bastard). He’s dedicated his life to revenge on Wolverine but, being just one guy, he’s never made it above being one of those random people who attacks from time to time and gets forgotten about. So now he’s built an organisation of other similarly anonymous people, and they’ve got weight of numbers on their side.
Okay: here’s two reasons why this doesn’t work. Firstly, it doesn’t really tell us anything that wasn’t obvious from earlier issues. All we get here is more detail, and the father is such a one-dimensional moustache-twirling cartoon villain that it hardly qualifies as fleshing out the character. Secondly, the idea of the Red Right Hand seems to be all the little people ganging up to take on Wolverine. That’s fine in theory, but it doesn’t seem to find any reflection in their actual plans, which boil down to “hire some mercenaries and stand well back”, as far as I can see. Why couldn’t he have done this on his own? What does he gain by roping in other ineffectual individuals? Perhaps Aaron’s coming to it, but we’re ten issues in and really should have covered it by now.
There are tone problems too; the fight between Wolverine and Cannonfoot is written as a Lobo-style cartoon, but Renato Guedes draws it more or less straight. I’m not sure he’s a good match for Aaron generally; he just doesn’t seem to adapt well to the flights of sporadic nonsense that pop up in Aaron’s scripts from time to time.
There’s an idea in here somewhere – I like the concept of the ordinary folk trying to get revenge on Wolverine for screwing up their lives – but it just isn’t coming through.
X-Men Legacy #250 – The first part of “Lost Legions”, which might be a new direction for the title, or might just be a case of killing time for six months until everything gets relaunched with “Schism”. Who can say? Anyway, Xavier’s makeshift team are hunting down Legion’s escaped personalities. The one we get in this issue, Time-Shift, seems to be more of a power gimmick than a defined personality. But that’s fine, since he’s really just a backdrop for Mike Carey to set up his new team. Styx is clearly being set up as the major villain of the bunch, and I assume we’re building up to face him in a few months time. The cast gel nicely, there’s some good use of Legion as a proper character for a change, and clever use of the time-slip gimmick. There’s also a back-up strip dealing with the Rachel Summers subplot, told almost entirely in reverse sequence. It’s basically Carey jazzing up an infodump, but nothing wrong with that. Finally, there’s a reprint of New Mutants #27, apparently chosen because it’s “Professor X’s first encounter with Legion”. While this is true, it’s also the middle chapter of a storyline which isn’t even available on Marvel’s digital service. (Corporate synergy? What corporate synergy?) I’ve read the whole thing before, but quite what Marvel expect most readers to do with it, other than coo at Bill Sienkiewicz’s art, I have no idea.
Would the Junior in Birds of Prey be the one Gail Simone invented for Secret Six? Crazy scar-covered surgically mutilated crime lord who lives in a box and runs her empire from a single telephone?
If so, she’s probably not meant to be that mysterious.
Yeah, Junior’s not really a new character, she was introduced in Secret Six a couple of years ago (which is why Huntress goes to Catman for intel). She’s Ragdoll’s sister, for what it’s worth.
Yeah, and I get that there’s a connection with Secret Six (since Catman is referenced) – but it nonetheless feels like a story intended to set up for further events. If the series ends with what amounts to a fight against a random guest star, that’s equally odd as a finish, anyhow.
Yeah, it’s very obvious that Gail’s run has been cut mid-storyline. I fear we’re going to get a lot of this over the next couple of months.
Yep, Junior is the same one from Secret Six.
Ah, everyone else said that already.
Like JD says I assume we’ll get a fair bit of this kind of thing in DC books for the next wee while.
If there was ever a comics move I wish would die before it ever sees the light of day it’s DC’s reboot.
And the Big 2’s “summer blockbuster” books both have massive fail written all over them right now.
It’s early days I know, but Fraction seems have screwed up Fear Itself. Great idea, but the execution doesn’t work. The death of Bucky-Cap lacked gravity. Nazi-robots? Sorry, it doesn’t work for me. At this point, I’m looking forward to the Jugs/X-Men battle more than the mini itself.
Flashpoint, I expected to be a straight forward alt-earth story. It seems to work well as that, but I’m not sure if it works as an excuse to set up the DCnU. Time will tell, but I suspect that Final Crisis would have done the job so much better.
a throw-away line in x-men legacy got me thinking: is tempo dead? we saw her die in ‘age of x’. and since that wasnt, technically speaking, an illusion, but a warped reality… does that mean shes still dead now?
if so, it would bother me more than it should. shes one of those minor characters i have an inexplicable fondness for. she has cool powers. she was in a pretty cool x-factor story in peter davids original run. and of all the generic 90es henchmen, she was one who at least showed a little personality.
hear my fanboy outrage! bring back tempo! if, indeed, shes dead.
First, I will be giving the DC reboot / relaunch / rewhatever a try and a chance.
That being said, I do fear about how well planned out this has been, because looking beyond the big announcements, it does seem to be a bit on the haphazard side. Reading any of the current books on the stand, plus looking at Blackest Night, Brightest Day, this mini-series follow up to Brightest Day, it is clear that there were long term plans in place that had nothing to do with starting over. I’m not saying certain people didn’t know, but it appears that the majority of creators didn’t know what was coming up until the last possible minute. Look at JSA – new writer, new regular artist, a new direction with several new heroes introduced – there were clearly long term plans there – and there is no JSA involved in the reboot to date. Teen Titans – same thing – new writer, new artist, we had a preview of things to come – that haven’t and now, won’t.
I want to remain optimistic but I also have to deal with the reality that this is being done under Dan Didio – who regularly makes a plan, changes it, changes it back, changes it again – sometimes before it is put into motion, sometimes after it’s already rolling down the hill – doesn’t seem to matter. A clear, concise, well thought out vision has never been his strong suit. And when one half of the team implementing this thing (Jim Lee) has a record for relaunches of relaunches of relaunches – well, let’s say I don’t have much confidence in how well structured and well thought out this reboot / relaunch is going to be.
And on another note, I’m really bothered when the likes of Nicola Scott and J. Califore (sp?) – two artists who have distinct, strong styles and can make a deadline – have no place in this relaunch and the likes of David Finch and Rob Liefeld do. Exactly how many times does a creator have to be the cause of a book being late – with track records sometimes reaching back years – before someone realizes that putting them on monthly books is not an option if you in fact, want the books to come out monthly?
It’s not early days – we’re halfway through and I honestly don’t see it being salvaged at this point. Not only is it crap, it doesn’t even match the story that’s being told in the tie ins. To be honest I don’t even know what you think the great idea is – for all we’ve seen on the page, it barely seems to have an idea at all beyond They Fight.
Even allowing for the inherent limits of crossovers, Fear Itself is dreadful rubbish. I’ll be very disappointed if it continues to outsell Flashpoint, which at least reads like it was written and edited by the awake.
Several times since I got back in the comics hobby six years ago, I’ve contemplated picking up a few DC titles, but I never have because I just can’t wrap my head around the DCU. To be honest this relaunch has me once again throwing up my hands in confusion rather than enticing me to give them a try. Are we seeing the rise of a whole new continuity? Are the stories of the last X years being thrown out?
I can just about understand the purpose behind Crisis on Infinite Earths and what it did for the DCU, but all these canon shifting events since perplex me. Though Marvel has its continuity hiccups and retcons, that universe can generally be seen as one long sequence of events. But DC seems to rewrite their history every few years or so. As an outsider looking at DC, I feel like I don’t want to get invested in a run that might be thrown out after next summer’s Crisis. The only wholesale rewrite of a similar scale at Marvel that I can think of is One More Day, and I still don’t really understand how that story’s meant to work.
I may be overthinking the matter, but rather than getting excited about DC’s new line, I just kinda feel bad for their faithful fans; especially if this relaunch involves bringing current runs to a screeching halt mid-story, as seen with Birds of Prey.
@kingderella: According to Carey in interviews, as far as he’s concerned, Tempo is dead – though there’s an easy back door if anyone wants to bring her back.
glad to see a review of Mystery Men. I figured it might be podcast fodder next week.
I enjoyed Birds of Prey and liked the link to Secret Six, which I really like a lot – so of course, that book doesn’t just get interrupted be the reboot, but apparently goes away completely. What a shame…
Hazanko, what continuity altering events are you talking about? Zero Hour happened 10 years after COIE and altered almost nothing. And then the next thing was Infinite Crisis, which created “New Earth” and brought back the multiverse (which DC then proceeded to do absolutely nothing with and is *still* doing nothing with. If you want 8 Bat-books, put them on 8 different Earths, for crying out loud, so we have a reason to get a different series)
So they really haven’t been changing their continuity all that much. Most of their series can be seen as one long story (since 1985 anyway) too. The main difference seems to be that there is no strong editorial hand anymore which has a plan for the line as a whole.
I liked Geoff Johns a lot when he was just writing books like Flash and JSA, a decade ago, but I don’t think he’s strong enough to give any kind of vision to an entire DCU. And I believe Scott Lobdell of all people is writing more of the 52 series than he is. So it’s not looking all that great.
And Mike, you’re totally right, they overlook Nicola Scott and Jim Calafiore even though they have been reliable, timely, *and* delivering entertaining work. It really does seem to be all about who you know, I guess? Not looking forward to September at all, really.
I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of Mystery Men. I’ll have to see if my LCS got any copies.
since it was a light week of reviews hope a little diversion won’t upset anyone.
I know this reboot is being put at the feet of Didio but do any other long time fans remember Marvel under Editor in Chief Bob Harras?
The line was fractured into brands (midnight sons, x-men, avengers, the god awful marvel edge). Each brand had an abundance of titles and all had events happening every other month.
Now look at DC launches: Batman line (like 7 books? really c’mon), superman, the dark, (get ready for this one) DC edge. feel like 1996 to me. (over at bleeding cool Rich Johnston also has this theory but his is based on creators named).
I was a reader of both companies since 1986 and this week I dropped all DC books but Batman Inc because what is the point of wasting my money? (Green Lantern had it coming though, that book became a mess and a 9 part crossover jammed into 5 years of ongoing plot just made me grit my teeth.)
so DC pissed me off and then Marvel goes and cancels Uncanny (the only book I’ve collected since 1986)to make a point about a storyline. I GIVE UP!
Since I forgot this in my rant let me get it off my chest real quick. Marvel Edge brought us the amazing story/event of Punisher killing Nick Fury and then being caught and executed.
The only thing worse than Marvel ending “Uncanny X-Men”?
Marvel letting Greg Land ‘draw’ the final issue of “Uncanny X-Men”. What ludicrous amount of leverage does that guy have over Joey Q that he’s allowed to draw such a high profile book? It’s like Chuck Austin all over again: an obnoxious creator who is loathed by the fans who Marvel prop up on a pedistal. The whole thing baffles me.
@Paul, I like the idea that Odin is not really the all-father. It’s more in keeping with the Odin of Norse mythology who can be more than a bit of a bastard. Journey into Mystery has taken advantage of the potential the story offers.
It also opens the door to change for Asgard. With Baldur and Tyr dead, Loki a child/hero and Asgard back where it’s supposed to be, there’s potential for new stories and room for new characters to step up.
I’d love to see the gods who possessed the “worthy” become permanent fixtures in the MU. The old gods/demons have become boring after over-use and having several Thor-level creatures with their own agendas could see some of the more over-powered heroes challenged for a change.
I like the idea of the use of hammers (for the duration of the mini-series). It could work as a fun, slightly more serious version of Hulked-out Heroes.
In previous event, the tie-ins have suffered from the fact that some of the heroes seem to get side-lined. Having several omega-level threats means that you can write a tie-in where you can depict the various Marvel groups and characters overcoming a serious threat while leaving the underlying cause (the serpent) to the main series.
What doesn’t seem to work is the way “The Fear” is depicted. The mechanics are uncertain. It’s like a bad Psycho-Man story. And I think that some of the scenes just aren’t needed. The cuts to the Hulk and Thing stories don’t add anything and take away from the main story.
What Marvel should have done was include back-up strips (like those released online) that introduced “The Worthy” and ended with an invitation to pick up the mini they were involved in.
“is the sort of book that gives me pause about how far DC has really planned this whole thing.”
I think it was planned a while back but nobody but the inner circle knew in an attempt to control the promotional activity around it (spoilt to an extent by Bleeding cool).
“So they really haven’t been changing their continuity all that much”
I had to chortle at that comment.
It’s not just the big event crossovers. DC has a habit of changing continuity in the middle of a series, or by incorporating outside miniseries (see ‘Superman: Birthright’ and ‘Identity Crisis’, the latter of which included developments like everyone suddenly knowing each others’ secret identity, even though that hadn’t been the case since Pre-Crisis). As a predominantly DC reader (although I currently only read ‘Batman Inc.’) I get frustrated at having to deal with the constant retcons, big and small, on a regular basis. DC can never leave well enough alone.
“DC can never leave well enough alone.”
I dropped all DC titles years ago after realizing that I just didn’t care about what I was reading anymore. It was hard for me to remain invested in their characters when, in the back of my mind, I was aware that anything and everything concerning them was subject to invalidation in the not-so-distant future.
To be fair though, Crisis on Infinite Earths is what pulled me into their universe in the first place. I was a pure Marvel zombie prior to 1985, so I think Paul might have a point about bored Marvel fans giving the DCnU a serious look.
But whoever approved “Justice League Dark” as the name for a Justice League series needs to be slapped in the head. That doesn’t even sound like a super-team comic. It sounds like something a bar might have on tap.
Okay… so haven’t really been following the news of late. (Including HtA. I’m sorry…)
So DC is ditching EVERYTHING and starting over?
Yeah, I’ve never been a big fan of DC (outside their Timmverse cartoons), largely because of the constant rebooting. Granted, I’ll give Batgirl and Animal Man a look, because I like those characters. But it’ll be with trepidation, because, again, I dread the next reboot.
I’m more curious to know about the rest of the line beyond the 52 reboot titles. What becomes of the kid books? Batman Beyond? Vertigo?
Far as “Fear Itself” goes, I literally only care about the FF portion of the story. While I’ll be thrilled to have Steve Rogers as Cap again, it’s just not enough to entice me to buy the book. I’ll probably start buying “Captain America” again, though… Good riddance, Bucky. Again.
“so DC pissed me off and then Marvel goes and cancels Uncanny (the only book I’ve collected since 1986)to make a point about a storyline. I GIVE UP!”
Are you buying these books because of the numbers, or because you ENJOY READING THEM?
“So DC is ditching EVERYTHING and starting over?”
No. Many of the titles are continuing previous storylines (Green Lantern, Batman Inc., Batwoman, JLI, Batman), albeit in ways that make them accessible for new readers.
Part of me is hoping that the DC mass relaunch is some bizarre form of misdirection like when Marvel released those promos during Secret Invasion that made it look like the Skrulls would win.
You know, just to make Flashpoint seem relevant.
If not then me = sad.
They sure make Hypertime canon again, it was the best excuse for everything.
Aaron, just a guess, but this is a relaunch of the DC Universe, so I imagine the Johnny DC and non-DCU-related Vertigo books (Fables, Unwritten, etc.) will remain intact. Batman Beyond, I believe, was a DCU book set in the future, like Legion of Super-Heroes, so it’s probably canceled. And the Vertigo characters who are technically in the DCU (Swamp Thing, Constantine, Madame Xanadu, etc.) are apparently being caught up in the relaunch, as we see in the new Swamp Thing and Justice League Dark titles.
I’ve a random question about the DC reboot, is there any connection between their new title I, Zombie and their Vertigo title iZombie? iZombie is one of my favorite comics right now, but I, Zombie looks really, really bad.
I’m curious what was wrong with Bucky?
Me too, I loved Bucky as Captain America.
“So they really haven’t been changing their continuity all that much”
That’s pretty funny.
We’ve had CRISIS, ZERO HOUR, then more changes after INFINITE CRISIS, as far as wipe-sweep continuity changes.
Since Didio took over, LEGION has been rebooted twice, Superman had two origin reboots (BIRTHRIGHT and the Geoff Johns mini), DOOM PATROL has been rebooted twice, Wonder Woman’s history got mucked up so she could be a JLA founder…. After Geoff Johns painstakingly redid Hawkman’s confusing origin, he was baffling given a new one by Jim Stalin…..
it goes on and on and on…… Jimmy Olsen discovers Superman’s secret ID in COUNTDOWN — a pretty big plot point — and it’s literally just FORGOTTEN! Not “in story” forgotten, just by the writers/editors, as if it didn’t happen!
And now, here we are with MORE origin and ret-cons.
Here’s a pice of advice: Just tell modern stories moving forward, with modern trappings, and stop getting so mired in your own continuity
Several comments here are confirming the reasons I’ve stayed away from DCU comics. There are a lot of creators I love working for DC, but the editorial staff make Marvel’s look sane in comparison, and that’s saying something.
A shame as I do enjoy the more iconic imagery of DC’s characters, but the company doesn’t seem able to give them long-term consistency these days.
@Michael Aronson
I’m buying the books because I enjoy reading them but why waste money to get an unfinished story or rushed ending. Look at the review of Birds of Prey…why get a shit ending after investing my time and money to keep a book going?
Come to think of it, this isn’t the first time Uncanny X-Men has been cancelled.
I figure Marvel will pull an “X-Factor” with it. The post-Schism status quo sounds interesting enough (to me, at least) but the idea only has so much mileage in it. Eventually it’ll end (possibly with Xavier taking the reins again), and then we’ll get Uncanny X-Men #1.
This will last until issue #50 at which point the following issue will be released as issue #595.
Marvel Comics – “Screwing up long box filing systems for readers since the early 2000s!”
I’ve always found most of DC’s continuity changes after CoIE to be rather trivial, as long as it does not involve Hawkman. All it ever seems to mean is that some minor detail or someones origin is changed, and it usually doesn’t matter much six months into the brave and bold new continuity anyway.
I can see it being frustrating to some people, but I personally don’t see it anymore silly or confusing than say the latest retcon plot twist in the already heavily convoluted X-men continuity. You just shrug your shoulders and move on.
If there’s one continuity revision in the upcoming DCnU that I’m in full support of, it’s the re-establishing of Superman as his world’s first superhero.
That’s one thing that I felt diminished Supes somewhat is that the inhabitants of the post-Crisis earth were already familiar with superheroes (e.g. the JSA) by the time Superman made his debut.
The reboot idea has some legs. Maybe Marvel should kill off the Ultimate line, let other books move on, write characters out, kill characters off for good etc and then launch a new “ultimate” line with the classic setups and characters. Let one universe move forward and have a rebbot universe. Best of both worlds, I think. Or we could just keep screwing around and further convulting characters and concepts…
@Nostalgia
Do you mean the I, Vampire DCnU series? It’s unconnected to Vertigo’s iZombie. As far as I know there’s no I, Zombie DCnU series.
Yeah, Batman Beyond wasn’t listed in the 52 titles, but it’s also pretty flagrantly NOT the future of the main DC universe. It was established a while back that the entire Timmverse (where BB takes place) is one of the 52 realities, so a reboot of the main universe shouldn’t affect it. Legion, with the current one supposedly being linked directly to DC present, would be affected certainly (and they have only themselves to blame for letting Supergirl join).
Plus there was an interview on CBR just last week about how the next two storyarcs of BB are already plotted/written. So while it LOOKS like BB isn’t being canned, there’s no way to tell until the full solits come out. Which is why I worry. We’ve only had BB back for a year. I don’t wanna lose him again.
Vertigo isn’t counteed in the relaunch thing, but it is affected as series were cancelled before now to bring the DC owned characters back into the DCU/Johnsverse.
At the very least, shouldn’t it have been Iron Man: The Iron Age #0.1?
“the DCU/Johnsverse.”
LMAO!
…AAAAAAAND BB seems to be gone.
Bastards.
More like DCfu.
Brian: Yeah, but doesn’t making Superman the DCU’s first superhero eliminate any space for the JLA? Or really for any of DC’s golden age heroes?
And isn’t the golden age legacy one of the DCU’s greatest strengths?
“If there’s one continuity revision in the upcoming DCnU that I’m in full support of, it’s the re-establishing of Superman as his world’s first superhero”
I’m indifferent, for while being the first superhero has historical real-world importance to Superman, it’s not an essential in-story element for the character.
I am, however, upset at the lack of the JSA, a group of characters I really enjoyed (even if I stopped reading the series during the tie-in issues during the lead-up to ‘Infinite Crisis’)
I too regret that there is no JSA in this reboot. Any series they have been in the last few years has consistently been more entertaining that the JLA.
“I’m buying the books because I enjoy reading them but . . . why get a shit ending after investing my time and money to keep a book going?”
You must be new to comics. These things get canceled all the time. Your personal “investment” hasn’t and never will have an impact on what and how they decide to publish.