Just a quick recap of The DCU now that I've read most of the #2s. Honestly, Captain Atom, Voodoo, Men of War, and Dark Knight I couldn't even bring myself to read the second issues, so.. yeah I skipped those. After reading the #2s, I pretty much stand by my earlier assessments. Certainly nothing got vastly better.. a couple of things got worse. The only thing I did like was that it is implied that Jason Todd, Roy Harper, and Kory had a threesome that got a little wiggy for Roy and Kory. I think Roy and Jason did stuff together, but the actual issue was crap. What I liked the first time or was cool with the first time that I didn't like this time?
Wonder Woman - This issue totally lost me. The Amazons are wearing loin clothes and Diana continues to be cold and aloof. The story is still decent, but I don't care enough to read about this character anymore.
Savage Hawkman - Yeah, definitely like this considerably less. It just didn't live up to it's earlier potential.
New Guardians - Gotten even crappier. It really, really went down hill to the point where I don't want to read it anymore.
I, Vampire - Just not enjoying it. It's a decent title, but it's not for me.
Oh and the new minis? All pretty damn good. Penguin, Huntress, and Legion Secret Origins are all pretty solid. I couldn't get into Batman Odyssey. It seemed a little kooky and crazy, but I DEFINITELY recommend getting the two Levitz minis.. Huntress and Legion of Superheroes: Secret Origins. :)
Friday, October 28, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Wolverine and the X-Men #1 - review
So Wolverine and the X-Men has been heralded by some as the single greatest and most original comic by either of the two big companies. It's the most non-spandex title too apparently and well, so when I picked it up I figured it wouldn't live up to these massive claims and of course, it doesn't.
What is Wolverine and the X-Men though? First of all, the title name has nothing to do with the comic at all. This is not an X-Men title in the sense that the X-Men are not a team in this title. It's about the school that Wolverine and apparently Kitty Pryde are running. It does have some interesting ideas that pleased me like mutant members of the Brood and I'm assuming the Shi'ar. I've been wanting that for years. In fact, I had an idea years ago for Luna Maximoff to be a mutant Inhuman by being of 2 castes: Warrior and artist, but Marvel ruined that. So I did enjoy that aspect of things, but.. all in all, the title is a tad too silly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*Spoilers Follow*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The whole concept of this issue is the day leading up to and the first day of the new Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters. That would be fine.. if they didn't also have the New York Department of Education certifying them as "fit to teach" on the exact same day they open. That didn't make much sense to me, but that's OK. On top of that, Beast, the super genius he is, has built the entire school but apparently.. very, very badly. Everything is constantly going wrong while Wolvie and Kitty escort these two idiots from the Department of Education. These guys are of course stiff and stuck up jerks. That's the basic idea here. It just comes off way too goofy and stupid for my tastes.
The issue actually opens up the day before the big open. Wolvie is walking through the school with a rather smug and glib Xavier. The two talk about advice for Logan on how to be a good headmaster and basically Xavier giving him not sage advice, but snarky and sarcastic comments. So much so that Logan even mentions it to Xavier. It just didn't feel natural or like Xavier wanted to help Wolverine at all. He even states at one point that he thought someone would open their own school, but he never thought it'd be Logan. It's very awkward and weird conversation.
The next scene moves on to the day of, we suddenly find out that Kitty is headmistress with Wolverine as Headmaster. I don't know why they need both, but apparently they do. They go out to meet the smug Department of Education people and guide them on a tour around the mansion. These Department of Education weasels insult Wolverine and Kitty constantly and the two of them just take it with a smile and nod. We take a brief diversion from all this to see a Brood mutant being bullied by Hellion and Glob Herman. It ends quickly as the Brood kid sees Wolverine coming, then Logan in his infinite wisdom decides to punish Julian and Glob by locking them in a bathroom and using the Danger Room on them. Apparently the Danger Room is available in the whole school now (Great idea right? It's not like IDK the Danger Room has caused countless problems before when it was just one room, let's make it take over the whole school!). The snide DoE flunkies do not take well to that, of course. From there, Wolverine tried to introduce them to Idie, the chick from Schism that killed a guy. The brilliant twit she is starts telling the DoE guys how all mutants are monsters and should be dest.. i mean "cured" and she doesn't want to have to kill anyone again. Yeah, this is genius here people!
Finally we get to Beast, who is suppose to help calm everything down. Instead, Hank is completely lost in his world, almost beans Kitty with a coffee cup and rambles on with the DoE people there about how the school is out of control and he couldn't shut it down even if he tried. In fact, he mentions nuclear meltdown at least once. He also states that Emperor Gladiator is giving full alien tech support and has promised a new surprise in this latest shipment that just arrived. The surprise? Apparently Gladiator's son (Who knew?) that is kind of an arrogant ass, but his "bodyguard" Warbird seems cool. I'm assuming that Gladiator's son is a mutant of some sort, but it's impossible to say.
After all of this and an explosion with baby Nightcrawlers harassing the DoE people they decide to call it quits and get the school shut down. Of course, that happens after we get the penultimate moment in the comic supposedly. Remember Kilgore from Schism? The young leader of the Hellfire club? Well.. he looked much younger in Schism as did the other Hellfire Club members (They acted younger too), but apparently he's 12. He tells Logan his entire plan and how he caused the entire Schism (Is this the same character as from Schism? Cause it sure as hell doesn't feel like it at all) then throws down the gauntlet saying he's going to destroy Wolverine and the school. Yeah, the brilliant genius behind the Hellfire Club from Schism that kept the X-Men jumping through hoops and clueless has now come out of the closet, introduced himself to his enemy and that he was the head of the Hellfire Club. I just don't get it at all. It was goofy and stupid. Then out of no where of course, this creature comes to eat the whole school from below apparently caused by Kilgore.
So yeah, the story is really jokey. My other problem is that there aren't enough teachers with students. They break it down at the end and there are about 10 teachers and maybe 20 students. I didn't count them, but the break down made it rather clear. I mean there are only around 200 mutants and most of them are grown, so it feels odd. The other problems with the school is because of House of M bullcrap, there is a limit on new possible students. The other limitations is that unlike during Morrison's school run, the number of faculty is insanely small. This means that the range of subjects is considerably smaller. It just.. it doesn't worklogistically speaking. There is not enough students, not enough teachers.. I just don't see it as a full school as is.
The other major problem is the art. I don't like Bachalo's art at all. Never have really, but add that to the fact that characters look different sometimes than they've ever looked before. Doop looks 10 times bigger than he was in X-Statix (He must have been eating former teammates). Kilgrove looks older, Kitty looks Asian in a couple shots, others look goofy for no real reason. Beast seems to walk around with this thing all over him and it was hard for me to figure out his scene since it wasn't as clean as I'd have liked to see. THe technology looked.. muddled and all over the place.
Is this the most original, most non-spandex comic in the industry today? Not by far. It's a decent humor book if you really want a humor book, but I don't buy this title being the humor book. I think a title about Wolverine running a school should be a little more serious and less goofy. It comes across as downright stupid at points. There is just too much inconsistency here with early portrayals some by the same writer.
What is Wolverine and the X-Men though? First of all, the title name has nothing to do with the comic at all. This is not an X-Men title in the sense that the X-Men are not a team in this title. It's about the school that Wolverine and apparently Kitty Pryde are running. It does have some interesting ideas that pleased me like mutant members of the Brood and I'm assuming the Shi'ar. I've been wanting that for years. In fact, I had an idea years ago for Luna Maximoff to be a mutant Inhuman by being of 2 castes: Warrior and artist, but Marvel ruined that. So I did enjoy that aspect of things, but.. all in all, the title is a tad too silly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*Spoilers Follow*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The whole concept of this issue is the day leading up to and the first day of the new Jean Grey School for Gifted Youngsters. That would be fine.. if they didn't also have the New York Department of Education certifying them as "fit to teach" on the exact same day they open. That didn't make much sense to me, but that's OK. On top of that, Beast, the super genius he is, has built the entire school but apparently.. very, very badly. Everything is constantly going wrong while Wolvie and Kitty escort these two idiots from the Department of Education. These guys are of course stiff and stuck up jerks. That's the basic idea here. It just comes off way too goofy and stupid for my tastes.
The issue actually opens up the day before the big open. Wolvie is walking through the school with a rather smug and glib Xavier. The two talk about advice for Logan on how to be a good headmaster and basically Xavier giving him not sage advice, but snarky and sarcastic comments. So much so that Logan even mentions it to Xavier. It just didn't feel natural or like Xavier wanted to help Wolverine at all. He even states at one point that he thought someone would open their own school, but he never thought it'd be Logan. It's very awkward and weird conversation.
The next scene moves on to the day of, we suddenly find out that Kitty is headmistress with Wolverine as Headmaster. I don't know why they need both, but apparently they do. They go out to meet the smug Department of Education people and guide them on a tour around the mansion. These Department of Education weasels insult Wolverine and Kitty constantly and the two of them just take it with a smile and nod. We take a brief diversion from all this to see a Brood mutant being bullied by Hellion and Glob Herman. It ends quickly as the Brood kid sees Wolverine coming, then Logan in his infinite wisdom decides to punish Julian and Glob by locking them in a bathroom and using the Danger Room on them. Apparently the Danger Room is available in the whole school now (Great idea right? It's not like IDK the Danger Room has caused countless problems before when it was just one room, let's make it take over the whole school!). The snide DoE flunkies do not take well to that, of course. From there, Wolverine tried to introduce them to Idie, the chick from Schism that killed a guy. The brilliant twit she is starts telling the DoE guys how all mutants are monsters and should be dest.. i mean "cured" and she doesn't want to have to kill anyone again. Yeah, this is genius here people!
Finally we get to Beast, who is suppose to help calm everything down. Instead, Hank is completely lost in his world, almost beans Kitty with a coffee cup and rambles on with the DoE people there about how the school is out of control and he couldn't shut it down even if he tried. In fact, he mentions nuclear meltdown at least once. He also states that Emperor Gladiator is giving full alien tech support and has promised a new surprise in this latest shipment that just arrived. The surprise? Apparently Gladiator's son (Who knew?) that is kind of an arrogant ass, but his "bodyguard" Warbird seems cool. I'm assuming that Gladiator's son is a mutant of some sort, but it's impossible to say.
After all of this and an explosion with baby Nightcrawlers harassing the DoE people they decide to call it quits and get the school shut down. Of course, that happens after we get the penultimate moment in the comic supposedly. Remember Kilgore from Schism? The young leader of the Hellfire club? Well.. he looked much younger in Schism as did the other Hellfire Club members (They acted younger too), but apparently he's 12. He tells Logan his entire plan and how he caused the entire Schism (Is this the same character as from Schism? Cause it sure as hell doesn't feel like it at all) then throws down the gauntlet saying he's going to destroy Wolverine and the school. Yeah, the brilliant genius behind the Hellfire Club from Schism that kept the X-Men jumping through hoops and clueless has now come out of the closet, introduced himself to his enemy and that he was the head of the Hellfire Club. I just don't get it at all. It was goofy and stupid. Then out of no where of course, this creature comes to eat the whole school from below apparently caused by Kilgore.
So yeah, the story is really jokey. My other problem is that there aren't enough teachers with students. They break it down at the end and there are about 10 teachers and maybe 20 students. I didn't count them, but the break down made it rather clear. I mean there are only around 200 mutants and most of them are grown, so it feels odd. The other problems with the school is because of House of M bullcrap, there is a limit on new possible students. The other limitations is that unlike during Morrison's school run, the number of faculty is insanely small. This means that the range of subjects is considerably smaller. It just.. it doesn't worklogistically speaking. There is not enough students, not enough teachers.. I just don't see it as a full school as is.
The other major problem is the art. I don't like Bachalo's art at all. Never have really, but add that to the fact that characters look different sometimes than they've ever looked before. Doop looks 10 times bigger than he was in X-Statix (He must have been eating former teammates). Kilgrove looks older, Kitty looks Asian in a couple shots, others look goofy for no real reason. Beast seems to walk around with this thing all over him and it was hard for me to figure out his scene since it wasn't as clean as I'd have liked to see. THe technology looked.. muddled and all over the place.
Is this the most original, most non-spandex comic in the industry today? Not by far. It's a decent humor book if you really want a humor book, but I don't buy this title being the humor book. I think a title about Wolverine running a school should be a little more serious and less goofy. It comes across as downright stupid at points. There is just too much inconsistency here with early portrayals some by the same writer.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Batman is slipping..
I just don't get Bruce Wayne anymore. He's slipping. Previously, Batman has represented the best of the best. He's been hard on his generals and expected a lot from them. He was brutal on Tim and Jean-Paul Valley. He was down right nasty to Helena countless times. He's beaten up on her for being too "brutal", yet he's been as brutal on various occasions depending on the writer. He actually TOOK the mantle of Batgirl/Batwoman AWAY from Helena for really no reason and gave it to a complete unknown. Yes, Cass ended up amazing, but at the time it was a huge shock and it took a while for Helena to get over it. Even Babs, he was rather difficult with and this was during the happy-go-lucky Batman time. Now, however, Batman is letting just anybody in. Look at who Batman has recently put his stamp of approval on:
Damien Wayne - We're told that Damien was such an amazing fighter that at 10, he was the leader of the League of Assassins. Ok, sure, but then why can he not fight worth a crap when it really matters? I don't see him showing his great fighting talents and no one has ever mentioned it in the comics. He's clearly not disciplined as he constantly runs off and tries to do everything on his own, so.. how he is trained? I realize he's 10, but come on. He's suppose to be this prodigal genius, but we don't see it. We only see a whiney, annoying brat. The only reason he seems to have been picked to be Robin that ANYONE can mention is that he's Bruce's son. There is no sign of greatness in him. He's not very well trained, he's not very smart, he's not very strong, he's not a great detective, he's not a great fighter.. He doesn't even show the potential to be a great anything except a pain in the ass. Where is the Bruce Wayne that pushed Tim so hard? I don't see him anymore.
Stephanie Brown - another disaster waiting to happen. Yes, she's no longer Batgirl, thank GOD and she is now no longer the 2nd worst Robin to ever appear (Damien being the first), but he's still accepting her as Spoiler. This is the chick that's been around 20+ years and only managed to show SOME MINOR growth when she got her own title and that didn't even make sense since she took a huge leap in capabilities. Previous to being Batgirl or Robin, Stephanie was told by 3 separate people that the superhero life wasn't for her.. and one of those people? Batman.. Yeah you heard me.. Bruce Wayne as Batman told Stephanie Brown on at LEAST two occasions that she was going to get someone killed by being Spoiler. Her best friend, Cassandra Cain, confirmed that and Black Canary ALSO stated similar. Not to mention that Timothy Drake has now admitted he only kept her around as Spoiler because he enjoyed the make out sessions and didn't want to piss her off. So all this said, she's allowed to be Robin for some unknown reason that nobody can explain. As Robin, she screws up MAJORLY, gets herself killed literally (it was later revealed that she was faking it) and then when she comes back to life, she's literally handed the role of Batgirl with no training because supposedly Batman said it was her time? What? So if you just wait around long enough, you can get into the Bat-Family? Is that ALL it takes? Well, that's all been undone, but... Batman is relying on Stephanie Brown for a major plot line called Leviathan coming up. She'll be Spoiler again (or maybe she never stopped being Spoiler), but why? Why does Bruce need to rely on someone that he has consistently disapproved of? He hasn't suddenly started relying on Helena Bertinelli even though she's better trained, a better fighter, and OKed by Oracle/Barbara Gordon and Black Canary.
Kate Kane - A "highly" trained woman that has a confusing and complex origin and well.. we have no clue why she's so amazing. We're told she is and she seems to be able to handle her own, but that's supposedly because she was trained by Black Ops? Seriously? I don't know anyone in Black Ops IRL, but my understanding of military training for fighting is mostly with weapons and while they DO train in martial arts, it's more as a just in case situation, it's not so you can handle multiple armed opponents by yourself. She's not very smart, in fact she unabashedly let's her father, a military man himself, do all the thinking for her and basically pointing her at where he wants her to go. She's supposedly mad at him at the moment, but well.. without him she wouldn't be Batwoman. He got her her "training" (what little of it there must have been), her weapons, her armor, her well everything all through his military connections and his WIFE'S money (the same wife that Kate hates because she's the "evil step mommy"). Recently we've been told that Kate is SO GOOD that a woman that has been a hero almost 4-5X longer than Kate is nothing more than an incompetent boob compared to Kate. What? Bette Kane has been trained by Nightwing, she's worked with the Titans (I.E. she's used to fighting in a team setting), she's even faced off against Deathstroke in the past, but she's so incapable that Kate has to constantly save her and worry about her? REALLY? Kate who has been trained by??????? Ok.. And why does she get the right to wear the Bat? What has she done that shows her to be good enough? Listening to her father? I don't think so.
Batwing - Oh yeah, this guy is so highly trained.. he's.. not really anything. He's not that amazing. He's not that great of a fighter, he's not very smart.. in fact all he seems to be is Batman in an Iron Man-type suit. Bruce has set EVERYTHING up for him. He doesn't seem to be that special that he suddenly deserves Bruce's trust and part of the Batman's Inc, but sure.. In fact, most of the Batman Incers seem under-trained and un-vetted. They just seem to be chosen because.. someone said so.
I just don't get what Bruce is up to and I realize he's changed, but.. by watering him down so much an surrounding him with weaker, less capable generals.. what good does that do Batman? It hindered Dick and plagued his entire run as Batman, making him seem like a weaker, more ineffective Batman than he COULD have been. Now Bruce has finally chosen to man up and be Batman again... I just don't understand why he's putting up with such.. incompetence when he's punished and pushed those who have shown to be VERY competent.
Damien Wayne - We're told that Damien was such an amazing fighter that at 10, he was the leader of the League of Assassins. Ok, sure, but then why can he not fight worth a crap when it really matters? I don't see him showing his great fighting talents and no one has ever mentioned it in the comics. He's clearly not disciplined as he constantly runs off and tries to do everything on his own, so.. how he is trained? I realize he's 10, but come on. He's suppose to be this prodigal genius, but we don't see it. We only see a whiney, annoying brat. The only reason he seems to have been picked to be Robin that ANYONE can mention is that he's Bruce's son. There is no sign of greatness in him. He's not very well trained, he's not very smart, he's not very strong, he's not a great detective, he's not a great fighter.. He doesn't even show the potential to be a great anything except a pain in the ass. Where is the Bruce Wayne that pushed Tim so hard? I don't see him anymore.
Stephanie Brown - another disaster waiting to happen. Yes, she's no longer Batgirl, thank GOD and she is now no longer the 2nd worst Robin to ever appear (Damien being the first), but he's still accepting her as Spoiler. This is the chick that's been around 20+ years and only managed to show SOME MINOR growth when she got her own title and that didn't even make sense since she took a huge leap in capabilities. Previous to being Batgirl or Robin, Stephanie was told by 3 separate people that the superhero life wasn't for her.. and one of those people? Batman.. Yeah you heard me.. Bruce Wayne as Batman told Stephanie Brown on at LEAST two occasions that she was going to get someone killed by being Spoiler. Her best friend, Cassandra Cain, confirmed that and Black Canary ALSO stated similar. Not to mention that Timothy Drake has now admitted he only kept her around as Spoiler because he enjoyed the make out sessions and didn't want to piss her off. So all this said, she's allowed to be Robin for some unknown reason that nobody can explain. As Robin, she screws up MAJORLY, gets herself killed literally (it was later revealed that she was faking it) and then when she comes back to life, she's literally handed the role of Batgirl with no training because supposedly Batman said it was her time? What? So if you just wait around long enough, you can get into the Bat-Family? Is that ALL it takes? Well, that's all been undone, but... Batman is relying on Stephanie Brown for a major plot line called Leviathan coming up. She'll be Spoiler again (or maybe she never stopped being Spoiler), but why? Why does Bruce need to rely on someone that he has consistently disapproved of? He hasn't suddenly started relying on Helena Bertinelli even though she's better trained, a better fighter, and OKed by Oracle/Barbara Gordon and Black Canary.
Kate Kane - A "highly" trained woman that has a confusing and complex origin and well.. we have no clue why she's so amazing. We're told she is and she seems to be able to handle her own, but that's supposedly because she was trained by Black Ops? Seriously? I don't know anyone in Black Ops IRL, but my understanding of military training for fighting is mostly with weapons and while they DO train in martial arts, it's more as a just in case situation, it's not so you can handle multiple armed opponents by yourself. She's not very smart, in fact she unabashedly let's her father, a military man himself, do all the thinking for her and basically pointing her at where he wants her to go. She's supposedly mad at him at the moment, but well.. without him she wouldn't be Batwoman. He got her her "training" (what little of it there must have been), her weapons, her armor, her well everything all through his military connections and his WIFE'S money (the same wife that Kate hates because she's the "evil step mommy"). Recently we've been told that Kate is SO GOOD that a woman that has been a hero almost 4-5X longer than Kate is nothing more than an incompetent boob compared to Kate. What? Bette Kane has been trained by Nightwing, she's worked with the Titans (I.E. she's used to fighting in a team setting), she's even faced off against Deathstroke in the past, but she's so incapable that Kate has to constantly save her and worry about her? REALLY? Kate who has been trained by??????? Ok.. And why does she get the right to wear the Bat? What has she done that shows her to be good enough? Listening to her father? I don't think so.
Batwing - Oh yeah, this guy is so highly trained.. he's.. not really anything. He's not that amazing. He's not that great of a fighter, he's not very smart.. in fact all he seems to be is Batman in an Iron Man-type suit. Bruce has set EVERYTHING up for him. He doesn't seem to be that special that he suddenly deserves Bruce's trust and part of the Batman's Inc, but sure.. In fact, most of the Batman Incers seem under-trained and un-vetted. They just seem to be chosen because.. someone said so.
I just don't get what Bruce is up to and I realize he's changed, but.. by watering him down so much an surrounding him with weaker, less capable generals.. what good does that do Batman? It hindered Dick and plagued his entire run as Batman, making him seem like a weaker, more ineffective Batman than he COULD have been. Now Bruce has finally chosen to man up and be Batman again... I just don't understand why he's putting up with such.. incompetence when he's punished and pushed those who have shown to be VERY competent.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
New 52 DCU rankings! From best to worst!
1. Justice League Dark
2. Demon Knights
3. Aquaman
4. Teen Titans
5. Fury of the Firestorm
6. Animal man
7. Swamp Thing
8. All-Star Western
9. Superman
10. Birds of Prey
11. Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
12. Wonder Woman
13. Suicide Squad
14. Stormwatch
15. Action Comics
16. Justice League
17. Legion of Super-Heroes
18. Batgirl
19. DC Comics Presents
20. Resurrection Man
21. I, Vampire
22. Savage Hawkman
23. Batman
24. Green Lantern
25. The Flash
26. Nightwing
27. Superboy
28. O.M.A.C.
29. Justice League International
30. Green Lantern: New Guardians
31. Red Lanterns
32. Supergirl
33. Green Lantern Corps
34. Detective Comics
35. Batwoman
36. Batwing
37. Static Shock
38. Green Arrow
39. Batman: The Dark Knight
40. Batman and Robin
41. Mister Terrific
42. Blue Beetle
43. Deathstroke
44. Legion Lost
45. Captain Atom
46. Voodoo
47. Red Hood and the Outlaws
48. Catwoman
49. Blackhawks
50. Hawk and Dove
51. Men of War
52. Grifter
2. Demon Knights
3. Aquaman
4. Teen Titans
5. Fury of the Firestorm
6. Animal man
7. Swamp Thing
8. All-Star Western
9. Superman
10. Birds of Prey
11. Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
12. Wonder Woman
13. Suicide Squad
14. Stormwatch
15. Action Comics
16. Justice League
17. Legion of Super-Heroes
18. Batgirl
19. DC Comics Presents
20. Resurrection Man
21. I, Vampire
22. Savage Hawkman
23. Batman
24. Green Lantern
25. The Flash
26. Nightwing
27. Superboy
28. O.M.A.C.
29. Justice League International
30. Green Lantern: New Guardians
31. Red Lanterns
32. Supergirl
33. Green Lantern Corps
34. Detective Comics
35. Batwoman
36. Batwing
37. Static Shock
38. Green Arrow
39. Batman: The Dark Knight
40. Batman and Robin
41. Mister Terrific
42. Blue Beetle
43. Deathstroke
44. Legion Lost
45. Captain Atom
46. Voodoo
47. Red Hood and the Outlaws
48. Catwoman
49. Blackhawks
50. Hawk and Dove
51. Men of War
52. Grifter
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Lesbians and "Narek"
So.. apparently some idiot decided that it was "funny" to make a joke that the mysterious "Narek" title on the DCU title should be a Zatanna and PowerGirl story with them as lesbians similar to Strangers in Paradise. So I responded that I thought that was gross and pervy. He got very upset and threw a fit that I was being "preachy" and that it was a joke and well a bunch of stupid stuff that made no sense. He suggested that I was over-reacting and that I had issues for implying that taking two heterosexual women and making them into lesbians was pervy and that there was something wrong with ME for that. When I asked HIM if he would be OK if someone implied the same with two MALE heroes that they should enter into a homosexual relationship together, he refused to answer the question and instead state out and out that the new DCU means that EVERYTHING is new. DC has clearly stated NUMEROUS times that that is not true. Not to mention that if you've been reading the new DCU, it's obvious that it's not all new. The 4 Batman Titles, the Green Lantern titles, Legion of Super-Heroes, Hawk and Dove, Swamp Thing, Red Hood and the Outlaws and Animal Man all state that there are events that we have read form the old DC Universe that are still in play. So no, it is NOT all new.
BTW if you want to joke that "Narek" is a Zatanna/PowerGirl title because Narek is Karen backwards and Karen is Power Girl, Zatanna speaks backwards for her magical powers, why do they HAVE to be lesbians? Why did you HAVE to go there? Why couldn't they just team up? After all, Power Girl is Kryptonian, but she's had magical origins in the past and I think her and Zatanna could team up. I don't know how well the title would work or the team work between them, but sure.. if that's where you want to go for a JOKE, why do they have to be LESBIANS?
BTW if you want to joke that "Narek" is a Zatanna/PowerGirl title because Narek is Karen backwards and Karen is Power Girl, Zatanna speaks backwards for her magical powers, why do they HAVE to be lesbians? Why did you HAVE to go there? Why couldn't they just team up? After all, Power Girl is Kryptonian, but she's had magical origins in the past and I think her and Zatanna could team up. I don't know how well the title would work or the team work between them, but sure.. if that's where you want to go for a JOKE, why do they have to be LESBIANS?
new DCU week 9/28
All-Star Western #1- If you've read Jonah Hex and love it, then you'll love this. If you're a first to Jonah Hex, congratulations I'm sure you've found a new love. This is everything I've expected. It really is. I mean I don't know what to say about it except that it's excellent and it's a comic people should read. I don't like westerns. That's TOTALLY not my thing and if you know me, you know that, but I dig Jonah Hex. The story was fun and engaging though a tad Jack the Ripper at first, it clearly gets over that. There is a lot of depth to this story and Arkham's psychological evaluation of Jonah Hex is just.. amazing. It's well written and it's clear that Arkham doesn't have much respect for Jonah at first, but has to reevaluate things.
Aquaman #1- Great relaunch. Basically Johns uses the DC Universe to point out all the jokes and spoofs about how "stupid" Aquaman is and instead show how badass he is. There is a great action sequence and well it was a really well paced issue. I don't want to spoil to much for you but Mera is definitely here and the art is great. Aquaman looks sexy and dangerous and Mera is beautiful even if she's only at the end of the comic. A new evil is arising, but the comic itself stands as a nice story all on it's own.
Batman: the Dark Knight #1- Another really useless Batman title, that didn't even make a lot of sense. It starts with Batman and he changes while running across the rooftops into his Bruce Wayne identity then jumps into a building. Yeah, very weird. Then we move to a really pointless and stupid speech that makes no sense. The rest of the book kind of dissolves into some weird sparring match with an Internal Affairs officer that thinks Brucey has inside sources to help fund Batman. I really don't understand that. Then we have the Bond girl who appears out of no where that Bruce openly flirts with in a really gaggy and stupid scene. Finally after all this, we get a quick Batman story where once again Arkham Asylum is in an uproar.. Yes, this is the 3rd time this month we've been to Arkham and something was afoot in Arkham. Why we need 3 books dealing with Arkham is beyond me, but apparently we do. I just can't get why we need so many Batman titles if they're not really going to do ANYTHING new or different from each other and only one of them is actually worth reading.
Blackhawks #1- A U.N. based super military team with super military items that do stuff. Who they are? No one knows. What they do? No clue. Why they are formed? Umm.. for a reason? We don't get introduced to the characters, we don't really have any clue what's going on or what this team is around for. They're just there and this is just a title. I guess it's suppose to be the high action team version of Deathstroke, but it really didn't work. I don't understand why I should care enough about any of these characters or what's happening to them. The use of Legion-type description bubbles would have SERIOUSLY helped at least give us a clue who these people are. There is a mention of Lady Blackhawke, but Zinda isn't in here at all. It's just insane action and not a lot else, which I guess works for some people.
The Flash #1- This was a pretty decent issue. We start off with Barry on a date and he geeks out with a super smart genius guy who has something stolen from him. Barry flashes out and saves the day. It's a solid Flash title, I'm just not a huge fan Flash to be honest and while it is BEAUTIFUL to look at and it's a solid read, it's just not my cup of tea. I'm sure Flash fans are thrilled and it's a very good story.
The Fury of Firestorm: the Nuclear Men #1- Wow, I can tell you this is totally not what I was expecting from this title, but it was pretty freaking amazing. I just.. wow. Ronnie Raymond is the typical jock and Jason Rusch is a super genius and well.. he's all about his race. He makes it very clear that his race is VERY important to him and he points it out numerous times in the comic. My fave page is the Jason and his dad on one side and Ronnie and his mother on the other. It was just a really good comic and it wasn't what you were expecting. Seriously, pick it up and read it. It's totally different and insanely new.
Green Lantern: New Guardians #1- A little confusing at first tbh. We flash back to the death of the Green Lantern Corps to show Kyle becoming the sole Green Lantern, which was nice I guess for new readers, the problem? It wasn't set up very well. Nothing in it let you know that it was in fact in the past, so you're left thinking that Kyle's been rebooted and this is the first time he's becoming a GL and this will be a past story, but it's not. It was just a recap. Honestly, I expect very little from this title. The only reason I wanted to read it was to learn more about the different Lanterns especially the Indigo Tribe, but well.. they picked random people to represent each tribe and because of that? We get a mishmash of characters that aren't really team or group material. DC tried to hide who the people were, but it's been obvious for MONTHS now. I'm not going to spoil it if you really haven't figured it out yet, but COME ON. I posted this MONTHS ago. The best thing about this title? The Star Sapphire's got a costume redesign that actually covers them up so they don't look like they're in a porno magazine. Other than that? It felt like a VERY short read and most of the team is boring. We've seen most of these jokers before and I'm sure they have fans, but they're not half as interesting as say Carol, Sinestro, Larfleeze, and Indigo-1, which would have made the title so much more interesting.
I, Vampire #1- I'm not sold on this title just yet. I get the premise and I think it's interesting, but I don't know how long the premise can really last of a war between one vampire and a massive army of vampires and his evil ex. The other problem is they are sharing the same universe with the Justice League, Stormwatch, Superman and the new Justice League Dark, I don't see them not getting involved especially with how things are unfolding in the first issue. Also, the fact that Vertigo has a mildly similar title, American Vampire, that has some interesting concepts it's doing as well? I just don't know how many Vampire titles DC needs especially since they're not that vastly different. Yes there are differences and those may be enough in the long run. I just don't know. I think this one is really a trades or wait for a story arc to be completed title before you can really gauge how good or bad it is.
Justice League Dark #1- I love Peter Miligan. The hard thing about this is if you haven't read Shade the Changing Man, you're probably missing stuff. But if you've read Shade the Changing Man, this pretty much picks up where we left off in some ways. I like that the team is getting together because they're "damaged" and Zatanna is being MAJOR kick ass. I'm totally sold about that. All in all I like the title thus far and can't wait to read more. I'm still not sure what the hell Constantine is going to do since I view him as MOSTLY a shyster, not an actual mage.
The Savage Hawkman #1- Interesting new take on Hawkman. Gone is the reborn a bazillion times Mr. Smart-Pants Carter Hall. This one is more unsure of himself. He's not as aware of the true powers of the Nth Metal and in fact at the beginning of the story, he tries to abandon Hawkman all together (though why he shoots the armor is beyond me). Needless to say, things do not go well for Carter. He wakes up with his window smashed out and really no clue what happened. Flash forward, he gets involved with an alien and basically the armor has been fused with him. That's a nice change. I kind of like that idea and it makes it easier than hiding those giant wings on him all the time. This is an interesting comic, I'd probably read it in trades.
Superman #1- Even if Perez's name wasn't on the cover, you can TELL this is a Perez book. Look at all the word bubbles everywhere. It's such a nice contrast to all these minimalist comics I've been reading lately that really don't tell me ANYTHING because they're trying to limit what is in each bubble. It's a really nice start for Superman's own on-going. Lois Lane and Clark are on the outs and seem to have had a regular argument which could explain why they've never officially gotten together. I can LIVE with that. I would LOVE to have them married again, but at LEAST Lois has a personality all her own. She's definitely still the spitfire everyone loves and it's GREAT to see not all the women of the new DCU need to strip or be stripped down to nothing. I really enjoyed this issue and it was one I'm interested in. The other great thing? it was a complete story. It was a HUGE relief to read at least one New DCU title that WASN'T meant for trades or to be continued. It was a nice solid stand alone issue. I actually cannot wait to read more.
Teen Titans #1- Yeah I liked this. The Teen Titans are forming because well.. N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is out to put a lock down on teen superheroes. Tim Drake, of course, has a problem with that. And wow, they've really ramped him up. He's smarter and vastly better than before. He is seeming more and more like Batman's protege. As for Cassie, they've completely changed her origin, but I like that her costume seems to magically appear from her gauntlets. They pretty much HAD to revamp her since they were completely revamping Wonder Woman AGAIN. Didn't DC learn from the last time they did this that it just didn't turn out good at all? How many Who is Donna Troys have we had now? I really, really enjoyed this issue. The art was crisp and the guys looked great. The team is forming nice and I like that Tim seems to blame Bruce for the teen superheroes. This was exactly what I expected and it really revitalizes the Teen Titans for me, making them into a more interesting group. Can't wait to see the other new members.
Voodoo #1- Yeah.. boobs, boobs, and MORE boobs. Voodoo is a stripper and the entire story deals with her stripping. Yeah, there is a bunch of talking and some people who are monitoring her, but it's really all lost over the fact that she's stripping or dancing on dollars most of the issue. This was heralded as a biracial character, but well.. she's a shapeshifter so that's not really relevant at all. I see no reason to read this title or why anyone would really be interested in it beyond the obvious cheesecake factor. It really wasn't a big draw or a very good set up. We don't even know anything about the character Voodoo and honestly, we could have started with her being a waitress and gotten the SAME story with less boobage.
Aquaman #1- Great relaunch. Basically Johns uses the DC Universe to point out all the jokes and spoofs about how "stupid" Aquaman is and instead show how badass he is. There is a great action sequence and well it was a really well paced issue. I don't want to spoil to much for you but Mera is definitely here and the art is great. Aquaman looks sexy and dangerous and Mera is beautiful even if she's only at the end of the comic. A new evil is arising, but the comic itself stands as a nice story all on it's own.
Batman: the Dark Knight #1- Another really useless Batman title, that didn't even make a lot of sense. It starts with Batman and he changes while running across the rooftops into his Bruce Wayne identity then jumps into a building. Yeah, very weird. Then we move to a really pointless and stupid speech that makes no sense. The rest of the book kind of dissolves into some weird sparring match with an Internal Affairs officer that thinks Brucey has inside sources to help fund Batman. I really don't understand that. Then we have the Bond girl who appears out of no where that Bruce openly flirts with in a really gaggy and stupid scene. Finally after all this, we get a quick Batman story where once again Arkham Asylum is in an uproar.. Yes, this is the 3rd time this month we've been to Arkham and something was afoot in Arkham. Why we need 3 books dealing with Arkham is beyond me, but apparently we do. I just can't get why we need so many Batman titles if they're not really going to do ANYTHING new or different from each other and only one of them is actually worth reading.
Blackhawks #1- A U.N. based super military team with super military items that do stuff. Who they are? No one knows. What they do? No clue. Why they are formed? Umm.. for a reason? We don't get introduced to the characters, we don't really have any clue what's going on or what this team is around for. They're just there and this is just a title. I guess it's suppose to be the high action team version of Deathstroke, but it really didn't work. I don't understand why I should care enough about any of these characters or what's happening to them. The use of Legion-type description bubbles would have SERIOUSLY helped at least give us a clue who these people are. There is a mention of Lady Blackhawke, but Zinda isn't in here at all. It's just insane action and not a lot else, which I guess works for some people.
The Flash #1- This was a pretty decent issue. We start off with Barry on a date and he geeks out with a super smart genius guy who has something stolen from him. Barry flashes out and saves the day. It's a solid Flash title, I'm just not a huge fan Flash to be honest and while it is BEAUTIFUL to look at and it's a solid read, it's just not my cup of tea. I'm sure Flash fans are thrilled and it's a very good story.
The Fury of Firestorm: the Nuclear Men #1- Wow, I can tell you this is totally not what I was expecting from this title, but it was pretty freaking amazing. I just.. wow. Ronnie Raymond is the typical jock and Jason Rusch is a super genius and well.. he's all about his race. He makes it very clear that his race is VERY important to him and he points it out numerous times in the comic. My fave page is the Jason and his dad on one side and Ronnie and his mother on the other. It was just a really good comic and it wasn't what you were expecting. Seriously, pick it up and read it. It's totally different and insanely new.
Green Lantern: New Guardians #1- A little confusing at first tbh. We flash back to the death of the Green Lantern Corps to show Kyle becoming the sole Green Lantern, which was nice I guess for new readers, the problem? It wasn't set up very well. Nothing in it let you know that it was in fact in the past, so you're left thinking that Kyle's been rebooted and this is the first time he's becoming a GL and this will be a past story, but it's not. It was just a recap. Honestly, I expect very little from this title. The only reason I wanted to read it was to learn more about the different Lanterns especially the Indigo Tribe, but well.. they picked random people to represent each tribe and because of that? We get a mishmash of characters that aren't really team or group material. DC tried to hide who the people were, but it's been obvious for MONTHS now. I'm not going to spoil it if you really haven't figured it out yet, but COME ON. I posted this MONTHS ago. The best thing about this title? The Star Sapphire's got a costume redesign that actually covers them up so they don't look like they're in a porno magazine. Other than that? It felt like a VERY short read and most of the team is boring. We've seen most of these jokers before and I'm sure they have fans, but they're not half as interesting as say Carol, Sinestro, Larfleeze, and Indigo-1, which would have made the title so much more interesting.
I, Vampire #1- I'm not sold on this title just yet. I get the premise and I think it's interesting, but I don't know how long the premise can really last of a war between one vampire and a massive army of vampires and his evil ex. The other problem is they are sharing the same universe with the Justice League, Stormwatch, Superman and the new Justice League Dark, I don't see them not getting involved especially with how things are unfolding in the first issue. Also, the fact that Vertigo has a mildly similar title, American Vampire, that has some interesting concepts it's doing as well? I just don't know how many Vampire titles DC needs especially since they're not that vastly different. Yes there are differences and those may be enough in the long run. I just don't know. I think this one is really a trades or wait for a story arc to be completed title before you can really gauge how good or bad it is.
Justice League Dark #1- I love Peter Miligan. The hard thing about this is if you haven't read Shade the Changing Man, you're probably missing stuff. But if you've read Shade the Changing Man, this pretty much picks up where we left off in some ways. I like that the team is getting together because they're "damaged" and Zatanna is being MAJOR kick ass. I'm totally sold about that. All in all I like the title thus far and can't wait to read more. I'm still not sure what the hell Constantine is going to do since I view him as MOSTLY a shyster, not an actual mage.
The Savage Hawkman #1- Interesting new take on Hawkman. Gone is the reborn a bazillion times Mr. Smart-Pants Carter Hall. This one is more unsure of himself. He's not as aware of the true powers of the Nth Metal and in fact at the beginning of the story, he tries to abandon Hawkman all together (though why he shoots the armor is beyond me). Needless to say, things do not go well for Carter. He wakes up with his window smashed out and really no clue what happened. Flash forward, he gets involved with an alien and basically the armor has been fused with him. That's a nice change. I kind of like that idea and it makes it easier than hiding those giant wings on him all the time. This is an interesting comic, I'd probably read it in trades.
Superman #1- Even if Perez's name wasn't on the cover, you can TELL this is a Perez book. Look at all the word bubbles everywhere. It's such a nice contrast to all these minimalist comics I've been reading lately that really don't tell me ANYTHING because they're trying to limit what is in each bubble. It's a really nice start for Superman's own on-going. Lois Lane and Clark are on the outs and seem to have had a regular argument which could explain why they've never officially gotten together. I can LIVE with that. I would LOVE to have them married again, but at LEAST Lois has a personality all her own. She's definitely still the spitfire everyone loves and it's GREAT to see not all the women of the new DCU need to strip or be stripped down to nothing. I really enjoyed this issue and it was one I'm interested in. The other great thing? it was a complete story. It was a HUGE relief to read at least one New DCU title that WASN'T meant for trades or to be continued. It was a nice solid stand alone issue. I actually cannot wait to read more.
Teen Titans #1- Yeah I liked this. The Teen Titans are forming because well.. N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is out to put a lock down on teen superheroes. Tim Drake, of course, has a problem with that. And wow, they've really ramped him up. He's smarter and vastly better than before. He is seeming more and more like Batman's protege. As for Cassie, they've completely changed her origin, but I like that her costume seems to magically appear from her gauntlets. They pretty much HAD to revamp her since they were completely revamping Wonder Woman AGAIN. Didn't DC learn from the last time they did this that it just didn't turn out good at all? How many Who is Donna Troys have we had now? I really, really enjoyed this issue. The art was crisp and the guys looked great. The team is forming nice and I like that Tim seems to blame Bruce for the teen superheroes. This was exactly what I expected and it really revitalizes the Teen Titans for me, making them into a more interesting group. Can't wait to see the other new members.
Voodoo #1- Yeah.. boobs, boobs, and MORE boobs. Voodoo is a stripper and the entire story deals with her stripping. Yeah, there is a bunch of talking and some people who are monitoring her, but it's really all lost over the fact that she's stripping or dancing on dollars most of the issue. This was heralded as a biracial character, but well.. she's a shapeshifter so that's not really relevant at all. I see no reason to read this title or why anyone would really be interested in it beyond the obvious cheesecake factor. It really wasn't a big draw or a very good set up. We don't even know anything about the character Voodoo and honestly, we could have started with her being a waitress and gotten the SAME story with less boobage.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Wonder Woman R.I.P: A Eulogy to Comics Most Prominent Female Hero 1942-2011
Immediately you have to wonder what this is about? Wonder Woman's still around. DC just relaunched her title as part of their new line of comics right? Surely this must be some sort of mistake! I'm sorry, but it is not. Wonder Woman, comics greatest superheroine, is dead this month. Yes, we still have that "Wonder Woman" comic, but the woman headlining it is nothing like any Wonder Woman I've ever read and bares a much stronger resemblance with Red Sonja or Xena, the Warrior Princess than Diana, Princess of Themyscira/Paradise Island.
You see, Wonder Woman used to mean something to the world both in the comics and without. She represented a better way. She was a peaceful warrior, one who could to quote her 70's theme song, "make a hawk a dove". She represented the strongest aspects of femininity and the greatest potential that humanity could attain. Wonder Woman came from a world that was vastly superior to ours and she came to our world to teach us a better way. Wonder Woman's goal was not only to teach us that we should think and try different ideas first before throwing a punch, but also that even the most dangerous of villains can be reformed. Over the years, Wonder Woman has gone through some changes, but these principals were always part of her. She always had her Golden Lasso of Truth as her major weapon and she managed to change the world more than once. Wonder Woman always stood as more than just a character in comics, but a symbol and not just for the truth that she's recently been associated with, but also that of reformation, hope, transformation (both figuratively and literally), femininity and peace.
Now, however, all that has been thrown out the window. In Wonder Woman #1, a new character appears claiming to be Wonder Woman and while there are superficial similarities. The character, whom I will call Warrior Woman for the purposes of this blog, has shown to be very violent, aggressive, and doesn't represent the character that she is suppose to be modeled after. The very first thing we see Warrior Woman actually do is grab a woman by her neck and essentially strangle her. Now yes, Warrior Woman was sleeping and this new character appears out of no where, interrupting that sleep, but a Wonder Woman should be able to react to that without immediate violence. She should assess the situation and see if she's been threatened, not that she automatically IS. After all, Wonder Woman grew up on an island of full of peaceful women. Why would she automatically assume someone is going to attack her? She wouldn't. Warrior Woman, however, DOES. After that, Wonder Woman runs to her armory (it apparently contains her costume, but we never see anything other than her tiara in it). We clearly see a battle axe, a sword, a helmet and a shield. Apparently Warrior Woman goes around with a personal armory, Wonder Woman would go to battle with just her Golden Lasso, armed with that knowledge that her magical weapon that is made to restrain, would be sufficient for her battle. Warrior Woman, however, has need of a vast array of deadly weapons. Maybe that's just me, but that doesn't seem like a very peaceful idea. It also cannot be over looked that Wonder Woman basically threatened Zola, stating that she could take the key from her if necessary. She didn't ask for it, instead she demanded it with a hint at least in my mind of violence.
Then Warrior Woman leaps into a battle and yes, she defends her new charge with her bracelets, but apparently said arrow is rocket powered or Warrior Woman isn't very strong since she ends up in the air (and subsequently on the ground) from the arrow shot. The sequence of events up until that, do not play out for the dramatic shot we get and why Warrior Woman couldn't have blocked the arrow with one bracelet as Wonder Woman could is beyond me. Anyhow, pitched mini battle begins in which Warrior Woman finally gets a hold of her favorite weapon, a sword. Meanwhile, innocent charge has been kidnapped by a centaur, so Warrior Woman, being the ultimate warrior, hurls her sword to chop off the centaur's arm! Not only that, but she has to chop off the arm of a fleeing opponent that has shown her no harm. This creature hasn't even attacked her. Not only that, the creature wasn't even threatening her new ward. So why was such an aggressive and threatening move needed? It's not as if Warrior Woman had, I don't know, a magical lasso on her that she could have stopped the centaur. Nope, there was no lasso.. Oh wait, after chopping off a centaur arm, she whips out her lasso and grabs her new charge. So apparently, a sword is a weapon to Warrior Woman and a lasso is used to grab people, not as a weapon. I guess as a highly trained warrior, Warrior Woman had no other option than to slice off an arm. After that of course, she abuses Zola by using the lasso to grab the woman and pull her closer basically making ti so Zola slams into the ground twice. Very compassionate and very nice to the woman who has just been through a world changing event. Does Warrior Woman apologize for manhandling this young woman? Nope, instead she seems annoyed that Zola didn't stand by her while she was attacking another centaur. It's so very.. brutish and aggressive. When has Wonder Woman ever acted this way? If she had, do you think Cassie would have gone to such great lengths to be Wonder Girl? Do you think the Julia and Vanessa would have taken her in and given her a place then loved her as a sister/daughter? I do not think so.
I would like to re-state that I did enjoy the story, I just don't feel that Wonder Woman is present. The new character, Warrior Woman, is vastly too aggressive and cold to be Wonder Woman. There is no sense of wonderment in this Wonder Woman. There is nothing peaceful or compassionate in her composure. Her treatment of Zola is one of aggression and annoyance, not caring and compassion that she has shown to those she previously protected. She has no regard for the creatures she's attacked, one of whom did nothing to her and didn't appear to be trying to harm the woman in her protection in any way. In fact, they were fleeing. Yes, they were trying to kidnap Zola, but the centaur had a knife in its hand, so it could have tried to murder her then and there rather than run off with her. I think a true Wonder Woman could have found a better way to deal with the situation. She could have dealt with Zola with more caring and compassion. She could have found a better way to deal with the centaur especially since she had to know they were just recently harmless horses. I think Wonder Woman should be a symbol, the way Superman and Batman are. Unfortunately, her goodness has been sacrificed to make her "edgy". What's really sad? That the new woman who has been named Wonder Woman cannot represent a woman that young girls want to become. She's no longer a role model. She's no longer about being better and teaching all of us, boys and girls, about how to be a better person. She's about cutting off arms and being aggressive.
You see, Wonder Woman used to mean something to the world both in the comics and without. She represented a better way. She was a peaceful warrior, one who could to quote her 70's theme song, "make a hawk a dove". She represented the strongest aspects of femininity and the greatest potential that humanity could attain. Wonder Woman came from a world that was vastly superior to ours and she came to our world to teach us a better way. Wonder Woman's goal was not only to teach us that we should think and try different ideas first before throwing a punch, but also that even the most dangerous of villains can be reformed. Over the years, Wonder Woman has gone through some changes, but these principals were always part of her. She always had her Golden Lasso of Truth as her major weapon and she managed to change the world more than once. Wonder Woman always stood as more than just a character in comics, but a symbol and not just for the truth that she's recently been associated with, but also that of reformation, hope, transformation (both figuratively and literally), femininity and peace.
Now, however, all that has been thrown out the window. In Wonder Woman #1, a new character appears claiming to be Wonder Woman and while there are superficial similarities. The character, whom I will call Warrior Woman for the purposes of this blog, has shown to be very violent, aggressive, and doesn't represent the character that she is suppose to be modeled after. The very first thing we see Warrior Woman actually do is grab a woman by her neck and essentially strangle her. Now yes, Warrior Woman was sleeping and this new character appears out of no where, interrupting that sleep, but a Wonder Woman should be able to react to that without immediate violence. She should assess the situation and see if she's been threatened, not that she automatically IS. After all, Wonder Woman grew up on an island of full of peaceful women. Why would she automatically assume someone is going to attack her? She wouldn't. Warrior Woman, however, DOES. After that, Wonder Woman runs to her armory (it apparently contains her costume, but we never see anything other than her tiara in it). We clearly see a battle axe, a sword, a helmet and a shield. Apparently Warrior Woman goes around with a personal armory, Wonder Woman would go to battle with just her Golden Lasso, armed with that knowledge that her magical weapon that is made to restrain, would be sufficient for her battle. Warrior Woman, however, has need of a vast array of deadly weapons. Maybe that's just me, but that doesn't seem like a very peaceful idea. It also cannot be over looked that Wonder Woman basically threatened Zola, stating that she could take the key from her if necessary. She didn't ask for it, instead she demanded it with a hint at least in my mind of violence.
Then Warrior Woman leaps into a battle and yes, she defends her new charge with her bracelets, but apparently said arrow is rocket powered or Warrior Woman isn't very strong since she ends up in the air (and subsequently on the ground) from the arrow shot. The sequence of events up until that, do not play out for the dramatic shot we get and why Warrior Woman couldn't have blocked the arrow with one bracelet as Wonder Woman could is beyond me. Anyhow, pitched mini battle begins in which Warrior Woman finally gets a hold of her favorite weapon, a sword. Meanwhile, innocent charge has been kidnapped by a centaur, so Warrior Woman, being the ultimate warrior, hurls her sword to chop off the centaur's arm! Not only that, but she has to chop off the arm of a fleeing opponent that has shown her no harm. This creature hasn't even attacked her. Not only that, the creature wasn't even threatening her new ward. So why was such an aggressive and threatening move needed? It's not as if Warrior Woman had, I don't know, a magical lasso on her that she could have stopped the centaur. Nope, there was no lasso.. Oh wait, after chopping off a centaur arm, she whips out her lasso and grabs her new charge. So apparently, a sword is a weapon to Warrior Woman and a lasso is used to grab people, not as a weapon. I guess as a highly trained warrior, Warrior Woman had no other option than to slice off an arm. After that of course, she abuses Zola by using the lasso to grab the woman and pull her closer basically making ti so Zola slams into the ground twice. Very compassionate and very nice to the woman who has just been through a world changing event. Does Warrior Woman apologize for manhandling this young woman? Nope, instead she seems annoyed that Zola didn't stand by her while she was attacking another centaur. It's so very.. brutish and aggressive. When has Wonder Woman ever acted this way? If she had, do you think Cassie would have gone to such great lengths to be Wonder Girl? Do you think the Julia and Vanessa would have taken her in and given her a place then loved her as a sister/daughter? I do not think so.
I would like to re-state that I did enjoy the story, I just don't feel that Wonder Woman is present. The new character, Warrior Woman, is vastly too aggressive and cold to be Wonder Woman. There is no sense of wonderment in this Wonder Woman. There is nothing peaceful or compassionate in her composure. Her treatment of Zola is one of aggression and annoyance, not caring and compassion that she has shown to those she previously protected. She has no regard for the creatures she's attacked, one of whom did nothing to her and didn't appear to be trying to harm the woman in her protection in any way. In fact, they were fleeing. Yes, they were trying to kidnap Zola, but the centaur had a knife in its hand, so it could have tried to murder her then and there rather than run off with her. I think a true Wonder Woman could have found a better way to deal with the situation. She could have dealt with Zola with more caring and compassion. She could have found a better way to deal with the centaur especially since she had to know they were just recently harmless horses. I think Wonder Woman should be a symbol, the way Superman and Batman are. Unfortunately, her goodness has been sacrificed to make her "edgy". What's really sad? That the new woman who has been named Wonder Woman cannot represent a woman that young girls want to become. She's no longer a role model. She's no longer about being better and teaching all of us, boys and girls, about how to be a better person. She's about cutting off arms and being aggressive.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
New DCU week 9/21
Batman #1- Probably the best Batman title of the bunch thus far. We still have one more to go because how will fanboys live without their WEEKLY Batman fix? Anyhow, that has little to do with this actual title. It was solid. I liked concept behind the issue.. what is Gotham and it kind of answers various questions then goes on for the rest of the story. Bruce using the new Bat contacts are a tad cheating imho, but it was definitely a good story. Vicki Vale even makes a return. The thing is? This Bruce feels like he's in his 20's.. not the 30's that some people are thinking, so basically? The Bat history is still confusing and will probably take YEARS to fully figure out.
Birds of Prey #1- I'm a little confused about this team now. It's a black ops team made up of "criminals". Isn't that.. Suicide Squad? I mean.. I like the title. I love that Black Canary has decided to bring this team together and I like Starling thus far. It just seems redundant to have two of the same type of teams, but then again.. a lot of this DC new 52 feels like it wasn't planned as a COMPLETE idea, just as individual titles and ideas. That's lacking to me. All and all, I love the title. It's very good and it's going somewhere interesting.
Blue Beetle #1- Didn't we ALREADY have this exact issue when they released this character's series the first time? OMG. It was deja vu. Why BOTHER to rewrite the issue? Why not just reprint the original series all over again? I just don't get this.
Captain Atom #1- Eh.. Just.. Eh.. Captain Atom is an energy being. He is falling apart.. Not much else to this than that. A lot of talking about stuff that was boring. Honestly? This title just didn't do anything for me. Captain Atom has never been that interesting to me and this doesn't make me feel that much more inclined to read it.
Catwoman #1- OK.. we get it.. Catwoman has boobs.. ENOUGH ALREADY! I mean the entire issue OPENS with Selina's BOOBS. It was gross. Guess what? It didn't get better from there. Everything in the issue is all about sex b/c Winick is a pervert and he can't write a woman that isn't obsessed with sex like he is. The art was hideous and Selina's new curvy BFF looked like a Drag Queen, unfortunately. I would have liked her to look beautiful instead of like a man. And the ending? More pervy Winick! Oh yeah did I mention that someone blew up Selina's apartment and she DOESN'T EVEN CARE? Yup.. doesn't care at all. She's more worried about getting some worthless painting and beating up some guy from her past.. The only people who are probably loving this are die-hard Selina fans who love Selina no matter what and the perverts who love Fanservice.
DC Universe Presents #1- Interesting title all about Boston Brand and his time as Deadman. Apparently he "helps" people, but we have no clue how or what that entails. He's apparently doesn't know how he's suppose to help certain people now.. OK, but it seems like he didn't even TRY. I liked the title, I did, but I just don't understand what Brand is doing. I mean I guess that's suppose to be the point since he doesn't know what he's doing, but.. it just I don't understand what Brand does and how he helps people. It just didn't tell me anything and I think a lot of people will be lost.
Green Lantern Corps #1- A continuation of the previous stuff except Guy and Jon Stewart are the new head liners. They have a new villain who apparently can kill without being seen and well is SUPER POWERFUL. He kinda has to be to go up against the Lantern Corps. We see a brief chance for Guy and Jon to try to return to Earth, but well.. it didn't work both literally and story wise. Nothing here lead a new reader to understand what was going on from the Brightest Day and everything else. It was definitely not a jumping on point for that. As for the story that Jon and Guy on Earth? I didn't get it. I just don't know why it was needed. It slowed the issue down and it revealed really nothing about either of them. It explained how the rings worked.. joy, but that's about it.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1- Totally NOT a jumping on point. But then again, we all knew that it wouldn't be. It was a GREAT issue, but mostly because it seemed to continue pretty much where the Legion left off minus the Legion Lost members and some others which I guess we'll find out about later. Saturn Girl seems to be MIA and Colossal Boy has retired from the Legion. I'm thrilled to see the Legion is still here and the Legion kids have joined. I wish that Gravity Kid kept on into the Legion, but I figured he wouldn't be. All in all though, it's the Legion that I know and love, so I'm sold, but for new readers? No.. Definitely not.
Nightwing #1- An ok start for Dick. Yeah, just OK. there was a LOT of internal monologue in this issue and well every DC issue I've read this week thus far, so it got a little too heavy inner monologue. It's not that it's a bad thing per-se, but it gets a little heavy when you read 4-5 issues that are ALL heavy inner monologue without a lot of talking. All in all though, it was an OK issue. The art was OK. I still hate Dick's new costume, but I like that Dick has come back as Nightwing stronger than ever thanks to his time as Batman. He's found himself a place in Gotham and is working in Gotham again.. which means we have at least 6 people with titles currently operating in Gotham (Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Catwoman, Batwoman, and Flamebird). Gotham is definitely "The" city of the New DCU I guess.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 - Good news? I think the new Roy is mildly hot. Everything else in this issue? Yeah.. garbage. Jason Todd and Roy Harper are suddenly bffs and have been working together for a while, I guess. Starfire has suddenly become a bimbo. She's got a 5 second memory now and she's sleeping with all the boys, literally. She doesn't remember anything about her time with that "other team" and she's just.. dumb. I don't like it at all.
Supergirl #1- Rehash issue of Kara coming to earth. Dunno what to say about it other than Kara coming to Earth. It was a very, very fast read and that's not really a good thing. It felt like there really wasn't anything to it.. oh and Kara is convinced she's dreaming (Sound familiar to anyone? Like her ENTIRE time in the Legion of Super-Heroes?). There really is nothing to go on for me to tell if this series will be good or bad..
Wonder Woman #1- Wonder Woman is dead. Long Live Warrior Woman. Yeah, the Wonder Woman of old is completely and utterly gone. Gone is the kind, caring woman who solved problems over killing. Now? She has now problem chopping off arms. I don't even know why she still has her lasso since the ONLY time she uses it is to lasso someone on her side! So.. after mourning Wonder Woman.. we get on to the actual story, which was actually entertaining if you just realize that it's NOT Wonder Woman. Don't expect a Wonder Woman story at all. It's a nice battle of greek mythology. Think Xena the Warrior Princess and Hercules slammed together.. You have the battling Xena facing off against the mythological beings of Hercules. It works as a good story. I liked it and I want to see more.
Birds of Prey #1- I'm a little confused about this team now. It's a black ops team made up of "criminals". Isn't that.. Suicide Squad? I mean.. I like the title. I love that Black Canary has decided to bring this team together and I like Starling thus far. It just seems redundant to have two of the same type of teams, but then again.. a lot of this DC new 52 feels like it wasn't planned as a COMPLETE idea, just as individual titles and ideas. That's lacking to me. All and all, I love the title. It's very good and it's going somewhere interesting.
Blue Beetle #1- Didn't we ALREADY have this exact issue when they released this character's series the first time? OMG. It was deja vu. Why BOTHER to rewrite the issue? Why not just reprint the original series all over again? I just don't get this.
Captain Atom #1- Eh.. Just.. Eh.. Captain Atom is an energy being. He is falling apart.. Not much else to this than that. A lot of talking about stuff that was boring. Honestly? This title just didn't do anything for me. Captain Atom has never been that interesting to me and this doesn't make me feel that much more inclined to read it.
Catwoman #1- OK.. we get it.. Catwoman has boobs.. ENOUGH ALREADY! I mean the entire issue OPENS with Selina's BOOBS. It was gross. Guess what? It didn't get better from there. Everything in the issue is all about sex b/c Winick is a pervert and he can't write a woman that isn't obsessed with sex like he is. The art was hideous and Selina's new curvy BFF looked like a Drag Queen, unfortunately. I would have liked her to look beautiful instead of like a man. And the ending? More pervy Winick! Oh yeah did I mention that someone blew up Selina's apartment and she DOESN'T EVEN CARE? Yup.. doesn't care at all. She's more worried about getting some worthless painting and beating up some guy from her past.. The only people who are probably loving this are die-hard Selina fans who love Selina no matter what and the perverts who love Fanservice.
DC Universe Presents #1- Interesting title all about Boston Brand and his time as Deadman. Apparently he "helps" people, but we have no clue how or what that entails. He's apparently doesn't know how he's suppose to help certain people now.. OK, but it seems like he didn't even TRY. I liked the title, I did, but I just don't understand what Brand is doing. I mean I guess that's suppose to be the point since he doesn't know what he's doing, but.. it just I don't understand what Brand does and how he helps people. It just didn't tell me anything and I think a lot of people will be lost.
Green Lantern Corps #1- A continuation of the previous stuff except Guy and Jon Stewart are the new head liners. They have a new villain who apparently can kill without being seen and well is SUPER POWERFUL. He kinda has to be to go up against the Lantern Corps. We see a brief chance for Guy and Jon to try to return to Earth, but well.. it didn't work both literally and story wise. Nothing here lead a new reader to understand what was going on from the Brightest Day and everything else. It was definitely not a jumping on point for that. As for the story that Jon and Guy on Earth? I didn't get it. I just don't know why it was needed. It slowed the issue down and it revealed really nothing about either of them. It explained how the rings worked.. joy, but that's about it.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1- Totally NOT a jumping on point. But then again, we all knew that it wouldn't be. It was a GREAT issue, but mostly because it seemed to continue pretty much where the Legion left off minus the Legion Lost members and some others which I guess we'll find out about later. Saturn Girl seems to be MIA and Colossal Boy has retired from the Legion. I'm thrilled to see the Legion is still here and the Legion kids have joined. I wish that Gravity Kid kept on into the Legion, but I figured he wouldn't be. All in all though, it's the Legion that I know and love, so I'm sold, but for new readers? No.. Definitely not.
Nightwing #1- An ok start for Dick. Yeah, just OK. there was a LOT of internal monologue in this issue and well every DC issue I've read this week thus far, so it got a little too heavy inner monologue. It's not that it's a bad thing per-se, but it gets a little heavy when you read 4-5 issues that are ALL heavy inner monologue without a lot of talking. All in all though, it was an OK issue. The art was OK. I still hate Dick's new costume, but I like that Dick has come back as Nightwing stronger than ever thanks to his time as Batman. He's found himself a place in Gotham and is working in Gotham again.. which means we have at least 6 people with titles currently operating in Gotham (Batman, Robin, Nightwing, Catwoman, Batwoman, and Flamebird). Gotham is definitely "The" city of the New DCU I guess.
Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 - Good news? I think the new Roy is mildly hot. Everything else in this issue? Yeah.. garbage. Jason Todd and Roy Harper are suddenly bffs and have been working together for a while, I guess. Starfire has suddenly become a bimbo. She's got a 5 second memory now and she's sleeping with all the boys, literally. She doesn't remember anything about her time with that "other team" and she's just.. dumb. I don't like it at all.
Supergirl #1- Rehash issue of Kara coming to earth. Dunno what to say about it other than Kara coming to Earth. It was a very, very fast read and that's not really a good thing. It felt like there really wasn't anything to it.. oh and Kara is convinced she's dreaming (Sound familiar to anyone? Like her ENTIRE time in the Legion of Super-Heroes?). There really is nothing to go on for me to tell if this series will be good or bad..
Wonder Woman #1- Wonder Woman is dead. Long Live Warrior Woman. Yeah, the Wonder Woman of old is completely and utterly gone. Gone is the kind, caring woman who solved problems over killing. Now? She has now problem chopping off arms. I don't even know why she still has her lasso since the ONLY time she uses it is to lasso someone on her side! So.. after mourning Wonder Woman.. we get on to the actual story, which was actually entertaining if you just realize that it's NOT Wonder Woman. Don't expect a Wonder Woman story at all. It's a nice battle of greek mythology. Think Xena the Warrior Princess and Hercules slammed together.. You have the battling Xena facing off against the mythological beings of Hercules. It works as a good story. I liked it and I want to see more.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
New DCU week 9/14
Batman and Robin #1 - Wow. This missed the mark on EVERY level. Most of the issue was a BORING lecture from Bruce to his brat all about how he needs to respect the death of his grandparents. Then we leap to a really weird series of brother villains in masks who steal Batman's thing (it's some weird sphere thing which Batman has no control over) and Damien slices some thing on this thing and everything goes nuts. Then all the sudden we're flashing to Batman's Inc and some villain named Mr. Nobody. It was all just weird. It didn't work and it wasn't a very good issue at all in my opinion. Good news? Dick and Tim were still Robins. Bad news? Jason was still a Robin and Damien has survived, somehow..
Batwoman #1 - It was pretty.. that's about it. I picked this up and it felt EXACTLY like I was re-reading Batman and Robin. We have Kate badgering Bette, who has been a hero almost 3-4 times as long as Kate has been AROUND, about how insignificant and horrible she is as a crime fighter. This from the woman, who up until this issue where she has suddenly gone ballistic on her dad, has relied HEAVILY on her dad. I don't like that Bette is treated like she's completely incompetent. Sure Bette is not a very good hero and she's made tons of mistakes, but what makes Kate SO MUCH better? I'm just not sure. I'm really not.
Deathstroke #1 - I don't get this title. I just don't. I mean it was kind of fun except near the end which I won't spoil for you, but it completely lost me there. I miss Wintergreen GREATLY and he is needed to balance Deathstroke's homicidal maniac mode. Because right now? Deathstroke doesn't seem like much of a mercenary or honor bound fighter, he's just a crazy maniac that will kill for whatever reason.. he just PREFERS to get paid for it. There was also some odd dialogue which really threw me off like the opening scene where Deathstroke tells the bodyguards to go to a whore house before he cuts off the thing that makes them go to the whore house. That's just.. AWKWARD. Why is Deathstroke threatening to cut off other guys penises? It just.. idk. If he was like a woman repeatedly raped or the new Warrior Woman, MAYBE that'd be appropriate, but this just felt odd. Why not just threaten to kill them? Idk. I'm not sold on this title and I wouldn't buy it.
Demon Knights #1- I was sooooooo excited about this title and it was GOOD. REALLY GOOD. I enjoyed the crap out of it. It's a nice sword and sorcery title with all the characters you know and love coming back and making appearances. Thus far? Madame Xanadu, Jason of the Blood/Etrigan, Vandal Savage, Sir Ystin the Shining Knight, and what I'm assuming is an Amazon babe. Anyhow, the group is pretty interesting though Xanadu has me a little confused. I'm sure there is some interesting things going on there and it'll be revealed eventually. It's a solid start with knights, Camelot, and DRAGONS! Yes! you heard me.. DRAGONS.
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1 - Interesting. I'm not 100% sold on this one, but I love the fact that Ray Palmer is in it and I like the Creature Commandos. Not a fan of the Father Time as Hit Girl, but whatever. All in all, it was an enjoyable title. Pick it up and look into it. I like the Creature Commandos too and I like that while they resemble the incarnations in Flashpoint Frankenstein, but were not DIRECT translations. It was nice all around. Not the best title, but solid and enjoyable.
Green Lantern #1 - Pretty much picking up where we left off, there isn't much surprising in this issue except that Sinestro apparently was reappointed to his old Sector instead of Sector 2814. This is surprising since well Sector 1417 (the sector of Korugar) has 3 Lanterns now unless something happened to Soranik Natu and her partner, which would be sad. I assumed that Sinestro would replace Hal Jordon as guardian of Sector 2814. It kinda makes sense, but I guess not. Idk. There is a LOT left unexplained in this issue like why Carol suddenly assumed Hal would propose marriage.. that felt odd and off. The issue was solid and the sections with Sinestro and Hal adjusting to their new roles were interesting, but there were some odd scenes like the Carol one mentioned before or when Sinestro kicks a Yellow Lantern's ass.. It felt odd. The art also could have used something. In some scenes it looked crisp and solid, but in others.. Hal looked just strange and mismatched. It could use a little more consistency in my opinion.
Grifter #1 - A mess. Absolute mess. I don't know what to say about this title. Apparently Grifter gets his name from just being a grifter for so long and he's a not a good guy. Aliens or something is out to get him, he's a terrorist and he lost either Seventeen days or Seventeen Hours of time, we're not sure which. Apparently he can hear the alien-thingies thoughts now for some unknown reason, but he has no clue who or what the alien is. His brother is in the military and because of that, his brother has to hunt him down and capture him? That made NO sense. But much of this comic was really splashed together and rushed, so I'm just not sure how to take it. I wouldn't read the next issue though.
Legion Lost #1 - I had qualms about the Legion coming to the past and wow.. yeah this is EXACTLY why. We spend a HUGE portion of the issue whining about how horrid the 21st Century is with all it's pollution that they're just not used to in the 31st century. It was way over the top especially since Dawnstar can survive in ANY ENVIRONMENT and she can fly in the vacuum of SPACE without a suit. All the Legion's great technology suddenly goes haywire for no apparent reason, which felt so weird. They do make a nice mention of the Flashpoint, but the villain feels silly. He's got some vendetta against humans so he's come back to the past to unleash some unknown virus that apparently not even the Legionnaires are immune to though we have NO CLUE what this virus is or what it does or how it would even effect people it is apparently not THAT BAD as the Legion tries to run back to the future with a bunch of people exposed. The pollution was vastly worse since we heard more about that. On top of that, they did the dumbest thing that you can possibly do in a future story.. create a new slang system that replaces cuss words with stupid crap like Frag this and frag that. I HATE that. That's one of the things that has made the Legion so good is that it hasn't had any of that crap and now it's being introduced for no reason? Arg.
Mister Terrific #1 - Oh wow.. I wanted to like this comic, but Michael Holt deserves VASTLY better than this. This was another really fast messy comic. Mister Terrific is apparently created from the death of his wife and his future son coming back from the future to tell him how important he is. That was SO ODD. His origin was just.. weird. And way too much happens in this comic. It bounces around everywhere. Oh and odd thing, look at the background characters.. Almost every ONE of them is a POC and in fact, the ONLY white person in the whole comic are the villain, some annoying idiot white people that Michael has to point out that he's black to rather aggressively imho and Karen Star, who is a threat to the woman who apparently wants Michael. Yeah.. the end is kind of a shock, but you kind of knew it was going to happen based on the earlier interactions. It just was a VERY weird way to start this whole thing off and I'm not sure that it's the way to draw people in.
Red Lanterns #1 - Huge flashback about Atrocitus's life before his world was destroyed and a huge recap of how the Red Lanterns came about, but not much else. There was a nice fight scene at the beginning with Dex-Starr and we get more of that stupid Bleez that DC seems to love so much, but really there wasn't much to this issue at all. I don't see how this will make a comic. Honestly, I was bored and I see no reason to continue reading this comic.
Resurrection Man #1 - OK I was totally not sure about this title and I'm still not. It felt a tad confusing. There was a LOT going on for a new issue and it tried to "catch you up" on who this character is and what he does, but it felt like there were just too many things going on to fully follow. It was good, but this one reads like a MUST READ AS A TRADE title over good for individual issues and that I think will hurt it. I do think it's interesting that apparently our hero thinks he's being attacked by demons, but they appear to be Angels (i'm guessing by the Suriel name, which seems similar to other demons we've seen in the past). Also, weird guest appearance at the end that felt a little odd. I think that could have been taken out for more story (imho).
Suicide Squad #1- This is no Secret Six, not by a long shot, but this team is NOT afraid to be dark and brutal, which WORKS. We get a nice recap of why our team is in their predicament and why they're each members of the Squad. That is GREAT. I LOVE the new Harley. She needed something to jazz her up and make her a little less.. DC Animated and this did it. She could still use a new costume, but her new attitude is cool. Deadshot is awesome as is King Shark. Savant was a MASSIVE disappointment. He was totally thrown away in this issue and it was sad. He shouldn't have been the throw away character and it made no sense based on who Savant once was. They should have picked someone else. I'm also disappointed that Amanda Waller is now thin and somewhat pretty. I liked the old Amanda Waller better, but she is definitely in control of the Squad and they did a GREAT update to the way the Squad was handled before. It was nice. All in all, I liked.
Superboy #1 - This felt like a prologue to Teen Titans #1. That's all. I liked the appearance of Lois Lane trying to get a story and Rose Wilson makes an appearance which was kind of nice, but the rest? It just didn't feel like there was much to it other than to get you to read Teen Titans. It established Superboy as a character, SORTA. We still don't know a whole hell of a lot about him except he has some connection to this woman Red (who apparently has no name.. she's just.. Red). It's not that I didn't like this issue. It was OK. It just felt like there wasn't much purpose for it to be here at all.
Batwoman #1 - It was pretty.. that's about it. I picked this up and it felt EXACTLY like I was re-reading Batman and Robin. We have Kate badgering Bette, who has been a hero almost 3-4 times as long as Kate has been AROUND, about how insignificant and horrible she is as a crime fighter. This from the woman, who up until this issue where she has suddenly gone ballistic on her dad, has relied HEAVILY on her dad. I don't like that Bette is treated like she's completely incompetent. Sure Bette is not a very good hero and she's made tons of mistakes, but what makes Kate SO MUCH better? I'm just not sure. I'm really not.
Deathstroke #1 - I don't get this title. I just don't. I mean it was kind of fun except near the end which I won't spoil for you, but it completely lost me there. I miss Wintergreen GREATLY and he is needed to balance Deathstroke's homicidal maniac mode. Because right now? Deathstroke doesn't seem like much of a mercenary or honor bound fighter, he's just a crazy maniac that will kill for whatever reason.. he just PREFERS to get paid for it. There was also some odd dialogue which really threw me off like the opening scene where Deathstroke tells the bodyguards to go to a whore house before he cuts off the thing that makes them go to the whore house. That's just.. AWKWARD. Why is Deathstroke threatening to cut off other guys penises? It just.. idk. If he was like a woman repeatedly raped or the new Warrior Woman, MAYBE that'd be appropriate, but this just felt odd. Why not just threaten to kill them? Idk. I'm not sold on this title and I wouldn't buy it.
Demon Knights #1- I was sooooooo excited about this title and it was GOOD. REALLY GOOD. I enjoyed the crap out of it. It's a nice sword and sorcery title with all the characters you know and love coming back and making appearances. Thus far? Madame Xanadu, Jason of the Blood/Etrigan, Vandal Savage, Sir Ystin the Shining Knight, and what I'm assuming is an Amazon babe. Anyhow, the group is pretty interesting though Xanadu has me a little confused. I'm sure there is some interesting things going on there and it'll be revealed eventually. It's a solid start with knights, Camelot, and DRAGONS! Yes! you heard me.. DRAGONS.
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1 - Interesting. I'm not 100% sold on this one, but I love the fact that Ray Palmer is in it and I like the Creature Commandos. Not a fan of the Father Time as Hit Girl, but whatever. All in all, it was an enjoyable title. Pick it up and look into it. I like the Creature Commandos too and I like that while they resemble the incarnations in Flashpoint Frankenstein, but were not DIRECT translations. It was nice all around. Not the best title, but solid and enjoyable.
Green Lantern #1 - Pretty much picking up where we left off, there isn't much surprising in this issue except that Sinestro apparently was reappointed to his old Sector instead of Sector 2814. This is surprising since well Sector 1417 (the sector of Korugar) has 3 Lanterns now unless something happened to Soranik Natu and her partner, which would be sad. I assumed that Sinestro would replace Hal Jordon as guardian of Sector 2814. It kinda makes sense, but I guess not. Idk. There is a LOT left unexplained in this issue like why Carol suddenly assumed Hal would propose marriage.. that felt odd and off. The issue was solid and the sections with Sinestro and Hal adjusting to their new roles were interesting, but there were some odd scenes like the Carol one mentioned before or when Sinestro kicks a Yellow Lantern's ass.. It felt odd. The art also could have used something. In some scenes it looked crisp and solid, but in others.. Hal looked just strange and mismatched. It could use a little more consistency in my opinion.
Grifter #1 - A mess. Absolute mess. I don't know what to say about this title. Apparently Grifter gets his name from just being a grifter for so long and he's a not a good guy. Aliens or something is out to get him, he's a terrorist and he lost either Seventeen days or Seventeen Hours of time, we're not sure which. Apparently he can hear the alien-thingies thoughts now for some unknown reason, but he has no clue who or what the alien is. His brother is in the military and because of that, his brother has to hunt him down and capture him? That made NO sense. But much of this comic was really splashed together and rushed, so I'm just not sure how to take it. I wouldn't read the next issue though.
Legion Lost #1 - I had qualms about the Legion coming to the past and wow.. yeah this is EXACTLY why. We spend a HUGE portion of the issue whining about how horrid the 21st Century is with all it's pollution that they're just not used to in the 31st century. It was way over the top especially since Dawnstar can survive in ANY ENVIRONMENT and she can fly in the vacuum of SPACE without a suit. All the Legion's great technology suddenly goes haywire for no apparent reason, which felt so weird. They do make a nice mention of the Flashpoint, but the villain feels silly. He's got some vendetta against humans so he's come back to the past to unleash some unknown virus that apparently not even the Legionnaires are immune to though we have NO CLUE what this virus is or what it does or how it would even effect people it is apparently not THAT BAD as the Legion tries to run back to the future with a bunch of people exposed. The pollution was vastly worse since we heard more about that. On top of that, they did the dumbest thing that you can possibly do in a future story.. create a new slang system that replaces cuss words with stupid crap like Frag this and frag that. I HATE that. That's one of the things that has made the Legion so good is that it hasn't had any of that crap and now it's being introduced for no reason? Arg.
Mister Terrific #1 - Oh wow.. I wanted to like this comic, but Michael Holt deserves VASTLY better than this. This was another really fast messy comic. Mister Terrific is apparently created from the death of his wife and his future son coming back from the future to tell him how important he is. That was SO ODD. His origin was just.. weird. And way too much happens in this comic. It bounces around everywhere. Oh and odd thing, look at the background characters.. Almost every ONE of them is a POC and in fact, the ONLY white person in the whole comic are the villain, some annoying idiot white people that Michael has to point out that he's black to rather aggressively imho and Karen Star, who is a threat to the woman who apparently wants Michael. Yeah.. the end is kind of a shock, but you kind of knew it was going to happen based on the earlier interactions. It just was a VERY weird way to start this whole thing off and I'm not sure that it's the way to draw people in.
Red Lanterns #1 - Huge flashback about Atrocitus's life before his world was destroyed and a huge recap of how the Red Lanterns came about, but not much else. There was a nice fight scene at the beginning with Dex-Starr and we get more of that stupid Bleez that DC seems to love so much, but really there wasn't much to this issue at all. I don't see how this will make a comic. Honestly, I was bored and I see no reason to continue reading this comic.
Resurrection Man #1 - OK I was totally not sure about this title and I'm still not. It felt a tad confusing. There was a LOT going on for a new issue and it tried to "catch you up" on who this character is and what he does, but it felt like there were just too many things going on to fully follow. It was good, but this one reads like a MUST READ AS A TRADE title over good for individual issues and that I think will hurt it. I do think it's interesting that apparently our hero thinks he's being attacked by demons, but they appear to be Angels (i'm guessing by the Suriel name, which seems similar to other demons we've seen in the past). Also, weird guest appearance at the end that felt a little odd. I think that could have been taken out for more story (imho).
Suicide Squad #1- This is no Secret Six, not by a long shot, but this team is NOT afraid to be dark and brutal, which WORKS. We get a nice recap of why our team is in their predicament and why they're each members of the Squad. That is GREAT. I LOVE the new Harley. She needed something to jazz her up and make her a little less.. DC Animated and this did it. She could still use a new costume, but her new attitude is cool. Deadshot is awesome as is King Shark. Savant was a MASSIVE disappointment. He was totally thrown away in this issue and it was sad. He shouldn't have been the throw away character and it made no sense based on who Savant once was. They should have picked someone else. I'm also disappointed that Amanda Waller is now thin and somewhat pretty. I liked the old Amanda Waller better, but she is definitely in control of the Squad and they did a GREAT update to the way the Squad was handled before. It was nice. All in all, I liked.
Superboy #1 - This felt like a prologue to Teen Titans #1. That's all. I liked the appearance of Lois Lane trying to get a story and Rose Wilson makes an appearance which was kind of nice, but the rest? It just didn't feel like there was much to it other than to get you to read Teen Titans. It established Superboy as a character, SORTA. We still don't know a whole hell of a lot about him except he has some connection to this woman Red (who apparently has no name.. she's just.. Red). It's not that I didn't like this issue. It was OK. It just felt like there wasn't much purpose for it to be here at all.
Friday, September 9, 2011
The new DCU 52 thus far.. Week 9/7/2011
As many of you know, I am currently jobless, so I have had to borrow the new DC 52 in order to read them. I earlier told people the New DCU 52 I was looking out for, but I've decided since I'm jobless and bored.. I should check them all out, so I have. Here are my opinions on the titles thus far:
Justice League #1:
Honestly, I enjoyed it. Did it blow me away? Nope. I never expect a Geoff Johns title to blow me away. I just.. DON'T! What I DO expect is a solid, enjoyable story and I got that. The interaction between Bats and GL were entertaining to me and it felt like the START of something. Was it complete? No, do we need more story? Yes, but it was a definite start. Oh I DUG how they got Cyborg into it. He felt just like Vic to me and I can live with that. As I said, solid issue.. not blow you away, but definitely SOLID.
Action Comics #1:
Grant Morrison is my archnemesis in comic terms, lol. He is one of the few writers I just don't enjoy most of the time... EXCEPT on All-Star Superman, which wasn't perfect, but enjoyable, so.. I expected All-Star Superman to peek through.. Instead.. I'm left cold. Superman has apparently decided to fight corporate greed and the evil rich.. Joy, so Superman is everything I HATE about Green Arrow. That works.. not really. I was honestly COMPLETELY turned off by the opening bits. Superman was violent, angry, and he was not.. Superman.. he was Green Arrow and Batman mixed into a really, really BAD combination. After that part, though it got better. Things were so much better. I can live with his home made costume, his powers growing, I missed the "Somebody Save me" reference that others caught and it's HORRIBLE.. Morrison should be shot just for that, sorry, he should. Anyhow, the rest of the comic was solid.. I LOVED that Lois views Clark as a rival.. I LOVE that. It worked for me. The story really got progressively better after the initial super douche. I will read Action Comics after this. I'm sure it'll be an enjoyable ride.
Animal man #1:
A lot of other reviews felt this wasn't a good place to jump onto Animal man, but.. I enjoyed it. I think it was accessible to new readers. Over all, I liked Animal Man. I love Buddy, he was lively and personable, I loved his family and his interactions with them and I liked the one-shot villain that made him remember his daughter. I liked the costume as well. It was a nice set up and it showed us what is in store for the future. I was WORRIED given the set up that Maxine would end up to be a reality bending mutant.. I mean meta-human. I'm glad it's vastly more limited than that. I'm so glad. Honesty, this was seriously one of the comics I was thinking was going to be the first for me to drop and it's one of my favourites.
Batgirl #1:
Unlike some, I found the title enjoyable. I love Gail Simone and I enjoyed the art. I liked that Babs isn't perfect after spending 3 years in a wheelchair and I don't think she SHOULD be, despite what others seem to think. It was an enjoyable title, just not blow my mind. I liked it.. I hope to read more.. I'm just not sold on how this is a step forward for Babs at all.
Batwing #1:
Don't get this title. I don't understand why it's special, don't understand why we need it, I just don't. It's Batman in a different costume in the "country" of Africa. It felt flat to me. The character never fleshed out for me as anything new or unique.. he's just Bruce Wayne as a POC in Africa. I see no reason to read this comic.. just read Batman and you get the same character.
Detective Comics #1:
Interesting I guess. I'm just not a Batman fan and I'm not sure why we're ripping Joker's face off. Yeah, I'm skipping the rest of this comic. It just didn't sell me and I'm not a Batman fan.
Green Arrow #1:
Wow.. yeah.. I didn't get this comic at all. Ollie was throwing around some weird disc things out for no reason, we've got weirdo reject villains and A FUCKING ORACLE REPLACEMENT. Yeah you heard me.. That pissed me off to no END. They tried to REPLACE Oracle with some bimbo who works for Ollie. Fuck you JT Krul. That was heartless and cruel. The idea that Queen Industries is Apple was interesting I guess.. but yeah, everything here just didn't work enough for me to want to read.
Hawk and Dove #1:
Wow.. my worst nightmare for this title HAPPENED. Liefeld dominated the title, refusing to allow Sterling Gates to actually write as amazing as he can. Liefeld's Washington Monument was horrid and hideous which is just part of his crappy art. Anyhow, everything about this title SCREAMS that it was written JUST to be drawn by Liefeld which left the story feeling.. rushed and incomplete. I felt there were pages missing at the end and I haven't felt that way since just after DC switched to the new 20 pgs.
Justice League International #1:
COncept interesting I guess and some good characters. I dig Godiva already, but.. I'm just not sold. I'd probably buy it in trades. It was a fast read and it was enjoyable. I just didn't feel that it was a GREAT title. It didn't make me feel I needed to read the next issue.
Men of War #1:
I was bored. I didn't even try to read the back-up feature. It was NOT something I enjoyed. I'm sure this is a title for SOMEONE, but it is not for me. It was so boring to me and all the military jargon thrown in made it downright unreadable.
O.M.A.C. #1:
Eh. This was a title I wasn't thrilled about and after reading it.. I'm still not. Felt very rushed and incomplete. The reveal at the end was interesting, but yeah.. Nothing I'd ever read again. If I wanted to read Jack Kirby, I can read Jack Kirby and be blown away.. this was not and it failed.. miserably for me.
Static Shock #1:
Spider-Man.. joy. Teen superhero geek trying to be cool while fighting the Power Rangers? I'll skip it. I just felt this was a bad Spider-Man rip-off with nothing original to make it work for me.
Stormwatch #1:
Loved. Absolutely LOVED. The end made me squee with happiness. I was a little off-put with the Martian Manhunter "warrior" speech, but everything else was great. It did have a barrage of characters that I still have no clue about, but I WANT TO KNOW them. Besides, I HAVE to see how the Apollo/Midnighter relationship plays out.. HAVE TO! I love Midnighter.. he's my comic crush. There I admitted it.
Swamp Thing #1:
Ok, I wasn't going to pick this one up originally and well.. I feel that I would have missed out if I had not read this comic. It was a GREAT sleeper title and I hope it grows. It reminded me of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, which is the only one I have enjoyed. I've tried to read others, didn't like them.. this one I dug. So I hope it works out. I LOVED the cabbage thing and the voracious plant thing. It was great. Really just loved this title.
So all in all, thus far I'm right on what I'd like and not like EXCEPT Swamp Thing. That makes me happy lol. Oh the thing I have not been thrilled about the fact that Batman seems to be the THEME of this relaunch. Everything seems to be going darker.. Superman is a much more violent and arrogant at first, Ollie is acting JUST LIKE Bruce multi-tasking, acting violent, using various TOYS, he has his "generals" including a fake Oracle bimbo, and then we have Bruce-Lite in Africa. It's all crazy thus far to me.
Justice League #1:
Honestly, I enjoyed it. Did it blow me away? Nope. I never expect a Geoff Johns title to blow me away. I just.. DON'T! What I DO expect is a solid, enjoyable story and I got that. The interaction between Bats and GL were entertaining to me and it felt like the START of something. Was it complete? No, do we need more story? Yes, but it was a definite start. Oh I DUG how they got Cyborg into it. He felt just like Vic to me and I can live with that. As I said, solid issue.. not blow you away, but definitely SOLID.
Action Comics #1:
Grant Morrison is my archnemesis in comic terms, lol. He is one of the few writers I just don't enjoy most of the time... EXCEPT on All-Star Superman, which wasn't perfect, but enjoyable, so.. I expected All-Star Superman to peek through.. Instead.. I'm left cold. Superman has apparently decided to fight corporate greed and the evil rich.. Joy, so Superman is everything I HATE about Green Arrow. That works.. not really. I was honestly COMPLETELY turned off by the opening bits. Superman was violent, angry, and he was not.. Superman.. he was Green Arrow and Batman mixed into a really, really BAD combination. After that part, though it got better. Things were so much better. I can live with his home made costume, his powers growing, I missed the "Somebody Save me" reference that others caught and it's HORRIBLE.. Morrison should be shot just for that, sorry, he should. Anyhow, the rest of the comic was solid.. I LOVED that Lois views Clark as a rival.. I LOVE that. It worked for me. The story really got progressively better after the initial super douche. I will read Action Comics after this. I'm sure it'll be an enjoyable ride.
Animal man #1:
A lot of other reviews felt this wasn't a good place to jump onto Animal man, but.. I enjoyed it. I think it was accessible to new readers. Over all, I liked Animal Man. I love Buddy, he was lively and personable, I loved his family and his interactions with them and I liked the one-shot villain that made him remember his daughter. I liked the costume as well. It was a nice set up and it showed us what is in store for the future. I was WORRIED given the set up that Maxine would end up to be a reality bending mutant.. I mean meta-human. I'm glad it's vastly more limited than that. I'm so glad. Honesty, this was seriously one of the comics I was thinking was going to be the first for me to drop and it's one of my favourites.
Batgirl #1:
Unlike some, I found the title enjoyable. I love Gail Simone and I enjoyed the art. I liked that Babs isn't perfect after spending 3 years in a wheelchair and I don't think she SHOULD be, despite what others seem to think. It was an enjoyable title, just not blow my mind. I liked it.. I hope to read more.. I'm just not sold on how this is a step forward for Babs at all.
Batwing #1:
Don't get this title. I don't understand why it's special, don't understand why we need it, I just don't. It's Batman in a different costume in the "country" of Africa. It felt flat to me. The character never fleshed out for me as anything new or unique.. he's just Bruce Wayne as a POC in Africa. I see no reason to read this comic.. just read Batman and you get the same character.
Detective Comics #1:
Interesting I guess. I'm just not a Batman fan and I'm not sure why we're ripping Joker's face off. Yeah, I'm skipping the rest of this comic. It just didn't sell me and I'm not a Batman fan.
Green Arrow #1:
Wow.. yeah.. I didn't get this comic at all. Ollie was throwing around some weird disc things out for no reason, we've got weirdo reject villains and A FUCKING ORACLE REPLACEMENT. Yeah you heard me.. That pissed me off to no END. They tried to REPLACE Oracle with some bimbo who works for Ollie. Fuck you JT Krul. That was heartless and cruel. The idea that Queen Industries is Apple was interesting I guess.. but yeah, everything here just didn't work enough for me to want to read.
Hawk and Dove #1:
Wow.. my worst nightmare for this title HAPPENED. Liefeld dominated the title, refusing to allow Sterling Gates to actually write as amazing as he can. Liefeld's Washington Monument was horrid and hideous which is just part of his crappy art. Anyhow, everything about this title SCREAMS that it was written JUST to be drawn by Liefeld which left the story feeling.. rushed and incomplete. I felt there were pages missing at the end and I haven't felt that way since just after DC switched to the new 20 pgs.
Justice League International #1:
COncept interesting I guess and some good characters. I dig Godiva already, but.. I'm just not sold. I'd probably buy it in trades. It was a fast read and it was enjoyable. I just didn't feel that it was a GREAT title. It didn't make me feel I needed to read the next issue.
Men of War #1:
I was bored. I didn't even try to read the back-up feature. It was NOT something I enjoyed. I'm sure this is a title for SOMEONE, but it is not for me. It was so boring to me and all the military jargon thrown in made it downright unreadable.
O.M.A.C. #1:
Eh. This was a title I wasn't thrilled about and after reading it.. I'm still not. Felt very rushed and incomplete. The reveal at the end was interesting, but yeah.. Nothing I'd ever read again. If I wanted to read Jack Kirby, I can read Jack Kirby and be blown away.. this was not and it failed.. miserably for me.
Static Shock #1:
Spider-Man.. joy. Teen superhero geek trying to be cool while fighting the Power Rangers? I'll skip it. I just felt this was a bad Spider-Man rip-off with nothing original to make it work for me.
Stormwatch #1:
Loved. Absolutely LOVED. The end made me squee with happiness. I was a little off-put with the Martian Manhunter "warrior" speech, but everything else was great. It did have a barrage of characters that I still have no clue about, but I WANT TO KNOW them. Besides, I HAVE to see how the Apollo/Midnighter relationship plays out.. HAVE TO! I love Midnighter.. he's my comic crush. There I admitted it.
Swamp Thing #1:
Ok, I wasn't going to pick this one up originally and well.. I feel that I would have missed out if I had not read this comic. It was a GREAT sleeper title and I hope it grows. It reminded me of Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, which is the only one I have enjoyed. I've tried to read others, didn't like them.. this one I dug. So I hope it works out. I LOVED the cabbage thing and the voracious plant thing. It was great. Really just loved this title.
So all in all, thus far I'm right on what I'd like and not like EXCEPT Swamp Thing. That makes me happy lol. Oh the thing I have not been thrilled about the fact that Batman seems to be the THEME of this relaunch. Everything seems to be going darker.. Superman is a much more violent and arrogant at first, Ollie is acting JUST LIKE Bruce multi-tasking, acting violent, using various TOYS, he has his "generals" including a fake Oracle bimbo, and then we have Bruce-Lite in Africa. It's all crazy thus far to me.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
What makes a great Comic Book Movie?
I am vastly confused as to what makes a great comic book movie. It makes no sense to me at all. One of the rules though for recently successful superhero movies seems to be weak willed women with the exception of Iron Man. Every other successful superhero movie that has sold well and everyone LOVES has had weak idiotic women. Almost all of them have had horrible treatment of women and they've sucked. It should be noted at this point that I cannot make it through Incredible Hulk since it was insanely boring and didn't go anywhere for hours.
The next thing seems to be the balance between the original and the movie. It would appear that there would need to be a connection of some sort, but the balance? It's impossible to figure out. Catwoman and Elektra are great examples of completely ignoring the original (well not completely, but not really that much like their comic counterparts). On the opposite end, Spider-Man acts NOTHING like his comic counterpart and seems to only superficial similarities. Same thing with the X-Men. So why is Catwoman and Elektra NOT OK, but X-Men and Spider-Man ARE ok? What is the correct balance? Then we look at movies like Fantastic Four or Daredevil which are very similar to the original source material (Hell, DareDevil has just about everything exactly the same as Man Without Fear except being overzealous) and yet those are CRAPPY movies?
Can someone explain that to me? I just don't get it. How can ANYONE watch those X-Men movies that have absolutely nothing to do with the X-Men in any way except their names and that is OK, but Elektra which has the SAME PROBLEM, is a failure? What is the balance? Is it because Elektra is about a strong woman? Where X-Men has weak and stupid women (Even Mystique, a major villain in her own right and a sexy woman is turned into a porcupine following Magneto's orders)? I just don't understand it. Now I'm not saying Elektra was a great movie. It was a HORRIBLE Elektra movie because it had nothing to do with Elektra except the name.. (It was however a decent Ninja flick) But then the X-Men movie is guilty of the SAME THING and it's one of the best Superhero movies of all time? What the hell?
The next thing seems to be the balance between the original and the movie. It would appear that there would need to be a connection of some sort, but the balance? It's impossible to figure out. Catwoman and Elektra are great examples of completely ignoring the original (well not completely, but not really that much like their comic counterparts). On the opposite end, Spider-Man acts NOTHING like his comic counterpart and seems to only superficial similarities. Same thing with the X-Men. So why is Catwoman and Elektra NOT OK, but X-Men and Spider-Man ARE ok? What is the correct balance? Then we look at movies like Fantastic Four or Daredevil which are very similar to the original source material (Hell, DareDevil has just about everything exactly the same as Man Without Fear except being overzealous) and yet those are CRAPPY movies?
Can someone explain that to me? I just don't get it. How can ANYONE watch those X-Men movies that have absolutely nothing to do with the X-Men in any way except their names and that is OK, but Elektra which has the SAME PROBLEM, is a failure? What is the balance? Is it because Elektra is about a strong woman? Where X-Men has weak and stupid women (Even Mystique, a major villain in her own right and a sexy woman is turned into a porcupine following Magneto's orders)? I just don't understand it. Now I'm not saying Elektra was a great movie. It was a HORRIBLE Elektra movie because it had nothing to do with Elektra except the name.. (It was however a decent Ninja flick) But then the X-Men movie is guilty of the SAME THING and it's one of the best Superhero movies of all time? What the hell?
Saturday, July 2, 2011
New guardians: Who is DC kidding?
So I'm sure some of you have seen the New Guardians cover with the "blacked out" New Guardians. Who the hell do they think they are kidding? Seriously? 
OK let's go left to right shall we?
Bleez the red Lantern - Wow DC loves her. They're obsessed with her! She's appeared regularly in Emerald Warriors, now she's going to be a member of the "New Guardians"? Why couldn't it have been Dex-Starr.
Arkillo the Yellow Lantern - Another DC pet lately. He's a wanted villain in DCU Online, so any surprise he appears here? In fact, you fight him multiple times in DCU Online if you want.
Kyle Raynor as the Green Lantern - Obvious, they announced that and they had to put Kyle SOMEWHERE since he's not in the other 2 GL series. Rather odd though that they're breaking up Jon/Hal and Guy/Kyle to give Hal his solo, Jon and Hal their own on-going, and Kyle with the most "diverse" bunch.. Meaning Kyle could potentially be overshadowed here, but I doubt it.. Bedard seems to love Kyle and so everyone ELSE will suffer.
Munk in the back Indigo Tribe - So, Indigo-1 can't be a member, so we had to pick the only OTHER Indigo Tribe member instead. This will allow them to avoid exploring the Indigo Tribe at all, as they have been for quite a while. He'll be a nice background character.
Glomulus is representing Agent Orange - NO CLUE how this is possible considering Larfleeze IS the Orange Lantern (Hence the name Agent Orange). I just don't see how that is going to go. I think they were just worried about Larfleeze dominating this title, which it's obvious he would. He's Larfleeze.. HE WANTS EVERYTHING including your attention :)
Fatality is the Star Sapphire - I'm guessing here because it could be anyone, but I think they like Fatality which is why they turned her into a Star Sapphire. It's also because she's already established, so Bedard doesn't have to waste any time trying to actually write the character so she can become a background character. Also, I don't think they'll use Carol since they want her free to have a thing with Hal on the side.
Finally SAINT WALKER as Blue Lantern - That is so obvious, really.. so very, very obvious. I wouldn't mind Saint Walker with the other leaders, but this strikes me as pure and utter laziness. You have 3 other Blue Lanterns and one of them is another GIRL. They could have had more the two girls on the team *gasps*. I would have liked to see the other Blue Lanterns at this point, but considering the line-up is mostly well-known already established characters (b/c once again, actually developing characters is probably hard for Tony Bedard).
It's mildly disappointing. If you're going to cop out, at least use all the head-liners or go with some different characters. Why are we going with mostly well-known already established second stringers? I feel Bleez was only used because they needed another chick. This title had so much potential.. but I'm so not sure about it anymore.. I'm just not. I'm prob dropping this one quick especially since it'll take them the next 10 years just to reveal a slight bit about the Indigo Lanterns (while we get an entire title about Red Lanterns spitting lava blood).
OK let's go left to right shall we?
Bleez the red Lantern - Wow DC loves her. They're obsessed with her! She's appeared regularly in Emerald Warriors, now she's going to be a member of the "New Guardians"? Why couldn't it have been Dex-Starr.
Arkillo the Yellow Lantern - Another DC pet lately. He's a wanted villain in DCU Online, so any surprise he appears here? In fact, you fight him multiple times in DCU Online if you want.
Kyle Raynor as the Green Lantern - Obvious, they announced that and they had to put Kyle SOMEWHERE since he's not in the other 2 GL series. Rather odd though that they're breaking up Jon/Hal and Guy/Kyle to give Hal his solo, Jon and Hal their own on-going, and Kyle with the most "diverse" bunch.. Meaning Kyle could potentially be overshadowed here, but I doubt it.. Bedard seems to love Kyle and so everyone ELSE will suffer.
Munk in the back Indigo Tribe - So, Indigo-1 can't be a member, so we had to pick the only OTHER Indigo Tribe member instead. This will allow them to avoid exploring the Indigo Tribe at all, as they have been for quite a while. He'll be a nice background character.
Glomulus is representing Agent Orange - NO CLUE how this is possible considering Larfleeze IS the Orange Lantern (Hence the name Agent Orange). I just don't see how that is going to go. I think they were just worried about Larfleeze dominating this title, which it's obvious he would. He's Larfleeze.. HE WANTS EVERYTHING including your attention :)
Fatality is the Star Sapphire - I'm guessing here because it could be anyone, but I think they like Fatality which is why they turned her into a Star Sapphire. It's also because she's already established, so Bedard doesn't have to waste any time trying to actually write the character so she can become a background character. Also, I don't think they'll use Carol since they want her free to have a thing with Hal on the side.
Finally SAINT WALKER as Blue Lantern - That is so obvious, really.. so very, very obvious. I wouldn't mind Saint Walker with the other leaders, but this strikes me as pure and utter laziness. You have 3 other Blue Lanterns and one of them is another GIRL. They could have had more the two girls on the team *gasps*. I would have liked to see the other Blue Lanterns at this point, but considering the line-up is mostly well-known already established characters (b/c once again, actually developing characters is probably hard for Tony Bedard).
It's mildly disappointing. If you're going to cop out, at least use all the head-liners or go with some different characters. Why are we going with mostly well-known already established second stringers? I feel Bleez was only used because they needed another chick. This title had so much potential.. but I'm so not sure about it anymore.. I'm just not. I'm prob dropping this one quick especially since it'll take them the next 10 years just to reveal a slight bit about the Indigo Lanterns (while we get an entire title about Red Lanterns spitting lava blood).
Sunday, June 19, 2011
DC Relaunch, my part of the 52..
So I figured, since I've given my opinions, I'd tell you what my pull list is:
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
Fury of Firestorm
Green Lantern: New Guardians
Batgirl
Birds of Prey
Justice League Dark
Animal Man
Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion Lost
Teen Titans
Hawk and Dove
Stormwatch
All Star Western
Suicide Squad
Action Comics
Demon Knights
No clue what I'm keeping and what I'm not keeping. I'll let you know my thoughts of the titles I get once I get them. :) How is that?
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
Fury of Firestorm
Green Lantern: New Guardians
Batgirl
Birds of Prey
Justice League Dark
Animal Man
Legion of Super-Heroes
Legion Lost
Teen Titans
Hawk and Dove
Stormwatch
All Star Western
Suicide Squad
Action Comics
Demon Knights
No clue what I'm keeping and what I'm not keeping. I'll let you know my thoughts of the titles I get once I get them. :) How is that?
Friday, June 10, 2011
DC relaunch Overview
So DC has officially announced their entire 52 initial titles. Thus far we've got a crap ton of really ugly costumes, a bunch of men, black and white running around, and a few white women here and there. The majority of the teams seem to be run by men and we've got a bunch of really stupid decisions. Look does ANYONE think OMAC or Frankenstein Agent of Shade are going to be major titles? Seriously? I'm also struck by the fact that they've taken out the JSA. I mean DC's greatest team has been removed from their line up all together. That's very sad to me that they couldn't have found a place for them in the first run if they plan to do a JSA at all, but could find a place for throw away characters like Bat-Wing (Seriously, the character has appeared TWICE in comics and he gets a title over characters who have appeared for YEARS and have a huge fan base?).
From a lot of the titles that are sticking around, it just seems like a typical transfer from new writer and artist. Some they didn't even do that. They just shuffled. We'll see how different things actually are, but on the surface? Not a whole hell of a lot.
I have major mixed feelings about this Relaunch. I think some of it will be good, but I think there is just a LOT of wasted time and energy in this relaunch. There are a lot of wasted titles that just don't need to be around. Why are we giving losers like Blue Beetle, whose title has failed, getting another chance? And why is the line up relatively monochromatic? Why don't we have more Latino/Latina characters? and there appears to be only ONE Asian character in the whole batch and she may not even be Asian at all. Of course, there are only a couple female minorities at all in this new line up and women have not gained any new titles, just new directions (I'm thinking of Catwoman as a new direction for Gotham City Sirens btw).
The last thing is the insanely frustrating is the creative teams. I was all excited about Hawk and Dove for instance then I see Rob Liefeld is doing the art. Are they TRYING to kill this title? He's a horrible hack. I remember when he did Teen Titans with the new Hawk and Dove. Sales went up for the initial issue then drastically dropped below previous levels for the second issue only to return back to normal right after that. Gail Simone was the writer, so you know it wasn't about the writing. The issues were just about unreadable because Liefeld's art took away from the story and made it IMPOSSIBLE to figure out what was going on. Not to mention that Domino magically appeared as a DC villain. Then we give New Guardians to Tony Bedard, who cannot write interesting women to save his life. Every time he does a title with women, they come out flat and boring. then there is a lot of Vertigo writers suddenly doing Superhero titles, which could be good or bad and the most dreadful thing of all, Smallville writers. Smallville, one of the single worst TV shows ever and had NOTHING to do with comics, are going to be writing comics? So we'll get teen angsty drama for no real reason. Joy rapture and bliss. I don't want to read comic after comic of who Kara is sleeping with or dating. There is also a lot of title, I've never heard of, so I don't know if I want to read them or not.
I think this whole thing could be a massive failure and I don't think it is going to be a runaway success. It's mostly going to be a mixed bag and all the existing titles will return to their pre-change levels (except maybe Action b/c of Morrison writing it) and the new titles will settle down to somewhere in the middle to low end, just like a lot of other comics.
From a lot of the titles that are sticking around, it just seems like a typical transfer from new writer and artist. Some they didn't even do that. They just shuffled. We'll see how different things actually are, but on the surface? Not a whole hell of a lot.
I have major mixed feelings about this Relaunch. I think some of it will be good, but I think there is just a LOT of wasted time and energy in this relaunch. There are a lot of wasted titles that just don't need to be around. Why are we giving losers like Blue Beetle, whose title has failed, getting another chance? And why is the line up relatively monochromatic? Why don't we have more Latino/Latina characters? and there appears to be only ONE Asian character in the whole batch and she may not even be Asian at all. Of course, there are only a couple female minorities at all in this new line up and women have not gained any new titles, just new directions (I'm thinking of Catwoman as a new direction for Gotham City Sirens btw).
The last thing is the insanely frustrating is the creative teams. I was all excited about Hawk and Dove for instance then I see Rob Liefeld is doing the art. Are they TRYING to kill this title? He's a horrible hack. I remember when he did Teen Titans with the new Hawk and Dove. Sales went up for the initial issue then drastically dropped below previous levels for the second issue only to return back to normal right after that. Gail Simone was the writer, so you know it wasn't about the writing. The issues were just about unreadable because Liefeld's art took away from the story and made it IMPOSSIBLE to figure out what was going on. Not to mention that Domino magically appeared as a DC villain. Then we give New Guardians to Tony Bedard, who cannot write interesting women to save his life. Every time he does a title with women, they come out flat and boring. then there is a lot of Vertigo writers suddenly doing Superhero titles, which could be good or bad and the most dreadful thing of all, Smallville writers. Smallville, one of the single worst TV shows ever and had NOTHING to do with comics, are going to be writing comics? So we'll get teen angsty drama for no real reason. Joy rapture and bliss. I don't want to read comic after comic of who Kara is sleeping with or dating. There is also a lot of title, I've never heard of, so I don't know if I want to read them or not.
I think this whole thing could be a massive failure and I don't think it is going to be a runaway success. It's mostly going to be a mixed bag and all the existing titles will return to their pre-change levels (except maybe Action b/c of Morrison writing it) and the new titles will settle down to somewhere in the middle to low end, just like a lot of other comics.
DC Relaunch SuperFamily
Action Comics - So Grant Morrison is taking over as the scribe for Superman for a bit. Normally I'd run in the other direction from Grant Morrison, but his All-Star Superman was OK despite some really stupid things like the Willy Wonka of Science in his Technicolor Dream coat. Other than that, I'm interested. I'll definitely be picking up the first issue. I think this will be a comic that people will want so badly.
Superman, Man of Tomorrow - Um, yeah. I love George Perez and I'd like to see what they're gonna do with Supes to make him interesting and relevant, but I don't think I can get past that HIDEOUS costume. It's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. It's hideous and he doesn't need armored footies. He's indestructible!
Supergirl - I like the new cape, but the costume as a whole is a little blah. I like the concept of Supergirl being different than Superman somehow, but this is pretty much the same Supergirl we saw and finally got rid of to get a Supergirl with personality. Add to the fact that we've got Smallville writers on this, yeah I'm going to look at this title, but I'm probably not buying it. I was really excited to see it, but re-reading it and looking at it again? I'm not adding it to my def list.
Superboy - You'd think because I was interested in Teen Titans, I'd pick up this one. Yeah, not going to happen. I like the cover, but that's about it. I like Kon-El, but I've never really dug his solo title except when he was mixing it up with Cassandra Cain. Their chemistry was AMAZING to me.
Superman, Man of Tomorrow - Um, yeah. I love George Perez and I'd like to see what they're gonna do with Supes to make him interesting and relevant, but I don't think I can get past that HIDEOUS costume. It's one of the dumbest things I've ever seen. It's hideous and he doesn't need armored footies. He's indestructible!
Supergirl - I like the new cape, but the costume as a whole is a little blah. I like the concept of Supergirl being different than Superman somehow, but this is pretty much the same Supergirl we saw and finally got rid of to get a Supergirl with personality. Add to the fact that we've got Smallville writers on this, yeah I'm going to look at this title, but I'm probably not buying it. I was really excited to see it, but re-reading it and looking at it again? I'm not adding it to my def list.
Superboy - You'd think because I was interested in Teen Titans, I'd pick up this one. Yeah, not going to happen. I like the cover, but that's about it. I like Kon-El, but I've never really dug his solo title except when he was mixing it up with Cassandra Cain. Their chemistry was AMAZING to me.
Stephanie Brown
I've never been a fan of the chick named Spoiler. She's been shown for 10+ years to be completely incompetent, but she doesn't give up so that somehow makes her amazing? People are all upset that the chick who was FORCED by editorially mandate into the Batgirl costume is somehow losing a mantle she never earned to begin with. I just don't understand this. Stephanie has never EARNED a single one of her mantles. She's just gotten them all by default.
She got the Robin mantle because Bruce was pissed at Tim at the moment. Steph saw Tim flirting with another girl, so she went to try to steal the mantle and hurt him and Bruce wanted to punish him as well. The man that has consistently told Stephanie to give up crime fighting suddenly decides she's the perfect match for his replacement sidekick? I'm sorry if I'm not sold on her being the best Robin ever and she deserves to be remembered as a great Robin and she was so amazing and all this other rubbish.
Fast forward a few years, she got killed, comes back to life, and learns absolutely nothing from her experience as Robin where she failed so miserably.. Cass is standing there and suddenly for no reason anyone can explain that makes ANY sense, throws off the Batgirl costume to Stephanie and disappears supposedly forever. So Stephanie becomes Batgirl by default just because Cass didn't want to be it anymore? Seriously? That makes her a great character? I just don't understand that.
So, she has fans, great. I don't understand it, I don't get how she is this amazing character. She's never gotten anywhere on her own, she's never earned a title, she's just been handed them and often times because someone at DC loves her. It's funny that this same guy hates a strong powerful woman like Linda Danvers (and apparently Cassandra Cain), but he loves this whiney, childish little girl who can't earn her own way, it has to be given to her. Amazing character!
She got the Robin mantle because Bruce was pissed at Tim at the moment. Steph saw Tim flirting with another girl, so she went to try to steal the mantle and hurt him and Bruce wanted to punish him as well. The man that has consistently told Stephanie to give up crime fighting suddenly decides she's the perfect match for his replacement sidekick? I'm sorry if I'm not sold on her being the best Robin ever and she deserves to be remembered as a great Robin and she was so amazing and all this other rubbish.
Fast forward a few years, she got killed, comes back to life, and learns absolutely nothing from her experience as Robin where she failed so miserably.. Cass is standing there and suddenly for no reason anyone can explain that makes ANY sense, throws off the Batgirl costume to Stephanie and disappears supposedly forever. So Stephanie becomes Batgirl by default just because Cass didn't want to be it anymore? Seriously? That makes her a great character? I just don't understand that.
So, she has fans, great. I don't understand it, I don't get how she is this amazing character. She's never gotten anywhere on her own, she's never earned a title, she's just been handed them and often times because someone at DC loves her. It's funny that this same guy hates a strong powerful woman like Linda Danvers (and apparently Cassandra Cain), but he loves this whiney, childish little girl who can't earn her own way, it has to be given to her. Amazing character!
DC Relaunch the Lanterns
Green Lantern - Same thing we've already been reading with a new "Shake up". We needed a relaunch to get a new artist and writer? Seriously?
Green Lantern Corps - See above except this time it's now about Jon Stewart and Guy Gardner. It's just a shuffle again. Don't see the need for a relaunch for this.
New Guardians - I'm excited about the New Guardians getting their own title. The problem is that this title is probably going to be all about the Kyle and Atrocitus even though they have other venues to tell their stories. That means that all the other Guardians be in the background except Indigo and Carol Ferris since Tony Bedard is writing them, they'll be boring background characters. He's not good at writing women. That makes me sad about this title. Before Bedard took over GLC, Soranik Natu was one of the major characters. She was strong, powerful and just an amazing character. Bedard took over and she is Kyle's gf, Sinestro's daughter, and she's a major background character. She has not come to life at all. I'm sad to see what happens to Carol and Indigo.
Red Lantern - Not sure how you're going to have a whole title about people overcome with rage and have no real personality other than Atrocitus. Most of them just filled with blind rage and can't really talk. I'm not sure about this. I'm really not sure about this.
Green Lantern Corps - See above except this time it's now about Jon Stewart and Guy Gardner. It's just a shuffle again. Don't see the need for a relaunch for this.
New Guardians - I'm excited about the New Guardians getting their own title. The problem is that this title is probably going to be all about the Kyle and Atrocitus even though they have other venues to tell their stories. That means that all the other Guardians be in the background except Indigo and Carol Ferris since Tony Bedard is writing them, they'll be boring background characters. He's not good at writing women. That makes me sad about this title. Before Bedard took over GLC, Soranik Natu was one of the major characters. She was strong, powerful and just an amazing character. Bedard took over and she is Kyle's gf, Sinestro's daughter, and she's a major background character. She has not come to life at all. I'm sad to see what happens to Carol and Indigo.
Red Lantern - Not sure how you're going to have a whole title about people overcome with rage and have no real personality other than Atrocitus. Most of them just filled with blind rage and can't really talk. I'm not sure about this. I'm really not sure about this.
DC relaunch the Bat-Titles (or rather the massive 12 issue line up)
Detective Comics, Batman, Batman and Robin, and Dark Knight - Forgive me for lumping these 4 titles together, but I do not see how you cannot. No other character is getting 4 titles and well it's all about Bruce. They'll sell because Batman sells. Honestly, all that's really happened is that they've got new numbering and the regular switch of artist/writer. There really is nothing bold and new about this at all except that Bruce will have to deal with his own brat for a bit.
Batwoman - the long awaited title is finally comes to life. I've made it rather clear I'm not a fan of Kate Kane. I wish the team the best, but I have no desire to read this comic. It will sell like crazy since straight boys like lesbians, but this is not a surprise to anyone.
Batgirl - I've stated my opinions on this title already. The few rabid fans will be excited and happy and it has a good staff, but it's pissed off a lot of fans, so..
Catwoman - Selina is back in her own title. Yeah! Then Judd Winick is writing it, so.. that means Selina will be having sex with everyone and anyone for countless issues. Are we thrilled? Not particularly. Look I love Selina, but this team is a horrible idea. Selina's title will sell and it will hopefully survive the initial bad writing. Then again, some people absolutely love Winick.
Birds of Prey - New writer, that I don't know all that much about, new team that looks interesting except for the hideous Black Canary costume.. this could be a great comic. I'm on a wait and see on this one. I'm going to collect it, going to read it, but the actual series is all about the writing and how well Canary, Ivy, and the other two that nobody is 100% sure who they are. Like I said, this title can be a great comic or a failure. Let's hope for Dinah's sake that it is a solid title.
Nightwing - Dick Grayson is back as Nightwing! That's the good news. The Bad news? His costume looks evil and menacing. I hate his red eyes. I just hate that. The cover is very red. It'll be interesting to see Bruce, Damien, Selina, Kate, and Dick all running around in Gotham. I think it'd be HILARIOUS to see them all on the same case and stepping all over each other.
Red Hood and the Outlaws - Hate Jason Todd, hate Red Hood. I still do not understand how Under the Red Hood was a huge success. Jason so angry that Bruce broke up with him was gaggy and crappy. I honestly cannot stand it. I'm glad to see Roy has both his arms back and Starfire is on this team. I'm sure Jason Todd and Kory are going to hook up just to make it work. Yeah! This looks like a really bad attempt at Outsiders. I'm totally skipping.
Bat-Mite - I don't understand this. I'd have much rather seen Orpheus get his own title. This character has only appeared what two times and he's suddenly popular enough to get his own title? I don't understand that at all. I also don't know how well this will sell completely separated from the rest of the DCU. Maybe he could have appeared in JLI instead? I want to say this will fail, but it's a Bat-title, so.. it'll be strangely popular.
Batwoman - the long awaited title is finally comes to life. I've made it rather clear I'm not a fan of Kate Kane. I wish the team the best, but I have no desire to read this comic. It will sell like crazy since straight boys like lesbians, but this is not a surprise to anyone.
Batgirl - I've stated my opinions on this title already. The few rabid fans will be excited and happy and it has a good staff, but it's pissed off a lot of fans, so..
Catwoman - Selina is back in her own title. Yeah! Then Judd Winick is writing it, so.. that means Selina will be having sex with everyone and anyone for countless issues. Are we thrilled? Not particularly. Look I love Selina, but this team is a horrible idea. Selina's title will sell and it will hopefully survive the initial bad writing. Then again, some people absolutely love Winick.
Birds of Prey - New writer, that I don't know all that much about, new team that looks interesting except for the hideous Black Canary costume.. this could be a great comic. I'm on a wait and see on this one. I'm going to collect it, going to read it, but the actual series is all about the writing and how well Canary, Ivy, and the other two that nobody is 100% sure who they are. Like I said, this title can be a great comic or a failure. Let's hope for Dinah's sake that it is a solid title.
Nightwing - Dick Grayson is back as Nightwing! That's the good news. The Bad news? His costume looks evil and menacing. I hate his red eyes. I just hate that. The cover is very red. It'll be interesting to see Bruce, Damien, Selina, Kate, and Dick all running around in Gotham. I think it'd be HILARIOUS to see them all on the same case and stepping all over each other.
Red Hood and the Outlaws - Hate Jason Todd, hate Red Hood. I still do not understand how Under the Red Hood was a huge success. Jason so angry that Bruce broke up with him was gaggy and crappy. I honestly cannot stand it. I'm glad to see Roy has both his arms back and Starfire is on this team. I'm sure Jason Todd and Kory are going to hook up just to make it work. Yeah! This looks like a really bad attempt at Outsiders. I'm totally skipping.
Bat-Mite - I don't understand this. I'd have much rather seen Orpheus get his own title. This character has only appeared what two times and he's suddenly popular enough to get his own title? I don't understand that at all. I also don't know how well this will sell completely separated from the rest of the DCU. Maybe he could have appeared in JLI instead? I want to say this will fail, but it's a Bat-title, so.. it'll be strangely popular.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
DC Relaunch Welcome to the Edge
Stormwatch - So DC is bringing Stormwatch into the DC universe. I am totally not sure about this title, but.. It has Martian Manhunter, a character I have grown to love in teams. The biggest reason for me picking up this title is Midnighter and Apollo. Not a fan of some of the sketches I've seen of Apollo's costume, but that's not a final design and not by the actual artist, so things can change! I'm just hoping they don't make the two of them straight, but Paul Cornell is writing it and I've loved his team titles. I have faith in this title, I really do, but I do question the need of another globe trotting team dealing with international superheroes. We have Justice League, JLI, Stormwatch and JLD. It may be a tad much.
Blackhawks - Umm.. yeah. I just don't know what to say about this title. The big thing is that Zinda hasn't been mentioned at all in the promo. We have been told that Zinda will potentially appear, but if she's not in the first issue, ANYTHING can change and the series can be cancelled before that ever happens. So without Zinda CONFIRMED as a part of this series, I'm DEFINITELY not buying. Not to mention the whole concept of a highly trained army of flying mercs doesn't really work for me.
Sgt Rock and the Men of War - Totally skipping this comic. I'm not a fan of military stuff and a whole military comic all about war? Sounds insanely boring to me. I'm sure this will satisfy some small niche, but I doubt this will be a long running title.
All-Star Western - All I have to say is Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti. That is the reason you HAVE to read this comic. Not only do we get their Jonah Hex, but we get to see them handle countless other western heroes. The best thing? This title has been a solid seller for a long time, so this relaunch will keep the title alive and hopefully get new people, like myself, on board. Now I'm NOT a fan of westerns, but these two amazing writers have proved themselves time and time again to me, so I HAVE to give them a chance. I have to!
Deathstroke - I figured based on Frankenstein getting his own title, that Deathstroke would be getting his own! I was hoping they'd keep Palmiotti on the title since that would have made it AWESOME, but they didn't. I was excited about this title until I saw it. Now I'm just NOT sure. The costume is hideous and it could be a hit or miss thing. It's either going to be great or a massive failure. We shall see. I will look at it at least. I doubt I'm going to be buying this one.
Grifter - Yeah! the Wildstorm Wolverine/Batman gets his own title! JOY! How many months until he gets 20 bazillion titles like Deadpool? I've never really gotten into Grifter, wasn't a fan of WildC.A.T.S., so yeah, I'm not that sure about it.
OMAC - Did this title sell the FIRST TIME? Let's relaunch it and make it ridiculous. I mean, seriously? Even with Jack Kirby's name behind the original series, this didn't sell. this has been tried a couple times now and it just hasn't worked, so why do we keep doing it? I just don't understand the thought behind this title. I just think this is going to be an amazing failure.
Blue Beetle - Another failed title, getting a second chance for really no reason. So we've finally gotten another minority in the DCU other than a black male, but once again he's a guy and I just don't see why we're rehashing Blue Beetle again. The series just didn't work and it wasn't a major seller even with Giffen backing it. Throw Tony Bedard behind it who is a so-so writer. I just don't understand this.
Suicide Squad - I like Suicide Squad, but this means the death of one of the greatest titles DC has, the Secret Six. I like that Deathstroke and King Shark are sticking around and Harley Quinn is an interesting X Factor, but I hope other characters join in and I hope it is half as good as Secret Six, though it has MASSIVE shoes to fill. This is going to be by far the most bittersweet title for me and if it sucks, well.. I'm going to be so pissed. I mean DC cancelling a decent selling title for a shitty one? Yeah.
Blackhawks - Umm.. yeah. I just don't know what to say about this title. The big thing is that Zinda hasn't been mentioned at all in the promo. We have been told that Zinda will potentially appear, but if she's not in the first issue, ANYTHING can change and the series can be cancelled before that ever happens. So without Zinda CONFIRMED as a part of this series, I'm DEFINITELY not buying. Not to mention the whole concept of a highly trained army of flying mercs doesn't really work for me.
Sgt Rock and the Men of War - Totally skipping this comic. I'm not a fan of military stuff and a whole military comic all about war? Sounds insanely boring to me. I'm sure this will satisfy some small niche, but I doubt this will be a long running title.
All-Star Western - All I have to say is Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti. That is the reason you HAVE to read this comic. Not only do we get their Jonah Hex, but we get to see them handle countless other western heroes. The best thing? This title has been a solid seller for a long time, so this relaunch will keep the title alive and hopefully get new people, like myself, on board. Now I'm NOT a fan of westerns, but these two amazing writers have proved themselves time and time again to me, so I HAVE to give them a chance. I have to!
Deathstroke - I figured based on Frankenstein getting his own title, that Deathstroke would be getting his own! I was hoping they'd keep Palmiotti on the title since that would have made it AWESOME, but they didn't. I was excited about this title until I saw it. Now I'm just NOT sure. The costume is hideous and it could be a hit or miss thing. It's either going to be great or a massive failure. We shall see. I will look at it at least. I doubt I'm going to be buying this one.
Grifter - Yeah! the Wildstorm Wolverine/Batman gets his own title! JOY! How many months until he gets 20 bazillion titles like Deadpool? I've never really gotten into Grifter, wasn't a fan of WildC.A.T.S., so yeah, I'm not that sure about it.
OMAC - Did this title sell the FIRST TIME? Let's relaunch it and make it ridiculous. I mean, seriously? Even with Jack Kirby's name behind the original series, this didn't sell. this has been tried a couple times now and it just hasn't worked, so why do we keep doing it? I just don't understand the thought behind this title. I just think this is going to be an amazing failure.
Blue Beetle - Another failed title, getting a second chance for really no reason. So we've finally gotten another minority in the DCU other than a black male, but once again he's a guy and I just don't see why we're rehashing Blue Beetle again. The series just didn't work and it wasn't a major seller even with Giffen backing it. Throw Tony Bedard behind it who is a so-so writer. I just don't understand this.
Suicide Squad - I like Suicide Squad, but this means the death of one of the greatest titles DC has, the Secret Six. I like that Deathstroke and King Shark are sticking around and Harley Quinn is an interesting X Factor, but I hope other characters join in and I hope it is half as good as Secret Six, though it has MASSIVE shoes to fill. This is going to be by far the most bittersweet title for me and if it sucks, well.. I'm going to be so pissed. I mean DC cancelling a decent selling title for a shitty one? Yeah.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
DC Relaunch: The Next Generation
Legion Lost - Ok, they're breaking the Legion up.. Fine, I guess. Dawnstar, Wildfire, Chameleon Girl, Tellus, Gates, Invisible Kid II(?) and Timber Wolf on a team together. OK. I am just not sure about this title. I don't know why they're taking a portion of the Legion away and it does bother me that Levitz isn't handling it, which means Legion Lost can go nuts. I'll definitely be buying this, I'm just not sure I'm excited about it. I've never been a fan of Gates and if he's whining for the entire time, it'll DEFINITELY get old fast. I love the other characters though, so it could be good, but the Legion in the past hasn't worked out very well in the past and didn't the Legion just save the future during the Lightening Saga/New Krypton? Yeah..
Legion of Super-Heroes - I saw Legion Lost first, which totally shouldn't have been first. THIS should have been first. I cursed DC all up and down when I saw Legion Lost (at first I thought it was a new Legion.. the art is difficult to tell). Of course, I'm over the top enthusiastic about this title. I love Levitz, I love the Legion and well.. it looks like as with a good portion of the "relaunch" to be a continuation of the current Legion title, which is fine by me. If it isn't broken (and considering this has probably been one of the most popular Legion series in a LONG TIME), don't fix it!
Teen Titans - the cover has me so interested. It looks like they're retooling Bart and Cassie, which mildly annoys me, but I like the costumes and I like the changes. I love that Kon-El has a Superman "tat" now. I dig the cover, though the chick on the ground is creepy and she reminds me too much of Wolverine. I have a feeling she's going to be our typical crazed feral member. I wish they'd come up with a better codename for Tim than Red Robin, but the costume is pretty freaking awesome, so I will forgive this. This will be the first Teen Titans comic I'll be buying since the teen Titans relaunched all those moons ago.
Static Shock - Well.. I've never been a fan of this character. I hated his TV show, I tried reading his comic but Milestone struck me as reverse racism. All the white people are evil and the minorities are good? And of course, the only white person on any team has to be a lesbian just to make it ok. I personally want minority heroes to stand on their own in a mixed world, not just in a world of minorities. So on to Static, well.. they've apparently taken out the fact that he has Static powers and gone straight to electric abilities, which is fine I guess, but it was interesting that he flew on a disc. The costume is hideous and well given the fact that we have Jakeem Thunder in the DCU, whom I think of as the same character as Static, I just don't understand why we need both. That's just me. I'm skipping this title obviously.
Hawk and Dove - OK I saw this, I got SUPER excited. I've been enjoying Hawk and Dove in Birds of Prey and Sterling Gates is writing it, so that peeked my interest. Then I saw Rob Liefeld is the artist. DC are you TRYING to kill this comic? SERIOUSLY? Rob Liefeld is by far one of the WORST artists in comics today and he's going to take AWAY from Gates's writing the same way he did with Gail Simone's run on Teen Titans. Hopefully he won't be able to keep it up and we'll get a new artist relatively quick or this title is dead in the water and that makes me sad.
Legion of Super-Heroes - I saw Legion Lost first, which totally shouldn't have been first. THIS should have been first. I cursed DC all up and down when I saw Legion Lost (at first I thought it was a new Legion.. the art is difficult to tell). Of course, I'm over the top enthusiastic about this title. I love Levitz, I love the Legion and well.. it looks like as with a good portion of the "relaunch" to be a continuation of the current Legion title, which is fine by me. If it isn't broken (and considering this has probably been one of the most popular Legion series in a LONG TIME), don't fix it!
Teen Titans - the cover has me so interested. It looks like they're retooling Bart and Cassie, which mildly annoys me, but I like the costumes and I like the changes. I love that Kon-El has a Superman "tat" now. I dig the cover, though the chick on the ground is creepy and she reminds me too much of Wolverine. I have a feeling she's going to be our typical crazed feral member. I wish they'd come up with a better codename for Tim than Red Robin, but the costume is pretty freaking awesome, so I will forgive this. This will be the first Teen Titans comic I'll be buying since the teen Titans relaunched all those moons ago.
Static Shock - Well.. I've never been a fan of this character. I hated his TV show, I tried reading his comic but Milestone struck me as reverse racism. All the white people are evil and the minorities are good? And of course, the only white person on any team has to be a lesbian just to make it ok. I personally want minority heroes to stand on their own in a mixed world, not just in a world of minorities. So on to Static, well.. they've apparently taken out the fact that he has Static powers and gone straight to electric abilities, which is fine I guess, but it was interesting that he flew on a disc. The costume is hideous and well given the fact that we have Jakeem Thunder in the DCU, whom I think of as the same character as Static, I just don't understand why we need both. That's just me. I'm skipping this title obviously.
Hawk and Dove - OK I saw this, I got SUPER excited. I've been enjoying Hawk and Dove in Birds of Prey and Sterling Gates is writing it, so that peeked my interest. Then I saw Rob Liefeld is the artist. DC are you TRYING to kill this comic? SERIOUSLY? Rob Liefeld is by far one of the WORST artists in comics today and he's going to take AWAY from Gates's writing the same way he did with Gail Simone's run on Teen Titans. Hopefully he won't be able to keep it up and we'll get a new artist relatively quick or this title is dead in the water and that makes me sad.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
DC Relaunch: Initial release titles
So a few days ago, DC announced it's initial release titles for the DC Reboot/Retool/Relaunch. So let's start at the beginning:
Justice League - Good news Geoff Johns and Jim Lee and Cyborg is on the team! YEAH! I'm sure this will be a great flag ship title and a lot of people will read it, but honestly the Justice League has typically left me rather cold and this line up doesn't do much to change that. It's pretty typical except for the nice addition of Cyborg who seems to be there just to represent the POC slot that needs to be filled. I mean, I LOVE Vic, but every OTHER character has their own solo title.. so he just seems a little odd in that line up. Let's hope it's good, but I won't be reading it.
Wonder Woman - yet another disappointment. First of all, the hideous costume is still around. It's been modified, but it's still here and still ugly. Second, DC seems to think Wonder Woman is Xena Warrior Princess again. Look at that cover! Look at it! She's got a huge sword covered in blood! HOW IS THAT Wonder Woman? It just seems to be the exact opposite of what Wonder Woman stands for to me and the cover makes me think she's going to be the accepted killer in the DCU which I loathe. Once again another title I was looking forward to and hoped DC would take Diana into a NEW direction, not the same old failed one.. but hey DC knows what they're doing right? After all, Diana has been a top tier character consistently under their watchful eye. I will check out this title out, but I don't have high hopes at all.
Aquaman - Eh.. OK, so Aquaman is getting a title again. Once again good news that Geoff Johns is on the title. He seems to like Arthur and that's a good thing. Aquaman's appearances in Brightest Day were pretty good and an Aquaman title means the one thing EVERYONE really wants to see.. MORE MERA, QUEEN OF THE SEA! I'll look at this title too especially if I get more Mera. I think she's more interesting than Arthur, but Geoff could actually MAKE him relevant and enjoyable again. I look forward to seeing that, but he is Aquaman lol.
The Flash - Didn't read the Flash before, won't now. Sorry. I liked Flash Rebirth, but Flash in general is not a comic I'm drawn to. Wake me up when they re-introduce Pied Piper, other than that.. I won't be buying this comic. I'm sure Barry fans are thrilled, but it's still the same title, so it's not really a retool/relaunch, just a continuation.
Fury of the Firestorm - OK Gail Simone is writing it.. That means I HAVE to buy it. Yup, have to. I love Gail's work. I really do. The thing is.. Is Firestorm a compelling enough character? I've tried to get into various incarnations of Firestorm and he's OK, he's got great powers, but.. well he's never really drawn me in. I'm sure Gail will fix all that and clear up some of it. The interesting thing will be that Firestorm will be both white and black depending on who is in charge (Jason is the brains of course, Ronnie is just.. IDK what Ronnie is and why we need him.. but he's there). It'd be GREAT if villains and people react differently to Firestorm depending on if he's white or black and it'd be AWESOME to see people try to tell them which one is the real Firestorm :). OK, I'm starting to see more and more comedic genius in this comic. Now I wanna read it. Damn you blogging lol.
The SAVAGE Hawkman - I love Carter Hall and I loved the previous title, but with Kendra/Sheira dead, this title leaves me cold. I also like that it's called SAVAGE Hawkman, but the blurg doesn't make him seem all that savage lol. This could be the great sleeper comic, but I doubt it.
Green Arrow - Relaunched, same writer.. yeah, big Reboot and bold new direction. Didn't like Ollie before, won't like him now :) Move on.
Justice League International - It's nice to see Justice League International return. I'm excited to see a good portion of the original team return, though Guy Gardner in 2 titles is well.. 2 too many. I'm also glad to see a member of the Great Ten joining the team, August General in Iron, so it is becoming a tad more international, though it is still America heavy, I can live with the line up. I'm sure the title will be interesting and I may check it out. I'm just not sure about the creative team. Am I the only one that was hoping Giffen would get this title? Oh well. The line up looks really good and we can ALWAYS use more Vixen, but.. what is Donna Troy doing there? Am I the only one that finds her rather out of place? Maybe they're going to reinstate her again as part of the Amazons? If so that'd be nice, but then why not throw Mera on the title to represent Atlanis? I love that idea.. We need more Mera!
Mister Terrific - An AMAZING character, I'm just wondering how he's going to support his own title. I've really liked Mister Terrific for a long time and I've been sad that he hasn't been used to his full potential, I just don't know if a solo is his full potential. This title will either be an amazing success or a failure.. the biggest road block on this title? His costume is by far one of the most hideous costumes in a long time.
Captain Atom - I only cared about him when he was part of the New Krypton Cross-over. That stuff was great, but that doesn't mean I wanna read Captain Atom NOW. He's had his chance at a title numerous times. Heck, they even took him OUT of DC, sent him to Wildstorm, then brought him BACK and I still don't think he's all that popular. wish him and this title luck, but I won't be reading it and I don't think anyone is excited about this one.
DC Universe Presents - a grab bag title of just random DC stuff similar to Showcase Presents and DC origins. Both titles had good issues and bad issues and this will be the same thing. I don't think many people will sign up for a book like this with a constantly rotating roster, after all they haven't worked out too well lately but hey maybe THIS time it'll catch on.
Justice League - Good news Geoff Johns and Jim Lee and Cyborg is on the team! YEAH! I'm sure this will be a great flag ship title and a lot of people will read it, but honestly the Justice League has typically left me rather cold and this line up doesn't do much to change that. It's pretty typical except for the nice addition of Cyborg who seems to be there just to represent the POC slot that needs to be filled. I mean, I LOVE Vic, but every OTHER character has their own solo title.. so he just seems a little odd in that line up. Let's hope it's good, but I won't be reading it.
Wonder Woman - yet another disappointment. First of all, the hideous costume is still around. It's been modified, but it's still here and still ugly. Second, DC seems to think Wonder Woman is Xena Warrior Princess again. Look at that cover! Look at it! She's got a huge sword covered in blood! HOW IS THAT Wonder Woman? It just seems to be the exact opposite of what Wonder Woman stands for to me and the cover makes me think she's going to be the accepted killer in the DCU which I loathe. Once again another title I was looking forward to and hoped DC would take Diana into a NEW direction, not the same old failed one.. but hey DC knows what they're doing right? After all, Diana has been a top tier character consistently under their watchful eye. I will check out this title out, but I don't have high hopes at all.
Aquaman - Eh.. OK, so Aquaman is getting a title again. Once again good news that Geoff Johns is on the title. He seems to like Arthur and that's a good thing. Aquaman's appearances in Brightest Day were pretty good and an Aquaman title means the one thing EVERYONE really wants to see.. MORE MERA, QUEEN OF THE SEA! I'll look at this title too especially if I get more Mera. I think she's more interesting than Arthur, but Geoff could actually MAKE him relevant and enjoyable again. I look forward to seeing that, but he is Aquaman lol.
The Flash - Didn't read the Flash before, won't now. Sorry. I liked Flash Rebirth, but Flash in general is not a comic I'm drawn to. Wake me up when they re-introduce Pied Piper, other than that.. I won't be buying this comic. I'm sure Barry fans are thrilled, but it's still the same title, so it's not really a retool/relaunch, just a continuation.
Fury of the Firestorm - OK Gail Simone is writing it.. That means I HAVE to buy it. Yup, have to. I love Gail's work. I really do. The thing is.. Is Firestorm a compelling enough character? I've tried to get into various incarnations of Firestorm and he's OK, he's got great powers, but.. well he's never really drawn me in. I'm sure Gail will fix all that and clear up some of it. The interesting thing will be that Firestorm will be both white and black depending on who is in charge (Jason is the brains of course, Ronnie is just.. IDK what Ronnie is and why we need him.. but he's there). It'd be GREAT if villains and people react differently to Firestorm depending on if he's white or black and it'd be AWESOME to see people try to tell them which one is the real Firestorm :). OK, I'm starting to see more and more comedic genius in this comic. Now I wanna read it. Damn you blogging lol.
The SAVAGE Hawkman - I love Carter Hall and I loved the previous title, but with Kendra/Sheira dead, this title leaves me cold. I also like that it's called SAVAGE Hawkman, but the blurg doesn't make him seem all that savage lol. This could be the great sleeper comic, but I doubt it.
Green Arrow - Relaunched, same writer.. yeah, big Reboot and bold new direction. Didn't like Ollie before, won't like him now :) Move on.
Justice League International - It's nice to see Justice League International return. I'm excited to see a good portion of the original team return, though Guy Gardner in 2 titles is well.. 2 too many. I'm also glad to see a member of the Great Ten joining the team, August General in Iron, so it is becoming a tad more international, though it is still America heavy, I can live with the line up. I'm sure the title will be interesting and I may check it out. I'm just not sure about the creative team. Am I the only one that was hoping Giffen would get this title? Oh well. The line up looks really good and we can ALWAYS use more Vixen, but.. what is Donna Troy doing there? Am I the only one that finds her rather out of place? Maybe they're going to reinstate her again as part of the Amazons? If so that'd be nice, but then why not throw Mera on the title to represent Atlanis? I love that idea.. We need more Mera!
Mister Terrific - An AMAZING character, I'm just wondering how he's going to support his own title. I've really liked Mister Terrific for a long time and I've been sad that he hasn't been used to his full potential, I just don't know if a solo is his full potential. This title will either be an amazing success or a failure.. the biggest road block on this title? His costume is by far one of the most hideous costumes in a long time.
Captain Atom - I only cared about him when he was part of the New Krypton Cross-over. That stuff was great, but that doesn't mean I wanna read Captain Atom NOW. He's had his chance at a title numerous times. Heck, they even took him OUT of DC, sent him to Wildstorm, then brought him BACK and I still don't think he's all that popular. wish him and this title luck, but I won't be reading it and I don't think anyone is excited about this one.
DC Universe Presents - a grab bag title of just random DC stuff similar to Showcase Presents and DC origins. Both titles had good issues and bad issues and this will be the same thing. I don't think many people will sign up for a book like this with a constantly rotating roster, after all they haven't worked out too well lately but hey maybe THIS time it'll catch on.
DC Relaunch: The Dark Side
I'm a HUGE fan of magic and supernatural, so I'm all for more supernatural titles, but.. once again, DC releases a huge MESS of titles. I'm still not excited about this in the least. Let's start with what I believe to be the flagship title:
Justice League Dark - Ok, so we get Peter Milligan on the title. That could be a good thing, but look at the line up! Shade the Changing Man (non-magical mind you), John Constantine, Deadman, and Madame Xanadu. Ok... I like a lot of these characters and think they have potential but none of these characters are really TEAM characters. Add to that that there is NO power house, no one on the team that can truly deal with an enemy, well.. what the hell is this going to be? Shade can pull out things from his M-Vest, but last we saw.. he was completely driven crazy by the vest, so what will he do? Constantine is suppose to be this great magical powerhouse, yet every Hellblazer issue I've read is mostly about him getting drunk, smoking a bunch, and weaseling himself out of a bad situation. Deadman is well.. dead and possess people, I'm not really even sure how he'll communicate with the other members of the team and Xanadu while very powerful in her now cancelled on-going, she was rarely the main character and her focus was more on seeing the future and working her way AROUND situations, not fighting baddies. I just don't know how this title will work without someone with a more direct approach.
Animal Man - Def hit or miss title for me. I just don't know if it'll be worth reading until it comes out. I just can't say that it's definitely something I want to read.
Swamp Thing - don't care one iota bout this title. DC has tried relaunching and getting Swamp Thing out there countless times. It hasn't worked before, so.. LET'S TRY AGAIN! Definition of insanity.
Frankenstein agent of SHADE - This series sounds like a horrible disaster. I've read that some think his was the best of the Seven Soldiers series, but well.. I read the whole thing and his is the one I honestly can't remember much about. I don't see this title lasting and all I can think is FrankenCastle.
Demon Knights - I don't think ANYONE is sure about this title. We know less about this than any of the others. This one could be a cult success or a massive failure.
I, Vampire - DC's attempt to capitalize on the Twilight/Blade fandom. I just don't get this title and it scares me since the title is very much like one of my favourite Vertigo titles, I, Zombie, which is of course vastly better. I also don't get it since we have American Vampire and other vampire titles.. so I don't know why we need this or what place it holds in the DCU.
Voodoo - Ok this one I was mildly excited about. The character is apparently a Wildstorm character being brought over to the DCU and she sounds interesting to say the least, my problem? Ron Marz is writing it. Yup, the same guy who stuck Kyle's girlfriend into a fridge. The same guy who wrote those HORRIBLE PSA Green Lantern issues that I don't think ANYONE could stand (there was one on drugs and drinking, one on homosexuality and gay bashing, and probably others). I just don't find him to be a solid writer and this title will fail because DC put him on it.
Oh yeah forgot Resurrection Man - This is a character I just don't know anything about. I know his power and I know he did a crossover with Peter David's Supergirl, but I don't think this is a title that once again draws people in.
So.. the supernatural line up? Weird and random. I think DC has had better supernatural offerings in the past and if they wanted Madame Xanadu back in the DCU, why not just relaunch the title with Wagner and Reeder as a DC title? It would have been better than this. We've also got Zatanna axed for really no reason (was it a best seller? No, but do you REALLY think Resurrection Man or Swamp Thing v10 or I, Vampire will be?)
Justice League Dark - Ok, so we get Peter Milligan on the title. That could be a good thing, but look at the line up! Shade the Changing Man (non-magical mind you), John Constantine, Deadman, and Madame Xanadu. Ok... I like a lot of these characters and think they have potential but none of these characters are really TEAM characters. Add to that that there is NO power house, no one on the team that can truly deal with an enemy, well.. what the hell is this going to be? Shade can pull out things from his M-Vest, but last we saw.. he was completely driven crazy by the vest, so what will he do? Constantine is suppose to be this great magical powerhouse, yet every Hellblazer issue I've read is mostly about him getting drunk, smoking a bunch, and weaseling himself out of a bad situation. Deadman is well.. dead and possess people, I'm not really even sure how he'll communicate with the other members of the team and Xanadu while very powerful in her now cancelled on-going, she was rarely the main character and her focus was more on seeing the future and working her way AROUND situations, not fighting baddies. I just don't know how this title will work without someone with a more direct approach.
Animal Man - Def hit or miss title for me. I just don't know if it'll be worth reading until it comes out. I just can't say that it's definitely something I want to read.
Swamp Thing - don't care one iota bout this title. DC has tried relaunching and getting Swamp Thing out there countless times. It hasn't worked before, so.. LET'S TRY AGAIN! Definition of insanity.
Frankenstein agent of SHADE - This series sounds like a horrible disaster. I've read that some think his was the best of the Seven Soldiers series, but well.. I read the whole thing and his is the one I honestly can't remember much about. I don't see this title lasting and all I can think is FrankenCastle.
Demon Knights - I don't think ANYONE is sure about this title. We know less about this than any of the others. This one could be a cult success or a massive failure.
I, Vampire - DC's attempt to capitalize on the Twilight/Blade fandom. I just don't get this title and it scares me since the title is very much like one of my favourite Vertigo titles, I, Zombie, which is of course vastly better. I also don't get it since we have American Vampire and other vampire titles.. so I don't know why we need this or what place it holds in the DCU.
Voodoo - Ok this one I was mildly excited about. The character is apparently a Wildstorm character being brought over to the DCU and she sounds interesting to say the least, my problem? Ron Marz is writing it. Yup, the same guy who stuck Kyle's girlfriend into a fridge. The same guy who wrote those HORRIBLE PSA Green Lantern issues that I don't think ANYONE could stand (there was one on drugs and drinking, one on homosexuality and gay bashing, and probably others). I just don't find him to be a solid writer and this title will fail because DC put him on it.
Oh yeah forgot Resurrection Man - This is a character I just don't know anything about. I know his power and I know he did a crossover with Peter David's Supergirl, but I don't think this is a title that once again draws people in.
So.. the supernatural line up? Weird and random. I think DC has had better supernatural offerings in the past and if they wanted Madame Xanadu back in the DCU, why not just relaunch the title with Wagner and Reeder as a DC title? It would have been better than this. We've also got Zatanna axed for really no reason (was it a best seller? No, but do you REALLY think Resurrection Man or Swamp Thing v10 or I, Vampire will be?)
DC Relaunch Re: Bat-Diversity and Batgirl
I've stated countless times that I'm seriously NOT a fan of this DC relaunch. Everyone out there seems to be excited about a title that has been announced, but yet it is looking like NONE of the titles I love will still be around. Here is a nice list of the break down of titles and how they're placed in the 52 new titles.
iFanBoy DC reboot
So.. DC is going through this massive transformation and one of the first things they announce is 11 Batman titles. Yup, 11 out of 52 titles are related to Batman. Seems like we're going to get a really diverse title line up here with well a crap ton of Batman. We've got Old Batman (Bruce's 4 titles), young Batman (Nightwing), African Batman (Bat-Wing), gay Batman (Batwoman), teenage Batman (Robin), Outlaw Batman (Red Hood), woman/teenage girl Batman (Batgirl), female Batsquad (Birds of Prey) and Batvillian (Catwoman). If this is diversity, well.. it's not very diverse. I mean, the African Batman has to LITERALLY be in Africa to exist (and how many people think this is actually going to be a big seller?) and the gay Batman and only gay character to appear in the entire new line up thus far HAS to be a lesbian (No gay man has yet to be mentioned or thought about in this entire new line-up). No other minorities are represented yet except MAYBE an Asian character as the unknown samurai/Katanna/Judomaster/potentially even a robot character appears (and notice she's completely covered, if there is a person in there, so none of her Asian qualities are actually SHOWN). Now I'm not huge on the whole "need more minorities" aspect of comics, but I have to point out something that I have noticed. We do have a nice collection of African and African-American characters though with Cyborg joining Justice League, Vixen on JLI, Jason Rusch being half of the new Firestorm, Mister Terrific and the new Bat-Wing (though I'd much rather see Orpheus return than the African Batman, but that's personal preference).
With the Batman titles though, comes my biggest complaint thus far with the DC line-up, the fact that DC is destroying Barbara Gordon. You notice I'm not saying DC is destroying Oracle, which they are, but they're also completely throwing out 20+ years of development and evolution with Barbara Gordon. So let me explain something I have not seen explained anywhere on the 'net, and I've LOOKED, People are upset (and rightfully so) that Oracle may be healed and they will lose one of the few disabled heroes in all of comics. I agree that would be a loss, but I'm more worried about the fact that we're taking a character and we're reverting her back to a time and a person that she has stated she's out grown. I would like to point out that no one is shouting, jumping up and down for joy or excited to see Dick go back to being Robin (in fact, many are upset he's going back to being NIGHTWING since they think he was a good progression as Batman. I disagree on that because Dick was not his OWN Batman, but rather pretending to be Bruce, but that's my opinion). No one is screaming for joy that Donna Troy get reverted to being Wonder Girl (and there is no implication she will be), Garth turned back to Aqualad (OK, so he's dead at the moment, but still), Wally back to being Kid Flash, Roy back to Speedy, or Bart back to Impulse. Yet we celebrate and jump for joy that Barbara Gordon go BACK to being Batgirl? Barbara Gordon, the character who RETIRED as Batgirl, became a Congress Woman, faced and overcame great tragedy and forged herself into a new, stronger person. Babs has mentioned several times that she was past that she was over being Batgirl and that it was a point in her life that she didn't want to return. Now she's reverting, turning back into someone she out grew and everyone all over the internet is celebrating this reversion to an adolescent stage. That ANGERS me. We're going to throw 20 years of development and growth just to satisfy a few rabid fans and to sell yet ANOTHER Batman title. Let's not forget we're taking Oracle, one of the most unique characters in the DCU, a position that she was practically built for with her photographic memory, and force her to take a role that ANYONE can fill apparently. I mean look, Stephanie Brown was the last Batgirl, a chick who got herself killed (literally) after being warned that it would happen countless times by Batman, Cass, and Canary then when given another mantle that was clearly over her head, she just threw it on and jumped into battle again. This is why it's such a travesty that Babs is being FORCED back to being Batgirl. It's not organic, it's not part of the character, and it's NOT something we should be celebrating. We should MOURN the death of Barbara Gordon or Oracle
iFanBoy DC reboot
So.. DC is going through this massive transformation and one of the first things they announce is 11 Batman titles. Yup, 11 out of 52 titles are related to Batman. Seems like we're going to get a really diverse title line up here with well a crap ton of Batman. We've got Old Batman (Bruce's 4 titles), young Batman (Nightwing), African Batman (Bat-Wing), gay Batman (Batwoman), teenage Batman (Robin), Outlaw Batman (Red Hood), woman/teenage girl Batman (Batgirl), female Batsquad (Birds of Prey) and Batvillian (Catwoman). If this is diversity, well.. it's not very diverse. I mean, the African Batman has to LITERALLY be in Africa to exist (and how many people think this is actually going to be a big seller?) and the gay Batman and only gay character to appear in the entire new line up thus far HAS to be a lesbian (No gay man has yet to be mentioned or thought about in this entire new line-up). No other minorities are represented yet except MAYBE an Asian character as the unknown samurai/Katanna/Judomaster/potentially even a robot character appears (and notice she's completely covered, if there is a person in there, so none of her Asian qualities are actually SHOWN). Now I'm not huge on the whole "need more minorities" aspect of comics, but I have to point out something that I have noticed. We do have a nice collection of African and African-American characters though with Cyborg joining Justice League, Vixen on JLI, Jason Rusch being half of the new Firestorm, Mister Terrific and the new Bat-Wing (though I'd much rather see Orpheus return than the African Batman, but that's personal preference).
With the Batman titles though, comes my biggest complaint thus far with the DC line-up, the fact that DC is destroying Barbara Gordon. You notice I'm not saying DC is destroying Oracle, which they are, but they're also completely throwing out 20+ years of development and evolution with Barbara Gordon. So let me explain something I have not seen explained anywhere on the 'net, and I've LOOKED, People are upset (and rightfully so) that Oracle may be healed and they will lose one of the few disabled heroes in all of comics. I agree that would be a loss, but I'm more worried about the fact that we're taking a character and we're reverting her back to a time and a person that she has stated she's out grown. I would like to point out that no one is shouting, jumping up and down for joy or excited to see Dick go back to being Robin (in fact, many are upset he's going back to being NIGHTWING since they think he was a good progression as Batman. I disagree on that because Dick was not his OWN Batman, but rather pretending to be Bruce, but that's my opinion). No one is screaming for joy that Donna Troy get reverted to being Wonder Girl (and there is no implication she will be), Garth turned back to Aqualad (OK, so he's dead at the moment, but still), Wally back to being Kid Flash, Roy back to Speedy, or Bart back to Impulse. Yet we celebrate and jump for joy that Barbara Gordon go BACK to being Batgirl? Barbara Gordon, the character who RETIRED as Batgirl, became a Congress Woman, faced and overcame great tragedy and forged herself into a new, stronger person. Babs has mentioned several times that she was past that she was over being Batgirl and that it was a point in her life that she didn't want to return. Now she's reverting, turning back into someone she out grew and everyone all over the internet is celebrating this reversion to an adolescent stage. That ANGERS me. We're going to throw 20 years of development and growth just to satisfy a few rabid fans and to sell yet ANOTHER Batman title. Let's not forget we're taking Oracle, one of the most unique characters in the DCU, a position that she was practically built for with her photographic memory, and force her to take a role that ANYONE can fill apparently. I mean look, Stephanie Brown was the last Batgirl, a chick who got herself killed (literally) after being warned that it would happen countless times by Batman, Cass, and Canary then when given another mantle that was clearly over her head, she just threw it on and jumped into battle again. This is why it's such a travesty that Babs is being FORCED back to being Batgirl. It's not organic, it's not part of the character, and it's NOT something we should be celebrating. We should MOURN the death of Barbara Gordon or Oracle
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