Major Spoilers Podcast #348: The New 52 and You

Living 8 hours in the future (Europe) I couldn’t call in :(
My favorites of the new 52 was

Batwoman – the art alone sold this book to me. This doesn’t feel as much as a superhero book as a … yes as an european comic for grown ups. I really, really liked it.

Animal Man – Again, not a book about superheros doing stuff. But people who also happends to be superheros.

Batman – As Stephen said in his review, an exellent jumping on point. I reading Batman again.

I admit that I haven’t read all 52 issues, but I atleast read the previews the DC send out via Comixology.

I bought about 25 titles, I’ll break my impressions down by DC’s marketing blocks (League, Batman, Superman, GL, Young Justice, Edge, and Dark):

League
Loved Flash, optimistic about Wonder Woman, enjoyed but really disappointed by Justice League. Despite lacking my number one favorite superhero character of all time, Wally West, after six years of Flash floundering and an allegedly Flash-centric event book that really didn’t render Barry anymore interesting, sympathetic, or cool (if anything, the villain revelation was a great twist but the story doesn’t follow through by having that go to its logical and damning conclusions OR having an inspiring redemption, we just get a sort of middling rushed compromise to get to our new status quo) it was a solid and pure superhero story, perfectly streamlined to highlight only the best aspects of the elemental Flash rather than getting bogged down in cosmology, canon, or other fan wankery inaccessible to new readers.

I’ve enjoyed multiple runs on Wonder Woman and found this horror take where Diana is a little distanced from the story itself interesting and fresh… I don’t know how it’ll do long term, but I’m hopeful.

I enjoyed Justice League for what it was, but was really let down compared to what it should have been in my opinion. Justice League should have been the flagship title that had everyone raving, declaring it a critical or popular must buy for reasons beyond marketing. The overall execution was only good, not awe-inspiring or jaw-dropping, and it really lacks a serious hook to justify committing to a second look by a new reader. Even if they went the summer blockbuster route, I think it misfired. People who buy into superheroes and the League want that adolescent power fantasy and they want value- getting all the heroes for the price of one book- heck, DC knows this which is why they’re all on the cover! If you open any Alex Ross League-based book, you get that immediate “Wow!” factor where the League are shown in their glory, authority, and power right up front. Spend 6-8 pages (or more for double page spreads) showing EVERY League member in one big out-of-context, tease-the-climax-first battle where their unique powers, abilities, and characteristics are demonstrated right away to hook new readers onto those “action figures.” Have Flash search an entire city, GL operate a factory single handedly, Superman punch a brick to the moon, or whatever… then spend your remaining pages going back in time to give us some plot, some character, and the hook. Screenplay writing 101!

Instead, we get three main characters who all get emasculated in a series of relatively boring action sequences (heck, so boring that Batman and GL have logistic conversations during them and the other one is a football montage, ugh)… GL gets humbled by Bats, Bats get humbled by Supes, and Cyborg gets humbled by daddy issues. Not exactly delivering on the wish-fulfillment, action, or full set of heroes. Again, it was a fine and enjoyable issue on its own merits, but in the context of a historical relaunch, renumbering, and introduction to new readers- as a landmark that they’re constantly going to be referred to as a starting point to read from- it wasn’t as great as it should have been in my opinion.

Batman
Batgirl, average. Batwoman, trade waiting. Catwoman, ok. Red Hood, beautiful and too early to judge the story. Red Hood is very adolescent, sure, but all adolescent stories start out with the fantasy as good, get confronted by the genuine consequences of that fantasy, then resolve as the characters change their views on the fantasy. We’re not going to get that entire arc in the first issue! They’re outlaws, quasi-bad, immature people. Unlimited meaningless sex and violence may be an adolescent fantasy at first… but once the consequences of that start to spring up for the participants, you can take the story to interesting places.

Superman
Action, very good. Superboy, intriguing. Supergirl, disappointing. Superman, mixed… I was disappointed by the overall tone (sort of moody, distant, and uninspiring) and the density of the writing, but it was one of the few books that told a nearly complete done-in-one-ish story out of the New 52, which I give it a lot of credit for. Also the interior art was surprisingly good (compared to what I consider to be an awful constipated cover that fails to understand what people like about Superman).

GL
Only got GL#1, it was ok, will trade wait.

Young Justice
Titans had lots of Kid Flash, yay, but felt like it was spinning its wheels, will trade wait. Legion Lost had really good art and layouts by one of my favorites, Woods, but I couldn’t read it for the life of me. I meant to pick up Blue Beetle, but forgot to.

Edge
All-Star Western, gold. Stormwatch, loved Authority so I will enjoy this… in trade. Squad was a good intro but the main plot isn’t going to keep me. Blackhawks really disappointed… I need more pew pew from what I was expecting to be GI Joe. Voodoo, excellent horror / Tales from the Crypt / Outer Limits type book / story, exploitation and all.

Dark
I liked everything except Frankenstein simply because the Flashpoint mini was drawn better and covered similar ground. The biggest surprise for me was Demon Knights since I don’t like Etrigan, not a fan of magic, or swords and sorcery (over scifi), however, I do love immortals (Vandal Savage first in my heart amongst many) and seeing him made me pick up the book and reading the book made me love it… this definitely reads like the next / new Secret Six for my money.