Category Archives: Opinion

DCU in 2010 – Reactions

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So, DC is finished with their week of announcements for 2010. I figured I should jot down some of my thoughts.

Superman: Earth OneEarth One OGN Series: I like the concept, but I’m not particularly interested in the Superman or Batman books. I’m mildly curious about how JMS will approach Superman, but my real interest is in what happens when it expands beyond Superman and Batman. Give me a series of Flash graphic novels and I’m there. More thoughts on the concept and the name.

War of the SupermenWar of the Supermen: Sorry, I can’t get enthused about this one.

Wonder Woman 600Wonder Woman #600: While numbering is trivial compared to story and art, there are very few characters who have been in near-continuous publication for the last 70 years. It’s nice to acknowledge that.

Of course, then there’s the question of how The Flash should be numbered, considering that they’ve relaunched several times with new characters.

Bruce Wayne: Batman PirateBatman: The Return of Bruce Wayne: I was kind of hoping they’d take a little more time with Dick Grayson as Batman before bringing back Bruce, but they seem to be treating it like the Death of Superman, Knightfall, or Artemis as Wonder Woman. (And yet somehow, today’s readers detest the 1990s. I don’t get it.) Still, Batman lost in time sounds like fun. I’ll probably pick this one up, though I might wait for the trade.

Marc Guggenheim on Action Comics: I think he made the best of a bad situation on Flash: The Fastest Man Alive, given that he was brought on board to do one thing: kill Bart Allen.

Flash Secret FilesFrancis Manapul & Geoff Johns on Flash: No really new info here, but I’m definitely liking Manapul’s art. (Covered here.) Overall, I’m still in wait-and-see mode. I had hoped to have a better sense of what The Flash post-Rebirth was going to look like by now, or that Flash: Rebirth itself might have won me over.

Legacies: Crimson AvengerLegacies, History of the DCU, and Who’s Who: If they had only announced one of these three, I’d definitely be getting it. With three, I’m not sure…especially since Legacies is going to be 10 issues (the initial post only said 7) and Who’s Who will be 15 (the initial post only said 12). Though it’s not clear whether The History of the DC Universe will be a new book or simply a “new edition” (i.e. reprint). Legacies looks like it could be very interesting, as long as it doesn’t get too hung up on explaining things. If I could only choose one, I’d probably get Who’s Who and pick up the issues of Legacies that cover the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths era.

Fall of Green ArrowThe Rise of Arsenal and The Fall of Green Arrow: I’m sure there’s an audience for this out there, but it’s not me. It looks like everything I don’t like about today’s DC in one place. At least it’ll be easy to avoid.

So, there you have it: My take on the DCU in 2010. How about you? Which projects do you find appealing?

Drifting Out of the Mainstream

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I can relate to 4thLetter!’s David Brothers when he talks about losing interest in super-heroes, or at least in Marvel and DC. I’ve been primarily a DC fan since the early 1980s, but I’ve found myself buying fewer and fewer DC books over the last few years.

Why? Well…

  • My tastes have changed. Lately, I find myself drawn more to the genres I tend to read in prose — science fiction and fantasy — and less to super-heroes.
  • DC’s general tone has shifted to one that just doesn’t interest me.
  • After reading comics for 25 years, I’ve gotten jaded.
  • I’d rather just read stories than keep up with an entire universe. (I’m not sure if that’s a matter of taste or being jaded.)

I’m down to one DC title, The Flash, and it’s in the middle of a year-long revamp. I still don’t know whether I’m going to like the new series once it actually starts. Marvel? The only book I’m following right now, The Twelve, has been stalled for over a year. I just dropped Dynamo 5, which leaves Astro City. Everything else, including my top three, is a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery.

For the most part, I don’t think this is a problem. There are plenty of comics out there that are more to my tastes. It only bothers me when it affects characters that matter to me, like the Flash. It’s an odd feeling, not knowing whether I’ll be reading a Flash comic this time next year. Though with the amount of time it’s taken to release Flash: Rebirth, I’ve gotten used to it. 😉

Earth-Whatever

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I went back and looked at the comments on the Earth One announcement at The Source. Big mistake. There’s an argument over whether it’s the same as Earth-1 in the 52 Multiverse, what Earth-1, Earth-2, Earth-0, etc. all are in this universe or the previous DC Multiverse, etc.

In short, the title alone drags the new, streamlined books into the realm of continuity-heavy fanboy debates.

In general, I don’t like numbering alternate realities. It can be useful for cataloging, but it’s much clearer to refer to “the Smallville version,” “Mainstream DC,” “Ultimate Marvel” or “Tangent Universe” instead of tossing around terms like “Earth-616” and “Universe Designate Zero.”

And isn’t the point of this new line to make things less confusing?

DC needs a banner they can put on these books, so that readers can look for “XYZ Superman Volume 1” on the shelf. But “Earth One” is already causing confusion, just hours after it was announced.

Thoughts on Earth One

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This morning, DC announced the first two volumes in Earth One, a new series of original graphic novels set in a new continuity. The first two books will be Superman: Earth One by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis, and Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.

It’s being discussed all over the place, so I’ll just state my initial thoughts.

The Positives

First, I love the idea of a series of OGNs. There’s a huge potential audience out there in bookstores, and while collected editions help meet that audience, there are drawbacks — particularly pacing (when read serially) and the fact that waiting for the trade means missing out on the fan conversation. It works for prose novels, it works for Scott Pilgrim, it works for manga (even if it was originally serialized in Japan, it may as well be OGNs as far as the American audience is concerned), and it’s good to see DC taking the concept seriously.

Second, an Ultimate-style reboot of the DC Universe is a good idea. 80 years of continuity, multiple “soft” reboots, heroes who have been replaced, then come back, major events based on short stories from 25 years ago…the modern DC Universe is a complicated place. A project that reaches out to a new audience is a good opportunity to streamline things without messing with the monthly continuity.

Third, I like the Batman redesign.

The Negatives

It makes sense to start with Superman and Batman, because these are two characters that everyone is familiar with, even those who don’t read comics. But they’re starting with the origin stories. Who doesn’t know Superman’s origin? Or Batman’s? With any other character, I’d say it would be worth starting with an origin, but with these two, it might be better to jump in at the deep end and fill in the backstory as they go along.

If they keep the series going, it won’t be a problem, but I can see it being a problem for the first volumes. It reminds me of the choice for the movie of The Golden Compass to rip out the ending and move it to the start of the second movie. It definitely hurt the first movie, and probably contributed to the fact that there won’t be a second movie.

It also makes me worry that, like so many rebooted series, they’ll eventually turn to retelling older stories instead of telling new ones.

The Earth One branding seems…a little obtuse. It means nothing to the new audience, and judging by comments I’ve seen, it’s already confusing the existing DC audience. [Edit: expanded a bit more in that link.]

Uncertainty

I can’t reach the AICN interview, but CBR’s article quotes Geoff Johns as saying that the plan is for two novels a year. Two total? Or two per character? If these take off, two per character would be a much better approach, especially if they expand it to Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, and beyond.

Keeping Comics on Schedule

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By now the delays on Flash: Rebirth -6 have become legendary. But the book is hardly alone. Just this week, I picked up issues of Dynamo 5 and Ignition City that, despite the series starting on a monthly schedule, came out several months after the previous issue. In fact, a lot of the independent comics I read don’t seem to have a strict schedule. Rather than soliciting them monthly and then rescheduling them the way DC often does, they seem to solicit them as they’re ready.

On the plus side, it’s less frustrating for the reader who doesn’t see a particular issue get scheduled, then delayed repeatedly. On the minus side, the reader has no clue when to expect more.

Solutions

If the goal is to keep a book to a regular schedule, some of the ways I’ve seen to keep it from falling behind include: Continue reading →

Frustrations with DC: One Year Later

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Actually it’s closer to a year and a half since I wrote about my frustrations with DC Comics, but it’s a good time to look back at them.

In June 2008, I listed three main problems I had with the current state of DC:

  1. I’m tired of mega-crossovers.
  2. Mishandling of the Flash after Geoff Johns left.
  3. The wholesale slaughter of “redundant” and C-list characters to make a point.

So, what’s the current status?

Crossovers

DC is even more focused on mega-crossovers than before, with Blackest Night ballooning from a Green Lantern story into an eight-issue main miniseries, seven three-issue side miniseries, eight-issue arcs in both Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, a month of eight in-series crossovers, a month of eight one-shots…

But frankly it doesn’t bother me, because of those 61 comic books, I only plan on reading three: the three issues of Blackest Night: The Flash. Realizing that I don’t have to buy the big event has saved me a lot of grief.

Mishandling the Flash

On the plus side: Geoff Johns is back on the title. Bart Allen is back as Kid Flash. Scott Kolins is back drawing Wally West. Most importantly, DC seems to be willing to stick with a direction at this point, and has committed to the point that they’ll actually launch two series, and every month will have new solo stories starring Barry Allen, Wally West, and Bart Allen.

On the minus side: Flash: Rebirth should have wrapped up in September, is currently scheduled to end in December, and individual issues are getting rescheduled often enough that I’m checking daily to see if the release dates have changed. The repeated delays have killed a lot of the story’s momentum, and have actually soured some fans on the relaunch. Plus they’re sidelining my favorite version of the character, though at least they aren’t taking him off the playing field entirely.

Killing Characters

The big crossover is all about dead characters rising from the grave as evil undead. Need I say more?

Has it improved?

Well, one item shows some progress, but it’s mixed. The other two haven’t changed at all…but I’ve gotten less attached to the DC Universe, so it doesn’t bother me as much. I’m not sure if that’s progress or not.