Comics are awesome.

[andersonh1]

True, and it's nice that for once we didn't get the "you were in trouble, but because you saved us all is forgiven" type of ending. Ganthet even tried to point out that Hal was fighting for the Guardians, and it didn't do any good. He still paid for his insubordination.

[Dominic]

New Avengers #13:
And, the "Fear Itself" cross-over. Bendis focuses on Mockingbird's reaction to her new power set and near death experience. Spiderman shows up in his Future Foundation suit and quits the team. Bendis writing Victoria Hand almost balances out what reads like a tasteless piggy-backing on current-events, (or the anniversary of an event). (There is a shot of Avengers tower collapsing that come across as more than a bit crass in light of the 10th anniversary of the WTC's destruction. This may actually be Fraction's fault more than Bendis' though.) The "history of the Avengers" back up text story has apparently been dropped.
Grade: C


Ultimate Fallout #1:
I am pretty sure that the actual title is longer, but have no interest in typing it all out. This series focuses on the reactions of various "Ultimate" characters to Spiderman's death. Bendis might be setting up a "vast conspiracy" plot. I *really* hope this is not the case. I will be supporting this book and "Ultimate Spiderman" so long as the death of Peter Parker sticks.
Grade: B


Dom
-still not caught up.

[Dominic]

Ultimate Fallout #2:
Okay, false alarm. No stupid conspiracy stories. Just more reactions to Parker's death. There are a few points that I think would probably be more clear if I had been reading USM before this. But, nothing that I could not figure out with a quick perusal of Wikipedia. Grade: B



DC Comic The New 52!:
I swear, the exclamation point is in the title. And, it is all down hill from there. The post "Flash Point" reboot looks to be a post CoIE style reboot, complete with it being unclear how much previous baggage will carry over book to book, or even for individual books. More than a few of the newly rebooted books appear to be throw-backs to the 90s, and I am not talking about the Wildstorm titles that are not apparently part of DC. Here ar some highlights:
-the art in the new Wonder Woman book is awful.
-Firestorm is more like a bad buddy movie than ever. I guess "Blackest Night" is out of context, if only partially.
-Wow. A new book featuring Captain Atom. Anyway....
-oh, Green Arrow is like the worst of the 70s, 80s and 90s. But, Perez is handling the art, so it is not all bad.
-"The Savage Hawkman". That is really the name of the book. Even if it was not a trainwreck waiting to happen by virtue of it being a "Hawkman" book, the character sketches and write up would be more than I needed to know.
-"DC Universe Presents".....okay, I just wanted to set you all up to make your own pun.
-Grant Morrison writing an in-context Superman book?
-Supergirl has been re-bitchified, and put in a retro 70s costume.
-Superboy's origin is getting tweaked, This might be the next "Legion" in terms of headache value.
-Damien Wayne is still Robin. Dick Grayson is Nightwing again though.
-Tim Drake's new "Red Robin" suit is very 90s. I see it lasting maybe 3 years.
-oh, and one of the guys from "Batman Inc" is getting his own book. Yeah, this will last.
-Holy crap Batman! "Red Hood and the Outlaws" looks to be so hilariously retro-90s that I might have to buy it.
-hey, Gotham was apparently a frontier town. Hoookay. Palmiotti and Grey are writing this inevitably ret-conned disaster.
-Scott "darkest days of Marvel" Lobdell is writing it.
-"Red Lanterns". I swear that I am not making that up.
-Whole bunch of faux-Verigo books. It is a toss-up between "I, Vampire" and "Justice League Dark" for which is going to be the most hilariously bad.
-yup, Wildstorm is getting folded into mainline DC. Oh, the irony.
-even Mike Costa is not enough to pull me into "Blackhawks"...probably.
-Liefeld on "Hawk and Dove". Besides the giggles that triggers, this one might be another "Legion" in terms of figuring out what counts and what does not.
-oh, and there are two "Legion" books, including one dedicated to a time lost group. Yeah, this will turn out well.


Dom
-all this, only 5 years (at most) after another reboot!

[Sparky Prime]

-Firestorm is more like a bad buddy movie than ever. I guess "Blackest Night" is out of context, if only partially.

How is "Blackest Night" out of context here?

[138 Scourge]

-Firestorm is more like a bad buddy movie than ever. I guess "Blackest Night" is out of context, if only partially.

How is "Blackest Night" out of context here?

Hard to say without really knowing anything about the book. From what I've seen, it seems like Jason and the other guy are both getting into the Firestorming business for the first time. I may just be guessing wrong here, though.

Of all of these, I'm only a little bit interested in a few of 'em. The one Paul Cornell's writing with the Demon (I forget the name cause I'm dumb), because Paul Cornell. The Justice League Dark could get my attention because Peter Milligan's a writer I used to be a big fan of, and because it's friggin' crazy having John Constantine on a Justice League. Firestorm and Batgirl, mainly because of how much I've enjoyed Gail Simone's stuff in the past. And, of course, I'll be buying Action Comics, because when Morrison writes Superman, I buy it.

But honestly, probably the only one I'll be getting is the Action Comics. DC has gone from not really interesting me to actively turning me off in the last few years, so it's harder for me to take a chance on new books from 'em. And a lot of these covers and designs look...really rough would be putting it charitably.

[andersonh1]

DC Comic The New 52!:

Yeah, I picked this one up myself. So if Superman's cape and tights are stupid enough that he starts out in jeans and a t-shirt (with a little red cape!), how long before every hero is running around in civvies? Really, if DC editorial (or whoever mandated this train wreck) is embarassed about the standard comic convention of someone with super powers in brightly colored tights, they're in the wrong line of work.

Justice League: So... Batman's being hunted by snipers. Has he transferred to the Marvel universe somehow? Hal Jordan has shoulder pads, and is an idiot? "Before who sees us?" Does this preview make me less likely to pick up Justice League #1? Yes, it does.

JLI - I loved the 90s JLI by Giffen, DeMattis and Maguire... if I thought this would be just as enjoyable, I'd consider it.
Aquaman - this one has possibilities. I might try this series out.
Wonder Woman and Flash... probably not
Firestorm, Captain Atom, Green Arrow... ditto
Hawkman... I've always been fond of the character, but the new costume looks awful. This was one where if they were going to do a redesign, they should have gone full bore and completely changed it. As it is, it looks like the old Hawkman costume with some added bits and spikes. Probably pass on this one too.
Mr. Terrific - debating... I like the character as part of the JSA, but the new look is again, bad. A problem most of these relaunched books suffer from. A definite maybe.
Superman... I'm ticked off about the renumbering and costume changes, so it's a pass. The t-shirt and jeans is bad, and the ceremonial armor is even worse. Too bad, since taking the character back to his roots isn't a bad approach, and should freshen things up.
Supergirl and Superboy... looks like they've ruined both of them. Easy pass.
Batman books: like Green Lantern, these appear to have meddled with the least. And he's one of my favorite characters. I may collect some of them, depending on the art and writing.
Green Lantern - buying it now, plan to keep on buying the new series, even though the renumbering annoys me.
None of the "Dark" titles interest me. They're there to appeal to the Twilight crowd as far as I can see. I hope they sell, and indeed despite my general unhappiness with the majority of things happening in this reboot, I hope DC is successful. I just won't be along for the ride, since most of what they're doing is not an improvement on what came before.

Now I'm not buying that many books right now anyway, honestly, and that's for financial reasons in order to keep the hobby spending under a certain level. But DC had my attention with this revamp, and I could have been persuaded to buy a few more series had they not screwed up so many costumes and renumbered every last book, regardless of whether or not it was warranted.

[138 Scourge]

None of the "Dark" titles interest me. They're there to appeal to the Twilight crowd as far as I can see.

Nah, dude, they're there to appeal to the Vertigo crowd, near as I can tell. That's an entirely different thing. Well, okay. I'll give you "I...Vampire!". That looks Twilighty as as something can possibly get. But still.

[andersonh1]

None of the "Dark" titles interest me. They're there to appeal to the Twilight crowd as far as I can see.

Nah, dude, they're there to appeal to the Vertigo crowd, near as I can tell. That's an entirely different thing. Well, okay. I'll give you "I...Vampire!". That looks Twilighty as as something can possibly get. But still.

Yeah, "Vertigo-lite" is how they appear to me, which is fine. There's definitely a market for that, so it's a good move to try and capture some of those reader. Animal Man and Swamp Thing used to be Vertigo titles, so my guess is that DC is hoping to attract some of those readers back to the main DC universe.

[Sparky Prime]

Hard to say without really knowing anything about the book. From what I've seen, it seems like Jason and the other guy are both getting into the Firestorming business for the first time. I may just be guessing wrong here, though.

Other than making Jason and Ronnie a bit younger, describing them as high school students with the relaunch rather than college students, I haven't seen anything to suggest they will take a recent story like "Blackest Night" out of context. Particularly with "Brightest Day" somewhat setting things up for Firestorm's relaunched title.

Anyway, I'm pretty much sticking to the Lantern titles for the time being. Green Lantern, Green Lantern: New Guardians, and Red Lanterns. Although I have to say, I'm actually interested in the "Fury of Firestorm" title since I thought that was one of the more interesting story lines in Brightest Day. Kinda thinking about getting the Teen Titans title as well since they're ending Red Robin...

[Dominic]

Over-all, "Flash Point" looks to be a CoIE style reboot, with large chunks of history being altered or outright eliminated.

I just wish I trusted DC more.

How is "Blackest Night" out of context here?

Both Raymond and Rusch have been significantly de-aged. And, as Scourge pointed out, it looks like they are just starting their career as Firestorm. "Blackest Night" assumed they were undergrads, possibly grad student aged in the case of Raymond.

The one Paul Cornell's writing with the Demon (I forget the name cause I'm dumb), because Paul Cornell. The Justice League Dark could get my attention because Peter Milligan's a writer I used to be a big fan of, and because it's friggin' crazy having John Constantine on a Justice League.

I agree on this. But, "Justice League Dark" just sounds so idiotically 90s to me. Still, "Dark X-Men" should have been the greasiest, runniest terd ever. And, that book was honest to golly gosh good.

Still, my pull-list is at 5, (after some aggressive cutting over the last month or 2), and it is staying there.

Justice League: So... Batman's being hunted by snipers. Has he transferred to the Marvel universe somehow? Hal Jordan has shoulder pads, and is an idiot? "Before who sees us?" Does this preview make me less likely to pick up Justice League #1? Yes, it does.

Hal being an arse is not completely out of line. And, Batman being hunted by the police is nothing new. But, yeah, the presentation here is....very 90s.

I almost feel obligated to buy "Savage Hawkman". I mean, I read "Countdown" right? I cannot very say it was the worst comic ever if I do not periodically give myself opportunity to consider other bad comics. And, lets face it, "Savage Hawkman"? C'mon. You know you are curious.

Other than making Jason and Ronnie a bit younger, describing them as high school students with the relaunch rather than college students, I haven't seen anything to suggest they will take a recent story like "Blackest Night" out of context. Particularly with "Brightest Day" somewhat setting things up for Firestorm's relaunched title.

CoIE had plenty of these headaches left over. I imagine. I would expect a year or so of confused/contrary writing and editing.


Dom
-remember post CoIE Hawkman and Superman?