DC's All New 52 (spoilers maybe)

Anyone pick up a copy of Justice League #1 yet? I personally liked it, though I think some of the costumes are going to take awhile to get use to.

I haven’t, I’ve been meaning to check the new series out. The thing that has prevented me from doing so, is it seems to be a very half-hearted reboot. If they want to start fresh with their continuity, they need to start fresh with their continuity. Start everything over from scratch, keep it all straight.

I’ve always had a vague interest in comic books, but haven’t ever been sure of where to start, due to all the spin-offs, alternate storylines, etc. I’m very interested in this as a good starting point. Anyone know if it’ll be easy to pick up from here? I’m planning on picking a couple of series and starting with those, if so.

DC’s new 52 is a complete reset of their universe so this is a good jumping in point. Check out your local comic shop and talk to them about what would be the best book to start with, is the only advice I can give at this point because I am a long time comic reader and will read them all anyway.

Yeah, the relaunch is a great place to pick up DC books. You may also want to try Invincible (it being the greatest superhero book and all), just buy the trade paperbacks.

I’ll agree on Invincible. It’s really fantastic.

Another good couple of series right now is Irredeemable and Incorruptible from Boom Studios. They take established views of heroes and villains and turn them on their heads.

I’ve not picked up anything yet, but I’m excited for Batgirl and I’ll probably pick up Firestorm because I’ll read anything Gail Simone writes. I’ll also be picking up Birds of Prey out of book loyalty. I’ve heard good things about Batwoman so I’ll probably try it out, too. Red Hood and the Outlaws appeals to my love of the anti-hero so we’ll see. Ditto Suicide Squad, but I adore Harley and her new costume makes me want to claw my eyes out, so I’ll probably pass on that one.

I haven’t been able to get to a comic store since they started releasing stuff, so I’m not actually sure what’s out yet and such.

The New 52 Released so far:
Wed Aug 31st: Justice League
Wed Sept 7th: Action Comics, Animal Man, Batgirl, Batwing, Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Hawk and Dove, Justice League International, Men of War, O.M.A.C., Static Shock, Stormwatch, Swamp Thing.

[quote=““The Conscience””]

The New 52 Released so far:
Wed Aug 31st: Justice League
Wed Sept 7th: Action Comics, Animal Man, Batgirl, Batwing, Detective Comics, Green Arrow, Hawk and Dove, Justice League International, Men of War, O.M.A.C., Static Shock, Stormwatch, Swamp Thing.

[/quote]

I guess I’ll have to try to get to my comic shop over lunch tomorrow for Batgirl! And next Wednesday to pick up some more. I really just need to get them to set up a pull file for me, the way my schedule is.

I’m thinking of doing the digital thing. Marvel’s got theirs but it’s mostly back issues and as I understand it is a few months behind at least, but DC just launched theirs with the reboot and they release digitally at the same time as in print, for a dollar off the cover price, then going down another dollar after subscribing for a month. Seems reasonable, and for those of us without much space, a viable alternative.

I’ve been enjoying the Marvel digital subscription I have, but man, their website really needs to be overhauled. It’s surprisingly sloppy considering how big a company they are.

It’s been that way for a while, their character encyclopedia is a disaster.

Will post the next weeks of DC’s new 52 issues here if people would like me to, as I have a release schedule and it would be nothing for me to share.

Up to you man. Anybody hit up their comic shop today?

I’m going over lunch for Batgirl. And I think I need to pick up the most recent X-23 too.

How was it? I picked up Action and Detective comics. Didn’t really dig Detective. Action was good though.

I had comicfail! They were already out. He’s getting more in next week and I’ve finally set myself up a pull list to prevent this in the future. I’m so tempted to torrent it just so I don’t have to wait to read it, but I don’t really want to do that either.

Here is what we have to look forward to next week.

Releasing Wed Sept 14th: Batman and Robin, Batwoman, Deathstroke, Demon Knights, Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E, Green Lantern, Grifter, Legion Lost, Mister Terrific, Red Lanterns, Resurrection Man, Suicide Squad, Superboy.

I am really interested Frankenstein and Legion Lost as well as Red Lanterns. Not that I won’t read them all.

That is a major bummer.

So far I am not unimpressed with what has been put out there. I really enjoyed Batgirl (sorry no spoilers here), and most of the others and I am interested in seeing where the stories go. I am still bummed about the art for Wonder Woman but if the story is as awesome as the current books promise then I might be able to overlook it.

I think by the end of the month I will have a definite idea of what books will be worth it to me and what ones I will probably follow just to finish out the initial arc and then pass on the rest, unless they sucker me with another awesome storyline arc.It’s still up in the air for me as we have only seen about a 3rd of the books and the next few weeks will be the make it or break it point for them I think.

Ah, see I’m the opposite, possibly just because I’m an artist. I can overlook a poor story in a comic for good art, but if it’s got bad art it’s not worth my time.

I am a huge fan of Wonder Woman but if the art remains bad I will probably not continue to read it after the initial story arc regardless of how good the next story is. I am hoping that the art I have seen so far is just the cover and the interior will be better. Of course, all art is subjective and it may continue to sell books to people that like that style of art. It all reminds me of those dark days of the New Mutants and the horrible surreal art that they used for almost 2 years I can’t remember the artists name, as I burned it from my memory but it truly made my eyes bleed even though the story was really good.

Oh well, I still have a week yet before I have to decide if I am going to put my hard earned money down on it.

You’re probably thinking of Bill Sienkiewicz, he did the art for Frank Miller’s Elektra also. I’ll have to check it out, Cliff Chiang has been hit or miss in the past for me. I liked his Green Arrow and Spectre stuff but was not a fan of his Detective Comics. My girlfriend is really the Wonder Woman fan, I like the character but really despise her supporting cast and villains. I think she’s best used in a team book.

I don’t even know who her villains are, now that I think about it.

Exactly.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths in the late 80’s and early 90’s they rewrote her origins and reimaged her. Her history drastically changed and most of her villains and supporting cast were mystical in nature or had divine origins (Ares, Hermes, etc.) she also had the Cheetah which was cool. That was when Perez was writing and drawing the book and after he left i’m not sure where they went with it.They also briefly had a romance with Superman as she is almost the same power level as he is but it didn’t work out. Its going to have to be written really smart and interesting to keep readers coming back for more this time around.

The only time I’ve seen her written in a way that was compelling to me was in the Justice League and JLU animated series. Though, truth be told, the same could be said of most of DC’s characters. They manage to have these iconic superheroes that everyone recognizes, but the most lackluster, boring, and convoluted comics around. Even Batman (who none can argue is the coolest hero ever) has terrible comics. I can count the number of interesting printed DC stories on my fingers, and most of them are Green Lantern. On the flip side though, nearly everything they’ve done in animation since Batman: The Animated Series has been fantastic.

As a side note, one of the reasons that Batman series was so great is because for the people creating it, not only based it on Tim Burton’s movie, they made every episode as if it were a short movie. They also gave it a nice dark feel by always using black paper as the base, even in the bright sunny scenes.

Oh, absolutely, Bruce Timm is a genius. I started using the DCAU as cannon because it’s much easier to introduce someone to the characters if they’re worth caring about.

I’ve always believed that Marvel had better characters and stories but of late that has proven to be somewhat harder to find as they concentrate more on the motion picture side of things and less on making cohesive and engaging stories int heir books. Most of DC’s characters I will agree lack substance (with the obvious exception of the Batman who is the coolest hero in comics and on screen) and seem to be way more powerful than they should be overall. My least favorite DC hero has to be Superman. Not because of his origins or beliefs but because of his powers and power level. There is no single hero that can match him in sheer power and abilities (other than Batman and only because he is THE MAN). If you know his weakness then he’s boned but beyond that he is untouchable. Marvel heroes have depth of character are interesting because they have faults and have weaknesses that are easily exploited by even the lowest of villains, but they come back stronger and win the day.
I am uninspired by Marvel’s latest mega-story Fear Itself. It had such potential to be great and it fell flat. The story is a convoluted mess the books are scattered and not very cohesive with the story. There seems to be no clear direction that its moving in. I liked Civil War and its aftermath story arcs but this one is kind of bleh. Of the two Flashpoint was better because it was consistent and interesting enough to get me to read it.
I’ll continue to give the New 52 a chance but if Marvel gets their act together soon they may fall to the wayside.

I used to work at a comic store, so I was reading everything for a few years, but I grew up on Marvel predominantly. I agree with absolutely everything you said in that last post, but I haven’t really read anything since Secret Invasion, around which time I got burned out. With the direction Marvel took things in both 616 and Ultimate, I sort of began to view the Death of Captain America as the end of the Marvel universe. It’s a good stopping point and it all happened fairly well. Recently I picked up the first trades of Avengers, New Avengers, and Secret Avengers, and the only one I didn’t really get into was Secret. The “Avengers Proper” books had a very old-style sensibility, and that was refreshing.

As for Superman, he is WAY overpowered, even with kryptonite. What I loved about the animated series is that they toned his powers down so he ended up getting beaten up a lot, but they also deal with the concept of him abusing his power, and make him a bit less of a boy scout. Bruce Timm should be awarded a medal for making me like Superman. A medal from the President.

I have SUCH a nerd crush on Bruce Timm. I’ve just started seeing this awesome X-23 that he did, floating around the internet. I love how he can do art that is cheesecakey, but still adorable and fun. Certainly doesn’t hurt that he draws one of my favorite pairs pretty frequently

Cheesecakey?

That X-23 is REALLY nice, some of my favorite work of his.

eh the new 52 :-\not as bad as i had initially thought it was gonna be. i picked up batgirl, JlA and JLI. wasn’t impressed. im just really upset that Red Robin was cancelled it was one of my favorite comics had a really good run, it made tim drake the next batman to be, only better but in the new relaunch looks like hes a kid again and his costume kind of blows. but im not too bummed i still have loads of back issues in the old DCU i need. after that im going marvel lol.

Cheesecake/beefcake. Art that is sexy, often just for the sake of being sexy, or just improbably unclothed for the scenario. There is good/inoffensive stuff like Timm’s or this. It at least makes sense for Supes to have removed his shirt to rip a tree out of the ground. And then there’s stuff that is not so good. Like what is even going on here? And there’s stuff that is straight up AWFUL like Witchblade (NSFW-ish) or Tarot: Witch of the Black Rose(also NSFW-ish).

Think all those super cut leather-underwear-and-cape-clad guys from the 300 movie. Certainly not something I mind watching, but there is no realistic reason for them to not be wearing things like ARMOR and CLOTHING! Or those old school pin-up girls who just “happen” to walk over an air grate at the wrong time or get their skirts caught in door or whatever.

She’s on my list of comic costumes I really want to do. Along with Lady Blackhawk, She-Hulk (shut up 5’ nothing She-Hulk is so legit! :P), Misfit, Black Canary, Dagger (if I could find a Cloak to match), Kitty Pryde’s original, self made costume… So many!

Hahaha, could there be any more vines? “Yes, I know she’s already called the Witch of the Black Rose, but people won’t get that unless we draw vines everywhere. Make it happen, Bob.”

So, that X-FORCE X-23 or whatever that was… who is she?

Wolverine’s female clone daughter, I think?

Wait, she is his clone and his daughter? That doesn’t seem physically possible. Is Dakken the father too?

Ah, Tarot. Working at a comic store I saw about 15 people come through and buy that every month and ALL of them looked like they’re required to go door-to-door when they move to a neighborhood. It’s the ones that are also buying Robin, Runaways, and Power Pack that you need to look out for.

I think the distinction is because she was cloned but then developed within a womb and born? Or something? Think of it like Big Boss and Solid Snake in the MGS series.

Short very low spoiler version of X-23:
X-23 is a clone (mostly) of Wolverine made in a new iteration of the Weapon X program. They had an incomplete DNA sample and all of the embryos that they made with the XY chromosome set failed so the new scientist they brought in on the project did unapproved side experiments and finally got it to work with the XX chromosomes. She’s then forced to carry the baby to term as a punishment for going behind their backs. The child (X-23 because she was the 23rd embryo) is raised in terrible, de-humanising conditions and trained to be an assassin.
Eventually, when she’s 13ish I think, the proverbial stuff hits the fan, and she escapes, pretty much destroys the facility and has adventures with the NYX kids, Young X-Men, and X-Factor.

I heart X-23 so much

I would totally pay to see these costumes. She-Hulk would be awesome btw I don’t care if your 3’ tall or 7’ tall it would just be geektastic. Alls I can say is PICTURES please!!!

[quote=““The Conscience””]

I would totally pay to see these costumes. She-Hulk would be awesome btw I don’t care if your 3’ tall or 7’ tall it would just be geektastic. Alls I can say is PICTURES please!!!

[/quote]

I would totally get paid to make these costumes! Feel free to send money to paypal account…

Hmmmmm… must resist temptation to give random people money for cool ideas. Arrrg the force is strong in this one must use all my powers to resist her. Damn that didn’t work. Oh well I guess a pretty face is my weakness.

[quote=““The Conscience””]

Hmmmmm… must resist temptation to give random people money for cool ideas. Arrrg the force is strong in this one must use all my powers to resist her. Damn that didn’t work. Oh well I guess a pretty face is my weakness.
[/quote]
Heck, if you’re paying people to wear em, I will too. How do you feel about fat, hairy, male she-hulk?

[quote=““The Conscience””]

[/quote]

Was there supposed to be a response in there somewhere?

Stunned silence, perhaps?

Stunned silence at the realization that he will never want anything else for the rest of his life as much as he wants those pics.

More like my response got lost somewhere between typing it and it getting posted. Oh well so much for me being anywhere near clever.

Besides unless Tommy is a hermaphrodite I don’t think he could pull off a She-Hulk costume more like a Hulk costume and a hairy one at that if his statement was to be believed.

Also I would not like pics of that I like to keep my food down thank you very much.

Back to your regularly scheduled hazing. Enjoy!

It was written such that it looked like part of a previous quote – ‘wouldn’t that just be the hulk’

Male she-hulk. However, he doesn’t go into detail as to whether pre-op or post-op, nor which direction.

I like to keep everyone guessing.

A masculine-identified cis man could totally wear a She-Hulk costume - Hulk wears booty shorts whereas She-Hulk wears a leotard. We’re talking totally different outfits. Plus, let’s be real - a fat hairy man would be equally fat and hairy in booty shorts as in a leotard. Not that there’s anything wrong with fat and hairy. Just sayin’.

So I stopped by my local comic book shop yesterday to pick up some comics. I left with Green Lantern #1 and a collection of a comic called Rotten. I was also going to get a copy of Justice League, but they were sold out. This month, I plan to also get Batman, maybe Dark Knight, Green Lantern Corps, Green Lantern: New Guardians, and The Flash, and then whittle it down to just a few titles for subsequent months. Anyone have any particular titles they feel I should add to this? I was also thinking about maybe picking up All Star Western or Swamp Thing.

Looking at the list of available series, I have some questions about the differences between some of them. For instance, can anyone explain the difference between Batman, Batman: The Dark Knight, and Detective Comics? What about between Action Comics and Superman?

Really, there are no differences, it’s because those characters sell and they realize that they can get away with having several books on the shelf. They’ll run different stories, but it’s the same as the 14 Spider-man or Wolverine books - pick the one you like and just stick with that one or you’ll end up bogged down by redundancy. The more I find out about the New 52, the less impressed I am. I’ve said it before, if you’re going to reboot something, REBOOT IT. Start with the 2 or 3 main titles and branch out. The fact that there are Batgirl, Robin, and (Morrison’s ridiculous Batman, Inc-inspired) Batwing comics is a source of frustration, because in my mind, Batman should get set up first before the spinoffs happen. Not to mention they put so much stock in Grant Morrison, who’s time and time again proven himself a hack. At least they don’t have him screwing up Marvel any more.

That’s good to know. I’ll probably pick just one for each character in future months.

And I agree; Green Lantern was rather confusing, since it seems to have picked up right in the middle of an established universe with a fleshed-out backstory that I don’t know. For what was advertised as a perfect jumping-on point for new readers, it seems awfully like any other new storyline within an ongoing series.

I agree that they should have cut down on the spin off crap. But I am kind of digging Morrison’s Action Comics. Though it’s still just in issue one, so who knows, maybe he will ruin it, it may just take him a few issues.

Updates! I greatly enjoyed Green Lantern, and plan to go back this weekend and pick up a few other titles, namely Justice League, Action Comics, Batman, and Swamp Thing. I’ve also ordered the first trade paperbacks of The Walking Dead, Invincible, Irredeemable, and Incorruptible, which I’m looking forward to.

My main problem with Morrison’s action comics is that he’s making Superman act like Batman. Superman doesn’t hold people off ledges or force them to do what he wants through intimidation. He goes out and tries to help without hurting anyone’s feelings and gets beat up in the process. It’s ok when Batman does it because he’s a normal human and has to gain an advantage to beat people, but when you have 150 different powers including flight and LASER EYES, doing that stuff makes you a villain. Grant Morrison is an iconoclast. He professedly hates superheroes and that is completely apparent in his writing.

Good man, Invincible and The Walking Dead are great books.

This makes me really glad that I didn’t bother to add Catwoman or Red Hood to my pull list. http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine/  It also makes me want to buy Laura Hudson a drink and hang out with her and have awesome nerdy conversations.

Way to add another huge screw up to what could have been an awesome chance for change, writers and artists!

Tamar, that’s a really good article there. Personally though, any sex at all in comics and whatnot is awkward to me. I wouldn’t want to be sitting on an el train next to a little kid and flip the page to reveal Batman and Catwoman gratuitously bumpin’ uglies. And it’s just so, so awkward when you walk in on your in-laws watching True Blood. Not to be prude or anything, but I think there’s a time and place for sex, which isn’t in every single piece of visual media ever.

This is an ongoing problem with DC in general, and it’s basically because of their attitude as a company. Their focus is creating icons and having those icons do things that are memorable for the sake of aesthetic that is catered to teen boys and shock value. On the DC side you’ve got Selina Kyle, and their portrayal of her acting as an “empowered woman” and “sexually liberated” is a tawdry, lewd and sensationalist sex-fest with their flagship character. On the Marvel side, they have a huge number of strong female characters, but let’s go with She-Hulk. Shulkie has quite the number of hookups in her series, ranging from Thanos’ brother to Juggernaut, but at no time is her ACTUAL sexual liberation treated as an excuse to plaster her lady bits over several pages of almost-porn. The most graphic thing you end up with is this, which is pretty tame. This is also why the last page of Detective Comics has Joker’s skinned face nailed to a wall. No, thank you.

Wow. Googled this and, well, no thanks. Also, they’re rating these T?

I’d argue that It’s an issue across the board. In DC’s defense they ALSO have amazingly wonderful characters like the Birds of Prey (not that I’m a huge Gail Simone fan girl or anything:P). And Marvel has characters like Emma Frost. While I’ll make allowances for ridiculous costuming, I also think that if they really want to show that she’s growing and a character and such, maybe they’d have her put a shirt on at least when she’s in her official school mistress capacity. Personally this is my favorite of her costumes, but that’s not exactly what you want to be lecturing students about breaking school windows with their powers in, you know? (Side note: thank you for putting actual thighs on her, second artist, but do you think maybe she could stand in a NON back breaking pose? o_O Seriously, try to stand with your back arched like that. See how long you last.)

I know we’ve all seen the male heroes drawn in ridiculous female hero costumes to prove a point, but has anyone just drawn drawn them in the ridiculous postures they get stuck in? I wanna see Wolverine looking all fierce while trying to touch his shoulder blades to his hips, too.

Also, this is why I really like how >G handled Tachyon’s design. In the lab, she actually dresses professionally. And when she’s hero’ing it up, she’s wearing a costume designed not to show off as much cleavage as possible but instead to be aerodynamic.

Well, Emma Frost’s current state is another thing you can pin to Grant Morrison. She used to look like this when she was teaching until he decided it more effectively kept students’ attention(?) when she dressed like a stripper and went about wrecking homes. I agree that it’s an across-the-board issue, but DC’s much more guilty of it, was my point. For every Black Cat, Marvel has She-Hulk, Sue Storm, X-23, Maria Hill, Storm, Rogue, and myriad other positive, strong, and empowered female characters from different walks of life. DC’s pretty much got Birds of Prey, Batgirl(sometimes), and Renee Montoya, though I’m not even sure she’s the Question any more. Even Batwoman is a bad lesbian stereotype written so readers think about how hot girl-on-girl action is. And as much as I love Harley and Ivy, they’re written pretty much the same way in the books when they show up.

And thank you, Ryan. While it’s important to me my characters are attractive, I do try to remain practical about it.

Harley and Ivy Forevah!!! Not that I’m biased or anything:P

I actually really like a lot of the portrayals I’ve seen of Harley and Ivy’s relationship. I think Paul Dini handles them well (not a huge shocker) and IT’s been a while but I remember really loving Batman - Harley and Ivy. I think Dini/Timm are good at showing them as (Yes, THAT kind of close :P), but it’s almost always fun and playful and real feeling, and not just “hurhur lets make the girls kiss because it’s hawt!”.

In my mind, Dini and Timm can do no wrong. I view the DC animated universe as canon and the comics as fanfic. It’s that much better.

And that’s why I’m not getting anymore issues of Detective Comics. Also, I read it a couple of time, and I still have no idea what the story is about, or how it got to that.

So! Picked up Justice League, Action Comics, and Batman today. I was also going to grab Swamp Thing, but they were out. I was pretty unimpressed with the first two, but I loved Batman, and I’m quite excited for the next issue.I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on in the first half, in the Asylum, though.

Also, anyone know what’s up with the weird, glowy, cloaked purple lady? She’s in every comic as far as I can tell, and it’s very suspicious.

Maybe she is there in case DC’s New 52 bombs, and they use her as a lame plot device to stop the Flash from creating this new reality and they revert to how it use to be. That, or she is going to be what kicks off their first big story arc.

i hope your theory is correct, and they revert.

So! Read the first trade paperback of Invincible this afternoon, and I loved it. Really looking forward to the rest of the series. Now I’m starting in on The Walking Dead.

Why’s that?

Fantastic!

Anybody pick up anymore of the 52? I just got Batman, The Flash, and Hawkman.

I’ve read them all and I have to say that some are better than others. It strikes me as odd that some titles would maintain continuity from prior to Flashpoint and others would have a complete overhaul. Either way I am enjoying the current books but I feel that newer readers may become lost with the references to past events that they are unaware of.

Yeah. Which is weird since they were doing this to basically reset everything so new readers wouldn’t be lost.

Finished the first trade paperbacks of The Walking Dead, Irredeemable, and Incorruptible, and loved all of them.

Picked up Aquaman #1 today, and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, they were out of Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and All-Star Western, but they’re getting them back in stock tomorrow.

EDIT: And as a new reader, I thought they did a good enough job of explaining what was going on that even in Green Lantern, which didn’t reset at all, I understood what was happening, though the references to past events did escape my understanding.

Some of my favs of the new 52 were the relaunched or the totally new titles. Some of the older titles I just was not that impressed with.

I absolutely hate Aquaman, and I feel the same way. It was a great first issue.

Why’s that? I think he’s a pretty interesting character, though I don’t know much about him.

There’s just something about him.

Aquaman was just downright amazing. I never thought he could be that… awesome.

I’ve been reading Detective Comics and thoroughly enjoying them. I picked up #2 today, but I haven’t read it. Still, I don’t really dislike the whole “No-face Joker” thing that’s going on. I think it’s neat. I mean, as crazy as the Joker is, I really never saw that coming. I’m excited to keep going. The Dark Knight, on the other hand, was disappointing, as well as Batman and Robin (Robin may be the worst son of all time).

My girlfriend and I are sharing a comics collection we’re building with The New 52, and so far our favorites are Resurrection Man, Aquaman, Detective Comics, Animal Man, and Suicide Squad. We’re picking up Animal Man #2 tomorrow, and I cannot wait. Also, my girlfriend is named after a comic book hero. How cool is that?

I really, really like the red hooded person thing that’s going on. I personally find it to be really neat and intriguing.

I sincerely hope Green Lantern: New Guardians is really good. I love the concept of a team with one member from every corps. Also, its #1 issue had my favorite cover art.

Suicide Squad is currently my top comic. I’m really excited. Like, REALLY excited for more.

So DC did an overhaul? It’s a shame I don’t know where the closest comic book store is or else I would join in the fun as well.

They also made all their new 52 comics available online the same day as they release.

Sadly reading online just doesn’t have the same feel as having a comic on hand reading it.

http://www.comicshoplocator.com/
Tada!

True, but for some of us the only option is digital download of their favorite comics. I for one prefer the tactile feel of a comic in hand but sometimes the only way to get a copy of your favorite comic is via digital download.

As a side note the next wave of New 52 #2’s are interesting but I still find that a few of them only okay over the awesomeness of the others. The list is as follows:
Action Comics
Animal Man (a favorite)
Batwing
Detective Comics
Green Arrow (a favorite)
Hawk and Dove
Justice League International
Men of War (a favorite)
O.M.A.C. (an absolute favoite)
Red Lanterns (a must read)
Static Shock
Stormwatch
Swamp Thing (a favorite)

A couple of mini-series were added this week to expand the new 52 Universe with The Huntress and Penguin: Pain and Prejudice.

Awesome, thank you. And sad to say I must live in a sad area, no comic stores for 20 miles.

I finally got to pick up a bunch of comics yesterday! Read Firestorm and Birds of Prey, both of which I enjoyed. It was weird to have Babs up and walking for her cameo on BoP, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it. I don’t think I like Black Canary’s new costume, but we’ll see if it grows on me. I haven’t gotten to read Batgirl yet, but I’m looking forward to it. Gail’s influence on the Firestorm dialogue was obvious and brilliant.

As far as non-DC, I’d added Ultimate Spiderman to my pull list, so I got #2, but forgot to pick up #1 because I’m an idiot. I’m not a huge Spidey fan, but I’m all for giving this run a chance, if for no other reason than it’s nice to see not a white dude as a book lead

[quote=““The Conscience””]

A couple of mini-series were added this week to expand the new 52 Universe with The Huntress and Penguin: Pain and Prejudice.

[/quote]

Oooh yeah, I’m SO picking up the Huntress mini. I’d forgotten about that.

That “non-white dude” has about the most racist name ever though, apart from the fact that there’s only one Spider-man, and that’s Peter Parker. Not Ben Reilly, not Kaine, just Pete. Change who’s under the mask on anyone else, but Peter Parker is Spider-man, and Bruce Wayne is Batman.

Aside from all that, there are tons of books with non-Caucasian non-male heroes. In fact it’s more than safe to say the MAJORITY of comics now are about non-Caucasian non-Male heroes. Even in the group books like X-men, you have Wolverine and Cyclops, and everyone else is a girl or a minority. So to favor a change that is for its own sake and for Bendis’ guilt for being a white guy just because the new Spidey is not a white male is not only ridiculous, but is also reverse racism.

Morales just sounds like a generic hispanic last name to me, and Miles is just a generic guy’s name that’s alliterative with Morales so I didn’t read the name as racist. However I’m not intimately familiar with either black or hispanic cultural names, so I’ll let that debate happen among people who know more than I do.

Really? Just looking at the new DC because it’s a quick and simple list I count:
49 white men/boys
22 white women/girls
8 black men/boys
3 black women/girls
1 Asian woman
Not counting a number of aliens (who don’t look human) and such, and a few people of indeterminate race or gender. Specifics below the rest of my post if anyone cares.

I don’t want change just for the sake of change, but I DO think that everyone should have a hero that they can look at and see themselves in at least a little bit. And those heroes shouldn’t be caricatures of their race or gender or sexuality or whatever it is about them that is a “minority thing”. Don’t even get me started on “reverse racism”. That is such a BS loaded term that I’m not going to bother with it. Just the first page of this will take care of that better than I could.
I want to see more black/Asian/Hispanic/Middle Eastern/gay/bi/poly/asexual/jewish/hindu/muslim/pagan/disabled/women/transgender/fat/WHATEVER people in my comics and books and tv and movies, because it’s interesting and it’s representative of the world around us, not out of some sort of hate for the majority.

Most of these are my knowledge from looking at covers for the new comics, so forgive me if any of the covers lead me to incorrect assumptions. I still think it’s a good general idea of the numbers

1. Justice League: 5 white men, 1 white woman, 1 black man
2. Wonder Woman: 1 white woman
3. Aquaman: 1 white man
4. Flash: 1 white man
5. Fury of Firestorm: 1 white teen boy, 1 black teen boy
6. The Savage Hawkman: 1 white man
7. Green Arrow: 1 white man
8. Justice League International: 3 white men, 2 white women, 1 black woman, 1 dude in a mech suit, one glowy chick, and one rocky/chitinous dude
9. Mister Terrific: 1 black man
10. Captain Atom: 1 Silver guy (Too lazy to research race previous to gaining powers :P)
11. DC Universe Presents: Variety of characters
12. Green Lantern: 1 white man
13. Green Lantern Corps: 1 white man, 1 black man, 1 white woman, a plethora of aliens, one of whom reads as female
14. Green Lantern: The New Guardians: 1 white man, 1 white(?) woman, 1 woman who reads as dark skinned on a couple of covers, but white on another, more aliens.
15. Red Lanterns: a bunch of pissed off aliens (side note:this cover is creepy as hell. wtf?)
16. Batman: 1 white man
17. Detective Comics: 1 white man (batman)
18. Batman and Robin: 1 white man, 1 white boy
19. Batman: 1 white man
20. Batwoman: 1 (super pasty!) white woman
21. Batgirl: 1 white woman
22. Catwoman: 1 white WOman (Fixed! thanks for catching my error, TheJayMann!)
23. Birds of Prey: 2 white women, 1 black woman (who is sadly lightened on all these covers in a way she isn’t on the inside), 1 asian woman
24. Nightwing: 1 white man
25. Red Hood and the Outlaws: 2 white men, 1 orange woman (who pretty much reads as white),
26. Batwing: 1 Black man
27. Swamp Thing: 1 white man/1 plant man
28. Animal Man: 1 white man
29. Justice League Dark: 2 white men, 2 white women, 1 literally WHITE man
30. Demon Knights: Hard to tell, 2nd cover has 3 white women, 1 white man, 1 white or maybe middle eastern looking man. and one androgenous person in a silly helmet, all around a demony dude.
31. Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE: Frankenstein’s monster, a green woman with 4 arms, 1 white teenage girl (Also, holy crap how did I know know something this ridiculous looking existed?!)
32. Resurrection Man: 1 white man
33. I, Vampire: 1 red vampire man, 1 white vampire woman (?)
34. Voodoo: 1 (half alien hybrid? o_O) black woman
35. Legion Lost: 1 white man, 1 black man, 1 white woman, 1 guy in a suit, a couple of aliens
36. Legion of Superheroes: 2 white men, 1 alien woman (?)
37. Teen Titans: 3 white men, 1 white woman, 1 darker skinned woman, 1 flaming woman (I adore wonder girl’s outfit!)
38. Static Shock: 1 black man
39. Hawk and Dove: 1 white man, 1 white woman
40. Stormwatch: 3 white men, 1 green man, 1 silver woman, 1 maybe darker skinned man and one white person of indeterminate gender.
41. Blackhawks: 3 white men, 1 black man, two women of hard to determine race, one white person of indeterminate gender.
42. Sgt. Rock and the Men of War: 1 white man
43. All-Star Western: 1 white man with facial disfigurations
44. Deathstroke: 1 fully suited man
45. Grifter: 1 white man
46. OMAC: 1 giant blue dude
47. Suicide Squad: 1 white woman, 1 shark dude, one man in a mech suit
48. Blue Beetle: 1 hispanic teen boy
49. Action Comics: 1 white man
50. Superman: 1 white man
51. Supergirl: 1 white woman
52. Superboy: 1 white man

EDITED to fix Catwoman listing and final list tally.

I’m not an expert by any means, but I can think of significantly more white heroes than black heroes. Dunno as much about the male-to-female ratio though.

However, I think the issue I have with this type of thing is that, perhaps, instead of altering iconic characters to make the pool more inclusive, why don’t they just, you know, actually come up with some new characters? This would solve two things:[list type=decimal]
[]Not triggering nerd rage from folks who don’t appreciate having characters they very much like or even identify with themselves altered in such an extreme way.
[]Actually exercising some sodding creativity so that the comic book market doesn’t go stale. Enough with shocking and/or sexed up reboots: come up with some new characters with new stories to tell who happen to be non-white or non-male without being caricatures.
[/list]

Wait… what!?

Spoilers!

I agree that they should try to come up with new heroes, or even just update the some of the ones they have to be less blatantly racist. I haven’t read the most recent stuff, but I thought they did a decent job of that with Dani Moonstar when she was running young X-Men or something (Too many X-titles to keep track of!). She was still Cheyenne, but not so much just a generic native person stereotype. Ditto Cloak of Cloak and Dagger. I really loved their cameos in Runaways (Oh Runaways, I <3 you so much), so I hunted down some of the originals, and he feels much less stereotyped than he used to be.
It IS pretty difficult to get a following for a brand new character, but I think part of that is that the companies largely don’t want to risk “wasting” their top writers on a title that may not do well.

(I confess to SO much nerdrage at making Barbara Gordon not Oracle anymore, in all fairness.)

HA! Fail! I would be all for that though, to be honest. Catwoman is cool and all, but she’s been enough different people that that change wouldn’t bother me. goes to edit post for correctitude

I buy a book because I like the character and generally don’t care what “nationality/ethnicity” or what gender the character is. Although some of the best books I have read in recent years have female leads but then again I read what I think will be good and what my local comic shop may recommend. I feel that most people do the same thing as I do and don’t care that the characters are of a specific ethnicity or gender.

I do know of some people that choose their books based on the writer or artist or the combination of the two. While a good writer and/or artist will certainly make or break a book I tend to look at the bigger picture.

So. I read Animal Man 1 and 2 this weekend. My thoughts are summed up as follows: WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN. I’m not sure why so many people loved this book so much. It’s SO BIZARRE. After the first read-through, I decided I wasn’t going to get any more issues, but now I feel like I need to know where they’re going with this.

I was kinda’ unimpressed with Swamp Thing, though that might just be in comparison to the hype it was getting.

Also, do we think that Seethe and the Hunters Three might be related somehow? The last panel of Animal Man #2 has some very suspicious-looking flies on the faces of the zookeepers, and in that interview in the back of some of the comics, the writers said that the Hunters Three were agents of some new dark force lurking under the entire DCnU.

So, my current list of titles to continue buying is as follows: Action Comics, Animal Man, Batman, and one other, on which I’m undecided.

I think people liked Animal Man because it was weird and bizarre. My money is on them being related, probably won’t know till the first cross book story arc happens. Those are some good titles to keep buying. For your last one, have you checked out DC Presents: Deadman? Or JLI?

I haven’t; I was mostly trying to decide between Aquaman, Swamp Thing, or All-Star Western, which I still haven’t picked up.

Aquaman is well worth the read as well as All-Star Western,either would be worthy of your hard earned dollars IMO.

I just read Swamp Thing over the weekend, and loved it, along with Firestorm. My girlfriend’s dad also game me Frankenstein, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ve heard the story is good, but the artwork just doesn’t do it for me. I LOVE Animal Man, and even its artwork bothered me a bit at first, but Frankenstein… It’s a bit too much.

On the subject of bad ones, did anyone pick up anything really bad? I picked up Red Hood, and wow… It was awful.

I am struggling to understand Detective Comics as it is really dark and violent even more so that you would think when it comes to Batman. I am struggling with the art of Wonder Woman but its not as bad as Frankenstein and both stories are interesting if you can get past your eyes bleeding profusely as you muddle through them. I really REALLY like O.M.A.C. and Red Lanterns as well as Animal Man, Green Arrow, Men of War, and Swamp Thing.

All in all most of the new books are worth reading but I am not sure if they are worth collecting in the end. The favorites I listed above are purchases I’ll make each month but the rest I will just read through other means.

Picked up Batgirl, Batwoman, Ultimate Spiderman and Huntress today. I’ve only gotten to read Batgirl so far, but Gail is just killing it in these first couple of issues. So good!

For those of you that would like to know here are the DC New 52 Comics released this week. Happy reading!

Batgirl (a favorite)
Batman and Robin
Batwoman (interesting and growing on me)
Deathstroke
Demon Knights (a total favorite)
Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
Green Lantern
Grifter (a favorite)
Legion Lost
Mister Terrific
Resurrection Man (becoming a favorite)
Suicide Squad
Superboy

A couple of mini-series were added this week to expand the new 52 Universe with My Greatest Adventure and The Shade.

For those of you that would like to know here are the DC New 52 Comics released this week. Happy reading!

ALL-STAR WESTERN (Really like this one can’t wait to see where they are going)
AQUAMAN (Better than I thought it would be)
BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT (It’s Batman, nothing more needs be said)
BLACKHAWKS (Really fun and becoming a favorite)
THE FLASH (Always a good read)
THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN (Really liking the changes to the origin and can’t wait to see what they do with it)
GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS (An interesting read)
I, VAMPIRE (Graphically its kind of weird and makes it difficult to follow whats going on, will give it a few more issues before I decide)
JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK (A really good aspect of the Justice League)
THE SAVAGE HAWKMAN (Always a crowd-pleaser and the relaunch of this title makes me want more)
SUPERMAN (Intriguing but still Superman)
TEEN TITANS (Nice change to the title and can’t wait to see where they go with it)
VOODOO (An interesting book. Definitely not the normal book you would see from them)

Another mini-series was added this week to expand the new 52 Universe with Legion Secret Origin.

[quote=““The Conscience””]

BLACKHAWKS (Really fun and becoming a favorite)
THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN (Really liking the changes to the origin and can’t wait to see what they do with it)

[/quote]

I haven’t been able to bring myself to care much about Blackhawks since Lady Blackhawk doesn’t seem to be in evidence in any recognizable form. I have a huge nerdgirlcrush on Zinda and want to go do drinks and dancing with her, and aside from that I have very little interest in what looks like a generic war comic. I do love me some absurdly large guns, but without foul-mouthed, bar-fight starting, plane flying Zinda It just doesn’t work for me. HAWKAAAAA!!

I wasn’t familiar with Firestorm before this, but I’m enjoying what I’ve read so far and I’m interested to see where the story goes.

I’m enjoying Firestorm too, but I think I most look forward to more of Suicide Squad. Unfortunately, I’ve read that in each issue, one of the members of the team will die. I really hope that won’t be the case, because I really like a lot of the members of the team, notably Deadshot, Harley Quinn, King Shark, and El Diablo. Besides them, there are only a few more members of the team, so if one dies each issue, this will be a rather short series. Maybe they’ll bring in new members to the team, but I like the ones we’ve got now. Plus, what would the DC universe be without Harley? We can’t have her dying!

I dunno, I think I’d be ok with this weirdo alterna-Harley dying so they can bring back the REAL Harley, who has clearly been replaced by some sort of robot that will overheat if you cover too much of the surface of its “skin” with pesky things like clothing.

So! I’ve finally narrowed down my selections to Action Comics, Animal Man, Aquaman, Batman, and Swamp Thing. I’ve enjoyed the first two issues of each so far, except for Aquaman, whose second issue I haven’t yet picked up. (“Enjoyed” may not be quite right – Swamp Thing and Animal Man are so weird that I want to see where they’re going, but I don’t know I “enjoyed” them. Batman though, now that’s an enjoyable comic.)

Why is the guy in the bottom right punching himself in the head?

QFT.

I don’t think he’s punching himself in the head, I think he is setting up a block.

I will admit that the art in most of the books is less than desirable for me but the majority of them have a good enough story to keep me coming back for more. Detective is just plain weird though. I agree that Animal Man and Swamp Thing are really weird but they are like a train wreck you can’t turn away until its all over.
I do have my top 11 must reads now after having read issue #2 of most of them and here they are in no particular order:
Batgirl
Demon Knights
Grifter
Resurrection Man
All-Star Western
The Fury of Firestorm
Teen Titans
Voodoo
O.M.A.C.
Men of War
Birds of Prey

Which titles made it to your top 10ish?

This weeks shenanigans are:

ACTION COMICS #3
ANIMAL MAN #3
BATWING #3
DETECTIVE COMICS #3
GREEN ARROW #3
HAWK AND DOVE #3
JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #3
MEN OF WAR #3
O.M.A.C. #3
RED LANTERNS #3
STATIC SHOCK #3
STORMWATCH #3
SWAMP THING #3

It seems that DC hasn’t finalized when each book is too be released as its different every month so far. Anywhoo still intrigued by my top 11 but I am considering dropping a few off the list if they don’t get to the point real soon.