While I’m running behind in reviews, I thought I’d link up a good rant on why WB/DC will probably fail with a Justice League film. Really agree with the note on Bruce Timm and team near the end. J.R.’s rant can be found here at Authentic Entertainment.
Running this in a same fashion as the last group. Three small reviews (with possible spoilers) for the three comics that work with H’el on Earth; Superboy, Supergirl, Superman.
It’s been popping up all over the place, and while I usually don’t rewrite news I heard off other sites, this one I just couldn’t bring myself to leave alone. Word has it though that the Nolanverse is to continue into the upcoming Justice League movie!
This week in comics, we… oh, it’s a fifth Wednesday, so basically nothing happened at all. Superman and Wonder Woman made out. That was big news for some reason.
The issue that bravely answers the only question we care about – which strapping young man on the League is currently banging the team’s only female member?
Justice League #9
Like just about everyone else alive, I (for no discernible reason) am absolutely convinced that I know better than the myriad writers and editors at DC Comics, that my take on the New 52 would have been flawlessly executed, that all the mistakes they made – and I don’t think it’s any great revelation that massive, avoidable mistakes were made in the course of this enormous, ambitious project – could have been turned around if only they would have trusted me.
Which is stupid, of course. The comic marketplace is a vastly different place than it was even ten years ago, and outside of seriously stepping out of comic shops and back into supermarkets (with the resulting drop in price and increase in age-restricted content that implies) they were never going to get their comics into many new hands… and I’m pretty sure that isn’t a feasible goal anyway. No, they did a lot right, including the very necessary move to increase digital publication.
But one possible mistake they made that I think would be very fixable is in how they handled some of the relaunches. Angry fans can and will claim that DC never gave their favorite canceled title a shot – though the relative dearth of this sort of outcry thus far suggests that DC picked the right titles to cancel quickly, and I’d bet the next cancellations will be met with similar silence – but, realistically, they were treated exactly the same as the rest of the New 52, given promotion, in-house ads, equal shelf space, etc…. DC treated Men of War and Batman roughly the same – and that, in my opinion, is the problem.
This week in comics, the Avengers and the X-Men settle their differences via walk-off (with special guest judge David Bowie!), Image wows with Dancer #1, and I confuse the plot of a major event comic with that of Zoolander to mildly comedic effect. Very mild.
Let’s dance!
Okay, this is it. This is the week in which all of my One Sentence Reviews will be genuine, single sentences.
Every week I bend, twist, break, coerce, violate and traumatise the English language in order to squeeze most of what I want to say into mega-mutant sentences. I don’t apologise for indulging myself in this way because I enjoy it too much.
But this week, just to prove that I can do it, I’m going to play by the rules. I have no idea what next week will bring.
As usual, each comic is scored out of five and at the end I have a cumulative leader board to show which are consistently excellent, which are on the rise, and which are circling the drain.
I have also reviewed the mini-series issue from this week but it isn’t included in the leaderboard.
Warning, there could be spoilers ahead (although I try to avoid them).
If it’s short, sharp reviews of the New 52 ye seek, then here be one sentence reviews for the comics of the week.
Each comic is scored out of five and at the end I have a cumulative leader board (averaging the scores of each title) to show which are consistently excellent, which are on the rise, and which are circling the drain.
I have also reviewed the mini-series issues but they aren’t included in the leaderboard.
Warning, there could be spoilers ahead (although I try to avoid them).
Justice League #2, cover by Lee, Williams & Sinclair
When Justice League #1 was released (over six weeks ago), it was met by many comics fans with a resounding ‘meh’. Awkwardly paced and somewhat lacking in any sort of ‘league’, some particularly pessimistic fans were predicting failure for the relaunch based on its opening issue. And then the issue sold an insane number of copies, and the story became “this is a wildly successful start to the relaunch, sales-wise” rather than “this was a mildly successful start to the relaunch, creatively-speaking.” But still, Geoff Johns and Jim Lee has perhaps the biggest soap box in comicdom right now to prove that superheroes are viable in the mainstream, so how does their sophomore issue fare?
Looking into issue 50-54. Issue 50 is a collaboration between McKeever, Johns, Wolfman, and Dezago. This is also Johns’ last work on Teen Titans and after this issue, McKeever takes over by himself for a while.
I’m a fan of the Teen Titans, especially the latest incarnation that went from 2003-2011 and as this relaunch makes it seem their entire history may be erased, I wanted to give them a farewell starting with issues 1-7 (also collected in trade form as “A Kid’s Game” or the soon to be released Teen Titans Omnibus 1). Like usual, beware of spoilers.
In Character Study, I’m taking a look at how the key characters in Justice League #1 are portrayed and see what it all might mean for the brave new world that is DCnU.
In Part 1, I looked at Batman and Vic Stone. In Part 2, I turn the spotlight on Green Lantern and Superman.
By now, the internet has been flooded with reviews for the book that launches a whole new status quo for the DC Universe. And, as many reviewers have commented, this is not your dad’s DCU and you’ve never seen this Justice League before.
So what could I possibly add to the digital cacophony, especially since I had to wait a few extra days for my comics to travel halfway around the world to Australia?
Instead of offering yet another review of Justice League #1, I have decided to focus on what is, for me, the most important part of any story – the characters.
“Only a Dream” Continue reading
So, it’s finally over – Flashpoint ends today, and with it, the DC Universe as we know it. But every ending is just the beginning of something new, so I’m going to briefly discuss – since lebeau has already handled both books already – the beginning of the DCnU as well, including how DC’s same day digital release process treated me. As always, spoilers ahead…
read/RANT! 