DC Comics!

[laceblade]

I posed this question on Google+ and got no response. I have higher hopes for you, my Dreamwidth people!

DC Comics is relaunching its entire line (I think). Either way, a bunch of storylines are getting rebooted with Issue #1.

Since I live two blocks away from a comic book shop, I thought it would be neat to follow a mainstream comic series for once (I'll also be following Buffy Season 9, and probably the Angel/Faith series).



Are you going to be following any of the new DC series? Which one(s)?
For entrenched DC readers, do you have any recs for me?



From reading the preview issue, I was kind of interested in Super Girl. I've always liked Batman, but there are like eight Batman series, idk which one to pick (except to boycott the Oracle one, wtf magical wheelchair healing).

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I'm about to go Up North and be unconnected to the Internet, so I will respond to comments on Sunday or Monday.

Comments

[aphelant]

Hi hi! You don't know me but I am friends with were_duck and, um, am into DC comics. :D

It's a slight misconception that the universe is being rebooted -- it's being touted as a 'relaunch', and it basically boils down to a) they are starting all issues at #1, b) by retconning a whole crap load of character histories, c) because that will ~streamline the user experience~ and encourage new people to buy, but d) they are actually making a whole lot of stuff make absolutely no sense at all.

So um, I may not be the best person to give you recommendations here because in my honest opinion this whole thing is bullshit. BUT BECAUSE YOU ASKED:

Titles I will be following only because I love the characters, even though most of them will basically be unrecognizable after the 'relaunch' (sometimes I am stubbornly optimistic):

- Teen Titans
- Nightwing
- Batman & Robin
- Superboy

Titles I will be following because I actually think they are going to be awesome:

- Batwoman
- Blue Beetle

Title I will be following which I am really unsure about but want to give the author a chance because she's great and I (again, optimistically) think she will make the most of a shitty editorial decision (and has said she would bring in some characters I love):

- Batgirl

Um, yeah, so all of that being said, here are my recommendations!

Batwoman; IF YOU GET ANYTHING, GET THIS.

The character hasn't been around too long and her backstory isn't being touched at all as far as I can tell, and this is a true #1 -- the character has only ever appeared in backups or in crossover series, this is her first true running comic. Also I think this will be one of the easiest titles for a new reader to get into because her backstory is pretty straight forward. If you want to catch up (which I do recommend, it's totally worth it) there's a trade paperback collection (Batwoman: Elegy) out of most of her storyline, and pretty much all of the rest (including her origin) can be found in the series 52 (also out in trade paperback).

And to actually talk about the comic itself: the writing is fantastic (seriously, the narrative flow is wonderful, it's not at all like most mainstream comics), the art is stunning, and Batwoman is really really awesome (and DC's most prominent LGBT character to boot). I would still follow this title no matter what.


Blue Beetle:

This is a sort-of #1 in that he used to have a series but it was canceled a while ago (and people have been complaining ever since). In my opinion, his backstory is pretty easy to follow (guy fuses with technology, becomes a hero) and shouldn't be too convoluted -- he has some history, but hopefully it will not be necessary to know.

I like Blue Beetle, every time I've seen him in comics or cartoons he's been really awesome. You might want to check out his episodes of Batman the Brave and the Bold and some issues of his previous ongoing comic to see if he's up your alley (this is the beauty of the internet -- we can try before we buy!).


Legion Lost:

This one's all about time travel! And I think knowing nothing about any of the previous incarnations of the Legion of Superheroes will actually work in your favour. I really liked the author's last title (Red Robin) and I have high hopes for this book as well.

Seven heroes from the 31st century have traveled back to the present day. Their mission: Save their future from annihilation. But when the future tech they brought with them fails, they find themselves trapped in a nightmarish world that, for them, is the ultimate struggle to survive!


I also think Superboy might be a good title for you because it seems like they're starting right at the beginning with him, so all of his (sort of new, doubtfully improved) backstory will be presented right up front. I think he's an interesting character with a lot of potential, and if you like YA his story has a lot of classic themes.


Um, if you want to ask about any of these, or anything you're looking at getting, I am always happy to talk comics! <3

[ladyjax]

I've got many not so great opinions about the relaunch if only because so much of it feels deeply wanky (especially on the subject of women and people of color characters) but I have a few things that I'm going to try out.

Wonder Woman
The Authority
Batwoman

I'm one of those people who absolutely detests the art and the current story telling on this book. After Gail Simone and Greg Rucka, J. Michael Strasynski let me down with his take on her (and that's after his awesome run on the relaunched Thor). I pretty much buy it now because my wife will eventually get around to reading it.

Anyway, I want to give the new one a shot because Cliff Chiang is doing the art. He draws Diana like she's a grown up (e.g. she's got the right proportions). I don't know much about the writer Brian Azzarello so I can't talk about him.

The Authority is the one I'm a little more concerned about. I've been a fan of the title since it was spun out of Stormwatch (which was an Image title then later part of Wildstorm). The two characters that are making it into the relaunch are Apollo and Midnighter, who started with Stormwatch and then were in the Authority. They're a cannonically gay couple and even though the powers that be say they won't be de-gayed, my thoughts about how DC'll handle them is only cautiously optimistic.


Batwoman I'm excited about if only because it's taken so long for it to come out.

I might give Justice League of America a shot because I've always had an abiding interest in the title since I was a kid but I don't know.

[laceblade]

Friends of were_duck are always welcome here!

Someone left a similar comment on my LJ about people being upset by the erasure - I had read a lot of articles about this for Oracle, but didn't understand that people felt that way about other characters/storylines, too. It is good to know, for background's sake!

I'm getting Elegy from the library - is 52 just about her, or various DC heroes?



Thanks for all of the information/recs! I'll feel a lot more informed when I look around come release day/s!!

[aphelant]

FWIW I just read this post someone made about the Wonder Woman reboot:

http://fanboywatchtower.tumblr.com/post/9255660915/wonder-woman-no-pants-horror-and-the-trinity

I like how enthusiastic Azzarello seems, and like he has a plan. Also I'm really intrigued by the 'horror' element, I am totally interested in reading this book now!

[aphelant]

I had read a lot of articles about this for Oracle, but didn't understand that people felt that way about other characters/storylines, too

Oracle is definitely one of the most visible changes, and one I am against, but it's by far the *biggest* change being enacted. Literally everything that I love about the current universe is being erased, rebooted, or replaced. No characters that I care about are left untouched, and most of them will be unrecognizable after the relaunch. All of the titles I was currently following were either canceled or had a severe (anywhere from 50% to 100%) cast change. I'm surprised I'm subscribing to 7 titles, it seems like a lot to be completely honest, but I'm pretty sure I'll be dropping a couple of them fairly quickly because they aren't the characters I want to read about. I'm probably a bit more angry about the relaunch than a lot of other people, and for some different reasons, so maybe this is worth a grain of salt. But yeah, *nothing* will be the same. It's very disappointing.


52 follows...4 different storylines? I think? And hers is one of them! Each of the storylines follows a different hero or heroes. You can pretty much skip the parts that don't have Batwoman in them, though -- I don't remember anything happening in the other stories that were important to hers.

I linked ladyjax below to someone conjecturing about the Wonder Woman book and now I think that this would be a great one for you, too! The author calls this one a 'soft reboot', probably because it's one of the books where they are re-telling the character's origin story and making some changes -- nothing drastic, but not keeping everything the way it was/has been, either. So it has that recommending it (it starts at the beginning! HOW CONVENIENT), and it's being written by someone who seems to genuinely care about the character and her place in the shared universe (characterization is my favourite thing in any medium). The author does say that it's 'horror', and you might not be into that, but I'm anticipating it being that kind of Greek Mythology horror stuff, and not like Saw or something like that.

:D :D

[aphelant]

Also omg I didn't pay any attention to the Wildstorm titles when they were announced, but if I had known that The Authority starred Apollo and Midnighter that would have been in my pull list! Good thing they are doing this same day download stuff because there's no hope of my comics place ordering it now (except...I've never checked out what regions you can buy the digital comics in D:).

[laceblade]

Sad to know about women and POC, :/

Batwoman seems like a universal rec, so I'll be getting that!

I've never heard of The Authority, but I am now intrigue.

[laceblade]

A question that I now have!

Teen Titans: Where do I start?

Have you read Marvel's Runaways? Is it like that?

[aphelant]

Ahhhh that is a tough question re: Teen Titans! The main characters that will be in the new Teen Titans book -- Wondergirl, Superboy, Kid Flash and, er, Tim Drake (who *used* to be Robin but is now Red Robin, so using his civilian name here makes the most sense I think) -- were in the pre-relaunch book as well, but originally they came together under the title Young Justice. Now, Young Justice isn't collected in trade paperback format, but I have electronic issues of the entire series (or close to it) if you want them. It's a very enjoyable run, though definitely geared for a younger audience which might mean you don't find them that interesting? Also there are a LOT of them, so it's maybe not the *best* place to try starting, but the first arc gives a kind of overview of who they are and where they come from. Young Justice is where the building blocks of the current Teen Titans are.

As the characters grew up they ~graduated~ to the Teen Titans team, and their membership lasted a while (something like...6 trade paperbacks? 8? IDK how many years it was). And then blah blah crisis blah blah disbanded or something blah blah title started up again a couple of years ago (sans Tim Drake), but in my opinion it was pretty terrible, I don't recommend reading it. Bad dialogue, bad art, bad bad characterization. Lots of death, lots of sexualization of women. Yuck. The book picked up a little when Tim rejoined the team (as Red Robin) in the last arc or so, so...maybe start there? Unfortunately Teen Titans is one of the titles that seems to have been changed the most. All four of the main characters have had large, maybe even EXTREMELY large, history reboots, so how much reading old issues will even help you I have no idea. This is one of the books where I don't really understand how it will even work if the characters have new backgrounds and have not been bffs since they were 12...but I guess we'll see.

Haha, TL;DR! Um, I guess my suggestion is: try it out from the new #1 and if you feel that you need some background let me know (I'll be reading it myself so I will probably have a good idea of what needs the most fleshing out and where to find it).

Re: Marvel's Runaways: I have never read it, but I have read Young Avengers! Teen Titans is sort of like Young Avengers? Well, the ~good~ run of this generation of Teen Titans is kind of like Young Avengers, but I have no idea what the new run will be like. Er. Sorry I wasn't more helpful! :'(