The New 52 #1's... your thoughts?

[samurainoir]

Okay, the first one I ran home to read while eating lunch was Action Comics #1.

I had my doubts, but I'm hooked. It's fast paced, breezy and kind of fun. Luthor's the best thing about the book and he is played perfectly to the first issue cliffhanger. T-shirt, jeans, loafers and cape is kind of goofy still, but you kind of get what Morrison's trying to do. Not his most innovative work, but he is tiptoeing around an icon and the original energy of Seigel and Shuster's Superman who fought for the little guy against systemic corruption is some really untapped ground.

His Superman reminds me of Morrison's Marvel Boy.


Also decided to get Detective #1, Stormwatch #1 and JLI #1.

[Toy Talk]

Sadly I am done with restarting original series. Marvel and DC have both tried it before and it does not work. I think the Ultimate line from Marvel was the only fathomable way to pull off a total rewrite. For me, I am done with DC; I do not have another restart in me. When they come back around, and they will, maybe I will jump back on board.

[samurainoir]

As I felt with the 5 page preview of JLI, it definitely isn't my cup of tea. I know there are Booster/Jurgans fans here, hopefully you will enjoy having Booster front and centre in a title written by Jurgans.

Found the pace kind of glacial with way too much explanation about how they are a UN organization... without the kind of intrigue you would normally get in a political situation with characters such as Amanda Waller pulling the strings (is she conspicuously missing from the New 52... or perhaps consigned to Suicide Squad?). I enjoyed the political maneuverings and intrigue of Greg Rucka's Checkmate for example.

I'm probably the old fanman who was bound to be disappointed because it does not follow up on Justice League Generation Lost, and all the story and character development they created there. (will we ever get a resolution of the Max Lord storyline?) Everyone seems kind of flat and generic to me, and the pace was positively glacial. The end scene should have actually been where the issue started... in the middle of the action, rather than all the talky stuff... which I wouldn't mind if it was interesting character and conflict driven talky stuff (like Bendis does in Avengers and Powers).

[Toy Talk]

Even after selling 30 or 40 thousand books last year I still have tens of thousands more, and up until very recently purchased 30 plus titles a month. Now with the trend of bad writing in Marvel and another reboot for DC I found myself lacking interest and disappointed. For now at least I stopped my comic subscription altogether. At least until writers can figure out some decent story plots and DC gets their heads screwed back on straight.

[samurainoir]

^^^
Don't blame you at all, why bother continuing a buying habit that brings you no joy.

They day I no longer got enjoyment from reading comics (breathing comics, eating comics, rolling around in comics), I'd pack it in as well.

[aquatroy]

Sounds promising. Action is the only book on the new 52 that I was excited about and I enjoyed Marvel Boy.

[stevenlore]

I am not a DC fan, but will sample some of these. I thought Justice League had an interesting start. I will check out Action Comics and Batgirl this week.

[boynightwing]

I picked up Action, Batgirl, Static, and Green Arrow. I've only read Action thus far. I enjoyed it!

[Riffster]

I'm a sucker i grabbed everything- so far i liked Action alot, Hawk and dove was ok

[Nostalgiabuff]

I am giving it all a pass. i don't want to see characters I have known all my life rewritten and starting all over

[Boshek]

I was a subscriber to JSA and I got a letter saying it would switch over to JLI. However, I didn't get the first issue yet. I am very anxious to read it.

[emeraldknight47]

I managed to snag the VERY LAST copies of both BATGIRL and SWAMP THING at my LCS on my way home from work, but haven't had a chance to look at them yet. The guy who runs the shop said that he had ordered, I think, 125 copies of each new #1 and the only thing left when I was there was one issue of Hawk & Dove, one issue of Green Arrow and the two I picked up. DC's marketing campaign must be working pretty damn well....

[samurainoir]

I really enjoyed Batgirl, Animal Man and Swamp Thing. Gail Simone has a really great handle on the character of Barbara, and becoming Batgirl again after her time in the wheelchair is turning out to be really well written. Particularly the rather haunting part about the fact that Babs has a "photographic memory" and can remember every single detail of her crippling. I did like the fact that like anyone, she doesn't jump right back into the superhero game so easily after that kind of trauma.

Swamp Thing and Animal Man feel like old school Vertigo titles and hint at some interesting developments. Animal Man could even be considered to be starting off where Grant Morrison left in the ongoing series. As for Swamp Thing, after the last Muck Monster retread, it's kind of refreshing to get to know Dr Alec Holland himself... a character we have never really followed given the Alan Moore revelations. I'm also a big fan of Yanick Paquette's art and he's really got a very unique version of Swamp Thing.

As much as I like some of Paul Cornell's other stuff like Wisdom/Captain Britain, and the recent Lex Luthor run of Action comics, Stormwatch (really The Authority) is really tough for anyone to follow up on basically what was some of the best writers in the industry unleashed on these characters. Warren Ellis, Mark Millar, Ed Brubaker all had really great runs, so anyone even doing a pretty good job (as Cornell has done, with all the quirkiness that I generally enjoy with his writing), is inevitably going to be compared with the others who were having a constant game of one-upmanship with each other. I also can't help but compare the new Stormwatch premise with Torchwood and SHIELD, and again SHIELD is currently one of my favourite series over at Marvel right now.

As for Detective #1... meh. I totally accidentally picked this one up thinking it was the one that Scott Snyder was writing. Tony Daniel is obviously of the Image/Spawn school... particularly with the rather grisly "twist" ending. Seemed like a typical Batman/Joker grimace-grit-fest to me. Will not be continuing this one.

[samurainoir]

Just read Men of War starring Sgt Rock's grandson. It's probably a great book if you like all the hardware and military terminology, but there isn't much in the way of any characters that I really have enough information to care about through their big military conflict. Add in the cameo of some kind of Super-type, and it gets even more schizo.

Probably spoiled by how great Garth Ennis War Comics are for the most part. Won't be continuing with this one.

[boynightwing]

Just finished Static Shock. I enjoyed it. Though I'm biased as Scott McDaniel is one of my favorite artists and all around good guy. It was a fun read anyway.

I might go back to the comic store for JLI.