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Boy, at first I was pretty negative about the reboot, then I got a little pumped up as it became more of a relaunch less of a reboot. But now I'm swinging neg again, as it looks like there's an abundance of inconsistencies already.
First there's the totally unnecessary redone Superman & Supergirl costumes, the bizarre edict that legs on female heroines need covered (but lowcut cleavage & pushup bras are still ok it seems). Then we see odd costume redos such as Red Robin (yeah, he's named after Robin Hood, not the bird like Chris said).
The Teen Titans all appear to have new origins, so I guess Cassie gets the Donna Troy treatment as all Wonder Girls must do. I haven't seen any sign of Donna either, which is not a good thing. Superboy appears "new & improved" as well.
I believe that DC's goal here is to flood the stands with new titles and overpower Marvel through sheer numbers, a ploy Marvel used to some limited advantage in the past. Unfortuneatly, that strategy leads to a quick short-term gain then a fizzle. The losers end up being the retailers who windup with long boxes of unsold back issues. look at the quarter boxes for how many copies of stuff like Mystique, Nightcrawler, and other X-Titles from the mid 90s are still there.
And while I'm glad to see DC bringing back such favorites of mine like Resurrection Man and Swamp Thing, I have to say that there's a lot of cannon fodder in that 52 issue list so far, with a few more to follow. Blue Beetle has failed twice as a ongoing & a backup. There's been what 4-5 Suicide Squad titles? JLA Dark is Shadowpact. A covert ops version of Blackhawk=Checkmate. Sgt Rock's grandson? Really. That DiDio /Giffen OMAC looks terrible.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing a lot of staying power here. A LOT of these books look to me to have marginalized audiences. I...Vampire is aimed a totally different group than All-Star Western or Sgt Rock.
Plus there's the cost of trying out the relaunch, DC is asking me to invest a minimum of $160 in first issues to try the new versions. All within the first month. I'm certainly not going to like or continue buying more of some of them, and obviously I probably won't buy all of the first issues either. But I can't see customers dumping Marvel X-titles to pickup Animal Man or Legion Lost. I'm not going to pass up The Walking Dead to try a new Nightwing.
I'm thinking there's going to be mass cancellations within a year, and hopefully heads will roll. I give books like Hawk & Dove, Mr. Terrific, Batwing, Sgt Rock, Blackhawk, OMAC, and Static less than that.
Not trying to be the voice of doom here, not being overly negative because iof the change, it's just that a majority of these books have tried & failed before, some more than once. It's like Doom Patrol- they're great guest-stars, but after about 5-6 issues the idea wears thin. Many of these titles would be very good mini-series or graphic novels. And maybe that's what they are, and DC isn't saying that just yet. Maybe we're going to see DC do mini-series as ongoings, a tactic companies such as Dark Horse has done with characters like Hellboy, BPRD, and Conan. IDW does it with GI JOE & others. That might not be a bad tactic, get in -get out, put out the trade & on to the next. It's not been DC's style though, but who knows?
I think with all the media hype DC is trying to generate, they're hoping that they'll entice non-readers to hop onto the digital versions and therefore the books will be a success. I really don't see that happening in the numbers they expect. I'd be surprised, particularly since they've announced all this months prior to it actually happening, and it'll be old news when it does.
First there's the totally unnecessary redone Superman & Supergirl costumes, the bizarre edict that legs on female heroines need covered (but lowcut cleavage & pushup bras are still ok it seems). Then we see odd costume redos such as Red Robin (yeah, he's named after Robin Hood, not the bird like Chris said).
The Teen Titans all appear to have new origins, so I guess Cassie gets the Donna Troy treatment as all Wonder Girls must do. I haven't seen any sign of Donna either, which is not a good thing. Superboy appears "new & improved" as well.
I believe that DC's goal here is to flood the stands with new titles and overpower Marvel through sheer numbers, a ploy Marvel used to some limited advantage in the past. Unfortuneatly, that strategy leads to a quick short-term gain then a fizzle. The losers end up being the retailers who windup with long boxes of unsold back issues. look at the quarter boxes for how many copies of stuff like Mystique, Nightcrawler, and other X-Titles from the mid 90s are still there.
And while I'm glad to see DC bringing back such favorites of mine like Resurrection Man and Swamp Thing, I have to say that there's a lot of cannon fodder in that 52 issue list so far, with a few more to follow. Blue Beetle has failed twice as a ongoing & a backup. There's been what 4-5 Suicide Squad titles? JLA Dark is Shadowpact. A covert ops version of Blackhawk=Checkmate. Sgt Rock's grandson? Really. That DiDio /Giffen OMAC looks terrible.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not seeing a lot of staying power here. A LOT of these books look to me to have marginalized audiences. I...Vampire is aimed a totally different group than All-Star Western or Sgt Rock.
Plus there's the cost of trying out the relaunch, DC is asking me to invest a minimum of $160 in first issues to try the new versions. All within the first month. I'm certainly not going to like or continue buying more of some of them, and obviously I probably won't buy all of the first issues either. But I can't see customers dumping Marvel X-titles to pickup Animal Man or Legion Lost. I'm not going to pass up The Walking Dead to try a new Nightwing.
I'm thinking there's going to be mass cancellations within a year, and hopefully heads will roll. I give books like Hawk & Dove, Mr. Terrific, Batwing, Sgt Rock, Blackhawk, OMAC, and Static less than that.
Not trying to be the voice of doom here, not being overly negative because iof the change, it's just that a majority of these books have tried & failed before, some more than once. It's like Doom Patrol- they're great guest-stars, but after about 5-6 issues the idea wears thin. Many of these titles would be very good mini-series or graphic novels. And maybe that's what they are, and DC isn't saying that just yet. Maybe we're going to see DC do mini-series as ongoings, a tactic companies such as Dark Horse has done with characters like Hellboy, BPRD, and Conan. IDW does it with GI JOE & others. That might not be a bad tactic, get in -get out, put out the trade & on to the next. It's not been DC's style though, but who knows?
I think with all the media hype DC is trying to generate, they're hoping that they'll entice non-readers to hop onto the digital versions and therefore the books will be a success. I really don't see that happening in the numbers they expect. I'd be surprised, particularly since they've announced all this months prior to it actually happening, and it'll be old news when it does.
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