Aldo reads DC's New 52 (So you don't have to)

tuesday times crossword puzzle answer to 61 down was DAYO

I know I shouldn't care, but I've been thinking: According to Flashpoint, the creation of the New 52 was because of Pandora, which means that she must have existed before the New 52. But her origin story involves The Phantom Stranger and The Question, who were different persons before the merge, right? So, did her changing the universe change her own story as well, and what was her original story then? Or are the Trinity of Sin from another universe all-together, which has now merged with the rest of the DC Universe?

you realise that none of this was actually planned out, right

Icidentally, amongst a litany of fuck ups the most unforgivable thing DC did was give The Phantom Stranger a definitive origin story.

The only interesting thing about him was the fact that nobody knew who he was and now he's fucking Judas Iscariot. It's like DC comics as imagined by Bill Donahue.

That SS post helps encapsulate everything I loathe about post 2000 superhero comic books

Part two of it: http://everydayislikewednesday.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/review-suicide-squad-vol-1-kicked-in.html

"Why am I willing to describe certain specific events during my brief encounter with them for the New 52? Because I am appalled at the way in which creators are being bullied, and somewhat freaked out at the things I saw in my own time there. I encountered more lies and veiled threats – more attempts to justify dysfunctional behavior and systems – than I have ever encountered in my career."

i'm sure that's all OTM - but why would anyone hire paul jenkins in the first place? truly horrible writer

Holy Fucking Shit at the story about him ghost-dialoging an entire comic because David Finch couldn't be found.

note that that refers to this issue (from upthread):

DAVID FINCH’S THE DARK KNIGHT #5: Published August 24th. This is the only time an issue has come out one month after the previous one. Finch has again failed to draw, paint, ink, or colour his solo title. The same fill-in penciller as last issue remains.
ONE of the fill-in inkers from last issue remains, but an additional FOUR fill-in inkers, none of whom have worked on any previous issue, are added. One of the new fill-in colourists from last issue remains, but needs another fill-in colourist to get the job done.
This is the last issue before the reboot. In order to have just ONE (1) MONTH out of TEN (10) in which an issue was published monthly, the creator needed to have FIFTEEN (15) fill-in artists help out that month.

...and an uncredited ghost-writer.

I said recently to a fan at a convention that there’s little chance DC would want a guy like me to write the Flash. I would have him lose a leg to a roadside bomb, then write about the personal issues that would naturally dominate his life for a while.

Jenkins makes some good points in that interview, but this is a truly, truly terrible idea for a Flash story.

pfft he'd grow it back again. Morrison and Millar broke his leg at the end of their first story.

I mean, it does sound dumb, but at least better than "he saves Chunk, who is now a hot thin woman, from Doctor Rape, then cries on a satellite"

That sounds like a low bar - is it Geoff Johns?

it's a gestalt thing

is there a nu-52 Flash book? I'm just assuming

I just discovered that Gregg Hurwitz, the dude writing Batman: The Dark Knight was in my graduating class from college, which is making me want to buy it

So I was interested in what the deal was with Pandora in the New 52, after having read Flashpoint, but really not touching any of the New 52, and I was amazed at how bad it was. Really, the story is completely predictable from page one, if you know who Pandora is, except for some really baffling details. Like, why on Earth does she get punished, when she doesn't do anything wrong (and as she is punished at the same time as the Phantom Stranger, who is presumably Judas WHEN does she get punished? Or does that weird council thing exist out of time?) Anyways, there was an info-box pointing to the recent Shazam-story, so I picked up the latest Justice League, and was perplexed once again, since the thing with the court wasn't even mentioned. But the sin-creatures were there all of a sudden. Does anything get explained anywhere else?

But really, the most annoying thing was, that there was nothing about Pandora creating the New 52 Universe, which was the entire point of her creation. I don't get it. So has she always existed in the DCU, and pulled other universes into it? If so, did she change her own origin, since she now is tied to The Question and Phantom Stranger, who were different before? Will we ever get her true, pre-52 origin?

But most importantly: Why on earth did she keep singing: 'sing a song, sing a song, we are strong, we are strong'? Did DC pay someone to come up with that? Did they pay anyone on this book? What on earth is going on? How do they expect to get readers on this book, when it's such a weird mixture of absolutely predictable, and still completely incomprehensible?

Geoff Johns explains Trinity War so you don't have to read it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncnbJtabH68

yup, that sounds like a Geoff Johns event. i'll read the trades if my library gets 'em down the road

I have to say that even if they are deeply terrible compared to past books, coming into JL/JLA/JLD relatively context-free has allowed me to enjoy all of them. Also, some of the characters are genuinely fun to read in that context (particularly Shazam, Cyborg, Catwoman and Deadman)

I thought if you had to explain the joke, that meant the joke failed. Now how badly has it failed if you have to explain it pre-emptively?

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=47143

'You think this is gonna be for kids? Stop, stop. We don't publish comics for kids. We publish comics for 45-year olds. If you want to do comics for kids, you can do 'Scooby-Doo.'

Way to go, DiDio.

I am guessing that was the wrong article?

No, it's just one line in a massive piece.

Gist is:

Paul Pope has idea for Kamandi as an all ages book
DiDio tells him that comics are only for middle aged men
DiDio tells him if he wants to write for anybody else he has to write Scooby Doo
Paul Pope tells DC to go fuck themselves

oh lol, I was searching for DiDio rather than 45

Sorry, PP cryptically calls him Head of DC Comics and not by name.

On the plus side, you get to read a Paul Pope interview.

bookmarked for later, thanks. nice to see Gene Yang too

I like Dan's total commitment to inevitable obsolescence

"It was heartbreaking, in a way. There just aren't enough comics for kids. There aren't enough good comics for kids. And I just carried that around for a while."

as a parent who takes his daughter to the local comic shop a couple times a month this is, sadly, really true. the guy who runs the local is great, he has a kids section, little stools set out, he makes kids feel welcome - but there's no doubt that the vast majority of stuff in the shop is not just not aimed at them, or even appropriate for them. I guide my daughter's reading pretty carefully but it sucks that I have to actively search to find a Wonder Woman or Superman comic that isn't loaded with sex or gore.

the titles Marvel/DC churn out for kids is usually restricted to like, one title apiece - and then there's toy and tv tie-ins, which are crap. there's a handful of indie sort of stuff but it's pretty slim pickins.

buy the b+w compendiums of 50's to 80's stuff. that's reasonably cheap, fun and COMIX CODE APPROVED

Well yeah thats the thing I end up sticking largely to silver and bronze age stuff. Which is wonderful, but it throws current stuff into stark contrast.

Sadly, I've had rotten luck getting either of my kids interested in Showcase/Essentials B/W volumes. Though my son loves his big collections of THE WALKING DEAD.

I can only hope that this is a phase, but seeing as this phase has dragged on for some time now, I'm not optimistic.

Go for manga I say, or get a bunch of those "Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told" type books

hmm yeah I haven't tried any manga. I have the collection of original Bizarro stories and a couple silver age superman collections, she loves all that stuff. and my 3 volumes of Herbie archives. and Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman. have waffled about getting the compilation of DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories featuring Batman and Robin cuz while they are super-entertaining and goofy they're also insanely sexist.

Little Lulu ftw

tbh i appreciated that Silver Age stuff way more as an adult than as a kid

weed smoking parents give their kids gilbert shelton to read alongside carl barks.
or so i've heard.

Kev Maguire thrown off Justice League 3000

I was probably asking for it, but read through all six parts of Trinity War last night -- really one of the worst comic stories I've ever read. Like, bad Jeph Loeb bad. Superheroes in weird costumes arguing for six issues, with no resolution.

I started typing something about this but the internet ate it. It's best summarised as "Some shit happened".

New 52 version of Tiny Footprints turned out to be a key plotpoint.

Is that like literally "Who killed Sue Dibny?" or just another "Hey guys, we've got a terrible idea"?

Spoiler:

They put KRYPTONITE in Superman's BRANE

It's basically just action figure superdicks being obnoxious. You're waiting for Marshall Law or The Boys to turn up in the next panel, but they never do.

It's more tiny footprints than that, The Atom (who is now a woman) used Atom Shrinky Technology to put TINY KRYPTONITE in Superman's BRANE.

Action Figure Superdick Playtime as directed by Tommy Wiseau.

is the TPB of Grant Morrison's Action run worth getting

It's better than most new-52, but it's really frustrating: as I think I said somewhere else on ILC, it's like reading in random order an incomplete run of what would be an awesome series if only you had all the bits and they were arranged chronologically.

Basically, All-Star was his perfect take on the character; this is a bit of a mess.

Seconded. And honestly, him returning to Superman after the ALL-STAR run feels downright superfluous.

There were some bits and pieces that might've been good, but it always felt (much like FINAL CRISIS) that we were getting half the comic that we were meant to be getting.

What in hell happened in Trinity War? I don't get it. So the seven deadly sins are from Earth 3? If they left that dimension to come to earth, how come Earth 3 is still sinful? Or will nothing happen if they get killed on Earth 1? And wasn't Earth 3 gone from the DCU before Nu52? So Pandora actually created the threat she was warning about? Way to go Pandora.

crap