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

I know I have two books left btw, they'll turn up tomorrow. One of them was my favourite thing this week. OOH THE TENSION.

the current Mr. Terrific as works better as a DC Reed Richards type IMO

re: JLI image, vaguely resembles:
http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/9/99/Brave_and_the_Bold_28.jpg
Is Jurgens doing layouts on JLI? Because that splash was very deliberately composed to evoke classic iconography of team books. I've always liked Jurgens as a penciller (though not really as a stylist, if that makes sense), got no opinion of him as a writer, have no idea what his comics values are. He seems to turn out consistently MOR work. His art never gets in the way of the story, but it doesn't really enhance it either.

That's a really good effort but not what I was thinking of. It'll come to me, I'm sure.

I just read OMAC. And while its heart was in the right place, I guess, I had to wonder why this book even got made. Doing a Kirby thing (and OMAC is incredibly Kirby, perhaps the Kirbyest, or within spitting distance of it) without the King just doesn't make any sense. In the meantime, I'll just pull the old HC off the shelf and flip through it again, since it will be everything that this series is shooting for, and more.

prob DiDio got excited about the good reviews for Paul Pope’s cover version of Omac #1 in Solo and went “gissa job, I can do that”

and the boss said “alright then”

the boss: http://americanthings.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/looney-tunes-by-zewebanimdotcom.jpg

http://www.flashbackuniverse.com/blogImages/random/DanDidio.jpg

YOUR SOUL. GIVE IT TO ME.

Suicide Squad #1 W: Adam Glass Art: Federico Dallocchio/Ransom Getty/Scott Hanna

Different Universe, same Suicide Squad. Supervillains get let out of jail in return for pulling off covert missions as part of Task Force X, the catch being that it's unlikely they'll all make it. This can be kind of predictable, as it's usually the small-time villains you've never heard of that buy the farm, but whatevs.

This is an establishing book, with a bit of history on Task Force X and a bit of history of the current members, but this is a blast from start to finish. Members in #1 are Deadshot, Harley Quinn, King Shark, Black Spider, el Diablo, Voltaic and Savant and guess what? Not all of them get to the end of the issue, where we get a brief Amanda Waller cameo (boy, has she been working out in the Johns Universe...) and the next mission, which looks like a doozy.

But putting all that aside, FUN FUN FUN

King Shark is the best thing about this issue by a country mile.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6158/6162473170_590fb3342e_z.jpg

And I defy anyone not to love the contrast between him and everybody else here.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6204/6161938199_ddd39b065a_z.jpg

Welcome back. I've missed you not being about.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6173/6162473518_7d0d024c0c_z.jpg

Aldo's winner of the week. Guaranteed to contain no Sadface.

Is this Deadshot supposed to be someone else than Floyd Lawton? If not, what happened to his cool mask and moustache? Why mess with a great character design?

Superboy #1 W: Scott Lobdell P: RB Silva I: Rob Lean

And after that, a let-down. For starters, this is not Superboy as in Young Clark Kent. It's kind of Superboy as in Kon-El. But the fact I've mis-typed Superboy as Superbot several times is a bit of a giveaway - this is Superboy as in Astro Boy:

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6159/6161977871_66dd60c600_z.jpg

There's an awful lot of setup in this, and I'm not sure I followed it fully to be honest. I mean, what's this even about?

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6176/6162513812_6853c555a0_z.jpg

And there are words. Lots of words. Lots and lots of words. Neal Adams Batman levels of words. LOOK AT THEM!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6077/6162513732_489a5b6ec2_z.jpg

But then it all happens in the last page. Is this a hint towards Universe Punching? If so I'm up for it, if not I'm out.

Yes, Deadshot is Floyd Lawton. His mask is broken here, he has the full thing elsewhere in the book. He doesn't have a moustache because he isn't in his 60, Scandanavian or living in the 1970s.

In a stunning twist of fate, I have managed to last longer on the books than one of the creative teams - John Rozum has announced he's left Static Shock.

hah!

I think the obsolete moustache was a great part of his character... Even if he was occasionally portrayed sympathetically, you knew he was never gonna make a full turn into being a good guy, because he had such an obvious old-school Evil Moustache. So I would assume the lack of moustache means he's now gonna become a Usually Moral Anti-Hero instead of a Usually Amoral one.

(xx-post)

Also, in Secret Six Gail Simone made it clear that his fashion sense in general is a relic of the 1970s.

In a stunning twist of fate, I have managed to last longer on the books than one of the creative teams

Haven't several of them lost their artists before or during the first issues already? And Action #2 and #3 have both been solicited with fill-in artists doing substantial chunks of the pages.

you knew he was never gonna make a full turn into being a good guy, because he had such an obvious old-school Evil Moustache. So I would assume the lack of moustache means he's now gonna become a Usually Moral Anti-Hero instead of a Usually Amoral one.

^booming post

One of the funniest moments in Invincible (SPOILERS if you haven't read it) was related to that... The main bad guys in the series are this race of Evil Fascist Aliens who have conquered half the galaxy, and all of the men of that race sport a 70s style Evil Moustache. Now, the main opponent of Evil Empire is an interplanetary alliance lead by an old dude with a Gandalf beard. In a SHOCKING TWIST the old dude reveals to the good guys that he is actually a reformed member of the Evil Alien Race. How does he do that? By pulling of his fake beard, revealing that the only real facial hair he has is a 70s moustache.

i don't know why the world needs another punisher, but i guess the world didn't need lobo either and now here we are

http://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/9/98/Lobo_Paramilitary_Christmas_Special_1.jpg

oops i meanhttp://images.wikia.com/marvel_dc/images/9/98/Lobo_Paramilitary_Christmas_Special_1.jpg

Are you talking about Deadshot? He's not like The Punisher at all.

u know, i was actually thinking of deathstroke whose new incarnation is kinda punisher-esque. i haven't read the new Suicide Squad yet

Deadshot is older than the Punisher AFAIK, Deathstroke was always 'inspired' by him AAFAIK

Only one mustache allowed in this brave new universe.

is it wrong that I'm still giggling that someone thought Batwing was a good title for a comic book

It just means you go outside to do things other than go to a comic store, imo.

What is this outside you speak of?

I think it has something to do with where Superman flies, or jumps, or whatever it is he does now.

at first I thought you were talking about batwing, not outside

And now JT Krul is off Green Arrow and Keith Giffen is in. How is that supposed to help me shed titles after #3?

Action #4 has also been solicited with a fill-in artist, AND a back-up story by another writer and artist "spinning off from the events of #2!"

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/mazing12.jpg

So after a month where it looked like the ACTUALLY MIGHT HAVE PULLED THIS OFF, DC seem determined to fuck it all up. Where does the fault lie. DiDio?

If by "pulling this off" you mean "making the rebooted titles accessible to new readers", I don't think they ever pulled it off. Out of the titles I've read so far, only OMAC and possibly Action Comics haven't required the reader to know previous continuity in order to fully understand the plot.

Take Swamp Thing, for example: I mentioned above that I thought Alec Holland being alive again was some kind of a mystery that would be explained in later issues, but it turns out this was something that actually happened in Blackest Night, which I haven't read. So even you if are aware of Moore's classic Swamp Thing (like I was) in order to get the stuff that Holland is talking about troughout the issue, you still have to read a big superhero crossover to understand what happened to Holland and the previous Swamp Thing. Why can't superhero comics have those little "see Blackest Night #8 for more details - your helpful editor" boxes anymore?

No, by "pulling it off" I meant actually making money from publishing funnybooks which afaik they hadn't been for some time. And tbh only a small handful of the books have required you to know previous continuity - Batwing and Batman & Robin being the most obvious examples - and even then I suspect all it does is produces a different reading. I've shown them to someone who doesn't do the whole continuity thing and we've pretty much liked the same books (though sometimes for different reasons).

Suicide Squad has one of those little boxes, as does at least one other of this week's books (memory says it's Superman related?).

I get what you say about Alec Holland, but does it actually matter to a new reader? If you don't have the level of continuity that you already have in your brain, would you care what the answer is?

Well, let's assume I would be a totally new reader who's never read any Swamp Thing related comics. If I was, for me the plot of SW #1 would be something like this:

* There's a botanist named Alec Holland. He developed some super-growth plant serum, then died in an accident. While he was dead something unexplained happened, which is why he has some memories that don't belong to him. Then he was resurrected for unexplained reasons. He monnologues about weird things that are not explained, like "Swamp Thing" and "the Green".

* He meets Superman (presumably even this new reader knows who Superman is), who tells him that various forms of fauna are inexplicably dying in masses. Then they have an oblique discussion about some unexplained things that happened in the recent past.

* Creepy stuff happens in the desert. This is actually pretty cool!

* Holland has further monologues about unexplained things, and he keeps repeating he's not this "Swamp Thing".

* The issue ends with him meeting a monster made of plants. Maybe this is the "Swamp Thing"?

I'd say that the basic requirement for a successful issue #1 would be to establish the protagonist(s): who is he, what does he do, what drives him to do what do what he does? Unless you know the previous continuity, Swamp Thing #1 has none of that. More than half of the issue is about some mysterious guy mulling over past events that are not really explained at all.

Or, you know, you could explain that as a slow build.

Trying deconstructing OMAC in the same way, and see what that looks like.

Well yeah, I guess if all these mysterious past events are explained in later issues, then the title might get accessible to new readers. But since all these events have already happened in previous comics, I'm not sure if they ever bother to do that.

Trying deconstructing OMAC in the same way, and see what that looks like.

This is actually interesting, because I've never read any OMAC related comics before, so I was actually the "new reader" here, as I knew nothing about the characters involved. So, what I got out of it:

* There's a secret high-tech lab underneath a regular lab, and the secret lab is involved in some shady business.

* A superpowered creature named OMAC is sent to infiltrate it by his boss.

* The secret lab is ran by some villainous non-human character who sends his minions to fight OMAC.

* We find out that OMAC's boss wants to merge with a supersecret computer network inside the secret lab, and that he once inhabited this network. So presumably he's some kind of an AI who wants to get some data out of the network.

* OMAC beats the minions and manages to connect to the network, thus giving his boss access to it.

* OMAC exits the lab, and it turns out he's one of the workers of the regular lab, who's been changed without his knowledge into this creature by the AI.

* The AI is shown to be occupying a satellite in the sky, and he has some further plans.

So yeah, there still are some unexplained questions left (what exactly did the AI want from the network? what are its further plans for OMAC?), but there's definitely much more for the new reader to grasp than in ST #1.

don't think these mythical 'new readers' exist any more, or exist in this state of divine ignorance, or ever set foot in a comic bk store, or buy comics without first reading their relevant wiki entry or the comic book news sites, tbh

or ever set foot in a comic bk store,

hence day-and-date,in theory

but none of them are going to pay $3.99 for 24 .jpgs

Back when I was (much) younger, being (initially) confused was actually quite appealing for me as a first-time reader on a given title.

Great thread! I have to admit this marketing gimmick did the trick for me, I picked up three new comics for the first time in nearly a decade last night. Unfortunately it was only at a local bookstore, not a comic shop, so all they had was Justic League, Action Comics, and Swamp Thing.

Back when I was (much) younger, being (initially) confused was actually quite appealing for me as a first-time reader on a given title.

Me too, but at least back then comic books heavily positioned in continuity used to

A) provide you with some kind of synopsis of what has happened before,

and/or

B) tell you which previous issues the current events refer to.

Sadly, both of these practices seem to have fallen out of flavour, at least with Marvel and DC. I'm sure there are many other reasons for it, but I can't help but think this newbie-unfriendliness is one explanation why the readership for superhero comics has dwindled and why new readers aren't getting on board, despite superheroes themselves being more popular than in ages due to various movies and TV series.

Yeah my inner nerd always loved the astericked "- issue #52" notes at the bottom of panels.

Let’s do a rundown – I’m sure this is going to be incomplete, anyone who has more please add below.

Action Comics: #1 - OK, #2 - maybe OK? #3 - art fill-ins by Brent Anderson, #4 - art fill-ins by Gene Ha, back-up fill-ins by writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Matt Camp

Mr Terrific: #1 - Roger Robinson solicited, replaced by Gianluca Gugliotta. #2 - solicited as by Gianluca Gugliotta, TBC. #3 - solicited as Scott Clark and Dave Beaty. #4 – Gugliotta back, with fill-in inker added.

Static Shock: #2 - two-man inking team replaced. #3 - co-writer drops back to just pencilling. #5 - remaining writer quits.

Suicide Squad: #2 - artist Marco Rudy dropped, replaced by Federico Dallochio and Ransom Getty. THEN #1 released without Rudy, despite solicitation.

Green Arrow: #1 - inker replaced. #4 - horrible writer JT Krul dropped. Another writer offered book, turned it down. Didio tags regular shrugging sidekick Giffen to step in alongside penciller Dan Jurgens as co-writing team.

Swamp Thing: #3 - inker added. #4 - artist drops out altogether, inker takes over.

Demon Knights: #4 - fill-in artist added, also draws cover – sign of future takeover?

Green Lantern Corps: #3 - artist replaced. #4 - artist returns.

Voodoo: #3 - inker added.

Blackhawks: #2 - artist replaced with fill-in art team. #3 - art team replaced with still another new artist. New artist claims he turned down offer, and is still under exclusive contract to Marvel, so probably knows what he’s talking about. Fuck knows who’s actually going to draw it. #4 – fill-in artist from #2 returns, with new fill-in inker.

Batwing: #4 - artist replaced.

Stormwatch: #2 - fill-in artist added.

Men Of War: #2 - back-up fill-in added by Jonathan Vankin and Phil Winslade. #4 – back-up fill-in team replaced by B Clay Moore and Paul McAffrey.

All-Star Western: #2 - back-up fill-in by Jordi Bernet. #4 – dropped from Men Of War, Phil Winslade becomes fill-in artist over here.

Red Hood And The Outlaws: #2 - fill-in artist added.

Green Lantern New Guardians: #2 - inker replaced.

Animal Man: #2 - inker replaced.

Legion Secret Origin: #2 - inker replaced.

Detective Comics: #4 - inker replaced.

Blue Beetle: #4 – inker replaced.

Red Lanterns: #4 - fill-in artist added.

Grifter: #4 - new art team replace previous artist.

Nightwang: #4 – artist replaced. Writer considers leaving due to editorial difficulties. Writer staying for now, artist expecting to be back for #5 but who knows.

The Dark Knight: let’s include the pre-reboot run of this here, so we can see why Didio, Johns & Lee had such faith in this dude to be a strong monthly lynchpin of their new no-delays universe.

DAVID FINCH’S THE DARK KNIGHT #1: solicited for November 24th 2010. Published December 29th, after #2 was supposed to be out. By David Finch.

DAVID FINCH’S THE DARK KNIGHT #2: published 23rd March, four months after #1’s intended date. Finch replaced on inks by Scott Williams. Finch replaced on colours by some dude. Script had not been written when #1 was due to print.

DAVID FINCH’S THE DARK KNIGHT #3: was not solicited to appear two months after #1. Published 13th July, SEVEN months after #1. Finch failed to ink or colour the issue in this time, a second fill-in inker has been added, and a second fill-in colourist has been added.

DAVID FINCH’S THE DARK KNIGHT #4: Published July 27th, just two weeks after #3. Unsurprisingly, Finch has failed to draw or colour any of this issue. It has a new fill-in penciller, two new fill-in inkers, and two new fill-in colourists.
I repeat, on just the fourth issue of a book ENTIRELY CREATED for one author to write and draw monthly, no issues have come out on time, the entire thing is five months late, and it is taking NINE extra people to manage to get two issues done in a timeframe faster than four months.

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.

Note that he is not actually a professional writer, and has given several interviews saying he knows that's the weakest part of the book, and he's finding it really hard.

So! With this standard set, and his title rebooted after five issues, only one of which he completed himself, and none on time, he was given the exact same job again. Solicitations say...

The Dark Knight: (redux)
#1 - he’s getting it done OK, but with an inker. Fair enough, learnt his lesson, let’s assume that’s the new model. No word on colours, so let’s assume he’s given up that as well.
#2 – uh. He’s added an inker for the cover, had to call back the fill-in penciller from the last two, and added Paul Jenkins as co- writer.
#3 – Finch has dropped out of writing altogether, with Jenkins now a fill-in writer, and the fill-in penciller retained.
#4 – solicited with Finch back as co-writer, and as sole penciller. Let’s see what actually comes out!