Remake/Remodel: DC Rebirth so you don't have to

At the risk of getting too far off-topic, here’s some prime Shooter greatness:

http://legionofsuperbloggers.blogspot.com/2019/03/tos-adventure-comics-380.html

Based on Superman being fun and interesting for the first time in years, I wouldn’t mind Bendis doing the Legion.

I would (will?!) definitely check it out... my fear is book-length scenes of characters sitting around arguing in Legion HQ.

Last week was the most bonkers in DC recently. SPOILERS OBVIOUSLY.

Batman's drugged wet dream about Selina's hen party with Lois featuring robot Superman strippers, an orgasmatron, lesbian experimentation and DRINKING PARTS OF ACTUAL MOGO FOR SHITS 'N' GIGGLES was ... good?

The Trickster solving the problem of how to stop the Flash from running by AMPUTATING HIS LEGS was... something else.

I'm afraid to ask what "MOGO" is(?)

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Mogo

Thx

Make Oa Great Okay?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6BAzlZUUAAWRHn.jpg
Poor Sam Kieth! Just ring him, Batman!

LOL (also, wtf with that art?)

Batz needs a hug

(also, wtf with that art?)

is this your first encounter with Kieth post-1991?

LOL otm

Yes it is!

solomon grundy beats up ed mcmahon, with laugh track
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzTgwV4i-0M

I didn't know where else to post this, so I'll post it here. My wife just asked if there's ever been a female Joker, and I remembered the one from Flashpoint, and vaguely recalled there was a pre-Crisis character called the Joker's Daughter... So I went to to look for info on the Joker's Daughter in the DC wiki, and found her page. So, she's called Joker's Daughter, event though she's not the Joker's daughter, rather than the daughter of Three-Face (not to be confused with Two-Face) and Jokester (not to be confused with Joker). And apparently the new 52 introduced a new Joker's Daughter, who's not related to the old Joker's Daughter, nor to the Joker.

No wonder so many people find superhero comics incomprehensible.

DC is basically an eighty-year-long episode of Who's Line is it Anyway?

It is later revealed that Earth-3's heroic version of the Joker, the Jokester, is the father of Duela Dent, and that her mother was Evelyn Dent, Three-Face (the Earth-3 version of Two-Face). She was raised by Three-Face and her stepfather, the Earth-3 Riddler, and together the three formed the Riddler Family. When she was finally introduced to her birth father, she dropped cryptic hints implying that she or her consciousness shifts unknowingly from Earth to Earth, which is the source of her parental confusion.

Confusion, you say?

Btw - isn’t Harley Quinn (not to be confused with Harlequin, the later alias of Joker’s Daughter I) more or less a “female Joker,” in all but name?

Yeah, she mentioned Harley Quinn, I was just trying to think if other examples.

https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Bianca_Steeplechase_(Earth-37)

Earth-"8008"

she mentioned Harley Quinn

The Joker isn't a lesbian living in Coney Island with a zombie stuffed beaver and Glenn Danzig, and with a literal shit cannon on the roof to fire excrement at hipsters trying to gentrify surrounding boroughs.

Anyway, this seems as good a place as any to announce my imminent retiral from reading superhero comics. There are just too many bad ones out there, it's removed all the joy from even the good ones.

The problem with this is I was going to wait until the last issue of Doomsday Cock but who knows, with the publication delays on that it could mean a couple of years yet.

seems a shame to treat Copra like that just because of how DC and Marvel treated you for the last two decades

i think aldo's earned it

Man, DC is just tearing it up lately (where 'it' is the projection of anything resembling competence): https://deadline.com/2019/06/swamp-thing-canceled-dc-universe-1-season-1202628103/

So I hope you enjoyed Doom Patrol while it lasted, is my takeaway here.

Note: this was cancelled after one episode.

They got a tax credit of 48%ish on the first episode, realised after another nine that they were only getting 14% on the rest, hence suddenly stopping at #10 of 13.

Should have stopped at 9 in honour of The Great Ten

so apparently they dropped $85 million on nine weeks of this TV series, on an exclusive streaming service that nobody is subscribed to

imagine how many decades you could run an entire comics company on $85 million

that's literally seven Tundras

https://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/6/67663/2831704-202.jpg

seven six

I suspect the truth behind how much DC were willing to spend is a whole lot more complicated and is probably underwritten by WB to a degree with the ultimate aim of rolling DC direct into the WB streaming service, probably as a paid add-on. But, as you say, the numbers make no sense for DC as a business to keep sinking in - especially without the promised tax break - and when The CW, Fox and Netflix are providing nice income through syndication of their brand.

Rather than Tundra, although it's a great example, we probably need to look at how much it costs to run the soon-to-be-gone Vertigo imprint which I'll bet is an amazingly large figure.

This is a real shame and a missed opportunity though because ep 1 of ST was excellent, Doom Patrol was great fun all the way and Titans, although never shining too brightly, was solid genre television. It'll be interesting to see what happens to S2 production on that which has started - I think that's a better indicator of DP S2.

I get the distinct impression that DC/WB atm is split pretty evenly between people making bafflingly-quixotic creative decisions and accountants nickel and diming every one of those decisions (but only after they've already been underway for a number of weeks/months).

i'm definitely in favor of the former! since WB has more money than god, let's seem them waste more money on creators

My 'favorite' DC trend of late is the thing where they solicit a variety of upcoming collections (usually ones that are part of an ongoing reprint series) and then for weeks afterwards are all 'oh, whoops, except not that one...orrrrrr that one...or those...'. It gives one the impression of a steady hand firmly grasping the wheel.

LOOOOOL, speaking of which, they've just cancelled orders on the collection of Johns's run on Stargirl that was on the way. You know, the character who has her own DC Universe show coming soon.

I genuinely cannot recall the last time I witnessed a company so hellbent on faceplanting at every possible opportunity and in such a wide variety of ways.

Jimmy Olson was good!

It’s by fraction, but the good fraction

I guess since this is the thread where it's been most discussed, I should mention that I'm about halfway through Doom Patrol and, while it isn't quite the mainline of Morrison I might have preferred, it comes surprisingly close and I kind of adore it on its own terms (and, while I watch all the CW Berlantiverse shows, I'm relieved that this isn't that). And also who would have ever dreamed that there'd ever be a Doom Patrol show at all let alone a good one, so I'm just thankful.

It's been officially renewed for a second season, btw, for those who didn't know. Still pretty much expecting WB to change their mind and shut them down once they have half the episodes in the can, but let's dream together of what could be.

yeah, it’s good! we talk about it over in the flash tv show thread

Just read the first four volumes of the Rucka/Sharp Wonder Woman Rebirth run. I liked his '00s run, so gave this
a shot. Not bad for being yet another Wondy timeline revamp, but I hate that in the collections they re-ordered it so that the weaving storylines were separated into their own volumes, unlike the way it was published (and clearly meant to be read). For instance, Vol 1 is issues 1,3,5,7,9,11; vol 2 is 2,4,6,8,10,12, etc. Makes it actually more of a headache to follow.

I know this is probably a dumb question — but did DC “plan in advance” all the continuity twists & turns of New 52, Convergence, Rebirth, Superman Reborn, etc.? Or have they just been making it up as they go along, year by year?

It depends which things you mean. I do believe that New 52 was one attempt and they stuck to it for several years, even though it was semi-botched from the beginning regarding Batman and probably some other titles.

I forgot how Flashpoint/Convergence/Rebirth connect exactly but I do think they were planned to lead into each other as the "soft" reboot of New 52 (again with some exceptions, like Kid Flash returning, Superman + Son, etc.)

There's definitely... a lot of stumbling around. I mean, Doomsday Clock especially, when that ends I have no idea if that's still going to be in continuinity considering how much has happened since it started (and The Button, and Heroes in Crisis, and Year of the Villain, etc.)

Do you think New 52 Superman was always planned to be killed off eventually, and post-Crisis Supes reintroduced (followed by the revelation that Superman had been mysteriously “split in two,” or whatever)?

I don't believe so! The returning of the John Byrne-era Superman kinda stinks of a failed experiment. Especially since all the changes were supposed to make him more relatable to younger audiences (new costume, less power, tragically orphaned at a young age, single again, etc. it's alluded to in Doomsday Clock even).

That said, the Superman and Jon Kent stories have been a huge breath of fresh air for the character, so I think they made the right move. And knowing DC they will bring back New 52 Superman for some stupid Crisis event, I'm sure.

Thanks, that’s what I figured, but didn’t want to assume (I’ve mainly been reading summaries, not the source material).

I'm pretty sure none of this was planned in advance, even Convergence leading into Rebirth, or triangle Superman returning as real Superman

I think it's just a mixture of happy accidents and post-failure reverse-ferrets. And of course many of the current DC titles still stink, so maybe not that much has changed

It feels like Bendis is just getting to the point where he tries to do too much at once and blows it, as per his usual three-year Marvel cycle