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DC Rebirth |OT| It's not a reboot, and it always was [SPOILERS for Rebirth #1]

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S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
I can't believe I managed to read most of my books on their day of release, that's a first for me! I only have Green Lantern Corps left but I'll read that tomorrow. I'm doing my best not to fall too far behind, I'm still desperately trying to finish Snyder's Batman run, I'm at issue 39.

I decided to give a shot to all the new Rebirth series but since I don't have the time or money to buy everything DC puts out every week, I'll be dropping books after an issue or two if they don't deliver for me. I usually buy 4 or 5 issues a week (all publishers) and I'd like to keep it that way once Rebirth is done so I will have to be severe!

Aquaman Rebirth : Very good read, I feel bad that they need to adress the Aquaman jokes every time there's a reboot / relaunch but I thought Abnett did a great job, I have the utmost confidence in him as a writer, I'm sure he'll come up with some fun stories. I liked the build-up to
Black Manta
, I always liked him as a villain. The art was nothing special, I understand why DC doesn't put their best artists on Aquaman but I wish we could have gotten someone like Ivan Reis again.
I'll read the series.

Action Comics #957 : I was never a Dan Jurgens fan but I did like his run on Thor back in the day as well as the Return of Superman storyline (it hasn't aged well but I have a soft spot for it) but since he came back to Superman with Lois and Clark he has really impressed me. Superman making a public appearance happened a bit quickly considering the previous series but the set-up was well done and I'm curious as to how things are going to shake out with Lex Luthor. Great artwork by Zircher. I was never a fan of his but he has either improved a lot or he makes a great team with this inker.
I'll keep reading.

Detective Comics #934 : Gorgeous artwork by Eddy Barrows. Tynion did a solid job but I always get bored by his stories halfway through (I liked the Eternal series at first but didn't finish either of them) so I can already see myself not caring much about this in a few months. The mystery is intriguing but while I like the Bat-family I prefer when it's not too crowded which is not the case here. And while I am very happy to see Cassandra Cain again, her costume is terrible and "Orphan" ? What a shitty name for such a cool character.
Not bad but I'm dropping it. With the main Batman title and All-Star Batman, I will have more than enough.

The Flash Rebirth : Not much to say on this, I'm glad this is the book where the main story thread from the Rebirth one-shot continues. I like the idea of Flash and Batman teaming-up outside of the League to solve this insane reality-altering mystery.
I look forward to the series.

Wonder Woman Rebirth : Oh boy, this was rough. That's really not a great jumping-on point for new readers. Just 20 pages of Diana being confused about her past. Not particularly intriguing and just a bunch of continuity-fixing bullshit. I am currently re-reading Rucka's original WW run which is fantastic and because of that I will read the first arc but this was not a good first impression.
Would skip if not for Rucka.
 
S

Sou Da

Member
Lashley said:
Woah, Action Comics was really good.
Click to expand...

I loved it but I can see the the setup from a mile away.

Supes still thinks Lex is evil because of prejudice
Lex gains his trust by saving him from Doomsday
LITTLE DOES SUPERMAN KNOW THAT LEX HIRED THOSE GOONS TO MAKE HIM LOOK GOOD/ MADE DOOMSDAY
 
T

tim1138

Member
I think Wonder Woman was the least new reader friendly of all the Rebirth books, it plays very heavily off the knowledge of how inconsistent Diana's history has been portrayed over the years. Even just pitting the New 52 version vs the classic Perez post crisis version could be off putting for someone not in the know. That said I enjoyed it quite a bit, Rucka is clearly playing the long game and I have full faith he will deliver.

And now it's time for my Rebirth power rankings:

Flash
(tie) Wonder Woman
(tie) Tec
Action
Aquaman

Flash shoots to the top just by being a good Flash comic for the first time in literally years. My Wonder Woman thoughts are above. I really like the premise and cast for Tec, it's great to see Kate again. I liked Action much more than Superman, Jurgens told a nice story and that was probably the best work of Zircher's career. Aquaman had an interesting premise with the story, but felt a lot like a rehash of Johns first issue and didn't have the best art.
 
R

ReiGun

Member
Sibersk Esto said:
I don't think anyone really has a concrete idea of what Wonder Woman is supposed to be anymore.
Click to expand...

So much so that the Rebirth issue directly addresses that. It's not that no one has a concrete idea of what WW is supposed to be anymore; it's not no one has had any real idea of what she's supposed to be since Marston left the book 70 years ago. Rucka is starting off basically saying it's gotten so ridiculous Diana herself has no idea who she is supposed to be.

Wonder Woman is unique among the superhero A List in that everyone has been allowed to just kind of do whatever they want upon taking over the book. It's simultaneously frustrating and kind of fascinating. Frustrating because there's no one narrative through line or set of "standards" for writers to build and expand on; everyone just uses what they want, or make up their own, and fuck the rest. But it's fascinating because you have all these creators trying to make their statement on who this character is and what the themes that surround her (or they think surround her) mean. So in some ways, Wonder Woman is the character that reveals the most about the people working on her. Or at least I think so.
 
T

tim1138

Member
My ranking for the first month's batch of Rebirth books:

Green Arrow
Flash
Detective Comics
Wonder Woman
Green Lanterns
Action Comics
Superman
Batman
Aquaman

Basically the books I thought I would like based the announcements were the ones I ended up enjoying the most. If I were to recommend books to someone wanting to get into DC for the first time I'd go with Green Arrow, Flash, Action, Detective, and Green Lanterns.
 
F

flaxknuckles

Member
From what I'm hearing I should save my money especially since I'm not the slightest bit interested in reading a Wonder Woman comic. I'm still pulling Aquaman though because Dan Abnett's issues have been great so far. I'll check out Flash and Detective in trades.
 
J

jph139

Member
Felt kinda meh about Wonder Woman. I was only the fence about getting into it having never really been a fan, and I think this pushed me over into "wait until the trades pending word of mouth" territory.

Really loved Action Comics, though. I don't really have much experience with this Luthor, which I like - he reads as really ambiguous to me, and I'm hoping they stick with that. I like the whole "Lex would save the world if not for Superman" idea and I'm hoping they push in that direction rather than the tired "he was actually evil the whole time" ending.
 
S

Sou Da

Member
Lashley said:
She was? Seemed normal to me.
Click to expand...

Making her a "better hacker than Tim" (nice show don't tell btw, Tynion) is a really bad, dull move. She wasn't especially technologically bright pre-nu52 and this feels like a "I don't know what to do with this young character" trait.
 
E

Effect

Member
pock3tmonster said:
I haven't read Action Comics yet, but is there continuity between Action Comics and Superman?
Click to expand...

Yeah. Action Comics is pretty much a direct sequel to Superman: Rebirth #1. Going by the description of the first two issues of the Superman title it takes place after the current Action Comics arc but looks like that book is going to focus more on Superman, Lois, and Jon. More so Jon as the new Superboy. Action looks like it's going to be focusing on everyone and be the "main" title. Like said it doesn't seem like like you're going back and forth between the titles for a single story. Not yet anyway.
 
A

aly

Member
Sou Da said:
Making her a "better hacker than Tim" (nice show don't tell btw, Tynion) is a really bad, dull move. She wasn't especially technologically bright pre-nu52 and this feels like a "I don't know what to do with this young character" trait.
Click to expand...

Tynion has a strange hard on for hackers. Only Babs should be any threat to Tim, but both Harper and Steph have threatened his tech.
 
P

Poodlestrike

Banned
This is Tim -10 years, remember? Harper being on his level totally works, tech's just about all she's got. Steph is less worky, but maybe it's just a joke.
 
TTOOLL

TTOOLL

Member
Just read Action Comics and
old Superman got rid of the beard, which is a shame but it had to happen, right? In the end some other Clark Kent showed up and I didn't understand it at all.

Flash was awesome and Aquaman was only ok, I'll keep reading it for a while.
 
Z

Zubz

Banned
Between the comics being cheaper, having more time to read, and more availability for comics, I think I'm going to pick DC back up after not having bought anything for a couple of months. I got Rebirth, and although it was already going for $6, I loved it. I really want to see where they go with the twist at the end, but I know that's probably going to take awhile.

I picked up Superman while I was out, too, but I still need to get any of the others. I'm with everyone else in wanting a DC Unlimited; I love supporting my local comic stores, but they're all a bit of a drive to get to. A web service would be ridiculously convenient for me.
 
P

Poodlestrike

Banned
Zubz said:
Between the comics being cheaper, having more time to read, and more availability for comics, I think I'm going to pick DC back up after not having bought anything for a couple of months. I got Rebirth, and although it was already going for $6, I loved it. I really want to see where they go with the twist at the end, but I know that's probably going to take awhile.

I picked up Superman while I was out, too, but I still need to get any of the others. I'm with everyone else in wanting a DC Unlimited; I love supporting my local comic stores, but they're all a bit of a drive to get to. A web service would be ridiculously convenient for me.
Click to expand...

Well, if you're just looking to buy 'em digitally, you could check out comixology.com.
 
E

Elaugaufein

Member
Also what's up with Dianna's lasso ? It seems like it can determine objective truth (rather than the truth as the subject knows it). That makes it incredibly powerful (like you can ask a random guy off the street the meaning Life or for the Anti-Life Equation). Or is the idea that Dianna does know her own history but it's hidden from her so the lasso is overcoming that deceit ?

Poodlestrike said:
This is Tim -10 years, remember? Harper being on his level totally works, tech's just about all she's got. Steph is less worky, but maybe it's just a joke.
Click to expand...

Its more like -5. Tim -10 would be like 8 even taking the oldest he was written pre-Flashpoint into account. It can't even be -10 in experience since he had 7 years tops (including the year be spent training). I mean , it may be that she's good enough to lock him out but not keep him out for long or it may be that they are moving Tim to a more physically inclined inventor role (they seen to move moving him back to best analytic). Since he mainly appeared in Teen Titans his relative proficiency is hard to determine since he just operated as Bat (ie Strategist, Tactician and good at Martial Arts , Deduction, Tech and Stealth) relative to metahumans their differences smooth out alot since it's just better than anyone without a power and worse than anyone with one in each area.

It does kinda make sense Steph is actually pretty good with hacking given that she's spent a chunk of time around Harper and Babs now. Seems like Steph's mother is a genius now too ? And I guess Cluemaster was a less terrible parent too.

Eh, we'll see how things settle out. It totally makes sense for everyone to have some kind of role they excel at (its amusing that Batman's is usually 2nd or 3rd at all the things).

Poodlestrike said:
Yeah, but Batwoman has always been kinda weird with the name. Ditto Spiderwoman, come to think of it.
Click to expand...

Yeah,I mean they did spend a lot of time ham handedly arguing about Batman's (lack of) ownership of the Bat. And they took advantage of OYL to have a setup that made sense : she took up the mantle to protect Gotham while Batman was away and given the reputation of the symbol that makes legit sense.
 
Z

Zubz

Banned
Poodlestrike said:
Well, if you're just looking to buy 'em digitally, you could check out comixology.com.
Click to expand...

That's probably what I'm going to end up doing, but I might just end up going back out and getting some more #1's, since I already have Rebirth and Superman #1. I definitely need to read Green Arrow, though, and if Teen Titans is going to build off of Wally looking for whoever messed with the timeline, I'm definitely going to want to stick with that one, even if the pay-off will take awhile.
 
E

Elaugaufein

Member
Lashley said:
She was? Seemed normal to me.
Click to expand...

Sou Da said:
Making her a "better hacker than Tim" (nice show don't tell btw, Tynion) is a really bad, dull move. She wasn't especially technologically bright pre-nu52 and this feels like a "I don't know what to do with this young character" trait.
Click to expand...

She wasn't especially much of anything pre-Nu52 beyond determined since she was like Robin's sidekick in her earliest appearances and Batman went back and forth on whether she was good enough to train / allow to operate (usually no). She was pretty good by normal standards but probably worse than most of the Gotham cast at pretty much everything (and definitely worse at anything they excelled at). It does kind of make sense to give her something to excel at , given that she's (metafictionally) been Batgirl at this stage but a lot of roles are taken (and you can't really do most determined very well since the willpower thing is a minimum requirement to operate in a city with Scarecrow and Poison Ivy).

Also pretty much DCs entire Batman output at this stage is fanfiction. Hell, I'd bet money that at least some of the authors have written fanfiction for titles they've worked on.
 
S

Slime

Banned
I'm surprised by how well they managed Batwoman in Detective Comics. I've always worried that forcing her into a larger "Bat-family" dynamic would cheapen her character, but frankly I felt the writer did her more justice in this one book than Andreyko did in his entire run.

Looking forward to see where this goes. Never hurts to see more of Robin and Spoiler, either! Loved them in Chuck Dixon's Robin run back in the day.
 
C

Chiaroscuro

Member
Tragicomedy said:
Action Comics #957 - ★★★★ - Luthorman! Lois tried to teach her son not to use his powers to take the easy way out in life, only for Clark
to bounce laser beams off a mirror to...shave?!? Superman is a lazy mofo! How don't those just melt the freaking mirror?
.
Click to expand...

To be fair,
I don't think normal razors could cut kryptonian beards. It has been that way since Byrne's run, it is a running thing that Clarke uses his heat vision to shave, it was explained that the mirror was a piece from his ship, that is why it does not melt. Another piece of nostalgia Rebirth shows for old readers.
And why we are spoiling this thing? 😄
 
M

McBryBry

Member
So a question about the Flash. I'm assuming The Flash comics are going to be about Barry, whereas Wally will be focused on in Titans? This is my first time attempting to actually keep up with characters in comics. I like both speedsters based on reading other stuff, but I'm afraid Wally (who I like more) isn't going to get the attention he deserves in a team book vs his own.

Obviously we won't know until we can actually read Titans. But are these the only two titles we know of that have focus on these two? I know the new Teen Titans has 52 Wally but I don't care for that.
 
E

Elaugaufein

Member
McBryBry said:
So a question about the Flash. I'm assuming The Flash comics are going to be about Barry, whereas Wally will be focused on in Titans? This is my first time attempting to actually keep up with characters in comics. I like both speedsters based on reading other stuff, but I'm afraid Wally (who I like more) isn't going to get the attention he deserves in a team book vs his own.

Obviously we won't know until we can actually read Titans. But are these the only two titles we know of that have focus on these two? I know the new Teen Titans has 52 Wally but I don't care for that.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think Titans is going to be pretty cluttered given it seems to have like 11 members at the moment. On the other hand Titans is unlikely to get cancelled after a single year either. Some of the more popular characters might get their own book too but they probably won't last particularly long. It's pretty hard to keep a spin-off going unless you have a Bat or an S on your chest.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Wally turns up in Flash from time to time since it seems like they've only got one book.
 
S

Sgt. Kabukiman

Banned
McBryBry said:
So a question about the Flash. I'm assuming The Flash comics are going to be about Barry, whereas Wally will be focused on in Titans? This is my first time attempting to actually keep up with characters in comics. I like both speedsters based on reading other stuff, but I'm afraid Wally (who I like more) isn't going to get the attention he deserves in a team book vs his own.

Obviously we won't know until we can actually read Titans. But are these the only two titles we know of that have focus on these two? I know the new Teen Titans has 52 Wally but I don't care for that.
Click to expand...

The Flash Rebirth book that came out yesterday was definitely focused on Barry and I assume the main Flash book will continue that story with Wally popping up from time to time. The entire mystery regarding the creation of the New 52 and the disappearance of Wally is going to be a big focus of Flash so it looks really interesting. Wally will be featured in Titans but who knows, he might end up getting his own book down the line.

You might have read it already but if you like Wally, you should try The Flash vol 2 (from the late 80s to 2009), specifically the Mark Waid and Geoff Johns runs. Some incredible stories there. There's a recent collection of the Johns issues and it's a great read.
 
R

RepairmanJack

Member
Was a toss up between WW and Action Comics for me this week. I really like the premise and set up in Detective comics but really didn't like the set up at the end. Let's get Batwoman she has the military background just as they're going up against an army. Eh.

Flash felt too much like a rehash and Aquaman was just ok.

How about that theme of the heroes being "Watched"??? Thought that was a little too forced this week.
 
K

kmfdmpig

Member
Read them all yesterday.
Aquaman Rebirth : I liked this one a lot. The writing was enjoyable, it was a good starting point for people new to the character, and it had enough going for it that I wanted to read more. The art was OK, but not spectacular.

Detective Comics #934 : I thought this one was cool. It had an interesting premise and really stuck to that premise closely, which sets up the arc well. The group of characters are interesting, and I look forward to reading more. I liked the art quite a bit.

Action Comics #957 : I liked this one a bit. I'll keep reading for a few issues, but will likely drop it if it doesn't improve.

The Flash Rebirth : This one was a mixed bag for me. I hated the art, but thought the writing was OK. I'll give the normal series a shot, but probably won't stick along for long unless it improves.

Wonder Woman Rebirth :Yikes. I typically love Rucka, but the writing was an absolute mess. I know what he was going for, but it did not work at all. The art was great, however, so that helped. I have faith that Rucka can turn things around, but for his first notable DC work in years this was a real swing and a miss for me.

Overall, I'm impressed with Rebirth and think that DC is in a better place than it has been for several years.
 
K

KoruptData

Member
Finally read all the books from yesterday and they rank from a pure story telling perspective because some of these books didn't even have the regular artist.

The Flash
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
Detective
Action

And all the books

Green Arrow 10/10
The Flash
Wonder Woman
Green Lanterns
Aquaman
Batman
Detective
Action
Superman 7/10
 
D

Doctoglethorpe

Member
Man, the two series Im looking forward to most, Batman and Wonder Woman, both had probably the worst Rebirth shots. The writing wasnt bad they were just both kinda confusing and didnt go anywhere, didnt seem like good intros at all. Meanwhile the book I was least interested in, Green Arrow, a character ive never given a single shit about, came out to be my favorite one shot by far. Assuming the dichotomy between him and Canary continues to be a focal point of the series, I will definitely keep picking them up. Dunno if Id keep caring if it turns back to a solo book though, probably not.

I somehow forgot to pick up Flash Rebirth yesterday, its the only one I havent read yet. I normally dont care for Flash much more than Green Arrow previously, but it sounds like I need to pick it up. Especially if Batman plays a role.
 
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