I really have know idea what DC see's in Bryan Hitch to lead a flagship title like Justice League. I don't even remember people raving about his JLA run. When they have someone like Jeff Parker, Tom Taylor, or even someone new. It's just a weird move all around.
Anyone else excited for Suicide Squad Rebirth next month? Rob Williams + Jim Lee + Philip Tan is just a cheat code man. Rob's Martian Manhunter was my favorite DCYOU series and the best thing MM's been in for a while.
Anyone else excited for Suicide Squad Rebirth next month? Rob Williams + Jim Lee + Philip Tan is just a cheat code man. Rob's Martian Manhunter was my favorite DCYOU series and the best thing MM's been in for a while.
I really have know idea what DC see's in Bryan Hitch to lead a flagship title like Justice League. I don't even remember people raving about his JLA run. When they have someone like Jeff Parker, Tom Taylor, or even someone new. It's just a weird move all around.
Read The Authority and Ultimates again. The guy codified the contemporary look of big modern superhero comics. He defined the current era in a way extremely few people did. (To situate, he's on a level with John Romita, Jim Lee, and I'm forgetting some, but, not a whole lot)
He's a bad writer, and since most of what he did as an artist has been appropriated and iterated on by others, he doesn't impress as much there either, but Hitch is still A Name, and, in fact, a name that sells comics. DC giving him pretty much free reign to do as he pleases with the Justice League comes from that.
Read The Authority and Ultimates again. The guy codified the contemporary look of big modern superhero comics. He defined the current era in a way extremely few people did. (To situate, he's on a level with John Romita, Jim Lee, and I'm forgetting some, but, not a whole lot)
He's a bad writer, and since most of what he did as an artist has been appropriated and iterated on by others, he doesn't impress as much there either, but Hitch is still A Name, and, in fact, a name that sells comics. DC giving him pretty much free reign to do as he pleases with the Justice League comes from that.
Influential he may very well be, but that doesn't make him good, necessarily. Liefeld codified a lot of shit for a while there too.
(Now, obviously, Hitch is better than Liefeld, but still.)
It's weird, I've actually really enjoyed his JLA run, which made JL Rebirth being such a bummer kind of extra disappointing? Maybe it's just a lone poorly constructed issue, like the Batman one.
I wanted to begin by asking the question of alignment. Do you see Deathstroke as a hero, villain or anti-hero?
He’s a villain. He is unquestionably a villain. He’s Darth Vader. He is a bad guy.
So how do you approach a story where you’re asking readers to cheer for the villain?
I think to adopt Deathstroke’s attitude, it’s the readers’ problem to work out. [laughs]
If you look at the film Collateral with Tom Cruise. Half of the audience is rooting for the assassin character and half of the audience is rooting for Jamie Foxx’s character, but at the end of the day, the Cruise character, no matter how much you want to like him, he’s a bad guy. He runs around and kills people. So my approach to Deathstroke is he’s a hired killer. He’s an assassin. He’s a bad guy, and he’s the world’s worst bad.
I think Slade is ultimately amoral and a sociopath. I think he struggles with relationships and so forth, but he’s addicted to the action. He’s addicted to the run and gun and the challenge of different things.
Can you tell us a bit about your story? Where is Slade Wilson when we first look in on him?
He is in what we consider his status quo. He’s gone off to assassinate someone, and there are complications along the way. But basically, what we’re dealing with for the first half a year of the series is a sort of rebuilding process. We’re redefining Deathstroke himself and reintroducing his supporting cast, who have been systematically shot, stabbed and thrown off rooftops over the years. Over the years, just about everybody in his circle of family and friends have been wiped out for one reason or another
The Rebirth issue is mainly Slade’s book, and then in issue #1, we bring Wintergreen back into the fold. But those issues are basically one story told in two parts. They’re sort of our series pilot, if you want to look at it in that way.
It sounds like we’re dialing back some of the more mythological elements we’ve seen in Deathstroke over the past few years in favor of something a little more straightforward. Would you say that’s correct?
Yes, we’re scaling back his world and trying to make Deathstroke more or less like the evil version of Batman. Like what if he had become corrupt at one point?
The Deathstroke I remember was the George Perez and Marv Wolfman character. That was what my reference was.
Yes, I think I agree with this. A villain but the amoral killer with his own weird code rather than the outright supervillain he was from Infinite Crisis on. ie Not a nice person and self interested but not the type who wants to take over the world (though he'll work for someone who does).
Yes, I think I agree with this. A villain but the amoral killer with his own weird code rather than the outright supervillain he was from Infinite Crisis on. ie Not a nice person and self interested but not the type who wants to take over the world (though he'll work for someone who does).
Yes please. Young Justice was so great. I'd love something like that in comic form that perfectly blends character development/interaction with long overarching stories,
I thought New Superman was great. I had one problem
I hope it's not as easy as it seems to give someone Superman's powers. What would stop the group from making a ton more? Will have to see how it plays out.
It depends on how much ties into the Last Days of Superman.
If it was the blood taken from Supes that was used it's probably not that easy. It took him being really weak and dying and a group of ancient Chinese god monsters to get a scratch of blood.
Hmm. Batgirl / BoP Rebirth is weird. Its got nothing to do with Batgirl which ships next week since it's set AFTER the first arc but it leads straight into BoP1 which isn't out for a month.
Batman 3 is interesting but it's just jarring how
the Gothams suddenly become much more open and less mysterious
once Batman
works out who they are.
. Also I still remain mystified that Amanda Waller thinks any part of this plan she's involved in is a good idea. I'm pretty sure this has been tried before as a Scarecrow story so it's literally a supervillain plot (
also emotion manipulation is hardly a new thing to Gotham see Scarecrow , Ivy , Joker , Mad Hatter, Professor Pyg etc
)
Justice League 1 is actually weak. Too much setup , nowhere near enough payoff. First Rebirth title I got the Rebirth + 1 of and am seriously considering not subbing. That's kinda terrible for Justice League considering its usually got a bunch of big drawers and is often used to promote new characters and Events.
- Justice League #1 was pretty good, better than the Rebirth issue. Not sure how I feel about Hitch as a writer yet but his previous series had its moments and I like his take on the League so far but some characters' monologues were a bit strange. I used to strongly dislike Tony Daniel in the 90s but his style has improved significantly, he'll never be my favorite artist but I like what he's doing here. 3/5
- Batgirl and the Birds of Prey - Rebirth : the art was uneven but okay and the story is a decent starting point. But every time they reference Oracle I am reminded of how they wasted Barbara's potential when they made her Batgirl again. It has no relevance to the quality of this issue but I can't stop thinking about it, Oracle was one of my favorite characters in the DCU. 2.5/5
- Batman #3 : the first issue of this run that I really loved. The backstory of the Gothams is great and so is Batman's method of discovering it. That cliffhanger was very intriguing, I always found THAT character to be extremely creepy but never expected him to show up in a Batman book. 4/5
- Green Lanterns #3 : Terrible story and terrible art. Not much more to say there and I will not pick up future issues until a change of writer. Both Simon and Jessica have the potential to be great characters but DC is really dropping the ball with how they're handling the GL part of the universe. A decade ago it was the hottest thing in comics and now... 1/5
Still have to read Superman, Hellblazer and Green Arrow.
Edit :
Damn, Superman was really good but I hope
Krypto isn't actually dead
or DC will have broken my heart once more! Gleason and Tomasi are such a great team and the new artist did a fantastic job, he's a great complement to Gleason. I don't know if this is a mandate from DC or just a result of the double shipping but like many other titles, the story feels very decompressed but this is still one of my favorite books from Rebirth. It started pretty good and it's getting better with every issue. I was also very happy to see
the Eradicator
back for some reason. It's not that he's actually a great character but having started to read comics in the 90s, the nostalgia is strong. 4.5/5
There were a couple of things in Superman #3 that were a bit confusing:
1. Why was he acting like Eradicator's never been an ally before?
2. Was that supposed to be Nu52 Krypto because he looked like pre Flashpoint Krypto & didn't seem to react to his master suddenly being back.
Batgirl and the Birds of Prey: Rebirth #1 - ★★ - I know very little about Batgirl and the Huntress. Black Canary is a fun character who I've always enjoyed when paired with Green Arrow. I gave this book a shot to see if I'd enjoy the team dynamic here, and maybe find a new series I'd enjoy going forward. The book isn't terrible, but it failed to get me excited about Batgirl's solo book or the team book. At least I got to read the word "derrière" in a comic today. That has to count for something.
Batman #3 - ★★★ - Another perfectly adequate comic from the CIA's top dog assassin. It's Batman. It has pictures. And dialogue. It will sell truckloads of issues. The unintended outcome in this is getting me hyped for Snyder's upcoming run, so maybe DC is playing the long con with my emotions. I'd rather pay $5 a month for a good Snyder book than $6 a month for a middling Batman story.
Green Arrow #3 - ★★★★★ - Hot fire! I actually prefer Otto Schmidt's art over what Juan Ferreyra does with this issue, but both are fantastic. This series has the same number of books out as higher profile stuff like Batman and Superman, but Green Arrow continues running circles around them in terms of plot advancement, character development, and pacing. Love it.
Hellblazer: Rebirth #1 - ★ - This comic book literally trolls the reader with the final panel doing the whole, "I don't give a shit if you stick around and by this book or not" line. Good riddance. The earlier this gets canceled, the better. There is absolutely nothing even remotely redeemable here. Trash art, trash writing, and the worst lettering I can recall from the big two. You're probably better off spending your $3 on a Valiant book.
Presumably, I wouldn't know.
Justice League #1 - ★★★ - Much better than the first issue. I'm not sold on the Green Lanterns at all, but everyone else is fine. No idea how any of this will tie into the various solo series, as we're dealing with cataclysmic events here that aren't even mentioned anywhere else in the Rebirth universe. The disconnect is jarring. It almost feels like a, "And then on Sunday, the Justice League saved the world!" Comics.
Superman #3 - ★★★★ - I'm still on the fence with this, but I like the general direction it's headed. Every issue is basically one minor advancement in the central plot, and I'm not sure if that's more a factor of bimonthly publishing or a conscientious choice to slowly build up the story. The art is absolutely beautiful, one of the prettiest books in the Rebirth lineup. Legitimate semi-spoiler:
you do NOT want to be a pet in the series. We're 2/2 on pets dying. Cats, dogs, it doesn't matter. You're gonna die.
Comixology are offering a BOGO free promotion on comics published by DC again. It doesn't include DC Rebirth issues, but it's still a great deal if you want to catch up on DC's older catalogue and/or the New 52. The code is BOGO.
Comixology are offering a BOGO free promotion on comics published by DC again. It doesn't include DC Rebirth issues, but it's still a great deal if you want to catch up on DC's older catalogue and/or the New 52.
Thanks. I'll give them a miss. Currently debating Grayson #18 through #20. Not totally sold on the creative team, though I want to see the story to the end.
Nice. So you can refund a comic with amazon. I never read it and I'm hoping they can detect that. It was removed from my kindle already and from my purchase list. I'm hoping the comixology app updates too as that's linked to my amazon account. That version was never read either but did delete it from there myself and that certainly tracks if you've read the comic. Didn't give me an issues doing it but to check I looked at last week's comics and the option was gone so they very likely give you a time range to do it after you purchase. So I'm hoping this fully goes through. Returned Detective, Hal Jordon/Green Lanterns, and Nightwing. Kept Action, Flash, New Superman, and WW. Action I had already read and the others I do want to at least read and didn't seam right to try my luck with them all save Action.
Going to price out potential trades and see how that works with the budget and if I can deal with the wait.
Okay. Bit of an update for those interested. When you buy from Amazon you get the Kindle version of the comic and the comixology version. You have to merge your comixology account with your amazon account and I think this has to be done first. When you refund it on amazon.com it gets removed from your device and account on Amazon. It takes a while for comixology to update but it's eventually removed from there as well when you log into the website. However it doesn't seem to remove the entry for the comic from the comixology app though. You just can't download it. It still appears with the download icon.
If thought the Rebirth issue of Green Lanterns was promising but the quality has nosedived with every issue since and the art in the latest one was just embarassing coming from one of the big two. I love GL but I had to drop this shitty series. Thankfully, Hal Jordan and the GL Corps Rebirth was surprisingly okay, hopefully it can carry the torch.
And you guys are making me worry about Hellblazer, I have yet to read it but it seems DC really has no idea what to do with Constantine, he should have stayed at Vertigo.
I'm perpetually LTTP because I get my issues from DCBService and I'm too cheap to do anything but the monthly shipping option.
So, with that out of the way, I'm just going to chime in and say that I've very much enjoyed Wonder Woman, The Flash, Superman, Green Arrow, and Titans (well, the one Rebirth issue). On the other side, I'm so bored by Batman that it's making me rethink the whole family of books. It's not been as "throwaway" as Green Lanterns though... that book doesn't know where it's going.
I find myself drawn to the books that reference the events in the Rebirth one-shot. I like that Flash, Titans, and Wonder Woman frequently refer to the overall Rebirth storyline. Many of the other books don't though... that could be another reason why Batman is falling flat with me. Given the events of Rebirth he should be diving head first into that.
m8 you cray cray. Her BoP costume is like 6 kinds of awesome. Grayson Helena is a consummate professional, but her outfits weren't what made her that way.
The man is a cheesecake artist. I've liked his WW variants too, but his stock in trade is softcore porn. Plus there's his trolling and all that shit.
Cho's a satirist, if he draws sexy women their's normally a Joke in there somewhere. He's saying lighten the fuck up. He gave me Liberty Meadows and that ain't Bad. Shame the Guy had to quit what could be said was his dream job. Brandy was practically based on Wonder Woman.
I agree with Lashley, the car splitting in two was badass, along with the intro of the issue.
now here is my impresson
Batman #3
Everyone's impression was mixed on this but one thing for sure there is a lot of talking, and you know what? I liked it.
One scene did bother like others have said
why does batman start a conversation then zip away halfway but keeps talking. They can't hear him, and the speech bubbles don't indicate yelling/shouting
My favorite part is that we have more insight on how Gotham/Gotham girl began their obsession over batman, but still no explanation for powers.
I am ready for this arc to be over because the monster men crossover is going to be all kinds of hype