Board 8 > B8 Easy Access Guide to the DC Comics Relaunch: Week 3

(+) Yeah! (+)

What is The New 52? Found out using our custom guide HERE:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1G5tFuURJkIzzvjQYSu-z4BB4jEu5CwpYrzFtktpulgY/edit?hl=en_US


Writeups for Week 1 comics are HERE:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MqflADHbeVwVPJDSf61vMGXwhuCP0ij6Zgjx3qXRfCk/edit?hl=en_US


Writeups for Week 2 comics are HERE:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZOachY8IlQ75I5a1Cq9W9iyjZ0GAEgyR7EKGtPpQyzE/edit?hl=en_US


Over the next week we will stagger out the writeups for the 12 titles released on Wednesday, September 21st.

THE COMICS ARE:

Batman
Birds of Prey
Blue Beetle
Captain Atom
Catwoman
DC Universe Presents: Deadman
Green Lantern Corps
Legion of Super-Heroes
Nightwing
Red Hood and the Outlaws
Supergirl
Wonder Woman

Questions are of course welcome.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Batman, written by Scott Snyder with art by Greg Capullo

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-batman/

Description: Batman as a character is one of the few title characters in the relaunch who does not need to be explained. The only question some of the more in-the-know interested parties should be asking is who's behind the mask. Dick Grayson's short but loved run as the Dark Knight has ended, and Bruce is once again the only man behind the cowl. But what everyone needs to be asking is, with 4 books staring Batman a month, 2-3 of which have him flying solo, why should I pick up this one? Simple.

The Creative Team: Scott Snyder is about as new as they come. It was only last year that he began writing his first series as a solo writer, playing second listing on a few Marvel books before that. This was, and still is American Vampire, an award-winning book that garnered no negative attention whatsoever, and is already seeing spinoff books from the same talent. It was critically acclaimed enough that DC decided to sign him on to DC proper book shortly after the start of American Vampire's run in Vertigo, another DC line. Near the tail end of last year, Scott Snyder started writing Detective comics, and continued on an 11-issue run that just ended a few weeks ago. It never outsold the Tony Daniel written and drawn Batman series, and compared to many runs on a Batman book was relatively short. Why all this back-story about a still freshly new writer?

Because Scott Snyder's 11-issue DTec run, known as "The Black Mirror", is already being heralded as one of, if not the best Batman story in history.

There is ZERO doubt about the quality of this series. It's really doing it no justice saying "well duh, it's Batman, gotta read Batman." No, even if someone hated Batman, this would still be a must have book. If one book in the relaunch had to be considered "the one to buy if you only buy one", it would very likely be this.

After all of that, it's almost just dull to talk about Greg Capullo on art duties. And that's not to say anything negative about him, he's a talented artist, and sure to do a great job if the released covers are any indication. He just doesn't garner the fanfare of the writer, and honestly, doesn't seem like a perfect fit. The extremely well written detective story that is "The Black Mirror" does not seem like it would line up all too well with "the second most famous Spawn artist". But Capullo's art is very good and I'm sure it'll all work out in the end.








Accessibility: Batman is Batman. There's nobody who doesn't know the basics, and it's unlikely that this title is going to contain a significant enough presence of supporting bat-family to be an issue. The writer is still new and this is the first time Bruce has starred in a regular Batman title since his return. No worries.

Recommendation: This is unskippable. Unlike many of the other titles that are going to be recommended, this one has no room for doubt. It will be great, hell, I doubt they could make it bad if they tried.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Blue Beetle, written by Tony Bedard with art by Ig Guara

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-blue-beetle/

Description: After the rather grisly death of former beloved Blue Beetle Ted Kord, DC set out to re-imagine the character as a younger, hipper, technology based superhero that gains his powers from an alien artifact known as the Scarab, and is literally being referred to as "Green Lantern meets Spider-Man." Despite the choppy and rather offensively ridiculous origin of the character and reason for being made, Jaime Reyes has actually become one of the rising superstars of the DCU, and may even be getting his own TV show! This is mostly thanks to a book that, while not a huge seller, was well beloved by critics and fans alike, and a couple of major roles as a supporting character in other books like Teen Titans, and most recently Generations Lost. A Hispanic teen from El Paso, the sentient Scarab gives Jaime an exoskeleton with the ability to morph into hundreds of different weapons and tools, and also grants him numerous support abilities such as motion detection (hello there spider-sense) and translators, and even offers him advice during fights (in a language that readers can't understand and only Jaime can hear, of course).

Creative Team: Tony Bedard is by no means a master writer, but he's managed a lot of quality work, the best of which may be the quite-good-but-cut-short-to-9-issues-even-though-ten-is-right-in-the-f***ing-name mini-series about a team of Chinese Superheroes, The Great Ten, while he's recently better known for his decent and (not deservedly) more popular run on Green Lantern Corps. He could very well bring a lot to the Blue Beetle universe but it's not a done deal.

Ig Guara has done a lot of splattered work here and there picking up the slack for artists, but he really shined on the short lived "Pet Avengers" series over at Marvel, which simply looked fantastic, and his Flashpoint one-shot Grodd of War was one of the best looking books of the event. His art has a lot of life, and honestly fits the character very well.






Accessibility: Blue Beetle is a book that's going to be redoing the character’s origin, something he desperately needed, while still keeping all the basics of the setting and supporting cast, right down to the villains. It's one of the safer books to pick up.

Recommendation: Watch for it. Bedard has weaved magic before in recent years with R.E.B.E.L.S and The Great Ten, and something tells me he may do it again. There are only 2 solo books staring teen superheroes not related to the Batman or Superman family, and between this and Static Shock, I would probably give this one the slight edge, at least potentially. But there is still a risk of Bedard falling into his semi-generic paint by the numbers plot tendencies as he sometimes does, so maybe get some opinions from people already picking it up before jumping in.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Think I'll be picking up that Batman comic.

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YELLOW RANGER
http://img.imgcake.com/YetAnotherShadow/Gameboyfeverjpegez.jpg

It's going to be amazing.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Captain Atom, written by J.T. Kruk with art by Freddie Williams II

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-captain-atom/

Description: You most likely don't know who Captain Atom is, unless you watched Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, in which he appeared, he was also in Justice League Unlimited and had a pretty damn awesome fight with Superman. More than likely you're more familiar with the character that was based off of him, Doctor Manhattan from Watchmen, who it seems that, in an odd twist, they're gonna try and make Captain Atom even more similar to. He's a hero, but it's not always obvious, since he works with the government and they're not always the nicest when it comes to doing what needs to be done. So he's not as held back by ideals and the superhero guidelines that Superman and Batman follow and demand of everyone among them.

As for what he can do, go figure, his name is Captain Atom, I'm sure you can draw some conclusions. On top of the basic powers like flight and super strength, he's got essentially infinite power bubbling under his quantum skin. Most of the time it really just involves energy blasts though.

Creative Team: Ugh. J.T. Krul, this guy. At best, he's decent, but there's still a chance he MIGHT make something good here. Doubtful, as he really has not impressed anyone so far, there's no reason to think he'll suddenly be better and start writing Captain Atom like he's always meant to be written. Then again, Captain Atom isn't used a whole lot, so maybe this is just what Krul needs to really start shining as a writer. This of course is just blind hope and it's just more likely that Krul will continue to be mediocre and won't ever excel, even here.

The saving grace of this book will be the art. We have Freddie Williams II here, who is usually pretty good, but here we have him using an ink and watercolor contrast and it looks REALLY FREAKING GOOD.







Accessibility: Captain Atom is somewhat obscure, so you won't need to know much about him at all to get into this. He doesn't have any big history or stand out events, and I'm sure this will offer him a clean slate to start over new.

Recommendation: Difficult to actually recommend, because Krul isn't going to offer any fantastic storytelling, but the art is definitely interesting, and Captain Atom actually having his own ongoing is quite appealing, he needs some more attention. Overall, it's probably a better idea to hold off on this title, but eventually you might have to get it.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Batman oh man so excited.

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~Halo Everybody run!
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6195/furriese.jpg

There actually isn't a single book this week that I'm not looking forward to reading at least a little. Top three are Batman, GLC and Nightwing.

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http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y306/greenseafoam/idunno.jpg
http://img.imgcake.com/zoidberg2re.gif

Catwoman, written by Judd Winick with art by Guillem March

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-catwoman/

Description: Catwoman, Selena Kyle, smart-sexy cat burglar, has a Halle Berry film named after her(that's really the best I can say about that thing). She's been around for years, to give Batman some sexual tension, fanboys some tension in their pants, and star in a surprisingly really good comic series over the past decade. Is she a hero? Is she a villain? Depends on the writer! In the end, she's a mysterious woman, always has an escape plan, can never be tied down in one place for too long, and always a step ahead of her opponents. She survived for years in several different incarnations, and she now once again has her own book, back to steal your belongings and look damn good doing it.

Creative Team: Judd Winick is the one leading this femme fatale into a new age, and just can't help but sigh. Despite wetting fangirl panties with Jason Todd, he's a thoroughly mediocre comic book writer, where not enough happens between the panels and his plots aren't particularly engaging. His Newsarama interview where he mentions the word "SEXY" half a dozen times to describe Selena Kyle doesn't inspire confidence either. He usually has a great artist to pick up the slack(as he does here!), but I still put him in the pit of Tony Daniels, JT Kruls, and David Michaelinies of the world, "hack writers who manage mostly non-dreadful stories at best and somehow keep getting work". Maybe they're just nice guys.

Guillem March, as I alluded to earlier, IS a good artist though. He can draw some sexy people, which is the kind of thing that comes in handy for Catwoman, and it's all very easy on the eyes.






Recommendation: Nah. March is good, and Catwoman can be a great character, but with so many other promising books, why waste money on what will probably be little more than mildly diverting, somewhat amusing sex mag?

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

I want to see what the DCU Presents thing is all about.

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Kiwi

Well it just so happens to be the next on eon the list.

DC Universe Presents, written by ??? with art by ???

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-dc-universe-presents/

Description: Dude what the hell look at the cover of issue 2. It's totally Deadman vomiting Deadman vomiting Deadman vomiting Deadman. But this book won't just be about Deadman! It's got a rotating team of artists and writers! That means when this Deadman arc is over DC will pick another name out of their hat and another character that isn't a complete loser (hopefully) will get their 4-5 issues of fame. DC's last incarnation of this (kinda) was Brave and the Bold, which was really hit-or-miss. It was a different story each issue, and there was some really cool stuff like the night before the Killing Joke and the rebirth of Brother Power the Geek, so we could definitely get some gems here or there.

The unofficial tagline of this Deadman story is: “Some journeys take a lifetime. Yours is simply a journey that takes more than one.” Deadman is a dude who had a bad night at the circus and ended up murdered. A Hindu god gave him the power to be a ghost kind of thing that can possess people so he can find out who killed him. He's a pretty cool character and it's fun to see him show up, because usually nobody knows he's there until someone gets possessed.

Creative Team: I dunno! Only time will tell. The team for the first arc will be by Paul Jenkins, who I know from obscure titles such as Penance: Relentless and a few Front Line stories. He's... alright, I guess. I remember reading his books but I can't remember many of the details. He also created the Sentry, who was a pretty good character until Bendis got his hands on him. He wrote that awful Sentry funeral issue but I think it might have been a giant middle finger to Marvel for screwing up his baby, so I admire his balls. He'll probably do a good job here.

The art is by Bernard Chang, who is really, really good. Nothing mind blowing but he's pretty consistent and he doesn't really have any distinctive features (maybe his noses?). He just draws, and draws well, and it looks good.






Accessibility: Probably pretty easy. Depends on who is writing and who the character is. Deadman is pretty self-explanatory so if they take like a page to sum up his back-story then it'll be easy to jump into. You can watch the fantastic episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold called "Dawn of the Deadman!" for more on Boston Brand.

Recommendation: The Deadman story? Yeah, go for it if you need a filler book or a time killer. Or if you just think Deadman is interesting and you're really invested in learning about all corners of the DC Universe.

Once the arc ends come over to the comics topic and we'll probably be whining or nerdgasming over what the next arc is about and who the creative team is, so you'll be able to judge that way. If you're running low on cash then skip an arc you're unsure of and buy the trade later if you hear good things.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Birds of Prey, written by Duane Swierczynski with art by Jesus Saiz

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-birds-of-prey/

Description: Birds of Prey is a girl power group. It's a team that has existed for quite a while, but it seems the only relation to the past series in the new one is Black Canary. She's an original of the team, but the other characters are new to the group. There's not much to know about the history. Barbara Gordon as Oracle was the leader, Black Canary pretty much the second in command, then there was a bunch of other characters that came and went, sometimes even men. Not often, it was predominantly women. And that trend will continue now.

As for the other three confirmed characters, one is a Japan born girl with a katana, she goes by the name of Katana. The next is a classic Batman villain, you all may recognize Poison Ivy, she's sporting a nice looking redesign and it seems she'll still be considered an eco-terrorist, so it's not like she's gonna be a superhero all of a sudden. For the last character, we have Starling… wait, who? Exactly. She's a new character, we know virtually nothing about her, we'll find out how well she does.

Creative Team: First off, Birds of Prey has been written by Gail Simone for years now, one of the best comic book writers ever. So to follow her will be quite daunting, Swierczynski doesn't have a large backlog of comics, but he's apparently written a lot of books too, about half of them were fiction. So we know he's not new, he's got experience, and he's worked with a few well-known comic characters before. He may be following Simone, which means this book probably won't live up to anything the previous writer has done, but that doesn't mean it will be bad. There's certainly potential here, especially since it's practically a new team, new setting, and new adventure, plus this is the only place we'll get a fair amount of Poison Ivy exposure, which is always nice.

On that note, Saiz is a great artist, which will make Poison Ivy even better. He's got a nice comic cartoon style, and it’s spot on for these types of colorful characters.




And then he's got plenty of past work to look at, he's certainly nowhere near a bad artist, but he isn't always at the top of his game.

http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php

Accessibility: As I said in the history, the team name has been around for a long time, but with the exception of Black Canary, it's all new characters, as well as a new writer. It's unlikely that it will be tied to the past series at all, it's unclear if the Birds even existed before in the new Universe, it certainly seems like they just meet up by chance and decide to form the group. So basically, this series should be very easy to enter without any prior knowledge.

Recommendation: I would say yes for Black Canary and Poison Ivy, who are great characters, as well as Katana, who is relatively solid, and Starling has a chance to be good. The premise doesn't sound bad either; it's definitely possible this book will be good, especially if you haven't read any of Simone's work on the previous series, you won't have any expectations.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Green Lantern Corps written by Peter J. Tomasi with art by Fernando Pasarin

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-green-lantern-corps/

Description: The Green Lantern Corps are basically the police of the entire DC Universe, keeping the peace by patrolling each sector of the universe and neutralizing intergalactic threats through collective force if the need ever arises. The Corps was created by the Guardians, a race of short giant-headed blue beings born billions of years ago who decided to impose order on the universe through SPACE COPS F*** YEAH. So this book will follow the space-faring adventures of some of the members of the Corps, specifically Guy Gardner, a lovable wise-ass macho tough guy, and John Stewart, the black GL from the CARTOON who also happens to be a FORMER MARINE, and also an ARCHITECT (but DC seems to forget about that). It's a buddy cop comic in space.

Creative Team: On writing duties is Peter J. Tomasi who did his best work writing this very book before the relaunch. He didn't really do much else. But what he did with GLC was pretty damn good, supporting the growth of the Green Lantern Universe through solid team stories and backing up DC's main man Geoff Johns who made Green Lantern as important as Superman and Batman in-universe and just as successful in sales. Tomasi is familiar with all these characters and he's proven to be good writing this book.

The penciler for the book Fernando Pasarin also hasn't really done that much, drawing an average of less than 10 issues for the handful of books he's worked on in the past. He may be lacking in material but what he's drawn has been pretty good. He goes for the detailed, realistic look and it works even with the busy action scenes and freaky looking aliens that usually appear in GL books as can be seen in the issues he drew for Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors.






Accessibility: Like the Batman universe, the continuity for Green Lantern and all its books including this one will be kept with almost no changes. Considering this is also a team book with comics newbies aren't really familiar with, this might not be the easiest thing to get into without taking a visit to Wikipedia (or the Comics Topic!).

Recommendation: Won't be highly recommending this as a first day buy or anything like that since Tomasi isn't exactly a grade A writer (but he's good) and there's still the issue of years of plotlines still mattering to fully appreciate this book. It should be good enough considering everything else. If you like the concept of BUDDY SPACE COPS (who wouldn't?!), this could be worth a look!

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Legion of Super-Heroes, written by Paul Levitz with art by Francis Portela

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-legion-of-super-heroes/

Description: This is the Legion of Super-Heroes, a team that exists a thousand years in the future, the 31st century. They're a big group of teenagers, who rebel against the confining ways of their galactic community. It's actually pretty interesting once you get into it, which is kind of difficult at first. They're all completely new characters, they really don't have any connections with the class of superheroes we all know and love. They've interacted with the present before, mainly Superman, and they often look up to him. Other than that, they mostly stand on their own, although they do still honor the past and the way superheroes used to be, which is why they always give themselves name that end in "boy", "girl", "lass", etc. Examples include Ultra Boy, Dream Girl, Lightning Lass, and Brainiac 5. The latter is a guy who likes being an exception to the norm, because he's so freakin' smart that narcissism is basically in the genes.

There's also Karate Kid, who's awesome and considered to be one of, if not THE, most efficient hand-to-hand combatants in the DC Universe.

This new ongoing seems to concern the Legion Academy more at first, which is of course a school type of program that teaches and trains new recruits for the Legion, preparing them for success among the team. Apparently the series starts off with the Legion of Super-Heroes getting "decimated" and the Academy has to stand up and save the day. Hooray. Wonder how that'll turn out.

Also a note, every member of the Legion has a flight ring, it's basically what signifies their allegiance, but it also gives them perks such as, you got it, flight. It actually allows people who are unable to fly (which is a majority of them) the power to soar through the skies. The ring also acts as a communication device, and some other perks that aren't as important.

Creative Team: Paul Levitz isn't the best writer, but he's been with DC for over 35 years, and he has his fair share of works. He's never done anything huge, never really had an extensive run, except his famous run on the OLD Legion series, which was indeed damn extensive. He's pretty much continuing what he's been doing with the Legion lately. It's not a stretch to assume he'll do a pretty good job, he knows these characters, and he probably knows what he's doing.

Francis Portela is relatively new, like several of the artists in this reboot. He's done virtually nothing so far, though he did do about half of the last shorter volume of Legion, so he's got some work with the characters.






Accessibility: Eh, might be a bit difficult. As I understand it, the Legion isn't actually getting touched as far as their history and continuity, so apparently there will be stuff you won't know about going in, but I'm sure they'll still make it as accessible as possible. The Legion of Super-Heroes has always been pretty easy to just jump into and start reading, they're pretty self-explanatory.

Recommendation: Ummm probably not, to be honest. If you're just getting into comics, then the Legion isn't really the best place to start, and it can take some getting used to. Then again, if you think you would like to read about futuristic superheroes, go for it. It probably won't be bad, but it might not be great, no way of telling yet. You could be taking a risk if you start out with it, so it may be better to take the wait-and-see approach. Ultimately it's your call.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Nightwing, written by Kyle Higgins with art by Eddy Barrows

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-nightwing/

Description: If you don't know who Nightwing is, then you're a sad soul. Dick Grayson was the first Robin ever, and when he got older, he stepped out from Batman's shadow and donned the name Nightwing. He was the leader of the Teen Titans for a while, not sure if he'll still have that same history with the Titans post-reboot. He also watched over a city called Bludhaven for a while, by himself, it was a city that rivaled Gotham in how terrible it was, but Nightwing had a pretty great career there... until it was completely destroyed. Now it's a wasteland contaminated with radiation and completely unsafe to enter. After that, Nightwing spent some time in New York, then eventually went back to Gotham. There are times when Bruce and Dick have their disputes, and while Dick did become Nightwing out of spite, they're still a family, now more than ever. Dick never wanted to become Batman, but he loves and respects Bruce, and when it was time, Dick honored his responsibility and became Batman for a time.

Creative Team: Kyle Higgins, the writer, is the star here. He's a VERY new writer, but he's already made a good name for himself with his recent Bat-miniseries. It's apparent that he already understands Dick as a character, and I have no doubts that he'll be able to carry on his great sense of story for Nightwing, very much looking forward to it.

Eddy Barrows, he's pretty good. He's not very unique, but I definitely like what I'm seeing as far as what he's doing for Nightwing. He's had some Bat-family projects in the past too. I have faith in him at least, he won't be terrible, he'll probably be above average even, but most likely not much more than that.







Accessibility: As with all of the Bat-family, they're keeping their history, so it may be a bit more of a challenge to just pick up and start reading. They'll probably have some form of recap, but for real, I've already told you most of what you need to know for this character. His history isn't too deep and difficult to understand, nothing major anyway. Well, there are some things that have caused controversy... Not gonna mention that now, if you're really interested, read his wiki, it's huge. Otherwise, you'll most likely be able to pick up from issue 1 and mostly follow along without much problem. And it's not like you can't do research and ask questions if you have any, we'd be glad to fill you in on any blanks.

Recommendation: Personally, hell yes. Dick Grayson is one of the greatest characters in the DC Universe, he's constant quality. Generally accepted as a great character at least. Kyle Higgins is a great writer, regardless of being new. Nightwing is an awesome superhero himself. The artwork isn't going to be spectacular, but it won't bring the book down in the slightest, it may even help it a bit, who knows. If you have any interest in Batman, or especially if you have interest in his extended family, this is for sure the best place to start. Nightwing was the first extension besides Alfred, and he's still regarded as one of the greatest.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Red Hood and the Outlaws, written by Scott Lobdell with art by Kenneth Rocafort

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-red-hood-and-the-outlaws/

Description:

The winner for most random book of The 52, Red Hood and the Outlaws is literally coming out of NOWHERE. This is just happening, there's no pre-boot basis for the team-up and it was almost like DC execs got together and said "what 3 characters can we put together on a book that will make the most people do a double take?". And it sure worked.

Here we have Jason Todd, the 2nd Robin and former villain The Red Hood.



Roy Harper, former Titan, known as Speedy/Arsenal/Red Arrow and a recovering drug addict.



And Koriand'r, mostly known as Starfire, former Titan, long enslaved by another alien race.



Outlaws isn't really a team book, they're not "The Outlaws" or anything like that. It's just 3 downtrodden young adult vigilantes traveling the country trying to find a place for themselves. But yeah they're probably going to end up fighting a ton of dudes regardless, and Starfire is gonna bang at LEAST one of them, count on it.

Creative Team: We've got Scott Lobdell who's adamant about wanting to use lesser known and original characters and put them on seemingly dysfunctional teams. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he came up with and pitched this book entirely on his own. The best thing here is that Lobdell is unlikely to take this book in the gritty direction these characters have been going lately. There's going to be lots of humor, lots of wit and banter.

Kenneth Rocafort is f***ing fantastic, easily one of the absolute best. In a launch filled with books going for realism and clean lines, Rocafort stands out as a rougher artist with stylization while still keeping fairly good anatomy and a high level of expression and emotion. The colorist known as "BLOND" helps out plenty, with a rich pallet that brings even more life to the artwork.





Accessibility: A large part of this book is going to be about getting over their pasts anyway, and the team is so mismatched that there's going to be almost 0 earlier continuity to worry about as far as their relationship, everything is being established here. Easy.

Recommendation: Look, this isn't going to be an "important" book. It's going to be its own title doing its own thing and it's unlikely there's going to be much interaction with other major characters at all. But I'm looking forward to it more than anything else being released here out of the game. It's going to be fun, exciting, quirky, engaging, and who knows what else. If you just want to follow the major books that impact the DC Universe than this is low priority, but it's still going to get my HIGHEST recommendation. Buy it.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Supergirl, written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson with art by Mahmud Asrar

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-supergirl/

Description: Does Supergirl need an introduction? I mean, sure, she doesn't get much exposure out of comics, but she's still pretty self-explanatory. You have Superman, one of the greatest and most well-known heroes ever, so naturally there exists a female version of him. Supergirl is Superman's cousin from Krypton, yeah, Superman isn't the last Kryptonian, in fact, the Supergirl before the reboot was technically older than Superman, but she was frozen in a comet or something and wasn't reawakened until she crashed into Earth many years later. So she was still technically a teenager. Unsure if that will be the case for the new Supergirl post-reboot, although it really doesn't matter in the slightest.

Oh and there's this little scene from when she was re-introduced (because there were other versions of her that existed before her that died, that was before the continuity got all fixed up and this was the Supergirl that we got quite a while later).



I could tell you the context, but I'll just let your mind run wild.

And that really has nothing to do with her new solo series here. Actually from what we can tell from the solicits, she'll be much different now. It appears she won't have the same love for humans as her cousin does, she did before, she even created a human persona like Clark Kent, hers was Linda Lang. Looks like she may not continue that identity in the reboot, which could easily be good news, because her whole "trying to fit in with humans" aspect got really boring. It's also highly likely and implied by the third solicit that she'll have a new origin, so that whole "frozen in a comet or whatever" story won't still apply.

Creative Team: The writers here aren't huge, but they're competent. They both worked on Superman/Batman stories before, and I personally enjoyed them quite a bit. Other than that, they have virtually nothing else to refer to, in terms of comics at least. I don't know what Johnson has done with his life, but Green at least has done a fair amount of writing for movies and TV... in fact, he was a co-writer for Green Lantern. Interesting. If you didn't like that movie (screw you), don't let that discourage you, as there's still two other writers in that case that you can blame, give Michael Green a chance, he definitely has the potential here.

And if that's not enough, this title will sport some great art. Asrar's style is pretty darn splendid. He hasn't done a lot, but you can see from those covers that he's good. He definitely has what Supergirl needs, he'll do great here.




Accessibility: As with the whole Super-family, they're getting the most changes, practically nothing about them from the past will matter in the reboot. It's a little sad in Superman's case, but for Supergirl (and Superboy too probably) it's a very good thing. She's been nothing but slacking since she came back the last time, this is her chance to finally split off from the influence of her cousin and become a strong female character that can stand on her own, and doesn't have to be compared to Superman constantly. No way you'll have to know anything before reading this.

Recommendation: Yeah, I would say. One of DC's most popular female characters, she's definitely worth a look. The creative team isn't honestly a sure thing, but it's EXTREMELY unlikely that they would be terrible, if anything it'll still be worth a read, I would just advise not to get your hopes up too much.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

Wonder Woman, written by Brian Azzerello with art by Cliff Chiang

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/new-52-wonder-woman/

Description: Wonder Woman, super-awesome-sexy-powerful-feminist person! Well, that's not much of a description, huh? Well, she can fly! No wait, I think she has an invisible plane. Uh, she fights Nazi people and stuff! Wait, no, I think that was her pre-1985 reboot, now she's an ambassador for her Greek island of Themyscira, bringing peace to man's world. Well, kinda, until her recent reboot where she looked like Jim Lee's Rogue from the 90s! And of course... that's out of continuity, too... hmm...

Wonder Woman is many things to many people, which is her best and worst asset. When you get right down to it, people love the CONCEPT of Wonder Woman: a powerful, beautiful, compassionate but deadly warrior princess. Someone who can stand up and fight just as good as the big boys, an icon for sexual equality the world over; unfortunately, no one's really been able to nail the foundation! The whole "made from Clay, comes from Themyscira" thing is usually set in stone (dohoho), but beyond that, she's all over the place. Unlike her compatriots in the DC "Trinity", Batman and Superman, she doesn't have any real memorable rogues, she doesn't have these great runs you can point towards when people want to get into the character (although everyone seems to like Greg Rucka's and Gail Simone’s tenures on the book!), she doesn't have a classic story everyone loves like All-Star Superman or Dark Knight Returns. She's a character in-transition, once again starting over and hoping to get it right. And, with the amount of talent behind producing this book, we just might get it.

Creative Team: Brian Azzerello is mostly known for his crime books or stories that deal with darker characters, specifically his incredible 100 Bullets series, which is one of the greatest comics of the past decade, his Hellblazer run (although it's very polarizing!), and his various Batman stories like "Joker" or "Broken City". He's very big on characters, giving you a real sense of who these people are, the kind of world they live in, and why you should give a damn about the narrative. He has a real ear for dialog, grounding his characters in voices that you can relate to, or at the very least imagine someone like this. I don't want to call it "realistic" dialog, but it's like the good version of Brian Michael Bendis. But at the end of the day, he's one of the very best at getting inside to the darkness of the human condition.

Now, darkness usually isn't what you think of with Wonder Woman, but Azzerello said this isn't a superhero book, but a horror one! I... have no idea how to feel about that, but at this point, Wonder Woman could probably handle any concept. It's the execution that will show the way, and Azzerello rarely misses.

And to boost that confidence even higher, we got Cliff Chiang on art duties. I... don't really have a lot to say about Chiang, actually. His work has a great comic book feel; realistically proportioned characters with a cartoonist sheen that makes them feel animated.



http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/8232799533/1/tumblr_lp4afwOWnV1qeenqt


Accessibility: Easy, as long as you're ok with women kicking ass! Wonder Woman continuity is so nutty, so they're throwing the vast majority of that s*** out. You know as much as we do, man.

Recommendation: Yes! Wonder Woman, as a concept, is a bit vague to describe to others, and even the rare glimpses we give of this title is a bit of an enigma. But the writer and artist combo is so good; it's got to be at least worth a look.

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

I AM SO GOD DAMN EXCITED FOR TOMORROW

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~Halo Give into the Night.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a125/ShadowHalo/haloshadow1.gif

OUTLAWS OUTLAWS

GOTTA BUY DAT OUTLAWS

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

From: ShadowHalo17 | Posted: 9/20/2011 11:45:14 PM | #019
I AM SO GOD DAMN EXCITED FOR TOMORROW

Same here.

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http://img.imgcake.com/raydynoohrahgifaq.gif
http://img.imgcake.com/BigBossjpgve.jpg

why are you all excited for thursday

--
"Biting is excellent- it's like kissing only there's a winner."

crazy britsblade

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~LtM
http://img.imgcake.com/AYhRdKCMAAjGS3jpggy.jpg

It's not that, my view of when tomorrow is: when I wake up after going to sleep, that is today's tomorrow.

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~=B8's Resident Ninja-Pirate. Please insert liquor, and pour one for Guru Winner, BT=~
http://www.futurama-madhouse.com.ar/fanart/kenneth/bender_auron.jpg

From: RayDyn | #024
It's not that, my view of when tomorrow is: when I wake up after going to sleep, that is today's tomorrow.

Correct.

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~Halo Rolling around at the speed of sound.
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/2417/sonicspeed.jpg

This is so dead.

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Kiwi