My View of the New 52
Alliteration is fun. The reviews are done (And yes, I have a few more to catch up on) but I wanted to cover my review of the new DC universe in general. First, let’s start with the numbers. Counting the grades I gave the books (I never did it for Justice league so there’s just 51 to work with), there’s 27 thumbs up and 24 thumbs down. Given that there were a number that rode the fence and gave the benefit of the doubt, this is a little close here. A 50/50 split is not a good way to start things off. But a little more specifically, here’s what I’ve seen. (I’m not going to address every title but I’m going to cover as many areas as I can.)
Over in Metropolis, we have the new Superman in armor for some reason. Given that Justice League is 5 years in the past, Action Comics is even older since he’s running around in a t-shirt and jeans. I’m not too fond of the attitude he has which seems pretty consistent other than in Swamp Thing which isn’t as bad. And then there’s Supergirl who’s kinda psycho and Superboy who is back to being a clean slate. It seems like the whole Superman Family is messed up and needs to go back.
And then, there’s his buddy Batman in Gotham. Things haven’t changed too much for him and Robin. Even Nightwing is glad to be back in his own identity again. Other than some youthening for Bruce, things seem pretty normal. Even Catwoman is her normal self. Batwoman is freakier and not in a good way and we don’t know why Barbara can suddenly walk and is not associating closely with Black Canary any more. (It can’t be the charges against her since she had no problem in the old Birds of Prey title.) Overall, Gotham is doing a lot better than Metropolis is.
Springing from Gotham, we have Red Robin and, with him,the Teen Titans family. I’m not sure what to make of the new Teen Titans but the whole family dynamic has been blown apart. The characters are different and starting fresh. Even over in Red Hood and the Outlaws. things are messed up. Roy, Jason and Kory are severely disfunctional to put it politely. Hell, Kory doesn’t even remember the Titans including Dick. (And Roy mentions a “Dustin”. Is that supposed to be “Mal Duncan” or someone totally new that are going to insert randomly?) And is Wally really youthened and added to the new Titans team? Roy never mentions him or Donna to Kory. Other than Nightwing, the Teen Titans stuff has really gone down hill. Even Rose is a guard over in Superboy.
And where is Donna? With the changes that may come over in Wonder Woman, has she been wiped out of reality? And given her presence in multiple realities, what does that mean? And where are things going with Diana’s history? Who knows what to expect there.
At least the Green Lantern realm seems to be pretty normal. Nothing seems to have really changed here thankfully. The stuff in Green Lantern seems to be picking up right where everything left off. This a good thing and one bright spot in the DC Universe.
And we bring these all together and we get the Justice League. At least for now, we’re starting 5 years in the past as we start everything over. How long are the stories are going to stay there? Too much stuff in the comics are at different points in time which gets real confusing because you don’t know how everything is lining up. And we’ve even got 3 Justice League teams to start off with. ustice League International’s name is understandable even if the team is a bit lame. The Justice League Dark makes no sense though. Only Zatanna has any connection to the Justice League… if that’s even still true… other than that they are taking over for where the Justice League failed. In their own titles, Flash has gotten lame and probably isn’t even remembering what he did at the end of Flashback and Aquaman is a joke about the joke. He needs to get his respect back.
Beyond that we have a lot of random books. most of which seem pretty lame and probably won’t last too long. Relaunching Blackhawks, Frankenstein, and an army title seem kinda weak. Jonah Hex has had some staying power so his may have a chance. The Wildstorm relaunches don’t have as much history as the other books so leass people interested but also less people confused by the changes. Characters like Animal Man, Green Arrow, Resurrection Man, and the Demon seems like they could be interesting but the Demon never had any luck with his books. Ones like Firestorm, Captain Atom, and OMAC are so different they may not grab the following needed.
The one bright hope in my mind is Legion of Super-Heroes and Legion Lost. Everything seems just as they were when we left off with things though I don’t know why the lost Legionnaires are in the 21st century. Both series mention the Flashpoint event and going back to the 21st century messes with a lot of the Leginonaires. Something is wrong with the 21st century and that will hopefully lead to a “de-boot” to fix the problem. I bet DC knows they may be messing up and left themselves an out. At least I hope that’s true and I hope it happens soon. Overall, I’m not a big fan of the currently DC Universe.
