I'm just reading the first collection of the new JLA series.
What the...?
Is it me, or is it really disjointed? Quite hard to follow (well, that is probably me, isn't it).
Who cares about the Red Tornado? Why does Vixen spend her whole time just flying around? (Actually, Vixen has got really cool powers - but she's still not quite A-list is she.) Is it me, or is Black Canary a bit obselete now? Do kids these days really care about her? I'm more of a Marvel man, but I don't mind DC - but DC have done nothing to 'sell' Black Canary to me, in all my years of reading.
Why does Geo Force suddenly pop up from nowhere?
And the cover of the book - what a mess. Let's put JLA and the actual cover pic as teeny tiny as possible, because no one cares about comics, and BRAD MELTZER needs to be as huge as possible. Shame that putting 'from the author of the Book of Fate' just reminded me of that recent spate of Dr Fate comics, rather than an obviously more high-brow proper book...
(Oh, and why didn't they put the actual first issue of the new jLA series in the collection? issue 0? D'oh!)
9 comments:
Yeah, I've heard exactly nothing good about the new JLA. None of DC's new re-launches seem to have taken off. Maybe Morrison's Batman, but that's about it.
Oh, and the story after that seems to be shit too. Very confusing. Who cares about the karate kid?
Ah well, at least taht amazing Power Girl titty cover salvaged the whole series...
Right now DC can't seem to do much right -- 'disjointed' is the word for a lot of their recent output. Makes me wonder if there aren't things going on behind the scenes of which we are unaware -- power struggles and the like. That said, I think the JSA relaunch has mostly been successful and well-received -- the JLA crossover aside. And props to DC for giving Manhunter so many chances. The general will to succeed seems to be there within the company, there just doesn't seem to be much of a sense right now of everyone pulling in the same direction.
isn't Dan Didio always about to be sacked or something. serves him right, saying my portfolio was 'too eclectic' for DC at a con (whatever eclectic means).
lol when the Showcases were canned, everyone online was saying DC were in trouble. i'm sure it's fine. Can't Warner Bros bung them a spare million from the Batman earnings?
If only Countdown was good. Bad artists, z-list characters and Des O'Connor just isn't exciting enough.
(see what i did there? Countdown, Des O'Connor...)
I read the first issue and couldn't be bothered after that. Pity, because I thought Identity Crisis was OK, as was Meltzer's Green Arrow.
Only reading two DC books at the moment (non-Vertigo) - Batman and All Star Superman. Nuff said!
i agree - Identity Crisis was good - although I'm convinced they changed the identity of the murderer, and I have no idea how Batman jumped to certain conclusions.
I don't think i read any DC at the mo. I'd read Shadowpact if the writing wasn't so boring and the art wasn't so eye-gougingly bad.
what vertigo do you read, rol. i wish they did something that interested me.
RE: Justice League... It's been a big mess, really. I'm quite sorry I have to run it. :-P I'm about as far away from a Meltzer fan as you can get (I, too, bought into the Identity Crisis hype... until I bought the last issue and realised what utter bollocks the whole shebang was), and I think the worst thing about the JL run is that it managed to be utterly dull where it should have been balls-to-the-wall excitement on every page...
Plus, everything seemed to be building to something else... which was then never resolved (which is a neat summation of the whole DCU at the minute), or which fluffed into a complete damp squib in the supposed last issue of the arc.
Martin, if you thought this story was hard to follow, then you'll adore the League/Society/Legion crossover, which manages to make the time-crossed meeting of three superteams into an utterly pedestrian, needlessly confused and confusing affair that contains a) no villains and b) no resolution. It's possible the story will be resolved in a Superman crossover in a couple of months, but that's an outside hope at the moment. And god help the poor saps who buy the inevitable hardcover hoping to find a complete story inside.
Plus, there's at least three issues in the crossover that allude to three time-powered villains, like Despero or whatever, NONE OF WHOM ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING BEYOND A LITTLE BRAIN SURGERY. They're just there for a couple of pages, and that's it.
Anyone else - is this just Meltzer's 'cute' and fanboyish way of showing how the Ultra-Humanite ends up in the white Gorilla body, or is this the most hamfisted act of foreshadowing yet seen?
Rant off. I await the new writer with bated breath - by the pages up on Newsarama five minutes ago, McDuffie kicks off by taking the piss out of Meltzer's "let's focus on their chests/breasts" opening, so it could be something I won't feel slightly ashamed of reprinting. :-P
Oh, and RE: the Showcase Presents, Marts, they may come back at a later date - it's to do with the complex whirl of accountancy and contracts, rather than anything more sinister - the older material was all clearly work for hire, with contracts weighted heavily in favour of DC, while from the 70s on, the contracts stipulate (possibly prohibitive) reprint royalties. So they may have to work around those or redraw the contracts to get the Showcases to the shelves.
...aaaaaand breathe.
Vertigo (all in trade) - I still read Hellblazer, cos I like the character whoever's writing him (though I'm not sure about Diggle).
I also read 100 Bullets (lost its focus somewhat) and American Virgin (not as clever as it thinks it is).
The only essential Vertigo book is Y, The Last Man... (post apoc again!) though that'll be ending soon. I also enjoy Vaughan's Ex Machina, which I think of as a Vertigo book even though it's published by Wildstorm.
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