DC Comics Relaunch revisited

The Ronin here,

The DC relaunch is here and its so far been mildly successful, in that the reviews have been more positive then negative and sales for September were good. So back in July I looked over some of the new DC books and wrote a short blog post about what books I was likely going to pick up. With one exception I have picked up all of those books. So did they live up to expectations? Let's see.

1) Action Comics

Action Comics is good, but controversial. There are basically two opinions of Action Comics. "Holy shit this is good!" and "This guy isn't MY Superman!" I am definitely in the first camp. Not only is it fun and actually action filled but Morrison does a good job making it accessible and easy to follow. Superman is new, young and willing to kick as some ass if it means standing up for the poor and disenfranchised.

I think Action Comics succeeds for the same reason the original Action Comics succeeded, by having Superman fight for the everyman, in a time period when the everyman has very little, and no one standing up for them.

Action Comics is good and is on the 'pull list'. With the second issue out I do not see that changing any time soon. I can not encourage people to try it more. After issue 6 it is supposedly jumping forward to 'modern time', I don't know how well the formula will hold out but so far its great. The Art is also brilliant (if not a little inconsistent, sometimes Supes looks 17, other times 38) and we get a Superman who looks scary when he wants to and understands how to intimidate and have fun. Some people felt he has been a little to rough, but honestly I am not going to shed any tears over a fictional man who roughs up his own wife (who Supes threw out a window into a river off panel) and a millionaire who endangered the lives of hundreds for a few more dirty bucks.

Animal Man #1

The Ronin here,

It's been a few weeks but lets look back at one of the stars of the DC relaunch, Animal Man #1. I was not originally planing on doing this one, but I gave it a try and it knocked my socks off. No, literally they came off. My feet are cold now.

Now Animal Man is not a character I am very familiar with. I know Grant Morrison did a much loved run on the character, aside from that I've seen the character in 52, where he was partnered up with Adam Strange and Starfire... The less said about the new 'Starfire' the better.

So, what are the goals of this issue? Well it is a #1 and it is supposed to be able to appeal to numerous new readers who may not know anything about Animal Man. It needs to show us his powers and abilities, his status quo, and it needs to intrigue those readers, hook them all while pleasing older fans who expect a lot from an Animal Man title. That is a lot to do in a single issue and apparently beyond

the ability of a lot of the new DC books (or many new books for that mater).

Justice League #1

The Ronin here,

Like many people I obviously had some mixed views on the DC relaunch/boot, however I tried to be positive, and some of the new titles seemed interesting. Hopefully over the next few months I can share with you how I felt about some of the issues. First up is, well the first issue they released Justice League #1. Obviously the Justice League is DC's premiere superhero team, featuring some of the most recognizable characters in the world. Who does not know who Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are? Green Lantern just had a big budget movie made, and a HUGE advertising push for him, so at the moment anyways he should be well known. Aquaman is also well known though perhaps not as universally beloved as the 'trinity'.

One of the things DC wants to get back to is the idea of Superman as the 'first' superhero, or at least the first superhero who fights in a bright costume in the day light. Which of course mirrors the actually history of comics. There were plenty of heroes before Superman, and a number of costumed or masked detectives, but Superman was the first modern 'Super' hero. Many of the tropes and conventions of the genre go right back to the original 'Action Comics #1'.

Flashpoint #3 is getting Awesome

The Reverse-Ronin here.

I have gone back in time and changed history to screw with The Ronin. I could not allow his beautifully written, insightful, typo free and popular reviews of dozens of DC comics to exist any longer, so I have changed history making sure they never existed. They were to awesome, and to plentiful, he had to be stopped! And now the site is filled mostly with terrible Marvel comics! Now all you will read about are 'point one' issues that have no recap page and don't explain the situation at all for new readers and best of all they will be marketed only to existing readers in other comic books!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA Fools! Enjoy your suck!

...Except for Avengers Academy, Reverse-Ronin thinks that it is pretty damn good, you should check it out.

The Green Lantern: Better late than never

I don't have much to say about a movie I didn't care much about to begin with. With time to kill on my husbands fathers day, I went in just wanting to be entertained for a couple of hours.

Although it didn't entertain quite as well as I hoped, it wasn't the worst.

I noticed a couple things that if I were to be a fan, would have made me pissed. Hector Hammond's backstory is basically non existent. They never let us in on the relationships he had with Hal and Carol growing up. Which made me wonder what the point of him being there was anyway.

The thing that bothered me the most was this: So much potential for bad ass battles, but not a lot was offered. I spent a good deal of the movie imagining things of my own that would have been a hundred times better than...a racetrack?

Green Lantern doesn't suck!

The Ronin here,

This is a spoiler free half assed look at the 'Green Lantern'.

Going to go over a few quick things, I went into the theater ready to be disappointed friday, but I walked out of the theater with a smile on my face.

'Green Lantern' is the sole DC property up this year, and DC has not had the same kind of success Marvel has had outside of the Nolan films. (which won't be in the same continuity as Green Lantern or any later Justice League movies) 'Green Lantern' is probably also DC's most difficult super hero to pull off well. He flies through space with aliens acting as a cop, he gets his powers from a goofy ring given to him by blue dwarves, he uses his ring to make goofy constructs to fight villains etc. In some ways it is DC's 'Thor', in that it would be the hardest to sell to a mainstream audience.

DC Reboot and Superman

The Ronin here,

DC's Dan Didio spoke to NBC New York today on their 'reboot' he had the following to say about the marriage of Lois Lane and Clark Kent, "Let's just say it's being reexamined".

I will never understand how DC manages to copy only Marvel's worst ideas. .... Oh god... please dear god Joe Quesada make it stop... No, no, why can't Doctor Strange help her? hes both magic and a regular doctor! No Spidey would never do that! no no... oh god it was all Mary Jane's fault? wait what? No! I won't believe it! NO NO NO.

....

Sorry, sometimes I have "One More Day" and "O.M.I.T." flashbacks.

So will Superman be single again? Will it be a good or bad move for DC? That is currently unknown. However if Superman starts shacking up with Wonder Woman then it is official, the DC universe will have become an Elseworld's story.

No Room for Shadowpact!

The Ronin here,

For those unfamiliar with it 'Shadowpact' is a DC supernatural hero team. Created by Bill Willingham (Fables, JSA) it followed some lesser known mystical characters in DC's line up. Ragman, Blue Devil, Enchantress, Detective Chimp, Nightshade and the rest. (Nightmaster!)

Willingham works his magic into each one of the motley cru making them fun and exciting, the characters all get their own development arc and you genuinely care about them. It is the sign of a skilled writer when you can make a character with a name as silly as Ragman, or a concept as silly as Detective Chimp and make them awesome.

Which brings me to my point; Shadowpact's on going series ended in 2008. With the DC relaunch/reboot/preboot/smelly boots thing that is going on I had hoped they would get another regular series and when I heard DC was going to relaunch 52 new titles I was blown away. It is ambitious as hell. (if not smart) So with 52 titles surely there is room for Shadowpact!

It turns out there is not. I mean come on, 52 new titles? There has to be some filler in there. That said every character is someone's favorite and I am sure there are those who view Shadowpact as filler as much as anything else. Which is a shame because It was great.

On the plus side Ragman got his own one shot a few months back. He really is a great character with a fascinating concept and history, and terrible terrible name. Do more with these guys DC! Though, let us hope Ragman never gets a distaff counterpart... No one needs to read Ragwoman or Raggirl. Ick.

The complete run of Shadowpact is available in trade paperback, and they are worth the money! Willingham's ongoing series Fables is also available in TPB and monthly (and it is a great way to get your Manga reading friends into Western Comics.) Ragman Suit of Souls might still be on shelves if you look hard enough.