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).