Aldo reads DC's New 52 (So you don't have to)

Batgirl #14: A deranged Joker in full flow is always a great thing to behold, but Gail S just doesn't get it. She's too busy playing with the pseudo-hypnosis of Babs right up to the point where we're supposed to believe THIS Barbara Gordon, the one that had her back healed after the events of the Killing Joke, the one who got out of her wheelchair, the one who stared down one of the guys that did it... is reduced to a pathetic, paralysed weeping child by the memory of it. Still, Babs also doesn't recognise her brother's voice so anything is possible. I'm curious to how all the Death of the Family will work together, but not curious to read any more of these.

Batman #14: THIS is how you do a deranged Joker. Hats off Mr Snyder, you might just well be the best Batman writer since the Silver Age. But it's not just Batman - this is a textbook example of writing comics. Set up the mystery, raise the bar with a fake-out during the plot build and take it to a level where you want to read the next part of it. Hell, it almost makes me want to read Batgirl (even if Gail didn't get the memo about how the Joker's doing things). The backup is great too, with just enough hints about how all this is panning out, while telling a completely different story. Why isn't everything DC put out as good as this?

Batman & Robin #14: The Joker has created cannibals, but I can't take my mind of the way Peter Tomasi is channelling Neal Adams' Batman Odyssey. Or Frank Miller's All Star Batman. And neither of those are good options.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8210/8203422640_0d56eb857e_o.jpg

OK, I guess, but very average and I don't think we really need the emo bullshit on the last couple of pages.

Deathstroke #14: And there was me wondering why Deathstroke was involved in all this Hawkman nonsense. It's because his armour is Nth Metal. OH, OF COURSE IT IS ROB. FFS, can you not get one original idea? (By the way, despite all his fun adventures in space and whatnot Deathstroke is now reduced to picking up jobs in bars. Bit of a comedown.)

Demon Knights #14: This has kind of lost its way in the past couple of months. Etrigan and Jason are separate, Morgaine is going to conquer Avalon, everybody is pairing up into couples to have a happy life together. I didn't care for this much and had to check who wrote it as it's well below the standards Paul Cornell has set for the title, but he's put in enough effort in the past to get him a free pass this month. Just make it the only one where I say it, OK?

Frankenstein #14: Why drag your heels like the other Rotworld books? Why not just speed about invincibly across America when everyone else can't go 100 yards without being attacked. I know, why not go to Easter Island, just for the hell of it? Then kill off the rest of the cast and bring in some shiny golden robots? That's bound to help.

Green Lantern Corps #14: So the Guardians are now working against Guy Gardner now, because Guy is the best Lantern of all time now? Is that because Hal is/isn't dead or was Guy always better? And in GL:NG you say that Kyle's the best ever. Is it just that every Lantern is the best Lantern ever because they're all better than all the other heroes because they're Geoff Johns' power fantasy. Except John Stewart. Geoff Johns doesn't seem to like him for some reason. If only I could put my finger on what makes him different to Hal or Guy or Kyle. There must be something... Anyway, Kilowog and Salaak sort of work out what's going on, but don't care enough to do anything about it and the Guardians take away Guy's ring and return him to Earth. Most books would be cancelled at this point, as this one should, but it'll continue on unfortunately.

Grifter #14: Oh shitty Christ, this is awful. Rob has Grifter and Midnighter zapped round the world while they're fighting so he can get some KEWL ideas in. What if they were underwater fighting a shark, wouldn't that be KEWL? Oops, not as good as I thought, but there was a shark so VFFTTT they're in front of a speeding train, but that's a kind of one panel joke so VFFTTT they're in Tokyo. It's like watching a toddler with ADHD playing with action figures. Not being a toddler myself, or a parent with an interest, it's more dereving of sympathy than awe or pride.

Legion Lost #14: Not long remaining, and it definitely shows. This takes place after last month's Superboy, which takes place after next month's Ravagers. Make sense? The writers have given up with this lazy rubbish and so have I.

Suicide Squad #14: Wow, so Floyd's really dead, huh? Not sure I saw that coming, and Harley definitely didn't see the Joker punching her square in the face coming either. The slight change in focus to the Bat tie-in make it less satisfying in previous months as it's more than able to stand alone, but it works well enough I suppose. Compared to nearly everything else this week it's a masterpiece.

Superboy #14: Just so we're clear, Legion Lost 14-16 happen between Superboy 13 and 14. How's that there continuity working out for you, DiDio? This also is taking place at the same time (and is part of) both the Batman and Superman tie in plots. MAKE IT STOP.

Team 7 #2: I think this might genuinely be one of the most pointless books DC has ever published. Team 7's giant flying space doughnut takes them to somewhere that Eclipso might be, which is odd as he was killed during the TINY FOOTPRINTS nonsense, which must still exist because Green Lantern is still from that universe (otherwise Brightest Day can't have happened, which it must have). There's some fighting of sorts, and some standing about. That's all I remember, and I've just finished reading it. That probably tells its own story.

Phantom Stranger #2: Talking of pointless books... actually, the portrayal of football (or soccer, if you must) is one of the most hilariously inept things I've read in a DC book for many years. Really, if you're going to write about a topic you could at least learn SOMETHING about it. Imagine if a Brit was writing about baseball and the guy on the losing team hit four home runs. It would sound kind of stupid, right? Well so does this book. The Stranger is now just a supernatural alter-ego. Like putting on a costume or something. Yes, it's that dumb. Awful stuff.

Ravagers #6: And completing the week of wasted paper comes this, a barely tolerabel team book but I'll take anything I can get at this point. But wait! It takes place before Legion Lost 14, so it takes place before Superboy 14. Good. But they're not done yet - Beast Boy suffers the effects from Rotworld in this issue and a boxout refers to Swamp Thing and Animal Man 14s, so they take place in the Johnsiverse after all and here's the proof. That means it only has a year left before it's all destroyed. Hooray!

Is Scott Snyder's time on Batman just 1-14? I stopped reading after a bit as it wasn't thrilling me, but that's pretty strong praise (particularly coming after GMoz's run).

I think Snyder is doing a good job, but that praise seems a bit much. I think his solid storytelling seems much better because of the dross he's competing with at DC these days.

That's probably fairer to be honest but pretty much everything else is SO BAD it just feels like Nathan's touched by the hand of genius.

Hats off Mr Snyder, you might just well be the best Batman writer since the Silver Age.

I read The Black Mirror two weeks ago, and Mr Snyder is no Alan Brennert. Nor is he an 80s Frank Miller, a Matt Wagner, a Pete Milligan, a Grant Morrison, a Darwyn Cooke, a Paul Pope, a Bryan Talbot, an Andy Helfer, a Neil Gaiman, or a Mike Allred. He's maybe a Scott Hampton?

Batwoman #14: MUST STOP THINKING ABOUT PROMETHEA. But it's so hard, this is so influenced by it. Every page is a splash to exploit the artwork, and the writing is pretty solid (even if it does put Wonder Woman in a kind of Justice League Dark position). After far too many months Batwoman has found its feet again and is about as good as it's ever been. Those of you that remember the Detective run will know that's fairly high praise.

Birds of Prey #14: This isn't going anywhere. Again. The Condor guy, who isn't maybe such a bad guy after all, but then is, but then isn't, but then is, is merely a sidebar in the plot. Which seems to be about getting a lot of ninjas in a room for a big fight - which the BoP run away from in any case. This isn't awful, by any means, it just isn't actively good and I can't for the life of me work out whu anyone would choose to read it.

Blue Beetle #14: So, Jaime and the other good/bad scarab blow up Scarabworld, like it was suggested last month they would, while the dead Mayan dude continues to chase them. There are an awful lot of hints about secrets to be revealed in the near future, but over a year into publication isn't the time to be introducing them. I suppose the adventures in the Reach just about do enough to make you want to read more, but with cancellation already announced it's difficult to raise the enthusiasm. This may well indicate good things for Threshold when it starts, but migrating a cancelled title character into a new book hasn't exactly worked out for Mister Terrific now, has it?

Catwoman #14: Little more than a series of set pieces designed to show Catwoman in various states of undress (including a contrived scenario to get her in the shower), but it's not dreadful at all despite being written by Ann Nocenti. At the conclusion she offers her NEW REVOLUTIONARY take on The Joker - he's gay for Batman! Wow! I never saw that coming! </snark> http://www.comicbooktidbits.com/BATMAN%20BATTLES%20JOKER_files/image022.jpg

DCU Presents #14: STOP GETTING BLUE DEVIL WRONG. http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120123072253/marvel_dc/images/c/c9/Blue_Devil_Vol_1_22.jpg Facepalm indeed. Can I un-read this?

GL:NG #14: The continuing story of Kyle Rayner becoming the bestest Lantern ever sees him meeting the same people he's met before that swanned off at the end of the first plot NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN. But OH NOES Carol Ferris is being conned by the Guardians because they know the whole thing is secretly to help Hal and because they hate him so much they've got a whole secret plot to undermine all the other Lanterns of all colours just in case. That's how ridiculous this book is now, the lead character isn't even what the book is about any more. It's about Hal. Which not even Hal's book is about.

Justice League #14: Superman is still a cheetah, but jungle magic cures him so he takes WW out on a hot date to eat apple pie in Smallville. The ridiculously overpowered Cheetah is captured ridiculously easily (despite her almost killing Barry Allen in the process), which may or may not be part of a secret plot on her part that has to do with the Black Manta. Batman watches Supes and WW having sex in a field on his special Super Sex Scanner. He seems unmoved by the experience, but then again we can only see one of his hands. Geoff Johns' Shazam backup is as Johns-y as you'd expect, take it or leave it.

LoSH #14: SPROING is a sound effect you don't see that much any more. It appears multiple times here, including one panel where it appears three times. That's devotion to a word. A guy with a squid face called M'WIM has lost his sword. This will undoubtedly be a bad thing in future issues.

Nightwing #14: Poor Dick. Not important enough to get a Joker crossover in the first wave. It's really eating him up too, as he can't believe a villain would just turn up randomly and attack him and the Joker must have been behind it. Villains don't turn up randomly? HAVE YOU NEVER READ A COMIC BEFORE, DICK?

Red Hood #14: Superman turns up on the off-chance that what happened in his Annual (which I'm not actually sure I bothered reading), and buggers off in the huff when he finds it didn't. Jason shags an alien girl, only for the Joker to drug her and set him up with the police. See Dick? Even a DEAD Robin gets a better Joker crossover than you. Irrespective of how good this might be, the grammar nazi in me finds this unforgivable in an edited publication:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8061/8231246783_67a197201d_o.jpg

Your kidding me.

Supergirl #14: In which Supergirl is exposed as a Nationalist bigot. Seriously, she is full of contempt for Superman and the human scientist because they speak Kryptonian with an Earth accent, which she doesn't care for. She even thinks an Irish girl (which, as we all should remember, looks just like Texas) speaks more authentic Kryptonian than them. The rest of the issue is really about whether she and H'El (who has the least Kryptonian Kryptonian name ever) should kill everyone that isn't pure blood Kryptonian. Because we all like a nice final solution in our comics, don't we?

Sword Of Sorcery #2: Re-arrange these words. DUCK LAME. Amethyst and her new friend talk about fabrics. She then gets some of her mother's power through the ability of LOVE. Quite what the power is, who knows. Putting out lights seems to be her main skill. The techno-Beowulf backup is still excellent though and well worth your attention - just don't go near Amethyst to get there.

Wonder Woman #14: This really doesn't belong in the New 52, does it. 1) It's good. 2) It's well plotted, as we get the machinations of Gods, Zeus' bastard children, sleeping giants... 3) It's good. Plus Orion turns up at the end. You can't go wrong with the New Gods now, can you.

All-Star Western #14: So, the cover is unrelated to the plot and the Barbary Ghost's clothing is frankly implausible, but there's lots to love in this as ever. Yes, we've seen Mr Hyde in LoEG and he's been as brutal here as there, but it doesn't mean it isn't great to read. The Tomahawk backup isn't the best this book has seen though, and the final panel with the horses leaving the settlement is REALLY badly drawn. But hey, with pickings as slim as DC's output you ignore things like that in a decent book.

Aquaman #14: The thing about Aquaman is, he's king of the sea. Right? So you think you'd get an artist in that can draw fish. Well OK, Pete Woods can technically draw fish, but he draws STUPID fish. The sort who have to go to a special school and aren't allowed to play with the sharp coral. Black Manta doesn't want to join the Suicide Squad, presumably because it's not written by Geoff Johns, but will tie in with Justice League, because it is. In other news, the Trench baddies from the very first plot are being brought back by somebody (and based on the adverts for the impending Throne Of Atlantis I'd bet it's a way they think can... erm... get the Throne Of Atlantis). Johnsy Johnsiness of the highest order.

Batman Inc #5: Ummm. Thrill-powered, yes, but the whole issue is an alternate future Gotham if Damian became Batman. So, back in the DCU, Bruce tells Damian he can't let that happen. Then all the other members of Batman Inc get blown up. A great read, but I'm not sure why DC are publishing this as a New 52 title.

Batman The Dark Knight #14: Wow. Does Batman really skewer the Scarecrow to the ceiling with a rope he shoots from a rocket gun? He gets pissed off because of this and buys a giant dirigible from the Penguin to infect Gotham with fear gas during the Thanksgiving/Christmas parade. The Penguin probably didn't need it any more after it didn't go so well for him in that Tim Burton film. Good stuff though, even if it feels like there isn't much to it.

I, Vampire #14: The fight from last issue doesn't happen and a guy who can't do bar magic gets turned into a vampire. This second soft reboot doesn't feel like it's going anywhere and if I'm honest it's painfully obvious that this is a dead book walking. After the next round of cancellations it's the second lowest DC seller, so it's inevitable really.

Justice League Dark #14: Better than most of the characters' own books. We get a runaround of the House of Secrets, including the big secret of who's spying on the DCU trying to find out secrets. There's going to be a war, apparently. Yes, another one.

Red Lanterns #14: Atrocitus punches a planet to death. The human Red Lantern, the new one, lives in the Middle Ages (based on the village he takes Bleez to, which definitely isn't the one he left from the first time we saw him). The Red Lanterns easily beat the Third Army in any case, which makes them the best Lantern Corps, presumably. This allows Atrocitus to muse on the colour blue, like some kind of rage-filled Van Gogh.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8482/8231580239_6395c2a02e_o.jpg

What next? Larfleeze recites "Daffodils"?

Superman #14: Supergirl's genocidal desires spill over to here, but Superman is largely able to explain it all away in long sentences. H'El gets in a mood because nobody will kill Superboy for him, so he smashes up a car lot. Scott Lobdell has improved the title exponentially, but having to deal with shitty crossovers is affecting his ability to deliver. Get back to Clark & Jimmy in 'One And A Half Men'.

Talon #2: Do we really need this? It's well written and engaging enough, because you can never have too much OWLS, but it really does feel like one BatBook too many, even though it isn't really one. Might be worth taking a 6 month view on, not least because I think it'll read better as a trade anyway.

Teen Titans #14: Cassie takes her armour back, which kills her archaeologist boyfriend. She doesn't seem to cut up about it. Kiran finally realises she's naked and gets all embarrassed in front of someone from the "current" issue of Birds of Prey, by which presumably they mean #15 as I've just read #14 and don't recognise the character I'm obviously supposed to. What are the chances of that, an incorrect editorial boxout?

Flash #14: Grodd back and more powerful than before, with control over the speed force now. I won't spoil the ending, but this is super stuff again and maybe the most consistently good book in the Johnsiverse.

Firestorm #14: Just when you thought this book couldn't get any worse, Captain Atom has turned up. With a really weirdly shaped head. Somebody cancel this, please? It's the actual lowest seller not yet cancelled, and sells less than the already-cancelled Frankenstein. Just put it out of its misery, please?

Hawkman #14: And talking of poor sellers, the third lowest-selling not-cancelled book. Home of the Liefeld retells Deathstroke #14 over two pages, and Green Arrow shoots some arrows into Thanagarians' faces. We get wonders of Liefeld writing like this:

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8486/8231768465_6c7ef1cfa3_o.jpg

Can we make it stop please? Pretty please?

Batman Inc was especially non-Nu 52 in that the future bits were pretty much a continuation of that flash-to-the-future part of Batman #666 or whichever.

Yeah, that's where I recognised it from right enough now you mention it.

I think there's some glitched continuity, though. On the first page, I think that's Nightwing talking to Gordon, but then it cuts to the interior of the building with Dick Grayson as Batman talking to Bruce Wayne as Batman? Not sure how Dick is outside and inside in two different costumes. Was there something in the last issue about that, that I have forgotten?

Inside it is Jason Todd as Wingman talking to Batman.

ah, duh

I revived the Batman RIP thread since it's the main Morrison-centric one I could find, if anyone else wants to talk about that stuff.

Superman turns up on the off-chance that what happened in his Annual (which I'm not actually sure I bothered reading), and buggers off in the huff when he finds it didn't

It sure didn

The sort who have to go to a special school

Just wanted to make sure this was recognised.

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 is available with cover art by DAVID FINCH.
The standard edition cover features the flag of the United States.
This issue is available in 52 U.S. flag variant editions, one for each state plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico
In addition, you may order a shrinkwrapped pack of the standard edition of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #1 plus all 52 variant covers, with a suggested retail price of $149.99 US.

I used to find Previews a fascinating document of the crass extents to which people would go to absolutely fleece nerds with expendable income. And based on some of the crap I've seen people buy at comic shops, it's a business model with legs.

I must have Puerto Rico

Gobsmacked at the sheer audacity of having a mag with more variant covers than pages, just absurd

Really digging on Snyder's Bats and Dial H

And for that I have to thank this thread otherwise I'd never have picked them up

Dial H is fucking great

if you'd told me a year ago that my favorite comic books would be a Dial H reboot and a Hawkeye solo series, I would have laughed myself silly

#hawkguy

any word on a Dial H trade?

Any word on Mieville sticking around after Berger's boned?

Is Berger leaving DC or just Vertigo? It seemed like her being the Dial H editor was a personal favor to Mieville, so maybe she'll continue at least through his planned run. She's around through the spring regardless. I'm assuming he wasn't going to do Dial H longterm, but maybe I'm wrong.

Oh, man, what? Berger's leaving now?? Well, DC, you had a good run. It's too bad you had to piss all over everything. It is a little shocking that it only took them < 2 yrs to hobble the whole operation.

Is Berger leaving DC or just Vertigo?

looooool

Feel like sharing that joke?

someone could look at Berger's entire career at DC, and what work she's edited in that time, and how many other people have been there as long, or half as long, or a quarter as long as her, and what DC have done in toto since Nelson came on, and what DC have done to Vertigo contracts over the last ten years, and how many ppl have series at Vertigo now that aren't also writing at least one ongoing GODCORP.jpg in the DCU, and how many DC-fully-owned properties are being published as discrete series at Vertigo; and type "ayo maybe 'stepping down from Vertigo' doesn't mean she's "~~resigning~~"* from AOL/DC/Time/Warner, maybe she's moving to The Nu-52 fulltime?" = looooool

*lol

Didn't you use to be not a dick?

No one posited she was moving to Nu-52 fulltime. I only wondered if she would stay on and edit Mieville. But, hey, any chance to be an asshole.

You really think DC would continue to pay her the salary of their longest-standing executive (and iirc a VP) to edit ONE low-selling wfh title? That a major, major part of forcing her out isn't to save on her pay packet?

(I was always a dick ;_; )

Did I say she was continuing in the same role and salary? Did I do anything but wonder if she was going to continue to work with Mieville, because that was a personal favor to him in the first place? Why, no I didn't, you dickweed.

So you... think that after being forced out of an executive role & pay & benefits, being forced out of a VP role & pay & benefits, being forced out of the imprint she founded and headed for 19 years -- 19 years! --, which has been one of DC's most stable profit centers in publishing for most of that time, which was one of the four most (perhaps sole) significant factors in DC establishing sustainable roots in bookstores (and therefore Amazon) *ever*... that in reaction to this insulting dismissal of everything she's brought to the company, she would turn down an executive/VP severance package in favour of switching to a junior editor's wage for, idk, 6-10 months and then getting re-fired?

I mean, maybe I'm coming off dickish, and maybe she absolutely would -- I don't know her! -- but it seems flabbergastingly unlikely to me, which is why I'm asking! Your scenario seems premised on these assumptions though, right?

(I got out of bed to try and find a recent Vertigo book to check her title, but I guess it's been well over a year since I bought one)

(oh no wait that Ghosts anthology! *gets out of bed again)

yeah, Senior VP & Executive Editor

My premise was I wonder what the deal is with her editing DIAL H, and since I had and have no information about what has happened between her and DC, I asked out loud if it meant the end of that too. I didn't give one thought about money or contracts as it didn't matter to my instant concern.

But hey, instead of saying, "I can't imagine her staying on or working with DC in any capacity because blah, blah,blah," you decided to lol at some train of thought only you were privy to, which made you look like an ass. I would have agreed with you if you had approached it from a different angle, but I should know that's too much to ask when you think you have a zinger.

The assumption that there is no way to keep her on Dial H without losing her severance package is a pretty big one (particularly considering that yeah this does actually happen in the real world), but it doesn't sound like it's EZ making it?

Also the deal where she's editing Dial H must be a little odd anyway - is she taking time out from VP work for it, is she effectively already massively overpaid for it, is she doing it evenings and weekends?

(I was always a dick ;_; )

lol

ANYway...I have to wonder if there are any worried rumblings among the top brass at DC. I don't know what the sales figures look like at this point, but the number of high-profile people who are jumping ship over exceedingly shitty editorial/managerial decisions sure looks like a disaster-in-waiting from the outside. Most puzzlingly: I don't really understand why ANY of this was allowed to happen! The whole New 52 initiative seems like the kind of last-minute Hail Mary you'd play if your company was severely in the tank and on the verge of failing completely...but I don't think that was the case? It just seems like massive and devastating restructuring simply for the fuck of it, with no room for reasoned judgment or reflection.

I dunno, having worked in several large-ish organisations, the "massive and devastating restructuring simply for the fuck of it" button gets pressed depressingly often. Short-termism seems to be the root of all managerial evil.

Isn't that the 'brief-sales-boost-from-series-reboot' button? You do that often enough and the whole thing dissolves into incoherence (this being comics that's saying a lot) and eventually there's nobody left in the room listening to you any more.
Seems to me they've been rebooting in faster and faster intervals (like rebooted Superman and Spiderman films coming five or so years after the last ones), and they've either gotten to or are really close to a reboot singularity where every issue is an origin story (which actually I would read since it would read like The Caterer)

(I was always kind of impressed with Byrne's 1986 Supes reboot since so much of it has survived all the reboots since)

That's a solid starting point from which I started collecting a few years back. Years and years and years of a continued story without anyone getting the jitters and hitting restart.

In many respects, triangle era Superman is pretty much my platonic ideal for how in-continuity comics should be structured/handled.

I had to look that triangle thing up since I had no idea what you were talking about - that is pretty clever!

Right? And they brought the triangle numbering back for a year or two recently, sometime after Infinite Crisis and just before Straczynski came in and wrecked stuff pre-New 52. It was, perhaps unsurprisingly, the most solid Superman run in recent memory.

tbf I understood exactly what sic was getting at, and Berger staying on in any way that is NOT Vertigo-related is ridiculous. She's virtually synonymous with Vertigo, in my book, and the fact they're screwing with it is pretty much a dead giveaway she'd be on the way out.

http://fflivewire.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/High_Five.gif

BTW http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=42536