Remake/Remodel: DC Rebirth so you don't have to

"F from Professor Bechdel" -- how rude

lol at The Comics Journal review:

Lobo/Road Runner Special #1: Fuck these comics; $4.99.

and further

I dunno, I just have a really visceral aversion to these DC serious-but-funny takes on Warner Brothers and Hanna-Barbara cartoon properties, which seem designed primarily to coax oh my god such a weird idea ha ha ha ha ha ha reactions from credulous entertainment news sources that translate to added visibility, theoretically leading to impulse sales from curious and/or potentially-ironic-but-probably-assertively-‘sincere’-and-anyway-still-buying-so-it’s-exactly-the-same-thing-as-far-as-the-publisher-is-concerned consumers of popular ‘geek’-categorized franchise content. Hey, it worked for Archie. The Flintstones book is supposed to be actually good, and, as we know, only one (arguably) actually-good title is needed to valorize the whole line’s calculation, given the curve on which these corporate funster efforts are typically graded. Whoops, I just fell into their clutches by even talking about it! Still, NONETHELESS, the Lobo/Road Runner book is drawn by Kelley Jones, and it’s nice to see his work, and to know he’s getting paid. Maybe It’s Good (TM).

um. someone's gotta chill. punisher meets archie shaped a generation, yo

I can roll with this latest wacky crossover iteration much more easily than I can John Constantine vs. Evil Orko.

oh god i forgot about Evil Orko. i love it

i just read the lobo/roadrunner thing and it's bad btw
tho nowhere near as bad as wonder woman/Tasmanian devil; that thing is garbage

Why is the comics press so snarky

inferiority complex

comics are terrible

the kelley jones art is really bad

season of mists > lobo/roadrunner is a sad career arc

If you had told me that in 2017 Aquaman and Super Sons would be two of the best comics DC or Marvel were publishing I would have laughed in your face. But here we are.

The Batman/Elmer Fudd comic is... quite good, and maybe better than anything King's done on the solo title? The art is *really* nice.

(This is a variation on EZ Snappin's previous post I guess.)

Your entire post is in English, and I understand all of its constituent words, but for some reason my brain is refusing to process any of the things you just said.

Wow, it does sound good - http://www.cbr.com/review-batman-elmer-fudd-one-shot/

I have to respect Warner's openness to pushing the envelope so far with the classic WB/Hanna-Barbera characters. I imagine Disney/Marvel would not follow a similar path with "Deadpool vs. Uncle Scrooge" or something (though I know there have plenty of "Uncle Scrooge" comics, and I don't know how funky they've gotten).

On a similar note, I recently saw "The Lego Batman Movie." It was good, but left me a bit nonplussed at how "non-canonical" a take it was... almost like "fake Batman," made by folks who are familiar with the basic Batman elements, but not interested at all in staying true to tradition. The movie's characterizations are very far afield; and it presents an alternative history of Batman that alludes to his many familiar incarnations (going back to the beginning), yet retcons Robin out of the history altogether. And while I'm no Batman purist, I found it took me out of the movie. For example - everyone in the Lego world remembers Batman in his swingin' 1960s incarnation, and a brief clip is even shown of Adam West in costume (to drive the point home); but the viewer isn't supposed remember the fact that Robin was also in the series?

I was expecting something more like the direct-to-DVD Lego Batman/Justice League movies, which have lots of humor and in-jokes, but are otherwise "standard" stories that fit well enough within the DC canon (just for a younger audience). And while "The Lego Batman Movie" is more overtly absurdist and ironic in its execution, it's not all played for a joke... it has the standard action movie beats, peril and resolution, etc.

I guess my point is that while it is impressive WB/DC were open to such an alternative take on a key property, it didn't quite "work" for me as a viewer with a basic understanding of Bat-history (and not even as a "rabid Batman fan," which I'm not).

I think it's just a version of Batman who is also a Lego guy, and is for children who have no idea what any of those previous things are but have a general idea of Batman? All the references are for older kids and adults to pick up and add some value, not for the primary audience.

retcons are retroactively changing continuity, it seems like Batman being three inches tall and made of plastic would be a much bigger retcon than not having a sidekick

I suppose, though it retains a ton of other elements from the "real" continuity (a cameo by the Justice League; a bunch of first-, second- and third-rate Batman villains who are painstakingly taken from canonical sources; etc.). Weird to have a Bat-world where Harley Quinn and Bane are familiar nemeses; Barbara Gordon is older than usual and taking over as commissioner, has never been Batgirl, and Batman has a crush on her; and Dick Grayson is a young orphan whom Batman is just now meeting...

I know I sound like I Hate Fun or something, and that's totally overstating it... it's not a huge deal, just more like -- that's not "Batman," you know? He's not an egotistical jerk who thinks he's the greatest, etc. And the Lego Batman in those straight-to-DVD movies is more like a traditional idea of Batman. Being small and made of plastic (and cracking frequent jokes) doesn't mean they can't still "feel" like characters drawn inside the lines of canon, and the movie was outside the lines for me somehow.

(And also the fact that they explicitly allude to all those movies and iconic comic book covers, which implies a connection to a history that is then flouted/ignored... but I know, you're not supposed to read that much into it.)

it's an elseworlds batman

I can understand what you mean by feeling it's off, though. I think I've seen an episode and a half of whatever Spider-Man animated show is currently on and it has characters and locations with familiar names, but none of them fit together in a way I'm accustomed to.

I feel like the meta-commentary of some of the Lego junk means that it takes place in a world similar to ours where somehow there both is a Batman and there's Batman fiction that's the same as our Batman fiction

Yeah - one of the jokes is like, "Remember that time with the parade and the Prince music?"; so it can be pretty aggressively meta.

morrisp you're overthinking this. just enjoy it!

I DEMAND FEALTY TO THE ALMIGHTY BAT-CAN(N)ON!

Crucially this Batman is the Batman from the Lego Movie, so most of your objections are not really on very solid ground.

Yah - but he's not dating "Wyldstyle" and fighting the "kragle" in this one... he lives in the Batcave, protects Gotham City, interacts with tons of other DC characters, etc. It gets close enough to being a "real" Batman production, that the odd ways in which it deviates are highlighted; making it (for me) fall into a kind of "uncanny valley" of "off-brand Batman." I've said my piece!!

fudd/batman xover has my full attention

The Lego Batman Movie is at least the second-best Batman movie

The last Nolan movie is definitely less plausible than the Lego one

"You should use your given name more often... ROBIN"

mask of the phantasm still pretty good

just got a blu-ray release too

Chuck is right, the BatFudd book is really good. I actually think I like the backup more, but well worth your time.

Backup was also good! And considerably less pitiful than the wile e coyote issue.

The Facebook mobile app is letting you, er, cosplay as the justice league right now

BatFudd is solid

I didn't think 2017 could get much more surreal, but I was wrong.

Found a Justice League mini-comic (focusing on Aquaman) inside a box of Honey Nut Cheerios. Is it "canon"?

Not Rebirth I guess, but I'm excited about a DC comic for the first time since, hm, Seven Soldiers I guess -- maybe Morrison on Batman. Tom King's Mister Miracle series. First issue was a great appetite-whetter.

I've become a real King believer the past year

I loved it but wish King had tried a *teensy* bit harder to make it accessible to new readers.

Also I hope/assume loveable supporting character *redacted* isn't actually dead

Not really enjoying the new King story on Batman (except the Kite man oneoff) which is a shame as the art kills whenever it's not David Finch

Throughout the debut issue of Mister Miracle, the new 12-issue limited series from superstar team Tom King, Mitch Gerads and Clayton Cowles, two words recur:

“Darkseid is.”

Those words, colored white and in contrast to a stark black background are bone-chilling at best, truly harrowing at worst. As the issue progresses, they become more defining on the page, darting around a nine-panel grid, slowly, but surely occupying more and more panels. It’s a testament to exactly how good Clayton Cowles is as a letterer that these words alone are enough to invoke a sense of feeling trapped.

lads

Glad I've been preordering it (haven't read it yet), based pretty much entirely on how much y'all have talked up King. Which I guess makes it the first mainstream DCU book I've bought since Multiversity (although I'm not sure to what extent either book really counts as mainstream DCU).

i kinda hate any repetitive bullshit in comics for the sake of pretense (full page black, double page spread recaps) and the "darkseid is" stuff is egregious but the new miracle man isn't half bad. needs a few more issues to tell.

I enjoyed the issue but sic’s quote there is indeed lol

METAL! It reminds me of a *slightly* more readable 90s Jim Lee comic

Not as good as those Justice League backups in Cave Carson, though

man the ads for metal make it look like the absolute worst...

i went to my local and bought #1, sounded silly enough