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

I'm actually a bit surprised that a figure of his prominence has been solely associated w/Marvel for so long. I thought these folks frequently went back and forth...

Yeah, this is no small thing. Whether you like his work or not, it's undeniable that the dude has had a huge impact on Marvel over the past decade and a half. I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that he's maybe among the top 10-20 most impactful figures in their history.

I got the impression he was in the track to either flip to management/editorial or find another engagement writing elsewhere. There were a few comments on twitter where he was reiterating the company line (buy single issues in comic stores or your faves might not continue or be collected!). Comics-wise, the work he did that shaped company direction is pretty scattershot post-2010 and advising on film work seems like it'd be frustrating as a writer. Everything he's worked on recently is a retread (Civil War II) or something that's been brought back because of tv tie-ins (Jessica Jones, Defenders).

Hopefully they give him something he enjoys at DC

Hope they don't, he's a terrible writer and significantly responsible for the navel-burrowing market restriction of the two big superhero publishers in the 21st century

I'm actually a bit surprised that a figure of his prominence has been solely associated w/Marvel for so long.

He was solely associated with Caliber for most of the 90s, moved his Caliber books to Image when he started being associated with Image, and had Marvel start a mini-imprint for creator-owned books just so that he could bring his Image work over there. Dude obviously prefers having the vast majority of his work under one roof.

by "something he enjoys" I mean "some book people who really want Bendis material can read without him getting editorial direction"

Hickman too apparently, non-exclusive.

Ok Hickman is great fit, considering he basically writes classic DC stories with Marvel characters

ding ding

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/11/09/eddie-berganza-dc-comics-buzzfeed-publishing-article/

about fucking time this got more attention

that piece is now live
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/dc-comics-editor-eddie-berganza-sexual-harassment

DC human resources is shocked, shocked, and will look into these dramatic new revelations immediately

https://io9.gizmodo.com/dc-comics-has-suspended-editor-eddie-berganza-amidst-al-1820366602

Better late than never I guess.

FWIW I don't think that Buzzfeed piece is very well-reported. And the page-tear design feels more "fun crime story" than "fire this horrible asshole already".

I read an old JLA annual yesterday, and think I've found history's worst drawing of a leg

https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/6/65/Captain_Atom_003.jpg

Or https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/6/65/Captain_Atom_003.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100424132949

Maybe shoulders too

Who's the artiste?

I don't think it's Bart Sears but it's definitely an artist from the same 'all muscles must be depicted as simultaneously flexed such that the subject appears to be wracked from head to toe in painfully-gnarled tumors' school.

Sergio Cariello apparently

I only had time to flip through it but the art in Doomsday Clock looks pretty good at least.

Hey, if it's your thing, basically every Marvel and DC graphic novel or collection ever is on sale on c*m*x*l*g* right now.

“Undeplorables”

Geoff Johns, ladies and gentlemen

What's he done now?

Written more comics.

(actual answer, made a Trump Trope the president in Doomsday Clock)

Doomsday Clock is somehow worse than I expected and I expected a steaming pile of shit.

I'm actually taken aback in how much they're exploiting Watchmen. Didn't think they'd go this far.

I for one applaud them for making use of every part of the corpse. I hear they're planning to use its ligaments in the binding of the collected edition and are giving away necklaces of its teeth and small finger bones as retailer exclusives. And I guess they've somehow fashioned a crude latrine out of Alan Moore's writing credit?

I agree with all the above but I enjoyed it as a guilty pleasure.

I flipped thru it in the shop while my son chose to buy "Super Sons." (I had tried to steer him toward another Scooby-Doo Team-Up...)

aldo, can you or another helpful soul explain what this goddamn 'Metal' thing is all about? I saw a solicitation for some 'origins of whatever the hell Metal is' trade which includes a couple issues of Final Crisis and I would like to understand without having to actually research it, thx.

Super Sons is a wonderful book.

xpost

Cool, I'm gonna read it with (to) him tonight.

I think I have a slight aversion on sight to "cool" preteen boy characters with spiky hair and ripped jeans. But I'm sure I can look past the surface.

As far as I can tell, Metal is just an evil doppelgänger story that's been suffocated inside in mounds of unecessary plotting and multiversal whatnot. The baddie is Barbatos, some some of demon-thing who's spent three decades off-panel in various Peter Milligan and Grant Morrison stories - but he hasn't turned up in Metal yet. Instead of ruining all the parallel earths like in Countdown, Snyder's created a new set of "dark parallel universes" to play action figure armageddon with.

Tonally it's supposed to be a fun cosmic punchy action thing, but Snyder's main book is incoherent with backstory, and the spinoff books are all uberviolent sub-Geoff Johns arm-ripping type things written by shitty DC fill-in crews. It's basically Blackesy Night with parallel universe Batmangs instead of zombies. A crossover, in other words.

Chuck has Metal pretty well summed up - there's a series of alt-Batmans (some with the powers of other heroes, some with the powers of other villains) that have come through into the universe through a doorway opened because Bruce has been trying to find what metal drove the Joker mad (having already established there are metals not from our Universe - like Nth Metal -and deciding it's an unknown one of them) and unknowingly bringing Barbatos into the Rebirthiverse. It isn't any good at all.

Super Sons is generally great but the Annual racks it up a notch and is Obe of the top 5 DC books of the year. Tom King's Batman annual (also out last week) might be as good.

Tom King's Batman has been a revelation after he slogged through that first arc. The Bane and Catwoman stuff is all A++.

Agreed! Liking the Batman run.
I actually enjoy the fake-goth silliness of Metal, I have to admit, though. Hellraiser Batman alone tickles me.

Thanks, guys. Metal sounds about as incoherent/unappealing as I'd expected. So this is the Hyper-Adapter thing that was pursuing Bruce Wayne through time after Darkseid 'killed' him? The name 'Barbatos' in a DC book conjures up a whole other image for me (from John Ney Reiber's Books of Magic series):

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/a/ab/Barbatos_0001.jpeg

As a fan of moreoreless everything else Tom King has done, I'm finding his run on Mister Miracle really unenjoyable and gratuitous. There's too much quirk to write it off as a Gritty Reboot, but it seems very alienating and fanboys-only-ish. Anyone else?

I love it! Gratuitous in what way?

Everyone keeps getting brained by Barda in an over-lovingly detailed way

Maybe it'll read better in the trade tho'

I would say, I'm finally reading Omega Man and it's fantastic

This is probably the right time to point out that DC removed Rebirth branding from all their books last week.

So are their books going to be officially rebranded as Afterbirth or is that just implied?

As a fan of moreoreless everything else Tom King has done, I'm finding his run on Mister Miracle really unenjoyable and gratuitous. There's too much quirk to write it off as a Gritty Reboot, but it seems very alienating and fanboys-only-ish. Anyone else?

I only read the first issue, but it was hilariously dumb

officially rebranded as Afterbirth

Marvel and DC have both put the old-school rectangle back on their covers, but the design is super-garish in both cases, looks hella naff

I haven't read the latest Miracle but the way I interpreted the book so far is King is trying to get into the headspace of the depressed - I thought he captured the deadening of affect, the disassociation, finally erupting in rage after being pressed beyond endurance really well. I have a hard time reading it because like Ware it cuts a little too deep. I'm sure King picked the character of Free to go into these themes because of his traumatic backstory and the irony of him being an escape artist. I don't think it justifies quite all the hype, because the distance between the superhero fantasy world of empowerment and the dead-inside life of the mentally ill is just too much dissonance and the reader can't connect those two worlds. I'm not really sure who the audience for the book is, but I'm still glad it exists.

the newest one was where it all clicked for me, and all of the themes aligned

and the meta-commentary that funky flashman brings to the table was well utilized