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

love the loopy lateral thinking which leads dr mcnider to only barely rename himself after owl-based inspiration strikes rather than, y'know, calling himself owl-man

Dr. Mid-Nite is a much cooler name tbf

Who's that guy saying, "Gosh, Mid-Nite. I really identify with that"? That dialogue's so funny to me...

It's Professor Dark-Ness, who had a startlingly-similar 'I once was blind but now I see through the eyes of a little birdie friend' origin story.

Or I might be totally lying.

Rebirth got really good after all I see

that’s dr mid-nite’s sidekick señor day-glo iirc

You guys!

Criminals are a cowardly lot... I shall become that which they fear... an owl
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/4919816496_01f54106ea.jpg

In all seriousness, I believe he's speaking to Hourman, whose power is basically getting really hopped up on homemade bennies, so the intense identification he's relating to Dr. Mid-Nite is a side-effect of what's commonly known as 'tweaking' (which might have been made clearer if Hourman were also sweating profusely and uncontrollably sniffing).

Many bad things here

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2018/01/21/looks-like-dc-comics-didnt-tell-chris-sprouse-tom-strong-appearing-terrifics-either/

oof

dc really just dgaf do they

I don't really get why they're doing this, unless it's just company policy to troll Alan Moore or anyone who's worked with him. Even if the original creators came back, these would be niche properties. Now they're just a subset of a niche.

I think you pretty much nailed their motives.

it can only be deliberate trolling or gross incompetence, really

either way, not a great look for dc

particularly since either way it's hard not to interpret as evidence of creative bankruptcy - being reduced to resurrecting old properties created by someone who absolutely despises you and, as chuck says, were not exactly blockbuster successes in the first place should be mortally embarrassing for everyone involved

it's just bizarre to take promethea, a character developed explicitly so moore could explore esoteric magical interpretations of the qabalah, and graft her into a justice league

like what is this character gonna bring that, say, doctor fate wouldn't? it's not energised new readers desperate to read the further adventures of promethea, that's for sure

that was the one character I figured they'd leave alone, but you know... DC

You know that this was a cynical, top-down decision because I highly doubt any creator who read and was invested in Promethea and wanted to explore the character further would float the idea of doing so via Justice League membership.

I genuinely fail to understand why J.H. Williams works with DC at all anymore (I mean, sure, $$$, but still).

a lot of people just really like making things that are seen by a ton of people in the mass market, even if it means having a corporate boss

the boss is always a boss, never your friend, and you have to expect them to do shitty boss-like things, because they don't work for you but for the nebulous corporate entity

I get that in a general sense, but they've kinda dicked him over directly a couple of times now.

genuinely fail to understand why J.H. Williams works with DC at all anymore

What has he agreed to do with them after 2012? Some variant covers?

Apart from writing all those Rebirth crossovers under the name Geoff Johns, obv

Maybe he isn't doing work for them currently but he did Sandman: Overture after the Batwoman fiasco.

Did anyone read Tom Strong? I've never been a Chris Sprouse fan - he's a good storyteller, but there's something creepy about the way he draws faces. I remember reading the first book - it seemed like every public library in the world had a copy of Tom Strong in 2004 - but seemed pretty dull compared to Top 10, or the first couple of Promethea & LOEG books.

Maybe he isn't doing work for them currently but he did Sandman: Overture after the Batwoman fiasco.

So he fulfilled a contract he'd signed long before they fucked him over, then never worked for them again? That's exactly the opposite of him working for them anymore.

i liked tom strong fine; it was basically moore's take on 60's-70's superman and that was fun

most of us mortals don't know when people signed contracts or whatever but yeah, that seems like some bad blood

in July 2012 he indicated that he'd signed on to Overture around August 2011.

he quit Batwoman on September 4th, 2013.

Which just proves my point. Case closed. You're welcome.

Sorry: you were right, sic, and I was wrong.

😀👍

The third issue of Doomsday Clock was so bad, Aldo should do a thread about it

I enjoyed the first two, in a mostly guilty way

The third issue was the "everything you were afraid of, but worse" issue

Obviously I will carry on reading it

spoilers pls!

I paged through the first one and thought it was horrible, is there at least blatant shitting on Watchmen instead of the faux-reverence?

Highlights include

* Clowns with invisible guns

* Clowns with knives for hands

* Old man Johnny Thunder stares out of a window for 8 pages

* Ozymandias and The Comedian's salute to Kirk Douglas's action scenes in The Fury

* Your ol' pal Geoff Johns reprises his greatest hits of limb dismemberment

* Comedian Stewart Lee guest stars

it's so bad

Oh, and it's going bi-monthly so the whole thing will last TWO YEARS

not even entertainingly bad, unfortunate

Oh, right, and The Comedian didn't die, he fell into a time wormhole that took him to the modern-day DC universe

there it is

lol @ the chutzpah

* Old man Johnny Thunder stares out of a window for 8 pages

Rorschach pulls off his 'real' face to reveal that his ACTUAL real face looks like the mask that he wears over what we all thought was his real face. It's possible that this is, in fact, a third mask with a real human face underneath but we'll have to wait and see.

Oh, and he wasn't actually killed by Ozymandias because, um, Earth Prime...?

(These are not real spoilers, btw, despite being similarly stupid.)

I can only assume the final issue will feature Ozymandias delivering an issue-length monologue on the virtues of corporately-owned IP while pissing directly into the face of an Alan Moore analogue.

Without wishing to troll, the Legion is dumb dated bullshit and can fuck off

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Wednesday, December 27, 2017 9:04 PM (one month ago)

I now have a more developed response to this post, which is... I (sadly) sort of agree with the sentiment (if not the spirit or expression).

I've been reading The Curse, a collection of prime Levitz-Giffen '80s Legion material (it covers #297-313, plus a few Annuals). Coming on the heels of "The Great Darkness Saga," the plotting is looser and not as virtuosic in as that storyline (how could it be?); but this works in the book's favor in certain ways, making it lighter and more accessible. Issue #308 seems to be a creative high point, featuring the best Giffen artwork that I've ever seen (every page is terrific); though to be fair, Giffen only draws the main story and not the second half of the book (a "Meanwhile..." sidebar that ends on a genuinely funny joke).

But it also makes me realize how tightly my appreciation of the Legion is tied to this particular era/creative team. It's not really about the characters themselves -- as even after reading a fair amount of Legion material, I find I have a hard time remembering who they all are, their powers and backstories, etc. (Maybe because there are so many of them, and each gets so little "screen time," you have to read the series for years to keep track or get invested -- thus the stereotype of the lifelong Legion superfan?)

Also, while I originally got off board after the "Five Years Later" era, I have read reviews, summaries, page scans, etc. of the various reboots and relaunches; and nothing really gets me interested. So while of course it's common for old & "evergreen" properties to be successfully revived for a new era, and anything could always happen, I feel like chances of it happening for the Legion are very remote... at least for me. That "Legion feeling" seems to be a certain kind of geeky lightning in a bottle that probably can't be recaptured, especially by today's DC, even if the "retroboot" team is supposed to be a close analogue of the original.

The Abnett & Lanning Legion is the only one I care about after the Five Years Later stories.

They were in the Reboot, right? Is there a collection of their stuff I should check out?

They’re first run was around the turn of the century. The reboot stuff wasn’t nearly as good. I think DC just started to collect them but I’m not sure how far they’ve gotten so far. I think they’re publishing them as The Legion by Abnett and Lanning

Their first run. I hate fat thumbs and autocorrect