Last Wednesday saw the release of the final twelfth issue of DC's line wide relaunch, which was an apparent attempt to gain new or lapsed readers. Since a year is passed I figured I'd Hop on the Internet machine, and give my thoughts to the first year. And overall it's a resounding.
Meh!
The New 52 as it was so "hiply" called Started out strong, mostly on hype (Everything except the bat books is gonna change!!!) but very soon it devolved into same shit different day. True we had status quo changes except the bat books and hip and not so hip artists and writers on all steam but it really scarcely amounted to anything. I think it comes to two things.
One. If they where going to do the reboot business, do it for real. I mean for all the bluster, the biggest changes are the books seeming more hardcore (shit even Aquaman is a mass murder) and there being a hell of a lot more sex. It's like they just wanted to take the wayback machine to the early nineties, but we all know how that ended up. And don't even get me started on the virtual non touching of Batman. If you are going to go all out and decide to change your comic's shared universe, bring it on .Keep the required elements of these characters, name, powers, and basic persona, and then run! Shake the trees of fans and give new readers something very new, and no Wonder Woman and Superman giving each other a snog doesn't count. Which leads me to the second point, the sad fact that DC "solved" the wrong problem with their books.
The problem, as I see it, with mainstream superhero books is not continuity (as so many fans tend to think), but a lack of accessible quality stories. While I will grant you continuity does raise a problem in the case of accessibility. It does not preclude it. When I say accessibility, I more so mean broad appeal. The ability to pick up any comic book and not be lost. Most mainstream entertainment has something for everyone, even if it is a specific genre and this is hopelessly missing from mainstream comics. The big two very narrowly (as DC has proven time and time again this past year) focuses on teen to young adult men, excluding any and all material that could appeal to anyone else. That's why the word mainstream is always italicized around here when it comes before the word comics. The other thing is quality. The stories are still very rote, and bland. I won't necessarily say badly written, but they lack imagination and variety. it's sad to me that so much effort has been put into the continuity side of things but not much placed into quality and accessibility, but that's another post.
But it's not all dreary, some of the titles have been quite good, but nothing really better than what DC was putting out before. And initial advertisement made the New 52 sell amazingly. But I can't help but think the sales spike was more to do with actually advertising the goddamn things and less to do with the reboot. After all here we are one year later and the sales are back to pre New 52 levels*. And there's little to no advertising anymore. Hell maybe, if new getting new readers was the goal**, they should have forgotten the reboot business and just acted like they where interested in selling comic books.
Oh well a year is passed and the reboot can't really be held up as anything special anymore, it's just the DC universe now. So this will be my last post on the subject of the new 52***. I've stopped reading a lot of DC, not because of the reboot per say, but that I just don't like the comics anymore. If they come recommended by friends I would have no problem coming back on board. So... thus ends the New 52 and begins the next part of the DC Universe. Whatever it may be.
Last year on the eve of the new 52's launch I made a list of titles I was going to check out I figured I'd let you know how I liked em one year later.
Batgirl: read the first issue it was entertaining one of the better titles but I just didn't care a month later.
Action Comics: I liked it at first, but this Superman's an asshole, the story was okay but not great (c'mon it's the relaunch of you're flagship character). All in all it's kinda lifeless it's hard to imagine it's by the guy who made All-star Superman. I stopped reading at the Superobama arc.
Supergirl: I like this book I really do, it's not Supergirl at all in any way shape or form that anyone is familiar with, but it's really good well written with Africkinmazing art. The only problem is that the first five issues where glacially slow, the ultimate expression of everything wrong with decompressed storytelling. but at issue 6 the pace started to pick up and I'm predicting this will be one of the best year two titles.
All-star Western: I thought it was gonna be a western comic by some of my favourite comics writers Palmiotti and Grey, but it ended up being a stupid Jonah Hex comic. Even dumber they connect Hex to Gotham.... Can anything in DC not be connected to the Goddamn Batman!!!! You guessed it, dropped after the first issue. It's pretty though.
Swamp Thing: Love it, It's Swamp Thing done right need I say more... I do? OK Yannick Paquette's art is spectacular. I'm still getting it monthly but I'm thinking of becoming a trade waiter as I'm a few months behind on my reading.
Wonder Woman: Is it possible to Love and hate a thing at the same time? I love the tone story and characterization in this book. But then there's the squiggy stuff they've done with Wonder Woman's mythos. I understand he's trying to make the series more like the ancient myths but, c'mon, why are you adapting the most misogynistic (a term I don't use as lightly as most of the internet) elements into a comic of a character who is a feminist icon. but I enjoy this book and I'll just have to force myself to believe issue seven never happened... for as long as I can.
As well as those, I read Superman, a book which for most of the year I held as the best book of the New 52, mostly because shit actually happened in it's 20 pages, but eventually I stopped caring about it as well. And I began to read late comer "Worlds Finest", because I'm a fan of Power Girl. It is currently my favourite DC book. Of course Power Girl in this book is nothing like the Power Girl of yore (I'm only a fan of the seventies and Conner, Palmiotti, Grey versions) but you know who she does remind me of... Supergirl in the seventies, that's right Worlds Finest is is my real Supergirl book now. Thank you Paul Levitz.
So that's my kind ranty view of the new DC universe one year later. If you made it this far You're braver than me.
* Or so the interwebz says.
** gaining new readers was the stated goal of the reboot. But I get a feeling, since close to no effort to do this was made, the real reason was so that the three men in charge, all lifelong DC fans, could re create the line in their own image.
***Unless, of course they piss me off :)
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