39 users responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url
mygif

No Animal Man (probably my favourite book so far)?

ReplyReply
mygif
MonkeyWithTypewriter said on September 8th, 2011 at 10:02 am

Might you educate us more on Hawk & Dove, as a public service to avoid it?

ReplyReply
mygif

Given you’ve said your dad is South African, I’d have thought you wouldn’t fall into the sad cliche of referring to Africa as a nationality…

Also while I enjoyed the first issue of Static more than you (if only for the disembodied mentor thing) I’d have to agree that Batgirl was pretty damn lackluster…

ReplyReply
mygif

Given you’ve said your dad is South African, I’d have thought you wouldn’t fall into the sad cliche of referring to Africa as a nationality…

The new heroes in Batwing are pretty explicitly supposed to be pan-African, rather than specifically Congolese. So: don’t hate the playa, hate the game.

ReplyReply
mygif

“Every time I see it in a panel I am reminded that I am reading a Superman comic where Superman is dressed like a dork. ”

As opposed to…?

ReplyReply
mygif

I was rather underwhelmed by Action#1; The art felt rushed and lackluster (which given Morales stated opinion on Superman and the rushed timeframe isn’t a big surprise) and that the story could have used more fleshing out.

ReplyReply
mygif

Is it strange that the book I’m most looking forward to in the New 52 is the one that reboots Penguin’s origin?

ReplyReply
mygif

The first page of Action Comics features Super-Guy-With-Blankey audibly sniffing the air and then blathering about smelling rats and taking out the trash. That shit is wack.

ReplyReply
mygif

All I can say is I appreciate these kinds of reviews, because I’m staying the hell away from every single one of these #1s until I get a better sense of the landscape. God only knows what lies ahead in Grant Morrison’s Action Comics or that Teen Titans approximation.

ReplyReply
mygif

See also: John Solomon’s old complaint about webcomics where the first installment is “hey everybody here’s my cast and I promise exciting fun times starting with next week” and apply it here.

Except Justice League only introduced half the cast.

On Action Comics: pretty sure Clark is working for the Daily Star, and I think George Taylor is his editor–just like the original. But yeah, that jeans and work boots costume is half-assed.

ReplyReply
mygif

Did you not mention Detective Comics because it was collectively more laughably bad than anything Rob Liefeld has ever drawn.

ReplyReply
mygif
The Unstoppable Gravy Express said on September 8th, 2011 at 12:46 pm

Dawqriquez & ApathyMonger:

Since this post’s title says “part the first”, maybe he’ll review those other titles in part 2.

ReplyReply
mygif

[…] Mightygodking.com » Post Topic » Brief thoughts about new DC #1 … Geoff Johns has a few good lines, and Jim Lee is still an excellent superhero artist (a terribly boring costume designer, mind you, but a great artist), but you could have Alan Moore and George Perez teaming up to create the […]

mygif

Does the new Batgirl series at least have some of the FUN that Miller’s Steph Brown series had or is it just a generic Bat-book?

ReplyReply
mygif

In Action, I like the blue jeans and work boots costume. Mostly because the alternative is the terrible new Super Armor. It’s a silly look, but Superman isn’t afraid to look silly — Superconfidence is one of his powers.

The art in the issue was pretty lackluster though. Lex Luthor seems to gain and loose weight in his face between panels.

ReplyReply
mygif

Rags Morales seems to get a lot more love than he should. His art is often messy and always late.

ReplyReply
mygif
P.C. Bernard said on September 8th, 2011 at 4:11 pm

Nope, no fun.

ReplyReply
mygif

Yeah, Fat Luthor is a take I could definitely live without.

ReplyReply
mygif

[…] sometimes an origin is a good thing, a dramatic story with great characters. At other times, (as this Mighty God King post puts it), it’s “here’s my cast and I promise exciting fun times […]

mygif
Wally Kovacs said on September 8th, 2011 at 6:19 pm

I could buy the shirt and jeans look (hell, Superboy has been pulling it off for a while). It’s the cape along with it that makes it dorky. A shirt and jeans seems like a practical costume, that was sort of thrown together with materials at hand (and with the added bonus of being easier to replace than a custom made costume). The cape just seems to be at cross purposes as a result.

ReplyReply
mygif

Everyone criticizing the Superman costume in Action #1 is not thinking about context. Supes is the first super-hero on the planet, having him in a slick costume to begin with would be dumbass. Okay, maybe they could have designed a better improv costume but at least mention the WHY of the non-costume costume if you’re going to complain about it. ****

Also, as I think someone else mentioned, Clark Kent did not work for The Planet first off but worked at the rival crosstown paper, The Star. And you’ve got the Peter Parker vibe backward, Clark Kent did that shit first.

As for Stormwatch #1, I didn’t know who any of those characters (except J’onn) were before reading it and I still don’t. Ask me if I care? Not much. **

Hawk and Dove was about as bad as expected, handing Ditko’s characters to Liefeld to draw was not the biggest mistake there. *

I liked Men Of War better than you did, but I saw the weaknesses there.

OMAC and Batwing were better than expected. Batgirl disappointed but only a little. JLI felt tired and even recycled. .

Justice League, Swamp Thing, Static Shock and Green Arrow were all about as expected with some good and some bad. G.A. is probably not long for the schedule without more interest but the idea of third string villains being sneered at by a second string (see what I did there) hero tickled me.

And the two you didn’t mention:

Detective was as good of a Batman comic as one could expect to see in a continuing series.

Animal Man… Almost predictable but not quite, and that meant in a good way.

ReplyReply
mygif

well Morrison is doing a call back to the Golden Age and initially SUperman worked for the Daily Star.

ReplyReply
mygif

Anyone else getting the feeling that this reboot… isn’t really a reboot? I mean Hawk and Dove is keeping their previous continuity (right down to Deadman and Dove hang out a lot and the previous Dove died during A HORRIBLE CRISIS THAT WE WILL NOT NAME AND IS TOTALLY NOT CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS)…
Swamp Thing keeps his old books, as well as the Brightest Day stuff (not to mention has Superman bringing up that he, yanno, died)…
Static is, as MGK says, basically the latest issue in the Static Story. Not a reboot.

Of course, the 9 bat-family books aren’t reboots either, nor are the 4 GL books, but we knew coming in that they’d somehow keep their continuity in a mangled and depressed state. But when what are essentially b-list heroes (or lower), in terms of DC’s advertising at least, get to keep their continuity that can stretch over 20 years back into obscure comics…
What the hell, DC?

ReplyReply
mygif

Every book but Animal Man and ‘Tec, huh? IMO Animal Man was pretty much tied with Action Comics as the best of this week. It was awesome.

ReplyReply
mygif
Wolfthomas said on September 8th, 2011 at 8:10 pm

As a huge Wildstorm fan (we exist I swear) I was set to hate Stormwatch, but Paul Cornell pleasantly surprised me (well it wasn’t too unexpected he did write Captain Britain and MI13). I still can’t stand Midnighters new costume, but the idea of Century babies existing in the DCU is pretty cool (I wonder if they’ll retcon any one famous as being one).

ReplyReply
mygif
JohnStargazer said on September 8th, 2011 at 8:26 pm

I’m tremendously conflicted by this whole reboot. All of these books look at least a little terrible and the whole thing seems like a stupid waste of everyone’s time (Plus, you know, I am severely disappointed by the whole “Eliminating younger interesting characters because they aren’t the ones Geoff Johns grew up reading about” thing.), but on the other hand, Jaime got his own book again. And I feel really obligated to support Jaime, because his last series was fantastic and when we stop reading Blue Beetle books they kill the character off for add drama. <.<

ReplyReply
mygif
Cookie McCool said on September 8th, 2011 at 8:36 pm

The small African kerfuffle up there reminds me, completely off-topic comicwise, that I recently read a science fiction book that 1) had a black character of any kind written as if the author might have actually even seen a black person outside of a Tyler Perry commerical; and b) took place in South Africa, which is a pretty mind-blowing locale for any scifi book. AND it was even good, which was extra mind-blowing. I’d rather scifi and comics just go back to pretending the world is entirely Caucasian than see Vixen invited out in public. (Although I think Token might be an awesome supervillain concept. The power to make Superman strangely uncomfortable about hitting a minority could come in handy.)

ReplyReply
mygif

@Monkey – Two words : Rob Liefield. He makes Jim Lee look like Alex Ross by comparison. My LCS guy pointed out that, in the space of three pages, Liefield can’t remember what the cockpit of his plane looks like, so he just slaps together a new one.

ReplyReply
mygif
Mecha Velma said on September 8th, 2011 at 11:02 pm

I was going to say something about comic book history and and hindsight being 20/20 and all, but I think I’m just going to skip all that crap and just call it what it is.

Hubris. Hubris with brass balls this big (_)(_)

ReplyReply
mygif

Uh, the “Super-Armor” is supposed to be explained in Action Comics at some point. Also, the “Bruce Springsteen” Superman look is pretty cool in my opinion. I would be genuinely worried about running into a dude with work boots on who can stand up to a tank shell.

ReplyReply
mygif

Mecha Velma: Those would be pretty tiny balls. At least on my screen at its native resolution…

ReplyReply
mygif
LightlyFrosted said on September 9th, 2011 at 2:47 am

Problem I’ve got with ‘we regrew Oracle’s spine’ is that this actually WAS presented as an option in the original line, which she turned down on the basis of the technology not being broadly enough available yet.

ReplyReply
mygif

I wonder how many issues Giffen could do of Omac just smashing the hell out of crazy Kirby crap. No real plot, no origins, just smashing bigger and weirder monsters and soldiers and stuff. Hmm.

ReplyReply
mygif

Count me in as another advocate for Animal Man. Lemire definitely delivered with this issue and it probably gets my vote for most distrubing cliffhanger of the week (and yes, I am including Dectective Comics in that.)

Can’t wait to see what Lemire does with Frankenstein this coming week.

ReplyReply
mygif

For African fantasy, Nnedi Okorafor is a Nigerian-American author who does very good stuff set in Africa.

ReplyReply
mygif

What really bothers me, I think, about getting Barbara Gordon out of the wheelchair is that if they’d just waited about ten more years, it wouldn’t even be unbelievable. The technology for repairing spinal injuries is growing by leaps and bounds, and I feel pretty confident that by 2021, a comic book featuring a paraplegic woman who regains the ability to walk won’t even be science fiction. Instead, we get a handwave.

(I wonder if there would have been this much comment if there was an Internet back when Tony Stark got shot, paralyzed, and then gained the ability to walk again when Marvel got bored with the story. Hmm. Interesting.)

ReplyReply
mygif

The problem with Gordon walking again is that Oracle was a fully functioning character on her own. She was a true asset without ever having to directly punch someone.

A female character who was respected for her brain, not her body. A paraplegic who was depended on during crises.

And now she’s firmly back in the shadow of the bat.

ReplyReply
mygif
dangermouse said on September 14th, 2011 at 3:31 pm

Action Comics was a really interesting series of bullet points, too bad there isn’t an actual writer somewhere who wanted to write a story out of them.

ReplyReply
mygif

On Batgirl…It was just poorly done. Was her new room mate’s name even mentioned? And the final panel “I am a cop who will point my gun at the bystander of a murder, rather than at the murderer who is standing right in front of me.” ecch.

***********

Action didn’t do it for me…had too much “This is an Elseworlds, let’s see what’s different feel” to me…and I got fixated on the cape. Why does he have a cape? He’s the first super hero, so there aren’t other’s he’s emulating. JEans, workbooks, tshirt makes sense, in a thrown together blue collar way…but the cape doesn’t.

ReplyReply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please Note: Comment moderation may be active so there is no need to resubmit your comments