Somewhere in between Hawkman framing a petty criminal for being a space alien murderer and J’onn J’onzz threatening to lobotomize an entire building, you come to realize that all DC superhero comics are now shit and not worth your time for the foreseeable future.
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Nooooo shit. They really have squared the circle on sucking all the time, every time.
Man, that building must’ve really seen something it shouldn’t.
Seriously, though, is DC publishing anything good right now? Like, one single decent comic?
@Joel, does releasing Showcases count?
Dial H? Or have they managed to screw up “Dial H for Hero as interpreted by China freaking Mieville”? (And/or cancel it) Haven’t been motivated enough to find a copy.
I haven’t gotten around to reading it in a few months, because I’ve been broke and pirating individual comics is hard, but did something happen to Animal Man? Animal Man was pretty great when I was reading it a few months ago.
Animal Man lost the artist that made the early run of the book so amazing to look at and has been trapped in an interminable alternate reality crossover with Swamp Thing for what feels like five years now. The last issue that came out was labeled ‘Rotworld: Finale’ but the story didn’t end there and will run for at least one more month before any kind of resolution.
Batgirl? Batwoman? I haven’t heard any complaints about those two titles, but maybe I’m not looking in the right places.
Every time I think DC can’t possibly get any worse, they find a way to get worse. The part I don’t get is that somebody out there is buying this stuff.
Frankly, the fact that DC hasn’t completely failed yet makes me have less faith in humanity.
As far as I’m concerned, Dan DiDio unleashed the Anti-Life Equation on everything I used to like about DC back when Paul Levitz was still around. It amazes me that they have fans who are willing to buy their current junk.
It’s like MGK’s movie studio executives are trying to run a comic book company.
“Let me get this straight. You rendered a lot of our intellectual property unusable just because you didn’t like some characters or Grant Morrison had ideas for replacements, sales are now worse than they were when you were complaining about low sales on Young Justice, and you published a comic where Arsenal tried to kill a guy with a dead cat while whacked out on drugs. Here, have another promotion.”
Batman Inc is still pretty great.
Both DC and Marvel finally got me to succumb to apathy and stop buying their books at some point last year. Hellblazer was the last big two comic I still picked up, and that’s done now. How quickly I’ve grown old and bitter.
Hickman’s Avengers on the other hand
On the other hand, a lot of Marvel’s stuff had been pretty awesome lately. Cable & X-Force is decent (and pretty), Fantastic Four has been a lot of fun (and is, in my opinion, ugly as hell; the art in the last issue has been a huge step up), Uncanny X-Men has been really interesting, and I’ve been enjoying Avengers Arena, even though the “Arcade and Murderworld” thing has been done to death.
I think DC stopped being good somewhere around 52.
Dial H is still pretty good. It has nothing to do with the rest of DC, but it’s still pretty good.
I amended your statement. I think it’s more accurate this way.
Unwritten. Technically published by DC.
MGK’s a great writer, but he provided no context for any of the above. So while he may be right, if you haven’t read the book then going into a ‘fuck DC’ rant seems like youi’re jumping on a bandwagon rather than forming an actual opinion.
Anything can sound awful without context. Like how in Batman Begins we see Bruce pick up a flower then join the League of Shadows.
actually that sounds pretty great, Ian.
“MGK’s a great writer, but he provided no context for any of the above.”
Sure he did; the context is “DC comics.”
(Heyo!)
Alternately, people can infer that based on DC’s recent track record and their own assessment of MGK as a writer and comic book talky person that MGK probably isn’t presenting some wildly out-of-context review that unfairly mischaracterizes an otherwise excellent comic and that if the comic was actually good that would be a thing he would be much more interested in talking about than “this just in, DC comics still sucking.”
Honestly, even without context, portraying Hawkman as “asshole space cop” makes sense to me. Well, aside from that already being Hal Jordan’s gig and all.
Actually, I think Hawkman: Asshole Space Cop could fix the character. He is a crazy man who dresses like a hawk and is also a cop. He carries a mace. He enforces the law. The uh..laws of space. Space Cabby had better use his turn signals, that’s for sure.
Still, not a single contribution from the DC vault comes anywhere near to the breathtaking lack of ANY COMPETENCE WHATSOEVER within the pages of Dan Slott’s run on Spider-Man.
Still enjoying All Star Western, but that is it.
I think Hawkman: Asshole Space Cop could fix the character.
The majority of Hawkman reboots disagree with this assumption. Hawkworld was interesting for a bit, I guess.
I’d still recommend World’s Finest and Batman Beyond (which, of course, exists in its own wholly separate continuity).
There’s already a comic like that. It’s called Axe Cop, and I can read that online for free.
Actually, now that I think of it…remember how there used to be the “Marvel Method,” wherein the writer gives a short idea, the artist draws a comic based on that idea, and then the writer goes back and fills in the dialogue?
Maybe DC should use the “Axe Cop” method, wherein they get 6-year-olds to play Justice League and then have artists draw the kid’s make-believe stories. It can’t be any worse than what they’re putting out now.
DC Comics I am reading and enjoying : Batman. Action. Flash. Aquaman. Sword of Sorcery. Batman Incorporated. Earth 2. Worlds Finest. Demon Knights. Legion of Super-Heroes.
And god help me, I actually enjoyed Vibe #1 this week.
I’m enjoying Wonder Woman and Action, but that’s it these days.
Animal Man and Swamp Thing got bogged down and boring, Superboy got caught up in some god forsaken crossover a year ago, and OMAC got cancelled, so they’ve just been losing me bit by bit since the reboot.
Marvel has FF and Fantastic Four, which are both fun.
DC’s just so very very bad lately. The art on so many of their books right now is generic and ugly, and the writing is overly dark and doesn’t capture the sense of wonder that I want to see from a freaking SUPERHERO story.
Even the world building has reached the point that it doesn’t even feel like the DCU, it feels like a dark alternate universe that the “real” JLA would show up to save.
I’ve never been one to take sides in the whole Marvel vs DC thing, but right now Marvel is actually publishing books that I’m excited to read every month, whereas with DC often times I’m just holding out hope that a mediocre book will somehow get its shit together.
I’m enjoying All-Star Western and Action Comics. But I’m sure DC will find some way to fuck those up.
I think this is being aggressively meta-commented on by Morrison in the Superman books, where the big reveal of a powerful extra-dimensional entity named “Vyndktvx” has effectively sucked everything that is fun out of Superman’s life – and hence the books.
Demon Knights, Batwoman, Wonder Woman, and for the month or two it has left to live, Sword and Sorcery.
Well Grant Morrison is leaving Action after issue 18, so if it’s gonna screw up it won’t be long. Morrison and Rags Morales are being replaced by Tony S. Daniel and Andy Diggle, who don’t strike me as the most dynamic of creative teams.
I think the Flash is pretty good as well. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s got great art and it feels like it’s actually having fun without trying to be relentlessly dark, which makes it stand out in the the current climate. The only think I don’t like is the pacing, for a book about the fastest man alive, the first and current story arcs both dragged on far too long, with each issue offering only the slightest actual forward movement of the plot. It’s the sort of thing that I keep hoping the creative team will eventually change, but at this point I’m pretty resigned to the fact the the Flash is a book that I’m always going to be enjoying with an asterisk.
Agreeing with the above that Flash is enjoyable, mainly because of the fantastic art.
Dial H is fun as well, though I feel it has the looming stigma of cancellation hanging over it at all times. Hopefully I’m wrong about that.
Batwoman’s a good title.
Their incessant need to have 52 titles is going to end up with new titles marked Wonder Twins and Super Chief, eventually….
Literally the only DC title I’m reading right now is Action Comics, because I’ve been in love with Morrison’s Superman since I was twelve. I’ve been put off every other title, either by reading things like this or by actually experiencing the comics themselves
I would love a Wonder Twins comic.
Super Chief I could perhaps live without, if only because of the name — although if they aged the character and had him slightly embarrassed by the name he chose out of pride during his youth, I think I could get past the name.
But what I really want are Ralph and Sue Dibny, ghost detectives. Or just not have them dead in the new 52.
I’ve been enjoying Wonder Woman and Batwoman. World’s Finest has its moments. Earth 2…come to think of it I may drop Earth 2 from my pull list soon.
I agree that the big titles are pretty much shit at the moment. And no, I don’t think Wonder Woman counts as a “big title” for DC, and yes, that does infuriate me, especially in light of her place in the DC Trinity.
Really, the titles I’m enjoying most at the moment are Angel & Faith, the Willow miniseries, Invincible and Guarding the Globe (soon to be canceled and replaced by Invincible Universe). Wonder Woman and Batwoman are tied for last place in my top 5. DC has failed to COMPLETELY alienate me, but it’s not for lack of trying.
I’m down to just Batman Inc and Batman (Snyder). Still digging Inc but really only sticking with Batman cause I know Snyder is a good writer and can and probably will do better.
I just gave up on Batman, because despite how much I loved Snyder’s Detective run, the only issue I enjoyed even half as much on Batman was the Becky Cloonan issue.
Batman Beyond is a good book though.
@Robert Eddleman: If DC’s smart about Dial H, they’ll promote it in trade paperback in the direct market, where Meiville’s name has more cachet. That’ll require a level of foresight, but in general, DC tends to handle their trades better than, say, Marvel.
I barely believed what I read. Isn’t the nineties anti-hero supposed to belong to the decade before last?
there’s some I still like… but there’s a lot that piss me off. The level of grim-gritiness is a yo-yo
Most of the “great minds” behind the New 52 are actually early-90s Marvel guys.
Yeah, remember those days? Clone Saga, Heroes Reborn, the systematic destruction of all interest in X-Men, the bankruptcy… well worth imitating.
After trying nearly two dozen New 52 launch titles, the only DCU titles I’m still following are Dial H and Batman Inc. — not just for quality, but also because they’re the most crossover-proof.
Justice League Dark doesn’t suck, but that isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement, is it? I was enjoying Demon Knights but then they tied it in to Storm Watch, which made me grind my teeth. Then a new creative team took over and I gave up entirely.
If I am buying any series other than JLD it isn’t coming to mind. God, how I miss Secret Six.
I actually like the Suicide Squad. Mostly because I’m really annoyed with superheroes, so watching a bunch of people who resolutely aren’t capes doing their thing is kind of interesting. A person explodes every few episodes as well, so that’s a plus.
I would have liked to see Ted Kord brought back in an Oracle-like role for Jaime and/or the Birds of Prey, since Babs is walking again.
And Ian, is there EVER a proper context for threatening to lobotomize an entire building of people? Personally, I’m kinda doubting it.
Okay I gave in to morbid curiosity and read this. Observations:
-Hawkman: Asshole Space Cop when taken seriously is just awful.
-To enhance your reading experience, skip any panel involving Steve Trevor.
-Badass antihero Martian Manhunter is a mistake on so many levels.
-Catwoman must get glass shards stuck in her cleavage like constantly.
-“Ellen recently called you the answer to Lindsay Lohan!”
-“If anything’s going to make Stargirl’s smile fade, it’s her role on the team.”
Well, that was pretty bad, but not Cry for Justice bad. Nothing is as bad as Cry for Justice.
I said enough when I opened a Green Lantern comic and was treated to the image of Black Hand blowing his brains out. Green Lantern, the space cop with the magic ring. Good comics exist now only in my mind.
malak – huh?
It doesn’t matter if I agree with it, so long as within the confines of the narrative the CHARACTER believes it. I don’t believe in vigilantes in real-life, doesn’t mean I don’t cheer when Batman punches out The Joker near the end of The Killing Joke.
And point stands – it’s something I believe Nu52 Martian Manhunter would do given his nature. Not the old MM, but that character doesn’t exist in current fiction.
All Star Western and Dial H are still good, but I’m still reading more of the damn things then I should be.
For those of you worried about Dial H being cancelled: Be worried. It sells around 15k a month and sits near the bottom of DC’s monthly sales. It was one of four books out of the bottom 15 not to get cancelled (the others are Batwing, Stormwatch and Demon Knights) when DC decided to start do some pruning a few months ago. Which doesn’t bode well for when DC starts looking for more books to cancel six months from now.
Go home,DC Comics. You’re drunk.
Sorry.
Lister – could be worse, could be Hawk & Dove. Who haven’t shown up since their comic ended. At all.
AD2000 has been especially awesome recently and never had any of these probems to begin with.
Who owns Prophet and Saga?
“could be Hawk & Dove. Who haven’t shown up since their comic ended.”
Presumably the Geometry Police caught up with them, confiscated their skeletons and returned all the extra teeth they’d stolen to their rightful owners.
@Lister Sage
I thought Dial H was a limited series, set for 12 issues or so. That’s why I hadn’t felt inclined to buy it, I was under the impression that I could buy the collection when it wrapped and save myself the time and money it would take to track down all the previous issues. One of the drawbacks of trade waiting I guess, but I figured DC would at least see the series through to the end in anticipation of hardcover sales.
I went by my FLCS yesterday to pick up the books from my pull list and read the books that I dont buy, and tried to read Justice League. When I got to the end of the scene where Hawkman framed the guy I gave up on the book and put it back on the rack without reading any further.
The only DC books I still buy are the digital ones that don’t take place in the DCnU and actually build on twenty years of Animated continuity and ten years of Smallville continuity instead of abandoning everything that came before.
Oh, and Fables
Is Hawkman framing a guy even in the bottom fifty of stupid shit he’s done?
ULTIMATE DC
Maybe this is a good sign. They’re finally leaving the 1990s and entering the 2000s.
AdBlockPlus can block Daily Show ads. That is all.
Agh, wrong post. Excuse me.
Back when Dan DiDio was just starting his reign of terror, he said a lot of things that made me wonder why so many DC fans on message boards thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Things such as wanting DC to be more like Marvel in the Seventies. Or how what he meant by that was that he wanted people to feel like they had to buy every title to understand what was going on.
It always seemed weird to me to have a guy who preferred old Marvel comics running DC. Shouldn’t you want somebody in charge who understands that there is value in DC being different from Marvel?
Anyway, it came as no surprise to me that they’ve been recruiting all those former Marvel creators people love to hate now, or that the current DCU is obviously influenced by early Image titles. DiDio clearly loved a lot of crappy comics back in the Nineties, and he doesn’t seem to get that it was a good thing people stopped making books like those.
Who in their right mind would give Rob Liefield several chances to make a comeback?
The guy makes horrible decisions that seem to be based on what he personally wants to read. He doesn’t seem to get that a lot of his potential customers like totally different things.
Marvel went through a phase like that, where Quesada made dumb changes just because he thought secret identities were stupid or whatever. But at least he grew out of it eventually before he drove away thousands of readers. DiDio treats DC like they’re publishing comics solely for him.
Didio isn’t in charge of DC now, Brian.
I’m down to Dial H and Wonder Woman. Not to be confused with the Wonder Woman who appears in any other DC comic.
@Ian Austin: Wow. I didn’t realize I was that out of touch. At least now, there is some hope that some obscure farm boy with a grand destiny can rise up and defeat the evil empire and return to something closer to the glory days of the old republic.
I apologize for all the DiDio ranting. I still hate that guy for being directly responsible for the deaths of some of my favorite characters. I guess I’ll have to get used to hating his replacement instead.
DiDio steered through 3 dead-end signs and then bailed out just before the car went off a cliff. I say you can still blame him.
I would buy a “canon” All New, All Different Outsiders comic book featuring the Reach-enhanced heroes from the “Young Justice” cartoon (and yes, I know that they’re yet another iteration of the ‘new’ heroes from the original Super Friends cartoon.)
Aside from Wonder Woman, I’ve heard very few good things about the NuDC launch.
I picked up the Jonah Hex stuff, and the Phantom Stranger one-shot, but that was it. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.
I am just waiting for Mike Carey to finish Unwritten so I can buy all of it at once and hole up and read it over the course of one sleepless weekend like I did with Lucifer. I loved that book. I mean, I named my dog after a character in that book.
Other than that, I’ve pretty much given up on comics.
clodia: “Batgirl? Batwoman? I haven’t heard any complaints about those two titles, but maybe I’m not looking in the right places.”
Batgirl is utter garbage and one of the worst things Simone has written. It started as bad, quickly turned so bad it was funny, then so bad it was just depressing. Every plot and sub-plot set-up in that comic is resolved in the clumsiest, least plausible, least satisfying way possible, every single time. The idea that in order to get this rubbish DC had to throw away Oracle AND Cass Cain AND Steph Brown makes me twitch uncontrollably.