Comics are Awesome III

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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Dominic
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Who is writing "Nightwing"?
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andersonh1
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Dominic wrote:Who is writing "Nightwing"?
Tim Seeley is the writer. I'm not familiar with any of his other work. Looks like he's drawn a lot of GI Joe back when Devil's Due was publishing that series, and then he wrote some Batman and Robin Eternal and co-wrote the Grayson series.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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I only recall him from "GI Joe". If he can make the jump from art to words, good for him.

My pull-file is shrinking.

Hyperion: Ending this week. This was actually the strongest of the Squadron-based series. But, that did not translate to sales.
Nighthawk: I dropped this mess....right before finding out that it was getting cancelled.
Vision: Ending in October. It had a good run.

Earth 2: Rumored to be on its way down.



In any case, my pull-file will be dropping below 5 for the first time in at least 2 years. (I may add something else.)
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Nightwing: Rebirth #1
I had skipped this issue initially, since I hadn't planned to buy any more monthly series at the time, but DC apparently had a skip week this week, so when I saw it still on the shelf I thought I'd go back and read it after all. I had assumed that it was a dispensible bridge issue between the Grayson and Nightwing series, and to some extent that's correct. The issue spends a good many pages wrapping up loose ends and character arcs from that series, including showing Huntress in costume for the first time. It wraps up for now Dick Grayson's association with his former partner at Spyral and with Midnighter, who looks like a Batman wanna-be.

Most of that is told through flashbacks every few pages (which gets annoying after awhile since it makes the narrative so choppy), but the main story is Dick and Damien going to the arcade, and then Dick using a device (which he was trying to acquire all through the flashbacks) to extract a bomb from Damien's nostril cavity. The Court of Owls had put it there somehow, and that was how they gained a hold over Dick Grayson and got him to agree to work for them. The issue also reveals that Lincoln March from the early New 52 Court of Owls storyline had taken a group of Owls to Greece to set up a breakaway faction, the Parliament of Owls, and it also reveals that Raptor kills him. Raptor is the same mercenary that Nightwing will end up working with in the main series. So this issue fills in a lot of the story that I wasn't entirely aware of.

As a side note, Dick's time as Batman working with Damien as Robin is still in continuity. The issue confirms it. And it also notes that while people think he adopted the Nightwing alias as a reference to bats and Batman, it was actually a name that Superman told him about. That Nightwing got his name from Superman goes all the way back to the Bronze Age, but was also something that carried over into post-Crisis comics. So there's an effort to embrace decades old continuity again, though the Robin costume in the Batcave is still the New 52 version.

And there's one of those old fashioned "to see character X, go to issue X" editor boxes that have largely gone out of fashion, sending readers over to Birds of Prey to see what Huntress gets up to. I had seen a few of those in other DC books since Rebirth began. It's a nice retro touch, and honestly those notes were always useful for following a story over multiple titles.

Dick doesn't put the Nightwing costume on until the last page. He's in the Batcave when he does it, and he fills Batman in on his plans, so there's a time-skip between this issue and the first issue of the series proper. Good issue, and it reestablishes some of the basics of the character quite nicely leading into the ongoing.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Aquaman #6
This issue is Aquaman vs. Superman, and though I correctly predicted that once Superman laid a hand on Aquaman's shoulder, Aquaman would deck him, the fight generally plays out about the way that it should given the characters and stakes involved. Aquaman's frustration at being perceived as the weird fish guy that no one respects comes out during the verbal back and forth with Superman, and so does the fact that as a king, he cannot simply allow Superman to either arrest him, or solve his problems for him. He is a leader, and he must appear to be one. He turns back the Atlantean invasion force sent to defend their king, and then Superman stands down, warning him to fix the problem.

This particular story arc is not over, and unlike some other books who drag a shorter plot out to fit six issues (Action Comics), every issue of Aquaman has moved at a good pace, and either a lot of things have happened (1-4), or a conflict has broken out that also keeps the story moving forward and gives some insight into the characters (5-6). This is a well-written superhero comic.

Superman #6
Superman finishes off the Eradicator, or rather, Superman and the spirits of the Kryptonians that the Eradicator had imprisoned take him down, with the Kryptonians passing judgment. It's not clear whether the Eradicator is dead or just depowered (or if there is a distinction). Some great dialogue from Superman: "Jon is not a mistake!" when answering the Eradicator's rants about Jon's "impurity", and "The legacy of the house of El..." "will belong to Jon", as Superman again interrupts a rant. Everyone on Earth is aware of the fight due to all the power being displayed, and in the end Superman is as public as it is possible to be. There's no more working in secret for post-Crisis Superman. He's back in the public eye, even more than he was after the Doomsday fight (which took place before this I believe). And he introduces Jon to Batman and Wonder Woman, naming him Superboy for the first time. Batman scowls, Diana smiles (having already met him) and the issue ends.

There was a bit of padding in this story, but not so much as the Doomsday arc over in Action. I'd say it is the better of the two introductory storylines that have integrated Superman into this universe, but both have been enjoyable.

Nightwing #4
I did not expect this branch of the Parliament of Owls to go down so soon. Four issues in, and Nightwing and Raptor are done playing for time. They obtain the book and the process that allowed the Owls to create the undead Talons, and they defeat Moloch, a giant humanoid/Owl creature. Dick turns the book over to Spyral and returns home to Gotham, unaware that Raptor is working for Kobra.

My only real complaint is that the Court of Owls needs to be used sparingly, or else it's going to lose all effectiveness as an adversary. And having Nightwing defeat them so quickly also hurts them as villains. Still, apart from that the book has a good grasp of Nightwing's character and methods, and the reveal of Raptor as untrustworthy after all keeps this story moving forward.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Rebirth is selling better than the New 52's early months... although the double shipping on so many titles probably accounts for a lot.

http://www.comicsbeat.com/dc-comics-mon ... -boogaloo/
Rebirth is a huge hit. Remember how big the The 52 was? So far, Rebirth is bigger.

The first two months of the New 52 saw average DCU sales of 67K & 59K. The first two months average sales of the DCU titles during Rebirth are 66K & 90K. That’s right, average DCU sales this months are 90K per title! And yes, that includes the lower-selling titles holding over that haven’t yet been cancelled or transitioned over to Rebirth. (If you count just the Rebirth titles, the average sales in July are 116K!) After adjusting for returnability, DC had twenty comics over 100K.

DC sold over 4 million comics in July; compare that to less than 2 million in May (the month before Rebirth).

Now no one expects sales to stay up at these levels; inevitably they will fall back to Earth. The question is if they can keep them high up enough to be demonstrably better than they were in the New 52 days. And if they can keep the excitement up for new Rebirth titles as they are added over the coming months. And how well their mini-series will sell. And how well the Young Animal titles do when they debut over September through November. And, and, and. There are a lot of questions up-in-the-air; but so far, so good with Rebirth.
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Today's comics: Detective Comics 940, Action Comics 963, Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #4, and Batman 66 meets Steed and Mrs. Peel #3

Hal Jordan and the GLC #4
Even though I generally enjoyed Vendetti's writing on Green Lantern for the last few years, he has a far better plot going here than "renegade Hal", and the fact that three of the former titles have been consolidated into this one book shows just how much Green Lantern benefits from the large cast that's developed over the years. Everyone except for Simon and Jessica is in this book, so there are plenty of opportunities for characters to interact without messing with the continuity in other books. Case in point: this issue sees Guy Gardner and Sinestro having a conversation. Vendetti pulls a bait and switch. Hal was captured last issue, and so it seems as though he'll be the prisoner delivered to Sinestro at the beginning of the story. But instead it's Guy, and Hal was intercepted by Soranik, who performs surgery to save his life after the beating he took. Guy's charge on his GL ring runs out, causing his uniform to disappear, which leaves him naked for half the issue. Sinestro wonders how he was ever let into the Corps. Despite the dire situation Guy finds himself in, there's a lot of humor. In the end, John Stewart decides that Guy has been gone too long, and everyone is heading out to look for him. Ethan Van Sciver is drawing the issue, so the art is excellent.

Action Comics #963
Who is Clark Kent? This particular mystery comes to the fore, and I hope it doesn't go where it seems to be going. After the events of "Truth", Superman's dual identity as Clark Kent is public knowledge, but now that both of them have appeared together, everyone is trying to figure out why. The story follows Kent as he investigates a genetics lab (the same one the terrorists attacked and stole Doomsday from), and I have a sinking feeling that this Kent will turn out to be a clone from that lab. Hopefully not... hopefully there's a more creative story than there currently appears to be. If Superman is ever going to get back to the old familiar status quo (and I suspect that's where this plotline is going, eventually), that means this Clark Kent exists to die, but not before muddying the waters when it comes to Superman's identity. I'm curious to see who he really is, but as I said, I hope the answer is not as obvious as it looks like it might end up being.

Detective Comics #940
This issue wraps up the Colony storyline, and it also ties into the overall Rebirth storyline for the first time. Just to get everyone up to speed, the Colony is a small military group led by Batwoman's father, Colonel Kane. They've patterned their equipment and fighting style after Batman. So far, so good, but they are also intent on eradicating what they see as a threat from the "League of Shadows", a sleeper terrorist organization that Batman believes is just a myth. Last issue they sent a bunch of drones into Gotham to target the 100 people they believed were sleeper agents in order to kill them. Batman and his group are not about to let this happen, so they head out to save lives while Tim Drake tries to alter the programming of the killer drones. Unable to stop them, he is able to alter their target, and he chooses himself.

All of this ties into rumors that have been going around that Tim was going to die, and the writer does indeed put all the usual tropes into the story that lead one to believe that. Tim has finally found love with Spoiler. He's about to leave vigilante life behind for college. His life appears to be on a positive trajectory... and then he's apparently vaporized by the second wave of drones (after actually destroying the first all by himself in hand to hand combat... way to go, Tim!) leaving Batman and the rest to mourn his death.

Only he's not dead. Mr. Oz, who has been watching Superman fight Doomsday over in Action Comics, had to "take Tim off the board", because Tim was "too close to making old connections". Tim is alive and imprisoned, but everyone thinks he's dead. Batman and Batwoman have Colonel Kane imprisoned, and Batman says "he'll answer to me."
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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I wonder where Sparky's been? I'd like to see his opinion of the current Green Lantern series.


Today's comics: Superman #7, Aquaman #7, Justice League #5 and Trinity #1

Superman #7
Superman, Lois and Jon go to the last day of the Hamilton County Fair, after Superman promises Lois that there will be no superheroics, just a family night out. Of course, you know that's not going to happen, and he ends up foiling a robbery on the gate ticket booth on the sly right before the issue ends. Otherwise it's just fun with the characters as they settle into their new community, get to know the neighbors, check out jobs at the local paper, and generally enjoy a family night out. Superman in costume is confined to the first few pages as he helps out the individual Justice League members with various problems. It's a light, fun, family issue after six issues of Eradicator drama.

Aquaman #7
DC seriously needs to put more effort into finding some consistently good artists for this book before they hurt it. The guy who drew issues 1 and 6 has a lot of energy and style, but the artists for 2-5 and now 7 are just serviceable. A character like Aquaman needs all the advantages he can get, and it doesn't look like DC is all that invested in him. It's a pity, because this remains one of the best books to come out of Rebirth, and the first one of this series to be spent almost entirely in Atlantis, with Arthur acting as king and working on how to learn who is trying to cause trouble between Atlantis and the surface world. It's NEMO, as we find out for sure this issue, and with Black Manta having killed their previous leader, he's now running that terrorist organization. In the end, very sure Aquaman is gunning for them and will find them, given enough time, he sets some sort of artificially created underwater beast loose and points it at Atlantis.

Justice League #5
"The Extinction Machines" concludes, and of course, the Earth is saved from destruction. That's never been in doubt, so the question all along has been "how will each character overcome the challenge he's been presented". Hitch tries to balance out the story and give all seven characters something equally important to do, and he's not always successful. Wonder Woman learns about the enemy, the Green Lanterns are out in space at the last planet they destroyed, gathering crucial information, the Flash is running around appearing in the plot without actually doing a lot to solve the problem. He more or less addresses symptoms. Batman is much the same. Cyborg helps put together some crucial clues, but it's Superman who gets transported to the center of the Earth to deal with the three machines buried in the outer core that are causing planet-killing earthquakes. He's had the best storyline by far, thrown into an environment that's almost too much even for him, and when the League are deadlocked at the end of the issue against the four giants who are trying to bring some threat into existence, it's Superman who comes out of the earth with the third machine and destroys the giants, winning the battle. As I said a few issues back, Superman really should be more powerful than the rest of the League combined, something Hitch seems to realize.

Trinity #1
Another first issue I wanted to try, it's completely written and drawn by the superb artist Francis Manapul. He's got a good handle on all three characters, who meet and interact at Superman's family farm for dinner. It's Lois' idea. She invited Diana, who brought Bruce along, and Clark finds out about the whole thing when he gets home. Thematically, it goes well with this week's Superman issue, since both are about fitting in and making a real home and getting to know neighbors and friends. All of that is great, but what made me decide to buy the issue is the page where Superman is relating an old story Dick Grayson told him, and we get a full page spread of Dick in the original Robin Costume, and Batman in his rainbow batsuit from the Silver Age. I had to buy the book after seeing that. New 52 Batman, of course, doesn't recall such an incident. :)
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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I read "the Vision" #11 yesterday. The cover made me expect something bad. The comic delivered something worse. As has been standard for this series, it ain't nice but it is excellent.

Planning to start the current "Batman" series in the next week or two. (And, it is crossing over with "Nightwing", so I will be reading that as well.)
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Re: Comics are Awesome III

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Haven't read Nightwing #5 or Detective Comics #941, parts 2 and 3 of "Night of the Monster Men". Will post reviews later. I flipped through Flash #6 to see if Wally appeared, and while he does not, there is a half page in the story related to Barry Allen remembering his death in the Crisis, something he thinks is impossible. So bit by bit, characters are starting to recall the old continuity again. Oz tried to control it by taking Tim Drake off the board in the last issue of Tec, and he's watching Superman closely, but I'm willing to bet things will spiral out of his control sooner or later, and that may well be what provokes some confrontation with the Watchmen characters. We will see.

Action Comics #964
The "Who is Clark Kent" storyline continues with Superman taking Clark Kent to his Fortress in order to run a scan on his mind and physiology to determine just who and what he is. The machine goes through his memories and it very much appears that he is who he claims to be: a human named Clark Kent, with an upbringing in Smallville and friends very much like Superman's, except that he's completely human. He also has memories of the New 52 Superman, who is seen in flashback, and the Truth storyline is referenced, as well as the death of New 52 Superman. When he and Superman return to Metropolis, Geneticron is gone... someone has stolen the entire building, but not before Superman learns that they had Doomsday imprisoned there, exactly as seen in Action #957. In the end, Kent writes an article discussing his impressions of the "new" Superman while it's established that Superman has installed a secret entrance and tunnel into the family farm so he and the family can come and go unseen. And the final page shows a man (who had planted a device to steal Geneticron) talking to something that looks like Apokolips with a big Superman symbol on it.

At this point, I'm not sure where Jurgens is going with this storyline. I still think that sooner or later we'll get back to Superman masquerading as Clark Kent, but for now the still-unexplained human duplicate seems to be sticking around. He indicates that he's always been here, and that New 52 Superman was just masquerading as him to keep him out of danger, but that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #5
Guy Gardner is being tortured by the church of Fear, Hal Jordan catches up with Soranik and is still turning into pure willpower, and John Stewart and the Corps run into a fleet headed for Warworld to rescue the captives that Sinestro has taken. I was surprised to see that Hal is still having problems with going green. I thought ditching Krona's gauntlet had solved that problem, but apparently not. Poor Guy still has no clothes, but at least the remaining Lanterns seem to have finally caught a break by running into friendly aliens, who are delighted to see the Green Lanterns. And in a nice touch, Sinestro still has the scar on his back that looks like a GL insignia, put there by Kyle Rayner all the way back in the original GL Rebirth.

Despite having the same writer, this doesn't feel anything like the previous Green Lantern series. I think the much improved art helps tremendously, and Vendetti seems to have upped his game. He has been handed plot threads set up by other writers, though how much that plays into things I have no idea.

Titans #3
This is the one monthly series on my pull list... it feels like ages since I read part 2. How did we ever survive on monthly comics? Wally has saved Garth's life, and finds it strange that Kadabra remembers him when no one else seems to, but Kadabra claims to have been the one who forced Wally into the "timestream" and made everyone forget him, a feat which took too much out of him and left him in the amnesiac state we saw him in at the end of the first issue. There's also a few very blantant Watchmen references this issue, with a drop of blood falling on Kadabra's watch at the "five minutes to midnight" position, and his seeming realization that it couldn't have been him who messed with time, but someone he recognizes but does not name. Wally and Linda talk, and start to call a bit of a truce, before Kadabra kidnaps her, ending the issue.

This book continues to sit right in the middle of the Rebirth main storyline, with lost memories and alternate histories touched on in every issue, and Wally West standing front and center as the main focus of the book. Which makes it all the more frustrating that it's monthly rather than twice monthly.
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