18-Till-I-Die wrote:
Actually, the compressed timeline is not that unusual. I mean really this is the way it's kind of always been, but the thing is no one ever said that. Like, for example, from what I understand (I'm almost sure Geoff Johns said this himself, but don't quote me) the entire Blackest Night story arc covered ONE roughly 24-hour period. Literally one night. The way it was explained to me was that (and again, pretty sure this is straight from the horse's mouth) a lot of this stuff is or was going on all at the same time. Like, unless otherwise noted, it was all happening simultaneously. Also like the Sinestro Corps War, the aftermath and Blackest Night itself was something like less than a week
. No, seriously.
Now of course, that seems impossible, and at first I thought it was a kind of retarded dodge to make...but really, when you think of it, most of these stories seem to all pretty much happen over short periods of time. Realistically, how long could the whole Sinestro Corps War take? Read it over, like in trades, how long could that have been? How long could Hal and the others be trapped in Qward? How long could the battle around Earth be? How long could this have really been? I'm serious, I really looked over it and, realistically, it seems to be maybe a few days--like two or three, not even a week. It's not so much a "war" as it is a "battle in a war" really, on closer examination.
Like, I remember when this happened with Secret Invasion, when month after month they were stuck in the Savage Land and the war against the Skrulls is going on, if I may jump universes a bit. So, anyway, I realized after the fact that really what was all happening was happening over the course of maybe a few hours, a day maybe two at the most, but because the books come out MONTHLY or every few months or whatever it SEEMS like a really long time. And then the statement about Blackest Night made sense to me.
What I'm saying is, what seems like a lot in comics only seems like a lot because it happens monthly, read in trades or examined more deeply you're really looking at DAYS at most, not months passing, usually hours. That's not even counting comics that explicitly take place either at the same time or within moments of each other, as many Sinestro Corps War issues did (for example, the big final battle took a while, but basically was a matter of minutes). So yeah it could happen over five years. That doesn't make the earth crushing crash of stuff happening make any more sense (like, basically, using Geoff Johns' own chronology there has not been a 24-hour period in DC comics when a war was happening for the last year) but that being said it's not impossible, chorologically.
But don't believe me, really go back and read the Sinestro Corps War trades or the Secret Invasion books and see what I mean. It took months to publish but probably takes place over days or hours. Yes logically it's stupid, but from a chronological standpoint it DOES work, in as much as it could have happened chronologically.
I don't have a probably with rebirth to New 52 being fit into five years, except for little squabble with a sector having twice as many lanterns as a sector normally has all from one kind of armpit planet being inducted that quickly. But it seems like most of the major points before that also having to be crammed into those five years(Hal's origin, parralax, destruction of the corps, death[hell everyone else's death seems to have been left in])
Anyways to the down and dirty of it. Have read all released of the fifty two so far, and feeling mostly positive on the most of the issues. Had planned on going over issue by issue as they came out, but don't feel like back tracking that much, so here is an those i feel opinionated enough saying something about:
Justice League: Eh too little really given to us to say, but I must say I liked super cocky Hal Jordan as opposed to his portrayal since Rebirth(where my interest in DC started). Same goes for
Action Comics too.
Animal Man: Not too familiar with the character outside of a Blackest Night one off, didn't like the art, but liked the story and the hook at the end will keep my interest in run.
Batgirl: I am in the camp against healing Barbra Gordon and removing the character of Oracle. The issue wasn't too bad and Gail Simone might able to make lemonade here.
Batwing: Never got into the Batman Inc stuff, but had heard positive stuff about it, but I did enjoy this enough to give it a shot.
Green Arrow: In name only... this feels and looks more like Roy Harper than Ollie. Luckily JT Krull has already been shit canned off the book and hopefully DC editorial will be able to clean this up, but the damage might already be done.
Hawk and Dove: A lot of people started shitting on this book the second Liefeld got attached to it, like the man hadn't been consistently working for the last ten years. But its far from the shittiest book, but definitely not on the recommended list. At least he didn't cover them with pouches.
JLI: One of my favorites from the week it came out. Thought Generation Lost was one of the few good things to have Brightest Day slapped onto its name, and while this isn't in anyway connected to that, I liked a lot of the team that got carried over. Not super familiar with Booster Gold, but I liked him here. Guy Gardner is my favorite lantern, and the prospect of him being on the team will keep me interested. Yakov Smirinoff Iron Man was one of my favorites from Generation Lost and enjoying him here, as well as the chinese hero. Not sure if he has any history in DC, but I like that his name doesn't mesh well into english.
OMAC: This and
Men of War did the least for me of the second week. Apparently it is a love letter to Jack Kirby, but alas I am rather ignorant of Kirby other than "hes the artist that created most of the marvel stuff I love with Stan Lee".
Demon Knights was better written, but kind of left me feeling the same way.
Static Shock: Possibly my favorite of the 52. I grew up with the cartoon series and lump it in with Batman, Superman, Batman Beyond, and Justice League as some of the reason animation was awesome in the 90's. Never read the Milestone comics, nor his inclusion into the DCU as a Titan, but I absolutely loved this and the representation of is powers. Even if the science was horrible, it was a little more creative than science-y stuff normally gets. Not super excited about the ending, either its a shitty cliff hanger that will somehow be undone in the next issue or DC has learned nothing from the Rise of Arsenal.
Batman and Robin: Good, the Batman stuff was about the only thing I enjoyed from Flashpoint, especially that ending. Its nice to see that the one good thing from Flashpoint actually gets to affect character development in someone. Also liked the new dynamic between Damien and Bruce, and was glad that Dick as Batman was not removed from continuity.
Deathstroke Not familiar with Deathstroke, other than Deadpool started out ripping him off. That said, I thought this did a good job introducing him, as well as telling a story, and setting up for an arc. As the relaunch is a move to get new readers I think this was a good issue for that.
Legion Lost and Legion of Super Heros Since I brought up the point about the relaunch being about reintroducing DC characters to new readers lets get to these books. I know almost jack about the Legion other than they are from the future. Niether of these books did any good in introducing me to a massive dump of characters. Legion Lost especially so, which felt like a complete confusing mess. Legion of Super Heroes feels more like a continuation of Legion for those fans of the series, but atleast did a half ass job of telling me what a characters name was and what there powers were. Still over all, completely alienated and not interested in these titles. Just going to lump
Grifter and
Batwoman here too since i felt the same way, although though both were significantly better. And I know Batwoman was held off for like almost a year and not intended as a introduction to the character.
Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corp, and Red Lanterns: not much to say, just a continuation of before Flashpoint other than the possible rage inducing "LOL JK" on probably the most moving part of War of the Green Lanterns. Was very excited about Red Lanterns as they were my favorite of the Rainbow Corps(Rage being a very easy to sympathize with emotion for my Irish blood), although this issue didn't really do anything for me, I think that was because it was just basicly a clip show to introduce new characters. Can't say if it did a good job of it or not as I was intimately familiar with the lore to begin with, so will have to see where it goes.
Suicide Squad: Not a bad issue, like the characters, good intro, DC is getting the appropriate amount of shit over skinny Foxxy Love Amanda Waller.
Resurrection Man: Of the Vertigo stuff being merged with the DCU, I feel like this was my favorite of the bunch. Like description of his power, and how the world seemed different as he came back to life related to it. Also the set up for the story of the run got me interested in following along.
And now too this last weeks releases:
Batman, Nightwing, and Catwoman: All good issues, although I'm a little off put by the somewhat explicit stuff at the end of Catwoman. Not that I think there is anything wrong with them having a relationship, nor depictions of sex in comics... I just feel wierd seeing Batman doing it.
Blue Beetle: Blue Beetle was probably right up there with Static Shock in me being excited about a character getting a new solo run. Unfortunately unlike Static, this issue was a giant let down. All the characters seem to be about where they were when the last Blue Beetle run ended, except for Jamie. Would much rather this have been like Static where they introduce him as an already established hero, allow those of us who were fans of the old run to allow that to be semi-canonical, while introducing him to new readers. Instead we get a new origin, apparently Jamie is going to maintain a secret identity to his friends and family, a decision I absolutely HATE. By the way, did you know Jamie Reyes was MEXICAN! Hey, readers, MEXICAN. There is a lot of those right? Lets make sure every one knows by crow baring it in where ever we can. I have nothing against him being Mexican, I actually think its a plus, especially since we get to have a character in Texas. But where the original run made it a part of his character, it just feels so forced here its incredibly distracting.
Birds of Prey, Supergirl, Wonder Woman: Would you believe out of the three, Birds of Prey with Black Canary was the least exploitative of its female characters? Really niether of these were the worst(oh that's coming). But all were rather meh. Supergirl has ditched the skirt and has the power girl pussy wedgie bottoms, Wonder Woman jumps straight in with no explanation about her, but may be well enough known that wasn't needed. Out of the three, Wonder Woman is the only one that really has me interested.
Red Hood and the Outlaws: And here it is, the first real piece of dog shit of the New 52. If you are a Teen Titans or Starfire fan, I am so so sorry. If you at all follow DC this is the issue to read so that you will get all of the scathing jokes made for the next year. And really, the garbage they pulled with Starfire is really a big steaming pile of shit in the middle of a otherwise rather decent book. Red Hood kinda felt like they were ripping off Deadpool, but I liked Jason and Roy's interactions and probably would of ended up mostly positive on the issue otherwise.
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