DC’s New 52 - The Bad

(This is the third of three posts. Go to the following links to read about the “Good” and the “OK” comics of DC’s new 52)

After reading Ed Howard's reviews of all 52 first issues of DC Comic's new 52 over the last 4 weeks, I decided I would try to read all 52 myself and write some quick comments on them and see what I'd like to continue with going forward. Little did I know that reading 52 first issues consecutively would turn in to quite as much of a slog as it was, but it's inevitable that with 52 books all having a similar editorial mandate of rebooting or reintroducing a character or team there was bound to be some feeling of reading the same thing over and over again. I admit that I was a bit cynical of this entire concept of starting 52 issues at once by DC (and still am cynical as to how long before they try this exact same endeavor again). However, I have to consider it a success in the end as it's gotten a lot of people (including me) interested in a lot of books that would probably be dead off the ground or lost in the shuffle without the line-wide reboot and has likewise introduced me to some creators whom I wasn’t really familiar with before that I’m now interested to follow.

I ranked each #1 and then sorted them into one of three tiers -- the good comics, which I'm excited to continue reading for the foreseeable future, the ok ones, where I may or may not sample them again, but won't follow along closely unless word of mouth convinces me otherwise, and the bad ones, which I have no interest in reading anymore of. In each of those tiers I've also listed the comics in order of preference.

As for the reviews, three things to keep in mind:

1. I read and reviewed the comics in alphabetical order, so the stuff at the beginning of the alphabet has a bit more thought put into it and I wouldn’t be surprised if I was unnecessarily harsher as I went along (I was really beginning to get fatigued and ready to be done with this around the time I got to the "S" books).
2. I feel adequate enough at figuring out what works and doesn't work with comic book writing, but I struggle to find the words to critique artwork, so don't be surprised if my comments on the art are a bit pedestrian
3. I've done a bit of editing on the reviews, but with 52 of them, I figure there will be a lot of repeated phrases and adjectives.

Bad

35. Legion of Super-Heroes -- This is certainly better than Legion Lost, but it still suffers from a lot of the same issues that don't make it a very good reboot at all -- these books were supposed to be introduction points, but beyond some captions introducing us to the characters (which is better than just throwing us in ala Legion Lost), there's still a huge amount of backstory being assumed as known here. Also, this might just end on the least interesting cliffhanger of the whole lot of 52 comics.

36. Justice League International -- A global team of U.N. run superheroes that are concerned with their image and used for PR is a good concept when done right. Obviously, this is trying to be the Giffen/Maguire JLI from the late 80's, but Dan Jurgens is all kinds of wrong as the writer here. His writing lacks the proper playful tone and comedic timing in the dialogue and while Aaron Lopresti's artwork has brief moments, it lacks the bright, cartoonishness and fluidity that would help make the book fun. The end product feels very generic, static, and boring instead.

37. Green Lantern: New Guardians -- This reads and looks like an Image comic from the 90's and it totally loses me when it shows me tons of different colored “lanterns” (red, blue, pink, yellow) and expects me to have any idea as to what the hell is going on.

38. Suicide Squad -- This comic lost me when it tried to get me to believe that a superpowered, drug dealing, gang leader is so shocked by the knowledge that what he's doing might be killing kids and women.  Plus, “shorties.”  Is that term still used?

The thing is, the concept of Suicide Squad is a good one (I really enjoyed the original run of the series) but this does absolutely nothing to make you care about any of these characters, as they are pretty much all characterized as "hardened villains who are crazy enough to withstand torture."

39. Blue Beetle -- So a teenager gets bitten by a bug that gives him powers...hmm, where have I seen this before. If that's not enough, the rest of the plot background revolving around the origins of his powers and where the series is likely headed seems to be lifted directly from Invincible (DC could surely offer Kirkman enough money to do a series for them if they really wanted to, no?). The characters all seem to fit some pretty stock Hispanic stereotypes, with the only positive I could find being the art design of the villains in the book.

40. DC Universe Presents: Deadman -- I find it funny that with 52 books launching, DC still felt the need for a catch-all title like this. Because Voodoo and Captain Atom can certainly hold a long-running solo title, but not Deadman. Anyways, this is Quantum Leap: The Comic, complete with all the wacky hijinx and overdone narration about what's worth living for.

41. Detective Comics -- Four Batman specific comics seems like overkill, but I guess if you are going to have "regular Batman," "Batman w/ Robin," and "grim Batman" then there is at least room for three. And as far as “grim Batman” goes, Tony Daniel's Detective IS better than David Finch's Batman: The Dark Knight. But it's still not anything particularly good -- his artwork is decent enough, but his dialogue is bargain basement Frank Miller, so overwrought that it makes me wonder if it was a a joke. For instance:

or better yet:

Beyond that it's some pretty un-nuanced Batman. with a last page reveal (“fangasmic?” Really?)that looks like it’s going to be stolen directly from Face/Off, perhaps?

42. Red Lanterns -- Ed Benes is one of those artists whose style I really can't stand, especially how all his women stand in pinup poses at all times, but his hilariously ridiculous double splash of the Red Lantern cat actually made me laugh out loud (not sure if that was the intended reaction).

Similarly ridiculous is Milligan's dialogue (including the cat’s “rrrrrrr”), with the ruminations of the leader of the Red Lantern's, Atrocitius, being so over-the-top that that I have to almost wonder (or hope) that this is a parody of dark and brooding style of comics book.

43. Savage Hawkman -- How Tony S. Daniel (a note to Tony -- just using your middle initial does not give instant credibility to your writing prowess) was able to get two books, when he doesn't have enough good ideas between them to write one, is beyond me. Philip Tan has some nice artwork here, but Daniel's storyline, characters, and dialogue are all awful. I guess if you just want to flip through this and look at the pictures, that's fine.

44. I, Vampire -- Setting Twilight/True Blood in the DC universe definitely isn't for me. So just imagine the dialogue as coming from one of those series and you’re pretty much bang on. The art is pretty in concept, but in execution, every page looks exactly the same and it’s so muddled and drab that it’s extremely difficult to follow the story or discern between characters. Not to mention the static posing of the vampires:

To be even more nitpicky, captions are used capture the back and forth between the two leads, yet for some reason both character's caption boxes are colored red, with one just the faintest bit of red darker than the other.

This just comes off so poorly.

45. Green Arrow -- Oh wow, is this bad. I guess this is supposed to be Steve Jobs as a superhero, or else it's DC's version of Tony Stark? JT Krul's dialogue is, I don't know, pedantic? It's either try to be relevant by talking about “YouTube” or an attempt at a bunch of witty one liners (which I guess fits with the general goofiness with which Green Arrow has always been portrayed with in the past), but when they don't fall flat on their face, they simply are "there."

Beyond the dialogue, the story here is paint-by-numbers with no hook to pull you in and when the villains and supporting cast aren't at least generic, their instead entirely forgettable. And Dan Jurgens art is pedestrian, not horrible, but entirely uninspiring.  I almost, ALMOST want to stay around just to see if this batch of villains at the end is going to be as lame as they appear to be:

46. Legion Lost -- I read some Legion books at one time or another, but always had trouble not feeling like an outsider trying to understand some secret club. This is certainly a comic that shoves you right into things off the bat, with a million names and made up swear words and characterizations given in the first few pages alone. In some ways, I appreciate this, as it's better than the ultra decompressed mode of storytelling that has become the norm, but on the other hand, this is such an inelegant shoehorning of all these things that it destroy any goodwill I was going to give it right off the bat. There is tons of backstory that goes unexplained, tons of motivation and powers and everything that you are expected to just know...this is really, really headache inducing stuff.

47. Voodoo -- Here is the splash page to Voodoo:

And that pretty much says it all. Shameless T&A wrapped up in a bunch of tired clichés that always follow around any comic or movie or TV show involving strippers (I think Heroes also did the "strippers -- they need babysitters just like you and me!" storyline) The problem is, despite all of that, I think there is a good underlying premise here (and both Alan Moore and Joe Casey have managed to make Voodoo an interesting character in the past), but the lack of any nuance whatsoever in this first issue doesn't lead me to believe that Ron Marz will take it to any kind of satisfying place.

48. Blackhawks -- Here's one where the art is entirely too distracting with all its cross-hatching and scratchiness and yet another story that doesn't have enough to it to make me care about where it leads or about whatever the hell "nanocites" are.

49. Men of War -- I'm really, really struggling to find the point of this. I know it's hard to tell war stories without SOME cliché, but the Sgt. Rock story is ALL cliché and stranger yet, it seems to have some kind superhero tie-in at the end. The backup story is just generic it is, to the point I found myself laughing at it. I guess if you are going to do war comics, get Garth Ennis or just reprint old Sgt. Rock stories from the 60's.

50. Red Hood and the Outlaws -- The joke with Destro in the old G.I. Joe cartoon/comics was about why his helmet had a mouth. Apparently Red Hood missed that joke:

 

One page after those two panels we get the line "Who do we know who carries a pair of 38s?" that preceded the appearance of Starfire. Because see, she has boobs and they are big. Seriously, I simply stopped reading after that.

51. Hawk and Dove -- I give to you, Rob Liefeld’s “The Many Faces of Hank Hall.” Enjoy.

         

(I personally like that he has VAMPIRE TEETH in one panel…)

And just for more fun, the ending splash page of the issue.

As this is essentially the comic book equivalent of watching Birdemic, I’ll definitely keep checking in on this book as long as Liefeld is on it (the over/under on which is probably 3 issues) just to get a good chuckle.

52. Batman: The Dark Knight -- Oh, the "great" things I've heard of the David Finch run on Batman -- this one actually has me intrigued to see just how bad it is...First off, his artwork is as far removed from the style I enjoy -- Finch still firmly embraces the more “Image-y” aspects of his art. In fact that kind of describes the entire issue, all 90's style crap with women in cheesecake poses, stiff layouts, and lines like "Fear is a cannibal. A goblin. An unruly tyrant armed with a bludgeon of doubt."

Then it's capped off with a laughable final panel (see the picture at the very top of this post) -- what the hell is the meaning of "One-Face" in this instance, as Two-Face still has, um, two faces? This is bad to the point that I want to pick up a second issue to see how much worse it can get.

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DC’s New 52 - The Good
DC’s New 52 - The OK
DC’s New 52 - The Bad

Labels: batman the dark knight, blackhawks, blue beetle, comics, dc new 52, dc universe presents deadman, detective comics, green arrow, green lantern new guardians, hawk and dove, i vampire, legion lost, legion of super-heroes, men of war, red hood and the outlaws, red lanterns, savage hawkman, suicide squad, voodoo