The new 52 - The first reviews are in

[arbre_rieur]

Various parties who have read advanced copies of DC's September 52 have posted their thoughts:

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/08/30/dc-comics-relaunch-preview/

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dc-new-52-reviews-110831.html

http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/09/02/dcs-new-52-weve-read-22-of-them-heres-our-impressions/

UPDATE: And now here's one more: http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/09/06/review-the-new-52-so-far-by-paul-nomad/

Comments

[mullon]

Either they didn't actually read Justice League, or they were told not to criticize it. Which I wouldn't put past any of these guys.

[darkknightjrk]

I sincerely doubt it--there was an article on Comics Alliance, a round-table discussion, and one of their more popular reviewers on there gave it a mixed review.

[fifthie]

The Comicsalliance post above is labeled a "preview" which generally means nobody's even pretending that they're particularly critiquing anything.

It probably wasn't a really good choice to include in a post about reviews.

[aaron_bourque]

Wait, Clark's father is a florist, now? Man, this new universe has changed EVERYTHING.

[darkknightjrk]

That's a preview for Swamp Thing, so that's Alec Holland narrating.

Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[aaron_bourque]

But they are clearly showing Clark in the center of just about every panel on that page, so it must be about him, right?

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[darkknightjrk]

From what we've seen of other preview pages, it looks like there's some crazy nature-related stuff going on all over the place, which Superman, Aquaman, and Batman are all noticing and probably talking to each other about:

...

[glprime]

Yikes...

Re: ...

[darkknightjrk]

Hey, this book--and the whole Dark line--is supposed to be of the horror vein.

Re: ...

[q99]

Hm, you've got a horror line, horror WW... DC seems to be going big into horror.

Re: ...

[darkknightjrk]

Hey, Walking Dead's kicking some serious ass.

Plus, I think when Azzarello is talking about "horror," he's more talking about high-stakes and making the gods terrible things to see. It should also be mentioned that he did a similar thing with his other up-coming monthly, Spaceman, describing it less as science fiction and more as "science hell."

Re: ...

[q99]

Yea, but WD is one book, this is like, 8.

Not that I'm really objecting- their "horror" stuff looks much better to me than most of their non-horror stuff.

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[drexer]

Is anyone else getting a vibe here from Aquaman such as:

"Yeah dude, the whole Ocean is dying around me, but just feel this sweet mp3 I have here..."

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[darkknightjrk]

You know, looking at some of those old Silver Age Aquaman stories, you kinda get the feeling that Aquaman really didn't give a shit about his finny friends, so...:O

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[silicondream]

Superman's Malcolm X impression kills birds.

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[darkknightjrk]

"I didn't land on planet Earth--planet Earth landed...no, wait, I did kinda land on planet Earth. Never mind."

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[aaron_bourque]

CLARK: I will share the skies with no one.

BATMAN: I"M BATMAN

AQUAMAN: Yes, YES! ALL THESE DEAD FISH! THIS PLEASES THE SEA KING!

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[darkknightjrk]

I think Batman's reaction is more like, "Oh SHIT Alfred's going to freak when he sees this." :O

Re: Don't Mind Me, Just Being Deliberately Obtuse!

[darkblade]

I can't help but laugh my ass off seeing the dead bats all over the Batcave.

[thanekos]

I like how the ComicsAlliance reviews have something good to say about everything but Adam Glass's Suicide Squad.

Wonder if that's a bit of the " Flashpoint: Legion of Doom was murderous mediocre drek " sentiment talking, though..

[mrstatham]

I think it's more the loss of Secret Six that still stings for some. That the reviewer picked up largely on the lack of a sense of humour suggests they're more used to Harley as she was portrayed previously or King Shark and Deadshot under Gail's pen. I'll still pick up Suicide Squad, but I am a little less curious about it, now.

Damn excited for Wonder Woman, though, and I might end up getting Stormwatch in addition to WW, SS and Justice League Dark.

[fifthie]

Was LOD flashpoint the one where that one guy curbsmiled that other guy?

Cause if so then goddamn that comic couldn't see mediocre through a telescope on a clear night.

[glimmung]

I am pleased that Stormwatch is well reviewed. May have to pick that up.

[drexer]

The only title I'm starting to regret not reserving is Demon Knights; otherwise I feel glad in the notion that all my picks seem worthwhile.

It seems that this reboot is giving us a proper branch of DC with more alternative/horror/fantasy stories, even though I do wish they could return to us some of the superheroes they so hastily got rid of.

[eyz]

So it's getting well received...but how will far the sales?
And don't scream the charts of the upcoming issues at me. More than that counts. Like the TPB sales, the sales of issues over a full month not just the first day, translated books over the world, etc..

[cainofdreaming]

Totally off on a tangent, but why is it that abload.de always chokes on me, even though it's so much closer than imageshack.us which works fine? Internet, I can never understand you.

[r0b666]

More and more I am reading articles and reviews about Flashpoint and the new DCnU that make me think they are doing this as a one year experiment. Like Marvel did with Heroes Reborn. They are going to keep what sells/works/Dido and Johns want and revert everything else to "normal".

Of course I could be wrong. But at this point nothing either of the big two do would surprise me.

[ruhig_knight]

Yeah, I've been thinking that for awhile too. Now, with the more I hear of the DCnU, how DC seems to be shooting itself in both feet with some of these changes, and how they're alienating and pissing so many fans off the more I'm sure of it will eventually come to that. Or atleast hopefully come to that.

Though I wageredbetween one to two years until they revert back to the 'old' DCU or combine it with parts of the DCnU that sells/Didio and Johns likes.

[kirke_novak]

There's only one title I was interested in - Stormwatch - and I'm glad it's getting such good reviews.

I was a little surprised at some of the characters that were chosen restarted nearly from scratch rather than keeping an existing long backstory.

Let me guess, Midnighter and Apollo just met,

Anyway, all I want for Christmas is Kev's cameo.

[darkknightjrk]

"Let me guess, Midnighter and Apollo just met."

Yep, but to be fair, I think Paul Cornell had a good point in why he decided to do that. Basically, we've had a lot of heroes who were first introduced as gay and were either already or soon in relationships. Therefore he wanted to approach their relationship like any other straight one, showing the initial sparks of interest, the first date and all of that.

[fifthie]

Of all the dumb rebooty ~make your mark on the characters~ origin-rehash shit that comics writers have indulged in over the years, the Apollo/Midnighter meet-cute is one of the ones I'd blame a writer the least for being unable to resist.

[kirke_novak]

I was just being cheeky, I had no idea this info is out there. I'm actually really happy about it, I want to see the romance blooming and I want to see it now :D