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DC Comics: The New 52! (Part 2)
Random things that occur to me: I’m not sure if, when picking out Wildstorm characters to save, I’d have chosen Grifter, Voodoo and Stormwatch. Very little of Jack Kirby’s work is featured in the new line (Cadmus and the DNAliens in OMAC; Darkseid as a villain in JLA). The Marvel family and Fawcett characters seems to be completely missing. Static Shock is the only book with Milestone characters in it. Of the JSA / Golden Age legacy characters, Mr. Terrific seems to be the only one worthy of a reboot presence. It’s curious who they kept and who got shuffled off into limbo.
Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps – No reboot (effectively; they may have adjusted Hal, Guy and John’s pasts, but nothing goes that far back in the first couple of issues). Similar to the members of the Bat-family, the Green Lantern books seem to not have been rebooted at all and in fact are just continuing merrily along from where they ended before Flashpoint. Don’t know what’s going on or who these guys are? Too bad!
Green Lantern New Guardians – Unclear reboot. Kyle’s origin is retold to match Ganthet’s more recent characterization and make Hal’s past (most relating to Parallax) unclear. Other than that, it follows right on the heels on recent Green Lantern events and assumes you know the various rainbow corps members and the Guardians.
Green Arrow – Full reboot. Oliver Queen is now the Steve Jobs of his world (hereditary chairman and genius department head of a big tech company) except he also fights supervillians. He’s drawn to look like Roy did in his “Red Arrow” persona (no Robin Hood goatee). In a continuity nod, “Holt Corp” is referenced as competitor and maker of flying webcams—It’s presumably run by Michael Holt (Mr. Terrific) as the cameras look like his T-spheres.
Grifter – Full reboot. Former spy, current conman Cole Cash was abducted by aliens (rebooted Daemonites) who are infiltrating humanity. But their attempt to take over his body got screwed up. Now he hears their telepathic conversation (or might be insane) and needs to kill them before they kill him.
Hawk & Dove – Partial reboot. They’ve basically been regressed to the early 90s, before the Lords of Chaos and Order got involved in their origin, before Hawk became Monarch and Extant, before Dove died and returned, and before Hawk died and Holly Granger was introduced to replace him. The early history (Don Hall was Dove, then died and Dawn got the powers) is there, and the recent Dove-Deadman romance from Brightest Day is there. Also, they manage to ram a plane into the Washington Monument, one of the hardest parts of the National Mall to possibly hit!
I, Vampire – Effectively a new character (he hasn’t been seen since the 70s, I think). Another book that should have been a Vertigo title. Also, a vampire army is planning to rise up and destroy this superhero-filled world. Wanna bet no one else notices and I, Vampire needs to stop it? (I’m unimpressed.)
Justice League – Full reboot. Appears to be another flashback title, as it shows the first meeting of the characters who will later be the JLA. Superman is new to the scene and a bit of a dick. Their first mission appears to be to figure out how mother boxes are sending Darkseid’s troops to Earth.
Justice League International – Full reboot; mostly unchanged characters. First thing that caught my eye: The team is gender balanced with four men and four women. Second thing: They only have three minority members (one black, one Chinese, one Hispanic) but the team is actually “international” in having come from different parts of the world. The team is formed by the UN and sent up against giant robots that might be minions of a rebooted Mongul.
Justice League Dark – Unclear reboot. Basically, it’s the Secret Seven team (based around Shade, the Changing Man) from the Flashpoint AU, but the plot picks up a lot of the threads from Brightest Day and the Aftermath book, particularly the mainstream version of John Constantine and the Deadman/Dove romance. Deadman can also apparently make himself visible, now. Zatanna has a new costume and worse personality, but is otherwise unchanged.
Legion of Super-Heroes – No reboot. This continues right on the heels of the previous Legion books, only with a chunk of the team having disappeared into the timestream and feared lost. Also, the trainees from Adventure Comics have been promoted to the main team. Daxamites are threatening the universe again.
Legion Lost – No reboot. The missing part of the team is stranded in 21st century Earth with a mysterious virus that turns people into super-powered aliens on the loose. Two members (including the only surviving member of the Post-Zero Hour reboot) are unceremoniously killed in the first issue. Yet another case of a world-shaking catastrophe that won’t shake the world enough for anyone else to care. (I’ll admit, I was hoping for something closer to the original Legion Lost storyline, where they’re in a distant galaxy and doing the Star Trek: Voyager thing. Then again, I was also hoping for more of the team members I give a damn about.)
Men of War – New characters. Sgt. Rock’s grandson is in the army in a world full of superheroes and super-terrorists. There’s a huge amount of possibility here, of what it’s like to be a “normal” soldier in a world where metahumans rock world politics constantly. We’ll see whether they actually manage to make good on it. (There’s a backup story, which is more a standard war comic.)
Mister Terrific – Full reboot but mostly unchanged character. Michael Holt is the third-smarted man in the world, an Olympic athlete and a billionaire corporate CEO. He lost his faith when his wife died, but he was driven to save the world by a visit from his future (as-of-yet unborn) son. His “invisible to technology” power seems to have been forgotten, but he’s got all sorts of cool tech and he can technobabble his way out of anything. His best friend (and possible love interest) is Karen Starr, CEO of Starrware, who may or may not be Power Girl. I see potential, but there are two major flaws: One is that the art is really inconsistent, making it very hard to keep track of who anyone is. The other is that it’s very hard to write characters smarter than you are doing science that you don’t understand; and Eric Wallace is no Randall Munroe.
Nightwing – Little to no reboot. Dick Grayson was Robin, then Nightwing, then Batman while Bruce was “gone”, then Nightwing again because reasons. There may not have been a Bludhaven arc, but who knows? Elements of Dick’s circus past are back to haunt him.
OMAC – Full reboot. The satellite Brother Eye turns unsuspecting Kevin Kho into OMAC for an assault on Cadmus Labs and the DNAliens (which are apparently controlled by Checkmate, which is run by a rebooted Maxwell Lord). The artist really wants to be John Byrne. Actually, DiDio’s writing make me think he wants to be John Byrne too, because he has a similar lack of understanding of “show, don’t tell.”
Red Hood and the Outlaws – Unclear reboot. This is a hot mess, let me tell you. Jason Todd’s history is unchanged, except they added that Talia had him trained by mystic assassins after he came back. Roy Harper was apparently someone, but we’re pretty sure he wasn’t Speedy because Green Arrow was rebooted. But he uses a bow. And he’s got both arms again. And he’s an asshole, but not shown to be a junkie. The Titans apparently existed (in some form), despite Cyborg having been a founding member of the JLA in the new continuity. Except Kory doesn’t know or care, because she’s been retroactively lobotomized into an emotionless sexbot who, despite having been on Earth long enough to have been in this Titans group and showing no discretion whatsoever, has never been photographed and put on the internet before this point. What.
Red Lanterns – No reboot; follows the Green Lantern books. Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lanterns, contemplates the nature of rage and vengeance and what he should be doing with himself and his corps. Very little happens, he mostly just philosophizes at Krona’s corpse. There’s no narrative thrust.
Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps – No reboot (effectively; they may have adjusted Hal, Guy and John’s pasts, but nothing goes that far back in the first couple of issues). Similar to the members of the Bat-family, the Green Lantern books seem to not have been rebooted at all and in fact are just continuing merrily along from where they ended before Flashpoint. Don’t know what’s going on or who these guys are? Too bad!
Green Lantern New Guardians – Unclear reboot. Kyle’s origin is retold to match Ganthet’s more recent characterization and make Hal’s past (most relating to Parallax) unclear. Other than that, it follows right on the heels on recent Green Lantern events and assumes you know the various rainbow corps members and the Guardians.
Green Arrow – Full reboot. Oliver Queen is now the Steve Jobs of his world (hereditary chairman and genius department head of a big tech company) except he also fights supervillians. He’s drawn to look like Roy did in his “Red Arrow” persona (no Robin Hood goatee). In a continuity nod, “Holt Corp” is referenced as competitor and maker of flying webcams—It’s presumably run by Michael Holt (Mr. Terrific) as the cameras look like his T-spheres.
Grifter – Full reboot. Former spy, current conman Cole Cash was abducted by aliens (rebooted Daemonites) who are infiltrating humanity. But their attempt to take over his body got screwed up. Now he hears their telepathic conversation (or might be insane) and needs to kill them before they kill him.
Hawk & Dove – Partial reboot. They’ve basically been regressed to the early 90s, before the Lords of Chaos and Order got involved in their origin, before Hawk became Monarch and Extant, before Dove died and returned, and before Hawk died and Holly Granger was introduced to replace him. The early history (Don Hall was Dove, then died and Dawn got the powers) is there, and the recent Dove-Deadman romance from Brightest Day is there. Also, they manage to ram a plane into the Washington Monument, one of the hardest parts of the National Mall to possibly hit!
I, Vampire – Effectively a new character (he hasn’t been seen since the 70s, I think). Another book that should have been a Vertigo title. Also, a vampire army is planning to rise up and destroy this superhero-filled world. Wanna bet no one else notices and I, Vampire needs to stop it? (I’m unimpressed.)
Justice League – Full reboot. Appears to be another flashback title, as it shows the first meeting of the characters who will later be the JLA. Superman is new to the scene and a bit of a dick. Their first mission appears to be to figure out how mother boxes are sending Darkseid’s troops to Earth.
Justice League International – Full reboot; mostly unchanged characters. First thing that caught my eye: The team is gender balanced with four men and four women. Second thing: They only have three minority members (one black, one Chinese, one Hispanic) but the team is actually “international” in having come from different parts of the world. The team is formed by the UN and sent up against giant robots that might be minions of a rebooted Mongul.
Justice League Dark – Unclear reboot. Basically, it’s the Secret Seven team (based around Shade, the Changing Man) from the Flashpoint AU, but the plot picks up a lot of the threads from Brightest Day and the Aftermath book, particularly the mainstream version of John Constantine and the Deadman/Dove romance. Deadman can also apparently make himself visible, now. Zatanna has a new costume and worse personality, but is otherwise unchanged.
Legion of Super-Heroes – No reboot. This continues right on the heels of the previous Legion books, only with a chunk of the team having disappeared into the timestream and feared lost. Also, the trainees from Adventure Comics have been promoted to the main team. Daxamites are threatening the universe again.
Legion Lost – No reboot. The missing part of the team is stranded in 21st century Earth with a mysterious virus that turns people into super-powered aliens on the loose. Two members (including the only surviving member of the Post-Zero Hour reboot) are unceremoniously killed in the first issue. Yet another case of a world-shaking catastrophe that won’t shake the world enough for anyone else to care. (I’ll admit, I was hoping for something closer to the original Legion Lost storyline, where they’re in a distant galaxy and doing the Star Trek: Voyager thing. Then again, I was also hoping for more of the team members I give a damn about.)
Men of War – New characters. Sgt. Rock’s grandson is in the army in a world full of superheroes and super-terrorists. There’s a huge amount of possibility here, of what it’s like to be a “normal” soldier in a world where metahumans rock world politics constantly. We’ll see whether they actually manage to make good on it. (There’s a backup story, which is more a standard war comic.)
Mister Terrific – Full reboot but mostly unchanged character. Michael Holt is the third-smarted man in the world, an Olympic athlete and a billionaire corporate CEO. He lost his faith when his wife died, but he was driven to save the world by a visit from his future (as-of-yet unborn) son. His “invisible to technology” power seems to have been forgotten, but he’s got all sorts of cool tech and he can technobabble his way out of anything. His best friend (and possible love interest) is Karen Starr, CEO of Starrware, who may or may not be Power Girl. I see potential, but there are two major flaws: One is that the art is really inconsistent, making it very hard to keep track of who anyone is. The other is that it’s very hard to write characters smarter than you are doing science that you don’t understand; and Eric Wallace is no Randall Munroe.
Nightwing – Little to no reboot. Dick Grayson was Robin, then Nightwing, then Batman while Bruce was “gone”, then Nightwing again because reasons. There may not have been a Bludhaven arc, but who knows? Elements of Dick’s circus past are back to haunt him.
OMAC – Full reboot. The satellite Brother Eye turns unsuspecting Kevin Kho into OMAC for an assault on Cadmus Labs and the DNAliens (which are apparently controlled by Checkmate, which is run by a rebooted Maxwell Lord). The artist really wants to be John Byrne. Actually, DiDio’s writing make me think he wants to be John Byrne too, because he has a similar lack of understanding of “show, don’t tell.”
Red Hood and the Outlaws – Unclear reboot. This is a hot mess, let me tell you. Jason Todd’s history is unchanged, except they added that Talia had him trained by mystic assassins after he came back. Roy Harper was apparently someone, but we’re pretty sure he wasn’t Speedy because Green Arrow was rebooted. But he uses a bow. And he’s got both arms again. And he’s an asshole, but not shown to be a junkie. The Titans apparently existed (in some form), despite Cyborg having been a founding member of the JLA in the new continuity. Except Kory doesn’t know or care, because she’s been retroactively lobotomized into an emotionless sexbot who, despite having been on Earth long enough to have been in this Titans group and showing no discretion whatsoever, has never been photographed and put on the internet before this point. What.
Red Lanterns – No reboot; follows the Green Lantern books. Atrocitus, leader of the Red Lanterns, contemplates the nature of rage and vengeance and what he should be doing with himself and his corps. Very little happens, he mostly just philosophizes at Krona’s corpse. There’s no narrative thrust.