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DC Comics Rebirth #1 - SPOILERS -
Mr_Cosmic
Posts: 3,200
I'm creating this thread for those who want to discuss the contents of the issue and to keep those discussions out of the "Official Announcement" and "Hating On" threads.
I've read it..thoughts below!
I've read it..thoughts below!
Comments
And if I were a retailer, I'd be a bit worried that all of those New52 trades are destined for my bargain bin.
/I dug (a good chunk of) it, though.
First, the comic was like a breath of fresh air. I knew it was Wally from the start and just reading his thoughts and memories of the pre-52 was so nice. I loved how the issue touched on so many different characters from Blue Beetle to the Legion of Superheroes. I'm excited to see where most of these stories go. I haven't been reading much DC so I'm not sure who the kid staring into the aquarium is, for example, but that was OK. I loved that Pandora got fried..reading that scene was cathartic..almost like all my thoughts towards the new 52 were summed up in that moment.
I couldn't wait for my DCBS order so I bought and read this digitally. Frankly, I'm glad I did. Using the "panel by panel" feature really worked wonderfully on the Wally and Barry scene. I was convinced that Wally wasn't going to make it. I thought he'd play his part and do just enough to get the ball rolling with Barry and Bruce. When Barry said his name and grabbed his arm I just about yelled out, "YES!"
Then...The Watchmen? WTF!!!???!!!! I'm not sure where they're going with that, but wow, I was NOT expecting it!
As for DC Comics Rebirth #1 - I thoroughly enjoyed it! Thumbs up :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: The real proof of concept, though, will be in the follow-up; to see if this issue's spirit and mandate will be found in the next year or two of monthly (and bi-monthly) DC comic books. We have all read wonderful kick-off books for DC and Marvel reboots... the real convincing starts with the regular titles. Here's hoping the coming ride will be just as fun.
(I guess, except that one Dr. Manhattan issue people now care about. I meant the other 36 issues of Before Watchmen I often see in cheap bins and DCBS clearance sales.)
For me, 4/5ths of Rebirth seemed like a good 'here are the books and we're trying to give you what you want' primer. It looks good, and is a lot of reading for $3.
But the Watchmen stuff? Embarrassing. Seems desperate to get some buzz and controversy going. Is this how the New-New DCU is supposed to be looking FORWARD? Ugh.
That said, there are new DCbooks coming with creative teams I am interested in, and I will still be giving those a try. Hopefully whatever this Watchmen nonsense is will be limited to books I am not reading, and not become some framing device that runs through everything.
I really wish they would use this as a way to tell stories in a new way. I'm not sure how - maybe integrate multi-media platforms, new art styles, new way of presentation. The New 52 had promise, but for all of the "changes," in six months we were right back to reading stories not fundamentally different than before Flashpoint.
And that was a wasted opportunity.**
** Now, I'll be satisfied if the characters going forward are likeable and who you'd want to have a beer with. No more cranky Batman and Emo-Superman.
It turns out, this is not about getting the Internet buzzing, or trying to sell some comics with the prospect of Batman punching Rorschach, or Superman fighting Dr. Manhattan.
No, it seems that, all that lack of fun and joy and hope that many complained about in so many of those New 52 books (as well as in recent DC movies)... that was actually Moore and Gibbons' fault. You know, because of a comic they did back when Reagan was president, that was not even in, or I would argue, even about, the DCU. So... the reason why DC didn't publish more fun and hopeful comics, and that the New 52 was what it was is... because Dr. Manhattan stole all the love? Back in 1986.
Were they trying so hard to get away from the legacy of Watchmen that, at nearly the same time as launching the New 52, they decided they needed to publish nearly 52 more issues of Watchmen material with Before Watchmen?
Sorry. If you want to not do comics like Watchmen, then just don't do them. If you want fun, bright, hopeful, uncynical comics, then you can start making them immediately. Hell, you've got a brand new reboot to let you do exactly that. Why not just focus your energy on that. Today fans could be putting more energy into talking about the return of Wally, of Legion, of Ted Kord, of a new interesting character in Wonder Woman's mythos, etc. But putting in the Watchmen characters has sucked all the energy and attention away from that.
This is not 'deconstructing the deconstruction' so that you can finally be free of that mean old 12 issue Watchmen comic that took all your fun away. This is trading on the legacy of Watchmen to try to make another buck off of this 30 year old work that was never intended to be a "universe", it was just a book. Because it still outsells anything they have published lately.
This is not some grand, intellectual defense of hope vs. cynicism. It is, itself, a newly low piece of cynicism on DC's part.
It is DCU V Watchmen.
The full article here.
So meta.
And at least that had the decency to blame publishers', writers' and readers' thirst for blood rather than Alan Moore.
Plus it's easier to take being preached to by the guy who wrote Flex Mentallo than it is from the guy who wrote Infinite Crisis.
Geoff Johns has had a hand on the tiller of the DCU--as a writer of their most high profile books, as well as in various levels of management-- for 10 years now.
Rebirth is his, what, second or third relaunch/reboot?
He has been Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics since 2010.
He was an Executive Producer on Batman V Superman.
I think it is a little rich for him to be repudiating those 416 pages of Watchmen from 30 years ago as having all this power over these characters (and, I guess, him?) now. Like Moore and Gibbons are still stuffing him in a locker.
How many tens of thousands of pages has Johns written-- and overseen as CCO-- in those 30 years between Watchmen and now?
If he wants to make good, hopeful, loving superhero comics, then why hasn't he done so in all those years?
Real talk: having Watchmen characters in the Rebirth era is making a buck in one of the oldest, shrewdest ways Big Two comics know. And that is not surprising. It's Big 2 corporate comics, in the Internet age. I know the game is the game. And everything is game. And even one of your few, actual classics is not safe from being treated as just more 'toys in the toybox' and used to generate some cheap heat.
But I think what really gets me-- more than their timid idea of looking backwards to Watchmen to generate controversy, rather than focusing forward on Rebirth and what is new-- are these claims by Johns that this is some big, grand attempt of finally snatching love and hope for superheroes away from the darkness and cynicism of Watchmen.
Rubbish.
This is not 'deconstructing the deconstruction'. This is Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman.
Except in this more cynical case, imagine in the 1940s, if the suits at Universal Studios gave interviews claiming that the Wolf Man would be meeting and fighting Frankenstein to finally get away from how that terrible meanie James Whale stole all the love from monster movies back in 1931.
Oh wait.
M