DC Comics Discussion

Discussion in 'Comic Books and Graphic Novels' started by Tekkaman Blade, May 31, 2011.

  1. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    I always thought that was because Marvel wasn’t marketing him right, he should’ve been in the main avengers book which was popular at the time, and guest starring in other titles more. Really he was just in the avengers forever mini series then rarely appeared outside his own book.
     
    Last edited: Mar 29, 2022
  2. Haywired

    Haywired Hakunamatatacon

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    Once I read Tom King being described as Rian Johnson of comic books, but I wholeheartedly disagree.

    This comparison is completely unfair to Rian Johnson.

    He's more like Bendis v2.0.
     
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  3. QLRformer

    QLRformer Seeker

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    Didn't anyone enjoy Tom King's Visions story?
     
  4. SouthtownKid

    SouthtownKid Headmaster

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    They did at the time. But who knows now, with everyone pretending they didn't like Mister Miracle.
     
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  5. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    Well with the visions, with the exeception of the grim reaper(who has died so many times I've lost count) the only people he killed were characters he created. Not quite the same as his other works. It was also before his ego went to his head. I liked Bendis's Alias and Ultimate Spidey, it wasn't till he got to write the avengers that his ego got the better of him and most of his work was down hill from there. Same with King his early works aren't bad, but eventually he just thought he was the greatest thing ever and most of his work seems to be what can I deconstruct and tear down ever since.
     
  6. Haywired

    Haywired Hakunamatatacon

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    King had very good Vision and Miracle.
    But since Heroes in Crisis he's going in circles. Too much buying into his own hype. I think reaction to HiC is why the Human Target is in Black Label and may or may not be within the main continuity.

    I consider his Batman run hilariously bad at times, too.
     
    Last edited: Apr 2, 2022
  7. DrTraveler

    DrTraveler Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack

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    I think I’d read Vision prior to reading Omega Men and thinking this is a one trick pony. I read his Mister Miracle and knew it was true. All three were good, but they thematically rhyme. If that makes sense.

    After his Heroes In Crisis book I was done. There was literally no way I’d read another book written by him.

    He has talent, but he’s using the same crutches in every story. I don’t think it’s even fair to call his books deconstructions. They’re all vehicles to talk about mental illness, and in particular illnesses related to trauma. That’s an important topic, but he’s told that story now many times over.
     
  8. Megastar

    Megastar Well-Known Member

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    That's the one, comic of he's I haven't read.
     
  9. SouthtownKid

    SouthtownKid Headmaster

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    PTSD is to him what alcoholism is to Stephen King. It's something that he's going to revisit endlessly because it's something that's personal to him. It may be something he wrestles with himself as a former counterterrorism agent for the CIA. I don't mind it because it's not like the comics stands are flooded with other PTSD stories. And really, I'd like more writers telling stories that are personal to them rather than generic repeats of stories they read as kids. But unfortunately, that's not going to happen because the majority of comics writers for the "Big-2" have never really lived lives outside of comics.
     
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  10. DrTraveler

    DrTraveler Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack

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    It’s good. Omega Men, Vision, and Mister Miracle are all good. Though Mister Miracle is the weirdest of the 3 by far, and the one that’s likely the most difficult to parse in terms of continuity.

    King didn’t really face a public backlash until Heroes in Crisis, which is as bad as you may have heard. It’s not Ultimates 3/Ultimatum bad but it’s bad.


    Lots of writers have their particular quirks. I tend to like to take breaks from writers for a while and come back as very few authors can feel fresh story after story. Heroes in Crisis is bad enough though I doubt I circle back to him any time soon. I’m sure he has enough pull he will be fine without me.

    I don’t feel as strongly about King as I do about Jeph Loeb or Dan Slott.
     
  11. Tetratron

    Tetratron AEColyte

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    The Alan Scott Green Lantern one interest me the most. It's nice there's a John-centric GL as an option but I'm kind of burnt out on "heroes in a future dystopia" stories.
     
  12. Issy543

    Issy543 Well-Known Member

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    Superman - Space Age tells the Man of Steel's life story and revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths | GamesRadar+

    DC is going back to the original Crisis on Infinite Earths in a new three-issue series by writer Mark Russell and artist Mike Allred called Superman: Space Age.

    DC describes the story as an unforgettable journey through U.S. history and culture starring its "beloved characters."

    "This is a dream project for me," says Russell in DC's announcement. "Not only because I get to work with a genius like Mike Allred, but because I've always found Superman such a philosophically fascinating character, one which forces us to ask how different would the world be if we chose to be our best selves?"

    According to DC, after years of "standing idle" at the behest of his "fathers," Superman defies their wishes by going public and becoming the first superhero of the "Space Age."

    As decades pass with new dangers along with them, Superman begins to question his own mortality and the mortality of his loved ones. The Man of Steel realizes that even good intentions sometimes involve backlash as the "world around him transforms into a place as determined to destroy itself as he is to save it."

    Part of the story is set around Crisis on Infinite Earths, as Daily Planet reporter Clark learns the world will soon come to an end and there is nothing he can do to stop it.

    "Sounds like a job for his alter ego...Superman!" reads DC's description.

    "Super pumped to finally reveal what we've been working on in secret for so long," adds Allred. "Easily my biggest project for DC yet. Working with Mark Russell and his brilliant script has been a blast! Packed with head-spinning iconography, top-tier characters, twists, thrills, and chills, resulting in a powerful instant classic epic! It's been simultaneously intimidating and inspiring to meet the challenge of illustrating this phenomenal project!"

    Superman: Space Age #1 goes on sale July 26 with four covers - a main cover by Allred and variant covers by Allred, Steve Rude, and Nick Derington.

    [​IMG]
     
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  13. SouthtownKid

    SouthtownKid Headmaster

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    Two more writers with crazy rises and falls. Loeb is another funny one like King in that for a long time, people treated Long Halloween like it was the greatest thing since Year One. Then when fans turned on Loeb, they retroactively decided he was always shit and pretended they had hated Long Halloween all along.

    Dan Slott, on the other hand, I really did never like. I never understood what people saw in him and was not surprised when the fandom turned on him.

    Geoff Johns is another one. Once treated as the savior of DC, but that never lasts forever. He had a good 10 year run and then it abruptly ended. Once someone reaches a certain height, people then love to tear them down.
     
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  14. Deathcatg

    Deathcatg Well-Known Member

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    Oddly, a lot of fans still tend to treat "Long Halloween" as one of the greatest Batman stories ever, especially when "The Batman" premiered in theaters, just seems like Loeb himself doesn't get a lot of mention with it (unless they're referring to the interview where Reeves revealed Loeb was also a film teacher of his, and took inspiration from).
     
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  15. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    I liked Loeb's work and still like the good stories, but after his son died his work became crap. I just don't think he cared as much anymore.
    Never liked Slott.
    Geoff Johns can still write, his stories just got in the way of the new agenda over at DC and after Justice League bombed he hasn't been allowed the kind of freedom he used to have.
    Honestly rather than the movie side, he should have replaced Dan Didio years ago. It became obvious Didio had no idea what to do when he kept taking short 6 issue stories that Johns was planning for the books he was working on and turning them into giant crossovers. Usually diluting the stories in the process.
     
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  16. Tetratron

    Tetratron AEColyte

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    Everyone knows the best thing Loeb wrote was Commando.
     
  17. Tekkaman Blade

    Tekkaman Blade Professor of Animation

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    Classic 80's movie. The one liners were strong with that one.
     
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  18. DrTraveler

    DrTraveler Wheeljack, Wheeljack, Wheeljack

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    Long Halloween is still among the best Batman stories written, and I'd fight someone over that :)  Superman for All Seasons is also phenomenal work. Not as good as Morrison's All Star Superman but still amazing stuff.

    I wouldn't have quite said it this way, but yeah, his son's death wrecked him as a writer. I understand, as I have kids and losing them would probably wreck me for intellectual work for a long time. Loeb wasn't done any favors by his editors, as a good editor would have told Loeb that he was turning in crap scripts and needed to take personal time. Electing to publish stuff that clearly comes from a broken writer is just editorial malpractice. My understanding is that what happened with Ultimates and Ultimatium is from around that time. Publishing that killed that subline dead. Loeb then went on to crap out some stories that shouldn't have been published.

    Once the shine came off his work, people started going back and noticing other things about him that were problematic.

    One of the best of Arnold's film cannon. I am not joking. I can watch Commando all day.

    Slott and Johns have their own issues too, both personal and professionally. I think of both as people who's heads got so big they're just insufferable now.
     
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  19. Issy543

    Issy543 Well-Known Member

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    EXCLUSIVE: DC's Round Robin Round 2 Creative Teams and Expanded Descriptions, Revealed (cbr.com)

    HAWKMAN & HAWKWOMAN: THE CHANGELING By Cavan Scott And Artist Fico Ossio

    Logline: Hawkman and Hawkwoman have never had children together. They know that for a fact. Then who is Hektor Hol, the hotheaded, razor-winged teen who claims to be their son? Can they trust their own memories—or each other?

    Themes: Finding your identity as a family, both together and apart.

    Tone: We’ll start with bombastic cosmic battles as the Hawks go about the perfect life they’ve built for themselves. Then, when Hektor arrives, we’ll play up the uneasiness of the situation, perhaps giving us an at-times creepy M. Night Shyamalan Servant vibe, which makes Hawkman himself increasingly paranoid.

    Imagine the scene when Hawkman, brooding on the Soarship, suddenly realizes that Hektor is staring at him, not moving. Not even blinking.

    And yet all the time, Hektor is acting like an enthusiastic teen when he’s with Hawkwoman, who is as accepting as Hawkman is distrustful. There will be moments when Hawkman lets his guard down, and the family starts to come together, only to have events turn against them.

    Basically think Super Sons meets the Orphan. Yes, it’s an odd mix, but it will work, especially with Fico’s art! The trick will be to make the readers love Hektor -- and also fear for him. Does he even know who or what he is? There will be heart here that will stop things tipping over into horror, helped immeasurably by Fico’s style. We’ll be playing with darkness and light, light ultimately winning out with a conclusion that will be full of hope and fulfillment, as a bond is formed between the Hawks and their son, the cuckoo in the nest finally accepted as part of the family, the three of them stronger than ever before.

    VERSUS

    CONSTANTINE & THE DEMON: VACATION FROM HELL By Frank Allen And Artist Nik Virella
    Pitch: John Constantine’s deceptive nature catches up with him when he is caught cheating by a mysterious individual at a mystic’s poker game. After being interrupted by a talking corpse with a cryptic message, demanding Constantine return home, John is punished for his sins.

    Soon a magically nerfed Constantine is on a plane, traveling to his home city of Liverpool.

    With Etrigan the Demon.

    In his body.

    Uninvited.

    On arrival, John and Etrigan meet up with the voice of the corpse. The pair are then tasked with locating and safeguarding a child, who has come into possession of an evil, parasitic artifact of immense power. The clock is ticking as the two unlikely and unwilling allies race to save an innocent before the ancient corruption consumes her soul.

    With an unstable tether to a prince of the pit, and his powers severely reduced, Constantine must beg, borrow, or steal anything of magical use he can in order to face an army of nightmares.

    From old wounds springs a fresh hell. It’s going to be unconventional.

    SUICIDE SQUAD: DARK By Writer Zac Thompson And Artist Garry Brown
    Pitch: Meet the occult Task Force Dof Earth-13. Field leader Vampire Batman commands a top-secret team of murderers, monsters, and demons. The magic-dampening parasites hooked into their brains keep them following orders, and the promise of freedom keeps them motivated. Thanks to the mysterious benefactor known only as Milton, Amanda Waller has built the ultimate Squad...on another Earth! She’s handpicked a deranged team to topple the supernatural world of sorcery and permanent twilight. Yes, she’s going to do the unthinkable. She’s going to eliminate the League of Shadows...but to what end?

    Suicide Squad: Dark is a speculative horror story about dark Multiversal conspiracy, endangered species, and the possible end of all things. It’s the dark mirror of the Suicide Squad where everything is weird and not quite as it seems. When team handler Frankenstein discovers his teammate Sporemay be a reputed ecoterrorist from Earth-41, he sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin out of his control. Worse, Task Force X has few allies to help make sense of the true scope of their peril. Who is Waller taking orders from? What the hell are those worms hanging off their heads? No, really, who the **** is Milton?

    Vampire Batman, Frankenstein, Raven, Gorilla Grodd, Spore, Zatanna, Plasma-Man, and Sinestroare dying to find out.

    VERSUS

    KID FLASH: THE SPEED OF FEAR By Writer Brandon Easton And Artist Travis Mercer
    Pitch: KID FLASH (Wallace West) suddenly finds himself torn from the surface of the Earth in a cosmic storm caused by a tear in the Speed Force. As he investigates, Kid Flash learns that REVERSE-FLASH has merged with the dangerous entity PARALLAX—an entity composed of fear energy that powers the yellow rings of the Sinestro Corps. Their unholy combination crafts the unprecedented Speed Ring, which can generate enough interdimensional velocity to shatter the central battery of the Green Lantern Corps on OA. Somehow, Kid Flash has been caught up in the vortex of the creation of the Speed Ring, which destabilizes the walls of the Multiverse!

    Now, Kid Flash must pursue the hyper-powered Reverse-Flash across a variety of alien worlds devastated by the Speed Ring and find a way to stop him and dangerous members of the Sinestro Corps who will do whatever it takes to destroy the GL central battery. However, Wallace West’s connection to the Speed Force is disrupted and his ability to use his powers decreases exponentially as Reverse-Flash gains the ultimate velocity to accomplish his dark goal. As the clock ticks to zero, Kid Flash learns new ways of using his intelligence and guile to defeat a squadron of Yellow Lanterns and stop Reverse-Flash and Parallax before they eliminate the forces of justice and peace.

    GREEN LANTERN: THE LIGHT AT THE END OF FOREVER By Writer Si Spurrier And Artist Marco Santucci
    Pitch: A million years from now. A galaxy convulsed by violence, where godlike emperors wield unthinkable power and wage pitiless interstellar war. Here the ancient echoes of our heroic age—our DCU—lie fossilized, rendered as myth or forgotten entirely.

    ...but not by the Madman: an elderly farmer in a backwater system, brutalized by the latest thugs with jetpacks and jackboots to call themselves lawmen. He remembers. As his broken skull is patched up he suddenly remembers it all. An era of champions. A time of truth and justice. A cadre of peacekeepers dedicated to prosperity, fairness, and light. The Green Lantern Corps. He remembers...because he was one. His name...he’s sure of it...is John Stewart.

    Is he right? How could he have forgotten who and what he was in another age, in another life? How is it that nobody else has ever heard of the Green Lanterns? Isn’t it more likely that he, as his friends assume, is nothing but a broken-brained old derelict, fantasizing about bygone wonders from childish myths as senility sets in...?

    Whichever it is, there are plenty of scum who care more for his money than his memories. And so he assembles a small band of guns for hire, historians, and *cough* bastiches, to go out there. To dig. To uncover surprising secrets and twisted traces of the DCU we know and love. To try and unpick the greatest riddle of all: Who killed the hope of an entire galaxy? Who murdered truth, justice, and peace?

    Who killed the light? And can it be relit?

    This is a Green Lantern story unlike any other, melding secret remembrances of the DCU with a dystopian future where the Lantern Corps are a forgotten myth. A multitude of twists will hit our elderly hero as he bumbles cantankerously through the echoes of a corrupted history, causing ripples that will have major consequences for the present-day DCU...and quickly learning the horrible fate of his former comrades.

    They never went away. They simply took over: corrupted by ultimate power, twisted by the demons of ambition and authority. Warring star gods, clad in green.

    Ultimately the Madman’s greatest gift is not miraculous power nor the strength of a hero, but his belief in the simple goodness of the people around him. Over time, his idealism rubs off on even the most grimdark laser-knuckled space bastard in his retinue. Until we start to wonder: Can a single frail mind reignite the flame of hope?

    ...and what happens when he realizes the flame isn’t—never was—what it seems...?

    VERSUS

    DC HORROR PRESENTS: GHOST TOUR FROM HELL By Writer Tee Franklin And Artist Dominikie "Domo" Stanton
    Pitch: After needing a change of scenery, Madame Xanadu relocates to New Orleans, Louisiana, from New York, and opens up a new shop. The grand opening of Madame Xanadu’s Occult Curiosities went a bit better than expected; running a magic shop in New York is vastly different from running one in New Orleans—especially when you only take select walk-ins.

    While ushering the last customer out of the shop, Madame Xanadu senses something is coming...or perhaps it’s already here. A stranger walks into the shop and begs Madame Xanadu for her help—a distraught mother believes that something evil has happened to her child. She explains that her son and his college friends went on a ghost tour and have been missing for days. Pulling out her tarot deck, Madame Xanadu flips over cards that give her pause. When the mom reaches out to touch Madame Xanadu’s hands, the oracle hears words that she can’t quite make out, which send a shiver down her spine like no other. She sends the mom home with the promise of trying to find out what’s happened.

    Praying while shuffling the tarot cards, images flash intoMadame Xanadu’s head, causing her to scream and ultimately pass out. While she’s passed out, Rama Kushna appears with a warning and offers Deadman to aid her on this quest. In another part of the city, a ghost tour is happening—college kids, adults, elders are all in attendance, including one Jason Blood. Something’s drawn him to New Orleans and no matter how much he ignored this “call” it continued to get louder. At the end of the tour, a man steps out of the shadows, inviting a select few to a “seance.” Jason and Etrigan recognize the man immediately: it's Deacon Blackfire!

    Blackfire has been brought back to life by a powerful new player in town—the Goddess Hecate—and she’s ordered him to bring souls for her to feast upon. Hecate, also tired of the mundane life, decided to shake things up and visit New Orleans during Mardi Gras, before returning to Mount Olympus.

    Xanadu, Deadman, and the Demon team up to figure out how to stop these disappearances from happening, defeat the immortal Deacon Blackfire and Goddess Hecate, and hopefully reunite many of the lost souls. Appearances from Constantine and Bloodwynd throughout the series, to even the playing field against the all-powerful Hecate.

    GREEN LANTERN: THE BIRTH OF CONSPIRACY By Writer Scott Bryan Wilson And Artist Skylar Patridge
    Pitch: It’s 1947, and Alan Scott is part of a new breed of humans endowed with the power of gods. But he still has to work a day job, protect his personal secrets from the public, and hide his civilian identity from the government agency formed to monitor superhero activity. When he finds himself at the sites of three UFO incursions—the famous “men in black” and flying saucer sightings, and the Roswell crash—he realizes that he could lose everything. Now, as Green Lantern, imprisoned and alone on an alien planet, used as a conduit to harvest the power of the green flame, he may have to rely on three low-level government functionaries—whose job it is to spy on him—to help him put a stop to an alien genocide and hold the government accountable for hostile actions...and trust them to keep his deepest secrets secret. Scott Bryan Wilson (Pennyworth, Batman: Gotham Nights) and Skylar Patridge (Wonder Woman) make you question everything in this high-octane, conspiracy theory-drenched tale of power and patriotism at a pivotal time in American history.

    VERSUS

    SUPERBOY: THE MAN OF TOMORROW By Writer Kenny Porter And Artist Jahnoy Lindsay
    Pitch: Conner Kent is back! But this isn’t the DC Universe he knows. With Jonathan, Kara, and Clark protecting the Earth, Conner feels like an outsider more than ever. Living on the Kent farm, he dreams of one day finally finding his place in the universe, and a purpose as Superboy.

    When Conner intercepts a distress signal from across the galaxy, he heads to the stars to lend a helping hand. But his journey is cut short when he finds himself caught in an intergalactic battle between Dominator warlords and a group of renegade space rebels called the Cosmoteers.

    Eager to help the planets of a faraway galaxy, Conner offers his help to the spacefaring heroes. But the Cosmoteers don’t play by the same rules as the House of El. They’ll do anything to free the bioweapons that the warlords have created—even if it means crossing lines that Superboy never would.

    Caught between the Cosmoteers’ hunt for revenge and his own code, Conner will have to fight harder than ever to find his path in the universe and carve a brighter future for worlds that don’t have a Superman. Villains of the universe are about to learn: you don’t mess with the “S.”

    The second round of DC Round Robin 2022 kicks off April 6 at 9 a.m. PT/12 p.m. ET.
     
  20. Megastar

    Megastar Well-Known Member

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    I hate this Round Robins things, because all the concepts sound interesting and deserve to be miniseries.