CBR: When Words Collide - Nov 28, 2011

[CBR News]

Tim looks at the first three months of DC's New 52, explaining why "Wonder Woman" is the best, how some Batman titles are better than others and why Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli's take on "Frankenstein" is so interesting.


Full article here.

[Jono11]

Hmm. I may have to rethink some of my early judgments on some of these books. If anyone can convince me to give something like Hawk and Dove a second shot, it's Tim Callahan. (Or Julian Darius, I suppose, but I don't know that he's that interested in much of the New 52.)

[CSPDX]

Thanks for the recap. As a former podcast listener and Tor reader, it's interesting to see where you stand after reading all of your prerelease write-ups. I'm enjoying a lot of the same books you are, although I'm not quite as high on Justice League Dark or All-Star Western as you are. Both have good qualities, but are becoming more mixed bag as new issues are released, imo. JLD has beautiful artwork, but I'm just not that into the Deadman/Dove/Judy relationship. Hopefully the story will pick up some steam as we get more Shade and Mindwarp. The first issue of All-Star Western was one of my favorite New 52 #1s, but the second and third issues have been a bit of a let down. The story is just going in a different direction than I had hoped. The artwork is superb as well.

The books I'm still reading, in favorite order...

Batman
Batwoman
Animal Man
Wonder Woman
Swamp Thing
Batman and Robin
OMAC
Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE
Justice League
Action Comics
Justice League Dark
All Star Western
Nightwing

[Drew Mathieu]

That's a good, not to mention diverse, list of titles there. I really want to have this much diversity in my Marvel pull list, but so far titles that feature the words Avengers and X-Men are all that are registering. Hopefully books like defenders and Winter Soldier can add to the flavor...

[captainamerica4]

I am going to hang onto Green Arrow to see how Ann Nocenti does.

[sberg1]

I'm reading 29 of the new 52 regularly and like reading about what other people are reading about.

I find it interesting what people are sticking with and dropping as the months continue on.

For what it's worth, my top 10 are:
Animal Man
Swamp Thing
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
I, Vampire
Teen Titans
Batwing
Birds of Prey
Superboy
Batwoman

[jpbl1976]

I definitely agree that Batman and Wonder Woman should be at the top of the list.

Honestly, I was never a Wonder Woman fan. I tried it briefly with JMS's run because he had success on another myth-driven character in Thor, but it was incredibly underwhelming (not to mention cut short) and the whole pants and jacket get-up was distracting.

I actually tried WWn52 because the art looked nothing like the rest of the Wildstorm/Image-type art that's permeated much of the New 52 -- my rule of thumb with Marvel and DC has always been that if the art looks as though it belonged a bit to Vertigo, it's worth a shot -- that's usually paid-off for me.

Batman has just been an excellent book. Having read Gates of Gotham and having been an American Vampire reader from the very start, I was expecting great things from Snyder and I haven't been disappointed in the least (that said, Bats falling for the Owls' booby-trap in Batman 3 was incredibly amateur-hour for Bruce). The only thing that would make me happier with the book was if there were a connection between the Court of Owls and Jim Book and/or Skinner Sweet.

I agree that Justice League should be middle-of-the-pack. It's just plain underwhelming. Anyone can read this book in under 3 minutes, if they're so inclined.

I think Geoff writes individual books better than group books (his Avengers was similarly underwhelming, in my opinion) and the slight tweak to Hal Jordan's personality, especially as it's played-out in JLA has been downright annoying. He's acting like Ryan Reynolds and that's not a good thing. I'm surprised Batman hasn't KO'd him yet a la Guy Gardner in JLI (I suspect it's coming but you never know).

Also, while I will always be a fan of Jim's art and it's still better than most (as someone once posted in these forums: no one does Jim Lee style better than Jim Lee) it's not been as good as his past efforts -- a bit looser, a bit too much reliance of Scott Williams to finish things. The promotional posters and covers he'd done for JL alone tip you off to this fact.

Jim may not say it but I think the pressures of his day job as co-publisher and the tight Digital deadline have really made him strive for a less hyper-detailed style than we're used to seeing -- all in the name of making the deadlines (it just wouldn't do for the co-mastermind of the new 52 to be the first one to blow his deadlines).

He also seems to be going for a more Saturday morning cartoon style, with the bigger eyes and the brighter palette that he's asking Alex Sinclair to use. Essentially, if you're a fan of his Hush and ASBR work (let alone his X-Men work), this is not going to be your favorite work of his. It actually reminds me of Jim's first arc of WildCATS, when he used a similar style.

[daisukexdark]

Nice little incite on whats going on in the DC line up, don't really agree with everything, but it get it, and here is my top DC 52 list


Action Comics
Green Lantern
Animal Man
Batman and Robin
I, Vampire
Batman
Nightwing
Batwoman
Justice League
Detective Comics
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
Justice League Dark
Flash


Superboy

[serpico71]

I think I am fortunate as a new reader, gotten back in only three years ago, that all of the titles I knew nothing about, Stormwatch, Grifter, Resurrection Man, Voodoo, all have me amazed. Love them. Esp Nathan Edmonson on Grifter, although I did not care for 'Jake Ellis', I love this ride he is taking Grifter and me on (I feel like I'm with Grifter, figuring everything out - it's so easy for that title to associate with).

So disappointed that Marz is off Voodoo, but it's possible that he solidifies the character so much in my mind that the transition was easy. I mean who thought I could make the transition so easily from Secret Six to Suicide Squad, yet I have.

The title that REALLY jumped up notches in #3 is I Vampire. This makes me interested when people say a title got better with 3 (like Blackhawks - ok I'll try it.) Very disappointed in Superman, Hawkman, Green Arrow, - I cannot even get through them - bizarre. Hope the writing changes will change that.

But those are my only complaints. the other titles just weren't for me, and I'm in no position to say if they were good or bad, like Static Shock - just not for me.

As a DC fanboy, I'm down to about 38, with 5 teetering on the parapet.

Just to note, before the relaunch I was at about 16 titles approximately.

It's OK not to like ALL of the 52.

[Maidman]

Have to say that Marvels Ultimate universe beats the bejesus out of anything from the NuDCU! Dead is dead in the ultimate universe and the stories matter.

Thats the way you reboot damnit, create a new universe and leave the old one alone.

Honest to God, DC is like the dog that keeps chasing his tail……. they just have no clue as to what the hell they are doing!

[ian33407]

...dropping I VAMPIRE ???

how could you Tim, how could you ?

" ok, this is very well crafted book, but I'm not gonna read it.."

argl.

[NinjaZilla]

Mister Terrific? Over I Vampire????

[Shinnos]

3 months in and I'm only reading 4 books from The New 52, and surprisingly, they matched up with Tim's top 5 pretty much:

1 Wonder Woman
2 Batman
3 Frankenstien
4 Batwoman

I tried the first few issues of Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Superboy, and Action Comics but they've now been dropped. Action Comics just failed to interest me, and I decided that if I want to read Morrison writing Superman I've got my Absolute All-Star Superman volume. Superboy was fun, but I was mainly buying it for the art. And while Animal Man and Swamp Thing seemed like good comics, I just didn't feel invested enough in the stories they were telling.

[rpriske]

All Star Western
Wonder Woman
Batwoman
Swamp Thing
Animal Man
Justice League Dark
Superman
Batgirl
Action
Fury of Firestorm
Suicide Squad

[pweissburg]

Tim,

I always enjoy your reviews/essays/etc. and this list is no exception. I'm surprised by some of your choices, though, and wonder if you'd be willing to elaborate: what it is about books like "Hawk and Dove" and "Mister Terrific" and "Legion Lost" that you're enjoying? I read the first two "Legion Lost" and thought the art was hideous and the story just never connected for me. I get what they're going for.. a sort of "let's drop you in the middle of a crisis situation" manic confusion/excitement, but they didn't quite pull it off because of the weak execution. And I thought "Mister Terrific" was just plain awful.

Other than those, my list looks a lot like yours, although I'm very much enjoying "I, Vampire" and "The Flash" would probably be near the top of my list. It's got a very Silver Age feel, but not in a bland retro sort of way. The art is lovely and the story is densely packed.

I'm right there with you on Stormwatch, which was one of the books I was really looking forward to. Normally, I'm a big fan of Paul Cornell, but neither of his books have really grabbed me. "Demon Knights" has some potential but I feel like, three issues into the story we've moved about one hour forward in time and it's driving me a little crazy. For three dollars, I want a story, not the first five words of a story. "Stormwatch" is just plain bad.

As someone who normally prefers Marvel to DC and who, before this relaunch, was down to about 4 or 5 monthly DC titles, this whole New 52 thing has been a huge success. I'm buying about 14 titles monthly, now, so that's about triple what it was before.

And I'm LOVING "All-Star Western". So, so good...