Looking Back at the Relaunch a little over a year later

[Desaad]

The titles that "replaced" the stuff I was reading (example: Suicide Squad/Secret Six), just seem to be watered-down replacements. I honestly haven't been able to enjoy DC at all since the reboot.

I don't feel that is true, at all, really.

Yes, Secret Six/Suicide Squad is a strike against. Birds of Prey is equally fine. Flash is better. Justice League is better. Green Lantern is the same. Batman, as a line, is about the same. Wonder Woman is INFINITELY better. Legion is the same. Earth 2 much better than the last 2 years of JSA. Etc.

There are many more awesome, low selling fringe books now than before (when many of the low selling books were genuinely just mediocre).

As someone who AVIDLY followed the DCU for years leading up to the relaunch, I can say with much conviction than we have many more great books now than we did before.

[sonicx1977]

For me, it worked. I went from 0 books to 16 now, and i am pretty happy with DC. I would never have started without the Reboot. My faves are Suicide Squad, Batman, Catwoman and Justice League, Batgirl and Aquaman...ah i like them all.

But i am not so invested in the characters like i was with my Marvel heroes, so if some book isnt good anymore, i will cancle it. I couldnt do that with Marvel books until last year where i managed to make a cut after 20 years of certain characters.

[Lemurion]

No, I agree with you on that. Sorry, I should've said so.

Just really glad to see you back posting on CBR more. I always look for you on Bleeding Cool, too. Keep up the good work!

I read CBR daily, just sometimes have difficulty posting here as it sometimes seems as if there are too many people on here who can't let go of the idea that DC isn't publishing their favorite characters just to spite them.

[vicvega]

The thing I was most excited about was getting a Static Shock comic back, so you can imagine where I am standing nowadays.

It would've been a better book had they given rozum more creative control

[Flashpoint]

I read CBR daily, just sometimes have difficulty posting here as it sometimes seems as if there are too many people on here who can't let go of the idea that DC isn't publishing their favorite characters just to spite them.

Oh, I know--believe you me, I know *exactly* what you mean!

RE: Bleeding Cool
CBR has a well-earned reputation amongst online fans for being heavily "over-moderated," but I still prefer CBR to the semi-controlled chaos of the BC forums. Plus, most of the fans posting here are good people who really love DC.

There really is no forum to get away from all the overly obsessed fans. C'est la vie.

[aaronghunter]

I was thrilled by the less popular titles and characters which were brought to the fore, disappointed by the editorial and authorial missteps, disappointed by the changes to continuity, and disappointed with many readers who let the aforementioned continuity changes put them off.

Year Two was like if MGM had followed up Casino Royale with Die Another Day.

And yet, MGM and Eon followed up Casino Royale with Quantum Of Solace, an utterly forgettable and under-performing placeholder between Casino Royale and Skyfall which squandered the resources provided by the prior film while offering nothing to the one which came after.

That said, Year Two was a grand disappointment, I agree.

[aaronghunter]

It would've been a better book had they given rozum more creative control

Well, we would like to believe that, but as they didn't give him more control we really have no way of knowing.

[Flashpoint]

As another longtime reader (36 yrs) , I admit I wasn't very enthusiastic. I've been through so many of these now! *Crisis, Zero Hour, etc... I've enjoyed a few things though. I've only read trades so far. Haven't read monthlies in over a decade. I'm just pleased DC is doing well. I'll gladly pass the characters onto new people just do they'll exist!

Just to echo the other comments going to see Superman the Movie was such a thrill!! It's great there are so many older readers today but there's something special about comics when you start reading at age 5!!

Yeah. Any superhero movie back in the Eighties was such an enormously big deal because it was so damn rare!

Like I said earlier, the only thing that has come close in terms of hype since then is probably Spider-Man in 2002. My God...we went to see it opening night and every single show sold out. My friend and I were lucky to even get tickets. Last show was at midnight. By the time we got out of our show at around 1AM, Universal City had added showings at the very last minute to satisfy all the demand. They were still selling tickets to a 3AM(!) show then with long lines outside the box office. It was so crazy!!

Then Spidey made $115 million in its 3 day opening which NO movie in Hollywood history had ever done before. For me, that counts as the official moment where superhero movies finally changed from being a niche product only for geeks and transformed into literal pop culture events.

We are so spoiled now to live in an age of multiple comic book movies every year. In the 80s and 90s, we were lucky if we got even *1* a year. So grateful to live in the age of superhero movies!

[Froggy]

Lobdell's dialog on Superman is just as bad as anywhere else, but it's more palatable since Superman lends himself to hokeyness just a bit more.

Still, I've found his work on Red Hood to be far and away the best in the New 52, and often that has to do with the dialog. His command of the three central characters there is incredibly strong.

truth right here

Lobdell on superman and Lobdell on Red Hood are two different animals

he's beasting it on RHATO

the art doesn't hurt either

[stk]

And yet, MGM and Eon followed up Casino Royale with Quantum Of Solace, an utterly forgettable and under-performing placeholder between Casino Royale and Skyfall which squandered the resources provided by the prior film while offering nothing to the one which came after.

Hey, I agree, but I used Die Another Day as my example because of Year Two's return to a cheesy tone of the cheesiest super-hero trappings. QoS was a supreme disappointment, but at least there were no invisible cars or people with diamonds in their face or flying fortresses that fly themselves.

[vicvega]

Oh, I know--believe you me, I know *exactly* what you mean!

RE: Bleeding Cool
CBR has a well-earned reputation amongst online fans for being heavily "over-moderated," but I still prefer CBR to the semi-controlled chaos of the BC forums. Plus, most of the fans posting here are good people who really love DC.

There really is no forum to get away from all the overly obsessed fans. C'est la vie.

the worst forums I've posted on are the superherohype forums. back before TDKR came out, the levels of fanboy snobbiness were at an all time high. I relieved so much stress when I stopped posting there.

[vampiric_cannibal]

Oh, I know--believe you me, I know *exactly* what you mean!

RE: Bleeding Cool
CBR has a well-earned reputation amongst online fans for being heavily "over-moderated," but I still prefer CBR to the semi-controlled chaos of the BC forums. Plus, most of the fans posting here are good people who really love DC.

There really is no forum to get away from all the overly obsessed fans. C'est la vie.

Over-moderated? The strictest mod was Captain Jim, and he still let how many Batgirl threads carry on well past the point of flaming. X-books is the seventh maddest place on the internet, and I don't think being banned for genuinely praising Chuck Austen is too strict at all. I don't even know who the mods are for Avengers, DC or Superman. This place's moderation is a mild touch and some admin tasks. 4chan has stricter moderation. Compared to the previous forums I've been on, the only touch that is of note is that the banning process isn't completely transparent, and they were entirely fan run and owned.

[Mr. Holmes]

Yeah have you seen the Jesus thread in the Superman forum?

Some of the forums are heavily moderated though, a lot of people have been banned in those Batgirl threads.

[Brave Sir Robbin]

For me, the New 52 has enticed me to buy superhero comics and more comics periods. I used to just by Vertigo and independent trades. I got interested after the relaunch and tried a lot of books. The novelty of it all was originally fun and I went through a lot of books. I tried a bunch of books that I didn’t really get attached to. But I have ended up with about 14 titles right now. Three of those are newer including Talon, Earth 2, and Swords of Sorcery. I also jumped onto Detective Comics and Dark Night when new writers came on. The ones I have stuck with are Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Demon Nights, Justice League Dark, Nightwing, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Batwoman, and Batgirl. Bizarrely to me, Batgirl appears to be insanely controversial on these boards but it is to me the best DC book by far. I didn’t have much DC knowledge or history before the relaunch so a character’s past means very little to me. I have not been affected by the rewriting of the continuity.
Another thing that the relauch did for me is to introduce me to a ton of books from other publishers. Because I was on Comixology getting DC books, I looked around at other comics and took a bunch of gambles on sales. Now I read a bunch of Comics from Image, Dynamite, Dark Horse and IDW. I have read that the New 52 helped create a larger a bigger pool of comic readers and I am proof of that. So the new 52 took me from a place where I was reading Vertigo trades, Goon, Chew, Witch Blade and Star Wars trades to reading a bunch of issues monthly. I am pretty happy with things now. I spend a bunch of money on comics now but I would have done something else with it.

[stk]

Over-moderated? The strictest mod was Captain Jim, and he still let how many Batgirl threads carry on well past the point of flaming. X-books is the seventh maddest place on the internet, and I don't think being banned for genuinely praising Chuck Austen is too strict at all. I don't even know who the mods are for Avengers, DC or Superman. This place's moderation is a mild touch and some admin tasks. 4chan has stricter moderation. Compared to the previous forums I've been on, the only touch that is of note is that the banning process isn't completely transparent, and they were entirely fan run and owned.

Chuck Austin wrote one of the best non-Claremont issues of Uncanny ever produced. He also produced more than a half-dozen of the worst, but hey. You can't take that one great one away from him.