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DC comics

Started by Smith, 20 April, 2017, 07:25:15 PM

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Smith

http://ew.com/books/2017/04/20/dc-comics-superstars-unite-for-new-dark-matter-line/?xid=entertainment-weekly_socialflow_twitter
We might as well start a thread,right?
Anyhow,we have another imprint coming;which is a bit like Elseworld I guess?And I see they borowed a bit from Valiant. :)

IndigoPrime

Dark Matter: no-one knows what it is, why it exists, or what the point of it is.

Colin YNWA

Well there's only one creative line-up there that really catches my imagination

QuoteSeptember will also see the launch of The Silencer. Written by Dan Abnett and drawn by John Romita Jr., that book will focus on Honor Guest, the former world's deadliest assassin now trying for a quiet life in the suburbs until (surprise!) her former life comes back to haunt her, and she must become The Silencer to protect her family.

But man its a cliche ridden write up... mind with Dabnett on fire like he is at the moment you gotta think he's got something up his concept sleeve!

Professor Bear

Isn't that the plot to Garth Ennis/Al Ewing/Michael Carrol's Jennifer Blood?

The lack of any apparent A-game material from the creatives suggests that this is just the usual mini-imprint that publishers throw out there now and then.  I'm not sure why they feel the need considering that DC seems to be getting good word of mouth lately.

The Adventurer

I feel like this idea belongs with Ellis's The Wild Storm. Reinterpreting old ideas.

Or Tangent Comics.

Some of the talent looks interesting. I'll probably take a look a few #1s.

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Smith

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 20 April, 2017, 08:03:27 PM
Dark Matter: no-one knows what it is, why it exists, or what the point of it is.
Yeah,Im not sure if thats terrible marketing or great marketing.

Smith

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/138058-dc-to-pick-up-diversity-ball-after-marvel-dropped-it.html
Seems like you cant really discuss comics without getting to the topic of diversity.
Okay,there were probably better ways of saying it,but I get the approach.Its better to present new characters instead of the legacy approach Marvel is using.

JamesC

The Silencer, The New Challengers and Damage all sound like good fun to me.
There are plenty of cliches here for sure but cliches never hurt fun comics.

Professor Bear

Quote from: Smith on 21 April, 2017, 06:11:38 AMOkay,there were probably better ways of saying it,but I get the approach.Its better to present new characters instead of the legacy approach Marvel is using.

I can see it from both ends: on one hand, new audiences deserve to have their own characters that represent their generation rather than just knock-offs of Wolverine or Batman, but on the other, new characters take a while to become established - if they ever do.  A reader might put a lot of emotional investment in what they see as the new Spider-Man, only to find they're actually the new Sleepwalker.

Whatever you think of them now, DC pioneered diversity and legacy characters to such an extent that a lot of their most vocally butthurt fanboys railing at Dan Didio's tenure as EiC are millennials who grew up with legacy/diversity characters as "their" Atom, "their" Batgirl, "their" Flash, "their" Green Arrow, "their"  Supergirl, and so on, and when legacy/diversity characters were killed off or turned evil just to hand the mantles back to CIS planks of wood like Hal Jordan or Barry Allen, fandom usually took it poorly.  That's a kind of progress, I guess.

Smith

And for every kid who grew up with DCAU(myself included) John Stewart is THE Green Lantern.
Actually that's a pretty good example,even if I risk being misunderstood.Dini and Timm thought JLA needed a bit more diversity,so instead of Hal Jordan and Aquaman we got John Stewart and Hawkgirl.And it worked better that way,because they were actual characters,not black Hal and female Aquaman.Which is kinda the opposite of Marvels approach.
But like you said,an established costume is easier to sell.And you get some mainstream attention that way.

Professor Bear

I got into DC during the post-Knightfall pre-Infinite Crisis era, so current DC just looks like some kind of Elseworlds maxiseries to me.  It doesn't help that a lot of the transitional stories that wrote out characters like Cassandra Cain Batgirl or reintroduced the 'Superman's Cousin' version of Supergirl weren't just damaging the properties getting fandom's dander up, they were also objectively terrible comics.

The Adventurer

Cassandra Cain is a predominat character in Dectective Comics right now. I think.

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Professor Bear

I've no more interest in that than late 90s Flash fans have in Teen Titans, but I recall my DC fanboy reaction was something along the lines of "so they put Batwoman - who has been a superhero for six months - in charge of a team of people who have been superheroes for years?
FUCK YOUR SHITTY FANFICTION COMIC."

Smith

From what I saw,Detective Comics is the best Batman book currently.But I kinda gave up on it,so something might have changed.
What Im currently following-Superman,Action Comics,Flash and The Wild Storm.All of them pretty great so far.Unfortunately,crossovers,so Im forced to read Kings Batman now. ::)

positronic

Quote from: Smith on 21 April, 2017, 03:01:33 PM
From what I saw,Detective Comics is the best Batman book currently.But I kinda gave up on it,so something might have changed.
What Im currently following-Superman,Action Comics,Flash and The Wild Storm.All of them pretty great so far.Unfortunately,crossovers,so Im forced to read Kings Batman now. ::)

I'm not sure what to think about The Wild Storm yet, but it may ultimately be pointless (as prior Wildstorm reboots have been). Especially as it compares poorly to the similar but more interesting Image series Nowhere Men (without the Wildstorm black ops/conspiracy angle) by Eric Stephenson, which has less to do with plot specifics than the feel of the storytelling. Planetary may have been Ellis' magnum opus for DC/Wildstorm, so we probably can't expect the likes of that again.

It's kind of a cheat to call Detective Comics the best Batman book, because it's interesting in that it's focusing on all the related bat-family franchise characters except Batman. I'd say the main weakness here is that Basil Karlo's seeking redemption comes right out of left field and feels forced. If they wanted a scary monster-guy for the team, Kirk Langstrom has a stronger history connection and greater credibility as a choice. If they just wanted someone with shape-changing powers, Metamorpho would have been a more logical choice, going back to his involvement with the Outsiders. And of course [spoiler]Tim Drake really isn't dead[/spoiler], but why the need to shuffle him off the playing field so quickly?

I don't know if Batwoman is out now because she spun off into her own title. Amazing artwork by the incredible Steve Epting, with an underwhelming story to back it up.

And as far as the Dark Matter imprint goes, I've tried to stifle my yawn.