Well it is May and DC is now starting it's second wave of new 52 titles. Since I talked about the first 52, I thought it was only fitting that I take a look at the new books that are coming out. Now, total, DC is still only going to have 52 main series. That means that some of the books that were around have been dropped. Those dropped books are Mister Terrifc, Static Shock, Hawk and Dove, OMAC, Blackhawks, and finally Men of War.
So do these new books do a good job? Well Let me give you my own feelings about them.
Like with the first wave of new 52, these are just my quick thoughts after reading the new issues.
The first comic we have on the list is Dial H. Dial H for Hero is an older idea owned by DC. The idea was that a young boy named Robert "Robby" Reed had a magic phone dial that he could use to spell out H-E-R-O and become any sort of great hero. If this idea sounds familur, well, you may of heard of a TV show called "Ben 10". There was another series with the Hero Dial, as it was called, called H-E-R-O. Same idea as with Robby, but now the Dail falls into anyone's hands. The idea of that book is to see how a normal person would handle if they magicaly became a superhero with no warning what-so-ever. And that comic idea brings us to Dial H. It once again takes the idea that a random lucky loser finds the H-Dial in a random phone booth in the middle of a random alley.
Ya know, there is lucky then there is just plan goddly. The story follows a new 'normal' human as he tries to slowly learn about the H-Dail and does what he thinks is good. Of course, he's no Superman or Batman so the villains of his book are not afraid of him at all.
Art wise, it is pretty good. The city is a nice dark hell hole, ridden with crime. Seriously, the city in this story can give Gotham a run for it's money. The main character, while fat and a bit depressed, does try to keep things good between his one friend in the world. The guy is not a total ass who got lucky. He is just really down on his luck and angry about it. And ya know what? I like that. He is a very relateable human that way. The heroes he becomes are creepy and a bit silly at the same time. His first hero, Bon Chimmey, is a zombie who can control smoke and his other hero, Captain Lachrymose, is pretty much emo superman whose main power is to make people really sad to fuel his super strength. Yeah, see what I mean about sounds silly?
Over all, I give this book a pass. I love the darker art and the character who becomes the heroes. I really want to see what he does when the 'help' he has been trying to do comes back to really hurt him.
Next up is the book titled Earth-2. I want to love this book. I really do. But this first issue is not off to a great start. Pretty much, this book is a different take on the first 7 books of Justice League. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are doing their final end all attack on the parademons of Darkseid. The three of them die and we cut to present day where Alan Scott and Jay Garrick are a 30-ish year old man and a 21 college grad respectively. And that is my main problem with this book. I grew up with the JSA, The Justice Society of America, being the old guys who needed to keep the kids of the future in line. I grew up with Alan, Jay, and even Ted Grant (Wildcat) all as that group who really knew what they were doing and all the other heroes, and I do mean all of them, look up to to see how to do things right. Even Batman, Catwoman, and Black Canary trained under the JSA at times.
Pretty much what I am saying is making the JSA kids who looked up to the big three feels really REALLY backwards. It gets a pass for now but it really needs to step up fast if it is going to wow me enough to keep reading much longer.
One of the books that failed was Men of War. So since the army book failed, of course they are going to put out another Army book.
Look, I don't care if there are 2 stories in this book, one with Dinosaurs and the other with a glorified punisher / hush fusion. They are still army stories and like with Men of War, not what I can related to. Like always, Jimmy Palmiotti, you're great, but this is just not the book for me.
Story wise, I guess it was alright. Both stories did set up a good plot for the future and does try something at least. The art in the first story has a painted feel to it and the art in the second is very sharp and jagged. Neither art style is really what I like.
I have to tell you now. If you did not read ANYTHING from Teen Titans, Superboy, and / or Legion Lost, do not buy this book. This is not a stand alone piece at all. Quiet the opposite. This book starts the final chapter (I hope) of the story arc that has been going on since day 1 of the books launch.
There is one thing I wanted to bring up in this though, and that one thing becomes 2 issues. The thing I wanted to talk about is Beast Boy. There are 2 issues I have with the new 52 BB. One is that he is colored red. Yes, Beast Boy, the GREEN SKINNED YOUTH FROM THE DOOM PATROL WHO WAS CREATED IN 1965, is now red. Look, I am all for change when it has a reason, but what possible reason in the world do you have to make a character who has always been Green now Red? This doublely bites since the whole issue is colored with nothing but red.
But that is not the only issue I have with this. Beast Boy now has the power to transform into a Chimera.
I am not kidding. The new 52 has given him the power to mix and match all the animals in the world however he likes. Again, why? Beast Boy was cool because he always had to be changing from form to form to keep his foes guessing. Giving him the power to mix and match just seems, well, lazy. If he has the power to mix and match, then sooner or later he'll find an unbeatable form and never use anything else. Thereby making his shapeshifting powers kinda pointless. Sorry, but that change really urked me.
The last book for this week is Worlds Finest. It follows the story of Helena Wayne and Kara from Earth-2 as they currently live on Earth prime thanks to a portal they fell into 5 years ago right around the time Darkseid was attacking. Power Girl's new costume, well, just needs time to grow on me. It's not bad, but at the same time, not good either.
The issue itself is fine, making the characters have a history is good and the time we spent with them before in the pages of Mister Terrific and Huntress the mini series helps us get use to these characters faster. There was but one problem I had with this that happens on the first page.
So Paul Levitz just killed off Helena Bertinelli, the woman who was an awesome character from Birds of Prey who had no connection to Power Girl at all ever and said it was always, this whole time, Helena Wayne and no one else?
BULL!
I . . . . what?! How can he just do that? The reason why I loved Huntress so much was it was her own character. I know Huntress came from the Earth-2 mythos, but at the same time, her reworked character for Earth Prime was awesome. Plus, in JSA Classified #3, it was taken that Helena and Kara did not really talk or know each other at all. I know I know, retcon because they say so but to just kill off the old character like that, saying she was never real in the first place, it feels like a big let down.
Like with Earth-2, you really have a lot of work to do to get me to really be invested in your book much longer.
So that is my take on this first week of new relaunches. A good number of things anger me, but over all, I guess it was an alright start.
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