Well, this was the second week of Rebirth. This week we had 5 comics. Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Flash Rebirth, and the first issues of Detective and Action comics. We also had the last issues of a bunch of B-list pre-Rebirth titles, and a couple which don't seem to have finished yet, for some reason.
Aquaman Rebirth
Of all 7 Rebirth titles so far, this is the one with the fewest changes. Aquaman Rebirth essentially happened at the start of New 52, when Geoff Johns was writing. We still have exactly the same setup as then. He's king of Atlantis, relatively popular, but there are terrorists. He's also "misunderstood" and people think he talks to fish, and is married to Mera. It felt like reading Aquaman #1 again, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Don't fix what ain't broken!
Wonder Woman Rebirth
This book was essentially consolidating some of the contradictory origins for Wonder Woman, and setting up the main mystery of the upcoming series, which is that her recent New 52 adventures don't make sense within the WW lore, so it's a conspiracy to find out who's lied to her. This was a pretty good story, and it's gotten me excited to read the upcoming series. This is probably the series of all 7 so far which has done the most to re-invent the character, and that's definitely a good thing.
Flash Rebirth
This is essentially both a recap of Flash's origin, and a continuation of DCU Rebirth. It picks up on the plot thread of the Watchmen badge in Batman's cave, and has Barry and Bruce investigating. They essentially conclude that something weird is going on, but they don't really know what, yet. It was really good to get the next bit of that storyline so quickly. I'm excited for the next 2 years or so of DC comics just to see where that all goes. However, the actual Flash content in this issue was a bit lacking. It didn't do much to set me up for what's next for the character. Maybe another aquaman scenario, where "rebirth" for Barry Allen happened just before New 52, so nothing much has changed in the status quo, beyond the whole Flashpoint/Wally/Watchmen stuff which is at the core of Rebirth?
Action Comics #957
So, this issue has NewOld Superman putting on his costume and picking up the role of Superman again, but mostly because Lex Luthor is in a mech-Superman suit claiming to be picking up Superman's legacy. They have an argument, and Lex's craftiness seems to come out on top. The page after the end of the issue talking about which characters are in which Super-books says that Action comics will feature Lex Luthor, so I suspect he will "win" against Superman somehow, which I'm really not into. I want to read stories about Superman beating bad guys for a while, not yet another storyline of Lex tricking almost everyone into thinking he's good!
Detective Comics #934
This issue was basically a "hey, here's Batman's supporting cast", which is presumably what this book will focus on. Batman and Batwoman discuss a threat to Gotham, because someone's beaten up Azrael; and Batman enlists Batwoman to train up his supporting cast. This is mostly characters from the recent Batman and Robin Eternal story - Spoiler, Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake, and for some reason, Clayface. Excited to see some more of these characters, but it likely won't be my favourite book of a given week.
We also had the end of Black Canary, Constantine, Green Lanterns Corps: Edge of Oblivion (AKA "the book got cancelled, but please let us finish the story") and Red Hood/Arsenal, but none of them were noteworthy enough to mention beyond that.
Overall, Rebirth is looking very exciting! Next week we get the start of some of the books we got Rebirth for last week
Thursday, 9 June 2016
Thursday, 2 June 2016
DC Rebirth: Week One
Well, DC put out the first four Rebirth titles this week (after last week's single issue). This week had Batman Rebirth, Superman Rebirth, Green Arrow Rebirth, and Green Lanterns Rebirth.
These are essentially a way to bridge the old and new continuities, and kind of act as an "issue zero", to set up the basic status quo before issue 1.
Batman Rebirth
Batman Rebirth is nominally a way of bridging the gap between the old and new continuity, but of the four issues this week, it was the least interesting one. The only thing of note here is that Duke from We Are Robin will be Batman's new sidekick - but not called Robin. And he has a new outfit which I'm not really very sold on. Beyond that... pretty much nothing happened except a confusing plot involving calendar man and the seasons.
Superman Rebirth
While more interesting than Batman, Superman was the least memorable. It's the only one of these four which I had to flick through again to remind myself what happened. Beard-Superman, whose exact origin I can't really remember... I think he's pre-new 52 superman who got stuck here during Convergence? Anyway, he has this idea that because he got resurrected after Death of Superman, obviously this other Superman will come back too. Then he eventually realises that he won't, and decides that the world needs a Superman. Basically a way to bridge the two continuities, but the first issues of the new series are the real tests.
Green Arrow Rebirth
This issue was pretty much dedicated to introducing Green Arrow and Black Canary. A well-established couple pre-Flashpoint, then never met during New 52. It was a pretty good issue, with a standalone mini mystery, but no real talking points.
Green Lanterns Rebirth
This was probably my favourite of the four. By the end of the New 52, there were SIX Green Lanterns from Earth. The four from before New 52 - Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner; The new one added during New 52, Simon Baz... who did literally nothing since he was created, and Jessica Cruz, from the Forever Evil storyline and beyond. Anyway, the situation is that the original 4 are out doing actual lantern stuff in space, and the new two will be actually guarding earth. In this issue, Hal Jordan gives Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz a bit of a crash course in training, and lets them know they have to work together better. Hopefully this means Green Lantern comics will become more back to basics, rather than the Space Opera stuff of recent years!
These are essentially a way to bridge the old and new continuities, and kind of act as an "issue zero", to set up the basic status quo before issue 1.
Batman Rebirth
Batman Rebirth is nominally a way of bridging the gap between the old and new continuity, but of the four issues this week, it was the least interesting one. The only thing of note here is that Duke from We Are Robin will be Batman's new sidekick - but not called Robin. And he has a new outfit which I'm not really very sold on. Beyond that... pretty much nothing happened except a confusing plot involving calendar man and the seasons.
Superman Rebirth
While more interesting than Batman, Superman was the least memorable. It's the only one of these four which I had to flick through again to remind myself what happened. Beard-Superman, whose exact origin I can't really remember... I think he's pre-new 52 superman who got stuck here during Convergence? Anyway, he has this idea that because he got resurrected after Death of Superman, obviously this other Superman will come back too. Then he eventually realises that he won't, and decides that the world needs a Superman. Basically a way to bridge the two continuities, but the first issues of the new series are the real tests.
Green Arrow Rebirth
This issue was pretty much dedicated to introducing Green Arrow and Black Canary. A well-established couple pre-Flashpoint, then never met during New 52. It was a pretty good issue, with a standalone mini mystery, but no real talking points.
Green Lanterns Rebirth
This was probably my favourite of the four. By the end of the New 52, there were SIX Green Lanterns from Earth. The four from before New 52 - Hal Jordan, Guy Gardner, John Stewart, Kyle Rayner; The new one added during New 52, Simon Baz... who did literally nothing since he was created, and Jessica Cruz, from the Forever Evil storyline and beyond. Anyway, the situation is that the original 4 are out doing actual lantern stuff in space, and the new two will be actually guarding earth. In this issue, Hal Jordan gives Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz a bit of a crash course in training, and lets them know they have to work together better. Hopefully this means Green Lantern comics will become more back to basics, rather than the Space Opera stuff of recent years!
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