The Terrible... Or Tolerable... Threes Of The DC New 52 Part 1: The Highlights

I owe my readers of a blog a MASSIVE apology for missing so many days of writings, this week.  I won't bog you all down with details... because one was my standard woes of losing sizable chunks of money with no actual income coming in, and another is more personal in nature... but this week could best be summed up by the phrase, "Dark night of the soul".  Seriously, there was a point as of this Wednesday and Thursday where I was feeling the weight of my worries, and my life was looking amazingly bleak.  Things HAVE started taking a turn towards the positive, so thus my... I hesitate to call them "flagging" spirits, because that would have indicated that they had ANY sense of a "breeze" to them... spirits have taken a slight upswing.  And I also have enough energy and momentum to start the engines running on the blog, again.  But I really am VERY sorry I let my own personal issues derail something you may/may not be enjoying, but are still reading.  I thank you very much for your patience!

One other side note from this week: I am DYING to either find more cheap copies of these books, or some kind soul wants to shoot their "garbage" out, but I HAVE to read more of the Continuity Comics titles for a blog entry!  I read an issue of "Armor" that was linked up to the "Deathwatch 2000" crossover... and it made me think THIS is what a comic book must play out like if Tommy Wiseau became a comics creator!

One last note: THANK YOU, EVERYONE, for reading this blog to begin with!  Even with a few days off, I FINALLY passed over 3,000 VIEWS!  That's activity in nearly three months than I EVER got for a full year's worth of "Action Attraction" recording downloads!  And I've yet to work out the specifics, but I'm thinking next month I may run my first blog-based contest, where the winner will receive a boatload of amazing comic swag in the mail!  Stay tuned...

Let's travel back to 2011: I was still doing fine with my first, and longest-lasting, job.  I was doing my best to enter the world of Medical Billing education.  I had first started talking to my current girlfriend.  And in the world of comics, something BIG was brewing at DC Comics.  The herald to this sense of change was the "Flashpoint" event.  Speaking personally, "Flashpoint"... as a successor to "Blackest Night" and "Brightest Day"... STILL feels like a wet noodle of an event for ANY comic company to begin a "new era" with, let alone DC Comics.  Let's look at their other universe-changing events:

• "Crisis on Infinite Earths": Not a perfect "board cleaning", but for my money, the most SUCCESSFUL in seeing through important changes to certain characters.  I cannot help but also note this change GREATLY benefitted Superman and Wonder Woman the most!
• "Zero Hour": This served as an added bandage to the changes created to "Crisis", and as a supplementary event, it works gangbusters.  The craziest part of it all is it changed Batman FAR more effectively than the post-Crisis period did.
• "Infinite Crisis": Welcome back to the Multiverse... and VERY temporary changes to certain characters.  (I will say, at the very least, it made Batman less of a jerk, in general.)
• "Final Crisis": This was the event that seemed to really just happen for Grant Morrison's sake, but everyone else COMPLETELY failed to act upon the aftermath. 

So, after the events of "Flashpoint", the DC Universe... from all of the crazy reality-shifting that the Flash created... every single DC book relaunched as a new number one.  (Including, to my irritation, "Action Comics" and "Detective Comics".  Seriously, these books would have been AWESOME to have kept their original numbering, so that eventually we could have seen a single published comic literally reach one-thousand issues.)  And after some redesigns by Jim "The 90's still love me, but don't ask me to produce artwork on a title ON TIME" Lee, in late August/early September of 2011, the DC "New 52" launched with fifty-two brand-new series seeing the shelves in the span of one month.

To say things have been... inconsistent... in this new publishing environment for DC would be an understatement, but before I spend time griping about the silly and stupid, I wanted to dedicate this blog to the changes the "New 52" wrought that were for the POSITIVE.  Shall we begin?

BATMAN- DC's current "cash cow" character may star in about a BAJILLION titles in the new universe, but his self-titled book, written by Scott Snyder and illustrated by Greg Capullo, is a STELLAR title.  What makes this book work is that Snyder's writing makes Batman a character that is tough, and an able fighter... BUT he doesn't forget that Batman is a detective as well, and that he isn't just some roughly-outlined "normal" man that REALLY acts more like a super-hero.  (Let's face it: some creators REALLY make Batman far beyond "human".)  And Greg Capullo's artwork was already stunning to begin with for his noted run on "Spawn", but he has grown by UNIVERSES in skill for his "Batman" work.  Another reason this title succeeds is that it successfully serves as the lynchpin for the Batman universe events, whereas you could just read the events as they play out in "Batman", and not feel like you're missing out on how things tie in to other books.  This book is honestly the best Batman material being produced, currently.

AQUAMAN- Geoff Johns may have his measure of ups and downs... even he couldn't make "Flashpoint" a success for me... but aside from his expansion of the Green Lantern universe, his MOST IMPORTANT contribution to the "New 52" universe is the promotion of importance to the character of Aquaman.  Arthur Curry has had a VERY rough go at things since maybe the 90's, when Peter David was writing the book.  Ever since then, Aquaman has been... pardon the pun... "treading water" for relevance in the DC Universe.  But we got hints at how Aquaman was becoming a serious player back in "Blackest Night", and while Batman still kinda rules the DC roost, along with Green Lantern, Aquaman's run in the "New 52" has been a GREAT success for the character.  So much so that in the FIRST TIME IN AQUAMAN'S HISTORY, he is starring in TWO regular monthly titles at once: his self-titled book, and "Aquaman and the Others".  As Mel Brooks stated in "History of the World Part 1", Aquaman knows "It's good to be da king!".

THE FURY OF FIRESTORM- I mention this one for a specific run: when Dan Jurgens stepped on to close out the title.  Initially, Firestorm had a very awkward pace as a book.  But then again, that's sort of Firestorm's LIFE for every sequential title launched after the Gerry Conway run.  But count on Dan Jurgens... a well-established hand in writing and illustrating VERY quality superhero fare... to pepper the fusion of Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond with some sauce!  Dan Jurgens crafted a fast-paced and genuinely superheroic run for the "Nuclear Man".  It's still a true shame his run was limited by the cancellation of Firestorm, but if there's such a thing as a definitive modern run for Firestorm, it has to be Dan Jurgen's take on ole' Flamehead!

ACTION COMICS- Grant Morrison, before... and kinda during... the "New 52", crafted such an interesting Batman universe to follow, that when it was announced he was going to tackle the "early days" of Superman's "New 52" life in "Action Comics", I knew THIS was going to be good.  Hell, his "All Star Superman" series is a SEMINAL piece of Superman storytelling.  ... I do have to be honest that Morrison's "Action Comics" run may not be the EXACT high-quality of "All Star Superman", but his take on our new Superman was FAR from being "lowly"!  In a 16 issue epic, he created a story that was emotionally involving, dimension spanning, and chock full of heroic moments for Superman to be featured in.  Some of the "Morrison-isms" may turn off some people, but I feel his "Action Comics" run was a true highlight for the Man of Steel.

WONDER WOMAN- I can run hot and cold with some of Brian Azzarello's writings.  On the one hand, I LOVED "100 Bullets".  On the other hand, his "Superman" run with Jim Lee could best be described as an in-action-packed epic... BUT with his surprising assignment to "Wonder Woman" with artist Cliff Chiang resulted in one of the BEST periods for the floundering Amazon since George Perez recreated her universe for the first post-"Crisis" period.  I often describe this series as combining the epic nature of Wonder Woman's universe with the characterizations of Neil Gaiman's "Sandman".  And Azzarello has given us a Princess Diana that is a VERY strong and competent female hero.  She's clever, strong, and true to the best moments for Wonder Woman... compassionate.  I will be saddened when Azzarello's run ultimately ends... with the replacement of a rather bland artist and his first-time comic writing wife.  Sigh...

SUPERGIRL- Another lady of the DC Universe brings the quality, because while Superman's books took time to find their footing in the "New 52", his cousin... Kara Zor-El... hit the ground RUNNING from her title's launch, and she's not slowed down in the least.  I think what worked the best for "Supergirl" is we got to see her slowly acclimate to living on Earth, trying to blend her previous Kryptonian culture to our own.  And we also got to see her kick METRIC tons of butt.  I'd dare say Supergirl has been a character that has taken flight surprisingly swiftly and surely in the "New 52", and her comic comes highly recommended.

See?  I can start a topic on a positive note!  But hold on to your seats for tomorrow, because we'll be getting into the nitpicking of the "New 52" results I have taken in...