I have a very sad and almost a feeling of mourning when I read DC Comics now. The Justice League is... interesting. My favorite part, these days, being the SHAZAM back-up story. BATMAN is relatively unchanged. It's nice to see Barbara Gordon in the BATGIRL costume again, even if it makes no real sense. But my strongest feelings are that I absolutely ABHOR what has been done to GREEN ARROW... they've basically turned him into HAWKEYE from Marvel Comics, a character that was basically a rip-off of GREEN ARROW to begin with... and I, strangely, LOVE what's going on with AQUAMAN. If anything positive is to be said about the New 52, it's that AQUAMAN has become an amazingly well written character... FINALLY! I used to enjoy many DC titles. Now, not so much. I regularly collected BATMAN, SUPERMAN, GREEN ARROW, ZATANNA, SUPERGIRL, SUPERBOY, TEEN TITANS and more. Now I pick up very few. And I really miss the ones that are lost. What are your thoughts on the New 52? Are you reading as much? More? Less? Favorites?
Sticking with DC Comics for the moment, how are you all feeling about this BEFORE WATCHMEN thing? This week sees the release of the promo newspaper THE NEW FRONTIERSMAN, that, if you can't get an actual copy from the shop, you can see online at http://www.thenewfrontiersman.net/ At first I was a bit unsettled about this. I thought, why do we need to see more of THE WATCHMEN? The original GN was perfect. We got the story and the backstory and everything else we needed in the GN. The movie was, arguably, as perfect as it could be, so why... other than greed... would we need more? But then I saw what was being produced, and the talent producing it. Some of the creators alone are intriguing me enough to pick up these books. Cooke, Azzarello, Jones, Conner, Straczynski, Andy AND Joe Kubert!! Gotta at least check it out. Maybe they have something here. What do you think? Are you interested in any or all of these books?
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN is going strong with the current storyline "Ends of the Earth." It seems Doc Ock has reached the end of his life and he intends to take the entire human race with him. He's enlisted not only the Sinister Six in his plan, but convinces the leaders of the world that he is trying to save the planet. Only Spider-man is unconvinced, and he's only got the Black Widow and Silver Sable to help him defeat Ock while the world's governments and S.H.I.E.L.D. are fighting to stop them. Slott, Castelli and Martin are doing an excellent job with this story. And they didn't have to kill the main character or reboot an entire universe to do it! Just very well written and drawn comics! Imagine that! (REALLY need that 'sarcasm' font!)
So, what are you reading? What comics do you enjoy? Are disappointed in? Let us know! Maybe, together, we make comics better!
-The Artist Currently Known As RICKMAN
