New Year, Old 52

I always seem to end up reading Marvel Comics.  Even as a kid.  But I always liked Batman and found Wonder Woman interesting but poorly written.  But it was Iron Man and Captain America that I would read over and over again.  I like the idea of Superman, but the actual Superman in the comics usually bored me.

As I got older, my tastes stayed the same.  I would dip into DC territory once in a while.  Hey Green Arrow got interesting for a bit.  Green Lantern got good for a while.  But mostly it was Batman that was worth reading.

So when DC announced the New 52 "reboot" of the DC Universe, I gave it a try.

I read dozens of their number 1's, and as the year went by I was reading fewer and fewer DC books.  I wanted to like Birds of Prey, but it went nowhere.  Flash has had great page layouts, but not a good plot to be seen.  Superman had all sorts of potential and just left me yawning.  Green Lantern (which I had been enjoying before the reboot) enslaved Hal Jordan to Sinestro and put me into blackest boredom.  Green Arrow just sucked... The only surprise was Wonder Woman, whose book has stayed very good all year by basically remaining independent from the rest of the DC Universe.  I am convince the Wonder Woman kissing Superman in Justice League is a different Wonder Woman than the daughter of Zeus who has been kicking ass in Hades and Olympus.

There were a few sparks of interest on Earth 2, but I'm not sure that book will ever stick with any of those characters long enough to make it really interesting.

And there has been Batman.  Batman, especially the Synder/Capullo series, has been fantastic!  I can't say enough about how good Batman has been.  That maze of the Owls sequence will go down in comics history.

But that's it.  Batman and Wonder Woman.

DC said this was a great time to jump in.  DC said we didn't have to know all the back story to understand these characters.  But it didn't turn out to be true.  The "reboot" didn't reboot nearly enough for me.  And the end result was kind of a wash.  I back down to reading Batman and Wonder Woman again.  Sorry DC.  I tried.  Maybe it isn't you.  Maybe its me?

Thankfully, there is still Marvel and other comics companies.

-- Jay

Happy Halloween Mashup Style

2 Days More, We Just Can't Hide It

Only 2 more days.
The mini countdown continues.
2 Days to go until  GeekGirlCon '12.
And this 5x7 mini will be hiding in Booth 307,  the LarsenGeekery Booth. 

It would be Super to see you at the show, in costume or out.

This is a Blog Post with Comic in it

Comic Mashup Theater Presents:
All the burning, rocking, fainting, monkeying, living, menacing, madness that is Captain Obvious.

Comic Mashup Myth Busters

Comic Mashup Theater knows that graphics are often clearer and offer less opportunity for misinterpretation than text.

So stop this text right now and bring on the graphics!!!!

We got us some myths to debunk!

Mind the Gap: When a myth is debunked, a gap is left in your mental model.  People prefer an incorrect model over an incomplete model with a gap in it.  In the absence of a better explanation, they opt for the wrong explanation rather than living with the gap.

That's not comic, its just a fact!

This is just cool

Federal Men-Siegel and Shuster-1936: The guys who eventually brought the world Superman.
But before the man of steel, they brought us steel men.
Robot Smash!!
That's all I have time for today...

Mystery of the Sun Helmets Solved By Comic Mashup Theater

Science can create more mysteries than it solves sometimes.

Don't hide your light under a helmet.

Let it shine in this episode of Comic Mashup Theater.

 I'm the man, in the dark sedan...

 You forgot step one: polish helmets.

 Bring in the obligatory shapely woman and distress her...

 Reach the City?  Is that sheik-speak for 3rd Base?

 Helmets well polished AND goggles.

We are truly unstoppable now.

 Cop!  Shine him on!

 Only Superman can explain this mystery.

What say you man of steel?

You call that and explanation?

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New 52 with not enough Reboot in it…

Everybody is talking about the DC Universe Reboot: The New 52.  Which is what they went to all this trouble for isn’t it?  To get us talking about DC comics and buying DC comics?  On those points, I think the New 52 Reboot has been very successful.  Everyone is talking and buying.

But how about on the Reboot part of this experiment?  How is that going?

DC claimed quite often and loudly that the New 52 would be the perfect place for new readers to jump on, because it was all “new” and there would not be a bunch of back story to explain and no pesky continuity issues that you already needed to know about to pick up the new books.

Having heard all that from DC, I kind of expected a real reboot—a starting over—a clean slate.  But I haven’t seen a lot of that yet, strangely enough.

Now, to be fair, I have only read a handful of the new books so far.  Justice League #1, Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #1, Green Arrow #1, and OMAC #1.  Some of the New 52 aren’t out yet, haven’t arrived in my mail box, or I have no intension of buying anyway.

We heard that this was going to be a world that was new to the whole “super powered people” concept.  Yet most of these books seemed to have started in the middle.  Batman has already been Batman for years.  Commissioner Gordon already has a Bat Signal on the roof.  Joker has been killing people for years.  Superman has been pissing off cops for quite a while already.  Green Arrow already has a whole support team stood up and battle tested.  The only book that really felt like I was there for the beginning of events was OMAC.  All the others felt like I was in at the middle and had to figure out who these people were and how they knew them already.  Clark Kent and Jimmy Olsen are already buddies.  Yes, Superman can’t fly (yet), but Lex Luthor already hates Superman and we don’t know why.

This was a reboot.  We were supposed to get to see some of this stuff happen on the page.  Not get hints that these important relationships and motivations had already happened and we missed them.  It’s not like we can blame it on the 352 issues of Action Comics we hadn’t read already.  This is Issue #1, by Bristol Board and all that is holy.  This was our chance to get to see why Lex starts to hate Superman, (or for reboot’s sake, maybe Lex and Superdude would be best friends this time around) but no.  That key stuff has already happened and we didn’t get to see it.

I understand that DC probably didn’t want to do 52 origin stories right out of the gate.  But they didn’t leave us with much mystery about what will be different this time around.  They seemed more worried about reassuring longtime readers that all their favorite people and stuff was going to still be in the mix.  Don’t worry, Batman still has a bat cave, a bat mobile, bat-a-rangs, his butler might be a computer program (so they get points for that), but batman is still a dick and is already obsessed with Joker (who already has a long career in serial killing).  No formative experiences need appear on these pages.  Don’t worry fan boys!  No chance of genuine difference here.  New Batman is just like old Batman.  It’s almost like Batman never rebooted.

With Green Arrow they tried a little harder.  They lost the Robin Hood goatee and went for a Tony Stark disheveled look.  Goggles are always nice.  And they moved away from the tycoon that lost all his money and now fights for the common man thing.  Instead they went for billionaire playboy who should be running his hugely successful companies, but instead spends his time and resources building crime-fighting gadgets and fighting crime with his gadgets, kind of like Tony Stark.  They did change Ollie up a bit, but again we don’t get to see any of the formative experiences that made him go into crime fighting.  He is already in the middle of it and we are left to catch up.  We missed the beginning of the movie even though we were in our seats when the curtain went up.

OMAC, is the exception to this pattern so far.  OMAC starts with people we don’t know, gives us enough interaction to tell us what their basic relationships are and sets a series of mysterious events in motion.  And it is different enough from the original OMAC that they probably could have called it something else entirely.  I do enjoy the Kirby-style art work.  And where the old OMAC had a giant Mohawk for no reason.  The new OMAC seems to be actually employing his head-fin as some kind of antennae or energy grid of some kind.  How did some guy who used to work in the office get turned into OMAC?  And who is controlling him?  We don’t know.  There is a bunch of stuff we don’t know.  But we feel like we got to the story just as it was starting.  So OMAC feels successfully rebooted to me.  And I am curious to see what happens next.

But these other titles, not so much.  If these weren’t going to be real reboots, why did DC go to all the trouble?  Oh yeah, all those extra copies they are selling.  I wonder how many of the extra copies are just going into plastic bags in the hopes of big resale values at some point in the future?  If the percentage of investment copies being sold is high, that means DC will have failed in their attempt to get new readers.  But we will see what happens.

I give the New 52 Reboot (So Far) a C.

Comic Mashup Review: DCs New 52 Reboot Review

Comic Mashup has been hearing a ton of rumors about DC Comics New 52 which launches this month.
Apparently, DC has decided to reboot the entire universe and restart all their DC Comics at Issue #1.  Lots of comic book readers are nervous.  Because frankly, this kind of relaunch of a comic book story has never, ever, happened before.  So it is literally unprecedented.  So some fear and apprehension may be called for.  And besides, comic book fans like gnashing their teeth about things they have no control over anyway.
Fear not gentle readers.  Comic Mashup may not have the firmest grasp of the situation, or access to any people inside the industry, or even a mastery of how to find information on this new-fangled interwebs thing, but we have attempted to assemble the best unfounded rumors and combine them with whatever media we had lying around.  Because it makes for the best reporting?  NO, because that's what we do here at Comic Mashup.
So strap in and get ready for the New 52 Comic Mashup Reboot Review.

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First off: This plan has apparently been in the works for decades.  DC did some market testing in the 70s under the code name of Atlas.  You can tell it was an early attempt because they were only contemplating 21 new titles then and now it is the New 52, named after the number of cards in a deck.

You can see that Swamp Thing is there as well as Batman and Tonto.

I'm pretty sure they put Cat Woman in a less revealing costume in later versions.  And those blond ears had to go becuase they make you wonder too much about the rug matching the drapes.  If you know what I mean...

And I'm sure we are all glad they did away with the Superman Blue and White Costume.

Oh, and everyone had swords and knives back then, but that was just a 70s thing.  We all had swords and knives in the 70s.  Just ask Evel Knievel, the extra blades strpped to his back were a big part in all those injuries he sustained.

 A lot has been whispered about Superman's new costume.  Most readers will accept blue jeans and boots on a now much younger Kryptonian.  But this going shirtless is just a little to free and easy.  Oh, and he can't fly any more.  He leaps.  But he feels strong!

 The Teen Titans have been a young reader favorite for decades.  But the artwork I have found makes it look like the Half Titans to me.  That's Pants, man.  Huge Pants!  If Nightwing puts those britches on he won't be able to walk, let alone fight crime.  But, not being young anymore, I don't care about the Teen Titans and weather they will make it or not. 

 Black Canary is famous for her famous ear-shattering scream.  Rest assured continuity fans, that the mega scream seems to be intact in this teaser image.  But I thought Raven was a girl in the old DC Universe.  In the New 52 Universe Raven is a guy named Jay who must be Canary's ex, becuase he doesn't want to hear anything she is saying.

 Fans from Quard and Oahu never fear, Green Lanterns are here!  No, really, don't fear.  If you do the ring won't work.  Apparently the Lanterns don't accept Americans as members anymore, so Hal Jordan is apparently retired.  And the Corps takes orders from some dude named Glykos.  But change can be good, as long as the GLs are keeping the peace.

 Aquaman...what can we say about Aquaman.  He is still a dude who swims a lot.  But he apparantly needs more equipment to pull it off now days.  I hope Mera makes an appearance soon, becuase no body fills out a fish-scale swim suit like Mera's body.  Looks like I picked the wrong day to give up making good jokes.

 Flash.  Ahhh, ahh.  He'll save every one of us!  Which Flash will we get in the New 52?  How many Flashes will we get?  Red Flash, Yellow Flash, Flash Dance?  I don't really know.  But apparently he has a new nemesis named Queer Pillar of Darkness.  And QPD is fast as well.  Look at this preview art where QPD is speeding down Market Street!  Save us Flash!  We're diving into Fridgia...

 What about the female super heroes you ask.  They get a few titles where they get to look good while the men save the world.  But I'm sure the girls won't complain about their being out numbered by the men.  Oh, and Supergirl can fly, but Superman can't.  What?  No, wait.... Supergirl's hair flies alluringly in the slightest breeze framing her innocent yet sexy face while her male cousin does all the heavy lifting.  She will be okay with that, surely.  What?  And her new name is Shirley.  Wow, who knew?

 Handicapped comic readers have long rejoiced over the second career of Barbra Gordon, who was once Batgirl but then was paralyzed from the waist down and became Oracle, the brains behind the Birds of Prey.  Well now, Barbara is being saved from that fate and is miraculously getting her legs back.  It's like the whole universe rebooted and the accident never happened.  Weird, right?  So she is going to be Batgirl again.  And she is taking advantage of her new mobility to go dancing.  There may still be something wrong with her legs, because her new costume features bloomers.

 Long time fans of the DC Universe and its flawless continuity and easy to follow history should not fear this New 52 reboot of everything you hold dear.  You will still get to amaze and bore your friends by saying, "Yeah, but in the OLD DC Universe, so-and-so used to have a magic cape and a top hat and he came from Coast City, not Metropolis." 

And fear not those who have invested years and thousands of dollars on the old DC Universe, many things are staying the same.  I'm sure DC would never jeopardise their entire empire by creating some fake cosmic crisis and rewriting history just to try and make a quick buck.  Some things are iconic DC and cannot change.

As evidence, we present proof that the keystone (should that be cornerstone?) upon which the entire DC Universe has been built is still intact: Batman is still a Dick!

All is right with the world, universe...

Yeah, well in the OLD DC Universe everything was built on a cornerstone.  But now everything is built on a keystone.  Except in OMAC, because that Kirby guy was crazy.  But yes, in any version of the universe there is one constant: Batman is a Dick, and bow ties are cool.  Oh, okay two universal constants.  But in the OLD DC Universe there was only one universal constant...

We at Comic Mashup hope you have enjoyed this little preview of the DC New 52.* 

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And now a word from our sponsor:

*Note: Comic Mashup and the Thunder Echo Blog swear on the New Gods that everything in this report is absolutely true and verified.**

**New Note: The previous statement was made in the old Comic Mashup Universe, which starting on August 31st, 2011 was replaced by the New, renumbered, innovative Thunder Echo Blog featuring our iconic satire and helmed by an Editor in Chief who is one of the most creative minds in this corner of the Internet.***

***Really New Note:  We hope this new blog will be compelling for existing readers, and give new readers a precise entry point into the bizarre, ever changing universe that is the mind of Jay Larsen,
Thunder Echo Blog and Comic Mashup Theater.  Holding the Line at Wasting Your Time.