On the Chopping Block

[Alan M.]

Even though issues 1 and 2 didn't overly impress me, I was planning on sticking with Flash: Rebirth out of faith that Geoff Johns would ultimately give me a good story. But issue three today convinced me that...yeah, I'm just not digging this book.

At the same time, Wonder Woman and Runaways remain on the verge for me, dependent on a new storyline and a new creative team, respectively.

I guess, given that I have something like three or four titles I want to find a space for, this could be worse news, but I'm disappointed that I'm not enjoying all these titles more.

[Richard Willis]

Mark S. Ogilvie said:

Batgirl, I can see where they are going and it's not bad, but she's gone from a serious heroine in adult mature sort of world to someone who I think should team up with Scooby and the gang.

I wonder if this is a delayed reaction to the recurring complaint that a grown woman is referred to as "girl?"

[Randy Jackson]

She has (seemingly) been de-aged in the current comic, from a woman in her mid-to-late twenties to one who's just entered graduate school. I'm still liking it and still digging the story precisely because it's not the doom and gloom, but it does feel just a tad off.

Richard Willis said:

I wonder if this is a delayed reaction to the recurring complaint that a grown woman is referred to as "girl?"

[Mark S. Ogilvie]

The guy behind the counter at my LCS is of the opinion that it is because of the response that Marvel got to the new Ms. Marvel. I don't think it's terrible and if it had started cold I would have been ok, but the shift from mature Barbara to teen Barbara is a bit too much. If I had the money I'd hang in until I got used to it. Or if there had been some in-story reason for the sudden age regression.



Richard Willis said:

Mark S. Ogilvie said:

Batgirl, I can see where they are going and it's not bad, but she's gone from a serious heroine in adult mature sort of world to someone who I think should team up with Scooby and the gang.

I wonder if this is a delayed reaction to the recurring complaint that a grown woman is referred to as "girl?"

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

I'm pretty sure Gail Simone always maintained that New 52 Barbara was around 21 or 22. She always seemed older to me in her stories (Bat people must mature early), but I think that was the age she was always intended to be in this continuity. So when the shift happened, I felt more like she was finally acting her age than that she was somehow de-aged.

Regardless, I think if you're going to have both a Batwoman and Batgirl running around, it's a good policy to have one seem younger than the other.

[Randy Jackson]

For anyone who's interested, the latest issue of Captain America and the Mighty Avengers is set post-Inversion, although there is fallout, specifically for Sam.  It's going in a very good direction IMO.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Thanks for the info, Randy. I did pick up the newest issue last week, and I will read this knowing that Al Ewing has a great take on these characters--in their real brains.

Randy Jackson said:

For anyone who's interested, the latest issue of Captain America and the Mighty Avengers is set post-Inversion, although there is fallout, specifically for Sam.  It's going in a very good direction IMO.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

I'm giving up on the following titles:

• Avengers/New Avengers/Avengers World: This story has been dragged out for years now. Years. No exaggeration. I know it's just about to end, but I have so many issues stacked up, that I'm not going to keep adding to them. It's time to let go since it's all about to blow up anyway.
• Captain America: As soon as Stuart Immonen leaves, I'm going. Don't get me wrong; this book isn't bad, but it's really the art that's keeping me around.

[Randy Jackson]

So, done with Hercules. It seems the entire idea is to take everything that makes the character fun and remove it. Not my interest.

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

For years, I have said that Aquaman should be written much more like Hercules. It would make him a fun character and set him apart from everyone else at DC. It seems like Marvel is taking Hercules and writing him more like Aquaman, which seems like a huge step in the wrong direction to me (and you!).

Randy Jackson said:

So, done with Hercules. It seems the entire idea is to take everything that makes the character fun and remove it. Not my interest.

[Richard Willis]

Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man said:

For years, I have said that Aquaman should be written much more like Hercules. It would make him a fun character and set him apart from everyone else at DC. It seems like Marvel is taking Hercules and writing him more like Aquaman, which seems like a huge step in the wrong direction to me (and you!).

You should check out an episode of the animated series Batman: The Brave and the Bold. They did Aquaman like you suggest. He's in almost half of the episodes. I didn't like his portrayal but you might.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

On Hercules: I read issue #2 last night and I’m not ready to give up on it yet. There was philosophy, action, humor, new characters, plot advancement, and the threat of the first story was identified. I'm not ready to give up on it yet.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

Black Canary is a perfectly good comic book -- and issue 6 has some really creative things in it, including a character manifesting a superpower I've never seen at all before (although it's something that'd never be considered before the last few years of cell-phone technology) -- but the comic's pacing isn't doing it for me. The story looks to be wrapping up in issue 7 or 8, and I'll probably be jumping off once it does.

Gail Simone's Clean Room has only a few more issues to really grab me, too -- but I'll be giving the series up till now a compressed reread to see if it works better for me in larger chunks. 

Similarly, Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott's Black Magick has to ratchet things up soon, too -- I love both those creators, and Scott's grayscale art with splashes of color is really cool, but after the big splash of issue 1, this is a really slow build. And frankly, two pages in untranslated German didn't do the book any favors in my eyes. (Here's a loose translation from the CBR boards.) It doesn't help that because Rowan's magic is so based on Wicca, the agnostic in me gives it a side-eye that I never give John Constantine's more loosely defined magic. This seems like it should be a book that I love -- heck, I've been working on a similar concept for a webcomic script for the past year or so, so I like the elements of the book a lot -- but I've got to hope this arc ends with a big bang. Rucka's work tends to build slowly, but this one makes me a little itchy.