DC Comics - The New 52

FrankToronto

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I haven't bought any comic books in ages, but I was at Lookin For Heroes in Kitchener this past Saturday when I learned what DC has been up to... a complete relaunch of the DC Universe with 52 first issues...

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/the-new-52/

I picked up Batman & Robin #1 and Justice League International #1. I hope to pick up some others as they get released.

Anyone else checking DC's relaunch out? Not sure if this is a phase, but maybe I'm back into collecting comics.

I always leaned towards Marvel so I also bought Wolverine: The Best There Is #1 and #2 though I'll probably stick with the regular series.
 
Yup, I've bought Action Comics 1, Detective Comics 1, Swamp Thing 1, Batman and Robin 1 and Batwoman 1.

I've only read Action and Detective and both were very good. Detective has an amazing ending... everyones been talking about it. Check it out. Very cool. Very creepy.

Also, a little Easter Egg, there is a red hooded character that appears in one of the panels in every single one of the 52 books. This cahracter is apparently responsible for the ending of Flashpoint (which is responsible for the new 52 comics). I've found the character in both Action and Detective. It's very faint in Detective, a little more noticeable in Action (spoiler:............. sitting on the train, when the train is crashing and all the passengers are freaking out; this character is sitting comfortably).
 
I still read the main titles Batman, Detective, Spidey, DD, Jonah Hex, Conan and Usagi Yojimbo. My favorite is still the Archie Titles and I really love "Locke and Key", if you have not read it you should pick up the first trade, its awesome.
 
Also, a little Easter Egg, there is a red hooded character that appears in one of the panels in every single one of the 52 books. This cahracter is apparently responsible for the ending of Flashpoint (which is responsible for the new 52 comics). I've found the character in both Action and Detective.

I actually read Batman & Robin #1 for a second time last night and noticed this for the first time! I had no clue cuz I've been out of the loop. :)
 
I've been reading them ALL. So far, these I enjoyed:
Justice League
Action Comics
Animal Man
Detective Comics
Batgirl

These have potential if handled well:
Swamp Thing
Batman and Robin
Batwoman
Frankenstein
Green Lantern
Suicide Squad

These are a complete waste of ink and paper:
Green Arrow
Hawk and Dove
JLI - Booster Gold? Really?
OMAC - what idiot thought this was worth resurrecting?
Superboy
Legion Lost

The rest are strictly average books. This week has four more Batbooks, Wonder Woman, another Lantern Book, and a lot of second stringers. We will see.
 
These have potential if handled well:
Swamp Thing

I picked up Swamp Thing but haven't had a chance to read it yet. I really, really like Scott Snyder so I'm looking forward to it. His run on Detective Comics was really good. I love what he did with Gordon's son James and how he's basically a murdering psycopath who tried to convince his father otherwise.
 
I've liked Swamp Thing for a long time. I even didn't hate the movie. The Vertigo run was good, but I'm glad to see it brought back to the main shop again. They've started from an interesting place, but it's going to take a skilled and imaginative writer to do the idea justice.

We'll see.
 
I went to Silver Snail here in T.O. after work yesterday, a day before the next wave of first issues released today, and grabbed Justice League and Green Lantern which I'll read tonight.

I would've liked to have been able to grab Action Comics and Detective Comics, which I've heard nothing but good things about the first issue. I'll have to scope them out somehow.

Today at lunch, it was a madhouse and Super Girl and Nightwing were already sold out. I grabbed Batman #1 right away and then I got a little out of control and practically grabbed every new issue I could get my hands on. A few more must've sold out while I was there, but I got all the ones I needed and then some.

I'll be narrowing down the titles after the first few issues and just focus on my faves, but for now this is a lot of fun. :)

Only read the first 2 that I purchased so far:
Batman & Robin #1 - Robin is Batman's son... and he's a bit of a brat. May make for some interesting moments or he might just be annoying. I'll give it a shot.

JLI #1 - Just a light fun read. Booster Gold as leader makes sense from the perspective that the UN (was it?) feels they can stroke his ego and control him so that may make things interesting. JLI should just be viewed as a light fun super-team comic.

Looking forward to reading more #1's!
 
Yeah, I can not wait for Batman and Nightwing.

I am a huge Bat mark. I basically read every damn title that features Bats/**** Grayson/any Robin etc.

I love the creative team for Batman. Capullo and Snyder has my chin dropped... and I am very happy **** Grayson has his Nightwing title back! Back when Peter David was writing it in the late 90's I was totally in love with that character/series. Really excited he is back in Bludhaven!
 
For me, DCnU has been a great jumping off point. I've stopped collecting all DC proper titles including ending a Flash run that is only missing 3 issues since Barry was introduced.

I dropped 10-12 titles, and at $30-40 savings, I really can't complain.

Kevin
 
Ok, this week's books:

OUTSTANDING:
Batman. Really. No more need be said.

Good:
Birds of Prey
Catwoman
Nightwing
Supergirl
Wonder Woman
Green Lantern Corps

Did not like:
Blue Beetle.
Captain Atom. I'd rather read about Ray Palmer, thanks.
Deadman
Legion of Super Nitwits


Which leaves Red Hood and the Outlaws. This is beyond bad. This is a thinly disguised stroke book, written by a Patton Oswalt wannabe. All I can say is this:
Really DC? This is the new face of the DCU?
 
Just read Justice League which I loved and will probably buy ongoing. Green Lantern was surprisingly good. Lantern is a classic, but I never really grew up reading Green Lantern. And, yes, what can you say about Batman - well done first issue!
 
I picked up the Batman first issue yesterday but went to a concert last night so haven't had a chance to read it yet. I skimmed the first couple pages and... Capullos art (and how he positions his panels) immediately brought me back to his Spawn days. Those were good days.

Really looking forward to reading what Snyder has in store for us. If you like Batman you would probably like his masterful run on Detective Comics. It was only a few storylines (a year or so worth of comics) but maannnn it was amazing!
 
So far, the clearly excellent offerings IMHO are:
Animal Man
Batman
Justice League
Batgirl

There's a lot that promise much and will likely deliver. And some real frakkin' duds.
 
I'm going to be reading a lot of comic books this weekend! I'm just finding this to be a lot of fun getting back into comics as a result of this fresh relaunch.

I'll definitely be scaling back on the titles as I've been grabbing a bunch of #1's and this might turn out to be just a phase. But if it is just a phase, it sure is a fun one. :)
 
My concern is the overconfidence inspired by the current sales numbers. Yeah, fine, JL sold out a first run of 200K, and many other titles are doing the same. Good, I'm glad. Questions:
1) Not all of those are unique customer sales. What percentage?
2) How many of these customers are NEW customers? Lapsed readers returning to the fold don't count - the purpose of this was supposedly NEW readers.
3) What are the digital sales numbers like?
4) Most tellingly: does anyone have a solid handle on how well issue 6s will sell compared to issue 1s?
 
A) True, not all are customer sales - but I don't think we'll ever know specific sell through numbers but from what I've heard, many comic stores are selling out of #1s.

B) I believe lapsed readers do count - getting them back counts as much as a "new" reader - the question is, do they lapse again.

C) Digital sales numbers are crap. From what I've heard we are talking triple digits max.
JLA MAY be an exception as it had the "free" download when you bought the deluxe issue.

D) I don't say I have a handle on thses issue 6s vs issue 1s, but history does give us some pretty good examples on the drops from 1->2->3 etc, and I'd guess that if 60% is retained by issue 6, it's a huge success. Granted that's only 120K but that would've been the top selling comic in 9 of the last 12 months I believe.

John Mayo does a report monthly on estimated sales numbers, and cover it with the Avengers relaunch on this page

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=31312

Kevin
 

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