This is why books like JBNM are so much fun.  You never know what to expect.

i'm totally lost.it's starting to feel like it's just rambling from one unrelated thing or circumstance to the next with nothing connecting.

i was totally right about this transition from "old" series to "new"--2112/next men 0 through 30 has quite a few plot lines running but you can follow what the hell the story is at least.this is nothing like whats going on in the book now.i went into it thinking i wasnt going to try and over think the book or put too much effort into trying to guess where it all will end up,i was just going to pay attention and enjoy the ride.but that got me frustrated as the thing quickly started making little sense to me.even going back and forth through the five issues so far has gotten me no closer to figuring anything out-it just brought my frustration and uneasiness with the "new" book up from the background where i had pushed it till i had more issues in hand and had a more informed opinion.and the informed opinion is this-i cant believe that this was the plan all along.

or to be clearer,we all know that mr.byrne HAD a plan and that the execution of the plan was condensed considerably.while that may not mean that there are chunks of relevant story that we were going to get and will now not be getting-i know byrne has a better grasp on what's superfluous and what's relevant to the story-but because of the drastic change of EVERYTHING i just cant connect this series with the old series.it all seems too "from out of nowhere".the old series had a bunch of characters and situations going on,you could follow one thing to the next,and there was a story for me to absorb and enjoy.happily cruising along and bam,it's like the vehicle went off-road or something.none of this feels related or relevant to the old series.

i'm holding on to my well,WELL deserved faith in mr.byrne that he knows what he's doing [he IS one of the best at what he does after all] and faith that this is going to be one of those "gets more rewarding with repeated reads/viewings" sorta things,i can do that and go back and connect all the dots when i have them to connect.it's just that it's getting less and less enjoyable when practically every third page has some big unanswered  question that you have to just put aside.it starts to turn into this free-flow kinda thing that doesnt leave one satisfied [if one came looking for the much anticipated,as in never thought i'd live to see the day,continuation of that treasured storyline abruptly halted those many moons ago.] 

it's obvious [to me anyway] that the story is dealing with interconnected/overlapping,changeable [retro or otherwise] alternate timelines.which begs the question-what's real?DID the storyline [HA! which one?] that we are seeing now come from next men 0-30 or can that whole thing REALLY be just nine pages of a slice of a great many variant timelines?y'see what i mean? how can all those issues back in the day and all that waiting for the continuation amount to so little when fit into the context of whats going on now?

i was totally right about this transition from "old" series to "new"--2112/next men 0 through 30 has quite a few plot lines running but you can follow what the hell the story is at least.this is nothing like whats going on in the book now.i went into it thinking i wasnt going to try and over think the book or put too much effort into trying to guess where it all will end up,i was just going to pay attention and enjoy the ride.but that got me frustrated as the thing quickly started making little sense to me.even going back and forth through the five issues so far has gotten me no closer to figuring anything out-it just brought my frustration and uneasiness with the "new" book up from the background where i had pushed it till i had more issues in hand and had a more informed opinion.and the informed opinion is this-i cant believe that this was the plan all along.

or to be clearer,we all know that mr.byrne HAD a plan and that the execution of the plan was condensed considerably.while that may not mean that there are chunks of relevant story that we were going to get and will now not be getting-i know byrne has a better grasp on what's superfluous and what's relevant to the story-but because of the drastic change of EVERYTHING i just cant connect this series with the old series.it all seems too "from out of nowhere".the old series had a bunch of characters and situations going on,you could follow one thing to the next,and there was a story for me to absorb and enjoy.happily cruising along and bam,it's like the vehicle went off-road or something.none of this feels related or relevant to the old series.

i'm holding on to my well,WELL deserved faith in mr.byrne that he knows what he's doing [he IS one of the best at what he does after all] and faith that this is going to be one of those "gets more rewarding with repeated reads/viewings" sorta things,i can do that and go back and connect all the dots when i have them to connect.it's just that it's getting less and less enjoyable when practically every third page has some big unanswered  question that you have to just put aside.it starts to turn into this free-flow kinda thing that doesnt leave one satisfied [if one came looking for the much anticipated,as in never thought i'd live to see the day,continuation of that treasured storyline abruptly halted those many moons ago.] 

it's obvious [to me anyway] that the story is dealing with interconnected/overlapping,changeable [retro or otherwise] alternate timelines.which begs the question-what's real?DID the storyline [HA! which one?] that we are seeing now come from next men 0-30 or can that whole thing REALLY be just nine pages of a slice of a great many variant timelines?y'see what i mean? how can all those issues back in the day and all that waiting for the continuation amount to so little when fit into the context of whats going on now?

---

what?

••

Nope. Everything you need is there.

There sure is a lot of mystery in the new JBNM issues -- but I am following the plot. And it all feels like the new issues connect to the "old" series. Same tone. The new issues is a heavy, time travel arc -- but time travel has been established in this universe. Nothing is out-the-blue. I'm following it all just fine.

Also: My girlfriend is reading Next Men and she's loving it. She doesn't read comicbooks (although she has read a few Neal Adams Batman comics -- she seems to really like those) -- if JBNM wasn't making sense, she'd be the first to tell me.

Bill: I find the change of tone and
the notched-up intensity to be thrilling.

---

I guess I find the overall tone of JBNM to be the same. The book does feel more intense(!) -- but maybe that's because I've read the older issues over-and-over-again during the last 15 (or whatever) years. 

In any case... IT'S ALL SO DAMN AWESOME!

••

I know you are not offering this as a complaint, Tom, but this is something I have seen more and more in the past couple of decades -- especially with "the internet generation". Readers who complain if everything is not spelled out in the first three pages. If they have to wait to understand what's going on, it the the writer, rather than their own impatience, that is held to be at fault.

I suspect many of these belong to the same set that seeks out every available spoiler, months in advance, and then complains that the stories, when they finally read them, are too "predictable".