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Emery Calame
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 5:34am | IP Logged | 1  

Neo Hawkman huh? Wow. He's just flying through a bunch of radiation or anti-matter or something. 

I like that the big lumpy-alien bone spike-club/axe has a superfluous lanyard so he won't drop it, unless he doesn't put his arm through it while flying. Maybe it's for Mjolnir style twirling tricks. 

Probably not. For it is written: " Twirleth not thy axe lest thou loseth thy eye and thy lip and part of thy forehead and much of thy ear besides and get blood upon the cloth of thy armor and lose thy axe permit after staying long in the hospital and getting used to thy new false teeth. "

Also I like that his buckler has two big blunt alien bone talons AND a gleaming metal short blade attached to it, possibly for opening huge envelopes. It's almost as silly looking as Shatterstar's double bladed (side by side) katana.

He seems to adequately answer the age old question of 'what would happen if one of the Thunder Cats was turned into a bird-guy?'

This looks like it could be the printed version of New Coke.

Anyone think WB will step in and take charge of the comics directly  if this goes badly? And if they do will it persuade Disney to do the same at Marvel as a preventative measure? Could something like this potentially lead to movie and TV deals being scrapped?

I have no idea how valid it is (probably not very) but I saw a poll on Comic Book Resources about the Flashpoint event and reboot and it had 27.33% saying "Oh good- 52 jumping off points" and another 27.02 % saying " I'll give it chance before I condemn it."

So up to 54% of those onboard right now are potentially considering leaving because of this ?

That CAN'T be good news for DC.

Meanwhile Marvel is doing this "Fear Itself" thing that seems to show the Avengers fighting a high tech Hulk, Spider-Man fighting a rampaging Thing, Odin returning and cowling at Thor, and the current Captain America lying on slab looking hurt or dead just in time for the summer movies. Also Iron man will be squatting ominously by some rocks with his helmet off. Yep. Marvel is turning it up to eleven for the eleven hundredth time till eleven become the new five. Wheee. 


Edited by Emery Calame on 03 June 2011 at 6:08am
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Craig Robinson
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 6:25am | IP Logged | 2  

Emery, your Hawkmjolnir instructions remind me of the instructions of the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch from MONTY PYTHON & THE HOLY GRAIL. So, thank you.

Is it just me, or is Fear Itself turning out to be Blackest Night, but with Hammers instead of multi-color rings??

This move clearly seems to be a calculation between losing older readers (this guy) to cash in on a massive influx of new readers.  But here's the thing: I have a son about to turn 13 who is still sort of into comics.  He's going to read what I buy and talk about (because it's my money).  So, does it not occur to Didio, Johns, et al, that parents who are long time readers are going to be a strong influence over young readers that they want to attract?  The very generation of parents that they risk kissing goodbye right now are then going to turn around and buy books they just canceled for their kids?

Maybe that outta be their new slogan: The NEW DC - do it for the kids!

 

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Emery Calame
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 7:01am | IP Logged | 3  

Craig, I wonder where most of this money will go if it suddenly flows out of the comics market. 

Video games? Clothes and shoes? MP3's? Fast food? Digital Novels on Kindle/iPad/Nook ? Movies? Upgraded cell phone plans? Netflix, Qriosity, Zone, and Hulu +  subscriptions?  Will it get saved? What's the number one field that stands to benefit from this?

How do you think your or your son would spend the money freed up by a sudden disgusted exodus from comics? 

When I quit most of mine went into fast-food and video games. 


Edited by Emery Calame on 03 June 2011 at 7:03am
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Jason Larouse
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 7:16am | IP Logged | 4  

"
Time Warner is to blame.

It's a full on reboot. They're starting everything over, the marriage is OMD'd. And nothing's really getting an ending unless they found a way to get it done by July. Wondering why Batman Inc's had all the delays? Cause Grant's rewriting everything to do his best to wrap it all up by July, cause the book's not continuing!

The orders came from above Didio/Johns/Lee. The 3 of them plus Morrison have been trying to stop this for months but to no avail. I have no idea if Diane Nelson also came up with it, but I'm tending to think she did.

As to why this is happening?: Apparently the higher ups are sick of seeing Marvel constantly take the market share every month from DC and they're convinced this is how they're going to take the lead. There's talk of if this doesn't work TW going to more drastic measures but that's really a leap at this time so I won't repeat them yet.

But TW knows they're going to lose a lot of long time readers over this and they've got Didio and Johns unfortunately doing damage control that neither of them really want to do. There's already been other writers and artists who really don't want to be a part of this "movement" either so we'll see who all the people are doing these new books."

Terrible news if true but not really shocking
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Craig Robinson
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 7:18am | IP Logged | 5  

He is a burgeoning artist, skateboarder and wants to do tennis camp this summer, so I suppose he'll spend his discretionary funds along those lines.  We want to send him to a week long art camp at Herron Art School here in Indy.  He spends a lot of his allowance (or wages, as I like to call them) on Iphone apps.

For myself, I am in the midst of starting a side business modifying and then reselling toy TRON identity discs with EL wire and LED lighting.  The stock model they sell is kind of lame; the lights won't stay on and are not bright at all, etc.  My custom model is much more authentic.  As soon as I get my crazy cheap LED lighting from China, I'll be putting them on the eBay.  So 6-8 less books a month will help me with startup costs.

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Emery Calame
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 7:33am | IP Logged | 6  

Hopefully "drastic measures" mean that WB will hand DC publishing over to Bruce Timm and say " This is yours now. Sit on it, keep it warm, and make it hatch. Or else. Succeed and a golden crown will be yours. Fail and a hard leather boot will help you to leave the company to seek other opportunities. Waddya say champ?" 

Then he'll pick the next editorial staff and give them a starting direction and some iron-bound "thou shalt nots" and we'll have books that read more like the old Batman, Superman and JLA animated series stories.

People who still periodically need to see Batman's extended cast brutally raped by half robot Demon-Ninjas, with their blood running down the storm drain while Gotham burns down around them will have Wildstorm to fall back on. Wildstorm can hopefully support a vast, bloated, throbbing hive of fan favorite, almost/ex-Hollywood screen writers, who are cool enough to hate comics, but have so much to bring to the table because they know eight and forty seven hundred ways to skin a super-heroine (that nobody likes anymore), and can tack an extra five or so contradictory secret origins on a character who is looking a bit musty or flat.

There'd be a force-field or concrete barrier to keep the two writing pools separate permanently. And it would be like cooties. Once you had traces of Wildstorm on you you would be out of the DC pool for fear of contaminating the other DC writers with your Wildstormy impulses.

Maybe I'm just a starry eyed idiot desperately reaching for cloud castles. But I think the JLA animated series would make a fairly good model for DC comics to right themselves.


Edited by Emery Calame on 03 June 2011 at 7:46am
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Greg Woronchak
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 7:57am | IP Logged | 7  

It makes sense that 'higher ups' want DC to improve it's market share. That being said, I find the reboot potentially suicidal (as mentioned already) because unless readers flock to support the new books, DC will be left with floundering titles noone is buying.

The creative teams mentioned so far (aside from JLA) aren't 'A list' enough to draw big sales, IMO. I can also see DC asking for pitches for the 52 series, although I wonder who had the final say on which were chosen and/or the creative teams involved.

Maybe post-Crisis did make sense despite the complications it caused; reboot titles 'on the fly', rather than gambling on pissing everyone off by starting from scratch.

I don't have any answers, but I must admit as a DC fan and a fan of the print comic book medium, I'm pretty dismayed about what's on the horizon.

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Don Zomberg
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 8:01am | IP Logged | 8  

Three of my favorite characters--Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne.

Three of your favorite characters are Robin, Robin, and...Robin?

 

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Kevin Brown
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 8:18am | IP Logged | 9  


 QUOTE:
@Kevin
What's the issue with Van Sciver? He seems politically nutty to me and I've gathered he's even somewhat trollish in trying to provoke people politically. Related to that or something else?
 
Many reasons actually...  The politics are a big one.  Plus there are some personal reasons as to why, one of which nearly being stiffed out of 50 bucks for a sketch he never did for me.  I had to literally search for him on the Sunday at a Chicago con (after paying him early on Friday!) to get my money back.  And the sketch was just a headshot.  I got the money back, but from that point forward I will never pay in advance for any sketch if I want some art.
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Craig Robinson
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 8:24am | IP Logged | 10  

Three of your favorite characters are Robin, Robin, and...Robin?

rrr

It's kooky, I know.  Especially when most Robin fans argue about them vs one another.  I couldn't stand them (on spec) at first, but once I read more and more Bat-stories, I really enjoyed them.  So it's not completely the Robin, Robin & Robin (worst law firm name ever) aspect, but how they've grown: Red Robin, Red Hood and snotty Robin.

It's a crap shoot, I suppose, who and why we connect with in comics.  Jason Todd's fall from grace and struggle to do the right thing in such a horrible manner just clicks with my own narrative. 

Now, they aren't my only favorites... I like Bruce, I like Hal.  Big Jim Gordon fan. Never been much of a Superman fan, though (aside from Red Son and Kingdom Come). 



Edited by Craig Robinson on 03 June 2011 at 8:25am
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Kip Lewis
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 8:25am | IP Logged | 11  

More I think about it, the more this makes sense if DC is moving its
focus from print to digital. If they are trying to create a new ground
floor market, it makes sense to restart everything, because this market
is not aimed at collectors, but at readers. (Collectors buy no matter
what.) Cover art becomes irrelevant, the past must be simplified. All
books need to start with number one, because the focus is the new
format instead of continuing the old one.

If DC succeeds in creating a digital market to rival or beat print;
Marvel will end up doing the same.

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Kevin Brown
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Posted: 03 June 2011 at 8:46am | IP Logged | 12  

@Craig

While you may not like it, and I know there are some friends of mine who definitely hate it, I look at this as a great opportunity for DC to get rid of duplicate characters where they're not needed.  Like all the Robins and dual Batmans.

The Flash has a long line of characters from Jay Garrick to Barry Allen to Wally West.  Green Lantern has Alan Scott to Hal Jordan to a frikkin Corps of GLs.  Even Blue Beetle has a similar "lineage" of characters.  For those characters, it works.

So far, from what very little has been revealed, I'm on board for about 8 of titles out of the inital 10.  Firestorm is a "no buy" for me (as I've already said) as is Captain Atom.  Mister Terrific I'll give a couple of issues to grab me, but that's it.  Wonder Woman is the one I'm most excited to read.  I got the opportunity to talk with Brian Azzarello at this year's C2E2 and he was visibly excited (if you've ever met the man, this is not normal for him!) by what he was doing for DC.  THEN I just thought it was Batman, but now I can see it was also WW.

Today DC has released the Green Lantern portion of the reboot:  LINK.  I'm on board for all of those as well, though Red Lanterns will need to grab me quickly.

 

edit fer spellin'



Edited by Kevin Brown on 03 June 2011 at 8:47am
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