DC Comics General

See, the sad part is that Heroes in Crisis actually sounded like a good idea at first. Back when Tom King called in Sanctuary and it was actually about superheroes dealing with PTSD and the realistic consequences of being superheroes, it sounded like an intriguing mini-series. Even when they revealed that it would be a murder mystery, I didn't mind — the initial murder (probably a D-list hero) would be our entryway into Sanctuary, where we would learn more about how it worked and how the patients dealt with their issues.

But nope! Instead of killing one person, they killed a whole bunch. Including fan favorite characters, you know, the ones fans were hoping to see in other books. Which they can't now, unless someone brings them back to life. And if Wally West turns out to be the killer, the book then gives the reader a horrible Unfortunate Implications: if you suffer from depression and PTSD, you can turn into a crazy killer and kill your friends. Even if he isn't the killer, this still means that he was lost in time, had his wife forget who he was, remembered he had children who themselves were gone, and then, when he finally decided to go to a hospital and make sure of his own mental wellbeing, he was fucking killed.

Good job, DC. Good fucking job.

Edited by alliterator on Jan 22nd 2019 at 4:09:08 AM

Didio comes across as pretty obsessed with superhero comics being "mature." We recently found out that that's how the original Identity Crisis had its genesis - Didio thought the reason DC was getting clobbered by Marvel at the time was that Marvel was more willing to tackle "mature, relevant issues" than DC, which looked kiddie in comparison.

Apparently King never intended it to be a Crisis title.

It was supposed to be just a small personal thing that DC hijacked into an event title.

Edited by slimcoder on Jan 22nd 2019 at 4:10:10 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

See, if it was more like Mister Miracle, just a side-project that didn't have any other implications for the characters, I could get behind it. But making it into a full blown Crisis is just...bad.

King didn't help, though, when he said that during every Crisis a Flash needs to die, because that's not even true.

Final Crisis had a net gain of Flashes. Best Crisis.

x4

Didio never read Swamp Thing or Watchmen or anything from Vertigo, did he?

Seeing as it led to Wally getting knocked off his spot as the #1 Flash, that's debatable.

Edited by kkhohoho on Jan 22nd 2019 at 6:35:57 AM

I think it’s best by virtue of nothing too horrible happening to them.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

I can't blame it for what it led to. Wally and Barry are equals in the story itself.

I think the original Crisis is the best — the most well-told and, well, the original. Follow that with Final Crisis and then Infinite Crisis and then Zero Hour and then, at the bottom, we have Heroes in Crisis and, finally, Identity Crisis.

...Heroes in Crisis works out better than Identity Crisis because the impetus for the crossover wasn't "Hey, let's have a rape."

That was what I was referring to when I said Didio wanted DC to be mature. He wanted to show that a superhero book could handle a delicate issue... and he picked rape.

When exactly did Didio supercede Johns? Or was it because Johns moved onto adaptations instead of running comics. I'm hazy on the timeline.

I think Johns spends most of his time making the movies not-suck now?

How's Shazam looking anyway? I'm tentatively excited about it.

Excellent. They just had a new teaser trailer a few days ago that looks awesome.

Here's the thing though: Johns is still writing comics. Good comics, too: I like Doomsday Book and I loved the first issue of his Shazam! comic. And DC has been making some good decisions — getting Kelly Sue DeConnick on Aquaman and G. Willow Wilson on Wonder Woman were both great choices (and have lead to some amazing stories). Hell, I even love Bendis's Superman and Action Comics. And I still think Tom King is doing a good job with Batman.

It's just...Heroes in Crisis. Why? Why not just leave Tom King alone to do a Sanctuary book? Why have it be a crossover at all? Why kill off fan-favorite characters? And why in such a mean-spirited way?

What I get from that trailer is that they really, really wanted to do Shazam vs. Black Adam, but Dwayne pulled rank and said "No, fuck you, I want a solo movie. Because there's no reason for Sivana to have actual superpowers.

My various fanfics.

So on a whim I read the new Shazam book that got published last month and... it's good. It's actually honest-to-God good. It's not perfect, certainly. Most of the six members of the Marvel Family (yes, this is a team book,) aren't too fleshed out just yet, but there's six main characters and it's only the first issue, so I can cut it some slack. That said, they do feel like kids, which in something like this is all too easy to screw up.

But more than anything else, it's just *fun.* It has that childlike feel to it that strengthens the whole thing. A sense of wonder and whimsy that in this day and age is hard to come by. It also captures that better than the 90's Shazam comic, which was still fairly solid. On top of all that, you can also safely read it on its' own without having to worry about other books or tying into events or anything like that, at least at this point. So yeah. I finally have a modern big-two book that I can safely say I'm following. Because at the end of the day it's just fun, and sometimes that's all you need.

Oh, and they're also doing Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. For realz. I shit you not.

This is gonna be awesome.

Can they please write some new all ages stories? I don't like Grimdark and shock deaths!

im surprised that anyone i surprised that characters act ooc and are killed off for shock value in a tom king book. the only one that I think avoided that was grayson and he had a cowriter for that.

Note to self: don't buy/read anything by Tom King...

Bendis is writing a new Young Justice and another all-ages book called Naomi. Sam Humphries is going to be writing an all-ages Dial H for Hero, too.

Everyone acts in character and nobody has died (so far) for shock value in his Batman run. Hell, even his run on The Vision, the only characters he killed off were the ones he himself created (and, okay, Victor, but he also left him in such a way as to easily come back — which he did in Runaways).

Except then you would be missing out on some great stuff, like Omega Men, The Vision, and Mister Miracle.

Edited by alliterator on Jan 22nd 2019 at 6:56:45 AM

He's a genuine dope writer.

Its just his stuff doesn't mix well with the more mainstream stuff where he can't experiment as much.

His Batman stories can be hit or miss as a result.

Edited by slimcoder on Jan 22nd 2019 at 7:01:51 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

"I Am Suicide" was great, "I Am Bane" was meh (except for the Bat-Burger issue), "The War of Jokes and Riddles" was good, and all the leadup to issue #50 was awesome.

I do like how he's able to make fun of himself, though. There's a two-issue arc called "Super Friends" where Batman and Superman go on a double date and it's adorable. And Catwoman is telling Lois Lane about how Batman proposed and she says, "It was sweet. But then he says 'Before you answer I have to tell you something. It's about Kite Man.'"

Edited by alliterator on Jan 22nd 2019 at 7:08:20 AM

"I Am Gotham" really fizzled out in the end.

Now that I think about it "Jokes and Riddles" was pretty depressing & dreary. The dinner chapter was good but I think it went so hard into how brutal the villains are it just stopped being a fun war.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."

Perhaps it's because I read all the issues at once in a binge that it didn't seem that bad. Plus, it was a flashback, so we already knew nobody important died.

I haven't read it in a while but I remember a lot of villains doing bad stuff causing high death counts leading to Batman to wangst a lot.

Shit that's most of the narration, Batman just melodramatically saying how awful everything was over pillow talk with Catwoman & how fucking useless he was to prevent all that.

No wonder people had issues with it, I do not want to hear Batman whine. Doesn't matter its flashback, hearing everybody go on & on about how awful the city has become gets old fast.

Edited by slimcoder on Jan 22nd 2019 at 7:18:36 AM

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."