Reilly2040's Blog

So, with our second full week of new #1s under our belt, its interesting to see how things are shaping up. To be honest, I probably felt last week’s books were stronger over all (thanks to the killer combo of Action Comics and Batgirl), but I still mostly enjoyed this week’s offerings that I picked up.

Batman and Robin relaunched this week with a team I’ve been curious to see for a while.  Part of the fun of the previous series, was the role reversal by having a lighter hearted Batman, and the grim Damian Robin.   So for the first time we have Bruce and Damian operating as Batman and Robin.  I’ve always felt this was a teaming DC had skipped past for the sake of their larger story, and given its interesting father and son dynamic, its something I’ve been curious to see approached for a while now.

First off, I’ve read some complaints online about the characterisation, and I must admit I can see what they were talking about. Peter Tomasi’s Damian definitely felt a bit off. More in line with the character’s early appearances, almost ignoring the maturing we saw during his partnership with Dick. That said, I did like how Tomasi is trying to move Bruce on as a character, and play up the fact that this is a father and son team (Bruce trying to lay down the law to Damian in a way that’s clearly going to encourage rebellion struck me very much as a parenting trap).  The idea that Bruce is trying to move beyond the death of his parents, tying in nicely with him now focusing on his own son, so I really liked what Peter Tomasi was doing there.

One book that was probably the first of my nice surprises this week was Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights.  Despite finding myself a bit lukewarm to last week’s Stormwatch, I really enjoyed this much more fantasy based series.  While featuring some familiar DC characters (notably for me Jason Blood and Etrigan), the setup is for a straight sword and sorcery tale rather than any superheroics.  The way all the Arthurian stuff worked into the story appealed to the side of me that’s long been a fan of that legend, so this was a real win for me as something a bit different in my comics pile.  Definitely onboard for the next issue.

The other surprise this week was the Mr Terrific book.  Having liked the character in the JSA I thought I’d give this a try, and it’s really intrigued me with a bit of mystery surrounding the appearance of his unborn son, and the fantastical nature to Holt’s accomplishments (his lab stored in a pocket dimension, that kind of thing). The thing most likely to generate discussion though, was the appearance of Karen Starr of Starrware. No sign that she’s actually Power Girl (although the dress she wears to a reception seems like a clear nod to the character), but I wonder if they’ll keep it quiet, and then reveal her as being from Earth-2 or something later on, once JSA is established.  All in all, for a book I hadn’t been sure about, I liked the take on the character, and the fact it wasn’t afraid to be a bit outlandish with some of his inventions, almost setting him up as a DCU equivalent to Reed Richards in some ways.

Superboy I found myself a little torn on. On one hand, I found it enjoyable and got into the story it was telling. That said, the character is a complete reboot, with little to tie him to the Conner/Kon-El I was a fan of before, which makes it a little trickier to get into for me.  The fact his origin is kept familiar (minus its Death of Superman trappings), along with the Kryptonian/Human hybrid angle was reassuring though, despite the changes to the voice of the character who comes across much more alien.  I was really happy to see his telekinesis used in the book (and I suspect he’s also telepathic, something new to his powerset).  Conner’s tactile telekinesis was often ignored by later writers, so its nice to see it a key part of Superboy’s powers once again.

I did like the cute knowing wink when they were talking about his human donor.  Assuming of course, Lex Luthor isn’t going to be a red herring with this version of the character (although the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor angle is probably too strong a concept to drop).

I’m definitely intrigued to stick with this for a bit and see where its going.

The one thing though, that’s beginning to irk me about this reboot more generally though, is that I wish DC hadn’t introduced this mysterious woman who’s appearing in all the issues either.  While its a fun thing to have her popping up in all the books, and makes for a game, trying to find her, I wish this was more of a clean slate.  It automatically ties events back to Flashpoint, and is clearly laying the seeds for the next big uber-crossover.  DC has done nothing but Crisis after Crisis for years now.  And after having finally pulled the trigger on the reboot, I’d really have hoped they’d have had the confidence to let all the books bed in without preparing another big crossover already.  As I say, I’d have rather things were left as a clean slate, without risking event fatigue in the middle of possible the biggest thing DC have done since the original Crisis.

So, with week 2 of the reboot/relaunch, I have to admit, as someone who was quite sceptical about the whole thing, there’s a lot to recommend it here.

Its really no surprise that Action Comics was excellent. A Superman whose powers aren’t quite up there yet, and a nice reference to Smallville early on (at least, I have to assume it was intentional ). Its interesting to see Clark pushed more into a Green Arrow esque role here, but it works, especially with the idea that this is Superman starting out. He’s not at the level of cosmic threats yet (although Luthor’s dialogue hints towards something coming). Morrison’s on good form here, and Rags Morale’s artwork is great. I do wish artists would stop overusing the Superman with glowing red eyes thing, but that’s just a personal peeve.  To be honest, given that this is the premier Superman title, and is probably the earliest set of the superhero books in the new 52, I think they could’ve easily used this as the launch title instead of Justice League.  Really strong first issue that shows Clark as much more of a Superboy than a Superman, and also a nice showcase of Luthor.  Very interested to see how this book develops.

Batgirl, also lived up to the hype.  Its no secret I had  a lot of misgivings about the book.  Barbara’s role as Oracle had been a big part of the DCU for years, and the character of Batgirl had gone on to enjoy success first with Cassie, and then more recently with Steph.  To be honest, pre-reboot the Steph Batgirl series by Bryan Millar was one of the best books DC was putting out, so I really disliked the way it had the rug pulled out from under it.  However, then DC put Gail Simone on the book, who was possibly the only writer that could’ve convinced me to pick it up.  And Gail came through brilliantly.

Instead of being ignored or rebooted, the story nicely uses Barbara’s disability throughout the book. I did have a nagging wish for more of a bridge between this and the previous series, which is a peril of not rebooting as cleanly as Superman has – but I do find myself itching to know what happened with Steph and why Barabara’s walking – only one of those questions is likely to be answered in the near future though.

The way Gail used the fact that Barbara was new to being back out as Batgirl worked brilliantly, and her characterisation using The Killing Joke is built up to the point where Barbara freezes when a gun is pointed at her, causing her rescue of someone to go badly wrong.  Its powerful stuff, and despite really being against Barbara’s reinstatement as Batgirl, I now can’t recommend it enough.  Between this and Action Comics, DC couldn’t have asked for a better couple of books for this first proper week of the reboot.

JLI was fun, but entirely setup. Dan Jurgens definitely convinced me he can pull off this team book though after writing Booster Gold’s solo adventures for so many years, but I was quite surprised just how quickly Guy exited the title. Frankly putting him on the cover was a bit cheeky (makes me wonder if he was sticking around longer in the initial plans?). For me, it seemed to carry on the tone of the recent Generation Lost series I enjoyed, so I’m happy.   It was nice to see Booster brought in from the beginning as the team leader, and it feels like the dialogue between the team is just right to capture that lighter hearted JLI feeling.  I’m also a big fan of the friendly relationship between Booster and Batman, something that in this rebooted universe is pretty unexpected. I assume there’s a story there that’s going to be revealed at somepoint (I’m not going to be surprised if this is the original timeline Booster who went to the DCNu’s Bruce for help after finding himself stuck here – we know Bruce found out about the timeline changes from Barry).

Animal Man was a nice surprise too. Really well written and intriguing. I had been going to skip it, but I was glad I didn’t. There’s some nice balancing of the superheroics, Buddie’s domestic life, and the horror elements.

The two books that didn’t blow me away were Detective Comics (enjoyable, but didn’t feel as fresh as the other books to me – I have to wonder if not rebooting Batman and Green Lantern in a similar way is going to make them stick out in all this), and Stormwatch, which I’d expected really good things from but didn’t really grab me (And good lord, Midnighter’s new costume is bloody awful – although that’s not a complaint restricted to him in this new DCU). I have to wonder if Stormwatch was just juggling too many characters in its first issue. And the fact that part of the setup seems to hang off of a Superman issue that’s not out for a couple of weeks seems a weird decision.

So overall, as someone who wasn’t entirely convinced of the reboot, this first proper week of books did a lot to convince me.  Action Comics, Batgirl, JLI and Animal Man are all books I’m definitely going to keep picking up.

Well, there’s really one big news story dominating comics at the moment.  At somepoint I’ll come back to talk about Flashpoint, but it has long been overshadowed by the reboot that’s finally arrived after several months of hype.  And relaunching the DC Universe falls to the obvious title, with the new volume of Justice League introducing the new timeline, and more suspicious DCU.

The premise is pretty straight-forward.  For the first few story lines, Justice League is set some 5 years behind the rest of the new books (barring Action Comics, which is set earlier than Justice League), and will chart the emergence of the superheroes from myth into public life.  Focusing on Green Lantern and Batman for this first issue, we see how the authorities are suspicious, if not outright hostile, in a manner all too familiar to fans of Batman.  However, this time rather than just Batman, its all superheroes that they’re gunning for.  However, over the course of the next few story arcs, as Justice League catches up to the present day, we’ll see the League forming, and the public acceptance to superheroes growing, until we reach a more familiar DCU.  Presumably.

Choosing to focus this initial issue on Green Lantern and Batman made a lot of sense to me, and while its a decision that, along with the slow burn approach, has garnered some complaints online, for me it worked.  Green Lantern and Batman are two of DC’s hottest properties at the moment (at least within comics) however, ironically it means the two heroes ushering in this new universe are the two whose continuity seems to be most intact from what we can tell.  But while the slow burn approach may be getting criticised, its one that’s proven effective in the past where you’re reintroducing characters readers will already have some degree of familiarity with (most notably in Ultimate Spider-Man).

Geoff Johns also has a lot of fun here, playing off these two characters, building on the idea of Hal being the light to Batman’s darkness that he introduced back as far as Rebirth.  Here its magnified though, along with the difference in the two personalities.  Where Bruce is shown as driven and controlled, Hal’s cockiness is played up to the Nth degree.  Hal’s got the most powerful weapon in the universe on his finger, and he’s not been afraid to let that power go to his head.  Seeing himself as that powerful, he’s arrogant in the extreme, and I found it a fun take on the character, especially with the way it played up the ring’s strength in a way that we’ve not seen in the main Green Lantern title for a while now.  I suspect Geoff’s also planning for the way he’s going to take the character in the ongoing title, having now been stripped of the ring.  We see here a Hal that’s pretty much defining himself by his power, and even pre-reboot there was a character point about how long he’d had the ring on and had cut himself off from Earth.  This characterisation just seems to reinforce the idea that Hal’s going to struggle to reinvent himself stripped of his powers.

About the only thing that didn’t really work for me, was the introduction of Vic Stone, the soon-to-be Cyborg.  His scenes stuck out an awful lot amongst all the super heroics, and while established readers have the benefit of knowing what’s going to happen to him, I still found they slowed things down a bit too much.  However, that said, I’m also still unconvinced by the big push Cyborg is getting both here and in Flashpoint.  He’s very much a B-list character, and tying him into the formation of the Justice League in this way to me stinks of something similar to how Black Canary replaced Wonder Woman in an earlier iteration of the League’s foundation.  Its  a change that stuck out and niggled fans for years, and I can’t see Cyborg being crowbarred in fairing an awful lot better.  That said, he’s not replacing any of the A-listers like Dinah did.

So all in all, I have to say I found this a strong first issue.  While not flawless, the Batman and Green Lantern pairing was a strong one to launch things with, and I enjoyed Jim Lee’s art (apart from the weird redesign of Hal’s shoulders, which changed from panel-to-panel – but then I could rant about the over-designed new costumes quite a lot more, and some weird story-telling issues with a Parademon where some panels didn’t quite work).  The promise of Superman versus Batman does leave me, as an established reader, a bit cold for next issue, as its a conflict that’s pretty much cliché, however from the perspective of enticing new readers, I think its a strong cliffhanger to leave the book on.

Been a while since I blogged about any techie stuff, but with Google+ now making big waves in the social media scene, I thought I’d put up a quick post about it. I’ve been a big twitter user for a while now, and like most people these days, I’ve used Facebook for years.  So when I got an invite to Google+ from a friend I was keen to check it out, especially after hearing some positive things about it online.  It sounded like Google had learned from the painful mistakes made with Buzz. I’ve been falling out of love with Facebook for some time.  I went through a while where I got into all the casual games, but I eventually fell out of them, and more and more I found myself more interested in just things like status updates and photo sharing.

I’m not going to go into the various privacy worries Facebook has caused over the last few years, but functionally speaking, there was a lot going on in Facebook that just wasn’t interesting me any more.  Especially with my feed being cluttered up with updates from various games and apps. In steps Google+ with its circles for organising people you’re following (to borrow the Twitter term).  This means by default you can easily filter what you’re looking at in your timeline, just picking a certain circle to view.   Not currently possible, although something I’d like to see added, would be the ability to define views that combine circles, and I’m sure that’s something that will come in time.

The thing I really love about Google+ is how it uses these circles to make it easy to define who sees whatever you post.  Whenever you share some text, a video or pictures, you have to define who you’re sharing it with. By default it remembers the last circle (or combination of circles and individuals) you used so a lot of the time its not an issue, but when you do want to restrict or open up a post, it means you’ve got a degree of freedom that neither Facebook or Twitter gives you. I’ve long felt the times on twitter where I’d want to rant about something, but felt it may not be appropriate on a public forum that prospective employers may check. Now (as long as I’m not applying to Google ) I can rant with my friends in freedom.

Another feature that’s really grabbed me is the image sharing (which was one of my main uses of Facebook).   Google have tied it into Picasa, so if you’ve got that installed on your desktop, its a cinch to upload photos to web albums and then tag them as shared in Google+.   Something I’ve found even more useful though has been the mobile client.  It adds an instant upload functionality to your mobile phone (which has options to customise whether its just photos or videos as well, and whether to upload over the mobile network, or wait for wifi), so every photo you take is automatically uploaded to a private Picasa folder.  You can then go into the app and you’ll have a notification about the newly uploaded photos, from where you can then share them on Google+.  I’ve found it really nice when taking photos of the recent film shoot and wanting to share them with my friends.  As long as you’ve got a decent 3G signal for the uploads, its a really easy system.

The group chat functions on offer are nice as well.  The huddle functionality brings a nice easy group text chat to mobile phones, although I’d like to see this linked into the web version as well.  The web version does however offer Hangouts, an easy to use group video chat system, that lets you and your friends video chat, but also share Youtube videos.  I really like the idea of being able to put on a new movie trailer and disect it over the chat at the same time.

So far, I’ve been massively impressed by Google+.  And its interesting to see aspects like the finer grain control of who sees individual posts appearing in Facebook.  But I’m definitely a convert to Google+.  The implementation of the circles, and the photo sharing has really grabbed me as exactly what I’m looking for in a social network.  Twitter will remain big with me for its immediacy and simplicity with its 140 characters, but Google+ is great for those more detailed conversations.