Category Archives: DC
Review: Teen Titans #23
Just when I think Teen Titans has done everything in its power to mess with my head, here comes Teen Titans #23. On the one hand, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted from the comic. Here is an issue dedicated to the various members sitting down and talking to one another about themselves and their lives. Some of them even sound kind of like teenagers; you know, when they’re not utterly the most base, awkward expositional dialogue ever written. Oh yes, oh yes. The one thing I’ve been complaining about most since the start of the DCnU Titans, and Teen Titans #23 delivers in spades.
Teen Titans #23
But holy crap is this a weird, stunted and disappointing comic!
Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.
I don’t even think I should rate these Teen Titans issues anymore. I’ve lost all ability to be objective, or even recognize what is or isn’t a good or bad issue. There’s just the same dull ache of concern over whether what I’m reading is fine, or if it’s just as inane and misguided as it’s been since the beginning. Teen Titans is a bad comic book. The characters are paper thin and have zero depth. They have no reason for being a team. It’s just a collection of familiar characters garbled together into a team book, with sales presumably strong enough to keep it going, based probably entirely on the brand recognition. Their dialogue is some of the most stilted, exposition-heavy in all of comics. And their costumes just look stupid. There, I said it.
Teen Titans #23 starts off with one of the silliest moments yet as the team deals with Kid Flash being pulled into that vortex, which you can see on the cover. It’s one of the most openly comedic moments I have seen in comics in a long time, but it’s so broadly comedic that I’m not sure it’s actually happening in 2013. It seems like something you’d see in a 90s sitcom, complete with laugh track.
On top of that, for reasons I can’t quite fathom, writer Scott Lobdell spends the issue reintroducing every single member of the team, in the most awkward and obvious ways possible. One would think this is a ‘jumping on’ type of play, for any new readers (as if!), but then the next issues of Teen Titans in September are part of that Villains Month play. They won’t have anything to do with the Teen Titans. So why would anybody jump on for this issue, then be forced to read comics about Trigon and Deathstroke?
And the ending. God damn the ending of this comic. If it means what I think it means…
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more head-against-wall examination of this out-of-control comic book.
Fans Make the Coolest Trailers
An enterprising geek named solyentbrak1 put together a trailer for the Batman/Superman moving starring Ben Affleck as the Dark Knight and Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor. It’s quality stuff.
For the record, I’m still cool with Ben Affleck as Batman. I’m also cool with Bryan Cranston as Lex Luthor. I’m currently watching the entire Breaking Bad series, so I’m big into Cranston right now. Though I have to wonder…do people want Cranston as Luthor because he’s a good actor? Or because Walter White is badass and bald?
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 8/24/13
For the first time in a very long time, DC Comics owns the week! The New 52 comics have been in a downward spiral for me for a long time. But this week, they score a one-two punch of success. For awhile now, I’ve been worried that comics just don’t reach me anymore, that everything is just generic superhero filler, that nobody is trying anymore. But between Batman and Nightwing #23 and Wonder Woman #23, DC shows me twice in one week that somebody still cares. Characters still matter.
There are a lot of good comics this week. Superior Spider-Man puts Phil Urich front and center, so you know I’m happy about that. Avengers and Justice League Dark continue their respective crossovers, though neither one is particularly special. And by popular request, I decided to pick up the latest issue of Thunderbolts to give that another try. Not too shabby. But the week belongs to DC. Wonder Woman easily snatches up another Comic Book of the Week.
Did we know she could go Super Saiyan?
Though Batman and Nightwing (or as it should have been called, Batman and Alfred), isn’t far behind.
Comic Reviews: Avengers #18, Batman and Nightwing #23, Batwoman #23, Justice League Dark #23, Superior Spider-Man #16, Superman Unchained #3, Thunderbolts #14, and Wonder Woman #23.
No Joke: Justice League Moving to Canada
Please forgive the fact that I’m a nerd on the Internet ranting about comic books, but I have no idea what the heck DC Comics is doing anymore. According to the Toronto Star, DC is changing the Justice League of America into the Justice League of Canada next year. There is no logic in this place. This sounds like an unclever April Fool’s Day joke.
What the heck is going on at DC? Have they lost all sense of purpose? Have they all gone mad?
First of all, I’m not picking on Canada. By all means, Canada should have superheroes too, and I have long been a fan of Marvel’s Alpha Flight team. They’re awesome. It makes perfect sense for Canada to have superheroes. And second of all, I’m not incensed because of patriotic reasons that an American superhero team is fleeing to Canada either. That’s not my gripe.
I’m dumbfounded at how DC thinks this could ever possibly sell, and how it once again completely tarnishes the bigger picture of the DC Universe.
Alpha Flight never sells at Marvel. They try again and again to put out an ongoing Alpha Flight comic, but it doesn’t sell. So Canada is not a big drawing point for comic book readers. Beyond that, DC published a Justice League International series at the start of the New 52, and they cancelled that pretty quickly. So clearly the name ‘Justice League’ is not a big selling point either.
But my real complaint, the biggest reason why I think this is insane, is that it’s yet another piece of evidence that proves the head honchos at DC have no idea what they’re doing with the New 52, and they’re just going to throw anything they can at the wall to see if it sticks. That is no way to run a comic book company or to build a new universe of continuity.
When the New 52 launched, DC set up a new Justice League series starring all the big names, like Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and more. And that series is fine. They need that flagship team. I’m fairly certain the comic is selling well.
Then last year, DC launched Justice League of America as a sister title. The idea behind Justice League of America was that forces inside the US government wanted their own team of superheroes in case the Justice League ever decided to turn evil. That’s a good enough reason as any, and provides the JLA a reason to exist alongside the traditional JL. But here is where everything starts to fall apart: Justice League of America hasn’t even reached 10 issues yet! They’re only at issue 6 or 7, and most of those issues have all been part of the build up to the big Trinity War crossover that’s taking place in the Justice League titles now.
So DC took the very popular, very well-known brand name ‘Justice League of America’ and used it as a throwaway stepping stone to get to their Trinity War event.
And now, next year, they’re apparently just going to drop ‘Justice League of America’ and turn it into Justice League of Canada. How!? Why? What purpose could that serve? Why would this team of superheroes move to Canada and put that in their name? I realize they probably won’t trust the American government anymore, but why Canada? Why not just disband? Why not join the regular Justice League, which doesn’t identify itself to one specific country? What could the possible context be for this story?
And why drag that popular brand name through the mud? (I’m not calling Canada ‘mud’). From now on, for however many years or decades the New 52 universe lasts, DC will always have to face the fact that the first version of the Justice League of America was some throwaway team that didn’t matter and was only a means to an end. That is now solidified as part of the history of the New 52 universe.
There doesn’t seem to be anybody at DC Comics putting any long term thought into the growth of their rebooted universe. And that is very depressing to me. They’re just coming up with whatever works for that specific moment in time, and a year later, they’ll come up with something else that they think/hope will work, regardless of what happened before or what might happen in the future.
I fear that in five years, everything is going to be a hideous mess of overstuffed continuity and conflicting stories.
Though now I definitely want to read about the Justice League of Australia…
I’m Down With Ben Affleck as the New Caped Crusader
If you haven’t heard the news yet, Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in the upcoming Man of Steel sequel. For some reason, he’s a controversial choice. Did people really hate Reindeer Games that much?
Yes, yes they did
Personally, I’m happy with Ben Affleck as Batman. I like the guy. And I liked Daredevil, so there. Especially the Director’s Cut. Have you seen the Director’s Cut? You’ve got to see it!
Anyway, I don’t see what the big deal is. Affleck is a fine actor and an even better director. I will admit to having a hard time seeing him in the cowl or playing Bruce Wayne, but that’s apparently what people said about Michael Keaton back in the 80s. I can also remember not being sold on Chris Evans as Captain America. But these Hollywood folks know exactly what they’re doing. They wouldn’t give the role of Batman to just anybody. Someone saw in Affleck a reason to make him Batman. And even though I hated Man of Steel, I still love Zack Snyder’s other movies. The man knows what he’s doing.
So consider me on board with Affleck as Batman, or at the very list willing to give everyone involved the benefit of the doubt until we see a trailer or the actual film.
Plus, I’m exactly the kind of idiot who will make loads of Matt Damon as Robin jokes, so this is win/win for me. Or maybe Matt Damon as Alfred…
Henchman-4-Hire 