By TAG
It’s true I haven’t pulled any DC books (aside from Vertigo titles) in recent weeks or even months, and it’s because, well … I’m honestly not a huge DC fan. I’m not saying I don’t appreciate what DC does. I just feel that DC did it first, mostly, and as with most firsts, someone else came along and did it better. And I’m not saying that Marvel has better writers or artists or that Marvel is smarter. It’s more that DC has archetype characters and it’s hard for me to find them interesting. Notice the “me” in the previous sentence. I know there are millions of people out there who love Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, but I’m not really one of them. Don’t get me wrong—great writers can write great things with weak characters, so I’ve read more than a few really good DC stories and I buy DC books with the rest of them. It’s just not my preference. That being said, I’m only getting Justice League with the new reboot/re-launch. That brings me to my other reason for not pulling DC books had I the desire to: Any books up until now didn’t really count going forward (except maybe Green Lantern books and a few select others).
So here we are, on the precipice of a new era of DC. All it really feels like to me is they’re doing an Ultimate DC Universe without keeping the old one. We’ll have to wait a while and see how this all plays out. Since I’m not really invested in DC as a whole, I’m not too worried if it plays out one way or another.
Either way, I’m pulling two books this week, the only two DC books being shipped, Flashpoint No. 5 and Justice League No. 1. From what I’ve read recently, Justice League is pulling in X-Men-No.-1-from-the-‘90s types of order numbers. That book had a re-launch type of vibe to it, and Jim Lee also did the artwork for that book. Of course that book had something like five variant covers, so that helped with the excessive ordering.
The way I hear it, Flashpoint No. 5 is the death of the old DC Universe and Justice League is the birth of the new one. Though it’s not necessary to read the final Flashpoint issue, it may help with the transition. The issue in question sees the war between Atlantis and the Amazons come to a head, and only the Flash can stop the war games (he’s like a lightning-fast Matthew Broderick). This final issue is written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope with a cover price of $3.99.
Justice League No. 1 is also written by Geoff Johns and features art by Jim Lee. It takes place five years in the past of the new DC Universe and tells the origin of the Justice League. I hear that eventually it will jump five years ahead and run congruent with the rest of the books. Sounds kind of convoluted to me. You can pick this book up for $3.99, or for $4.99 you can get it in combo pack that comes bagged with a code to redeem for a digital copy of the same book. Not really sure what the draw is there. I guess you could give it away to a friend or transition into buying digital.
DC is making a push to sell digital on the same day as the print copies for the same price. What is the point of that? The only way I’ll ever start buying digital comics is if they’re infinitely cheaper than print; otherwise I’m essentially renting the comics for the same price. Well, I’ve written too much already (and I don’t want to go on some rant about my feelings on digital comics), so I’m leaving it here. Until next week!
Pretty much: http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/08/30/is-this-the-best-dc-new-52-ad-ever/