I quit in high school as well, then in college, I picked up John Byrne's Man of Steel, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, and Alan Moore's The Watchmen, and got hooked again for a while (but there was so little room in the dorms, so I quit again), moved out of the dorms for grad school, started buying comics again, got really back into them when Valiant was producing some good stuff (the pre-unity stuff), plus the Image explosion was also happening. That also led me back to the Big 2 (Marvel and DC), and some Indie titles as well throughout the rest of the 1990's.

Nowadays, I'm amazed at how much DC/Wildstorm I still buy, while only buying a handful of Marvels, and also a handful of Indie titles now. I also pick up the hardcover collections too.

I'm 35. When I was a kid I'd read the odd comic here and there but never with any consistency. Then Burton's BATMAN and all the hype with back in the 90's made me get back into them. I also had the help of a co-worker who's heavily into comics. It was like BATMAN seemed to breath new life into the comic world from my point of view. I even went to monthly Comic Conventions. I stopped again but I still kept up by reading WIZARD for a few years and I would buy some comics but I didn't really go wild. Then, due primarily to DC's IDENTITY CRISIS and all the storylines like INFINITE CRISIS and all the going's on in the DCU that followed, I got back into comics again.

Help with current JLA storyline...

I wasn't familiar with that guy in JLA either Giantrobo.

Some news today from Newsarama.com taken from a Canadian retailer conference or something - here's some interesting bits pertaining to Crisis.

Hawkman changes its title to Hawkgirl with issue #50 as a part of the publisher’s “One Year Later…” event. The series will also be getting a creative team change, with Walt Simonson coming on board as writer and Howard Chaykin joining as penciler (marking the first return of both to mainstream, ongoing DCU work in years – and the first time in years that the two former studio mates will be working together).

Asked how edgy the series would be, it was stated that the Hawkgirl series may be stronger than some of the softer DCU titles, but will be a part of the DC Universe.

Though not slated to be announced, DC representatives, noting that the DC solicts had leaked out over the weekend on the Silver Bullet Comic Books website (since taken down and not to be confused with retailer and Newsarama sponsor silverbulletcomics.com), confirmed that the current Wonder Woman series will be ending that month, as will Gotham Central and Gotham Knights. Flash ends in January with the already-solicited issue.

June and July: there will be one new major series launch each week; and in July – one new major high-profile creative team launch.

June & Juiy: one new major series launch every week in June, one new major high-profile creative team launch every week in July

I haven't been keeping up with this news, but Central is being relaunched, right?

Central is indeed being relaunched...as something like Streets of Gotham. At least, that's what they said in the late summer.

While it really doesn't make a big difference, I hate when companies do stuff like this. And cancelling Wonder Woman only to relaunch later? Or switching names of the Superman books...makes not a lot of sense.

By the way, Chew, the Packers either just gave up their prime spot on the 2006 draft order, or they're on their way to 9-7.

Maybe Donna Troy becoming WW is the reason for the relaunch? I still like that rumor thats been floated. And All Star WW could be there for the Diana stories.

I sort of like the Superman re-numbering too. Adventures will revert back to the original title of Superman.

The second half of their schedule is a lot more forgiving, but 9-7?. They may of been the "worst team in football" coming into the game, but I have a feeling they won't even be close by the end of the season. It's still going to be Favre's first losing record though.

I don't know a thing about Donna Troy. Tell me more about this theory please.

Here's a start. Mind you, it's out of date due to her return in the recent Mini that ties heavily into the DCU Crisis...

Also, although Diana is probably the most well known "Wonder Woman", she was not the original I think there was even a another WW few years back then Diana returned to the "WW" mantle. The original WW was with the JSA back in the 40's and was Diana's Mother.

The Original Wonder Woman.
Current WW

Well I'm not an expert but basically she was the original Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman's sidekick, in the 1960s Teen Titans. She was also in the Wolfman/Perez relaunch. After the original Crisis there was the problem of her origin since Wonder Woman is supposed to have entered the DCU after Donna Troy had been a Titan for awhile according to the updated timeline. I haven't read it but continuity problem is addressed in the collected trade, Who is Donna Troy.

Basically there is a rumor that Donna will be the new WW after Inifinite Crisis. I think it's been circulating for some time as I understand one of the WW movie scripts that was written a few years back used Donna instead of Diana.

I think everyone expects a hero to be killed and a sidekick to replace them like the original. But now that Flash is cancelled all bets are off on who it is I think.

Wasn't that an invention from just a couple of years ago to try and fix some of those continuity problems?

On a side note - I just hit Half Price books and picked up about 20 Geoff Johns Flash and Hawkmans and 20 assorted Batmans from the past few years for .75 each. Very fine condition. I'm going wild catching up on this stuff I've missed.

I don't know, maybe.

Good god! Maybe I shouldn't have asked that question...

Yes. It was during John Byrne's WW run. Diana had "died" and become a Goddess in Olympus. For some reason (which I can't remember), Queen Hippolyta (WWs mother) was given the job of serving as Wonder Woman (to pay penance or something). Sometime during the run, she went back in time and became the Golden Age Wonder Woman (the original having been wiped away after the Crisis). She served as a member of the Golden Age JSA and sometime in the 50s (probably after the JSA disbanded), she returned to the present. It fixed a LOT of continuity problems left behind after the Golden Age Wonder Woman was erased and I'll always be grateful that Byrne returned the original WW to her glory (sort of).

Then again, he did cause MORE continuity problems with his verison of Who is Donna Troy which remade Donna Troy as Diana's little sister. Some of which mentioned in The Return of Donna Troy.

That arc alone, Byrne should be shot for. Along with Spider-Man: Chapter One. Stop trying to fix things that don't need fixing.

I hated Byrne for that WW arc!

I believe it was the FIRST time they killed off Donna Troy - who has always been one of my favorite characters (but the same can be said for all the original Teen Titans). I think they've retconed her history more than Power Girl's - but I'm just glad to have them both back in the spot light.

On a side note, interesting they would say the Hawkgirl series would be "edgier" than some other DCU books, as the current run of Hawkman has been more so than most DCU books as is. I don't know if anyone else is reading it, but it's been by far my favorite run on Hawkman, ever. The last arc, in particular, was pretty sweet.

Come to think of it, though, pretty much EVERY re-launch DC has done in the last few years has been very good (Green Arrow, JSA, Green Lantern, Teen Titans, Outsiders). I cannot say the same about Marvel - with the exception of Supreme Power (more of a re-imagining, really) and New Thunderbolts - which may be why I'm much more of a DC fan than Marvel.

Terry Dodson on Wonder Woman? I'm sold.

I'm hoping they do something good with the new Gotham Central (now called Streets of Gotham...possibly). Does this mean they are no longer going to focus on the police department?

Yeee haw. My first DCBS shipment is off today. I look forward to a box of books.

I collected as a kid then gave it up til high school, when a random acquaintance told me my copy of X-Men #94 was worth $60. I collected heavily for a while (Byrne FF, Miller DD, Levitz-Giffen Legion, Death of Captain Marvel, and others) then gave it up when I went to college. Fast-forward 15 or so years and I picked up a few Marvel Masterworks on vacation. A couple years later again on vacation, I picked up a few random items such as Crisis on Infinite Earths and inexpensive trade paperbacks of stuff I had read a long time ago. I got hooked at that point and still read mostly trades, but do pick up a few single issues.

Anyone reading Supergirl? Is it worth picking up the first few issues at roughly double cover on ebay?

It's OK. I wouldn't pay that kind of coin for back issues though.

Okay isn't worth $3. Maybe I'll just skip it for now. Or maybe I'll wait until the issue where Ooops, did I just type that huge IC spoiler? Don't read it if you don't wanna know.

Yeah, I remember when I was excited that Byrne was going to do Wonder Woman, thinking that finally we'll get some vintage Byrne. Instead, he retconned in a bunch of stuff to try to clean things up (including bringing the Invisible Jet back, despite the fact that WW can now fly). We got the horrid Cassie as the new Wondergirl in a wig days (she's since been "prettied up"), Hippolyta becoming the golden age Wonder Woman, and the new origin of Donna Troy, which had already been mucked up with enough (I agree with the comparisons with Powergirl, and ironically, didn't both she and Power Girl have babies that were supposed to be uberpowerful?). I think Donna was revealed to be like her clone or something. Plus he reminded us why he needs someone else inking his art (though I hear his current work on Superman is pretty good). Ugh. Although it was still better than the Deodato/Artemis-as-WW thing.

Then that hack Winnick goes and writes a totally incomprehensible story to create the new Outsiders and Titans team. Lets see, Donna dies at the hands of a Superman robot. Dick Grayson decides he's had enough of death (because hey, this was worse than Jericho's betrayal and all the crap he had to put up with during Titans Hunt) and so goes to form ANOTHER team that he hopes he can't care less about. I mean, I could understand if he formed another suicide squad or something, but geez.

So who's going to tell me why WW was blind? I just read the "Prelude to Crisis" TPB, which looks like it takes about 3 pages each from 10 different books and tries to tie it all together with narrative. It doesn't work very well.

I didn't read the story but IIRC, she blinded herself because she was fighting Medusa. No eyes, no stone.

Once again, Diana proves she'll do what she has to do to... get... the... job...done....period.

Fuck Max Lord...and the Holier than thou Haters in the DCU. This means -YOU- Bruce and KAL