The Questyen

Batman's head is very weirdly shaped on that cover.

ddrknghtrtns

More of a Silver Age throwback.

Bronkster

Reminded me of Ben Affleck's Big-Headed Daredevil. Then I found this pic -

Trevor

I’ve been pretty much all-in on DC since Infinite Frontier. Last few years hated seeing DC seemingly slipping once again into a dark for the sale of being dark period. But it seems like hope has a place in the DCU again. Almost every title has been hitting it out of the park imho.

fujishig

Maybe I should skip ahead in my DC Infinite reading, because I'm still slogging through Bendis on Action or whatever and it's slowly killing my interest. When did Infinite Frontier come out?

Trevor

Issue 0 about 6 months ago. It was pretty much a line-wide soft reboot after Death Metal or whatever that shit was ended. They had two months of Future State, then it all started up again.

ddrknghtrtns

I could almost promise to go back to monthly comic book reading if they would just do away with the annual reboots and crossover events and just focus on world building for the next decade.

Bronkster

RonG617

I personally can't stand DC at the moment. Love the characters, but Future State and Tim Drake makes it feel like they are more concerned about being woke than just writing good stories. Future state basically had all the characters be black, women or both. Just create good black characters, or women or gay characters rather than making changes to legacy characters. Marvel is guilty to a degree as well but I don't enjoy the characters as much so it doesn't bother me. Add in the endless crossovers and reboots and I am moving more toward Image and independents.

Red Hood

Unless Marvel and DC corporate changes the way they pay creators for their creations, don't expect original characters popping up in their books. This is all because of them, not the creators. Still, I don't mind legacy characters being introduced. It needs to be done as new generations of fans (kids/teens) need their own version of characters like Flash, Green Lantern, Blue Beetle, etc, instead of DC pushing the same old ones that appeal to generations past. If there was an error DC did was bringing both Barry Allen and Hal Jordan back to life at the push of Geoff Johns. Everyone who had grown up with Wally West, Bart Allen, John Stewars and Kyle Rayner was basically told to go fuck themselves. One of the reasons why the Silver Age for DC worked was because they introduced new versions of their old characters. The renaissance of comics in the late 80s and early 90s had to do with the same. We got to see a new version of the Sandman. Same with Flash.

Marvel understands this 100% and that's why they don't give a flying fuck about people above 40 and their opinions of new characters. Miles Morales, Kamala Khan, Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel, Hulkling and Wiccan, Amadeus Cho and many other legacy characters have proven that in order for the company to continue growing, they need these legacy characters. That doesn't mean Peter Parker disappears, but it means that now the character can take a back seat and let the legacy one bring in new readers.

fujishig

That was my first thought, that a lot of us (myself included) complain that new, sometimes unrelated and younger characters take up old mantles, but that's exactly what happened in the Silver Age.

Besides the creator thing, there's also the chicken and egg problem of fans not wanting to buy anyone not related to Batman/Superman/etc. So even when a creator makes an original character and they don't mind giving it to DC, unless that creator has a significant amount of pull for a long, long time, that character is going to be buried.

Red Hood

I agree with this the problem that DC has for the most part is that the people who owns them are bean counters and don't care about the actual stories, just selling books. The other problem is that fans are finicky and want instant gratification. Long payoffs for storylines are criticized, like Hickman has been over the past year due to his X-Men storyline. Any time a company tries to do a long term story, corporate bullshit happens. Just look at Rebirth. It was supposed to be the redefining moment for DC, yet corporate bullshit changed all that. DC went from Dr. Manhattan being behind the big story to releasing Doomsday Clock 3 years later on a completely delayed basis. By the time Doomsday Clock came out, corporate had changed their approach to their line of books, Bendis was supposed to be now the main guy and 3 years after this, now Bendis is in the outs with the company and things were even worse.

will travel

BATGIRLS series coming with Stephanie and Cassandra, Barbara in support.

https://www.gamesradar.com/au/batgirls-DC/

RonG617

Alright another Bat related book. DC needs to do more of those.

fujishig

I would tend to agree but... Cassie and Steph!

Trevor

I admit I’m behind on many titles, but everything I’ve read from DC this past year has been great. I’ve read most of Future State, all of Infinite Frontier, most of the Ram V titles (Catwoman and Swamp Thing), and the first couple post IF issues of everything else. Seems like a fresh start with more hope and brightness in the universe overall. Fun stories and some art that isn’t always the same house style.

Red Hood

Well, the rumors were true

fujishig

Wow. That's going to cause a lot of heads to explode.

Red Hood

Already has. The typical homophobes and bigots. Funny thing is that their complain is that DC should create a new character to make queer. When people tell these assholes that Jon Kent is a new character and basically a blank slate, then these assholes turn into that it shouldn’t matter who a superhero sleeps with. When people bring up stuff like Lois Lane, Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, Catwoman, Jean Grey as examples, these assholes respond that “well, that’s how it’s always been”. Zero self awareness of how stupid they are

more on the news from Taylor himself

morriscroy

(More generally).

If I had to guess, this was the exact same thinking behind the Star Wars cannon reboot of 2014 ?

Bronkster

Well. I feel vindicated from my earlier posting of this.

Red Hood

That was more of a Disney/Star Wars division mandate than Marvel decision. To this day, every Star Wars comic released by Marvel/IDW has to be approved by the Star Wars division of the company so it fits their current canon

Josh-da-man

Who is Jon Kent? Is Clark not Superman anymore?

I even read the wikipedia entry on "Jon Kent" and can't make heads or tails out of it.

fujishig

He's Clark and Lois's kid. Aged up.

Red Hood