What We Did On Our (Winter) Holidays Part 3!

The final post of three on the comics I bought last weekend in Glasgow; five DC/New 52 comics, ranked out of five stars.

Action Comics 5- Pluses: Krypto! A reference to the Time Trapper! Phantom Zone Criminals! The UFO Conspiracy of Jonny Kent! Grant Morrison has changed gear with Superman from Working Class Urban Crime-smasher to high-concept sci-fi, while honouring Weisinger.
 Minuses: if I were a kid, I would be bored senseless by the Kents' fertility problems. There is a kid-friendly Superman Family title coming soon but if I were ten, I'd dismiss it as childish stuff. "DC: Comics aren't for kids any more. Because we're Didiots". ***


Action Comics 6 - Pluses: The K-Men: new versions of Zod, Ursa and Non? The Terminaut Invasion! Saturn Woman "born into a telepathic social network on Saturn's rebel moon" Sometimes, Morrison is a poet. Susie? Lois Lane's tattletale niece?! The Smallville back-ups would make a good graphic novel: Little Clark Kent is heartbreaking.
  Minuses: Confusing things with yet another (Adult) iteration of the Legion. The Sisterhood of Abiding Hate - someone tell Russell T. Davies. Pa Kent's dead again. Andy Kubert simply reminds me of early-90s X-Men: convoluted and smelling of (miserable) teen spirit- pretty much how I feel about the New 52 ( which of course has added "mature" levels of violence and horror)  ****

The Shade 4 -Pluses: a period piece starring the Vigilante and the cross-dressing oddity Madam Fatal. The cartoony Americana of Cooke and Bone.
 Minuses: The "Sneak Peeks" all look like WildStorm shoot-'em-up characters from 1993. Where does this title fit-if at all- in the New 52 timeline? Robinson's writing is pretentious and unfunny: "My only anti-German act had been abstaining from pumpernickel". Oh Shade, you slay me. In spite of that, however, a stylish and entertaining "Teen Plus" comic *****


Batman The Brave and The Bold 15- Pluses: a team-up with one of Kirby's (and DC's) most unique heroes, the pharaonic Mr. Miracle, Super-Escape Artist. A cameo for Dr. Bedlam! Sholly Fisch's dialogue  has a real grasp of the King's rhythms and stresses- "This isn't something we can dodge!".
Minuses: Predictably, the gauntlet of death-traps was a mental illusion.  ****

Batman The Brave and The Bold 16 - Pluses: a Valentine issue with Batgirl Babs and Bat-Mite! Homages to Silver Age issues of Lois Lane, Wonder Woman and the Infantino New Look Batman! Cameos from Zatanna, The Dingbats, Space Cabby, The Mad Mod, Luthor, The Fiddler and The Eraser! The genuinely funny and knowing tone of the comic.
 Minuses: THIS is cancelled while Liefeld still produces Savage Hawkman? Comics, eh?! *****


So, there is a handful of engaging and thought-provoking titles at DC (although the cyclical cancellation of Johnny DC titles always seems so counter-intuitive). In terms of sensibility, however, the New 52 seems to pander to Image nostalgics and still adheres to the Decompressed style of the last decade. On the other hand, you can get in on the ground floor and collect a run more easily. But DC are not growing a young audience. Their titles lack the hip counterculture appeal of Marvel's Bronze Age or the savvy toy tie-ins of the Shooter Era.
 S1 and S2 kids in my classes ( 11 to 14- year-olds) read Marvel's 90s Ron Lim Superman/Silver Surfer, Claremont's FF/Sinbad and Busiek's Spider-Man/Dr. Strange Special Editions until they literally fell apart. The new 52 Primer from last year? Untouched. And one of our SFL praised the vocabulary in the FF special!
I think The New 52 tries too hard to cater to the late teens-to -twenties male market: CoD gunplay; torture; glamour models; self-pitying, portentous Metal. The dour Nolan/Batman movies aside, Marvel's heroes have dominated the mass media since X-Men 1-3. The House of Ideas are still going to have the upper hand for a while this year, even if Whedon's Avengers bombs. But when The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel come to the multiplexes, I wonder if the DC Universe will reboot once again?


(Somewhat ironically, I would try all the titles in the intentionally "Mature Readers" promo Vertigo Preview 2012, particularly The New Deadwardians which might also appeal to fans of Being Human and Sherlock.)


Next: Who's on First?
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