Watchmen, new comic books and Tony ****ing Stark
April 24, 2012 10:54 AM   Subscribe

28 pages from DC's upcoming "New 52: 2nd Wave" Stretching the definition of "leaked" to the screaming limit, Buzzfeed shares photographs it was invited to take of 28 pages from DC's upcoming "New 52: 2nd Wave" - the six series being brought in to replace its six cancelled comic books.

The same process occurred with 21 pages from issues of Before Watchmen, the controversial range of prequels to Alan Moore's Watchmen.

The new titles include a return for Grant Morrison's Batman Incorporated and, perhaps most interestingly, the debut of science fiction novelist and Clarke award perennial China Miéville (previously) in a reboot of Dial H for Hero.

Also previously: Miéville's "rejected pitch" for Scrap Iron Man, a comic book hero-by-committee dedicated to taking down Iron Man, the beacon of capitalist selfishness.
The crew take their places at the controls. Dan puts on the battered welding helmet that disguises his identity and, in a burst of rust, launches into the sky for New York, to face down the sociopathic authoritarian fascist arms-dealing corporate billionaire responsible for so many countless deaths, in the US and around the world: Tony fucking Stark.
posted by running order squabble fest (37 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Oops - forgot this Pinterest board of 2nd wave images.
posted by running order squabble fest at 10:56 AM on April 24, 2012


I'm buying this on the WTF strength of "Boy Chimney" alone.
posted by chavenet at 10:59 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


The New 52 represents the greatest missed creative opportunity in the history of comic books. Discuss.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:59 AM on April 24, 2012 [6 favorites]


Publishers should never reject any of China Mieville's pitches.
posted by clockzero at 11:02 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm pretty much done with DC books, but I clicked through to look at that Batman Incorporated art. It's gorgeous.
posted by immlass at 11:12 AM on April 24, 2012


The New 52 represents the greatest missed creative opportunity in the history of comic books. Discuss.

Well, given that it was/is a bunch of mostly mediocre comic books with instantly dated "reimaginings" of classic superhero costumes for no good reason, yes.
posted by mightygodking at 11:12 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


So is 'G.I. Combat' DC ripping off Rome Sweet Rome?
posted by PenDevil at 11:16 AM on April 24, 2012


So is 'G.I. Combat' DC ripping off Rome Sweet Rome?

No.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:19 AM on April 24, 2012


" ... he’s Dan, an ex-worker in one of the high-tech heavy defence plants, horrified at the social breakdown, going through the many scrapheaps of the town and cobbling together his suit from industrial junk, trying to save his home.
Plus he got it one piece at a time and it didn't cost him a dime.

(I'm so out-of-touch with comics that I didn't even know there was a new OMAC reboot. Which is a shame because I love Kirby's OMAC (and I even liked Byrne's OMAC) and now it's gone. Oh, well.)
posted by octobersurprise at 11:28 AM on April 24, 2012


China. Fucking. Mieville.
posted by signal at 11:29 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is there a bigger waste of talent than having China Mieville, with his incredible imagination, do writing chores on a goddamn big two cape book?
posted by Legomancer at 11:32 AM on April 24, 2012


H. For. Hero.

(Is Mieville the sort of writer who's suited to creating a new hero for every issue of a comic? Because that's what he needs to succeed on this series, and God do I hope he does because Dial H could be great for the nine issues it's going to last.)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 11:33 AM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


The New 52 represents the greatest missed creative opportunity in the history of comic books. Discuss.

Sure.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:34 AM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


I tried reading some of the 52 titles, particularly Batman Incorporated. The writing left me wondering if it's a new trend to jump from scene to scene with little context, and for writing to fail to work with the artwork. Seriously, it's hard for me to describe the particular incompetence in the writing- it's almost like the writers aren't bothering to show they thought things out. granted old-fashioned narration was intrusive and silly, but in these comics the dialogue and artwork just isn't carrying the story.

There's also a weird pseudo-maturity in the comics that's likewise hard to pin down. It's as if a bunch of socially isolated and immature writers were putting down on paper what they thought was mature writing and failing, just resulting in something grotesquely ridiculous. It's like teens who grew up on the 'Dark and Edgy" 90s comics, grew up and became writers.
posted by happyroach at 11:39 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Well I thought there was very little that would tempt me to pick up a DC book but China Mieville's Dial H will certainly get my reservation at the local library.
posted by biffa at 11:44 AM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


The premise for Dial H sounds awesome. Paired with Mieville seems likely to succeed.
posted by BurnChao at 12:03 PM on April 24, 2012


Boy, that Chinia Miéviller has some wild ideas, doesn't he?

Who is he? Has he done anything else? Sounds French.

Sigh...
posted by Naberius at 12:04 PM on April 24, 2012


China Mieville's site is blocked as "porn" here. I think we could all agree that'd be some pretty fucked-up porn.
posted by middleclasstool at 12:13 PM on April 24, 2012 [3 favorites]


I don't quite get the New 52. Does Batman Incorporated take place in the New retconned universe? Or does it take place in the old DC universe before the retcon? Didn't that title start in the old universe? How do they explain continuity issues while transplanting it to the New 52 universe/continuity?
posted by You Guys Like 2 Party? at 12:15 PM on April 24, 2012


How do they explain continuity issues while transplanting it to the New 52 universe/continuity?

They don't. They draw Starfire like a stripper and call it good.
posted by EatTheWeek at 12:18 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


I just wanna know why there wasn't an Amethyst reboot in the first wave. Or Atari Force.

No, really, Atari Force. It was TONS better than it had any right to be.

I want SF. I want fantasy. I want crazy new worlds instead of a handful of superpowered dudes fighting each other in a caricature of the real world.
posted by egypturnash at 12:20 PM on April 24, 2012 [6 favorites]


I always wanted a DC character to become aware of the continuous retcons, and go on a vendetta against superhumans, on the theory that whenever too many of them exist in a single place, at a single time, the universe gets destroyed.

They'd eventually kill themselves when they realize that the other key ingredient to the universe getting destroyed is a powerful being connecting all the various superbeings together and killing some of them off.

Call it Crisis on Metafictional Earth.
posted by Grimgrin at 12:23 PM on April 24, 2012 [11 favorites]


The idea is that the histories of Batman (and to a greater extent, Green Lantern) barely changed at all between the old DC and the new stuff. Since the New 52 picked up in medias res for almost all the titles anyway, it['s just a matter of not creating a new res.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:23 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


Atari Force!

That would've been great, but only with Garcia Lopez onboard.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:24 PM on April 24, 2012


Grimgrin: DC already did that, what with the Superboy of Earth Prime and all that being aware he exists in a fictional universe and not responding well to this.

It wasn't good.
posted by MartinWisse at 12:26 PM on April 24, 2012 [2 favorites]


The OMAC reboot was not very good, and I'm glad it's gone. I've been out of the loop on this, but I won't exactly miss Blackhawks, Hawk & Dove, Men of War, Mister Terrific, O.M.A.C., and Static Shock. (Interestingly, both Mr. Terrific and Static Shock were comics featuring standalone black superheroes.) Hawk & Dove needed to be euthanized based on Rob Liefeld's illustrations alone.

Does Batman Incorporated take place in the New retconned universe? Or does it take place in the old DC universe before the retcon? Didn't that title start in the old universe? How do they explain continuity issues while transplanting it to the New 52 universe/continuity?

I had an AskMe about that.
posted by jabberjaw at 12:26 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I read the first issue of all 52 "New 52" and I came away thinking that DC really doesn't need 52 mediocre titles, they need about 15 damn good ones.
posted by THAT William Mize at 12:26 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


They're already bringing back Earth 2? It's depressing watching them repeat the same editorial mistakes over and over. They should just be able to tell JSA stories in one comic without being worried if it conflicts with what Batman is doing in some other comic. But they add all this complication to keep their core audience happy to the detriment of the overall product.

I sort of get why they do it. The same collector's mindset that would have someone bag, board and file away comics might also compel someone to categorize every story into its place in the multiverse. But then come the crossovers and big events and soon no one knows what is going on anymore. It was sad watching them organize all the previous elseworld stories into their "52 universes" a few years back just to wipe them away in the next reboot.

But I guess they can always have another crisis.
posted by Gary at 12:32 PM on April 24, 2012


DC, DC, DC. This is getting beyond sad, now. Please stop it? *sigh*
posted by Iosephus at 1:19 PM on April 24, 2012


Being invited to take pictures would have made me feel like they wanted me to help them leak but couldn't be arsed to scan something. Thanks for doing the bare minimum, DC (I know it's sorta the company motto now...)
posted by phearlez at 1:42 PM on April 24, 2012 [1 favorite]


I've dropped several of the New 52 books I was following. I'm down to Action Comics, Flash, Justice League, I Vampire, and Justice League Dark. The latter three are really more for the girlfriend (though they're excellent/at least readable!) and Action Comics is getting less interesting now that Supes is in his costume. Morrison could have worked the "man of the people" idea for a while longer. Flash is still gorgeous, so I'll probably stick with it for a while.

These...don't do a lot to inspire me to pick them up. I was probably gonna check out Earth-2, because I like the leads, but that's more just out of curiosity than genuine interest. The War That Time Forgot looks awesome from a high-concept standpoint but who knows how it will actually read? I like dinosaurs more than I like war comics.

It's looking more and more like a purge of my pull list is inevitable.They're regressing back to the mean more than they should have and taking what was an opportunity to do something completely new and turning it into the vision of what a small group of people want DC Comics to be. In all fairness, Marvel's not faring much better with their big marquee books - Avengers vs. X-Men is awful. Thank goodness for the new Ultimate Spider-Man, at least.
posted by HostBryan at 2:15 PM on April 24, 2012


Always had a soft spot for Dial H For Hero and with China Mieville... well I might just have to break my comics embargo.

Also, Power Girl's new uniform looks pretty good and surprisingly modest (for her, that is).
posted by davros42 at 3:30 PM on April 24, 2012


But I guess they can always have another crisis

They've for Bob Fucking Harras on as EiC. That is most definitely a crisis situation.
posted by EatTheWeek at 4:58 PM on April 24, 2012


Boy Chimney looks like a bong.
posted by vrakatar at 5:21 PM on April 24, 2012


The New 52 represents the greatest missed creative opportunity in the history of comic books. Discuss.

Oh, it's fine. Some of the books are good and some of the books are bad and some of the books are completely unremarkable, as one might expect of 52 of anything. The whole "worst. reboot. EVER." is thing is kind of tired at this point, I'm sorry.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:59 PM on April 24, 2012


I feel the same way about DC as I did in junior high school, reading my proto-emo X-men books -- it sucks donkey balls. Always has, always will.
posted by bardic at 10:48 PM on April 24, 2012


Thank goodness for the new Ultimate Spider-Man, at least.

Love having a hero of color, not enjoying the combination of early-hero-experience and the Bendis pace.
posted by phearlez at 11:10 AM on April 25, 2012


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