Why I'm about done with DC Comics

-
I finally got over to my local comic book shop to empty out my pull box.  I'm a sucker for team books, and right now have The Avengers, Justice League, Teen Titans, and Batman and Robin being held for me.  I had dropped Amazing Spider-Man after the whole "Spider Island" story.  DC has recently done the whole "relaunch the entire universe" thing (aka "the 52"), and I've been hoping that it would bring something interesting to the table.
Justice League #7
Nope.  I'm pretty much done with the Justice League, but my son is trying to get me to continue with Teen Titans.  After six issues to introduce all the characters, Justice League #7 has shifted into the post-modern crypto-fascist drek of the '90s.  The US Government is antsy about the League having a new satellite, people want the League to take over the government, and the members of the League continue to be snarky, unlikable characters with no chemistry.

Look, DC Comics.  The Justice League is not the Authority.  Even the Authority got pretty tired after a while because you end up alienating a young fan-base and a sentimental old fanbase with all this deconstruction garbage.

In addition the pacing seems really off, a problem that the Teen Titans seems to have as well.  Some of that is the simple issue of art: there's too few frames to tell a story, and there's such a weird sense of both trying to introduce new characters while at the same time referencing old ones that there's no time to set things up well.  The Teen Titans are really worse than JL, because they seem to be bringing in a new villain every month while at the same time trying to establish the group.

Marvel Comics seems to be willing to spend six months having Norman Osborn pick apart the Avengers, which means the pacing is a bit better, but they have the problem that they can't seem to tell a team story without having it go cosmic-level: the Avengers have, in the last few arcs, dealt with the Infinity Gems, an Odin-level villain, a Hydra-AIM-HAMMER coalition, and are now gearing up for the Phoenix once more.  It's a wonder that they even bother having Spider-Woman and Hawkeye on the team anymore.

So, I need a good team book with low- to mid-level heroes fighting villains with solid characterization.  I'm open to suggestions at this point.

Comments

  1. BuffraApril 5, 2012 at 6:31 AM

    Have you checked out Runaways?

    The kids have evil supervillians as parents, so run away (ha!) and find out that they have superhuman powers too. Probably more for the younger set, but I've heard good things. Don't know if it's a deal-breaker for you that it's sort of a manga/comic cross. Might be worth getting a couple though, just to see.

    http://www.amazon.com/Runaways-Volume-Pride-Joy-Digest/dp/0785157328/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_S_T2?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3J19MQDHFPNA8&colid=252FZCD0Y4D3A

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doc SavageMarch 30, 2013 at 6:02 PM

    They keep Spider-Woman around because she's sexy.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I moved ages ago, but forgot to tell anyone

-
 I decided to get my own domain name: strangevistas.org and have been posting there for over a year.  When Adam at Barking Alien mentioned that he wanted me to start blogging again, I realized that he might not know, and that likely others didn't as well. So, now you do.  See you soon!
Read more

RPG Review: Far Trek

-
Image
So, as I mentioned recently, I've got a lot of sentimentality for Star Trek RPG's, and Star Trek in general.  Three actual honest-to-God licensed ones exist in history: FASA's, Last Unicorn Games, and Decipher's.  I own the first two and have heard mixed things about the third. But there are also a lot of non-licensed Star Trek RPG's out there, and recently I saw that one of them, Far Trek , was offering a hard copy for a couple of bucks on Lulu.  Never one to let a deal go by I picked it up and thought I'd give you, gentle readers, my thoughts. Far Trek is a light-hearted, even breezy take on the Star Trek universe, almost exclusively the original series.  There rules incorporate stats, skills, and talents.  There are four stats: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma, with the stats ranging from about a -2 to a +2, reflecting their modifier on the die roll.  I actually like this mechanic, which I first encountered in True20.  It does...
Read more

Heroes Against Darkness review

-
Image
For my birthday I picked up a print copy of Heroes Against Darkness  by Justin Halliday .  Why, might you ask, would I spent hard currency on a book that is offered as a .pdf for free? First, I like real books.  I read them better, and can do so in places other than in front of a computer monitor. Second, it's worth it.  Beats me if Halliday makes any money off the sale or not, but I hope he did, because offering this game for free was a very generous gift to the gaming world. Heroes Against Darkness is worth owning. (At least if you are me.  Your mileage may vary.) Heroes Against Darkness  is, by its own admission, a "fantasy heartbreaker," which is the usually derogatory term used by someone's homegrown version of Dungeons & Dragons.  If I had to summarize HAD's genetic heritage, I'd call it an early edition of D&D done using Fourth Edition mechanics.  If that early edition had 11 character classes. HAD has the standard D...
Read more