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Friday
Sep022011

Flash Fact

DateFriday, September 2, 2011 at 12:00AM | AuthorTravis

With the end of another big DC event and the beginning of a massive relaunch, you start to look at history and start to see the patterns.

Since the DC relaunch is such a massive deal, we decided to bring you a special extended What’s on your pull list? focusing on the DC changes. So, without further ado:

Travis, what’s with the relaunch?

I haven’t been pulling Flashpoint, but I’ve been reading it and I’ve been pulling a bunch of the minis, so I knew what was going on. I decided to pull Flashpoint #5 so I could see how it tied into The New 52 without having to impatiently wait for Kris to finish reading it. Granted, I had to impatiently wait for the Gnome to finish reading it first, but them’s the breaks. Flashpoint was a fun and entertaining Elseworlds story, but for something that was supposed to be groundbreaking enough to cause the whole DC relaunch, it kind of fizzled. The twist was interesting, but not something that was terribly shocking. I think the biggest problem with it is that the story was so deeply rooted in Barry Allen that it was hard to get invested in it because this character has only been around for a year. Yes, Barry’s an old character with a long history but between Crisis on Infinite Earths and Final Crisis, he was just that: history. Barry was someone that characters talked about reverentially and readers respected as the ultimate hero, but there was no emotional investment in the character. It’s just like you know that the American Revolution was important and George Washington is an important figure, but if he suddenly showed up in the Rose Garden one day people wouldn’t have any way to connect with him. Bringing Barry back, spending a year saying “Hey look, it’s Barry. He’s important.” and then making him the central focus of what DC claims is the last event for a while, an event that makes DC reinvent everything, doesn’t have the same impact than if it was Batpoint with Batman and his parents or Flashman about Superman and Pa Kent. (Actually, I think Flashman would be something different entirely.)

Speaking of events, if the major splash page that created The New 52 isn’t the setup for a big event in the next couple of years, I’ll be shocked. I don’t think it’ll be soon, but eventually it’ll resurface. After all, Geoff Johns is orchestrating everything now and his whole Green Lantern run starting in 2005 was one big lead up to Blackest Night.

As for Geoff John’s and Jim Lee’s Justice League #1, it was a very good first issue of a new world. There was nothing that groundbreaking or shocking about it. Kris and I have spent a lot of time trying to find what Big Thing we could say about Justice League and what it shows about The New 52 and really there’s nothing to say other than “It was enjoyable.” I found it particularly interesting that the majority of the book is focusing on Batman and Green Lantern, the two characters who’s continuities will somehow continue from the just concluded Modern Age Continuity. (Which would make the New 52 the Post-Modern Age?) I guess it was a nice way to ease readers into the new universe, but at the same time it cheapened the idea of how new this really was. Was things definitely different? Sure. Did it leave a lot of questions that you want to explore later? Sure, but it didn’t make me want to run out into the street and tell everybody how much improved our lives are now that The New 52 is here. It did make me say “Hmm” and make me want to read more comics and check out the universe. In the end, that’s all DC wanted.

Kris, what’s with the relaunch?

Flashpoint was a mess. I think that needs to be said.

The minis were disjointed and meaningless for the most part, the main series was slow and unengaging, and the conclusion was almost entirely unrelated to the events of the series. Now I’m not saying there was a better way to enter into this new universe, but something with a bit more personal weight, like some of the minis had, would have been better.

Barry Allen serves as the catalyst for the events of Flashpoint, so it’s fitting that we follow him over the bridge. The fabled two-page spread that “explains it all” served it’s purpose, but left more questions than it answered. While I think it’s possible that DC plans on using this as something to kick start an event, I honestly hope DC lets the old universe die and puts their full strength into this new universe and what is happening inside it.

As for Justice League #1, I enjoyed it a lot from a purely objective standpoint, but as the first issue of the new status quo it felt shallow. Between the narrow focus of the issue, and the fact that DC leaked the Darkseid reveal, nothing about this issue drew me into the new universe. If I was a new reader, I don’t know if I’d be hooked by this.

On the other hand, I enjoy both Johns’s writing and Lee’s art, and if they both continue on this book, I fully expect it to continue to be the #1 seller every month. We’ll have to wait a few months to see how the month of 52 #1’s affects the sales charts and even longer to see what it does for DC’s market share, but the point of this event is to get people talking about comics and to get people into the shops.

DC decided to go all in with this reboot and if it fails, well, that will be an interesting day.

Kris, what else was on your pull list?