Roundtable: Which New #1 Are You Most Excited For?
The closer we get to August 31st the more the excitement - or dread - grows for fans of DC Comics as the whole universe will get a new starting point with certain elements of it’s past tweaked here and there. As anticipation mounts the authors of ACB have been asked, which new #1 are you most excited for?
Geoff Arbuckle Editor, writer, reviewer, & Geek Life
When it comes to DC, I’m a fringe guy. So, being a fan of Jonah Hex (and particularly of the Gray/Palmiotti team), I’m getting really excited for All Star Western. Not only do I get my monthly Hex fix, I am also getting shorts with the other classic DC western characters. This is going to be a fun ride. My only other real big thing I’m excited for is more Dex-Star the Rage Kitty in the Red Lanterns book! (But then again, I’m a cat guy, so I guess this was only natural.)
John Barringer Head Editor, writer, reviewer & Twitter updater
I wish I could pick something obscure, give you reason to consider something you hadn’t before and blow your mind…but I can’t. I’m a sucker just like everyone else. With as much as I’ve enjoyed Grant Morrison in the past, All-Start Superman, and then his run on Batman the hype behind a book where he gets to write parts of Superman’s Earth-origins in a new #1 to one the longest running comic publications in history isn’t lost on me. I’m stoked for so much; Synder on Batman, Dick Grayson back as Nightwing, a DC anthology book (!!!), Green Lantern, the list goes on and on, but if I had to pick which #1 am I most anxious to rip into…it’s Action Comics.
Sorry Batman. I still love you.
Phillip Carson Editor, writer and reviewer
While I’m still on the fence about the Relaunch, the title I’m probably going to get regardless is Action Comics by Grant Morrison. The word on the street is that it’ll be set in the past, detailing Superman’s origin on the new DC Earth. Morrison has proven himself countless times, both when it comes to Superman (All-Star Superman and Final Crisis) and when it comes to dealing with a character’s long history, both incorporating everything that makes them great and updating it (Batman). I’m willing to give all the Superman Family titles a shot. But Action Comics is the book I’ll actually make a point of getting.
T.A. Ewart Writer & reviewer
Superman and Action Comics. I’m hoping they can undo the damage they did when they rebooted Superman in 1986. Also Nightwing and the Fury of Firestorm. How they resolve Dick no longer being Batman, when he was doing an ace job of it, and who Firestorm is, I’m curious to read about. Other than that, I think the “reboot” idea sucks, and I’m pretty certain that whatever they’re doing could be done without any reboot whatsoever.
Jamie Insalaco Writer & reviewer
I’m looking forward to Green Arrow the most. This is mostly by default; I’m guessing that the current Batgirl book, featuring Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, is going to be replaced with traditional Batgirl (aka Barbra Gordon), and I’m not going along for that ride. But I’m looking forward to Green Arrow if for no other reason that the current series has gotten so out of hand that any new direction is a welcome change. This book is on my chopping block and is just aching for me to delete it from my list, but maybe this.. whatever it is, will reinvigorate my interest in the Emerald Archer.
Victor Kutsenok Writer, reviewer & Fantasy Battle Tournament
If I was a DC collector, I would most probably be interested in Justice League. I will in fact be picking up issue #1 of this title. Can’t promise anything after that. I think that Geoff Johns is the Bendis of the DC Universe and he is being given waaaaaay too much control over most of the “events”. Still, having the magnificent Seven (with Cyborg replacing Martian Manhunter) on the team again is pretty cool. Plus I love Jim Lee’s art and have always been a huge fan of his so the visuals should be spectacular. I will also skim through I, Vampire and Resurrection Man. I like Vampire books and other supernatural type stories. If these appeal to me, I will probable collect them.
Paul Mallory Writer & reviewer
My anticipation is stoked by a few titles, but one that is rising on my curiosity scale is Animal Man. I prefer Vixen, but this will do. I’d like to see how this darker rendition of the character plays out. I would have embraced Justice League Dark if Zatanna had been involved, but we will finally see Batwoman in action, a title I’ve been excited about for months.
Tom Parry Writer & reviewer
I’m obviously looking forward to Green Arrow. JT Krul showed us so much potential as a writer for the character, so even though the unmaksing seems to have been removed with this reboot/relaunch, and he has his business back when the new series starts, I’m still very excited to see where Krul can take us without having to adhere to editorially mandated connections with a broader title (i.e. Brightest Day). Of course, I’m also very interested in Red Hood and the Outlaws, and have placed in on my must have list if for no other reason than it features my favorite character, Roy Harper. I’m interested to see where they take his character since they are retaining his violent vigilante status propagated by the fallout from Cry for Justice, which is doubly curious since it seems Green Arrow’s take is stepping away from that. The title promises to give me some sort of reaction, though I’m currently unsure of what that may be.
John Eaton Writer & reviewer
I’m really excited about Grant Morrison’s take on Action Comics. The cover itself grabs my attention. Grant has always been a very mind expanding writer and as much as that scares me with a title like Action Comics I also know it’ll be something no one expected.It’ll definitely be a must read.
More on DC’s new universe @ acomicbookblog.com/tag/new-dcu
7 Comments
I’ve decided that I’m so annoyed with the changes they’re making (especially to Batgirl) that I’m just going to drop my DC titles. I feel like I’m reading too many books anyway!
To each their own, but I think you could potentially miss out. Batgirl has been a great book, imagine though if during all the Batman Reborn craziness someone had said that…and then missed out on some great comics.
Out of 52 some comics won’t be received well, I’m sure some will be just as good as the current books though.
I’ve started to worry about the Superman changes. While I’m not opposed to this whole thing in general with this new 52, I feel they are forcing changes on Superman that isn’t necessary. Sometimes you just need better writers, not new characterizations.
The fact is that many of the changes are likely due to the Superman lawsuit that has been plaguing WB/DC for the last few years. This sort of reboot/relaunch is the perfect opportunity to change things to make it more unique to themselves so they can pay out less to the original creators’ greedy lazy grandkids.
AQUAMAN!!!
Thoughts from a brand-noobian:
I’m 23, and I walked into a comic book store for the first time in my life just last week. (Okay, so I’ve been in a small handful before, but never with any real intent to buy anything). I’ve never collected comics outside of picking up a few Spidey’s when I was very young.
I simply asked the owner to suggest a few titles, and I ate ‘em up. I immediately realized: I love comics, I just never realized it.
I feel extremely lucky at my timing. So long as my bank account can hold up to me buying up classic graphic novels/collections while simultaneously catching the wave of #1s, this should be a very exciting time for comic book entertainment.
I can see how the reboot could perturb long-time readers, but as a newbie, I think it is a great idea. I know people say this has been done before, blah, blah, blah, but, seriously… COMIC BOOK STORYLINES ARE FARGING CONFUSING AS HELL. A timely rehaul seems to me almost a necessity for this type of medium.
Another thing: Hopefully a number of unknown/lesser-known characters can get some spotlight and help refresh DCU.
To be honest, after researching the web for too many hours in the past week on comics-to-read, MANY of the ones that piqued me the most were highly original, like Walking Dead, Scalped, Daytripper, Love and Rockets, Jodorowsky stuff, Y, Casanova, etc, etc. as opposed to the names everyone recognizes.
I recognize that compelling things can still be done with the tried-and-true, but sometimes they just end up looking rather like “Iron Man, only-NOW-this-thing-has-changed”, or “X-men-only-NOW-it’s-even-MORE-epic”, or “Batman, only-when-he-was-young,” or “Justice League-with-all-types-of-characters-with-conflicting-backgrounds,exploding-together-in-confusion-hopefully-united-by-good-writing.”
Perhaps I’m getting redundant here. Maybe even overstepping my bounds a bit because I’m quite ignorant about comic book lore in general, but,
My point is: this is exciting for me as a newcomer, and I hope comic vets can also see it as a chance for a grand breath of fresh air rather than an F-U to fans from DC execs.
Change CAN be a good thing.
Just my 2-cents.
I kinda agree Clayton, i too an newly back into comics (read abit when i was younger but mainly old old phantoms and old war and boris kharloff comics my dad had), I’ve never really been interested in the DC universe but with the reboot a couple of characters have had me considering jumping into their stories.