Will The New 52 Break DC?

I've heard many a fan/fanboy/hater/idiot/pessimist/orc say that this will be the end of DC Comics as we know it. I guess it has the potential to be, yes, but no it will not. Many say that this new reboot/not really a reboot/but really more than a regular reboot reboot will be their jumping off point, instead of on. And truly, I can understand the frustration. Everything that we know about classic characters is viable to change, and that's a scary thought. I'm still trying to figure out why Superman is wearing armor plates! But this is how I see it:

Come late August/early September, new comic Wednesdays come along and the stores are packed with geeks/freaks/koolkids/notsokoolkids/superheroes AND 52 new comics from DC. Maybe those fanboys will be heading in just to pick up their indie books, or Marvel books, but there is absolutely no way they'll be able to overlook the elephants in the room! There's going to be 52 shiny new books in there, all at a beautifully innocent 1st issue!

And let's say those pessimists actually go through with their plan to not buy any DC comics. After 3 months of no Batman/Superman/Green Lantern... Hawk & Dove, they're not gonna miss 'em at all! And a year goes by, the first huge storyarc comes around, some galactic evil threatens all life, and they're not going to think twice about it. They can honestly be content with never opening up another DC comic again, never even following their used-to-be favorite heroes again... No, this doesn't sound realistic! So I honestly think comic store owners have nothing to worry about. All that talk will be just that: talk. Maybe some truly will stick to their "word," but in the end the books will sell!

Will the new 52 comics bring in a new, younger crowd? I can't say that I know. I don't see how they are planning on actually advertising all of this. Maybe commercials on kids shows? Idk. If only comics were as popular as they were in the days of the Lost Boys. 

Batman & Robin #26 - Fantastic Coverart

To put this bluntly, if I lived in a world in which I had no idea who Batman and/or Robin were, and I saw this coverart, I'd be sold, I'd get it framed, and hang it up next to pictures of my kids.

Anyway, issue #26 ends this series great run, until it gets rebooted a month later... Written by David Hine, art by Greg Tocchini, and this beautifully odd cover by Chris Burnham.

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(Edit) Batman gets stabbed in the eye by the Eifel Tower!

Young Justice

I'm a kid at heart. I need the occasional cartoons to sate my hunger. And what better way to do that then by watching something you can easily relate to. In my case, superheroes are something I can relate to AND enjoy. Anyway, where am I going with this? A good friend of mine from school, and now workmate, gave me the heads up to check out the show Young Justice. So I checked it out. And I liked it a lot.

It takes me back to my youth, watching Teen Titans Go and Justice League Unlimited. It's very funny, and Robin in particular is hysterical. The story is very well-advanced for a kids show on Cartoon Network, and I like that. It's a cartoon I can get into, and just recently it's been picked up for a second season. Check it out!

Another Shot at the New Justice League

So here's another shot at what we're to expect from the Justice League. I'm assuming these seven will be the main league members, and the few in the background will jump in and out unannounced as they please. This was taken from Toon Tumblers Facebook page, and is intended to be used as a drinkable glass cup for SDCC.

Aquaman looks about the same, except for this fins on the back of his calves which look kinda cool. Makes him more hydrodynamic. Green Lantern Hal Jordan looks the same, and it makes sense. @GeoffJohns0 is doing a great job keeping him a top seller. Wonder Woman looks completely different, so I don't even want to talk about her. Superman looks... platey, like he pieced his costume together. nd his belt is now red, instead of his tights. His shoes are... metal. Sure. I'm positive @jimlee00 know what he's doing. And the 'S' shield is actually cool, now that I've gotten a chance to look it over properly. Oh, oh, and the popped-collar. Superman knows what's in! Batman also looks the same, but his costume is also platey and looks like he pieced it together. His boots are also metal. The Flash looks the same, besides the metal boots. Cyborg... grew crab claws and a big metal underbite. I think he might have too much going on.

On the left we have Deadman (JLA status? yeah okay), Ray Palmer's Atom, Element Woman, Firestorm, and on the right we have Green Arrow, Hawkman, Black Canary (some speculate this may be Power Girl, because we haven't seen anything of her new look yet), and Mera.

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Edit: Nevermind what I said about Aquaman's leg flipper thing. It's always been there.

Green Lantern Comes to Theatres

With all the advertisement and money DC is pouring into this movie, everyone should already know this is happening. And it looks damn good. I may just see it opening night, which is... Thursday night, wow. Crept up on me. If the persistent TV spots and well placed billboards haven't sold you, maybe this will. Here's an exclusive first look at some footage shown at Wondercon not too long ago. (Yes, this trailer came out months ago, but it doesn't make it any less cool.)

Books to Look Forward To

Alright, so we all know DC is ruining all that they've spent 75 years to make in the coming months, BUT that's okay! Well... I'm okay with it. Well... No I'm not. But it's cool. Just because there are going to be rolling restarts on all of DC's servers, that doesn't mean the new patch will be disappointing. So, of the 52 titles that DC is launching August/September, what titles will you read?

Here are the few titles I'm looking forward to:

Justice League #1
Aquaman #1
Wonder Woman #1
The Flash #1
Green Arrow #1
Green Lantern #1
Green Lantern Corps. #1
Green Lantern: New Guardians #1
Batman #1
Detective Comics #1
Teen Titans #1
Action Comics #1
Batman #1
Supergirl #1

The titles that I may look into:
The Savage Hawkman #1
The Fury of Firestorm #1
Batman and Robin #1
Swamp Thing #1

To be frank, I'm actually very excited to see what becomes of DC and I wish them the best on their next venture. To see a full list of what's to come, check out DC's blogs:
Justice League Titles
Green Lantern Titles
Batman Titles
The Dark Titles
Young Justice Titles
The Edge Titles
Superman Titles

Happy Reading!

While I'm Roasting New Costume Changes:

Might as well post this one. I'd like to first mention that when I showed my father this picture after the other reboot pictures his first comment was "they should fire that artist." My thought is that DC made her comic more playful, so the artwork is duller, and thus friendly for girls... I know, after reading that last sentence it didn't make much sense to me either.

Her costume is distinctly reminiscent of Wonder Woman and you'd be hard pressed to get that mistaken, but it doesn't scream "Wonder Woman," and it certainly isn't cool. Lose the pants princess. We wanna see those legs that Hippolyta gave you.

After letting the look settle in a little, yeah. It can work out. It probably will, but only time will tell if she gets reverted back.

Alas, Superman Loses the Tights

When someone tries to describe the cliché superhero, they may use the nouns 'super-powers,' 'capes,' and 'tights.' Why is that? Well, I'll tell you why. Superman. As the first superhero, he fits all the clichés and, by definition, he started them. So, by removing the tights, you remove something as symbolic as his S shield. And this is what's going on in the world of DC currently.

Along with the other restarts, Action Comics, the series that brought you this worlds first superhero, the first American comic series to reach it's 900th issue, will be getting it's first reboot. In it Superman tries to save a world that isn't too fond of it's first hero. This is a good premise for a first issue, and as long as the origin story doesn't take too much of a spin, it should turn out well. It's interesting that the costume he's wearing on the cover isn't full suit. Maybe there's gonna be some explanation as to why he's so tight-less. His lifting an object at that angle is homage to the original first issue, which I was expecting. It's a solid pic, but he's a little too buff for my tastes. I prefer the muscular yet slim supe.

(edit) Notice also they've kept Clark Kent's classic curl. It's those little tidbits that make my day...

Next we have the reboot of the 'Superman' title. Whoever made the cover art... Not a fan bro. Sorry. He looks like an alternate earth Superman that's really mean. And with the loss of his red tights, it just looks downright off-putting. Also, he still has the outline of his tights, just shaded blue... and the shading on his crotchal region makes him look very... brolic. And what are those, kneepads!? Notice though, that the 'S' is back to normal.

Here's a reboot I can stand behind: Supergirl #1. Her new look looks really really cool. I'm totally sold on the trimming of the cape, and how it folds together in the front. Her shield has been stylized very appropriately for that whole 'I'm a teenager from another planet' look, and the boots work really well. The artist also did a great job, so let's hope the story holds true.

And finally we come to Superboy. This is really confusing me. I'm not sure if this is going to be Conner Kent as Superboy, a new Superboy, or what. He is still a clone of Kryptonian/Human DNA, but this is a very strange look. Maybe this is just his uhh... factory look? And when he gets his skin he becomes the Superboy of the Teen Titans series? Dude. I dunno. I like how the S pops out at you like a 3D movie, but I can't see him wearing the Tron outfit to school like that... Superhero school that is. Or maybe they consider it camp?..

The New Teen Titans

Alright, so today they've given us another look at the cover art for the new reboots annnd that includes the new Teen Titans. All I can really say is "uh oh.."

So here we see six heroes. On the bottom right we have Kid Flash in his new costume, which reminds me of Green Arrows old pal Speedy, but nonetheless it looks cool. Then top left we have the new Wonder Girl. Not liking this one... All red, with a bandana/hood thing? She is going to be themed as a "belligerent powerhouse thief." I'm not happy about her costume. And on the top right we have Tim Drake reuniting his roll as the Red Robin. His costume isn't so bad, I rather like it. Dead center we have Conner Kent's new look as Superboy... What the hell? Why does he have a black and white cape taped to his back? Does he know it's there? And he apparently cut his sleeves and got a barcode-ish Superman shield on his shoulder. Hmm. Okay. Whoever that is crawling on the bottom left, I have no clue. And on the right... Oh no. PLEASE don't tell me that is Starfire!?!

Green Lantern to Be the Truest Comic Book Adaptation Yet

Well, I hope so anyway. There are a few things that seem to be off from the comic book lore of Hal Jordan (Green Lantern), as we've already seen in the trailers, but not much. At worst, the greatest change is Hal Jordan's personality. He's a very serious character. Very very serious... But it wouldn't hit home very well if he was serious on the silver screen, sooo they got Ryan Reynolds to say a few jokes. But from a story standpoint, from a mythos standpoint, to Corps. members, to origins, to Parallax... They're doing a fantastic job. At least from what I've seen anyway. So, today HitFix.com has released 8 brief scenes from the coming movie that prove it may just be the best adaptation of a DC Comics movie to date, BUT I feel as though it may be truest in both the DC and Marvel universe. I'm really excited about it! I'll post them in future updates to the blog.

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In other news, along with the upcoming reboot that DC has in store is Batgirl #1. This will be the first time that Barbara Gordon will appear as Batgirl since the late 80's. Being someone who's grown up in the post Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe, I've known Barbara Gordon only as the Oracle; a crippled hacker in a wheelchair who's saved more lives from that seat than she ever has before the Joker shot her spine as Batgirl. Hopefully DC has something big planned for her.

Detective Comics to Go Back to Issue #1

DC Comics flagship title, Detective Comics, will be thrown back to issue #1, along with some 51 other series. I didn't originally think they would do that. If anything I thought both Detective Comics and Action Comics would stay in continuity, being that they've never been reset... But it seems as though, where Marvel played their cards safe with the Ultimate universe, DC Comics is going all in! Fortunately, Batman doesn't seem to have gone through any major costume changes, but why should he? DC is making a large portion off his movie and comic paraphernalia franchise. He's safe. According to DC, Batman Incorporated will continue on into the reboot. We'll see how that works out.

What will this mean for Action Comics? I'm sure it will get a reboot. And, I'm fairly certain the artwork will have some homage to the original cover of Action Comics #1. Too bad. I was hoping to someday pick up a copy of Action Comics #1000. (I'm not fretting though; there's no way DC would give up the chance to have the first legitimate comic book go that far.)

Let's Try This Again...

So, let's try this again. I started this blog with a plan to keep active, but that's the opposite of what I've done. In fact, I only did make that first post...

Again, this blog is about anything geek/movie/comic/news/blah blah blah. I feel that this has to be discussed because of it's impact on comic book history. Come this August, this will be your new Justice League team.

At first glance, this seems perfectly normal, besides the sore thumb that is Cyborg: as he's rarely considered in the same line of thought as the JLA. But look closer and you'll see it's a little more weird than that. Although Cyborg is immediately identifiable to anyone who's seen the Teen Titans cartoon or walked into a comic book store recently, there are noticeable differences between the one we know and the one that's shown. He looks slightly more stylized, he has some weird little wings on his shoulders, and his chin is noticeably more macho.

The rest of the team looks different, albeit only slightly, except of course for Wonder Woman. Her costume is the most drastic modernization. No longer having her star-spangled banner look, she only shares a remnant of her former costume. The one thing that it seems all the heroes share now is that they all seem at least 10 years younger.

But wait a minute, who's that hiding in the back? Could it be Superman? Of course it is, but the more you look at him the more you realize something's different. Something's wrong. Ah, no wonder he was hiding in the shadows, or rather, no wonder Jim Lee drew him as such. He's saving the full impact of the heroes changes for later. But we can see what's up from here. He's A) noticeably darker, B) his S shield is less curved and sharper, C) he's popped his collar a little more like the Green Lantern and D) ...he lost the tights! (or at least the red ones). The outline is there, but painted in blue...

Now, what's this all about again? Well, DC has decided it's time to bring new life into their comics AND their heroes. They've chosen it's time for 52 of their titles to be rebooted and brought back to issues #1, including a reported 50 new costume changes. This is something even M. Night Shyamalan would call a "twist". So why the changes?! And what will the repercussions be for the comic book community?

Well, DC's been second in market share to MARVEL ever since 2002 (the year Spider-Man came to theaters near you). So naturally, they want to boost their profits. Start anew. BUT unfortunately, comic sales have been going down as comic prices have been going up, up and too much. Sooo, they feel that before the company goes under they'll try something new. By going back to issue #1 with EVERYTHING and ruining a few good costumes they believe they'll usher in a new age of readers.

Repercussions: THEY MESSED WITH SUPERMAN'S COSTUME! The one hero who's never had a costume change in 73 years of existence. The first superhero. THE superhero. But, I digress. I've had a few days to settle into this whole "thing." What do I think?

Geoff Johns/Jim Lee/ and the rest of the DC team are being very brave. However sacrilegious their actions may be, who knows if this will be the only way Superman will live to see another 73 years? And I'm purely singling out Superman here because lets face it, of all the superheroes throughout the years, there has never been one as symbolic and iconic as he, and a thousand years from now kids will certainly know who's S that belongs to... I'm scared for the future of DC. But I want to see what they'll do with it. Many longtime readers are upset and threaten that this is where DC will lose them as readers. Surely this is a risk that the writers at DC knew they were taking, but they could seriously bring comics out of the shadows again and into the hands of a new crowd. Many feel that this is DC saying "Thanks for your money, but we want new readers." And maybe, for some, this is the case, but only if the reader allows themselves to think that way.

Oh and about the costume. Personally, I don't mind the collar bit. But change the S back. It's not any cooler. And about the tights. Yes, we know, almost every other hero has already lost the tights, but once again, Superman started the trend. And there was a reason to him wearing the red tights: it broke up the blue on his costume. Blue all the way down wouldn't have looked nearly as iconic. We'll see what they have in store for us though... Stay tuned.

It's Time to Catch Up

So, what I plan on accomplishing with this blog is the chance to explain and review comic books to the best of my ability. You see, I Dakota Lopez, a young guy at the age of 19, have pretty much been collecting comic books on and off my entire life.

I remember, I was about 7 or so and my dad had brought me this really crappy free Batman comic book, and although I would view it as a crappy one nowadays, it really uhh... opened my eyes to the medium. I don't have that particular issue still, but it began my urge to collect them. I grew up in Miami, so it wasn't the easiest place to find comic books, especially at the age I was (probably about 8 or 9 now). There was this new mall that opened up, though, called Sunset mall, but I called it Sunset Place for some odd reason, and right next to the mall was this really cool, really geeky store. For the life of me (and this kills me) I can't remember the name of it. Well, they sold really cool action figures and ugly geek shirts and posters, and, in the back, a whole room dedicated to comic books... This was my first real encounter with a comic book store.

This place eventually closed down, or moved to a different location (I'm actually not quite sure), but I ended up being unable to find comics within a reasonable driving distance, so my collection grew a bit of dust. Oh, by the way, even at that age I had all my comics bagged and boarded, and I pride myself on that knowledge.

Anyway, I moved to Redondo, California when I was about 13 and I found this awesome store in Manhattan Beach called the Comic Bug. It rekindled the fire within me, and it was the first official comic book store that I went to regularly. Throughout high school I went through periods of time where, I'd be in and out of comics. In fact, I joined the Comic Book Club (Comic Book Union at the time) at Redondo Union High School in my freshman year, and I met some of the best group of friends I could meet. The Comic Bug ended up moving two times during 2007-8 but it was still in the general area it is today. This is one of the best comic book stores I've been to in my life, very cosy, very roomy and if you're ever in the area, do visit it.

I actually went to a lesser comic convention out there in California, Wizard World '07, and I brought a bunch of comics from my collection to be signed by my favorite cover artist, Michael Turner. I got him to sign 15 to 16 of them, and those are my pride and joy. He was going through chemotherapy at the time, as the picture below shows :( But hey, look at that smile on his face.

Anyway, I moved to Scarsdale, New York at about the age of 16, and have been here since. I found the nearest store, Phoenix, and that's a nice place, with great owners. But, as sometimes happens, I've lost interest in the hobby. So, for the past 2 to 3 years, a lot has happened in the comic book world. DC, Marvel, and other. My favorite cover artist, Michael Turner lost his battle to cancer. I didn't know this until about a month ago... You see, I was planning on selling each and every one of my comic book collection on Ebay, but it wasn't until I actually looked at them again that nostalgia hit me. Hard. I sat on the floor that night, next to my long boxes and just read comic books all night. A friend of mine told me he started a booth at the New York Comic Con, and he gave me and a few friends free passes.

Well, that was the key to the unlocking for my hobby of collecting and reading comic books. A lot has happened. Blackest Night, Brightest Day (someone explain this to me...), in the Marvel universe there's a vampire resurgence and an attack on all mutants, and Spider-Man is no longer unmasked. Follow my blog as I recount how I've been getting back into comics, review them, and discuss them.