Episode Forty-Seven: Damn You, Barry Allen! (original) (raw)

I've started up with reading Western comics again after jumping ship to manga for a long while. I think one of the reasons I left was the continual screwing with the continuity and it frustrated me. Plus, the rotating roster of writers and artists within specific titles and sometimes it didn't work well with a new creative team. I knew that with manga, the writer and artist were usually the same person and stuck with it until the end.

Anyway, I used to read Supergirl and Batgirl and Robin and a few titles from the Ultimate Marvel universe and Runaways was a big fave of mine. Plus a few indy titles as well.

I think I started up again due to Fables and then I picked up Blackest Night and Brightest Day and was sucked into that. So when I heard they were rebooting DC (again), I was kinda confused as to why they needed to restart the entire universe again.

Then I heard Batgirl was gonna be Barbara Gordon again and I got excited. I mean, yes she rocked hardcore as Oracle and I thought it was awesome that there was a disabled heroine in the continuity. But I got to wondering about her being back in the cowl and it got me curious again. I used to kinda sorta roleplay Batgirl when I was a youngling (along with Supergirl), so I kinda have a soft spot for Babs.

Needless to say, I picked up the first issue of Batgirl and I liked it. I was excited to see Babs again. I'll probably still keep reading (thanks to my new Comixology account).

As to Starfire... I was profoundly disappointed. From what I've heard, she has no personality at all other than a living sex doll. Yeah...

I've been into comics for about 5 years and I agree: the best ones are either deep runs by a single writer (Simone's Birds of Prey, Johns's Green Lantern, Synder's Detective Comics, Vaughn's Runaways though I like stuff that came afterwards as well) or series with a (mostly) set story from the beginning to the end (Watchmen, I Kill Giants, Sweet Tooth to name a few).

I should probably just trade wait to see who stays on what book and what the reviews look like, but I really reading a lot of the stories serially.

Is your DC icon yankable?

Thanks! And thanks for the link to Jim Shooter's review, good stuff.

I'm waiting for the Flashpoint trade until I even think about which new comics I'm going to read (not into the reboot idea, but at least this means I can do some trimming). Sounds like a mixed bag, thanks for the input!

I wouldn't say Starfire needs to be more like she acted in the cartoon, but the comics should have the same qualities that attract people to the cartoon. Whether that's Outsiders or Teen Titans. Because otherwise you've got that jarring and unpleasant transition as seen in the Shortpacked. Incidentally, do you guys watched Batman: The Brave and the Bold or Young Justice?

In the Marvel Universe, The Fantastic Four are the exception that proves the rule. People generally hate (and fear) those with super powers, but the FF don't threaten to take over the human race by being another species (unlike the X-Men) and keep their identity public and give guided tours of their headquarters (unlike Spider-Man). Plus Reed Richards' discoveries, inventions, and free patents make life more fun.

Also...JEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAN!!!! That never gets old.

Excellent episode guys. I've been really curious about your announced New 52 episode since you first mentioned it. Since I do comic reviews (http://blip.tv/comicsareawesome ...Why blatant plug, what are you doing here?) I am always fascinated to see a broad spectrum of reactions to comics in general and this reboot in particular.

I said this in my own coverage of the New 52 (http://jdpresents.blogspot.com/2011/10/comics-are-awesome-dc-reboot-revisited.html Again? Someone's going to break their neck on all these plugs lying about) that DC needed more than anything was a mission statement. It seems like "We're going to put out 52 #1 issues" was the goal and nothing more. All the talk about introducing new readers and bringing more diversity to comics, I get no feeling that was ever communicated to the writers. So you get books like Green Lantern that could have been just the next issue of the series, or you get stuff like the fantastic Animal Man that gives you everything you need to know in the first issue.

Part of that I think comes down to, from everything I can tell, that this was extremely rushed. I suspect that a lot of the writers had to scramble at the last minute just to get their first scripts out, so (outside of stuff like Batwoman which had been in the can waiting to be printed) that a lot of this isn't necessarily the writers best efforts. Which doesn't forgive everything (I'm with Dayna in regards to Red Hood, because seriously, fuck that book), but I think gives me hope that some of the books that didn't rock my world might improve given a bit more time.

For me, this is the difference between sexually liberated and sexually exploited characters.

Liberated: Has sex with a character because she's attracted to him/her and wants to have fun.

Exploited: Has sex with a character because the writer knows the audience wants to see her having/had sex.

Or in other words, a liberated character wants to have sex, while the exploited character has because the audience wants it.

Great stuff guys. I'm not a huge DC guy outside of Batman, but you officially got me interested in Batwoman.

And Dayna's two second Stan Lee impression makes me smile every time I hear it.