Superman Through the Ages! Forum

here you go:

http://www.newsarama.com/WonderCon2006/DCU/architects.html

Wow...thats was simply compelling gibberish.

When will the drugs where off so i can resume my normal life as Number Six in the Village? ;)

Alright!

Earth-2 is back and it's here to stay.

I told you so!



Alright!

I love the Metal Men; anyone that has a soul loves the Metal Men, too; they're one of the few superhero character concepts that has "for all audiences" appeal; they're not male power fantasies; they're cute and misunderstood.

Hopefully, they'll get rid of the idiot 90s idea that the Metal Men are real people. If that idea was just quietly dropped and never spoken of again, I can certainly breathe easier.

Steve Gerber's run on METAL MEN was one of the greatest, funniest, most underrated and underappreciated works (even at the time, when Gerber was a big name) of his entire career. Platinum's new personality, Doc Magnus going crazy, the battle with Chemo in Venice, the creation of the Plutonium Man...if I was to write a top ten greatest DC Comics ever list, you'd better believe Gerber's METAL MEN would be on the list.



Mark Waid is the Mark Gruenwald of the DC Universe: a guy that never impressed me (and has done some pretty bonehead stuff; FLASH and SQUADRON SUPREME, respectively) but who is an expert on the history of their respective companies and who gets a sense of who they are.

I have a great deal of optimism about the direction the DC Universe is headed.



Wow! Note the word choice - "cohesive worldbuilding." Hey, they're stealing my lingo!

Now this is what I've always talked about; INFINITE CRISIS may make the DC Universe - or rather, Multiverse, a more real-seeming place than we've ever had. Huzzah!



Those that do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it - well, here it seems that Didio at least has learned from history. INFINITE CRISIS is fixing the mistakes that the original Crisis made.



This is what I've always said. Characters have to be written and acted as if they were real people in a real world. It's very uplifting to see the previously immature, unprofessional Morrison known for his distaste for "continuity" has finally come around to a more progressive view that will surely yield much better writing.



Again, fixing something that Crisis didn't fix.

Watching the DC Universe now is like awakening from a very bad dream.



WOW. Just...wow.

If I had my doubts, they're being dispelled now.

They're using Jerro the Mer-Boy. JERRO. The MER-BOY.



"And since I have been stealing his ideas for 15 years now without his permission, it's a relief to now get to steal them WITH his permission," Morrison said impishly, drawing a laugh from the crowd.

I still have two big doubts about the new DC.

Cross-over mania.  You have to gett all the books to get the complete story.  If I pick up a title, I just want to read about that character.  I don't want my enjoyment of the book to be interuppted by an EVENT storyline.(keep that to the annuals)

The price.  It looks like 52 will be the last DC comic title that goes for $2.50 an issue.  It appears that $2.95 is going to be the new price point.  That's fine for non-mainstream books, but DC and Marvel have ads that can cut costs

Well, I used DC's subscription service to subscribe to All-Star Superman...so it will cost me about 2 bucks per issue for the next year.

I am optimistic about the future of the DCU, except for one point of contention: will there be a Superboy?

JulianPerez, it's quite possible the Metal Men might return to their "classic incarnation".  In the recent Teen Titans, Geoff Johns apparently pulled off what some fans considered impossible -- restoring the ORIGINAL Doom Patrol while preserving ALL their past continuities, from actually blowing up at the end of their first run to the latest Byrne version.   :shock:

Seeing the Doom Patrol back ALMOST compensated for what Geoff did to poor SuperAnakin-Primewalker in that same issue.   :evil:

It sounds as if Doc Magnus will be returned to human form.  Gold already appeared as Gold.

I'm still not certain about Earth 2 returning for good.  At the end of the most recent IC Stargirl was still on the mainstream DC Earth while the Earth 2 characters vanished.  For the first JSA "One Year Later" issue we see Stargirl on the cover with GA Glash and GA Green Lantern.  It still looks to me as if Earth 2 will not remain, but the memories of Earth 2 will.

alan scott is still in space and not on earth 2 as well.

My bets? Alexander Luthor is unable to maintain to new parallel Earths (including Earth-2) and the respetive personas of Kal-El and Kal-L merge in the massive time-warp calamity that follows and Superman is de-powered to 1930s/40s power levels (but wouldn't that make Kara more powerful then he is?), Lex Luthor returns to 'mad scientist supervillain' status, and Lois becomes pregnant (such a development is hinted at pre-IC).

Did anybody check out this week's LITG?

Rich claims that Infinite Crisis 6 will be delayed at least a month to accomidate a new ending which will [POSSIBLE SPOILER WARNING] have multiple earths instead of just one as was originally intended.

I think this is a horrible idea. I hope it's not true. Your thoughts?

Here is the quote:



That is not much to go on, but I would LOVE that to be true.

I would love to see it, too.  I think it would make everyone here happy.

a thought on the multiple earths?
could 52 be the true COIE sequel where all the worlds get merged agian?


__________________

It would really be fantastic if this came about, but right now I'm being skeptical.  The questions in my mind are how are they going to resolve the situation with the duplicates (Powergirl, Kal-L), when will the JLA return and which Supergirl is going to be in the Legion.

From Crisis Counseling: "A member of the audience asked about darkness in the characters and that not being good for kids. The person referred to Superboy Prime punching characters’ heads off. DiDio then talked about the Johnny DC titles, how those are for kids and a way of introducing kids to comic book storytelling. He then commented that the regular titles are for older readers who have grown out of that. He also talked about kids playing violent video games. It was up to parents to decide what’s best for their children. DC just tries to offer a wide breadth of material they can choose from."

DiDio said “What you call dark, we call drama."

Obviously, DiDio doesn't care so the Post Infinite BlahBlah DCU will be no different at all. Looks like the Iron Age will just continue on. Maybe it'll never end. The Johnny DC line is a typical dodge as is the "kids play viloent video games" response. Yeah, some kids also smoke crack does that make it a good thing? Johnny DC might be a valid alternative if they actually put any real talent or effort onto to those books instead of just being a waterdown, uninvested, dump bucket for licences. It also dodges the simple fact that people of all ages enjoy superheroes. The mainline books should be the place where an adult and a kid can get together to read a title. They could have at least followed through on the original premise of the AllStar line but instead DC decided to do what it does best. Being fluffers for Frank Miller.

The WB wouldn't even have a Super character knock someones head off in a big cheap splatterfest even in a feature film. Because they are ware of the audience range that will come to see the movie. As someone who is  bookseller at a major bookstore chain when I have a parent looking for a Superman comic to give a kid, I have nothing to recommened that isn't either gory and extreme, or flat and watered down. That even aside from the fact that  Superboy Prime is being written grossly out of character and like E2 Superman is being used as an effigy set on fire to represent people who want a change from this cheap grim and gore.

I would give that kid a Showcase Superman TPB.

I agree the standard "kids have Johnny DC" line is a cop-out that betrays a condescending attitude towards kids and an insulting attitude to the rest of us (DiDio's answer to the audience member basically boils down to, "Grow up, you big baby").

DC apparently views their "kid-friendly" line as a way to hook kids on comics in hopes they'll stay around long enough to force the gratuitous sex and violence on them down the road.  Nice.

What's totally laughable is that anyone could think muscle-bound freaks running around in long underwear and knocking people's heads off is somehow "mature" reading.  Introducing rape, murder and mayhem to superhero comics doesn't make them any less childish, it just makes them more mean-spirited.  Comics have become a niche genre for people who (a) are too immature to let go of characters in funny circus suits, (b) too insecure to admit superhero adventures are inherently silly and (c) depraved enough to take delight in the suffering of others.

If comic book fans want to show how mature they are, they should start reading books without pictures, or at least comics without superheroes.  And if creators want to show how "bold and gutsy" they are, they should try writing stuff with some redeeming social value, something real grown-ups (not just 30-somethings living with Mom and Dad) might want to read, or at least something that's forced to stand on its own merits instead of leaning on the crutch of using established cultural icons.

DiDio's right about one thing; it is up to parents to decide what's right for their children.  When my kids are old enough, they're welcome to read my Silver and Bronze age stuff, but otherwise, comics are off-limits until they're old enough to pay for them themselves, at which point I sincerely hope they have better taste than to bother.

And DC wonders why manga is kicking them around the block several times over.  Manga is filling the void that DC and Marvel left when they polarized into grim and gritty or kid's stuff.   A very big void.  It's not the art style, it's the content.  Too bad Marvel and DC look at the surface and not the substance.

As to DiDio's statement about the Johhny DC line, I have Flare and the other Heroic Publishing characters I can read who are firmly in the middle of Iron Age(Current DC) and childishness(Johnny DC)

my son will never read anything current by Dc until they clean up there act...

of course he will have the shwcase supermans/green laterns etc. of the silverage to read as well as anything i can find in the quarter bins from before the dark ages of comics.. i.e. before COIE and frank miller.

In all fairness I think most of us fall under the first category to a certain extent or we wouldn't be here. :D

I think what he means is too immature to let go of these characters long after they have passed a point where they can no longer can't (or are no longer willing to) suspend disbelief for them to have fun rolling along with it. Instead, they start demanding that pure fantasy conform to a narrow kind of "realism" that both the medium, and they are better off going other places to find rather than yanking superheroes out of the sky, stripping them of their color, and grinding them down to conform to it.