It's the new "0" for me. I just picked up my last batch of DC subscriptions from my LCS. I've been a DC only reader for the last two years or so, and even stuck with them thru the stupid reboot.

But as I ready myself for another military PCS (Permanent Change of Station) and cross-country move I of course had to cancel my subscriptions with my local store.

But as I was picking up my books and making small chat with the store owner I couldn't help but groan at all the dumb stuff that DC has done over the last year, and even more dumb stuff coming down the pipeline.

I was going to do what anybody else would do, go to the company website and ##### about stuff to make myself feel better. Only I learned that DC killed off their own forums months ago, I couldn't even vent.

Marvel drove me off with one bad story after another, and Spider-man's One More Day/Brand New Day storyline was the straw that broke the camels back. And now DC has done the same with the reboot, dropping some of my favorite characters from existance, drasticly changing others, and even trying to kill the voice of their own fans.

I'm done.

At least marvel only rebooted one title... Course I wasn't reading spider-man but if you were I could understand being upset.


This earth 2 stuff is making me crazy.

I'm only reading one DC title and 3 marvel titles (one of which is a mini series)

Well, personally, the only DC books I'm picking up are the "unrebooted" books: the Green Lantern books and the LSH books. If I were a Batman fan, I'd be picking those up too. Oh, and I'm also buying Aquaman. That may seem like I'm buying a bunch of DC books (there are a *ton* of GL books and at one point, there were four LSH books), but not compared to what I used to buy. I used to buy *every* DC book... well, the ones that took place in the DC universe... and weren't set in the past... and didn't feature Batman himself... except Dick Grayson as Batman.

I did try a number of the other rebooted books, but, *shrug*, they weren't for me.

I find it sad that Didio and Lee don't want to publish books that are the kind of books that I want to read. But, that's their business (literally). If/when Johns leaves Aquaman and GL, then I will drop them and be down to just the LSH. As long as the LSH remains the original version, I won't stop reading them no matter what, though.

Now, it's possible that I used to buy books that I didn't enjoy just because they featured characters with histories that I liked. But now, without that sort of tenuous connection to the past, I find it hard to get excited about "Part 4 of a 6 part epic in which nothing happens!" which is all too common. I'd say something about how, perhaps my tastes have changed and I've outgrown comics, but I think, instead, comics have outgrown me.

I don't think that what I want from comics is all that hard to achieve, but I don't think comics will ever again be what I enjoy. Which is:

(1) Stories about characters with decades worth of history that I've read (or could read).
(2) Self-contained stories, with maybe the occasional two-part story (or three-part story if it's a true once-in-a-lifetime epic).
(3) Stories about heroes fighting villains, not stories about heroes fighting heroes or stories about heroes talking about their emotions and feelings and stuff.

But, oh, well. More money for other stuff.

This one, especially, struck me as noteworthy.

I recently reread Panther's Rage, the old 1970s Black Panther story from the Jungle Action series, since it was reprinted in the new Essential Black Panther volume. That story was 12 issues long, nearly unprecedented at the time. The difference between that story and the hordes of over-extended stories of today is that something happened every single issue. Despite being part of a larger story, every issue still gave a nod to the villain-of-the-month format that was the flavor of the time. Each issue involved Black Panther getting into a single conflict which was more or less resolved in that issue. Even if that month's villain got away, there was always a dramatic, extended escape from a death-trap of some sort. Every single issue spotlighted an opportunity for the Black Panther to show off his strength, intelligence, perseverance, and/or character in some kind of physical match.

Even if that particular formula seems tired and old to readers both young and older (like me), I still prefer something like that to endless chapters in which the highlight of an entire issue was a zinger that Spider-Man throws back at Dr. Strange or that our team's leader has a secret plan that the readers don't get to know about just yet. That kind of stuff should be icing on the cake, not the cake itself.

Comics have hurt themselves by letting the pendulum swing too far to one side. In reaction to the old villain-of-the-month formula, they've gone way too far with the decompression.

Yeah, I know this is an old point, but it really seems to be popping for me right now.

Yeah, it's odd. I've been watching the DC cartoons lately and saying, "Why can't comics be like this?" Which is odd because (with very few exceptions), I've always looked down my nose at cartoon versions of comic characters for not being enough like the comics. But with Young Justice and the Green Lantern cartoon, I'm getting "done in one" stories on a weekly basis, even if those stories are developing a long term storyline. On the cartoons, every week, something happens... something is resolved.

Oh, and they don't mind calling Captain Marvel "Captain Marvel" either.

Rumors for a while have been that four books are being cancelled to make way for the four new books. And now we know two of the books that are being cancelled: Resurrection Man and Captain Atom. Captain Atom's no surprise, being the lowest seller of the non-cancelled new 52.

And if two more are being cancelled, well, there are three books whose sales are between those of Captain Atom and Resurrection Man: Voodoo, Blue Beetle, and Grifter. And Rob Liefeld has tweeted that none of the books he's writing are being cancelled (sigh), so things look bad for Voodoo and Blue Beetle.

Edit: And now, Voodoo's cancelled. Apparently, JLI's cancellation is the fourth of the four, as Grifter and Blue Beetle seem to be continuing. For now.

At least we are getting replacements as some of these are cancelled. Cancellations are inevitable, but I like how organized these are. I'm really excited about Phantom Stranger, especially after FCBD.

I'll admit though, that I'm probably biased since none of my favorites have been cancelled. yet.

Resurrection Man was a mid-level book for me on my enjoyment scale. I'll look forward to how Abnett and Lanning manage to wrap it up. Probably could have sped up the pace of the earlier issues, but it was a good effort by them for an improbably comeback for Mitch Shelley. Odds seem pretty good he'll appear again in Suicide Squad to follow up on the crossover with that book.

From the first collection of cancellations, I was digging the heck out of OMAC.

Only ish of Ressurection Man I picked up was last month's Suicide Squad crossover.

I've done a lot of trimming to my pull list for budgeting reasons, so I'm down to 8 DC titles personally, the top two being Suicide Squad and Demon Knights. I kept thinking of Henchman 21 with Deadshot's portrayal in May's Suicide Squad issue - "Why doesn't anyone tell me anything!?"

And Demon Knights is very Magnificent Seven in a similar way to the DnA Guardians series felt to me. Of course I jumped on it as a Legion fan when I read Mordru was a part of this story as the evil queen's hand. Hopefully the Amethyst zero issue will include some Mordru goodness as well.

The other six I care to pick up are the 2 Legion titles, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, Action Comics, and Green Lantern. While Legion Lost is an objectively weak book, nothing about the Legion is objective to me. The other books are solid.

I've heard that a lot about OMAC, which is a large part of why I'm interested in Phantom Stranger since Didio is writing it. I also hope that the Phantom Stranger title will really expand on and interact with the entire DCnU. One of the things that I love about comics is the shared universe to explore, which is something that it looks like PS could explore and develop.

I've really changed my purchase habits over the past several years anyway...I'm more likely to follow a writer from one title to another than I am to stick with a certain character. There are always certain characters I'm interested in, regardless of creative team, but if the writing is good, I'm game to check it out (within my budet).

I only buy a few titles every month right now, and really don't hesitate to drop one if I don't like it (where years ago I'd have stuck with most books through thick and thin).

It doesn't seem to me the formula is all that tricky...tell a good story...worthy of intelligent readers, and people will hear about it and buy it. Or that's been my experience anyway. Some of these writers though...they get to the point where people obviously stop telling them "NO" and do whatever they want (which, as a writer, would be an enviable position to be in, but still...not EVERY idea is a good one).

I like that DC isn't afraid to cut the titles that aren't working...although I think if a title has a strong following and is getting good critical praise, they'd be wise to stick with it whether it hits their 20K sales mark or not. A REALLY good story being told, and selling, let's say 15K, is better to keep going than something horrible that might be selling 20K because of a more recognizable character.

I agree with all of this. The New 52 actually helped me break a lot of my "reading for the character" habits. My pulls list is drastically different than it was a year ago. I'm also much more willing to try new things. Some of that is that it seem more accessible in this "young" universe. Even though I'm not buying any more than I used to (in fact, I'm currently buying slightly less), I'm reading a lot of things that I would never had tried before last September.

Not quite sure what to make of Didio's writing abilities. Really liked his Wednesday Comics Metal Men strip, didn't care for his Outsiders at all after Tomasi had it in a great place, loved OMAC but he had Giffen's partnership on that one. He's solo on Phantom Stranger, so that should put it to rest as to whether to make a decision on him from the outset when his name is tied to a book.

"Phantom Stranger" and "Team 7" have my interest for the same reason, filling in the blanks of the new universe.

I'm curious about Team 7 as well to fill in the blanks. I'll admit that I don't recognize all the names though. Any help with filling in the blanks, either pre or post nu52?

1. Dinah Lance - Black Canary
2. Amanda Waller - of Checkmate and Suicide Squad fame
3. Steve Trevor - pilot who crashed on Paradise Island; associated with Wonder Woman (pre-nu52)
4. Slade Wilson - Deathstroke
5. John Lynch - no idea
6. Alex Fairchild - no idea
7. Cole Cash - is this Grifter?

That explains the guy wearing the Grifter mask on the cover. Also Steve Trevor is the Justice League liaison now.

After doing a wiki search, Team 7 is an old Wildstorm team re-tooled here, but it still includes some Wildstorm characters like Cash, Fairchild, and Lynch. The biggest thing that I don't like about this book is Waller's inclusion, as I preferred the pre-52 Waller.