A Decade of New 52

General Discussion Comic Books
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Today is apparently the 10 year anniversary of the New 52. Would love to know everyone’s thoughts.

Since I started with the New 52, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY…
and thank you for your stale, dry, lifeless Universe without any connections or relationships outside of respective “families”, scattered character development, careers, history, erasure of legacy and therefore the future of the DCU, and so many pointless events trying to do too much too soon and subsequent relaunches to try and “fix” everything. Sounds like a lot of the same problems with the DCEU :roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes::roll_eyes:

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The New 52 was when I really started reading DC Comics a lot more, besides just the Green Lantern titles. In hindsight, a lot of the titles are a little hit or miss, and can definitely see how long term fans would have some issues, but it was a good jumping on point for me. I did like Johns’ Green Lantern a lot, Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and the Snyder Batman run.

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Yeah I will say it helped me jump into comics as well. It definitely left something to be desired though which caused me to read past runs and arcs. Now I see there are many things from different continuities that did different things and characters well. I think Convergence was a great idea to bring all the things from previous continuities back that worked or were done better but not executed properly at all which pretty much sums up the New 52. They should’ve converged different versions of characters and teams and their histories into 1 universe but that’s not really what happened. The only things from previous universe brought into this one were Wally and Pre-Flashpoint Superman and their histories didn’t follow them as the New 52 timeline was still kept in tact. Everything else was pretty much killed off cuz they wanted it to be a relaunch not reboot continuity. It would’ve been better if they had.

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As both of you have already said, New 52 was where I started reading comics. It was such a great opportunity for new fans to come in with a fresh start and easily understand everything they were reading. It brought us some of the greatest modern runs and did a great job at tastefully bringing the majority of characters to the modern era. Picking up a New 52 era issue of the Flash or Green Lantern brings me so much joy and nostalgia. Can’t believe it’s already been a decade. Happy anniversary, New 52!!!

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Oh, I totally forgot the New 52 Flash. I loved the art so much. And Aquaman. :slight_smile:

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I’ve been seeing a lot of love for new 52 Green Lantern run. Was it really that good? Something has held me back from reading GL for a long time so I might give it a try. My nostalgic runs from New 52 are actually Nightwing (I own every single issue and not ashamed of it even though Didio did the things he did to it) and Wonder Woman. Have Aquaman in my reading list. And ofc Court of Owls was good.

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Johns’ Green Lantern run is one of my favorite runs in comics ever, and the New 52 period had Sinestro back as a Green Lantern, which I really really liked.

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Honestly, yeah, it holds up really well. I’m not a huge fan of Geoff Johns’ writing at times, but this is one of those instances where he just knocked it out of the park. His use of all of the characters, spectrum of color, and just downright great storytelling made it one of the most iconic pieces of GL stories out there. It may be a cliche to praise it, but I’d just say it’s popular for a reason.

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I loved the New 52. Seeing the Justice League birthed, having Batman be the elder hero and a young Supes and Wonder Woman dating, Aquaman being a hero you were actually interested in, Earth -2, bringing back Captain Marvel…I thought it was terrific.

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While I do understand the dislike for the New 52, I can’t hate it entirely because my two favorite characters- the Caitlin Snow version of Killer Frost and the Siobhan Smythe version of Silver Banshee- weren’t introduced until it happened.

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Love the New 52. Was my foray into DC comics. A lot of things that fans dislike about it I actually enjoyed. No explicit ties to older runs meant I could read the stories without having to do homework. It’s said Superman’s portrayal was “cold”. I think it was just a bit more badass, and I liked it. His Kryptonian armor suit looked great. Greg Pak’s Superman: Doomed is one of my favorite Superman stories. Superman & Wonder Woman? I ate it up :joy:. Azzarello & Chiang’s Wonder Woman and Snyder & Capullo’s Batman are among my favorite runs for those characters, so was Geoff John’s Justice League with Jim Lee.

This comes from someone who had never followed comics before. Since then I’ve read DC stuff from many other different eras (and still exploring), so I have an understanding of why a lot of existing fans didn’t like it, and I respect that. For me personally though, it was great.

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Animal man, swamp thing, flash, Frankenstein agent of shade, aquaman, etc. New 52​:heart_eyes:

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I started reading in New 52. The runs on Batman and Flash got me hooked. Teen Titans too.

And before everyone starts yelling at me, yes, I understand what a lot of people didn’t like New 52 Teen Titans. But it being my first comic experience with the team, I really did like it. I have since gone pre-New 52 and read a lot of Teen Titans stuff and I understand the criticism. It doesn’t change that I still like it, though. :woman_shrugging:

Without New 52 I wouldn’t have started reading comics. It did have a bunch of continuity problems but it was, and still is, a great jumping on point for new fans. And that’s why I will always appreciate New 52.

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See I as well liked the fresh start. What I grew to dislike about it is how scattered all the characters’ careers and development were. It ended up not working and well we’ve have events to try and fix it every few years since.

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Scattered? Perhaps. I didn’t really feel that way reading it, but I was (and continue to be) focused on the DC Trinity and Justice League, so I’m out of touch with most of the other stuff.

Feels to me like the “reset” every few years is more about driving up excitement for sales than it is about organically “fixing” things. I don’t dislike ‘em, but I must admit, I never really feel like things are broken enough where they need fixing. I just go along with it all :joy:

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I am still annoyed about the treatment of the batgirls, mainly Steph and Cass, but Bette and babs didn’t get treated great either. also large loss of character development all around

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New 52 is where I started so I can’t give it hate. Obviously it hooked me. In retrospect there were story issues. But, the initiative did it’s job if it brought in more readers.

It is also in general a good jumping on point for readers today. The lack of previous continuity helps.

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That’s fair just specifically when you look at it in context The trinity and subsequent members of the League have been around for a little more than a decade, had several sidekicks whom have also had “illustrious” careers especially the originals (or rather what’s left of them since the only ones to exist in new 52 were Dick and Roy) and Dick had just went back to Nightwing after being Batman for a few years so Bruce is recently back from the dead or something and has had 4 sidekicks but is somehow only in his late 20s early 30s and that’s just one example and arguably the biggest, the Justice League is just now meeting and forming so all the relationships that we know and love don’t exist and truly didn’t until Rebirth “fixed” it along with bringing back legacy. This is what I mean when I say scattered. Nothing really adds up and still doesn’t, hell by all accounts Batman should be in his early to late 40s right now but still someone only in his early 30s but Rebirth was supposed to have “added back the missing 10 years”…

(whispers) It really didn’t.

So yeah while I like the fresh start I don’t like the way it was executed. This whole timeline is a HOT ASS MESS :joy::joy::joy::joy:

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While I wasn’t on board with the New 52, I will say, it’s not as abhorrent as people say it is. There were a few books I really enjoyed:

Talon by Snyder and Tynion was a spin off from their Court of Owls stuff where a rogue Talon becomes a hero. It was an interesting premise that they managed to make work for several issues. I think the only flaw with the series is that you could tell they had a logical end point which would’ve been the perfect ending for the series…and then it stretched on for a few issues more before ending. If anything, you know what it reminds me of? The Goodwin and Simonson Manhunter stuff.

Earth-2 was excellent. While I’m very much attached to the Justice Society, I wanted to see how this version fared. Getting James Robinson to do the opening arc didn’t hurt, either. He set up something with Superman that Tom Taylor paid off beautifully. It also introduced me to the art of Nicola Scott. The book was fantastic, but then it got into the whole World’s End storyline and the next volume that followed had terrible art. Still, it was a lot of fun.

The Shazam back ups were awesome. Okay, so we can’t call him Captain Marvel anymore, but Johns introduced the foster family and the ability to share the power of the wizard Shazam. I read it in parts, but when the trade came out, I got to read it in one sitting and it was just as good the second time around. They even used some elements for the movie.

Justice League 3001 was this wacky futuristic tale with a Justice League that shouldn’t exist. When you get to the twist, it’s insane but makes sense. I think the only issue with that book was the inconsistent direction the book took. After a few issues, it seemed like the writers would go in a new direction, get more with that and move onto a new one. The book at the first issue is waaay different tonally than the last. Despite all that, it’s an interesting read.

Was the New 52 a great idea? No. Did it have some bright spots for me that I enjoyed? Absolutely!

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Let’s go to the stored pull list and see what I bought a decade ago. My comic shop has my lists going all the way back to 2005.

BATGIRL: I was absolutely thrilled to see Barbara back as Batgirl where she belongs. Even better, Steph and Cass were gone. Unfortunately, Gail Simone’s heart never seemed to be into writing this series. In the last decade, I wouldn’t rate any of Barbara’s books as good. But I never did drop the title.

BATMAN: I’m not as big a fan of the Snyder/ Capullo team as most. It was good until the “Bat Chappie” Gordon era started.

BATMAN & ROBIN: Good

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT: meh, didn’t last past issue #7

BATWING: An inspired creation where a child soldier grows up to become Batman. When David left, so did I.

BATWOMAN: I prefer her pre New52 appearances. Not even the JH Willaims III art could keep me around after a year and he left shortly after that.

BIRDS OF PREY: Never should have picked up the first issue. Dropped after the first arc.

CATWOMAN: also dropped after the first arc

DETECTIVE COMICS: First of all, EWWWWWWWW. There was some great Jason Fabok art in there. Just good enough to stay on the pull list.

NIGHTWING: Average, but GRAYSON down the line was great.

GREEN LANTERN
GREEN LANTERN CORPS
GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS
The downward slide had already started, but the first year or so was still very good.

AQUAMAN: The best creative team of the New52 and the best Aquaman series in his eighty year history.

CAPTAIN ATOM: dropped after the first arc

FLASH: My least favorite completed Flash run since 1991 and it was still consistently good.

JUSITCE LEAGUE: The first arc wasn’t all that good, but it’s still one of the ten best JLA runs of all time. The SHAZAM! backup was great as well. Geoff Johns was basically carrying DC on his back at this point.

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL: I read it until its end, but it wasn’t good. The later JUSTICE LEAGUE 3001 didn’t last very long on my pull list either.

MISTER TERRIFIC: Terrible, especially on the art side. I was going to drop it when it announced its last issue, so I got the whole series.

SAVAGE HAWKMAN: Also bad, but I got out well before Liefeld arrived.

WONDER WOMAN: Just good enough to stay on the pull list, but I never did really enjoy the series.

ACTION COMICS
SUPERMAN
Grant’s stuff was great, Geoff’s stuff was great, Pak and Kuder were a surprise package, Yang made lemonade out of the lemons he was given. I’ve instructed the secretary to disavow the rest of it. For decades I had to hear that to make Superman popular again DC had to cut his powers, get rid of the red underwear, have him take on social justice issues and maybe lose the outdated secret identity. DC tried all that and it still failed miserably.

SUPERBOY: I like the back half a bit more than the first half.

SUPERGIRL: It had potential, but it never got above satisfactory.

BLACKHAWKS: dropped after issue #3

MEN OF WAR: dropped after issue #3: the solicitations sounded good to me, just didn’t like he results

STORMWATCH: bought it for J’onn J’onzz, dropped after the first arc

BLUE BETTLE: not as good as the first series, but I still read it to the end

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES: Not really an era I’ll reread much
LEGION LOST: didn’t like any of the characters, except Gates, so I never read it

STATIC SHOCK: Was on the pull list the entire eight issues, but it wasn’t very good.

TEEN TITANS: I liked Bunker and uh… I think that’s it.

EARTH 2: The WORLDS’ FINEST series was OK and it was great to see Helena Wayne again. The Earth 2 series though, very good. Got a bit out of control at the end, but still worth having a look.

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