Yara, Jon, and Jace…Your Thoughts So Far?

It’s been a while since the new Wonder Woman (Girl), Superman, and Batman made their series debuts. How does everyone feel about the characters and their respective series?

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With no interest at all. Hope they please their fans.

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Here are my thoughts.

  • Wonder Girl: Love the character of Yara Flor, her fiery personality, and her sense of humor. The series started strong. However, instead of focusing on Yara and her journey, it’s been spending a bit too much time setting up this big conflict between the Amazon tribes. Joelle Jones art is amazing, but the frequent artist changes haven’t helped maintain consistency. Just read on another thread that it’s been cancelled. Too bad; would have stuck by the book for a while longer to give it chance to find its voice before dropping it.

  • Superman Son of Kal-El: My favorite of the bunch. Makes perfect sense for Clark’s son to follow in his footsteps. I like that they’ve given Jon his independent personality. All the activism is different from how (a modern version of) Clark does things, but I never feel like Superman’s legacy is disrespected or tossed aside. Tom Taylor’s writing is a breeze to read through and the art by John Timms rather pleasing to the eyes.

  • I Am Batman: The only one I dropped, after issue 3. Funny thing is, I liked the Second Son digital series. His family dynamic and history was well developed, and I felt like I understood Jace’s motivations for fighting crime. What “I Am Batman” didn’t do for me is give a convincing motivation of why he put on the cowl. Because he found a bat-suit? The first couple issues spent way too much time emphasizing how this Batman is “different”. He talks to people more… he doesn’t like gadgets… he prefers motorcycles… often directly pointing out in the text or dialogue how he thinks his ways are “better”. Why wear the symbol of a hero you disagree with so much then? I just got tired of it all… was an easy decision to drop it. Funny thing is, this will probably be the most successful of the bunch.

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Yara I absolutely love – love her attitude and look, and I like how she further expands the WW mythos. I mean, Amazons in the Amazon…why did no one think of this sooner? :open_mouth:

Jon is interesting because he’s been around for longer, but I don’t think he’s really grown much until recently. I know it’s an unpopular opinion, but I didn’t really care for his character back when he was a kid. I thought he felt way too bland and precious, like a sitcom child there just to be cute. I’ve grown to like him a lot more now that he’s Superman and, frankly, after he came out as bisexual, since there isn’t really a lot of bisexual male characters like him in media in general, let alone comics.

Jace…I want to like him, and admittedly I’m a little behind on his current book, but I’m just not seeing a lot in him right now. Maybe once he goes to New York and gets to be more of his own character as Batman? I’m willing to give him a try, especially since I’ve adored just about every other work that John Ridley has done the past couple of years.

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I think he is definitely his own character. They established that early on. I think they emphasized establishing it to a point that made it a bit tiring after a couple of issues.

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As I said, I haven’t read all of his new series yet, but from what I’ve seen he seems to be trying to be some sort of “Batman but for the common people” thing, but I don’t see how Bruce was never for the common people.

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I like Yara but she isn’t around much in her series so far.

I didn’t like how Jon was aged up, especially if he was isolated and tortured for seven years, if I understood Bendis correctly.

I know he could not have joined the Legion at 10 but maybe at 13 and come back 17 after experiencing life?

My understanding is that Mark Waid new Batman Superman series is writing about some time before the current comic book time. If Jon is ten years old, that is great.
I just liked the family feel of Jon Lois and Clark, which is only around in the Wally West Flash series now.

Jon is an active and questioning individual in his series and the main character. That makes it a good series

I have not read Jace Batman but I looked at each page up to the current issue. I didn’t see much action. It looked boring and uninviting to me

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Listen, you find a Batsuit, the first thing you do is put it on. That’s just a fact of life! :rofl::rofl:

Getting back to the main point, I have zero interest in any of this “new trinity”. Hopefully readers are enjoying these characters, but to me they just seem like ways to appeal to a more modern audience. And that’s not bad, and I’d be the last person to say that controversial topics (ie political activism) don’t have a place in superhero comics, but it’s also not something I’m interested in reading, not right now anyway.

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In an interview on the Word Balloon podcast, Waid mentioned that Lois still doesn’t know the big secret in his series, so it’s an older status quo than that.

Regarding Jon, have to say I’m an outlier that likes both Tomasi’s and Bendis’ runs, with a preference for Bendis. I enjoyed young Jon and his dynamic with Clark. I also enjoy teenage Jon and his adventures following in his father’s footsteps. Yeah the way he got there wasn’t pleasant to say the least, but going through that ordeal and coming out the other side ok only shows the strength of the values the Kents instilled in him.

Yeah, like I said… too much setup for this Amazon conflict thing that’s coming. They should have let the character breath a bit before putting her in a crossover event.

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This is actually very well articulated, it’s how I felt for a long time when all this stuff was announced. I just didn’t like the concept of “passing the mantle”. Then I slowly warmed up to the idea. I think I looked at myself in the mirror one day wearing a t-shirt with a Superman logo, and felt hypocritical for not wanting Jon to be Superman :joy:

If I’m being honest, I still feel like, “I didn’t ask for any of this”… but I decided to give it all a chance anyway. Out of the 3, there’s one I like, one I’m lukewarm on, and one I didn’t really like. Expected, I guess.

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Yeah, it’s a shame that comic series tend to follow that bell curve instead of knocking it out of the park every time, especially when the talent on these books is so top-tier. If Wonder Girl really is getting canceled, I would imagine it’s because that “I didn’t ask for any of this” sentiment is more prevalent than DC had expected it to be after Future State and they’ve gotta cut their losses.

The other funny thing I wanted to point out was that this is almost like what went down in the early 90’s with Artemis taking over as Wonder Woman, four new Supermen replacing the presumed dead Superman, and Azrael subbing in as Batman. I know the timelines for those comic series might not line up quite as neatly as they do with this current generation, but the editorial decisions are roughly the same, and I’m pretty sure that in both cases, Wonder Woman was the first one to return to the status quo. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same :sweat_smile:

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Interesting parallel. I haven’t read the Azrael and Artemis stuff, but I have read Death & Return. Supes was dead, I think Batman had a broken back, and not sure what was up with Diana. The big difference I see is that these new heroes operate concurrently with the originals, instead of outright replacing them. Felt like a good idea to me, catering to to both those who are resistant to change and those who wanted mantles passed.

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You are right

Having Yara Jon Jace NOT replace Diana Clark and Bruce was a very good idea.

Not only would there have been a big backlash from those who love the original Trinity

The Trinity are the ones currently in movies and TV.

It would confuse new fans going to read these titles, with very different characters

It would only be temporary and the new characters would be relegated to semi obscurity like Artemis Steel Conner and Azarel are today.

By putting Jace in NYC, Yara in Brazil and Clark in War World, Yara Jon and Jace can be independent characters finding their own audience.

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Next Batman has been good, but some of the issues have had some bland art. Ridley is an outstanding writer who tends to build stories methodically but a bit deliberately, so it takes awhile for it to click. I like the series though.

Jon as Superman is cool. Tom Taylor is great. Long term it’s hard for me to imagine Jon “sticking” as Superman but I am enjoying the ride.

I’ve only read WG # 1 but dug it. Fantastic art in particular on that one.

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Yara I like, the other 2 not so much.

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This is interesting. So do you see the other two sticking in their current roles?

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I am irreplaceable.

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I don’t, but Jon is the only one currently replacing the incumbents. I see no reason Yara can’t stick around as Wonder Girl indefinitely, or why Jace can’t call himself Batman w/o replacing Bruce.

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And even there, he’s only really replaced Superman in his own book. Clark is still the star of Action Comics, and he’s been the Superman in Justice League the entire time.

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I’m not currently reading any of them, so meh.

Yara seems interesting and looks cool. I just haven’t seen her in much or gotten around to her own series.

I’m still not a fan of Jon’s age up and haven’t really liked anything with him since it happened. I tried Superman: Son of Kal-El, since I heard it was good and I like some of Taylor’s other work, but I couldn’t get past the first couple issues. It looks like I’ll see him in a crossover with Nightwing soon, so he’ll get another chance to garner interest. I’m actually disappointed at the timing because I want Dick to refocus on his own story a bit more after the last crossover. Also, following Jon’s visit, Dick has a crossover with Wally. Crossover craziness! However, I feel a Dick and Wally team up after everything each has been through is long overdue and will be great for both characters.

Jace just doesn’t really interest me, and what I caught in Future State didn’t inspire me to read more. I’m not a big Batman Inc fan, but the concept of others picking up the mantle isn’t new (Bruce and Dick even wore it at the same time for a while). I think Jace makes more sense outside of Gotham.

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