A Beginners Guide to the DC Universe. (Pre-New 52)

Recently I have been playing DC Universe Online. It was inevitable that I would, from the instant the game was announced, the anticipation of it's release drove me to often just look at the same videos over and over again. Even the cinematic was saved to my phone so I could show others who had not yet seen it.
This is why I was surprised to learn that so many of the people who play have never read the comics, and those who have were not into them. Often I have been asked to explain some of the back story, or even entire histories. Such as why can Robin and Nightwing be there together.

This post is for the people who want to get into the comics after playing the game. Who want to learn some of the history, or want to simply get a little more out of the game. There are a few things I should explain first though.

Some comics, wether they be limited series or graphic novels, are not part of the continuity, no matter how hard they try. A great many hard core fans out there have mapped the continuity of the DC Universe very carefully. Which is impressive, considering how many retcons there have been. I myself am a little bit more casual. Don't get me wrong I have read so many it could make your eyes bleed, just I believe a person can pick and choose the continuity they want. If readers are aloud to ignore a bad comic, they should be aloud to ignore a good one to if they don't like where it ends up with the character. Which means in my opinion you do not need to know the entire history of the DC Universe, you can pick and mix from the comics yourselves to get your own favorite universe. Everything else would be an 'elseworld' or another Earth in the Multiverse. Which in itself can be complicated to explain. Regardless there a few comics out there I feel are really worth reading for beginners just looking to get more out of the DC Universe;

1. All-Star Superman

All-Star Superman Vol 2 Cover

All Star Superman one of only two DC All Star series that ever took off, and the only one not to spawn an internet meme through it's stupidity. The All Star series was meant to be a way for comic novices to start out with out worrying about continuity. In the cases of All Star Batman, having Frank Miller (whos sanity has really ran away now) write it, clearly with disregard for everything Batman stands for, meant that it failed. Even comic novices knew it was wrong. Grant Morrison however, (sanity mostly intact) was chosen to write All Star Superman. This limited series (available in two volumes or an absolute edition) covers the life of Superman, letting us see the true him, the sacrifices he makes and that he isn't all brawn and no brain. The story also manages to include different types of kryptonite, the evolution of Superman, different villains, the death of Jonathan Kent, even Bizzaro world. If you don't feel for Superman by the end of All-Star Superman, comics probably aren't for you, but trust me, you will feel for him, and then you'll read it all over again.

2. Crisis on Infinite Earth, Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis


Possibly three of the largest events ever in the DC Universe, essentially a continuity fix tool. The first two crises were essentially a way of explaining continuity errors and setting which was the real DC history. Of course you have to do this every so often in comics because inevitably a weekly, monthly series with multiple writers becomes complicated. DC decided that all of their comics were history however, how could they not be? So the multiverse was born. Major events happen through out these three story lines. There is Identity Crisis and the two Countdown series, which are build ups to them, though most people, myself included think they are trash. The three main series are well worth the read however. Grant Morrision (again) wrote Final Crisis, so you know after reading All Star Superman you are in for a treat.

3. Arkham Asylum; A Serious House on Serious Earth

This comic I am recommending because it is so different. The writing is perfect, (Morrison again) featuring the darker side of Batman, without ruining him like Miller does. We also get some creepier interpretations of characters, such as the Joker, Mad Hatter and Two Face. The major selling point of Arkham Asylum however is the art by Dave McKean, amazingly well done and totally unlike anything ever seen in comics before. This is worth the read even if you are not into comics!

4. The Long Halloween


One more, as by this point you have quite a bit of reading to be catching up on! The first entry in the list that is not Grant Morrison, Long Halloween is written by Jeph Loeb, another brilliant writer. Long Halloween takes Batman back to his roots as it is a detective story. Rather than Batman making a brave leap in logic or the villain announcing his plan or who they even are, our hero has to follow a series of non-riddle clues to discover who the murder is. This comic covers a wide range of characters and situations and is brilliant for old and new readers a like. Once you have read it you'll want more, and may even consider Dark Victory but that's another story.

So thats quite a lot of reading you have to do. Who knows maybe it is a good introduction to the DC Universe, maybe it isn't. Hopefully it will be a good enough start that it sends you on the long road of a happy relationship with the DC Universe.

Night of the Owls! Batman Vol. 2 #8 and #9.

So, anyone who knows me or reads my blog knows that I took a peculiar sort of, well, offense to DC deciding to reboot everything. So much so that I gave up reading them well in advance of Flashpoint and the event. I decided that if DC wanted to ignore their history, so would I and that I wouldn't want anything to do with them anymore.

I know a lot of people who claim that it's to help new readers get into comics, ala Marvels (awful) Ultimates series. Some people I know have even claimed that you can't truly collect comic books because unless you have issue one you don't have a complete collection. To that I of course brandish many expletives. Regardless recently a friend of mine convinced me I should give DC a try once again. So after thinking hard about it, I went with Batman, Superman and Justice League. Granted he then told me "Well of course the flagship characters will win you over." To which I respond, "Yes, but if it turns out they can't write their flagship characters, I'm going back to only Marvel again."

Despite saying that, I am not going back to only Marvel again. I will review Superman and Justice League at a later date, but boy oh boy is Batman back on track.

Granted I never thought that Batman got particularly bad. I'm one of the few who thought that the Return of Bruce Wayne was good fun. Though of course DC had many, many, poor stories featuring all of their characters being dumb or poorly written at some point. Then they rebooted it and all the rumors, etc, well I just gave up hope. Batman after all is one of the best characters of all time. I mean;

Ok so that's a poor example of Batman. Funnily enough it's hard to think of one specifically good example of Batman. He is awesome the world over, even when it's a poor writer he just emits brilliance. Does he now still?

Well I don't know about when the reboot first came out. I didn't read any up until now. Let's start with Issue #8.

Holy Art Batman! That cover is impressive. What's better is, unlike the issue of Incredible Hulk I reviewed recently, this cover actually has something to do with the issue! Jumping in at this point can be confusing however, I had to do a little bit of research but otherwise this issue works well. You get a lot of what makes Batman great.

Specifically you get (for most of the issue) a wounded Bruce Wayne fighting off possibly hundreds of ninjas (come on that's what they are) with nothing but his pajama bottoms and dressing gown. Does he win? Not exactly, but then again he doesn't lose either. It just continues into the next issue. I will admit I was a little worried in one panel, when it seemed he killed one of them. Though they were careful to have the guy talking afterwards, and it turns out these guys have some sort of Wolverine-esqe healing factor, I didn't like the fact that he still stabs him to pin him to the roof. A bit over the top for my taste. I've always thought of Batman as a "fighter so skilled, he doesn't really need to maim." Let alone kill. Either way at least he doesn't kill.

Issue #8 ends with the signal being sent out to the Bat-Family as the Owls aren't only attacking Wayne (who they didn't know was Batman), but all of the key officials in Gotham. The Family are mobilised to take down the Owls. It's a good cliffhanger, but unfortunately it's also a lead into other books. Which I doubt I will read as my comic list is getting expensive enough at the moment. I can't complain about tie-ins when they make sense though. For example Nightwing and Batman Incorporated, etc. The Batman Family titles. They should be tied-in. I'm all for keeping the whole Universe going as one giant thing, but when you do events like say Countdown, that have tie-ins to nearly all of your books, and stupidly high numbers of limited series created to be tie-ins. That's when it gets bad. So, as far as I can tell, there aren't many tie ins to this. Just the ones that count. After all it'd be a bit silly for Superman to become part of this struggle, wouldn't it?

Issue #9 is not as grand as #8 but still good. 

The cover isn't awful, and it does again tie in to the book, which we've learnt lately isn't always true. It's just a little bland. The issue opens with Batman kicking ass in a specially designed suit that will protect him from the caves now sub zero temperatures. Then during this fight so many things happen that confuse me. For one, I am not a fan of seeing Batman getting thrown around like he does for a lot of this fight. I don't care if they're ninjas, he's Batman. I tend to think of him as mostly untouchable, yet in this fight he gets beat on, a lot. 

Confusing element number two, is the dinosaur in the cave suddenly alive, or robotic? Since when? Is this a reboot thing or just a random thing thrown in? It's kind of cool but seems really random to me. Also; ninjas blind sided by a t-rex? Ok then.

Then we have this whole back story about owls being released into the cave when the house was first purchased. It's true cheese, oh the bats were killed, but they weren't because they can survive in the darkest coldest parts of the cave, then they killed the owls when... yeah you see where this is going. Batman takes off the clunky, slowing him down, heat suit and proceeds to fight in his normal suit. In sub zero temps. You know, because he's the god damn Batman! The story this issue ends with the death of Mr March whose last words are about saving Gotham from being a hell hole. Nice guy really. Though this isn't the end of the issue.

I can not work out if this is going to be a limited three issue series that ties in, or is in fact going to be a three part story (with this being part one already). I hope the latter because I don't want to buy another comic to get the full story. Either way we have Fall of the House of Wayne which, in this part at least, is from Alfred's father's point of view. Which is, ok, but to be honest kind of boring. It's all a letter to Alfred so totally narrated and quite expository. It is not as good as the rest of the issue. 

So is Batman still worth reading, post reboot? Yes. Is he as good as he was? In canon yes. Will I carry on reading him? Definitely. Seriously, who would of gotten upset over the reboot?... 

Man of Steel - Concerned for a Hero.

Although I felt betrayed by DC's reboot, recently I did find it in my heart to forgive them and have found myself once more reading their comics. Granted, I still feel like the reboot was pointless. I do however, feel like this can wipe the slate clean for some disasters like Countdown, Cry for Justice and Identity Crisis. That however isn't what this post will be about today. Today we will discuss Superman.

Ok so I personally do not have a favorite superhero. It's impossible for me to decide who is the best. Take Marvel's recently successful Avengers flick. My friends were all backing individual heroes, one prefers Thor, the other the Hulk. The wife prefers Captain America and another friend adores Iron Man (or Robert Downey Jr. It's hard to be sure which). I can't say I prefer one though. I know all their strengths and weaknesses, I know who I back in a fight between them, but even then I can never call it at 100% certainty. That is because I love them all. Yet there are certain truths. Undeniable elements to comics  that although often are argued are just things all fans accept. The Hulk is Marvel's strongest. Batman is the Worlds Greatest Detective. Green Arrow is Left Wing to Questions Right Wing. Captain America stands for his country. Well there is one truth that is often forgotten by writers (and film producers it seems).

Superman stands for the people of Earth. He doesn't pick America over Russia. He doesn't fight the Nazi's just because they're a foreign country. He looks after everyone, everything. He is the true defender of the world and the truest hero there is. Why do I mention this? That's easy. Man of Steel.

Why does that concern me? Surely a Superman reboot is a good thing I hear you cry? Well unfortunately, it's a reboot that is happening because of The Dark Knight. Not Rises. Just The Dark Knight. Am I the only person that remembered how appalling bad Batman Begins was? That Nolan only has done one good Batman movie thus far? Now they're trusting him to produce Superman. Problem? Superman can't FIT in a "real world" environment. He's an alien for starters, but ignoring that, unfortunately past experience has taught what producers think a real world version is. Notice how Nolan's Batman movies are all really dark, with dank and dilapidated buildings and crummy weather? That's great for Batman, but that's also what most "real world" stuff winds up being.

Before you all cry foul, how can I possibly know that it will be all dark and dank ala Dark Knight?

This is how.

First off the logo is terrible. It's muted colours and rusty look, Superman it is not. Steel it could be, and maybe that's the joke. Man of Steel will be a new Steel movie not Superman? Ah well, but what if the logo is just a teaser? 

Ok so he isn't rusty at least, but the hell is with the muted colours? That was a major complaint of the movie Superman Returns. Which this one is "ignoring like Ang Lee's Hulk was ignored by Marvel." If you wanted nothing to do with that movie don't make the same freaking mistakes that it made! Then we get the biggest issue. Granted, I pulled this synopsis from Wikipedia but it seems to sum up the info I found everywhere else.

"Clark Kent is a journalist in his twenties who was adopted as a child by Martha and Jonathan Kent after he was transported to Earth from the dying planet Krypton. Raised with the values of his adoptive parents, he feels alienated because of his unique super abilities and struggles to find his place in life. When the world is attacked, he becomes the hero Superman to protect it's people."

Emo Superman? Seriously? From what I have read Grant Morrison pitched a reboot concept that was basically his All-Star Superman series. That is so good, and sums up the character so well that I am going to now use that as an example of why Man of Steel is probably going to suck, beginning with the colours.

Superman should not be in muted colours, he is a bright beacon of hope, not some gritty "down to earth" guy. He represents what is good in the world and stands to defend it. He should be bright! Heck he flies in the Sun he isn't a dark character!

Next, since when does he feel alienated because of his powers? Granted in the comics he has a short phase as a kid, questioning why he should hide them, but he never feels alienated. In fact, let's hold of on Morrisons awesome for a moment. In the #8 of Superman this year, he fights Helspont who wants his help to enslave the Earth. Entirely because the people of Earth will alienate him. Superman's response (other than to smash him up alot)?

"I didn't adopt this world. This world adopted ME. I've experienced the best this world has to offer thanks to parents who never once considered me anything less than their son. Give it up. Compared to them, you're irrelevant." 

In a lot of ways, Superman is more human than other characters, even the powerless Batman! What's worse is that having him be all emo and feeling alienated, well that means we're not going to get the true hero that we have in the comics. The guy who is so good and so amazingly heroic that he sees all ordeals, big or small, as his responsibility to help with. Oil truck about to collide with a school? He'll be there. Lex Luthor about to take over the world? He'll be there. A little girl can't get her cat out of the tree? He'll be there. He is there for everyone and Grant Morrison also sums this up best in a scene in All Star Superman (Vol. 2 Page 95 and 96 if you're interested.).

Superman is talking to Lois discussing their life together and what it holds. During the scene we see disembodied speech bubbles. Random people through out the city (or the world maybe?) with "Watch were your walking" and "Cancel that back up." The most prominent being;

"Regan... Oh, God, I'm on my way... Don't put the phone down!"

Superman instantly tells Lois he's going and flys off. Why? Because a young girl is standing on a roof top in tears because her Doctor hasn't shown up to see her. Getting ready to jump she drops the phone off the building and closes her eyes when, you guessed it, Superman shows up.

It is a genuinely heart warming scene and further demonstrates the true nature of Superman. Heck I know that I'd like it if Superman showed up to chat with me when I was feeling depressed. It truly shows that Superman is not a man of just "strength" but a man with strength of character. In All Star Superman more than once does he solve problems with his mind and heart and not his fists. Unfortunately with Nolan's "realistic" and "gritty" take we will lose all of this. What's more is with Snyder directing we already know how the action scenes will go.

It truly is too bad that DC skipped out on Morrison's pitch. It's really too bad that this might be DC's Ang Lee Hulk as opposed to Returns. Ah well, we're stronger than we think we are, maybe it won't be so bad.