Thursday, September 15, 2011

The nuDC report, Weeks 0-2.

I based my opinions in the following report from reading numerous DC #1s, and reading reviews from IGN and Comic Book Resources (CBR), who I think have some of the most detailed and analytical reviews of comics.

This is the start of new column, report, whatever you want to call it.  It will come every other week, giving plenty of time to get sales figures.  It's a little different this week, as the report covers three weeks.

The massive DC reboot is upon us.  As a fan of the comic medium, I wanted it to succeed.  I'm a Marvel fanboy, but anything that gets interest in the medium, I'm fine with it.  Going into this, I knew that I would be reading books that I already picked up (Flash, Green Lantern, Batman, pretty much whatever Grant Morrison is writing), and only planned on picking up one new series, Aquaman.  Two weeks in, I have started reading four more series.

Justice League was a good, if safe, start to the reboot (DC Comics)

Week 0-1 started this reboot off right.  Week 0 was the week Flashpoint and Justice League was released.  Justice League made the mistake of telling an origin story, but it was still a great read, and got me interested in a franchise I never had any desire to read.  I ended up buying the combo pack for Justice League.  I don't see the need so far to have both a hard copy and digital copy.  I'll continue for a few months to see if it's worth it.

For Week 1, I bought a hard copy of Action Comics #1, and a digital copy of Swamp Thing, Animal Man, and Batgirl.  Week 1, simply put, was a fantastic week.  Swamp Thing #1 is one of the best comics I have read in a while.  Batgirl and Animal Man got off to very strong starts.  Action Comics was good, but not great.  Upon reading the reviews of the other comics, I noticed that many of them got between average to good ratings.  Swamp Thing, was, and still is, the top rated comic book from the relaunch.  The only comic that did not fare so well was Hawk and Dove.  Many complained about the terrible art and lazy writing.  The sales figures came in a few days ago, and they were beyond expectations.  10 of the 13 comics released in Week 1sold 100,000 copies.  Holy crap on a cracker. The top ten on comiXology was mostly made up of DC comics, if not entirely DC books.

I smell a new cult hit (DC Comics)

Week 2 (9/14/11) was an average week.  At the time of this writing, not all the reviews have come out, but I have gathered that this week wasn't as strong as Week 1.  I bought a hard copy of Green Lantern, and a digital copy of Batman & Robin, and Demon Knights.  Green Lantern was good, mostly being a set up comic instead of telling a real story.  Batman & Robin was entertaining, but didn't impress my as much as other books in this reboot have.  Demon Knights feels like it could be a cult hit, and I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I though.  But the reviews are in, and the books are faring as well as Week 1's.  IGN gave almost half the books between a 4 and a 6.5.  CBR, at the time of this writing, gave Mr. Terrific 1 star, Superboy 2 stars, and Legion Lost 1 star.  On comiXology, most of the new titles take up the top 10, but Ultimate Spider-Man #1, and a few issues from Week 1 are still there.  

Looking at my DC pull list, I have definitely given a good number of books a shot.  I'm not sure if I will be coming back next month for Batman & Robin, but the other books got into my pull list for next month.  I'm not sure how long Demon Knights will be there, but I'm sure the books I bought digitally from Week 1 will be there next month.

The next nuDC Report will come out after Week 4.

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