boyajian@akov68.DEC (03/07/84)
> It seems as though everyone out there has forgotten about the father of all > comic companies DC. I have heard very little in this network about this 49 > year old company and with so much going on in their offices. How do you > netters feel about the current story line of The New Teen Titans? I find it > shocking!!! (If you haven't started reading it, I strongly earge you to.) > How about the new Robin? I like him even though I don't see why no one has > noticed that the Robin with the Batman is now shorter (no one in Gotham, > that is) and why no one has mentioned Jason's change in hair color. Do > any of you know anyting about the DC Universe and Handbooks that are to go > on sale next year? In a "Meanwhile" column in current DC issues, we are > urged to note strange events in the coming year to link with a maxi-series. > Don't tell me DC is going to pull a "Secret Wars" on us. (I like Marvel's > but I don't like copies.) Well, let me know how you feel about my favorite > company...DC. (Just think, Jason Todd is the first young non-mutant hero to > come around in a long, long time... about 40 years!) > From the Vaults of the Oppressed Comic Reader > I be : justShawn A few words about DC. Unlike many comics readers, when I was a child in the early sixties, I pulled no favoritism; I liked Marvels and DCs equally (though to be honest, most of my favorite heroes were from Marvel). After a few years' hiatus, when I started collecting comics again, I bought everything from both companies, whittling the list down everytime the price went up. Since that time, I've liked DC well enough, through I've had a slight preference for Marvel. Throughout the 70's, DC would have short periods where they push their way to the top with a lot of nice features, though these periods usually lasted only a half-year or so. For the past couple of years, though, DC has been really going great guns, and has hit a peak unseen by these eyes since the early 70's. My current feelings are that Marvel has more "good" books than DC, but Marvel's worst books are worse than DC's worst, and DC's best are better than Marvel's best (the exception is THOR, which is better than anything DC has at present). On to specifics: I agree with you about TEEN TITANS -- DC's best book. The two issues with Wonder Girl's "Roots" and Dick Grayson's retirement as Robin were among the best comics to come out this year. I'm also quite taken with the current storyline, even though I think I have it figured out (I think that Terra is going to reform and sacrifice her life for the rest of the Titans, becoming the Titan who will die). I also already know Dick's new identity -- it's Night- hawk (where this identity comes from is left as an exercise for the reader). LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES is also a very good title, though it has been slipping of late (haven't quite enjoyed it so much since the Darkseid and the firebombers storylines. CAMELOT 3000 is quite enjoyable, as was AMETHYST (though I'm not sure I'll care much for it as a regular series) and NATHANIEL DUSK. I always read BATMAN and DETECTIVE, though I'm surprisingly not that enamored of Moench's writing on them. Roy Thomas is doing interesting things with the Earth Two bunch, even if I have quibbles with INFINITY, INC. (BTW, I believe that the strange events leading up to a maxi-series have to do with the JSA/I,I, rather than any kind of "Secret Wars"). RONIN is a disappointment. The book I've really taken to, though, is SAGA OF THE SWAMP THING. Alan Moore's first story (#20 -- he wrote #19, but that was just a wrap-up of the previous writer's storyline) was the most significant story since Wein & Wrightson created the character 10 years ago, and the subsequent story with Jason Woodrue was extremely good. Moore is, in my opinion, *the* best writer in comics today (this, and Englehart's re- marks in the lettercol of COYOTE #5, reminds me that I promised some time back to write something about the British comic WARRIOR, where Moore writes two great strips, MARVELMAN and V FOR VENDETTA; one of these days...). The frustrating thing about DC is their Baxter reprints. While I think it's admirable that they aren't flooding the market with titles, like Marvel is doing (I mean, the Lee/Ditko Dr. Strange's were good, but *really*...), it's also very maddening to have to wait for one reprint series to finish before get- ting the next, sort of like Chinese water-torture. But it's certainly provided for the best individual comic to come out so far this year --- MANHUNTER. After all the ninjas that Claremont, Miller, et al. have given us over the past few years, nobody has done it as well as Goodwin and Simonson. Are there any bets as to the next reprint after THE NEW GODS? Maybe the Englehart/Rogers Batman? (I hope, I hope, I hope). As to the DC Universe & Handbook business, the latest as I understand it is that there will be two different series. The first is a handbook similar to Marvel's, though not as detailed. It won't have strength ratings or detailed pseudo-scientific explanations of how the powers work, for example, just brief explanations of what the powers are and the origins of the characters. The sec- ond series is a History of the DC Universe, a story that, as the title says, gives a history of the major events of the DC Universe. Well, I've pontificated enough for now. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard) UUCP: (decvax!decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian) ARPA: (decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian@Shasta) P.S. to Jeff Myers: Try giving SECRET WARS another try. While it still isn't great, the second issue *is* an improvement over the first (for one, it offers an explanation of why Professor X was in the wheelchair; I still don't buy it and think that Shooter's trying to weasel his way out of a goof, but at least it *is* an explanation). Also, a future issue (I think #4 or #5), which focuses on the X-Men, is being pencilled by Bob Layton. (BTW, I'm glad that somebody else remembers that the Hierarchy was formed by the followers of Moriarty and Moran).