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Presenting DC Comics “The New 52”: The Third Wave

I’ve been reviewing as many of the titles as possible here on the PiercingMetal Musings blog for the big September 2011 initiative by DC Comics that they called “The New 52” and now that the first and second wave have passed it is time for, yep you guessed it, the Third Wave. It sure seems kind of soon but oh well, I am not in charge of how they do things over at DC Comics. So what does this one entail? Well according to what I have read the latest titles to get the chopping block are “Justice League International”, “Captain Atom”, “Resurrection Man”, and “Voodoo”. I was always kind of 50/50 on these books in the first place and am not surprised to see some of them go. I did enjoy “JLI” and “Resurrection Man” but even the redo of this last character was better the first time around. “Captain Atom” kind of lost me, and “Voodoo” never really did it for me. Sorry to those creative teams who put them out there, I mean no offense to your work. I guess I am getting fussy about what I sit down and read these days.

The other day DC Comics let on what the Third Wave of titles would be and those are “Talon”, “Sword of Sorcery”, “Phantom Stranger”, and “Team 7”. Let’s look at where they will land as far as the existing family of titles go. Nothing is being added to the Justice League, Young Justice, Green Lantern or Superman titles with this bunch but “Talon” falls to the “Batman” related titles and now gives that family of releases thirteen titles. Holy printing press Batman that is a lot of titles to keep up on. One title joins “The Edge” roster and two more become part of “The Dark”.

PiercingMetal Thoughts: What do I think for this go round? I’m curious about how “The Phantom Stranger” will do in a full on title because the overall mysterious nature of the character leaves him to be most exciting when used in a sparing fashion. “Sword Of Sorcery” brings back Amethyst Princess Of Gemworld to the DC Universe and offers a backing feature with Beowulf. As far as Team 7 goes, I am not sure. I was only ever a casual fan of the title when it was originally in the Wildstorm world so let’s see what happens. What do you readers think?

Official Website: www.dccomics.com

Readers can peruse all of our existing blogs about “The New 52” by using this tag – http://www.piercingmetal.com/?tag=the-new-52

Presenting DC Comics “The New 52”: The Second Wave

It’s been a few months since DC Comics began their “The New 52” initiative for their fans and while some of it has been solid, there have also been some lackluster moments in the run of titles. The announcement came that the following titles would be ending after their eighth issues (“Blackhawks”, “Hawk and Dove”, “Men of War”, “Mister Terrific”, “O.M.A.C.”, and “Static Shock”). I will be honest here and say that I will not miss most of the ones that are being cancelled with the exception being “Hawk and Dove” based on my always liking the characters along with “O.M.A.C.” as it was different and just a little bit of “Mister Terrific” since it was becoming more interesting. I had never been a fan of the Blackhawk angle and war comics just don’t appeal to me unless it was something more classic like we got with “Sgt. Rock” or the strangeness of “Weird War Tales”.

The Second Wave titles are “Earth 2”, “World’s Finest”, “Batman Incorporated”, “The Ravagers”, “G.I. Combat” and “Dial H”. The way the titles are being segmented is with two going to the Justice League family of titles while one apiece goes to Batman, Young Justice, The Edge and The Dark. No additions or subtractions will affect the Superman and Green Lantern titles with this go round. Only time will tell if this will change, but right now these families of titles only have four books apiece so they might leave well enough alone if the sales remain strong.

Am I excited about any of these? Well yes and no. I am intrigued by “Earth 2” and “World’s Finest” since they present a different heroic timeline and reality while the latter title takes the time honored place of Superman and Batman and gives the limelight to Power Girl and The Huntress. That should be interesting. Not so much keen on the Batman Incorporated title but will enjoy seeing “Dial H” back in action. As far as the new war title, let’s see what it offers. My review plans for these books will find them being included in the ongoing family of titles postings. It makes the most logical sense to do it like that.

Official Website: www.dccomics.com

Readers can peruse all of our existing blogs about “The New 52” by using this tag – http://www.piercingmetal.com/?tag=the-new-52

Presenting DC Comics “The New 52”: Project 2

Deja Vu? Or shall I say “Deja Deux??” Don’t worry dear readers of the PiercingMetal Musings Blog you are NOT seeing double or even accidentally stumbling upon an older post about DC Comics’ “The New 52”. Of course the subject matter is exactly the same and should be thought of as a continuing series of reports about the company wide title relaunch that started a couple of months ago. I’ve been a comics fan for many years and when the chance to offer objective views into this initiative came to mind I gave my all for your enjoyment.

If you are just now coming into the blog and don’t know what we are referring to, well let me recap very quickly. In September of 2011, DC Comics cancelled all of their titles and started them over at issue #1 – the initiative was called “The New 52”. The 52 new issues were broken up into groupings by character or theme and that gave us segments focused on the Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Justice League and Young Justice mythos. We also had groupings such as The Edge and The Dark that dealt with both edgy and darker story lines. You get the picture right?


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Presenting “The New 52” from DC Comics


Here at the PiercingMetal.com Command Center we have never denied being lifelong comic book fans even though the occasional economic factor hits the budget and prevents us from keeping up with the story lines of our favorite characters. Anyway, I digress. Since the company’s inception back in 1934 as National Allied Publications they have come a very long way and offered the fans of fantasy and adventure some truly amazing heroes with Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Flash being only the tip of a massive iceberg. They’ve had a Golden Age and a Silver One which entertained generations of fans with different versions of similar characters and eventually the massive amount of continuity and the numerous worlds upon which these legends walked was reworked to make more sense to newer readers in the epic title “Crisis On Infinite Earths”. That tale and its outcome was twenty six years ago and it seems the time was right to do it again. Introducing “The New 52”, a bold move by DC Comics to relaunch 52 of their titles with new beginnings after the conclusion of the “Flashpoint” storyline.


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