btw. can I just say how glad I am that DC fixed his logo. When I saw the logo on the sneak peek, I couldn’t believe they got the crescent moon backwards. I mean, it’s a little detail, but still. So it’s nice that it got fixed by the first real issue. They also toned down the yellow, which is nice.
Midnighter is getting a solo series based not on all those issues of Stormwatch, but because of him appearing as a guest character, an antagonist but now moving into frienemy territory, in Grayson. Where (being Dick’s book and all, so this is to be expected) he’s got a smallish role and is used to prop up Dick in a couple scenes, (and to comment on his flawless ass) so he’s not even at his very best. That’s how bad Stormwatch was. It damaged the characters so bad that it took a guest spot in another character’s book for his character (and costume. I missed you, coat.) to be repaired enough for Midnighter’s awesome to finally bubble to the surface. Which should NEVER have been a question, because he should be all kinds of awesome. Too bad we can’t fix all of them in this way. Apollo can get pulled along by them fixing Midnighter, but the rest… it’s harder.
Though Apollo getting fixed along with Midnighter relies on Midnighter and Apollo being together, which they say they won’t be. I’m still upset about that. They better kiss and make up by the end.
yaaaay! it’s Apollo! and his hair is white! and getting longer! and he’s all glowy! :D
Faux Doom amuses me greatly.
Multiversity was…. trippy. But I guess I was expecting that.
Man, that was quick. Good job, Internet! On the one hand, I’m glad DC came to their senses, but as Rich points out, this extremely fast changing of direction is part of the problem… but oh well! In this case it turned out well. I wonder if Fialkov could be persuaded to return, now. I though this Noir detective GL sounded interesting.
I’ve just been reading up on what’s been going on in Teen Titans and Red Hood and the Outlaws, (I don’t actually read them, cus I hate Lobdell’s writing in general. Normally I don’t comment on what I don’t read, but… damn…) and of course Batman Inc which I actually read… Not a good time to be a fan of any of the Robins past or present, huh? Except maybe Nightwing, he seems to have gotten off pretty easy recently in comparison. And so close together, too, traumatic events just happening over the span of weeks.
Wouldn’t be so bad if it was in the hands of a competent writer, but I have NO faith in Lobdell handling Tim’s (and Cassie’s) mind-control rape with any sort of tact, he may not even acknowledge that it was rape at all, and Jason’s face getting melted off just seems like it was done for pure shock value and is not going to be easy to undo… (and if it IS easily undone, it will feel even more cheap and tacky) at least with Damian, Morrison’s a good writer, and has been building towards this, and I have faith that he’ll handle it and the aftermath well. (Also, the whole story involves Talia Al Ghul, there could very well be a Lazarus Pit in Damian’s future)
Another costume change, Beast Boy is green again. All the costume changes are happening at about the same time, Midnighter and Apollo in April, Power Girl and Beast boy in May… I think DC just gave up. :p Unfortunately, all of the Teen Titans are in the same costumes as before.
Bad, bad coloring work.
Source: Stormwatch #1 (volume 3)
It’s not the colorist that does that, it’s Miguel Sepulveda, half the stuff in his art is copy and pasted from photographs. He’s awful. It happens in Red Lanterns too.
Kind of conflicted feelings about this. I guess DC’s heart is in the right place, and I understand that with recent events, people are more sensitive than they may usually be to a lot of violence. Also, DC’s core books with their most iconic characters should appeal to a wide audience, so I get the decision making going on here. BUT…
Well, first of all, it’s been shown time and again that people who go on these violent rampages have mental/emotional problems that aren’t going to go away just because they don’t have access to violent fiction. Also, I think the news glorifying these killers does more to promote copycats than any comic book, game or TV show.
As far as the books go though, I think violence can be a powerful storytelling tool in the right hands. Sure, it’s sometimes used purely for shock value, but it can also be used to good effect to tell you something about the characters, the world/culture they live in, make a statement/commentary on real life issues, or just to make you jump, etc. If you’re hoping to sell he book on notoriety rather than quality, then yeah, you’re a hack. But a writer can use that violence to good effect, to make a story better. Look at Luther Strode by Justin Jordan, it’s probably the single most violent and gory comic I’ve read in years, (I do not read Crossed, I’ve heard that’s more gory, the covers certainly are) people are ripped in half, blood and intestines flying everywhere, heads exploding, all on panel. But there is a REASON for the over the top violence there, and the story would be lesser without it. (And you know, sometimes gratuitous violence can be fun, a release of sorts, so hey whatever, not all of it needs a point, I just think it’s much better if it does.)
I don’t think this potential tool should be removed from every book on the shelves (or movies in theatres, or show on TV etc.) just because SOME people use it badly. If someone is offended by the content, they don’t have to read/watch it.
DC by all means they should get to decide what sort of tone their books have, but at the same time I think toning down the violence would be a disservice to certain characters. Deathstroke, Midnighter, the Red Lanterns as a whole, hell, Batman, can all benefit from violence in their stories. I think some of what was done in the Bat-books was shock value, but when dealing with a psychopath like Joker, I damn well expect something disturbing and violent to occur. Batman and Robin #15 was pure undiluted nightmare fuel from cover to cover, but I loved the issue for it. No, it wasn’t appropriate for young kids, or people who just don’t like that sort of content, but DC has an internal rating system in place, they should use it. (and use it properly. Some of their ratings currently are rather baffling) Apply a T+ or even an M rating to some books with lots of violence, maybe make the ratings a bit more obvious on the cover than they are currently, but aside from books like the Justice League, let the story/character dictate how much violence is appropriate, maybe nix anything that’s clearly there only for shock value, then respond with a rating that reflects the content of the final book.
This ended up being a lot longer than i intended.
Oh god, Angie, what have they done to you?! D: … and does Midnighter have Wolverine claws? >.<</p>
though I can take a good guess based on previous events and solicits. I’m guessing the ‘devolver’ she swallowed a while back continues to mess with her and causes her to lose more and more of her humanity. When the Eye explodes, she absorbs the wreckage into herself, resulting in giant monster Engineer seen here.
I just hope it can all be reversed somehow… The Engineer was awesome.
Zealot has potential, though. In Wildstorm she and Midnighter had an… antagonistic relationship.
This makes me very sad. Sandman is what got me into comics, and for a while, all I read was Vertigo, and Vertigo was her baby. Even after I got going with superhero stuff, I always had at least one Vertigo book that I followed, often ones she edited. If it had the Vertigo logo in the corner, I knew it was worth a look. It was a mark that assured quality. With Karen Berger gone, and the way Vertigo has been shoved aside by DC recently (moving Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Constantine back to DC proper, among other things. I mean, I love the new Animal Man and Swamp Thing, but… can’t comment on Constantine yet, but I suspect that will be less good, Hellblazer-lite) I suspect Vertigo may be on it’s last legs… I mean, they still have some ongoing series and miniseries coming out, the new Sandman still has me very excited, but with Berger gone, I think we will see less new titles from Vertigo, until it fizzles away. Image will take up the slack, I’m sure, but it’s still sad.
Well, if this pans out, just… D: (except for Hawkman. feh. Needs all the help it can get if it’s going to survive, which I doubt)
Swamp Thing and Flash especially. I can’t imagine either book without their current creative teams, both are the perfect synergy of creators and characters. Great books, and I want the creators to stay!
So sad to read this. Not that I wasn’t seceptical to the wildstorm migration of them but still… Had hopes.
I know… it’s like… Wildstorm had a very different tone than DC, so it was always going to be a challenge, and under ideal circumstances I would want them kept separate. But Wildstorm was ending, some bad editorial decisions and Grant Morrison up and leaving Wildcats and Authority after two whole issues kinda ensured the universe was no longer viable to keep going. I think at the end it was down to like 5,000 issues per month, which simply can’t be profitable. So, it was basically down to rolling the characters into DC or just letting them fade away. Neither one is a great solution, but it was all that could be done at that point. I think rolling the characters into DC CAN work with the right approach, but I don’t think they came close to that with Stormwatch. Team 7 comes pretty close to getting it right, though. It’s a little rough, but I think it has potential, and there seems to be a respect for where these characters came from and what people found appealing about them which isn’t present in Stormwatch, Grifter etc. I REALLY hope my pipe dream theory about Bronson and Higgins being Apollo and Midnighter in that pan out. It would fix SO MUCH, and all it needs is some erased memories to make it work, and they had their memories erased in their original origin anyway and Lynch is right THERE… He erased memories quite a few times in Wildstorm. Since the time i first posted about that, evidence has built for Bronson being Apollo, not Majestic which was the other main choice. Mainly, we finally saw his hair, and he’s blond, it’s also becoming clear that his suit gives him a set of powers and weaknesses VERY similar to Apollo, minus all the sun stuff (which admittedly is a big part of Apollo, but still). So I’m hopeful.
I don’t think the Authority is a good fit, unfortunately, it’s too large scale. But I think the characters can work in solo books or on other teams. (it sounds like the new JLA would be a good fit for many of them if it wasn’t already crammed with like 9 characters) but for solo, let’s face it, many of the sales from Stormwatch right now come from fans of Midnighter and to a slightly lesser extent Apollo, they are the biggest draw. They’re featured prominently on most of the covers, and the story revolves around them. If Stormwatch characters appear in other comics it’s been Midnighter appearing twice in Grifter, once in Deathstroke (which, I must say, was a stroke of brilliance from Kyle Higgins, (…wait a sec. HIGGINS. Could Jordan have given the character that name on purpose because Kyle Higgins was the one who established the Deathstroke/Midnighter connection, and Team 7 is where they meet? mind blown if Higgins actually does end up becoming Midnighter.) and I hope it’s built on by Justin Jordan when he takes over Deathstroke, because those two characters are PERFECT adversaries), and once in I, Vampire, and Apollo and Midnighter will be in the Valentine’s Day special. of the others, Apollo and Jack shared the I, Vampire appearance, and Angie and Apollo shared one of the Grifter appearances, and beyond that, nothing. People want Midnighter, obviously. I think he could have supported a solo (well, duo with Apollo) book easy. Midnighter supported a solo book already as recently as 2008 for like 20 issues. He’s the one who should have gotten a solo, not Grifter. But they can still do it. Get a good creative team, and make a sign that they’re returning to his roots somewhat (give him back his damn coat already, for a start) on the covers etc. and I think you could win back fans of his who felt burned by Stormwatch.
It was like DC was trying too hard to make it different and fresh, that they forgot what made the characters appealing in the first place. Then they got stubborn, like they were going to stick to their guns even if the new approach clearly wasn’t working. I would have been fine with some changes, but it feels like their CORE is gone, especially early on. I will give Peter Milligan credit for bringing Apollo and Midnighter’s personalities a bit closer to what people expect from them. Cornell had Midnighter as a creepy stalker with a crush that talked a mile a minute, and Apollo as an angry standoffish personality, they just didn’t feel right at all, it was almost like their personalities were switched. Milligan made Midnighter the driven badass he should be… or close to it anyway. I don’t like this angst over how violent he is, but he talks a lot less, which is a good thing, he seems to always be looking for a fight, as it should be, and the creepy stalker vibe vanished. Apollo got his nice guy personality and impulsive/reckless streak back as well. But it seems we’ve gotten that at the expense of Angie who has just been destroyed, which is unfortunate. Also, Apollo’s dialogue in battle has been terrible. But… still a step in the right direction. (Jack Hawksmoor does not have much of a personality at all, which is sad, but can be fixed)
I doubt any big changes will happen until the book’s been cancelled, though. On the up-side, at least from my perspective, it’s sales are sitting at 17,621 as of issue 13, and dropping about 1000 readers a month, 15,000ish seems to be the point where books start being cancelled due to low sales, so…
I really, REALLY should stop reading it… but they were my FAVORITE characters, it’s hard.
Saw a preview for the next issue and it just highlighted my problems with the book. There have been some good bits here and there over the course of the series, but this preview just sent me over the tipping point, and highlighted the flaws with the very concept of the book. It just can’t work, I realize now, the concept, the Shadow Lords in particular, guts the characters, as I will outline below. It’s kinda sad it’s taken me FIFTEEN issues to finally realize it, but in my defense, there have been THREE writers in that time, and I kept thinking one of them could turn it around, and wanted to give them all a fair chance. Sadly, the one who came closest, Midnighter trying to kill Jenny aside, was Paul Jenkins, who was only there for 2 issues. The solution is to kill it, and let someone else try again later. I think Apollo and Midnighter can be saved because so little of substance has been done with them. No origin, the barest hints of history (tiny bits and pieces about Apollo’s family, and we know that at some point Midnighter acted as the dark guardian of London. That’s it.), no explanation whatsoever about how their powers work (though this does not stop them from expositing endlessly in completely useless ways) after 15 issues they are still mostly blank slates. Jack Hawksmoor is borderline, but I think he can be turned around, his powers are messed up but he too is a blank slate, I am actually pretty fine with new-Jenny, but Angie… I think she may be damaged beyond repair.
Anyway, this is a post I made on a message board, which I am copying and pasting because I am lazy.
I can’t believe the coloring errors on Apollo got past the editor. He’s got sleeves, then he doesn’t then he has them again, then he doesn’t… I actually hope they’re NOT giving him long sleeves, though. The short sleeves look, though i would prefer it with his old simpler emblem and without the silly glove things, is actually one change I am ok with, it makes complete sense for his powers. How can he absorb solar energy if he covers every inch of skin aside from his face?
Dialogue is clunky again, contrived ‘spirit of the ship’ talking to Jack to make sure he had anything at all to do, and return of “teleport door” >.<
also, why was it Hal Jordan on the screen? he’s ‘dead’ (though I’m sure he’ll get better), the Green Lantern on Earth right now is Baz.
Atleast Apollo realizes fighting the superheroes is batshit crazy, though Harry seemed to think Apollo meant that the heroes were too powerful, but I hold out hope that he actually meant that it was just insane to attack them with no provocation or evidence that they’ve done anything at all wrong. And while Midnighter doesn’t seem to question the need to attack them, it’s because he’s busy thinking as realizes something is wrong with the ‘Shadow Lord’, though the mumbling (out loud! honestly. If you think someone is trying to trick you, you don’t say it out loud right infront of them unless you’re actually coming out and confronting them) leading up to it is clunky as hell. But if Midnighter is turned on for being the only sane person in the room, that at least saves him from carrying the idiot ball. But it saddens me that the others are being portrayed as so gullible. What we have on our hands here is a full blown Idiot Plot. It’s not as if Harry said anything to convince them this had to be done, just that they were ‘a threat’, but WHY are they a threat? No one is asking this? NO ONE but Apollo is questioning the need to attack Superman, Batman and Green Lantern? not even a little bit? Disagreeing with their methods is one thing, attacking them is another, and for them to just shrug and go along with it just highlights why I dislike the Shadow Lord concept. These characters in Wildstorm answered to no one but themselves for most of their existence, (their entire existence for all but Jack, who was the only one with Stormwatch under Bendix, unless you count Apollo and Midnighter’s very brief stint, which they promptly ran away from) If they followed orders, it was from someone they trusted completely, and got involved with what they were doing, not just vaguely overseeing and commanding. To see them reduced to the puppets of a group of Shadow Lords that we know nothing at all about aside from that they live on Avalon, they’re powerful, and there are 3 of them, we don’t even have names for them, is extremely sad. It has never been explained why they just follow their orders without question, the members don’t even seem to know much at all about the Shadow Lords beyond the fact that they’re in charge for… reasons… they just follow orders, even after the Shadow Lords, even without Harry, have acted in brutal and irrational ways, like killing Adam, and it bugs me.
Angie… gah, poor Angie…. I know it’s been a plot point, but damn… first she’s all like ‘whatever you say!’ to going out and killing Superman, which I have to stress again is insane and should absolutely be questioned, then she attacks The Projectionist as her first method of getting information from her? geez. I am not sure if she can be saved at this point.
Can’t wait till the Eye blows up. Maybe we’ll finally get away from this stupid Shadow Lord stuff.
(then someone said they were pretty sure they were following the Shadow Lords out of fear)
I could almost go along with that, except none of the characters have expressed reservations to each other about the Shadow Lords or the orders they give. Not once. No, they just give the whole ‘we’re professionals’ speech like they actually buy it. Apollo seemed confident enough that he could hide from Stormwatch and by extension the Shadow Lords (though it was due to Angie, not them), and suggested he and Midnighter run away, again proving he’s one of the only ones there that’s thinking at least a little bit right, but Midnighter CHOSE TO STAY, and even said that he liked it there. And it’s not like Apollo had no reason to think he could hide successfully. Harry and Emma have hid from them for over a year. Another member successfully hid from them for HUNDREDS of years, and when he was finally found out and killed, he wasn’t killed by the Shadow Lords, it was Midnighter, so… I don’t think the Shadow Lords are actually paying that much attention. They may have to go into hiding, but that’s better than being ordered to do things that are insane and wrong.
And even if they are there out of fear, it doesn’t damage their characters any less. In Wildstorm they were complete badasses completely unafraid to kill GOD, they wouldn’t take this shit. What does it say about them that they are willing to kill ALL the superheroes to save their own hides? I know people here most likely prefer the WS characters to the DC ones, and I know the Authority characters have always operated in a gray area morally, but come on. You don’t put a hit on Superman and expect to be seen as anything but a villain.
But if the Shadow Lords are SO powerful, why do they need Stormwatch at all? why don’t they open up a ‘death pit’ underneath Batman and company themselves? Why do they need the Eye’s sensors to track Earth activity? Or their OWN MEMBERS. Engineer said she would report them to the Shadow Lords when Apollo and Midnighter went AWOL, which means the Shadow Lords themselves aren’t monitoring them. The prisoners are guarding the prison. (which means they could just go ‘you know what? this sucks, let’s all just all leave at once’ and the Shadow Lords would be powerless to stop them) Why were they unable to see through Harry’s ruse? If the editors/writers thought this through it means the Shadow Lords are bluffing, and it should be obvious to everyone there. If they didn’t think this through, it’s just plain badly written, full of contradictions and contrivances, and shouldn’t be defended.
And to top it off it’s a cakewalk of a victory, and doesn’t involve Doors!
So, in a recent interview, artist Will Conrad was rather insistent that Apollo could beat Superman, to which I was like… no. I love Apollo, he’s easily one of my very favorite characters, but I know that he drains his power reserves easily, and Superman has a much larger bag of tricks. I figured Apollo would just futilely throw everything he had at Superman, Supes would shrug it off then pummel Apollo once he had drained his charge. But Conrad seemed so sure that Apollo would win, it seemed like he was privy to some inside knowledge (unsurprising since he’s Stormwatch’s artist) so I got to thinking. And it hit me. It’s so OBVIOUS.
Conrad kept hitting on the point of Superman and the yellow sun, which made me realize Superman and Apollo are both powered by the sun, but there is one crucial difference; Apollo is, as far as we know, indiscriminate about which sun he gets his energy from, red, yellow, blue, whatever. Some may grant a more powerful charge than others, and naturally he lives on a planet with a yellow sun so that’s where he gets his charge normally, but none of them will affect him negatively. Superman on the other hand is yellow sun only, hit him with the rays from a RED sun, powers vanish. In Stormwatch so far, Apollo has made mention of adjusting the wavelength of the light he emits, if he adjusts his wavelength to match that of a red sun…. he hits Superman with a red sun beam, and instantly drains Superman’s powers.
Apollo if finally cutting loose and kicking ass… and he’s not narrating his powers! His blast likened to hellfire, which redeems him being inexplicably taken out by a fucking flamethrower in Grifter. A flamethrower. honestly. still pissed about that.
From the preview for issue 14: http://sciencefiction.com/2012/11/05/exclusive-preview-stormwatch-14/
“Our friends over at Latino-Review have just broken one hell of a story. According to the site, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pacific Rim) will soon begin work on a DC Comics adaptation for Warner Bros. called Heaven Sent, and it will bring together some of the most well-known…
oh wow, this would be awesome. Like, Justice League Dark on the big screen.
alright…well, The Edge titles of the New 52 hasn’t had the best run this first year out but DC is gonna find that sweet spot. the work put in thus far wasn’t a waste—in fact, i’m quite optimistic for The Edge moving forward. and move forward is just what i have in mind! >:]
While I agree that DC doesn’t seem to know what to do with the Edge books, just a note, not all of those are from the Edge line. Mr. Terrific, Captain Atom and Justice League International were all part of the Justice League line, Hawk and Dove was part of Young Justice.
On the Edge side of things, I am getting the feeling that, with a few exceptions such as All-Star Western, DC is trying too hard to push a certain storytelling tone in them, but it’s one that went out of style years ago. Heavy on action, low on plot, low on intelligence. Voodoo looked like it could be interesting and intelligent, exploring a very gray area morally, then they fired Ron Marz and dismantled what he had laid down in order to make the book more generic, which was disappointing. Same deal with Deathstroke and Grifter, which weren’t selling well, I realize, but they thought the solution was to replace the writers with 90’s poster boy Rob Liefeld? You don’t have to make the books testosterone filled 90’s cliches to fit in a darker and edgier side of the universe, though. Recently, due to an interview with Justin Jordan about Team 7 where he mentioned that his Lynch would be more like how he was in Sleeper, I got to thinking how awesome that series was, so went back and re-read it. It’s edgy and dark, but also mature and intelligent, one of the best chessmaster duels you’ll find anywhere, Brubaker and Phillips knocked it out of the park with Sleeper, it was fantastic. And I would love to see DC do more in that tone with the Edge line rather than trying to copy the “Extreme” 90’s.
I disagree about a couple of the predictions you make, but some fun ideas, btw :) I think if DC lets Jordan do his own thing a bit more Team 7 could end up being really cool. But I think your idea of where it will be going is off. I think that it will, at least in broad strokes, follow the same basic plot of the original Team 7; a band of soldiers who are unwittingly being used a human guinea pigs to create super-soldiers. (Obviously, though, not all of the Team 7 members will be affected, since Waller and Trevor do not have any powers, and some it will affect their children, as with Fairchild.) I suspect the mysterious group of people Lynch was talking to in issue 0 contained some shady characters with mad scientist leanings from both Wildstorm and the DCU, Lex Luthor and Henry Bendix both seem prime candidates, and this would be right up their alley. This is the Majestic Project. The one thing I can’t decide is if they are using Majestic as a source of the super-powers they give the Team 7 members, or if he is the end result…. either way, Mr. Majestic WILL be appearing here, I’m sure of it. We could also see the creation of TAO here. Dinah will get her sonic powers and become Black Canary this way, Lynch and Grifter will get their mental abilities, Deathstroke will get augmented and so on. Not sure why you think Bronson and Higgins will turn traitor… I think, assuming they’re not redshirts, they’ll end up becoming existing characters, just that they change their names in the future. whether due to them going into hiding and assuming new identities, or they get their memories wiped or something, I’m not sure, but there is a certain pair of characters who are quite suspiciously lacking an origin of any kind in the DCU so far, but they had a super-soldier background followed by complete memory wipe in Wildstorm… ;)
