My 300th Blog Post! + Some of the Better Points of the New 52

Hey guys! Well, I thought I’d talk a little about IT’S MY 300th BLOG ENTRY!!!

Ahh, 300 entries in a little over 2 years on a blog that has brought new meaning to my life…

…Yeah, apparently that new meaning is to torture myself. But today, I feel like being a bit more positive minded, taking a far more optimistic stance on something I’ve ragged on a lot these days: The New 52. A lot of DC fans are STILL pissed off about the reboot that happened two years ago, myself included a lot of times. Decades of continuity gone in a flash(point), characters shoved aside, stories becoming unnecessarily darker in some cases, and almost everything to do with Wonder Woman. And with all of that going on, it’s hard to remember that a lot of good has come out of the New 52 as well, something that occurred to me on Twitter last night while talking to Spoony. So today, I’d like to talk about some of the finer points of the New 52, in no particular order or planned number.

#1 – The Reintroduction of Vibe

Let’s face it, sometimes a character gets introduced who kinda bombs with the audience. However, the New 52 has presented a unique situation where these characters get another shot with a whole new audience and have their personas freshened up a bit to work better, and in no other case is this truer than with Vibe. Let’s be honest, when we all found out that Vibe was on the JLA, we were in horror of what was to come. When we found out Vibe was getting his own series, we wanted to call Arkham Asylum and have Geoff Johns committed. But, looking at how Vibe has turned out, he’s actually one of the better characters in JLA, and while his solo series isn’t my particular cup of tea, I will say that the quality of the stories is still good. So yeah, I’m considering Vibe’s reintroduction a successful one.

#2 – The Court of Owls Storyarc

I kinda wanna put an asterisk over this one since I’m not sure that stuff like Court of Owls required the relaunch, or if Snyder had planned it all along regardless. Either way, though, this was easily the best frigging story of the early days of the New 52, and I still recommend it and Scott Snyder‘s Batman to anyone who wants a great story within the New 52. Likewise, all the really cool stuff that’s come as a result of this story, like James Tynion IV’s Talon, can be added to this list as well.

#3 – The Revamped Alan Scott and Jay Garrick

I know old school fans are gonna wanna kill me for saying this, but I gotta throw this out: I really like the revamped origins for Alan Scott and Jay Garrick, to the point where I actually prefer them to their Golden Age counterparts. Jay Garrick is FAR less selfish than he was originally, and I really like the method by which he becomes The Flash. Alan Scott can at times be kind of a jerk, but it’s usually done in ways that kinda make sense, and frankly, having him actually be on the train when it explodes and losing someone he loves in the process makes the situation far more personal for him, and you feel sadder for him too. James Robinson has been doing an excellent job writing these Golden Age heroes in a present day world, and while I won’t say it’s perfect (there have been small hiccups along the way), it’s still about as good as you can expect, and really, that’s all I can realistically ask for here.

Now, the last three on this list are kind of a trilogy, so I apologize if this gets repetitive really quickly. Basically, it’s three event comics that occurred that are no longer in canon with DC’s universe, and frankly, I’m kinda happy about that. If you need further examples of why, I have four words for you: Atop The Fourth Wall. They were all covered on that show, and better than I possibly could, and pretty much spell out every single reason why these event comics were TERRIBLE. With that said, let’s move on…

#4 – Countdown to Final Crisis NEVER HAPPENED

Yeah, sorry to disappoint, but no matter how bad the New 52 gets, at least we can say this with absolute certainty: COUNTDOWN NEVER HAPPENED. Y’know, that year-long event comic that only continuously sucked more and more the further it went along? Yeah, never happened. Seriously, you know an event comic is bad when the creators of it basically try to pretend that it never happened, and that was BEFORE they hit the universal reset button. And while we’re on the subject…

#5 – Identity Crisis NEVER HAPPENED

Yeah, I know, a lot of people really liked Identity Crisis, and admittedly there IS a good story in there…if you can dig past all the bullshit. I’m sorry, but frankly, I’m happy that in this new universe, Tim Drake‘s parents are alive, the Justice League never wiped Batman’s mind, and Doctor Light is NOT a psycho rapist! Although while we’re on the subject, I WILL say that this is a bizarre fucking universe in that Doctor Light is a good guy and a family man, and Superman is the man who apparently murdered him? By the way, I say apparently since it’s clear it wasn’t his fault, and I’m not 100% sold that Light’s really dead. But anyway, last on the list of event comics I’m glad never happened…

#6 – Cry For Justice NEVER HAPPENED

Okay, while I’m not exactly thrilled that Lian Harper doesn’t exist in this universe, I take comfort in knowing she can eventually be reborn within it and then NOT be horrifically murdered like she was in Cry For Justice! Also, to be perfectly fair, this book sucked plenty bad before and after the death scene, although it WAS the cherry on top. I would love to one day have a sit-down talk with James Robinson and just ask him what the thought process was with this book, especially since I feel like a lot of fans would just yell and scream at him for what happened. I mean, Robinson is NOT a bad writer, but this book was wretched, and I would just like to know what went wrong.

Anyway, that’s all from me. Leave your comments below, and hey, if there’s anything you really like about the reboot, lemme know. Ja né!

Related articles

• SDCC 2013: Justice League Trinity War (comicvine.com)
• DC Histories: Alan Scott (Green Lantern I) (ifanboy.com)
• Is DC Comics Backing Away From ‘Identity Crisis’? (comicsalliance.com)
• Cunningham Explores the Mysteries of DC’s “Trinity War” (comicbookresources.com)
• EDITORIAL: 10 Must Haves For The JUSTICE LEAGUE Movie (comicbookmovie.com)
• SDCC ’13: Geoff Johns Shares His Thoughts On A Potential AQUAMAN Movie (comicbookmovie.com)
• Grumpy Old Fan | ‘Trinity War’ is testing the old ways (robot6.comicbookresources.com)
• The New 52 and me, then and now (comicdomwrecks.wordpress.com)
• SDCC LIVE: DC Comics – The New 52 (comicbookresources.com)
• DC Comics Solicitations for October, 2013 (comicbookresources.com)

Time For Some Honesty…

Okay guys, I need to be open and honest about something. Yesterday, I posted a request for questions for a Q&A video that I plan to do up. The reason I decided on doing that, besides explaining some of the things I do and why I do ’em, was because I wanted the people who follow my blog, or even just the average on-looker that bothered to check out something I did, to know they’re as much a part of what I do as anything…all the while ignoring a bigger problem I’m having.

I feel like I’m coming across as a wannabe, a poser, someone trying to be something they aren’t. People look at me and think I’m trying too hard to be like Linkara, and I think somewhere inside I felt like I wanted…I NEEDED…to be like him. I see him as someone who the people of the internet look up to and value his opinions on the things that matter to him and to them. Though to be fair, the rest of Channel Awesome are very much the same, and as such I apologise for singling out Linkara, he just happens to be my favourite…Well, him and Iron Liz, whom I fully admit to having a fanboy crush on. My girlfriend’s kind of in the same boat as me too, that she feels like a wannabe (hence the name, PinkRangerWannabe), and that she has a fangirl crush on Linkara and intense admiration for Iron Liz.

But getting back to my point, I guess the truth is, in many ways, I am a wannabe. And while I’m being truthful about this, I just wanna say this now: I HATE that. I HATE that I’m a wannabe. I don’t wanna be the next Linkara or Iron Liz, I wanna be the first ME.

My name is Jeffery Adam Phillips. I like anime, video games, wrestling, tokusatsu, and comic books. I’m a geek, and I’m damned proud of it, and I’m not gonna change for anybody. So to anyone that follows my blog, that wanders in to take a read, what you see is what you get. I will continue to do as I like, and it will not be so I can be Linkara or anybody else, but because it’s what I like to do. That might come off as cliché, as the proofreader seems to suggest, but I don’t care. This is what I do because this is what I like to do and what I want to do.

So I’m not “That Guy With The Poké Ball”, I’m not a member of Channel Awesome, and I damned sure am not the Irate Pokémon Gamer ‘cuz if I was I’d put a bullet in my head! So abandon all delusions of grandeur, ye who have chosen to enter here, ‘cuz I’m Jyger, and this is Jyger’s Rant!