09-22-2011, 07:33 PM
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#1887
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Loque Ja
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Lock Jaw Reviews The New 52 Week #3
Birds of Prey #1
This book really seems to have lost all of its charm. The only returning character is Black Canary, in a pretty iffy redesign. No idea what her continuity is supposed to be.
Apparently, though, everybody thinks that the Birds of Prey are a villain team (but they are not). Kinda taking a page from Black Canary's first appearances in the 40s.
New character named Starling, who seems kind of really generic, and possibly supposed to be a replacement for Lady Blackhawk, but without any of the charm. Full of tattoos that you just know artists are gonna get lazy drawing. Selina seems to have taken a swing back towards moral ambiguity big time. It seems that she no longer know who Batman is, so that is at least one thing in the Bat-World that has been retconned. They have had "sex" though. Anyways, interesting enough read. Nothing special, but not terrible or anything. Catwoman seems extra slutty or something in the DCnU. Pretty standard stuff here. I enjoyed this before the reboot, and since it has not changed much, I am sure I will enjoy it after. It does not seem to be as heavily invested in following up War of the Green Lanterns. In that nothing from it is mentioned at all. Was looking forward to this one since I have grown to love Dick. Dick Grayson, I mean. I would have loved if he was still Batman, but this was still a solid read. Was worried that they were going to "mess him up" somehow. Looks like they haven't. I'd still like to know why exactly he stopped being Batman/see the conversation with him and Bruce where it was decided. Kind of starts abruptly, took me halfway through the book, and a second "skim" through the book just to understand what was going on. I like her costume more than her "Odyssey" one, though I am not sure why they didn't just make the silver parts gold like they used to be. Not much to say. It was Batman. Mysterious killings and whatnots. Standard Bat-Stuff. EXCEPT FOR ONE THING. The Riddler seems to have been redesigned so that he is bald, save for a "mohawk" in the shape of a question mark. Terrible. Interesting. This seems to be going for a complete reboot, starting with an origin story. Certainly, I imagine Blue Beetle is more popular now due to his cartoon appearances in Brave and the Bold, so I guess they are trying to connect with that audience by starting from the beginning.
A lot of it is really similar, but at the same time, there seems to be slight differences. Hopefully they can get through the origins of the Scarab and the inevitable confrontation with The Reach without repeating the story from the old universe. No explanations really as to his origins, or who he is. Luckily, I already know all that. Well, the old version anyways. This version seems to be getting new powers/less human. It is ok. I assume this is gonna be a series to spotlight various characters who don't have books of their own. The first arc is featuring Deadman. I thought it did a real good job setting up who this character was, what he could do, and created interest in seeing where it would go from here. Definitely has me in for a second issue. No reboot for these guys. Directly continuing from the last series, it seems. Probably massively confusing for new readers. The Legion is one of those things that I think is very difficult to get into. I only got into the Legion with the Mark Waid reboot, and then Geoff Johns bringing them back in Action Comics. Before that, it just seemed too much to jump in to. That said, I liked this better than Legion Lost. If only because it made more freaking sense.
One thing I did notice is that in both Legion Lost and now this, there were references to "The Flashpoint Effect" in the context of time travel. Braniac 5 even said in this issue that they could not go back in time for Superman's help anymore because of it. Interesting. And confusing. Hmmm. I actually found myself enjoying this one. Her costume is terrible, though. I wasn't looking forward to them doing the whole Supergirl is new to the planet/confused/alienated thing again, especially since the last Supergirl was just finding her groove. However, it already seems better than the old Supergirl series was early on. Costume is terrible though, and Superman appears on the last page, pissing me off with his costume too. Looking forward to the next issue. Wow. Wow. I.... this is the probably the worst thing to come out of this new reboot. They seem to have turned Roy Harper (Arsenal) into a mercenary killer. They have turned Starfire into a massive alien slut. Also redesigning her costume to somehow show even more skin then it already did. But somehow, the old Teen Titans are still in continuity. Even though I have no idea how Roy or Starfire could ever be on such a team.
The only positive I'll give this book, is Jason Todd seems alright. Seems less "serious business" than before. More laid back and relaxed. That said, I still don't really care for him.
But yeah, this book was just horrendous. Worse than Superman's redesign bad.
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