Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Superman Metal


Well, the plan was to have the misery tour end yesterday but DC decided to double down!

After the downbeat and off-putting ending to his JLA run, Scott Snyder is bringing his latest vision to the DCU, a metal sort of JLA.

Here is Newsarama's coverage:
https://www.newsarama.com/48966-knuckle-dustin-superman-teases-snyder-capullo-s-metal-encore.html

I keep hoping we will get back to the brief renaissance of good feelings that came with Rebirth but it seems like DC is determined to bring us back to the low depths of the New 52.

A long haired, red-eyed, Bizarro'd up Superman looking like a mix of Claw The Unconquered and Kamandi isn't exactly what I am looking for these days.

So Year of the Villain, Perpetua winning, Supergirl as a one woman insane clown posse, and now this.

Well, I have been looking for ways to save money. DC keeps providing.

8 comments:

Seal Of Lion said...

I don't follow the 'politics' of the internal battles of the industry but in DC's case I think it means Dan Dido won. That means going back to a pseudo-New52.

I came into comics late but even I know New52 was a debacle.

Anonymous said...

I thought Hell Arisen was going to resolve Batman who Laughs. But I guess Hell Arisen will resolve absolutely nothing. Hmm, what a surprise.

Batman Superman was also supposed to deal with the Infected - another misdirection leading me to buy a book I wasn't really interested in (though it's had great art).

Fool me once... but fool me twice? Three or more times? My own fault for not seeing this for what it is - decompression on a scale never before seen or even imagined, heading towards a half-decade of a single massively decompressed horror story!

(Meanwhile Marvel fans are laboring under the yoke of the volcanic eruption of interconnected X-Men stories. How long is that sustainable?)

Bleeding Cool says, regarding the upcoming Metal, that earth will have been conquered by the Infected - including Supergirl! But by April, she seems free of the Infection in her own book. Confusing.

Maybe this decompression wasn't entirely planned. Maybe a lot comes down to the Doomsday Clock delays: I think Justice League spun its wheels on this never-ending story waiting for Doomsday Clock to catch up, which it never did. But now, another delay possibly because Greg Capullo started late and needs more lead time to get on top of the Metal schedule so that it doesn't suffer internal delays once it starts publishing. But these delays have capsized many other DC books.

T.N.

Seal Of Lion said...

With Marvel they are doing another line wide 'event' after the War of the Realms and Venom.

Bostondreams said...

I think one of the issues is timelines. All of these stories are not happening within the same chronology, which is why, perhaps, we see Kara cured well before Metal begins..
confusing I know..

Kent G. Hare said...

"Well, I have been looking for ways to save money. DC keeps providing."
So true. For the first time in my life, for the past year I have been buying NO comics. A couple months back that changed with the return of Legion of Super-Heroes, but 1) that's so erratic in publication already that it seems like I don't buy anything, and 2) I'm none too impressed with this new LSH anyway.

There is nothing from either company that interests me in the least.

And, after a very good Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, CWDC (DCCW?) seems determined to drive me away as well. Having dwindled down to just Arrow and Flash, I gave all the shows another chance and nope, not for me. Arrow's gone now. And if the last two episodes of Flash are any indication (especially whatever the hell that was last night), it's not long on my radar either.

Sorry for the rant. This is depressing.

Anonymous said...

Welp, Snyder and Capullo are not just saying the word Metal, they really are heavy metal fans, heaven help us. Heaven help most of us, because I think most people are NOT heavy metal fans.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/how-death-metal-became-a-dc-teams-biggest-story-1278849

I guess it should have been obvious, as DC is using words like "mayhem" and their promo page says "melting faces this May!" Are they really tying the brand to nihilistic thrash metal? Who is the audience? Maybe they've done market research and concluded that today's comic book fans are heavy metal fans?

I think Bendis would disagree - he likes to include the hashtag #supermishpucha on many of his posts (mishpucha is the Yiddish word for family). That's a different vibe! Bendis is writing kind of adorable, family-friendly stories. Unity Day. He's not banging heads.

Promo --

https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2020/02/12/dark-nights-death-metal-melting-faces-this-may

DC writes Bigger, Louder, Faster sequel to headbanging series. Was it headbanging? Did anyone here bang their heads? "Metal-er." From the "original team of heardcore headbangers." Whose faces will melt? Fans will lose their minds? What fans lose their minds about anything? Seriously? (Well, I'm losing my mind right now I guess.)

Snyder and Capullo are actual headbanging heavy metal fans? They thrashed about in mosh pits?

These are the words DC is using. I didn't read Dark Nights: Metal but I thought it had to do with special metals, not heavy metal music.

Interesting that Snyder essentially confesses they have been lying for a year:

"...it's been a tough couple of years, I think, in terms of disconnection. With things at DC, there's so many good books happening and so many good stories that, if we're being really honest, I think there hasn't been a ton of overlap and and connectivity between the stories. We're all friendly, and we work hard to kind of make things that could connect… if we figured out how to do it."

So yup - they've been SAYING for a while "don't worry it will all connect" while lying through their teeth knowing full well they had not figured out how to do it. And now he's saying THIS will connect it all, and we should believe him? Why does he think this time he earned it?

If there was no plan to tie things together as they all moved along in what appeared to be different directions, then anything that will impose a connection at this late stage will be forced.

Did we all know this, or suspect it? Or did we have faith there was a plan?

None of this sounds like something Supergirl fans would be looking forward to, but come to think of it, Infected Supergirl does look like she would fit right into Kiss.

Trying to digest this. This is going to be finished in November. That's almost another year.

T.N.

Anonymous said...

12 year old me would have loved this. Too bad 12 year olds aren’t buying comics these days.

This brings to mind the column from a week or so ago: who is the target audience for this stuff?

Professor Feetlebaum said...

I'm guessing this isn't a MAGICAL MISERY TOUR.

Do you know, you could sing the words "A long haired, red-eyed, Bizarro'd up Superman" to the tune of "The Purple People Eater" by Sheb Wooley?

I can't see things getting better at DC as long as the current administration is in charge. I'm still waiting to see what Jody Houser could do with a regular Supergirl book if she ever gets the chance to write one.

And if you're looking for something worth reading, there's a lot of Gold, Silver and Bronze Age material out there in reprint form.