Does anything from the New 52 make your list of favorites?

[king81992]

The Ravagers was an interesting concept, but they should have used more established Titans to go along with Terra and Beast Boy.

[Ascended]

IDK, it seems Ascended read it as well, and he came away with a different stance. As with most things, whether it lands or not is a subjective thing for the reader.

This is true. But like I said I only read the book for the first year or two; it might've improved afterwards. And I haven't gone back to any of those issues at all since they were published. My memory is pretty good but its not perfect. However, what I recall best about that series is the cartoonish art showing the team charging into life-threatening battle with some of their worst enemies.....and smiling the whole time. I remember Damage almost exploding and killing everything within a mile radius (including his team mates) had Roy not thrown him off a bridge, barely saving everyone.....and both of them smiling about it, because who isn't just super happy about a unstable superhuman WMD almost losing control? I remember them talking about how much they just loved each other and boy, isn't great that they're all family? I remember bland villains that had been done before and done better....with the exception of Vandal Savage and Red Panzer (because nazi villains are always great bad guys; there's no sympathy and it's cathartic to see them get hurt).

That's not all the book was. There was also a lot of forced angst and thinly designed "drama" between team members.

There was good stuff in there, dont get me wrong. But it really did damn little for me back then, and age has only made me notice additional flaws I missed originally.

But YMMV of course. You might love it, as Agent Z apparently did. Don't let my opinion sway you.

[superduperman]

Superman's origin
Aquaman
Animal Man
Giving Barbara the use of her legs back and making her Batgirl again.
Making Power Girl Superman's cousin again.
Putting Poison Ivy in the BOP.

[Rod G]

Superman's origin
Aquaman
Animal Man
Giving Barbara the use of her legs back and making her Batgirl again.
Making Power Girl Superman's cousin again.
Putting Poison Ivy in the BOP.

Yeah.

There IS that.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Some of those things could definitely have happened in the original continuity. Fact is though, it didn't, it happened in the rebooted canon. And it overall didn't seem to bother people that much. Tula could have been resurrected at anytime, but in New 52 she never died and she and Arthur didn't have a long history of knowing each other. They still would have had to do some tooling around to make her Orm's half sister. Garth didn't have a history as Aqualad until Rebirth, I don't believe. And in the old canon, was it ever established that Arthur Curry's death had anything to do with Manta? A lot of this would involve changing canon around in some capacity.

There's more to Orm than being Arthur's Atlantean half brother. Did he ever genuinely love his brother in all his history like he did in the New 52? And while I'm due for a re-read of Johns' run, I don't recall Orm viewing himself as the rightful ruler. He viewed it as his duty and did it because Arthur wouldn't. And only did what he perceived as best for his people. Pre-Flashpoint Orm was always kind of a generically evil villain. There would be a lot of twisting of canon to get this new take on Orm's character to work. Johns had a blank slate with the New 52, and he took advantage of it.

Until Arthur Jr. is confirmed, it's probably best to not assume he's canon. Especially as Rebirth is basically just continuing the New 52 Aquaman lore, where Arthur and Mera weren't together that long prior to the beginning of the story and there's no indication they ever had a kid.

Yes, we're all aware it took place in the New 52, which with every passing year has proven to be more and more pointless since its been essentially un-rebooted in pretty much every major way. The point is that Johns's run on Aquaman was very much something that continued on threads that were sowed before Flashpoint and in fact could have taken place before Flashpoint itself. What you're alluding to as necessary aspects of Aquaman mythos are in fact unnecessary in that the stories told really didn't depend on them much. Tula didn't need to be Orm's half sister in order for her role to be anywhere near the same. Again with Orm because I don't really recall him being a "reluctant" ruler of Atlantis and was all too happy to lead Atlantis into war with the surface world. The comment I made was in regards to how the reboot was utterly and completely unnecessary in actually bringing about some of the most lauded books of the New 52 era and that's proven to be true.

[Kuwagaton]

It's funny seeing stuff like Dark Matter/New Age, because it's basically an artist oriented version of the New 52. Which should have been artist oriented as it had the 90s Marvel and Image vibe, but there were such strong writers to make the thing worthwhile.

- Morrison had Action Comics and Batman Inc as strong hitters in this era.
- Azzarello's Wonder Woman was outstanding. I guess Spaceman doesn't count, though...
- Milligan's Red Lanterns and JL Dark are really underrated. Stormwatch was alright
- Bedard did well with New Guardians, Jordan and Walker took it far beyond
- Green with Johnson on the first year or so of Supergirl was very solid
- Nicieza and Levitz are pretty underrated on some solid Legion comics
- Williams was a little too nonlinear on Martian Manhunter, but that was still excellent
- King and Seeley made me care about Dick Grayson
- Soule had SMWW off to a very good start
- Russell did my favorite mini with Prez
- Giffen is another underrated one, with Larfleeze
- Jurgens made an Aquaman team really work, and JLI was very fun
- Blackman and Williams did worthwhile writing to boot on Batwoman
- Marz did well with Voodoo. I probably like Basri's art more, though
- Midnighter was my intro to Steve Orlando

All-Star Western was probably the only book I didn't pick up for the writing. I hear good things about Fialkov and Miéville.

[Adset]

azz/chang's wonder woman and lemire/sorentino's green arrow are the only sustained runs on those characters i've ever liked. wonder woman's solo has never, ever interested me, but i gave the new 52 version a shot because i adore chang's art. i stayed for the whole series. the only time i've ever really dug green arrow was when connor hawke was running around in the 90s, so the lemire/sorentino run was unquestionably my favorite oliver queen version ever. i've just never been able to get into the character -- not the mike grell stuff (which is considered legendary), not the kevin smith/brad metzler relaunch (which was super hyped back in the day), nothing.

those are probably the only new 52 books that register as "all-time favorites", and that likely has more to do with the fact that i branched out with some characters i just rarely have interest in.

i've mentioned this before in other threads, but as a lifelong GL fan who discovered and fell in love with the character when there was only one GL and only one GL book, seeing the franchise explode like it did with four GL books at the launch of the new 52 and then a fifth added later (sinestro) was way cool, even if several of the books mostly fell flat and editorial mandated a never-ending series of crossovers.

[Sacred Knight]

Superman's origin

If the comics gods are kind, this origin will find a new home soon enough.

[Vordan]

If the comics gods are kind, this origin will find a new home soon enough.

We’ll always have Superman from the Sideways Annual out there, assuming he isn’t killed off down the road.

[SixSpeedSamurai]

Most of Snyder's Batman.

I actually liked Tony Daniels Detective run.

[Sacred Knight]

We’ll always have Superman from the Sideways Annual out there, assuming he isn’t killed off down the road.

Yup, that's exactly what I was coyly referring to.

[Zero Hunter]

Giving Barbara the use of her legs back and making her Batgirl again.

I think that is the thing I disliked the most of the Nu52. Barbara was always way more interesting a character as Oracle than she ever was as Batgirl.

[SiegePerilous02]

Yes, we're all aware it took place in the New 52, which with every passing year has proven to be more and more pointless since its been essentially un-rebooted in pretty much every major way. The point is that Johns's run on Aquaman was very much something that continued on threads that were sowed before Flashpoint and in fact could have taken place before Flashpoint itself. What you're alluding to as necessary aspects of Aquaman mythos are in fact unnecessary in that the stories told really didn't depend on them much. Tula didn't need to be Orm's half sister in order for her role to be anywhere near the same. Again with Orm because I don't really recall him being a "reluctant" ruler of Atlantis and was all too happy to lead Atlantis into war with the surface world. The comment I made was in regards to how the reboot was utterly and completely unnecessary in actually bringing about some of the most lauded books of the New 52 era and that's proven to be true.

Fair enough on some of the other stuff, but Orm was not eager to invade the surface world, he lead his army (who as a whole do not care for surface dwellers at all) in retaliation for a perceived attach on Atlantis from the surface. Using plans he and Arthur created together. He may not be a reluctant ruler, but he has a better sense of duty towards his people and is frustrated that his brother isn't joining him. New 52 Orm and pre-Flashpoint Orm are not the same character, and the changes (along with the arc as a whole) were very well received compared to the generic, fairly one note "evil brother battling for the throne" character he was before. Johns maybe could have done his revamp of Orm in the old continuity, but it would have to have involved some heavy retcons.

[Daniel22]

Favorites are:

Orlando on Midnighter
Valentine on Catwoman
Simone on Movement and Batgirl
Lemire on GA
Demon Knights
Grayson
Azz WW
Robin Son of Batman
Prez
Higgins on Deathstroke
I'm sure I'm forgetting some.

I miss the variety. Even though they wouldn't make a top ten favorites, I loved having the Dark books, horror books like I, Vampire and Frankenstein, war books, cosmic books... Rebirth really stripped the variety way down to the point where if you weren't into Superman, Batman, Justice League and Titans you didn't have much else. I like all those things but I like the A listers a lot more when I can read some other, non superhero stuff also.

[superduperman]

If the comics gods are kind, this origin will find a new home soon enough.

From your keyboard to DC's ears!