DC's "new" timeline revealed at NYCC

[Mr.B]

Doesn't this contradict the ending of Doomsday Clock and what Manhattan did with his powers?

Nah just some ernergy left in the chair when Dr.M killed Owlman on it.

[Noodle]

Nah just some ernergy left in the chair when Dr.M killed Owlman on it.

That's a heck of a lot of residual energy to do what they're hinting at.

[Mr.B]

That's a heck of a lot of residual energy to do what they're hinting at.

Just enough to change the Meta.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, he'll change time and then be deposited in the new timeline back at his usual power levels. He's not going to stay as Manhattan for the long haul.

[sifighter]

Wouldn't be so sure about that. Not even sure there would be a "fault." A lot is going down and we're not even factoring what's going down in Metal 2.

Honestly I hope we hear something soon, C2E2 is coming up soon so maybe then, but you make a compelling point of we don't even know how this will effect Metal 2 or if it will play a part of it in anyway. Unless of course we are just doing what Bleedingcool rumored where it was supposed to be like convergence and this story would only last two months then 5G. Who knows but at this point all we know is that Snyder has something up his sleeve that everything will matter with Metal 2 and this FCBD special with Wally is saying Everything counts.

[Badou]

I have no idea how important that Generation Zero book is going to be, but it is still baffling that DC gives Lobdell so much influence in creating their universe and defining their characters after he has failed so much. It is just crazy how they keep giving him all these titles to write. I'll never understand it.

[DragonPiece]

So I have a thought..what if this Lobdell story is a lead into the convergence type 2 month filler event? This gen 0 story could just be the 2 month filler while writers prep for the actual 5G era.

[sifighter]

So I have a thought..what if this Lobdell story is a lead into the convergence type 2 month filler event? This gen 0 story could just be the 2 month filler while writers prep for the actual 5G era.

I'd honestly respect them more for it. Do not drag it out for very long, just a quick two months with I assume a book every week and then onto the new era of books that will hopefully be announced and planned. Maybe thats just me though.

[Sacred Knight]

God I hope this doesn't try and merge everything together and get rid of the recognizable alternate Earths. One, it has zero chance of making any sense, and two, it will destroy any opportunity to tell any stories on those other worlds. The potential of which is an appeal to those who want nothing to do with 5G, however likely or unlikely that potential might end up being.

[bob.schoonover]

I have no idea how important that Generation Zero book is going to be, but it is still baffling that DC gives Lobdell so much influence in creating their universe and defining their characters after he has failed so much. It is just crazy how they keep giving him all these titles to write. I'll never understand it.

Lobdell is incredibly competent at executing editorial mandates. I mean that utterly sincerely and with no malice or criticism. Flash Forward is good and ambitious, whatever the heck is going on w/Nightwing is at least competently executed (no matter how fatally stupid it is), he came in on a number of New 52 books and gave the "new directions" real effort (even if the new concepts kinda sucked), etc. If 5G is a mostly editorially driven event, and none of the blockbuster writers want to write it, Lobdell is far from the worst choice.

[Badou]

Lobdell is incredibly competent at executing editorial mandates. I mean that utterly sincerely and with no malice or criticism. Flash Forward is good and ambitious, whatever the heck is going on w/Nightwing is at least competently executed (no matter how fatally stupid it is), he came in on a number of New 52 books and gave the "new directions" real effort (even if the new concepts kinda sucked), etc. If 5G is a mostly editorially driven event, and none of the blockbuster writers want to write it, Lobdell is far from the worst choice.

It isn't just editorial mandates, but the actual quality of his stories and characterizations is very poor. His New 52 work was genuinely awful across the board, and he was tasked with basically writing nearly every young hero at that time for some reason. You can only blame editorial for so much, and when a writer is failing at getting basic and fundamental characterization down that is on them. I know Jason fans will defend him, which is fine, but he has too many failings for me to give his New 52 work any sort of pass.

Lobdell's Ric Grayson story is one of the poorest and ill-thought-out stories I have ever read. I say that completely seriously. In every conceivable way it was a disaster. It was lazy, had the bare minimum of effort and planning put into it, and failed at every single thing it set out to do. From the story, the pacing, and characterization. Not only that, but it was supposed to just last for 3 issues until Lobdell campaigned for it to last longer. So he apparently has enough pull at DC even after all his failed books to still get what he wants, which I'll never understand. Then he left the book anyway after it turned into a huge disaster.

His Flash Forward book I just couldn't get into. Him and Booth's art were too much for me. So to me he is still the last person I want anywhere near rebooting or redefining characters, including Wally.

[Zaresh]

Flash Foward is a fun read. But I guess, if you dislike his take in Jason and the kind of stories he writes for him, you may as well dislike his Wally and this story. Seems logical. Not that he writes both the same, but both keep a sense of humour, fun and dramatics that resemble each other a lot, I think.

Glad to know that Wally isn't going to become some kind of wallpaper to the DCU or something. I guess this will be just some temporally post and seat then. Hope so. Good.

[Badou]

It isn't really his take on Jason I dislike. I think it is fine for what it is, even if it has gotten stale, but his writing style overall I think is pretty bad. I don't enjoy it. How he structures his dialogue and his thought boxes and how he overly narrates everything he writes. Then when you throw in his poor characterizations it becomes rough. I mean they could have just given Wally to a young and hungry creator instead of having Lodbell just go through the motions and fall back on his 90s style writing. That is what I would have liked to see for both Wally and Dick.

Also this feels like they are basically setting up Wally to create some new Crisis and the idea that Lobdell might be involved in that kind of planning worries me greatly, but again that all depends on if this new book/one shot is actually important and not just more filler while DC stalls with what to actually do with his character with 5G and beyond. The solicit basically feels like they are setting Wally up to cause his own Flashpoint style Crisis and it would suck that he would be blamed for whatever that would be now.

[king81992]

With Wally preparing to make moves and Epoch's retcon machine being introduced in JLO is the timeline we've already seen even accurate?

No way that all those events will have happened, regardless of what DC tries to say.

[Zaresh]

It isn't really his take on Jason I dislike. I think it is fine for what it is, even if it has gotten stale, but his writing style overall I think is pretty bad. I don't enjoy it. How he structures his dialogue and his thought boxes and how he overly narrates everything he writes. Then when you throw in his poor characterizations it becomes rough. I mean they could have just given Wally to a young and hungry creator instead of having Lodbell just go through the motions and fall back on his 90s style writing. That is what I would have liked to see for both Wally and Dick.

Also this feels like they are basically setting up Wally to create some new Crisis and the idea that Lobdell might be involved in that kind of planning worries me greatly, but again that all depends on if this new book/one shot is actually important and not just more filler while DC stalls with what to actually do with his character with 5G and beyond. The solicit basically feels like they are setting Wally up to cause his own Flashpoint style Crisis and it would suck that he would be blamed for whatever that would be now.

It's a matter of stylistic choices then. Well, that's just as fair as the other reasons to dislike someome's work.

I honestly don't have those problems with his writing that you have (I may have others, but those don't ruin my enjoyment, to be honest). Most writers have flaws in their writing, characterization of supporting and guest characters is a common one, I think; but I don't think it's too offensive in his case. I'm enjoying his support cast for Jason, for example. He was way, way more heavy in the narration boxes in the New 52, but he has tonned it down a lot. Issue 26 of the current RHATO has one alone in the whole issue, being the most extreme example (a narrative-related choice, I think). And this is actually something I tend to notice, because I don't like when there are too many boxes that give me nothing new. It's one of the reasons I dropped Flash in Rebirth, for example: writing was way too heavy with boxes that added nothing interesting for me. Well, they were too heavy, in general, maybe. I don't know about Williamson, but in the case of Lobdell, though, maybe he's one of those who write every issue with new, casual readers in mind and that's way he throws in the pages that much redundant info. It feels like it could be the case, I think.

I mean, it's ultimately a matter of different tastes, what annoys us, etcetera. I often dislike Bendis writing and I'm usually wary of his work nowadays. But it's my opinion. Some others don't have the same problems with his style.

(I'm Captain Obvious, please someone turn off my brains)