Dark Crisis Announced

[blunt_eastwood]

You guys are so bitter and cynical it's disgusting.

This is the best story ever.

When Nightwing said "We never were, WE'RE TITANS!!!" I came in my pants!

I have since burned my copies of COIE, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis, etc because they are garbage compared to this masterpiece.

[Triniking1234]

The Dark Green was boring. It felt like someone took a Wikipedia article and turned it into a picture book.

[MajorHoy]

If that was Jaime why the hell is the scarab, which is basically welded to his spine, just sitting on a table?

Is that the writer's way of saying Jaime is spineless?

You guys are so bitter and cynical it's disgusting.

This is the best story ever.

When Nightwing said "We never were, WE'RE TITANS!!!" I came in my pants!

Glad I don't have to do your laundry for you . . .

[lefthanded]

Yikes, this is very poor storytelling.

Issues 1-4 are the hero (Nightwing) refusing the call in a standard hero's journey. The reason for the refusal is embodied by Beast Boy getting shot in the head. There is conversations that Beast Boy might never wake up.

Smash cut to an hour later, in issue 5, Beast Boy is totally fine and Nightwing is totally on board with answering the call.

This event is so far having things happen, just because they need to happen.
Flash can't wake up Bruce? Hal will show him a powerpoint presentation.
How are we gonna wake up the others (supposedly Hal forgot the password to other powerpoint presentation)? Let's get Wonder Woman to do it.
But wait, that isn't necessary because Superman has figured it all out.

The writer is making things seem important, and then completely undercutting it the moment it is no longer necessary. That is making this very boring.

[Filbert]

Didn't Williamson say in the beginning that nothing would come of this story. With the bar so low, appreciate what you get, like Superman going full-on DC One Million.

[Captain Nostalgia]

I'm enjoying it for the characters.

It was cool to see Hal and Barry working together.
It's been cool to see Mr. Terrific and Cyborg on top of their cerebral games
It was cool to see Alan Scott show up and recruit the magic users (Swamp Thing, Constantine lurking in the shadows)
It's been cool to see Nightwing step up to take the primary leadership role
and it's always cool to see the Legion of Doom

Is it a literary masterpiece, no, but there have been so many lackluster DC big events in the past, and this one at least doesn't have that crappy (let's just make money) commercial feel to it.

[sifighter]

I'm enjoying it for the characters.

It was cool to see Hal and Barry working together.
It's been cool to see Mr. Terrific and Cyborg on top of their cerebral games
It was cool to see Alan Scott show up and recruit the magic users (Swamp Thing, Constantine lurking in the shadows)
It's been cool to see Nightwing step up to take the primary leadership role
and it's always cool to see the Legion of Doom

Is it a literary masterpiece, no, but there have been so many lackluster DC big events in the past, and this one at least doesn't have that crappy (let's just make money) commercial feel to it.

[cranger]

I'm enjoying it for the characters.

It was cool to see Hal and Barry working together.
It's been cool to see Mr. Terrific and Cyborg on top of their cerebral games
It was cool to see Alan Scott show up and recruit the magic users (Swamp Thing, Constantine lurking in the shadows)
It's been cool to see Nightwing step up to take the primary leadership role
and it's always cool to see the Legion of Doom

Is it a literary masterpiece, no, but there have been so many lackluster DC big events in the past, and this one at least doesn't have that crappy (let's just make money) commercial feel to it.

I'm enjoying it for the characters as well. It has been great seeing so much of DC represented (and not all just as background characters to Batman).

[thwhtGuardian]

I guess I just need more than characters I like just standing in cool poses.

I thought perhaps it would be improved by the Deadly Green because others said it provided some answers...but it only made it worse. There's literally a black page with just a wall of text explaining things at one point.

Seriously.

Who looked at that and said, "Yeah that's a good way to tell the story and get readers engaged," ?

And it doesn't stop there, in almost every panel there's a blue blob of narration...that explains what is already clear from what is actually happening in the panel. You get a panel of Alan deliverying a heavy handed bit of exposition and the narration compounds that with, " They explain the plan-but it is a strategy fraught with risks." Thanks, I wouldn't have understood that on my own just by seeing the serious and worried faces of the characters present and the dialogue they give about the plan and its risks.

"Show, not tell" is like writing rule #1...and they just whiff on it. Again and again and again.

And in the end, what did the endless exposition give us?

Nothing.

There's still no understandable threat. No real idea of what is happening and why and above all no reason to care.

It's just empty posing and some of it looks cool I'll grant you that.

But isn't there supposed to be more than just looking cool?

[cranger]

I am not going to try to convince anyone they should enjoy the book more than they do but criticism about a recap page and narration (which does not say they explain the plan, it says they have a plan, a risky one, and then it is explained) is something I wonder is just finding reasons to explain not liking it and avoiding the actual problem: expectations. Which I get, there are definitely books I have not enjoyed because of that.

[thwhtGuardian]

I am not going to try to convince anyone they should enjoy the book more than they do but complaining about a recap page and narration (which does not say they explain the plan, it says they have a plan, a risky one, and then it is explained) is just trying to find reasons to explain not liking it that I think are avoiding the actual problem: expectations. Which I get, there are definitely books I have not enjoyed because of that.

A recap page explains details that if you had read the previous issues you'd already know, and allowing new readers to jump right in...but this was a text page delivering new information and attempting to streamline a story that is going no where fast. You don't try to introduce new concepts through a wall of text, you show it to the reader in an organic way.

And you don't need to say that they have a risky plan in a narration box only to have a character explain the plan and its risks...it's very obviously redundant. There's a way to do that kind of a narration to tell the story, and it can be impactful but it would have played out much differently. Instead of getting the same information twice, you'd have an open panel with a view of all the characters and some of them would be looking nervous, Alan would be holding his ring out and his children would look like they were arguing with him, all with out any dialogue. Then the narration would be useful, as it would give context to what was otherwise being conveyed by the art.

Or, you could use the narration to explain something the art can't convey on its own, "Alan lays out the plan confidently, but inside he's torn by the perils..." such a box would not only give you the subtext that would be tricky to do with the art but also give the story some added tension and drama as we now know more than the characters in the scene do.

But when it just summarizes the same information that both the art and dialogue already gives you then the narration box is useless.

The rule of thumb is this, read that scene again and imagine it without that narration box and then ask yourself "would I be lost if this weren't here?"

If the answer is no then the narration has no place in the book.

And it's a clear no here. And the only expectation this book breaks is my expectation of a competently crafted story...and this wasn't it.

[cranger]

thwhtGuardian, I agree that some things could have been done better and your example of an alternative is great, but if the story revealed some big secret and moved the plot in a new direction (or even provided one) than the criticism would likely not even have been brought up. The criticism is fair. It is also the type of criticism that could be made of just about any book on the shelf right now.

[thwhtGuardian]

thwhtGuardian, I agree that some things could have been done better and your example is great, but if the story revealed some big secret and moved the plot in a new direction (or even provided one) than the criticism would likely not even have been brought up. The criticism is fair. It is also the type of criticism that could be made of just about any book on the shelf right now.

There are plenty of books that don't fall into these simple narration traps on the shelves these days.

And that there may be other poorly written books out there doesn't excuse this book or this event from being poorly written on a very elemental level.

I mean, we're nearly done with the story and it hasn't really answered any of the basic questions the plot hinges upon.

We know Pariah is doing this all to get his home back...but why do we care?

That's basic motivation...and it's sorely lacking.

What would Pariah getting his home back, and thus the multiverse that was back mean for our heroes? Would it be a bad thing if he won?

That speaks to a clearly defined threat, and there isn't one and without that there's a lack of any real drama.

Most books don't have these issues.

[Digifiend]

A recap page explains details that if you had read the previous issues you'd already know, and allowing new readers to jump right in...but this was a text page delivering new information and attempting to streamline a story that is going no where fast. You don't try to introduce new concepts through a wall of text, you show it to the reader in an organic way.

Tell that to the X-Men office. Their books always have a couple of text pages and have done ever since Hickman started the Krakoa era.

Though DC should use recaps, I don't know why they don't do it like Marvel does (with the exception of Bendis's books).

[Rac7d*]

Did you guys enjoy heroes in crisis more?