New 52. Was it any good?

[paurru]

I'm slowly trying to get back into comic books these days after a long break since 1996.

The entire New 52 storyline stuff any good or decent or just skip the titles?

[Korath]

I really like Batman's main run in The New 52. Superman and Wonder Woman are more divisive, but I find them more appealing to me that the classical take on those characters (until Rebirth for Superman, that is).

[GlennSimpson]

It was. It still is, in fact. It hasn't ended.

[Ascended]

I'm slowly trying to get back into comic books these days after a long break since 1996.

The entire New 52 storyline stuff any good or decent or just skip the titles?

Well, like basically any other time in DC's publishing history there were good books and bad books and average books.

Snyder's Batman run gets a lot of love and I generally concur with that sentiment, though there are things about it I heavily dislike. All in all, most of it is worth reading.

Azzarello's Wonder Woman is polarizing. You'll love it or you'll hate it. He makes some big changes to the mythos, brings back a few older elements we hadn't seen in years (with or without adjustments depending on the concept in question), and plays heavily on a "horror/thriller" vibe that feels more like Vertigo than traditional capes and spandex superheroes. Despite all the changes in direction and tone, he wrote a very compassionate, intelligent, powerful Diana. I'd only recommend it if you can stomach a different take on the character.

Morrison's Action Comics is an absolute win if you're a fan of pre-Crisis Superman. He's young, brash, confident to the point of reckless, and generally a ton of fun and free from the navel gazing that tore the titles down in the 2000's. Greg Pak's Action run is a worthy follow-up but most everything else is....questionable at best. If you thought the post-Crisis era was the best Superman ever, it might not be for you, but if you can appreciate the character's full history you'll enjoy the elements that were brought back.

There was a backup series in Justice League that re-told the origin of Captain Marvel (now called Shazam) which was amazing and is available in trade. Its basically "Superheroes meet Harry Potter" and while it takes a slightly different approach to Billy Batson, it's heart warming, honest, and a lot of fun and gives Billy a character arc and development. That development has been largely ignored since, unfortunately, but the trade itself is still one of the best things DC has done with the character in twenty years.

Aquaman is basically awesome until Bunn takes over the writing duties, and even then it's not as bad as lot of people say.

Swamp Thing by Snyder and then Soule is absolutely worth reading, as is Lemire's Animal Man and his run on Green Arrow, which starts at issue 17.

Batgirl is a lot of fun once that whole "Batgirl of Burnside" thing starts.

Harley Quinn is a huge seller and a lot of fun in a twisted, irreverent sort of way.

Grayson is great if you like James Bond and/or spy stories.

I enjoyed the short lived Robin: Son of Batman, Black Canary, Dial H, and Cyborg series, though Cyborg wasn't as good as it could, and should, have been. Canary takes a different look at Dinah and has her thrown by circumstances into being the lead singer for a rock band. Aliens, shifty government agencies, and hijinks ensue and I thought it was brilliant a lot of the time. Dial H is "Tim Burton does multiversal heroes" and was one of the best books around during its short life. Robin: SOB and Cyborg are good but standard superhero fare.

EDIT: Also, Red Lanterns under Charles Soule, starting at issue 21. Its basically "Star Wars meets Sons of Anarchy" and was a highlight of the New52's Green Lantern titles.

[t hedge coke]

It had its good and its bad, just like anything. But it wasn't worse than any other era of DC.

[My Two Cents]

All Star Westerns featuring Jonah Hex was terrific
Actually Jonah Hex has been a solid book for D C since early 2000

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

The only parts that were really great were Green Lantern (which was just a continuation of Johns's run), Aquaman (at the beginning under Johns), Batman under Snyder (at the beginning), Batwoman (at the beginning), Azzarello Wonder Woman, Jeff Lemire's Green Arrow, and Justin Jordan's run on GL: New Guardians.

Everything else was....not worth it. Superman sucked, like really really badly. Flash, Batgirl, Deathstroke, Nightwing, and some other titles were just okay (but nothing special). And in the case of Flash, it just got unbelievably bad under Venditti and Jensen, especially the way they tried to introduce "Wally," who THANK GOD, they retconned into being a completely separate character from the real Wally West.

Everything Wildstorm except for Midnighter's solo series flopped really badly. And they're now reinstating that Wildstorm is in its own separate universe again.

Green Arrow (except for Lemire's short-lived un) was extremely bad. A majority of the Green Lantern line was lackluster for a majority of the New 52. Justice League was pretty lackluster (although Johns did find his groove at some point), but it also just...didn't feel like classic JLA. Wonder Woman also went down the tubes once Azzarello left. Even Snyder's Batman started to dip in quality as Zero Year was an overblown and protracted arc that simply didn't serve as a fitting replacement for Year One. Although, it did pick back up with Endgame.

The things that DC did to the Titans were borderline unforgivable. The Young Justice and Titans franchises are still in major need of rehabilitation and recanonization of all the major things that made those franchises unique and fun (which, hopefully, they will address in Rebirth). A bunch of those characters (from Bart to Cassie to Connor) have now gone into limbo because people need to forget about the stink the New 52 put on them. And its actually really sad that the comics featuring those characters were so bad because it was at the same time the killer YJ cartoon (which very much drew on the classic Peter David/Todd Nuack run) was airing.

Even at the beginning of the New 52, all the cracks had started to show. Nothing really made sense, especially since Batman and GL retained their continuity...which was sort of dependent on everything past also having happened. A lot of the writing was lackluster for a good 80% of the titles. There were gems, but they were few and far between. Their costume designs were reminiscent of the worst of the 1990s, with spikes and shoulder-pads and armor and extra pockets galore. It honestly felt more like the 90s than the actual 90s did at DC. DCYou (which was supposed to help things) just made it worse with its whole "there is no continuity" approach. At the end of it all, the DCU just didn't feel like the DCU. Everything that made the characters lovable? Everything that made them classic? Everything that made them the characters you grew up with? It was gone.

So, yeah, now they've retconned it into never being its own thing at all. Now, its just a part of the Pre-Flashpoint timeline and all the changes that were made in New 52 are now being slowly undone. As Wally establishes, the Pre-Flashpoint reality was just altered by the stealing of 10 years from the timeline (and those 10 years contain at least the bulk of stories that were missing from the timeline after Flashpoint). And in the case of Superman, they've even brought back the classic version who remembers everything from before Flashpoint. So, it is good to know that these are in fact the characters we know, but they just need to have their memories reinstated.

If I were you, I'd stick with Rebirth. Maybe dip into New 52 Batman and some others, but that's about it. Or just catch up on stuff you've missed from before Flashpoint. I mean, if you haven't read anything since 1996, I'd say you have a lot of catch up on.

[Sacred Knight]

Sure. Not all of it, that's for damn sure. What were you into before you left, who are your favorite characters? That would help with suggestions. In the meantime, pretty much the entire Action Comics run (minus the few issue interludes of Jurgens/Diggle in between Morrison and Pak) was awesome. I'd check that out. Snyder's Batman run was pretty universally praised. As was Azzarello's Wonder Woman, though that one is a bit more controversial among fandom for its lore changes and tone. Justice League had some good stories, most notably Throne of Atlantis and Amazo Virus.

[SmokeMonster]

Like always, there's good stuff and bad. Giving a review of the 5 years as a whole seems pointless when you're not going to read everything they published for 5 years.

[paurru]

To answer Sacred Knight.

1995-1996 last stuff I was into of DC was Batman involving Killer Croc and Swamp Thing and the first issue debut if Man of Tomorrow. Then i got burned out on the whole Death of Clark Kent and Conduit going after Super man's friends and family. I got into Green Lantern a little bit of Kyle Radner stuff in the issues 150-157 range

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Has anyone ever noticed that the majority of the New 52 was WAS worth checking out was the stuff that actually didn't alter continuity much at all? People usually point to the Bat-family and GL titles as the best of the New 52. I don't think its coincidence that those are also the titles that actually retained the lion share of their continuity coming out of Flashpoint.

[Prisoner 6655321]

Well, some of it was semi-ok but most of it I wouldn't suggest at all. I would mostly disagree as to "it still going on" but also, it's not utterly irrelevant post-Rebirth either. There were some titles / stories that were pretty good, but in general it wasn't a good era imo. There might be some stuff from the time that you'll find to your tastes but I wouldn't seek out books from that era for virtue of that.

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Well, some of it was semi-ok but most of it I wouldn't suggest at all. I would mostly disagree as to "it still going on" but also, it's not utterly irrelevant post-Rebirth either. There were some titles / stories that were pretty good, but in general it wasn't a good era imo. There might be some stuff from the time that you'll find to your tastes but I wouldn't seek out books from that era for virtue of that.

Agreed. Its definitely not irrelevant, but the New 52 as a reboot of the DC universe divorced from the 60 odd years of continuity that preceded it is over. Dead as a doornail. They've retconned that aspect of the New 52 away and post Rebirth, we see writers referencing the very stories that New 52 led us to believe were no longer canon.

[t hedge coke]

Has anyone ever noticed that the majority of the New 52 was WAS worth checking out was the stuff that actually didn't alter continuity much at all? People usually point to the Bat-family and GL titles as the best of the New 52. I don't think its coincidence that those are also the titles that actually retained the lion share of their continuity coming out of Flashpoint.

I'm not sure that's wholly true. There was plenty of bat-stuff in the relaunch that was panned or fell flat. And, honestly, the only part of the Green Lantern sub-universe that interested me in the relaunch was Red Lanterns, which was largely removed from the rest of it, anyway.

[Lee Stone]

It had potential.

So. Much. Potential.

It was a sales success.
But most characters were stripped of what had made them the fan favorites they were before.

I think the characters that benefited the most from New52 were the more obscure ones that hadn't had a lot of development in many years before the reboot.
The ones that readers had made connections with prior just 'felt different' because they were more like 'based on the character of'.
They were less 'X' and more 'the concept of X'.
So readers had to make new connections.

Unless you were a Batfan, of course.