Justice League War

[Magus Prime]

Looks like they're making an animated adaptation to the New 52.  I really like who they chose to voice Batman, a decent approximation of Kevin Conroy.  I'm intrigued as to who they chose to play Supes.

[Captain Electric]

Just gonna post this before all the New 52 haters pile in. I think the haters have a right to be ticked (I'd be ticked if Marvel's Ultimates had replaced Marvel's mainline). I think they screwed their established audience over, but for what it's worth, I have enjoyed reading comic books in the New 52 line.

The characters have more believable chemistry in the New 52 even when they're at each others necks. They seem larger and more lifelike. Superman is still a dick, but he's interesting for the first time in years. He's been given a new and different personality, which is basically what it took to make him worth my reading. The rest of the characters don't seem as divergent, but they do have a more modern feel to them and I'm not just talking about their slightly updated looks. Modern comic book characters often share the same universe and DC's characters weren't originally written toward that end. Compared to Marvel's synergistic universe, putting DC's characters in the same comic book or cartoon has often felt like the writers were making a puzzle out of all the wrong pieces.

The New 52 feels more like a seamless world to me. But again, while I've enjoyed some of the stories, I take no pleasure in the way DC treats its readers. And since I read industry news sites, I'm aware DC has been up to all kinds of bad mojo lately.

[Arnabas]

I think the haters have a right to be ticked (I'd be ticked if Marvel's Ultimates had replaced Marvel's mainline).,

I dunno... It seems to me that--in Hollywood's view, at least-- Ultimates has replaced the main universe I remember when Thor was coming out, I was sure we'd see that stupid hammer/axe hybrid-thingy.

Also... what sort of "bad mojo"?

[Captain Electric]

The movies are their own thing. If the movies bear a strong resemblance to the Ultimate universe, it is because both were/are created to be accessible for general audiences and so the movies have taken a lot from the Ultimate line and vice versa. I've never heard anyone say the Ultimate universe was created in preparation for the movies, but it wouldn't surprise me terribly if someone said it.

Even so, the Cinematic universe is not the Ultimate universe; and the mainline 616 and surrounding universes have not been replaced by anything. Going strong for a long time now. That's not to say that Hollywood's view has not affected 616 at all--that wouldn't be true. It has. The mainline has paralleled the movies in general ways, while still drawing upon its own rich history to drive deeper, more complicated, longer plot lines than the Cinematic universe offers. The reason for this is simple, it has fueled more sales of Marvel comics. I don't blame them in the least.

I'm a mainline fan, but I like the movies, and I do pick up Ultimate-verse comics on occasion, nothing against them. It's all fun, lighthearted entertainment, lots of action and clever turns and terrible plot holes with some corny drama sprinkled around. Everything you'd expect from Marvel. When I want fine literature, that's no time to be reading super hero comics (usually).

Oh, and about the other thing:

http://www.hasdcdonesomethingstupidtoday.com/

http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/staff/find/tag/hasdcdonesomethingstupid.html

Enjoy!

[Shenku]

Alright now... This is the third or fourth thread where I've seen someone mention the "new 52", is there an "old 52"? What happened that makes everything so different? In all honesty, I've been operating under the probably flawed assumption that it's all always been the same universe with new things added or changed to fit story/character stuff... (I'm too cheap and too lazy to run around buying all the comics to find out exactly what changed/when...)

I'm hoping someone more versed in comics can help me out on understanding just what you folks are talking about, because while I'm interested in this stuff, I don't religiously keep up with it... Is there a good website or something that I can look through for the cliff notes about what happened/changed at least?

[Night-Hawk07]

Alright now... This is the third or fourth thread where I've seen someone mention the "new 52", is there an "old 52"? What happened that makes everything so different? In all honesty, I've been operating under the probably flawed assumption that it's all always been the same universe with new things added or changed to fit story/character stuff... (I'm too cheap and too lazy to run around buying all the comics to find out exactly what changed/when...)

I'm hoping someone more versed in comics can help me out on understanding just what you folks are talking about, because while I'm interested in this stuff, I don't religiously keep up with it... Is there a good website or something that I can look through for the cliff notes about what happened/changed at least?

There isn't really an "old 52", I think that's technically called "Post-Crisis" (referring to Crisis on Infinite Earths). Here's what DC's wiki has to say.

The movie might be good, but I don't have a lot of positive feelings about anything New 52 that I've read. Batman kind of comes off as barely holding his sanity in place, rather than the investigative genius of before. Nightwing doesn't seem to have changed a whole lot, but his story just hasn't really interested me. They've butchered Red Robin....I've actually gone back in been reading some of the issues of Robin leading up to the original RR series. Can we please get Fabian Nicieza on writing duties on that character again? Heck, he might make Teen Titans as a whole readable.

The only thing I've been able to read consistently is Batman Beyond. Every thing else though:

[Shenku]

There isn't really an "old 52", I think that's technically called "Post-Crisis" (referring to Crisis on Infinite Earths). Here's what DC's wiki has to say.

Thanks, I'll definitely take a look at those links. Maybe now I'll be able to understand why everyone's been complaining so much about the DC universe lately...

[Thunder Glove]

The "New 52" refers to a universe-wide reset back in late 2011, following the Flashpoint storyline (which itself just got an animated adaptation).  I didn't read Flashpoint, so forgive me if I get the details wrong, but it involves disastrous changes to the timeline when one of Flash's enemies tries to change the past.  Flash realizes something is wrong and tries to fix it, but since his memories were also being affected by the new timeline, he didn't fix it entirely properly, and that not-entirely-proper version of the timeline became the new status quo.

So now, among many other changes, Superman has a personality closer to his Golden Age self, Tim Drake was never Robin (just "Red Robin"), Barbara Gordon was and is the only Batgirl (she was paralyzed for a while, but she got better), Kid Flash is Bart Allen (and no character named "Wally West" exists), there's no superhero named "Captain Marvel" and no wizard named "Shazam" (there is, however, a superhero named "Shazam" and a wizard named "The Wizard"), and no modern-age hero has had a career longer than about five years (and there were no "superheroes" before Superman, just masked vigilantes and "mystery men" of ill repute).  Furthermore, the formerly-separate WildStorm universe and the mostly-separate Vertigo universe were combined into the main DC universe (so you have things like Martian Manhunter as leader of StormWatch, or John Constantine as part of Justice League Dark).

DC still calls it the "New 52", even though it's about two years old now.