Ray's official OYL/52 thread! (Ray wants oomph)

[Ray G.]

Alright, I know we have an Infinite Crisis thread, and a bought/thought thread for reviews, but I think One Year Later and the upcoming spin-offs deserve a thread of their own. I might be the only guy on the board who reads every single DCU book, so I figured I'd be the perfect guy to kick it off. For the next year, I'll be updating this thread every week with my updates and reviews of all the OYL books and new launches, including 52. Feel free to kick in your own reviews or speculation about the events taking place OYL. And now, I'll kick us off with a review of the first 6 OYL books.

Detective Comics #817

Well, it's James Robinson. Did you think it would suck? This was far and away the crown jewel of the OYL books so far. There wasn't all that much action in the first issue. It was mostly devoted to the fact that the Bat is fucking BACK. All the garbage introduced since War Games is out. The corruption in the GCPD has been exposed, Comissioner Akins is out, and Gordon and Bullock are back on the force. Batman and Robin are returning to the city after a one-years absence, and Harvey Dent, now cured as Two-Face, is fighting crime with extreme prejudice in their absence. But a mysterious voice in his head is making a comeback........

Plus, Poison Ivy is apparently back from the dead. This is a great story, and comes with the Dawggie seal of approval.

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #40

DC hasn't had a really great old-school swords and sorcery title for some time. It's easy to get lost in this first issue, because a lot of new characters are introduced, and we're thrown in the deep end just like the new Aquaman is. I'm sort of sorry to see the old Aquaman out of the picture, because I always felt that he was underrated. But this new guy is rather likeable, and I'm a sucker for seeing average joes thrown into fantasy worlds. His two monstrous companions are very intriguing, and there's a last-page twist that will stun anyone who read the earlier issues of this title. It's early, but this could be THE definitive Aquaman run.

JSA #83

It's not Johns. That much is clear. Paul Levitz is a great storyteller, but his dialogue isn't up to Johns' level. Still, this is a fun issue as a depleted JSA is haunted by visions of their past, courtesey of an old villain who's been making quite the comeback lately. This is a fun book, with some great character moments here and there, and genuinely creepy at times. Still, I want Johns back on as soon as possible. This is his book, and anyone else on it feels wrong.

Outsiders #34

Probably the book with the biggest status quo changes so far. The title characters don't even appear for the first half of the book, and when the first of them does, it's quite the shocker. The idea of the Outsiders as an invisible covert-ops team has a lot of promise, and the first story promises to be brutal and controversial. The team is primarily the same, with a few changes that are mysteries as of now. For instance, how did Metamorpho come to replace his clone Shift on the team? And why is former villain Captain Boomerang JR. now an Outsider? OYL has been doing a good job of setting up mysteries to be played out down the line.

Blood of the Demon #13

One year later, it still sucks. I don't think anyone else on the board reads this book, and I only read it in the store to keep up on it. There was no need to. It's off in its own corner doing mystical mumbo-jumbo, and will be canceled soon enough. Give it a skip.

Firestorm the Nuclear Man #23

The only OYL book this week, and what a huge disappointment. This title was really hitting its stride the past few issues. The potential of a Jason Rusch/Professor Stein merge was very interesting, and the dialogue between them was excellent. But now Stein is missing in action, and Jason is merged with Firehawk, a whiny superheroine, in a lame Quantum and Woody ripoff where they can only become Firestorm if they're in close proximity. This title has never been as good as it was in the last few issues, and sadly they seem to have dumped everything that made it good. Jason Rusch has never been a fascinating character(even if it is good to see an African-American hero who isn't defined by his ethnicity, and his whiny Peter-Parker-lite tendencies are in full swing here. I'll keep on this title to see how the search for Professor Stein goes, though. But if he and Jason aren't back together in six issues, this is dropped.

Here are the archived review posts for the rest of the thread, so you don't have to sift through 100+ pages to find them.

Week 2: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=153
Week 3: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=252
Week 4: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=437
Week 5: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=630
Week 6: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=778
Week 7: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=818
Week 8: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=893
Week 9: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...&postcount=980
Week 10: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1157
Week 11: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1282
Week 12: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1366
Week 13: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1457
Week 14: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1516
Week 15: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1569
Week 16: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1636
Week 17: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1764
Week 18: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=1996
Week 19: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=2112
Week 20: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=2268
Week 21: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=2342
Week 22: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=2491
Week 23: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=2706
Week 24: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=2854
Week 25: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=2976
Week 26: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=3107
Week 27: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=3296
Week 28: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=3408
Week 29: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=3542
Week 30: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=3751
Week 31: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=3960
Week 32: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=4155
Week 33: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=4412
Week 34: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=4692
Week 35: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=4833
Week 36: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=4917
Week 37: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=5191
Week 38: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=5271
Week 39: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=5410
Week 40: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=5684
Week 41: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=6103
Week 42: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=6397
Week 43: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=6554
Week 44: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=6976
Week 45: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=7206
Week 46: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=7566
Week 47: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=8086
Week 48: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=9272
Week 49: http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar...postcount=9629

[Blandy vs Terrorism]

I'm not clicking any of them since I won't be able to see them for a couple weeks, but I fully endorse this thread.

[Ray G.]

I'm not clicking any of them since I won't be able to see them for a couple weeks, but I fully endorse this thread.

Finally, a response! Thank God!

You'll be seeing this thread once a week. Consider me the official chronicler of the OYL age.

[Blandy vs Terrorism]

Finally, a response! Thank God!

You'll be seeing this thread once a week. Consider me the official chronicler of the OYL age.

I'm sure I'll be joining this thread a lot, too.

....


And right now, pretty much all that's going on is patting each other on the back since I have nothing to contribute yet.

[Ray G.]

I'm sure I'll be joining this thread a lot, too.

....


And right now, pretty much all that's going on is patting each other on the back since I have nothing to contribute yet.

And I'm done for the week.

So now we wait for anyone to join in.

Corn Nuts?

[King of Mars]

Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis #40

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

DC hasn't had a really great old-school swords and sorcery title for some time. It's easy to get lost in this first issue, because a lot of new characters are introduced, and we're thrown in the deep end just like the new Aquaman is. I'm sort of sorry to see the old Aquaman out of the picture, because I always felt that he was underrated. But this new guy is rather likeable, and I'm a sucker for seeing average joes thrown into fantasy worlds. His two monstrous companions are very intriguing, and there's a last-page twist that will stun anyone who read the earlier issues of this title. It's early, but this could be THE definitive Aquaman run.

Only one I've read, thus far. Thought it got off to a promising start.

[jason hissong]

Fuck. Forgot to get Detective.

[Ray G.]

Fuck. Forgot to get Detective.

Get it. Now. The next one comes out on the 22nd, I think.

[Pat Loika]

I met OYL Ray.

P.

[Ray G.]

I met OYL Ray.

P.

Was he cool?