DC Rebirth: The New Wave of Readers

As of late, comic books in general have sky-rocketed and are back in business. Now for many who have always read comic books or graphic novels this isn’t anything new, but for the new readers and old readers, like myself, who’ve read comic books growing up (but kind of stopped) this is huge. I just want to talk about my experience while reading the new D.C. Rebirth Comics. I have always loved comic books growing up, but I kind of strayed away, not because they were for kids or anything, but it’s almost like now a days it’s hard to find a straight up comic book store, where you can spend hours and hours reading, unless you live in an area that is known for having that outlet.  But I have always kept my ear to the comic book world, from watching movies, and going to places like midtown comics, Barnes and noble, and Newbury comics while just browsing and checking out the new comics that are out, or what everyone is reading.

But for some reason , everyone is reading graphic novels again, from old to even people who have never picked up a comic book in their life. Even though this is a D.C. piece we cannot over look the success of comic books like Moon Girl, and the popularity she is getting and  how she has also been crowned the smartest person in the Marvel Universe. And we can’t forget the most anticipated comic book in years, The Black Panther series, which is one of the top purchased series sold-out all over in the first few weeks of release. We have to ask why are so many people reading comics now? Is it because of all the Superhero movies that have hit the big screen? Is it because Fanboys are ridiculing movie goers that they know nothing like Jon Snow, and should read the series before they talk? Or  has everyone kind of finally come out of their hiding place to show the world they’ve loved Superheroes from the very beginning.

D.C. Rebirth is the re-launch of the already existing New 52 D.C. Comic books. Now for anyone who does not know what the New 52 are, basically this is the flashpoint paradox of the D.C. Universe, yes just like Flash, but D.C. decided to do it throughout every series. Bringing in Earth 1, 2, and 3 and seeing new Superman’s like Val Zod, and different Green lanterns we’ve never seen before and also new versions of Flash. Keeping many of the original series with their issue numbers, D.C. wanted to give many of the characters a new story to follow.

When I first heard about this idea earlier this year, I said to myself this is really cool, especially with a lot of the artwork, and the new design for some of the characters. I told myself maybe I’ll check it out if I ever get a chance, but sadly  that never happened. But throughout these last few months I didn’t hear a lot of people speaking about D.C. Rebirth only the people who are  faithful to the series. The more and more the newly awaited Batman v Superman, and also Captain America movies were around the corner, sure enough I started to hear so much noise about the comics, how the designs were great, the stories were compelling and how the writers were doing a great job. It wasn’t until this past weekend that I was able to finally check it out for myself.

Green Arrow and Justice League and Batman

 

Green Arrow #3: Green Arrow issue number 3 is the first one I picked up and I know, I know I did it out of order, but the cover looked really interesting and I just wanted to see what it was about. But this issue goes along the lines of Oliver Queen trying to get Queen Industries back (can we say Oliver is the worst CEO ever). We see him at first standing on the top of his building and he starts off with a saying his father use to say that, his family’s building is one of the highest points in Seattle, and you can see the whole city from the top, but Oliver did not know where he was at; almost like Oliver has lost his way a bit. We also see John Diggle in this issue, and he is way more gangsta sort of in a way, taking charge and wanting answers. I thought this artwork was amazing, and this issue had an interesting story to tell, it didn’t feel like an episode of Arrow, it felt like you were getting into the Arrow story a little more, and also building  on each character.

Justice League #1: Now there are two Justice League issue number 1’s so you have to be careful which one you pick up first, because you’ll get to the end and pick up another one and will be like this doesn’t make sense. So you have to pick up issue #1 with the cover in the above picture. We catch the league in this issue all over the world trying to stop various tsunami’s and earthquakes happening from this one monster, but the team is missing one member, that member is Superman, the team does not need him, but they see that they do need his power, and need his ability to hold off this monster. We catch Flash whooshing off to save citizens, while Cyborg, Batman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, are all trying to find ways to stop this beast. In this comic I think the highlight was the Justice League truly works together good as a whole team, and not just a few. I read all 3 issues, and the story is very good, especially how Aquaman almost kind of has a breakdown, and kind of warns the team of what’s next, and how Batman is like I don’t like Superman, but he’s a good teammate.

Batman #1: Now Batman was the last comic I read and I only read one issue because I ran out of time to get to the others, but this issue was very interesting from the start to the finish. Also I am a huge Batman fan since I could remember so it’s interesting he wasn’t the first series I looked into. But when this issue starts we see Batman going back and forth with Alfred and Fox as he works out and talks about different adversaries, but he is also kind of reminiscing with a young apprentice by the name of Duke Thomas (I won’t give any spoilers), but we see Bruce training Duke, but also explaining to him the importance of this old, but new villain. Seeing Batman in action again was very cool, but you can tell this Bruce Wayne had more wisdom, but still kind of back to his old ways of showing you I am the man kind of vibe.

Superman

Now before I even get into the Superman series, I am not the biggest Superman, I almost despise him at times for the simple fact I love Batman since I was a little kid and saw Superman kind of corny but dope only because of his powers. But over these last few years I have become really intrigued into kind the ideology  and just the background story of Superman and kind of Krypton. The one reason that truly got me into this series is the artist Jorge Jimenez, I follow him on instagram and his artwork is amazing and incredible (be sure to click the link on his name and also follow him). These last few weeks he has been keeping fans updated with his artwork on each issue, and the other week I said ok I’m definitely checking out this series even though I am not a big Superman fan.

I have read all 4 issues, and the 5th just came out, definitely will try to check that one out, I won’t go issue by issue; I just want to highlight some things I saw in each issue. In this series we see a very reluctant Superman, this comes after the death of the Earth 1 Superman, and this new Clark Kent he doesn’t really want to take on the role of really using his powers mainly because he isn’t this world’s Man of Steel, he’s different even though he shares the same values as Clark of earth 1. He’s scared to help the Justice League, he also has a son named Jonathan (Jon), and is married. You can see that Clark is very comfortable with home life until someone by the name of the Eradicator from his home land of Krypton comes to disrupt the peace. The Eradicators ultimate goal is to become one with Superman, and to make him believe that he does not need earth. And everyone knows that won’t ever sit right with Superman, but I think these first 4 issues were really well put together, and of course the artwork is great, but I want  see how Superman deals with his life after this battle.

I think the only problem I have with D.C. Rebirth is at times it gets a little confusing trying to follow each story and what direction it is going in or trying to understand the whole focus of the rebirth launch, but I think that’s ultimately when you pick up that first issue or if you’re a new reader. I think the stories are very well put together and that D.C. comics is definitely trying to show everyone that they not only can keep building on these characters, but they can  also make them modern in a way where the kids of today can kind of understand our love for these characters. So I stated before we have a new wave of readers, maybe there are so many new readers because we are looking for heroes in a new place, maybe so many new readers are popping up because more people are starting to connect with these heroes. We will never know. Keep on reading Riceballers.