i'm having a hard time with DC lately... (spoilers)

[tehkeizer]

So i got back into comics with rebirth. I never read much DC before, but i hopped in with flash, batman, supes, JL and titans on rebirth. they all started out so great, but lately i'm having an issue.

I feel like things happen for no reason and there is no permanency or cohesion to the extended universe. i'm reading JL, bats, and supes...i thought recently that the timeless had something to do with what was happening in the supes book, nope, it was Mxyzptlk out of nowhere for no reason. they both had that white light that was making stuff disappear. when big stuff happens, its never mentioned in any of the other books. things come out of nowhere, then leave with no lasting effect. the kindred in JL, for example, seemed like a pretty big deal, right? now...meh, like it never happened.

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the latest arc of JL was really interesting, the groundhog's day thing going on, they were trying to figure it out...then boom, dude shows up and its over.

the swamp issue of superman, i just dont see a point? why did you tell us that story? was it to

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put light on the neighbor, and that he knows things..and that cow?

what about "the button" in the flash/batman books? that was such an overwhelming letdown. I was honestly sad when i read the last flash book.

Is it just me? I really hope its just me and I'm just looking at it the wrong way. If anyone has any points of view that could help me, please...help away.

[drew]

yep i hear ya - i mean i still really enjoy superman and supersons,

action and batman has been good but not great

i dropped all the rest of rebirth titles

[NiklasJ]

There is no point to the overarching DC narrative

Trinity War was the first (unsure about this?) big crossover in dcNu52, the point of which was just to set up another event, Forever Evil. I know Marvel seemingly does this as well but most of their events have actually breaks between them. The 11 issues of trinity war in JL, JLA and JLD ends with... To be continued in Forever Evil (another event, a miniseries) And just to insult me (cant speak for other readers) the following issues of Justice League had no previous JL characters, i dont remember if it was doom patrol or the metal men, i think solicits had Martian manhunter and stargirl showing up after a few issues (at this time JLA characters), i dont know what happened then because i didnt get forever evil and quit JL in disgust asap.

Im mostly a marvel reader but started with a few DC titles with the new 52. Im surprised not more readers complain about DCs handling the flipflop to Rebirth. In a flash the whole Pandora thing is swept under a rug and forgotten about. Overall one is (i guess?) expected to know a whole lot of backstory for these characters for things pre-nu52, especially if you dont read all titles. Villains (and occasional guest starring heroes) fly by without any explanation. Professor Pyg in Nightwings latest story arch was unknown to me, not much was done to explain motivations or "abilities. Very strange that a guy in pig mask can pose such a threat, a lot like the joker.

An example that is near in time, Detective comics, which i like quite a bit,

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has taken some for me strange turns, mostly regarding Spoiler. I can see her not feeling up for hero work after apparent death of Drake, but her heel turn seems far fetched, much worse than the Black Cat controversy over in PeterParkerman. Also the issue ended with some kind of strange fellow without name i dont recognize, couldnt they tell me his name at least so i could google it...

Is it just me? I really hope its just me and I'm just looking at it the wrong way. If anyone has any points of view that could help me, please...help away.

So after venting my dislike of the DC way of comics, IMO if you forget about the DC universe meta and read the comics for what they are I think they have a good comics on plenty characters. I still like Detective, Nightwing, WonderWoman and GreenLanterns, as long as they keep focused to their own thing the story works. Ill just continue to roll my eyes whenever they elbow in a mystical rebirth reference that will never have any follow up in the title im reading. Most other DC titles also get decent or better reviews so this is not limited to my likes

[NicksPicks]

I try not to get too swept up in the overall narrative arcs at either Marvel or DC. I like if there is something going on in the background, but it really bothers me when big stories start dictating what happens issue-to-issue in regular titles. I got into comic book reading shortly after the New 52 began, and I really appreciated that most stories were allowed to stand on their own. Then several initiatives started steering the monthly titles (that H'el on Earth storyline, the whole Superman/Batman/Wonderwoman crossover books, Forever Evil, etc.) and I started to lose interest. It's why I stopped reading a lot of Marvel books - just too many books messing up other books. Can't we just have Spider-Man be Spider-Man???? To me, the whole notion of some Rebirth meta-narrative is just enough to keep me excited about what is coming in the next few months to year, but not enough to bog down the stories each book is telling. I liked "The Button" because it gave me great art and some cool scenarios, not because it gave me any answers about Rebirth. I was already reading both Batman and The Flash, so it was a nice change of pace for both books. My final point would be that you should probably just drop Justice League (a lot of people have). It is purely being written as a series of random Justice League team-up adventures that have okay writing and art. Its events don't connect to anything else going on, unlike the New 52 Justice League which served as the central beat to everything happening in the DC Universe. I believe that DC is specifically downplaying the current Justice League book, because they want readers to be focusing on the more character-centric books like Superman, Aquaman, The Flash, etc. instead. Just my thoughts.

[NiklasJ]

To me, the whole notion of some Rebirth meta-narrative is just enough to keep me excited about what is coming in the next few months to year,

This is why we have DC vs Marvel fanboy flame wars
Lucky we have that free will that makes us actually not have to buy and read stuff we dont like

[tehkeizer]

yeah, after that last issue of JL, i just cant give it my support anymore. i'm off that title