Glunders Reads Comics

The Fatal Flaw of the New 52?

The first wave of New 52 #4s rolled out today, and while I’m practically writhing with anticipation when it comes to Animal Man, Swamp Thing, and Action Comics, I can’t quite say the same of some of the other books I picked up: Batwing and Justice League International.

(So why did I buy them? The mind of a comic book reader is laden with mystery, my friends, but mostly because they’re good if not mind-joltingly excellent.)

When DC launched Grant Morrison’s Batman & Robin back in 2009, they adhered to a clearly defined structure of three-part arcs. Never mind that Morrison can (and often does) do more with two pages than most comic book writers do with 20, this structure made the story move along at a nice clip and kept readers looking forward to the next chapter without needing to juggle too many plot points in the interim.

Methinks a lot of the New 52 books might’ve benefited from a similar approach. The best books — Batman, say, or Animal Man — are doing a great job building momentum from month to month, but others, simply, are not. My love for the characters and the fact that the book isn’t bad has kept me buying Justice League International, but it just isn’t exciting. When all’s said and done, the first arc of JLI will be five issues long, and though we’re only four in at this point, I think it’s completely conceivable that at least an entire issue’s worth of content could’ve been edited out. It’s not a tight book by any means, and the story isn’t benefitting from the generous length: if anything, it seems almost lost in it.

There’s nothing wrong with longer arcs, mind you. I’ve recently started going through 2007’s The Brave and the Bold, which was initially comprised of six-issue arcs, but man, author Mark Waid really worked those pages. They were packed with wonderful character moments and action, and while each chapter almost felt like a standalone story, every plot point contributed to a clear, fully-developed story that weaved the issues together.

It’s not quite so with some of these New 52 books. And while DC’s seen quite a bit of success attracting new readers with the initiative, I wonder how many of them are really holding on as the months roll by to see what the deal with Peraxxus is. In any event, I wonder why at least some of the books didn’t lead with shorter arcs: I’d definitely be intrigued if, say, Men of War (which I stopped buying after the first issue) was launching into something new and exciting today, for example.

Alas.

7 December 2011 ·