Great review, John, you raised a lot of interesting points that I hadn't thought of. Looking forward to more, and glad I went ahead and bought parts 3-5 of this last weekend so I could follow your review.
I also caught up on 'Zero Year', and as far as I can tell, this is the only reference to Harvey:
I think you finally found the gooey Tootsie Roll center underneath Greg Capullo's gruff Lemmy-from-Motorhead image, Mothy! I have an image of him sobbing quietly while watching that episode on one of the 'Old School' DVD sets...
Thanks, man! I’m glad you decided to check out the issues after all! I look forward to your thoughts in the next part, and I hope the issues were interesting enough to warrant the cash spent
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Personally, I think that with DC's track history they will undoubtedly reboot again at some point in the future - but it's not going to be anytime soon. The company has really been scrambling lately, but 'lately' has been the last, what, decade and a half? Yeah, something like that; and that sort of thing doesn't go away overnight. Eventually, though, another reboot is all but guaranteed, both because that's what DC does and the sheer amount of flack they've been getting over this one - but all this probably won't happen until there's another regime change. Hopefully, at that point the new continuity will be a more or less decent mix of DCnU and DCU elements, but I'm not counting on it.
True, Psy, rebooting is what DC does. Truth to tell, even though I started reading DC on a regular basis with SUPERMAN #21 in 1988 (though I think SUPER POWERS #1 in 1985, with that scary Kirby Darkseid cover, was my first DC Comic) I never really liked too many of the Post-Crisis/Zero Hour continuity changes (Batman never catching Joe Chill, Wonder Woman not being a founding member of the JLA, all that weird John Byrne Superman stuff...) It was never the 'real thing' to me, like those abridged versions of WAR OF THE WORLDS and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS with illustrations on every other page they used to sell in Toys 'r' Us in the '80's weren't the 'real' versions of those books. I was actually really glad when INFINITE CRISIS rolled back some of those changes. But now....man, I didn't realize how much of the Pre-Crisis continuity they kept after Crisis until I saw the New 52! This time they pretty much wiped out everything...even the histories of the minor characters (I mean, what's the point of erasing the histories of Rose &
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Agreed - with comics in general, the long history involved is one of the most fascinating things about it. I mean, I've been into them for a long time now, not all my life like some people, but at least since I was, say, twelve or fourteen or so (not counting my fascination with Tintin and the like, which dates back much earlier) - and you know what? I've been collecting and browsing and checking out comics all that time, and I still discover new things about them damn near every day. And that, I think, is part of the draw to new readers, especially with DC comics, since it does owe so much to its Golden Age - it's very much a Golden Age-rooted universe (as opposed to, say, Marvel, which is more Silver Age). There is so much stuff to discover and root out and talk about, even if you stick within a certain era, and I think a lot of people's reactions to that is not 'aww, man, look at all this stuff I gotta read', but 'look at all this great stuff
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No worries, I actually did enjoy reading the last three parts in one sitting, which I think made for a much more rewarding experience than reading the first two parts monthly did. More fuel for my decision to stop reading DC monthly after 'Forever Evil' is over, and just catch up with the series I'm intrigued by (if there are any left!) in the collections. I don't know...I've tried before. I don't know which is worse, comics withdrawal or nicotine withdrawal. I used to be a proud Batman and DC fan...but now, not so much. There seems to be so little left of the characters I fell in love with. Man, it's depressing to see all this stuff happen...It feels weird to be so bummed out by it, particularly when I have plenty of 'real' stuff to be worried about. Maybe when things are tough you need the escape more, to see your old friends again, and right now DC just aren't providing it, and most of these guys ain't my old friends anymore
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True, Crow, I agree, and I think it's affected Crane's personality as well. He's less the daft, absurdly erudite professor and more the generic baddie that Cillian Murphy played.
I could be wrong as I don't think I've read all of Jonathan's New 52 appearances, but that's the impression I've gotten.
(I watched B:TAS' 'Dreams in Darkness' last night, and man, that was a perfect Scarecrow...I don't think Henry Polic gets enough credit for his performance.)
Arkham War I only got one issue into. Just seemed very dumb and video game-like, and unnecessary to read to follow the main Forever Evil series (which, against my better judgement, I've actually been enjoying.) Disappointing, since for the most part I've enjoyed Tomasi's B & R run and thought his Scarecrow Villains' Month issue was one of the better ones.
I got sucked into Gothtopia from Detective #27, which I bought for the Mike W. Barr story and the nonexistent Paul Dini/Dustin Nguyen story (and how come no one's called DC out on that?!?) The whole idea is that Crane has drugged the populace into feeling they have no problems, so he can go out at night and fear gas them -- The thinking being that he'll get a more 'pure' fear out of them having removed their day-to-day fears. Left with no memory of the event, his victims end up killing themselves over the repressed trauma.
I also caught up on 'Zero Year', and as far as I can tell, this is the only reference to Harvey:
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I think you finally found the gooey Tootsie Roll center underneath Greg Capullo's gruff Lemmy-from-Motorhead image, Mothy! I have an image of him sobbing quietly while watching that episode on one of the 'Old School' DVD sets...
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I could be wrong as I don't think I've read all of Jonathan's New 52 appearances, but that's the impression I've gotten.
(I watched B:TAS' 'Dreams in Darkness' last night, and man, that was a perfect Scarecrow...I don't think Henry Polic gets enough credit for his performance.)
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I got sucked into Gothtopia from Detective #27, which I bought for the Mike W. Barr story and the nonexistent Paul Dini/Dustin Nguyen story (and how come no one's called DC out on that?!?) The whole idea is that Crane has drugged the populace into feeling they have no problems, so he can go out at night and fear gas them -- The thinking being that he'll get a more 'pure' fear out of them having removed their day-to-day fears. Left with no memory of the event, his victims end up killing themselves over the repressed trauma.
Yeah, it's a bit much.
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