What series/characters do you read?

[positronic]

Yeah. Me too, at least for DC (I don't buy Marvel at the moment), with the exception being Batwoman and perhaps the Earth-2 books.

I wonder how you'll feel about Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest -- have you seen the new character designs? It's an Earth 2 that's been totally rebooted; more so, if that's possible, than the main DC "New 52" universe. I was originally looking forward to these as a "throw the old dog a bone" overture to old-school DC fanboys, but the "Elseworlds Earth 2" approach has pretty much turned me off.

[positronic]

Actually, while I agree with your assessment, Strontium Dog wasn't an original 2000AD series (it began life in Star-Lord in 1978) and Rogue Trooper was a comparatively late addition, starting in 1981. Even Dredd wasn't in 2000AD from the very beginning; his debut was delayed until issue #2 after John Wagner walked out in a dispute over creator's rights. There's an overview of 2000AD's history at the link below, to celebrate its 35th anniversary.

http://www.brokenfrontier.com/lowdow...ll-these-years

OK, I admit to not having started reading any of these until after 1981. So, technically, not "original". And of course 2000 AD featured many more strips in its early days that I haven't mentioned. But those three, along with a few others, seemed to be the breakout successes of the early period (or is 1981 considered beyond the early period for a title that's been around for 35 years?) Has there ever been an all-time popularity poll ranking all the 2000 AD strips to determine which are the most "zarjaz"?

Thanks for the link. The article makes note of something I'd been wondering about for a decade-and-a-half, why is the magazine (and when exactly did they change from newspaper-type comic section to magazine format?) still called 2000 AD? I'd have imagined, at some point before or by 1999, an odometer-style "2000" AD logo slowly advancing the first digit from 2 to 3, with the first Prog published in 2000 changing to a an LED display-inspired 3000 AD logo. Does Tharg imagine his readership is so entrenched in the classic strips that the change would have been just too much? Or perhaps it's because the time period of Dredd has been so well documented, I'm not sure. Calling the mag 3000 AD might make Dredd's adventures seem slightly antiquated?

The article also had a link to the official 2000 AD home page, and I note that they offer (just like DC and Marvel) digital downloads. A piece of info I'll just file away for now while I try to decide what tablet style device I might eventually purchase. The wide variety of print formats (many different page sizes, newspaper, comic book, magazine, and graphic album formats) that 2000 AD material has already appeared in makes me less attached to the physical form than I am to American floppy comics and trade collections. Still haven't quite made up my mind about how I feel about the digital format, but seeing as how I haven't followed 2000 AD for a number of years, I might be more inclined to give it a try. Oddly, while some individual back issues seem to be available for digital download, I couldn't find any digital subscriptions for 2000 AD or Judge Dredd Megazine. And the physical issues are actually cheaper than the digital ones!? (Of course, were I to order the physical issues directly from Rebellion, the shipping would make them more expensive.) 115 pounds UK for a physical subscription to 2000 AD; 200 pounds for overseas customers (that's over $314 dollars US!) Can't believe they don't offer digital subs at a reduced rate (and one that doesn't cost any more for overseas customers). Guess I'll wait a while for this. I could get the physical mags through Diamond Comics Distributors in the US... but a copy of Judge Dredd Megazine costs $12 US, about twice the price of a comparable magazine over here.

Within the last few months I did purchase the trade collection "The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks".

[tony ingram]

I wonder how you'll feel about Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest -- have you seen the new character designs? It's an Earth 2 that's been totally rebooted; more so, if that's possible, than the main DC "New 52" universe. I was originally looking forward to these as a "throw the old dog a bone" overture to old-school DC fanboys, but the "Elseworlds Earth 2" approach has pretty much turned me off.

Likewise. I dropped everything DC after the reboot except for The Shade, and when I heard James Robinson was returning the JSA (my all time favourite team) in a series set on Earth 2, I thought this would be the last refuge for fans of the 'old' DC; I was utterly delighted. The reveal that it's basically just a glorified Elseworlds story has been a bitter disappointment, so much so that I've now dropped The Shade as well because I just don't want to give DC any more of my money. And I'm disappointed in Robinson, who I felt had a real feeling for the Golden Age characters, for putting his name to the project.

[tony ingram]

OK, I admit to not having started reading any of these until after 1981. So, technically, not "original". And of course 2000 AD featured many more strips in its early days that I haven't mentioned. But those three, along with a few others, seemed to be the breakout successes of the early period (or is 1981 considered beyond the early period for a title that's been around for 35 years?) Thanks for the link. Has there ever been an all-time popularity poll ranking all the 2000 AD strips?

I don't think there has, though 2000AD used to run polls regularly and Judge Dredd usually won (the only strip which seemed to come close in terms of popularity was Slaine, but then that was the early eighties, the era of D&D and Dragonslayer). I guess 1981 could be considered 'early', but I started reading in '77 so it never seemed that way to me, and I always thought of Rogue as a latecomer...

I think the other characters that were hugely popular back in the earliest days were Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein (who were actually originally from Star-Lord, of course), and probably Robo-Hunter. Later, of course, came Rogue, Slaime and Nemesis, but they were more of a 'second wave'.

[Captain Canuck]

I wonder how you'll feel about Earth 2 and Worlds' Finest -- have you seen the new character designs? It's an Earth 2 that's been totally rebooted; more so, if that's possible, than the main DC "New 52" universe. I was originally looking forward to these as a "throw the old dog a bone" overture to old-school DC fanboys, but the "Elseworlds Earth 2" approach has pretty much turned me off.

I've seen them and I'm open-minded to it. I can't put in the time and money to follow the actual characters but "variants" I can do.

In a way, I prefer it because they feel like evolved versions of the actual characters. I understand it may be Damian Wayne under the cowl and I think that's interesting. I would have KILLED for Bruce Wayne to stay dead because his death forced changes in the Batman family, but of course...and they can have a bit more liberty with Earth-2 characters, not unlike killing (at least for now) Ultimate Peter Parker.

[positronic]

In a way, I prefer it because they feel like evolved versions of the actual characters. I understand it may be Damian Wayne under the cowl and I think that's interesting. I would have KILLED for Bruce Wayne to stay dead because his death forced changes in the Batman family...

But he DID stay dead... on Earth 2. As radical a revamp as this looks to be, I could probably accept it if they explained it as "Well, a LOT has happened on Earth 2 between 1986 (when last seen) and 2012" (pretty much ignoring the post-CoIE incarnation of the JSA)... But unless the current Power Girl (former Supergirl) and Huntress (former Robin) are revealed to be third-generation heroes (which doesn't seem likely) following in the footsteps of the original Earth 2 Power Girl and Huntress, I'm unlikely to purchase these books (in any format), although curiosity will force me to read the first couple of issues in the store. Kind of a shame, since I usually enjoy Levitz and Robinson's writing, and Nicola Scott, Kevin Maguire, and George Perez' artwork. Incidentally, I think you're correct that it's Damian Wayne under the cowl of Batman-2.

By far the biggest disappointment to me about DC's New 52 is the way they've destroyed the legacy aspect (JSA to JLA to Titans to Young Justice to Teen Titans again) of characters like Flash, Green Arrow, Teen Titans, etc. Batman and Green Lantern still retain a fair chunk of their histories and continuities, but the rest of the DCU was decimated. Some of my favorite characters like Wally West and Donna Troy got bulldozed over in the renovation.

[tony ingram]

Basically, the characters in the Batman and Green Lantern books got off without a reboot because a) they were selling particularly well by comparison to the rest of the line and b) Geoff Johns likes Green Lantern. To me, it all just smacks of desperation, and if they had to destroy their entire history, it would have been fairer if Batman and GL hadn't been spared the indignity, either. I also find it telling that they've now closed down the DC message boards, leaving no 'official' forum for fans to air their views, and that the option of emailing DC directly no longer exists on their revamped website. The attitude seems to me to be "we don't care what you think, just shut up and buy our books".

[positronic]

I can't find it in me to blame Geoff Johns for the New 52 reboot, though. If you look at his career at DC from 1999 to present, he was the go-to "Mr. Fixit" of the DCU who made older poor selling characters and concepts popular again, from JSA, to Teen Titans, to Hal Jordan, to Hawkman, to Brainiac and the Legion of Super-Heroes, to the DC multiverse, to Booster Gold, to Barry Allen, to Superman: Secret Origin... and he did it while respecting the work of those who'd come before him. I suspect this reboot was largely masterminded by Dan Didio and Jim Lee in order to impress their new corporate bosses. While patting Johns on the back, giving him a new title and a raise, they also deconstructed 90% of his work (sparing only Green Lantern) from the last decade or so.

[Captain Canuck]

...and if they had to destroy their entire history...

The way I understood it, it wasn't all of it. The problem I have there is that I can't be bothered to figure out which parts were retained.

Depending what interviews you were reading, apparently Dick Grayson WAS Batman for a while. But the various crisisisises never happened. So...what happened to Bruce Wayne during that time? At the end of the day, my answer was "who cares?".

So going back to Positronic's post to me, the Earth-2 stuff sounds like a complete reboot, not a partial one. So if they're going to start from scratch, I don't mind hopping on.

[Ghornet2]

I was looking forward to the Earth2 /JSA stuff but after having seen the new look for Jay Garrick I'm very scared. I'm trying to stay positive but . . .