For quite sometime I’ve wanted make a hobby out of reading and collecting comic books. But I often found myself discouraged by the fact that characters like Batman and Superman had reached issue numbers well above 800. I thought jumping into story lines and trying to understand highly developed characters that have been around since the 1930’s would hinder my ability to truly enjoy these works of art.
But in September of 2011 that would all change thanks to DC Comics.
DC Comics undertook a project like nothing ever seen before in the comic industry. They decided to revamp their entire line of comics by releasing their 52 most popular characters starting from issue number one.
This was the opportunity I’d been looking for, the chance to finally start a comic book collection.
And while that may seem nerdy or childish at 22 years old, I completely respect comic books for their exquisite art work and lavish story telling that makes them so easy and fun to read.
When I started I consistently kept up with three titles, Batman, Detective Comics and Nightwing, but when I found out that Justice League and Aquaman were by far two of the best from the relaunch I had to start reading those as well.
But in my opinion, out of all of “The New 52” titles, Batman is the best. It’s already printed five issues and in those five issues I’ve seen Batman blown up, stabbed and downright insane. And at the end of each issue all I can say is, ‘man, I can’t wait to see what happens next month.’
What writer Scott Snyder has done with the story is truly remarkable. He’s pitted Batman against a terrifying foe and, in the last issue, pushed Batman to his absolute breaking point. To do that to a character in such an early stage of the series is something I didn’t see coming, and it will be interesting to see what happens to Batman in the upcoming months as he continues to fight the villainous Court of Owls.
The launch of “The New 52” has been a tremendous success. In its first printing, Action Comics and Justice League alone sold more than 100,000 print copies of each. That’s not including digital copies, which DC has pushed for as comic books on iPads and other reading devices become more popular.
This relaunch has been a great opportunity for me to start a new hobby. I think that what DC has done will attract new readers like myself, young and old, and continue to drive sales through the roof as they continue to top rival company Marvel Comics.
It’s been five months since the relaunch and almost every week, on comic book Wednesday, I stop by the comic shop to pick up my weekly issues. With such great story telling and artistic representation I don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.
