Well there's plenty of threads knocking about dwelling on the bad, so how about people's opinions on the characters they have actually enjoyed more in the New 52. I am going to say Shazam, because I love the new suit and really loved the Shazam origin story book I bought at Christmas. I am hoping he gets used a bit more. I also loved the Captain Atom that was around for a bit in his own comic, before he was sadly shelved. Sort of Silver Surfer meets Dr Manhattan!

Damian Wayne, Red Hood, and Guy Gardner are the ones that immediately come to mind.

Darkseid.

Wonder Woman is better. Jason Todd actually has some degree of character consistency.

Shazam. Amazing storytelling.

No mention of Aquaman yet? Geoff Johns really re-invented this character in New 52. We all know the jokes about him, and his interpretation on Super Friends, but he is incredibly well written and an amazing character in New 52. Geoff Johns really earned my respect by taking one of the weakest characters in DC and making his story one of the strongest.

Too many to mention but to name a few: Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Guy Gardner

Wonder Woman is again a good character that people like and mention almost every day when they talk about a good ongoing hero book.

The House of Mystery, JLD, Supergirl, the costumes, Pandora and Phantom Stranger are good additions. I like the ARGUS organization. Amanda Waller started off very strong, hopefully she brings it back now that FE is ending. Masters of the Universe has a regular series.

I would say Aquaman because he's represented well in both the JL and his own story.

@youknowwhattodo: @hawq: Aquaman was written fine before the n52...it's just that he got more PR during the reboot.

I pick the increased exposure that Swamp Thing and Animal Man has received since the reboot.

This x 100000000.

I liked that DC took some chances and new takes on characters and books they wouldn't have before.

• Dial H
• OMAC
• Demon Knights
• Frankenstein and SHADE
• Phantom Stranger
• Justice League Dark

Aquaman, Swamp Thing, and Animal Man are the ONLY characters to improve in the New 52

Yep, a lot of people act like Aquaman had some character redefining makeover or something but he really hasn't he was good before it's just now he's getting a bigger push.

Aquaman was a badass before the New 52 was even a glimmer in Geoff Johns' eye.

Like all of Johns' books they get ten times the hype from the company and it tricks everyone into thinking he was responsible for making them good.

Aside from Wonder Woman, Shazam, Green Arrow, Barry Allen, Superman (compared to how he was at the end of the Pre Flashpoint universe) you know characters like that :P

It wasn't about Aquaman being a badass, making badass characters is incredibly easy, take a look at Red Hood in the new 52. The reason why I chose Aquaman was because his stories are so consistently good, it hits on all of the elements I want in a solo title that I feel more affection for his character. It's why I feel as though his character was the most improved. It's not just Geoff Johns, some would argue Jeff Parker has done a better job with Aquaman. Aquaman stories in the pre-new 52 IMO did a good job of making him badass but I felt as though the stories were inconsistent at best (it had some solid parts) and terrible at worst and as a result I really didn't care much about him.

I'll say it up front, badass characters =/= good characters.

@youknowwhattodo: Nah, the new 52 Aquaman stories have been really good. I just hate it when people act like it's the first time that has happened.

Aquaman, Animal Man and Swamp Thing were some of my favorite characters before the reboot. That didn't change after the New 52. I think Wonder Woman and Dial H were the biggest improvements post New 52.

Superman :D He wears his underwear under his pants now.

@lvenger: nothing was wrong with Green Arrow, Barry Allen, or Superman

definitely Aquaman, like a few people have said, the stories have been consistently brilliant. also found myself enjoying batwoman a lot more than i thought i would. and damian wayne kicked ass!

@jonny_anonymous: @sinestro_gl: I realize his writing prior to New 52 wasn't terrible, it was quite good really. However, it was not quite as consistent and enjoyable as it is now. The New 52 stories really take the character to the next level, and it has what the writing before New 52 lacked; personability. As stated above, he was just simply written as a badass, which is enough to respect him, but not enough to make him an amazing character, for me at least. The thing the New 52 brings is not only an amazing hero, but also amazing stories and people around him.

@frozen: For me that's the absolute worst. Honestly I like just about everything in the New 52, but Captain Marvel in the New 52 just makes me want to stop reading comics.

@captainmarvel4ever: He wasn't going anywhere. They depowered him and made Freddy Captain Marvel. Then Flashpoint ruined it even further. Mark Waid wrote the best Captain Marvel stories, when he teamed up with Wally West. Thus far, I love New-52 Shazam. The origin was fantastic.

@danhimself: Superman needed refreshment.

@danhimself: You know I love the Pre Flashpoint universe as the best canon representation of a comic book universe but allow me to be brutally honest about the last few Pre Flashpoint years. Green Arrow was literally ripping off Robin Hood by putting Oliver into the Star City forest and making him an outlaw just like Robin Hood. The New 52 has turned Green Arrow into one of its best ongoings in contrast. Barry Allen was just reading so much like his Silver Age counterpart but that's to be expected from Johns. Booch and Manapul at least did something different with him. And though New 52 Superman has certainly had its downs, the best New 52 Superman stories do beat the JMS Grounded walk across the USA as well as the disappointing Reign of the Doomsdays. Just my two cents on the matter mate.

That's not true. Darkseid has been horrible in the New 52.

BB

Red Hood, Swamp Thing, and Animal Man come to mind right away.

Green Arrow, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Barry Allen were fine characters pre-reboot. Wonder Woman's current situation could have fit into Post-Crisis continuity, Barry could have been written by B&F just fine without a reboot, and Aquaman has only gotten more publicity because he was written by Geoff Johns, he was FINE before then. Green Arrow is the only person whose current story couldn't fit unless they revamped the characters history.

Regardless the bad still outweigh the good.

Yay! Another fan of Dial H! Kudos sir.

@billy_batson: i don't think he's been shown to his fullest potential yet and he did take in the justice league. He's not a jobber anymore and new 52 seems to be trying to make him more powerful.

I wonder if the people who mentioned Animal Man and Swamp Thing even read their previous series.

They actually rebooted the character unlike most in the reboot. How would have it worked in the previous continuity?

BB

ok but giving examples of bad stories doesn't mean that they've improved in the New 52....Green Arrow's book up until Lemire took over was absolute sh!t, Superman has been bad from issue 1, I don't read New 52 Flash so I can't really comment on that but plan to start picking it up at the next jump on point when Booth takes over art

a few good stories doesn't mean that the characters themselves have improved and a few bad stories from Pre52 doesn't mean that they were bad

Red Hood

@danhimself: My only point was that compared to the end of the Pre Flashpoint universe, the New 52 has been a marked improvement in many areas. I didn't generalise it to everywhere because, if we were doing that, the 26 year long history of the Pre Flashpoint canon stomps the 2+ New 52 years fairly easily.

I didn't read Animal Man nor Swamp Thing pre-reboot to be honest so I guess you could put them in the Aquaman category being that they were just fine and only got more publicity during New 52. As for Wonder Woman, they could have set up a story where it's revealed Zeus was always Diana's father and no one ever knew except Hera and made the clay story up. That's pretty much what they did for this Diana. She was originally thought to have been made from clay but was later told it was a lie.

Despite my love for Azzarello's WW book, she isn't the character I'd say that's been improved the most by the New-52, she's just finally getting a story that's worth reading. But it has to be said, the Olympian Gods are in a much better place now as characters now than they were before.

Captain Atom is a strong contender because ever since Moore wrote Watchmen, he's been overshadowed completely by the character he inspired: Dr. Manhatten. So, why did it take DC so long to turn Atom into him?

Dial H is another strong contender, it went from an obscure gimmicky entry into DC wikipedia into a truly bizarre tale of a fat smoker becoming a hero in adventures so weird its gone over the heads of most of the DCU.

Steve Trevor, he's gone from being the less interesting male counterpart to Lois Lane, who turned out to be completely expendable to the workings of WW in the previous era, to contend the role of DC's mysterious 'Nick Fury'-type of superspy with the likes of Amanda Waller, and whoever happens to be running Stormwatch these days, putting him near the center of everything going on in the DCU.

Agreed, Darkseid is a paperweight now compared to what he used to be, trading motives and personality for team stomping powers isn't an upgrade, ask Doomsday :)

There are several stories where the fact that Wonder Woman was made of clay crops up --- the Divided We Fall arc of JLA where the Cathexis revert her back to a clay statue, the Primeval one-shot, the False Faces story with Clayface, etc etc. None of those stories would make any sense if the clay origin was revealed to be a lie.

@outside_85: I agree his personality and character has suffered but his power level has increased compared to his post crisis version. At least he's not getting slapped around by superman anymore

I know of those stories, I've read them lol. Assuming Post-Crisis stayed and DC wanted to change her origin I'm sure the writers would find a way to work with it or around it, that's their job, isn't it? Or perhaps they'd have killed off Diana completely and reincarnated her that way. I dunno, I just think DC could and would have found a way to reboot Diana while in Post-Crisis continuity if they wanted.

@jayc1324: Which only happened when not very good writers got their hands on him. The difference was that Darkseid wasn't a villain everyone gets to pile up on like Thanos is over at Marvel. As for silly slapping, Darkseid can do that too.

@outside_85: I know that's my point. Darkseid has been written well in terms of power in new 52. And yeah but sometimes he's written as a jobber and superman easily beats him but that's not the case in new 52. Darkseid was created to be stronger than superman and he seems to be going back to that power level.

Aquaman

I liked Cyborg till they revamped him, now he looks like a stick-figure!

The Lanterns are good too!

@jayc1324: Technically Darkseid was never really meant to appear in the wider DCU (despite where Darkseid makes his first appearance), Kirby's Fourth World was supposed to be completely separate and finite in length, but DC editorial can trump even Jack Kirby even back then.

You say this as if Superman had many good stories Post-Crisis.

BB

Aquaman and Guy Gardner. I hated Guy until the new 52. He is one of the reasons Red Lanterns has become one of the best DC comics

To be fair Darkseid's first appearance was just a head shot in a monitor and Jimmy Olsen wasn't much of central DC book.

BB

@outside_85: but wasn't he still meant to be stronger than superman?

John Constantine.

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Trollolololol. Just kidding.