I was already impressed with his work on Batman. I just started New 52 Swamp Thing after having my mind blown by American Vampire. This guy is doing incredible work. As a youth, I valued art more than story. But now pretty pages are less impressive if there's nothing compelling to go with them. Being a huge X-Men fan in the mid-80s early 90s, I was spoiled by the writing of the great Chris Claremont. The artists for many years didn't weigh much as far as purchasing a comic. It was mostly character driven. I liked Wolverine. I bought Wolverine related comic books. Same goes for Spiderman. Until McFarlane, Liefield and Jim Lee. After they liberated pages with their art, I can remember people skipping buying issues if one of the three didn't pencil them. While the 90s birthed some awesome storylines (Dark Phoenix Saga, X-Tinction Agenda, Fall of the Mutants), the art was definitely king. As I hit my 30s, outta college, young professional, (at least I thought. I'm laughing just thinking it.) I started to pay more attention to plot and the level of detail in books and movies. I stopped collecting around 92ish. The X-Men animated series came out when I was in high school and reminded me of the world that I hadn't checked in on for years. Needless to say I was mad the show butchered the origins of several of my favorite characters, but I digress. I rediscovered comics through the recommendation of a message board. Here were all these old fogies like me getting chubbies discussing titles and authors that I'd never heard of. Six months in and I jumped at discovering many of these titles and even overcoming my DC bias and delving into the New 52. Needless, to say, Batman by Snyder stood out. I did my ComicVine research on Snyder and decided to take a chance on some of his other titles. AND WOW!!! I'm deep into it now. American Vampire is awesome. The dialogue, the story is well put together and very original on a familiar genre. So after ripping through American Vampire, I was still hungry, so.... Swamp Thing has been one of those comics I've seen on the shelf all my life. NEVER appealed to me. It seemed Creature of the Black Lagoonish to me. I never liked cult following type products. I'm reading Snyder's version with new eyes. I don't know the backstory. I don't know the character or his powers. And it's great reading. The art is not Jim Lee, but it fits the story. Much like American Vampire. I've seen better, but the story balances it all out. I recently listened to a Snyder interview where he explains Animal Man crossing over into Swamp Thing's universe, so now I'm checking out another new (to me at least) title that I would never have picked up otherwise. I really like the idea of the Green, The Red, The Rot. This is totally new to me and effin awesome. After I get caught up on Swamp Thing and Animal Man, I might have to check out Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run. I guess I said all that to say, Scott Snyder is one of my new favorite writers.

I'd like to preface this by saying I am both new to DC Comics and Green Lantern. When I was a kid, just like everyone, you put a towel around your neck and flew like Superman. Or you wanted to be the cool alt kid and chose Batman. Green Lantern was never a career choice for a pre-teen adolescent in my neighborhood. I heard of him vaguely. Saw him on DC animated shows every now and then, but I always dismissed him. Mainly because his power, a power ring, was a little too convenient. Marvel, I considered back then, had grittier more realistic powers and super heroes. Scenarios for Green Lantern consisted of subterranean villains that popped their heads from the ground only to get it bashed in by a construct sledgehammer like a carnival minigame. Or the baddies would line up on a platform and a construct bowling ball would "bowl" them over. I used to hate how DC treated GL's powers. The reason I started this journey into the world of Green Lantern, began like most journeys. I was bored and started watching cartoons. I watched two animated GL movies, then the people acted Dawson's Creek version Hollywood put out. The story was slightly interesting. I know that probably makes longtime fans a little butthurt, but give me a minute. The Corps and space cop saving the universe was something I never took a chance and paid attention to. I was always put off by the cartoonish constructs and tailor made results for GL. The movies made me think about all I didn't know about the guy. So I picked up a copy of GL #1, and was pleasantly surprised. I have read every issue in the relaunch and the story is amazingly good. The Indigo Tribe and Sinestro. I don't know if I'm right in saying this, but I think Sinestro is an awesome character. I found myself wanting Hal's panels to be erased. The story is fresh and by not focusing GL's constructs I can appreciate the Green Lantern's universe. This comic is great, the characters are better than I thought and even the constructs don't put me off as much. That motorcycle Hal created was badass. I know a lot of blogs have focused on the New 52 and the tinkering with or altogether omission of past storylines, but I feel none of those effects because I'm new to the DC Universe. These stories are fresh, current and well written. I'm currently reading GL, Justice League, all the Batmans, Aquaman, Flash and am considering a look at some of the other Lantern books.

When I was a kid in the 80s, you picked a side: Marvel or DC. Everyone loved superheroes. That was never in question. I liken it to watching basketball. While I loved watching Michael Jordan dunk on the entire NBA, I was a Laker FAN. I liked Batman, watched Superman movies and Plastic Man and the never mentioned Firestorm spinoff cartoon. But I limited my fandom of DC strictly to the screen and only purchased one DC title in the 13 year span I collected comic books. I bought an issue of Lobo. I only bought it because he reminded me of Wolverine and I wanted to make sure DC wasn't trying to imitate my favorite character. Like everyone in the late 80s mid-90s I was an X-Men fan. I collected every spinoff. New Mutants, X-Force, Excalibur, X-Factor and even X-Terminators (look it up.) Now, twenty some odd years later, I have rediscovered comics by reading message boards. A long session of back-to-back Walking Dead reading and Garth Ennis's work on Punisher and The Boys infected me. By reading these other non-X titles, I was forced to open my mind to the possibility that other brands had the type of writing I was looking for. That and I watched a few of the Warner Bros. Animation DC movies like Batman: Under the Red Hood and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse. So I am new to DC and The New 52 is awesome. I'm a fan of Snyder's work on Batman. I have most of the Bat titles on the pull list. I have recently picked up The Flash and have started reading Aquaman. I repeat Aquaman. I HATED Aquaman from the Superfriends cartoons of the 80s. But now, the way it is written, especially in the first issue made me give the orange shirted guy a chance. He's just one of the characters I didn't give a chance because of his DC affiliation. I hated the Green Lantern, but now am curious as to what his story is. It's like becoming a kid again. I'm anxious to see what new villain will pop up and how my favorite superheroes will react. It's freakin awesome to this 35 year old!