Well, I gave up and bought Superman: Earth One Vol. 2. First of all, I have to say that I had a blast with this GN, much better than the first volume for sure. Plus, we get some creative reinterpretations of certain Superman foes.
But I also noticed something: the answer to whether Superman: Earth One takes place in the same Earth as Batman: Earth One. Because some people have been wondering about this. Well, not anymore, whether it's a yes or no, that answer is here.
As all of you probably know by now, Marvel has announced (and started) an initiative named Marvel NOW. MN is a relaunch of various Marvel comic book series, with new #1s and creative teams, not to mention the promise of a jumping-on point for new readers.
However, MN has been quite dissapointing for me. Many of you may be thinking "How do you know? Most of the titles aren't even out yet!". Well of course, as I'm not here to complain about the titles, but rather Marvel's handling of the relaunch itself.
The following points are the ones I have either actual problems with, or the ones I would have handled much better (and I'm sure many of you would have as well). Be warned, though: there will be a lot of comparisons to The New 52.
Marketing
One of the biggest differences between Marvel NOW and DC's reboot The New 52 is the marketing. Whereas DC put out all kinds of advertising for their controversial yet very successful reboot, Marvel has barely done an effort to advertise it. Many people up to this day are still unaware of the existence of MN, and many fans have to mention it whenever someone expresses interest in starting to read Marvel comic books. Of course, there was people who were unaware of DC's The New 52, but it was on a much smaller scale. DC put out commercials, posters, all kinds of advertising possible for a comic book company. Marvel hasn't done much of an effort, have they?
Variety
This is probably the biggest con for me because I was really interested in exploring new corners of the Marvel Universe. It's something that The New 52 allowed me to do with titles like Animal Man, Swamp Thing or Demon Knights; not to mention other not very successful but still commendable titles like Men of War, Blackhawks or G.I. Combat. With MN I see a lot of Avengers and X-Men related titles. Not that there's anything horribly wrong with that, but even if I ignore those the rest are still, for the most part, superhero titles. Yes, we are here (for the most part) to read superhero stuff, but I liked the fact that DC took a risk with magic and war titles, even if they weren't going to work, only to showcase and develop their universe further. Of course, I can pick up trades if I really want to see more of the Marvel Universe, but shouldn't MN be offering me a little bit more?
Scope
Marvel NOW is advertised as a "revolution". However, I'm not feeling that revolution. Remember when The New 52 was announced? It was a scary feeling for all us DC fans. However, with the frightening also came something else: excitement. We wanted Flashpoint to end and September to arrive so we could see how good or bad this New 52 thing was. Of course, there's mixed opinions on the new DCU's quality, but we can all agree on something: we were about to experience something big. Of course, the fact that it was reboot played a part on this, but I don't want Marvel to reboot their universe, because another thing played a part on this: how the titles were advertised. DC didn't hide a single title once they started promoting The New 52. All the 52 new, exciting titles exploded into our faces. Instead, Marvel teases them; something that doesn't work quite as well, because people don't like waiting, since they lose interest very quickly. There's also the fact that The New 52 brought a lot more new creators to DC, whereas MN has a lot of familiar names in it. Of course, there IS new talent, just not as much as there was in The New 52.
Does this mean I hate Marvel NOW or think The New 52 is completely superior? Not at all, the New 52 has a lot of flaws that haunt DC up to this day. However, you can't argue that it did feel a lot more exciting, and maybe that's what Marvel needed. I know I did, because if they had gone that way I probably would be interested in more titles that I am right now.
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