#### this ####. It's right back to how it started. Not a compliment.

"You don't have to kill all of them, honey." What the absolute f*ck?

Well, ok, guess I'm back to talk about this issue. I am a little torn, because normally, I quite like Milligan, so I really wanted this to be great. On the one hand, this is (still) NOT my Midnighter, (nor any of the others, but Midnigher gets it the worst) the dialogue makes it clear he's basing it on Cornell's version, and, imo, Cornell ruined the character. I feared this might happen when I read that he didn't really have more than a passing familiarity with the characters in Wildstorm. On the other hand, at least he's a little more reserved than Cornell's motormouth Middy. A little. And it was definitely setting up some actual character development, it may be that he'll fix him... ok, maybe I'm just coming up with excuses. I don't want to drop a book with my favorite characters because they're... well, not those characters anymore, but that may be for the best at this point. I just fear that if sales on the book drop too low, DC could see it as the characters not being popular, when it's more likely that people don't like THESE VERSIONS of the characters... I preferred Paul Jenkins return to basics. Or if we couldn't get him, there must be another writer at DC who knows and gets these characters. Kyle Higgins doesn't have Deathstroke anymore, and he's a fan of Midnighter, he's said so on Twitter, maybe him? or get DnA back on them, or Palmiotti and Gray or..... hell, just someone who understands them, or at the very least someone who can write a cool badass. Clearly, not everyone can.

You know, after reading Earth 2, I am kinda hoping that considering they *SPOILERS!* killed Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman there, AND there's no Robin to take Batman's place, nor Supergirl (Superboy? dunno) since they got shunted to the main DCU, that there is a void there that needs to be filled. Need a sun powered flying brick who isn't dead? bam, Earth 2 Apollo. Replacement Batman? bam, Earth 2 Midnighter. I would totally understand if DC wanted to focus on the DC characters early, they've set up Jay Garrick as Flash and presumably more will follow. But this is called Earth 2, not JSA, and if the characters exist in the DCU now, they can exist in Earth 2 as well. And then, they can discover the Bleed and the Carrier and smash the Eye of the Storm to pieces... ok maybe getting a bit carried away. ;)

After some time to cool down, this wasn't as bad as the first issues, but the improvement is marginal in my mind. And it's worse after 7 and 8 showed just how good the team/title could be in this new DCU. It's frustrating to see it work for a while then lose it.

LOL. I was about to come into this thread thinking it was a going to compliment it and I was about to say "Nothing that comes out now can redeem the first six issues until its gone on for some time". I guess that clear my opinion on the matter.

What happened? I've been keeping an eye on this series but haven't been able to add it. Tell me there haven't been more deaths or a reshuffle of the members again?

I am not sure which piece of exposition was worse, the part where Jenny chirps "I'm the spirit of the 21st century! I have my own transportation, dark matter!" or the part where Apollo yelled "Yes! Sunlight! Energy! POWER!".

I am not sure which piece of exposition was worse, the part where Jenny chirps "I'm the spirit of the 21st century! I have my own transportation, dark matter!" or the part where Apollo yelled "Yes! Sunlight! Energy! POWER!".

@Mercy_:

It totally did... >.< In the case of Apollo, I hope and pray that it was at least partly due to Milligan trying to make up for the art, so it will improve in the future with a new artist. If he hadn't blathered on about what he was doing and what happened to his eyes, I wouldn't have known, because Sepulveda apparently didn't think it was worth showing in the art. but Jenny in general was quite annoying. She's surpassed Midnighter in being the most annoying character. so... good for Midnighter, I guess?

I am absolutely baffled on this front though. The excessive and clunky expository dialogue which marred Cornell's run vanished with Jenkins, so I figured editorial didn't have a hand in it after all, even though it was weird, since Demon Knights doesn't have the same problem. but now it's back! argh! Maybe they knew Jenkins was only around for 2 issues so they just rubberstamped it, figuring it didn't matter, and editorial's heavy hand is back in full force? 'cus really, Milligan is better than this. :-/

@Lvenger said:

What happened? I've been keeping an eye on this series but haven't been able to add it. Tell me there haven't been more deaths or a reshuffle of the members again?

It's not so much what happens, it's how it's told and how the characters act that people here are pissed about. We (me, Buckshot, CitizenBane and presumably some others) feel the characters aren't being handled correctly and deserve better treatment, basically. That we got a brief look at better characterizations for them in issues 7 and 8 (I take back everything I said about Midnighter and Jenny, I will take that over this any day) makes it harder. Basically my view is Cornell's run: completely ruined several of the characters, but especially Midnighter who was transformed from awesomely cool badass with a deep and loving bond with his partner/husband, Apollo, to an annoying stalker. By extension, Apollo's been turned into a doormat, he's being treated as a prize to be won, not as a person who has feelings in the matter and might, you know, say 'no', it's just assumed he's ok with Midnighter's creepy passes. As much as I liked these two together in Wildstorm, that doesn't mean I will just accept them being forced together in the DCU no matter how unhealthy the foundations of their relationship is, and right now it is extremely unhealthy. What with Midnighter flat out admitting to stalking Apollo for a year, him basically saying thy should get together just because they are both gay, like that's some kind of guarantee of compatibility, and the whole thing being extremely one-sided right now. Then Jenkins came along and I was all like 'YES!!! he's doing it right!' but that only lasted 2 issues... now along comes Milligan, and he's following in Cornell's footsteps rather than Jenkins, and it is sad, though it is marginally better than Cornell's run from the little seen so far.

I honestly thought this issue was much better than what was done previously. I'm loving this team.

dude just white it out and write your own dialouge

@AskaniSon295 said:

dude just white it out and write your own dialouge

Brilliant! That gives me the idea to overlay old authority dialogue over the new stormwatch and make it worth reading. Brilliant.