Thoughts? The idea of the line sounds promising (not that creators were paying that much attention to continuity in the first place) and I like the creative teams mentioned so far. I’ll definitely be picking up Morrison’s Superman, and Lee’s Batman & Robin depends on the writer. There’s also a rumored Wonder Woman book by Geoff Johns and Adam Hughes.
However, I don’t like how they’re limiting themselves to the “iconic” characters, because that pretty much means that everything is going to be Superman and Batman. Which sucks, since I’m a sucker for the second, third, and fourth stringers.
Oh, and on a totally unrelated and smaller note, a new Supergirl series has been announced. Normally I’d be excited, but not only do I hate the new Supergirl and think the story in which she was introduced was awful, the creative team on her book consists of Jeff Loeb and Ian Churchill. My least favorite writer and my least favorite artist - together again! Yeesh.
That Morrison interview is great. I’ll definitely be buying his Superman. As for the idea behind the line, I guess it makes a certain amount of sense. I don’t really read anything set in the DCU these days and don’t plan to make a habit of it, so I don’t mind the absence of continuity, but I don’t understand how DC can say with a straight face that this proves they’re not ultimizing their universe. Um, what else would Ultimate DC look like other than this?
I think the difference is that the Ultimate line is a universe unto itself. I think the All-Star line is more about saying “we don’t care about continuity at all.”
So while Ultimate Spider-Man has a simplified continuity, it still has four or five years of that continuity behind it. From what I gather, it seems like the All-Star line will be more like a bunch of mini or maxi series that have nothing to do with each other.
And yeah, the Morrison interview has me very excited about his Superman.
It actually sounds like a good idea. Sort of a mini-Ultimates though I do appreciate the difference. A Morrisson Superman sounds absolutely horrid but that’s just me. He made Batman into a god so I can’t even begin to imagine how he will further ruin Superman.
Morrison’s Superman looks pretty fun. But, I love Morrison, so I’d buy it even if I hadn’t read the interview, where he convinced me it was going to be cool.
As long as AS Superman and AS Batman (and any others they do) are kept separate from eachother, it should be good.
Like Shy Guy, I have a fondness for the second-stringers and obscurer characters, but for this concept, I do like sticking to the Big Iconic People.
As to how this differs from the Ultimate Marvel U - based on what Morrison’s saying, the All-Star line embraces the most silly, grand, creative aspects of the Golden and Silver Age stories (although, hopefully, not the Overdramatic Dialogue, where everything is a Huge Melodramatic Pronouncement - I’m not sure even Morrison could make me wade through that) - wheras the UMU keeps the silliness to a minimum, and has things on a much narrower scale.
When someone wants to do something as ambitious as “tell stories set in a contemporary period that both builds on the histories of the respective characters, while remaining fresh and as timeless as possible,” but can’t bother to find a freakin’ writer for the first issue, I get very worried.