DC Universe #0...

...what a missed opportunity. You put out a 50cent book the week before FCBD, you'd think that maybe it would be attractive to new readers.

I gave it to my wife to read to get her reaction to it - and her main problem was that very few of the characters had any introduction, so for a casual reader it was kind of confusing.

Let's break it down by sequence...

JLA
Not much going on here really, although would it have killed them to do a roll-call caption so those people who haven't picked up a DC book before would know who Martian Manhunter was?

Superman
This was a bit confusing to the better half - she had no idea who the unintroduced Legion were - seriously, I don't think they were even referred to as the Legion, were they? And frankly, while that double page spread was impressive it wasn't exactly full of information: Superman and Legion will fight shadows that hark back to first Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Batman
Probably the best stand alone part of the book, if a bit cryptic. Still not 100% sold on Morrison's take on the Joker.

Wonder Woman
Okay - Mrs Rich liked this part, but didn't get the reference to Wonder Woman's birth from the collection of dirt from genocide/massacre sites - until I explained Wonder Woman's origin (and then realized how stupid it sounds). She also thought that Wonder Woman really looked like Linda Carter in the ad.

Green Lantern
Probably the favorite bit of the book because at least it was actually explained who Hal Jordan was. She didn't really get the significance of the split panels on the two page spread until I explained the history of the Sinestro Corps and I explained that it was like a trailer. At that point she thought it looked pretty interesting.

Spectre
Honestly, what little introduction to the Spectre there was was pretty vague - and it wasn't that interesting anyway.

Villains
Again, no roll call? This was pretty much impenetrable to her, and to be honest I didn't get whoe the flaming falling man was (Darkseid? Orion?) or how he related to the Crime Bible. Also, Libra was kind of hokey - and seemed to be taking a leaf from the Hood's playbook over in New Avengers.


Final page
Mrs Rich read the blog but otherwise it would have been a big huh? To be honest, if it hadn't been spoiled on the news for me, it would have been the same for me. I wouldn't have thought it was Barry, especially. Maybe Bart, I guess.

Anyway, as a whole, like I said - missed opportunity. This should have been a primer, not a trailer that was impenetrable to anyone who hadn't read the past three years of DC stories.

Also, it may just have been me but I found the narration to be a little bit up its own arse...