The New DC 52: Week 3

And here we are, back for the third week of DC Comics’ big reboot rollout. We’ve had some good titles and some bad, some mediocre, and some that spectacularly failed. I ordered about 40 of the 52 in advance, going only on solicitations and my own personal preferences. Some I chose to skip because of the creative team, others because of the characters, some because of the premise. Because of the way advance ordering works, I’m committed to picking up the first two issues; that’s what I ordered and paid for by the time the actual product started coming out. And while I could, theoretically, convince my local store to exchange something I hated for something else, I don’t feel like unloading my sins on them. B&D Comics has always treated me well. (Shameless plug!)

For those who might be curious, the ordering period ended last week. This means that I had to choose what to keep and drop based on the first half of the releases. Any stinkers from the second half will get an extra month to impress me, I guess. Two series thus far have not made the cut. Suicide Squad got the boot for being… bad. And making me very unhappy. I also dropped Grifter because in the end, it didn’t grip me, and I had to make the choice. In these troubled times of continuity resets, it’s becoming a lot easier to drop things you’re not emotionally tied to.

This week, I got ten of the twelve releases. I opted out of Captain Atom, and DC Universe Presents. That still leaves me with a rather interesting assortment, so let’s get on with it, shall we?

Batman (Written by Scott Snyder, Art by Grag Capullo): It’s Batman. More importantly, it’s Batman thwarting a breakout at Arkham, playing detective, attending a high society gala as Bruce Wayne, interacting with his army of dark-haired teenage wonders (Dick, Tim, and Damien), playing with high-tech toys, and so on. Snyder has a good handle on the characters, and seems to be off to a pretty strong start. I’m really hoping that we’ll see some interesting stories in the months to come, and maybe even some measure of progress for poor beleaguered Gotham City. The art is detailed and expressive, leading to gruesome shots of Arkham prisoners and an exquisitely detailed look at the Batcave, among other things. When it comes to Batman, my needs are simple, and this is it. Yes.

Birds of Prey (Written by Duane Swierczynski, Art by Jesus Saiz): I was a huge fan of the original title and its various permutations; to see it proceed here without Barbara “Oracle” Gordon behind the wheel is almost unthinkable. Instead, we’ve got the other charter member of the team, Black Canary, picking up some new friends. Here, we get her recruitment of the sexy, sassy, concerned for her soul, newcomer Ev Crawford, who has wicked tattoos and likes guns. They fight well-armed guys in stealth suits, and rescue a nosy reporter. Along the way, Barbara Gordon shows up to be disapproving because Black Canary is apparently wanted for murder. Huh. What’s not so clear is whether the old version of the Birds is still in continuity, and if Black Canary and Oracle worked together, or they’re just friends with a difference of opinion. No idea of the wanted for murder thing is a holdover from the old continuity or not. At least the art is pretty and dynamic. While I do have my doubts, this is still a perfectly good adventure comic, and I’ll stick around to see what happens. Yes.

Blue Beetle (Written by Tony Bedard, Art by Ig Guara): The latest iteration of the Blue Beetle, a Hispanic youth by the name of Jaime Reyes, showed up a few years ago and gained some small popularity with his own series and a number of appearances on Batman: The Brave and the Bold. He’s getting a back-to-basic reboot to streamline his origin and divorce him from event-induced continuity drag. So what we have here is the start of an origin story, where they infodump all we need to know about the scarab’s origins upfront. It’s the product of an alien race, and it turns its host into a weapon of mass destruction working for said aliens. This one was damaged, ended up on Earth, and now things get messy. Hey, the Brotherhood of Evil is back together, and it looks like Monsieur Mallah and the Brain are alive again! (Please, oh please, let the evil brain in a jar still be in sweet sociopathic gay love with the intelligent, gun-toting, beret-wearing French-speaking gorilla. Please!) While I’m not fond of supporting character Paco being turned into a gangbanger, I figure it’s meant to at least try to portray some of the authentic diversity of life in El Paso. Not everyone is going to walk the straight or narrow or stay in school. I trust Tony Bedard to do us right by these characters and this book. Throw in some beautiful, effective art, and you definitely have me hooked. Yes.

Catwoman (Written by Judd Winick, Art by Guillem March): And then there was this book. I thought at first it was Boobs McGee, written by Catwomanluvvr31, art by Rule 34. I might be exaggerating. I might not. Because our sexy, sleek, confident, morally conflicted cat burglar has put the emphasis on sexy. She spends nearly half the issue in some form of undress, starting with a scene where she’s under attack and she only has time to put on one half of her outfit, before cramming at least eight cats into a cat carrier and flinging herself out the window. With her left arm and chest still exposed. Nice bra. I can see she needs the support. (I miss the streamlined, retro-awesome, practical stylings of Darwyn Cooke, alas. This is more in Jim Balant territory again.) (Look, I have cats. And you cannot fit that many cats in something so small. It doesn’t work that way! Bad crazy cat lady, no catnip!) Then, at the end of the issue, comes the sequence that broke a thousand minds, started a thousand threads, and fueled ten thousand slashfics. This is a spoiler. I guess. But the cat’s already out of the bag if you’re on the Internet and have gotten this far. Catwoman has semi-anonymous, costumes-mostly-on, sex with Batman on a rooftop. There is no way to interpret this as anything else. I did not need to see her fondling his Bat-ears, or riding him like the Bat-pole. (For that, there’s all sorts of places online.) And it’s flat-out suggested that this happens frequently. So… yeah. Someday, I’ll talk about where I stand on the “does Batman have sex?” question. It’s complex. This, here and now, was not what I was expected. But um, the art is very pretty? Very detailed? Very fond of Catwoman’s curves? Yeah. Look, this still isn’t as horrendously bad as it could have been. Close, like a train wreck, but I can’t bear to look away yet. Sex isn’t something to scare me off, and the story may yet surprise me. This gets a very hand-wavy For Now.

Green Lantern Corps (Written by Peter J. Tomasi, Art by Fernando Pasarin): Picking right up where we left off before the reboot, here we see Guy Gardner and John Stewart trying to make lives for themselves on Earth. As heroes without secret identities, they’re both having some trouble. Guy wants to be a coach, John wants to go back to being an architect (designing buildings capable of surviving superhuman battles, how cool is that), but it’s not looking good for the day job on either front. Meanwhile, someone is killing off Green Lanterns in another sector. Man, someone’s always killing off Green Lanterns in another sector. Unless you’re from Earth, the job turnover rate is painfully high. This is a perfectly good Green Lantern story, and Tomasi’s got the voices down. He balances out Guy’s natural arrogance and abrasive temperament with his fundamentally decent nature, and he gives John a confident, powerful, successful air. They’re in good hands. I’ll definitely stick around. Yes.

Legion of Super-Heroes (Written by Paul Levitz, Art by Francis Portela): Once again picking up the threads of the previous series, this takes us back to the future, where the Legion has finished burying those who fell in battle. It’s lost some members to other jobs or time travel shenanigans, gained a few from the Legion Academy, and now they’re dealing with a new threat involving a world gone radio silent. Honestly, I think the cast shuffling has resulted in a bit of a mess. Even with handy character-identifying boxes, I’m not entirely sure who’s a member of the team or why. I certainly couldn’t tell you how many are supposed to be alive or dead. Levitz is juggling a lot, and I’m not sure his grasp is as strong as it needs to be for such a large cast and so many plotlines. Mind you, as a long-time reader, I know that any panel involving a character named Glorith and a mention of manipulating time means it’s all going to end in tears…. I’ll keep reading for the time being, but it could go either way. For Now.

Nightwing (Written by Kyle Higgins, Art by Eddy Barrows): After playing Batman for a while, Dick Grayson has once again been demoted back to his Nightwing identity. Pity, I liked the idea of multiple Batmen, just to confuse everyone. I guess DC figured the new readers would also be confused. So here he is. High-flying, acrobatic, making wisecracks, the usual. His old circus is back in town, and he goes to look up some friends. And hey, someone’s trying to kill Dick Grayson. Must be Tuesday in Gotham. It’s all very solid and dynamic, from the story to the art, and it represents a back to basics for the first Boy Wonder. Kind of middle of the road: there’s not much I have to say for good or bad after one issue. I’ll stick with it until I get a better feel for the overall quality. For Now.

Red Hood and the Outlaws (Written by Scott Lobdell, Art by Kenneth Rocafort): Um… wow. This is two very different comics. On the one hand, it’s a great buddy comic featuring Jason “The Red Hood” Todd (the Robin who died, came back, and isn’t part of Bruce Wayne’s army of Mini-Mes) and Roy “Arsenal” Harper (AKA Speedy, Green Arrow’s former sidekick). One came back from the dead, one used to do drugs. They have wacky adventures in far-off lands, defy death, trade quips about who’s the worst sidekick ever, fight entire armies, and then go back to kick it on a beach somewhere… where they both share the sexual company of a gorgeous orange alien. Wait… WHAT? That’s right. Best superhero buddy team ever. Because the third member of their group is Starfire, longtime Teen Titan who’s been rebooted into thinking that all of us humans look alike, and it doesn’t really matter who she sleeps with. Fierce warrior by day, casual flings by night. She doesn’t even remember her former Titan teammates, or her ex-boyfriend Nightwing. Apparently, they decided to junk her complex and fascinating character and replace her with an object of lust. Sigh. Look, I’m all for grown-up superheroic fun and games. You’re young, in the best shape of your life, and you spend most of your time in an adrenaline-fueled rush, cheating death. Sex is natural! I’m not denying it! I just wish they hadn’t rebooted Starfire’s brain in the process; she was great the way she was, and a lot more interesting. Mind you, I’m just wondering how long before Roy and Jason either share her at the same time, or leave her out altogether and thus validate about five thousand fanfics. It could happen! On the other bright side of this comic: This is the most likable, accessible, interesting version of Jason Todd I’ve seen since he came back from the dead. And Roy has both arms, and it looks like we’ve erased the dead cat/heroic/impotence part of his recent history, and thank you for that. So because this comic has done two things right and one thing not, I’ll give it a chance to grow on me. Tone down the T&A on Starfire, and we’re all set. Maybe. We’ll see. For Now.

Supergirl (Written by Michael Green, Art by Mahmud Asrar): In which the titular last daughter of Krypton lands on Earth for the first time, yet again. And gets in a fight with people in powered armor. At the end, Superman shows up. Yup, it’s back to the very beginning for the character, which is a real shame because y’know, we’ve been through this before. Her lest iteration had something like five origin stories, three dark sides, four secret identities, and a midriff-baring costume. By the end, she had a personality, friends, and purpose. So hi. Square one. New to the planet, confused, and ready to do it all over again. And may I just say, her knee-length (yet knee-baring) boots look uncomfortable and impractical? There’s honestly not enough here for me to make a solid judgment. Decompression’s not always a good thing. I’ll keep reading, and see how the initial storyline fares. A very dubious For Now.

Wonder Woman (Written by Brian Azzarello, Art by Cliff Chiang): Mythological stuff happens. Centaurs, Greek gods who look like aliens, a woman in a peacock feather cloak, someone who may be a son of Zeus, and then you have Diana, AKA Wonder Woman. The good news is that the story starts immediately, and there’s plenty of action and weird things happened, and Diana kicks butt. The bad news is that the first issue is heavy on questions, light on answers. What we do know: Wonder Woman sleeps naked, but wakes cranky, and still doesn’t wear pants to work. What we don’t know: how she relates to the greater world, whether she’s part of the Justice League, what her role is, or why she’s living in London. Also, no idea why Hermes is thin and blue, with chicken feet. I’m intrigued, but vaguely uncertain. Wonder Woman has been through so many failed directions of late, that just about any decently strong direction would be an improvement. I’m willing to give this series a shot, but I won’t feel too guilty dropping it should it fail to live up to its promise. For Now.

As you can see, a lot of series this week could go one way or the other, depending on the second issue, or my mood when it comes time to place my next order. With just one week to go, it’ll be interesting to see how just many series make the cut. After this is all over, I’ll have to do at least one post with my thoughts about the relaunch overall. Comments, criticisms, opinions of your own? I welcome them all.


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