DC Comics: The New 52 - week 4

There was no real standout this week, but out of the new batch, only one book outright sucked, so I call that a win. Since normally I start this off with a pic of the issue of the week, instead I'll give my single favorite panel:

From Red Hood and the Outlaws #1

The sensitive side of me should be disgusted about what they've done to Starfire, but the lecherous side of me laughed my ass off.

Green Lantern Corps #1

The really good books
Batman #1 - The faces on this all looked weird. Not bad, but there were several shots where I was thinking, "This looks nothing at all like Bruce Wayne to me." After a bit of action, this issue takes a more casual pace centering around Bruce Wayne's plans to revitalize Gotham, and ends with a murder victim setting up a mystery villain. Fun read, and I appreciated a shot of Bruce, Dick, Tim, and Damian all together in suits.

Catwoman #1 - Most books that have tried to lure me in with sexy characters have failed. But I want more Catwoman.

DC Comics Presents #1 - Hard to make any claims about a book that will probably change writers and characters on a regular basis, but the first chapter of this Deadman story was a great introduction to the character.

Green Lantern Corps #1 - A couple of GLs killed, a taste of John and Hal trying to have normal lives before running off to OA to find a mission. Nothing that really stands out, but a solid read.

Nightwing #1 - Way too much Gotham this week, and we're barely even getting started. And wow, I thought it was overkill when they started a fourth Batman book like twenty years ago. But they seem to be getting some of their best people on these books. I liked him better blue, though. Red in the Bat-family is getting kind of repetitive.

Supergirl #1 - Another origin. Now, I've only briefly followed Supergirl over the years... I guess there've been like three or four in the last decade. So I welcomed a proper introduction/origin, and this was a good one. Hate the legwear though. When her super-hearing kicks in, she hears voices, and I recognized one of them as a quote from Batman #1... which makes me assume the other voices are quotes I just don't remember... and it's a nice touch. Even though it's hard to say what to expect from the series at this point, it was a nice start.

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 - Another Gotham tie-in with Red Hood/Jason Todd. I'm not sure why Jason's suddenly something of a good guy, and I feel guilty for liking this.

Captain Atom #1

Not bad, I may ride with these for awhile
Birds of Prey #1 - Black Canary is forming a new team, and consults Barbara Gordon. Black Canary is wanted for murder. I'm unclear how much continuity has been rebooted, since they're vague on whether or not there's been a previous team, why Batgirl isn't going to be on the team. And is Black Canary's being wanted some new thing I can expect them to build to, or some holdover from the old continuity? Four members shown on the cover, but one (Katana) is only mentioned as a prospect, and another (Poison Ivy) does not appear in this issue. Weird choice, but I guess Black Canary and the new character Starling alone wasn't an exciting enough cover. I'm also not entirely sure of who we were fighting and why. For some reason, I feel compelled to stick around until the entire team forms to see if I like the dynamic.

Captain Atom #1 - Captain Atom seems to be resembling Dr. Manhattan a lot more these days, which would seem like a ripoff if Dr. Manhattan weren't a ripoff of Captain Atom to begin with. And Dr. Manhattan in the DC Universe is a pretty cool idea. He's also transforming matter, isn't that supposed to be Firestorm's thing? I never got exposed much to Atom before, so I'm not sure. Hard to say what direction the book is going in from the first issue, though.

Legion of Superheroes #1 - I mentioned for the Legion Lost book that I could never really get into a Legion book. That's not entirely true, there was a reboot a few years back that held my attention, but only for a few issues, and since then I still feel lost every time i pick up a legion book. And even though this apparently isn't a reboot for the Legion, it was a surprisingly good jumping-on point, in spite of trying track of 20 different characters with generic names like ultra boy, cosmic boy, and colossal boy, and star boy. If it does last for me, it will probably die about the time they try to cross over with Legion Lost, which completely bored me.

Wonder Woman #1 - This is weird. WTF am I reading? One more page...

I just don't care
Blue Beetle #1 - I had the read this one twice, because I didn't realize the first time through that it was a reboot/origin story. And the second time through, it was still pretty uninteresting. But apparently, the Blue Beetle, or "Reach" scarabs are so bad that Green Lanterns come running to destroy these things. Which is intriguing, but if this issue was any indication, any good ideas will be buried in bad storytelling. A shame, because from what I've seen of him in recent years, Blue Beetle seems too interesting to be at the bottom.

Last batch of #1's coming next week! I'm especially looking forward to Flash #1... wish they'd bring back Wally, but maybe they'll finally make Barry interesting!