By Geoff Cuddy (comic N3rd)
Whew, the month of 52 new number 1s from DC with their reboot, relaunch, re-desperate hail-mary to keep relevant…is finally over and time for a quick roundup of what I liked and didn’t.
I didn’t pick up all 52 titles as it was a drain enough on the pocketbook just to try the titles I was interested in, and from what I’ve read I thankfully missed some of the worst of the worst. Most of my choices were based on writers and artists or titles people recommended after reading.
Before this reboot my DC reading was limited to mostly what Scott Snyder, Brian Wood and Geoff Johns wrote as they are some of my favorite writers so I wasn’t big into a lot of DC series. With this reboot I defiantly will be picking up a lot more DC titles but really hope the titles that were the cream of the crop continue the level of quality seen in issue 1.
With all that let’s get to of those I picked up and my thoughts:
Animal Man – best issue bar none. Jeff Lemire here as crafted a perfect first issue. And the art from Travel Foreman was just stunning! I can’t say how fantastic this issue was.
Swamp Thing – Scott Snyder can do no wrong. Loved the old series and great to see it back. Not so new reader friendly as most other titles but if you know a little about Swamp Thing this was great.
Resurrection Man – Abnet and Lanning’s title from the 90’s all brushed off for 2011. Very cool idea of a man who each time he dies comes back with different powers. Didn’t read their original series and reading this made me want to go back and look at picking it up.
Demon Knights – a medieval justice league, what’s more fun than exploding babies! Paul Cornell has a great handle on these characters and I always like The Demon.
Wonder Woman – never read an issue of Wonder Woman I liked until this and have never been into Brian Azzarello, but a very interesting start, most surprised by this. Will for sure keep reading.
Batman – Scott Snyder basically continues his great run on Detective Comics.
Teen Titans / Superboy – both from Scott Lobdell, both really solid and I love Brett Booth’s art on Titans.
Batwoman – J.H. Williams continues creating the most beautiful comic on the stands, continuing the fantastic story started by him and Greg Ruka.
The Flash – good, not great. As always, loved Francis Manapul’s art but after a great start with the old series from Geoff Johns that kind of fell apart leading into Flashpoint, this issue while good, was just good. Will give it a few more and see if I get excited again.
Aquaman – very cool new take on a character maligned by almost everyone. Definitely has me excited to see what’s next. And again Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis make beautiful comics.
I, Vampire – um, ok I think. Will flip through issue 2 and see how I feel. Art was cool from Andrea Sorrentino but I think I might have vampire overload.
Justice League Dark – felt way too much like Peter Miligan’s old 90’s comic Shade the Changing Man. And while I loved that title in the 90’s, not so much in 2011. Where Demon Knights was JL in medieval times this is JL in current times and just not as fun.
Action Comics – Grant Morrison just bores me these days. I keep trying his comics and just feel ambivalent. Won’t continue reading.
Grifter– I loved Who Is Jake Ellis from writer Nathan Edmondson so picked this up just based on his writing. And was underwhelmed. Will flip through issue 2 but will probably drop.
Frankenstein Agent of Shade – another Jeff Lemire title. Good enough to continue for now.
Suicide Squad – not interesting enough to continue or talk about.
Stormwatch – was hoping for more from Paul Cornell but was left wanting. Will flip through the next issue as I’ve always loved the characters from The Authority, but no one has seemed to have a good handle on them since Mark Millar left title.
Green Lantern – another series I loved when Geoff Johns brought it back, then got so bored with it after Blackest Night and the colored lantern war (that sounds weird…lol). This again just bored me – another one I’ll flip through issue 2 but don’t know if I’ll pick it up.
Justice League – Geoff Johns and Jim Lee, have to pick this up as how often do you get to enjoy Jim’s artwork these days. A great first issue too.
Well, going thorough all that it seems that I’ll be collecting a lot of DC titles for the foreseeable future.
Part of why I’ve always liked Marvel comics over DC is for the past 10+ years Marvel has for the most part been really focused and stable. There have been good and the bad, but the Marvel Architects have really had a vision and it’s still continuing and there is way more good output then bad. DC has been more of a quagmire of desperation trying one thing after another to gain market share, a few sticking (GL, Batman: the only titles not rebooted) but most failing again and again with each Crisis. I hope with this DC really starts having a focus and that in 6 months or a year we don’t see slip into the same old DC. But for now, I’m enjoying it!
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