Jumping in Headfirst

Green Lantern: New Guardians Writer: Tony Bedard Artist: Tyler Kirkham And so we come to the last of the Green Lantern titles. While Green Lantern focuses on Hal (still DC's flagship title), and Green Lantern Corps is the "special ops" team focused on Guy Gardner and John Stewart, Green Lantern: New Guardians focuses on Kyle Rayner, the old-school. Written by former GLC writer Tony Bedard, New Guardians shows Kyle Rayner suddenly chosen by the rings of the other Lantern Corps for some currently unknown reason. The action ramps up fast, with the first issue showing what happened to the previous owners of the rings before they were drawn to Kyle, and members of those Corps coming to retrieve those rings (or take retribution for what happened to their former owners when they were suddenly left without rings). More than any other title, Green Lantern: New Guardians carries the continuity of the previous Green Lantern titles. If you were a fan of Geoff Johns' multi-p...

Writer: Geoff Johns Artist: Ivan Reis/Joe Prado So, I'm a little late with the first issue thing. My bad. No excuses. But to make up for it I'll be doing thoughts on the first three issues for what I'm behind on. I've got seven titles left to do, including this one. The opening issue of this is pretty good. It teases us with a new villain(s) for our hero, one that's a fair deal more terrifying than even Ocean Master and Black Manta, Aquaman's most notable bad guys. Geoff takes advantage of Aquaman's long history of being in the public eye (even if as a joke character) to skip over wasting the first issue retelling Aquaman's origin or giving us long expositional backstory for him, instead showing us what his take on the character will be. Gone is the arrogant king of Atlantis, more concerned with his people beneath the surface than above it. This version, while confident and self-assured, is a superhero through and through. Despite the jokes (more...

Writers: Michael Green and Mike Johnson Artist: Mahmud Asrar Supergirl is one of those characters I can take or leave, but whenever she's written by someone with talent I'm glad to pick up her book. Because I take that stance, when they announced her title and it was written by someone that I didn't really know, I gave it a shot. I was thoroughly impressed. In sharp contrast to Superman, Supergirl has always been the Kryptonian who actually remembered her homeworld, which was meant to give her a different perspective on Earth than her younger cousin Superman. (She was supposed to land before Clark and protect him while he grew up, but her ship was knocked off course.) The issue portrays this fact excellently, as despite the issue being about Supergirl beating up a bunch of humans, I still found myself rooting for her. Written as a fish out of water, on a world and with powers she doesn't understand, Green and Johnson manage to make someone with Superman's pow...

Writer: Brian Azzarello Artist: Cliff Chiang * Author's Note: I think she looked cooler with pants. Anyway. First thing's first: Cliff Chiang's art is jaw-droppingly gorgeous. I thought it was slightly cartoony when I was reading Green Arrow/Black Canary, but that was clearly done on purpose as hear it manages to do a number of tones--including very creepy--with no problems. Everything's pretty much pitch-perfect from start to finish. Next. I've been seeing a few people claim this book is too difficult to follow. Uhm. For serious? The ONLY thing that was kind of difficult to understand was the identity of the guy with the helmet. Everything else...I'm not a mythology guy, unless you count superheroes. And I've read Wonder Woman from the last relaunch of this book until Gail left the book. That's it. I'm not terribly familiar with Greek Mythology, but Azzarello basically telegraphs the identities of these characters. Lastly, before I fina...

Writer: Paul Levitz Artist: Francis Portela Okay, I'll say it. This is just the next issue of Legion of Super-Heroes from the last volume. I say this as a fan of Paul Levitz who was enjoying the series but dropped it a month or so before the reboot due to being a little too busy. This was a comic by a guy who may have got the memo that DC was doing a line-wide reboot to attract new readers, but really didn't care. Unlike Green Lantern (which was actually a follow-up to a crossover arc), this book is dripping with leftover references from the last arc Levitz wrote, and feels like the aftermath issue for that crossover. The trouble here is, rather than simply write it like your normal epilogue issue and allow readers to at least piece together some idea of what happened before and perhaps give us a clue of where the book is headed, Levitz leaves things vague, perhaps with the intention of making new readers feel like they aren't reading issue 16 instead of issue 1. The ...

Writer: Peter Tomasi Artist: Fernando Pasarin I'm a bit late finishing this up, and I apologize. By my count, I've got 12 books (including this one) left to post on, and I'll be trying to get them all done by Friday. Now, on to the preview! To start, can I just make the point that it needs to be harder to kill a Green Lantern? I know it's important to set up a villain, but the Green Lantern Ring...it's The Most Powerful Weapon In The Universe. I'd love for that to mean something again in this new DCU. Other than that though, this is a great #1. It provides a new story for old fans like me, but it also introduces the concept of the Green Lantern Corps through exposition that doesn't quite feel blatant or obvious in a way that ruins the story. (Even JLA's wasn't as natural as this...and it came off pretty well.) The stars of the book, John Stewart and Guy Gardner, start the book off showing us the problem with trying to find a job when everyo...

Writer: Kyle Higgins Artist: Eddy Barrows Ah, finally! Dick Grayson had to give up Nightwing several years ago when DC turned Bruce Wayne into Sam Beckett , and this reboot is the first time he's had his own comic since February of 08. I gotta say, as someone who's always been a larger fan of Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, he was definitely missed. We come back to Nightwing with a new writer, Kyle Higgins (whose work I've never read before), and a new story. Reading the interviews, the idea with Nightwing was supposed to be that his time as Batman had made him an even better, stronger hero than before. I'd love for that to be true, but considering his best feat in the issue is beating some throwaway nut and...not doing all that well against the primary villain of the issue, I'm going for that to be Dick's perception rather than reality at the moment. Still, from what I've read so far, we're heading down a new road. It's been a while since Dick h...

Writer: Scott Snyder Artist: Greg Capullo Interesting. That's the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of this first issue. I know the basic premise of the first arc to Batman: Scott Snyder wants to tell us what Gotham is REALLY like. Batman thinks he knows the city, but does he really? What happens when he finds out truths about Gotham that the city had kept hidden from him until now? That's the basic idea. Knowing that going in made things a bit different for me. The art seemed to make the city as important a character as all the humans in it. Greg Capullo makes Gotham come alive in this opening issue. You really get a feel for how big and mysterious Gotham truly is, and that's vital for the story Scott is trying to tell. Overall, for the first "Batman #1" since the 1930's, this is a great way to start. We're introduced to the entire cast, given one HECK of a cliffhanger, and an intriguing new villain with so-far unknown goals. I...

Writer: Tony Bedard Artist: Ig Guara Okay, this one is slightly unexpected. Initially I believed that of all the characters being rebooted, Blue Beetle would evade it. He's got the most stereotypical superhero set-up in terms of powers, origin, supporting cast, his history is only like, seven or so years old, and given his Brave and the Bold appearances, the guy is probably more popular than half of the superheroes you know. But they hit the reset button pretty hard, giving us an entirely different origin for Jaime Reyes (and, subsequently, getting rid of one of the last remaining reasons Infinite Crisis existed), one that isn't tied to a gigantic crossover comic book. Here, Jaime plays the role of your average high school teen with a smart mouth and, from what we see at the end, the makings of a hero. It's a very busy comic book, what with re-introducing us to everyone and giving Jaime an entirely new origin story, but it all comes together pretty well. Ig Guara's...

Writer: Duane Swiercynski Artist: Jesus Saiz Admittedly, I wasn't all that sure about this book. No Oracle = No reason for BoP, I thought. But, I have to say, it works pretty well with Black Canary as our lead. There are still some questions I have, like what happened to the remainder of the team (Huntress, Manhunter, etc.), but I suppose those will be answered over time. While I wasn't sure about Swiercynski as the writer for this new BoP, a great deal of this worry was taken away when he chose to write about all-new characters (and has a good handle on one of the coolest superheroes in comics, Dinah/Black Canary), and overall we get an interesting opening for a first issue with a sick cliffhanger. The art is beautiful, but I expected that from Jesus Saiz anyway. This one's definitely got my interest for it's opening arc.

Writer: Geoff Johns Artist: Doug Mahnke Well well well. One of the few comics I wasn't that excited about when the relaunch was announced, GL was a very pleasant surprise. First things first, let's get this out of the way: This comic book was not rebooted, in any way shape or form. None of the Green Lantern OR Batman books were, for that matter. The Batman titles mostly just kept the history they'd accumulated, but the Green Lantern titles are actually picking up largely from the same places they'd left off. Despite this, I would still call this title new reader friendly, so long as you don't spend too much time getting bogged down in the hows and just enjoy the show. It boils down to absolutely NEEDING to know this, before you read the comic: The aftermath of a previous mission led the Guardians to believe Hal Jordan was too dangerous to own a Green Lantern ring. When the ring left his finger, it sought a replacement user (as they tend to): It chose Sinestro....

Writer: Scott Lobdell Artist: R.B. Silva I miss wisecracking Superboy. The one with the leather jacket, sunglasses, and who lived in Hawaii not only to stay out of the spotlight of the Big S, but also because the place had all the gorgeous women. The two closest people he had his age were two cute girls and he had hilarious adventures and reacted, generally, in ways someone his age would actually react, making him a relate-able character for a youth like me. (Mind you, I first read this when I was 19.) I miss that guy, and I miss his comic. Because that guy, isn't in this comic. One of the characters who was reboot the hardest, almost everything about Superboy has been completely chucked to make him more reader-friendly. Once created during the "Reign of the Supermen" plot line following Superman's death by Project Cadmus, the old Superboy was created a few years after Tim Drake (Robin) and like a couple years before Bart Allen (Impulse). He went on to be a ...

Writer: J.H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman Artist: J.H. Williams III Most gorgeous book of the 52, hands down. J.H. Williams' art is immersive, plunging you into two worlds over the course of this one issue. The world of Batwoman--a fast-paced realm where panels flow from one page to the next like still shots from an old movie projector, and then the world of Kate Kane (Batwoman's alter ego), which looks like the most traditional comic you've ever read. Illustrating the difference in how assured Kate is in her own life and how chaotic things become once she puts on the costume, it's rare to see this much thought put into page and panel design. It makes the wait from Batwoman's last appearance as the star of her own comic book worth it. The opening issue's story is solid as well, setting up a new, terrifying villain in the city of Gotham--La Llorona, the Weeping Woman. A truly haunting villain based on an urban legend of a peasant girl who accidental...

Writer: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning Artist: Fernando Dagnino Kind of an unexpected book; Resurrection Man was a title that came out of the late-90's written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. It was basically about a guy that would come back with different superpowers each time he died, usually related to his last death. Despite the resemblance to Grifter , this is definitely the superior comic. But I still feel like...I've been there and done that. Initially, Resurrection Man had one goal. Beat Vandal Savage, a DCU villain who was immortal. That's it. But now the story is apparently about his soul being wanted by two groups that suspiciously resemble angels and demons, only (of course) there is no good or bad group, as what "should" be the good team are the antagonists for the first issue. While I can't specifically nail down WHERE I've seen that before, that's likely because I didn't like it and I dropped it back then. I love Dan and Andy...

Legion Lost Writer: Fabian Nicieza Artist: Pete Woods What the sprock is going on?! I don't mean that literally--I realize many people have been struggling with understanding exactly what happened in this issue. That's not really my problem. My problem is that it's not what it could, or should be. Fabian Nicieza is capable of some amazing work, and he normally does even better writing a young cast. And while we're at it, Pete Woods is one of my favorite artists of all time. This should've been a gorgeous book featuring a cast of some of the most beloved superheroes in comics kicking butt and taking names. A solid superhero title that was, if not mind-blowing, at the very least an example of how awesome a well-written superhero story could be. Instead, this is kind of a mess. I mean, I know who these guys are, but that's mostly because I'm a Legion of Super-Heroes fan to begin with. Matt Fraction used to introduce the X-Men with tiny yellow boxes t...

Writer: Nathan Edmondson Artist: Cafu Well, this is an interesting thing. It's rare to read a book and know pretty much the same about a character after you're done than you did before you finished. That's what we have here. This book introduces us to Cole Cash, a talented con man who gets abducted by aliens but escapes before they can complete their task, and now has the rest of the hidden aliens after him. And that's all I know, aside from the Grifter once being a character from Wildstorm Universe's WildC.A.T.s superhero team. But since he's being introduced to the DCU that factoid is irrelevant and sends me right back up to the previous one-sentence description of this issue. It's not even that the book is compressed...plenty of stuff happens, it's just nothing I care about. I'm given no reason to root for the guy, no reason to think he's cool, and no reason to care about his problem, which says a lot considering someone's trying to ...

Writer: Eric Wallace Artist: Gianluca Gugliotta I didn't actually have much in the way of high hopes for this project. Rather than follow characters, I follow creators--I didn't know much about the artist, and the writer...what I know of Eric Wallace is that he wrote Titans, which was kinda terrible. But I like Mr. Terrific. The idea of the "third smartest man in the world" deciding to use his genius to fight crime interests me, so I gave this book a try. And it's not bad. The art could use a bit of work (beautiful backgrounds, but the artist needs work drawing people), but the story itself is solid. It's straightforward, but it does a great job of setting up Michael Holt as a brilliant super-scientist that just so happens to smash in bad guys' faces in his spare time. I read several interviews that said we'd see this series go cosmic real fast, and it delivers--Mister Miracle has a slick base of operations in the ninth dimension and his villain...

Writer: Dan Jurgens Artist: Aaron Lopresti First things first: This is a gorgeous comic. One of the best-looking ones DC put out for the first week of the relaunch. Aaron Lopresti has always been one of my favorite artists so seeing him work on this brings a smile to my face just looking at the cover. And I loved Dan Jurgens work on Booster Gold. I wasn't happy when it was canceled, so learning Booster was not only on the JLI, but would be leading them left me a very satisfied fan. Hopefully, even with the relaunch Booster's still had a number of the adventures he'd had in the old timeline, so he's just as competent as before--hence Batman's support of him. Speaking of, seeing both Booster Gold and Batman work as a team? AWESOME. There's something about the fact that only the World's Greatest Detective actually respects The Greatest Hero You've Never Heard Of that I'm hoping will bring this book an extra level of emotional complexity people ...

Writer: Grant Morrison Artist: Rags Morales Perfect. I hate to start off with such glowing praise, but that's what this first issue of Action Comics is. Perfect. For years, Superman has struggled to remain relevant in a world which is increasingly cynical and gray. It's caused him to slip to the middle of the sales charts while DC pulls stunt after stunt out to try and remind comic fans about the character--largely to no avail. So what do you do? How do you make a character like Superman interesting, without changing the core of who he is? Well, as it turns out, the answer to that is simple: You take the character back to his roots. The original Superman didn't just fight mad scientists and threats from places no one's heard of. He fought organized crime and corrupt businessmen. Of course, when he was created, that's not what people wanted to read about--so characters like Captain Marvel, who had more traditional superhero tales, outsold him at the new...

Writer: J.T. Krul Artist: Dan Jurgens Forewarning: This just might be the only positive review of Green Arrow you'll see. If you want to have someone savage J.T. Krul and call Dan Jurgens' art average yet again, turn away now. Going in, I'll just ask: Was anyone reading Green Arrow pre-relaunch? I was. It wasn't a bad comic, but it was incredibly depressing and almost the perfect reason for why this relaunch needed to happen. Ollie spent most of his time wallowing in depression and talking about how jacked up his life was. Most of the comic took place in a forest because Ollie had killed a supervillain who blew up half his city, so he was wanted for murder. His wife divorced him while he was in a jail cell. He had no clue where his son was. And his ward/sidekick, Red Arrow/Arsenal? Well, he was hanging out with supervillains, strung out on drugs again and beating people with extension cords after his daughter was killed by the supervillain Ollie murdered. ...