DC's New 52, Part 2

Another week, another batch of mostly very good comics.  Again, I'm not reading all of DC's new 52 because of (i) money and (ii) no desire to read certain comics (looking at you, Rob Liefeld).

Anyway, before I get to the new reviews, I want to say another few words about Stormwatch.  I reread the first issue, and I want to like this book.  I mean, I really want to like it.  So why don't I like it more?  I'm not sure - it's got a lot of the characters I love (Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor), it's got big, high-concept stuff (the moon turning into a claw, existential threats), but there's something about it that's just off.  The relationships between the parties isn't clear, the art is slightly off, it feels a little jumbled.  I think I will read it a little longer, but it's definitely on my bubble list.  There's too many excellent comics out there to read something I'm not sure about.  With that, here are the reviews of what I read this week:

Batman & Robin - Very good effort.  I like how they establish the new status quo, and the fact that Bruce and Damian are clearly going to have to learn how to work together and are going to establish their own dynamic.  Damian is a real prick to his father in this issue - another reviewer (maybe at IGN?) pointed out why it made sense that Damian was being so obnoxious to Bruce, because Damian is having a hard time adjusting to his actual father, as opposed to the idealized version of his dead father.  The story was fine, but it was the characterization of the relationships that's the real hook here.  Very strong issue.

As an aside, I'm struggling a little bit with my decisions about what books I will subscribe to, as there are a number of strong contenders.  I liked last week's Detective Comics, but the truth is I'm probably only going to subscribe to one Batman book (not including Batwoman or Batgirl), so I'm not sure why I wouldn't just get this instead of Detective Comics.  I'm also expecting that Scott Snyder's Batman book will be very strong (I just read one of his American Vampire volumes and it was extremely good stuff).  So, we'll see.

Batwoman - No surprises here, I thought this was fantastic.  My pick of the week.  The art is, just to state the obvious, quite stunning.  J.H. Williams seems to have picked right up from his and Greg Rucka's run on Detective Comics.  There was a lot jam-packed in this issue, plenty of threads to unfold over the next year or so.  A very promising series.  I also have to ask myself whether I want to subscribe to both this and Batgirl.  I agree with those who have said that Batgirl #1, while good, was not Gail Simone's best work.  We'll see.  Barbara Gordon is an extremely likable character, and I've definitely enjoyed Simone's work in the past.  Given the number of titles out there, I'm not sure how many Bat-family titles I can subscribe to.

Demon Knights - This falls into the category (like OMAC) of "really fun read, not sure I'd subscribe".  I was entertained by the story, and I like the idea of doing a book with a medieval setting where the events and characters will have repercussions that will be felt today.  I'm very unfamiliar with the more fantasy-oriented aspects of the DC universe, but I thought that the idea that this guy Jason Blood has the demon Etrigan trapped inside him was a pretty interesting one.  I'm not sure about this one.  I'll read another issue at least.  I'd hate to see Paul Cornell go 0-for-2 in my reading list.

Frankenstein - Really fun stuff.  Another strong issue from Jeff Lemite, with a very different feel than Animal Man, but still dealing with the supernatural.  This one had some real humor, and it definitely felt like a Hellboy-ish comic.  Some of the stuff was random (like his boss looking like a little Japanese girl) but it was overall very entertaining and I think the character of Frankenstein (shouldn't it be Frankenstein's monster?) is a strong one.  A monster with a very old fashioned sensibility and a real moral sense.  I like it, definitely enough to pick up the next issue or two, at least.

Green Lantern - I have to admit that over the past year or so, I was pretty close to dropping Green Lantern from my monthly pull list.  I really loved the Sinestro Corps war, and I also really enjoyed Blackest Night, but I thought that the endless bickering among the different colored corps and the ongoing stuff with the Guardians was just kinda boring.  So, the new status quo (which I know is a plot progression from the prior stories) really does feel like a breath of fresh air to me.  I think having Sinestro back as a Green Lantern is a terrific story idea.  I love his character and I hope they keep him as part of the GL corps for a while.  I also love the stuff in here about Hal dealing with the consequences of flying around the galaxy for months at a time. So, they've got my attention again, and I feel like this issue was a necessary jump start for the series.

Superboy - My biggest surprise this week.  I really enjoyed this issue a lot.  Even though not that much "happened", plenty actually happened, and we got a lot of interesting setup.  This new Superboy, we still don't know a lot about his motivations, but we do know that he knows more than his captors think he does, and that he has a pretty impressive power set.  I'm very curious to see where they go with this - partly I assume where it is going is right into Teen Titans.  That was not a title I was planning on picking up, but I just might based on my interest in the character.