My thoughts on some of DC's New 52

When I first heard about the DC relaunch I was pretty excited.  I was always a Marvel person growing up. Honestly, in 1984 or so when I first started reading comics, Marvel was so much cooler than DC.  Marvel had Spider-Man and the X-Men, they had Secret Wars, and most importantly they had comics adaptations of G.I. Joe and the Transformers, which were the most important things in my life at that time.  DC had a Superman that worked at a TV station, and was all kinda boring.  I knew the DC characters because they were so iconic, but NOBODY I knew was reading DC comics.

I got away from comics for many years, and only around 2007 or so did I start reading comics again.  In that time, I've done a ton of catching up on both Marvel and DC (along with a lot of independent books), and while I haven't enjoyed everything I've read, I have approached this relaunch with at least some knowledge of the Dc universe.  That being said, even though I have read many DC stories over the past 4 or so years, DC has still felt fairly impenetrable to me.  There's just so much continuity, and continuity seems to matter more in DC than it does in Marvel, or maybe they've just handled it better.  I'm not sure.  So, like I said, when I heard about the relaunch I was pretty excited.  They were going to keep stuff that worked (most of Johns' GL run, the current status of the Bat-books) and revamp things that didn't (like in the Superman books).

Just as an aside, I agree it was time to blow up the Superman stories a little.  I enjoyed Johns' run on the book when it involved Brainiac and New Krypton, and was pretty excited about the concept of a whole new world of Kryptonians, but that whole concept really didn't end up working like I'd hoped (and I read the whole New Krypton series).  Maybe it's just hard to come up with good Superman stories.

So I wanted to get my thoughts down with respect to each of the new DC #1 issues that I am reading.  I am not going to be reading all of them, and I don't think I really have the time to do detailed reviews, but wanted to share my thoughts on what I've been reading.  So, here we go!

Action Comics - Loved it.  Thought this was a genuinely new take on Superman (even though I realize that it harkens to his earliest days).  It makes sense, too -  a character created by two Jewish kids in the 1930's would of course have some socialist/fight the oppressors and on behalf of the common man type ideas.

Animal Man - Wow.  Very impressed with this first issue.  I'm not really familiar with Jeff Lemire's other work, though I knew he was a respected indie creator.  I certainly want to check it out now. I loved the intro with his interview in "The Believer" (which I actually subscribed to for a time) and thought the story and art here were both terrific.  It's definitely not traditional super hero art, but that seems right to me, as it is more of a supernatural/horror comic than it is "man in tights".  Really enjoyed this, and look forward to seeing where it's going.

Batgirl - This was a lot of fun.  Gail Simone is good at both dialogue and characterization, so I immediately felt like I was in Barbara Gordon's head.  The very last panels didn't exactly make sense to me (no spoilers here), but I found her characterization of Barbara who is not yet comfortable being a "super hero" again to be very believable.

Detective Comics - Good story, very intense/dramatic ending.  Tony Daniel is a great artist but is not yet a great writer (and suffers a little in comparison to Grant Morrison, Paul Dini or Scott Snyder) but he is improving.  This felt like a pretty regular Batman story, not necessarily like a whole new world.  I liked it though, and would be interested in seeing where it's going.

Justice League - I liked this, but wouldn't say I loved it.  I enjoyed the banter between Batman and Green Lantern, I like who their setting up as the big first villain, and enjoyed the end.  I also loved the Jim Lee art.  What's my issue then?  Mostly, it felt like not very much happened in this issue; I think they could have compressed it a little more and provided nods to a few of the other JLA members.  Still, I definitely enjoyed it and will check out further issues.

Men of War - Thought it was fine, but don't think I'll be subscribing.  The idea of telling a story about soldiers (or other "regular" people) in a world where superheroes exist is a good one, and one that has been well explored by Kurt Busiek in Marvels and Astro City.  Additionally, "Gotham Central" is a great telling of law enforcement trying to do their jobs in a crazy world.  Like Gotham Central, I get that the soldiers here seem to view the superheroes as a distraction to their jobs, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the author here is a fan of Garth Ennis' "The Boys".  All that being said, I thought the story and art were fine, but felt a bit generic.  Maybe I'm just not a fan of war comics.

OMAC - My biggest surprise so far.  I loved this!  I don't necessarily think I'll subscribe to it, but this was probably the most fun read I've had in a while.  If Kirby-esque can be used as an adjective, then that's what I'd say this was.  Clearly written in a style meant to evoke Kirby's fourth world and other concepts, this issue read like an old-school adventure comic out of the 1970's.  It didn't much seem to relate to the larger DC universe, but was a real joy to read, as I thought it was full of good, ridiculous fun.

Stormwatch - This is the one that disappointed me the most.  That is not to say that I disliked it, because I thought it set up a lot of interesting stuff, and I absolutely LOVED Ellis' and Millar's runs on the Authority, so I am predisposed to like any book that has Apollo, Midnighter, Jack Hawksmoor, etc.  However, I wasn't crazy about the art (I thought the engineer just looked sort of odd), and the story just didn't grip me like I thought it would (which surprised me, given that Paul Cornell is writing), but I will give this another shot next month because I like generally where they're going (making this group into an analogue of Hickman's SHIELD).

Swamp Thing - Another awesome comic.  As with Animal Man, I have only read the most classic runs of these comics and am not overly familiar with them, but this issue made me want to know more about the Swamp Thing character, and to try to understand the complex relationship between Alec Holland and Swamp Thing.  There's some pretty compelling story, a general air of dread and unease, and some pretty horrifically compelling images near the end.  Scott Snyder FTW!