DCnU Reviews, Week 3: Batman; Nightwing

(Back in June when the new DCU titles were announced, I ranked all 52 titles on my likelihood of buying them. Only fair then to look back and see if my initial assessments hold up. My plan is to review each of the new titles as they come out.)

Batman #1
by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo & Jonathan Glapion

Original Rank/Assessment: 17 (Yes, with Reservations) - I've really liked Snyder's writing on Detective as of late; I just wish he was being teamed with his 'Tec cohorts Jock and/or Francesco Francavilla here as well (I can take or leave Capullo).

So far, this first issue of Batman is one of the best surprises of the DCnU. I was expecting to like the story, having been greatly impressed by Snyder's previous work on Detective Comics. But he manages to step it up another notch here, giving us a great introductory issue with plenty of action and a few nifty ideas, like the holographic portable Bat-Cave. His Batman is still a creature of the night, but he's not all brooding and moody. An even nicer surprise is the art from Capullo & Glapion: there are some great layouts and the story flows easily. Capullo's McFarlane influence from years of drawing Spawn is still there, but he's made the style into his own. This is a very good first issue, and I'm definitely looking forward to the next (and pleased that there's at least one Batman title in the new 52 that meets what I want from a Batman comic).

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

Nightwing #1
by Kyle Higgins, Eddy Barrows & J.P. Mayer.

Original Rank/Assessment: 47 (Definitely No) - My level of not caring for any aspect of this is pretty darn high.


This comic almost pulled off the impossible and nearly won me over. Higgins re-establishes Nightwing without ignoring the long history of Dick Grayson, and possibly even ties things in to this week's cliffhanger in Batman. But then we get an out-of-nowhere villain with Wolverine-like claws, who promptly slashes and disembowels two police officers. This is supposed to be a Nightwing comic, not Sabretooth. So back to the bottom of the pack this goes.


Rating: 2 (of 5).

Amazon Top 50

Here are the Top 50 Graphic Novels on Amazon this morning. All the previous caveats apply.


1 (-). Cabin Fever (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Book 6) *
2 (-). Sailor Moon 1
3 (+4). Castle: Richard Castle's Deadly Storm *
4 (-). Diary of a Wimpy Kid 5: The Ugly Truth
5 (+40). Hark! A Vagrant *
6 (-3). Codename: Sailor V 1
7 (-1). The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book (revised and expanded edition)
8 (-3). Dork Diaries 3: Tales from a Not-So-Talented Pop Star
9 (-1). Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
10 (+9). Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 2 *
11 (+1). Dork Diaries 3 (Kindle edition)
12 (-3). Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
13 (+1). Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History
14 (+3). Batman: Year One
15 (-). Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
16 (+14). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Box of Books
17 (+4). The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1
18 (-8). Amulet #4: The Last Council
19 (+7). Batman: The Killing Joke
20 (+30). 5 Very Good Reasons to Punch a Dolphin in the Mouth
21 (-10). Brightest Day Vol. 3
22 (-9). Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art
23 (+18). Serenity Volume 2: Better Days and Other Stories
24 (-6). Feynman
25 (R). Holy Terror *
26 (+2). The Walking Dead, Book 7 *
27 (-2). Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began
28 (+3). Watchmen
29 (-6). The Walking Dead Volume 14: No Way Out
30 (N). Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 26
31 (+13). Dork Diaries (Kindle edition)
32 (R). Batman: Arkham Asylum (15th Anniversary Edition)
33 (-17). Sailor Moon 2 *
34 (N). Negima! 31: Magister Negi Magi
35 (+3). V for Vendetta
36 (+4). Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Boxset
37 (N). New Teen Titans: Games *
38 (R). Batman: Hush
39 (-10). Dork Diaries 3 1/2: How to Dork Your Diary *
40 (+3). Big Nate Out Loud
41 (N). Hellboy Volume 11: The Bride of Hell and Others
42 (+3). Big Nate Out Loud (Kindle)
43 (+3). Dork Diaries 2 (Kindle edition)
44 (+4). The Complete Peanuts Boxed Set 1979-1982 (Vol. 15-16)
45 (-25). Codename: Sailor V, Vol. 2 *
46 (-24). Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-So-Popular Party Girl
47 (R). Diary of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book
48 (R). Bone: The Complete Cartoon Epic in One Volume
49 (N). Naruto, Vol. 52: Cell Seven Reunion
50 (R). Big Nate: From the Top


Items with asterisks (*) are pre-order items.

N = New listing appearing on list for first time
R = Item returning to the list after having been off for 1 or more weeks


Commentary:

* Diary book 6 is still at #3 on the overall chart; Sailor Moon is #210...

* Hark, A Vagrant continues its roller coaster pre-order ride, hopping all the way up to the top 5 this week. Next week finally sees its release, along with the Castle graphic novel (which will likely be heavily promoted during the episode of Castle that airs on Monday—hello Disney corporate synergy!)

* The latest volume of Fullmetal Alchemist is the top debut this week. Joining it are fellow manga titles Negima and Naruto; along with the latest Hellboy collection and the long-long-long awaited New Teen Titans: Games OGN.

DCnU Reviews, Week 3: Green Lantern Corps; Supergirl

(Back in June when the new DCU titles were announced, I ranked all 52 titles on my likelihood of buying them. Only fair then to look back and see if my initial assessments hold up. My plan is to review each of the new titles as they come out.)

Green Lantern Corps #1
by Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin & Scott Hanna

Original Rank/Assessment: 15 (Yes, with Reservations) - Looks like business as usual, so I'll likely stick around for a while.

This comic opens with a four-page scene of graphic death and dismemberment, and ends with genocide and graphic disembowelment. Is this really what DC thinks we want from a Green Lantern comic book? The stuff in the middle is somewhat interesting, with both Guy Gardner and John Stewart learning that it is nigh impossible to have a normal life on Earth when their status as Green Lanterns is so well-known. The art by Pasarin & Hanna is richly detailed and nice (when it isn't showing Lanterns bloodily losing their heads and other body parts). But the first and last impressions that this comic gives are of needless graphic violence, the kind that I had hoped that the new DCU would be leaving behind, but by week three now I see that my hopes were misguided, and the chances of my sticking around with this and similar books are slim.

Rating: 2 (of 5).

Supergirl #1
by Michael Green & Mike Johnson, Mahmud Asrar & Dan Green

Original Rank/Assessment: 23 (Maybe/Provisional) - Not sure about the reboot here, but I've liked Green & Johnson's work on Superman/Batman, so this book gets the benefit of the doubt for now.

The newly-arrived Supergirl's rocket crashes on Earth (or rather, through Earth) and ends up in Russia, where she fights some guys in battle armor while carrying on a cryptic internal monologue, until Superman shows up on the last page. The biggest problem with this comic is that it reads way too fast. It poses—or rather hints at—a lot of questions about this new version of Supergirl, but at the end she's just as much a cipher as she was at the beginning. This is surprising coming from Green & Johnson, whose previous run on Superman/Batman often packed a lot of story into its pages. Supergirl so far gets an incomplete and it had better demonstrate quickly why I should continue to be interested.


Rating: 2.5 (of 5).