Ranking the DCnU Reboot Titles

DC is launching or relaunching a whopping fifty-two new titles in September. That's way too many to buy all of them, and this makes for a good opportunity to re-examine what I usually purchase. So here's my take, based on the available information (mainly the solicitations); all 52 of the DCnU relaunch titles, ranked according to my likelihood of buying them:

Definitely Yes

1. Action Comics - They had me at Grant Morrison + Superman.

2. Superman - I'm actually a bit apprehensive about the Superman reboot, like I am with every Superman reboot. But with Morrison & Perez at the helm, I'm fairly optimistic this time out. Plus, I've bought every issue of Superman since 1982, and I'm likely not stopping until I'm dead or it stops being published.

3. Batwoman - Finally! And with Williams switching off story arcs with Amy Reeder, this will likely be the best looking book on DC's slate.

4. Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. - This looks to possibly be twenty pages of four-color awesome every month.

5. Justice League - I've bought every regular JL comic since the 80s, and this big-guns approach with Johns & Lee looks to be what I'm after in a JL comic.

6. Justice League International - A return to my second-favorite JL era, with Aaron Lopresti on art, makes for a winning combination.

Yes, with Reservations

7. Batgirl - Yes, I wish she were still Oracle as much as the rest of you. But I will read a Gail Simone Batgirl comic staring Barbara Gordon.

8. Animal Man - Every Animal Man take since Morrison's has disappointed, but I have hopes for Jeff Lemire giving it a shot.

9. Static Shock - One of my favorite Milestone characters. I wish Rozum were still doing Xombi, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

10. All-Star Western - Gray & Palmiotti's Jonah Hex has been consistantly entertaining for going on five years now, but I'm not sure it needs to lose the done-in-one stories nor does it need a Gotham City tie-in.

11. Wonder Woman - Normally Cliff Chiang drawing anything is an automatic yes, but I'm usually disappointed in Azzarello in general and his super-hero stuff in particular. But, when Azzarello & Chiang got together for Doctor 13, it was wonderful, so I'll hope for the same magic again here.

12. The Fury of Firestorm - Big fan of the character from the 80s and the recent Jason Rusch version as well. It will be interesting to see how Van Sciver & Simone merge their sensibilities in writing.

13. Blue Beetle - Glad to see Jaime Reyes given another go. If the new creative team can recapture the charm of the original, this this will be a winner.

14. Green Lantern - Looks like business as usual, so I'll likely stick around for a while.

15. Green Lantern Corps - Ditto.

16. Legion of Super-Heroes - Ditto.

17. Batman - 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).

18. Swamp Thing - Not completely sold on the reboot premise, but I like the creative team.

19. Demon Knights - Again, not sure about the premise, but Paul Cornell hasn't let me down yet.

Maybe/Provisional

20. Hawk and Dove - It'll be a race to see whether this or Batman: The Dark Knight is the first DCnU title to fall behind.

21. Stormwatch - Again, Cornell has yet to let me down, but I really don't see this Wildstorm concept fitting in to the DCnU, and Martian Manhunter seems like a really odd fit.

22. Mister Terrific - Like the character and the idea of his headlining a series, not too enthused by what I've seen from writer Eric Wallace in the past.

23. Supergirl - 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.

24. Batman and Robin - If this can maintain the punch and action I expect, then I'll stick around.

25. Batwing - 'The Batman of Africa' could be a good concept, but I'm not sure that Winick is the best choice for it.

26. Legion Lost - Yet another Legion in their past/our present story? But I like Pete Woods, so I'll check it out.

27. O.M.A.C. - Giffen co-writing and drawing bumps a concept I normally wouldn't care about up into the provisional category.

28. I, Vampire - I want to support this title, but man, that cover... ugh.

29. Aquaman - I always give new Aquaman titles a try, but am often disappointed.

30. The Flash - Can Manpul write? I'll give his a shot, but I'm not a huge Flash fan so this will be a very short trial.

31. Green Lantern: New Guardians - Not a huge Kyle Raynor fan, but Bedard generally writes pretty good super-hero science fiction-y stuff.

32. DC Universe Presents - Paul Jenkins' super-hero stuff normally leaves me a bit cold, but Deadman may be a good character for him. We'll see...

33. Justice League Dark - Horrible title, interesting premise. And that Milligan guy, who will now be writing both the Vertigo and DCnU versions of the character.

34. Detective Comics - I've been floating along with Daniel's work on Batman, but this may be a good place to drop off.

35. Resurrection Man - I never really read this the first go-around, but the premise always struck me as interesting.

36. Voodoo - This will really depend on execution a solid but not exciting creative team.

37. Suicide Squad - One of my favorite high-concepts ever in comics returns, but everything about that cover screams at me to stay away.

38. Blackhawks - Could be interesting, but could also go disastrously wrong. (Now if Jock were drawing this, I'd be all up for it...)

Probably Not

39. Men of War - I think I'd rather see this as a straight war comic without the super-hero-y stuff.

40. Grifter - Nothing much exciting here for this Wildstorm transplant.

41. Catwoman - The cover indicates that this is everything I don't want in a Catwoman comic.

42. Captain Atom - I like the charatcer and have very fond memories of the old Cary Bates series. But I don't care much for either creator.

43. Superboy - Looks like they're throwing away all the Superboy continuity. I really liked with Jeff Lemire was doing with the character, so this looks like a huge step back. The new creative team doesn't much appeal either.

44. Batman: The Dark Knight - Haven't really cared much for Finch on this title the first time around. Then again, committing to this title would only mean buying two or three issues a year...

45. Red Lanterns - I really don't think that I need twenty pages of characters vomiting blood each month.

Definitely No

46. Teen Titans - Seems like for the last five years or so I've always been on the verge of dropping this title, but there was always another new creative team around the corner. But this looks to be the final straw.

47. Nightwing - My level of not caring for any aspect of this is pretty darn high.

48. Birds of Prey - I've bought every single issue of BoP up to this point. And now? Ugh.

49. Red Hood and the Outlaws - Absolutely no appeal here.

50. Deathstroke - Ditto.

51. Green Arrow - One of my least favorite writers on a character I could care less about.

52. The Savage Hawkman - Non a huge fan of Tony Daniel's writing, and even less of a fan of Philip Tan's art. A very easy no.


Final totals:

Definitely Yes: 6 titles
Yes, With Reservations: 13 titles
Maybe/Provisional: 19 titles
Probably Not: 7 titles
Definitely No: 7 titles

DCnU Reviews, Week 3: Blue Beetle; Legion of Super-Heroes

(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.)

Blue Beetle #1
by Tony Bedard, Ig Guara & Ruy José

Original Rank/Assessment: 13 (Yes, with Reservations) - Glad to see Jaime Reyes given another go. If the new creative team can recapture the charm of the original, this this will be a winner.

I'm not sure we needed to go back to the beginning with Blue Beetle. Sure, his origin story was tied in with the likely-no-longer-cannon Infinite Crisis, but those bits are easily ignored. I'd rather that this series pick up where the previous series (and the Booster Gold back-ups) left off rather than retreading the old stuff. But that said, this is still mildly good. It could do with a little more of the aforementioned charm, like some of the witty repartee that Jaime had with his friends, but for an origin story it does the job. The art is pretty good though it struggles at times on the edge of being too busy, and at times the orange coloring overwhelms. Still, worth sticking around for a few issues to see where it goes (hopefuly quickly away from the origin!)

Rating: 3 (of 5).

Legion of Super-Heroes #1
by Paul Levitz & Francis Portela

Original Rank/Assessment: 16 (Yes, with Reservations) - Looks like business as usual, so I'll likely stick around for a while.

How many #1s does this make for the Legion? I've lost count. And since the Legion tends to do its reboots at times when it doesn't renumber, this is pretty much a continuation of the previous Legion's iteration, though it appears that some time has passed since last month's issue. The effect is that out of all of the New 52, this is probably the most hostile to new readers. But then that has always been the case with the Legion: when I started reading it back in the 80s there was a huge cast of characters and tons of back story. I managed to deal with it back then, and I suppose new readers will manage now (on the plus side they have the Internet & Wikipedia; on the minus side, they have to deal with multiple reboots!) This is the classic 'for those of you who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you'll like' comic. Portela's art is nice and at times very busy, but luckily Javier Mena's coloring saves it in places where it otherwise would be hard to distinguish what is happening. And a few more body types would be nice—do Chameleon Boy & Brainiac 5 really need to be so buff? (And a shout-out to the cover by Karl Kerschl, which has an appropriately sci-fi paperback vibe.)

Rating: 3 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 3: Birds of Prey; Catwoman; Red Hood and the Outlaws

(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.)

Birds of Prey #1
by Duane Swierczynski & Jesus Saiz

Original Rank/Assessment: 48 (Definitely No) - I've bought every single issue of BoP up to this point. And now? Ugh.

Through all its iterations, Birds of Prey has long been one of my favorite super-hero titles.  But Swierczynski seems intent on turning it into a generic action title whose only defining feature is that it stars a group of women, only two of whom actually show up in the debut issue. Saiz's art is okay but fairly generic; he only seems to draw one female body type, which is a problem in an all-female team book, and his action scenes are stiff and at times hard to follow. Of the three comics in the post it is the best, but that's really damning with the faintest of praise.

Rating: 2 (of 5).

Catwoman #1
by Judd Winick & Guillem March

Original Rank/Assessment: 41 (Probably Not) - The cover indicates that this is everything I don't want in a Catwoman comic.


Well, you can't fault DC for false advertising. The cover promises a comic that revels in exploitation, and it certainly delivers. Unfortunately, my preferences in a Catwoman comic run in the Ed Brubaker/Darwyn Cooke mode, and this is about as far from that as you can get. There are actually about three pages of pretty good comics here, but those are far outweighed by the seventeen other pages of exploitative nonsense. Which is a shame, as it shows that the creators are capable of producing a much better Catwoman comic; they just choose not to.


Rating: 2 (of 5).

Red Hood and the Outlaws #1
by Scott Lobdell & Kenneth Rocafort


Original Rank/Assessment: 49 (Probably Not) - Absolutely no appeal here.

After Lobdell's surprisingly interesting turn on Superboy last week, I held out the slimmest of hopes that maybe I was wrong about this comic. I needn't have worried, as this turns out to be just about as bad as I thought it would be. I've never cared about the Red Hood, rarely cared about Roy Harper, the Starfire here is far removed from the previous iteration and high on the 'ick' factor, and who the heck is Essence and why should I care? If there's any bright spot here, it's that Rocafort is trying to do some interesting things with the opening action sequence, which zings with kinetic energy. It's for Rocafort's efforts that the extra 0.5 point exists in the rating:

Rating: 1.5 (of 5).
 

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).

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).

DCnU Reviews, Week 2: Batman and Robin; Batwoman

(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 and Robin #1
by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason & Mick Gray

Original Rank/Assessment: 24 (Maybe/Provisional) - If this can maintain the punch and action I expect, then I'll stick around.

The last time we had a first issue of Batman and Robin it was by Morrison & Quitely, and they quite simply knocked my socks off. Tomasi & Gleason can't match that, but then I wasn't really expecting them to. They do perfectly fine job here, establishing the plot and characters and the new status quo while inserting plenty of action. However, I found the coloring to be too dark (yes, even for a Batman title!) And a plot point bothered me: While Gleason was absolutely correct to depict the research reactor at Gotham U. as a swimming pool reactor (I visited the one in the building next door to where I work, back before they dismantled it a few years ago...), there's a reason why security is light at such reactors: there is nothing there worth stealing! That aside, I'm interested enough to stick around through the first arc; after that, we'll see.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Batwoman #1
by J. H. Williams III & W. Haden Blackman

Original Rank/Assessment:  3 (Definitely Yes) - Finally! And with Williams switching off story arcs with Amy Reeder, this will likely be the best looking book on DC's slate.

One of the most anticipated of the New 52, the first issue of Batwoman finally sees the light of day after several delays. A handful of changes will obviously have to be made to align the story with the new reality; the most major here being the recasting of Maggie Sawyer from a captain to just a detective, which should change the dynamics of her relationship with Kate Kane somewhat. Oddly other key plot points are not adjusted, notably Bette's former career as a Teen Titan. It's probably best to just ignore such things and go with it. Last month the book our graphic narrative discussion group discussed by Batwoman: Elegy, and while I liked it a lot before we discussed it, after our discussion I really really liked it. That book had layers and there was plenty to sink our teeth into. So I was very interested to see how Willaims & Blackman would do taking over the writing duties from Rucka. They do a good job. It won't be the same book as it would have been with Rucka at the helm, but it still looks fantastic and is easily one of the strong entries in the DCnU. So far so good, and I have no reason to expect anything less from the forthcoming issues.

Rating: 4 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 2: Demon Knights; Frankenstein; Resurrection Man

(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.)

Demon Knights #1
by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves & Oclair Albert

Original Rank/Assessment: 19 (Yes, with Reservations) - Again, not sure about the premise, but Paul Cornell hasn't let me down yet.

Set in medieval time, in the Dark Ages following the fall of Camelot, this is DC's medieval Justice League, featuring The Demon, Madame Xanadu, The Shining Knight, Vandal Savage, and others. This issue is the start of their origin, with the principles meeting in a bar brawl, which is such a cliché that it is humorous and an indication that thankfully this comic won't be taking itself too seriously. If I'm disappointed at all it is that Mme. Xanadu's character is not the same as in her recent Vertigo series, but this new version does have a level of snark that may grow on me. The art is clear and clean and it is surprisingly colorful. Not yet a must-read, but it is a good solid comic with the potential to be a lot of fun.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1
by Jeff Lemire & Alberto Ponticelli

Original Rank/Assessment: 4 (Definitely Yes) - This looks to possibly be twenty pages of four-color awesome every month.

Frankenstein's monster leads a team of Creature Commandos based on old Hollywood movie monsters (vampire, mummy, werewolf, etc.) to fight the strange and unusual. Fun concept (if a bit reminiscent of Hellboy) and good execution. I like my comics full of crazy super science concepts and monsters fighting and this comic delivers the goods. I was unsure about Ponticelli's art at first as it doesn't quite fit with the super science stuff at the beginning, but when we got to Frankenstein and his crew laying the smackdown on the giant monsters invading a small town, I was completely sold; Ponticelli draws great monsters!

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

Resurrection Man #1
by Dan Abnet, Andy Lanning, & Fernando Dagnino

Original Rank/Assessment: 35 (Maybe/Provisional) - I never really read this the first go-around, but the premise always struck me as interesting.

I still find the premise intriguing: Every time Mitch Shelley dies, he comes back to life with a different super power. As such, Mitch is a very reluctant hero, visited by a new compulsion when he is reborn with new powers. This new first issue introduces the title character and his situation and manages to get in some action as well, but I found Dagnino's art to be inconsistent and at times detrimental to good flow; there's a rushed feeling to the whole affair (maybe a separate inker would help?)

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 2: Deathstroke; Grifter; Suicide Squad

(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.)

Deathstroke #1
by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett & Art Thibert

Original Rank/Assessment:  50 (Definitely No) - Absolutely no appeal here.

One of the charms of the old version of Deathstroke is that while Slade Wilson was an assassin-for-hire, he also fancied himself a gentleman and worked by a code of ethics. This DCnU version seems to jettisoned all of that, leaving Slade as simply a cold-blooded killer. Maybe they're eventually working their way to Slade changing what he is, but what we're left with now is a comic that just revels in violence with a protagonist who is as uninteresting and he is uncharming. There may be some who want to read this sort of comic, but I suspect even they will find this particular comic lacking.

Rating: 1.5 (of 5).

Grifter #1
by Nathan Edmondson, Cafu & Jason Gorder

Original Rank/Assessment:  40 (Probably Not) - Nothing much exciting here for this Wildstorm transplant.

Cole Cash is a former special forces soldier turned confidence man, now seemingly haunted by the voices of mysterious creatures (Daemonites?) who are hunting him for unknown reasons. There's plenty of action and some exposition, though I had some troubles following the transitions. This could evolve into an interesting title if they decide to focus on Cash's con man side, but it's not quite there yet. In the 'protagonists who carry guns and shoot people' it's miles ahead of Deathstroke (but that's fairly easy to do).

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Suicide Squad #1
by Adam Glass, Federico Dallocchio & Ransom Getty

Original Rank/Assessment:  37 (Maybe/Provisional) - One of my favorite high-concepts ever in comics returns, but everything about that cover screams at me to stay away.

Another comic that seems to revel in violence, in this case torture, shootings, people being burned alive, etc. Granted, we're talking about bad guys doing bad things and having bad things done to them, but that seems a thin excuse. The Suicide Squad's core concept, villains enlisted against their will to work for the state, is one that is ripe with conflict and potential. But so far this new iteration seems to be throwing all that potential away in favor of an excuse for violence. And I haven't even touched on the unnecessary visual changes to Harley Quinn & Amanda Waller; others have already taken care of those angles so I won't dwell on them here. If you're looking for a good version of the Suicide Squad, go dig out the old John Ostrander-written issues; or go buy Marvel's Thunderbolts, where Jeff Parker has taken the SS concept to the Marvel universe nearly whole-cloth, but at least understands it's potential and how to use it. So far, DC's new Suicide Squad is failing.

Rating: 2 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 2: Legion Lost; Mister Terrific; Superboy

(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.)

Legion Lost #1
by Fabian Nicieza & Pete Woods

Original Rank/Assessment: 26 (Maybe/Provisional) - Yet another Legion in their past/our present story? But I like Pete Woods, so I'll check it out.

The set-up has been done before: members of the Legion of Super-Heroes travel back in time to the present day and find themselves trapped here. So it all comes down to the execution. This time around, the Legionnaires are after a time-traveling terrorist with a bio-weapon, and they find that their futuristic technology is for unknown reasons failing. I'm not sure how new readers will react to the introductions of these mostly second-tier Legionnaires, but as I've been reading Legion stories for nearly thirty years I didn't have any difficulties. Fabian Nicieza has never been one of the most exciting comics writers, but he always turns in a solid super-hero story and does the same here. Pete Woods seems to have modified his style a bit here with his lines seeming somewhat thicker than I remember, but he's still a very good storyteller. So this is pretty much what I expected, though I'm not sure how long the premise will be able to hold up.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

Mister Terrific #1
by Eric Wallace, Gianluca Gugliotta & Wayne Faucher


Original Rank/Assessment: 22 (Maybe/Provisional) - Like the character and the idea of his headlining a series, not too enthused by what I've seen from writer Eric Wallace in the past.

I was interested to see how the modern Mister Terrific would work outside of his context as a JSA legacy character. Then Karen Starr (formerly the secret identity of Power Girl, anothehr JSA'er) showed up, and it started me thinking: We know that DC have a Justice Society comic in the works, set on a new version of the alternate Earth-2. What if this new Mister Terrific comic is also set on Earth-2, and they just haven't explicitly cued us in on that fact? There's nothing here to indicate that it is set on the same world as all of the other DCnU titles. And then there's the gold DC Comics logo on the cover, different from any of the other logos (Gold = Golden Age = JSA ???) It makes me wonder if DC are being sneaky here... As for the comic itself, I think it's an odd choice to have your main character become a mind-controlled pawn in his first issue, and I'm not enthused by Gugliotta's art, which I find to be quite inconsistent. But I still fundamentally like the character so I'll stick around for a couple more issues to see how things progress.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Superboy #1
by Scott Lobdell, R. B. Silva & Rob Lean

Original Rank/Assessment: 43 (Probably Not) - Looks like they're throwing away all the Superboy continuity. I really liked with Jeff Lemire was doing with the character, so this looks like a huge step back. The new creative team doesn't much appeal either.

Another comic that turned out better than I thought it would. I still think it's sad that Lemire's Superboy comic was cut short by the coming of the new DCU. But getting over that and viewing this new Superboy comic on its own terms, it comes off surprisingly well. Fundamentally we still have Superboy as a vat-grown clone combining Superman & Lex Luthor's DNA, but his origin jettisons the original's "Death of Superman" tie-in and is now more closely aligning with that of the Superboy from the current Young Justice cartoon. And I was wrong is my assessment of the creative team as well. Lobdell's story does a good job of introducing the situation and characters and even pulls off an effective fake-out in the middle section. I also like the clean look of the art from Silva & Lean and the colors from the Horries blend well with the line art. So while I'm still not completely sold and it could go wring when Superboy is finally released into the outside world, I like what I see so far.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 2: Green Lantern; Red Lanterns

(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 #1
by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke & Christian Alamy

Original Rank/Assessment: 14 (Yes, with Reservations) - Looks like business as usual, so I'll likely stick around for a while.

We were told that the Green Lantern titles would be some of the least changed in the new DCU, and they apparently meant it. This could just as easily been Green Lantern #68, picking up pretty much right where the "War of the Green Lanterns" story ended. That's not to say there aren't changes; at the end of "War" Sinestro had been granted a Green Lantern ring and Hal Jordan is ringless and dumped back on Earth.  The issue opens with the Guardians telling Sinestro that as long as he has a green ring, they expect him to act like a Green Lantern, and he learns that it can be hard to go home again. Back on Earth, Hal gets to show that it's not the ring that makes him a hero and he tries to patch things up with Carol Ferris, but in both cases he proves to be a bit tone deaf to the world and people around him. If you liked Johns' Green Lantern before (and a lot of people did) this is more of the same.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

Red Lanterns #1
by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes & Rob Hunter

Original Rank/Assessment: 45 (Probably Not) - I really don't think that I need twenty pages of characters vomiting blood each month.

For a minute there I thought they were going to pull off the impossible. This first issue opens with a scene featuring Dex-Starr, the Red Lantern kitteh, taking out his rage on a group of torturing scumbags, including an awesome two-page splash. But after the opening, things went down-hill. There was too much recap, too much of Atrocious standing around and posturing. The Earth-bound scenes seem to be pointing the way towards the origin of a human Red Lantern, but that needs to be clearer and/or happen faster for the first issue. (On the plus side, the Earth-based pages allow colorist Nathan Eyring to give his red crayon a well-needed rest.) Based on the opening, I would totally read a comic that starred Dex-Starr, but the rest of these Red Lanterns just kind of bore me.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Batgirl, Batwing, Detective Comics

(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.)

Batgirl #1
by Gail Simone, Adrian Syaf & Vincente Cifuentes

Original Rank/Assessment: 7 (Yes, with Reservations) - Yes, I wish she were still Oracle as much as the rest of you. But I will read a Gail Simone Batgirl comic staring Barbara Gordon.

Of all of the New 52 comics, this is the one that has received the most pre-publication scrutiny, with disfavor coming from fans of both the former Batgirl Stephanie Brown (or even Cassandra Cain) and of Barbara Gordon's previous incarnation as Oracle. I doubt that either of those contingents will be mollified here, as both the previous Batgirls and Gordon's Oracle career appear to have been erased in the reboot timeline squeeze. What we are left with is a comic that tries to accomplish a lot: setting of Barbara's new status quo, explaining her back story & her miraculous healing, setting up a new threat in the villain Mirror, and including plenty of action. It makes for a very cramped twenty pages, with density often appearing where clarity instead is called for. But we'll see where it goes from here.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

Batwing #1
by Judd Winick & Ben Oliver

Original Rank/Assessment: 25 (Maybe/Provisional) - 'The Batman of Africa' could be a good concept, but I'm not sure that Winick is the best choice for it.

Though previously introduced a few months ago in Batman Inc.,  Batwing is essentially a brand new character, one of the few headlining a title in the New 52. As such, Winick doesn't need to worry about cuing us in on what is and isn't continuity and can get right into introducing Batwing and his world. And it's a dangerous one, in which insurgents and revolutionaries and military dictatorships battle with little regard to the civilians caught in the crossfire. It could make for some interesting stories. But I'm unhappy with the level of graphic violence displayed in the ending, which smacks of the worst excesses of the recent DCU (i.e. beheadings and swords through the chest, with plenty of blood on display). Oliver's art is a pseudo photo-realistic style that is in vogue with many, but sacrifices storytelling clarity. I want this book to be better.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Detective Comics #1
by Tony S. Daniel & Ryan Winn

Original Rank/Assessment: 34 (Maybe/Provisional) - I've been floating along with Daniel's work on Batman, but this may be a good place to drop off.

I suppose that the DCnU could have gone in a different direction with The Joker; there have been so many different interpretations over the years and this would have been the perfect excuse to try something different and unexpected. Instead, this is the same old Joker as maniacal serial killer that has been on display for the past couple of decades. A shame really, because it is getting quite old. Artwise, Daniel seems to kick it up a notch: his action scenes are mostly followable and he mixes up large and small panels to effectively control the pacing. It's better than I thought it would be, and I'll admit that the shocking ending, while unnecessarily gory, has me curious as to what will happen next. So mission accomplished, but this title is on very thin ice with me.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Animal Man; Swamp Thing

(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.)

Animal Man #1
by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman & Dan Green

Original Rank/Assessment: 8 (Yes, with Reservations) - Every Animal Man take since Morrison's has disappointed, but I have hopes for Jeff Lemire giving it a shot.

See, now this is how you re-establish a long-running character in a new issue. Lemire doesn't completely ignore all the past iterations of Animal Man, but efficiently cues us in on what parts of Buddy Baker's past he deems important, while getting us comfortable with the character's current status quo and setting up the future conflicts. Fans of the previous Vertigo-esque versions of Animal Man will be fine, even though the spandex is back; while his recent outer space adventures are mentioned in passing but can likely be safely ignored. Some may not find Foreman & Green's art to their liking, but I find the loose and thin-lined art to be fitting. Also, note how Foreman uses negative space and the lack thereof to reflecy the different facets of Buddy's life: his scenes at home are open, while as a super-hero the panels are more crowded, and the bits in the dreamscape are mushed together and off-kilter. Then there is Lovern Kindzierski's colors, with a subtle blue & yellow palate that echo Animal Man's traditional costume colors. This is an Animal Man comic I want to read.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

Swamp Thing #1
by Scott Snyder & Yanick Paquette

Original Rank/Assessment:  18 (Yes, with Reservations) - Not completely sold on the reboot premise, but I like the creative team.

Just in case you missed it at the end of Brightest Day or in the 3-issue BD Aftermath, Swamp Thing and Alec Holland are now separated, and this is bad for the green. Snyder & Paquette spend most of this first issue setting this all up once again, though thankfully they are more efficient at it than the dragged-out Aftermath. This will have to be considered a work-in-progress until we see what they do with Swamp Thing now that the preliminaries are out of the way. I'm still optimistic, though still cautiously as well.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Hawk & Dove; Static Shock

(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.)

Hawk & Dove #1
by Sterling Gates & Rob Liefeld

Original Rank/Assessment: 20 (Maybe/Provisional) - It'll be a race to see whether this or Batman: The Dark Knight is the first DCnU title to fall behind.

Of all the the DCnU titles, this one perhaps raised the most eyebrows when first announced. Writer Sterling Gates (of Morning Glories Supergirl fame) teaming up with critical punching bag Rob Liefeld, on Liefeld's return to the characters that marked his entry into comics way back in 1988. And it is pretty much what one would expect. All of Liefeld's artistic sensibilities are on display, from posing action shots to interesting anatomical choices. You know by now if you like it or not (and there is a non-trivial segment of the comics buying population that likes it quite a lot). Gates's story does the job, opening with an action set piece, then moving into exposition and adding in a couple of mysteries. Basically, this is exactly the comic it set out to be, and that you were probably expecting.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Static Shock #1
by John Rozum, Scott McDaniel, Jonathan Glapion & Le Beau Underwood

Original Rank/Assessment: 9 (Yes, with Reservations) - One of my favorite Milestone characters. I wish Rozum were still doing Xombi, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Along with Xombi & Icon, Static was one of my favorite of the old Milestone line. Now he is lightly integrated into the new DCU; so lightly in fact that this could easily follow right on the old Static series with no trouble at all. Virgil "Static" Hawkins has relocated to NYC with his family, and with funding/support from Hardware is continuing his super-hero ways. I'm not a fan of Static's new costume, but other than that the art is vibrant and alive in the way that you want for a comic about an electricity-based super. Let's just hope that the last-page 'shocker' is simply a ruse, because otherwise that's one aspect of the old DCU sensibility-of-late that I don't want to see in the new DC, especially Static.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Men of War; O.M.A.C.; Stormwatch

(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.)

Men of War #1
by Ivan Brandon & Tom Derenick; Jonathan Vankin & Phil Winslade

Original Rank/Assessment:  39 (Probably Not) - I think I'd rather see this as a straight war comic without the super-hero-y stuff.

I'm not much of a fan of war comics; if it's not written by Garth Ennis or drawn by Joe Kubert (or features a Haunted Tank or a G.I. Robot) it doesn't hold much appeal to me. And true to form this didn't hold much appeal to me. The grandson of the classic WWII character Sgt. Rock argues with superiors and leads an ill-fated combat mission against an unknown meta-human. The story in the back-up, featuring Navy Seals, is even less inspired, though I really like the style of art that Winslade is using. It's all competently done, and I'm glad that a comic like this has a place in the New 52, but it's really just not for me.

Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

O.M.A.C. #1
by Dan Didio, Keith Giffen & Scott Koblish

Original Rank/Assessment:  27 (Maybe/Provisional) - Giffen co-writing and drawing bumps a concept I normally wouldn't care about up into the provisional category.

This was a nice surprise. A comic like this rises and falls on the execution, and Didio & Giffen pull it off nicely. On paper I shouldn't like this much; it's just a big rampage by a mostly-mindless hulk-like O.M.A.C., but Didio & Giffen effectively use the action to introduce us to all of the central concepts in the series. Giffen adds just enough Kirbyness to his art to give it an extra dose of vitality, and the colors by Hi-Fi really pop. It remains to be seen how the concept will work as an ongoing series, but for a first issue it sets the tables nicely and has me wanting more.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

Stormwatch #1
by Paul Cornell & Miguel Spulveda

Original Rank/Assessment:  21 (Maybe/Provisional) - Cornell has yet to let me down, but I really don't see this Wildstorm concept fitting in to the DCnU, and Martian Manhunter seems like a really odd fit.

I really need to have more faith in Cornell; I didn't think the concept would work, but he pulls it off. We learn that Stormwatch is a secret society, protecting Earth from all sorts of unseen enemies over the centuries. And in this setting,  the Martian Manhunter fits in perfectly. We only get to briefly know each of the characters, but it works as an introductory issue. It also looks like the menaces they face will be sufficiently big and out-there to warrant the group's existence. I'm in.

Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Green Arrow; Justice League International

(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 Arrow #1
by J.T. Krul, Dan Jurgens & George Pérez

Original Rank/Assessment: 51 (Definitely No) - One of my least favorite writers on a character I could care less about.

I'm not much of a Green Arrow fan. I'll read the comic if there's a creator working on it that I like, but that's as far as my affection for the character goes. I've also never cared much for J.T. Krul's writing, and this comic didn't do anything to change my mind. Our DCnU Green Arrow Oliver Queen is still in his early wealthy stage, in charge of Queen Industries though having to answer to a hostile board. He's moonlighting as a super-hero with a bow. He fights a group of one-dimensional villains for some reason. A different group of interchangeable bad guys shows up at the end. It's all very rote and by-the-numbers. On the plus side, the art by Jurgens & Pérez is highly competent and nice to look at; it carries the story well, what little there is of it. But nice art isn't enough to save this from being dull.

Rating: 2 (of 5).

Justice League International #1
by Dan Jurgens, Aaron Lopresti & Matt Ryan

Original Rank/Assessment: 6 (Definitely Yes) - A return to my second-favorite JL era, with Aaron Lopresti on art, makes for a winning combination.


This one was a relative disappointment, but mainly because I had had what in hindsight appear to have been unreasonably high hopes. Jurgens handles the story competently, introducing us to the various characters, though frustratingly leaving much of their new backstory vague. This is a team thrown together by politics, so we get a bit of workplace friction and can likely expect more. (I like how Batman just joins the team on his own, without being asked.) I'd like to see a bit more humor from a comic with this book's pedigree though. Lopresti's art and storytelling are in fine form, and the coloring is appropriately bright. I'd like to see a bit more humor from a comic with this book's pedigree though. In all, this is a solid super-hero team book; it just needs an extra something to make it stand out from the pack.


Rating: 3 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 1: Action Comics

(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.)

Action Comics #1
by Grant Morrison, Rags Morales & Rick Bryant

Original Rank/Assessment: 1 (Definitely Yes) - They had me at Grant Morrison + Superman.

Of all of the New 52 relaunch titles, this is the one which had me the most excited. Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman (with Frank Quitely) is in my opinion the best super-hero comic of the past twenty years. So Morrison's new take on Superman has a lot to live up to. Thankfully, it mostly does.

It is tempting to compare Action to All-Star; where the later presented a Superman at the end of his career, Action starts the story in Superman's early days. All-Star was an ode to the silver-age Superman, while Action draws upon Superman's earliest golden-age adventures for inspiration. But I think that such comparisons at this point are a bit premature; All-Star is a completed work, while Action is just the first issue in what is meant to be the foundation of a new mythology for the Man of Steel.

True to its name, Action Comics has plenty of action. A young Clark Kent is new to Metropolis, and is committed to fighting injustice, both as a would-be hero-of-the-people and as a crusading reporter for the Daily Star. We get introduced to Kent, as well as his best friend Jimmy Olsen and Olsen's boss Lois Lane, both of whom work at the rival Daily Planet. We also get a glimpse of Lex Luthor, who is working with a homeland security-type organization to try to bring the brash young hero down.

What we don't get is an origin story. In All-Star, Morrison covered the well-known origin of Superman in just one page. In Action, he dispenses with it entirely. This is good. If any super-hero's origin is well-known, it is Superman's. Instead we are thrown right into the action, drawn with dynamism by Morales, in an escapade that could have come right out of one of Superman's earliest stories by Siegel and Shuster in the original Action Comics.

In fact, keep your copy of the first volume of The Superman Chronicles handy, as there are and I presume will continue to be many allusions and call-backs to those formative stories of the late 1930s. Those were the days when this country was straining to climb out of the great depression, and there was still great mistrust in politicians, corporations, bankers, etc. Not a completely analogous situation to today's America, but not far off either. And thus we get a Superman for our times, a crusader who stands for truth and justice. Every generation gets the Superman it needs; and Morrison is giving us ours.

Rating: 4 (of 5).

DCnU Reviews, Week 0: Justice League

Back in June when the new DCU titles (aka DCnU) were announced, I ranked all 52 titles on my likelihood of buying them. As it turns out, my comic shop was offering a deal such that if I pre-orderd all 52 #1's, they'd be 50% off. So, I pre-ordered them all. 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, starting with:

Justice League #1
by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee & Scott Williams

Original rank/assessment: 5 (Definitely Yes). I've bought every regular JL comic since the 80s, and this big-guns approach with Johns & Lee looks to be what I'm after in a JL comic.

As it turns out, not exactly what I'm looking for after all. We're getting an original story of the new Justice League, set five years in the past. Which is fine as far as it goes, but it is starting off much too slowly. The only way we know that Flash, Aquaman and Wonder Woman will be on the team is that they appear on the cover. It's mostly a Batman and Green Lantern team-up, with the heroes first fighting, then teaming-up, while posturing as to who is tougher/more qualified. Superman zips in for a last-page reveal, and Cyborg is seen only as a pre-transformation Vic Stone. (Which would imply that Cyborg's origin story will now be tied to the Justice League, rather than to the Teen Titans...) I keep thinking that opening with a multi-part flashback origin story was perhaps not the smartest move for the DCnU's flagship title. Instead, why not have the present day team fighting a global menace, like the Justice League is supposed to do? You can always flash back to the original later. It was a perfectly fine comic, about the base level that you would expect from Johns and Lee; but I was hoping for more bang from my four bucks.

Rating: 3 (of 5).

Success Metrics for the new DCU

Tomorrow the era of the new DC Universe (DCnU) begins with the release of Justice League #1. The "New 52" (as DC are calling it) represents a bold and, as DC have more-or-less admitted, somewhat desperate publishing strategy: 52 new (or new-ish) monthly titles starting with #1 issues, available day-and-date as print and digital versions. They are hoping to attract new readers to DC Comics, or at least capture back a good number of lapsed readers. So how might the success of the DCnU be judged? Here are some possibilities:

(Note that I am considering success from the publisher's perspective in this post. For we readers, success will and should be determined by quality of the comics themselves.)

Profit. Actually, the chance of making a profit from the venture is slim at best. But that's okay, as profit isn't the main motivator for DC anyway. Oh sure they'd be happy if all of their titles were making money, but I suspect they'll be perfectly happy with simply losing less money overall, especially if some of the other metrics are met.

Sales. Obviously, increasing sales is one of DC's main goals. This could be measured in many ways, e.g. by increase in individual titles that are being relaunched, or the number of the 52 titles over a certain threshold. But as this is a complete line-wide revamp, perhaps the most salient number to look at will be the average sales of the entire DCU line. Courtesy of The Beat, here's a table of the line-wide averages for the DCU as of this past June's sales figures:

DC UNIVERSE

06/2006: 53,274

06/2007: 47,986

06/2008: 35,800

06/2009: 36,329

---------------

06/2010: 34,612 (- 7.6%)**

07/2010: 35,372 (+ 2.2%)

08/2010: 33,411 (- 5.5%)

09/2010: 32,042 (- 4.1%)

10/2010: 32,832 (+ 2.5%)

11/2010: 34,180 (+ 4.1%)

12/2010: 30,870 (- 9.7%)

01/2011: 24,321 (-21.2%)**

02/2011: 25,887 (+ 6.4%)**

03/2011: 26,720 (+ 3.2%)**

04/2011: 29,126 (+ 9.0%)

05/2011: 27,745 (- 4.7%)**

06/2011: 28,673 (+ 3.4%)**

----------------

6 months: - 7.1%

1 year  : -17.2%

2 years : -21.1%

5 years : -46.2%

Notice a trend? Even the two-year comparison is bad, and the five-year number is atrocious. Now part of that five-year decline can be attributed to DC pumping out even more low-selling titles; one sure way of raising the line-wide average would be to cut out all of the low-selling titles and publish fewer comics. But since DC seem determined to publish 52 monthly titles (or more, with additional mini-series coming starting in October...), getting the line-wide average as it stands a year from now up to at least where it was in 2009 would be considered a win.

Market Share. Despite DC's claims to the contrary, I believe that a market share win against their cross-town rivals at Marvel will be considered a victory. Market share is one of the things you can trumpet even when you are not actually making money. And if market share wasn't a top concern, there would be no reason to be pumping out so many new comics every month, most of which are losing money and whose only purpose seems to be taking retail shelf space away from your competitors. It seems highly likely that DC will see a market share win in September; if they can keep that going for a majority of the coming twelve months—or at least keep it more competitive than it has been in the recent past—they will consider the New 52 a success.

Digital Sales. With the day-and-date availability of digital versions of all of the DCnU titles, DC is obviously hoping to pick up new readers who are willing to pay for online comics. To date, digital sales on most comics have been a small fraction of the print sales, due to: 1) inconsistent availability; 2) the gawdawful hard-to-use old comiXology app (a new revised version was released last week, and based on my initial few minutes of testing it appears to be vastly improved); and 3) competition from cost- and DRM-free illegal scans. With all of the DCnU titles now available online on a consistent basis, they should see an upswing in the number of people buying online. The question is how big that upswing will be? I don't imagine that the number of people who are willing to pay the parity-with-print $2.99 cost for the digital comics in their first month of release will be huge; but there may be enough people willing to cough-up the month-old $1.99 price for titles to make up for any deficiencies in the sales of print.

Visibility. The real business of DC Comics, as far as their corporate overlords are concerned, is in generating characters and other intellectual property that can be exploited for profit in other media. Not just blockbuster movies like The Dark Knight, but in video games, television, licensed apparel, etc. So every time a story about the DCnU hits the comic press, or especially the mainstream press, it is a win for DC. Even if all of the other metrics we've discussed are moderate at best, the amount of publicity already generated is likely being viewed as a success.

Long Term. It will be tempting to look at the first-month sales figures for the DCnU titles and make a snap judgment about the New 52's success. But the real measure won't be apparent until at least a year, or even better two years, down the line. How many of the New 52 are still being published in 2013? Will the "cancellation floor" for the line as a whole rise? Can titles maintain their initial sales boost? Will DC be able to successfully launch new comics and properties? Answers to these kinds of questions will ultimately tell us if this big experiment has really succeeded.

It's Time for a New Superman

Superman debuted in Action Comics #1 in 1938.

The Silver Age (aka "Earth-1") version came about sometime in the late 50s/early 60s; there was no hard reboot, but for the sake of this argument let's say it was 1960, when he appeared alongside other silver age heroes in the first appearance of the Justice League of America.

The Post-Crisis (aka the "Byrne") version debuted in Man of Steel #1 in 1986.

And now the DCnU reboot will come out in 2011.

22 years between the debut and the silver age version
26 years between the silver age and Post-Crisis versions
25 years between the Post-Crisis and the DCnU versions

Looks like we're right on schedule!

Expect a brand new reboot of Superman for his 100th Anniversary in 2038...

DC Relaunch Titles I Would Have Liked to See

Last week I ranked my interest in all fifty-two of the upcoming DC relaunch titles (aka DCnU). Seven of those I rated as 'Definitely No.' What titles would I like to have seen instead? Here are some possibilities:

Lois Lane, Ace Reporter
by Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover
Lois Lane is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the Daily Planet's number one reporter. So why does that country bumpkin Clark Kent always get those scoops on Superman? In between investigating corruption in Metropolis City Hall and bringing down criminal conspiracies, Lois is going to use all her journalism skills to uncover Kent's secret!

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld
by Tania del Rio
Fifteen-year-old high school student Amy Winston learns that she's really a warrior princess from the magical realm of Gemworld. Now she divides her time between defending Gemworld from the evil forces of Dark Opal and trying to pass American History and avoid the wrath of the queen bees in school. But which world will prove more treacherous? (Hint: it's probably high school).

Spoilers
by Bryan Q. Miller & Nicola Scott
Stephanie Brown has been Robin and Batgirl, but she still can't get the super-hero community to take her seriously! Now she's forming her own team of teenage girl super-heroes–including former Batgirl Cassandra Cain–and they're intent on making their mark in the world! 

G.I. Robot
by Matt Kindt
SFC Jake Kanigher discovers a WWII-era robot in the basement of a secret military research facility. But what is Jake's hidden connection to the 70-year-old robotics program? He'd better find out soon, because now an unknown conspiracy is trying to capture the robot, and have Jake killed!

Challengers of the Unknown
by Kathryn Immonen & Tonci Zonjic
Trapped in suspended animation for fifty years, Ace, Red, Rocky, Prof and June awaken to find 2012 a bewildering world, but one that still has plenty of unknowns to challenge!

Stargirl
by Nick Spencer & Dean Trippe
On her fourteenth birthday, star athlete-in-the-making Courtney Whitmore inherits her late grandfather's Gravity Rod, which gives its user the power to control gravity and channel a mysterious Cosmic Energy. Now Courtney must choose between becoming a super-hero and training for the swim team; but with what she learns about her grandfather's connection to a mysterious Society of Justice, the choice may already be made for her!

Angel and the Ape
by Andrew Pepoy & Amy Mebberson
Angel O'Day is a can't-catch-a-break private investigator; Sam Simeon, Angel's new office-mate, is a comic book artist—and a gorilla! Together they make up the DCU's oddest of odd couples, exploring the wacky and hilarious side of the new DCU!