Well, the first month of the New 52 is finally over, so here is a general rundown of what I’ve seen, having read all 52 issues! Below you’ll find a breakdown of all the grades I’ve doled out over the reviews of all these titles. These grades are exactly what I graded them at when I first reviewed the title, although some should be adjusted based on arguments I’ve heard that have swayed me, so keep an eye out for notes stating that. I want to preserve my original feelings in case my first instincts turn out to be right after all once the books develop a bit.
Overall, I certainly feel the entire event was a success, both from a fan standpoint and also from my limited knowledge on sales. Every issue has gone into a second printing, and hardly any can be bought off the stands here in Hawaii at this point, so if you missed out, thank god for second printings!
The first topic up is character and continuity changes. Most of the character changes that did occur were handled well, but I’m frankly very surprised at how few properties actually underwent much change at all. Nearly 29% of the new books fell into either the Batman or Green Lantern families of titles, neither of which underwent any real noticeable change. In direct counter to that, however, all four Superman family titles changed drastically, discarding large amounts of backstory. I’m not saying that this is all bad, but for Big Blue at least, this is going to take some getting used to. Firestorm, Hawkman and Green Arrow are the characters that seem to be most affected by the re-launch (besides the Superman family) and they were all just slightly above average books, if that (Note: After further review, I think I’d move all three titles down to the C/C+ range). Teen Titans is going to be very interesting to watch develop, as it too has dumped most (if not all) of the backstory, but not necessarily to any sort of detriment so far.
Next up, let’s talk about team books and a minor pet peeve of mine that I didn’t know I had until this event. There were thirteen team books (discounting the Green Lantern titles), and of these, less than half actually managed to assemble the entire team in the first issue, much less introduce all the characters. I’ve said during the reviews, but I’ll say it one more time here: if a character isn’t going to be in the book, don’t put them on the cover. It’s frustrating, particularly for a new title. I understand the desire to create an iconic cover, but I still don’t even know who all the members of the Teen Titans are. I know what they all look like, but don’t have all the names. Are they new characters or new takes on old characters? Time will tell eventually, but for now, some of these left me slightly annoyed
I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling this way, but damn were there a lot of surprises with these issues, both good and bad. Demon Knights, Resurrection Man, Batwing and DC Comics Presents weren’t even on my radar and all turned out to be outstand books (Note: I think I rated Batwing too high, and should move it down to A-/B+ territory; the characters damn well better look good, since the artist doesn’t draw backgrounds! On that topic, Animal Man should move up in the rankings to the A-/A range; the art has grown on me). On the flipside of the coin, Detective Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight, Superman, Frankenstein, Grifter and Stormwatch came out much poorer than I had expected (Note: Arguments I’ve heard for Superman have convinced me to move it up a bit into the B grouping). It just goes to show how hard success can be to predict.
Finally, let’s talk about Wildstorm for a moment. I am a very big latter day Wildstorm fan. Pretty much everything from Stormwatch #37 forward really captured my attention. The early days of Wildstorm under Image I tend to not be quite as familiar with, which is why I can’t seem to remember much about Voodoo’s old backstory (Note: Voodoo should be up in the B-/B range after reading it again). With all that in mind, I was incredibly excited about the idea of folding the Wildstorm Universe into the regular DC Universe. Boy was I let down, and let down hard. Voodoo was by far the most successful of the three, and from reading solicits for upcoming issues, it sounds like it is on track to turn into a huge success. Grifter, on the other hand, fell flat on its face. Neither of these came even close to the cellar dwelling Stormwatch, however, and that is the most painful thing I have written during the course of these reviews. I love these characters and I love this concept, but somehow it is being butchered before my eyes, suffering from poor plot development and awful art. I don’t have much in the line of hope for this to improve all that much, but I’ll ride it out for now and keep you all updated (Note: Hawk and Dove's writing really isn't all that bad. I could move it up to a D+/C- range, but that's as far as it goes; I hate Rob Liefeld and the art really colors how I read this book).
That being said, I hope you all enjoyed these reviews and I know that some of you (looking at you, Job!) have even gone out and bought books you wouldn’t have normally picked up because of these. As the first story arcs on some of the titles finish, I’ll put out some updates and see where the books stand (figure around six months from now) and will do periodic reviews of books as events catch my eye. Until next time…
Overall Grade: B+.
A+: Aquaman; Batman; Demon Knights; Resurrection Man; Batwing
A: All-Star Western; The Flash; Catwoman; DC Comics Presents; Wonder Woman; Batwoman; Superboy; Swamp Thing; Batgirl; Action Comics
A-: Justice League Dark; Teen Titans; Legion of Super-Heroes
B+: Birds of Prey; Red Hood and the Outlaws; Green Lantern; Mister Terrific; OMAC; Men of War; Animal Man
B: Green Lantern: The New Guardians; Blue Beetle; Green Lantern Corps; Red Lanterns; Justice League International; Justice League
B-: The Fury of Firestorm; The Savage Hawkman; Nightwing; Batman and Robin; Legion Lost; Suicide Squad; Green Arrow
C+: Superman; Deathstroke
C: Voodoo; Supergirl; Detective Comics
C-: I, Vampire; Static Shock
D+: Grifter
D: Stormwatch
D-: Blackhawks; Captain Atom; Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
F: Batman: The Dark Knight; Hawk and Dove
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