I doubt I will be doing this on a weekly basis anymore. I am still buying comics into the second month of DC’s new 52, but I am buying far fewer. In the first month, I would take risks on what looked cool, or what other reviewers really liked. And some I really liked, some I didn’t. The second month I am going more for what interested me most in the first month. It is turning out to be about half of what I bought in the first month, and I expect to halve it another time for the third month.
The 5th week was an interesting week. Looking at it and comparing it to the other weeks, I felt that this one was the weakest one going in. And to be sure it likely was. But it also had some of the more interesting comics as well…
All-Star Western
This was a very interesting comic. It takes a look at Gotham City in the past, shortly after the civil war. The star of the comic is Jonah Hex who is a bounty hunter/cowboy/ex-confederate soldier with a burnt up face that reminds you of Two-Face quite a bit actually. It also features the psychiatrist Amadeus Arkham as the narrator. While it is called a Western, it reads much more like an old Sherlock Holmes novel. Gotham itself is not an out west city without the law, it is very much a city not unlike New York City after the civil war. The only reason to call it a western is Hex himself. All that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just misleading. I very much enjoyed the first book and will likely go into it a second week to see how they develop it.
Aquaman
The real gem of this week was surprisingly Aquaman. Geoff Johns did a stellar job of rebooting this hero, period. I do think Johns is really the star of DC given that Green Lantern is also one of the better books of the new 52. The art is also really good to boot so this is a top notch comic. I love how they use the fact that Aquaman is regarded as a weak superhero in the book and even use that as fuel for Aquaman’s inner struggles. I really feel for him and though I’m not a fan of the monster foes that he seems to be facing, I am very much looking forward to a second comic.
Green Lantern: New Guardians
I actually feel this particular Green Lantern would have been the best one to lead off the New 52 for the GL universe. Unfortunately they stuck it in the end. [1. Actually I think their order should have been completely reversed with New Guardians first, Corps second, and GL last. It makes sense for how they are all presented.] It does a great job of showing how Kyle became a green lantern, explaining what lanterns are, and setting up an interesting story line. I also like how it looks like they plan on exploring the other colored lanterns in this series as well. I think if you are a newbie to the Green Lantern Universe, this is the set up you need and is my favorite of the 3 this month largely because of it.
The Savage Hawkman
Honestly out of the entire line, I was most looking forward to this one. I have never really read Hawkman before but I always thought he was a really cool character and I tend to favor those off-the-wall heroes. Overall I was a bit disappointed. It wasn’t a real reboot so I don’t know much about the guy himself and it had monster bad guys (gosh I hate that!). Still it was an interesting read all the same, the art was fantastic. I just am not sure if I’m going to be into it given the current storyline. It’s too bad.
Teen Titans
I am not normally a fan of the Teen Titans but I saw some of the art for it and thought it looked fantastic so I decided to give it a try. However, this book was the source of the most head slaps out of the new 52. My biggest pet peeve of comics is when they take a popular character and make an opposite gender version and kid versions. This comic is all about that and nothing more so it tended to make me angry. Red Robin, Wonder Girl, Super Boy, Little Flash (or whatever they called him)… UGGGGGHHH!!! Why? Oh why?!?! So far they haven’t had anyone else that isn’t somehow a spin-off of someone else which is very disturbing to me. DC has always been one of the bigger offenders of this, but this is silly. I will not be giving this book a second shot.
Supergirl
Speaking of opposite gender heroes. I did actually read Supergirl this week largely because I’ve been looking for a kid-friendly series in this new 52 and Wonder Woman didn’t work out at all. Supergirl was a much better read for children than Wonder Woman was. And I’ll definitely keep on this one for my daughter just to make sure it really is good for her. The comic itself was meh. It was kind of interesting to see her dealing with the new planet, but at the same time I just didn’t care about her and it didn’t seem to have story going forward. I did enjoy that it was a true reboot however. I think my daughter might enjoy it more than me.
Ultimate Spider-Man #2
Lastly the second in the Ultimate Spider-Man series, it continued the goodness of the first. I am learning more about the new Spider-Man with each comic which is good. He has been struggling with the new powers so far and he doesn’t entirely want them. It follows pretty closely with Peter Parker’s struggles a bit I think, except he is accidentally showing off his powers a lot it seems. In addition to the camouflaging it looks like this Spider-Man also has shocking ability. He is turning out to be far more powerful than the original, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that but I’m still very interested in the series and will keep buying into them until they turn me off