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It's been about three or four months since I wrote about my ongoing saga of trying to read all 52 of the first volumes of DC Comic's new 52 in alphabetical order. This time I tackle another thirteen, Blue Beetle through Green Lantern New Guardians. There are not a lot of big name titles in this group of thirteen with the biggies being The Flash and Green Lantern. There are some diamonds in the rough though so let's take a look.
The "Heads will roll for this infringement, this I promise" title is Deathstroke. What I can remember of Deathstroke from the old DC Universe is that he was a big enemy of the Teen Titan's and I think Teen Titan Jericho was his son. I think the average number of deaths by Deathstroke's sword is two an issue, and oh my God the blood that comes out. I don't think there is that much blood in the human body. This first volume has Deathstroke as a soldier for hire that is slowing down in his old age. He can still kickass though and does so at least twice an issue over multiple page spreads. He also has more money than he knows what to do with as he is always having some new toy built for him. The one bright point of the whole trade was an appearance by the Blackhawks in one of the issues.
The "Made me so uncomfortable I had to put it down and walk away for three days" title is The Fury of Firestorm the Nuclear Men. I give it this declaration because of what happens in the next to last issue of the trade. The bad guys (who I think are Russians) decide to bait our two heroes into coming to this arena full of people in the city and then essentially sending a Firestorm of their own in there to be a suicide bomber. The arena is now a smoking crater in the ground and I am disturbed. If this were an episode of the television show Friends then I would have put it into the freezer in the kitchen. The book takes the whole Firestorm idea and turns it on its head. Instead of having two people sharing one super hero body, they each become a Firestorm. The two are teenagers who really don't get along and are now being hunted by some secret Government organization because one of them has the secret to making more Firestorms.
The "Hey, I'm glad I read that" title is Green Lantern Corps. I was expecting something like the first Green Lantern trade where it is all boring and talky and stuff, but instead I found a good story. The trade revolves around John Stewart (they said he left the Daily Show for two months this summer to film a movie, but we all know what he was really doing) and Guy Gardner ("One PUNCH!") and the rest of the GLC finding out what has been happening to the various natural resources on planets in sectors that the Lantern's patrol. In the trade we learn where the power batteries for the Green Lantern's come from and that the Guardians are not all sweetness like they want us to think they are. We also get to see the human side of John in that he takes the body of a fallen comrade back to his home planet to be buried.
[I put my finger to the earpiece I have in my left ear] It appears that I had my John Stewarts mixed up. JON Stewart of the Daily Show on Comedy Central was in fact making a movie over the summer. JOHN Stewart is the African-American Green Lantern that was trying to hook up with Hawkwoman on the Justice League/Justice League Unlimited cartoon on the CW Saturday mornings. I would like to apologize to both men and ask that they not hurt me with either green constructs or sharp pointed jokes at my expense.
The "I like where these books are going" trades are a tie between Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. and Green Lantern New Guardians.
Frankenstein takes a character that was only recently revived before the reboot in the Seven Soldiers of Victory limited series by Grant Morrison. I really did not know what to think going into this trade. As I read it though I found myself really getting into the story without having to wade through the baggage in my mind of what I know about the character from the pre-N52 universe. The trade is a really fun ride and I can't wait to read volume 2.
Green Lantern New Guardians I really liked even though it started off slow. GLNG has Kyle Rainer being given a second chance by the Guardians and somehow being able to control the power of all the power rings in the spectrum and not just green. The other corps get wind of this and decide to go after him. Weirdness ensues and is not resolved until about the third issue when we learn that the Orange Lantern ring was not in fact given to Kyle, but instead was a construct made by Larfleeze to bait Kyle and the others into coming to him. Larfleeze then sends the gathered lanterns to go after something that he says is dangerous to the universe and they go after it. (Sans Bleez the red lantern). There is a big smackdown over the last issue and we find out what the thing was, and it is such a great cliffhanger.
The "This is better than the television show" trade is Green Arrow. Green Arrow has our hero, Oliver Queen, being the Green Arrow by night and neglecting his duties at Q-Corp by day. This is again one of those main characters that seems to have a lot of money and just goes all vigilante during his down time. He has a whole host of special toys he uses to do his work and someone handing things back at Q-Corp sifting through things and watching his back at the same time. It's a good fun story, and a good way to fill an hour in your reading schedule if you are waiting for something to cook, laundry and so forth.
The "Thanks for ruining another character Geoff Johns" trade is Green Lantern. Ugh, where to begin with this trade. I like the fact that Sinestro is back with the Green Lanterns and left the Yellow Lanterns behind. I just don't like the gimmick Johns used to bring Hal into the picture. I think this trade would have been 1000% better if they had dumped the Hal story and just had Sinestro go take back his home planet by himself. Hal is made to look like an out of work loser who is pining to get back to being a Green Lantern that has been instead been stripped of his ring and exiled back to earth. I don't like you any more for this Geoff Johns and after what you did to Aquaman, you are not winning me over as a writer.
The "I really don't know what is going on here, but I like it" trades are The Flash and Demon Knights.
The Flash character has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. This is because of what they did in the whole big crossover event that led to the launch of the "New 52"; Flashpoint. There was also something about dimensional travel and possibly time travel and all that sort of stuff gives me a headache when trying to get it straight in my head. This first volume had stuff traveling from the past into the present because of something that happened, and that is where the headache began for this trade. If you look past that and to the art, it is beautiful. I love the title pages in the trade because it reminds me of the good ol' days when they used to do that sort of thing on movie posters and in comic books.
Demon Knights kind of reads like someone's really high level D&D game. There is all sorts of Magic, swordplay and a near constant presence of The Demon/Jason Blood that makes the trade a delight. I know most of the main characters in the story, but the Horsewoman is a new one to me. She is an interesting character and I hope to see her in the second trade.
The "Only Anthology in the entire New 52" trade is DC Universe Presents. The first volume had eight issues. Five of a Deadman story and the other three were a Challengers of the Unknown story. When I read the first five issues of the Deadman story as singles I thought it was an okay story, but having a second chance to read it, I never realized how bad the story was. Deadman is a great character and the story was a good idea, but the story was just poorly executed. The Challengers of the Unknown Story was a good one, but felt like it was supposed to be four or five issues and had to be squeezed into three. There are too many jumps in time that are not explained via a text box. This bothered me to no end and really hurt my enjoyment of the whole thing. This is not the Challengers from the sixties, this is instead focused on the now. The Challengers team is made up of people who want to be reality stars and they sign up for a show.
The "It's pretty, but what is going on already" trade is Captain Atom. I always liked the idea of the Captain Atom character and was glad that DC at least tried to give him a shot in the New 52. The art is pretty, but the story is kind of out there. The US government has a character who is an analog to Steven Hawking running the program that made Captain Atom who he is today. I read this trade and liked it, but really had no idea what happened at the end of it.
The "Let's just drop readers in and hope for the best" trade is Blue Beetle. I so wanted to like this trade, but everything was so thrown together and haphazard that I was completely lost. I would have liked to see the return of the Ted Kord Blue Beetle rather than the Jamie Reyes Beetle. We can't always get what we want though. I was confused with who is this Black Beetle and why is it after a scarab that was found on earth over three millennia ago.
The "Bat Coitus" trade is Catwoman. All you need to know is that Catwoman and Batman engage in a little evening delight on a rooftop between the end of issue one and the beginning of issue two. There is also some sort of story going on with Catwoman's fence getting killed because Catwoman pissed the wrong people off. Mostly the readers that are going to read this trade is for the first two issues and that is all.
This set of thirteen issues was certainly a mixed bag. This is possibly the only one that you will find with a minimum number of major hero books and lots of minor hero books as well as an anthology. See you all in December for the next installment.
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