We’re now about halfway into the second month of DC Comics’ The New 52, and I’m now at the point where I have to pick and choose which books I really want to follow and plunk down my own money for. So I made a list and found it quite interesting.
The good news is that I am buying more DC Comics than I was before the relaunch, when I was pretty much just getting the core Batman books.
Starting with the books I liked enough to stick with, these are the titles I have bought the second issue for already:
- Action Comics
- Animal Man
- Batgirl
- Detective Comics
- O.M.A.C.
- Batman and Robin
- Batwoman
- Batman
These books I definitely plan to buy the second issue of:
- Justice League
- Wonder Woman
- Superman
- I, Vampire
That’s 12 so far, just one title less than a quarter of the New 52 offerings.
These books I am very likely to pick up, availability and funds allowing:
- Supergirl
- Aquaman
- Batman: The Dark Knight
- Superboy
- Green Lantern Corps
- The Flash
So if I pick up those books, that means DC got me back for 18 of the 52 books. Again, that’s not too bad — it’s a lot more than I was getting.
These books just missed the mark for me, and I could reconsider:
- Green Arrow
- Swamp Thing
- Deathstroke
- Green Lantern
- Blackhawks
- Teen Titans
I admit that I had picked up Green Lantern #2 at the store last week, but changed my mind and put it back once I saw Love and Rockets: New Stories, Vol. 4 was out.
These titles were the mediocre group of the bunch — not bad, but also neither interesting enough or good enough to make me want to come back. And I’ll admit, some of these surprised me.
- Batwing
- Hawk and Dove
- Justice League International
- Men of War
- Static Shock
- Stormwatch
- Demon Knights
- Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
- Grifter
- Legion Lost
- Mister Terrific
- Resurrection Man
- Birds of Prey
- Blue Beetle
- Captain Atom
- DC Universe Presents
- Legion of Super-Heroes
- Nightwing
- All-Star Western
- The Fury of Firestorm
- Green Lantern: New Guardians
- The Savage Hawkman
- Voodoo
That’s a full 23 our of 52 books that fall into that category, nearly half of the line.
And then, there’s the titles I actively disliked or thought were flat-out terrible.
- Red Lanterns
- Suicide Squad
- Catwoman
- Red Hood and the Outlaws
- Justice League Dark
Again, not bad, but the relaunch hasn’t really improved the quality of DC Comics, despite all the hype. I wish that the publisher had taken the time to dig deeper in terms of talent and offered up more surprises. They only get one shot at this — at least for the time being — so I would have liked there to be more comics that I could wholeheartedly recommend to both lapsed fans and new readers.