The second full week of new DC launches has come and gone, and I read through a few of the books. Unfortunately, I’m not rich enough to buy and read them all. And I’m not villainous enough to pirate these comics. So I’m just going to throw down with the books I legally bought and honestly read. I’ll be the Will Turner of comic books, not the Jack Sparrow. Since there are so many, these reviews will be a little bit shorter than my normal reviews.  Consider them capsule reviews.

And none of them changed my opinion so far about DC half-assing this whole reboot/revamp/rejiggering. Some of the books were good, some were boring, and the best ones didn’t have anything to do with the new project.

Anyway, on with the show!

Batwoman #1

Batwoman: This was the best book I read this week thanks to amazingly beautiful art and a fun and exciting character. I’ve been a fan of Batwoman since she debuted, so I was eager to jump back into her adventures. This story picks up where we left off after Batwoman’s brief run in Detective Comics. A little time is spent catching us up to Kate Kane’s military origin, her possibly still-alive sister and the fact that she’s on the outs with her father; the same father who helped set her up as Batwoman in the first place.

Most of the issue dives right into the new adventure as Kate investigates a mysterious ghost woman who’s kidnapping children. She fought the ghost at the beginning, and then finds herself on its trail towards the end. Batwoman is written like a competent ass-kicker, while her civilian identity is a bit more personal. We also meet her love interest, Det. Maggie Sawyer from Gotham Central fame, and her future sidekick Bette Kane, her cousin and the superhero known as Flamebird.

I rather like the idea of taking the existing Flamebird, who has been around for a long time, and making her Kate’s cousin and potential sidekick. But Kate’s first going to make her earn that title.

The art by J.H. Williams the III is gorgeous. The art was the selling point on the Detective Comics run, and it’s a major selling point this time around too. Here, take a look.

I opted to not show you the pictures of Batwoman and Flamebird undressing. So Ha Ha!

The only thing that bugged me about this issue is the same thing that’s always bugged me about Batwoman: DC has never gotten around to fully integrating her into the DC Universe, especially Gotham City. If I recall correctly, Kate Kane chose the name ‘Batwoman’ to take after Batman. You’d think Bruce Wayne would have a thing or two to say about that…but it’s never happened. They’ve met, they’ve teamed up and he investigated her once…but we’ve never had the scene where they sit down and Batman tries to dissuade her from ‘joining the franchise’, as it were, or even becoming a crime fighter in Gotham. He’s usually on top of that sort of thing. Kate has met and hung out with Dick Grayson a few times, but still, nothing. Everyone just acts like Batwoman has always been around. It just sort of bugs me.

And one little note: this Batwoman solo series was supposed to be released months ago. But it just kept getting delayed, until DC finally just said ‘let’s make it a part of our September rejiggering’. So there’s absolutely nothing about this issue or this series that has anything to do with a rebooted DC Universe. Take that for what you will.

Batman and Robin #1

Batman and Robin: And so the horror of Robin and Tim Drake fans is upon us: Bruce Wayne is now accepting and welcoming his turdhead son Damian to be his Robin. The final shoe has dropped. Tim is not going back to being Bruce’s partner. It’s a sad day. And what’s worse, we’re losing the fun chemistry of Damian and Dick Grayson when Dick was Batman. I’d really warmed up to that duo. But it’s been cast aside to make way for Bruce Wayne as the one and only Batman. So what did I think of the first real team up of Bruce and Damian as Batman and Robin?

S’alright.

Definitely a fun Batman comic. We get some badass Bat-action, some cool tech, a nice save and some fun villains. We even get a mystery villain in the form of Nobody who’s slowly building himself up in the background. But the primary focus of this issue is Batman and the new Robin learning to work with each other. Damian was Robin under Dick Grayon’s Batman. But now Dick is gone and Bruce is back as Batman, and he’s decided to continue Damian’s training. Damian is Bruce’s son from…a really complicated back story. Basically, Bruce never knew he had a son until his mom suddenly thrust the boy upon him. Damian was raised by Ras Al Ghul and was training to be a ninja assassin.

He’s since turned away from that lifestyle to join his father’s fight against crime. But Damian is still very rough around the edges. He disobeys Batman’s orders and uses excessive force. Batman hopes to train that out of him. Dick was doing a good job with it, and Damian had really grown to respect Dick…but all of that has been tossed aside. Damian is back to being an arrogant little jackass. Even when Bruce is trying to honor his parents, Damian just keeps making snide comments about the silliness of honoring the dead. At least Bruce makes the big decision to stop honoring the night his parents died, and instead honor their wedding anniversary. Interesting idea, but we’ll have to wait and see how it actually effects Batman.

Damian is all about combining kicks with one-liners

I understand why Damian is Robin. It creates a stronger central conflict.

Tim was a perfect Robin, but there was no conflict between him and Batman. They were a great team. And while that might be good for fighting crime, it doesn’t make for dramatic reading. So now Robin is a little pisshead and a handful for Batman to deal with. I don’t like Damian…but I can appreciate the idea behind him. I’m going to give it a chance.

But Tim will always be the best Robin.

Demon Knights #1

Demon Knights: The Demon Etrigan is going to lead a ragtag band of medieval heroes in what looks like it could be a fun, thinking outside-the-box sort of book. Writer Paul Cornell is much beloved by the fans, and he shows a lot of spunk in putting together this team and giving us one of the weirdest new titles in the DC Rejiggering. Demon Knights takes place back in the wizards and dragons sort of age, so it’s going to have to stand on its own. Based on this first issue, that could prove to be really cool.

Though not a team yet, it just so happens that Etrigan, Madame Xanadu, Vandal Savage (a good guy, for a change), Shining Knight and a few others all happen to be at the same bar in the town of Little Spring when the evil queen’s army marches through. The Queen and Mordru have some evil plan in place, and it looks like our heroes will have to band together to stop them. It’s a nicely simple premise, so there’s a lot to build up. What will make these characters decide to team up? How will they treat one another? Will Jason Blood ever find out that his girlfriend is having an affair with his demon form, Etrigan? That was a funny twist. Blood and Etrigan may share the same body, but they don’t know what the other is doing.

I’m definitely going to stick around to see how much fun this book can have.

Green Lantern #1

Green Lantern: Much like the Batman titles, those in the green Lantern family of books have not been revamped or rejiggered in any way. Ignore the #1 on the cover, this issue continues right where the previous Green Lantern volume left off before the new wave of changes. I have no problem with that (other than adding to my half-assed theory) because I have been enjoying Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern stories. He almost single-handedly turned the character into one of DC’s best selling titles. So more power to him.

In this issue, Hal Jordan has been kicked out of the Green Lantern Corps and villain Sinestro has taken his place. The Guardians booted Hal for insubordination, and the ring chose Sinestro for reasons not yet known. Sinestro is the best sort of villain, in that he doesn’t see himself as a villain. Even when he was leading the fear-based, yellow-uniformed Sinestro Corps, he thought he was working for the good of the universe. So even though he doesn’t want to be a Green Lantern, he’s going to try it out and see what he makes of it. Sinestro has been brilliant under Johns’ pen, so I’m eager to see him in a starring role.

Especially when he’s this badass.

Death to his...own team?

Hal is also a little more interesting. I’ve never particularly been a fan of Hal, and have never seen anything truly charismatic about him. Now without his ring, he’s stuck trying to rediscover his life back on Earth. When you’re a Green Lantern and spend most of your life out in space being a superhero/cop, civilian life on Earth just doesn’t matter much anymore. He didn’t need money in the GLC, and the Corps provided everything else. But now he’s alone, doesn’t have a job and can’t pay the rent. Poor schmuck.

I think it will be kind of fun to see Hal struggling to lead a civilian life. He blows his big chance with Carol (who is still, thankfully, Star Sapphire), and makes an idiot of himself at least once. So it has a lot of potential. Unless, of course, the final page cliffhanger resets the status quo before too long. We shall see. Green Lantern has come through the rejiggering unscathed.

Red Lanterns #1

Red Lanterns: For a comic about the angriest sons of bitches in the universe, Red Lanterns is very subdued. It’s even a little wussy, frankly. Basically the leader of the Red Lanterns, Atrocitus, spends the issue in deep contemplation about his past and his place in the universe. Now that the Blackest Night is over, and the man who killed his people is dead, what’s he got left to do? Atrocitus has always been more than just a mindless brute, but write Peter Milligan really lays it on thick in this issue. Atrocitus’ face has even been softened from its previous skull-esque look. He thinks about his family and wonders if his rage can sustain the Red Lanterns anymore.

When Atrocitus says that he and his hated enemy are like lovers…he completely loses all of his badass cred.

So the book suffers a problem in tone. The Red Lanterns are supposed to represent rage! Where’s the awesomeness? Where’s the viciousness? Where’s the hate-fueled horror spreading through the universe!? Sure we get some action in the beginning, and the other team members are a little rough on each other, but the book is far too subdued. And like I said, Atrocitus is a little too wussy. He’s doubting himself, and as we all learned in the Green Lantern movie this summer, that does not make for a compelling protagonist. At least in the end he gives himself a new quest. I think something about stopping evil through the power of rage. Hopefully that will be entertaining. I want to like this series, being a big fan of the colored Lanterns, but this issue doesn’t give me much hope.

At least it had a prominent role for Dex-Starr!

The Internet loves cats

Yep, an evil, vicious, blood-spewing, Red Lantern kitty cat! What started as a one-off joke in a single panel has erupted into a full-on fanboy craze. I’ve heard Dex-Starr called the DC equivalent of ‘the cake is a lie’, and that’s probably a little true, but I’m definitely still enjoying the gag. He’s a fun idea, and he’s a cool visual. I’m not ashamed to admit I have a Dex-Starr action figure. Now I just want a Dex-Starr plushy.

Superboy #1

Superboy: Here we finally have a full and complete reboot/revamp of the Superboy concept…sort of. The basics stay the same: Superboy is a clone made from the combination of Superman’s DNA and human DNA. In the old DCU, the human DNA was from Lex Luthor. In this issue, it remains a mystery. Hopefully it won’t just be Luthor again. In this story, a secret organization has bred a Superman clone named Superboy. He’s been raised in a lab, as well as through some Virtual Reality simulations that have him experiencing life on a farm and school in Kansas. It’s a neat little introduction, though they could have done more to make it feel more scientific, I suppose.

That’s a very minor grip. I liked this issue and I think I’ll pick up more of Superboy. I kind of bought this one on a whim, since he’ll be a member of Teen Titans. Plus the two titles are written by the same writer, Scott Lobdell, so it looks like there will be some connectivity. Superboy is written very bare bones so far, since he’s just a science experiment in a tube for now. So characterization is pretty light. But this was a solid introduction to the character and his circumstances. We also meet three scientists at the lab: ‘Red’, the head honco/cute nerd girl; Rose Wilson, the assassin-for-hire and Dr. Umber, the whistleblower. They should add some nice supporting stories. We get to know a little about them, and I’m sure more will be coming.

‘Red’ is going to be revealed as Caitlin Fairchild, otherwise known as Fairchild from Gen 13. I never read Gen 13, so it doesn’t matter to me. But it’s a cool new use for the character, at least, now that DC is combining the normal DC with Wildstorm.

So all in all, I think Superboy is off to a good start.