New DCU week 9/14

Batman and Robin #1 - Wow. This missed the mark on EVERY level. Most of the issue was a BORING lecture from Bruce to his brat all about how he needs to respect the death of his grandparents. Then we leap to a really weird series of brother villains in masks who steal Batman's thing (it's some weird sphere thing which Batman has no control over) and Damien slices some thing on this thing and everything goes nuts. Then all the sudden we're flashing to Batman's Inc and some villain named Mr. Nobody. It was all just weird. It didn't work and it wasn't a very good issue at all in my opinion. Good news? Dick and Tim were still Robins. Bad news? Jason was still a Robin and Damien has survived, somehow..

Batwoman #1 - It was pretty.. that's about it. I picked this up and it felt EXACTLY like I was re-reading Batman and Robin. We have Kate badgering Bette, who has been a hero almost 3-4 times as long as Kate has been AROUND, about how insignificant and horrible she is as a crime fighter. This from the woman, who up until this issue where she has suddenly gone ballistic on her dad, has relied HEAVILY on her dad. I don't like that Bette is treated like she's completely incompetent. Sure Bette is not a very good hero and she's made tons of mistakes, but what makes Kate SO MUCH better? I'm just not sure. I'm really not.

Deathstroke #1 - I don't get this title. I just don't. I mean it was kind of fun except near the end which I won't spoil for you, but it completely lost me there. I miss Wintergreen GREATLY and he is needed to balance Deathstroke's homicidal maniac mode. Because right now? Deathstroke doesn't seem like much of a mercenary or honor bound fighter, he's just a crazy maniac that will kill for whatever reason.. he just PREFERS to get paid for it. There was also some odd dialogue which really threw me off like the opening scene where Deathstroke tells the bodyguards to go to a whore house before he cuts off the thing that makes them go to the whore house. That's just.. AWKWARD. Why is Deathstroke threatening to cut off other guys penises? It just.. idk. If he was like a woman repeatedly raped or the new Warrior Woman, MAYBE that'd be appropriate, but this just felt odd. Why not just threaten to kill them? Idk. I'm not sold on this title and I wouldn't buy it.

Demon Knights #1- I was sooooooo excited about this title and it was GOOD. REALLY GOOD. I enjoyed the crap out of it. It's a nice sword and sorcery title with all the characters you know and love coming back and making appearances. Thus far? Madame Xanadu, Jason of the Blood/Etrigan, Vandal Savage, Sir Ystin the Shining Knight, and what I'm assuming is an Amazon babe. Anyhow, the group is pretty interesting though Xanadu has me a little confused. I'm sure there is some interesting things going on there and it'll be revealed eventually. It's a solid start with knights, Camelot, and DRAGONS! Yes! you heard me.. DRAGONS.

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #1 - Interesting. I'm not 100% sold on this one, but I love the fact that Ray Palmer is in it and I like the Creature Commandos. Not a fan of the Father Time as Hit Girl, but whatever. All in all, it was an enjoyable title. Pick it up and look into it. I like the Creature Commandos too and I like that while they resemble the incarnations in Flashpoint Frankenstein, but were not DIRECT translations. It was nice all around. Not the best title, but solid and enjoyable.

Green Lantern #1 - Pretty much picking up where we left off, there isn't much surprising in this issue except that Sinestro apparently was reappointed to his old Sector instead of Sector 2814. This is surprising since well Sector 1417 (the sector of Korugar) has 3 Lanterns now unless something happened to Soranik Natu and her partner, which would be sad. I assumed that Sinestro would replace Hal Jordon as guardian of Sector 2814. It kinda makes sense, but I guess not. Idk. There is a LOT left unexplained in this issue like why Carol suddenly assumed Hal would propose marriage.. that felt odd and off. The issue was solid and the sections with Sinestro and Hal adjusting to their new roles were interesting, but there were some odd scenes like the Carol one mentioned before or when Sinestro kicks a Yellow Lantern's ass.. It felt odd. The art also could have used something. In some scenes it looked crisp and solid, but in others.. Hal looked just strange and mismatched. It could use a little more consistency in my opinion.

Grifter #1 - A mess. Absolute mess. I don't know what to say about this title. Apparently Grifter gets his name from just being a grifter for so long and he's a not a good guy. Aliens or something is out to get him, he's a terrorist and he lost either Seventeen days or Seventeen Hours of time, we're not sure which. Apparently he can hear the alien-thingies thoughts now for some unknown reason, but he has no clue who or what the alien is. His brother is in the military and because of that, his brother has to hunt him down and capture him? That made NO sense. But much of this comic was really splashed together and rushed, so I'm just not sure how to take it. I wouldn't read the next issue though.


Legion Lost #1 - I had qualms about the Legion coming to the past and wow.. yeah this is EXACTLY why. We spend a HUGE portion of the issue whining about how horrid the 21st Century is with all it's pollution that they're just not used to in the 31st century. It was way over the top especially since Dawnstar can survive in ANY ENVIRONMENT and she can fly in the vacuum of SPACE without a suit. All the Legion's great technology suddenly goes haywire for no apparent reason, which felt so weird. They do make a nice mention of the Flashpoint, but the villain feels silly. He's got some vendetta against humans so he's come back to the past to unleash some unknown virus that apparently not even the Legionnaires are immune to though we have NO CLUE what this virus is or what it does or how it would even effect people it is apparently not THAT BAD as the Legion tries to run back to the future with a bunch of people exposed. The pollution was vastly worse since we heard more about that. On top of that, they did the dumbest thing that you can possibly do in a future story.. create a new slang system that replaces cuss words with stupid crap like Frag this and frag that. I HATE that. That's one of the things that has made the Legion so good is that it hasn't had any of that crap and now it's being introduced for no reason? Arg.

Mister Terrific #1 - Oh wow.. I wanted to like this comic, but Michael Holt deserves VASTLY better than this. This was another really fast messy comic. Mister Terrific is apparently created from the death of his wife and his future son coming back from the future to tell him how important he is. That was SO ODD. His origin was just.. weird. And way too much happens in this comic. It bounces around everywhere. Oh and odd thing, look at the background characters.. Almost every ONE of them is a POC and in fact, the ONLY white person in the whole comic are the villain, some annoying idiot white people that Michael has to point out that he's black to rather aggressively imho and Karen Star, who is a threat to the woman who apparently wants Michael. Yeah.. the end is kind of a shock, but you kind of knew it was going to happen based on the earlier interactions. It just was a VERY weird way to start this whole thing off and I'm not sure that it's the way to draw people in.

Red Lanterns #1 - Huge flashback about Atrocitus's life before his world was destroyed and a huge recap of how the Red Lanterns came about, but not much else. There was a nice fight scene at the beginning with Dex-Starr and we get more of that stupid Bleez that DC seems to love so much, but really there wasn't much to this issue at all. I don't see how this will make a comic. Honestly, I was bored and I see no reason to continue reading this comic.

Resurrection Man #1 - OK I was totally not sure about this title and I'm still not. It felt a tad confusing. There was a LOT going on for a new issue and it tried to "catch you up" on who this character is and what he does, but it felt like there were just too many things going on to fully follow. It was good, but this one reads like a MUST READ AS A TRADE title over good for individual issues and that I think will hurt it. I do think it's interesting that apparently our hero thinks he's being attacked by demons, but they appear to be Angels (i'm guessing by the Suriel name, which seems similar to other demons we've seen in the past). Also, weird guest appearance at the end that felt a little odd. I think that could have been taken out for more story (imho).

Suicide Squad #1- This is no Secret Six, not by a long shot, but this team is NOT afraid to be dark and brutal, which WORKS. We get a nice recap of why our team is in their predicament and why they're each members of the Squad. That is GREAT. I LOVE the new Harley. She needed something to jazz her up and make her a little less.. DC Animated and this did it. She could still use a new costume, but her new attitude is cool. Deadshot is awesome as is King Shark. Savant was a MASSIVE disappointment. He was totally thrown away in this issue and it was sad. He shouldn't have been the throw away character and it made no sense based on who Savant once was. They should have picked someone else. I'm also disappointed that Amanda Waller is now thin and somewhat pretty. I liked the old Amanda Waller better, but she is definitely in control of the Squad and they did a GREAT update to the way the Squad was handled before. It was nice. All in all, I liked.

Superboy #1 - This felt like a prologue to Teen Titans #1. That's all. I liked the appearance of Lois Lane trying to get a story and Rose Wilson makes an appearance which was kind of nice, but the rest? It just didn't feel like there was much to it other than to get you to read Teen Titans. It established Superboy as a character, SORTA. We still don't know a whole hell of a lot about him except he has some connection to this woman Red (who apparently has no name.. she's just.. Red). It's not that I didn't like this issue. It was OK. It just felt like there wasn't much purpose for it to be here at all.