This episode kicks off with a bang as Ollie and Barry have to contend with a fully deranged John Deegan, now Earth-1’s Superman, black suit and all! It’s a pretty terrifying prospect but he also nicks the opening monologue! THE FIEND!

The whole thing has shades of the Injustice video game about it, or the flashforward/dream sequence in Batman v Superman which also ripped off the Injustice aesthetic, but it’s an effective way to show how boned Ollie and Barry are, especially when they learn that everyone they could rely on isn’t going to help them. Unless they do, like Cisco because they kinda need him to jump dimensions so sure, he’ll help them.

Speaking of dimension-hopping, Ollie and Barry come face-to-face with The Monitor and his whole demeanour is great. LaMonica Garrett has been fantastic any time he showed up. Enigmatic to a fault, The Monitor still has a playful lilt to his voice that indicates that this test isn’t meant in malice and he is genuinely surprised at how our heroes adapt.

So much so that he appears to offer Ollie a deal in order to keep Barry and Kara from not dying, as foretold in the Book of Destiny. What that actually means will remain to be seen but I can see it as a way for Stephen Amell to leave Arrow should he wish to.

Can I just give some love to Tyler Hoechlin? Because he’s a great Superman. And a great Clark Kent. And a great Evil Superman. He’s just a really good actor who gets the character and that chin is chiselled as FUCK! What a handsome lad. But yeah, he’s got great bits throughout the 3 nights but his best spots are in this Supergirl episode, where he finally proposes to Lois after learning they’re going to have a child. Good for them!

The Super Friends continue to have a really fun chemistry and it’s gonna be sad when they go back to their own shows and I have to listen to the same tired shit from The Flash again but that’s 2019 Sharp-O’s problem and that bastard deserves it. He knows what he did…

Deegan is defeated, even gaining a brand new skello-face to match his comic book counterpart; Doctor Destiny. Yeah, I didn’t mention that before because he’s kind of a jobber villain, mostly known for his appearances in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comics and the two times he was voiced by William Atherton in the New Batman Adventures and Justice League cartoons.

We also get some parting words from Batwoman about Deegan being incarcerated in Arkham and her concern about his new friend; Psycho-Pirate.

Words have power and there are few words in the DC Universe that inspire both awe and terror like those above. I’ve thrown the word ‘Crisis’ around a lot during this crossover, even capitalised it, that’s how important it is, because Psycho-Pirate’s final words are a portent of doom in the DC universe and foreshadowing for next year’s event which may mean the end for more than one of our heroes.

A Crisis is coming and universes will collide. Worlds will live, worlds will die, and nothing will ever be the same again.

And that’s Elseworlds! A thoroughly enjoyable romp over three nights and probably my favourite of the CW crossovers up to this point. It was funny, intriguing, and set the stage for the biggest name in DC events which will no doubt see Black Lightning come into the fold. And if you’re wondering where the Legends were during this whole escapade; let’s just say there was an incident involving Constantine, a cat, the Puppets of Tomorrow, and time being repeatedly shattered. So that’s why they had to cash in a rain check.

That’s all from Flash Facts until mid-January 2019 so I hope you all have a very merry holiday season and I’ll catch you guys next year!

Welcome back to the second night of Elseworlds everyone and hot damn, this is an episode chock full of easter eggs and references to the wider DCU and I can’t wait to dig in!

First up is the Super Friends throwing shade at Gotham because of course they will. Gotham’s like a shittier Star City but it does have a generally better calibre of bad guy!

Naturally, spending a significant amount of time in Gotham means a trip to Arkham Asylum and that means a whole host of characters that we’re not allowed to show on-screen due to a competing television show; like Oswald Cobblepot, Pamela Isley, Basil Karlo, and Edward Nigma! We also get visual confirmation of the Psycho-Pirate, a character previously referenced in Nora in the article about Barry’s disappearance. More on him later.

There’s also an assortment of villain-themed trinkets scattered around in John Deegan’s office and we get a surprise appearance from nora Fries, somehow not on ice, attacking Caitlin with her husband’s ice cannon.

Not to mention an awesome action scene triggered by Jonathan Crane aka Scarecrow’s fear toxin, which gives us the prerequisiste hero vs. hero fight as Barry and Ollie see each other as their hero identities’ biggest bads; namely Malcolm Merlyn and Eobard Thawne.

There’s a lot of talk about Bruce Wayne and Batman and, naturally, we don’t see even a bat ear of him but I do love this exchange from the Super Friends. Ollie’s already tried to out-alpha Superman and now he’s doing the same with Batman, much to the amusement of Barry and Kara.

This episode is also kind of a backdoor pilot for Ruby Rose’s Kate Kane aka Bat-Woman and I’m digging her performance. She’s a no nonsense, extremely capable fighter in the cape and cowl and strikes a nice balance between business and pleasure in civvies when she flirts with Kara. I hope the proposed series proves successful because I like what I’ve seen of the character so far…

And the prospect of this team-up almost gets me as excited for it as I am for this crossover!

Also, somebody pick-up that phone because I FUCKING CALLED IT! John Diggle is Green Lantern John Stewart! Granted, only on Earth-90 but that’s a hard confirm for me and I am taking the win! BOOSH!

With Deegan’s plan exposed and the mysterious book taken from him, the Super Friends plus Earth-90’s Flash face down The Monitor and are so out-classed, it’s not even funny. They’re nowhere near his level and he, surprisingly, congratulates them for getting the book, a feat not managed by another other world he’s tested.

Yup, my theory on The Monitor testing the various universes is spot-on. He’s handing the Book of Destiny to random people in a given reality to simulate the chaos brought on by a ‘crisis’. The original Crisis on Infinite Earths comic series had the Psycho-Pirate (told you we’d come back to him) become a willing henchman to the Anti-Monitor, a being of immense power that The Monitor alludes to. Given the red skies, the presence of The Monitor and the Psycho-Pirate, and the threat of an oncoming Crisis means bad news for Barry Allen, specifically. We may finally see that headline come to pass, after all.

The episode ends with reality being rewritten again; Barry and Oliver being remade as a criminal pair known as the Trigger Twins, Ollie’s greatest enemies as Central City cops and, worst of all, a black-clad Superman intent on arresting them. Tha’s no’ good.

The second part of Elseworlds is a fantastic middle chapter, giving us more humour but also expanding on the ultimate threat while teasing tougher times to come. I truly can’t wait for the third and final act of this story tomorrow on Supergirl so I hope to see you all then!

Seriously, it’s been a rough week and it’s probably going to get worse so when I say this was the most I’ve smiled in a week, I mean it. Elseworlds Part 1 is an utter delight in every way and a fantastic set-up for what’s to come.

This year’s crossover event kicks off with a bang as it repeats the Earth-90 stinger from the previous week’s shows but at the top to quickly establish The Monitor before jumping to Earth-1, where The Monitor hands the mysterious glow-y book to one John Deegan (you may recognise actor Jeremy Davies from his role as Ritchie Simpson on Constantine).

Deegan appears to be a struggling scientist with ideas that some would brand ‘mad’, which happens during a lecture. For reasons unknown, The Monitor hands the book to Deegan and tells him to remake the world. I guess this is some sort of test, given what happened to Earth-90 and how he said that “You did this to yourself” to that world’s Flash. The mystery thickens but from here on out, I’ll just be telling you about how much fun I had with this episode.

Flash Fact: The Monitor is a character closely associated to DC’s various Crisis events, which also have red skies as a motif. Both are present here and that bodes ill.

Like Ollie not adapting well to being the Flash and screaming old faithful at criminals (and earlier assuming Barry fucked up time again).

We finally have an AMAZO! And he’s just as cool as I could hope! AMAZO is one of those great villains to use for a character-driven story because his schtick is to steal powers and that is it. No monologuing, no hidden agenda, just a big out-of-control robot to punch until it falls down. I also liked how it affectionately nodded at the existing Arrow lore of Anthony Ivo, his ship The Amazo, and Mirakuru.

Meanwhile, on Earth-38, shenanigans are afoot and it’s always a pleasure to see Stephen, Grant, and Melissa onscreen together. Grant and Stephen’s banter is pitch-perfect and is often the best part of any crossover. Ollie trying to be more alpha around the perfectly nice Clark is hilarious. Additionally, Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch as Clark and Lois are a great match, they have brilliant chemistry.

SOMEBODY SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE ME from these Smallville references! The Remy song kicked in before the Earth-38 title card and for a split second I was audibly screaming “WHAT?!” at the idea of a Smallville universe being shown but holy crap, it’s the Smallville farm! That’s so cool! It’s been just long enough for this place to be nostalgic and I’m happy to see out new Superman hanging out.

Flash Fact: The Smallville Green Arrow costume makes a sneaky cameo in the Earth-90 segment.

This scene. I had to pause I was laughing so hard and then I played it again. Perfection.

This is also a damn good scene, despite being the obligatory ‘serious talk’ for the episode. Barry has always been Ollie’s opposite number and the idea of him becoming Ollie is indeed a scary prospect. Expect Ollie wouldn’t erase children from existence. Himself, sure. Loved ones, probably. Children? Only a monster like Barry Allen would do that.

Once AMAZO is dealt with, Cisco talks to Ollie, Barry, and Kara about The Monitor, who appeared to Cisco earlier, and is visibly shaken when The Monitor notices Cisco vibing him again and gives a dire warning. Ollie, though, picks up on a subtle clue and that leads us directly into Part 2 on Arrow tomorrow!

I loved this episode and I have high hopes for the next episode! What are your thoughts on this episode? Be sure to share them on our Facebook and Twitter and I’ll see you all tomorrow for another Elseworlds episode!

I’m not even kidding; as good as last year’s Invasion crossover was cool, this year’s kicks off it’s two-night spectacular in style with Supergirl and Arrow, even if the casts are so meshed that you can’t even really tell which episode is which.

They don’t bury the lead either as we open on Earth-X itself, with crimson, lightning filled skies that bring to mind the Dark Multiverse worlds from the recent DC Comics event, Dark Nights: Metal. Black and crimson banners fill the skyline along with strange architecture and zeppelins. Oh yeah, we’re in Nazi Country.

A resistance warehouse is attacked and decimated by one lone archer, showing that Earth X’s Dark Arrow is not to be trifled with and he proves that by taking on that Earth’s James Olsen aka Guardian, in a way more beat-up patriotic version of his suit. He unfortunately dies but assures DA that there are more like him, nicely hinting at the upcoming animated Freedom Fighters: The Ray, which serves as a prequel to this crossover.

We catch-up with our main heroes as they’re all discussing the upcoming wedding, with nice location titles using the font of each respective series. It’s a neat little sequence, overall and serves as an introduction to the majority of the players for these first two parts.

During the build-up to the event, we get quite a lot of information dumped on us for those who may not watch every show and to show how all these disparate groups interact and it’s nice to see Barry catch up with Ollie and Kara again. They built up a real bond over the past couple of years and it’s paid off here as Ollie is best man and Kara does a beautiful rendition of Runnin’ Home To You, an original song from the musical team-up, Duet.

Kara’s adoptive sister, Alex, and Sara Lance hook-up the night before the wedding! Alex, rebounding from a recent break-up, and Sara, a notorious puss-hound, make for some nice, awkward comic relief but given how funny this collective cast is, there’s plenty to go around…

Like Mick! Dominic Purcell is frequently the funniest cast member on Legends of Tomorrow and is used to decent effect here, partnering up with Caitlin, most likely as a Snart surrogate. Get the whole fire and ice motif rocking again. They even have a go at Dark Arrow before being jobbed out (along with the rest of Team Arrow).

Back to the wedding where Nazis invade! It makes sense in hindsight since nearly every CW hero is gathered together but this gives the show the ample opportunity to have everyone show off what they do best and it gives one notable absence a real highlight…

While Kid Flash won’t be partaking in the event proper, Wally does get a really slick moment that made me smile and then made me sad because he’s amongst the three other black heroes that are sadly missing from this team-up.

OH! I should make mention of another odd attendant besides the assemblage of heroes and the Nazi gate-grashers. This odd little moment between Grant Gustin and a rather excitable Jessica Parker-Kennedy who is playing an unnamed character but my Spidey-Sense is tingling and I think she’s going to be important. There’s two theories I can offer but I’ll keep them under my hat for now.

Now, I guess I should talk about some of our villains and while Dark Arrow and Overgirl are just married versions of Ollie and Kara (gross, I know), they do make a menacing power couple and there’s a fair amount of affection between the two. The real odd-balls are Metallo, with some of the ropiest CGI this poor stretched production could muster and Eobard Thawne. Our Eobard Thawne. Wearing Wells’ face. I know they make mention of time shenanigans but this is ridiculous. I know they’re only doing the Wells-face again because they’re burning through their budget like no tomorrow and Tom Cavanaugh is up for literally anything but it’s still super weird.

Not as weird as Tommy Merlyn being Prometheus though! Holy shit! This was a swerve and a half and I applaud the writing team for bringing Colin Donnell back to Arrow after 5 seasons of his character being dead! Though I will admit that I didn’t recognise him immediately and only marked out when I heard his name.

I know there’s still a lot I haven’t covered and I’m already pushing 800 words but rest assured, I loved every second of the Supergirl and Arrow parts of this crossover and I can’t wait for tomorrow’s episodes when we’ll see Overgirl try to steal Kara’s heart and the rest of our heroes try to escape from Earth-X alive! Are you enjoying this year’s event so far? Let me know your favourite moment in the comments and I’ll catch you guys tomorrow for The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow!

Like most casual comic book fans, my greatest exposure to Green Arrow comes from the Justice League Unlimited animated series where, in one of the series’ more climactic episodes, GA describes himself as “an old lefty” who believes that “governments should do for their people what they can’t do for themselves.” Ever since, I’ve had a particular fondness for the character and his leftist brand of justice. Unfortunately, DC hadn’t been kind to old Ollie Queen pre-reboot. The events of Cry for Justice more of less demolished the character in the eyes of the DC universe’s fictional populace as well as the eyes of fans. So if there’s any character out there who could benefit from a reboot most, it’s Green Arrow.

Unfortunately, that leads us to the question of what Green Arrow has been rebooted into. Where once Oliver Queen crusaded the streets of Star City in the name of arch liberal social justice, now he’s back to running Queen Industries, specifically a division called Q-Core, developing gadgets and other social media tech, such as the Q-Phone and the Q-Pad (I guess the all-caps typestry discouraged qPhone and qPad, or maybe that’s just too on the nose). Meanwhile, Oliver stalks the rooftops of Seattle, WA (yeah, no more Star City, it seems), as Green Arrow, confronting villainy at every turn…or more often reacting to villains on the attack. We actually see remarkably little of Green Arrow’s supposed heroics. The only person he seemingly saves throughout the course of the book is a supporting character working for Queen Industries. No innocent bystanders. No anonymous damsels in distress. Not even the old child trapped in a burning building routine. Sheesh, I didn’t know Seattle was so crime free.

Ollie himself has had a de-aging treatment down to his mid-twenties, much less the grizzled old lefty and much more the hipstery douchebag. Honestly, I’m surprised he didn’t show up in sandals at one point, or maybe loafers without socks and skinny jeans. Also, Ollie’s signature Vandyke has been nixed for a layer of perma-stubble.

Obviously, this reinterpretation…bothers me, to say the least, but we’ll save that for later. For now, the synopsis.

For this trade we have two relatively separate stories divided between the first and second halves of the book. The first story follows Green Arrow’s encounters with a group of hip, new, “modern” supervillains who film their crimes and post them on YouTube. Naturally…well, actually, it’s not natural at all but the book pretends that it is so we readers just have to follow along…this makes them huge internet celebrities with millions (yes, millions) of followers and supporters. Thus, the Emerald Archer, once the hunter, now becomes the…Wait, really!? The “hunter becomes the hunted” schtick? That’s not even my language, Dave Wilkins’ cover for issue two literally has the words “the hunted” graffitied above Green Arrow’s head!

The second story features the titular Midas whose “touch” indeed poses quite the threat to Green Arrow. This is more your typical Good Guy vs. Bad Guy scenario and, frankly, it’s not much to speak of. This wouldn’t be such a bad thing if only some character had been injected into the story. But no, Ollie’s one-liners fall flat, many of the jokes are stale, and the banter between hero and villain feels tired and lifeless. In the end, it’s all a matter of GA figuring out which trick arrowhead works best against the unstoppable abomination and it all ends as you’d expect.

J.T. Krul writes Green Arrow as if he’s writing Iron Man, and that has to be one of the weakest points of the book. In fact, there’s a scene where Oliver’s Pepper Potts-esque secretary walks in on him in his office while Ollie’s quickly undressing from his GA uniform. What follows is a near beat-for-beat exchange mimicking a scene from the first Iron Man film where Pepper Potts walks in on Tony Stark unequipping his armor — Ollie even paraphrases the “You’ve walked in on me doing worse” line. Green Arrow had his flirty moments, especially around Black Canary, but he was no playboy (certainly no Tony Stark).

In fact, this entire volume of Green Arrow actually reminds me specifically of Iron Man: Extremis where Warren Ellis reintroduced Tony Stark for the modern tech age. The remarkable thing about that book was how Ellis played off very specific minute details surrounding the true stories of modern tech companies and wove them into the narrative of Extremis (for those who have read that book, I’m thinking specifically of the scene where Tony and Maya Hansen speak with their old mentor Sal Kennedy). The minutiae, of course, expands the narrative, makes the world feel bigger than it is; this simply isn’t a story about Iron Man, but about Iron Man’s place in the grander scheme of things — technological advancement, man-machine integration, social evolution in an age of continuous advancement, upgrades, and change. And, of course, about Tony’s own sense of self-worth. For all Krul does to make Q-Core look like the DC universe’s Apple Computers, it lacks that attention to detail, that specificity, that makes the obvious parallels meaningful.

The only thing that makes Green Arrow fit into a larger world is the inexplicable relocation of Green Arrow to Seattle, Washington, which is immediately undone when Krul utterly fails to capture the Seattle atmosphere. It’s just another generic metropolis here. Shit, I know it’s a stereotype, but every damn outdoor panel of the this comic has a clear blue sky. In Seattle. Seattle, Washington! One of the rainiest cities in entire United States! The only thing Seattle here is the Space Needle that pops up in the background at random intervals.

As well, the opening narrative about Green Arrow battling social media savvy villains falls well short of making any kind of meaningful point. It’s basically a watered down Natural Born Killers without the visual flair, biting satire, or panache. In fact, it borders on outright condescension when at one point one of Ollie’s cohorts, Naomi, places video games as a point on the slippery slope to watching snuff films where supervillains beat heroes to death. Seriously!? This old chestnut? Christ, you gotta be kidding me. Although I shouldn’t be surprised: the book begins with this little bit of “satire”: “Goodfellas are cool. Pirates are sexy. Hit men are kickass” as part of Green Arrow’s screed against the public’s glorification of such characters in the media, supposedly leading to the glorification and acceptance — even admiration of — supervillains in DC’s version of “real life.” Call me an optimist, by I have more faith in humanity than that, especially the sort of humanity occupying the DC universe. Civilians in Marvel Comics will turn on their heroes at the drop of a hat, but DC civilians know their heroes are good and just and deserving of their admiration (or at least they used to). Even in real life, everyone has a morbid curiosity — we all slow down at the sight of a wreck on the side of the highway — but only a fleeting minority, I would imagine, would flock to this kind of snuff perversion. Not that this sort of premise can’t work (it worked well enough in Natural Born Killers), it’s just so heavy-handed here that it’s impossible to take seriously in either a real or fictional context.

On the matter of visual flair and panache, there’s nothing really remarkable to look at here. Pencils by Dan Jurgens prove serviceable but far from interesting, they fail to bring anything unique to the story being told beyond bringing Point A to Point B. Ignacio Colero takes over for issue six and, immediately, all the panels are at least more dynamic in their framing and progression than in previous issues but the shift in art style only highlights how typical and uninteresting the story being told truly is.

The upside here, Krul leaves after issue six of Green Arrow and the following story arc is handed to Annie Nocenti and, wow!, I’ve never seen a book improve so much in a single issue before. The dialogue is crisper and livelier (though GA does seem to monologue a bit too much at times); she actually takes the Oliver Queen-as-playboy idea, runs with it, and makes it interesting; pencils by Harvey Tolibao are far more interesting than anything in The Midas Touch and much less reliant on heavy black inks, making it a far more colorful book; and issue seven has single-handedly convinced me to stick with the series despite how bland the first six issues came out. I would recommend this book as a starting point for what looks like what could be a really fun run with Nocenti and Talibao, but, honestly, issue seven hold up well enough on its own that you don’t really need this volume to introduce you to Green Arrow.

Hold out for volume two.

Sorry I’m late everyone!

Most of these reviews have been me expressing my grave hopes that the writers/artists don’t screw it up. I want these books to succeed. I want them to be good, and I want these characters to thrive, but I absolutely have no idea about how they’re going to be. I say “I don’t know” a lot because there’s no way that I can know if Jim Lee will put out more than 4 books a year because he’s busy playing WOW, or whether Scott Lobdell is going to give us another Onslaught or (hopefully) another Generation X. All I can do is sit back and try not to cry as I wait for DC to implode or shine.

18. Red Lanterns #1
Written by PETER MILLIGAN
Art and Cover by ED BENES and ROB HUNTER

Peter Milligan has done a lot of books that I’ve really liked. Hellblazer, Shade, and Human Target were all great books under him and I’m excited as all get out for Justice League Dark. However, my excitement does not carry on to Red Lanterns. He’s a more-than-capable writer and I’m sure that he can put out a great story with this book, but I’m just not interested in the the book to begin with. A polished turd is still a turd, as the saying goes. Ed Benes doesn’t do much to help my spirits about Red Lanterns, either. There aren’t nearly enough scantily clad women for him to be entirely happy drawing it, so I imagine that Bleez is going to get a lot of page-time, and she’s a poor character to begin with.

The idea is flawed from the start because The Red Lanterns simply aren’t interesting enough to carry their own series. People will pick this up to see Dex-Starr (Sharp-O, I’m looking at you) but Atrocitus & Co. are going to be superheroes that straight up murder people? Don’t advertise the book as a “hero” book if they’re not heroes.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

19. Animal Man #1
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by TRAVEL FOREMAN and DAN GREEN

Essex County, The Nobody, and Sweet Tooth are all books that I’ve read and loved. I’m enjoying Superboy at the moment for what it is, but I think that Jeff Lemire has a while to go before he knows exactly how to handle a superhero book. Superboy is written well because its small-town rural and that’s what Lemire does best. Animal Man, at least the re-imagining that Morrison masterminded a while back, was small-family ideals but he dealt with some off-the-wall kind of madness as a superhero.

Animal Man became an examination of comic book writing under Morrison. Something that Milligan tried to distance himself from slightly, while still maintaining that this book was more about the nature of being a superhero than it was about actually being a superhero. With this in mind, I think Lemire can do some great things with this book. I can see great stories coming from Buddy dealing with his daughter having superpowers, and trying to be a father, something that wasn’t really addressed in Morrison’s issues (he dealt with the husband aspect more). I probably won’t pick this book up for purely budgetary reasons. I just can’t justify it enough to read it without knowing anything about it.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

20. Swamp Thing #1
Written by SCOTT SNYDER
Art and Cover by YANICK PAQUETTE

Not much in comics can compete with Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing. Not much in anything can really compete with that run. Snyder has proven himself to be a damn good writer. I already sang his praises in the last book so I shall avoid being repetitive so I shall avoid being repetitive (*snicker*). The first exposure that I had to Yanick Paquette was in Batman Inc. and I wasn’t really a fan of his chin work but other than that it was some damn fine comics.

I like the direction that DC is taking by bringing Holland back to life, because why not? No death is sacred, even if it is fairly key to the character’s origin. I can promise you that it is the only reason Uncle Ben hasn’t come back to life. I’ll pick this book up just to see where Snyder takes it, but probably not for long.

Verdict: DOOM!

21. Legion Lost #1
Written by FABIAN NICIEZA
Art and Cover by PETE WOODS

Nicieza gained a fan in me during Red Robin. Pete Woods gained a fan in me during Deadpool and more recently Action Comics. His art was by far the best thing about the New Krypton arcs in Superman. I have no worries for either of them. The story is what bothers me.

Legion Lost is about a team of randoms from the future who come back to be a secret superteam of randoms from the future. The team consists of Wildfire, Dawnstar, Tellus, Timber Wolf, Tyroc, Chameleon Girl and Gates. I am not a Legion academic, so I have very little (read: none whatsoever) idea who these characters are. Doesn’t matter really, it actually makes me want to read the book more because its something absolutely new to me, much like T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (by the way, where the hell is Nick Spencer in this whole mess?). I’ll probably mooch a copy of a friend who I know loves the legion and stay up to date that way, at least until I know if its good or bad.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

22. Birds Of Prey #1
Written by DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI
Art and Cover by JESUS SAIZ

Duane Swiercskfealknskalkndkszyki has done mostly Marvel work, so this is going to be his first shot at a DC property, but aside from O.M.A.C. this might be the weakest title that DC is offering in the reboot. His comics are generally solid, but there haven’t been many long arcs in his history. His novels (which I haven’t read) seem to get some good reviews for having strong female characters…so there’s that. Jesus Saiz doesn’t stand out in my mind. I know I’ve read his work before, but it wasn’t anything that made me remember his name. I’m guessing that says enough but maybe it says that I need to do more research before I give unqualified opinions on art that I couldn’t possibly do myself…maybe…(I like ellipses).

The team is sans Oracle and sans Huntress, but it has Katana and what looks like Poison Ivy but who I’ve heard is not actually Poison Ivy, or at least the Ivy that we know. I hear lots of things. I have many hands in many rumor-filled soups. This book will probably be bad. I can’t see how it won’t be.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

23. Teen Titans #1
Written by SCOTT LOBDELL
Art and Cover by BRETT BOOTH and NORM RAPMUND

Oh, the cover. So much has been said about the cover of this issue. From the terrifyingly bad Tim Drake wing-costume, to Kid Flash’s lightning aura, to Superboy’s unexplainable tattoo and “kick-me” sign on the back of his cut-off muscle shirt, its just a whole lotta bad. The preview revealed more to be scared about as Wonder Girl is now a “powerhouse thief” and the team is now characterized as “tortured teen heroes”. Scott Lobdell is starting out at the bottom of a well of awful ideas and I don’t think he has it in him to climb out of it.

With just the cover alone, Brett Booth has me on the defensive. He, as a Wildstorm artist, comes from the Liefeld school of “angry faces and lots of detail lines = AWESOME” which I’m okay with sometimes, really. I’ve read some of his work and quite enjoyed it. If Anita Blake was written better, I might have considered reading it regularly. I just don’t know how I feel about this book. Half of me screams in terror to run as fast as I can away from it. The other half desperately wants to continue reading a book with Tim Drake in it. I wish they had continued Red Robin instead of Superboy, because honestly, it was the best book DC was putting out over the past 3 years.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

24. The Savage Hawkman #1
Written by TONY S. DANIEL
Art and Cover by PHILIP TAN

Tony Daniel, no thank you. Philip Tan, on the other hand, I really like. I wish he was paired up with a more compelling writer on a better book.

Hawkman is one of those DC Wesley characters. They’ve tried to reboot him so many times and met with failure every time that there has to be some sort of conspiracy. He hasn’t been interesting since the Rann/Thanagar books a few years ago and even then, he took a backseat to pretty much everyone else. It looks as though this is a complete reboot of the character, so no Shi’ara and no conflict with Hawk-gods that took up so much space in Brightest Day. They realized how much of a dead end that storyline was, why is he even still around.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

25. Blue Beetle #1
Written by TONY BEDARD
Art by IG GUARA and RUY JOSE

On one hand, Bedard wrote R.E.B.E.L.S. which I really enjoyed (and hate typing out), on the other hand, he wrote a run on Green Lantern Corps that (along with Geoff Johns’ insistence on Hal Jordan) made me give up on the Lantern books altogether. I think he will do great things with Jamie Reyes if he has the freedom to do it. Guara has done a lot of work on Hulk and Pet Avengers which will lend well to the more comedic and less polished character that is Blue Beetle. A surprisingly solid choice for this reboot.

I’m absolutely thrilled that Reyes is getting his own book again. John Rogers and Cully Hamner, and Keith Giffen put together an interesting character that should, in all honesty, be a part of the Teen Titans. I think him and Kid Flash would play off each other in the same way that Booster Gold and the old Blue Beetle would. DC seems to hate him though, might be DiDio and his unabashed evilness pulling against minority characters or it might be a grand statement about the prejudiced subconscious mind of the average American and their disinclination towards any change, even positive…but probably more the DiDio thing.

Verdict: DOOM!

26. Supergirl #1
Written by MICHAEL GREEN and MIKE JOHNSON
Art and Cover by MAHMUD ASRAR

Michael Green and Mike Johnson haven’t done anything to win me over, but I like them anyway for being named so very well. Asrar isn’t named as well as us…them, but he has drawn Dynamo 5 which makes him a winner in my book.

I really want to read this book, but again, this might be a casualty of my lack of unlimited funds. I don’t really mind the costume change, as odd as it is. The way the promo reads, it looks like she’s going to have quite an antagonistic relationship with Earth, which makes me wonder why she’s around in the first place. If she dislikes the people of Earth, and she’s already a moody teenager, then why give her a book. Develop her in someone else’s book as a background character, then give her something of her own.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

27. Wonder Woman #1
Written by BRIAN AZZARELLO
Art and Cover by CLIFF CHIANG

Yes. Absolutely yes. This was one of the few books (the others being Stormwatch, Demon Knights, Voodoo, and Nightwing) that I absolutely knew that I was going to pick up from the get go. Azzarello has had some bumpy experience with superhero books (Superman) but he also wrote the hell out of Batman in Black & White and Joker, and 100 Bullets is enough to make me trust everything he puts out. Cliff Chiang, well I don’t know what to say other than I will read anything that he’s drawn. He’s amazing.

So, yes, despite not caring much about Wonder Woman and not having read very many good stories about her, I think that I am going to love this book. Cheers to DC for this, honestly. They finally got their heads out of their ass and decided to give Wonder Woman the attention she deserves.

Verdict: DOOM!

28. Fury Of Firestorm #1
Written by ETHAN VAN SCIVER and GAIL SIMONE
Art by YILDIRAY CINAR

I love Gail Simone. I’ve said this. I stand by this. Yildiray Cinar has done some great work on Noble Causes, which I read because of a vehement friend. I have a few of those. Van Sciver, I’m less familiar with. I read his Flash: Rebirth books, but that’s all of his that I know.

Firestorm himself has long been one of my favorites. Ronnie was one of my favorite characters during my long trek through back issues to catch up on DC history. Jason brought a new dimension to the character that I liked. Very different relationship and I’m glad that both of them are still around. I’m gonna miss the doc, but both of them together, figuring everything out sounds like a good match. I’m also pretty OK with the age change on both of them. It makes a bit more sense than Ronnie being mid-twenties and Jason being a teenager.

Verdict: DOOM!

29. Aquaman #1
Written by GEOFF JOHNS
Art and Cover by IVAN REIS and JOE PRADO

Johns has steadily become crazier over the past few years. Not just crazier, but more insistent that whoever he likes, everybody should like and that I cannot abide with a happy heart. However, I am a glutton for punishment and I will continue to read his books until they become unreadable. Reis, is wonderful and lovely and squishy and I’m a fan. I would read something he drew just for the splash pages.

I’ve wanted Aquaman to have a book where he isn’t a chump for a while. I don’t know what version of him they’re going to use for this, some amalgamation of Flashpoint Aquaman and regular old Arthur Curry, but I’m glad he seems to be on the right track to be a leading, dynamic character.

Verdict: DOOM!

30. Mr. Terrific #1
Written by ERIC WALLACE
Art by ROGER ROBINSON

No interest in this book. Whatsoever. Wallace hasn’t written anything that I cared about. Robinson did a lot of good work in the late 90’s & early 00’s, and The Web was a fun read, but its not enough to bring me to read it.

The cover is pretty, and Mr. Terrific is a great addition to any team. But when does the third smartest man in the world need his own comic book. Marvel is already doing the science superhero and I gotta say, I don’t think that this is going to be any better than the Fantastic Four has been, or even Amadeus Cho, or even Hank Pym in the Mighty Avengers. DC is trying to do that, but I just don’t know how well this was thought out. This seems like more of an effort to fill their deeply dry coffer of minority characters. Some work, this doesn’t.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

31. The Flash #1
Written by FRANCIS MANAPUL and BRIAN BUCCELLATO
Art and Cover by FRANCIS MANAPUL

When I heard that Manapul was going to be back on The Flash, I was excited. When I heard that it wasn’t going to be Geoff Johns writing it, I was even more excited. But I’m on a cosmic treadmill of excitement at the moment, speeding forward to nowhere, waiting and hoping that this book is not going to be more of the same Barry Allen worship and frustrating bull-puckey that led into Flashpoint. I loved, absolutely loved the first 6 or 7 issues of the Johns/Manapul Flash, but that quickly turned into more vagaries and references to how important Barry Allen is and how much you should forget Wally West (Wally who?). I’ll drop this book quicker than a Robert Kirkman plot twist if they go back to that. By the way, Manapul, not a tested writer, Buccellato, also not a tested writer. I don’t know where DC is going with this, but I hope that it works out, because they’re putting a hell of a lot of faith in these artists to carry DC out of the red.

In regards to the story, I still don’t care very much about Barry Allen. I miss Wally West with a passion because he was MY FLASH; just like David Tennant is MY DOCTOR and no other Doctor Who will probably be the same, because he was the one who I experienced as I formulated my idea of who The Flash should be. Wally West was fun, and exciting, and entertaining and Barry is just dour and methodical and a boyscout. I don’t want to read about a boyscout. I WAS a boyscout. I don’t need to live through that again. I will, however, read this book for an issue or two if only because I hope to see more scenes of The Flash running across some helicopter blades to catch a baddie.

Verdict: DOOM!

32. Green Arrow #1
Written by J.T. KRUL
Art by DAN JURGENS and NORM RAPMUND

J.T. Krul. What can I say that hasn’t been said better by other people? Like here, and here. I’m sure that he’s done some good comics work at some point, I just haven’t read it. I stopped reading Titans when he was on it. I stopped reading Green Arrow when he was on it. Its not some causal link other than I just plain dislike how he writes. Its heavy-handed and so very on the nose sometimes. I so very much want him to surprise me with something, and not something like The Rise of Arsenal. A good surprise. A “extra slice of bacon between my pancakes at Denny’s” surprise. Jurgens is a solid artist and I trust his penciling much more than his writing most of the time.

As a character, Green Arrow never really interested me. My childhood summation of him was “Batman, with a bow and arrows, and he’s a jerk.” Maybe simplistic, but my opinion of him hasn’t really changed in that I like the idea of him much more than I actually like him. He does well in books like Identity Crisis where he shares the spotlight, or in Justice League books, but not so much in his own series. The only arc of his that I can remember enjoying is Kevin Smith’s and that’s mostly because its the only arc that I’ve actually finished. If someone can recommend a series of his that would make me a fan, please do, because I’m at a loss on Mr. Queen.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

33. Justice League International #1
Written by DAN JURGENS
Art by AARON LOPRESTI and MATT RYAN

Dan Jurgens has done quite a lot of writing that, despite flaws, I’ve enjoyed. I certainly liked the original Justice League International stories, so while this is a fresh sort of look, I like that he has quite a bit of experience with the attitude that it should have. His Booster Gold run was fun throughout, his short arc of Metamorpho was pretty fantastic, his work on 52 was great, and I even enjoyed his little Time Masters thing last year because it actually explained some things…but then of course you have The Death and Return of Superman, Superman Red/Blue and Zero Hour which were all fairly messy to say the least. I just hope that he can put out some quality while being artist on another book because that’s certainly something I’ve never seen done. As for Lopresti, I usually like his work a lot more pre-ink, but that’s not really his fault, and Matt Ryan is an unknown factor for me (but the quick Google search yielded some pretty nice results).

Okay, so DC is obviously treating this team as though Justice League International has never happened before. This is the first time that the Justice League has been petitioned by the UN to form a standing team in Europe, and Maxwell Lord seems to be nowhere at the moment to give them sponsorship so they probably won’t be strapped for cash. The team seems to be a bit slapdash, however, made up of the “original” International team plus whoever hasn’t already been scavenged from Checkmate. They’re obviously trying to fill their quota with the International superheroes, which I suppose is the right direction for this team: Tormented-and-bemetalled Chinese August General, stereotypical Brazilian model Fire, generalized Norse-woman Ice, slightly-less-generalized African Vixen, painfully-Russian Rocket Red, Batman, Guy Gardner, and Booster Gold. There might be some great stories to be told with this team, but I’m not sure if I want to put out the $2.99 for it.

Verdict: POSSIBLE DOOM!

34. Captain Atom #1
Written by J.T. KRUL
Art by FREDDIE WILLIAMS II

J.T. Krul…no. Freddie Williams, If you’re reading this, and I know you are, I’m sorry. You’re a great artist and I love your style, but I’m just not going to pick up a book with a writer who is so clearly off his rocker, I tried that with Alan Moore and Neonomicon.

I’ve always been kind of intrigued by Captain Atom. Mostly because for the longest time I had no idea who he was. The 90’s incarnation of him, when I started reading comics as a young’n, was a bit…Silver Surfer meets Booster Gold. He seemed mostly useless in any fight, but in dire moments was seemingly all-powerful. I just never really cared to find out who he was. After a bit of research in my earlier comic book days, I was very right to not care. The talk about this book leads me to the same jokes that everyone has been making, but all the same, I can’t help but imagine this Dr. Manhattan-analogue swinging throught-manifested cat-nunchaku around on the surface of Mars. That is not a pleasant thing to be floating around in ones head when one is in a staff meeting trying my, I mean one’s, hardest to be a good employee and not be distracted by shiny things on the wall. Not one bit. If you’re at all wondering, I won’t be picking this book up. J.T. Krul has done me wrong in the past, hell, he’s done comic books in general wrong in the past. I’m going to have to hear some major praise by quite a few of the right people to give this a second look; unlikely, as no reader that I’ve talked to has suggested even a passing interest in paying for this book.

Verdict: NO DOOM FOR YOU!

TOTAL FOR BOOKS:

DOOM! – 13
POSSIBLE DOOM! – 11
NO DOOM FOR YOU! – 10

Nothing new from this second batch. Just more team books, and more books that are a bit premature.

Join me next week as I tackle the final 18 books and give my review of JLA #1.