Wednesday, October 12, 2011

DCnU Capsule Reviews, Week 5

After writing reviews for every single of DC's new #1 issues, I'm slowing down. But here are capsule reviews of last week's books:


Action Comics #2: The young Superman escapes the captivity of Lex Luthor and the Army. Different from last issue, but still keeping with the spirit. Unfortunately only 20 pages of comics for $4 (what is this, Marvel?) and uneven tag-team art make this not quite as good as the debut. Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

Animal Man #2: Moves away from super-hero stuff and more into the Vertigo-esque horror territory. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Batwing #2: Is it really a good idea to have your new hero character in traction for a great majority of his second issue, while other characters fight it out? Pretty much a train wreck, alas. Rating: 1.5 (of 5).

Detective Comics #2: An improvement over #1. Until we get another 'shocker' last page. Oh, and Bruce Wayne is something of a slut now. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Green Arrow #2: The art is still solid, and the story is a bit less annoying as the bad guys finally have a motivation (a stupid one, but at least it's there). Still mostly dull though. Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Hawk and Dove #2: More of the same of what we got in the first issue. Not great, but neither the disaster you might think it is. Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Justice League International #2: The team's origin mission continues, and things are not going well for our heroes. Solid story, nice art. If you like classic super-hero stories, this is a good book for you. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Men of War #2: Rock's new team faces a very powerful super-powered woman with red hair. Back-up continues to have nice art though the story bores. Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

O.M.A.C. #2: A little more exposition, a lot more brightly covered pages of big guys beating the shot out of each other. And a last-page reveal of a character of whom you may have been wondering where he was in the new DCU. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Red Lanterns #2: What the heck was the point of this? Pretty much no connection to what was going on in the first issue. And no Dex-Starr. Rating: 1.5 (of 5).

Static Shock #2: See, I knew that severed limb from issue #1 was a ruse. Was this sister-clone thing something that had been established before? Rating: 3 (of 5).

Stormwatch #2: There's a lot going on. Which usually I like, but Cornell needs to slow things down just a bit and let us get to know the characters better. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Swamp Thing #2: Snyder finishes his establishment of the new status quo between Holland and Swampy, and does so without throwing way everything that came before. But there's a lot of exposition in the front half. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Ratings compared to the first issues: 1 improved; 6 stayed the same; 6 were worse.

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