DC New 52 – One Sentence Reviews, Part 15

Having become a dad for the second time 11 days ago and spending a lot of time trying to make sure my two-and-a-half-year-old son doesn’t feel like his parents have just upgraded and don’t love him anymore, time for comics has been extremely limited … kind of like sleep.

So that’s my excuse for this being a few days late, and a forewarning that Part 16 is likely to be late too.

Without further ado here are some one sentence reviews.

Each comic is scored out of five and at the end I have a cumulative leader board (averaging the scores of each title) to show which are consistently excellent, which are on the rise, and which are circling the drain.

I have also reviewed the mini-series and one-shot issues (although I almost left out Batman – Leviathan Strikes! since it is set outside the New 52 continuity) but they aren’t included in the leaderboard.

Warning, there could be spoilers ahead (although I try to avoid them).

The 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2011

read/RANT's Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2011

When I began compiling my list of the year’s best graphic novels, I found myself including dozens of books with little rhyme or reason. To help me narrow my list down a little bit, this is the rule I created: the first English-language collected edition or original graphic novel had to be released in 2011. And while this excluded some of my favorite books from the year (Waid’s Daredevil, Rozum’s Xombi, and Lemire’s Animal Man, to name three), it was a good guideline when I was constructing the list.

Obviously, we missed some things – sometimes great things. We don’t read every graphic novel that comes out (as much fun as that would be!). I even know for sure some major releases that I missed, like The Death Ray. So feel free to tell me just how wrong I am! What were your favorite releases this year? Because these were some of ours…

4 DC reviews in 5 or less sentences each.

Sorry on the lack of full reviews, and lack of images even in this post.  I just want to get in a few reviews here, but don’t have the energy with the holiday hustle to do a full review for each comic.  So instead I’ll be doing short paragraph reviews for the following issue 4s: Batman, Birds of Prey, Green Lantern Corps, and Nightwing.

Batman Inc: Leviathan Strikes!

Stephanie Brown kicks butt as Batgirl!  Dick Grayson is Batman… Wait what??

The Shortest Justice League 4 Review Ever

Can we all just agree that this is Justice League for Dummies?  JLU had greater depth.  Heck, this is practically the Superfriends.

DC New 52 – One Sentence Reviews, Part 14

By the time you read this, there’s a good chance I’ll be a dad for the second time … but I still found some time to read some DC comics and write some one sentence reviews.

Each comic is scored out of five and at the end I have a cumulative leader board (averaging the scores of each title) to show which are consistently excellent, which are on the rise, and which are circling the drain.

I have also reviewed the mini-series issues but they aren’t included in the leaderboard.

Warning, there could be spoilers ahead (although I try to avoid them).

 

Review: Batman and Robin #4

Amazing issue.

review/RANT: Batgirl #4

Fell a bit off with semester’s end in reading comics (I have a small stack from the last 3 weeks now I haven’t gotten to), and to be honest, I wasn’t planning on reviewing any of them until I got a little into this issue.

Review: Demon Knights #4

 

Demon Knights #4, cover by Choi

Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights has all the elements of a comic book I’ll love.  It uses a whole host of new and lesser-known characters from some of the most fascinating parts of DC’s vast toybox.  It tells stories we haven’t seen in settings we rarely visit.  It has Shining Knight in it.  And yet, I’ve felt like I was being held at arm’s length, like Cornell wanted me to enjoy the book but not get too close.  After a very solid first issue, he followed it with two slow-moving issues that seemed to be rearranging pieces on the board, rather than telling a story.  Demon Knights #4 is a slight improvement over the last two, but it seems to me that Paul Cornell isn’t just writing for the trade; he’s writing, to steal a phrase from fellow contributor brucecastle, for the omnibus.  And when done well, as he does here, that can be very enjoyable indeed.

DC New 52 – One Sentence Reviews, Part 13

Here we go again … this time with one sentence reviews for the first shipment of #4s for the New 52.

Each comic is scored out of five and at the end I have a cumulative leader board (averaging the scores of each title) to show which are consistently excellent, which are on the rise, and which are circling the drain. 

I have also reviewed the mini-series issues but they aren’t included in the leaderboard.

Warning, there could be spoilers ahead (although I try to avoid them).

Review: The Defenders #1

The Defenders #1, cover by the Dodsons

I’ve always had a fondness for the Defenders.  The team is always a colorful collection of characters, B-listers with more power than popularity, and the writers are generally willing to throw some pretty fascinating challenges at them.  But because of the eccentricity of the book, it’s never been Marvel’s most popular team.  Current Marvel golden boy Matt Fraction and a fantastic team of artists start trying to change that perception with the profoundly strange debut issue of The Defenders, a Fear Itself spin-off with a fantastic cast and a breakneck pace.

Review: Men of War #4

Men of War #4, cover by Viktor Kalvachev

Creatively, the first few issues of Men of War has been a fine (if a bit flawed) addition to the New 52, a solid but largely unspectacular main story, a killer premise, all brought down in part by a severely lacking back-up feature raising the price.  Men of War #4 doesn’t completely fix the issues I’ve had with the series thus far (too many stories ending in superhuman deus ex machina, too little focus on the military’s adaptation to superhumanity), but it does resolve at least one major issue: the back-up feature here is not only good, it’s better than the main piece.

DC New 52 – One Sentence Reviews, Part 12

Okay, so I’m majorly late with Part 12, but since there aren’t any ongoing New 52 comics this week I thought I’d just roll last week’s and this week’s reviews into a single article.  So, without further ado, here are some one sentence reviews.

Each comic is scored out of five and at the end I have a cumulative leader board (averaging the scores of each title) to show which are consistently excellent, which are on the rise, and which are circling the drain.

I have also reviewed the mini-series issues but they aren’t included in the leaderboard.

Warning, there could be spoilers ahead (although I try to avoid them).

Review: Daredevil #6

Mark Waid Daredevil #1 was one of the strongest comic debuts of the year.  And though the series lost some of its manic energy and innovative style as the months wore on, it remained one of Marvel’s strongest titles, albeit one that we haven’t been talking about a lot lately.  Though Daredevil #6 is far from the book’s most ambitious issue, it’s another great example of how strong storytelling, a great creative team and solid pacing can all work together to defy a character’s conventional tropes and create some amazing, memorable work.