Issue Review: Justice League 23 (New 52)

As the story begins, the Alfred Pennyworth of Earth-3 narrates a summary not just in the Trinity War but events since the start of the Justice League series.  While the JL was battling Darkseid, Alfred-3 escaped his world through the weakened barriers, accompanied by Atom. And while the JL was occuppied fighting normal threats, Alfred-3 was working to bring his master to this earth from Earth-3.  The three JLs, however, are busy fighting over Pandora's box, thanks to the evil leaking out of it. They battle each other in a superhero verison of the old schoolyard game "kill the guy with the ball", until they finally stop as they realize that the box is affecting everyone else mentally but Superman is being affected physically.  Firestorm concludes that there is Kryptonite inside him, and Atom admits that she put it there, inside his brain -- because she is not with the JL, but secretly with the people of Earth-3.  Cyborg's robot parts betray him at this point, and tear themselves away from him to become "Grid," a walking virus.  In the confusion, Alfred-3 grabs the box, which he reveals is from Earth-3, the "birthplace of evil," and the box acts as a portal. He uses it to gate his allies, the "Crime Syndicate" (an evil anti-Justice League from Earth-3) to our world.  Thus the "Trinity War" (Trinity for "Earth 3") ends and the Forever Evil story begins.

New Comic-book night - 8/28

Well, I guess I am going to do another one of these after all.  I will be reviewing many individual issues in the next week, but I wanted to make a comment about my entire haul for the week and why it looks like it does.  This week, as the final week of August, not much new came out, but there were a couple of things I wanted to get my hands on from the previous couple of months, so I got myself down to the shop.  Also, I knew that issue 23 of Justice League was coming out, and that is (for the moment at least) on my pull list.  Below is a picture of the week's haul.

Two of the titles on the left are on my regular pull list (Thor and JL), but the others have not been on it.  I have reviewed the first two issues of Lazarus by Greg Rucka, which I just bought last week, and they were outstanding, so I was very pleased to find issue 3 on the stands already.  This comic is so good that it's already on my pull list (and I haven't even read issue 3 yet).

It's official -- I'm done with JLA

Back in December of last year (2012), I returned to the comic-book reading and collecting hobby after being away from it for 13 years.  As part of the process, I had to decide what to read, and I started with the company that had been my favorite since the 80s -- DC.  In fact, part of the reason I returned was learning about their "New 52" reboot. Although I normally don't like reboots because they erase established continuity, one reason the New 52 attracted me was that I wouldn't have to figure out what had been going on for the last 13 years. I could jump right in with digital copies from just a year ago, easily catch up on my favorite characters like Supergirl, and in a matter of months I'd be "up to speed." Thus, I could shortcut the normal "wading in" process that can, with a long-running continuity, take months, sometimes even years.

Obviously, with 52 titles being put out a month, even limiting myself to DC meant I would have to make some pretty quick decisions about what titles to read.  Historically, even when comics only cost 75 cents, I had always limited myself to 10 ongoing titles per month (with some allowance for additional purchases of one-shots, mini-series, and the like), and I figured to do the same thing this time -- especially with over a year of back-issues to buy even with the reboot.  After a bit of "sampling," as my local comic-shop owner calls it, I settled on a handful of titles, one of which was Justice League.

Early on, Justice League, written by Geoff Johns and drawn first by Jim Lee and then Ivan Reis, was an excellent comic-book that reminded me just why I loved them years ago.  The first story arc, which re-tells the origin of the team and how they all met, was funny, dramatic, tense, and interesting (at least until the last issue, which was a huge disappointment).  By the time I'd read a handful of issues, it was on my "pull list."

Then, just a couple of months into my renewed collecting hobby, and before I'd even gotten completely caught up on Justice League (they were putting out issue 16 or so and I was still catching up on 11 or 12), DC announced the release of a new JL-related book, called Justice League of America.  I'll be honest. I wasn't too thrilled about this to begin with.  Although I was happy to commit to an issue of Justice League every month, I wasn't sure I liked the team, or the premise, enough to commit multiple slots of my pull list to them -- and again, I refuse to allow my pull list to just balloon without limit.

New Comic-books... a little late

For those who read this blog, you know by now that I have missed the last two "New Comic-book Night" posts.  The reason for this is simple: I was out of town. My comic shop held my comics, of course, so I picked them up on Thursday, along with some back-issues.

The bottom row of comics are my new issues for the month. From left to right: Justice League of America 6, Supergirl 22, Thor 10, and Red Sonja 1.  The top row are the last four issues in the fourth Supergirl series (aka. Supergirl, vol. 5, since vol. 3 was a mini-series).  I now have, in either individual issue or (mostly) trade paperback form, every single issue of that series, plus every single issue of Supergirl and the Legion of Super-heroes, which completes my collection of this Supergirl version (who I have taken to calling "midriff Supergirl"), since she's the only one who, for her entire existence, wore a costume leaving her midriff unnecessarily bare.

New Comic-book Night - 6/26/13

It's the final week of June, and a fairly decent week for getting new comics as well as some older ones.  This morning I had to turn back the keys to my apartment, and the c-shop is much closer to that than to my new home, so I stopped by there after bidding the apartment complex farewell, and before heading in to work.  Hey, it's summer, and I don't have any classes to teach...

I'm also not saving up for a house or trying to keep my bank balances flat due to lender credit checks any more, so that means I was able to un-clench the wallet a little bit, and pick up one of the last few Supergirl trades I've been wanting.  Actually, the next trade in order for the Supergirl series (volume 5, or series 4) that I'm currently working on should be "Who is Superwoman?" but the comic shop didn't have that one, so I picked up the next one in the sequence, "Friends and Fugitives." That one collects issues 43, and 45-47, but not 44, which was part of a different story arc (Superman: Codename Patriot). I don't want that whole other arc, just the Supergirl story, so I picked up issue 44 as well.

In terms of new comics, there were three this week. One currently residing on my pull list (Justice League), one that's been teetering on the edge of being on or off the pull list (Justice League of America), and a brand new issue 1 release (Batman/Superman).  And so, all told, I bought 4 comics and a trade today.  Below, I will summarize the three new comics -- Supergirl 44 and the trade must wait until I get the "Who is Superwoman" trade so I can read the stories in order.

Justice League 21 - The Justice League series has had a persistent Shazam! backup story featuring the retelling of the origin of Captain Marvel (I refuse to call the character "Shazam") for about a year now, but this month, Billy Batson takes center stage.  His arch-enemy, Black Adam (the first to wield the Shazam! power) has tracked him down, and now threatens Mary Bromfield and Freddy Freeman, along with the other foster siblings Billy has joined since being taken in from the orphanage.  Adam tells Billy/Captain Marvel that he can "transfer" the Shazam! power, and Billy gets the idea (aided by a magical genie that keeps appearing in reflective surfaces and giving him advice) to transfer that power to his foster siblings. And suddenly we have the good old "Captain Marvel family" of yesteryear roaming the pages of the comics.  I greatly enjoyed this sequence, because I've always liked Captain Marvel, Jr. (Freddy) and especially Mary Marvel, who is one of my all-time favorite female superheroes (right behind Supergirl and Wonder Woman).  Mary defends the city against the physical embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins while Billy/Captain Marvel battles Black Adam.  The action in this issue is strong, but there's also plenty of heart, and there are some wonderful nods to nostalgia, including a nod to the old "Mr. Tawny" character.  Johns did a great job on this issue, and proves that the Marvel Family absolutely deserve their own series, rather than to be relegated to guest stars of Justice League.  I hope Cap gets a permanent position on the team soon, and I'd love to see Mary and Freddy rotate in as subs on occasion.  The art by Gary Frank is, of course, phenomenal, but then it always is.  This is a great issue... I'd say "JL is back" but I know it probably isn't, since next month we start another of DC's gawd-awful "events" (Trinity War) -- sigh. But for this issue, 10/10.

Justice League of America 5 - Last issue's manipulative ending, which showed a clearly impossible event (Catwoman having her brains shot out) really pissed me off about this series, and the overall story was not as strong as the first three.  I had been considering dropping it if things did not get better this issue, but they definitely did.  We finally see the JLA fight as a team here, and work together to defeat the Secret Society of Super-villains.  The victory is more like a stand-off, with the SSV vanishing, but two of their number captured.  We get to see Star Girl really unload on a few of the villains here, which I greatly enjoyed -- I love her youthful energy and heroism.  Star Girl is proof that people who insist that all teenagers must be portrayed as recalcitrant bags of angst is just plain wrong. The art's a bit better in this issue as well. As a result, I give it an overall score of 8/10, and it remains on the "maybe" category -- maybe it will make it onto my pull list.  Once again due to Trinity War, I am going to have to wait... it may be October or November before I make up my mind, since I will be sitting out the entire DC line in September (right after Trinity War ends) over my objections to "Villain Month."

Batman/Superman 1 - Since the days of the original World's Finest Comics, the tandem of Batman plus Superman has always been exciting for readers. These two characters, who have such different styles and powers, can, when written well, truly complement each other.  Therefore, I picked up issue 1 of the newest version of World's Finest Comics, Batman/Superman, with great interest.  I'm sad to say, I was highly disappointed.  This story is typical of DC issue 1 offerings in the New 52 -- the writer and artist seem to have as their main goal, making the reader think "What the heck?" over and over again.  Honestly, I have know idea what the hell is going on in this issue. Many panels depict scenes that are simply incomprehensible.  The story doesn't make any sense, and it's clearly not supposed to yet.  Here again we have the annoying motif that I am expected to wait half a year or more, and shell out $4 per month while I wait, to find out what is going on (and whether I like what's going on enough to keep reading).  Sorry, DC, but that is not going to happen. I will give Batman/Superman another month or two, but if it doesn't become penetrable, and I mean post haste, I'm gone.  Which is a shame, since I like these characters enough that I really should collect a series about them -- but so far nothing offered for either Bats or Supes makes me want to spend my money.  My score on this one is 5/10, and that's being generous.

I also had a chat with the owner of my comic shop about my decision to sit out the whole of Villain Month, and he said that I am not alone. Many of his customers are adopting a "wait and see" attitude toward it.  For me, I'm not even doing that. I will not be picking up any print copies of DC titles in September. Instead, I will use September as "sample independent titles month," and if I like a few of them more than I like what DC has been putting out, I will be dropping some of the maybes, like Batman/Superman, The Movement, and possibly JLA.

New Comic-book Night - 5/29/13

It's that time of the week again - and although it's the "5th Wednesday," which often is an extra week that doesn't ship one's typical pull list items, two items that are on my "potential pull list" came out this week.  By "potential pull list," I mean that I am doing what my comic-shop owner calls "sampling." I have not committed to these titles, but have adopted a wait-and-see attitude.  This means either (1) it is simply too early to tell whether the series is good enough to get into long term (this is always true before I've read at least 3 issues, but lasted for 12 full issues with Superman recently), or (2) the series had been too mediocre to be sure I will like it long-term (but is either good enough to keep going on a month-by-month basis, or else something else is compelling me to keep giving it a chance).  The two titles that fell into these categories were +DC Comics'  Justice League of America, which just came out with #4 this month, and thus was "too early to tell," and +Marvel Entertainment's Captain America, which I started collecting because Cap is my favorite Marvel character, but which has been too strange and just plain too poorly written for me to put it on the pull list yet.

Along with these titles, I grabbed another issue of the third Supergirl series -- this was the second of two "New Krypton" crossovers for this series.  These issues appear in the 4-volume TPB Superman: New Krypton, but I have no interest in that story arc, and am only getting the Supergirl issues for completeness.  It was cheaper to just buy the two S-girl issues than to try and get the TPBs, especially since my comic shop doesn't have them (so now I'd have to pay for shipping on top of the TPB cost).

I haven't read Supergirl yet, but I have read JLA and Cap, and I've made a final "pull list decision" about one of them.

Justice League of America #4 - This series has been decent for four months, but also is slightly worrisome because it has been slowly backsliding.  I rated the first issue a 9/10, issues 2-3 8/10, and I only give this one a 7/10.  The art has deteriorated slightly, and the story is becoming tiresome.  The ending, which is supposed to be a cliffhanger, is ridiculous, because it seemingly depicts the death of a major character. This would have perhaps been suspenseful or dramatic, if not for the niggling little detail that the character depicted as dying has a series of his or her own, which is still ongoing.  Obviously this character cannot actually be dead or dying. So why am I supposed to be in suspense about this? The only question I have is how the character can look this "dead" but not actually be.  Also, again in terms of the art, the action sequences are really lame. There is no sense of kineticism or motion in the action panels. They all look like the characters paused in mid-action to pose for the camera.  Also, people's bodies are in very strange, ungainly positions.  So, this comic is staying on the "potential pull list." It hasn't been good enough, long enough, for me to commit to it.

Captain America NOW! #7 - This Marvel NOW! run of Captain America is perhaps the most disappointing series I have ever read in my life.  Captain America is the greatest superhero in the Marvel Universe.  He is one of the greatest superheroes in any universe.  He has always been one of the "weakest" in terms of power level, but that has never stopped him.  And for many years I was a huge fan of his comic, when the late, great Mark Gruenwald was writing it.  This series, however, is nothing like that wonderful run. It is without a significant supporting cast.  The plot is convoluted and strange.  Captain America is brutal and violent, and acts more like Wolverine than like Steve Rogers   His "12 year old" adopted son looks and acts like he's seven.  And the kid is so annoying that threats to him do not affect me, because I would honestly kind of prefer if this kid just died. I'd like it even better if they just retconned this whole psychedelic plot that reads like writer Rick Remender has been smoking some pretty intense hallucinogens before sitting down at his word processor.  I won't even mention the vomit-inducing art of John Romita, Jr., who has been such a horrible penciller for so many decades I cannot understand how the man still gets hired.  I rate this issue 3/10, and that's being generous.

And so with that issue, I have given up on Captain America.  Sorry, Cap. I tried. I really did.  I thought I could stick with it through this story arc and see where Remender is going. I gave it seven issues. But there's no end in sight for this thing, and I am not going to keep giving Marvel Comics money for a story that is so bad I wouldn't line a cat's litter box with it.  Perhaps the most bewildering thing is all the people writing in to say how much they love it.  I can only shake my head.  I can't imagine anyone liking this garbage. But as for me, at least, I'm definitely done.

New Comic-book Night - 5/22/13

I had a rare slow week this week for New Comic-book Night.  I've hit a bit of a roadblock with the 4th series of Supergirl.  I have the series in trades through issue 33 (except for issues 20-22, which were never collected in a trade, and I therefore have individually), and the next trade, Who is Superwoman?, covers issues 34 and 37-42.  Issues 35 and 36 are not collected in a Supergirl trade, but are, rather, part of the Superman: New Krypton arc, and appear in the second trade paperback collecting those comics.  However, I honestly have no interest in the New Krypton trades -- I'm just trying to get all the Supergirl series stories.  So rather than bother with a bunch of trade paperbacks that really aren't about Supergirl, I decided to go ahead and buy issues 35 and 36 individually.  This week I picked up one of those, issue 35.  It was quite good. This is the second issue of the Sterling Gates run (I won't get to #34, the first issue of the Gates run, until I get my hands on the next trade, which my comic shop does not have in stock).  I enjoyed it. 9/10.

The other comic I got was the only new issue from my pull list to come out this week, Justice League #20. JL has been faltering, lately.  The Throne of Atlantis story arc had a very weak ending in issue 17, and issues 18 and 19 were just not up to the standard set by the earlier issues in the series.  This isn't to say they were bad, but in my database, I have the pre-17 issues all rated 9/10 or 10/10, and 17-19 are rated 7/10 or 8/10.  However, I thought #20 redeemed writer Geoff Johns a bit.  The action was good, but there were also some great moments of quiet drama, especially a great discussion between Batman and Superman about what happens if one of the JL members goes rogue.  This issue served as a lead-in to the Trinity War crossover that is coming next month (apparently), and we can sort of see at least some of what is going to happen, as they are starting to set up the obvious conflict between the JL and the JLA.  I gave this one a 9/10 also.

Finally on a personal note, the main reason NCN was so sparse this week is that I am trying to rein in the spending and especially the buying of anything that will need to be moved, as I prepare to close on my new home in early June and move in late June.  By July I should be back to normal, but for these next few weeks, I am trying to keep the amount of stuff I bring into my apartment to a minimum.

NCN - 5/8/13

For New Comic-book Night, I got two new issues and an older trade paperback.  The new issues are today's releases of Justice League of America #3 (which is 2 weeks behind schedule), and Katana #4 (which is a week ahead of schedule, after being 2 weeks behind schedule last month... go figure).  I also picked up the trade paperback Supergirl: Way of the World.  This TPB collects issues 28-33 of her fourth series, which means I'm now half done with it (there were 67 issues total).

I haven't read the Supergirl TPB yet (I have one more to finish before I get to it), but I did get to both JLA and Katana tonight, so I will review them briefly.

Justice League of America #3 - This was probably the best issue of JLA to date.  Last issue we had a cliffhanger where what appeared to be Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman of the Justice League (without the "A") were on the point of attacking the JLA.  In this issue, we discover these were robots, and the JLA handles them.  They can't find any other sign of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, who own the robots, and they still don't know what the SSSV is up to.  Therefore, because no one yet knows that Catwoman has reformed, they have her commit some pretend crimes and get thrown into Arkham Asylum to  attract the SSSV's interest.  This happens by the end of the book, and Catwoman is left tied to a chair in the SSSV base.

This story was interesting and suspenseful.  I thought Selina Kyle (Catwoman) was characterized fairly well (she is a hard character to write, and up to now only Devin Grayson in the late 90s had really done her justice). The business about Green Arrow still being rejected from the team and trying to get on it is extremely wearisome, however, especially since we already know that he is going to end up on this team. Why drag it out? It's rather pointless.  On the other hand I've already become a huge fan of Star Girl (not a character with whom I am very familiar) so far.  She's a great example of how one can do a teenage superhero without making her brooding, moody, and irresponsible.  Star Girl is a good girl, and is looked up to by just about everyone. Which I find refreshing for a change, with a teenage character. I hope they keep this up and don't ruin her.  Rating: 8/10.

Katana #4 - Katana's sword was broken by Killer Croc last issue.  This month, the souls "taken in" by the sword (with each kill) leak out and start interacting with the world.  The Creeper is freed and looks around for a body to possess.  Katana's husband chides her for not moving on after his death.  Other souls flee the area.  A dragon spirit leads Killer Croc somewhere.  Katana waits tables and looks for a substitute sword.  Her mentor tells her to find a great blacksmith in Japan and have him re-forge it.  And then Creeper shows up again and battles her, because he's afraid that if the sword is re-forged, it will trap him again.

This series has had an insane number of ups and downs for one that is only four issues long.  The first two issues were mediocre but passable. Issue 3 was exciting and definitely made me think I was going to add this series to my pull list.  Now issue 4 comes along and... wow... this is one of the worst comic-books I've ever read.  The art was indecipherable.  In many panels I had to look and look and I still could not figure out what is going on. The dialogue is equally confusing.  The story goes in four or five directions at once, none of which make any sense.  I normally like Ann Nocenti, and up until now the series was at least passable, but this issue was inexcusably bad.  The creative team has one issue to turn it around, or I'm done.

Not that I think it matters.  I keep track of my "pull list" on Comixology, and they tell you there how many pulls each title has.  Now, this isn't a statistical sample by any means, and we don't know how many people even use the service.  But when I see 2,000+ pulls for JLA this week and Earth-2 last week, and less than 400 pulls for Katana this week, that's really telling me something.  I would bet this series will not make it past issue 10 at this point.  And it certainly won't if the team keeps turning out raw sewage like they did this month.  Rating: 4/10. (And that's being generous.)

New Comic-book Night - 4/17

It's Wednesday, and that means it's New Comic-book Night.  Once again, one of the comics that normally comes out this week (JLA) did not (I'm not clear on why that is), and Katana is still delayed (it's coming out next week apparently).  But two of the three titles that I actually have on my comic-shop's pull list did come out today: Supergirl 19 and Justice League 19.  I picked them up late this afternoon, and I've already read both.

These two latest installments have been a definite improvement over the recent issues of these titles.

Supergirl 19 - The Supergirl series has been in the absolute toilet since #13, first with the cringe-worthy H'el on Earth crossover into the other S-family books (#14-17), and then with the highly questionable "aftermath" issue, written in obvious haste (and without any coherence) by a fill-in writer.  It's truly a shame that Mike Johnson is leaving Supergirl after this issue, and that he wasn't allowed to write the stories he wanted to for the last half-year.  This issue is the best since #13, and shows just how good this book could have been if it hadn't been for the H'el crossover.    It's a shame after starting up this new story-line that Mike will not finish it.  Also, the way the book ends, leaves no doubt in my mind that Mike was basically forced off the book.  If he was leaving voluntarily, surely he would have planned an "ending" to wrap things up instead of starting a new story arc and then leaving one issue into it. That said, Supergirl 19 is well worth a read.  This series, despite being about Supergirl, was hovering on the brink of being yanked from my pull list (an event that should be unthinkable -- heck it should violate the laws of nature).  That's how bad it had gotten. Issue 19 redeemed it (and convinced me that all the "bad" in the last few issues happened because people other than Mike Johnson were calling the shots).  I'll be around for a few more months at least, to see what the new writer does with it.

Justice League 19 - JL has had its ups and downs.  The first story arc was incredibly strong for five issues and then fizzled at the end (with a very disappointing treatment of Darkseid).  This then started to become a pattern, with each story arc building up well and then coming to an abrupt, unsatisfying conclusion without a real climax.  The most recent of these was the Throne of Atlantis crossover with Aquaman.  Then we were treated to an issue 18 story that was all over the place, and honestly between that and Throne, I was starting to question Geoff Johns' writing (which had, up until JL #14, been quite strong with the exception of those pesky climaxes). Issue 19 redeemed Johns as well here.  He did a good job with the story. This issue is probably a lead-in to yet another crossover (Trinity War), which is set to consume the Justice League family of titles this summer. I can only sigh.  Enough with the crossovers.  This one seems like it may be interesting at least (much more so than Throne). However, Johns needs to work on his conclusions/climaxes or this is going to be just one more disappointment.

Overall, I was fairly happy with both books.  Although neither is a 10 out of 10, we've at least been able to move up out of the 6s and 7s (or worse) that these titles have been hovering in over the last few months.

New Comic-book Night - 3/20/13

It's "week 3" of the month, and that means my largest haul of new paper comics, at least for the moment.  This week's "pull list" included Justice League 18, JLA 2, and Supergirl 18.  In addition, I picked up the trade paperback containing issues 6-9 of the previous Supergirl series, Supergirl: Candor.  Combined with last week's purchase of Supergirl: Power, I now have the stories contained in the first 10 issues of that series (0-9), plus a few other stories in which that version of Supergirl appeared.

I've not read Candor yet, but I have read this week's new offerings, and they are a mixed bag.  Strangely enough, JLA, which is the new kid on the block, and is written by Geoff Johns, was the strongest book this week.  I'll provide brief reviews of each issue.

Justice League of America #2

 After getting off to a slow start in issue #1, where hardly any of the team members got much screen time, we finally see the team coming together in this issue.  I'm still not quite sure that Catwoman makes much sense on this team, but I am greatly enjoying Star Girl, who seems to be one of the few classical superhero characters left in the DC Universe, and Martian Manhunter, who is always interesting.  There's a nice cliffhanger ending in classical comic-book style as well. This one's an 8/10.

Justice League #18

In the main story, the JL has decided to let new members onto its roster, and this issue has them all showing up at the JL base (which is a space station orbiting the earth) and meeting each other.  We see one of the first "Metal Men," who malfunctions, and watch a great number of heroes interact.  The basic premise is interesting enough, but it is executed very badly.  They're going for humor as the heroes interact, but a lot of the jokes fall flat.  In the Shazam! backup story, which is finally back after vanishing for a couple of issues, we see Black Adam terrorizing the city, and Freddy tells the rest of the family about Billy Batson being Captain Marvel (I know they don't call him that any more, but that's the proper name for the character). The Seven Deadly Sins also make their appearance.  Although I enjoy the Shazam! backup feature, I really think it is misplaced. They should have just made a 6-issue Shazam! mini-series rather than adding it as a backup feature to JL. I give this one 7/10.

Supergirl #18

I was looking forward to this issue, hoping that, with the atrocious H'el story arc finally over, and with her finally admitting the destruction of Krypton and knowing how to speak English, Supergirl would start to attain some level of normalcy, which the book has not had yet since it started a year and a half ago.  Sadly, DC just seems unwilling, or perhaps unable to make Kara act like a normal person, or have any sort of normal down-to-earth experiences.  Instead, she's suffering from Kryptonite poisoning after the events of H'el. There are hints in this issue that they may be doing this to "depower" Kara so that she is not equal in power level to Superman (if they are doing so, it is both lame and sexist, and they will earn even more of my derision than they already have).  Supergirl gets attacked by a lava creature that apparently comes from the Superboy comic.  That part is a typical mindless superfight.

But what I really hated about this issue was Kara's behavior, which continues to be utterly inexcusable. She is a complete hot-head, who won't listen to anyone else and does just whatever she pleases.  She doesn't think, doesn't plan, just goes off half-cocked all the time.  This aspect of her personality is decidedly unappealing, and it is starting to make me actively dislike this version of Kara, rather than just being disappointed in it.  They may call this character "Supergirl" and "Kara Zor-El" but from where I sit, she is even more of an impostor than the old Matrix character, who at least acted like Supergirl should act.

I'm not sure why the writers and editors have decided to make Supergirl such a hot-tempered, unsympathetic, down-right jackass of a character.  Perhaps this is how they view teenage girls. Perhaps they just don't like the character and therefore aren't inclined to make her likable.  But at this point, I'm getting very close to giving up on the Supergirl series. And that's pretty amazing, when you consider all the money I have spent getting every single back-issue of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl (series 2), and Peter David's 80-issue run about a character that was called Supergirl but wasn't even Kara.  At this point, honestly what I would really love to see is original, pre-Crisis Supergirl from Daring New Adventures show up in this timeline, and kick this new Kara's ass all over the planet.  Hell, I'd root for Matrix Supergirl in that fight at this point. And again, for someone who loves the original Kara so much, that's really saying something.

Here's hoping the new writer with issue #20 can do something positive with this character. Right now, she's just a complete and total brat of a teenager. And that's not a very respectful way for them to write this venerable character.  I give this issue 6/10.

New Comic-Book Night - 2/20/13

It's another Wednesday, and thus another New Comic-book Night.  Most of the time this does not matter to me -- I get my comics electronically and those you can buy whenever you want. I frequently have only bought back-issues on NCN in the past few weeks.  However, the "third week" of the month is the week when two of the three comics I've decided to get as physical copies come out -- Supergirl and Justice League.  Also this week, the first issue of Justice League of America (a JL spinoff) was released, and I wanted to at least begin that series on paper (if it's good enough, I will continue; if not, I will stop or switch to digital).

Before I continue, a word about what makes a comic-book "print worthy" for me (vs. just buying it digitally).  At this point, really, the main standards are that it has to be very high quality (such as Gail Simone's Batgirl), and it has to be about characters I can find myself following and liking long-term.  The reason for this second criterion is that my plan (once I buy a house later this spring) to create some sort of "display" with my favorite comic-books and the collectibles associated with them. For instance, I plan to have a bunch of Supergirl issues on display, and I already have some statues of her.  I will also have a Batgirl display for sure, though nowhere near as extensive as the Supergirl one. And I plan to have some Justice League characters to display with the main JL series, so I have started getting that on paper (though I did not bother to get the back-issues on paper like I did with Supergirl and Batgirl).

Justice League of America now... I am not sure about that. The characters are not generally ones that would inspire me to buy statues or other collectibles.  And the series is new, so I don't know if I will like it.  I'm getting it on paper for now, just because it is no harder or easier to get it on paper than it is to get the digital versions (unlike, say, Wonder Woman, which is on #17 already, and for which would be a pain, and expensive, to acquire all 16 back-issues).  I'm trying it (and the companion book, Katana) on paper for now.  Either it will be a stand-out series that will win me over by issue #6, or it won't be.  If it's not, then I will either drop it or switch it to digital.  If it's good enough for me to keep getting on paper, then maybe a JLA display, or a JLA side of the JL display will be in order. We will just have to see.

Speaking of JLA, I did not bother with the "North Carolina" flag variant on the cover, nor any other variants. I think the "50 variant cover" business +DC Comics pulled with this title is absolutely disgraceful, and I think DC should be ashamed of themselves. I came this close to not buying it at all.  However, I have very much liked the way Geoff Johns writes the main book (Justice League), and I bought it for his writing.  This book is on much thinner ice than most other new series would be with me, however, just because I have a bad taste in my mouth from even buying it at all.  Even more disgusting than DC putting out the 50 variant titles is the fact that the comic-fans of the world seem to be stupid enough that they are lapping it up.  Seriously, people, why are you applauding this kind of behavior from DC? Want to buy one copy of the issue to read? Fine, do that -- I did.  But why are people rewarding this kind of shameful money-grubbing behavior with multi-copy purchases.  Where is the outrage over this sort of blatant market manipulation?  There sure as hell should be some.

Additionally, I get to breathe a huge sigh of relief this week that issue 17 is the final Supergirl part of the awful "H'el on Earth" storyline that has polluted this series since issue 14 (it ends next week in Superman 17, which is the last issue of that series I will collect).  I can only hope the series will improve once this awful story arc is over, because if things don't get better on this series soon, I may have to contemplate the unthinkable, and actually, for the first time in 30 years, stop collecting a Supergirl series that is still on-going even though I am still collecting comic-books (in the past, one series was canceled, and I only stopped collecting another two months after I had given up on all other comic-books).  That has never happened before. It should not be possible, because I love Supergirl so much as a character. Me voluntarily giving up Supergirl should be like Romeo voluntarily breaking up with Juliet - beyond the pale. But they have so destroyed this character in the last 12 issues of stories (4 of hers, 4 from Superman, 4 from Superboy) that I almost can't even look at her anymore.  Here's hoping that, before he leaves, Mike Johnson can fix her. Because it not, I may have to stop reading her series. Ouch.

Speaking of Supergirl, along with the three new issues, I also picked up the last 5 issues of Supergirl vol. 4 that my comic-shop had. Now that is a series that has some good writing.  I should never have liked that series because Supergirl was not Kara Zor-El.  But Peter David wrote it so damn well, and made her act so "correct" for the character (i.e., an awful lot like the original Kara), that he won me over and has kept me won over for all 43 issues I have read so far (my buying is ahead of my reading).  Peter David knew how to write Supergirl, I'll give him that.   I now have 69 of the 80 issues (though not all in order, after #61).  I have 11 to go, but those will have to be mail-ordered.  I've only read about half of them but I have absolute no qualms about shelling out money for the last 11 ahead of time, because I know Peter David will not disappoint me.  Wish I could say the same for the current version of the Girl of Steel.

Wonder Woman New 52 - Year 1

I've been a Wonder Woman fan since the TV show with Lynda Carter in the 1970s, and my love of the character was only enhanced in the 1980s when George Perez, my favorite artist, took her under his wing after the Crisis series and re-told her origin story.  The George Perez Wonder Woman series still stands out as one of the all-time great runs in comic-book history, and Wonder Woman has been one of my favorite female superheroes (along with Supergirl, Dove, and Batgirl) ever since.

When I started collecting comic-books again in December, the New 52 Wonder Woman series was therefore a fairly obvious choice.  Using +comiXology to download back-issues from 2011 and later, I started with #1 and recently completed the first year, including the #0 "origin" issue from September.  In this article, I will review the new Wonder Woman series.

Depending on the writer, Wonder Woman has often stood apart from the other +DC Comics  over the years because of her deep roots in ancient Greek mythology.  Like Thor over at Marvel Comics, some writers lean more heavily on the mythology than others.  When they do, Wonder Woman has often spent most of her time outside of the mainstream DC continuity, often to the point of seeming like the series is set in its own universe.  This allowed the series to work almost as a stand-alone comic, which was a joy for casual readers of DC, like I was back in the 1980s (when I mostly read Marvel comics, but collected Legion of Super-Heroes and Wonder Woman).  Comic-book companies are loathe to allow stand-alone titles these days -- apparently they think the only way to keep readers is to do one crossover after another.  And so I did not expect Wonder Woman to stand apart in the New 52.

I was pleasantly surprised, therefore, to discover that Wonder Woman's writer, Brian Azzarello, has apparently been allowed to keep the Wonder Woman series essentially by itself.  The character appears in Justice League like all the other DC heavy-hitters, but there has been no hint of a crossover with that series, or any other series, in the Wonder Woman issues.  Indeed, there is no indication that the Wonder Woman character in Justice League is even the same person as the one appearing in her own title.  Events referenced in Justice League (such as her romance with Steve Trevor) have rarely even been mentioned in Wonder Woman, and none of them have been depicted "on camera."  Instead, Azzarello has spent the entirety of the first year of Wonder Woman delving into Greek mythology.

I have found this laser-beam focus on Diana and her own story, and Azzarello's steadfast refusal to pollute his story-line with sewage from the rest of the DC universe, to be refreshing and incredibly satisfying.  Wonder Woman follows a single, continuing story-line from issue to issue, rather than self-contined 5-7 issue "story arcs" pre-configured for future "trade paperback" sale.  The story is deep and engaging.  The characters are larger than life but still believable.  There are mysteries that last for many issues (sometimes longer than the entire first year of the series).  There is a wonderful supporting cast (Hermes, Hephaestus, Lennox, and Zola).  And the villains (mainly Hera, Hades, and Apollo) are well-written - cunning and cruel, but not mindlessly evil.

Azzarello has also mastered the art of using flash-backs and flash-forwards to tell his story without confusing the reader -- something Grant Morrison sorely needs to learn.  The reader may be in the dark about things, but is never left confused, sitting there saying "What the heck just happened?"  The story has an internal consistency. It has rules, and the characters are subject to those rules.  This is not to say that nothing surprising happens. But rather, when the surprising things do happen, you don't feel like the laws of time and space were violated just to present the reader with a shocking plot twist.  Rather, you feel like, looking back on events, that the surprise, in hindsight, makes sense, and you can see how the story was leading up to it.  Being surprising without confusing the reader is a challenging task, and Azzarello accomplishes it issue after issue with masterful skill.

Brian also characterizes Diana and the other members of the cast extremely well.  This is not the George Perez version of Wonder Woman, who was practically a pacifist, and who only fought when she had no choice.  This is, as my friend +Stuart Johnson said recently, a "badass" Wonder Woman.  Note, she is not a killer, nor is she brutal or mean.  But she doesn't take crap from anyone, even the gods and goddesses, and she's not afraid to give a black eye or a split lip to someone who's asking for it.  Importantly, however, those subject to Diana's wrath are asking for it, every time, enough that, as a reader, I ended up shouting "Yeah!" when I saw her lay into someone who deserved it.

Azzarello did something potentially controversial in the early part of this new Wonder Woman series.  The Wonder Woman legend has always been that Diana was born from clay formed by her "mother," Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.  In this new series, that is still the legend. However, after a few issues, we discover that Hippolyta lied, and that Wonder Woman is actually the product of a night of passion between Hippolyta and Zeus.  This makes Diana a daughter of Zeus and basically a goddess, equal in power to any of the other Greek gods.  I know some folks do not like this re-imagining of Wonder Woman's origin, but I actually do.  I always thought the "clay" business was a bit strange, in the first place. And in the second place, I love that Diana is now on par with the other gods and goddesses.  This basically ties her with Superman (and probably Supergirl) at the top of the "power level" hierarchy in the DC Universe.  As someone who has always wanted to see more powerful female superheroes, I applaud this new direction for Diana.

In addition to Wonder Woman, the other characters are equally well-drawn.  Zola, the unsuspecting Virginia girl who's being chased around the universe by Hera for daring to (without realizing who he was) sleep with Zeus, is a great example.  Zola's mix of innocence regarding the supernatural world of the Greek gods, and worldliness about Earth, make her someone I want to root for (and also someone I enjoy reading about).  Hermes' quiet strength makes him a sure fan-favorite.  And the wise-cracking, tough-as-nails Lennox, another of Zeus' recent offspring, makes the story great fun.

Finally, a word about the art.  I am very torn about the art in this series.  For some reason, rather than having one regular artist, they seem to keep alternating between two artists - Cliff Chiang and Tony Akins.  I like Chiang's style a lot, and I love the way he draws Diana's face and does her facial expressions.  On the other hand, I find Akins' style blah and unimpressive.  His Wonder Woman looks too childish and baby-faced for my taste.  If this series had been 100% drawn by Cliff Chiang, I'd be a lot happier.  Chiang does seem to be the "main" artist (he usually does the covers even if he doesn't do the inside), but I wish he would become the only artist in the future.  He does a much better job with Diana, and indeed all the characters.

Overall, I think the first year of Wonder Woman has been exceptional, and it is at the top of my list, along with Batgirl, Supergirl, and Justice League among the first year of DC's New 52 series.  I hope they keep Brian Azzarello on this book as writer for a long time, and I hope they keep letting him tell the stories he's been telling, without interference, and without "crossover madness" mucking up the works.  Please, DC, let Wonder Woman remain a stand-alone comic and allow the creative team the freedom to tell great stories.  It's been a great run so far.  I hope the next year is just as strong.

New Comic-book Night - 2/13/13

Once again, it is New Comic-book Night (or NCN, for short).  For the last couple of weeks, I have only purchased back-issues of the older "Matrix" Supergirl series, because I did not need any of the new releases on those weeks. It's not that I didn't want to read any of the comics that came out over the last two weeks, but rather, I mostly read digital comics now, and those can be bought any time. I'm still frantically trying to catch up on most of the New 52 series from +DC Comics, having gotten current so far with only four (Batgirl, Supergirl, Superman, and Justice League), and one of those (Superman) is about to get the hook.  For most of the other titles I collect, I am many months behind, still (for example, I just read Wonder Woman #10, and #17 is about to come out this month).

However, there are a few titles that I want to collect "on paper," for various reasons I shall not discuss here.  Those include one that came out this week, Batgirl.  Indeed, Batgirl is on my pull list at my comic shop (one of only three titles to earn that distinction, the other two being Supergirl and Justice League).  Also this month, the new JLA title is being launched (but it's not out yet), and one of the new series affiliated with it is Katana, debuting at #1 this month.  I don't know much about Katana as a character, but I tend to like Samurais, and I will be picking up JLA for the first few months, at least, to see how it is going, so I thought I'd give Katana a try.  I haven't read it yet, so I don't know if I will like it or not.

Along with those two new comics, I also picked up a few more "matrix" Supergirl issues -- 61, 65, 67, 70, and 71. Now, before tonight, I did not have any issues of that series past 60, so you might be wondering why I didn't continue to move up in chronological order.  Well, I wanted to, of course. But my comic-shop was missing most of the 60s. The three I purchased were the only ones they had.  They're also missing about half of the 70s as well, so I am going to have to do a lot of mail-ordering to complete the series.

I noticed with some dismay that Gail Simone did not write Batgirl #17. I wonder if this issue was written during the brief period after she was fired, but before she was re-hired.  It wouldn't be surprising to have one such issue, but I'm a bit befuddled that it would come out so quickly.  They fired Gail in early December, and this is only two months later. I always thought comic-books had a longer lead time (3-4 months from scripting to publication). But maybe these days they are not so far ahead as they used to be.  They did re-hire her, so hopefully Gail will be back by #18.

DC's New 52 - another messy reboot

Every once in a while, it seems like the DC comics company decides to "reboot" their continuity.  In 1985, they collapsed their multi-universe of alternate "Earths" into a single one, killing a bunch of characters (like my favorite, Supergirl) in the process, in a series called Crisis on Infinite Earths.  When the series concluded, the DC continuity had a single universe -- one timeline without alternate earths -- and all the previous stories were (or should have been) erased.  All the signature characters (Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.) had their origins re-told, and many of the DC comics were re-numbered starting on #1.  Because the Crisis story involved the characters going back to the beginning of time and preventing the single Earth from splitting into many alternates, logically, none of the stories people had read from Action Comics #1 in 1938 until 1985, could ever have happened.  This allowed DC to completely restart their universe.

Unfortunately, DC did not do a 100% "clean" reboot.  Some of the characters in the universe remembered the previous timeline, even though they shouldn't have.  The Spectre, who in a way lives "outside" of time, remembered the old continuity, even though under the new continuity the old one was supposed to have never existed.  The character Harbinger, who was invented for the Crisis series, continued to exist (even though, since the heroes had changed the past, in the new continuity the Crisis had never happened). And many past events from before the Crisis still supposedly "happened" in some form. For example, in the post-Crisis limited series Hawk and Dove, Hawk explicitly remembers his brother Don (the first Dove) dying "when the skies turned red" (the Crisis events). Thus, as the years progressed, DC's writers kept making references to pre-Crisis events.  These references confused everyone, as people were left to wonder, "What stories that I read before 1985 are still canon, and what stories aren't?"

To make matters worse, over the years, DC's writers and editors repeatedly made decisions that confused and screwed up the new continuity.  They could not resist eventually adding alternate versions of Earth (not surprising because this is a very common comic-book trope, and I can't imagine any company with as many titles per month as DC going very long without the need for alternate realities).  And the fans kept clamoring for pre-Crisis characters to return -- most notably Supergirl and the original Flash (Barry Allen).  DC tried to appease folks with substitute versions of these characters, such as the shape-shifting artificial being "Matrix" which could take the form of a female character that people called "Supergirl." But the fans were not satisfied.

Over the years, DC has screwed their universe up enough times that they have had to have more "Crises" to try and correct the continuity -- such as Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis.  I wasn't reading comics as these course corrections were attempted, so I don't really know exactly how they proceeded, but I do know that they must not have done the job, because in later summer 2011, DC Comics once again decided that their universe was such a complete and utter mess, and so incomprehensible to new fans (or returning folks like me), that they needed to completely restart their universe over again, with new, fresh stories. Because there were (originally) 52 titles being put out per month, they called these titles "The New 52."

When I decided to get back into comic-books, after learning about this, it seemed to me that the #1 issues of The New 52 were the logical place to start.  I had no idea what I would like, or dislike, so I began with a few of them.  It became immediately apparent to me that DC comics had again made a mess of its reboot. Once again some events from before the reboot are still remembered by some characters (for example, Barbara Gordon still remembers being shot by the Joker back in the 1980s). But they've made it even worse by having the comic-books take place at different points in the timeline relative to each other.  For example, the two main books about Superman, Action Comics and Superman, take place 5 years apart, even though they are being published concurrently. And Justice League #1 takes place some time after the events of Action Comics but before the events of Superman.

What DC is left with in the mish-mash that is The New 52, are three types of comic-book titles: true reboots, reboots with backstory, and a third category I can only call complete messes.  Below, I will outline each of these categories.

True Reboots

 What I call "true reboots" are comic-books like Justice League, Action Comics, and Supergirl, where absolutely no stories we've ever read about the characters have ever happened, and everything is completely new.  Supergirl #1 has Kara Zor-El arriving on earth for the first time in her life. Justice League #1 has Batman meeting Green Lantern for the first time ever.  Action Comics #1 has Superman wearing street clothes and a cape, and still not quite able to fly yet.  These comics all start completely from square one, and move forward only.  There are no real flash-backs (nor any need for them): it is the clear start of a totally new set of characters.  In my opinion, quite apart from how good the individual plots are in these comics (Supergirl's is excellent; Action Comics' is a disaster), this is the category into which DC should have placed all 52 titles.  Unfortunately, it seems to be occupied by the vast minority of books.

Reboots with Backstory

What I call "reboots with backstory" are comic-books where the character has been rebooted, but some elements of the backstory from as far back as the 1986 era right after Crisis, still "happened," or perhaps there is a longer backstory that is not part of the past continuity, but still happened for some years before the publication of issue #1.  Examples in this category are Batgirl #1 (in which the title character remembers being shot by the Joker and paralyzed, but not all the many events of her life as Oracle after that), or Wonder Woman #1, where the title character seems to have been around in the world for a while (people in issue #1 already know to call her "Wonder Woman"), but none of the previous stories people read about in her earlier comics seem to have happened.  Another example is Superman #1, which takes place five years after the events depicted in Action Comics #1 (although they were published the same month -- see how confusing it is?), and repeatedly references events that are in the comic-book's past, but have never been printed by DC comics before (they're not referencing past issues of Superman or any other title).

Complete Messes

Finally, there are the comics I can only call (from a reboot/continuity perspective) "complete messes." These are comics that are an utter Gordian knot of confusion, mixing old printed stories from the past continuity, with "backstory" that is fictional (never printed but still in the "past" of the current storyline), and total reboot material (new stuff that assumes no prior story).  Examples of this include Green Lantern #1, which clearly references a whole variety of events that took place in earlier published comics, Batman #1, Detective Comics #1, and Hawk and Dove #1.  For instance, in the Hawk and Dove series (which only lasted 8 issues), Dove repeatedly makes reference to her relationship with a character named Deadman, with whom she got involved during a story-line that existed in the previous published (pre-New 52) continuity.  But ask yourself -- how is that possible? Some of the characters who were completely rebooted, such as Superman, were involved in that previously published storyline. So how can Dove remember something that involved Superman, but Superman be rebooted and not remember it?  You can get migraines trying to unravel these messes.

And after 5 issues... in many cases I still don't know what is going on

The upshot of all this mish-mash with some characters being given a "clean" reboot and others a messy one, is that DC has made a complete hash of The New 52.  One of the main goals of their company-wide "reboot" was supposed to be to make it easier for new readers to jump into DC's titles, to make it less intimidating to read Superman, who before 2011 had a multi-decade continuity.  It presumably was supposed to make lapsed readers like myself have an easier time getting back into things.  For some titles, like Supergirl and Batgirl, this has absolutely been true.  For other titles, like Detective Comics and Green Lantern, I gave up after the first issue, being so utterly and completely confused that I could not follow them enough to bother with further installments.

And it's not just whether the series got a complete reboot or not that is confusing (although complete reboots, or near-reboots, did help a lot). It's that the comics are taking place all over the history of the DC universe.  Some titles (Superman, Supergirl) take place today.  Others (Justice League) take place five years ago. Still others (Action Comics) take place even earlier (perhaps 5.5 or 6 years ago... it's hard to tell). Even others (Wonder Woman) take place in an indeterminate time period.  This was true in issue #1, but I figured it would be cleared up after a few months.  So far I am on #5 of the titles I am currently collecting, and nope -- it has not been resolved. Worse, a friend of mine is current (on #15 or so) with these titles, and he's still not sure whether Justice League takes place before, after, or concurrently with Wonder Woman.

I think I understand what DC tried to do with the early issues of The New 52. They tried to make them exciting, maybe a little confusing to draw readers in, and complex.  They wanted to slowly reveal the relationships between the titles and between the present and the past.  And perhaps those goals were admirable. But the problem is, with 52 different titles, all with different levels of "reboot," all taking place at different time periods, while being published the same month (or even week), DC has just produced a massively confusing universe.  I'm not at all certain that it would have been any harder for me to just jump into ongoing comics that had 13 years of continuity that I'd missed, than it has been to jump into series that claim to be "rebooted" but often have vestiges of stories I haven't read, and that have incredibly confusing connections to one another.  And my confusion, which is high in many cases, is partially mitigated by the fact that I am buying these early New 52s as back-issues, so I have been able to read #1-#5 in a very short time (about 5 weeks, instead of 5 months). I can't imagine how confusing it must have been for people to read this stuff "live" -- and wait more than 5 months (in most cases) to figure out what the hell is going on in each series.

Comic-book collecting is a slow hobby, not for the impatient, and I know that.  You can't expect, and in most cases don't want, a story to wrap up in one or two issues. But, it seems to me when a company is rebooting its whole universe specifically to make it more "user friendly," they shouldn't then turn around and make the interrelationships between the various rebooted characters so incomprehensible that even an old hand at it can't figure out how the titles connect to one another.

Now, that said, I am enjoying a few titles, and if you are new to comics, I can definitely recommend four that will not confuse you too much (other than not knowing whether they all take place at the same time or at different times).  Supergirl and Justice League are true reboots, and one can easily read these titles without having ever read any stories about the characters before.  Wonder Woman has been cleanly rebooted but has an indeterminate backstory that occurred "before" issue #1.  Up to #5, we know the backstory is there, and see hints of it, but it isn't confusing at all, and the story moves forward in a comprehensible way.  Finally, Batgirl has been rebooted with a somewhat involved backstory, but it's entirely possible to read the Batgirl series (up through at least #8) without knowing the past story -- or with knowing it, because there are references to what you might already know, but they are vague enough not to be continuity-twisting.

I'm afraid I can't really recommend any of the other series I am currently reading (or that I tried to read).  Although Action Comics is a "clean reboot," the stories in it are a mess, and there is no sense of plot or continuity to them.  The story hop-scotches around, with the story in #4 not being picked up again until #7, and with the Superman of the far future making a sudden appearance at the end of #5. Although, as an old-time reader, I understand the Legion of Super-heroes references and the appearance of Steel, a new reader would surely go "wtf" and probably give up the series by #5. I know I'm on the verge of it myself, but I will give it a few more issues.  Similarly, although it pains me to say it because the series is written by a favorite of mine, George Perez, I can't recommend the Superman comic either.  The story is not as much of a mess as Action Comics, but the references to the (so far unpublished) "five year backstory" of Superman are highly confusing, and the storyline in which Superman finds himself (basically having a mental breakdown) is not appropriate for the first few issues of a new series with a "new" Superman -- the character needs to be established first, George, before you "break" him!

I think DC could have had a great idea on their hands with a clean reboot. I believe that the Justice League, Supergirl, and Wonder Woman comics prove this. They are among the best-written comics of all the ones I've tried so far, and they work very well as truly restarted titles.  If only DC had done this clean a reboot with everything, The New 52 would have been a great deal better off.  Because they didn't, I hate to say it, but I would not be shocked at DC having to do yet another reboot some time in the next 5-10 years, to untangle the whole mess they have got on their hands already, 1.5 years into the current continuity.