Pre-Wednesday Release Catch-Up

I am currently still trying to catch up on some of the series in DC's New 52.  I've caught up to a lot of them so far (most are in issue 4 but this month, the #5's are out).  So far, I've been incredibly surprised by a few of the series.

As pretty much everyone who has written on the subject has said, Animal Man and Swamp Thing are two of the best series being written right now.  I mean, just check out this cover from Animal Man #5

I was also very surprised by I, Vampire.  The covers of this series makes it look like some terrible Twilight rip off.  But once I opened up and read the issues, the dark story and incredible art make up for the horrible cover art.

Here are some of the books I have read this week while trying to catch up for Wednesday.  (By the way, my pull list is getting way out of control)

Superboy #4

I don't know why I was so drawn to the Superboy books.  Every review has been lukewarm (justifiably so) and I was never drawn to this character in the first place.  But I enjoyed the Teen Titans cartoon on CN enough to be interested in the Teen Titans series.  Once I heard that Superboy will have a tie-in with that series, I think that drew me in.  It didn't hurt that the cover for Issue 1 was beautiful.

Unfortunately, the books aren't amazing.  That doesn't mean, though, that I'm not enjoying them.  I particularly liked this issue due to the bewilderment Superboy feels towards religion and faith.  The fact that none of it makes sense to him is something I can definitely relate to.  I also loved the display of grinch-itude.  Throwing a group of carolers and setting the Rockefeller Plaza christmas tree on fire is pretty admirable in my book.  Also, while extremely heavy-handed, we got some great quotes like "Faith is never an answer.  It's just a restatement of a question," and "...Somehow a dead tree suddenly represents the doorway to eternal life?  It doesn't make sense.  Why can't a tree be just a tree?"

The artwork continues to be richly colored with beautiful hues of blues and reds.  It's nothing out of the ordinary and is slightly generic but it services the story well.  It was nice to see something other than the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. labs and Silva and Lean did a good job at portraying NYC during Christmastime. 

Overall, a decent issue that seems to be setting some better character development up.  I have no problem with slow burner stories - unfortunately, until now, there has been no development - just melodrama.  Hopefully with the Teen Titans tie-in and Superboy finally coming to grips with who he is, this series will improve. 

7.5/10

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #1 (of 6)

I only picked this up because I thought it would be cool to check out some more limited run series by DC.  I never read the last volume of THUNDER Agents (I'm not typing all those .'s each time - fuck that) but I thoroughly enjoyed this issue.  I don't feel like I know the characters well enough though.  There are parts where characters that seem like main people in the story are killed or kidnapped.  The cliffhanger also assumes you know who the villain is.  Since I have issue 2 on hand, I will just keep reading and hopefully things will be cleared up in the second issue. 

For now, I liked the development of Toby and Colleen.  The idea behind the free-will controlling helmet with a conscious is pretty interesting and am looking forward to how it is used in the next five issues.  The artwork is definitely worth noting in this issue as well.  The style looks a bit older but looks pretty great compared to the cover.  I was actually dreading reading this book solely on how cheesy the cover looked but the artwork inside the book was much better.

6.5/10

More to come pretty much everyday until I am completely caught up with all the series on my pull-list!