DCNu Month 2 Weeks 2-3

Batman & Robin #2 - Moderately okay, but based for me on a clunky and unlikely premise: that the killer in #1 is known to Bruce and, seemingly
on chatty terms with him. It seems a bit odd to carp about psychological believability in superheroic comic books, but I can't accept a Batman whom as Bruce Wayne stands chatting with a killer, and takes no action on the pettifogging grounds that "we both know a face-off is impossible with civilians around"...because Batman/Bruce ought to be able to take a villain down with a pen ina crowded lift unsuspected if need be. Grant Morrison is sorely missed here. This isn't likely to make the cut for month #3. 5/10

Mister Terrific #2 - Better. Some funky action and science and an interesting villain. The awful continual appearance of the "Bat Noel" advert is painful after the better art in the main body of the comic.
7/10

Demon Knights #2 - Paul Cornell is still writing Vandal Savage as if he were the fat one from The Warriors Three in Thor (which is funny but doesn't do him justice), the rest is hanging together well though, with nice asides, art, and some subtlety in the villains' regret about what their horde must do. 8/10

Frankenstein Agent of SHADE #2 - Likely to justify #3, but a tad under Demon Knights. Hard though to say why, as background and set up is solid, perhaps it's the rather clunky exposition of her past as Mazursky dives :
"Yet I found myself flooded with memories"~ again as Batman and Robin, I'm probably just missing Grant Morrison's deft handling of the characters in Seven Soldiers. 7/10

Batwoman #2 - As with one, astonishing art - although it does make me think Promethia is going to burst into the narrative at any moment. Batwoman's assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of 'Batman International' is refreshingly sane. 8/10

Batgirl #2 - Manages to sidestep what I didn't like about the ending of issue one, with Batgirl facing up to her momentary paralysis of fear as she takes on 'The Mirror' 8/10

Blue Beetle #2 - I'm enjoying this a lot, but I've seen some critiques from people who's opinion I respect to the effect that this reboot is a mere shadow of the former title (which I haven't read). I especially like the Blue Beetle's attempts not to kill, as his suit forces him to select lethal targets, and also throttles any attempt to say who he is. 8/10

Gren Lantern Corp #2 - Good art, and some sense of scope, but I'm starting to cool on the 'Corp did us wrong' implicit revenge narrative, and I just don't buy the 'repair our world by nicking seas/air etc' from others aspects. You can't bioform a world by dropping bits of randomly stripped ecologies on it, they have to actually work together. If the opposing forces are so tough they could rebuild a world in far easier ways. 5/10

Batman # 2 - Better than I'd hoped from my assessment of the plotting of #1, but I'm still worried that an Evil Nightwing(tm) may appear. I'm also not quite sure exactly how having an extra gargoyle saves a falling Batman when its been established that if he hits something its likely to kill him, and the bleeding heart billionaires congratulate each other moments remain cloying. 6/10

Legion of Suoerheroes #2 - A slam down, which meets the needs of action well, but the artist should have considered the shape of those ships in the final page a little more carefully. I still want to warm to this, and Paul Levitz writes the Legion well (as he should having been responsible for some of its heyday stories), but its only 50/50. 5/10

Wonder Woman #2 - good art, but a slight feel of poor gender politics/fumbling with the format. It's implicitly suggested that Wonder Woman's origin might be a "all you know is a lie", perhaps with her parentage being the philandering Zeus and Hypolita - this of course undoes several excellent stories preDCNu. This wouldn't matter if it didn't risk being crass. The Goddess 'Strife' [Eris?] is amusingly portrayed, and the intraA,azon interaction is well set out. Still a hairsbreadth off being a really good comic. Description of Paradise Island by Hera as "That cockless coop..." is surprising and apt. 8.5/10

Deadman #2 - Good set up, character work, and interaction with Club of Monsters. I'm slightly unsure of the value of casting doubt on the motives of Rama - which after all are the facilitators of the character's selling point / unique abilities. If Deadman and all his dropin bodies are foredamned what if anything is the point? 7/10

Justice League #2 - Interesting prose section at back re Wonder Woman, and the fact that I comment on that first says a lot about how uninteresting the main 'conflicted superheros fight on first meeting' main text is. Sketchbook at back just highlights hideousness of Superman's tech nouvre costume. On the plus side The Flash is worth reading here. 4/10

Resurrection Man #2 - the best bit, an old man in a retirement home, who may or may not have been a supervillian, is blunted by wondering when he was - if Superman's only been active for 6 yrs at most, the worst bit the salicious, violent, nonsense of the "Body Double" assassins. These bozos were vaguely toleravle in #1 when there seemed to be a chance they were hell's agents, but if as we now see they're actually intended to be 'real people' then they have all the moral complexity of cardboard anthrax.
3/10

3/4 into Month 2 and its going to be hard to get from 26 titles down to 13, not because all are great - I've still only got 4-5 great comics in the lot, but because the real stinkers have dropped out in month 1. Nevertheless Batman and Robin, Green Lantern Corp, and Resurrection Man are on the verge of falling.

Simon BJ