Aldo reads DC's New 52 (So you don't have to)

Nooooo

so mad I can't find a photo of the special elevated chair Byrne uses at signings to place him higher than other artists, right now

I thought he didn't go to shows anymore.

That pic did give me cause to bust out laughing for a moment, though. The other one, even moreso.

used, then, your strange North American world is basically permanently '80s to me

Surely we are discussing Plan C, where Plan B is All Liefeld All The Time?

He's the ginger Kevin Smith!

If it was permanently 80s, then Spacemen 3 might still be together, which would be weird.

Though I did see JB once at a show in 1988 or 1989. I've told the story here before, about the moment that I lost all respect for him. Will tell it again if needed.

go for it

reprint stamp?

NOT A DREAM SEQUENCE
NOT A HOAX

Not the reprint stamp.

JB would hold court at his table (with a normal-size chair), draw a sketch and hold it up for the clutch of fanboys hovering around. Then he would hold an auction right then and there amongst the gathered fans.

That same show, a friend got a fully inked sketch of the Joker by Bill Sienkiewicz for like ten bucks.

I still enjoy JB's FANTASTIC FOUR run and his UNCANNY, but lost a whole ton of respect for him at that moment.

Ha, that IS dickish!

Superdickish.

I swear I heard a similar story that involved Byrne dashing off a sketch at the request of some young kid, and then auctioning off the sketch while the kid was still standing there. Now, that's dickish.

Superdickish.

Current state of my 52 reading:

Still actually reading and enjoying: Batman

Might catch up on the trades: Swamp Thing/Demon Knights/Wonder Woman

T0rrenting for trainwreck curiosity: Justice League

Dropped: Batwoman

Being sad about: Action Comics

YOU READ 6 WEEKS OF DC BOOKS IN ONE GO. LOSE 5 SAN AND ROLL AGAINST WILL TO REMAIN ALIVE

All Star Western #7: Fairly standard Hex fare. We're still in Arkham and Hex is now undercover in a street fighting arena. There's a couple of fights and a bit of plot development. It's good stuff, but not groundbreaking. The backup is potentially good stuff, but in an attempt to hammer in a BLACK PEOPLE ARE ALL ATHEIST GENII message we find that the captain of a whaler owns either one of the first 3500 British copies of On The Origin Of Species or one of the first 500 American copies. Not impossible I suppose, but not very likely either and if I can look up publication dates on Wikipedia then so can you. But then this is a thing for me, people being lazy while writing. You chose to put the detail in, it could at least be right.

Aquaman #7: Um. Yeah. Black Manta appears and kills some woman - this is all connected to the doctor Aquaman was taking the piss out of a couple of issues ago. Some woman with a big cat pops out of a wormhole and attacks everybody but they might be all mates at the end. I'm sure it'll make sense eventually.

Batman #7: OK, this is big. Batman escapes and we find out the truth about the Court of Owls, or at least the amount we're supposed to know at the moment. Dick makes this very point in the comic, that we're being deliberately drip-fed info to keep us sucked in but the things which we don't know yet (but Bats does) is REALLY IMPORTANT but it's being kept from us. Seriously, everybody should be picking up the trades of this.

Batman The Dark Knight #7: David Finch needs to learn what "final" means. He must have time to read a dictionary, given how little he does on his own book now, so we should tell him to. BATMANG EVEN ADMITS THIS TOO FLASH THAT IT'S WRONG. Anyway, Bane goes for a swim and White Rabbit may well be Bruce's girlfriend, even though he seems to have dumped her. This started well and got worse every issue, truth to tell. Does that mean Finch is actually better than we thought? The more of him in it, the more readable it is. A conundrum for our times.

DCU Presents The Challs #7: Unreadable DiDio nonsense. The guy from last month that dided is alive again, the Challs go off to find some stuff from their brand new SECRET BILLION POUND BASE, some statues come to life and the dead guy kills some people. As you were.

Flash #7: Does nobody have powers under control in this book? Captain Cold's go wrong and Flash's go wrong AGAIN, this time sucking Iris through a wormhole. To get her back we break out the COSMIC TREADMILL. FUCK YEAH. And Gorilla City gets introduced too? In addition to the basic quality of the book, which is high, we're getting Flash Fanboy 101 to boot. Awesome.

I, Vampire #7: Takes place after JLD #7. Reads JLD #7. Reads I, V #7. Is none the wiser. This is very pretty but I can't make head nor tail of it. When the titular hero died he may or not have been reborn as Cain who has started the Vampire Apocalypse. Which is too powerful for all the magic heroes we know about in the Johnsiverse but is being held at bay by Batman and Batgirl. I think. It continues in both #8s anyway. It might make sense later.

Justice League #7: Train wreck. The Shazam backup/teaser is better. But they're both Ultimate Johns Sadface.

Justice League Dark #7: More coherent than I, Vampire but this may just be because the plot almost makes a little sense. They all hate each other, and all of them are crap in their own way. They all end up in different parts of the afterlife at the end. Unfortunately I doubt they'll stay there.

LoSH #7: The lustre is wearing off, if I'm honest. A flipper.

Nightwing #7: So, everything from the earlier issues is now shown to be a lead into the end of Batman #7. I can get with that, and it's well written stuff. This has been worthwhile up till now but I think I'll have had enough after the Owls crossover event.

Supergirl #7: The fight from the last issue sort of peters out into nothing. Now there's a metaphor for this book.

Superman #7: Bored with this. Helspont out of Wildstorm and previous issues of Stormwatch is the bad guy. It looks like they're building to Krypton being a Daemonite outpost, but I don't care to be honest.

Wonder Woman #7: Diana realises she gets things wrong sometimes. This maintains the high standard of previous issues but is moving kind of slowly. It's always a beacon this late in the reading list though, so I need to stick with it regardless or it'll just be depressingly awful.

Birds of Prey #7: Do you ever have one of those days? When you cut a man's head off with the sword your dead husband lives in, only for it to turn out you've killed the wrong guy? Exactly. Not that thrilling.

Blue Beetle #7: I have a nagging suspicion this is getting better, but incrementally and it's nigh impossible to tell. It just isn't doing anything that isn't being done 1000x better in Ultimate Spider-Man, for example. I think it should just try and work out what it wants to be and stick with it,which it seems unable to do, and accept that noboby really likes it. It's no wonder this and Captain Atom are the lowest sellers not cancelled.

And speaking of which... Captain Atom #7: A new backstory for a character we don't care about, written by a guy who makes Liefeld look like a genius, which ends with Captain Atom having a crying wank outside a restaurant while the girl he fancies (who he nearly burned to death the other issue, mind) goes on a date. And then an alium comes out of him and wants to have a philosophical chat. Written like that I almost wish I had read it.

Catwoman #7: This is just sort of a nothing book with no plot. Catwoman is stealing cars for a living, she has a snarky fence and a new car thief boyfriend. Her boobs look weird. I don't get why anyone would buy it.

GLC #7: It feels like an obvious trope as there must have been any number of "returning a dead Lantern to his family" issues before, and this is utterly treading water. Oddly, I don't remember the actual plot finishing and I don't think it has, even though Guy Gardner is getting told off for it. I struggled to stay awake while reading this.

Red Hood #7: I thought I liked this. I'm not so sure - there's a fight inside a plane with the ghost of a cavewoman made from smoke and Jason Todd is WAY more complicated than any of us ever thought. I think the simple answer is that it's about in the middle, quality wise. That makes it better than AT LEAST 20 other books DC publish in the Johnsiverse, which is a much worse looking stat than I thought it would be.

Blackhawks #7: ????? I read this and didn't understand a word. A plane crashes into a building two thirds of the way through. I say building, I mean a room in an underground base which it gets directly into. That's a big ventilation shaft. Thank G_d that's nearly over.

GL New Guardians #7: AND IT WAS A DOUBLE TREBLE QUADRUPLE BLUFF BY LARFLEEZE ALL ALONG FEATURING A GENETICALLY MODIFIED DUPLICATE VEGA SYSTEM. I can't believe I didn't spot that. (By the way, Larfleeze is now the worstest baddest GL enemy ever from the dawn of time etc, just like all the previous ones.) It's also revealed the Omega Men aren't in the Johnsiverse. ;_; All of Red Lanterns happened between the last issue of this and the current one, which is maybe the best fate for it. OH NOES KYLE RAYNER HAS TO KILL LARFLEEZE TO LIVE WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

Teen Titans #7: Much as I'm glad at the reveal that it actually is Danny The Street that's joined the Titans, and Kid Flash is still brilliant, this is going in circles. Month on month the bad guy is revealed to be controlled by the next level bad guy and this issue is no exception. I enjoy this as much as Red Hood. With all that entails.

Savage Hawkman #7: The Gentleman Ghost starts the zombie apocalypse to make himself whole again, and is beaten by a zombie in the process. Static shows up for no reason. Hawkman dumps teh ULTIMATE WEAPON where nobody will find (at the top of a mountain). I SMELL A PLOT POINT. He fights a shape-shifter in the next issue, which might be when Liefeld gets on board. The first thing she'll shift is her feet, I bet.

Firestorm #7: Jason is tortured when he sees his parents and has a little cry. Ronnie is tortured when he sees some Quraqis and has a little arm when they cut his hand off. Hardly seems like a fair deal. This is still so 80s it's ridiculous, and has yet one more new super Firestorm-a-like. I think they've introduced something like 10 now. Let's have a Liefeldening!

Voodoo #7: Huh? Was fun though, almost.

Action #8: Off the bus, I think. GMoz wraps the story in a couple of pages but pads heavily with the sort of will-he-won't-he challenge of a hero stuff he's done too many times before (it feels like). And the less said about the violent change in artist for the last half dozen pages the better. Tepid.

All Star Western #8: Bless. Hex, Nighthawk and Cinnamon are off fighting the anarchists so Arkham does what all doctors should - he gets stoned off his tits on opium then arrested. It's all part of a complicated double cross that looks to see our heroes blown up next month anyway, but I'm more concerned about the guy whose mother Arkham doesn't slag off in prison - what happened to him? Backup is irrelevant again, sadly.

Animal Man #8: I hate the artwork all the way through this as blackens my mood as I try and read it. Maxine learns how to control her powers and Buddy forgets that birds fly and ends up pecked to death. This is leading into a crossover where you have to buy annuals and Frankenstein. It makes you wonder where they would have taken the plot if it had been cancelled, really. I'm getting kind of sick of the race to cross everything over as early as possible and would like to see some plot development in isolation.

Aquaman #8: Marital strife as Mera finds out about the super-team Arthur was in behind her back with the woman from the last issue and her big cat. We get a flashback to them being heroic at the same time as Arthur was already in the Justice League - WHAT DO YOU MEAN I WASN'T SUPPOSED TO TAKE YOUR CONTINUITY SERIOUSLY? Like Aquaman, this is middle of the road and vaguely good.

Batgirl #8: So it turns out the bad guy's is one of the henchmen present when the Joker shot Babs. OH WAIT IS THIS MAYBE GAIL SIMONE'S WHOLE PLOT? Mummy Babs gets the blame for everybody James has killed since he was a child. CLANG! Who turns up on the last page to lead into the Owl saga? It's almost like this writes itself.

Batman #8:

http://youtu.be/M8el_P4yvfc

Great stuff.

Batman & Robin #8: 20 pages of DADDY ISSUES. Not really what I want from this book.

Batman the Dark Knight #8: David Finch content = the cover, which is at least partially related to the contents. A solid enough minor Batbook but nothing better. Would rather not have paid for it to be honest.

Batwing #8: So, the primary bad guy turns out to be Batwang's mate back from they were child soldiers but in charge is a guy who runs child soldier armies called Kone. HOLY HAM-FISTED CURRENT AFFAIRS! There's no way this will make it beyond the Owls. What was I saying earlier about cancellations?

Batwoman #8: Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. I think we know what that means about the writing.

Aldo, you are a prince among men. These reviews have made my day.

I hate the artwork all the way through this as blackens my mood as I try and read it.

you're still not telling us who does the art or writing on any of these!

Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. I think we know what that means about the writing.

idk I really like the [IDEA of] multiple overlapping flashbacks of different characters all coming to the "present" at different speeds, but the art makes it painful to be able to figure out if it's ~working~ or not. still no idea who's taking over for the second half of the storyline, so I know whether to brace myself for the same awful 90s inking.

I started listing them but I've been finding it enough typing as it is and with the amount of artistic changes in most of the issues I'd have to put more thought into it than the editorial team.

For Animal Man it's really pages 1-5 I dislike the most, which are by "long-term" AM artist Travel Foreman. Particularly Buddy in the trailer - I don't know what he's trying to get across but it absolutely doesn't work. Steve Pugh does the remaining pages and they're better but I'm not that sold on the layouts or the shading.

I think I can sum up my feelings about the new 52 with the following statement:

I keep forgetting that Suicide Squad, my favorite book of the ones I'm reading, exists.

I read a few issues of Animal Man and thought they were pretty good! Is it still decent?

I mean, outside of the crossover shit which sounds horrible. Has he met up with Swamp Thing yet?

What's the appeal of Suicide Squad exactly? I see you and Aldo have been repping for it, but I think I'm missing something. (I don't like missing things.)

Shark kill

I'd buy every issue of SUICIDE SQUAD if I knew they were killing them all by issue #12 only to bring in a new team.

WONDER WOMAN is actually pretty good, but I think that's because of Cliff Chiang far more than Azzarello. It reads kinda like SANDMAN minus the Byron and (Robert) Smith. Otherwise, I'm really not into the reboot stuff at all.

I enjoy the random mayhem of Suicide Squad. The palpable distrust amongst the various team members and the things they are being put through make for a relatively enjoyable read. Also, as Matt hints, aside from two or three characters there's definitely a sense that the team members are expendable and I enjoy reading to see which one is going to get brutally killed this week.

Also, King Shark is really funny to me.

Yeah, what Dan says. The Deadshot/Harley dynamic has been great fun too.

DCU Presents the Challs #8: Jerry Ordway's art looks like an inferior Chris Weston. That feels intrinsically wrong to say, doesn't it? Heretical, almost? So, this starts with one of them being sucked through a historical monument which lets them emote for the purposes of televisual entertainment for a bit. They then sit down and have an omelette and have a chat with a guy who is obviously an evil duplicate sent to steal the talismans (talismen?). I KNEW IT, IT'S DEAD/NOT DEAD HALF FACE MISSING GUY FROM THE OTHER ISSUE. He kills one, is destroyed (luckily) by the power and then, just like that, the series finishes with no real explanation or wrap-up of the storyline. Utterly appalling storytelling, and a wasted opportunity.

Demon Knights #8: The title of this books was misused for Daemonites in another book this month. COULD THIS BE A HINT OR JUST A CRAPPY INJOKE? I can't tell any more. Anyhoo, we begin with a debate about the nature of the DC Universe, or how everybody present can know a different Camelot and not have seen each other in it. We then have a Jason Blood origin story and it turns out Merlin bonded him to Etrigan after two different objects of his affections (Jason and Madame Xanadu) fell for each other. I can go for the idea of him doing it in some kind of hissy fit to be honest, it always seemed like a dick move to me. Etrigan turns out to be a dick because he wants to make the beast with two backs (one scaly, one not) with her too and so burns a village down. Just your run of the mill day.

Detective Comics #8: Batman behaves quite differently to Catwoman that he does is some of the other reboot books, I'll tell you that for nothing. To be fair, the comic even acknowledges this in itself, which is kind of an odd state of affairs. Scarecrow sends Batman off to save Alfred E Neumann but STUPID BATTY MAN it's all a con. D'oh! Good stuff though, and I'm entertained all the way.

Flash #8: SPEED FORCE EXPLAINED! FUNERAL THAT SLAGS OFF GREEN LANTERN! TRYING TO BREAK THROUGH TIME! THE RISE OF GRODD! LOTS OF OTHER THINGS THAT MAKE ME SPEAK IN ALL CAPS! I'm tempted to say this has gradually become my favourite book of the 52. As thrill-powered as it gets.

Frankenstein #8: Franky Baby goes on the rampage back to his spiritual home and is killed by his mum, having been previously killed by his dad. Franky Lady leaves the BPRD and Ranky decides he has to stay with them because he needs to wash the grren stuff off his hands and they have the only hot water in Europe. Franky Writer congratulates himself about how great he is, despite everything in this being ripped off something else - there's a "KILL" "KILL" repeat that eventaully becomes "KILL ME" which Alan Moore did in Miracleman, I think, and various others have done in other places. The nicest thing I can think of to say about it is it's quicker to read than all the things it's stolen from but it's also less fun.

Justice League Dark #8: The "Crystal One" who is the "Power Master" decides to stop being neutral in letting the bad guy take all the magic energy by farting a tornado into Gotham which has... erm.. no effect whatsoever except allow for a Batman panel. Shade gets eaten by the M-Vest and ends up permanently in the Area of Madness (but Kathy's there, so he doesn't have to get the vest to magic her up when he wants a shag). There's lots of running away. Then, amongst all the vampires, a vampire turns up...

I, Vampire #8: and completes the crossover plot before page 3 is over. Then erases it all from history. So, 2 months well spent then. I think there are more adverts in this book than any other I've ever read.

Justice League #8: Steve Trevor tries to put Green Arrow on the team but Aquaman is so traumatised by JT Krul's run on the book he says no. In the backup, Billy Batson goes to live with the Legion of Substitute Heroes and drinks some hot chocolate. I bet that gets you dying to read it, huh?

LoSH #8: Two short stories, one which teases the return of the Fatal Five and one which is a typical Legion backup story. We're back again at pandering to Legion fanboys I'm afraid but during this slog through things I can't be arsed about this pushes my buttons.

Legion Lost #8: Oh great, a prequel to a crossover. At the very beginning and the very end we get stuff on a guy called Harvest who steals our heroes at the end to take them to N.O.W.H.E.R.E. The rest of it is pretty good fluff, I suppose. If it wasn't for the characters in this I wouldn't care for the book at all, I suspect.

Nightwing #8: Another prequel crossover! But to a good one! And a pretty great issue. Backstory about Gotham, Owls and eye stabbings. Woohoo! I'm kind of surprised how much I like this book to be honest but more than happy to still be on board.

OMAC #8: THE SHOCKING END NOBODY SAW COMING! Well, apart from anyone watching sales figures. This series has been an absolute Kirby Blast, and this issue is absolutely no exception. Worth it for the panel where OMAC and Maxwell Lord fall out of Abraham Lincoln's nose alone. I have loved this, really. A shame there were so few agreed.

Red Lanterns #8: I love it when people explain exactly what they're doing, even to the point where they speak out loud their inner thoughts, despite them being the only person there. That's quality storytelling and always makes me want to read further. Humans are the most intelligent species in the universe because they have brains that evolved over millions of years. That's another good one. Crossovers into GL, GLC, Stormwatch too, which always works. Thankfully the blurb implies the next issue is the last. Unfortunately I suspect they're lying.

Stormwatch #8: Not Batman gets all flustered when a small child tells him she knows he'd like to suck off Not Superman, then the Engineer tells sexy love times stories to a generator and offers to show the child a puppy as a treat. Not Batman then leaves her in an alium stomach, in another dimension, as punishment for helping him get Not Superman back to make kissyface at. She brings herself back anyway to piss him off. This helps beat some space baddies who killed off the Daeomonites (despite them being alive in not only this book but half the others) according to J'onn J'onnz. I suspect he just hasn't read enough Wildstorm books. I wish I was him.

Suicide Squad #8: THE SECRET ORIGIN OF DEADSHOT'S MOUSTACHE! Apart from this, it's a framing story of individual members of the Squad to give us the next mystery. Who is the plant out to kill The Wall for The Basilisk? A break from the carnage Dan refers to upthread but still a great book. Even if it looks like there's a Resurrection Man crossover imminent.

Supergirl #8: Kara meets a friend, because The Aul' Country is identical to Krypton. They hide out in a really obscure location - The Flatiron Building (or whatever the DC equivalent is called, but I have a sneaking feeling it was established earlier that Supergirl takes place in New York - Titans is there so we know it exists in the DCU). They then go to Queens, just passed the Daily Planet building. Which is is Downtown Metropolis. They then go to another part of Queens, which Times Square is in, because she's got a "buzz" about her being the top Celtic Songstress in indie coffee shops. My head hurts. It turns out she's the Byrne-era villainess Silver Banshee, because she can sing and it turns out her "Da" (see, that proves she's Irish, obviously) is the Black Banshee. I hope you're keeping up with this.

Superman #8: Helspont is the baddie from "For The Man Who Has Everything". Basically. Hooray for Dan Jurgens' reading abilities.

Swamp Thing #8: I'll have to be honest. This is mainly splash pages or gorgeous Yanick Paquette art. But there's enough plot to carry it, just, as Alec accepts what he is not and fights the Rot to get Abby back. The last few pages seem to imply this isn't possible but then it looks like we go into a different crossover next month and leave this plot alone? I'm, not for the first time, baffled by DC's editorial decisions.

Wonder Woman #8: A Diana armed to the teeth goes to the Underworld, which is now London as imagined by Dante. It turns out she might have underestimated the strength of her bracelets, although it may just all be down to the magic. Great stuff.

Green Arrow #8: So it looks like the triplets from the last issue are a genetic experiment by a guy who looks like a Frost Giant, while GA beats up the Wuffa Wuffa Guy. I suspect he'll be back and save the day. By breaking Ann Nocenti's fingers so she can't write this any more. She's barely a step up from JT Krul (but obviously she is, nobody else is that bad). I can't imagine who is buying this.

Hawk & Dove #8: Liefeld obviously had lots of plans for this before cancellation, because this issue has more plot than maybe all the other issues put together. The strain of this, however, has told on him because despite the presence of top Liefeld-swiper Marat Michaels to help him out on pencilling and TWO Liefeld-sympathetic (because it still looks like he did it himself) inkers it's still exceptionally sparse in terms of visual content. Most panels don't have backgrounds to them, and there are less teeth than normal. Anyway, dragons and snakes versus birds is the oldest space conflict known to the universe and it plays out in a cave with swords and ninjas. The bad guy runs away. Dove says "So that's it?" It certainly seems to be. And not before time. Even watching in from a car crash perspective was only fun for the first couple of issues to be honest, there's only so much Liefeld I can take.

JLI #8: Batwing teams up and arguably makes the issue worse. He only gets about 10 words in the whole issue though, mainly when Batman lets him speak. Then, fresh from cancellation, OMAC turns up to SMASH. A waste of paper, and also was the first time it was written in about 1988.

Men of War #8: Featuring only Frankenstein content, so I'm not really sure what it has to do with this book. This issue is Lobster Johnson to Frankie's own BPRD, really. Is that the ultimate ignominy, not even being allowed to see out your own book? I actually quite enjoy this, mainly because it's not only better than MoW, it's also better than the Frankie book. Jeff Lemire should take this route over there instead.

Static Shock #8: I know, let's see out the series with a Secret Origin and a recap of the previous issues. DC really didn't think this through, did they? Why would anyone buy this issue?

re: the Suicide Squad mole, the only thing we know for sure is that it isn't Harley (man hands) and it isn't King Shark (hairy man hands)

It would be a bummer if it ended up being Deadshot, so I'm betting on Black Spider. Although lol if it was Voltaic!

Deathstroke #8: Is this over? I hope so. 20 pages of daddy issues (with both Deathstoke's dad and son) is not what's expected in a KILL KILL MAIM KILL REND TEAR KILL comic, and the writing is as good as you'd expect from someone only capable of doing a KILL KILL MAIM KILL REND TEAR KILL comic. Dreadful.

Green Lantern #8: "NOK." See? I can speak Johnsian. This summarises Brightest Day & Blackest Night in about 5 pages then tries one of the oldest scifi plot holes in the book - the self charging and sustaining energy source. Johns works round it well for the first page or so (where he draws attention to it) then forgets it exists in case it gets in the way of the plot. Once Abin Sur says NOK I'm about ready to leave. Thankfully I only had Sinestro saying NOK to read before I was done. Who actually likes this?

Grifter #8: ??? Unreadable. Grifter and his brother, both of whom are possessed by Daemonites at points talk face to face and disembodied at varying times on top of the Eiffel Tower preparing for the "fight to the death" promised on the cover, before Grifter decides he can't be arsed with it and throws himself off the top. I feel like doing that too, only I wouldn't skid down the side in dress shoes shooting guns like he does. Next issue features Chesire, which presumably means a Red Hood crossover - assuming she has a kid with Roy in the Johnsiverse. Who can tell.

Mister Terrific #8: I refuse to believe all Mister Terrific's software is written in COBOL. NO WAY PEDRO. He talks the Blackhawks out of shooting him, gets thanked by the only other black woman in Los Angeles (except his girlfriend) then relieves the misery by making a multi-dimensional tube that takes him to Earth-2. So we're not done with him yet, unfortunately. This really has been a shockingly bad series. It being accepted as a pitch at all is the most baffling thing about it for me.

Resurrection Man #8: A private dick with mental powers tries to take Mitch down but falls in wub a bit, then a fat guy who steals lives turns up to steal his lives but is killed by them, then the Suicide Squad turn up and shoot him. Haven't we been round this buoy before, except without the Squad? Tiresome stuff.

Superboy #8: "NOBODY TREATS GRUNGE LIKE A JOKE!" Tell that to Blind Melon. I think I've got in the swing of this now, as long as I assume it's doing exactly the same things as the Titans book. When is watching people rip out surgical implants with their mind NOT fun,eh? Still, let's close out with some Legionnaires we haven't seen yet to make people come back. I'll fall for it, I guess.

I'm pretty sure it can't be Deadshot in SS, I think you're supposed to think it is for the eventual revelation, but Floyd's the only thing they've got which looks like a core character except The Wall. I know it's not really supposed to have one, but I think it needs one.

re: Grifter #8, I thought it was more boring than unreadable, which is bad news for an issue that is entirely devoted to the lead character shooting the fuck out of things

this book also seems to be taking the "let's see how many women close to the lead character we can kill to give him angst" idea a little too seriously

xp: maybe it's Captain Boomerang!

So Mr. Terrible is going to be the one in the Huntress' Earth 2 backstory? Oh fuck that shit. I was hoping Earth 2 Mr. Terrible wasn't a tosser. No such luck.

I have in my head Captain Boomerang has already been in one of the other 52 but is too much of a psycho in the Johnsiverse. I could be making that up though.

Boring and unreadble were sort of a toss-up for which was dominant.

(btw DP, are we discussing this in person in a couple of weeks? See Boston thread)

I hate Mr. Terrible so much. Really.

Birds of Prey #8: EVERYONE ALMOST DIES! But nobody does! Except Dinah's husband of three years ago, that is. Wait, what? Everything you know is wrong or something. Starling is walking around hacking into computers with a knife until a spy's talking groin shows her on an iPad why people are trying to blow up Black Canary. Katana fights a man in a loincloth with impervious skin. I AM NOT ON DRUGS.

Blue Beetle #8: So, it turns out Stopwatch's secret origin is, in fact, pretty much the same as Iron Man's only involving a time machine instead of an energy device. Yet only being a poor scientist and not a millionaire playboy, he uses it for bad instead of good. Iron Man wants our hero to help him, but he sets fire to an orphanage instead. This probably isn't good for him, because he's already had a video of how crap he is on Failblog. Then Kyle Rayner, Bleez and Globulus show up. I wonder where exactly in either Red Lantern or GL:NG chronolgy this falls then? I guess we'll find out next month, although I thought this was one of the cancelled books to be honest.

Captain Atom #8: Cap gets sucked into the timestream. Can you guess what it looks like? If you said some kind of body of water then give yourself a contract with DC! In other "I thought that was the last issue of this shit" news, next month seems to feature some other magic woman and possibly the fight between Cap and his mentor who has now left his wheelchair to be a bad guy in a giant robotic suit. Although none of this matters, since the Earth is destroyed 20 years later. If only we knew later than when.

Catwoman #8: The 'getting out of the pool' panel on the first page is maybe the weirdest one yet printed in this strip. That's some claim. Worse than Batsex. Worse than knees bending the wrong way. Worse than feet being on the wrong legs. Some daggers get stolen by Catwoman and her toyboy before they realise the Penguin has the missing one (for "obvious" reasons that aren't explained). We're then treated to a series of pages that have already been published somewhere else (Batgirl?) before we cut to Owls. This is going to be the worst book that's part of Owls. And I don't believe for a minute they're going to kill the Penguin off either.

Green Lantern Corps #8: OH GOOD A NEW SUPER-POWERFUL GL CORPS THING. The Alpha Corps appear to have made themselves into constructs from a ring source that doesn't exist yet, and swear allegiance to a battery they haven't yet created. I was right though, the plot from the first issues did finish without me noticing. Now everyone is tied up trying to bury the power battery of the Sinestro Corps on Oa, because having it on Oa is really dangerous. TOP PLAN.

Red Hood #8: This reminds me more than anything else of Mojo Mayhem. Which is no bad thing. Jason shoots a fat woman in the face after she throws herself down a liftshaft at him. She did try and blow up a children's hospital to get him to the bottom the lift, mind. Tim Drake invites Jason for breakfast and he agrees to save Mister Freeze from Owls. Yay!

(I will be jetlagged but I plan to make an appearance; it really depends on whether my wife has already made plans for us or not)

(Yay! There is a whole weekend to choose from at the moment, I will try and get some decisions made over the next week as to location etc)

lol at tell that to blind melon

Blackhawks #8: I like that they've specially coloured some pages for the people complaining about Flex Mentallo. There's a misguided end to this that suggests it'll be back. It won't.

Green Lantern: New Guardians #8: Everybody goes home to charge up their rings where they get up to speed with GL continuity. Arkillo makes Guy Gardner look like even more of a dick than he is, and he isn't even in this comic. This is probably the best GL book, still, but that isn't saying much.

Teen Titans #8: Omen makes them all expose themselves to the rest. (Not a joke, actually the dialogue.) Amanda Waller turns up just after 3 issues ago and decides she doesn't fancy it much, so leaves. We get near confirmation Kid Flash is tapping into the same Speed Force as Flash. This runs straight into The Culling which will hopefully make sense. I enjoy this book despite everything.

Firestorm #8: I don't enjoy this book despite everything. Actually, only despite my irrational attachment to the Jon Ostrander series, because that's pretty much the only thing that could give anybody any reason to like this. I KNOW, LET'S INTRODUCE MORE FIRESTORMS. Including one in Captain Britain's costume. How is this not cancelled?

Hawkman #8: A continuity piece that follows #7 and explains bits of the plot by ignoring (and seeing the end of) the character introduced at the end of #7. Saved from cancellation only by imminent Liefeldening, which is presumably why Tony Daniel has written out his ideas.

Voodoo #8: Yay! An ACTUALLY CANCELLED. Wait, IT'S NOT? There's a fight which sort of ends it all, then Voodoo who is Voodoo escapes and Voodoo who isn't Voodoo doesn't and so Voodoo who isn't Voodoo gets hired by the people hunting Voodoo who is Voodoo to hunt Voodoo who is Voodoo. None of this will sew Jef Smax's hea dback on, or remove the spike from the chest of the woman we thought the series was really about. Oh well.

I've never been so glad to stop reading in my life.

Action #9: The main feature here is much more like we expect from GMoz, but for me Gene Ha's art is so overwhelming I just feel like I'm reading Top 10. It takes place on an alternate Earth, and sees a visit from a yet further Earth which (as you'd expect) doesn't go well for anybody. A return to form then, but you can see why it was delayed so that all the alternate Earth stuff starts at the same time. DID SUPERBOY PUNCH THE UNIVERSE FOR NOTHING? Hulk should have done it instead. WHEN HULK PUNCH UNIVERSE, UNIVERSE STAY PUNCHED. Solly Fisch's take on the Qurac of Earth 23 seems to be ruled by Borat. Oh well.

Animal Man #9: Wahey! It's Dallas' Pam & Bobby plot all over again. THE GMOZ ERA OF ANIMAL MAN WAS ALL A DREAM. The change to Steve Pugh throughout improves the book for me immensely, but there are still panels I hate (such as Buddy flying). Ellen has decided she's had enough and is leaving Buddy, despite what Maxine and the talking cat say. Buddy is possessed by The Rot, while simultaneously fighting The Rot in The Red. Constantine shows up at the end to explain it to Ellen, while Cliff wants his dad to join the Justice League so they can have a cool house. DOESN'T HE READ COMICS? DOESN'T HE REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED THE LAST TIME HIS DAD JOINED THE JUSTICE LEAGUE? There's no telling some people.

Batwing #9: Batwing goes to a fancy dinner, where the Owls try to kill Lucius Fox. He stops making sexy xhit-chat with girlies and being disgusted by Heads of State just long enough to put on his suit, when he learns the same things we've known about the Owls for weeks now over about 1/3 of the pages. He beats the Owl by exploding his arms off, then punches a Prime Minister. There are worse books than this out thre.

Detective #9: MORE OWLS. Some have come for Jeremiah Arkham, but Bats has followed them and uses Arkham's plan of using the Black Mask to get them for him by getting everybody else (including Clayface) to get them for him. In some ways typical Bat fodder, and I hope there aren't more Owls books this simplistic, but it'll do for now. The ongoing Two Face backup is great stuff though, closer to police procedural than anything else, and is the real reason for buying this month on month. Sorry Owls.

Dial H #1: As a massive fan of China Mieville's books, I was avidly waiting this since it was announced and damn it all if this isn't some of the most fun I've had since... whenever. Instantly witty, inventive and engaging; this is like the distillation of the things we thought were brilliant about GMoz's Doom Patrol and made better. This is the comic that Warren Ellis thinks he writes when he puts pen to paper. DO NOT MISS.

Earth 2 #1: I have to say, I'm not really sure what this book is for. Parademons overwhelm Metropolis but Batman sacrifices himself to wipe them out and save his daughter Helena (who will undoubtedly become the Huntress but is currently dressed as Robin). Superman is overwhelmed and killed, leaving Supergirl to escape through a Boom Tube with Robin to the first issue of World's Finest (but more on that later). Wonder Woman is stabbed through the chest and dies, but not before her shiny friend Mercury escapes and eventually happens across Jay Garrick, who becomes Flash next month. As a framing narrative it hangs together fine, but I have no idea where the clamour is for this book at all, other than to give James Robinson (for it is he) a sandbox to play in. He must have a really complicated contract because although I love The Shade book that's currently running I think I'm the only one that's actually buying it.

GI Combat #1: This is an old trick, just renaming a book, surely? And while it might have worked in the days when books were available on every newsstand and sold pretty much irrespective of the content, in these more picky days it's hard to see how rebranding Men of War is actually going to work, although this is supposed to focus on DC's old Weird War books rather than Sgt Rock so who knows. Starting with The War That Time Forgot is a good start, and picking up Unknown Soldier (which has always been a solid book) isn't bad either. Unfortunately giving it to JT Krul is a baffling decision. The art of Ariel Olivetti rescues it to a large degree and once we get free of dialogue (only the first couple of pages have actual real speaking on them) it's quite easy to just glide along with the images perfectly well. Gray and Palmiotti deliver yet another new take on the Unknown Soldier and those familiar with their work elsewhere won't be surprised that they handle the tale of a facially scarred war veteran killing for vengeance and bounties with style. Dump yer man Krul and this could be a winner.

Green Arrow #9: Ann Nocenti has, frankly, turned Green Arrow into unreadable crap (and we all know who was writing this before, so that's some claim). The conclusion to the sexy triplets story takes in kidnapped polar bears, gold mining in the Old West, paralysis drugs to heighten sexy fun times, muskrats, eskimos, genetic manipulation and helicopters. Even once you take breath, you still realise it's rubbish. Could it ever be good again? Who knows?

Wow, that's quite some praise for Dial H. Look forward to checking it out

It's just so effortlessly creative - it may well be of benefit that these are throwaway characters as it were, that they don't need to stand up to scrutiny other than the single point (or joke) that he's trying to make because this is the only time they'll appear, for a small handful of pages. It may well be that after the first story arc there's nothing to hold it together and it becomes a parody of itself, but for the first issue... just WOW.

JLI #9: OMAC shows up looking for Batman, which he does with his fists. Guy Gardner dresses up as Iron Man to punch him, and calls him a fish a lot. Once they all make friends in the sewer they fly to Paris to eat some cheese, drink some wine, see the sights, maybe a little love will bloom... nope. The Firestorms have shown up and I suspect there's going to be a FITE soon. It's not very good, this.

Red Lanterns #9: Or, as the cover says, the DEAD Lantern Corps. DO YOU SEE WHAT THEY DID THERE? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. So, this issue seems to take place simultaneously before, during and after itself. Bleez at one point refers to GL:NG, then a couple of panels later has no knowledge of it. Still, let's just go RARRR RARRR GNNNN RAGE RAGE GNNN for a bit instead of plot. At the end, Atrocitus' cat Dex-starr (which was ripped to death in #1) is back. Good, that's bound to help.

Stormwatch #9: Some guy turns up in Rome who seems to think he's already in Stormwatch and gets sucked away to the Carrier to explain. Not Batman and Not Superman go to Devon where they fight one of the Red Lanterns, but it must be summer because it's too cloudy for Not Superman's sun-related powers to work properly. So Not Batman cuts his ring arm off. He goes back to the Carrier for some deep probing. Meanwhile the Renaissance Roman escapes until Not Batman kills him, at which point the Red Ring decides he's GNNNN RAGE RAGE quality but is stopped from making his finger all pretty by the Engineer. Not Batman then has a lovely daydream about how nice it would be to be Batman, but he likes killing people too much to give it up. Best issue of this in 6 months.

Swamp Thing #9: Last issue's cliffhanger of sorts is dispatched with during this well-paced issue which is never less than beautiful. In many ways a successor to the Rite of Spring, Alec talks Abby out of being Queen of the Rot by reminding how how much he loves her, how he changes peaches to the way she likes them, the way foxfire glows... she then destroys Sethe, which badly traumatises William. But what's that? Abby's actions are bringing back Anton. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY

Titans Annual #1: The old "pit one team against the other and because neither of them knows what's going on they fight" schtick, eh? The Tians and Legion Lost have a bit of a punchup, and we don't actually learn that much about The Culling. Luckily the premise is explained in the back pages of the issue (not in the storyline) - because N.O.W.H.E.R.E. make so many teenage heroes, sometimes they get them to fight each other to get rid of the weaker ones. Quite how this ties into bringing more in who they didn't make is not clear at all. Also, this is part 1 of 4, but the Legion Lost don't get there until part 3 of 4. Obviously. This book is kind of pointless, if I'm honest, and I'm not sure why it exists.

World's Finest #1: Where Robin and Supergirl from Earth 2 become Huntress and Power Girl on our Earth, and arrive from dinner just too late to see Mister Terrible go from our Earth to Earth 2 where (presumably) he will be better written. It's kind of fun in a Giffen/Maguire Justice League way, which is added to by having Kevin Maguire do the flashback pages, but not essential. On the other hand, having an actually readable book in the 52 is a bonus so hats off to Paul Levitz. Worth looking at.

I liked DIAL H as well, though I felt it had some layout issues in the middle; it was difficult to decipher which text box I was supposed to be reading next. It was only a page or two, and I assume artist & writer will figure it out as it goes along, but it broke the flow enough to bother me.

Quite an auspicious mainstream comic debut from Mieville.