52 - I have to admit, I'm not giving this series a very close reading. Until browsing the excellent 52 Pickup weblog, I didn't even notice that Booster Gold had committed that old time-traveller's standard: unwittingly making your own history. I guess I'm relying on other DC fans (with weblogs) to do my analysis for me. The current theory is that the Booster we've been seeing in 52 isn't even the Booster we saw in Infinite Crisis - which would make sense, because he seemed so capable and mature in IC - but I can't honestly say that that occurred to me.

In practice, though, I'm noticing that the whole "real time" thing doesn't mean very much. Yeah, I guess it's neat that each week in the comic is a week in real time... but who really cares? It's just a good read, very Robert Altman-esque in the way it weaves between so many B-grade DCU characters.

So don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying it. It's a "save" book every week... one that floats to the bottom of the pile after I read the books that are either A) so good that I have to read them first, or B) so mediocre that I have to read them first to get them out of the way. It's a complicated system.

Ultimate Fantastic Four - I am so glad that Greg Land is leaving the book, so I won't have to stare at any more soulless tracings of supermodels from Cosmo. Although this means I pretty much have to keep getting the book for a while - I was thinking of dropping it - because if I bail now, Marvel is liable to interpret that as a reader who left because Greg Land left.

After the super-crappy President Thor storyline, Frightful was comparatively great. It's hard to tell; the art is so distractingly empty. I liked seeing Doom return, and the final resolution of the Marvel Zombie-verse plot was far better than the end of the actual Marvel Zombies miniseries.

UFF Annual #2 was quite good - a comedic Mole Man riff - and the art was great.

The Flash - Back in the day, I loved the Flash book, but like a lot of formerly cool DC books, the wake of Infinite Crisis has turned it into a mess (see also: the new Green Lantern series and the last issues of JLA). You can tell that the new writing team comes from tv/movie screenwriting, because they suck. In issue 1, Bart's randomly new "best friend" is shown to be a cliche self-absorbed jerk. In issue 2, the friend is caught in a horrible accident that inspires Bart to reclaim the mantel of the Flash. In issue 3, the friend announces his super-heroic identity, and a suite of powers gained from said accident.

Give me a fucking break. Want to bet that the friend goes rogue and becomes Bart's GREATEST ENEMY in issue 4? Or that he is tragically killed due to amateur grandstanding, causing Bart to recognize that the world needs trained heroes such as himself? This guy isn't a friend; he's a crappy plot device. The is a good example of the worst use of One Year Later: inserting brand new characters that our heroes supposedly met and become awesomely tight with, inside of one year, for the sole purpose of a faux introspective moment by the end of the first story arc.

Were the sales on Wally's book so lousy that DC thought they'd give the guys who wrote Trancers a call?

Green Lantern Corps - I like this one because they've turned the Corps - which is, first and foremost, an excuse to laugh at silly aliens in Lantern uniforms - into an outer space "Law & Order." I hope they keep that vibe going. This first story has been more like "Criminal Intent," because the reader (that's you) knows which doofish alien is responsible for the murders and you're rooting for Guy and the rest to figure it out.

Plus, there's the superb concept of a guy who is so intent to get into the Corps that he'll kill for it. The gritty artwork really works well, and helps to offset all the reality-bending non-human characters. It's hard to believe this was written by the same guy who crapped out that terrible Rann-Thanagar War series last year (and illustrated Watchmen, incidentally). He must have dictated Rann-Thanagar over the phone during a cab ride, and GLC is what he can do after DC bought him a desk.

JSA Classified and JLA Classified - The two-part Amos Fortune thing was astonishingly bad, and it provides ample excuse for me to kill off both books. These rotating creative team books are a mixed bag in the best of times, but there's no way I could reduce it down to just buying the storylines that are worth a damn... it would be hard to define that as proper collecting.

***after thinking about them some more*** Wow. Those were some truly awful books. The Detroit-era JLA is officially beyond repair now, and the idea of villains running a secret underground Fight Club with brainwashed heroes is so trite that any editor who okays that should be fired immediately.

Shadowpact - I am as suprised as anyone that this book is any good. It's nice and light, and it reminds me of Giffen's Justice League in that it doesn't take itself very seriously. I love the notion that Blue Devil lives on a street where all the old neighbor ladies bug him for super-powered favors, fix him up hot dinners and nag him about his careless lifestyle. I am a big fan of books that develop a nice even pacing between Cataclysmic Word-Ending Epic Sagas and Thoughtful Dialogue-Driven Character Pieces. And I'll always take more of the latter over the relentless onslaught of the former.

Justice League of America - Speaking of that, that's exactly why I hated Morrison's JLA... because every arc was some ridiculous mass extinction event that faded the heroes themselves into mere scenery.

After reading issues 0 and 1 of Brad Meltzer's League, I am a fan.

Issue 0 is entirely a literary montage of various meetings between Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman over the years. It ends with them tossing a pile of photographs onto a table and asking each other "Who's in?" Issue 1 continues that scene and intersperses it with bits from the potential Leaguers as they gather towards one point or another. It is fantastic stuff. Meltzer looks to be turning JLA into a comic with the heart of a novel... something with more substance than just having a band of ruthless [insert villains here] fly into Earth and the League has to come up with a clever way to stop them.

I know there is criticism about the book reffing a lot of prior continuity and therefore turning off new potential readers. I say that is hand-wringing bullshit from a bunch of Silver Age apologists. You know what my entry into the DC Universe was? Crisis on Fucking Infinite Earths. If you're the type of person who would be scared of jumping into a comic book series because you don't know what happened in the previous six billion issues, then you're not likely to remain a comics fan for long anyway. Man up.

Buy the new Justice League. It is smart, intriguing reading.

Art kinda stinks though.