Fantastic Four - lovely issue, Ben’s characterization is spot-on, and the whole thing is very humorous.
Iron Man / Captain America - Civil War : Casualties of War - hell of a title. Kind of a fluff piece, but it’s nice to see a semi-competent writer actually try to flush out Cap and Iron Man’s motivations.
Civil War : Frontline - I think I already mentioned how amused I was that this title completely was overshadowing Civil War. It continues to do so - the stupid tacked-on bit about real war in the end isn’t patently offensive like the others, and is actually moderately touching.
New Avengers - Wow, What a crappy artist for a superhero book. Oh, wait… there isn’t any superhero stuff in the book. I guess it’s okay, then.
New Avengers : Illuminati - Booyah. Nice start to what looks like a promising mini.
She-Hulk - Awww… bye, Andy. Come back soon. Seems like She-Hulk is a pretty crappy lawyer if she didn’t expect what happens in the last couple of pages.
Fables - Wonderful little Christmas story. Rose Red and Little Boy Blue make a cute (and colourful) couple, and Snow and Bigby’s kids are a. Dor. A. Ble. If I ever have kids, I think I’ll add The Question to the Santa tradition.
Teen Titans - Minor continuity glitch re: Zatara (although I suppose he could have joined twice in the gap), but that’s easy to push aside. The only part that actually bothered me was a violation of my sense of narrative symmetry. They chose the wrong demonic force to give Eddie his powers! Sure, it’s nice to see Neron again, and they did add the bit with Neron and Danny to create narrative symmetry, but, still, it would have been better, in my mind, if Eddie’d gotten his powers from Trigon (as he’d be joining the Titans) or a reborn Nebiros.
52 - All I’m going to say is that Dick’s going to be veeeery disappointed. Well…OK, and that I like the bit with Renee and Kate. The bit with Renee and Vic was interesting, if depressing. I still don’t think it was just a coincidence that Accomplished Perfect Physician mentioned he can cure cancer with a sound in the last issue, but we’ll see.
Ion - Tangents! Pleeeeease don’t make them go away! I want the Green Lantern, at least to stick around. I’m thinking she could be a way to bring back Jade - doors of the afterlife be damned! With her powers, and one of her suggested origins…I’d like to see Jenny revived as the New Earth version of the Green Lantern (Tangent Style). Perhaps as a guardian of the doors of the afterlife.
Dick. Aside from the indications of it being Dick*, it’s straight from Siglan’s mouth that it’s Dick who’s met Kate, not Jason, and it would be odd to have that happen, then have Jason meet her and give her a Christmas present on their first meeting.
Dick made a big deal of ‘going back to work’ 2 pages/4 days before Nightwing met Bat Woman, Nightwing apparently hasn’t killed anyone, his personality is very much Dick’s, not Jason’s, and he gave her what appears to be a current generation Batarang, which Jason wouldn’t likely have access to.
Teen Titans #42: The origin of Kid Devil. Very nicely done. Called back to Underworld Unleashed, a neat little event that had no lasting consequences outside of introducing Neron and messing up Blue Devil. I like Eddie’s deliberate lack of angst over his quite dire situation. (Although one wonders how long he’s got until the others find out and gives him the “we’re you’re friends, we’re here to help” speech")
Checkmate #9: The duputization powers make Checkmate a real force to be reckoned with. Nasty. Although this could make them the nucleus of the next “everbody’s invited” event, which could be nice, as it would create more tension than the default spontaneous JLU scheme. Can anyone give me the skinny on the new White Bishop? If Jagger wasn’t just lying to blow off the stripper, then Greg Rucka is now responsible a large percentage of the DCU’s homosexuals.
Y the Last Man #52: We’re really heading for the home stretch now. So far the conclusions have been satisfactory. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Secret Six #6: A fight scene that seemed disjointed from the plot its connected to. Mad Hatter and Ragdoll manage to pull it through in the end.
Aquaman Sword of Atlantis #47: Did we really need this side trip? It didn’t really feel necesary since all it did was establish that King Shark’s a bad ass. I suppose the Crown will come back later, but it still feels like a speed bump from the plot.
Birds of Prey #101: Still not sure why Babs is working with DC’s slightly saner distaff answer to the Punisher. I don’t have a problem with really dark heroes, or anti-heroes, but I do expect the lighter heroes to not sign off on their activities. Huntress and Batman are an excellent example of the dynamic I’m talking about (yes, Helena’s on the team too, but from all appearances she’s lightened up quite a bit). Love the bantering and neat cliffhanger. This really is the showcase for the best of DC’s women.
Tales of the Unexpected #3: The Spectre story is ho-hum. Not bad, but not really worth getting excited about either. The Dr. 13 story, OTOH, is just crazy gold.
52 Week 33: Dick is really barking up the wrong tree here. Luthor is deliciously evil. I thought Adam never changed back to mortal form because his mortal form is even more of a dick than he is, right?
The Dr 13 story makes TotU officially the best comic book EVER.
I did really like the Spectre story - the inevitability of it all, watching Cris squirm as he begins to figure out what’s going to happen, and the OHSHIT moment when he realises he’s been wrong.
However, none of that comes close to Vampires, Ghost Pirates (with adorable Portuguese accents!), unfrozen cavemen, and NAZI GORILLAS!!! And the ghost of General JEB Stewart! (Albeit without the tank.).
The incest stuff (the dream from the first issue, and talking about everything being metaphors while shaking a banana at Traci) is a little…odd, and I wonder where they’re going with it.
Shadowpact - The art’s an interesting change - took a few pages to get used to and suddenly jarred again at the end when Nightmaster was shown in his civilian clothes. Interesting addition to Ragman’s history. Rory finally realizes something about the rag suit that anyone who payed attention knew from the start. The scene about his family’s name change made me giggle, although part of me says I shouldn’t.
Ion - agreed, I like the re-appearance of the Tangent folks there, even if I didn’t read them the first time around, simply because of what it implies.
Teen Titans - No real complaints - as a fan of the original Blue Devil series, it was nice to see his origin re-established. And the timeline quibble about Zatara’s joining the Titans is mild - he’s still a relatively new member of the Titans in 52. Two months, or thereabouts?
Fables - Awesome, awesome one-off.
Shadowpact - Agreed on the jarring art shift; nice to see Ragman get the spotlight.
Checkmate - Still a consistently entertaining book. Love the new choice of bishop, love Black Queen throwing her weight around, love the super-team cameo.
Secret Six - A satisfying resolution, for me.
Birds of Prey - I like the new arc. And it’s possible, Menocchio, that Babs is working with the person in question so as to lure her away from that edgy darkness? Just a thought.
52 - Well, Ellen Baker gets my favorite panel this week. As for Black Adam, it seems that he has been seperated from the modern human (Theo Adam) who hosted his power, leaving him with his original mortal body. I’m not sure when that happened. With regard to the final pages - since when is there a 20th century Persuader? Did I miss something? Fatal Five references in 52 : Two.
Far as I know, this is new. Although it could be a result of Persuader getting time-lost in the Titans/Legion special that introduced the new Legion continuity.
Like the Emerald Head of Ekron, this is a moving of the origin to the 20th century - prior to this, when it’s actually been addressed, the Atomic Axe was a 27th century weapon.