I picked up Animal Man, Batgirl, Justice League International, Action Comics, and Stormwatch out of the new titles this week.
I liked Action Comics, as Superman isn't Godlike yet and it was a fresh take on him. I normally wouldn't read anything about Superman if it wasn't for Grant Morrison, but even without him writing it would still be good one.
Batgirl, after reading titles like Birds of Prey and Secret Six written by the same writer before the reboot, I was already interested. While it was vague on how Barbara Gordon isn't paralyzed anymore, it's mainly about how she was struggling to her past injury. I'll give this one a read as Gail Simone certainly knows Barbara the best.
Justice League International was alright, but wasn't as good as the other ones I picked up. Many of the characters are too stereotyped, even if it's a source of minor comic relief with basically Rocket Red and August General in Iron arguing, "Russia is so great!" and "No, China is awesome!"
Animal Man I felt was the best one this week, it was mainly about Bubby Baker as a family man with no focus being a part-time superhero/actor/activist who discovers that his daughter might be something quite horrific. It was a personal story, which was in contrast to some of the bigger titles this week. What stands out were those Hunters, which is linked to some coming threat to the DCU, who were quite freaky such as that one with insect legs, lamprey mouth and a vagina on the neck.
Stormwatch is another favourite of mine, while some have unfairly tried to match it up against the previous Ellis run, I felt it was a good issue even if it may have had some awkward introductory expositional dialog. Some people would notably be disappointed that it is a complete reboot of everything that happened in the Wildstorm title. What's intriguing is that it reveals Stormwatch is a shadowy Torchwood like organization which is linked to another title Demon Knights which is coming up later, and apparently it's leaders are undead. It's full of strange ideas, and while it's mostly the Authority with Hawksmoor, Apollo, Midnighter, Jenny Quantum and the Engineer, it does take a little from other Wildstorm titles. I felt that the Projectionist may have been another version of the Drummer from Planetary and Martian Manhunter almost seems to be a replacement for Jackson King of the pre-Authority Stormwatch. Again the threat in this one seems to be linked to an oncoming threat to the DCU.
In case who haven't noticed, every one of the 52 issues has a cameo appearance of that mystery hooded woman who appeared in Flashpoint #5, saying that Flash should merge the timelines together. I was able to spot her in all the issues I got this week without help, except for Batgirl where she's obscured by bright light.
