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DC New 52 round-up Volume 3

Well, this is it. After two years of monthly blog entries, I'm hanging up my hat with this last round-up. Please remember that all "awards" below are based solely on my personal opinions, but I would love to hear yours as well!

Note: The issues considered for awards varies for each series. Please refer to the "Series Ranking" section of this article to see a full list of included issues by series.

Group/Series Awards

Best Group/Family

Favorite Group Overall - Green Lantern

It was a close race, but Green Lantern took the win because it did not have any weak links in the chain. There were other categories that had books that I liked more than some GL books, but those categories would also have some awful books as well. The Green Lantern group performed solidly all around and delivered a couple interesting crossover events and the end of Geoff John's epic run. So far, Larfleeze is shaping up to be another solid entry in this family of books.

Least Favorite Group Overall - Young Justice

With only three books at the beginning of this rotation, two of which have now been canceled, this hardly counts as a group. In fact, DC is not even announcing solicits by group anymore (possibly because they have become so unbalanced?) At any rate, all of the books in this group were below average. I recognize the need for books featuring young heroes and I hope DC is soon able to recreate the success it had in the past with Tim Drake's Robin series. I just don't think its going to happen with the current Teen Titans book.

Best Writing

Gold Medal - Geoff Johns (Green Lantern + Aquaman, Justice League, JLA)

Silver Medal - Scott Snyder (Batman + Swamp Thing)

Bronze Medal - Keith Giffen (Threshold)

Best Interior Art

Gold Medal - Mikel Janin (Justice League Dark)

Silver Medal - Jason Fabok (Detective Comics)

Bronze Medal - Ivan Reis (Justice League)

Best Cover Art

Gold Medal - Greg Capullo (Batman)

Silver Medal - Mico Suayan (Red Hood and the Outlaws)

Bronze Medal - Aaron Kuder (Green Lantern: New Guardians)

Best Writing Team Changes

Gold Medal - Detective Comics 13 (Tony Daniel to John Layman)

Silver Medal - Green Arrow 17 (Ann Nocenti to Jeff Lemire)

Bronze Medal - Deathstroke 15 (Rob Liefeld to Justin Jordan)

Honorable Mention - Firestorm 13 (Joe Harris to Dan Jurgens)

Best Limited Series

Favorite Limited Series - Human Bomb

Least Favorite Limited Series - JSA Liberty Files: Whistling Skull

Character Awards

Existing characters benefiting from New 52:

  • Orion (Wonder Woman)
  • Ocean Master (Aquaman)
  • Vibe (Vibe, JLA)
  • Shazam (Justice League)

Existing characters hurt by New 52:

  • Power Girl (Worlds' Finest)
  • Talia al Ghul (Batman Incorporated)
  • Sun Boy (Legion of Super-Heroes)
  • Eclipso (lots of books)

Existing characters I'm waiting to see:

  • Metamorpho
  • Red Tornado

Most interesting new characters:

  • Simon Baz (Green Lantern)
  • Calvin Rose (Talon)
  • Exoristos (Demon Knights)
  • B'dg (Green Lantern)
  • Emperor Penguin (Detective Comics)

Least interesting new characters:

  • Volthoom (Green Lantern)
  • Shay Veritas (Superman)

Series Ranking within group (top=best, bottom=worst)

Justice League Group

  1. Justice League (13-21)
  2. Aquaman (14-17,0)
  3. Justice League of America (1-5)
  4. Vibe (1-6)
  5. Earth 2 (7-12, Annual 1)
  6. Green Arrow (17-21)
  7. Flash (13-19)
  8. Wonder Woman (13-18,0)
  9. Fury of Firestorm (13-20)
  10. DC Universe Presents (13-19)
  11. Savage Hawkman (17-20)
  12. Worlds' Finest (6-11)
  13. Katana (1-6)

Batman Group

  1. Batman (13-20,0)
  2. Detective Comics (13-20,0)
  3. Batman: Dark Knight (16-21, Annual 1)
  4. Talon (0-7)
  5. Nightwing (13-18,0)
  6. Batgirl (14-19,0)
  7. Batwing (13-19,0)
  8. Batman and Robin (15-18, Annual 1)
  9. Red Hood and the Outlaws (15-18,0)
  10. Birds of Prey (13-17)
  11. Batman Incorporated (7-13, Special)
  12. Batwoman (12-17,0)
  13. Catwoman (13-18,0)

Superman Group

  1. Superman (13-17,0)
  2. Supergirl (14-19)
  3. Superboy (14-19, Annual 1)
  4. Action Comics (13-18)

Green Lantern Group

  1. Green Lantern (13-20,0)
  2. Green Lantern Corps (13-20,0, Annual 1)
  3. Red Lanterns (13-20,0)
  4. Green Lantern: New Guardians (13-20,0, Annual 1)

The Dark Group

  1. Demon Knights (13-23)
  2. Animal Man (13-18,0)
  3. Swamp Thing (13-18,0, Annual 1)
  4. Sword of Sorcery (0-8)
  5. Constantine (1-6)
  6. Justice League Dark (14-21)
  7. Dial H (7-15)
  8. Phantom Stranger (0-5)
  9. I Vampire (13-19,0)

The Edge Group

  1. Threshold (1-8)
  2. Deathstroke (15-20)
  3. All Star Western (13-18,0)
  4. Suicide Squad (14-19,0)
  5. Team 7 (0-8)
  6. Stormwatch (13-18,0)

Young Justice Group

  1. Legion of Super-Heroes (15-23)
  2. Teen Titans (11-16,0)
  3. Ravagers (8-12)

Closing Thoughts on Canceled Series

Threshold

I enjoyed this book a lot. The reimagining of old sci-fi space heroes, the oh-so-subtle commentary on reality television, great stuff all. The twist ending was unexpected and hilarious. It's obvious that Giffen had some long-term plans that had to be scrapped when the book got canceled, but I think he played it off well with his usual humor.

Deathstroke

Deathstroke has been a good book all along, but Justin Jordan was making it a great book. With short, action-packed missions like killing the unkillable man and fighting an army of ninjas, I think this book could have continued for a while without getting stale. I'm filing this one under "canceled too soon"

Demon Knights

I think it is good for the New 52 to have books that don't follow the superhero formula. I've always enjoyed Demon Knights to some degree, but didn't read it regularly because I don't really like fantasy books. However, the book really picked up at the end and I wouldn't mind reading it every week despite its genre. In particular, I liked that some of the other characters like Exoristos and Horsewoman got fleshed out, and their mysterious connection to Stormwatch was explained.

Sword of Sorcery

Solid genre book. It's not my favorite genre, but I could see that all three of the stories had potential. Not much else to say about this one...

DC Universe Presents

I think that this book had the right idea, but was not living up to its potential. The New 52 needs a showcase book that explores other areas of the DCU in short, contained stories. Sometimes it works really well like the Vandal Savage story. Sometimes, it doesn't work as well... I hope to see another showcase book in the future, or at least some minis on minor characters.

Dial H

I have a love/hate relationship with this book. I like the idea that there is a larger mystery behind the heroes that the Dial creates. I like the idea that Nelson is losing himself to the identities while Roxie maintains hers with the mask. I like the relationship between Nelson and Roxie. My major issue is that sometimes the book can get confusing and convoluted. By the time they finally revealed what the dials were, I had no idea what was going on... Otherwise, it was usually a good read.

I Vampire

I originally didn't like this book because I thought it was too slow and boring. Then I really liked it because of all the craziness that happened in the Stormwatch crossover. At this point, I'm a little underwhelmed. There's too many crazy twists and turnovers. The balance of power shifts so often that you stop caring after a while. This book had its moments, but I'm okay with it being over.

Fury of Firestorm

I really disliked this book when it first started. A lot of things bothered me, but mostly the fact that there were two Firestorms. The most recent issues have brought back the classic dynamic of two minds in one body. Dan Jurgens did a good job bringing back the classic Firestorm and making the concept work with these characters. It still wasn't one of my favorites, but it was fun and engaging and I'm sorry to see it cancelled.

Ravagers

This book wasn't so bad, which is surprising to me considering my feelings on the current Teen Titans book. I liked the idea of pulling in some unused characters like Fairchild and Beast Boy. Ultimately though, I'm not sorry to see this book go because it could never really get out of the shadow of the Culling, which I disliked immensely.

Team 7

The concept behind this book was good, but it was executed terribly. The relationships between the characters felt awkward and unnatural. The plot was nearly incomprehensible. It's weird because they sum it up quite nicely in the end of Deathstroke's book, which is written by the same guy... Overall, I wish they could have done more with it, but I'm not sorry to see it go.

Batman Incorporated

I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it focused on the Batmen of other nations. The focus was almost entirely on Batman and Robin and made it feel like just another weekly Bat-book, or Morrison's conclusion to his Batman and Robin run. SPOILER AHEAD: I also think it was a little wasteful to kill off Damian so soon. He's one of the few breakout new characters that has been working for them and killing him leaves the looming question of adding to the ever-growing list of Robins. Overall, I'm sorry to see this book go because I'm curious what someone else would have done with it.

Legion of Super-Heroes

The Legion of Super-Heroes is one of my favorite concepts, but I did not enjoy this book for most of its run. A lot of the classic characters had left the team or fallen out of focus. Other favorites of mine were sucked away to Legion Lost, never to be seen in this book again. Too much focus was given to the new Legionnaires, who I cared nothing about. That being said, I do think the Fatal Five story arc was significantly better than the earlier issues. The threat felt more legitimate and the whole Legion came into play. I hope the Legion doesn't stay down for long.

Savage Hawkman

I usually don't care for this character, and this book did nothing to change my mind. One of the annoying things about Hawkman is the many different interpretations of the character. On this book alone, we've seen at least three different creative teams, and none of them could make the character appealing to me. I think Hawkman is much better off in the JLA book, so I'm not sorry to see his solo book go.

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