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The one-word review thing got tired (mainly because I didn’t want to repeat words over and over again) so instead, I’m going to be trying to do a very quick review of books I picked up this week.

Only no grading, because I could never do that consistently anyway.

Action Comics #878 – Four issues in to the new status quo and I’m still not sold. The only reason I’m still here is because (a) it’s got Lois, and (b) it’s going to loop back around to the other Superman books in a few months.

Batman #687 – You really have to tilt your head and squint to make this fit in with Battle for the Cowl – presumably because it fit in with writer Judd Winick’s scrapped version – but it’s not bad. Dick’s a bit mopey but it sets up the new status quo nicely enough, plus we get a scene where Dick and Alfred learn of Bruce’s death – which should probably have been shown sooner. Not a bad start.

Booster Gold #21 – It feels like this book’s got a kick in the ass after the last lackluster arc. Jurgens delivers the goods with what looks to be the start of a showdown with the time-traveling Black Beetle and some nice interplay between Booster and the new Batman. Wonder what happened to Booster’s ancestor, the second Supernova, though? The back-up – sorry, second feature – with Blue Beetle was fun but disposable. Good to see Paco and Brenda again, but the story felt like something more suited to Gail Simone’s old All-New Atom title as opposed to Beetle. Maybe it’s just me.

Flash: Rebirth #3 – A third slow issue about the fastest man alive. Huh. On the plus side, nice art, a last page reveal that makes the first page make sense, the return of two heroes – even if one of them appears to get wiped out again immediately – and one good line from Barry to Superman almost make the issue good. Honestly, though, if this is a big a deal as everyone makes it out to be, it should be a more interesting read.

Green Lantern Corps #37 – There’s an awful lot going on here: Sodam Yat’s so-obviously-not-final sacrifice, Arisia rallying the Daxamite population against Mongul, riots on Oa and rogue Guardian Scar generally raising hell and causing big, big problems. Tomasi, Gleason and co pack a lot in, but not so much that it’s unreadable. Although, seriously: Arisia, guerilla leader? Come on.

R.E.B.E.L.S. #5 – I’m not sure what’s going on with the art here. The character work is great, but the space battles look rushed. Story-wise, things move on a little bit, Vril Dox plots away and we finally see the real Starro. I kind of liked the big starfish version myself but whatever. It’s a quick read that may be better served in trade format.

Red Robin #1 – I’m on the fence here. On the plus side, I’m not as down on Tim and Dick’s interaction as everyone else seems to be – I didn’t read this as Tim being forced out of the Batfamily by any means. Similarly, I like that he has a clearly defined mission – find Bruce Wayne – that’s sending him globe-trotting across the, er, globe. I also liked the appearance of a certain Bat-foe, and I thought that Yost and Bachs make a pretty good creative team. On the minus side, I am a little worried that Tim – one of the most optimistic DC characters at one point – is now going all dark and moody, and that one of the character’s great assets in the past was his non-super supporting cast which are now all gone. Also, this paragraph is way too long.

Amazing Spider-Man #597 – I think for such a ‘big’ storyline, team Spidey could have assigned one penciller. Chechetto’s work here is actually very good, so good that I don’t think we needed Phil Jimenez on part one of the arc. Kelly’s story is tight and sharp, and full of nice moments as Spidey tries – and fails – to masquerade as bad-ass Venom in amongst the Dark Avengers. Good stuff. And two pages teasing the return of a classic villain in #600 made me realize just how much I’ve missed him. Good issue.

Deadpool #11 – Crazily good fun. I haven’t always been a fan of Daniel Way’s work, but this is just great – and Paco Medina’s art here is perfect for the madcap main character. Bullseye and Deadpool go at it, and neither really want it to end – and neither do I.

Fantastic Four #567 – The only reasons I’m still buying this right now are because I’ll be damned if I let this crappy run kick me off the book, the run’s almost over, and more importantly I hold out the teeniest, tiniest hope that it’s going to end with Doom coming back and kicking seven shades of shit out of his so-called Master. Also, I’m assuming that the guy’s permanently-shadowed apprentice is an alternate Reed Richards. Or Wolverine, because that’s just how Millar rolls.

Lockjaw And The Pet Avengers #2 – Severely, severely awesome. Pick this up.

Uncanny X-Men #511 – What a clusterfuck. Land’s art has people posing all over the place in confused fight scenes and Fraction’s script seems to assume that you just don’t care if a story makes sense. This whole Red Queen thing feels like it was just to get Psylocke back, and it’s been tortuous getting there. The book needs new blood, stat.

War Of Kings Savage World Of Skaar – Gorgon and Starbolt play Enemy Mine. Or, you know ‘Skaar, when the walls fell’ (bonus points for getting the misquoted reference!). Pointless and predictable, with merely adequate artwork and script, but oddly engaging all the same.

Wolverine #74 – Er, haven’t read it yet as I want to dig up #73 and read both in one sitting. But it sure looks pretty.

X-Men Forever #1 – I…okay, I can’t honestly say that this was a good book, but I can say I enjoyed it for what it was – a nice, nostalgic look at what might have been, complete with modern take on the corner box. Grummet’s artwork is as solid as ever (except for the oddly static cover) and there’s a sense that things will be different this time out – I fully expect the death of an established X-Man to prove a point in the first few issues. But ‘Remy Picard’? Seriously? I’d guess this is a fake name as LeBeau hadn’t been revealed as Gambit’s name at the time X-Men #3 shipped, and Jean Luc LeBeau hadn’t been…Jean Luc…Picard…oh. I’ll get my coat.

Angel: Blood & Trenches #4 – This has been an enjoyable throwaway series with gorgeous pencils by John Byrne. And I mean gorgeous. Unfortunately, the last issue here is a little rushed, and the final two page denouement feels completely unnecessary – honestly, there are some things that just feel a little bit off, and having Angel save Hitler is one of them. Otherwise, a decent read.

I was looking back over the one word reviews I’ve been posting lately and it occurred to me that, well, it doesn’t look like I enjoy about half the comics I read.

My first reaction was ‘that’s not true!’ but the more I think of it, the more I get the nagging feeling that it might be.

Take Batman and Superman. I’m back to picking up the majority of the Batman books, and I’m enjoying Battle for the Cowl in a big, blockbuster kind of way but the last time I was really enthusiastic about Batman – and I mean in the ‘looking-forward-to-every-single-issue’ kind of way – was probably around the time of No Man’s Land.

And that, I’m surprised to see, was about nine years ago.

As for Superman – he’s probably my second favorite superhero character after Spider-Man (obviously both fall way behind Lois Lane, but that’s another story) – I’m a little unsure when the last time I felt that way was. Probably around the same time, during the 1999 soft relaunch of the books when they had Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb (back when he could construct an almost coherent story), Stuart Immonen, Mark Millar and Mark Schultz were handling the writing. Of course, that all went to hell shortly thereafter with the godawful Our World At War storyline but hey, they can’t all be winners.

But was it really nine years since I enjoyed either of DC’s flagship characters consistently? I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed them since then – but that’s honestly the last time that I think I looked forward to every issue of their main books.

It’s not as though there aren’t highlights at the moment; I’m enjoying pretty much everything about Amazing Spider-Man right now, Captain America continues to be fantastic, R.E.B.E.L.S is great fun, I’m enjoying John Byrne’s work on Angel: Blood and Trenches, Rick Remender’s Punisher this week was good enough to guarantee that it’s staying on my pull list for the next arc too, the main War of Kings series is awesome, I’m looking forward to Blackest Night in spite of the stupidity of the Rainbow Corps…

I guess the point is that I’m not as enthusiastic as I want to be about a lot of books these days – I may have singled out Batman and Superman but they and DC are not the only culprits. While I think that the Dark Reign status quo at Marvel is interesting, I don’t think every book needs to reflect the darkening of the MU.

A little levity would be welcome at the moment. Maybe that’s it.