Review of the New 52: Part 3: Team Ups

so, in this 3rd and final installment of my reviews, i have mostly teams left. there are still some stand alone ones, like Green Lantern, but other than that, these are mostly teams, and i will do my best to detail who is on what team. same general success rate, with 4 out of the 8 getting passes to read further. also, my #1 favorite is in this group :)

This is their big one. Everything that DC says points towards if you are going to read just one of their new 52, then make it Justice League. as you can see on the cover it has all the big names you'd expect, plus Cyborg, which is a new twist. the book starts with the origins of the league, so you don't get to see all of these people in the first issue. it is only really Batman & Green Lantern at what is suppose to be their first meeting. not the best first issue, but it has so much potential to grow, i will pick up #2.

So, Justice League Dark is composed of Madame Xanadu, Shade, Zatanna, John Constantine & Deadman. i do not expect you to know who any of those are, except maybe Zatanna. i read this one off of a number of solid reviews, and people on tumblr raving over it. i was less enthralled, to say the least. it didn't hold or capture me in any way, and just didn't flow. not highly recommended from my point of view.

Well, contrary to the cover featuring Sinestro, this title actually stars Hal Jordan as the titular Green Lantern. the problem is, i seem to have missed a memo somewhere, because the whole book is Hal whining about not having his power ring anymore. i don't like Hal Jordan to begin with; he is my least favorite GL from sector 2814, thus i am not surprised at all that this one was not enticing enough for another go 'round.

So, this has set itself up as more or less a buddy-book for GL's Guy Gardner and John Stewart. they are both trying to fit into the real world, while still being GL's and it is difficult. they eventually decided to go back to Oa (GL homeworld) and find something to do there, since sector 2814 doesn't need 4 active Green Lanterns patrolling it. they stumble across a disturbance and take a group of Green Lanterns with them to check it out. this is a really promising start for the two mediocre GL's in Earth's sector. worth a look at #2.

Now we get to my Favorite Green Lantern, Kyle Rayner. back in the 90's they killed off the entire GL corps, and he was the only one left, so he carried the torch (ahem, lantern) for a while by himself. he is perfectly fit for a ring that can make anything the wearer imagines, because he is a graphic design artist, so he has the imagination. i just like everything about him really, hence the halloween costume this year. i also really like the fact that they are incorporating the other colored ring spectrum's into this title. i neat start and hopefully good things to come.

Well, i was reading all the Green Lanterns, so i figured if the Red Lanterns were prominent enough to get their own title, it might be worth a read. a Red lantern relies on Rage to fuel his ring, not willpower, like a green lantern, so obviously these are very troubled souls we're dealing with. they have all the abilities to come off as dark, and evil, but still could be seen in an anti-hero kind of way. regardless, it was just overkill for me with the gothic style writing, and whiny feel of them all. pass.

this is a group of villains and/or antiheros that are employed by the government as a way to clear their names of past crimes. it consists of Harley Quinn, Deadshot, El Diablo, King Shark, Black Spider, and Voltaic. Again, you shouldn't really know most of those. it was a successful and long running series in the 90s and 00s, but this version just doesn't work for me. too much torture, too much wordy dialogue. just not a good use of time spent reading this one.

And that leaves us with Teen Titans, the junior version of the Justice League. This title was my far and away favorite one, and that was easily decided while reading it. unfortunately, i cannot put my finger on just why it was so good to me. starting off, it focuses a lot on Tim Drake (the 3rd robin) who is putting this team of teenage superheroes together. he's still using the Red Robin alias, which i am fine with, and his dialogue seems spot on. in the first issue, we meet kid flash, who unfortunately is Bart Allen, the Flash's nephew, but other that, it is really good. Cassie is wondergirl, which is fun. overall just a fun read, and my overall top pick. very unexpected top pick, but i am not complaining!