DC New 52: What's Still Worth Reading?

[DennyA]

So far I haven't been that thrilled with the New 52. A lot of "look at how different the character/situation is now" in so many of the books...

But with a trip coming up, I figured I'd pick up some iPad story arcs at $1.99/issue and read them on the plane. (Nice thing about tablets - no shame in comic-reading on the plane. :)

I'm curious as to what books folks are reading in the New 52 that they really like. I've been reading Animal Man (the universal recommendation), Batman (pretty good), Batman and Robin (Damian's an awesome character), Aquaman (decent so far, though still developing), and the Superman books (meh). And Wonder Woman, which everyone seems to like but to me it seems like a Percy Jackson ripoff with bad art.

Apparently I need to pick up Swamp Thing. What else should I give a chance?

(Bonus points for any fantastic Marvel books. I dropped most of them a couple years ago as I got tired of the the never-ending string of event comics, and I'm just reading FF/Fantastic Four and Cap right now.)

[Tin Wisdom]

Having not read comics (other than the Walking Dead trades) for many a long year, I started to read some of the New 52 on the iPad when they began. I have dropped most of the ones I started with and now it's down to Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Resurrection Man, and Suicide Squad.

Of those four, oddly, Suicide Squad is the one that I really look forward to. I like the whole subversion of the hero/villain tropes; plus the character development is deeper than you see in most DC books. Resurrection Man isn't as good as I hoped yet, but I love Dan Abnett's novels, so I'm willing to give him a calendar year's worth of cover price to get started. Swamp Thing and Animal Man are pretty decent, but not too much happens in any one issue -- lots of imagery with little text and not much more story.

[BleedTheFreak]

I've been really happy with the Batman story so far, it feels like a good read and it fits the Batman "mythos" well (as in, it feels like Batman where some of the other new books don't feel quite right. For example, "Superman" doesn't feel right, and Justice League seemed to have characters that LOOKED like the heroes we know and love, but were played by assholes in thier costumes instead).

In general, not super impressed.

[Wholly Schmidt]

I'm really digging Remender's Marvel books, Uncanny X-Force, Secret Avengers, and to a lesser degree—owing to no knowledge of the current symbiont's owner—Venom. I'd definitely grab the first arc of Uncanny X-Force at the very least.

[Nawid A]

I like the art in Batman but each issue seems to be Batman going "I run this city" and then the owls going "naw we run this city". Not to mention Snyder's overuse of past retconning and plot problems. Why would the Owls pop up now of all times? How come Batman had a hard time fighting one for seven issues and now can take down three at a time in civilian wear?

I really liked Animal Man but the artist left and the plot hasn't moved much in the past five months (I feel like he's stalling for the Swamp Thing crossover).

Wonder Woman is probably my favorite. Great reinvention of that world and it is really it's own thing.

[corsair]

Well, based on a friend's recommendation, I decided to give that old favorite from when I was a kid, The Legion of Super Heroes. Of course, what works when you are a kid (zillions of characters that can barely be given lip service with lots of then-new cool powers) doesn't necessarily work as an adult.

If I didn't know most of the characters from their original introduction decades ago (wait, no, let's make it worse for me - half a century ago - oh, you guys whining about being 40....) I'd need a scorecard. There's way too many characters to do them proper justice, the writer flits around from scene to scene without a whole lot of explanation, stilted and pompous speech is omnipresent - but that's based just on issues 7 and 8.

[DennyA]

So the answer here seems to be "read more novels."

[Brad Wardell]

I kind of lost interest in the new Superman ones with the weird Kryptonian type monster.

The new Justice League I enjoyed quite a bit but the most recent one with Green Arrow left me cold.

[Nawid A]

So the answer here seems to be "read more novels."

Read Prophet and Saga. :)

[umberolt]

I would stick with the Animal Man, Batman, and Aquaman titles, at least until about 12 issues. They are good so far, and if they can keep your interest for a year, then that is great.

While not DC or Marvel, I would highly recommend Atomic Robo. Awesome comic all around. Give the first volume a shot, or check out the free comics they have online to see if it is to your liking.

http://www.nuklearpower.com/2009/07/...book-day-2009/

[The Bird Flu]

Read Prophet and Saga. :)

I second this. Prophet especially is freaking great so far (start with issue 21).

[Brian Seiler]

Books I liked as of issue 6 (kind of a little stalled out right now):

Animal Man
Swamp Thing
Batman (we'll see if I stay on once I get into Night of the Owls)
OMAC (canceled, so don't bother)
Justice League
Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.
Resurrection Man (on the edge)

Less Enthusiastic but Still On Board
Justice League International
Wonder Woman
Aquaman
The Flash

I'm also planning on trying to grab Earth Two when it comes around, and maybe a couple others of the second wave books. That, however, is all contingent on my finding the time to read frigging comics. To tell the truth, most of the series that I am most interested are really coming out of Image right now (Saga, Prophet, Chew, Morning Glories, and cetera and cetera) and I haven't even had the time to draw up a usable pull list for grabbing this shit in digital.

[Alex Hopkinson]

You mentioned Marvel as well? Wolverine & The X-Men has been great fun. I went into it with no real knowledge of the last few years of Marvel X-continuity and have been enjoying it a lot. The latest issue ties into the current Marvel event, which sounds like a bad thing but (at least in this one issue) it's the best kind of tie in - one that deals with how the event affects some of the characters in the book whilst continuing to tell its own stories. It's not a "you need to read X before hand, Y alongside it and Z inbetween this issue and the next" kind of situation, so far.

[Brian Seiler]

How is it tying into AvX? The fact that it literally never goes on sale on Comixology has kept me out of it to date, but I am 100% of not buying all those goddamn X books. I know the latest has the banner on the cover, but how big a deal is it really?