The New 52

September was anything but a normal month for me on all counts.  September was the month that DC Comics introduced their 52 brand new titles.  The day that I got my copy of the first of these books, Justice League #1, was also the day my mother went into the hospital.  The day that the last batch of these first issues was released was the day my mother passed away.  There wasn't much time in between the release of the first and last issues for me to read them.  However, today I finished reading the stack of all 52 issues.  I decided that even though I was very unhappy with the decision to cancel everything and start fresh, I thought the least I should do was to sample the new titles and then make decisions on what to read based on the first issues.  It didn't hurt that there was such a major push that most retailers were offering great deals for trying the entire line.

I tried to sort the books as I finished them, putting them somewhat in the order that I liked them, from best to worst. The books might not be in exactly the right order, but it's close enough.

Some books surprised me for both the better and the worst.  For example, I was very surprised at how much I didn't like any of the Superman family of books.  I was really, really disappointed in every single one of them.  Action was probably my favorite of the Superman books, but in spite of it being a Superman book.  I won't be following any of those in the future.  

Another surprise was that I actually enjoyed I, Vampire.  From the looks of the book, from the description of the book, I was pretty sure it would be near the bottom of my pile.  I'm actually intrigued and plan on following up on this, though I'm going to wait for the trade rather than read it monthly.  

I found it interesting that one writer wrote one of my favorite and one of my least favorite books.  Kyle Higgins, someone I'm not familiar with at all, wrote both Nightwing and Deathstroke.  Nightwing was actually pretty damn good, I thought, while Deathstroke was painful and in need of instant cancellation.

My ten favorite books of the month were as follows:

Batgirl, my favorite book of the month.

Batwoman

Batman

Aquaman

Green Lantern

Wonder Woman

Legion Of Super-Heroes

Nightwing

DC Universe Presents

Justice League Dark

Without further ado, here are my ten least favorite books.  These were bad.  Bad bad.

Voodoo

 Captain Atom

 Blackhawks

 Teen Titans

 Red Hood and the Outlaws

 OMAC

 Grifter

 Green Arrow

Deathstroke

And finally, the absolute biggest piece of shit for the month

Hawk & Dove

I think that I'm going to end up reading about twenty or so titles out of the line up.  Some I'm planning on reading monthly and some I'm planning on reading in trade.  I plan on reading Wonder Woman, Nightwing, DC Universe Presents, Swamp Thing, Batwing, I, Vampire, Demon Knights, All-Star Western and Justice League International in trade format, at least the first volume of each.  These books intrigued me enough to want to read more, but not necessarily every single month.  As for monthly titles, I'm going to pick up Batgirl, Batwoman, Batman, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Legion, Justice League Dark, Savage Hawkman, Green Lantern: New Guardians, Detective, Frankenstein, Red Lanterns, Green Lantern Corps, Stormwatch, Justice League and Legion Lost.  That's 16 monthly titles and 9 trades.  How long I stick with any of these is anyone's guess, but those were the titles that didn't repulse me.  The other 27 titles in the line, though....