The third post in this series covers the second week of the second month of DC Comics’ line-wide relaunch. In part one I looked at all of the new first issues at once, while in part two the coverage schedule went weekly. This week featured thirteen second issues, and the launch of two more mini-series.

My reactions are presented via three lists: Interested, Maybe Interested, and Not Interested, along with notes and comments on each title. Each week, I’ll note if any books have switched from one list to another, and at month’s end I will post a wrap-up on where all the books stand.

The summary: one book dropped from Interested to Maybe Interested; one dropped from Maybe to Not; and both new mini-series debuted in Interested.

Interested

• Batgirl
  Plays very much as a part two, picking up from last issue. To the point where, while it advances a bit of the Mirror mystery, it mostly just reinforces the depiction of the psychological impact upon, and import of, Barbaba Gordon’s return to masked vigilantism. That’s not a negative, as her inner monologue is crucial to what the book is doing right now, but the point’s been made, so hopefully we move forward a bit with that struggle.
• Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE
  Still loving this book. There’s something of a sheer manic madness to it, and it sort of seems like a book in which pretty much anything could happen. Oddly, I kind of want them to do an issue where nothing happens.
• My Greatest Aventure (new)
  This is mainly all about the Robotman segment for me, and already I vote for giving him an ongoing of his own instead of a piece of this 12-issue series. It feels a bit to me like what might happen if Tony Stark were stripped of all of his body except for his brain, which resided in his Iron Man suit. It’s fun with an underlying dark that works extraordinarily well. The other two segments (Garbage Man, and Tanga) do nothing for me at all.
• The Shade: Master of Darkness (new)
  Most of my appreciation here comes from the confrontation at the end, which is simply a spectacular way to end a first issue, and almost unavoidably demands that you continue reading. Also, it’s a very nice book to look at.

Maybe Interested

• Batwoman
  I’m still not completely sold on it, and while the second issue seemed less disjointed than the first, I’m still not entirely sure it’s found its rhythm or stride, but it’s clearly striving to establish its own identity within the Batman universe.
• Deathstroke (was: Interested)
  I understand he’s a bad-ass, and while I understand he’s in a career position where he needed to demonstrate that to some people, hence the violent action, it didn’t actually teach me anything new about the character. His appearance this month in The Shade was far more interesting.
• Demon Knights
  The somewhat weird mix of characters here makes me almost desperately want to like it more than I actually do. I’m continuing to give it some time to see if it gels, but right now I like this book more as a theory than as an actual practice.
• Suicide Squad
  The premise here is growing on me in its execution, although this still seemed more like premise establishment than a switch to the meat of the storytelling. I’d have liked to know more about the nature and origin of the threat in the issue, but then I suppose the Squad itself doesn’t tend to get that information.

Not Interested

• Batman and Robin
  The dynamic between and amongst the characters is stronger this time around, but mostly the second issue helped demonstrate that I might simply not be interested in that dynamic.
• Grifter (was: Maybe Interested)
  I’m not sure there’s anything particularly wrong with this book, exactly. But after two issues it’s not offering me enough to interest me much in what happens next.
• Green Lantern
  For those previously committed to the Lantern books, the premise here — Hal Jordan as Sinestro’s own personal Green Lantern — admittedly is probably pretty interesting. I, however, simply don’t care.
• Legion Lost
  The start of this series would have been stronger had it begun with the opening of this issue, and then flashed back to the Legion’s arrival. The narration by Wildfire is the strongest part of this issue, and helps ground the mission in character a bit, the first real sense of character so far. But it’s still unclear to me how the book’s premise is sustainable over the long term.
• Mister Terrific
  The technobabble remains distracting and unconvincing, I still don’t see how he’s the third smartest man in the world, and I simply don’t care about anything that’s happening.
• Resurrection Man
  Last month, I suggested this could have made the Maybe list. Nothing in this month’s issue suggested to me this will happen. Again here, I don’t care about what’s happening.
• Superboy
  I am, in all honesty, far more interested in Rose than I am in Superboy. Could we just give her a book, even just a mini-series? Otherwise, it’s still pretty to look at but I basically forget it immediately afterward.