DC Comics is priming to publish “Before Watchmen”, a gorup of mini-series focused on the lives of the characters from the original. There are plenty of reasons to dismiss these books outright and some are even uttering the word “boycott”. There are also, in Brendan’s opinion, plenty of reasons to give these books a shot.

Brendan takes a look at Superman, Voodoo, GL: New Guardians, and Firestorm, and notices a disturbing but encouraging trend: a little case of art imitating art.

Kyle Higgins has managed to put together a nice little addition to the Batman universe with a story that manages to keep Dick Grayson as he was: a fun, cocky, do-gooder and not some gritty redesign of a character we’ve all grown to love.

Except for maybe that one guy you know who dyed his hair and bought a trident for that extra-special Halloween costume, nobody likes Aquaman. What’s good about this new series about the Atlantean King is that Geoff Johns knows that, although it’s just as possible that Johns was that guy who died his hair and bought a trident.

Brendan takes a look at Legion of Super-Heroes and Supergirl, two books that are not bad, but that don’t really need to exist either.

I really thought we had grown out of the awkward nineties phase of comics, where the plot of each issue could be boiled down to “guns” and “breasts” and each female character was written as a wish fulfillment for sexual conquest instead of, you know, a regular human being.

Brendan takes on a couple of new DC books that are way better than they have any right being. DCU Present’s first arc sees Deadman helping the living, Birds of Prey sees the team helping a reporter under fire, and both these books help lend credence to DC’s new 52 initiative.

I don’t think you’ll be able to buy Grifter Underoos anytime soon, and he’ll never be a household name, but this was an enjoyable read. As for Demon Knights, it’s a sword and sorcery comic for people who don’t like sword and sorcery comics but people who do will like it too.

If DC just put out 51 awful comics and paired them with Wonder Woman, I would still call the relaunch an impressive achievement. Fortunately, DC’s success rate is a little higher, and Wonder Woman #1 only serves to strengthen the new DCU.

2 for 1! Theo is lost with some Legionnaires (just not with Matter-Eater Lad), and Farley is a born-again Resurrection Man fan, Gaga references be damned!