DCU 2006 Report Card

[Bored at 3:00AM]

The year is starting to wrap up, so it's time to take a look back and see what went right and what went wrong for Dan Dido this year.

The Superman titles: The OYL relaunch got off to a bit of a shaky start thanks to the Action Comic's delay, but the stories have all been pretty solid and well drawn. Compared to the Bat-books, these books have changed the least in terms of character and status quo....thus far anyways. All Star Superman has been so good that the DCU tend to suffer by comparison, but that's not much of a criticism.

Grade: A-

The Batman titles: I haven't been following this relaunch very closely, but it seems like a vast improvement upon the previous year in which none of the characters liked the title character because he was being a dick. Still, I haven't been blown away by anything I've seen from either Morrison or Dini. And let's not even mention the car wreck that is All Star Batman & Robin.

Grade: B

The JLA/JSA titles: Probably the biggest improvement I've seen given the high quality and variety out there now. You've got old school JLA with Alex Ross & company's Justice maxi-series, all-ages fun with Adam Beechen & Carlo's JLU, Meltzer's continuity/character-dense JLA relauch and a new JSA book on it's way. Plus, there's been a few solid JLA/JSA: Classified storyarcs sprinkled throughout the year.

Grade: A

The Teen Titans/Outsider titles: I dropped Outsiders and was about to drop Teen Titans, but Johns goofy injection of a dozen C-listers hooked me back in again. Winnick's Outsiders, however, just ain't my thang, but I can see how there's an audience for that kind of stuff.

Grade: C

The Green Lantern titles: Well, I'm loving what they're doing here. But, I'm not exactly unbiased here. I've been waiting for solid creative teams on these concepts for years.

Grade: A

[Gingold]

52- It's not without its flaws, but I still read this first every week. Lots of cool ideas. Servicable art. Grade: A-

SUPERMAN- So far, Action and Superman have been very entertaining since IC concluded. Nothing earth-shatteringly good, but solid, dependable comics. Confidential started out very well and All Star is my favorite book on the market. I'm afraid to read Supergirl. Grade: B+

BATMAN- "Face the Face" was a good story with a lousy ending and mediocre art. I like the way Batman is being portrayed these days. Morrison's Batman is very good (but not great), Dini had a great issue with JH Williams, but the fill in art is killing the momentum that Detective should've had. Birds of Prey is going downhill and even Marv Wolfman doesn't seem to be able to save Nightwing. Grade: B-

JLA/JSA- The "Classified" titles are terrible, the new Melzter/Benes JLofA has been pretty dull overall, and JSA went out with whimper. The new JSA looks promising, if Ross can be kept from the plotting duties. JUSTICE started out a lot of fun, but the two most recent issues were lousy. Overall grade: D

Titans/Outsiders: Titans has improved a lot since OYL, Outsiders slid into irreperable suckiness. Grade: C-

DCU Heroes:
Green Lantern: B : If Johns could tone down his need to be Mr. Fixit, this book would be great.
Flash: F : DC's worst book.
Green Arrow: C : Great OYL premise, not executed so well.
Atom: B- : The loss of Byrne is hurting the book, and the quotes can stop any time. Otherwise, this is a good time.
Wonder Woman: B( loses points for its slow publishing schedule) : A fun Wonder Woman book, what a concept.

Legion: After a great start, I'm starting to lose interest: B

Other: Seven Soldiers was great, even with the long delay for the conclusion. Secret Six has been nastily entertaining.

[Taskmaster]

IMO the only books that have earned an 'A' in the DCU this year are 52 and Green Lantern those are the only DC books that get to the top of my reading pile. I'd give Teen Titans 'B', Justice League of America a 'B+', Green Arrow a 'C+', JSA Classified a 'C' and that's about all that springs to mind

[JamesJesse]

I only plan to grade those that I have followed:

Infinite Crisis- C+. Sorry guys, I loved the start of this book and after three issues, it was shaping up to be one of the best ever "event" stories. Then it got contrived, forced and clunky after that. There were good parts but it does reek of too many cooks having their hands in the pot.

52- B. Some parts are A material. Black Adam hyas somehow managed to become my favorite character in the DCU despite my never really thinking much of him. Booster Gold's story is far from over. But there are some parts and issues that are C material and they bring the curve down.

Flash- F. They didn't reward Wally's fans with a proper ending to his stint as Flash. I was prepared to see his career end this year but I had hoped he'd go out with a bang. He deserved a much better ending that what he got. Blue Beetle's death bothered me but I felt they wrote a brilliant swan song for him. Wally deserved an even better one.

His title book ended on a whimper!!! They should have ended it with Rogue War. The extra issues only sullied the brilliant run.

And they robbed us of a BRILLIANT Kid Flash concept to turn him into what is turning out to be a half baked new Flash. I was open to seeing the new Flash but I found myself bored!

JSA- B+. Although the last few issues left much to be desired, this is the best team book in comics today. And I read Astonishing X-Men! Hope the new series is as good as the old one.

Justice League of America- B minus. I love Meltzer's work but I think it's a bit irritating that this book is emphasizing how everyone in the DCU are second class citizens to the big three... who have spent the past few issues deciding the fate of the League. I felt this demeaned the contributions of past leaguers who held the league together like Barry Allen and Martian Manhunter, among others.

Green Lantern- B. When it comes out, this has surprisingly turned into one of the best writtern books out there. When it comes out.

Villains United/Secret 6- One of the most underrated books out there! B

I like that DC is experimenting. I'm not happy with the results but I would keep encouraging them.

[Tony Starkz]

I'm glad with Meltzer's character driven JLA story.These days comic readers like myself want rich characters and intelligent stories.I'd rather have this over Morrison's overrated JLA which was 90s cheese at its best.I love the inclusion of "non big 7" members such as BL,Vixen,Red Tornado,and Arsenal.This is very fresh and keeps things from getting old.And don't get me started on Justice.Classic,nuff said.

Busiek and Pacheco's Superman has been fantastic since the get go.Despite some lateness,Pacheco draws a really iconic Superman and I love Kurt's focus on Clark's personal life over anything else.Sure we got Supes fighting a monster and a guy coming back from the past with some sort of agenda,but Kurt mixes enough different story elements to keep this from becoming a "by the numbers" Superman book.And All Star Superman can't get enough praise.This is just classic Superman minus the heavy continuity.So many ideas and out of this world concepts,it really works here.Kudos to Morrison and Quietly on a late title that never lets down.

Dini's Detective book has been a real treat.I'm loving these done-in-one stories,especially in this day and age of half a year long stories.This is the Batman I want to read about,the dark detective monitoring his dark city and all the dark things that come with it.The 2 "off beat sci-fi" issues with Ivy and Phosphorus were just as good as the rest of the books.Really reminded me of those old Batman TAS episodes where Bats would find himself fighting against these weird creatures in some mad scientist's lab.I hope Dini stays on for a long time.

Green Lantern really surprised me.I jumped into this title head first without having read a GL comic in my life.I knew who all the GLS were beforehand though.Rebirth was one of the best stories I've ever read,EVS's style of drawing the GLs was awesome.I found the first 6 issues of the ongoing pretty throwaway in terms of story.However,starting with the Green Arrow team upi in #7,this book hasn't missed a beat.Despite the lateness,it's worth the wait everytime especially with Reis' art.I love the whole "intergalactic action epic" feel this book has,great stuff.

Teen Titans was another book I jumped into headfirst.I jumped on starting with OYL.I thought I would be lost,but I wasn't.It's been very easy to follow with my vague understanding of IC and how it was this big incident which killed alot of people and shook up everything.Anyways,Daniels' art is to die for,this guy is amazing.This is one of the few genuine superhero team books out there.It's hard not to like this book,it really has everything in it every time it comes out.Very fast paced with some hot headed characters.Love it.

Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters-Purely kickass.The political overtones are balanced out well with lots of the over the top ideas which come at you non stop in this book.The characters are all very relatable and fresh.They all posess great power but lack that sense of purpose or direction.That's where the Christ like Uncle Sam comes in and shows them the light.DC would have to be dumb not to do anything with this team after the mini winds up.Condor,The Ray and Human Bomb have become some of my favorite characters overnight.This comic is a great example of what I want in my comics.

[Jack]

Hmm, well, I'm very good at enjoying things, so it's probably better that I don't do this.

[Jack Zodiac]

I think DC's nailed most of their OYL books with a few exceptions. Outsiders didn't see very much improvement, and it's slowly been slipping to levels below what it was being written at before the Crisis. I'd give it a C-, maybe. More like a D, but given that Judd was probably planning on writing Jason as Nightwing instead of Dick, I can forgive a little bad characterization. A little.

Nightwing itself gets a D-. That book was total crap for half a year. Only recently has The Wolfman started to turn it around.

And Supergirl gets a bid red F for ruining a potentially great character. With most of the other OYL books kicking it back to Silver Age storytelling, Kelly and Rucka had this book wallowing in the shallow storytelling of the mid-Nineties. Uninteresting characters in uninteresting situations. This and Civil War have been the only books I've dropped this year.

[titanfan]

52: B+ -- Solid storytelling all around. The only reason that I can't give it an A is because I am finding a couple of the storylines boring and the title can get slow when it focuses on a plotline you could care less about.

Blue Beetle: B -- Hate the art, the light hearted tone of the book is great. A very underrated book, imho.

JLA Books: c- -- Classified has been mostly average to bad, the regular book itself has been better since Meltzler took over, but it was awful in the beginning part of the year.

Outsiders C+ -- Wildly inconsistent for me. Had one of the most boring OYL issues ever, but has now started to pick up. I'm interested in the Sivana storyline.

Teen Titans: B -- Really picked up during Infinite Crisis and OYL. I'm docking it a little because it can't ship on time.

Green Lantern Books: A -- I could have cared less about any of the GL's when I was a kid, now I love 'em.

Aquaman: B- -- Started off really great for me, but now I'm getting a bit bored. The pace seems a bit slow.

Checkmate: A -- Best new book from DC this year.

JSA: D -- How far this book has fallen. In what was consisently an "A" title, JSA took a sharp turn for the worst in the issues that came out this year. JSA Classified hasn't been much better. However, look for it to be back with the relauch.

Hawkgirl: C+ -- Standard superhero fare to me. Solid storytelling, although nto riveting. Usually on the bottom pile that I read since I'm the least interested--although when I do read it, it seems better than I was expecting.

Nightwing: F -- Only picked issues up sporadically pre-Wolfman, but it was always awful.

Shadowpact: B- : I love the characters used, but was underwhelmed with the miniseries. Still, I think the characterization and story has improved as the series has progressed. It kind of reminds me of a super hero team title in the 80's.

Birds of Prey: B+ - DC's most consistent title in terms of quality delivery. Worried about things for next year with the lineup shakeup though.

Firestorm: A- -- I can't believe I'm saying this but I have warmed up to Jason Rusch.

Flash: D- -- DIE GRIFFIN DIE!

Wonder Woman: F -- The quality isn't F level, but the late shipping dates are. Pathetic.

[Justin D.]

Blue Beetle: B -- Hate the art, the light hearted tone of the book is great. A very underrated book, imho.

One of the reasons I first picked up this book is because of Cully Hamner's art. However, his art on the book has been sporadic with more than one fill-in. Jamal Ingle takes over art duty and John Rogers is handed over the sole writing position soon when Keith Giffen leaves. Jamal Ingle is definitely a suitable replacement for Hamner, if just because he can consistently put out a monthly book.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

One of the reasons I first picked up this book is because of Cully Hamner's art. However, his art on the book has been sporadic with more than one fill-in. Jamal Ingle takes over art duty and John Rogers is handed over the sole writing position soon when Keith Giffen leaves. Jamal Ingle is definitely a suitable replacement for Hamner, if just because he can consistently put out a monthly book.

I love Cully Hamner's stuff too, but he's just not a monthly guy, which Blue Beetle was his attempt to prove incorrect. Clearly, he felt a little short there. I'd rather he just stuck to special projects and mini-series. I would love to see him do something with John Stewart again. Hamner's the one who designed John's JLU costume