Once more DC is releasing another 13 new number ones this week. How can anyone possibly be expected to determine which of these new books they should really buy? There’s just so many of them! To make your life easier, I’ll offer my ill-informed, not-quite-expert opinion on what titles are worth picking up today and each week during this first month of the “New 52.”

So this third week of the “New 52″ DC Universe is the first where there are more books I’m not interested in than ones that I am. Having said that, two of the books I’m most excited about are hitting the shelves today. In my opinion there are four new DCU books that are probably going to be worth checking out and two or three others I’m at least curious about.

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Last Wednesday, in recognition of the second full week of DC Comics’ New 52 promotion, I recommended the five new DC titles that I thought were most likely to be worthy of your attention and your money sight unseen. Now that we’ve had a week to digest them, the question is how did I do? I think it’s safe to characterize the entire promotion as a monster success for DC at least in terms of PR for month one: tons of sellouts, reprints and series being ordered in the six figures. Overall, I can honestly say the quality of the actual product has been stronger than I was expecting. The books I personally recommended for week two in order of expected quality were as follows: Batwoman, Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., Green Lantern, Batman and Robin, Deathstroke, and Superboy. So how were they in reality?
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So tonight’s the night. At midnight, DC Comics releases Flashpoint #5 and Justice League #1 and the DC Universe as we’ve known it will be washed away to some currently unknown extent and replaced by 52 new titles; many with brand new continuity.

I don’t know what to think about all of this. I’m excited to see what DC has up its sleeves, but I’m sad to know some piece of this universe I’ve loved for twenty years can never really ever quite be the same again. I have a great deal of distrust for DC publisher Dan Didio and his personal tastes. I know they don’t align with mine. But I love the grand ambition behind all of this. This is a giant gamble and I dig that.

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It’s been a crazy few weeks for DC Comics fans with the reveal that the current series Flashpoint would lead to a complete relaunch of the entire DC Universe in September as the company will be releasing new first issues for fifty-two titles. Interestingly, DC has promised a reimagined DCU featuring in many cases younger, more modern takes on their classic characters and a more diverse line overall in terms of both the ethnicity of their characters and the genres of books they publish. A previous attempt to comment on this news when very little was really known about the relaunch resulted in what amounted to a nasty letter to comic fans about their phony outrage and their tendency to rush to judge was out-of-date before I had typed the last word. As a result, I’ve recruited PTB to help keep the discussion grounded and offer his perspective as a non-DC fan.
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After a four month delay since David Finch’s Batman: The Dark Knight #1 shipped, issue #2 is now in stores. We were both impressed with the debut of the series that sees Finch as both writer and artist, but after getting our hands on the follow-up it seems the bloom may be off the rose.

PTB: Seeing this book on the shelf took me by surprise. I normally look at the schedule each week, but I really thought I had no reason to look for this title any time soon.

KevinMLD: At this point I’m not even sure why DC is publishing this book. Finch’s exclusive deal has been completely wasted on covers. It was announced two summers ago and DC’s published three issues of comics that he actually pencilled plus an additional eight pages of a fourth. There’s no way this is a good deal for DC.

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