Hola, folks! Wasn’t September interesting? With all those new comics? You know… that whole DC-relaunching-their-entire-line thing? The New 52? That we’ve been talking about for months?

Nothing?

Well, I’m glad I’m here, then! Because I’m here to tell you a lot of the books that DC put out in the last month that I loved. The month didn’t go by without some controversies and issues, but at the end of the day, there were a lot of great comics and I can’t help but gush about a few of them. Brandon will follow up with his own later, and so if you see something missing here, it’s probably because he’ll be writing about them later.

ACTION COMICS

I’ll be the first to tell you that, in general, I don’t usually care for Superman. It’s not that he’s a bad guy, simply that I have a hard time connecting with him as a character. The story of his that first drew me in, like I imagine it did with many others, was Grant Morrison and Frank Quiteley‘s superb All-Star Superman, which took the character and turned him over on an existential level. It was the story of a legend examining its own legend and it captured me completely. As a result, I was thrilled when Morrison was announced as the writer for Action Comics, and intrigued by his decidedly back-to-1930s-basics approach to the character as a man fighting for the poor and the downtrodden.

That got me to read the book. After that, it sold itself. If All-Star Superman was about the final days of a legend, then this new incarnation of Action Comics is about the formation of it. This is a young Superman in a Metropolis that hasn’t yet become the City of Tomorrow. It’s corrupt and people are suffering and Superman is trying to fight against what’s wrong before he can become a symbol for anything else. He’s young and angry and he’s fighting for something, which excites me incredibly. It feels “raw,” not in the “gritty” way comics usually mean it, but in terms of energy and ferocity. It’s Superman as an agent of change, which I can’t remember seeing in a long time. Maybe not since he first debuted. This is a Superman I can cheer for, and I’m glad to finally have him in my life.

BATWOMAN

As I may have said before, I didn’t expect to like Kate Kane when I first read her comic. Not because of anything she was, however, but because of what she wasn’t. Namely, she wasn’t Batman, and so her taking over Detective Comics, however briefly it ended up being, seemed wrong. It was the series DC is named after! As long as I could remember, it was about Batman. Why couldn’t it be about Batman?

Of course, I was full of shit. The story Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III told was incredible, and by the time it ended I was saddened that I wouldn’t be getting more. Needless to say, with Batwoman #1 finally premiering after several delays, it had a lot to live up to, and it didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

The series gives The Flash a run for being the most gorgeous series in The New 52. Williams is, bar none, one of the greatest artists working in the medium today, and combined with Dave Stewart‘s ethereal colours, the result is truly something special. The big question, though, was what the series would be like without Rucka writing. A big part of the original story’s magic was the way he imbued Kate Kane with such indelible life, and I’m pleased to say that Williams and co-writer W. Haden Blackman do the series justice. Together, they and Stewart have created a comic that’s not only a superhero story, but is also spooky as all hell. Combining genres is a hard thing to do well and fluidly, since it can end up not satisfying fans of either, but Batwoman is a series that both scared the hell out of me and made me believe in Batwoman as someone who could make it better. She’s a creature of the shadows, even more than Batman. She’s phenomenal, just like her comic.

THE FLASH

I am an unabashed fan of the recent Geoff Johns run on The Flash, and while that is in no small part due to the story, I’d be lying if the biggest reason wasn’t the fact that opening that comic every month was nothing short of a moment of sheer joy due to the brilliant art from Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. Their work on the series is why, while many other people were worried about how the two would do as the new co-writers of the series as well as the continuing artists, I wasn’t, because the two were so great at visual storytelling, even with Johns as the writer, that I couldn’t help but think that everything would work out in the end. If absolutely nothing else, it would be a gorgeous comic to read.

Of course, it is gorgeous and a pleasure to read. It’s also shaping up to be one of the most exciting comics of The New 52. Since he returned in The Flash: Rebirth and Final Crisis, Barry Allen has been saddled not only with the fact that he was for the time being replacing another beloved Flash (Wally West), but that he was, textually and metatextually, weighed down by his history. He went from saving the universe - TWICE! - to chilling out in the crime lab in Central City, which at times made it hard to capture the energy that a Flash comic should have, as beautiful it was and as much as I enjoyed it. Enter: Barry in the new DCU! Now he’s a young bachelor who doesn’t have to live up to dying to save the universe, and he can just be the Flash, with his entire life ahead of him.

When reading The Flash #1, I was struck by how this really did feel like someone’s first Flash comic, like my first Flash comic, even if it wasn’t. Out of everything, it felt like the purest new beginning out of The New 52, a real rebirth.

Plus, it was unbelievably gorgeous. Manapul and Buccellato do little storytelling things in the book that raise it from being a great comic to an incredible one. Just crack open the first issue; the title page alone will convince you.

FRANKENSTEIN, AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E.

This is a series that absolutely should not work, because it is insane. Frankenstein works for his Father who is currently a Japanese schoolgirl (but wasn’t before) as an action hero slash super spy who heads a team of movie monsters. Now, I am a fan of crazy in my comics, but when I first heard about this, it sounded a bit too crazy, like something that could easily spiral into pointless insanity. And to the credit of everybody working on the book, they ground it just enough while letting it be completely batshit insane.

Why is there Frankenstein? Why is Father (Time) a Japanese schoolgirl? That’s not really explained. Neither is it explained why Frankenstein is a superspy. However, the rest of the book, from Ray Palmer’s science to the reason why Frank’s team are all modern spins on old B movie monsters, are explained just enough that they fit within the weird world of DC Comics. By the end of the issue, the comic completely sells you on this bizarre world that’s been crafted. A big part of this is that since the new DC Universe is so… well, new, the rules aren’t set. It can include anything right now, and that’s pretty exciting. And besides, in a world of superheroes, magic and ghosts, who’s to say that a Frankenstein spy team is any less normal?

Not me, that’s who. Because this book is awesome!

Is that all? Of course not! If you notice, I didn’t even get past the Fs, and that’s with skipping several awesome series along the way! Feel free to go through our New 52 archives via one of the links at the beginning of the article, and keep an eye out for Brandon’s New 52 picks next week!