Superman, Teen Titans and the Last of the New 52 Zero Reviews

This has been a rather herculean effort, reading and reviewing all of these comics. Since this final batch is a touch late, excuse us if we don’t spend a whole lot of time on each individual issue.That said, the whole line  is in a much different place than it was a year ago. Even with some truly awful books out there, it’s easy to argue that DC is in a stronger place, post-New 52, than they were before. The real question, though, becomes whether that’s a quality issue or whether it’s just a matter of reducing the strain that decades of continuity puts on books and making things more accessible to a wider audience.Many readers had an opportunity to try out books that they ordinarily would have hesitated to buy, because of impenetrable backstories. It seems as though many of those readers have jumped back off, but even so the launch of the New 52 (and each subsequent new “wave” of titles) have made for great jumping-on points.All-Star Western #0Jonah Hex gets the Superman treatment here, with a #0 issue and “origin story” that goes back to when he was a newborn and his father was fighting for him.The sweeping scope of it makes this story feel a bit like Little Big Man. It’s an interesting device, particularly coming from a creative team whose Jonah stories have largely been pretty intimate in scale over the last several years. This is a hard book to do “right” with a zero issue because not much changed about him other than his presence in Gotham, and we saw how that unfolded at the start of the series.This is routinely one of DC’s best books, showcasing the upside of genre diversity and showing other creative teams with bigger stages how it’s done. This month is no different, although it feels a bit more subdued and artsy than usual.Aquaman #0A good Aquaman book is widely believed to be such a rarity that a good, high-profile Aquaman book has been treated like it’s one of the best things DC is publishing. For the better part of the year, that frankly hasn’t been so. It’s been a good, solid book but nothing as spectacular as Batwoman or Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.The zero issue, though, is a terrific, character-driven book in the way that Geoff Johns is capable of doing but so rarely has the opportunity to do since his books are always expected to be driving the next big event. There’s certainly some of that in here, but most of the story is just about Arthur as a man–and the art and colors–less polished and more earthen in their execution–work beautifully with it.