Another week, another round of DC’s New 52 titles debuting here in September. This week was, I thought, a bit more surprising than last week in that many of the titles I expected to have absolutely no interest in turned out to be good enough at least to go another month. Nothing turned me off this week the way one or two titles did on the 7th and DC has so far maintained its track record of not releasing a single really, utterly bad book under this initiative.All that said, let’s see how the individual titles fared…!Batman & Robin #1 – ***1/2Written by Peter J. Tomasi, art by Patrick Gleason and Mick GrayIn spite of the relaunch, the Batman family of titles have picked up more or less where they left off and so far they seem no better or worse for it. This story kicks off in exciting fashion, though, introducing a new villain who wants to end Batman, Inc. before Grant Morrison ever gets a chance to bring the title back next year. A little bit of that and a lot of Damian saying “Batman was so much cooler when he wasn’t my dad,” and there you’ve got the issue in a nutshell. Eminently readable, with a great cliffhanger, but it doesn’t feel as fresh or exciting as the rest of the #1s to my mind.Batwoman #1 – *****Written by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman; art by J.H. Williams IIIHaving never read the backup stories Williams did with Batwoman in Detective Comics, this is my first long-term exposure to the character beyond 52. So even though she, like the rest of the Bat-titles, seems to have retained her history none of it matters to me and it still feels like a fresh start. The oft-commented-upon moment where Kate looks to the wall and sees a photograph of Renee Montoya (as a fallen officer?) stuck out at me like a sore thumb just like it did everybody else but I wasn’t distracted by it; that story will play out and if Renee is not dead, then the longing look she gave the photo of her ex-lover just as she decided to move on is just as logical.The issue of Batwoman’s homosexuality is right out there in this issue, but not in any kind of over-the-top way; since it’s the defining characteristic of the character to many readers, I suspect it was important to DC that they establish in the first issue that it still stands, even if her on-again, off-again relationship with Montoya is in the history books one way or another.The issue strolls along at a nice pace—not as paint-dryingly slow as some of the books we’ve seen in recent years (or even Justice League #1) but slow enough for J.H. Williams III to do what he does best, which is let the art do most of the talking for him. As ever, his panel layouts are inspired and his visual storytelling is near-flawless, turning what might otherwise be a merely good superhero book into a top-notch example of how superheroes in general can be done right, and what comics has that other media don’t.Deathstroke #1 – *****
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Image Credit: Titan Comics
