Detective comics, Wednesday comics, Superman and Teen Titans – a disappointing week, all told

Sort of spoilers for Detective Comics #855, Wednesday comics #4, Superman #690 and Teen Titans #73.
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Detective Comics #855
I really wanted to be blown away by this. I wanted to be blown away by Kate Kane. As it is, 2 issues in and I’m not feeling
anything for Kate. The only person I’m interested in is Alice.
As for Renee, nope, I’m not feeling the love there either. In FC: Revelations Renee was jumping out at the page, grabbing my throat and forcing me to pay attention. This backup is missing something. Maybe it’s simply that I don’t care for the plot, but, I’m not sold on the art (for either feature), which isn’t helping.
If you want to read a better review head on over to Retconning my Brain – Sam has far more intelligent and interesting thoughts than I.

Wednesday comics #4
Supergirl featured an angry Streaky, which was great. Wonder Woman was a dense story with good layout. Superman is getting into the swing of it’s story.

The rest I could quite happily leave.

Superman #690
A set up issue. I hate set up issues. It should be possible to do the same plug and story building ian regular issue, instead what we have here is a Steel vs Atlas subplot, A Guardian and SP subplot, a Zatarra subplot, a Dr Light (Kimiyo) and the Guardian subplot and a Sodam Yat subplot. None of which link in to each other at all.
I choose my comics based on characters. I will (usually) follow characters through bad writing and bad art (unless it’s really really bad). I’m interested in Steel, his appearances and his relationship with Natasha in 52 was one of the highlights of that series. I like this snotty Zatarra. I’ve liked what I’ve seen of Dr Light in other books. But to really get into them you need more than a few pages, and to make it a good issue you need to have the events linked together. I’m sure that at the end of the Codename: Patriot crossover everything will link in, but right now it’s not working.

I am considering dropping this title. Mon-El was a high point for me, but now I’m finding his appearances less and less frequent, and without Renato Guedes art I’m not drawn in anymore.

I feel the same about Action Comics – initially I cared about Nightwing and Flamebird, the religion angle was intriguing, but the last couple of issues have been boring and again, the art is horrible.

Teen Titans #73
On the other hand, no matter how crap TT gets I will always buy this. At least with the current roster of folks.
The cover is crap, I’ve already forgotten who’s died (or even if we were ever told who’s in the coffin), the art is very average and it’s got the fucking Calculator in.
But, there are good character moments (Eddie) and the fourth to last page where they were supporting each other ready to go back into battle was inspiring. OK, so I’m easily inspired, but the expressions in the bottom panel of that page are good.

The Ravager backup feature is another reason I won’t drop this. The washed out sepia influenced tones on the memory panel is really nice. I thought Rose was gonna get herself a sidekick when the lil kid turned up, but it appears no. The plot is a bit obvious and been done before, many times.

I don’t think I’ve ever had such a crap week. The only good part was the Adventures Comics preview. The comic shop also made a mistake in my order and put another copy of Supergirl # 43 in my pile, which I only noticed halfway down the street, so went back and got a refund, and another copy of Power Girl #3, which I didn’t notice until I was back in the office and so gave it to a friend. I don’t think she’s read it yet.

So, I am currently dissatisfied with Superman, Action Comics, Power Girl, Booster Gold and Detective Comics. I think I will give Detective Comics and Power Girl another couple of issues, but if they don’t buck up I will probably drop them. I don’t need to read about lesbians in comics enough to keep buying Det Comics, and if Power Girl keeps up the body discussions I will get very very bored.
Booster Gold gets one more chance. Superman and Action Comics get maybe 2 more chances, then I’ll only buy it if Kara appears in them due to the crossover, or if Supes comes back to Superman.
*sigh* It’s not helping that my mortgage is up for renewal next year and I’m a lil bit concerned about money..Damn recession.