I'm usually a fan of these kinds of books where a character from that universe is pitted against everyone else. It's not an extraordinary concept; the stories are always simple, but they don't overstay their welcome. It's meant to be a brief but fun, turn-your-brain-off type of book. My only real complaint with this one is that, for being the main selling point, Ninjak doesn't fight nearly enough as I would have expected.

Long ago, this was my introduction to Jeff Lemire and Matt Kindt as writers. This gave me a very strong impression of both of them as writers, and honestly? It still holds up, especially so with the turn the Valiant Universe took since that era. Great introduction into the Universe too.

It's Dwayne McDuffie writing Superman. Need I say more?

Superman is an ideal vessel for this kind of story. It goes out of its way to challenge how people view faith and morality, and does so without antagonizing religion. I appreciate when a comic can be this bold with its themes, so huge credit to Nicieza for executing so well on this premise.

(Review in Action Comics #848)

This is the kind of quality that I've been missing from Bendis. It's such a stark contrast to his Superman, which was coming out around this time. The art by Nick Derington is great and dynamic. The guest stars make for fun surprises while serving their purpose to the story. It's pretty rare to see a globe-trotting Batman story, and this book does it a lot of justice.

For a One World Under Doom tie-in, I'm not opposed to the pitch. Doom 2099 assembles a group of heroes to combat current-day Doom and prevent his future from happening. Cool. The problem is, Frank Tieri generally just isn't a great writer, so a cool idea like this ends up being wasted because of that. I like the characters they use, but they do nothing here for me. There's really nothing that stands out. The art is doing a lot of heavy lifting for this issue.

From start to finish, this book is fun, funny, and violent. All qualities worthy of the Main Man. Both Kyle Starks and Kyle Hotz are now on my radar.

A fun and inoffensive romp for Shang-Chi that works for one issue. I was entertained enough. I can see a bit of promise in CM Punk as a comic writer.

This embodies everything that Superman has always been about, and I'm glad Gene Luen Yang understood the assignment. Enough said.

Solid, fun little one-shot story for Shang-Chi. Nothing mind-blowing, but it definitely has me interested in seeing Alyssa Wong doing a mini.

Far from Judd Winick's best work, but not bad at all. Far better than the following run by Nocenti, so savor his 12 issues while you can, or skip straight to the Valentine run!

(Review in Vol. 1: The Game)

The Ann Nocenti fall off has to be studied. How she went from Daredevil and Longshot to writing what she wrote in the New 52. Her Catwoman is easily the worst offender, having the most incomprehensible and inconsistent writing of the entire era. The only consistency there is is how much worse it gets with every issue she's on. All of the genuine highlights come from whenever the guest writers took over. Read those issues. Hell, read ANY issue of New 52 Catwoman that isn't written by Nocenti. I don't even like Frank Tieri as a writer, but even his closing arc to this volume is a GODSEND compared to all that Nocenti contributed. SKIP. THIS. RUN.

(Review in Vol. 3: Death of the Family)

(Review in Vol. 3: Death of the Family)

This could just be my bias for Kyle Higgins speaking, but his first 8 issues of N52 Slade showed a lot of potential in a writer early in their career. I really gravitated to the idea of a Slade Wilson who was no longer in his prime, and I think it was executed fairly well. Plus it feels like a complete standalone story with the 8 issues, which I rarely see nowadays for an ongoing series. Just sucks that Liefeld had to take over, so we couldn't get more from Higgins.

My first ever exposure to Cisco was through The Flash show, and I remember really liking his character then, so imagine my delight upon learning that he had his own solo title when I got more into comics. However, this was long after I read Talon, my first New 52 book, and I became much more aware of the perception around the New 52, so I was cautious. I'm glad to say this is a highlight. The premise is that Cisco is recruited by A.R.G.U.S. to help take on interdimensional threats, though given that Amanda Waller is running A.R.G.U.S., obviously something shady is going on, and Cisco starts figuring that out himself. Really compelling story, Waller is hateable as always. Kinda sad this was only 10 issues, because I saw a lot of potential in this book, but at least it's a complete enough story that wraps up most of its plotlines by the end.

Truly, I feel bad for Zeb Wells, because from now on, he'll be remembered by comic fans as the guy who made one huge misstep with Spider-Man rather than the great work he is capable of as seen with this book. Skottie Young is also an artist that I really enjoy the style of, which is a great fit for Wells' writing here.

As a fan of Tom King, this was the hardest of his other work for me to get into. The writing is still signature Tom King. I grew to like the titular Omega Men more upon re-reads. I feel Kyle Rayner could have been used as an audience surrogate, yet he doesn't have as big of a role as you'd expect from him being on the cover. The commentary is easily the standout part of this book. It's not subtle whatsoever, but I personally prefer for commentary to be this bold. It's not King's best work to me, but the more I come back to it, the more I get out of it. Who knows? Maybe I'll feel the same way as some of the reviews here someday.

I was apprehensive about this one because I just wasn't sure if I needed to know the hows and whys of the Penguin. I gotta say, this was a great reinvention of the character. If this had any influence on the Penguin show in any way, I would not be surprised. However, this Penguin is FAR more despicable and at times, genuinely terrifying. With some of the things he does, somehow the freaking JOKER seems like a circus clown by comparison. Gregg Hurwitz is a madman!

This is such an underrated She-Hulk run. It's also a very underrated Charles Soule book. Very tightly written. Great balance between the heroics and lawyer stuff. Some very fun and engaging crossovers. Honestly wish it were longer than 12 issues. Javier Pulido's art might not be for everyone, but I personally liked it. My only real complaint with this run is the guest artist who takes over for issues 5 and 6, because the art is genuinely some Dark Knight Strikes Again levels of ugly. Thankfully it's just those two issues, but it makes you appreciate Pulido's art even more.

I'm gonna be completely honest, I really do not see a point to these Spider-Man prequel stories. That being said, I'll take this over what ASM was at this time any day. This and The Lost Hunt proved to me that DeMatteis still got it. Bring him back as an ASM writer!

The Shadow of the Green Goblin mini DeMatteis wrote after this one was far superior, and so was his original Kraven's Last Hunt storyline, but this is one of the few real highlights from this era of Spider-Man.

This one surprises me in how little it's talked about, considering how well-regarded "The Dark" imprint is from the New 52. Then again, this is an isekai story, so it won't be everyone's cup of tea. This is a pure fantasy book, which is very refreshing for DC. Amethyst was a pretty enjoyable character. I really dug the worldbuilding with all of the different crystal-based houses. Eclipse was a surprisingly fitting antagonist for Amethyst. Even the back-ups with Beowulf and Stalker had my interest, and it disappoints me they haven't done much of anything with any of these characters since.

This was the first New 52 book I've read. This is early Tynion, right after co-writing the back-ups on Snyder's Batman. While not perfect, it showed strong potential in Tynion for me because he had me very invested in the story of a reformed Talon. The last three issues, while not bad, were easily the weakest, but those weren't written by Tynion, and thankfully, are disconnected from the main story. I found the art to be at its best when Guillem March was on the title, but overall, the art was very good. Calvin Rose is a character that absolutely needs to make a comeback.

Mariko Tamaki is generally a very hit-or-miss writer for me. This is far from her worst work, I can say I actually had some fun with this one upon first reading, but it has quite a few glaring issues. There are ideas here I enjoy, like putting Diana and Maxwell Lord in a buddy-cop situation, and a very intriguing concept for a rogue with Liar Liar. The name is admittedly not great, but she has a fairly cool powerset and is motivated by the want of her father's approval in taking down Wonder Woman. I don't really mind the twist of Maxwell being her father. Now here comes the problem. First half of the story, despite him "teaming up" with Diana, Maxwell barely has anything to do. It gets slightly more compelling upon the father reveal twist, he wants nothing to do with Liar Liar at first, but then it's revealed much later that Maxwell was the one to give her powers by drugging her...it feels creepy in all the wrong ways. While I praise her concept, Liar Liar does absolutely nothing for the story, with her only significant contributions to the story being a decently sympathetic origin (despite Maxwell's role in it) and a visually cool final fight, neither of which we get until the final few issues. This was very clearly designed as a tie-in for Wonder Woman 1984 because of its Maxwell Lord inclusion, and while it's serviceable enough for a placeholder arc, it's unfortunately nothing memorable.