DC — The New 52 (1)

By: Joshua Glenn
October 7, 2011

On August 31st, DC Comics launched a “historic renumbering” of its entire line of comic books with 52 first issues. DC sent me all 52 first issues, and I handed them over to Max, a superhero comics fan of my acquaintance — who turned 11 today. (Happy Birthday, Max!) Here is the first installment in a series of Max’s reviews.

SUPERMAN

Action Comics #1: It was OK. Superman was more violent — which I kinda liked, but kinda didn’t. He beat up some businessmen, even though they weren’t gangsters. I liked how he wore jeans and seemed more like an average person than he usually does. There was one detail that I thought was fascinating. It was where Superman was being chased by the cops, and someone is holding up their cellphone to try to video him — the image on the phone’s screen is the exact image of Superman. Neat.

Superman #1: I definitely liked it. I thought it was more on the classic Superman side — there’s a threat to the city, he beats it up, and he’s a hero. It was one of my favorite of the new 52. They’re building this metrodome, and these two guys are watching a fire on a security cam — but it disappears, so one of the guys goes out to find out. It turns into a fiery hellstorm, so I felt bad for him. But I liked how mysterious that was.

Superboy #1: It was interesting how they changed Superboy’s story — they made him a clone. It reminds me of a movie I’ve heard about, where somebody thinks they’re living their real life but they’re in a virtual world instead. It was cool how smart Superboy was.

Supergirl #1: It went very quickly and they didn’t explain very much about Supergirl’s backstory. But the action scenes were pretty excellent. I liked how she didn’t know what planet she was on, and didn’t speak any Earth languages. There’s a good scene at the end — but I can’t reveal what it is, exactly.

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