Justice League Dark, Volume 2: The Books of Magic Review (Peter Milligan, Jeff Lemire)

Ah Justice League Dorks, the Paul Daniels version of the Justice League. However, unlike Paul’s catchphrase “You’ll like this… not a lot, but you’ll like it”, you won’t like this, not even a little! 

In Peter Milligan’s portion of the book, the JLD fight an army of vampires while trying to recruit a special vampire just cos. Things move laterally from terrible to terrible as Jeff Lemire takes over writing and the JLD try to get The Books of Magic before some evil magicians do. Boring doesn’t begin to express the experience of reading either of these stories. 

Red Lanterns, Volume 3: The Second Prophecy Review (Peter Milligan, Miguel Sepulveda)

Of all DC’s Lantern titles, I like Red Lanterns the best - at least, in terms of concept rather than execution. Hateful monsters who spew blood, live off rage and want to kill everything AND have Lantern rings? That should be a slam-dunk of silly fun but Red Lanterns, Volume 3: The Second Prophecy (wait, what was the first prophecy…?) is unfortunately an overlong and boring read. 

Superman: Action Comics, Volume 4: Hybrid Review (Andy Diggle, Tony S. Daniel)

The long and the short of this one is that Action Comics, Volume 4: Hybrid is yet another crummy Superman book to add to the teetering pile of bad Superman comics already out there!

“Hybrid” is an appropriate subtitle as this volume is made up of issues from numerous writers and artists. After Grant Morrison’s departure, Andy Diggle seemed like a promising replacement - except he jumps ship a mere two issues into his run (creators suddenly abandoning DC was an all too frequent problem in the New 52 days), leaving DC Editorial scrambling to figure out how to right the title’s course! 

Batman and Robin, Volume 4: Requiem for Damian Review (Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason)

Set in the wake of the dramatic events from Batman Incorporated, Volume 2: Gotham’s Most Wanted, Batman mourns his son’s death. And then goes mental trying to bring him back to life! Someone should’ve told Bruce to chill – superheroes never stay dead for long!

Swamp Thing, Volume 7: Season's End Review (Charles Soule, Jesus Saiz)

Here comes DC with another load of old cobblers in Swamp Thing, Volume 7: Season’s End! It’s the Kingdom of the Green vs the Kingdom of the Machines in Charles Soule’s final dreary Swamp Thing book. Who’ll win? Who cares!? 

Birds of Prey, Volume 3: A Clash of Daggers Review (Duane Swierczynski, Gail Simone)

Birds of Prey, Volume 3: A Clash of Daggers is the most braindead DC comic I’ve read since the last one; so, since yesterday! It stars a group of morons who, when they’re not arbitrarily fighting each other, are fighting a series of cookie-cutter villains in one repetitive story after another. It’s books like this that cause non-comics readers to look down on superhero comics in the first place.

The New 52: Futures End, Volume 1 Review (Brian Azzarello, Jeff Lemire)

Once upon a time Batman and Mister Terrific created a sentient AI called Brother Eye. 35 years later Brother Eye enslaved all of humanity! Dawww, they grow up so fast, don’t they? 

So, taking a page from Marvel’s playbook of clichés, Batman Beyond/Terry McGinnis travels back in time to avert this disaster and stop Brother Eye’s creation. Except he misses the mark, arriving five years too late. These Batmen, eh? Utter fuck-ups!

Batman: Detective Comics, Volume 4: The Wrath Review (John Layman, Jason Fabok)

Originally The Wrath was conceived as a version of Bruce Wayne that chose a darker path - someone who allowed hate to consume him and who grew up as a similarly-costumed figure, deciding to gun down cops in misguided revenge for his parents’ deaths. He was actually a compelling character and I’d highly recommend Batman: The Wrath to any Batman fans to find out why for themselves as well as for an entertaining read. 

Batman: Detective Comics, Volume 2: Scare Tactics Review (Tony S. Daniel, Ed Benes)

Detective Comics, Volume 2: Scare Tactics is an assortment of bad Batman short stories, mostly written by Tony S. Daniel, a guy who can draw right good but cannot write right at all! 

Aquaman, Volume 6: Maelstrom Review (Jeff Parker, Paul Pelletier)

It’s been a while since the last Aquaman book and right away you can see why - Maelstrom has the equivalent of ten issues or two volumes in one. That stockpiling tactic is something you usually see when a title isn’t selling well which I don’t think Aquaman is because it sucks. The good news is that Jeff Parker and Paul Pelletier’s Aquaman series has at least gotten coherent but the bad news is that it still hasn’t grown much of a brain.

The Movement, Volume 1: Class Warfare Review (Gail Simone, Freddie E. Williams II)

Coral City’s riddled with corrupt cops, politicians and developers all preying on the little guy - but the people are mad as hell and they’re not gonna take it anymore! So a small group of superpowered young people are gonna hold a couple cops hostage and…?

Batman, Volume 6: Graveyard Shift Review (Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo)

Most of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s acclaimed Batman run has been one event story after another: The Court of Owls, Death of the Family, Zero Year, and Endgame. But there have been a few random issues appearing in between the arcs to give readers a bit of a breather before launching into the next one – those are collected in this volume, the generically-titled Graveyard Shift. And, like many short story collections, it’s an uneven mix of quality. 

Green Lantern, Volume 3: The End Review (Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke)

If, like me, you’ve already read Rise of the Turd Army, you’ll already have read half of this volume. If, unlike me, you read Wrath of the First Lantern, you can basically skip this entire volume as that noise fills up the second half! 

So this is Geoff Johns’ final Green Lantern book (for now) hence the subtitle. Emotional? Nah, me neither. I didn’t read many of his Lantern books but the few I did were just ok (though I'm not really a big Green Lantern fan). 

The Joker: Endgame Review (Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo)

Have you already read Batman, Volume 7: Endgame? If yes, then you’ve already read about half of this book! That’s right, DC have republished the entire Endgame story arc in this book, that’s Batman #35-40 - pretty audacious! I’m not going to re-review it so if you want to know what I thought about those issues, click the link here and it’ll take you to the Batman, Vol. 7 review. 

Superman: Doomed Review (Charles, Soule, Greg Pak)

Remember The Death of Superman? I don’t recall what happened in it (prolly nothing important) but alls I know is Superman and this Kryptonian monster called Doomsday fisted each other a lot. So those fresh, radical thinkers at DC put down their empty whiskey bottles and decided “hey, before we get fired, why don’t we do The Death of Superman storyline but for the New 52?” - and so we have Superman: Doomed. 

Wonder Woman, Volume 7: War-Torn Review (Meredith Finch, David Finch)

Diana has become the new God of War in addition to being Queen of Themyscira and Wonder Woman in the Justice League. But with her loyalties divided, Diana’s Amazons begin an insurrection against her progressive rule, led by the barbaric Donna Troy. 

Gotham By Midnight, Volume 1: We Do Not Sleep Review (Ray Fawkes, Ben Templesmith)

Gotham by Midnight is apparently a spinoff from the weekly Batman series, Batman Eternal, but I’m not sure how. Jim Corrigan, aka the Spectre, was in the first volume of Eternal, teaming up with Batwing to investigate the weirdness at Arkham Asylum, going up against Joker’s Daughter and the newly resurrected Deacon Blackfire - but then he disappeared and I don’t think he was in Eternal Volume 2. 

Swamp Thing, Volume 6: The Sureen Review (Charles Soule, Jesus Saiz)

Like a dictator, Swamp Thing/Alec Holland has destroyed the Parliament and become sole ruler of the Green. Amidst the destruction, he saved three former avatars: Jonah, Wolf, and Lady Weeds, all of whom have now become human for the first time in centuries - and some are definitely not pleased with this arrangement. But Swampy’s about to discover that being absolute ruler isn’t absolutely easy as problems arise across the globe. Enter the Sureen, a holy order whose sole purpose is to attend to the needs of the Avatar of the Green – but there’s more to this group than meets the eye… 

Batman and Robin, Volume 3: Death of the Family Review (Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason)

This is the shortest collection in Peter J. Tomasi’s Batman and Robin run - two standalone issues bookend it with a three-issue Death of the Family arc in the middle (one of which is Batman #17 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo which I’m almost certain anyone picking up this volume will have read at least once already); essentially it’s four B&R issues long. 

Lobo, Volume 1: Targets Review (Cullen Bunn, Reilly Brown)

Pre-New 52 Lobo: a disgusting alien biker assassin who flew around on badass bikes shooting stuff, spouting nonsense and laughing. I’m not gonna say I was a huge fan of his but I liked the silliness of the character who was different from a lot of what DC published and he looked like he was having fun.