Since The Restart Has Started. . .

After some deliberation, I opted to try Resurrection Man, Suicide Squad, and Grifter. I'm still surpsied I'm going to buy a comic about Grifter. I have picked up the trades of WildCATS version 3.0 that came out over the last 2 years, but those were more based on Joe Casey than Grifter. With Suicide Squad, I'm banking on the interior art making Harley look a bit less ridiculous than the covers do, plus some vague hope the title carries an inherent spirit that won't allow itself to be attached to a terrible comic.

I know, that sounds ludicrous, because it is. But I know part of the reason I'm buying it is because I've liked books with that title before, and I hope the concept can be used well by someone other than John Ostrander.

Resurrection Man's in on the strength of the writers, but I'm concerned because my collection of their first go-round with the title is up to issue 15, and while I still like the concept, and certain individual issues, the execution overall hasn't been really grabbed me. Part of it is I don't love Guice's art. It isn't bad in any technical sense, it just feels stiff, and isn't in the styles I prefer. So maybe having a different artist on this version will help.

That's three titles, which is where I've been at the last 3 months prior to this reset. Three monthly DC titles is pretty standard for me over the last couple of years. So it's a lateral move for me quantitatively, but qualitatively remains to be seen. Batman Beyond was a book where I mostly enjoyed the stories (outside of that last issue about Inque), but the art held it back. Secret Six was the inconsistent book, sometimes great, sometimes terribly disappointing. When it was good though, it was really good.

I'm sure some of the new titles can reach those levels, but are any of them going to become as much of a favorite of mine as Batgirl was? Even though it couldn't use the same artist for more than two issues, the art was consistently good or great. The stories had a generally light and humorous tone that worked for the character, and Miller mixed in done-in-ones with longer running stories fairly deftly*. It's vied with Darkwing Duck for the ongoing I'm most excited for each month** (and now that's ending, too). I'm not sure whether any of these new titles are going to achieve that level.

* I'd say Miller's weakness, if you consider it that, was he couldn't seem to mix the two. Have a story with beginning, middle, and end, plus the larger story advancing in the background. Not a lot, but at least a little forward progress. It didn't kill the book for me, obviously, but it'd be something to maybe try and improve assuming he does more comic writing in the future.

** admittedly, I don't buy many ongoings anymore, so it's a small field. But those two titles have a considerable lead on everything else I've bought over that span, except maybe Heroes for Hire.