A good lead story, a mediocre middle story with Super-Man, and a poor Jon Kent story. I’m done paying for a title that’s deteriorated over the last 3 months despite good work from PKJ, and will follow it going forward on the DCUI app instead (the lead feature, anyway), where it’s not costing me anything extra.

With PKJ leaving (without a conclusion to his latest saga in the main title; you need to pick up the Annual for that), and a pair of lackluster backups that are there to shill other DC titles, this provides a good jumping-off point for me. I’ll check back from time to time on the DCUI Ultra app in a few months.

Great kickoff with a superb combination of writing and art, minus mediocre backup stories thankfully! Aaron launches a fresh storyline that is careful not to intrude upon, nor contradict, the great work Williamson is doing on the primary title with is cast of characters, and take Bizarro’s story into fresh new territory.

After an exciting, well-written first chapter, this new chapter turns into a mess. A little Bizarro goes a long way. A lot of Bizarro makes for a muddled, inconsistent read, and to make matters worse, the writer throws in a time jump and doesn’t consistently follow the backwards logic he laid out. We end up a story in which Superman needs to battle an adversary inside his own mind, which Chip Zdarsky has struggled to do with Batman on that title for 20 months. Very disappointing issue, though the art was very nice, hence the above average rating.

I’m tired of stories taking place inside a broken hero’s psyche. I’m tired of Joker deconstruction. I’m tired of cities under siege. I feel like Jason Aaron and Chip Zdarsky are the same person. Bring on Josh Williamson!

Williamson’s outstanding Superman work continues here with a superb launch to another exciting storyline. He’s the best writer to tackle Superman and his expansive cast of characters in the last several decades!

An extended flashback in the second issue that fails to capitalize on the interesting present-day mystery that was set up in the first issue hinders this second chapter. The story is 1/3 over and in addition to no forward movement on the plot, the origin of Alan Scott and his connection to the Green Flame has been fundamentally altered instead of expanded upon. If this was an alternate-Earth Alan Scott, that’s fine. But it’s not.

The series reaches its mid-point by the end and very little has been done to advance the central “mystery”. We do get a twist that everyone could see coming from a mile away. Hopefully things improve in the second half.

Another step back in the right direction as Zdarsky attempts to redeem himself after Gotham War. The back-up story was also quite good, with an intriguing attempt to tie Vandal Savage and The Court of Owls together (presumably, as it’s not explicitly stated).

While there’s no question that the writing has rebounded from the depths of the horrible Gotham War, there’s a sense of massive deja vu here as Batman is once again punching, and being chased by, his killer robot. It comes back to the Failsafe saga, only to have another interruption, this time in the form of Joker Year One. I’m at the point where I’m ready for this entire saga to just be finished and for a fresh new storyline to begin. The art was gorgeous and kinetic as usual, and the backup was interesting enough, but it’s time to move on. I just hope the Joker interlude is better than Gotham War.

I smell another Zdarsky mess in the making, as his up-and-down yo-yo run on the book continues. Whenever he is telling a compelling storyline, he seems to interrupt it with interludes such as the multi-verse story, the execrable Gotham War, and now Joker: Year One, which suffers from underwhelming art in places and a very non-linear story. Can he ever just tell a complete, linear story with a beginning, middle, and end?! I’m very doubtful after over 20 months of Zur-En-Arh.

A slight improvement over last week’s chapter, with moments that are genuinely captivating and others that are mundane. The same goes for the art. ultimately, this story feels vastly overhyped relative to what’s being served up.

Zdarsky needs to finish his 2-year Zurr-en-Arr story and then get the hell out of Gotham. He’s overstayed his welcome with this latest mess. He knows how to start a good story but he sure doesn’t know how to finish them.

Want to read a GREAT Joker story from recent times? One who’s simply delusional and insane? Read Waid’s BATMAN/SUPERMAN WORLD’S FINEST #25 from March. Zdarsky’s Joker and Damian characterizations are pure nonsense. Just end this run already.

A pox upon William Tucker for giving this a 10/10 critic rating! This event and this issue was pure excrement and the writers and editors involved should be run out of the business permanently! Nothing here made any sense whatsoever. Plus, there are probably at least 20 DCU heroes around that could’ve stopped the stupid meteor. With that said, I was rooting for the meteor. This is quite possibly the worst Batman story I’ve read in 45 years of collecting BATMAN. DC should be ashamed of itself. What would folks like Denny O’Neil, Mike Carlin, Dick Giordano, Paul Levitz, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman and many other brilliant custodians of these characters over the decades have thought of $hit like this?!

A perfect chapter of art and writing, this is a cinematic Kingdom Come sequel that probably could have been released as a company-wide mega-event miniseries, but is instead (fortunately) self-contained within the monthly World’s Finest series, making it DC’s best book on the stands these days. Waid and Mora are telling an epic story that will hopefully, when completed, proudly stand alongside the original KC miniseries and as a testament to the superb talent of this amazing storytelling duo!

It’s stunning to me that DC didn’t make this story, a full-blown Kingdom Come prequel event, into its own giant stand-alone DC crossover limited-series prestige format event! It would sell even better than within this book’s pages. It could’ve tied into numerous other titles very organically with cool side stories. DC has also totally failed to properly market this event in any kind of grand scope or scale. This is some of Waid’s (and Mora’s) very best storytelling ever spanning his amazing career over the last 30 years. Savor every bit of this issue, for there’s only one chapter left, and I CANNOT WAIT!

While mischievous 5th-dimensional imps aren’t my favorite cup of tea, this issue is still fun and the art is gorgeous as always!

A mixed bag at best. A couple of pretty good stories followed by a couple of lackluster stories. It came across as filler for a 5th week release. Skip it.

The book continues to improve with not only the writing but the art as well. Seeing Damian and Bruce develop their relationship is fun to see, and it adds needed depth to both characters. Throw in several interesting new mysteries and we have a winner once again this month! The humor is much appreciated as well.

Good writing marks this breezy romp in the woods for Bruce and Dick, although the artwork often hurts the storytelling more than it helps. Porter needs to retire or get a good inker, his work has really deteriorated.

The lead story continues with another solid suspense foray as Catwoman puts her plan into action to save Batman. The back-up story, however, was a miss this issue. At least Ram V redeems Catwoman after the dreadful Gotham War fiasco!

The penultimate chapter of this 5-issue arc within the arc really delivers, thanks to a near-perfect combination of plotting, scripting, characterization and artwork! The back-up story does a great job flashing back to the Oghrams’ arrival in Gotham and fills in several gaps. Looking forward to the next chapter!

Very strong close to this current arc in Ram’s ongoing saga, as we see both friends and enemies of the incapacitated Dark Knight rescue him from a common enemy that both groups face. Seeing Selina and Talia work together as mature adults was a great story choice, and having a great Two-Face return appearance also was a highlight. A few exciting twists to the narrative leave me eagerly waiting to see where the Dark Knight ends up next.

A strong kick-off to the final act of Ram V’s Bat-saga, as we get inside Batman’s psyche on a journey through what may or may not physically be happening in reality. He’s in an altered state as he tries to purge his demons and reconnect to his true self in a setting that ties back to the fable that was told earlier in Act 1. The backup has a nice strange twist at the end. Great issue overall!

Nice to have a sane, confident, almost happy Bruce Wayne back in the cowl! As I excitedly await for this final act to play out in all its Nolan-esque glory, I can only hope that Chip Zdarsky is paying attention.

While the art is quite good and a detailed departure from past artists, the writing is a jumbled, incomprehensible mess that’s also dragging down the book’s sales 3 issues in. Spurrier has taken a beloved character that’s all about kinetic energy and rendered him inert, making him a static character in this Grant Morrison-wannabe overblown mess. The editor and writer have violated the first rule of launching a new book with a beloved character: MAKE IT ACCESSIBLE. Not only will new readers find this to be an impenetrable garbled mess, old-time readers will be lost as well. It only serves to highlight all the great work Jeremy Adams brought to these characters, and which the editor flushed away. It’s bad enough the movie tanked, but now DC is tanking the comic, too!

Best issue by a mile, as I didn’t care for the first three. This one feels like a massive course correction by Spurrier, so perhaps he was reading feedback from fans and seeing the sales start to drop while he wrote this issue. The Mirror Master/Irey/Jesse plot is intriguing, and Wally’s detour into his own personal “Nexus” within the Speed Force also was interesting. Hopefully Spurrier has realized he needs to dial way back on the metaphysical scientific mumbo jumbo and just focus on telling a good coherent story with the characters we love, and perhaps take some cues from what worked for Jeremy Adams. Maybe there’s a light shining in this tunnel…

As with last issue, we get a character-centric story focused on another Flash child: Jai (Irey took center stage last month). It’s an interesting tale of Jai’s quest for his dad’s approval, a deeper exploration of Jai’s evolving powers, and a rather shocking glimpse into what happens when Wally thinks his son is gone. The sci-fi aspects of the plotting aren’t as dense and hard to follow this time around either. Spurrier has wisely realigned his storytelling approach to focus more on putting the characters front and center instead of the sci-fi wackiness, and the book is better for it.

The story had started to recover the last few issues and gained some coherence, but with this issue, it reverts back to a lot of head-scratching. We are a half-year into this story and I’m feeling like I barely know anything more about the plot than when it started. Spurrier should not be writing this book, as this cosmic-horror take on the characters just isn’t working…and the sales of the book reflect that.

Nice, kinetic, energetic guest artwork combined with a long-overdue explanation of what’s been going on with the Speed Force leads to the first truly enjoyable issue of this series.

Interesting chapter with enjoyable fill-in artwork again from Perez, who has a nice kinetic art style as opposed to regular artist Deodato, whose imagery is more static and posed. The story builds up interest with an appearance by Amanda Waller and her minions, as the speedsters are spread thin trying to stop unnatural disasters. This storyline is a big improvement on the title’s initial story.

Spurrier has filled this storyline with so much technobabble gobbledygook that it makes you care so little for those few and far between moments that focus on the characters we love. Please fix this book, DC! We the fans, and the characters, deserve better.

Good wrap-up by Williamson and team, but pales compared to his work on SUPERMAN. I feel this story could’ve been told in 4 issues, not 6, as some of the earlier timey-wimey stops seem rather pointless. Excited to see what’s next!

Great re-set from the previous storyline, as Ollie reacclimates to a world without a Justice League. We even get a nice reunion with Hal Jordan, who was inexplicably left off the cover though. Lots of new mysteries spin out of this and it almost feels like a new #1 instead of issue #7. Love the artwork too! This book is in good hands and I’m glad it’s now an ongoing title.

Not quite as solid or fun as the previous issue’s homecoming story,, but having a Kevin Smith villain back combined with Phil Hester artwork still makes for a fun retro romp and a nifty little mystery, even though it seemed pretty clear early on that no one actually died. The issue does have a nice little twist on the final page and a new mystery for Ollie and Connor to solve.

Nice to see GA at the center of Big Happenings in the DCU as he squares off against Waller. I’m not crazy about his upcoming mission, which ties in to one of my most-hated comics stories in DC history. The art was sensational, though I do miss Hester’s fill-ins.

This issue was thrilling, as it marks a culmination to the story Adams has been building, building upon the earlier emotional spectrum work that Geoff Johns so masterfully developed. The art is gorgeous and Tomasi’s Korg back-up story is good too. Just need Adams to start answering more of the questions that he has readers asking with regards to the backstory that’s been hinted at surrounding Hal, the Corps, and the United Planets. It’s outstanding to be getting two great GL books each month! Nice to have the franchise in such good hands as those of Adams, PKJ and Tomasi. DC Editorial has made a lot of mistakes lately (Knight Terrors, Gotham War, The new Flash book) but at least they’ve restored the GL franchise after many disappointing years!

Superb issue despite a good, not great, fill-in artist. Adams pays off much of the mystery he set up in the first 6 issues with a fantastic story featuring our favorite corps legends, while teasing several new mysteries at the same time! It’s so nice to have the GL franchise back on track this year, and it reminds me of the peak era 15 years ago when Johns was on fire.

The mysteries deepen as we see some UP Lanterns arrive who are able to channel power from other emotional spectrums. This ties to the wonderful back-up story, in which Ron Marz (Kyle Rayner’s creator) celebrates Kyle’s 30th anniversary by crafting a nostalgic look at the past, the present and the future as Kyle realizes something’s wrong with the Emotional Spectrum. Both stories appear to be headed to an exciting intersection involving the United Planets, and I’m loving the ride! GL hasn’t been this good in 15 years!

Both stories in this issue are a blast! Nice to have a big epic space saga with the fate of the galaxy at stake! Best GL writing and art in several decades.

Doesn’t quite hit the heights of the first 3 issues, but it’s still an engrossing chapter that portends an upcoming war between the (corrupt) United Planets and the OG Green Lantern Corps that’s currently under their control. Can’t wait to see where this is headed, but one thing is clear: the two GL titles are headed for a cross-over soon.

The ongoing Dark Star storyline is wearing a bit thin for me in this issue, but the Earth-bound story with John’s mother and a Guy Gardner “appearance” continues to be captivating, along with the great artwork.

Superb chapter that sucks you right in and leaves you wanting more!

Probably my favorite issue so far. I have a soft spot for Foreman’s art, dating back to his days drawing DC’S ANIMAL MAN for The New 52. Nice twist at the end with an exciting moral quandary for Banner!

Love Adams’ writing, he’s so good with character work, plus he simply “gets” these characters. I would love to see this series continue on past 6 issues, a la GREEN ARROW. Adams’ book bring fun back to superheroes! I’d give it a higher rating, but the art didn’t quite gel with me as much as the writing. It felt a little too cartoony.

Very good origin story for Dr. Elemental that respects Jay’s history and builds on what has come before instead of fundamentally altering it. This book is not only a celebration of Jay and his family and legacy, but also serves as a celebration of the Golden Age of comics.

Very disappointing and confusing wrap-up to a series that was all over the place to begin with. Makes the conclusion of the previous Joker series by Tynion look amazingly coherent by comparison. Dont waste your time with this one, there’s nothing to see here except some good artwork. Joker will pop up in next month’s BATMAN comic and the events in this book will be completely ignored.

2 issues in 2 months?! Maybe there’s hope, even though we know Geoff’s time is limited. This is one of the best issues to date, with a great mix of compelling storyline, intriguing mysteries, and good character work as we’ve come to expect from Johns. Janin’s artwork is gorgeous and raises the standard on this book to a very high bar!

A good wrap-up that falls short of better wrap-ups to earlier stories during Taylor’s run. The art is good, but feels like “imitation Redondo” since we can’t get the real thing lately (he did draw a gorgeous SUPERMAN #9 this month). The Damian Wayne back-up was a head-scratcher that was intended to be a Beast World prologue. I’m not climbing on board that one, given how bad Knight Terrors and Gotham War were.

The cover was my favorite thing about this issue, which was otherwise a good (not great) Beast World crossover that reunites the Super Sons. While the art was perfectly serviceable, it was a comedown from the innovative pencils and layouts we’ve enjoyed previously. Hopefully this book gets back on track next month, now that the pirate adventure and cross-overs are over.

A great one-and-done story featuring a celebration of Dick Grayson and his Nightwing career in Bludhaven! Best part was the Wolfman/Redondo interlude with a very touching tribute to the character as well as George Perez. My only complaint was the back-up story, which added nothing to the reading experience and featured the typically lousy Howard Porter art of the modern era.

Good issue, but lacking a bit compared to previous issues, both in terms of the new story and the guest artist. The space dinosaur plot is fun, occasionally humorous, but feels lighter than the prior storyline that put Billy through his paces. Plus Black Adam is a character that, for me, wears out his welcome pretty quickly. A little goes a long way.

Great fun, poignant, and some nice characterization of Black Adam!

Thank goodness this Dark Droids Saturday morning cartoon-level Borg rip-off nonsense is wrapping up. Lando has behaved pretty uncharacteristically through this story, so I’m hopeful that the writer can get things back on track with the characters and tee-up Return of the Jedi.

A fairly boring story that does manage to give Luke’s green lightsaber an origin story while at the same time has him facing a illy, comic book Sith villain that we really don’t care about.

I’ve enjoyed many of the stories in the book’s run, but this Dark Droids crossover was not one of them. The conclusion here felt somewhat rushed and much of the dialogue was at the level of a Saturday morning cartoon. With that said, I look forward to what I hope is a good series finale next issue.

A good wrap-up to the series, which for me has occasionally hit some fun highs and relatively few lows during its run. It started to feel like it was running out of gas the past 6 months or so, so it was nice to be treated to one last fun adventure this issue. The big question about this issue is why the Mega Droid wasn’t seen during the Droid War issues of STAR WARS that took place with Lando in Jabba’s palace. A possessed Mega Droid would certainly have laid waste to the palace, which I guess we can’t have in the run-up to Return of the Jedi.

Pretty bad wrap up to the Dark Droids tie-in, still written at the level of an 80s Saturday morning cartoon for the breakfast cereal crowd. Lots of half-baked ideas that go nowhere, and a few mildly interesting ideas that still don’t impact the movie continuity in any discernible way. Vader suddenly pulls some grand master plan for how to deal with the droid threat out of his bottom, meaning it made very little sense, it wasn’t set up well or earned, and was hard to keep up with. Lots of endless panels of robots exploding if you like that type of stuff. I didn’t and I’m ecstatic that this Droids nonsense is over with.

A welcome improvement over the last 5 months of the Dark Droids crossover, this issue gets back to seeing different factions within the Empire vie for power as Vader takes on a rather strange Rebel threat. It wasn’t great, but it has potential and I trust Pak will deliver something good based on his track record before Dark Hemorrhoids.

A slight step forward in the new Schism storyline, which for me doesn’t line up much with the movie continuity. I feel Ike the comic is at a point where it’s struggling to come up with compelling things for Vader to do and be involved with, and is marking time until Marvel decides to move the timeline forward and end this series.

Pretty good tie-in to an absurd crossover event that was rather ill-conceived, but Aphra comes across as waaay too much of an obsessive horndog in this issue. I’m surprised the Disney and Lucasfilm overlords let this stuff slip through.

More epic movie-era storytelling at its finest. If the previous series was an alternate SUPERMAN III, this story is an alternate SUPERMAN IV with the U.S. and the USSR in conflict with each other’s superpowered saviors. I also smell Lex Luthor behind all this. Feels like another epic Donner-era film!

I love this series, but by the conclusion of this issue, we are at the mid-point of the story and not much has happened beyond the initial battle with Metallo. By comparison, the first series packed a lot of plot and action into each issue. However, this issue mainly focused on talk about the events of last issue, with no new action or developments. I did enjoy seeing General Lane (in the 1980-ish movie era, I picture Jason Robards playing him), and I also enjoyed the appearance of an old favorite at the end of the issue. The art remains solid, and Venditti’s dialogue is perfect! I’m sure the plot will pick up steam in the next issue.

Strong issue that moves the cinematic story forward in exciting ways, including a much-welcome return of Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor! The art by Guidry continues to improve and impress with his actor likenesses. I’m excited for the final two chapters.

Nice wrap-up, very much in keeping with the hopeful tone of the movies themselves. Here’s hoping we get a full trilogy soon.

The story improves and moves forward by several notches, all while maintaining a great balance of character work and action. Paired with the always-superb Bruno Redondo’s fill-in artwork, we get a real treat for the eyes this month! This is the best Superman has been in several decades.

Another stellar issue on an amazing run that gives an origin to an interesting new character, successfully revives an old forgotten villain, and introduces a new twist on an old concept involving the Revenge Squad! This is the best Superman run we’ve seen in decades! Plus the book is loads of FUN!

I absolutely loved the twists and turns in this issue that keep you guessing from one moment to the next, and I’m looking forward to the next installment. Last issue and this issue are the best yet. It’s also fun having the Force of July back in action!

Very well done, setting up the last piece of Penguin’s plan by using a classic Bronze Age Bat-villain to be his mole. Fast-paced, great character work, and moody art.

Taylor moves the story forward with some key Beast World plot developments here, along with a disturbing display of power by Raven, all of which serve to highlight what has previously been lacking this year: that the Titans are very capable of taking down a global threat in place of the JLA.

Good story, but lacking compared to the prior Beast World saga. This one is filled with tension but at the same time feels anticlimactic. I’m also confused why the Titans needed a boom-tube jet when the tube itself would suffice.

Good, not great, start that at least has a kickoff that puts the other 2023 DC events to shame. It does have several plot holes and many unanswered questions as others have pointed out already. The Ivan Reid art is absolutely gorgeous, as we’ve come to expect. I just hope this event hasn’t yet peaked already.

Tom Taylor is taking what easily could’ve been another absurd premise for a wide-ranging crossover (see Knight Terrors and Gotham War) and is making something compelling, fun and credible instead, aided and abetted by the gorgeous Ivan Reid artwork.

This issue turned a lot more serious in terms of consequences as the drama and plot escalate to a rather shocking turn of events by issue’s end. Bonus points to Taylor for reviving, albeit briefly, a long unused FLASH supporting character from the 90s to great effect.

The writing was good, and even better on the backup story. The art on both is fantastic! I like King’s work on THE PENGUIN much better though.

Loved the back-up, which almost felt like a Tomasi-written Super Sons adventure featuring Lizzie. The main story was good with amazing art, though the big storyline didn’t move forward all that much, though we do get to see The Sovereign extend his influence into the seat of power in America. Another great chapter but I’m ready to see how the end-game plays out.

While the plot moves at a snail’s pace, the character work and the round-up of the villains makes for a fun chapter, along with the amazing art. The back-up continues to be a fun romp as well with Gen-S meshing well together.

Waid sticks the landing with this final issue, best issue of the series! And I’m not even a huge fan of this era of Titans, but Waid made me a believer.