It seems like most of DC’s stuff comes from an ideology of “Let’s not screw up too much.”

Surely the bat-books and Superman books are an exception to that - both are playing with their core concepts quite a bit at the moment.
Sure, it won't last forever, but neither did Tony Stark, Director Of Shield.

Basically, it’s Johns doing what Johns does best: Giving a backstory that involves a lot of blood. If that’s your thing, you’ll probably like this issue

I do find his Green Lantern oddly compelling, although it's only really been the death of Moguls sister that I thought was way over the line in terms of violence (although there have been a few off panel deaths that I don't see the point to) - but I've never felt it get in the way of the story... silly it may have been but Sinestro Corps War was just plain fun to read.
(I'm actually surprised your not into the book).

With respect to DiDio, it seems, from scuttlebutt around the Internet water cooler, that the more he interferes with a book, the worse it is. I could be wrong, of course, but I guess I should give him credit for the good stuff that comes out of DC. Of course, neither he nor Joey Q seems equipped to run a business well (from a marketing standpoint), so I won't give either of them credit there.

Sorry for the fact that you had to skip the review. Basically, it's Johns doing what Johns does best: Giving a backstory that involves a lot of blood. If that's your thing, you'll probably like this issue. And Mahnke kicks butt on it.

As I pointed out, except for Green Lantern, there’s nothing even to get angry about in these comics.

So DC suck because unlike Marvel, they only put out one issue that you flat out hated?
Those bastards!

Of course, my four-year-old can probably tie her shoes better than DiDio, and she can barely get one lace over the other so far.

I thought you liked Seven Soldiers?
And All Star Superman?
And Wednesday Comics?
And Blue Beetle?
Secret Six?
Final Crisis?

Everyone blames him for the failures, but he gets no credit for any of the successes.
And before you say 'yeah, but most of the are Morrison!', Marvel had Morrison and couldn't keep him due to the editors and publisher interfering.

The Sinestro War stuff starts after this, with lots of gore and blood; then we move on to the Red Lanterns literally vomiting their burning blood onto people and the buildup to Blackest Night.

There's blood... there's not really gore.

And Pedro, you know I read some of the Soliel books! The problem is, they look so much nicer in the trade format, so except for Universal War One, which I started buying in individual issues, I've been looking for the trades. I may have to do an all-Soleil post once I get a few more (right now I only have Samurai, which was quite good). Sorry for offending your European sensibilities!

Stick that in your Cup O’ Joe, Quesada."

Let's be fair here, I Am Legion is a licensed reprint of an already done (and paid for) european comic. That is MUCH cheaper to do than creating a comic from the whole cloth!

And on its own european reprints (the Soleil line, you know, those comics no one seems to read and/or review online for some reason, even though there is some darn good stuff there), Quesada is charging six bucks for a whole (44+ pages) european issue instead of 3.50 for half an issue like Devil'd Due does. So Marvel european reprints are really CHEAPER!

Best,
Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

Personally I thought GL #43 was an immensely boring comic that could have told its entire story in 5 pages without lessening the impact even slightly, but I haven't been able to bring myself to care about the franchise since the Sinestro Corps War completely fell apart in its second half and then the comic spent the next year and a half introducing a shitload of laughable rainbow spectrum corps that nobody will ever use again 5 years from now.

Also, I don’t get why everybdy (not just you, all over the net) has been quite so hard on the Teen Titans page. I understand that Galloway’s art isn’t to evryone’s taste ..., but the story is fine so far as I can see- almost all these pages follow the same pattern: here’s your hero, here’s your villain, here’s the set up for the fight to start next week- the Titans story (which has it’s own special challenge when it comes to introducing the characters, being one of only two team-based strips in the thing ... ) manages this in a refreshignly direct and simple manner.

Teen Titans was really the only strip which disappointed me. Nearly all the other creators went the route presenting a very straight-forward, classic take on their material. You've got Batman answering the Bat-Signal, Superman engaged in a punch-up on the streets of Metropolis and Supergirl chasing misbehaving Super-Pets. Just the thing itself ... straight, no chaser.

The effect is strangely electrifying. You forget that Hawkman's wings and Adam Strange's Rocket Pack are sort of cool. Darwyn Cooke reminded everyone that Hal Jordan was insanely cool in the Jet Age, but it is nice to see someone else going back to that well. That Kershl and Fletcher story just feels like the Flash. Like I said, I could rave about the vast majority of the strips.

Page after page, I was reminded why I started reading DC Comics in the first place all those years ago.

Berganza and Galloway managed to remind me why I stop reading every few years. Their Teen Titans has that Xerox of a Xerox feel that I have come to hate. Blah, Blah ... History ... Blah, Blah .... Legacy of interesting characters who are no longer in the cast ... Blah, Blah ... They are like a family ... Blah, Blah ... LOOK! Someone got impaled with a trident ... KEWL! How X-TREME! ... Hmmmm ... Maybe I am too old to be reading this garbage.

"...why wouldn’t it already be done or at least much closer to completion?"

Perhaps a cash crunch? It wouldn't be thew first time a comics company had to delay publishing an issue.

As for Galloway's art. I used to wonder why he didn't get more comics work and now I think I know why. He's an exceptionally talented character designer and his gestures are certainly dynamic, but his entire page took place in a void. There was no real sense of space. Meanwhile Berganza's story did a poor job at a set up and didn't even get to a hook or a cliffhanger. Not that he was alone. Only a handful of the writers really had a sense for the format. Its still a fantastic comic, and Kamandi, Strange Adventures, and The Flash are all going to be my new wallpaper by the time this is through. However, I do think there is some room for improvement.

The violence in this one snuck up and struck, rather than just charging head on(stuffing the family dog as opposed to tearing a spaceman's arm off). I think that was the big difference.

Well, lately it's been written by someone else, so that may account for the tone shift.

I used to love Johns. I have most of his Flash run and thought at the time that he took the characters up a notch.

The problem is that he has the tendency to do the same "opposite number" style story everywhere, and it's worn thin (for example, we had "new rogues" vs. "old rogues" in Flash; a new "Zoom", a Black Marvel family, and now a rainbow of Lantern corps). In many ways, it's just too similar to me, and it shows a lack of recognition of what makes villains (or heroes) special: that there's more to it than a numbers game (one yellow lantern is bad...thousands of faceless yellow lanterns will be worse; forget that the one yellow lantern could take on the whole Green Lantern corps. and win...which was the point of the character).

It actually analogizes well to The Last Laugh, which showed clearly why only one Joker was needed. The concept seemed cool at first, but then you realize it's all imitation of the original and the story becomes pointless. Zombie Lanterns that kill just to kill; how different is that then Red Lanterns or Yellow Lanterns that kill just to kill? Are they more articulate (I mean, the Red ones just seemed to growl)? Are the costumes cooler? Is it just the idea of zombie heroes? Can that be enough to sustain it for all these issues and warrant the cash expenditure?

I suspect that Blackest Night, despite Johns protests to the contrary, will be a typical summer crossover: lots of things look bad, but the status quo is never in doubt and whatever changes arise will be minor ones (like Kyle getting a different ring and costume that really isn't that different than his current ring and costume). If anything, it'll be a chance to bring back the DC dead and return them to good standing in the DCU, which was probably the plan all along. Pass.

There's no intentionally humor, for one thing (no jokes about Larfleeze looking like a Muppet, or Hal wanting two hamburgers, or Rage Cats.) The closest we get is the broken Easter Egg, which fits thematically into the issue anyways. It's worth noting that Burgas specifically praised Simone for including dark humor to temper the darkness in Secret Six.