What Books Should I Be Reading in DC's New 52?

DC's New 52 initiative is in its sixth month now, and even amid the news of cancellations, replacement series, and changes to some creative teams, there is no reason you shouldn't be breaking down your local comic shop's door down every Wednesday to get your filthy mitts all over that week's new books. Well, besides the obvious legal ramifications.

Your honor, he was just listening to that crappy blogger!

So far, I'm digging all of the books that I'm reading. The only one I'm really iffy about still is Green Arrow. I don't know what it is, but I'm just not digging that particular book. I'm also still unsure about Teen Titans. It was actually one of the books that I picked up when I first started to re-reading comics, and I stuck by it, through lineup & creative changes, sometimes for the good, sometimes the bad. The DCnU version's been okay, so far, but I haven't seen anything special from it. Yet. I'll stick with it for a bit longer, but I hope it gets better.

A resounding..."meh."

But enough about the negatives. Here's a list of the books you definitely should be reading in the New 52 (in no particular order):

Aquaman

The Flash

Green Lantern

Justice League

Batman

Action Comics

Nightwing

All-Star Western

Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E.

The last two are, in my sometimes humble opinion, DC's shining, unsung gems. I would most certainly consider both books "fringe" stories. Yeah, I said it. Keep your Barry Allen. Your Arthur Curry. Your Hal Jordan & Bruce Wayne. Well, don't really. I'd be sad. But that's not what I'm talking about. The DCnU's best books are a western and a monster book.

This book is aces.

The first, All-Star Western, is based on the exploits of the bounty hunter Jonah Hex (plus a revolving back-up story). One part of the book's genius is that the writers have basically thrown the conventions of a normal "western" out the window. While it has a distinctive western feel, so far, the story hasn't gone further west than Gotham City (long before the Batman). Might I remind you, Gotham is mostly agreed upon to be in New Jersey. Represent. But I digress. Anyway, besides solid storytelling, All-Star Western takes everything good about westerns & the Batman mythos, and marries them into a near perfect book.

Dope.

But, somehow, there is one book better than ASW, and that is Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. Frankenstein first premiered in DC books in 1948, though he's gone through many changes since then. While his background isn't much different than Mary Shelley's version, there are, obviously, changes; the biggest being that he didn't die after freezing in the Arctic. Nah, man. That badass swam to America.

Suck it, Phelps.

Now, I've previously stated that I thought Frankenstein & the Creatures of the Unknown was the best part of the Flashpoint mini-series (the guy/monster/thing personally killed zee fuhrer, for crying out loud), so it shouldn't be a surprise that I like this book. But what's awesome is that you have this undead, unkillable, centuries old, uncorruptable monster acting (almost) like a secret agent. Granted, instead of spying on enemy agents, he's off fighting God knows what in God knows where, but he is working for a covert agency, saving the world from unspeakable evil. Plus, he has Ray Palmer as his "Q." The book just doesn't feel like any of the other DCnU books I've read, which is one of the reasons that it's superior to the 51 others.

I mean...look at that madness.