Today is the official start of DC's "Second Wave" of New 52 titles. What better time to step back and take a look at what we've seen so far from the New 52? So far, all of my blog entries have been about single issues on a weekly basis. This post will be about the entire series that has been released so far (8 issues for most, less for miniseries) I'll try to organize my thoughts as best I can, but mostly I'll just be giving random "awards" to series I liked over the past 8 months.

Overall thoughts

Best group: The Dark
Worst group: The Edge

Best ongoing series: Aquaman
Worst ongoing series: Legion of Super-Heroes
Best limited series: The Ray (complete), Shade (still going)
Worst limited series: Huntress
Best art for series: Batwing, Huntress
Worst art for series: Captain Atom

Pleasant surprise series: Red Lanterns, Demon Knights
Big disappointment series: Mr. Terrific, Firestorm
Series that I dismissed too quickly: I Vampire, Wonder Woman

Writer changes

GOOD - liked series more after the change
Green Arrow #4 - J.T. Krul to Keith Giffen & Dan Jurgens
Superman #7 - George Perez to Keith Giffen & Dan Jurgens
OKAY - opinion of series didn't change much
Legion Lost #7 - Fabian Nicieza to Tom DeFalco
Fury of Firestorm #7 - Gail Simone & Ethan Van Sciver to Joe Harris & Ethan Van Sciver
BAD - liked series less after change
Voodoo #5 - Ron Marz to Joshua Williamson
Green Arrow #7 - Keith Giffen & Dan Jurgens to Ann Nocenti

Characters benefiting from 52: Aquaman, Cyborg, Godiva, Animal Man, Resurrection Man
Characters hurt by 52: Martian Manhunter, Starfire, Oracle, Superboy, Kid Flash
Characters vanished by 52: Wally West, Donna Troy, Outsiders? (other than Katana,Looker)
Best continuity change: Adding back Vertigo characters
Worst continuity change: Removing Martian Manhunter from JLA

Series Ranked by family/group (top to bottom = best to worst)

Justice League group

-Aquaman
-Justice League
-Flash
-Justice League International
-Wonder Woman
-Green Arrow
-DC Universe Presents
-Captain Atom
-Savage Hawkman
-Fury of Firestorm

Batman group

-Batman
-Batwing
-Batman and Robin
-Birds of Prey
-Nightwing
-Catwoman
-Batwoman
-Batman: The Dark Knight
-Batgirl
-Red Hood and the Outlaws
-Detective Comics

Superman group

-Action Comics
-Supergirl
-Superboy
-Superman

Green Lantern group

-Green Lantern
-Red Lanterns
-Green Lantern: New Guardians
-Green Lantern Corps

The Dark

-Animal Man
-Swamp Thing
-Resurrection Man
-Justice League Dark
-Demon Knights
-I Vampire
-Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE

The Edge

-Suicide Squad
-Deathstroke
-Voodoo
-Stormwatch
-Grifter
-All-Star Western

Young Justice

-Blue Beetle
-Legion Lost
-Teen Titans
-Legion of Super-Heroes

First of the Fallen - closing thoughts on canceled series

OMAC - better than I thought it would be, I'll give him another try through JLI
Men of War - a little better than I thought, but not interested in genre
Blackhawks - a little better than I thought, but not interested in genre
Static Shock - Like this character, but think he could have been used a lot better
Hawk and Dove - Dislike these characters a lot, this series did little to change that
Mr. Terrific - Love this character, but series had too much pseudo-science jargon