Green Lantern #1 and Batman and Robin #1

Green Lantern #1
Green Lantern picks up right where Green Lantern left off. Hal Jordan is not a green lantern at the beginning of this relaunch (still) and Sinestro is released by the little blue maniacs (aka The Guardians) to go be a green lantern. I'll be honest, I like Geoff Johns as a writer, and I think he is working on something big with this shake up for Hal and Sinestro. There is a brief interlude in the comic with Sinestro as a green lantern still spying on the planet Korugar (his homeworld) with a big green telescope from an orbiting asteroid. The fury visible in his face at what the Yellow Lanterns are doing to his homeworld that he left in their care in his absence says it all; we didn't even need the interaction with the yellow lantern that catches him out there to know how angry he was. This is a testament to the pencils by Doug Mahnke.
The final scene at the end of the issue gives you a glimpse into an alliance that does not bode well for the little blue maniacs at all. As for these little blue maniacs, they have definitely gone off the deep end under Johns' direction, and I love it. It is obvious that they are mad with power, and it's about time they were reigned in. Ganthet seems to be the only one who was sane in this issue, and they did not appreciate it at all (read the issue and you'll see what I mean). In essence, they've been mad with power ever since the creation of the Manhunters, but Johns does an excellent job of demonstrating just how insane they have become due to their lack of emotional influences.
Green Lantern #1 was a great read and picks up right where the series ended before the end of Flashpoint. I highly recommend this book if you're a fan of Green Lantern, especially if you were reading before the relaunch and stopped because you were in your hater mode due to the complete relaunch of the DC Universe as a whole new universe.

Batman and Robin  #1
Batman and Robin #1 does not pick up quite where we left off at the end of the old DC Universe. Like with Detective Comics, Bruce Wayne is the only Batman once more. Dick Grayson is gone, presumably back to being Nightwing since there is a Nightwing #1 slated for release as part of the new 52. For the first time, we get to see Bruce Wayne and his son, Damian Wayne, fighting crime together as Batman and Robin. Like Detective Comics #1, Gotham is back to being dark and eery the way it should be, but in Batman and Robin there is a light of hope, not just for the city, but for Bruce Wayne as well.
This story sets the tone for the new undercurrent for why Bruce dons the cowl and his new perspective on life given the final scene of Flashpoint. There is the revelation of a new villain to come in the issue - it's Damian's fault, as well as getting to see just how Bruce is going to deal with his brat of a son.
For all of you who have been following the Damian Wayne story since his first appearance a couple years ago, it's no surprise that as a person, I still dislike Damian, and, as a character, I think he is awesome in the Bat-family. Peter J. Tomasi continues to write him in the same fashion in which he was established. As the son of Talia Al-Ghul and Bruce Wayne and raised only by Talia as a member of the League of Shadows as Ra's Al-Ghul's assassin, Damian remains well trained but volatile and a little too cocky for his own good. His disrespect of his father is obvious and the lack of trust that Bruce has for his son is well written into the story as well. It's going to be interesting to see this father/son relationship develop, and I can't wait for the scene that I hope eventually shows up where Bruce spanks/grounds/puts in time out his brat of a son and starts to teach him to respect his elders despite what he thinks he knows.
Patrick Gleason's pencils also do a good job of depicting this story in picture form. Batman is as dark as he should be, and you can see the light of hope that is beginning in him with this new status quo. Damian is drawn well as the spoiled barely teenaged boy he is. The explosions are explosive to the point that you can almost feel the new Bat-vehicle depicted careening away when Damian sabotages it.
If you like Batman and you still love to hate Damian, then pick up this book.

And, ok, I know every review I've given has been a recommendation to pick up a book, but there are books I didn't like in the new 52 so far. From last week's line up, I didn't really care for OMAC #1, and Static Shock #1 and I recommend you skip them unless you are absolutely enamored with those characters or the writers (and I will say I'm not agains the writers or the artists in either of these, I just didn't like the characters and their introductions to the new DC universe didn't grab me). I felt the same way about Batwing #1, but given that the main character is stabbed through the heart from behind at the end of the first issue, I kind of want to pick up #2 just to see how they fix that - my main issue with it is that I just didn't need a Batman of Africa in my life; Judd Winick wrote the character well and the armor is visually cool, but I'm not sure I get the necessity for this book. I wish they had just done a Bat-family series with rotating Batman of (insert continent/country here) in order to highlight and showcase these types of characters from the new (and eventually continuing) Batman Inc. line. Additionally, from last week, I'm currently not sure about Swamp Thing #1, Justice League International #1, Men of War #1 (the backup story was better than the main story in this one and I recommend that story), and Green Arrow #1. I'm going to pick 1 to 2 more issues of each of these though for various reasons - Swamp Thing and JLI because I want to see if they are going somewhere and this is just groundwork that didn't grab me up front; Men of War because I want to read the rest of the back-up; and Green Arrow because I like J.T. Krul as a writer and I hope he moves Ollie quickly away from this new status quo or does something with it that makes me believe it's not just Batman with a bow.