Yes, they're seriously trying to sell "Team Green" as an official name.

Quick recap: Drakon, the goofy sandal wearing asassain, blew up a bank to attract TEAM GREEN. He captured Arsenal and drove off. How he managed to knock out Arsenal, tie him up, escape the blast and drive away in a 6-wheeled armored car in less than 15 seconds was not discussed. While tied up, Arsenal manages to escape his bonds by dislocating his shoulder... a move not seen since the last Encore Action Movie and first hammered home in "Lethal Weapon". How original. Arsenal manages to blow up the armored car and fight Drakon. Drakon incapacitates Arsenal by slicing his throat...and leading him to the SURPRISE MASTER VILLAIN-........the Riddler. I guess Crazy Quilt was busy.

This latest story is full of cliches. From the shoulder trick, right down to the title "Road Trip" and the cover slogan: "Outside the box". The Writer seems big on stealing cliches for the titles of his stories. Dumb crap like "New Blood", "As the Crow Flies", "Straight Shooter" or "Buy One Get One Free". This story started when Brick hired the Duke of Oil to....ROB a BANK. Then Drakon and (presumably) the Riddler show up for REVENGE. "Rob a Bank" and "Revenge" are two of the easiest plots to come up with. Back in 6th grade, I used to play the role-playing "Champions" alot...but lost my excitement when I realized that ALL of my plots centered around robbing a bank or revenge. I couldn't think of anything interesting. "Dang I need a way to get these new villains to face my guys... I know, ROB a BANK! But whattabout the old villains? I know.. REVENGE!".

Outside of the overused plot elements, the art is incredibly dark and murky. I guess they're taking that whole "darkening of DC" crap too seriously. The Riddler was recently recast as a weenie as a back-up story in Batman' "Wargames". That story suffered from serious retconing, but it's retconned once again as the supposedly weenie-fied and retired Riddler is once again a MASTER VILLAIN. What a fricking mess.

The Outsiders also make a cameo appearance. That team has some serious costume issues, as 3 of the female members dress alike. I didn't know who they were and had trouble telling them apart. One member is apparently Black Lightning's daughter...who must've undergone a massive growth spurt, or else she's the world's most developed 12 year old. That a contemporary hero would have a 20-something daughter seems a bit hard to swallow. Although Black Lightning's been pushed to the background for the past 10 years, I always got the feeling that he was in the typical hero age range, or more distinctly, 30-35 years old, tops. Unless he started boinking when he was 15.

I used to really enjoy this book, but unless #50 turns my crank immensely, I'll probably drop it.

With "Detective" and "Green Arrow" on their way out, I need two new titles to follow. Any suggestions? Remember, I usually only care for Marvel and DC junk.

My current list:
-New Avengers
-New Thunderbolts
-Black Panther
-Batman
-Nightwing
-JLA
-Green Arrow
-Detective Comics
-Superman/Batman
-GI Joe
-JLA Classified (until the Giffen/DeMatteis stuff ends)
-Young Avengers

I gave up on this book back around ish #20 something. Nothing since then has tickled my fancy, but I do like how they've used Ollie around the rest of the DCU, so I get my GA fix there.

As for:

"My current list:
-New Avengers
-New Thunderbolts
-Black Panther
-Batman
-Nightwing
-JLA
-Green Arrow
-Detective Comics
-Superman/Batman
-GI Joe
-JLA Classified (until the Giffen/DeMatteis stuff ends)
-Young Avengers "

You don't know how dissappointed I am that I didn't see JSA on that list. That book is the best written series I have ever read. Period. Pick it up, bitch!

Only highlight since GA #20 was a one-shot filler story around #34 or so. A retired firefighter put the old Arrowcar up for auction on eBay. A weirdo "supervillain" called the "Curator" or something tried to outbid both GA and Batman. Funny, but it suffered from the dreaded DC continuity problem: about a year earlier, in the SAME TITLE, GA and Arsenal found the Arrowcar in the old Arrowcave. So how a retired firefighter had supposedly owned the orginal for all those years was a big contradiction.

I've tried following JSA since it came out...but too much of the focus seems to be on revamping and retconning old concepts and characters. Dr. Fate, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Sand, Star Spangled Kid/Starman/Star Chic, Hourman, etc. It's a good thing they have so many members with weird problems, otherwise they'd have no purpose.

I'm also not too keen on how The Writer tries to justify his new creations by throwing in odd connections to third characters. (Doesn't the "new" Crimson Avenger have haunted guns possessed by the Phantom Stranger, or something like that?)