This week's comics (that I read) April 12

Spoilers

Batgirl and the Birds of Prey #9: Black Canary infiltrates Blackbird's training camp (as "Donna" - is this a deliberate convoluted reference to the recent Arrow news?) but winds up as her mind-controlled minion. Yum. The final pages promise a Birds/Nightwing/Green Arrow team up: yay! This series is really picking up. 

Detective Comics #954: Batman traps Ra's al-Ghul in a cage. Ra's talks his way out of it. It bites Batman in the ass. Jacob Kane escapes. Cassandra is still alive. It moves the plot forward, but that's all it does. Also the artwork is shockingly poor.

Justice League of America #4: The team wins, wrapping up the first story arc. This is easily the weakest of the eight titles I'm currently reading (the six mentioned here, plus Batman and Nightwing). There is a hint that Batman is preparing for something, but that just makes me anticipate Batman #21 next week - and the start of The Button - more. 

Red Hood and the Outlaws #9: The team goes to Qurac (which is apparently now where Jason's career as Robin came to an explosive finish). Mishaps ensue. Jason is captured and there's an excellent scene where he starts off taunting his guards saying "oh, I died here once" before suddenly realizing that "here" doesn't mean "this country" but rather "about 100 yards away." All three leads are clearly set up for some character development. (Really, I think 3 might be the magic number for a team book... particularly a team monthly. Titans feels bloated compared to RHatO and BatBoP.) I hated pre-Flashpoint Red Hood (I never got the impression he was anything but an angry Winter Soldier clone with delusions of Bat-hood), but I can't wait to see what happens to him as he comes face-to-face with his old ghosts. Read this book.

Suicide Squad # 15: This arc comes to a somewhat predictable conclusion. That said, you're gonna want to go back and re-read the "Harley gets shot" scene in #14 again... There's more going on there than you noticed. Honestly I can't believe I once considered dropping this title. If RHatO hadn't made such a strong showing, this one would be the cream of this week's crop... but I am concerned that the plot is about to get too convoluted going forward.

Titans #10: The Made in Manhattan arc comes crashing to a rather abrupt halt in anticipation of next month's The Lazarus Contract. Not bad, but definitely the weakest of the three monthlies I'm reading. It also doesn't help that the reader knows the Titans are barking up completely the wrong tree... but again, Batman #21 is right around the corner...