Just read the first issues of BATGIRL and ANIMAL MAN.
BATGIRL I found to have some nice elements (Adam's cover being the highlight); the Mirror is a rather intriguing gimmick for a villain, and the Brisby Gang were rather good. But, on the whole, I think it was balls. Batgirl is really rather uninteresting as a character and the storyline is pretty non-existent and undefined. This is because the Mirror is far too random as shown here. Sure, he probably has a backstory and more stuff, but unfortunately, all we see is the "poetic justice deaths" or whatever it is and as I said, it's a good gimmick, but gimmicks aren't enough for a character. His desire is important. Now, he's working down a list of people to kill, but we ask, "Why?" Without an answer, it's hard for us to have an emotional context about why we should care if he succeeds or not, which is only compounded by Batgirl's uninteresting nature. The other problem is that the inciting incident of the story, that which throws the protagonist's life out of balance and creates the spine of action is going to be the only major scene in #1, and likely the cliffhanger. In this case, it's Batgirl vs the Mirror, in that she becomes aware of the Mirror's crimes. This is fine, and precisely what I expected when I saw the note on page 1 or 2; immediately I knew that the story couldn't 'begin' as it were until Barbara either stumbles onto the Mirror or he comes after her and I knew that scene would be the cliffhanger for the issue. Unfortunately, the rest of the issue doesn't set up why that encounter matters. Batgirl is called a "murderer" so I'm assuming the story is that Batgirl is going to be hunted by the police? Is that the story? I don't know what that has to do with anything, I don't know who the cops are, I don't know anything.
Speaking of not knowing anything; how can Batgirl walk? I assumed that THE KILLING JOKE had been retconned away, or at least, if it happened, her paralysis was retconned away. But in this issue it makes it clear that Babs was shot and was paralysed, but we're not told how she's able to walk, but given the impression that there's a 'reason'. While this isn't a problem in and of itself, it becomes a very real problem as it is central to the story. The Mirror knows Barbara Gordon is Batgirl and uses the knowledge of the shooting against her to kill the person who I don't know who he killed. So it's rather frustrating; on the one hand the issue makes a big deal out of THE KILLING JOKE but on the other, retcons it away without explanation. Hrm. What's more annoying is what's good in the issue is Simone's portrayal of the Brisby Gang and their home invading. In fact, the Brisby Gang is a far better invention than the Mirror; with less set up they work better. What's more, it's a rather brilliant choice on Simone's part to have Barbara save people from a home invasion when you consider that she's a victim of a home invasion. It's a great idea, but Simone fails to deliver. First of all, the revelation Babs was a victim of a home invasion is placed after the Brisby Gang encounter not before. This could work as an expositional scene after the fact if it was set-up that we wanted to know about her past. Which brings me on to my second point: Babs is supposed to have mental scars of the invasion to the extent that three years later she's still having nightmares and that anyone who points a gun at her stomach makes her absolutely terrified. This is great, but during the Brisby home invasion, Batgirl is cocky and making flippant remarks and leaves as if it was no big deal. If, on the other hand, Babs was properly nervous and terrified, if she was shaking, hesitating, and almost gets everyone killed, then we'd ask, "Why can't she do it?" and then we see she's a victim. Alternatively, you could open the issue with Barbara being shot, dealing with PST and rehabilitation, and then building the cliffhanger which is Batgirl diving in to stop the Brisby home invasion. I think a 20-page diving into her life as to why she would be Batgirl and how she's not going to be a victim, seeing her take her first steps (as it were) into crimefighting after a three year absence and then he first real encounter is a recreation of her tragedy would have worked very well and made fans rather happy as it would address the central question of the character up front and honestly. Then, you could reveal that the Brisby home invasion was a ploy by the Mirror. Hell, you could have half the issue build up the invasion, the second half be the invasion which she overcomes, and then a final page cliffhanger pointing out that the Mirror, a new ironic villain, set it up... and why? Find out next month, same Bat-title, same Bat-price!
ANIMAL MAN, on the other hand, did what I suggested above. It has a terrific inciting incident: Maxine can bring dead animals to life. It's effectively set up so that when we see the scene, not only is it unexpected, but it makes sense, it's a pay-off, and we get why it matters. The whole issue discusses Animal Man and his responsibilities to his family to keep them safe and do the right thing as a hero. We assume this is setting up Buddy's family to die horribly at the end of the issue, but it turns out to be much worse; his daughter has superpowers so now all their lives are out-of-balance, but her power is grotesque and so there's a darkness there of her own soul that could destroy this family and resonates with the true worst fear of a parent: how do you save a child from themself? And it's set-up well; the man in the hospital begging to see his dead daughter is very dark and tragic, but most of all, it's insanity, which in turn sets up the spine-tingling moment where blood is pouring from Buddy's face, which is a rather horrific scene set-up by the insanity as it looks Buddy too, is about to be betrayed by his own body, and that then sets up the dream of blood with Buddy just as a nervous center and Maxine walking in blood, which then sets up Maxine as pet-necromancer. Very nicely done indeed. It could do with a spit and polish in terms of dialogue and art; some panels are under-rendered and sparse, and some reactions such as Buddy's wife towards his superheroics are just completely out of whack with her opinion changing on a dime. But it's good, solid work in every regard. I'm looking forward to the next one because I want to know where it goes! That's why I don't buy the whole "It's a set-up" excuse for incomprehensibility; you can be mystifying and confusing provided you make people want to know the answers. That's why empathy is important; I have empathy for Buddy and the issue I think really helped set up the unknown future in a way that I wanted to know more, while I found Batgirl to be rather emotinally uninteresting and couldn't understand where it was going or why any of what's happening matters. Nonetheless, I like this creation of "The Hunters Three", which is a terrific name for an Animal Man villain as of course, we like the symbolic elements of supervillains to be in some measure linked to the hero's, so animals vs hunters works nicely. The dream sequence art is also rather beautiful and so that whole sequence works. Indeed, the story is very dark, and the art has a wonderful darkness to it, everything is slightly off in perspective and the lighting is muted and lurking which helps evoke what is clearly going to be a somewhat dark and horrific story. And I like how it set up the sheer terror of loss a father could have when he loses his family. That scene with the crazy father was a great choice to help us understand why a single image of Maxine playing with dead, animated pets, would be a horror for Buddy. Really, when was the last time a writer just used one panel at the end of an issue to pay off the entire issue and set up the rest of the story and actually make it work? I doubt it's often. Here's hoping it continues to please!