The Early Bird special is a day late (DUE TO THE HOLIDAY) but not a dollar short, if anything the Emerald Speedster has upped the ante this week. Find out how inside!

Welcome! To the very first edition of the Early Bird special for 2012. We here at the Early Bird like to give you the real opinion of our picks minus all the bullshit the other sites have. As always there are six books and they're in order from least to beast!

6th place- Uncanny X-men # 4

This book marks the begining of what's supposed to be filler for the X-teams until the highly awaited AvX comes around. The story revolves around the aftermath of Mr. Sinister’s attempt to control the golden celestial and destroy the world only to re-shape it in his image afterwards. This issue is fast paced in a bad way, so if you're an X-fan pick it up, if you're not then forget about it.

5th place- Red Lanterns #5

This book was as steady paced, as it was poetic (very). Now that there's a chance that Krona may still be alive Atrocitus is now as giddy as a school girl on her period, so can Atrocitus contain his excitement long enough to find the one who slaughtered his whole world? Will we see a potential threat to the crimson throne lingering on earth? There’s only one way to find out, right?

4th place- Stormwatch #5

The Murder Machine vs. The Prince of Lies. That's the subtitle of the book in which they hint what's supposed to happen on said issue, but it hardly does. This entire book was about was nothing but bickering over who was chosen to lead the team, and how Apollo and the Midnighter are developing something a bit past their well established "bro-mance".  With Adam one gone and the team trying to figure out the next big threat, can Stormwatch pull through and give us the same bad assery they gave us in the past? Or will writer Paul Cornell start taking the same route as those before him.

3rd place- Action Comics # 5

DC's golden goose takes the word FILLER literally because this story is as disappointing and unappealing as a naked joker on a hot summer day. Now that we got the intros out the way, this filler issue was just that and the only upside is that the book picks right back up on issue 7. So again, in all honesty, if you are a die-hard fan of Grant and/or Supes then pick it up, everyone else read at your own peril.

2nd place- Avengers X-Sanction #2

This book was balls to the wall entertaining and locked so tight into continuity that not even Bendis and Fraction could mess this up even if they tried. Cable is gunning down the main Avengers one by one and with only hours left to live before the techno-organic virus takes full control he needs to know why the Avengers want to kill hope. This prelude type mini event brings the fans what there always wanted in a cable book in the form of raw emotion as well as pure and uncut bad-assery. If it wasn't for this book I would not be remotely interesting on what's coming up in March. So go read it, you won't regret it!

1st place- Detective Comics #5

For the first week of 2012 it wasn't so bad if you have DC's second prime time book and third flagship book according to the new 52. The story as well as the art and story boarding was as fluent as it comes, and it seems that things might finally pick up for Tony Daniel and his intake on the Dark Knight. So now that we're aware of the new threat to Gotham and the lingering threat in the grand scheme of things, can Batman fix this hellhole in time?

Or will Gotham finally consume the caped crusader.

These were the books that AROUSED my attention for the week of January 3rd, 2012

This has been the Emerald Speedster and until next time... DEUCES!!!